Chris Wright | Domino Masters

Brandwatch Masterclass @ Ease 605 - NYC, NY - 10 hours

I created Brandwatch’s vibrant logo into a huge domino field! Not only that, but it was color-changing and I custom-painted 2,000 dominoes to perfectly match their logo’s colors. I had to try 6 shades of orange to get it right!

Brandwatch is a social media marketing company that helps clients gain insights on how customers are using and experiencing with their products. Brandwatch holds this Masterclass event annually and they invited me to make it extra special this year by building their logo. I arrived at the studio at 5 AM to get building for the day. We only had access for the 1 day so I wanted to make sure to maximize every minute we had to build as large of a field as possible. In advance, I carefully tested and color-matched different spraypaint to the exact shades of the Brandwatch logo. This process took a while and then I had to paint them all, while carefully covering just one face of the dominoes for the optimal color-change effect. I knew how many dominoes to paint as I had already planned the field design, essentially making it 6 ft in diameter, the largest size I could reasonably complete in a day.

One special thing about this build was how well the build surface actually went. Very often I arrive and the building platform or surface is cumbersome and difficult to build on, but we used a thin acrylic in 4x8 sheets and then taped it together from the bottom and it worked surprisingly well. The only downside was that it scratched eaisly so I had to put tape on my Lego domino template to prevent it from scratching the glossy surface.

This allowed for a smooth build, but it was a bit slippery. About 4 hours into the build, I bumped my Lego template straight into the field and it all toppled. I was forced to restart and this was quite the bummer, as initially I was unsure if I could even still complete it on time. I cleaned it up, restarted, and didn’t look up until I was back where I was. This took about 1.5-2 hours, but definitely quicker than the first time. I made sure to clean it up in a way such that I could rebuild fast. I continued the fast pace through the afternoon and finished with a bit of time to spare.

The final topple and logo looked excellent, but the one negative point is that since I used white dominoes, it was very bright, and the black acrylic was glossy, the color-changing effect was less pronounced. From most angles you could still easily see the toppled color. Regardless, this did not stop @xwithsj on Instragram from posting his version of the topple and getting over 30 million views!

This event was a ton of fun to plan and build. The Brandwatch team was fun to work with and I really enjoyed getting to make the quick trip to NYC for it.

Brattleboro Museum and Arts Center 16th Annual Domino Toppling - Brattleboro, VT - 24 hours

For my 9th total time across 11 years, I drove to Brattleboro, VT to spend time with my friends, see the fall foliage, and of course, build some dominoes.

This year there were still 4 builders total and the same ones we had for the 15th year. Myself, Brady Dolan, Nathan Heck, and Lily Hevesh. I picked the other guys up at the BOS airport and we headed over to Brattleboro. This year might have been the most different BMAC build yet as we were building in a separate place, not the nice red/brown tile floor we were used to. When we arrived we spent nearly 2 hours just making sure the floor was level. We also were building in a mostly square building space instead of a long skinny rectangle. This made the overall appearance of the topple and our sequencing very different.

I chose to start the build time on Friday with experimenting with some things on the large pillar in the corner of the arena. Nathan, Brady, and I took a trip to Walmart nearby and my goal was to figure out how I could release a Netherite Minecraft sword to topple. As these things go, it took me a while to finesse it, but I did manage. The second day, I finished that, the other connected elements, and started Peter Pan. This character was the request of my girlfriend Naya and I think it fit in well in the center of the build space. I planned the field, then built it. After this, I created some lines around Pan and helped Nathan and Lily nearly complete the finale wall, which was epic. Sunday morning, I grinded out the last of it. Sadly, a large gust of wind completely toppled the structure (pictured left) like a sail and we were forced to rapidly rebuild only the BMAC portion on top, which I did. This didn’t leave time for too much else, but I think despite this, the overall build was impressive and fun, considering the ever-present time crunch, new area, and big finale fail.

I have and always will love this event, the builders, the museum staff, and it’s so much more convenient now that I’m in Boston. Can’t wait for my 10th year building in 2024!

Burberry - Boston, MA - 30 hours

As a subcontracted build from Lily Hevesh’s H5 Domino Agency, I was tasked to create a series of builds for the London designer, Burberry. They were very particular about some elements of the build and aspects, so planning was a bit drawn out. In the end, I created a large rose design on two different building surfaces and a checkered domino field with their new seasonal blue and purple pattern.

This project was special for a few reasons. The first being that I think this client is especially exciting as I was familiar with it and it’s the first example I can think of for a domino or chain reaction project for a designer brand. I think this space would be fun to collaborate more with. Another thing that set this apart was I built the rose and checkered patten in studios that were in the Boston area. Usually I have to travel for projects or do them at home, so it was a nice change of pace to build close to home, but not at home.

Technically, the main different technique I tried here was using a projector to build a design. Typically, for more abstract designs one would lay out dominoes in the shape, try to trace it, or carefully and slowly build it. This time though, I wanted to try something new, so I bought a small projector and C-stand. Using these I could screencast and project an image from my phone or computer onto the ground, then build it with dominoes. I have wanted to try this for a while and this project finally gave me a good enough reason. Although it was very useful, I did encounter a few challenges with this method. The first is that due to relatively low ceiling height, it was hard to get the image projected at the right location and size. I had to raise the c-stand very high to get the image large enough from the projector or angle it. Angling it worked, but then since the projector would not be perpendicular to the surface it was projecting on, the image would be distorted. To counteract this I would edit the image to be distorted initially, such that when it was projected at an angle, it would come out more normal. This took some time to figure out, but I do think that in the end, using the projector made the rose more perfect to the design I was copying. If the rose was red and green like a normal one, I think I could have pulled it off with enough accuracy, but since it was these gold/brown shades, I think I really needed it to be a better match.

