Today we’d like to introduce you to August Gladstone
Hi August, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Storytelling and performing has always been an integral part of me. I’ve spent my entire life on the stage having been raised by two thespians. I had my first speaking role at 3 years old and was on Broadway by 6. After a brief High School stint trying to make it to the NBA (I was so close!!) I decided to pursue filmmaking at Emerson College. I majored in Writing for Film and Television with a minor in Comedy. It was at Emerson where I got much more involved in the comedy world, joining a sketch troupe and narrowing my goals down to comedy writing for TV. I graduated in May of 2022, moved to LA in June and started my job at 3 Arts Entertainment in July.
I came to this diamond city to follow a dream and fell into a prestigious company with a long track record of making those same dreams come true. What I quickly learned was that the business of Hollywood is just that – a business. I became disillusioned by the commodification of art in a world of crushing no’s. After shouldering the weight of an intense day-job for a year, I realized that I wasn’t doing what I came west to do. I wasn’t making the art I wanted to make. I felt duped into following a corporate path I had never desired.
With effort, I shifted my mindset, now holding myself to a standard of bold creation regardless of “career relevance” or the desire for fame and money. I want to make art! I want to see the man I am reflected in what I put into the world! I began writing poetry to navigate this strife. Poetry blossomed into music and I attacked these mediums with a sense of urgency – embracing the tangibility of in-person, soulful expression and really connecting with people in my community. This departure helped me fall back in love with the process of creation I had put so much time and training into. Now, two years after my arrival in Los Angeles, I am still working at 3 Arts as my day job, learning the ropes of the industry and living a double life after hours as a jack-of-all-trades creative. I’ve just wrapped production on an independent TV pilot I wrote, EP’d and starred in. I am an award-winning, published poet with a forthcoming book while also working on a musical album. I have several other film projects in development, and I’m sure that the sky is the limit as long as I keep looking up at it.
I rambled and inflated myself quite a bit. Let it be known I claim no mastery of these mediums, I cannot guarantee enjoyment of my work, or that audiences will accept me. What I can proudly say is that I got what I came for. I’m building the abstract, cloudy vision of myself I clutched as I landed in Los Angeles and I encourage every young artist to do the same. You have the power to make what you want to make, so ignore the world’s intrusions and become who you must become!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It’s been a bumpy one! The difficulty of balancing an artistic career with a bill-paying one cannot be overstated. Exhaustion compounds exponentially when, after a daily 10 hour shift, your inner lamp is still burning with a need to spend 3 hours at an open mic or practice guitar or write a new script or poem. Then of course there are the very human needs on top of the career needs – food, exercise, sleep, love, mistakes. It’s a lot to juggle and I am still learning to do so. I’m very impatient with myself. I feel like a cowboy digging spurs into my own brain, my cerebrospinal fluid leaking until the puddle of madness is so big I am forced to swim upward and create something or risk drowning in my own self-taskmaster-ism. All that and my god, this is an expensive city! It’s very hard to live on an Assistant’s salary, made doubly complex when pouring any rare financial flexibility into student loans, rent, bills and artistic pursuits. I can’t wait for the day I get to do more than window shop at farmers markets.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’d say the broadest way to categorize me is as a Writer/Performer, but that is expressed in a variety of ways. To get granular, I am a Writer, Poet, Clown, Actor, Producer, Songwriter and Troubadour. I am a storyteller, whether that story be some kinda batshit jagoff comedy or a dour poem or a campfire singalong. These are all aspects of me and for that matter, all of us. It’s not right to generalize someone’s way of being. For a long time I was viewed as a “comedy guy,” but I still felt oppressive sadness, jealousy, joy, anger – emotions that need to be expressed in ways beyond irony. It’s hard to say what I specialize in and am known for – I don’t think I’m specialized or known. I hope to be known as an adventurer, someone who is willing to take artistic risks and fly without fear of falling.
I’m proud of a lot of my work. I’m proud to say that every TV script I’ve written has placed in screenwriting contests. I’m immensely proud of my whole team for producing THE LAW BROTHERS, my forthcoming pilot which is going to be hilarious and absurd and never-before-seen. I’ve worked on a lot of comedy projects and this one is going to be really special. I’m proud to have poems published and awarded + a completed manuscript that got picked up by a book agent despite only writing in the medium for two years. I’m proud of the musical work I’ve done – since my first time playing guitar in public in May of this year, I’ve gotten booked on several great shows as a Troubadour and have had the chance to write lyrics for musicians who’ve been in bands including Supertramp, Crowded House and Ringo’s All-Stars. I’m very proud to have gotten the chance to perform in several clown shows (including in Netflix is a Joke Comedy Fest) with Stamptown, if you don’t know them, please check them out, they’re revolutionary. I’m especially proud to say I’ve gained all this traction at only 24 years old – something I have to remind myself whenever I fall into my artists blues (often).
What sets me apart from others is my willingness to explore disparate, even contradictory mediums with vulnerability and passion. I don’t want to be seen as one thing, because humans contain multitudes! I may not be the best musician at the open mic, but I’m probably the best clown there, etc. These artistic styles, different as they may be, inform each other deeply. Writing poetry has made me a better screenwriter. My experience as an actor has helped me become more comfortable as a performing musician. I’ve yet to find anyone in these scenes that shares the same artistic spread as me which makes me feel unique but at the same time, isolated.
What does success mean to you?
Success is malleable. It’s an abstract thing I am still trying to define. Once, the goal was to get an industry job. Then it becomes about climbing some artistic ladder – get reps, get on a show, get your own work made – it’s a never-ending cycle of dissatisfaction with one’s own success. I am trying hard to relish the things I’ve already accomplished while continuing to dream big and strategize on how to make it to the ever-present next level.
In a world where so much artistic creation is governed by digital, algorithmic ephemerality, I am trying to make art that transcends that paradigm – that embraces the truth of in-person connection and weird expression beyond a follower count. I think social media is a powerful tool that many industries are putting too much stock into as an end-all-be-all of an artist’s value. No disrespect to digital creators who are hustling and creating great work, but outside of recent years, that has not been how we’ve gauged success. I think our cultural reliance on digitality has done incredible damage to the way we process art and connect with one another.
All this to say, I don’t define success as a job, a paycheck or a followers, I view success as the actualization of one’s own ideas. I am an artist as I am a man – at my basest level. I will always be working, creating and expressing myself regardless of the external world, so success for me is when I am able to do all of those things to the best of my ability.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://AugustGladstone.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/normalaugust/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@NormalAugust
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@frogust?lang=en
Image Credits
Davin Roberts
Liz Vespe
Adam Russell
