#402: A Brain Tumor Took His Smile — But a Pocket Square Named Henry Gave Him His Life Back

Kevin Lowe: It's after the surgery. It's the realization that half of his face was left paralyzed.

Kevin Lowe: And for the next 12 years, John Kippen would stay hidden from the world, convinced that the rest of the world wouldn't be able to see past his face, his smile that he no longer had, the person he was, he felt was gone.

Kevin Lowe: But then, thankfully, a twist of fate would lead him back to a childhood fascination with magic, and that would change everything.

Kevin Lowe: Today's conversation is going to challenge how you see yourself.

Kevin Lowe: It's going to challenge how you define beauty, success, and strength.

Kevin Lowe: This is a journey through trauma, through transformation, and the healing power of finding your purpose.

Kevin Lowe: So whether you've ever felt judged, held back, or maybe even hidden by something you can't change, today's conversation is going to show you what's possible when you stop hiding and you start showing up to the world as your true authentic self.

Kevin Lowe: Because, my friend, no matter what you think is holding you back, no matter what you may think is wrong with you, my friend, the world needs more of you, just as you are.

Kevin Lowe: That is what I want you to gain out of today's conversation with John Kippen.

Kevin Lowe: So, with that, my friend, this is episode 402 of Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

Kevin Lowe: I'm, of course, your host, Kevin Lowe. And in the most sincere way possible, I want to thank you for being here.

Kevin Lowe: Because you chose to click on today's episode, it tells me that you care about yourself, that maybe you have something that you've been hiding from the rest of the world, that you've been thinking it makes you less than.

Kevin Lowe: But today is going to show you, no, it's actually completely opposite.

Kevin Lowe: It makes you greater than. So, my friend, with that said, this is my interview with none other than John Tippett.

John Kippen: Yeah, I got great grace and inspiration on my mind.

Kevin Lowe: What's going on and welcome back to Grit, Grace and Inspiration.

Kevin Lowe: Today, I am in the studio with none other than the man himself, John Kippen.

Kevin Lowe: John, man, pleasure to have you here. Welcome to the podcast.

John Kippen: Hey, Kevin, it's my ultimate pleasure to be here with you, Mike Wendt.

Kevin Lowe: Oh, man, well, I am so excited. I'm excited to get to explore so many different areas of your story. And, of course, we're going to have this through line of magic.

Kevin Lowe: When you say the word magic, I don't know that you can help but not start us smiling.

Kevin Lowe: And I would love to know, if we could, going back, where did your first kind of memories of magic come from? Maybe was it on television? Was it a relative?

Kevin Lowe: Like, where were you first introduced to magic?

John Kippen: I had an uncle named Uncle Milton, who was my grandmother's brother, and he would come into town to visit my grandma.

John Kippen: And I would visit my grandmother once or twice a month.

John Kippen: And one day he was there, and he saw me, and we met, and he pulled a quarter out of my ear.

John Kippen: And from then on, I was hooked.

John Kippen: And he saw my love for magic. And then every year on my birthday, he'd send me a trick to learn.

John Kippen: And every time he'd come into town, I'd pull out that trick and we'd do it together.

John Kippen: And he'd show me the nuances and help me with the presentation and the pattern.

John Kippen: And that continued until he passed away when I was 15 or 16.

Kevin Lowe: Wow. Wow. How awesome that it came from your uncle. That's amazing.

John Kippen: Yeah. And then I grew up watching all of the famous magicians on TV, Doug Henning, Mark Wilson, and Bill Dixby, and Sigrid Roy, and so magic became part of my life early on.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, amazing. Did you ever think as a kid, though, that magic would end up being such a big part of your life later in adulthood?

John Kippen: I hoped it would be. Magic was who I was. It's how I shared my personality.

John Kippen: I always enjoyed fooling people as a kid.

John Kippen: I had a summer job in a magic shop where I would ride my bike and go in and get behind the counter and demonstrate magic for people who were coming in to buy a trick.

John Kippen: So I got to be really good at presenting geek magic and learning magic.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Amazing. Now in school, I guess, like I'm thinking of like drama class and stuff.

Kevin Lowe: Were you ever like involved in any other type of, of acting or singing, anything like that?

John Kippen: Yeah. In high school, I was first in the band and I learned how to play the clarinet and then became part of their orchestra, which was a lot of fun.

John Kippen: They put on a spring musical every year, and I was good enough to be in the orchestra for the musicals.

John Kippen: And then one day I was walking across the multipurpose room, which also had the stage, and I was going to do some clarinet practicing.

John Kippen: And the theater teacher was also the music teacher, saw me walking across the room and said, hey, John, come up on stage.

John Kippen: So I put my stuff down and walk up on stage. And then he introduced me to the rest of the cast of Annie Get Your Gun as Chief Sitting Bull.

John Kippen: And I was like, okay.

John Kippen: That's what started my acting career. I proceeded to act in almost every production after that.

