Humor at Another's Expense is Bullying

Happy Monday to you! (Or if you happen to be reading this T-Sun then happy *day* to you!)

It has been a really crazy past week for me, I have travelled through multiple states which means a ton of driving that I don't always enjoy. I also got an airbrush tattoo of a card on my arm while I was at the beach. Hardcore I know.

The other week I was watching another magician on stage (I was tempted to put quotation marks around magician) who was pretty decent at the "tricks" he performed, but was seriously lacking in the humor and/or getting people to like you factor. As many of my entertainer friends know, one of the first things you should do while on stage is make the audience like you. If the audience likes you, they will like what you do, as the saying goes.

So with this piece of knowledge in mind, you can understand why half the audience and I felt pretty uncomfortable when this guy's opening trick was making his middle finger appear under a scarf and flipping the bird to everyone.

Ouch.

While that may be a funny gag to do in the middle of an adult only comedy club event, it is a sure shot way of making a room of 100 hate you if you do it as an opening "trick" (see I used the quotation marks there). The second he established himself as an A-Hole, every trick he did after that was perceived as "HAHA LOOK WHAT I CAN DO AND YOU CAN'T" to half the room.

Aside from the middle finger, there is one other practice of "humor" that I believe to be the rudest, worst kind of all, and that is humor at someone else's expense. I will give you a brief example.

Magician brings audience member on stage. Magician asks "what is your last name?" .... "Oh! that last name means very attractive and beautiful. What is your first name?" .... "Oh. That means not very!" Tehe it is a funny joke. But it is funny only at the other person's expense. As a volunteer on stage, that person volunteering is probably as nervous and uncomfortable as all can be. It really takes a lot of courage to get up on a stage in front of a crowd of people, especially for a magic trick. The worst insult you can possibly do to someone assisting you is embarrassing them so that you can get jokes. Rather than creating a moment of magic on stage with another person, you are using that person so you can gain something. And that is wrong.

I would be lying if I said I hadn't done those tactics in my younger days performing. It is an easy, hack tactic that many performers use int heir first few years performing, but as I gained more experience growing older I learned treating an audience member like a "sucker" or "victim" is just plain wrong.

Today I make sure that I show my audience that I absolutely LOVE them. If someone has the courage to help me on stage, I show my respect by making them feel comfortable, and an important part of the act on stage. It means a lot that someone would sit for an hour and watch me perform, and in many cases pay money to see me do it! The least I could do is show respect for them, because they are not there to serve me, I am there to provide quality entertainment and an incredible evening. Howard Thurston, a multi-million dollar magician and one of the greatest entertainers in history, would stand behind a curtain and repeatedly say "I love my audience, I love my audience..." Seems like a pretty good practice to follow from one of the world's greatest, wouldn't you think?

In the end those other performers aren't bad people necessarily, they just have not learned how to treat an audience properly. Like a young boy on his first date making inappropriate jokes and not paying for the food, those performers just need to gain experience and grow out of it.

Those are my thoughts! Hope you have a great day!

-Hayden

The Future

I absolutely love the back to the future movies. Anyone who has seen my full show (currently as of January 2015) knows I dedicate about 15 minutes solely to the first back to the future movie, where i travel through time! One of the most thrilling aspects of any time travel movie isn't just seeing how life may have been in the past, but what we predict life would be like in the future. In an age fueled by adventure, industrialism, and innovation, we pictured the next 100 years to be much like an episode of wacky racers, the early saturday morning cartoon show http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30513670.

In back to the future 2, marty mcfly travels from 1985 to 2015 (hey that is the year we are alive in. Far out!). Listen to any Buzzfeed article about the notion of living in Marty Mcfly's version of 2015 and they would make jokes about how we are so far behind, with no hoverboards or instant pizza hut. I however, would strongly diagree - I think we are living in the future right now!

If we had prioritized hoverboards and flying cars above all else I believe we would be pretty close today. However, those are not important innovations (at least for now). Though flying cars would be a nifty invention, imagine how long it would take to adapt! Not to mention imagine if one of the flying cars were to fall out of the sky rather than wreck into a streetpole like in a street car. Maybe I am just trying to rationalize not having flying cars, but you can see the idea!

Instead of prioritizing things like flying cars, we developed technology no one could imagine in the 80s. The worldwide web has grown and developed in every direction the past 20 years, and it has connected us in a way we could not have believed before! I think its amazing how we have connected with average people overseas, instantly sharing our thoughts the second they happen on microblogs like twitter. In the 1985 version of 2015, we see the future as if the 80s had cool technology. Instead we today have progressed as society and have connected globally like never before.

Just to prove we really are living in the future...

-You can make transactions all digitally through your cell phone

-We have modified organisms to produce billions of pounds of food affordably (although there could be negative effects...)

- You can have instant, intimate conversations with a loved one miles away through video chats like skype on your cell phone

- We have made education available for anyone who truly wants to learn something

And that is just the start! So stop waiting for the future to happen and appreciate this amazing world we are in now.

-Hayden

2015

I hope everyone is excited to begin a great 2015! Even though the world may seem amiss, there is a lot of great innovation everyday from normal people worldwide, and people everyone are being educated faster and more efficiently than ever before.

