You’re welcome Alisa. Thank you for your website and those great reports on the omega seminars. I told him I’d read about Nine palms praying mantis on the internet (from your accounts of omega) and he said “Really, is it up there? It’s been featured in Black Belt magazine” ( Actually that Black Belt article on nine palms by Rob Moses is available to read on their website as well as some interviews with David.)

Anyway, to continue my report on meeting David at the London Expo last year, as we went into the dining area (it was a special dinner for fans to get to eat with the guests at the show - as well as David there was Walter Konig (Chekov from Star Trek), Kristine Sutherland, Herb Jefferson and a few others), David called over to me "Do you want to join us? You seem so good at talking!" I think he was impressed at how many questions I was firing at him on the way up. So I actually got to sit next to him at the dinner which was a huge thrill, obviously, after 15 years of avidly following his acting, writing and teaching. We were also joined by Jay Habakangas who was accompanying him on the trip and whom I got to talk to later.

My first question to David was “Are you ever going to act on stage again? I’d love to have seen Royal Hunt of the Sun or Black Elk speaks.” His reply “So many different things and circumstances have to come together for that to happen. Black Elk has been done with another actor, but I’ve never been able to do it.”

Me: Do you have a favourite between the first and second Kung Fu series?

David: (slight pause) No

Me: Do you have any favourite episodes from the series?

David: I liked the one with Jodie Foster (Alethea). She was remarkable. It was all about the meaning of truth and honesty. Anything with children was special. The two-parter with Barbara set in the temple. We were breaking up at the time but we managed to get it back for this. The one with Sondra Locke. I can’t remember if I told that story in Endless Highway. You got Endless Highway?

Me: Yes, though I haven’t read it as many times as I’ve read The Spirit of Shaolin.

David: Spirit of Shaolin’s an easier read - two, three page chapters.

Me: I only got it a lot later. It was only when I hit the internet that I found out about it. Unfortunately I missed the chance to hear that story about Sondra Locke. I’ve only read Endless Highway once, though I loved the book, but I’ve read Spirit of Shaolin so many times I can’t remember. It’s my favourite book.

The food started coming round and the starter was a seafood dish. I handed mine back to the waiter explaining that I was vegetarian.

Me: I’m vegetarian. Like Caine.

David: I don’t have any religious restrictions on what I eat.

Me: It’s not religious for me - It’s ethical - there’s a difference. That’s the whole idea I got from your book; that you need to have a spontaneous approach and religions are too wrapped up in dogma to be an accurate guide to the cosmos.

David: (smiling) Religions are sort of like Star Wars.

David and Jay started talking to each other and a woman sitting opposite remarked, “You two have similar accents. You must come from the same place.”

David: Yeah - Earth.

Me: Do you think that Kwai Chang Caine is your greatest ever role?

David: No, no I don’t think so.

Me: You’ve played a lot of villains in your career - Lone Wolf McQuade, North and South - do you like those kind of roles?

David: It’s just whatever they ask me to do!

Me: I’ve got that LP you made in the seventies, Grasshopper.

David: I haven’t seen that in years, though I saw one today that someone brought in to get signed. It was never released in America. I couldn’t agree terms with the record company so in the end I just told them to go to hell.

Me: I’m also a big fan of your brother Keith - he’s incredible as an actor and also his music. And Robert - what a family!

David: And Mike, you left out Mike.

Me: I haven’t actually seen any of his films.

David: Oh, you probably have. Have you seen Magnolia? Or Jackie Brown? Valley Girl? He’s in those. His name is Michael Bowen.

Me: It’s interesting that the Caine character from The Legend Continues was the same as in the old series.

David: Yeah, so it’s either that this Kung Fu shit really works and this guy is 150 years old or that he’s the grandson of the old character.

Me: Have you any particular influences on your acting style?

David: My father.

Me: But he was really different though.<

David: Well, that’s one of the ways in which he influenced me!

Me: Have you a favourite director that you’ve worked for?

