I went to my first show with the fish tank [in my Corolla SR5] in the middle of summer in New Jersey. I was late to the show and they wouldn鈥檛 let me register. I had all my tools with me, so I found the owner of the place and I said, 鈥楲ook, man, you鈥檝e got to give me a chance.鈥� And he just said, 鈥業鈥檓 sorry.鈥�
I鈥檇 only gone to one show before, so nobody knew who I was. I had no connections in the industry. I was there by myself and I said, 鈥楲ook, man. I鈥檝e got something here that鈥檚 pretty special and if you just give me five minutes of your time, I guarantee you won鈥檛 regret it.鈥�
The guy finally said, 鈥極kay, I鈥檒l give you five minutes.鈥� So I showed him the car, I had a towel over the fish tank and I showed it to him and said, 鈥楲ook, I have a fish tank in this car.鈥� He looked at me and said, 鈥楢re you serious? Are those fish alive?鈥� And I go, 鈥榊eah!鈥� It had the pump and everything. He said, 鈥極kay, I鈥檒l let you into the show, just finish your car and let me know when you鈥檙e ready.鈥� So, I was in the back, far away from everybody. It probably took me three hours to finish what I was doing and I finally called the guy over.
It was unbelievable. This guy brought me to the very front and I didn鈥檛 have to pay to register. All the judges had stopped judging because they needed to see this car. It was my second show and I went from being a truck driver to having a fish tank in the car. One of the reps from Phoenix Gold 鈥� this is back when they had their first amplifiers 鈥� came up to me and said, 鈥楬ey, man. I鈥檓 going to get you in touch with Phoenix Gold, they have to see this car.鈥� And I said, 鈥榊eah, right.鈥� Next thing you know, I get a phone call from the President of Phoenix Gold and they want to see some more pictures of my car.
PASMAG: So, when did you start competing?
FISHMAN: I started competing at shows that summer; winning some and losing some. Whenever I lost, I didn鈥檛 car about losing, I just asked the judges what I did wrong. I just wanted to get better. The same judges would see my car the next week and I would fix whatever they told me. I just kept learning as I was going.
I was going from show to show every week and the next thing I know, my car started becoming the talk of the East Coast. I went all the way to Canada because back then Canada had some great installers. I was competing throughout the Northeast, and I got invited to the IASCA finals in 鈥�91 where my car took first place. I got invited to 香蕉视频直播 and got featured in Car Audio magazine. Here I am, 24 years later.
香蕉视频直播: That feature was your first of many...
FISHMAN: Yeah. That was the magazine I wanted to be featured in, because I had called the editor months earlier and explained to him that I had this car and my dream was to be in his magazine. Of course, you鈥檝e got a Puerto Rican with a fish tank in a car; no one is going to give you the time of day.
When I went to the finals and the car was the talk of the show, [the editor] was there and I recognized him. So, I went up to him and said, 鈥楬ey, you like this car?鈥� And he goes, 鈥極h yeah. Very interesting.鈥� I said, 鈥榃ell, you might not remember me, but do you remember someone on the phone tell you he had a fish tank in his car?鈥� He says, 鈥極h, I don鈥檛 recall.鈥� And I said, 鈥業 do, that was me.鈥�
I had all of these magazines wanting to do a feature on the car, so I had all these editors fighting each other to see who was going to do the feature. Of course, my dream was for my car to be in Car Audio magazine, but he didn鈥檛 know that. So I just started playing the game and I got my car featured.
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