I am Potato Salad Guy, Zack Danger Brown AMA.

Dear honorable Mr. Brown Potato.

Can you come Latvia be president?

Politburo can have no stop of people of Latvia, come hope of new spring in hands of Potato Salad sorcerer be president! You be like Lāčplēsis of modern!

You are only hope for us.

.

Edit: Thank generous strangers for gift of precious metals!

Yes. DM me details.

If someone tried to hand you a crappy bowl of potato salad, would you slap it out of their hands shouting, "don't you know who I am?!"

No way! I want to include people as much as possible. Also, there is no such thing as crappy potato salad.

i've actually got a couple more questions 1) did your friends and family support you in your potato salad endeavors? 2) how does it feel to have one of those funny little ideas you get in your head completely blow up on the internet to the point where people recognize the phrase "Potato salad guy"? 3) How would you list something like the potato salad kickstarter thing on a resume? edit: added another question

1.) Yep! They were all very supportive. Though, I could tell that it was putting a lot of stress on friends and family. There wasn't a LOT of trolling going on, but my friends would read every negative comment / article and get upset about it. My mom got in a (verbal) fight with someone at work because he said something like "have you heard of this idiot on the internet that raised a ton of money for potato salad?" So, TL;DR, they were super supportive, but you should never read the comments on the internet.

2.) Amazing. I've always enjoyed writing and telling jokes. The early response to the joke was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. This news anchor laughing so hard she started crying was one of the things that really made me happy: http://www.kare11.com/video/3660515027001/1/Kickstarter-project-created-to-make-potato-salad

I just wanted to let you know that I'm a current student at your alma mater, and am originally from Minnesota, where that news video is from. So we're basically soul twins. Also, can you please deliver me some delicious potato salad so I don't have to eat shitty dining hall food tonight?

Gross, that dining hall food is some real garbage toilet stuff. Good luck with it! I recommend driving to Heath and eating a diet of all-chipotle all the time.

Why do you love John Cena so much?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can%27t_See_Me

Zack - Let's find time to do an interview for my movie about crowdfunding. You up for it? We've got Zach Braff, Amanda Palmer, Levar Burton - definitely need Potato Salad Guy. Check it out and let me know! www.kickstartedmovie.com

DM me! Or email me at zackdangerbrown [at] gmail.com

Were you pleased with the outcome of Potatostock?

Yes! We had 1500 attendees, which was on the low end of what I was hoping. In 9 hours, we distributed all 450lbs of potato salad! In the first hour, we sold out of our festival t-shirt (300 t-shirts, $10 from each went to the Columbus Foundation). We raised $18,000 from sponsorship alone!

We had cooking demonstrations for kids. The local, independent radio station had DJs doing stage announcements. We had 6 awesome local bands play. It felt like everyone in attendance was really happy to be there celebrating something so silly.

TL;DR: It was a huge success and I was really happy to be a part of it!

The green shirts at the festival are so* much better than the shirts for the backers.

* ^{so so so so so so}

I agree. We wanted to make a shirt for backers and a shirt for the event. The event shirt ended up being better than the backer shirt. If I had it to do over, I would have given backers the option to choose. On the bright side, backers will be getting a limited-edition Homage t-shirt that will never be sold in stores.

Sorry for the disappointment!

I think it is awesome that you donated a lot of the money to charity, and from the article raised even more at the festival... but lets get real... did you buy anything for yourself besides potato salad? You had to reward yourself with something?

Thanks!

Nothing! I rewarded myself by leaving my job to pursue some kind of living making people laugh. That's more than enough to handle at the moment.

You are living the dream my man, I've been wanting to quit my 8-5 for the last couple years to do the same thing. It's hard to pursue outside of your local area with a full time job... I hope you thank the potato salad Gods for the opportunity every day!

I thank them EVERY day.

After this started getting popular I went to try to buy the Domain name PotatoSalad.com in hopes of creating a neat website with/for you in my spare time, and document this historic event. They told me the current price PotatoSalad.com was 40k. My dreams were shattered.

My question is, what's next?

I wish I knew. My goal is to keep trying to make people laugh and hope I can make some money doing it.

What meal will you be kickstarting next?

No more Kickstarter for me.

So did Kickstarter say "Hey, Zack, this is it buddy, live it up"?

No! They were really happy with it! I did a Q&A there in August.

I think this Kickstarter was funny because it was novel. If I did it again, it would be derivative.

Please start working in Hollywood

You give me job?

