April 28, 2025 • 14 mins
Guiness Book of World Records holder for World's fastest backwards talker David Fuhrer in studio to talk toy inventions, Laugh Factory comedy club and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I on with Mario Lopez. What's up? You're on Mario
Lopez and joining me in studio right now. Guinness World
record Holder, inventor and president of the Laugh Factory, my
friend David Fear. What's going on on? Man?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hello? Or oh la backwards?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Oh? We're going to get into that. As a matter
of fact, it's funny. I was telling my producer the
other day, how you're the world record holder for fastest
backwards talker. And we went to a Dodger's game recently
with my son, and my son has not stopped talking
about it because he was fascinated and he's got all
kinds of sentences. He wants to run by you, thinking
he's going to stump you. He's only eleven. He's so cute,
(00:38):
and it really is a fascinating gift. It's got to
be a gift, right because it's not something you can study.
How did you discover this talent of yours?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Well, I guess it's a gift. I like to call
it a useless ability. You know, it's just something. When
I was a kid, I would call all my friends
by their names backwards, and I would reach street signs
and aventually I developed it into a little bit of
an act, and it landed me on a bunch of
television shows. But when I was a kid, you know,
it was kind of this annoying ability. My parents would
(01:09):
tell me to shut up. And then suddenly I went
to summer camp. I got on the stage at the
Talent Show, and from that day forward, I was famous
for talking backwards.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
And is it a picture you see in your mind?
How does it? How do you how do you process
the center?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I'll give you an example. So I kind of picture
it as if it was written on an imaginary blackboard.
But it's instant. It's a combination of hearing it and
visualizing it. So pick any word or sentence you can.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Think crazier, because I don't want you to think. Give
a sentence to mister fear right now.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Marlpez has an incredible film career. Oil rems at pol
Si Albit, Dirkney malef Rerak, all right, that would.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Be I couldn't even say that again that fast normally,
and he did just ye quickie, just corrected that out.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
It's crazy for you that I actually did it. I'm
not reversing sounds, but I'm reversing the spelling. So I
said Mario was oil m O I R A. M.
Lopez was sapal Has was sawn incredible?
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Was ELB.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Dirkney film career was malf Rerack career is being rereck?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Is that sati? That's wild? It is wild? That is
like should be some sort of co Do you know anybody.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Else that has this ability? You know, I've never met
anyone that could do it. Now, of course with the Internet,
I see people that talk backwards, but I've never met
anyone that could do it as quickly as me.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Never have I seen anything. They need to get you
and if there's someone else in the CIA casapp and
use that. How did the process come about to reach
out to the Guinness Book of World Record? How did
that tell me that? Well?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
The funny thing is I had met years ago out
of charity event John Mashida. John Mashida was known for
the old Federal Express commercial and he was the micromachines
manh yeah, and he had a Guinness World Record as
the world's fastest forward talker. And so we met at
this event and he introduced me to the folks at Guinness.
And then what I had to do is I did
(03:01):
the entire album of Queen's Night at the Opera, and
I did it on Entertainment Tonight and there were witnesses.
You know, you have to follow a bunch of check off,
a lot of boxes, follow some protocols so that they
can issue you the record.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Wow, that's incredible. Okay, we're gonna maybe have you do something.
We're gonna do a little quiz later. But before I want,
I want to ask just one more sentence, just because
I'm I love it. Sure, al Mario Lopez is the
best radio show in the country.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I could start with no to Mario Lopez. So that
was on on a too oiram zipolicy at seb oyadar
woe's nee at your nuwak country.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
You're joys is country. It sounds sort of like uh
islamdic or something.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Right, it sounds like a foreign language. Does sound like
very lonely foreign language. Sounds like no one else can
speak it.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yes, it does sound like the go aheads back and
said that the speed in which you do it is amazing.
That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
So going back to it, you said you sort of
see a picture and you hear it a the same time.
So do you have a photographic memory. I don't have
a photographic memory because I don't retain the information, but
I can just visualize it very very quickly. And people
ask me all crazy words. I mean, the one I
get the most is super califragilistic spielidocious. So of course
is say said alas sela Jarphilac crepis.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Wow, dude, that is cra wow as wow wow as
wow wow?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
What is wow? Upside down? Mom? That's right, heyside down
on me. So Dad's favorite thing.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
That's it exactly, That's exactly right, that is awesome. I'm
just such a fun, cool talent right there. And you
have such a fascinating life, David. You're also the president
of the legendary Laugh Factory Comedy Club, of course, and
we recently launched a Way Out Loud there which we
had just a great time and so much fun. But
so many people have played that venue throughout the years,
(04:53):
essentially every huge comedian that pretty much on stage in TV,
in film, don't you say?
