Controlling Your Environment

As a performer who received much of my initial training in a theatrical setting, I have always placed a high importance on creating a mood. It’s one of my goals to create a mood from the moment someone walks into a theatre to see one of my shows until they leave. I think that proper pre-show music as well as proper lighting can build anticipation and get your audience excited about what is to come.


Some of my favorite moments when I attend shows are when you file into the theatre and feel the ambience. I believe that getting an audience into the right mindset to enjoy the upcoming show is just tremendously important.

I recently performed for a very high end corporate function and was immediately reminded why it is so important to control all elements of a production, especially the environment.

This specific event was lavish. It was in a beautiful hall that had been exquisitely decorated with the finest linens, flowers, stage settings, etc. Everything had been thought of and prepared perfectly.

I had been engaged to create an original, themed five minute sequence of magic that would add to the atmosphere. It really wasn’t a situation where I had very much control. I was a guest in someone else’s home, so to speak. I was supposed to come in, do my act, and that was that. Unfortunately I didn’t get to call the shots.

So, I arrived, set everything up, and waited until I was on. When I got my cue to take the stage, I took my place and executed my act. Everything went flawlessly. Unfortunately, nobody cared. Only a tiny portion of the five hundred guests paid any attention to what I was doing. It was painful.

Please understand this; I’m a very dynamic performer who commands the stage. I also have worked numerous events. I have had great success entertaining groups exactly like this one. This was an anomaly. But it’s the type of thing that drives me crazy and I just have to figure out what happened so it doesn’t happen again.

I’ve thought a lot about what happened and I have a few ideas on why it went so poorly. There were two major issues here. The first one was that I took the stage at the exact same time that the food was served. That one is really my fault. I shouldn’t have agreed to start the show when there was such a massive distraction. Honestly, I know better. I’ve known not to do that forever. Why I let it happen this one time, I’ll never know. Well, actually I do know, but I’m not going to lay the blame on other people. I’ll take the blame here. Chalk one more up to experience and things that I won’t let happen again.

However, in my opinion, the main problem here was that the environment was not controlled. If the environment had been properly focused on what was going on, this performance could have been a major hit. I really believe that it was as simple as dimming the lights. That’s it. If the lights in the main hall had been dimmed down to about 25% and the lights on the stage had been brought up to full intensity it would have been obvious that the program was beginning and everyone would have quieted down and started watching the program while they ate. You know, this one simple thing would have helped me, but it also would have helped the program chairs who went on immediately after me and were somewhat ignored for the first few minutes of their speech as well.

I really believe that it is as simple as that. If you work in corporate settings, please take a lesson from this. If you want to focus people’s attention on a show or a speaker, you must control the environment and give your program or speaker every chance to succeed.

Adventures on the High Seas-Days 7, 8, & 9

Here are the last few days from our adventure at sea last December.

Day 7 - We spent the day in FL today. Most of my days spent in FL are used to catch up on email, phone calls, etc. Today was no different. We found a cool little Starbucks and I took care of some emails and made a few business calls. Afterwards, we had lunch at a fun Mexican restaurant and headed back to the ship early to prepare for that night’s show.


One of the fun parts of working on a ship is getting to know the crew/staff. Kristin and I found ourselves hanging out at the onboard piano bar/pub several nights after our shows and we befriended the bartender Dedi. Dedi is a huge fan of magic and we enjoyed hanging out with him.

Hanging onboard with Dedi, the bartender.

Day 8 – Today we were back in Freeport for our final day in the Bahamas. Kristin and I decided to head into town and do a little souvenir/Christmas (remember this was back in December) shopping. I met a cool lady in the straw market who wove a bag that I bought for my sister. We finished our time off at the Our Lucaya Resort beach working on our tans.

We had a great final show tonight and got everything packed up and ready for an early disembarkation.

Bahamian strawmarket shop owner who wove a cool little bag for my sister.

Day 9 – So we got off the ship nice and early, made it through customs and waited for our show props to arrive. We waited, we waited some more, and then we waited awhile longer. After waiting for an hour and a half, I finally discovered that our props had been delivered about an hour and a half earlier but were just sitting in the customs area waiting to be claimed. I must give a really nice lady customs officer some serious thanks for locating my equipment and then helping me get everything through the system so I could pack it up in the cargo van. After Kristin and I finally got everything loaded, it was pretty uneventful. We drove fourteen and a half hours back home to Nashville from FL. The next day I returned the cargo van to the rental company.

