Reframing Tragedy: Interview with Veteran Multitalented Improv Comedian, BJ Lange
Welcome to the first-ever segment on the Teentix LA Podcast! I was incredibly honored to have the privilege of interviewing our first guest, BJ Lange, a four-pound, four-ounce preemie, military veteran, Applied Improv Comedy Resilience Instructor, Geffen Teaching Artist, two-time cancer survivor, and Improv Extraordinaire. (Among many other things). In this episode, we’ll cover a very SparkNotes version of BJ’s career, from balancing his passion for military service and performance to his dedication to educating and inspiring future theater-makers. I really enjoyed speaking with BJ and hope you folks enjoy getting a little behind the scenes of what goes on inside the mind of BJ Lange! (I hope I do you justice BJ!)
BJ would also love to shout out an upcoming event at the Geffen Playhouse that he has a role in curating as a teaching artist. Beyond the Barracks, happening on August 5th, 8 pm, is the culminating performance of a 10-week theater-making intensive aimed at highlighting the stories of military veterans with pieces ranging from military to personal life. Tickets can be reserved for free by following this link: https://secure.geffenplayhouse.org/overview/beyond-the-barracks-2024
Follow BJ here!
bjlange.com
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1293295/
https://www.instagram.com/bjcomedy/
Without further ado, the following is the transcript for the podcast (with appropriate timestamps). I’ve never realized how many times I actually say “kind of” or “you know.” I guess it's the LA in me. Hopefully, you folks aren’t too bothered by my inner valley girl.
Ghino (00:00)
Hello everyone, welcome to the Teentix Podcast. I'm with special guest BJ Lange. Welcome.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (00:07)
Hello Ghino thanks for having me
Ghino (00:09)
Of course, of course. And let's just get started. So I want to focus on your early career and I mean like really, really early, like high school, like early, like high school kind of early college kind of age. What was your mindset at that time? Where did you think you were going to end up? What were your dreams? What were your aspirations looking like?
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (00:37)
Man. Well, Ghino I will take you back a little bit even further than that in that I was already ready to get on stage. I was four pounds, four ounces. I was a preemie and I was my mom's fourth child. And let's just say they were not ready to receive me in the delivery room. And literally I flew out and fell into the pan.
Ghino (00:41)
Okay.
Yeah. Gotcha.
Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (01:06)
And that's literally how my life started.
So I'm originally from St. Louis, Missouri, born and raised in St. Louis, you know, Midwest, North City boy. And I used my dad's personality and his energy and took
in a more professional route. think that deep down, my dad wanted to get into comedy and performing, but he didn't use the skills. And that way he did use those skills. On the sales side, he ran his own business and that kind of stuff. So in middle school, I really kind of saw a little path. Like I did...
Ghino (01:34)
Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (01:54)
drama club, I was in an acting class. That was the first time I ever dabbled in improv, which as you will soon hear, that became a big portion of my life. And then in high school, I did the musicals at my high school. I grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood. I was one of a few white guys where I grew up. So I was always trying to use my personality and my energy to kind of fit in.
Ghino (02:14)
Mm -hmm.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (02:21)
I was the goofy white kid that would always crack jokes, always had a joke at the ready and beatboxing to try to fit in and to do whatever, which I love beatboxing. So trying to do whatever I can to use these skills. And I think in probably my sophomore or freshman year of high school, I
Ghino (02:24)
Yeah. Yeah.
Hehehe
Mm -hmm.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (02:46)
knew that I wanted to get into entertainment and this is terrible because I'm now 44 years old, Ghino. But I think a lot of the adults who may listen to this will probably understand. I still don't know exactly where I want to go. I know there are things that I want to do. I know that there are things that I have done that I want to do more of, but I really don't know specifically. So do I want to do...
Ghino (02:53)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah. Gotcha.
Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (03:16)
film, TV, commercial, theater, know, hosting work. Well, I do all of those things, you know, so I'm always trying to do everything. It's really hard to kind of narrow it down, but to simplify it, I always tell people where I am now in life is improv comedy is my highway, and then I get off the highway to do other things. Maybe I shoot a commercial or I write some sketches and shoot those with my buddies or, you know, do some sort of theater.
Ghino (03:22)
Yeah.
