STUNT MAN JORDAN IS ALWAYS UP, ALWAYS ON

OTAY LAKE â€”  Monty Jordan sat at a portable table under a canopy with other members of the cast and crew of the movie “Sour Grapes.â€� It was dusk in the rolling hills south of Chula Vista where the crew of National City’s Four Square Productions (“Attack of the Killer Tomatoesâ€�) was doing location filming at the San Diego Air Sports Center.

In the fading twilight, bare light bulbs strung overhead illuminated a hot Italian meal as mosquitoes buzzed and Jordan, a stocky, 6-foot, stunt man, actor and stand-up comedian, entertained a group at his table. He had just finished a long sequence inside an aged DC-3 airplane, sitting on the dirt airstrip a few yards away in the hot, muggy air. In the movie, Jordan plays the minor role of P.J. Yarborough, the plane’s boozy, wrong-way pilot. After the filming in the magnified heat of the aircraft, his flight suit was soaked through with sweat.

Amid Jordan’s constant joking, Gary Douris, the actual pilot who flew the plane to the film site, introduces himself and asks Jordan, who also is in charge of the demolition effects that will be exploded around the aircraft, if he would mind giving a briefing since Douris will be at the plane’s controls. Jordan, barely noticing Douris, proclaims in the most self-important tones of a Hollywood wheel surrounded by his admirers, “Don’t bother me about that demolition stuff. I haven’t got time.�

The remark is vintage Jordan, a man who likes to catch people off guard with an unexpected zinger. More than an actor, Monty Jordan is a performer--always up, always on. These days he juggles an eclectic entertainment mix. He does film stunt work, takes acting assignments when he can get them, and has a steady business doing comedy work for conventions.

In “Sour Grapes,� besides the acting role, he has 15 stunts that range from being blown off a building, driving a car through a garage door and a motorcycle into a car’s open door, to being hit by a moving vehicle. Additionally, he coordinates all the movie’s stunts and the demolition effects.

As a kid attending school--Jordan graduated from Garden Grove High in Orange County in 1966 before moving to Alpine 20 years ago--he was fascinated with the performing arts. Jordan came to stunt work via an Army hitch and a short career as a helicopter pilot with the California Highway Patrol.

He had 2 1/2 tours as a helicopter pilot with the Army in Vietnam, “Then I got blown up.� He was pulling troops out of a landing zone that had turned “pretty hot, and they got a grenade through the door. It rolled under my seat.�

Flying with the CHP, Jordan nailed speeding motorists from the air and assisted in search and rescue and emergency medical services until an unrelated accident put him out of commission. He got into stunt work eight years ago through an uncle who was a career stunt man. He has appeared as a stunt man and pilot in movies such as “Capricorn 1,� “True Grit,� “Cannonball Run II,� and television series such as “Airwolf,� “Matt Houston,� “A-Team� and “CHIPS.�

Jordan is shown in the opening sequence of “SWAT,� dressed in black, rappelling down a building. Jordan says that the toughest part of stunt work is the preparation. “A two-second wreck may take all day to set up.�

For filming the scene with the moving airplane near Otay Lake, Jordan was at work at 6:30 a.m. At 9 p.m. he was walking across the dirt airfield with the pilot, co-pilot and two demolition experts. The aircraft’s wingspan had already been outlined on the ground. A test charge was set in the earth on the edge of the runway and exploded. The concussion and heat could be felt 30 feet away as the gasoline-assisted burst blossomed into the night air.

“I don’t want that big a fireball,� said Douris. “I’ll be sitting 16 feet up in the cockpit, and with the fireball coming up by my eyes I’ll lose my night vision.� After a quick huddle with the demolition guys, a decision was made to reduce the amount of gasoline set with the charge.

The secret to stunt work, Jordan said, “is to make it look as frightening as possible and have the largest margin of safety.� For the explosive bursts, which in the movie simulate a mined runway as the DC-3 taxis along, the trick was accomplished through camera angle and perspective. The charges were set to explode well ahead of or behind the aircraft. Because of the angle of the camera, they should appear to be bursting under the wings.

In addition to his various show-business jobs, Jordan is a lieutenant colonel and medical flight officer in the Army Reserve. His comedy routines are often built around cop jokes, which he bases on his experience as a highway patrol officer.

He shares a sampling of the material he uses at law enforcement conventions throughout the Southwest: “You can tell the cops who work in Pacific Beach. They all drive these little cruiser bikes. An you can always spot a La Jolla cop. They’re driving DeLoreans.

“You can tell Oceanside is a Marine town. Their police cars are O.D. green and the siren goes (Jordan imitates a drill instructor) EERRR-UUUH! UUURAARRGH!

“And how about the cops in Ocean Beach? Because most of them are on substance abuse programming, it takes them 45 minutes to pull you over for a parking ticket. Then the officer comes over to your car. Stops at a parking meter on the way. Puts in a quarter. The meter goes to 60. He stares at it with his sleepy, bloodshot eyes and says, ‘Oh my God. I’ve lost 100 pounds.’ �

With another turn in the sweltering DC-3 cockpit coming up, Jordan chuckles at the “glamorous� world of movie-making. The shooting schedule runs to 4 a.m. It will be 9:30 a.m. before this particular day’s shooting is finished and Jordan can pack his bag--27 hours after arriving--and head for Alpine.