[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
welcome everyone when I was five years
old I played the original Super Mario
Brothers for the NES and I was hooked
right away and in fact just like many
other boys my age I loved video games
for those of you who aren’t familiar
with the story of Mario it’s pretty
awesome he’s an Italian plumber and a
Red Hat and he’s in a place called the
Mushroom Kingdom he jumps around
stomping on mushroom people called
goombas and sometimes there’s a turtle
and he’ll stomp on that maybe kick the
shell knock over the Goomba guys on his
way to rescue his girlfriend who was
captured by a gigantic spiky sentient
turtle who breathes fire
it’s crazy makes no sense but it’s not
the story of Mario that made it so
popular and continue to be popular today
Mario was successful because the story
of Mario cannot happen without you as
the player to bring him to life think
about it
when Mario is on the loading screen he
acquires you to hit a to make him jump
he requires you to hit left and right
make him go through the Mushroom Kingdom
and the story is always changing
sometimes Mario makes a little way to
the end and rescues peach and other
times he dies a tragic death half way it
has to start over right
but it is for this region of having
interactivity that Mario a videogame and
interactive media is inherently more
dynamic than passive static forms of
media such as books and movies I’d like
everyone to think about the last time
you went to a museum for me it was I
went with my fiancee to the discovery
place to check out meet the family the
Tyrannosaurus Rex exhibit because
dinosaurs are awesome and if you’ve been
to a museum in the last 20 years you
notice there’s pretty much two different
kinds of exhibits you have the exhibit
where you’re like looking at something
and there’s a plaque and you read about
it and you have the awesome sandpit in
the middle of the room where you
actually get to dig through two
different dinosaur bones and rearrange
to make a t-rex Lac or whatever and you
learn along the way and you can guess
which one is more popular especially
with kids when we went we had to wait
twenty minutes just to get our turn kids
loved this and they’re learning the fact
is they’re learning all along the way
through interactivity now like Mike said
I’m I have one of the coolest jobs in
the world I’m very thankful for it I’m
24 years old and right out of college I
started performing my own original magic
show for audiences and venues both here
in Charlotte and all across the country
and because I’m doing it that’s my job I
run it like a business and in business
you have to look at competition a lot of
times when I’m referring to my
competition people think I’m talking
about things like other magic shows or
other magicians but that’s not my
competition my competition isn’t other
magicians my competition are things like
YouTube and Netflix in the United States
here in 2018 we spend more money
annually than ever before on
entertainment yet some forms of
entertainment specifically live
entertainment like plays and ballet
struggle to sell tickets every year your
typical producer producing an
experimental play about Abraham Lincoln
may say say something like the reason
people don’t
see my play about Abraham Lincoln is
because people are too dumb or but
they’re lazy they don’t want to come out
and see it but I have another theory
what are you doing whenever you go to
see a play about Abraham Lincoln you
show up to a theater you sit in the
cushiony seat and you look at a stage as
you watch actors tell a compelling
narrative and you know what it’s a
pretty good substitute for that sitting
on your couch at home looking at looking
at a TV screen as actors tell a story
right it’s almost the same thing you’re
just looking at something why should I
spend thirty dollars to see your play
about Abraham Lincoln when I can watch
this is this is most evident the
evidence for this is most evident at the
turn of the century between the 1800 and
1900 there’s a type of theater called
vaudeville theater vaudeville
entertainment if you’re not familiar
with it it consisted of performers like
music act singers jugglers magicians
circus acts hypnotist you name it if you
lived in a really popular area these
actually come to your town a couple
times a week not so popular maybe once a
month but point is if you wanted to see
something crazy and entertaining like a
guy juggling seven chainsaws that was
the show to go to there was no
television there was no radio that’s how
you were entertained at the turn of the
century when radio and television and
cinema became more popular people
stopped attending the shows the win on
the decline in fact many of the
performers who performed on the live
stage instead transitioned to movies and
television and that’s the entertainment
industry that we have today that is so
popular now I’m not saying that none of
you should go out in support of
community theaters see a play I think
that live theater and live Performing
Arts are fantastic but if you’re in this
industry or a similar industry it’s
always gonna be an uphill battle to sell
tickets if people can get a similar
experience at home that is of course
unless you can offer something that
requires you to be there in the room and
that’s engagement and interactivity from
