Whether from movies like Mary Poppins and Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang or from television or from a myriad of other beloved projects, the name Dick Van Dyke is sure to stir up many cherished memories. Now, at 83 years old, Dick Van Dyke is stirring up a new career and showing no signs of stopping.

A chance meeting between a rocket scientist and an American icon led, quite naturally, to the creation of an a cappella group called Vantastix, destined to introduce the Van Dyke charm to a whole new generation and bring renewed joy to a loyal cache of fans collected over Dick Van Dyke’s fifty years in show business.

“The story of the group starts in 2000, when I was working for a production company in Malibu and happened to encounter Dick Van Dyke in a local coffee shop.” Says bass singer Mike Mendyke. “I have a background in a cappella and singing since I was very little. I started my first barbershop quartet when I was in the 6th grade and I’ve been singing in choirs and vocal groups my entire life. I happened to be aware that Dick has been involved with and interested in barbershop for many years, and back in 1999, had been awarded an honorary membership in the society. So, when I saw him, the first words out of my mouth were, ‘I understand you’re a great fan of a cappella.’ I guess that took him by surprise because that’s not the thing people usually say when they encounter him. He got this big grin on his face and said, ‘Yes, I am, do you like to sing a cappella too?’”

“We got to talking about singing and music and different stuff, what we liked and didn’t like. He went on to say that he couldn’t find anybody local to sing with. He had put an ad in the paper, anonymously; of course, looking for people to sing with and he didn’t get any responses. I said, ‘Really? You can’t find anybody? I think I can solve that problem for you.’ He laughed and said, ‘I bet you probably could.’ We met a few more times, informally, and he gave me his number and said, ‘Call me when you have some people to sing with.’ So, I called up a couple of my buddies and said, ‘How would you like to go sing with Dick Van Dyke?’ They said, ‘Twist our arms!’ Before you know it, we were all sitting in Dick Van Dyke’s living room, around his piano, eating pizza, drinking coke and singing songs.”

Mike Mendyke started life far away from Hollywood, California, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, “I was born and raised in Appleton , in the Fox River Valley . There is a very strong music culture in the Fox Valley. My grandmother was a fine soprano and vocalist. She played the violin and piano. I think that’s where I got the inspiration. I took piano and violin at a young age and was encouraged to sing for any and all opportunities, starting with Saturday morning cartoon theme songs upwards to the school music programs. When I was in fourth or fifth grade, they started a boy choir program called the Appleton Boychoir, modeled after the Kings College choir program in England. So I got a strong classical background in vocal music as well as my classical background in violin and piano.”

“Music was always a tremendous part of my life, even though I was also very interested in math and sciences,” Mike continues. “When it was time to go to college, I was offered a full music scholarship to Lawrence University in Appleton, but I turned it down to get an engineering degree at MIT in Boston, instead. I worked as a defense contractor for eight years, but all the while I was singing and playing piano and violin for orchestras and pit bands for theatre productions.” Mike started singing with the vocal group Five O’clock Shadow and toured the U.S. and Japan. “Eventually I got so busy with my music, and I loved it so much, that I dropped the engineering business and went full time with Five O’clock Shadow. I found myself pretty much focusing on music from then on.”

One of the friends Mike contacted with the offer to sing with a legend was Bryan Chadima. “ Bryan comes from Iowa, he and I had a similar Midwestern upbringing with a great love of music and a joy of life. He went to college at Northwestern in Illinois and honed his musical interest and skills there and started a college group that went on to be the professional group, Blind’s Man’s Bluff. He then went on to L.A. to seek his fortune as so many do. He is working on completing his own solo album that’s going in a country music direction. Bryan is not only an amazing singer, but also an arranger, writer and engineer. He was the engineer who recorded the whole album and did most of the production work on it, with us tossing suggestions.”

Eric Bradley was the other friend Mike called. “Eric grew up in Connecticut and had a pretty traditional upbringing and had a love of music, theatre and the movies. He came to LA, as well. He is actually one of a very small number of go-to guys that gets picked to do vocals for a lot of movie soundtracks. You heard him in the latest Indiana Jones film, you heard him in the King Kong soundtrack. In the movie The Breakup with Jennifer Anniston a few years ago, he was in the a cappella group that was featured in the movie.” Explains Mike, “Eric sings in another group called Sixth Wave that is very much a standard jazz focused group. Eric is a supremely gifted vocalist. He’s got a wide range; he can do anything you ask him to do.”

“Bryan, Eric and I all come from backgrounds with high school music choruses. At MIT I was a member of the MIT Logarhythme, and post college, all three of us had been involved with professional contemporary a cappella groups. Both of them sang, at different times, with Blind Man’s Bluff out of Chicago. So, that was very contemporary 70’s, 80’s, 90’s music with heavy percussion and bass line, so we have harmonies above an a cappella instrumental background.”

“Dick has this engaging personality. He loves to move around and dance and has that dancer’s visual freedom when you watch him move. We all appreciate the unique nature of this particular group and we come to the table with a great sense of mutual respect and admiration and love of each other and what we can accomplish. It just comes together so nicely.”

“Dick Van Dyke’s background is more in the standards and close harmony. I had a barbershop background as well, so I was able to provide something of a bridge between the two styles, so our music is something of a hybrid. We try very hard to have a lot of solid vocal harmony going on and, at the same time, mix it up with interesting vocalizations. The album has somewhat more contemporary flavors fueled with some extra tracks of vocal percussion and background padding. The live performances tend to be very organic and more open, focused on the melody and sort of implying parts we can’t do with only four voices.”

“We obviously showcase Dick as much as possible, though there are a few points where he likes to step back and sing a bass line while one of us gets to sing the lead, which is quite a thrill. You’ve got an 83-year-old man who is beloved by everybody who sees him and, three guys half his age or younger who are supporting him, backing up and interacting together with him and it’s a wonderful melding of the generations. It’s a performance that, literally, people of all ages can appreciate.”

“Eric, Dick and I are all basses and Bryan is the only tenor in the group, so Eric and I have to do some creative vocalizations, depending on what Dick is singing. That makes for some pretty interesting challenges, but I think we manage to overcome them very nicely.”

Working with someone with Dick Van Dyke’s stature, predictably, sends fan recognition into the stratosphere. “In my other groups, everyone sees the group as a whole and you have whatever level of celebrity or recognition that you’ve achieved. I’ve had fans that were dedicated and would follow us from show to show on tours, but, generally speaking, you can be fairly anonymous. When you’re with Dick Van Dyke, of course, the focus is on him and you get what I'd call a sort of ‘reflected celebrity.’ Because I’m part of the entourage, suddenly I get some of the similar deference that Dick Van Dyke richly deserves and I, relatively speaking, don’t. That’s kind of a funny experience. As soon as the three of us walk twenty feet away from Dick, we’re just regular people again.”

“Dick is really just an, ‘Aw, Shucks’ kind of guy. He’s very kind and gentile. He is the way you would hope he would be from seeing him in the movies and on TV. The reason he may get differential treatment is because he deserves it, not because of ego. I’ve detected no ego about him whatsoever and I love him for that. Chills still run down my spine every time we sing my arrangement of Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang together. I can’t believe how fortunate I am to have these experiences and spend time with such a wonderful man.”

“When my daughter, who is now seven-years-old, was a baby, still in a bassinet, we would rehearse at my house. She’d be there sleeping while we were singing to her. When she’s old enough to realize the significance, she’ll be able to tell people she had Dick Van Dyke sing lullabies to her when she was a baby.” That's the stuff dreams are made of.