A career in the entertainment industry, as an actor / Daredevil Illusionist, which spanned over 20 years. Live international stage, television & movie appearances. Performer of the largest illusion ever attempted in history. Successfully performed the one escape that eluded even the great Harry Houdini, being buried alive. And it all came to a crashing halt in 2014, while rehearsing an escape stunt for my own reality show, which was set to premiere later that year. The equipment malfunctioned, resulting in neck, spinal & multiple brain injuries, leaving me paralyzed & not expected to live. Yet, all these years later, while my recovery is still ongoing, I have made tremendous progress & am now working on finishing up the book to tell the entire whirlwind of my life story, with emphasis on my life since the accident & how I have learned to adapt. The main focus is to inspire others, no matter what the challenges they face, to work hard, keep pushing, fight & most importantly, to NEVER GIVE UP...! All proceeds will be donated to paraplegic, quadriplegic & neurological injury research, in general. I look forward to getting the finishing touches on this wrapped up & if reading it changes the outlook for even one person, then my entire journey will have been well worth it...! never.give.up.

Say hello to my little frienddddd…! 🐍 This is Guido...a nearly 100-year-old mind-reading snake who still knows how to work a room. Classic Snake Basket routine: an audience member selects and signs a card. The deck goes into the basket, the lid goes on… then comes off. Guido slowly rises with the selected card right in his mouth. Pure old-school theatre. The lid went missing when my antiquarian (I like using that word...it makes me feel smart! 😆) collection was moved across the country after my injury. Today it has been found ...and later today Guido and his lid are finally reunited. Almost a century old, and still coming back together. I named him after one of my uncles, that I was super close to (not the one who’s one of my primary caregivers now...another of the brothers). Super cool, old-school NYC Sicilian. The stories about him that I will share… and the ones I absolutely will not… let’s just say IYKYK. 😉 Magic has a way of surviving. So do we. #FromHollywoodToQuadriplegic #DaredevilMagic #VintageMagic #AntiqueMagic #MagicCollection #SnakeBasket #MagicHistory #Resilience #QuadLife #BehindTheMagic #TheMagicIsBack

My Quadriplegic Life…! 🚨♿️✨ (Hopefully an end to the weirdness is in sight… but I wouldn’t bet on it. 😆) Recent events in my life: Stolen mail. A random guy materializing in the backyard and heading straight for Gina and me. And then the grand finale: One of the big wheeled bins. Stolen. From right in front of the house. The night before pickup. Filled. With. Garbage. Why…?! It instantly took me back to my bio father. One of the times the knuckleheads were coming after him, they started stealing the garbage bags and going through them. My father was always two (or three, or ten) steps ahead. I firmly believe he was a genius. In another life he’d have been the CEO of a major company. In many ways he already was… just with different terminology. And honestly? His world was more honest. Always has been, always will be. Anyway… He had a bunch of his guys collect bags of… um… droppings. From their dogs. (And looking back, knowing most of those guys… some of it was probably from them too. 😆) That’s what we put out for garbage collection. Bags and bags of it. Then he started having notes put in there, encouraging them to “enjoy lunch, on him…” I miss his antics. I miss him dearly. But at least that funny, albeit somewhat gross story can still make me laugh this morning. Ti voglio bene, papà…! 🇮🇹🤌🏾❤️ #FromHollywoodToQuadriplegic #QuadriplegicJourney #SCIWarrior #EnabledNotDisabled #QuadLife #ImPossible #DisabilityHumor #NeverGiveUp #Family #SicilianStyle

Miss Gina and I are deep in our October Universal Monsters marathon…! I needed every frame of it tonight. My thumb got crushed earlier...bleeding badly from under the nail, the whole messy deal. Still feels super funky. Ironically, I really don’t bruise, so the nail looks almost normal. Some setbacks are small. Some rewrite the entire script. Either way, the monsters on screen have nothing on the ones we face in real life… and we keep watching. We keep rolling forward. With the right person beside you, even the weirdest days become part of the story. On with the show…Oh, the places we’ll go…! ✨❤️♿️ #UniversalMonsters #OctoberMovieMarathon #ClassicHorror #HalloweenVibes #QuadriplegicJourney #SCIWarrior #YouArePossible #FromHollywoodToQuadriplegic #NeverGiveUp #EnabledNotDisabled #ImPossible #QuadLife

