Open Heart Magic - I perform bedside magic for the children at Comer Hospital at the University Of Chicago medical system in Hyde Park.

I am a full member of the Chicago Magic Lounge

When I was 17, I hosted Stevenson High School's Talent show in front of 400 people. Of the 4 pairs of emcees, no one expected our duo to be the funniest of them all. We even beat out the very popular class clown.

When I was 17, I coordinated a high school bake sale to raise money for a youth group I had grown to love. By the end, I was able to send $2,200 to the organization to thank the mentor who welcomed me into the group in the first place. I was published in a printed newsletter.

in 2013, I hosted a comedy festival in my college town of Bloomington, Indiana. We were standing room only breaking upwards of 100+ people. The press was glorious.

Also in 2013, I successfully did stand-up comedy at an open mic in Bloomington, Indiana where people laughed at every joke I shared.

I am a regular at an annual worldwide event made popular by Improv Everywhere. You have to google around to find out what crazy stunts I have pulled. I also got on the global Snapchat story for this event.

I once got tens of thousands of views on my Snaphat story that was later rebroadcasted on local Chicago television.

Cool people I have met: Chaz Bono, Michael Carbonaro, Joan Rivers (rip), Laverne Cox, Amy Schumer (but she was really awful), Natasha Leggero, various contestants from the shows Big Brother and Survivor, and more. I stopped taking pictures of people when I realized how much it turns famous people into objects. It stops these people from being real people and I imagine that sucks.

People I have seen IRL: Torri Spelling, Sarah Silverman, Stephen Colbert, Bill & Chelsea Clinton, and more.

I got my Tweets liked by Elon Musk's brother!

I was mentioned on the show Big Brother's live feeds by a contestant I met.

I was on a Netflix show and wrote about it on Medium.

I was flown out 4+ times to Washington, DC to lobby on behalf of 2 education-related organizations.

I student-taught in Melbourne, Australia. One of the best stories to come from my trip was about a student who behaved a bit different than his classmates that was constantly being yelled at by all his teachers. Harrison would constantly interrupt his teachers with irrelevant questions and noise. I knew that he didn't know what to do as a result of the discipline his teachers would give him. I knew that this was all hurting him. He already didn't have a lot of friends. I saw a lot of my childhood self in him and built a relationship with him. I was patient. I listened to him and let him have a notebook he had been eyeing. Eventually, I would be his sort of social translator that lead to improved behavior. I did not think much of this until my last day at the school when his mom came up to me and shared that he was coming home every day from school telling her about me. She gave me a tiny book that was made to give to the best teachers. Safe to say I was crying that whole afternoon.

Another funny cute teaching moment was when a student who was missing a hand came up to me to tell me about it. She basically wanted to acknowledge it. I thought it was nice of her to be open about it. It was my response that has me still laughing and learning today. I asked her can she still read like everyone else? She said yes. She was easily the best reader in the class. Can you run like everyone else? She said yes. Basically, I asked her if she could do everything like everyone else and she said yes. Then I told her "that just means that everyone else has a spare hand." She looked at me like I had just blown her mind. I use variations of this in my life to remind myself to appreciate what I have and knowing I have the ability to adapt myself to physical challenges that may come up in the future.

...and more.

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-Shaily