| Dim Mac |
Jim McDonough was a big guy with big dreams. He had managed
to take his store front martial arts school (Tora Tanaka's-an exotic
title he'd lifted shamelessly from a James Bond movie) from a
struggling entrepreneurial sideline to a cash cow that was the
mainstay of his precarious middle class existence.
Of course, he was a fraud.
It wasn't that Jim wasn't interested in the martial arts. He was, he
came to believe, a person destined to be a martial artist by virtue
of circumstance, temperament, and innate ability. In the best
American tradition, he didn't let issues of pedigree stand in the
way of his dreams.
Americans yearned for occult fighting skills of the East—for Kato
and Kwai Chang Caine, crouching tigers and Master Yoda, If
turtles could be ninja and tournament fighters masquerade as
Texas Rangers, who was to say that Big Mac McDonough couldn’t
be Master Jim? With a primitive cunning for marketing, an
outgoing personality and a physical presence that prevented
much in the way of challenges to his authority, Jim launched
himself on a career that was part confidence trick and part self-
improvement seminar.
He steeps himself in the esoterica contained within a series of mail
order manuals from the shadowy figure Professor Watanbe,
holder of multiple black belts and a mail order address in
Singapore. Jim labors in solitude to absorb each manual’s
lessons, always just one step ahead of his most advanced
students. He works on joint locks and takedown techniques, auto-
hypnosis and the nerve point death touch of something known as
dim mak.
When a pair of mob enforcers tries to ambush Teddy Termini, the
arrogant yet gullible son of a local organized crime boss, Jim
stumbles onto the scene. By the time the ambulance and police
have things cleaned up, one of the mob enforcers is being
admitted for a heart attack and Teddy Termini actually believes
that Jim McDonough is a master of the death touch.
Teddy's enthusiasm soon brings Jim to the attention of the elder
Termini. Before he can fully assess what he's getting into, and
facing the pressure of a balloon payment on his mortgage and
rising rents in his martial arts schools, Big Mac McDonough is
swept up in a lucrative deal training Termini's thugs.
Events come to a head when the rival mob boss, learning of
Termini's secret weapon, decides to up the ante in his bid for
dominance of the local crime scene. He finds his own martial arts
expert and issues a challenge for a death match between the
champions of each crime boss.
For Jim to escape almost certain maiming at the hands of
numerous outraged parties—his wife, Termini, his hit man
students and the rival martial arts champion—¬he'll have to figure
something out. And fast.
to take his store front martial arts school (Tora Tanaka's-an exotic
title he'd lifted shamelessly from a James Bond movie) from a
struggling entrepreneurial sideline to a cash cow that was the
mainstay of his precarious middle class existence.
Of course, he was a fraud.
It wasn't that Jim wasn't interested in the martial arts. He was, he
came to believe, a person destined to be a martial artist by virtue
of circumstance, temperament, and innate ability. In the best
American tradition, he didn't let issues of pedigree stand in the
way of his dreams.
Americans yearned for occult fighting skills of the East—for Kato
and Kwai Chang Caine, crouching tigers and Master Yoda, If
turtles could be ninja and tournament fighters masquerade as
Texas Rangers, who was to say that Big Mac McDonough couldn’t
be Master Jim? With a primitive cunning for marketing, an
outgoing personality and a physical presence that prevented
much in the way of challenges to his authority, Jim launched
himself on a career that was part confidence trick and part self-
improvement seminar.
He steeps himself in the esoterica contained within a series of mail
order manuals from the shadowy figure Professor Watanbe,
holder of multiple black belts and a mail order address in
Singapore. Jim labors in solitude to absorb each manual’s
lessons, always just one step ahead of his most advanced
students. He works on joint locks and takedown techniques, auto-
hypnosis and the nerve point death touch of something known as
dim mak.
When a pair of mob enforcers tries to ambush Teddy Termini, the
arrogant yet gullible son of a local organized crime boss, Jim
stumbles onto the scene. By the time the ambulance and police
have things cleaned up, one of the mob enforcers is being
admitted for a heart attack and Teddy Termini actually believes
that Jim McDonough is a master of the death touch.
Teddy's enthusiasm soon brings Jim to the attention of the elder
Termini. Before he can fully assess what he's getting into, and
facing the pressure of a balloon payment on his mortgage and
rising rents in his martial arts schools, Big Mac McDonough is
swept up in a lucrative deal training Termini's thugs.
Events come to a head when the rival mob boss, learning of
Termini's secret weapon, decides to up the ante in his bid for
dominance of the local crime scene. He finds his own martial arts
expert and issues a challenge for a death match between the
champions of each crime boss.
For Jim to escape almost certain maiming at the hands of
numerous outraged parties—his wife, Termini, his hit man
students and the rival martial arts champion—¬he'll have to figure
something out. And fast.
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