Cliff Thorburn- Learning a Gentleman's Game

      "A gentleman's game." That's how my father refers to snooker. To be honest, for me, discovering Cliff Thorburn (and the sport of snooker on a whole) was an accident, revolving around snowboards of all things. Which becomes even more confusing once you know (if you didn't) that snooker is like the game pool or billiards, a cue sport typically played on the green clothed tables, not a snowy hill. It was about 2:00am, I was laying in bed wide awake, and decided to look up "famous Canadian snowboarders". As anyone with an iPhone knows, you occasionally mess up with your spelling and have weird auto-corrects, exhaustion not helping one bit. I ended up looking at the results for "famous Canadian snooker Players". The top result was a Wikipedia list titled "Canadian Snooker Players". What the heck, might as well click it. First name I decided to click on was Cliff Thorburn, and after reading about him, he seemed pretty interesting. So I wrote down his name, went to sleep, and sent him an email explaining my work the next day. I never expected I would have the chance to challenge the only World Snooker Champion to come from Canada to a game of pool, but I did! What I also didn't expect was to find out Cliff happened to be one of my step-dads' sports idols, but he is! It turned out to be an unexpectedly great experience.

     The day came to meet Cliff, and for about the fifth interview in a row, it seemed the weather hated everyone in Canada, especially my photographer Victoria and I. Driving an hour an a half to Mississauga in a non-air-conditioned car is bad enough on any day, but when it's forty degrees out, it's a whole lot worse. By the time we were about 20 minutes into the drive, all we cared about was if the place we were meeting was air-conditioned, thankfully it was. After the handshakes and the joy that for the first time in about twenty interviews I didn't get lost on the way, I had the chance to sit down with Cliff, a legend in his sport. Getting right in to it, I asked “The Grinder” Thorburn when he first heard about his sport...

Cliff telling his story, photo by Victoria Alexander

     Little 10-year-old Cliff was living in Victoria, British Colombia with his father and grandmother. His father, a bowler, had invited Cliff to come watch his game one day. An invitation that would change his life. Around the booming of the bowling balls, he heard a quieter, clicking noise. He followed it to a partially open door hiding a spiral staircase down. Intrigued, he followed them. There he saw for the first time, a pool table. With bright felt, bright balls and cool tassels hanging on the light fixtures overhead. Then an adult banked a ball off the side of the table, into a middle pocket. Groans came from the others who reluctantly threw money to him for his feat. That's when little Cliff ran, straight to his father, out of breath and in awe. His fathers reply? “You're not allowed to play that game.” This would become Cliff's greatest encouragement to start.

     After trying snooker out a few years later, and losing money to a friend, he decided to try and enhance his game by playing in some pool halls. He would play for about an hour a day, until his father told him to stop playing. That encouraged Cliff to go from one hour to four. What he found though was that he was getting a love/hate relationship with the game. He wasn't doing to well early on, and frustration led to eleven broken cues in the early days, but snooker was all that was ever on his mind. The owner found the broken cues, and barred Cliff from the hall for good This encouraged Cliff to try harder somewhere else. After a while, that's what he did. His skill enhanced, as well as his maturity and respect for the game. Two years after being barred from the hall, he ended up winning the Western Premium Championship. He decided he wanted to go back and let the owner know, not to brag or hold it in his face, but to show he was sorry for the early years and prove respect. Unfortunately, the owner had passed away. It was then Cliff feels he truly matured, and hoped the owner heard where he had made it before he passed away.

     It was harder back then for someone to pick up snooker, to learn how to play. There were no books to read or videos to watch, you simply had to learn by observation, and maybe a skilled player would occasionally answer a question or share a pointer. With that in mind, Cliff never really knew about tournaments or even that there were titles you could earn from championships, he just followed his nose to find games were ever he could, if they were competitive or for fun.

     After the Western Premium title, Cliff took a train across the country to Toronto around 1968 when he managed to win the Toronto City Championships, only two points shy of a perfectly scored snooker game (147 points). Seeing as he had gotten that good in only about four years of play, he started to realize he could have the makings for more than he expected. Two years after this came a title he thought would be the best he would get, the North American snooker champion. But believe it or not, these titles in fact led to two completely different outcomes. One being that Cliff was barred from nearly every single pool hall in Canada for being “too professional”, and the second being that these titles encouraged Cliff to do what it took to become professional. Which he learned meant leaving Canada. This is how my stepfather would first hear about him, but that's for a bit later.

