Check Out Ronald Bush’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ronald Bush.

Hi Ronald, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?

I was born in Philadelphia, PA to a Jamaican immigrant mother and father of the Jim Crow South. It seems almost lost sometimes that homophobia and racial tensions were much worse when I was a kid vs where we are today. The fear I grew up in was deeply traumatizing for me.

But I was always creative. Since I was a kid, I did everything from building go-carts from spare parts we found around the neighborhood, to performing in grade school plays. Being on stage led me to be part of some of West Philly’s original crews that included the likes of DJ Cosmic Kev, DJ Lightning Rich, MC Rell & The Houserockers, Big Tone aka Panda today, and The Magnificent Jazzy Jeff, before he joined with The Fresh Prince. To describe me, think Rugrats meets Boondock Saints and The movie Coolie High. I thought I was cool, but, well, it was complicated.

It was street and drug-related violence along with being a closeted gay man that had me make my first major life choice at 18 and get into corporate America. My first job was at NY Life Insurance. But by 20, I was recruited by one of my best friends’ fathers, who was a mentor of sorts, to the Semiconductor Distribution industry. I quickly excelled, started making lots of money, and felt safe enough to start exploring my sexual orientation. Those were powerful times. I was in late puberty of sorts at a time when my hunger for knowledge was awakened also. By 23 years, I moved to Atlanta to open my own Independent Semiconductor Distributor with a Nokia Datacom Engineer.

At the time I was the youngest, and only African American owner of an Independent Semiconductor Distributorship in North America. By 2000, I was working as the Dir of Sales and Tech Services for a leading independent distributor. When the Dot Com bust, followed by the housing crisis that collapsed the global economy I found comedy as a way to relieve depression, addictions, and career burnout. But deep down inside I knew it was my passion. I joined Second City and started to study Improv, Writing, and Sketch Comedy.

I became a Second City Alumni. I soon met John Coppola and started to train in acting and comedy with him at Studio C. Together we created The Flipped Out Variety Show. An LGBTQ sketch variety comedy show. The name was inspired by the Iconic comedian Flip Wilson. He was the first African American to host his own variety show and to cross-dress on as his legendary character Geraldine. The Flipped Out Comedy Show ran on theatre row Los Angeles for just short of 4 years. But it was when I found Stand Up that my passion was truly ignited.

My mentor, Dr. Donald Kilhefner, a semi-retired, leading Jungian Based Psychologist and LGBTQ Activist helped me find and expand my knowledge of self and diverse perspectives on civil rights, gay rights, women’s rights, empowerment, addictions, and my power in a hetrodominate society. Today, I’m an Entrepreneur & Stand Up Comedian. As President of Green Bush Apparel LLC, we sell sports apparel, branded merchandise, and uniforms to the competitive sports and entertainment industries.

As a touring, Stand Up Comedian I’ve recently performed with the likes of Howie Mandel, Anthony Jesilnck, and my soul sister of comedy, Trans Comedian Pink Foxx. Stand Up is truly my passion. Everything I do is to master this art form more. To quote stand up Icon Paul Mooney “Stand Up is spiritual.” I’m blessed to have one of Pauls’ tour partners and writers Jeff Keller as my stand-up brother meets legendary fight trainer Cus D’Amato. I call him Joke D’Amato

I’m also a co-founder of the quickly growing Positive Identity Podcast and Content collective where we’ve had some amazing interviews showcasing diverse people with powerful unique voices and stories of self-empowerment. From Ori Spado, former Hollywood Mob Fix-it guy and Author of The New York Times Best Seller, Accidental Gangster to iAmFaith a trans unhoused Iraq & Afghanistan Vet raising funds to establish a group home for the unhoused trans Vets that live on the streets of LA today.

Our podcast tries to create a positive counter-narrative to what’s happening in society today from a positive racial perspective. Over the past year, we’ve also launched The Positive Identity Collective. The brainchild of my longtime friend, Professor and Podcast Partner Stephen Grey, and 18 incredibly talented and fast-rising producers and directors like Leonora Anzaldu and David Amir Beie The Positive Identity Collective creates content meant to foster positive race relations. My current project 12 Steps for America uses the principles of the 12 Steps programs to help people identity and over come internalized discrimination the same way addicts come to terms with thier addictions.

