In this interview with Jacques ZeWhipper, he gets a little more personal about his whipping act that he travels with and performs all over the USA. He learned to crack a whip when he was just 7 years old and came back to his roots as a circus performer. He goes into detail about how he created his famous look and answers some personal questions… You can keep up to date with where Jacques ZeWhipper is on his tour on his social media (@Jacqueszewhipper on Instagram) or through his website: here.

Drew Janine: Do you have a favourite place that you enjoy visiting on tour?

Jacques ZeWhipper: New York City, New York. I also really vibe with Texas.

DJ: How did you come up with your RenFaire costume and do you ever regret the costume in hotter states? Also, why do you draw on a moustache?

JZW: Well I wanted my outfit to fit really well and compliment my body. I wanted to show off that I am younger than most of the RenFaire workers and that I’m more fit. That’s not a dig on them, I just naturally have an athletic body type and workout to keep it. Like my legs are not the part of my body I want to be showing off, so I like my costume pants to be like baseball pants. I also wanted my shoes to fit the theme and wanted something classy with buckles… I now have about 6 or 7 different pairs of shoes. When I got my vest it had blue buttons and I wanted to replace those with gold ones to better fit the floral design on it. And my shirt is actually pretty sturdy material, I’ve had it for several years now. You’d think something light weight would be great but before I had these shirts, I was sweating through the material and I’d go to do a trick and my shirt would rip. I’d be like “great, I have to get another shirt” but they only lasted a few months before I switched to this one. As for the moustache, I’ve also been asked if I draw it on because I can’t grow facial hair. I first drew on the moustache at my third performance and before people weren’t really getting that it was supposed to be a French character but when I drew it on it just clicked for the audience. And part of my act is getting the fire whips really close to my face to break a prop in my mouth, so I also draw it on to not burn any facial hair.

A great view of Jacques’s costume

DJ: If you could go back in time and give your younger self some advice, what would it be?

JZW: Keep at it, and keep practising. I would also say learn a few different circus skills because trying to learn them at 35 is so much harder than trying to learn them at 17.

DJ: What advice do you have for up and coming artists who want to join the circus or RenFaire?

JZW: Practise as many skills as you can but find one or two skills that you know you really want to do. Also, create a character. What can really set you apart from others who have skills and these variety acts is having a character, especially one that you can work on. A lot of performers go up and they play themselves or they play a really energetic version of themselves. That will also help with some performance anxiety because if some audience members don’t like your performance then it’s not that they don’t like you, they don’t like the character.

Jacques ZeWhipper in Closing Time

DJ: Do you ever get to tour with your cat? 

JZW: Yes, he is coming on tour for the first time this year. The longest car ride that he’s done so far was about four and a half hours… My wife is more concerned than I am. I think he’ll be okay.

DJ: What songs are on your playlist for practising whipping tricks?

JZW: I actually don’t listen to music while I’m practising because I need to hear if the whip cracks but sometimes I like to practise to fast paced video game music.

Jacques’s wife likes to play video games too

DJ: You’ve mentioned in some of your videos how you practise songs that you think will be requested and then sometimes have to wait years for someone to request it for the first time, how many songs have you practised that have never or rarely gotten requested?

JZW: There are about 5 or 6 songs in total like one that I thought was going to be really requested a lot was Maroon 5’s Sugar because I was just hearing it all the time on the radio (back when I listened to the radio ugghhh) and it was only requested once.

A song Jacques practised finally gets asked for! And he forgot the lyrics he prepared…

DJ: Do you ever get to tour with your wife?

JZW: Yes, she has just quit her regular job earlier this year in late January because we agreed to get a certain amount of views (she is a videographer, photographer, and social media expert) and we hit those views in 2023 and now we tour together full time. She’s sometimes home more often than I am.

DJ: So you’ve been married to your wife for about 2 years, was Ses or any other cast members invited to the wedding?

JZW: Yes, Ses and [several other cast members] were invited but Ses was the only one who didn’t have a show the next day in another state or time zone. We still invited everyone to make sure they knew they were welcome but I made sure to tell them don’t feel like you have to come. Luckily no pranks were pulled on the big day.

DJ: How did you and Ses meet?

JZW: We met on my very first day at King Richards back in 2010 and he had been working there for about 7 or 8 years already and we just hit off immediately.

DJ: You’re seen in a lot of your pictures and videos dressed as Spiderman™ and making references to Spiderman™ , is he your favourite Marvel character?

JZW: I would say he is my favourite superhero and maybe even my favourite fictional character. I definitely relate a lot to the character. I was living in New York and was living this life as a journalist by day and had an alternate persona by night so I was relating to him in a very unique way… I think he’s also a character that helps to remind people of their humanity and what everyone should try to be more like and there’s one phrase in particular in Spiderman™ that everyone should aspire to. “With great power…”

Jacques and Jacques and Jacques spidermen

All pictures and videos are provided by Jacques ZeWhipper.

Drew Janine

Live Sound Engineer -EUROPE

Janine has always been a part of music and performing. The first show that inspired her to go into theatre was the Velveteen Rabbit which she saw as a child, and Drew works to keep that magic alive as working behind the scenes in theatre as a live sound engineer. When Drew was accepted into an internship program for audio engineering at a recording studio, she jumped at the opportunity. That was at the start of 2020 and so much has happened since then, both in her career and in the world. Since then, Drew has taken several opportunities to work at recording studios, concerts, festivals, and even large theatres while spending time on tour across the North American continent and Europe. Drew’s favourite by far though has been the chance to work on Broadway and West End shows, as this was a dream come true. Drew is honoured to get to share these experiences from being inside the entertainment industry and hopes to inspire others to continue working in theatre.