Let's hear some of your greatest stories!

General Yo-Yo
21

My favorite experience is one I still laugh at today.

I was at an away basketball game sitting with my team after a game. These two girls from the school we were visiting cam to sit with our team. (It wasn’t because of my good looks but somebody else’s). My teammates know quite well my yoyo skills asked me to perform to them. I did a single trick and one of the girls said in the most sarcastic way possible said “Wow, yoyos, sooooooo attractive.” And turned around to talk to some other boys. Everybody on the team was shocked. Anyway I think its funny because she wasn’t even hot and acted like she was…

I have many other experiences, but they’re just performing in front of the student body with a diabolo or a yoyo.

22

There are certain people like that. The girls at my high school enjoy watching me yoyo, but I don’t do it that often in front of them

23

Cool story #1 (how I opened a show for Trevor Noah)

I got a call from a corporate company - they were having a fun day and wanted me to provide some informal, casual, festival type vibes. They confirmed that all I was expected to do was to walk around casually, do basic tricks and chat to anyone who was interested.

I didn’t really want the gig as it was hard for me to take time off work, so I figured I’d quote quite high. They accepted my quote immediately, and I made an excuse to take a few hours off work.

I arrived at the gig and spent 20mins trying to find my contact person. It was a nightmare. There was a main stage, and other than that, not much space to play, there were far too many people to have enough space to play. I just couldn’t find a place where I could play and casually add to the festival vibe of the event.

I’d given up trying to find my contact person and was trying to find a little bit of floor space so that I could start playing, when I heard the announcer on stage saying, “Our next performer is a magician with his fingers, he’ll be taking you from the old school to the new school and showing us what is possible when you never give up on your passions!”

Somehow, I just knew they were announcing me on the main stage. I grabbed my stuff and fought my way through the crowds. I got to the front of the stage and tossed my stuff under the stage just as the announcer said, “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Frank onto the stage!!”.

I ran up the stairs and onto the stage and did a 5min show with a live DJ and some breakdancers in the background. They had cameras as well and were projecting close-ups onto a big screen. They were also broadcasting the footage to their offices in three other cities. It was a really crazy 5mins…

After my 5min show, they suddenly announced Trevor Noah (famous comedian) as a guest performer, so I stayed and watched a 40 min Trevor Noah show.

After that, I still couldn’t find my contact person, so I left and went back to the office to finish a couple things at work.

The next day, the money was in my bank account.

24

Cool story #2
I had a call from a corporate company, they wanted me to play yoyo and provide some light entertainment to their head office. I told them I charge $50 an hour (this was a few years ago), and they booked me for just one hour, which was a little disappointing (I was hoping for 3-4 hours)…

I arrived at the venue, only to find that they’d also hired a team of cheerleaders. Then, the organiser had the idea that I should perform with the cheerleaders while they were dancing. So, we burst into the executives office, music blaring, me playing yoyo in the centre, surrounded by a bunch of cheerleaders!

It was a lot of fun to just let rip and play and smile and dance and be happy!

And then something really cool happened… the executives enjoyed the show so much, they decided that all their offices and branches needed to experience this, so they put us in a tour bus, and I spent the day with a bunch of cheerleaders going to various offices and departments of this company dancing and playing yoyo. We spent more time driving between offices than actually playing.

It was a ton of fun, completely unexpected, the client was extremely happy and I ended up billing them for 9hrs, so I was pretty happy too!

25

Cool story #3

I had a call from a company wanting to book me for a family fun day. They were in a city on the other side of the country, but were willing to fly me in on the day, and fly me back the same evening.

I agreed.

Then, they couldn’t get flights on the day, so they asked if I wouldn’t mind staying a couple nights, and they’ll sort out my accommodation. I agreed.

Then, they phoned back to say that it’s really crazy and they just can’t seem to find any available flights, would I mind flying in two days before the event, and leaving two days after the event? I told them that this was a very long time to spend away from family. They said it’s not a problem, they’ll pay for flights and accommodation for my wife too…

To cut a long story short: my wife and I flew into a tourist hotspot. We stayed in a very fancy, 4* hotel for four nights with meals daily. We had transfers to and from the airport. On the day of the event it was raining and it was an outdoor event, so the gig was cancelled.

In the end, I got paid to take a four day holiday with my wife with free accommodation, flights and food!

26

my fondest memory in yoyoing would be one of three things…

  1. opening up my first unresponsive yoyo (blue whip, still own to this day) and learning about basic unresponsive play

  2. getting the state title. i know i talk about this a LOT, but it is truly breathtaking

  3. what yoyoing has helped me go through.

I have been bullied every week while school is in session (every other week if im super lucky). im just an easy target, even more so with yoyoing. sometimes it is just teasing, others it is enough to make me want to drop out. i distinctly remember one day in 8th grade when this happened. it was the last week of school, and i had already been having a rough day. i go to P.E, which i only dislike because people treat it like the olympics. we are in line to play kickball and this guy who i will refer to as bob started to pick on my friend. i went to defend him, started getting picked on. bob and his friend were making fun of yoyoing. i tried to ignore them, but they kept it up to the point where i tried to hit bob in his side (failed, but i was kind of in a blind rage type state, so i didnt care). i ran up to the substitute teacher and asked to use the restroom, ran to the door to find it was locked and cried. when everyone came to get dressed, they kept tormenting me. later, my friend graciously walked me to the counselor. i ended up having to talk to the super creepy vice principal and ended up with a 3 day OSS (bob got 1 day ISS). rumors spread that i punched him hard in the gut, and when i found out about those rumors, i almost had an emotional breakdown. later on that night was the first time i considered taking my life. words cant describe the emotional pain i had for that night. i felt empty of everything. but through talking to my rather small group of friends and yoyoing, i felt better. that is the event that caused me to never have 100% trust in ANYONE exept people i knew in a positive manner at the time. but yoyoing acts as my therapy when times are tough.

not the happiest story ever, but its a story ::slight_smile:

27

Good story. What state title is it? Really cool!

2 Likes
28

I’m pretty sure he won KS states. Don’t know when though.

29

thanks! it was kansas (2014), then i went with my seed to finals at MWR and completely messed up my freestyle but i had fun regardless! Alec Campbell has the title again, this being his 4th one lol but he is way more skilled than me IMHO so itz gud :slight_smile:

but honestly even tho i have felt how it feels to be that highly ranked, i just yoyo for fun. not for fame, glory, or prizes (but prizes are always fun tho ;))

30

888victini, man I know the feeling. Surprisingly, it was moving away from KS (yes Kansas) that got me into yoyoing. I was depressd decause I had left my friends behind and my grandad bought me a few yoyos knowing I had been previously been interested in yoyos. I still wish I was in Kansas though.

1 Like
31

Interesting! kind of ironic as well lol ::slight_smile:

32

Actually my epic saga started the day I was born; a long, long time ago. At first I thought the stress of being born had rendered me speechless. But years later I realized that I just didn’t know how to speak. I was very young at the time.

Then the Ice age came and the Dinosaurs died. Then the heat wave came and the Dinosaurs fried.

Many years passed and I finally bought a yoyo.

I learned some stuff over time. And now I have a lot of yoyos and I know Steve Brown.

The End.

2 Likes
33

That’s the greatest story I’ve ever heard. Lol.

34

That was a pretty epic story yoyodoc. I know how old you are, but I didn’t know it was beyond what you told me. You would have to be a vampire of some sort to outlive those dinosaurs. Lol I’m kidding tho. But in all honesty, great story…
Don’t forget to watch the movie Big Fish. It really is an amazing movie.