Ep. 111 The Next Level With Jeff Civillico

Hey there, Marc Brown. I have a friend who, not that he would call me a friend, but I call him a friend. He is a Las Vegas headliner. He's one of the most amazing performers. Oh, and by the way, he does keynote speaking. And oh, by the way, he's one of the most incredible emcees I've ever seen. Mark, what do you think about this guest coming up?

I tell you, I got a few clips of him and I was amazed. And if anybody wants to know how to be unforgettable, you need to meet the inimitable Jeff Civilico.

Anyone can give a presentation. Few deliver unforgettable presentations. What's the difference? You're about to find out. Welcome to the Unforgettable Presentations podcast with your hosts, world champion speakers and coaches, Mark Brown.

Mark Brown, your life tells a story and there's someone out there who needs to hear it.

And Darren Lacroix. And Darren Lacroix.

Stage time. Stage time.

Stage time.

Ready for some powerful presentation, AHAs. Let's dive right in.

Mark Brown, bring on Jeff Civilico. Jeff, thanks for joining us.

That was such an awesome intro. And I am your friend, Darren. I am your friend.

Yes, I have sucked up enough to the right people.

You know why? I can tell you're my friend for real?

Why?

Because real friends buy tickets. Really? Even when I offer to comp you, you say no? I know the game, I know how it works. I want to support you, I want you to get that. Credit the numbers and I'd prefer to buy two tickets to see me. So thank you very much.

And by the way, my new book is coming out too. Just so you know, the law of reciprocity. No, I'm just kidding.

Absolute.

Absolutely.

Jeff, sign me up.

For those of you who don't know, Jeff was one of the MCs at the last NSA convention we just had here in Vegas not too long ago. But he also is a performer. And Jeff, I don't know how you do it, and I want to get into your story, but you have this way of clean humor in almost a comedy club atmosphere. In some of your performance, when there's kids in the room, you do a high kick that I still don't understand how that's possible. And then have the classic trademark pulling your pants out of your butt after. In a respectful way, not in a funny way, I should say.

That's right. My humor is very high brow, let's make sure.

Yes, very high brow. So you just performed at one of the casinos here. Did a stretch. It Was awesome. And I want to know a little bit about how you get started. I have one question I'm going to put you on the spot with, but tell us a little bit about how did Jeff Civilica go from where you were, which, wherever that was, and then ended up becoming a speaker, an amazing emcee, keynoter in a Vegas headliner. Come on.

That reminds me of a comedian who's like, listen, I made it all the way from the bottom to the bottom of the middle and I like it here. I'm very happy, I'm very comfortable. I'm self deprecating, of course. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. By the way, there are few and far between high kicks these days. Getting a little older, Darren, with these grays coming in.

High kicks, I saw it just a few weeks ago.

Warming up and cooling down through each and every high kick slash wedgie pull. So thank you. Yeah. You know, it's funny you mentioned NSA because I gave you a shout out during the MC panel. Really? You have been such an inspiration to me and you're dead on with everything you teach. I mean stage time, stage time, stage time. That, that's how your words, not mine. I became, you know, Jeff Civilica. Just doing a whole lot of reps, man. I mean that's, that's a big part of it. Obviously there's other factors, but I have worked a lot, I mean six shows a day, six days a week at theme parks for years. I mean, you know, five, six shows a day at fairs for a college shows for years. I mean I didn't really start doing corporate shows until I was mid, mid late 20s, which I know you say oh okay all the way when you're mid, late 20s, but I've been doing shows in my kitchen since I was seven years old. Like I was street performing at 15 doing. I would literally have a three hour block of shows. And I learned very quickly at the Inner harbor at Baltimore street performing that if I did one show for three hours, I would not make nearly as much money as If I did 40 shows for five minutes with about a 30 second break in between. Wow. Because people are going to give a buck either way. They're going to give a dollar if they're maybe five bucks. High rollers. Right. But really if you're watching something, you think, wow, that was amazing. Oh, I want to support this kid of 16. I was a kid, give him a buck. Right? Same thing as if they stayed and watched a full hour plus show. So I mean I just did so Many reps, even in Las Vegas. Ten years in Las Vegas. Six nights a for six of those years. I mean, that's a lot of shows. It's the 10,000 hours. And I think you establish a certain confidence that comes with that, a certain authenticity. You kind of feel at home. So the big reason is stage time. I feel like I've earned my stripes in that sense of just putting in the hours, putting in the work of logging the shows.

I'm curious, Jeff, you said at 7 years old you were in your kitchen doing shows. What was it that said to you, at seven years old, I need to be a performer?