     The final straw to convince Cliff to go the United Kingdom though, was a man named John Spencer, his idol. Right after Cliff had won the North American championship he heard that John (two time world snooker champion) was coming to Calgary for a few exhibition games. Although Cliff was in Toronto, there was no way he was going to miss seeing his idol, so again he hoped on a train and made his journey back across Canada. When he arrived, he had the chance to play Spencer and ask if he believed Cliff had it in him to go professional, keeping in mind there were only about 25 professional snooker players at the time, and only one from outside the United Kingdom. Spencer said yes, and Cliff started playing the United Kingdom tournaments.

Perfecting my technique with Cliff, photo by Victoria Alexander

     A year later, Cliff made it to the World Championship finals in England, a pretty big transition from were he was before. He opponent? John Spencer, who talked him into being there in the first place. Cliff though, lost. Needless to say, he now had his name on the world stage, he was professional. A teenage boy in the hills of Scotland remembers watching Cliff on television with amazement, thinking he could very well soon be the World Champion. A few years later that boy moved to Canada, settled down, had two children of his own and three older step-children. Then his second-oldest stepson mentioned how he was meeting his guy in a few weeks who was good at snooker, “if you even know what that sport is, Bob.” My step-dad turned his head really fast and said excitedly “NOT CLIFF THORBURN IS IT.” When I told him it was, he had the biggest smile on his face, topped only when Cliff called me one day and I put Bob on the phone. Anyway, Cliff started becoming big in Canada, aided by people like my step-dad, who followed the European snooker scene in Canada. Canada learned his name most though in 1980, when Cliff Thorburn became the first person outside the United Kingdom to become the snooker world champion, with snooker idol John Spencer watching him win the title from the sidelines.

     One of the biggest highlights in Cliff's career came three years later, the Maximum Break, also known in snooker as a perfect game. I must admit, I know nothing about snooker. All I know is that if you hit every single ball in, in one turn, you're impressive. I watched it on YouTube, and you just see Cliff slowly going, one ball at a time. When it came to a few ball left, he needed a water break. I could feel the tension from my laptop that's how intense it was, this could be the first perfect game ever at the World Championships. The people from the other games in the tournament came to watch, and the crowd was silent. Then, he hit it in perfectly. There was cheering and Cliff fell to his knees with happiness, hugging his opponents and others playing from Canada.

     That year, Cliff was honoured with an Order of Canada medal, and in 2001 was given a spot in Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. All I could think was, “he did it.” He really defied a lot of people by making it to where he was. From hearing clicks in a bowling alley, to having a chance to play against the Governor-General in his house, on a table who's cloth was ripped from a 12-year-old Justin Trudeau.

     The of meeting Cliff ended with me playing against Cliff in a game of pool. Needless to say, I lost badly. In fact, really badly. But it's the experience that counts... right? Anyway, remember how I said this was the first interview in about twenty that I didn't get lost going to? I ended up taking a wrong turn home and went a half hour out of the way.

     The pattern continues.

Playing with the legend, photo by Victoria Alexander

Mike McDonald- Didn't Fold to Age

     Once again, meeting Mike McDonald was one of those situations were someone "knew a guy" that I may find cool. Well, I'm about 100% certain Mike fits my definition of someone who's pretty cool. Not to mention someone with a super nice condo and a nicer yellow Lamborghini, but life isn't about the material things right...? Anyway! This guy is only 23 years old and to this day has earned over $4734563.00, by himself.. in words, that's four million seven hundred thirty-four thousand five hundred sixty-three dollars. Now, that's not some secret income I shouldn't be telling you, I happened to read it on the internet actually. After all, every poker star has to have his prize money listed somewhere, even the young Michael McDonald.

