(man) Let's see your stuff, man.
Oh!
Yeah!
[applause]
Yeah! See?
- Thank you. - That's great.
Oh! Oh!
Oh, oh, oh, oh!
Don't fall in the street.
Oh! Man!
Damn.
[chuckles]
I like it.
[laughing]
Damn, you're good!
Is this guy just now realizing
black people are amazing at stuff?
That's Rico, and he's so good at his job, he sucks at it.
I have no idea which way Gables River Oaks is.
But when some honky filmed him,
he became known as the greatest sign spinner of all time.
Sign spinning is baton twirling for boys.
It was invented in Kansas
when a guy wearing a sandwich board got sucked into a tornado.
The day I take my taxes to a place
because a sign spinner pointed me there
is the day I go to jail.
Sign spinners are the whores of the advertising world.
They work on street corners, they're paid in cash,
and the police don't ask too many questions
when they turn up dead.
It's a step above Mexicans snapping a deck of hooker cards
on the Vegas strip
and a step below the big wiggly balloon guy at used car lots.
Hiring a sign spinner is a company's way of advertising
that they can't afford a billboard.
In case you don't live in a real city,
billboards are the things that tell you
where the next Cracker Barrel is.
They're the spam of the American landscape.
My biggest problem with sign spinners is,
they put up one heck of a fight
when you try to spray-paint a dick on their forehead.
Rico is really, really good at something
that is really, really dumb.
That's why I flew him to L.A.,
where I've never seen a sign spinner
because I'm always too busy texting,
in this week's Ce-web-rity Profile.
[applause]
Hey, I'm Rico.
- Are you my driver? - Nope.
I was just told to point you
in the direction of the SuperShuttle.
Go that way, down the third median.
(woman) Esperanza.
Puerto Rico! Oh!
Be right with you.
Yes, you, okay.
Keep this pointed left this time.
You got, like, a song in your head?
(Daniel) Rico.
Welcome to L.A.
Fresh off the bus, huh?
Actually, I flew here.
Ooh. Slow down, hotshot.
Everybody wants to be famous.
(all) Nobody wants to do the work.
Everybody wants to be famous.
(all) Nobody wants to do the work.
I know you're a big shot in Houston,
but so is Dwight Howard, so that's meaningless.
This is L.A., city of dreams and/or angels.
Do you know how many big shots are sign spinners here?
All right, I got a lot of questions about spinning.
First of all,
how much money do you make per hour spinning?
Currently, I make $15 an hour.
So how did this--this one video become so popular?
Some dude came up to me.
He was like, "Dude, like, you're awesome.
Let me--just do your thing, you know."
(man) Let's see your stuff, man.
Damn!
He could have been a predator.
I mean, he looks like somebody that might want to,
like, take you, like, to his place,
lock you up in a basement...
Yeah.
And just come down and watch you spin signs for him.
I'll use my sign as a weapon, so it's good.
Do you spin based on the music you're listening to?
Yeah. Sometimes.
Do you ever, like, listen to talk radio
while you're spinning?
Like, Bill O'Reilly-- "No Spin Zone."
Who's your favorite blue-collar comedy star?
Bill Engvall, "Here's Your Sign."
- No, I-- - That's what he says.
He always goes, "Here's your sign."
It's not-- he's no one's favorite.
Don't worry about it.
Do you ever get tipped by people?
Mm-hmm.
One time, somebody gave me, like, $20 in all change.
I've done that before to homeless people.
Who are the people most likely to tip you?
Mostly white women... with accents.
- Did he tip you? - No.
This guy basically just forced you to work for free.
There's a name for that.
What's the name?
[laughs]
What are the weirdest things people have
said or done to you while you're working?
One time, I was riding the sign like a horse.
That's very sexual.
Yeah, someone called in and said, like, it's a penis.
I was like, "Come on, man. It's a horse."
I said, "Yee-haw."
They probably didn't hear the "yee-haw."
Yeah.
They just saw you thrusting
on the sidewalk with a huge arrow
coming out between your legs.
I don't know, man. It's a trick, man.
Yeah, that was a real good trick.
The pony, man.
[both laughing]
I used to work at Best Buy as a kid,
and I would spin the CDs on my finger all day long.
I thought that was so cool.
Then you could be a professional sign spinner.
But things would have to go horribly wrong for me.
I mean, you could do it on the side.
Would you consider yourself the Michael Jordan of sign spinning?
I consider myself the Kobe Bryant of sign spinning.
That's a controversial pick, but okay.
Yeah, it's 'cause I'm in L.A.
Oh, I thought you were implying
because you are past your prime
and just sucking the company dry.
[laughing]
Has anyone ever tried to get you to get in their car?
Yes. It was a guy.
What did he want?
The PG version of what he said is,
"Are you looking for a good time?"
I was playing blackjack once in Vegas when I was younger,
and I didn't realize it until, like,
after I left that there was a guy there
that thought I was a hooker.
He was flirting with you?
Yes, but I just thought he was just happy when I was winning.
And, like, he was, like, patting me on the back...
[both laughing]
But I was kind of flattered in a weird way.
I was like, "Eh..."
All right, Rico, I'm gonna go against
my better judgment and give you a shot.
I'm gonna start you off with an easy assignment.
(Rico) What do we want? (all) Yes, we do.
(Rico) When do we want it? (all) You bet.
(all) ♪ Shame, shame, shame ♪
♪ Shame, shame ♪
Get down! Tear gas!
[all cheer]
All right. Finished.
Good work.
Viacom caved.
Now you're ready for something important.
Because a little eight-year-old girl named Casey is missing.
I'll do my best.
[siren wailing]
You did it, Rico.
Thanks to your awesome sign spinning,
over 5,000 black Teslas were impounded.
Did they find Casey?
That's not your problem. But no.
They did find two dead hookers.
So at least their families got some closure.
I think you're ready for the big-time.
I'm gonna give you the only sign-spinning job
that really matters: tricking people
into watching me do stand-up.
All right, let's see your stuff.
Duh-damn! Y'all see that?
I like it.
Oh!
Don't go in the street.
[energetic dubstep music]
♪ ♪
[in slow-motion] Damn!
♪ ♪
[in slow-motion] Oh!
♪ ♪
[gunshots]
I'm getting too dizzy for this.
I quit.
Thank you. Thank you.
Um...
That's the last time I use a sign spinner to promote a show.
Very urban crowd.
If you pass Rico on the streets,
give him a nice long honk.