Blog

  • New Book in the Works

    New Book in the Works

    I’ve started working on a non-fiction book about the thirty year “circus affair” between Nanjing and the Bay Area. The focus is master acrobatic trainer Lu Yi, who has had a profound influence on circus in China, Australia, the U.S. and Canada, as well as the world of synchronized swimming …Read More »
  • Working with My Heroes

    Working with My Heroes

    It was 1972, I was walking past my school, Berkeley High, and music was blaring from Provo Park a block away. Provo was my park, where I spent hours balancing on a rope tied between two trees, learning new club routines, and practicing handstands and dive rolls. The other denizens …Read More »
  • Parenting Adds Perspective

    Parenting Adds Perspective

    In my teens and twenties, and well into my thirties, I was pretty sure I would never be a father. At lot of us who toured for a living felt this way and, since I didn’t have a father for most of my childhood, I also had no image of …Read More »
  • Learning from Acrobats

    Learning from Acrobats

    Dance Your Ass Off was the “gym” where I trained for my first acrobatic act, forty-five years ago. The owner of the infamous nightclub, Stu Goldberg, performed in circuses as a teenager and offered to train Wendy Parkman, Billy Kessler and me on the dance floor early Sunday mornings (most …Read More »
  • Talk to Jeff

    Talk to Jeff

    For the last dozen years and counting, I’ve been taking what I know from a life on stage and using it to help folks in corporations grow their communication and leadership skills. In this year of the Water Rabbit, a year to focus on longevity, peace and prosperity, I’m going …Read More »
  • Healing Body and Mind

    Healing Body and Mind

    I don’t make New Year’s resolutions but I happened to find a therapist and start Pilates about a year ago. These two additions to my schedule are helping me realize how I’ve adapted to old injuries, in body and in mind, instead of doing the work to find healthier, stronger, …Read More »
  • Love Death Circus Now In Print

    Love Death Circus Now In Print

    In 2020, the depths of the pandemic, you received a chapter a week of my novel Love Death Circus. Some of you read a few chapters, some of you read more than a few and some of you read the whole book. If you enjoyed any part of it, I …Read More »
  • Painting with Paper

    My mother was an artist who became allergic to her paints. Since not painting was not an option, she invented a way to paint with paper. Mickey had a waxer to lay out the feminist magazine she published so she waxed the back of sheets of colored construction paper. Then …Read More »