We had the good fortune of connecting with David Acuff and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi David, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Necessity is the mother of invention. But also, getting laid off with 7000 of your fellow cast mates from Disney is also the mother of invention. Maybe the evil step-mother of invention. That’s what happened last year after seven years as a Producer-Editor for the house of mouse. And that’s fine. That’s our industry. It’s got highs and lows. You’re not doing your job well if you haven’t been fired a couple of times. Just ask Spielberg.

Where was I? Oh yeah… unemployed. And did I mention that an industry-wide strike was going on? That’s some Woody Allen-level irony right there.

I grew up as an Air Force brat. Moving from town to town every two years or so. Four different high schools. Yikes. I admired Opie Taylor on “The Andy Griffith Show” because he could walk down main street and everyone would say “Hi” and greet him by name. Meanwhile, I just wanted the same haircut twice in a row.

But it trains you how to be an emotional 2×4. Tough and resilient. Unflappable. And a little crazy. In other words, an entrepreneur! Years ago I began turning my feature screenplays into novels and publishing them to Amazon. Last summer, I made it official and launched my new LLC: BravoBay Books.

The idea is to continue publishing novels, audiobooks, book trailers, etc and slowly grow my brand and my audience. And BravoBay is not just about books, it’s also about Comedy Marketing just like we’ve seen with Ryan Reynolds company, Maximum Effort. Wrexham, Mintmobile, Aviation gin… these are just a few of the stellar and hilarious ad campaigns that I’ve had nothing to do with whatsoever.

But that’s only because Deadpool won’t return my calls.

Anyway, my motto is “what doesn’t kill you makes you funnier!” So, yeah, let’s write a book; or make a movie; or collab on a Tik-tok!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
One of the things I liked about the Disney job was it was Monday to Friday 9am to 6pm for the most part. That left all my nights and weekends for my writing projects. I’ve now got five books on the market and my sixth is a SciFi epic called “Battle Tides” that releases May 2nd on Amazon. I started it in 2012 and kept whittling away until it finally was finished.

See I’m a big believer in not waiting around for some gatekeeper to allow you into the inner sanctum. I’m all about creating opportunities on our own. But you have to be prepared. You have to be good enough. One of my favorite quotes is from Chuck Jones, the animator for some classic Warner Brothers cartoons. In his first year of art school the professor told them, “Inside of each one of you is 100,000 bad drawings. The sooner you get those out on paper, the sooner you get to the good drawings.”

Now I don’t know the writing equivalent but whatever it is, I’m on board. Coming up with a new idea; organizing the idea and researching; writing the idea into a story or script; hiring an editor to rip it apart; polishing and finishing the idea and then moving on to the next idea. Keep moving forward. Learning and growing in the craft.

My first script in college was HORRIBLE. Just terrible. I didn’t even do Courier 12 because I wasn’t vibing with that font so I chose Times New Roman 14. What? You can’t do that. There are rules! But I’d finish one project and move on to the next. I’d take classes. I’d talk with other writers. I’ve talked with so many people that “have a great idea” so they say. But they never do anything with it. Because the truth is there’s a lot of blood sweat and tears involved in getting that story to paper.

Like I don’t want to hear about any more “dreamers” and their big ideas at this point in my life. Give me the “doers”. The action people. Getting it done. Giving themselves permission to suck badly at first but to improve with time and one day to turn pro. Give me ten of that person and I can take over Hollywood!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Well, unfortunately DiCaprio won’t return my DMs so we won’t be attending any of his huge parties. So we’re left with the other stuff that any ol’ muggle can do. I’d want to show them Santa Monica pier and walk the boardwalk. Or we’d do the Malibu Farm Restaurant on that pier which is a stunning view. I’d take them to a Warner Brothers tour so we could get on the lot where Bogart and Bacall made movie magic. I used to take people onto the Disney lot in Burbank when I worked there to get the David Acuff personal tour which was magical. We might brunch at Chateau Marmont and hope to catch a famous person sighting like Bruce Willis that one time. Or, we might do lunch at Paty’s Diner in Burbank and run into Steve Carrell again. We might go horse back riding up by the Hollywood sign which starts in Burbank’s Equestrian Center. We might hit Disneyland. It’s Los Angeles so one of your friends is gonna be starring in a play or doing improv so that’s a thing to do. Oh, and of course hit the walk of fame long enough to take a picture with the jankiest looking Iron Man or a hobo dressed as Spiderman. That’s a pretty full weekend right there.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Tons of people to shout out! It takes a village! I’d like to thank Mrs. Daschiell my 5th grade teacher who read my story aloud to the class. It’s probably her fault I’m a writer in the first place. I’d like to thank Keith Brown who is a DP in North Carolina for my first paid work as arguably the worst production assistant ever. But he was patient. Maybe thank my Divorce Lawyer. I’d like to thank all my followers on Instagram. I haven’t given y’all a name yet like ‘Swifties’ or ‘Sheerios’ but I’m working on it. Community is important. I’d like to thank the Nunnally family for ‘adopting me’ when I moved to L.A. so I could have a real Thanksgiving at their house instead of just Pop Tarts in the janky back-house I was renting. And of course my agent and manager, Jesus. Not Jesus Trejo of UTA but the other one from Nazareth. And not to get too meta but a shoutout to Shoutout for providing this great opportunity.

Website: https://davidacuff.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidacuff

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/dacuff

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DavidAcuff

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/sdavidacuff

Other: Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/S.-David-Acuff/author/B07ZC5MS8W?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Image Credits
Eric McCandless (Kristen Bell Interv photo)

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