Yeah. Well, I got picked to be a volunteer. When I was seven years old, I was chosen by a street performer. There's a mic going back to my roots in street performing. I was visiting my brother on a family trip. My brother went to Harvard. We were there on a family trip, family weekend. And I got picked to be a volunteer and I did a little routine with spinning plates.

How old were you?

I think I was. I think I was like 7 or 8 years old.

Wow.

Yeah, it's fuzzy, understandably, but I got really into it when I was 10, 11, 12, 13. Those were the years where I was just doing shows in my kitchen for my parents, my grandmother who lived with us, and just juggling and absorbing as much as I possibly could. Reading every single book from the library, watching every VHS tape. And I was trying to figure it out, right? I was trying to figure out I was watching juggling and magic and acrobats and comedians and all sorts of variety performers. And I started doing these variety shows in my kitchen, and I literally never stopped. It's kind of crazy when I think about I've never made money any other way than shows. Like, you know, even When I was 13, 14, I was doing shows. I used to get paid $25mm. $25 a show. That was my. I thought that was pretty. It was pretty gutsy.

That's big money in 2021, actually.

I know.

Where do I sign up?

Funny enough, the bureau's weren't booking me much at $25.

The $3 commission wasn't working for them.

Yes.

Hey, listen, at least you said forget paper routes, right? But the thing is, what I want to get at is two things real quick, Jeff. One, you found your lane early, but even so, you put in the work. You have never stopped working. This is a lesson for everyone who's listening to this or watching this right now. It's nice to have the dream and Know what you want to do. But if you're not going to put in the work, you're not going to become unforgettable. And Jeff has put the work in. I can't imagine six days a week for years just plugging away, doing it. And you read the books, you watch the old VHS videotapes for the millennials in the room. A VHS is Googleable, so Google it. But you put the work in, you read the books, you watched the video, you tried everything, you failed. And being successful real quickly, you also tasted failure when it didn't work, when something fell flat in front of a live audience. Now, did you have a time in your life when you bombed or made a mistake, a critical mistake, in front of a live audience as a young person? And how did that, or did that not impact your work ethic?

Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, how long we have, we could do a whole episode just on the bombs. But before I address that, Mark, I do want to mention you bring up a great point. A lot of performers I'm friends with, they will start by having another career and then they'll kind of switch to become a performer, and they'll give me the advice and all that. And they might be in their mid-20s or late 20s or sometimes even 30s. And I've struggled with some of these conversations because I don't really feel like I'm qualified to give that conversation because I didn't make this big switch, right? I didn't, like, give up the job that was holding me back to pursue my dreams. I feel fortunate that I've only ever been doing this, but with that comes this knowledge of putting in the reps. And I've said before, I've had some, you know, frustrating talks where people will say, like, I don't really want to do that. That doesn't fit my brand. I'm like, dude, you don't have a brand. Like, you were working at a dental office last week.

That doesn't fit.

But that happens. I remember I had an intern who, you know, was. Was into magic and he didn't want to set up my cards. Like, at the Flamingo. He wouldn't want to put out my cards and help, like, set up my merchandise for afterwards and do the meet and greet, because he didn't think that was, like, on brand for him. But he was in college. Like, he was. He was, you know, he was working for a headline show at the Flamingo. Like, if I were in that situation, I would have been absorbing every single aspect, taking notes, following around Doing social media. Anything I can do for you, Jeff, to learn? Invite me to stuff. Can I. Can I bring you coffee? Like, I wasn't looking for, you know, the intern to take my dry cleaning out. He was. He was supposed to do things that were related to the show, like, that we actually needed help with. So, anyway, so I do think you got to put in those reps. And it gets harder when you get. When you get a little older and later in life because it gets harder to fail. So I'm coming back to your answer. I failed a lot, but I was so young that it didn't matter. And I think I'm gonna get me on my horse now, Soapbox. But really, like, I think social media is a huge problem because it doesn't allow for these more private failures. Every. Everyone is failing publicly. You know, when you're learning how to sing, you know, and you're nine years old, like, you shouldn't be putting it on TikTok because you're gonna be. All the trolls are gonna be like, you suck. You awful. You're ugly. You're not, like, ready for that. Right? But I see it now with my brother's kids who are just learning about, you know, being in the arts and comedy and singing, and they're making plays and they're making these little fun home videos, and they want to put it on YouTube. And my brother's kind of like, ah, like, slow down. And I get it. I agree with him. You know, you have to be fully formed or at least more formed as a person to be able to deal with that onslaught oftentimes. So I feel very fortunate that I failed all the time. But again, nobody was filming it. I wasn't streaming it. That's what you do. You mess up, you fail. You're just, like, trying to figure things out. I'll tell you one specific failure just to hit the answer here. I was performing at a halftime show at Georgetown. I went to college at Georgetown, and the basketball team is very well known. They played at the MCI Center, Verizon center now in DC. 20,000 plus people there. And I got to perform at the halftime show. Sometimes I still do a straight jacket escape on my unicycle as part of my show. I was doing it back in college. It shows how much I've changed my act.