Kevin Lowe: Wow, wow. Now, I asked the question, but I kind of almost assumed there has to be. an element of acting in with being a magician?

John Kippen: Oh, yeah. You know, I actually coach magicians. So what I'm all about, is letting the audience see who you are as an individual through your magic.

John Kippen: Letting your life stories be a part of your illusions and custom tailoring tricks that you might be able to buy online or buy at a store, but turn the presentation into something that really represents who you are and your life experience.

John Kippen: Because I find that when you make it about your passions, audiences can't help but be attracted to it and enjoy it.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah.

John Kippen: It's funny, as I coach magicians and they come to my house, I have a theater built into the back of my house and a magician will sit down and the worst thing he does and reach into his bag and pull out a deck of cards.

John Kippen: And I say, oh, sorry, we won't be using those today.

John Kippen: And he looks at me and goes, oh, okay. And then he puts the cards back and he pulls out a set of coins.

John Kippen: And I kind of smile and I go, well, sorry, we won't be using those today either.

John Kippen: And then I start getting a look like, what am I paying you for? Why am I here?

John Kippen: And I said, no, we're going to talk about why you chose magic as your art form.

John Kippen: What do you want audiences to learn about you?

John Kippen: Tell me the things you're passionate about in your life as hobbies or locations or whatever that brings you joy.

John Kippen: And we're then going to take that and find illusions that are going to help you as a metaphor for those ideas of yours and those things that you love to do to help you make a connection with an audience.

John Kippen: And that's how I approach magic.

Kevin Lowe: Wow. Wow. Okay. Amazing. Okay, so I have a lot of questions about magic.

Kevin Lowe: But before we get to magic, there's another kind of aspect of your story that I don't really understand how the two are going to blend together.

Kevin Lowe: So you're going to fill in the gaps because you, like out of school, you would actually end up somehow getting into the technology space, which seems totally different than acting or magic.

John Kippen: You know, music, which I was into, has logic. to it.

John Kippen: Matt has critical thinking. And I was always a techno dweeb.

John Kippen: I would watch all of the Mission Impossible shows and get smart because I like gadgets.

John Kippen: And my school, elementary and high school, was very affluent.

John Kippen: And so they had the funds to buy computers.

John Kippen: So I got to touch a mainframe computer at the age of 12, I think, and start working on a mainframe and started working on personal computers really early on.

John Kippen: And I understood how they worked. So they weren't intimidating to me, you know, as a computer consultant now.

John Kippen: I do a lot of teaching of people on how to use a computer.

John Kippen: And oftentimes, people make it more difficult than it is.

John Kippen: And once they understand how a computer thinks and what a computer assumes they're going to get, what kind of input they're going to get for you and what it's expecting, it really helps people embrace computers.

John Kippen: People are fearful of computers because they don't understand them.

John Kippen: So in high school, in college, I was very involved with IT computers.

John Kippen: And I was working on a playwright festival in college.

John Kippen: I was technical director and the lighting designer was brought in from being a professional lighting designer.

John Kippen: And her day job, she worked for a commercial production company.

John Kippen: And we got to be friends. And I shared that I was good with computers.

John Kippen: And she invited me down to their offices because their computer system wasn't working very well.

John Kippen: And I said, sure, if you'll pay me my rate, I don't mind.

John Kippen: And so I drove down to Burbank, which, you know, a 15, 20 minute drive.

John Kippen: And I was able to solve their IT issues.

John Kippen: Quickly and they were like holy cow where have you been all our lives hired me and then you know the commercial production industry is an interesting being it's run by freelance individuals producers production managers go from company to company when there are jobs to produce and apple had just came out with their first apple laptop and all these producers had the money to buy these computers but didn't know how to use them.

John Kippen: So I made a deal that I would teach them how to use them.

John Kippen: I would give them forms that would help them do their job better on the computer, if they took my business cards and passed them out at the companies that they would get hired to produce more.

John Kippen: And before I knew it, I had 70 to 80% of the commercial production companies in LA as clients.

Kevin Lowe: Wow. Wow. Now, at that point, about how old were you?

John Kippen: I was 24, 25.

Kevin Lowe: Wow. Wow. I mean, man, that's incredible.

John Kippen: You know, I had some formal computer training in high school.

John Kippen: But in college, I just played with them. I owned one. I took them apart.

John Kippen: I built them. I put them together. I loaded software.

John Kippen: I screwed up. I erased the machine. I reloaded the software.

John Kippen: I screwed up. I erased the machine. I reloaded the software a different way.

John Kippen: It worked. I was like, yay.

John Kippen: So I learned by trial and error. That was long before there was Google or any of the search engines.

John Kippen: So I just had to be a creative problem solver.

John Kippen: And that is really what I think I am in my theater career, in my magic career, in my IT career.

John Kippen: I am a creative problem solver.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, well, on behalf of me and everybody else who are not creative problem solvers in the world of computers, we applaud you because the best piece of advice I have ever been given as it regards computers was told to me by one of my blind instructors.