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Yeah? Well, the club is forty five years old, and
the first person to ever grace the stage was Richard
Pryor Wow, and it was Jamie Massada was the founder.
He's still at the helm of the club, and we've
had everybody from Rodney Dangerfield, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Jerry
Seinfeld and every top comedian today. We have, you know,
(05:22):
probably the highest level of comedy at our club.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
One of my favorite things to do is to see
live comedy too. I love live music, I love live comedy.
Has the presence of the Internet and the streaming platforms
sort of change the game for the better or for
the worst for comedy clubs because now comics can sort
of put their own content out there, as opposed back
in the day if you wanted to see comedy and
(05:46):
I had to go or doesn't help it, And now
it sort of fires them up to see see them live.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah, I mean, I think it helps it a lot
because the profile of each individual comic is raised so
high that people get excited to see them in. There's
really nowhere else you can see at a really a
budget to see some of the top performers in the
United States on any given night. You know, it's very inexpensive,
and live comedy is such a treat and everybody needs
(06:14):
to laugh these days. It's a you know, we need
to get out, we need to laugh, and it's just
a great diversion.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
I agree, it's incredibly healthy to laugh.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yeah, it really is the best medicine, it really really is.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
You feel great afterwards. I have a question because comics
sometimes are always accusing other comics of either taking material
and stealing and what have you. But for example, I
don't know why this is the first thing that came
to my mind. But let's say where it's ninety four,
the oj chase just happened. Aren't you and I are comics.
Aren't we essentially going to have sort of the same approach,
(06:47):
like the juice is loosing the White Bronco jokes when
he's right, We're only so many things we can think
of that relate to that event. But that doesn't necessarily
mean that I'm stealing from you. Isn't that the case?
With whatever current is going on right now? How is
that monitored? And how do you see a playoff? Cause
I'm sure you see a lot of the same comics
kind of touch on the similar things, right whatever the
hot topic may be, Diddy, what have you or you
(07:10):
know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
I mean, it's it's sort of self monitored. I mean,
I think most of the folks that are in the game.
They don't want to be copying someone else. But we
have things in the zeitgeist life. We haven't watched the
same news. Sure. And by the way, I come from
a background in invention, and the same thing happened in
the world of invention.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Oh, I want to get to that, trust me.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
But yeah, I mean, I think we all see the
same news stories, but each comic who's successful usually has
their own unique take our way of phrasing things. And
it's just all funny.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Got it. No, you're right, it doesn't. That's what's important.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
There were times in the past where certain comics, big
comics were known for being sponges of other people's jokes.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
And we've had even altercations in the past in our club. Wow,
but this goes back in the day.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
So Jamie Masada, who's the founder of the Laugh Factory,
tells me some great stories of those things happening.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Oh, I've bet I know those some great stories. And
I know you're also producing a new movie called Toad.
You've got Tiffany Hattish, James Franco, Craig Robinson, Kat Williams,
great people.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
What's it about Toad is a road trips stoner comedy.
It is the funniest thing I have ever read. It's
about two guys, James Paxton and Oliver Wyman, two young
men who are going to be the next big comedy
duo stars, and they have to transport a box of
toads that have hallucinogenic properties from La to Las Vegas
(08:28):
and all the crazy adventures along the way with some
of the biggest stars in comedy. It is absolutely hysterical.
We start shooting May twenty seventh. Congratulations about this.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
That sounds awesome. I love that previce. That sounds so funny. Perfect,
perfect timing right now for everything that's going.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
On, we need to make new comedy.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
I think the world is ready, yes, absolutely for fun,
loud comedies like this. Now, this is the wildest thing
to me. Aside from all that, you've also created some
legendary kids toys, like the Nerve Vortex football. You were
so kind of bring me one today on a handed
to my boys A little later. How did you get
into the invention game in what was your first invention?
Speaker 2 (09:10):
It's a great question. I never thought that I'd be
able to make a living as a toy inventor. This is,
you know, prior to my new career in comedy, but
it was all a result of the backwards talking I had.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Really that came first.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
So I had this strange ability to speak backwards, and
that ability landed me on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson,
later David Letterman, and then many other TV shows demonstrating
this ability. And so along the way I met a
game inventor, a guy named Mark set Ducati who was
a magician game inventor, and my brother who was working
in the toy industry, and they suggested to me that
(09:43):
we use backwards talking as a hook for a board game,
and we created this game called Backwards, which was themed
around you know, hearing words backwards with a clue and
random House at the time was in the game business.
