I missed sending out a newsletter in February. Did you miss me? I spent my time in 8 different states in 4 weeks and lost track of time. It made me think of the great Douglas Adams quote above.
Maryland, Montana, Nevada, Utah, California, Oregon, Idaho, & Colorado. We have such a beautiful and diverse country.
As anyone who has seen my show knows, one of my favorite subjects is lie detection, deceptive communication, and body language associated with truthfulness.
Scientific American Mind put out a fun experiment that you can try at home:
Pinocchio’s Arm: A Lie Detector Test
In short, the brain works harder when it is telling a lie than when it is telling the truth. And you can use this to you advantage to tell if and when others are fibbing!Read Here
In other news, this month I am featured in the British Magazine “Magic Seen” that is distributed in the UK and throughout Europe.
Let me know if I can help facilitate fun at your trade shows, parties, or brighten your meetings this year, lets create days your guests will remember for years to come.
March 31st the Charity that I sit on the Board of Directors for will be having their annual fundraising event. And I’ve brought up an Elvis from Vegas to perform. Please donate if you can.
A producer who recently hired me for a show in San Francisco started a Yelp Page for me. It would be nice to toss a few more up there so YELP knows that I am real. If you have a second, pop up and say something nice.
My favorite question in the interview was #6. What Piece of Advice Would You Give to Others?
1) Continuous improvement. Always look at where you can be better. Never stop developing and growing.
2) Be in the need fulfillment business. Fulfill the needs of others as a path to your success. If you can show me a need, I can show you how you can be successful if you are passionate and enthusiastic about your journey.
3) Do things that improve the world around you and make life easier, happier, and more beautiful for others.
4) Decide on a targeted clientele who you want to create for. Choose one that is successful and has money. Find out what their needs are. Write a very targeted website, postcards, letters etc. that associate your name with their need. Show that you are an expert who is absolutely focused on their industry. Then spend 8 hours per day, 5 days per week contacting these companies and offering your services. If you do that for 3 years, you will be a success.
Android: Fingerprints
I was involved in this commercial. My first paid job as a professional hand model.
I know that Christmas is over, but I didn’t send out a December newsletter and yet still wanted to share these two fun videos. So if you haven’t taken down the decorations yet, you will enjoy these.
Holiday Magic on Hallmark. Paul Draper Chanukah & Christmas Miracles
Space Archeology: The winner of the 2016 TED One Million Dollar Prize!
This changes so much of the journey of Archeology. When I was in University, it was all about reading the oral histories, interviewing the local people, walking the terrain to find any signs of habitation, waiting for a wind or rainstorm to reveal things and then digging in tiny one foot by one foot squares until you find something. Now we can find lost civilizations from space . Wow.
Driving on a moonless night from San Fransisco to the capitol of Nevada in Carson City, I found myself sliding through a heavy snowstorm, surrounded by fog, down an icy hill in a thick forrest outside of the small town of South Lake Tahoe at 7,000 ft. elevation. My headlights went off, as did the lights on the dash. I was sliding in snowy darkness unsure if I would hit into a tree, a stone wall, or fly off the edge of a cliff.
Eventually, the car came to a stop without incident in the darkness and I used my cell phone flashlight to help guide me as I pushed it off the side of the road. Fortunately there were no other cars on the pass. And I was so grateful that my grandmother had insisted I go home and grab a coat before I begin this journey. It helped as I pushed the car in the snow and then waited 4 hours for a tow truck to arrive.
Sitting in the cold car, in the darkness, I had time to think about the major events of my life the last few months since the last edition of this newsletter.
Most of them have to do with Life, Death, and Meaning.
DEATH
A few days ago I celebrated The Day of the Dead in the Mission District of San Fransisco. Before that on Halloween night I performed a Theatrical Seance in front of a sold out audience in a historic theater attempting to bring Houdini through the vail and back from the grave. He died at the age of 52 on Halloween night. 52 years later I was born. Coincidence? 😉
24 hours before that show I was the murderer in a Murder Mystery created for PBS and held at the Smithsonian approved Mob Museum in Las Vegas. That event took place the same day I had performed on stage at Sam’s Town Casino for a mostly retired crowd of over 800 Las Vegas Locals.
LIFE
However, the event where I learned and changed the most was a few days before that while in Florida working with one of the top 100 Hospitals in the nation. They have made it their goal to save more lives, extend life, and help their community have longer happier lives. And they have charged me with helping them in several small ways on that journey over the past 5 years.
Part of my job is to help identify the culture of the staff and help create a more compassionate workplace where we strive to take care of each other so we are better at caring for others. This includes work on communication skills, diversity training, managing change fatigue, and learning what respect for people really means from a leadership perspective.
I always start with asking the teams to build the rules for our days together. Rather than handing them a rule book, we choose what kind of community or tribe we want to create. This group created rules that resonated with me:
If you are speaking, be honest. Find ways to let others know that you respect them, that you are willing to help them, And that you will keep them safe. Participate to your full ability. Be honest about your full ability. pursue happiness. Create moments of fun for others. Start on time. Take breaks. Eat, drink, and take care of your body. And use your cell phones as little as possible.
I didn’t create these rules. They did. For at least 2 days they lived by them. Perhaps they still do, on their floor and in their department. It is amazing how wonderful and free people are when given the right tools, the right environment, and the right mindset.
