Sunday, August 23, 2009

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!

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