Professional entertainer and yoyo demonstrator Mark Hayward has been working lately as a motivational speaker, encouraging people to learn from their mistakes and probably still shooting marshmallows at his face. Check out his TEDxLawrence talk about turning failure into success…nice job, Mark!
TEDx Talk: Garey Gan – The Power of a YoYo
Nice job, Garey! This TEDx talk is a little light on the yoyo tricks, but Garey gives a great message that’s worth checking out.
This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences.
The Power Of A YoYo – Student Garey Gan gives powerful and engaging perspective of the simplicity of what makes us happy and our ability to be true to ourselves even in face of cynicism and adversity.
Garey Gan is a grade 12 from Brentwood College School, originally from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He is a very friendly person who is always happy to meet new people and make new friends. Ever since Garey was young, his teachers would always comment on his genuine nature to seek understanding and reflect “why”. With this, he combines his love for public speaking to propose ideas he believes are worth sharing. To see others grow from something he has done is a reward that truly brings him happiness.
BLACK debuts at Cirque du Soleil’s Kurios!
1A and AP World Champion Tomonari “BLACK” Ishiguro finally had his dream come true as he performed as one of the acts at Cirque du Soleil’s travelling show Kurios on August 12th.
BLACK left his highly successful yo-yo competition career to focus on performing several years ago, managing to impress the Cirque during an audition in 2009. More recently, BLACK gave a very inspirational TED talk, and even performed with the Cirque at a closed event.
Now his act is part of Kurios and it’s really exciting to see yoyoing get this much visibility with the world’s most prestigious troupe!
Kurios will be in Quebec until later this month, and will tour through Toronto, San Francisco, and Seattle this year! Be sure to check it out!
Harrison Lee To Speak at TEDxKids (BC)
Canadian National Champion and CLYW team member Harrison Lee has just been announced as a speaker and performer at the TEDxKids @BC event, to be held Sunday, November 16th in Burnaby, BC, Canada. Congratulations, Harrison!
About TEDxKids@BC
Some of BC’s most awe-inspiring kids are showcased at TEDxKids@BC. Remarkable people with young hearts share their stories borne from genuine curiosity & bold ideas. Our mission is to connect with TED and the open idea sharing principles of TED with kids and people passionate about empowering kids
About TEDx, x = independently organized event
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized. (Subject to certain rules and regulations.)
About TED
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California almost 30 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The two annual TED Conferences invite the world’s leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes on a diverse mix of topics. Many of these talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The TED2014 Conference will take place in Vancouver, British Columbia, along with the TEDActive simulcast in neighboring Whistler. TEDGlobal 2014 will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
TED’s media initiatives include TED.com, where new TED Talks are posted daily; the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as translations from volunteers worldwide; the educational initiative TED-Ed; and TEDBooks, short e-books on powerful ideas. TED has established the annual TED Prize, where exceptional individuals with a wish to change the world get help translating their wishes into action; TEDx, which supports individuals or groups in hosting local, self-organized TED-style events around the world; and the TED Fellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.
New National YoYo Masters Named
L to R: Tomonori Ishiguro, Johnnie DelValle, and Nathan Crissey
At this years US National YoYo Contest, the National YoYo Museum awarded three more players the rank of National YoYo Master. The rank of Master is an honor reserved for players who have provided outstanding contributions to the art, sport, and industry of yoyo play. It’s just shy of a Lifetime Achievement Award, as the honorees are people who are still actively contributing and are nowhere near retirement.
The National Master award is not given out yearly; only when an individual shows in some way to be a valued and long-time contributor in multiple facets of yoyoing is their name brought up by the Museum, and then vetted by existing Masters.
This year, three players were honored with the rank of Master.
Tomonari “BLACK” Ishiguro
Tomonari Ishiguro, who performs under the name BLACK, is a Japanese player and performer as well as a two-time World YoYo Champion. He has served as an inspiration to countless players in the worldwide yoyo scene with his polished and unique stage presence, and recently took the world by storm as one of the most lauded and talked about speakers at the 2013 TED conference, with video of his talk reaching more than 800,000 views.
Johnnie DelValle
The story goes that after placing poorly at the 2001 Bay Area Classic, long considered one of the toughest contests in the United States, a young DelValle walked around asking people what he could do to improve his contest skills. An old-timer patted him on the back and said that he should “aim lower”. DelValle came back the next year and began a two-year domination of the American contest scene that culminated in an unprecedented 2003 season where he won the Bay Area Classic, US Nationals, and the World YoYo Contest. He continues to contribute to yoyoing with his online store YoYoBestBuy, as well as an organizer for the Bay Area Classic and California States…the contests that launched his career.
Nathan Crissey
Nathan Crissey’s contributions to yoyoing have been as a stalwart judge and organizer for an incredible number of yoyo contests. Nathan has served as a Deputy Chairman for the World YoYo Contest, a co-organizer of the Bay Area Classic, and is the organizer and Contest Director for the Pacific Northwest Regionals. A passionate yoyo player, Crissey is a regular fixture at judges’ tables across the country where he frequently serves as lead judge, and manages score tabulation. Crissey is the first phone call made from any contest with a scoring problem or question, and every contest organizer in the country is wise enough to default to his experience and knowledge.
