All language subtitles for Catching.Air.2023.720p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

Downloaded from
YTS.MX

[casual rock music playing]

Like a lot of people
in the community,

it's something that,
um, is just always done.

Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

I was always that guy that's,
"Oh, I love this song,"

so I am just automatically
playing the guitar.

I grew up watching MTV
more than, like, Sesame Street.

That's what I would see,
is people, you know,

onstage, rockin' around,
and you just try and mimic that.

It just becomes
your way of expressing

what you love about a song.

It was something
I was born to do, you know,

because I've always worked
in mailrooms,

but I never really
found my calling,

and always played
air guitar at home.

It was always
my number one passion.

And then when I heard
about the air guitar thing,

coming to San Francisco
in 2006--

I was-- "This is it,
this is my calling."

What air guitar is truly about,
which is having fun...

and driving 18 plus hours
to perform

for one, maybe two minutes
at most,

which is...

an odd thing to do.

[smooth rock music playing]

[Matt Burns] An air guitar
contest is one-third rock show,

one-third comedy show,
and one-third sporting event.

Everybody who competes
in an air guitar contest

is, like,
part of the air guitar family.

Like, if you're weird enough

to travel halfway
across the country,

to pretend to do something
for 60 seconds,

we think you're awesome.

That, in and of itself,
is pretty awesome.

[Beth Melin] The purpose
behind air guitar

was to spread
the idea of world peace.

You bring competitors in
from around the world.

Why can't we all just
hang out and rock out together,

and be silly and have fun,
and ignore all of the other shit

that might come up
between countries,

and between people,

because we all know
that we love music,

and we're all human.

Life and peace
are more important

than any sort of silly arguments
that we might have.

If you are holding
an air guitar,

you can't hold a gun.

Wars would end,
violence would stop,

everybody would be happy.

And it works.
I've seen this happen.

I can be goin' head to head
with somebody.

You can be angry,
you can be grumpy.

And then you start
playing air guitar

with your mortal enemy.

Everything is good,

and everything
is right with the world.

[Burns] In Finland,
a bunch of college kids

had an assignment,
"Realistically,

what's the best way
that you can make world peace?"

And their answer was,

"If everybody in the world
picked up an air guitar,

theoretically, they couldn't be
holding a rifle."

So, there'd be no more war.
Boom, we did it.

And they were like, "That's
actually kind of a fun idea,"

so air guitar
competitions started.

They were like,
"Come, be peaceful,

put your guns down and pick up
air guitars," kind of stuff.

And that has just
grown and grown and grown,

as the defining message
of why we do all this.

The scoring system in air guitar

is on a 4.0 to 6.0 scale,

which is just
like Olympic gymnastics,

because really, it's that tough.

And, oh, it's not that tough.

We're scored on three things.

Technical merit,

stage presence, and airness.

Technical merit
is whether it kind of looks like

you might be playing
an actual guitar.

Um, believe it or not,
that's a little important.

Uh, stage presence
is how you light up the crowd,

and I think that one
is really, really important.

Um, and airness, of course,

is that certain je ne sais quoi

that people
either have or they don't.

Airness, it is--
it is one of those things--

it's-- it's undefinable.

You-- by definition.

As they say, um,
you can't really define it.

But you know it when you see it,

so I'm just going to
kind of leave that

for your interpretation.

The momentary suspension
of reality,

but it's so believable,

and you just bring everyone
into that space.

'Kay, so it's one person,
playing their heart out,

and showing you who they are,

or a version
of who they could be.

To make that believable,
and entertaining,

is its own little art form.

Sometimes I don't think
it's a matter of getting it,

it's just a matter of having it.

Some people
just have it naturally.

It's charisma.

I think it's the kind of
thing where,

you know, sometimes
you see people talk,

and you can't take
their eyes off them.

Someone on stage, like,
when they get up onstage,

and then they just--

you can't keep
your eyes off of them,

and you can be
a terrible air guitarist,

but have lots of airness.

[Eric Melin] That moment
where the people

that are watching
a performer realize

that they are fully enjoying,

with every fiber of their being,

what they're seeing onstage,
and they can't explain why.

It no longer matters

that that person
isn't holding a guitar,

that their performance
has gone beyond

and has become,
whole other thing

that is completely entertaining.

You get this electricity going,

that it c-- it--
it transcends the medium.

It becomes a real thing
in that one minute.

And those people that
are standing in the crowd,

get moved for half a second,

but you can see it
on their faces like, "What?"

Yeah, it just-- that's airness.

There's airness
that you judge on the stage,

and then there's this
other airness,

which I think also bleeds
into the performance.

And if you're willing
to look with a pure heart,

you can really see
someone's airness.

When you see airness,
it is dreadfully apparent.

It takes you away.

You forget that
you're watching some asshole

flailing around on a stage.

A lot of air guitar
is some asshole

flailing around on a stage.

Honestly, that's what
I'm there for, it's amazing.

But...

when you see Matt Burns...

take the entire crowd
on a journey with him,

by flailing around
on a stage like an asshole,

that's airness,
but I can't explain it.

[Burns] There's so many people,
at every show,

who's never been there before.

But one of the things
I love about this so much,

it's like a challenge.

Like, how do I entertain
a crowd with nothing?

I have a minute
to make people love it,

to be happy that they spent
money on a ticket.

A lot of people show up,
and they're like,

"Did you hear
these guys are going to pretend

to play guitar,
but the beer's cheap, let's go."

You know, and they start
laughing at first,

and then after, like,

three people go,
they're startin' to--

they see it a few times,

and then somebody is awesome.

Like, the guy
that's going to win that night?

Whenever he goes,
you feel it in the crowd,

that it clicks for everybody

that didn't
understand it before.

They get it then.

And immediately,
the rest of the night,

that dude
who came here to laugh at it?

The next person'll go,
he'll be like,

"You know, his left hand
was a little bit sloppy,

I don't know, I don't know."

Like, everybody
becomes an expert on it

by the end of the show.

I have seen people
who have never been

to an air guitar
performance before,

buy a beer so they could
throw it at a judge,

who gave a score
that they disagreed with.

[man speaking indistinctly]

[Andrew Finn] Air guitar has
been such a great hobby for me.

For the last decade,

it's been
a huge part of my life.

Like, when I'm not at work,

or playing with the kids,

I'm practicing air guitar,

and it's such a release,
'cause I work at a desk job.

I wear a shirt with a collar.

And sleeves.

So it's really nice
to have an outlet

where I can be creative,

and I can use
my glue guns and get crafty.

I get to play. Up on stage.

I get to be a grown-up kid,

and that's, like,
the best feeling in the world.

Air guitar definitely
does infringe a little bit

with me, uh, being a good dad.

A regular guy. A guy with a job.

Um, it-- it's tough,
because it takes a lot of time,

um, to practice,
to be ready for a show.

So I wake up and I go to work,

I get done with work,

I take the kids
to whatever activity

that they're doin' that night,
softball, basketball,

or just hangin' out
and eatin' dinner.

Get them taken care of,

and then only after
they're done with their day,

and they're in bed,

that's when I get
to work on my air guitar.

It really more infringes
on the amount of sleep I get,

not the amount of--
of work that I get to do with--

with my kids and my family.

So I'm usually
sleeping a lot less,

because I stay up
to play air guitar.

It's an extra job
that I have to do.

My game is strong.

I feel like it's better
than it was last year,

and last year I finished
eighth in the nation.

It was only a couple of spots
better than that,

so I figure I've got a chance.

A legit shot.

[Tina Finn] A lot of
the spouses in air guitar

are very supportive
of one another.

We have two kids
that still go to school,

need things like a lunch packed,

and we are-- we're a team
on that kind of stuff.

But then there are nights
or afternoons on a weekend,

or whatever the case may be,

where he needs
to practice, and--

and I can tell
when he's stressed

or coming up to a show,

and I'm constantly asking,
or-- or observing...

is-- has he had enough time
to practice for a show,

and get prepared for a show.

But I don't get to see
a performance before he does it.

I just kind of know that he's...

gotten enough practice time,

and whether
he's feeling well-prepared

for the show or not.

What you guys
are going to see tonight

are 20
of the best air guitarists

from the entire Midwest,

who have all gathered here

for your enjoyment, to pick--

and this is what
we're going to do tonight,

this is a really big deal--

three people
are going to advance

to national finals
in Austin, Texas.

[crowd cheering]

[grunge music playing]

[Eric] I was 22 when
my first band got signed.

Truck Stop Love.

We were from Manhattan, Kansas,

and it was right
after Nirvana got popular.

That moment, that explosion,

where the record
companies realized

alternative music is a thing,
and it sells,

and so everybody
was looking for a grungy band.

And we were
the grungy Midwestern guys

who played Americana
pop rock stuff,

but filtered through
a really fuzzy guitar.

We were signed
to Scotti Brothers Records,

home of Survivor and Weird Al.