Gotcha, yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (03:46)
There's that, and then I went to junior college and studied acting and then took classes at the Second City and I hosted a lot of events, a lot of MTV events and got into MC work, live event hosting, then television hosting, eventually finding my way out to Los Angeles and I've been in LA now for 14 years and following that path.
Ghino (03:53)
Mm -hmm.
Very cool. Well, I know you were talking about kind of not knowing exactly like where you want to be headed right now, but I think that's actually a sigh of relief because, you know, speaking of my personal experience and a lot of those that may be listening, you know, we think that adults have it all, have it all, you know, planned out for them. And, you know, if people actually understand that, you know,
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (04:38)
Yeah
Ghino (04:43)
we're kind of all the same, we're all human and we don't have it all figured out. I think that'll give a lot of inspiration to people that are listening. And yeah, and that brings me to my next question. I know you said that your dad had a similar skillset that you had, but used it in a different way.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (04:54)
Absolutely.
Mm -hmm.
Ghino (05:09)
kind of you were talking about how you found that kind of performing was your thing early on. Was Dad supportive of this kind of thing that you wanted to pursue?
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (05:24)
Yeah, I'll be honest and I did a great monologue and I don't know if you have show notes here or not Ghino, but maybe I can share the link with you to put in here in case people want to see it. Two years ago I did a veteran monologue at the Geffen Playhouse and my cultural identity monologue was based around access to the theater because to me the foundation of my entertainment career as a whole is quite simply theater.
Ghino (05:34)
Yeah.
Mm -hmm.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (05:52)
and access to the theater and what it means to me. But when I go back and I look at were my parents supportive and my stepmom who pretty much raised me is a graphic designer, so an artist by nature. So she was really supportive of being creative and all of that stuff. And my dad, I think is more of a business workaholic, you know, the hustler, you know, so that's where I got my work ethic and my drive.
Ghino (06:09)
Yeah. Gotcha. Yeah.
Mm -hmm.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (06:23)
But I don't really think that they saw early on as I certainly did not really until after high school the possibilities of actually making a living doing what I love the problem it goes back to your previous question of like well What does that mean? You know, am I am I gonna just do theater? Am I gonna host am I gonna get into MC work, you know for live events and use these talents the
Ghino (06:37)
Mm -hmm.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (06:53)
The way I see it, diversifying your skill set is important so that way you can make ends meet. And I think when my parents finally saw, listen, they were gonna let me do whatever I wanted to do and they were understanding, especially in probably the last 10 or 15 years, right after I moved out to LA and I was talking about how much of a struggle it was for me to be out here like,
Ghino (07:09)
Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (07:22)
I had a full -time, well not full -time, but three quarters full -time part -time job, which was my actor hustle. And then I'm taking classes, I'm doing auditions, I'm constantly doing improv and sketch and doing meetups and still trying to do the show business and the hustle of it. And so I'm sharing that with my parents and my dad
you know "why don't you carry on your federal service?" Because I have a military background as well. I served in the military part time. So I think that it was hard for them to really grasp like, is it feasible? And it's a, we know it's a long game. We know the acting career specifically is a long game and you need to know that going in and be okay with
Ghino (07:57)
Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (08:19)
And then to diversify so I know it comes from a place of you know wanting to protect your kids because I see it all the time where I teach I I teach at multiple places and I see parents that come and I go "is this really possible I think Johnny should you know be an accountant and then do this on the side," you know, and that's it's hard to really You know battle that mentality Because you're the only one that's going to know how bad you really want to pursue this dream
Ghino (08:29)
Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (08:48)
And I love surrounding myself with dreamers. I am a dreamer. I've always been a dreamer. Not like a lofty dream that like, maybe I'll be in space sometime in a space. But like, can I really do that? Could I really be on Broadway? Could I really be as a recurring character on a sitcom? In the answer, now I'm in a position where
Ghino (09:00)
Yeah.
Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (09:16)
where I could see a little bit more paved surface to get there. But I know it was hard for my parents to see that. I know that was a really long answer to your question, but it's really not an easy question. It's challenging.
Ghino (09:24)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
And speaking of you being an MC and a host for a lot of like live television and things like that early on in your career, how did you get your first like hosting gig or MC gig? And, you know, how did you, why did you stick with that?
