Fearless. Find The Thing You Love, And Go After It
A motivational assembly for elementary, middle and junior high students, booking now across upstate New York.
One Idea, Told For Forty Five Minutes
Fearless is a character education assembly built around a single idea: find the thing you love, and you will never work a day in your life. Students spend years being asked what they want to be. This show asks a better question, which is what they cannot stop thinking about, and then it talks honestly about the part that stops most people, which is being afraid to try.
It is still a magic show. It is still funny, students are still up on stage, and the room still gasps. The message is carried by the magic rather than bolted onto the end of it, and that is the difference between a lesson students sit through and one they repeat at lunch.
The show runs 45 to 50 minutes and is written for elementary, middle and junior high audiences. It works in a gym, a cafeteria or an auditorium, for one grade band or for a whole building.
What Students Take Out Of The Room
- Find what you love, then chase it
- Brave is doing it while still scared
- Nobody is good at anything on day one
- What looks strange is usually just unfamiliar
- Practice is the whole secret
- Clean comedy start to finish
Four Things The Show Keeps Coming Back To
Find what you love
Most students have already met the thing they love and have been told it is not a real job. The show says the opposite out loud, in front of the whole grade, and puts a person on stage who did it anyway. Not a lecture about careers. One question they can answer today.
Fearless is not unafraid
Being fearless does not mean nothing scares you. It means you do it while it still does. Every student who comes up on stage during this show finds that out firsthand, in front of everybody, and goes back to their seat having already done the scary thing.
Nobody starts out good
Students watch something done well and assume the person was born able to do it. They get shown what the first attempts actually looked like, and how long the gap was between wanting it and being any good at it. Dropping something in front of 400 people is part of the point.
Look closer before you decide
This is where the tarantulas come in. Something can look frightening and be nothing of the kind, and students are quick to make that same call about each other. It is the kindness and acceptance part of the show, and it lands harder because there is a real spider in the room.
Yes, There Are Tarantulas
A tarantula is the most misjudged animal most students will ever meet, and that is exactly why it belongs in a show about being fearless.
Ask a room full of students what they know about tarantulas and you get the same three answers, all of them wrong. They are not out to hurt anybody. They are quiet, they are slow, and they spend most of their lives hiding from things bigger than they are. The fear in the room is real, but it is not about the spider. It was handed to the students by somebody else.
It is a fun routine to watch before it is anything else, and the tarantula goes up on the big screen during it, so a student in the back row of a gym sees it closer and better than anyone standing next to it would. The whole room gets a proper look at the thing it was afraid of without a single student having to go near it.
Tarantulas also come in every size, color and temperament there is. Some are bold, some will not come out for anybody, and no two of them behave the same way. Students work out where that is going before anyone says it, which is the best possible way for a point about judging people to land.
It is the part of the assembly students are still talking about at the end of the day, and it does the kindness and acceptance work of the show without ever using the word kindness.
What Comes Through The Door
Fearless travels with a large screen, so the video that carries the story is readable from the back row of a gym. Sound and stage lighting come with it.
All of it loads in and out without your staff carrying anything or running a single cable. You need a space, a power outlet and an audience.
Hear It From The Gym Floor
No script and no second take. This is what he said standing in the room the show had just finished in.
He is talking about a Wade Live school assembly rather than Fearless specifically, but he answers the question that matters most, which is how a show like this actually lands with a building full of students.
From Wade Live School Assemblies
The Questions Schools Ask
How long is it, and how many shows in a day?
Fearless runs 45 to 50 minutes. If your building is too big to seat in one sitting, a second assembly the same day is usually the answer, and that is worth asking about when you call rather than guessing from a website.
What age group is it right for?
Elementary, middle school and junior high. The magic works on all of them, and the message is pitched so a fourth grader takes something home from it and an eighth grader does not feel talked down to. Tell me which grades will be in the room and I will tell you honestly whether it is the right fit.
Are the tarantulas safe, and do students touch them?
Safe, and no. Students do not go near it and are never brought up to touch or hold it. They see it on the big screen instead, which gets them a far better look at it than standing next to it would.
It is an Avicularia, one of the docile species kept as pets, and it is harmless. Nothing in this routine is a dare and nobody gets singled out. The point of the whole thing is the opposite of scaring students, and it would not work if the room were frightened.
What do you need from us?
A gym, cafeteria or auditorium, a power outlet, and somewhere to pull up to the door. The screen, the sound, the lighting and the props all travel with me and go up and come down without your staff touching anything. Tell me about your space when you call and I will tell you what it needs.
Is it a magic show or a character education program?
Both, and that is the whole design. A character education assembly students endure changes nothing. Fearless is funny first, which is what buys the attention the message needs. The theme is not announced at the end, it runs the length of the show.
Can the message be aimed at something specific we are working on?
Up to a point, yes. Fearless is built around following your passion and finding the nerve to try, and the kindness and acceptance material in the tarantula routine sits naturally beside anti-bullying work. If your focus this year is somewhere else entirely, say so and we will talk about whether this is the right show or whether a different one is.
What does it cost?
It depends on the date, where you are, and whether you want one assembly or two. Call or send the date and you get a straight number back, not a brochure.
Where do you travel?
Upstate New York. Home base is Syracuse, and Rochester, Buffalo, Albany, Utica, Binghamton and everywhere across Central New York are all regular drives. If you are further out, ask anyway.
Bring Fearless to your school
Tell me the date, the grades and the room. I will tell you honestly whether this is the right assembly for your building.
Or call 315-491-2841