Over the next few years I began playing professionally and played my first job at a local supermarket at the age of 13! I had no idea how far I would go, all I knew was I was having a lot of fun. I played many professional venues and local festivals but the highlights of my early performing career were my performances in the US Open Banjo championship at the age of 15 (I took 2nd) and my 3 wins of our local Kiwanis teen talent show.(I placed 2nd the third year). I was the first person to do such a thing. This gave me an inner confidence that I took with me for many years. In the summer of my 19th year I traveled to Orlando Florida and auditioned for Walt Disney World. I landed the job and started as a sub for the Hoopty Do Revue! I was a great experience, but I couldn't pay the bills at that time and ended up delivering more furniture then playing the banjo!
     Determined to play the banjo for a living I returned to Ohio and began trying to get jobs playing wherever and whenever I could. I believe it was this final commitment to making this path in life a reality that set the wheels in motion. Before long I had landed a full time job playing the banjo at a little place in Indian called the Boggstown Inn and Cabaret. It was to be the single greatest learning experience I was to have as an entertainer. I was given a great opportunity to get my feet wet night after night honing my craft of talking to people and working a crowd. I had become quite a proficient banjo player, but an entertainer I was not. This place offered me a loving environment to try and try again. I really began to love performing for a crowd. I played there for the next 5 years.
      Following my years at the Cabaret I had the great fortune of being invited to perform in Branson Missouri at the Ragtime Lil and Banjo Banjo show. (No that is not a typo! They REALLY wanted to call it the ' banjo, banjo' show!... I know....) Again, it was a terrific opportunity. I got to work with some GREAT musicians. We got to write the entire show; the charts, the dialogue the choreography, everything. While many saw this as a terrible thing, I again took advantage of the education. We had a great time doing the how and I got to experience Branson Missouri in its hay day. At the time I worked there only Mecca attracted more visitors per day. It was astonishing. I made quite a splash there too as I was named "The New King of The Banjo in Branson" by the Branson Daily News. It was a thrill to get my first big piece of "press!"
      As young boy learning the Don Van Palthe lesson tapes I had heard about his performances on cruise ships and had always thought about how exotic it sounded. So following my performances in Branson, I decided I would see if I could design a show for the cruise ship industry. This experience was absolutely wonderful! I began performing for the Holland America cruise line whose demographic is perfect for my show. I signed an exclusive contract with them and found a whole new ‘Family.’ I traveled for the next 7 years traveling all over the world for them. I was given the greatest gift of world travel. I learned to perform for all types fraudulences and write the music for my show so that any band could perform it with only a few minutes of rehearsal.
     While I still perform on cruise ships, these days my performances are mostly limited to banjo conventions and land based jobs locally here in southern California. I have limited my travel to stay home with my two beautiful boys Michael and Jonathan. Quite simply, they are the lights of my life.