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The Tiger King wave that swept America feels like it was a year ago despite being less than a month in the past. That’s how fast time’s moving these days. Everything’s a mile a minute despite the fact that most people are stuck at home watching the clock tick.
The introduction of Jeff Lowe on Tiger King marked a massive shift in the docuseries from a focus on Joe Exotic’s obsession with Carole Baskin to Joe and his zoo being the primary storyline. As we would later learn, Jeff Lowe took over Joe Exotic’s zoo and he’d later partner up with Tim Stark on a new zoo which he addressed in his ‘Ask Me Anything’ session on Reddit.
He put all of his clips on video (and text) as part of Cameo’s ‘CAMEO CARES’ charity event. If you’re not familiar with Cameo, it’s a service where you can pay athletes and celebrities anywhere from $25 to $500+ to send you a quick personalized video message. The Jeff Lowe AMA was quite chaotic with people asking everything under the sun and Jeff answering some questions I would’ve expected him to stay away from.
This seems…suspect. Either someone didn’t read the contracts or was misinformed.
lllJARlll:How did Netflix approach you to film this? How did they frame it to you?
I_AM_Jeff_Lowe: Netflix did not approach us. We were produced by the guys who made the show. They framed it as an expose on Carole Baskins. And to Carole, they said it was warning against the dangers of keeping tigers. They misrepresented the show to everyone.
I forgot they were all eating f’n Walmart meat. What a completely batshit crazy story this was.
gunnyhunty: Did you ever eat the Walmart meat on purpose or by accident?
I_AM_Jeff_Lowe: Joe used to invite us over for dinner for pork chops. I would go over when he did grilled cheese and tomato soup. Pepperoni for the pizza never came on meat trucks, so I think I was safe. Joe used to allow the staff members to get big boxes of all the stuff.
If you haven’t read about this next conspiracy theory yet then you can check it out here on the website.
CharlesBarkelly: There’s a conspiracy all over the internet this week that you were Carole Baskins’ first husband. Have you seen the picture comparison and what’s your take on this? She doesn’t seem like your type!
I_AM_Jeff_Lowe: You’re a brilliant man and she is not my type. If I was stuck on a deserted island with her, I would fuck a coconut. I’ve seen the side by side pictures. It looks more like John and Joe’s love child.
‘Doc’ Antle needs an entire series dedicated to his story. They didn’t devote nearly enough time to the insanity that appeared to be happening there.
Sundazed: Joe Exotic seemed to idolize Doc Antle, have you had many interactions with Doc? How do you feel about that guys whole setup?
I_AM_Jeff_Lowe: I have never met him and never want to. We’ve talked to ex-employees about him, and have heard disgusting things regarding playtime with the animals.
I sincerely hope he called the cops regarding this next one.
Snowbofreak: Hey Jeff! I was wondering what (if any) weird S*IT have you found out about Joe Exotic since he’s been incarcerated randomly around the park?
I_AM_Jeff_Lowe: I think the weirdest thing we found is that it found was a flash drive of Joe and Finley and they were having sexual relations with animals in the park. That would probably be the weirdest thing about Joe. Thanks for the disturbing question.
The worst part about the ‘shelter in place’ order in Florida is I haven’t been able to drive an hour to Carole Baskin’s property yet.
22plus 871: Do you feel Carole Baskin and Big Cat Rescue was treated properly in the documentary?
I_AM_Jeff_Lowe: They were too easy on her. Joe had file cabinets full with info on the disappearance of Don. All she does is she has big cats in cages, just like Joe.
Tim Stark will be the star of a future series. I’m certain of it.
xxxJackSpeedxxx: What happened between you and Tim Stark that forced that partnership to end?
I_AM_Jeff_Lowe: He was losing his license to work with the animals. In order to maintain his ability to work with animals, he came down and offered resources to do everything here. When he started to bring the animals down to the new park, he actually was neglectful; and let 27/100 animals roast in a trailed. That’s when it went all bad for us.
Pretty dark stuff here.
NDakotaFarmer: Did and tigers or animals that got put down ever get fed to humans or other animals under Joe?
I_AM_Jeff_Lowe: Yes. They were not fed to humans, but we would put down goats, cows, horses. Rather than be buried, we would feed them to the animals. We have people donate sick animals which we process and feed to them. None to humans.
Tim Stark. Future Netflix star.
gunnyhunty: Are there any other crazy ass exotic animal people not covered in the doc we should know about?
I_AM_Jeff_Lowe: The one that would have been great is diving into Tim Stark a little bit more. He was the guy sitting on the porch with the monkey. He has the most interesting story.
Seems normal enough. Growing up
Blitz-Lexikon: What got you into big cats initially? I could see from the show that there’s a certain allure to the whole thing, but how does one get wrapped up in that world starting from scratch?
I_AM_Jeff_Lowe: My grandfather owned a circus, The Robins brothers circus in the 20s and 30s. He sold to Ringling and he worked for them. I’ve had big cats in my DNA. That’s how I did it.
How was this not apparent on the day they met?
coffeeandcontemplate: at what point did you realize Joe was batshit insane? It seemed that the two of you were close at the beginning, did something happen specifically to change your opinion of him?
I_AM_Jeff_Lowe: Ya know, what initially pissed me off about Joe is when we were going to Vegas and I received a message regarding him. The turning point for me was when he was saying he was going to put down two tiger cubs before we returned, and I lost all respect for him.
Imagine thinking that anyone in this show led a normal life before this story begins. I cannot wrap my mind around that possibility.
Don_Goofed: Hey Jeff! Where are you from originally and what were you up to before you met Joe Exotic?
I_AM_Jeff_Lowe: I’m from Lansing, Michigan. I had a business that was liquidating merchandise. We then moved to Colorado and that’s where I met Joe. Now we are back in Oklahoma taking care of animals.
Very important question here.
coffeeandcontemplate: Hey Jeff! Would you rather fight 100 Joe Exotic-sized Carole Baskins or 1 Carole Baskin sized Joe Exotic?
I_AM_Jeff_Lowe: I’ve got a feud to settle with Joe Exotic. I would take the 1 Carole Baskin sized Joe Exotic.
What’s up for the future?
Reiyv: Oh boy, this is going to be spicey… here’s a question though: at the end of Tiger King, we saw the new park in Texas fall through, so what’s next for the GW zoo?
I_AM_Jeff_Lowe: A couple misnomers. The new park is not in TX, but in OK. It is close to the border. It’s still under construction.
The gw zoo is no longer in existence.
The new zoo will open this summer. All the animals will go there.
The most important question of all….
Dalai-Parma: How’s the nanny hunt going?
I_AM_Jeff_Lowe: We actually have two nannies now. They alternate days. We’ve had at least 2-3k stalkers that found my cell phone number. I’ve been inundated with nanny requests.
As I mentioned above, this was part of a ‘CAMEO CARES’ charity event so Jeff Lowe filmed all of his responses and put them on Cameo.
If you’re interested in seeing all of those individual clips you can click here to check out the full AMA on Reddit. You can also check out all of our ‘Tiger King‘ archives on BroBible by following that link.