“It’s another tequila sunrise . . .” or at least another year. And even though 2021 feels a bit different after everything we’ve been through, some things never change. We all have New Years’ resolutions, and one that pops up each year for me is increasing my efficiency. To that end, let’s ring in the…
For years, the entertainment industry has been at the forefront of technological advances. From lighting to film and audio, entertainers have led the charge for better equipment, and for more efficient use of existing technology. As a leader in virtual meeting entertainment, I produced nearly 100 shows over Zoom throughout 2020, and there are a…
It’s an age-old math problem that seems counterintuitive: Would you rather be given $1,000,000 right now, or one penny that doubled each day for 30 days? The latter solution would net you over $5,000,000, even though you would only be at just over $600k on Day 27. Let’s look at this from another angle. Imagine…
In early March, I received a call from a trusted friend in New York while I was at the gym. “This coronavirus is going to shut down the entire country,” he said. Like most of us, I ignored the warning and attributed it to a cautionary overreaction. And like most of us, I was wrong….
I posted an article on LinkedIn a few months back that got quite a bit of attention, and thought I’d share it here as well. As a magician and mentalist specializing in the corporate market, I’m often asked by hotel staff and attendees if this is “my real job.” It just isn’t something people are…
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard of the now infamous Fyre Festival. A joint venture with Ja Rule and delusional serial entrepreneur Billy McFarland, the music festival was created as PR for the Fyre music app, but quickly went up in flames through a variety of frauds and deceptions. Promised luxury oceanfront…
A couple of months ago, I received a call to fly to Seattle for a last-minute event. Howard Schultz, the famed Starbucks CEO, was hosting a retirement party and wanted me to be the featured entertainment. Although I visit Starbucks almost daily, I knew little about the man who revolutionized the coffee industry. So, as…
As a mentalist, I’m typically onstage in front of a group that ranges in size from 15 individuals to 18,000. While the sizes of the groups have varied, their dynamics for the most part have not. In fact, most groups have immutable characteristics that we can capitalize on (and defend ourselves against). The same characteristics…
As a college student, my writing 39C professor taught us to always question the source of our information. In a world where Facebook and Google know more about us than we know about ourselves (each company has a small book’s worth of information on our habits, desires, interests, and friends), it’s easy to make incorrect…
Mentalism is based in part on building performances that take advantage of natural cognitive biases and illusions. This is the first in a series that will explore the inner workings of our minds. In a study called “Rubber hands ‘feel’ touch that eyes see,” scientists Matthew Botvinick and Jonathan Cohen published an optical and sensory…
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