The vehicle of choice is a 2025 Honda CRV, not a Kenosha, Wisconsin-built 1976 AMC Pacer named the Mirthmobile.Â
There is a second floor office above an Italian restaurant instead of a basement studio where a cable access show originates while the key scene, in this instance, is located in a parking lot on Madison Wisconsin's East Side instead of the streets of Aurora, Illinois.
Wayne Campbell and Garth Alger are nowhere to be found but Candy Phelps is here and attempting to bring back a bit of pop culture nostalgia from the 1990s.
Phelps, a Madison entrepreneur has come out with the "Party On! Licorice Dispenser." The device, which she has attached via magnets to the sunroof inside of her new SUV, is inspired by a similar contraption that had a bit role in both of the Wayne's World movies starring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey.
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The dispenser is a plastic bubble that holds coiled up ropes of red licorice and is equipped with a dull, plastic blade attached to a lever that allows licorice to be cut into desired lengths. And Candy Phelps, yes, that's her God-given name, is all in.
"As soon as I saw the movie I said 'I want one of those,'" said Phelps, who was 13 years old when the first movie came out in 1992. "Then I spent the next 10 years looking in Spencer's Gifts or wherever, like the mall. It was pre-internet so you couldn't look things up online. And then every few years (once the internet became a thing) I would just Google it to see if anyone had made one and nobody had so I kept on thinking about it."
The thinking turned to action about two years ago when, through some internet sleuthing and research, Phelps, who in 2009 founded Bizzy Bizzy, a web design and search engine optimization company, realized "there may be a real business here" after she discovered that about 500 people a month search for the dispenser.
Now her small office above Bar Corallini is stuffed full of cardboard boxes filled with around 800 Party On! Licorice Dispensers. She had ordered 1,000 and received them from her manufacturer in China in early December, which allowed her to on the run up to Christmas. Each dispenser comes with three, 34-inch strands of Super Rope red licorice manufactured by the American Licorice Co., founded in 1914 in Chicago but now based in La Porte, Indiana.
Phelps also sells on her website black and red licorice lace at $7.50 each that is thinner than the Super Rope, and also offers up a $15 monthly subscription for refills of Super Rope.Phelps has no illusions about making millions of dollars with her business but knows the dispensers will strike a cord.
"It's one of those movies that if you love it, it's either your favorite movie or one of your top three favorite movies. And you're the kind of person that if it's one of your top three favorite movies you've probably watched it 50 times," said Phelps, who this past Halloween went dressed as Garth. "The people who love that movie are like, 30 years later, still crazy about that movie."
Phelps grew up in Big Timber, Montana, a city of about 1,600 people along Interstate 90, about 85 miles northeast of Yellowstone National Park. Her teenage years were spent cruising the circuit in her sister's Ford Tempo before Phelps got her own ride in the form of a 1973 Chevy Caprice with leopard printed seat covers. After graduating from high school in 1998, Phelps earned a journalism degree from the University of Montana and then spent six years as a copy editor, including a stint at the Northwest Herald in suburban Chicago. She moved to Madison in 2012, threes after launching Bizzy Bizzy, and now lives near Olbrich Park.
While some try and connect their licorice dispensers to the ceilings of their vehicles, others have used straps to attach them to the headrests for those in the back seat. Uber and Lyft drivers are target market but the dispensers can also be used on car dashboards, desks or attached underneath a shelf or kitchen cupboard or on the side of a refrigerator. Dugouts at baseball or softball fields are also a possibility.
"We wanted to to be pretty true to the movie and it looks pretty much like what the movie (has) but we also had to have a few different design features that they didn't have like the wings for installation," Phelps said. "And we added some teeth (at the opening) so the licorice stays in there so it doesn't fall back in."
Phelps started out having her first prototype made on a 3D printer but it turned out to be too big, plus, the plastic used wasn't food-safe. Three other prototypes were made that included smaller versions, different threading options for attaching the bubble to the base before the fifth version turned out to be a keeper.
Wisconsin has been home to some pretty notable inventions over the years like the typewrite, snowmobile, outboard motor, electric blender and ice cream sundae. It's unlikely Phelp's will get the same cred as Stephen Babcock, a UW-Madison agricultural chemist who developed a test to determine butter fat content in milk and cheese processing, but she wins the day with fun and quirkiness.
She's also not all that concerned about being sued by the movie company since the Wayne's World trademark has expired on the movies and no one has filed a patent on the dispenser. She spoke to an intellectual property lawyer who pointed to the massive amount of items being sold on the internet that are not licensed. Because the movies are now more than 30 years old, it's even less likely movie execs would make an issue out of Phelp's business model.
"If they wanted to send a cease and desist they would have a case for that if they wanted to shut us down but it's really unlikely they would care unless you somehow started going viral or doing something really big," Phelps said. "He pretty much said they're not even going to call their lawyers for under a million in sales so I feel like I'm pretty safe."
Barry Adams covers regional news for the Wisconsin State Journal. Send him ideas for On Wisconsin at 608-252-6148 or by email at badams@madison.com.