'The Domino Man' takes his talents to the Saint John Exhibition for a third year

N.S. man lets chips fall where they may The Domino Man loves to watch his work topple.

They don’t call Bill Oakey the Domino Man for nothing.

For 25 years, the Dartmouth, N.S., native has dazzled Maritimers with his impressive domino toppling displays across the region.

“There was a show in the 80’s called That’s Incredible! and one of the episodes had a domino topple,” recalls Oakey when asked how he first got into the pastime. “I watched it, became intrigued by it then tried it myself a few days later.”

The 55-year-old does upwards of 70 shows each year, with his latest stop being the Saint John Exhibition. Oakey features two major topples each day during the Exhibition at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.

“The last two years I was here, as great as it was, I felt a little cramped for space,” Oakey admits, with the Exhibition offering him an extra 200 square feet to work with this year inside the association’s main building. “So I have a little more room to move around this year which is awesome.”

Each display takes around two and a half hours to set up, toppling in just under eight minutes on average. Oakey uses around 12,000 of his 25,000 dominos each performance.

He also uses a variety of stunts like domino escalators, marble tracks, and a variety of other props in his work to mix things up.

“Sometimes people ask me if I feel sad to see them fall and see my work come down and no not in the least,” Oakey chuckles. “It’s just the joy that it brings people to watch the dominos topple.”

Setting up the impressive displays doesn’t come without its challenges. Oakey says dominos can fall too early during setup leading to potential disaster, but it isn’t a common occurrence.

“I have what I like to call catlike reflexes,” Oakey jokes. “They fall at a speed of about 25 a second so if you don’t get it within a tenth of a second you have to keep grabbing and grabbing until you can get ahead of them.”

Many of Oakey’s toppling displays are done in schools across the region, which he says are his biggest and favourite audience.

“All artists like to have their work appreciated and the kids really get excited and that makes me excited” says Oakey. “I’ll hear expressions like ‘oh that’s awesome’ and stuff like that which kind of makes a guy feel good.”

He says for those interested in the hobby don’t need much to get started.

“There’s four things you need to know,” notes Oakey. “Just simply spacing, straight lines, turns and spilt offs. I tell them I can teach them that in five minutes which is always encouraging for the kids.”

Oakey is selling some of his old dominos during the Exhibition. Bags of 50 in various colours are available at a price of $3 or four bags for $10.

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