In 1989, Tempest began developing his own style with visual and conceptual "dance magic". His show "Key of the Imagination" incorporated a distinctive Eastern style including fans, origami, Kabuki streamers and boomerangs. Tempest was soon touring worldwide, picking up such honors as New York's World Cup of Magic and Madrid's World Championship of Magic Award.
His interest in digital technologies generated his unusual performance style, in which an exploration of illusion arts merged with interactive high-tech animation. The result was his "NeXT Wave of Magic," which premiered in Zurich in December 1991. Tempest's use of a 32-screen video wall and the latest in techno-music earned him star spots in television variety shows, commercials, performing arts centers and corporate events in the U.S., Japan, France, Monte Carlo, Germany, Spain, and the UK. His ability to transform logos and products into 3-D animatronics put him much in demand on the corporate market, which became a major focus of his work for the next 15 years.
He is currently the executive director of the NYC Magic Lab, a science consortium exploring illusion and digital technology. He is deeply embedded in the tech industry and has regular interactions with product teams in an advisory capacity and as a consultant or developer for prototype consumer technologies. He is a Director's Fellow at the MIT Media Lab and a creative consultant at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
