I was a seventeen and I wore my
Flintstones t-shirt because I told my
mom I’d wear a shirt and tie for picture
day it was two weeks before my senior
year started and I went in I got my
picture taken
wonderful picture and then afterwards
you go and you sign up for your classes
it was the last time I would sign up for
classes for my public education and I
went through and I started signing up
for my classes and I took my but my last
math class I signed up for my last math
class that I had to take and then my
science class and so on and so forth but
so I got all my pre required classes
signed up then I have one slot left I
had it narrowed it down to two choices I
had it narrowed down to a study hall or
advanced ceramics with mrs. Grogg and
you see I loved the arts I always have
and so what did I choose well I chose
study hall why you may ask well I’ll
tell you at my school just down the
street at Belmont High School in Decatur
Indiana if you took eight art classes
and got an A and all eight then whenever
you get your degree you get a special
certificate and that certificate was for
the excellence in the arts and to me at
that time in my life I saw that
certificate
for excellence in the arts as a lazyness
certificate I saw that whenever I went
across the stage to receive that degree
and they announced that I had that
certificate among my peers that they
would see me as lazy and didn’t care
about academics right and so at this
point in my life I’m I’m a far-away away
from that and I wanted to reflect a
little bit on on what led me to that
moment as a 17 year old so let’s go
through that journey a little bit and
and I’ve learned a lot by going through
this journey maybe maybe if you come
along with me for a second you’ll learn
a thing or two as well so Pablo Picasso
said every child is an artist the
problem is how to remain an artist when
we grow up
I think he was on to something right so
I think to better understand how I got
that way as at 17 we need to go back a
little bit we need to go back to when I
was five now when I was five I was
obsessed with magic I couldn’t get
enough right and I remember going to a
magic shop and I saw this and it was a
little box that would you’d put things
in it and they would disappear you’d
show it empty and then it would reappear
and I loved it but having the finances
of a five-year-old I couldn’t afford it
so I come home in the next morning I’m
sitting down having my Lucky Charms
and I realized something that corner of
that Lucky Charms box is a lot like that
box and so I get out my scissors I start
cutting it apart get out some old mat
and white masking tape and tape it all
together and I had my first magic trick
soon the tape dissolved and the Box
collapsed in my little keep drawer and
eventually for my birthday my parents
got me this box right and and I
continued to love magic and I would
start to do shows on my 10th birthday I
did two shows one in the morning for
kids and one of the evening for adults
right because it was just what I loved
right that’s what I wanted to do for my
birthday shows for people and do it do
these different things and so I think
the question is between that moment of a
five-year-old and that moment as a 17
year old what was lost and I think the
answer is this sense of awe and wonder
and so what this journey that I’ve been
going on to try to figure that out God
led me to that place of awe and wonder
it’s so I wanted to look into that what
is that on Wonder and I think what I’m
realizing is right now I’m a filmmaker
right and I’m I make short films and I’m
always questing after that same feeling
I’ve realized this after doing this for
about 10 years is that I’m always
questing for that feeling of awe and
wonder and to evoke that so what is on
Wonder that’s the question I had to ask
myself and I think the answer is this
all is the light
and wonder is the darkness right so
every time I decide something to put on
on screen I’m choosing between what to
put in the light and what to put in the
darkness every time a trick is done
we’re choosing what is in the light
what’s the thing you’re seeing and
what’s in the darkness and so I started
to pursue this idea I started to look
into it and I found a few people who
have gone on this similar journey and
I’ve learned a thing or two and I want
to share them with you and the first one
was was a magician named Eric delgadio
who is currently off-broadway doing a
one-act show and he had a very similar
experience and it kind of kind of blew
my mind whenever I heard him say it he
talked about the first magic trick he
saw and it was the moment whenever a man
put a lighter in his hand and it
disappeared and it filled him with
Wonder and he said this about the Wonder
that he felt he said what I come to
realize is that the moment of wonder
wasn’t whenever I saw the hand empty the
moment of wonder was whenever he closed
his hand and for just a moment I knew
when he opened his hand that lighter was
going to be gone and in that moment that
magic wasn’t a trick it was a synonym
for Hope a synonym for hope this all and
Wonder light and darkness if we can find
in that darkness those moments that the
light is coming we see that synonym of
