July 13, 2021 • 51 mins
Leo has a conversation with his comedy classmate Tyler. They discuss the difference between being lazy and being in the wrong career, Tyler's journey to become a voiceover actor, and the advantages of understanding your identity at a young age.
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By: Leo Yockey
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:14):
Hello, and welcome to anotherepisode of the Leo Yockey show
show where I Leo Yockeyinterview guests about how their
unique life path led them todefine success and fulfillment.
The goal on paper written by meis to provide you the listener,
some relief for your existentialdread. But here's a secret. What
(00:35):
I'm actually doing is trying torelieve my own existential
dread. And y'all are just on forthe journey with me. Thank you
for being part of this show.
Thank you for continuing toreview this show. I I who is
listening to me in France andCanada. Give me a shout out, let
me know where you're at. Becausewe are still ranking globally.
We're still ranking in theUnited States. And in Canada and
(00:58):
in France. You know, when Istarted this show, I just I knew
that the way that we'reapproaching success, the way
that we're looking at the worldneeds to change because the
world has changed. And the factthat I'm ranking like, just
thank you so much for I don'tknow, prove me right. I love
being right. who it is. It isearly morning, I am actually in
(01:20):
the middle of a move. My officeis mostly packed up aside from
my microphone and my computer.
Anyway, y'all know that I'mdoing comedy, I've talked about
it quite a bit. I started myjourney by taking a class at the
second city. And I connectedwith the one and only classmate
(01:40):
of mine, who was also based inLos Angeles. Tyler Christiansen,
he's a voiceover actor, he isalready done a lot of comedy
work before this class, he ishilarious. And it's interesting
to me, because me as well, as alot of my listeners, you know, a
lot of us are at or almost, youknow, our 30s. And we're still
(02:04):
trying to figure out what we'redoing. And Tyler is someone
who's kind of had a reallystrong idea of what he's wanting
to do, since he was reallyyoung. And we talked about that.
We talked about how thatcertainty and how, you know,
being comfortable in hisidentity and stuff like that
could have could have factoredinto that. And, you know, it was
a lot of fun. And he's a reallycool guy. And yeah, I think
(02:27):
you'll enjoy this episode a lot.
Without further ado, here isTyler Christiansen.
All right, hey, Tyler. How's itgoing? I'm good. How are you?
Leo? I'm good. I'm good. I wasjust saying I'm so sad that we
(02:47):
don't like start our weekendstogether. We were used to we
were meeting at 8am everySaturday for like seven weeks
and then we're just cut off endof an era. Surely the shorter
one or the shortest, yet bestareas of my life. I remember
when we were in our when we werein our stand up class all that
(03:09):
time ago. You know what, twoweeks ago or whatever. You
always seemed like I don't know,from the beginning. It seemed
like you had the best like,stage presence, whatever, if
that's what you call it on zoom.
And it was very clear from thevery beginning. Like this is the
actor in the group. Like, youknow, this guy is like
(03:29):
comfortable being in front ofpeople. How long have you been
acting? along long time?
I started when I was a littlekid doing like plays and whatnot
like vocal theater. As one does.
Yeah. As you know, it just stuckwith that I did the school plays
I was not a theater kid. I needto make that disclaimer.
(03:55):
Send some shade towards theaterkids. Why don't you want to be
associated with the theaterkids? Tyler? I don't know.
I mean, I say that but I was Idid do the theater in high
school. All that stuff. I justdidn't you know, sing at Denny's
at 2am which I think is astereotype.
Yes. As as someone who was atheater kid friends with the
(04:17):
theater kids that is 100%especially when you're from a
small town right? Because Wherecan you even go to a when you're
under age Denny's?
And he's Yeah, that's kind ofit's kind of always been
something I've been in, youknow, from as a little lad and I
just stuck with throughout mylife.
(04:38):
Yeah, I always think that it'sreally interesting when people
like get it because you know,for me like I was software well,
going back a little bit furtherI like was initially pursuing
music and then very quickly wentout into the real world and was
like, This is scary and hard. Ineed a safe job and like, tried
to do a couple things because IDon't have a college degree or
(05:01):
anything, and kind of stumbledinto tech, did that for a few
years, made all the money andwas like, I'm miserable. Now I
want to go into creative. So I'mlike super fascinated by people
who, like, start with creativeand just like, go with it. Like,
at what point did you decidelike, I want to do this for my
(05:22):
job like, this is how I want tomake money?
Well, it's funny that you saythat, because I did have
something similar to what yousaid. Not not really all that
wasn't that long with timeperiod. So when I was graduating
high school, I was like, I needa career. You know what I mean?
Because I was, I'm not gonna,like, become an actor, you know
(05:42):
what I mean? Like, you know,it's like, it's, it's funny,
because it was, it was one ofthose things where people were
telling me that I should and Iwas like, No, you don't. I mean,
I was like, that's just notrealistic. And I ended up going
to. So just a quick backstoryabout me, I do have a degree
from a film school I did, I didgo to school for acting. But
(06:02):
before that, I did a year like aregular college. And while I was
in high school, tried to take alot of business classes, I
really enjoyed human resources.
I thought I'd want to be workinghuman resources, or like maybe
the guidance counselor because Ilike people. Or at least I used
to know, I'm kidding. That'swhat I thought I wanted to do.
(06:24):
And that year of college, I waslike, I didn't do anything
creative for that full schoolyear and the flows full two
semesters. And I will think Iwill say that is the most
miserable I've ever been. And Iwas like, I need to go back to
doing what I love. Because thisis not, I don't think I could
live my life doing whatever thisis, you know? Yeah. So that was
(06:46):
my little wake up call.
Yeah, no, that's so interesting.
Because Yeah, I can definitelyrelate to that, you know, like,
I spent several years, you know,not doing anything creative. And
slowly over time, you know, mywhole body deteriorated. And,
you know, I basically spent theentire year of 2019 sick. I had
this like, horrible, like,stress related illness with my
(07:09):
stomach, and, you know, slowlybut surely realize that, like, I
needed a creative outlet, so Iwas like, okay, great hobbies.
And then I got a new job stillin tech. And then after a while,
I started to develop likesciatica. And by the time I quit
that second tech job, I likecould barely walk from like my
bed to like the bathroom.
(07:32):
Finally, I was like, okay,Tech's trying to kill me, I
gotta get out of here. So sothat's good that you got out
early. You were just like, Idon't like this. But yeah, so
like, at that point, you like,what made you say, like, I'm
gonna abandon all this, asopposed to like, I'm gonna still
do the job. And just like, doacting or creative stuff as a
hobby.
(07:53):
I think I was just like,honestly, I was just so
miserable, like I had not had, Ihad never been that miserable
before in my life. And I kind oflike, tried to stick it out for
a little bit, because it's sucha transitional period in your
life going from high school tocollege. So I figured, yeah,
this is new to me. You know whatI mean? Like this, not only this
(08:13):
career path, I've decided I'mgoing on but like this, I'm now
I'm living away from home andblahdy blahdy blah, but it never
got better. I was like, I justhate this so much. You know, um,
and I, I'm trying to remember ifthere was like a specific
catalyst or something, but Ithink it really was just like, I
just hate everything about this.
I'm just gonna go and do this.
(08:35):
Because I can't imagine justlike, I'm lazy person. I don't
like to work. So like, I wantto, I want to, if I'm going to
have to have a job, I want to belike, I think that's what it is
to like, I think I couldn't justbe a hobby. I think it has to be
like almost like my career, myway of life. Because I just
couldn't. I just couldn't doanything else.
(08:56):
Well, that's so interesting thatyou say I'm so lazy, because
like I say that a lot too. Like,I'm very lazy. I'm very lazy.
But I have like a track historyof saying like, Oh, I did this
because I'm lazy. And thenhaving like bosses or mentors or
whatever being like, Yeah, butyou did this like big creative
thing. And like it's helping alot of people. And I'm like, No,
(09:16):
but I did it because I was lazy.
Like, when I was doing casinosecurity in Las Vegas. I was
right. Yeah. I was. I waswriting incident reports. And I
started like, what did I do? Ithink I started creating like
templates for those reports.
Because I was like, I don't wantto have to like write the same
thing over and over again. Butit was a template that like all
(09:39):
the other report writers on theother ships were able to use. Or
like sometimes I would do like abunch of investigation. Like if
someone was claiming that therewas property missing. I would
like on paper be going above andbeyond to like, find the missing
item. And you know, obviouslythe guest is happy because they
found their stuff and it wasn'tjust like stolen by housekeeping
or whatever they thought happen.
But for me, if I found an item,I did not have to write the
(10:03):
report. So that was all I caredabout. But they were like, look
at all this stuff you're doing.
And I say all that because, youknow, you're saying like, I
wouldn't want to do this as ahobby, because I'm lazy. But
acting is an incrediblycompetitive field. You know what
I mean? Like, when I was intech, it was a very easy job.
Technically, the one that I wasin even though I hated it, I was
(10:25):
only working like two hours aday. So technically, if I'm
being lazy, I should stay intech, because I'm actually
working way more doing thispodcast and trying to get comedy
going at the same time. It'sbeen it's taking way more hours
out of my day than just being intech. So like, yeah, like,
aren't you working like way morenow than if you were to just
have a nine to five? Well, it'sinteresting that you say that,
(10:46):
because does it feel like workto you because to me, it doesn't
like, you know what I mean?
Like, it feels like, I enjoythis, like, I want to do this.
It's fun. So I could, I could doit all day long. Like we talked
about, I don't know if wementioned this yet, but I do
voiceover work and brackets inthat booth all day. I mean,
(11:06):
obviously, some projects aremore fun than others. But to me,
it's it's still like whatever orlike writing, I enjoy writing.
Like I do freelance writing aswell. But even my own projects,
like after a day of writing forother people, I can sit down, I
just did this yesterday and sitdown for like three hours and
just write my own stuff. And tome, that's not work. I enjoy
doing it. So I think that'sthat's kind of my mindset is, is
(11:29):
I don't view it as work.
Yeah, no, I definitely agreewith that. And I'm so glad that
you said that. Yeah. So it'salmost not even so much that
it's laziness as much as it islike, you cannot bring yourself
to do something that is notgoing to be enjoyable.
Yeah, yeah, pretty much like Ican't like just sit there and
(11:49):
work a job I hate. You know,it's just not a skill that I
that I have some people can't Ijust I'm not, you know. So I
think like, if you dropped me inan environment where I didn't
want to do something, I thinkfrom outsider's perspective, it
looked like I'd have a terriblework ethic. And I know that's
not true. Because clearly to getto this industry in this field,
and all the stuff that we'redoing, you have to have a great
(12:10):
work ethic. My work ethics isawesome. But I just is only in
this specific field. Anythingelse? I don't care?
Yeah, no, totally that thatmakes sense to me it but there's
all just, I mean, this, theseare realizations that you're
having when you were like, what1920 years old, like that's
pretty young to have that kindof insight. And to be able to
(12:31):
kind of figure that out. I mean,I'm 29 I'm almost 30. So like,
it took you like 10 years less,because I was right at that
jumping off point to where Iwas, like, you know, like 1920
years old. And I was likepursuing music, and I really
loved it. But I kind of fellinto like a really unsupportive
crowd. So I think I like Missidentified what was going on. I
(12:52):
mean, there were other issuestoo, like, you know, like, with
my gender identity made, likehearing my singing voice, like
really unbearable, and not beingable to put language to it and
stuff. So there were definitelyother factors. But I find it so
interesting, because, you know,the majority of my listeners are
like, you know, 27 to like, 30something, and she's still
(13:12):
trying to figure out what theywant to do. And it seems like,
you know, like, you're one ofthe few people that I think I've
interviewed, they're like, yeah,like, from a very young age,
like I've always known, like,what I wanted to do. So I'm
curious, like, what you're like,what was your home life? Like?
like growing up? Like, were yougiven a lot of like space to
kind of like, express yourselfand kind of like, be yourself?
(13:34):
Or were you kind of like, Didyou feel like almost like,
stifled at home?
No, not stifled at all. As faras like creativity. No,
actually, not at all. My parentswere very supportive, which I'm
very, very grateful for, becauseI know that's not always the
case, especially when peoplewant to go into a more artistic
industry. And in fact, myparents have always been like,
this is what you need to bedoing. And I think, especially
(13:57):
they knew how miserable I was atcollege. They were like, just
you have to, you know what Imean? So no, I've always had a
great support system, and noteven just in my family, just
like the community and my peers,you know, and directors I've
worked with, when I was youngerand, and whatnot. So I was very
fortunate to to have that. AndI'm sure that plays a huge part
(14:19):
in everything.
Yeah, for sure. So do you feellike So at what point cuz you're
from upstate New York? whatpoint did you like make that
plunge and move to the big city?
Did you start in New York City,or did you come straight to LA?
Um, so when I went to college,my college, college, film,
(14:41):
schools college, I guess, butyou know what I mean? But, uh, I
so just low so I went to highschool. That was huge, right? It
was like, my graduating classwas like, 700 kids. And I didn't
like that because I felt likeyou do you know, you graduate
with kids that you never evenknew and it was just weird. And
I I wanted to go to a smallerschool. I wanted to go away from
(15:04):
Syracuse, which is where I'mfrom. And but I wasn't ready to
live in New York City yetbecause I was like, that's just
going to be such a too much forme to live in like a major city.
So I found this really smallschool was run Westchester, New
York, for anyone who knows who'slistening. It's right outside
New York City, which wasperfect. So it was like, I did
like a baby step. So I like didone year right outside the city,
(15:26):
and we'd go into the city tolike party and stuff, you know,
and then, um, then, after thatyear, I just went to school in
New York City. And then I did,how long was it? I think it was
like, one year I was in New YorkCity. And then I finished up my
schooling out here in LA.
That's, that'sokay. Was it like a school that
(15:47):
had campuses both in New Yorkand LA? Okay, cool. Cool. Cool.
So what, what made you decide tolike, Did you just kind of
realize that, that you wouldhave a better like better
prospects in LA, like, what madeyou make that switch to go from
the New York campus to the LAcampus,
I had a classmate who went outto LA to visit and loved it. And
(16:10):
it was always kind of on thetable at that school that you
could do like one year in NewYork, and then finish your
degree in LA. And I actuallythink you, if I'm not mistaken,
I think you had to do time atboth campuses to get an actual
degree. So because there wasalso like, stuff that were not
like degree degrees there,because it's like a conservatory
school. And she was like, sheloved it. And we all kind of
(16:33):
just got convinced that we'relike, we should go to LA like,
there's so much more. But it istrue. There is a lot more film
and TV in LA, right. So New Yorkis a lot more theater, there is
some film and TV, but justcompared to LA, it's not even,
you know, and at the time,that's what I really wanted to
do. I wanted to do on camera,film and TV, like voiceover was
not even on my radar at thatpoint. So yeah, it was kind of
(16:56):
like peer pressure. I was notreally but like, you know, like,
I was like, we want to go andI'm like, Yeah, like, Let's all
go. So I ended up going like,the class I was with, we all end
up going together. And we werein the same class in New York,
to LA, which was awesome, whichmade the move out here so much
easier, because I was with allmy friends. And that's what
happened. Yeah. Wow.
Yeah. Yeah, that totally makessense. So it sounds it sounds
(17:17):
like, you know, some of some ofwhat was happening was, you
know, you you said at firstlike, Oh, you know, I need a
regular career, whatever you'retrying business classes, you're
you're looking at HR, and someof these like people oriented,
quote, unquote, safe careers,and you do it for a year hated.
And you have the support of yourfamily saying, like, yeah, just
(17:39):
do this, like, this is clearlywhat you want to do slash who
you are, whatever. And it seemslike at that point, you like,
made a decision, like, this iswhat I'm going to do like,
period, you know, I think a lotof people say like, I'm going to
try acting, or comedy, or musicor whatever the entertainment
thing is, I'm going to try thiscreative thing for one year or
(17:59):
five years or 10 years. And ifit doesn't work out, I'm going
to fall back on my degree, orI'm going to move back home, or
I'm going to, you know, settledown and get a real job. Did you
ever have that like exitstrategy in your mind, after
quitting the regular college?
A little bit, there was a timewhen it was I was about to
graduate, and I interned at anagency for a while while I was
(18:22):
in school. And I didn't hate itat all, actually. And I was
like, maybe I should just dothis. Like, because like, it's
like, the intern to executiveassistant pipeline. So type of
deal, you know, and I was like,maybe I should just do this and
maybe work at an agency. Butthat was like not, that was just
like, for like, a week, youknow? Because it just you have
(18:46):
these thoughts. Sometimes I'mlike, maybe I should just go but
they never like are these forme? They never last all that
long.
Yeah, it sounds like you wereyou were ultimately committed.
Cuz I think that happens to allof us, right? Like, we always
look at other stuff. And youknow, like, the grass always
appears greener on the otherside. So I mean, it makes sense
that we have those like, likethe thought equivalent of like,
(19:07):
wandering eyes, right? You know,it's like, oh, like, maybe this
would be interesting, but itnever sounded like you were
seriously like, Okay, I'm onlygonna give it until this amount
of time. Or I definitely need tohave this backup plan, just in
case. You know what I mean?
Right? Well, one thing I wastold a lot when I first moved
out here from older actors andpeople in industry, they were
(19:29):
like, give it five years,because a lot of your peers will
not be here, because of thatreason. And have you found that
to already start to become true?
Yes, I found that to be thecase, because it's been. So I
graduated college in 2018. Soit's 2021. So it's like three
years and it's, it's already youknow what I mean? Yeah. Which is
(19:49):
fine. It's just but that is justthe nature of the game. And so I
didn't want that to be me.
Because not You know what Imean? Like, you never know what
could happen tomorrow.
Yeah. Yeah. And I think thatthat, again, it's like, you
know, you you had like thecommunity, both in your family,
(20:10):
and in the school that we're allkind of, you know, like, I mean,
the fact that you got to move toLA with a bunch of friends,
that's so uncommon, you know,most people, when they, when
they pack up their bags and moveto the big city, they're leaving
everything and everyone behindyou, maybe they have like a
partner or a friend that theybecome, you know, that, that
they move with and becomeroommates. But to have
(20:30):
essentially, like, a wholecommunity around you. I mean,
that's, that's really cool. ButI caught something that you
said. So you were saying that atthe time, I think when you were,
I believe when you first movedto LA, you wanted to be like on
camera, doing film and TV. Sothat's is that no longer what
you want to do within thecreative space.
Um, it's not, like completelyruled out, it's just not my
(20:53):
first priority. So I fell intokind of the world of voiceover.
And it's just become the thingthat I have the most footing in.
And that's kind of where I'mjust putting a lot of more of my
time and my energy, quitehonestly, I did do the on camera
stuff. For a while I had anagent of pretty good commercial
agent for a while before I gotdropped. And I just didn't, I
(21:15):
just didn't enjoy it as much.
And I have been on set, I did alittle like bit part in station
19, where I played this kid wholike blew himself up with
fireworks. So like. And it waslike, you just waited, you
waited and wait, like that's allyou did all day was you waited?
And I was like I don't? Thisisn't really all that fun. And
(21:37):
then a couple of voiceover whereit's like you're done in like,
two hours. Do you know what Imean? Yeah, I just, I've just
found that I personally enjoyvoiceover a lot more. I think I
have a lot more job prospects invoiceover as well. I'm not on
castable on camera by,you know what I mean? I just
think I'm more castablevoiceover you don't fall easily
(21:58):
into one of the big type caststhat happen a lot in Hollywood,
right? Yeah.
Yeah, I just feel like I don'tknow what I mean. I just feel
like I found my space, my placein the voiceover community. And
I found my brand, or whatever,you know, like, if someone was
like, pitch yourself as a voiceactor, I could tell you, you
(22:20):
know what I mean? Because I knowwhat I get, and I know what I
can do. But that being said, Youknow, I love comedy. And we
mentioned we're standing uptogether. I love comedy. I love
comedy writing. And I would loveto do that type of stuff. You
know what I'm saying? So maybedown the line, it's not ruled
out, but it's not where all myenergy is, at the moment.
Yeah, that makes sense. And Ihave a friend who I believe
(22:43):
their episode is coming out atthe time recording. We're
recording this for thelisteners, if you care on June
29. So I think I think thiscoming Tuesday, I have my friend
Shannon coming on who is astoryboard artist. And it's kind
of the same thing, right? Likethey knew that they wanted to be
like, they were like a brilliantdraw, like from birth,
essentially, right? And, andthey want it to be like an
(23:06):
animation and do all thesedifferent things. And they kind
of found their niche instoryboard. And it was kind of
the same thing, like you talkedabout being bored on set,
because it's a lot of waitingaround. And they they kind of
said the same thing that I'mdoing animation would be a lot
of repetitive, it would bereally repetitive compared to
storyboarding is is lessrepetitive and has a lot more
(23:29):
creative to it. But it'sinteresting, because it's like,
you have to like, start, youhave to dip your feet in first
to kind of figure out like, thedifferent directions that you
want to go in. And you know,it's it's not even that you like
cuz I feel like what people getafraid of is like, if you come
out here to become an actor, andthen you realize that you don't
(23:50):
like being on set or I mean, Idon't know what happened to get
dropped by your commercialagent. But yeah, these things
kind of happen.
I just wasn't booking anything,because no I was they had a lot
of kids that looked just likeme. So when I would go to an
audition, and you can see in thecheck in, like, they'll ask you
to write your agency. And it'slike, so many people with the
same agency as me, and I'm like,why am I competing against my
(24:13):
own? You know what I mean? Yeah,it's kind of so.
Yeah, that sounds horrible.
Yeah. So it's like, you know, alot of people would have that
experience. You You were sayingbefore, you know, you got to
give it at least five years,because a bunch of people would
have left. I think a lot ofpeople would have had that
experience and would have said,Well, I failed. You know what I
mean? And you took that andsaid, I mean, I don't know
exactly how you ventured intovoiceover but you kind of just
(24:36):
said you fell into it. I mean,I'd be curious how Yeah, how
exactly did you start voiceoverso when I was in school in LA,
we had a voiceover class andmind you it was never anything I
even thought about, you knowwhat I mean? Like, whatever. And
I found that I liked it. I foundthat it was something I was good
at, you know, and the teacherreally was encouraging me to
(24:58):
pursue it because I sound like,like a teenager, you know what I
mean? Like, I sound like a kindof like a younger boy. And
that's, like really marketablein that, that the world. And so
after I had graduated, I didkind of fall in my lap. There's
a site, there's a sites called,like pay to plays in the
(25:18):
voiceover world where you have asubscription. And then there's
like a bunch of job listingsthat you can audition for. And
the opinion on that is verymixed within the community. But
when you're starting out, it'syou really don't have much of a
choice. And there was a job thatwas like super confidential, it
was just like animation boy, onethat was like the character I
read, like, boy one, I was like,sure. And I got it. And it
turned out to be a job withNational Geographic, they were
(25:42):
Nat Geo kids was making thiscartoon like a, they had like a
book series that they weremaking, and they wanted to make
it into a cartoon as well. Sothey did the pilot, and they put
it on YouTube. But that thatthat's it, like they never made
any more. But I was like, I gotmy first taste of doing it. And
I was like, Oh, I love this, youknow? And I guess the rest is
history. I just kept working andtaking classes and learning more
(26:05):
about the industry. And here Iam.
Yeah, yeah, that's exactly it,man like that. That totally
seems to be the pattern. I lovethat. Thank you for explaining
that. Because, yeah, you you gointo school saying, you know, I
want to be an actor, I want tomove to Hollywood, I want to be
on TV. And you get here andyou're starting to, you know, do
(26:30):
the footwork of what it takes tolike be an actor to be on TV.
And you're realizing like, Idon't really like this, you
know, this doesn't really seemlike it's for me, I'm not
getting booked. And even when Iam getting booked, I'm not even
really enjoying it. And so, youknow, you kind of go for this
voiceover thing. And you loveit. And so you make that shift,
and you're, but you would havenever, you know, like you said,
(26:52):
like you had never thought aboutit before, like you wouldn't
have gone from, you know, athigh school in Syracuse,
straight into voiceover like,you had to have that experience
of trying acting first you tokind of be adjacent to it and
even know that it was apossibility.
Right? Absolutely. Like, I thinkall those experiences,
everything happens for a reason.
But it's like so true. Like,even that year, were just
(27:13):
shocked. Like, I needed that.
Because now I know, you knowwhat I mean? And so, yeah, no, I
agree wholeheartedly thatwithout all those in between
steps, I wouldn't ever be doingwhat I'm doing now.
Yeah, absolutely. So all thatbeing said, How does comedy come
(27:34):
into the picture? Because I youyou had been sick because I know
you had already started writinglike some like satirical
articles, freelance here andthere even before doing the
stand up class, so how did youget into comedy writing
initially, um,so I've always really enjoyed
comedy in general, just evenlike comedic acting. When I
would do theater and stuff, Iwas always the funny character,
you know what I mean? Like thethe, I was never the leading
(27:57):
man, like, you know, like, it'dbe like The Addams Family in
high school. I'm uncle fester,you know, like, stuff like that.
And I've always really enjoyedit. And, and I just decided, I
was just, I'm trying to thinklike, something. Remember, I was
making my own pilot, like twoyears ago, I was getting really
into it. And that's when I waslike, I think I need like some
(28:18):
formal writing training. And atthe time, I didn't have enough
money for classes or anything.
So I just kind of got a bunch ofbooks and self taught. And then
down the line, I started takingclasses with Second City, I'm
about to finish their SATshigher writing track. So I'm,
like the last level right now.
And I found I really like that.
(28:38):
And that's fun. So I get towrite the satirical articles.
I'm in the writing track rightnow, too. And that's really like
a lot of sketch comedy, whichI've always enjoyed sketch
comedy. I never knew how towrite it. And now I know, I
know, I'm so I don't know, itjust I was always something I
enjoyed. And it also came fromplace from this is a better
answer. When I was not bookinganything, and when I was barely
(29:02):
getting sent out and stuff likethat, I was like, I think I need
to make my own content. That waswhat inspired I should have
started. That's what and that iswhen I was like, Well, let me
write my own thing. And then Iwas like, maybe I should get
some formal training. And then Ijust learned more and more. And
now I really do enjoy making myown content. And hopefully, I
(29:24):
can get to a point where I couldproduce said content, you know,
million dollars.
Yeah, no, I love that. I think,you know, opportunity, I think
absolutely comes to those whocreated and again, same thing,
you know, here's another exampleof, you know, again, going back
to stick around for five years,because not everyone's gonna
(29:45):
make it not getting books,people would just be like, some
people would just say, Well, Ifailed or it's not working out
or I guess I'm just gonna golike, dry for like Uber Eats or
something like that. And that'sall fine. Like there's no rule
books, you know, saying how youshould live your Live. But, you
know, like you took that timeand said, You know, like, I got
to just create my own stuff if Iwant to, like, were you
(30:07):
initially thinking that you wantto write stuff so that you could
like star in it?
Yeah. So I, the first pilot Ihad written was a was an
animation I want to do my ownvoiceover for it. Yeah. Because
there's a lot of people in thevoiceover community who do they
do a lot of indie projects andstuff. I was ignorant to how
much how hard it is to actuallyfind like a little independent
(30:30):
animation. You know what I mean?
Actually, like, disgustinglyexpensive as it should be,
because they, it's such hardwork, you know what I mean?
Right? But that's, that's themindset came from. So I had
written that and I, again, likeI just kinda got my first taste
of writing and just kind of grewfrom there. And
and here you are now. I lovethat. So when you so in taking
(30:53):
the stand up class, was that?
Were you just trying to findanother avenue to like sharpen
your writing skills? Or were youthinking at that point that you
wanted to that you wereconsidering doing stand up a
little bit more seriously, like,as a performer?
Um, it was definitely to sharpenmy writing skills. I had to do
stand up once prior. And weencourage you to take an improv
(31:14):
class and for some reason, ourfinal was a stand up set, which
is with me, but it was terrible.
Like it was it was actually atthe what's the place we went to?
Haha.
Oh, the Haha, calm Yeah.
Yeah, it was there. And like,thank God, they like ran into
inside out just for like theclass like no one really saw it.
But like, it was horrible. So Iwas never really like a huge fan
(31:36):
of stand up. But I wanted totake the class just to learn a
different way of being able to,to learn how to I guess, for
more joke writing, I can't speakabout that learn how to elevate
my writing. And it was neverlike standard, even now is not
really something that I'm like,Oh, I want to do this. I found
that it's really good.
Networking. Yeah, thing. So Iwill stick with it. And I
(32:00):
friends that do it. And it's,you know, yeah, I enjoyed the
class and I enjoyed doing it.
But it's, I don't think we'llever be like my passion.
Yeah, no, I feel that like, Ilove doing stand up. But at the
same time, I'm like, I see it asmore of something that's going
to elevate my other skills tolike, you know, being able to
(32:22):
talk about whateverunapologetically and being able
to, like, just improve my publicspeaking skills to be able to,
like, you know, like, I thinkanybody that like, speaks in
public in any capacity, if theyhave like an appreciation and
understanding of stand up andthe nuances and the timing of
pauses and things like that,like I think it makes a big
(32:43):
difference in your right, I feelthat on the network until you
meet everybody in LA when you'redoing stand up, because it is
always out at these clubs allthe time. Okay, so I'm gonna
segue a little bit, your go backto your background a little bit.
So, um, so you're gay. There'sno like, smooth way to segue.
(33:09):
One, one thing that's come up alot. So you are like, by no
means the first person that'scome on. That's like a member of
the LGBTQIA community. And itseems like pretty consistently,
oh, I will say I think you'rethe first like, just straight up
like cisgender gay man. Socongratulations, welcome to the
(33:30):
show. It seems that a lot ofpeople in our community who have
who take longer to kind offigure out like what they want
to do with their life. A lot ofit is tied up in, like not being
able to live their truth,whether it's in their gender
identity, or their sexuality, orboth. So you having you know,
(33:52):
like, like I said, like, I'm soimpressed, like, Oh, my God, you
seem to know, like, from soearly on, like what you wanted
to do? Was there ever any, like,hold on, but this? Did you ever
feel like once you've kind offigured out your sexuality,
which I'd be curious how old youwere kind of like when you
started to figure it out? Wasthere ever any period where you
felt like you had to hide it? Orwere just like, kind of unable
(34:15):
to express that part ofyourself? Like, freely and
openly? Not really.
Um, just because it's like, Ithink is a joke. My standup set
too, but it's like, look at me,you know what I mean? Like,
I yeah, no, I, I've never been,I'm not like, I don't know. Cuz
(34:36):
To me, this is like, kind of howI view it. It's just like, part
of me and it's not like a bigdeal. So I guess I'm like
somebody who, I talk about it alot. Not because I'm like,
ashamed. But like, just becauseit's like, whatever, you know, I
mean, I kind of put it like,Alright, like, Why do you care
who I sleep with, you know whatI mean? Like, really, at the end
of the day, it's like, it's alljust like, who I'm romantically
(34:57):
involved with not a big deal. Soit's never bad. This huge and
again, like I've always hadsupportive family and whatever.
And yeah, that's it. You know,growing up in like the theatre
community, you know, there's noshortage of gay guys.
Yeah, good boy.
Oh, no, I do think maybe if Iwas involved in a different
(35:19):
maybe if I grew up playingsports, and I was in a more of a
hyper masculine setting, and itmight have altered my perception
of sexuality and what it meansto be a man and you know what I
mean? Because you know, I'm morefeminine. I'm sure maybe, but I
think it's just because beenaround the most flamboyant of
(35:40):
flamboyant gay guys. From ayoung age. It's never been, you
know?
Yeah. Yeah, no, I think I thinkthat makes a lot of sense. I'm
glad that you brought that upactually about like, oh, maybe
this would have been differentif I grew up in like, a sports
heavy community or somethingwhere, like, you know, there was
a lot of toxic masculinity,because what I hear you saying,
(36:01):
honestly, like, when I whenyou're saying, you know, like,
yeah, like, I was just, therewas always gay people around,
like, I was a theater kid, like,my parents are supportive. Like,
who cares? Who cares, right?
Like, who cares who you'resleeping with? I mean, to me
that, you know, it's like,that's, that's definitely like a
privileged position to be in,right to be able to say that, as
opposed to, like, I grew up inthis, like, you know, hyper
masculine, like, Uber Christian,like, you know, deep south, like
(36:23):
community or whatever. And, youknow, so you kind of had, like,
your experience with yoursexuality is really not that
different from a straightperson. Because you know what I
mean?
Yeah, I mean, it's still not allthat fun, you know, sometimes,
but, um, no, yeah. Like, I yeah,I don't think there was ever a
(36:47):
moment where I had that kind of,like, you know, those those
like, movies were like, thecoming of age gay kids, where
they're like, you know what Imean? Like, yeah, you know,
never really. Yeah, to me, it'sjust never been. It's like, you
know, but no, I yeah, I willdefinitely recognize it is such
a place of privilege. And I amvery grateful to have the
(37:10):
experience that I've had,because you hear these stories
and other people's experiences,and it does, you know, hurt your
heart you hear so? Yeah, that's,that's just my, my experience.
Yeah, no, I think that's cool.
Because, you know, like, for me,my experience is, like, you
know, I was out as a lesbianfirst, when I was like, 13. And
there's, there's a whole storyabout being like, forced out of
(37:31):
the closet before I was ready,doesn't matter. But, um, I
didn't, you know, come out, oreven really understand for
myself personally, that I wastrans until I was 25. So there
was 12 years where I, like, youknow, it was like, living as a
lesbian was very Butch. So, inthe same way that, you know, you
were saying before, like, youknow, like, look at me, like,
there's no, like, there's nohiding, it was the same for me,
(37:54):
because I didn't look thatdifferent from how I look. Now,
you know, like, my voice washigher, and I had no facial
hair. And I had a little bitless muscle mass, you know,
like, but I mostly looked thesame, my hair was really short,
I've been wearing boys clothes,since I was like four years old,
there was no hiding it. But forme, it was not quite the right
identity. So even though therewas a lot of freedom, because I
(38:17):
also had really supportiveparents. And so I was able to
express myself in a verymasculine way. And, you know,
even though I to you know, like,it wasn't like, Rainbows, and
butterflies, and rainbows,growing up like that, you know,
because of the environment. Andbecause kids are still gonna be,
you know, like, shitty ass kidsand all that stuff. But I think
what ultimately hurt me, wasn'tit. If I truly was just like
(38:40):
this butch lesbian, I think Iwould have had a lot like a
better sense of, like, I knowwho I am. And I can now figure
out what I want. Versus I had tolike, take all that time to
still figure out my identityfirst. So when I say like,
privileged, like, I mean it likethat. I don't mean like, you
never got like, bullied. I mean,like, you know, like you had
(39:01):
this like, in the same way thatstraight people don't really
have to think about who they areat all. It sounds like for you,
it just it was so like, natural.
And it was you and you were inan environment where there were
enough other people like youthat there wasn't this weird,
like, I don't know, it feelslike there's something there.
I'm not living my life andyou're trying to like date all
these girls in high school.
(39:24):
Yeah, no, I you know, 100% and Iwill speak on like, the bullying
thing, too. Is, is I was veryfortunate because I had
mentioned I went to a very largeHigh School. Yeah. And when I
mean, like, nobody, likeeveryone kind of kept themselves
because it wasn't like, I assumeI hear from people who have
classes of like, 50 people orwhatever, where they're like,
these are the popular kids. Andhe's like, that was not the
thing. So like, no one cared.
You know what I mean? But I alsothink played a road because I
(39:47):
was Yeah, that's a large hisschool. I mean, God school. I
mean, I just think shapes you somuch, obviously. I also have to
say that too, because there wasa lot of gay kids in my school.
Yeah. It was like, okay, theworst you get. I mean, not the
worst I've got would be likesome girl be like, can you be my
gay best friend? You know what Imean? Which is just annoying,
but I'm very Yeah, I've beenvery, very fortunate for, you
(40:12):
know, the environments that I'vecome up in.
Yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah.
I mean, it seems like you know,for from like, a pretty young
age you'd like had an idea ofwho you are. And I think because
of that, you know, he made it alot easier to like, understand
when you went into like,business in HR that like, that's
(40:33):
just not you know what I mean?
Because you had, it's not likeyou're completely fully self
actualized. There's nothing elseto learn about yourself. But
like, deep down, you knew enoughto kind of understand where you
needed to go. And I think that'spretty cool. Mm hmm. Yeah, it's
fun. It's been fun. Fun ride sofar. Yeah. So now so now that
(40:55):
you're, you're here in, inHollywood, and you're working as
a voiceover actor and learninghow to write and by the way, I
will say on the record, youknow, Scott Levy, our instructor
in in stand up seemed veryimpressed with the you know,
like the the amount andconsistency of work that you're
getting, considering how youngyou are in this very competitive
(41:18):
field. And I just want to throwthat out there. You know, we got
a we got a we got a golden childon our hands here.
No, it's it. I am veryfortunate. I'm very grateful.
It's, I think when people hearvoice actor, they think I'm
gonna like Nickelodeon, which,not yet, but I do it. You know,
it's all about knowing where youfit in. And I do, I think, like,
(41:40):
80% of my stuff is like, antivaping. I'm a good kid. My
parents don't worry about me,but they should you know what I
mean? Like, so not where I wantto be yet, but we're getting,
we're getting there.
Right. But that will that wasgonna be my question. So where
where do you want to go? Like,what, as of today, as of June
29 2021? Like, what, what do yousee as like the pinnacle for
(42:03):
your career?
The goal is to get intoanimation. And animation is
very, very hard to get into fortwo factors. One they use,
obviously, they use people thatthey know, you know what I mean?
So really, look at a lot ofthese mainstream animations.
It'll be like the same 20 youknow, voice actors, because why
would you risk it on? Why wouldyou not just go with someone
(42:25):
that you is a professional, youknow, and whatever. So because
animation is a very expensiveprocess, to now there's a thing
where a lot of celebrities aregetting into voiceover. So a lot
of animation jobs go into that.
But I just signed with a newagency about a month ago. And
I'm just now starting to seethose like, animation jobs that
I really want. Caught, you knowwhat I mean? auditions as
(42:48):
opportunities. So I'm excited.
It's, it's very, still very new.
It's only been about maybe amonth, maybe two, I not go with
time, but I am very excited. Souh, hopefully, maybe within the
next year, we can see somebookings and animation because
that's my dream. Like, that'sthe fun stuff, ya know, and I've
been training at a school in LA,if anyone's mentioned voiceover
(43:11):
called adventures in voiceover,which is so much fun. And I've
been training with them to do acouple of their classes and
workshops. So I'm like, I'mready. I want it. Let's do it.
So fingers crossed. Yeah.
Awesome. Congrats. Yeah,congrats on on getting those
starting to see those thosebetter auditions coming through
to that new agency. That is,that is fantastic. I love that.
(43:32):
And, you know, like for you tokind of summarize a little bit
for the listeners, like some ofthe stuff that I'm hearing is,
okay, so, you, you've beenreally into acting ever since
you were a little kid. Andimmediately after high school,
you feel like, Okay, well, thatwas fun. But you know, real
world, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah,and you try to do like a real
(43:53):
job, or not a real job, but youtry to get like a more
traditional degree, or I surviveone year, you're miserable. And
so you immediately pivot backinto what you love, which is
acting, and you kind of just,you know, you're you're with
your community, and you're,you're, you take the leap, you
go into New York, and then yougo into LA. And, you know, the
(44:14):
whole time along, you know, likeyou were told, you know, like,
give it five years, peoplearen't going to make it. So at
each point that it seems likeyou have a failure, you know,
like what would be a quoteunquote, failure to some people
points that I would, that I'msure a lot of other people would
have quit. You figure out a wayto kind of create your own
(44:35):
opportunity, whether it's, youknow, pivoting into voiceover or
starting to write freelance. Andall the while Tyler, it sounds
like you're constantly learningto like you said, I want to get
into writing but I can't affordthe classes right now. So you
got books and you taughtyourself that is, again, not
something that a lazy personwould do, you know, and you're
(44:56):
you're learning now. Like you'reStill, you're you're in training
with another with anothervoiceover Academy right now. So
you're, you're constantlylearning and it seems you know,
and that's kind of what a lot ofsuccessful people do, too. It's
like you're constantly finetuning your skills, and then
kind of poking your head up atvarious points to kind of see
what opportunities there are,grab the thing that seems like
(45:18):
the most appealing and, youknow, that kind of crosses that
intersection being the mostappealing and the most, like,
promising as far as, like, whatit can offer you. And then, you
know, get right back into itagain. So you're kind of, like
you're grinding this out, in away that is, is, you know, like
that, I feel like something,someone can learn something from
that, you know, like, these arerepeatable patterns. And so for
the listeners, if anybody feelslike, you know, like you're
(45:41):
miserable, and what you want itin what you're currently doing,
like, you know, that might be asign that you're not at where
you're supposed to be, you know,like it Yeah, it's always gonna
be a lot of work. But you know,it's a lot of work to even do a
nine to five. So if you're goingto be miserable, like, what's
the point? Like, we have to workhard either way, like, you're
definitely working very hard allthe time to get to where you're
(46:01):
at right now. You know what Imean?
Thank you. Yeah, I definitelyagree. Like I, I kind of feel
like if there's a will, there'sa way because like, right now,
I'm fortunate enough to be ableto take classes, but that was
not always the case. Actually,like, right after I graduated,
you know what I mean? So like,just even like books, or like
(46:22):
online communities and stuff,because that's what I did for a
while before I was takingwriting classes. I was just
doing like, writing groups ondiscord and be like, Yeah, what,
like, How bad is this? Like,give me my nose? You know what I
mean? Um, and it's free. Andit's there. I feel like there
are ways definitely and if youknow, and I know it's, it's, if
you're miserable, it's hard topick one or quit my job because
(46:43):
you know what I mean? Like,that's not always a viable
option. But I think at leastthere's, there's ways to ignite
your passions.
Yeah, of course, it'll, it'lldepend on what phase of life
you're in, right? Like, ofcourse, if you're like 19 years
old, and you're still incollege, you can just like
switch colleges. But if youhave, you know, like a mortgage
or a family, then those stepsare going to be a little bit
(47:04):
smaller, a little bit moreincremental. But you know, like
it, there's absolutely a way todo it. And I love that you say
you join those writing groups,because Addy willowridge is a
former guest of the show,author, she she had also joined
like writing groups kind of justfor the fun of it, and then they
like kind of pressured her intowriting some stuff for herself.
(47:25):
And it turned into a book thatis now a bestseller on Amazon,
you know, so like, just by goingout there and like joining
community and kind of followingwhat you're interested in, you
know, like joining a writinggroup on discord or something,
you know, that's not a huge timecommitment. So if you can't quit
your full time job, but thisthing is interesting, you like,
you know, there's, there'sthere's ways to kind of test it
(47:46):
and figure it out and and pivotvery slowly. You know what I
mean? Yeah, I think we're justabout out of time. I, you know,
for not having any anypreconceived questions. I think
we had a very cool, veryinteresting conversation. So
thank you for being on this ridewith me. Oh, yeah, of course. Do
(48:10):
you have anything that you wantto add you have anything that
you'd be remiss if you if youdidn't say it here right now?
Um, no. We did good. We covereda lot. You got so wide, I like
Oh, fuck, am I supposed to saysomething right now? No, you
don't have to. But if you werelike, oh, man, I hope he asked
(48:30):
me about this, or I hope I getto talk about this. Or like, Oh,
I wish I'd also added this inone of my other answers, then
this, this would have been achance for that. Yeah. I feel
like we, we I think we did good.
I think we did too. So is thereanything that you want to
promote? Is there anywhere onthe internet in which you would
like to be found by my lovelylisteners,
you can find me on Instagram atChristiansen Tyler. Not Tyler
(48:54):
Christiansen Christiansen Tylerbecause Tyler, mistaken. And
then I'm also on Twitter, atTyler s Christ. Which is my
Twitter name. And I do likesometimes like a lot of like
little stuff I write like, I'llmake like little skits myself
because all I got is my myself.
So sometimes I do that. Also, ifyou just want to hear my daily
(49:15):
annoying rambles. I never shutup on Twitter. So you can follow
me thereare to find you on Twitter for
my like five minutes a day thatI'm on Twitter.
I wish that is what I need toget down to.
I am bad.
Yeah, you know, it takes what ittakes for for each person. I got
(49:36):
fatigue by tech Twitter, so itwas pretty easy to leave. Yeah,
yeah. Thank you so much forcoming on. Tyler and I will talk
to you later. All right. I'llsee you. Thank you. All right,
once again, that was TylerChristiansen. Thank you so much
(49:57):
Tyler for coming on the show,man. I have a lot of fun anytime
I get to chat with you. Like Isaid at the end of the
interview, I don't spend a lotof time on Twitter but oh my
goodness, I found Tyler'sTwitter and it is very funny. If
you're active on Twitter, makesure you're following him. He is
(50:18):
fantastic. I am still working onmy move. nothing's really
changed since before thatinterview started for the
listeners perspective. So it isstill the morning of Friday,
July 9 here. I'm gonna go y'allhave a great week. Yeah, thank
(50:39):
you again for being on thisjourney with me. I have some
cool stuff that I'll beannouncing hopefully next week,
so stay tuned for that. And besure to follow me on tik tok
because I'm about to startgetting much more active on tik
tok as well. I'll be postingstuff there every single day. So
should be a lot of fun. That ispending this move being done.
(51:01):
I'm not trying to move andbecome a tic Tock person at the
same time. Because you know,life is all about balance.
Right? All right. I am. Gosh,I'm so tired. Okay, I gotta go.
Y'all have a great week. Thankyou for listening and stay
evolving.
Hello, and welcome to anotherepisode of the Leo Yockey show
show where I Leo Yockeyinterview guests about how their
unique life path led them todefine success and fulfillment.
The goal on paper written by meis to provide you the listener,
some relief for your existentialdread. But here's a secret. What
(00:35):
I'm actually doing is trying torelieve my own existential
dread. And y'all are just on forthe journey with me. Thank you
for being part of this show.
Thank you for continuing toreview this show. I I who is
listening to me in France andCanada. Give me a shout out, let
me know where you're at. Becausewe are still ranking globally.
We're still ranking in theUnited States. And in Canada and
(00:58):
in France. You know, when Istarted this show, I just I knew
that the way that we'reapproaching success, the way
that we're looking at the worldneeds to change because the
world has changed. And the factthat I'm ranking like, just
thank you so much for I don'tknow, prove me right. I love
being right. who it is. It isearly morning, I am actually in
(01:20):
the middle of a move. My officeis mostly packed up aside from
my microphone and my computer.
Anyway, y'all know that I'mdoing comedy, I've talked about
it quite a bit. I started myjourney by taking a class at the
second city. And I connectedwith the one and only classmate
(01:40):
of mine, who was also based inLos Angeles. Tyler Christiansen,
he's a voiceover actor, he isalready done a lot of comedy
work before this class, he ishilarious. And it's interesting
to me, because me as well, as alot of my listeners, you know, a
lot of us are at or almost, youknow, our 30s. And we're still
(02:04):
trying to figure out what we'redoing. And Tyler is someone
who's kind of had a reallystrong idea of what he's wanting
to do, since he was reallyyoung. And we talked about that.
We talked about how thatcertainty and how, you know,
being comfortable in hisidentity and stuff like that
could have could have factoredinto that. And, you know, it was
a lot of fun. And he's a reallycool guy. And yeah, I think
(02:27):
you'll enjoy this episode a lot.
Without further ado, here isTyler Christiansen.
All right, hey, Tyler. How's itgoing? I'm good. How are you?
Leo? I'm good. I'm good. I wasjust saying I'm so sad that we
(02:47):
don't like start our weekendstogether. We were used to we
were meeting at 8am everySaturday for like seven weeks
and then we're just cut off endof an era. Surely the shorter
one or the shortest, yet bestareas of my life. I remember
when we were in our when we werein our stand up class all that
(03:09):
time ago. You know what, twoweeks ago or whatever. You
always seemed like I don't know,from the beginning. It seemed
like you had the best like,stage presence, whatever, if
that's what you call it on zoom.
And it was very clear from thevery beginning. Like this is the
actor in the group. Like, youknow, this guy is like
(03:29):
comfortable being in front ofpeople. How long have you been
acting? along long time?
I started when I was a littlekid doing like plays and whatnot
like vocal theater. As one does.
Yeah. As you know, it just stuckwith that I did the school plays
I was not a theater kid. I needto make that disclaimer.
(03:55):
Send some shade towards theaterkids. Why don't you want to be
associated with the theaterkids? Tyler? I don't know.
I mean, I say that but I was Idid do the theater in high
school. All that stuff. I justdidn't you know, sing at Denny's
at 2am which I think is astereotype.
Yes. As as someone who was atheater kid friends with the
(04:17):
theater kids that is 100%especially when you're from a
small town right? Because Wherecan you even go to a when you're
under age Denny's?
And he's Yeah, that's kind ofit's kind of always been
something I've been in, youknow, from as a little lad and I
just stuck with throughout mylife.
(04:38):
Yeah, I always think that it'sreally interesting when people
like get it because you know,for me like I was software well,
going back a little bit furtherI like was initially pursuing
music and then very quickly wentout into the real world and was
like, This is scary and hard. Ineed a safe job and like, tried
to do a couple things because IDon't have a college degree or
(05:01):
anything, and kind of stumbledinto tech, did that for a few
years, made all the money andwas like, I'm miserable. Now I
want to go into creative. So I'mlike super fascinated by people
who, like, start with creativeand just like, go with it. Like,
at what point did you decidelike, I want to do this for my
(05:22):
job like, this is how I want tomake money?
Well, it's funny that you saythat, because I did have
something similar to what yousaid. Not not really all that
wasn't that long with timeperiod. So when I was graduating
high school, I was like, I needa career. You know what I mean?
Because I was, I'm not gonna,like, become an actor, you know
(05:42):
what I mean? Like, you know,it's like, it's, it's funny,
because it was, it was one ofthose things where people were
telling me that I should and Iwas like, No, you don't. I mean,
I was like, that's just notrealistic. And I ended up going
to. So just a quick backstoryabout me, I do have a degree
from a film school I did, I didgo to school for acting. But
(06:02):
before that, I did a year like aregular college. And while I was
in high school, tried to take alot of business classes, I
really enjoyed human resources.
I thought I'd want to be workinghuman resources, or like maybe
the guidance counselor because Ilike people. Or at least I used
to know, I'm kidding. That'swhat I thought I wanted to do.
(06:24):
And that year of college, I waslike, I didn't do anything
creative for that full schoolyear and the flows full two
semesters. And I will think Iwill say that is the most
miserable I've ever been. And Iwas like, I need to go back to
doing what I love. Because thisis not, I don't think I could
live my life doing whatever thisis, you know? Yeah. So that was
(06:46):
my little wake up call.
Yeah, no, that's so interesting.
Because Yeah, I can definitelyrelate to that, you know, like,
I spent several years, you know,not doing anything creative. And
slowly over time, you know, mywhole body deteriorated. And,
you know, I basically spent theentire year of 2019 sick. I had
this like, horrible, like,stress related illness with my
(07:09):
stomach, and, you know, slowlybut surely realize that, like, I
needed a creative outlet, so Iwas like, okay, great hobbies.
And then I got a new job stillin tech. And then after a while,
I started to develop likesciatica. And by the time I quit
that second tech job, I likecould barely walk from like my
bed to like the bathroom.
(07:32):
Finally, I was like, okay,Tech's trying to kill me, I
gotta get out of here. So sothat's good that you got out
early. You were just like, Idon't like this. But yeah, so
like, at that point, you like,what made you say, like, I'm
gonna abandon all this, asopposed to like, I'm gonna still
do the job. And just like, doacting or creative stuff as a
hobby.
(07:53):
I think I was just like,honestly, I was just so
miserable, like I had not had, Ihad never been that miserable
before in my life. And I kind oflike, tried to stick it out for
a little bit, because it's sucha transitional period in your
life going from high school tocollege. So I figured, yeah,
this is new to me. You know whatI mean? Like this, not only this
(08:13):
career path, I've decided I'mgoing on but like this, I'm now
I'm living away from home andblahdy blahdy blah, but it never
got better. I was like, I justhate this so much. You know, um,
and I, I'm trying to remember ifthere was like a specific
catalyst or something, but Ithink it really was just like, I
just hate everything about this.
I'm just gonna go and do this.
(08:35):
Because I can't imagine justlike, I'm lazy person. I don't
like to work. So like, I wantto, I want to, if I'm going to
have to have a job, I want to belike, I think that's what it is
to like, I think I couldn't justbe a hobby. I think it has to be
like almost like my career, myway of life. Because I just
couldn't. I just couldn't doanything else.
(08:56):
Well, that's so interesting thatyou say I'm so lazy, because
like I say that a lot too. Like,I'm very lazy. I'm very lazy.
But I have like a track historyof saying like, Oh, I did this
because I'm lazy. And thenhaving like bosses or mentors or
whatever being like, Yeah, butyou did this like big creative
thing. And like it's helping alot of people. And I'm like, No,
(09:16):
but I did it because I was lazy.
Like, when I was doing casinosecurity in Las Vegas. I was
right. Yeah. I was. I waswriting incident reports. And I
started like, what did I do? Ithink I started creating like
templates for those reports.
Because I was like, I don't wantto have to like write the same
thing over and over again. Butit was a template that like all
(09:39):
the other report writers on theother ships were able to use. Or
like sometimes I would do like abunch of investigation. Like if
someone was claiming that therewas property missing. I would
like on paper be going above andbeyond to like, find the missing
item. And you know, obviouslythe guest is happy because they
found their stuff and it wasn'tjust like stolen by housekeeping
or whatever they thought happen.
But for me, if I found an item,I did not have to write the
(10:03):
report. So that was all I caredabout. But they were like, look
at all this stuff you're doing.
And I say all that because, youknow, you're saying like, I
wouldn't want to do this as ahobby, because I'm lazy. But
acting is an incrediblycompetitive field. You know what
I mean? Like, when I was intech, it was a very easy job.
Technically, the one that I wasin even though I hated it, I was
(10:25):
only working like two hours aday. So technically, if I'm
being lazy, I should stay intech, because I'm actually
working way more doing thispodcast and trying to get comedy
going at the same time. It'sbeen it's taking way more hours
out of my day than just being intech. So like, yeah, like,
aren't you working like way morenow than if you were to just
have a nine to five? Well, it'sinteresting that you say that,
(10:46):
because does it feel like workto you because to me, it doesn't
like, you know what I mean?
Like, it feels like, I enjoythis, like, I want to do this.
It's fun. So I could, I could doit all day long. Like we talked
about, I don't know if wementioned this yet, but I do
voiceover work and brackets inthat booth all day. I mean,
(11:06):
obviously, some projects aremore fun than others. But to me,
it's it's still like whatever orlike writing, I enjoy writing.
Like I do freelance writing aswell. But even my own projects,
like after a day of writing forother people, I can sit down, I
just did this yesterday and sitdown for like three hours and
just write my own stuff. And tome, that's not work. I enjoy
doing it. So I think that'sthat's kind of my mindset is, is
(11:29):
I don't view it as work.
Yeah, no, I definitely agreewith that. And I'm so glad that
you said that. Yeah. So it'salmost not even so much that
it's laziness as much as it islike, you cannot bring yourself
to do something that is notgoing to be enjoyable.
Yeah, yeah, pretty much like Ican't like just sit there and
(11:49):
work a job I hate. You know,it's just not a skill that I
that I have some people can't Ijust I'm not, you know. So I
think like, if you dropped me inan environment where I didn't
want to do something, I thinkfrom outsider's perspective, it
looked like I'd have a terriblework ethic. And I know that's
not true. Because clearly to getto this industry in this field,
and all the stuff that we'redoing, you have to have a great
(12:10):
work ethic. My work ethics isawesome. But I just is only in
this specific field. Anythingelse? I don't care?
Yeah, no, totally that thatmakes sense to me it but there's
all just, I mean, this, theseare realizations that you're
having when you were like, what1920 years old, like that's
pretty young to have that kindof insight. And to be able to
(12:31):
kind of figure that out. I mean,I'm 29 I'm almost 30. So like,
it took you like 10 years less,because I was right at that
jumping off point to where Iwas, like, you know, like 1920
years old. And I was likepursuing music, and I really
loved it. But I kind of fellinto like a really unsupportive
crowd. So I think I like Missidentified what was going on. I
(12:52):
mean, there were other issuestoo, like, you know, like, with
my gender identity made, likehearing my singing voice, like
really unbearable, and not beingable to put language to it and
stuff. So there were definitelyother factors. But I find it so
interesting, because, you know,the majority of my listeners are
like, you know, 27 to like, 30something, and she's still
(13:12):
trying to figure out what theywant to do. And it seems like,
you know, like, you're one ofthe few people that I think I've
interviewed, they're like, yeah,like, from a very young age,
like I've always known, like,what I wanted to do. So I'm
curious, like, what you're like,what was your home life? Like?
like growing up? Like, were yougiven a lot of like space to
kind of like, express yourselfand kind of like, be yourself?
(13:34):
Or were you kind of like, Didyou feel like almost like,
stifled at home?
No, not stifled at all. As faras like creativity. No,
actually, not at all. My parentswere very supportive, which I'm
very, very grateful for, becauseI know that's not always the
case, especially when peoplewant to go into a more artistic
industry. And in fact, myparents have always been like,
this is what you need to bedoing. And I think, especially
(13:57):
they knew how miserable I was atcollege. They were like, just
you have to, you know what Imean? So no, I've always had a
great support system, and noteven just in my family, just
like the community and my peers,you know, and directors I've
worked with, when I was youngerand, and whatnot. So I was very
fortunate to to have that. AndI'm sure that plays a huge part
(14:19):
in everything.
Yeah, for sure. So do you feellike So at what point cuz you're
from upstate New York? whatpoint did you like make that
plunge and move to the big city?
Did you start in New York City,or did you come straight to LA?
Um, so when I went to college,my college, college, film,
(14:41):
schools college, I guess, butyou know what I mean? But, uh, I
so just low so I went to highschool. That was huge, right? It
was like, my graduating classwas like, 700 kids. And I didn't
like that because I felt likeyou do you know, you graduate
with kids that you never evenknew and it was just weird. And
I I wanted to go to a smallerschool. I wanted to go away from
(15:04):
Syracuse, which is where I'mfrom. And but I wasn't ready to
live in New York City yetbecause I was like, that's just
going to be such a too much forme to live in like a major city.
So I found this really smallschool was run Westchester, New
York, for anyone who knows who'slistening. It's right outside
New York City, which wasperfect. So it was like, I did
like a baby step. So I like didone year right outside the city,
(15:26):
and we'd go into the city tolike party and stuff, you know,
and then, um, then, after thatyear, I just went to school in
New York City. And then I did,how long was it? I think it was
like, one year I was in New YorkCity. And then I finished up my
schooling out here in LA.
That's, that'sokay. Was it like a school that
(15:47):
had campuses both in New Yorkand LA? Okay, cool. Cool. Cool.
So what, what made you decide tolike, Did you just kind of
realize that, that you wouldhave a better like better
prospects in LA, like, what madeyou make that switch to go from
the New York campus to the LAcampus,
I had a classmate who went outto LA to visit and loved it. And
(16:10):
it was always kind of on thetable at that school that you
could do like one year in NewYork, and then finish your
degree in LA. And I actuallythink you, if I'm not mistaken,
I think you had to do time atboth campuses to get an actual
degree. So because there wasalso like, stuff that were not
like degree degrees there,because it's like a conservatory
school. And she was like, sheloved it. And we all kind of
(16:33):
just got convinced that we'relike, we should go to LA like,
there's so much more. But it istrue. There is a lot more film
and TV in LA, right. So New Yorkis a lot more theater, there is
some film and TV, but justcompared to LA, it's not even,
you know, and at the time,that's what I really wanted to
do. I wanted to do on camera,film and TV, like voiceover was
not even on my radar at thatpoint. So yeah, it was kind of
(16:56):
like peer pressure. I was notreally but like, you know, like,
I was like, we want to go andI'm like, Yeah, like, Let's all
go. So I ended up going like,the class I was with, we all end
up going together. And we werein the same class in New York,
to LA, which was awesome, whichmade the move out here so much
easier, because I was with allmy friends. And that's what
happened. Yeah. Wow.
Yeah. Yeah, that totally makessense. So it sounds it sounds
(17:17):
like, you know, some of some ofwhat was happening was, you
know, you you said at firstlike, Oh, you know, I need a
regular career, whatever you'retrying business classes, you're
you're looking at HR, and someof these like people oriented,
quote, unquote, safe careers,and you do it for a year hated.
And you have the support of yourfamily saying, like, yeah, just
(17:39):
do this, like, this is clearlywhat you want to do slash who
you are, whatever. And it seemslike at that point, you like,
made a decision, like, this iswhat I'm going to do like,
period, you know, I think a lotof people say like, I'm going to
try acting, or comedy, or musicor whatever the entertainment
thing is, I'm going to try thiscreative thing for one year or
(17:59):
five years or 10 years. And ifit doesn't work out, I'm going
to fall back on my degree, orI'm going to move back home, or
I'm going to, you know, settledown and get a real job. Did you
ever have that like exitstrategy in your mind, after
quitting the regular college?
A little bit, there was a timewhen it was I was about to
graduate, and I interned at anagency for a while while I was
(18:22):
in school. And I didn't hate itat all, actually. And I was
like, maybe I should just dothis. Like, because like, it's
like, the intern to executiveassistant pipeline. So type of
deal, you know, and I was like,maybe I should just do this and
maybe work at an agency. Butthat was like not, that was just
like, for like, a week, youknow? Because it just you have
(18:46):
these thoughts. Sometimes I'mlike, maybe I should just go but
they never like are these forme? They never last all that
long.
Yeah, it sounds like you wereyou were ultimately committed.
Cuz I think that happens to allof us, right? Like, we always
look at other stuff. And youknow, like, the grass always
appears greener on the otherside. So I mean, it makes sense
that we have those like, likethe thought equivalent of like,
(19:07):
wandering eyes, right? You know,it's like, oh, like, maybe this
would be interesting, but itnever sounded like you were
seriously like, Okay, I'm onlygonna give it until this amount
of time. Or I definitely need tohave this backup plan, just in
case. You know what I mean?
Right? Well, one thing I wastold a lot when I first moved
out here from older actors andpeople in industry, they were
(19:29):
like, give it five years,because a lot of your peers will
not be here, because of thatreason. And have you found that
to already start to become true?
Yes, I found that to be thecase, because it's been. So I
graduated college in 2018. Soit's 2021. So it's like three
years and it's, it's already youknow what I mean? Yeah. Which is
(19:49):
fine. It's just but that is justthe nature of the game. And so I
didn't want that to be me.
Because not You know what Imean? Like, you never know what
could happen tomorrow.
Yeah. Yeah. And I think thatthat, again, it's like, you
know, you you had like thecommunity, both in your family,
(20:10):
and in the school that we're allkind of, you know, like, I mean,
the fact that you got to move toLA with a bunch of friends,
that's so uncommon, you know,most people, when they, when
they pack up their bags and moveto the big city, they're leaving
everything and everyone behindyou, maybe they have like a
partner or a friend that theybecome, you know, that, that
they move with and becomeroommates. But to have
(20:30):
essentially, like, a wholecommunity around you. I mean,
that's, that's really cool. ButI caught something that you
said. So you were saying that atthe time, I think when you were,
I believe when you first movedto LA, you wanted to be like on
camera, doing film and TV. Sothat's is that no longer what
you want to do within thecreative space.
Um, it's not, like completelyruled out, it's just not my
(20:53):
first priority. So I fell intokind of the world of voiceover.
And it's just become the thingthat I have the most footing in.
And that's kind of where I'mjust putting a lot of more of my
time and my energy, quitehonestly, I did do the on camera
stuff. For a while I had anagent of pretty good commercial
agent for a while before I gotdropped. And I just didn't, I
(21:15):
just didn't enjoy it as much.
And I have been on set, I did alittle like bit part in station
19, where I played this kid wholike blew himself up with
fireworks. So like. And it waslike, you just waited, you
waited and wait, like that's allyou did all day was you waited?
And I was like I don't? Thisisn't really all that fun. And
(21:37):
then a couple of voiceover whereit's like you're done in like,
two hours. Do you know what Imean? Yeah, I just, I've just
found that I personally enjoyvoiceover a lot more. I think I
have a lot more job prospects invoiceover as well. I'm not on
castable on camera by,you know what I mean? I just
think I'm more castablevoiceover you don't fall easily
(21:58):
into one of the big type caststhat happen a lot in Hollywood,
right? Yeah.
Yeah, I just feel like I don'tknow what I mean. I just feel
like I found my space, my placein the voiceover community. And
I found my brand, or whatever,you know, like, if someone was
like, pitch yourself as a voiceactor, I could tell you, you
(22:20):
know what I mean? Because I knowwhat I get, and I know what I
can do. But that being said, Youknow, I love comedy. And we
mentioned we're standing uptogether. I love comedy. I love
comedy writing. And I would loveto do that type of stuff. You
know what I'm saying? So maybedown the line, it's not ruled
out, but it's not where all myenergy is, at the moment.
Yeah, that makes sense. And Ihave a friend who I believe
(22:43):
their episode is coming out atthe time recording. We're
recording this for thelisteners, if you care on June
29. So I think I think thiscoming Tuesday, I have my friend
Shannon coming on who is astoryboard artist. And it's kind
of the same thing, right? Likethey knew that they wanted to be
like, they were like a brilliantdraw, like from birth,
essentially, right? And, andthey want it to be like an
(23:06):
animation and do all thesedifferent things. And they kind
of found their niche instoryboard. And it was kind of
the same thing, like you talkedabout being bored on set,
because it's a lot of waitingaround. And they they kind of
said the same thing that I'mdoing animation would be a lot
of repetitive, it would bereally repetitive compared to
storyboarding is is lessrepetitive and has a lot more
(23:29):
creative to it. But it'sinteresting, because it's like,
you have to like, start, youhave to dip your feet in first
to kind of figure out like, thedifferent directions that you
want to go in. And you know,it's it's not even that you like
cuz I feel like what people getafraid of is like, if you come
out here to become an actor, andthen you realize that you don't
(23:50):
like being on set or I mean, Idon't know what happened to get
dropped by your commercialagent. But yeah, these things
kind of happen.
I just wasn't booking anything,because no I was they had a lot
of kids that looked just likeme. So when I would go to an
audition, and you can see in thecheck in, like, they'll ask you
to write your agency. And it'slike, so many people with the
same agency as me, and I'm like,why am I competing against my
(24:13):
own? You know what I mean? Yeah,it's kind of so.
Yeah, that sounds horrible.
Yeah. So it's like, you know, alot of people would have that
experience. You You were sayingbefore, you know, you got to
give it at least five years,because a bunch of people would
have left. I think a lot ofpeople would have had that
experience and would have said,Well, I failed. You know what I
mean? And you took that andsaid, I mean, I don't know
exactly how you ventured intovoiceover but you kind of just
(24:36):
said you fell into it. I mean,I'd be curious how Yeah, how
exactly did you start voiceoverso when I was in school in LA,
we had a voiceover class andmind you it was never anything I
even thought about, you knowwhat I mean? Like, whatever. And
I found that I liked it. I foundthat it was something I was good
at, you know, and the teacherreally was encouraging me to
(24:58):
pursue it because I sound like,like a teenager, you know what I
mean? Like, I sound like a kindof like a younger boy. And
that's, like really marketablein that, that the world. And so
after I had graduated, I didkind of fall in my lap. There's
a site, there's a sites called,like pay to plays in the
(25:18):
voiceover world where you have asubscription. And then there's
like a bunch of job listingsthat you can audition for. And
the opinion on that is verymixed within the community. But
when you're starting out, it'syou really don't have much of a
choice. And there was a job thatwas like super confidential, it
was just like animation boy, onethat was like the character I
read, like, boy one, I was like,sure. And I got it. And it
turned out to be a job withNational Geographic, they were
(25:42):
Nat Geo kids was making thiscartoon like a, they had like a
book series that they weremaking, and they wanted to make
it into a cartoon as well. Sothey did the pilot, and they put
it on YouTube. But that thatthat's it, like they never made
any more. But I was like, I gotmy first taste of doing it. And
I was like, Oh, I love this, youknow? And I guess the rest is
history. I just kept working andtaking classes and learning more
(26:05):
about the industry. And here Iam.
Yeah, yeah, that's exactly it,man like that. That totally
seems to be the pattern. I lovethat. Thank you for explaining
that. Because, yeah, you you gointo school saying, you know, I
want to be an actor, I want tomove to Hollywood, I want to be
on TV. And you get here andyou're starting to, you know, do
(26:30):
the footwork of what it takes tolike be an actor to be on TV.
And you're realizing like, Idon't really like this, you
know, this doesn't really seemlike it's for me, I'm not
getting booked. And even when Iam getting booked, I'm not even
really enjoying it. And so, youknow, you kind of go for this
voiceover thing. And you loveit. And so you make that shift,
and you're, but you would havenever, you know, like you said,
(26:52):
like you had never thought aboutit before, like you wouldn't
have gone from, you know, athigh school in Syracuse,
straight into voiceover like,you had to have that experience
of trying acting first you tokind of be adjacent to it and
even know that it was apossibility.
Right? Absolutely. Like, I thinkall those experiences,
everything happens for a reason.
But it's like so true. Like,even that year, were just
(27:13):
shocked. Like, I needed that.
Because now I know, you knowwhat I mean? And so, yeah, no, I
agree wholeheartedly thatwithout all those in between
steps, I wouldn't ever be doingwhat I'm doing now.
Yeah, absolutely. So all thatbeing said, How does comedy come
(27:34):
into the picture? Because I youyou had been sick because I know
you had already started writinglike some like satirical
articles, freelance here andthere even before doing the
stand up class, so how did youget into comedy writing
initially, um,so I've always really enjoyed
comedy in general, just evenlike comedic acting. When I
would do theater and stuff, Iwas always the funny character,
you know what I mean? Like thethe, I was never the leading
(27:57):
man, like, you know, like, it'dbe like The Addams Family in
high school. I'm uncle fester,you know, like, stuff like that.
And I've always really enjoyedit. And, and I just decided, I
was just, I'm trying to thinklike, something. Remember, I was
making my own pilot, like twoyears ago, I was getting really
into it. And that's when I waslike, I think I need like some
(28:18):
formal writing training. And atthe time, I didn't have enough
money for classes or anything.
So I just kind of got a bunch ofbooks and self taught. And then
down the line, I started takingclasses with Second City, I'm
about to finish their SATshigher writing track. So I'm,
like the last level right now.
And I found I really like that.
(28:38):
And that's fun. So I get towrite the satirical articles.
I'm in the writing track rightnow, too. And that's really like
a lot of sketch comedy, whichI've always enjoyed sketch
comedy. I never knew how towrite it. And now I know, I
know, I'm so I don't know, itjust I was always something I
enjoyed. And it also came fromplace from this is a better
answer. When I was not bookinganything, and when I was barely
(29:02):
getting sent out and stuff likethat, I was like, I think I need
to make my own content. That waswhat inspired I should have
started. That's what and that iswhen I was like, Well, let me
write my own thing. And then Iwas like, maybe I should get
some formal training. And then Ijust learned more and more. And
now I really do enjoy making myown content. And hopefully, I
(29:24):
can get to a point where I couldproduce said content, you know,
million dollars.
Yeah, no, I love that. I think,you know, opportunity, I think
absolutely comes to those whocreated and again, same thing,
you know, here's another exampleof, you know, again, going back
to stick around for five years,because not everyone's gonna
(29:45):
make it not getting books,people would just be like, some
people would just say, Well, Ifailed or it's not working out
or I guess I'm just gonna golike, dry for like Uber Eats or
something like that. And that'sall fine. Like there's no rule
books, you know, saying how youshould live your Live. But, you
know, like you took that timeand said, You know, like, I got
to just create my own stuff if Iwant to, like, were you
(30:07):
initially thinking that you wantto write stuff so that you could
like star in it?
Yeah. So I, the first pilot Ihad written was a was an
animation I want to do my ownvoiceover for it. Yeah. Because
there's a lot of people in thevoiceover community who do they
do a lot of indie projects andstuff. I was ignorant to how
much how hard it is to actuallyfind like a little independent
(30:30):
animation. You know what I mean?
Actually, like, disgustinglyexpensive as it should be,
because they, it's such hardwork, you know what I mean?
Right? But that's, that's themindset came from. So I had
written that and I, again, likeI just kinda got my first taste
of writing and just kind of grewfrom there. And
and here you are now. I lovethat. So when you so in taking
(30:53):
the stand up class, was that?
Were you just trying to findanother avenue to like sharpen
your writing skills? Or were youthinking at that point that you
wanted to that you wereconsidering doing stand up a
little bit more seriously, like,as a performer?
Um, it was definitely to sharpenmy writing skills. I had to do
stand up once prior. And weencourage you to take an improv
(31:14):
class and for some reason, ourfinal was a stand up set, which
is with me, but it was terrible.
Like it was it was actually atthe what's the place we went to?
Haha.
Oh, the Haha, calm Yeah.
Yeah, it was there. And like,thank God, they like ran into
inside out just for like theclass like no one really saw it.
But like, it was horrible. So Iwas never really like a huge fan
(31:36):
of stand up. But I wanted totake the class just to learn a
different way of being able to,to learn how to I guess, for
more joke writing, I can't speakabout that learn how to elevate
my writing. And it was neverlike standard, even now is not
really something that I'm like,Oh, I want to do this. I found
that it's really good.
Networking. Yeah, thing. So Iwill stick with it. And I
(32:00):
friends that do it. And it's,you know, yeah, I enjoyed the
class and I enjoyed doing it.
But it's, I don't think we'llever be like my passion.
Yeah, no, I feel that like, Ilove doing stand up. But at the
same time, I'm like, I see it asmore of something that's going
to elevate my other skills tolike, you know, being able to
(32:22):
talk about whateverunapologetically and being able
to, like, just improve my publicspeaking skills to be able to,
like, you know, like, I thinkanybody that like, speaks in
public in any capacity, if theyhave like an appreciation and
understanding of stand up andthe nuances and the timing of
pauses and things like that,like I think it makes a big
(32:43):
difference in your right, I feelthat on the network until you
meet everybody in LA when you'redoing stand up, because it is
always out at these clubs allthe time. Okay, so I'm gonna
segue a little bit, your go backto your background a little bit.
So, um, so you're gay. There'sno like, smooth way to segue.
(33:09):
One, one thing that's come up alot. So you are like, by no
means the first person that'scome on. That's like a member of
the LGBTQIA community. And itseems like pretty consistently,
oh, I will say I think you'rethe first like, just straight up
like cisgender gay man. Socongratulations, welcome to the
(33:30):
show. It seems that a lot ofpeople in our community who have
who take longer to kind offigure out like what they want
to do with their life. A lot ofit is tied up in, like not being
able to live their truth,whether it's in their gender
identity, or their sexuality, orboth. So you having you know,
(33:52):
like, like I said, like, I'm soimpressed, like, Oh, my God, you
seem to know, like, from soearly on, like what you wanted
to do? Was there ever any, like,hold on, but this? Did you ever
feel like once you've kind offigured out your sexuality,
which I'd be curious how old youwere kind of like when you
started to figure it out? Wasthere ever any period where you
felt like you had to hide it? Orwere just like, kind of unable
(34:15):
to express that part ofyourself? Like, freely and
openly? Not really.
Um, just because it's like, Ithink is a joke. My standup set
too, but it's like, look at me,you know what I mean? Like,
I yeah, no, I, I've never been,I'm not like, I don't know. Cuz
(34:36):
To me, this is like, kind of howI view it. It's just like, part
of me and it's not like a bigdeal. So I guess I'm like
somebody who, I talk about it alot. Not because I'm like,
ashamed. But like, just becauseit's like, whatever, you know, I
mean, I kind of put it like,Alright, like, Why do you care
who I sleep with, you know whatI mean? Like, really, at the end
of the day, it's like, it's alljust like, who I'm romantically
(34:57):
involved with not a big deal. Soit's never bad. This huge and
again, like I've always hadsupportive family and whatever.
And yeah, that's it. You know,growing up in like the theatre
community, you know, there's noshortage of gay guys.
Yeah, good boy.
Oh, no, I do think maybe if Iwas involved in a different
(35:19):
maybe if I grew up playingsports, and I was in a more of a
hyper masculine setting, and itmight have altered my perception
of sexuality and what it meansto be a man and you know what I
mean? Because you know, I'm morefeminine. I'm sure maybe, but I
think it's just because beenaround the most flamboyant of
(35:40):
flamboyant gay guys. From ayoung age. It's never been, you
know?
Yeah. Yeah, no, I think I thinkthat makes a lot of sense. I'm
glad that you brought that upactually about like, oh, maybe
this would have been differentif I grew up in like, a sports
heavy community or somethingwhere, like, you know, there was
a lot of toxic masculinity,because what I hear you saying,
(36:01):
honestly, like, when I whenyou're saying, you know, like,
yeah, like, I was just, therewas always gay people around,
like, I was a theater kid, like,my parents are supportive. Like,
who cares? Who cares, right?
Like, who cares who you'resleeping with? I mean, to me
that, you know, it's like,that's, that's definitely like a
privileged position to be in,right to be able to say that, as
opposed to, like, I grew up inthis, like, you know, hyper
masculine, like, Uber Christian,like, you know, deep south, like
(36:23):
community or whatever. And, youknow, so you kind of had, like,
your experience with yoursexuality is really not that
different from a straightperson. Because you know what I
mean?
Yeah, I mean, it's still not allthat fun, you know, sometimes,
but, um, no, yeah. Like, I yeah,I don't think there was ever a
(36:47):
moment where I had that kind of,like, you know, those those
like, movies were like, thecoming of age gay kids, where
they're like, you know what Imean? Like, yeah, you know,
never really. Yeah, to me, it'sjust never been. It's like, you
know, but no, I yeah, I willdefinitely recognize it is such
a place of privilege. And I amvery grateful to have the
(37:10):
experience that I've had,because you hear these stories
and other people's experiences,and it does, you know, hurt your
heart you hear so? Yeah, that's,that's just my, my experience.
Yeah, no, I think that's cool.
Because, you know, like, for me,my experience is, like, you
know, I was out as a lesbianfirst, when I was like, 13. And
there's, there's a whole storyabout being like, forced out of
(37:31):
the closet before I was ready,doesn't matter. But, um, I
didn't, you know, come out, oreven really understand for
myself personally, that I wastrans until I was 25. So there
was 12 years where I, like, youknow, it was like, living as a
lesbian was very Butch. So, inthe same way that, you know, you
were saying before, like, youknow, like, look at me, like,
there's no, like, there's nohiding, it was the same for me,
(37:54):
because I didn't look thatdifferent from how I look. Now,
you know, like, my voice washigher, and I had no facial
hair. And I had a little bitless muscle mass, you know,
like, but I mostly looked thesame, my hair was really short,
I've been wearing boys clothes,since I was like four years old,
there was no hiding it. But forme, it was not quite the right
identity. So even though therewas a lot of freedom, because I
(38:17):
also had really supportiveparents. And so I was able to
express myself in a verymasculine way. And, you know,
even though I to you know, like,it wasn't like, Rainbows, and
butterflies, and rainbows,growing up like that, you know,
because of the environment. Andbecause kids are still gonna be,
you know, like, shitty ass kidsand all that stuff. But I think
what ultimately hurt me, wasn'tit. If I truly was just like
(38:40):
this butch lesbian, I think Iwould have had a lot like a
better sense of, like, I knowwho I am. And I can now figure
out what I want. Versus I had tolike, take all that time to
still figure out my identityfirst. So when I say like,
privileged, like, I mean it likethat. I don't mean like, you
never got like, bullied. I mean,like, you know, like you had
(39:01):
this like, in the same way thatstraight people don't really
have to think about who they areat all. It sounds like for you,
it just it was so like, natural.
And it was you and you were inan environment where there were
enough other people like youthat there wasn't this weird,
like, I don't know, it feelslike there's something there.
I'm not living my life andyou're trying to like date all
these girls in high school.
(39:24):
Yeah, no, I you know, 100% and Iwill speak on like, the bullying
thing, too. Is, is I was veryfortunate because I had
mentioned I went to a very largeHigh School. Yeah. And when I
mean, like, nobody, likeeveryone kind of kept themselves
because it wasn't like, I assumeI hear from people who have
classes of like, 50 people orwhatever, where they're like,
these are the popular kids. Andhe's like, that was not the
thing. So like, no one cared.
You know what I mean? But I alsothink played a road because I
(39:47):
was Yeah, that's a large hisschool. I mean, God school. I
mean, I just think shapes you somuch, obviously. I also have to
say that too, because there wasa lot of gay kids in my school.
Yeah. It was like, okay, theworst you get. I mean, not the
worst I've got would be likesome girl be like, can you be my
gay best friend? You know what Imean? Which is just annoying,
but I'm very Yeah, I've beenvery, very fortunate for, you
(40:12):
know, the environments that I'vecome up in.
Yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah.
I mean, it seems like you know,for from like, a pretty young
age you'd like had an idea ofwho you are. And I think because
of that, you know, he made it alot easier to like, understand
when you went into like,business in HR that like, that's
(40:33):
just not you know what I mean?
Because you had, it's not likeyou're completely fully self
actualized. There's nothing elseto learn about yourself. But
like, deep down, you knew enoughto kind of understand where you
needed to go. And I think that'spretty cool. Mm hmm. Yeah, it's
fun. It's been fun. Fun ride sofar. Yeah. So now so now that
(40:55):
you're, you're here in, inHollywood, and you're working as
a voiceover actor and learninghow to write and by the way, I
will say on the record, youknow, Scott Levy, our instructor
in in stand up seemed veryimpressed with the you know,
like the the amount andconsistency of work that you're
getting, considering how youngyou are in this very competitive
(41:18):
field. And I just want to throwthat out there. You know, we got
a we got a we got a golden childon our hands here.
No, it's it. I am veryfortunate. I'm very grateful.
It's, I think when people hearvoice actor, they think I'm
gonna like Nickelodeon, which,not yet, but I do it. You know,
it's all about knowing where youfit in. And I do, I think, like,
(41:40):
80% of my stuff is like, antivaping. I'm a good kid. My
parents don't worry about me,but they should you know what I
mean? Like, so not where I wantto be yet, but we're getting,
we're getting there.
Right. But that will that wasgonna be my question. So where
where do you want to go? Like,what, as of today, as of June
29 2021? Like, what, what do yousee as like the pinnacle for
(42:03):
your career?
The goal is to get intoanimation. And animation is
very, very hard to get into fortwo factors. One they use,
obviously, they use people thatthey know, you know what I mean?
So really, look at a lot ofthese mainstream animations.
It'll be like the same 20 youknow, voice actors, because why
would you risk it on? Why wouldyou not just go with someone
(42:25):
that you is a professional, youknow, and whatever. So because
animation is a very expensiveprocess, to now there's a thing
where a lot of celebrities aregetting into voiceover. So a lot
of animation jobs go into that.
But I just signed with a newagency about a month ago. And
I'm just now starting to seethose like, animation jobs that
I really want. Caught, you knowwhat I mean? auditions as
(42:48):
opportunities. So I'm excited.
It's, it's very, still very new.
It's only been about maybe amonth, maybe two, I not go with
time, but I am very excited. Souh, hopefully, maybe within the
next year, we can see somebookings and animation because
that's my dream. Like, that'sthe fun stuff, ya know, and I've
been training at a school in LA,if anyone's mentioned voiceover
(43:11):
called adventures in voiceover,which is so much fun. And I've
been training with them to do acouple of their classes and
workshops. So I'm like, I'mready. I want it. Let's do it.
So fingers crossed. Yeah.
Awesome. Congrats. Yeah,congrats on on getting those
starting to see those thosebetter auditions coming through
to that new agency. That is,that is fantastic. I love that.
(43:32):
And, you know, like for you tokind of summarize a little bit
for the listeners, like some ofthe stuff that I'm hearing is,
okay, so, you, you've beenreally into acting ever since
you were a little kid. Andimmediately after high school,
you feel like, Okay, well, thatwas fun. But you know, real
world, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah,and you try to do like a real
(43:53):
job, or not a real job, but youtry to get like a more
traditional degree, or I surviveone year, you're miserable. And
so you immediately pivot backinto what you love, which is
acting, and you kind of just,you know, you're you're with
your community, and you're,you're, you take the leap, you
go into New York, and then yougo into LA. And, you know, the
(44:14):
whole time along, you know, likeyou were told, you know, like,
give it five years, peoplearen't going to make it. So at
each point that it seems likeyou have a failure, you know,
like what would be a quoteunquote, failure to some people
points that I would, that I'msure a lot of other people would
have quit. You figure out a wayto kind of create your own
(44:35):
opportunity, whether it's, youknow, pivoting into voiceover or
starting to write freelance. Andall the while Tyler, it sounds
like you're constantly learningto like you said, I want to get
into writing but I can't affordthe classes right now. So you
got books and you taughtyourself that is, again, not
something that a lazy personwould do, you know, and you're
(44:56):
you're learning now. Like you'reStill, you're you're in training
with another with anothervoiceover Academy right now. So
you're, you're constantlylearning and it seems you know,
and that's kind of what a lot ofsuccessful people do, too. It's
like you're constantly finetuning your skills, and then
kind of poking your head up atvarious points to kind of see
what opportunities there are,grab the thing that seems like
(45:18):
the most appealing and, youknow, that kind of crosses that
intersection being the mostappealing and the most, like,
promising as far as, like, whatit can offer you. And then, you
know, get right back into itagain. So you're kind of, like
you're grinding this out, in away that is, is, you know, like
that, I feel like something,someone can learn something from
that, you know, like, these arerepeatable patterns. And so for
the listeners, if anybody feelslike, you know, like you're
(45:41):
miserable, and what you want itin what you're currently doing,
like, you know, that might be asign that you're not at where
you're supposed to be, you know,like it Yeah, it's always gonna
be a lot of work. But you know,it's a lot of work to even do a
nine to five. So if you're goingto be miserable, like, what's
the point? Like, we have to workhard either way, like, you're
definitely working very hard allthe time to get to where you're
(46:01):
at right now. You know what Imean?
Thank you. Yeah, I definitelyagree. Like I, I kind of feel
like if there's a will, there'sa way because like, right now,
I'm fortunate enough to be ableto take classes, but that was
not always the case. Actually,like, right after I graduated,
you know what I mean? So like,just even like books, or like
(46:22):
online communities and stuff,because that's what I did for a
while before I was takingwriting classes. I was just
doing like, writing groups ondiscord and be like, Yeah, what,
like, How bad is this? Like,give me my nose? You know what I
mean? Um, and it's free. Andit's there. I feel like there
are ways definitely and if youknow, and I know it's, it's, if
you're miserable, it's hard topick one or quit my job because
(46:43):
you know what I mean? Like,that's not always a viable
option. But I think at leastthere's, there's ways to ignite
your passions.
Yeah, of course, it'll, it'lldepend on what phase of life
you're in, right? Like, ofcourse, if you're like 19 years
old, and you're still incollege, you can just like
switch colleges. But if youhave, you know, like a mortgage
or a family, then those stepsare going to be a little bit
(47:04):
smaller, a little bit moreincremental. But you know, like
it, there's absolutely a way todo it. And I love that you say
you join those writing groups,because Addy willowridge is a
former guest of the show,author, she she had also joined
like writing groups kind of justfor the fun of it, and then they
like kind of pressured her intowriting some stuff for herself.
(47:25):
And it turned into a book thatis now a bestseller on Amazon,
you know, so like, just by goingout there and like joining
community and kind of followingwhat you're interested in, you
know, like joining a writinggroup on discord or something,
you know, that's not a huge timecommitment. So if you can't quit
your full time job, but thisthing is interesting, you like,
you know, there's, there'sthere's ways to kind of test it
(47:46):
and figure it out and and pivotvery slowly. You know what I
mean? Yeah, I think we're justabout out of time. I, you know,
for not having any anypreconceived questions. I think
we had a very cool, veryinteresting conversation. So
thank you for being on this ridewith me. Oh, yeah, of course. Do
(48:10):
you have anything that you wantto add you have anything that
you'd be remiss if you if youdidn't say it here right now?
Um, no. We did good. We covereda lot. You got so wide, I like
Oh, fuck, am I supposed to saysomething right now? No, you
don't have to. But if you werelike, oh, man, I hope he asked
(48:30):
me about this, or I hope I getto talk about this. Or like, Oh,
I wish I'd also added this inone of my other answers, then
this, this would have been achance for that. Yeah. I feel
like we, we I think we did good.
I think we did too. So is thereanything that you want to
promote? Is there anywhere onthe internet in which you would
like to be found by my lovelylisteners,
you can find me on Instagram atChristiansen Tyler. Not Tyler
(48:54):
Christiansen Christiansen Tylerbecause Tyler, mistaken. And
then I'm also on Twitter, atTyler s Christ. Which is my
Twitter name. And I do likesometimes like a lot of like
little stuff I write like, I'llmake like little skits myself
because all I got is my myself.
So sometimes I do that. Also, ifyou just want to hear my daily
(49:15):
annoying rambles. I never shutup on Twitter. So you can follow
me thereare to find you on Twitter for
my like five minutes a day thatI'm on Twitter.
I wish that is what I need toget down to.
I am bad.
Yeah, you know, it takes what ittakes for for each person. I got
(49:36):
fatigue by tech Twitter, so itwas pretty easy to leave. Yeah,
yeah. Thank you so much forcoming on. Tyler and I will talk
to you later. All right. I'llsee you. Thank you. All right,
once again, that was TylerChristiansen. Thank you so much
(49:57):
Tyler for coming on the show,man. I have a lot of fun anytime
I get to chat with you. Like Isaid at the end of the
interview, I don't spend a lotof time on Twitter but oh my
goodness, I found Tyler'sTwitter and it is very funny. If
you're active on Twitter, makesure you're following him. He is
(50:18):
fantastic. I am still working onmy move. nothing's really
changed since before thatinterview started for the
listeners perspective. So it isstill the morning of Friday,
July 9 here. I'm gonna go y'allhave a great week. Yeah, thank
(50:39):
you again for being on thisjourney with me. I have some
cool stuff that I'll beannouncing hopefully next week,
so stay tuned for that. And besure to follow me on tik tok
because I'm about to startgetting much more active on tik
tok as well. I'll be postingstuff there every single day. So
should be a lot of fun. That ispending this move being done.
(51:01):
I'm not trying to move andbecome a tic Tock person at the
same time. Because you know,life is all about balance.
Right? All right. I am. Gosh,I'm so tired. Okay, I gotta go.
Y'all have a great week. Thankyou for listening and stay
evolving.
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