Bryan Jardin, the 2012 Asia-Pacific Champion in the counterweight division, just popped up on Hero TV, a cable channel based in Quezon City, Philippines. It’s a great appearance for a yo-yo player (8 minutes long!) and also VERY instructive for any player out there who wants to be on TV for their yoyoing. A few things to note:

1. They flashed his titles across the screen, and managed to turn his 7th Place finish at the World YoYo Contest (a big deal) into 7th Place National Champion of Florida. If you’re a yoyo player and you’re on TV, they are either going to screw up whatever you give them, or they’re going to ignore it and call you a World Champion. Just be ready to smile and nod and be totally fine with whatever they make up.

2. The hosts of a majority of the programs that are willing to book a yoyo player are generally going to be of the loud & wacky variety. Look at that guy’s hat! They are going to exaggerate everything and go out of their way to act loud and wacky. DO NOT try to match them. These people are loud and wacky for a living, and if you try to match their volume it’s going to look awkward. Bryan did a great job of being dignified and reserved, and that gives him a degree of gravity unmatched by that woman’s shorts. It makes him look like the calm in the eye of the storm, and as a result he stands out way more and in a positive way.

3. Keep your tricks simple, and stick with single tricks. What Bryan did was give them individual tricks, with names, that featured a specific and singular movement. Too many players get on TV and just start talking and playing, and the host inevitably asks for the name of the trick and they mumble “It’s, uh, well, it doesn’t have a name really” and it’s super hard for an audience to relate to that and latch on to it. If you’re showing something to people that they’ve never seen before, you need to package and label it for easy consumption so that they can process the information better. Otherwise, it’s just “Did you see that one swingy thing that he did that was like a swingy thing?” and they will automatically assume that it’s completely beyond their reach to even try. Keep it accessible…demonstrate mastery without making it look beyond the reach of the average person.

Bryan did a fantastic job with this interview, and it’s a great reference point for any of you who might need to be on TV to promote your sponsor or a contest or your local club.