PRESS: Salt Lake Now interviews Charlie

My friend Spencer Sutherland writes for Now Salt Lake, the weekly entertainment arm of the Salt Lake Tribune. He was a fan of the show and asked to interview Charlie. Of course, we love the publicity and it sweetens the pot to get some local love. Always nice when something works out in everyone's best interest.

Spencer Sutherland » 12.18.11 »

Charlie Andrews jousts his way to TV with KNIGHTS OF MAYHEM

For children of the '80s and '90s, the term "jousting" probably brings up one of two images: either a spandex-clad American Gladiator holding a padded stick or Heath Ledger's golden locks in "A Knight's Tale."

For Utah transplant, and six-time jousting champion, Charlie Andrews, there's nothing Hollywood about the sport. For years, Andrews has been working to bring full-contact jousting to the masses through live tournaments and, most recently, a six-episode series on the National Geographic Channel called "Knights of Mayhem." In February, the sport will get its greatest exposure to date, when Fox Sports airs a jousting competition on Fuel TV.

Andrews realizes that for jousting to gain widespread popularity, the sport will have to overcome some serious misconceptions.

"People think it's fake, that it's choreographed," Andrews says. "Their only exposure to jousting is hokey dinner theater with people dressed up in frilly costumes, play-acting with balsa-tipped lances."

"Frilly" is the last word anyone would use to describe Andrews, who looks more like the leader of a Hell's Angels posse. He adds, "We practice a hardcore, heavy armor, full-contact form of jousting called Realgestech. Picture two warriors, both of them weighing-in at over 200 pounds and wearing 130 pounds of armor, wielding solid hemlock lances, and charging at each other at 30 miles an hour on giant warhorses. That's a battlefield, not a dinner show."

Andrews isn't the only gruff one in the bunch. In fact, each of the knights featured in the NatGeo series looks like he could have easily walked right out of a mixed martial arts ring.
"I've done some mixed martial arts training and everything about the sports is similar, other than with jousting, we're on horseback," Andrews says. "It's mano y mano, man against man. In both sports you've got to be smart and physically tough. You've got to compete when you're injured. You've got to overcome your fear. You've got to be courageous going into battle. You could literally get killed out there."

For the long-term success of the sport, Andrews works to help bring new competitors into the field. Though these rookies may eventually challenge his title, Andrews has no plans for relinquishing the crown.

"I refuse to lose. I train hard. In fact, I train harder now than I ever did when I was coming up. You've got to hold onto that fire, that motivation to be the best. You've got to want it every match, every pass.

But, I don't think about any of that when I'm jousting. All I'm thinking about is how I want to go out and destroy my opponent. That's just encoded in my DNA. I come from a warrior bloodline. It's like I said in the first episode of the show, 'Once I get my helmet on and I'm in the list, you're just a body in a suit that I'm trying to knock off that horse.' It's live or die out there for me every time."

All six episodes of "Knights of Mayhem" are available now on iTunes and Amazon. For more details on Andrews, his fellow knights, and the madness of competitive jousting, visit http://www.knightsofmayhem.com.

PRESS: Chicago Tribune reviews Knights

John Kass » 11.17.11 »

Who needs the NBA when we've got 'Knights of Mayhem'?

Call me a naive little baby who'll believe just about anything if it involves medieval combat on TV, but I've got a feeling that somebody is going to die on National Geographic's new show, "Knights of Mayhem."


It is as inevitable as the decline of empire, with Americans increasingly more comfortable seeking mental refuge by looking backward in time rather than forward, into a bleak, debt-ridden future.


So a spear through the eye will penetrate the brain. A neck will snap after a fall from a charging horse. I don't want to see it. But I can't stop watching.


The show features men the size of offensive linemen bellowing like pro wrestlers. Add tattoos, a heavy-metal soundtrack, full plate armor, heavy-hooved horses, spears, high impact and fear.


Who needs the NBA?

PRESS: New York Post reviews Knights

Linda Stasi » 11.13.11 »

Lancing with the Stars

‘This ain’t no Medieval Times dinner show,” Charlie Andrews, reigning world jousting champion, says just before the finals where he nearly takes someone’s head off.

Yes, I did say jousting, and no, “Knights of Mayhem,” Nat Geo’s new reality show about modern-day jousting ain’t no show where ladies faire and courtiers in giant pantaloons dance around to the amusement of fat tourists glomming down chili dogs.

