Creative Space with Jennifer Logue
My name is Jennifer Logue and I’m on a mission to make creativity accessible to all. Through conversations with artists, entrepreneurs, filmmakers, musicians, scientists, and so much more, we’ll be exploring creativity from every possible angle with the purpose of learning and growing in creativity together. New episodes are released every Sunday and you can listen anywhere you get your podcasts. Be sure to rate and review the podcast if you enjoy it, and remember, we are all born creative. Make some space to honor your creativity today.
Creative Space with Jennifer Logue
The Real Sam Jones On Overcoming Creative Resistance and Her Journey to Paramount
On this episode of Creative Space, we have the pleasure of speaking with writer, director, comedian, and my absolute favorite person to follow on social media—Sam Jones. She’s written and directed branded spots for I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, Under Armour, Dollar Beard Club, Cricket Wireless, Pepsi, Samsung, Coca Cola and many more. Sam is currently a Creative Director at Paramount, writing spots across networks like Comedy Central, MTV, and VH1.
She’s also the star of the hilarious comedy series, At Home with Sam Jones, which she produces with long-time collaborator Mathew Brian Makar.
There’s so much to take in on this episode, but one particularly interesting theme Sam brought up was the idea of creative resistance and how we can waltz with it to avoid putting off our own creative projects.
For more on Sam Jones, visit: therealsamjones.com and follow her on social media at @therealsamjones.
Also, be sure to check out the spot she just did for Wendy’s starring Matt Cutshall.
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To become a patron of the Creative Space Podcast, visit: https://bit.ly/3ECD2Kr.
SHOW NOTES:
0:00—Introduction
1:11—Put a little LOL in your heart
2:00—What is creative resistance
5:00—Sam’s childhood and early influences
6:43—Sleepaway camp and Doritos
10:00—Sam’s first creative pursuit
11:30—Making art with her best friends
15:15—The difference between a sellout and a “soul out”
17:50—The journey from Libra Leather to becoming the “Brand-Aid”
20:38—A man who never took a chance never had a chance
21:00—From Julie Maclowe to getting Revlon as a client independently
24:30—What is creativity?
27:00—Climb through the window and open your own door
30:00—Yetta the Sasquatch and her upcoming short film
35:56—How Sam wants to change advertising
39:35—What Sam wish she knew 5 years ago
44:00—Sam’s creative process
51:00—How our subconscious picks up everything
53:20—Sam’s gratitude practices
56:05—What drives Sam to create
58:00—What’s next for Sam
Jennifer Logue: 0:00
Before jumping in. This episode of Creative Space is a little spicy and contains profanity and adult themes that may not be suitable for listeners under the age of 18. But it is pretty awesome, so I hope you'll find time to listen without the kids around. Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Creative Space, a podcast where we explore, learn and grow in creativity together. I'm your host, jennifer Logue, and today we have the pleasure of speaking with writer, director, comedian and my absolute favorite person to follow on social media, sam Jones. She's written and directed branded spots for I Can't Believe it's Not Butter Under Armour, dollar Beard, club, cricket, wireless, pepsi, samsung, coca-cola and many more. Sam is currently a creative director at Paramount, writing spots across networks like Comedy Central, mtv and VH1. She is on a mission to raise the collective vibe, one ad at a time. Welcome to creative space, sam.
Sam Jones: 1:17
Oh my gosh, that was an amazing, an amazing introduction. I absolutely love it. I want you to do my eulogy, but also, that's so funny, one creative ad at a time. I think that that's. That's hilarious, because it's like it's so capitalism and I feel like I do try to make ads that lift the vibe. I do. I do that. I know it sounds like it, but it really is what I do is what I do.
Jennifer Logue: 1:45
No, you really do. I mean, and your social media feed too, and I'm saying an absolute truth Whenever I need a lift, you post something that's hilarious and I'm like you know genuine smiles. I think you have written somewhere, put a little LOL in your heart, mm-hmm, and I'm like, yeah, that's beautiful.
Sam Jones: 2:02
It's literally. We were talking before we hit play or record. But I was thinking in the shower today. What is my purpose? Am I living because I'm listening to all these audibles like the Vortex? I just finished my fifth time listening to the War of Art. Oh, not the Art of War, the War of Art by Steven Pressfield.
Jennifer Logue: 2:25
That sounds familiar. Tell me about it.
Sam Jones: 2:28
So you know, as creators, writers, whatever, all it doesn't even you don't even have to be a creative in everyday life. Every human being faces their resistance to whatever it is. For me, as a writer, I have to, even if it's a work thing, I have to sit down and not and like, and I pay attention, I'll try to distract myself. I'll say, you know, I, I'm thirsty, I'm hungry. No, should I light this candle? No, my shoes like and and put my house slippers on and like I'm. I realize being the observer, because at that point you don't want to be on. I realize being the observer because at that point you don't want to be on autopilot. Like we have to, like, wake up sometimes and check ourselves Right, and I'm like, oh, what am I doing? I am. Now that I read this book, I realize I'm distracting myself. I'm distracting myself and that is resistance. Oh, and so you won't ever get rid of resistance, but to be able to do the waltz with it and to beat it in combat at every time, like try to beat it every time, is what this book is about.
Sam Jones: 3:34
And so I, growing up, was a procrastinator up until, I would say, my late 20s, maybe mid-20s, my mid twenties and I realized through Adderall that if I just got it done, that I would not have the anxiety of having to get it done. So while while I feel like Adderall really did help me do that I'm not even trying to be funny Like I was all over the place I now I'm not on Adderall. It was on it for like 13 years and it was at some point like I just it was actually doing me a disservice. So I got off of it and got fat. Um, no, I'm not You're fabulous, um, but, but that's okay, that it is what it is anyways. Now I realize that. So most of the people are procrastinators, or a lot of people are, and I changed it. If I just get it done, then I don't have to procrastinate, and that anxiety, that resistance, creates the anxiety. So now I just do it, yeah.
Jennifer Logue: 4:36
So I do this thing, I just make a list every day. I know it sounds very type a and but I I just make the list and I'm like, just do everything that you can on the list so you don't procrastinate, so you don't like, oh, let me just have a cookie, let me take another walk, you know, let me. It's so easy to procrastinate, it's creative.
Sam Jones: 4:59
Yeah, Because I mean it's, it's. He explains it so well in the book. I don't even want to paraphrase it because I'm not even like nearly as intelligent as this man is. Like he's. He's amazing, Like this and his voice is is incredible. You could. He was started as a you know he was in the ad industry. He was basically a copywriter and then he was like I hate this. He like left his life, His wife, became a taxi driver in New York City and like he just started writing shit with his friends and then started trying to shit and he got lucky and he's a great writer and he was hustling. I just I have so much respect for him and this book is incredible. It sounds like I'm on his press junket right now.
Jennifer Logue: 5:40
But I'm sold. I'm going to go on Amazon after our podcast and look it up.
Sam Jones: 5:44
So I love it. I think it's going to be a game changer. Oh my gosh.
Jennifer Logue: 5:48
Well, let's talk about you a little bit, because I'm so curious. I know a little bit about your history, but I don't know much about your early life. And on Creative Space, I like to dive into everyone's beginnings, because we were talking a little bit before the podcast started, about how our lens is shaped by our experiences and we all have unique experiences. And do you feel comfortable talking about your childhood? You know what was it like. Who did you want to be when you grew?
