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| Photo Courtesy of Duy Panouvic, and as you can see, I was very, very thirsty. |
A common practice for a lot of folks in the stunt industry outside of working on film sets, is to travel and explore other parts of the globe to acquaint with other stunt professionals – something particularly effective in an age where social media has since played a huge role in networking millions of people. Evidently, this is one area that professional stunt couple, Slobo and Duy Panouvic were keen to act on in the progression of their own careers having already spent quite awhile working their way up between working their native Germany, and in Cape Town, South Africa where they started their own professional team, Arcade Killers back in May of last year.
I have written about them a few times in the past year, so it was rather opportune for me that they decided to take their journey to my back yard, right here in New York City where they will be staying for the remainder of the summer to take in their new atmosphere, as well as find a way to collaborate with other stunt professionals if possible. In lieu of this, after a slightly-hectic train ride from Queens to Manhattan on Sunday night, I exited the Port Authority Bus Terminal and hiked a little bit to Bryant Park, and I was very excited when Slobo greeted me at the entrance.
I shook Duy’s hand and that of two other acquaintances – one with whom they’re currently staying in Brooklyn. From there, what followed was a candid and in-depth and stimulating conversation about their respective careers between Cape Town and Germany, their training, working on shows such as Syfy TV series Dominion and STARZ series Black Sails, and the hopes of working with folks like Ninja 2 and Boyka: Undispited 4 duo, action star Scott Adkins and fellow action actor Brahim Achabbakhe. We also talked favorite foods and other delicacies (it turns out we are all fans of dark chocolate while Slobo has a much more major thing for Peanut Butter, which I found fascinating), and I also learned that Slobo and Duy have different tastes in film – Slobo is well into various aspects of stimulating action and adventure, whereas Duy, who much more peculiar about certain genres with an interest in grounded, cerebral and visually organic storytelling…
…I’m thinking either Southpaw or Hitman: Agent 47 between now and next month would suit them. Just my opinion. 🙂
At any rate, Sunday night was a fantastic evening. I can’t remember the last time I had even been to the park to just relax and unwind. Slobo and Duy had a small dinner at the park before I arrived and after about twenty minutes of relaxing and chatting, the park closed and the three of us chilled out for a bit longer at a nearby MacDonalds on the second dining floor where we had a few beverages, and it wasn’t long before they closed the second floor within another twenty minutes.
Indeed, it was late, and as much as I didn’t want it to end, it was plenty of time for all of us to get to know one another. It was an awesome experience to meet Slobo and Duy on Sunday night, and while they continue plan out their stay here for the next several months, I look forward to seeing them at least one or two more times before they leave. Even more so, as busy as many in the stunt community are here in the big apple, I sincerely hope they continue to meet more people and collaborate here before potentially setting out to explore in California, and I, for one, hope to write about that as well.
I didn’t record much of our time out on Sunday night for the sake of battery power, so I decided to so a quick outro video at the end of our evening to introduce you all. Be advised, this is not entirely safe for a working environment as much as I like to express myself. And indeed, I was hugely expressive. All smiles.
Feel feee to embrace our silliness in the video below, and by all means, click here to check out my previous posts about them, all which include links to their Facebook and YouTube channels.