the vaudeville era here’s some types of
entertainment acts that still do well
today even here in Charlotte we have
improv comedy shows we have stand-up
comedians that do some banter with the
audience we have magicians we have
hypnotists all these shows tend to do
pretty well and they’ve stayed true to
the test of time and my theory it’s
because they’re one of the few shows
that you actually have to be there and
offer input for them to work think about
it when you watch Harry Potter and the
Chamber Secrets on DVD the DVD does not
care if you watch it or not Harry Potter
is always gonna pull out the sword and
kill the basilisk whether you watched it
or not it does not care if your viewing
but an improv comedy show
cannot go on without direct input from
you the audience to give the setting and
the same with a magic show that I
perform a magic trick can’t exist or at
least a card trick can’t exist without
someone to pick a card and the shows are
different every time so like I said
magic shows what I know most of because
I do it for a living and they actually
recently did a study on magic for the
first time ever at the college of new
jersey and they found that when
attending shows like these math shows
like magic shows seventy-five percent of
people said that the best thing that
could happen to them when attending one
of the shows is that they got to
participate in one of the tricks that
they got to come onstage and participate
in part of the magic show this data
suggests that people aren’t just
satisfied with just sitting back and
consuming people want to be engaged
people want to interact and speaking of
which I thought this would be a great
time for me to show you all a little bit
of magic may I do that is that okay
[Applause]
I just need to borrow a $1 bill from the
audience if you’ve got a $1 bill you can
just take it up hi I’m gonna get someone
maybe from this oh you’ve got a dollar
right there sir would you mind stand up
cuz you shout what is your name Jamie
get around the poster Jamie’s gonna go
right through the exit door we’re gonna
do a little bit of magic or mentalism
we’re gonna do a little bit of sleight
of hand so on Jamie’s way up he’s going
through there very nice very nice Jamie
is this your first time on a stage on
this stage also absolute come here
center stage come here center stage I’m
gonna show you a little trick to help
get over stage fright that might help
you because it is kind of scary to see
like a thousand people you can’t really
the lights but I pretend like I can see
them right I do this thing it’s called
the magicians pose it looks like this
gene you check it out looks like this if
you do that right now Jamie everyone in
the room is gonna give you a thunderous
practiced it once it gets even louder
[Applause]
crazy game thank you for bringing your
dollar up but first I’d like to show you
something right here this is a kind of
mentalism it’s the bag of mystery okay
who shortened Jers bad Jamie we all just
had lunch
I don’t do that let’s think about like
we’ll get a fruit I’d like you to think
about your favorite kind of fruit if you
got it
great I’m gonna pluck it out of the air
again imaginary direct input from you
Jamie what fruit of my home what’s your
favorite fruit
orange an orange take the orange we’re
in tries Jamie said an orange so Jamie
we’re gonna try and make an orange
appear and out bag of mystery Jamie
you’re gonna throw it in the air and if
an orange appears the audience is gonna
clap and freak out because that would be
amazing properly
Jimmy good pastas in the air let’s see
if this worked he goes whoo just like
that reach inside the cot there should
be one thing right there
hold up choked everyone what is that
right there
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
you can hold on to that I’m gonna take
the other thing your hand there this is
a dollar sir dollar what do you do for a
living Jamie I’m gonna nighty you’re an
IT awesome so Jamie I’d like to imagine
you were working the night II all week
and you saved up your money he came to
TEDx Charlotte here and the magician
speaker came onstage you took your money
tore it in half
Jamie laughs today he’s he’s really good
come a little closer make sure I don’t
leave do any sneaky sleight of hand we
take tear it in half meter again and two
fourths we tear it again in two even
time your pieces Janek I don’t work can
I see I’m sorry
Jamie check it out make sure everything
sneaky I rolled my sleeves up so we can
make sure I don’t do anything funny
we’re gonna fold it over like this Jamie
I know squeeze it in your hand you’ll be
the eyes and ears forever and you make
sure I don’t do anything funny just keep
your eye on the money right there y’all
can’t see Jamie’s dollar we’re gonna get
out some invisible magic dust for this
to work Jamie do you see the invisible
magic dust I do not you do not that’s a
good sign Jamie okay it’s invisible
we’re gonna sprinkle it on your money
and before I go forward did you take one
of those eight pieces out of my hand
just take one out just in case this
doesn’t work out yeah just go ahead pull
it out yeah there we go just a case this
doesn’t work out you can take that home
as a souvenir okay check it out we
sprinkle the magical stone top keep
carrying the money Jamie know what I’d
call this trick this trick is called how
to blow your doll into magic show
