A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

jack trades

Farewell to the Jack of all Trades

It’s never easy writing posts like this. 

Kevin Parker, otherwise known as Jack Trades to many, passed away after a courageous battle with cancer. I was lucky to have known him, and to see different sides of him, for more than a decade. 

For those who didn’t know him, his magical way of connecting to people on so many levels isn’t easily explained. For those who did know him, you more than likely realize that magic. 

Jack Trades
One of my favorite photos I ever took of Trades. This was at a 2CW card in Syracuse.

As I go further into this post, I’ll just be calling him Trades – as it what makes the most sense. 

My history goes back to a small, semi-dark Legion Hall in Binghamton. It was the first time I had been to any sort of wrestling in years and I wanted new things to photograph. So a couple of us went to watch some independent wrestling that night. 

One of the first things we noticed was this crazy guy running all over the place and doing just about everything. He was at ringside grabbing gear, he was in the right spots to make sure people were safe, and he would just pop up in random spots. 

And people seemed to really know who he was. 

On the back of his 2CW shirt, it said “Trades.” 

I commented to my friend… who the hell is this guy and what’s his deal?We joked about that until we finally figured it out … ohhhhhh, he was a jack of all trades. Then we also realized that was his “gimmick” or his “ring name.” 

Telling his story at an open mic night. It was pretty surreal to be in person for this one.

It was the epitome of independent wrestling. I loved it. We continued to go to 2CW shows and slowly but surely I had the chance to meet, talk to, and befriend Trades (as many did). 

But more than that, over the next decade or so, I had the chance to see the man Trades was. I remember one time he said so many people will only know him as Jack Trades – and that he was fine with that. I think so many people got to see him well beyond that and that’s a good thing. 

The reality was he wasn’t a walking gimmick who ran around the ring or took a bump at times. He was so much more. He was a genuine and likable guy, who not only was good at what he did within the wrestling world, but was also a true person outside of it. I base that, of course, on my personal interactions and observations, but also on the words and actions of others when it came to Trades. 

Trades could also fly when needed.

He connected with people, no matter who you were. That’s a special trait to have. It’s not often somebody can connect on so many different levels with a lot of people. He did it and he did it well. Not only that, but so many generations. He went back to college later in life and seemingly connected with college kids just as easily as he would people in their 40s and 50s.

I consider myself lucky to have gotten to see and know Trades beyond the ring and in different settings. I can say one time that I met him in the Utica area where he was one of the main cooks at this one restaurant – he made me one of the best hamburgers I’ve ever eaten. That just shows the variety of talents he had — indeed a Jack of all trades!

I was lucky enough to see him perform at an open mic night, also in Utica, when he told a 10-minute powerful life story about how he almost lost a battle to drugs (blog post/video about that is linked up below). 

Always ready to work at ringside.

Heck, three of us and Trades were inducted into the “pro wrestling fan hall of fame” when we went and watched former ring announcer Gary Michael Cappetta’s live show about his career. 

There are photos I took of him during 2CW days that I still see people posting. One of them is connected with this post as it’s one of the coolest wrestling photos I’ve taken. I feel it truly captures life in wrestling. 

In recent years, through the positive side of social media, I had the chance to watch him have such a positive outlook on life and impact on other people. His travel adventures, banter, or doing magic, shows at libraries and other ways to give back. He had a zest for life and shared that feeling with so many others. 

Rest easy, my friend. You’ll be missed. 

More reading about Trades on my blog: 

2CW: JACK (OF ALL) TRADES
From June 13, 2016 (from the 2CW magazine): https://hoohaa.com/?p=10734

A STORY MANY SHOULD HEAR
From July 3, 2012: https://hoohaa.com/?p=4011

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook!

2CW: Jack (of all) Trades

(Note: Before the final 2CW cards this past December, I had the chance to create and put together a magazine. I am slowly putting the stories here on the blog. Enjoy!)

Wrestlers often live their gimmick or their persona. While sometimes it’s for the show, other times it’s because their wrestling character and how they are in real life are parallel to one another.

Just as Jack Trades.

Yes, it’s a name. Yes, it’s a gimmick. What many people don’t know, however, is how alike Jack Trades and Kevin Parker are. So much so that if things lined up right, Jack Trades would be the legal name of Parker.

And it all started with an offer to help, just to get a foot in the door.

Standing in line for a WWE show at the Utica Auditorium, Parker received a flyer for a 2CW show upcoming in Utica.

So, Parker being who he is, decided to see about helping. After figuring out who to contact, he got in touch with 2CW owner Josh Jeanneret and offered to be somewhat of a local liaison. Well, he couldn’t reach Jeanneret directly, so he used a middle man, offering to bring a ring crew to Utica.

When the Utica show happened, Parker showed up with a group of six guys who were willing to put the ring together and take it down – for free.

“He was actually the start of the ring crew,” said Jason Axe. “He got ahold of Josh. We rolled up and saw him and his son and a couple of others. I took one look and was like ‘where did we pick up these people?’”

