Mark Hayward Is My Hero

Today was another Toys R Us demo with the Duncan Tour, but this one was back down in Virginia. Afterwards we got to stop in at good ol’ Dick Stohr’s house and see his yo-yo collection. It’s always fun to see a yo-yo collection, and it’s nice to spend time with a yo-yo pal when we’re not at a contest for a change.

Dick Stohr with part of his yo-yo collection at his home in Virginia.

Today started with a news spot at the very reasonable hour of 8am. That beats previous spots we’ve had that involved getting to the station at 5:30am. Seth Peterson and I were on CBS 3 in Philly with a really great and enthusiastic anchor who just happened to be named Yuuki. He was jazzed to hear that there was a world-famous yo-yo champion (Yuuki Spencer) with the same name. At lunch time the whole gang went out for food and an oil change in the tour van and we met Scotti Lee. Not only is he the owner of the oil change joint, but he’s also the inventor of Clacker-Balls! You heard me correctly. He invented Clacker-Balls. That is so cool.

Me with Scotti Lee Ph.D, the inventor of Claker-Balls!

Scotti told me that he was trying to make himself a set of bolos (that use 3 balls) but he lost a ball, so he just made a set with two balls. He owned a bar at the time and so he had time to start messing around with his new toy. People in the bar kept asking him to make a set for their kids, and one thing led to another, he got a little news coverage, and suddenly he had a big hit on his hands.

Our demo tonight was at our buddy Yo-yo Joe’s.

We knew in advance that this would be a great demo, and we were not disappointed. Lots of people showed up and they had skills! Perhaps the most exciting part (for me anyway) was that Joe let us do the testing to get up on the Wall Of Fame. He has an extensive list of tricks, about 20 or so, and you have to do them all successfully or you don’t get on The Wall. It took some serious work since I had never done several of the tricks before. I knew that I had the skills required, but I still had to do them right. With some encouragement from Joe and a lot of help from a couple of the yo-yo kids I successfully hit every trick. Brandon made it to The Wall as well, and Seth has been on there for a while already.

My awesome new certificate of awesomeness.

Me in front of the Wall of Fame! I signed the certificate, “I’m the BEST!”

I just realized that part of why this is so cool for me is that this is the first time that I’ve gotten my signed photo up on the wall of a business. It makes me feel like a movie star. That’s not something that happens just every day you know.

It’s day 3 of my East Coast leg of the Duncan Tour. This morning Brandon Jackson, Seth Peterson and I are sitting in the parking lot of Toy R Us in Baltimore, waiting for our 3rd early morning TV spot. We got here at 5:30am and will be rolling out at about 8:15 to go back to the hotel and try to get a little sleep. This afternoon we’ll be back here at 2:00 for our demo, and then it’s off to Wilmington Delaware. There is a strong yo-yo scene in Delaware so it should be a really good time.