starting Jamie
[Applause]
[Music]
you can’t get that from a TV screen the
guy on the TV won’t take your money make
it disappear only here in person
generally when I make it disappear
that’s usually enough for people I guess
Jamie’s got really high expectation
Jamie let me if I had a tiger onstage
and made it disappear I guarantee you’d
freak out and run back to your seat I do
it with your money you look mad it’s
it’s the same trick I just scaled it
down a little bit okay it seems I didn’t
yeah you’re wise on this heat you know
your money didn’t really disappear Jamie
Jamie’s money didn’t really disappear
when I put into my hand ladies gentlemen
I want like this I used misdirection the
dollar fell out of my hand
and it hit the ground it flew forward
went through every single seat in here
and about I think five rows but ma’am
right here in the in the striped shirt
right here
Jamie’s dollar flew underneath your seat
[Applause]
I ran out of breathless wit there medic
cat looming and it went back up and
Jamie your money has been in front of
you this entire time you see in magic we
cover up amazing magic with other magic
tricks good magic tricks so you know
what a pretty good magic trick would
look like making a named fruit up here
you see that orange in your hand Jamie
this is where things get crazy check it
out I brought at night I knew this would
happen don’t worry we cut deep down
inside of this orange Jamie you’re gonna
notice that there’s something sticking
out right there what do you see that’s a
dollar but not just any dollar you might
find in your breakfast fruit at home go
ahead pull that out this is a dollar
with a piece missing from it you’ll
remember earlier on he took one of those
eight pieces up Jamie if you still have
that corner coz you hold up there’s even
a serial number there hold up the corner
make sure it’s a perfect match make sure
the serial number everything matches
that a perfect match is at your dollar
so much
[Music]
and you get to take it home and your own
well pretty simply if you’re a
businessman or organization think about
different ways in which you can engage
with your customers and take advantage
of ways to interact and in our daily
lives do we want to be the people who
are constantly talking while people are
listening to us or do we want to take a
moment to pause and listen to each other
and engage in real conversation because
when you’re just speaking you’re merely
regurgitating things that you’ve already
consumed but when you listen and
actually engage you have a moment to
create a totally new moment together and
when we’re creating more than we’re
consuming I think that that makes for a
you [Applause]
[Applause]
[Music]
welcome everyone when I was five years
old I played the original Super Mario
Brothers for the NES and I was hooked
right away and in fact just like many
other boys my age I loved video games
for those of you who aren’t familiar
with the story of Mario it’s pretty
awesome he’s an Italian plumber and a
Red Hat and he’s in a place called the
Mushroom Kingdom he jumps around
stomping on mushroom people called
goombas and sometimes there’s a turtle
and he’ll stomp on that maybe kick the
shell knock over the Goomba guys on his
way to rescue his girlfriend who was
captured by a gigantic spiky sentient
turtle who breathes fire
it’s crazy makes no sense but it’s not
the story of Mario that made it so
popular and continue to be popular today
Mario was successful because the story
of Mario cannot happen without you as
the player to bring him to life think
about it
when Mario is on the loading screen he
acquires you to hit a to make him jump
he requires you to hit left and right
make him go through the Mushroom Kingdom
and the story is always changing
sometimes Mario makes a little way to
the end and rescues peach and other
times he dies a tragic death half way it
has to start over right
but it is for this region of having
interactivity that Mario a videogame and
interactive media is inherently more
dynamic than passive static forms of
media such as books and movies I’d like
everyone to think about the last time
you went to a museum for me it was I
went with my fiancee to the discovery
place to check out meet the family the
Tyrannosaurus Rex exhibit because
dinosaurs are awesome and if you’ve been
to a museum in the last 20 years you
notice there’s pretty much two different
kinds of exhibits you have the exhibit
where you’re like looking at something
and there’s a plaque and you read about
it and you have the awesome sandpit in
the middle of the room where you
actually get to dig through two
different dinosaur bones and rearrange
to make a t-rex Lac or whatever and you
learn along the way and you can guess
which one is more popular especially
with kids when we went we had to wait
twenty minutes just to get our turn kids
loved this and they’re learning the fact
is they’re learning all along the way
through interactivity now like Mike said
I’m I have one of the coolest jobs in
the world I’m very thankful for it I’m
24 years old and right out of college I
started performing my own original magic
show for audiences and venues both here
in Charlotte and all across the country
and because I’m doing it that’s my job I
run it like a business and in business
you have to look at competition a lot of
times when I’m referring to my
competition people think I’m talking