It works. It works, man.

It's right, Mark. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

That's right.

That's what I say, too. So anyway, I'm in a straight jacket, the unicycle's on the floor in this big arena. All those lights are focused to the center. Mission Impossible is playing. And it's like, you know, I'm a sophomore in college, all my friends are there, people are going crazy. And I jump up onto the unicycle and it just flies like 20ft ahead of me. And I fall back in my straight jacket and land, like, right on my tailbone. So Now I have 20,000 plus college kids laughing at me to Mission Impossible while I'm doing the Curly shuffle on the floor in a straight jacket, trying to get up, like in pain, you know, trying to get up, which is super embarrassing. Right? Of course. And then the host comes out and is like laughing at me too. Like, you know, they pull me off the gym floor. I mean, that was a pretty big failure. But again, I was in college. It was funny. Like, my friends still we joke about it now. Right. I wasn't a professional entertainer supporting my family. And it wasn't this big thing. Even I could laugh at it the next day. So that was a big failure. That was a pretty public one, too. 20,000 people. But again, at least no one was streaming it on Instagram Live. And everything else could have made you famous.

You never know.

Yeah. For not the right reasons.

And, Jeff, one of the things that has always impressed me about you, I'm gonna put you on the spot here with a quick story that I've never forgotten that you told one of the hardest working people I've ever known. You had a story about when Mike Rayburn was hiring you and for an interview. And I don't want to give it away, I want you to tell it. But you had an interview and he said, can you be here by. Just give us a little background on that. Because I just think it's the epitome of working hard.

Of course, of course. And there's a little bit of fake it till you make it in here too. Acting as if I was living in Orlando at the time. And again, I always had this bug in the back of my head, like, I'd love to go to Vegas and try to get my own show there at some point. So I was out just visiting Las Vegas, seeing friends, seeing shows, and I wanted to see as many shows as I could and hand out my business card to everybody. Right. And I saw the show amazed that featured Mike Rayburn. And again, I didn't know Mike at the time. After the show, I gave him my business card and I said, hey, if you ever need a fill in or if you ever need an opener, right, I'm, I'm around. Reach out to me. And so I said, okay, cool, thanks. Nice. Nice to meet you. Right. I was expecting to never hear anything. So I fly back to Orlando maybe two, three days later, and I land at night. And then the next morning there's an email that I get and it was like 4 in the morning, 4:30 in the morning. I get this email from the manager, the producer of the show, who said, hey, Mike Rayburn is one of our acts. He passed along this card. Just wondering if you're still in town. We actually have a dropout, we have a cancellation. Wondering if you can be here for the 2:30 show. Then it's your spot. And I wrote back, absolutely, I'll see you. I'll be there like one o'. Clock. And then I ran to the airport, bought the first flight I could all the way back from Orlando back to Vegas. With the time change, I landed at like, you know, 9:00am and you know, went right to Planet Hollywood and grab all my stuff and everything. And that ended up being a pretty pivotal moment for me because then the show went well. He asked me if I would ever want to be in the cast and I said yes. I joined the cast, ended up moving out to Vegas. The show never made it past, you know, its original run, but Mike Rayburn stayed out there in Vegas and so did I. And so that was really how I learned, learned everything I learned about production and how Vegas shows work and media marketing. And so, you know, Darren, to your point, like, hey, if I had not said, absolutely taken that moment, you know, you get these little, these little moments and then when you take them, when you jump on them, when you're ready for them, they become inflection points. When you look back in your career, think, man, imagine if I never did that. Imagine, I mean, even in a sense about work ethic, if I was sleeping till noon every day, I would have missed that. But I'm a psycho. I get up early and you know, I'm up and at it by like 4, 4:30 usually every day. And that's. That matters over time.

Mark, make sure as you're taking notes there, you write down psycho, psy.

And by the way, I know everybody has their own work rhythms. I'm not. If you're like a night owl, that's cool. It's just for me personally, I found that that's what works for me. And it's paid off, you know, many times over, fortunately.

Perfect. Let's move over a Little bit. Now to what do you think makes something unforgettable as a presenter? Because you have been in many audiences, you have seen many things. What are some of the elements that you believe it takes to be unforgettable?