Overall, I’m super happy with how the roses and checkered pattern turned out. The checkered design was also tough to plan as it had a lot of detail and really required an almost entirely manual design to get the lines and marks perfectly placed. As I write this, the topple of the field has over 13,000,000 on Burberry’s Tiktok, so I think it’s safe to say it was a success!

Digital Directors Network @ Adler Planetarium - Chicago, IL - 6 hours

Steve Price, Nathan Heck, and I built a domino display for a conference dinner reception shown here for the Digital Directors Network Cybersecurity Conference. This collaborative event was unique for a few reasons. One was that we got to build inside a planetarium and science museum right near downtown Chicago and we had a beautiful view of the city. I have built dominoes in science museums before, but never quite like this. It was also unique as we only had a few hours to set up the dominoes. We arrived around 3 PM and were set to topple around 8 PM, which meant for a pretty fast-paced build. Steve Price planned the design and led the event overall and he did a great job at managing our time effectively. I love building structures so I started and grinded out the large wall in the back. It was also fun to make lines that we tried to resemble circuits, with light-up dominoes placed between. Although this was a short event and relatively small build, it was great to see and build with Nathan and Steve again.

WNBA/PUMA - Boston, MA - 6 hours

I built this logo for a joint collaboration between the WNBA and PUMA for the Women’s Pro Basketball season that goes from May to September. I was asked to design their logo into dominoes and start it off with a basketball rolling. The logo was a bit tricky as it didn’t need to be huge, yet I needed to create bold text with a shadow and the iconic PUMA logo with the jaguar leaping, which is a very abstract curve shape. Given I had to design it to only use my 2,200 or fewer orange dominoes, I think it turned out pretty well. It was used for their social media to promote the launch of the season. I was subcontracted to build this by the Hevesh5 domino agency and I was able to build it at home which was great and convenient. The planning took me a few hours and I was able to build it fairly quickly. My lava orange dominoes came in handy for the shadow color. I hope to be able to build more projects like this at home.

Dominoes at School: Presentation, Topple, Competition - CO - 12 hours

Through the years I have built many domino events with kids or for kids. I even came in a couple of times to the preschool my mom teaches at to build dominoes. This event took it to the next level though! A really kind and domino-loving family reached out to me to build dominoes at their kids’ school. Their oral surgery business, Saddle Rock Institute, sponsored the event for me to travel and be there. I led two assembly presentations for the school with 375 kids at each of them and shared a bit about what being a domino artist means and some of the basics. And we toppled some dominoes of course (check out the video to the left). It was even more fun and engaging as the school was full of young domino artists as many kids had watched Domino Masters or built dominoes in their science/STEAM room. Even though all the kids were 5-11 years old, I was nervous to present in front of so many people, but it went off without a hitch and the time flew by.

Each of the assembly presentations had a small domino setup that we toppled at the beginning. Each one had about 1,500 dominoes and I tried to maximize the space we had and incorporate some chain reaction machine tricks such as using a water pump, motor, and marble run. The topples were nearly perfect, with a small hiccup at the beginning. I didn’t have much time to test things out!

After the two assembly presentations, I stayed after school for the domino intensive for the kids who really were into it. I gave a 30-minute demo on how to build dominoes, make some simple structures, and teach some best practices like safety gaps and respecting others.

Finally, we held a domino competition for 12 groups of 5, for 60 total competitors. Each time had 1 hour to build and were judged on the total number of dominoes, tower height, creativity, and collaboration. The teams all did super well and every one had a topple in the end. We gave out prizes to the top 3 teams and some certificates for honorary mentions. I had never led a competition like this before, but we all had such a nice time. I had never been to Colorado before, so we stayed an extra day and visited the Red Rocks area and learned some about the dinosaur history there. What a fun trip!

Brattleboro, VT - October 2023 - 25 hours

Back in Brattleboro for the 10th year since I first came for this annual event. I first joined for the 6th year of the event in 2014 and now it’s 15 strong! I was not able to attend in 2016 and 2017, but I have made it 8 years total and it is great to see the crowd get bigger every year and Danny (Museum Director) and the lovely town of Brattleboro still supporting the event.

This year was different for a few reasons. The first being that Shane was not able to make it this year, which was a shame. Fortunately, Brady Dolan (BPDoles on YouTube) was able to make it to take his plus, in addition to Nathan Heck (MarDominoes) and Lily (Hevesh5). We arrived Friday as usual and had the rest of that day, plus Saturday and most of Sunday to build as much as we could. Usually, we all split up initially and work on larger projects. We typically try to build a few recognizable characters from Disney, movies, or video games that the kids would like, so since we hadn’t pre-planned any, I decided to make Spongebob. I quickly used a domino field planner to design Spongebob. I thought it would be unique and work well for this field to not include a background, to make it more freeform. I also placed a bunch of taped dominoes in the field, so the “fieldstarter” could be minimal. As a final touch, I found a mini bubble blower that I tested and was able to trigger with dominoes so that Spongebob could blow bubbles too. By the time I got that working reliably and built Spongebob, over half of the building time was over. Oops. After this, I helped Brady, Lily, and Nathan with their sections a bit to fill some gaps between things. My last major section was a plexiglass crossover section that was blue and red, along with a green wall section. I think it turned out very well and although I was not the first to do the paused wall trick, I’m happy with how it turned out.

I love coming to this event every year and although building the dominoes is great, seeing my friends makes it real special. This year we celebrated Lily’s 24th birthday with a domino cake! Can’t wait to be back again for next year.

