If you want a quick dose of happiness, rent a roach suit.  I rented a roach suit! Then I wore it to go to the grocery store, and showed up at a few friends’ offices. Here’s my story (Pictures at the bottom)

It was a great day indeed– I refused to go to sleep until I finished this custom Twitter Background for someone, and when I woke up, it was to an e-mail saying how much the work rocked.  Then I got to see my buddy Tex… Well, actually, it’s Dave Bredesen, but I always called him Tex ’cause when I met him, I was living in Florida, and he was living in Austin.

He did always tell me that I’d love Austin, and boy, was he right!  Actually, how we met is entertaining.  It was at Ultra Music Festival.  We were watching Paul Oakenfold.  They were in the row in front of me, and I was wearing this beret (you know, the plastic hair thing) which had these antennae that had little alien heads on top that would light up. So, we got talking, and now I always give Dave credit for a few things:

1) He introduced me to the term “Cougar” – I had just finished shooting/viewing the Halloween Parade in “The Village” in New York, and he says “Where do you want to go?”  I say I don’t care,  and he says “How about this one bar (I forget the name now), there’s always a bunch of cougars in there!”  I replied “Really? That sounds dangerous! Do they keep them in cages? or?”

Dave proceeded to explain that a cougar is an older woman (40+) that is after younger meat (I later learned that Cougars like to call their prey “Cubs”).  The next day on NPR they were saying how this cougar in California got shot…. guess they meant the other type, eh?

2) He introduced me to Tito’s Handmade Vodka… even though I didn’t get to taste it that night.  We were shooting New York from his rooftop, after a snowstorm had hit.  We came in to warm up, and Tex figured since I’d be driving in a few hours, we better try some of his favorite Vodkas… It was between this russian vodka that he got from a russian vodka house, and Tito’s, which he kept raving about.

So yesterday my day basically started off by going to meet up with Dave, who was in town for a wedding.  We met at Jos Coffee on South Congress.  I love their Ice Turbo- it’s this massive injection of caffeine, that tastes like candy.  I had one of those, and I bought Dave an espresso, as he already had an Ice Turbo.

Before the coffee though, I was so proud and joyous, as I gifted Dave a 1L bottle of Tito’s.  Seemed appropriate since he introduced me to it.

Dave bought me a Bloody Mary at the South Congress Cafe.  He said they are the best, as SoCoCaf infuses their own vodkas with garlic and onion and spices.  It was pretty damn good, I admit.

The great thing was not so much walking around with Tex and seeing what stores are there, but rather having Dave tell me how things used to be back in the day.  American Apparel wasn’t there, but rather “Fashion People”, and they used to have all these cool parties on the upstairs platform area (rooftop)…. this wasn’t there, that wasn’t there, there used to be this here.  It was like time travel.

After I walked Dave to his car, I went to Lucy In Disguise (Austin’s hottest costume store– I believe I’ll be quite a regular) and picked up a roach suit.  I had already been there to verify that they had them, and a horse suit, an executionar’s hood, and a few other things.  That place is frigging awesome!   I rented the roach suit, and then put it on, and walked out like that.

The reason I’ve got the roach suit by the way is to make a few youtube videos I scripted out. The client has a product, and I write a script that’s fun, but delivers the information, and sends the traffic to where you need (store / website / phone — in marketing terms, that’s called a call to action).  But getting a tool for work doesn’t mean I can’t have fun with it.

Immediately people were staring. This suit was awesome.  You put it on like a shirt.  It has multiple layers- the main part, with nice roachy arms as the sleeves, but those are connected via fishing wire to 4 smaller roach arms, so when I move my arms, the other roach arms follow suit.  I had big antennae.  Then there’s the wings that gently drape behind me. If I jump, they move around.

I got in my car.  Before closing the door, I had to make sure no roach parts were getting squished (the opposite of “the usual”)- putting the seat belt on was a bit awkward, and I kept fearing that it would mess up the clear wires.

My buddy Ryan Deiss was in the middle of a webinar when I cracked the door open, and crawled in on all 4s, and crawled out. He told his listeners “For those who know Ori, he just crawled in here dressed as an ant!”  I later told him that it was a roach, and he thought that’s way cooler.

