(Here's the full, unedited version of what appeared online yesterday in West Newsmagazine! The photos are from that version, straight from Ceriotti's Reptile Experience website.)
If you saw ‘Serengeti Steve’ Ceriotti on a
pair of national reality shows, you might cringe like viewers experiencing
‘Fear Factor’ or ‘Stupid Human Tricks.’
However, if you attended one of his thousands of Reptile Experience
performances, Doctor Doolittle might more readily come to mind.
The Ballwin resident became a herpetologist
some 25 years ago. His initial prime duty
was extracting venom from snakes for cancer research. Since then, Ceriotti’s career has taken some interesting
twists and turns which includes raising and caring for some 200 species of
reptiles and arachnids.
But Steve is FAR more than simply a pet owner. He shares his passion by performing at parties, school and scout groups, at libraries, plus fairs and festivals throughout Missouri and Illinois to the tune of some 600 shows per year!
“I came up with what I thought was a crazy
idea because I had what you might call the entertainment bug, as I’ve always
been very outgoing and extroverted,” he said.
“Also, I felt like I needed to relay my education and information about
these animals that so many people are terrified of. I thought a neat way I could do it would be
to bring some of these animals to events.
I’m talking everything from alligators to big anacondas to you name
it. Before I knew it, I had so much
business! So, I got out of the venom
extraction business, started doing this full-time, and I’ve been busy as can be
from day one!”
Ceriotti’s prime moniker is a story in
itself. It began prior to a Channel 5 ‘Show
Me St. Louis’ interview. The show’s hostess asked for his stage name. But Ceriotti didn’t have one. She told him that he MUST have one.
“First, she threw out Safari Steve,”
Ceriotti said. “I was like, ‘I don’t
know. It doesn’t have much ring to it.’
Then she asked where a lot of the animals came from. I said that I do a lot from Africa, have some
Australian things, and everything else from the New World. So, she said, ‘What is that area from the
plains of Africa?’ I said, ‘Serengeti?’
She said, ‘There you go! Serengeti Steve!’
It was born literally at that moment!”
Check out some of his online videos to easily feel the passion, knowledge, comical flair and highly-memorable entertainment value of his public appearances.
Steve admits he’s done so many performances
at a variety of venues that it’s often difficult to recall specific ones. However,
there have been some truly unforgettable ones.
“One that sticks out in my head is actually a
sad story,” Steve said. “A lady called
wanting to know if I could bring just one of my alligators to a party. When I asked her what the party was for, she
said it was for her nephew who had cancer. This was so tragic. The kid wanted nothing more than to hold an
alligator. They told me Make a Wish could not make it happen. That’s when I
decided I was definitely going to be there!’”
With latter knowledge that the very young
Sunset Hills boy had terminal-stage leukemia, Steve adjusted other shows to
book that party.
“The kid was
beside himself that he got to hold what at that time was about a four-foot
alligator,” Ceriotti said. “He was just
glowing! About a month later, I ran into
somebody who was a friend of the aunt who scheduled the party. She told me the kid had passed away. It was tragic, but I was happy in the sense
that a great day doing what he wanted.”
Steve has met several sports celebrities along the way, which is well documented on his website. He said that just like the rest of us, they have kids, and they love including him at their parties. Ceriotti mentioned an event with Albert Pujols. Steve wanted to talk baseball with him, but Pujols wanted to talk about Steve’s business and how he got into reptiles.
Many people are aghast when checking out Ceriotti’s https://www.reptileexperience.com/ website and his variety of videos found on general searches under ‘Serengeti Steve.’ How can anyone be brave enough to interact with most of the reptiles as he does?
“All the animals are what we refer to as being ‘conditioned,’” he said. “They aren’t trained because you can’t train reptiles. Their brains don’t have the capability of training. It doesn’t work with all reptiles. But basically, it’s interacting with them enough at birth…which always works best…and for a certain amount of time, depending on the species, we work with them, handle them, and they get to a point where they don’t fear us anymore. “
Ceriotti added that there are only two reasons an animal would bite you. One is basically called a feeding response. The animal thinks we’re food. He wants to eat us. The other reason is a defensive response where they think we are something to fear, and they have to protect their babies or territory. When conditioning comes in as constant handling, they don’t look at their handlers as something to fear.
Steve’s local and regional performance events demonstrate how well-conditioned his reptiles are. They interact smoothly with all the children and adults in his audiences. So, most participants no longer get freaked out by their mere appearance.
That said, ‘Serengeti Steve’ went well beyond the 100 per cent safety factor performer during one of his national TV performances. Enter the 2012 America’s Got Talent finals in Las Vegas.
Ceriotti began by walking calmly toward the three celebrity judges. Moments later, there were ghastly expressions on the faces of Howie Mendel, Howard Stern and especially Sharon Osbourne, as Steve opened his mouth to have two massive Madagascar cockroaches crawl out. But that was a mild prelude to his successful act of kissing a black Pakistani cobra. one of the deadliest species of its kind in the world. That stunt could lead to instant death with one quick bite from the cobra’s fangs.
“Basically, they need you to ramp it up, if you will…for each episode, a little crazier and a little more dangerous,” Ceriotti said. “That is one of the more dangerous things to do. So, that’s why it progressed into that for that round in Vegas.”
Previously, Steve worked with a man born and raised in the Belize rain forest. That man was the one who trained Steve how to handle and extract venom. What TV audiences don’t know, the show’s producers helped push the danger factor to a fever pitch.
