Artist Profile: The Life and Times of ‘Jacques Ze Whipper’

It seems like Jack A. Lepiarz can do anything.

Become a radio anchor and producer for an NPR radio station? Easy. Set the Guinness World Record for the most bullwhip cracks in one minute? He did it three times in a row. Brandish flaming whips at Renaissance fairs with a drawn-on mustache and a bad French accent? He went viral, gained over three million followers on social media, and split a dry strand of spaghetti between Simon Cowell’s legs on America’s Got Talent.

Known by his stage name “Jack the Whipper,” — alternatively spelled “Jacques Ze Whipper” if he’s feeling fancy — there is one thing that Lepiarz cannot do: He just can’t seem to run away from the circus.

With an anthropology professor for a mother and a professional circus performer for a father, Lepiarz had an unusual childhood.

“I would split time kind of between being on the road and being at the circus,” Lepiarz said.

His father worked as a clown and variety performer in the Big Apple Circus before switching to the Renaissance circuit, the collection of old-timey fairs that pepper the U.S., blending medieval and renaissance fashions with fantasy.

It helped Lepiarz get accustomed to life on the road. When he was in fourth grade, for instance, Lepiarz missed a month of school when his dad was working in Taiwan and Vancouver.

“And apparently I don’t fully remember this, but my dad says I learned multiplication on the flight back from Taiwan,” Lepiarz said, with a laugh.

It wasn’t love at first sight for Lepiarz, who recounted that he had a complicated relationship with circus performance as a child.

“When I was a kid, I didn’t want to do circus, because where I grew up, I was the circus kid. I was kind of an outcast in high school,” Lepiarz said.

And so, after being accepted into Emerson College, Lepiarz decided to pursue a more conventional path.

“I wanted to do a career that I felt like people respected, and that was either being a writer or being an actor,” he said. “I felt like journalism, especially broadcast journalism, you combine both of those things and there’s a writing aspect, but there’s still a performance aspect.”

Lepiarz worked at WERS Emerson College Radio, with an interesting side job: A fellow Emerson student invited Lepiarz to do street performances with him. Lepiarz began his whipping career by performing in the pit by Harvard’s T Station, using the circus skills he’d learned from his father to astound passing pedestrians and frighten away the vicious Harvard pigeons — rumored to be more aggressive than the tourists.

“We just went out and started doing shows and I was like, well, this makes more money than working a Cold Stone,” Lepiarz said.

In addition to working at Ren Faires, Lepiarz also launched a YouTube channel which, in addition to his usual whipping activities, features a 12-part series entitled “A Dramatic Reading of My Immortal.” Considered to be one of the worst works of fanfiction ever written, “My Immortal” was performed by Lepiarz in a luxurious black wig and dark eyeliner.

During the pandemic, Lepiarz set his sights on a somewhat ambitious goal: the Guinness World Record for the most bullwhip cracks in one minute.

“I knew I had trained enough when I looked up Chris Evans’s weight in the first Captain America movie and was like, oh, I’m the exact same thing,” Lepiarz said. In 2020, he reached 298 whip cracks in 60 seconds. That record remains unbeaten.

In late September 2021, a longtime fan came to Lepiarz’s show at King Richard’s Faire, filming a short clip of Lepiarz singing “Welcome to the Secret Show” — a parody of Bo Burnham’s “Welcome to the Internet.” Dressed in a navy blue vest with silver swirls, purple pants with a yellow accent stripe, and a dashing red sash, Lepiarz was certainly a distinctive figure. The fan posted the video, which gained 300,000 views in a couple of days. Another fan came back, and the next, posting clips that both garnered over two million views.

After deciding to post his own videos on TikTok, it took ten days for Lepiarz to blow past the follower count needed to monetize himself on the app. It took three and a half months for him to hit a million followers.

“And I was like, okay, alright, this is a thing!” Lepiarz said with easy confidence.

All that year Lepiarz was working two jobs, but his virality prompted him to think about switching from being an NPR radio anchor to the circus full-time.

“I wasn’t leaving to become a TikTok star,” Lepiarz clarified. “I was leaving to become a circus performer.”

At least, that’s how Lepiarz attempted to justify his decision to his brother.

According to Lepiarz, his brother responded, “‘I can’t believe that you’re leaving NPR to become’ — and there were some expletives thrown in there — ‘to become an influencer. And that I think this is a good idea.’”

Lepiarz is now two years into his work, finishing his second full season of the Renaissance fair circuit. He’s thinking about the new material he’ll use next year, what new venues he’ll perform at, and the changes he’ll make to his usual script. He currently has two different shows, and a third on the way.

Lepiarz’s dad had helped him create the persona, and was the one who suggested the now-iconic French accent.

“I think the character for the most part is just myself dialed up to 11,” Lepiarz said.

He took inspiration from the ways various performers interact with their audience when crafting his own onstage persona.

“There was one year I was watching a bunch of Eddie Izzard and I suddenly found myself starting to move like her onstage,” Lepiarz said. “Just that slight, you know, prancing about.”

The Renaissance fair setting influences his scripts and the dynamic he hopes to achieve onstage.

“With the Renaissance fair it’s a very unique performance space, because there’s no fourth wall: You can see the audience, the audience can see you,” Lepiarz said.

He added that performing at ren faires is also the closest to street performing, albeit with the snark and in-your-face attitude dialed down.

As an entertainer, his job description is certainly much more light-hearted than when he was a reporter — Lepiarz simply wants to make people happy.

“My role before was to inform people, and now my role is to entertain people and give people an escape from the stress of the world,” he said. “And try to do a little bit of good in the process, as well.”

Lepiarz never did manage to run away from the circus, but what a wonderful thing that is for those who have come across his work.

—Staff writer Laura B. Martens can be reached at laura.martens@thecrimson.com