Who The Hell Is B-Boy Ivan?
POSTED ON February 2nd, 2011 BY Paul
Towards the end of 2010, we received an e-mail from a London-based PR company with the subject “B.BOY Ivan record breaking attempt.” It seemed to be a pretty standard PR release, although it was the first one I’d ever actually read all the way through, so I could be wrong.
What caught my eye was this line:
B.boy Ivan came into prominence after auditioning for America’s Got Talent three years ago when he attempted to backflip over twelve steel chairs he was unsuccessful and ended up unconscious and taken to hospital: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86_022_B0Vs
So that is Ivan’s legacy according to this PR firm. I guess before he became a joke on TV he was pretty much a nobody, right?
It’s like their angle was “look at this guy fuck up, maybe you’ll get to see him fuck up again live!”
Maybe I’m oversensitive, but I feel like Ivan deserves a little more than that.
CATEGORY: Media
What do you expect from companies that want to exploit other people’s talent for their own personal gain? Did you respond back to them with what you felt?
I didn’t respond back, I figured that for a firm whose goal is to get attention, not respect, they probably wouldn’t care either way.
Or maybe that’s just my cop-out.
Although I am curious if Ivan ever saw the press-releases for the event.
They need to show some respect! Bboy Ivan will always be a legend to me!
You’re right! Ivan deserves a lot more than that! He’s incredibly talented. But he’s so fucking old-skool that lots of the young cats don’t seem to know him other than from that show. Have you ever watched the accident? To me it looks totally staged. He is so good at what he does and in that show, he practically runs into the first chairs, crashes into them, lands on his arms, goes into a pencil and then is unconscious. Check it out and let me know what you think:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86_022_B0Vs
If you keep your eyes on the trampoline from the front angle, you can see it collapse as he jumps on it. It looked to me like a messed up and tried to recover as best he could before realizing how badly he was hurt. I guess a pencil was his attempt at a recovery.
Seems to me that if a guy makes his living performing he’s not going to stage something that makes him look incapable of putting on a good show. Who knows though.
this is the second time i’ve seen Ivan in a video and i’m a young cat, the first video i saw was of Ivan holding it down for the 209 on the B-Boy Connection, this cat knows his stuff and really represents.
not trying to get over-sensitive (right, Paul?), but mad props to Ivan and glad to see your well.
First video I saw: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9Y9v5dAhvI
This video is still in the back of my mind every time I dance.