Marquette student, former reality star greeted with texts, calls on special day

It started with a simple flier reading: “This man-child was on The Amazing Race. Call or text to wish him a Happy 21st.”

90 text messages, 30 phone calls and 10 voice mails later, Brian Paolo has certainly had a unique birthday celebration.

Paolo, a senior in the College of Business Administration, turned 21 on Nov. 5.

Because Paolo has accumulated a large number of friends throughout his time at Marquette, he said he wanted to invite them to celebrate his birthday with him. Paolo sent out an e-mail to 170 of his friends, telling them he wanted to reunite.

One friend in particular, Kyle Campbell, a senior in the College of Engineering, replied to the e-mail and sent it to everyone on the e-mail list, except Paolo. In the e-mail Campbell informed everyone of his idea to make hundreds of fliers and post them around campus, Paolo said.

“I have a weird habit of glorifying Brian and this was just another way to do that,” Campbell said.

One of the reasons for making the fliers was because Paolo turned 21 so late in his college career, Campbell said.

“I wanted to do something a little extra since he had missed out so for long,” he said.

The posters began appearing Nov. 4, and since then Paolo has been receiving calls and text messages.

“Every single text was different, every phone call was different,” Paolo said. “A lot of people were very nice. Some people were hostile.” He said a few called just to tell him they were sick of seeing his face plastered all over campus.

Campbell is very surprised and pleased with the turnout of respondents. He thought there would only be a few, he said.

The word “man-child,” which appeared on the fliers, was a nickname thought up by Paolo’s friend, College of Arts & Sciences senior Tom Klind.

“We were trying to think of something mean, yet endearing,” Campbell said. “Brian is a great guy, and he would have been disappointed with anything nicer.”

As for the other part of the flier, Paolo has appeared on The Amazing Race. In 2005, Paolo and his family raced across North America in the show’s eighth season: Family Edition. The Amazing Race is a reality show that originally features numerous couples that race across the world for a cash prize.

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The show was “by far the best experience of my life,” Paolo said. He and his family made it to the eighth episode of the show before being eliminated.

Although Paolo has encountered reality TV stardom along with recent campus fame, he said that like others, he is “just a senior looking for a job.”