Seeing the news headlines with sad stories often reminds me of Grima Wormtongue in Lord of The Rings. It is as if someone has taken control of everyone's brains and only thinks of dark depressing news, yet Gandalf could come in and show the light and restore hope in everyone. I would imagine the conversation going something like...

Grima: Police brutality is at an all time high, the government is spying on us, the economy is failing, everyone is going to college but isn't going to get a job.....

A beam of light blasts into the room...
Gandalf the white appears majestically with a deep voice and a giant wizard staff

Gandalf: NIGERIA IS FREE FROM POLIO, POLICE DELIVER TRUCKLOADS OF GROCERIES TO WOMAN WHO STOLE EGGS, THE ECONOMY IS STABILIZING AGAIN, QUALITY OF EDUCATION HAS INCREASED DRAMATICALLY THE PAST FEW YEARS

YOU WILL NOT DAUNT THE HOPES OF MEN, GRIMA WORMTONGUE! AMONGST THE SHROUDS OF BLACK THERE IS STILL GOOD IN THIS WORLD!

End Scene

It's like what Bill Clinton once said...

Follow the trend lines, not the headlines.

Love to hear your thoughts!

-Hayden

Awesome

Barriers of the Universe

Today was a pretty great day to be alive. I don't mean that sarcastically, I do mean that genuinely. I just recently saw The Theory of Everything, an independent film about the life of Stephen Hawking played by Eddie Redmayne (If you have seen Les Miserables from 2012 then you know exactly who I am talking about!). 

Though it is late and I am mostly writing on my blog so that people visiting my website will see that I do regularly post things (aside from Twitter), I have to say it is always great to see life from someone who seems to have nothing and still perseveres to become a legend. I am currently going through finals week at my university, and I am also performing multiple shows a week due to the Holidays. (I say Holidays because I am including New Year's, and I am doing Christmas parties too). I like to tell myself that my life is hard sometimes, so that I can feel like the underdog in a hollywood movie. 

Knowing that a man is almost completely disabled, yet continues to diligently work on his studies is just inspiring. It makes no task seem impossible. I start to get a shrinking feeling, but in a good way. It is a great reminder that I, and many of my colleagues, are not as important as we would like to believe we are. Our lives are not that hard. I am a 20 year old middle class white male in the United States of America during 2014 - Not only this, but I am healthy and educated. I am most definitely in the top 5% of quality of living in the history of the world, and I should be more thankful for it. 

I know things aren't totally perfect. I still need to waste hours of my days studying for exams, and I practice and rehearse my magic relentlessly sometimes with no results, but I can't use these as excuses for not achieving something great.

What's holding you back?

See you soon!

-Hayden

4 Add-Ons that would make Haunted Houses truly SCARY!

Happy Halloween! And welcome to adulthood where you now have the resources to buy an endless supply of candy, but you won't because you don't want to get fat.

My favorite thing about Halloween isn't the candy, or the insanely awesome costumes like my wolverine impression 

I like the Halloween activities like the haunted houses and corn mazes because I like to simulate death by startling and death by possible starvation. (I guess you could eat the corn.) However, I'd say that a majority of these places only go halfway with their ideas and activities. There are a few ways we can make these haunted activities 10x more awesome than they actually are.

They Know Your Name

Nowadays nearly everyone pays through a credit card, paypal, or even through their cell phones (looking at you Tim Cook). The great thing about that is the customers name's are on record with the receipt, and that's where the fun begins. Imagine you are walking through a dark room and a zombie says "I'm coming for you!" Eh not too scary. However throw in your name and you get "I'm coming for you... KYLE!" Suddenly these monsters are getting personal. Even if the house can't afford resources to figure out everyone's names, they can just use a generic name like Kyle or Steve. For most people it's just meh, but for people named Kyle and Steve its TERRIFYING!

Credit History
You are running down a hallway with a spinning tunnel with crazy lights. Suddenly, several sheets of paper are scattered in front of you. It's your credit score, and its way lower than you imagined!!! (Print score of 95 on sheets and scatter them). Now they face the fear of not being able to lease an apartment! OOOOO!

Due Date
You are walking through what is essentially a classroom. Lots of desks, colorful photos on the wall. And suddenly you see a message on the chalkboard... REPORT DUE TODAY! A line of other "students" forms in front and behind you and everyone is turning in very elaborate, nice reports into the teacher at the desk. (Even the kid who you always compare yourself to saying at least you're not them). Bring back that school anxiety on Halloween!

The Crappy Prom
A girl begins holding your hand, and she is in a nice prom dress. She says she can't wait for you to meet her parents! You walk into a room that is ornately decorated. Her parents are nice people! But they are judging you slightly (you just sense it). They tell you to wash up before dinner, so you go into the bathroom. However, when you go to flush the toilet, the water doesn't go down... It RISES! It doesn't stop until her dad barges into the room in anger. I can't think of anything more horrifying than this.

And that, my friends, is how we can improve haunted houses.

