We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ryan Singer Stand-up Comedian & Paranormal Investigator a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Ryan Singer, thanks for joining us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?
A life in the arts and pursuing our passion to create and tell stories is the most rewarding gift we give ourselves. That doesn’t mean that this life is easy or as simple as just believing in ourselves and everything else will just take care of itself. The most daunting and stressful part of this life for any artist or creative person I know, including myself is the financial stress. At some point, we decide that we are okay with ambiguity and without knowing the answers to some of the questions that dictate the paths others take in life to ensure their financial stability. We sacrifice this knowing, this certainty for the freedom to express and to explore.
When times get tough, the inevitable questions pop into my mind, “Have I squeezed as much as I can out of this life as an artist?” Or even “Can I keep this up and maintain my sanity?” The weight of the financial obligations of the modern world, especially living in larger cities where artists are told that all the opportunities exist, have become heavy. That is why many of us find ourselves in shared spaces, helping each other shoulder the costs while we walk side-by-side in our pursuits of art and love. Plain and simple: thinking about money all the time sucks. Worrying about money all the time is even worse. But, it is the reality for many of us who dedicated ourselves to the path outside the mainstream box.
My financial security has ebbed and flowed over the 20+ years as a comedian and actor. Sometimes the work has overflowed and other times it seemed like I’ll never work again. These are the moments when I find myself deep diving into my computer’s hard drive looking for a resume I can update. There is a glaring 15 year gap in employment on that resume that most employers likely wouldn’t love. But, see, that’s the big lie that we all too often believe: gap in employment. We somehow fall in the trap of believing that not having a regular job means that we are not really working. The old saying, “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life,” might be true in some regards, but everyone I know who loves what they do work their asses off. There’s no shame in any job and even if you’ve made a living from your art for two decades, going back into the traditional workforce to ensure you have a roof over your head is anything but embarrassing. It is the thing we must do to give ourselves a foundation from which we can do our work.
My journey has included living off of credit cards, doing the credit card balance transfer dance to pay bills and even utilizing government assistance with foodstamps to make sure I don’t go hungry. Some people don’t want to live a life doing these things, not knowing if they’ll pull out of it. And that’s okay, too. We all have our own hangups about things and shame can be a real roadblock in asking for help when we need it. I try not to worry about that or worry that other people won’t think I’m successful or good at my job or whatever other shameful slander we can hurl at ourselves in times of uncertainty. The modern western world isn’t setup for the artist to thrive. Plain and simple. That is why we must utilize our resources where and when we can find them. There is no shame in foodstamps, bankruptcy or a temporary job that you hate. Anything that can keep the artists going and pursuing their path forward is something I will tap into.
The not knowing what is next is scary. Sometimes it can overtake us and make our prospects seem dark. But, leaning into the unknown is also one of our greatest strengths as builders of new worlds. We bring into the world that which was not there before and we do that because we can see something that was not seen by those who weren’t willing to settle into the darkness of the in-between comfortable and uncomfortable. There’s no map for these places, but we don’t need a map if we trust that we are doing it for the right reasons and believe we’ll get through to the other side. It is an individual decision for each of us as artists whether or not we’re willing to go without the things society tells us we need to be comfortable or successful. But, we only have so many minutes in this current life and for me the answer is simple: I’d rather pursue the dream while eating mac ‘n cheese than be a prisoner to a mortgage of a house that is void of joy.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
When I was a kid, I thought I’d grow up to be priest. But, that was because I had never seen anyone other than a priest on a stage. Turns out I was more interested in making people laugh than I was spending a life reading from the same book over and over again. But, something in me even as a kid understood that there is probably no better audience than one which thought the fate of their eternal souls depended on listening to you. That is what we call a captive audience.
My journey into stand-up comedy started in Ohio, which eventually led me to move to Los Angeles. So many unexpected things have happened along the way that I am grateful for, with the most unexpected being what people would call paranormal. I was always considered somewhat of a weird kid growing up, but these experiences would elevate me to a whole new level. When you experience something that you never believed was real, you search for how it is possible. At least that is how I responded. The next logical question becomes, “If this is real, what else is that I thought was make believe?”