I first met Eric,

his old band,
Truck Stop Love played,

uh, at The Outhouse in Lawrence,

and I really liked him,

and thought
he was an amazing drummer.

And went up afterwards
to just like,

"Wow!
You're an amazing drummer,"

and we just started talkin',

and hit it off,

and have been--
have been friends since.

I was going to K State
for college, of course,

but also I was like, "Dude...

I hear there's a lot of
good bands there,"

and Eric was in one of those
bands, Truck Stop Love.

But I'd known him already,

he worked at Streetside Records,
and I worked at the Subway.

And him and I would
always hang out.

He'd come over, have a sub.

We'd talk some rock.
It was great.

In '97, I joined
Ultimate Fakebook.

And Ultimate Fakebook
is the band

that I would eventually make
a living at for the first time,

and we were able
to all quit our day jobs,

and we went on tour.

It was me and Bill McShane,
our singer/songwriter,

and Nick, who would later become
known as Peter "Stiff" Dickens.

Fakebook, we had--

we had a cup
of coffee with Epic 550.

'Bout good year
and a half with them,

maybe two years, so.

We-- we got our major label.

[Eric] When I joined the band,

it was like this weird moment
where we actually, like,

sat together in a-- in--
the three of us in a circle,

and put our arms together

and were like,
"We're doin' this.

We're going to
make this our career."

The goal was to be the band
that we always wanted to see.

And so we dedicated ourselves

to not just writing
really catchy, fun songs,

but making sure
that our live shows

were really present,
really fun, really energetic.

I think about it now.

That was kind of the beginning

of me wanting to do more
than just play the drums.

We were putting on a show,

and it was all about
connecting with the audience.

Then that band broke up,

and that's when
the Dead Girls started.

After Fakebook broke up...

both Eric and I
were pretty burnt.

I mean, we--
we toured all the time,

so I just, like, I didn't have
a day job for, like,

five and a half years.

So when the Dead Girls
kinda started,

Eric was the first one,
he's like, "No practice.

We're not doin' anything.

We're only recording songs
and playing shows."

The old curmudgeon
old men are like, "Oh, dude.

I don't want to go
to Columbia, Missouri.

Come on, give me a break."

We played a lot with that band,

but we didn't really ever tour
or make a lot of money.

It was mostly for fun.

It was just, like,
friends makin' music.

♪ She sounds so sweet ♪

[Eric] We all had day jobs.

You're in the normal world,
paying rent

and doing that kind of stuff,
you have to kind of

do something creative
to satisfy yourself.

The Dead Girls never had
any career aspirations,

and we shot ourselves
in the foot many times.

You know, first off
with our name. [laughs]

When air guitar came along,
I immediately was like,

"Oh, my God, I have to do this."

I really felt like I needed
to be about ten years younger.

2009 was an expansion year
for US Air Guitar.

And they came to Kansas City
for the first time.

Of course, I called up
Nick and Cameron

and I was like,
"I'm entering this.

You guys should come."

[Peter Dickens] "Mean" Melin,
he was like, "Uh, dude,

I'm doing
this air guitar competition,

you should come out,
this could be great."

I'm like,
"You gotta be kiddin'."

I went to go support him,
and I kinda got into it,

and I thought he killed
and Bjorn gave him a...

somewhat questionable score
at first.

[Eric] Uh, Nick just
went off on him.

He-- he was tryin' to hold off,

and make it seem like

he was going to
give me a bad score,

and then he was going to be
the final six of a perfect six.

[Dickens] Called you out,
[indistinct] the Lord?

Come on, he stands--

[Dickens] Yeah, yeah!
He can't be here!

[Dickens] Ace of Spades,
the Ace of Spades.

[Dickens] I know, I know.

I was just
a drunk asshole in a bar,

yellin' for my friend,
and then later on it was like,

"Oof. Sorry, dude."

You know what's really weird,
is I'm finally getting...

-Air guitar?
-Yes.

I'm finally getting
some recognition

for doing what I used to do,
by myself, in my bedroom...

[Eric] The other guy who was
there was Hot Lixx Hulahan,

he was the world
champion in 2008,

and so to see him
at the show as well,

it was like
another movie star moment.

[energetic rock music playing]

[Burns] Hey, guys.

My name is, uh, Matt Burns.
I'm 27 years old.

I live
in Staten Island, New York.

And I've been competing
in US Air Guitar competitions

under the stage name
Airistotle, since 2008.

When I was in high school,
I got really into improv,

and I got really,
really into theater.

I was a waiter, and I was also

a professional mascot
for a while.

Actually it completely
helped my air guitar career.

The summer that
I graduated high school,

I got a phone call
from my friend Nick,

and he was like,
"Dude, come over,

I just bought this movie.

It's ridiculous.
You've gotta come see it."

And I went over to his house,

and it was a documentary
called Air Guitar Nation.

And I saw the documentary,
and I was like,

"This is ridiculous.
And this is dumb.

And this is stupid.
And this is beautiful.

And this is gorgeous.

And I have to be a part of it."

And I went to the next
competition in Philadelphia.

It was my first competition,
and it was Windhammer,

who's another US
Air Guitar Hall of Famer.

Windhammer just destroyed me.

And ever since then, I'm just--
haven't stopped competing.

In 2009, uh,
I won in Kansas City,

which was great, and I was
feeling really good about it,

until I got to Washington, D.C.,
and went to Nationals,

and I saw the level of
competition that I was facing.

[Dickens] Eric got me
into air guitar reluctantly.

Once I really saw the national
championship in 2009,

that changed my world.

He's been an air guitarist
all of his life.

So the idea
that there's a competition

for air guitarists,

I mean, he was that already
before this even happened.

I was clearly on the outside,

not realizing that
there was more of him out there.

And when I saw nationals,
like, "Holy crap!"

These people are...

electric.

Like, some of them
were just like,

"Oh, yeah,
my mom makes all my costumes,"

and I was like,
"That is, like, the coolest,

cutest little thing ever."

I don't know, there's some
kind of energy there.

It's like, when you get

that many A-type
personalities together,

that are all having a good time

and supporting each other,
it's just infectious.

So there's just no way
to get around it, like,

once you get involved with them,
you're just like,

"Oh, my gosh!
These people are amazing."

Philly, '09.

I couldn't get in,
because José Cuervo

was the sponsor that year,
and I was underage.

And they're like,
"Nuh-uh. No way. You look 12.

You're not allowed at this place

where we're giving out
free José Cuervo."

I was like, "That makes sense."

So I snuck into the bar.

I showed up
about seven hours early,

and when the bouncers
changed shifts,

I ran inside and just waited
for the place to fill up,

and when it did, I kind of--

that's when
I started walkin' around,

um, all willy-nilly.

And that was another
good time, uh,

I ended up coming
in third place that contest.

Windhammer and Fender Splendor
ended up winning that one.

I really had the air guitar bug.

Hardcore.

And in 2010,
they listed the tour dates

and US Air Guitar
was not coming back

to Kansas City.

I came up with this really dumb
idea of the air guitar tour.

And I immediately called Nick.

[Dickens] And Melin was like,
"I booked tickets.

I booked five shows...

we're flying everywhere,

and you're my plus one,
and you're goin' with me.

No if, ands, or buts.
Air tour, let's do this."

And I was like,
"That seems ridiculous."

I-- honestly, I don't know
why he went with me.

I think he was just like,

"Well, we haven't been
on tour in a while.

This'll be fun.
Let's just do this."

So you have to pay to get into

each one of these competitions.

So you pay $20,
or you can pay $21

and compete and get free beer.

So why would you pay
$20 to get in the door...

if you could pay one more dollar

and be able
to drink all the beer,

just to go hang up onstage
and just do your stupid routine?

And so he wanted
to do The Shaggs,

and he thought
this would be hilarious,

because you can't judge
technical merit...

when the person playing
the guitar that you're miming

can't play their instrument.

[Dickens] Our first competition
was in Chicago, at the Metro.

"Mean" Melin and I
had played there before,

in our old band.

So I kinda knew
the layout of it,

and I was like, "Oh, well.
This is a packed house.

This is a big stage.
We gotta pull the suckin' move.

We gotta go up there
and just bomb."

I went out there,
I did-- did my work.

Um, the crowd booed, a lot.

Uh, I believe there was a shoe
that was thrown at me?

I don't know
who brings a shoe to throw,

because I don't think you would
take off your shoe and throw it?

I left the stage,

and every single one
of those air guitarists

in the backroom were just going

and clapping and loving it.

And I was like, "Oh, yeah.
I'm home. This is good."

[Eric] And Nick,
hanging out by the bar,

somebody's talking to him
about The Shaggs,

and the bartender goes,

"Are you that guy
that did The Shaggs?"

And Nick was like, "Yeah."

And he's like, "Free drinks
for the rest of the night."

And that was when
Nick was like, "Hmm.

I think
I'm on to something here."

That whole tour was amazing,

and I was listening
to what judges were saying.