Kevin Lowe: So after I went blind and she was teaching me how to use the computer with talking software, and she gave me the very wise piece of advice that before I throw it out the window, remember to open the window first.

Kevin Lowe: So, yeah, as I say, me and computers is a definite love-hate relationship.

John Kippen: And actually, you know, doing theater, doing magic, becoming a consultant, allowed me to hone my people skills.

John Kippen: One of my favorite stories was, I got a call from a client. He was a location scout and his wife was his partner.

John Kippen: And he called me one day and said, John, I'm having trouble with my computer.

John Kippen: Will you come out and help me? And I said, sure.

John Kippen: What's the problem? He said, well, there's a problem with the screen.

John Kippen: And I sensed some hesitation. So I said, well, what's wrong with the screen?

John Kippen: He said, well, just come out and you'll see.

John Kippen: And I was like, all right. So I go out and I knock on the door and he opens the door and he leads me to the dining room.

John Kippen: And there on the dining room is his laptop with a two-inch hole through the center of the screen.

John Kippen: And I'm not going to use his name, but I'll substitute yours.

John Kippen: And I said, Kevin, what happened to your computer? Did you shoot your computer?

John Kippen: And he said, John, I must admit, I took out my .45 and I shot the computer.

John Kippen: And i said and the rest of the story and he said oh my wife was my business partner and i was going through emails and i stumbled across an email that she sent from our business account to someone she was having an affair with and that person ended up being my biggest competitor and i got so angry i reached for my gun and shot the messenger and i said kevin when i had you on the phone and i asked you what was wrong with your computer why didn't you tell me that you had shot your computer in the face and he said john come on if i had told

John Kippen: you i pulled out my 45 and shot a hole through the center of my screen.

John Kippen: Would you even need to come?

John Kippen: You have a valid point.

John Kippen: Just an amazing – and, you know, we just talked, and I pulled out his hard drive and got his data off and transferred it to a drive so that he could have his data.

John Kippen: And then he went out and bought a new machine, and I never saw him again.

Kevin Lowe: Oh, my goodness. Wow. Who knew being in technology could be so interesting as a story like that?

John Kippen: We don't have time for all my tech stories.

Kevin Lowe: Yes. Oh, wow. Okay. So you're in the tech space.

Kevin Lowe: You have a thriving company in your 20s.

Kevin Lowe: So I guess I'm kind of curious, where do things go at that point that ends up leading you back to magic?

John Kippen: In 2002, I started having symptoms.

John Kippen: First of all, I couldn't hear men's voices in my left ear.

Kevin Lowe: Hmm.

John Kippen: So I went to an audiologist who was recommended to me by my dad.

John Kippen: And he's one of these Beverly Hills doctors who don't take insurance, right? So I had to pay cash.

John Kippen: And he was very expensive. And he did all the hearing tests and said, John, I don't see anything wrong. And I was like, okay.

John Kippen: So I went home. And then all of a sudden, I started getting dizzy to the point of every standing or walking moment, I had to hold on to something.

John Kippen: It was very difficult to concentrate. So I saw my primary. I saw a whole bunch of specialists.

John Kippen: And none of them really understood what was causing the dizziness.

John Kippen: I then found a ENT as part of my medical plan, knowing that I was going to have to go get an MRI to see if I had anything between my ears.

John Kippen: He did a prescription for me to go get an MRI.

John Kippen: And upon getting the films, I was pretty anxious at that point.

John Kippen: So I remember going to the lady at the front desk and I said, how much for that set of films?

John Kippen: And she said oh no no you don't you don't get these these go to the radiologist and then the radiologist will read the films in a couple days they'll write a report and send it to your doctor and i said no you i don't think you heard me right how much do i pay for that set of films and she got on the phone and called around and said three hundred dollars and i pulled three hundred dollars out of my wallet and i walked away with those films and i drove back to my ent with the films in

John Kippen: hand, without an appointment, I walked in, and I saw my ENT standing behind the reception window, and I held up the films, and fortunately, he had a little time, so he motioned for me to come in, and we went in an examining room, and he pulled one of the films out and put it up on the little whiteboard so he could read the MRI and the color drain from his face, and he pulled that one piece of film down and he said, John, I see something.

John Kippen: Wait here. I want to make a few phone calls. And he disappeared.

John Kippen: And I don't remember how long it was, but he came back and he.

John Kippen: A peering clinic downtown LA for you and they're squeezing you in tomorrow morning.

John Kippen: Take your films down and get them to look at these films and see how they can help you.

John Kippen: So I left the office feeling pretty worried but fortunately the appointment was the very next morning so I drove down and walked in into an examining room and the doctor came in and put up my films and looked at them for a minute and then got on the phone and called a neurosurgeon in and the neurosurgeon came in and looked at the films and they conferred it's like i was sitting there watching a movie i was completely detached from any kind of conversation and the neurosurgeon left

John Kippen: the room and the other doctor turned around and said john you have a four and a centimeter acoustic neuroma brain tumor it is displacing your brain stem and killing you I have arranged to push another patient, and you are having brain surgery a week from today.

