Ophidiophobia, the fear of snakes, is still a pretty widespread issue with lots of people in this country. Often debilitatingly - leading to collisions with stationary objects. The first snake I ever met, at age 7, indirectly led me to a career helping people get past it. He was a little Kingsnake, shiny black with little yellow speckles that resembled stars in a night sky. He was so gentle, when I laid my hand beside him, he crawled up onto it, and when I raised my hand - he wrapped around my finger. Within minutes, he had wrapped around my heart.
Then later that afternoon, I killed him. I didn't mean to, I was a kid who wanted to take a new critter home with me to Texas (we were visiting Jackson, Mississippi - where my mom grew up) so of course I had him in a jar with holes in the lid and grass beneath him for the journey - and when we visited my snake phobic aunt, I left him in the car. It was only a a little while, but it was summertime, and the shade we parked in became direct sun before we got back to it. The heat buildup was too much for the poor little guy. I was crushed.
My much older cousin was a hobbyist about snakes, and taught me some basics, and acquired a captive adult Yellow Rat Snake for me. I wasn't ready. He was flashy defensive, as Rat Snakes, though non-venomous and highly beneficial, often are. When I saw him and a friend of his working with him with socks on their hands, which drew an impressive open mouthed, raised striking display, I had my own first flash of ophidiophobia. I went home snakeless.
But I was so mortified that I'd killed such a gentle and beautiful creature, the first place I went after we got back, was the library. I poured over every book I could find about snakes, getting grownups to help with the parts beyond my reading ability, because I not only wanted to take proper care of the next one, and never kill another snake - I wanted to stop everyone else from killing them. I've been making it up to that one snake my whole life. My first pet snake was a big (for the species) adult Garter Snake I called Kee, and he lived a long and happy life, playing with me and diving for minnows from the local bait shop in his water bowl. Wherever I went,, when I heard the familiar "It's a SNAKE! KILL it!" I'd plead, crying if necessary, for the animal's life.
Fast forward to the early nineties, at my favorite hiking spot, then called The Dallas Nature Center (presently known as The Audubon Cedar Ridge Preserve) I met a delightful old Englishman, professor emeritus Geoffrey Stanford. He said, "We have a few snakes on display here, but we don't have a reptile man to do a talk about them." I agreed, and though I had only one snake in my collection at the time, I used theirs, and borrowed a couple more for variety. And I did something I thought might help get my conservation message to sink in easier - I made it funny.
I had grown up on and around the stage. Mom was the director of the High School's theater department in our town, and I played my first bit part in a crowd scene at age even. At eight I did my first solo gig - as a child ventriloquist. That taught me comic timing and much more. The crowd at the Nature Center loved my presentation. Three moms asked if I'd consider doing my new "snake show" for their kids' birthday parties. And Snake Encounters was born. Since then I've done lots of party shows (to a kid age 4 to about 12, I'm a rock star) plus schools, scout meetings, banquets, science museums, corporate events, comedy clubs - the works. I've been a snake wrangler for movie and photo shoots, and I landed the position of Senior Field Herpetologist for a small but nationwide company called Snake Removal. When it closed a few years ago, snake removal and consultation services became part of what Snake Encounters does today.
In the field, snakes are safely relocated within the appropriate range if they're native, or adopted out if they are escaped pets. Often when people call, they were referred by local Animal Control, so the caller had been expecting free help. When that's the case, the call becomes for the benefit of the animal. Usually the pic they send me (if they had the good sense to take one) turns out to be a Rat Snake. Out west it's often Bullsnakes or their cousins, the Gopher Snakes. I explain the many ways that animal is harmless and beneficial, and tell them to leave him alone, and name him George.
There are now hundreds of snakes in this country - named George.
Even venomous snakes are harmless if you leave them alone. The venom isn't meant for people. It's not even primarily for self-defense. It's for getting food. Food small enough to eat. Given half the chance, a snake will avoid human interaction.
After a few years of doing my show, I met a magician in Houston (I was performing for Animal Planet at the Houston Children's Festival) and he built my first illusion. I believe I'm the only magician today doing Balloon to Snake. I'm also now known as the World's Only Stand-up Comic, Snake-handling Magician. More at snakeshow.com
Like any fear one is taught (usually by example, and at a very young age) rather than born with, this one melts in the face of enough information (knowledge is power) delivered in a way that is too much fun to notice how educational it all is. My telephone consultation service is for snake problems in places where I don't have field staff in range, or situations that don't justify the greater expense. It is similarly entertaining - and empowers the caller to take the proper steps to solve what is, as homeowner critter problems go, a very fixable one. The number is 800-339-9470.
Say hello to George for me.
