Face Time: Decoding Famous Minnesotans
June 21, 7:30 p.m. Northfield Arts Guild Theater, 411 Third Street West
Tickets at the door cost $10
The mystery surrounding Prince’s sudden, early death adds a final chapter to a life where the border between public persona and private person was often fuzzy. But in that respect, the shy, very private Prince isn’t entirely unique as many a celebrity only sparingly offers clues as to who they really are. Minnesota has been historically blessed with many instances of world-class talent, from the equally shy and private Charles Lindbergh – arguably the world’s first media celebrity and certainly Time magazine’s first Man of the Year – to Bob Dylan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the deliberately elusive Coen Brothers, among other state-wide achievers.
Here’s an opportunity to respectfully, appreciatively pull back the curtain and better understand the personalities of a top 10 list of Minnesota greats thanks to the unique skills of locally-based, internationally-renowned facial coding expert Dan Hill. His two Twin Cities performances, entitled “Face Time: Decoding Famous Minnesotans,” will feature the signature expressions – and related emotions – that provide a deeper, surer grasp of these local celebrities and how they fit or don’t fit the state’s identity. The show will include select video and audio clips that help illustrate Hill’s observations.
The performer, Dan Hill, grew up in Northfield (class of 1978, St. Olaf College class of ’82) and is the president of Twin-Cities based Sensory Logic, Inc., a firm that specializes in capturing and analyzing emotional dynamics through the facial coding tool made famous by Malcolm Gladwell’s bestseller Blink and Fox’s primetime hit TV series, “Lie to Me.” Last year, facial coding and the emotions it captures was the underlying basis for Pixar’s Inside Out movie, which featured the feelings of a hockey-playing young girl from Minnesota. Hill has analyzed famous in-the-news people ranging from presidential contenders to white-collar criminals like Bernie Madoff for CNN, Fox, MSNBC, NBC’s “The Today Show,” The New York Times, WSJ, Politico, Reuters Fast Company, Inc., The Village Voice, USA Today, and Allure among other media outlets.
Hill’s business clients have included over 40% of the world’s top 100 consumer-oriented companies. One of Hill’s five books, Emotionomics, features a foreword by Sam Simon, co-creator of “The Simpsons” and was chosen by Advertising Age as one of the top 10 must-read books of 2009. The book has been translated into over a dozen languages, and Hill has spoken from coast-to-coast nationally as well as in more than 20 countries. In late 2014, Hill’s use of facial coding to evaluate professional athletes for NBA and other sports teams was given front-page coverage in The New York Times.
For anybody who would like to become a better intuitive judge of people and situations, “Face Time: Decoding Famous Minnesotans” is a must-see. Small clues known as micro-expressions reveal big truths about who people really are. Hidden in plain sight, these tell-tale clues will be shared as tips in a fascinating, enjoyable, cutting- edge show that will enable audience members to hone their own powers of observation to improve their professional and private lives. After the show, a brief question and answer period will provide a further opportunity for audience members to learn still more about how their fellow Minnesotans often, oh so subtly emote!
