'Bring the fun': The reigning King of Cheer spreads joy at Blue Bombers game

The crowd at the Winnipeg Blue Bombers game were in for a special treat on Friday with a visit from the reigning King of Cheer.

Cameron Hughes attended his first-ever Blue Bombers game last week, where he danced, cheered and handed out t-shirts. He said he’s all about taking fun to the next level.

“I go to sporting events around the world and bring the fun, ignite the crowd,” he said in an interview with CTV Morning Live on Tuesday.

At Friday’s game, Hughes handed out more than 100 shirts, many of which he was wearing at once. The King of Cheer then tore off each shirt and threw them into the crowd.

“In the off-season I train on how to take them off without them all coming off, if you know what I mean,” he said.

“When you’re in the moment, anything can happen. That’s sort of the magic of it all.”

Hughes began his role as a crowd igniter at a 1994 Ottawa Senators game, where he noticed no one was cheering. To get the crowd going, he decided to get up and start dancing.

“Then the crowd loved it. I kept dancing that night and they came up to me after the game and said, ‘Hey, you want to come back and do it?” he said.

From there he started dancing at Ottawa sporting events and began to branch out to other cities. In his time as the King of Cheer, he’s been to 1,600 events in 10 countries.

“It took a lot to get here, it’s not like it just suddenly happens,” Hughes said.

“But every time you get that ‘yes,’ where a team says let’s do something different for our fans, let’s provide value entertainment, how lucky am I to be part of that?”

He noted the crowd at the Bombers game was “unbelievable” and “next level.”

“I’m not just saying this, but [they were] so nice,” Hughes said, adding that he got to see Dancing Gabe.

Hughes details short stories from throughout his career in his book titled ‘King of Cheer.’ The audiobook comes out in August.

- With files from CTV’s Rachel Lagace.