Planet Fitness bills its gyms “Judgement Free Zones,” but Brian Spiegle might beg to differ. The 20-year-old Philly native has been banned from all Planet Fitness locations worldwide.
The transgression that merited such harsh judgement? Nothing too bad — just a little dildo flipping.
Yes, as in the act of tossing penis-shaped sex toys in the air so their suction cup end catches and sticks in unexpected locations. It’s a hobby Spiegle conjured on a whim last spring, when he and his 19-year-old cousin, Justin Urban, found themselves driving past an Adult World store.
“Let’s go in and buy a dildo,” said Spiegle to Urban, who shrugged and went along. One of them — Spiegle doesn’t remember who — discovered that if the device was thrown with the right flick of the wrist, it would land standing straight up. “Like the water bottle challenge,” Spiegle explained. The duo were having so much fun with their discovery that they got kicked out of the Adult World parking lot.
But that was just the beginning. Since then, Spiegle, who currently lives in Lansdale, has become something of an expert and gained modest internet fame.
BuzzFeed deemed his video of a flip that showed a dildo bouncing off an exercise ball and landing on the roof of a nearby building the No. 3 “most legendary” Snapchat ever (though the writer credited the wrong person, something Spiegle has never forgiven them for). A best-of compilation picked up by LadBible racked up 15.8 million views on Facebook.
On Instagram, where Spiegle refers to himself as “a professional dildo flipper,” he and Urban started a series called “Dickin’ Around.”
Posted weekly (or as often as the cousins can, since they’re both in school), each episode has a theme. There’s one focusing on various locations in Center City, with flips executed right in front of city hall, one at the Bethlehem Steel Stacks and one that features an across-the-street flip in Philly Chinatown. The episode that takes place at a Walmart has been watched more than 99,000 times.
So far, scoring likes and views has been the only incentive to continue. International viral content provider ViralHog picked up one video and paid a small fee for it, Spiegle said, but any profit was negated by the cost of the dildos — they’re on their third, so far — and a $450 citation issued after the Walmart filming session.
“It wouldn’t have happened if it was a store in my township,” Spigele explained. “All the cops in my township know us and follow me on Instagram! If it had been in my township, I would have been good.”
Flipping ain’t easy, he noted. Asked how many successful flips he’s done, he put the number at around 500, “but unsuccessful ones, it’s probably like 20,000.”
Eventually, he plans to invest in a better camera and put his videos on YouTube, which makes it easy to monetize viral clips via Google’s ad network. But he’s not planning to make it a livelihood. He currently works at a grocery store near his home, and next year will transfer to Temple as a finance major.
“Entrepreneurship, that’s the goal,” he said.
What do his parents think about his hobby? “I mean, they can’t really be too proud,” Spiegle said. “They do think it’s funny.” Will be brought up at Thanksgiving dinner this year? “Probably. That should be fun.”
