Saturday, June 11, 2011

NH MAGAZINE NAMES CHUCKLEHEAD TOYS “BEST OF NH 2011”


NH MAGAZINE NAMES CHUCKLEHEAD TOYS “BEST OF NH 2011”
Celebration June 23 at Verizon Arena to Benefit the New Hampshire Food Bank 


Chucklehead Toys has been selected by the editors of New Hampshire Magazine as “Best of NH 2011” for Best Novelty Store. The winners will be feted at a celebration that each year draws more than 1,500 people. It’s happening on Thursday, June 23, at Manchester’s Verizon Wireless Arena from 5:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. Proceeds from the event’s ticket sales will benefit the New Hampshire Food Bank, a program of New Hampshire Catholic Charities.

It’s a special year — the 10th anniversary — and the party promises to be the best ever! With food and drink from more than 60 winners, non-stop entertainment and door prizes galore, including an all-inclusive seven-day trip to a luxury resort in Jamaica, courtesy of MilneTravel/American Express Vacation and Travel Impressions/American Express Vacations.

"This event was a hit from the very start," says Rick Broussard, editor of New Hampshire Magazine. "And with 10 years of experience, I think we've proven that it has staying power. To celebrate our anniversary, we taking things up a notch."

Months of discussion and planning will have gone into a fresh new atmosphere at the Verizon Wireless Arena and an even more dynamic line up of cuisine, music, talent and celebrity.  But just like every year, one ticket buys your way into the complete experience of food and fun.

To guarantee tickets, call (603) 868-7300, log on to www.ticketmaster.com or www.bestofnh.com. To ensure the best experience, only a limited number of tickets will be available to this grand celebration.

Presenting sponsor Southwest Airlines is the Official Airline of the Best of NH Party. Other sponsors include FairPoint Communications, AutoFair, Catholic Medical Center, Hannaford, Bacardi, CIGNA HealthCare of New Hampshire and Anheuser-Busch. Media sponsors are WMUR-TV, 95.7fm WZID and WXRV The River 92.5.

The Food Bank, the largest non-profit food distribution center in the state, obtains and distributes donated and purchased food to more than 400 registered agencies that in turn provide the food to hungry people in New Hampshire through soup kitchens, food pantries, homeless shelters, and elderly and children’s programs. 

New Hampshire Magazine is the state’s largest lifestyle magazine. It is part of McLean Communications of Manchester, a publishing company that also includes New Hampshire Business Review, New Hampshire Home, Parenting New Hampshire and BRIDE.
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Sunday, April 25, 2010

Chucklehead Toys in the Boston Herald!!!


For trickster, business is a gas

By Darren Garnick / The Working Stiff
Wednesday, April 21, 2010 - Added 4d 11h ago
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Jason Washer’s first pilgrimage to Boston’s legendary Jack’s Joke Shop helped him launch his first business more than 30 years ago. He was “The Amazing Jason” back then, commanding a whopping $25 fee in the competitive New Hampshire birthday party market. And every dollar in income was reinvested into new magic tricks.
He remembers nervously strolling through the infamous Combat Zone to arrive at his Tremont Street temple, which had sacred rubber chickens dangling in the front window. He forgets what was in his bag of goodies that afternoon. Likely some flashpaper for his special effects. Or maybe the spaghetti-like “fake snot” his older brother liked to wear at family functions.
Jack’s closed in 2007, but the iconic Theater District landmark still lives on in Washer, a computer sales account manager who just launched Chucklehead Toys. Debuting on April Fools’ Day, the online jokes-and-novelty superstore aims to “bring the classy back to fart jokes and fake vomit.”
“I want to sell quality products, as quality as a whoopee cushion or a stink bomb can be,” Washer says. “I want to be America’s favorite rubber chicken supplier.”
ChuckleheadToys.com, represented by a ventriloquist dummy-like mascot who serves as the symbolic CEO, also strives to be a Web hub for practical joke advice, gag videos and social networking for the fart-loving community.
Turning 40 years old the day after the store’s launch was also an inspiration for Washer to rechannel “The Amazing Jason” from his home office in rural Alstead, N.H. Floating from career to career - including stints with the U.S. Navy, Home Depot, a coffee-roasting business and computer sales - he’s always dreamed of running his own business.
“Gags and pranks and magic tricks are a pretty universal fascination for all kids and most grownups, whether they admit it or not,” Washer says. “Everyone’s parents and grandparents once had their own joy buzzer. It’s kind of a universal goofiness.”
Washer’s parents certainly remember. One of his fondest memories is planting a mildly explosive cigarette load into one of his mother’s packs and watching her freak out over the harmless blast.
“She charged down the stairs and was really upset,” he recalls. “I don’t think I dared a second try!”
As part of his business plan, Washer researched the life of toymaker S.S. Adams, who was dubbed the “Thomas Edison of Practical Jokesmithing” by the Saturday Evening Post. Adams turned his one-person sneezing powder business in 1906 into the world’s largest novelty company. Almost every famous gag enjoyed by baby boomers - including fake insect ice cubes, squirting nickels and the dribble glass - was an Adams invention.
But it was the proceeds from his handshake joy buzzers that emboldened Adams to build his New Jersey factory at the unlikeliest time, in the midst of the Great Depression.
Washer sees business parallels with today’s economic climate. Perhaps a good omen, the Adams-inspired dribble glass is now outselling everything else on the Chucklehead Toys site.
“His success says something about the need to laugh during hard times,” Washer says. “What a great way to make a living.”
heraldstiff@gmail.com | Visit Darren Garnick’s blog, Working Stiff
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Saturday, April 17, 2010

Farts are Funny

 
It’s rough out there my little chuckleheads: Dow’s up and down, red and blue can’t come together to make purple, Bret Michaels is on Celebrity Apprentice, and, well, Celebrity Apprentice is still on the air.
But there is a light at the end of this deep, dark tunnel. It glows green and is fueled by funny. What is that light lurking in the distance?
Farts.
You may be asking yourself, “But Chucklehead, why farts? Why not diplomacy, changes in economic policy, hair plugs for Bret Michaels. Why, farts?”
Simple. Farts are funny. There’s no rift, no awkward pause, no gap in understanding that can’t be filled with a good fart joke: making them, hearing them, being near them, okay maybe not being near them so much, but you get my drift.
Just imagine, you are at a tough negotiation, tensions are high, you’re pulling out what’s left of your hair. Suddenly, you get a notion: “Whoopee cushion stink bomb combo!” Yes. A well placed cushion with a strategically timed broken stink bomb ups the ante from mere gag to high art. Your opponent will be so taken with your daring-do, your moxie, your deep understanding of the uniting force of farts, that he will be putty in your hands. He might hug you.
Simply put, we all fart. Old ladies, nuns, presidents, Ryan Seacrest, everyone farts. Why not be the guy who brings the funny wherever he goes? The guy who knows how to lighten the load by making it sound like someone dropped one? Be the hero. Save the world. Make it sound like someone farted.
www.chuckleheadtoys.com
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