CU Student Philip White Appears on the Steve Harvey Show

By Jonathan Still

Philip White, a sophomore computer science major, demonstrated his yo-yo tricks two weeks ago on the Steve Harvey Show in Los Angeles. The segment was taped on the 11th of January and was shown on TV last Tuesday afternoon.

“It was not as nerve wracking as you might expect,” White said. “It wasn’t live in front of national TV, but it was still pretty nerve wracking, because you know it was going to be on something.”

White was battling two other yo-yo champions called Mark and Tessa on a segment called “Battle Me on Steve.”

White’s roommate, sophomore computer science major Daschel Fortner, saw the clip of White’s performance and he said it was a very exciting and delightful experience.

“The narrator on Steve remarked that Philip’s tricks were ‘very risky,” Fortner said. “A hall-mate and I joked that the narrator had no idea – it’s a lot more risky when he flings a yo-yo around in a small dorm room!”

Another one of White’s friends, Sophomore industrial design major Sarah Harris, was excited that Philip got to experience this unique opportunity.

“Watching the show, I couldn’t help, but smile, because it was evident that Philip was in his element, doing his thing, and having a good time.” Harris said.   

Before his appearance on the show, White said he was a 3-time national champion coming in first in different contests. His performances even made it on various yo-yo championship YouTube channels.

“I started competing like a year after I started yo-yoing,” White said. “I enjoyed doing contests so I got to meet other people. Then eventually I won those contests so I was kind of good enough to go to nationals and I started doing that. Then I got good enough to win nationals.”

White has been doing yo-yo tricks since 2010.

“I had a dollar store yo-yo and I started to play around with that,” White said. “Then my brother looked up YouTube videos and we started looking at tutorial videos on how to do the tricks so we did some of those.

White said he has no secret or signature techniques to his yo-yo tricks. He believes anyone can do what he can with a lot of practice, because that’s how he got to where he is today. White said he had some advice for beginners thinking about starting their own yo-yo tricks.

“I would start by saying have a fun time with yo-yoing,” White said. “If you immediately start thinking about nationals, I think you’re going about it the wrong way, because yo-yoing itself is just a fun hobby to have and if you get good then you can enjoy competing as well.”

The segment of White’s performance can be found on the official Steve Harvey show YouTube video. The video is below:

Jonathan Still is a freshman journalism major and a freelance writer at Cedarville University. He enjoys writing stories, hanging with friends and making comedy skits.