Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is set for one flaw. Introducing first, from another episode, Q&A with Koloff, the Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to another episode, Q&A, questions and answers with yours truly, Nikita Koloff, and so much fun to hear from you, you the listener, to be able to call you and let you ask me a handful of questions. And with me today, what an honor, what a privilege to have Dr. Simon Tarr with me today. Dr. Tarr, Simon, welcome to Q&A. Hello. Hello. Thanks for having me. Great to have you. Well, head of, or I should say, dean of the Honors College, as well as the School of Communications and Arts at Regent University.
That's right. Tell us about that. Tell us about what you're doing up there at Regent University. So I have the best job in the world. I get to be the chief academic of two schools at Regent University, which is a Christian university in southeastern Virginia, in Virginia Beach, that we're all, we're committed to lots of degree programs, but from the perspective that we're training Christian leaders to change the world.
It's about Christian leadership and changing, transforming the world. So I get to do that in the context of the Honors College, which is an undergraduate program for intense, high achieving undergraduate students who want to come to campus, but also the School of Communication and the Arts, which has undergraduate and graduate degrees in film and communication, journalism, theater, music, you name it. In those fields, we have those programs online and on campus. Online and on campus. So how many, how many on campus students, how many online students approximately?
Oh, that's it. So for the whole university, we're, we're edging toward 14,000, 15,000 students students online, online and on campus. It's a small, it's a beautiful small campus in Virginia Beach. And I would say on campus, I think it's closer to in, in the 2000 range, you know, our, our people in enrollment are maybe going to start sending me a telegram to let me know that I don't have, I should really have that memorized, I guess.
Come on. I mean, how come you don't know how many people we got up to college? It gives you a sense of the scale. Like it's a medium-sized university and yeah, but, but it's not so big that the, that you don't get the kind of personal attention from the faculty and you get that attention online and on campus. What's really interesting is that our, the way we design courses here is that we expect the experience of the class, whether you're online or on campus to be the same.
We design the courses to be the same level of rigor and connection with the faculty. And so it's really impressive. That's pretty amazing.
I know it's non-denominational people of all ages and backgrounds are attending or taking, taking courses as well. Right. And that's right. And so you specialize and you've always had a passion for it. I, you know, just looking at some of your history, 25 years as a professor, uh, before becoming Dean, but yeah, I mean, some pretty impressive schools like Penn State, Ithaca College, University of South Carolina.
And, um, yeah, I think you're like me, right? Like you started up north, but have kind of worked your way south. And I've been, I've been to the Carolinas longer than I've been anywhere else now. So I'm, I think I'm an officially a Carolinian at this point. Exactly. I'm a Carolinian at heart.
I spent my longest stint at the University of South Carolina, which is a fantastic school. Um, uh, and that's true. I've been, I've been a professor for a long time and now I'm, now I'm just a professor that organizes other professors.
Well, that's basically what a Dean does. Yeah. Okay.
Well, that's pretty cool. And, and of course you got a few letters behind your name. You educated me over on the Man Up show, uh, on what an MFA is. I, I, I do know at least know what a PhD is, but take a minute. Tell us about an MFA.
Sure. Well, so I have, uh, I have two, uh, graduate degrees. I got all these extra letters after my name. Uh, the MFA is the fine arts degree, a master of fine arts. So if you're, if you're pursuing the arts, that's the, that's the, the, uh, the ultimate degree that you can get. And so I have one of those in filmmaking. And so my, my personal art practice is in sort of a short form, poetic experimental, uh, media art making. That's not what most of my students have ever pursued.
And that's, that's fine. Everybody has their own calling, but that, that just happens to be mine. And, um, and then my PhD is in information science. I study and I'm interested in how, uh, how we, as people become, uh, really good at things.
How do we become experts at things? And so I put these things together and that's a lot of what I work on when I, uh, when I work with the faculty to design these fantastic programs. That's pretty cool. Well, you're one of the few guys I know that, that, that have letters before and after his name, just so you know, um, that I can say, I know personally, I've seen about, so, cause it's Dr. Simon Tarr, MFA PhD. So pretty impressive.
