Episode XII: The Benefit Concert

The last stage of the day was to get ON the stage. It was time to rock for charity, celebrate the record, and have some fun! I showed up at the Waiting Room with the Hawk tied back. Elliot and Katie were to put up the Mohawk later one more time for the show. There was already a good amount of people there when I showed up, and I was thankful to see that. The first band to go on was Cordial Spew. As usual, they tore it up. Their guitarist, Kevin McCLay, surprised the crowd when he took off his hat and announced that he had broken a record, too, for world’s smallest Mohawk! This was a shaved head, and a marker stripe down the middle of his head. I wish I had pictures of the other bands, but I did not think too get someone to take pics during the whole show. If anyone has any, please feel free to send me some.


Next to go on was Bloodcow. It was time for me to go to the back room and put up the Mohawk again, while Bloodcow rocked the place.

Then, it was time for my band, The Filthy Few. I had the Mohawk up, and my friend Conrad Hinz had painted purple flames onto it. It looked bad ass! I wish I had a pic of Conrad for ya, but alas, I do not. Here is the work he did, though. Thanks Conrad!

Then the Filthy Few hit the stage. I thanked everyone, and let Stephanie Murphy from Project Nightlights say a few words, and we went to work! The Mohawk stayed up for a couple songs, but then fell over from the strain of jamming.

 

 

At the end of the set, some of the Hot Tail Honeys and the crowd joined us on stage. Thanks to Sarah for these shots:

Here is a video of our song Opiodo, when everyone came on stage:

After the Filthy few, Live Wire and Somewhere between Heaven and Hell crushed the audience for the rest of the night.

Speaking of the Audience, I gotta say, they were great. I could feel the energy in the room, and it was fun and positive. Thank you to everyone who showed up.

Here are a few more random pics from that night:

After the show, I was exhausted! As the place was clearing out, I remember reflecting on the day’s events, and being thankful that it was such a success. There was only one more task to be done, before I could finally call it a day, and get some much needed sleep. It was one of the most difficult things I did all day…wash my hair! It was a long, painful process getting multiple cans of hairspray out of my hair. I was in the shower so long, I got too tired and had to quit, even though I still wasn’t done. I still had some crunching going on when I laid down to rest. It took a few more days worth of showers to finally get it all out, but it was definitely worth it!

So the deed was done. After months of preparation, ups and downs, doubts and re-assurances, I had broken the Guinness Book of World Records category for Tallest Mohican, and with the much needed help of many others, I made the biggest spectacle out of it that I could. Now , it was time to sit back and see what happens next, if anything, see what kind of reaction I get. I knew there was going to be some local news on the event, and I had a feeling it would go beyond that. So I gathered up my evidence for Guinness and sent it in, and watched, and waited. I did not know how far this thing would go, but I would soon find out!

Episode XI: The Measurment

The first person to come meet me was little Dougie, a handsome young man with a kick-ass Mohawk! He has been a fan of Mohawks for a long time, and when he heard The worlds’ta tallest Mohawk record was gonna be beat here in Omaha, he asked his mom to come down and check it out. I am glad he did, he’s a great kid.

So I made my way through the crowd, people taking pictures and shaking my hand. I had to walk slowly and carefully, I did not want anything to happen before I broke the record. Most of the people who worked at Capitol showed up with Mohawks, too. It was totally cool!

Sitting down at the conference table was exciting and scary. The television cameras were set up, and the crowd was bigger than I thought it would be. I could feel the great energy in the room from everyone, so I was confident it was going to go well.

I answered some questions from some people, handed over the sides of my hair to be donated to Locks of Love, and we did the measurement. Elliot grabbed a yardstick, measured, and yelled out, “it’s exactly 27 inches, a new world record!” Then the crowd erupted in applause. The measurement was officially done, and I felt great!

After the measurement, I did a couple interviews, talked to some people, and took some pictures with paparazzibyappointment.com.

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 The day was far from over. I had to go to do an interview with Tom Becka later, then the benefit concert in the evening. So, I decided to go home and take a little nap. I had to keep the base of the Mohawk in form, so the drive home was interesting. I was stuffed in my truck with the Mohawk bent over! Oh yes, I got some strange looks. Then, at home, I sat up in my chair to take a nap, it was definitely challenging, I wish I had some pictures.

After a few hours, Elliot and Katie came over to my house to put up the Mohawk again. Then, Pete Lochren came over to pick me up in his chalkboard truck. It’s one of his art cars, and the only thing I could think of that I might fit in for the ride to the radio station.

