Today we’d like to introduce you to Chaz Graves.
Hi Chaz, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’ve taken a pretty unconventional route to get where I am today.
A big part of my background is music. I spent years playing bass and singing backing vocals in the rock band Rockett Queen, touring, performing and getting very comfortable with life on a stage. That chapter of my life gave me a lot of the skills I still use today, even though the stage looks a little different now.
These days, I stay pretty busy wearing several different hats. I host weekly trivia and bingo events around the Houston / North Houston area through Loud Mouth Entertainment, where I get to entertain a completely different crowd several nights a week. I’m also the Comics Manager at The Adventure Begins, which has given me another outlet for something I’ve been passionate about for most of my life.
That eventually opened even more doors into media and conventions. I’ve had the opportunity to interview creators and celebrities, moderate panels, host convention events and work with conventions throughout Texas and North America. I’ve hosted everything from cosplay contests and panels to film festival awards, and I still get the same rush from holding a microphone in front of a packed room that I did walking onto a stage with a bass.
I don’t know that there was ever a master plan connecting all of it. I just kept saying yes to things that interested me, worked hard at them, and tried to be someone people enjoyed working with. Somehow a life of rock shows, comic books, trivia nights, conventions and a bit of spunk turned into what I do for a living.
And I’m still figuring out what comes next.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
For the most part, I’ve had a pretty awesome life, but it definitely hasn’t always been a smooth road.
Rockett Queen was a huge part of my life, and I loved my time with that band. But when you spend that many years together, constantly traveling and constantly around the same people, you’re going to get on each other’s nerves. The bigger sacrifices were outside of the band. I missed family gatherings, I missed a lot of my daughter growing up, and there was always that frustration of constantly being told we were right there, that we were going to make it all the way, yet somehow we could never quite get over that final hump.
I also lost my father while I was touring, and that absolutely floored me. Around that period of my life, I also literally caught the woman I was going to marry in bed with someone else. That sounds like something written for a television show, but unfortunately, it happened. I didn’t deal with either of those losses particularly well.
Toward the end of my time in the band, I was drinking heavily. At the time, I probably wouldn’t have told you alcohol was a problem, but looking back, being wasted all the time is a pretty good indication that things had gotten out of control. I would get better for a while, everything would be cool, and then I’d spiral again. Eventually I reached a point where I knew something had to change. I didn’t want to keep finding my way back to the bottom.
Leaving the band brought a completely different struggle. I had known since I was a kid that I wanted to be a rock star. I was the kid telling his teachers and parents that I didn’t need to worry about school because I was going to be a rock star when I grew up. Then suddenly I wasn’t in a band anymore.
I basically sat on my couch for a year because I had no idea who I was without a guitar in my hands and a crowd in front of me. For years I was always “on,” and suddenly that was gone. Going from touring and living that lifestyle to waiting tables was a hell of a reality check. There was definitely a period of hopelessness and wondering what I was supposed to do next.
But I don’t spend much time looking backward or dwelling on any of it. All of those experiences got me here. I’m always looking for the next opportunity, the next project, or the next thing I can get myself into.
I’ve been incredibly fortunate. I’ve done a lot of cool things, met a lot of cool people, and experienced more than I ever expected to. I’ve said for years that if it all ended tomorrow, I’ve already done pretty much everything I wanted to do and then some.
So even with the rough parts, I can’t complain too much.
Life is cool, man.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
The easiest answer when somebody asks what I do is: I’m an entertainer.
That has taken a lot of different forms over the years. These days I’m a Comics Manager, I host weekly events, interview creators and celebrities, MC events, moderate panels and host conventions. Convention hosting has really become my passion and where I’d like to continue putting more of my energy.
A lot of what I do now goes back to my years playing in Rockett Queen. Being onstage taught me how to command a room, think quickly and feed off the energy of a crowd. Every room has its own energy, and you can feel it. Sometimes everybody is ready to go from the second you walk onstage. Other times you have to work a little harder to get them there. My banter and how I interact with people changes depending on what I’m getting back from them.
I think that’s probably what I’m best at. I’m quick-witted, I can work a crowd, I can keep things moving, and I’ve always been good at making strangers feel comfortable. Honestly, that’s how I’ve made most of my friends throughout my life. I’ve always gravitated toward the outsiders.
As a host, you also have to make yourself part of the show. Maybe that’s the rock-and-roll side of me that never went away. When you’re in a band, everybody onstage is fighting for attention, “Hey!look at me!”
I still have a little bit of that in me. You’re selling the event, but you’re also selling yourself. The trick is knowing when to be the center of attention and when to get out of the way.
I’m not sure I can pick one professional accomplishment that I’m most proud of because I’m proud that I still get to do all of it. I’m hosting conventions big and small, getting more involved with promoting shows and bringing comedians and celebrities to my own town, hosting rock-and-roll poster shows, working on new business ideas with other artists and creatives, and constantly finding something new to get involved with.
And that’s intentional. If I’m sitting at home on a Saturday night with nothing going on, I feel like I’m doing something wrong. I know there will eventually come a day when I can’t run around doing all of this anymore, and the idea of sitting on the sidelines watching somebody else do the things I used to do scares the hell out of me.
So while the job title has changed a few times, the job itself really hasn’t. Put me in front of people and give me something to do.
I’ll figure out the rest.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that you can’t spend your life looking backward and wishing you knew then what you know now.
People always say, “If I knew 20 years ago what I know today, I would have done things differently.” Of course you would have. But then you’d probably be a completely different person.
I’ve made mistakes. I’ve repeated some of those mistakes more times than I’d like to admit. I have regrets like everybody else, but I try not to dwell on them longer than I should. You learn what you can from them and keep moving.
If I could talk to the younger version of myself starting out with Rockett Queen, I’d probably tell him, “Stick with it. Stop being a fuck-up. You get to do something a lot of people dream about, and you’re actually living it.”
There are sacrifices I made for that life that are harder to look back on. The biggest one is the time I missed with my daughter. I was gone for a lot of her childhood, and that’s something I genuinely regret. I can’t go back and change that. What I can say is that I am immensely proud of the woman she has become. Watching who she has grown into is one of the things I’m proudest of in my entire life. She truly rocks!
At the same time, if you asked me whether I would still chase the dream of being a musician, the answer is probably yes. That’s difficult to reconcile sometimes. Music was my passion. I’d wanted that life since I was a kid. I just wish pursuing one thing I loved hadn’t meant missing so much of another.
I’ve also learned that you’re allowed to reinvent yourself. I actually figured that out pretty young. When I left one high school and went to another where nobody knew me, I remember thinking, “You can be anybody you want to be right now.” So I did. And I have to say, it worked out pretty well.
I still carry that mentality. If an opportunity comes along that excites me, I’m going to grab it. I don’t assume I’ll get another chance later.
Maybe that’s the lesson more than anything: I don’t need to rewrite the last 20 years. I just need to make sure I’m not sitting around wasting the next 20.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: theRNRnerd
- Facebook: Chaz Von Graves
