[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Childhood and Niche Interests
Film Courage: Troy, you recently had a post on social media where you said,
“I didn’t like myself very much when I was young. I was kind of afraid of life and didn’t feel like I belonged in the room half of the time.”
Why were you afraid of life?
Troy DeVolld, Producer/Author: I had not quite adapted to people in general yet.
I was listening to audio cassettes of the Jack Benny programs and I knew who all the dead Hollywood stars were.
And you can’t talk about that with other kids who are 10.
It doesn’t work.
There is no other you out there that you have common ground with.
So I just was kind of settling into who I was and what I wanted.
It’s like well every kid you know, I want to be famous. Doing what, I have no idea.
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But it’s not anything the other kids are concerned with so there’s just nowhere to go with that.
And that continued pretty much into high school. I mean even when I was doing plays and things like that, it just wasn’t…I hadn’t settled in yet and it really wasn’t my crowd.
I was kind of this interloper who was just getting into these things that these people had been passionate about for a long time.
So it was just unusual.
Early Creative Identity
Film Courage: What state was this?
Troy: Well, it started well in Ohio and then eventually Florida.
And I didn’t kind of really figure myself out until I went to college and realized I didn’t want to be a cartoonist/illustrator which is what I thought I had wanted to be for probably 10 years.
I had talked to every major figure in the comic book industry that you could get access to and I thought,Well, you know, this is what I’m going to do.
I can draw, so maybe I’ll do this.
And I don’t think I’ve picked up a pen to do anything serious in probably almost 10 years.
Transition at Full Sail University
Film Courage: This was at Full Sail [University]?
Troy: Full Sail is where I actually put my last comic book out.
That was where I said goodbye to that and decided that film and TV was it for me.
Film Courage: What changed?
You said you didn’t feel comfortable in a room.
You were around theater kids or whatever that had been in the theater for years?
Theater Life
Troy: You know, skinny good-looking guys with big heads of hair and I was like this is not you know this is never going to work.
I was too worried about types I could play and types I couldn’t play and the good-looking guy is always the lead.
I was just like what do I do?
So, I figured like I’d jump Snake River Canyon and get into writing and just get out of trying to act or do comedy.
Film Courage: Did that change things for you?
Did you feel comfortable then?
Finding Community in Los Angeles
Troy: I guess I did.
I mean, it wasn’t really until I moved to Los Angeles that I started meeting people that I understood and you could hang out.
Sort of the big joke was most of my friends were guys that were 60, 70, 80 years old who had been very active in film and television since as early as the 50s.
One of my first real friends in Los Angeles, I joined a thing called the Caucus for Producers, Writers, and Directors.
The head of the caucus was a guy…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).
BIO:
Producer Troy DeVolld, widely regarded as a leading authority on the reality television production process, boasts some four dozen credits spanning THE OSBOURNES to Food Network’s BIG BAD BUDGET BATTLE and bestselling books REALITY TV: AN INSIDER’S GUIDE TO TELEVISION’S HOTTEST MARKET and AND ANOTHER THING: A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO THE TELEVISION NOTES PROCESS. He’s contributed to or been quoted in publications like TIME and NEWSWEEK and been seen on TODAY and SHOWBIZ TONIGHT. He’s a 1996 graduate of Full Sail University and the ninth inductee into its Hall of Fame.
BUY TROY’S BOOK HERE – Reality TV – An Insider’s Guide to TV’s Hottest Market: 2nd Edition
MORE VIDEOS WITH TROY DEVOLLD
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