Pole acrobat retires
Jerry Arsenault announces retirement during stunt at Acadian Festival
ABRAM-VILLAGE — Since the 1980s, Jerry Arsenault has been entertaining crowds at the Acadian Festival in Abram-Village with his wooden pole acrobatics, chainsaw stunts and comedy skits high in the clouds.
The 71-year-old announced his retirement on Saturday afternoon, but no one believes him – despite his age.
“I retired for five years once, but it felt like something was missing in my life, so I returned to the pole with my brother, Marcel (Arsenault), and son Jeremy (Arsenault),” Jerry said.
“I say every year I’m retiring, but last year I said I was done and then the Acadian World Congress came this summer. Marcel convinced me to perform for the Arsenault gathering. All the wooden poles were already set up, so a couple of weeks later I decided I would continue for this five-day festival.”
The trio performs comedy skits, chainsaw stunts and acrobatics while under the stage names of Biker Bob (Marcel), Jungle Jim (Jeremy) and Jamaican Acadian (Jerry).
“I can hear the audience gasp when I pretend to fall or do a flip,” said Jerry, who surprised the audience by unleashing water bombs from the air.
“It’s nice when people see our show for the first time because there are lots of surprises, and often they can’t see the cable when we pretend to fall and then zip-line to the other end of the festival grounds,” said Jeremy, while acknowledging the tallest pole above ground is 102 feet and came from Vancouver.
“You can’t get trees growing that tall on the province,” said Marcel.
“We all trust the equipment because one mistake and you are gone, it’s a 40- to 100-foot drop from where are stand when performing,” said Jeremy, who has been with the group for 20 years and works in a tree cutting and removal business with his uncle and father called The Branch Manager.
“When we first started the performance, it consisted of a climb and chainsaw to carve off pieces of wood, but over the years the crowd changed, so we added music, comedy skits, such as the poker game, and then a zip line around six years ago,” said Jerry.
“My other son, Joey, will be going down the zip line in a light chair because he said once, ‘discrimination.’ He is disabled and we don’t want to discriminate, so we now include him in the show – much to his delight,” added Jerry.
The hour-long show, for many, is a highlight of the Acadian Festival that takes place every Labour Day weekend.