SweeTarts - Boston, MA - 12 hours

Frisco, TX - August 2022 - 24 hours

For what may be the absolute coolest company/group collaboration I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of, I helped build 25,000 dominoes and chain reaction machines for Dude Perfect’s video, World’s Largest Trick Shot Machine. Although that is sadly not an actual world record category, the video is still absolutely amazing. Lily (aka Hevesh5) planned the event and Joe Parks, Nathan Heck, and I helped her make the plans come to life. Not only did we build dominoes that appeared in the video, but Joseph of Joseph’s Machines and his two friends, Al and Stan, created two magically engineered chain reaction machines in their headquarters. The Dude Perfect team was super friendly, understanding, and high-energy, which made for a really great time. We had all of our engines firing as we set up all the dominoes in just 2 days, along with several chain reactions that I mainly worked on. Hoping more events like this can happen. The end product was as good as it gets and it was a ton of fun to build alongside my 2014 Domino Effect family.

Lumio - Lehi, UT - 20 hours

In what was probably the most dominoes I set up within a single weekend, I built 10,000 dominoes to represent Lumio’s logo. Lumio is a solar energy company that was recently formed to combine 5 existing solar companies throughout the USA. I designed, painted, built and toppled their logo. They were insistent that it be 8 feet in diameter, which required 10,000 dominoes. Not only is this the largest domino field I have ever built, but they wanted the color portion on the outside to not appear until the field toppled. At first, I thought maybe this would require 1,000 dominoes or so, which is still a lot to paint, but after doing the math and then actually planning the design, it needed nearly 3,000 color-changing dominoes. A color-changing domino is one that has 5 of its 6 sides in one color, and the final large side a different color. From most viewing angles, you can not see the hidden color until it topples, as it falls, and reveals the face of the domino. It’s a beautiful effect, and it only gets better when there are more colo-changing pieces. Over about 8 hours, I spraypainted the dominoes. This process is not terribly complicated, but it is important to be careful to only paint one face of the dominoes and to not have it spread to the other sides. The most tricky part of this design and paint process was that the ring around the outside of the logo is not a solid color. It blends from an orange-red to a sky blue. Since spraypaint only comes in discrete colors and I did not have the time or patience to paint each domino individually to get a more perfect blend, I had to carefully choose exisiting paints to blend the colors properly. My girlfriend Naya helped me pick the colors and from there I was able to manually “paint” the logo design to aling with the 7 colors we chose. The building on this one was the easy part! The only annoying thing with the building process was that the floor was not flat, requiring some careful finessing with the domino template. It was great to lead a build on my own again and I am really proud of the 5-second topple video. Worth every minute of planning and building (of which there were many)!

Lily Topples the World is a documentary produced by Jeremy Workman that showcases Lily Hevesh’s life as YouTube’s and the world’s most popular and well-known domino artist. It is available for Streaming on Discovery+ and it is truly an incredible view of Lily’s life as she transitioned from college to becoming a full-time domino artist. I am very fortunate to have met Lily back in 2012 and worked with her most of the years since. Plus, I even make a few appearances in the documentary myself!

In Spring 2022, I joined Lily, the producer Jeremy Workman, and Lily’s dad on a short film tour throughout the southeast US. Below are the dates and times that Lily’s documentary was shown!

March 9th @ 5:30 PM - Winston Salem, NC - a/perture cinema

April 12th @ 7 PM - High Point, NC - High Point University

April 18th @ 7 PM - Johnson City, TN - ETSU, Mary B. Martin School of the Arts

April 21st @ 7:30 PM - Wilmington, NC - UNC Wilmington

The showings have now passed, but you can still watch the documentary on Discovery+

Along with the showings, I built dominoes at them all, most of the time with young domino builders and their families. It was SO much fun and I really want to do more domino events with kids and budding domino artists!

Taylor, MI - April 2022 - 72 hours

Video to be uploaded Early May 2022 by SpriceMachines

Nine builders convened in a small school in Michigan for the first time in 5 years to set up 100,000 dominoes and the Guinness World Record for the longest domino wall. Steve Price sponsored the event and brought me, Mark Robbins, Derek Koops, Alex Koops, Michael Fantauzzo, Matt VanVleck, Tim Dunsmore, and Brady Dolan together. The main goal for this event was to set a world record, as the previous record Steve set had been dethroned. After narrowing it down, we thought that the wall record was the most realistic to attempt given the time we had, the number of dominoes, and the difficulty. Fortunately, the building process went as smoothly as we could have imagined, and after only 3 of the 6 days we had allocated to build, over 50% of the dominoes and the toughest single component was done. After that, we continued the 2022 Falldown theme of Color Fest and created chain reactions with balloons, exploding fireworks, and innovative spring and mousetrap chain reactions. I had so much fun getting to take a week off to just build dominoes, and I hope we can all get back together soon.

Schenectady, NY - March 2022 - 16 hours

After not building at all together since Domino Masters was filmed in May and June 2021, the 5 of us (Emma Renner, Gabe Dean, Michael Fantauzzo, and Matt VanVleck) came together, this team as a cohesive team to build a domino toppling and chain reaction display for GE. Emma works at GE in upstate NY and they graciously offered to host us for the weekend. We built almost 13,000 dominoes under the theme of GE and electricity, and you’ll have to see for yourself, but the topple was awesome. Some of the highlights include a HUGE 4,000 domino GE logo, a thunderstorm wall, a custom GE Aviation 3D plane, underwater dominoes with a pump system, and a beautiful water domino line display. Not only did we topple dominoes for many GE employees and their families, but we held a domino-building workshop and luncheon beforehand, led by Michael. Everyone got really into it and we had such a great time. Hoping we can come back again and do something even grander with more time to plan or build. Emma was the one who did most of the planning and logistics, and this made it such a fun event. I’m so happy we all were able to come together again to build, and especially happy that even some of us who have not been building dominoes as long are so into it!