One guy told me, you know,
you can't do Van Halen

if you're going to
call yourself "Mean" Melin,

'cause Van Halen's
not heavy enough.

And I did Slayer the next night,
immediately got better scores.

So I was tryin' things out.

We came back from that tour,

and I still didn't have
a first-place win.

My brother
and my husband decided

that they wanted to sign up.

We decided
to drive up to Milwaukee,

for the show that
they were having there.

Got to Milwaukee,
everybody was in costume,

they put on this show,
there were no women signed up.

So at the end
of the first round,

Dan Crane says,

"Would anyone else
like to try it?

And any women in the audience
who want to give it a shot?"

And they literally
pulled me up onto the stage.

And just played
my brother's song,

which was Iron Maiden's
"Phantom of the Opera,"

60-second cut of that.

Because I had heard that song
on repeat for two hours

on the drive
from Chicago to Milwaukee,

I just, like,
I knew every second of it,

so I killed it,
and all of a sudden,

I was tied for first place
with Eric "Mean" Melin.

That was, like,
the biggest adrenaline rush,

just to be able to do that,
and everybody in the bar was,

like, cheering for me,
and I was hooked after that.

I-- I got my picture
taken with Hot Lixx Hulahan,

and Bjorn Turoque,
and I just felt like

that was, like,
the coolest thing ever.

So after that,
I was kind of addicted,

and we signed up for everything
for a little while after that.

[electric guitar riffs playing]

It's my first persona,
Cleoplectra.

I like to describe her

as being
a little bit heavy metal,

and a little bit hair band,
a little bit belly dancer.

Lot of black and gold.

Every time she performed

was a different costume
and a different song,

which I don't even know
if anybody ever even noticed,

but that actually takes
a lot of work.

But the problem with her was,

she was, like, a little bit
too much of who I really am,

so I would get
kind of, like, nervous

before and after I'd go onstage,

and I came up with the name
because at the time...

my hair was dyed jet black,

I had a haircut
that looked like Cleopatra,

and Cleoplectra--
plectrum being guitar picks,

put 'em together-- perfect.

I came up with the idea
for Mom Jeans Jeanie

because, um, after I had my son,

going through a department store

and trying clothes on,

I could not find
anything that fit.

I felt like
I was deformed. [chuckles]

Well, just some girls can,
I swear they can pop back

into their clothes,
like, with no time at all.

Not me.

So, um, mom jeans are,
like, a real thing.

It was a combination of,

um, seeing, like,
the world's ugliest pants

at the thrift store,

which were actual
vintage mom jeans,

combined with the fact
that I probably now

should be wearing them.

It just sounded
like a perfect idea,

and I wasn't having
a lot of fun anymore

as Cleoplectra,
my former character.

I just wanted to have fun again,

if I was going to do
any air guitar,

and I was like, "I'm going to
do it, I don't care.

I've had so much fun doing
air guitar as silly characters.

I don't care
what anybody things.

I'm just going to go for it."
So, that's where she came from.

2010, I competed in DC,
and didn't do very well.

But I turned 21 in July,

and National Finals
were at the end of July.

Nationals just happened to be
in New York that year,

so I got invited to compete
in the Dark Horse Contest.

The Dark Horse Contest
is the contest that they do

the night before Nationals,
and it's an invite only.

They don't tell you
where it is, you know,

you know it's in the city
that Nationals,

but you don't even know
where the bar is until that day.

And there were about
30 air guitarists,

everybody came in for this,
and it was really awesome,

and I was able to advance to
the National Finals that year.

So my first Nationals was 2010.

My friend, Scott, at work said,

"Hey, man,
my brother's going to be

in an air guitar
competition this weekend,

you should come."

And I said, "Ha-ha, no!"

[Beth laughs]

[Justin Fox] But I was single,
and it was only $10,

and I didn't have
anything better to do.

-So I went.
-[Beth] Mm-hmm.

[Fox]
And it was flipping amazing,

and they rocked my socks off.

Scott, his friend from work,

is my other brother.

Eric is my eldest brother,

who is doing this weird
air guitar thing,

and he got them
to come to Kansas City,

so "Hey, we should all go."

I go to the show by myself,

my brother is there
with two guys from work.

At the end of the night,
you do "Free Bird"

and everybody goes up onstage
and rocks out,

and we're rockin' out,

and then we're talking
after rocking out,

when, like,
the stage has cleared,

and we're maybe tipsy
and totally flirting.

And he hands me a business card
from the corporation

with his phone number,
and he's like, "Hey.

You know, you could call me
sometime, if you wanted."

And I was like...

"Okay?"

Officially, we dated

for four years.

We talked about getting married,

and one day,

he officially
popped the question

after a date that we had.

And we got married
in three months.

[Fox] When I proposed,
air guitar season was coming up.

I didn't know you kn--
put this much thought into it.

[Fox] Ah.

I didn't do that on purpose,
but it was just there.

[Beth]
We're planning the wedding.

Who are we going to invite?
Our family and our friends.

[Fox] Who's our best friends?

[Beth] Who are our best
friends?

Air guitar competitors.

Air guitar
is going to break out,

whether you plan it or not.

It's going to happen,
it's what we love to do.

We like to be onstage,
we like to rock out,

so it's going to happen.

How it happened at the reception

is that I personally
love Queen,

and while "Bohemian Rhapsody"
might be seen

as a little pretentious
by some people,

it has some fantastic rock,
and what do air guitarists love

but being total goofballs
and having fun?

[Beth] So I basically
put on "Bohemian Rhapsody,"

and everything else
just sort of happened.

-We practice together.
-Yeah. Yeah.

-There is no rivalry.
-Yeah.

We practice together.

We give each other pointers,
we record for each other,

so we can look at it,
and see how terrible

or amusing we might be,
but yes, there's--

[Fox] I always try
to hedge my advice, like,

"Look, I don't know,
but maybe this."

-[Beth] What?
-Whenever you're--

you're asking me for advice,
you're begging me,

you're like, "What do you think?
What do you think?

I'm doin' this,"
and you've got all these plans,

and I'm like...

"You know that I'm very rarely
in the second round, right?"

So I always am like...

tiptoeing through my advice.

"Well, maybe..."

So you think, because
you haven't made second round,

that your advice
is any less valid?

I make second round some,
but not a lot.

It doesn't make it
any less valid.

You are still a connoisseur
of the air guitar.

-Carnivore, yes.
-That too.

And I appreciate
all of your advice.

One of the things
that I did in 2011 is,

I decided if I have
a song that is beloved...

then I already have
a leg up on everybody else,

because I'm doin'
a song everybody loves.

So, that year, Cliff
and I, uh, got together,

and we made a one-minute edit
of "Bohemian Rhapsody."

It was challenging,
getting it all down to a minute,

but it was kind of cool,

being that I had
the multi-tracks that,

you know, we could combine...

two or three elements
together at the same time.

Um, and...

get more of the song in--

in less time that way.

It-- it took a couple of hours,
and then once...

the edit, you know,
everything was in place,

then it took me a while longer
to actually mix it,

because it was 24 tracks
of stuff.

[Eric] He put together
parts of the song

that don't even go together.

Really kind of amazing,
but it was not good for me.

I don't have Freddie Mercury's
body type at all,

but for some reason,
I decided to grow a mustache,

wear red and white,

and-- and try
to evoke Freddie Mercury,

and yes, I had
the horrible costume change,

I ripped off pants
to reveal more pants,

'cause I don't get naked.

The judging
was particularly harsh.

Hot Lixx was the only one
that gave me a good score,

but the scores were too low.

So I didn't even
make the second round.

In 2011, um,
Nationals were in Chicago,

I came in second place.

Nordic won Chicago.

Top two best air guitar
performances ever.

It's-- insane.
Nordic owns Chicago.

It was, like, awesome to see.

Won the US title,
that was in Chicago,

at-- at a famous venue there
called the Metro,

and it was sold out,
which was awesome,

like, the Rolling Stones
have played at this place,

it was really cool
to be on that stage.

My mom was also in town.
So she got to see me win.

And then getting
to go to Finland,

that was the first time
I'd ever left the United States.

And then just meeting
all these other people

from around the world
that are just the same

as us in the US,

as far as
air guitarists are concerned.

They were just
really good people, like,

outwardly spewing love
and good energy.

It was-- it was amazing.

I came in second place,
which is, like,

whatever, this has been amazing.

♪

We have this thing
in Ultimate Fakebook,

called the Rock Box.

Which is a big, wooden box,

with lights underneath it,

and a piece of pure fiberglass
over the top of it,

and whenever Bill
jumped on the Rock Box

to do a guitar solo,
it would light up,

and smoke would come out of it.

The Nationals
in 2012 were in Denver,

so we resurrected
the Ultimate Fakebook Rock Box,

and it was amazing,
and so, out of nowhere,

this Rock Box appears,
and lights up,

and smoke starts
coming out of it,

and I end my routine.

