Meeting Monk

by Crazy Ivan

Monk and I have been friends now for more than four years and roommates for more than two.  We've also been coworkers for that whole time but in our company the words coworkers and friends are pretty much interchangeable.

When you've known someone that long it's fun to look back on the time when you first met.  It's especially fun if you happened to have video of that exact moment.

To explain, I have to begin with a short primer on how Monk became a Myachi Master.  He received his first Myachi (an Electric Orange Shag) as a gift from a friend.  Monk was an accomplished flair bartender long before and was a big fan of all things skill.  His buddy saw him doing some crazy tricks with a bottle of Gatorade and said, "dude, I have the perfect toy for you."

For years, the EO Shag sat next to his computer.  Monk was an avid online gamer for a while and he used his Myachi while he was waiting for downloads or opponents.  After a while, he noticed the website listed on the tag and checked us out.

After seeing a few videos he shot an e-mail to Myachi Man complimenting him on an awesome game and letting him now that if he needed help in the NY area to give him a shout.

By cooincidence, we were actually looking to hire somebody to help us with FAO Shwarz so MM e-mailed him back and invited him to come out and meet us.  As luck would have it, we were scheduled to film our first TV commercial a few days later so MM invited him to come out and hang with us and about 100 kids who were also appearing in the ad.



Monk shows up at this palatial estate (we were filming in a compound that contained no fewer than five mansions) and pulled his Volvo in behind all the Mercedes, Lexus and Cadillacs and hopped out.  Myachi Man was pretty easy to find (just look for the mass of kids following him) so he popped over and introduced himself.

In addition to filming the commercial, we'd also invited a few NYU students out to film a short documentary about the making of our commercial.  Myachi Man was crazy busy for about 16 hours that day so he shook hands with Monk and then apologetically wandered off to take care of one of the dozen emergencies that required his attention.

So Monk set about learning some new moves.  It wasn't long before the kids started challenging him to MYACH games so he spent half an hour getting schooled by cats half his age.  I'm guessing that he would cream any one of them if they offered him a rematch today, but that's beside the point.

So while he's wandering around in awe of all the insanity going on, I'm getting interviewed by these NYU students.  They ask me to throw down a shred so I do a few tricks and eventually end on a long foot combo (Instep > Clipper Delay > Toe > Toe 360 > Outstep > Gui, all right foot) and all of a sudden this dude goes ballistic.

"Do that again!" he demands excitedly.  Now I'd never met the dude before so I assumed he was with the NYU students.  I gladly complied and threw down the same combo once more.  He's smiling ear to ear and trying a few of the tricks.  "Were you a soccer player?" he asked.

"No..." I answered and popped the Myachi back to my hands for a quick upper body shred.

"Must have been a heck of a hackey-sacker then," he concluded.

"Not really," I admitted, "I learned all of this stuff with a Myachi."

Now, that's exactly the exchange we had, verbatim.  How do I know?  Well, throughout it, the cameras were rolling.  I didn't realize it at the time and for years I didn't know that moment had been captured.

Now fast forward four years to the filming of our second commercial.  The production company that was doing it asked if we still had any of the raw footage from the first shoot so they could add a few more outdoors shots.

Myachi Man still had all the old video so he started looking through it about a week ago trying to figure out what to send them.  While he's picking through it (as I'm sure you've guessed by now) he comes across this brief exchange between Monk and I.

I'd long since forgotten about the whole exchange so when Myachi Man hands me this DVD it came as a surprise.  "Check this out when you get a chance," he says, "you'll love it."

"What is it?" I asked but he wasn't exactly forthcoming with his answer.

Monk was actually off camera the whole time so the video is just me shredding and talking to a disembodied voice.  If it hadn't been for Monk's unmistakable laugh I might not have realized who I was talking to at all.  As it stands I watch the video and think to myself... "Wow, there was a time when I was better at Myachi than Monk."

In case you're curious, no, the video is not yet publicly available.  I can't put it on You-Tube because of the format of the DVD so I've got Myachi Man digging through his massive collection of old videos in hopes that he will eventually come across a version I can share.

Myachi Man should have that done in no time, I would think.  It's not like designing new series, dealing with our manufacturers, dealing with our vendors, tracking our accounts, dealing with our PR firm, finalizing our IPO, approving our commercial, scheduling our trade show tour, developing our new products, dealing with payroll and attending meetings with our distributors takes all of his time...