Boston - December 2021 - 16 hours

I built a HUGE domino tower to mark the transition from 2021 to 2022! I built this for Lily Hevesh and Hevesh5 Inc and they edited it for me and it was used by YouTube to upload as a YouTube short on Instagram and Google. Check it out here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CYKwbmDBHMG/

This entire tower was nearly as tall as I am and it was a lot of fun to design and build. The best part was that I got to build it in my own apartment, but that came with some new challenges. First of all, I had to completely rearrange my room so that I could build the tower against the only bare wall. I also had to play around with lighting for this, since my apartment bedroom does not have any overhead lights. This forced me to be a bit creative with my lights and cameras, but I think it turned out okay. I lost a bit of faith in my GoPro when it failed to record the lengthy timelapse, but luckily I captured over an hour of building from my phone as well. Hoping to work more with Hevesh5 Inc and do more medium-sized projects in the future!

Lastly, now that I think of it, this may be the largest (girth) tower I have built with the most dominoes. I have made domino structures with more dominoes, but never one this tall. I learned that I REALLY need a sturdier adjustable surface to build on for next time.

Brattleboro, VT - October 2021 - 25 hours

For my 7th time, I made my way to Vermont for the longest annual domino toppling in Brattleboro. The four of us, Lily Hevesh (Hevesh5), Shane O’Brien (ShanesDominoez), Nathan Heck (MarDominoes), and I were the builders again this year. Typically, we purposefully plan very little of the setup, but this time, we decided to do a bit more planning in advance. Historically, we divide the large rectangle of space into 3-6 colored sections. This year, we decided to use 2 main color palettes that we dubbed “angry” and “calm”. Angry is the left side of the setup and includes sharp turns, angry characters, and the colors red, orange, yellow, maroon, browns, and black. The calm side included a live water fountain, more sweeping, organic shapes, and the colors blue, green, pink, and purple. I think it was a great idea for us to slightly deviate from the normal randomness and give it a bit more order. Coming into this year, I planned two things in advance. I designed the “Anger” character from the Disney movie, Inside Out, and I planned to include a water pump with tubing. For the water, the idea is that the dominoes turn on the pump, sending water to another location, far from the source. I had used this technique in a few projects recently and it worked very well, so we tried it here. The setup fell perfectly this year, and it was a ton of fun. On top of the standard building, we did have a couple of special guests join us for the build, adding to the excitement. A couple of younger builders built on the side of our display, plus professional domino artists Stephan Burton (StayFawnTop) and Mike Perrucci, one of the original domino builders for the BMAC museum in years 1-5, made an appearance for the falldown. Additionally, on the Saturday night of the build, we traveled across the street to the Latchis theatre, where we watched the new “Lily Topples the World Documentary”, starring Lily Hevesh and featuring myself! It was a very odd experience to be standing on the stage answering questions, but it has been so great to see the success of Jeremy Workman’s Documentary.

Boston - April 2021 - 30 hours

Roughly 2 days after I moved to Boston, I was invited by the Museum of Science to help create a domino display to raise awareness for getting vaccinated. The goal message was to visually show that getting vaccinated not only decreases the chances you will contract COVID-19, but it also can protect those around you, ultimately reaching herd immunity where the virus spread stops. My girlfriend Naya helped me build some of these displays. The flagship display was a 5,500 domino Earth that included 1,500 color-changing dominoes, visually showing the spread of the virus. This event was a lot of fun and is being used on their social media platforms. I hope to collaborate more in the Boston area now that I reside here.

Los Angeles - December 2020 - 120+ hours

I was invited by Steve Price (SpriceMachines) and Mark Robbins (Doodle Chaos) to help design and build a MASSIVE chain reaction machine for Pokemon’s 25th Anniversary. This required I miss a full 2 weeks of class that led up to finals week, but it all worked out. Pokemon was a passion of mine growing up (and even through high school and college), so it was amazing to get the chance to work with a company that I looked up to and was so familiar with. This entire project came together very quickly. I spent about a week in San Diego with Steve and Mark pre-building the chain reaction elements and then we drove to LA to integrate our machines into the set design. This process was much more nuanced than we expected since it was challenging to incorporate our machines in an aesthetically pleasing and hidden manner, however, the end result was well worth it. I was also able to work with and meet Ben Tardif for the first time and it was instrumental having someone with such extensive woodworking and film industry experience. Overall this was one of the crazier and more bizarre projects, but it is absolutely the most visually appealing one. I am eager to do more events like this in the future!

Brattleboro, VT - October 2020 - 25 hours

Another year back in Brattleboro, but this time primarily virtual. This was the first large domino or chain reaction I have done in several months. I was accompanied by a social distanced Lily Hevesh (Hevesh5), Shane O’Brien (ShanesDominoez), and Nathan Heck (MarDominoes). Similar to past years, we really did not come into this event with much of a plan. On the drive from Ithaca, NY to Brattleboro, VT, I thought of a couple of ideas of what I wanted to include. I wanted some form of intersecting walls, similar to what we had in BMAC 6. It fell so slowly and really built up suspense during the middle of the chaotic topple. This was what I started with and spent most of the first day working on, carrying on into the second day. The one other element I wanted to include was some sort of kid-friendly COVID reference, since years down the line I wanted us to know this was 2020. I built a circle bomb field of an emoji with a mask on it. I also built an Among Us video game character and a split ends trick. BMAC is always so creative and spontaneous in terms of what exactly we build. The last larger element I worked on was the forest in the green section. This was fun to plan and design, but quite difficult to build. With about 30 minutes to falldown, I knocked over a small section of the forest. Luckily, it fell backward and was unidirectional, so the dominoes caused minimal damage and Nathan helped me repair it. All in all, another amazing weekend in Vermont for this event. It was especially refreshing to travel at all and see my long-term domino friends.

