Meet Everett’s "Sinister Minister"
Editor’s Note: Originally published September 27, 2017. Updated October 28, 2021.
By day Everett native Jack Murrin is a mild-mannered medic who works for the city. He looks and acts completely normal.
Before we go on, I need to stress his normalcy.
Married, two kids. He is, like, ball cap/Mike Rowe wholesome. Eye contact. Smiles. A truly nice guy.
Before.
Murrin also sometimes puts on dragon boots and homemade body armor of his own design.
Sometimes he is a 7-foot blood-spewing rock demigod. He is Dr. Love. The Demon.
He becomes Gene Simmons.
And I have to say... this persona? It’s damn believable.
After.
Murrin fell in love with KISS when he was an 8 year old kid living in Marysville. He got the Destroyer album for his birthday. He sang the power ballad “Beth” in a lip-synching contest in junior high (in that incarnation he was Peter Criss).
7 years ago, on a whim, Murrin dressed up as Gene Simmons for a Halloween party. He made his own costume from catcher’s shin guards, football shoulder pads, scraps of wood from his garage. The makeup took two hours to apply.
He showed up to the party, blew people away.
That experience was the start of something.
As Gene Simmons, Murrin has since won over $5,500 in costume contests.
Murrin’s daughter, also a KISS fan, sometimes joins the act as a female Paul Stanley.
A few years ago she talked Murrin into putting an ad online, a chance to make some money. Why not? Hell, there are character actors on the streets of Vegas who rake in over a hundred bucks an hour.
Additional bonus: he had just recently been ordained through the internet.
"The Demon" fully endorses The Loft Coffee on Hewitt.
So Jack Murrin made a Craig’s List post advertising his services as a licensed minister. "The Sinister Minister" to be exact.
Oh, and BTW, he would come dressed up as a blood-spewing demon.
He got an email the very next day from an engaged couple in Enumclaw. Would he officiate?
He certainly would.
Their wedding was held a few months later in their double-wide trailer.
I watched a video of the ceremony on YouTube.
In the video the groom-to-be wears a flannel shirt and a Dale Earnhardt, Jr. cap. Gene Simmons stands in front of a fish tank and reads them their vows.
The couple are thrilled. They love Murrin’s act.
His trademark line? “You may now KISS the bride.”
Too good.
Since then, Jack Murrin has done private birthday parties and has another wedding on the books.
One birthday party he appeared at was for a friend of a friend. Her sixteen-year-old daughter has Down’s Syndrome. The birthday girl was floored when Murrin walked in as Simmons. She couldn’t believe it, held his hand for hours.
At that party Murrin fake played a bass guitar to “God of Thunder”— a classic Simmons number. He had a live backing band.
I can feel the excitement of this experience when he tells me the story.
I can tell there's still something of the 8 year old KISS fan in him.
“I love putting the costume on,” says Murrin. He has a reserved, A-type personality. He spends most of his days in an ambulance, addressing grim emergency situations.
“The costume makes people happy—it makes them think that it’s a guy, a real guy—even though they know it’s not Gene Simmons.”
He attends KISS concerts where he dominates the persona. He makes lesser, out-of-shape Gene Simmonses jealous. They recognize his towering height and commanding presence. Murrin tells me this with a hint of pride. Not better-than-you pride, but more like a confidence in his act.
One of Everett's claims to fame: we're home, in all likelihood, the most realistic Gene Simmons impersonator in the region.
Possibly the country.
_
Sometimes, when he’s putting on the costume of The Demon, Jack Murrin imagines what it would be like to be on stage as a rock god with thousands of people cheering.
It's an empowering feeling.
He feels the change come over him once more as he applies the makeup and laces up the dragon boots.
"Any time I put on the costume it's gonna be a good day."
Wanna book Gene Simmons for your next show-stopping party or event? Contact Jack Murrin directly.
Phone: (425) 359-2046
Email: jackwmurrin@icloud.com
Richard Porter is a writer for Live in Everett. He lives here and drinks coffee.
