3 Step Plan: Rap, Evangelize, Freestyle

I like to thank people who send in tips, and include a link for them if they have one. I curse Stephen Slappe for sending me this tip. I’ll never get back all the time I wasted researching this. The clip that’s making the rounds is from Everything is Terrible, a web site that is like watching Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job, only with real footage. Colby the Computer googlizes into a thousand references to Colby’s Clubhouse, a Christian children’s show with a talking, evangelizing computer. However, episode guides omits this gem of a clip. In fact, the only time “skateboard” shows up is in another episode called “Helping the Missionaries,” where a kid wants people send him money so he can buy a skateboard. Colby’s Playhouse ran from 1995 to 2000, but this rapping freestyle-filled episode is definitely 80’s, and has an entirely different production value than every Colby’s Clubhouse. Everything is Terrible is all about the video without explanation or insight. Terribly entertaining, but frustrating if you want the back story. It was maddening trying to find this episode, but eventually the explanation turned up on totalschwarr! This is an episode of Colby’s Place, titled Skateboard for Sale. It features freestyle “legend” Andre Walton. I have to be honest, I didn’t remember ever hearing his name, but he turned up on Sk8Kings.com, and oddly enough, friend of the site Danimal had one of his “Arise” decks as mentioned on EPM. EIT has a slightly skewed verion of the clip. I did manage to find a longer version as well.

– Thanks to Stephen Slappe for the tip.

The Return of Colby from Everything is Terrible.

Skateboard for the Lord – as found at BoreMe.com.

So of course, I ended up buying a copy of Skateboard for Sale. It’s episode 1 of the series, for crying out loud… what a great place to start 1989! I can’t believe there’s only one episode on the tape. There’s only five minutes in the longest clip on YouTube, so there has to be more gold in there. Can’t wait to get it. I’ve even contacted Andre via Sk8Kings to try and get him to recall his experience on the set. Still waiting to hear back from him.

Here’s something I found trying to track everything down. It’s a 1991 article from the Free Lance-Star out of Fredericksburg, Virginia. It’s about Andre Walton’s demo and inspirational talk at the Youth Outreach and juvenile detention center. I can’t believe Google has someone scanning in old newspapers. That’s freaking awesome.