Douglas Marshall

Douglas Marshall IS the SINGLE threat

Back in 2006, the concept of a Triple Threat was a big deal. The high rollers who were building their own names into empires had to have multiple talents to keep themselves in the game - their personal branding was like a well diversified portfolio curated by Merrill Lynch. Triple Threat, I liked it. It meant that someone could sing, dance AND act. Then in 2007, as they were talking about how Justin Timberlake brought ‘Sexy Back’, they said he had to watch out for the newest ‘Quadruple Threat’: Chris Brown. Quadruple what? That crossed the Three Treat limit and I wasn’t buying it! I started thinking about the multiple threat conundrums and wondered: if I was pitted against these moguls, how would I stack up?

That’s just it; it doesn’t matter. I don’t want to be a Quadruple Threat. I don’t need to be a Triple Threat. I am a SINGLE threat and I am the one to watch.

While all the other haters were out perfecting their dancing, singing, acting and whatever the 4^th thing is to make them a Quadruple Threat, I was perfecting one thing. I was perfecting Doug. When you are unique enough to not be replaced, duplicated or forgotten - that’s when you get to call yourself SINGLE threat.

I have always been ahead of the curve long before I or anyone else knew what the curve was. I was the guy in 2^nd grade wearing Bowties and Penny Loafers to school while everyone else was wearing jeans. I was perfecting this look (20 years ago) long before Peter Davis made it hip on the scene today. In 4^th grade I stole my sister’s doll that had short hair, put it up in a pony tail and wired a longer ponytail (that I made by bunching together white kite string that I cut into many 9 inch strands) to her head. In essence, I gave the doll hair extensions before I knew what extensions were. Oddly enough, this was the same look that Madonna copped for her Blonde Ambition tour a few years later. At 14 years of age, back in the day when everyone was wearing lipstick, I would hide out in my bathroom at night putting red glittery children’s toothpaste on my lips and stare at my glaring full lipped pout in the mirror. My lips looked luscious and supple – similar to a look that a good lip-gloss of today would create. This was long before MAC built up their empire with the coveted LipGlass product. I was playing around with fierce trends before they even became trends. I understood all the secrets of the fashion/beauty worlds long before they had been revealed. To top all of this, throughout my childhood (in my world of make believe), I used to pretend that cameras were following me around recording my every move. I was always putting on a show and playing to a crowd. This was long before reality television came onto the scene – so I sometimes wonder, could I have been on the same wavelength as the individuals who dreamed up reality TV.

I am not saying I pioneered any of the above – BUT what I am saying is that I’m tapped into a higher body of knowledge that has revealed some great things to me well before they became massified. In some cases, I’ve been granted an early access pass. I’ve been invited to the proverbial trunk show and the concepts manifested in my mind and I played around with them. Yes, someone else brought them to market eventually, but I got the experience earlier on. That is a gift.