Day 6: FFFFFFFFFFFF-

Day 6 | Show #11 | Hamden, CT

We got to the store and it was being liquidated. Needless to say, we were not happy about that. The store had maybe 20 yoyos in it. So we shot a few of my tricks in the parking lot, hung around for a bit, and then left. Also, Nate likes to make up nonsensical stories.

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Well...

We want to thank all of our blog followers, but this is really becoming more work than anything. Nate and I are pretty busy guys and trying to find time to get these blog posts done just hasn't seem to come to us. Therefore, we have decided to not do posts for every show like we originally intended. In fact, we may skip some shows or even entire days. I've been trying to get video most weekends so maybe we'll turn this into a v-log. I guess we'll all see where things go. Thanks for liking us anyways.

Day 3: "New Hampshire: The South of the North" (Shows #5 & 6)

May 23 | Manchester, NH | 10-1

May 23 | Nashua, NH | 2-5

The start of a new weekend of yoyoing for Nate and I was in NH. Nate's family was already going up there for a trip, so I drove up and met him. I arrived to the T'R'U a half an hour early so decided to go and try to find a place where I could snag something quick to eat. I found a Wal-Mart and decided to go and get some granola bars. Almost immediately after exiting my car, I was verbally harassed. A shirtless guy in his early 20s driving a pick-up truck with another guy, also shirtless, cat-called to me, "Your ass looks nice in those jeans." I could tell from that moment that that day was not going to be one of our most positive experiences.

Discouraged, I informed Nate of my already "interesting" day. He made a point then that really stuck with us; New Hampshire is the South of the North. This is not meant with any offense to people from the South, but with Nate being from Northampton, MA and me going to school in Boston, we are both used to very liberal, open-minded environments. Although NH is in the blue North East, it is not really like what you think of politically or socially when you think of the North East. In fact, we got insulted more times in New Hampshire than any other shows we've done thus far.

Regardless, we hoped that something positive would come from these shows. We quickly found out that this would not be the case. Both of the T'R'U stores that we went to were completely dead. There was little to no foot traffic and even less interest in what we were doing. At the Manchester show, we got stuck in the Star Trek display. At the Nashua store, the manager didn't even know we were coming. These were two of our worst shows yet.

In between shows we got lunch at the only half-decent place we could find around, the 99. For an appetizer, I got a wedge salad. Apparently Nate had no what a wedge salad was and even after me explaining it to him, still doesn't really understand the concept of it. For those of you that don't know, a wedge salad is usually 1/8 a head of iceberg lettuce with dressing, blue cheese crumbles, tomatoes, and bacon bits. For those of us who favor iceberg lettuce, this is a great thing. For Nate, he just could not seem to wrap his head around the concept and why anyone would want to buy/eat it. As I put it, it's a designer part of a head of lettuce.

What else is there to say about New Hampshire? Well, nothing positive, so I guess I'll end it here.

Shoutouts goes to: my roommate Austin and his girlfriend Celia for showing up in Nashua and surprising us. You two are awesome. Also, thanks to Austin for running up to me when I was going into the store and making me think I was going to get mugged.

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Day 2: "Jeff has yo-yos on yo-yos" (Show #4)

May 17 | Framingham, MA | 2-5

After experiencing for the first time, the chain burrito store known as Chipotle, Jeff and I drive to Framingham, MA. We quickly enter and find ourselves in one of the cleanest stores we have been to yet. The manager was quick and helpful and knew just who we were. Just as we were setting up our table, Andrew Dalton arrived! It was good to see a familiar face and another yo-yoer. There were a couple of kids who stuck around and learned tricks. Altogether, it was a good day.

Shout outs are in order for Cami for coming out and visiting us and bringing a camera, Andrew for showing up and doing some rad tricks. The wonderful people at chipotle who tirelessly spend their days making delicious food, just for us to eat.

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Andrew Dalton came out to our Framingham show and hung out with us for a while. Here are a few of his tricks.

Day 2: "Jeff has yo-yos on yo-yos" (Show #3)

May 17 | Dedham, MA | 10-1

Dedham? More like DEADham.