Post Breakfast Chats with Miss Gina…☕️♿️ Breakfast plates are still on the table. Coffee’s getting cold. Conversation drifts to our old entertainment-industry days the way it always does. I mention one of the biggest names in magic right now. Gina has never heard of them. Me: When they were a kid they used to send me letters in the mail. Gina: Like fan mail? Me: Pretty much. Gina: So wait! Actual letters? Me: Actual letters. Gina: So wait! With stamps and everything? Me: The whole antique experience. Gina: What did they say? Me: Mostly asking for advice on performing. How to put a show together. That kind of thing. Gina: Is he any good? Me: I’ll show you. I pull up a recent(ish) TV performance... Gina watches. Then freezes. Then: Gina: Oh my God. That was terrible. Me (already laughing): One of the top names in magic today. Gina: So wait! How? Me: He’s successful. That’s the metric that pays the bills. Gina (snorting, eyes already watering): Look at the comments! She wasn’t wrong. Brutal. The consensus was basically “cheap Temu Criss Angel copy.” Gina: Did you ever get comments like that? Me: Toward the end, when things were going to another level, I’d get the occasional knucklehead. But at least I was being compared to someone better. Gina: How did you deal with it when people said negative stuff? Me: I’d open my bank statements. Gina (full snort-laugh, tears, the whole production): You’re too much! That’s the biz. You can be the kid writing letters asking for advice, or the one getting compared to whoever’s currently in the spotlight. Either way, the comments section will always have opinions. The bank statements have fewer opinions and better math. Two quads. One post-breakfast table. Zero interest in letting strangers with keyboards rewrite the story. On with the show… Oh, the places we’ll go…!✨❤️♿️ #FromHollywoodToQuadriplegic #QuadriplegicJourney #SCIWarrior #EnabledNotDisabled #QuadLife #DisabilityHumor #TheMagicIsBack #ImPossible #EntertainmentIndustry #NeverDoubtAQuad

🚨 Can pairing sound with gentle tongue stimulation quiet tinnitus? ❤️ ♿️ Chronic tinnitus (that phantom ringing or buzzing) is common after brain injury. One approach being tested is bimodal neuromodulation: targeted sounds played through headphones while mild electrical pulses stimulate the tongue. The idea is that this dual input drives neuroplasticity in the auditory system and helps the brain turn down the volume on the phantom signals. A large randomized trial with 326 adults who had chronic tinnitus found that 12 weeks of daily use produced statistically significant reductions in symptom severity on standard questionnaires. For some stimulation settings, the improvements lasted up to 12 months. Compliance was high and there were no serious treatment-related side effects. Later studies (including one that helped support FDA clearance of the Lenire device) continued to show benefit for many people, especially those with moderate or worse tinnitus. Why I’m watching this: After my accident I developed tinnitus alongside the hypoxic brain injury, TBI, and incomplete quadriplegia. It was manageable for a while, then started creeping back. Approaches that use the brain’s ability to rewire itself are interesting to me because the tinnitus from neurological injury is often central, not just ear-related. This isn’t a cure and response varies, but the data on reduced distress is real. Important realities: This is not a placebo-controlled trial with a convincing dummy device. Benefits are mainly in how bothersome the tinnitus feels, not always a clear drop in loudness. Results are individual. Not everyone improves. Still, for those of us living with tinnitus after brain injury, research that targets plasticity is worth knowing about. On with the show…Oh, the places we’ll go…! ✨❤️♿️ pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3302… #FromHollywoodToQuadriplegic #SCIWarrior #TBISurvivor #HypoxicBrainInjury #Tinnitus #Neuroplasticity #Lenire #NeuroRecovery #EnabledNotDisabled #QuadriplegicJourney #NeverGiveUp #QuadLife #BrainInjuryAwareness

