Animal trainer on set: the dog looks at his caller to make sure hes doing the right thing. That's not necessarily a bad thing -- the whole thing is staged in order to make Miz look friendly and cool despite having an 'arm of death'. Nothing wrong with that. I'm not sure why I should complain nor about what per se because it is all very entertaining. Mizner will act as the old masters did and never take a public challenge, but one or two stories will come up to serve his mystique; and his students certainly will be available as time goes by.
I'm actually wondering where all this will lead. Those of you watching, take careful note, the pattern being expressed is exactly the same as the semifamous masters of old; it's just now that it is on television it seems different than before. He's just doing exactly what his teacher did and his teacher before him. I don't think there's anything really wrong with that. Magical skills, a jolly attitude, never lost a challenge, posessors of some kind of freedom/tao/'real' skill that makes them somehow untouchable; leaps ahead of even other tai chi masters. Speaking in riddles? Maybe. Certainly there is no clear-cut shared conceptual vocabulary being presented. But it's all good, some people gravitate to this kind of stuff and that inflates our numbers.. and there is strength in numbers.. How many of us switched schools or teachers early on.. This is a good thing my friends.. How many of us understood exactly what we were getting ourselves into when we walked into the door of the tai chi dojo for the first time.. And so the circle of life will complete, look upon Mizner as the hero we needed but didn't deserve. That could go both ways. But in the end he will be written down as a hero, even if only for causing a revival in the art.
Now is our chance, you see? Smell the money. Even the BJJ people are claiming they do push hands now. NOW is the time! Capitalize on this, push out the real tai chi! We can do it!
Rules:
1. Casually drop Adam Mizner's name during an intro evaluation, and how you teach chi 'just like in the movie'.
2. Mention that all his friends call him the Miz at some point. Never refer to him by any other name.
3. Always choose the newest student to push hands with in front of the entire class and pray something magical happens.
4. Film everything. Condense your clips down into those two to thee minutes where people go flying everywhere. Post to all social media outlets.
5. "Famous
teachersstudents produce famous
studentsteachers". If you get a celebrity student, patronize them in hopes of a movie deal.
6. Make sure there are trained dogs in the movie which snuggle up to you and lick your arm after you toss people around to diffuse any triggering caused by the depiction of physical contact.
7. Carefully invest your money, you have arrived.
Tell me the truth, you as well as I would have signed that contract immediately. I'm actually happy for Mizner. If I ever met him I would want to shake his hand. You may see a lot of copycats coming very soon. Overall I really do think this is a good thing. But it is also very entertaining on the whole