Home Roasting Coffee in Your Hot Air Popcorn Popper

[JCMach1]

I did it and made a movie. Why buy an expensive piece of equipment? It is sooooo easy and a great way to save money too.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=7Ylmn8xGNSo

[newmajority]

1. Fascinating

And definitely more logical than cooking a squirrel like Mike Huckabee did.

[1]

2. dude!

you should so totally be on late night tv doing infomercials.

excellent and two thumbs up!

[JCMach1]

3. No way! Yuck!

[1]

5. no! consider a career change...

you are so much better than that dude that sells the "shamwow" towels.

and i love him...

[Kutjara]

10. That Shamwow guy creeps me out.

Put him in a seersucker suit and a fedora, and he could easily play a petty hoodlum in a 1940s noir movie. A less trustworthy individual I can't imagine to be selling a product, any product (Billy Mays excluded, of course).

Some of his lines are hilarious, though. "It's made in Germany, and you know they make good stuff" (One lemon BMW and two unreliable MBs say you're wrong). "I can't do this all day" (Really? Why not? Is the Nobel Committee waiting on you?). "This stuff sells itself" (Then what the hell are you doing?)

You just have to wonder at the chutzpah of someone selling a product with "sham" right there in the name.

[JCMach1]

11. We don't have this guy... I just remember that guy in the sweaters...

I don't particularly like sweaters.

[1]

12. heh, i love your post kutjara, but i love the shamwow guy more...

first of all he is wearing that little microphone like he is madonna or some such. that kills me.


mostly he reminds me of going to the county fairs when i was but a sprout. there were always "pitchmen" selling all sorts of crap. since i never had a lot of money to spend at the fair, i spent a lot of time watching pitchmen selling crap at county fairs.


shamwow dude is the quintessential county fair pitchman.

you really honed in on my favorite lines too.

"it's made in germany, and you know they make good stuff."

but the truly classic:

"i can't do this all day." when he delivers that line, check out his delivery, his acting, his motion... robert de niro, on his best day, could not deliver that line as well as shamwow dude. classic.


i am 10 years old again, at the county fair, every time shamwow dude appears on my tv screen...

[Kutjara]

13. You're right...

He is the ultimate county fair/street market/discount warehouse huckster. All that's missing is the "You'd expect to pay $500 for something this great" line, before going on to "But I'm not going to ask you $250, $200, $100, $50, $10, $5, or $1. No, folks, you can have an entire long ton of this heirloom-quality stuff for one cent!" Quite who (apart from the clinically insane) they think they're fooling with this "you'd expect to pay $500" guff escapes me, but what's really stunning is the count down all the way to some risibly low price. Instead of making people think they're getting some great deal, it seems to me the patter crashes right through the cognitive dissonance barrier, so that you absolutely know the product is junk.

Also missing is the "member of the public" who steps forward to buy when the price hits some lower (but still ridiculous) level. All the wise heads in the crowd know this eager buyer is part of the huckster's crew, but a few poor fools will always end up paying $25 for items that will be selling for $.05 within two minutes.

Aside from that, though, Mr. ShamWow is perfect. I'd still keep my hand on my wallet if I came within 50 yards of him, though.

[1]

14. "but you're not going to pay..."

heh.

i can tell you've been there.

and wasn't the scam so much more fun when they did it right to your face. up close and personal. instead of on television?

i don't know.

i just remember fondly the personal contact.

shamwow dude sold me his shit and when i got home, then i was all "hey! wait a minute!"

good times...


heh.

[Kutjara]

15. What's really amazing is that his kind of "salesmanship"...

...is the same all over the world. I've seen guys like the "county fair" ones you describe in London, Frankfurt, Rome, various parts of North Africa, China, Australia and the Philippines. No matter what language they're speaking, the patter is exactly the same, as if there's some International University of Selling Shit that you have to attend before you're allowed to work in the business.

What always impresses me is the sheer amount of energy and effort these guys put into selling stuff that really doesn't merit it. Near where I used to live in London, the street-market hucksters would use bullhorns to deliver this high-pressure patter to sell pots and pans, plastic buckets, and dishtowels. I mean, what's the point? Surely just displaying the goods would be all that's required? How much selling does a bucket really deserve? You either need one or you don't. But it's the same story everywhere. These people are always selling the most self-evidently utilitarian stuff, using techniques better applied to complex electronics or brain-scanning equipment."No," I found myself saying, "I would not expect to pay ten grand for a frying pan, but if you'll just hurry up and get your performance over with, I will buy it for $2." It's like in "Life of Brian," where Brian tries to buy a gourd without haggling, but ends up in a massive argument with the trader because he "won't play the game."

[JCMach1]

16. Try haggling in the Middle-East

It's a whole new experience.

[Kutjara]

17. I lived in Jubail for three years...

...so I know whereof you speak. I actually got quite good at haggling after awhile, so I was only being ripped off instead of getting robbed blind. It was certainly entertaining, though, how I could go from being a thief to a member of the trader's family and back to a thief again, merely on the basis of the price I offered.

The "county fair" hucksters we're talking about are nothing like souk traders though. There is no real opportunity to haggle. The price is fixed, it's just that the "salesman" has to go through a whole rigmarole first, before he arrives triumphantly at the price he was always going to sell the stuff for. It's the illusion of a deal, with no ability on the part of the customer to influence the outcome.

[JCMach1]

18. Yes, haggling is a fine art that I am still learning...

[alphafemale]

4. Yeah. But I'd bet any popcorn after that would taste a bit odd.

:hi:

[JCMach1]

6. Probably... Although coffee flavored popcorn?

hmmm?

[alphafemale]

7. Although it might be away to stay awake during movies. nt

[JVS]

8. Make sure to keep a good fire-extinguisher present.

A burning air-popper is not a fun thing.

[JCMach1]

9. Exactly, this is a modern one (VERY FAST)... you do have to be careful though.