I Was Published In Tarbell Course In

All Of The [bob] Fosse-esque Movements And Point Of View Informed Years And Years Of What I Would Do.

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."

There Were Really A Bunch Of Old, Old Magic Hobbyists At The Time, Some Of Them Who Actually Had Known [harry] Houdini. You Had To Be 14 To Go To These Meetings, And He Snuck Me In At 12. It Was Glorious.

When The Time Came To Say, "mom, I Want To Do This As A Job," It Was Brutal. She Was Really Against It. There Were Screaming Matches. Some People Are Shut Down By That And Get Defeated By It, And Other People Are Empowered By The Negativity. My Father Kind Of Encouraged Me Through That.

[producers] Took Me To Chicago At 18 To Star In A Show That Ran For Almost A Year. And That's When My Parents Said, "okay, I Guess You Can Quit Fordham." Of Course, When That Show Closed, As You Can Imagine, I Came To New York And Starved For Years, But It's Never An Easy Road.