Jared Eberwein and the Tour De Pharmacy
One year ago I received a call from Eddie Fiola, and right off the bat, the two questions asked were probably, “Hey how are you? Hows life?.” Ideally though, my height and weight was the two things that needed to be figured out. I matched the description that fit the part that was in need. I was called in, and stoked to join Larry Edgar, Ross Linear, and Austin Coleman on set for an HBO special starring/directing Andy Sandburg who has been pushing his comedy talents into short films on HBO described as Mockumentarys: A spoof making fun of a past, original documentary, shedding some much enjoyable comedic relief on the entire situation. The one we all had the pleasure of joining was titled “Tour De Pharmacy,” highlighting the highly drug influenced era of the 1982 Tour De France race. It was a four day deal for us, showing up and spending long hours, which is now a big deal and plenty worth it. I was brought on to be a stunt double for James Marsden. I was fully dress out, hair and make up every day, but didn’t actually end up doing ANYTHING until the final day. Which was a huge load of pressure, Flipping a huge 27 inch mountain bike, I honestly don’t even know the actually title of what kind of bike it was. I just knew that I was nervous because I had to flip it, and I just wanted to keep riding it all day until it was time to shoot that way I could feel somewhat comfortable. The bike was slowly already starting to give out after about 10 or so jumps. I had to accept, what seemed like not enough jumps to me, till it was time to shoot. The time of the day was approaching. We made our way over to the set where everyone knew about the flip and started to slowly gather around to watch as if I needed anymore pressure. I took a couple jumps I think, gave the nod, went back for my line up, they said ACTION, and it was show time. I was pedaling my way there, felt like I couldn’t go fast enough, trying as much as possible. I have to take a “fake” bump that sends me off course and thats when the jump appears, and the BACKFLIP.
-Jared Eberwein