From my perspective as a professional yo-yo man, it sure seems as if yo-yos are recession proof.  As the economy tanked almost everyone suffered, and I am no exception. However, for the last two years I have seen an interesting trend in my business. While it has gotten increasingly difficult to book shows, when I can actually get my foot in the door and get in front of an audience, they are buying yo-yos like crazy.

I make my living as an entertainer.  In general the way it works is that people hire me to come and perform my show at an event. I get hired for a wide variety of gatherings: it could be anything from a local library show, a school, a company picnic or holiday party to an international festival in Shanghai China or a trade show in Australia.  I have been around the world with a yo-yo in my pocket, but I mostly work in the Midwest of the United States.  While my main product is my show, I always have yo-yos for sale afterward if I can.  It’s a nice way to let people take a piece of the show home with them, enjoy a part of our national cultural heritage, and have fun with a new toy. For me of course, yo-yo sales allow me to have a little extra money in my pocket, and until the recession hit, “little” was usually the operative word.

So why are yo-yos selling so well now? I think that there are several reasons:

• Yo-yos are cheap.  You can get a lot of fun out of a $5 or $10 yo-yo, and it’s a lot easier on a strained budget to spend even $50 on a really nice yo-yo than to drop hundreds of dollars on a new videogame system.
• Yo-yos are fun. You get an immediate shot of fun injected directly into your brain.
• Yo-yos are easy. Almost anyone can learn a few cool tricks with only minimal instruction, and if you have access to a professional or the internet, you can learn even more.
• Exercise. While yo-yoing is nothing like doing the decathlon, it is physical activity, and a lot of people are looking for any way to keep kids (or adults for that matter) active.
• Boost hand-eye coordination. There is no doubt that yo-yos are good for this.
• Yo-yos are social. Especially in a school environment, yo-yos lead to more social interaction. One person knows how to do a specific trick, so other people come to them for pointers. I had one Principal who was thrilled with the massive inter-grade socialization that happened at her school after I had performed and taught workshops there.
• People are simplifying. Yo-yos are a classic part of American culture, and remind us of simpler times. They let you feel like you are getting back to basics, and taking part in our traditional culture.

I should point out that I am certainly not getting rich off yo-yo sales, especially since getting in the door to do a show in the first place is still difficult, but yo-yo sales have helped me get through this slow economy. I think it’s fascinating how our behavior changes in hard times. I’ve always known that yo-yos were incredibly cool, and as a professional yo-yo man it’s extremely gratifying that when times get tough, and we as a nation look for entertainment, yo-yos are the comfort food of the toy world.

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Mark Hayward is a full-time professional yo-yo man, and he also runs howtoyoyo.com where you can buy your own yo-yo, and learn how to use it. For  more on Mark’s show, and booking information check out www.markhayward.net

The show was part of a party celebrating two years of existence for the thrift store This Way Out that is in the basement of the Beachland Ballroom, as well as the grand opening of Shoparooni, Cleveland’s newest boutique, that is coincidentally owned by Steve Brown and his wife Marlee.

I was pretty nervous for this show because the three of us had never worked together, and Aaron and I had never even seen each other’s shows before. Despite that, and not rehearsing, the show went really well. Of course it will get better as we do more together, but it was a fantastic start.

I was reading up on the original Rat Pack a bit today, and it sounds like they were at the center of a really incredible time in entertainment history. Apparently they would just show up at each other’s gigs and do a group show even if that wasn’t on the bill. The marquees sometimes would read something like, “DEAN MARTIN – MAYBE FRANK – MAYBE SAMMY” That’s pretty cool.

We did two sets, alternating with some bands in the other room, and between sets this exchange was overheard:

“What’s after the band?”

“There’s another set by that guy who looks like Letterman, and the two bald dudes.”

“Oh cool.”

The experience of seeing the movie was kind of strange by itself. I unintentionally got to the theater 45 minutes early, so I decided to try to find a pinball machine to help me kill some time. The theater only had Street Fighter, an out-of-order driving game, and a console that had a bunch of classics that were all out of focus.  No pinball though, so I ventured outside. There was no one on the sidewalks at all, but each of the four bars I went into was packed. It was very odd. It felt kind of like a movie except for the lack of tumbleweeds. There were lots of video poker and Golden Tee golf games, but no pinball to be found.

I went back to the theater, and sat down to read the news on my mobile phone while I waited for the movie to start. There was one other person in the theater who had gotten there way too early, an older woman with a GIANT soda, and I’m sure she was there early because the time in the paper was not the same time that they were actually playing the movie.  Of course I was that early because I had nothing better to do than just show up at the theater without checking the showtimes and hope it would all work out.   I really thought that more people would join us by the time the movie started, but no. It was just her and me… the whole time. Comedies are way more fun to watch in a large group, but the fact that there were only two of us didn’t stop me from laughing out loud at the funny parts… and as far as I could tell, giant soda lady just sat there in silence.

