Pitt’s vampire ninja has stint on reality TV

Joel Brady is more than your average Pitt instructor — he’s also a ninja.

Brady teaches a variety of liberal arts classes at Pitt and spent his summer vacation competing on NBC’s “American Ninja Warrior.” 

Branded “Vampire Ninja” on the show thanks to one of the classes he teaches “Vampire: Blood and Empire,” his performance during the qualifying and city final rounds during the show’s stop in Denver earned him a trip to the national finals in Las Vegas.

According to “American Ninja Warrior”’s page on NBC’s website, the show begins its season in various cities across the United States, hosting qualifying and final rounds, before sending the top 15 finishers from each city to Las Vegas. Once in Las Vegas, each contestant strives to make it to the end of the fourth and final stage of the course, known as Mount Midoriyama — a man-made mountain-meets obstacle course.

The first contestant to reach the top is named the “American Ninja Warrior” and claim $500,000 in prize money.

Brady lost during the jumping spider obstacle during the first stage of competition in Las Vegas. 

“The jumping spider [obstacle] always takes out half the field in Vegas, and it certainly got me — I got a nasty brush burn but made out okay, since people rip their ACLs and sprain stuff all the time on the show,” Brady said. 

The jumping spider was the fourth of eight obstacles in the first stage of the Las Vegas national finals. Brady had practiced jumping up and spreading his arms for the first part of the challenge: jumping off of a trampoline and sticking a landing between two vertical walls placed closely together. 

Brady didn’t know he was going to be on the show in Denver until two weeks before he competed.

“I hadn’t heard back from the show whether I would be invited and then I got a message on my phone two weeks before Denver saying, ‘Joel, this is the casting producer from “American Ninja Warrior.” We’ve been trying to reach you for weeks — can you give us a call back?’” said Brady, who dubbed the voicemail the “Coolest. Message. Ever.” in an email.

Ninjas are historically stealthy and secretive, and Brady’s advantage on “American Ninja Warrior” was simple: rock climbing. A rock climber for 20 years, Brady competed on the show with some of his longtime friends.

“We call ‘American Ninja Warrior’ our senior circuit. Our crew represented half the field that made it through Denver to Vegas, so we’re pretty proud of that, probably to the level of obnoxiousness,” Brady said in an email. 

One friend of about 15 years, Brian Arnold, also competed in Denver this season, calling Brady his “climbing hero.”

“He was demolishing every competition he showed up at,” Arnold said in an email, in reference to the bouldering competition he met Brady at. “I never had a chance of beating him!” 

Brady also reunited with friend Meagan Martin, a self-described professional rock climber. 

“There are a lot of people who train specifically for the show, build their own courses and do obstacle-specific exercises,” Brady said. “We just want to go up to them and whisper in their ear, ‘You should just be a rock climber.’”  

On the night before the competition, Brady attempted some obstacles his friends had made, as the types of challenges contestants face are not available at a typical gym. The task he didn’t try — the jumping spider — became his ultimate downfall.

Apart from rock climbing, Brady prepared for the competition by jumping up and down inside his hotel elevator in Las Vegas.

“All I really accomplished was completely weirding out the other guests,” Brady said. 

But Brady’s friends think he’ll make it further next year if he opts to tackle the challenge again.

“Joel has competed at such a high level in climbing that he knows how to improve on his weakness, and he has the drive,” Arnold said.

Besides teaching and tackling stunts on television, “American Ninja Warrior,” Brady said, is the second coolest thing he’s done — second to becoming a father to his three kids. He plans to compete again next season, instead of trying CBS’s “Survivor” or ABC’s “Wipeout.” NBC’s “American Ninja Warrior” season finale is Sept. 15.

“I’ve thought about doing ‘Survivor’ before, but that would be a bit difficult to be away from my wife and three children for so long,” Brady said. “‘Ninja Warrior’ is a very serious show. Like ninja serious. And yes, I’ll try again next year … it’s sort of what I do now.”