Rising Stars: Meet Tony Nall

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tony Nall.

Hi Tony, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve been writing as far as my memory stretches. The ability to conjure up infinite combinations of syllables and words into coherence is nothing short of magic. There is structure and discipline to writing, but along with those parameters is freedom and chaos swimming together in the choppy seas of endless thoughts desperate to catch the next boat out of our minds and onto the page. Professional wrestling captivated my imagination from an early age. Action based storytelling featuring cartoonish characters, the simplicity of an endearing Babyface battling a despised Heel, and the reliable accessibility of new episodes every Monday night. This formula appeared simple but upon learning that it was all scripted and “fake,” my love for the craft exploded. I began creating stories for the wrestlers in the margins of schoolbooks. Their mundane trips to the grocery store or the mall became intricate brawls, ordering food at the drive-thru escalated into spit-spewing promos, and situational comedies appeared everywhere for an endless roster of flamboyant characters. Tolkien’s Middle Earth also became an early obsession for me. Languages, cultures and geography sewn together into a tapestry unfolding over thousands of pages. Where pro-wrestling inspired me to actively participate in the storytelling, Tolkien taught me the attentive passivity of allowing text to immerse the mind into different worlds. Essential to immersive writing are the experiences of the author. This principle guided me into Americorps NCCC immediately following high school in 2010.

For a year, I traveled the country working disaster relief, wildfire mitigation, national park restoration, and community infrastructure projects. Most significant to my writing was working search and rescue following the 2011 Joplin, MO Tornado. My teammates and I arrived in the city 18 hours after the tornado ripped 22 miles of devastation for 38 minutes upon the community of Joplin. Bearing witness to the acts of kindness individuals extended to one another in the wake of such loss and destruction instilled in me a well of previously jaded gratitude toward my every breath. Grateful for the overlooked and seemingly menial seconds each day brings, I returned to Kentucky where I pursued a BA in English with a minor in Film Studies at the University of Louisville. Fulfilling my commitment to the development of my writing, I completed my degree in Winter of 2015. One of my final seminars focused on the process Peter Jackson and Fran Welsh employed in adapting Tolkien’s Middle Earth into script form, then taking those pages and creating a visual manifestation of a fantasy world many considered impossible to translate into the film medium. At the end of the semester and upon my graduation, I went with the class to New Zealand for what was originally a two-week trip. After 12 hours in New Zealand, I impulsively changed my flight and decided to remain in Middle Earth for another six months. With a working holiday visa acquired, I proceeded to backpack across the North and South Islands, bartending and working carpentry to afford beer, fried fish, and fresh notebooks.

Following New Zealand, I returned home and worked as a Livestock Production Manager for Barr Farms in Rhodelia, KY. Living and working on the farm kept me isolated from friends and family. With minimal access to technology, I spent my free time reading, writing, and exploring the gorgeous Kentucky woods. Toward the end of 2016, however, I had fallen into unhealthy habits trekking back into the city from the farm on weekends. Anxiety, depression, self-recrimination, and substance abuse tore me away from writing and was sending me reeling down a steel vortex I could see would ultimately end with my demise. Knowing a change was needed in my cogs but uncertain how to initiate the mechanisms, my Pops arranged for me to meet with his boss, a successful businessman in Louisville, KY named Jim Patterson. Mr. Patterson and I had a life-changing meeting, wherein he called upon me to acknowledge and approach the career I desired most: writing and working in the storytelling industry of film and television. Unable and unwilling to pursue this in Louisville, I outfitted my ’99 Ford Ranger as my new home and drove out west May 17th, 2017. Landing first in San Francisco, I worked for a contractor renovating houseboats in Sausalito Bay. While there, I drove down to LA for my first time to visit a friend. As soon as I pulled off the 101 and drove through Echo Park, the cogs and wheels connecting brain, heart, and gut clicked into place. With my new neighborhood in mind, I went back to San Fran and completed working on the houseboat for the next six weeks. From San Francisco, I had an opportunity to live with my younger sister Mack and her partner, Daniel, while working in house renovation as well as laying turf for Safeco Field in Seattle, WA. The Pacific Northwest is hauntingly beautiful, and I was inspired to once again pick up the pen. Hypnotizing and ethereal, the ostensibly dismal weather became a source of joy: working outside in the cold rain for 12 hours made the hot meal and shower every night a divine experience. Gentle breezes slicing purple crags with crisp mountain air became bellows reigniting a doused flame within me.

When finally I was presented a job working on a film set in Los Angeles, I was hesitant to accept. Unfailingly, the voice of Mr. Patterson resounded between my ears reminding me the purpose behind my drive. On October 13th, 2017 I loaded up my truck for the final time and drove 18 hours straight down to Los Angeles to make Monday’s call-time on set. Since arriving, I have worked mostly in grip and electric in addition to writing and directing several shorts and music videos. As much as I love the collaborative efforts of working on set, writing always has and always will be the capitol of my creative pursuits. My current project is a collection of poems written over the last four years focusing on observations of nature, addiction, relationships, and self-reproach. As with every artistic endeavor, I am attempting to maintain a balance of structure, discipline, freedom, and chaos in the collection as I edit and arrange the compositions. Where a desire to write brought me to the dance through Americorps, Tolkien has inspired me to backpack across New Zealand in 2016, and Pro-wrestling urged me to take action and relocate from Kentucky to the west coast in 2017. I continue to work as an electrician on set alongside continuously expanding my skills as a carpenter. My steadfast focus, however, will always be to continue navigating the oceans of the writing world, captain of a boat built from transcribing invisible thoughts into palpable bodies on a previously blank page.

