Daz It, Daz All
Dream-Chasing with Candice Vernon: Director of "Make American Great Again?"
Ready for an inspiring conversation that's bound to leave you contemplating your own life choices? Our guest today is none other than the fearless Candice Vernon, an award-winning writer, director, and philanthropist. From securing a six-figure paycheck to abandoning it all to chase her dream of becoming a director, Candice's story is a testament to the power of determination.
Host KC Carnage (@iamkccarnage) and Candice Vernon (@see_es_vernon)
Daz It Daz All is written by KC Carnage (@iamkccarnage) and Produced by KC Carnage and Rick Barrio Dill (@rickbarriodill). Associate producer Bri Coorey (@bri_beats), Audio and Video Engineering and Studio facilities provided by S.L.A.P. Studios LA (@SLAPStudiosLA) with distribution through our collective for social progress and cultural expression, SLAP the Network. (@SLAPtheNetwork.com)
If you have any ideas for a show you want to see or hear, email us at info@SLAPtheNetwork.com and as always, you can go to dazitdazall.com and sign up there to make sure you never miss a thing...
See you next show!
Ready for an inspiring conversation that's bound to leave you contemplating your own life choices? Our guest today is none other than the fearless Candice Vernon, an award-winning writer, director, and philanthropist. From securing a six-figure paycheck to abandoning it all to chase her dream of becoming a director, Candice's story is a testament to the power of determination.
Host KC Carnage (@iamkccarnage) and Candice Vernon (@see_es_vernon)
Daz It Daz All is written by KC Carnage (@iamkccarnage) and Produced by KC Carnage and Rick Barrio Dill (@rickbarriodill). Associate producer Bri Coorey (@bri_beats), Audio and Video Engineering and Studio facilities provided by S.L.A.P. Studios LA (@SLAPStudiosLA) with distribution through our collective for social progress and cultural expression, SLAP the Network. (@SLAPtheNetwork.com)
If you have any ideas for a show you want to see or hear, email us at info@SLAPtheNetwork.com and as always, you can go to dazitdazall.com and sign up there to make sure you never miss a thing...
See you next show!
I left New York to pursue directing full-time. I already had a great job. I was making six figures, a good six-figure salary. I was like I can just do this and be good. I was like, nope, I really want to follow my dreams and my goals and I'm just gonna do it. So I just feel like being a Caribbean woman, you know, descendants of African slaves at that I'm not afraid to cross the water. Hey, hey, desi, deso, desi deso. Yeah, you feel, desi deso.
Speaker 2:Desi deso. Black excellence at its finest. How that skin glow. She's a true diamond. With the world at her back, she's still smiling. Never let that crown since she stays thriving. Desi deso, desi deso. Keep it real. Desi deso, desi deso, desi deso. What up, what up, what up, what up? Welcome to Desi deso. Y'all know who I am. My name is Casey Carnage, and today we're gonna do a little something different. Usually you have a panel, I'm doing an artist spotlight, but today I think that I want to showcase one of a person, and I think it's a taste maker. She's definitely moving strides in her field of work and she's just a phenomenal person. We got Miss Candice Vernon here. Hey, candice.
Speaker 1:Hi, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:You're welcome, and not only is she phenomenal, I'm a woman, but she's an award winning writer, director and a philanthropist. She's Jamaica Born. She was raised here in the US and in Germany, and her career took off with a short film called Make America Great, with a question mark. So we're gonna get into that, because I was wondering why it was a question mark. After that, some of her work consists of partnerships with NBA 2K, vaseline, sveka, vaka and many other big name projects, but I'll let her tell her story because I'm wondering. That's what she's here for. So what up, candice? Hello, hello, hello.
Speaker 1:How's your?
Speaker 2:day going.
Speaker 1:My day's going pretty good. It seems like there's never enough time in the day, right.
Speaker 2:But somebody always told me that everybody gets the same 24 hours. So whatever you do with that 24 hours is really up to you. I wish we had 25, though, right, just one more hour. Just one more hour, all right. Well, let's just jump right into it. Tell us a little bit about your journey into becoming a director or filmmaker. Is that something that you have always wanted to do or something you kind of fell into?
Speaker 1:You know you're going to learn a lot about me today. I don't know. I feel like it was destined for me to do what I'm doing. I don't have anyone in my family that's a creative or anyone that works in any type of creative capacity whatsoever. I don't know.
