Jackie Chan? Who is he?

I was really disturbed the other day when I heard that a young friend had had an accident when attempting to do some trick riding on a bicycle in a dangerous location.

I was at his side at the emergency wing of our local hospital.

This incident wasted over a dozen hours of my valuable time as well as many hours of doctors, nurses who could have been saving lives of seriously ill people and even children. It also caused anxiety and worry to his family members.

This was an act of stupidity which cannot be pardoned.

During the conversation about this incident, the talk turned to super heroes "Jackie Chan" and "Bruce Lee".

Sadly, or may I say, fortunately, I had never heard of the "so-called exploits" of these super-heroes.

I was given to understand that young people are tempted to attempt what these "super-heroes" do in their movies.

It should indeed be a crime attributed to the movie makers as they do not give enough publicity to the fact that almost all the "stunts" that are supposedly done by these super-heroes are actually done by stunt men.

The super-heroes just get the credit for something they never could do themselves.

In my time as a youngster, one of the super heroes was "Tarzan". It was well known that only the swimming tricks were done by the actor himself as he had been the Olympic Swimming Champion. The rest of the Tarzan tricks were done by professional stunt men.

The fact that stunt men do these tricks is hidden away in the small print at the end of a movie, and in unreadable type, leading impressionable youngsters, like my friend, to believe in the myth built up sbout their super-heroes.

Stunt men are highly qualified professional men in absolutely tip top physical and mental condition who practice every stunt many hundreds of times in special safe conditions before they ever attempt a stunt for film. In almost every case there is a fail-safe safety proceduere followed so that no one gets hurt.

In addition, many stunts are done in slow motion. Then the speed of the film is increased to give the "impression" of a stunt.

For instance, the stunt attempted by this young boy of riding down a narrow staircase on a bicycle is usually done in a movie, step by step, and the stunt is achieved by speeding up the film after much editing.

There used to be a TV series where, after the show, some of the stunts and how they were filmed were actually shown to the audience, just so that no one would be tempted to try any of the stunts.

Even a circus clown practices and practices many many hours a day before he attempts to do a trick in public. Circus clowns may be laughed at, but they are true professionals dedicated to the work as that is the way they earn their living.

They are not like the stupid teenagers who try to do things they see some "super heroes" doing in a movie.

I hope this young boy has learned his lesson with this incident as no one was impressed by his foolish act and no one would have been impressed even if he had "succeeded", as a fluke achievement is not one which gets an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records!

All it has done is made people think that this young boy is rather stupid.

To get into this publication, any attempt has to be performed in controlled conditions and in the presence of observers appointed by the Guinness organisation.

Just doing a trick has never got ANYONE into the records book.