The Name
A lot of people ask why the name of the company is Mustache Power. Usually I just reply, “Because mustaches are awesome and cosmically powerful.” That should be enough. I mean look at all the obvious examples.
But really that’s my answer because the true story is too long to tell in business settings, and I get a little too into it. It would make a good story for The Moth, but at a conference, people start to squirm a little after I’ve been monologuing the history of Mustache Power for five minutes with no signs of stopping. Their eyes start shifting and I can tell they want to say, “Hey mustache dude, can’t you see I’ve got a ton of other people to network with? Cut to the chase already!”
So here’s the story as short as I can make it: In college a buddy and I somehow ended up working as pest control technicians for a summer. Despite our partial college education and arrogant belief that we were smarter than your average, everyday bug guys, we noticed that we didn’t seem to garner the same respect and trust that other technicians in our office did. Then one day we noticed a certain predisposition towards mustaches among our fellow bug sprayers and wondered if that were the key to their success. We tested our theory by growing mustaches, and it was like magic. Instant trust. I’m sure this sounds tough to believe, but we conducted the social experiment several times over the summer shaving and re-growing mustaches. We cataloged all our findings (not really) and analyzed them thoroughly. The data was overwhelming: Mustaches have a secret hidden power (at least if your a bug guy, anyway).
When I first started messing around with filmmaking and video work, one of the first shorts I made (with my bug spraying companion and other mustache and movie enthusiasts) was about this experience and is titled, you guessed it, Mustache Power (disclaimer: if you choose to watch the short, remember it was one of my first films and know that my current work is better). After that, the name stuck and all my projects became Mustache Power Productions.
