The 6,148 whiskey shots perched atop glasses of energy drink waited for the push that might send them tumbling into the record books — just another night in Dubai, and another chance to make a certain kind of history.
Superlatives like “the world’s biggest” and “the world’s first” are almost as ubiquitous as the skyscrapers and megaprojects that have come to define this city-state on the Arabian Peninsula, home to the tallest building and the busiest international airport on Earth.
With time, this largest-in-life approach has filtered down to more humble and odder pursuits — such as Monday night’s attempt at the world’s longest domino drop shot.
Photo: AP Warning: Excessive consumption of alcohol can damage your health
You probably were not aware that there was a record to beat in the domino drop shot, or even that there was something called a domino drop shot. Just imagine someone dropping a shot glass into a beer, but before you can guzzle it down, another thousand shots drop into another thousand pints behind it, like dominoes.
The current record holder for the longest drop is the Bahamas-based branch of the alcohol-soaked chain Senor Frog, which got 4,107 of its 4,109 shot glasses to fall correctly in February 2013.
On Monday, The Huddle Sports Bar & Grill in Bur Dubai sought to break the record.
Staffers carefully set up more than 6,000 glasses of Camros whiskey and Bazooka energy drink. It was an effort five months in the making, with tests twice per month that took 12 hours to set up.
“When you say Guinness World Record in Dubai, it’s something everyone will talk about,” said Ahmad Taher, the food and beverage manager at Citymax Hotels, which went for the record.
Such an event would be inconceivable in other Middle Eastern countries such as neighboring Saudi Arabia, where alcohol is illegal and officials are preparing for the annual hajj.
However, in Dubai, which has a large expatriate population and relatively lax rules on alcohol, the event is unlikely to draw much attention — unless, of course, they make it into the Guinness World Records.
Before Monday, the United Arab Emirates held 165 such records, including 129 set in Dubai, according to Guinness.
Among them are the architectural marvels of Dubai, such as the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building at 828m, and the continent-shaped islands of The World, the largest artificial archipelago.
Then there are the stranger feats, like when Indian national Maharoof Decibels won the Operation board game with surgical precision in a world-record 21.87 seconds in 2008.
Or when Mohamed Ahmed al-Mulla, an Emirati, typed the fastest blindfolded Arabic text message in 2009. The two sentences included the phrase: “the razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus.”
Some records are more infamous.
The largest tanker ship ever hijacked? The United Arab Emirates-based Sirius Star, later released by Somali pirates for a US$3 million ransom.
The highest shortage of women, according to Guinness? The United Arab Emiraets, with its vast workforce of male, low-paid migrant laborers.
However, one place the United Arab Emirates is not ahead is in the number of overall world records.
The US leads the pack with 6,874, but the United Arab Emirates dominates the Middle East, Guinness spokeswoman Leila Issa said.
“The UAE’s initiative to be the first in all industries and their drive for success and to be the best is what drives them to attempt Guinness World Records titles,” she said.
The Emirati push for world records corresponds with academic research on social comparison.
Studies show that the higher ranked a person becomes in a field, “the more thirsty you are to get to that No. 1 position,” said Stephen Garcia, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Michigan.
“Even with adults, if you say: ‘First one to the tree is the coolest person in the world,’ you’re going to get the adults running to the tree,” Garcia said. “That’s such a childhood game, but people are ready to run with it. Whenever you create a competition, people tend to buy in, even around these trivial dimensions, like this Guinness World Record.”
Garcia’s lack of enthusiasm was nowhere to be seen at the Huddle on Monday, where the vibration of the speakers in the bar caused a premature drop of some of the shot glasses at about 8:45pm, to the horror of onlookers.
The same thing happened again at 10:09pm, but was stopped by a nimble-fingered bartender.
Five minutes later, another fourth of the shots fell into their glasses before time, sending some workers scrambling to reset the glasses as others asked patrons in the noisy bar to be quiet.
However, at 11:55pm, Taher pushed over the first glass, the smell of whiskey and energy drink filling the air as the glasses crashed into each other for 55 seconds.
Two hours of counting later, Dubai had its 130th Guinness World Record with The Huddle’s 4,578 correctly fallen shot glasses.
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