Speaker 1:I was like this little kid in Jamaica that my mom named me after Candice Bergen, the actress, and she gave me my middle name based on the character's name, and she was just in Jamaica watching this show and just decided to name me completely after this woman and this fictional character, and I feel like that had something to do with me doing what I'm doing now, not even knowing that going into it, because I had no idea what I was going to do as a kid I thought I was going to actually work in medicine and deliver babies or work with babies, and this creative bone just hit me and I just couldn't do anything but that. Ever since, I think during high school, I was writing and just doing stuff. Some of my writings got put in books and I just knew I wanted to do something creative and tell stories, and sometimes told silly stories.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, I mean when I was reading your bio saying that you had a big niche in, like, comedic writing and it was funny for me to read because when you and I first met I didn't take you for a comedic writer. But then when we were out and about, I think, for my birthday one year, I was like, oh, this is her personality for real, Like this is what. And I saw the silliness that you had Now when you said that you started young. How did your first project come about? Like, how did you get in the front of somebody? How did you, like, get on the map?
Speaker 1:Oh man, let me see. I mean, I feel like every time I did something, it's because I paid for it. It's like I had to pay for my own project. My short film is my, whatever it is. It's like, you know, getting your reel together. So I did that and just like, showed it to a lot of people. You know like, when I was first in New York, the first thing I did was I convinced some people to give me $10,000 each, you know, and I had $20,000. I don't even know how I did it, but it was just the grace of God. They were like, oh, we believing you, we believe in this little script that you wrote. It's never gonna give us any money, but here's 10 racks, here's 10 racks. I was like, oh, okay yeah, I can go play.
Speaker 2:Don't you love friends with money? Hey friends, thank you.
Speaker 1:Exactly. You know that it's a write off for them, but anyway, it was very nice for me and I just used that and I was working as a PA on Law and Order and I was just showing everybody that thing when I finished the film and when I moved here, because I transitioned from producing commercials to like more directing well, 100% directing and it's like I had to have a calling card again so I had to do another film. So like, all right, be like. This is what I'm doing now. Take me seriously, because this is all I'm gonna be doing is directing. I'm not doing anything else, but this is it. It's just being relentless and persistent, and it just takes one or a couple of people to be like I'm rocking with you and that's it Believing in yourself, putting your money, your everything behind your words and who you say you are you. Just you gotta do that if you believe in yourself, and so it starts with just believing in yourself, and then everything else is gonna come.
Speaker 2:No, I totally agree. I mean, as artists and creatives, we kind of hit our head against the wall like I wanna make it, I wanna make it, I wanna do stuff, I wanna do stuff, and then sometimes it really takes a tribe. So it's nice to know and it's also like, I would say, like a pattern in your back, like there's a form of gratification where you have been visioning, this visioning, visioning, and someone else sees your vision. It's one of the best feelings in the world, I think, because sometimes you do need that extra hand. It's always like these pieces to a puzzle and until you can get these pieces and form that outline, and then that one piece that you've been missing comes out of nowhere and it just falls right in the middle of the puzzle. It's an amazing feeling. So I totally agree with that. So you are a Caribbean woman. How have you navigated in America? When did you move to the US?
Speaker 1:Well, I moved to the US for good when I was about nine years old. I just feel like I was all over the place as a kid. My parents left me in Jamaica for a little bit. When they moved to America and my dad went into the army, my mom came here to work, so that's how I ended up in Germany because he got shipped away to Germany. So then I went to KidnaGarden in Germany and then it was too cold. My mom was like nope, I did it for a year. I went back to Jamaica and then finally, at nine, I was reunited with my parents in Washington DC.
Speaker 1:So all of that moving around and being from a different country, it's always given me this attitude of fearlessness to just move around and go anywhere and do anything, because I did so much of that as a kid and that's kind of all that. I knew what shaped me for what life can be like. Because people are always asking me how do you just move here, how do you just do this? I mean, I left New York to pursue directing full-time when I was already. I already had a great job. I was making six figures, a good six-figure salary. I was like I can just do this and be good. I was like, nope, I really wanna follow my dreams and my goals and I'm just gonna do it. So I just feel like being a Caribbean woman, descendants of African slaves at that. I'm not afraid to cross the water.
Speaker 2:And they cross the water. I mean that's definitely well put 100%. So how do you go about including your culture and your heritage and your work?
