The First Time

It took a while to get to me but I finally saw the clip of the twin brothers listening and reacting to Phil Collins’s “In The Air Tonight” for the first time. If you haven’t seen it yet I promise it’s worth it:

“I ain’t never seen nobody drop a beat 3 minutes into a song!”

What a great video. It’s so joyful and fun that it brought tears to my eyes, and I started thinking about all the times I’d experienced something for the first time, too.

I remember seeing the Pacific Ocean for the first time when I was a freshman in college. My friend Angela took me to Santa Monica and laughed while I stood spellbound as the water rushed over my bare feet. I was transfixed by the sheer enormity of the water meeting the sky at the horizon, something I hadn’t experienced before growing up in the midwest.

I remember seeing the 20th anniversary showing of “E.T. the Extra Terrestrial” for the first time back in 2002. It blew me away. I’d never seen anything like it. I put the poster on my wall and would stare at it every day, dreaming about the universe, movies, and everything in-between.

I remember the first time I came to Chicago. I was here for a few theater school auditions and spent a couple days exploring the city. I went shopping at Macy’s, walked along the river downtown, and went to a fancy steakhouse. It was the quintessential small-town-kid-visits-the-big-city story. I’d never seen buildings so tall or taxis drive so fast. Come to think of it - I hadn’t really seen a taxi before. It was fantastic.

The list goes on and on. The first time I went overseas, the first time I tried sushi, the first time I rode a bike. There’s something utterly magical about that initial experience with something brand new.

I’m always amazed at how often people will approach me after my shows to tell me that I’m the first magician or mind reader they’ve ever seen. My craft is so ubiquitous in my life that it’s easy to forget that many people in my audience are having a brand new experience.

It’s a constant reminder of the responsibility to elevate what I do in the minds of the audience, but it’s also a huge opportunity to gift those audience members with an unforgettable experience of the first time they experienced a live mind reading show.

Everyone has a list of things they remember seeing for “the first time”. The things that make that list are moments that lingered far after they occurred. They’re moments that rattle people to their core and stick with them for years.

As artists we have a choice every time we interact with a new audience: Are we going to be just another blip on the radar of their life experiences? Or, are we going to let them sink their toes into the sand and feel the ocean water rush over their feet for the first time?

I know my answer. What about you?

Dig Deeper

There’s a moment that keeps popping up during a lot of the programs I enjoy. It happens on NPR, it happens on talks shows, it happens on the news.

The interviewer will ask their guest a question, wait for an answer, and then…just move on. They don’t acknowledge the answer. They don’t expand on it or get into a deeper conversation. They just cross that question off their list and ask the next one. It drives me crazy.

I also see this moment happen in live shows (remember those?) that I go to. The performer asks a volunteer a personal question, the volunteer responds, and the performer plunges ahead with their script without even responding to the volunteer’s answer.

When you ignore someone’s response you’re missing on a huge opportunity to create a memorable moment. Chances are the first answer they give isn’t going to be all that exciting, but if you’re willing to dig deeper then you’ll likely encounter something unforgettable.

This is part of the reason why I love long form podcasts like “The Joe Rogan Experience”, “Under The Skin” with Russell Brand, or “WTF” with Marc Maron. Often the conversations on those shows can go on for several hours. They’re full of tangents and interruptions but they always cover interesting, uncharted territory. If I was going to diagram traditional media I would draw a straight line from point A to point B. But a marathon conversation on a podcast? That’s more like a meandering, squiggly line. It’s messy, but ultimately it covers more ground and is much more compelling.

Much of the intoxicating appeal of those podcasts (and others) is the host’s insatiable curiosity to learn as much as possible about their guests. They want to get into the weeds. For every interesting answer they receive, they have 2 or 3 follow up questions. They get philosophical. They get deep. They want to hash things out on the air, even if it isn’t quite as polished as a late night talk show. They don’t have talking points — they’re just talking. And I can’t stop listening.

As always, everything comes down to connection. Every encounter we have is an opportunity to leave a lasting impression on another person. But that’s never going to happen if you aren’t actively listening and acknowledging what other people have to say.

No one remembers the people who barely make an attempt to hold a conversation. But everyone remembers the person who asks thoughtful questions, listens to the answers, and responds accordingly.

The next time you have a chance encounter with someone, pay attention to what you’re doing and treat that exchange like one of those squiggly lines. Don’t be in a hurry to get onto your next question or your next task. Just listen to what they have to say and see where it leads you. Be interested and inquisitive. Dig deeper.

The Experience

I was watching a random YouTube video the other day and the creator said something I really appreciated.

“I’ve turned off all the mid-roll ads,” he said, speaking directly into the camera. “I feel like it ruins your experience and I don’t like that.”

If you aren’t familiar, mid-roll ads are those commercials that play halfway through a video, right when it's starting to get good. They’re incredibly annoying, but they’re also an important part of a YouTube Channel’s revenue.

Basically, this creator was saying that he was willing to sacrifice some of his income in order to improve the viewer’s experience. How refreshing!

Usually it seems that brands care more about my money than they care about my experience. It drives me crazy.

I’ve been watching the NBA Bubble games since they returned and they’ve started showing commercials between free throws! It’s insane. Here I am getting into the sports drama unfolding before me and suddenly the game goes silent on half the screen while I have to watch a promo for a video game on the other.

When I’m reading an article on The New York Times subscription I’M PAYING FOR, I still have to scroll past lingerie and real estate ads after every other paragraph. It’s infuriating.

Sometimes I do gigs alongside other performers and they insist on promoting their services during the show we’re already doing. It always makes me uncomfortable. The audience already paid for tickets, can’t we stop selling to them and give them a killer show?

Yes, I know I could use an ad blocker for the online content but sometimes they don’t work. Also, I try to keep ads turned on for creators I care about so they can continue to earn revenue. I don’t blame the creators for the annoying ads - they’re just working within a system that doesn’t give a shit prioritizes money over my enjoyment of the platform.

I also have turned off all of my ad preferences. That means I get served really random ads that aren’t specific to me in any way. As a result, I constantly notice them and get pulled out of what I’m doing. I think when you let the ads become tailored to you that you grow numb to them. You start seeing ads for things that you may enjoy, but grow numb to how miserable the experience around those ads has become.

(As for the NBA…well, they only care about the bag. But my fellow performers should know better…)

I was so grateful to that YouTuber for turning off his mid-roll ads. It made me so aware of how much better my experience was when I wasn’t being constantly inundated with advertisements and interruptions. As a result, he gained a new subscriber.

If you value my experience with your product you’ll get a fan for life. I’ll join your mailing list, subscribe to your channel, and buy tickets to your show. From start to finish, give me the best experience possible, then leave me alone. Don’t try to up-sell me, don’t solicit reviews, don’t spam me with future promos. Just blow me away and l promise I’ll be more than happy to spread the word for you for years to come.