The Commons

A conversation with Ezra Schroer (@ezzyschroer), written by Egg Klickstein (@klickstein)

Egg: Congratulations on all of your hard work, this project is really something to be proud of. As a mover who seems to really prioritize play, how did it feel to work on such a focused project with dedicated filmmakers?

Ezra: Well, for me, the best part about it was that I didn’t have to be working a job for most of the filming. The Commons was able to make that possible. I was really able to have a clearer mind. I wouldn’t have to train and then go to work and then be in work mode. I finally had a space of time where I was really dedicated to only training. I was around people who pushed me and motivated me. So it was just a really perfect dynamic, especially out there in Philly. I remember Josh Miller saying to me “Like damn, I don’t know what the fuck I would do for a part that sounds like super hard to film for.” And I remember kind of being like “Yeah I don’t know what the fuck I’m gonna do either.” But, you know, you just go out and you get clips, and it’ll work out. Most of the time, I wouldn’t go out with like a specific challenge in mind. I would just go out and see what we’d find. And I guess that’s kind of like a playful aspect to the approach of training. I think there was only like, three, four clips that I had planned before doing them. I think a lot of times, I would say that I feel like my body does more parkour than I do. And so like a lot of the shapes I create happen more naturally than me trying to create a specific thing. There would definitely be times when I’d be trying a line multiple times, and then it ended up changing from its original intent. And there’s some like the clip when I’m in the subway tunnel. That was pure playfulness. I just wanted to go in circles. Like I had no thought in my head right there.

Ezzy playing in the tunnel

Egg: Can you talk a bit about your headspace and mindset while filming? Like you’re saying, you were maintaining that playfulness, and not trying to have too much forethought around what you’re gonna go do. But when you were out, and you started working on stuff, did you feel like you were more focused than you usually are?

Ezra: Yeah, definitely. Just from day one of filming to like two weeks in, I progressed so much, because I was putting so much extra time and attention towards movement. I was moving at a more consistently high level and I got way more comfortable doing harder stuff. I felt like it was work in the best way possible. Obviously it wasn’t really work, but it was like, “I’m gonna come out, I’m gonna put in the work.” Having the Commons reach out to me to film this project with Noah and Ethan and all the homies was really special, it was like my dream come true. So I was like, this is an opportunity that might not happen again, I got to do the most that I can. It was just so much fun.

Egg: So you’d say it was pretty different than your typical day to day training,

Ezzy: For sure, it was definitely a lot more like “we’re gonna go out there and do this.” We just did that back to back every day. It was just the perfect group to push it with. With Chris, Ritto, and Marquis, it was just kind of nonstop for the first week and a half in Philly. It was a really good dynamic. It was also different filming with Noah because Noah would often want me to do certain things because of the way a spot was. He’d want me to do something that maybe I wouldn’t normally do or maybe even use a spot that I normally wouldn’t use. That was really cool because it made me appreciate different parts of the city and parts of spots. It helped me get out of my comfort zone a bit. Also sometimes I would have to do things more times than I usually would do them to get the right angle and stuff. And I think that was good, you know, helping me be able to stay consistent.

Ezzy chilling in Philly

Egg: With that all being said, how do you find you conceptualize moving toward bigger goals within training, particularly in the context of this video part? There are certain moments that stand out to me where you are clearly pushing hard. With that process of just going out and seeing what kind of speaks to you, what led you toward the stuff where you were really pushing?

Ezra: Like with my ender, first or second day in Philly, I saw it and I knew that was it. It took about a week. I would go to it every other day and just look at it. Like one day, I almost wanted to do it in the rain, because I was feeling it so hard. So yeah, it was like a week of thought before that one. I’d say having that time to just keep going out and keep pushing made it a lot easier to push myself for those more difficult tricks. Also this being my first big project like this, filming with legends like Noah. I’ve just looked up to his video production since I was a little kid, so I felt like I had to represent myself. I wanted to really make sure that I could look back on the video and feel like I did good. I tried to find a balance between really pushing myself and being in control because I didn’t want to get hurt and then not be able to keep filming. I found a line of balance between being in my comfort zone and taking steps forward.

Ezzy on a ledge after stomping his ender

Egg: Speaking of your ender, one thing I was curious about is that the bulk of the movement in this video feels like movement that only you would think to do. It seemed to come out of that headspace of going out with no expectations and just seeing what speaks to you. In contrast, your ender really stood out to me not just because it was insane, but also because it felt like a trick that I could see other people thinking of doing. I would love to hear more about what led you to that specific trick.

