By Gregg Wynn
Quadruple Threat they call him. Singer-songwriter, actor, director, and choreographer, Todrick Hall is about to claim The Summer of 2015 as his very own. Just five years after being voted off American Idol, the 30-year old phenom embarks on his Toddlerz Ball, tagging 21 cities across the country, including Atlanta on July 28th. In August, his self-titled reality show debuts on MTV. When you’re shooting for the stars, it seems the skies are limitless.
That big-time, big-name TV talent show was just another opportunity for Hall to showcase his songwriting skills. To those American Idol judges he sang, “Todrick is my name, and I’m here to play a part in your game. Hopped a plane, took a train just to claim my 15 minutes of fame.”
To be sure, Hall isn’t satisfied with just a few fleeting moments on the small screen. He’s made two turns on Broadway; in The Color Purple (2007) and Memphis (2010). He made magic in Disney World productions of High School Musical 2 and Beauty and the Beast, and at sea performing aboard Disney cruise ships.
YouTube delivers Hall a steadily growing flock of fans, lovingly be-named Toddlerz. His channel currently has over 1.5-million subscribers and the cheekily clever videos posted there have received over 209-million views. He proves himself a master of multi-pane videography in 4 Beyonce, in which he covers the diva’s entire songbook of 70-plus tunes in just four breathless minutes, and The Evolution of Disney, where he chronicles all 75 years of the studio’s musicals, from Steamboat Willie straight through to Frozen.
Being an openly-gay black man in show biz has presented some career challenges for Hall, especially when the major TV network producers tried to stifle his authenticity. Yet, for the man who calls himself Quing, personal truth resounds loudly in his madly creative works, exemplified in lyrics excerpted from “Freaks Like Me.”
“Hey, don’t listen to them! You guys are perfect, just the way you are.
Sure, you might be a little different, but in your own way, you’re wickedly cool.
‘Cause tonight, for the first time I’m loving who I be.
Turn it up for all the freaks like me.
Tonight, I’m feeling so fine. I’m loving who I see.
Turn it up for all the freaks like me.”
Todrick Hall is, “insanely talented,” claims celebrity host Ryan Seacrest. Beyonce says he’s, “so creative.” Such heavy-hitting endorsements are nothing new for the Texas native. Big business is watching too. In 2013, Virgin America airlines contracted him to compose, produce, and star in a pop-music in-flight safety video. That same year, he signed with legendary talent manager Scooter Braun, the brains behind Bieber, PSY, and Carly Rae Jepsen. Last year, Forbes magazine named the artist to their list of Top 30 Under 30, and MTV snapped him up as a new reality star.
I spoke with Todrick Hall immediately after the San Diego opening night of his tour Toddlerz Ball.
David Atlanta: Your career is literally exploding right now. Forbes magazine even named you to their “30 Under 30″ list last year. How does it feel to experience this stunning rise to prominence?
Todrick Hall: It’s hard to put into words how I feel. It’s insane for a person from a small farm community in Texas. I’m experiencing things I never thought I was going to experience. It feels surreal and I’m just super flattered that people care enough about my videos and my creativity to support me.
DA: What was it like growing up in the rural community of Plainview, Texas?
TH: I basically grew up as an only child and it was awesome to have a place where I could come home and have nothing to do but sit in my own backyard and come up with things I could do on my own or reenact the Disney Christmas parade or whatever. So that was an awesome experience for me. But it was difficult, because I was growing up an African-American child in a family of people who were all athletes and they’re all football fans and basketball players. I was the first person in my family line who decided to do things in the arts and it was very difficult for my family to understand why, not only doing it, but also why my mom was supporting me doing it. Luckily, I had a teacher in elementary school who found me and she was the one who introduced me to the arts. When you grow up in a town like Plainview, Texas you don’t even know that Broadway exists. I had never even heard of Broadway. I didn’t know what it was.
When my eyes were opened to the fact that there other things besides being a basketball player or a football player it just completely consumed my entire life. In dancing, in theater, ballet, and anything that has anything to do with the performance arts, I was trying to get in touch with it. It was hard to find avenues for me to express myself in my small town. So, that’s why my family and I up and moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
DA: You’re going to be arriving in Atlanta during Gay Pride Month. So, it makes sense for you to tell us about your coming-out experiences.
TH: For me, it was kind of simple. I was really, really close to my mom. She and I had an amazing relationship my entire life growing up. But when I came out, it was very difficult for us. My mom loved me. But, she was raised in that area with all those religious influences. So, it was tough for her to understand what was happening to me. But, she did the best job she possibly could and as a family we worked through it. And now, she’s so understanding. I’m in a relationship right now and she’s so supportive of it. It’s awesome to see the entire family come full circle and be supportive.
DA: Ah, so you’re in a relationship right now. Do you want to divulge a little information about who you’re with?
TH: I don’t have a lot of information to give. But, I am in a relationship with an awesome guy. His name is Jesse. He’s amazing and I couldn’t ask for a better person.
DA: How does being an out gay man affect your work and your career?