Sam Jones: 6:13
up. Yeah, my childhood I grew up with. Well, I'll tell you my childhood, from nine up. Fast forward to my stepfather, Jerry. He was the I don't know if you've seen any of my videos. He was. He was a real character. He was a New York Jew. I'm Jewish, so I could say Jew. I don't like when people say Jew and they're not Jewish. I would just say Jewish. Anyways, he was a New York Jew, grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth. He was exactly what Kanye West said. No, I'm just kidding. He, he just, you know, he was the first kid on the block. His father was a judge. He was the first kid on the block to have a color TV. It was like very leave it to beaver in Manhattan beach, Brooklyn, right, Like so. He was very entitled and very judgy with other people. So, growing up in a family, I was growing up with a mother who was basically Larry David with a vagina, a stepfather who was Jerry Seinfeld mixed with George Costanza, so it was just like a really crazy, you know, whack. I'll give you just an example.
Sam Jones: 7:22
My parents would send us to sleepaway camp every year. We would go up to the Catskills, where I live now, and we would go to sleepaway camp and um, we, so she, they drop us off, um in Riverdale and like up by the Bronx, and this bus would come pick us up. And every year I would see my mother and Jerry high-fiving each other when I got on the bus because I was gone for the summer. Okay, so that was, that was one thing, right, Like at a at a table that these are like little things that I remember. Um, sleepaway camp, I would get a call. At least it happened at least two times in the 10 years I went to sleepaway camp. I'd get a call, a page. Sam, come to the infirmary. Okay, I go to the infirmary, your mom's on the phone, Cause back then there were no cell phones and stuff.
Sam Jones: 8:08
We had camp phones and they would ring you through wherever the closest thing was and I'm waiting with my friends during sleep, like a visiting day, and I get on the phone. I'm like what the hell did my parents get into a car accident? And it's my mother, Sam, the traffic is in, it's bumping, a bumper. I'm turning around. I'll come take you to the Concord next weekend, Like the Concord was up there or whatever, the Neville, wherever it was near the sleepaway camp and I would, and I sat like parentless and and I felt like I felt people felt bad for me, felt bad for me. I also grew up with a mother and I love her who the time she did come up on sleep away, when she did come up for visiting day in sleep away camp we were.
Sam Jones: 8:53
I was sitting with my crush and like my bunk, which is my group, that I that I roomed with and in my on my quote team or whatever, and we're we're sitting and the guy, Scott Terestineine, was there and my mom's talking to the moms and we're all involved in our own conversations and I put Doritos inside of my sandwich and, as everybody's talking, my mom stops the woman who's talking to her. She's like one second Sam. Only fat girls put Doritos in their sandwiches in front of everybody. This is the kind of family that I.
Sam Jones: 9:26
I'm just saying like this is this, is it. This is this is it, and I wouldn't have had it any other way because it made me so thick skinned where I'm very sensitive, very, very sensitive, but not about things like like that. I'm sensitive of like if somebody like, but not about things like like that. I'm sensitive of like if somebody like I'm just sensitive, I feel bad for everybody and then I go out of my way and then I ended up getting screwed. But that's another story. But I'm not sensitive. Somebody could read my script and be like this is pure trash, yeah. And I'll be like give me some feedback. You know what I mean.
Jennifer Logue: 10:00
Like, if it's the right person, it's beautiful, this is the thing like family mean, like if it's the right person, it's beautiful. This is a thing like family. We're open with our family and it's like they just say it how it is, hopefully, and that helps us become, I think, more interesting human beings too and embracing that.
Sam Jones: 10:17
That's how I've come to accept my own experiences with my family, you know I've come to embrace that and I've come to embrace the universe loves me, you know oh my gosh.
Jennifer Logue: 10:30
So what was your first creative pursuit?
Sam Jones: 10:33
I just started making these funny videos with my best friend, matt McCarr, who was a filmmaker, who is a filmmaker and we would just, he's like, you're so funny, like we should just like, I just want to film you doing stuff. I'm like, okay, like I'll, I'll, I could do the. And we just started doing it and it was like I would tell the story about. I would just tell stories and we would reenact them.
Jennifer Logue: 10:55
Well, because it looks organic, and it's because it is.
Sam Jones: 10:59
Yeah, a lot of it is is in the the moment. Just exploiting my family, like at home with sam jones, was an exploitation of my family and they deserved every minute of it, um, and, and they love it too, you know it's it feels like we know your family from at home, with sam jones like, and it's so relatable. I I don't look. I look at myself as a regular person, just being me, and that people like it, who are also like me. Do you want to talk about your?
Jennifer Logue: 11:30
collaborative relationship with Matt, Because you guys do so much work together and you know teamwork makes the dream work. How did you guys meet? How did that whole friendship?
Sam Jones: 11:46
start. Matt and I have been friends now for 12 years. I used to work at Libra Leather as their chief marketing officer, so I started in fashion. I started in insurance and I got into fashion by becoming an executive assistant to the Leather King of New York by answering an ad. Well, where was the ad? Uh, the ad was in Craigslist. Oh, my gosh, okay.
Sam Jones: 12:11
And I went and I was in a suit and he was like this rock and roll, god looking guy and the coolest thing and I I, I'm like an amazing salesperson. I amazing, that's what I did. I made money my whole life selling insurance or whatever. I was just always selling what I did. I made money my whole life selling insurance or whatever. I was just always selling me, and whatever it was that I was actually selling is what people ended up walking away with, but it was me really. So I, that's what I pitched him and I said I just want to be your you know, your assistant and it was $70,000 a year and I was so excited. I'm like a Brooklyn trash bag and I'm moving to Manhattan and I'm getting a job in fashion and I, you know, I was organizing things, making his life easier, and he was difficult to work with but I loved him so much because he was like the crazy that I grew up with.
Sam Jones: 12:59
But he he one day I said I want to start selling leather to designers and he was like. I said he's like, name a designer you want to sell leather to. I said Alexander Wang, he goes, you'll never happen. And I was like, okay, he said from 8 am in the morning to 6 pm at night, you're my assistant, I'll make you a copy of the key. If you want to reach out to West Coast sales, here's a draw full of names call. And that's exactly what I did. And in three months I made a million dollars for him.
Sam Jones: 13:31
Wow, I had road every day. I had Lejeune's, I had uh, who did I? Who else did I got? I got helmet Lang back. I ended up I did get Alexander Wang and because I got all those accounts, I used to sit front and second row at fashion shows and people would like be like you know everybody wants to suck your dick if they think that you're somebody. You know it was so gross. But I did meet a lot of people who opened doors for me and didn't know that I was the leather distributor. Like giving them great prices on leather, and that's why I'm there. They're like taking care of me, you know, because I took care of them and I just networked there and then, once I started doing comedy, the same people started following me and they were sharing it. So I became known again as like the funny girl in the fashion industry. It was cool and that's how you met.
Jennifer Logue: 14:17
Matt.
