remember a time in my life I was nine
years old and I was watching an NSYNC
concert with my family do you remember
in sync I can tell cuz you just left and
when we were watching that concert well
first you need to understand
everyone in my family sings really well
and at that time in my life I was not a
good singer I was terrible I was awful
my mom would tell you that I’m not lying
about it and they could sing along to
NSYNC and sound good and I was not
sounding good but lucky for me in this
particular insync concert
Justin Timberlake walked to the center
of the stage and in front of thousands
of people overflowing the Madison Square
Gardens and in front of millions of
viewers watching worldwide he didn’t
sing he beatboxed and beatboxing is just
making drum noises and musical sounds
with your mouth it’s a human’s way of
imitating drums and what they sound like
but when he did that my mind was blown I
loved it I wanted nothing more in life
than to do that and my mom she did as
any mom would do and she told me the
brutal truth Parker you can’t sing so
and so I wanted to do that and that year
for Christmas she got me that very
concert on VHS tape and I watched it and
I tried to follow along with the
beatboxing and I then rewinded it and
tried to do that over and over and over
again until I could actually beatbox and
that never I didn’t stop there I pursued
it all the way through elementary school
middle school high school I’m in college
right now I would take every opportunity
I could to perform well there was a
student talent show a County Fair a
State Fair any opportunity I could I
took it and then YouTube became a thing
and I could post videos there and I was
trying to pursue beatboxing and music to
the best of my ability to take it as
high as I can possibly take it and I
still feel that way well in October 2015
I had a video go internationally viral
and that video was of me beatboxing with
a McDonald’s Cup and using the straw as
a tool to change the pitch as I move the
straw up and down and today that video
is well over 600 million views on
Facebook and with that came so many huge
opportunities opportunities that a kid
like me from a small town in Idaho was
not familiar with or exposed to ever
right I was I was put on The Steve
Harvey Show I was on ridiculousness I
was featured on America’s Got Talent and
outrageous acts of science
hundreds and of articles around the
world Huffington Post MTV it went viral
around the world
I was on The Good Morning American
version of Good Morning America version
in Japan and they labeled me straw man
and it just went crazy all over the
world just mind blown and oddly enough I
was able to get my very own McDonald’s
McDonald’s commercial and picture this
college student in Rexburg Idaho
picked up in a black Escalade driven to
the airport fly to Los Angeles get
picked up by a limo driver takes you
then to a McDonald’s commercial set I
was amongst a lot of people there do you
need snacks do you need water can we do
anything for you
women were throwing makeup onto my face
and the guys were pointing lights and
cameras at me and it was at that moment
where I realized I can do this I can do
this chubby white kid from small town in
Idaho who loved beatboxing learned to
beatbox and took it to a point where I
was then performing it for a McDonald’s
commercial on TV shows and in tons of
different conferences I started to
realize I can do this and that’s where I
got the name lights camera passion is
because I was passionate about
beatboxing and no matter what I
continued to do it and so that’s kind of
my story it’s really I guess a testament
to me that people can do what they want
to do as weird it as as it is like I
make weird noises you know like getting
LinkedIn account people were like if you
have a LinkedIn you must be a business
major it’s like now I make weird noises
with my mouth and I’m very successful on
LinkedIn so I feel like if you have
something you enjoy doing
then you’re meant to do it and if you
pursue it then you’re gonna live a lot
happier and you’re gonna be successful
because what it is you’re doing you’re
gonna do for free anyway so enough talk
and I hope you enjoy
[Applause]
so to share something else with you real
quick you know high-schoolers there were
a lot of really stupid stuff and when I
was in high school my friends just
started asking me can you snore and
beatbox can you laugh and beatbox do you
tie your shoes and beatbox ki do this in
beatbox and I really was attracted to
the snoring thing and laughing thing for
[Laughter]
[Music]
[Applause]
the last thing I’ll be real quick I just
call this one two three four five six
seven eight so I am NOT creative and I
don’t know a different name to call it
but this is to show you how many things
that I can do with my mouth at the same
time without looping myself with
technology this is just 100% me and a
microphone and I’m gonna hold up a
finger every time I add in a new beat
and I can get up to eight different
[Applause]
you [Applause]