We were lucky to catch up with Ralph LaGuerre recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ralph, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I learn by being part of the experience. Put my hands in the mud I need to be immersed in what I am learning, whether I am in the physical spaces or just deep diving on the internet. The Learning process is on it’s own time. the speed at which I am learning does not really concern me when it comes to crafting art. What i will say is that, writing things down and recording memos on my phone, and recording myself perform has helped me learn tremendously and able advance in personal ways. Being able to be open minded is an essential skill, To be open to learn a process many different ways and find which one really fits your style of thinking and then unlearn it. A skill is to breathe when taking in all new information and knowing how to handle it, especially when learning something brand new, with the access we have to every subject , it can be overwhelming , so a skill is how to take in information in healthy doses.
The obstacles to learning might be for me self sabotage or not trying hard enough because all, overall getting in my own way. Because everything I need to know right now i can go find out easily. the question is what am I trying to Learn? What am I curious about?

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Ralph “SourJack” LaGuerre, I got into the entertainment space by way of performing Stand-up Comedy and more recently got more in the music space. Overall I am a human who finds joy entertaining people .StandUp has brought from South Florida, New York, Chicago and now currently residing in Los Angeles.

I feel like Stand up found me at a low point mentally in my life, where i am young in my 20’s in college but i had no idea what i wanted to do in my life as far as career, more importantly I felt as if I was lost, During that time My friends would invite me over to their homes and i would always end up telling stories and jokes to the point they would have me over to just entertain other friends that would come in town. Something in me said if can go on stage and do the same thing, and the moment i got on my first Stage i knew I belonged. This was Home , this was natural. Scary and Exhilarating , but That mic and stage was home!

My love for the craft became obsessive. Everything I read , watched, talked about was about Standup. my days off i am at open mics. one is just putting in the work. This craft afforded me to go on This Beautiful journey of ebbs and flows of performing, meeting people that were on this same journey,

What I think set me apart in the stand up Space or entertaining space is the way i approach the space i am in, I stay in my original voice, I am not trying to be something i am not, My confidence is high enough and i am funny and i know we all are just humans just trying to figure out life , no matter what level you are in life one is just trying to figure it out.

Long Story short I move to Chicago and in the two years i was there was able to create live shows with friends, one of them is still running at the famous Second City. My joy is really seeing one of your friends just shine and you giving them an opportunity to do. which made me create a podcast back in 2016 about Chicken sandwiches and talking to my artist friends.

In each city i was living in I was taking some kind of music lessons, In New York and in Chicago i was able to have piano teachers and i would take and study music every week. When I moved to LA I started taking classes on Music theory. At this point i was studying music because it too has become a small obsession. . Music during the day and stand up at night , life was on a momentum then covid hit where it was truly a stressful time, but magically during that time my Brother and I come up with an Idea to open music studio and Long story short we create the KnockHouse Studios.

We not only had consistent clients for music and podcasts , but we hosted a jam session where local musicians every Wednesday would come in and sing or perform for Hours. That is really our proudest moments in the KnockHouse history, We Built a community and that is so important and it was like a family, music was being made, artist had place to express and let out their inner kid. Because of KnockHouse SourJack was born and like my comedy the music is fun and original and got my soul in it.
You never know what life is going to evolve into, what i am learning is to be harmonious with the universe and trust in your work and I am excited to see what kind of artist i will be in 5 years. Never stop learning but also take the time to stay still and listen to God.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I am an artist at heart business was not really the biggest thing for me, for me at the time I just want to keep learning and gaining skills. During Covid, my Brother, Friends and I decided to build and open a studio and so i thought i can still do it all build a business with study music and perform stand up. In the beginning, I really thought but with opening a studio, I had to change learn how to be a studio engineer for clients, at the time i didn’t know the difference between an engineer or a producer, , Now i had to take an a obsessive approach on what it is to be a music engineer, and learn from friends and the internet. I will have to say i didn’t think it would be a skill that i would ever had to learn. but i did learn quickly and was able to serve clients and learn on the go , was I terrified yes, was it rocky in the beginning yes, but eventually i got the hang of it and there is some work i am proud of and i gained consistent clients.

Also being a new business owner of a music studio I had to get use too no sleep and always being there for your clients and also learning that you can’t rush into anything first without talking with the team, people need to understand the team has to be solid before even doing any sort of business deals and decisions. Ego has to go out the window for the good of the business. Selfish ways should be minimized

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Non-Creatives need to know that they are in fact artists and creatives themselves, they need to let that side of them grow more and more.

on my journey I have come across people that think they cannot be an artist ” I could never do what you do” and then during pandemic those non creatives suddenly were painting, dabbling in stand up, which was refreshing to see people express themselves.
now that things are back to “normal” some went back to normal,

to ” Non- Creatives” we still need you to create but we appreciate you for you are the balance that some of us artist need, You create in your own way. I hope that you at least you have heart and a passion for whatever it is you are doing in life.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @IamSourJack
• Youtube: @IamSourJAck