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (09:52)
Well, I knew, like I said earlier, that you have to diversify the different avenues that you can make money. And I think using any of your natural talents, certainly anything for my fellow actors out there, anything that's acting adjacent will be of benefit because you're working in the industry, you're meeting people, you're connecting. However, when I moved out to LA, I kind of put a lot of
professional hosting stuff on the back burner because I was like, I'm an actor. I'm just gonna do film and TV and commercial and I'm gonna stop doing all that.
Ghino (10:26)
Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (10:36)
I got mixed feelings about that thought process because I know that I really do have that skill and I enjoy it. However, I really want to challenge myself and this is always the actor's dilemma. It's like I'm always playing a paramedic because I play a paramedic like on multiple things right now. and because I have that skill set. but at the end of the day, like I'm just simply happy to work. Now, while I put all that stuff on the back burner, when I first moved out to LA
Ghino (10:52)
Yeah, yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (11:04)
had something bigger come up, which is more of a calling, because I always, there's a small part of me that also was like, I should host like a kids game show. You know, because that's my jam. Like, I grew up loving Nickelodeon's Legends of the Hidden Temple, which I know they rebooted. if I could host, and I actually auditioned to host Hole in the Wall.
Ghino (11:14)
Yeah.
Mm -hmm.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (11:31)
I've auditioned actually to host quite a few things in recent years, but for a long time, I put that stuff away and unless something was big enough, like I kind of was like, no, I need to put more time over here. And that is true to some degree. Like you can't continue to do every damn thing because you need to be doing a little bit more in this focus. However, you also have to pay the bills, you know, so, so, so it's, it's, it's a hustle. So when I was in junior college,
Ghino (11:34)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (11:59)
I worked for a syndicated morning radio program. was their stunt boy. And that opened the door for me for a little bit larger media type stuff. So this syndicated morning radio program had a lot of different opportunities that presented themselves. At some point I found myself working at Six Flags. So a lot of actors, you
Ghino (12:05)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (12:28)
get their start like, you know, doing little things at amusement parks and whatever. Oddly enough, Ghino, I know you're a fascination with amusement parks. So that's kind of fun. Little behind the scenes here for TeenTix podcast. The door really opened for me in the summer. I believe it was 2005. I was working for a virtual reality gaming company.
Ghino (12:36)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Mm -hmm.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (12:57)
And when I say gaming, I'm literally doing the air quotations right now because it's not the virtual reality like we know today. Long story short, this company created this technology and they hired actors to, number one, bark like a show barker. So the person that's out front on the mic, hey, sir, come on over here. Are you wearing a red shirt? If you're wearing a red shirt, come on over here and check this out. I've got this for
Ghino (13:00)
Yeah.
Mm -hmm.
gotcha, gotcha, yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (13:26)
and they leased property or technically at that time, they managed property for games that were purchased by Six Flags, but they were managed by the company that created the product. So I didn't work for Six Flags, but I worked at Six Flags and they hired actors to do that. So you were either a barker and then every few games, which were like a 10 minute game, you would rotate.
Ghino (13:42)
Mm -hmm.
gotcha.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (13:55)
And this was awesome. And this is where I got a lot. I mean my improv background exploded, not just because being out front on the mic, which in and of itself is a lot of talent and skill. But we went in the back and they had a green screen. It was actually a blue screen then like a chroma key. And you would pop up in the back in the little baby studio they had in the virtual reality that people were watching. So.
Ghino (14:06)
Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (14:23)
we would memorize the animation that would play and then I would pop up as a character in costume and talk to you directly so I could see you playing the game along with 19 other people and I would say, hey, Ghino, shoot this bug and I would duck and then you would shoot it, you know that kind of stuff. It was awesome. And the nice thing about it is as long as you knew what was coming up next, you could adapt and improvise. And so my skills just exploded.
Ghino (14:30)
Yeah.
interesting. Yeah.
That's so funny, yeah
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (14:51)
So I did that for like a year at my local Six Flags in St. Louis. I left there when I got picked up by the company that owned the equipment basically and they took me on corporately so I trained actors all around the world. They flew me everywhere. I went to Germany and did stuff. We went inside Disney parks, Paramount parks, Six Flags.
