Good thing it’s hot out.

This video I made especially for the Ada Community Library Summary Reading program speaking series. I usually speak in-person at the Lake Hazel Library, but this year we went virtual.

I decided that since it was a recorded presentation that I’d keep it under a half hour but this was one of my better-focused talks honing in on my America’s Got Talent appearance earlier this month, how I went from not being smart enough for the gifted program to MIT, and how I went from zero Guinness World Records at the age of 30 to over 150 at the age of 35.

I then break a Guinness World Record’s title for the most wet sponge hits in one minute with my friend and neighbor, Jonathan “Hollywood” Hannon. We previously broke the record for most wet sponge hit in 30 seconds and this in the one minute record. The previous mark was 76 wet sponge hits in one minute (from 3 meters away). He threw about 106 sponges (and he’s an ambidextrous thrower so can then the throws off with both hands with amazing speed) and I was able to get my face in front of 92 of them to smash the previous record. At fifty seconds, he was complaining that an entire ten seconds were left because his arms were getting tired.

It’s not the most comfortable record in the world since the irritation to the eyes can add up when they’re hitting the face once every 2/3rds of a second or so. The hardest part is getting the eyes open and closed in the narrow window after a hit and the water comes off and before the next sponge comes in to make the hit.

If you haven’t seen it yet, check out my just-published book: Breaking Records: 21 Lessons from 21 World Record Attempts.