Some people would be all shook up about being named after the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. But not Elvis Stojko. The Ontario native is at home in the spotlight. How to explain his three world championships, two Olympic silver medals and seven Canadian championships?

Now, after two decades as a competitive skater, Stojko, 30, has jumped up into the pro ranks. He’s coming to Portland Friday, Jan. 10, for a 7:30 p.m. show at the Cumberland County Civic Center. Accompanying him will be solo skaters Dorothy Hamill, Nancy Kerrigan, Victor Petrenko, Philippe Candeloro, Surya Bonaly, Rudy Galindo, Nicole Bobek, Dan Hollander, Irina Grigorian and pairs Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev, Isabella Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler, Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerod Swallow and Vladimir Besedin and Oleksiy Polishchuk.

This tour marks Stojko’s first time out with Champions on Ice, now celebrating its 25th anniversary.

“I had planned on doing the winter tour this year,” Stojko said during a break from tour rehearsals. “For a couple of years, I knew I’d be retiring this year [2002].”

By turning pro, the chiseled Canadian leaves behind the amateur realm, where officials, especially judges, didn’t always appreciate his innovations.

“They tried to understand what I was doing,” Stojko reasoned. “Judges try to control which way skating would go, what it should look like. But that should be the athletes’ choice. I had to push the door open to do martial arts, to skate to rock and techno. I carved a place for myself, and brought something new to the sport, and changed it in a positive way.”

Stojko was among the first to bring an advanced level of athleticism to the sport. He is credited as the first man to perform a quadruple-double jump combination and a quadruple-triple jump combination.

So is having jumps count more than choreography a good thing? Stojko certainly believes so.

“You need the meat and potatoes,” he said insistently. “If you take the jumping out, it becomes too easy. If you want it to stay a sport, you have to push things physically. Otherwise, it just becomes ballet on ice. I mean, just because runners are doing below-10-second 100 meters, you wouldn’t tell them to slow down.”

As a professional, Stojko continues to push the envelope. On his SK8 with Elvis Stojko and Friends tour this past fall, he sought a dance-club feel, with a DJ, freestyle skating, hydroblading, gymnastics moves and a couple of 8-foot ramps that he skated down.

How has Stojko’s practice routine changed since he turned pro?

“I’m not doing all the big quads I used to,” he said. “I want to let my body relax a little bit, after I’ve been pushing it for 20 years.”

What Stojko and his coach and longtime choreographer Uschi Keszler have been injecting instead is more hydroblading, spinning moves done with one hand on the ice.

“It adds another twist to it,” Stojko said. “Now there’s standing, jumping, spinning and lower moves close to the ice.”

A big part of Stojko’s life has been the martial arts, currently Chinese kung fu. He said they have added to his skating.

“There’s the mental attitude, focus, power, aggressiveness, control,” he explained. “It’s a way of life, a way of thinking, being at peace, fighting the demons inside yourself, so you can be happy in life.”

Stojko’s leisure-time pursuits aren’t necessarily those one would associate with a figure skater, as he enjoys motocross, jet skiing and snowmobiling. He sees no contradiction between his precise vocation and his more risky hobbies.

“I don’t push beyond my limits, so I’m not risking myself,” he said. “I keep a good head on my shoulders and have a good time. It gets me away from the rink, to get out and have some fun.”

Beside skating, Stojko is taking voice classes and hopes to find more acting jobs. He was Robin Williams’ skating double in the feature film “Death to Smoochy” and played a hockey player in the TV movie “Ice Angel.” He’s in negotiation for a role in an upcoming children’s TV series in Canada. He also wants to try more auto racing (his favorite car is a 1997 Porsche 911 twin turbo).

“I can prepare for those, because I don’t have the stress of competition anymore, which is nice,” he said.

For tickets, call the Civic Center box office at 775-3458 or Ticketmaster at 775-3331.