Chris Lemmon's one-man stage revives his dad's stories and spirit (pictured); Film L.A. reports that film production is down, but TV production is way up over the past year; In-Q has carved out a place for himself where spoken word, poetry and music intersect.
Spoken word artist IN-Q: 'If you don't think Kendrick Lamar is a poet, you're not listening'
Deciding to become a poet as your profession might seem like a longshot, but National Poetry Slam champion IN-Q has carved out a place for himself where spoken word, poetry and music intersect.
IN-Q, which stands for In Question, uses his talent with words to inspire audiences to question what they know about the human experience. He’s also managed to parlay his career as a slam poet into that of a multi-platinum songwriter, working with artists such as Selena Gomez, Aloe Blacc and Miley Cyrus.
On Jan. 15, In-Q brings his unique form of poetry to a live performance at the Mark Taper Forum in downtown L.A.
IN-Q recently came by The Frame to talk about his career as a poet, what inspires his art and how his love of poetry and hip-hop are equal.
Interview Highlights
What made you decide to pursue poetry as a career?
I never really thought that I would be a poet. I started out as a rapper. And I was 100 percent certain that that was going to be what I was gonna do for the rest of my life and I was gonna get signed and have fortune and fame — and it never quite worked out that way. Then, when I was 20, I ended up at a place called Da Poetry Lounge, which is on Fairfax and Melrose, and started doing my rapping a capella and people responded to it and pretty soon I realized I was more of a poet than a rapper.
What were you rapping about then and was it reflective of what was going on in your life?
I always kind of drew from the things I was thinking and the things that I was feeling. Interestingly enough, when rap started to become about the lowest common denominator, I wasn't able to express myself in the way that I wanted to, so poetry allowed me to be more conceptually free with what I talked about.
What do you mean by lowest common denominator? Is that what was selling or the way people were performing or what audiences came to expect a rap performance would sound like?
Yeah, I think it became more popular to talk about sex and violence and money and that's what was selling at the time. I didn't want to focus on that. It's a part of everybody's life, it's certainly a part of mine, but it wasn't the thing that moved me.
What are the parallels between rapping and slam poetry? What do they share the most?
Passion, they both come from a place of truth, like a raw voice and rhythm. The way that poetry works, at least for me, and the way that hip-hop works is there's a bounce to what's being said and it really brings the audience in, in a way that no other art form does. And you can say more in a shorter amount of time.
When you're composing your work, when you're going through your creative process, do you hear a rhythm, do you hear a rhyme, or do you hear a subject that you want to address? What's the sequence of events?
They're always different, but I got something yesterday, for example. Someone said something in a conversation, then I responded, and my response to the conversation was, "I want to have a house where I can make memories in every room." And then I said, "Excuse me," and I jotted that down. That's the start of a poem. Other times I have something that I really need to write, for whatever reason, and I just wake up in the middle of the night. I have no idea where the poem is going to go, but I kinda trust that the poem will write itself if I pay attention.
You said you've gone from rapping to poetry slams, did songwriting come along at the same time and was it a natural outgrowth of where you were going as an artist?
It just came around by accident, which is really why poetry came around. Because of my rapping I got into poetry and because of my poetry I got into songwriting. I think most poets, at least at this stage, are using poetry to get into other genres. What I've tried to do is use poetry to get into another genre and then use that genre to get back into poetry.
Are your favorite poets rappers or poets? Not that they're distinct, but one has a platform and one doesn't.
If you don't think Kendrick Lamar is a poet, you're not listening. He's the best MC in the world to me. There's a lot of really great poets that are in my community: Lemon Andersen; there's a guy named Shane Koyczan, he's unbelievable; Shihan the Poet. These guys have always been an inspiration to me along my road. It's like steel sharpening steel. There's a lot of MCs out there who are doing incredible work and they continue to challenge and inspire me as well.
IN-Q performs an original piece during his interview on The Frame:
IN-Q performs for inmates at Ironwood State Prison:
IN-Q performs with Cirque du Soleil:
'Jack Lemmon Returns:' Chris Lemmon remembers his father in one-man show
When the actor Jack Lemmon died in 2001, he left quite a Hollywood legacy: He was the first to receive Academy Awards for both lead and supporting actor. And he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Film Institute.
But he also left behind stories that his son, Chris Lemmon, wanted to share. He did that in his book, “A Twist of Lemmon,” which became the basis for a one-man show, “Jack Lemmon Returns” (written and directed by Hershey Felder), currently at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica.
Chris Lemmon recently spoke with The Frame's host, John Horn, to talk about the stage tribute to his famous father.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
How would you describe this play?
It's really a look back at the wonderful times I shared with my father. It's basically, at it's core, a deeply tragic father-son story, but it's couched in the lore of golden age Hollywood. So it kind of runs the emotional gamut.
Your father was not only an alcoholic, but also was taken away from you by his work. Is that tragic aspect of it?
