Why oh why unicycling world?

[feel the light]

Originally Posted by unifreak7

I never wanted to do street shows. To me, it wasn't an option since it's degrading. My opinion, but I think it's embarrassing. Sure unicycling/break dancing/comedy jokes/juggling (even knives

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRggUqTqV_o

) are all things I could do, and I could mix it into a street perforamance, but that's embarrassing to me. Unicycling wasn't really something I had a lot of fun doing alone. Dancing was more entertaining alone, but also there were others that could dance around here. So I did dancing for fun instead of unicycling. Being that there wasn't enough time to progress unicycling I choose to have fun rather than try at a sport I couldn't succeed in due to lack of time, and it wasn't fun. ha. My youtube stuff now is my entertainment and another attempt to become "famous" get that fullfillment. Don't think I haven't done performances with other things other than unicycling (I can dance pretty well). I don't really know where anything is going. But I will be making another uni video shortly here when weather gets better I will start. Thanks to Dane M, Julia B, and JacobSpera for the support, and John Foss for the logic and intelligence of the situation.

Only if you suck live. Being an excellent live performer is awesome. People will pay to see your level of trials skills done live. There is no tension in you tube videos. Many are one off short cuts ( giving me the impression that it's a 1 in 10 thing). Kriss Holm videos stand out, by filming long lines, it creates a strong feeling he can just keep doing the impossible.

I really think you could do (I am sure I could), do a sharp uni street show, at your skill level. No need to stoop to juggling. I was proud that I was a superior juggler who never had to stoop to packing around a uni. As my talent and Carney got better, all I needed was the glad rags, the glad bag, 9 balls (2 spares),and 4 torches (1 spare). I was proud of my small glad bag. The jugglers who needed a uni in their show had all kinds of hassles I did not, usually meaning they had to come by van. They had 6 footers. I turned up my nose at them a bit. Inferior jugglers, prop kings. I was embarrassed for jugglers when I saw how I was the best juggler, and the only one without a 6 footer, at so many events.
I never rode a uni in a show. I started uni for interesting exercise, in my 50's .

There is no reason Shaun should have to stoop to juggling. With more Carney, I am sure he could make a fine street show using only a trials uni.
My impression is he has many tricks he can do 95 % of the time. Good enough, now learn to talk to people.

Only my first shows were truly embarrassing. I remember my first show. I made only about 3 $, and that was kinda for sympathy. I did feel kinda degraded. Like I was begging. And sucking at begging. The emotional pain was enormous. I had to spend thousands of dollars on therapy to recover.

Just kidding, I have some Carney . Not a lot, but some. I had made 3 $, and after a beer and a slice of pizza, I miraculously recovered.

As the shows got better, I must say that emotionally, holding the glad bag while fans stuffed it with money felt awesome. One of the best feelings I have ever felt. It was certainly not just money, they give you love and admiration, it's a celebration of sorts.

Street performing is only embarrassing when you are not good at it.

[DSchmitt]

kriss.....



phail

it's kris dawg, you should know that

[feel the light]

Originally Posted by DSchmitt

kriss.....



phail

it's kris dawg, you should know that

Shouldent that be fail ? As in fish , not Phish ? I went to about 40 Grateful Dead shows. I think I know these things. Good point about my bad spelling though. I enjoyed the joke about my spelling of College. Spell checker is half my brain, and if the other half doesn't catch it, print !

So let's hate on Kris Holm for a bit. Of all unicyclists I have not met, he pisses me off the least. But I will try.

1 . He is our biggest pussy. Why hasn't he weaseled his way into the x games? He could if he really tried. If he can't, who can ?

2. Blue. Great color, if you don't hate it. So potentially, there is a well of hate there.

Yes, I can feel it, it's working. Never underestimate the positive value of hate. I will continue to spell his name as Kriss now, soon everyone will. Until he get's into the x games, and gives us equal rights for not blue unis.

The not blue movement has started. You watch, just keep spelling his name Kriss, and next year KH will offer yellow unicycles. The internet can be very powerful.

[Luke Collalto]

You don't see bmx riders street performing. Shaun's always wanted (I think) unicycling to become a serious sport and not just a novelty, street performing doesnt help.

[gohabsgo333]

Originally Posted by feel the light

Shouldent that be fail ? As in fish , not Phish ? I went to about 40 Grateful Dead shows. I think I know these things. Good point about my bad spelling though. I enjoyed the joke about my spelling of College. Spell checker is half my brain, and if the other half doesn't catch it, print !

So let's hate on Kris Holm for a bit. Of all unicyclists I have not met, he pisses me off the least. But I will try.

1 . He is our biggest pussy. Why hasn't he weaseled his way into the x games? He could if he really tried. If he can't, who can ?

