Lawrence, Kansas

  • 18 April, 2024
I Heart Local Music

If you’re a fan of rocking out and talent of epic proportions, you’ll want to clear your calendar on Friday. That’s when the US Air Guitar Championship returns to Kansas City at the Beaumont Club, and you can bet there will be more than a few born showmen going for the gold onstage.
 
One of these competitors with a taste for flair is Magic Cyclops. The air guitar legend is a veteran in the scene who brings oodles of comedy and snark to the stage (his website reflects this). But it was a brief stint on American Idol that really garnered him national attention.
 

 
You can add “sparkling t.v. personality” to his many personas. The man also DJs, is a one-man band, and “did a podcast for a while.” “I’ve done pretty much everything you can do,” says Mr. Cyclops. “Air guitar is the best time I’ve ever had.”
 

Photo Courtesy: Magic Cyclops
This is perhaps the one genuine statement you’ll get out of the flamboyant performer. Air guitar competitions seem to be one of the few contests where nobody sets out to take down their opponent. Instead, there’s an aura of mad respect and (most often) total adoration. “It’s not about winning, I’ve met some of the best people I’ve ever met in my life through air guitar,” says Cyclops. “And It keeps me going back.”
 
Cyclops has admitted to “wasting” thousands of dollars in competitions (traveling across the nation isn’t cheap), but he doesn’t regret a single moment of it. “Those have been the great times,” he says. “It makes perfect sense. There’s just a freedom in competing and being onstage without anything. It’s what I was meant to do.”
 
All sentiments aside, the prizes for whoever becomes champion are pretty serious (this includes real guitars). Whoever wins this regional competition heads to Denver for the National Finals. The winner of THAT competition wins a trip to Finland in August to compete in the Air Guitar World Championships (but more importantly, holds the title of US Champion).
 
We asked Cyclops about his game plan for the competition, which includes playing the waiting game. “I’m just weeding everyone out,” says Cyclops. “So all of the people that keep beating me will eventually retire, and I can go and thus be champion again.”
 
Here’s a sampling of what Magic Cyclops will be up against. This is Thunderball, the current Lawrence champ:
 

 
This is Mean Melin, the current Kansas City champ (and also Dead Girls drummer):
 

 
Here’s Magic Cyclops competing in Chicago last year:
 

 
Bonus video! Here’s Mean Melin sticking it to the Westboro Baptist Church:
 

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Fally Afani is an award-winning journalist with a career spanning more than 20 years in media. She has worked extensively in radio, television, newspapers, magazines, and more.

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