Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Rico Mangram. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Rico, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
I think the best thing that happened to me was learning how to teach people how to dance Salsa, and it also brought me into how to be in front of people and understand people that are beginning to learn, so that forced me to connect with people and learn more about them. As a talk show host that is part of my craft is to understand the guest and learn more about them. Of course being on camera and how to stay focus and talking to the audience as if they are in front of me. The craft of being a talkshow host has made me have patience and listen then respond later.
Rico, 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 started my business because I am an Emcee for weddings and Quinceaneras, when I was emceeing a wedding in Lake Forest IL, during dinner time I was asked where did the Bride and Groom find me and I told them the site online and the gentleman said I thought that you came from Radio Station and I was like “Really”, the gentleman was like yes and you should think about that, you would be great at it. Well, I doubted myself until I did two more weddings and someone thought the same thing. So just a coincidence there was an online Radio station that needed a talk show host and approached me and I agreed to it, Well that lasted for only 2 months, because the Radio was not for me because I love the visual aspects of me being in front of the camera. This is when I decided to start my show “The Rico No Suave Talk Show” and I had my former co-host at the time Valerie Melecio that we started at the time in Chicago in July 2018.
I am the most proud of the people that have been on the show and then went to tell of people that they should be a guest on my show because of my professionalism. I am proud of the questions that I give my guests to make them think and bring out the best of them. Being a hyped showmakes my fans and guests wants to watch or to come back on the show!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
My advice for people that want to get involved in the media and also want to become a talk show host. You must watch your favorite talk show videos and get the concept of the show and make it your own. You always must make a plan of where you want to be in 2 years because technology is different than it was in the 90’s and early 2000’s. Get involved with networking events and ask questions to people that are in the media to get them brainstorm with you on your plan to help you get better. Do this because you love it, not because you don’t have anything else to do and you want to try something just because you think you might like it. This will be a waste of your time and talent, which you will be able to use in a different industry.
I have role models in the industry from back in the day, Johnny Carson, Aresenio Hall, Jay Leno, David Letterman, and now Jimmy Fallon, Trevor Noah( when he was on the Daily Show), I loved watching how they interact with the guests and also them having segments that kept the audience engaged and also how they work with their team to make every show the best that you can watch. Even though they had different styles they all came together to make their audience enjoy themselves and always wanting more, but their exposure just got bigger and bigger when social media got involved because people would share the content with them being on the show in the audience and then more people would just share the information to being more views to the show.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
Yes I would say if I knew that I needed an agent at the beginning of my journey as a talk show host I would have been more advanced at a eariler start of my career and being able to get my journey on the right start, right away. The doors with special guest, the outlets to get my more exposure has been tremendous.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.TheRicoNoSuaveShow.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/riconosuaveshow
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/riconosuaveshow
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rico-mangram-8422121a9/
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/riconosuavetalkshow
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/riconosuaveshow
- Other: https://www.mixcloud.com/riconosuaveshow/
Image Credits
Credits for the Feature Photo is Chris Cuffaro