Joie de Vivre

by Madeline C. Lanshe

Would you jump from a 35 foot building? Light yourself on fire? Intentionally crash a car? For Enzo, a twenty-four year old from Le Mans, France, this is what a normal day at school looks like. Not a typical school, of course, but a professional training center dedicated to stunt techniques in cinema and entertainment. He and his classmates are studying to become professional stuntmen/women.

Enzo has his DEUG (which is not quite a degree, but a primary qualification taken after 2 years of university in France) in science technique des activitiés physiques et sportives (technical science of physical and sporting activities) from Le Mans University. During school vacations, he would attend classes at Campus Univers Cascades (CUC), as they offer five, two week sessions each year for two years. Enzo has only two sessions left to complete but has taken a break to work as a stuntman at an amusement park of sorts in Provence, France, called Rocher Mistral. This year is his second season performing at the age-old château, where he dons period garb and engages in high energy, choreographed battles with sword fights, parkour, and hand fighting. The show is called “Double Tranchant,” which means “Double-Edged.”

Becoming a stuntman has long appealed to Enzo because of the athleticism it takes and the versatility of tasks. There is never an opportunity to get bored, though boredom doesn’t seem to be a word in his vocabluary. The following is a list of just some of the sports he does or has done: volleyball, rock climbing, tennis, badminton, rugby, football (soccer), boxing, running, swimming, chase tag, and parkour. This last one he still practices regularly.

Enzo first tried parkour at the age of 17. “You are going to break your leg,” was Enzo’s first reaction watching his friend run through the city and soar over obstacles with flair. By the end of the year, however, this friend convinced him to go to a parkour gym. Enzo remembers getting really excited about the sport. “Oh, let’s go, we can do anything we want.” In just two hours, he learned to do his first solo back flip. “At this moment, I knew I wanted to do that for the rest of my life.” He’s competed several times and won a few competitions. On top of that, parkour lends itself perfectly to stunt work.

One of Enzo’s goals is to get to know not just the basics of many sports, but also reach a proficient level in all of them. “I think I’m a little bit crazy,” Enzo laughed. “Just a little.” But Enzo stressed that when he’s at work, when he’s doing something where he has to really concentrate, he is doing it as safely and professionally as he can. He finds motivation in his desire to improve, and in his friends and family. “I want to do my best to make them proud of me.”

So what does someone who will throw themselves off buildings and light themselves on fire fear?

“Death,” Enzo says. “Because I don’t want to die. I can’t imagine being dead tomorrow. I want to do so many things, so it scares me a lot. So I see the limit and don’t push too far. Do not do what you think you’ll really risk your body or life doing.”

Regarding where he finds his inspiration, he says: “I have inspiration in myself. I’m always inspired. I have so many ideas in my head, I can’t do all of them.” Within him is also the need to be constantly active. When he’s just walking he’ll randomly get the impulse to break into a sprint or do a back flip.

A love for competing burns through Enzo’s veins. His perseverance, which he names as one of the core traits of his personality, has led him to much success. In 2021, he became a part of a chase tag team called Team Brocos. Chase tag consists of a Chaser and an Evader inside a 12m x 12m square (about 39 square feet) filled with various obstacles. The Chaser has 20 seconds to tag the Evader with their hand. If they are unsuccessful, the Evader gets a point. Even though it was their first competition, the local Le Mans team was victorious at the France championships of chase tag, and went on to compete in Belgium, Sweden, and other cities in France. While some of the members have changed since 2021, the new team, now called the West Coast Family, qualified to compete in the championships at TwitchCon, an international gaming convention and festival to be held in Paris the weekend of July 7.

Enzo recalls a trip he took with friends and teammates during high school for a “course d’orientation” competition. Known as “orienteering” in English, this team sport requires using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and unfamiliar terrain. The goal is to be the fastest. On the way to the competition, the teacher spoke to the students with words that moved and motivated them. “It was like a movie scene,” Enzo says. “I remember this because I now understood in movies how you feel when the coach is telling you to do your best but have a good time at the same time. It pushed me to do the best with my team.”

Enzo finished third on the first day during the individual portion, the only one from his school on the podium and the only one who was not practicing the sport in a club. “I was very proud of myself at that moment,” Enzo says.

His team went on to win the night session during the three-day challenge. Enzo had come up with a strategy, and thanks to his leadership, the inspiring words from their teacher, and the team’s motivation, they finished five minutes ahead of the group that came in second.

Enzo’s competitive spirit led him to auditioning for and competing in season 5 of Ninja Warrior France in 2021, which took place in Cannes. Enzo did the obstacles dressed as Santa Claus, as the show aired at Christmas time.

What feeling do all these sports give him? “The feeling of being a beginner,” Enzo says. “You have so much to learn that you can’t be bored in learning something because there are just too many things. If you’re bored, you can just change and do something else. It is a “boucle éternalle (eternal loop), pushing yourself to the top every time.” And the best feeling in the world? “There are two,” says Enzo, “Winning something when you’re not expecting it, and winning with mates, and giving smiles to other people. Where I work, there are many children, looking at us with stars in their eyes, and that’s cool.”

Enzo has also had some success on Tiktok, with several of his videos going viral, one reaching over seven million views. Part of how he spent Covid-related confinement in France in 2020 was making videos. In 2022, he posted one video per day in which he did a backflip for 365 days straight. He says it kept him motivated to practice his ability and create. “It was a lot of work,” he added. “Social media, in general, is a waste of time. I really like to create, but I want to do things in real life, not for videos.”

Though it doesn’t sound like Enzo has time for anything outside of his dedication to sports, he can also play the piano, guitar, and ukulele, as well as sing. One of his more unexpected passions is finding trèfles à quatre feuilles (four leaf clovers). Even in this he has had much success, posting videos in which he has found handfuls of them. Maybe the luck from the clovers is why he’s been able to practice these dangerous sports with no serious injuries.

One of the most important lessons life has taught him is to be patient. “Learning something really takes a lot of time, in sports or in your life. Nothing can be perfected the moment you discover it. You really need to be patient, but do your best every time. Glory can’t come in your hands without this.”

For his future plans, Enzo dreams of becoming an actor stuntman, but says he’s very far from this objective. He wants to be in a big film, first as a stuntman and then maybe as an actor. With all he has accomplished it’s hard to imagine this goal is out of his reach.

If you are feeling down, unmotivated, or bored, watch a few of Enzo’s videos on Instagram or Tiktok. They are sure to put a smile on your face. His joie de vivre and spirit of youth and goofiness are impossible to miss. It is clear that while he takes his training and goals seriously, life, is another story. After all, when the world is your playground, you can’t help but have fun.