Fran Capo is an American motivational keynote speaker, comedienne, voice-over artist and author. She is the holder of 9 world records, most known as the Guinness Book of World Records Fastest Speaking woman, clocked at 603.32 wpm. She broke her 9th world record while on the Tedx stage when she did her 18-minute talk, then redid the entire talk in 59 seconds. [1] [2]
Fran Capo was born in Greenwich Village in New York City. She graduated from Queens College with a BA minor in Philosophy and Major in Media & Accounting. She had perfect attendance throughout all of high school and college, and also made Arista and Dean's List.
Capo was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records (1989), Ripley's Believe it or Not! (2006) the Book of Alternative Records (2006, 2019). [3] She is listed in the Guinness World Records as the fastest-talking female, having broken the record twice. Capo set the current record on June 5, 1990 [3] at the Guinness Museum in Las Vegas, speaking at 603.32 wpm in 54.2 seconds. [4] She first broke the record speaking 585 words-per-minute (wpm) on Larry King Live on March 5, 1986. [4] Then rebroke the fast talking record at 603.32 wpm at the Guinness Museum in Las Vegas in front of Press with an adjudicator present. She has toured the world with fellow world record holders to open Guinness museums in Chicago, NYC, Singapore and Korea. Capo also holds a record for highest elevation for a book signing, as the only author to do a book-signing on top of Mount Kilimanjaro. [5] and the deepest book signing down by the wreck site of the Titanic (Record Holders Republic). As an adventurer, she has run in the New York City Marathon, driven race cars, done zero-G, scaled a castle wall in Austria, bungee jumped, scuba-dived with sharks, walked on hot coals, and eaten fire.
Capo has appeared on over 500 television and 4,500 radio shows, including Entertainment Tonight , Larry King Live, Last Call with Carson Daly , Good Morning America , The Martha Stewart Show , the Fox News, Dog Eat Dog , Nick at Nite , “More than Human” the Discovery Channel and most recently on MTV's “What’s my secret”. She has co-hosted a TV show called, “Live it up! With Donna Drake Some of her 22 books include. [6] “It Happened in New Jersey”, “It Happened in Pennsylvania”, “Myths and Mysteries of New York,” “Myths and Mysteries of New Jersey”. Also the true comic crime novel, “Almost a Wise Guy” and her spiritual book which hit #11 on Amazon, “Hopeville:The city of Light.” She also has written for international magazines, [6] [7] as well as writing a weekly blog and podcast called, Fran's World. During Covid, she did 52 episodes of Cuppa Capo on FB live.
In her capacity as a certified hypnotherapist, she created both a nighttime and morning Mindset Meditations for relaxation, positive energy, anxiety reduction, healing and peaceful sleep.
She also appeared as a contestant on a special world record holders edition of The Weakest Link in November 2002. Although, she was voted off in the first round, her humorous performance caught the eye of the producer and the very next day she was cast in “Dog eat Dog”. Currently she is listed in the pop culture app word genius as the definition of the word Loquacious.
Acting wise Capo has several movies and videos. Her music video's include, David Bowie's “Fashion” (her first video she appears 2:09 seconds in - a very funny story about how she got that appears in her stories section on her website.) She's also in Rick Springfield's Netflix documentary, “An Affair of the Heart.” Movie wise, she's in the 22 time independent short film winner, “Father and Father” (2018), Sundance Grand Award winner, “Sunday” (1997), Z Dead End (2018), the animated film “Herbie and the Smushies” (2018) etc. As comic rapper “June East” (Mae West's long lost sister), she toured with LL Cool J and the Fat Boys with her song parady, “Rappin Mae” (Billboard Magazine 1986
Capo has also been a spokesperson for many companies including Masterfoods, Auntie Anne's pretzels, [8] Chock full o'Nuts, Perdue chicken, Citibank, and Ripley's Believe it or Not!. [9]
After her divorce, Capo raised her son, Spencer, as a single mother in New York, with family help. [10]
Guinness World Records, known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as The Guinness Book of Records and in previous United States editions as The Guinness Book of World Records, is a British reference book published annually, listing world records both of human achievements and the extremes of the natural world. Sir Hugh Beaver created the concept, and twin brothers Norris and Ross McWhirter co-founded the book in London in August 1955.
Typing is the process of writing or inputting text by pressing keys on a typewriter, computer keyboard, mobile phone, or calculator. It can be distinguished from other means of text input, such as handwriting and speech recognition. Text can be in the form of letters, numbers and other symbols. The world's first typist was Lillian Sholes from Wisconsin in the United States, the daughter of Christopher Sholes, who invented the first practical typewriter.
Words per minute, commonly abbreviated as WPM, is a measure of words processed in a minute, often used as a measurement of the speed of typing, reading or Morse code sending and receiving.
TED Conferences, LLC is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". It was founded by Richard Saul Wurman and Harry Marks in February 1984 as a technology conference, in which Mickey Schulhof gave a demo of the compact disc that was invented in October 1982. Its main conference has been held annually since 1990. It covers almost all topics—from science to business to global issues—in more than 100 languages.