     The McDonald home, I was told, was a game filled environment, but never a poker filled one. When Mike was about 15 though, he found poker elsewhere. Like myself, he didn't really want to get a job, and he saw that some of his older friends were making more than minimum wage with online poker. Since he was a fast learner (seeing as he started university at age 16, I guess fast learner is really accurate), he felt he would give it a try. He turned to some of the older friends to help teach him, as well as his competitive chess coach. After a while, it seemed that this young chess player may instead go somewhere with cards, so the end came for the competitive chess days. Probably a good move, no offence to my chess instructor brother.

     Mike started playing poker in a time when a lot of other young players were getting into the game, allowing the sport to grow to new levels. Amateur players started getting big prize pools, and more lucrative to others, television time. Although some believed they could hop in with big prizes right away, Mike started out with small stakes online, this was doubly needed since none of his other 15 year old friends considered, well, gambling. Being so young, he didn't really have many personal expenses, slowly detaching himself from the rewards of his success. I on the other hand at age 15 was probably doing nothing, or reading Harry Potter. I had wondered how he was even able to get an online poker account at such a young age anyway, then I found out he simply became his father. His credit card information, his name, and his picture on the account. Genius. There were some rules with this though, including Mike needing to do all of his homework before he could play poker, and he could go and talk to his dad if he lost all of his allowance instead of mope.

Mike McDonald, photo by Victoria Alexander

     When Mike was in grade 12, he had his first big win (keeping in mind grade 12 for Mike was about age 16). This was back in 2006, when I was a kind of dorky, awkward grade 6 six kid. Similar in fact to myself now seven years later, but that's for another day. Mike had heard of this guy from the University of Waterloo who entered a tournament in the Bahamas and ended up winning over a million dollars, the excitement rose when he found out this winner posted on the same poker forum as him. Over the next few days Mike started writing a message to this guy, “longer than any essay I've ever written for school”, as to why this guy should meet 16 year old Mike and quite frankly, teach Mike his skills. As I would be, this guy was a little nervous and didn't know how to reply. The guys girlfriend thought Mike could turn stalkerish, and the guys best friend thought it would be funny to invite the 16 year kid over to the dorm. He listened to the friend, and a powerful poker bond was formed. Anyway, the first big win...

     One day Mike ended up winning $500 (in just that day), which was big for him at the time. “At the time..”, I wish I could have $500 today... but as I was saying, a good day. Then, his two new friends saw a tournament with a $250 dollar buy in, which Mike had never done before (it was high for him at the time). Nervous to lose his successes of the day, he didn't want to enter, but eventually his friends talked him into it and they said that if any of them won, it would be split evenly. Eventually Mike cracked and entered, shortly after, he lost. Then the friend who won big in the Bahamas also got out fairly early, things weren't looking good. It just so happened though that friend number three ended up placing in third place, with a total payout of $16000, making Mike's 500 dollar day a $5500 day, at age 16. His career came rapid fire from there.

Mike McDonald (left) and I, photo by Victoria Alexander

     That summer Mike won entry to a ten player tournament were 10^th to 2^nd place would win $10000, and first place would win a million dollars. Of course you would think everyone would just agree to split the pot right away and leave with just over $100000 a piece, but rules said such a deal couldn't be made until the final three. Understandable, Mike didn't get much sleep that week from the nerves, this game could change his life forever. Hours into the game, with his father encouraging him behind his shoulder, Mike was in second place with three people left. The group decided to split, and Mike walked away with $230000, I think that summer I spent most days playing RISK the board game. That was the second, early defining moment. Remember though, at this point Mike was still pretty desensitized from the money, since he didn't really have any expenses. So 16 year old Mike went into university with a net worth of about $400000 (at that age, mine was probably about $25), and hoped to keep it a secret. He still planned on getting a co-op type job he hoped would pay about $16 an hour, and blend in with the crowd. The secret came out though, the “young baby-faced kid” was a professional poker player, earning him the (then inaccurate) nickname “Mike the Millionaire”.

     Funnily enough, the deciding game to millionaire status wasn't even a game he played. Mike taught one of his university roommates poker, but slowly realized that this guy may be better than the level he was playing at. Mike decided to invest in him to play a tournament, it just so happened his friend entered the wrong one. A mistake that would actually be a blessing. This guy won big, and won entrance into a European Poker League game which he ended up winning, in fact becoming the youngest person to win a EPL tournament. The thing is, Mike had a hold on a fair bit of the prize money, being the original investor. Enough to make Mike a millionaire (say that five times fast...) before he was even old enough to legally play the game. I qualify that as a major success.

