Jake started in high school, working as a stagehand at the  Riverside Dinner Theater in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Then in 2000 he started working at National Events in northern Virginia, setting-up staging, lighting and sound systems in Washington, D.C.

2003 Jake went to Florida to enroll in Full Sail University.  After graduating with an Associate’s degree in Show Production and Touring he joined Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey circus, as a lighting technician and pyrotechnic operator.

While on tour in 2005 he suffered a spinal cord injury due to a motorcycle accident and spent six months in the hospital and rehabilitation.

Since coming home and returning to daily life, he has received a service dog, and continued his rehabilitation.

In 2008 Jake joined the Crackerjacks fireworks club as a hobbyist, and as a way to learn more about fireworks and pyrotechnics safely.  He also started doing displays of his own design using consumer grade fireworks.

In 2009 he steped up to class B, professional grade display fireworks. Next he applied for and received a federal explosive license from the BATF. To better understand professional display saftey he passed the Pyrotechnics Guild International's, Shooter's Certification course. And launched Pyroplegic.com