(vibrant xylophone music)
- When I perform on stage I'm in my own world.
The only thing going through my head
is that nothing else exists but the trick I'm doing
in that current moment,
and the yo-yo flings up in the air,
goes under my leg, it's being bounced
back and forth between the strings,
whipping sideways, horizontally.
The way I express myself on stage comes out
and I love that feeling where you can kinda be free.
(rhythmic music)
When I'm not on stage,
I'm a graphic designer living in Los Angeles.
Most of the year I'm just like any typical recent grad
trying to figure out what to do with their life,
but come summer I'm preparing to be
the best yo-yo performer at the World Yo-Yo Contest.
My name is Ben Conde.
I am a professional yo-yo player,
and I'm ranked number one in North America
in the offstring division.
(rhythmic drumming)
I think people think yo-yos are incredibly simple,
but it's gone a long way since being
a toy that goes up and down
and now there's all these new elements to it.
(techno music)
Many people don't know there are five styles of yo-yo.
There's one-handed yo-yo,
there's two-handed responsive yo-yo,
two-handed unresponsive yo-yo,
counterweight yo-yo, and offstring yo-yo,
which is what I specialize in.
It's riskier, it's the riskiest division, in my opinion,
because of the fact that it can fall off the string.
For the past 19 years
I've been working on yo-yo tricks,
trying to figure out what tricks to do,
that's half the battle.
(vibrant techno music)
Because you're performing those tricks to music,
one of the hardest parts is telling a story
through your music, giving the right energy,
and work on making something flow.
It's a lotta hard work that you put into it
and any split second of losing focus,
it seems like a whole year's of work goes to waste.
I have to prove that I'm not gonna waste the audience's time
and for people to respond positively towards it—
(audience cheers loudly)
That I like can't thank the sport enough.
(vibrant techno music)
I started playing yo-yo when I was four years old
and it's something I care about.
It's not something I do for money.
Like it's a toy, it's a toy at simplest form,
and I just happen to be competing
with it for a really long time
and spending a lot of time learning.
In the end it's something that makes me feel comfortable.
It keeps me youthful.
It reminds me of what I would be playing with as a kid.
(vibrant techno music)
- [Voiceover] Good job.
- [Voiceover] Oh,oh!