They licensed or bought this product from me, and they
sent me on a promotional tour to promote the product,
and I left my job. I had a job in
(10:05):
the mailroom, and then I was an assistant one of
the big talent agencies. I thought I was going to
have a career in Hollywood, and I got sidetracked by
this game and then started to create toys and games
full time.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
I was always inventing things as a kid, but I
never knew I could actually make a living at it.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Yeah. I mean I think everyone at some point it's
crossed their mind, what if I invented this? Or wouldn't
it be cool to sort of do this? And you've
done so, how many inventions would you say you have
under your patent?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Well, I've had come out to the market more than
three hundred, but I've probably created a couple of thousand.
Most things are sitting in boxes in my closet with
dust on them because they never saw the light of day.
But I've been very fortunate to have a lot of
toys come out, mostly in the toy industry, some other
kinds of products as well, household products. And then the
(10:54):
most successful one is the one you mentioned, which is
the nerve for tex football. That's the football with the
tail on it. Yeah, you can throw it farther than
any ball.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Oh my gosh. And what year was that?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
That was nineteen ninety two it came out, yes, so yeah,
so it's celebrating it's thirty third year.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Now. That's unbelievable and it's so cool. So I'm just
curious with the process. You have this invention, and who
do you go to to get a patent to make
sure that so?
Speaker 2 (11:23):
I mean, in this particular case, I showed this to
twenty four companies and I got it rejected. Wow. And
then eventually I was very fortunate. I met this gentleman
named John Barber, who was the president of a small
toy company in northern California, and we were in Japan
at a toy show and he was seated across from
me from dinner, and he asked me a question that
(11:44):
I think actually changed my life because he pointed at
me and he said, you're an inventor. He said, you
have one product that you know is great. I don't
care if everybody's turned it down. You know it's great.
That's the one I want to see. And the next
week I showed him the product and he and his
partners at this company called odds On loved it and
(12:05):
they licensed it from me. Licensing is when they take
an invention and they pay you a royalty that which
is the business model of which toy inventions work. And
then it went on to become the best selling toy
football in the world, and then his company was acquired
by Hasbro, which owns the NERF brand, and then the
football became part of NERF and now it's known as
the NERF Vortex Football.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
What a fascinating life.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
What sparked the idea to make that? You know, at
the time, I had a general idea where I was
trying to do solve problems. What kids aspire to do
things in sports that they can't ordinarily do, like Dunkel
basketball hit a home run, And one of them was
to throw a football a long way, because I, as
a kid, to this day, I can't throw football. So
(12:52):
I had a javelin in my office that I had
played with, a big foam javelin, and I noticed how
far it went, and I one day drilled a hole
in a football. I had a couple of partners that
I worked on this with, and we all together, we
you know, we created a prototype where we put this
javelin inside a giant football and it became aerodynamic the
moment you threw it. It's straightened out in the air
(13:14):
and it went farther than a regular football. So we
then just tweaked it until we got it to the
right size and weight and the rest is history, and
it's now it's part of Americana. It's yeah, it's you know,
they're all over the world. There's copies of them all
over the world. And you mentioned patents. We had a
design pattern. There's different kinds of patents, and a design
(13:35):
patent is the one that protects you the least, which
is you know, it protects the size and the weight
and so on. But a utility pattern is another kind
of pattern, and that would have protected us the most.
So so people were able to get around our design
by making a little bit bigger, a little bit wider.
But what ultimately protected us was the brand having NERF
(13:56):
on our product. Every kid wanted the NERF for text
football and not the copy products.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
No, that's a big time O there, I know I did.
What a fascinating story and just life. That's awesome, David.
