In the early 1980's, Tom received the song, "(I'm a) Yo-Yo Man" from Rick Cunha. He remembered a few yo-yo tricks from his childhood and added them to his performance to the song. In 1984, with the help of Dan Volk and other yo-yo demonstrators, he incorporated the yo-yo completely into his act and in 1986 the Yo-Yo Man made his television debut with Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. In 1988 this success led to the release of the Smothers Brothers Yo-Yo Man Instructional Video, long touted as the most successful instructional video, with sales over 200,000 copies.