Sam Jones: 14:18
So, matt, I met when I was at fashion at a style like you party. We went there and I went with Mitch, that was the story and I showed up on the back of his motorcycle because I was in love with him at the time Mitch, not Matt and then I got out and there was this guy with an Afro and I was like, oh my God, is that Seth Rogen? It wasn't Seth Rogen, but it looked like Seth Rogen and he also was the film guy. And anyways, we, we hit it off and I went back to his house to smoke a joint with him and this guy, mike, and Mike, him and and I are still to this day, best friends. We just hit it off.
Sam Jones: 14:55
From that day on, we were inseparable, started making videos together. We were in a band, vintage porn together. I didn't know about the band. Yeah, we were at a band called vintage porn. It was, it was something else, it was, it was, it was. These were the best days of my life. My thirties were amazing, amazing. And now I live in the country and you know I'm sleeping at nine, 30.
Jennifer Logue: 15:19
I hear you there. I'm in the suburbs, not quite the country, but yeah, I'm definitely like in bed 10 o'clock. Things have changed a little bit. Thank God for podcasts.
Sam Jones: 15:29
Your teeth are so white. It's unreal oh thank you. Very, very white.
Jennifer Logue: 15:34
Sidebar. I'm doing Invisalign and I've had to. I got an electric toothbrush for the first time in my life and they work really well.
Sam Jones: 15:45
So I'm giving you advice right now the fact that you're doing a podcast, we should just take this, the whole commercial, right here, because the podcast for Invisalign, like that's big money. Right there, girl. Okay, how can I? This brand, where both the brand, the consumer who's listening to it, your audience and you, there is an equal exchange of energy. Right, it's not a sellout, you might. It's, yes, it is a S? E? L? L sellout, but it's not a soul out S? O? U? L. Yeah, because you can't get mad if someone sells out. We're all here to, to, to live our best lives, right, but if you're and this is the creative, but also the analytical brain talking for me is like I like nice things and I like to give my money to good, reputable charities, and I can't help other people unless I'm making money.
Jennifer Logue: 16:34
Exactly.
Sam Jones: 16:35
I'm thinking for you. You're doing a podcast. Your teeth look amazing. That was not, that was off the cuff. They're straight as, and you can see like this. And now the Invisalign break. This is the question. You want Invisalign, invisalign, if you want beautiful straight teeth for radio. This is amazing. No, I'm just kidding.
Jennifer Logue: 16:58
That's beautiful, I like. I love how your brain works, sam. Oh my gosh, I love that not soul out thing.
Sam Jones: 17:08
Yeah, it's just yeah when I took this job at Paramount, what was first? Viacom and I was freelancing for different agencies. You know, I was going I was doing for vice and refinery and then, and then I'm like okay, uh, who says like you want a full-time job? I'm like no, they were like here's how much we'll pay you. And I'm like end and insurance. They were like, yeah, I'm like mama need a pap smear. I was like 39, 40 years old. I was like 40 at the time and I was like, okay, yeah, sign me up. And sure, as three months later we got bought by Viacom.
Sam Jones: 17:45
I would never have been a creative director at this level that I'm at right now had I not had it not gone down this way. That's why, when they people like, well, you know, you got lucky. No, no, I didn't get lucky. I was in the right place at the right time. I did the work to get to who say for them to offer me a gig full time, but I said yes to it, and so you don't have to always know how it's going to happen, you just have to want it to happen. This is all I wanted. I wanted to develop my reel so that and and learn how to direct, like really direct, and that is exactly what is happening right now. But anyways, I digress. What were we saying? Oh, I would love to hear about.
Jennifer Logue: 18:26
When did you first know you wanted to do what you're doing now? Cause you were at Libra leather and you started doing um at home with Sam Jones, with Matt. When did you know like I want to make a career out of this?
Sam Jones: 18:40
So I have a very good friend, david comfort, um and Dave, while I was at Libra leather, dave and I became very good friends. Um, through the the, I started hanging out with this group. It was like the new house, like Stephanie Newhouse, david Comfort, a bunch of people that were like Chelsea type people, and I was Lower East Side. So I started hanging out with these guys and Dave was like what, you know, you're unhappy at Libra. Know, you're unhappy at Libra. Basically, Mitch's kids came in and they reorged things and it became where.
Sam Jones: 19:18
It was just not behooving me to like be as frustrated as I was. I was there for eight years. I absolutely loved it and I'm not so shit about it. But Dave was like, what are you doing? Like you're so, you know you're, you're doing these funny videos. Like you're great at coming up with like these spoof ads, which is what I was doing in the videos, like these spoof ads. Why don't you like open up a creative agency? And I was like Dave, how am I going to open up a creative agency? But I have, like you know, I I, by the way, was married got divorced.
Sam Jones: 19:54
I was starting over again, you know, in my thirties. And he was like don't worry about it, you leave Libra and I'm going to take care of you. I was like, okay, I wasn't having sex with him, I was just friends with him. We never hooked up. There was no intention of that Like he, by the way, dates models. He wasn't into me.
Sam Jones: 20:05
But he saw something and he, I called him. I said I'm ready to do it, I quit. And he said meet me at cafeteria. I called him. I said I'm ready to do it, I quit. And he said meet me at cafeteria. I met him at cafeteria, gave me an undisclosed amount of money to say think about for the next three months what you in your brain would like to do, and I'm going to support you in that mission, I'm going to put you in business. And I'm like, oh my God. So I thought we were going to open this little mom and pop ad agency and it was going to be like if they would come to me to do like risque ads or like double entendre, like you know, cause that was what I was known for and or what I'm known for in my comedy videos, I don't know.
Sam Jones: 20:46
Rather, I wasn't using my voice, I was trying to do buttoned up ads for people, and that is not what I left a dope job for.
Jennifer Logue: 20:57
I wanted to make French day stuff, and so it's tricky with brands, with clients, I mean, because you have to go through so many levels of approvals but it could happen if we have to pitch it.
Sam Jones: 21:08
We never know if they're going to like it if we don't pitch it, and the partner who I was partnered up with was not did not want me to pitch it.
Jennifer Logue: 21:15
Oh, we can get anywhere then so there was nothing.
Sam Jones: 21:18
A man who never took a chance never had a chance. So that's that's what I go into every meeting with. And now people come to me for the risque ideas. I will get phone calls from you know, people at work being like this is the, you know, it's this, they want to do this. I, it's. It's so, sam, it's you. You know what I mean, so I'll, so I'm, you can do that. You just have to trust somebody and let them do what they're good at. If they're good at it online and people were digging it, then why wouldn't they dig it for the brands? I? I made a lot of money. I pitched Revlon, revlon. I did an entire campaign for Revlon. I made more money that year independently than I can make in two years now.
Jennifer Logue: 21:59
Incredible. And you're doing this on your. This is before you went to the agency.
Sam Jones: 22:03
Right, matt and I were just doing it because we had I, I, I did an articles in the uh, in quite not the inquirer than the interview magazine, one of these magazines, and it was Jeffrey Felner God rest his soul, he just died, he's a fashion reporter and he did this whole article on me. Um, and then he did an interview and I, the way I answered the interview, it wasn't the inquirer, it was, it was a New York magazine, but I don't, I don't, it wasn't interview magazine, it was something like that. I'll find out. And, um, and Julie Macklow, who is a socialite in New York city, she has a skincare.