My Life: From Hollywood to Quadriplegic… 🎥♿️ Spent time today inside my warehouse and private magic museum...watching it come back to life for the upcoming charity event supporting SCI and brain injury research. Gave Gina a deeper tour through the pieces that have defined decades of this obsession: rare books, original advertising posters, props, costumes, set pieces, and artifacts from the greats. The kind of stuff you only find when you’ve spent a lifetime hunting it. After the accident, the collection crossed the country. It never got fully displayed the way it was ...or the way I wanted it. This event is finally giving us the chance to do that properly. I’m deeply grateful for my family and my new creative team handling the physical work I still can’t do myself. They’re turning rooms full of history into museum-quality exhibits again. I’ve always said I was more historian and collector than pure performer. In this next act of the play, I’m leaning all the way into that. Even as I return for the one-night-only (for now…?) special performance, I’ll still be viewing myself as the COLLECTOR. Seeing a lifetime of work...rare and antiquarian magic and show-business memorabilia...going back on proper display puts a real smile on my face. And I’m actively adding new pieces again, with the long-term goal of opening this as a public museum. Quadriplegia rewrote the script. But...it will will never, ever stop the show.✨❤️♿️ #FromHollywoodToQuadriplegic #MagicMuseum #SCIWarrior #TBISurvivor #HypoxicBrainInjury #QuadriplegicJourney #EnabledNotDisabled #NeverGiveUp #QuadLife #MagicHistory #Collector #CharityEvent #BrainInjuryAwareness #ImPossible

🚨 Can two hours of silence help the brain grow new cells after injury? ❤️♿️ A mouse study looked at different sound environments and their effect on the hippocampus (the brain area tied to memory and learning). Two hours a day of complete silence was the only condition that not only increased the birth of new brain cells, but also helped those cells survive and mature into actual neurons. Other sounds (including music) gave a short-term boost to precursor cells, but only silence produced the lasting increase. Why I’m paying attention: After my accident I was left with hypoxic brain injury, TBI, and incomplete quadriplegia. Specialists were clear that a lot of what was lost was gone for good. Recovery has been slow, uneven, but also very real...especially the cognitive and motor pieces that still surprise me when they improve. We already know the injured brain tries to repair itself by growing new cells. That process is limited, but anything that might support neurogenesis or lower the stress that can suppress it is worth watching. Quiet time won’t reverse damage, yet it may give the brain a better environment to do the repair work it’s already trying to do. Important realities: This was healthy mice, not people with brain injury. It is not a treatment. We still need human data. Still, for those of us living with the long-term effects of brain injury, research that shows the brain can keep growing and adapting is worth noting. The environment after injury isn’t frozen. On with the show…Oh, the places we’ll go…! ✨❤️♿️ pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/article… #FromHollywoodToQuadriplegic #SCIWarrior #TBISurvivor #HypoxicBrainInjury #Neurogenesis #BrainHealth #NeuroRecovery #EnabledNotDisabled #QuadriplegicJourney #NeverGiveUp #QuadLife #BrainInjuryAwareness

My Life: From Hollywood to Quadriplegic… 🎥♿️ Back from the House of Pain (aka physical therapy). It was… PT. The usual beautiful violence. 😆 But the waiting room? Absolute cinema. Uncle’s grabbing coffee. We're in the little seating area, phone in hand, I'm casually shorting the S&P like a man with nothing to lose (weeeee! But...I mean, I did bank...so...). One of the staff starts chatting with us...right before the torturers… er, um...therapists… come out to claim their next victims. Gina, zero to sixty in half a second, leans in like she’s delivering breaking news to the entire clinic: Gina (volume 11, pure Italian excitement 🇮🇹🤌🏾): We almost got abducted last night! The random dude who wandered onto the property, through the gates, and was heading straight for the two of us by the water. Doesn’t take much to light the fuse with Gina. Her enthusiasm is pure rocket fuel...and one of the brightest things in my day. Uncle walks up, coffee in hand, already laughing. Uncle: You’s didn’t almost get abducted. It was just some mamaluke who was probably drunk or something. Gina (eyes wide, volume increasing, pure Italian fire): You don’t know that he wasn’t 'gonna abduct us! What was he doing there?! Uncle (laughing harder): He wasn’t 'gonna abduct anybody. Gina (now fully wound up, volume rising, the whole waiting room is getting a free show): THEN WHY DID YOU AND LUCA BEAT HIM UP?!?! Uncle (nearly spilling the coffee, cracking up): We didn’t beat him up. We just had a strong talk with him. Gina (volume now past max, one eyebrow in orbit, pure spicy Sicilian energy): Hmm! That’s a funny way to talk to someone! I just sat there grinning. Hollywood used to be wild, unpredictable, full of plot twists. This new life on this quadriplegic journey? Fuggedaboutit...! It makes the old days look like a quiet retirement village. And life with Miss Gina? Perfetto...! Even when her excitement turns a random backyard wanderer into a full-scale abduction plot (I mean… who knows, right?). As for the “strong talk” my uncle and brother had with the guy… “I don’t know nothin’ ’bout that.” 🇮🇹🤌🏾😆 It’s always something. And somehow, with her, it always ends up being the best something. On with the show…Oh, the places we’ll go…! ✨❤️♿️ #FromHollywoodToQuadriplegic #SCIWarrior #QuadriplegicJourney #EnabledNotDisabled #QuadLife #DisabilityHumor #ItalianFire #Family #HouseOfPain #NeverGiveUp #ImPossible

