Adam Barnes is a communication studies sophomore from Honolulu, Hawaii, but around campus he’s better known as The Unicycle Guy. LEGACY thought it would be fun to ask him off-kilter questions, for once.
I guess my first question should be, does anyone know your real name?
AB: Not enough people. There are quite a few people who know me by name, but I get “Unicycle Guy” or “Top Hat Guy” more.
Do you ever get “Free Hugs Guy”? Because you’re that also. You wear many hats, both figuratively and literally.
AB: Yes, I do get “Free Hugs Guy” all the time as well. I’ve also been known to get “Textbook Guy” because I work at the bookstore on campus.
In three words, describe yourself. Myspace survey style.
AB: Three words? Awkward cool guy.
Do you have a motto?
AB: I kind of do. It’s not necessarily a motto. It’s more of just a phrase I use all the time for myself, but it generally goes, “I would say something new, but someone else has already said it.”
If you had to name one, what would you say your spirit animal is? It doesn’t even have to be an animal. It can just be anything.
AB: I know. I think…my spirit animal…I should have seen this one coming. I do like the Geico gecko as my spirit animal. I think that would work.
What is something you’ve lost, but never found?
AB: Well right now it’s my debit card. Working on that one. Lost it Super Bowl Sunday, but there haven’t been any charges to the card or anything so it’s somewhere, not being used. That’s reassuring.
This is going to sound weird, but what do you call your grandparents?
AB: My grandparents on my mother’s side are just “Grandma” and “Grandpa”…but whenever I talk to my grandpa on my father’s side, he prefers it when I call him “Grandfather” in a really deep voice.
What is your astrological sign, and do you care?
AB: I think I’m a Taurus, yes I’m a Taurus. And I suppose that means I don’t care if I have to think about it that much.
This is my favorite one: In the movie that will inevitably be made about your life, who will play you, and what will the movie’s theme song be?
AB: I feel like they’re not going to make a movie about me until I’m older, so recently there were the Quaker Oats commercials of the kid riding a bike and it being epic in the background and everything because it’s his imagination. Whoever that kid is riding the bike is going to play me…And then theme song. “Sophomore Slump” or “Comeback of the Year” by Fall Out Boy.
Have you ever stolen anything?
AB: Only the hearts of women. No, actually I never have stolen that I can remember.
What’s your favorite childhood memory?
AB: Let’s see. This is probably a little weird, but in my last year, or after graduating from middle school, my entire student body, or a portion of it, went to Florida, Orlando, to Disney World and stuff. It was when I saw the hat of the Wicked Witch of the West from the “Wizard of Oz,” because at the time I was very into “Wicked,” the musical, and so for some reason it just really made me happy to see that. And I remember that so vividly.
This is a good one. What did you want to be when you grew up?
AB: Okay, the first thing I can remember wanting to be was a stuntman. Because, from the ages of about 5 to 17, I just loved jumping off of things. Of course, when I was young, it was playgrounds and swing sets and things…and then as I got older I got into parkour, broke my ankles a couple of times, so stuntman did not pan out very well. But from sixth grade up I’ve always wanted to be a photographer. Even to this day, that’s kind of my plan.
So what are you doing now?
AB: Communications studies. It’s more just to get a degree than to have a job after classes. But recently I was offered an opportunity to start training for becoming manager at Barnes & Noble. So I might look into that and do the photography stuff on the side.
If you were in a band, what would the band be named?
AB: Oh man, I’ve thought about this. And it’s changed, like, every month. Originally it was going to be the “Broken Rubber Band,” but that’s already taken unfortunately. So, I honestly don’t know right now.
Have you ever taken the Myers-Briggs personality test and do you know what your results were?
AB: Myers-Briggs, is that the 4 letters? yes, I have taken part in those. I’m an “extrovert.” What are the other things? I remember that I was definitely an “extrovert,” and I also remember that I am a “feeler, so an “F” not a “judger.”
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
AB: I will be 30, almost 31 in 10 years. Unfortunately, I never plan more than three days in advance, so guessing where I am in 10 years is about as accurate as throwing, actually more like shooting a dart with a rocket into the air and trying to guess where it’s going to land. So in 10 years I could definitely probably be here at LSU still studying communication studies. College is pretty fun.
What was your first childhood pet?
AB: My first childhood pet was a beta fish that I named Dragonite because “Pokémon” were awesome.
How’d you end up in Baton Rouge?
AB: I grew up disliking Hawaii, just being like, “I have to get out of here quick.” So in order to get away from family, Hawaii and all the stress that’s there, I was like, “I’ll follow my mother to Indiana and see where that goes from there.” But at the time I was in a long-distance relationship with a girl I met in Hawaii whose family was also military. She ended up here in Louisiana, got in-state tuition and ended up going to college here, so I was like, “I have the GPA and test scores to get into LSU, and it’s not that bad of a place, why not? Go Tigers!” And then, here I am, two and a half years later. And now she’s off, married and being happy.
I mean, obviously you stuck around. So you like it here?
AB: Yeah, absolutely. It’s pretty awesome. It’s bad, but it’s pretty awesome.
What’s your favorite part about living here?
AB: I like the weather here. Thunderstorms are not something that happen very often in Hawaii, one a year, maybe. I like thunder, and last night there was a thunderstorm and that was awesome.
Is there anything else you want the readers of LEGACY to know about you?
AB: Um, it’s kind of a paradox with me. I enjoy it more when people haven’t heard of me, and then I get to tell them myself. Like over the course of time they find out I wear top hats and cycle and stuff, but at the same time, I like being known, because I can just walk into a group of people and everyone’s like, “Hey, Unicycle Guy!” It makes it very difficult to get to know people, but at the same time, it’s also a lot easier, because people like to section off what they consider famous people, like “Unicycle Guy? Awesome nice to meet you, now I’m going to stand over here.”