     The day Mike finally played his first live game was literally the first day he could, his 18^th birthday. On the first day Mike was legally an adult, he was in Europe playing poker in the World Series of Poker. A month or two later was his first European Poker League tournament, and shortly after that he stole the title his friend had won, and become the youngest European Poker League winner ever, a title he still holds. This win also added $1.4 million dollars to his pocket.. at age 18.. I think I have about $1.40 right now.

     Although his father has always been supportive, this win won over his mother. After this tournament his mother started her own pokerstars account and learned a lot more than she ever had before. It seemed that although Mike was big before, it was two factors that people used to determine if he was “a professional”. One being television time, the other being playing against a celebrity. The curiosity tugged at me so I had to ask Mike which celebs he's faced. He causally dropped the names of multi-Olympic champion Michael Phelps, award-winning rapper Nelly and actor Don Cheadle (from Iron Man two & three and Hotel Rwanda). After his first year of university, he dropped to focus on playing high stakes, live games.

     Nowadays, Mike puts in about 15-20 hours a week of playing poker when he's in town, and about 60 hours a week when he's away, averaging just under a full-time job in time commitment. His prize money now is an incredible $4.7 million dollars, and he's far from done playing. Honestly though, I was glad to hear that Mike didn't want to do this his whole life, glad he's keeping his options open. In the future some ideas have floated around such as stock trader, company investment, and possibly even a company of his own. Good ideas there Mike, I'm sure your mom is glad to hear them!

     After a fun time meeting Mike, I got to sit in the shiny yellow Lamborghini, which was awesome. We went for lunch with my photographer Victoria, and the conversation turned to such diverse subjects as Hermione Granger (and actress Emma Watson), the Planet Mars, and life force from fresh fruit and veggies (all three of us questioned the legitimacy). Final analysis, Mike McDonald is a really cool guy, and if he ever wins a World Series of Poker, I expected to see his WSOP Bracelet, it would make feel like a champion by default.

Mike very nicely letting me sit in his Lamborghini, Photo by Victoria Alexander

Jim and Jennifer Moss- Bringing Smiles Back

     When I was just starting out my interview idea, a friend from my university residence came up to me and started to explain the story of her uncle, Jim Moss, as a possible idea. I thought he sounded really cool, but in all honesty, that whole conversation slipped my mind for a couple of months. Then about a two weeks ago I decided to send him an email, and we planned an interview. Jim Moss, and his wife Jennifer, are probably the nicest couple in the world, and I wish I spoke to them sooner. Needless to say, their story was still amazing, and my timing in fact worked out funnier than anyone could of imagined. This story (originally) is up Wednesday, July 3^rd- also known as “baby day”. Why? Because on Wednesday, July 3^rd, Jim and Jen Moss introduce Moss baby number three to the world, what will be probably the happiest child in the world. Happiest, all beginning from a rather scary moment in her (yup, a girl!) parents' lives, starting in September 2009.

     While I was starting my first year of high school in Ingersoll, Jim was training in the off months for his tenth season in the National Lacrosse League. During the time when regular games weren't on, Jim worked at a store. But it was the regular season that meant more. During the months of December through April, he was known as “The Axe”, #55 on the Colorado Mammoth. Named 2003 NLL Defensive Player of the Year, and being named to the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame as a part of the gold-winning Team Canada, “The Axe” was making his name known in a second sport after leaving the London Knights (of the Ontario Hockey League) as their captain in the 97-98 squad.

Getting to know Jim Moss

Photo by Victoria Alexander

     Jim was married to a wife he loved (and still loves) dearly, had one little child and another on the way. Then something unexpected happened, an injury no one could have expected, not even doctors, seemingly. Injuries were to be expected in his pro-sports career, especially as a lacrosse player. Some of the things he was used to included torn cartilage in both knees, separated and dislocated shoulders, cracked neck and back vertebrae, a broken nose thirteen times (well, fourteen if you include once by his son), but never paralysis. One day Jim was watching television with his wife when he collapsed, fully paralyzed. The doctors thought he contracted something called Guillain-Barré syndrome, a neuromuscular disease, but that was later ruled out. After that, and still to this day, it's listed as an undefined neuromuscular disease, permanently ending the professional sports career of “The Axe”, Jim Moss.

