Chad Besner and the “Lay on luno”

Extract from Melissa Di Costanzo Standard Freeholder

In a mere matter of weeks, Chad Besner's nickname went from “awesome” to "famous". The 23 year-old Williamstown guitarist briefly appeared in the form of a You Tube video on the internationally watched late night talk show, “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno, after a video featured him failing to properly throw his guitar was posted online.

A guitar throw is a performance trick which involves swinging your guitar quickly around one half of your body, from under your armpit and around your opposite shoulder.

One day, Besner was practicing with his metal band “Lay on Iuno”, when is friend and band mate Mat Bruyere decided to take out the video camera. "I had a new guitar and a new strap and I decided I wanted to do tricks," said Besner. After two successful guitar throws, Besner appeared to be on a roll. However, the third throw failed miserably, due the strap breaking , and the guitar went flying across the floor. "I practiced, but I was caught on tape at a bad time,” he said, laughing. "It was pretty funny and the whole thing was filmed.”

After lots of laughs, the video was posted on You Tube and much to Besner’s surprise, garnered attention from the Tonight Show "Randomly”, a few weeks after the video was posted. The research coordinator for the show messaged him and said the Producer wanted to use the clip on the show. The roughly four minute clip aired on Friday, Oct. 15, 2010, as part of Leno's Internet Success and Failure clips.

On the air, a clip was shown of a guitar throw performed perfectly twice and Leno praised these perfect throws; then came Besner's clip. After the first two throws, Leno continued to offer his acclaim. However, on the third and failed throw, Leno made a loud buzzer noise to signify the failure. "I was pretty excited at first,” said Besner, of finding out his clip would air on the show. “My friends and family were also pretty excited." Besner said the excitement died down, but he didn't ever expect to be contacted about his impromptu performance. "That doesn’t happen too often," said Besner. As for the guitar, it was damaged; the bridge broke but Besner brought it straight to the shop to get it fixed. "It’s OK now,” he said.