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!

Episode II: Thank Goodness for Friends, and Local Libraries!

So now I was excited! First stop; The Guinness website. I went there and filled out all of the necessary forms and faxes and sent them all in. When I was done, after about 3 days of e-mailing and confirming, the final go-ahead had to come from Guinness, and it was gonna take about four to six weeks for them to get back to me. Ok, that gave me time to do some planning, and there was a lot of planning that had to be done! While I was investigating the Guinness website, I saw all kinds of record attempts being made. Some were grand scale accomplishments by companies, like the most to parachute from a balloon simultaneously sponsored by the Paraclub Flevo of Lelystad, The Netherlands, and some were simple stunts, like the guy who sat in in a bathtub with the most rattlesnakes. Yikes!









What I had in mind was something in between the parachuting people and rattlesnake guy. One thing I did notice is that most of these record attempts had sponsorship. Did I need sponsorship? Heck, I could just find a couple hair styling friends, shave my head, measure, and be done with it. But wait a second; the last guy who did this was on the Ellen show, fer cryin' out loud! And he was on there for doing something that I could top! If I’m gonna do this, I better do it right. I started to get a vision in my head of a press conference with media coverage, and a big measuring ceremony. And why not spread the attention around? I could get my band some publicity; get some charities involved, maybe some business owner friends of mine. Then my wheels really started turning. I need a hairstylist…no…a salon to hold the event, and a benefit concert for charity…yes! I could play in my band with the Mohawk on full display! Of course, the first charity organization that came to mind was Locks of Love. They take donations of hair and weave wigs for cancer patients, so they were a perfect match. I also wanted to get a local charity involved, but that would come later. So…I needed a venue for that, I needed other bands to play, I needed to find the other charity, some conference tables, refreshments, a yardstick…I better do a couple of test runs, I need new cloths, a press release…man…I need help!
Now I had a vision of a whole day of events planned around this record breaking attempt, and no idea where to begin. So where did I go? The library, of course! I checked out an excellent book on how to plan events, get sponsorships, and write press releases and proposals. I also knew that I was lucky to be working at Universal Information Services. I was friends with the Vice president, Todd Murphy, and he deals with the media, media events, and press releases almost on a daily basis. All I had to do was come up with a good enough proposal to convince him to come on board, and then he could help me sort out some of the other things that were whirling around in my mind.
So I read the book, nailed down some demographics, and came up with a proposal for Todd. When I met with him, he loved the idea. I knew that he would see the potential of what I was trying to do, and Universal information Services became my second sponsor. I had already talked to a friend of mine, Nikki Pettis, who runs Hebe GB Tatto, and they were on board.
So the deal with Todd was that I would get their name out there as best as I could while talking to the media and stuff, and in exchange he could help me with proof-reading and writing the press release and proposals, put me in contact with some of his contacts, as well as use their services to record all of the media exposure I would get. Also, as it turned out, his wife, Stephanie, ran a local charity
called Project Nightlights, which helps sick children build their dream bedrooms. That sounded great to me, so now I had another local charity involved.
Of course, Todd is a busy man, and I did not expect him to do all the work for me. I had already written a proposal for the next sponsor I was going to go after, which was Big Brain Productions, Tattoo and Piercing Studio. I already had an appointment with Smitty, the owner of Big Brain before I talked to Todd. I really wanted Todd to know I was serious.
So now the ball was rolling, but I had a few problems. I could not set a date until I heard back from Guinness, because I didn’t want to set it too soon, (like before I heard back from them), and I didn’t want to get too many people and business involved yet, just to hear that my claim had been denied from Guinness. Also, I hadn’t even gotten a stylist yet! I measure my hair myself to make sure I could break the record, but I would need a professional hair stylist to pull this off. As it turned out, to my surprise, getting a salon to become involved as a sponsor was one of the most difficult tasks I was about to tackle, and I thought it would have been the easiest! Weird, huh? I’ll tell ya all about it, in episode III, so stay tuned!