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!

Certificate from Guinness

I just received the certificate in the mail from Guinness for World's Tallest Mohican. It's Official!