Las Vegas, NV - October 2019 - 25 hours

I planned and led the designs for a three-day casino gaming exposition event for Quixant, along with Michael Fantauzzo (StickTrickDominoDude) and Steve Price (SpriceMachines). Not only was this the largest event I have organized myself, there were several other atypical elements to this event. I began the planning process for this event in January 2019 with Quixant, so we had many months to come to an agreement on the designs. After many iterations of designs and input from both sides, we agreed to the plans, which I built with Michael and Steve. It was very helpful to have such a long time to plan things out. Secondly, this event was unique because it was the first time a domino or chain reaction event has been in the casino or gambling industry. There were a ton of cool companies at the trade show itself, and I learned a few things about casinos that I did not previously know. The designs themselves in chronological order were Las Vegas strip, gaming/sports theme, and the Quixant product lineup. I am very happy with how they came out, especially considering the ambitious intricacies they had. The Quixant team was extremely supportive and it was a very positive experience working with them. I hope more events happen in the future.

Ithaca, NY - October 2019 - 20 hours

After building for Entrepreneurship@Cornell in April, Leslie Morris from the CIS (Computing and Information Science) department at Cornell reached out to me about building a display for their 20th anniversary. I happily accepted and this is what we came up with. I created the CIS logo, hid the message “20” in binary, included their tagline “Inspire. Innovate. Impact.”, some of the undergraduate student groups, and more! Unfortunately there was one stop in the falldown, but it was unpredictable and no one seemed to mind. Unfortunately, while building on the last day the tall domino ladder fell over and set me back several hours. I was able to rebuild the portion that fell, but I was unable to complete the domino Gates Hall that I had planned. The really fun thing about this event was that I used a robot to start the topple. I had to control it with a phone to touch the dominoes. I am hoping to be able to build more domino events at Cornell in the future.

Brattleboro, VT - September 2019 - 25 hours

I returned back to Brattleboro yet again for another domino toppling with Lily Hevesh (Hevesh5), Shane O’Brien (ShanesDominoez), and Nathan Heck (MarDominoes). In a little under 3 days we set up over 25,000 dominoes in beautiful designs and patterns. It was amazing to be back with this very skilled and core group of builders, and to have an event where I could have the freedom to build what I wanted to. The major portions I worked on were the Angry Bird, the leaves, the centerpiece, and the orange/purple spiraly section. The domino chain fell perfectly and I think we may have set a new record for the number of attendees we had. I can’t wait to be back again!

San Diego, CA - August 2019 - 65 hours

Directly after my internship with P&G ended, I joined Joel Yantha (TheInvention11), Tim Dunsmore (DrComplicated), Mark Robbins (Doodle Chaos), and Lyle Broughton (JackOfAllSpades98) to build a housewide chain reaction machine at Steve Price (SpriceMachines) house. We worked for a week straight creating the chain reaction machine themed to each room of the house the machine traveled through, and it all ended in an outdoors scene that had all of the builders involved in the chain reaction machine. Ultimately, the machine delivered me a cold beer and hit Steve into his pool! The chain reaction machine was almost 9 minutes from start to finish, which is the largest and longest machine I have worked on. We all had a great time and it was fun to be back in San Diego again. Hoping to build more chain reaction projects in the future.

Cape Girardeau, MO - August 2019 - 10 hours

During my summer internship with P&G, the Jackson, MO site had its 50th anniversary of making diapers, paper towels, and toilet paper. I applied in June to be a part of the talent show event for this celebration, but we ended up moving my chain reaction build to coincide with the kickoff event instead. This worked out extremely well and it was very humbling to be able to share my passion with my coworkers, other interns, and their families. I set up about 4,000 dominoes and some diapers, paper towels, and toilet paper in the chain reaction. I was so happy I was able to make this build happen and it was a fantastic way to start the day of celebrating one of P&G’s oldest production sites.

Rochester, NY - April 2019 - 12 hours

As a finale to the end of “Messtival”, the Rochester Museum and Science Center’s spring break week of making messes and learning new things, Michael Fantauzzo and I built 8,000 dominoes around the theme of Messtival and making messes. We built this all relatively fast, spending only about 8 hours each actually building. The only pre-planned portion was the RMSC logo, all of the rest was built to showcase a variety of fun and exciting elements. Apart from a fallwall which didn’t trigger properly, everything fell as planned including the 6-feet tall tower. After the topple, Michael led workshops teaching kids and families the principles behind domino toppling and building. It was so much fun getting to work with and teach people how to build. They even helped us clean up our setup! Overall, this was a very lighthearted event, and it was great to work with Michael again. The one worrisome part of this event was our initial reaction to the building space. Initially, we did not have an adequate surface to build on, and no barriers, which are two things that are essential for public domino topplings like these (kids and families watched us build all of this and walked by). I had been in communication with the museum for over 9 months to make this all happen.

Ithaca, NY - April 2019 - 25 hours

After working with Entrepreneurship at Cornell and successfully completing the first domino event at Cornell, I was asked to build something for Entrepreneurship at Cornell’s yearly Celebration event. After much discussion, we decided to set the build in the Statler Hotel ballroom, and topple it right after the banquet dinner. I designed the overall setup to include the entrepreneur of year’s name, Regeneron’s logo, a “Celebration” wall, and Cornell’s McGraw Tower. I stayed up very late for two days in a row, and ended up building the 10,000 dominoes in around 18 hours. This was a very stressful build due to the fact that I had to set it all up during a full week of class, but the end product was all worth it. In addition to the topple itself, I hosted a one-hour panel where I discussed my domino building history and the business side of it. I am looking forward to staying involved with Cornell and doing more fun events in the future.

New Orleans, LA - March 2019 - 24 hours

For the final time I helped build a domino event for Astrazeneca, marketing their drug, Farxiga. I was joined by Nathan (MarDominoes) and Michael (StickTrickDominoDude). Over the course of the three-day conference, each day we built a separate design, all pre-planned and approved with the company. It was great to work with these very talented builders and it was a ton of fun getting to work with AstraZeneca again, because they always make it easy on us. In addition to this being in an amazing location in it of itself, I was able to see my grandmother who lived nearby, who I do not get the chance to see often. I am hoping I can do more work at trade shows in the future. It’s a ton of fun!

