Christians in Cinema

Dandy-like and dandified is how Charles Marshall (I’m Just Sayin’!, from Crown Comedy) describes himself the day we talk. He’s not dandelion-like, because that’s two levels above, where you’re almost insane, at least by his rating system. He’s feeling pretty good about life and before a minute has passed, he’s making cracks about the time of day, as well as Fresno, California.

I have two passions professionally: laughter and encouragement.

Before I could even ask the first question, he spent five minutes interviewing me about where I came from, how I wound up in California, and the difference between accents in the metropolitan areas of the South vs. accents of those who live in the country. It’s because he’s interested in other people and learning their stories. As Charles says, “I already know what’s going on with me, so I like asking questions.” He graciously took a step back and allowed me to start asking him questions eventually.

In addition to being a comedian, Charles is a creative problem-solver. When I explained that some of my interview recordings have sounds of interference after about 15 minutes, he asked if I ever considered that maybe after 15 minutes, the people I’m interviewing are putting their heads into a dishwasher? Perhaps there’s something about my personality that drives everyone to stick their heads in a dishwasher. He’s all about helping.

From your website (charlesmarshallcomedy.com), I see you offer corporate communication and entertainment in addition to stand-up comedy. Which came first, or did they evolve at the same time?

Charles:    I started doing stand-up comedy in churches. I’m kind of an exception. I meet a lot of Christian comedians who got started in the clubs, then they had a conversion experience, or were led by the Lord, to start working in churches.

I was doing music in churches then started having trouble with my voice. I had acid reflux and it burned my vocal cords so I was already doing a lot of comedy between the songs. It was kind of like what I’m doing with you, just goofing around being silly and having fun. It was one of those times in my life where a lot of friends were saying, “Hey, Charles, you really missed your calling,” when they’d see my show.

Simultaneously, I was having trouble with my voice. I couldn’t sing any more because it just ate up my vocal cords. So I couldn’t sustain a note. Singing is just sustained speaking. You’re just taking one tone and stretching it out over a long period of time. I no longer have that ability. With speaking, my voice is very much OK.

So I started doing comedy in churches and it turned out to be a whole lot more successful than the music ever was. From that point, people started inviting me in to do their corporate events. It was mostly comedy at first, and then I discovered that in my career, no fairy godmother was going to show up with her magic wand. As Zig Ziglar says, “If it’s going to be, it’s up to me.”

I started treating this thing like a business and got interested in motivating and encouraging others. I have two passions professionally: laughter and encouragement. I like to encourage people to realize that they can fulfill their potential. That’s my main platform. I define success as fulfilling one’s potential.

So the comedy came first, and the speaking started growing out of that within the past 10 years. THAT is a comprehensive answer right there!

I think we’re done now. I aced it! Goodnight!

Thankfully, we’re past the dishwasher point now. When you help people fulfill their potential, are you trying to identify it, or encouraging and challenging them? And is it different with a small group vs. a large group?

Charles:    That’s a lot of questions!

It’s a comprehensive interview technique.

Charles:     Wow! You took it to a whole another level!

I wrote a book back in 2002-03 called Shattering the Glass Slipper: Destroying Fairy Tale Thinking Before it Destroys You. In that book, I was forced to think about what my concept of success was. Everybody comes into the world with both internal and external gifts.

I define success as fulfilling one’s potential.

Some people are born with a silver spoon in their mouth. They’re more affluent, therefore they have more opportunities in life. Other people have more talent and natural abilities they’re born with. Some people are born into families that are more well-connected. Everybody has a different set of opportunities and potentials that they’re born with.

Some people are what we consider better looking than other people. Those things speak to what they’re able to attain in this life on different levels. Someone’s potential in the physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional elements are all determined by what they bring into the world, so the only fair way to measure if someone is successful is if they’re fulfilling, or attempting to fulfill, their potential.

What I discuss in my book are the seven powers I believe everyone has right now. If they harness, develop and apply those powers, they can begin discovering their potential. The discovery and journey toward discovering that potential is the only fair way to measure whether or not someone is successful in this life.

Anything I do is going to be entertaining because I love fun and, quite frankly, hate meetings. There’s Charles’ dirty secret right there: I hate meetings. So if I’m the speaker and in charge of the meeting, I want it to be fun, or it’s not even worth the price of admission, both literally and figuratively.

So it’s got to be fun, but in that time, I want to give people valuable information that, starting today, they can use to change their life for the better. While I’m doing that, obviously I have to paint a hopeful picture for them and encourage them that it can be done.

There’s Charles’ dirty secret right there: I hate meetings.

My life is, I believe, a testament to the fact that you can overcome obstacles and achieve something that other people thought you were incapable of achieving.