Pretty, pretty impressive. I can't, I can't fix anything. If you get sick, I can't do anything for anybody. I understand. I understand. So, well, let me ask you out of everything you've done, I'm going to really put you on the spot here out of everything you've done and even what you're doing, what's been one of the funnest things you've ever done.
Hmm. Well, honestly, uh, probably the most fun art I've ever done has been, uh, working, uh, working off Broadway, uh, in New York city. I would, I designed a lot of projections for some theatrical shows again, some of the, from the off, off Broadway, the really unusual work by, uh, by a group called talking band, which is the theater company in, uh, in lower Manhattan. And I got to do the projections design for a long theater run fascinating, uh, show called new Island archipelago, which is the story of a, uh, a bunch of people on a cruise ship whose dreams dreams start intruding on their real life until the ship sinks and they find themselves on the desert paradise. It's a very strange and wonderful play, uh, but being able to do filmmaking and artwork, uh, for the screen, but doing it live with actors, uh, you know, four nights a week, five, five shows a week.
It was, it was really, uh, it was so exciting, tough, really difficult, but a lot of fun. So it sounds like a very unique opportunity, uh, to say the least, uh, that's pretty, and, and I try to educate my girls and raising them up with, with the, uh, with the arts and entertainment. And that's, and by that means, you know, taking them to, to theater production, Broadway productions, ballets, orchestra concert, you know, different things.
And just cause I just want them to have a, a broader worldview and a broader experience. All right. Take a minute before we're going to segue here to questions you have for me, but before we do that, uh, take a minute and tell us about, uh, Jennifer and Casper. Oh, my wonderful family.
Those are the humans in my family. I got a couple of, uh, dogs too, but Jen is my wife of 26 years. She, uh, we met in graduate school and she is the, she's an amazing lady. She's, uh, talking more about, uh, life than, than anybody, uh, on this, on this planet, except for maybe my son Casper, who goes to the university of South Carolina, which is where we used to teach. Um, we, uh, it's his hometown basically.
So we, we moved to Virginia when I became a Dean at Regent, uh, we left him there. So he's, he's down representing us at the university of South Carolina, studying visual communication. Yeah. So is he kind, kind of fallen into the footsteps of dad or, or, You know, I warn him, I warn him not to, I think he's well, he's actually an exceptional athlete.
So I, who knows? He's, he's an amazing part of your life where you, you have a sense of direction and interest, but you don't really know where it's going to lead being in college. And so knowing, you know, knowing what you're good at.
So he's, you know, he's good at these sorts of, um, you know, visual aspects of communications, but he's also, uh, he's also this incredible athlete and has a real sense of athletics and sports. And so, you know, maybe that'll be a part of his world. I mean, I'm sure it will be a part of his world.
It never really leaves you. Um, but, uh, but who knows? He's, he's in this amazing liminal space where he's in between, in between worlds, which is one of the, probably the most exciting part about being in college. Oh, that's pretty cool.
That's pretty cool. So, all right. Well, it is Q and A with Koloff. So let's give you, and I have no clue what you might even ask me, Simon, but, uh, go ahead and, uh, let's, let's segue to your first question for me. Okay. I've got a few.
Um, but here's, here's the first one we've met. You're we're, we're close to the same age. You're in great shape. How, how has your regimen evolved and changed as you become more mature?
Is it more challenging to maintain a fitness regimen? What strategies do you use? How do you, how have you evolved that? Wow. I think, I think you're the, out of all the Q and A shows I've done, I think you're the first to actually ask me anything in regards to that. Um, so here we go. I just know that I'm having a tough time keeping pounds off and I don't know, maybe, maybe you've got the key.