That pretty much wraps up my very first cruising adventure. I’ve found that every time I perform in a new setting there is a new set of challenges to overcome. That’s one of the major challenges of being an entertainer. At first, it was totally stressful and overwhelming, but I’ve come to enjoy it. In fact, I would say that I’ve learned quite a bit about dealing with the challenges of life from the challenges that I face as an entertainer. I hope that you too are able to embrace all the challenges that life throws at you and come out as a conqueror with some fantastic adventure to share.

Photo from the Our Lucaya Resort-Freeport, Bahamas

If you just joined this little adventure, click here and start the journey at the beginning.

Adventures on the High Seas, Day #6

Kristin and I finally made it into Freeport! The first time we were here, not only was the weather totally sucky, but I also had the show on my mind and just didn’t feel like being distracted. The second time we were supposed to be here, the ship got stuck out at sea! I guess the third time really is a charm!


So, Kristin and I got off the ship today and took a bus into Freeport. The bus driver was quite the showman. He told us stories, history of the area and plenty of jokes. I think he figured out that providing entertainment on a twenty-five minute bus ride will get you a lot more tips than doing nothing at all. No doubt!

The resort we went to was called Our Lucaya. It was stunning. The water was blue, the sand was white and as I looked around I felt like I was looking at images from postcards. Boy, let me tell you, the sun down there is intense. The actual day spent at the resort was sort of cool, but that sun is no joke. Spend more than a couple of hours out there when you aren’t used to it and you will get baked! Luckily for us, we didn’t get baked. We had a great time at the beach.

Tonight’s show went fantastically. You know, I am totally fascinated by how audiences react to certain magic pieces better than others. One of my strengths, by far (in my opinion), is performing slightly dramatic, usually a little artistic type of material. I have a routine with a rope that is about five solid minutes of magic that has been choreographed to a piece of music. When I first started performing it, I was freaked out because I wasn’t sure that audiences would be able to follow it for five minutes if I didn’t speak at all. I have found though, and my experiences on the ship back this up, that the rope routine is one of the stand-out favorites. I guess audiences really do like the slightly artistic type of magic that I personally love. That makes me very happy to know that my gut instinct is right!

Check out the photo below. It is a photo of a ghost ship that is docked at the Our Lucaya resort. Very cool!

Click here and enjoy the last few days of my little adventure.  If you just joined this little adventure, click here and start the journey at the beginning.

Adventures on the High Seas, Day #5

Today Kristin and I found a Panera Bread in a shopping area of West Palm Beach called CityPlace. CityPlace is a really nice outdoor area that has restaurants, boutiques, department stores, movie theatres, comedy clubs, bookstores, etc. It’s a perfect place to go to hang out and grab a good cup of coffee and check email. It was an added bonus that when we sat down at Panera with our breakfast and coffee, I found out that their internet connection is free. Sweet!


I think that tonight’s show was definitely the strongest one yet. It became rather obvious to me that I had found my comfort zone. You know, sometimes it takes me a little bit of time to get comfortable in a new performing space. After performing for the audiences that are on the ship for the last few days, I had a good feel for how they would respond to the different jokes, etc. It also took me a little bit of time to get totally comfortable doing magic on a stage that was surrounded by an audience.

So, at this point in the ballgame I’m thoroughly enjoying myself. Shows are going great and I’m stress free. I haven’t yet made it off the ship and into Freeport, but that is my plan for tomorrow.

Stay tuned for my report on Day #6. We finally make it to the beach at the Our Lucaya resort!

If you just joined this little adventure, click here and start the journey at the beginning.  Read about finally making it to the beach on Day #6 here.

Kristin poses after a show with impressionist Wes Epae.



Magic Words

Magic has quite a rich history which includes different words that have been said to “invoke” magic happening. There has been much study in magic’s history by its scholars as to where magic words originated, who originated them, etc. It’s interesting from a historical perspective. As a professional magician, I find such historical reports fascinating. Some magic words have a rich history, other magic words are completely made up and non-sensical.


On another hand, the words “Please” and “Thank You” in the English language are often taught to children as the magic words. By saying these words, we teach our children to be polite and respectful. They, in turn, learn that with the right attitude and politeness they can often get exactly what they are requesting. Magic words, indeed!

Currently, I’m entertaining nightly on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. I have found that the magic words that work best for me are, “I’m the magician!” I find it funny how these specific words allow me to do many things. For instance, when I first got on the ship, before the crew knew me and recognized me, I would be walking through a “crew” area and would have crew members direct me back toward to the main areas of the ship. By saying the magic words, “I’m the magician”, they immediately knew it was okay for me to be there and let me go about my business. Every time I have to go through customs, my magic words, gain me nods and looks of acknowledgement as they look over my passport. When I’m just walking around the ship, after I have performed, I often get people looking at me as if they aren’t sure how they know me, but they are sure that they know me from somewhere. My magic words set them at ease and give us something to talk about.

