Mike Corey (BSc’08) is wearing protective goggles and a bright blue balaclava. Five hundred giant paper mache bulls are parading through the streets of Tultepec, Mexico, spewing fireworks and exploding.
“This is literally insane,” says Corey, grinning from ear to ear, as he ducks, dodges and weaves his way through the fiery mayhem and pandemonium of this surreal festival in a small town in Mexico.
He’s in the thick of the action, as host and videographer, capturing the experience for random viewers and over 200,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel, Fearless & Far. Corey is thrilled, but slightly unnerved, as he proudly displays the dark burn marks etched on the armpits of his light grey hoodie during a crew body check.
The Bulls of Fire Mexico fireworks festival is Corey’s personal favourite among the films he’s made while travelling to about 50 countries and exploring some of the world’s best unknown attractions. “Toros de Fuego has to be on top of the list of most dangerous festivals in the world," says the 33-year-old travel filmmaker and adventure videographer. "You really need to pay attention as people push bulls full of fireworks at the crowd. However, the people are so friendly, and it’s a beautiful thing to see.”
After graduating from marine biology at UNB, Corey backpacked the world to volunteer as a research assistant for scientists studying ocean conservation, stoking his wanderlust and love of sea creatures.
“I wanted to experience what it was like working with my favourite animals in the field. I joined scientists studying coral reefs on a deserted Indonesian island and sea turtles in Cuba. I brought a camera along to show my family and friends what I was seeing, and it all started from there,” he says.
From cascading down waterfalls in Venezuela and mountain biking on an abandoned bobsled track in Bosnia to slurping giant water bugs in Thailand and eating silkworm pupae in China, Corey has found his groove capturing on video the thrills and oddities of experiences that may be shocking to North American viewers but normal for locals of that culture.
In 2017, he was chosen as one of three hosts for BBC’s The Travel Show, which is fed to about 350 million households globally, after a producer saw his video documenting the running of the bulls in Spain.
“I’m their adventure guy and it’s an honour. I grew up watching BBC’s Planet Earth and Blue Planet. On the show we’ve sand boarded down a singing sand dune in Kazakhstan, climbed to the top of a 100-metre redwood tree in California, and explored shipwrecks at the bottom of the Black Sea.”
Corey has turned his lack of formal film training into an advantage. “I credit getting the BBC hosting job with being self-taught. I was not a natural at speaking on or off camera. I had to work hard to make it fluid. While dealing with the nerves and embarrassment that come with this job in the beginning, I developed a unique style that seems to work.”
Corey embraces adventure, no matter how strange or weird. “I recorded a series last summer in the Northern part of the Philippines. It features ex-headhunters, hanging coffins, and me meeting the oldest tattoo artist in the world. She’s 102. I won’t easily be forgetting some of my experiences and misadventures up there.”
His appetite for exploration and adventure, and sharing his experiences with viewers, shows no signs of diminishing. “The world is such an amazing place. I cross two things off my bucket list and add four. The more I peel back, the more I find. I don’t think I’ll ever stop,” he says.
“Coming up this year I have the world’s biggest Orange Fight in Italy, visiting the Gateway to Hell in Turkmenistan, and maybe even a cross-border volleyball game between USA and Mexico. I get to be professionally curious, and I feel blessed for that.”