Extreme Jousting, (is there any other kind?), is suddenly and not quietly making a comeback after only 500 years!

And much of the rise of the sport in the USA is due to Andrews, a mean, not-lean wild man who has lost his wife, his life savings and everything else a wild man might hold dear in order to pursue this deadly sport and make it the next big thing.

Never doubt a 240-pound man in 150 pounds of armor charging at you on a 2,000- pound steed in the heart of Texas.

On tomorrow night’s premiere, we follow Andrews, a tremendously unlikeable, but very competent jouster as he sets up his training camp and then risks his life as often as he can to charge at other “knights” at top speed with a giant lance.

And I was riveted.

His chief rival is the quietly lethal Black Knight, Patrick Lambke, who is everything you imagine someone with that moniker would be. Lambke got into jousting when he was fresh out of the army in the 1990s. He worked one joust as a stunt photographer and was hooked.

In fact, Lambke taught Charlie everything he knows about jousting and now Charlie has overtaken him as world champ.

It is Charlie’s dream to get full-contact jousting into arenas and out of the Renaissance Fair circuit. To do that he needs rookies -- athletes willing to risk everything including their lives -- in order to make this a giant professional sport.

And with this reality series, he might succeed. What you’re watching, with your heart in your mouth, is the birth of a sport before it gets controlled by corporations, sponsors, advertisers, agents and networks.

It’s raw, it’s got heart and the enemies are really enemies -- unlike the theatrics of wrestling.
When Charlie says, “Even though Patrick is my ‘brother,’ I will cut his head off with a chain saw and leave it on the side of the road,” he means it. And then he almost does it with a lance.
There are the rivalries, the scared rookies and the daily risk of death for an insane sport these guys love. And best, there are the weekly jousts themselves.

“It’s the new extreme sport that’s also the oldest extreme sport,” Andrews growls between expletives.

Not for nuthin’ but these knights are enough to make those maidens faire who work at Medieval Times rip their bodices right off.

PROMO: Knights of Mayhem

Evolve Media » 11.9.11 »

PRESS: Knights in the news

That jousting reality show (tentatively entitled American Knights) that we created with the fine folks at Vessolar Studios over a year ago (then, with the much snazzier name, Knights of Mayhem) is currently in production at NatGeoTv and, following some buzz from the upfronts, is starting to get some early press.

Salt Lake City's KSL News did a feature on local-hero-in-the-making, Charlie Andrews, when his knights performed at a Utah renaissance fair. The news clip and full story are below. You can also check it out at the KSL News site.

Mike Anderson » 05.22.11 »

JOUSTING TROUPE BECOMES SUBJECT OF NEW REALITY SHOW

A local man is the World Champion of Full Contact Heavy Armored Jousting, but is soon to become the star of a new reality show.

Charlie Andrews, originally from California, is the reigning, undefeated champion of jousting; a sport Andrews helped evolve into the competition it is today.

Following his recent success with the first full-contact jousting troop--the Knights of Mayhem--Andrews is now the subject of an upcoming reality show to air on National Geographic TV. The reality show has been tentatively titled the Knights of Mayhem and is set for five episodes.

Over the weekend, Andrews competed against other knights at the Renaissance Festival and Fantasy Fire in preparation for the World Championship next month in Las Vegas.

"It's two trains on the same track. Head on. Bang," Andrews described.

Andrews and the Knights of Mayhem have now attempted to develop new standards for modern day knights, making it the next extreme sport.

"We haven't killed anyone yet in our sport, but we've sent quite a few to the hospital," Andrews said. "Who doesn't love big strong men, coming down, pounding themselves with eleven foot lances?"

The lances are made of solid wood; the armor made of steel. In all, the equipment weights about 150 pounds.

"There's nothing better than rolling down the list at 20 miles per hour, on a 2,000 pound warhorse, and laying the wood to some fool coming the other way," Andrews said. "It's the nest feeling in the world."

When these guys make contact, it's sure to hurt.

"This is a hundred percent full contact," added Andrews. "This is the German version known as Realgestech. It is the most dangerous in the world."

This and more of Mike Anderson's pieces can be found at the KSL website. And if you missed it, you should check out The New York Times Magazine feature on Charlie and some other prominent full-contact jousters here. Find out when you can see Charlie live--and maybe even get into an episode of the reality show--at KnightsofMayhem.com. And keep an eye out for the show coming to NatGeoTv this fall!