Ithaca, NY - February 2019 - 12 hours

I was invited by Cornell University’s Engineering Career Fair Team to build a domino masterpiece at their semesterly Engineering Project Showcase event. Project teams, master’s students, and individuals are all present and employers will visit these groups, instead of the reverse occurring (the normal career fair is the next day). For this event, I was by myself and I wanted to build the most impressive build that I could within one day. The topple time was set for the middle of project showcase, at 5:30pm, so I decided that I would arrive and start building at 5:30am. I built nonstop for the 12 hours and was able to set up 6,500 dominoes, plus some chain reaction tricks. Especially considering the floor was not ideal, I was very happy with the magnitude of what I could create in one day. I had to miss a couple lectures in order to build all day, but it was very worth it. There were a few hundred spectators watching as we toppled it all, and I was thrilled that it fell perfectly, without error.

New York, NY - January 2019 - 30 hours

Right after returning to campus for the semester, I was invited by Lily Hevesh to build dominoes for The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. I instantly accepted and I drove down to New York City that weekend. The build itself was in celebration for Jimmy Fallon as he was very close to hitting 20,000,000 subscribers on YouTube. This project was very special for a few reasons. Firstly, we got to meet Jimmy Fallon and see him work with his set for about an hour. It was shocking to see the size of the set they had, just for this short clip. There were probably 40 people there all with different jobs. There were multiple directors, electricians, lights crew, social media managers, and people in charge of the set, props, and cameras. I was very impressed to see Jimmy nail his lines and easily adjust to different suggestions. He seemed quite real and he did laugh a lot and joke around often. It was also entertaining to see him emerge from a secret door, only to be rushed by a few people fixing his jacket, hair, and makeup. I briefly got to meet him and shake his hand after we were done shooting and he was very genuine and appreciative. It was pretty cool to be humbled and thanked by such a notable and famous person. The second reason this was such a one-of-a-kind experience was the location. We got to build for three days on and around the main Tonight Show stage, where countless famous celebrities and individuals have sat and been interviewed. In person, the couch, desk, and background seemed very small, but I knew the grand significance of it all. The build itself went very smoothly, and I had a great time working with Lily, Michael, and Shane. One other interesting part of this build was the fairly intense editing The Tonight Show team did. In the video, it appears as if the topple is continuous and that Jimmy is watching it the whole time. In actuality, there were multiple stops in the chain reaction. During these stops the camera crew would change angles and lighting. In addition, Jimmy Fallon was only filmed at the very beginning and the ending, when he caught the domino. He was never watching them fall for the large fields, and he did not catch the domino in the end, that was all edited in. The only downside to this event was that I had my phone stolen the last night, but I was able to get a new one and it was very worth the trip still.

Albany, NY - January 2019 - 75 hours

Right after returning from a trip with my sister to Europe and before I returned to Cornell for the semester, I spent 8 days in Albany, NY for a fun domino team week. Lily Hevesh (Hevesh5) organized the event and designed many of the projects we built. We made multiple videos for her while we were there and it was great to see some old friends and new ones. The videos for these projects are not live on YouTube yet, but when they are I will share links to them below. One of the most memorable experiences of this event was the charity livestream we did. We streamed on YouTube for 9 hours raising money for First STEM charity. Viewers could donate and request things for us to include in the domino setup. Time flew by and we raised over $1,000 despite many technical difficulties. I’m very excited to get to work with all of these very smart and talented people again.

San Diego, CA - December 2018 - 60 hours

Directly after my finals ended my junior fall semester I traveled to San Diego, CA to help build a chain reaction machine for TCL. The machine was titled the “Couch Potato Machine” as the chain reaction occurs around a “lazy person” watching television at home. I was accompanied by Steve Price (SpriceMachines), who was the lead designer and Tim Dunsmore (DrComplicated), who helped build. This event was unique, different and exciting for many reasons. First was just that I had just come out of my exam period in cold Ithaca, so coming to San Diego was a great pick-me-up. Second, this is by far the largest and one of the first chain reaction machines I have helped design and build. Although I normally focus on domino projects and work, chain reaction machines are similar in many ways and the skills and mindset needed crosses over a lot between the two. I learned a ton about building chain reaction machines from Steve and Tim this week. Another reason this was super cool was that we were building this whole project in an Airbnb, where we also were staying. That made the build itself pretty convenient. The Airbnb itself was pretty nice and had an incredible view of the mountains and suburbs around San Diego. The final and probably most unique part about this project was that I was the so-called “Couch Potato” and I had to be on camera. Normally during these projects I’m only on camera in behind the scenes clips, interviews, or time-lapses, but this commercial required that I was an integral part of the machine. I was the linking component between steps of the machine and that connected the machine to the user interaction of a television, like TCL produces. It was strange, but a ton of fun and I’m so glad I got to be a part of it.

Philadelphia, PA - October 2018 - 20 hours

Steve Price (Spricemachines) and I returned to work with Shire at another trade show. We still got to learn more than we ever needed to know about the colon, but this time in Philadelphia. Again, the entire trade show site was custom decorated with dominoes everywhere, and I had some great experiences with the people attending the trade show who found the dominoes to be fascinating. Each day we set up about 5,000 dominoes, and toppled it about 30 minutes before the end of the show. We were able to get a decent-sized crowd of 50-100 people each day to watch the falldown, and this time the AV crew installed televisions on each of the three sides of the booth so that people further away or on other sides of the floor could view the dominoes topple. It also gave a nice vantage point for some of the text and structures we designed that were harder to see. Of the three days, two of the setups fell perfectly as planned, but one did not. The second day we had some riskier elements such as a car that was shot down a long track and that ended up not having enough momentum to make it to the next step in the chain reaction. We didn’t mind too much, and neither did the viewers. All in all it was an amazing experience again with Steve and I am looking forward to building with him again.

