Manny Puig
| Manny Puig | |
|---|---|
Manny Puig
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| Born |
January 25, 1954 Cuba |
| Other names | Sharkman, Tarzan |
| Website | http://www.mannypuig.com |
Manny "Sharkman" Puig (born 25 January 1954) is an American wildlife entertainer. Puig is known for his direct approach when dealing with dangerous animals such as sharks, black bears and American alligators. He has made frequent appearances on the television shows Jackass and Wildboyz and also on the Animal Planet show Gator Boys.
Puig was born in Cuba in 1954, but he and his mother immigrated to Florida, where he became interested in wildlife. Spear fishing off the Florida Keys inspired him. In his youth, Puig traveled into the Everglades with only a frying pan and a shotgun. He learned to hunt deer at an early age and started hand-catching small American alligators underwater in his teens.
In the late 1990s, Puig worked with Mehgan Heaney-Grier and Mark Rackley, both in training her as a free diver and in filming underwater encounters with animals such as alligators and sharks. Rackley worked as a spearfisherman and underwater videographer. Puig had experience as an animal handler on movie sets and had learned how to ride and handle alligators in their environment. The trio formed a company named Extreme Encounters.
Puig advocates a basic approach to wildlife and denounces the use of safety gear such as cages, protective clothing and diving apparatus. He states that he has a great respect for the Native Americans because of their interaction with the land and their survival skills. His interests also include history, art and geography documentaries. He spends his free time working on sculpting, hand-crafting medieval weapons and hunting tools.
Puig has appeared on the television program Jackass, in Jackass The Movie, Jackass Number Two, and Jackass 3D. In these projects, he is credited as an expert on predatory animals. One of Puig's stunts is featured in the second film, where he dives with Steve-O around hammerhead and other dangerous sharks. Steve-O recalled the segment in his autobiography, stating: "The following day, Pontius and I were scheduled to swim with great hammerhead sharks, accompanied by Manny....with the butt piercing wound still fresh, swimming with sharks might not have been very smart, but Manny wasn't worried about it....In retrospect, the fact that Manny was the arbiter of what was safe and reasonable is hilarious. He hatched and okayed plenty of ideas that were clearly not okay. So you knew if he said no to something, that meant "FUCK NO!" As it happened, Manny had no problem sending us swimming with great hammerheads."
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