Ghino (14:57)
Mm -hmm.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (15:19)
tons of fairs and festivals and so I was constantly doing this and to be honest with you in my very early 20s I was making a lot of good money like I mean for an actor, you know like I was I was I was making it and we were having a blast and the people that I've worked with were awesome and Long story short that came to an end but in the summer of 2005 we were at the Ohio State Fair and I think this is kind of a turning point for
Ghino (15:32)
Yeah. Yeah.
Mm -hmm.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (15:48)
new experiences coming into my life that kind of just fell into my lap. So at this point I had been doing a ton of dinner theater, community theater, I was in the St. Louis region, you know, doing the small short films and the occasional regional commercial, you know, I had an agent in St. Louis, you know, and doing all the little locally things that you could.
But we were up at the Ohio State Fair and I saw a man in the hot summer, August summer, wearing a suit, sitting across from me, listening and kind of chuckling to himself as I would crack jokes as people walked by to try to get them to come over and play the game. Because you gotta make it up to get people to come over and play the game. Remember, the more people that play the game, the more money I would get at the end of my shift. yeah. So, you know, it's the hustle, right?
Ghino (16:24)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Gotcha. Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (16:46)
And this guy's wearing a suit. I'm like dude. It's so hot. Why is he wearing a suit anyway? I'm cracking jokes on them and as I put the mic down we wear this like funny headset kind of like a body mic and He came over and he goes Hey, how much how much do they pay you to do this? And I was like what and he goes did you see the big thing when you came into the fair today? The big bubble and I was like yeah, it said Spike TV
Ghino (16:50)
Yeah.
Mm -hmm.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (17:16)
Game Riot, it was like a video game competition, giant bubble, air conditioned, and like there were games and prizes, and you know, there were people shooting promo packages, you know, with big cameras back then. And I was like, yeah, I saw it. And he goes, I'm the producer of that. He goes, you're really funny. Do you want to be our Barker? And see, this was one of those things where like, I got the skillset and I know I could be a Barker, but I don't want to be a Barker. I want to be a TV host.
Ghino (17:21)
Yeah.
Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (17:44)
Even more, I'm an actor. I'm an actor that uses his skill to be a TV host. That's the better way to describe how I feel I am. And I'm like, ugh. And he goes, I'll double whatever they're paying you. And I was on tour in about two weeks doing that. Yeah, yeah, no, for sure. So I did that, and then their show host who hosted the actual tournaments and stuff, some of which were televised, got sick.
Ghino (17:51)
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I mean you can't say no to that.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (18:13)
So I ended up filling in for that and then and then this and then that got picked up by MTV too. And because I did that, people that produced that event also produced Spring Break, which I was a host for in Panama City Beach, Florida from 2006 to 2013, you know, and you meet all these sponsors and LG was a sponsor and I hosted the National Texting Championships because they met me.
Ghino (18:15)
you
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (18:41)
You know, so a lot of doors kind of opened from there and then I eventually moved to Los Angeles and started digging in more on the professional acting stuff. that's kind of the roundabout story there.
Ghino (18:57)
That's a really, really interesting story. I really love listening to all these, it's a small world kind of stories, where it's, you know, all these chance situations that kind of propel someone to be where they're at today. And it's also really interesting to hear about all the old technologies or the other things that they were using at Six Flags, like that virtual reality stuff that sounds really interesting.
how you were memorizing the animations for that. I imagine that in my head and it sounds so funny to me. So it was these people that were putting on these headsets at the park as you were performing it live or how was that working?
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (19:46)
Yeah, so I don't know what all I'm able to talk about, but I'll just give it from an audience perspective of what it is. So this guy, he was a Cornell graduate, really smart tech guy. And he got he had the patent on some sort of or what was then virtual reality. So he created these headsets, you know, which were
Ghino (19:53)
Gotcha. Yeah, yeah.
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (20:13)
way way precursor to like an Oculus right like they were super giant and then they had you know big kind of headphones on right now and then this this visual component so you could see and then in your right hand you would hold this controller where you can shoot and
Ghino (20:16)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mmm.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (20:35)
Um, and in short, in the back of the theater space, I'm going to say theater space in quotations, but like the event space, the game space under, under the seats and into the rear were one room had all the computers, right? Cause especially back then, like giant computers to like run all this stuff in 2004, five, six, seven, whatever. And then, uh, in the other room,
Ghino (20:45)
Yeah.
