My Live Performance Era: Returning to Music, Creativity, and Live Connection

Stanley Fisher Jr.
Dec 1, 2025
4 min read

It’s right before Christmas, and like many of us, I’ve been reflecting on the year that’s ending and the one that’s about to begin.

This year was… strange. Heavy. Transformative in ways I never would have chosen, but ways that ultimately changed me forever.

Starting in April, death became a constant presence in my life. We lost my mom. Seven weeks later, my cousin Jason. Then Uncle Phil, a family member by marriage who felt no less like blood. Then two close family friends. One after another. Each loss landed differently, but together they created a season of grief that reshaped how I moved through the world.

Death isn’t a popular topic. It doesn’t photograph well. It doesn’t trend. But it was my reality. And pretending otherwise would have been dishonest.

For much of this year, I was simply surviving. Grieving. Showing up where I could. Pulling back where I had to. And for a long stretch, everything felt awful. Heavy. Quiet in the wrong way.

But somewhere toward the end of summer, something shifted.

I made a declaration.

I decided that this year would not end the way it began. I refused to let grief write the final chapter. I honored what had been lost but I also honored what was still alive inside me.

As I started looking toward the new year, I knew one thing for certain: it was time to get back to work.Not hustle-for-the-sake-of-hustle work. Not busywork.But meaningful, embodied, creative work that felt alive again.

So I did something that surprised even me.

I stripped everything out.

Every role. Every offering. Every identity I’d been carrying.

And then, slowly and intentionally, I began putting things back in but differently. With clarity. With choice. With excitement.

And one of the biggest things I decided to bring back…was something I hadn’t done in almost 30 years.

I’m Returning to Live Performance

Before the businesses. Before the brands. Before the thousands of commercials and campaigns. Before SAG and studios and production schedules…

There was music.

As a teenager, I was obsessed with DJing. I lived for it. I spun for my friends. For our parties. For the joy of it. Music wasn’t something I did it was something I was inside of.

Over the years, I never fully let it go. I mixed occasionally. Mostly privately. Mostly for myself. The passion stayed, but it went quiet.

Life moved me into other chapters. Audio production. Advertising. Theater. Film. Voice acting. Leadership. Coaching. Building companies. Serving others.

And I loved that work. I still do.

But something essential, something deeply mine, got tucked away.

COVID was part of that pause. The world shutting down. Stages going dark. People retreating inward.And just as things started to reopen, just as many people began stepping back into life…

We got my mom’s diagnosis.

Parkinson’s. Dementia. A timeline no one wants to hear.

From that moment on, my focus shifted entirely. Saying goodbye to someone I wasn’t ready to lose. Making sure there was no unfinished business between us. Holding her hand through a transition that demanded everything I had.

That experience changed me.

Out of that darkness, something meaningful was born. I launched No Unfinished Business, a grief and bereavement coaching business rooted in presence, honesty, and completion. It came from lived experience, not theory.

But now, now I feel the call to step fully back into life.

This Is My Live Performance Era

As I move into the new year, live performance is no longer optional for me it’s essential.

That means public speaking.That means live voice acting.That means theater.And yes… that means live DJing.

House music.Tech house.Freestyle.R&B.Some pop, depending on the moment and the crowd.

These are the rhythms that shaped me. The sounds that taught me about energy, pacing, tension, release, and connection. Long before I understood storytelling intellectually, I understood it musically.

What I love most about DJing isn’t the gear or the tracks it’s the relationship with the room.

Reading the energy.Feeling when to hold.Knowing when to release.Taking people on a journey they didn’t know they needed.

Music is universal. Every culture understands it. Just like food, it carries memory, identity, movement, and soul. There is a place for all music in the world because there is a place for every human experience.

A song can make you feel less alone.It can crack you open.It can remind you who you are.

That’s power.

And I want to step back into that power, fully, publicly, unapologetically.

Taking This on the Road

As part of this new chapter, I’ll be integrating live DJ sets into our Creative Hubs through Stanley Fisher Creative and the Voice Acting Institute.

That means bringing house music sets to different markets. Performing live at events we’re producing. Playing private occasions. Creating spaces where creativity, movement, and community collide.

This isn’t about nostalgia.It’s not about reliving the past.

It’s about reclaiming a part of myself that never stopped calling.

I’m stepping back into the spotlight.Out of the corners I’ve been tucked away in since COVID.Back into rooms where energy is exchanged in real time.

There’s something irreplaceable about live performance in an increasingly digital world. It’s raw. It’s imperfect. It’s human.

And that’s exactly why it matters now more than ever.

A Bit of History (For Context)

For those who don’t know this chapter of my life…

I was the house DJ at the House of Blues.I was the house DJ at The Groove at Universal Studios CityWalk.I played nearly every nightclub in downtown Orlando throughout the ’90s and early 2000s.I took that energy to Gainesville. To Tampa. To Ybor City.

Eventually, I stepped away.

I moved into audio production. Became classically trained in theater and film. Joined SAG as an actor. Became the voice of six national brands. Produced over 5,000 commercials a year for more than two decades.

I’ve worn many hats. I’ve served many rooms.

But no matter what I was doing, no matter who I was working for, one thing remained deeply personal:

Taking people on a journey.

That’s what DJing gave me.That’s what it still gives me.

The connection. The exchange. The moment when a room becomes one organism moving together.

I’m ready for that again.