I think he's referring to people in hollywood redoing things all the time. You understand that some things should only be made once.

oh, haha, I've been going through 'new' messages and not looking at context. Ima dummyman man dummy.

Just done with it, or are there other things to consider?

I won't be making another joke Kickstarter, I should say.

I am a HUGE fan of your band and cannot believe I am talking to your right now!!! What was the inspiration behind your song “Chicken Fried”? I love that song so much that my wife and I chose your song for our first dance at our wedding.

When I'm writing a song, I'm always discovering new things about myself and the world. Before sitting down to work on 'Chicken Fried' I knew that I liked fried chicken, jeans that fit just right, the radio, the touch of a precious child and the look of love in my woman's eyes, but I didn't understand how to put it all together.

What is your preferred brand of toilet paper?

I don't have a preferred brand, but I've started using those wet wipes recently and it has changed my life. I realized when I was at Bonnaroo this summer that my butt is always at its freshest at outdoor music festivals. Then I realized that the only thing I was doing differently was that I was carrying around wet-wipes in my backpack (and then wiping my butt with them, obviously). So, I'm a wet-wipeman now.

Dude don't flush those wet wipes, you'll back up your sewer line...I'm just looking out for ya

Are you serious?

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damnit. Why can't we have nice things?

As a heart attack.

Wet wipes are not made to bio-degrade quickly like TP is. Ever used wet TP? Of course not, it crumbles into mush intentionally

Flushable wipes react with chemicals in sewage to break down faster. DO NOT USE regular wet wipes (or paper towels, for that matter)! Unless, of course, you're into your house eventually smelling like sewage for a couple years.

This is the saddest day of my life. MY BUTT WAS FINALLY CLEAAAAAAN!!!!!

Whaaaat! I was also at Bonnaroo! I might have seen Mr. Danger and not even known!

I got to see a lot of my favorite bands perform, but imagine if I got to see that one guy who got a lot of money to make potato salad.

BonnaROOOOOO!

Mr. Brown,

On a serious note, what is it like now that you're well known? Are you more egotistical or more humble? Has your life changed or on the verge of changing? Do you like the attention or hate it? Are you a different person now?

A serious question from the booty-eating guy?

I don't think I've changed outwardly, but it's pretty difficult to be objective. I know that I spend a lot of time now thinking about what I want to do next and that's new for me.

I don't hate the attention, but it is super weird to be out drinking and have total strangers shout "POTATO SALAD!" at you.

A really simple question. Why?

Real talk? I was feeling really down that week. I didn't want to go to work and I wasn't sure what I wanted to be doing with my life so I spent 30 minutes making this stupid little Kickstarter to make me and my friends laugh. I would have forgotten about it if I didn't get an email notifying me that my bank account had been verified.

Thanks for not succumbing to the temptation of an awesome creation myth. A lot of awesome stuff has started for small reasons, and I'm always happy when more people learn that :)

Thanks! :)

What does that even mean, your bank account had been verified?

you have to go through a verification process to get approved.

Your Kickstarter lost a big chunk of money mysteriously in the campaign and there were rumors that there were large fraudulent pledges made to inflate the numbers to make the campaign go viral, encouraging others to jump on the joke bandwagon.

This chart shows how the Kickstarter lost over $20,000 in a single day all of a sudden.

http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/324283889/potato-salad/

How do you respond to claims that your project may have used fake pledges to increase visibility?

We didn't and I'm not sure it would have increased the visibility if we did. The earliest of those contributions came in on Monday afternoon after the thing already had a life of its own. I can tell you that it was a huge let-down to see those pledges disappear and none of us knew what was going on.

What is your favourite colour?

It's making me a little sad that this question is stumping me. Remember when you were a kid and this was a super easy question? I like all the colors in that new Ford Fit commercial.

Ford Fit

Honda marketing folks are crying at their desks right now.

It's a Honda!? I just know I saw that commercial a million times this weekend and thought "that car looks stupid, but fake Adam Scott is doing a great job of selling it."

How do you feel about other ways of serving potatoes - Mashed? Boiled? Double baked?

Oh man, i forgot about double baked.

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Hah. I haven't delivered 100% yet. I will be super relieved when I do. It didn't hit me until midway through the first week that I would actually have to be fulfilling all of these promises (that were, at the time, all jokes).

So how was the potato salad?

It was really fantastic!

Here is the recipe: One pound of potatoes, two ounces of mayonnaise, one ounce of sour cream, one ounce of Montamore cheese (or mozzarella as a substitute), one ounce of basil pesto, and then mix in the desired amount of pancetta (or bacon as a substitute) and sundried tomatoes with a splash of apple cider vinegar, black pepper and kosher salt.

