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'Oh, Hello,' Says Andrew, As He Suddenly Grabs You By The Leg Or Neck

Some people like a nice walk, some a gentle run, others a cup of tea. But not Andrew Ucles. There is nothing relaxed about Andrew. You can find him chasing after wild animals on his videos, grabbing them with his bare hands and then, while they squiggle, scratch and lunge, he tells them, "Settle, settle," shows them to the camera, brags a little and lets them go.

Andrew is a puzzle. He is a total ham. (Which makes sense, since he's the star of his own video channel.) He's got a thick Australian accent and a good trim body, which he constantly displays by running about with hardly any clothes on. He loves to congratulate himself on his uncanny ability to grab animals mid-run, or to pull them out of dark holes, logs, stumps or, occasionally, straight out of the air. He has incredible reflexes. But, oh my, is he full of himself. And yet — there's a self-mockery here that I find oddly charming.

In this clip (which, by the way, includes one short not-so-nice word), he's going to wander through a marsh, find a bunch of dangerous snakes that (hmm ... ) just happen to be lying in his path (or maybe he spent hours hunting for them) and then, carrying them at arm's length, he decides to use these snakes to cleverly (and, he claims, gently) flush an adorable wild rabbit out of an underground warren.

"Settle, settle," he says to a pair of writhing snakes. Some people will gag. But not me. I just look at Andrew and think to myself, "On my last walk, what did I do? I bought a sweater."

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Robert Krulwich works on radio, podcasts, video, the blogosphere. He has been called "the most inventive network reporter in television" by TV Guide.
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