David: Hal Ashby. And Walter Hill is my favourite living director.

David started talking a little about nine palms praying mantis.

David: The moves aren’t so important. F*** the moves. That’s what we’re showing with nine palms.

Me: Yes, but you get a certain sensitivity from the moves - there’s just something about the moves...

David: Uh -huh

It’s funny that I actually said that to David. The idea that Kung Fu moves contain a metaphorical wisdom is an idea I picked up from him.

Me: I liked the Kung Fu 3D that came out on the internet. Will you be doing any more of them?

David: I don’t think so - it was dull!

Me: The story wasn’t very good but they got the feel of the show.

David: (scornfully) That was there anyway - it was dull!

Clearly David doesn’t mince his words when he has an opinion about something.

Me: You visited the real Shaolin temple.

David: Yeah, I finally got around to it. It should be called the Shaolin monastery. There’s a lot of tourism there now. I had a talk with the abbot. I started asking someone about Taoism and he said ‘oh no, we’re Buddhists here’ and I thought ‘F***.’"

Me: I suppose that’s exactly the type of sectarianism we’re trying to get away from with Kung Fu. I heard that the communists had f****** it up at Shaolin.

David: They’d have had a problem with Buddhism - the Kung Fu lineage is still intact - they’re 35th generation masters there.

Me: That film you did with Bergman is really dark.

David: Every Bergman film is dark! It’s probably not the sort of thing you could see more than twice.

Me: I really liked Americana, though I’ve never been able to see the other films that you've directed - You and Me or A Country Mile.

David: Hardly anyone’s seen A Country Mile.

Me: I quite liked the film you did with Scorsese, Boxcar Bertha, though it’s not really one of his most famous ones.

David: I liked it as well.

I continued by asking David if there was going to be any more Kung Fu.

David: Yeah, there should be. They’re planning to do a movie remake of the original.

Me: Why would they want to remake something that’s perfect?

David: They do don’t they! It would have to be done again to be put out as a theatrical release.

Me: Will there be another actor in the lead role?

David: Yeah - I can’t play a teenage disciple any more. I will have a role in it somewhere.

Me: As Master Po perhaps?

David: No, but I’ll have a role.

Me: It’s been really interesting following up that reading list at the back of Spirit of Shaolin - Carlos Castenada, Ouspensky, All Else Is Bondage, The Lord of the Rings (David smiled at that last reference). Did you include that because it’s about courage in adversity and the importance of sticking together?

David: There’s a lot more to the Lord of the Rings than that.

Me: Your writing style is really unique - with Spirit of Shaolin I just kept reading it and reading it - not because I was trying to learn any philosophy - but just because it’s so entertaining. You’ve inspired me to take up music and art and all the things you mention in the book.

David: Uh-huh

By this time I’d finally got something to eat. “Probably better than what I got,” said David, though actually it wasn’t - the food was very disappointing. At one stage Walter Konig stood up and gave a short speech thanking the organizers of the event. Later on Walter came over and had a long talk with David. In between all my questions David had been talking to Jay and the two of them went outside from time to time for a cigarette (what a shame that David smokes so much). At one point David started speaking in a Scottish accent, prompting the woman opposite to exclaim “ooh - you sound like Sean Connery. I like Sean Connery!”

I went on to ask David if he was happy with the way The Silent Flute turned out.

David: Yeah, it was pretty close to the original script.

Me: I thought the ending didn’t work so well.

David: The final fight was spoiled. The idea was that these two fighters were such masters that they couldn’t decide the fight and the whole thing was supposed to become psychedlic. That didn’t happen because the director couldn’t understand what we were doing.

Me: It’s not like a typical martial arts movie.

David: At the time there weren’t many martial arts movies.

Me: Bruce Lee’s stuff is so deep - he was a great philosopher as well as a fighter.

David: You think so?

Me: I like the fight you had with Chuck Norris in Lone Wolf McQuade.

David: Yeah, that was a good one.

Me: You fought using Northern Shaolin style in that.

