Archive for January, 2005

Rebecca was born and raised in Maine, never to use a yo-yo until she met John Higby. Then, suddenly, with hundreds of yo-yos laying around the house & a cool guy who was there to change her strings and oil her bearings (we’re talking YO-YOs, here), she learned tricks easily. Now she and John travel the world, performing their show to the delight of every age (babies, unable to focus on tricks, enjoy the sight of two people running around in a circle of clapping people, while every man over 50 relives the days of the Duncan man coming to their town), gender (OK, so the girls always want to know more about the hula hoops & Barbie dolls in their show) and culture (again, the spaghetti trick: just switch it to the word “soba” in Japan, and you will have people full-on belly laughing). And yes, when John & Rebecca have children, she will be known as Yo-Yo Ma and/or Yo’ Mama (how many times will she hear that in her lifetime …)

• Website: http://www.yoyoshow.com
• Favorite yo-yo(s): Functionally: Big Ben. Asthetically: any yo-yo involving ’70s pop
  culture.
• Favorite Tricks: For me: Boingy-Boingy, For kids: Spaghetti. Always makes ‘em smile.
• Favorite Joke: It’s not a joke, but I think the word B-Hole is hilarious. Not what
  it stands for, just the abbreviated version.
• Favorite Bands: Bob Dylan, Ben Harper, Damien Rice, Bill Withers, Stevie Nicks,
  Donovan, Buddy Holly, The Who, Bush, and yes, I’ll proudly admit it: Journey.
• Favorite Movies: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Lost in Translation, Better Off
  Dead, Top Secret!, Anchorman, Roller Boogie (a ’70s roller rink love story
  involving a teenage Linda Blair, who could ask for more), Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo
• Quote: “Pure entertainment is not an egotistical lady singing boring songs
  onstage for two hours and people in tuxes clapping whether they like it or not
  … It’s the real performers on the street who can hold people’s attention and
  keep them from walking away.” –Andy Kaufman

John got a 1962 Duncan in the package from his grandpa in the early 80s and learned the 3 basics right there. 20 years later John has performed and made people laugh in Turkey, Italy, Spain, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Holland, and the USA at international street performer festivals with a trunk full of yo-yos. He is fascinated by the evolution of the yo-yo and enjoys watching it progress and progress…

• Website: http://www.yoyoshow.com
• Favorite yo-yo(s): Duncan Freehand Mg, and ProYos
• Favorite Tricks: Shoot for the moon, Shoot for the other moon, Freehand bounce, and Whrilybird on a mini unicycle.
• Favorite Joke: “Why don’t you send me an email so I can delete it.”
• Favorite Bands: Benny Goodman, Damien Rice, Ben Harper, Louis Prima, and Billy Holiday.
• Favorite Movies: Life Aquatic, anything by Buster Keaton and of course Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo
• Quotes: “Whoa, man that is unbelievable!” - David Letterman “
  “What Yo-Yo Ma is to the cello, John Higby is to the yo-yo.” - Denver Post

The inventor of the innovative trick called “Give Your Brother a Nasty String Burn”, and a Chicago fashion icon, Harper Reed is a force to be reconed with. He’s a software engineer by day, but that leaves his nights open for nothin’ but yo-yos! …and ladies. Originally from someplace in Colorado, Harper has been yo-yoing for eons. He’s a BIG fan of Yo-yo Jam products, and is easily excited.

• Website: http://www.nata2.org
• Favorite yo-yo(s): Yo-yo Jam Night Moves 1&2, Yo-yo Jam Hitman (pink), Mattel Barbie Throw and Go: You’re a Pro! Yo-Yo (also pink).
• Favorite Trick: Eli Hops and wierd dismounts.
• Favorite Joke: I don’t believe in humor.
• Favorite Bands: pelican, dimmu borgir, t.A.T.u., Journey, David Bowie, Outkast, Busta Rhymes, 50 Cent, King Diamond, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Duran Duran, Tiffany
• Favorite Movies: requiem for a dream, ringu, barbershop, jesus’ son, hi fidelity, benny & joon, bottle rocket, bullets over summer, day the earth stood still, edward scissorhands, amelie, fulltime killer, funny games,labyrinth, the last emperor, leon, breakin’ 2: electric boogaloo
• Quote: “I like candy” -Harper in a tender moment
  

A third place World Yo-Yo Champion, Doc Pop yo-yos, juggles, draws and makes funky weird pop music. His hip booty currently resides in San Francisco (with the rest of him attached) and he is the founder of the College For the Easily Amused, a national skill toy group mainly located in larger freezing cities in the chilly chilly north.