He was frustrated at first, as he should be, as I violated the “Do not enter- Webinar recording in progress!” sign on his door.  He was more frustrated, ’cause he thought it was a singing telegram kind of thing, and that someone at the office would be insipid enough to let such a person in while he is recording.

People had let me in,  and there must have been 10 people following me around the office, watching as I entered different people’s offices and said hello.  When I was going to enter Ryan’s office (he’s kind of the big boss), everyone was outside seeing what happens.

I then did my grocery shopping while wearing the roach suit.  Oh!  I forgot to mention!  It has little booties (to cover your shoes), that look like roach feet, and little gloves that look like roach hands.

It was so great! I brought so much joy to so many peoples’ lives yesterday, by doing nothing more than wearing a roach suit, and returning eye contact.  I went to the Whole Foods in downtown Austin.  It’s one of the largest ones, has a raw bar, has all sorts of stuff, and it’s always busy.  As soon as I walked in to the store, a girl who just walked in got all excited “That is SO awesome!” and we had instant conversation… I”ve never really done the ‘pickup at the grocery store’ (Don’t they say the frozen food aisle works best?) thing – but here I was, chatting with this cutie.

While having excited conversation filled with smiles is a pleasurable thing, I did come in to get a few supplies (laundry detergent and toilet paper), and still had much to do… so, I turned left, and got my supplies.  During that whole mission of searching for things, I heard many people laughing, I saw many people smiling… It’s the kind of smile that stays on your face for a while!

I was of course smiling back.  When I took the escalator to leave, there was an old couple behind me, and she wasn’t just smiling, she was laughing.  I said “I know! Of all places, I thought Whole Foods would be clean, and not have any bug problems… but it appears they have some of the largest roaches I’ve ever seen!” then we spoke of why I have a roach costume…..

I then went to the camera store and bought a remote control for my camera… a total life changer!  And it was only $15!  I feel like a jackass for not having gotten this much sooner.  In fact, here’s the video:

That kind of tells the story. The remote and tripod made it easy to do self portraits, and film like this- so you may see a lot more video blogging.  If you enjoy that format, let me know.. I’ll do more of it (though, not always in a cockroach suit).

Since I sent out messages about how much fun I was having with the roach suit, people wanted photos, so when I got home, I set up the tripod, took out the remote, shot that video, and took these pictures:

I gotta tell you- this is really fun for me.  I’m not saying that as “wow, what a fun day!” (well, I am) – I’m saying it because I recognize a specific thing brings me some joy.  Maybe it’s because it’s so unexpected…. that’s what it was for the people at the camera store, the people in the supermarket, the people at the offices…. people see a person in a roach suit, and they laugh, and smile.  It’s a pattern interrupt– something that’s so out of the ordinary, that it throws you off…. you have to stare.  You forget what you were doing, and your brain just wants to know “What the hell???”

Part of the reason it makes me happy, is because I know that I made that many people happy.  I gave them something to talk about with their friends and coworkers– “So I was at Whole Foods today, and there was this giant roach!”  ”really? I always thought they were so clean!” “No, no!  I mean… this 6 foot tall roach… think he was shopping for toilet paper!” —  That, and just making people laugh…. People these days seem not to have enough reasons to laugh… well, the reasons are there, but they don’t take the time to find them.  Youtube is cute, but falling victim to a flash mob must be more fun in person!

So, bringing joy to peoples’ lives is important to me.  I like to please- whether because I did the best work that I could, and surpassed the clients’ expectation, or provide a 2 hour unexpected midnight call to someone I never spoke to before, to cheer them up about their chemotherapy related hair-loss.  People thank me, but as Seth Godin says in his awesome book “Linchpin”, as the artist, giving my gift may mean more to me than receiving it might mean for you.

Having realized that, I am now figuring out how I can make my projects be based more around bringing happiness to people.  I may walk around in various costumes for the fun of it, or go visit people in the hospital.  If you have any ideas on how I can intersect delivering joy into my projects, I’d like to focus more on that direction, and would really appreciate your thoughts (While you’re at it- what’d you think of the photos and video?)

Bottom line– if you want to cheer yourself up after a rough day, get a rare costume, and go out in public.  If you feel like cheering other people up, wear a costume, and see those people.

Small note:  Don’t get a terrorist or bank robber costume, it won’t have the same effect