Sweet! How did you prepare the potatoes?

Boiled to al dente and then roasted in an oven briefly

Mayonnaise or Miracle Whip?

Mayo. Miracle Whip is delicious, but why settle for not-Mayo when you can have Mayo-Mayo?

Do you acknowledge how stupid it is that you're famous?

It is SO stupid. I can't tell you how happy I am to be known for something so stupid that has almost no shame attached to it. That's a small needle to thread.

When is your book coming out?

It should be coming out in June. I'm working with a publisher, but we don't have a contract yet, so I will be light on details for right now. I can promise you that it is going to be really silly!

how does it feel to be 'internet-famous' and allowed on /r/IAmA ?

Equal parts exciting and terrifying. I know that the next time I try to be funny on the internet, people will see it, so it better be good.

Hello Zach! I'm growing out my beard, never done it before, how do you keep your beard so manly and amazing? Any tips and tricks on keeping it looking good?

Thanks!

Bro, I can't even beard.

Well, this is embarrassing. I'll see myself out now, thanks for answering and stopping by. Have a great day!

You have a great day! No need to be embarrassed! Here's an embarrassing thing about me: I have to use spell-check every time I write the word 'embarrassed'.

I thought that's what everybody did? I didn't know there were people out there that can actually spell embarrass without using spellcheck!

Maybe wizards.

Now that you've got potato salad under your belt, what's the next food that will be unexpectedly elevated into the public consciousness?

Gourds, motherfucker. http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/its-decorative-gourd-season-motherfuckers

What's your favorite book?

The Stand

With The Dark Tower books coming in close second.

Ka is a wheel

it was also a net from which none ever escaped

Which book is your fav, and why is it Drawing of the Three? (kidding about the assumption :P )

Duh, it's Drawing of the Three.

SPOILER ALERT FOR DRAWING OF THE THREE

The book opens with your gunslinger hero getting his fingers eaten off by a Lobster monster!! That shit is crazy!

Stephen King?

Yep!

Is Danger actually your middle name?

No. It's Tyler.

What was your favorite PotatoStock event? And what is your favorite way to eat potatoes?

I really loved Jordan O'Jordan's 'History Of The Potato' stories. Jordan is a story-telling banjo player from Ohio and he researched and wrote a special story about the potato's journey from North America to Europe and back again. It was really wonderful and was also the first time I got to sit down all day.

Since no one has asked the obvious question, how much of the money did you keep for yourself?

None! It's all going to backer rewards and our fund at The Columbus Foundation!

What is your favourite way of eating a potato apart from a potato salad?

Boom: http://www.foodista.com/blog/2013/09/30/jo%C3%ABl-robuchon%E2%80%99s-famous-pommes-puree-recipe-mased-potatoes

Is it weird to you that people wanted to be in on a joke so badly, that they wrote a check for it? Is that sad, or a new form of "meta comedy"?

No, it's heart-warming! I'd love to see more internet panhandling like this with much funnier people than me. Imagine if Loius C.K. released a half-hour comedy special with donation tiers. You can stream it or download it for free, but there is a suggested donation. I'd be interested in seeing how well that works.

I have you tagged as Woody from Toy Story, why is that?

I'm #19: http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicamisener/40-people-who-look-just-like-celebrities#jzxslh

What are you going to make next?

I thought it would be funny to do a TED talk where I roll out a 6-foot party sub and say that it was 3D printed. I couldn't think of anywhere to go from there.

At what point did it hit you that the joke might have gone too far? If it didn't hit that point, then when did you realize you have to actually carry out the Kickstarter goals you laid out?

Three days after the project went live, I got a call from Good Morning America. That's when I realized that it was going to have some reach. We always knew that we'd have to fulfill promises, but it didn't sink in until the end of the first week that we'd be sending 1000 people a custom t-shirt.

How do you feel about redheads?

Their hair is not brown, blonde or black.

Couple q's, 1) whats your secret recipe if anything? 2) I really like waffles. Any suggestions regarding waffles? I only ask because you seem to have a knack for turning something so simple as a potato salad into something fantastic! 3) potato prices are rapidly rising in both the US and the UK. What are your thoughts on that, and advice for making cheap, delicious potato salad? Links for articles are below. Thanks for your AMA!

http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/pub/mar05/price.htm

http://www.mirror.co.uk/money/personal-finance/cost-of-chips-to-rocket-as-potato-prices-1561222

1.) Silly and serious always go together. That's why church laughter is a thing.

