Bryan Berg

Bryan Berg (born March 21, 1974) is an American professional cardstacker who builds large-scale houses of cards.

Career

Trained as an architect, Bryan Berg is the only known person to make a living building structure with free-standing playing cards. In 2004, Berg earned a master's degree in design studies from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Berg has stacked cards for corporate special events, public relations campaigns, and science and children's museums in many U.S. cities, Canada, Europe, and Asia. Berg's clients have included Walt Disney World, Lexus, Procter & Gamble, Major League Baseball, the NHL, and the San Francisco Opera. He also participated in a music video by The Bravery, playing a lonely man who builds a fantasy world out of cards. For this record, he tried a new technique involving stacking cards vertically instead of horizontally, which reduced the number of cards needed by nearly half. 9 years later, on September 13, 2018, Berg made a second attempt on the show at the record and succeeded.

World's largest house of cards

In 2004, Guinness created a record category for the world's largest house of free-standing playing cards to recognize a project Berg built for Walt Disney World, a replica of Cinderella's Castle. In 2010, Berg exceeded his own record by using over 218,000 cards to construct a replica of the Venetian Macao, which took 44 days.

Technique Berg normally uses no tape, glue, or tricks. His method has been tested to support 660 lbs. per square foot.

In 2006, Berg used an adhesive for the first time on one of his projects. The structure, a re-creation of the "Fabulous Las Vegas" sign, was created for Loctite with the adhesive brand's Loctite Control Gel Super Glue. The sign was displayed during the 2006 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

Notability Berg's work has had extensive media coverage. He has appeared on CNN, The Today Show, Good Morning America, and various other United States and international TV shows. His work has been featured in US newspapers and publications such as Wired, Reader's Digest "Best of America" Issue, Men's Health, and Time for Kids. Berg also appeared in the video for "Time Won't Let Me Go" by the Bravery. Berg was featured on the PBS game show, Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman on season 3, where he was given the task to teach the fetchers how to build a house of cards.

In 2003 Berg published a book with Simon & Schuster, Stacking The Deck, as a how-to about some of his techniques and structures.

Personal life Born in Spirit Lake, Iowa, Berg now lives with his wife in Santa Fe, New Mexico.