I was somewhat early on in my comedy journey when the first experiences happened and I had continued to be wholly dedicated to trying to become a full-time stand-up. I eventually was able to make my living performing on the road and moved to Los Angeles. Once I got here, I started my paranormal podcast in an attempt to find answers to questions I had from my own experiences. Once you start looking into these things, it is often said they start looking back. I wanted to find other people who had similar experiences so I could feel less isolated in my own life. There is a real comfort in community and I needed that. It’s hard enough trying to make a living as a comedian, let alone one who other people, including many comics think is crazy. That judgement never goes away and it’s often times subtle. But, experiencers are acutely aware of it when it happens.
It was only a matter of time before my quest for answers spread out into a more expansive search and the themes seeped into my stand-up act. Like many of us, I was always thrilled by stories of the unexplainable as child and now I found myself being sucked into that unknown world more and more. When I was in-between road gigs, I would explore haunted locations and go into the woods looking for Sasquatch. My initial experiences that jump-started my quest had led me into a world I never anticipated I’d occupy. I call this “The inevitability of curiosity.” If we dive into anything with a heart full of curiosity, we will be rewarded with that thing in abundance.
Since those early days in comedy, I’ve now filmed a special in a haunted school, called The Supernatural and have been working on a paranormal documentary for the last five years filmed at a location that has everything from ghosts to UFO’s to strange creatures. I’ve just completed a comedy/paranormal memoir that I hope to have out later this year and my podcast Me & Paranormal You just hit over 800 episodes as I go into my 12th year.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
The most poisonous lesson that too many artists and creatives learn early on is what their success should look like. I also had to unlearn this lesson and got lucky that I did when I did. About 15 years ago, I realized that I had surrendered my happiness to the hands of strangers. I was caught up in the comparison game and bought in to the system that was created by other people. I was not happy and wondered how could I be doing what I love and not be experiencing joy? It was because I allowed other people to tell me what I should have or must do or must be to successful.
It is not easy to break free from this way of thinking, especially now with social media. But, it is the single most important than I have ever done in my career. I decided that I should be in charge of what my own success looks like. As a younger comic who started getting some attention and success, I was not enjoying the fruits of my labor. No matter what I achieved, I thought I needed more. Nothing was enough to give me any sustainable feeling of accomplishment. This was not the dream I had as a kid. Then one day, I decided that I would be happy. It sounds so silly, but it was that simple.
I chose to decide what would make me happy in this life and in this career. I was the one who would define what my success looks like and in doing so, I empowered myself. I no longer needed to “get this” or “be on that” to feel like I was relevant or “making it” in the comedy business. Other people will still do the comparing for you and you have to actively fight against it. But, it is well worth it. I wouldn’t let other people tell me what kind of jokes I should write, so why would I let them decide if I’m successful or not? I empowered myself and in doing that simple thing, I changed my life for the better.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
One of the biggest recurring themes in my life is building bridges. No matter what I do, where I go or what I am reading, I cannot escape their imagery or occurrences. They are important to me in this way as they have shown themselves to be a central player in my life whether I like it or not. I don’t fight this, in fact, I have very willingly embraced it. The idea of building bridges is a worthy pursuit in a world where people think they are divided. My comedy and my work attempts to connect things that aren’t obviously connected, like the believable and the unbelievable.
These mission influences every aspect of my work. Most people would not consider stand-up comedy and the paranormal to be connected, but I am trying to build a bridge between those two things. When I am on paranormal investigations I am trying to build a bridge between the living and the dead. Everywhere I go I am thinking about how things are connected and the answer I always come back to is consciousness. If I can connect the worlds of the esoteric to the obvious, that would be a huge accomplishment. Can we make what was once impossible to understand understandable? That is a life well lived. And can we make it funny? Well, that would be a dream come true.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ryansingercomedy.com
- Instagram: @rysing
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ryansingerofficial/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@RyanSingerOfficial
- Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/me-paranormal-you-with-ryan-singer/id811010016
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1LFJQWm6ItT3nNseuIhsU8
Image Credits
Kate Lavin – for the first b&w photo upload