A colleague of mine has agreed to have a huge amount of pies thrown at his face all in the name of good clean fun, and fund raising.
However, he has some control over what the pies will actually be. He wants to maximize comic effect, while minimizing cost and any potential for personal harm.
As a reminder, you might want to read the NYT obituary of Soupy Sales, legendary pie flinger here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/24/arts/television/24sales.html. Soupy said: "You can use whipped cream, egg whites or shaving cream, but shaving cream is much better because it doesn’t spoil. And no tin plates. The secret is you just can’t push it and shove it in somebody’s face. It has to be done with a pie that has a lot of crust so that it breaks up into a thousand pieces when it hits you.”
So I figure this group of misfits, sorry, jugglers, would have good additional advice on the following questions based on hard fought and won experience: 1) What kind of pies should he use? 2) Shaving cream filler or something edible? 3) Pies in aluminum tins? Or take them out and put them on paper plates before they get thrown at the face?
On 2009-11-05, slammin <slam...@juggler.strike-this.net.nospam.com> wrote:
> Guys, I need your help.
> A colleague of mine has agreed to have a huge amount of pies thrown at his > face all in the name of good clean fun, and fund raising.
> However, he has some control over what the pies will actually be. He > wants to maximize comic effect, while minimizing cost and any potential > for personal harm. [...]
I would definitely go for steak and kidney pies. Now that _would_ be fun.
-- Jon Solberg (remove "nospam." from email address).
On 2009-11-05, slammin <slam...@juggler.strike-this.net.nospam.com> wrote:
> 1) What kind of pies should he use? > 2) Shaving cream filler or something edible? > 3) Pies in aluminum tins? Or take them out and put them on paper plates > before they get thrown at the face?
I haven't seen anyone throw an actual pie for many years, presumably because it gets expensive quickly.
It seems that the "cheap and cheerful" approach is "paper plate covered in shaving foam" although these really do have to be pushed into the face rather than thrown as they're too light to fly nicely. They also look nothing like any pie I've ever seen.
If you really want something involving pastry, then you may want to make some enquiries to commercial bakeries or possibly large supermarkets or wholesalers in your area and see if they can donate a quantity of (possibly stale?) pre-prepared sponge cake bases, or ready made piza bases.
But yes, for the topping, shaving foam is cheap and easy to clean up.
> A colleague of mine has agreed to have a huge amount of pies thrown at his > face all in the name of good clean fun, and fund raising.
> However, he has some control over what the pies will actually be. He > wants to maximize comic effect, while minimizing cost and any potential > for personal harm.
> As a reminder, you might want to read the NYT obituary of Soupy Sales, > legendary pie flinger here: > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/24/arts/television/24sales.html. Soupy > said: > "You can use whipped cream, egg whites or shaving cream, but shaving cream > is much better because it doesn’t spoil. And no tin plates. The > secret is you just can’t push it and shove it in somebody’s > face. It has to be done with a pie that has a lot of crust so that it > breaks up into a thousand pieces when it hits you.”
> So I figure this group of misfits, sorry, jugglers, would have good > additional advice on the following questions based on hard fought and won > experience: > 1) What kind of pies should he use? > 2) Shaving cream filler or something edible? > 3) Pies in aluminum tins? Or take them out and put them on paper plates > before they get thrown at the face?
I'd go for shaving cream on paper plates (or possibly aluminium foil trays which can be picked up and re-used), thrust into the face rather than thrown (since they'd be rather on the light side, and probably wouldn't fly well. Although they might. Try it and see).
Don't use real pies - wasting copius amounts of food in the name of charity is probably a good way to piss a lot of people off.
> A colleague of mine has agreed to have a huge amount of pies thrown at his > face all in the name of good clean fun, and fund raising.
> However, he has some control over what the pies will actually be. He > wants to maximize comic effect, while minimizing cost and any potential > for personal harm.
