I was what they call a pool hustler. That's absolutely true. For long periods of time I got by, barely skimmed by, just playing pool.
My favorite player growing up was Julius Erving, because I loved the way he played above the rim, all of the tricks with the ball, big hands, and just phenomenal showmanship.
When I was a kid, I watched Hugo Sanchez videos. The backflip I sometimes do when I score is actually an homage to him.
I dribbled by the hour with my left hand when I was young. I didn't have full control, but I got so I could move the ball back and forth from one hand to the other without breaking the cadence of my dribble. I wasn't dribbling behind my back or setting up any trick stuff, but I was laying the groundwork for it.
Dunk, and people anywhere will ooh and aah. But you can wow a crowd in New York with ball handling and passing.
Maybe I could be the playboy of snooker.
A friend told me about a Nike competition, where they give you one minute to do tricks with a basketball. I wasn't going to go, but they were giving away free sneakers. I ended up coming in second place.
There is money to be made giving trick-shot shows at schools, clubs, tournaments, and even shopping centers. Pool shows on television almost always include a few fancy shots.
Ronaldinho was a big influence on me, watching him on YouTube, he used to do things that other people didn't really used to do.
Sometimes a little kid will come up to me and ask me to show him some tricks. I always have to say: 'I can't do any tricks.' They want to see some sort of magic: keepie-uppies, around-the-worlds, that sort of thing. It's not really my strength.
Some of the stuff I do on the court is what most people think they can do.
I do like to point out the trick putts, the ones that look like they go one way but actually go another. I think the audience likes to know when a putt looks like it's two inches outside left, but it's actually two inches outside right.
When you're in the slam dunk contest, you try to do the things the average person would have trouble doing on a Nerf basket.
Miniature golf, like billiards, is a game of angles. And, like billiards, most of the fun is in pretending you know what the hell you're doing. The worse you do, the more you have to laugh.
