We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Toi TooTall a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Toi thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?
If I could go back in time and start my creative career sooner I definitely would!!! I started in 2012 doing stage plays but I feel like I took a more serious aggressive dive into pursuing my dreams between 2019-2021. It was a slow rolling start because we were there in the middle of a pandemic. But thanks to the Internet everyone was watching. When I start taking things more serious I was in a space where I didn’t want to be the 9-to-5 worker anymore. I was ready to quit my job without a true plan on how to go about things. I understand that the pandemic was not the best experience for everyone but I have to admit that it truly did open up doors for me and it gave me the time to sort things out as I had needed to. I started doing virtual comedy shows and building relationships with people in different cities/states that I may have never had the chance to meet had the pandemic not occurred. Outside of starting sooner I will definitely say that if I could change anything it would have to be the consistency.
Toi, 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’ve always believed that things happen when they’re suppose to but sometimes I can’t help but to wonder how’d things would be if I had decided to follow my dreams and start my career in entertainment sooner. When I graduated high school and was asked; what do I want to study in college? And my first response was theater 🎭. As a child I enjoyed mimicking cartoon characters and changing my voice. In Elementary school I participated in every program that involved performing. I loved watching any form of performing arts and I had dreams of being on TV rather it was for a sketch comedy show or a television talkshow. But the idea of being an actress was shot down and I was told that I needed to go to college and get a degree in something that would have me financially stable. Resources played a major role in the decision to put my dreams aside… I simply did not know how to go about pursuing them. In my last year of high school I took a drama elective and absolutely loved it; I knew I had something in me. When I got to college; majoring in computer information systems… along with my required curriculum courses I decided to take a communications and theater class because those were honestly the two that peaked my interest the most. My college major BORED to me though And by the time I got to the programming I was at my wits end… so since I also enjoyed helping others and loved children I decided to switch my major to secondary education with a minor in special ed. While in college I joined organizations and participated in events that had links to the entertainment world. Education was not truly a passion of mine and I eventually dropped out of college and joined the the working world is a customer service representative in a call center. I found myself imitating customers and my coworkers often for laughs. But it wasn’t until 2012 when things took a turn for me. I started doing stage plays on a consistent basis which opened up a lot of doors. As the world evolved; the Internet opened up more possibilities as well, I started as a host for internet radio and podcasting. In addition to that me and some friends partnered up and started food vlogging local restaurants. The radio hosting took off and it led me to hosting music showcases, business expos, and a multitude of interviews. It was through a conversation in 2019 with my business partner/friend Nakira who suggested that I try stand up comedy. And I did! So here I am now three years later I’ve traveled to multiple states across the US to do shows in Las Vegas, Atlanta, Chicago, and New York (just to name a few lol) & four months after my first comedy performance I had the opportunity to host the Amazon prime series “Gettin Off” Comedy special season one. Since then I’ve opened up for major headliners and continually working on and growing my craft. We’ve all heard the phrase you have to crawl before you walk so I often wonder how things would be if I started trying to walk sooner. But when I think about it; the things I’ve done in life, the people who I’ve met from college and from work all help to develop me. I’ve built relationships with people that’s evolved into support with my endeavors and I’ve had experiences that have made me stronger, wiser, and ready for what’s to come with entertainment. Working in a contact center for years, countless stage plays, food blogging, radio hosting and interviews prepared me and got me comfortable with talking and being professional. So yes I may say that I wish I started sooner but I definitely don’t regret starting at all and I’m grateful
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
In all honesty… I just want to make the world smile and I figure you can’t laugh without smiling! So my mission is to do exactly that. We go through so much from family, friends, finances and work life so it feels good to be able to at least lighten that load for some with a little laughter & joy (and a splash of sarcasm too lol)
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
As I developed I learned that critical thinking is crucial. I’ve experienced situations in life and entertainment where I needed to think outside of the box and focus on the bigger picture instead of acting out emotionally. And even though I’m still a work in progress (because we all should be working to continuously grow) I read a few books that I can say help to play a part in decisions I’ve made such as Emotional Intelligence 2.0, The Art Of War, The Comedy Bible, The Bible (I should probably read that one more lol), but the book I most recently read was You Owe You by Eric Thomas. For me; this book helped me to focus on accountability. Nobody owes you anything but you owe it all to yourself to pursue your dreams and be successful. Success has many meanings depending on who’s eyes it’s seen through… don’t base your success on what others think you should be. Base it on what you WANT to be… you owe that to yourself!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/toi_tootall/?utm_medium=copy_link
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TooTallEntBih
Image Credits
Thirty6 Vision Evry Music