Kym the Reptile Man
“I grew up with reptiles,” explains Kym Beckton, better known by his working handle ‘Kym the Reptile Man’.
“When I was a kid, I had three older brothers and they always would bring animals home and I just ended up following that passion.
“As I got older, my older brother and myself, we'd go out in the bush catching snakes during the summer time and we'd bring them back home — Mum, would hit the roof!” he recalls with a laugh.
From chasing snakes and lizards in the Central Coast bushland, Kym has turned his obsession with reptiles and amphibians into a full-time career, today travelling all over the state with his animals and giving anywhere up to 500 shows in a year.
“I've been doing displays for about 18 years, I started off when my son was a baby and I couldn't stand in front of a crowd to save my life!” says Kym, which is hard to believe if you see him perform today.
With quickfire jokes and banter Kym captivates his audiences with ease, and has people of all ages laughing throughout his well-polished performance.
But it’s about more than just entertainment for Kym, who sees it as a way to get people thinking differently about the environment we live in — and think differently about snakes in particular.
“I just want to break down those stereotypical images we have that snakes are vicious animals, or that ‘the only good snake's a dead snake’,” says Kym.
“It's not true, they serve a purpose and as you get older you learn more about their welfare, their habitats and then you learn about the destruction of their habitats and so it took me on a path of conservation.
“It became more about wanting to make people aware of the wildlife that we have, that we need to appreciate it, and give people an opportunity to see that these animals are not aggressive as they have been portrayed to be.
“So that's basically what I want to get out to people and schools and childcare centres and shopping centres… I want to try and change that mindset with the younger generation, because that's where our future lies — with them.”