Mm -hmm.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (21:05)
was a small air conditioned little studio that had a green screen, actually back then it was blue and fluorescently lit, a camera, a keyboard, and then a monitor where I could see on one side of the screen, the program video, which is the animation. On the other side of the screen, I can see the map of
Ghino (21:27)
Mm -hmm.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (21:33)
all the people that are playing the game. So I see Ghino in seat 23. I could see you there. And to some degree, because if a lot of people are playing, we're hearing all the audio from everyone. So if someone's louder than someone else, if you were like, hey, Sheriff, I could be like, yeah, what's up, Ghino? Like I could literally, I know it's you because I see you moving on screen and asking a question. And so here's the fun part about what we would do. This is my favorite part of the whole thing.
Ghino (21:35)
Gotcha.
Yeah.
Hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (22:03)
The crazier you would get the audience, the more people that would want to come play. Now, yes, I would make more money sometimes, depending like if we're doing like sales bonuses or whatever. But the more fun you make it for them, the more fun it is for you, the actor. It's like if your audience is having fun, you're going to have a blast, right? So I would say, hey everybody, who's ready to play the game? Like as they're looking at the graphic, they don't even know who's talking. Like they don't know who I am. You know, they haven't met me yet because I'm not on screen.
Ghino (22:06)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Mm -hmm. Yeah, yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (22:34)
and I would say, if you could hear me, raise your hands up. And you would see a couple of people raise their hands up and I'd be like, I see you Ghino. Ghino, raise your right hand. And if you didn't do it, I'd be like, I told you to raise your right hand. And then they're like, and they would take their headsets off and they'd be like, this guy sees me. You know, they didn't realize that we have a camera. So that's kind of how the technology worked and we would just make people just get insane. All right, I want everyone to stand up and stomp their feet and scream.
Ghino (22:37)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (23:00)
I want ice cream like a big baby and people would do it, you know, so and we would just, you know, get crazy with the animation. You'd have to memorize the animation like there were multiple games. So there was one called Showdown at Shifty's, which was like a Wild West recreation. So I had like a sheriff vest, you know, and I'm like, you guys got to help me. You know, I'm the sheriff and there's a lot of, you know, criminals out here. All these outlaws are trying to take us
Ghino (23:03)
Hehehehehe
Yeah.
Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (23:29)
Everyone point your finger out to the people that are walking in front of you at Six Flags and say, you're a criminal. And people would do it, know, people that are walking are like, what the hell? So anyway, yeah, what a fun, what a fun gig though. It really was a fun gig
Ghino (23:36)
Hehehehehe
Yeah. Yeah. That sounds like a blast.
All right, so kind of moving along, I know you said that you served the US Air Force Reserve as a aerospace medical technician. First of all, thank you for your service. Second of all, kind of how did you get into serving the military and how does that kind of combine with your whole improv kind of passion?
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (24:13)
Sure.
Ghino (24:15)
you know, comedic improv and military service is kind of on the opposite spectrum of things. So kind of where did that start and how did it kind of, how did it combine?
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (24:27)
Man, that's a great question, Ghino. I always wanted to serve. Like I always wanted to be of service. I was always the person that wanted to help out and do this. I come from a big military veteran family, so I knew at some point, hopefully I would join. It was just a matter of how could I work it out with my career? I always knew that acting was number one. I always knew that.
Ghino (24:33)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah.
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (24:57)
If I'm not doing that, like to me, I don't see a reason for living because that's all I want to do. However, I had this deep yearning to like continue to pursue it. And in 2006, I joined Civil Air Patrol, the Air Force Auxiliary. I was getting my private pilot license, private pilot certificate. I was doing pilot training.
Ghino (25:18)
Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (25:24)
in 2006 back in Missouri, so this is before I moved to California. So it kind of gave me a little bit of an experience. I was able to see what it was like to understand command structure, to be of service, to go up in an aircraft, to have a duty assignment, to train. And of course it's all volunteer, and you're the civilian volunteer auxiliary of the Air Force, so it's non -paid.
Ghino (25:28)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah.
