Shane is a military "brat" (a term of endearment for children of military parents) who grew up over fifteen U.S. states, moving on average once every two years since he was born. After being tricked by his friends in high school into auditioning for the senior play, he was professionally scouted from that production and forewent college to act, write, produce, and direct for the stage in Richmond, VA. At the end of the millennium, after the untimely passing of his father, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and served a six year term that at first sent him to work for the Special Operations Command (which, coincidentally enough, his father helped found) in the town of his birth.
From there, he spent over four years in northern rural Japan, the longest he has lived in one place if you don't subtract the combat deployments (which include six months served in Afghanistan in 2005). For his military service, he received several high profile decorations such as the Joint Service and Army Commendation medals. During his enlistment he earned two associate degrees, one in Contracts Management and the other in Japanese Studies. After his honorable discharge, he attended university full time to attain a degree in secondary education and earned teaching certifications across the performing and literary arts, speech, humanities, and social sciences. During that time he earned a Fulbright grant amongst other high profile academic awards and honors.
Upon graduating, he went to teach in Changsha, China, then at the prestigious Shanghai High School, before moving to Kathmandu, Nepal, where he coordinated a comprehensive course on critical thinking called Theory of Knowledge while teaching Theatre and Literature. One of his Theatre students (Salma Malhas) starred in Netflix's first Arabic language production and is currently attending the Tisch School of Performing Arts. From Nepal, he trained teachers in Kazakhstan for several years, then pursued graduate work in Turku, Finland. His master's thesis on how critical thinking pedagogy can help combat misinformation was published as an academic article in The Journal of Research in International Education in 2019 and sits amongst the top performing scholastic articles in the world.
Shane currently teaches Drama, English, and Social Studies at Brussels American School, a Department of Defense Education Activity school for military-connected children. The school is particularly comfortable for him because it includes a large demographic of foreign national students hailing from Eastern Europe and Central Asia. He has continued to stage productions during the pandemic, relying on the magic of film to do so safely. In the past two years he has staged a live video version of A Christmas Carol, an filmed interactive murder-mystery, and just closed the curtains on a live shadow play based on Gogol's "Christmas Eve".
Raised by a martial arts instructor, Shane grew up studying karate, jujitsu, and aikido. After retiring from a career in law enforcement, his father decided to take a different turn and became a children's birthday party magician. Growing up around cardicians, escape artists and mentalists, Shane began performing street and stage magic at age seven and, now 43 years old, continues to dabble in these arts. He contributes much of his love for performing-- as well as his professional interest in critical thinking-- to his early career in magic.
Shane is 5'8", 140lbs, with (now greying) black hair and green eyes. He plays bass guitar and bit of ukulele.