A New Spin on an Old Skill

Have yo-yos, will travel.

That could very well be the motto of the Golden Apple Yo-Yo Corps, a local team of about 35 spin-meisters who are available to strut their stuff at schools, libraries, private parties and corporate events.

The Golden Apple Yo-Yo Corps has its own brochure and promotional videotape. But what sets this outfit apart from other performers for hire is the fact that many of its members--who perform in groups of twos or threes--aren’t even old enough to drive to their gigs.

Eleven-year-olds Robbie Uslan and Derek Wyatt have been practicing this craft for less than 18 months. Yet both are highly proficient single-handed (and in Robbie’s case, double-handed) yo-yoers. Best friends, Robbie and Derek often perform together as representatives of the Golden Apple Yo-Yo Corps.

“I used to practice hours and hours a day. Probably about five hours a day,” Robbie recalls while executing a series of flashy maneuvers.

“We would come home and pick up the yo-yo and start [practicing immediately],” Derek adds. “But now [that we’ve attained a certain level of expertise], it’s like we do it when we have extra time. It’s more like an hour a day now.”

The Golden Apple Yo-Yo Corps is the brainchild of Bill Liebowitz, himself a yo-yo prodigy while growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y., during the 1950s. Liebowitz owns the Golden Apple comic book store, which has locations in Hollywood and Northridge.

In spring 1998, the garrulous entrepreneur was alerted to the possibility of a yo-yo revival. When the boom materialized shortly thereafter, Liebowitz not only was well-stocked with the latest yo-yos, but also was prepared to offer courses and demonstrations.

“Eventually, the classes got so popular that we had to rent out parking lots at the locations of the two stores,” he recalls. “We were having classes at the Valley store on Saturdays and at the Melrose Avenue store on Sundays.

“We were attracting 200, 300 people sometimes. We had visiting pros come in. We were renting P.A. systems. We had celebrities coming down with their kids. We were just having a great time and selling a hell of a lot of yo-yos.”

The Golden Apple Yo-Yo Corps was an outgrowth of this craze. When the fad inevitably faded last summer, Liebowitz was pleased to discover that the enthusiasm remained undiminished among many of his most talented players.

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Liebowitz is the senior member of the yo-yo squad. The group also includes a number of young adults and several father-son teams. Last year, the team’s father-daughter tandem of Joe and 11-year-old Farrah Siegel won first place during a segment of the cable TV talent show “The Extreme Gong Show.”

Farrah is one of the group’s few female members. Although the world championship yo-yo crown was worn by a female (17-year-old Jennifer Baybrook) two years ago, the backbone of this “sport” remains 8- to 12-year-old boys.

Jennifer Niles, adult coach of the Golden Apple team, believes kids today are particularly well-equipped to master this enduring toy.

A year ago, Niles was teaching her young disciples yo-yo tricks. Now these kids are more likely to be showing her new maneuvers.

“The kids are learning faster these days,” says Niles, who has been seriously working yo-yos for only a few years. “These kids have been doing it anywhere from eight months to a year and a half, and have gotten to levels that adults are still trying to achieve.”

A big reason, she thinks, is that these youngsters have good hand-eye coordination. “I think all the video games the kids play today helps,” Niles says. “I’m a video game person myself, so I think that’s a reason why I’ve gotten better.”

The yo-yos have also gotten a lot more sophisticated and user-friendly in recent years. The Golden Apple stores carry a vast array of yo-yos, from the $6 Spintastics Technics to the $200 Super-Yo Samurai. The more expensive models have ball-bearing axles that allow for greater “sleep” time, meaning they can spin at the bottom of the string a lot longer than yo-yos with old-fashioned fixed axles. This allows for longer and more elaborate tricks. Niles says it’s possible for an expert yo-yoer to achieve up to a 12-minute sleep time with the Super-Yo Samurai.

“A lot of these kids [in the Golden Apple Yo-Yo Corps] will stay with it longer compared to when I was a boy,” says Liebowitz. “All we had back then were wood-axle yo-yos, and you couldn’t do very much with them. So keeping up enthusiasm was difficult.”

The members of the corps converge every Sunday between noon and 2 p.m. for practices and contests. These get-togethers alternate between Liebowitz’s two stores. Novices are welcome to attend and receive free instruction.

Performances at schools and libraries by team representatives can be educational as well as entertaining. Adult members not only demonstrate their yo-yo prowess, but also explain the history and physics behind yo-yoing.

The team charges $100 an hour for private parties and $50 an hour for private lessons.

There are other yo-yo teams in Southern California. The Golden Apple Yo-Yo Corps recently held a competition in conjunction with a team that operates out of the Lakewood Video store in Lakewood. But Liebowitz says his unit is by far the most active and visible group of its kind in the area.

The members of the Golden Apple Yo-Yo Corps participate in various competitions. Last year, several went to Chico for a national competition.

“We rented a big tour bus and drove up there,” Liebowitz says. “We went to the yo-yo museum in Chico, and they had dinners and events [surrounding the competition]. It was a terrific outing for the kids and their families. It was like going to a Cub Scout jamboree. It was fun, if your idea of fun is being on a bus with 14 kids who all want to watch Adam Sandler movies!”

BE THERE

Golden Apple stores are at 7711 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 658-6047, and 8962 Reseda Blvd., Northridge, (818) 993-7804. Golden Apple Corps meetings take place at the two stores on alternate Sundays between noon and 2 p.m. Newcomers and yo-yo novices are welcome.