The Bob Bremer Interview
Interview Conducted by David Cheng
Sifu Lamar M. Davis II at the Los Angeles JFJKD Nucleus Event standing behind Sifu Jerry Poteet (left) and Sifu Bob Bremer (right).
INTRODUCTION: Bob Bremer is known as one of the toughest men in Jeet Kune Do. When he trained with Bruce Lee and at the Los Angeles Chinatown school, he was a fierce fighter as well as a diligent student. He is a survivor who, at age 73, continues to share his knowledge of Lee’s art at Tim Tackett’s Wednesday Night JKD group which meets weekly at the latter’s garage. Here is Bob’s story.
DAVID CHENG: When did you first start studying martial arts?
BOB BREMER: Holy mackerel! Well, I got stuck on the first question here (chuckles). About ’65, I guess. I started with [Ed] Parker, a little bit of kenpo. And then, a couple years later, I met Bruce and that started this JKD thing.
DC: How did you meet Bruce?
BB: Inosanto was doing a little deal in Chinatown and kinda opened up a school, and I met him there. I’d heard about him from the Long Beach things and everything. But I met him . . . [about] ’66 or 7, something like that [when] the Chinatown school opened.
DC: What were your first impressions of Bruce?
BB: Everybody right away thought he was really bitchin’ (laughs). He was pretty good and he became very convincing too because I’d just seen that one interview with him there and I was ready to stop going to kenpo class and take it from Bruce—lessons.
DC: Did you sign up immediately at the Chinatown school?
BB: Yeah.
DC: How long did you study at the Chinatown school?
BB: Thirty-four months. I had the third best attendance of all students that came out of there. But Alfred Haber was first and Danny Lee was second. He beat me by one hour (chuckles). I had the third best attendance. Of course, I studied at Bruce’s house too. There’s a lot of people that’ll tell you that they did too, but there’s a lot of liars (chuckles).
DC: How often did you go to Bruce’s house to study?
BB: It was a hit and miss thing. I got invited over there quite often on a Sunday afternoon. I didn’t really keep track of how long it was. But it was quite a while, clear up until when he left and went to Hong Kong.
DC: When you were at the Chinatown school, how often did Bruce teach there?
BB: In the beginning, he was around there quite often. He was saying that he wouldn’t always be there, but he showed up quite a bit. He was there. Dan [Inosanto] would be running the class but he would take it . . . kind of like [the way] we do in [Tim Tackett’s] garage. He would interject things and take charge for a little while and whatever.
DC: Can you tell us a little bit of what the classes were like while you were at the Chinatown school, like, what did you cover, and so on?
BB: It was a hard class because he did calisthenics first, so you were ringing wet and sweaty before the lessons even started (laughs). They’d start out with all the basics in the JKD stuff. A little later on, some of it changed a little bit, but it was basic, what Bruce was working on at the time.
DC: What were those things?
BB: A lot of kicking, a lot of punching.
DC: Did he cover much trapping?
BB: Some, but not as much as a lot of people think.
Jerry Poteet, Lamar M. Davis II & Bob Bremer
DC: What about in his sessions at his home that you attended? What types of things did he cover there?
BB: He’d flirt around [with] pretty near everything, really. But, he was looking for a gladiator. And I was a possible candidate for that. And people say [to Bruce], “Well, it’s you, it’s not your system.” But he wanted somebody to say, “Well, try out this old man (referring to Bremer). He’s gonna use the system (chuckles).” That’s what he wanted. One day he says, “I’ll teach you everything.” I said, “Yeah, and I know why.” He was kind of surprised. [I said], “I don’t want your job of fightin’ all these guys that come in.” A lot of them were tournament champions and stuff like that. He was looking for somebody to spar ‘em (chuckles).
I would have done whatever he said. It just worked out that he left sooner than [we would have liked him to].
DC: Do you mean he wanted you to spar himself or he wanted you to spar other people?
BB: Spar other people.
DC: Did you actually end up sparring other well-known people?
BB: Once in a while. My chief competitor was Danny Lee. He was about as hard to spar as anybody. He was a boxing champion before he left China. Pretty hard to beat that guy. But we sparred a lot.
DC: When did you end your training with Bruce or at the Chinatown school?
BB: Well, I stayed there ‘til the school closed. And then I went to Danny’s (Inosanto) backyard for a while.
DC: Did you continue training after Bruce passed away?
BB: Oh yeah. I never really kinda dropped out. I’d always fiddled around doing something. For a long time I went to Pete’s (Jacobs) backyard in San Gabriel. I just kinda stayed with it. But I never really [went] crazy lookin’ for new stuff. I was just kinda piddlin’ with the other stuff. I did learn some kali but I wasn’t very good with that. I don’t know why.
DC: How did you get involved in Tackett’s Wednesday night group?
BB: Well, he’s one of the closer guys to me. He’s about thirty miles from my house. So I started going down there and watching.
DC: When was that approximately?
BB: I wish I could tell you that. It’s been a long time. Probably more than ten years. Because the time goes by really fast. I’d sit down and watch ‘em. And finally one day [Tackett] says, “You got anything to say? I’d like to hear it.” I said, “Well, I think of things to say all the time, but by the time I get to say it, I usually forgot what the hell it was.” He looked at me kind of goofy and says, “Well, just blurt it out!” And I thought, “Oh, okay, I’ll blurt it out.” He made a mistake there because I'd start blurtin’ all the time. I’d just interrupt anybody and tell ‘em the way I’d seen it. But it was a good way for me to enlighten people about what I learned from Bruce because it was gone. I showed him about a dozen things that he’d never seen before. Sometimes he’d look at ‘em and he’d say, “Are you [putting me on?]” And I’d say, “No.” And then when we got some literature, he’d look it up in the volumes (referring to Bruce Lee’s commentaries edited by John Little) and he’d say, “It’s just like you said, here it is.”
Keep Blasting!
Sifu Lamar M. Davis II
Senior Instructor
Hardcore Jeet Kune Do
Sifu@HardcoreJKD.com
JKD@windstream.net
http://www.HardcoreJKD.com
Phone (205) 296-7070 (Incoming Only)
"Hit Hard, Hit Fast, Hit First - ALWAYS!"
"The REAL future of Jeet Kune Do belongs to US, the few, the proud, the HARDCORE! Now, what are we going to do with it?" _ Sifu Lamar M. Davis II
