A Memorable Year

COLUMBUS AREA MAGICIAN ENTERTAINS TROOPS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

A resident of Hilliard, Comedian and Magician Michael Kent, recently returned from the Middle East where he was asked by The U.S. Navy’s MWR (Morale, Welfare and Recreation) Dept. and Navy Entertainment to present his show to service members stationed at NSA Bahrain and on-board an active aircraft carrier at sea. 

“It’s the greatest honor to perform for these folks,” said Kent, a 2001 graduate of The Ohio State University. Many of them haven’t been home in a long time, and in the case of the folks out at sea, they’ve been working since November without shore leave and giving them a tiny break from the monotony and hard work is the least I can do for them.”

Part of Kent’s trip involved landing and taking off from the deck of the moving aircraft carrier, which he describes as one of the most intense experiences in his life. This tour marks the 5th time Kent has been asked to travel overseas to perform for American troops. He’s now visited 30 military bases to present his show.

Michael’s show is a combination of Comedy and Magic that has earned him past titles of “Entertainer of the Year” and “Magician of the Year” as well as being featured on The CW television show “Penn & Teller: Fool Us.” He has been performing professionally for 21 years.

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I recently returned from a trip to the Middle East, where I was asked by the Navy’s MWR Department/Navy Entertainment to perform my show for American Service members serving overseas. This was my fifth time going overseas to perform for the military, but I was more nervous for this one. One, because it was all arranged very last-minute and two, because I would be doing something I’d never done before. More on that later.

My flight from JFK Airport to Qatar was about 13 hours, then another hour to Bahrain. At first, the word was that my next bit of travel would be about 90 minutes by plane to where the first show would be and I would be leaving around 11am the next day. Once I arrived in Bahrain, plans had changed a bit and I was informed that we’d be leaving at 4am and would meet in the lobby at 2:30am. The next morning, I’d be flying via C-2A Greyhound (nicknamed “COD”) to an active aircraft carrier at sea! And the ride out to the carrier was quite a bit longer than advertised (a few hours) with a stop in another country for refueling!

The C-2A has seats that face backwards to help mitigate the extreme forces involved with landing on a carrier deck and being caught by arresting cables. This landing was the most intense thing I’ve ever done. I’m a pretty adventurous guy, but this one got me. I instantaneously sweat through all my clothes and couldn’t feel my hands! By the time the plane came to a stop on the deck, I thought I was going to throw up. The XO of the ship, Capt. Michael Marks (a fellow Buckeye) met me and walked me to the Captain’s reception room where I met the Captain, Chris “Chowdah” Hill, and was gifted a hat.

I got to have a nice chat with Capt. Hill, who has a very active presence online and is doing a really great job of keeping up morale on the ship. These folks have been deployed since November without shore leave and are working hard 12-hour shifts months on end. He tries hard to acknowledge their effort and encourage them to continue working hard every day. And I was amazed at how hard everyone works! I did my best to let them know how appreciated they are every chance I got. They’re doing that job day-in and day-out and it probably gets boring or monotonous to them, but I wanted them to know how people back home feel about what they’re doing.

I loaded my gear into my stateroom, which was comfier than I imagined, but still tight quarters, and was then escorted by the Safety Officer (another fellow Buckeye) to the flight deck to observe flight operations. They’re launching something like 90-100 flights a day from the ship right now and it seems like it never stops. I’ve been around jets plenty. Between air shows and working with the U.S. Navy Blue Angels, I’ve even been pretty close to them. But I’ve never been THIS close. With double ear-protection, full cranial helmet and goggles, I was STILL rocked by the power of these F/A-18E and F/A-18F jets being sent off the deck via catapult, standing only 50 feet away.

My first show was that night, but before that, I was asked to join the Captain for dinner as he honored Sailors from the Nuclear Reactor team who were being celebrated for various achievements on board. They were being rewarded with a pizza party and I was able to perform some close-up magic for this group. The Reactor team is one that sometimes doesn’t get to enjoy activities like the rest of the ship because they’re down deep in the core of the ship constantly keeping it powered. After the show, we loaded into the foc’sle, which is where the anchors, anchor chains, and gigantic tie-down lines are all kept. It’s a hard metal room directly below the forward flight deck and hearing planes operate overhead was LOUD. Thankfully, there weren’t any launches during the show and the 150 or so Sailors that packed in had a great time!

