Shedding False Humility with Simon Curtis

First Draft Episode #203: Simon Curtis

Simon Curtis, pop star, actor, and author of Boy Robot and its
forthcoming sequel. Listen to his brand-new singles, “Graduate”
and “Rainbow” now!
Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode



Simon’s first big gig was as a part of the children’s choir
for a national touring production of Joseph and the Amazing
Technicolor Dreamcoat




Simon’s “It Gets Better” video for The Trevor Project is
beautiful and heartbreaking and very worth a watch.




Early on when he got to LA, Simon was able to audition for
Johnny Wright, manager for acts like New Kids on the Block,
the Backstreet Boys, N*SYNC, Justin Timberlake, Britney
Spears and more.




Simon starred in Spectacular! a Nickelodeon TV movie




Simon made his first album, 8 Bit Heart, after challenges in
his acting career threw him into a depression




LeVar Burton from Reading Rainbow and Michael Scott, author
of The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel
series, were two of the earliest voices encouraging Simon to
write a novel




Michael Strother, who became Simon’s editor at Simon Pulse,
first reached out to Simon as a supportive fan of his music
online as @CupcakeAndy




I reference Sabaa Tahir’s author journey, where she spent six
years writing her first novel, Ember in the Ashes, and then
had to turn around and write the sequel in waaaaaay less
time. Sabaa talks about this (and so much more!) in her
episode of First Draft.




Simon recorded and released R∆ while he was writing Boy Robot
(the book)




Ariana Grande’s “Thank U Next” is on the level with Simon’s
purposeful cultivation of gratitude




Simon’s song “Love” was a song that hit him like a lightning
bolt




Janet Jackson’s The Velvet Rope album is a full ALBUM, not a
collection of singles




Simon was obsessed with Swedish pop groups A Teens and Play




Five years ago Simon discovered Fleetwood Mac, iconic band
featuring Stevie Nicks, check our Rumours and be forever
changed




Kacey Musgraves’ album Golden Hour was so freaking rad and
reshaped Simon’s taste in music




Victoria Aveyard (author of the Red Queen series; listen to
her First Draft interviews here and here) had a conversation
about not asking people to read their books — Simon takes an
opposite approach: “Bitch, read my book!”




I will never stop crying watching the part of Netflix
documentary, Knock Down the House, when Rep. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) gives herself the most badass pep-talk


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Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author
of Divergent; Linda Holmes, author and host of NPR’s Pop Culture
Happy Hour podcast; Jonny Sun, internet superstar, illustrator of
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Gmorning, Gnight! and author and illustrator
of Everyone’s an Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too;  Michael
Dante  DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender;
John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; or Rhett Miller, musician and
frontman for The Old 97s. Together, we take deep dives on their
careers and creative works.



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