Friend of the wing hunt, Casey Paleos

Once upon a time, the hunt was the daydream of a frustrated financial journalist (me).

One visionary was there to help me make a promo film and badger me into quitting my job, returning home from Europe and putting all my chips on finding the perfect wing.

The hunt took its first uncertain step towards becoming reality in March 2007, when Casey Paleos, a long-lost college friend, flew to Rochester to spend a week with me (I was home on vacation) and an amateur crew ambushing upstate New Yorkers and asking them where their favorite wings could be found.

Something in their dumbfounded faces inspired us and a vision for The Great Chicken Wing Hunt began to take shape.

Although the 10-minute film we made fell short of its purpose (impressing a grant committee, which gave us nothing; view the film here and here), I saw enough greatness in it to be convinced to abandon a comfortable job at Reuters news agency in Warsaw, Poland and take a crack at making my first feature film.

Were it not for Casey, that greatness would have been missing and I would still be writing about the Polish zloty (Casey also gave me an impassioned lecture about following one's dreams and promised to lend me five bucks if the hunt ruined my career).

One seminal moment during that first week came when Casey insisted that competitive eater and fellow wing hunter Ben "Mighty Thor" Beavers don his viking helmet and pound his mjolnir (hammer) as a way of introducing him to viewers. To my objection that it would look staged, Casey replied, "It's a man in a viking helmet!!!" and let out a booming laugh that ended the discussion.

We also have Casey to thank for a shot (visible in the trailer) of Ben pushing a giant spool and other absurdest touches, all of them filmed in the months leading up to the hunt.

Alas, Casey could not make it during our two-weeks of actual hunting. In his other life, Casey is the son of a Greek immigrant and thus obligated to spend every third August in the Western Hellenic isles. In his third life, he's a psychiatrist in Manhattan. We will miss his creative spark in our footage from the road.

More on Casey, in his own words:

Casey A. Paleos, MD, psychiatrist-in-training, mastermind 

Back in their college days, Casey gave Matt Reynolds his first starring role in a one-minute 16mm black-and-white student film entitled, "Matt Reynolds' Moves".  Bootleg copies of this film are now fetching upwards of $5,000 on eBay. 

His role in the Great Chicken Wing Hunt has been largely conceptual, helping to define and develop the film's themes and meaning. 

Today, Casey can be found roaming the passageways of New York City's famous Bellevue Hospital, on the right side of the padded walls, for the time being.  One day, Casey will be dead.