Meet the Green Man
By:Joe Schulman, Herald Staff Writer March 30, 2001
He can knock dragonflies off fence posts, and, in his prime, he was cutting cigarettes in two with a slingshot.
Meet the Green Man. He's a slingshot carrying, vegetable selling, television star.
Theo Lanier, known to many as the "Green Man," recently taped a segment for the Turner Broadcasting Station's show "Ripley's Believe It or Not" to showcase his slingshot talents. According to a representative at the show, the segment has not been assigned a date to air, but it could be this season.
Lanier, 58, is more than a just a man with a slingshot. As the Green Man, Lanier sold green vegetables on the street for years in Statesboro. He even had a doll made and he has a chant for his business. He became so popular as the Green Man, few people even know his real name, Lanier said.
"Everybody knows the Green Man," Lanier said with a smile. "Everybody."
Although the nickname and vegetables have made him famous in Statesboro, Lanier wants another kind of fame: movie stardom.
Ask Lanier about his movie ideas and he will set up an entire scene complete with barroom brawl and beer bottles flying. What weapon is best in this fight?
According to the Green Man, it only takes a slingshot to save the day.
"A fight breaks out and you reach to grab a bottle to do something, and when you do I can shoot the bottle clear out of your hand," Lanier said.
Then, at the end of the scene, another man raises a bottle in the fight. With a smile, Lanier says with his raised slingshot, "Don't even try it."
Lanier also has a director in mind to set up his film: Spike Lee.
"I'm hoping for the chance one day to get up to Spike Lee and make a movie they call 'One Shot,'" Lanier said.
The name "One Shot" is not just a description of his skills; it is also the name of one of his slingshots.
An excellent marksman, Lanier does not mind showing off his talents. But it has nothing to do with ego. Lanier has enjoyed hunting with a sling shot for 50 years.
"I'm 58 and I started when I was eight," Lanier said.
He first started using the slingshot when his dog would point out small animals. Lanier said he needed a way to hunt them other than throwing rocks because they usually got away. From there, he practiced the slingshot every day.
"I usually go out and shoot 15 minutes a day," Lanier said. "I'll shoot cans and bottles."
Lanier became such a good shot - able to roll across the ground and let loose a marble, ball bearing, or other ammo and hit is target - that he began hunting regularly for food for his family.
"They'd tell me what they wanted, rabbit or squirrel," Lanier said. "It was kind of like ordering from a menu and I'd go out and get it."
Lanier usually needs just one shot to hit his target.
"If that squirrel stops running up that tree for just one second, he's mine," Lanier said as showed off his firing technique.
Most people, when firing anything from a gun to slingshot, love to aim down the barrel at their target. Not Lanier. He holds the slingshot, which he carved and named, around his waist or lower and takes aim.
His range is anywhere from 20 feet and up.
"I can stand about 150 feet away, something like that," Lanier said.
He owns about 15 slingshots each with a unique name. They sound like nicknames of guns that you might find in an action movie, another of Lanier's pastimes. Names like One Shot, Take Down, and Don't Miss are written with black marker. Some have pictures of rabbits and other animals on them.
The rest of the slingshot comes from a slingshot repair kit he buys from a store.
His best shot ever might be hard to believe for anyone who has never seen him in action. Lanier said he once hit a bee while it was in flight.
Solly Knight, a friend of Lanier's, knows the "Green Man" is a good shot. He let him knock a bottle off his head.
"I wasn't worried," Knight said. "I know how good he is."
Lanier was not expecting to get on television when he went to California. He was visiting the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum in Hollywood when he told one of the workers there he was an excellent shot. A quick demonstration was all it took and shortly after a film crew visited.
The segment could be Lanier's break. But until then, he'll continue shooting every day and dreaming of his big break in the movies.
"I just put [the movies] into my mind, seeing what, you know, I can come up with," Lanier said. "But I can do whatever they want me to do with this slingshot."