Subsequent shows on the ship were conducted in the carrier’s hangar bay with much larger audiences (200-450). I can’t say enough how great these audiences were. They laughed at the jokes, participated a ton, and were as receptive as an audience can be.

After three incredible shows on board and two sleepless nights (planes taking off one deck above your bunk makes it tough to sleep), it was time to fly back to Bahrain. A sailor actually sent me a video of my flight taking off from the carrier!

Upon returning to Bahrain, I performed two more shows. One of them was for military families and was a huge success with the need to add chairs through the show! I was even joined onstage by XO Jimmy Harmon!

The trip was one of the most memorable tours I’ve ever completed and I owe so much to Navy Entertainment, MWR and my booking agent for putting it all together. I can’t thank them enough. But who I need to thank the most are these folks who are sacrificing and working hard everyday on our behalf. I appreciate their service and dedication.

Doug Henning (AI):

Doug Henning (real photo):

David Blaine (AI):

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Tommy Cooper (AI):

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Paul Daniels (AI):

Paul Daniels (real photo):

Mat Franco (AI):

Mat Franco (real photo):

David Copperfield (AI):

David Copperfield (real photo):

Shin Lim (AI):

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Penn & Teller (AI):

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Criss Angel (AI):

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Harry Houdini (AI):

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Piff the Magic Dragon (AI):

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Siegfried and Roy (AI):

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Transcript:

“ I come here to laugh, but like it like really surprised me. It’s actually really good.”

Jonathan: One of the coolest parts of the job is getting to travel all over the world and get to see all parts of the country and get to see friends that are everywhere across the continent. What’s even better is when one of my friends is on the road in my neck of the woods and I get to sleep in my own bed tonight. That’s why I am here at one of my great friends for a long time. Had him on the podcast for Magicians, is doing a show tonight, right in here and I am super stoked to see his show for the first time in. Years. So let’s go check out Michael Kent’s live magic show.

Show Audio: “He was featured on the hit show. For us and has performed his show in over 200 cities in 15 different countries. Please welcome comedian magician, Michael Kent…”

“…there’s something for you inside….”

“…there a glass, that’s a bottle, that’s a glass. If you cover the glass that comes bottle, if you cover the bottle, it becomes a glass. Put it right here…”

Student: “Uh, my favorite part was when they showed the whole rope thing.”
Student: “Uh, my favorite part when y’all came back and he wrote Diamond three on the board, like, that was crazy.”

“I don’t get the, like me and her were here while he was setting set. I don’t get it. The ending with the cards. On the whiteboard, that 100% my favorite part.”

Student: “I come, I come here to laugh, but like, it like really surprised me. It’s actually really good.”

Jonathan: So that was the show. I absolutely love how he works with the audience, brings folks up on stage and is still able to reach beyond the stage into the audience, figuratively and literally, right by going out where the people are, uh, just like The Little Mermaid, right? So it’s, it’s a really good blend of comedy.

Really strong, hard-hitting. That gets folks, it hooks ’em, brings them in, and really rewards them for their participation, for their attention. And as you can see, it is well rewarded. You can see how this group of 60, 70 college students are just really, really engaged the entire time and responsive. That is not an easy thing to do, which is why it’s awesome that, uh, this guy has been doing it for so long, makes it look easy, but it is not an easy thing to do.

So come by, watch him work anytime you can. 10 out of 10 would recommend. That’s the Michael Kent show.

See, what did I tell you? Top notch performer. Super awesome guy. Audiences just absolutely. I am not friends with scrubs, . So yeah, that was a, a fun time. And if you are in the neighborhood, you’re doing a show, please let me know. I want to see it. And, uh, remember, as always, change your mind. Change your life.

Posted by Rebecca Vanderkooi on October 6, 2021 in News, Student Life via FSU Torch

Award winning comedy magician, Michael Kent, returned to Ferris this past week to put on a show for Friends and Family week.  

Approximately 150 students and their families attended the Friday evening event held in the Williams Auditorium.  

Dominic Parrish, a junior involved with Entertainment Unlimited, the organization who put on the event, explained that Kent has toured at Ferris before, and they were eager to have him back for Friends and Family week.  

“We’ve had [a] good reception from him before, so why not have him again? He’s a great magician and all-around great person,” Parrish said.  