Ezra: Way back in my Arkansas days, I would see Nate Weston starting to hit gainer pres. I thought it was so gangster and I really wanted to be able to do them. I would practice them in the gym a lot. And then when I moved to Portland, I started bringing them outside of the gym. I’ve actually hit the one that I saw Nate Weston do in Seattle. I’m proud of that one, I’m way smaller than Nate so it’s way bigger for me. Over time I kind of figured out the technique, which is to like, set yourself on your back in the air. Like you’re laying on the top of a table above the thing you’re trying to land on, which is just super fucked. It feels like I have to think about it more like a standing pre rather than a flip. I’ve done a bunch where it’s to a wider ledge kind of high up on the landing, or a thin ledge that’s pretty close to the ground. I knew that I wanted to do one higher up with a pretty hench stick, and I was like, fuck, that one would be so crazy to stick. I feel like if people were to do this one, not many people would really try to stick it out. There’s definitely people out there who could, but I think that normally people would just try to hit it. So I was like, if I can stick it this shit is gonna go the fuck off. The spot was just perfect. I’d stand up there and fully know I could do it. That’s what I felt like every time I stood up there. Like for that week, I would come back and look at it almost every day because it was a short walk from Chris and Ritto’s. So I could go there and pray to the spot, give it my condolences. The day I did it, I’d prep it off the wall onto a t shirt and never miss. I think on the first attempt, my chest was very low, and I almost hit my face. On another attempt I bounced it really hard. I hit my back really hard on the wall behind me. It looked pretty gangster.

Egg: Kind of connected to this, I wanted to ask about training in new places. I’ve thought of you as a bit of a parkour nomad for a while, with all the places you’ve lived and the trips you’ve taken. I’m curious what all the traveling and exploring new places does for your training.

Ezra: It’s changed me a lot because back in Arkansas I didn’t have a bunch of people to train with. No one directly in my city. So I spent most of my time training solo and I would still train every day. I’d found pretty much every spot around there. I would just bike around, and I would want to do every jump at every spot. It didn’t matter if it was small or if it was big, I just had to check them all off. It was like, “I haven’t done this exact gap between this wall and that wall. Let’s fucking go. That’s a new one.” So when I started traveling, going to all these spots I hadn’t been to, and seeing all the jumps that I hadn’t done, I was so excited to do all of them. When I moved to Portland, solo training was extinguished for me because I all of a sudden had a community all around me. I’d be training with four plus people every day. There’s like infinite spots there compared to Arkansas. I stopped feeling like I had to do every jump at the spot, I guess. I kind of transitioned more to thinking about challenges people hadn’t done yet. Traveling to film is so good. It’s such a different approach from when I was in Arkansas. It’s more about trying to find what my body can do at a given spot. How I can fit in each corner of the spot? A lot of times, I’ll look at like smaller areas, instead of the bigger area.

Egg: When you do get to travel for filming and go to new places, does it feel easier to go out with no intentions? To look at spots like it’s a blank canvas? If you haven’t done anything at a spot, is it a little easier to just find the stuff that calls to you?

Ezra: I feel like filming with Noah is what made that easier for me. When I’m with Noah, we have like a limited time and I know that Noah is going to make anything I do look so cool, even if it’s not the coolest thing I can do. So if I just get out there and I use that time wisely, then we’re gonna produce. I think I did kind of fall in love with traveling and never going back to the same spot. Especially when I first moved to Colorado, I would just go to a new spot every day. It’s so cool seeing new walls every day, especially when there’s some historic spots mixed into it. It kind of feels like you’re on a constant tour, you know?

Egg: I feel like you’re really solid at leaving your mark on known spots.

Ezra: That’s just the little parkour nerd in me. Growing up in Arkansas, watching every video and commenting on every post. I just get so hyped to play my part.

Egg: Shifting gears a little bit, can you walk me through the title, and how it relates to your perspective on training and life in general?

Ezra: Yeah, the title really came to me when I did the a-twist hyper gap to dive cart twist. I had never done like an a-twist gap that high up. I knew if I did an a-twist I would land on the box, chillin. It wasn’t like a pre. But I was having trouble getting myself to just go over that drop. So when I was standing there, and trying to run up into it, I would visualize like a grid in space. And the only things on the grid were the tops of what I was taking off of and landing on, nothing else. They’re just floating on this grid, and there’s nothing else in between, nothing else going on, all I got to do is just get from one to the other. That really helped me conquer the fear, putting it into a different perspective like that to help me visualize it. It kind of felt like being in creative mode in a video game, when you are the creator or like the god. I also think that God is in each one of us. I think that Parkour is a spiritual act, especially in creative expression. So to me, I think it’s all mental. I think anything you tell yourself, you can do. Like, as long as you understand it and you know that you can do it. I feel like we can do a lot more than we think we can. I haven’t fully tested it, it’s definitely a fine line to walk, but I do kind of want to experiment with not prepping as much and approaching things with full understanding and complete commitment. Most of the time I play it pretty safe by prepping it out, but I feel like there is a faster way.

Ezzy in creative mode

Egg: How do you feel like this mindset sticks with you in other aspects of your life beyond training?

Ezra: In every aspect it sticks with me. I think the relationship between parkour and psychedelics is very interesting, because they both show you that you aren’t your body and that your body is just a vehicle. I wonder sometimes if the psychedelic experience is different for people who practice parkour. I notice that a lot of parkour people are also very in tune to living off the land. I think parkour could be an avenue to bring in a more natural way of living. It’s so primal in its root, and I think it can do a lot more than what we’ve done so far.

