From Taekwondo Champion to Hollywood Stuntman: Interview With Martial Artist Clayton Barber

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(Free-Press-Release.com) December 12, 2010 -- Nexus: We have Clay Barber on the phone and Clay Barber is a former teammate of mine. He’s a former U.S. National team member, former U.S. National team captain; he’s won medals – multiple medals – around the world and today we’re going to have a little interview with Clay. So, Clay, for today we’re going to be focused a little bit on your career and what martial arts has meant to you and I just like to ask you a little bit about how if you wanted to talk about how you got started in martial arts and taekwondo.

Clayton Barber: Sure, no problem! Basically, when I was a young boy I used to watch those old Kung Fu flicks that Bruce Lee put out and drove my father mad basically. So but this is about it – I watched them every single day. So my dad used to work in a movie theater in downtown Dallas and that was his job; he was a policeman and he would take me on the weekends to watch those kung fu movies and they would play in those theaters. And one day I said, “Dad, you know, I want to take karate.” Of course, I don’t what it’s called at this time. You know, I just said karate or kung fu or whatever. And he’s like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever, son,” like that. “Sure, sure, sure.” So I bugged him and bugged him until he said, “Fine.” And then one day he dropped me off and we went down to the Taekwondo School and it happened to be Lee’s taekwondo in Mesquite, Texas and the rest is history. I walked in and on the spot signed a lifetime membership and I never looked back.

Nexus: Wow! So when you walked in, your dad walked you in; you guys went to the right school the first time which is, wow, what’s really some kind of divine providence there. And then on top of it you signed a lifetime…signed up for a lifetime membership right on the spot.

Clayton Barber: Yeah, exactly. At that time…it was quite a while ago; it was about 30 years ago. It was $500 and at the time I think that’s really saw the passion and what I was trying to do. I was doing other sports at the time. I was doing soccer and I had a lot of energy and I was trying to look for an outlet and when I walked in, Master Lee kind’a saw that. His name is Chang Sik Lee father of Dong Lee of Lee’s taekwondo. He saw that, so on the spot…and he was a small businessman trying to do an start-up kind of company and he said, “Look, I’ll give you a lifetime membership for $500.” And we bought it hook-line and sinker and my dad really took to it and he said, “Fine.” And I never looked back. So, to put it this way it was a good investment for my father and a good investment for my life.

Nexus: And so how old were you when you signed up?

Clayton Barber: I was about 10 years old.

Nexus: And did you train with and …how old is Dong?

Clayton Barber: He’s the same age as me, we’re both 42.

Nexus: So you signed up and Dong Lee was there and then you and Dong, you guys meet like right off the bat or how did it go?

Clayton Barber: Yes, we met right off the bat a

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