Bubble soccer legend? That’s a fact, Jack.
Hamilton MMA fighter becomes world’s greatest bubble soccer player for Coors Light/ TSN commercial.
When a writer gets the planet’s most fascinating athlete on the phone and asks if this is indeed Jack, there’s a pause followed by an aha moment a few seconds later when the light bulb goes on.
“Of course,” he finally answers. “Jack Linwood.”
Forgive him if he’s not quite used to answering in character. Until a few days ago, the world’s most-perfect jock was better known as Josh Hill, Binbrook native, world class MMA fighter, competitor on the UFC’s reality show “The Ultimate Fighter” and trainer-coach at his Vision Quest gym.
Today, he’s Jack Linwood, the youngest of 10 boys who grew up in a small farming community in Saskatchewan and went on to be the greatest bubble soccer player in the history of the planet. Um … what? In a hilarious extended-length commercial for Coors Light and TSN featuring several of the sports network’s familiar faces, Hill portrays the one-time uberstar who was brought down from his lofty perch by a helium-doping scandal — yes helium — only to fight back and once again rise again to the top of his sport. Again … what? Imagine Dos Equis’ Most Interesting Man In The World or Old Spice’s good smelling guy as the Pele of a kids’ birthday party game.
That’s Jack Linwood. A fictional superstar of the highest order.
The funny part is, Hill had no idea what he was getting in to when he signed on to become the mock legend. He went for an audition and was shocked when he got the part. Suddenly he was posing for photos, playing hours of bubble soccer in a scorching ball and making cheesy 1980s-era beer commercials. All which were incorporated into the spot.
At one point, one of the extras even commented on his solid performance.
“He said, ‘How long have you been acting?’” Hill says. “I said, ‘Uh, today.”
The 3:16 parody that has all his friends calling him Jack can be seen on TSN.ca or simply by Googling ‘Jack Linwood.’
To be honest though, the 29year-old has bigger things on his plate right now. At the end of July he has a title match at the World Series of Fighting in Washington State. He’s still a fighter first after all. This is a rematch of the championship bout he lost over a year ago. He’s won four matches since then.
That’s really his priority. The acting thing is just a nice fallback to have for his future which will come soon enough. Battling in a cage can’t go on forever. If he can make some dough at it, all the better.
Funny thing, though. His career as a master thespian might’ve launched about five years earlier but for a scheduling conflict. Back then his modelling agency — yes, he did a little of that — called to let him know of an audition. He’d never acted but he showed up, read some lines with an actress and went home quite positive he didn’t get the role.
Except they called back and said it was his. Sadly, he had to decline because he was busy the days of the shoots.
“It turned out it was an HBO show called Lingerie,” he says.
Yeah, it’s pretty much what you’d expect. Baby blue is how he describes it. His role would’ve involved pretending to play some piano, talking to a beautiful actress and then … how to put this delicately? … getting all boom chicka wow wow for a couple days of horizontal filming.
“I was down,” he laughs. “My girlfriend at the time wasn’t down. And my mom wasn’t into it.”
For the record, she’s much happier with Jack Linwood.