Feature
Dream Job
The Hosts of Xtreme 4x4 Talk About the Perfect Gig
story & photos by Steve Temple
additional photography by Dave Merkel
There’s a saying that you’re not a success in life until you love what you do for a living. If that’s the case, then Ian Johnson and Jessi Combs are in hog heaven. Or call it an off-roader’s paradise, depending on your perspective. That’s because they get paid to do what they’d probably do for free anyway — work on the really bitchin’ machines. (Well, maybe not totally for free, since they still gotta eat.) They’re the hosts of Xtreme 4x4, a program that covers everything from installing an off-road suspension on a Banks’ All-Terrain Dodge Ram to fabricating a Formula Toyota Rock Crawler.
Miked up and ready to go.
How did they land this dream job? Both of them submitted demo tapes in response to nationwide talent search advertised on the Powerblock TV programs from RTM Productions. The producers winnowed down more than 3800 applicants to just 15 candidates, which included Combs and Johnson. At the auditions in Nashville, Tennessee, Combs was the only female out of the entire group, and had already done some television appearances. Johnson, a certified mechanic and shop teacher by profession, was in an episode of Monster Garage. So they both stood out of the crowd. But there’s more to their respective backgrounds that landed them this plum job.
Obviously it’s funny to Ian — not to Jessi.
Even though Combs seems like a bit of a tomboy at first glance, attired in greasy jeans and work boots, and adorned with tattoos and nut-and-bolt earrings, she admits to having a softer, girly side as well. So a few years ago, when she expressed a desire to attend WyoTech, a nationwide automotive school, her parents were mortified. Hardly the typical career path for females, she encountered a lot of male bias along the way. “It was a big hurdle, their seeing a girl who actually works on cars and trucks,” she laughs.
Combs’ enthusiasm for the greasy side of automotive projects may have been inherited. “It’s in the genes,” she claims. Her great-grandmother raced cars back in the 1920s, her mother raced first-generation Blazers, and her father is a mechanical engineer. Put them all together and you get a natural-born gearhead.
And we’re rolling tape.
Add to that growing up in the Black Hills of South Dakota, a well-known attraction for 4-wheelers. “Rock crawling is my Zen,” she says. She favors Toyota trucks, and currently owns a Tundra and a Land Cruiser.
Since the guys headed for the hills to go wheelin’ usually told her to go home and play with her dolls, she felt she had to attend WyoTech in Laramie, Wyoming, to prove herself. It was there where she honed her skills, studying collision/refinishing, chassis fabrication, and high-performance engines. Defying the odds, she did so at the top of her graduating class in all disciplines. Her achievements led to immediate employment to fabricate, paint, and customize a 1964 Mercury Cyclone bracket car for the school’s SEMA show car. Jessi also appeared as a guest fabricator in the “SpeedAir” and “Cherry Nova” episodes of the TLC television program Overhaulin. In addition to her packed schedule as host of Xtreme 4x4, she finds time for snowboarding, wakeboarding, rock-climbing, and of course 4-wheeling. It’s all part of showing even a lady can get dirty, build, wheel and have just as much fun as the boys.
This taping features the build up of the 4 Wheel Parts project vehicle. The show will air on Spike TV in January.
As for the other half of the Xtreme 4x4 show, Ian Johnson began his training north of the border in Ontario, Canada. He started working on off-road vehicles before he could even drive. Working with his father, one of Johnson’s first projects was a 1985 Jeep CJ, which he fitted with a custom suspension and body lift, a Mopar 360 small block and 35-inch knobbies.
Of course, auto shop became Johnson’s favorite subject in high school, and later became his trade as well. He received his Automotive Service Technician Master License as well as his Heavy Truck and Coach License through a General Motors education program. From there he worked as a Transmission Specialist for a few years at GM dealers in Eastern Ontario, Canada.
  Jessi and Ian setting up for the shoot of their show at the 4 Wheel Parts Denver Truck Fest. |
Feeling a need to share his knowledge with other fellow gearheads, Johnson next enrolled in Technological Education at Queen’s University and earned a certificate to become a shop teacher. Remembering what it was like to be a student who dreamed about cars and trucks, Johnson developed courses that engaged the students’ interests in high performance, so not surprisingly his shop course enrollment doubled in one year.
On a whim, Ian submitted his resume to the guys at the Discovery Channel’s television series Monster Garage, and was selected to be a guest fabricator who helped build the “Dead Santa Christmas float.”
The XTREME TV crew and manufacturers technical support people.
Given Johnson’s background as a Master Technician and shop teacher, it’s no surprise that Combs gives him credit for a lot of the planning and organization of the Xtreme 4x4 on-air buildups. It’s no small task putting so much information into a brief show. “Everything has to go so fast,” Johnson points out. “It’s like compressing a 76-minute lesson plan into 17-minute script.”
That requires a shooting schedule that sometimes means a week or more of 20-hour days, with multiple takes for the same operation. The hurry-up-and-wait format of producing a TV show was a big change for Combs. “For the camera, we have to do it over and over again,” she notes. “I have a hard time stopping. I just feel like saying, ‘Come on, let’s go, let’s build this thing. I’m stoked!’”
4 Wheel Parts President, Greg Adler helps get Jessi set up for a spin in his CORR race truck.
Despite the challenges, Combs speaks highly of the experience and her co-host: “We have a good chemistry on camera. I feel right at home.” She’s comfortable enough to take friendly jabs at her co-host, mocking him as a “retard” in one episode.
Johnson takes it all in stride, having heard a lot of juvenile comments during his years as a high school shop teacher, and has equal respect for Combs’ skills as a fabricator. Unlike her, though, he finds a lot in common with his former job and current position as TV host. “My biggest surprise was how similar it is to teaching,” he says. “We really try to keep the how-to aspect in the show.”
Once completed, Ian and Jessi take the project truck out for a test run.
Combs agrees, and adds, “The show isn’t about just learning how to build off-road rigs. You can use these skills to fabricate stuff for any vehicle.”
Have their lives changed much with that inevitable celebrity status that comes with being on TV? No, not really, Combs says. “The fan base is really cool.” Not only that, they don’t expect her to stay home and play with dolls anymore.