Doc is most well known in the international yo-yo community for finding new tricks and styles of play, including Moebius, Astro (sliding freehand), the Martini, the Cheese Whip, alpha style, and Skin the Gerbil but he’s almost more well known for his great hair. When he isnt doing any yoyoing, drawing, or writing he’s probably riding his bike, hair modeling professionally, or riding his bike to and from hair modeling gigs. He likes to ride bikes, and has many bikes that are probably way cooler than any bikes you own.

He’s also been the first ever recipient of the National Trick Innovator Award (a yoyoer so unique they had to make a new award just for him), a 3rd place World Yo-Yo Champion and he’s starred and co-wrote an educational science video with Yo Guru Mark McBride called Unboring Science Volume 1: Physics.

• Websites: www.doctorpopular.com AND www.easily-amused.org AND www.adirtylittlesecret.com
• Favorite yo-yo(s): zan navi, patriot, big ben, modified vipers (beefcake and axys mods both okay)
• Favorite Trick: “Hesitating” the yo-yo!
• Favorite Joke: There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don’t.
• Favorite Bands: Anticon., dosh, why?, Louis Prima, Stereolab, Pavement, Nirvana, Prefuse 73, Bullfrog, Doctor Octagon, the Rat Pack, Perrey and Kingsley, Sebadoh, The Jesus Lizard, Self, Blackalicious, Enon, Brainiac, Postal Service, American Analog Set, Grandaddy, Portishead, Blonde Redhead, Sonic Youth, P.O.S. (doomtree), Lyrics Born, Modest Mouse, Tribe Called Quest, Arto Lindsay, Morphine, Dj Shadow, Work of Saws, Weezer, Aesop Rock, and Tricky.
• Favorite Movies: The Jerk, Brain Candy, Billy’s Balloon, Mystery Men, Death Race 2000, They Live, Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo.
• Quotes: “Oh, you’re using base ten… I get it” & “Sploosh!”

Dazzling Dave Schulte is a professional yo-yo performer and highly acclaimed champion who has circled the globe since 1998, storming audiences everywhere with his freakish tornado of whirling tricks and tips, all designed to entertain, educate, and illuminate the beauty of the growing sport of professional yo-yo. Equally impressed by both the energy of his performance style and his mastery of the most advanced yo-yo tricks ever performed, judges have peppered Dave with awards throughout his professional career.

Dave’s awards include:

* 1996 Masters World Champion
* 1997 Twin Cities Champion
* 1998 Midwest Regional Champion
* 1998 Northeast Champion
* 1999 Fixed Axle World Champion
* 2000 Minnesota State Champion

In October of 2001, Dazzling Dave was named to an elite group of only nine National Yo-Yo Masters, making him one of the exclusive members of the National Yo-Yo Judge panel and an Official World & National Judge.

The best way to describe Steve Brown is “unlikely”.

Born in Jacksonville, FL to a pair whose current occupations include karaoke DJ and day-care worker, Steve barely made it out of high school alive. He has a profound fear of mathematics, never made it any closer to college than living near one, and once spent 8 months homeless because he was considered “unemployable” due to his gaunt appearance caused by lack of food.

Steve Brown is now one of the small handful of people who control the entire yo-yo industry.

He is not pleased about this, but as the task has fallen to him, he maintains that he will uphold it until his nerves give out or he gets hit by a bus. He holds the patent for counterweight style play, which now has it’s own division at the World Yo-Yo Contest, he has designed over a dozen yo-yos without the benefit of formal engineering training, and he is arguably one of the best looking men in the industry.

Steve Brown walks on mountains and casts no shadow.

• Website:www.stevebrownismyhero.com/
• Favorite yo-yo(s): Freehand, FH Zero, Throwmonkey.
• Favorite Trick: I don’t have a favorite trick. I simply play.
• Favorite Joke: My paycheck.
• Favorite Bands: Gunmoll, Hot Water Music, Envy, Nemo, Alkaline Trio, Get Up Kids, Refused
• Favorite Movies: Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Exorcist, The Omen, Rosemary’s Baby, Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo
• Quote: “There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.” -Friedrich Neitzsche)