Magnetic Attraction
By Daily Bruin Staff
Oct. 24, 2000 9:00 p.m.
 Illustration by JASON CHEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff
By Barbara McGuire
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Stumbling accidentally upon a successful business venture
isn’t something that happens everyday. Dave Kapell, however,
got lucky. He is the CEO and creator of “magnetic
poetry.”
Shortly after graduating college with a degree in English,
Kapell, a musician, came up with the idea for his magnetic
creations because of his struggles writing song lyrics. His company
has since sold over 1 billion magnetic tiles through over 60
modifications of his original magnetic poetry kit.
“Magnetic poetry is sort of a variation of something
I’ve been working on for a long time, just cutting things up
and using it as fodder for song writing,” Kapell said in a
recent phone interview from his company’s headquarters in
Minnesota.
“I’m good at coming up with cords and melodies and
things like that, but not so good at coming up with lyrical
ideas,” he continued.
His method, using paper cut-ups, was working great until spring
rolled around and his allergies acted up. Kapell said that one day
during one of his lyrical creation sessions, he sneeze and
catastrophically blew his neatly arranged words all over the place.
Because it wasn’t the first time such a disaster occurred,
Kapell was saved by a roommate.
“One of my roommates worked at a pizza place that
misprinted a bunch of advertising fridge magnets, so she brought
them home, this big stack, and gave them to me,” Kapell
explained.
That’s when the light bulb went off in Kapell’s
head. He realized that by gluing his phrases to the magnets, he
could stick them onto a cookie sheet where they would never run the
risk of blowing away again.
Kapell began selling his magnetic kits locally to friends, but
it wasn’t until he made over $5,000 at a three-day fair that
he realized he really had something.
The popularity of magnetic poetry has since skyrocketed, finding
a home on refrigerators such as Jerry Seinfeld’s in the
television show, “Seinfeld,” as well as programs like
“Jesse,” “90210” and “Caroline in the
City.” The letters have also gained fame on the silver
screen.
“It was in the Mel Gibson movie, “˜Conspiracy
Theory,'” Kapell said. “It was actually written
into the plot of that movie. They actually showed a close-up and
read a magnetic poem (Gibson) had written for Julia Roberts out
loud.”
Magnetic poetry can now be found around the world. There is a
kit for every taste and interest, from “Alphabet” and
“First Words” for children to “French,”
“Italian” and “German” for language
connoisseurs.
The newest release, “College Kit,” hopes to be both
a distraction as well as a creative aid for students. Containing
fun words such as “tequila,” “weed,”
“hottie” and “naked,” in addition to more
studious words like “scholarship,” “TA,”
“tuition” and “study,” the kit promises to
provide endless hours of entertainment.
“I’m sort of a party wallflower. I always wind up
looking for a magazine or something until I’ve had a couple
of beers,” Kapell said. “For those types of people,
this is a great thing. It gets people meeting each other.
“A person steps up to the fridge and starts playing with
the words and then the next thing you know, another person comes
up, and they start talking to each other,” he continued.
“It’s also a valuable way to get your creative juices
going and to think like a poet.”
Though the kit is meant to be just as educational as it is
entertaining, one look at the box that the “College
Kit” comes in makes it apparent that its also distracting.
Filled with donnish phrases, such as “school will not get in
the way of my education” and “highly unstable language,
which may accidentally result in powerful imagery,” the kit
guarantees to take up countless study hours.
Users of magnetic poetry can show off their prowess and skill at
creating poetry by logging on to the magnetic poetry Web site,
magneticpoetry.com. They can post their latest haiku or rhyme for
everyone to see, including Kapell, who said that he checks the site
regularly for new poems.
“My favorite poem is one that somebody sent us. I keep it
here. It’s called “˜Death,'” Kapell said.
“It’s by a guy named David Parr; he’s from
Milwaukee.”
Magnetic poetry really is a serious poetic adventure for some.
Though an initial overview of the kit may give the impression that
it’s just for fun and making up silly phrases, there appears
to also be some type of meaning behind the “poetry”
half of the name.
Kapell believes that people really do become poets through the
creation of phrases with the simple magnetic words.
“It’s sort of like raw material. That’s the
way I think of it,” Kapell said. “If you’ve got a
ball of clay, you can just roll it between your hands and make it
into a worm and say, “˜There’s my art,’ or you can
make it into a Japanese tea set.”