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?
I have always been open and willing to discuss my history with mental illness. Diagnosed with PTSD and Cyclothymic disorder, I frequent cycles of mania and depression. Following my experience working search and rescue in Joplin, I went six years struggling to understand why my body would physically arrest and breathing cut out on a weekly basis. At first, I attributed this to stress from working two jobs while completing my degree at University of Louisville. Like numerous other people, I was raised with the conviction that my issues were mine and mine alone to resolve without the aid of anyone around me. Too often are we under the impression that we’re a “bother” or “nuisance” that we convince ourselves out of asking for help. Luckily, I came to the realization that It’s Okay For Things to Not Be Okay. All of us are steering our own ship and it is our responsibility not to undermine the inevitable difficulties we will face regularly. After several years of being treated with pharmaceuticals, I was ultimately left feeling like a stagnant pond into which a stone was begging to be thrown.

Switching therapists in early 2017 was one of those stones, helping me understand that I can approach my struggles and traumas head-on, lean into my grief and self-doubt, and emerge on the other side with a sense of gratitude rather than dread for when the next episode runs through me. My struggles pale in comparison to what so many others experience, but it is my obligation to myself and the world at large to listen attentively when an individual tells her, his, and their stories. Only then am I able to take ownership of my own demons without devaluing their effect on my daily life. Fortunately, I have been lucky to surround myself with a dependable, loving family of friends in Los Angeles who listen and check-in with one another. Life is relentless with its peaks and valleys, but years of riding the highs and lows have taught me I can mediate the tumults. Through therapy, reading, writing, and social interaction with friends, I maintain my mental health. Carpentry, yoga, running, hiking, camping, and biking allow me to bridge mental and physical health which in turn endorses my career working in the industry of storytelling.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
When I am not working on set as a lighting technician, I am writing scripts, poetry, and short stories. Only recently have I started submitting my work to literary magazines for publication. My current personal project is a collection of poetry assembled around experiences I have been fortunate enough to witness since beginning my travels in 2010. Ranging from observations of the natural world to reclamations of the self in a culture spoon-fed imposter syndrome, my works balance levity with cynicism. I am most proud of my work on set with an upcoming feature film starring Jason Momoa, the latest season of Love Island that took place during COVID in Las Vegas, and the music video I wrote and directed for the song “Liar” by Super Space Nation. Working as an electrician on the feature and the reality show were immense commitments of time and energy, requiring me to travel for extended periods of time and maintain mental and physical health while working long hours under intense environmental conditions.

Through these projects, I was able to push myself creatively as well as emotionally to a point of exhaustion. Once that point is reached, pushing just a bit further expands the capacity to balance multiple moving parts in one’s life. Similarly, the music video came into my life at a time when I was writing two other film projects and working for both College Humor and a cabinet company. Ultimately, I moved away from my work on cabinets and that decision allowed me to have a blast making the video with the DP Brooke Mueller, AD Bethani Mosher, and all the members of the band. At the end of the day, what sets me apart from other writers and directors is my ability to accomplish the necessary tasks for a given project while balancing various moving elements on the page and on set. Creative input from every department is essential to the collaborative efforts of visual storytelling, and I keep my lines open for all suggestions in creating compelling content. In an industry where so much of what we bring to the table relies on the creativity of an individual, we all end up contributing to a communal meal, adding our own ingredients to whatever storied feast is presented to the audience.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
My mom would take my younger sister, Mack, and I grocery shopping with her when we were children. Most of the trip was agonizing for us, but there was a magician at our Kroger who would bag groceries and could perform his act without stacking pickle jars on the bread. Shoppers would gravitate to his checkout lane, regardless how short the lines at other registers may have been. Mack and myself would be transfixed on his ability to squeeze handkerchiefs into nonexistence and pull yellow foam balls from behind our ears. The bulking, grizzled bag clerk, without breaking his somber but bright brown eyes from ours, would multitask his magic alongside his day job while telling jokes and stories that seemed to never miss a beat. As an adult, I think back to this man often. My initial thought is “well he zigged when he should have zagged.” But the more I think about his eccentric (and slightly displaced) efforts at entertainment, the more I appreciate his unfaltering ability to weave and balance his craft with a day job he could easily have allowed to be a source of unhappiness.

Through his craft, which he undoubtedly practiced for endless hours and received no bonus compensation, this person illuminated a portion of the day for countless individuals shuffling about the fish sticks and brussel sprouts on any dull Tuesday. That was his real magic trick. My goal in whatever craft or project I find myself working is to emulate the balancing act of the bag-clerk magician. To work with precision, efficiency, creativity, and entertainment in a manner that benefits those with whom I am lucky enough to share time. The hope is that through the stories I tell while working carpentry, on set as an electrician or director, and with my own writing I can bring some warmth or light into a fraction of another’s life. Otherwise, I would be doing myself and those around me an injustice by not at least attempting to be the best possible version of myself on each new day I am lucky enough to stretch, breathe, and write.

Contact Info:

• Email: thomasnall91@gmail.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/tone_scold

Image Credits:
Heather Ballish, Ana Karotkaya, Ryan Land