The Marc Copage Podcast Show

As far as people like Prince? I think, well you know I’m not the expert or anything but I think that I would society or science or whatever would probably categorize him as a transvestite? Which I believe if I read correctly is typically a heterosexual man who likes to wear women’s clothing and accessories? Like you said, it’s not so black and white. That’s absolutely true. That’s why it’s so hard...

I feel at home when I’m on set. There are not a lot of irritating things that come to mind. I get more irritated in real life than I ever do on set. As you know from being an actor for many years you get a breakdown. What you’re supposed to do, what you’re supposed to wear, what the time frame is, what your role is, and you have time to prepare for that and what you need to do.  There’s a breakdow...

"I love being in front of the camera and I love being around other artistic people. A lot of the work that I’ve done throughout my entire life is from word of mouth. People in the industry tend to know each other, especially directors. I think the modeling and acting kind of started around the same time, but initially it was more modeling. Models turned to actress tend to kind of have a littl...

I was closeted when I lived in Ohio. I even went to a seminary school to try not to be gay. I didn’t allow myself to be gay until I moved to California. The first time I went back to a school reunion was my 20th. And I was hesitant. I had a lot of friends and my friends were wonderful to me, but it was a big class and there were people I didn’t know well and they called me, instead of Terry Ray I...

I wear a lot of hats because I have to. Here’s my thing. I’m a very strong proponent of making things happen. I cannot stand sitting around waiting for something to happen so I do what I have to to make it happen. That’s the only way I can function. You just have to do it. I am always an actor, but I absolutely love writing so I don’t know if I can do a Sophie’s choice on the two of those. I can t...

There’s a desperate need for content right now. There are so many streaming platforms. I believe I will be able to sell it and actually make it. People like to see things. They don’t just want a one sheet anymore, they don’t want a pitch. They want to actually see what they’re buying. I do believe that if I get this short series up I’ll have a better chance because then they can see the basic arc...

It happened my senior year. I wasn’t acting, but I felt my soul really wanted to do it. So I found myself in this class about film noir and German expressionism. It was very interesting to see how American culture compares to German expressionism from Europe because Europe was going thru this tumultuous thing and there were all of these people coming here to live to get away from it all, but it wa...

A dancer can work in so many mediums that an actor can’t. For a film or television actor you can do a play on Broadway or a tour or something, but if you sing and dance that opens a wealth of opportunities for you. I turned down cruise ships twice. You can dance on Broadway tours, you can dance in Vegas shows, you can dance in movies, TV, commercials. You can teach dance. There are so many avenues...

Some of the dancers who display their talents on TikTok are some of the most well paid dancers in the world. Some of these kids make 5 and 6 million dollars a year. There are so many ways for talent to promote themselves. I want to cut back to my generation. I remember there were self contained acts. I did Mitzi Gaynor’s act for example. I learned a lot about these artists when I worked with them....

I left the show after the first year, the first season. I loved it, don’t get me wrong. But, because they won Emmy’s in their first season and I was part of that, and I was proud of that, they got a lot more cash from Gracie and Fox who were their production companies at the time. They got a cash infusion which they could have easily afforded to put their crew to go union, but they didn’t. They di...

Back then you got into it because you enjoyed being part of a collaborative thing. You had your writers, you had your storyboard artist that basically do a little thumbnail comic book of what the writing looks like. And then the director goes over that and fixes it and changes it and there’s a lot of back and forth. The storyboarding is done often by committee. So you're writing it by committ...

I provide a storyboard for every video that I am going to do. I use fiber. What is fiber? Oh, my God, you don’t…? You have to use fiber! Fiber is a platform where you can connect with other creatives. They have people that do music videos. They have musicians, the lady playing base on my video I got from fiber. Your budget can be as little as $5. You can get someone to do something for you for as...

In Europe they really, really, really, love new music. They’ll come to my shows no matter how many times I’ve been through. Over the years I have met several musicians and a musician friend of mine was contacted by a friend of his who was looking for a singer to work on this song for him so we started communicating via Facebook. Via Facebook we decided to work on this song. I would send files to h...

We live in a class society and most people have very little control at the end of the day. We live in a lottery economic system where there will always be large groups of people who will fall through the cracks. It is an established system and no amount of believing or praying to some deity, or kissing the feet of some self-help guru is going to change that fact.  

Composing itself is considered a creative endeavor and it is to their advantage to be in the union. Not as a composer, but as a conductor, or a score consultant, an orchestrator, and then you can build up your pension and health plan and things like that. And you have the protection of a union. A lot of people think it’s very difficult to work with the different scales and all and the contracts, b...

“You said that you had been thinking about pursuing a career in science. Are there any skills that you learned when you were interested in science that are applicable to your career as a musician? Do you see any correlation between those two professions? I do see a tie in between both. I know many musicians who are scientists and doctors. They’re both very mathematical. They’re both patterns. I LO...

What do you think makes a good story? How do you know that something you’ve written will resonate with an audience? I think you write something that’s coming from a place of, even if it didn’t happen to you, it’s something that you can zone into, or you know some people it has happened to and you also use your imagination it will resonate with people. Another song I’ve written that does that, even...

For my book ‘Rainbow Relatives’, I never thought I would write a book, but I was talking to my sister on the phone and asked her if her kids new about my orientation? If they knew if their uncle was gay or not? My sister was like, I think so, but I’m not sure. She said I’m not sure how to even approach that, I wish there was a book on that. So I was like, I’m on it, you know I love to write! So th...

I’m honored that stations, not only across the country, but across the world like my work so much.  It’s really exciting. My whole life I knew this is what I was destined to do. And I’ve continued to do it all this time. I consistently have always sung and was determined this was going to be how I lived my life.

“When we were young my sisters and I were in the car with my mother. My parents had just divorced. And that becomes important because of what had happened. The song “The Snake” came on the radio, and my mother made us stop doing whatever it was we were doing in the car and said, now you girls listen to this song and listen to the message of the song. And So that was my initial love of Oscar.”

Acting Coach, Scott Rogers, LOST, North Shore, Baywatch, Hawaii Five-0, ER, 50 First Dates, Pearl Harbor, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Rundown, Tears of the Sun, Blue Crush, Lilo & Stich, etc., etc. I actually started stage managing because that paid better than acting. From stage managing it’s a logical step to go into directing. So I started directing theater. When I was directing theater I woul...

Older people are having real issues with doing self tapes and uploading them and all the technical stuff that you have to do and go through. It’s just not their thing. So that’s a big problem for them. I heard a lady stand up at a national Sag/Aftra board meeting. She was a guest. She was a working actress that you would know who she was. And she said, she’s leaving the industry because I just can...

You have to love what you’re doing and love doing it for the right reasons. You absolutely should not be doing it because you want to be famous. You absolutely should not be doing it because you think you’re going to be making a lot of money. You have to be prepared for rejection, rejection, rejection, because that is the industry. The industry is you are constantly opening up your soul, making yo...

When I booked the role on ‘Zoey 101’ and I showed up on set they changed the character completely. Originally when I auditioned I was the math teacher and then they gave me new text and said, Ok, here you go. Now you’re a history teacher and these are your new lines. I also had just gotten a cold so I had lost most of my voice. But I had to find a way to make that work when the camera started roll...

It was no big deal, being on stage for me. But if you’re someone who starts performing, maybe at 12, 14, 15, those are very insecure years. Those are like the awkward years when you’re trying to figure out what you want to do, who you want to be. And that can be a rough time. I find teaching middle schoolers, there’s a level of embarrassment about everything. And it’s like, well, if you came to th...