Elijah Rock is an very talented singer, actor, and dancer. He co-stars in the film Three Blind Saints, soon to hit theaters nationwide. From performing comedy bits on the Conan O’Brienshow, to playing Obama on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, to the recent completion of his lead role in the play w/musicHoodoo Love, The Conzene is proud to present, Elijah Rock.

The Conzene: What inspired you to become an actor/musician?

Elijah Rock:   Singing was a talent I discovered, I had when I was really young, growing up in my church, as a member of the children’s choir. I was about 9 or 10 years old when I started singing in the choir and after that, I even sang at my school. I went to a private all boy’s school. I was really fortunate to have a really strong arts program, and the teacher’s there saw that I had a love and the talent for singing. So from the church to school, my talents were just supported. I kept getting opportunities to solo, and then you catch the bug and the rest is history.

The Conzene: How long have you been performing music and acting? Did you perform in any school plays in high school?

Elijah Rock: I would say about 7 or 8 years old, I started at church, and then school in 5th grade. I did my first play as the lead Charlotte in the play Charlotte’s Web. I went to an all boy school which would explain why they casted me and not a girl as Charlotte, which was a lot of fun. Then I played Snoopy inYou’re A Good Man Charlie Brown, I think that was around the 6th -7th grade. Then in high school I was a waiter in the musical Cabaret. I played Tom Robinson in To Kill A Mockingbird, and then Jim in the musical Big River. The guy who played Tom Sawyer actually went on to go to Broadway, so again we had a really strong arts program. I was fortunate to be able to balance arts with sports as well. Sports gave me a real sense of how to be a team player which is very important in the creative arts.

At some point I had to make a choice, as a senior I got accepted into the Cleveland institute of Music young artists program, and in fact my summers in high school I went to Interlochen Arts camp. This camp is one of the best camps for kids all over the world who are there to study and experience the arts. The most unique stars from all over the world perform there. You get a real sense of what its like to be at the top of the game, even as a young person. My voice teacher there was also faculty at Cleveland Institute of Music so that helped me in my decision to continue my study at CIM.

The Conzene: What was it like working on the set of Three Blind Saints? Can you tell us a little about the film?

Elijah Rock: It was amazing. I play one of the lead roles, Jamal. It’s about three guys, Sam (Richard Speight, Jr.) and Frankie (Stelio Savante) who, while on a trip, get thrown in the small town county jail of Rocky Road, because of unpaid parking tickets. To pay retribution, we have to do community service at a local church, when in fact none of us are really that religious, especially Sam, whom they make the new preacher. My character is the music minister. In the end, they fall in love with the community folks and find God. Everyone, the production team, the volunteers, they took really good care of us. Of course working with the leads Richard Speight Jr, Audrey Matos and Stelio Savante was great. Brad Wilson the producer, is one of the nicest guys in Hollywood and has become a wonderful friend and mentor. It was a great experience having my first star roll in a feature film. I couldn’t have wished for a better experience.

The Conzene: I heard good things about Hoodoo Love. Is there anything you want to tell us that people don’t know about the play?

Elijah Rock: Hoodoo Love, it a great play. Its written by Katori Hall who is a Broadway playwright. Her most recent play on Broadway is called The Mountaintop with Angela Bassett and Samuel Jackson. Our producer, Michelle Andrea Smith from AGS Theatre was fortunate to stage the west coast premier ofHoodoo Love, which Katori wrote in 2007. Its set in the 1930’s Mississippi. I play a character Ace of Spades. I’m a traveling blues man who falls in love with this girl Toulou. She puts a spell on me to keep me around and thus breaks my heart in the end because i’m not sure if the spell she puts on me, is from the backwards potion she gets from her next-door neighbor Candylady (the Hoodoo Madame of Beale Street), or the love I’ve acquired for her. So its a really compelling story, and we got extended to run through April 1st due to great reviews.

The Conzene: Do you do a lot of singing in your part for Hoodoo Love? If so what songs do you sing?

Elijah Rock: It’s actually a play with music. I sing a duet song called Bumblebee Woman with Toulou, my love interest, along with three other songs in the show; one where I play the harmonica and the others I play the guitar. It’s a four person play.

Elijah Rock: My style of tap is called Paddle N’ Roll. You do have to have some kind of rhythm, but then its just working out the steps and really speaking through your feet. It’s just rhythms and syncopation. I’ve been tapping so long that I never compartmentalized it being different then music, because rhythm is so musical. It all starts with the bass and the drums, so even just to play music if you don’t have that connected its difficult to be musical. So you got to have that internal metronome. That’s always got to be cooking even if there is no bass or drum. Its the beating of the heart where it all originates.

The Conzene: If you had a book written about you, what would the main plot be?

Elijah Rock: The plot would be that success requires no apologies and failure permits no alibis.

The Conzene: Do you have any hidden talents? If so what is it?

Elijah Rock: I’m a mean cook! And I love to bake. Maybe that comes from my mother and her side of the family who come from South.

The Conzene: What else do you have planned for the summer?

Elijah Rock: This summer on June 26th, I will be headlining the KJAZZ, (88.1) Hollywood & Highland Summer Jazz Series with my 7 piece ensemble. During the 4th of July weekend, I will also be headlining the World One Festival in El Cerrito California. I will also be performing in a new musical entitled Paradise to open in Los Angeles by the end of the summer.

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Hall’s recent success was “The Mountaintop,” her play about Martin Luther King Jr. that starred Samuel L. Jackson on Broadway. Admittedly, her debut script sports some clichés and arbitrary plotting amid the pre-PC patois and imaginative interstitial songs — musical director Haskel Joseph’s live guitar licks are worth admission — yet it fascinates us despite its flaws.Given director Richard Lyons’ uneven tonal control, this is some accomplishment. Meshel is appealing of presence, feathery-sultry of voice; Rock and Peete are apt in talent and type. Yet as the brutal ironies mount, Lyons permits them more melodramatic overdrive than property or venue can easily withstand.

By contrast, McClain’s slyly timed, house-rocking takes and showstopping chops — Ma Rainey meets Mahalia Jackson’s conjure-woman cousin — seem downright nuanced. “Hoodoo Love” teems with stage-worthy virtues. Restraint ain’t one of ‘em.