     Not knowing the future, he decided he had to do something to keep some positivity, for him, his wife, and child. He decided to keep a gratitude journal in which he could record one little thing each day that he was grateful for. Jim, to the suprise of many, made it out of the hospital faster than would be imagined by anyone, in time for the birth of this second child. While back home in Ontario, Jim was in a hurry and scribbled a smiley face on a piece of paper, wrote what he was grateful for at the time (the sound of his children giggling in the bathtub) and posted it on Facebook. That was the start of what is now internationally known as The Smile Epidemic.

     That was all back in 2009, but five years later Jim and I both had completely new stories. Leading us to meet last week on his back porch and have some of the best iced tea I've ever had in my life. While at his house, he was telling me how excited he was for the birth of his new baby which would be a week away.. TODAY as of the day I'm posting this interview. While looking at the Smile Epidemic app I saw a photo, posted by a new account named “Baby Lyla”, with a smiley face simply saying “I'm here!”. She's one of the cutest babies I've ever seen, but her mom and dad have come a long way in a few years, so I need to fill in the rest of the story, maybe Lyla can read this on her tenth birthday (when I'm 28.. I'll be ancient).

     When I left off, Jim posted a photo to Facebook with a smiley face, and now it's an app, website, blog, twitter account, and an international movement in over 200 countries around the world. Now though, it's not just Jim posting. The idea really took off, and the main idea is really anybody can, and should, just post one thing you're happy or grateful for that day, and post it online. You come to realize, after a while it's easier and easier to find something you're grateful, contrary to what you may think at first. After some others started to post their own, Jim and Jen decided to make something out of it. There were down to two name idea.. The Smile Epidemic and Smi-ral. No offense, but I think you picked the better name by far.

Jim and Jen Moss... one week until baby day!

Photo by Victoria Alexander

     What they really loved as it got going was that people all around the world, no matter what country, were grateful for the same things. For their pets, for their family, for the weather. Some though, stuck out to the Moss couple, smiles they never thought they could help bring back to people. They told me the story of a family of four, who had just lost an aunt to cancer. They found out about the app, and the whole family started doing this simply activity once a day, and they told Jim how becuase of him, they're getting their smile back. Jim, Jen, and myself couldn't believe how such a small idea can change so many lives for the better.

     The couple reads the smiles every night, and now since the app is on Blackberry, Apple and IOS software, more and more people are sending them in. People have been grateful for “no more chemo”, and even a little nine-year-old girl from Austrailia who wrote “having a roof over my head and a bed to sleep in.” See? You start to see how much you're grateful for. Some of the most insightful are the most simple, like a girl they met at an orphanage last week who simply said “waking up.”

     I wanted to end with that, where it is now. There are many goals now, such as bringing it into the school and workplace, to create a more happier.. well, world. One of the things Jen and Jim do with their children every night now, around the dinner table, is ask them one thing that they were grateful for that day, in the hopes when they're older they'll continue. At this time, they still don't know what's wrong with Jim Moss, and maybe they won't ever. He goes through periods were it'll be anywhere from 3 to 21 days when he'll lose the ability to move his legs, or experiences the same shakiness as one may who is diagnosed with Parkinson's. When this happens, what Jim does is gets his computer, and goes on The Smile Epidemic website. He gets the chance to see all the things that he can be, and is, grateful for. He told me that with out his illness, he never would of been able to make any of this happen.

     So maybe, “The Axe” told me, just maybe.. if he has to be sick everyday for the rest of his life to bring happiness to so many people, it might just be worth it.

     I'm dedicating this story to the lovely baby Lyla Moss! Born on this sunny July 3^rd, 2013. Her first ever Smile Epidemic smile was posted shortly after she was born, and it reads “I'm here! 8lbs and 7 ounces, super healthy and my Dad says I'm beautiful just like Momma. It's great to be alive!”

Yes it is Lyla, yes it is.  

Me: "getting to interview.." Jim: "Me! The Smile CEO"

Jim Moss and I at the Moss home.
Photo by Victoria Alexander