Meet Taylor Gentry

Today we’d like to introduce you to Taylor Gentry.

Hi Taylor, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself
If you had to narrow my life story down to an anecdote, I think it would go something like this: God laid out the plans for me: My physical design, talents, personality, etc. Then, right as He was about to send me into the world, several decades into the past, he changed His mind. He decided to put me here, in this day and age. The angels in heaven, perplexed, asked him if they were sure this was a good idea. He simply replied, “Trust me.”

I’d like to believe that the Good Lord put me here for a very special reason and that the reason I’m here is to bring joy to the world through storytelling. Whether it’s through acting, filmmaking, or podcasting; I am in my element when I’m creating. I enjoy the process as much as the applause at the end. I figured out a long time ago what I wanted to be, and I have been pursuing it ever since.

My family sort of determined that I was different from the rest of my brothers. I didn’t like sports and I had an overactive imagination, so much so that I refused to live in reality, because I simply found it boring. This concerned my parents, so much so that teachers and doctors misdiagnosed me, saying that I had some sort of “disorder.” I was put on medication, tested for vision and hearing problems, and made to go to child therapy. It wasn’t until 2nd grade that my teacher, Yancy Pearson, saw that what was at first thought of as a disorder, was actually a gift worth pursuing.

I got my first taste of show business at age 8 when Yancy cast me as the Frog Prince. It set me on a path that led me to a career in the arts for almost twenty years, culminating in a podcast that is now distributed by one of America’s oldest independent film distribution companies!

I created the character Count Drahoon when I was in middle school, loosely basing him off of Dracula and all the old-school monster movies I watched when I was a kid. What started out as a simple skit written to make my classmates laugh evolved into my first short film, which then inspired a horror-comedy radio theatre podcast called Count Drahoon’s Feature of Fright.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No journey worth traveling is smooth all the time. There have been numerous obstacles. Most of them I have found to be internal. I struggle with self-esteem, and I feel like I made a lot of bad decisions based on advice from people that didn’t have my best interests at heart. Don’t get me wrong, you can’t do all of this alone, and I have a lot of wonderful people who I collaborate with and that believe in Count Drahoon and fully support what I do.

It is a strange concept: A character that is basically a knock-off Dracula presenting horror stories, that are actually family-friendly most of the time. Some folks told me that I needed to tweak it, make it more “relatable” while some flat out told me to give up on it because it would never work.

The biggest challenge was coming to a place where I needed to have the wisdom to discern bad advice from good, from those who would keep me from being my authentic self to those who want nothing more for me to let my light shine through. I finally feel like I have found the courage to be authentic in my storytelling and to give no apologies.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I do various community theatre productions, most recently Cogsworth from Beauty and the Beast and Orson Welles in War of the Worlds, but I’m probably most well known for my podcast Count Drahoon’s Feature of Fright. It is a horror-comedy radio theatre-style podcast that I write, produce, direct and star in as the Count; presenting radio tales of “fun, fright and phenomena” as well as interviews with horror-related guests like Joe Bob Briggs and Lloyd Kaufman.

I think I’m most proud of the fact that my show is the only podcast that streams on Troma Now! the official streaming service of Troma Entertainment; the same company that produced the Toxic Avenger (which has been rebooted and stars Peter Dinklage). We are the only podcast and one of the only family-friendly projects on the service, and I truly think that our brand; this very odd show that mixes dark themes and screwball comedy, is what truly makes us stand out above the rest.

More importantly, I think we also stand out because of the love we have for each other and these stories. Every member of my “Merry Mob of Mayhem” is a dear friend of mine and each other. We care about each other and we work very well together. It inspires us to raise the bar and to continue to tell these stories.

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 feel like I learned two somewhat conflicting lessons from COVID. Lesson one: Keep pushing, because if one door closes, another will open. Before the shutdowns, we had monthly live shows at a local pizza joint. March came, and with it, we lost the ability to perform live and the pizza place went out of business due to COVID.

The early days of the pandemic were scary, and outside of worrying about living through the crisis, I worried about how I was going to continue, or whether we should at all. Yes, we had to adapt, but giving up was not an option. We took precautions, we knew that we couldn’t perform the radio shows live, but we could record them and distance the mics. Our podcast evolved into a TV show, which made it possible to get picked up by Troma. I never would have had that opportunity had I just given up. One door closes, another opens. I also met my future wife Cova, but that may be another story for another time!

Cova was the one who taught me lesson two: Rest and relaxation are a part of the process. I remember for the longest time I would force myself to keep working past my breaking point, thinking I was way tougher than I really was. She’s one of the hardest working, most talented, and most successful people I know and when she’s exhausted, she takes a break. I saw how much more she got done by doing it, so I incorporated it into my lifestyle, and I believe in it.

Pricing:

• Patreon Tier Level 1: $1
• Paterson Level 2: $3
• Patreon Level 3: $5
• Patreon Level 4: $10
• Patreon.com/Drahoon

Contact Info:

• Email: Countdrahoon@gmail.com
• Website: featureoffright.com
• Instagram: @countdrahoon
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/countdrahoon/
• Twitter: @countdrahoon
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/user/camcordertelevision