Speaker 1:I just do whatever feels good to me and I think, like, no matter what I do, because it's coming from me and it's coming from my perspective, I'm always gonna do something from the perspective of the skin that I stand in. So I'm always gonna do that and think about the world in that way for it to be inclusive. So, yeah, that's how I bring. I mean, even right now we were talking about how, oh, I gotta go away, I wanna go right, because I'm writing a film, a feature that takes place in Jamaica, with Jamaican characters and characters more that look like me, you know, people that moved to America and grew up here and like really having that, I guess, jamaican, american experience in Jamaica.
Speaker 1:So, because I don't. I mean, I haven't really seen that and I want to show my life and I have so many friends that are. You know, nowadays there's like a bunch of Nigerian American things, but I just don't really see too much of the Caribbean American Story, and so I want to tell that bit in the comedy.
Speaker 2:Well, that's amazing because, I mean, people do need to see it. You know, representation is important and until we see it, until kids see it, you know, you know it takes somebody to show us what can be done and what can be achieved for us to believe it can be achieved. And that is a that is an amazing thing that you're doing because you know, you know the representation sometimes in America of black people, especially black women, like we're talking to a friend the other day, like About how either they're either fighting, like black women are fighting, or they're being depicted as whores, or they're being depicted as single mothers with no job and on welfare. And, to be honest with you, that's a small percentage. Yes, that happens and yes, you know, that's real life as well. But this percentage of that in America is very little compared to how much they show it.
Speaker 2:So it's important for people like you, people like myself, who have, you know, things like that, who can show that, no, it can be done. There are amazing black women. They're amazing black people that are doing amazing things, and you can, too, put your mind to it, stick to your dreams and you can make it happen. But one thing that I love, love, love, love, love is that you travel to Africa very often. Yeah, let me what was your first visit and what made him in imperative to you to go back so frequently?
Speaker 1:People ask me this question all the time, I feel like I'm like miss, miss Africa, that's not African right.
Speaker 1:You know, I grew up with a pan-African dad. You know he talked to me about Africa so much and, being from Jamaica, we talked about our ancestors all the time. So I grew up with, like you know, like even being Jamaican, with Marcus Garvey and Marcus Garvey is, like you know, one of the biggest pan-Africans I first went to Africa and and probably Maybe it was 2010, something like that I went to South Africa for the first time and I spent three weeks there and I was just like, oh, this is cool, you know, but it didn't feel like, it didn't feel like home to me, you know, but South Africa also has a very brutal history of apartheid and I still felt a lot of that being there.
Speaker 1:So it was weird for me to be in South Africa. It's a very beautiful place. But then I went to Ghana in 2019 and Then I just didn't stop going back. I mean, I probably go three times a year and when I went to Ghana, I felt like I was in Jamaica. I felt like my spirit and my whole everything felt like I was like oh, this feels like home, you know, and I know that a lot of our ancestors are from Nigeria and from Ghana, from that coast. So I just felt spiritually like this is the place to be. Party like I never had in my life. I, you know, just met amazing people everywhere. I had good food.
Speaker 1:I like spicy food and they like to serve spice on top of spice, like you'll get spicy chicken. I love spicy sauce and a spicy everything on top of it. So it's like spice on top of spice on top of spice. So I love it, yeah, and I just kept on going back and I felt like God kept on bringing me back. The second time I went back, I got brought back to speak to these young girls at a soccer academy, because I was I'm very vocal about things that I don't like, and I was having dinner with someone and I was talking about the slave castles and the story that's being told there is not right, and I was just going on and on and on about how they need to be refurbished and torn down and to show something that is positive for various different reasons.
Speaker 1:So I got invited to speak to a school today after this conversation and then I just kept on going back because I know I had this vision that I was building a school and then I ended up getting land you know, for like basically nothing, and I just kept on meeting people that kept on helping me along this journey and to tell this story in my life that I didn't even know was about to be told.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've never been. I can't wait until I go definitely on the checklist within the year, so I feel like that's amazing. But you talked about your land, so that like segues into my next question. You are a founder of InvestWise Africa. What are your principles on that? And did that stem from you buying the land before and feeling like we need to keep buying land, buying back the land?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So that stemmed from it was a conversation I was having with who is now my business partner. We were introduced by a mutual friend because of an event called AFRICON basically, and this person knew that I had land and that also I had just bought a condo as an investment and so I had been investing in like other commodities and stuff there also. So they were like, oh well, you should do this workshop with this guy. And then him and I, through meeting and preparing for the workshop, was like, oh, I like what you got going on in Rwanda. You got all this stuff going on.