Sam Jones: 22:39
She had a skincare line, vbu Tay. She has Macklow uh whiskey. She reached out to me and was like I would love for you to do some copywriting and branding for my company. I'm like I don't do that. And she's like, yes, you do, you're going to be great at it. And she started paying me $50 an hour and I was like fine with it and I was doing her whole brand. I mean, I helped her, we hit it off, she, we would. You know, it was amazing. And then, through her, she had a party. I met this guy who, through her she had a party. I met this guy who ran Revlon's Sinful Colors thing and she introduced me to him at a party and he was like who's doing your branding? He points to me.
Sam Jones: 23:21
I got brought into Revlon and it was like a dream come true. I left that building in the first meeting and in my hand I had a deal memo which I'd never had before and he told me I only have one. What did he say? I have 15 a day. So in my brain I'm thinking, oh no, I'm sorry. He said I have 150. That's your rate, 150. So I'm thinking he's like and I'm thinking it's Revlon, I don't care, I just want my name on it. $150 a day, I'll do it. Yeah, it was $150 an hour. When I got, when I got to the elevator, I opened the thing. I called my mother. I couldn't believe it. I said this is a hundred. I was jumping turnstiles and eating ramen soup. I yelped. When I came out of there I felt like like I got like like the heavens opened up and you heard the gates of heaven sound effect. It was insane.
Jennifer Logue: 24:21
Talk about the universe like coming together and doors opening when you're on your purpose.
Sam Jones: 24:27
On purpose, lining up your intense with your purpose and your vibration, your frequency, and you're taking action and that alignment will absolutely throw in eating right and getting all your together in your body and yourself doing it. You are unstoppable. We are literally conduits for like infinite amounts of energy and possibility and we're just calcified. We don't. We we're not really understanding our potential as human beings because we're always worried about the how is it going to happen?
Jennifer Logue: 25:02
none of our business yes, yeah, I now on that note. Um, I have a question. I always ask what do you think creativity is? Because for me it goes beyond just the creation of art. I just feel like it's just that creative energy in life kind of going off of what you said, like your whole journey that you're talking about right now. That's some crazy energy right there.
Sam Jones: 25:27
I never thought I was creative. I never considered myself creative. I just started considering. I worked at Allstate Insurance for 11 years from right out of basically I was taking non matriculating classes at Columbia to find a rich guy and so, right out of there, I only did like a year of non matriculating, I went right into Allstate Insurance and I started making money. I got my license and I was like what's you know, anyways, working there, that became my life. That's what I thought I was going to do. I never thought it was. I always loved to dress and I always styled myself in a way. So that was that's creativity.
Sam Jones: 26:04
You know, everyone is creative, even if you're a lawyer, if you're a. You know you sell tarot, whatever, whatever it is. You do my accountant's creative, you know. Like and I don't mean creative like he plays with numbers. I mean he's a rock and roll guy, he plays the guitar, he does music and all that stuff. Like, people are creative and and and we're born, it's our, it's our birthright and it's the jovial child it's our, it's our birthright and it's the jovial child.
Sam Jones: 26:33
It's that. It's that. It's that feeling of I don't want to say excitement, because I don't get excited often anymore. I'm 45, I'll be 46 next month and I don't feel like I often get excited. That's the truth. But it's this charge, it's this feeling of you know, and then if you suppress it, if you don't let it out, if there's not like this, this energy, like you said right, if we don't let the energy out, then what happens? It's sadness, depression, anger, depression and all of those things. And I'm not knocking it. Some people have it like you know where, it's clinically depressed or whatever. I'm not talking about that kind of depression, but for people who it's resistance, it's you not or whoever not, it's us not doing what our desire, when your desire is this and you suppress it because you don't think you can, or you don't have time to or other things, or you're you know like why. Where is it going to get me? You know, I just very quickly I want to tell you this story because I think it's for the listeners.
Sam Jones: 27:38
I have one of the most talented people I know. I grew up with him. I'm not going to mention his name. He is literally the most talented person I've ever met. He's an incredible actor. He's been in a couple of things and he, when, when the influencer stuff started coming out, I started my star started to rise a little bit. Right, I had that Hollywood Reporter article, I started doing stuff and and he was treating me and he lived in and he lives in LA and he was treating me like he was being like not very nice and I was like what's your deal? And basically I realized that he's been acting and doing this for so long.
Sam Jones: 28:15
And now here come these creators who are making their own shit. They're not just waiting for scripts to be dropped in their lap, they're not just going on auditions and doing that that way. I didn't make it that way. I I'm not even where I want to be. But the way I got to where I am right now wasn't because a door was open for me. It was because I climbed through the window and opened my own door. I love that.
Sam Jones: 28:35
So this dude was I'm like and I said to him so-and-so, you're the most talented person I know, make your own. So we started doing it and he said to me no one's seeing it, I don't care, it's not going viral or it's not at us. Where is it getting me? It's a waste of time and it's like so you're waiting. Not one or two things I've ever done in my life. In the last 13 years I've gone viral Like the viral stuff isn't what gets you.
Sam Jones: 29:03
Maybe it puts you on the map, but you gotta stay there. Now that door might open for you. You gotta hold that open with every part of your body and so, like him not doing that, I would get so frustrated. I'm like you're wasting so much time focusing on you're not getting these commercials, because influencers are getting these commercials and the new media deals you over, but in reality you're just taking a back seat waiting for something to drop in your lap and you're not going after what you deserve. You're creative, you're the most talented person I know you could, if anybody could, do all this.
Sam Jones: 29:37
And he hindered himself, he stopped himself and it caused a depression because now the work isn't. Nothing is going to change. It's like the people who from the radio, right back in the olden days or the days sorry if you're old and you're listening to this where radio was the thing. Everybody would sit around and have Ovaltine or whatever. I don't know why. And they would listen to things on the radio. Then TV came out and people were like, oh, it's not going to be the same or whatever, and it's not going to. And they held on to the radio and the people the publishers didn't want to the investors advertisers go on TV, they were scared of it. Didn't want to the investors advertisers go on TV, they were scared of it. You've got to roll with it. You've got to surrender to what is and be in the now of what is and then take action. Nothing is going to come easy.
Sam Jones: 30:23
Effort, if this is what you want to do, whatever it is, it doesn't have to be making comedy, making commercials, whatever it is that you want to do making comedy, making commercials, whatever it is that you want to do, you have got to commit to it and know that this might not be what pays you right now, but that means you can work at Walmart.
Sam Jones: 30:40
I would do people's closets, I'll clean a toilet bowl. I have no ego when it comes to that. I'll be the best housekeeper up here in the Catskills and so. But I will fund my life so that I can do my art, because if I can't do my own art, even at work. I love what I do at work but that's not my, that's not my I I'm beholden to brands and seniors and you know other creative directors who you know might might not. You know they everybody weighs in on on the work. So when I share something that I love from work, it's the final thing it was. It's like it's big for me because I sometimes feel a little bit stifled. That's why I do my own.
Sam Jones: 31:22
That's why I've got get a yes, the Sasquatch around Catskill or Caroro, where where I live, and Hudson and I just walk around.
Jennifer Logue: 31:36
This is audio, so do you want to talk about Yeda?