Yeah, so you mentioned emceeing, so this is a really nice niche that I've carved out a little bit. And one of the hidden benefits of being an emcee is that you see everybody, right? The keynotes come in and out. They might be there for three hours. I see everybody, and I develop relationships with everybody. So I have tons of keynote speaker friends that come in and out who recommend me as an emcee. And the pool for being an emcee is a lot smaller. So when it comes up and says, oh, see, they might recommend one or two people. Somebody says to me, hey, Jeff, do you know any good customer service speakers? I'm like, sure. Like, here's this scroll. You know what I mean? Or, I need a speaker on accountability or a humorous. Like, there's so many. But the reason why I love the emcee role is I get to watch them on stage too. And so I've seen so many incredible keynote speakers, and I feel like it's all just kind of digesting, absorbing, just marinating in there. And there's certain things that are just different about the really good guys and gals. They're just different. I think a big thing nobody really talks about is there's an energy shift that happens, right? It's like when somebody really good starts, you can just kind of feel it. Everybody's like, oh, I want to pay attention.

Yeah. What just happened? Something just happened.

Yeah, exactly. Like this. This lady is like, she's good. Like, you can just tell there's a difference, you know, this. This guy, you know, whether it's the presence, that's a big part of it. But again, all this comes back to putting in the rap stage time. It's the presence, it's the confidence, it's the authenticity. It's just that kind of powerful shift that happens that makes everybody perk up a little bit. So I try to do that. Whether I'm entertaining, whether I'm hosting. I try to just, boom, Hit them kind of out of the cannon. Like, make them be like, oh, whoa. Like, if I'm entertaining, be like, whoa, like, this guy's gonna be fun. Or, like, I can't sit back and just watch this. Like, I'm gonna have to be involved, right? Because it's like a band aid, right? If. If you Build up to it. It's kind of harder and slowly. But if you just kind of. You're coming with me, you know, like we're going on this ride for the next hour, for the next three days, whatever it is. I know some people don't like me because of that. And that's fine. That's fine. Like, oftentimes I'm able to win them over over the course of a show or the course of a award show or a multi day conference. But I would say the cost of not having that energy shift is just too high to kind of be the safe, you know, how's everybody doing? Is everybody having a good day? It's like it's going to be so hard to pull them along. Whereas, I mean, you know, Darren, you see me when I perform in Vegas, like, I just like bolt out there, you know, and I just like right in. It doesn't always hit every time, doesn't always work. But I want to be like, boom, this guy. Hey, that lady ho. I want people to be like, oh, like this guy's a lot. Right. And then they kind of readjust to my energy level. And again, I want to bring them up anyway. My goal is always to kind of take them to a place. Like if they're here, I want to bring them up to here, you know, whether that's emceeing, entertaining or speaking. And that's a big part of my brand is being high energy. So I think that it can all be encapsulated in that kind of idea of creating an energy shift. And then under that, you've got presence, which kind of confidence, which comes from the reps and authenticity too. Right. I think when you look and see a speaker, an emcee, an entertainer, and you think, man, they're doing exactly what they should be doing. They're in the zone, they're in the sweet spot. You just come along for the ride, right? Whether it's a keynote speaker or an entertainer who's just kind of right in that brilliant zone, that flow. The hard part is turning it on and off, right? Of saying like, now here's Jeff Civilica and kind of just creating that. But that's what I try to do.

I'm curious, Jeff, you mentioned about the MC role and we have students, clients and people working our community with us who are emerging speakers, but a few of them are thinking about the emcee role. Would you recommend honing your speaking skills first and then transitioning into emceeing or vice versa?

Yeah, I think this might Be controversial.

That's why you're here, to rile things up.