Well, I don't know. I tell people this, I go like, like whenever I do, like, you know, I do a lot of men's conferences and of course I owned health clubs over the years and helped, you know, a lot of people with, with their fitness and eating and, and et cetera. And I've, I've, I've said this, I'm not an expert. I don't regard myself to be an expert, but it has been a 53 year experiment for me. Um, because that's how long I've been, been exercising, working out consistently and, and trying to my, to the best of my ability, stay on top of, of staying in shape.
Okay. And so, uh, really a great question and, and kind of in a nutshell, if I were to try to give you a condensed answer, uh, it's really a combination of, of, of consistency, uh, commitment and discipline, uh, and being willing to, or desiring to want to be healthy. I tell people this, figure out why you want to be healthy first, because if you can get that why, and it goes deep enough, then the how to will fall into place. Most people or many people, maybe I'll say many people try to do all the how to's and, and, you know, there it's a, it's a yo-yo it's, you know, it's a up and down back and, you know, they, they just consistently don't seem to be able to stick with it. And I'm convinced it's because they don't have a deep enough, why, why do I want to be healthy? So if I figure out the why, then the how to's, you know, I can learn and I have a better chance of, of, of maintaining consistency. Um, and, and, and then I'll say this too, on a very practical side, Simon, that it's a, I call it the, I call it the 80 20 rule. A lot of people again think, well, I'll just go in the gym, I'll do a treadmill an hour a day, or, you know, I'll do, you know, work out, you know, do the weights and all that. It's a combination, but it's 80, 20, 80%, your biggest struggle is probably what goes past your lips and controlling your portions, right?
Eating more than you should, eating later than you should, and then not eating the right things that you should. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. If you are a business owner and would like to advertise your company or product on the Man Up Show and or Q&A with Koloff, contact me directly, Nikita Koloff at koloff.net. The Man Up Show is honored to have Dr. Johnny Gaiton as one of our longest running supportive sponsors. Dr. Gaiton is regarded as one of the world's leading elite eye surgeons. He is motivated by his faith in doing all things heartily as unto the Lord. His desire to do his best has contributed to success in his eye care practice performing over 70,000 eye surgeries. In addition, he's a world renowned speaker, writer, and author.
Go to eyeassociates.com for more information. Nikita Koloff here and I am excited. Did you hear the huge announcement, the big announcement? Well, maybe it's a minor announcement.
Anyway, Facebook, go look up my new fan page, Nikita Koloff Fans, and like it and follow today. So in summary, I try to teach people portion control, you know, moderation, eat in moderation, eat more frequently throughout the day and eat balanced meals between proteins and carbs. You know, I believe God made all of it because he knew our bodies needed to be sustained with proteins and carbs and some healthy fats. So it's finding the right combination and it's an experiment because I can't give you a cookie cutter meal plan that's going to work for you and me. We got to figure out what works for you, what works for me, but on the very basic level, portion control, moderation, frequency of meals, and balancing that between proteins and carbs.
One is the gas, the other is the oil for your engine, for your body. And one gives you energy and the other sustains your muscles and all of that. And then implement some working out, right? It doesn't have to be a ton of exercise and it doesn't have to be a gym membership. I mean, it could be, I got a buddy who loves to swim now.
I got friends who love to just go bike riding around the lake or play tennis or, so it's really just kind of a combination of things. I could talk, I could do a whole entire show on that. Maybe one day I will. Yeah. But in a nutshell, that would be my response to, or my, my answer to that question.
Great question. All right. This is good.
This is helpful. So here's sort of staying in a, here's another question. This is, it's still kind of athletic. So you're a hall of famer. You've been the U S champion, a national champion, tag team champion. You've had all these championships. And here's my question as a, as a long time, a wrestling observer, the belts, do you get to keep a copy of the belt? Like the Stanley cup where it's like, everybody just, everyone shares one.
How does that work? That's a great question. In fact, I was just not long ago, I was up in Iowa, Waterloo, Iowa at the Dan Gable Museum and hall of fame for the 25 year anniversary, and, and inductions. They inducted AA, Arn Anderson into the hall of fame. I was up there with legendary Baron Von Roschke, the claw.