Explaining the part about jabbing with the medicine, Steve said, “That was Hollywood nonsense. It did not make me a happy camper. Drama draws attention. Granted, you can be allergic to venoms, but they said they weren’t going to fib on national television. They said, ‘but can you have the anaphylactic shock kind of reaction?’ I said, ‘Sure. If I get bit by this thing, and I’m allergic to the venom, I’m in serious trouble.’ So, they said, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to hand this guy an Epipen,’ and I was like, ‘O.K.’ Then they gave me some lines to say, and I said, ‘Well, if I do get bit, that wouldn’t be a bad idea because I don’t know if I’m allergic to the actual type of polyvalent venom this type of snake has. I’ve never been bit, so all I know, I could be allergic to it.’ But again, that’s not the biggest problem. Just being venomated by that kind of snake is probably going to kill me without immediate medical attention.”
The most recent act of simple showmanship was on the April 7 episode of ‘Game of Talents,’ filmed in Hollywood last November. Donning a white tuxedo with gold bling, Steve was accompanied by four dancing girls with machetes and fire blazing all around. They all walked forward, coming to a stop in front of those guessing the talent. Then Steve opened his mouth and a venomous scorpion began to emerge; thus, the title, ‘scorpion wrangler.’
That performance was similar to Steve’s previous St. Louis audition of America’s Got Talent. Both were made much easier because of what happened on April 22, 2011. That’s when Ceriotti entered the Guinness Book of World Records.
“It was odd because I had seen a show about a year before called The Guinness World Record Attempts, Book of Attempts or something like that,” Steve recalled. “I watched it, and saw a lady who set the world record of two minutes, three seconds. I thought, ‘Well, just knowing scorpions, one, they’re very nocturnal, and two, they love to be in very small, confined areas. They’re relaxed in those areas. They crawl into very small holes to hide during the day and they come out at night. So, I thought, the reason she can do that is, as long as you put that in very carefully and don’t hurt it, just keep your lips close It’s a nice, small dark area. So, I figured I’d try it.”
After filling out some 50 pages of
paperwork, Steve sent in the paperwork for that performance. He originally
planned to perform at CBC, where he graduated in 1987. But it had to be at a
public venue with no admission charged and not a private institution that
charged tuition. Since one of his
neighbors taught at Parkway South, Steve chose that venue.
“The scorpion will actually shut down in your closed mouth,” he said. “Occasionally, you’ll feel the legs move a little, but if for any reason you think the scorpion is uncomfortable, you quickly open your mouth. But on that day, it basically sat in there. The only reason I stopped at 17 minutes and 17 seconds is after I broke the 2-minute, 3-second mark, many people left. I didn’t realize it because what I’m usually doing is closing my eyes and slowing my breathing. At one point, I opened my eyes and saw my wife (Janice) and our kids kind of doing the thing where you put your fingers by your throat to say, ‘Stop! Stop!’ I didn’t know why. Was there some kind of weird emergency? Why are they telling me to stop? I started to realize that half the crowd of some 1,000 people had left because I’m doing it so long that they’re getting bored to death. I broke the record, then they hung out for another five or six minutes. They didn’t know how long I would do it, so people started to leave. At that moment, I opened my mouth, and that’s when the timer stopped at 17:17.”
Back to the reality of his regular household events, Steve shared one more memory from just over six months later. He and his wife were sitting in a field box when Lafayette High School graduate David Freese became a lifetime legend with his dramatic ninth inning, game-tying triple and eleventh inning walk-off home run in game 6 of the 2011 World Series against the Texas Rangers.
The Ceriottis were also supposed to be going to game seven. But a rain out set it up against a Halloween party scheduled by a party planner. But he thought, ‘This is St. Louis. These people are obviously going to postpone their Halloween party.’
“I called the party planner and asked, ‘By the way, are you still having that party tonight? This IS St. Louis and it IS game seven,’” Ceriotti said. “She said they most certainly are! I said, ‘O.K. I will be there.’ I showed up, noticed there were ponies on the front lawn of this very nice home. Kids were getting pony rides in their Halloween costumes. Suddenly, as I got a little closer to the house, I thought, I know this house. This is Albert Pujols’ house. Then, I thought, it can’t be! Albert’s getting ready to start game seven. I walked up the driveway, saw Dede (Deidre) Pujols and I their son A.J. (Albert, Jr.). I thought, ‘What the heck is going on here?’ I said, ‘Hey, Dede! I don’t know if you know this, but your husband is getting ready to play game seven in like 10 minutes!’ She looked at me and said, ‘Steve, I was not going to have this party canceled just because of a baseball game.’”
So, Cerliotti performed his show outdoors by the TV that was brought nearby. But the kids were all watching the show and not the TV. Steve admitted he was kind of watching the game, too, because it was game seven of the World Series! At one point, he thought his show would be even less important.
“I looked down at AJ and said, ‘Did you want me to hang on for a second and take a little pause because your dad is up to the plate with the tying run on second base?’“ Steve said. “AJ looked over his shoulder at the TV, looked back and said, ‘No! No! I want to see the animals!’ His dad has been a superstar since he was a baby, and to him, it was just his dad playing another game. It’s no different from my kids in college now; all those years thinking all these other kids want to see all these animals. But it’s just their dad. That’s just an alligator. That’s just an anaconda. Not a big deal.”
Meanwhile, Serengeti Steve admitted that his only real fear in life, which actually terrifies him to the point of shaking just thinking about it, is heights…even climbing more than three rungs up a ladder. Also, as far as animals go, he wouldn’t go into a lion’s cage or pet a bear because he doesn’t have the knowledge of them from years of training like he’s had as a herpetologist. That’s precisely why he gets so much enjoyment from his regular performances….even when he puts an alligator’s snout in his mouth and pretends to mildly bite down on it.
