Stephen grew up in San Francisco and was inspired to become a performer by the vibrant street performing scene there. He taught himself to juggle at an early age and to eat fire when he was a teenager.
Armed with those skills and a few magic tricks, while in high school and college he took to the streets. Stephen and his brother John performed for tips at Bay Area tourist attractions including San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf. Their act stood out primarily because it featured a William Tell-like stunt in which Stephen would place an apple on his brother's back and chop it in half with a two foot steel machete – wielding the machete so as to slice the apple neatly in two but stop the blade just in time to avoid maiming his brother.
Their mother did not approve.
Stephen received his A.B. from Oberlin College in 1979, were he majored in religion, studied theater, and taught juggling.
He received his law degree in 1984 from New York University. After graduation he moved to the Boston area where he has been a trial lawyer ever since with an active practice in both the state and federal courts. He has tried and won leading cases in Massachusetts involving, among other things, sex discrimination in employment, securities fraud and civil racketeering, and the rights of the public in Massachusetts's beaches. He has a solo practice in Holliston, Massachusetts.
While keeping up with a full time law practice Stephen returned to performing several years ago and has studied physical comedy extensively at the Celebration Barn in South Paris, Maine, with master teachers Avner (“Avner the Eccentric”) Eisenberg, Bowdoin theater professor Davis Robinson, and the late Tony Montanaro.
In 2000, Stephen produced and starred in his own one-man physical comedy show “The Benefit of Doubt” at the San Francisco Fringe Festival which audiences called “a definite recommendation!” and “magically . . . funny!”
In the past few years he has performed in small theaters, primarily at the Oddfellow Theater in Buckfield, Maine and at the Celebration Barn Theater in South Paris, Maine. He has also appeared at the Exit Theater in San Francisco.
In 2005 he became a member of the board of directors of the Celebration Barn Theater.
Stephen is divorced and has two daughters, Emily (17) and Hannah (14) who live with their mother, also in Massachusetts. His daughter Emily is a dancer. His daughter Hannah is a trapeze artist and acrobat. Hannah toured New England as a performer with 2005 edition of Circus Smirkus.
