Max Massiah is a man of many talents. The television host and executive producer of the Maximum Sports Combat and Strength Show is also Max the Boxing Coach/Referee/Judge, Max the Second Dan Martial Artist, Max the Artist, Max the Actor and Max the Saxophonist. On October 10, 2015 in Pennsylvania, USA, Max, surrounded by grandmasters and movie stars from all over the world, received the coveted Hall of Fame Award for his extraordinary and dedicated contributions to Martial Arts through his television programme, Maximum Sports Combat and Strength.
Max started out having to live up to the name Massiah. As a child, he was flanked by his father, grandfather and uncles all headmasters, lawyers, magistrates and judges. “As a Massiah, I was taught by my father the importance of discipline, neatness and preparation. When we went anywhere and we came home we had to clean our shoes. We couldn’t wait until the next time we were going out… My father used to like to say, ‘what is worth doing is worth doing good or don’t do it at all.’ He was a perfectionist and I see much of my father in myself. One of my peeves is lack of punctuality,” Max said.
Being taught discipline, neatness, preparation and punctuality made life easier for him when he later joined the Guyana National Service in 1975. His stay lasted until 1979 and it was during this time that he joined the band and attained a grade four in Music Theory through the Royal School of Music in London. The saxophone has been his specialty since 1977. As a musician he’s played for ‘Expression 3’ at the Theatre Guild in 2015 and as recent as last month at the Concert for the Elderly which was held at the Promenade Gardens.
The saxophonist is also a motorcycle enthusiast and fanatic who represented Guyana at drag racing competitions in Trinidad during 1986 and 1987.
Max’s next occupation came by chance. One day a friend of his asked him to paint a signboard for his shop. The preciseness in his work led to other requests and many other signboards went up with Max’s signature artwork on
