We never know what will land in our inbox here at the Richmond Blog. Late last year, we got an email from a Mom saying “Just thought you might like to know that one half of the “Diet Coke and Mentos” duo, Stephen Voltz, grew up in the Richmond District.”
Somehow we missed this youtube sensation back in 2006, where two men in lab suits mixed Mentos candy with Diet Coke for a combustible result (see video above).
Since then, EepyBird – the duo comprised of Stephen Voltz and Fritz Grobe – have performed more mad experiments with Coke & Mentos, sticky notes, paper airplanes, shampoo, and more, garnering hundreds of thousands of fans on youtube. Their latest experiment powers a car using Coke and Mentos.
The duo has even appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, Ellen, The Today Show, Mythbusters, and more.
That’s pretty much celebrity status for the Richmond District, so we thought it would be fun to do a Q&A with Stephen to find out about what it was like growing up here, and how it may have led to his “experimental” career (for the record, he is also a licensed attorney).
Q: Tell me about growing up in the Richmond District. Did you try out any of your acts here in the neighborhood?
A: Growing up in the Richmond was great. I spent a lot of time in the park and at Rossi and Mountain Lake Park. My brothers and I used to pick blackberries in the old horseshoe courts in the park and sometimes bike out to the casting pools out near the buffalo paddock with our fishing poles and practice casting. I took courses at the Academy of Sciences and at the deYoung too. I took the MUNI over to Galileo to take after school chemistry courses through Lux Lab, and of course, the Exploratorium was huge for me. I think my folks took us there when it first opened and we never stopped going. I still go back whenever I can when I’m in town.
As far as trying out my acts in the neighborhood, I worked on them and practiced them at home in the basement or living room (don’t tell my Mom), but when I was ready for an audience I headed down to Fisherman’s Wharf or the theater district downtown to work the street corners where the crowds were bigger and there would be tourists. I do remember teaching my brother how to swallow fire in my mother’s basement on 15th Avenue, and having her call down to us to ask what we were doing. “Uh, nothing!” we shouted back, dousing the torches and frantically trying to wave the smoke away.
I remember practicing fire juggling out in front of my Dad’s apartment on Palm Avenue at one point and being surprised to see that people in the neighborhood had gathered at their living room windows to watch. (D’oh!) When I finished my set they all applauded and cheered, but since I was just learning and had no more tricks to show them, I just waved a thank you, cut my practice short and went back inside. I think that was the only time I performed in the neighborhood – and that was by accident!
Q: What do you miss most and least about living in the Richmond District? When you come back to SF, what places in the neighborhood do you make sure to visit?
A: I miss being able to walk to everything, and to have friends, family and an endless variety of smart, interesting, quirky stuff all w/in 20-30 minutes of my front door. And I really miss the Pacific Ocean. The Atlantic just isn’t the same.
I try to get back to the city 3-4 times a year for at least a week or two at a stretch. And whenever in town my first morning back I take my Mom and head out to the Seal Rock Inn or Louie’s for breakfast and then walk down by the Cliff House to Ocean Beach for my Pacific Ocean fix.
While I’m in town I’ll hang out and work at Royal Grounds on 17th and Geary or at Blue Danube on Clement. I have to browse the whole length of Clement Street at least once. Green Apple is my nemesis. I love it but it sucks me into its vortex and unless I’m super disciplined I don’t get out for at least an hour and a half, even if I just go in for a calendar. I could probably go in there to get change for the bus and not find my way out for 45 minutes. It has got to be the best bookstore in America. Growing up, it was just the neighborhood bookstore. Only after I started traveling did I realize how special it was. (Or rather how special it is.)
Q: While attending George Washington High School, what did you envision doing when you were all grown up?
A: At the time I was interested in graphic design and advertising, but had no firm idea of what I wanted to do. When I was in college I wondered seriously if it could be possible to make a living as a street performer and some of my experience working San Francisco street corners during college made me think it was possible. But that’s tough work – and in San Francisco, it can be COLD work. After college I considered going to Ringling’s Clown College, but the type of clown Ringling turned out wasn’t what I was interested in doing. I wanted to do that kind of work that Bill Irwin was doing with Pickle Family Circus or European clowns were doing in small one ring circuses there , but had no idea how or where to learn that style, so I didn’t know how to pursue it.
For years as a kid when asked what I wanted to do when I grew up I’d say “I don’t know, but NOT a lawyer. They work too hard!” My dad was a lawyer and I had a very clear image of him regularly falling asleep on the couch after dinner with a yellow legal pad over his face. Years later of course: I wound up going to NYU law and then practicing as a trial lawyer for 20 years. Of course, what I do now is a lot more fun. Turns out, I did get to be a clown!
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Thanks Stephen for the Q&A! We’re really digging those coveralls and white socks!
Sarah B.
Awesome!
Really great post – thanks for sharing.