Wow. Jack Briscoe, excuse me, Jerry Briscoe. Jack had passed a while back, but Jerry Briscoe, the Briscoe brothers, and, and Tito Santana and, and Cowboy Bob Orton. Yeah.
There are a lot of legendary guys up there as well as some younger guys that were there as well. So, but all that to say, I'm getting sidetracked here to get, to get to your question. And, and so in those days I can only speak of my era, right? In those days, you know, that belt could change hands, obviously numerous different times. And so the short answer is no, you didn't get a replica or even get to keep, keep the belt because you might, you know, you might win it, but then six months later or six days later, you know, lose it to the next guy and now it's around his waist.
And so, yeah, it just interchange, it was interchangeable. And, and then at, at times, you know, they may produce a brand new belt or make a newer version of one. And who gets to keep that old one, you know, that most likely the promoter, like I know David Crockett, for example, I just recently learned he has the original, or I say the original, the world tag team belts that, that uncle Ivan and I, wore around our waist. David Crockett has those, he has those belts. Now I do have for the record, the belt I won in Chicago, Chi-town Heat, Starrcade, 1987.
I'll jog some listeners memories out there. I wrestled, I won't put you on the spot to see if you know who I wrestled. So I'll just tell you, no, Terry Taylor, Terry Taylor. So I was wrestling Terry Taylor. He was the UWF world TV champion. I was the NWA world TV champion. I took the belt off Tully Blanchard and we're unifying those two belts. Of course I won that.
I say, of course, but I won that night. So I won both belts and people say, well, how come you still, how, how were you able to keep that belt or what? I go, well, they never asked me for it. They never asked, Hey, give us that belt back. So, and I didn't voluntarily, voluntarily give it back either. I just went, well, I'll tuck it away, you know?
So I still have that original belt from 1987 in Chicago. So yeah. Oh, that's cool. Yeah.
Now, now let me say this too. Now I have friends who have since actually blessed me with replicas. They, they bought me a world TV title belt. They bought me a US heavyweight belt, you know, that Magnum and I wrestled over. Yeah.
So I have a number of replicas in addition to that original UWF TV belt. So kind of a cool thing. Yep.
Very cool. Yes, sir. All right. Well, so if you have time for another question, I have another one. Yes, absolutely. So if you, if you could go back to school and get another degree, if time was no object, if money was no object, what do you think it would be?
What would you want to study? Well, okay. There's the educator and Simon coming out just so you folks know here, the good doctor educators coming out of here. So, no, that's an interesting question. Cause so if I look back on my education, okay, full transparency here, Simon, I was not a fan of education in, in, in school, like elementary, junior high, senior high. I mean, I jokingly see, I didn't realize you actually needed grades to get into college till my senior year in high school. Right. I just thought I would do enough to, to get to pass, to be in those days, you had to have a certain grade level, a certain grade average to be eligible to play football, which was my passion.
Right. And so I didn't, I didn't try very hard in school. I joke and say, you know, math wasn't a strong suit of mine. You know, English wasn't, you know, recess was where I excelled.
Right. But all that to say, once I got into my junior year in college, I hunkered down and I applied myself, my junior and my senior college, because now I was studying something I was really interested in, which was physical education, the body, anatomy, physiology of exercise and, you know, coaching and all that sort of thing. And, and so, you know, I fortunately, some know, some don't know, I guess they'll have to go get, get the Ring of Redemption, my life story book, and find out that I graduated as an academic All-American my senior year. And at that time, I think I was only the third one in the history of Morehead State University to graduate as an academic All-American cum laude, which I had to go look up what that meant, Simon. So, but I graduated with honors and that's kind of a long-winded answer, but if I had to go back, I have since become a fan of history. I didn't really enjoy it or appreciate it back in my earlier education days, but now I'm fascinated by it.
