Interactive Networking Experience: Dueling Pianos (Live Virtual Only)
Brought To You By: Felix & Fingers Dueling Pianos
Felix & Fingers Dueling Pianos is a high-energy, all request sing along show for all ages. This interactive act brings together music and comedy for a night you'll be laughing about for weeks! From John Lennon to Janet Jackson, Beach Boys to Beastie Boys, Felix and Fingers will play anything. Come ready with the entire family or office (including furry friends!) with your favorite requests and prepare to laugh, sing, and dance with this one of a kind dueling pianos show. Also be prepared to answer some trivia questions for a chance to win a $25 Visa gift card!
This session is live virtual only and unavailable on demand.
To view all event accessibility & accommodations details visit here.
All virtual sessions inherently run the risk of audio or visual issues due to factors out of our control. If any technical difficulties arise, we appreciate your patience and understanding as we work diligently to resolve it.
Robert Deason
Since I was a little kid (in addition to being adorable), I’ve always known that performing would play a big part of my life. My rendition of “Beauty and the Beast” in the 2nd grade talent show (2 standing ovations, thank you VERY much) was just the beginning. I started taking piano lessons in 3rd grade because my arch-nemesis was doing the same, and, CLEARLY, my natural sense of competition kicked in.
From that point on, whether it was acting and singing, playing the piano, or flag twirling, being in front of an audience has been at the center of my existence (I may or may not have made up the flag twirling part). I was a musical theatre major in college, and have performed all over the country and Chicagoland area. In 2008, a friend of mine sent me a craigslist ad asking for dueling piano players at a new suburban bar. I thought to myself, “Hey, I bet I can figure that out!” Over the last 9 years, I’ve realized just HOW TERRIBLE I was when I started. The more I think about it, that’s what I love about this job. Every week, new songs come out and present the unique challenge and opportunity to constantly better yourself as a musician.
From there, I went on to manage Heart and Soul Piano Bar in downtown Chicago, where I had the pleasure of meeting T. Duncan Parker and hiring him on his first ever gig! Then, one day, I got a phone call from Mike Potts, asking if I was available to sub in on multiple shows, because Mike Sherman had broken his ankle in a freak musical theatre camp accident (some sources say I tripped him, but that has yet to be proven). From there on out, I was a bonafide Felix and Fingers employee!!! (cue the confetti)
Michael Sherman
I love the word melomaniacal. It means, “Related to a fervent or abnormal love of music.” That pretty much sums me up. Ever since I was a kid, music just made sense to me. When I was probably eight years old, I remember hearing a vacuum cleaner running when the phone rang and thinking, “Those two noises sound good together.” Little did I know it was the beginning of my understanding of chords and musical intervals. In my whole life there have been two things I thought I was good at. Music and making people laugh.
Read on if you dare, as this will be the closest thing to a musical biography I ever write…
I grew up in Cincinnati, OH as the oldest of seven kids. My first foray into music was when my parents signed me up for piano lessons in the 2nd grade. Even after a few months my teacher was pleased that I was already further along than most of her other students who had been studying for years. Of course, like most children, I traded in the piano for something much cooler. The trombone.
I began focusing on the trombone in the fifth grade. This was also about the time I joined the Cincinnati Boys Choir. I was one of two boys who, after one semester, were invited to jump from the beginning choir to the highest level choir. Through the Boys Choir I also was cast in my first major theatrical production in the cast of “Carmen” with the Cincinnati Opera House.
I continued playing the trombone and got really into jazz in high school. One day I sat back down at the piano, after years of not touching it, and I starting tinkering around with everything I had learned about jazz and music theory. I was amazed at how quickly I picked it back up. In no time I was playing full songs with more skill than I would have expected. The first clue to my future in Dueling Pianos should have come when I realized how easy it was for me to listen to the radio and immediately be able to play along to it on the piano. My guitar player friends would often ask me, ‘What are the chords in *blank* song?” I would take out a piece of paper, listen to the song and transcribe the chords in one listen.
I also got really into musical theater in high school. I began learning the basics of improvisation. I loved it! It was an art form that had one goal: Make people laugh!
I practically lived at St. Xavier High School. I’d arrive at 7am for jazz band, where I was first chair trombone, go to marching band practice after school, where I was the field commander (or drum major as some people call it), and then head over to the theater where I would be starring in the musical. I won the first ever “Cappie’s Award” for Best Leading Male in a Musical in Cincinnati, OH. This was a competition voted on by students from all over the city.
I decided to accept a theatre scholarship to Loyola University in Chicago. I figured, what better place to kickstart my career as a performer? I studied theatre and music and continued excelling on and off the stage. Before I even graduated I was getting cast in professional productions all around the city. I starred as the leading comedic baritone with the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera company for 4 seasons, including the leading role in their 50th Anniversary Production of “The Mikado.” I was also playing piano and music directing around Chicago as well.
My biggest accomplishment was winning a national talent competition hosted by the Broadway Musical, “Million Dollar Quartet.” My rendition of “Great Balls of Fire,” by Jerry Lee Lewis received thousands of winning votes from around the country.
Around this time I realized how good I was at playing all different types of music, so I started getting work at a few dueling pianos bars. I was immediately a hit, and bar owners were getting calls asking whenI would be back. Before I knew it, I had a career as a dueling pianos player! I quit my day job, with the full love and support of my wife Karla, and started working full time as a musician. It was a huge risk, but I can’t imagine doing it any other way.
I currently work full time for Felix and Fingers as the Vice President of Sales, Rock, and Roll. Sweet title, right? When I’m not singing and playing piano at a show, I work full time in the office, working with clients to ensure their show is amazing, and I’m always learning new songs. My specialities include super fast rapping, singing Disney songs, all types of Rock and Roll, Top 40 music, and there’s nothing wrong with good ol’ Frank Sinatra! I pride myself on being a human jukebox and on my comedic timing. Nothing makes me happier than making people laugh and performing great (or not so great) song! You can always trust that your event will be a huge success if I’m there.