David: Northern Shaolin and just fighting!

Me: You’ve always got that REBEL SPIRIT (making a fist).

David: It’s how I feel.

Me: It’s really inspiring.

I then returned to the subject of David’s original Sifu, Kam Yuen.

Me: Do you still train with Kam Yuen?

David: No, I now train with Rob Moses. Kam doesn’t do it anymore. He just teaches healing.

Me: I can’t believe he doesn’t teach Kung Fu anymore - he’s so good.

David: He’s passed it on. He’s still in shape, though. You’d expect he’d be dragging his ass!

Me: In the foreward to the second edition of the Spirit of Shaolin (it was reprinted in 1995 with a new foreward mentioning TLC and an expanded reading list) you sounded really pessimistic about the state of the modern world - with wars and starvation and environmental destruction. That was seven years ago. How do you view the world today?

David: I think it’s got worse.

After that David said goodbye and walked around, posing for photos with fans. I strolled into the open air area, said hello to Herb Jefferson and chatted a bit to other fans. I’d had an amazing time, getting to ask the grasshopper everything I wanted and I stood there awhile marveling at the experience. However, it wasn’t quite yet the end of our meeting that evening.

After the main dinner was over I headed back to the bar area to see what might be happening. I noticed David and jay were talking to each other and I went and got a cup of coffee. I overheard David mention “Martial Arts are really about freeing your spirit”.

After a while David went back to the piano and started playing some more. I went and sat nearby to listen better and Jay came over as well. David played for about fifteen minutes. At the end of playing he looked at the name on the piano and said “Yamaha - not bad for a motorcycle.”

Then he came over and sat near us. In between talking to Jay, I grabbed the chance to get in a few more questions.

Me: Did you base the character of Caine at all on Spock from Star Trek?

David: No - Spock was arrogant. Caine was actually based more on Stan Laurel.

Me: Did you get Bob Dylan to take up Kung Fu?

David: Yeah - though he later got into boxing.

Me: Is Americana allegorical?

David: It’s metaphorical - I hate allegory. I didn’t really look too closely into what the story meant, I just liked it.

Me: I like the song ‘Man’ that you sing in Cloud Dancer. It’s very philosophical.

David: Yeah , though I couldn’t record it how I wanted it.

Me: Did you do the aerobatic flying in that film for real?

David: Yeah - I learned it for the movie. I used to have someone come round to my house and take me out to do it.

Me: I also like the song ‘And then she smiled’ from your new CD.

David: You like that one? Yeah, that’s a good one - Tarantino said he liked that, played it over and over.

Eventually David got up and went to talk to Herb Jefferson. I talked a little to Jay, who told me how incredible it is to watch Cynthia Rothrock work out in person, and how she and David had just done a film in Spain. I told him how great it was for me to have met David - “There’s no-one else like him - he’s more than just an actor -he’s a teacher. Once the ideas in Spirit of Shaolin sink in it affects you forever.”

We talked a little about the website as I knew jay used to run it. Then it was over - I made my way back to my hotel, my head still buzzing from the experience.

The next day I went to the expo proper. There were plenty of stalls selling movie memorabilia and the actors were on one side of the hall signing autographs. By far the biggest queue was for Michelle Tractenberg and Kristine Sutherland from Buffy the Vampire Slayer which gives an idea how popular that show is. Anthony Daniels, c3po from Star Wars, also had quite a big queue. I got Walter Koenig’s autograph and then went over to where David and Jay were sitting. There were express instructions at the dinner not to ask the actors for autographs so I’d left that for today. We said hello again and I brought out all four of David’s books to get signed. I told him how great a read Endless Highway is, telling his unique life story and enthused about the quality of his tai chi and chi kung workouts. Finally we shook hands and I wished him luck on Kill Bill. On my copy of Endless Highway he wrote ‘You can fly Ashok’. Indeed I can.

Hope you all enjoyed this. It was a special experience for me and it’s been good to document it for other fans.