Off the ship, I have been part of numerous touring productions. For some strange reason, our battle cry has always been, “We’re the magicians!” For some strange reason, when I/we say that with authority, people just tend to let me do whatever it is that I want to. Go figure.

Maybe these magic words will work for you, too. Give them a shot. Just be sure that if you decide to use them, you can actually back up your claim of being a magician:) Until next time…

Adventures on the High Seas, Day #4

The fourth day of our adventure on the high seas was an interesting one. Today the ship was supposed to port at Freeport early in the morning. When I got up and got going, I realized that we were still moving. That seemed a bit strange.


I quickly found out that there were numerous storms in the area and the seas were just way too choppy. Apparently the port authority wasn’t allowing the ship to come in to port.

As the day continued, the ship stayed out to sea. It became increasingly obvious as the day slipped away that there wouldn’t be a day in the Bahamas.

Kristin and I were playing cards with our new friend Karina Skye, an amazing singer that was on the show with us, when I heard my name being paged over the ship’s speakers.

I met the assistant cruise director and was asked if it were possible for me to do a show of close-up, sleight of hand magic. What a great idea! It sounded like an absolute blast and I agreed quickly. We set a time for the show to begin and then the assistant cruise director was off to publicize the show.

Showtime rolled around about an hour and a half later and the ship’s lounge was quite crowded. For the next forty-five minutes, I had a great time! I was able to share some of my favorite routines as well as a few original pieces with my audience. The show was a big hit!

Afterwards I was speaking with the cruise director and he mentioned how much he enjoyed it as well. SCORE! Yes! That’s exactly what I was hoping would happen. I pride myself on being able to come through in a pinch and I know that by doing that close-up show it really helped relieve some of the strain off the cruise staff.

Because there was a new act onboard, I was given the night off from doing the show. That was nice. It was really cool to just sit back, relax, and enjoy the evening’s dinner and entertainment.

I received many nice compliments from all the folks onboard that they really enjoyed my show. In fact, here is a clip of me performing one of the mysteries that I performed on that day’s close-up show. This specific clip is from an appearance on a news channel in Nashville, TN. Watch close, you don’t want to miss a thing.

By the way, if you just joined this little adventure and want to start at the beginning, click here.  And click here to read the continuation of our little journey on Day #5.

Adventures on the High Seas, Day #3

Day #3 started off with us getting off the ship and going through the disembarking process. Basically you just have to make it through customs. No big deal there.

Today my goal was to find a place where I could get on my laptop and try to reach out to a few business contacts and make a couple of personal phone calls. (You know, I didn’t realize how much I used the internet, or how much I enjoyed talking to my friends, until I got on a ship and didn’t have access to either phone or internet except when we were in port in the US!)

We found a great little Starbucks and hung out there for awhile so I could take care of my emails. Kristin was still cracking up over her David Sedaris book the entire time I sent emails and made phone calls. She’s quite a little bookworm! After Starbucks, we found a great little Mexican restaurant and enjoyed tacos for lunch.

Day #3 is the day that I was going to meet the cruise director and he was going to see our show for the first time, so there were a few loose ends I still wanted to tie up with the show. We went searching for some fabric and had to go to a Michael’s and a Wal-Mart before we finally found a Joann Fabric store and picked something out.

I think the best part of today was that I had finally found my comfort zone with the show. My stress level was non-existent. The past two days I had been totally stressed out which completely exhausted me. To have the experience of the two shows under my belt helped relax me and made the rest of the week a lot of fun.

The show that night was super fun and easy. I knew what to expect, Kristin and I did our thing, and the audience responded very well.

At this point what I realized was that we had gone through the cruising cycle once and we just had to go through it several more times. Since it was only a two day cruise, we now knew exactly what to expect for the remainder of the week.

Well, that’s what I thought at the time. Wait until Day 4’s report when everything gets turned on its ear because of some pretty bad weather.

If you just joined this little adventure, click here and start the journey at the beginning.  To read Day #4's adventure, click here.

Adventures on the High Seas, Day #2

Well, I slept like a rock after the stress of the first day onboard. Day #2 was relatively calm in comparison. We got going and grabbed some breakfast. Because Day #2’s show was a completely different show than Day #1’s show was I still was feeling a bit apprehensive. Day #2’s show was a bit more artistic and not quite as much what I would call “commercial” magic. And we still had to go through a quick tech rehearsal and sound check. Luckily, we had planned that for late morning, so all my stressing would be over once I knew we were good from the technical side. We took care of the sound check without any issues and were free for the rest of the day.

