SO...This is the story about us! or really about Me!... Now don't get this section confused with Globe History.

I remember the exact day when my career started...I was about 16 or 17 years old and I was in a show here in Las Vegas called "Splash"... I was a BMX ramp rider, I was the "day off rider" (mostly on the weekends) for Gary Laurent (now also a Globe rider). I wasn't great...I was just a guy who knew how to ride ramps (1/4 pipes/skateboard ramps) and actually liked flatland BMX more... And in this show "Splash" there was a Brazilian guy named Douglas MacValley who had a "Globe of Death" featured in the show. Gary and I (plus a couple other riders) asked Douglas if we could take our BMX bikes inside the Globe and ride around the inside walls... "NO!" said Douglas! The other Brazilian riders said: "NO WAY... If these cabrons learn the globe...they will steel our job and we will be sent back to the circus... We were not allowed to go inside... but occasionally we would sneak inside and ride it. ha-ha ...So you know where the story begins.

I was in High school and was making pretty good money just working the weekends performing in the show and then one day while I was moving my “Wood Shop Project" (custom cabinet) from the Wood Shop to the Auditorium... I had an accident involving a sheet metal cart; it had run up against my Achilles Tendon and severed it...losing all mobility in my right ankle... (Yeah ouch).Well... this was a snowball effect from hell for me...I
went from riding 8 hours a day to riding ZERO hours a day... I also had a great girlfriend named "Kieko" and a job in a topless Las Vegas Productions show...

Hmmm... now with a severed Achilles Tendon I went right into surgery and my leg was
placed in a cast from my toe to my hip for 6 months. I couldn't walk. I got a free wheelchair and crutches from the VFW... so did I learn how to Freestyle in that wheel chair? Hell Yes I did! but it wasn't the same..."Kieko" stayed with me for a while until I got my cast off, then, as she was waiting for me to finish my physical therapy and for my doctor to release me... Kieko's father told her that she could not see me anymore because "My Career" was finished due to my injury... he punished her until she stopped dating me..
Then the rider who temporarily replaced me: (Kurtis Kunz... who also became a globe rider) would not give me my job back in the show... then to top off my bad luck streak any further... my Dad says to me..." John it's time to put that bike away and get a real job",.. "You will never make it riding a bike in life..." CLICK! I remember that very clearly...

I actually have a special talent of designing and building anything out of wood... I was an accomplished artist but I would choose Entertainment over a skilled trade. At the end of 1988, the portion of the show that featured the BMX had come to an end and the BMX was removed from the show... Gary and I had partnered in a BMX Duo and would perform shows in many different local events. Then one day… Gary came to me and said he booked us in South America, in a show that featured Miss Universe... so we went! I just knew this is what I wanted to do... we performed many BMX shows around Las Vegas and in California and then when things started to slow down for us…Gary moved up to Grass Valley California with his Uncle and I stayed in Las Vegas working at a donut shop...a few months later I got booked by the Brazilian Douglas MacValley in a show in Laughlin along side of the Globe of Death. I found another partner named Paul Morris and we performed in the "Coliseum of Thrills" at Laughlin's Riverside Casino in Laughlin Nevada. While Paul and I were in that show, I got a call to go and perform in a show at Sea World San Diego named "City Streets". Since I was contracted in a stage show in Nevada; I couldn't commit to the Sea World Show. I called Gary and gave it to him... So a few days later Gary drove down thru Laughlin to see me in my show that night... We found out that our show got cancelled! I had just given Gary the show in San Diego... so Paul and I went back to Vegas.
Gary continued to Sea World, he would end up staying in that show for almost 2 years...I went on to work for Douglas MacValley doing graphics and performing in little shows here and there... Douglas ended up sending me to Mexico City to Perform in “Circo Atayde”... I met Joaquin Ayala ( Famous Latin Magician) while I was there and have been close friends with him ever since. I had been dating a girl who had very famous parents here in Vegas and had performed in Vegas shows since the 60's... I finally got persuaded (by both our Parents) to get married... I chose to move to Phoenix for a couple of years and opened a screen printing shop until we decided to divorce (actually annulment) When we split the assets I moved back to Vegas and took a year off... I had a little bit of money saved and as I was looking for a place to live...Douglas MacValley’s son Bela Tabak offered me a place to live...I moved in… and that is when my life entered the "Globe Industry"
Bela was in another show at the Excalibur casino (Las Vegas) and his father Douglas finally asked me if I wanted to learn to ride the "Globe of Death"! yeah... no... HELL YEAH!!! So he said if I went on the road with Bela and Kurtis Kunz (who could only do about 10 rotations inside the globe at the time…just a newbie) that they would teach me to ride the Globe... they did...and it was not easy... we had crashed a couple of times and had a very crazy adventure...I will post that story in the "Road Stories" section in a few months.
So as one adventure ended another would begin... when we go back from that 6 weeks of "Road HELL" in Canada and Northern California... we finally returned to Vegas and I spent a couple of months getting taught by Humberto Fonseca (master Globe builder/ globe rider extraordinaire).
The year had passed and I was riding a lot and Kurtis was getting good at a faster pace... then Douglas informed Kurtis and I that we were going to perform in 6 cities for INTEL corporation and then off to Mexico City again to ride the Globe.
While in Mexico, I met a great girl and we dated for the duration while I was there.. we were in Mexico for 3-4 months and then back to Vegas... where we found out that we were now going to a stage show in Reno for 3 years... During that time, I got that phone call from a hysterically Beautiful PREGNANT girl bearing my child...oh yeah...I went to Mexico and got her, we got married and had two incredible kids together. So while I performed in Reno for three years, I worked the show and an extra job in order to get ahead... I built a globe during that time and after that show closed in 1996… I got my first “Globe Date” and had to move to Myrtle Beach S. Carolina... While I was there I bought my first computer and bought the domains “GlobeofDeath”.com and .net …Then the show closed 8 weeks into a 26 week contract… and that sucked... We came back to Vegas and scrambled to find another show in order to pay the loans I took out for the initial costs of the building the globe... So we took a gig in Teague S. Korea...( with x2 BAD AGENTS…I won’t say who they are…)It was at Woo Bang Tower-land (yeah funny name) it is a theme park in S. Korea... We stayed there for almost 3 months and then came back to the USA... I Made enough money to pay back the loans and buy a house...We went on to do many more casino shows and a ton of Motorcycle rallies until now... and now... we are fully equipped to perform at any venue or event worldwide... we have since done shows in Japan, Mexico, Europe, Canada and the domestic USA... We perform tons of convention, corporate shows (mostly) and casino production shows here in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, Biloxi Mississippi, Tunica Mississippi, Atlantic City, Laughlin , Reno and any casino world wide... Motorcycle Rallies happen everywhere and Dealership shows are definite favorites of ours... so please check the rest of this web site and feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.

Thank you,

John Stotts