Did you ever hear one of the attendees leave one of your corporate events saying, “wow...that was amazing!” I’ve been fortunate enough to have event planners tell me that is exactly what they’ve heard people say, and honestly, they’ve said it themselves. But how can you arrive at that [...]
Corporate Event Planners often have some “go-to” ideas when it comes to hiring a headline act for their big event entertainment. Maybe it’s a DJ, or a tribute band, or a celebrity impersonator. There’s just one problem with all of those types of acts: they’re rarely improvisational.[...]
The lights dimmed. The crowd quieted down. And as the spotlight hits me onstage, 700+ people in the audience at Navy Pier waited for me to begin. The rest, as they say, was history. Make that excellent history. Make that decibel-busting laughter, applause, singing and clapping history for [...]
Ten years on the stage at Second City taught me one important lesson: use a warm and personal approach to engage the audience. If you do that, they’ll have fun and stay engaged. That’s how I’m able to put people at ease, and receptive to hearing your message. And best of all, I do it [...]
Surprisingly, we have something in common. We both want to make your company’s next big event a huge success – we just go about it in different ways. You do it by hiring the best talent available, and I do it from the stage, making you look good for hiring me. That’s a win-win for [...]
Last week I talked about The Artist Way. As one part of The Artist's Way exercises that I use to stay so creative and productive all the time is Journaling. It's a pretty simple tool. I've been journaling pretty much every morning now for … I don't know …. maybe ten years now. In that time I [...]
One question I get asked all the time is “How do you know the words to so many songs?” I make ‘em up! Which is only partly true. These days with contemporary tunes most times a verse and chorus is all you need before people get bored and want something else. We call it The ADD Factor. [...]
7 Things About Dueling Pianos You'll Kick Yourself For NOT Knowing They're Fun! If you didn't know that, you now do. So take a look at how we do that so well.... Everyone Has Fun At Dueling Pianos Everyone Gets Involved: There's a ton of different ways a good dueling piano team will get [...]
Life On A Cruise Ship For A Musician I've been having a great time playing the cruise ship dueling pianos show in the Caribbean on NCL. This week we are stopping at Jamaica, Mexico and our present port of The Grand Caymans. The cruise passengers have been great on all the trips. I was able to [...]
It wasn't supposed to happen like this. It was supposed to be one of those run of the mill gigs where everything was normal. Nothing out of the ordinary. But now, looking back on it, I can see where I was wrong. Completely wrong. I was young. I was still in my 20s. Just out of college. Making a [...]