What obstacles did you overcome?

Charles:     You’ve seen my picture, haven’t you? That would be an obstacle right there. The follically challenged thing hasn’t been easy, baby!

There have been several obstacles. I mentioned people who grew up with all the advantages. I’m the kid that grew up with no advantages. Our family was affluent earlier in my life, but by the time I was about seven years old, they had pretty much lost everything. I grew up in a pretty poor household.

I hesitate to tell these stories because I don’t want to a) sensationalize it, and b) make it sound like it’s so unique that nobody else has experienced these things, but I know what it’s like to eat macaroni and cheese repeatedly for dinner. It’s 33 cents now, but it was 25 cents back then. We ate that for days on end. I remember what it was like doing that. I remember wearing hand-me-downs to school. Most of my siblings were female, so I literally wore my sisters’ jeans to school once. I wore several of their generic pullover tops (although no blouses).

I worked from the time I was 10 years old. Before that, my first weed-pulling job was when I was 7 or 8 years old. I went up and down the street to see if anybody needed any help. I still have in my possession the very first dollar I ever made.

We grew up challenged. We also had challenges in the dysfunction of our family. There was some alcoholism in our family, so I knew what it was like to grow up in all the wrong circumstances for success. I was the kid with the high waters, the greasy hair mom cut, the horn-rimmed glasses when wire rims were in fashion. I was bullied in school and had a horrible self-esteem. All those things contributed to making me the least likely to succeed in life.

Therefore, I take great pleasure in letting other people know that you do have the power of choice in your life. That’s the first of the seven powers I talk about. If you do not surrender your power of choice, you have tremendous opportunity to be whatever you want to be or can envision in life.

There are a bunch of people who have the power of belief (another of the seven powers) and nothing else. They have a fairy tale notion that they’re going to be a rock star. You see these people on the first part of American Idol every year. They think they’re going to be a rock star because they’re suffering with a poor self-esteem. They sing along with the radio in the car or in the shower and they think, “Wow! I might be one of those people.”

I take great pleasure in letting other people know that you do have the power of choice in your life.

Their friends told them they were pretty good, so they think they’re going to win. But all they have is the power of belief. They haven’t invoked any of the other powers (the power of vision, the power of mind, the power of action), so they’re just riding on the power of belief. It’s the fuel, the gasoline that powers the other six of the seven powers. You’ve got to have the power of belief to move that vehicle forward, but gasoline in and of itself has never taken anybody anywhere.

You can fulfill your potential and you can exceed other people’s expectations of what your potential is. You’re calling me ask about comedy and I’m telling you about the whole motivational thing. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing!

We’ll get to the comedy. It’s all part of the journey. You said you had really poor self-esteem. There had to be a turning point for you.

Charles:    I believe the only difference between who you are now and the person you will be in five, ten, fifteen years is a) the books you read, and b) the people you associate with. That’s not original to me, but I believe it. I started reading. I’ve always been a big reader, so I started reading more.

I noticed I didn’t have any friends. I was terribly lonely. I worked in a little snack shop and I started reading articles about how to interact with people. I tried those things and they were tremendously successful. But it’s important to note that I was still very broken and wounded inside. So I learned the mechanics of being popular and I attained that by doing mostly external things and working on my interpersonal skills.

But I was still a very broken person inside, and it wasn’t until a person challenged me in my faith to examine whether I was really having a relationship with God or it was just empty words. It wasn’t until that moment when I made a commitment to get real about my faith that I began the path to inner healing.

I had not cried in maybe two or three years. I was becoming a hard person inside. Outside I was outgoing and friendly, but I was becoming jaded. About a year after I gave my heart to Christ, that same friend who challenged me said, “Charles, I know you had a hard time in high school and you were really bullied a lot.”

I broke. The floodgates broke and I started getting a lot of counseling. Other brothers and sisters in the Lord who loved God and cared about me came around and prayed for me. We identified things in the past and prayed over them, and to me, my conversion means two things: hope for a better future and healing for the past.

Both of those things still apply in my life. Your past could be yesterday, or it could be ten minutes ago. Healing of your past is something you will never lose the need for. That was how that insecurity began to be healed.

My conversion means two things: hope for a better future and healing for the past.

Now, let’s talk about comedy. I did it again, didn’t I? Is this really the direction you wanted this interview to go?

Yes, because I enjoy the conversational style of interview. That way I find more about you than if we’re completely focused on a pre-determined set of questions.

Charles:    I like this. We stay engaged in the conversation then. I had a broadcast early on in my career with a television guy. We had this great rapport going, then when they counted down, “3, 2, 1, and you’re on,” he completely switched gears. All the rapport we had just melted away, and he assumed this broadcaster’s voice and said, “And now, we’re with Charles Marshall, comedian…” and I thought, “Who is this and where did that other guy go?” He completely disengaged.