Yes, there are exceptions to this rule, right? So let me just first off say there are exceptions to this. I'm not gonna even call it a rule, but I think the best MCs are usually something else. Really. They're at a really high level of something else as well as being an emcee. And that unfortunately encourages a lot of people to just kind of throw in like, oh, yeah, yeah, slash mc. Or like, yeah, I emcee too, without giving it the proper kind of respect and prep work that it needs. Right. So I'm not saying to just throw it in there, but I'm saying, like, if I think about some of the best MCs, you know, I think about Scott Bloom, who I work with a lot. Scott Blume is a phenomenal emcee, but under that, he's a phenomenal comedian, right? He's been on all sorts of television shows and he's got this. He's got the interviewing down, right? He's not. He's not ruffled by celebrities, and he's great at piggybacking and taking one thing and turning it into something else and segueing. But he has real material as well that he can draw on. So if he's hosting a big show in a stadium and they say, hey, go out and do five minutes, he's like, oh, perfect, I'll do the mind reading bit. You know, I'll do this. He's got real kind of bits and things that he can draw from, right? And so again, I think there's different. There's different people. John Petz is another one, right? He's a phenomenal magician, right? So he has all this toolbox of kind of. And routines and material that he can pull from to then customize and integrate into the show flow and add real value as opposed to being the emcee that's like, how's everybody doing today? Like, hope everybody's ready. It's gonna be awesome. Like, that's fine, but it's just kind of like, fluffy. There's nothing. There's no real substance there. And I say the exception to this is people who are kind of only. This is not a put down, only an emcee. I mean, solely an emcee. Like, their whole job is moderating and they're really, really good at it. There are some people who are professional moderators who, you know, we're talking CNN commentators or that kind of like. Right, yeah, I think like Mark Jeffries Is like a great. He's another great emcee. Whereas if I get some kind of offer, I'm like, ah, this is more of a Mark Jeffries MC role. Because this is. This is like true panel moderating. I can handle that. I think in the NSA panel, we talk about this a little bit. We said all these MCs can kind of a little bit, but depending on what the focus of your event is, it just might not be a great fit. Like we were talking about that. If you're having a conference about a social justice issue or something like Omay Congo from that panel is a much better fit than I am. Right, Domingo? Yeah. Yes, exactly. But, you know, but if you're having like Orange Theory Fitness, I've done stuff for them. They're having a big franchise meeting and it's all their. And they're all active, you know, health conscious people. Somebody like, they would love. I'm juggling bowling balls. I can wear their heart rate monitor. We can track it. Like, I would be about than him. Yeah. High kicks, wedgie poles.

How many splat points can you get? How many splat points can you get doing that?

Yeah, exactly. There you go. Okay.

I'm OTF too, so I understand.

Oh, nice. Yeah, me too. That's great. I love it. How many. How many splat points can a high kick get? And how much cartilage can I tear on my left knee? Hopefully distract that.

You know what I'm hearing, though, Jeff, What I'm hearing from you is, look, don't underestimate the role of the mc. I think many people think MC just says, okay, here's speaker number one. Speaker number two. Okay, have a good night. And you're saying, no, it's much more intense. You mentioned panel moderating and so on. So if anybody in our group is listening or watching this, you're thinking, I want to be an emcee. First of all, find out what being a professional MC really entails and decide, is this something I really want to do or should I hold my other chops first before I even venture? Because I remember a few years ago that and Darren and I used to do a program called lady and the Chance with Fripp, our mentor. Fripp, Amazing. And she asked me, Darren asked me to moderate a panel of women in the business of speaking. And I had to do some serious homework individually. I went through their questions, what we're going to segue into. I had to figure out, okay, when number one is answering, you can't leave number four till the very end, bring everybody in with a balance. I mean, that part alone, Jeff, was a like, whoa, mind blowing. Because somebody may feel they get not enough time, somebody got too much, and you kind of piggyback and redirect the question when they go off topic. That is no small thing. Plus, when you fill the gaps, you're doing your skill set, you're juggling, hopefully no ladders falling on people's heads, but that kind of thing. But you get to really realize that the MC role is not just about introducing speaker after speaker. It's much more weighted. So anybody who's considering that, do your research, watch the pros and action, and decide for yourself, if I want to do this, what other chops must I hold first before I even venture down that road?

Yeah, absolutely. When you talk about should you focus on being a great keynote first, I would say yes. At the end of the day, right? Because a good emcee, there's a certain credibility that's required. Right. The first thing anybody says is, who is this guy? Who is this girl? And why? Why should I listen to them right now? Same thing with a keynote, right? But then you establish your credibility. Maybe it's, you know, you've written these books, you've done these trainings, you've spoken to these groups, you've helped to these people. These organizations with an emcee, they're saying the same thing, right? Again, there are the exceptions. It's okay. I know why they picked this lady, because she's really good at moderating. She's able to bring these themes out and tie things together. But most of the time they're saying, well, who is this person? What's the connection to this conference or this group? Right. And so in your case, if you're saying, you know, hey, a keynote speaker, should I get better at being a keynote speaker? Speaker first, let's say you're a keynote speaker on customer service. I use that example. Right. So guess what? It's probably going to make the most sense for you to host, at least to begin with, conferences that have a customer service focus.

Right?

So you've done maybe the opening keynote, and then, hey, great news. I'm going to be with you for the next couple days. Right? I love this topic. I hope you just saw them. This is my life's work. I'm passionate about it. I'm so thrilled to be able to experience, you know, and explore all the different facets of customer service with you together over the next three days. In fact, coming to the stage next is A good friend. We work together on this project. You know what I mean? That's a lot different than the customer service speaker who's now all of a sudden speaking to a women's education group or something, Right? To kind of tie back to what an example you gave.

One of the things that makes you stand out. Like, it's one thing to be able to balance a ladder, a six foot metal ladder or 12 foot metal ladder. How tall is it going?