2. Blue. Great color, if you don't hate it. So potentially, there is a well of hate there.

Yes, I can feel it, it's working. Never underestimate the positive value of hate. I will continue to spell his name as Kriss now, soon everyone will. Until he get's into the x games, and gives us equal rights for not blue unis.

The not blue movement has started. You watch, just keep spelling his name Kriss, and next year KH will offer yellow unicycles. The internet can be very powerful.

Are you serious?? Now your trying to get all the kids on the forums to hate you too?

[unifreak7]

Lol. That's funny to me. Just a side note, I never put down any new rider or riders coming up in skill. I felt that wasn't my place. I enjoyed their riding. It was only Luke, Krisz, and the french riders (Tomsey? lol that was before). Had to scrutinize the best! It's a defense mechanism. lol Seriously though, I'm super competitive and watching people hit tricks I couldn't was frustrating, the more frustrating part were the hops (Wasn't really ever for Luke though, ha). Riding for the trick is simply doing it with disregard to the look, riding for the sport is making everything new still look good. My opinion. I like when really impressive tricks are done also cleanly. That amplifies the reaction. It's a not only did they, but also they did it cleanly. That's a beautiful thing. Yeah I will ride again, another highlight film even, for BendableCard. I can't ignore my roots. I miss the community for the most part. lol. My favorite rider is Colby T. haha

[Dane M]

Sand Paper, Spray Paint, Clear Coat.

You can make your uni look like whatever the heck you want.

Don't be hating on blue.

[riverman]

Allow me to put aside the lexicon developed from a love of modernist literature, enriched years later with a university education.

LOL and WTF

back to the 2ueen's english, I will start by saying that I my stance is closest to Shaun's concerning the value of "style". landing a huge trick is a good place to start, but I won't bat an eye unless it's pulled off with flavour. doing a 180 down a set of 4 stairs and landing it with grace is sexy. doing a 360 down a set of 8 but landing it like it's your first time is not. the value in anything like this is not so much in what you can do, but how well you can do it.

when Shaun talks about being "too old", people are jumping down the throat of a straw man. he simply means that the boat has probably already sailed for a sponsored career in extreme unicycling. being "pro" at any sport requires an amount of time and dedication that leaves little room for anything else in one's life.

yes, he could ride the way he wants in his off time, while making good money performing on the side, but that has no appeal for some people. I would rather live on welfare than bastardize a sport I loved in order to sell it to a live audience, and I am sure that Shaun feels the same way. Shaun reminds me of my favourite skater, andrew reynolds. I absolutely promise you that if the sponsor climate of skating was as barren as unicycling, he would be doing something else. it has nothing to do with being a pussy. it has everything to do with being realistic, and unwilling to sell yourself out. anyone who thinks being sponsored = selling out is a clueless idiot (correlation and causation are not the same thing).

is Shaun a prick? well, nothing I've read so far has led me to that conclusion. being critical of your peers is a trait abhorred by those with no passion. progress is the fruit of perpetual dissatisfaction with the status quo, not of circle jerking. Shaun gets extra points for admitting frustration at the ease with which others advance, which is something most feel, but few admit.

Shaun's critique of the state of unicycle sponsors is dead on, in my opinion. without pro's being sponsored, unicycling will not progress at the speed it would if this were not the case.

you want to know why it isn't sponsored? because the majority of people think unicycling is a circus act. how riding a 12 foot giraffe while juggling on the street for $300 a day is supposed to change that perception is beyond me. the only way this will ever change is for the public to see what unicycling has grown into outside of the circus.

all it would really take to change all this is a few hundred grand from the pockets of a big bike company and a few years of sponsoring a handful of upcoming unicyclists, and a bit of marketing (which is apparently the only thing that cycling companies do these days). unicycling has the worst PR department I've ever seen, and it is holding the sport down. yeah, you have a handful of folk that think it's cool, but even trials cyclists think unicycles are a joke.

Shaun, it's sad to see someone with so much untapped potential throw in the towel, but things like pride and money are more important. if your skill was in anything else (skating, bmx, etc.), I think it is safe to say that you would still be doing it. for the record, fuck the circus, fuck clowns, and fuck anyone who thinks you are selling out unicycling. you did your time, and reasonably assessed the value of your skills in today's market. despite the fact that the bubble of a few years back didn't break unicycling to the masses, it still may happen. if you stick to dancing in the mean time, you could hop back in the unicycling game years from now if it picks up. yeah, sport's prefers the young, but talent ripens with age. in a community as small as this, age doesn't really matter.

