VAN NEISTAT: Fantasy Fixing
Published March 12, 2021 · 10:00 · 879,320 views
About This Video
Fantasy Fixing is Van Neistat's origin story told as a confession: the gap between the job you have and the work you were built for, and the summer 20 years ago that closed it. The essay runs 10 minutes and turns a broken dishwasher into a repair that explains the whole channel.
The trigger is small. A new German dishwasher arrives, stainless and expensive, with one flaw: the front panel ships separately, so the door won't stay down without its weight. Once the frustration passes, this is exactly the kind of problem Van loves. He describes the feeling it gives him as giddy, like skipping school, like an outlaw rush or therapy. Most people have a fantasy job they daydream about when the real one frustrates them. Van has two: Land Cruiser mechanic and repairman.
The repairman fantasy is real history. Nearly 20 years ago Van helped build a Tom Sachs art installation in a greasy New York warehouse, a building that shows up in Mean Streets and is now luxury apartments. About 60 people built it. It shipped to Berlin and went up at the Deutsche Guggenheim, and out of all of them Van was the one chosen to live there and keep the installation running, because everything eventually breaks and he could fix nearly everything. He fixed the little cars, the McDonald's model, the ring of fire, the DJ booth, the boombox, the bong-hit station. He was the caretaker. He's always been the caretaker.
Then the detail that became the channel. Museum visitors saw the repair station and assumed it was for everyone, so they started bringing broken things from home. Van fixed their gadgets and trinkets and loved it, and so did they. He can't help it. He's not a replacer. The video closes with a montage of his actual fixes: a tape dispenser rebuilt with plumber's epoxy and a jigsaw blade, a truck breaker held with plywood and a finishing nail, a dishwasher door solved with pose clamps, quarter-inch plywood and a dumbbell. The fantasy of bringing the repair station on the road is the seed of The Spirited Man itself.
What Van Uses: plumber's epoxy, the same two-part putty he leans on across the channel, here paired with a jigsaw blade to rebuild a tape dispenser. He works it the same way he builds the eraser mount on his custom pencil. The dishwasher fix uses pose clamps, quarter-inch plywood and a dumbbell. None of it is bought as a kit. Each solution is assembled from what's on hand.
Related: An Unauthorized Repair, Van Neistat Fixes Your Stuff Now, Van Neistat's Custom Pencil
FAQ
What is fantasy fixing?
Van Neistat's term for the daydream of being a full-time repairman, the fantasy job he reaches for when his real work frustrates him. In the video it's also a practice: imagining and then actually solving a broken thing, which gives him a giddy, outlaw feeling he compares to skipping school.
How did Van Neistat become a repairman in Berlin?
He helped build a Tom Sachs art installation in New York with about 60 other people. When it shipped to the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin, Van was chosen to live there and maintain it, because he could fix nearly everything in it, from the little cars to the DJ booth. Museum visitors then began bringing their own broken things for him to fix.
What did Van use to fix the dishwasher door?
Pose clamps, quarter-inch plywood and a dumbbell. The new German dishwasher's front panel shipped separately, so the door wouldn't stay down without the panel's weight. Van improvised the missing weight rather than waiting for the part, which is the whole spirit of the video.
Transcript
the old dishwasher broke beyond this spirited man's will to fix it and his family was gifted a new one fancy stainless expensive german thank you barry one flaw though one temporary flaw the front panel ships separately without the weight of the front panel we have a problem once the frustration subsides this is the sort of problem that the spirited man loves to solve it's the sort of problem that gives the spirited man his spirit strangely solving this problem conjures
up a sort of giddy feeling in the spirited man like he's not really supposed to be spending time on this problem like he's skipping school like an outlaw rush or therapy [Music] fantasy jobs lots of people have fantasy jobs a job they fantasize about when frustrated by their actual job chopper pilot that's a fantasy job pool man also a fantasy job or olive farmer for this particular spirited man there are two fantasy jobs land cruiser mechanic and especially when faced with problems like dishwasher doors that won't stay down [Music] repairman repairman
[Music] repairman the repairman fantasy was begot was begotten was begotten was born of a summer and fall nearly 20 years ago when this spirited man was for all intents and purposes a repairman a professional repairman in a museum for a project he helped build an art installation a repairman for an art installation this spirited man helped build the art installation in a greasy new york city warehouse that's now luxury apartments
there's even a shot of it in mean streets [Music] it took dozens of people to build the installation [Music] and they boxed it up shipped it to berlin and installed it in a museum [Music] and out of the 60 or so people who built the installation
it was this spirited man who was chosen to live in berlin to keep the installation going during its museum run and why why him why this particular spirited man because everything eventually breaks and he knew how to fix nearly everything or he could at least figure out how everyone gets a gift this spirited man's gift is the ability to fix things well not computers computers are his curse always broken computers [Music] but he could fix the little cars
he could fix the mcdonald's model he could fix the mcdonald's itself he could fix the ring of fire he could fix the dj booth the boombox [Music] he could fix the bong hit station he could fix everything so he was the caretaker he's always been the caretaker [Music] so he got to live in berlin on the museum's dime [Music]
what a summer what a fall every man has a turning point from here this spirited man reached his and very obviously a fantasy was born from here working from here from the repair station the repair station housed all of the tools needed to fix the art installation but a funny thing happened during the art installations museum run visitors to the museum thinking the repair station was for everyone not just to fix
the art installation began bringing in their own broken stuff from home for the repair man to fix and the repairman why he went along with it he fixed their broken bobbles gadgets and trinkets and he loved it and the museum visitors why they loved it too this spirited man cannot help himself he's not a replacer he's compelled to fix compelled to improve a thing when it
ain't right or fix a thing when it don't work [Music] cut a rake on the tape dispenser broken [Music] fix it with plumber's epoxy and a jigsaw blade [Music] truck air conditioner breaker keeps flipping fix it with plywood and a finishing nail keep dropping the effing remote fix that with a homemade case [Music] co-worker keeps messing with you install a hatchet in your desk that'll fix him [Music] as for a dishwasher door that won't stay down pose clamps quarter inch plywood and a dumbbell
[Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] and with the giddy feeling the feeling from successfully fixing a broken thing [Music] this particular spirited man wondered how he could maybe bring his repair man fantasy on the road [Music]
Products & Tools Mentioned
- plumber's epoxy mentions — used for dishwasher repair
People Referenced
Tom Sachs