Meet Steve Trash®: Rockin’ Eco Hero – Eco-Entertainer – Wearer of Big Hats

We had the good fortune of connecting with Steve Trash® and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Steve, how does your business help the community?
Early in my career, I discovered that I loved show business very very much. I loved entertaining people, I loved making them laugh, I loved amazing them with magic tricks. I loved bringing them joy. Doing this also brought me joy, but I realized that this wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to bring joy AND understanding… all at the same time. So I went searching for a way to merge my love of show business with my love (and passion) for something else. The environment was a logical choice for me. My dad had been a forester, my mom, a school teacher, and I was passionate about nature and the environment. I created a mythical character: Rockin’ Eco Hero – Steve Trash® and started creating entertainment with a message. I could make magic tricks with garbage. I could make music with recycled instruments. I could create PBS TV shows with environmental science themes. https://www.pbs.org/show/steve-trash-science/ Basically, I realized that I could use this character to teach the value of recycling AND build an amazing career in show business. It was truly win win. I made money (in some cases, a lot of money), I brought a better environmental understanding to the world’s kids and grownups. We 21st century folks don’t understand that working WITH nature, rather than AGAINST nature is the smartest way forward for the planet AND for the 8 billion folks we’d like to live happy, fulfilling, and successful lives here on planet Earth. My job allows me to share this message each and every day! 

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
The most challenging (and interestingly… rewarding) part of my 38 year long career as an artist and entertainer has been that I don’t fit into any pre-existing category. I’ve been a category buster for my entire career. There never seemed to be a template for a family entertainer/kid entertainer that shared ecological lessons with people all over the globe. This has been equally fulfilling AND frustrating. The magicians don’t think I fit with them. The PHD’s of environment and ecology don’t think I fit with them either. But creating, super high-quality, science-based entertainment that teaches eco-lessons has always been extremely interesting to me. Even when the entertainment establishment or the education establishment didn’t “get” what I was doing, the kids did, and the teachers did too. So I just kept right on creating content (magic tricks, music, tv shows, videos, toys, books, etc.) that would illustrate our connection to the natural world and how we could work more successfully WITH its rules, rather than AGAINST its rules. There have been TONS of challenges along my 38 year path (rejections, financial flops, artistic failures, and more), but I kept coming back to the “value” I felt my eco-entertainment was bringing to the world. I was, not only, bringing smiles and laughter, I was helping (even if only in quiet subtle ways) transform our picture of how we humans connect with the planet.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I would make sure my friend visited while the STATE FAIR OF TEXAS was up and running. It’s such an epic event, and it’s so VERY Texas. We’d spend the week eating “corny-dogs” and visiting Big Tex and having the whole state fair experience! We’d, however, be gone by Texas/OU day, because things get really “CRAZY” that day. 🙂

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to dedicate my SHOUTOUT to my high school humanities teacher AND counselor…. Mrs. Nicki Graham. I was 17 years old and knew everything in the world already. Mrs. Graham cleverly (I had no idea she was doing this) convinced me to NOT drop out of High School AND to become a writer. She believed in my potential when many many others did not see it, recognize it, or even believe it was there. She TOTALLY believed in me. I felt this believe in my bones. I KNEW she thought I “had something”. My successful career has, in very large part, been that way because she saw a “spark” in me that needed to be ignited. Thank you Mrs. Graham!

Website: https://www.stevetrash.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevetrash/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevetrash/
Twitter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevetrash/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stevetrash
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/stevetrashnetwork
Other: https://www.pbs.org/show/steve-trash-science/

Image Credits
Danny Mitchell Jeffrey Holmes