Parker kept offering help – such as being the guy to take ring clothes back to the back. Up to that point, the clothes were left out by the ring. So, Parker said, let me do that.

“That’s how Jack Trades was born,” he said. “I would follow them. I had no name. I was the guy who got stuff.”

The birth of Jack Trades

A year later, still working with 2CW, Parker was talking to veteran manager Bill Alfonso, who came in for a show.

“He said you need a gimmick,” Parker said.

Jack Trades!

What came from that was the 2CW dog tags you can still see him wearing. The look of a professional with the collared golf shirts became part of the look.

The gimmick though, became who he was. All Parker lacked was a name. But who came up with Jack Trades?

“It depends on who you ask,” he said. “Josh says it was him, so I believe him.”

“They said ‘Dude, Kevin Parker doesn’t work.’ This guy does everything for us.”

And from that point – Jack Trades became not just a wrestling persona, but a real person. He’s called Jack Trades by many people and will keep that well beyond wrestling.

The idea – a jack of all trades. He does a bit of everything for 2CW, so the thought process of the name is there.

Fans interact with him. He’s had a chance to be in the ring. He fixes things, he makes sure people are safe, he still will take clothes to the back.

You name it, Trades does it.

“He’s a person all his own – you can’t describe him in one word,” 2CW star Colin Delaney said. “The best description is he’s a utility player. He does his job well and does it with passion. He knows everybody there. He does all the odd job and does them well. The shows wouldn’t go as smoothly without him.”

Once the name and everything else became part of his persona, Trades became that person and it’s carried on for all but a few of the early 2CW shows before he became part of the company.

“Where else in the world can a 48-year-old man be so over,” Trades said. “Josh gave me my childhood dream. I love being Jack Trades. It’s been a dream. Wrestling-wise, my career has been amazing. … 2CW gave me a family – guys I will know the rest of my life I met through 2CW.”

Everything isn’t perfect

To know Trades, you might know his story. It’s actually a bit jarring.

Heck, Trades actually probably defies logic a bit because more than once he thought he would end up dead.

Drugs played a major part in that, too. And it’s not just some recreational use of pot or something like that. Trades was dabbling a little too heavy with hardcore drugs, which obviously changed him.

After one show in Auburn, Trades had a heart attack.

“The crew and Josh reacted perfectly,” Trades said. “They took good care of me. It was getting bad.

“(Josh) should have thrown me to the curb,” he continued. “But he kept me. That’s a turning point for me. It’s not a great memory, but a turning point.”

Trades, at one show in Syracuse, even announced a retirement. It was at that point where things had gotten pretty bad. He was into bath salts and was told by a doctor if he didn’t clip the habit, he’d be dead soon enough.

He went clean by going cold turkey.

A bit after going clean, he went to a coffee house in Utica and told his story. He told it in the third person, explaining everything that “Jack” went through and what it took for Jack to get clean.

At the end, he revealed who Jack was.

Being Jack Trades

It’s not easy to describe Trades, who has announced his life in professional wrestling will end when 2CW shuts its doors. He’s working on a degree at Mohawk Valley CC, where he’s active on campus. He’s outgoing, friendly and envisions success in his next life steps.

But until that step comes, there’s still the rest of the run with 2CW.

“He’s somebody who has become a personality,” Axe said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. He’s out there every match. He doesn’t announce, referee, or manage. He takes care of the wrestlers and fans. It’s the most unique position.”

He has dabbled in other spots, though. He’s been involved with matches. He’s refereed. He took a double super kick from the Young Bucks. He’s bumped and been in the middle of brawls.

But beyond that, he’s so much more for 2CW. He drives the truck with the ring. He leads the ring crew. He sacrifices himself for the safety of others. He goes and hangs flyers and will do anything he has to do to help 2CW be successful.

“It’s hard to put who he is into words,” 2CW champion Sean Carr said. “He is 2CW. He breathes, eats, and sleeps the company. … We saw him when he was at is low and still be able to contribute to the company, and then to go away, and fix himself and come back even better.

“He’s an amazing man and a damn good dude,” he continued. “No other company that I’ve seen has a Jack Trades like him, at least nobody that dedicated.”

When 2CW closes and Jack Trades retires from wrestling, he said he’ll stick with the name. It fits him, so why give it up?

But the lasting legacy of Trades likely won’t be forgotten anytime soon, especially by those who watched him morph from a ring guy to being a personality.

“It’s exactly what it was – Jack Trades gave back to what he loved,” Trades said.

There’s no bitterness. He’s had a chance to live a dream. He can hang his 2CW dog tags without regret. He’ll be the first to tell you the ride has been awesome and he looks back on it with fondness.

“Being Jack Trades has been awesome,” he said. “I’ve loved every minute of it. It’s a perfect ending. We’re all going onto bigger and better things. It’s been a hell of a run and made some great friends.

“In 10 years, people will still call me Jack Trades.”

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

A story many should hear

Kevin Parker tells his story at the Utica Firefly series on July 20.

If you were to pass Kevin Parker on the street, you probably wouldn’t look twice.