Speaker 1:Rwanda is about to be the next place, because I do a lot of research and data, especially with the IMF and just all of the you know like monetary services and companies out there. And, long story short, he was like, oh, you're doing something in Rwanda. I'm like you're doing something in Rwanda. We can help each other and teach each other. And it just made sense that we want to make it easy for diasporas and people that look like us, that aren't African you know that black American, you know from the Caribbean or from the like the UK, but of African origin that they can see how they can also invest in opportunities that I believe will build them. You know, like wealth and just like you know, just look outside of your immediate, you know circle, because there's so many opportunities out there and I think that it's so beautiful for black people to contribute to building, you know, back Africa.
Speaker 2:Right, right, do you smile yourself Like do you see yourself like living there permanently?
Speaker 1:I don't think I'm gonna live anywhere permanently. Okay, Woman of the World, I think I definitely want to have some my girls. I have my home in LA, my home in Jamaica. I already have land there, you know, and I got. I want to build like a actual like beach house in Ghana, but now I have my condo there and then I think, maybe Atlanta.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, no New York, no DC.
Speaker 1:No, you know my family's in DC, so I'm just gonna go check them out. I don't need to live there.
Speaker 2:Someone asked me the other day. They was like where do you stay when you're in DC? I was like nowhere. My aunt's house, my cousin's house, my college friend's house. That's like asking me. That's like asking me where I'm gonna say when I go to Jersey, what Like. So I understand that. Okay. Now I also heard from a little birdie maybe I read it that you were handpicked by Stevie Wonder himself to direct the dream that still lives, and I told y'all was gonna go back to it Because, again, I always. It always is a thought provoking thing when someone writes something and then puts a question mark behind it. So let's talk about that Like it was about the celebration of Martin Luther King Jr's life. How did that project come about and what was your favorite take from it?
Speaker 1:So that actually came about after I did Make America Great with the question mark, and that was because I thought what is the worst thing that can happen in the world if Trump became president? And I shot this thing based on that before he became president and he kept on saying that he wants to make America Great again, I was like, well, what does that even mean? Because your definition of Make America Great I feel like it makes it terrible for me. So that part I did, this drama comedy that I got written up in the Hollywood Reporter, some other publications and yeah, so from the press on that, and I had a lot of views on that.
Speaker 1:I had people reaching out to me about a bunch of different things and so this production company was like, hey, we have this content piece and they remember seeing my reel, like a few months before. They're like, well, you know, would you like to do this? You know it's with Stevie Wonder and like you know, whatever, I had only had that short film. You know, the most recent thing, make America Great. So people were watching that and I was like, oh, great, I'm like showing everybody.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, I mean I show everybody everything, right, whatever I do. I'm like, okay, this is everybody's going to see it. But I was like, well, I guess, if Stevie liked it, but I don't know how, did he watch it Like? Did he listen, you know, I know? So I was always wondering, because I'm just like, even when we were like doing it edits and we have phone calls with him and he'd be going over feedback, I'm like I just don't really.
Speaker 2:How can I really trust his judgment? He didn't see it.
Speaker 1:But I'm just like I don't know it's interesting. I'm like it's a very interesting thing. I'm like is he just have someone sitting there telling him what's going on? Or because he's been so used to, now I'm closing my eyes like idiot, but he's just been so used to feeling everything without sight. I was like so.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's a height in that. That's a question that I'll never know the answer to, because I'm not a blind person in America, but I do know that you know, when one sense is gone, everything else is heightened. So it could very well he probably saw it in color in his visions and maybe that's how he knew.
Speaker 1:Well, girl, either way, stevie Wonder was like yeah, it's you, you doing this. And so we did it. It was my first big thing that who knows how many hundreds of thousands of dollars it was. I was like, oh, this is like my first big thing that I'm getting hired for. I was hired to do like a little Instagram commercial, but this was like you know. I was like this is a lot of money, you know.
Speaker 1:So we're doing this, I'm getting a chance to go to the Obama's um Meryl Streep, who I love, paul McCartney saying happy birthday to me. Yeah, it was really good, it was nice, so I got it because of me putting money behind myself. I didn't get $20,000 this time from somebody else that do make America great.