45. 45 foot. It's a little giant ladder. Just keeps expanding. No, it's. The one you're referring TO is a 14 foot ladder.

14 foot ladder on your chin. So it's one thing to have that talent to do that, but it's another thing when you do it in a way that is literally entertaining and unforgettable. And then you involve the audience, you have this rapport with the audience. One of the things that really, I admire about you is that you have great audience interaction. You have unforgettable audience interaction. And like you said, even if the show that I saw recently, you started off really good, but you built so much rapport with the audience by working with them, by using the example, by talking about when those two guys came up and like, the audience just can't help but love you because you care about them. What advice would you have? And I know you've done a lot of reps, but what have you learned about audience interaction along the way?

Oh, this is a good one. Yeah. You know what? Something that's hard for me, which is to take your time and let it breathe. So I remember this. I remember my good buddy Tim Gabrielson saw me pretty early on and like, hey, take notes. Like, I want to know what you think, right? You know, I thought it was a really great show, right? Like, how would you think? Right? And he's like, oh, man. He's like, you just gotta. Visual is really fast and that's who you are. But you got to slow down your verbal because he said you're missing a lot of great comedy moments because you gotta like, let yourself think of them. And he said the first, the first thing he talked about when he, when I brought those two guys up, you just mentioned, he said, I just went right into my bit. I went right into the routine. And he's like the one guy, he's like, he's wearing a fanny pack, like, joke. He's wearing socks and sandals. Joke. This T shirt, you know, says xyz, like, joke. He said he was from, you know, this place, you Know, joke like, you know, there's so much kind of material that you can mine from those moments when you just relax and slow down a little bit and allow. Allow the show to kind of unfold at its own pace as well as you driving it. And it's. It's like a dance. And I remember this happened recently where my shows at the Excalibur that I just did were the first ones that happened right after the mask mandate was put in place. And I had the two guys up there, and I asked the guy his name, where he was from, and he. No joke, he was from Corona, California. He said. He said, I'm from Corona. And I said, you're kidding me, right? And, like, everybody laughed. And I said, go with California. And he was like, let's try that again. He was like, do you see how nobody clapped when you said you were from Corona? And I was like, he's from California. And everybody clapped. And then I turned, I was like, to the other guy. I was like, like, don't tell me you're from Delta, right? And, like, got a big laugh, you know? And I was thinking in my head, no matter what else happened that whole show, I was proud of myself, because five years ago, I wouldn't have even had that moment because I would have just been like, oh, this is my next line. I'm gonna do this. And so I really try to have a nice balance of pushing the show forward, keeping the pace up, because I do think pacing is really important to a talk, to emcee, to entertainment, anything. But again, allowing those mom moments to just, like, happen. Because that's where a lot of the true kind of improv gold comes from.

And having those reps gives you the confidence to try it and test it. But Mark, I want to point out too, that, number one, he asked somebody who is also world class for advice, and then he listened. Okay, if you're listening to this podcast, remember part two. Number one, ask for advice from people who are where you want to be, your level or higher. And number two, listen, listen. And what a difference.

That.

That probably changed the trajectory of your performances, too.

I'm really big on. On that, and I. I used to videotape every show. Go back to my cruise ship, my cruise ship days. I only performed once a week. So you're on the boat for the whole time, which sounds really fun. And it is for the first two weeks.

I love the sleep.

Get me off of this ship. But one of the ways I. I stopped myself from going insane, now we got psycho and insane.

There you go.

All right. Hope you're getting that.

Ironically, you said stopped yourself. I'm not sure you did, but go ahead, Darren.

First bad pun. That ship has sailed.

All right.

Okay. First bad pun for the day.

So, yeah, the ship was sailing for many years, unfortunately. But one of the things that I used to do to kind of make. Make good use of the time, because you did have a lot of free time, was I would videotape. This is another VHS callback. Videotape. My shows either. They used to let me put one blank VHS tape in the back, these little TVs, and it would just capture a real wide shot of the show, nothing fancy. And I would watch it in the cabin the next day, like an athlete studying film, and I would just tear it apart. And those were painful to watch. Really painful. And I'm not talking about. Oh. I said. And, like the whole thing, I would have been happy for 110 ums.

You know what, though, Jeff? Darren did the same thing. He watched this when it's his first time on stage. And we teach our stage time trinity. We teach him. Record yourself on video. 1. Watch it. 2. But watch it as if you were in the audience, not as if you were just passing some time. One of the most difficult things to do is to be critical of yourself. But you're telling us, you're telling me and our listeners, our viewers, record yourself, watch yourself, assess yourself, and make adjustments as needed. And so many people don't want to watch themselves. So thank you as a professional, highest level, proving that this is good advice. I want to thank you for that.

