Besner Chad

Article by Melissa Dicostanzo
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October 21, 2010

Besner. 23 poses with his now-fixed guitar while a You Tube clip of him performing a guitar throw plays in the background. Besner performed three throws, and the third failed. sending the guitar across the floor. The clip appeared on The Tonight Show with Leno.

In a mere matter of weeks Chad Besner's nickname went from "awesome" to "famous!' The. 3-year-old Williamstown guitarist briefly appeared in the form of a You Tube video on the internationally watched late might talk show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, after a video of 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 to around your opposite shoulder.

One day, Besner was practicing with his metal band, Lay on Juno, when friend and band mate Mat Bruyère 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 to the broken strap, 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 co-coordinator for the
show messaged me and said they wanted to use the clip on the show,'' he said . The roughly four-minute clip aired last Friday, Oct. 154, as part of Leno's Internet Success an
Failure clips.

On air, a clip was shown of a guitar throw performed perfectly twice. Leno praised these perfect throws. Then came Besner's clip. After the first two throws Leno continued to offer his acclaim. But 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 first finding out. his clip would air on the show. My friends and family were pretty excited!'

Besner said the excitement down, but that he didn't r expect to be contacted abut his impromptu performance. "That doesn't happened too often,'' he said. 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. To access the You Tube clip, type in "guitar throw gone wrong ... strap fail (Jay Leno Internet Success and Failure)."