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A Westminster ninja on 'American Gladiators' Thursday, August 07 2008

Xin Sarith Wuku goes from doing stunts on YouTube videos to the national TV show American Gladiators and then meets his idol, Jackie Chan. The thing about an urban ninja, we've decided, is that you never really see him coming. Only this time, he's a gladiator named Zen, wearing a lot more spandex than usual, and his hair is perfect. Let's turn back the clock a couple of years, and get to know Xin Sarith Wuku, who used to do back flips off a wall at a Westminster skate park. He was an Internet sensation, a pioneer of the self-promotional powers of YouTube.com, where his Urban Ninja video had more than 5 million viewers, making it at the time the 10th-most-viewed clip in the history of the Web site.

And he had a plan for what that kind of fame could do for him - First, become the next Great Action Movie Star, kicking cinematic butt while cracking jokes and romancing his leading ladies on screen if not off. Second, take down his hero, the legendary Jackie Chan, for the humiliation he'd suffered years earlier when the star-struck and then-scrawny Xin approached Chan at a book signing at the Westminster Wal-Mart. It was a big dream, and at the time, one with long odds. And then one day we look up from the couch and almost drop the remote: there's a fighter named Zen on NBC's "American Gladiator" and he looks a lot like somebody American has seen before!

"I didn't even consider 'Gladiators,' and then just out of the blue I get an e-mail that says they're looking for me," Xin stated in a recent interview. "They were looking for an Asian who could do flips and stunts like me." So he called AG up and they tell him they want him to be a Gladiator for their show. Of course, "American Gladiator" is only the latest in Xin's efforts to become the new Jackie Chan. And in the two years since the Urban Ninja video took off, he's been busy with all kinds of projects. He co-starred in "Break," an independent film making the festival rounds this year, set for release in 2009, and shot a trailer for a prospective film called "Black Dragon." He shot a few commercials, including one for the video game he'd played as a kid, Ninja Gaiden for Nintendo DS, and worked out with his martial arts stunt group, EMC Monkeys, who have also done stunt work on "Break" and "Black Dragon." And at the end of last year, he traveled to China for a month to compete in a reality TV show in Beijing called none other than "Jackie Chan's Disciple."

After breezing through the first two rounds, he ran into trouble when the competition required contestants to recite poems in Chinese, the language tripping him up where other would-be warriors could not. The night he was eliminated, his translator received a phone call in the restaurant where they'd gone to celebrate: Jackie Chan was in Beijing and wanted to meet Xin. The next day, they went to Chan's offices where finally Xin met his idol face to face, years after their first meeting, where Chan had laughed when Xin told him that one day he wanted to be part of his stunt team, a slight the boy used to motivate himself as he became a man and a martial artist. "He comes into the room and he points at me and says, 'This kid right here, this kid is good,'" Xin says. "He says, 'Can I call you and do a movie?' I said "Of course - hell yea"! The action star gave him a bunch of Jackie Chan swag, including an official Jackie Chan Stunt Team jacket – in pink, the only color left – which he autographed for Xin, who has yet to wear it in public, he says, "Partly because it's autographed," he says. "But mostly because it's pink." "He sends me on my way, like, 'Get out there and make something of yourself!'" Xin says. "And I'm like, damn, what's to stop me now?' "I got props from Jackie Chan."