Berlin Germany - October 2018 - 25 hours

After working with AstraZeneca in Orlando, FL, we were asked to join them for another trade show event in Berlin, Germany for the European Association of the Study of Diabetes’ 54th conference. Each of the three-day conference we set up around 10,000 dominoes that we toppled at the end of each day for many medical professionals to watch. Each of the domino setups was unique and displayed the company’s drug and message behind taking steps to cure diabetes. I joined Michael Fantauzzo and Alexandra Benz to work with AstraZeneca. Just like the previous time with AstraZeneca, the build site was almost perfect and the booth was custom designed for our domino projects. People attending the conference were encouraged to sign a domino, that we would include in the setup, representing many people coming together to solve Diabetes and to show how with Diabetes, little changes can make a big difference. The whole domino theme was centered around the idea that for patients with Diabetes, small changes in equilibrium can severely affect the patient, just as a small impulse can begin a domino chain reaction. Outside of the fact that this event was so special based on its location, it was also amazing because we were able to meet up with several other German domino builders that we had followed for years, but never had the chance to meet. There were actually three other builders working with a different company at the same trade show, about 100 feet from where we were working. We were able to explore Berlin and spend time with the other builders outside of the event, which truly made it one of the best domino experiences I have been a part of. The other domino builders I was working with were Michael Fantauzzo and Alexandra Benz, and we met up with Patrick, Marco, Justin, Eva, and Joni in Berlin as well.

Brattleboro, VT - September 2018 - 20 hours

I returned to BMAC for their 11th annual domino toppling. This was the first year that the event occurred in the summer/fall, it had always been in the middle of the winter, when Brattleboro is typically several feet deep in snow. This made traveling to Vermont much easier and it was great to see Brattleboro as all of its leaves changed colors. As per usual for BMAC, we did not come into the event with much planned out. I had a few ideas that I carried out and some fields were planned, but other than that we just let our creativity flow and we had a ton of fun along the way. I was unfortunately unable to stay for the falldown, since I had to travel to my next domino event, but it ended up working perfectly. At this event, I was also interviewed by Jeremy Workman for a documentary on Lily Hevesh and the domino community. It was a very fun trip and it was great to see my closest domino friends again, especially since it had been a while since I had the chance to see them.

Fairport, NY - August 2018 - 10 hours

This was a personal domino project I built with Michael Fantauzzo. Our goal was to create a domino line that would climb up a spiral domino wall and then knock it down when it got to the top. It wasn’t completely successful, but it worked better than expected, the line made it 90% of the way to the top before it started crumbling away. This was a very fun build, we just got together and spontaneously tested this technique and went for it. We each built for 10 hours straight to complete this relatively small build.

Orlando, FL - June 2018 - 30 hours

This was a three day event at the American Diabetes Association’s 78th scientific session trade show where we worked with biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. Each of the three days we would arrive to build at 6am and build until 3pm, when we would knock down the daily setup. Each day’s project was unique and it was such a fun experience. The second day, the north-american president of AstraZeneca, Ruud Dobber, knocked down the dominoes. This is one of the most fun events I have participated in, the team was very easy to work with and after or third successful topple we cooled off in our hotel’s pool!

Washington D.C. - June 2018 - 30 hours

Steve Price (Spricemachines) and I attended the Digestive Disease Week 2018 trade show and worked with Shire. Each day, we built a separate themed setup. I never thought I would be building intestines out of dominoes, but it happened! This event is one of my favorite ones I have done because Shire completely decked out their whole booth with a domino theme and slogans. It was a very fun atmosphere to build in and there was a lot going on in D.C. that week including the Capitals playoff game and some amazing sushi.

Redmond, WA - May 2018 - 13 continuous hours

A team of six of us built dominoes for 13 hours straight on a live stream on Microsoft’s Mixer to commemorate its 1-year anniversary. This was such a lively build, mostly because as we were being filmed and broadcasted to the viewers on Mixer, they would leave comments encouraging us to keep going and they would react very positively when we finished any section. Surprisingly, we never got tired as we were building, the time passed by very fast. We were lucky enough to get a chance to explore some of Microsoft’s campus. The entire place is absolutely beautiful, there’s fountains, mini stores and a soccer field. When we toppled the build the day after we built it, there was a huge crowd who worked with Mixer cheering and confetti was shot everywhere. This was by far the most exciting single day build I have been a part of.

Seattle, WA - March 2018 - 25 hours

To promote the state’s residents to spend money on the lottery, the Washington State Lottery had Joe Parks, Lily Hevesh (Hevesh5), Steve Price (Spricemachines) and I create a screen-link domino setup themed with lottery concepts. The unique thing about this event was that it was filmed as a screen-link, that is it was filmed in sections and then pieced together. Normally

Dallas, TX - August 2017 - 30 hours

Twelve other domino builders and I built 50,000 dominoes in 3 days to announce Pizza Hut’s rewards program. This event was really memorable because was had such an incredible build space, the American Airlines Center. The night before we started building, Ed Sheeran performed in the same space. Building with the pizza boxes was challenging, but the end product was all worth it. The effect at the end where the pizza toppings jumped onto the pizza was also a perfect finisher.

Detroit, MI - July 2017 - 30 hours

This project was both the most number of dominoes and most people I have worked with at any event thus far. With 15 other domino and chain reaction artists, we set up 250,000 dominoes and the entire setup took over 17 minutes to fall. The event was themed games, including board games, video games, and sports. I only built a small portion of entire setup, but the experience and atmosphere of being surrounded by so many like-minded individuals was priceless. There were builders who traveled from a dozen different states and three countries, all with varying degrees of skills and expertise.

