Meridian Man Breaks World Record with his Beard on ‘LIVE with Kelly and Ryan’

Idahoans have a few spots in the Guinness Book of World Records and now we have a new one to add thanks to a Meridian man. Joel Strasser and his impressive beard was on 'LIVE with Kelly and Ryan' recently. The world record he successfully beat was putting the most pencils in his beard.

KTVB talked to Joel after the episode aired, he said, "Leading up to that record attempt, I was pretty nervous because the bar was high. 450 is a lot of pencils to put in the beard and I actually didn't want to break that record. "I had this image of me going on TV, live tv, millions of people watching and I fail. It's a super tense moment because at any time a big clump could just fall out and so you have to know when to stop."

Well he didn't stop until the record was hit. 456 pencils! He couldn't see or talk until it was all over.

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So how on earth did Joel get started with this odd habit of putting pencils in his beard. He told KTVB that he works for an insurance company and trains new employees on auto claims. The trainings which tend to be a bit boring as most trainings are got a little more exciting when he started putting pencils in his beard to see who was paying attention.

Then one day someone in the class challenged Joel to see how many pencils he could fit in his beard. That is how it all started and now he is a world record holder.

Joel Strasser is quite the record holder, now in total, he holds 10 Guinness World Record titles. The more we learn about Joel the better he gets. He is also the organizer of a fundraiser to raise money for children who lost their mothers to cancer and plans to shave off his beard once he meets his fundraising goal.

You rock Joel!