key as Audrey said before I am a circus
performer and action actor living here
in Los Angeles I’m one half of the best
reps key brothers that’s my younger
brother right there and I got to perform
with him all the time which is really
cool before we start I want to answer a
few questions that people always ask me
all the time how tall am I I’m six seven
technically I’m six six and a half but
if I tell you I’m six six and a half
years you’re six seven okay I’m six
seven I’m a circus performer the air up
here is great I don’t play basketball
I’m not part of a circus family and I
didn’t start doing gymnastics as a kid I
actually used to be a janitor which is a
really really good profession that you
should all aspire to do but before we
get into the juicy details on my
janitorial career I wanted to share my
most embarrassing life experience at
that time with you guys it was an
audition that I did when I was 21 years
old and I came from a smaller City
Spokane Washington and for me it was a
big deal it’s a really big deal I want
to show that with you guys so check it
out now they call this the brand new
settings but outside things have dried
up inside things are still pretty
miserable so far the dancers haven’t hit
the heights the judges would like hoping
to change that with six foot six b-boy
Demetrios Petrovsky a week ago was
really really confident and then I
videotaped myself working out and I saw
it and now it’s like kind of iffy now
I’m like I’m here already so I’m doing
it but I was a lot more confident before
I saw a tape of me dancing
apparently it looks a lot better in my
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
okay how long have you been doing
breaking three months three months huh
Wow well that’s what it it felt like I
was watching somebody that’s been trying
something for three months I didn’t feel
for one thing that you had the strength
you know and there was this wild wickets
on you were just like falling down and
it was getting slower and slower really
nail it and it was just I was like
scared actually cuz I realized you know
that you don’t really know what you’re
doing it scared me I couldn’t even enjoy
it it sounded like the music was feeding
out of you and you were completely dying
on us and it scared me I’m not sure
yeah there wasn’t anything there for me
at all I’m afraid it’s enough for me
it’s a no for me but I hope to encourage
you to keep going if you love dancing
don’t just stick with breaking classical
would be panting you’d make a great
partner you’d be able to lift girls with
one finger fantastic
yeah we’ll see you in a couple of years
doing that then shall we sounds good all
so a fun fact that Sanne picked was for
shock value I think it got it the second
thing is my performance that just it was
a minute 30 which is exactly how long I
had first I think it danced
now I’m gonna backtrack a little bit so
I used to be a janitor and I was a
self-employed janitor which means I had
a lot of free time on my hands a lot of
free time all my friends were at school
or at work I worked either late nights
or early mornings so my whole day was
essentially free to do whatever I wanted
though I didn’t have anything to do I
went to Lake that summer and I learned
how to do a backflip into the water off
a dock and this was a huge deal for me
because I always wanted to do gymnastics
I always wanted to do it but I was
always told those two tall and also our
family wasn’t financially stable enough
to pay for their six seven four six six
son or tall boy to do gymnastics and
I’ve always wanted to do so when I
learned how to do that backflip
something awoke inside of me and I’m
like wow I could do this I could do this
and I had all this free time so I
started going into gymnastics gyms and
finding out about adult classes and
about renting the gym because I wanted
to learn now I started learning about
dog classes when I realized that one I’m
really really self-conscious about
people watching me learn how to do stuff
because I’m a tall awkward white male
and I don’t want people to like laugh at
me so I was really scared to do it so I
started asking about renting the gym and
I stopped by at a gymnastics place left
my number and I got a call the next day
and this call surprised me because what
they asked me was if I wanted to
interview for a coaching position at the
gym they called hi I’m from Spokane
elite gymnastics now formally spoken
like gymnastics now Spokane gymnastics
and like we’re looking for coaches we
know that you were inquiring we’re
looking for you know a male coach who’s
strong who could spot the kids on high
bar and whatnot and I immediately
informed unknown about me I know nothing
about gymnastics I want to learn
gymnastics like no no it’s not that big
of a deal we’ll train you you know you
could interview if they’d be like you
will train you to coach I was like oh
okay yeah I’ll think about it and then I
hung up and I just sat there with my
phone and I’m like do I want to do this
job energy I don’t need the money but I
have lots of time so you know and this
was my first Whynot moment my why not
moment where I was just like why not
what’s the worst that could happen you
know so what’s this job interview and I
got to play with kids which was really
really cool we played games and cuz I
play in the foam pit and whatnot and I
fell in love with it and the kids fell
in love with me because they’ve never
seen the Jolly
tall person so it was a great fit and I
got hired and I started teaching me out
of coach six months down the line I’m
now coaching preschool classes and a
funny thing about preschool is if you
ever get one preschooler to cry which is
really easy when you’re 67 by just
saying hi I’m coach Demetrius then all
of them will cry it’s a chain reaction
way and they all start bowing that was
one of the things that to learn as a
coach and progressively as I learned
more I started teaching higher levels
and I got to the point where I start
teaching boys were level one two and two
three and I got to the point cuz boys
always ask why don’t you do it show me
show me how to do and I’m like and I I
don’t have the heart to lie to a child I
can’t do it I don’t have it in me so
every coach has a thing that they say to
deflect it you know I did it when I was
younger I had my time now it’s your time
passing the baton on to you me I was
like well I technically I hired a coach
here and I really don’t know I can’t
physically do it but I can teach you I
have the knowledge in my head but I
could teach you but I don’t know and I
can help you out but the kids don’t
really care about they just want you to