That helped me
get into the second round,

and it was a really fun year,

and it was a great routine,
but it wasn't enough.

I was a little exasperated.
What else do I need to do?

That was probably the best
pure air guitar routine I had,

and I also had the Rock Box,

and I still didn't win.

If I'm going to
continue to do this,

I've got to have some kind of
breakthrough, you know?

I've gotta figure
somethin' out, because,

um, I wasn't gettin'
any younger. [chuckles]

♪

[Andrew]
2012, uh, in Minneapolis,

that was my first championship
that I won.

And I beat some
heavy hitters to get that.

I got, um--

I got straight 6.0s
in the second round.

The second round of that one,

it got out of control
really quickly,

like, everybody started
bringin' out their big guns.

Van Dammage jumped off
the stage into a knee slide,

right before me, which is--

just--
the greatest move I've seen.

Also, he stole my move,
which I'm really happy about,

because I probably would have
broken both of my legs.

Um, so I had to up the ante.

So, I ran over

to the back of the bar,

climbed up a spiral stairwell,

and shredded up on the railing.

And then jumped off of it.

I want to say I was up,
like, 30 feet, I think?

Maybe 40?

It was probably closer to,
like, seven or eight feet,

but it was-- I was so up there,

and I, like, I jumped down
and it was like,

Batman jumpin' down,
with my fringe

just comin' straight down.

So, in 2012,

I beat Nordic,
uh, at the Nationals...

to go to Worlds,
and then he went to Dark Horse.

Got into Worlds,
and then he beat me at Worlds.

So it was this little--
he, like, fliparooed real quick.

I went, um,
and competed as a Dark Horse,

and then won the World
Championship that year.

Like, I've seen
pictures of my face.

Just the look on my face is,
"That guy looks so happy!"

Like, it was really
the happiest moment of my life.

Winning some contest,
I know, but it was just...

I really felt that, like,
I'm-- I'm going to represent

all these people that I love,
and this thing that I love,

and now I have a even
bigger voice to preach,

you know, living good
and being a good human being,

because I have the--
you know, the title now,

people are going to
listen to me,

'cause I'm a World Champion.

Um, so it's just--
it's given me a voice

and it's allowed me to,
you know,

be unapologetically just myself.

Uh, Nordic Thunder.

2006,

my first contest,
was his first contest,

and I placed third,
and he placed first.

So, obviously, starting then,

it was a real,
like, one-sided rivalry.

I wanted to beat him,

and he probably
didn't even care,

'cause he's awesome,
he's Nordic Thunder.

He's amazing.

So, for the next five years,

I competed against him,

and I feel like
I went right before him

in that first contest.

I lit up the crowd.

That crowd was electric
when I was done.

And then he goes right after me,

and just rides that wave,

and wins that contest,
and, like, eight other contests,

National Championship,
World Championship.

So he pretty much
owes it all to me,

as far as I can tell,

for lighting up that crowd
before his first contest.

Like, I've been
through breakups,

and I've been through jobs,

and I've been through
all this stuff,

but the one consistent thing
in my life

has been the joy
that air guitar and the--

and the family of air guitarists
has brought to me, for sure.

Like many other air guitarists,

I put a lot of work
into my routines when I compete.

Probably too much work.

Uh, whether
it's the editing process,

listening to a song 180 times
to get it just right,

and then to practicing it
in the living room

until it's just right.

And then listening to it
in the car,

and in the shower,
and everywhere I go.

And my wife
would tell me, "You know,

if you're going to
listen to your song,

for the love of God,
put headphones in.

Like, I can't hear
Metallica one more time."

And in 2012, she told me,
"You spend so much time on this,

and we put
our whole summer on hold,"

which is what
a lot of people do.

So they can wait for the date,

and then so
they can plan their trips,

and then be able to go to
weddings, do all these things.

And we were going
to a lot of weddings back then,

we had a lot of plans with,
like, family and friends,

she's like, "You know,
we keep holding ourselves

to, like, air guitar

and we're missing out
on a lot of other stuff,

maybe we shouldn't be
doing this anymore."

And I was like...

"Shit," I was like--
I was-- I was like,

I was feeling, I was really
comin' into my prime, you know,

I was like, in my third year,

and I was feelin'
really good about things,

and then, after 2012,
I came in third,

and I was like,
"You know, I think

one more year,
and I have a chance.

And maybe I can actually win."

A partner of hers
in crime is, uh, is, uh--

Lt. Facemelter,
so I'd like to call you up.

Now, this is in no particular
order, by the way.

[crowd cheering]

-So Jason Farnan here, uh...
-[man] Jason!

...also helped with planning

all of the vocal
qualifiers this year.

Um, was also
my secretary for contact

at USAirGuitar.com,
so every time an email came in,

he was like,
"Hey, did you see this?

Hey, did you see this,
did you read it yet?

Did you read it yet?
Did you read it yet?

Did you read it yet?
Hey, hey, hey."

-[crowd laughing]
-Thank you.

Um, and, uh, you know, it--
there's moments in life,

when you work, and you're like,

"God, that person's
really fucking annoying."

And then one day, you're like,

"Dude, that's really helpful."

[crowd laughs]

[Jason Farnan]
They're family, you know?

It's just--
it's our summer camp.

We get to see each other
once a year, uh,

for three to four days,

and everyone gets together,
and it's just

a lot of big hugs
in the beginning,

and a lot of hugs
and a few tears, I don't know,

when we say goodbye
and it's just,

you know, we're all--
everyone's kind of

naturally outgoing and fun,

if you're silly enough
to do air guitar.

So that kind of just carries
over into everybody here,

and you know, it's just--

it's such
a great group of people.

[Dan Crane] I'm more
of a technical player.

My goal is to play the--
note for note,

and I've been known
as the, like,

most advanced
technical player in air guitar,

so I'll either
stand in one place,

or just walk back
and forth across the stage.

The Hall of Fame trading card,
and it was issued in 2011.

They were giving 'em out
to, uh, 25 total.

I got number 14.

They issue them
on Tuesdays and Thursdays

for champions and legends.

And there it was.
It was Memorial Day weekend.

Mine was a special issue.

Technical award
came out in 2013.

I got two awards that year.

The first one was
a "Free Bird" award...

and I guess that's dedicated

to the last song
on every competition,

where everyone goes onstage,
including the audience,

for "Free Bird."

And then I also got
the technical award

named after me,

for dedication and passion
in the field of air guitar.

I have a lot of close friends
in San Francisco,

and San Francisco
is a huge air guitar market.

And I always kept
in touch with them,

because they were more
than just air guitar friends,

they became close friends.

My stroke had occurred
on May 13th, 2009,

and five weeks later,
I remember,

it was June 21st,
I was up there competing.

I don't think that--

a lot of them knew
about the stroke.

Except when I told them,

because that one
was kind of quiet.

The one in 2013
was a lot more serious.

That one put me in a--
in Intensive Care Unit,

I was out for six days.

[Farnan]
2013, uh, in San Francisco,

and I had met up
with a few people at a bar.

And, uh, two of the people there

were supposed to be
staying with Tiger Claw,

but they had
all their stuff with them.

And we were like,
"What's goin' on?

Like, why, why aren't you
at Claw's place yet?"

Like, "I don't know,
like, we called him,

and we--
we haven't heard from him."

And we were just like, "Ah, it's
not like Tiger Claw at all."

But you know, he is just--
you know, but when you know,

it's time for people
to come to town,

he will call you back,

the second
he misses your phone call.

I was kind of like,
concerned, because,

you know, it just seemed
very out of the ordinary.

You know, come to find out,
he had a stroke that day.

And he couldn't make it
to the show.

No, you never want to
hear that about anybody,

but, you know,
especially a member

who's so tightly involved
in your community.

So he puts in so much
blood, sweat, and tears

into US Air Guitar,
to have him missing is just--

that was a bummer, yeah.

We all just wanted to make sure
he was doin' all right, and...

uh, the only thing we could do,
because most people found out

the night of the show,
uh, you know,

I just took a-- took a--
took pictures for him,

and then I took a video,

where we all
kind of wished him well,

and did, like,
a claw salute to him.

♪

[all cheering]

[Farnan] And then
even for that night, uh,

in honor of our Tiger Claw,
for San Francisco 2013,

to start your song,
you put a claw into the air.

[all chanting] Claw!

[Crane] Family.

I even wrote a paper on it,

that the US Air Guitar
published on their website.

And it's all about family,

how they're like
brothers and sisters.

We call them "brothairs."

A-I-R. And "sistairs."

And, uh, I mean,
you don't even have to tell me

that the-- when they put
together that video for me,

I mean, that--
that was my family.

So...

yeah, it's-- that's one word,
it's all about family.

I had this idea,
kind of germinating

in the back of my head
for a while,

because there are...

moves that I had brainstormed

since 2009,

that I had been trying
to fit into songs.

I had this weird idea

that if I just wrote the song,

then I would be able to use
all the moves I wanted to.

