They’re throwing bricks at Mardi Gras and it’s genius

The item that just might be Mobile’s hottest Mardi Gras throw of 2025 is taking people by surprise.

When the Conde Cavaliers rolled on Valentine’s Day, kicking off Mobile’s parading season, not everyone was throwing roses and heart-shaped plushies. Some of those guys were throwing bricks into the crowd. Really realistic-looking bricks.

As recipients learned to their relief, despite the square edges and authentic red color, they’re foam. And lest anyone miss the joke, they’re stamped “property of Mobile Civic Center.”

After many years of discussion, the Mobile Civic Center is no longer serves as the go-to ballroom of choice for groups such as the Condes. It’s being torn down to make way for a new facility, and the mystic societies are holding their balls at other sites, such as the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center. What better way than a foam brick to commemorate the disruption?

A few days after the parade, the word was spreading, drawing customers to Pop’s Midtown, a business in the Loop area that shifts focus to Mardi Gras wares this time of year. As far back as Feb. 5, the Pop’s Facebook page warned that they were available in limited quantities.

On Wednesday, they were prominently on display in the shop. Some customers were coming in just to get them – and among those was Bradley Byrne, president and CEO of the Mobile Chamber.

“I caught one Friday,” at the Conde Cavaliers parade, he said. “I ducked. It looked real.”

He liked it so much he’d come in to buy a dozen to hand out to family members. Store employee Chris Cecchi said that was common: Some people were coming in to buy one because they’d seen them at a parade but had missed out. Others were coming in because they had caught one, but now needed one for each of their children or grandchildren.

A pack of a dozen was $24.99, with a limit of two packs per purchase. Singles were available for $5.

Founded in 2020, Pop’s isn’t the only Mardi Gras-oriented business in town, and it’s far from the oldest. But it’s well-stocked: The pallet of foam bricks sat amid aisles and racks of Mardi Gras throws, attire and random keepsakes.

Owners Josh and Mandi Cameron said they like to distinguish themselves by stocking items that are real keepsakes, such as a 24-inch Joe Cain plush doll ($29.99), pillow throws showing the Bankhead Tunnel with “Undisputed Heavyweight Champion” on its warning sign ($21.99 a dozen) and Crichton Leprechaun plush throws ($19.99 a dozen).

AL.com recently polled readers on social media about their favorite Mardi Gras throws. MoonPies were the overwhelming top answer, with some specifying coconut or mint flavor. A few mentioned sausage (rare, but it happens), bras, and – going really deep – “A gilded pig/cow bladder (IYKYK).” Beads, peanuts, parade cups, oatmeal cream pies and Ramen noodles also got votes.

“Anything that won’t give you a concussion,” opined one reader.

In the concussion-free spirit of Ramen noodles – a light, cheap, throwable treat with unparalleled practicality – Pop’s stocked mesh bags containing packets of sweet tea mix, made by Bay Minette-based Cane Brew Beverage Co. Just add half a gallon of cold water and your throw is ready for the kitchen table.

The Camerons said they couldn’t take credit for the brick idea. It originated with artists Mark Calametti and Tyler Richardson.

“They said ‘Do you want these?’” said Mandi Cameron. “And we said, ‘Please!’”

Calametti said the idea blossomed sometime late last summer. He’s a Mobile-area designer who’s been crafting parade floats as well as beads and different novelty items for more than 30 years. “I’m in Mardi Gras year-round,” he said.

Last summer the city auctioned off fixtures from the soon-to-be demolished Mobile Civic Center, a venue that has loomed large in the city’s Carnival celebrations. Calametti couldn’t make it, but when he heard that people were coming away with Civic Center bricks as keepsakes, the idea of a throwable foam brick “just popped into my head.”

This wasn’t random. Calametti isn’t just a professional designer with a tremendous amount of Mardi Gras experience, he’s also a float rider himself. He’s seen the appreciation people have for cool novelty throws.

“They get so tired of the MoonPies and the beads and the same old stuff,” he said. “In order to keep it exciting out on the street, you’ve got to keep people entertained. I ride on Tuesday, and by the time I ride, I mean, you better have some good stuff because nobody wants any of that ordinary stuff and there’s nothing worse than being on the float and throwing to somebody and watching them not even go for it.

“So I throw T-shirts,” he said. “I’m in the promotional products business. I throw T-shirts. I throw hats. I throw all kinds of fun stuff just because there’s no point being up there if nobody wants what you’re throwing.”

He started looking at foam brick prototypes, trying to get the heft right. “Some of them were just like sponges, you know, from the kitchen sink,” he said. When he got one he liked, the next step was to take it to the fire marshal for approval, he said.

Again, there’s more history there than an outsider might guess. Mobile literally has an ordinance specifying what kinds of confetti are acceptable at Mardi Gras (paper good, mylar bad). While throws don’t have to be certified, it’s good to get at least an informal okay.

“When I was a kid, the [hot] catch was the big hard super balls, and they had to outlaw those because all the signs downtown were neon and they were breaking all the neon signs,” Calametti said. “And the next thing to go was Cracker Jacks because of the hard corners on the boxes, and that was my concern with the brick … You’d have to throw it pretty hard and hit it just right for somebody to really get hurt, but it’s not gonna hurt nearly as bad as a bag of beads.”

The prototyping phase paid off. The bricks passed muster.

At some point in this process, as the idea gathered steam, Calametti took it to Richardson, a creative collaborator whose work includes screen printing and embroidering. “I took it to him and I said, ‘Hey, I think we should do some of these bricks,’” said Calametti. “And he said, ‘No, I think we should do a lot of these bricks. He’s a bigger thinker than I am. I’m just a creative. He’s the brains behind the deal.”

Joining forces between their two businesses – Calametti’s Gumbo Specialties and Richardson’s Competitive Ink – they brought in a 40-foot shipping container of foam bricks from China. By January they were selling them at Callaghan’s Irish Social Club and through the Callaghan’s online store. They shopped them around to a few of the Mardi Gras organizations, and found some retailers willing to carry them: Pop’s Midtown, the Urban Emporium and Bienville Souvenir & Gifts.

The creators haven’t really done any marketing, Calametti said. “We didn’t tell anybody about them beforehand, and some of that was kind of like, we didn’t want to be imitated, you know what I mean? We wanted it to kind of be a surprise, so really nobody knew about it.”

When he and Richardson brought in a full shipping container, he said, they thought it might be a three-year supply. That’s not panning out.

“I think they’re all gonna be gone,” he said. “We’re down to about 60 cases out of 625 that we brought in. So yeah, we’ll probably sell out this year.”

Next year the idea will be out there for copycats. But the novelty effect might be lost: The last rubble of the old Civic Center will be gone and the new one will be rising in its place.

If the bricks turn out to be a just-for-2025 flash in the pan, that’s perfectly fine. It’s all about having fun in the moment.

“It’s a fun thing,” Calametti said. “Don’t take it too seriously. But it is different, and I’m always about what’s going to be new.”

“We’ll see what the reaction is,” he said. “That’ll determine whether or not we do it again or somebody else does.”