Hope threading that through there’s
something important there so then I went
back and I looked into a little bit more
and it turns out I’m not the only
filmmaker that’s that’s moved from this
kind of interest in magic to film if we
look back maybe you’ve seen the movie
Hugo which the movie Hugo is very
loosely based on the film a maker George
Mead lace and George Lee lace was a very
early silent filmmaker and in the
beginning film was very novel so you
could have a short little film a clip of
a train coming into the station and
everybody was like that’s amazing it’s a
train and it’s on film and I’m watching
it that’s incredible
but Georges méliès came along and he was
one of the first to start to tell
tory’s with film and so if you see it’s
very clear him playing with dark and
lightness here he was originally a stage
magician and then he moved on to do some
of that in the film world and he was
always playing with how to do these
illusions with film and so this is a
clip from one of his most famous films
where there’s a story of these people
going to the moon and so that that’s the
first step in the storytelling where he
was trying to take the light and the
darkness and play with it with story to
tell these stories but I don’t think it
ends with just magicians I think there’s
some magic and every piece of art that’s
ever been created maybe you recognize
this painting this painting is called
the Salvator Mundi and the Salvator
Mundi just went last summer for a half
of billion dollars it was the most
expensive painting ever sold
and the reason is it’s a lost DaVinci
there’s about 15 DaVinci paintings known
in the world and this one was painted
over it was hidden in somebody’s house
nobody knew what it was and then
eventually they scraped off a layer of
paint and they found this painting
behind it and they realized it was
actually done by Leonardo da Vinci one
of the most famous painters even though
he only has those 15 painter paintings
and so what’s amazing here is the magic
trick that Leonardo da Vinci is doing
here and I was blown away whenever I
started looking into it what he’s doing
here is something that that wasn’t even
known at the time he was playing with
optics and what he did here was if you
look closely at the hand he puts the
hand into focus and there’s a whole talk
worth about the meaning behind this hand
gesture that this picture of Christ is
saying and so he puts that in the light
he puts that in the focus and then he
takes the face and he puts it in the
darkness in a smokiness and out of focus
and so hundreds of years before the
invention of optics he’s playing with
this illusion now your iPhone is trying
to fake that effect right where it puts
it puts your whatever is in the
foreground and focus and whatever is in
the in the background out of focus
and so he’s doing this well before we
could ever fake it with with iPhones let
alone do it at all with with optics and
if we go back even further maybe your
believer maybe you’re not but I think
either way if you look at the beginning
of the Bible it says in the beginning
God created right he does a magic trick
he creates he makes something and then
what does he do he separates the light
from the darkness
or maybe the Big Bang is more what
you’re about what is that that’s the
light coming out of the darkness it’s
the first thing it’s the first movement
is this separation of darkness and light
so if we start recognizing that we can
start recognizing it and every single
story we tell and every single
interaction we have and so I want you to
just take a moment to think about that
time that you’ve experienced one of
those moments of awe and wonder and
maybe it was a play maybe it was a song
maybe it was just a really good steak
but I want you to put that in your mind
for a second and just close your eyes
and think about that moment when about
3/4 of the way through that steak or
that song or that playing
and that moment when the hair on your
arms stuck up a little bit and you got
goose bumps and it moved you to your
core see I had one of those moments
pretty recently I was driving and I was
listening to this American life with Ira
Glass maybe you’re familiar it’s a it’s
a radio show on National Public Radio
and he also had this experience of being
a childhood magician before getting into
radio and he was doing a show on magic
so he decides to unpack it a little bit
a little bit like I was currently trying
to do for this talk and so he he starts
going through and he’s interviewing some
people about his child childhood
magician and talking to some other
people and he ends up going to a friend
of his mom who hired him quite a few
times to do these little shows for some
birthday parties and different things
and he asked this question and it
stopped me in my tracks and I just want
to take just a second to actually listen
to that interview because in that
interview he asked a very simple
question he asked was I any good and the
answer kind of changed everything for me
let’s go ahead and take a listen well
this is the thing I was I was trying to
get a fix on this was was I bad no you
did a terrific job you liked it a lot