John Kippen: You will go deaf in your left ear completely, and there is a small chance of some residual facial paralysis.

John Kippen: We will do whatever we can to preserve as much facial function as you can.

John Kippen: And then you left the room.

John Kippen: And then we're sitting on you know the the table with the tissue paper and and just going wait a minute what what did he just say and i realized at that moment and i want to share this with your your listeners if you're ever going to a doctor where you suspect there might be some bad news bring someone with you yes because what he said went in one ear and out the other and i immediately met my parents for lunch and they were like what is what did you say and i'm like i i don't

John Kippen: know i have a brain tumor and they're gonna take it out a week from today hey.

John Kippen: What's the recovery going to be like?

John Kippen: And my parents are grilling me.

John Kippen: And I'm like, I don't remember what he said.

John Kippen: I just know I'm scared and I'm getting operated. I'm having brain surgery.

John Kippen: So I got my affairs in order and talked to my main consultant guy who worked for me and asked if he would cover for me because I didn't know how long I'd be left.

John Kippen: I'd be out. And my parents and I went to dinner the night before downtown.

John Kippen: We had a great steakhouse, and we had a nice meal, and then they dropped me off at the hospital, and I spent the night at the hospital not getting any rest.

John Kippen: And an orderly came in at 6 a.m. and said, Okay, John, first put on the gown and then hop on this gurney, and we're going to take you to the operating room.

John Kippen: And so I remember hopping on this gurney, and it was cold.

John Kippen: To my skin i just remember it was i was shivering and they rolled me down the hallway into an elevator down to another floor into a pre-op area and i remember the surgical nurse saying john we need to shave half your head would you like me to do it now or after you're under and i said after i'm under and then as i'm laying there with millions of thoughts going through my head and then a woman wearing a surgical mask came over and looked down at me and said, Oh, John, my name is so-and-so.

John Kippen: I am your anesthesiologist.

John Kippen: And I have a little distressing news. My office just notified me that my services are actually not covered by your insurance policy.

John Kippen: So here is a form that you need to sign before I can put you under.

John Kippen: Now, fortunately, both my parents were attorneys and i learned a lot about the law even though i didn't follow in their footsteps so i knew that her asking me to sign that document was signing under duress so i happily signed that document knowing that i would never have to pay one dollar for her services.

John Kippen: They rolled me into the operating room and the they put the mask on the face and counted from five, and I was out.

John Kippen: And the next thing I know, I'm trying to regain consciousness.

John Kippen: It was like I was 30 meters in a pool, and I could look up, and I could see the surface, but I couldn't get to the surface, and I was just trying to swim out of the surface, and finally came to, and I found my dad sitting on my bedside, holding my hand.

John Kippen: And I was starting to hear people calling my name. John, John, are you there? John, wake up.

John Kippen: And I wore glasses at the time. So once I had become mostly conscious, I asked for my glasses and looked around the room for my mom.

John Kippen: And I looked across the room and my mom was standing there. And the look on her face was one of horror.

John Kippen: I could tell what she was thinking later on was, what did these butchers do to my poor son's face?

John Kippen: But at that point, I didn't really understand why she had such a horrific look.

John Kippen: Because I have full feeling in my face. I just can't move the left-hand side.

John Kippen: So when I was strong enough to get out of bed, I went to the mirror and looked in the mirror. And I went, oh, my God.

John Kippen: I look like Frankenstein with staples going from one side of the head to the other.

John Kippen: And my face is paralyzed. and that's I think when my self-image was shattered when my mom the person who was to love me unconditionally no matter what reacted so honestly to see my new face so I went home after spending a week in the hospital and started sitting on the couch and okay I'm ready to heal and then I coughed and I realized the back of my neck was wet and I was like what is it's not blood what is so I called the doctor's office and they were like oh no you need to come back right away,

John Kippen: and it was a spinal fluid leak when the base of the incision hmm.

John Kippen: So I went back and forth two or three different times to the hospital.

John Kippen: But because of where the incision ended right behind my ear on the bony part of my skull, they weren't able to fix it with pressure bandages.

John Kippen: What they did was, because they pulled out a very large tumor, they take belly fat out of your stomach and they shove it in the hole so that your brain doesn't hit the side of your skull.

John Kippen: The brain slowly assimilates the fat i remember when they told me they're going to pull fat out of my belly i said well if you're in there can you take it all yeah and the doctor said no my job.

John Kippen: And uh i said damn but i said so how are we going to fix this and this time i brought my attorney parents and my dad who is my attorney because we both felt that they didn't do a proper a job of closing the incision.

John Kippen: And they said, well, we're going to readmit you in the hospital and put you on your side and put a needle in your spine.

John Kippen: And we're going to drain the excess fluid until the incision heals.

John Kippen: It'll be about a week. And I said, not a chance in heck am I laying here for a week on my side.

