Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts says he’s looking forward to meeting fans at Victoria’s Capital City Comic Con but please don’t ask him where the snake is. Roberts is most famously known for using a snake in the ring to throw off opponents and inevitably win matches during his WWE days.
“I’m terrified of snakes, I’m scared to death of them,” says Roberts. “I was smoking pot and drinking beer when I came up with that idea — it worked, but there were enough zeros on my contract that I could forget about it.”
While the snake won’t be making an appearance at Comic Con, Roberts did his fair share of travelling with them and says he never worried about a Snakes on a Plane situation happening, even going so far as to stash a king cobra above his seat without anyone knowing.
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Roberts spent a year in 1976 wrestling in British Columbia and says he has particularly fond memories of Sooke but sadly won’t be able to make it out there during this trip.
“At this point in my life, I don’t like to go to places unless I’m sharing it with somebody,” says Roberts. “That was always the problem on the road, it’s not much fun going to these places by yourself.”
Robert’s girlfriend Anne will be staying home to care for some expecting mothers.
“She’s expecting some goat births — she raises goats and elk — and she’s expecting like nine goats to come through this week,” says Roberts.
Leaving his second stint in the WWE in 1997, Roberts says new fans are born everyday thanks to the internet.
“It’s just so great to come and meet the fans and give back a little bit because they were there for me when I wasn’t there for me.” says Roberts. “When I had already given up on myself they were there still cheering me on and that’s pretty incredible.”
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Having dealt with and overcome drug and alcohol addiction, Roberts uses events like these to connect to old and new fans to help encourage them to never give up.
“Shame is a big monster, it really hurts a lot of people,” he says. “What you have to realize is shame is something you put on yourself … to let your mind do that to you [and to overcome it] it takes a lot of work, but the biggest message is never give up.”
Roberts is heading home to gear up and take off again for Wrestlemania in New York after Comic Con, but says he’s really looking forward to reminiscing with fans about the old wrestling days.
“To get to hear about those moments and you look in their eyes and you can see them light up — you know they’re going back and it’s just an incredible moment,” he says. “To watch the joy of that particular moment come back to them.”
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Roberts will be live on stage on Friday, March 22 starting at 4 p.m. at the Victoria Conference Centre. He will be signing autographs priced $30 for one, $50 for two or $70 for three, and $20 for table photos.
Other celebrity appearances include Dan Fogler, who played Jacob Kowalski in J.K Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Malcolm McDowell, who played Alex in A Clockwork Orange, and Skeet Ulrich, who plays F.P. Jones, leader of the Southside Serpents in Riverdale.
