Paul “Dizzy Hips” Blair spins life as a hula hoop stuntman.
If you paid attention, you’d know that most hula hoop performers are young women from former Eastern bloc countries who study the art from an early age and then go on to work in traditional circuses (What, you didn’t know that?). Paul “Dizzy Hips” Blair is an exception to this rule—and not just because he’s of the male persuasion. Sort of the Elvis of the hula hoop world, Blair really gets his hula hoop groove on all over the stage. He’s a self-described hula hoop stuntman who grew up in western Idaho and attended the hippie Evergreen State College in Olympia that boasts The Simpsons’ Matt Groening among its famous alumni. In demand around the world, Blair—whose motto is “May the centrifugal force be with you,”—is a regular on YouTube and recently appeared on ABC’s Wanna Bet? spinning a tire from a 50-ton tractor for 34 seconds. I tracked the ever-gyrating San Franciscan down recently to get his spin on the hula hoop life.
Paul Kilduff: So you kind of had a Napoleon Dynamite upbringing? Tater Tots, hula hoops?
PB: Delicious bass and Tater Tots. I grew up playing soccer and doing outdoor sports like river rafting and climbing and soccer . . . running. I went to college and I had one of those jobs at the equipment checkout center where you hand out basketballs.
PK: You were the rec guy. So you’d actually be gyrating while passing out basketballs?
PB: Probably the only rec guy with a tip jar. And I was also a dance minor, so I had three dance classes a day and I would try to learn my dance routines while hula hooping.
PK: How did this become your life?
PB: I was working at a museum in Telluride, and there was a band called the String Cheese Incident. They were just starting out then; it was like 1993. I started hanging out with them and hula hooping, and they were like, “Hey, that’s pretty cool. Why don’t you make us some of those hula hoops?” I was doing construction and I found pipe all around, so I started making hula hoops out of it.
PK: Why grow your own hoops? Were there no Toys-R-Us nearby?
PB: Even today you cannot really buy hula hoops that are really good. They’re mostly kids’ hoops out there; that’s what I was using and they’re light and flimsy and break easily. I’d do some tricks that were really fast and I’d just break the hoop. So I started using this stuff— you can squeeze it. It takes 300 pounds of pressure to kink it. I made the String Cheese Incident’s first hula hoops and after that they started bringing them to every one of their gigs—they’re kind of known for that now. I’ve hula hooped onstage with them five times.
PK: Are you the only professional hula hoop guy in the world?
PB: It is really rare to be a hula hoop guy. Most hula hoopers are 14-year-old Lithuanian girls who were trained since they were little kids. But my style is a lot different. It’s more athletic. It’s more crazy and frenetic. It’s not contained. It’s got a little bit more chaos going on onstage. That’s just because I never saw a hula hoop act probably and I’m completely self-taught.
PK: Were you going off a Flashdance influence or what?
PB: I was still a dancer so I was in an East Indian dance troupe, an African dance troupe and a Latin hip-hop troupe in Colorado, and so those helped me move. I’ll do one trick where I’ll have the hula hoop back-spinned and then I’ll fall to the floor and it’ll roll over my back and I’ll do a push up and on the way back up I’ll catch it in my hand, if you can imagine that. I’ll also do walking on my hands while hula hooping.
PK: But you’re not trying to compete with the 14-year-old Lithuanian girls.
PB: No, they can do the splits while standing on their hands with the hula hoop up by their head on their foot.
PK: You can’t do that?
PB: Not gonna happen. Not in this life.
PK: Not to belabor the point, but how did this become your profession?
PB: When I moved to Boulder, after work or late at night, I would go down to the Pearl Street Mall where they had street performing, and I would figure out my act from watching other performers and watching comedy shows. I had friend who was a performer for awhile and he was a big influence on me. He’s actually a very famous juggling comedian named Michael Davis. Heard of him?
PK: You know, I haven’t but that doesn’t mean . . .
PB: He was on Comic Relief and he performed for presidents. I was his neighbor in Washington state and he just gave me a huge box of comedy albums and videos and I used that to put together a street show and then I started going out on Pearl Street Mall . . . . I bought a ticket to London, where there are more street-performing venues, and arrived with $120 in my pocket and it rained the first four days, so I was completely out of money. When the rain quit, I did the street performing, and made enough to travel around Europe and kept going for three months.
PK: What are your hula hoop world records?
PB: The standing ones now are running the mile and running a 10K while hula hooping.
PK: What in tarnation gave you the idea to do that?
PB: Well, I was a pretty competitive 10K runner in Colorado and I did the whole circuit. I used to be able to do a 10K in less than 30 minutes.
PK: Maybe running while hooping could become an Olympic event someday.
PB: Yeah, I’m holding my breath for that one. That sounds good. You promote it; I’ll give you 10 percent.
PK: Square deal. What’s your ultimate hula hoop goal?
PB: I’d sort of like to be the crocodile guy of fitness. Like go around to different places and not just hula hoop but show how to play with what’s around you in the environment. And people who’ve lost touch with how to use fitness for happiness—show them to really play again. Because I think if everybody played like they did when they were kids, then we’d never need diets or treadmills or anything.
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Suggestions? E-mail Paul Kilduff at PKilduff@sbcglobal.net.
The Kilduff File Archive
Age: 39 | Astrological sign: Leo
Birthplace: Clarkston, WA
First job after college: Ski bum
Favorite pizza topping: Olives big
enough to stick your finger in.
Mideast peace plan: More hula hooping for everyone
