Like I've never heard that before! :p One of the guys at work says I look like Luigi. :D

Man, that parade was a long one. Over 100 float entries. We walked/jogged about 1 1/2 miles. Got some standing novations though. :cool: All in all it was a huge success. They had it televised on the local cable network and I some how managed to be doing the (bicycle exercise/ spinning the dough between my legs trick :p ) when they caught it on TV. That was the highlight of all of the tricks and the one that got the most response from the crowd. It was kinda windy for some of the other high risk tricks but we improvised quite nicely. The kids loved it. Just wanted to let you all know how it went. Here is the follow up article from the parade, however it was very brief. I will keep you posted on more updates later! ;)

Update: Here is a must see television show called The World Pizza Challenge. Mark your calendars and check this out. It will give you an idea of what the US Pizza Team is all about and a look at what I am up against. Its pretty entertaining to watch as well. Here is the link for dates and times. It will be aired on the food network channel.
:cool:

Update:

OMG! I am freaking out. Check this out. Man, I cant believe this happened.

First of all, I was invited 2 wks ago to attend the Sofo Foods Expo in toledo.
They asked if I could come out and perform some dough tossing for the vendors and buyers at the pizza contest. So I accepted the invitation only to find out that Cat Price productions showed up to document the event for their upcoming movie. They shot 3 or 4 video tapes worth of footage of me tossing. Holy crap, it could be that I have stumbled into their movie by accident. I didnt even notice them at first cause they always cover the show on video. It was not out of the ordinary to have a camera on the sceen. Naturally, I over looked this as just that and tossed down for about 4 1/2 hours. It wasnt til after the 3rd tape change that they revealed who they were and what they were doing. After it was all over, they came up to me like they knew me and said, "Wow, we didnt even know you were gonna be here". Jokingly, I said, " That makes us even cause I didnt know you guys would be here either". It attracted some very big people in the pizza industry as well. I was approached by the editor of PMQ Magazine and was told that he was very impressed with some of my moves. I did the "Gemignani trick blindfolded 3 consecutive times in front of the camera.
I was told that if I can pull off that again in New York, I will probably make the team for sure. I am so excited to think I may have just helped make a film. I'm freaking out. This is alot more than I ever expected for sure. Just thought I would share this news with you guys. :cool:

Thats nutz man. Ill order the dvd for sure.



Tyler!

To celebrate the end of the Pizzaworld-happening, a mammoth pizza was baked in Napels. It just weigh 124 kilo (273 pound) and was put in an oven of 83 m³ (3037 ft³) The bakers seem to have gotten hungry.

Couldn't upload a pic so here's a Site

I wonder if they deliver?



Tyler!

To be able to read that, you must be Italian? Are you a competitor as well?

No it's Dutch and i'm Belgian ;) I'm not a competitor, i just found out in some magazine.

Ah! Ok. I'm not Italian either so I was just wondering. That is one big pizza!

Well tomorrow is the big debut. I went to the convention center today to check out the competition and it is very tight. I got my work cut out for me. There was a little 13 or 14 year old italian kid thats got mad skills. Hes has to wait a few years thought cause the age limit is 18yrs old. By the time hes ready age wise, he will be very tough to beat.

As it turns out, We (USPT contestants) was invited to be on a local news channel WPIX this morning at 5:00am. That was pretty cool. After that, we headed over to another place to be on Good Morning America. Originally we were there o be extras on the show but after throwing some dough, they asked us to do a separate segment afterward.

Needless to say it has been a very busy day so far. I will post more later on this tomorrow and let everyone know how it went.

Dude! When are you gonna be on Good Morning America? I wanna see that.




Tyler!

Possibly tomorrow (Wednesday 11/03/04) morning. They filmed 2 segments, One was aired live and the other one was recorded. They are supposed to send us a copy too. This dough throwing is turning out to be a worth while investment of my time. Even if I dont place in the top 3, I have gotten the opportunity to meet so many new people. I have been on TV 3 times now, been on a theatrical movie (Pizza the Movie) that will be released in late 2005 or early 2006. Got to travel to Columbus Ohio, Las Vegas, and New York. I'd say thats almost a win in itself.To top it all off, I still have a decent chance to make the US Pizza Team, if not here in New York, then in Columbus Feb 2005. I am up against the very best Pizza Dough Throwers in the entire US.

Well the final competition was very crappy. It started off with 12 contestants. 3 dropped out of the competition before it even started. The stress and nervessness of everyone was extremely high. It was one of the toughest competitions I have ever been in. Each one of them are extremely skilled. Of the 9 who competed, I was told I placed 4th. :( Bummer....but 4th in the US isnt bad though. My routine went really bad. Some of the best and most talented people have bad days and boy did I have a BAD one. I know I could have done alot better. Atleast I got to be on TV a few times. That was very exciting. I found out that being a celebrity is cool but can be a rough lifestyle. There is alot of pressure on them. I'm glad I made it as far as I did. I feel like I let you guys down but there is always the next time. It gives me time to get even better. I will keep you guys posted on more later.

Dude, no worries! As long as I can get a signed dvd, you havent let me down. :p Plus there is always next year right?




Tyler!

Thanks for the added support TD! No problem on the signed dvd. As for next year, I will be competing again. I am not sure where it will be as of yet but I plan to give it another run. I think I might take some time to practice harder. I want a solid routine next time around. I will keep all of you guys posted.