An egg-and-spoon race is a sporting event in which participants must balance an egg or similarly shaped item upon a spoon and race with it to the finishing line. At many primary schools an egg-and-spoon race is staged as part of the annual Sports Day, alongside other events such as the sack race and the three-legged race.
John Moschitta Jr., also known as "Motormouth" John Moschitta and The Fast-Talking Guy, is an American actor, singer and spokesman. He is best known for his rapid speech delivery. He appeared in over 100 commercials as "The Micro Machines Man" and in a 1981 ad for FedEx. He provided the voice for Blurr in The Transformers: The Movie (1986), The Transformers (1986–1987), Transformers: Animated (2008–2009) and two direct-to-video films.
Emily Fox is an American former basketball player and former world record holder in sport stacking. She set the overall world record in the cycle in April 2002 and the 3–6–3. However, in 2006, her cycle record was beaten. Her 3–6–3 record was also broken in 2007 by Robin Stangenberg and Yannick Zittlau of Germany with a time of 2.70 seconds. She has appeared on several television shows, including The Ellen DeGeneres Show and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, to demonstrate her skills.
Jade Edmistone is an Australian breaststroke swimmer, who is the former world-record holder in the 50 m breaststroke at both short and long course formats of the event.
LeeAnn Redmond was an American woman who held the record in the Guinness World Records for longest fingernails on both hands.
The Subway Challenge entails navigating the entire New York City Subway system in the shortest time possible. This ride is also known as the Rapid Transit Challenge and the Ultimate Ride. The challenge requires competitors to stop at all 472 stations; as of 2023, this record is held by Kate Jones of Switzerland. One competitor held the record for 469 stations, as he had competed before the January 2017 opening of the Second Avenue Subway. Three teams held the Guinness record for 468 stations, as they had competed prior to both the opening of the Second Avenue Subway and the September 2015 opening of the 7 Subway Extension, but after Dean Street station was closed in 1995. Records set before 1995 had a varying number of stations.
The Tube Challenge is the competition for the fastest time to travel to all London Underground stations, tracked as a Guinness World Record since 1960. The goal is to visit all the stations on the system, not necessarily all the lines; participants may connect between stations on foot, or by using other forms of public transport.
Stephen Peter Woodmore was a British electronics salesman known for his rapid speech articulation, being able to articulate 637 words per minute (wpm), a speed four times faster than the average person. Woodmore was listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's fastest talker, taking the helm from the previous record holder, John Moschitta Jr., in August 1990. Woodmore lost his record in 1995, when Sean Shannon from Canada was able to articulate 655 wpm.
Chad Netherland is an American strongman, martial artist and businessman. His feats of strength include escaping from a set of handcuffs in 1.59 seconds, holding two planes from takeoff for a little over a minute and breaking 50 blocks of ice in 19.26 seconds.
Melanie Robbins is an American podcast host, author, motivational speaker, and former lawyer. She is known for her TEDx talk, "How to Stop Screwing Yourself Over"; and her books, The 5 Second Rule and The High 5 Habit, as well as host of The Mel Robbins Podcast.
Cassandra De Pecol is an American author, traveler, activist, and speaker. In 2017, she set Guinness World Records in two categories: "Fastest time to visit all sovereign countries" and "Fastest time to visit all sovereign countries—Female". Both records were broken in 2019.
Capri Aliyah Everitt is a Canadian singer and children's activist who is best known for receiving a Guinness World Record for "most national anthems sung in their host countries in one year." Everitt sang the national anthem in 80 countries between 2015 and 2016. She was eleven years old at the end of the tour. Everitt sang each country's national anthem in its own language, singing in a total of 41 different languages. The purpose of the tour was to raise money and awareness for orphaned and abandoned children, and all donations were given to SOS Children's Villages. A full-length documentary entitled Around the World in 80 Anthems has been made about the tour.
Tasha-Nicole Terani, also known as TNT, is an American soccer training and ball control expert, eight times world record holder for soccer ball control, United Nations Special Envoy for Peace through Soccer, and founder of the Every Child’s Dream Foundation 501c3.
Barbara Clay Henley Blackburn was an American clerical worker recognized for her claimed fast typing speed using the Dvorak keyboard layout.
Lata Tondon is an Indian chef from Madhya Pradesh who is the former Guinness World Record holder for marathon cooking. She set the record in September 2019 after completing her cooking marathon in 87 hours, 45 minutes and was later surpassed by Nigerian chef Hilda Baci with 93 hours, 11 minutes.
Kate Jones is a comedian, writer, wedding officiant, performer, and a Guinness World Record holder for the Subway Challenge – the fastest trip through the New York City Subway – as of May 2023. She also shared the Guinness World Record for fastest time completing all NYC ferry stops with Rob Neill and Jesse Braver. She is a founding member of the London Neo-futurist group Degenerate Fox with Desiree Burch and the voice of Michelle Nguyen on the podcast Welcome to Night Vale.