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Nate and Jeff explain the problems with the Dedham store;
Nate does a yo-yo trick

Day 2: "Jeff has yo-yos on yo-yos" (Show #3)

May 17 | Dedham, MA | 10-1

Dedham is exactly the kind of place you would imagine if you only heard it's name. It's a town that shares a border with one of the worst parts of Boston. Needless to say, the Toys 'R' Us in such a place shared qualities similar to the entire town.

The first thing we noticed upon arriving in the parking lot was the employee cars parked all in a row and Jeff said to me "I wonder where the employees are supposed to park" or something to that effect. The store was not yet open, so I decided to play the good ol' match the employee to the vehicle game. We were informed to show up 15 minutes early, so when that time rolled around we decided to follow an employee into the exit door. A manager came to the door, and at first gave us the strangest look. Then almost simultaneously we all thought and vocalized something similar to "Yo-Yos". He was a portly man, who was mostly bald. His bright red shirt and his far too short khaki pants only made me want to chuckle more as he walked us to the area in which we would set up.

We took inventory of what they had stocked. and noticed there were only two Duncan Pulses (our most frequently sold yo-yo at this point). We requested a restock and he informed us that there were several more in the store and he would get 'someone on that' (which never happened). The display was much like the others we had seen so far. There were other brands of yo-yos including one that depicted a character from an anime/strategy game series that I later noticed children recognizing. We did our best to clean the display up as we awaited a table for our setup. What I could have only guessed was the actual manager of this store then came out briefly and asked us very kindly and with much interest how we were doing and after our table arrived, ordered one of the employees to go get us a table cloth.

This was the first show in which we realized it would be a very good idea to set up all of our yo-yos by price point, left to right with the corresponding yo-yos to try sitting in front of them. This proved to be the best way to make the walk ins who came by easily understand the product line.

The foot traffic was very slow, which I attribute to it being early on a Sunday in Dedham, Massachusetts. Some of the people that entered the store were surprised to see such a spectacle in a toy store. Most were enthused. There were several people who tried the yo-yos and reminisced about their younger days. It wasn't until afternoon that a good number of children came into the store and we began to do some teaching.

Shout out to the man that confused me with an employee and asked me where the bubbles were, and when I tried to start to explain to him that I had no idea and that I wasn't an employee said "oh yes.. your a... yo-yo".

Another shout out is in order for the yo-yo kid who showed up as we were packing up. He had a metal yo-yo clutched in his hand and two on his belt loop in yomega holsters. They were sadly all yomega yo-yos, but he did show us a neat trick in which you wrap your string around your head, and then quickly remove it. You were the coolest!

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Day 1: "Double Team" (Show #2)

May 16 | Woburn, MA | 2-5

Ahh, now this one was much better. It was still not what we were initially expecting out of these shows due to lack of advertising, but at least people showed interest.

Right when we got there, the woman at the service desk was so excited to see us. The manager came over and had someone get a table for us. We put our yoyos and the banner on the table and stood around it. The atmosphere in the store was much better and a lot of people seemed pretty interested. The table was definitely a good idea too. We taught quite a few people tricks. There wasn't a constant supply of people, but they would kind of come in waves. It was a lot more fun than the first store. We even sold more yoyos there than at any of the 4 stores we were at that weekend.

It was fine for us that there weren't people there all the time because it gave us a chance to hang out and have fun with each other. During these times, we decided to play with Imperials. Those yoyos are Walk the Dog machines. Seriously, try it. Oh, and Nate has the coolest and most stylish Walk the Dog ever. It's so nonchalant and beautiful.

As time went on, I started trying to push the limit of what I thought was possible with an Imperial. Some of the tricks that I was able to successfully hit (and bring back) were Split the Atom, Kwyjibo, and after a million tries, 3 Eli Hops. I discovered later that because of the throw I had to do with the Imperial, my arm was destroyed. It was killing me the next day. Note to self and others: do not try hard tricks with an Imperial for an hour straight.

Because this experience was so good, we got a lot more excited about the rest of our shows. We knew Framingham, MA the next day was going to be good. It actually ended up being the best so far.

Anyways, shoutout goes to: the girl working at register 4. You tried hitting on Nate, but he wasn't paying attention, so I stepped in. You even said goodbye to us as we were leaving. You were so nice and were totally crushin' on us. Come to some of our other shows. We'll hang out.

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