So I was watching HBO Sports, and they did a piece on Ashrita Furman, a man who holds so many world records he even has the record for "the most current Guinness world records held at the same time by an individual."
The thing is, these records are batshit insane. Most of them seem to involve juggling, or pogo sticks, or unicycles, or juggling while on a pogo stick, or doing all of that shit underwater. He's potato sack raced against a yak in Mongolia. He's bounced on a kangaroo ball across the Great Wall of China. He stood on a swiss ball at Stonehenge for over 2 hours. He has a record for throwing an apple in the air, drawing a katana, slicing the apple, resheathing the katana, and then throwing the next apple. 27 apples in a minute.
It'd be one thing if it was just some weird attention whore pogo sticking up stairs or juggling in shark tanks, but the stated reason for all of this is transcendental enlightenment. The basic idea being spiritualism through physical exertion. I'm not sure mystically how the unicycle figures into it...
I really dig it though. You have the HBO Sports guys who're all "boy, this sure is wacky!" and all that bullshit, but then Furman comes across as both sincere, but totally laid back about it. He's not like "Catching grapes in your mouth is HARDCORE!! RAWWR!!" Yeah, it's silly, but there's no reason why it shouldn't be.
I think he's my 2nd favorite obscure celebrity now, after Norman Borlaug.
The thing is, these records are batshit insane. Most of them seem to involve juggling, or pogo sticks, or unicycles, or juggling while on a pogo stick, or doing all of that shit underwater. He's potato sack raced against a yak in Mongolia. He's bounced on a kangaroo ball across the Great Wall of China. He stood on a swiss ball at Stonehenge for over 2 hours. He has a record for throwing an apple in the air, drawing a katana, slicing the apple, resheathing the katana, and then throwing the next apple. 27 apples in a minute.
It'd be one thing if it was just some weird attention whore pogo sticking up stairs or juggling in shark tanks, but the stated reason for all of this is transcendental enlightenment. The basic idea being spiritualism through physical exertion. I'm not sure mystically how the unicycle figures into it...
I really dig it though. You have the HBO Sports guys who're all "boy, this sure is wacky!" and all that bullshit, but then Furman comes across as both sincere, but totally laid back about it. He's not like "Catching grapes in your mouth is HARDCORE!! RAWWR!!" Yeah, it's silly, but there's no reason why it shouldn't be.
I think he's my 2nd favorite obscure celebrity now, after Norman Borlaug.


