Two of my favorite people to interview – ever- are Fritz Grobe and Stephen Yoltz of Eepybird.com, a performance troupe based in Maine. If you’re anything like 40 million other people in the world, you know these guys from “The Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments” – a recreation of the Bellagio Fountains using nothing but Diet Coke & Mentos.

And while watching the Diet Coke & Mentos fountain is cool, cooler still are the minds behind the viral video sensation.

I first interviewed them at a show they produced at Maker Faire Austin 2007 – which is when the first part of this two-part video was filmed, and then again at Maker Faire Austin 2008, which is when the second half was filmed. In it they talk about the process behind both “Mentos” and the newer “Post-It” projects, including when 3M (the maker of Post-it notes) showed up at their house in the woods of Maine with two tons of post-it notes, when they went to Castile, Spain to set a world record – and about their rivalry with a business school in Riva, Latvia.

All from Diet Coke & Mentos.

If you’re just interested in skipping the interviews and seeing a high definition, live-before-an-audience version of Diet Coke & Mentos, you’ll find two opportunities to skip ahead, one at 2:40 of the first video, and the other at 7:32 of the second video.

But really – these guys are insane geniuses, and little, to date, has been asked about the methods to their madness. Hopefully, you’ll be inspired by it. Or entertained, at least.

If you’d like to see the videos in full HD resolution (well worth it!), just hit this link for part 1, and this one for part 2. The links will take you to the videos’ high-def pages on YouTube.

The Diet Coke & Mentos Saga of the EepyBirds – Part 1 (2007)

The Diet Coke & Mentos Saga of the EepyBirds – Part 2 (2008)

[Picture source: Flickr]