Question and answer may not be quite the right way to describe an encounter with Jake Steinfeld, a.k.a. Body by Jake. Rather, the former bodybuilder, television star and erstwhile raconteur talks and you listen. In town to push (and push) any number of projects, including Major League Lacrosse (he’s the league’s founder and owner), Steinfeld took a deep breath and let loose.
Anthony Cotton: How did you get hooked up with lacrosse?
Jake Steinfeld: I grew up in Brooklyn and was raised in Long Island. I was a marginal lacrosse player – I was actually a crummy lacrosse player – but it was fun to play. I loved hitting, that was great, and a boy with a stick – what better sport could there be?
AC: Better than bodybuilding?
JS: I started bodybuilding when I was 14; I was a fat kid, and my dad got me a set of weights that really changed my life. I went to college in upstate New York; you know Cornell University? Well, I went to Cortland down the street, and I got in because I played lacrosse. I’ll never forget, we were scrimmaging Syracuse at Syracuse, and I was standing on the sidelines becoming this lacrosse ice sculpture, and I thought, “What am I doing?” And I went to California to become a bodybuilder.
AC: How’d that go?
JS: I made the call to my ma; here I am, the oldest of four kids, and she goes, How s college? How s Poly Sci? I say, Hey, Ma, I m going to California to become a bodybuilder. There s silence, and then, Herbie, pick up the phone and talk to your son. I m putting my head in the oven. But I remember thinking, there was more fear that they would let me go on and pursue my dream than them saying no.
AC: You’re wearing a blue shirt and khaki pants and draped across the chair are a blue shirt and khaki pants – what gives?
JS: It’s my lucky outfit; depending on what I m in the zone with, I have to become that thing. When I’m Body by Jake, I put the Superman outfit on; if I’m doing infomercials, there has to be a certain color shirt that I wear. It all depends. I guess it’s just my wackiness.
AC: So infomercials, that s just like stealing money isn’t it?
JS: I was in the right place at the right time. When I got to L.A. my goal was to become Mr. America. What I learned was in order for me to compete on the level to become Mr. America, you had to take steroids. And the only reason why I didn’t was because you had to put them into your own butt – fortunately, I was afraid. I had to make that conscious decision and that was a big moment in my life, because my ultimate goal was to become Mr. America.
AC: Why didn’t you take them?
JS: It was my gut telling me not to. I’ve always lived my life on my gut. As an entrepreneur, I’ve made many mistakes, but I’ve made mistakes where I can look in the mirror and say I made them. I always say I’d much rather be driving the car that goes off the cliff than to be sitting next to the guy driving the car off the cliff. I’m OK with that.
AC: So bodybuilding.
JS: I was in the right place at the right time. I wasn’t going to go back to New York because everybody expected me to fail. My girlfriend said, I’ll see you next semester. I heard those people’s voices. I was living in Studio City, and an actress was getting ready to do a Club Med commercial. She had to get in shape in four weeks. She already looked good, but her self-esteem wasn t where it needed to be. She asked if I could help her out. I said sure. So she asked how much would it cost for me to come over to her house and work her out. I told her to just pay for the gas for my 1977 Camaro.
AC: That’s it?
JS: She didn’t want to use weights. At the time, this was when Jane Fonda was big and women were intimidated by weights. So I got a broomstick, a towel and a chair and did isometric stuff. She loved it and asked if I could go to her boyfriend’s house and do the workout there. Now, if you weren’t on the cover of Musclehead Digest, I didn t know who you were, but the guy turned out to be Francis Ford Coppola. I didn’t know who he was; I just remember looking at him and thinking, Humph; this guy could use a workout, too. She did the workouts and started going to parties and people would say, You look great, what have you been doing? Well, she told them about me and people wanted to get in contact with me, but I had never listed my phone number. Well, the thing about Hollywood is, if you re good and people want you, if they can t reach you, they want you more. So this whole mystique grew around, Who is this guy, and can we get him? So I started getting calls from the biggest stars in the world.
AC: And the rest is history.
JS: The interesting thing about all of that was that those people are no different from us. The only difference is that they had a dream and they never quit on that dream and they never took no for an answer. I told myself then that I might never direct E.T. IX, but I would have my successes in life. The infomercials I wanted no part of; I believed that they were cheesy and cheap. I didn’t want to be known as that late-night goofball humping whatever. But we ended up shooting our first one in 1992, and we sold 700,000 of the product. The infomercial ended up being the core of Body by Jake – who we are, where we are. We ve had 13 products – 11 home runs, one double and one dog. And we ve been able to attract other business from that.
AC: And you didn’t want to do it.
JS: In 93, ESPN wanted to renew my contract for five years. I asked for equity; they said I could have a chunk of programming on ESPN2, but no equity. The world lets you be what you make them believe that you are. I told them I wasn t a work-for-hire guy. I said the words; it was like telling my mother I was going to California. I m a big believer in you stopping you – you tell yourself, I can’t. You tell yourself that you’re not smart enough or strong enough or tall enough or good-looking enough to do something, and what ends up happening is you stopping yourself from achieving your dreams.
AC: And one of your dreams was to own a lacrosse league?
JS: In 1998, the infomercial business was cooking, my family was growing, and I had a little money. Everybody in L.A. was buying minor-league baseball teams and I just didn’t get it. But one day I was looking at a magazine, and I saw a picture of a kid holding a lacrosse stick. As an entrepreneur, I ve always taken the road never traveled. I’d see lacrosse on television and think, Whatever happened to that game? There was a story about a guy at Princeton and I thought, This guy is a young Phil Knight – he’s making lacrosse a lifestyle. I called him and asked if there was such a thing as an outdoor lacrosse league and if there was a governing body for the sport. He said, No. I said, Well, there is now.
AC: So, tell me, don t you just want to kick (fitness infomercial rival) Tony Little s butt?
JS: You know what? That poor guy makes me look great. But that s what makes horse racing – everybody’s got their deal.
Anthony Cotton can be reached at 303-820-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com.