[EDIT]
DISCLAIMER: when I say "fuck the circus, fuck clowns", I really mean "fuck the fact that that is all that most people think about when they see a unicycle". honouring roots is one thing, but muni and trials owe nothing to the circus. I respect a clown's ability to do their act without feeling like a fool, as well as anyone who can juggle, but they do not interest me in the slightest.
[/EDIT]

[maestro8]

That is all

[johnfoss]

Originally Posted by feel the light

I really think you could do ... a sharp uni street show, at your skill level.
I was proud that I was a superior juggler who never had to stoop to packing around a uni.
The jugglers who needed a uni in their show had all kinds of hassles I did not, usually meaning they had to come by van. They had 6 footers. I turned up my nose at them a bit.
I never rode a uni in a show.

So somebody else could do a sharp uni show, but you wouldn't lower yourself.

Having never dealt with the "hassles" (and they are) of using one or more unicycles in a show, you may not realize some of the barriers to using unicycles in a street show. The main one is perimeter. Depending what you do with your unicycle(s), you may need 10x the space of a typical juggling act, or more. This would probably apply to a Street act, to be able to string together cool lines and make use of existing obstacles. You'd have to be able to keep the people off "your" steps if you need to incorporate them into your show. Or at least move them when the time came.

You probably know the difficulties of moving people, or stopping them from moving when you need them to hold still. It always amazes me, when I'm riding in a constant circular pattern, how people will continue to walk straight into it as if they can't detect a pattern. But some street performers do make this work, as in Jamey Mossengren (unicycle6969). If he reads this he might chime in with how he sets his performing area boundaries.

Originally Posted by Luke Collalto

You don't see bmx riders street performing.

It might be even harder to make room for a BMX act, depending on the type of skills being done.

Originally Posted by Luke Collalto

...street performing doesnt help.

Sure it does. One day, an audience of people never knew Street unicycling existed. The next day, BAM! They see someone doing it. Seeing it live is always better than on the tiny YouTube screen, or even on TV. There is no way in which this is bad for the sport, unless you have someone doing it on every street corner, and they're all the same or boring.

Originally Posted by riverman

I would rather live on welfare than bastardize a sport I loved in order to sell it to a live audience...

Performing on unicycles also does not bastardize the sport. What is your definition of bastardize, BTW?

Originally Posted by riverman

you want to know why it isn't sponsored? because the majority of people think unicycling is a circus act.

Yes, they think it's a circus act, but that's not the reason for minimal sponsoring. The reason for that is minimal market. Until unicycling makes money for more people, there is no budget for sponsorship. It is a tiny sport compared to most. Though it might not be as tiny as oddballs like Luge, those have the luxury of being Olympic sports, which means governments will set aside money to "sponsor" their athletes. We don't have that, at least not yet.

Originally Posted by riverman

Unicycling has the worst PR department I've ever seen, and it is holding the sport down.

The people who are supposed to be doing PR for unicycling (organizations like USA and IUF) definitely suck at the PR part. Of course they are volunteers and have no budget. The people "in the business" do more, but they are also limited on budget. Money would definitely help, but there's little enough coming from sales of unicycles.

Oh, and "F" people who do stuff I'm not interested in too, if that helps.

[riverman]

Originally Posted by johnfoss

So somebody else could do a sharp uni show, but you wouldn't lower yourself.

Having never dealt with the "hassles" (and they are) of using one or more unicycles in a show, you may not realize some of the barriers to using unicycles in a street show. The main one is perimeter. Depending what you do with your unicycle(s), you may need 10x the space of a typical juggling act, or more. This would probably apply to a Street act, to be able to string together cool lines and make use of existing obstacles. You'd have to be able to keep the people off "your" steps if you need to incorporate them into your show. Or at least move them when the time came.

You probably know the difficulties of moving people, or stopping them from moving when you need them to hold still. It always amazes me, when I'm riding in a constant circular pattern, how people will continue to walk straight into it as if they can't detect a pattern. But some street performers do make this work, as in Jamey Mossengren (unicycle6969). If he reads this he might chime in with how he sets his performing area boundaries.

It might be even harder to make room for a BMX act, depending on the type of skills being done.
Sure it does. One day, an audience of people never knew Street unicycling existed. The next day, BAM! They see someone doing it. Seeing it live is always better than on the tiny YouTube screen, or even on TV. There is no way in which this is bad for the sport, unless you have someone doing it on every street corner, and they're all the same or boring.

Performing on unicycles also does not bastardize the sport. What is your definition of bastardize, BTW?
Yes, they think it's a circus act, but that's not the reason for minimal sponsoring. The reason for that is minimal market. Until unicycling makes money for more people, there is no budget for sponsorship. It is a tiny sport compared to most. Though it might not be as tiny as oddballs like Luge, those have the luxury of being Olympic sports, which means governments will set aside money to "sponsor" their athletes. We don't have that, at least not yet.
The people who are supposed to be doing PR for unicycling (organizations like USA and IUF) definitely suck at the PR part. Of course they are volunteers and have no budget. The people "in the business" do more, but they are also limited on budget. Money would definitely help, but there's little enough coming from sales of unicycles.

