We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful John David Berdahl. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with John David below.
John David, appreciate you joining us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?
Hey!
The father that I do have did so much right!
Oh my gosh!
Hahaha!
Oh my gosh!
Gosh!
He did shower me with affection and with attention and with acceptance and love!
He did!
He did!
He did!
And he still does do so on the podcast series on which the two of us do work for our local PBS station, Davey Bee’s Hit Song Vault!
Yes!
Yes!
Yes!
More than anything else though, or above all else, right, the dad that I did grow up with did instill me with a sort of drive and a type determination and certainty that does appear to be pretty uncommon these days, like, it is a discipline or it is a commitment to excellence and to respecting others and yourself that I do have that does not seem to be a commonplace or a routine, or an average, average, average kind of thing or quality y’know!
No!
No!
No!
And he was the one who it was who had made darn sure that I did know my own worth, and the worth or the worthiness and importance of others!
Sure!
Sure!
A story that I can share with you is a fairly recent one, where other individuals had been assaulting me, and harassing me, and devaluing me as a man and as a professional and as a person, and I was talking to our father about what it was that I was going through – while he was recovering from COVID-19 in a hospital bed huh – and he did summon up all of his strength and all of his focus, and all of his concentration and will, and he did respond to me with, “So what!”
“So what that these people are awful and mean! So what! That has nothing to do with you! You’re good! You’re talented! You’re smart! Those people are dumb, and I love you!”
Haha!
I do love you too Dad!
I do!
I do!
John David, 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?
Well, I did get into the art and the performance business at a very, very, very early age!
I did!
I did!
The father that I do have is an entertainer, and he is a local or a regional celebrity or personality named Davey Bee, and so I do think that you could say that I was born into the business!
Hahaha!
You could!
You could, haha, you could, but I am not going to force you to do so!
Hoho!
Nope!
Nope!
Nope!
College did prepare me a great, great, great deal for the sort of career it was that I was going to be having myself here, both in academic ways, and in experiential ways, like, the professors and the advisors and the fellow students or undergraduates did inform me and did educate me about a good, good deal, and the extracurricular activities such as working steadily as a musician and as a freelance artist did teach me so, so, so much right!
Yeah!
Yeah!
Yeah!
Because of the kind of unconventional route it is that this career-path or that this type or work or profession or professional practice has taken me, such as working in a contemporary fine art museum, and becoming an instructor and a mentor or a presenter, and picking up so many, many, many skills and techniques and methods and disciplines along the way towards where it is that i do happen to fine myself now, I must admit that I am one heck of a fine artist and member of the community, providing such services as art education on such topics, or on such subjects as drawing, illustration, painting, creative writing, composing music, performance and performance art!
And then I can provide or supply the services or the objectives, or the work such as private art instruction, life skills instruction, certified caregiving, entertainment and technology support, event planning, consulting, online and in person content and programming generation or origination, and broadcasting and hosting or online, audio and video or television production and announcing and on-air talent responsibilities and needs!
How did you build your audience on social media?
Hey!
Hey sure!
Sure!
Haha!
Sure!
I sure can tell you the story about how it was that I did build the audience that I do have on social media!
Hahaha!
I can!
I can, and so I will!
Right now!
After suffering a what it is that would most likely be a devastating or a crushing, crushing, crushing setback for some individuals, I was given the advice to start myself a journal, to perhaps work through or to process a rather large bevy or a huge, huge, huge basket or flood or amount of negative and cruel, and callas, and greedy, and small, small, small feelings that were being directed towards me, and so I did begin to do so on Facebook, and on Instagram, and on Twitter!
Ha!
I did!
I did!
I did!
Like, man, I would wake up at about 5:45 a.m. and just type up and share just what it was that I had been dreaming about, or that I had just accomplished the day before, as if it was simply another page of a personal journal or diary in which it was that I was entering facts and data and information and occurrences for sure!
Golly!
Whoa!
Golly!
Golly!
I still do do that sort of thing, y’know!
Hohoho!
I do!
I do!
Like I just did that this morning, after I had awoken!
Whoa!
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Okay!
Okay!
Here is a story that I was just sharing with a single mother and with her son, in their living room, and I do suppose that the essence of the story, or that point of the tale was all about informing them or about relaying to them something it was that I did have to unlearn as I did grow and evolve or develop, or bloom, or did fully, fully, fully reach my own personal potential and power and resourcefulness as an artist, and as a human being!
Here!
Here!
I will tell you the story alright!
I will!
I will!
So, when it was that I was smaller, or younger, as most people do say!
Or how about I do just state, “When I was a kid…” y’know, I did read a comic book that our father had purchased for me called Swamp Thing!
Wow!
Wow!
Wow huh!
What it was that that book or that that series or books or issues were like for me there!
Wow!
A muck-man or plant / human hybrid mutant creature lurking in the shadows, yearning or longing or endlessly, endlessly or ceaselessly seeking a way that he or it could become human again!
Oh!
Oh!
What a yarn!
Totally!
Totally!
Totally!
What a rousing, rousing, rousing yarn!
And I do suppose that I may have begun to identify with that monster or with that title character a little bit, because it had been becoming more and more and more apparent to me as years had been going by that I was not like the other kids, or I was not like the other children!
No!
No!
I was not!
No way!
Anyway, let us fast-forward to when it was that I was starting this business that I do have, John David Berdahl – Aspie, Writer, Artist, Musician, and when it was that I was receiving the autism spectrum disorder diagnosis that it was that i was supposed to have myself, and I was asked to explain just what it had been like for me, growing up or maturing in a world that I did not understand, or that I did not properly know how to understand until a particular age, and I did start to describe my time as a boy and as a young adult like one would talk about Swamp Thing!
Yes!
Yes!
Yes!
I did commence to discuss the journey that Swamp Thing has taken, the struggle or the adventure or the quest I do think that he had undertaken himself to become a human being once again, after it was the case that a lab accident had transformed him, and how it was that he did come to know or to understand and accept that he never had been a human being in the first place, at least, not in the way that he had thought, or that he had presumed he was a human or a person!
Nuh uh!
No no no!
He never had been or had not been a typical person, and such was the case with me, that I had never been a neurotypical individual or citizen or neighbor, nor had I been a formulaic or basic or general or “normal” guy right!
No no!
No!
So I did have to unlearn a hefty, hefty, hefty load of what it was that I had thought, and had been taught that it was that I was supposed to be, or who it was that I was supposed to be as an artist, and as a small business owner and collaborator!
I did!
I did!
I really, really, really did, and that is what it is that stories and that art, or that sequential art or comics or media can do for us!
They actually, actually, actually can help us to tell our own stories or to express ourselves in certain ways that we could not have otherwise done!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reallyjohndavid/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reallyjohndavid
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-david-berdahl-10386013b/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/reallyjohndavid
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6qW0viECyosy-vYGD4GBYw
- Other: Where Are You From? Web Series https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyinFwe_l4rhYNtAJ25ovAg Davey Bee’s Hit Song Vault https://news.prairiepublic.org/podcast/davey-bees-hit-song-vault