Python Maurice, 18 Feet Long, Battles Mickey Rourke ‘Wrestler’
July 31 (Bloomberg) — Eighteen feet long and more than 200 pounds, Maurice Le Grand is a big eater who has a butler to keep her happy with frozen bunnies.
The python has joined circus impresario Jim Rose’s latest traveling show which also features that former bad-boy wrestler Jake “The Snake” Roberts.
Roberts, a model for the down-and-out character Mickey Rourke played in the movie “The Wrestler,” featured a python in his ring routine for 25 years.
None, though, was as big as Maurice, purchased in Belgium for $63,000.
I spoke to Rose, who is 52 and based in Seattle, to get the lowdown on his show, called Jim Rose Circus vs. Jake “the Snake” Roberts. (A summer tour has been halted because Rose was injured during a performance; it is expected to resume in September.)
Femme Fatale
Hilferty: How can you tell Maurice is a girl?
Rose: Not sure. But the girls get bigger than the males.
Hilferty: She’s certainly a looker, pearly white with a gorgeous light-yellow pattern running down the scales. How dangerous?
Rose: Extremely if handled by those who don’t know how. So we’ve hired a snake butler.
Hilferty: A regular prima donna, no?
Rose: If you’re going to treat the snake with dignity — I mean that thing is pickier than Mariah Carey — it needs a full- time handler. We’ve provided her with a movable ecosystem of imported earth and trees from her natural habitat. Sinn Bodhi, formerly Kizarny of World Wrestling Entertainment, is the butler and part of the act.
Hilferty: What exactly does the butler do?
Rose: He mostly goes into the compound and throws in these frozen rabbits that then thaw. This is always a prearranged meal, whereas in the wild, Maurice would have to stalk, capture and devour. If we were to use live rabbits, it would trigger a hunting instinct for warm blood, and Maurice would become more surly.
Shaped Teeth
Hilferty: So Maurice is more “domesticated” than your run-of-the-mill viper?
Rose: You can never trust the snake — ever — so never think you are a friend with one. But you can work out an agreement with the snake to not bite you as often.
Hilferty: How’s that going?
Rose: We thought we had an agreement, but when Sinn went in to bring it out on stage one day, it got him right around the wrist. Your natural reaction is to rip it back, but you can’t because of the way their teeth are shaped. So you basically have to take the bite until it decides to let go. Sinn knew that, but it was a horrific bite.
Hilferty: So how does the show go?
Rose: Keep in mind that wrestling started as a staged fistfight that took place in front of a circus tent, and it would create a huge crowd. And then that crowd would be enticed to come into the circus and buy a ticket.
We’re doing it that way. There is no ring — it’s all hard bumps on hard floors.
Big Fight
Hilferty: And then?
Rose: Jake has to smash his finger with a can of soup; Sinn has to stick his hand in a raccoon trap. Then the testicular challenges follow.
Hilferty: I shudder, but go on.
Rose: Sinn has a glass plate placed near his genital area that’s smashed with a sledgehammer; Jake has a concrete block in between his legs that’s smashed. Then we staple money on Sinn’s head with a staple gun. Soon, Jake and Sinn get into a big fight.
Hilferty: So where does the python come in?
Rose: Jake does his signature move in which he grabs his opponent’s face, bends over, gets his head under his arm, and falls back crushing the guy’s head into the table. Then he throws the albino onto Sinn, sticks a hook through Sinn’s tongue, and drags him off stage. It’s pretty epic, actually.
Hilferty: In spite of the staged violence, is Maurice becoming more human during this tour?
Rose: It’s still a snake, brother. You definitely don’t want to mess with it when it’s shedding. You’ve touched raw skin before. That’s basically how they feel after they shed. They’re extremely violent during that period.