Speaker 2:I did that myself, I funded that and that's why she's a taste maker, because she did it herself. Man Like you can do so much when you truly believe yourself, and there's always the resources out there, even if you think that they're not One thing. I know that anything worth great being done is, most of the time, the drive and the ambition behind it and you have to literally bet on yourself. Like literally bet on yourself, I mean you think about like Tyler Perry dude was living in in a car, like making scripts out of his car, and now he's about to buy the world. Like he's literally taking over the world piece by piece. Like, if you don't see it, I see you, tyler, I see you, I see you Okay. Well, my last question. I want you know what I mean With all the goods. I'm sure there's a lot of challenges and with challenges comes perseverance, like being, you know, a black woman in your field, which is typically a male dominated field. How, how have you navigated around that and what have some of your challenges been? Like the friction.
Speaker 1:I mean, I feel like I'm still navigating it's.
Speaker 1:It's hard, especially not even just being a director, Cause I feel like for me I'm also not just doing one genre of thing and because I specifically do more like humor, comedy that is typically like a man's.
Speaker 1:You know, everybody thinks about comedy thing, about copy and mail directors, or even, you know, furthermore, white male directors, and even in the commercial world there may be two black female directors that do comedy, and I'm one of them. You know that has the real of that work out there. So I ain't gonna lie, it's hard and it's like I always got to stay on top of my reps. Matter of fact, I'm looking for a new one for something right now, but yeah, it's like you just got to stay on top of people and, honestly, you just got to move like that's not even a thing, Because when I think about that, that just I don't even want that to put me in a negative you know mindset at all, and thoughts who have power, and so, and I really do believe that everything is possible and that there endless possibilities in life for everyone, if you just believe it.
Speaker 1:So, while somebody over here may just be like, oh well, you know, we're not looking for black women's, like OK, I don't care if you're not looking for black women, but you're looking for a director that can do this, and so I'm just trying to break that barrier, to not be seen as like a black female director and just be seen as a director which is fair.
Speaker 2:Well, Candice, I think we got a lot.
Speaker 2:We learned a lot about you today, I think. In my show I love to leave a message because I do feel like we have to pay it forward. What would you say to your younger self or you can pitch it to you know, the audience, all the viewers out there what would you say to them that are trying to either a break into their field or overcoming this? You know, coming overcoming these obstacles, or feeling like they have a lot of doubt about what they want to do? What would you say to them?
Speaker 1:Well, first, I would definitely say this to myself and to the audience two things really to always remember that you know, like your current location doesn't determine your future destination, and that's something that I had to remind myself that it doesn't matter where you start. You have no idea where you're going to end up, but you just really, really, really have to believe in yourself. When you believe in yourself, You're going to. You know there's no, there's no faith without works, right. So when you believe in yourself, you're going to make the steps to do that work, Even if you don't have a budget.
Speaker 1:You're gonna write something, you're gonna shoot it with an iPhone, you're gonna do whatever you can to make that dream that is burning in your soul and your heart possible, and you're gonna do that multiple times. You're gonna do that again and again and again and again. It's not a one time thing. So make sure that the dream is really what you want, because you're gonna find yourself doing that time and time again, no matter how successful you are, because there's gonna be something else that you need to do. That's gonna be new territory.
Speaker 2:Thank you, candice, for coming on the show and, guys, if you have any questions for us or if you have any questions for Candice, you know all her links to our buy, our website will be posted and join the conversation. You know here, we're here to build that conversation, talk about and also, too, like we talked about, being that example, seeing that women like yourself, like myself, like herself, can do exactly what you wanna do and excel at it and be successful at it and build whatever you wanna build. And that's the real goal of anybody. Period, whether period at least that's one of my goals Like subscribe, share, do all the things. Send us an email. If there's anything else you want to talk about or you have any follow-ups about today's episode, don't hesitate to hit us up. And that's it, that's all. That's it, that's all.
Speaker 2:Is written by me, kasey Carnage, and produced by myself and Rick Barrio-Dill. Associate Producer, brie Corrie, assistant Producer, larissa Donahoe, audio and Video Engineering and Studio Facilities provided by Slap Studios LA, with distribution through our collective for social progress and cultural expression, slap the Network. If you have any ideas for a show you want to hear or see, please email us at info at slapthepowercom and, as always, go to desertdashallcom and sign up there to make sure you will never miss a thing. See you next show.