Sam Jones: 31:39
Oh yeah, sorry, I got her fur in my mouth. So I'm making a short film called legend. It's about a Sasquatch who's out and proud and she's out of the woodwork and she's not, you know, hiding anymore. She's stepped into her full self and she's out of the woodwork and she's not, you know, hiding anymore. She's stepped into her full self and she's assimilated into Catskill, new York. Now she works at a bagel store, goodies, which I happen to own, um, and this is real.
Sam Jones: 32:05
And so I dress up as this character and walk around the Catskill, catskill, hudson, new York and Cairo, and I just show up at people's stores. I never she doesn't talk. I'll growl, sometimes I'll wave, she'll wave, and I just need that feeling of performance art. I need and I want to raise the vibe for the people up here. And the reason why I'm doing this is because, it's no secret, there's a lot of white, straight people up here and that's fine, that's fine. But I think that because of that, the people up here and not everybody, but a lot of people are afraid of things they don't they haven't been in contact with, they don't understand trans drag, maybe, people of different colors and ethnicities. So Yedda for me is is the X in the equation, is the, the, what, whatever marginalized group you are, is what Yedda represents.
Sam Jones: 33:05
You know we're interviewing the townspeople and you know these are real people about Yedda, which you know we're telling them she lives here. This is the story, go. And you know we're getting interviews like well, I never grew up with her kind. Now that she's here I realize I was just never understood because I was afraid, because I never met that a Sasquatch before. And then, and then then her neighbors are like well, I thought she was going to lower the value of my, of the property, you know. And then, and then the wife hits the husband and he's she's like Ted, what were you? What are you thinking? Well, I'm looking outside, how's, how's, whatever his name, is Chris going to sell his property when there's a Sasquatch blasting hip hop, dancing in short shorts? That's what I do.
Jennifer Logue: 33:53
Oh, it's brilliant.
Sam Jones: 33:55
Wow. So, and it's beautiful, it's going to be 10 minutes of of peace, love and and fun and irreverence. It's, it's. It's just, it's I.
Sam Jones: 34:05
If I wanted to make something where I'm like, if I die, okay, I have these great at home with Sam Jones videos. They're very cute. Okay, they're inappropriate, they're wild, but where is the? Where is my heart Right? And I got my a dog and the dog opened my heart. My heart is open and so I. I love Yetta, I fell in love with this Sasquatch character and I want, I want to make a film where kids, you know, adults, people from right, left, yellow, black, green, orange, whatever the aliens whoever looks at this, is going to get the message that you don't have to be a missing link to be a legend. You just have to be brave enough to be comfortable in your own skin, or to not even be comfortable to stand in your own skin, no matter how terrifying, no matter how terrifying, and that's how you have to walk through life. That's how you have to walk through life. I'm afraid of everything, Jennifer. I am afraid of everything, yes, but I push myself to do it.
Sam Jones: 35:09
I push myself to do it because I know what it feels like the anger, the disappointment, the self-hatred. When I don't, when I stay complacent, that's what happens to me, and so I'm more of the mindset of like I found the balance here living in the Catskills and I have a great work-life balance. I worked very hard for Paramount but I do a great work-life balance. I worked very hard for Paramount, but I do have an equal amount of balance. You know, I'm not. I'm not like, oh my God, I gotta go, I gotta go to this meeting, I gotta go here. You know, I don't. You know what I do. I'm Star Trek, beam me up, scotty. I'm in the computer and I'm talking to clients and I'm on the phone with the team and everybody's getting done, and then when I have to be on set, I'm on set. Yeah.
Jennifer Logue: 35:56
That's a that's beautiful.
Sam Jones: 35:58
I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful. What?
Jennifer Logue: 36:01
a beautiful career Cause I mean it's very a lot it's. I know it's branded work, but it's comedic and it's playing into what is natural for you. It's like it's still raising that collective vibe, even though it's not fully in your control.
Sam Jones: 36:18
Absolutely, absolutely. I try so hard to make sure that. Is this going to make somebody feel good, is it going to give them a chuckle, or is it going to be something that is, you know, even if it's a dad joke, I don't care. Sometimes I have to do dad jokes. That's the name of the game sell out. But, like, at the end of the day, it's still going to be something that is not a commercial, that's going to be shoved down your throat Like you're ugly and you need this product to be beautiful Cause, in other words, that is what advertising is Right, and I want to change that, and so does my team at work. Nobody wants, you know, we're, we're, we're taking it back to a point where people want to. If you could see her, you could be her. So, putting every different color, every difference and and making sure that when we're on set, that every time I direct something or or I'm the creative director on set, I want, I, I ask for female dps.
Sam Jones: 37:17
I just came off of Wendy's and a red rocket uh and a daily show thing for uh with with Christine Ng, who is an incredible dp. That's somebody you should interview, christine. Oh my gosh, she's incredible. The mean when I share this Wendy spot, you're going to see she's dope. The gaffer was a female, was female on. I mean every the producer, jenny Lee sickest producer I ever worked with in my life. Jenny Lee out of she's just amazing. She made this whole thing come together. I mean women, I'm not talking dudes, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not 10th wave feminist.
Jennifer Logue: 37:54
But we can bring something unique when we work together, because for so long we've been in this male dominated society. So we're like finally seeing what's possible when women work together on something, and that energy, that unique energy that we can bring.
Sam Jones: 38:09
Absolutely, and not just women, not just white women also black women.
Sam Jones: 38:13
Spanish women. I mean we were, we, we had such, we were like bugging out on the last set we were on, I felt like I was back in public school, Like I grew up with a mix of Korean, russian, puerto Rican, cuban, black, dominican, jewish, like Israeli. I mean it was a melting pot in in Brooklyn. Growing up in Brooklyn in these public school Irish, like Israeli, I mean it was a melting pot in Brooklyn. Growing up in Brooklyn in these public school Irish, like everybody, with each other. You know, listen, not everybody liked each other, but it wasn't because you were black and he was, it wasn't like that. But if you don't grow up that way and you grow up in a predominantly black, all black or all white or all Hispanic area, all black or all white or all Hispanic area, then it's, it's. I think it may be a little bit more challenging, it might present a little bit more challenge to feel comfortable in groups of people, because now you're only going by what you've heard or what the media tells you, right. So for me, I've had the actual experience. My friends are still that way, you know. So, like my friends are, if I go to a party and there's only white people, I'm like this party sucks. It's still weird being here Like I am that person.
Sam Jones: 39:19
I called one of my best friends out. We were at her wedding. There were 400 people there. It was in Massachusetts. I saw four black people. I was like four black friends, that's all. You know. Everybody's so white. She's like Sammymy and that was it. And I was like I'm not like it's just and and it's and it goes to my black friends too. Sometimes I'm the only black person at an event and I'm like are you real right now, like I'm the only white person here? Did I just say I'm the only black person?
Sam Jones: 39:47
okay, we got it in my soul um, but like no, I I mean it. I feel like sometimes, when I'm the only white person, I'm like really, like you don't know any cool. There are no other cool white people. I'm the only one who doesn't put raisins in my potato salad.
Jennifer Logue: 40:04
So, on the subject of being a creative director, I got to ask what is something that you've learned now or that you wish you knew five years ago?