I called my friend, Doug Minner,

who played
in this band in Manhattan,

that we used to play with
when I was in Truck Stop Love,

called Puke Weasel.

Doug is an amazing guitar player

who can do anything.

He was like,
"Well, I don't really know

what you're asking, but sure!

Let's give it a try."

We started building the song,

three to four seconds at a time,

and it would be based on a move.

And so I wanted to
put together a song

that introduced the air guitar.

What is this thing that I have?

When am I playing it,
and when am I not playing it?

When are-- when is there
space in the song?

So I knew right away,

the first riff
has to have space in it.

And then I wanted to
put a kick in it,

so we came up
with a riff that had a--

a moment that went--
[imitating guitar]

I wanted to wear a hat,

and I wanted to reveal
that I had long hair.

And the best way to do that

would be to throw
the hat off dramatically.

I'm going down anyway,
so I could do a little air bass.

I do a lot of absurd
whammy bar action.

And then we needed
to end with something

that was big and rising.

Has to bring
the audience to its feet.

And so we devised
this double lead guitar,

and it ended
on a really big note.

I would have these brainstorms,
these ideas in the shower,

in the morning, when I get up,

and then I'd get out
and I'd turn on the cell phone

and go-- [imitates guitar]

And then I'd send these to Doug,
and we'd construct it,

little pieces at a time,
and he would say, "How's this?

How's the timing?"

I'd stand up,
and I would air guitar.

And gradually,
we just started building this--

this demo track.

I tracked the drums,
and then Doug tracked the bass,

and all of the lead guitar
on top of that.

I'd already known that
he had been working on a song,

but he was playing it for me,

and playing the parts
of the song for me,

and it was that time
that I was sort of, like,

overwhelmed by the idea that,

"Holy crap, you built this song?

You didn't just, like,

mine the best parts
of songs that you love,

and somehow
put them all together,

but you actually built

part of your ideas
for the routine,

and then created
the music to make those fit."

I was hosting shows
at this point.

I was using this track

as my introduction to the shows.

And I was seeing how
it was playing with audiences.

[indistinct] yes!

And I could tell that there were
things that were working,

and things that weren't.

I sent the track to Bill,
from Ultimate Fakebook,

who now edits trailers
for a living,

and I was like, "We need
some sound effects on this.

I need a whooshing sound,
I need the sound

that catching guitar would make,

and I need the sound of
a record going backwards."

My first show
competitively that year

was at the New York Semi-Final.

I do the routine, they loved it.

I could just feel,
like, this energy.

I'd done it so many times
by then, and I won.

And it was awesome,
but nobody understood

that we had gone backwards.

We overdubbed my voice,

so now when you hear it
going backwards,

you also hear
a human voice backwards,

and people can recognize
in an instant,

this is going backwards.

Peter "Stiff" Dickens
does not get enough credit

as being
my creative inspiration,

but he was like, "You gotta

sell the backwards thing
with emotion.

You've got to actually
turn the record.

You're losing
your air guitar completely

just to mime this one moment,"

and then he also said,
"Put your hand up to your head,

because that's
the ultimate, like,

shortcut for DJ."

[house music notes playing]

2013 rolls round,
and I am the defending champion.

I had just been to Finland,

gettin' my toes
in the international pond

that is the World Championships.

The Nationals were in LA.

"Mean" Melin's routine
was just insane.

Lt. Facemelter, however,

was the next
biggest favorite to win.

Facemelter's routine was insane,

he was
so technically just tight,

and sound, he had sound effects,
it was funny.

He had
a light-up green everything.

[Andrew]
Lt. Facemelter is, like,

the king of laser light shows.

They're on him, like,

he's the greatest thing
we've ever seen.

[Eric] In the first round,
I was in first place.

The very first time
I've ever been in first place

at US Air Guitar
National Finals.

And I just killed it.

Like, I knew right then,
I was like, "This is it."

Everything we designed,
you know,

was made for this moment,
and-- and I'm in the lead,

going in to the second round.

2013, in my opinion,

was the greatest year
of air guitar.

Uh, it was my personal best,
I placed seventh that year.

Uh, and to put it this way,

I know I can never have
a better performance than that,

and yet, seven people
were still better than me.

[Farnan]
I worked my ass off that year.

I went through
so many different cuts,

and so many different songs,
and routines,

and sound effects.

My whole goal was, I want to be
on the-- the world stage.

That's-- I just
want to compete on it,

so if I don't win this year,
let's go to Finland anyway.

Um, so we bought tickets
to go to Finland,

just in case,
and, you know, just--

I signed up for
the Dark Horse there,

and, uh, you know,

just kind of knowing
that if I didn't win

the National Championship,
we'd be going anyway.

[Eric] I had a brief respite
watching Peter Stiff Dickens

do his second round routine,

and I couldn't even
concentrate on the music,

because I was having
such a good time watching him.

He decided
that he was gonna go up there,

and he was just gonna
blow up the second round.

He said, "I'm gonna do every
jackass gimmick in the book,

because those fuckers
never should have

put me there in the first place,

and I'm gonna blow it up."

And that's exactly what he did.

And it was just like,
this glorious

one minute of jackassery.

And I was so happy to have that.

In the second round,
it was between him

and-- and Facemelter.

Melin comin' up
to me and saying,

"You need to help me
with this timing,

and this-- and these stops."

And I knew
how important this was to him.

I wanted to help him
more than anything,

because he's such
a proponent of air guitar,

and he brings
such a positive vibe,

and-- and I really was--

was pulling for him
and Facemelter.

[Eric] I saw Flying Finn,
and Thunder Stroock.

They had some sort of, like,
thing they were covering up.

They rip away this,
a makeshift curtain,

to reveal that
he's got this enormous head

strapped onto his real head,

this big cardboard
full-color cutout of his face,

making this
ridiculous Facemelter face.

And I would just-- I saw that,
and I was just like, "Ugh.

Oh, my God."

And then
he knew the song really well,

and he killed it, and it was
a really good performance.

[Farnan] The talk amongst
the community at the time,

which I still
refuse to believe, was that

Melin and I
were the favorites that year.

Uh, to win it all.

And sure enough, it came down
to the two of us, in the finals.

Uh, separated by 0.1.

And, I beat him. [laughs]

I felt like
I crushed his dreams,

but at the same time,
achieved my own.

It was a very
bittersweet feeling,

but for once in my life,

I got to say I was the best
in the country at something,

and that was pretty cool.

Facemelter had won,
and he was going to Finland,

and I was not.

And...

it was-- it was--

it was exciting
to watch him celebrate.

He came back,
and I saw his face,

and I was just like,

"Ah, how am I gonna enjoy this

knowing that
he's so upset right now?"

Yeah, he came back, he just--
he gave me a huge hug, though.

I was just like, "You're still
goin' to Finland, though.

You're-- you're gonna go,

and we're gonna
make that happen."

If there was anyone to beat me,
I wanted it to be him.

So it was this mix,
I was really happy for him,

but at the afterparty,
like, it was just crushing.

Everybody was hanging out,
and they were like,

"Well, of course you're still
goin' to Finland, right?"

Well, you can
get in the Dark Horse

and-- and-- and try to win
World that way,

you should--
you should fly to Finland.

[record scratch]

[indistinct voice]

The Dark Horse is--
is, like, a last effort onto,

uh, the National
or the World stage.

Uh, if you compete
in the qualifier,

and you come
in the top two, then you go on

to this Semi-Finals,

and if you come
in the top three,

then you go on to the Nationals.

The Dark Horse,
they hold a Dark Horse

as a last-ditch effort

to get on the National stage,

and it's the same for the World,
too, 'cause if you don't win

on the National stage,
you can fly yourself to Finland,

to compete in the Dark Horse,

and then the-- the top five
go on to the-- the World stage.

And I talked to Jason,
and he's like,

"Dude, I'm goin' to Finland.

And-- and I want you to come.

Like, we should be
doing this together."

And I was like,
"Well, that's awesome,

but I can't really get there.

The Dark Horse
is probably filled up already,"

and he's like,
"Yeah, but I just won."

I'm like,
"So, what does that mean?"

And he goes,
"Well, that means they have

an extra slot, at Dark Horse.

And you can have my slot."

So I chose the name
Mother FeathAIR, um,

because the competition
I planned for in Brooklyn,

planned to compete in,
uh, it was on Mother's Day,

and I just thought
it was a funny play on--

just something mom-oriented.

I had gone through,
um, a lot of chemo and surgery

and I was in radiation,
and, uh, I just decided

to compete and um,

I needed to practice,
so I-- I-- I chose the name

based on a future date,
and then just kind of rolled

into Staten Island to-- to--
to practice for the first time,

and I was like, I was
two weeks into, um, radiation,

for, uh, breast cancer
treatment at that time.

Technically,
I'm still in treatment.

I-- I have a-- a chemo port,
still, in my chest.

