Published 01/03/2023, 6:00 PM EST
Jackie Chan is a supernova in Hollywood and the Martial Arts industry. But he was not always the bright light that he has turned out to be. There was a time when Chan was still making his name in the world. He was struggling like any human being to make a name for themselves. Therefore, one can safely assume that life was not always easy for Jackie Chan growing up. When Chan’s father moved to Australia to work as a cook, Chan was sent to the China Drama Academy, a Peking Opera School run by Master Yu Jim-yuen. Here, Jackie Chan learned martial arts and acrobatics. He even kept his stage name, Yuen Lo, to honor his master. Chan started performing on stage and grew up with several opera performances. However, around when he was a teenager, an incident almost sent him to jail.
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So what exactly happened that Chan almost went to jail? Let us find out.
Jackie Chan almost went to jail for this
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When he became a teenager, he and his schoolmates, who had some experience with opera, started hunting for jobs at film studios. They used double deckers buses to travel. To ensure that they were going to the right place, they had to be dropped off by a school manager who also paid for their tickets.
In his autobiography, Never Grow Up, Jackie Chan recalls that the school manager would have to pay for their bus tickets, for which he was allotted 20 cents for each person. For one way of the trip, he would tell the bus driver, “Family member, Tsui Luk, 1033.” The school manager’s ride was free, as his son was a driver. So they got that ride for free.
The manager would then give the boys their 20 cents for the ride back. However, instead of using the money for what it was intended for, they used it to get snacks. Then while going back, they used to repeat the same phrase the manager did and rode for free.
However, one day the bus driver got suspicious of them, and their jig was up.
Tuck and Roll: The Narrow Escape
One day while returning, a lot of them used the same line, and the driver got suspicious. Chan recalls, “He started swearing at us, ‘I don’t believe Tsui Luk has more than ten goddamn children.’ He insisted on our buying tickets. There was a bit of a tussle, and his bag of change and tickets tipped over.”
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The conductor then shouted at the driver to take them straight to the police station so they could be charged for their acts. However, they somehow narrowly escaped the ordeal.
Jackie Chan recalls in his autobiography that they yanked the door and jumped out to avoid getting caught. Surprisingly, a well-timed roll and tuck saved them from getting hurt. Their acrobat training came in handy, after all.
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Jackie Chan feels that was his first offstage stunt performance. His narrow escape from being caught and charged by the police is a worrisome story, but also an entertaining one. What do you think?
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