BBC's Sporting Witness with simon watts

Since the 1990s, Canadian Cameron Hughes has entertained millions of sports fans with a unique routine based on dad-dancing in the stands and giving out t-shirts. He’s managed to make a professional career out of firing up teams in the NBA, the NFL and NHL ice hockey. Simon Watts talks to Cameron Hughes about his autobiography "King of Cheer", and a job that involves a surprising amount of training.

Canada’s very own ‘crowd ignitor’ gets paid to cheer at games

We all love an over-the-top fan at a sports game, but imagine being a fan full-time. Canada’s very own Cameron Hughes is a professional “crowd ignitor” and over the last almost 30 years has spent time cheering at every kind of sporting event, including basketball, hockey and soccer games.

"KING OF CHEER" FACT SHEET

King of Cheer: Stories of Getting Up, Showing Up, and Never Giving Up From the World’s Most Electrifying Crowd Ignitor is available now!

Secrets From A Professional Sports Dancer

When professional crowd igniter Cameron Hughes danced his way into a room full of event professionals on a Wednesday night at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, he had one job—to teach people the power of cheering for themselves and others.

Part entertainer, part wild man,

meet the professional fan

Although he has the energy and flair of an all-star, he was never much of an athlete. In high school in Canada he was 6-feet tall, yet he got cut from the basketball team four straight years. Since then he's found a way to stand out from the crowd while standing in it. 

Golden Knights’ ‘Igniter’ wins pro sports’ top-act award

Hughes, a man in need of a bouncy house, has topped the 2018 Best Act category in the annual GameOps.com awards. The web platform is considered the premiere sports-entertainment site in the U.S. Hughes, dubbed “The Igniter,” also won the award in 2017 and 2012.

Novak Djokovic had a dance off with a superfan

Cameron Hughes is described as a tennis "superfan" who is a regular at late-night US Open matches and often dances in between games to get the crowd fired up.

One man's quest to get Americans up out of their seats and cheering.

Djokovic's impromptu dance performance wasn't actually impromptu: it was an homage to the balletic stylings that Hughes had used to entertain the crowd throughout the day.