Q: What has been your biggest challenges within the industry?
A: Promotion. You can never have enough. Also finding the right people to work with and getting the right chemistry/energy. So many people want to be in stage plays, but also have regular everyday lives. Work 9-5, come home and cook, etc. It is very rare in Detroit that you have a cast of all actors who get paid to just act. We also audition in all fairness but we usually ask first, “Do you have reliable transportation?”
Q: Elaborate on your upcoming production.
A: Actually I have several. “An Evening with Donny Hathaway” (Special tribute show), “The Gossip’l According to Ruth”, (a hilarious gospel comedy stage play about the dangers of gossip in the church based on Proverbs 18:21). And lastly, “Only in Detroit, the Parodies” (A fast pace comical stage production poking fun at all things Detroit). All of these events are coming soon in Detroit.
continued....
Q: What advice would you give our young people who are focusing their careers on the entertainment industry?
A: Stay in school and grasp as much as you can about all things entertainment, (legal, arranging, composing, royalties, placements, stage, film, radio, percentages and all. Start investing NOW! No dream has ever manifested without someone investing in it. Do not wait for someone to invest in you. Also set reasonable goals.
Q: Please give us all some words of inspiration to take with us for the future.
A: Through the God in you, be moved. Be courageous enough, be brave enough, be righteous enough to always do the noble thing. Banish all things evil and take on a transformed
you, only allowing a positive force to lead you. WAKE UP your %90 subconscious mind and do away with that %10 day to day mind rationalization which whispers "you can't". I love you with the love of God. May you continue to have PEACE, PROPEL AND PROSPER!!!
-Paul Johnson Jr. (Kimoni Amaru Wys)
fuzionzmagazine.com Jul/Aug 2014 24