Meaning if you want to talk Dancakes, book Dancakes, or have Dancakes make a video I’m the guy that’ll help make it happen.
I met Dan through our mutual friend Mike. Mike worked with Dan at the infamous diner where Dan started slinging his first unique pancakes. I was told Dan was looking for someone to film a music video for his band; I was an amateur video guy. We met, we talked, we laughed and….we never made the music video but we did become fast friends.
Skip ahead just 3 months (to November 2013) and Dan texts me saying that he was on the front page of Reddit; a picture of him making a Mario Mushroom pancake had gone viral.
A few days later a local news station that had caught wind of the phenomenon filmed a story on Dan at the diner. I headed to his apartment to watch the story with him on the 5 o’clock news. The segment airs, it’s charming and feels like the perfect end to this 15 minutes of fame.
While we’re sitting there, Dan mentions that an intern at the Today Show called and asked him to make the faces of the hosts and then send her a pic of them, but he hadn’t heard back since. Then his phone rings: It’s the Today Show producer and they want him on the show in 2 days. “You fly out tomorrow!” I ask if he needs a friend to join him; he did.
We fly to New York, he goes on the show, I chill in the green room with Charlie Sheen’s doctor. It’s crazy.
We get back and people start calling for events. We end up doing local events throughout 2014, and at the end of that year Dan wants to make a pancake art video. I figured he’d suggest something like a Mario Mushroom time lapse (since that was the pancake that went viral in the first place), but no; Dan wants to make all 151 Pokemon as our first pancake art video. “Go big or go home,” he says. We filmed and edited it over 3 days, posted it on our newly created Dancakes YouTube, and the next day, we wake up to virality. Calls came in from around country and around the world asking if we could do live performances.
Dan is not the best with handling logistics; before I was seriously involved, gigs were dropped left and right. I, on the other hand, am good with logistics. “I’ll handle the business side, you handle the pancakes,” I told him. Thus, Dancakes was born.
Since then Dan and I have traveled to several foreign countries, preformed gigs in almost every major US city, and have made videos for huge brands. It was me and him for 2+ years and it was crazy, interesting and more than anything amazing.
Now I handle booking events and for multiple pancake artists, as our team has grown since the beginning.
So if you ever need to book Dancakes for anything, you’ll probably be hearing my voice soon.
We have a crazy job!
Dancakes Live Events Are Back! The Journey to our Return.by Hank Gustafson(08/16/2021)
Wow, what the hell was 2020? It started off great, we worked an event called Hotella Nutella in Napa Valley in January, and right after that was an appearance on Good Morning America with Dan and Dana where they hung out with the hosts of Shark Tank! They all got their faces pancaked, naturally. We […] Posted In:Dancakes Updates
Mistakes Are Delicious EP11 – This Will Be Interestingby Hank Gustafson(09/17/2020)
Hope you all are having a day, here is episode 11 of our podcast. It’s a good one, enjoy! In this episode we play The Very Interesting Game ( @The_Very_Interesting_Game ) this is probably one of the most fun games we have played so far. Hank asks the guys to bark like a dog in […] Posted In:Dancakes Updates
Mistakes Are Delicious EP09 – Let’s Get Realby Hank Gustafson(08/27/2020)
Hope you all are having a great week. I got another episode of our podcast Mistakes Are Delicious for your listening pleasure. In this episode we draw question cards from the Podecks deck and ask personal questions to one another. What does Dan admire most in his friends? What is one of Dana’s biggest regrets? […] Posted In:Dancakes Updates
Mistakes Are Delicious EP08 – Awkward Storytellersby Hank Gustafson(08/20/2020)
Hey everybody, coming at you with another insane episode of Mistakes Are Delicious. In this episode we play Awkward Storyteller, a fun story telling game where one player is the storyteller and starts a sentence and then other players play “question” cards to give prompts to the storyteller to continue their story. It gets goofy […] Posted In:Dancakes Updates
Mistakes Are Delicious EP07 – This Is Dreadfulby Hank Gustafson(08/14/2020)
In this episode we play a rules light table top RPG named Dread with our Head Assistant Jimmy acting as GM. We've got a mystery to solve and our accents are as bad as our detective skills. Posted In:Dancakes Updates
Mistakes Are Delicious EP06 – We Are Bad Peopleby Hank Gustafson(08/05/2020)
In this episode we play a game called "Bad People" and find out which one of the Dancakes crew is the absolute worst. Posted In:Dancakes Updates
Mistakes Are Delicious EP05 – Five Seconds To Winby Hank Gustafson(07/30/2020)
Hey everybody, hope you are having a great week. We have another episode of our podcast to help brighten your day and make you laugh. In this episode we play the 5 second rule game, you have answer a question with three answers in five seconds to win. Our answers are definitely all over the […] Posted In:Dancakes Updates
Mistakes Are Delicious EP04 – You Laugh, You Loseby Hank Gustafson(07/22/2020)
Hey all, we are back with the fourth episode of our podcast Mistakes Are Delicious. We decided we wanted to move our podcast in a fun direction by playing different social games. In this episode we play the You Laugh, You Lose a game where we are pitted against each other, one on one and […] Posted In:Dancakes Updates
Mistakes Are Delicious EP03 – Road Storiesby Hank Gustafson(07/15/2020)
We miss being on the road, working events and the joy visiting cities that comes from that so we decided talk about some stories from our past travels. Posted In:Dancakes Updates
Mistakes Are Delicious EP02 – Everyone Gets Butthurtby Hank Gustafson(07/08/2020)
Hey all, we just released the second episode of our new podcast Mistakes Are Delicious. Hopefully you were able to give our first episode a listen, we are trying to get as many ears and eyes on this as we can. One thing we have learned over the years is you can’t just automatically assume […] Posted In:Dancakes Updates
Mistakes are Delicious EP01 – We started a podcast!by Hank Gustafson(07/02/2020)
From the knuckleheads who brought you Dancakes, it’s Mistakes Are Delicious, a podcast based off of the company’s motto and featuring the surreal ramblings of a bunch of Pancake Art nerds. Posted In:Dancakes Updates
Pancake Art at Connect 2019by Hank Gustafson(08/30/2019)
Hey there, Just quickly checking in to tell you all that our “first” trade show with our own booth and our own rules went really well! Usually when we are at a trade show we are hired as entertainment at another company’s booth. So that means we are sharing the space and working the hours […] Posted In:Dancakes Updates
Hi, I’m Hank – An Introduction to the Manager of Dancakesby Hank Gustafson(08/09/2019)
Hey there, this is Hank of Dancakes. This is my first ever blog entry. First of all, I would like to publicly thank Ben (mruncredible.com) for creating this beautiful new website. This makes writing and posting blogs easier and more efficient. My role at Dancakes encompasses the business side of our company as well as […] Posted In:Dancakes Stories
What's the weirdest request you've ever gotten?
