Bryan Berg

Bryan Berg (born March 21, 1974)[1] is an American professional cardstacker who builds large-scale houses of cards.

Bryan Berg at work

Career

Trained as an architect, Bryan Berg is the only known person to make a living building structures with free-standing playing cards.[2]

Berg earned a bachelor's degree in architecture from Iowa State University in 1997, and served on the design faculty there for three years.[3] In 2004, Berg earned a master's degree in design studies from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Berg has stacked cards for corporate special events, public relations campaigns, and science and children's museums in many U.S. cities, Canada, Europe, and Asia. Berg's clients have included Walt Disney World, Lexus, Procter & Gamble, Major League Baseball, the NHL,[4] and the San Francisco Opera.[5] He also participated in a music video by The Bravery, playing a lonely man who builds a fantasy world out of cards.[6]

World's tallest house of cards

Berg first broke the world record for the world's tallest house of free-standing playing cards in 1992 at the age of seventeen, with a tower fourteen and a half feet (4.4 meters) tall. Since then, Berg has been commissioned to break his own Guinness Record approximately ten times.[6]

He built another tower in the College of Design's atrium at Iowa State University in 1998. It stood at approximately 25 feet (7.6 meters) tall and used over 1500 decks of standard cards weighing over 250 pounds (110 kilograms). It took two and a half weeks to build working in shifts from four to twelve hours each day. During construction, the tower was surrounded by scaffolding. On November 6, 1999, Berg built a taller tower for the German edition of Guinness Prime Time in the lobby of the casino at Potsdamer Platz, Berlin. That tower was approximately 25.29 feet (7.71 meters) tall and required over 1700 decks to stack up to 131 stories.

Berg's most recent record was a 25-foot 9 7/16 inch tall tower built at the African-American Museum at Fair Park in Dallas, Texas.[2][6] For this record, he tried a new technique involving stacking cards vertically instead of horizontally, which reduced the number of cards needed by nearly half.[6]

On September 18, 2009, on Live with Regis & Kelly, Berg attempted to break the Guinness World Record for tallest free-standing card structure in 60 minutes. As Berg stopped building the structure when time ran out, the cards fell down, costing him his bid for a new world record.[7]

World's largest house of cards

In 2004, Guinness created a record category for the world's largest house of free-standing playing cards to recognize a project Berg built for Walt Disney World, a replica of Cinderella's Castle.[8] In 2010, Berg exceeded his own record by using over 218,000 cards to construct a replica of the Venetian Macao, which took 44 days.[9][10][11]

Technique

Berg normally uses no tape, glue, or tricks. His method has been tested to support 660 lbs. per square foot.

In 2006, Berg used an adhesive for the first time on one of his projects. The structure, a re-creation of the "Fabulous Las Vegas" sign, was created for Loctite with the adhesive brand's Loctite Control Gel Super Glue. The sign was displayed during the 2006 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.[12]

Notability

Berg's work has had extensive media coverage. He has appeared on CNN,[13] The Today Show, Good Morning America,[14] and various other United States and international TV shows. His work has been featured in US newspapers and publications such as Wired,[15] Reader's Digest "Best of America" Issue,[16] Men's Health,[17] and Time for Kids.[18] Berg also appeared in the video for "Time Won't Let Me Go" by the Bravery. Berg was featured on the PBS game show, Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman on season 3, where he was given the task to teach the fetchers how to build a house of cards.

In 2003 Berg published a book with Simon & Schuster, Stacking The Deck, as a how-to about some of his techniques and structures.

Personal life

Born in Spirit Lake, Iowa, Berg now lives with his wife in Santa Fe, New Mexico.[2]

See also

References
  1. Official Facebook page of Bryan Berg, Facebook. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  2. Aaron Brodie (November 14, 2007). "House of cards? No, he stacks skyscrapers". CNN. Retrieved November 14, 2007.
  3. "About Berg". Bryan Berg. Archived from the original on November 10, 2007. Retrieved November 14, 2007.
  4. "Multimedia: 88 Vibration Reducing Measures". Archived from the original on June 28, 2009. Retrieved September 3, 2009.
  5. Worlds Tallest Structure of Playing Cards Archived September 24, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  6. Katie Menzer (October 16, 2007). "Card stacker hopes State Fair tower breaks his record". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved November 14, 2007.
  7. Leo, Alex (September 18, 2020). "Bryan Berg: Man Trying To Set Record For Tallest Card Tower Sees Structure Crash At Last Second". Huffington Post. Retrieved September 18, 2009.
  8. Bryan Berg Interview, Area of Design. October 2005. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  9. "新聞 - 香港新浪". News.sina.com.hk. Archived from the original on February 23, 2012. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  10. "新聞 - 香港新浪". News.sina.com.hk. Archived from the original on February 23, 2012. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  11. Venetian Macao House of Cards Guinness World Record Attempt Archived March 6, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  12. Francisca Ortega (July 29, 2006). "Artist rebuilds Las Vegas sign with cards, dice and poker chips". Las Vegas Sun. Archived from the original on January 27, 2013. Retrieved November 14, 2007.
  13. "'House' of cards? No, he stacks skyscrapers - CNN.com". CNN. November 15, 2007. Retrieved April 27, 2010.
  14. Decked Out in Times Square to Support Tsunami Victims – ABC News
  15. Rebecca Harper (January 8, 2003). King of Kings, Wired. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  16. http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/best-of-america-video/article37341.html%5B%5D
  17. House of Cards: Build A Better House Archived September 5, 2012, at archive.today
  18. "He Stacks The Decks". Time for Kids. Archived from the original on May 16, 2008. Retrieved September 3, 2009.
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