Beyond watching yourself, getting the advice of others, like you said, Darren, I mean, that's kind of the next level, right? Because when you watch yourself, you're by yourself, you're in your room, it's not that embarrassing, right? It's still sometimes painful. But when. When you have your friends come out and judge you, I think that's next level, and you need to be okay with. With that. And I think when you watch yourself and you. You're coming with your own perspective. I used to do this all the time. You say, oh, well, yeah, I do that because of this. And the person's like, well, I don't care why you do it, you shouldn't do it.

Right?

Vacations, you know, in our head, we're like, oh, yeah, but that. Yeah, but I was. I. That I left that thing, or this was broken. So I. Well, yeah, but it just didn't. It looked weird, like, you should do something else. Then you should. Those things that are just like, well, yeah, it's so easy to justify. And like, the audience doesn't care. The audience doesn't have that context. They don't know, so it's irrelevant.

Yeah, I know, I know. Our time is fast. I've got one last question for Jeff and I'll turn it over to you, Darren. Jeff, you've done the reps, you've done the work since seven years old. Now, I'm going to guess you're close to 40, but not years, not there yet. That being said. Oh, yes.

Hey, I got white here, so it's okay. Yours looks cool. Mine, I look like a Dalmatian, like a patch.

That being said, what is. Thank you. I appreciate that. My kids think I look old, but what is next? What is. You use a phrase. Earlier, you said next level. With all you've done, all you've achieved, what does next level look like for Jeff Savillico and I asked that question to inform us and our listeners and viewers that there's always going to be a next level. What's it for you?

Right, so, yeah, I'll broaden this out a little bit. It's actually a lot of what I talk about in my keynote. Since I was a kid, I dreamed of having a Las Vegas show. That was the goal, right? And then I got the goal. I achieved the goal, got the Las Vegas show. And then I had this reckoning where I was like, oh, like, now I'm at this level and now everything resets. Now I have more access, I have a bigger, better platform. What am I going to do with that? And so I talk in my keynotes a lot about, you know, someone might have a goal to be. I want to get married, have kids. Like, okay, cool. Why? You know, when you're. When you're a husband, like, now, great, the game has just been upped because now you're. You got to be the best husband you can be, the best dad you can be, right? Like, when you reach, you're, oh, I want to be a coach. Great, you're a coach. Now you have the platform. You know, people are listening to you. You're coaching young men and women. You can influence them and empower them. Like, everything gets up. The game keeps getting upped, right? And so I think I learned that pretty early on when I got my own Las Vegas show. And I was like, I did it. Like, I made it. And then I realized there was no point to that in and of itself, only as a way to then do more Create more, impact more. And so when you talk about what's next, I mean, I think there's always a re. Kind of a reallocation of everything once you hit that quote, unquote, next level, whatever that is for you, whether that's something that's just a construct in your head or it's a financial level, or if it's a status level or whatever. And so I had this 10 year run on the Strip. Then Covid happened and so I really focused on taking everything virtual to be able to keep going virtually. Now as I think about what do I want the next chapter to be, I'm kind of working myself through that. I'm working my way through that, to be honest. I recently hired someone to be a vp, Debbie, to be able to kind of really like run things for me so I can focus on creating again. I have a course that I'm working on for entertainers about the business side of entertainment. That's kind of the immediate focus right now. I get so many friends who say, man, you know, know you run a great business. Like, how do you, they asked me for a contract template or how do I, how do you use DocuSign or you know, do I use QuickBooks or can you show me an invoice? You have insurance like a business. They asked me all these different, have you trademarked your name? Blah, blah, blah. Like I go on and on. And I'd like to just make it easier for entertainers who never really knew that they would have to know much about business to have a really successful career. Because as you, as you both know very well, that's a big piece of it. It's huge. And I don't really think there's any tools out there for the magicians, jugglers, comedians, ventriloquists, acrobats, DJs, all these people, and even speakers, right? People who make a living from the stage. So I'm going to focus specifically on the niche of creating a course for entertainers to learn about the business side of show business.

That's awesome. Thanks, Jeff. Darren.

And my final question, Jeff, really appreciate your time and we could talk to you for hours. You've got so much knowledge because you have so much experience, you know, I mean, you've drawn from it and put it in the right place. But if you were sitting down for a cup of coffee with, let's say, an emerging or a professional speaker who really wants to go from good to unforgettable, what advice would you give them?

I would say to go all in every time, on stage, in every aspect of your life and your business, just triple down on your commitment. Take action. I know so many folks who are like, yeah, yeah, I work really hard. Yeah. Like, that happens to me all the time. I meet people and they're like, yeah, I work really hard.

