It's the J-E-FF woooooo Rey!
Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 7:36 AM By Sam “ALL JAM” Perez
Love him or hate him, there’s one thing you can say about Jeffrey Harris, the self-professed number one caller and Gozey award winner for best villain of MMA Junkie Radio, he is one interesting character. That’s just what found out when I interviewed him; but beyond the character, the guy himself is one interesting fellow. Maybe a lot of that has to do with the fact that I have more in common with this guy than I actually knew and realized. One thing’s for sure, the guy is definitely a combination of what you think he is and what you never knew he was.
A native of Sugar Land, Texas, born and raised, Jeffrey Harris is Lone Star State proud through and through. While growing up in this suburb of Houston, from a very young age Jeffrey’s interests included theater and movies. “I was a theater geek growing up. In school I was in the video and film club and always enjoyed writing amateur movie reviews. I always felt Siskel & Ebert had the greatest job in the world; you watch movies for free and get to talk and write about them. Who wouldn’t want to do that?”
Being a movie buff myself, I agree. Yet, there was another interest Jeffrey had growing up that we both shared as well, Pro Wrestling. “Texas has a great pro wrestling fan community,” he remarked. So with that he also participated in amateur wrestling when he was younger, but admitted, “I was never gifted athletically, but I did enjoy it along with basketball.” “As for the pros, I would watch the WWF, but I was more a fan of NWA Wrestling, which eventually became WCW.”
Surprisingly, when I asked him about the Monday Night Wars of pro wrestling in the late ‘90’s and early 2000’s, he shocked me when he said, “I think the Monday night wars ruined wrestling. I feel the environment they created hurt and crippled the industry.” Personally, I never thought about it that way, but when you do it makes sense. You can equate it to getting high on too much success too soon and eventually letting it spiral out of control. This is what I mean when I say Jeffrey is an interesting character.
Upon graduating high school Jeffrey would pursue his passion of theater and the arts at yet another passion in his life, The University of Texas at Austin. While there he studied both Theater in Performing Arts and also Communications, eventually earning four year degrees in both. During his tenure he wrote a few student scripts and produced a few student films. “Texas is the best school in the country and Austin is the greatest city. People are genuine in Austin, where as in L.A. people are two-faced.”
You may think he’s a bit biased in his opinion, but he doesn’t joke when it comes to Texas; the state or the school. “My blood is not red, it is the color of burnt orange,” he said when talking about his love for his Alma Mater. As for where he grew up, “I hate when people assume that because you’re from Texas, you’re a farmer or a cowboy. I grew up in a melting pot; I’m Jewish but I grew up around Asians, African-Americans and Hispanics. My soul still resides in Austin.”
Upon graduation from UT in 2006 he tried to make a go of his career in Austin, but for what he wanted to pursue he needed to go where the demand lied. Thus, he has since relocated to Southern California where he currently resides in the San Fernando Valley. Upon moving to L.A., he worked an internship at Marvel Studios, while supporting himself with part-time jobs at Borders and Game-Stop.
He now works full-time by day with Sony Pictures in the Accounts Payable area while pursuing another dream at night, print journalism in both the entertainment and MMA industries. He writes blogs on both for 411Mania.com as well as co-hosting a weekly podcast on MMA every Sunday morning from 8-9:30AM PT at: blogtalkradio.com/411mmaradio. Although only 28 years old, he’s been following the sport of MMA for about 14 years now.
He first stumbled upon the sport after Ken Shamrock and Dan Severn crossed over into the world of professional wrestling. Upon hearing the storylines, he was intrigued and started renting any videos he could get his hands on at Hollywood and Blockbuster Videos. When he saw Shamrock and Severn actually fight each other in MMA he thought to himself, “This is very interesting. Unlike the storylines in pro wrestling, this is not scripted.”
As for Junkie Radio, it was purely by accident that he stumbled upon the show circa 2009. He said, “I used to listen to Sherdog, but I always felt the hosts didn’t run the show that well. Then I don’t know exactly how I found Junkie, I think it was through forums on the underground, but I thought it was cool that Frank Trigg was a co-host. I figured to hear perspective from an actual fighter would be the greatest thing ever.”
Then he said, “Add in that Gorgeous George and Goze were both very cool along with a camera allowing you to see the guys and the idea that you call into the show and I was hooked right from the beginning. I love the atmosphere; it’s like talking MMA while drinking with your buddies. When they have guests on, it’s not like they are interviewing pro athletes, but rather they are talking to their friends. I’m a true MMA Junkie for life.”
Single and living the good life in SoCal, I asked him who his favorite wrestler of all-time was. Not surprisingly he told me Sting. What did surprise me was he said it was Surfer/Wildman Sting, not Sting reincarnated as ‘The Crow’. While he admits that Texas winning the 2006 BCS National Championship was “the best of my life,” it is also his biggest regret. I had a chance to go to the game and I didn’t and I’ve regretted it ever since.” Hook ‘em Horns; Burnt Orange Pride!
Reader Comments (10)
Very interesting, me like.
Great work Sam, Jeff is one my favorite callers to the show. Wrestling is fake and I hope that Jeff knows that.
Jeffrey, what do you think of the new superman, I think he looks lame? Good write up Sam.
I don't remember you guys saying you did this, it must have fallen through the cracks.
I have a problem with this guy being the second ranked caller. Jeffrey, how come you cant have the subject changed on you on the fly and not adapt? Anyone listen to this past friday? Adapt or die is the way of the world and its time to have you ousted as #2 cause you clearly arent the shit.
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