Oh, and "F" people who do stuff I'm not interested in too, if that helps.

Perhaps you missed my disclaimer? I thought I made it clear that my "fuck the circus" comment was clearly referring to those that can't see that there are branches of uni dovorced from the circus. Again, I think circus folk are crazy skilled, but it isn't my bag, and has about as much to do with what I like on a uni as lawn bowling. If you can't see how a trials or muni rider doing street shows isn't bastardizing the sport they love, then my ability to communicate via an iPhone on a forum is clearly lacking the man loves to rip sweet lines, not prostitute himself to a crowd of people who take him for a circus act

[riverman]

Perhaps an analogy can convey the meaning my words are unable to.

Tell arisophanes that his comedy, though great, should be practiced in the offtime while he writes tragedy for his bread and butter, because that is what the audience respects

[Luke Collalto]

Originally Posted by johnfoss

Sure it does. One day, an audience of people never knew Street unicycling existed. The next day, BAM! They see someone doing it. Seeing it live is always better than on the tiny YouTube screen, or even on TV. There is no way in which this is bad for the sport, unless you have someone doing it on every street corner, and they're all the same or boring.

You have a point. I was thinking about the 'image', but its irrelevant if nobody knows about it.

YouTube videos are very useful if they are well produced (I wouldn't put my videos in this category), and made in the style of bmx/skate vids. I imagine it would give the feeling of catching a glimpse at a much larger/more popular sport. Likewise, the best performance is probably just going out riding, having fun, in your city. A well executed, free demonstration would probably also have a positive effect.

But when people street perform, asking for money, it alienates potential riders. You don't watch a street performance to be inspired but to be impressed. You think that the performer is a rare, dedicated professional, who has probably practiced his whole life. And of course it just reinforces the circus act association.

[johnfoss]

Originally Posted by riverman

the man loves to rip sweet lines, not prostitute himself to a crowd of people who take him for a circus act

Shaun, yes. He has indicated he's not interested in performing for a living. So this is about a hypothetical Shaun, or other Street expert. So, if they take him for a circus act, he's not presenting it like a sport. It can be done, very effectively, both ways. I've been doing it for a long time.

But to be a "good" street show, you probably also have to factor in the hat ($$$). Which probably makes it tougher to educate about a sport vs. entertain an audience to the point that they'll contribute. For that, it depends on how you measure your success/effectiveness.

Originally Posted by Luke Collalto

But when people street perform, asking for money, it alienates potential riders.

Again, it depends on the way you present the skills. I'm sure there are many members of these forums who were inspired to learn juggling, or other skills, by seeing performers. This includes me. I vividly remember the performance that first exposed me to "extreme" unicycling (1970s version). This included a guy riding a 5 or 6-foot giraffe over a jump ramp, among other things. I was certain he was going to die. When he didn't, I was sure it was something I wanted to do someday.

Besides, people don't need help in thinking unicycles are impossible. They all seem quite sure of this all on their own, if you listen to their comments...

[GILD]

Originally Posted by Luke Collalto

You don't see bmx riders street performing.

Erm...

http://vimeo.com/12707494


And by the way, how is "making videos in the style of bmx/skate videos" NOT "bastardising the sport"?!?

Shouldn't we be making them in the style of uni videos if we are to have unicycling recognised as this "serious sport" so many people seem so desperate to achieve?

We're always going to be behind the 8-ball on this one.
The thing that catches the attention and imagination of an audience is taking a common skill/experience, and performing it at an unbelievable level.
We've all (ok, 95% tolerance here) ridden a b*ke and tried a skateboard.
To see skilled performers do their thing blows our minds because we have a grasp of how difficult it is.
How many members of the general public have ever tried their hands at unicycling?
And those that have, have either become riders or are perpetuating the myth that it's impossible, unless you're a 14yo Korean circus performer.
Which is nonsense, yet it remains the "default position".
People are funny that way.
I thought your American political process would've made this clear to you by now?

I go back to a position I've held for a very long time.
Unicycling will not become "big" unless it was possible to do it badly.
You can buy a board and all the necessary shoes and ill-fitting clothes and hang out with the skater crowd.
You don't actually need to ride.

You just can't do that with a unicycle.

And until you can, unicycling, in all it's many and varied forms, will remain, in the public mind, a highly specialised, niche activity.
With circus-like learning- and practise-dedication seen as crucial.

So, sorry Shaun, don't try n make money from this sport by being excellent at it, make it possible for people to do it badly, and you might be onto a goldmine.