I have a soft spot for rebels. Those who operate by their own rules. The ones that don’t take s#$% from nobody. Maybe we all do? It’s a tough, hardened world, fraught with repetition and the day-to-day. We all need to escape. And I think that’s what 8booth – aka Anthony Booth Armer – means to a lot of people. They escape through his escapdes of cliff jumping from ridiculous heights in state parks (like he did in Southern California’s Crystal Cove), or sneaking into hotels and jumping off roofs into impossibly small pools like he did in Laguna Beach. And now, he’s moved south of the border, to jump from hotel roofs in Mexico. At night. There’s something almost Robin Hoodish about the whole thing: Booth steals from the rich, using his life as currency and giving it to the poor, lonely souls who want to escape on Instagram. That’s been his MO.
But then he got kinda sloppy. Or his luck ran out. He gave into the media crush, granting interviews in full bandana as the heat was on him. I’m kind of a traditionalist when it comes to writing and reporting. I do my utmost to speak with subjects, but I could never quite touch base with Booth. Oh, I’ve spoken to him in brief tidbits over Instagram –which seems to be his favorite medium – and email. And through it all, I’ve come up with this: the guy’s running serious game that I don’t even know if he has control of.
He has some sort of bot working for him on Instagram, building his followers to massive numbers (his ridiculously watchable content is helping, too). He’s made some random statements in the media: “It’s all for the industry,” he told CBS (what industry, we’re not entirely sure although he has pushed a clothing line in his posts). He has several different Instagram accounts, and the 8booth account is nearing 300,000 followers (apparently, there’s a lot of people looking for a hero out there). But alas, this is how one builds a legend in the modern world. My recent request for an interview was answered thus: “Do we have each other on Instagram?”
Uh, yeah buddy, we do. It’s obviously a curious case. I’m having a tough time wondering where homeboy’s headspace is at. Here’s a transcript of our convos:
Me: Hey, Joe Carberry here. I did a story on your Laguna jumps. Could I possibly get an interview?
Booth: How much did they charge you to do a story on it?
Me: Ha! So you weren’t into it? Let’s do a better one. Saw a name used for you, Thomas Johnson. Nice. Where’d that outlet get the name? Also, did someone steal your ID? Stav @something or other said he was your manager?
Booth: No clue. Some grom in Phili(ppines) helping me out.
Me (later): Can we do an interview over email? I sent you a Q on Instagram.
Booth: How about we get one going after I drop my new clip, which is my best so far?
We’ve failed to connect. And Booth or Anthony is still up on trespassing charges in Orange County. But it’s almost better that I get to watch the show from afar. I feel like I’m waiting for it all to come crashing to an end. Booth is definitely creating a legend for the office bound, the pent up amongst us. Because it seems he’s living in a parallel world. Check the interview below with the television reporter. Still the only credible interview with him on the webosphere. He’s wearing his mask, talking in sometimes non-sensical code. Maybe he’s crazy? Maybe he’s ahead of his time? Maybe he’s just a dreamer? Or maybe I’m just one of the masses, rooting for him to keep sending pointless drops from unthinkable heights. It’s hard not to root for a rebel.
