We were lucky to catch up with Maagic Collins recently and have shared our conversation below.
Maagic, thank you so much for joining us today. Let’s jump right into something we’re interested in hearing about from you – being the only one in the room. People often find themselves as the only person in the room especially when they are taking a bold step – like a new career. They can find themselves the only black person, the only male or female, the only immigrant, etc. With the added difficulty of being part of groups being continually marginalized, can you talk to us about how you have learned to be effective and successful in situations where you are the only one in the room like you?
I find strength and freedom in knowing in this bizarre, beautiful, and oftentimes disturbing world, all I can be is myself. No matter if it’s a healthy supportive environment or it’s toxic and oppressive. We have to cherish our uniqueness and similarities even at the risk of being alienated by more ignorant types of people. When I find myself more often than not these days, as the fish out of water, mostly by design since the moment I stepped out too much for some people’s comfort and started marching, at this point I can only be me.
My philosophy is simple; give a good faith effort every day. Focus on the task in front of me and do my best. Collaborate when the job calls for a group effort. Ask for help when needed and keep it moving at the end of the day. Nothing special just grounded consistent effort.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper, into skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself.
I’m a black male originally from South Central and raised in the Bay Area. Went on to graduate college from Chico State. These days I’m mainly working to raise a family within the endless culture wars; and the disturbing political, religious, economic, and entertainment landscape we find ourselves in. Before the pandemic, I was an actor/ comedian and I worked many gig jobs. As for my artistic career, after an abysmal 2019 where Murphy’s Law came to life, which we talked about in a previous Voyage article – all of my works continued to be derailed in 2020-2021. Now my artistic endeavors have taken a back seat to living a life dedicated to enjoying the loved ones currently in my life. At some point, it would be nice to find the means to reconnect with fans and followers directly. It has weirded me out to this day that people, who once shared accolades of gratitude with me often, have been somehow suppressed, stand-offish or even shamed, or possibly ordered (?), into not outwardly acknowledging me anymore and they no longer talk to me of how my work helped them through tough times. What my voice might have meant to them good or bad, this would have been normal for any other public figure. The freedom of feedback is to know how your words and actions are being interpreted. To be ostracized, to become an outcast from an industry I’ve worked harmoniously in with so many others for over a decade, then to have all of these interactions effectively blocked is another example of modern-day oppression in plain sight.
I went from openly being called an Icon and people wanting to be seen with me, to people wanting me to take pictures with them and their loved ones. Then to finding myself being stalked and harassed by newly-arrived, strange, hostile neighbors; surprised by messy people going through our trash (not our recyclables – our trash); weirdos in the middle of the night taping things to my car. One bizarre event after another.
One particular moment happened while I was working at the nonprofit Painted Brain, we had set up a call center using a service called 8X8. This individual called asking for advice from our service which was supposed to function much like 211. You call, we get you in touch with people and organizations that can help you with your specific situation. This person came off as someone who wasn’t looking for help. Every suggestion I gave him he simply brushed it off and began to fixate on my name. Finally, he sounded nervous and said “Maagic …we’re not supposed to say your name for a year.” This was during the early months of 2021.
If this was true, I thought and still do think about how damaging that had to be for people who liked the work I was doing and I know how damaging it has been for me not finding answers. These past few years have offset my career to something unrecognizable. The sensation felt like I and my future were being erased –not only from my career in the industry, not only from my work to help others through the mental health field but also from the history books.
These years moving out of the pandemic have felt like a bit of irony. Ahmaud Arbery losing his life in 2020 sent me as a protester into the streets in a way I had never been active before. I only heard about this kind of resistance during my mother’s younger days as an activist. Somehow, on those battlefields, in a lot of ways, I ended up simply being exploited. During that time I “lost my life” as I knew it. These days I live a life with still no answers as to who or what orchestrates the foul play done to my career and is still being done around me, though the prejudice and ignorance lives in the air. Feeling like the only person in the room has taken on new meaning as there are not too many who can relate to my experiences.
One of the ways I embraced being different was by creating my podcast. Which I am still proud of, to be able to create almost seventy episodes with no funding while everything is being thrown at me is something I am still proud of to this day. I enjoyed producing my podcast Fight the Funk; “exploring mental health, culture, and the world around us.” I still might bring it back under a different name but these days, raising a family and keeping kids on the right track at the Boys and Girls Club keeps me very busy. And I’m a natural coach so it’s fulfilling to be able to use my life experiences at the Club to help members to move forward in life.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I spent my life developing a strong sense of self, using my work ethic to embrace my love of life, and being a mostly chill dude.
The first quality would be, developing a strong sense of self. None of us will always be strong and make the best decisions in life, but what we can do is keep learning and developing ourselves. For me, I know I’m mostly a chill person in my everyday life. That is something that has helped me take a step back from situations that didn’t feel right or where my health wasn’t a concern to others in certain spaces I found myself in and knowing how I usually am helped me remove myself from such spaces.
