Today we’d like to introduce you to Jasmine Waters.
James, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I guess the best place to start is in high school, you know, that time when everyone is trying to find their bearings. I used to write those truly angsty poems about boyfriend’s whose names I can’t even remember at this point in my life, the true struggle of growing up in Virginia Beach. Then I fell into yearbook my freshman year. Well, I say fell, but I was kind of roped in by one of my teachers, who I am now lucky enough to call my friend. To say Claude set all of my future in motion would not be an exaggeration. Once I got involved in the yearbook, I realized, “oh hey, I am good at writing,” which was ironic because all of my English teachers HATED me. Likely because I was lazy and didn’t do my work and had a very smart mouth, but writing quickly became my first love. By my senior year in high school, I was the managing editor and chief of the yearbook and a writer for our school newspaper. Despite my involvement in cheerleading and theatre (my second love), I knew I was going to be a journalist. However, when it came time to apply for college I quickly realized that I was in that bracket of students that didn’t “apply themselves enough”. It’s so cliché, but so real, I genially could have chosen at any moment to get good grades in high school but I couldn’t be bothered with school work… I never failed classes but I also wasn’t on the honor roll. I may have not cared but failing wasn’t an option. I made a deal with my parents to get my nose pierced, I had to get an honor role for a semester, and I did…
I truly have my priorities straight. Point being, I wanted to go to Virginia Commonwealth University to be a journalism major, and I didn’t get in. After receiving my first and only rejection letter, I decided I was just going to go to community college. I was so motivated during my year in community college because it felt like high school all over again and I hated it. I was on the dean’s list, and I was like, I am transferring before the two years. During my one year in community college, I did a workshop with my old theatre teacher, and I remembered, “Oh shit, I love this too.” From there on, I was inspired by every movie I went to see… Even twilight… I wanted to act.
I told my parents and they were less than enthused. To them I was this amazing writer, I had been published for one of my poems (about sitting through a hurricane), I had been so successful in journalism, to them, I was throwing away my dream. But like those 90’s movies “I’m not throwing away my dream, I am throwing away yours”… Well not really, I just decided that journalism would make me hate writing and I couldn’t hate my first love. So, I made a compromise with my father (ever practical), I was going to apply to be a Theatre Education major, at Old Dominion University…which brought me back to Claude because I wanted to be for someone what he was for me… Without him, I wouldn’t have discovered all of the things about myself that I love.
Ok, speed through college I was a Theatre Education major (a double major degree that is usually done in five years that I was determined to do in four…and did), I was rarely cast in shows–I called myself the “callback queen” (but I felt that prepped me for the rejection of the real acting world), and I did A LOT of backstage work (which gave me new skills). I got to do my student teaching with Claude, who had just started teaching theatre (perfect timing to be taught by my guardian angel). And then I graduated. During my four years, I kept telling myself I was leaving after graduation… I wanted to go to LA (don’t we all), but I wanted to be realistic with my hunger to work, to be somebody. So, I chose Atlanta, I graduated in May, we moved down in July. We packed up a moving truck and left my entire childhood behind.
My first year in Atlanta was awful, but my dad kept telling me, you can’t know if you like it or not until you get through the second year. But that first year, GOD! I had no friends, I missed my parents, I was substitute teaching…which is a goddamn nightmare. To say I was depressed would be an understatement. I was falling apart, I was barely writing, I couldn’t get auditions I was questioning everything… Then my favorite chain. of events happened.
The art center that I was working at as admin needed a stage manager for a community theatre show, and I was a stage manager (things I am good at but didn’t always want to do). From that, I was told about auditions for community theatre in Marietta, which I auditioned for, but the Callback Queen struck again… So I didn’t get cast, but I was asked to stage manage, which I did. During that production, I met my friend Chelsea who was a historical interpreter at the Atlanta History Center… Which sounded like the perfect job. She got to perform and teach… I wanted to do that so bad! Put my degree to good use. She passed on my resume and I ended up getting hired at a historic house where I portrayed an enslaved woman in the 1860’s. I loved my job, I got to educate people and give a voice to people that have been pushed to the corner of history. Of course, that comes with people saying ignorant and inappropriate things to you, but I found that work so important. From there I met my friend Weston who introduced me to my writing partner and business partner Hillary R. Heath.
