Jason Lee Neistadt was born in Rancho Cucamonga, California, on May 13, 1976. At the age of two, Jason’s family moved to Dubois, Wyoming. Raised in this small town, Jason learned to ride horses and practiced doing stunts in the mountains around the house. It was here that Jason first showed a fearless interest in acrobatic gymnastics, stunts and the martial arts.
At the age of 10, Jason’s family moved to Apple Valley, California, and Jason quickly became popular as the class clown, doing silly impressions of teachers and other students. When Jason was twelve, his 6th grade teacher, Brian Ewert, one day taught his students how to juggle during P.E.; Jason truly found a way to entertain and was fascinated!
Jason spent literally every waking moment perfecting the difficult art of manipulating objects in the air. During a family trip to Las Vegas, he saw “Melinda, the First Lady of Magic” and her variety act, Anthony Gatto (the greatest technical juggler in the world). Blown away by the combination of magic and juggling, Jason spent all of his allowance at a local magic shop the very next day.
Being the perfectionist that he is, it wasn’t long before Jason was perfecting his new-found crafts and performing at local birthday parties and charity events. By the age of 13, Jason was juggling eight objects and became a junior member of the world famous and prestigious Magic Castle in Hollywood.
While honing his craft of performance art, Jason also began to take extra classes for credit in high school. His determination helped him to graduate nearly two years early, and at the age of 16, he moved to Hollywood. Jason was a hit every year at the “Future Stars of Magic” week at the Magic Castle, and before the age of 16, he was the youngest person to ever perform during a “members only” evening. When Jason graduated from the juniors’ program, he received the coveted “Junior Achievement award” from Harry Anderson, at the annual Academy of Magical Arts banquet.
In 1993, Jason headed to Las Vegas to perform at the opening of the new MGM Grand and quickly realized that Las Vegas was the perfect place to live. As a man whose passion is learning new and exciting forms of art, Jason found a plethora in Las Vegas! He used his athletic abilities to learn to high dive, high fall and sword fight and become one of the stars of the Dueling Pirates Stunt Spectacular. Those skills also led him to be a stunt man in the movies “Mars Attacks” by Tim Burton and “Con Air” by Jerry Bruckheimer!
It was also in Las Vegas where Jason learned exciting circus and variety skills like hand balancing and stilt walking. Never satisfied, Jason also took up the hobby of portrait drawing and learned how to airbrush and draw caricatures. Although this is just a hobby, Jason’s striving for perfection has made him one of the most popular caricature artists in the corporate world.
While working very steadily and contentedly in Las Vegas and across the country, Jason continued to work on self-fulfilling projects like the hit special T.H.E.M. Totally Hidden Extreme Magic on NBC, which was seen by over seven million viewers.
In 2003, Jason began working with world famous producer David Saxe (Melinda the First Lady of Magic, V The Ultimate Variety show and Showgirls of Magic). It wasn’t long before Jason challenged himself with new directions and became the Executive Vice President of David Saxe Productions and the V Theater Group. For several years Jason managed every aspect of 8 successful shows in Las Vegas at hotels like the Aladdin, Sahara, Planet Hollywood and the Tropicana as well as numerous shows around the world! With the 24 hour a day schedule of an executive, Jason handled all aspects of live shows including management, legal, union, showroom, box office, IT, Graphics, sales, and much more. Responsible for all that as well as the management of over 120 employees, Jason found himself off the stage for over a year. Realizing that to be happy, he needed to be performing, Jason and his now good friend David Saxe agreed that he should get back to performing and create the greatest one man show ever!
In 2007, with a new passion and knowledge of the entertainment business, Jason began to work on his new one-man show. When this show is complete, he will bring it back and produce it in Las Vegas. In the meantime, Jason is traveling around the world fine-tuning new material on the amazing stages on board the ships of cruise industry giants, Princess and Royal Caribbean.
Although Jason has a repertoire of over 300 voices, this show will be so much more! Jason is embarking on a journey to redefine live theater as we know it! This high energy, one-man show combines cutting edge multimedia, hysterical comedy, amazing dance, awesome acrobatics and dangerous stunts as well as singing, martial arts, juggling, magic, fire eating and so much more!
It will truly be the greatest variety show ever performed by one man!
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