As with many magicians starting at this age, the oohs, and ahhhs were empowering. I loved watching how people focused on different things; props, hands, cards, and how my actions, such as eye contact and natural movement guided people’s attention. I devoured books, developing as a magician and performed throughout middle and high school. When I went to college, however, following the usual social cues, I went down the more “traditional” path and magic took a back seat, in favor of going for a “real” job.
I never lost my love of communicating with people. I needed to find outlets to continue to interact and positively impact people. I started teaching while in graduate school and was also a DJ at a top local radio station. My love of connecting with audiences, even if, at times nonvisual, never waned. Fast forward to my “traditional” job in tech. I found that magic was a door-opener and an ice-breaker in business. While fun to amaze, I, and my audiences enjoyed the shared experience even more.
It broke down barriers to communication, set a tone and mood for more candid and open conversation, and with well-selected effects, created an air of trust among the participants. Even more importantly, I was experiencing the awesome power of nonverbal communication.
I never lost my love of communicating with people. I needed to find outlets to continue to interact and positively impact people. I started teaching while in graduate school and was also a DJ at a top local radio station. My love of connecting with audiences, even if, at times nonvisual, never waned. Fast forward to my “traditional” job in tech. I found that magic was a door-opener and an ice-breaker in business. While fun to amaze, I, and my audiences enjoyed the shared experience even more.
It broke down barriers to communication, set a tone and mood for more candid and open conversation, and with well-selected effects, created an air of trust among the participants. Even more importantly, I was experiencing the awesome power of nonverbal communication.
I never wanted to be “just” a performer. I did a lot of soul-searching; something was gnawing at me to do more than a show. I wanted to inject my personality, style and passion for communication within the context of making people, just even for a moment, think the impossible is indeed possible. But do it in a way that they remember it for years to come not because of how cool it was, but how it impacted their lives.
I was contacted by a Harvard psychology professor who asked if I could tailor a presentation for a graduate-level class to demonstrate perception and directed attention and not only blow the students’ minds, but demonstrate how con men accomplish their dastardly deeds. As is often the case with some of the best ideas, this simple request stimulated my imagination into something much greater than either of us ever intended. I built a show that not only amazed an audience, but I decided to strategically “break the magician’s code” and show exactly how some of these feats of illusion are done. I did this for the specific purpose of enlightening people to see just what they’re missing that is going on right in front of them. This would be more than a magic show, way more fun than any lecture or class, and I could tap into my passion for performing to create an entertaining, educational and enlightening event. But really, what was this? And it came to me: Tactical Communication.
I was contacted by a Harvard psychology professor who asked if I could tailor a presentation for a graduate-level class to demonstrate perception and directed attention and not only blow the students’ minds, but demonstrate how con men accomplish their dastardly deeds. As is often the case with some of the best ideas, this simple request stimulated my imagination into something much greater than either of us ever intended. I built a show that not only amazed an audience, but I decided to strategically “break the magician’s code” and show exactly how some of these feats of illusion are done. I did this for the specific purpose of enlightening people to see just what they’re missing that is going on right in front of them. This would be more than a magic show, way more fun than any lecture or class, and I could tap into my passion for performing to create an entertaining, educational and enlightening event. But really, what was this? And it came to me: Tactical Communication.
Upon starting down this path I have had the good fortune to collaborate with some of the best minds in the areas of magic performance, education, hypnosis and psychology of communication. Feedback about Tactical Communication has been universally positive. If a picture is worth 1000 words, a message delivered with the skills of Tactical Communication is worth 1,000,000 words. This has grown into way more than a magic show. Or a mentalism show. Or experiments with stage hypnosis. Or a demonstration about communication, and seeing things differently. It, like I, have become more than the sum of these parts.
One thing I did not quite count on is the level of customization I’d be doing for each performance, client, or even audience demographics at the same client for multiple performances. I also learned that it is this tailoring of the effects, messages and demonstrations that is the real power of Tactical Communication, and, frankly is the most fun part about it. Join me in this evolution!
Upon starting down this path I have had the good fortune to collaborate with some of the best minds in the areas of magic performance, education, hypnosis and psychology of communication. Feedback about Tactical Communication has been universally positive. If a picture is worth 1000 words, a message delivered with the skills of Tactical Communication is worth 1,000,000 words. This has grown into way more than a magic show. Or a mentalism show. Or experiments with stage hypnosis. Or a demonstration about communication, and seeing things differently. It, like I, have become more than the sum of these parts.
One thing I did not quite count on is the level of customization I’d be doing for each performance, client, or even audience demographics at the same client for multiple performances. I also learned that it is this tailoring of the effects, messages and demonstrations that is the real power of Tactical Communication, and, frankly is the most fun part about it. Join me in this evolution!
Upon starting down this path I have had the good fortune to collaborate with some of the best minds in the areas of magic performance, education, hypnosis and psychology of communication. Feedback about Tactical Communication has been universally positive. If a picture is worth 1000 words, a message delivered with the skills of Tactical Communication is worth 1,000,000 words. This has grown into way more than a magic show. Or a mentalism show. Or experiments with stage hypnosis. Or a demonstration about communication, and seeing things differently. It, like I, have become more than the sum of these parts.
One thing I did not quite count on is the level of customization I’d be doing for each performance, client, or even audience demographics at the same client for multiple performances. I also learned that it is this tailoring of the effects, messages and demonstrations that is the real power of Tactical Communication, and, frankly is the most fun part about it. Join me in this evolution!