The internet has changed a lot in twenty years, and so have I.

Aaron Stone

Hey internet! I've been busy 'offline' for years and I'm finally taking the time to rebuild my website. Here's what you've missed!

All the way back in 2006, I performed my first magic show. I was 16, almost 17, and I did a half-hour of magic for a classmate's birthday party. After the show, his mother gave me $50, and I realized what any 16-year-old realizes when they're handed fifty dollars: I can buy my own tacos!

Delicious tacos on the table, I started performing regularly before I finished high school. By 2007, I had built my own website and started getting bigger bookings. I think most of my "internet friends" know me from around this era, when I was self-promoting all the time.

In 2008, I started working with an agent who didn't like me having my own website with my own name (aaronthemagician.com), so they had me build another website for three different characters I could perform on stage. That site was fearlessace.com Audiences in 2008-2010 got to book these three personas. Those 'lucky few' got to see the Raven Kade show, a rock-and-roll character with spiky hair, nail polish, thick black eyeliner, and lots of chains. Some got to book Tom Cage, a fast-talking gambler who liked to cheat at cards. Finally, some people got to book Jazz "Fearless" Ace, a 'silent' sideshow act set to jazz music. I think we can all agree I wasn't the most creative with names at 19.

I'm not fearless. I've never been fearless. Wishing I could at least learn to pretend to be more courageous than I was, I named a character "Fearless." Without fail, every time I get up before a crowd I'm terrified. Anxious, shaky, clammy, nauseous -- horrid stage fright. But I remind myself, "I am Fearless!" And you know what? It works. Your mileage may vary.

That changed however in 2010, when fearlessace.com was suddenly no more. At the time, I was co-starring a touring grand illusion show with Joe "Tiger King" Exotic. Though paid better than most of the staff, it still wasn't enough to afford renewing my .com, so I lost it. When it lapsed, some domain squatting company out of Colorado bought it out from under me, and kept trying to sell it to me for $4,950USD. Haaaaaaaahahaha. No, thanks! So I dropped the idea of having a magic website. I kept up a photography website, and I used social media to fill in. In fact, I became 100% reliant on social media for my magic show bookings.

Recently, years after swiping the domain, they who swiped it from me failed to renew the domain registration -- so it's mine again! About the same time, I became quite frustrated with Facebook and the like. Full of invasive advertisements, hatefulness and propaganda, I didn't enjoy sifting through so much garbage to find work opportunities, or hear from my aunts.

It's been a decade since I've built a site for myself. In that time my talents and offerings have greatly expanded. I considered making a few separate sites, but you know what? This is my whole life. The things I do with passion and skill to pay my bills also bring me joy, so it's all here. It's all under one umbrella. Some will be stuff you can buy, some will be like this -- just me tellin' you a little bit about my life and throwing in some photos to make it interesting.

Here's my plan: to build a site showcasing all the fun, weird, cool, amazing things I'm doing with my life. Oh, and I want to do it without ever including ads on my site. I hate ads, I figure you do too.

I hope you find something you like, and I hope I inspire you to reach out and get me involved in your projects. Mostly, I hope you buy something, because this is literally my whole career and even buying one of my little offerings really helps me out. So, pardon the dust while I figure out wordpress and woocommerce and the twitter api. You can encourage me directly by buying the things I post here, or buying me a taco.

Until we ramble again,

Aaron Stone