Dual Role: Head Coach Gary Bairos instructs a wrestler. In addition to being the varsity coach, Bairos is an aspiring actor.
 
By Andrew Schein

Jimmy Gamble’s grandmother rescued Jimmy when his mother left him under the care of his alcoholic father. But, in saving him, she also saddled Jimmy with a nearly unreachable dream: to hit it big gambling at the horse racetracks, big enough to move out to California.

“Jimmy Gamble” is wrestling coach Gary Bairos’ one-man show. It began as a three-minute monologue that he wrote in honor of his grandmother, who had recently died. She had been close to Bairos and had taken him to the racetracks. Bairos’ monologue started there. He developed it in a theater group, stretching the three minutes into an hour-long one-man show.

“I feel like it was writing itself sometimes,” he said. “The story had a life of its own.”
Bairos will perform “Jimmy Gamble” at 8:30 p.m. on March 29 and 30 at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood.

Over the last three years, he has written a film script with a plot similar to the show.
“When I first did the monologue onstage, people said, ‘Man, that would make a great movie,’ so I started writing the screenplay.”

He wants to make the film or produce the show off-Broadway in New York, and he figures the one-man show is a good way to attract attention. He also loves performing.

“I wouldn’t do the show if I didn’t think there was something there,” he said.
He likens the performance to a jazz solo.

“I know where I’m gonna end up, but I don’t always know how I’m going to get there,” he said.
Bairos speaks quickly, as if he’s pitching a movie, when he talks about Jimmy Gamble. His shaggy, brown hair swings wildly as he articulates his excitement, nearly knocking off his sunglasses. His gravelly voice is almost breathless.
 
“He’s that kind of character, he’s larger than life, Jimmy Gamble,” he said.

Bairos maintains that Jimmy is not based on himself. Still, “There are things veiled in there throughout,” Bairos said about the connections between Jimmy and himself. “Even his quest to make it to California, to win big, to set up his life, is like an athlete working for years [to succeed].”
When he was younger, Bairos had the same tunnel vision as a gambler. His goal was success as a wrestler. Unlike Jimmy, Bairos found that success, winning the Pac-10 championship twice, becoming an NCAA All-American for Arizona State University and captaining the ASU team.

Bairos has performed for years. He played a wrestler in the Disney-Channel series “Spooner” and a character named Daniel in the independent film “Somebody is Waiting.”

Coaching the wrestling team started off as a side gig.

“It became a more profound thing to my life than I thought,” he said. “It gives me a lot back, creatively.”
Bairos does at times find it difficult to juggle the demands of coaching, pitching a screenplay and performing.

“Sometimes I don’t know which hat I’m wearing; I get a little confused,” he said.

Then again, he has brought the wrestling team to Jimmy — every member of the team has seen or is going to see the show — and has brought Jimmy to the wrestling team — members of the team chimed in during Bairos’ interview with this reporter as if they were partners in Bairos’ ambitions.

“The play’s about one man’s search for the holy grail, in one way,” Bairos said.

“Yeah, you know what the quest is?” wrestler Robert Barry ’08 said. “He doesn’t know what he’s looking for, but he’s still trying to find it.”

Wrestlers Richard Leuchter ’08 and Tarek Tohme ’08 wrote a Wikipedia entry for Gary Bairos, Leuchter said.

“Also known as Jimmy Gamble,” the entry reads, “Gary starred as a high school wrestling superstar and delighted all the girls on set with his powerful hips.”

Bairos brings his acting to the wrestling room, too. His riffs about his wrestlers steamroll forward like a dramatic monologue.

“Ben is a badass, the best wrestler in the country — this kid’s gonna learn how to wrestle,” Bairos said about Ben Brown ’10. “He’s gonna be one of those kids you don’t even notice, just a fly on the wall, like a few of the freshmen. You don’t even know he’s in the room, hardly, and then, out of nowhere, it’ll be Ben-Brown-mania.”

The wrestling team is in stitches. Bairos has given them front row seats to his other one-man show. 
Bairos is fairly confident that he will find someone to produce his screenplay.

“I feel like Jimmy is just getting started,” he said. He trusts in Jimmy.

“I think it could be a huge commercial hit, even though it’s a smaller film,” he said. “Jimmy’s that kind of character.”