• Born: c. 1957 (Voltz) and c. 1968 (Grobe)
  • Birthplace:
  • Best known as:

    Stars of the 'Diet Coke fountain' Internet videos

4 good links

  1. EepyBird.com

    Official site of their video hijinks

  2. Ready for Blastoff

    2006 report on the pair from The Portland Press-Herald

  3. The Odd Company

    Grobe's Maine-based theater and educational troupe

  4. The Diet Coke and Mentos Explosion

    2007 Business Week article explains the gag and the corporate background

The Diet Coke and Mentos Video Guys Biography

Stephen Voltz and Fritz Grobe are the two friends whose videos of erupting soda bottles were an Internet sensation in 2006. Their video titled Experiment #137 showed the two men, dressed in lab coats and goggles, dropping Mentos candies into 2-liter bottles of Diet Coke and calmly observing the resulting fountains of foam. The two men are both New Englanders: Voltz (the older balding one) is a trial attorney in Massachusetts, and Grobe (the younger bearded one) is a juggler and entertainer in Maine. After their first video became a hit online, Voltz and Grobe made other vidoes and also crossed over into television, appearing on Late Night With David Letterman and other shows around the world. Business Week reported in 2007 that sales of Mentos had shot up 15% after the videos became popular.

Extra credit:

The chemical reactions filmed by Voltz and Grobe are a real-life phenomenon, not a trick. Their videos begin with the disclaimer, "Nothing but Diet Coke and Mentos!"

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