We all have our little party tricks that we like to think make us special.
In your wildest fantasies, you might even think that your rarely-seen talent could make you rich and famous, if only you could find the right audience.
Well, for one teenage student in the US, his party trick might not have made him rich (yet), but it’s certainly made him famous. Or insanely viral online. Which, come to think of it, is probably the most up-to-date definition of “famous” there is right now.
Mike ‘The Bike’ Senatore is a senior at Ardrey Kell High School, in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Laser treatment with the canine pic.twitter.com/a6eOdasjcz
— Mike the Bike (@StrudelMania) January 21, 2015
Earlier this week, Mike took part in his school’s talent competition, where he showed off his knack for flipping a water bottle and having it land perfectly upright.
A classmate of his named Wes filmed it and put it out on Twitter, where it has had over 46,000 RTs and 60,000 likes.
https://twitter.com/WesleyManning6/status/735150286755528704
Of course, it’s all in the build-up too. Mike puts on a bit of a show leading up to the flip. It looks like he’s about to do something really crazy with it – perhaps by leaping over the table. But then comes the deceptively simple payoff.
It sounds so simple and yet it’s a really tricky thing to pull off.
The flipped a water bottle and the crowd went wild pic.twitter.com/Edkwh1GCk0
— Car🦖 (@GazilC) May 25, 2016
Though others seem to have aced it.
https://twitter.com/roy24k/status/735627855514591232
(Go on, give it a try yourself, we’ll wait).
Here’s a view of Mike’s trick from another angle.
Thank you for sharing such a beautiful talent @Mike_Senatore 😪 pic.twitter.com/5DMKzjcIJI
— Garrett Melton (@Garrettjmelton) May 24, 2016
It looks like he’s been known for that bottle talent for a while now, if this tweet from last summer is any indication.
Happy Birthday bud! Hope you have a great day, flip some bottles for me 🎉🎉@StancombeLuke pic.twitter.com/q1SvbmFeaU
— Mike the Bike (@StrudelMania) July 27, 2015
As you can hear and see in the above videos of Mike’s trick, the crowd absolutely love it. And it’s a reaction that has been shared by the very many people who have watched it on social media.
When the waterbottle flipped pic.twitter.com/odtWR4uYZC
— Mike (@NotMander) May 25, 2016
https://twitter.com/Dory/status/735283008693903361
I've watched the water bottle flip video probably 50 times, and love it a little bit more each viewing #Legend
— Clay Van Diest (@CoachDiest) May 26, 2016
Water bottle tossing is both an art-form and a sport. Never forget it.
— J (@JVCKJ) May 25, 2016
https://twitter.com/pattymo/status/735549474274217984
more epic than game of thrones https://t.co/J1Rmbp0TiL
— Zac Bowden (@zacbowden) May 26, 2016
There are obviously going to be people who watch the video and think, “What the actual fuck are people freaking out over, exactly?!” But, if nothing else, this along with the Chewbacca Mum sensation, indicates that when it comes to standing out in the noisy, crowded viral content game, simplicity really is the winning characteristic.
And just to prove it wasn’t a fluke, Mike recreated the trick for a local TV news programme:
Ardrey Kell Senior Mike Senatore shows us his "only talent", that now made him famous on the Internet pic.twitter.com/Bf0pMPlXEb
— Dan Yesenosky (@Dan_Yesenosky) May 25, 2016
And how’s he reacting to his newfound viral fame?
These past two days have been a blur
— Mike the Bike (@StrudelMania) May 26, 2016
