Brian Melford knows how to handle a yo-yo.
The 27-year-old Bronx man has more than 300 of them. Some, he designed himself.
By day, he’s an aide to City Councilman Andy King.
But in his spare time, he’s a yo-yo champion who is paid to show off his tricks around the country.
He compares himself to an artist.
“It’s not just a toy, it’s an outlet. Somebody that plays the guitar, somebody that plays the piano or somebody that plays the kazoo or the clarinet. I make a visual music, when I am yo-yoing,” Melford says.
Melford embraced the yo-yo relatively late in life. He was 18 when he watched a video online of someone doing tricks.
"I said to myself, ‘You know what? I'm going to get that same exact yo-yo he's using.' And I bought it not knowing any tricks," he continued.
He kept at it, wowing friends and eventually winning the New Jersey state championship in two categories three years ago.
He’s also something of a yo-yo innovator.
"I'm going to hop the yo-yo to the string and then I'm going to hop the yo-yo," Melford said.
He created a trick while sitting at home in the Bronx.
It even has a name, ‘Melhops’ which is short for Melford and hops and is known in yo-yo circles throughout the world.
"It's humbling. I didn't think that when I was in front of my house doing these random tricks, me and my friends, that it was going to reach someone else," he said.
One thing about the yo-yo, you can practice anywhere and he does just that.
"For me it's one of those things I always have on me. So if I find myself with a spare minute or two, I can just pop a trick," Melford said.
He also shows off his skill at weekly meetings of the New York Yo-Yo Club near Washington Square Park.
The group posts videos showing off their tricks.
"I want yo-yos to go viral. I want the everyday 10-year-old, 15-year-old, 20-year-old to say 'You know what? I can have a yo-yo."
And maybe he’ll become the next Brian Melford.