It was a bit windy that day, so the walk from the truck across the street to the radio station was a bit difficult. I held up a piece of cardboard to block the wind and keep the Mohawk from falling over. I was wondering if wearing the Mohawk was going to translate very well over radio. I think it went great. Tom Becka was a gracious host, and made the interview go wonderfully. Everyone there was nice. Here is a recording of that interview:

After the interview, Pete and I went into a bar on Underwood street and freaked out a few people with the Mohawk. While I was drinking a pint with a few patrons, a funny moment happened when my Mohawk got caught in the Christmas decorations above the bar! It took a minute to untangle the lights from the Hawk, and we all had a good laugh at that.

Pete then took me back home, and I had a few more hours to kill before the show. I made some phone calls, and did some final preparations, and went early to the venue to make sure everything was ready to go. I had the base of the Mohawk still put up, and the rest of it was pulled back in a tail so I could maneuver around without doing any damage.

And that’s where I will leave you today. Here is the video that Wayne Brekke did that ties the whole conference together:

We will continue with the Record Breaking Show in the next episode, with som very cool pics and video!

Cheers!

Episode VII: In the Octagon!

The last 2 weeks of October I was pretty busy trying to get sponsors, and I talked to many of them practically at the same time. One of them was Tim Bazer at Omaha Fight Club. When I think about Tim, the first thing that comes to mind is that he has got to be one of the hardest working guys in town. I don’t’ know how he does it. Almost every week he sets up the Octagon, usually at Chez Paree, and puts on an incredible show of fighters for hundreds of people. Even though he was busy, it was easy to work with Tim, because he was always on the phone or had an appointment somewhere, so he had an answer for me right away if I had any questions. He was interested and on board pretty quickly.

I actually got the idea to call him from the former administrative assistant where I work, Bobbi Lovejoy. Every day, one of the fighters for Omaha fight Club, Andy Smith, comes in to deliver packages for his day job. Andy is the Light Heavy Weight Champion of O.F.C. One day after he came in, Bobbi suddenly looked at me and said, "Why don’t you call Omaha Fight club to sponsor you?” DUH. I hadn’t even thought about that, but it was obviously a great idea. The demographics were there. I was sure that there were tons of people interested in O.F.C. that would also like to come see a local guy break the record for World’s Tallest Mohawk and enjoy a benefit concert with some punk and rock and roll bands. So the next day when Andy came in, I talked to him and got Tim’s number, and it was all good from there.

Over the phone, Tim mentioned something about doing an announcement at one of his shows. I pictured him or a ring girl announcing the show for the crowd, and thought that would be cool. However, he had something way better in mind! In fact, I am kind of excited to get to some of the cool video and pictures I have leading up to the record breaking event, so I am going to jump ahead a little bit here to November 7th, and talk about when Tuco and I went down to Chez Paree to see one of the fights that Tim invited us to.


I had never been to Chez Paree before, and I was surprised at how huge the place is. When we arrived, there were already a ton of people there. I think the end count was around five or seven hundred. I am not sure, but it was a lot!

I had talked to Tim earlier, and that is when he told me what he was going to let me do. In between two of the fights, he was actually going to let ME go into the ring, and talk as much as I want about the record breaking show! I was very excited about this, and realized that I should probably start documenting this whole Mohawk thing, so I asked Steve if he could record it with his video phone. Had I realized what a cool fight this was going to be, and had more time, I would have gotten a better video camera and recorded the whole thing, fights and all, if they would have let us. Anyway, while we were watching the fights, I nervously jotted down a few things to say, and wrote a list of all the sponsors and bands for the event. I have played in front of thousands of people before in some past bands I had been in, but I still get nervous every time I play, or go in front of a crowd for any reason. I was alone for this one, no band with me. However, when Tim motioned at me to get into the octagon, I pushed all the jitters aside, rolled in my confidence, and entered the cage centered among that huge crowd, and this is what Steve got on video:



What do ya think? I'll tell you what, when I first got the idea to break the record for tallest Mohawk, I would have never guessed in a million years that a few months later I would be in the octagon in front of hundreds of people announcing this event. And there were so many more surprises for me to come. Every time I revisit these videos or pictures, I am so glad I pushed through the doubts I had and went through with it, along with everyone who helped. It was so much fun, and the experience was unforgettable. I would recommend to anyone who is thinking of breaking a record, or anything like that, DO IT. You will not regret it. Oh, and if you haven’t seen an Omaha Fight Club Fight, I would recommend that as well. The whole night was a blast!

