MADMACS PYRO PAGE

MADMACS PYRO PAGE

Welcome to my Pyro Page. I’ve been involved in professional pyrotechnics since 1990.

Growing up in St. Louis I always loved FIREWORKS! My parents would take me to Jefferson County, Missouri to get my fireworks. As with most young boys, firecrackers and parachutes were a couple of my favorites. Even as a kid, after I shot my parachute I would take apart fire cracker s, break apart sparklers, and any other fireworks I had, and try to make my own aerial shells. I never dreamed I would actually have the opportunity to work in the professional industry and actually fire the big stuff someday.

The story of how I got involved in pyrotechnics is really quite unusual. I was taking courses at Drury University in Springfield Missouri, where my wife was teaching. I was a lab assistant in the Biology department and driving a school van for a groundwater (cave) workshop. The instructor for the course, was a passenger in my van and we somehow began talking about fireworks. It turned out he was the “Pyro” for our local display, “Concert in the Sky” (a pyrotechnic display choreographed to live music featuring fireworks from Austin Pyrotechnics and the music of the Springfield Symphony). (I must back up for a moment. In addition to two degrees in Biology I also have a degree in electronic technology.) As we talked, the Professor asked me if I would be interested in joining his crew, helping with general display set up and wiring (the show is, of course, fired electronically). The rest is history.

What follows are some pictures from Springfield's Concert in the Sky, a "concert in the Sky" sponsored by James River Assembly of God (a display choreographed to Christian music), and various other displays with which I’ve been involved. In many of the pictures are some of the other “pyros” I’ve worked with over the years and am PROUD to call my friends.

Just click on the picture to view it in a larger format. Enjoy!!

(This page is currently being updated, 12/23/00, and some of the new picture links are not yet in).