MAN OF CONTRASTS
LeBell was gregarious while somehow managing to be both a natural-born showman and a humble martial artist — which was often demonstrated via his famously self-deprecating sense of humor. Most articles about and interviews with him tended to retell his seemingly endless funny stories juxtaposed with a few of the amazing things he’d done in his life. Frankly speaking, those interviews were usually awesome, and no doubt the articles pretty much wrote themselves.
I can say that because I interviewed LeBell on multiple occasions for print and television, and I was lucky enough to be invited to train with him several times. I feel privileged to have been choked out by the master — on television, no less — after which he presented me with a custom uniform patch to commemorate the occasion. (Those of you who have “earned” a patch from LeBell know what I’m talking about. It’s something you treasure forever.)
It was with an article in mind that I spoke with him on the phone last summer. We chatted a bit, but the godfather was in a bit of a grump — he admitted that he wasn’t feeling well and had been cooped up in his house
