Monkey see, Monkey do. Boy, do he ever.

It’s a cool late Sunday afternoon on the University of Hawaii-Manoa campus, and the 26-year-old Kaimuki man trying to make a name for himself as Fire Monkey Leroy has taken the opportunity to claim a patch of grass outside the Hawaii Imin International Conference Center for a little practice.

Just what Monkey is practicing is not immediately clear.

He takes a breath and executes a series of spins, his feet nimbly reversing direction as he rotates a quarterstaff from arm to back to opposite arm and back. He ducks, leaps, spins again.

Spilling from a large duffel bag nearby are nunchucks, a fireknife, a dragon staff and other martial arts weapons and performance props. A large portable cube speaker thumps at scarcely noticeable volume.

“I don’t have any real background in martial arts or fireknife dancing,” he says. “I watch and copy and try to come up with my own thing.”

Never much of a joiner, Monkey said he drifted through Kaimuki Middle School and Kaimuki High School concerned mostly with skateboarding and hanging out at Kahala Mall, maybe a little pickup basketball if the spirit moved. Just a guy named Leroy passing time until something worthwhile availed itself.

A few years ago, by his reckoning, his internal fire monkey awoke.

“I was bored, and then all of a sudden I got into climbing trees,” he said.

Combining his background in skating and his fascination with YouTube parkour videos, he started by running up palm trees and launching himself into a backward flip. From there came more sophisticated maneuvers (inspired by Asian martial arts) on more complex tree structures — branching out, as it were.

Over the course of two or three years, Monkey — now dubbed by his friends — began to formulate the unique performance style that he now exhibits in public and private performances, from military parties to the old M Nightclub to Kawaii Kon.

He continues to look to a wide variety of sources to inform his movements. He has, for example, sat and watched seniors in the park practicing the Chinese martial art “wing chun” and integrated its footwork and hand movements into his own style.

Monkey added “Fire” to his name and game early on, adopting aspects of traditional Samoan fireknife dancing and Chinese performance arts as he doused his weapons with Coleman Camp Fuel and set them in elliptical flight.

Over the summer, Monkey and a group of friends performed at center stage at Foster Botanical Garden’s “A Midsummer Night’s Gleam,” solidifying his desire to make a living off of his eclectic, slightly eccentric art.

And while his performances have not yet yielded enough to be considered a reliable source of income, Monkey said he enjoys making audiences happy and, in particular, lending his abilities to good causes.

“I love performing,” said Monkey, who continues to make ends meet driving for Bite Squad and Lyft and working at a hotel. “And I really want to work more with nonprofits that do positive things for the community.”

To view Monkey’s performances, visit his YouTube channel (FireMonkeyLeroy). For more information, call 429-7063.

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@staradvertiser.com.