And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you yo-yo with K-Strass

March 18, 2016 8:49 AM

In 2010 Kenny 'K-Strass' Strasser took the morning news airwaves by storm with his Yo-Yo mastery and environmental wisdom! Enjoy 20 minutes of a compilation of clips with the Zim Zam Yo-Yo Man sharing about his life, and .. um .. yo-yo stuff (plus an ad for Yo-Yo Balls). Things didn't go so well for K-Strass, so Eric Stringer, the Garth Brooks of yo-yos, stepped in, but that didn't mean K-Strass was down for the count. He came back in 2012 for a spot on Team Coco Live, but without the yo-yos.

Mark Proksch sat down with Dave Holmes for a drink and to talk about the history of K-Strass (and part 2), which included Joe Pickett and the Found Footage Festival. As mentioned in A Drink with Dave and on the the Better Call Saul Insider podcast for episode 201, Mark planned on making an arse of himself 12 times, to create a story arc through these morning TV spots, he only made it through 5 to 7 spots before Deadspin caught on, and then it was picked up by NPR, and his planned circuit of TV shows was cut short.

posted by filthy light thief (7 comments total)

Kenny Strasser, Yo-Yo Master previously: "I don't have a girlfriend, don't want one"
posted by filthy light thief at 8:50 AM on March 18, 2016

His character in Better Call Saul was the perfect combination of blinkered incompetence and earnest, misplaced confidence that made you kind of want to root for him, even though you knew he was only going to fuck everything up. I hope his character returns at some point, although things can only end poorly for him.
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:09 AM on March 18, 2016 [4 favorites]

Mark is more or less local to us; he went to college with a good friend of mine, and many of his early appearances were on our local stations. We saw him live with Found Footage and are always thrilled when he pops up in new places. Better Call Saul made me so happy.

Yay, K-Strass!
posted by St. Hubbins at 10:20 AM on March 18, 2016

Hey, good ol' Walter Off-White (as BCS fans call the character).
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:29 AM on March 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Mark is more or less local to us

Neat!


Hey, good ol' Walter Off-White (as BCS fans call the character).

I finally started into the BCS podcasts, and heard that Vince loved these videos so much that he'd stop everyone every now and again to gather folks around to watch these. I though I remembered seeing them years ago, and sure enough, there it was as a post, and now there's even more material (plus one of the two original video links is now dead).
posted by filthy light thief at 12:17 PM on March 18, 2016

He's not very good with the Yo-Yo, to be honest. I was expecting better.
posted by el io at 2:04 PM on March 18, 2016

The Original (and in my mind ONLY TRUE) Yo-Yo Man, especially notable since it's the only time Tommy Smothers shows confidence in his on-stage demeanor.
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:59 PM on March 18, 2016