Sam Jones: 40:15
What is something that I know now that I wish I knew five years ago Not to take things so personally. Not to take things so personally when there's rejection, you know, like I would, I would get used to five years ago. But if I wrote a spot and, like you know, a senior, like a C-suite person, would be like, oh, this is no, I would feel deflated. Or somebody wanted to change a line in the script, I would get so anxious about it and mad and fight on the hill and die on the hill for everything and I was annoying. Who wants to work with somebody like that?
Sam Jones: 40:55
There's a hierarchy in life and if you want to get, you want to make money, you got to play the game and you can't take personally. So that's why I have to do my own and I have to write, I have to make movie, I have to make things because if you, I'm giving you my, my best practices right, I'm giving you what I know will perform well online. What people are going to love, it's my voice. I know that this is what they will gravitate to in this commercial, because it's something that I want to see Right, if I would want to see it, and I'm not trying to sound pompous, but I do think I'm a. I have a cool factor in my my finger on the pulse of what's cool.
Jennifer Logue: 41:36
I do, you definitely do, I attest to that.
Sam Jones: 41:39
I feel that way, and so when somebody presents something, I'm presenting you what I think the best version of this online will be, and then people will either say, okay, let her run with it, which is starting to happen now, or they'll say, no, let's do it this way, to which it does not become my voice, and I feel like I got silenced. And I used to get butthurt about it and walk around carrying these heavy loads, not like and and and and. Then I was like it's only heavy if I hold it down. I can't take credit for that. My best friend told me it's only heavy if you hold it. Christina, she said that to me, but it's only because our hypnosis we go to hypnotherapy and our hypnosis hypnosis woman she, she was the one that said it put it down, it's only heavy if you hold it.
Sam Jones: 42:30
You know what I will say at Paramount and I'm not, I'm not, I'm not like shouting them out like everybody just go apply for a job at Paramount, but do it. If there's any openings there, we welcome you with open arms. But at Paramount there is a corporate structure all around the creative department. So we're in this bubble, we do. We do have to abide and see the things Of course we have. There's corporate things, but it's it's for the most part. They let the creatives be free. I think a lot of the times it's the people like there's a lot of people who want to weigh in because they have their own POV, but when you're a creative director, it's supposed to be your POV. You're shaping that creative.
Sam Jones: 43:13
That's your job from the beginning stage of the RFP, the request for proposal that you know, figuring out what the KPI is, what is the customer's you know the client's goal and then building a campaign around that. That's the creative director's vision. That's why you're in that position. A copywriter will take that vision and put copy to it. I think that every copywriter is a creative director. I am a glorified copywriter, but I am a creative director. I have the vision too, so I'm doing the writing and all of that. They let you do that here, where in an agency they'd be like no, you are the creative director, you get a copywriter assigned to you. I don't want a copywriter assigned to me, I want to do the copy. Yeah, so they let you. There's different things that it's a little bit different than an agency. That said, there's also things that are that suck about it not being an agency thing, like not the corporate structure it's more like just process.
Sam Jones: 44:17
Agencies are very processed. There's a process. This, this, this, we're done. You know this. I do love.
Jennifer Logue: 44:23
I mean, I think creatives thrive with some boundaries and some processes, like I feel more creative sometime Actually most of the time, I feel more creative with some boundaries.
Sam Jones: 44:33
Of course, because you don't. You don't have to look here Now, you can just look here. I find with with my stuff is I go on idioms and I take keywords. Okay, I take keywords that are in the RFP, like what do they want? What is their tagline? Do they have a tagline? What's their, what's their? You know what's the thing that separates them. And then I'll look up different words that mean other things, things that rhyme, I'll come up with double entendres or I really use like hip hop in my head, like rap, to like come up with a fun title, catchy or whatever, and and then I build the idea from that. To be honest, that's that's so stupid, but that's that's what that gets. Opens the door for the muse to come in.
Jennifer Logue: 45:15
I was curious about your process because your brain it works so fast, Like you just constantly have ideas.
Sam Jones: 45:23
I mean, imagine when I was on Adderall how fast I was speaking. If I'm speaking speaking this fast now see, I'm the opposite.
Jennifer Logue: 45:29
I'm very like I don't know, I'm very slow. I need quiet time and things just like kind of pour in. You know, um, I always admire people who think really fast, but you know, it goes so fast.
Sam Jones: 45:44
So if I don't take that thought and write it down or do something with it, it's gone. It's it's like almost like a diamond, right, like in my brain it's like every, every, every, um little glimmer, shimmer. Well, it's not as shimmer, you know, like the diamonds have the cuts in it, like it's like a facet and a facet. So my brain is turning new facet, new facet, new facet. And if I don't pull it out, but again, like right before the podcast, I had a cup of coffee and I was like I want to be on for this.
Sam Jones: 46:15
Yeah, I'm either this way or I'm like yeah, man, I think that you being you and you following your path and your intuition, whatever that is, that guttural brain that's telling you this, you following that is the best thing that anybody can do. It's the best thing I can do. It's the best thing you can do. I always tell people I don't feel like, I feel like I'm boring or I feel like I'm a nerd. I'm like if you're a nerd, be the nerdiest nerd. If you're a clown, be the clowniest clown. If you're a slut, be the sluttiest slut. Be, find who you are and be that or create that, whatever it is you want to be.
Jennifer Logue: 46:52
So I want to change my question your journey you didn't plan from the outset for all of this to unfold. It's just so interesting how it all. What is that that you follow? Do you call it intuition?
Sam Jones: 47:12
I call it my witch. I say it's my witch. We all have it, even men have it. It's your spleen, your gut, whatever you want to call it. It's the thing inside of you that it's the same thing that when you're driving and you know not to throw garbage out of the window, you know. You know you don't only know that you shouldn't throw garbage out the window because somebody told you that it was wrong. You in your body, in your heart, you most people, if they're honest with themselves, know that it's wrong. Or if they don't know that it's wrong, maybe those are the people that throw it out the window.
Sam Jones: 47:51
But we have our own little things inside of us that say don't do this, do this. And it's not like saying it, people are waiting for it to be spoken to you. You feel it, you know it, and the more you follow that intuition, the more you listen to that feeling and do what that feeling is telling you, the more strong that gets as a muscle. It's almost like doing squats right. Your ass starts getting really strong. The more squats that you do, the more you use that muscle, the more it happens for you where the universe just starts like, you start just being in alignment and it forces you there Like you have no choice. It just goes there and you're right, I didn't. I wished you know that that I, I I wish that I could be where I was thinking back, even before Libra. I was so thankful to be at Libra. I was so thankful for my different jobs that I had. I learned so much that I, everything that I've collected in my toolbox, I bring my writing.
Jennifer Logue: 48:56
Yeah, and your work as a creative director. I mean all that business experience you have, like the best advertising schools in the world can't teach that. It's just. I just find your journey so interesting and how moving forward. It didn't make. Maybe it didn't make sense for you, but then as you look back, as Steve Jobs says, you know it all makes sense.
Sam Jones: 49:14
Yeah.
Jennifer Logue: 49:14
It all. It's magnificent.
Sam Jones: 49:17
When they say, trust the universe, it's really you are the universe we have. That's what's inside of you, that's the witch, that's what's telling you, like it's like the water, like you're, you're, you're, we're in tune with everything. This is not just, we're not just here and we're living in on earth. That's not what it is. Earth is also living where we're, the veil, like under the veil, everything's connected and interesting and the moon we're in to your. To be in tune with everything is just to, and that's why I tell you, read the vortex is just to let go and figure out in your mind what is that.