Boston, MA - May 2017 - 50 hours each

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaqO3xhFaxg

As a unique way to deliver the message of Gillette’s razor subscription service, Gillette on Demand, a team of 10 domino builders and chain reaction artists built 40,000 dominoes at Gillette’s headquarters in Boston. One of the special things about this event was the extent to which we included the theme. We used shaving cream cans, razors and blade cartridges throughout the setup, which made it a lot more exciting and varied.

Burbank, CA - April 2017 - 30 hours

Steve Price (Spricemachines), Joe Parks, Shane O’Brien and I set up 30,000 for Disney Channel’s show “Walk the Prank”. In the episode, the actors were bored and decided to build dominoes all throughout their main stage. After knocking them down, they decided it was not worth all the time. This build was not only awesome because it was Disney, but because we got to see the filming process happen. The actors repeated their simple lines for hours to perfect it. I also choreographed the camera crane movements that the professional videographer executed for the advanced movements and erratic nature of the dominoes falling. Meeting the actors and getting a behind-the-scenes look at the intricate filming process was very insightful. I’d never thought dominoes I set up would be on such a well known television network.

Brattleboro, VT - February 2017 - 25 hours

The same team returned for Brattleboro’s 10th annual domino toppling event and we set up a record-breaking 30,000 dominoes. We came into the weekend with a few ideas of things we wanted to include, but nothing specific. We ended up grouping sections with vibrant color combinations and the kids all really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, this was the first time that the event had a full stop, but it was not something we foresaw, and instances like this happen naturally. We hit it again and the rest of the setup fell perfectly! I’m always excited to return to Brattleboro for this event.

San Jose, CA - July 2016

Together with Alex Huang and Chase Blanchette, we built 15,000 dominoes and a complex chain reaction machine at the Children’s Discovery Museum, or Purple Museum, in San Jose, California. Not only was this my first opportunity to travel to the west coast, but it was the first time I flew for a domino event. The build itself was a ton of fun. We built lots of things that kids would recognize and enjoy. At the end of the building period, each day we would build dominoes with kids at separate tables. Watching children build, seeing how their minds work and what they create is a very funny, interesting and motivational endeavor.

Rochester, NY - November 2015 - 30 hours

Together with Michael Fantauzzo, we partnered with the Strong Museum in Rochester, NY to build three daily domino and chain reaction topplings for over a hundred kids and parents. We loosely based this project off of the Incredible Science Machine event from earlier this year. The kids absolutely loved it. It was such a rewarding experience to get to build and host an event at a museum I had visited since I was young.

Fairport, NY - October 2015 - 10 hours

I created this domino project to attach with my early decision application to Cornell University. I tell a condensed story of how I got into dominoes, what I have learned from it and what it means to me. Building dominoes literally changed my life, so it only made sense to show my intense passion in a unique way to Cornell. I directly attribute this video with my acceptance to Cornell University. To the left you can also see the Excel plans for this project.

Detroit, MI - July 2015 - 120 hours

This was the largest group domino event at the time. A total of 15 builders built 12 hours a day for 10 straight days to produce the United States’ largest domino toppling in history. Under the theme of STEM, we set up 200,000 dominoes and 10 machine tables with the goal of breaking the american domino toppling record and record for most number of steps in a chain reaction machine. Although we never got verified to have set the world record for the most steps in a chain reaction machine, we had a blast building it. Having so many builders convene together was such an inspiring and positive experience.

New York City, NY - July 2013 - 40 hours

To date, this has to be one of the craziest domino events I have been a part of. Initially the four of us (me, Lily Hevesh, Joe Parks, Nathan Heck) attempted to get on America’s Got Talent through a video submission, but we were unsuccessful. Later however, there was an additional opportunity to get on the show through The Today Show. Our team we named “The Domino Effect” was chosen as 1 of 3 groups to be on The Today Show from over 5,000 video applications. For three days, we built dominoes in a studio, surrounded by a television cooking show kitchen and professional lighting. It was the most surreal experience ever. I had never been interviewed for anything before and I stepped out and discussed my hobby with a news reporter. Right before the moment we were on air, they even did my makeup. Unfortunately we were not chosen to move on, but a short snippet of our group and domino toppling made it on America’s Got Talent. It was this event that made me realize that what I was doing was so incredible and special.

Brattleboro, VT - February 2014 - 25 hours

This was the second consecutive year I participated in the annual domino toppling in Brattleboro. We continued the trend of setting up more dominoes, building a total of 26,000 in two days. One exciting note about this event was that right before the topple, a few thousand dominoes fell, losing hours of work. We stayed calm, connected the lines before and after the site of destruction and the event carried on as planned.

Brattleboro, VT - March 2013 - 25 hours

This was the first year I participated as a builder for the yearly Brattleboro Musesum and Arts domino toppling. This was the sixth year the event took place, previously the Perucci brothers ran it. The four of us, Shane O’Brien (Shanezdominoes), Lily Hevesh (Hevesh5), Nathan Heck, and I built up 25,000 dominoes that we knocked down in front of an audience of over 200 people. This event was super fun and we could all be very creative with what we built. There was nothing we had to build per se, so we all just worked on fun, colorful projects that interested us.

Lincoln Park, NJ - July 2012 - 40 hours

Domination was the first group event I participated in. To my knowledge, it is the first time independent domino builders ever met up in the United States to build together. Over the course of 3 days we set up 45,000 dominoes under the theme of games. We had sports, video games, and board games. The event itself was a surreal experience because I had been building dominoes for over two years and I had never met anyone else who had the same passion for it that I did. We shared so many ideas and a learned a ton over the couple days I was there.