Jim was raised in New York City on a richly varied but steady fare of theatre. By the age of three he'd seen his first Broadway musical, and by six he was acting in his first school production. In the years that followed he performed in many shows at school, including "The King and I", "How to Succeed in Business" and "Fiddler on the Roof". He also trained with professional Broadway directors, choreographers and vocal coaches in the government funded Teenage Performing Arts Workshop summer programs, doing such shows as "Annie Get Your Gun" and "Oliver", where he starred in the title role. Subsequently Jim appeared in community theatre productions like "Once Upon a Mattress", and did a year long training with the American Academy of Dramatic Arts

Paralleling his involvement in traditional musical theatre, Jim took a strong interest early on in creating new musical theatre. In high school he became very involved with the parody musical tradition known as "SING", both as a leading writer and performer. Most notably, he played the fiery prosecuting attourney in a spoof on Mother Goose rhymes entitled "Up Against the Wall, Mother!" It was also around this time that he began writing his first opera, "Buffalo Nation".

This trend of creating new musical theatre continued through college where, for his senior thesis, Jim produced "Songs of Forgotten Relatives", publicly performing the role of Pan for the very first time. Out of college he wrote and acted in his own shows too, including "Songs of the Four Directions", which played throughout New Mexico. Years later, with music partner Mazatl Galindo, Jim created a new touring show for the Los Angeles Music Center based on the Aztec legend of how music was brought to Earth. In this show both Mazatl and Jim played multiple roles, enacting a sort of animated storytelling accompanied by pre-Columbian instruments.

Out of all this work evolved a passion for the performance of unique personas that are part human and part animal. Inspired by Pan, who combines qualities of both man and goat, Jim began exploring other characters like Jaguar Man, Bird Man, Snake Man (see Snakedancer), Shiva, etc. These characters, or personas, started showing up at all sorts of events, from stage productions to community rituals, parties, costume balls, weddings, festivals and parades. Simultaneously other sorts of characters like Headhunter and Genie began to appear.

Today Jim draws from this uniquely eclectic repetoire in offering his services as a performance artist. He combines musicality, dance and humor with wild costuming, face and body painting, and a strong theatrical sensibility to create a mythic, magical experience for all observers, both young and old.