Gelf Magazine has an
article about Alan Abel, who will be speaking at Gelf's Non-Motivational Speaker Series on Thursday, April 24 in New York City.
The article gives a quick overview of Abel's career:
The Society for Indecency to Naked Animals, his obituary in the New York Times, Citizens Against Breastfeeding, etc.
One interesting part at the end, which I've heard people speculate about before, is how Abel funds himself:
This subject is the only one which he's vague about in the interview. He mentions I am probably better off watching his daughter’s recent documentary about him—Abel Raises Cain—to ascertain the details of his day-to-day affairs, but says he works as a consultant, and then gives some examples of the kind of consultations he’s done in the past. Rather than traditional consulting jobs in which one is brought in to advise on business or personal matters, all three of Abel’s stories involve tracking down people or money in cross-country adventures, leaving me with the idea that perhaps Alan Abel is some sort of vigilante mystery-solver, a cross between Harvey Keitel’s character in Pulp Fiction and Encyclopedia Brown. As for securing funding for his hoaxes, Abel is similarly ambiguous, attributing his financial backing to an anonymous millionaire from Florida.
I wonder if this "anonymous millionaire from Florida" would care to fund the Museum of Hoaxes?
Jenny Abel, Abel's daughter, recently sent me a copy of her movie,
Abel Raises Cain. I plan to watch it sometime in the next two weeks (right after I finish work on the proposal for my next book), and will post about it then.
Comments
In February 2006, Alan, his daughter Jenny's boyfriend Jeff and her friend Nancy and I flew to Nebraska. The then-record Powerball had just been won in Lincoln and we were there so I could pretend to be the winner. That Monday was Presidents Day so we knew the state lottery office would be closed, giving us a small window of opportunity.
We found a Denny's-type place called The Village Inn where we gave the manager $2000 and announced that I wanted to buy everyone there lunch to celebrate my "win." As expected, it took less than fifteen minutes for the TV crews to show up.
For the next two and a half hours, I was surrounded by cameras, microphones and guys with pens and pads. It was madness (but incredible fun).
The whole incident is pretty well captured on the Abel Raises Cain DVD in a 20-minute mini-documentary; I laugh every time I watch it.
Back in the 80's, there was a wrestler named Ted DiBiasi whose gimmick was calling himself The Million Dollar Man. He said in an interview I read that Vince McMahon, his boss, would give him money and tell him to buy meals for everyone when he went to a restaurant to keep the gimmick going. I always thought that it would be great to have that experience at least once in my life and, thanks to our hoax in Nebraska, I actually did get to do it.
Would you have sued me if your tie fell into your soup? Would it have been my fault if there was no soap in the bathroom? What if you overate because I was paying for it and you developed indigestion?
I performed an act of kindness for the hard-working, salt of the Earth people of Lincoln, Nebraska and brightened their otherwise humdrum existence and you try to turn it into something bad. Shame on you, Mr. Spencer. You are a bad American.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE