PlanItNorthwest.com • Sunday, February 3, 2013
| PlanIt Style |
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Young yo-yoer competes statewide Crystal Lake student wins 4th place By JAMI KUNZER jkunzer@shawmedia.com Spotted yo-yoing in a crowd, Lars Burke was asked to entertain last spring during a break at a Karaoke Idol contest in Woodstock. With that, a yo-yo artist was born. The 11-year-old Crystal Lake boy has gone on to win various talent competitions, including a fourth-place finish in January at a statewide talent contest, and hopes to one day be named the best yo-yoer in the world. “You have to keep your mind dedicated to what you’re doing,” he said. “With enough practice, you’ll get it done.” A Star 105.5 employee first spotted Lars at a Karaoke contest the radio station hosted. Asked to entertain briefly, Lars quickly discovered his passion. “I had tons of fun,” said Lars, a fifth-grader at West Elementary School in Crystal Lake. From then on, he practiced. And practiced some more. He watched YouTube videos until he found the tricks he wanted to do, and then he replayed them. “He’ll keep working until he gets it,” said his mother, Monica Skylling. In June, he competed in and won the Harvard Milk Days talent competition. He used his winnings to buy a nicer yo-yo. And then in August, he tried out for the McHenry County fair competition but did not make the Top 8. So he practiced throughout the week and took on the Boone County
Fair the next weekend. Out of 19 acts, he came in second place. Because the first place winners couldn’t compete in a statewide competition in Springfield, Lars was asked to go to represent Boone County. Out of 76 acts at the Illinois Association of Agricultural Fairs talent competition, Lars won fourth place. His goal was simply to make the Top 10. “When I got on stage, I was really happy because I was finally here. This is it. It’s all or nothing,” Lars remembered of the competition. “I’m yoyoing and I’m having a great time, and there was so much audience interaction. Everyone loved it.” He now hopes to compete in the Illinois State Yo-Yo Contest later this year and eventually go on to the World Yo-Yo Contest. He only just picked up a yo-yo early last year when a classmate introduced him to it. “I started yo-yoing with a group of kids to a point where I was the only one left yoyoing,” he said. “it’s fun, and I can’t really explain my amusement of it. Some people in my class, they’re just like, ‘That’s so boring. I can only go down and up.’ But with enough practice and a good yo-yo, you can do these crazy tricks.” His mother credits Star 105.5 for her son’s ambition. “That spur of the moment offer for Lars to yo-yo by Star 105.5 certainly changed the course of the past year for him, and may have even given him the confidence to change his life,” she said.
Photo provided
Lars Burke, 11, of Crystal Lake, performs in September at an appreciation dinner for the volunteers who made the 2012 Boone County Fair possible. Burke won second place in the fair talent competition and went on to compete statewide.
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