You know, I just realized that I didn’t explain the most challenging part of this gig in my first blog post the other day. Part of the reason for my stress level being high was because I was performing on a stage that was completely surrounded by seating. Yes, the stage was surrounded 360 degrees by people. Now I knew this coming in, so I was prepared. It’s just that magic can sometimes have angle issues or lighting issues and performing with people surrounding you adds to the difficulty level. Not only do you want to amaze everyone, you have to make sure that you perform in a manner so that everyone will be able to see what you are doing. I think it’s natural to be a little stressed until I had actually performed each of my shows at least once in front of a real audience. Day #2’s show would be yet another test of both my planning skills and my performing skills.

The day was spent in Freeport, Bahamas. It was actually quite cool and a little bit rainy, so Kristin and I decided to spend the day exploring the port area and not go into the city itself. Unfortunately that was a short lived plan. Because the weather was so sucky there really wasn’t much happening in the port of call. We explored several local arts and crafts and souvenir vendors and ended up stumbling into a local bar that had a really good wi-fi connection. We made the decision to just hang out there for much of the afternoon and I fetched my computer from the ship so I could get caught up on some emails. I took care of some business on the computer and Kristin read a book by David Sedaris that kept cracking her up. It was a pretty tame day in the Bahamas. In fact, if we hadn’t known that we would be back several times later in the week we would have definitely made more of an effort to see some things. As it was, we knew we would have time to explore later.

Today, we both made the rather intelligent decision to take motion sickness pills before we left port and headed back to FL. And I think that decision was in our best interest. Both shows went well. Actually, I was a little verbose on the first show and went over my 20 minute time limit. I had to make a conscious decision the second show to tighten up the script and make sure the show kept moving so the other two entertainers would also get their allotted time. Overall though, the audiences responded well and I was quite pleased with this show.

Afterwards, we hung out and enjoyed meeting audience members. Then we just took it easy before calling it a night. Click here for Day #3's adventure.



Here's the showroom. As you can see I was completely surrounded by seating on two different levels. On another note, as soon as the show was over the showroom turned into a disco and the stage became the dance floor. Towards the end of the week, I got down and shook my groove thing after the show while Kristin watched me much to her amusement.

If you missed Day #1's entry, click here to check it out.

What is Beyond Smoke and Mirrors?

First, a little history is in order. A number of years ago, a small group of entertainers and friends got together and began meeting to help each other with performance pieces that each of them were working on. It began very informally, as a way to flush out ideas and fraternize with like minded individuals who could challenge each other. Out of this group, four of the performers (John, Scott, Nelson and myself) created a show where they could put the magic, illusions, comedy and juggling they were working on in front of real live audiences. The Nashville based show was aptly titled Music City Magic. What made Music City Magic such a hit was that the performers were able to create and hone original material that had never been seen before. Audiences responded well to hilarious comedy, larger than life characters, and genuine mysteries. Music City Magic ran on and off at different venues, including Miss Marple’s Dinner Theater and Opry Mills Mall, for several years. Ultimately, the four principle performers got busy with their own projects and Music City Magic went on hiatus.

In July 2010, I got a phone call from Nelson (a friend and fellow founder of Music City Magic). He mentioned that there was a possibility of being able to either revive Music City Magic or create a brand, new experience. Basically, John had an opportunity to bring a show to a venue in downtown Nashville and he was interested in getting the “band” (and I use that term in jest:) back together. After a few phone calls and emails were exchanged, it became obvious that all the original parties were onboard and excited to have the opportunity to perform together again.

Upon reflection, we decided that we weren’t really interested in creating the same experience as the original Music City Magic with this new opportunity. None of the creators wanted this just to be another magic show. We wanted to change things up a bit. We were still interested in creating original illusions, comedy, etc, but we also wanted to incorporate other variety entertainers as well. We wanted to do strange things in our performances. Things like eating razor blades and stopping time. We wanted to warp the minds of those in attendance. Beyond Smoke and Mirrors is that child. I believe it will prove to be a cross between a cozy, Victorian parlour performance and an over the top circus side show. And we want you to experience it firsthand.

Beyond Smoke and Mirrors debut performance is Monday night, October 4th at McFadden’s on 2nd Avenue in downtown Nashville. Enjoy the video below to get a tease of what to expect, then find us online. We’ll be posting ticket discounts and weekly drink specials on our Facebook page and our Twitter feed.



And if you’re intrigued by now, buy your tickets to the opening night of Beyond Smoke and Mirrors here. We can’t wait to show you what we have planned!