Reptile Shows: An interview with Jungle John

By Ellen Zucker

Reptile shows are what John Lamedica, who goes by the name "Jungle John," puts on at birthday parties and other special events.

When Jungle John shows up, he brings his retinue of live snakes, alligators, lizards, and other assorted of creepy-crawley critters. They can not only entertain the children, but also adults.

Here is my interview with Jungle John

What are Reptile Shows?

JJ: What I do are professional reptile shows, educational reptile shows which are geared for 3 year olds to 103 year olds-and anywhere from little birthday parties to great big trade shows and county fairs and state fairs.

EMZ: OK, what are reptile shows?

JJ: Well, we have a variety of different snakes and lizards, turtles and alligators that we present in an educational and fun manner so that people can learn about these unusual animals. Animals that most people generally don’t like. It’s kind of like Animal Planet coming to your living room or your den or your school or event like that.

EMZ: So when you bring your reptile show, what do you actually do with these animals?

JJ: What we do is... I dress in a safari outfit with a pith helmet on. We present each animal one at a time, taking them out of their cages and talking about the animal. Describing where they’re found, what they eat and how they live in a very entertaining and educational manner.

EMZ: What kind of animals do you have?

JJ: Currently we have a 12 foot yellow python. His name is Julius Squeezer.

EMZ: Laughter

JJ: We have a 5 foot long American alligator...his name is Wally Gator. And let’s see some of the other animals we use for our reptile shows...African Ball Pythons, European lizards, Alligator snapping turtles, Florida King snakes, of course we’re using some of the Madagascar hissing cockroaches for which I hold a couple world’s records for.

There’s a variety of snakes and lizards, and turtles. Oh, and a big tortoise in our presentation also.

Set Up and Set Up Requirements

JJ: Well actually set up is very simple. The event can be done anywhere. I’ve done in people’s living rooms, I’ve done it in great big state fairs and county fairs, and things like that. We can go from a little living room atmosphere to a great big stage show.

Set up is very simple.

Outdoors for a big stage show we have big speakers and stuff...

When we’re indoors in a living room for a birthday, of course, I don’t need any speakers. The kids generally sit on the floor, at my feet, kind of like in a campfire type atmosphere. Very informal. And the kids are within a couple feet of me during the show, so they get a tremendous experience of all the animals.

EMZ: How do they react at reptile shows?

JJ: Oh, the kids love it! Usually the parents will ask me if the kids will be afraid of the animals. I say “No, but you will be. You can stay in the other room, or go out to the store while I’m there...

EMZ: Laughter

JJ: The kids love it. The kids are what we call now, The Animal Planet Generation. They’ve been watching Discovery Channel-they know more about reptiles and animals than I did when I was seven or eight years old. Just some parents and grandparents refuse to come the party if I am there.

EMZ: No, you’re kidding!

JJ: Because I have a snake.

Now you wouldn’t even know if you saw me somewhere that I have these snakes and alligators. They’re packed in these Rubbermaid containers that you can’t see through, you would I was traveling with some food or beer in these large containers. You wouldn’t know what was stored in these containers until I opened them and started to show what is in the containers.

Background and Training

JJ: I have a degree in Zoo Keeping from Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville, Florida-they train zoo Keepers for all the major zoos here in the United States. And when I got that degree I got the supervisor’s job at the Brandywine Zoo in Wilmington (DE). I was in charge of all the animals there and did their animal programs. And 15 years ago, I quit and started my own business. Doing what I do which is reptile shows.

EMZ: So, Jungle John is 15 years old...

JJ: 15 years now. And the biggest project I’m working on now. I’m actually sitting in the project right now. I have a shuttle bus, like you see at MBNA and places like that. We’ve taken all the seats out of it. We’re building reptile exhibits in it. It’s going to be a traveling reptile zoo...A full zoo on wheels.

EMZ: Where do you get animals that you use to perform the reptile shows?

JJ: A lot of different sources. Sometimes they’re given to me. Someone has a pet python or alligator and realizes they are not a good pet...Sometimes we get them from zoos, from animal collectors, and dealers and breeders. We get them from a lot of different sources.