I appreciate you coming by and listen. Everyone be on
the lookout for more dates coming up for Way Out
Loud of course, and the Laugh Factory in general. If
you're in the LA area. And what are the other locations, David, So.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
We have Chicago, we have Reno, we have Long Beach,
we have San Diego, and we have Covina. So come
on out to the Laugh Factory. It's the greatest show
in town, live comedy, seven nights a week, two shows
a night, and it doesn't cost very much.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
There we go, and it's I guaranteed good time. And
of course be on the lookout for David's upcoming movie
Toad as well. Thank you, my friend, appreciate you coming.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Wow with Mario Lopez
I on with Mario Lopez. What's up? You're on Mario
Lopez and joining me in studio right now. Guinness World
record Holder, inventor and president of the Laugh Factory, my
friend David Fear. What's going on on? Man?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hello? Or oh la backwards?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Oh? We're going to get into that. As a matter
of fact, it's funny. I was telling my producer the
other day, how you're the world record holder for fastest
backwards talker. And we went to a Dodger's game recently
with my son, and my son has not stopped talking
about it because he was fascinated and he's got all
kinds of sentences. He wants to run by you, thinking
he's going to stump you. He's only eleven. He's so cute,
(00:38):
and it really is a fascinating gift. It's got to
be a gift, right because it's not something you can study.
How did you discover this talent of yours?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Well, I guess it's a gift. I like to call
it a useless ability. You know, it's just something. When
I was a kid, I would call all my friends
by their names backwards, and I would reach street signs
and aventually I developed it into a little bit of
an act, and it landed me on a bunch of
television shows. But when I was a kid, you know,
it was kind of this annoying ability. My parents would
(01:09):
tell me to shut up. And then suddenly I went
to summer camp. I got on the stage at the
Talent Show, and from that day forward, I was famous
for talking backwards.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
And is it a picture you see in your mind?
How does it? How do you how do you process
the center?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I'll give you an example. So I kind of picture
it as if it was written on an imaginary blackboard.
But it's instant. It's a combination of hearing it and
visualizing it. So pick any word or sentence you can.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Think crazier, because I don't want you to think. Give
a sentence to mister fear right now.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Marlpez has an incredible film career. Oil rems at pol
Si Albit, Dirkney malef Rerak, all right, that would.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Be I couldn't even say that again that fast normally,
and he did just ye quickie, just corrected that out.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
It's crazy for you that I actually did it. I'm
not reversing sounds, but I'm reversing the spelling. So I
said Mario was oil m O I R A. M.
Lopez was sapal Has was sawn incredible?
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Was ELB.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Dirkney film career was malf Rerack career is being rereck?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Is that sati? That's wild? It is wild? That is
like should be some sort of co Do you know anybody.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Else that has this ability? You know, I've never met
anyone that could do it. Now, of course with the Internet,
I see people that talk backwards, but I've never met
anyone that could do it as quickly as me.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Never have I seen anything. They need to get you
and if there's someone else in the CIA casapp and
use that. How did the process come about to reach
out to the Guinness Book of World Record? How did
that tell me that? Well?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
The funny thing is I had met years ago out
of charity event John Mashida. John Mashida was known for
the old Federal Express commercial and he was the micromachines
manh yeah, and he had a Guinness World Record as
the world's fastest forward talker. And so we met at
this event and he introduced me to the folks at Guinness.
And then what I had to do is I did
(03:01):
the entire album of Queen's Night at the Opera, and
I did it on Entertainment Tonight and there were witnesses.
You know, you have to follow a bunch of check off,
a lot of boxes, follow some protocols so that they
can issue you the record.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Wow, that's incredible. Okay, we're gonna maybe have you do something.
We're gonna do a little quiz later. But before I want,
I want to ask just one more sentence, just because
I'm I love it. Sure, al Mario Lopez is the
best radio show in the country.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I could start with no to Mario Lopez. So that
was on on a too oiram zipolicy at seb oyadar
woe's nee at your nuwak country.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
You're joys is country. It sounds sort of like uh
islamdic or something.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Right, it sounds like a foreign language. Does sound like
very lonely foreign language. Sounds like no one else can
speak it.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yes, it does sound like the go aheads back and
said that the speed in which you do it is amazing.
That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
So going back to it, you said you sort of
see a picture and you hear it a the same time.
So do you have a photographic memory. I don't have
a photographic memory because I don't retain the information, but
I can just visualize it very very quickly. And people
ask me all crazy words. I mean, the one I
get the most is super califragilistic spielidocious. So of course
is say said alas sela Jarphilac crepis.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Wow, dude, that is cra wow as wow wow as
wow wow?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
What is wow? Upside down? Mom? That's right, heyside down
on me. So Dad's favorite thing.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
That's it exactly, That's exactly right, that is awesome. I'm
just such a fun, cool talent right there. And you
have such a fascinating life, David. You're also the president
of the legendary Laugh Factory Comedy Club, of course, and
we recently launched a Way Out Loud there which we
had just a great time and so much fun. But
so many people have played that venue throughout the years,
(04:53):
essentially every huge comedian that pretty much on stage in TV,
in film, don't you say?
