A giant minion constructed of 1,300 balloons, made by Weyburn brothers Richy and Preston Roy for the Weyburn Fair parade in 2018, will be featured in the Ripley鈥檚 Believe It Or Not book for 2021.
The news that they would be featured in this book came as a complete surprise to Richy, who recalled that he and Preston submitted their giant balloon creation to both Ripley鈥檚 and the Guinness Book of World Records for consideration.
The Guinness book didn鈥檛 work out due to the red tape and the requirements to be a part of that book, said Richy.
鈥淚 hadn鈥檛 heard back from Ripley鈥檚 for almost two years, then I got an email from the editor saying they were going to send us a free copy of the 2021 book because we鈥檙e in it,鈥� said Richy.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 pretty cool to be in the book for 2021,鈥� he added, noting this book is sold in many countries, like Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.
鈥淲hen you鈥檙e a kid in elementary school and we went to the school library, all the kids raced to get the Ripley鈥檚 book. As a kid I always wanted to be in it, so now I can take that off my bucket list,鈥� he said.
He recalled that Preston used an air generator nine hours a day pumping up balloons while he twisted them together, using sizes like 240s, 350s and 646s.
鈥淚t took a good seven days to put it together,鈥� said Richy. 鈥淚 remember about halfway through that week, Scott Moe sent us a tweet encouraging us to get it finished.鈥�
In a 鈥渘ormal鈥� year, he and Preston are kept busy putting on magic shows and other stage entertainment events, but Richy noted that because of COVID-19, they have lost all of their entertainment gigs for 2020, with only the Big Time Live online game shows working out for them.
Thus it was nice to get this news, said Richy, and when he told his brother, 鈥渉e said this made it all better and put a smile on his face.鈥�
He doesn鈥檛 foresee being able to go back to stage entertainment any time soon, but he and Preston will be restarting the Big Time Live online game shows in November, with three months of game shows planned at this point.
In addition, the Game TV network did an interview with them about their game show, as they are doing a program about game shows in Canada, and the Big Time Live show was one of the biggest online game shows in the country. The story about their show will be aired possibly by January, said Richy, and it will be hosted by Colin Mochrie.