And, um, I fly home
Sunday night, and, uh,

I arrive, um, in JFK around,

uh, one o'clock in the morning,

actually, Monday morning.

And at 10:00 AM,
I will be in the chemo chair.

And it's actually my birthday.
I'll be 37.

I was diagnosed October 9th.

I, um, I'm terrified.

I started chemo, a hardcore--

some hardcore drugs
on November 2nd.

Between October 9th
of the last-- last year,

and not even a month later,

I went to doctors' appointments
almost every day.

So I'm terrified,
and I don't want to tell anyone.

Like, when I would call someone,
they would cry.

I had to relive my diagnosis
by telling someone.

I'm so used to just
talking about it now,

that I don't cry,
finally, but I would cry,

because they would cry,
and they're my best friends

since kindergarten,
and-- and everyone's crying,

and I'm like,
"It's gonna be okay,

they say it's gonna be okay.

It's gotta be okay, please."

Like, so, I told
air guitarists first,

the Women of Air Guitar
have a Facebook group.

And, um, I told them
as a way of branching out.

There's a small group
that is supportive,

and it was so lovely.

People sent me gifts.

I didn't ask-- I didn't--
I didn't need anything,

I just wanted to touch my toe

into being, like,
"How can I be this person?

I don't know
who I'm gonna be at the end,

so how can I do that," and, um--

um, the Women of Air Guitar
were extremely supportive.

They're still even supportive.

They've been-- I've become
even closer, and, uh...

uh, I'm very thankful to that.

I-- I shaved my head bald
on, uh, New Year's Eve.

Fully bald.

And I brought my son with me

to be part of the experience.

So through my chemotherapy,

I had a-- a friend of mine
who was--

who was actually
our wedding photographer,

when my husband
and I got married in 2010,

and, um, a makeup artist friend,

and-- a generous
donation of dresses

from Rent the Runway,
so I turned my

chemotherapy appointments
into kind of a glamorous moment,

when I-- I actually feel
quite terrified.

I don't know
what the outcome will be,

and to sit for eight hours

and just have an IV hooked up,

women around you are sobbing.

People are not having good days.

It's not a good day. For anyone.

The photo project
helped me, uh, face it,

uh, with a little bit
more dignity,

and helped me also
find a way where I could tell

a broad group of people,
and have it not be sad.

I wanted them to see,
I'm-- I can do this.

So the pictures really, uh,

showed the best possible face.

Eden, who was
the makeup artist, she--

she offered to do
the other women's makeup.

She would do my makeup.

Casey, the photographer,
would be taking photos

and she would do
someone else's, if they asked.

Once you're on kind of
a regular chemo schedule,

you see the same people
when you go.

And, uh, they're like,
"Hey, what are you wearing?"

And "I really like
your hair this time."

♪

But you can change
and transform a situation

that is really quite terrible,

into something--
with some creativity,

you can-- you can
make it better for yourself

and for others,
which is something, I think,

could extend to--
to the rest of the world, too,

I think we see stuff,
and we think,

"Oh, that's-- that's sad,
oh, frowny face."

I'm so tired of clicking
frowny face. [chuckles]

I think we should talk
to our community,

and figure out how
we can make things better.

I-- I really hope it can extend.

So, I guess that's a long-winded
version of saying, that--

that air guitar community
was the initial support network

that I reached out to,
because of how wonderful

they've been to me, for the--
for quite a number of years.

Going through cancer,
it made me feel that, uh,

you only have so much time here,
let's make it count,

and let's try to be authentic.

And I'm trying to make my, uh,

inside match my outside,

and be authentic
with what I feel.

I've decided
I have a national stage,

and I'm going to, um, hopefully
do something that's beautiful,

and I have brought
100 white balloons,

and I am writing the names
of the last 100 people

that have died,
because of gun violence,

on each of those 100 balloons,

and at the end
of my performance,

I'm gonna have 'em-- uh,
a brief message of-- of peace,

and it's gonna-- it's
a anti-gun violence message.

It's not anti-guns.

I want people
to recognize how much--

how harmful it is for families,
and uh, I want people

to say the name on the balloon.

♪

[Marquina Iliev-Piselli] I
ended up doing a GoFundMe site,

and my friends gave me anything
from, like, 5-20 dollars each,

and paid for my ticket
to go to Finland.

In Finland, I qualified.

I was in the top five,
I came in, like, I think fourth,

in the Dark Horse,
and I made it--

to-- to compete
in the World Championship.

Like, I-- it was great.

I flew in from a redeye.
I picked a number.

I performed two hours later,

and the next day,
I was in the World.

It was really surreal,
it was great.

I've never been
in a competitive environment

where everyone
is helping each other.

It's just the best
group of people that help you

with making something fun

and-- and energetic,
and entertaining.

It's just a great group.
So it means a lot.

He-- he brought the ticket,
and I was like,

"Oh, man."
Like, that guy's competition.

'Cause I'd heard he planned
to go, and I was like,

"You know, okay, all I have to
beat is like, Lt. FaceMelter,"

and then I heard
"Mean" Melin was going,

I was like, "Aw, man,
he's gonna beat me."

I had a plane ticket
with nowhere to spend the night.

I made it clear
to everybody else

I knew that was going,
"Hey, if you can put me up

for a night,
I'll sleep on your floor.

I don't want to be a burden,
so I'll just couch surf."

I was sort of looking forward
to having this room

all by myself
and, like, quiet, and space.

And in Finland--

and then he goes
and buys his ticket,

and comes out, but he
doesn't have any place to stay.

And so he was just gonna
sleep on people's floors.

And stuff like that,
and I was like,

"I-- I can't let this guy
sleep on someone else's floor."

Like, that just--
And I have another bed.

Like, right there.
So I was like, "Oh, please."

You know,
"Share my room, like, 'Come in,'

like-- and, uh, he did.

And, uh, which was great,
but I did lose

my peace and quiet
nearly instantaneously,

'cause he snores.

So loudly. So loudly.

So he was sleeping wonderfully,

and I was, like,
awake most of the night,

because it was so loud.

So Dark Horse in Oulu is,
like, this legendary thing,

it's this really small club,

and everyone is there
for air guitar.

The moment that
you go up on stage,

it felt like,
you know, like a movie

where the flashbulbs
are going off all the time.

'Cause this was it, I flew
from Kansas City to Finland

for one minute on stage,

and that minute
was about to happen.

And so I jump up there,
and-- and like I had done

in previous shows,
I just immediately

point to the ceiling
to get the song started.

It was the best
I'd ever performed that song.

And when it was done,
I felt really good about it,

and the audience just exploded.

And I was like, "Oh.

I think I might advance,
I think this might happen."

And-- and Doug was amazing
that night as well.

We were roommates at this point,

and for us both
to make it through,

knowing that we're gonna be
on the World stage

the next night,
was pretty amazing.

The next day, after Dark Horse,

the very first thing that you do

in terms of competition
is draw numbers.

It's a very stressful time,

because all the air guitarists
are finding out

at what point in the evening
they're gonna be performing,

and you never want to be first.

First is
the kiss of death, right?

Anything at the beginning,

the audience is still
getting warmed up,

the judges are still
getting warmed up,

scores are
traditionally pretty low.

We drew the numbers,
and I drew second.

[chuckles] So, I was like,

"Well, this has been
an amazing experience.

I can just relax
and have fun now,

'cause I'm not gonna win."

2013, I ended up judging

the World Air Guitar
Championships that year,

which kinda
went down in history.

I was on a five-member
judging panel,

um, each-- each judge

representing a different region.

We are basically given
this heavy task of finding...

the greatest
air guitarist in the world.

Among 25 or 30

of the world's
best air guitarists.

I knew that any one from
the top five in the US that year

would have done
phenomenally well in Finland.

[crowd cheering]

[Eric] I went out there,
and I did the thing that I'd--

I'd been doing, which is just
run out there and immediately

point to the ceiling,
or to the sky in this case.

It was the first time
I ever performed outdoors.

♪

[Eric] This went by
really, really fast,

and I can feel the moment

that I felt really good about
was the backwards moment.

The music starts happening,
and I'm doing

the backwards
slo-mo headbang thing,

and there's this catwalk
on the front,

and all these people
around that.

I had walked
the stage earlier, and decided

I'm gonna use the whole catwalk,

so I'm gonna do
the forwards-backwards thing

on that catwalk,

and as I was going backwards,

I could hear all the people,

on either side of the catwalk,
going-- [gasping]

♪

[Eric] The whole crowd exploded.

[crowd cheering]

So Facemelter goes out there,

and he's got,
like, the Zuba pants

that everyone hates
until you see the light hit

'em just right, and you start to
kinda like 'em a little bit,

even though
they're total guilty pleasure,

and he's got, like,
these glasses, and he's got

the big cardboard face,

and he had this yo-yo whip thing
that he was kind of doing.

