We didn’t create a monster. The monster was always there.

Photo by Madison DeVore Location: Tiger Schulmann's Chelsea

By Madison DeVore 

Photo Essay: Mark-Eugene Garcia Profile 

​On his first day of kickboxing class, Mark-Eugene Garcia learned some of the basics: jabs, hook punches and front kicks. It was a challenge. 
“I was just dripping in sweat and feeling disgusting — but at the same time — feeling alive,” he said. 

Growing up, Garcia, 45, didn’t do team sports. He was a marching band and theater kid. His school even allowed music as a foreign language and marching band as a physical education requirement, he added. ​

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Photo by Madison DeVore Fighters: Mark-Eugene Garcia and Oscar Caguana Location: Tiger Schulmann's Chelsea

Garcia now works at The Drama Book Shop in midtown Manhattan. Garcia lives in Queens with his husband, Rodrigo Bolaños, and their two cats: Guapo and Muñecx (not Mucinex, he added). Both Garcia and Bolaños love theater and have even worked on shows together. 
“Now I joke that he’s always been in the business of making my dreams come true,” Garcia said of his husband. Garcia can write a scene so outlandish, but Bolaños will help him make it happen. 
Much of Garcia’s life revolves around the theater. ​

Photo by Madison DeVore Fighters: Mark-Eugene Garcia and Oscar Caguana Location: Tiger Schulmann's Chelsea

“I needed something vastly different,” Garcia said, as to why he began kickboxing classes. “I wanted something as far away from theater as possible,” he said. 
He’s now been a student at Tiger Schulmann’s Martial Arts in Chelsea for over a year. “I wanted to kind of challenge myself to prove that I still had some new tricks,” he said
​Over the year, Garcia has increased how often he goes to class — now four times a week. He said both his physical stamina and confidence have gone through the roof. 
“It’s become part of my identity, I think. And I think it makes me better at everything else I do,” Garcia said. 

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Photo by Madison DeVore Fighters: Mark-Eugene Garcia and Oscar Caguana Location: Tiger Schulmann's Chelsea

There are parallels, even, between his paths in theater and kickboxing. 
Kickboxing is a mental sport too, he explained. One of the hardest parts is leaving the planned “choreography,” he said — or the combinations the students practice. When control is given to the student, it’s like a freestyle in dancing, he said as he recalled taking a salsa class years ago. Creating something — improvising — on the fly isn’t easy, he said.
“I think my biggest struggle will always be getting out of my head and learning to let go,” Garcia said. The biggest note he receives in kickboxing classes is to loosen up, he shared. 

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Photo by Madison DeVore Location: Tiger Schulmann's Chelsea

Garcia said a goal of his is to discover new things about himself and be the best version of himself he can be. Kickboxing is helping him do that, he said. When Garcia upped his classes from twice a week to four times a week, he said to an instructor,“I hope you know that you’ve created a monster.” 


​Garcia said his instructor replied, “We didn’t create a monster. The monster was always there.”

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