about things like other magic shows or
other magicians but that’s not my
competition my competition isn’t other
magicians my competition are things like
YouTube and Netflix in the United States
here in 2018 we spend more money
annually than ever before on
entertainment yet some forms of
entertainment specifically live
entertainment like plays and ballet
struggle to sell tickets every year your
typical producer producing an
experimental play about Abraham Lincoln
may say say something like the reason
people don’t
see my play about Abraham Lincoln is
because people are too dumb or but
they’re lazy they don’t want to come out
and see it but I have another theory
what are you doing whenever you go to
see a play about Abraham Lincoln you
show up to a theater you sit in the
cushiony seat and you look at a stage as
you watch actors tell a compelling
narrative and you know what it’s a
pretty good substitute for that sitting
on your couch at home looking at looking
at a TV screen as actors tell a story
right it’s almost the same thing you’re
just looking at something why should I
spend thirty dollars to see your play
about Abraham Lincoln when I can watch
this is this is most evident the
evidence for this is most evident at the
turn of the century between the 1800 and
1900 there’s a type of theater called
vaudeville theater vaudeville
entertainment if you’re not familiar
with it it consisted of performers like
music act singers jugglers magicians
circus acts hypnotist you name it if you
lived in a really popular area these
actually come to your town a couple
times a week not so popular maybe once a
month but point is if you wanted to see
something crazy and entertaining like a
guy juggling seven chainsaws that was
the show to go to there was no
television there was no radio that’s how
you were entertained at the turn of the
century when radio and television and
cinema became more popular people
stopped attending the shows the win on
the decline in fact many of the
performers who performed on the live
stage instead transitioned to movies and
television and that’s the entertainment
industry that we have today that is so
popular now I’m not saying that none of
you should go out in support of
community theaters see a play I think
that live theater and live Performing
Arts are fantastic but if you’re in this
industry or a similar industry it’s
always gonna be an uphill battle to sell
tickets if people can get a similar
experience at home that is of course
unless you can offer something that
requires you to be there in the room and
that’s engagement and interactivity from
the vaudeville era here’s some types of
entertainment acts that still do well
today even here in Charlotte we have
improv comedy shows we have stand-up
comedians that do some banter with the
audience we have magicians we have
hypnotists all these shows tend to do
pretty well and they’ve stayed true to
the test of time and my theory it’s
because they’re one of the few shows
that you actually have to be there and
offer input for them to work think about
it when you watch Harry Potter and the
Chamber Secrets on DVD the DVD does not
care if you watch it or not Harry Potter
is always gonna pull out the sword and
kill the basilisk whether you watched it
or not it does not care if your viewing
but an improv comedy show
cannot go on without direct input from
you the audience to give the setting and
the same with a magic show that I
perform a magic trick can’t exist or at
least a card trick can’t exist without
someone to pick a card and the shows are
different every time so like I said
magic shows what I know most of because
I do it for a living and they actually
recently did a study on magic for the
first time ever at the college of new
jersey and they found that when
attending shows like these math shows
like magic shows seventy-five percent of
people said that the best thing that
could happen to them when attending one
of the shows is that they got to
participate in one of the tricks that
they got to come onstage and participate
in part of the magic show this data
suggests that people aren’t just
satisfied with just sitting back and
consuming people want to be engaged
people want to interact and speaking of
which I thought this would be a great
time for me to show you all a little bit
of magic may I do that is that okay
[Applause]
I just need to borrow a $1 bill from the
audience if you’ve got a $1 bill you can
just take it up hi I’m gonna get someone
maybe from this oh you’ve got a dollar
right there sir would you mind stand up
cuz you shout what is your name Jamie
get around the poster Jamie’s gonna go
right through the exit door we’re gonna
do a little bit of magic or mentalism
we’re gonna do a little bit of sleight
of hand so on Jamie’s way up he’s going
through there very nice very nice Jamie
is this your first time on a stage on
this stage also absolute come here
center stage come here center stage I’m
gonna show you a little trick to help
get over stage fright that might help
you because it is kind of scary to see
like a thousand people you can’t really
the lights but I pretend like I can see
them right I do this thing it’s called
the magicians pose it looks like this
gene you check it out looks like this if
you do that right now Jamie everyone in
the room is gonna give you a thunderous