2.) Bro, you talkin' waffles? I had sourdough waffles for the first time this summer. They were fantastic.

3.) I blame the Organization of Potato Exporting Countries. Honestly, if you're looking for cheap, delicious potato salad, store-bought is always a good bet.

What's the best side dish besides potato salad?

I'm not positive that potato salad is the best side dish, just the silliest. The best side dish is Mac and Cheese or Baked Beans.

So what is next on your to do list?

I've taken a hiatus from my job and have been working on a book proposal for the past two weeks. I'd love to do a really silly "4 Hour Work Week" kind of book.

I'm also going to take the plunge and write and perform some standup at open mics in Columbus.

Are you still here answering questions?

Are you still here asking questions?

Was it good potato salad?

Yep! And you can make it at home:

One pound of potatoes, two ounces of mayonnaise, one ounce of sour cream, one ounce of Montamore cheese (or mozzarella as a substitute), one ounce of basil pesto, and then mix in the desired amount of pancetta (or bacon as a substitute) and sundried tomatoes with a splash of apple cider vinegar, black pepper and kosher salt.

Did anyone ever say to you "I'll take the job! Potato salad!"?

NO! That's fantastic. Thanks for linking this!

So what recipe was your favorite? I'm also a newbie at potato salad, so I'm looking for tips!

Also, have you thought about branding your own product with the kickstarter and starting a legitimate business out of it? Or was this a one-time deal and you never want to eat another bite?

I really liked the one from the event:

"One pound of potatoes, two ounces of mayonnaise, one ounce of sour cream, one ounce of Montamore cheese (or mozzarella as a substitute), one ounce of basil pesto, and then mix in the desired amount of pancetta (or bacon as a substitute) and sundried tomatoes with a splash of apple cider vinegar, black pepper and kosher salt."

I don't have any plans to continue with potato salad. I want to write / perform jokes.

I'm not gonna lie, I hate potato salad.

If you go back and do the funding for a new festival (whether it's for charity, helping local businesses, or making extra money) will you include macaroni salad next time?

I'll try to keep that in mind, though I'm a really shitty event planner and don't love it that much. If there's a next time, I'll let someone else take the lead on planning.

what did all the money go to? If it didn't all go to Potato Fest or whatever?

It's being used to fulfill donor rewards. Whatever is left-over is going into our non-profit fund at The Columbus Foundation to support charities working to end hunger and homelessness in Central Ohio.

How do you bat away the women throwing themselves at you now that you've run a successful Kickstarter?

This has not been a problem. I don't think potato salad or crowdfunding really get the ladies going.

Are you a mustard-based or a mayo-based type? Do you think there is room for both types of potato salad in the world?

I thought mustard and mayo were compliment potato salad tastes and that vinegar was the real mayo rival. Turns out, you can put them all in one salad, so I love them all!

What's your favorite college football team?

Ohio State. I spend a lot of time lurking in /r/cfb. I love OSU, but I hate following them or watching them on TV. I have much more fun watching random college football games (this weekend, amirite?) and NFL. Too much anxiety having a favorite team.

Our hero!

Please visit /r/Potatoism more frequently!

That being said, the question, which is your favourite type of potato?

I really like yellow waxy potatoes. Also, what the heck is potatoism? I visited and COULD NOT even. Thanks!

Alright pal, so spill it. Ballpark, how much money did this entire potato salad idea earn you, and how much monetary capital did it require?

Earned me $0.

Cost me whatever I would have made in 4 weeks. I left my job at the company I co-own and haven't drawn a salary since the end of August.

Why du you hate regular salad?

I'm an equal opportunity saladman

When did you realize your Kickstarter was getting big?

https://imgur.com/p9ORgeh

I read that you're coming to Idaho. When will you be here and what will you be doing while you are here?

I was already there! Sorry! I hung out with some awesome people and drove around in a giant potato truck. http://www.brooklynpaper.com/assets/photos/37/20/all-giant-potato-at-bay-fest-2014-05-16-bk02_z.jpg

Such Potato Salad, Much Question. How much stuff can you stuff in your stuffie until your stuffie has enough stuff?

African or European stuffie?

I don't know

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2R3FvS4xr4&t=00m17s

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Duh. http://gawker.com/the-booty-eating-renaissance-1633706123

How does it feel knowing you turned the previously-respected Kickstarter into a joke?

I'm not sure that I did. Kickstarter seemed pretty happy with it. How do you feel this marginalized Kickstarter as a brand?