Open Book Interview: Tyler Merritt
Tyler Merritt (he/him) is an actor, musician, comedian, and activist behind The Tyler Merritt Project. Raised in Las Vegas, he has always had a passion for bringing laughter, grace, and love into any community he is a part of. His film credits include Netflix’s Outer Banks, Disney/Marvel’s Falcon and the Winter Soldier, NBC’s Young Rock, and A24’s The Inspection, to name a few. Tyler’s viral videos “Before You Call the Cops” and “Walking While Black” have been viewed by over 100 million people worldwide, with “Before You Call The Cops” being voted the most powerful video of 2020 by NowThis Politics. He is a cancer survivor who lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
A cancer diagnosis caused Tyler Merritt—beloved author of I Take My Coffee Black—to realize that there was no time for anger, unforgiveness, foolishness, or lost friendships. None of us have any time to waste.
When Tyler Merritt was diagnosed with cancer, everything he thought he knew about what mattered in life changed. Though he made it through a highly invasive surgery and thought he was in the clear, Tyler soon realized that the cancer had other plans. It wasn’t a question of if the tumor would come back for an encore, his doctors told him. It was a question of when. The clock was ticking.
This Changes Everything is a humorous and optimistic love letter to this beautiful life. As Tyler counts down the days until his next scan, he begins to understand that none of us have time for anger, for being unforgiving, for foolishness, for letting relationships drift, or for letting friendships to be lost. It’s a clear-eyed reckoning with the reality that our time on this earth is limited and a hopeful vision of how each of us can make the most of the time we have left.
Okay, this is a little crazy. My favorite rapper is Jay-Z and has been ever since I began really listening to rap. Something that he did when he first started writing is he would memorize all of his lyrics in his head. He would be walking along the streets in New York City and the lyrics would begin to come with him. And then when it was time to put him in the studio or record him, they would just come out of him without writing. And I kind of adopted the same principle because I found my mind always going and telling stories. And I found myself going, gosh, I wish I could write this down right now.
I write from a bench, which I talk about a lot in my first book. I’ll go and sit on the bench. I will begin to think of the stories that I want to tell. I’ll begin to piece them together, put them together, take those moments and begin to create them. And then I will come home and I will jot down the ideas. And I also have a writing partner as well, which to me is one of the coolest things in the world because it keeps me accountable, it keeps my jokes funny. His name is Dave Tieche, and I’ll run by him what I’ve written usually from the bench. And then we will go from there.
What inspired me to write This Changes Everything is sometimes life comes at you fast. Right after I finished writing my last book, I was diagnosed with cancer. I didn’t realize in that moment that I was beginning to live all of the stories that I was going to want to tell my reading audience. But as soon as it hit me, I began documenting. I began really thinking about every singular moment that was taking place, thinking I’m going to want to retell these stories, so make sure that I pay attention. And as soon as I realized that my fear from a cancer diagnosis began to blossom and turn into hope, and turned into wanting to love more, I had the book. I knew it, and I was inspired to write it. I couldn’t wait to write it. I couldn’t wait to get these stories onto the page knowing that this wasn’t going to be some sad tell of how a man discovered he had cancer. But instead, it was going to be an inspirational tale on how with hope, love, and faith, we can all change the world a little bit.
If I were to describe my book in three words, I feel like it would be one of those signs you’d see at like a TJ Maxx or something. It sounds cheesy, but it’s true. Oh goodness, forgive me… I’m so sorry for what I’m about to do to you right now… I would say: hope, live, and love.
It’s not always this way, but currently right now I’m listening to musicals pretty much nonstop. The musicals that I’m listening to the most to right now are:
- Sunset Boulevard: There’s a revival for it, and the vocals and the music is absolutely stellar. I saw it on Broadway.
- I’m listening to the & Juliet soundtrack of original broadcast recording.
- I’m revisiting Wicked like all of the rest of the world is.
Yeah, so I have deep dive into musicals again recently because I love the way musicals tell stories, especially when I’m listening to them and not actually watching them. It forces me to go into these worlds that they’re creating with music and with words. And that’s what I hope to do when I write. And so it inspires me to do so. So that’s what I’m listening to currently and that could change tomorrow.
This actually started with my last book. I have about three paragraphs worth of the different ways that people make cornbread. If you read my books, you’ll see I begin telling a personal story. I’ll take that personal story, weave it into a thought. With me being a black man in America, that usually attaches us to some sort of history. And it comes out either funny or educational or serious. It’s what I do. It’s what I like to do.
When I started writing I Take My Coffee Black, my first book, I wanted to use the history and why people make cornbread the way that they do from different locations in the United States. And it didn’t fit. So when I tell you I tried my best to get it into This Changes Everything… I tried my best to write about the history of cornbread. But I think everybody was like, let it go bro. Let it go.
I still think it’s kind of awesome. So maybe the next book you’ll learn about cornbread.
When Tyler Merritt was diagnosed with cancer, everything he thought he knew about what mattered in life changed. Though he made it through a highly invasive surgery and thought he was in the clear, Tyler soon realized that the cancer had other plans. It wasn’t a question of if the tumor would come back for an encore, his doctors told him. It was a question of when. The clock was ticking.
This Changes Everything is a humorous and optimistic love letter to this beautiful life. As Tyler counts down the days until his next scan, he begins to understand that none of us have time for anger, for being unforgiving, for foolishness, for letting relationships drift, or for letting friendships to be lost. It’s a clear-eyed reckoning with the reality that our time on this earth is limited and a hopeful vision of how each of us can make the most of the time we have left.
Laced with Tyler’s trademark humor, love of pop culture, and arguably too many musical theater references, This Changes Everything is a story about how wrestling with the idea of death can birth a whole new outlook on life, how we live it, and the urgency that comes when you grasp that time is a precious commodity.