Episode V: The Fist Trial Run

I had my first trial run set for October 21st at Capitol School. I already had help from my girlfriend, Allyson, putting up the Mohawk once, so I was 100% confident that I could beat the record. These trial runs at Capitol were just to make sure everything went smooth on the Record Breaking Day. I did NOT want to hold a press conference and get all of these people and businesses together just to show the world how great I was at screwing up a record attempt! I had to make sure that everything went perfectly, or at least as close to perfect as I could get.




So I told you that I met with Calarice Zomer. She is the one that helped pick the students that were going to help with the Mohawk, and helped set everything up for the press conference. And, yes, I did say students. When I first got this idea, I thought I was going to need a seasoned professional hairstylist to help me. However, after seeing some of the students work, and talking with Scott and Clarice, I was absolutely certain that the students here were up to the task. Plus, I liked the idea of having students from a hairstyling school put up the Mohawk. Something about it made it seem….I don’t know…kind of like we were banding together, or forming a team to do something that we were all new to, and we had to figure it out together, and learn as we go. I think it also put a little element of risk to the task in the eyes of other people. I had complete confidence in the students, but when I told other people that it was the students that were going to raise the Hawk, they were surprised and impressed, and it made it a little more exciting to them.

The day came for us to raise the Hawk for the first time. I was charged and excited, but a little apprehensive. I came to Capitol prepared with all of the necessary provisions: Ten cans of hairspray…check. Two big pieces of cardboard…check. Order from Chaos T-shirt…check. Camera…check. Camera woman…check. The camera woman that day was my girlfriend Allyson’s mom, Alyce. I took this picture of her while lying on the table. She usually doesn't have her arms crossed, and has a wonderful smile, but I caught her off guard with this one!



It was 10:00 in the morning. I went in and Clarice introduced me to Elliot and Katie, the two stylists who were now my partners in Mohawk raising crime. We cleared off a large table that was full of mannequin heads for me to lie upon, and we got started. It didn’t take long for a crowd to start gathering. There are a lot of students there, and I must say it was pretty nice lying down on a table that was waist high and surrounded by a bunch of beautiful women.






After about 3 hours of teasing, combing, spraying, flipping, hair drying, and 4 cans of hairspray, it finally looked ready. As I sat up, the applause came...and the Mohawk was erected! I remember Elliot stopped clapping and immediately came to adjust the Mohawk, as it was leaning to the side…a lot! However, it was standing, and we knew that next time we could make it stand straight.



It felt pretty weird. I constantly had a feeling like it was falling over, and it was throwing off my balance. I couldn’t help tilting my head to the right a little bit, so I was walking kind of funny. Katie measured the Mohawk, and it was just under 27 inches. Overall, it was a success, and now we all knew for sure that it could be done, and I could beat the record.



There was a couple things we learned from the trial run. First, we definitely needed a bigger, more sturdy piece of cardboard. We also needed to find a way to prop it up a bit. You can see in the picture of me lying on my side that my head is not straight, and that’s what made the Mohawk curved. We also learned that oil-based hairspray cannot be used, because it is too heavy. It must be water-based. Additionally, even though it took a lot of time and effort, we learned that it was a lot of fun to put up a Mohawk, and we all had a great time doing it!

Get a Haircut, and Get a Real Job. (Or at Least a Haircut).

The day before yesterday, (Friday), I went to Capitol and got my sides shaved and the hawk cut and cleaned up. Tuco tagged along, and he just happened to have a camera, so we took some pics! Ok, actually, I asked him to come along and take some pics. I got some plans fer this hawk, after all, and I want to document everything while it still sits upon my head.

I didn’t stand it up, but I had to thin it out, because I think I figured out a way to put it up without the huge boards, and in half the time. If it is thinner at the base, I think I can just lay down and have someone help brush it and put something a little more heavy duty than hairspray on the base, (not sure what yet), and then just lightly hairspray the top, so as not to make it too heavy. Hopefully I can get it done in under a half hour, because I want to start wearing it up more often. I also wanted to get it braided for when I don’t wear it up.
A very kind and beautiful woman named Octavia was my stylist, and she did an amazing job! She had her work cut out for her, too, because I let the sides and back go for months with no cut or trim. It was looking pretty nasty, check out this mop!
Tuco and I goofed around with Octavia and a few other stylists there while she was working away. We talked with a cool stylist named Brooke who just happened to get a Mohawk herself the day before.

