Comments on: Vinny Goes To Hollywood – Why Vince the Sham Wow Guy Jumped the Shark

By: Fritz Stolzenbach

Fritz Stolzenbach — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 01:46:07 +0000

Hey, Bryan –

Stumbled across this today, and was moved to comment. The deal is this: Vince is a CARNY. Seriously, he didn’t learn his spiel on a trade show floor, he learned it sandwiched in between the “guess your weight” guy and the dude who tries to convince “marks” that it’s possible to win your lady friend an overstuffed teddy bear by tossing a ring over a bottleneck. Vince has no class? No kidding!

There’s a lesson in here somewhere. To tell you the truth, I have immense respect — albeit deeply conflicted respect — for the carnies and televangelists of the world. Year after year — hell, century after century — they manage to continue selling the hell out of their sh*t without changing their fundamental spiel AT ALL. It’s like they’ve distilled the art of the pitch to a crystalline purity, and all the rest of us are doing is adding fruit and nuts to the deal. Seriously, head out to the state fair next time it comes around, and spend time down in the pits where they sell miracle cheese graters and power washers. You’ll be amazed at the perverse beauty of it all.

Hey, you going to SXSW this year?

Cheers –

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 20:55:35 +0000

I love this commercial. Its clearly done with a wink and a nod to this whole genre – as you can tell when he utters the line “we can’t do this all day”. Everyone knows the “call within the next 20 mins” is BS since these things run in a gazillion markets at different times – and he is simply acknowledging the fact that its BS.. but you still get 2 if you order.

By: jeremy

jeremy — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 02:47:38 +0000

I liked the slap chop until he throws it over his shoulder and it makes that sound effect in the sink. Then it’s quite clear he’s just hamming it up with his nuts and all.

By: Ed Roach

Ed Roach — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 19:19:22 +0000

I think he’s pretty good. I don’t think the production values hurt him. My favorite line is, “You’re gonna love my nuts” .

My only negative is that the format is identical right down to the people outside of the outdoor booth. When he says, “we can’t do this all day” it doesn’t seem as genuine as the sham wow version.
He says it more like a slogan.

All and all he has appeal.

By: Michael Baird

Michael Baird — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:03:15 +0000

did he go to the Billy Mase school of infomercials…

By: Laser PewPew

Laser PewPew — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 07:43:11 +0000

Cause you know we can’t do this all day….

[IMG]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a240/Sc0oByDo0/LOVEMYNUTS1.jpg[/IMG]

By: sashanker

sashanker — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 03:19:29 +0000

Are you following me camera guy?!!

By: Dave Rigotti

Dave Rigotti — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 19:13:58 +0000

I had a friend get the Sham Wow for a present over the holidays and they were disgusted on how the product didn’t work as advertised. They tried drying their car and said it hardly took off any water at all.