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Yeah? Well, the club is forty five years old, and
the first person to ever grace the stage was Richard
Pryor Wow, and it was Jamie Massada was the founder.
He's still at the helm of the club, and we've
had everybody from Rodney Dangerfield, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Jerry
Seinfeld and every top comedian today. We have, you know,
(05:22):
probably the highest level of comedy at our club.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
One of my favorite things to do is to see
live comedy too. I love live music, I love live comedy.
Has the presence of the Internet and the streaming platforms
sort of change the game for the better or for
the worst for comedy clubs because now comics can sort
of put their own content out there, as opposed back
in the day if you wanted to see comedy and
(05:46):
I had to go or doesn't help it, And now
it sort of fires them up to see see them live.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah, I mean, I think it helps it a lot
because the profile of each individual comic is raised so
high that people get excited to see them in. There's
really nowhere else you can see at a really a
budget to see some of the top performers in the
United States on any given night. You know, it's very inexpensive,
and live comedy is such a treat and everybody needs
(06:14):
to laugh these days. It's a you know, we need
to get out, we need to laugh, and it's just
a great diversion.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
I agree, it's incredibly healthy to laugh.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yeah, it really is the best medicine, it really really is.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
You feel great afterwards. I have a question because comics
sometimes are always accusing other comics of either taking material
and stealing and what have you. But for example, I
don't know why this is the first thing that came
to my mind. But let's say where it's ninety four,
the oj chase just happened. Aren't you and I are comics.
Aren't we essentially going to have sort of the same approach,
(06:47):
like the juice is loosing the White Bronco jokes when
he's right, We're only so many things we can think
of that relate to that event. But that doesn't necessarily
mean that I'm stealing from you. Isn't that the case?
With whatever current is going on right now? How is
that monitored? And how do you see a playoff? Cause
I'm sure you see a lot of the same comics
kind of touch on the similar things, right whatever the
hot topic may be, Diddy, what have you or you
(07:10):
know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
I mean, it's it's sort of self monitored. I mean,
I think most of the folks that are in the game.
They don't want to be copying someone else. But we
have things in the zeitgeist life. We haven't watched the
same news. Sure. And by the way, I come from
a background in invention, and the same thing happened in
the world of invention.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Oh, I want to get to that, trust me.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
But yeah, I mean, I think we all see the
same news stories, but each comic who's successful usually has
their own unique take our way of phrasing things. And
it's just all funny.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Got it. No, you're right, it doesn't. That's what's important.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
There were times in the past where certain comics, big
comics were known for being sponges of other people's jokes.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
And we've had even altercations in the past in our club. Wow,
but this goes back in the day.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
So Jamie Masada, who's the founder of the Laugh Factory,
tells me some great stories of those things happening.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Oh, I've bet I know those some great stories. And
I know you're also producing a new movie called Toad.
You've got Tiffany Hattish, James Franco, Craig Robinson, Kat Williams,
great people.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
What's it about Toad is a road trips stoner comedy.
It is the funniest thing I have ever read. It's
about two guys, James Paxton and Oliver Wyman, two young
men who are going to be the next big comedy
duo stars, and they have to transport a box of
toads that have hallucinogenic properties from La to Las Vegas
(08:28):
and all the crazy adventures along the way with some
of the biggest stars in comedy. It is absolutely hysterical.
We start shooting May twenty seventh. Congratulations about this.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
That sounds awesome. I love that previce. That sounds so funny. Perfect,
perfect timing right now for everything that's going.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
On, we need to make new comedy.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
I think the world is ready, yes, absolutely for fun,
loud comedies like this. Now, this is the wildest thing
to me. Aside from all that, you've also created some
legendary kids toys, like the Nerve Vortex football. You were
so kind of bring me one today on a handed
to my boys A little later. How did you get
into the invention game in what was your first invention?
Speaker 2 (09:10):
It's a great question. I never thought that I'd be
able to make a living as a toy inventor. This is,
you know, prior to my new career in comedy, but
it was all a result of the backwards talking I had.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Really that came first.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
So I had this strange ability to speak backwards, and
that ability landed me on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson,
later David Letterman, and then many other TV shows demonstrating
this ability. And so along the way I met a
game inventor, a guy named Mark set Ducati who was
a magician game inventor, and my brother who was working
in the toy industry, and they suggested to me that
(09:43):
we use backwards talking as a hook for a board game,
and we created this game called Backwards, which was themed
around you know, hearing words backwards with a clue and
random House at the time was in the game business.
