How I became world whistling Champion
Before you read anything watch this. It is me whistling the guitar solo to Hotel California like a total badass (ignore the man-bun, it was during covid and no one knew what they were doing, especially me!).
I whistled all my life, but my whistling thing really started in Australia at “jazz in the domain” (an outdoor Jazz concert) where there was a whistling competition held by an insurance company who had some whistling in one of their commercials, and my musician friend Dean said “you should enter this!”. The prize was a big screen TV and I knew my whistling was unique and I wanted that TV.
And I like to win shit. Who doesn’t?! (not everyone my wife says!)
So I and 8 others went up on stage and we all whistled and the crowd cheered for the winner. It got down to two people, one of whom was a great great whistler (me) and the other couldn’t whistle for shit; she was rubbish, and I mean rubbish! but she was also an 8 year old girl. And disabled, so everyone cheered for her. I couldn’t believe my big TV was about to be ripped from my fingers, so I told her that if she didn’t pull out of the competition I would adopt a puppy and then drown it … It worked!, and with her gone, I won the competition, nabbed my big-ass TV and that is how I started my journey! (lesson: you sometimes have to play dirty to win shit!*)
After my amazing and virtuous victory in Australia the next stop was finding the mount Everest of Whistling, which Google folklore told me is The International Whistlers Convention in Louisburg North Carolina. I drove down from New York (I moved there from Sydney to open a NY office for my company Tigerspike and to find a wife). With me was my cousin Laura, my now wife (it worked!) Lydia, and her best friend Anna (watch Anna’s documentary on me becoming “International Grand Champion of Whistling” in 2009 here.
The road trip was fun and when we got there the contestants were the biggest collection of weirdos I have ever met: a hedge fund manager, a circus CEO, super poor folks. Super rich folks. Folks from Japan to Norway. (mostly) Old and (some) young. All brought together by the random coincidence that we are all good at whistling. Japan as a country was over-represented, which didn’t surprise me since Japan seems to give birth to some of the coolest weirdos in the world.
Everyone whistled a classical song and a pop song, and the field was whittled down to the finals, where we whistled another pop and classical song. Standing in my way this time was Geert Chatrou (watch this Ted talk to hear more about it). He wasn’t 8. Or disabled. Or a girl; but he is probably the best whistler to have ever lived. And he was a really great guy, a fellow Dutchman, but this time for the first time he lost. So I was crowned “International Grand Champion of Whistling 2009”
So what is the moral of the story other than to show off my whistling chops? To tell you that I think this is part of the meaning of life. Do whatever you do day to day but:
At least once every 2 or 3 years, Get away from your day to day life and seek out some truly weird experiences with a diverse group of weirdos.
Take your wife, one of your kids, or go alone, and do weird things. My brother in law came second in the world air guitar championships in Finland. He is still talking about it.
Geert Chatrou makes his living whistling but there honestly ins’t that much money in it. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. Like I said, pick something weird and do it once every 2 or 3 years with some crazy crew.
Or if you want an ongoing adventure, try quitting your job, move to Bali, put your kids in the Green School and start an eco-startup.
Before you go — here are some songs with me whistling on it:
Where love goes: (3.5m streams isn’t bad, it is my biggest whistling audience)
123, I love you baby (Latest song which is doing nicely)
*in case you didn’t guess this story about the disabled girl is not entirely true. I ended up beating that girl fair and square. And she wasn’t disabled. She was 8 though, and she did cry when she lost. But hey, sometimes you have to learn some hard lessons.