At The Positive Identity we use comedy, animation, story shorts, and great interviews on The Positive Identity Podcast that all help provide positive perspectives and information on some of our most challenging issues today.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
All of my biggest challenges have been from within. Life is hard enough to navigate without fighting internalized hatred. For me, it was internalized homophobia, internalized racism, systemic issues, and a distorted understanding of God that led to my turn to drug use, and is a high-functioning drug addict. When I saw the movie Wolf of Wall Street I laughed at the familiarity of that lifestyle. How many times did we say someone should make a movie? It wasn’t until I found Stand Up that I was able to stop doing drugs and had my spiritual awakening. Laughter is one hell of a drug.

Years of therapy, 12 Step programs, Spiritual work, and becoming a mentor myself is all part of what helped me find and fall in love with myself. The process has included deprogramming myself from the poverty mindset adopted from systemic pressures and influences. Fun Fact: I was doing spiritual detoxes while Millennials were in puberty and Gen Z’er were watching Avatar The Last Airbender Cartoons. Full disclosure, I love the Last Airbender Cartoon and still suffer from the effects of puberty!

It was the journey, however, and my ability to turn those lessons and pain into laughter that drives and inspires me. My Stand Up and the projects we work on at The Positive Identity are my most pure forms of expression. My business Green Bush Apparel represents my structure and foundation. It helps me incorporate business practices into the business of my art. And weave creativity and passion into my business. Everything is synchronized. Personally, I’m able to show how balance, focus, determination, structure, and belief in self can provide a more full, love-filled life to the young adults I mentor and sponsor.

We’re month 19 into a Global Pandemic and 5 years into an eruption of serious civil unrest rooted in our country’s dark unresolved past. Each day is a challenge for me before I even log into Instagram. It’s month 19. The true damage to our individual and collective consciousness won’t be understood for several years. A mantra of mine I keep in mind as of late is I work hard every day to stay out of my own way.

What it means is that I make sure I use the hard lessons learned and not the old habits I work to break. The blessing besides standing up is that I can be an example as much as a humble student to everyone I’m so lucky to work with,

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
As a stand-up comedian, I’m a storyteller. I mix personal stories with social commentary to make a point. I’ve been nicknamed ‘The Scariest Gay Man in American’ and ‘Gay Thanos’. Some titles to my jokes are: Sexism and Homophobia, Understanding the White Man for World Peace, I guess I’m going to Hell, and Forgiveness over Woke. I think of my act as a combination of show and tell.

I love crowd interaction. I weave my improv and sketch comedy experience into my act-outs. Paul Mooney use to say “Stand Up is Spiritual”. It took a long time for me to truly understand that. Which means I don’t think I’ll ever stop doing it. One of my favorite pictures is of Richard Pryor in a wheelchair, on stage at The World Famous Comedy Store telling jokes.

The Positive Identity Podcast is where Stephen and I discuss and explore everything from historical events and figures to current violence from the perspective of looking at the positive aspects, developments, and opportunities today. Our interviews have included the Editor for Christian Magazine and Ori Spado, NY Times Best Selling Author of the book: The Accidental Gangster, and former mafia Hollywood fixer. Our interviews always include their personal journeys to being positive influences in our society.

We interviewed IamFaith, a trans Unhoused Iraq and Afghanistan Veteran raising money for housing for herself and other unhoused Trans Veterans unable to get appropriate health care and financial support. Humor helps us discuss these serious subjects in an open and supporting conversation.

It’s our work with the Podcast and growing partners in our Positive Identity Collective that’s helping us further develop and produce original content meant to further our vision of creating a new type of content where positivity is able to spark the same reactions as biased content.

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
I learned a lot and am still learning and having major realizations. To start I learned that we as humans truly share a collective consciousness and how fast toxicity can spread and infect. I realized how insanely important it is to laugh and be able to laugh with others. That it’s more important than ever to focus to be a positive example or at least a little bit better today than I was yesterday.

That it’s really easy to get consumed in my own ‘daily story’ missing the easy opportunities to create a better life and make better decisions. That the big difference between truly listening and understanding is helping further divide our country. The truth is that by taking daily inspired actions, as small as they may seem, they can grow to make big differences. And my love for making people laugh can actually help.

I was able to take the time and take a personal inventory, be honest with myself and work to make the right adjustments so I can reach my goals. I guess in month 19 I can say I may not have wanted a pandemic but I definitely needed the personal growth that came from it. I also realize I will probably never master homemade, authentic pizza dough much less how to toss it.

But I was able to up my homemade bbq sauce game. Oh, I can sit motionlessly and blend into my sofa for hours like a chameleon and be ok with that. Lots of lessons learned. Now my goal is to put them into action.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://ronbushonline.com/
• Instagram: @ronbushofficial
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RonBushComedy
• Twitter: @RonBushComedy
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA7zhoSjy1k-AFFqIqwqivA