HE’S NOT JUST WHISTLING DIXIE
First-timer lands second place in international contest
Man takes second at international event,
The road to self-discovery can be elusive. For some, the journey can be fraught with terrible truths found only after years of introspection. For others, there’s the Internet. If it didn’t exist, Jeffrey Amos would still be searching for himself.
Instead, Amos is now being spoken of in the same reverential tones as the likes of Tamas Hacki, Geert Chatrou and Ronnie Ronalde.
Why? “Basically,” he said, “I’ve always been a pretty good whistler.”
Amos “came out of nowhere” to become one of the world’s best whistlers. Last year, the 38-year-old Toronto man began thinking about whistling competitively, so he Googled “whistling competition.” The homepage of the International Whistlers Convention in Louisburg, N.C., was the top hit.
Amos, a case worker with Ontario’s Community and Social Services ministry, would find his true self in the heart of tobacco country.
In the month leading up to the contest in mid-April, Amos whistled “about an hour a day” as he perfected six songs. The self-taught whistler practised while he made dinner or scooping up litter from his cats, Angel and Bobby. “My cats seem to enjoy my whistling,” he said. “Well, I wouldn’t say ‘enjoy’ it, but they’re not perturbed by it.”
Amos said his mom thought going to the competition, which celebrated its 40th anniversary this year, was “weird and eccentric,” while his dad thought it “amusing.”
He entered in two categories: popular and classical.
In the first round of his popular
“My cats seem to enjoy my whistling. Well, I wouldn’t say ‘enjoy’ it, but they’re not perturbed by it.” JEFFREY AMOS
routine, he came out strong with “I Feel Pretty” from West Side Story. Dressed in a buttoned-down shirt, the whistler held the microphone in his right hand while his left danced, saluted, finger-wagged and periodically pushed his glasses up. “When he did ‘I Feel Pretty’ — I mean, you can’t get better stage presence than that,” said Linda Hamilton, a Toronto native who was recently inducted into the whistling hall of fame. Amos added: “When I came in second, and I just came out of nowhere, people asked, ‘Where did you come from?’ “My answer . . . is my talent has been festering in my shower the past 38 years.” (Amos later admitted he rarely whistles in the shower. He just liked the line.) He also tied for third in the classical category. There are no ties in whistling, so they performed a whistle-off, as competition rules dictate. His competitor went first and whistled “Ave Maria,” but he “screwed it up.” Amos didn’t know that at the time because he was busy sucking on an ice cube while he mentally prepared. “It was a trick I learned from one of the more senior whistlers, Christopher Ullman, who was a judge,” Amos said. He also avoids salty food and coffee, as anything that will dry his throat out is off-limits.
Amos is a palette whistler, meaning he pushes his tongue to the roof of his mouth and forces air around his tongue and through his teeth. This form of whistling is more common in Europe, Hamilton said, but is a rarity in North America.
Amos was the only palette whistler at the competition, which was filled with the more conventional pucker whistlers. “I’m at a bit of a disadvantage because lip whistlers can whistle when they breathe in and out,” he said. “I can only whistle when I breathe out.”
Amos came in second overall after Qingyue Cao, who travelled from China. “Apparently, whistling is very big in Japan and China,” Amos said. “I think I could beat him, but he’s a very powerful whistler.” Amos said the women were incredible whistlers. “If I was a woman and I performed in the women’s division, I wouldn’t have even placed,” he said.
There is money to be had in whistling — although none was given out at the championships. The ringmaster in the Cirque du Soleil show Corteo is a professional whistler. Others make money from commercials while some, such as David Morris, get work on movies like the Bond franchise. “You don’t realize it, but there is a lot of whistling in the world,” Hamilton said.
As for Amos? “I have inquired with my father’s nursing home and I’d like to do a performance there. I’m still waiting to hear back.”