TH: It’s difficult. You know, when I was on American Idol, we kept getting a lot of influence from the producers of the show to make sure we’re appealing to middle America. People kept saying that, “Appeal to middle America. Appeal to middle America.” I didn’t know what that meant. I was always so nervous to be myself on the show. I was really super concerned about how I looked when I was waving or what my responses were going to be. Eventually, I had to take a moment and say, “I could be eliminated from the show.”
I was so upset. Not because I wasn’t going to win the competition, because I already knew that was a high likelihood going into it. But, I was upset because I don’t feel like I ever showed who I truly was while I was on the show. I felt like I was being like a really calmed-down, subdued version of myself on the show and trying to be what I thought America wanted me to be.
DA: It’s been five years since your American Idol experience. Looking back on it now, what’s your view of that whole thing?
TH: I wouldn’t take any of that back. I’m so glad that everything happened the way that it did. Because with me getting eliminated from that show and looking at the statistics of how many people come back out and have another opportunity in the limelight, and for success, the likelihood of that happening has statistically not been very high for people who’ve been contestants, especially semi-finalists on the show. It lit a fire under me.
The producers kept saying to us, “You have a better chance of getting struck by lightning than you would to make it this far in this competition.” So, I asked myself, “What are the odds of getting struck by lightning twice? That’s very rare.”
I just decided that every single day I was going to wake-up and do something towards reaching my goals. Also, I decided that whatever I was going to do I’d rather be one-hundred percent true to who I was.
I think we have the possibility right now to create a path for whoever is going to come one-hundred years from now. They won’t have to deal with the situations we have to deal with right now. They can be one-hundred percent themselves when they get up on stage. They won’t have to worry about the perceptions. They’ll be able to just get up and perform at the same level and on the same playing field as someone who is heterosexual or someone who is white or black. I’m so excited for the future.
The fact that being an African-American, I have the ability to do something great for people like me who are living in a small town who don’t really have a voice right now. I’d like to be someone they can look up to and aspire to be like.
DA: You have become a YouTube sensation and many of your videos, like Alice in WeHo Land, Beauty and the Beat Boots, Cinderonce, and How the Grinch Stole Crenshaw, have their roots in children’s stories. Why is that?
TH: I think that I’ve always been super, super influenced by all those fairy tale stories I grew up watching. I like to consider myself a kindred spirit to Michael Jackson. He was always so excited and intrigued by the story of Peter Pan. He never wanted to grow up. I just loved all those fairy tale fantasies when I was growing up. I imagined myself being a character in the Wizard of Oz and that somehow someday I would escape that living room in Texas, which was my Kansas, to find some way to find some place that was more colorful and accepting. I’m not sure if I want to click my heels and go back home yet. I’m not sure if that’s ahead in my career. But who knows?
My life is like a fairy tale. My whole house is decorated like a fairy tale. I love incorporating modern things with things from fairy tales and opening people’s eyes to look at the world in a whole different light. I think there’s something really cool about that.
DA: The visuals in your recent video Mickey Minaj were stunning. The queens in Atlanta will want to know who did your hair and make-up?
TH: Well, the place that actually did a lot of RuPaul’s wigs is a wig shop on Hollywood Boulevard that is just amazing. It’s like a little gem hidden in the middle of all the chaos of Hollywood Boulevard. They make the most amazing wigs. And Lipstick Nick [Nicole Faulkner], who also happens to be a main character on my MTV show, she’s the one that did all of the different make-up. She did them so fast. She’s so ridiculously talented. I’m just so proud to know her and have her part of our team.
DA: You’re going to bringing your live show, Toddlerz Ball, to Atlanta on June 28th. What can your fans expect during that show?
TH: We just opened the show last night and it was incredibly received. Everyone can expect to see colorful costumes. They can expect to see a lot of choreography. Last year, we went on tour with a show called Twerk Du Soleil. It was a bunch of funny, out-of-the-box crazy numbers. But, this year, the show is a lot more magical. We do the Wizard of Ahhhs. We do Cinderfella. We do 4 Beyonce. It’s a lot more of the Disney numbers and the fairy tale numbers that people love on my YouTube channel that they didn’t see last year.
DA: MTV will be premiering your reality show, Todrick, on August 31st at 10 p.m., the night right after the Video Music Awards. That’s an amazing timeslot. What can viewers look forward to?
TH: Oh, wow. They’re going to be blown away! We’ve worked so hard. We work hard on all of our videos. But, we really stepped it up for the MTV show. We were able to create eight amazing videos that I think the people are going to love. They will get to see the kind of things it takes to become a YouTuber.
It was very important to keep my street credibility with the YouTube community and we keep the videos on YouTube. You don’t actually see the entire video on the episode. But, you get to see enough that it’s a payoff. Then you can go to YouTube and see the final video at the end of every single episode. You can to meet my fans and the people that helped create the videos.
I think it’s going to inspire a lot of people across the country to either pick up a camera and start making their own YouTube videos, creating their own brands, and building their own team and empire online, or I think it with inspire a creative fire in people who have a passion about anything they may have put on the back burner because they didn’t believe in themselves enough. I think our show is definitely going to show people every single week that it is possible and it can be done.
Todrick Hall presents Toddlerz Ball Sunday, June 28 at 7 p.m. Agnes Scott College – Presser Hall (141 East College Ave.) Tickets at www.EventBrite.com
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