Reconnecting Professionals with live Performance- Joe Hill from "The Come Up"
- Joe Hill & Medvis Jackson
- Jan 11, 2017
- 6 min read
It's Friday night. You've worked hard this week, staying late at the office most nights and ordering your lunch to the desk for the rare bite of salad in between meetings, spreadsheets and emails. As 6:30 pm hits and your colleagues begin file out of the office, they invite you down to nearest favorite bar for happy hour and maybe dinner afterwards.
Normally, you would say, "Sure guys, go on ahead and I will catch up with you all in 15 minutes." But not tonight. No, tonight, one of your old college friends is performing at Nabe Harlem and invited you to see their performance. A few of your other college friends will be there.
While you're normally up for a Sia, Rihanna and Drake-infused happy hour playlist, you are instead excited for comedy, live instruments and musician ship, and a host of gifted vocalists. Tonight, you and your friends have tickets for "The Come Up."
In this Q & A, we learn the story of "The Come Up" and learn more about it's founder, Joe Hill. Understand more about his mission to create unique and curated evening events for NYC music and culture lovers.
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What is The Come Up? In other words, where did you get the concept and name from? What's the underlying mission?
Every artist is on the come up, no matter where you are in your career. You can always use some tweaking in some areas to improve your career.
The Come Up is a platform developed to bring talented artists together and guide them toward their path toward success. All selected artists will advance through a five month program that includes three shows and mentors that are hip from industry professionals.
This unique opportunity is open to all types of artists from singers, musicians, songwriters, producers, comedians and any creative mind that has a passion to create!
These productions are crafted to engage, create and connect the audience to an emerging artist like nothing done before. From poetry, live performance, musicians, comedians to a lasting impression of wanting to experience it again!
What's your emotional connection to TheComeUp? You're a comedian. But when and why did you decide that you wanted to create an event and platform for live talent?
Well, being an entertainer at heart, and a comedian I love making people laugh leaving an impression that people won't forget.
I feel it's my obligation to use my talents and skills to help artists that fits the "mold" of following your passion to the fullest. My passion is creating, curating,and more than just bringing people together, but developing emerging artists from a self-sufficient stand point. Equipping them with the tools and skills needed to further their careers by creating artist workshops from branding, networking, to creating positive relationships.
New York is a hub of live performance art. There's broadway and off broadway. Tons of bars have open mic nights. And you can't go to 42nd Street or West 4th Street without being pitched on 5 different comedy shows in 2 minutes - Why The Come Up? What draws in your audience when there are so many other options?
Authenticity! The Come Up shows aren't just a show, it's curation with a guided vision. It's an infusion of one great night all mixed into one melting pot of a production.
These productions are crafted to engage, create and connect the audience to an emerging artist like nothing done before. From poetry, live performance, musicians, comedians to a lasting impression of wanting to experience it again!
How long has The Come Up been going for? What's been your favorite moment so far?
Our first show was back in 2007, in Hartville, SC.
My aunt and uncle own a small lounge in the city. I was given the green light to plan, organize, coordinate and host the event. The problem was I was living in NYC at the time. So it was a cool challenge to be able to organize the whole thing from another city, execute in a way that turned out to be a two-night event that was a success.
I went down a week before the show and promoted this event in local colleges, businesses, shopping malls, and on radio. It taught me so many lessons about creating and curating first hand.
Fast-forward to this past May 2016, I connected with my partner and mentor Andrew De Leon, who is the founder of Blank Label Records, a creative agency. With his help I was able to re-birth The Come Up and really take the concept to the next level. Andrew De Leon is vital in my success and helped make The Come Up a real reality!
After the most recent 2 year election cycle and public attention that has been given to the role of police and government in civil society, what is the role of performance art?
Great question, honestly speaking, I lost faith in our election system and felt "why bother voting if our government really doesn't care for us!?" "Us" meaning African-Americans (I want that to be clear).
The killings and shootings going on have to stop but more importantly I had to educate myself more and actually be that change by using music and artistry to help change our communities. By developing artists to be better, to improve their community and pushing them to help others is my way of helping the change we want to see.
Using performance arts and a voice and beacon for change is important to me and the come up.
Are there any comedians, musicians, etc that in the past 2 years have, in your opinion, provided the public with any impressive and substantive political critique or commentary? Who has done this and what impression was made on you?
I've had the opportunity of working with so many comedians I've looked up to- many you've seen on television networks like BET, HBO, Comedy Central and Def Comedy Jam. Rain Pryor, the daughter of comedian legend Richard Pryor has also made an imprint upon me. I was able work with her, allowing her style of using issues in the world to speak on, shed light upon and confront in a comedic way to affect my approach to art.
Also, MTV's cast from "Guy Code" (Damien Lemon, Andrew Schultz, and Chris Distefano) really helped me. From them, I was able to learn how to use that stage as a way of being yourself!
But, one guy in particular named Esteban Romero really help me use the stage as a a vehicle to speak on social issues going on in the world. Other comedians like Deejay Cipher Sounds, Chapelle Show writer/comedian Kyle Grooms, and the hilarious actor/comedian Smokey Suarez all have played a role in how I go about critiquing political views today!
What's next for The Come Up? What should we keep our eyes out for and marked down on our schedules?
The Come Up Presents: "Laughs from the UNDERGROUND", a slate of comedy shows at NABE Harlem. Every few weeks we have an awesome show hosted by yours truly bringing some of the hottest comics in the game.
The Come Up also debuted "Singer/Songwriter" Sundays at NABE on Nov.27th 2016, and so we'll be continuing that this year. This is an awesome platform for you to be able to see these emerging artist perform, and then they will be interviewed in a talk show setting so that you will be able to plug up and connect to these artists.
Lastly, The Come Up is teaming up with Wix to host exclusive comedy shows as well as a release of the official website which will be launched within the next few months. I'm excited to share our work with the world and help be that change and inspiration. This website will include nothing but music, content from past shows, artist galleries, photos and all there is to know about The Come Up.
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Joe Hill is the founder of The Come Up 365, a live performance and event series for NYC vocalist, musicians, comedians and spoken word artists. You can follow Joe on Twitter at @ThisIsJoeHill.
Medvis Jackson is a curator at Kulchah, co-founder of #TheDigilogue and avid cricket fan. You can follow him @medvisjackson for his random thoughts. He primarily covers startup, tech and small business ecosystems and resources.
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