John Kippen: And they went, well, the only other option is to take you under, put you under take more belly fat out and uh we do the incision so that's what happened and so i was only in for one day after that second surgery and then started healing and uh boy brain surgery as you know full well kevin knocks the wind out of your sails your energy level is just nowhere what it was like before surgery.

John Kippen: The healing takes so much longer. Even after the physical scars of the incision have healed and the hair has grown back.

John Kippen: I still needed to take naps. I was still, you know, unsteady on my feet.

John Kippen: I would walk down a hallway.

John Kippen: And if I was tired, it was like I was drunk. I was bouncing off the walls because the balance nerve was severed as well.

John Kippen: But I started to heal and get stronger and learned how to deal with being deaf in one ear.

John Kippen: You know, the doctor said, hey, you're going to be deaf in your left ear okay but they didn't really tell me what that was going to be like that wasn't going to be preparing me for the habit of picking up the phone and putting it to my wrong ear and go okay put it to the other ear so i can hear someone's talking or it didn't prepare me for having uh going out with a friend for dinner and then sitting on my left hand side and talking in my ear and I'm like, I have no idea what you just said.

John Kippen: Or walking down the street with a friend and them standing on the left foot side of me.

John Kippen: And literally, I would stop.

John Kippen: I would grab them by the shoulders.

John Kippen: I would navigate them to my right hand side.

John Kippen: And then we'd continue walking because they would forget that I was completely stone deaf on my left hand side.

John Kippen: You know, I shared this story about the first time in my home after my brain surgery and losing my hearing about 2 a.m I heard a chirp and I knew immediately that that was the indicator of a low battery in a smoke detector well I had five of them in my house so I got out of bed and went to the first one and waited and waited.

John Kippen: No, it's not that one. Then I would run to the kitchen and I would stand and I would wait and wait.

John Kippen: No, it's not that one. And I would be running around the house going to every smoke detector, standing there, trying to figure out which one was low on battery, to the point where I got so frustrated I called my neighbor and said, please come over and tell me which smoke detector it is so I can get some sleep.

Kevin Lowe: Wow.

John Kippen: You just don't, they don't, doctors don't prepare you for healing and what it's going to take to survive and thrive despite the trauma.

Kevin Lowe: Well, 100%. I mean, honest to goodness, I know for myself, I mean, they told me that when they removed my brain tumor that I'd be back to school in three weeks.

Kevin Lowe: Well, forget anything about going blind, losing sense of smell.

Kevin Lowe: What about I suffered short-term memory loss? I had the same thing you talked about.

Kevin Lowe: I mean, I couldn't stay awake all the time. I was constantly sleeping.

Kevin Lowe: All these things that I'm like, even without going blind, there's no way I would have went back to high school in three weeks after brain surgery.

John Kippen: Yeah.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Insane. You're a different human being.

John Kippen: You're a different person.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. How long would you say that it took you to recover physically from the brain surgery to get back to a place where you could even begin to think about going back to work?

John Kippen: I worked for myself. I worked out of my house. So I was back to work in days.

Kevin Lowe: Oh, wow.

John Kippen: Reading emails and listening, talking to clients and talking to my team. But, Before I really felt strong enough to venture out and get in the car and drive, that's another funny story.

John Kippen: So I'm sitting in my house and I live alone and I'm bored in stiffness and I love playing poker.

John Kippen: So I decided to drive to a local casino, about 20 minute drive.

John Kippen: And I still had a bandage around my head and facial paralysis, and I would sit at a poker table, and I realized that the other people at the table could care less about my facial paralysis. They just want me.

John Kippen: And I started making friendships with these semi-professional gamblers, and I realized is that that's not the people that I really wanted to establish lasting friendships with.

John Kippen: One of my favorite stories, I'm sitting at a poker table, and in comes a gentleman.

John Kippen: He sits down, and he has a caregiver with him, and I look at him.

John Kippen: It was Don Adams from Get Smart.

Kevin Lowe: Oh, wow.

John Kippen: The 70s TV show. And I was a huge Get Smart fan.

John Kippen: But everyone would try to engage with him, and he was quiet.

John Kippen: He was just there to play poker, wasn't there to talk about his career, wasn't there to really socialize.

John Kippen: But there was one time we were in a hand together, and I had top two pair playing Texas Hold'em, and he had four cards to a straight, and the final card came on the board, and he didn't get the card that he wanted.

John Kippen: And so I won the pot, but I turned to him and said, Don, miss Chip by that much.

John Kippen: And he started screaming laughing, one of his most famous lines in the tv show and i know a lot of your listeners are going don adams get smart who that what is that, look it up on youtube it's it's an amazing show but anyway we became fast friends then Oh.

Kevin Lowe: Wow.

John Kippen: Because I wasn't able to just make him laugh.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Wow. Will you talk to me a little bit more about the facial paralysis as far as what exactly that means?

Kevin Lowe: And how did you deal with that?

Kevin Lowe: Because it's one thing to be deaf in your one ear. That's not something that people can see.

