Pre-Tour!

Tonight is our last night in the Radisson in Culver City and everyone is getting excited for our move onto the tour buses tomorrow night. More information has come out from some of the

tour veterans as well as thoughts of what each bus will be like based on who is on it. Fighting Gravity has one bus of 10 members to itself with 3 members sleeping with some of the other groups. I am definitely ready to get on the road after spending about two weeks here prepping for it. The routine is looking much better than its rough run-throughs earlier in the week and we are excited to see where it takes us. This week has been spent with many hours on the Sony Studios lot, neighboring the sets of Jeopardy and the Wheel of Fortune. We saw Gwyneth Paltrow filming for an upcoming movie one warehouse down from us.

Not a lot of the day to day life has changed, the same hanging out and hitting the gym for awhile as well as getting to know the other acts much better than we did before. Lots of bonding has been going on among the groups, backup dancers, crew and family members being in a more relaxed atmosphere. Studio One Young Beast Society keeps everything exciting, and we have been working with a few of the younger ones on schoolwork that they do each morning. I can’t imagine taking off of high school at their age and going into this same opportunity.

We have been putting a lot of our focus into the business side of our company Fighting Gravity LLC. It has been great getting to learn hands on starting a business and finding out what needs to be done to make it successful. Members of the group have been meeting with managers, agents, and other entertainment executives on where we can possibly take the group and what it would eventually lead us to. I have been focused more on the treasury, payroll from the tour and setting up bank accounts for each of the members. We are now going through the process of hiring a lawyer, agent, and accountant to help the group continue its growth through the coming months.

Overall, the biggest thing I have seen from this experience is the possibility that it will change my life more than I thought it could. I’m learning more in these few months in the fields of business, production and social skills than I could in a semester at school. It has given me the chance to think of what direction I could be heading in life and where I would want to end up. Ever thought of the person who designs and builds new magic illusions? I hadn’t until today - Thanks Grasso. A quote that I recently found is the perfect summation of my life.

‎"My life is about having experiences - all the way until I die, That's all I'm here for. I don't have any other reason. If that's not how you're looking at it, then, dude, you're just spinning your wheels. Your just waiting for your time to die." -Jeb Corliss

I’ll be posting frequently as we check into Oakland, CA for our first stop as well as the ones to come soon after that.

LA Life

Its been such an incredible experience to be doing what we have over the past few weeks and months. I've thanked quite a few people over the support they've given us, whether it be voting, setting up viewing parties, or passing the word along to friends at their colleges, but most of all my parents have been a huge help. I basically lived off of them this summer as I was taking classes, practicing for AGT and having a great time with friends in Blacksburg, and I am so thankful to have been given such an opportunity.

We have been in LA this time for 2 days now after the long travel day Saturday. It has been

an eerie mix of relaxing and urgency seeing as we must complete a new act for the tour while finally getting a break from being in the midst of a competition. Our hotel is a little further south so we aren't quite in the Beverly Hills/Hollywood scene we had gotten used to but enjoy the change of scenery. Sunday was a great day for us, since we got to meet a few of the people involved with the tour but also got time to relax at Venice Beach and see some of the crazies that hang out there. Given more time in the mornings and evenings has given most of us a chance to workout a little more easily. Caleb and I went for a run out past Loyola Marymount College (much too long of a run) as well as using the hotel gym, which is a slight disappointment from the Sofitel Spa we had been using the past 3 weeks.

Yesterday and today we got the chance to explore Sony Studios and meet the people that will be working with us on the tour. We have a new act and more illusions coming forward, hopefully it will impress anyone coming to see our shows. A lot of our time has been focused on choosing the right music and what elements to include while a few others have been looking at business aspects of our company such as banking and development. Talks with the tour organizers have gotten us much more excited about the buses we will be living on, consisting of 12 bunks with satellite and wireless internet. Laundry will be taken out daily, hopefully keeping the smell down a little bit from 13 college guys. As the week progresses I will know more details and plans for the future but we are stoked to get on the road and take this as far as we can.

Travel and post show

We are travelling back to Los Angeles on Saturday the 18^th after just finishing the show on Wednesday. We got the chance to travel home for about 48 hours if we wanted to and about half the group decided to get back to see friends before another 8 weeks away from home. Being back in Blacksburg was awesome since we got our flights changed to watch the Hokies beat ECU at home (49-27) our first win of a rough season thus far. Ryan Williams suffered an unknown injury during the first half which added to the poor playing the team had been showing up to that point. Hopefully this will get the team back on their feet to finish out the remainder of the season.

It has been amazing seeing the amount of support from people in Blacksburg and those back in each of our hometowns. Many people wanted to know about the show, our future plans and what we felt about the results. Overall the experience was better than anything I could’ve asked for or assumed I would ever be a part of. Out of 100,000 acts that auditioned we placed third, and though we received some tough judging comments in the last show we came out happy and thrilled at how far we had made it. The time I got to spend with 12 of my favorite fraternity brothers, as well as the constant support from those back home is something I know I could never get anywhere else and solidified my faith in the fraternity system as a whole.

Our plans now are to practice for our act that will be performed on tour while in LA for two weeks before beginning the nationwide tour. It will be about 6 weeks long as we travel to 25 cities across America. Starting in Oakland, California we will be snaking our way through the mid-west and making it to the east coast near the end of October. After the tour our plans are up in the air and where we will be living depends on offers as well as any other contracts with the tour or show. I’m hoping that I get to update this frequently enough to keep people interested in what’s going on out here, how shows are going, and life on the road.

Introduction

I’m currently sitting on the plane on the way to LA as I am writing this. I have never been much of a writer before but I felt this kind of an experience had to be documented on a more frequent basis as I’m sure too much will happen to remember it all. I have been inspired by the blogs of both Ross Tudor and Zach Morrey, who each have written about times in their life but in completely different settings. I am hoping this will serve as a way for many family and friends to keep up with what is going on while I am on tour with Fighting Gravity and the rest of the America’s Got Talent top 10. I do not believe I am under a contract forbidding me from speaking but please ask before using any of my words in publications if you stumble upon this.