Mm -hmm.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (25:53)
And then when I moved out to California 2009, like I kind of put that idea on the back burner while I focused on my career. And then in 2015, that thought just kept hitting my head over and over and over. And at this point I'm getting older. I was 35 years old and I knew that I couldn't go full time, but I knew that I could go part time and still get benefits. And it would hopefully, fingers crossed, still work with my acting career.
Ghino (26:18)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (26:24)
So I joined the Air Force Reserve. So it's one week in a month, two weeks a year, just like the National Guard. yeah, I mean, I went and there was a lot of other stuff that happened in there, but let me jump to the tail end of this. And the Second part of your question of how did it help out my career? Well, you know, we as actors use a lot of our life experiences and our characters and in the stories that we develop.
Ghino (26:28)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (26:53)
And this experience really helped to broaden out the type of characters that I can play or that would be more likely to be cast as because I understand now a lot more in depth, especially some of these challenging characters, whether not and not just military, you know, but someone who's dealing with depression and anxiety
Ghino (27:06)
Mm -hmm.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (27:20)
you know, because prior to that I didn't really have any real life experience that I was familiar with. So that kind of helped me. And then more on the nose for that question, I served as a medic, you know, so I had this now military medical experience, which is, as you said, completely different than what I had already been doing. So on one hand, I have this art life, you know, of me wanting
Ghino (27:20)
Yeah.
Mm -hmm.
Yeah. Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (27:50)
to pursue the arts and I just want to make the world a better place with art. Like I believe in it so much. And then on the other side, now that I'm going to go to be of service, I wanted to do something different than like I, originally I wanted to do public affairs. So, which is like taking photos, doing stories, you could also get into broadcasting. You could literally do that in the military. But I thought that
Ghino (27:54)
Yeah.
Mm -hmm.
Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (28:18)
even though originally that's what I was going to try to do and the medic thing kind of fell in my pocket. I think that was still just a little bit too close to what I was already kind of doing. So me being a medic really carved out a new thing for me because cut to 2022, I got cast in my first episode and I have done nine since in General Hospital where I play a recurring Paramedic
Ghino (28:27)
Yeah.
Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (28:47)
And the nice thing about that is the experience I got in the military specifically as a medic my military medical training Taught me what I was going to be doing in the action of the script so they didn't have to waste the time telling me similarly I work a lot as a medical technical advisor for film and TV as well. So people use me for that so which is all union and you know helps to build it up
Ghino (29:01)
Yeah.
Mm -hmm.
Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (29:16)
That experience helped me to get more work. And I think the community and the military veteran entertainment community here is huge in LA and we all try to help each other. So a lot of doors open that I would not have expected.
Ghino (29:32)
So it's like help a fellow military Yeah. Veteran out. Yeah, exactly. So while doing some research, I really found this kind of like, I found this like mix of performance and military service, like that dynamic interesting.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (29:35)
Yeah, vet.
Ghino (29:55)
I know you said that you originally joined Civil Air Patrol before actually serving. And I've realized that I've got my research all wrong then because I, doing my research, I thought that you joined the military first and then you joined Civil Air Patrol after you retired.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (30:15)
No, yeah, Civil Air Patrol was, as it is for a lot of people, way to maybe see what else is out there. Certainly in our cadet program, which is age 12 to 21, it's a great way to kind of just be of service, kind of like a cadet corps, if you will. But our cadet program, our youth leadership program is great for younger folks, but I was already
Ghino (30:26)
Gotcha, yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (30:45)
know, late 20s at the time I joined, well, early 20s, when I joined Civil Air Patrol. So I wasn't 100 % sold on the idea yet on could I actually join the military. So this was just a way for me to kinda see what it was like, and maybe I would have never joined the military, but at least I would have slightly solved the hole in my heart.
to want to serve and be of service by volunteering in Civil Air Patrol. So already had a full -time acting career, joined Civil Air Patrol, then put all of that on hold to join the Air Force Reserve, and then went back. So a lot of vets who work in Hollywood do the military when they're younger, especially if they're active duty. They go in at 18 or whatever, right after high school, or go to college and then commission as an officer, or go to a service academy.
Ghino (31:16)
Yeah. Gotcha.
Mmm, gotcha.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (31:43)
I kind of did it in reverse and I guess I'm a late bloomer Ghino. I don't know.