Jay Gilligan – TEDxHelsinki
Jay Gilligan gave a great talk at TEDxHelsinki about the history and evolution of juggling props, and working with prop manufacturers to shape a new future for object manipulation. Jay Gilligan is a professional juggler and performer from Arcadia, Ohio currently performing and living in Europe. Jay is the main teacher of juggling and creator of the juggling program at the University of Dance and Circus in Stockholm, Sweden.
BLACK’s TED 2013 Talk
We mentioned back in February that two-time World Champion Tomonari “BLACK” Ishiguro would be giving a talk at TED 2013 in Long Beach, CA. His inspiring talk is now available at the TED website.
BLACK “graduated” from competitive yoyoing in 2007. After winning his second World Title, BLACK went on to build his professional performer career, which ultimately led him to a spot among the elite Cirque do Soleil artists. His contest performances were always superb, and inspired an entire generation of yo-yo players in the early 2000’s.
His TED talk is also inspiring, and not just for yo-yo players. Not many people are that passionate about what they do!
Harper Reed at TED 2013
Our friend Harper Reed is a yoyo player, juggler, performance judge for the Triple Crown of YoYo, and also just finished up as the Chief Technology Officer for President Obama’s reelection campaign. He spoke yesterday at the TED 2013 conference about technology and its role in the future of politics to crowd of some of the most brilliant minds in the world.
We spend a lot of time on YoYoNews talking about the little, wonderful things in our industry and community, but it’s worth noting that there are yoyo players operating on a MUCH larger scale. With Black’s hugely successful presentation at TED earlier, this makes two yoyo players in two days who’ve presented at TED, and that’s a huge impact on the world at large. We’re going to try and pin down Harper for an interview in the near future but in the meantime, here are some photos from his TED talk, and a great write-up on the TED blog. (photos via TED)
YoYo Master BLACK at TED 2013
(via TED)
“When I was 14 years old, I had low self-esteem,” yo-yo champion BLACK begins his talk during session 4 of TED2013. “Then one day, I bought a yo-yo.” The first trick he tried — well, it didn’t work. But after a week of practice, he started to get somewhere. He remembers, “I thought, ‘The yo-yo is something for me to be good at. For the first time in my life, I found my passion.’”
But practicing for hours a day and winning the World Yo-Yo Contest four years later in 2001 didn’t take him on the path he hoped. “I thought I’d become a hero! I will get many sponsors. Money. Many interviews! I will be on the TV,” says Black. But fame and fortune never came. Instead, BLACK went back to school and became a systems engineer.
Eventually, though, he had to return to his passion. “I wanted to show how spectacular the yo-yo could be. I wanted to change the public image of the yo-yo,” says BLACK. “So I quit my company and started a career as a professional performer.” He won the World Yo-Yo Contest again in 2007, and even passed an audition for Cirque du Soleil.
On the TED stage, BLACK gives a performance set to dramatic music, a yo-yo spinning quickly and maseterfully around him like a ribbon around a rhythmic gymnast. Soon, he picked up a second yo-yo, spinning them wildly, as if juggling. Bending backwards to the floor, he keeps the yo-yos orbiting just millimeters from his face. The performance is both graceful and thrilling.
BLACK to Talk at TED2013
Two-time World Champion Tomonari Ishiguro, also known as BLACK, will be one of the speakers at TED2013. TED (acronym for Technology, Entertainment, and Design) Conferences gather the World’s most prominent thinkers and artists, and speeches are made available on their website.
BLACK had previously given a speech at TEDxTokyo in 2011, but this time he’ll be talking at the main TED event, in Long Beach, California, on February 27th (Session 4: Disrupt!).
The conference runs from February 25th to March 1st, and other speakers at the event include Bono, Peter Gabriel, Sebastião Salgado, and Vint Cerf.
Via yoyonews.jp.
Hiroyuki Suzuki TEDxKIDS Freestyle
Hiroyuki Suzuki, 4-time World YoYo Champion, recently performed at the TEDxKIDS program in Tokyo, Japan.
TED is a combination of the initials Technology, Entertainment, Design, I is derived from the idea of shaping the future of the three regions together. Is the spirit of TED “to share ideas to spread,” it is an event for.
With the aim of sharing ideas about what you want to invite as speakers people and activists thinkers to lead the world, they are passionate about now, has been held in the United States annually.
Was launched in 1984 in Monterey, California TED. That since the beginning, without having to change the basic concept of the event, continue to introduce the brilliant idea that springs from every field, we are maintaining an environment that draws on the agenda interesting people today.
The TEDx events are affiliated events hosted throughout the world, drawing on the same ideas as the original TED conference while giving regional organizers an opportunity to showcase more local talent and ideas. Basically, Hiroyuki being involved in this is a pretty big deal and it’s a fantastic opportunity for the yoyo community to put one of its best players forward to represent us.
Huge congratulations to Suzuki-san for his TEDx performance!