Throughout the hour and a half long show, Kent displayed both his witty sense of humor, similar to a late night talk show, as well as his abilities as a magician all while interacting with the crowd.  

Kent called sisters, Tagen and Taryn, up to the stage where he showcased his self-declared mind reading abilities. He successfully predicted that Tagen was thinking of goldfish crackers and Taryn was thinking of Disney World. He even knew the name of their childhood dog, Onya.  

“We didn’t talk about it, we didn’t say the word or anything like that. We never said it out loud,” Taryn, who is a freshman at Ferris, said.  

Kent, now 42, has been professionally doing magic and comedy since the age of 25, when he left his marketing job to pursue his dream full time.  

“It’s just one of those things where I’m passionate about it. So I’m willing to work really hard at it because I’m constantly interested in it,” Kent said. 

Kent’s hard work has brought about success. He won Entertainer of the Year in Campus Activities Magazine in 2014 after being nominated both years before.  

Kent has performed in hundreds of colleges and almost every state. One year he went to 40 states. His favorite shows have been performing overseas for the United States troops.  

“They’ve sent me to some wild places. Places like Seoul, South Korea and Thailand and Tokyo. Places that I may have never been had it not been for magic. The audiences there are super appreciative because they don’t get a lot of entertainment choices,” Kent said.  

Kent ended the show telling the crowd how grateful he is to be back performing and interacting with a crowd after the extended hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  

“I thought I was working hard before, like in 2019. The amount of work that I had to put in last year to learn new skills to learn new tricks every week to do virtual magic was crazy,” Kent said.  

Kent explained that while many events have been smaller than pre-pandemic times, he’s so grateful to be able to feed off the audience’s energy once again.  

To see upcoming events at Ferris, check out the web calendar on Ferris’ website.  

We’ve compiled a list of a few of the changes being made to successfully and safely produce an in-person Michael Kent magic show. It’s extremely important to us that the attendees of your event are safe, comfortable and aware of precautions being made to limit their exposure. In-person events will be a scary thing for many people who have been quarantining since March and it’s crucial not only to take these steps, but to also let them know that we are taking their health seriously.

• We recommend consulting the CDC Guidelines for Events and Gatherings for the most up-to-date information.

• Signs should be posted at the door to let attendees know that masks should be worn and those feeling ill should not attend. If required by your institution, seats may be blocked off to promote social distancing.

• The entire show can be performed without bringing students onstage. This decision is left up to the buyer based on the restrictions and guidelines of the venue/institution. When volunteers are used in the show, they can remain in their seat and participate from there.

• Multiple use items, like the pencils used by the audience members as they enter the room, will be replaced with giveaway items (if available) or audience members will be used to ask their own writing utensils.

• Michael will be traveling with and using his own microphone.

• For the time being, walk-around promotional teasers and post-show meet & greets will be halted. To limit interaction, merch sales will be suspended.

• Michael will be wearing a mask from the time he arrives until after he walks onstage. He will replace the mask at the end of the show. If required by the venue/institution, he will wear the mask during the show. 

• Items that will be used by volunteers will be cleaned & disinfected.

• Some items (like playing cards) will be replaced for every performance.

• A new, promotional teaser video will be recorded by Michael for each event to promote your show. In this teaser, Michael will explain that all precautions will be taken to make sure that the show is a safe, comfortable atmosphere.

• Please refer to the booking agent for all additional concerns/issues/questions. 

Fortunately, I soon found a way to turn the situation into an opportunity. Deanna Wagner, a forward-thinking student affairs professional at Capital University (OH), asked me to consider doing a “virtual” magic show via their campus-wide Zoom account. The idea made my heart race, and that made me love it.   

As my agent frantically fielded calls to cancel and reschedule shows, I wondered, “Is this something people would want?” “What would this look like?” We knew higher education institutions were used to offering online content, both pre-recorded and interactive, so the infrastructure was already there. And students are already used to the concept. I quickly distributed an email offering a virtual magic show. Online magic shows are not new, as there are many well-known magicians on YouTube. But not much of it happens in real time with live chat. That was the part I needed to figure out.