Here's the results of Octavia's work:















Later on that night, we met up with Chad at the Sydney to check out the Filter Kings. They put on an excellent show! We didn’t have a camera for that, but here is a pic of them from another show.
If you haven’t seen them and get a chance to, I would highly recommend doing so.

Oh,I almost forgot. While I was at Capitol, I found out that an article was written about Capitol Schools and me in the May issue of Beauty Launchpad. I can see why, after all, I am a launchpad of beauty. (yea right!)
Anyway, they had a plaque of the article hung up by the door. Pretty cool!

Episode IV: Moving, Networking, and Learning as You Go

So now my ass is movin! I remember thinking that if I could just get a salon and one or two more sponsors to help me, I would be in good shape. I had already contacted Locks of Love, and all they needed was a time and date for the event to approve. I had to get a solon and a venue for that, and a photographer as well was necessary, so those were what I focused on. I live in Benson, so I drive by Paparazzi By Appointment all the time, seeing their cool sign on the building. Plus, I had heard some good things about them, so I gave them a call, and spoke with Laura, who was very gracious. She was into it immediately, and said yes. That was a big weight off my shoulders, because I definitely wanted a professional photographer there, and now I could concentrate on the hairstylist. Still no luck there.

I had a draft of the Big Brain Productions proposal, so I contacted them and dropped off a proposal at their shop for the owner, Smitty. To my surprise, when I called a couple days later, they put me through to Smitty, and he told me to come in right away. It was a surprise, because it is very hard to get an appointment with Smitty, he is so booked up. I went to his absolutely cool shop to meet with him. He was very cordial, and to the point. He told me that he gets a lot of proposals because he involves himself in a lot of events held in Omaha. When he saw mine, he said he was immediately taken by it because it was put together so well and looked professional. He was also drawn in by the charity aspect of the event, and the fact that it was about a world record. Smitty himself is a Guinness World Record holder for most piercings in one person.
Well, I can’t tell you how glad I am to have met Smitty early in the process. There were a lot of things up in the air, and a lot of doubts flying around in my head. Smitty is a very positive person, and having broken a record himself, he encouraged me to go through with it and go all out, because it was one of the most fun things he had done. So he agreed to become a sponsor, and generously donated to the cause.
One thing I regret about meeting with Big Brain, though, and this was a learning experience for me. After he had already agreed to sponsor me, I told him who else I had as sponsors. When he learned that HEBE GB Tattoo was also on the list, he told me it is usually not a good idea to put more than one of the same types of business as a sponsor, because they are competitors, and it may look like they are affiliated. One other tattoo shop told me this before and dropped out, but then I finally got the picture. However, Smitty decided that it would be ok, and went ahead with it. So there is a tip for any of you out there who might be looking for sponsors, don’t put two businesses in the same field on the banner. It’s obvious to me now, but for some reason I didn’t think that way at the beginning. I was thinking more like a television show with commercials, you may see two commercials from different companies selling a similar product in a television show, but that’s not the way to think in this type of event.
Now I was completely confident. I was running around town, dropping off proposals, networking, and getting people excited about my record attempt. According to my emails, on September 28th, 2008, I created my World’s Tallest Mohawk email and MySpace accounts. On October 01, I had decided to hold the event sometime between Election Day and Thanksgiving, during a slow news period. That way there was a better chance of my record attempt getting news coverage. On October 8th, I contacted Clarice Zomer at Capitol School of Hair Styling. She was very excited about the idea, and I sent her a proposal to look over. A couple days later, Scott Mccaig, who is on the Board of Directors at Capitol, called up Todd Murphy. Todd was kind enough to let me put him as a reference in my proposals. He gave them a kind of legitimacy, so it didn’t look like I was just some kid who wasn’t serious about this event, or looking to rip people off. He and Scott had a great conversation, and thanks to Todd, Capitol School of Hairstyling was now the primary sponsor of the record breaking event. We set an appointment for me to go into Capitol and talk about holding the press conference there, do some test runs, and meet everyone who was going to help out.
Now things were rolling! I was very excited, and when I went to Capitol, I knew I had the right place. It was perfect. The people were great, it was an excellent venue for the press conference, and they were willing to help out with whatever I needed.
I have some good photos from the test runs, and the wonderful people at Capitol, so come on back soon to meet them, as well as some new sponsors. And just so ya know, this blog is not just about the sponsors, this is only the beginning. There are many other adventures to come, like the first test run that came out sideways, almost having to pee in front of a surveillance camera, and a tongue lashing from the Reader!