Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC
Not since Johnny
Knoxville and his Jackass
pals
started stapling objects to their body parts and purposefully crashing into things,
have the words “Don’t try this at home” applied so aptly to a TV performer.
But America’s Got Talent stunt rider Jeremy VanSchoonhoven will be the first to tell wanna-be’s that they shouldn’t
just hop on their bikes and try a trick or two. In a recent interview he
cautioned, “The key is being safe—wearing your helmet, wearing your
safety gear, and not trying things you’re not ready for. So many of my friends
have hurt themselves because they’re like, ‘Oh, I want to go off that huge
jump.’ And it’s like, ‘You can’t even do the medium size one. Why are you gonna
do that? I mean you might make it. But you might not.’ So I think it’s really
important to start small, slowly build up, and be as safe as you possibly can.”
Point in fact, the 27-year-old
Oregonian, has never broken a bone doing his stunts. And as for his worst
accident, he explained, “My worst crash, you saw. And that was on America’s Got Talent. Before that, I had
a bad crash six years ago and I hurt my ankle really bad. But that’s it
really…. No broken bones. Like I said, I try to be as safe as possible.”
Now, stunt riding
might not be an obvious performance choice for AGT, so we were wondering what prompted
Jeremy to even try out. He told us, “I decided to audition for the
show because I used to do little bike shows at fairs and festivals. And I had
an agent that booked me for those. And he booked another act, who was a
ventriloquist. And he went around to those, too. And that’s Terry Fator
, who’s
the winner of America’s Got Talent—got
one of the biggest shows in Vegas.”
After Fator became a megastar, Jeremy’s agent was too busy
to book his shows anymore. And VanSchoonhoven was forced
to work two jobs to make ends meet—as a machinist and as a horseshoer. On a
trip to Vegas to help a friend at a tradeshow, Jeremy finally
got the push he needed.
“I see Terry Fader stuff
everywhere—in all the magazines, on all the billboards, on all the taxicabs.
And I’m like, ‘Man, we did the same shows, same crowds, got the same reactions,
and he’s here and I’m not. And so I actually looked in one of the magazines and
it said, ‘For booking call this number.’ And I called that number and I talked
to the people there and I got a hold of Terry. And he’s such a nice guy. And he
invited me to his show. I went to his show and I watched it and it was
unbelievable—best Vegas show I’ve ever seen. And I talked to him afterwards and
he said, ‘Jeremy, you’ve just gotta go for it.’ So I went back and I looked up
when auditions were and the rest is history.”
It sure is. Jeremy
has made the final ten. And whether he wins or loses, he has a very clear goal.
“I want the producers to get a hold of me. I want Hollywood to get a
hold of me and make me into an entertainer. So that’s why I’m here… I’m really
hoping that this leads me to a Hollywood show. I’ve already planned the whole
thing out. I know how the show should look. I know what I wanna do. Because I
think it’s really important to set goals, that way you know what you’re going
towards. You have to have steps to take to get there. And I think it’s really
important for everybody out there to realize that if you set goals you can reach
them. And you need help though, but you really need to know what your goals are
and you gotta go for it.”
Regardless of the outcome, Jeremy is clear about one
thing—he is grateful for his fans. He gushed, “I’m just so thankful that
America has helped me so much and brought me to this point because I’m right on
the edge of my biggest life dream coming true and it’s because of America
voting me through every round. And it’s unbelievable to me and I just thank
everybody so much.”
Tune in tonight to
see all of the top ten perform on NBC at 9:00 PM and tomorrow night when the final
four are revealed.
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