poetofthemonthintervmar

interview with

ROSS T. RUNFOLA

1) Being an award winning & nationally recognized attorney, professor, sport sociologist, performance artist &journalist sounds like a lot for one person to juggle. Do you ever find yourself struggling to maintain some sort of balance between them all? And how does your role of “maverick poet” fit into all of this?

       I don't find it difficult at all since I am incompetent and insipid in all these endeavors. People do not realize how easy it is to do a number of things if you do them all badly and set low expectations for yourself. There is a lot to be said about mediocrity.

        I have been asked that question a great deal.The only explaination of why I labor at multiple careers at the same time or leave a profession only to come back at another time is I have never been happy laboring at one job ,and , when a profession no longer gives me excitement I leave. Some of my critics have said I change carrers as easily as some people change clothes but I do not care what others think. I have always embraced the concept of Protean Man which is foreign to Western Culture-that is you labor at something until it no longer gives you pleasure. When a job no longer makes me happy I leave. I do not stay for the usual Western reasons to maintain a good salary, for example, or wait until a pension vests.

        I maintain a mental "balance" not a balance with different endeavors by being happy with everything I do at the moment.The one profession I always have derived pleasure from is being a college professor. College professors have so little to do that it is a nice transition to retirement.Show me a university professor who claims he/she is overworked and I will show you a lying sack of shit.We have an educational system that all all levels is more an influential purveyor of dominant cultural values than an instrument to foster creativity, and a questioning attitude. I have a great time encouraging the debunking of education by encouraging open dialogue and heretical minds which leads to critical reflection, and, most importantly, an appreciation of diversity in any form. Sort of the anti- Bush.
                  My work in sociology got me involved in the Sociology of Sport and journalism. Most sociology departments did not accept sport sociologist willingly since academia has always been reluctant to study the mind-body dichotomy. Since we are a sports crazy culture and sociology is primarily concerned with what people are doing ; I argue that sports are more important than religion. Marx's maxim now should be Sports -not religion is the opiate of the masses. As a microcosm of society sports is a mirror of violence, drug taking, corporate control, media failure, sexism and racism in the larger society.

               This labor of love led me into journalism. I was offered a job at a major American newspaper whose editor saw my work.I turned down a good job at a good salary because they wanted me top cover sports teams and I wanted to investigate the problems such as the unethical college recruiting that was just uncovered at the University of Colorado. Instead I took a job writing a weekly sports column,"The Irreverent Fan" for a weekly making $10 a week-but they gave me FREEDOM to write what I wanted.I was broke but happy. Eventually I did some sports writing for the New York Times and then was offered a job as a full time reporter for the Buffalo Courier Express covering hard news by the editor in chief who encouraged me to "fight" the other editors.I did but became increasingly disenchanted because of the gate keepers. I was too much of a maverick to be a reporter at a mainstream newspaper. My articles were largely killed or changed because they were too controversial or would upset advertisers or community leaders. When I no longer got the reporters adrenalin rush and realized mainstream media is not an agent for change. I decided to become a lawyer.

              Now that is really being a stupid ass -to think the judicial system was anything but a pit for the poor and people of color to be swallowed by.I think I set a record for being threatened with contempt of court .I did as much as is acceptable in the courtroom but some judges would put pressure on me not to go to trial and settle. I resisted and tried a case for years sometimes without getting paid if I thought my client was getting screwed. I was happy fighting the good fight not only to help people but the arena of the courtroom had great drama.Lawyers I tried cases against started calling me Don Quixote but I said "Fuck them"-even with a shitty fact pattern I would most often win-not because I am so great but I NEVER gave up.NEVER. In addition to being a pit bull in the courtroom ,I did such things as fight the local bar association to get mediation accepted to help people not lawyers, told the chief judge of New York State that if promises to hire more minorities did not become a reality I was going to the media etc . This took a toll on my health . One of the things that got me through this horrible period was my discovery of poetry-where again I was labeled a "maverick."

2) I also understand you host a satirical TV show called “Ross Runfola: Man On The Street”. Could you tell us a little bit about that?

    I was asked to appear on a local comedy/interview show and the host was shocked at my off the edge behavior-challenging wrestlers to fight, making a ritual out of pinching the female co-host in the ass, dressing in different costumes where I actually became the character, telling an officious poet her work sucked etc.The director and the host asked if I would be interested in doing a show where I would pick an event or occassion and crash it and interview people with no preperation etc. I did it the first time and went to the local Allentown Art Festival where I screamed pretending someone stole my wallet, went to the stuffed animal booth and demanded animals to know where were the animals with private parts , had stuffed cats sniff each other, and went to the ceramics booth and asked how many plates I could break for $100 bucks since I had an anger problem. She said none so I started breaking plates. I am a charmer. I started going to other events such as the Barbie Doll Convention, a local Polish Market , a Motorcycle Convention of 1,500 bikers where I ask irreverent questions without smiling. Things can get tough if you ask a biker guy how many people he has killed but you never know. I got thrown out of the Shrine Circus for--drum roll--being mean to a clown and threatening to run over their little Shrine cars.

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