“Lessons Learned in Virtual Programming,” NACA Blog, 3/23/20

Now, nearly a month later, the result of this has been an amazing journey. Long nights of learning the latest in livestreaming technology, phone calls with friends, test videos with colleagues, and sharing the knowledge with other entertainers. I’m normally really protective with my business practices when it comes to other entertainers, but the crisis we’re in calls for a spirit of camaraderie. No one has seen anything like this before and we’re all scrambling just to keep our heads above water. I want my fellow entertainers to keep performing and keep putting food on the table for their families. I’ve been happy to answer the (literally) daily calls I’ve been getting asking “what the *** do I do?” I’m sharing knowledge that I’ve compiled over something like 14 days. Hardly expert status.

One of the things I feel like I’m learning the most about is how to present a show for a livestream audience. Despite all the technology, platforms, cameras, Internet speeds, adapters, dongles and cables, there’s still a show to do. The content is really important. And I quickly figured out the content can’t be the same as my stage show. I talked about that in detail on a live-remote with popular Internet hero Brian Brushwood on his Scam Nation (formerly Scam School) show:

I’m now to the point where I’m predicting I’ll be doing all of my shows virtually for at least another 4 months. I’m fine with it, because every week the livestream show gets better and better. The live chat interaction is absolutely amazing to watch and and I’m getting really great feedback about the show! Student Activities groups are happy, my agent is happy, the audiences are happy, and I’m getting paid and staying home. I miss live audiences, but I’m happy. Here’s something someone recently said about the livestream:

Here is a video of me talking about the Virtual Program!

1. Your audience will never be aware of 80% of the work you do in this business. But they would know instantly if you didn’t do it.

I recently spent 2 hours editing some bumper music so that it fit my show perfectly. The result? About 15 seconds of music that plays in my show under applause and my talking. The audience never really hears it. But I wanted it to be perfect. And though they don’t recognize it, it contributes to the feeling I’m trying to create in the room. If I didn’t put in that work, the result wouldn’t be the same. The audience might not know exactly what it was, but they’d realize something wasn’t right. It’s about details. The same can be said for spending an hour shining the chrome on one of my props. They will never know I spent that time. But they would probably notice if I didn’t.

On a tour, 80% (or more) of the “work” is the travel and preparation. In show business, there’s an old saying that “We don’t get paid for the show. We get paid for all the work leading up to the show. The show is the reward.” Keeping this in mind, I never mind spending those extra hours working on the most minute of projects as long as they will contribute to a better show. NOTE: This includes education. Those months and years we spend reading the texts on our art are invaluable. Some of the knowledge we gain will not be directly useful to our art immediately. Some will never be directly useful. But until we study what has been done before us, we will never know if what we are doing is great.

2. If You Try to Be All Things to All People, You End Up Being Nothing to Everybody.

This applies both to show marketing AND to performance. What do you want to accomplish with your show? This was a question that took me years and years to answer. A more appropriate question for many young entertainers is “Who do you want to entertain?” Many inexperienced entertainers just want to perform so badly that they will accept any gig they can get their hands on. The results can be detrimental to business, reputation and to the ability to grow as a performer. This includes taking gigs that may be biting off more than you can chew, gigs for which your act is not a good fit and gigs that aren’t in a pay rate that matches your act (both above and below). If you’re kicking butt as a kids’ magician and have been for years, you may not be the best fit working at a corporate trade show where you may be out of your element. You may have developed a skill set that works for entertaining a specific set of individuals and those skills may not translate to other audiences.

As far as marketing goes, your target buyer must be able to envision you at their event. If I’m looking for a kids show entertainer and all of your promo has you wearing clothing with skulls, it’s probably not a good fit (and you might want to rethink your style decisions). Likewise, if I’m looking for a street entertainer and all of your promo videos show you performing in ballrooms for suited business people, I’ll probably go for the kid with the skulls. You can’t be all things to all people.

3. Find Your Unique Voice

Knowing who you are onstage is key. And sadly, there’s no way to really know this until you have performed hundreds (literally hundreds) of shows. Another old saying is “Why be a second-rate version of someone else when you can be a first-rate version of YOU?” Consider this: If you perform a show that is truly YOU, no one will ever be able to duplicate that and you’ll be one-of-a-kind. For some people, performing as yourself isn’t an option. Some people are performing as a character onstage. I urge you to put yourself into that character. Make it an extension of you. Live through it. Then it will truly be unique, only because it will be you. With the hundreds of mannerisms, non-verbals, inflections and other nuances that make up our personality, an audience can tell if we are not being genuine.

