Who is Handy Jack?
Hi there! I'm Handy Jack! My real name is John Zuerlein...but you can call me Jack. Or Handy. Or John. Or JMZ. Or Johnny Z. At this point, I'll answer to pretty much anything.
I was born in Omaha, NE and grew up in a big family of 7 kids, with two amazing parents who encouraged my creativity and curiosities. (Luckily it was the early 80's, so kids were still allowed to play with electricity and saw blades and lawn darts.) After ruining a good number of my dad's tools, he quickly figured out that it would be easier to teach me how to use them than to have to replace them. So early in life, he taught me the basics of fixing and building.
I went to school for a degree in Musical Theatre and became a professional actor. I'm happy to say that I had a very successful career which took me all over the globe, meeting life-long friends and visiting amazing cities along the way. I've lived all over the country with extended stays in Kansas City, MO and Minneapolis, MN. After spending three years on the road performing in the Broadway tour of Mamma Mia!, I moved to NYC in January of 2013. In January 2019, I moved BACK to Minneapolis, where I currently live with my life partner, Henry.
I started HANDY JACK in 1999 when I was first living in Minneapolis. I was terrible at waiting tables, so being a handyman was always a helpful side job. When I moved to NYC, a chance meeting introduced me to the world of interior design and I quickly started working with a number of designers. Don't worry though, I still have time for your project!
It became very clear to me that people have a hard time finding contractors willing to do small jobs. While I am capable of doing large remodelling projects, that's not generally what I do. HANDY JACK really is just me. Occasionally, I have a helper when I need one, but mostly it's just me, so small jobs are great!
So if you have a project you need some help with...shoot me an email by clicking here.
