BUCKFIELD — As soon as Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz dropped their first Mentos candies into a bottle of Diet Coke — launching an Internet phenomenon as a bubbling geyser shot into the air — the question began.

“It was daunting because people were saying, ‘Where’s your next work of genius?'” Voltz said.

They put folks off for a while, managing the attention in 2006 that followed millions of Internet hits and appearances on national TV programs such as “The Late Show with David Letterman.”

“Producing our second viral video remains one of the most stressful experiences of the last five years because there’s all this pressure,” Grobe said. “Really, it was pressure we put on ourselves, ultimately.”

It worked for the guys, who go by the name Eepybird. The second video, launched four months later, became even bigger than the first.

Their method for making it happen is at the heart of their work these days in a converted Grange Hall in Buckfield, dubbed the Eepybird Lab.

Grobe and Voltz have created a presentation on their working method — “Creativity and Obsession: Taking Your Ideas From 1 to 100.”

They plan to take it public on Feb. 15 at the King’s Bridge Theatre in Lewiston.

Meanwhile, the guys are working on two books and yet more performances incorporating candy and soda.

“We’ve got five different countries inquiring about Coke and Mentos events this year,” Grobe said this week. “We may be doing some more rocket-car launches.”

“We’ve begun work on a book about viral video and we’ve begun work on a book of experiments, fun experiments with everyday objects that people can try at home,” he said. “We’re part-way through with both of them.”

The latter book already has an offer from a major publisher, he said.

Then, there’s the talk of work methods.

“We’re both really excited about it,” Voltz said. “We want to share it. We really want to go, ‘This is what we’ve learned. Take it and run with it.'”

In a way, they’ve been hinting at it since their first video launched.

“We called our first video ‘Experiment 137’ to give people a sense of how much time and effort we spent,” Grobe said.

After seeing YouTube videos of people playing with soda and candies, the guys spent about six months creating the act that gave them the three-minute video.

Long hours taught them which combination of soda and candy made the best fountain effects and what temperature they needed to be. Longer hours of work led them to craft the gags with the soda that would make it truly memorable.

“It’s single steps from one to 100 that get you there,” Voltz said. “It’s not a bolt of inspiration that you go, ‘Aha. I’ve got a great idea. I’m going to paint the Mona Lisa.'”

Grobe, a math whiz who became a juggler and all-around performer before partnering with Voltz, was naturally drawn to the kind of scientific method.

“A circus performer would think nothing of spending six months on a routine that might give them 30 seconds of something special,” he said.

Voltz, a former lawyer, also seemed attuned to the slow and steady pace. For him, the quiet exploration reminded him of reading case law.

“It’s reading case after case,” he said. “It’s step by step by step.”

It’s something he and Grobe had to relearn after they appeared on national TV. They didn’t want to be one-hit wonders.

“We realized, ‘Oh, there’s a method to this,'” Voltz said.

“If we came into the Eepybird laboratory every morning and say, ‘Today we are going to have the idea that will change the world,’ we don’t know how to do that,” Grobe said. “You have to say, ‘Today I want to experiment with this and I want to take it one step further.’ That’s a job you can do.”

It’s liberating, the duo said.

“The good news is that you don’t have to be a genius,” Voltz said. “You just have to use the process and be persistent.”

Tickets to the Feb. 15 presentation, co-sponsored by Northeast Bank and Oxford Networks, are $15 each. People are asked to call the Oddfellow Theater box office at 336-3306 to make reservations.

It is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. at the King’s Bridge Theatre at 12 Foss Road in Lewiston.

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