Define hard.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I'm sorry, but, like, you're just not trying hard enough. You have to. To work harder. I think you have to work harder at this than other careers because there is no path. There's no clear. There's no clear chart. You got to chart your own course. You got to figure it out. And that means you're going to go off somewhere and you're going to be like, nope, that wasn't right. And then you got to go somewhere else and figure it out. I learned this lesson here. Let me apply it here. I made this relationship here that really didn't go anywhere. So I'm going to now go here. There's more guesswork. There's more. More. Just uncharted territory that you have to. To conquer and kind of figure your way out, to find your voice and to build your niche in your. Define your brand, anything. I'm saying all the things now. Pick a lane, you pick, find your lane, all that stuff, right? So I just think, again, action, action, action. People, people in my world at least, they talk a lot, talk a lot about working hard, doing shows and got to do the reps, man.

And I think it goes back to too, just like you're saying all in. But what does that mean? Because somebody might already think they're all in. Well, I work hard. I put in, you know, 90 minutes a day or whatever. You know, I just go back to five shows in a day. You did. And I love the fact that you experimented and realized that you did one show for four hours and you got the same pay as you did for five minute shows. Like, that is. That's game changer right there. You change the trajectory of your income as a street performer. And it's just like those lessons apply everywhere as. As Mark puts together the keepers. Jeff, what if somebody wants to reach out to you? Look like you get another. You want to say something?

I was just going to give an example of this. So when you talk about, like, going all in, you're right, because that's kind of vague. So I'm hosting an event in October for EO Entrepreneurs Organization in New Orleans, and I realized I just got the intros today. Right. The event's not for a month. Okay. So one of the things that I'm going to do is memorize all the intros, right? That seems like not that big of a deal that planners, like, you memorize the intros. Like, didn't read them off. I'm like, well, you're not paying me to read. Like here can read, like, you know what I mean? Like, just do the work, right? Like, you know, it's like two paragraphs. I do this all the time. I put voice notes in my phone and when I'm working out or walking or driving, I just listen to them and I do it, like weeks out, months out so that I can have a really good command of the intro. That's just one. One thing, right? Like I mentioned, this, this event in des, their theme is all in with Vegas. And so I'm going to create something custom for them, right? So it starts like, starts early. It starts way back when you have an event to really go all in. It's prep work. It's customizing. It's like going above and beyond knocking it out of the park so they don't just say like, yeah, he was. Yeah, he was good. Be like, that guy was awesome. Like, he. He was so prepared. He. That gives you and Darren, you know this with comedy, that confidence comes from knowing your stuff. Because when you know the script, then you can deviate off rent. Right? When you know the show flow, you know who's supposed come out when and what's going on. Then you can have some fun with people and let. Let it get off the rails a little bit. So it seems. But you're always fully in control.

So, Jeff, if somebody wants to connect with you, follow you, how would they reach out to Jeff Civilico?

Yep. JeffSavillico.com I'm sure you'll spell it out for your folks. Oh, it's on your. It's on your wall.

Yes. C I V I L L I, C O.

That's right. And I'm at Jeff Civilico on all the socials. My nonprofit as well, for anybody who's interested is winwinentertainment.org and we're at winwincharity on all the socials as well. So check out what we're doing there. I feel bad. I was going to wear my super cool headphones.

It's okay.

Never too late. It's never too late.

I realize noise canceling though, so I can't hear you at all.

So, Mark Brown, what do we got for keepers?

Oh, man. The theme. I found that Jeff seam is his next level. He says you got to put in the work to do that. Take advantage of the little moments. They become inflection points in your career. It says the unforgettable people generate presence with energy shifts and they come from doing the reps for audience to be involved. Slow down, don't miss the moment and mind the material to get the moments. Record yourself and watch it and assess it and get advice from the pros. It'll give you next level performance. Three more go all in. Triple down on your commitment. Confidence comes from knowing your stuff. Therefore know your stuff that'll give you next level professional performance.

Darren, nice. Jeff Civilico, thanks. See how smart you are Jeff?

No, that was awesome. I'm like Mark, can you email me that?

It'll be in the show, it'll be in the notes if it's right.

Aaron, that's great. I love that.

Sweet. Well, Jeff Civilico, thanks for taking some time out of your busy day. Hopefully we can even bring you more like you. Just when you get Jeff Civilico you get a guy who is all in whether he's mc Keynoting virtual mc. You're just amazing. Jeff Civilico. Big fan, Jeff fan. Thanks for being with us. If you're listening to this, Please check out stagetimeuniversity.com Work with Mark and me to help you become unforgettable. We'll see you next week.

See you next week.

You guys are awesome. Thank you.

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