Awesome Talents

Doing push-ups and planks requires a good bit of upper body strength. Calisthenics athletes Andry Strong and Eryc Ortiz show off their power and control by performing a push-up without their legs on the ground and with Eric balanced on Andry’s neck. And then there’s this move.

Florian “Venom” Kohler is one of the world’s best pool trick shot artists. As he’s perfected his craft, he has developed over 10,000 tricks and techniques to make billiard balls do his bidding. WIRED met with Florian to demonstrate some of his wildly inventive trick shots. His mastery of ball physics is truly something to behold.

For the opening ceremonies of the 20th Letní Letná festival in Prague, 32 acrobats performed while hanging from a spinning truss suspended by a crane. Artists duo.extend were part of this display from Cirkus Cirkor’s Aquanauts, an amazing show that brings together acrobats, aerialists, and synchronized swimmers in a show combining water, air, and fire.

Musician Wendel Gama doesn’t just impersonate Michael Jackson’s look and dance moves, he’s got the voice to back it up. If you close your eyes and listen to his performances of Billie Jean, You Are Not Alone, and Remember the Time, you’d be hard-pressed to tell it isn’t The King of Pop reincarnated. He also does Tiny Tim.

If you asked us to stand up on a floating log, we’d faceplant in the water in about 2 seconds. But Tanner and Lyle from the Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show have no such problem. Watch as they battle for supremacy and try to knock each other off the log at any cost. Tanner clearly had no qualms about splashing Lyle. Watch the full competition here.

Like that guy from the Police Academy movies, beatboxer J-COP has the amazing ability to imitate just about any sound. But that’s not the best part of his videos – it’s his hype team – a group of friends and breakdancers who celebrate each achievement with more enthusiam than the guys in a How Ridiculous video after they hit a perfect target. More here.

This talented performer shows off his multitasking skills by simultaneously playing his acoustic guitar while tap dancing.  His unconventional flamenco performance has him strumming the fretboard while holding the guitar upright. Also, this man has some crazy long fingers.

Choreographer Sadeck Waff is known for his amazing synchronized tutting routines. Sadeck and the dance team Mega Unity performed this mind-blowing sequence for the 2021 finale of La France A Un Incroyable Talent. The performance starts at the 9:42 mark with the real magic happening in the top-down view. Here’s another amazing work by Sadeck.

Musician Will Wilde is an incredibly talented harmonica player. He’s especially adept at interpreting vocal and guitar solos from rock songs, including this jam from Pink Floyd’s The Great Gig in the Sky. His harmonica solos from Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven and Guns N’ Roses Sweet Child o’ Mine are equally compelling.

Say you need to cover a wall with cement. You could get on a ladder to reach the parts above your head, or you could do like this show-off from working on a house in Brazil, and simply toss trowels full of the stuff into place from the ground. His aim is spot-on, but we’re guessing his arm is sore at the end of the day.

Hittesh Patel’s unique combination of tutting, popping, and contortion sets him apart from other performers. In this clip, his hands become a bird, his body becomes geometric shapes, and he demonstrates control over his individual toes that we didn’t know was physically possible.

Beatbox artist Improver shows why he’s one of the world’s best with his Grand Beatbox Battle 2023 World League solo performance. His original track Dirty Planet is a hard-driving commentary on humanity’s gradual destruction of our planet. He also plays a mean accordion.

This self-proclaimed “little nerd robot” sure can dance. Bryan CHIBI Gaynor’s moves are more machine than human. This Robot Cannot Human has a knack for choreographing robotic dance moves to unlikely songs like Alice in Chains’ Them Bones, Tool’s Schism, and Weezer’s Island in the Sun. Find more of this robot’s creative videos on YouTube.

This performer shows off a traditional Middle Eastern dance that incorporates fire. But the dancer isn’t juggling or carrying flames; she’s wearing them along the hemline of her dress, creating a terrifying ring of fire as she spins. We sure hope the upper part of the dress is fireproof. There’s a similar fire dancing tradition in India.

When approaching a staircase with your bicycle, it’s best to dismount and walk it down. That is unless you know what you’re doing like freestyle cyclist Fabio Wibmer, who makes it look easy. And he did it backward while balancing on the front wheel. Or, you could just skip over the entire staircase.

Now here’s something you don’t see every day… a guy playing the accordion, yodeling as fast as humanly possible, and smoking a cigarette at the same time. We’d only wish we could have been there to see the performance in person while we glugged down a giant stein of beer.

Dancer Stephane Deheselle, aka “S,” shows off his insane flexibility in this performance from the 2016 I Love This Dance All-Star Game. After starting with his back to the camera, his robotic moves gradually transformed into smooth, organic ones that made us imagine he was some kind of strange bird from another planet.

Azel is the Italian beatboxing champion. Around the one-minute mark in this clip, you’ll find out why. Between the crazy sounds coming from his mouth to the wild facial contortions, this guy is a true master of his craft. We’re just impressed he didn’t get more spit on the camera lens.

This talented and athletic performer shows off her leg strength and balancing skills by lying on her back and spinning objects with her feet. She starts out by spinning a flower pot, then ups the challenge to something a bit less symmetrical – a table. She can spin things in circles too.

Musician Bob Strachan has the uncanny ability to sound just like Johnny Cash. But he doesn’t just use his talents to cover Johnny’s songs. In this case, he took Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise and turned it into a moody country song along the lines of Folsom Prison Blues.

Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik was written for a string ensemble. But violinist Roman Kim is an overachiever. His solo arrangement has him performing multiple parts on a single violin. He’s also done the same with Beethoven’s 5th. He says those prismatic glasses help him focus, but he can clearly play without them.

Klangphonics previously showed us how it’s possible to make techno-sounding music without using a computer sequencer. We recently came across a few more of their creative live performances, including one that incorporates a pressure washer and another with a rubber duckie and an electric toothbrush.

Musician and actor Baikaju Nakamura is seriously talented. Not only is he a masterful bass player, but he also slaps his strings in style. In this short clip, he demonstrates his skills while buttoned up in the suit and tie of a salaryman. That’s not the only suit he owns, though.