Andrew Boyce soars to new heights for film

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/cour ... 09.article

West Dundee man soars to new heights for film
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August 5, 2009
By MIKE DANAHEY mdanahey@scn1.com

WEST DUNDEE — Somebody alert David Letterman. A West Dundee man has a pretty good Stupid Human Trick.

Thursday, in the midafternoon heat, Andrew Boyce pole-vaulted onto the roof over the front porch of his home on Pember Circle. Six times in fact. Sort of.
» Click to enlarge image
Andrew Boyce of West Dundee (center) makes sure cameraman Frank Grumeretz of Turning Point Productions gets the shot as Boyce's son Domenic, 8, watches closely from behind Tuesday during the making of a short film.
(Michael Smart/Staff Photographer)

» Click to enlarge image
Domenic Boyce, 8, watches as his dad, Andrew Boyce, pole vault's onto the roof of their home Tuesday during the making of a short film in West Dundee.
(Michael Smart/Staff Photographer)

On one of the attempts, his feet hit the gutter. For a few tenuous seconds he hung like a human flag at the top of his pole, precariously balanced between the house and the concrete and shrubbery below.

"How's the insurance, honey?" Boyce asked his wife, Victoria, as he used his strength to maneuver out of the sticky situation, jumping back down to terra firma.

"We needed at least one outtake," Boyce said upon landing.

Was this the craziest stunt Boyce has pulled to date?

"I jumped off a cliff (in Hawaii) when we got married," he said.

Which is to say, Victoria is used to her husband's ways by now. She's hitched to a perpetually busy guy who already has a clip of himself pole-vaulting over cars into a kiddie pool on YouTube.

"I just pray and hope for the best," Virginia said with a laugh.

Boyce, a former track coach at Larkin High School in Elgin, now teaches and coaches in Rockford, and is a champion track and field athlete in his age group. If that weren't enough, the father of two also is a budding filmmaker, with a self-made feature, "Ballbusters," to his credit, and his own production company, Defiant Pictures.

His feature film is a bawdy buddy comedy in the Seth Rogen vein, so it should come as no surprise Boyce had pal Frank Grumeretz of Bloomingdale shooting the action Thursday. Another friend, John Crissie of Carpentersville, Crissie's dog Pugsly and Boyce's kids, Domenic, 8, and Alexandra, 11, had bit parts in the sketch. The plot involved vaulting 10 feet or so onto the roof to retrieve a Frisbee.

The payoff line: "Stop throwing this up here. Somebody's going to get hurt."

The purpose of it all: Boyce was making the minimovie as a promotional clip, in part to get the attention of Guinness, not to create a spot hawking its tasty beverage but to make his way into the Irish brewer's book of world records. All Boyce would say on the record was that it does involve pole-vaulting, doesn't involve a house, and that he hopes to set this record somewhere up in the Rockford area.

And without giving anything away, let's just say Wile E. Coyote might be envious if Boyce succeeds.

[rainbowgirl28]

Check out Boyce's story of how he nearly died filming one of his videos

http://masterstrack.com/2010/06/13369/#more-13369