So I guess I would say I would go back and study history because of how fascinated I am by it now. So, yeah. Well, especially when we keep living through it every year.
Yeah. And, and, and, and, you know, and, and with the walk with the Lord, you know, just the history of the Bible, the history of the Bible, you know, I had the opportunity to go over to Jordan and, and look at some three, 4,000 year old ruin, Roman ruins. I had the unique opportunity to tour Israel and be baptized in the Jordan River and, and walk the streets of Jerusalem that Jesus walked. And I mean, it's like, wow, talk about history and talk about fascinating. It was amazing. And so, yeah, that's, that is, you know, just a, a, a part of, part of what I would, would do if I had a do-over, if I went back to do it all over again. Sure would.
And, and Simon, let me just say this too. You'll appreciate this. I actually gradually with a teaching degree.
Oh, no kidding. I did in physical education, a minor in coaching and, and health. And, and, uh, now I never, I never went down that formal path cause the door of opportunity opened up for wrestling. Um, and so never looked back, but, but I feel like I've been teaching a good majority of my life, whether it was teaching people how to exercise, how to eat, uh, I homeschooled some of my children for a handful of years and, and loved it.
Actually loved it. I really enjoyed teaching my own children and homeschooling my own children. And so, um, yeah, it's been pretty, pretty amazing journey that I have had. And I appreciate you being a wrestling fan too.
Thank you. Oh, you know, ever since I was a kid, we, um, you know, my brother and I would watch every, every week. I, uh, I remember watching you and, uh, I mean, you're not that much older than me if I were probably closer to the finish, but I w and you know, we, I didn't get a chance to watch live as much as I would have wanted to, but, uh, but yeah, back in, back in the day when, uh, you know, when flare was champion and Hogan was champion, that was, yeah, that was my big, uh, entertainment on the weekend, watching that, uh, more than any other sport. Well, and, and for the record, I know you come from Pittsburgh, PA, uh, there's a, there's a legendary wrestling dude that happened to be well known in Pittsburgh by the name of, of Bruno Sammartino too. I know by the way, yes, Bruno Sammartino.
I do know that. So, all right, well, Dr. Simon Tarr, um, give us, I, if people want to learn more about Dr. Tarr, you have your own personal website. What is that? Your, my own website is a Tarr, T-A-R-R dot I-O. You can, you can see, uh, you can see almost all of my work for free right there. Short, short film.
Okay. And, uh, we didn't really dive into all that, but I encourage people go, go over to the man up show and you'll get the full story of, of Dr. Tarr. And so T-A-R-R dot I-O go check out some of his film work that by the way, just, just for the record has been viewed, uh, in film festivals on every continent, including Antarctica.
I'm gonna leave you hanging on that one, like a good wrestling show. We're out of time. We, we come back next week to find out what happened because you're going to go Antarctica.
Wait, Antarctica, wait, wait, what? So anyway, all right. And Regent University, what's its website? Well, Regent, that's R-E-G-E-N-T dot E-D-U.
Christian leadership can change the world. And if you've got any questions, I'm really easy to find on that website. Drop me a line. All right. Well, thank you, Dr. Simon Tarr, educator, artist, researcher, and a Dean of the Honors College as well as School of Communications and Arts at Regent University up in Virginia Beach, Virginia. So thanks so much for being on Q and A with Kolov today. Thank you. It's great to spend time with you.
Awesome. And thank all of you out there each and every week. You're so faithful to dial in and email me at kolov.net. If you want a personal phone call from the Russian nightmare and ask me some questions, go out today and live a God-filled and just have a God-blessed day. This podcast is made possible by the grace of God and your faithful prayers, support, and generous gifts. May God bless you for your continual contributions. Go to kolov.net and donate today.
Hi, Nikita Kolov. Be sure to check out The Man Up Show, now available on television, broadcast, and podcasts. Go to MorningStarTV.com or the Truth Radio Network. Check out your local listings or better yet, download the Truth Network app today. This is the Truth Network.
