YoYo Player

Mark & Steve dive into the history of Fiend Magazine, the first full-color magazine dedicated to yoyoing. It only lasted 4 issues (kinda) and died a glorious death. This is the final episode of Season One! We'll be back in 2025 with Season Two. This episode brought to you by YoYoExpert.com.

Mark & Steve talk through the making of the "How To Be A Player Vol. 1 & 2" videos during their time with Duncan. Originally released in 2001, these VHS tapes were commercially released and quickly became cult classics yoyo players and fans of VHS kitsch.This episode brought to you by YoYoExpert.com.

Steve and Mark talk through the history of The Yonomicon, the most feared, inspiring, and confusing book in the history of yoyoing. Original released almost 20 years ago, a newly revised edition is now available at Yonomicon.com!This episode brought to you by YoYoExpert.com.Theme music is "Runaway" by Reconciler.

Steve and Mark talk through the history of 3A style, which started as a joke used for publicity photos in the 50s and became a full-blown style once Mark got his hands around it. This episode brought to you by YoYoExpert.com.Theme music is "Runaway" by Reconciler.

Steve and Mark talk about Team Losi, the R/C car company that gave Steve his first big break as a demonstrator. Brought to you by YoYoExpert, the best place to do expert things with expert yoyos, especially if you want to do those things expertly.

Steve and Mark sit down and talk through the beginning of 5A - how it started, what inspired it, and discuss the full starting history of this unique style of yoyo play.

Mark & Steve discuss the Bill Liebowitz Classic, known as the BLC, a former regional yoyo contest held in Los Angeles, California. They talk about contest culture in general, an old beef from when the two of them didn't agree on something for like 10 years, and where they think contests should be heading. Apologies for the audio quality. We know a lot about yoyos but we have no idea wtf we are doing with this podcast.

Mark & Steve discuss the Triple D Classic, a one-off yoyo contest they ran in Los Angeles in the early 2000s. It was in a punk rock dive bar, had three bands playing between divisions, no scoring system whatsoever, and all the parents started drinking at noon. It might have been the best contest ever.

Mark and Steve settle in to talk about the filming of the Duncan 2004 Philippine National YoYo Contest DVD. It was a whirlwind trip to Manila filled with yoyo players, toy historians, strippers, balut, and more good times than you can shake a stick at.

Our second episode story is dedicated to Mark McBride's origin story. Find out how a film student in Tallahassee wandered into a comic book store in Los Angeles and ended up becoming a professional yoyo player who would eventually go on to create 3A-style yoyoing, one of the five divisions of play at every yoyo contest in the world.

Our first episode story is dedicated to Steve Brown's origin story. Find out how he went from homeless in Tallahassee to becoming a professional yoyo player who would eventually go on to create 5A (counterweight) style yoyoing, one of the five divisions of play at every yoyo contest in the world. It's a hell of a story.

YoYo Player is a podcast about the modern history of yoyoing from two of the guys who helped make it. Before the global yoyo boom of the late 90s, two guys in Florida sat in the back of a kite store and dreamed up what would eventually become significant foundational advancements to the art, sport, and promotion of yoyo play. Almost 30 years later they're looking back on where it all started, poking holes in each other recollections, and laughing their asses off about the whole thing. Hosted by Mark McBride and Steve Brown.