By Jamie Huish
Egg balancing is one stunt you can try at home, according to world record holder and former BYU student Brian Spotts.
Spotts broke the Guinness World Records? individual record for egg balancing last week in Melbourne, Australia when he balanced 439 eggs on their ends. An Australian company flew the Coloradan down under to amaze their clients, after he and other BYU students broke the group record in March 2003.
It took Spotts 15 hours to break the record by carefully standing the eggs on end one at a time on the stone floor of a local foyer.
Spotts has been balancing eggs since he was about 10 years old when his older brother told him eggs would ?stand up on the equinox.? After Spotts got started balancing, he couldn?t stop.
?I started researching how many had been done, all about world records and how to break them,? Spotts said.
The research culminated in a record-breaking night during Spotts? senior year at BYU. Along with about 100 other students, Spotts broke the group record by balancing 1,290 eggs in the garden court of the Wilkinson Center.
?After having done it for a couple hours, it gets pretty easy,? Spotts said. ?I just got into a groove.?
Contrary to Spotts? original belief, balancing eggs had nothing to do with the equinox.
?Basically you have to hold the egg with your thumb and four fingers lean it until it stands up straight.? Spotts said. ?The trick is patience.?
Spotts also invented a new world record category: the fastest time to balance a dozen eggs. His personal record is four minutes and two seconds.
When it comes to being a record holder, Spotts said it?s all about picking a specialty.
?It?s really just a matter of finding something strange enough that no one else would do,? Spotts said.
Spotts cited the major difference in this egg-balancing exhibition was finding someone who was interested in arranging the publicity for him.
?They already had all the hook-ups,? Spotts said.
The Australian Egg Corporation hosted Spotts as an attraction during a celebration of their National Heart Foundation.
?They wanted to get publicity out, and figured a good way would be to get a record holder,? said Spotts.