Sam Jones: 49:55
Create your vision board. You know Pinterest, or you see something that's inspiring, something that's makes you feel a way like redoing your closet, redecorating your house, painting, trying a new color, like, hey, I'm inspired to paint this wall purple. Oh, I don't know. Should I paint this wall purple? I don't know. And then you talk yourself out of it. Paint the wall purple, yes, paint it purple. Paint it purple, baby, because that's what's inside of you, that's what's that's, that's the witch, that's the thing, that's the creativity. It's all part of that same. It's energy, yes.
Jennifer Logue: 50:28
We are, that we are energy, and that's this podcast. It was on my mind for a while now, even before the pandemic.
Jennifer Logue: 50:36
During the pandemic I had this in the back of my mind but I wasn't the place to do it. You know, I didn't have the recording space. I, you know, I have my house now, so I have the space and it wouldn't leave me alone and I'm like, you know, let me just do it. It'll be fun, I can reconnect with people and, wow, it has been so healing for me already and just I don't know where it's going to go, but it's really fun doing it.
Sam Jones: 50:59
It doesn't matter where it's going to go. It doesn't matter where it's going to go, it doesn't it's, but you know what it's going to go out into the universe. And if two people listen to it and they were like, oh I got so much out of this podcast, cool, that frequency goes back to you. It doesn't matter if you know them people or you don't know the people. You know. You walk through life being that energy that lifts people up when you can, and that means that you need to be around people and then not be around people and recharge yourself. Be careful what you listen to. I listen to a lot of rap music. I listen to a lot of like. I like also like very melodic music and it's depressing and stuff and I stopped listening to that. I stopped watching like movies on TV, because our subconscious picks up everything.
Sam Jones: 51:50
And so now I pay attention. Is this? What am I repeating? Our words are spells. They call it spells. Our words are spells.
Jennifer Logue: 51:58
I listen. It spells. Our words are spells. I listen. I love listening to Louise Hay. Do you know Louise Hay?
Sam Jones: 52:03
Of course, that's the first book that I've ever read you Can Heal your Life by Louise Hay. That changed my entire life.
Jennifer Logue: 52:09
Yeah, I mean, I just love you know, if I have a particularly hard day or whatever, I'll listen to her in the morning first thing, Like that's like the first, and she's just so gentle and like, and she's gone now but her healing lives on, oh, absolutely. And it's beautiful.
Sam Jones: 52:27
She's the one that flips on the switch just to like give you. It's almost like she's giving you a jumper cable to restart what you, your soul, already knows, but you inherently already know. To restart what you, your soul already knows, what you inherently already know. And I think that that the best thing that we can do in life is just hold space for other people, so that you don't attempt, like you, hold space, have compassion. If somebody is being a miserable, it's because they're not receiving love. Something's off. If you're receiving love and you're in a state of love, you can't be like that, effed up. You're going to have a lot of bleeps on this. I'm very sorry, it's all good.
Sam Jones: 53:05
But holding space for people, even if they, even if you're, like I, do not agree with you like politically, you know, politically or religiously or whatever most people aren't inherently evil, they just have they're just looking at a different side of the quarter. You know what I mean. And holding space for that, even when you disagree with it, frees you from from the anger, the anger, the dis ease. Dis ease when you're in dis ease, you're diseased. That's what a community is and and so I'm trying to bounce through life in a way of, like I know my highs.
Sam Jones: 53:41
I lost my dad in 2018. I know, I know how highs could be very high and then I drop real low. So I just want to stay and float in the middle, bounce in the middle, you know, and I know I'm going to have good days and bad days. I know there's going to be very hard times in life, but, like that's why, when the good times are happening and things aren't that bad, I have to focus on everything I'm grateful for and I gotta tell you, since I've been doing that, my life has gotten significantly better.
Jennifer Logue: 54:08
Oh my gosh, what are your gratitude practices? Do you journal or?
Sam Jones: 54:12
I don't journal. I moved. I have a mountain view. So every I look out of this home in the morning, I make a cup of coffee and I go out on my deck I don't care how cold it is, and I say I can't believe that I live here. Thank you, universe, thank you, thank you, thank you to all. I just, I just sit with the gratitude, I hold the gratitude. I look at the trees. I know those trees love me Like I. I just, I, just when I'm. But that's easy to do. What's hard to do is when I'm angry. How do I find my gratitude? And that takes. That's where the work comes in. Something, something messes you up and now you've got to look for that gratitude. And when you that, and that's that's the work, that's the real work, because that's when you're putting it into action, that's when you're not in the bleachers, you're on the field.
Sam Jones: 55:02
Yes, like actually putting into practice in the real world, in the moment, in the moment You're angry, like it's easy for me to wake up and have a nice cup of coffee and look out my window and see a beautiful mountain and be like man. I am grateful. It's quite another thing when you know my boyfriend's using my easy pass and my it keeps replenishing, replenishing, $50, $50, $50. And now I'm so angry and I'm like about to yell at him and, and and he's, and I know he's having a hard day and I'm like, let me, let it go. What am I?
Sam Jones: 55:32
I have so much gratitude for all the things that he does for my life, is this is so insignificant in the grand scheme of things. So I wait, and then I'll, I'll casually bring it up the next day or whatever, when I remember, hey, do me a favor, switch the easy path to your name instead of being like right, right, finding the gratitude there, starting with like I'm grateful for you and I'm grateful for my life, and I'm grateful for you and I'm grateful for my life and I'm grateful for my health and I'm grateful for my family still being here. I'm grateful. And then, and then, and then, and then I look at it and I'm like if I were on a hospital bed, right in a hospital bed right now. Would I give a shit that he used my easy pass no.
Jennifer Logue: 56:11
Exactly.
Sam Jones: 56:13
Oh, this is only how I operate. I don't know if this is the right thing to do. It might be terrible for some people because it's dark, but that's my thing.
Jennifer Logue: 56:22
Hey, it works for you. It works for somebody else too, because we're all connected Absolutely. I have a question about what drives your passion to create. You're a peel the onion.
Sam Jones: 56:38
What drives my passion to create the drive like the, the, it's that feeling of I've got, I like before we were talking about the procrastination that feeling of if I get an idea, I write it down and I start like at least building it out a little bit. You know, if I, if I have the time to do it in the moment, I write it down Um and and that, and then I have it like another thing to come to like as an idea that I want to build out or something that I want to pursue or something like that. That's that's like the, that that's me taking that idea from the universe, being like okay, first step, I'm writing it down.
Sam Jones: 57:23
The desire to do it is my desire to not fail, my desire to continually push to have my own television show. I would love to be writing on a show. I would love to be one day work with Amy Sedaris or Jodi Lennon. I would, I, I, I. That's my desire to prove, also to myself, that I, I, I can actually have everything that I've ever wanted as far as my career is concerned. But I don't I don't focus so much on it concerned, but I don't, I don't focus so much on it. My fear of failure is what keeps me motivated to, to, to I don't know if the right word is created that feeling that I get like, of energy, of like oh, I've got this idea. The thing that pushes me to make that idea happen is my fear of failure.
