Meet a Competitive Yo-Yoer | Short Film Showcase

You: I wasn't like all the rest of the kids. People will just pick on me just for being me.

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You: This gets weird. He stutters, kind of each probably like a... Or something. I'm just like, no, I'm pretty good, intelligent.

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You: There are kids who have like a security blanket, have like a security string, I guess.

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You: If I didn't have this, I'm not sure where I would be—probably not in the best place.

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You: Let's call this on a flower. You're just throwing it out of your hand and once it's out there, you do whatever you do with it.

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You: A yo-yo to me is like breathing for people. I can't really function without it, so it was like a dance for me. And so I guess I feel like really complete 'cause it's these three separate things; there's me, the music, and there's a toy. But we're all together. It's like a whole lot of times, it's like some weird form of Tai Chi maybe. It's comforting though.

You: Salah matters. Even as a kid, I just didn't agree with like the phenomenality of things. I didn't fit into any specific molds, so people would just give me... My stutter did... Did it happen? Utley creates barriers with like trying to communicate. This is... But this is... I don't know, it's like I got tricked, my brain into it, man.

You: Sweet life, so interesting, man. Ah! This is a yo-yo! I'm gonna do it a little louder and watch a scooter right as often as possible. I think I found myself in a fight. 10th grade, I was on the internet and there's a team called the Bomb Squad, and they skateboard, and they all throw. It was fascinating. Me and my friend Sean, I weigh and probably spent like $40 when we got a bunch of them. It was like a legit turning point, like my life like started to change. Actually, it just clicked for me.

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You: I gave up caring about what people thought. It's not about you.

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You: I feel like it kind of saved me in a way, like all the people that I grew up with or, you know, injured or killed. Sally, it's weird.

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You: It distracts you from the negativity. The way that I'll see it is, you know, I got a few more kids to throw and out of trouble. You know, like I legitimately felt my own personality and myself fading into like the abyss of Baltimore society, which is in void of just negativity. I have not been able to cry at a death since my brother's years. He was 16, I was 11—only Fabio, real fancy, right? Colin was the first person I legitimately seen with a yo-yo spinning in an inning. Like, how do you do this? Show me! Tell me your secrets.

You: Maybe it's like getting my first yo-yo. He gave it to me. He really hit me. "Play with this," and it completely made me forget about the negativity that was consuming me on a day-to-day basis. So to find not only friends who won't legitimately get me killed and having that sense of family and camaraderie, like, you know, that's really important for a teenager, you know, to just have that connection, especially when, you know, I'm not getting it from my family.

You: If someone's not comfortable with their life, they should do something to change it. I learned that far down the road, but, you know, I learned it eventually. Just going outside to do something that you truly enjoy, you can change everything. State yo-yo, all right!

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You: I'd like to go to a place I can be immediately pulled in and accepted. These people, like, I've been waiting to meet you. Just like, wow! I haven't ever had like a camaraderie like that. I really just want to push it as far as I can. Calvin's like the best throw in Baltimore.

You: There's too many cell phones, tablets, gaming systems. I feel like people, as like a culture, are bringing loneliness. It's those things that cut out the real human interaction that people need in order to move forward. That’s why I started my own company and everything. Yeah, yeah, this is my company. Here's my baby. Oh yes, yeah! Oh yeah, no string attached, man. It's like an extension of my being in a sense. So it's like if I can give it to someone else and it brings them joy, I've done something today.

You: In seven months, we've dropped two brand new yo-yos, added like three players to the roster, and truly developed an entire fan base. And so, like, oh, now there's people with Bowie SEO tattoos.

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You: Something as small as this can create a group of people, and it might be the one thing that holds them together, but all of their ideas are in different places and they could make so much from just being together. A toy is so simple, but it can be so complex.

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You: Oh you!