Within the sub-genre of reality shows focused on career professional activities, there are series about everyone from taxidermists (Immortalized) and life guards (Bondi Rescue) to repo men (Lizard Lick Towing) and pest controllers (Billy the Exterminator). It is not then farfetched to suggest there should be one on pool players. Throughout history, pool halls have been a mecca for characters with indelible names and colorful personalities who seem primed for the camera.
Case in point, consider the pool hustling era of the 1960s and 1970s. Imagine having documented 24/7 with fly-on-the-wall intimacy the hustles of Bernard “Bunny” Rogoff, the intimidation of “Sugar Shack” Johnny Novak, the hijinks of U.J. Puckett, or the hygiene of Omaha Fats? Add in the jarring, dumping, woofing, and jonesing, and you would have had reality gold.
In fact, billiards has been the focus of reality television episodes on numerous occasions. In the “Billiards for Gross Eats” episode of the reality show Fear Factor, contestants had to shoot pool to determine what inedibles (e.g., squid guts, putrid duck egg) they were required to eat. On the “Empty Pockets” episode of Bar Rescue, host Jon Tasker tried to save Zanzibar Billiards from collapse. On Pimp My Ride, rapper-host Xzibit helped transform a beat-up 1988 Chevy S10 into a mobile pool table on the episode “Sara’s Chevy S10.” And, of course, all the flagship reality shows (i.e., Big Brother, The Real World, The Bachelorette) that congregate hot twenty-somethings with raging hormones and grating personalities into a single house, naturally include pool tables on the premises, providing the perfect backdrop for late-night revelry and drunken competitions.
But, reality is always more complex, and for whatever reason, billiards has yet to fully infiltrate reality television. One reason may be that it’s “boring as piss [to watch],” as semi-pro pool player Andrew Cleary recently shared on a message forum about the topic. To date, the only billiards reality show that I would deem a success is Tor Lowry’s 14 Days – The Great Pool Experiment web series, in which Mr. Lowry films himself providing two weeks of non-stop instruction to amateur players seeking to improve their game. The show works because of its earnest mission, though its viewership is tiny. Otherwise, the billiards-reality show convergence is littered with dead-end pilots and unfulfilled promises.
One of the first to surface was Diaries of Pool Hustlers, a reality show that Blair Thein and Jerry Tarantola began working on in 2007, if not earlier. The concept was for cameras to follow “professional players/hustlers through the grind of different states and cities, traveling on the Hustle Bus as they match up with worthy opponents, putting their names on the lines” and finally competing in the Ultimate Billiard/Poker Extreme Challenge. Unfortunately, these diaries wound up unread. The trailer is available here.
Another reality show still in limbo is the awesomely named, highly anticipated Pool, Poker and Pain. Since 2008, nine-baller, mixed martial artist, and entrepreneur Blair Thein has been promoting his ultimate reality show that would feature contestants battling each other at the pool table, the poker table, and in Mixed Martial Arts combat in the Circle of Truth. While there has been little news on the series since the announcement in late 2012 that Jay Adams (Deadliest Catch) had signed on as a producer, I’m crossing fingers and toes this show gets released one day.
In 2011, Andrew Cleary and Pool Wars author Jay Helfert miscued with their reality show concept High Stakes Pool (later renamed The Pool Hustlers). They shot a 105-minute pilot that featured billiards players Morro Paez, Rafael Martinez, and John “Mr. 400” Schmidt engaged in a high stakes $100-a-man Ten Ball ring game. The plan for future episodes was to increase the stakes to $500 per man, but the pilot was not picked up. The trailer is available here. The DVD of the pilot is sold on Mr. Helfert’s website.
More recently, there have been a slew of announcements about billiards reality shows. Some have already fizzled, others face a challenging road ahead, given the minimal commercial success of their predecessors.
One example is American Road Player (formerly American Hustlers), a new reality series announced in November 2014 that promised to “take you on a 2100 mile ride through 10 states, 40 pool halls and countless hours of pressure-packed shots on the way to the most lucrative week in high stakes, under-ground pool gambling: The Derby City Classic.” The show planned to feature a crew of hustlers, led by Fred “Scooter” Goodman, a 26-year-old father of two whose motto is, “Only bet on something that you KNOW you can win.” The show had strong production talent behind it, and ran the table when it announced that Keith McCready (Grady Seasons from The Color of Money), was joining the cast. But, a failed Indiegogo fundraising campaign generated just $2,485 of a $40,000 goal, effectively killing the concept.
A billiards reality show that may break from tradition and prove more successful is Kings of Cue. This past December, TruTV announced it was beefing up its original programming and ordered 10 episodes of the series from Pilgrim Studios, the producers of Street Outlaws and Fast N’ Loud, two popular cable shows. Kings of Cue will feature cutthroat pool players, such as Andrew Cleary, competing in New York billiards halls. The series is expected to air at the end of April.
In January 2015, Kelsher Entertainment announced it was recruiting “every day, local, pool players” for its Ultimate Pool Sharks Tournament in Atlanta, May 29-31. The tournament, however, will also be used to produce a reality TV pilot. According to their website, “some of the best and most interesting players can be found in neighborhood billiard halls.” Selected participants will be video recording during tournament play and at other times. Therefore, “colorful personalities and dress styles are as important as good billiard skills….and a little “smack talking and showboating is encouraged…this is REALITY TV!”
And finally, there is She Sharks, perhaps the most hyped and highly awaited of all the billiards reality shows. Yet another brainchild of Blair Thein, the show first started generating chatter in late 2013. According to the website, the series, produced by Axius Entertainment, will follow seven professional female pool players on a “10-week excursion across the country on the Hustle Bus looking for action in some of the most notorious “off circuit” pool halls sometimes found on the wrong side of town.” The septet of women include some the best –and hottest – women in the sport: BCA Hall of Famer Jeanette “The Black Widow” Lee, BCA Hall of Famer LoreeJon Hasson (nee Jones), Rachel Abbink, Akiko “The Leopard Queen” Kitayama, Kathryn Fairchild, Dawn Fox, and (just announced in January) MAXIM model Shanelle Loraine. The show is supposed to begin filming right around now, starting in Florida.
If history is any predictor of the future, these shows have a (very) tough road ahead. But, billiards has always struggled to find a viewership, so what else is new? Better to put down the Magic 8-Ball, sit back and keep your remote handy, and stick out a thumb, hoping, just hoping, you might hitch a ride on the Hustle Bus.
