Chances are your favorite video store does not stock “How To Be a Ventriloquist for Fun and Profit.” Perhaps your library carries the videos “Finding Quality Childcare” or even “How To Butcher Wild Game,” but what about “Ultimate Sniper: The Video” or “Becoming Orgasmic”?
You can find these and thousands of other educational and instructional videos from the New York-based How-To Video Source. Whether it’s “The Art of Bartending,” “Whipcracking Made Easy” or “How To Beat a Speeding Ticket,” owners and founders Jonathan Palgon and Joseph Meyersford have made it their business to make accessible the vast array of niche programs that retail chains ignore.
Dance videos are among the Source’s bestsellers, Palgon noted. Coincidentally, it was his search for a dance instruction tape that indicated to him the need for his store, which he opened in 1991. He had taken a ballroom dance class with his wife, but they needed an at-home refresher. “When I went into video stores,” he said, “they didn’t know what I was talking about. Few people carry this type of product. We cater to a diverse and disparate audience.”
Just how diverse and disparate is indicated by a sampling of some of the Source’s more obscure or provocative titles: “How To Be Almost Happy on Crutches,” “People Tracking: You Can Find Anyone,” “Belly Dance: The Sensuous Workout.”
For a catalog or program information, call 212-486-8155. To order, call 800-72-HOW-TO.