Once I was suspicious, I started looking more closely at the whole situation, and there were a bunch of things that didn’t make sense:

• The guy seemed too willing to spend a bunch of money. We all know that people spend ridiculous amounts of money on weddings these days, but he seemed to be offering a blank check to bring out yo-yo performers who he knew nothing about. It would be different if he was working through a trusted agent, or if he had heard of me or my friend who referred me, but he knew nothing about either of us. That’s just weird. People don’t usually throw money at unfamiliar things. He was even willing to fly my friend out from Texas sight-unseen.
• His email domain was mixmail.com which is a Spanish language site. By itself, this was no big deal, lots of people speak Spanish, and I’m perfectly happy to work for them, but the majority of scams seem to come from out of the country from free email addresses. This detail was just one more straw on the camel’s back.
• He didn’t ask me any of the normal questions like, “How long is your show?” or “Will your show be a good thing for my event?” It’s not unusual to get right down to business if someone is already a fan of mine, but this guy knew nothing about me. I had to ask him what he wanted from me. He just didn’t seem terribly interested in the details that most planners are obsessive about.
• He was in a big hurry. MAJOR red flag. Again, I deal with people who are in a hurry all the time, but this was another suspicion added to the pile.
• He gave me a location for the event, which put me at ease until I called the site to confirm. There is a wedding that day, but it’s under another name. It could be that the daughter has a different name, or that it’s booked under the groom’s name, but that’s another red flag.
• He gave me a bad phone number. Email is often a very difficult way to communicate, so I always try to talk to my clients on the phone. I thought I was being paranoid, and I figured that if I could talk to this guy on the phone I would be able to determine if he was legit. When the number he gave was no good, I was pretty sure he was a scammer. I emailed him two more times asking for him to send the correct phone number, but I have not heard back. If he really did want me at the party that badly, he could have at least emailed me back even if he didn’t want to talk on the phone. But he didn’t.

I have nothing that absolutely proves that this was a scam attempt, but there sure are a lot of red flags.

So beware. I feel like I dodged a bullet thanks to having some knowledge in advance, and I hope I can save some other people from getting ripped off.

I did a little interview with Mark and another guy (whose name I forgot, sorry) for the Nickelodeon show Slime Across America. I did some yo-yo tricks while they asked me questions, and at some point Mark asked me if I wanted to have a dance-off with him. I didn’t want to at all, since I can’t dance, but I said, “Do I EVER!” So the other guy did a little beat-boxing and we each got 5 seconds to dance. I won. Of course I had the upper hand since the producers said I could do some yo-yo tricks as part of my dance.

The show is what they called an “interstitial” which means that it is a short show that is shown between other shows. If they use the footage of me, it will be aired on July 26th. The problem is that it’s not a show that will be listed in TV Guide, so I’m going to have to record the entire day of programming on Nickelodeon. I’m pretty excited about being on the show, so I really hope they use the footage of me.

My buddy Marcus Monroe walked by as they were interviewing me, and got interviewed too when I was finished.

Elijah’s mom took this photo of us after a show at the Burlington WI ChocolateFest. Then I got an email from her a few weeks later asking if she could use the image on Elijah’s birthday cake. I couldn’t say yes fast enough! What an AWESOME idea!

I’m not sure who was more excited about the cake, Elijah or me.

Everyone should spend an afternoon swapping stories with a couple of cowboys in a barn. I can’t recommend it highly enough. I had a long break in between sets today, and I had already planned on spending it sitting on my butt backstage. It turned out that Bob Hamm: 7 time World and National Champion had some time to kill too, and he is a great story teller. I heard about shooting marbles, sticking up kids for their candy at Boy Scout Camp, shootin’ BB guns, and all kinds of other awesome childhood things today. This guy is a real character, and man can he spin a gun. Yesterday I spent some time hanging out with the lumberjacks, and I REALLY want to throw an axe now. I didn’t think they would want me throwing their axes, and besides, the target was right next to the petting zoo, and that would only lead to disaster.

I did finally manage to get my hands on an reasonably massive amount of chocolate today, so I felt good about that.

After the fair was finished I even got to hang out with some top and yo-yo pals. It was a good ending to the event.

Today’s high points:
- On the way in I saw a car with the liscense plate “BON JOV1″ Awesome.
- Buying my SECOND 36 bar case of Limited Edition 100 Grand candy bars. Today I got the peanut case since I already had the one with the coconut bars in it.
- Eating two ears of delicious sweet corn while watching cowboys do rope and gun tricks.

Today’s low points:
- Having to talk over the sound of the speed boat races on the nearby lake.
- After all the work to correct it, the sound quality on the “Diamonds” stage was STILL terrible

If all goes well, tomorrow after the fair I will get to hang out with a couple of top-spinner/yo-yo friends. Then on Tuesday Vader and I will go off to Madison for a day to try to get some stuff ready for the move to Pittsburgh.