-Hayden

My Morning Routine

Several people have told me they admire my dedication to my morning routine. I take a lot of pride in my few set routines that I have each morning and each week. I think that behind every great achievement there is a common factor of behavior - focus and self control. If you can master self control and stay focused, you can achieve nearly anything. Really, I believe this - it isn't some quote I heard from a horoscope.

Many of the world's greatest achievements can be attributed to self control and focus. Take the iPod, for example. While a company like Apple has several resources to produce literally ANYTHING, it focused only on producing a single, great product in 2001. Huge tech companies like Dell, Compaq, HP, and of course software leader Microsoft were generating thousands of innovative hardware and software. The problem is, none of it was consistent with what the company's main idea was, and it was spread too thin. Think about it: what is the reason Dell exists? Why did Dell computers start? Not many people are sure why; we just now have a giant company that produces/produced hundreds of electronic gadgets, with no true focus or guidance of why the company exists in the first place. Sure, they have many MP3 players and most likely a tablet or two (i just did the research, they now have a mega tablet. Wow!) but none of them have made an iconic impact like the iPod and iPad.

Thinking logically, we should all think of these companies like Dell and Compaq as being the "innovators", so why don't we? It's because they lack focus and self-control. They did not say no to the great options out there, and instead thought they could do everything. Apple has created only a table-full of products, and that is why they succeed. I think this mentality applies to our lives, and is what pushes us to become great. I have had the honor of meeting some insanely talented people - movie directors, magicians, actors, designers, software engineers etc. And the one common thing I have found among them all? They are all incredible at one single thing; they are not "well-rounded".

With this background of mentality in mind, I began a morning routine that is designed to keep me focused and maintain my self-control, so that I too can achieve something incredible like my idols before me. So, without further ado, here is my morning routine! (Including diet and even recipes).

1. I wake up at 7:00 AM to "Make your own kind of music". Turn off my alarm, jump out of bed as quickly as I can, and I open the blinds to let the sunlight in my room.

above: not quite the same view I have, but imagine 1/8 the size and you are correct

2. I plug my iPhone or Macbook into the sound system I've installed in my apartment, and I play either contemporary classical music, or indie-folk music. It all depends on my day.

3. Once my music is playing, I begin to cook my breakfast for the morning. I cook 3 eggs over medium or well done in a non-stick pan, while i add shredded cheddar, peppers, onions, mushrooms, and sliced tomatoes I have all pre-cut myself from the day before (Pretty nice tip). I essentially make an omelette and then a bowl of plain oatmeal with almond milk which I add cinnamon and fresh berries to! The eggs contain good cholesterol, high protein, and a low fat, low sugar meal. Oatmeal is a great form of energy filled carbohydrates, and by adding fresh fruit you improve the flavor and gain great nutritional value - woot! 

Above: my eggs. Ahhhhhh yes.

4. While my breakfast cooks (and my oatmeal microwaves) I drop down and do 25 pushups. This gets my blood flowing, and also gives me a great challenge to begin my day. I try my best to do this slowly, just to meditate while I get stronger.

5. This is the part where my coffee is brewing. I use 2 scoops of mexican roast coffee in my french press. I also add cinnamon to the ground coffee and mix it, to give it that unique flavor. I use a french press because it gives the strongest, purest brew - along with the strongest caffeine content (arguably). It is also quite simple to use - I love me some coffee.

6. Once I have finished my delicious meal, accompanied by my wonderful music, I pick up my cards, coins, or whatever magic routine I have been working on lately, and I record myself doing it. A lot. I prefer to use a video camera instead of a mirror, as I've found when I do it in the mirror I always stand at the right angles to fool myself. 

Generally I will practice some form of card/coin/ball manipulation. It is regarded as the most difficult form of magic to perform well, and mastering it gives you a certain discipline. Though I may not perform it as much as my other routines, it disciplines me into making the small details perfect. It is the details no one sees that makes all the difference.

And that, my friends, is a general synopsis of my morning routine :). In summation, I stay focused on eating a low fat, low sugar, high protein, quality carb diet with fresh ingredients, with collaboration from black, fair trade coffee that stimulates my brain into doing great magic. I make sure to include lots of physical activity as well to stay in shape for my magic, and I practice very hard on what I do.

I promise this wasn't to gloat and I don't think anyone genuinely cares what I do in the mornings. I just offered it as a point of view so that you too can have a cool routine and achieve small, daily goals that build up into something bigger. Always think bigger :).

-Hayden

NACA South - Making Waves! Day 1

Hello everyone! I am currently at NACA South in Myrtle Beach, SC. For those of you who are unfamiliar with NACA, it is a conference where schools in a particular region all meet together to preview the top entertainment/speakers/lecturers in the country for colleges, and they can choose which acts they want to bring for the school year! It's an amazing opportunity for both performers and for college students. In my case, I am getting the best of both worlds!

The first day was fantastic. I met a ton of great people, both talent agents and students. One of my favorite things to do at these conferences is talk to everyone in a non-business setting. What I mean by that, is it's great to talk to someone without the feeling of being a salesman. I like to just have fun with people and hang, which is exactly what these conferences do.

It's been a great weekend and I can't wait for the rest of the day today and tomorrow!

-Hayden