They licensed or bought this product from me, and they
sent me on a promotional tour to promote the product,
and I left my job. I had a job in
(10:05):
the mailroom, and then I was an assistant one of
the big talent agencies. I thought I was going to
have a career in Hollywood, and I got sidetracked by
this game and then started to create toys and games
full time.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
I was always inventing things as a kid, but I
never knew I could actually make a living at it.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Yeah. I mean I think everyone at some point it's
crossed their mind, what if I invented this? Or wouldn't
it be cool to sort of do this? And you've
done so, how many inventions would you say you have
under your patent?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Well, I've had come out to the market more than
three hundred, but I've probably created a couple of thousand.
Most things are sitting in boxes in my closet with
dust on them because they never saw the light of day.
But I've been very fortunate to have a lot of
toys come out, mostly in the toy industry, some other
kinds of products as well, household products. And then the
(10:54):
most successful one is the one you mentioned, which is
the nerve for tex football. That's the football with the
tail on it. Yeah, you can throw it farther than
any ball.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Oh my gosh. And what year was that?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
That was nineteen ninety two it came out, yes, so yeah,
so it's celebrating it's thirty third year.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Now. That's unbelievable and it's so cool. So I'm just
curious with the process. You have this invention, and who
do you go to to get a patent to make
sure that so?
Speaker 2 (11:23):
I mean, in this particular case, I showed this to
twenty four companies and I got it rejected. Wow. And
then eventually I was very fortunate. I met this gentleman
named John Barber, who was the president of a small
toy company in northern California, and we were in Japan
at a toy show and he was seated across from
me from dinner, and he asked me a question that
(11:44):
I think actually changed my life because he pointed at
me and he said, you're an inventor. He said, you
have one product that you know is great. I don't
care if everybody's turned it down. You know it's great.
That's the one I want to see. And the next
week I showed him the product and he and his
partners at this company called odds On loved it and
(12:05):
they licensed it from me. Licensing is when they take
an invention and they pay you a royalty that which
is the business model of which toy inventions work. And
then it went on to become the best selling toy
football in the world, and then his company was acquired
by Hasbro, which owns the NERF brand, and then the
football became part of NERF and now it's known as
the NERF Vortex Football.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
What a fascinating life.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
What sparked the idea to make that? You know, at
the time, I had a general idea where I was
trying to do solve problems. What kids aspire to do
things in sports that they can't ordinarily do, like Dunkel
basketball hit a home run, And one of them was
to throw a football a long way, because I, as
a kid, to this day, I can't throw football. So
(12:52):
I had a javelin in my office that I had
played with, a big foam javelin, and I noticed how
far it went, and I one day drilled a hole
in a football. I had a couple of partners that
I worked on this with, and we all together, we
you know, we created a prototype where we put this
javelin inside a giant football and it became aerodynamic the
moment you threw it. It's straightened out in the air
(13:14):
and it went farther than a regular football. So we
then just tweaked it until we got it to the
right size and weight and the rest is history, and
it's now it's part of Americana. It's yeah, it's you know,
they're all over the world. There's copies of them all
over the world. And you mentioned patents. We had a
design pattern. There's different kinds of patents, and a design
(13:35):
patent is the one that protects you the least, which
is you know, it protects the size and the weight
and so on. But a utility pattern is another kind
of pattern, and that would have protected us the most.
So so people were able to get around our design
by making a little bit bigger, a little bit wider.
But what ultimately protected us was the brand having NERF
(13:56):
on our product. Every kid wanted the NERF for text
football and not the copy products.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
No, that's a big time O there, I know I did.
What a fascinating story and just life. That's awesome, David.
I appreciate you coming by and listen. Everyone be on
the lookout for more dates coming up for Way Out
Loud of course, and the Laugh Factory in general. If
you're in the LA area. And what are the other locations, David, So.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
We have Chicago, we have Reno, we have Long Beach,
we have San Diego, and we have Covina. So come
on out to the Laugh Factory. It's the greatest show
in town, live comedy, seven nights a week, two shows
a night, and it doesn't cost very much.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
There we go, and it's I guaranteed good time. And
of course be on the lookout for David's upcoming movie
Toad as well. Thank you, my friend, appreciate you coming.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Wow with Mario Lopez
Host
Mario Lopez
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