I agree. Lets just keep unicycling something you do for fun, not fame. Unicycling would be the best thing to be on that show. But it wouldn’t win since the only things that win on that show are boring mainstream things everyone likes. 
Besides, if someone like Spencer was on there and got voted off it would just make unicycling look bad.
Make sure you read the release form, especially this part: (Not sure what they define as “dangerous”, but it’s definitely a “physical stunt” to do tricks, and big stuff)
It wouldnt make unicycling look bad. And do you really think if unicycling got mainstream, that people would stop riding for fun and as a hobby? Thats a weird thought process there.
Just look at biking, snowboarding, and tons of other sports. All of them are mainstream, and all of them that I do I still do for fun, even though someone else just bought a house because he won a competition.
I don’t get what’s so bad about unicycling becoming mainstream?
yeah, supply and demand
more parts available at more places will make better unicycles at better prices.
Or to make that even simpler, its that age-old divide between a sports demonstration and an act. That divide can be thin, but in the end it has to be an act for that show. Remember the end goal is an hour-long show in a Vegas showroom, so if the performer doesn’t look like they have an hour’s worth of show in them they may not pass to the next round.
Then again they might, because it’s also a reality TV show and they like acts that are interesting/funny/freaky/annoying. Why do you think Amarosa makes it to the end in The Apprentice? Because she’s interesting and unpredictable. Why did they keep bringing back Leonid the Magnificent on America’s Got Talent? His performances were way over the top, even though there generally wasn’t much of an act there. So even a good sports-demo act might make it for a couple of rounds, IF the person has more than one act.
Fred the Flybar guy was really good. But it wasn’t much of an act. Great finish, great tricks, but to win the competition you need to have several acts (can’t just do the same tricks in each round) so I think they were guessing that was all he had.
It looks like it’s a legal “out” for the producers to disallow acts where they don’t think the performer is competent to do it without injury to himself or to the theater. Like fire acts being performed by amateurs or people doing stuff with sharp things when it’s clear they don’t do it for a living. Without the extra paperwork they are not obligated to let those people hurt themselves or create liability for the show.
And they can use this to “send home” any acts they may not be interested in, or that may look like duplicates, if they don’t have the extra paperwork.
And yes, having unicycles on primetime TV does not make unicycling look bad, even if they don’t win. It’s another way to show unicycling to the world out there, and get people interested. Unicycling is not in danger of becoming mainstream. Ever. Unless it either becomes a lot easier to do, or if a huge percentage of schools around the world start teaching it. I have watched unicycling become a lot more accepted and understood over the last 30 years or so, but it’s far from becoming mainstream.
Notice how the winners/finalists on the show tend to mostly be singers? Yawn. Isn’t there another show for that? It’s too bad they can’t have a gold, silver and bronze award, which would give you more of a variety show format. Then you can have a traditional (boring) act, something a little different, and also something really off the wall that could never be an hour performance but it still entertaining. Like a Flybar guy or a contortionist act.
Then the unicycle act can be either the middle (Trials or Flat demo) act or the more “mainstream” act (Freestyle of some kind) and still be viable contenders to win!
You’re right. If unicycling gets on the show and even if they don’t win, unicycle.com might sell out on their learner unicycles. After all, this shows is shown all over America and there is only one big supplier in America for unicycles right now.
I know that right before Christmas all the local bike shops sold out on their unicycles, and together that’s about 15 of them in my neighborhood. The guy at the LBS told me that some kids wanted unicycles for Christmas because they had seen someone (me) riding around.
I’m sorry…but no unicycle, no matter how good, can compete with the Zooperstars. None.
I think unicycling going mainstream would suck cause you see how commercial and movie-star-ish all these other sports have gotten.
I’m going to kick someone in the eyeball if a unicyclist gets sponsored by Nike or Coke or something.
And the judges loved those Zooperstars, didn’t they? 
They had a lot of potential but no polish. That’s a nice way of saying they didn’t have much of an act. It was like watching the Banana Splits (anyone besides MuniAddict remember them?).
What sports? Skateboarding? Most of the skateboarders I see still haven’t figured out how to protect themselves, and they’re happy to be “underground.” Bike Trials? Yah, very mainstream. Freestyle motorcycle jumping? I don’t think I would ever have seen it if it weren’t mainstream.
And go ahead and kick me in the eyeball while I cash my Coca-Cola Check. I wish! 
Note: Coca-Cola has been a huge sponsor of unicycling in Japan for over 20 years. I don’t see the problem.
I don’t have an “act” really at all, since I don’t do tricks per se, and so I don’t know what I could do (in the studio) other than drops, gaps, hop up stairs and roll hop off a set–if they even have that kind of stuff readily available.
I mentioned all this to the guy from AGT, but he said he watched some of my videos, and that together with me being a lot “older” than most who ride the more extreme forms of unicycling, that I should definitely audition. Maybe they could set up some kind of a “trials” obstacle course for me. It probably wouldn’t need to be too elaborate. I’ll give it my best shot. :o
I think the real problem with all those mainstream sports is the posers. Unicycling, being hard to learn, will attract no posers.
It would be a really good thing if a unicyclist got sponsored by a big shoe company or something like that. I would like it if everyone was already exposed to unicycling so then they maybe they wouldn’t always think its amazing.
But anyway, I’m probably going to audition with Cody. I think we could put something cool together.
if any of you guys make it on the show you have to keep us updated and tells when your gonna be on the show and all of that jazz
and maby even do a video documentry thing of your experiance
thats assuming that somone makes it though
My main problem with big sponsorships is that in my not so humble opinion, they make unicycling sell-out.
I’m not saying that it makes unicycling less fun or anything.
I just have a loathing for big companies and I would be saddened to see unicycling get caught up in that stuff.
Where does a company cross the line to being “big”? In other words, should size be a reason to dislike a company? There are good companies that are big. What do you have against Lego, for instance? That’s the most trusted brand in the world, supposedly.
And should I warn Dan Heaton to watch out for you?
I’m not sure what to think about Dan and Shaun. I’m really happy that they could get the sponsorships and those are gonna really help them out finacially.
But, I really hate how sports become one huge commercial. It’s obscene.
A company gets big when it starts to leach off of it’s employees and such… haha, I’m in a good mood and I don’t want to talk about corrupt business executives.
But just for the record, I don’t think sponsorships work.
Just cause Dan Heaton wear Columbia now, I’m not gonna start buying their gear. It’s still a silly, over-priced sportswear company to me. I’m fine with my four year old windbreaker I got at Goodwill.
A point I have been making for a long time. Sports generally hate their posers, especially skaters. They can give a bad name to the sport with their bad attitudes. However without them unicyclists may keep a generally mild mannered perception in the public eye that knows about us. But to get more attention and to become as popular (not that we do or dont want to) as bmx or skateboarding we have to have those kids who can barely hop down a 2 stair who all want to wear bedford shirts and hang out on their unis tryin to act cool like us ;). But with like said, with the difficulty in just learning to ride a unicycle we arent exatcly realing in the posers…
I’m pretty sure that the companies who spend billions on advertising know more about what works than you do.
Exactly.