Alright so I gotta make a performance for my school and there’s generally a different set of parameters to set up your freestyle to when the people you’re performing for don’t yoyo, right? What’s the best way to approach this? I’m thinking a ton of body tricks. Maybe a little bit of speed and not very much super intricate tech. And music cues are probably good too, yeah? Are these the good ideas? I also want to make it cool for people who do understand yoyo though because I want to be proud of it. I don’t wanna just do all the simple tricks that are easy for me to do on stage and only look cool to people who haven’t seen yoyo before.
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I think Speed, Grinds, and body combos are probably your best options, I also noticed that non-yoyoers think regens are really cool for some reason.
Check out some Eric. R and YoYoCharlie’s performances.
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Hops are pretty flashy
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The best way to approach this by the following. If your performing for non throwers than they will most likely have a limited understanding coupled with a short attention span. That being the case speed combos will just confuse your audience and maybe even discourage them from yoyoing period. Performing for a non throw crowd would be your best time to practice your showman ship. Taking your time through tricks will give your viewers as much time as possible to grasp what is happening. You dont have to play turtle speed but you also don’t have to speed play like your at worlds.
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Speed is cool for a few seconds, but easily numbing and off putting to those outside (and some of us inside) the yoyo community. Its a good basis of comparison, but should not be the main thing. Speed loses interest quickly, and also hides sloppy technique.
As a performer you should only do tricks you hit +90% of the time. Make them look easy and fluid. Play with timing. Going fast looks faster after going slow right before. Its important to show both the slow and graceful and the fast and furious. But the most important thing is to have a tight, choreographed, dialed routine. A mostly structured set of moves during certin parts of the song. Set it to music and HIT THOSE CUES. Have a back up or two ready in case you get an axle knot or something un-recoverable.
If you try to jut “wing it” and jam, youll likely blank out and youll forget most of your trick set. After the first fumble, even less tricks will come to mind.
Use the stage area. Front back, side to side. Do not robo-loc into place. Use big flashy hops. Exaggerate your moves. Smile real big and look like your having fun.
If you muck up, do not cringe, or show that there is a problem. Play it off like its part of the act. Have a backup, and avoid risky knot-inducing moves. Use red triangles instead of green triangles. Pause for the picture tricks.
Look at the audience. Also, film yourself, record the routine and watch it, study it, learn from it. Look at what looks good, and think about what doesnt. A star here and a tower there, classic rock the baby, along with some modern tech. Do what you do best. 
Understand and properly use planes. Know where your audience is and what give maximum visual effect to them.
most of all, Have fun. Make it look fun. and make them think “hey, I want to do that!”
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oof, lol jus imagine what tricks impressed you when you were a beginner.
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I once did a talent show as an adult for adults and kids. I had been working on the ladder for BAC, and so all I did trickwise was do basically do that for the crowd. BUT, I did it with a theme in mind.
I came out on stage like I was on a break at work. I looked around as though I was making sure no one was watching me, put some earbuds in my ears and started up a tune. (This was the cue for the sound person to play my music, Dave Brubeck’s Take Five https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmDDOFXSgAs [edited down for length]). So, I look around a bit more, put on my cool shades, and when the sax starts playing, throw a sleeper while bopping like I am feeling the cool vibes of the music. Then I give a tug, and of course the yoyo doesn’t come up since it is unresponsive. I act like something is wrong and try two more times while it is still sleeping with more and more exaggerated frustration. Finally, I do a simple bind. (All of this to kind of show that a bind is needed, and to thoroughly lower expectations on my skills.) So, next I throw an Around the World and bind (all the while feeling the music, but occasionally checking to make sure no one is watching). This gives the audience a feeling of relief that I at least can do one trick without muffing it.
I keep going, just going up the trick ladder, like I am having fun on my break, finally into it so much that I’m not worried if I am seen. I did actually have a knot on the Tower, but luckily I had a spare yoyo in my pocket, much to the delight of the crowd. (That was the only time I broke the fourth wall to acknowledge them).
For the drum break I was up to Mach 5, and made a big deal of timing that with that break for more impact. Now, keep in mind that all of these tricks are super simple, but visual, and the progression of difficulty and seeing me appear to be not especially good with a yoyo in the beginning got them completely floored by the time I hit stuff like Gerbil. I occasional goofed around to the music, like flowing my hands back and forth to the music in the trapeze . At the end I simply did a few loops with the music ending, binded, put away the yoyo, took off the glasses and looked around to make sure no one saw me yoyoing on my break, and walked off stage. They loved it, didn’t get bored, and even though the tricks were dead easy, they thought it was amazing.
I didn’t go out there, like “I’m gonna show you how great I am from start to finish.” Rather, I gave them a show that had a little drama, had a cool looking trick that went with a music break, and the whole thing progressed from super simple to what looked like impossible from their prospective. If I had started out with anything difficult they would have formed the expectation that I could do difficult stuff again, and not been blown away the second time. You don’t have to do a progression like this, but to keep their interest, it needs to vary in some meaningful way.
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I think this is crucial for a general audience, and the trick ladder satisfies the criteria.
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Yo man the only thing that impressed me was 2A and I definitely still don’t know how to do that.
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Well my main goal for this freestyle is to do a freestyle that both entertains a non-yoyo crowd but is also still entertaining for people who do yoyo. When I see people yoyoing in front of non-throwers I’m always kinda sad about how much they tone down their tricks. I mean like, yeah it probably looks cool and they don’t have to worry about missing as much but I always thought it was a little gimmicky. I was thinking of something more like opening with a big two-arm body trick into a 1.5 kneeling leg trick and then an isolation based arm trick, then when the music picks up I’d go into a horizontal hopping body trick, some slacks around my elbows, maybe just some really flowy music cues… I dunno. But I’m definitely trying to avoid doing all the trickladder stuff, because I want to show them that yoyoing is more than all the flashy gimmicky beginner tricks.
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I really appreciate your reply but I have a small problem with this part right here. The theme for the talent show is supposed to be horror and I gotta make it look super intimidating and aggressive, so I’m not really sure if the smiling and having fun is really going to be the goal in this particular freestyle. But I’ll still think about all the other stuff.
Thanks!
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Yeah I think showmanship is going to be the main focus. I need to think about stage use a lot more than I usually do. Usually I have a set plan for how I’m going to do the tricks but I don’t focus as much on stage use because I make my freestyles in a tiny room and I don’t have access to a stage.
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Yeah I’ve also noticed a lot of people like regens. I don’t really think they understand them, though. I think binds in general confuse non-yoyoers a lot. They always ask me how I get the yoyo to come off the string and it took me a while to get that they were talking about binds.
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Magic Trick, Eli Hops, and Mel Hops are crowd pleasers when yoyoing for non yoyo players. Also, Suicides, because they look cool. Boingy Boing, black hops…tricks that make people go “wow”
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In that case, look super hard, creepy and mean!
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I think you missed my last sentence.
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Sounds like a GREAT IDEA!
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Ah yeah I forgot about that last part. I know what you mean about keeping it fresh the entire time, though. Thanks!
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Throw money from the stage.
That is a top shelf attention getter😉
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No, no, no. It’s horror themed. Near the end, he hits his head with the yoyo, starts choking and spews fake blood on the front row. Don’t forget a light colored shirt and maybe a friend or two to help you off stage for maximum effect.
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