The Agony & The Ecstasy of Mike Massey

As a Tennessee firefighter, Massey began concocting and practicing trick shots he believed were divinely inspired.

Those who know Massey only in recent decades could never fathom where - or how low - he's been. He himself strains to connect past and present. "When I think of myself back then," he says, "it's like I'm thinking about a different person. It's a part of me I try hard to never dwell on."

Massey, who revolutionized the art of the trick shot (including introducing the jump draw), has become synonymous with something dazzling and extraordinary and making the seemingly impossible possible. His name even has become part of the game's lexicon: to "Mike Massey the shot," which means to super stroke it to the max, or to pocket a ball against all odds, if not logic and physics, by putting extreme English or massé on the cue ball. He'll wow crowds by jumping the cue ball off the table into a cowboy boot six feet away - one-handed, no less. Or by shooting it up onto the mouth of a Coke bottle, or over a quarter onto the head of a dime. Or by swerving it in a way so that it suddenly stops, still spinning, and does a U-turn. "He's just about the most talented all-around player I've ever seen," says ladies' great Allison Fisher. "He does things that just blow my mind." And every step of the way, with that down-home Southern accent and that big smile, he'll tell story after country-fried story, and maybe do some card tricks or some one-armed pushups or some finger pool with those huge hands, and charm his audiences into joyous submission.

Massey has virtually lived out of a suitcase for decades. He's performed all over the United States, driving from place to place in his beige, 35-foot RV, and logging over three million miles in the air in 36 different countries, including Russia, Japan, and the Philippines.

Ask him about his memories and he'll go on and on, especially about his times traveling overseas. Like the time he was told to "cool it on the magic tricks" in Saudi Arabia, because the natives would view it as "witchcraft"; and when his driver in Poland nearly got him and Francine killed, swerving off the highway while going 135 mph, smashing through a median and onto a grassy knoll; and when he and Francine took the wrong train from Austria and were headed toward Switzerland instead of Romania; and when a train chugged out of the station in Zurich before he could get off, and how he leapt onto the platform, luggage and all.

His pictures grace the walls of poolrooms in Moscow; he once entertained heads of state in the banquet room of the People's Hall in China; and he has appeared on television overseas, both live and taped, to an estimated audience of over a billion people combined.

"Not bad for a guy with an eighth-grade education," Massey says. "I've probably traveled more than any other pool player. I've been to Europe around 50 times and to China five. I'm more popular overseas than here in the U.S."

He's also appeared in a handful of movies (including "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia"), published a book ("Mike Massey's World of Trick Shots," with Phil Capelle), written a screenplay ("Louie and the Preacher," which he's been trying to get made into a movie for years), and taught pool to the likes of the late legend Johnny Cash and actor Dennis Quaid. "Mike actually makes a decent living with just pool - and not too many people can say that," says Allen Hopkins, adding: "Mike brings new things to the table all the time. I learn new shots myself, just by watching him. Plus, he's a great entertainer. He's a real asset, good for the game."

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