you think you’re doing something
different now and IRA IRA laughs and he
moves on to the next question quite
quickly and I had to pause and I had to
take a second because at that moment you
could hear in IRAs voice a little bit of
a sense of insecurity assuming he was
bad right this was a thing of my past
something I could definitely feel this
thing that I’ve kind of put away into my
past this love for magic that’s a thing
of the past and then all of a sudden
this woman who I’ve never met
spoke straight to my core about this
exact topic and she said
do you think you’re doing anything
different now I realized no I’m not and
so every time I’m trying to tell a story
through film or or even just live out my
daily life and I run into that darkness
if I can quest for that light it makes
all the difference if I can recognize
that contrast if I can let that spark of
magic be a synonym for hope it changes
everything so I got to be honest with
you I I kind of lied this isn’t a
picture of me at five this is actually
my son Henry and my son Henry just
turned five and he’s more obsessed with
magic than I could have ever imagined
being every day he’s coming to me with a
new trick that he invented and to tell
you the truth they’re horrible and it
makes it all the more amazing for me and
if you have kids maybe you’re familiar
with that deep ache that they don’t lose
that innocence in them and a little bit
of you knows that they probably will and
that’s the scariest feeling I’ve ever
experienced and so whenever I’m
questioning that I’m always asking how
do I keep the artist in this kid how do
I make it that he continues to be an
artist when he grows up right that Pablo
Picasso quote and I think the answer is
is just to see that when he will face
darkness it’s gonna happen and when he
does he just needs to be prepared with
that little spark in that heart to
embrace those darkness ‘iz and see the
light to be able to see that little
spark as a synonym for hope so I want to
encourage you today when you get home
pick up a paint brush pick
camera do something the next time
somebody asks you are you an artist say
yes and whoever it was that you were
thinking of that gave you goosebumps
whether it was a song or a Shaffer
whoever tell them tell them you did
something for me encourage them in their
in their craft and be sure to know that
if you just recognize yourself as an
artist and see that hope that you can
change yourself and you can change your
story just by seeing every single little
piece of darkness that there’s a light
and that there is a sense of hope thank
you [Applause]
Flintstones t-shirt because I told my
mom I’d wear a shirt and tie for picture
day it was two weeks before my senior
year started and I went in I got my
picture taken
wonderful picture and then afterwards
you go and you sign up for your classes
it was the last time I would sign up for
classes for my public education and I
went through and I started signing up
for my classes and I took my but my last
math class I signed up for my last math
class that I had to take and then my
science class and so on and so forth but
so I got all my pre required classes
signed up then I have one slot left I
had it narrowed it down to two choices I
had it narrowed down to a study hall or
advanced ceramics with mrs. Grogg and
you see I loved the arts I always have
and so what did I choose well I chose
study hall why you may ask well I’ll
tell you at my school just down the
street at Belmont High School in Decatur
Indiana if you took eight art classes
and got an A and all eight then whenever
you get your degree you get a special
certificate and that certificate was for
the excellence in the arts and to me at
that time in my life I saw that
certificate
for excellence in the arts as a lazyness
certificate I saw that whenever I went
across the stage to receive that degree
and they announced that I had that
certificate among my peers that they
would see me as lazy and didn’t care
about academics right and so at this
point in my life I’m I’m a far-away away
from that and I wanted to reflect a
little bit on on what led me to that
moment as a 17 year old so let’s go
through that journey a little bit and
and I’ve learned a lot by going through
this journey maybe maybe if you come
along with me for a second you’ll learn
a thing or two as well so Pablo Picasso
said every child is an artist the
problem is how to remain an artist when
we grow up
I think he was on to something right so
I think to better understand how I got
that way as at 17 we need to go back a
little bit we need to go back to when I
was five now when I was five I was
obsessed with magic I couldn’t get
enough right and I remember going to a
magic shop and I saw this and it was a
little box that would you’d put things
in it and they would disappear you’d
show it empty and then it would reappear
and I loved it but having the finances
of a five-year-old I couldn’t afford it
so I come home in the next morning I’m
sitting down having my Lucky Charms
and I realized something that corner of
that Lucky Charms box is a lot like that
box and so I get out my scissors I start
cutting it apart get out some old mat
and white masking tape and tape it all
