Childhood & Early Life
Judson Laipply was born on March 22, 1976, in Ohio, United States. Not much is known about the family and early life of this inspirational and skilled speaker.
He graduated from the ‘Bluffton University’, a Christian liberal arts college in Bluffton, Ohio earning a BA degree. Thereafter, he attended ‘Bowling Green State University’ located in Bowling Green, Ohio, from where he completed his Master’s degree.
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Career
He served the ‘Ohio Association of Student Councils’ as its State President from 1993 to 1994.
After earning his Master’s degree, Laipply stepped into the world of professional speaking beginning his career as a motivational speaker in 2000.
He soon made his mark in the field, garnering attention for his creative, inspirational at the same time entertaining presentations complimented with his smart, spontaneous and energetic demeanour.
He performed ‘The Evolution of Dance’ publicly for the first time in 2001 that immediately became a hot favourite among his audience. Initially, the video comprised of a mix of twelve popular dance songs of the last five decades.
He later posted a six-minute 30-song-video of ‘The Evolution of Dance’ on YouTube on April 6, 2006 that soon became viral across the world. The popularity of the clip saw it being exchanged through emails and uploaded on numerous blogs while also finding place in many talk show discussions.
During that time it ranked numero uno as the ‘Most Viewed All Time Video’ and ‘Top Rated Video’ on YouTube while garnering the third position as the ‘Most Discussed Video’ on the video sharing website.
‘The Evolution of Dance’ amassed over 70 million views within eight months of its upload on the video sharing website and more than 150 million views till present. It featured on ‘Good Morning America’, ‘Google’, ‘MSN.com’, ‘Ellen’, ‘CNN’, ‘Oprah’, ‘USA Today’, ‘The Today Show’, ‘AOL.com’, ‘E! Entertainment’ and many other media platforms across the globe.
Some of the songs of the clip included Elvis Presley’s ‘Hound Dog’; The Bangles’ ‘Walk Like an Egyptian’; Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ and ‘Billie Jean’; and Jay-Z’s ‘Dirt Off Your Shoulder’. Wherever he goes for a presentation the audience request him for his ‘'The Evolution of Dance’.
Through his presentations and performances, Laipply entertains the audience while giving them a food for thought. He says “I thrive on getting people to think about things, shift their perception, and hope that I might just be able to give them something to help make their life better. Combining those two on stage is just about as good as it gets!”
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Such thought provoking, interesting and enriching presentations of Laipply where he thrives in bringing a fresh outlook towards life and embracing the changes it brings, inspires the audience feeding them with positive energy to advance with new zeal. He uses the ‘Inspirational Comedy’ phenomenon to bring in a synthesis between realities of life and joie de vivre.
During the December 2007 Christmas Holidays, he featured in a ‘dance season’ ad that appeared on ‘BBC’. He was also interviewed on the English comedian Alex Zane hosted British TV programme ‘Rude Tube’ where ‘Evolution of Dance’ ranked number one.
He along with other internet celebrities appeared in the song ‘Pork and Beans’ made by ‘Weezer’, an American alternative rock band, for its self-titled album ‘Weezer’ (2008). He also featured in one of the videos of the Canadian rock band, ‘Barenaked Ladies’ and performed at the NBA finals during halftime.
In January 2009, he released the video ‘Evolution of Dance 2’ that included both yesteryear songs like ‘I Got You (I Feel Good)’ by James Brown; Hokey Pokey by Ray Anthony and ‘Shout’ by ‘The Isley Brothers’; as also songs of contemporary artists and bands like ‘Here It Goes Again’ by ‘OK Go’ and ‘Crank That (Soulja Boy)’ by Soulja Boy.
‘Evolution of Dance’ also found place in the American television game show ‘Jeopardy!’ as one of the general knowledge clues in reference to forming a question during the 2010 college championships held in February that year. The following year, Laipply featured on the American TV series ‘Tosh.0’.
On July 28, 2011, he uploaded yet another video titled ‘The Evolution of the Touchdown Dance’ on YouTube that comprised of unforgettable NFL touchdown dances.
He featured in yearly YouTube Rewind series in December 2015. He has also penned down an inspirational book titled ‘Might as Well Dance’.
Marking the 10th anniversary of ‘Evolution of Dance’, Laipply uploaded the video ‘Evolution of Dance 3’ on YouTube in April 2016. This clip also included yesteryear music like Chuck Berry’s ‘Johnny B. Goode’ and Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’; and modern day songs like Miley Cyrus’ ‘Wrecking Ball’ and PSY’s ‘Gangnam Style’ (at present the all-time most viewed video on YouTube).
Some of his popular entertaining and motivational speaking topics includes ‘Why I am better than you: Establishing Your Place in Today's Society’, ‘Selling Sand in the Desert: How to Market and Sell Anything’, ‘The Paradoxes of Life’, ‘Life is Change’ and ‘The 5 L's for Living’ among others.
His contagious performance starting from the moment he appears on stage till the time he dances off keeps the audience engaged throughout the presentation. One can get to know more about him and his programs through his website ‘JudsonLaipply.com’ where he describes himself as an ‘Inspirational Comedian’.