MEANING
If we really learn how to live, and live well by caring for others, we don’t have to fear death.
Let me know if I can help facilitate fun at your holiday parties or brighten your meetings this December, lets create days your guests will remember for years to come.
“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” -Marcus Garvey
French botanist Jacque Barrow said: “A farmer grows a multitude of identical anonymous plants together in a field, and a gardener cherishes each plant individually.”
The above quote struck me in a profound way this month. I am in the final preparations to be the keynote speaker for a very large medical leadership conference in the Intermountain West for IHC. My topic is “Creating Culture: Extraordinary Engagement from our people”.
The reason this quote hit home is that no matter who we are working with, in any profession from students, to sales teams, to nurses and patients, we have to decide if we see people as our products for income – like a farmer. Or if we see them as individuals with unique needs and qualities that make them important as individuals as a gardener with a garden would treat them.
Last month I had the honor of stage managing a crew of theatrical professionals as they produced 6 shows in 3 days for an audience of over 1,500 people. Our cast included David Copperfield and many other great luminaries of magic and its allied arts. A week later I headlined on the very same Vegas stage with my own show. It is amazing how thinking like a gardener and treating each team member as an individual of value and honoring their expertise produced shows where the qualities of each team member shined and a superior product was produced.
The most valuable person to everyone you meet is themselves. The most magical name they have ever heard is their own. And the most important story is the one they are about to tell.
Want to have an exceptional life. Care about people individually, remember their names, and listen more than you speak. Treat each person like a spectacular part of your garden. And not a line of identical crops. They will bloom into incredible friends who will gladly share their extraordinary skills and talents.
I’m never too busy for your referrals, especially for Halloween events and Holiday parties.
Stay creative, innovative, and keep practicing whatever you are passionate about!
There is no frigate like a book To take us lands away, Nor any coursers like a page Of prancing poetry. — This traverse may the poorest take Without oppress of toll; — How frugal is the chariot That bears a human soul. -Emily Dickinson
On The Lighter Side
Adorable little girl on stage in my Las Vegas show at The Orleans Hotel and Casino.
And this is an article from Forbes Magazine that my friend Donal Chayce shared with me that really resonated. A good list to think about: 11 Secrets Of Irresistible People
It looks like I am the closing event for Utah’s largest Convention with over 120,000 attendees. This marks my 3rd appearance filling a 3,000 seat showroom to overflow each time, so get there early. My show is Saturday night September 26th at 8pm
I will also be the Emcee for the 3,000 seat room 355 for the entire run of the convention. The celebrities I am hosting include major stars of Film, TV, and Print including: Linda Blair from the Exorcist, Joel Hodgson the host of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Vic Mignogna from Dragonball Z, and Animaniacs Live!
“To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” -William Shakespeare
“If I don’t practice for a day, I know it. If I don’t practice for two days, the critics know it. And if I don’t practice for three days, the public knows it.“ -Louis Armstrong
My life is dedicated to practice, rehearsal, self-reflection, education, and presentation. I know that this life is meant to be a journey of continuous improvement. And the journey will never be over.
These last few weeks, so many exciting things have happened and there is so much to share. “So much time, and so little to do! Strike that, reverse it.” -Willy Wonka
While on my extended tour of the UK I became the first American Prime Minister to live at 10 Downing Street Watch Here.
Less than 300 Americans alive today have stood where I am standing. And I even had the opportunity to pet the Prime Ministers cat. Here is Obama being a copy-cat. Thanks Obama.
To my fellow Americans, this is like someone from the UK shooting funny videos at the front door of the White House and playing with the Presidents dog. I hope it doesn’t create an international incident!
The UK was amazing and I will soon be releasing a compilation set of notes about my adventures across the pond.
In other news, I’ve been asked to provide a keynote TED style talk for the Medical Leadership Conference for IHC (Intermountain Healthcare). They are one of the largest Healthcare systems in the world. It is slightly intimidating as they are the home of my personal primary care providers. As such, anything I say or do can and will be used against me. It is a wonderful opportunity to share magic with a message and mix original anthropological research with showmanship. Right now I’m working on the topic: Creating Culture: Capturing Extraordinary Results from Fatigued Team Members.
It is so exciting to be speaking with the medical group that will include leaders from the hospital where I was born.
There is no frigate like a book To take us lands away, Nor any coursers like a page Of prancing poetry. — This traverse may the poorest take Without oppress of toll; — How frugal is the chariot That bears a human soul. -Emily Dickinson
The Orleans Hotel
I’m up on the big sign in front of the The Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas! I’ll be headlining in the Orleans Showroom August 22nd at 8pm. Tickets are $30.
TIME FOR A CONTEST!
$135 Grand prize! $75 Cash and 2 free tickets to the winner.
Send me a photo of the Orleans sign with me on it. Whoever has the best photo by Aug 20th wins.
Best photo could be the funniest photo with you bending spoons while wearing a suit or it could be the most beautiful photo with a shot of the casino in the background and a beautiful sunset. Email your high resolution submissions to Paul@MentalMysteries.com or post them to Facebook / Instagram and tag me.
New Demo & DVD
It is so hard to squeeze an entire career into less than 3 minutes. Watch and let me know your thoughts. Watch Here
Also have a new DVD out just for professional Magicians and Mentalists. Paypal $15 to Paul@RealMagic.org and I’ll send you a copy.