EMZ:: You have a background in zookeeping, but do you need special credentials to keep these animals around or to perform reptile shows?

JJ: In the state of Delaware you need a special reptile’s license which I have. That enables me to keep the various snakes and lizards and turtles and such that I have.

Care and Feeding of the Animals

JJ: It’s a daily thing. Some animals are fed every day, some are fed once a week.

The animals have to be kept nice and warm depending upon the environment they come from. Some animals have to be very dry, some have to be very moist. Some are from tropical rain forests, some are from desert areas.

And of course, animals eat different food. Our big pythons will eat rats or rabbits. Our Monitor lizard like to eat chicken parts. Alligators are fed between April and September and they’re fed chicken parts a couple times a week. We have other animals that eat small bugs-crickets and cockroaches...

A magician’s life is much easier. Those magicians don’t have the overhead like I have. They only have to feed one rabbit (laughter) You don’t have to keep a magic wand warm.

I’ve taken on a heavy duty task.

Safety

JJ: No, we’ve never had that problem. The animals that I use in the reptile shows are animals that I know are tame. They’re very durable animals because they do a lot of traveling in and out of boxes. They’re interesting to talk about.

They’re not necessarily the most expensive animal I can buy or the rarest animal in the world. I’ve never lost an animal or even come close to losing an animal.

Usually if I’m doing a birthday party show I have three boxes. I put them in a U shape. The middle box, I sit on the middle box. And people always ask me “do you sit in the box to keep the animal in?”

No, I always used to bring a chair to the party and I’d forget my chair. I’ve donated many, many chairs to the homes of children’s birthday parties. So instead of taking a folding chair, I sit on one of my boxes and I work with the box on my right or the box on my left. Taking one animal out one at a time, talking about it, explaining it to the kids and putting it back. Of course the big box I’m sitting on happens to be the big alligator. He’s in the show, too.

But the animals are very well behaved, they’re not trying to jump away or get away or anything. People have even asked me, especially about my alligator who’s as tame as your dog or your cat “do you give him any drugs to keep him like that?”

I say NO!

EMZ: How do you train them?

JJ:: Well, when we first got the alligator he was not well behaved. It took a couple months of handling him every day before he would just relax, enjoy life, and be a well behaved alligator.

Now not every alligator is like that. You can’t go down to Florida to an alligator farm, see an alligator, pick him up and take him home. Because he’ll bite you.

This one is just what I call a “domestigator.”

EMZ: Laughter. Oh, I like that.

JJ: And I tell kids that just because my animals are tame and nice looking, YOU shouldn’t have big alligators, you shouldn’t have big yellow snakes...We have a great alligator snapping turtle that weighs over 125 lbs. If he were to grab my hand he would crush my hand.

I tell people that YOU shouldn’t have any of the animals I have here at these reptile shows.There are tame animals...little turtles and little lizards that do great.

But big animals are not for pets.

And I say that if I were an accountant I’d still have reptiles, but I wouldn’t have these big animals. I’d have little lizards and little turtles. Which would be much easier on my life.

EMZ: Laughter. That’s interesting. You’re based in Newark, DE, how far do you travel to perform your reptile shows?

JJ: Well, we’ve been up to New York, we’ve been down to Virginia for special school shows and things like that. A lot of the work happens in Delaware because when you from that state everybody knows you and they’re calling for their birthdays, or their scouting events or the YMCA...We travel into Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland, routinely.

EMZ: How do people find you?

JJ: Well, a lot of people know me from word of mouth. When you do the same thing for 15 years in the same place. And before that, I was with the Brandywine Zoo for seven years. So we’re talking 21 years in the same area. And people still call me Zookeeper John many, many years ago when I went to school.

Also from Yellow Pages. Our vehicles have my name on the sides of the vehicles we drive. Newspaper articles, the web site, junglejohn.com. And also the TV shows, I’ve been on the Guiness World Book of Records TV show. I’ve done Ripley’s “Believe It Or Not,” I’ve done Ricky Lake’s twice, Jim Rose Circus which was on the Travel Channel.

Click here to learn more about Jungle John and contact him.

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