Well, I am not exactly famous, per se. But now, I know somebody famous!! As my friends from Hollywood tell me when they call me up – it is not who you are, it is all about who you know.

Well, I really do not have any friends in Hollywood either. But I had read something to the above effect once in a torn magazine that a thoughtful passenger had once left in the back pouch of my airplane seat. I think. 🙂

So there I was, with all my new teammates in our Portland office and had just finished addressing all their questions when something very intriguing happened. After the general body address, we gathered around the room for lunch and I was chatting with the individual members when somebody put up a video on the TV in that room.

It was a recording of a Jimmy Kimmel show. And presently, you could see a guy come on to the stage with one of those Darth Vader looking masks on and then he went on to do an amazing thing. He got onto his unicycle, kept cycling around – on that single wheel – all the time playing on bagpipes simultaneously!! And then in between, he would make fire shoot out of his bag pipes!! I thought that was too cool. You can check out the YouTube link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7InLDhchTVU

Like you now, I was wondering then what was all that leading to. Till I saw the guy on the show take off his mask and talk to Kimmel. I looked at the guy and then I looked at the guy sitting in front of me. A couple of furtive glances between the TV screen and the guy in front of me and I made the connection. I was sitting in front of that guy all this time!!! And that is how I was introduced to my new team mate Brian Kidd!

Obviously, I had too many questions for him. Found out that when he grew up in Virginia, he realized that somebody actually gave bagpipe lessons in his school and not knowing anything better, he signed up. And the unicycle? Well, he came across somebody in Portland who was throwing his unicycle into the dumpster. With that person’s permission, he picked it up from the dumpster and started teaching himself how to ride it. Now he rides it to office every day – 4.5 miles each way! And then one fine day, he put both of them together and started unibiking and playing bagpipes at the same time!

And how does he shoot the fire out? I will let you watch the video and hear his explanation. I saw some videos of he doing the same in various streets and marketplaces in Portland. Evidently, he is something of a celebrity here in Portland. He is known in this city as the “Unipiper”!!

And then other teammates caught up with me with more questions about myself and our business. As I was going thru those exchanges, I could hear the bagpipes again. Instinctively, I looked to the big TV screen. It was blank! I looked the other way – sure enough, Brian was coming down the office floor on his unicycle playing the bagpipes for us!!!

That is how life ought to be lived. Pick something from the dumpster and figure out how to make something out it…. enough to get you onto national TV.

Is that cool or is that cool?