When You're A Guy And

Actually, I Started As A Ventriloquist And My Music Teacher Said, "why Don't You Emcee The Talent Show?" My Act Was Out Of The Back Of Boys' Life Magazine-they Had A Whole Series Of Jokes In The Back Of Boys' Life Magazine For Boy Scouts. So My Act Was Jokes With My Ventriloquist Figure, And It Was Really Bad, But I Walked Into The Classroom Afterward And The Kids Went, "wow, You're Cool." I Wasn't Cool At All, But I Thought, "well, This Is A Pretty Good Deal."

When I Was A Kid, People Wanted To Be An Astronaut. Today, Kids Want To Be Famous, And That's Totally The Wrong Approach. You Have To Have Authenticity In What You're Doing. You Have To Really Care About The Core Message Of What You're Saying, And Then Everything Else Will Fall Into Place.

I Could Vanish The Silk Better Than Ben Vereen - That Was For Sure. So I Think Maybe They Said, "okay, Maybe He Has Something To Offer." Years Pass And I Get A Bit Of A Career, And Ben Vereen Ends Up Hosting One Of My Specials Where I Walked Through The Great Wall Of China. Things Came Full Circle In Kind Of An Ironic Way, When You Have That Honor Of People That Have Influenced You So Much Host Your Show. It's A Huge Experience In Your Life.

It Is The Unspoken Ethic Of All Magicians To Not Reveal The Secrets.

I've Always Taken A Lot Of Cues From Comedy Minds. The Guy That Discovered Me In The Very Beginning Was Joseph Cates. Joe And Gil Cates Were The Cates Brothers. Gil Produced The Oscars For Many Years. Joe Produced A Lot Of Comedy Specials, Steve Martin Specials, And He Discovered Me, This 18-year-old Kid.