Egg: I will die on the hill that Parkour is inherently an anti-capitalist practice.

Ezra: There’s like so many aspects that I think parkour as a community could change about the way we live our lives, for the whole world. If we find a way to connect it all. I don’t even think it would be that hard. We just got to find more like minded people that are willing. 

Egg: What do you find movement does for your mind and your spirit?

Ezra: It’s like meditation in some aspects because you’re really clearing the mind from tasks and responsibilities. A lot of the time you can enter that flow state, where your actions aren’t thought out, and you’re just acting completely in the moment. It also expands your awareness of your body. I think it does a lot more for my spirit than I first realized. I’m trying to connect with that more these days. It really has fabricated my entire life. If I think about pretty much everything in my life, it’s because of parkour. Like 90% of the work I’ve done has been through people I met in parkour. All my friends basically are through parkour. Almost everywhere I’ve been to is because of parkour. You can trace back everything in my life except family to parkour. I feel like now I can step out of the passionate aspect. It’s set me up so perfectly that I don’t need to apply as much passion. I’m already where I need to be. I feel like I manifested living in Colorado when I was 15. It was a dream I had. It’s crazy being here.

Egg: Another thing I wanted to ask about is your interest in graffiti and tagging. I’m curious about what the similarities and differences are between these art forms, and how they inform each other for you.

Ezra: I hope the cops aren’t gonna read this, haha. I do get really inspired hearing what the graffiti writers talk about. They’re so motivated on destroying the spot, putting their name up everywhere. Putting it up real big if you got a lot of style. It’s that style aspect of graffiti that I don’t see in much else besides parkour. I really see a strong tie in the way they approach the style because they’re always stepping out of the boundaries and creating new boundaries. Really pushing the limits. They’re always trying to leave their name on a spot. I feel like the same thing is true with parkour, like you can make a spot yours in a sense with the legacy you’ve left there and the stuff you’ve done. Or even just like taking up part of the spot that’s never been used. It’s really so similar. Go bomb the spot with your moves or with paint. Fuck the system.

Egg: One last part of this that I’m still curious about is what the importance is to you of taking time to engage with other art forms.

Ezra: I feel like it’s super beneficial taking time to do other art forms if you are a parkour athlete, or a movement person. I don’t think I really realized just how much movement is an art when I first started, because it’s so physical. But it really is just an art form. You could say the body is a tool and the world is the medium. I think finding other avenues to express the creativity that we all have in us can help us find more creativity in our movement and expand our minds. I also just have so much fun drawing. It’s like you’re moving with the pen, you know? 

Egg: Does it feel nice to engage with an art form that doesn’t have as much of a physical burn out attached to it? 

Ezra: It honestly reminds me of when I first started kendama. I was like “dude this is parkour, but I can try all this shit without messing my body up.” Drawing to me feels more like I’m channeling an energy directly. I’m going in without any intention, and I’m connecting with the creative energy from my spirit. I think everyone who does movement should explore other art forms, because they’re gonna find that in many ways it’s all the same thing. 

Egg: Starting to wrap things up, I want to ask about what your goals and motivations are after finishing this video. 

Ezra: I’m retired! Nah just joking. I definitely want to keep working on projects with Vocz and Beans and Toasty. I feel like I have three families. Actually four, with the Philly guys. I kind of want to keep hopping back and forth between those families, creating stuff together. I hope that I’ll have another opportunity to film a solo part. I am really proud of this video, but when I look back on these clips I already feel like I’m capable of more. That’s just how it goes, you know, it means you’re on the right track. I’m not trying to really put myself out there as much at the moment, prioritizing some time to myself. 

Egg: To close things off, do you have any fun stories from behind the scenes filming for this project? 

Ezzy sliding down a hand rail in New York

Ezra: There’s this down rail to bio six I did in New York that has funny story behind it. It’s a little hard to see from the angle, but it’s a really steep rail. I was gonna do it at this other stoop that had a tree above it that left a bunch of dust on the rail, it was so perfect to slide. I was working up to doing it from the top and then this lady came out like “what the fuck are you guys doing, why are you on my house, you need to leave.” So we dipped to a different spot and tried coming back later. Soon as I start prepping she comes back out yelling a bunch and says “I’m gonna go get the hose!” And we’re just like “Let’s get the fuck out of here.” I didn’t want to find out what she meant by that. Ended up walking a few blocks and finding a really similar spot, just without the tree dust. It did not slide as well but we still got it done.

Egg: Anything else you want to say before we sign off?

Ezra: In general just shout out Noah, for being such a good friend. Always bringing good energy, making me smile, and being such a pure human being. Love that guy. Also a big thank you to David and Alec for making this possible. And Chris and Ritto for housing me in Philly and making me feel at home in a place I had never been.