When I was in middle and high school we occasionally had assembly programs, and even though that was a long time ago I can still remember some of them. Like when Bob Hoffman, founder of York Barbell Company, presented an assembly on health. I remember him holding the microphone up close to his chest while he drew a deep, deliberate breath so we could hear the inflating sound of his powerful lungs. Mr. Universe came along with him, and to demonstrate that musclebound men didn't have to be stiff he did a surprise back flip! I also remember an entire assembly about whistling, given by a guy who could whistle the William Tell Overture at breakneck speed. Another guy gave an assembly about language and accents. He brought me up on stage and taught me to say something with an Irish accent, and I even remember the line: "Well they were a'playin' forty-five, and Mike was a'cheatin'." These assemblies didn't have much to offer in the way of life changing content or inspiration, and yet I remember them so vividly decades later, probably because they stood out as exceptions to our normal run-of-the-mill school days, and because they were live entertainment, which I rarely got to experience otherwise. I sometimes wonder what impact these assemblies might have had on me had they addressed some truly important life issues. The fact that an assembly program is only a 45 minute experience out of an entire school year is irrelevant if those 45 minutes can become a truly memorable experience for a student. And that is exactly what I strive to accomplish in my school assemblies. The 45 minutes that I'm on stage has to be memorable. I am going to expose kids to some truly amazing stunts that they will never forget; but I am also going to connect those stunts to powerful messages. I want students to carry the memory of their time spent with me throughout their lives. I want them to say, 20 years later, " I remember this guy who came once to our school when I was a kid  . . . ." And I want them to think back not only to the amazing things they experienced, but to the important words they heard me speak, and the principles for living that I shared with them -- even if it's only one thought they take with them. By tying the message in with the magic, I want to make it impossible for them to forget. I cannot prove that I have achieved my goal because I have no way of following up with the half-a-million students I have addressed over the last 15 years. But I do know the response I consistently get from both students and adults at the conclusion of my assemblies. I know the things they say, and the enthusiastic reactions on their faces, and I find it hard to believe that they will soon forget the experience. And because they carry away something of what they saw and heard from me, now stored in fields of memory, there's always a chance that something will lodge, take root like a seed, and eventually bear fruit. What more could I want? That's why I do what I do.

Why I Do School Assembly Programs