We’re delighted to welcome audience engagement specialist Michael Kent as our guest today.
In this episode, Michael speaks with Eric about audience engagement, corporate events, comedy, magic, workplace culture, and the growing role of AI in live experiences.
Stay tuned as Michael shares how years of performing around the world shaped his approach to helping companies create meaningful events that bring people together, reduce stress, and strengthen workplace relationships.
Michael’s Journey
Michael has been entertaining people since he was six years old. After discovering magic at Walt Disney World, he became known as “Magic Mike” throughout school and college. He later worked as a marketing director while continuing to perform magic shows on the side. Once the numbers made sense financially, he left his day job and moved into entertainment full-time. Over the last 23 years, he has toured internationally as a comedian and magician, performing in 21 countries and 49 states. Over time, he came to realize that his real role was to engage audiences to help companies connect with their people through experiences that are fun, positive, memorable, and meaningful.
A Clear Goal
Entertainment should support the broader purpose of an event rather than exist separately from it. Michael believes many companies only hold annual events because they have always done so. But that is not enough. Before planning entertainment, it’s essential to define exactly what the event aims to accomplish, as different goals require different approaches.
Early Involvement
Michael prefers to be included early in the planning process rather than hired at the last minute, as he needs to understand why the company chose the venue, who will attend, whether spouses are included, and what challenges the organization is facing.
Audience Engagement
Audiences become more engaged when they share experiences. Michael’s role is often about helping people who do not know each other feel connected. By bringing people on stage, creating audience participation, and encouraging interaction, he helps attendees build familiarity and trust. That matters because people remember shared experiences long after the event, helping their workplace communication feel more comfortable.
Matching Entertainment Style To The Audience
After being brought in late to an event, Michael discovered a major language barrier with the audience, as most attendees spoke very little English, forcing him to rely on visual aids rather than his usual interactive comedy style. That experience reinforced how important it is to match the entertainment style to the audience and to include performers early enough in the planning process to allow for proper adaptation.
Safe Comedy for Corporate Events
Michael always guarantees that his performances will contain nothing objectionable. He avoids political, racial, or offensive material because his goal is to bring people together, not make anyone uncomfortable. For him, even one person feeling alienated at an event matters. While college audiences sometimes expect slightly edgier material, most organizations today simply want clean, trustworthy entertainment that creates a positive shared experience.
Stage Fright
Michael feels that nervousness before speaking is healthy because it means you care. He always focuses on the mission of the event rather than his own anxiety. Before his performances, he thinks about how to help people relax, reconnect, and enjoy themselves together.
Workplace Relationships Matter
Workplace friendships can significantly improve productivity and retention. Events give employees a chance to see each other outside their normal work roles, creating a more human connection. He recommends seating arrangements that combine new hires, long-term employees, executives, and people from different departments, as this helps younger employees feel included while allowing experienced staff to serve as mentors and support systems naturally.
A Simple Engagement Strategy
A simple idea companies can use at events is to have attendees wear color-coded wristbands or name tags linked to their years of service or departments without them initially knowing their meaning, to create curiosity and conversation. Later during the event, the system is explained, and leaders can use it to highlight employee experience levels and connections across the company. Small details like this encourage interaction and help audiences become more engaged.
How Michael Views AI and Authenticity
Michael believes many people currently feel more stress than opportunity around AI, although he expects that to change. One major problem is that people use AI to bypass authenticity. He has attended company events where executive speeches clearly sounded AI-generated, which immediately reduced the feeling of connection in the room. Michael believes AI should function as a tool rather than replace human communication. At the same time, he expects AI to increase demand for live experiences because people still crave authentic, in-person interaction and shared laughter.
Live Events Still Matter
Live events provide something that screens and AI cannot fully replace. Hearing hundreds of people laugh together creates a shared emotional experience that people deeply miss in a screen-focused world. Michael believes companies that invest in meaningful in-person experiences will continue to see value in stronger workplace culture, better communication, and improved employee relationships.
Michael’s Approach to Success
Fame has never been Michael’s main goal. He prefers to focus on helping people, creating meaningful experiences, and leaving audiences happier than when they arrived.
BIO: Michael Kent
Michael Kent is an Audience Engagement Specialist. Through more than 2 decades of experience as a Comedy Magician working with corporations, colleges, and military installations, he has mastered the art of one thing:
Connecting companies to their people in a way that’s good, fun, positive, memorable – but more than that – meaningful.
He’s been named Entertainer of the Year by Campus Activities Magazine, Magician of the Year by the Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities. He has appeared on the television show Penn & Teller: Fool Us.
Michael enhances company events and is passionate about ensuring they have a real-world impact by improving employee retention, reducing absenteeism, promoting a positive corporate culture, and fostering the inspiration that leads to a healthy, profitable organization.
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