practiced it once it gets even louder
[Applause]
crazy game thank you for bringing your
dollar up but first I’d like to show you
something right here this is a kind of
mentalism it’s the bag of mystery okay
who shortened Jers bad Jamie we all just
had lunch
I don’t do that let’s think about like
we’ll get a fruit I’d like you to think
about your favorite kind of fruit if you
got it
great I’m gonna pluck it out of the air
again imaginary direct input from you
Jamie what fruit of my home what’s your
favorite fruit
orange an orange take the orange we’re
in tries Jamie said an orange so Jamie
we’re gonna try and make an orange
appear and out bag of mystery Jamie
you’re gonna throw it in the air and if
an orange appears the audience is gonna
clap and freak out because that would be
amazing properly
Jimmy good pastas in the air let’s see
if this worked he goes whoo just like
that reach inside the cot there should
be one thing right there
hold up choked everyone what is that
right there
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
you can hold on to that I’m gonna take
the other thing your hand there this is
a dollar sir dollar what do you do for a
living Jamie I’m gonna nighty you’re an
IT awesome so Jamie I’d like to imagine
you were working the night II all week
and you saved up your money he came to
TEDx Charlotte here and the magician
speaker came onstage you took your money
tore it in half
Jamie laughs today he’s he’s really good
come a little closer make sure I don’t
leave do any sneaky sleight of hand we
take tear it in half meter again and two
fourths we tear it again in two even
time your pieces Janek I don’t work can
I see I’m sorry
Jamie check it out make sure everything
sneaky I rolled my sleeves up so we can
make sure I don’t do anything funny
we’re gonna fold it over like this Jamie
I know squeeze it in your hand you’ll be
the eyes and ears forever and you make
sure I don’t do anything funny just keep
your eye on the money right there y’all
can’t see Jamie’s dollar we’re gonna get
out some invisible magic dust for this
to work Jamie do you see the invisible
magic dust I do not you do not that’s a
good sign Jamie okay it’s invisible
we’re gonna sprinkle it on your money
and before I go forward did you take one
of those eight pieces out of my hand
just take one out just in case this
doesn’t work out yeah just go ahead pull
it out yeah there we go just a case this
doesn’t work out you can take that home
as a souvenir okay check it out we
sprinkle the magical stone top keep
carrying the money Jamie know what I’d
call this trick this trick is called how
to blow your doll into magic show
starting Jamie
[Applause]
[Music]
you can’t get that from a TV screen the
guy on the TV won’t take your money make
it disappear only here in person
generally when I make it disappear
that’s usually enough for people I guess
Jamie’s got really high expectation
Jamie let me if I had a tiger onstage
and made it disappear I guarantee you’d
freak out and run back to your seat I do
it with your money you look mad it’s
it’s the same trick I just scaled it
down a little bit okay it seems I didn’t
yeah you’re wise on this heat you know
your money didn’t really disappear Jamie
Jamie’s money didn’t really disappear
when I put into my hand ladies gentlemen
I want like this I used misdirection the
dollar fell out of my hand
and it hit the ground it flew forward
went through every single seat in here
and about I think five rows but ma’am
right here in the in the striped shirt
right here
Jamie’s dollar flew underneath your seat
[Applause]
I ran out of breathless wit there medic
cat looming and it went back up and
Jamie your money has been in front of
you this entire time you see in magic we
cover up amazing magic with other magic
tricks good magic tricks so you know
what a pretty good magic trick would
look like making a named fruit up here
you see that orange in your hand Jamie
this is where things get crazy check it
out I brought at night I knew this would
happen don’t worry we cut deep down
inside of this orange Jamie you’re gonna
notice that there’s something sticking
out right there what do you see that’s a
dollar but not just any dollar you might
find in your breakfast fruit at home go
ahead pull that out this is a dollar
with a piece missing from it you’ll
remember earlier on he took one of those
eight pieces up Jamie if you still have
that corner coz you hold up there’s even
a serial number there hold up the corner
make sure it’s a perfect match make sure
the serial number everything matches
that a perfect match is at your dollar
so much
[Music]
and you get to take it home and your own
well pretty simply if you’re a
businessman or organization think about
different ways in which you can engage
with your customers and take advantage
of ways to interact and in our daily
lives do we want to be the people who
are constantly talking while people are
listening to us or do we want to take a
moment to pause and listen to each other
and engage in real conversation because
when you’re just speaking you’re merely
regurgitating things that you’ve already
consumed but when you listen and
actually engage you have a moment to
create a totally new moment together and
when we’re creating more than we’re
consuming I think that that makes for a
you [Applause]
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