Skyler Brown
@skyler_is_brown with the coolest coffee table/trunk I’ve ever seen.
-Music-
“Casey, yet again with this ridiculous labeling of people. Skyler is an actor you terrible person. Don’t you know anything?”
Read the interview you freaks! I do want I want! And also what other people tell me.
Skyler is an incredibly talented human and musician. How lucky are we all to know a person who’s first instinct is kindness always? Of course he agreed to sit down with me when I begged him but I had no idea our conversation would be as deep and inspiring to me as it was. He was just speaking from his heart. But the fact that he was speaking from his heart is what inspired me.
Interviewed 6.5.20
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Casey: Hey, Skyler.
Skyler: Hi, Casey.
Casey: So I just have a couple of questions to ask you.
Skyler: I'm ready.
Casey: First of which, how are you?
Skyler: I'm doing well. I know my standard response when I get that question is, you know, I am air quotes, OK, but I'm not OK—or no—that was backwards. I'm not air quotes, OK, but I'm OK. Yeah. I'm healthy. I'm safe. As safe as, you know, that word means in today. But I'm okay. Yeah, I'm doing well. I'm back at work. I think it's a little too early. But my restaurant's taking a lot of precautions, so I'm really grateful for that. Servers are required to wear masks, gloves at all times, blah, blah, blah. Personally, I would like for the restaurant to be closed, but I am glad that if I have to be there, that they're taking the right steps. But for the most part, at the end of the day, I'm doing well.
Casey: How would you say you've been doing overall?
Skyler: Overall, I've been one of the lucky ones in that I am kind of naturally introverted, anyways. So when quarantine first hit, I was doing great. I was fine. It was a super long vacation. There were a couple of days where I was like, "Man, I would really like to see some people." But that was pretty fleeting, as goofy as that sounds. I was great. It's been really, really nice. And then, you know, the times have changed, obviously, as we're all aware. And it's been a little weirder for sure. But we're still surviving, you know, as best as we can.
Casey: What else have you been doing?
Skyler: I've been playing a lot of music. My band is still trying to figure out what we're going to do. Because one of the things that was kind of a secret is that I was going to kind of quietly retire from theater after Once. Not a permanent retire by any means, but I wanted to really, really be able to focus on my band. And it's something that I've never done. When we started the band 10 years ago, it was the same year that I went back to school. So, you know, those four years I was dueling band and being a theater major. In between, I spent one year to work a whole bunch before I moved down here. So I was working a bunch while doing the band. And then when I moved down here, both of the guys in the band are in North Carolina. So that was now, I think it's been four years, maybe five years of me being in Atlanta, of just being an actor while occasionally getting up there, and they'll come down here for shows occasionally. But again, it's now battling theater in Atlanta and being in a band . . . So I've been writing a lot of music. I've been playing a lot of video games and then catching up on movies and TV where I can. But mostly just music and video games.
Casey: I'm sure that you miss music and I'm sure you miss people, but what else are you missing right now?
Skyler: As goofy as it is, as somebody who is a career server, I miss going to restaurants and paying too much for food and having somebody wait on me and them being adequate and me tipping them too much. I miss it. I miss it. I was about to say I won't toot my own horn, but I think I am a very good waiter. I know I am. So I love being waited on by very good waiters, and somebody that knows what they're doing.
If you ever go out to eat with me, you'll know that probably the first words out of my mouth are, "Oh, what's your favorite thing on the menu?" Just to see what they say. And if they're like, "I don't know, the chicken's good. I don't know, I like the steak." You know, it's like, okay, cool. I'll figure out what I want. But if they're super passionate about what they eat, you know. "Oh my God, (flip, flip, flip, flip, flip.) You've got to try this right here." And they point to something and they're like, "Oh my God, this is my favorite thing. I get it every time I come in here and it's got this and I love the flavors." I'm like, you can stop. You've already sold me just when you went, and when I asked your eyes lit up. I was like, it doesn't matter what he says. I'm getting it. And I miss that. I would go sit at restaurants by myself, table for one, all the time just because I enjoy it. I enjoy meeting new people. I think that's why I'm such a good server. I enjoy meeting new people and talking to people for an introvert, surprisingly.
Casey: How has quarantine changed in the last week for you?