I never had
any doubts in my mind,

that that year
would be between Facemelter,

"Mean" Melin,
and maybe this upstart

named Doug "Thunder" Stroock,
who kind of surprised us all.

The first round was complete,

and Doug and I
were near the top.

We were in it.

We were actually
gonna be competing for this.

In the Worlds, all bets are off,

'cause they're
using local music,

they're using Finnish music,

and you never know
who it's gonna be.

And it was
this song that was just

not mean at all.

Like, it did not work
with my character.

And I ran to
the front of the stage,

where all
the security people are, like,

photographers are,
and I was practicing

while Facemelter and Nordic
and-- and everybody else

was performing
the second round song.

When I got up there,
I felt really good.

I had a routine
worked out in my head,

I'd listened to it six times,
at that point.

And then the scores
didn't look that great,

like, when they came back.

The judges had been
really mediocre the whole time.

Like, nobody was really goin'
over the top for anybody.

Lisa, Jason's wife, she's like,

"I think it's Doug and Eric!"

And we're on stage,
and I'm like, "What?"

She goes, "I think
it's Doug and Eric!"

And sure enough,
they announce the winners,

and we're all standing on stage,

and they're goin'
from ten to one,

and they get to the final thing,

and it's not Nordic,

and it's not Facemelter,

it's me and Doug.

Tied for first place.

And we're both just kind of
standing there, you know,

we'd been
on this journey together,

as roommates, um,
and-- and goin' to--

meeting all these crazy people,

and both
Dark Horse competitors.

And just bein' like,
"What the hell?"

You know, what--
what do we do now?

We decided just to go
straight up to Chicago,

and do the semi-final instead.

And, um,

that did not turn out
so well for me. [chuckles]

So, um,
I think if I remember correctly,

went second, and it did--

I got-- actually, I got
decent scores for going second,

but the scores from there
just got insane.

Everybody was gettin' all sixes.

And I was just
really bummed out,

because for the-- the very
first time ever,

I actually had all these
family members that--

and, like, people that I went
to high school with and stuff,

came out to this show,
since we, you know,

told them about it
ahead of time,

and they thought it was funny.

I just felt like
I let everybody down.

So, in 2016,

Kansas City, uh, Regional, um,

I was super excited
to go-- super excited,

uh, to be there
with a whole bunch of, uh,

my friends from Kansas City,

some of my
favorite people in air guitar,

were at that show.

I had a great set,
all lined up, ready to go.

It's probably
the one set that I've done

where I got off the stage
and really felt like I blew it.

The judges have a tendency
not to score me

as well as I would like them to,

um, on a lot of occasions,
but at that one,

I felt like I kinda earned it.

Um, I had a, uh,
a beard comb maneuver.

I pull a comb
out of my pocket,

combed my beard,

and, uh, chucked the comb
into the crowd.

Well, it got stuck on my fringe

when I went to pull it out,
uh, I missed that move.

And then it screwed up
my entire rest of my set.

Um, and when I was done,
I was just--

I was crushed
that I just didn't do it right.

I changed a few things.

You know, I got some pep talks
from some good air guitarists,

gave me some, um, you know,

attitude adjustment,
so that was good.

And, um, from there on

I went to Dark Horse in Texas,

and my whole goal was have fun.

If I could make it

from Dark Horse into Nationals,

that would be cool,

and a lot of it
just has to do with,

not the fact that I really
desired to win anything.

I just,
I love this character so much,

I just-- I am, like,
selfish for stage time.

I just want to-- I just
want people to look at me!

I just want you
to laugh and stuff.

So I felt like the best way
I could do that was just,

if I was
an official part of the show,

instead of just
a weird lady walking around,

handing out fruit snacks.

Which probably
would have happened.

[Andrew] Somehow,
I ended up with an invitation

to the Dark Horse

for National Championships
in Austin, Texas,

and I knew that
that was my last shot that year

to make it to
the National Championships

and have a shot at the title.

All through the night,
I was nervous.

That bar was hot.

I mean, it's Texas in August,

and this bar
had no air conditioning.

I had a good number drop,

but that meant
that I went so late,

that I was just
completely soaked.

I end up getting into
the top five,

so I make it to the second round
of the Dark Horse,

I was like,
"Yes, this is great."

Second round comes,

and it's an old
Airistotle track.

So, I just basically harness

my inner Airistotle,
if you will.

Judges liked it.

Judges liked it
like they like Airistotle,

and that really helped out.

I got through the Dark Horse,

I got into the National,
uh, Finals.

[Nicole]
I went up, I did my act,

and I ended up,
um, all of a sudden

winning the Dark Horse,

so I was not seeing that
coming at all.

I went to the Nationals
competition that Saturday.

Austin, Texas, 2016.

And my goal was have fun,

and if I can make
the second round, awesome.

Get to show off
a little bit more.

[Andrew] For the first time,
I'm bustin' out

my new fur vest,
that was awesome.

And it looked really cool,

but a fur vest in Austin, Texas,

in August, is really a bad idea.

Didn't get
the scores that I wanted,

didn't get the judges' approval.

I'm again watching
the second round from the crowd,

and it's your usual
cast of characters,

but there's also
Mom Jeans out there,

she had to go
through the Dark Horse with me.

So which meant that she went
super early in the night.

When you go
that early in a show,

you don't really expect to be

getting the good scores
that you want,

but she did,
and she got through there,

and I was like, "This is gonna
be the first time we've got

a Dark Horse go on to win
the National Championship."

And I was
unbelievably blown away

by her whole performance,

and, next thing you know,
they picked Airistotle again.

I was really crushed
for Mom Jeans,

'cause I was like,
"It was her turn."

You know, she's been workin'
at it for years and years.

The character of Mom Jeans,
she kinda came into her own,

I feel like
she really owns who she is now,

up on stage,

and totally deserved to win it,

and I think most of us--

we love Airistotle,
but we're all kinda like,

"All right, dude,
retire already."

So I was a judge
in 2016 Nationals,

and the moment that
me and the other judges saw

Airistotle's routine this year,

we knew that he was going to be
a competitor at Nationals.

I mean, he
was gonna be really good.

Airistotle has this ability

to conjure up
that moment of magic,

something insanely
creative or fun

that makes him stand out
from the rest of the people,

on top of his innate ability
to listen to a song,

and figure out
how his body should move,

and accentuate
all the best parts of it.

And, um, in the second round,
he did that, in America,

and everybody was thinking,
"You know, at this point,

Mom Jeans is kicking ass,

and her first round
was so good."

When Airistotle was done,

it was clear
that he's still the champion.

Nobody does
the second round like he does.

I don't think
I mentally was prepared to win.

I almost feel like
I sabotaged myself in some way.

But I'm actually
totally cool with that,

because Matt Burns won
once again.

I really wanted somebody
to beat him, too.

I love Matt, but he's won
so many times. [chuckles]

I was really, like,
hoping Flying Finn

or somebody would beat him.

It looked like it was--
it was gonna have to be me,

if anybody beat him,
so-- and that didn't happen.

So Matt won, and last minute,

um, my husband decided that
we were just gonna go for it.

We were just gonna
go to Finland anyway.

So we got
some plane tickets last minute,

and decided to go
do Dark Horse in Oulu.

And Air Off is like

extra innings
of a baseball game.

You know, overtime.
Uh, sudden death.

It's the, um, it's the thing

where it's just
one person versus the other,

and they play a song.

And, um, you know, uh,

you pick an order.

Uh, in this particular case
I had to go first.

And he went second,
and then they--

they played the song,
we heard it once,

and then I had to go
and air guitar to that song.

And then he got a chance
to air guitar to that song,

after hearing it one more time.

[Eric] They chose Weezer,
"Hash Pipe."

And I immediately
recognize the song,

and so all of a sudden,
I'm like,

"Finally, now I'm getting a song
that I'm familiar with."

But I'm also thinking about,
and listening to it,

and I'm like,
"This is, like, the same riff

over and over again."

Like, there's not
a lot of dynamics in this song.

It is not a song
I would ever choose

to do air guitar to,
competitively.

He's performing,
but I'm not really

paying attention to him,
'cause I'm still

working on the song, I'm trying
to figure out something to do,

and I had-- I identify
one moment of the song

with this rising guitar lick.

I think back to
a competitor from DC

named, uh, Tommy Fretless,

who I saw do this amazing move

where he climbed up
the neck of the guitar.

And I immediately was like,
"That's my move.

That's gonna be my signature
move in the second round."

It was all
coming down to this moment,

and I'm playing the riff
as best as I can remember it...

and I'm just shakin' my hair
around and shakin' my hips,

and doin' all the sticks,
and I think

I'm getting most of them right.

And then it comes
to the rising guitar part.

And I do
the Tommy Fretless move.

I just put one hand here,
and another hand here,

and I slowly bring myself up
on the guitar.

And everybody goes, "Ah!"

And it was just like
the backwards thing.

I knew it when it happened.

I knew that I had won.

And in that moment.