Kevin Lowe: The facial paralysis is something that people can see.

John Kippen: The left-hand side of my mouth droops. Many people think that I had Bell's palsy.

John Kippen: It's a very similar reaction. And the fatter I get, the more pronounced the droop you get.

John Kippen: And gravity takes a toll because there aren't muscles being activated to hold the side of my face.

John Kippen: It's symmetry at rest. So the drippiness gets a little bit more pronounced.

John Kippen: I had to learn how to drink out of a soda can again. I use a straw because every time I drink out of a soda can or a beer can, half of it would end up on my shirt because I'm not able to close my mouth properly.

John Kippen: One of my ironic things that I talk about in my TED Talk that I did in 2019, was the one syllable in the English language I have trouble saying.

John Kippen: Was two consecutive peas, like in the word pepper.

John Kippen: Hmm ironically enough in my own last name kippen yep so i had to learn how to consciously.

John Kippen: Form my lips to be able to enunciate so people didn't think i was a cat they would say oh john kitten i said no no no no john kitten oh that's what i said you're you know like a like a young cat i'm like no i'm not a young cat i'm a kitten you know i slowly got rid of all the mirrors in my house because I didn't want to be reminded.

John Kippen: I refused to pose for photographs with people.

John Kippen: I refused to socialize with friends that knew me before my surgery, knew how I used to look.

John Kippen: And this went on for 10 to 12 years where I was a recluse and I could just see really, really close friends.

John Kippen: I remember going to a restaurant by myself and sitting and having dinner.

John Kippen: It was a Tony Romo's, and I think they're all gone now. But there was a family in the booth in front of me.

John Kippen: And they had a six-year-old kid who was fidgeting at the table and turned around and was looking over the back of the bench seat at me.

John Kippen: And they kind of looked at me like, huh. And so he got up on the table and his parents went on talking.

John Kippen: And he came over right to me and he said, mister, what's wrong with your face?

John Kippen: And that was the first time someone actually acknowledged it and was curious and wanted an explanation.

John Kippen: Most of the times adults would just do a look, do a double take, and I never knew what was going through their mind.

John Kippen: But this little five or six-year-old was inquisitive. And as I started to, I got on my knee and got to his level.

John Kippen: And I started to explain to this young boy why my face was like it was.

John Kippen: His mom saw him and immediately stood up and grabbed him by the arm and said, don't bother the nice man. He has enough troubles already and took him back to the table.

John Kippen: And then at that point, I knew this could be a really good teachable moment.

John Kippen: So I approached the table and I turned to the boy and I said, hi, my name is John. What's yours?

John Kippen: You know, you had a really good question. I had a medical procedure that caused me not to be able to move my face.

John Kippen: But it's my new face that I like it because it's cool.

John Kippen: It's cool. It's different. It's different like yours.

John Kippen: And the kid kind of looked at me, acknowledged what I told him, shrugged his shoulders, and went on playing with his toys and finishing his dinner.

John Kippen: But I remember making eye contact with his mom and her expression was one of, holy crap, I'm sorry.

John Kippen: Because she interrupted her son's learning what someone who was different looks like and squashed his desire to truly understand what I was going through and why my face was like that.

John Kippen: And I could tell she acknowledged that as a lifeless and the entire family could appreciate.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah.

John Kippen: So, you know, it's the kids can be cruel, you know, because I don't have a filter.

John Kippen: Adults just go on. They ignore. They they make assumptions. Oh, John had a stroke.

John Kippen: Oh, John has Bell's palsy. I never asked why my face is paralyzed.

John Kippen: So anyway, so that those kind of experiences gave me the courage.

John Kippen: And I started doing magic again.

John Kippen: And I joined the Magic Castle, which is a private magician's club in Hollywood, very famous place.

John Kippen: And I started performing magic little by little. And as I would sit behind a table dressed in a suit, and I would be sitting with a group of five, six, 10, 15 strangers, and they were there to see magic.

John Kippen: And i would all of a sudden see their faces forget about my facial paralysis look beyond my mask and see into my heart as i shared my passion for making the impossible possible you know i start my magic show every time i do it hi guys my name is john i've been in magic all my life In 2002, I had a brain tumor, and when I recovered, I realized that something happened to me when I was on that operating room table.

John Kippen: I'm not sure what it was, but all I know is I recovered.

John Kippen: Well, I realized I had acquired some new skills, and then I pause, and I wait for the audiences to get on the edge of their seat, wanting to know what possible skills I acquired by having brain surgery.

John Kippen: And I look to my right and left like it's the biggest secret, and I lean forward, and I whisper in a loud voice, guys, I am able to visualize people's thoughts.

John Kippen: And then I go on to do some mentalism or mental magic.

John Kippen: And I'm immediately at that point done a couple of things.

John Kippen: Number one, I've answered the question that was distracting them that they never had to ask. Why is this guy's face like it is?

John Kippen: So now they can focus on the magic. And the second is I shared something uber personal that happened to me.