Jennifer Logue: 58:14
Oh, interesting, a fear of missing out.
Sam Jones: 58:17
Oh my, my gosh, if I don't do that idea, somebody else is going to do that idea. I'm writing simultaneously two movies, two features right, yes, wait, oh, you're doing two features the sasquatch short, that's a short yeah, that's, and that's all improv, but but the ghost um ghost hunters ghost hunters. Ghost Hunters is about two women who get closure for other women. I don't want to fully go into it, but I will. We're almost finished with the first draft and the other one is about the mafia.
Jennifer Logue: 58:50
Oh, I didn't realize you had another feature too, that's connected.
Sam Jones: 58:55
Yeah, it's really it's. That's what I said. I got this idea based on a life experience and I was like no one's gonna write this. I have to write this, and so I started beating it out already. I've already got a first scene down while I'm working on with my writing partner, Cindy Hickey. We're simultaneously working on two things, so she's your partner for both on two things.
Sam Jones: 59:20
So she's your partner for both. Yes, she's my, she's my full-time writing partner. She, her and I. I found somebody who has a very um, what's, what's the name of it? Not accompanying I I. What's the something that makes your stuff better and enhances my work? And complimenting her voice compliments my voice and vice versa. So we're, we're, we're in sync.
Sam Jones: 59:40
We just finished, um, a pilot called I suck about a gay vampire. He's got to come out to his family that he's gay, um, and his family's like old, old, old, old, old, old school white um. And he's got to come out to his friends that he's a vampire. So his life sucks at the moment. And it's amazing. I love it, it's great. When is that coming out? Who knows? I've got scripts for days. They're collecting, but that's what happens. Something will pop and then everything else will be like what do you got? I got a show about a life coach. I got a show of a cold and decent exposure about the advertising industry. It's like Mad Men, but in this generation and like I've got so much, but no one cares because they don't know who I am and they don't give a not yet, but no, a lot of people do.
Jennifer Logue: 1:00:29
Actually, sam, like it's going to, I think, very soon, that big moment. You're already having big moments. You're like creative director at Paramount. I're like creative director.
Sam Jones: 1:00:38
I am very thankful. I am very thankful for literally everything that I have. But I see the stuff that's on tv and some of it is gold, incredible right. Some of it is such trash that I don't understand how no one's picking up this show. Like we need some Sam Jones, like, like in TV, you know and it's funny and it's like, but like everything, the voice people have it.
Sam Jones: 1:01:04
There's broad city, there's fleabag there's the show and, and I feel like these shows that I'm writing are on par with that and and I and I know that's a big you know that's a big statement for me to make, but that's how wholeheartedly I believe that I would never say that how long does it take you to write a script? That pilot took us two and a half years to write. I sucked because it kept, we kept. We wanted to really flush out the characters, because in a series it's so important that you have those characters Like that's. Schitt's Creek taught me that Like it didn't matter what the location was Like.
Sam Jones: 1:01:42
That show was brilliant to me because of the characters Abby and Alana, the characters you know like think of the office. The characters Like it's Seinfeld, the characters. So I needed to, we needed to build their origin. Why are they? Why do they walk through the script this way? Why do they react this way? Who are they? And so we took a long time to do that. I find it easier to write features because I don't give a like these are the characters. You're only going to know them from here and it's not going to be five years that you're going to follow them. There's a spinoff which I'd take.
Jennifer Logue: 1:02:17
Cool. So how long does it take to write a feature?
Sam Jones: 1:02:19
then would you say I would say first draft of sitting and writing a feature, while also, you know, having a full-time job would take me, like is taking me, about four months. That's impressive. Okay, I have a writing partner, okay, right, we make time. Every night I'm writing I shouldn't say that three nights a week, I'm writing two hours a night. And so so is Cindy, and she's an engineer. She's not a comedy writer, she is a comedy writer but she's an engineer, has two, two young children, married and lives in Buffalo, okay, and, and she's amazing, and uh, yeah, so we're trying to, you know, make a name. She went to film school, she worked in entertainment when she was, you know, in her twenties and, you know, life took her someplace else and I'm bringing her back as it does, yeah, yeah.
Jennifer Logue: 1:03:14
Oh, that's so cool.
Sam Jones: 1:03:16
So I think, I think everything is going to work out the way it's supposed to and if not, like I told you I'll. I'll live up here, I'll redo people's closets, I'll clean their toilet bowls, I'll have a house cleaning business and I'll be the best housekeeper in in green County. That's what I will do. I have, I will read I will like redesign people's houses with the furniture they have in there already. If it doesn't work out, I will still find a way to make myself happy and to pay my mortgage.
Jennifer Logue: 1:03:44
Yes, I mean, or you'll be continuing to direct amazing branded spots.
Sam Jones: 1:03:50
Or I'll continue to direct them.
Jennifer Logue: 1:03:53
But I'm sure all these scripts sound amazing from what you told me about them and from seeing all of your other work. It's only a matter of time, I think.
Sam Jones: 1:04:03
I hope.
Jennifer Logue: 1:04:04
Yeah, but in the meantime, you have an amazing life and you're enjoying it. I want to ask what's next for you. I know we talked about a lot, but is there anything else you want?
Sam Jones: 1:04:15
to talk about. I don't really know what's next for me and honestly, I just got my period today, so probably a heating pad and a Xanax, I don't. I don't, I don't really know. Like no, I would like to start directing more. So I think you know pursuing directing in a more aggressive going after directing gigs a little bit more aggressively, instead of just waiting for people to be like, hey, we need a comedy director and we want a female. Can you do it? Sure, you know so. So I think that there's. I mean, this could be funny for your show. Hold on, mom, I'm on a podcast and I'm telling them about the time where you said only fat girls put Doritos in sandwiches. Oh, I just want to see how you were. I just picked you since this morning. I love you. Look full circle. Oh, that's beautiful. The universe delivers for you. This was a great podcast.
Sam Jones: 1:05:16
Oh, this is so fun.
Jennifer Logue: 1:05:17
Oh my gosh, I hope people listen to it.
Sam Jones: 1:05:19
I'll share it also, oh thank you, sam.
Jennifer Logue: 1:05:22
Again, an absolute honor to be able to spend this time with you, and I guess I'll do my outro now.
Sam Jones: 1:05:32
Do your outro. I just want to say thank you so much for thinking of me, and it was. It was an honor for me to be here because I'm a fan of yours and I, I I'm just excited to see where your life goes and your career, and I think this is going to be a big hit for you. Oh, sam, thank you. You need advertisers, girl. Invisalign, invisalign, you know what?
Jennifer Logue: 1:05:51
Maybe, maybe that'll be the first one. You know what, Maybe that'll be the first one Put it out into the universe. Perfect For more. On Sam Jones. You can visit therealsamjonescom and follow her on social media at therealsamjones, and thank you so much for tuning in and growing in creativity with us. I'd love to know what you thought of today's episode. You can reach out to me on social media at Jennifer Logue, except for Twitter, because I've been hacked and I can't access my account anymore or leave a review for Creative Space on Apple Podcasts so more people can discover it. I appreciate you so much for being here in the beginning stages of this. My name is Jennifer Logue and thanks for listening to this episode of Creative Space. Until next time.