Russell D. Jones
Author, Adventurer, and Creator of Worlds
I’m a sci-fi/fantasy-nerd-turned-actor, playwright, magician, musician, voiceover artist, YouTuber, photographer, world traveler, beer brewer, and novelist. My first forays into sci-fi/fantasy started with dungeons and dragons and other RPG systems started in grade school. From there I became an avid reader of various Forgotten realms and Dragonlance books.
In High school, I wrote my first short story as well as some decent, and not so decent, poetry. I also had my first taste of acting, by participating in a few plays at the local community college.
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I went off to university as an archaeology major with a history minor, but continued to be involved in the theatre, eventually graduating with a dual major in Theater performance and English creative writing. While still in school, I started playwriting and after graduating I swiftly published my first play, Red Herring with Heuer Publishing.
After college, I tended bar and worked as a magician’s assistant at Magic Underground with the incredible Kalin and Jinger. In 2009 I moved to LA to pursue acting and writing. Using my magic connections, I got a job slinging drinks at the World Famous Magic Castle in Hollywood and would be there for about four years.
While living in the valley, I wrote my first novel, a YA portal fantasy.
At the same time, I started touring with Kalin and Jinger, my first trip being a month of shows in Greece. It was one of the most incredible and rewarding experiences I’ve ever had. Waking up to breakfast with the acropolis in the distance, walking down to the market amongst the ruins of a great and ancient civilization while performing with an extraordinary cast each night. It felt like a dream. I had purchased a rather nice camera just before the trip and thus started a different era of storytelling. That of the still.
Back in LA, My friends and I started the D6 Mafia, a YouTube channel featuring board game reviews, comic con how-to’s, GenCon interviews, and sketches.
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While in Hollywood I was constantly taking classes, including acting for the camera, and many different voice-over lessons, and even a couple of puppetry classes. By the time I moved out of LA, I had built 3 puppets, written 2 novels, auditioned for an animated pilot on Fox, been featured on several dozen YouTube videos/webisodes, and recorded twenty voice-over projects on Audible.
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After some downtime, I joined Kalin and Jinger as an illusion technician on the Illusionists 1903 tour, later to be called the Illusions Turn of the Century, My first Illusionists tour was to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. It was definitely a crazy learning experience, we were running behind schedule from day one, and I never remember being so tired in my life by the time the show opened.
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Over the years, I’ve performed in 14 different countries across five continents, including shows at the Sydney Opera House and the Palace Theatre on Broadway. Most importantly, while with the Illusionists I met my good friends Thommy and Amelie, the Clairvoyants.
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I’ve been fortunate enough to be included in their rise from a single act in a variety show, to Broadway Stars, and second-place winners on America’s Got Talent. I’ve been lurking backstage on nearly all their television performances and every one of their North American Tour stops.
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To this day, I still tour with Kalin, Jinger, and the Clairvoyants. I take every spare moment I can to write and edit, from the precious downtime on single-show days, to when I’m off-tour. I’m eternally grateful my career has given me the opportunity to work more on my own dreams of walking into a bookstore, seeing my novels on the shelf, and secretly signing them. Soon . . .
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Recently, I was lucky enough to marry my best friend and love of my life in an intimate ceremony in beautiful Hawaii.