Unscripted: Featuring Jamarcus Turner

Unscripted
By Keith Edmonds
Ink Spot Contributing Writer

“Don’t settle for the thing that you’re doing now. Do the things that you really want to do, which you feel in your heart you’re supposed to be doing. Do those things.”

In my over 35 years as an educator, coach, and now a writer, I’ve had the opportunity to meet, reacquaint, and come across, hundreds of young people that have had a profound effect on me. I always try to take something away from each moment that I’m in their presence and share or listen to something impactful or meaningful that we both leave the encounter feeling a little better about that time spent. Recently I had one of those said encounters as I had the opportunity to spend time with a young man that it was my pleasure of having in class as a student at Elmhurst High School, as well as being his basketball coach for 2 seasons. Fort  Wayne and Elmhurst High School graduate Jamarcus Turner has found his niche’ as a television script writer but not just ANY writer he has taken his talents NATIONALLY to CBS Hollywood and through hard work, perseverance, and being in the “right place at the right time”, has become one of the writers for the hit comedy show: Bob Abishola.

UNSCRIPTED: Jamarcus, Wow! How great is this seeing you become so successful as a writer, comedian, and soon to be actor! Tell me how this all started…

JT: “Well, when I realized that basketball was not going to be my focus anymore, I started fine tuning other crafts. Even when I was at Elmhurst I was in plays, and musicals and especially drama class. I may have skipped an occasional class or two (lol), but I always made sure that I was in drama class. That became my passion!

UNSCRIPTED: So, when did you realize that you had the ability to make people laugh?

JT: “I just enjoyed being around people that made ME laugh and my friends and I used to joke around all day at school and wherever we went. I really enjoyed watching comedy specials and began watching stand-up comedians and researching information about becoming a comedian while I was in high school. So, I made the declaration, when I became 18, “I’m leaving Indiana for Los Angeles to go to  school to learn more about the craft of acting,  I tried going to college for a few years but I knew that college wasn’t going to be the place to make my dreams happen so though my trek to LA got delayed by 17 years (smile) as I worked factory jobs to support my children, I knew that there was more for me to conquer!  In between my shifts at the various factories that I worked at, I stayed on Twitter and posted my jokes on that platform as a “release” from the day-to-day grind of factory work. It was in January of 2020 that a writer and producer saw some of my stuff on Twitter and DM’ me. We’d been following each other for a couple of years and enjoyed each other’s jokes until one day he suggested that I become a writer. He sent me a book on television writing and also purchased a program for my laptop to help me with my understanding even more. He then suggested that I write about something I know so I wrote about my life as it was at that time. I sent it to him, and he thought that particular script was in a word…TERRIBLE! He corrected it several times until it was fine-tuned and a submittable writing sample. He suggested that I write another one, so I did and that got me moving in the right direction.”

UNSCRIPTED: So, you used that “humble” experience as a backdrop for what you’re currently doing now?

JT: “Well not exactly.  About a year later it was suggested that I enter a writing contest (I’d written another script during that time frame). We set up a meeting to discuss an open submission contest for the TV show “The Problem with Jon Stewart.” I submitted a piece and made it through several rounds of this contest. Although they ended up going in another direction for a winner, it fueled my passion to write even more as I never expected to reach that level!”

UNSCRIPTED: So, what happened next after that unexpected success?

JT: “What happened for me was kind of the impetus that I needed to move forward into using this as a career. The head writer of that particular show hit me about 2 hours later after they said NO to my script and said “I really liked your submission to the show, it was creative and something that we need.  If you can send me some more of your work, I’d like to move it forward for others to look at.” I sent her a pilot for a show that I was working on, and she sent it to Disney! This happened on a Sunday night and by Wednesday Disney had it in their hands and LOVED IT!” They wanted to meet me in person and what happened after that sent me into my NEW career as a script writer for a new comedy series that was coming up for CBS studios. I happened so quickly that I could hardly believe it!”