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LIFE
Jungle Jack brings his wild pack to Huntington
Jack Hanna with Koala
Purchase this photoHUNTINGTON -- A week or two in Rawanda hanging out with some mountain gorillas at 8,000 feet above sea level, a night on Letterman, pack in a few appearances, home for three or four days, then out on the road again.
Welcome to the life of Jack Hanna.
The khaki-sporting icon of animal-lovers has been living in a whirlwind for decades, serving as director for the Columbus Zoo, shooting multiple television series and guest spots, and, for the past two years, bringing his show to theaters in college towns, all while promoting his message of conservation.
"It's like anything, you do it for so long that it just becomes your life," Hanna said. "Maybe one day I'll retire and say 'I can't believe I was swimming with killer whales.' I'm very enthusiastic about what I do, but I do it so much that I am really used to it."
Hanna is bringing his show to the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center on Monday night as part of the Marshall Artists Series. "I just started doing this about two years ago, and I have to say I really enjoy doing these live shows in these smaller environments," he said. "You can really connect with people this way."
Hanna said he's especially exited to be in Huntington.
"You go to New York and places like that, and people have kind of seen it all before," he said. "I love places like West Virginia, because it's something different for a lot of people, and that makes it a lot of fun for me."
The show will include live appearances by plenty of exotic animals, including a cheetah, the fastest living land mammal. Hanna also promised two varieties of leopard, several reptiles and some birds for good measure.
The animals are used to traveling, and Columbus to Huntington is a relatively easy trip for them, Hanna said.
"With the animals, a lot of it is the same as what we have to do to go on TV," he said. "The animals we bring are used to an audience and enjoy traveling.
"If an animal doesn't adapt well to that type of thing, then we don't take that animal, and we never take any of our animals on more than a 12-hour drive," he added.
In a career of displaying animals outside of their natural environments, Hanna said he's learned which are best for what type of show. Ironically, the one place Hanna is perhaps best-known for appearing is one of the harder places to work.
"David Letterman's show is very difficult, because there's a loud band and a late night audience, so we have to take animals that can deal with that," he said. "Then, you go do something like Maury Povich, and, well, you never know what you're going to get there."
The audience at Monday's show will get a bit of a look into the trials and tribulations of taking exotic animals on television. Hanna features several clips from his television appearances during the live show, complete with bloopers.
"We make it a real fun experience," he said.
Underpinning everything is the message of conservation, though Hanna said he'd rather that theme come across naturally, instead of bludgeoning the audience with gloomy statistics about endangered species.
"We'll talk about conservation, but not too heavily. I don't want to keep on preaching pessimism," he said. "The truth is, some of these things we're doing are working and a lot of these animals do have a chance. If people think that everything is going down the tubes, they're not going to want to help out."
Monday's show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25, and are available at www.marshall.edu/muartser or by calling (304) 696-6656.
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