Hillary hired me to do hair and makeup for a short film that she was doing with her production company, and honestly, the rest is history. I was invited to write and perform in their live sketch comedy show. I took my experience as a historical interpreter and I wrote some very socially aware pieces. I realized writing comedy that makes people think or uncomfortable… While also funny, it was my favorite thing.
Hillary and I also realized that we played well off each other and wrote REALLY well together. So we began to work on our web series Between. Hillary also said to me, “I want to try to stand up,” and I was like YESSSS! We ended up joining one of Lace Larrabee’s early all women’s stand up comedy classes. And it was such a rush, being on stage alone and being fully, unapologetically myself. I feel like as a woman of color I am always intended to apologize for scything and everyone, but on stage I let all that shit go and I am me… And it is so cathartic. I remember, after my first stand up show, my husband looked at me and said, ” I think this is it, I think stand up is what you should do and all of the other things will fall in place.” Never mind the fact that a week prior my friend did a card reading that pretty much told me that I need to stop focusing so heavily on acting because I knew the opportunity would be more rewarding. And there I was, standing at the intersection of all the things I loved.
Meanwhile, Hillary and I refused to let any good idea go unexplored and we both had talked about doing a live sketch comedy show with an all black cast. When we stopped working with the precious production company we both looked at each other and said we can fucking do this… We can produce it, and in February 2019, we had our first Black AF Show. The turnout was amazing. Not only did we have an amazing cast full of amazing writers and performers, but we also had an audience that was happy to see this melanin full group of people doing something that we do not often get the chance to do. Then we realized, holy shit… This is our group, this is our company.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
To get to where I am now I had been broke… Like broke, but also, I had to be okay with being broke. I also had to allow myself to be vulnerable and honest. As someone, like a lot of people I know, with anxiety, that hides it too well, even from myself… I have been consistently working to make sure that I don’t dig myself too far into my holes. It is so easy to be down after bombing on stage, or be in a company with amazing actors and writers and see them, rightfully, succeeding, then to look back at me and think damn, why isn’t that me. Maybe you aren’t good at this. Maybe, you’re on the wrong path…maybe, maybe, maybe… And thus begins the spiral. It’s fast and vast, and it is working progress.
Please tell us about your business.
It has taken me a while to accept that I run a business. Black AF started as a show, it was something that we wanted to do to see if we could do it. Then we began to be invited to perform on shows, people have been requesting more shows from us, and we started making plans for the future. I genuinely was sitting on my couch with a friend ordering merch and prepping for a show that we had at the beginning of December, and he said “… Something (I listen well), your business.” And I said, what business? and he said, “Jasmine, you know you run a business right?” And I was like oh shit, Hillary and I do run a business.
And I suppose I didn’t realize it because it is something I always wanted that I didn’t know was possible. I am a writer, I am a performer, I am a comedian, and I get to work for a company that doesn’t feel like work… I get to run a business that doesn’t feel like a business. It feels like my life finally coming together, with a group of phenomenal people, people who are a part of a marginalized group that deserves to be heard… And we are heard!
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
My proudest moment was our first Black AF show. Hillary and I were panicking the day of. We had put all this money into our Field of Dreams, “if we build it they will come,” and it didn’t look like they were coming. We had only sold like 20 tickets, and we were like shit, maybe, people don’t want to see amazing people with beauteous melanin on stage… But closer to the showtime, the tickets started selling. We had to hold the door for almost 20-30minutes because of the number of tickets we sold at the door, and when it was all said and done we sold out! We had a packed house full of people laughing at all of our sketches and vining with all of our performers, and being a part of this experience.
Once people were buying our shirts, and bragging about our show, and requesting more from us months later, I knew we had made something great! I could have never imagined that we would have created something that we couldn’t stop if we wanted to. I feel so overwhelmed by the response, by looking out into an audience of faces that valued what we created and saw us…each of us individually… All of us.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: blackaf_comedy
- Twitter: reallifebyjaz
Image Credit:
Patrick Morgan, Lola Scott
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