A few months ago when we interviewed Jeff Monson, his publicist gave me a call while I sat a Starbucks in Dallas, Texas — waiting for the the press conference for Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum. She really liked the interview, except for one seemingly major thing: she wanted us to remove the mention of Jeff Monson taking psilocybin mushrooms. Her reasoning was simple. She believed kids would read that statement and not consider Jeff Monson their ‘role model.’ I’m not even making this up. She apparently didn’t care about Jeff Monson advocating the need for everyone to be an anarchist, his controversial views about the Middle East, his anti-corporate stance, the need to not vote in elections, Monson’s belief that communism is not that bad of a thing — or even the time when he defecated in his pants during a match. In short, you guys should really read the interview. The only thing Jeff Monson’s publicist wanted us to remove was a story of him taking shrooms, because she didn’t want ‘kids to be influenced.’ She wanted me to censor a guy that has gone through his entire life banging against the need for any censorship in society. You could literally cut the irony with the tip of an iron.
Somehow, I weaved a story of how Terence McKenna believed that mushrooms were the main factor for the growth of the human brain in early humans and therefore, Jeff Monson talking about taking mushrooms is some sort of metaphor for school children to explore cultural anthopology majors when they eventually reach college. She bought it, and we kept the mushroom story in our now infamous interview.
Aside from this small obstacle, Jeff Monson’s publicist has been nothing but helpful. She checks on the crew at MiddleEasy and even offers us interviews with other fighters she represents. She’s also attractive, which is something that needs to be noted. I searched for her on Facebook, because I do things like that when I’m in my apartment at night. Since Jeff Monson’s publicist is probably reading this article, I do want to apologize for not meeting up with you for lunch in Dallas this past summer. It wasn’t intentional. If you ever find yourself in the Hollywood area, I’ll take you to ‘Jumbo’s Clown Room,’ a place where over 70% of every MiddleEasy business meeting has occurred.
Now check out this video of the Jeff Monson vs. Fedor Emelinaneko press conference held yesterday in Russia (this morning in the US). Props to BloodandSweat.ru for the banner picture. [Source]