So I was a pancake artist when we started the company in 2014, but we quickly realized with Dan being the better pancake artist and me being the better business manager I quickly shifted out of being a pancake artist and solely focused on running the business.
But, when I was an artist for that short year I did make a pancake of Robocop riding a Unicorn and that was pretty cool.
Are there any things you still struggle with in pancake art?
The little of pancake art I’ve done since I stopped doing it for the business has been rough. So I still struggle the to get the basics down, fortunately I am around the best teachers.
What's your favorite breakfast restaurant?
Eggs benedict, hand down.
What's the coolest place you've traveled to?
Definitely Singapore. Dan and I traveled there in 2018 to teach children pancake art. I was a great experience because not only were Dan and I shown the city by our now good friends Ben and Pearl, but I learned I am a really good teacher when it comes to kids and pancake art. So that feels good.
Are your pancakes edible?
Yep, eaten a good amount, preserved even more.
Pineapple on pizza?
All day, add ham and peppers and you’ll never get me to leave.
Mistakes Are Delicious EP11 – This Will Be Interesting (09/17/2020)
Hope you all are having a day, here is episode 11 of our podcast. It’s a good one, enjoy! In this episode we play The Very Interesting Game ( @The_Very_Interesting_Game ) this is probably one of the most fun games we have played so far. Hank asks the guys to bark like a dog in […]
Posted In: Dancakes Updates
Mistakes Are Delicious EP09 – Let’s Get Real (08/27/2020)
Hope you all are having a great week. I got another episode of our podcast Mistakes Are Delicious for your listening pleasure. In this episode we draw question cards from the Podecks deck and ask personal questions to one another. What does Dan admire most in his friends? What is one of Dana’s biggest regrets? […]
Posted In: Dancakes Updates
Mistakes Are Delicious EP08 – Awkward Storytellers (08/20/2020)
Hey everybody, coming at you with another insane episode of Mistakes Are Delicious. In this episode we play Awkward Storyteller, a fun story telling game where one player is the storyteller and starts a sentence and then other players play “question” cards to give prompts to the storyteller to continue their story. It gets goofy […]
Posted In: Dancakes Updates
Mistakes Are Delicious EP07 – This Is Dreadful (08/14/2020)
In this episode we play a rules light table top RPG named Dread with our Head Assistant Jimmy acting as GM. We've got a mystery to solve and our accents are as bad as our detective skills.
Posted In: Dancakes Updates
Mistakes Are Delicious EP06 – We Are Bad People (08/05/2020)
In this episode we play a game called "Bad People" and find out which one of the Dancakes crew is the absolute worst.
Posted In: Dancakes Updates
Mistakes Are Delicious EP05 – Five Seconds To Win (07/30/2020)
Hey everybody, hope you are having a great week. We have another episode of our podcast to help brighten your day and make you laugh. In this episode we play the 5 second rule game, you have answer a question with three answers in five seconds to win. Our answers are definitely all over the […]
Posted In: Dancakes Updates
Mistakes Are Delicious EP04 – You Laugh, You Lose (07/22/2020)
Hey all, we are back with the fourth episode of our podcast Mistakes Are Delicious. We decided we wanted to move our podcast in a fun direction by playing different social games. In this episode we play the You Laugh, You Lose a game where we are pitted against each other, one on one and […]
Posted In: Dancakes Updates
Mistakes Are Delicious EP03 – Road Stories (07/15/2020)
We miss being on the road, working events and the joy visiting cities that comes from that so we decided talk about some stories from our past travels.
Posted In: Dancakes Updates
Mistakes Are Delicious EP02 – Everyone Gets Butthurt (07/08/2020)
Hey all, we just released the second episode of our new podcast Mistakes Are Delicious. Hopefully you were able to give our first episode a listen, we are trying to get as many ears and eyes on this as we can. One thing we have learned over the years is you can’t just automatically assume […]
Posted In: Dancakes Updates
Mistakes are Delicious EP01 – We started a podcast! (07/02/2020)
From the knuckleheads who brought you Dancakes, it’s Mistakes Are Delicious, a podcast based off of the company’s motto and featuring the surreal ramblings of a bunch of Pancake Art nerds.
Posted In: Dancakes Updates
