“A guy walks up to the bar, takes a look at me, and giggles. At that point, I realize how silly I must look hooked to a machine by my nose.”
That’s staff writer Bianca Phillips reporting in the March 25, 2004, issue on her experience at a mobile oxygen bar that had been set up at Stop 345 by Oxygen Rush.
Phillips writes, “Oxygen bars have been popular for a while in larger cities, but in Memphis, the trend is just getting started. For the past year, [Kelly] Derscheid and [Robin] Kendall have run the only mobile oxygen bar in the city, setting up at various nightclubs and parties on the weekends.
“Breathing the flavored air has been touted as a way to gain energy, reduce stress, and help ease headaches. Normally, we breathe in 16 to 21 percent oxygen but while hooked up to a recreational oxygen-dispensing machine, the dose is much higher: 87 to 92 percent. Fans claim it’s this higher percentage of oxygen that creates extra energy, though a recent article in FDA Consumer Magazine dismisses the assertion due to a lack of scientific evidence.”
Though Derscheid and Kendall closed up shop in 2006, they still have the equipment and occasionally get job offers. Kendall now works as a manager for Outdoors, Inc. Derscheid is a massage therapist, trains the Memphis Roller Derby’s traveling team, and is appearing in Craig Brewer’s $5 Cover.
— Susan Ellis