I once had dinner with a comedy friend who passed some advice to me that he had received from Don Rickles. Rickles said, “The second you step foot onstage, the audience knows exactly who you are – sometimes even better than you do. And if what you say and do doesn’t match that, they’re not going to like you.” I still think this is great advice. I don’t take this advice to mean “change what you say and do to match the audience’s expectations” as much as I understand it to mean “make sure that you’re portraying an accurate picture of yourself onstage.” In everything you do, from the quickest phone call to the biggest project, be unapologetically YOU.

4. The beginning is probably going to suck.

Being self-employed, especially in the entertainment industry, is a job that requires a certain amount of ego. There’s a certain amount already there when we decided to make the leap into employing ourselves. Sometimes it prevents us from being okay with our failures. The tendency in the beginning is to react in one of two ways. We either get discouraged, or we put on blinders and ignore our mistakes. The second option here, which is the earnest beginning to delusions of grandeur, is a common phenomenon especially among magicians learning a new move in the mirror. During the part of the move that we’re not the best at, we tend to blink. Literally – many learning blink their eyes so that they experience the trick or the move the way the audience is intended to see it. This way we can imagine the way it’s supposed to look rather than see the reality of our suckiness. This is a truth as well as a nice metaphor. It’s really difficult, if not impossible to know how much we suck if there aren’t other people telling us. But we have to learn that failure is okay. Once we’re not afraid of failure, we can grow as artists. Stand-up comedians will be the first to tell you this truth. In order to be a good stand-up, a person has to be okay with going onstage and having a room full of people hate you. It’s going to happen. It’s the dharma of comedy – there’s no avoiding it. The difference between the good comedians and the ones who quit is that the good comedians learned from it and weren’t scared by how much they sucked. Ira Glass recently did a video talking about how even through we may not be that good in the beginning, there’s an underlying goodness to our work that has more to do with our taste and instinct. Check it out:

If we learn to keep a beginner’s mind about our work, we will always improve. It frustrates me to no end whenever I produce a new demo video. After the weeks it takes to get the video made, I look back at it and I’m never 100% happy. Mostly because since the video was shot, I’ve changed things in the show – improved things. And I always wish that I had the new, improved version in the video. But by the time I do the next video, there will just be more things that I’ve improved and it becomes an endless cycle. This cycle is a good thing. Sometimes I look back at the show I used to do and I can’t believe how bad it was. At the time, people loved it. But I know that it is so much better now. And in the future, I’ll look at the work I’m doing now the same way. I recently gave the following advice to a friend starting a business in a short amount of time. “You’ve got the rest of your life to make it perfect; now is the time to make it work.”

5. This is rare. Enjoy it.

Getting to make a living, or even supplement a living with something you’re passionate about is rare. Not many people actually get to live their dream. There have been many 8 hour drives, 3 hour flight delays, insufficient sound systems, difficult promoters, and other headaches that have sometimes made me forget that. Those long hours practicing, learning, and editing a 15 second clip of music sometimes can drive me crazy. But I have to remember how amazing it is that I’m creating my own future doing something I love. It would be kind of nice to have some of those stress and anxiety-filled times back so I could enjoy the moment. And although this list is “Things I Wish I Would Have Known in the Beginning,” this is something that I constantly have to remind myself. This is rare. This is something special. And whenever you hear me complaining about it, you have permission to kick my ass.

Comic and magician Michael Kent will dazzle and entertain audiences with humor, satire and an expert sleight of hand. Kent is known for making a comedic spin on the ancient art of magic. Michael was named Entertainer of the Year by Campus Activities Magazine and Magician of the Year by APCA. He was recently featured on the hit television show “Penn & Teller: Fool Us.”

Following a pre-show in the lobby featuring a balloon artist and lessons in magic tricks, a 40-minute Early Show for students in Grades 5 and older, their families and friends that will begin at 6 p.m. on the main stage of Glenn Performing Arts Center (GPAC). Tickets for the Early Show are $12 and can be purchased online only at www.coopertickets.org.

The Berakhah Childcare is an organization that cares for orphaned and vulnerable children in Ugandan villages, providing for their physical, emotional, spiritual and educational needs, empowering them to become Uganda’s future leaders.

The John Cooper School hosted the Berakhah Children’s choir on campus in February of this year. To view a video of that visit, click here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl4Vvkr_x4c