John Kippen: And when you share something that a journey that you have conquered people find strength from that they sense your resilience and want to drink from that pond they are inspired by you even if they don't realize it emotionally they fall in love with you just because you have the courage despite your trauma you go on living and celebrating your differences as opposed to hiding them and that is really my life's mission now is to teach people how to treat people who are different with the respect and compassion that you would want for yourself.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah wow wow You know, John, what I love about you and one of your many superpowers, but it's this superpower that I see in the way in which you have this amazing way of putting people at ease in an uncomfortable situation by simply addressing the fact.

Kevin Lowe: And I think it goes back to what I believe we can all learn from children is that exactly as you talked about as adults.

Kevin Lowe: We feel it's better to not say anything. We don't want to say the wrong thing.

Kevin Lowe: We're afraid to do something that's going to offend somebody.

Kevin Lowe: So we do nothing, which oftentimes, more times than not, is absolutely the worst thing you can do.

Kevin Lowe: Instead, learning from a child where you just have their own innocent curiosity of the world, There's so much to be learned by that.

Kevin Lowe: And in listening to you, how you're able to take that and use that to put grown adults at ease, I think is really remarkable.

Kevin Lowe: And in with that, I would love for you to share the story because I think it's another one of these tools that you've discovered that you've created in with your magic stuff.

Kevin Lowe: You actually had a friend named Henry who helped you out.

John Kippen: Yeah, so I was at the Magic Castle, and I was sitting in one of the bars having dinner.

John Kippen: My back was to the entrance. And this couple came in, and they had seen me perform, and I was one of their favorite performers.

John Kippen: And they wanted to know if I was there that night, but they didn't remember my name.

John Kippen: So one of the managers was standing there, and they went up to the manager, and I could hear this conversation.

John Kippen: And he said, you know, we're looking for this magician. God, we saw him last time we were here, and he was amazing.

John Kippen: Boy, I don't remember his name. You know who I'm talking about.

John Kippen: He's the big guy with the paralyzed face.

John Kippen: And I overheard this couple describe me that way.

John Kippen: And I thought to myself, I don't want to be known as the guy with the paralyzed face.

John Kippen: So I got on my phone and started Googling, and I found a guy who makes these pocket squares, or the jacket pocket.

John Kippen: And they have lights in them. So I love blue, so I bought a blue one.

John Kippen: And as soon as I got it, I started wearing that pocket square.

John Kippen: And like magic, instead of people saying, oh, you're looking for John, the guy with the wear last face.

John Kippen: No, you're looking for John. He's the guy with the lit blue pocket square.

John Kippen: Changing that from a negative to a positive, It got to be the point where, you know, I would see regular members and I'd be walking down the halls.

John Kippen: And instead of saying hi to me, I named my pocket square.

John Kippen: I gave it an identity. And it became an integral part of my show.

John Kippen: And I named him Henry. Well, Hank was short. Hank A. Kirchhoff is his given name, but I call him Henry.

John Kippen: And i would have people walking down the hallway and see me and say hey hank how you doing today they'd ignore me and ask how my pocket square was doing but i i involved him in my magic you know i reached out to the guy who made him for me and i asked can you make one that i can change the colors.

John Kippen: And he said, sure. So $700 later and three prototypes, Henry was born.

John Kippen: And I would do a mentalism routine where I would hand a spectator a cube with six sides with a different color on each side and a blue plastic box that would hold the cube.

John Kippen: And I would ask them to take the cube below the table and choose a color and put it face up and cover the box.

John Kippen: And then I would ask them to imagine the color that they had chosen and then i would review that color and they were impressed but then all of a sudden i would be distracted i would make henry start blinking what what oh henry you oh you you want to try all right okay guys i'm sorry my assistant here wants to try if you don't mind we're going to do it one more time and pass the box to someone else and take the box, take the cube under the table and make sure I don't see and choose a different color and bring it up.

John Kippen: And then Henry's going to try to read your mind.

John Kippen: And so they would do that and they'd bring the box and they'd set it on the table.

John Kippen: Understand it's completely opaque. You can't see through it. The lid's on the box.

John Kippen: I haven't touched it. And I turned to Henry and I said, okay, Henry, it's your time to shine.

John Kippen: And he would start glowing the color that they selected.

John Kippen: And Henry would get a bigger applause than I would.

John Kippen: But it was just a matter of taking people's perceptions and turning them upside down.

John Kippen: You know, we all have these preconceived notions that limit us.

John Kippen: And in my life coaching, my resilience and environment coaching, and my motivational speaking, I really hone in on limiting beliefs.

John Kippen: We always grow up and we get our belief system from the people who raised us, our parents or our grandparents.

John Kippen: And so many of us don't challenge them as we grow and evolve into human beings.

John Kippen: And I encourage people to constantly re-evaluate and start dreaming again.

John Kippen: You know, as a kid, you meet, you have a friend, Brent has a friend over and they turn to you and they say, Johnny, what do you want to be when you grow up?

