NOT SPORTS: FANS OF THIS WEIRD EXERCISE ALSO WANT TO ACHIEVE WORLD PEACE
GUITAR HEROES
6.10.2020 7:00 AM
"It seems like a joke at first."
Rob “The Marquis" Messel had 60 seconds left to prove he was good enough to become 2019’s Air Guitar World Champion. When the music finally started, a switch flipped in his mind.
“I just get peaceful and focused,” Messel tells Inverse. To anyone else, it probably looked like Messel had totally lost his mind.
Messel was dressed as “The Marquis,” his performance alter-ego. The Marquis is an 18th-century French aristocrat who, as Messel says, time-traveled to 1980, where he became enthralled with glam rock and hair metal, before turning up in the 21st century to play air guitar. His face is eerily deadpan as he slides across the stage on his knees. He caps off his performance with a somersault leading to a star-jump.
This is NOT SPORTS, a series where Inverse explores unique competitive cultures that you'll never see at the Olympics (probably). They're not sports, but they are weird, wonderful, and almost-athletic.
“I’m in a flow state — I’m not really registering what’s happening," Messel reflects. "When I got off stage and I didn’t have immediate recollection I thought, that was probably pretty good."
That performance won him a title, and he’s still the air guitar World Champion — the 2020 World Championships are on pause right now, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. But even with Worlds canceled, the mission of air guitar feels more relevant than ever, amidst this year's onslaught of disease, natural disasters, and a reckoning with systemic racism.
More:
https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/not-sports-air-guitar