🚨 Semax: A peptide being studied for brain injury recovery. Semax is a synthetic peptide (a short chain of amino acids) based on a natural hormone fragment. It’s been used in Russia for years for stroke and cognitive issues, given as a nasal spray so it can reach the brain more directly. Researchers are looking at it for hypoxic brain injury and TBI because of how it may support recovery after damage: It appears to raise BDNF (a key protein that helps neurons survive, grow, and form new connections). It can dial down harmful inflammation and support the brain’s own repair signals. In animal models of ischemia (blood-flow/oxygen loss) and some hypoxia studies, it has reduced damage and helped protect memory. Limited Russian human data (including in people with post-hypoxic encephalopathy) has suggested benefits for memory issues, though these studies are smaller and not the large, independent trials Western medicine usually relies on. Important reality check: Evidence is strongest in animal work and Russian clinical use for stroke/ischemia. Direct data for TBI is thinner, and it’s not FDA-approved or proven as a treatment here. It’s not magic, and it’s not a substitute for standard care or rehab. But the mechanisms overlap with the secondary damage that happens after both hypoxic injury and TBI...inflammation, excitotoxicity, and slowed repair...so it’s one of the compounds researchers keep watching. As someone living with hypoxic brain injury, TBI, and quadriplegia, I follow this kind of work closely. Every potential tool that might support the brain’s own recovery is worth understanding. On with the show…Oh, the places we’ll go…! ✨❤️♿️ mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/12/617… #FromHollywoodToQuadriplegic #TBISurvivor #HypoxicBrainInjury #SCIWarrior #BrainInjuryAwareness #NeuroRecovery #Peptides #Semax #QuadriplegicJourney #EnabledNotDisabled #QuadLife #NeverGiveUp

My Quadriplegic Life…! 🚨♿️ ✨ There have been some weird things going on around here lately. About 45 minutes ago, Miss Gina and I were parked out by the lake, soaking in what might be some of our last water time this season. Completely oblivious. Just existing. Just rolling with our perfectly quadriplegic lives. Then we hear yelling. Some random guy had already gotten onto the property. He went beside the house (only way he could have gotten near us), through another gate, and into the backyard...headed straight toward the two of us by the water. Two people in wheelchairs...! My family spotted him from the house. My uncle, my brother, and Gina’s dad came flying out. My brother tackled him to the ground. The others…um... made sure he wasn’t going to get any closer. 😉 We still don’t know what his intentions were. What we do know is he deliberately gained access to the property, bypassed gates, and was moving toward two virtually defenseless people in wheelchairs. Really...?!?! We’re now wondering if this is connected to the other strange things that have been happening here lately. Hmm…! 🤔 Family moved like they had been waiting for this exact moment. No hesitation. Just pure, immediate protection. True Sicilian style...! 🇮🇹🤌🏾 We stay vigilant. We keep showing up. We stay out there living. #FromHollywoodToQuadriplegic #QuadriplegicJourney #SCIWarrior #EnabledNotDisabled #QuadLife #NeverDoubtAQuad #ImPossible #Family #SpinalCordInjury