John Kippen: I want to be a fireman.

John Kippen: No, no, I want to be a policeman. No, I want to be an astronaut.

John Kippen: No, I want to be a rock star. and you go off as a kid and you imagine what it's like you pull out your air guitar and you start grabbing kitchen utensils and start banging on things like you're in a band and you become a rock star you start dreaming about it and then in some point in your life you grow up and you stop dreaming of what life could look like?

John Kippen: What would bring you joy?

John Kippen: And many of us get stuck in a career that we get stuck, it pays the bills.

John Kippen: We don't particularly like it anymore, especially when you go through that midlife crisis in your mid-50s and 60s.

John Kippen: But the thought of dreaming again and starting a new path scares the crap out of us.

John Kippen: But I encourage people to stop and evaluate their belief systems and start dreaming again.

John Kippen: Pretend they win the lottery and they have more money than they know what to do with. What is going to bring you joy?

John Kippen: What is going to fulfill your day that you're excited to come home and tell stories to your loved ones about your experiences from the day because you're doing something that you're passionate about.

John Kippen: You know, the old adage, you don't work a day in your life if you love what you do.

John Kippen: Couldn't be further from the truth. I mean, it's just, but people don't dream anymore.

John Kippen: And so I really encourage people to take time and fantasize about how they can use their passions in their day-to-day living to communicate who they are and what their value systems are.

John Kippen: Because that's how you really build long-lasting friendships and relationships.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Man. And so remarkable.

Kevin Lowe: John, what exactly do you do today in terms of somebody listening today and they're in awe as much as I am?

Kevin Lowe: As far as do you have openings that you work with clients in coaching right now?

Kevin Lowe: Or how can people just stay in touch with you?

Kevin Lowe: I'm curious because I'm thinking if anybody else is kind of sitting there with their kind of mouth open right now listening to you in awe of this guy who's told us this crazy story from brain tumors to being a magician to then having such amazing insight on life I can't be the only one who thinks wow, how can I tap into more of this guy's life?

Kevin Lowe: So, John, where is the best place for somebody to learn more about you, whether it's speaking, to even find different things online, any and every way possible to connect with you? Where can we send them?

John Kippen: I have two websites. I have a master website, which is johnkippen.com, just spelled like it sounds.

John Kippen: But remember, no T's, P's.

John Kippen: I also have kippen.coach is specifically for my coaching website.

John Kippen: You know, as I got trained to become a life coach, I needed to find my niche.

John Kippen: And a lot of people who get into coaching, most people are fitness coaches or they call themselves life coaches.

John Kippen: And I didn't understand what the term life coach meant.

John Kippen: So now I position myself as a resilience and empowerment coach.

John Kippen: I guide people to find their own resilience within themselves and to forget about why they're in their current situation and live each day like it's their last and take the opportunities that they see that all of a sudden appear from in front of their eyes once they're open to it.

John Kippen: And I spend a lot of time coaching, although I have, you know, I do a six or 12 or 24 week program and then they go, excuse me, they go away.

John Kippen: And so I'm constantly needing to fill my days with coaching clients.

John Kippen: So you can certainly go to Kibben.coach and sign up for a complimentary call where we can discuss your challenges and see if I can help you.

John Kippen: But if you go to JohnKibble.com, you'll also see my TED Talk that was voted by Los Angeles Magazine as one of the most profound TED Talks of the century.

John Kippen: It has over a million views.

John Kippen: They'll see the documentary that I produced, co-starring Jamie Lee Curtis.

John Kippen: Called John's Ultimate Illusion.

John Kippen: They'll be able to see my book that I recently published and buy a copy called Playing the Hand You Were Dealt.

John Kippen: I'm really proud of what I've accomplished.

John Kippen: And all of it is geared towards helping people get through their adversity and find joy on the other side.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, I love it. John, man, it's been a pleasure getting to have you here today.

Kevin Lowe: More than anything else, it's been a pleasure just getting to spend time with you, to hear your story, all the things that you've overcome, and yet, at the end of the day, you just want to be able to help somebody else.

Kevin Lowe: And I think you're an amazing guy, and it's been an absolute joy to have you on the podcast. Thank you so much.

John Kippen: Oh, thank you for allowing me to share my messages with your amazing audience.

John Kippen: And my final thought is that using your passions to communicate who you are to people is the best way to build long-lasting friendships and relationships.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, absolutely. I love it. For you listening today, please be sure to check out today's show notes where you can find all of the links mentioned and additional resources.

Kevin Lowe: But more than anything else, if today's interview has you kind of lost in thought as much as it does me, thinking a little bit bigger, maybe thinking a little bit differently, I encourage you to take action on it today and make this mean something to you in your life.

Kevin Lowe: And maybe it's you giving back to somebody else by making their day, by sharing today's episode with them. So my friend, whatever you want to do, just be sure that you're doing something that lights you up, that makes you smile, and makes a difference in the world.

Kevin Lowe: I'm Kevin Lowe, and this, of course, is Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

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