Meet The Man Behind The Pancakes
If you haven’t seen a Dancakes video, you’re missing out. They are mouth wateringly beautiful. In fact, Dan himself recently took some time to create one for the launch of Glorkon's new wine, and Trover’s Anniversary!
(Check out the most scrumptious-looking Glorkon at the bottom of the blog)
While covering the event, Trover News had the chance to talk with Dan from Dancakes, the pancake artist extraordinaire. It was lovely. We asked a question, he answered. We asked another question, which he also answered. And so on..
Anyway, read on to learn more about Dan!
TROVER NEWS: What is your role at Dancakes?
DAN: I tend to be our default spokesperson since I'm the one that accidentally started this whole charade. Most of my responsibilities are in creating pretty pancake art and in teaching other people how to do it at events and classes. We all wear many hats at Dancakes; I've got the most experience with the art itself so I tend to be "lead pancake artist" I guess.
TROVER NEWS: How long have you been making pancake art, and what inspired you to start?
DAN: I started dabbling in the medium about 12 years ago as a frycook at a local diner looking for better tips. After about 5 years of toiling in obscurity, a photo went viral and the whole "professional pancake artist" thing started up. So you could say I was initially inspired by my desire to make enough money to survive, and it turned into a whole career. Strange universe.
TROVER NEWS: Do you remember the first time you had a pancake?
DAN: Like, to eat? Wow, I don't think I do. They're such a ubiquitous food, I gotta imagine I was given one before my brain was recording memories. Feels like they've always just been there. Did you know pancakes might be one of the oldest "cooked" foods in human history?? They're so simple they're practically eternal. Maybe even sacred.
TROVER NEWS: What is the hardest part about making art with pancakes?
DAN: I'd say the hardest thing is that you can't sketch and you don't get a lot of wiggle room for making mistakes. There's a ton of imperfections in my pieces, but that's also why our motto became "Mistakes Are Delicious!" As hard as it is to make perfect pancake art, you always end up with something tasty at the end.
TROVER NEWS Is there a pancake that you’ve made that you are particularly fond or proud of?
DAN: There are a couple of portraits that always stand out to me as pieces I'm particularly proud of. I did a Martin Luther King Jr. portrait a year or two back that felt like a real work of art; I did one of Joaquin Phoenix's Joker that I thought really slapped; and if you check YouTube there's a pretty silly video of my multiple attempts to draw Bill Hader that shows how hard portraits can be sometimes. I'm sure there's more to come.
TROVER NEWS: What is the weirdest pancake you’ve ever had to make?
DAN: There are some, uh, NSFW pancakes I've made over the years that you might be able to imagine. On the other side of things, I was once asked to make a pancake of me making a pancake of me making a pancake of me making a pancake of...you get the picture. Some say I'm still making it.
TROVER NEWS: What is your favorite kind of pancake to eat?
DAN: I've got a monster sweet tooth so I'm particularly partial to those super sweet cake-batter pancakes they've got these days. When I'm actually enjoying pancakes as food and not art I tend to lean towards simple recipes and sweetness.
TROVER NEWS: Do you have any pancake jokes?
DAN: My life is a pancake joke. "If it weren't for pancake art, I'd still have to flip pancakes for a living...wait."
TROVER NEWS: What do you enjoy doing outside of making pancakes?
DAN: I'm a musician, philosopher and game designer. I'm still in that weird period where most folks only know me as a pancake artist, but I have literally never cared about pancake art outside of how it can pave the way for my real passions. Check out Anthromancer.com if you want an early peek of what I'm actually about.
TROVER NEWS: Where can people learn more about you and your work?
DAN: Dancakes.com is our one-stop-shop for pancake art, tools, accessories, custom pieces and tutorial content. We're also all over social media under the handle @drdancake. We've got hundreds of videos and blog posts and livestreams and...yeah. We've even got our own branded line of professional pancake artist equipment, with a griddle, squeeze bottles, the whole nine. If you wanna see more of what we have to offer, just remember Dancakes - We put the D in pancakes, you can't forget it.
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Glorkon Pancake - By Dancakes
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