Florian Kohler Interview - November 2013 by Suzanne Smith 1. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? Where did you grow up? Tell me about your home life. When I was a child I wanted to be a pilot. I grew up In Kingersheim, a small city on the northeast border of France. I am 15 min from Germany and 15 minutes away from Switzerland. I had a normal happy life when I was a kid, usually always in the first 3 of my class when I was young. It was a nice peaceful area, I have man friends from my childhood there and I keep in touch every time I have the chance to go back there. I studied a lot during my younger years. I was born in France the 10 of july 1988, speak 3 languages, I am licensed Optometrist and hold a black belt in Judo.
medium players after my shows. But of course I started to love the game and decided to take it to another level. I then went in Germany , about a year ago now and played every weekend there against Martin Schwab, former German champion. All I did was racking in 9 balls and play straight pool with him. Sometimes 10 hours in a row. He loved my attitude of never giving up so he started to give me more advice and taught me some. Shortly I reached a great level and now I can almost play anybody beside pros and not be afraid of being bad. The only trouble I have is, since I learnt very recently my knowledge is limited so when I play 9 ball for example if the table is not a run out I am missing knowledge to play the correct safe or I attack too much the table due to trick shots.
2. Tell me about how you got your start in Trick Shots. I started trick shots at the age of 18 when I received a small pool table for my birthday. I had no clue how to play since I barely ever touched the cue before so I checked online to learn and I found Trick shot video. No instructional were to my liking so to learn I started by doing the shots I saw in videos. 3. What trick shot artists, if any, have inspired what you do? Why? Mike Massey and Semih Sayginer. First Semih Sayginer, his style and shot selection are just beautiful. Lots of skill shots, masse, huge curves and new things. Very little props. Mike Massey because he is one of the greatest pool artists of all time and also very entertaining. Mike Massey is also ‘my mentor’ even though we didn’t practice much together, every time we have the opportunity we will play together. Mike comes often to visit me at my parent’s house in France. There he is really happy to play 3 cushion and artistic billiard with me while enjoying the great food . So, Semih for the shot making and the style, Mike for the attitude , the entertainment and the love of the game.
Anyway, with Straight pool it’s different, not much long shot to play so even if I don’t practice I can still have fun without missing too many balls. Then you have all the rack to analyse, how to break it, and trick shots can be useful there. So when I am alone and bored with trick shot I will usually play straight pool. I have a high run of 72 now, and my goal is to reach 100 within a few years. It’s a shame this game isn’t played enough anymore, it’s really a beautiful game. 5. What are your proudest moments in your career, please describe the sensations you went through when they occurred, anything that stands out about them in your mind now, looking back. The first Venom DVD was definitely a highlight in my life, everything went better than expected and my skill and creativity were perfect that moment. It’s a sensation of ‘you can accomplish everything.’
4. Aside from trick shots, what is your favorite pool game to play? Why? Straight pool easily. Like I told you I am a trick shot player that never learnt ‘real’ pool properly so after I started to get better in trick shots and traveling I faced something very awkward to me, I had to play people after my shows and that moment people couldn’t understand why I wasn’t good at pool. No matter if I tried to explain to them that is was two different sports, that bad impression was there. I decided that I should change some things and get better even if I had no love for the game at that moment. I then forced myself to play a little bit of pool every week and found friends to do so. Of course with my skills I quickly reached an ‘acceptable’ level, enough to be able to beat ¾ of the Sneaky Pete Mafia Magazine - February 2014
Then it’s been a few others: That one time in Korea I played with Semih Sayginer on TV, he kicked my ass in 3 cushions but I beat him in the trick shot event which was insane for me at that moment. Then there was the ‘Juanjo artistic cup’ where I beat all those legends on the billiard table such as Mike Massey, Roberto Rojas,
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