Skyler: Quarantine has changed pretty dramatically. I mentioned when we first started that my sleep schedule is really, really messed up. I like to wake up around 9:30 if I'm off work. I'll say I like to wake up at like 9:30, lay in bed, roll around until about 10:00 on my phone and then I'm up. And I'm gonna get in the shower. . . But recently, just seeing some of the hurt and anger in the world—A Facebook friend of mine (I want to make that distinction) posted something about the nine good things your President has done the media won't talk about. And it was nine objectively—I'll just throw that out there, why not keep it civil—nine garbage things. And I called him out on it, I was like, "Yeah, this list is kind of garbage, bro." And my brother texted me, he was like, "Oh, no, that's, that's not me. You know, they get no chances and I just delete them." And I was like, "Yeah, I used to be that way and now I can't let it slide anymore." So I jokingly, whenever people ask me how I'm doing, I'm like, "Oh you know, just fighting racists online.". . .
It just seems like the world is just ready to explode, and I hate watching it right now. It's so incredibly tough and taxing to see. Trevor Noah has that 18-minute long rant—It's so uplifting, and powerful and incredible. And I just found out yesterday that there's a woman named Candace Owens—a Black lady who is going off on another 18-minute rant about basically the other side. I didn't want to watch it, but I felt like a hypocrite if I didn't. And basically, she was just going on saying about how George Floyd should not be anyone's martyr because he was a terrible human being, and she has a lot of facts that maybe back this up. This was late last night, so I did not have time to fact check it. She was just going on and on about, you know, how police brutality is a myth, and George Floyd should be no one's martyr because he was awful. And it freaked me out. I had such a hard time falling asleep after listening to her. And of course, the comments are just, "Wow, I'm so proud of you. Thanks for speaking up. Thank you. I'm so, you know, you should run for president. That's incredible. I love you. That they won't want to hear this because, you know, it's backed by facts." And it's like, holy crap, this is real. People still will buy this. And sure, I don't know everything about George Floyd. He had a prior arrest record that maybe were real. Maybe they weren't. I don't know if they were real, then he's not a saint. But where is, you know, Ahmaud, where are all these other people that—I'm so bad with the names. I wish I wasn't.
Casey: There's too many.
Skyler: There's too many. Exactly. You know, jogging, being asleep in your bed, police in the wrong house. And it's so frustrating to see that as passionate as we are, as I am about Black Lives Matter, about what I am passionate about, that there is somebody equally as passionate on the other side. And I can't believe that. I honestly can't believe that...But I realized that I was an apprentice at Aurora [Theatre] in 2016. And we were talking about Black Lives Matter four years ago. What has happened since then? Nothing. We're still talking about it. I mean, technically, this is still since the 70s, since the 80s, but like Black Lives Matter specifically, and the "No...All Lives Matter" that has been for four years now. It's crazy to me.
Casey: Do you think that this feels different?
Skyler: I do. I do. I think it's the combination of Black Lives Matter, of Colin Kaepernick, of our president, because I guess 2016 would have been Trump's first year. So yeah, when Trump was just getting into office, quarantine, and the fact that there were multiple very high profile [killings] right in a row, you know. Ahmaud jogging, Breonna, and now George. And the way that it happened to George, the way that George was murdered was just the tipping point. And I just think that all of that combined worked for a perfect stew of this explosion and protests that we're seeing.
Casey: To kind of sum up, what do you think you'll take away from this time?
Skyler: What I will take from this is knowing that the uncomfortable fights will be there with friends, family, acquaintances, people I don't know. The uncomfortable fights will be there, the uncomfortable fights are necessary, and that hopefully the people that want to be in your life, that deserve to be in your life will be able to. We're past the "Oh, you like that candidate, I like this candidate. Let us come to get..." No, no, no. If you like this man that is in the office and you are OK with things that he has said, then you don't like me. There are no more like, "Ok, well, let us get past this." No, that's over. I'm sorry. I'm not sorry. I'm sorry that I'm not sorry. So knowing that those fights will be there, and being okay with that, and being okay with letting friends go.
But I hope for the world that people will get out there and vote. I hope for the world that people will—I know it's going to take time—just love each other, just be nice. Keanu Reeves of all people said, "I don't want to live in a world where being kind is a weakness.” And it's so true. I don't want that. I don't want that for this world. So, you know, I'll be the first to say Joe Biden is not a perfect candidate. We know that. Am I still going to run to the polls to get him into office over 45? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. That's what I will take away and my hope for the world. I just hope that we can all survive this.
