Yosama bin Trickin

Well, it’s official. I’m finally a terrorist.

I was riding the train home from Dark Heresy on Monday night, and when I switched at Five Points, there was a 15 minute wait for the next train. Digging around in my bag for a book, I found that I had brought my yo-yo! I always told myself I should carry it for just such emergencies, and this time I was ready.

I took it out and stepped to the center of the platform. I started with a couple gravity pulls and some forward passes. Then I moved on to Around the World, Walk the Dog, and Rock the Cradle. By this point, I had a decent audience, and a group of young guys across the tracks started calling out requests. As usual, they really only knew Walk the Dog and Rock the Cradle, so they were quite impressed with Split the Atom and Man on the Flying Trapeze.

Once I had shown all my tricks, I decided to finish with Skyrocket. I was all prepared to do the trick when 3 MARTA cops approached me. Here’s how it went down:

MARTA Cop: “What are you doing?”

Me: “Tricks”

MARTA Cop: “What kind of tricks?”

Me: “Well, the next one’s called Shoot the Moon.” (It’s actually Skyrocket, but I was a little flustered.)

MARTA Cop (scowling angrily): “I’m about to ask you to leave the station. Do you want to step to the side and act like you’re waiting for a train!”

Me: “Yes, ma’am.”

Other MARTA passengers: “BOOOOOOO!”

I moved over to the side and waited, all the while the other passengers were booing and grumbling. Once the cops left the platform, I hurried to the center and attempted Skyrocket, but botched it miserably, so I gave up.

Riding the train home, I was cheered by all the young guys who had been requesting tricks. They had some good advice and thoughts on what had occurred:

  • I should have forced the cop to tackle me. Then I could have sued. There were dozens of witnesses who would have backed me up. Actual quote: “Let her tackle you! That would have been a $10,000 trick!”
  • One possible reason I was stopped: “You were disturbing the people who just wanted to piss in the elevator in peace.”
  • It’s ok to beg for money on the MARTA, but displaying any sort of useful skill is strictly forbidden.

My final takeaway: I need to practice Skyrocket some more, because it would have been awesome if I could have pulled it off right in front of the cop. It totally would have been worth getting kicked out of the station.