Magic

I contemplated a lot about what to write today. It seemed to me like I had nothing to say. I hadn't really done anything except go to work. Then as I was walking home from the subway I was listening to music on my ipod that I hadn't listened to in a long time. The song was "Photograph" by Jamie Cullum. What stuck with me from that listening was the lines of the chorus:

When I look back on my ordinary, ordinary life,
I see so much magic, though I missed it at the time.

Sometimes I forget that my life is anything but ordinary. While I'm living it it can often seem hum drum, but when I think back on it it's anything but. If I look back only on the 12 years I've been in NYC hindsight reveals so many extraordinary experiences. I don't know if I get so used to things that I see or have the opportunity to do that it just becomes old hat and normal or if I'm just jaded by the fact that this is my life.

I live in a place where I get to do something I love. I love theatre. I love watching theatre. I love theatre people. We're exciting, interesting people. I miss performing in theatre, but that's not where my life is right now. I have the opportunity to see everything playing on Broadway and off. I have the opportunity to see movies in NYC before they open in the rest of the country. I saw Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter for those of you who don't know his name) in Equus. I got to see Bea Arthur perform her one woman show. I've instructed Julia Roberts that the musical Pinkalicious was downstairs when she brought her twins to my theatre complex to see it. I met Julianne Moore at the same show and was able to take a moment to tell her how The Hours and Far From Heaven touched me. I've met Bette Midler and Audra McDonald. I've met Edward Norton, Catherine Keener, and Dermot Mulroney. I shook Hugh Jackman's hand on the stage at the Imperial theatre minutes after he performed in The Boy From Oz. He was so generous to me. My best friend loves him and he personalized an autograph for Matt so that I could surprise him with it. I met Megan Mullally at the height of Will & Grace. She was fantastic and kind to me and remembered me two years later when we met again. There are countless others, but you get the point. Meeting these people happened to me. That is extraordinary for a boy from population 600 KY. Even cooler is we're all just people. I treated them like any other person and they treated me the same.

I worked for three months at the Beacon Theatre where numerous music acts performed their concerts. Kelly Clarkson was in concert on my last day there. She was amazing. I stepped into the back of the theatre and heard her sing "Never Again."

There are so many opportunities at my fingertips here that I should never take for granted. Around every corner is the opportunity for something magical. Anyone could be walking down the street or dining at the table next to me. On any given day, just beyond the door is the magical world of Alice in Wonderland. Endless possiblities!

Avenue Q won the Tony Award for Best Musical six years ago. It beat Wicked to win that Tony. It's a fantastic show. Full of adult humor, laughs, good songs, and a message. The producers decided to close the show on Broadway, but felt there was still a demand for the show and wanted to keep it alive. They decided to keep it alive at New World Stages. How exciting to be part of that. I now sell tickets for the Tony Award winning musical Avenue Q. There is so much energy surrounding this show's move to our venue. It has great potential!

With this blog I've been trying to capture the moments. To really live in them and soak them up. Pay attention to what I'm doing so that I can recount the experience with all the details. Today, after working at a place I love, I got to come home to my own apartment. I grabbed a couple of slices and cracked open a bottle of wine. I got to chill in my own space and watch The Young and the Restless. I went out and got a little Pinkberry and brought it back home to watch Oprah's second day of interviewing Whitney Houston. Then it was on to the Melrose Place reboot. My own space, with my own food and wine, with my own choice of television programs - that's a little bit of magic right there.

So back to those lyrics. I don't want to look back and see the magic, I want to live in the magic now!