Exactly. Not just his work — divorce, a number of different things, and life. It's really a unique — but in very many ways universal — father-son story. We were quite close when I was quite young, but at a very, very early age, we were really ripped apart from each other and stayed that way for quite a while. But then, through a conscious effort on his part, and eventually — even though I didn't know it at the time — we came back together and became the closest of friends against all odds. And then, unfortunately he died tragically young [at 76].
When did you reconcile? How old were you and how old was your father?
I was kind of a late bloomer. I'd say in my early 20's to mid-20's, when I sort of came into my own, and suddenly he and I just looked at each other and said, Wait a minute. Hold on a second there. I kind of like you. And we started to spend a lot of time together then. It was music, really, that brought us back together — the piano.
How did music bring you back together?
He was the one who was responsible for teaching me. You take a look at the poster for [the show at] The Broad. It's an actual picture of me trying to plunk out notes while he's playing it at our beach house down on Santa Monica beach. He was very patient for a while, but then he said, "Kid, you gotta take some lessons." And so I did, and the piano became my love in an attempt not to have to follow in that giant's footsteps. I wanted to become a classical pianist, but becoming an actor was inevitable. My father used to say, "It's in the genes. All in the genes."
We should talk a little bit about the Santa Monica beach house. You relate in your play a neighbor of yours that you go and visit... Why don't you describe who you visited and how old you were.
The play is done in my father's voice, which is wonderful because it gives me a chance to be with him every night for 90 minutes. But as he tells it, he says, "He's a hot shot... all of a sudden he decides to go over. He sees this helicopter doing low, lazy circles over the neighbor's house. He knew every secret little passageway in the neighborhood, so he found himself by the neighbor's pool, watching this very pretty blonde lady frolicking in the water with a very distinguished-looking gentleman. And that's when the secret service agents pulled him out of his hiding spot. Well, of course, the lady was Marilyn Monroe and the gentleman... well, you know: Ask not what your country can do for you..." And there's the story.
What specifically were you looking for in terms of catharsis, and how did that actually play itself out?
I wanted my father back. Don't we all? I mean, how do you ever get your parents back? Don't we all have those dreams, you know, on a regular basis, that those loved ones that are gone are back and it's just this wonderful, comforting feeling. I was searching for that and in writing down those memories, I was able to sort of find it. The writing process, it really is true — once you've got the first page down and the last page down, there's your story. And those wonderful characters, as I walked towards my office every day, were leaning out the windows saying, Come write us! Come write us! And it was just a magnificent feeling, and I missed it after the book was published. So in that search for catharsis, this play has filled that.
Were these stories that you remembered personally or were they stories that friends and family recounted to you?
I'd say both. A lot of these stories were from Pop himself, more so in the book than in the show. A lot of those stories are my memories and also Hershey [Felder] is a very good investigative writer. He really does his research. He's excellent at that and he found a lot of stuff. For instance, the whole fact that my father had an enormous crush on Jean-Louis Barrault — the French actor, director and mime — and that's a huge part of the show. That was something that Hershey brought to it that I didn't know.
Not just a crush, but that [your father] thought that [Barrault] was the performer that he wanted to become.
Exactly. My father was always — and this is something that I knew very much — he was always befuddled by the fact that Hollywood had to lay such stipulations on actors, that they had to be either this or that. He always felt that comedy and drama should seamlessly intertwine, and he was quite good at doing that, but Hollywood wouldn't let him until ... When people ask me what's my favorite Jack Lemmon film, I've got to say "The Apartment," for that very reason.
Let's talk a little bit about his voice. You clearly know his voice well. You also learn about his voice from watching performances. Are there different aspects about his voice in real life and on screen.
It's very interesting and I hope I'm not giving myself an indirect pat on the back, but I gotta say that I do a damn good Jack Lemmon. (In his father's voice:) I try not to do an imitation by any means. I think I sort of channel him. You know Kevin Spacey? He came by rehearsal the other day and he does a pretty damn good Jack Lemmon, too. So we get into a Jack Lemmon duel, Spacey and me, and it's just disgusting. You don't want to be in the room when that happens.
You describe in the play, speaking as your father, what it was like to be an alcoholic and see your son seeing you as a drunk. How did you see your father yourself?
I saw an incredibly brave man. A man who was willing to make an enormously difficult change in his life because he realized that he was not only getting in his own way, but he was getting in everybody else's as well, and he didn't want to do that. My father was a very selfless man. He always thought of other people first and he realized the impact that his drinking had on those people that he cared about.
And not just his immediate family, all of his friends, all of his fans and the world, because he had the courage before it was by any means in vogue — when it was career suicide — to publicly admit it on The Actor's Studio in front of James Lipton, out of the blue. If you watch that episode, you can see Lipton's jaw drop when he turns and publicly admits that he was not only a recovering alcoholic, that he was attending, regularly, Alcoholics Anonymous. And as he says, as I say as him in the play, he made that decision and he never looked back: "I haven't had a drink since. Not one." And he didn't.
“Jack Lemmon Returns,” starring Chris Lemmon, is running at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica through February 1.