Two riders (Me, Bagpiperboy) in the upcoming High school talent show

General
1

So Bagpiperboy and I, students at Alta High school, go to the try-outs. We wait, we listen to all the terrible karoake singers, the punk bands, and the rest, and then we ride for the judges. We still haven’t chosen our music, so, to the sound of silence, we beat out the competition. <mwuahahahah!>

There is a lot of respect for unicycling, but we get a lot of junk too. Still, I just felt like a sort of righteous retribution had finally been served. 99% of the student body has seen people unicycle thanks to a friend of ours running for Student Body President, yet not one of them knows all the hard work we’ve put in; Nobody knows the skill it really takes to do what we do. <sigh>

It’ll be one awesome oppurtunity to promote unicycyling, to show that it’s not about being a clown. Sure, I’m really nervous, (After all, the student body is over 2,500, and everyone will be there). But i’m really exited too.

Hopefully we’ll be able to get some pics and a video of it.

A verbal description for now, in stages:

1.–Ride out at the same time (on a basketball court), at half court, I flip around and ride the rest of the length backwards, and B-boy rides one footed.
2-- I ride back out to the middle-with some speed- and go straight into gliding. My best attempts have been close to 15 feet (flatland) and hopefully i’ll do that good
3-- B-boy rides back out, and we do a Star (grab hands and ride around each other in a circle)
4-- lay the unicycles out, do some kickup mounts and suicide mounts
5-- ride with seat on stomach, (with arms out- going for the flying look)
6-- repeated Pi hop twists, (or 180 degrees if you prefer)
7-- bust out a little wheel walking: going in a circle, etc.
8-- hop onto a box or milk crate, do a little hopping/gapping etc.
9-- another Star, but let go at top speed, fall on purpose, and skid across the waxed floor

So yeah, it’s exiting. I’ll keep you updated as to how it goes.

Any suggestions would be nice, if you think adding/changing something would make it look better.

cheers-JonnyD

2

P.S. I didn’t mean to sound rude about the karoake singers, but it just seemed like they didn’t have very much practice.

3

I know what you mean… at my old school the talent contests composed almost entirely of girls singing and boys playing guitars… :slight_smile:

Phil

4

To promote unicycling, make sure the performance speaks to how anyone can learn and that it’s lots of fun. If you concentrate only on skills, your performance will say “look what we can do and you can’t.” This is a dangerous approach for two reasons. Firstly because you are no longer promoting. But mostly because the expectations of the audience are higher than they should be.

If you introduce yourselves and mention that anyone can learn, you’d be happy to help, and this is what you can now dow after x-months of riding, the people should be on your side. Then make sure the riding emphasis is on fun, and not perfection. Include some crashes that are intentional, to get people ready for the successful skills that may follow.

Most of all, have fun out there!

5

<mentally slaps self in face>

Well you see, it didn’t work out quite like you suggested John.

To be honest, we did/didn’t do EVERYTHING that you said to/not to.
(least that was how i was)
…

So yeah, we didn’t promote, and we messed up, so the audiences assumed expectations made those parts bad.

AAARGH! I feel so stupid. I now wish i could just do it again for the sole purpouse of going back and fixing everything.

<sigh…> Well, my guilt is high, and a lot of people probably got the wrong impression by what John said, so if you’ll excuse me, i think i’ll go and remove the rest of the foot from my figurative mouth.

I will say one thing, though-- nervousness FRIES my brain. It seems like i just forgot everything i had resolved to do.

bleh:(