photo courtesy of Tyler Bogden
Angela D’Occhio, Tyler Bogden and Ryan McMahon each consider themselves best friends, even only after a short time knowing and working with each other. They are now entering a contest through Red Bull to win the chance to compete in a race across Europe.

A caffeinated trio of Point Park students has created a video in an attempt to win the opportunity to travel across Europe using nothing but their wits and a handful of energy drinks.

Tyler Bogden, Angela D’Occhio and Ryan McMahon have entered Red Bull’s “Can You Make It?” challenge, where a group of three college students were to make a minute-long video showcasing their adventurous personalities, skills and their love of Red Bull, trying to win the chance to compete in a race across Europe, sponsored by the energy drink company.

“I know I speak for all of us when I say that we don’t want to see these years go by and pass up opportunities like this where all you need is a simple application and video,” D’Occhio, a junior acting major, said.

“We’re young and in the time in our lives where we don’t have anything holding us back, and it’s a time when this would just be an amazing thing to do,” said Bogden, a sophomore sports, arts and entertainment management (SAEM) major.

Thousands of other videos were entered, and 165 teams of three—18 teams, from each country—will be chosen by voters on the contest’s website. Voting is now open and will continue until Mar. 7.

“I think we have a pretty good shot,” D’Occhio and McMahon, a sophomore SAEM major, said in unison.

Their video features the three students going around Pittsburgh handing out cans of Red Bull along the way, while showing off their personalities. D’Occhio also provided a voiceover for the video.

“The video was supposed to show who you are, what sets you apart and how you can barter and survive,” McMahon said. “You just ‘gotta’ be a charmer.”

Bogden said that much of the video was in-the-moment action, which they used to their advantage, such as getting a wide shot of the city from an airplane, and himself getting a Red Bull tattoo.

“It was so unplanned and the guy was really excited to do it, and it was something that I probably would have done eventually anyway,” Bogden, who paid for the tattoo with three cans of Red Bull, said. “We wanted to see how far we could take it.”

“It’s just a bunch of kids on Redbull having fun in the city,” McMahon said. “It’s exploring, energetic and adventurous.

The three students haven’t known each other for very long. Bogden and McMahon met last semester and D’Occhio, who is Bogden’s resident educator (RE), joined them in January to complete the line-up. Since then, they said they have all bonded over this experience.

“Honestly, I can’t imagine going through this with anyone else,” McMahon said.

Bogden, McMahon and D’Occhio each said that they just enjoy watching their creation, and enjoyed that they have themselves watched it “at least 500 to 600 times.”

“I’m just super proud of what we did, just the fact that we put it together and it ended up so good,” Bogden said.

If their video gets enough votes, Red Bull will fly them to one of five starting points in Europe to begin the race on April 12. The contestants have seven days to reach the finish, and the only rules are that they can only use Red Bull to barter and trade for goods and services and they cannot use cell phones or even their own money, according to the competition’s website. 

“I’ve never won anything like this before, and if this were to happen it would just be like whoa, it really does happen to people,” McMahon said.

“I think if we actually get chosen we’ll be able to think more about it, but our main goal right now is just getting people to vote for us,” D’Occhio said.

To accomplish this goal, the three have been pushing the video through social media and even appeared on KDKA on Feb. 10.

“We woke up… with hundreds of messages about the video,” Bogden said.

McMahon said that he thinks of Pittsburgh as a very supportive city, and that the three will garner votes through simple recognition.

“There’s something so powerful about how this contest has succeeded in the past with human interaction,” D’Occhio said. “The fact that kids have succeeded in this contest just by asking another human for help is amazing to me.”

The final winners of the race will win a free three month trip around Europe for the entire summer.

“Being in Europe three months for free with you guys would be crazy,” Bogden said.

“Even if we lose, it’s good; I might not come back,” McMahon, thinking ahead to where he may be in Europe, said.

“I don’t care where we’d have to sleep. I don’t care if I can’t shower. We are going to make it to the end,” D’Occhio, imagining what the trip would be like, said.

“I think even if worse comes to worse, we got the chance to do it and I think we’ll put all of ourselves into it and go into the rest wholeheartedly,” Bogden said.