Awesome Talents

An absolutely incredible bit of archive footage of the late, great Dizzy Gillespie and Jon Hendricks performing at Lincoln Center back in 1980, using only their mouths, noses, hands, and a Jew’s harp to bring a tune to life.

Expert engraver Shaun Hughes turns his attention to Charles Schultz’s lovable loser, as he deftly carves his famous expression and “Oh, Good Grief” catchphrase into an old Buffalo nickel. Fortunately, five cents is just enough for Lucy’s psychiatric help booth.

Check out each of the division winners in the 2017 World Yo-Yo Championships, which recently wrapped up in Reykjavík, Iceland. They’re all amazing, but Shu Takada and Takuma Inoue really blew our minds with their quick tricks and flawless performances.

Drummer David Dockery’s latest rhythm-matching exercise lines up his drumbeats with one of the many classic improv bits from Rick and Morty, as the duo tunes into one of the multiverse’s infinite TV channels, and encounters a salesman with an eye problem.

(PG-13: Language, Spoilers) Voice actor Scheiffer Bates turns in a great series of impressions, based on some of the most iconic characters from Game of Thrones. You know it’s good when you can close your eyes and envision each of the characters speaking the lines.

South Korean beatboxers Two.H & Hiss aka MNSTWNSS covers their microphones with ample amounts of spit as they turn in an energetic and truly impressive performance for the Swissbeatbox channel. Check out their second recording here.

Drummer David Dockery continues his series in which he synchronizes his drumming with dialogue, this time adding some rhythm to the words of Peter Griffin. We’re still not sure that he can actually drum all 50 states in a 1/4 of a second though.

A man participating in the Thailand Knife Cutting Competition shows off his skills, dicing, slicing, and chopping through wood, with a super sharp blade, and one hand behind his back. We’re glad he’s got a lanyard to keep it from flying away into the crowd.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen a dance crew in lighted costumes, but Light Balance have taken it to a whole new level, with intricate designs and perfect coordination between body and light. No wonder their America’s Got Talent number won them the coveted Golden Buzzer.

YouTuber Michael Boyers captured this incredible street performance by Newcastle, London musician Steve Ojay, as his fingers work some serious magic on the strings of his inexpensive Squier bass, proving that talent trumps equipment any day of the week.

You know what we love about the Internet? It lets us discover talented people we never would have heard of. Case in point – singer Anna Blanchard, who fills her YouTube channel with soul-stirring covers of songs by Todd Rundgren, Radiohead, alt-J, Nirvana, and more.

Pennsylvania’s Ringing Rocks Park is packed with boulders which create a unique sound when struck with a hammer. The percussionists of Square Peg Round Hole decided to use the park to record an original song using only rocks and hammers as their instruments.

When someone sends us a dance video, the moves are performed with legs and arms. Not so in this clip from StatusSilver, choreographed by XTRAP, which features a synchronized performance by three sets of hands. It’s like a Busby Berkeley musical, but for fingers.

(PG-13: Lyrics) Marquese Scott, BluPrint, iGlide, and AndreAndroiidRucker follow up their incredible dance video from 2012 with another sick set of robotic and slow-motion maneuvers. We want to see these guys in a dance-off with World Order.

If you follow The Awesomer, you know we’re huge fans of Puddles Pity Party. But, much like half of Penn and Teller, he doesn’t speak. Inside Joke got a rare opportunity to learn about Puddles from Big Mike Geier, the man behind the legend. Bonus points for the Yolandi shirt.

Run along with athlete Calen Chan as he heads down the Skyladder parkour course built down the side of Tianman Mountain in China. Not only is the 999 step-tall course the longest on the planet, but its built on a 45° incline to add to the challenge. The slide part looks like fun.

Vocalist Mandy Harvey lost her hearing about 10 years ago, but she didn’t let that stand in the way of her passion. She recently stone the show on American’s Got Talent, earning a golden buzzer to the finals courtesy of Simon Cowell. Has someone been cutting onions in here?

We’ve been fans of Puddles Pity Party since he first hit the scene. Now, he’s about to break wide after appearing on America’s Got Talent. To kick off his almost certain domination of the competition, he performed a rendition of Sia’s Chandelier, arranged by Postmodern Jukebox.

The fidgetspinnerpocalypse is upon us, and these kinetic toys are everywhere now. Musician Davie504 thought he’d try something different than just wasting time with his fidget spinner, and used it to strum the strings on his bass guitar. Turns out it’s perfect for surf rock.

We’ve had no luck finding out the name of this Korean musician that Mo Elnadi recorded while performing on the street in London, but we were duly impressed by his minimal cover of Coldplay’s Fix You on his MicroKorgXL synth. His cover of Oasis’ Stand by Me ain’t bad either.

Thumbs up for magician Vincent Kuo as he amps up the classic magic finger trick you learned as a kid. He works such trickery with his digits we’d be worried he might steal some of ours if we got anywhere near him.

It’s been floating around the YouTube ether for an eternity, but Alejandro Sayago’s 2011 performance of DragonForce’s speedmetal hit Through the Fire and Flames is too good to pass up. We can’t decide if his fingers, lips, or lungs were most likely to fall off by the end.

Drummer David Dockery is back with another rhythmic reinterpretation of a classic scene. This time, he transposed the dialogue from the famous fizzy lifting drink argument from Willy Wonka into a drumbeat. Listen to the beat without the voices here. “I said GOOD DAY!”