We recently connected with Tamberla / Kevin Perry/Douglas and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Tamberla / Kevin, thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
Anytime anyone moves to Los Angeles with no real prospects, they are taking a huge risk. Anyone who moves here pregnant with no prospects has lost their minds. Well, we had lost our minds and decided that moving to Los Angeles 4 months pregnant and jobless was the greatest idea born to man. Kevin and I met doing sketch and improv in Chicago many years ago. We were also heavily entrenched in the Chicago theatre scene, both of us having been seen on many Chicago stages. At some point we got married and decided after our last plays in Chicago/New York, we would move to LA and really jump start our film and television careers. We moved here in 2016 with some pretty decent work ethic and a whole lot of faith, and to this day, it’s been one of the best career decisions we’ve ever made.
Tamberla / Kevin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
We are a married sketch comedy duo raised by the Chicago sketch and improv scene, but based in LA. We are proud of our Chicago roots. We are proud to be married for 12.5 years and raising these 2 little girls. But mostly, we are proud of ourselves for being able to create something that cracks people up and makes them think at the same time.
We met in Chicago while performing in our respective Sketch Comedy troups, Soul Fools (Tam) and kevINda (Kevin). It was Second City that brought us together. Kevin hand-plucked me out of my group to come and audition for another show that he was writing. He did not cast me. Weeks went by and someone dropped out of that show. He still did not cast me. After several women turned down the roll, I finally got the call. And that was the beginning.
We worked hard in Chicago. It is in huge part to the Chicago Theatre Scene that we are where we are professionally, today. Theatre really shaped us as artists and creatives and our theatre homes gave us the space to grow.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
When the world shut down we were trapped in our homes and like everyone else we had choices to make. We could have let that moment stop us from doing what we love, or we could find a way to continue to create content with kids during a pandemic. So we chose to continue creating. How did we do it? We made a plan to write, shoot and edit at the top of the week and release on Fridays. We were pretty consistent. If a tragedy fell on the day of release we would move the release of that episode to the following week. Looking back, God is the only reason that worked. Squeezing in shooting and writing between kids naps, zoom meetings, auditions, and whatever we were going through or dealing with, was insane. It did make us happy, but the most rewarding part was the response from friends, family and total strangers on social media.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
KEEP GOING- this is something EVERYONE needs to be constantly reminded of. Persistence is key. If there is something you really want to do, YOU CAN DO IT! You really can. All you need to do is keep putting one foot in front of the other. Dont try to go too many steps ahead because that can get overwhelming. Take enough steps to see the progress and you will be propelled to keep going.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @tamberlaperry @tamandkevinshow @hereiskevindouglas
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tamberla.perry https://www.facebook.com/kevin.douglas.585
- Linkedin: @tamberlaperry
- Youtube: Second City You Tube Channel/The Tam and Kevin Show
Image Credits
Jamie Blank