> As a reminder, you might want to read the NYT obituary of Soupy Sales, > legendary pie flinger here: > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/24/arts/television/24sales.html. Soupy > said: > "You can use whipped cream, egg whites or shaving cream, but shaving cream > is much better because it doesn’t spoil. And no tin plates. The > secret is you just can’t push it and shove it in somebody’s > face. It has to be done with a pie that has a lot of crust so that it > breaks up into a thousand pieces when it hits you.”
> So I figure this group of misfits, sorry, jugglers, would have good > additional advice on the following questions based on hard fought and won > experience: > 1) What kind of pies should he use? > 2) Shaving cream filler or something edible? > 3) Pies in aluminum tins? Or take them out and put them on paper plates > before they get thrown at the face?
> Any advice would be appreciated.
> Thanks
> -Slammin'
I'd definitely go with the shaving cream for the majority of the pies. If you have some special media attention or a celeb pie thrower then go with a good visual cherry or blueberry (stains). I'd also go with something softer than aluminum unless you're talking about those "non-reusable" thin shell aluminum pie shells you can buy three in a pack.
The point I wanted to bring up was to make sure the pie is "thrown", albeit only from a short distance. In my personal experience as the recipient of many cream pies the biggest problem comes from the rare person that wants to push the pie into the face, sometimes with considerable force. It is not necessary to continue pushing the pie forward once it hits the face.
Finally, the more cream the more cushion (and the greater visual effect).
I vote for aerosol cream, such as ReddiWip, or dessert topping that is not really cream. For a lot of hits, shaving foam will be ghastly, imo.
I had a pie pushed in my face once, for a kids' tv show. It was shaving foam, and yes, I did not have to worry about hurrying to clean my shirt collar etc.; but the terrible taste was in my mouth for the rest of the day and then some. I think you should also ask what would you prefer in your eyes, because even with fair warning, it will get under the eyelids. Nothing should, but shaving foam is going to be more uncomfortable. For that, I had removed my contact lenses, and was asked at the time to remove my glasses. Dessert topping will take a lot more cans for a lot of pies, shaving foam goes on forever; but it is heavier and will carry better and more accurately for any air time. Nobody thinks it's a pie, so paper plates or styrofoam would be acceptable, plastic having a sharper edge, with paper plates needing to be stout ones to hold the load.
Couldn't this guy just donate some money instead? Maybe some here would chip in to buy his freedom.
> it has to be banoffee surely. Nice and heavy for better flight plus you > would have no problems getting volunteers to lick it off your face > afterwards
I suspect that using banoffee pies would wipe out any fund raising money raised though..
Ewano - who is considering buying some condensed milk..
> A colleague of mine has agreed to have a huge amount of pies thrown at his > face all in the name of good clean fun, and fund raising.
Wow. I just watched a video of a 'test run' where my colleague had a test pie in a aluminum pan thrown at him by his child.
WARNING: ALWAYS TAKE THE PIE OUT OF THE TIN PAN.
That pie flew about 1 foot, turned sideways like a saw blade and smacked into my colleagues head with a very audible dull smack. He said it felt like getting hit in the head with a baseball bat.
> > A colleague of mine has agreed to have a huge amount of pies thrown at his > > face all in the name of good clean fun, and fund raising.
> Wow. I just watched a video of a 'test run' where my colleague had a test > pie in a aluminum pan thrown at him by his child.
> WARNING: ALWAYS TAKE THE PIE OUT OF THE TIN PAN.
> That pie flew about 1 foot, turned sideways like a saw blade and smacked > into my colleagues head with a very audible dull smack. He said it felt > like getting hit in the head with a baseball bat.
> It looked very, very painful.
> -Slammin'
Oh, come on! You can't say you saw the video, and then not link it here!
> > it has to be banoffee surely. Nice and heavy for better flight plus you > > would have no problems getting volunteers to lick it off your face > > afterwards
> I suspect that using banoffee pies would wipe out any fund raising money > raised though..
> Ewano - who is considering buying some condensed milk..
> > > it has to be banoffee surely. Nice and heavy for better flight plus you > > > would have no problems getting volunteers to lick it off your face > > > afterwards
> > I suspect that using banoffee pies would wipe out any fund raising money > > raised though..
> > Ewano - who is considering buying some condensed milk..
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