A couple of weekends ago we were shooting a rehearsal fiesta in SoCal…I was looking over the crowd, eying all the characters when all of a sudden a man sent from god entered the party: he had a thick 6 foot beautifully curled mustached. Yes, you read that right. Upon the event that you didn’t already know, mustache/beard art is an incredible thing in my book (way before it was trendy). My heart was racing, my hands were shaking…I was beyond excited to say the least. I thought to myself, “Self, I’m sure he gets gawkers all the time…how can you not with a mustache like that?!? Act cool, act cool.” So, I pretended it was nothing and took photos of some of the non-mustached guests. Then I realized he was wearing a CU Buffs jersey…LIGHT BULB! A topic of conversation to break the ice without solely focusing on his massive mustache! So, after he got a glass of sangria I nonchalantly said “Great jersey! Are you a CU fan? I’m originally from Boulder.” He wasn’t really a fan but he collected jerseys and his nephew played for CU. So I moved on and went for the kill (aka my chest and face went really red). I said “I’m sure you get this all the time, but your mustache is incredible. I’m a huge fan of mustache art.” Then he pulled out his wallet and showed me a picture of him in the guinness book of world records from years back with his 10 foot (YES! 10 feet) long mustache. Then he showed me a photo of himself before he went on the Johnny Carson show. My jaw dropped. Then, yes, it gets better…all of a sudden he whipped out an extra copy of the photo and gave it to me. I couldn’t focus on taking photos of non-mustached guests. THIS MAN JUST GAVE ME A PHOTO OF HIM WITH HIS MUSTACHE! I was floored, told him it absolutely made my day, and thanked him profusely. This is quite possibly a highlight of my life.
The now highly coveted image…this is a framer, no doubt:
