Your Iconic Image : Lessons From a Comic

Your Iconic Image

Marklyn T. Johnson Author/Comic/Host/Motivational Public Speaker

Marklyn T. Johnson Born and raised in central New Jersey, he lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota from 2005-2014 before returning to New Jersey. A graduate of the Connecticut School of Broadcasting, Marklyn has worked in the production industry for over twenty years.

Growing up, Marklyn idolized many different men. His first idol was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that’s usually the first big name outside of Jesus that many learn in their home. As he got older, Marklyn idolized Michael Jackson, Eddie Murphy, Michael Jordan and Tupac Shakur.

Marklyn’s greatest idol was his father, Willie. When he looks back on his life, Marklyn regrets ignoring the life lessons his father taught him. However, when he thinks about the man he’s become today, the way he tells it like it is, the way he tries to lift others up, and his willingness to help others, he is reminded that these are all his father’s teachings. Often times as kids, we take our fathers for granted and don’t take the time to really understand those lessons.

https://marklynspeaks.com/

Amazon: Lessons From a S*** Talker

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Facebook Conversations The good, The funny, The ugly

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Podcast: Mister Direct’s Sunday Coffee

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Audio : Ariza Music Productions

Transcript : Vision In Word

Marlana

Marklyn T Johnson is an author, comic host and motivational speaker. Growing up he idolized many different men from Dr. Martin Luther King to Michael Jordan and Tupac Shakur. But Marklyn's greatest idol was his father Willie when he looks back on his life. Marklyn regrets ignoring the life lessons his father taught him. However, when he thinks about the man he's become today, the way he tells it like it is the way he tries to lift others up. And his willingness to help. He's reminded that these are all his father's teachings. Welcome Marklin.

Marklyn

Hey, how are you doing today?

Marlana

Good. So, tell us a little bit about you. What was it like growing up?

Marklyn

I grew up in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. I would say I had one of the best childhoods ever. I was a problem kid meaning like I was a pain not behind consistently a pain in the butt. misplaced energy, misplaced thoughts, misplaced ideas. I think a lot of kids are not traditional learners. books, books to me were whatever. I'm more of a hands-on type of person. Like, I could show you a video really quick of my own entire studio that I put together and built on my own. You know, and I don't say that to brag. Just I looked up the information how to do it. And I did it. And I people are still astonished when it comes down here like, so you really built a studio? And like, yeah, you know, it's, it's, you can see it really quick here with the, the two screens. And if I go that way, you can see the multiple, the multiple microphones, there's a green screen, there's a green screen room over there. And as an audio booth over there in front of me. So, I built this whole thing out. And I'm self-taught. And it's I think, I got that from my upbringing in Scotch Plains, because Scotch Plains is like a blue collar, you know, blue collar town, a lot of guys, nose to the grind nose to the ground or whatever, nose to the stone or whatever they say, and get the work done. And I think a lot of people miss that. In order for you to do it, you have to find what you're good at. Yeah, in order to put your nose to the stone and work. Because it's one thing when you do something you don't like, because you're told that that's what you got to do. But it's another thing when you decide I'm going to work, and I'm going to put my effort in. And not only am I going to put my effort in, but I’m also gonna make it make it a go.

Marlana

So, would you say, you know growing up that your parents were supportive of you, or were they hard on you? Or

It was both? I think what a lot of people don't understand. And I believe this wholeheartedly. My parents were from the segregated south, my mom, my dad was born in 33. My mom was born and thirty-eight. When I say this, people take it offensively and I go, but you understand my parents were from the segregated south, raising a kid in a majority white town. They carried a lot of that mentality along with them. Sure. So, they were very overprotective. And they were also extra scrutiny because it's like, look, as a Black man, you're not gonna get the same breaks as white kids. And you know, you've got to work double as hard. And for me, honestly, why the F? I don't know if I can swear it out. But why the F? Do I need to work double hard? He's an idiot. Like, I'm an idiot. Do you know what I mean? Because growing when you grew up around people, what you think is being depicted is not what you see, because you see them as a kid. You see that kid just as crazy as you are? Right? So, my parents were hard on me as a black boy, and I was their only child. So, they were there. And my mom said to me one time she goes; we were overly protective of you. We should have been, you know, we should have let you go a little bit more. And I say that it's hurt me in the long run because I had to take calculated chances versus if your parents aren't over protective, which is weird. I think the story I was telling you about one of my friends that I just stopped talking to her parents weren't over protected. So, from the time she was 14, she was taking a train into the city and going to clubs. You know what I mean? Yeah. Which my parents would have flipped out. What do you mean, you went to the city? What do you mean, you went to the city by yourself? And you're hanging out with all these, like, you know what I mean, right? It's so I always say my parents did the best job they could with what they knew. And I turned out well, I don't I'm not in jail yet. always a plus. Not in jail. Yeah, you know, I haven't been Alright, I don't have any out of wed kids. You know, like some guys are like, I've got 20 kids. I know I have no kids hiding anywhere. I love the fact that my parents raised me the way they did. I, I'm slowly trying to get out of the calculated chances, and move myself into, I've got to take a chance and everywhere I can go.

Marlana

So how do you make that mental flip, it's hard.

Marklyn

I had to quit my job in December, which again, we were speaking about it before I'm my back's up against the wall. The only way I'm gonna get out of it is if I find a job in production, I could literally put a put my I could put my resume out there and get an IT job.

Marlana

I wouldn't be happy, right?

It is not where I shine. I do shine as a host. I shine as a comic, I shine, you know, doing production work. Yesterday, I was helping a guy in a city. And I'm trying to explain to him like you want this look, because this look looks different. You know, and I'm trying to explain it to him, you're telling a story. But visually this is. So, I see. And it's funny. One of the guys that is a mentor to me, he said, You're either a comic and a producer's body, or you're a producer in a comics body. Don't give either one of those up, because either way, you're really good. You know, and it's true. I am pretty good at production naturally. And that's what he said, he goes, most people have been in this industry for years and can't do what you do. And you're still doing it with without a hiccup. And it's now as a producer, I gotta find money so I can produce my own projects.

Marlana

You know, it's interesting to me, though, because comics. When you are out on stage, you are taking all kinds of risks and chances. Yeah, so it's interesting to me that you were, I'm gonna use the word sheltered. I don't know if that's really the right word, but you were protected your parents, but you chose to make that kind of a decision to go out and take those comedic risks and be seen in that way.

I don't it I say this, and I am. I'm actually writing my third book as we speak. If you're an outspoken man of color, corporate America is one of the hardest elements to be in. It's not welcomed. You can be a woman outspoken; you can be gay and outspoken. You can be transgendered and outspoken in corporate America. For some reason, it's not seen as a threat. Black men that are outspoken and have outspoken personalities are seen as threats. And they're not welcomed in the corporate environment. This has been my experience. Most of the people that are successful in corporate America that are people of color are very quiet, head down and get the job done. You work 10 hours; I work 24 hours. For me. I couldn't do that. Because I found no joy. I'm giving you all my time for peanuts. Great to see that check. Let me tell you, right now, I wish I was in corporate America and get in the chat. Trust me on that one. But it's not. It's not very conducive. If you have an outgoing personality, it's very limited, it's very, when we decided you're going to move up that ladder, you'll move up that ladder. And when you're when you know, you can outwork your coworkers when you know you're smarter, and I don't care who you are, this piece goes about goes beyond color barriers, gender barriers, whatever, when you know you're smarter than your coworker, but your coworkers getting promoted, because your coworker is kissing the boss's behind, or because they're friends outside of work. So, he's looking out for him more than he's looking out for you that I have a problem with that. You know what I mean? And I think it's, for me, I've always had the entrepreneurial spirit, but I didn't know how to bring it out. And I had to bring it out by becoming a comic. And part of it is not everybody's gonna put me on a stage, I got to create stages for myself. So, I get on air. So, I will not on air so I can get on stage, and I can present my comedy. So that creates the entrepreneurial production side of my brain, you know, okay, let's, let's figure out how we're going to make this work.

Marlana

So, talk to me a little bit about that. How, how do you create stages for yourself?

You really go to venues you I did it the other day, and you talk to bar owners’ places with stages. You just say hey, I want to do a show. And these are the people I want to do a show with. I want to host it. I did a show at a brewery last, You're eight shows at a brewery. And I had fun. And the best part about it was the guy that hired me said, Dude, I can see a difference from the start to the last show, you have grown exponentially. But that's also because I was doing stages. Other places. I had at that point, I had attained a weekend pass at Broadway Comedy Club in New York City, because I had tried out for what they call the industry room, which if you pass, if you get the industry room, it's an internship for two months, where they just throw you at different shows. And I was in the guy, the guy gives you a critique of your performance. And he goes, stage presents perfect. Confidence, perfect. You know how you're, you know, what you're doing up there, you're not fumbling around trying to figure out and he goes, you just have to learn how to write better jokes. And not that my jokes weren't there. But jokes comes in threes. So, I would say a line, maybe another line, and then I would walk away. Or I would say a joke. That's funny. But technically speaking, if you look at the audience, it doesn't work. You know, I'm telling a joke that someone from the 1970s would recognize what a kick, but if majority of people in our audience are from the 80s, they wouldn't know. Got it. So, it's been able to adjust the and understand that. And part of that is writing and looking and observing, because that's what you do as a comic, you're observing. So, as you're observing, you're looking and you're saying, Oh, this is a 20s. Crowd, same joke. Just alternate the names that you're putting in the joke, huh?

Marlana

And in there, you were saying, okay, look, my brain went into a different direction only because you were saying that perhaps this crowd, you're prepared for this crowd. But it turns out to be a different crowd. Let's talk about failure for a minute. How do you view failures?

The thing about comedy is you have to be ready to fail. Um, honestly, when I go into a black room, I really don't have, and I hate to say black room and urban room. I'm not really an urban comic. My style is not built for urban. That's not my voice. So, I know I'm not going to get as much laughter. But I don't care. Because that, you know, when they say steel sharpens steel, that's what that is. It sharpens you. It teaches you Okay, when I'm in this audience, these, and you gotta listen, because the party, people think comics talk a lot. We do because we've been trained to talk. But we also listen. Because if somebody says something during our set that we think we can roll with. We've got to be ears open. Oh, what did you say? Oh, let me go there. You just gave me cue for something else. So, it's when I go into an urban room, I'm listening. What jokes did they like? Okay, how can I get to these jokes quicker and emphasize them and put them out there? You know, it's if you don't fail in comedy, den, you're not a comic. Every comic fails, every comic literally takes an L. And what I love about comedy is, first of all, the funniest comics are not the comics that you see on the grandest stage. And if you believe that for your listeners that are listening, if you believe the funniest comics are the comics that you see on stage presented in front of you know, those comics are the most marketable. There was something about them that was marketable on a bigger stage. Your funniest comics are the people that are grinding it out night and day, night and day, and they're writing from their perspective. They don't Kevin, big, I don't have anything against Kevin Hart. Kevin Hart has writers. So, he's an actor at this point, give him the material. he rehearses it enough times and owns it, and it's his material. When you want to know what real comics do real comics are in Utah for two days, telling jokes to a bunch of mornings. The next day, they're in North Carolina, telling jokes to a bunch of Bible Belt people, same jokes. Those are the guys that are the funniest, because they're not doing preprogrammed stuff versus, they're constantly writing and they're constantly in front of different audiences all the time. It's a different animal, and they've got to suck it up if they get booed off the stage.

Marlana

So, let's just say you have a couple of those ELLs in a row. How do you not let it affect you?

Where you give up? I wrote a book lessons from a shit talker. Are you kidding me? I was born and raised to talk shit. That's what I like literally We I realized one thing about me is, I'm at my best as a host when I'm just talking smack with people. You know, like, that's just it's, you can't let the negativity of a failure stop you from where you're going. And that's one of the lessons I teach, when I'm doing motivational speaking is, if you're not failing, you're not learning. You're not You're not You're not achieving what you want. Athletes fail. Yep. When you see an athlete, when you see an athlete that can pull off a perfect play, they failed at that play 25 million times. And it's funny, Michael Jordan is who's like my all-time favorite, like basketball player ever. He always says he does this commercial about how many shots he's made. I've seen a commercial, you only care about the shots he's made. But he's missed more shots than he's made. We glorify like, as, again, as a comic, you glorify the comics that are put in front of you, as these are the guys that we want to market to you. But you're not giving credit to these comics that are grinding it out in some of these comics are barely making four figures. And what I mean by that is, they might be making money, but hey, we'll pay you 300 for the night. Hey, we'll pay you 200 for the night, you know, they still got a jobs. But their night job, they've got to be on point, they gotta be funny. And when you get the worry about comedy and comedy only, it's easier to be funny and have less of a fail night. But the quickest way in comedy you get used to it, you do open mics. Because they open mic, every comics heard every joke. So, if they've heard every joke, they're not laughing at you. So, you got to sit there for five to seven minutes in a room full of silence. Silence, absolute silence, and still tell your jokes still keep your rhythm. You know, you've done something special when you're a roomful of comics, and you've got them laughing because you're so in your rhythm. And I've had that happen a handful of times, where guys were like, oh my god, that was really good. It wasn't that I was good. I hit rhythm, and comedies rhythm like a song. Taught punch line, talk, punch line, talk, punch line, talk, talk, talk punch line. When you get that rhythm, and everything you say is on a click. Even comics have to give you your credit, like every five to six every five to eight seconds. Even if it's a slight chuckle it's laughter because that's your job is to make them laugh.

Marlana

Hmm. What how do you know, you mentioned people like Kevin Hart who have writers for them? How do you go forward in a career like comedy and still keep it yours?

Here's the best part about comedy. My stage name is Mr. Direct. Ma my stick when I'm introduced is the next comment coming to the stage as a real sugar honey and iced tea talker. You looked a little shocked when I said the actual word. So,...