Secondly, my work ethic is something that used to be talked about among my friends. It’s not what it used to be as I’ve learned to relax more and I’m just older, more mature. Now it’s more of finding a balance between being grateful to have life and love while knowing the forces of racism, bigotry, sexism, and homophobia are ever-present, and since marching, speaking up on my experiences even sharing my bi-sexual experiences, I will always be a target. I’ve been a black male my whole life and racist practices and institutions have left their mark on my life and society at large, yet love remains.
I love life, no matter how tough it has been, and that love for life once had me at the height of stardom in acting and stand-up comedy, in a very exploitative way that I was not happy with nor consented to I must add. That love for life also put me on the front line for social justice. That love also allowed me to speak truths to so many people around the world. Where I talked about my life, mental health, history and so much more. Unfortunately, my truths allowed me and my message to be seemingly misused as well as abused by certain people who simply saw me as a show that must go on, no matter the cost to my health.
- For those looking to truly be a better human being, be relentless when it comes to your self-improvement. This is how you discover and continue to develop the best version of yourself.
- Having a healthy work ethic is the minimum you can bring into any situation. You can always control giving a good faith effort on a given task or project.
- Love is not passive. Ask yourself, if you are a loving person how are you practicing love while at the same time establishing boundaries from those who seek to just exploit you as a loving person? That is the reality, but it doesn’t mean being less loving or allowing other people to abuse you in the name of love. It’s simply to know we have a culture of “pimping butterflies” … thanks for the visual Professor Kendrick Lamar. We must move with this in mind, and bring fairness and accountability whenever we can in ourselves and in our society.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
Some of my most impactful books have been a gift, it’s known among my loved ones how much I lean on the teaching of Thich Nhat Hanh for guidance. So on a retreat, I was gifted a pocket version of Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings and I have taken that book everywhere with me over the last few years.
One of the teachings that helped me connect with my core self more was the breakdown of Heroism, you think of heroes as action figures that fearlessly go into battle to rescue fallen comrades. As someone who put my life on the line during the protests, I know what it’s like to have rubber bullets whizz by my head. Have guns pointed at me and flash bangs go off right by my feet. Yet, this is not true heroism. This is very visual and gets people on their video games, to feel such a moment. The Heroism explored in the work of Thich Nhat Hanh is much more powerful. That of understanding and compassion; he speaks on how this is a powerful energy.
“Human beings are not our enemy. Our enemy is not the other person. Our enemy is the violence, ignorance, and injustice in us and the other person.”
Thich Nhat Hanh’s teaching helped me see persecution and oppression from a place far beyond my lifetime to get ever closer to universal truths.
The last book that made a profound impact on me was Hurricane Carter’s “Eye of The Hurricane.” Very important, as at the time I was reading this book there had been a sustained effort to criminalize everything about my life. I could understand the racial components and motivation behind the actions, yet calling it out almost became pointless. I ended up showing up in a world that had vilified me thoroughly and I walked in truth not knowing if some deranged person drunk off of some online echo chamber would cross a line they would probably live to regret if they had taken the time to actually know me. I could not fault them nor the disgusting things said to me as I know the offenders against my life operated with a level of impunity that allowed people to say disgusting things to me based on who they were led to believe me to be. A very racist and homophobic framework. What helped me show up everyday, in such pleasantly hostile environments, was knowing I’m not the first nor the last to be set up like this.
I remember reading a passage where Hurricane Carter is at a conference with Nelson Mandela and the two men both laugh and say “We made it!” While I was sitting in my car reading this book waiting for the next onslaught of racial targeting I would encounter the next time I went to Santa Monica for my deliveries, I could only laugh to myself and say I hope my actions and conviction make you both proud. I pictured myself standing with these two, the three of us all laughing. When you know in your heart your innocence but the powers that be have in some shape or form rigged your environment in order to rule you as “other,” it can and would break the average person. In those dark moments, all you can do is continue to show up in an unjust world and if it helps at all tell yourself, God knows the universal truth. Not my truth but the actual truth the timeline of all beings and the parts individuals and groups played in the harms done. That has to be good enough to make the best of a life that is short and where there isn’t true accountability for those who abuse the people, justice, the law through their wealth, their political forces, and their influence flowing up toward an amalgamation of abuse of power.
In closing, I know there are good years I will never get back. The institutional ignorance of others has taught me a great deal about this world and myself. What it feels like to be erased and dehumanized is something that I at times find hard to explain, one can only see the world through a spiritual lens to see past manufactured hate and ignorance.
A lot of what Mr. Carter learned when he was unjustly behind bars is a lot of what I was understanding during what I feel is my unjust treatment. “What religion really teaches is that heaven is here, right now, and that the Spirit is the connecting medium between the higher and the lower worlds. Man cannot enter the Promised Land until he first finds God within himself. Becoming who we truly are, I would tell my fellow prisoners, is a miraculous achievement.” What I take from this book and from the teachings of such masters of Thich Nhat Hanh is that your life may be unjustly sabotaged in such a broken world, but the light within you is untouchable.
Contact Info:
For business inquiries:
- Email: [email protected]
To view Maagic Collins’ work:
- Instagram: instagram.com/maagicman
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/maagiccollins
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/@MaagicCollins
Image Credits
The photos shared are from my collection.
