Conversations with Mandy Mayhem

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mandy Mayhem.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My story in LA begins with Hip Hop Karaoke (HHK). I was known as the queen of HHK in Toronto for 4 years, winning back to back to back championships for my creative covers and crowd control skills (that I attribute to my time as a cheerleader). At one show, an artist named Fatlip, from the group The Pharcyde, witnessed the Mayhem and invited me to perform at the 25th anniversary show they were having at The famous Roxy nightclub on the Sunset strip. I flew down to LA with $200 in my pocket and never left. The event was chaotic, people weren’t used to seeing someone like me throw down like that. One thing about seeing me perform; you either think it’s the greatest thing ever, or you want it to stop immediately. To meet me, you wouldn’t see my alter ego Mandy Mayhem coming at all. Which is why I think it does so well online now. After that show, I knew I had something with this ‘character’ and had to bring her to the screen.
I wrote a half hour show called MUTHA, a comedy series about a housewife who fantasizes about being a rapper. As a first time creator, I was thrilled when, after a series of adventures that could be a show in itself, it was picked up by Abso Lutely Productions and sold to truTV, as a 6 episode short form series to be featured in Rachel Dratch’s Late Night Snack – their sketch comedy anthology show. I wrote and starred in the series, and am really proud of the work we did, but no one saw it because it was the winter of 2016 and there was a lot going on in the world.
After that, I quickly sold a second show to Canada’s Bell FibeTV called Rapping with Actors, a variety talk show format with games, music and interviews.
Then…I auditioned. A LOT. My relationship with hip hop changed as I was now living in a tumultuous America and learning more about hip hop culture from the inside. I wondered if it was ok for me to rap. If I was appropriating a culture that was created by an oppressed people. I felt I had more to learn before I could reverently pick up the mic again, if ever.
I wrote a third show, and a fourth, and a fifth, and a feature, a lot of them set in the world of cheerleading, but just wasn’t able to get any bites. Six years went by, a global pandemic, protests, strikes, and most of my 40s. I did a podcast called Going Gray in Tinseltown, about aging in Hollywood, to help me through the process of letting my dyed red hair grow out into the silver hair I have today. I auditioned for great roles in several huge films and tv shows, but couldn’t get a break.
Then, on November 1, 2022, at 47,.. I got one… An audition for a retirement home commercial.
My agent quickly followed up with an email – ‘I totally understand if you don’t want to do it, but it’s a really cool retirement home, they take people as young as 50.’
But I’m 47.
‘Oh, I see what’s happening here,’ I thought, ‘I’m being retired.’
I was furious. I felt invisible, ignored, dismissed, underestimated, ‘I am TRAINED!’ I raged, ‘I studied at Strasberg for f’ksakes!’ And also, why don’t we let women in their 60s and 70s play women of retirement age? I don’t want to perpetuate this.
I needed an outlet for these feelings, so, like the character in my show, I turned to rap. I had played around with live streaming in the early days when it first came to facebook, offering insights to other creators looking to sell shows, and talking about the business. On this night, I streamed for a very different reason:
I went on TikTok to live stream myself rage rapping.
It was 1AM, and I thought ‘I’ll just try it, no one will be on here this late.’ I threw on some bright red lipstick, set up my tripod and hit the go live button. After an hour and a half. 11,000 people had watched a red-lipped, grey-haired lady rap. AND I HAD MADE $11. Wait, what? I got paid to rap in my bedroom?
After that, I never looked back. I followed the recommendations of the agency I was working with and did 20 hours in the first month, thinking I’d give it 30 days, and then reassess. By the end of those 30 days, I was doing shows where 180,000 people were tuning in over a couple of hours each night. AND I was making enough to pay my rent.
Then I went viral.
Someone screen recorded me rapping a JayZ cover and posted it on twitter as a meme… GRANNY’S GOING HAM IN THE LIVE. 40 Million views of that video later, and I’m now making an album with producer Keith Shocklee from Public Enemy and have Chuck D featured on one of my tracks. I am living MY dream.
THE dream, the one where you are chosen by someone and plunked into the system to win Oscars and Grammys, was created for moldable, 20 year old artists. And, it was created when our work-life span was 40 years at best. Since I first came to LA, everything has changed. I have more to offer now creatively than I ever did, but I started late according to industry standards so I’ve just created my own path and I’m now making a living from live-streaming and can finance my own creative projects with the help of my online fans.
My first single from my new album is called Never Too Late, and there’s a line in it that says ‘aspiring, dreams never dying, not trying to die, 40 years before my time.’
We are all here to EXPERIENCE our own lives, and there is no one formula for anyone, especially in entertainment. I believe my walk on this earth is a sacred conversation between me and my creator and I want to experience it making art.
I’m so grateful for my time in Los Angeles, it truly is mecca for the artist, but not because it’s the place you come to be discovered. It’s the place you come to align with your true purpose. It’s the place that I learned, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, that I don’t need to go outside of myself to find what I’m looking for. As much as I tried to break through into the industry as a traditional actor, my gifts were right there in my living room, with me, a camera, and my shiny red lips.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
One of the things I get a lot of joy from is helping other creatives. I believe artists are the bridge between chaos and order, and I believe that artists are uniquely qualified to shine a light on the darkness. As storytellers, we arouse empathy, and help people be more curious about stories that are unfamiliar to them. I have seen too many great artists talk themselves out of creating because they think what they have to say is not unique enough, or, worse, won’t make any money. The problem is, we have to explore a lot of different things to find the singular voice that is ours to share. We have to make a lot of mistakes to find our voice. The voice that takes all of the seemingly disparate parts of you and brings them together into something truly unique.
In my own story, it is the combination of my passions; poetry, music, performance, comedy, fine art, and my experience that makes me unique. Unfortunately, having all these ways to express can sometimes feel chaotic and jumbled. Like the projects and ways to create them are competing with each other for time. I learned that, although I am a great Producer and Strategist (I used to own a public relations company), my Producer brain has no business speaking when I sit down to write a poem. Nor does my story teller self get to show up when I’m doing my taxes (Just the facts, ma’am).
In order to survive with these multiple personalities, I created a time management system for artists called The Time Trampoline. It helps those of us working in multiple modalities to chunk our time, not according to the project, but according the person we have to be when we are doing the work itself. That way, I’m not dating to network, or thinking about money when I’m writing a song.
I developed the system for myself, but it has helped hundreds of other artists, and I’m grateful for that. Imagine there is a David Bowie out there somewhere talking themselves out of creating because they think it won’t sell. I help artists because I am inspired by their work. It’s fuel for me. Every artist’s work is important, whether it’s for themselves, or for millions of people. We aren’t going to heal the world by stifling our creativity, and we need all of us creating to build that bridge between chaos and order.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mandymaycheetham.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mandamurhead
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/mandamurhead
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/msmandymaycheetham

Image Credits
OCTOVO – purple jacket pic