together and I had my first magic trick
soon the tape dissolved and the Box
collapsed in my little keep drawer and
eventually for my birthday my parents
got me this box right and and I
continued to love magic and I would
start to do shows on my 10th birthday I
did two shows one in the morning for
kids and one of the evening for adults
right because it was just what I loved
right that’s what I wanted to do for my
birthday shows for people and do it do
these different things and so I think
the question is between that moment of a
five-year-old and that moment as a 17
year old what was lost and I think the
answer is this sense of awe and wonder
and so what this journey that I’ve been
going on to try to figure that out God
led me to that place of awe and wonder
it’s so I wanted to look into that what
is that on Wonder and I think what I’m
realizing is right now I’m a filmmaker
right and I’m I make short films and I’m
always questing after that same feeling
I’ve realized this after doing this for
about 10 years is that I’m always
questing for that feeling of awe and
wonder and to evoke that so what is on
Wonder that’s the question I had to ask
myself and I think the answer is this
all is the light
and wonder is the darkness right so
every time I decide something to put on
on screen I’m choosing between what to
put in the light and what to put in the
darkness every time a trick is done
we’re choosing what is in the light
what’s the thing you’re seeing and
what’s in the darkness and so I started
to pursue this idea I started to look
into it and I found a few people who
have gone on this similar journey and
I’ve learned a thing or two and I want
to share them with you and the first one
was was a magician named Eric delgadio
who is currently off-broadway doing a
one-act show and he had a very similar
experience and it kind of kind of blew
my mind whenever I heard him say it he
talked about the first magic trick he
saw and it was the moment whenever a man
put a lighter in his hand and it
disappeared and it filled him with
Wonder and he said this about the Wonder
that he felt he said what I come to
realize is that the moment of wonder
wasn’t whenever I saw the hand empty the
moment of wonder was whenever he closed
his hand and for just a moment I knew
when he opened his hand that lighter was
going to be gone and in that moment that
magic wasn’t a trick it was a synonym
for Hope a synonym for hope this all and
Wonder light and darkness if we can find
in that darkness those moments that the
light is coming we see that synonym of
Hope threading that through there’s
something important there so then I went
back and I looked into a little bit more
and it turns out I’m not the only
filmmaker that’s that’s moved from this
kind of interest in magic to film if we
look back maybe you’ve seen the movie
Hugo which the movie Hugo is very
loosely based on the film a maker George
Mead lace and George Lee lace was a very
early silent filmmaker and in the
beginning film was very novel so you
could have a short little film a clip of
a train coming into the station and
everybody was like that’s amazing it’s a
train and it’s on film and I’m watching
it that’s incredible
but Georges méliès came along and he was
one of the first to start to tell
tory’s with film and so if you see it’s
very clear him playing with dark and
lightness here he was originally a stage
magician and then he moved on to do some
of that in the film world and he was
always playing with how to do these
illusions with film and so this is a
clip from one of his most famous films
where there’s a story of these people
going to the moon and so that that’s the
first step in the storytelling where he
was trying to take the light and the
darkness and play with it with story to
tell these stories but I don’t think it
ends with just magicians I think there’s
some magic and every piece of art that’s
ever been created maybe you recognize
this painting this painting is called
the Salvator Mundi and the Salvator
Mundi just went last summer for a half
of billion dollars it was the most
expensive painting ever sold
and the reason is it’s a lost DaVinci
there’s about 15 DaVinci paintings known
in the world and this one was painted
over it was hidden in somebody’s house
nobody knew what it was and then
eventually they scraped off a layer of
paint and they found this painting
behind it and they realized it was
actually done by Leonardo da Vinci one
of the most famous painters even though
he only has those 15 painter paintings
and so what’s amazing here is the magic
trick that Leonardo da Vinci is doing
here and I was blown away whenever I
started looking into it what he’s doing
here is something that that wasn’t even
known at the time he was playing with
optics and what he did here was if you
look closely at the hand he puts the
hand into focus and there’s a whole talk
worth about the meaning behind this hand
gesture that this picture of Christ is
saying and so he puts that in the light
he puts that in the focus and then he
takes the face and he puts it in the
darkness in a smokiness and out of focus
and so hundreds of years before the
invention of optics he’s playing with