Have you ever had audiences disengage from you when you’re doing a comedy show? And what does that do to you as a performer?

Charles:    When I was a rookie, I used to make the mistake of trying to engage with everybody, and if someone disconnected, I’d go after them. That’s a mistake. It’s a life principle that what you’re focused on is what you’re going to head toward. If you’re focused on the glass being half empty (like in this time of recession), it’s going to get more empty. But if we’re focused on it being full, it’s going to get better.

So what I do is look for the people having the most fun and look in their direction. Last weekend, there was a couple that got up in the middle of my program and left. There were about 300 people there. The program was going great. One of the ways I can tell (it’s not a 100% rule of thumb or failproof) is the audience’s response during the show and if they’re buying a lot of product afterward. If there’s a long line afterward for autographs, then I know that it went well.

We had that afterward, so I know it was a good show. When that happened during the show, I turned away from them because I don’t want the audience distracted by it, and I don’t know what happened. They may have just gotten a phone call from a daughter that’s in trouble or something. It’s not always a bad thing.

You didn’t look like you were laughing at all.

There are also people who just don’t show a lot of emotion. There’s always one or two percent of your crowd that you’re just not going to get. Other times, I’ve seen people like that (who don’t display much emotion) and they’ve come up later and say, “Man, I haven’t laughed that hard in years.” And I’m thinking, really? You didn’t look like you were laughing at all.

So you can’t judge a book by its cover and you cannot set your course by what one or two people are doing in your program. I used to try to do that. I found out that when you do focus on the wrong people, it makes them more uncomfortable and they draw further in and everything gets worse.

You have very astute insights into people. Is that from the counseling you went through?

Charles:    I think the counseling had something to do with, but reading has even more to do with it. I’m a big reading advocate and my whole family is readers. My wife is a reader, my seven-year-old daughter is reading at a third grade level, and my five-year-old boy is learning to read. Information, if you can retain it, changes your life. I won’t remember the plot of a book and I won’t necessarily remember the characters. But if the author had a point they were trying to drive home, I’ll remember that. I think it changes who you are.

Plus I love people and love to observe them. It’s part of my job. I’m a people watcher, and in the restaurant, I’m watching you. I’m looking at the couples and trying to figure out if they’re on their first date, or where they are in their relationship. I’m watching the parents and wondering what they’re going through. I’m thinking about it whether we’re in a restaurant or a theater, or wherever.

I travel all over the country but this planet, if you were to remove the people, would be just an interesting place to be. But when you add the people, then you get a story; you get the drama.

As you look down the road, do you see either the comedy or the motivational speaking taking off more than the other?

Charles:    The motivational speaking has a whole lot of comedy in it and I have been riding this fence for years and been saying, “wow, I really like this motivational speaking thing,” and “I really enjoy the comedy.”

I have two books I’m working on right now. One is a comedy business book and the other is a family comedy book, so it doesn’t look like either one is going to dominate the other any time soon. We have projects going in both areas. I think one of the things that keeps me the most alive is creativity.

I write comedy every day. I say a line or two that I’ll tweet about, or I’ll put something on Facebook. Some of those lines get taken out and used in a live show, and others will turn into articles. I have a comedy column that’s nationally syndicated. It sounds bigger than it is. It’s in several papers, about a dozen, all over the country.

I think one of the things that keeps me the most alive is creativity.

As far as the motivation thing goes, a lot of businesses want something entertaining and humorous, but it’s got to have value, and that’s where I’m at. I’m a very pragmatic person, so that works for me.

Ken Davis and Andy Andrews are both like that as well. Andy has done very well for himself and he started out as a comedian. He’s sort of more toward the motivational side now, I think.

My last book was called I’m Not Crazy, But I Might Be a Carrier. It’s a compilation of all my comedy columns and has gotten great reviews on Amazon. See, I have these two sides to my personality. I’m very serious and passionate about encouraging, and then I’ve got this really silly side.

Another thing we’re doing is working on a video of my travels. I have a lot of editing to do on it, but we’re trying to show my daily interactions, a lot of which are just silly and fun. I think we’re going to put them up on YouTube.

[Interference hits]

Now you sound like you’re in a dishwasher! I can’t understand your words any more.  I hear an electronic echo.

Charles:  Now it’s cleared up! Maybe it was a solar flare or electric storm.

Since our connection was going out, we decided to end our conversation so Charles could go downstairs and help his employees before going to get his teeth cleaned. You can see Charles’ comedy on YouTube and on his website, as well as the schedule for his live appearances.