see a handstand or a backflip or
something
so I started feel like a hypocrite and
when I decided to do was teach myself I
already knew how to teach I had access
to a camera so what I would do is
whatever classes I taught during the
week at night when the gym closed my
manager Nadine Burgess allowed me to
train myself as long as that someone
else to watch and supervise in case I
got hurt so I started off with the basic
progressions basic handstands forward
rolls cartwheels and I gradually got
better because the kids trained one day
a week and I trained five days a week
which was a big difference so I’ll be
half a year later I’m now as good as are
some of our team boys and this this why
not in me started happening throughout
my life so I’m manifesting throughout my
life my older brother asked me hey you
want to go back to school so the time I
had dropped out why not you know who
knows what could happen
and I kept I’m saying why not and my why
nots got a little bit more ridiculous as
I got more confident and one day my
friend Tucker Frye who worked the gym
with me said hey Demetrius you wanna
audition for so you think you dance with
me and I said Tucker you know I can’t
breakdance I don’t know anything about
breakdancing
I have now like basic basic gymnastics
ability but I can’t do anything about
story I’ll teach you okay why not so we
had three months to Train unfortunately
we didn’t train them for those three
months kind of forgot about it but three
before we start training really hard
really really hard and we came out there
and we tried our best but the night
before I had the realization that I’m
not as good as I thought I was and I
honestly don’t know what I’m doing but
at this point I can’t back out now I’ve
already already gone to Seattle because
we’re from Spokane so we drove six hours
to audition for this and you saw what
happened that was it and I was so
embarrassed when it happened because
it’s a very hard thing to try your best
at something and fail and then be
critiqued on it afterwards so we came
home and we’re exhausted and we’re tired
and you know and we sat down in the next
day I woke up angry because there was
one thing that was somebody at one of
the judges said something to me I’m not
gonna say what’s judge and it kept on
replaying in my head and she said I
don’t think you’ll ever be good but I
encourage you to keep going I don’t
think you’ll ever be good I don’t think
he’ll ever be good I don’t think you’ll
ever be good this reverb played in my
head over and over again and I couldn’t
stop I got angry I got passionately
angry and I said you don’t know no the
only person who’s decides whether I
could be good or not is me so I started
training Tucker and I formed a
breakdance crew it’s technically b-boy
but I’m gonna say breakdance so people
could understand we started a b-boy crew
called the paper cutter crew with we met
two other people as four of us and we
started training two days a week and
then two days became three days a week
and three days became five days a week
and before you know it we’re on this
intense training regimen and we’re
trying to be the best and this happened
for about three months we started
improving and we started pushing through
injuries and when you sprained your
wrist you do your freezes on your left
side and when your left shoulder hurt
you start doing footwork and you just
keep going and you never stop and then
an interesting thing happened that video
that I’d almost forgotten about got
aired on TV three months later because
that’s how TV works and I had a I was
already at peace with it
it kind of still angry but I’m starting
to forget about it and then it aired and
that second wave of embarrassment was a
hundred times worse than the first
because the first wave of embarrassment
only I knew and Tucker knew and a few of
my friends the second time the world
knew and suddenly I’m walking outside
and people are like hey you’re that tall
guy who was like falling on TV and I’m
I’m flattered that you’re giving me
compliments but in my mind I’m thinking
I tried my best
that was my best that I did everything I
could and I didn’t even hear about the
video because I was working and then I
showed up the next day to my econ class
my professor screamed it on the big
screen for all of us to watch and I
looked there and I was mortified because
I almost forgot about but then I heard
the judges again and everything flashed
back and I got more angry and more
passionate and I trained harder even
harder than before another six months
goes by and suddenly you know now we’re
making a name for ourselves our
breakdance crew is known papercut oh
crew we’re starting doing local
community shows things like now I’m
saying why not more often to other
things I start going back to theater in
school again I’m doing all these things
and an interesting thing happened
halfway through one day during practice
we’re all practicing laughing I’m
sitting down taking a break and it
looked around and saw everyone smiling
and these now these people who were
strangers a year ago are now my really
really close friends and I’m like I’m
having fun I’m enjoying this this is
something that I like doing and at that
moment I realized that my anger had
faded as it does with time and I wasn’t
angry anymore and I wasn’t as passionate
anymore but something filled out and it
was having fun doing something that I
wanted to do not caring that I was the
tall goofy white guy trying to
breakdance that didn’t matter
and this progressed this why not
progressed on and on to make other
bigger choices so my main point of two
points of this the main point one is to
try to say why not more often to weird
live situations because who knows what’s
gonna happen
worst case scenario you’ll have a really
cool story to tell my second point is do
not audition for so you think you could
dance especially if you cannot dance
know that that’s not my actual point my
actual point is that listen to your
inner voice inside your head your inner
voice inside your heart versus the
voices of others because people always
talk people will always talk whether
you’re good
whether you’re bad people will always
talk and let them talk because they’ll
always tell you what they’re afraid to
do they’re always tape tell you what
they’re afraid that you’re gonna do
you’re gonna get hurt no you’re way too
big to do that you can’t move to Los
Angeles but when you stop listening to
them and start listening to yourself
you could wear a red sweatpants to TED
talk I know so with that I’m thank you
for your time
my name is Demetrius mr. Epstein have a great day