So, thank you, Tommy Fretless.

Tommy Fretless, thank you.

You're amazing.

And finally,
I knew that I had won

and that it was over.

Like, my knees were weak.

You know,
I just, like, fell down,

and I was basically, like,
falling apart on stage

with this huge perma-grin,

just even thinking about it now,
makes me really happy.

They come out
and they give me the guitar,

you know, the Flying Finn
custom guitar

that that guy designs
every year.

And they start playing
Neil Young,

"Rockin' in the Free World,"

and all of my new friends

from all over the world
come up behind me,

and all start dancing
and rockin' out,

and playing that, and I start
fake playing the real guitar.

And then I realize,
"Hold-- wait, wait, wait!

This is a total sellout move.

I don't-- I'm not gonna pretend
to play a there-guitar."

So I take the-- the real guitar,

and I put it
behind my back, you know,

with the straps still on,
and I start playing air guitar,

and I'm doing that,
I had that moment on stage

where I realized, I don't
wanna be a complete fraud.

And-- and Hot Lixx
comes up to me,

and sees that
it's draped on my back,

and it-- it might
hit the ground, or fall off,

worse, because I'm rocking out,

and he kindly
takes it from me. [laughs]

So that I can go crazy.

[Doug] Well, I was
pretty thrilled to get second.

We were both
pretty excited about it.

There's a picture somewhere
of the two of us, like,

holding up our fingers
and, like,

one and two and, like,
all excited.

We just kept giggling for days.

Like, literally giggling,
'cause we were hanging out,

and we'd-- we'd you, know,
with the air guitar community,

and Worlds, you go out
and you do these trips,

and stuff like that,
and we'd just be walking around,

just start laughing.

Because it see--
it was still absurd,

that we had finished
one and two.

[Eric] I can't believe
that this happened.

I can't believe
that all those people

helped me get here,

and I'm here,
and I'm in this moment,

and it just seems surreal,
you know?

And I know it's just the
Air Guitar World Championships,

but, man, I worked really hard

for a long time
to get there, and it was--

it was a great moment,
to actually, um,

yeah, to have it happen.

The moment that I actually won,

and I was walking offstage,

whoever was running social media

for the Air Guitar World
Championships at that moment

Facebooked the winner,

and they wrote
"'Mean' Melvis Wins!"

Even-- even after winning,

they're still
mispronouncing my name.

So now I'm Melvis, in Finland.

Every time
I go back to Oulu, I'm Melvis,

which is a term of affection.

For when I got home,
everyone had signs

and-- and they were holding
them up and they were cheering,

and probably the other people
in the airport were like,

"Who's this guy? What do they--

what's the big deal here?"

[yelling noise]

[Eric] 'Cause I-- I had
that feeling, you know,

when you're on stage,
performing, you-- you think,

for a brief moment,

"All my friends
are watching me at home."

To see them all there,
the moment I--

I got off the plane was--
was pretty amazing.

[crowd] Melin!

-"Mean" Melin! "Mean" Melin!
-Oh, my God.

-"Mean" Melin! "Mean" Melin!
-"Mean" Melvis!

"Mean" Melvis! "Mean" Melvis!

[crowd cheering]

I had my guitar with me,
and so I pulled out the guitar,

and I was like, showing it off,
and-- everything.

It was just a really,
really great moment.

♪ You keep lookin' ♪

♪ Everything is fine ♪

2016 Worlds came up,
and I showed up late.

I showed up the day of
the Dark Horse contest itself.

Just so, like, my plane landed,

got in a cab,
and I went to the hotel,

and I just changed really quick
and ran to the venue,

and when I got the venue,
the-- the contest

had just started.

It's just so intense in there,
at-- at how bad,

you know, people--
people want to win it.

I'm just so confident that
the US is always gonna do good,

so I know that competing
against Mom Jeans that year,

and competing against
The Marquis that year,

I knew that they were gonna
definitely get--

make it into Worlds.

For the Dark Horse itself,

I was just
cheering everybody on.

[Nicole]
I didn't win the Dark Horse.

Didn't matter, though,
'cause they take, like,

a-- they take a big group
of people from that Dark Horse,

and that was
my whole goal there,

was just to make
the second round of that.

Just to get that top tier,

so that I could
make it into the show.

So, the next day, though, I was
competing against everybody,

so I just saw The Marquis get,
like, perfect scores

in the Dark Horse,
and I was like, "Yeah!"

And then I woke up,
and I was like,

"Fuck! He's so good."

I was so stressed out
that whole day,

because I just
didn't want to tie anybody.

Like, it was my whole goal
was just, don't tie.

Lose, cool. Just don't tie.

I had, like,
the absolutely best time.

We were in front of
the-- you know,

5 or 6,000 people, in Oulu,

and I wasn't nervous at all.

I had just, as Mom Jeans Jeanie,

just being this fun character.

People love Mom.
It's an international thing.

Everybody's got a mom somewhere.

I had little kids
chanting "Aiti,"

in the front row,
which is Finnish for mom.

Which was so cool. [chuckles]

[Burns] The contest
was-- was going on,

and I was kinda-- I was feeling
pretty good about it,

and everybody's doin'
really, really good.

I was just, like, not paying
attention to the contest itself.

I was just
so stressed out about, again,

just not tying anybody.

I was cheering everybody on,
I was kind of watching it,

but I was just
ignoring the scoreboard.

It went by so fast, like,
everybody competing, just--

it just felt just--
so, so, so fast.

And my round one
went really, really good,

but the important thing,
I think about the round one

is that the crowd-- I got
a really good pop in the crowd,

in the front,
but the pop that I got

before my song--
before my song started,

before I pointed up,
was really, really good,

so that means that they were
buying into whatever I was--

into, like, the whole
character that I was doin'.

You know, bein' all
cutesy and stuff like that.

They all like that a lot,

but they bought into
the character right off the bat.

I was going last

in the second round,

and me and Kirill,
Kirill was in second place.

So already, I was like,
"Fuck, this is gonna--

this is really gonna
happen again, you know?

This is really gonna happen."

Um, but the round two,
I was happy about,

because it was
a really hard Round Two song,

like, it was so fast and there
were a lot of, like,

switches in the middle of it,

and there were a lot of really
quick, quick, quick little--

little guitar moves in there,

that I was able to just
catch a lot of 'em.

And since I was goin' last,
I was able to-- to-- to come up

with a--
with a pretty good round two.

And, by the time
that I went out,

I don't think I watched a single
other person's round two.

I wasn't worried about
people coming up with the moves

that I was coming up with.

I just knew that people
weren't coming up with moves

in the spots
that I was picking them,

to-- to do the move.

When the scores came up
in the second round,

I was like, afraid to look,

and then Bjorn was like,
"Holy shit,"

and then he's-- I looked over,

and there were
so many sixes on it,

I-- I-- I got
straight sixes in the--

when you drop the high to low,
I six, six, sixed it,

so I was pretty good.

I cried that night, too.

I cry a lot
after air guitar contests.

But it was
for a different reason.

I was pretty--
I was pretty happy.

Um...

[quietly] best in the world.

[rock music plays]

♪

I, you know,
did really well in that show,

I placed third.

Behind, um, USA and Russia.

So-- but I'm back
for a little bit more,

and this year,
I would like to try to win.

Every year
that I would go to Nationals,

it would get harder
and harder to be competitive.

You're just watching
these amazingly talented,

creative people
take this tiny art form,

this-- this--
this ridiculous thing,

and expand on it, and try to
make it bigger and better

and weirder and more exciting,

and watching the directions
that people go in

has always been
the best part, right?

To see another routine
that blows your mind

when you think
you've seen everything,

and so I'm really glad
that I'm not competing anymore.

And I can now
just go to these shows,

and enjoy everybody's work
and everybody's effort.

Because I know
how much time they put into it,

how much of their heart
and soul they pour into that

one minute of ridiculousness.

Air guitar, it's just gonna
keep getting better.

It's just gonna
keep getting weirder,

and people are just
gonna keep pushing it.

It's like you have a sandbox,

and you don't want to play
in that sandbox.

You have the-- this limitation
that's put on you,

and within that limitation,

there's a lot of things
that you can do, that are new.

A lot of ways
to innovate and a lot of ways

to make
that one minute exciting.

That's our only limitation,
it's the time.

It's just gonna get weirder,
and-- and more fun and crazy.

["How I Spent My Summer
Vacation" by Truck Stop Love]

♪

♪ Sangria ♪

♪ With wine and tequila ♪

♪ Line 'em up ♪

♪ 'Til I can't stand up ♪

♪ And she said
that she was mine ♪

♪ And she said that she was
said she was mine ♪

♪ Officer, hey, officer ♪

♪ The problem's not with me ♪

♪ Sitting all night it hurts ♪

♪ Missin' you
while you missin' me ♪

♪ And she said
that she was mine ♪

♪ And she said that she was
said she was mine ♪

♪ Ah! ♪

[music ends]