Whatever Happened To The ShamWow Guy?

Born Offer Shlomi in Israel and raised in Brooklyn, the budding viral icon, Vince Offer, quit high school at the age of 17 and ditched New York City for Los Angeles in order to pursue his dream of being a filmmaker. Offer has said in interviews that he never saw himself doing infomercials full-time, in fact. It was his passion for movies that led him to purchase and sell products on late-night infomercials, only to use his paychecks to fund his projects. Offer's first acting gig took the form of 1999's "The Underground Comedy Movie," with a budget of about $500,000, according to NBC News.

Offer also directed and acted in the movie, alongside Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash, and it's now considered to be one of the worst films ever made. It only played in one theater, on May 16, 1999, and it earned a grand total of $856, according to IMDb. Per Offer himself, ShamWow stemmed from a flea market find in 2006 — a magic little towel that could hold up to 10 times its weight. The entire idea for an infomercial empire came from Joe Francis and his "Girls Gone Wild" video series which were also advertised with infomercials on late-night TV.

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