this illusion now your iPhone is trying
to fake that effect right where it puts
it puts your whatever is in the
foreground and focus and whatever is in
the in the background out of focus
and so he’s doing this well before we
could ever fake it with with iPhones let
alone do it at all with with optics and
if we go back even further maybe your
believer maybe you’re not but I think
either way if you look at the beginning
of the Bible it says in the beginning
God created right he does a magic trick
he creates he makes something and then
what does he do he separates the light
from the darkness
or maybe the Big Bang is more what
you’re about what is that that’s the
light coming out of the darkness it’s
the first thing it’s the first movement
is this separation of darkness and light
so if we start recognizing that we can
start recognizing it and every single
story we tell and every single
interaction we have and so I want you to
just take a moment to think about that
time that you’ve experienced one of
those moments of awe and wonder and
maybe it was a play maybe it was a song
maybe it was just a really good steak
but I want you to put that in your mind
for a second and just close your eyes
and think about that moment when about
3/4 of the way through that steak or
that song or that playing
and that moment when the hair on your
arms stuck up a little bit and you got
goose bumps and it moved you to your
core see I had one of those moments
pretty recently I was driving and I was
listening to this American life with Ira
Glass maybe you’re familiar it’s a it’s
a radio show on National Public Radio
and he also had this experience of being
a childhood magician before getting into
radio and he was doing a show on magic
so he decides to unpack it a little bit
a little bit like I was currently trying
to do for this talk and so he he starts
going through and he’s interviewing some
people about his child childhood
magician and talking to some other
people and he ends up going to a friend
of his mom who hired him quite a few
times to do these little shows for some
birthday parties and different things
and he asked this question and it
stopped me in my tracks and I just want
to take just a second to actually listen
to that interview because in that
interview he asked a very simple
question he asked was I any good and the
answer kind of changed everything for me
let’s go ahead and take a listen well
this is the thing I was I was trying to
get a fix on this was was I bad no you
did a terrific job you liked it a lot
you think you’re doing something
different now and IRA IRA laughs and he
moves on to the next question quite
quickly and I had to pause and I had to
take a second because at that moment you
could hear in IRAs voice a little bit of
a sense of insecurity assuming he was
bad right this was a thing of my past
something I could definitely feel this
thing that I’ve kind of put away into my
past this love for magic that’s a thing
of the past and then all of a sudden
this woman who I’ve never met
spoke straight to my core about this
exact topic and she said
do you think you’re doing anything
different now I realized no I’m not and
so every time I’m trying to tell a story
through film or or even just live out my
daily life and I run into that darkness
if I can quest for that light it makes
all the difference if I can recognize
that contrast if I can let that spark of
magic be a synonym for hope it changes
everything so I got to be honest with
you I I kind of lied this isn’t a
picture of me at five this is actually
my son Henry and my son Henry just
turned five and he’s more obsessed with
magic than I could have ever imagined
being every day he’s coming to me with a
new trick that he invented and to tell
you the truth they’re horrible and it
makes it all the more amazing for me and
if you have kids maybe you’re familiar
with that deep ache that they don’t lose
that innocence in them and a little bit
of you knows that they probably will and
that’s the scariest feeling I’ve ever
experienced and so whenever I’m
questioning that I’m always asking how
do I keep the artist in this kid how do
I make it that he continues to be an
artist when he grows up right that Pablo
Picasso quote and I think the answer is
is just to see that when he will face
darkness it’s gonna happen and when he
does he just needs to be prepared with
that little spark in that heart to
embrace those darkness ‘iz and see the
light to be able to see that little
spark as a synonym for hope so I want to
encourage you today when you get home
pick up a paint brush pick
camera do something the next time
somebody asks you are you an artist say
yes and whoever it was that you were
thinking of that gave you goosebumps
whether it was a song or a Shaffer
whoever tell them tell them you did
something for me encourage them in their
in their craft and be sure to know that
if you just recognize yourself as an
artist and see that hope that you can
change yourself and you can change your
story just by seeing every single little
piece of darkness that there’s a light
and that there is a sense of hope thank
you [Applause]
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