What was crazy for me at least was the intense, heart-pounding sympathetic anxiety leading up to walking out on stage… But the moment you hit the lights and enter into character — that all vanished… Then you exit the stage, it all comes back as a pure dopamine rush lol. I’ll never forget that and can understand why so many rock stars suffer with constant ups and downs on tour that can lead to pretty intense biochemical imbalances.

Bummer you lost your notes, that sucks… Maybe you can find some old footage of those events at least?

Being bullied definitely makes one have some thicker skin. Because I was sheltered quite a bit for a while I was protected from a good bit of that; though that changed as I established relationships with local kids who went to the local public schools and got more involved in those circles. Having such an outsider view for so long has definitely given me a unique perspective, but has done little favors in terms of overcoming aversion to the spotlight. College helped me overcome this quite a bit. I tried to put myself out there, running clubs and doing presentations, etc. I found a process that worked for me in terms of preparation but don’t ever ask me to improv lol. My wife is an absolute Robin Williams genius when it comes to improvisational wit. I keep encouraging her to do comedy.