We were lucky to catch up with Chadwick Smith recently and have shared our conversation below.

Chadwick, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

As a very young child I would steal and listen to my parents’ Steve Martin records. From then I knew I wanted to do comedy. At the same time I was also fascinated with the Muppets and Sesame Street. Any time I made a wish into a fountain or blowing out candles, I would wish for a monkey, like a real monkey. Eventually I got a monkey in the form of a puppet and I got really good at manipulating that monkey puppet into making it look real and to make it show emotions. I was in a puppet team in high school and made my first puppet much later in life. It wasn’t until I was in my 30s that I started taking comedy improv and standup classes and soon learned that I could combine comedy and puppeteering and entertain people and make people laugh. I still have a day job to pay the bills, as too many artists have to do, but it does allow me be able to keep performing and creating which makes me happy.

Chadwick, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have a lot of creative buckets that I try to fill. I am an film actor and a comedian on both stage and film. I also sing and puppeteer in the emo puppet band, Fragile Rock. I build puppets for projects for stage and screen and I have also made some costumes and props. I used to play in bands (from indie rock to metal/hardcore genres) and I am currently writing and producing for a solo music project. I also do some writing for film. Recently I have been getting more into woodworking and building my tool arsenal for that craft. Many of these skills were self taught other than some improv classes and some standup classes. and music classes as a child. For me all of these skills and crafts collide with each other. They all seem to crossover at some point.

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7767726/
Fragile Rock: https://www.fragilerockband.com/

Austin, TX has a vibrant and active creative community and being in the creative scene here for a while has opened up opportunities for me to collaborate with other creatives and help ideas come to life whether it be on screen or stage.
I’ve always been an idea person and come up with creative and efficient solutions to problems that may arise when trying to accomplish something within my areas of expertise or for other people’s projects.

I taught comedy improv for about 8 years and also taught workshops on puppet manipulation and also on puppet building. Coaching other puppeteers for film or stage performances is something that I do now on the teaching side.

I am in the process of creating my own brand for a branch of my creative endeavors called Head Head Creations https://headheadcreations.com/. This is where I will display some of my art and have some pieces for sale eventually. I will also entertain some commissions here.

Performing in front of two people or five thousand people, it’s the same to me if I can at least make one person smile or laugh.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

When I am performing live, whether it be singing my lungs out through my puppet at the audience, or doing comedy on stage or screening a film I’m in, with an audience, the laughter is what is rewarding to me. If I can make someone smile or laugh, I feel that I’ve done my job. I enjoy laughing too and will often laugh along with the audience if the environment allows for it. Sometimes I do have to keep a straight face even though I am laughing hysterically in my head. My grandfather used to ask my friends and I, “What have you done lately to make the word a better place?” and I think about that a lot. I’m always trying to find new ways to make the world a better place, but bringing joy and laughter to people is one of my favorite ways to make the crazy world a little brighter.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Youtube has been my biggest help in my creative learning journey. When I made my first puppet in my 30s, I didn’t know how to sew with a sewing machine or build a puppet, but I figured it out. I still have that puppet and he’s not in great shape, but once Youtube came about and had more and more content on it, I was able to find resources on how to build puppets, how to manipulate puppets, and even how to use a sewing machine. It really is a great and inexpensive resource to learn how to do something. I still use it today to learn techniques with wood working or how to use materials that I haven’t used before. With even more content now, maybe too much, anyone can find a video on how to do something they may not know how to do.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.chadwick-smith.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yeahyeahchad/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chadwickwaynesmith
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chadsmith1/
• Twitter: https://bsky.app/profile/yeahyeahchad.bsky.social
• Other: https://www.twitch.tv/yeahyeahchad https://www.headheadcreations.com https://www.zadvik.com

Image Credits
Coby Smith