It’s doubtful that you’d think there was anything wrong. He’s a normal guy with a few tattoos and some piercings. Nothing too out of the ordinary.

But Kevin Parker has one hell of a story to tell.

A middle-aged man, he’s lived life a lot differently than many of us. It’s a life filled with some amazing tales of overcoming many pieces of adversity.

And it’s a life filled with drugs.

I’m sure that many of you who read this won’t have a clue who the hell Kevin Parker is. Until this past December, I barely had a clue who he was, either. I knew him as Jack Trades, a crazy dude who worked for Squared Circle Wrestling (2CW), an independent wresting promotion based out of Syracuse. We had seen him a few times at cards and never spoke a word to him.

Kevin Parker dumps a bag of used “bath salt” packages.

A geocaching buddy of mine, Mike, told me he was pals with “Jack Trades” and said to say hi to him at a card we attended in Syracuse.

We did and chatted with him for a few minutes.

That night, I took a pretty sweet image of him in the ring talking to the crowd. I texted it to Mike, who, in turn, sent it along to Parker. From that point on, I got to know Parker – both as himself and his alter-ego Trades. What I found was one of the most interesting people I have ever met.

He had such a story and I was enthralled.

I’m working on a much larger project with Kevin and soon enough, his full story will be told. It’s something else. But a few weeks ago, he was going to tell a portion of this story — a recent story — at the Utica Firefly Series. This series is a storytelling one where people gather in a coffeehouse setting and have an “open mike” type situation.

The week Kevin spoke had no theme, so it was anything goes. He also led things off, and what a way to start.

The setting was the Tramontane Café – or The Tram – an intimate coffeehouse in Utica, New York. The lights were dim and the people were close to the front so they could really get a feel of the people speaking their stories.

Some were funny. Some were serious. Some were too long. And some, well, left you wanting to leave. That’s how things are with open mikes, though. Some of the stories seemed like they were off the cuff. Some a little more prepared. There was even an appearance by, who I was told was a well-known Utica person named Rainbow. And he told a story about getting hit by a bus. Crazy.

Some people were nervous and rambled. Some were sharp, crisp and to the point. Some just kept talking and talking, not even thinking about the 5- to 10-minute time limit on things. And you could see what happened when that happened as other people in the crowd started to look around and lose interest.

In situations like this, if you go over the time limit, you have to capture the crowd. If they are bored, you need to end and move on – not continue.

Especially with the intimacy that the Tram offers.

The place is perfect for an event like this. Most of the chairs were mismatched. There are couches and comfy chairs. Folding chairs and others that look out of place. But the ambiance was excellent.

Before the show started, people sat around with their coffee, mingling or playing on their laptops. Some surfed Facebook, others appeared to be working. It had the feel of a new-wave hippy sort of place.

At the back of the “stage” was an old piano and other knick-knacks that fed to the ambiance of the place. Photos and signs of “The Tram” were spread around the walls. Inside, a news reporter for a local TV station set up a camera and tried to figure out the lighting so she could get things rolling when Kevin got on stage.

He was the opening speaker. In the end, he would prove to be a hard one to follow.

See, this story goes behind rolling a doob here and there. It goes to something that is overtaking the news when it comes to drugs, recently. Bath salts.

I have to be honest – I have heard of bath salts and knew it was some wacky drug that made people do odd things in some cases. But overall, I have no idea about these things. But I do know they are apparently legal because of how they are made and packaged.

And that’s scary.

Kevin Parker reads a text message from his son, which he keeps on his phone.

According to Wikipedia, bath salts (which are a designer drug, not the things you actually put in a bath) can have the effect on people like amphetamines and cocaine. These items can be swallowed, snorted, smoked or injected, giving a drug user many ways to get the drug into their system.

Finally, the real scary part is what can possibly come from these drugs. Things from hallucinations and paranoia to violent behavior, heart attacks, kidney or liver failure and suicide have occurred. There’s also an increased tolerance of pain.

Even more scary, right?

Well, Kevin was on bath salts. And he got bad. He was homeless. Doctors told him if he continued on this path, he wouldn’t live much longer.

He was ready to cash it in. He was ready to leave this life. He wasn’t eating. Basically, he was going to die.

Then something happened. There was a reason to fight. He wanted to get off these things.

And despite working on a bigger project with Kevin where I hope to help him tell his story, I think in this situation, it’s better to let him tell this particular story.

Do yourself a favor and watch this 10-minute video. It’s well worth your time.

The crowd was mesmerized. People, including me, were on the edge of their seats. There were looks of shock when Kevin fessed up and said he was “Jack.” And when he dumped out all those used packages? More stunned looks. And there were tears in the crowd, too. People dabbed at their eyes.

This is real life.

In a world where movies and fictional books are ways to release, this is real.

Way too real.

But the best part of this is the hopeful happy ending. July 4 will be his 75th day away from this crap. He went cold-turkey and he’s staying clean. Many props to him and here’s to him staying clean and helping others get away from this ugly drug!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!