Two friends aim to spark magic with smiles from strangers in Ann Arbor
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - At the entrance to Ann Arbor's Graffiti Alley during the busy lunchtime hour, Jeremy Mulder is tallying every smile and eye contact he receives from passersby.
He started the project with his friend Adam Hess, and together they've become famous at what they've dubbed Talley Alley.
The initiative is called Micro Moments of Magic, and the pair started it as a way to connect more with people in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It's a playful game," said Mulder. "People like to be seen, is our thesis."
Their backdrop is Graffiti Alley — a colorful, bustling living art exhibit tucked behind the Michigan Theater.
"I'm a bearded guy standing in an alley, and so I think it breaks people's expectations of they think I'm going to ask them for money or hand them a flyer to my DJ set, and instead I'm gifting them a playful game with unknown rules and a pathway to connection," said Mulder.
Student Raya Jaber walked by just after getting coffee with friends when she first encountered the game, earning some tallies as she passed.
"It's just such a cute way to make somebody's day or make someone smile," said Jaber. "He's tallying smiles, so I don't know it just encouraged me to smile, and I thought it was sweet."
Though they're based in Ann Arbor, the pair have set up in cities around the U.S.
"If it works in New York, it'll work anywhere," said Mulder. "And (it did) fabulously well there. San Francisco, New Orleans, Champaign, Illinois."
They also put up their signature large white sheets of paper with red masking tape at Burning Man.
He said their record is 10,000 tallies in a single day during the Ann Arbor Art Fair, a three-day event that attracts approximately half a million people to Tree Town.
Overall, their record is around 190,000 total tally marks, each one representing a small moment of connection with another person.
"It's reminding me to be more conscious and to make sure to interact more with other people," said Taylor Laflin, who works at a nearby barbershop. "So, that's really a lot of what it is, and it just makes me feel really good. I always get excited seeing him, and I'm always like smiling and making eye contact."