Ghino (31:45)
Hmm Well, if I'm not mistaken you're still volunteering with the Civil Air Patrol, right? Yeah, and For our audience who isn't familiar with what the Civil Air Patrol is. I ripped this straight off of their website, by the way Civil Air Patrol is a 501 C nonprofit and an official auxiliary of the US Air Force and
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (31:54)
I am indeed, yeah, I'm still a member of Civil Air Patrol.
Ghino (32:13)
Basically people like BJ volunteer their time to perform public service like inland search and rescue, homeland security, disaster relief, etc. So BJ is still currently saving countless lives.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (32:28)
Yeah, I mean, maybe not directly saving lives,
I was nominated for an award, a life -saving award. So I'll just leave it at that because I don't know the current status of that award. And that wasn't while I was on duty. That was just while I just happened to be blunt walking around Hollywood when some stuff went down. But because of my military medical training, that kind of helped out. So Civil Air Patrol put me in. But hey, Ghino, know, I'm glad that you bring up Civil Air Patrol
Ghino (32:42)
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, gotcha. Yeah.
Gotcha.
Mm -hmm.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (33:04)
If you're looking for extra skills, here you go, here you go, fellow actors out there, You're at the bottom of your resume. What's at the bottom of your resume, Ghino? What's at the bottom of your resume?
Ghino (33:09)
Hehehehe
Ummm... Like skills? Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (33:19)
Yes, special skills. So maybe you want to learn how to do drilling, know, so like marching, that kind of stuff, rifle drill, you know, we have all of that stuff in Civil Air Patrol. Wearing properly a military uniform, as silly as that sounds like. So you'll be able to help accentuate some of your special skills. There are other things, you know,
Ghino (33:26)
Mm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (33:48)
weapons courses and things like that which some cadets can get involved in and go to encampments and things like that. If you want to work towards getting your private pilot certificate or at least do some aerospace education, this is a great way to kind of boost that. So I see it as a way just to kind of do some personal development which could lend itself to your acting career.
Ghino (33:56)
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I already see like a direct translation of that because like even a really good example, like Fat Ham at the Geffen, like that, you know, someone of active military service was, or, you know, a character that was in active military duty. And, you know, when I was watching that performance, I was just, I was, I was very, very shocked because that
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (34:29)
Yeah. Yeah.
Ghino (34:43)
performer played that character so well and kind of the way they shifted their body language of you know first all this formal military kind of physicality and all this marching into you know becoming this other like this drag performer and so I yeah I already see an immediate translation of what you were saying with those special skills
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (35:12)
Absolutely, absolutely.
Ghino (35:15)
Yeah, so that's just, I don't know, it just all kind of falls into place. All right, so next I want to talk about your work with the Air Force Wounded Warrior Program, in which you are an Applied Improv Comedy Resiliency Instructor, that's a very long name, very fancy and long name. Again, giving context, AFW2 is a congressionally mandated
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (35:20)
Mm
Yeah.
Ghino (35:44)
federally funded program that provides personalized care, services and advocacy to seriously or very seriously wounded, ill or injured total force recovering service members and their caregivers and families. And so you are an applied improv comedy resiliency instructor. Wow, that's a mouthful. Could you describe a little bit of your responsibilities as a
Applied Improv Comedy Resiliency Instructor.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (36:15)
Absolutely, and and before I tell you exactly what I do, let me tell you how I got into that Yeah, so in 2016 while on orders in the Air Force Reserve serving part -time I ended up getting diagnosed with cancer So I'm a two -time testis cancer survivor. So it is safe to say I'm half as nuts as I used to
Ghino (36:23)
Gotcha. Yeah, that would be good.
Mm -hmm.
Very okay, okay, okay
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (36:41)
okay. Hopefully that gets a laugh or two. You got it. You got it. Hey, if you can't break the uncomfortability of dealing with the serious stuff with an awkward joke, then like you might need
Ghino (36:51)
Yeah.
BJ @bjcomedy Lange, He/him (36:54)
you might need to go take an improv class or something so that you can, I find it very therapeutic to be able to use comedy to kind of break the tension. So I was diagnosed with cancer. I got put into the Air Force's Wounded Warrior Program, not to be confused with the Wounded Warrior Project, just like Ghino said, this is a DOD program that is appointed through Congress, through the Pentagon, to help out wounded, ill, and injured service members and their caregivers.
Ghino (36:56)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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