Most performers play a version of themselves on stage, often taking 2-3 key characteristics of their true selves and amplifying them to create a sort of easily accessible avatar for an audience.

What is one weakness that I wish people/the world would stop telling me to improve?

Human connection is the mutually beneficial exchange of emotional data between two people. Both parties are able to give and receive emotional information that serves to build trust and support.

I guess I do a pretty good job of remembering people’s names. The more I thought about it, however, the more I realized it wasn’t a gift. Rather, it was a skill that I had been developing, unconsciously, over many years of giving interactive stage performances.

It’s not enough to care about somebody. It’s not enough to understand them. They have to feel understood. They have to feel cared about.

what separates great magicians from lesser ones is not their tricks, but rather their ability to engage an audience. Magic is a unique performance art in that it requires an audience to exist at all. A dancer can dance for their own enjoyment. A musician can sit in an empty room and lose themselves playing music. But a magician cannot fool themselv

Take my name, “Brian.” A quick Google search reveals that there are 1.2 million people in the United States alone with the first name Brian, and 1.3 million with the last name Miller. Even put together, there are over 5,000 people in the U.S. with the name “Brian Miller”—there were seriously 3 of us in my high school at the same time. Yet we are ve

I didn’t want Ed to feel tricked. Rather, I wanted Ed to feel magic. Even more than that, I wanted his wife—this woman who spends her entire life looking out for him—to see him in that light, and for them to share in that experience together.

What does my best friend (or closest relative) do that most annoys me?