Today we’d like to introduce you to John Tucker.
John, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I became actively interested in creating entertainment at age 10, acting in localized tv/radio & theatrical productions & eventually shifting to performing illusions.
At that early age, I became highly focused on success, envisioning my future life plan (at the time, to be the most successful entertainer of all time). I filled my bedroom walls with hundreds of ideas written on sticky notes & made youtube videos telling stories of solving problems through magic.
As I grew up, I became inspired by entertainers ranging from Michael Jackson to Kanye West, helping me identify my own brand. Eventually, my inspirations expanded beyond entertainment, & so did my mission. Apollo 11 (First Manned Landing on The Moon) inspired me to realize my limitless power as a human, while I found idolization in people who had tapped into that power, like Steve Jobs.
Finishing high school, my unique traits became more clear, like the ability to think logically AND artistically then combine those two mindsets to create different ideas that could change the world. I ran with my uniqueness- continuing to write notebooks of those ideas, & eventually, produced my first ‘big’ project at the beginning of 2014- creating the illusion I could ‘predict’ the outcome of the SuperBowl to raise money for charity.
This led me on a fast-paced movie-scene type of year- creating a series of short popular Illusion-based Instagram videos, performing at fun run events, & creating a viral ‘funny videos’ page on Instagram, which blew up over a period of only months, gaining me a combined total of over 300,000+ followers by the end of summer.
I was also becoming less focused on the deception aspect of magic & more focused on creating magical experiences in general. Visiting Disney World was a catalyst in this- they were using illusions & deception as a tool, but not as the main focus, & along with many other tools, to create magical experiences for people.
Inspired, I began focused more on creating ‘experiences’ rather than ‘magic’. I also became extremely focused on-time efficiency, knowing I had to ‘work hard’, & cut down my sleep to 3 hours a night, & discover techniques to force myself to dream ideas during that minimal time away.
This unsustainable lifestyle, along with a mental predisposition, led me to have panic attacks & eventually be thrown into a dissociative state (specifically, depersonalization/derealization). It took away my ability to experience reality for six months, which completed forced me to slow down, find a balance in life, & re-evaluate everything.
After recovering in 2015, I discovered a new passion for being alive & healthy, taking advantage of the ability to experience everything. Fortunate to be making income from influencer marketing via my ‘funny videos’ page, I went on a bucket list living spree & expanded my own perspective, diving fully into the deep realizations that’ve always been a central interest in my mind.
Around this time, I was focusing my work efforts on an innovative ‘experience mixtape’ project, leading into 2016. Frustrated at the unsuccessful securing of funding for the project, I released 3 ‘demo’ experiences at the beginning of 2017- ‘The Tucker Zone (A 3D Sound Experience)’, ‘Lost Boy (A Choose Your Own Adventure Completely On Instagram Pages)’ & a brand called ‘Live X (Short for Live Extraordinary, A Lifestyle Movement)’.
My mission was clearer now- to change the world- but for some reason, throughout a combination of factors, life had become less exciting. I tried to rekindle the amazing feelings from previous years but wasn’t feeling the heightened senses from before. I continued to feel more stagnant & lost throughout 2017, living in Austin for a short period & eventually connecting with ‘Meow Wolf’, an Art collective turned company, whose focus is to creating experiences.
I moved to New Mexico to work with Meow Wolf throughout 2018, contributing to multiple projects including various SXSW ‘18 Activations, but ultimately, still felt lost, & knew I wouldn’t be fulfilled fully unless I was expressing my own ideas under my own umbrella. Around this same time, ‘The Tucker Zone’ started going viral on YouTube & TikTok, reaching over a million views.
With the support of Meow Wolf, I decided to move back to Dallas to try & fully rekindle my mindset & start expressing my ideas again. It took a few months & multiple serious efforts at living a healthier lifestyle, but by spring, I found myself expanding my own perspective in a new direction- accepting the past as one section of my life- ‘Phase 1’ – & began looking forward to something new & different ahead- ‘Phase 2’. After that, suddenly, I started feeling creative all the time, filling my notes with ideas again, feeling experiences, feeling happy to be alive- feeling fulfilled.
Throughout 2019, ‘The Tucker Zone’ continued its climb on youtube- as of this interview, it’s currently at 7 Million views, while still gaining hundreds of thousands per month.
My plan now is to release a follow up on November 4th (symbolically, the first quarter moon), which will transition into a wave of new, weekly experiences.
I’m excited to be stepping into this new chapter of life- I’m starting with experiences, but I have ideas for everything- products, art, music, philosophy, film, whatever, you name it.
Hopefully, as of now, I think I can say I’m on The Verge of expressing that all.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road as expected. Besides the challenges I’ve encountered with my mental health (dissociation), I’ve also encountered frustration trying to attain resources to create my ideas- even after proving them.
Recently, I’ve come to a realization that I needed to focus on money more. Before, I tried to just focus on my ideas, contributing to the world & believing the money would naturally come to create better ideas- but it hasn’t worked out that way.
So now, I’m taking money into account, utilizing it as a resource, & enlisting my viewers to help play ‘The Money Game’ in order to achieve a level of freedom in life & creating that I don’t have right now- which ultimately is resulting in the least possible experience for them.
What do you do, what do you specialize in, what are you known for, etc. What are you most proud of? What sets you apart from others?
Obviously, I’ve had a diverse journey, & my ideas are even more sparse. Although I never want to limit myself in any direction, I’ve established a base way to describe my current focus-
I’m creating evidence-based entertainment experiences that expand perspectives.
Here is that same spiel, but unpacked a bit-
-I want to create entertainment experiences (for example: Disney World) of all kinds – digital, physical, blending the two, whatever. I have a limitless amount of ideas.
-I want those experiences to expand perspectives- to not only entertain but also shift thinking in new ways- convey different perspectives that expand minds & positively impact people’s interactions with the world. I’ve learned experience is highly about perspective- it determines our interpretation of everything in life.
-I want those ideas that expand perspectives to fundamentally be based on evidence. Not pseudoscience, or something that really doesn’t match up with what has been proven, can achieve results, or what experts hypothesis are. I want to get closer to the truth with the universe we are living in, or at least, as close as we can get.
To sum it all up, I think ‘The Tucker Zone’ experience is the best example of this direction I have expressed so far, but that was 2 years ago. Throughout these next couple of months, I’ll be expressing my evolved, matured version of the conglomerate that ‘The Tucker Zone’ represents.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I think it’s interesting to identify certain traits I’ve always had (imagination, etc.)- An interesting memory that represents that I’ve always thought deeply, about perspectives, etc. It is from the 4th grade.
I remember heading to playground & thinking about consciousness, wondering when people start to develop self-awareness. I knew then that I was thinking, and could control what I would say and do, so I told myself I was going to remember that moment so I knew that, even back then, I was self-aware.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.JohnTaylorTucker.com
- Instagram: www.Instagram.com/JohnTaylorTucker
- Other: www.youtube.com/JohnTaylorTucker
Image Credit:
John Tucker
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