Marty From 99.9 KEZ in Phoenix posted another video! Watch it below!

Today was Paul and Brandon’s last day. These guys are some of the funniest, most intelligent people I’ve had the privilege of working with.

Paul is an incredibly creative individual. Very rarely do I work with someone that bounces so many amazing ideas to me that is overwhelming.

Brandon is one of the hardest workers I know and I swear he doesn’t sleep.

Our last meal of the tour was at this great breakfast place called Matt’s. Local and organic, just how I like it. As we walked up to Matt’s we noticed KEZ 99.9’s on location van out front. Sitting there was Marty Manning, one of the radio personalities. When he saw our “Duncan Yo-Yo Professional” shirts he pulled out the camera and did a cool segment about our stay in Phoenix. Watch it below!

We had the chance to stop in at Toy Town in San Ysdiro to do some demos and hang out for a while. San Ysidro California is about as close as you can get to the border of the United States and Mexico.  Since this was Hanks first day on tour  we dared him to hop the fence at the border…and he did! Scroll to the bottom to see an action shot of him hopping the fence!

Professor Pennypickle is his name, and his home is at the Imagination Workshop Childrens Museum in Temecula California. The professor has opened his home to the public, and it’s one fun and cool place to check out if your ever in the area. We had the opportunity to stop in at the museum and perform, and the crowd loved us. It was definitely a fun time for all.

Paul has been on tour long enough now its time to bring up some details about his life that unless you share a room with him every evening you may or may not be aware of.

Here it is folks,
Paul snores.

But maybe snoring isn’t actually the right word. A discussion was held today about how we should re dub Jurassic Park raptor scenes with Paul’s snores. Then I believe Bride thought the Chainsaw Massacre would be more appropriate. Occasionally Paul’s restful actions are much akin to puppies chasing things in their dreams. Heavy panting, barking, squeaking, rumbling and making running motions.

Most notable about Paul’s snore however is his range. His vocabulary if you will. Mark Hayward saw it as truly astonishing, where in a world where snoring was a language, Paul would be a living dictionary.

So thus we applaud you Mr. Escolar for your vigilance, and your volume. We applaud you for what is indeed, an Epic Snore.

In other news…
Today’s Puzzle Zoo gig went well. We had all hands on deck (Seth, Brandon, Paul and Brian) which was great and there was decent foot traffic through out. From the demo we had a great dinner with some of the local players before heading to a small party a friend had planned to throw in our honor. For me personally the party was great because my big sister showed up! I haven’t seen my big sis in over a year so it was fabulous to have a chance to catch up in person and just chill out with a bunch of cool people. Definite props to Flip for having us, he and I used to throw parties all the time together and I don’t think he’s lost the touch.

In the morning we head down to San Diego/La Jolla area for our gig at Totally Thomas from 4-6pm. Should be a blast, join us if you’re in the area.

Best
E

I know recently I just keep talking about what a blur things are and how fast we’re moving, but honestly it continues to be shocking to me how much momentum we’ll suddenly pick up and how sustained it is!

The past twoish days are one big blur in my mind, and mostly because they’ve been so exciting. There are a lot of players in the LA area, and between busy demos we’ve had a chance to visit and spend time with many of them. Another perk of LA is how many friends I have here. Literally hundreds of Emerson Alumni who I’ve known for years live and work in this area and being able to see them here and there has been awesome. It seems they might even be throwing us players a last minute party in honor of our brief visit. I’m really excited to just hang out and talk with people instead of squeeze them in during or between demos! Check this, my big sister also lives down here. We haven’t seen each other for more than a year! We’ll be meeting up sometime early this week, I’m wicked excited.

Anyway, as mentioned before demos have been great. Promenade and Valencia Puzzle Zoo stores were both active with high volume foot traffic and as a result some high volume yo-yoing. The staff at both stores were really really cool people and seemed really happy to have us there. I hope we managed to entertain them as much as they did us! We also had a couple players come out to visit and some kids who are learning to juggle as well.

Today’s demos were really different than most of our past gigs, just by demographic and type of location. Small Wonders is in Rolling Hill Estates just south of LA, and Tom’s Toys is a relatively famous store in Beverly Hills. With some high class clientele, complimented by high class store owners and staff, I have to say it was a good time! Except, sad day, my phone kicked the bucket. I’ve had an iPhone for some time now, and this summer it ended up with a heavy shattering crack in the screen. However! All was well for months and month until… dun dun duuun, today. With a slight slip and small flip the phone made contact with a surface just hard enough to knock it out for good. Lets hope I can find a replacement ASAP!!!!!!

Tomorrow is Toys’R'Us in Glendale, 4-6, don’t miss us!

Wow, three days have wizzed by and its all a bit of a blur. Its just Paul and I right now, and between gigs and players we’ve been pretty much booked solid! Unfortunately we had to say good bye to Mr. Hayward two days ago (he flew out of Sacramento early yesterday). It was awesome to have him on board, I wish he could have stayed longer! Alas he had other commitments to attend to so I hope we’ll see him again here and there when we hit the upper east coast.

Our locations have all been pretty good, notably today’s locations had a lot of traffic as we’re now later in the week and I have to throw a big thanks to the staff at the Wooden Horse and D&J for being wicked interactive and a big part of the fun. Everyone was really into learning how to teach yo-yo as well as how to actually yo-yo themselves and as a result we had a whole crowd of people working with the kids. It was great.

I have to say though, for me this leg of the tour has been a trip down memory lane. I lived off and on in San Francisco for 6 years, but its now been more than 3 years since my last visit and a lot has changed, both me and the city. Its really cool to walk around this place having traveled exponentially more around the world since my last visit and have little nostalgic moments and be able to still appreciate the beauty and awesomeness of this city. It really is a hip place, and full of cool people.

Last night we came into the city to meet up with some players and hung out in particular with Seth who is still hanging around. I got to go down to where my old gigs were and as you can see below I posed in the action of trying to break in. But check it out, our name is still on the buzzer! Apartment B baby, Lamprecht and Muller-Eberhard! I guess they still miss us.

Anyway, thanks to bay area players, Jamba Juice, the Golden Gate Bridge, and our locations for being awesome, and if your in the area we’ve got A Child’s Delight and Talbots coming up tomorrow. Should be pretty rad.

Toots
E