Skip to main content
Years DJing: Nine. I got my start doing a little half-hour set at Pala, which is no longer around, with other people I worked with at Music Millennium at the time. Everything began to catch on once my roommate played an acoustic set on her guitar—all 30-second songs about boys—at Tiga. She could pick her own DJ for between songs, and she picked me. The owners liked me so much they asked me to do a monthly gig. It snowballed from there.
Genres: I play anything from 1930s swing jazz, 1950s and '60s rock 'n' roll and soul music, funk, '60s psychedelic, garage, Kitty Wells-kinda country, early hip-hop, indie rock and grunge.
Where you can catch me regularly: Gold Dust Meridian, Beulahland, Tryst, Dig a Pony, the Tannery, the Red Fox, Beech Street Parlor, Migration Brewing, Punch Bowl Social. I have a radio show on XRAY.fm from 4 to 5 pm on Sundays called Inside the Wizard's Hat, which mainly focuses on the older genres of music I play, pre-1969.
Craziest gig: I once DJed someone's mom's graduation party on the rooftop of a sports bar. I remembered to wear sunscreen.
My go-to records: A 45 rpm single I got from a free box called "In a Persian Market" by LeRoy Holmes and His Orchestra. Also a current heavy in the rotation is the Gary U.S. Bonds' 45 for "Havin' So Much Fun." And I feel like I end up bringing four records by the Miracles to every gig.
Don't ever ask me to play…: I am so tired of hearing "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey that I wish the song could be unwritten. I will never play it.
NEXT GIG: DJ Bad Wizard spins at the Tannery, 5425 E Burnside St., on Thursday, Jan. 5. 9 pm.
