Actor turned rapper Donald Glover A.K.A Childish Gambino is a busy man. Juggling both acting roles, putting out new music, and touring internationally. But if any of it is weighing him down, you wouldn’t tell by his recent interview with Conan O’Brien on his late night show ‘Conan’. Except for the hockey-esque playoff beard, Gambino seems completely at ease with his double life as an actor starring in Ridley Scott’s The Martian, and musical performer set to headline Listen Out festival next week! There doesn’t appear to be a Bruce Willis/ Bruno situation developing just yet for the Atlanta born performer. Yet.
Whatever you think of Gambino’s music, you have to admit that as far as switching disciplines, Glover has been about as successful as you could imagine. A founding member of comedy troupe Derrick Comedy, Glover got his start writing for 30 Rock, before moving on to the role of the beloved Troy in NBC’s Community. All the while however, alter-ego Gambino was working on his music, preparing to make a splash on the hip hop world.
Gambino ruminates during the interview, discussing the horror of his mother that he would consider leaving a prosperous writing job to pursue a career in music, he notes “It was a bad decision, but I didn’t know it—so it worked out great!” Clearly though, the creative talents of Glover are insuppressible, having achieved great success in writing/stand-up/acting/music he is the ever-rare quadruple threat.
When pressed on the differences between stand-up and performing in concert, Glover quips, “It’s really bad when people know all the words to your jokes,” and continues to note that he’d once had a bar of soap thrown at him on stage at a Gambino show, and how he’d much prefer to deal with that at a music show than during a comedy performance. Charming as always, Glover once again displayed his appealing nervousness that endears him to people, and works so well with his clever lyrics and urgent cadence.