Today we’d like to introduce you to Joseph Scrimshaw.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Everyone I’ve met in Los Angeles does so many different things. So every time I interview someone for my podcast, Obsessed, I ask them what their nouns are.
My current nouns are writer, comedian, and podcaster.
My earliest memories are drawing pictures of Batman and my mom saying, “Wow, that’s not as crappy as I’d expect.” And with that glowing praise, I was forever interested in being a creator. And forever obsessed with big, splashy, fun pop-culture like superheroes and Star Wars.
After getting a degree in visual art in my hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota, I decided I needed something to fall back on, so I got into performing and writing. I did a ton of sketch comedy, improv comedy, wrote plays that got produced around the world and performed everything from children’s theater to Shakespeare to Interactive Dinner Theater.
Around 2010, I became friends with Bill Corbett of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and RiffTrax. We created some shows together and performed them at the San Francisco SketchFest and Jonathan Coulton’s big geek entertainment cruise.
These experiences really reminded me that I wanted to pursue my creative goals on a larger scale and ideally reach a larger audience. Also, I was really done with Minnesota winters. So my wife and moved to Los Angeles.
Currently, I’m producing a couple of live shows, hosting my podcast Obsessed (we recently did an episode with Dave Foley about his obsession with UFOs), co-hosting the Star Wars podcast, ForceCenter, and working as a writer for TV and film. I’m a writer on the Adult Swim fantasy comedy show Tigtone and have some other projects cooking that I can’t yet talk about.
I love Los Angeles because when people say they can’t talk about something it could be anything from a major movie deal or they don’t want to admit they tripped on the escalator at the Glendale Galleria.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I think all roads are relative and very few of us feel like our roads are free of potholes.
The potholes in my personal road have been some of the standard ones–almost booking a job but not being in the right place at the right time, fighting to stay motivated, splitting your focus on multiple projects, etc.
When I first arrived in LA, I made the mistake of creating a pothole of my own. Both my wife and I love the city. The sunlight, the mountains, the museums, the parks, theaters, cocktail bars, the sense of history, and the sense of community that radiates from all the little neighborhoods that make up Los Angeles.
At first, I was reluctant to enjoy it all. Because I wanted to earn it with some specific level of success. I had a couple of restaurants I didn’t want to go to until I’d “made it.” I didn’t even have that level of success clearly defined.
This was something I got over relatively quickly. I think a great thing that LA teaches you is to enjoy both the destination and the ride.
At this point in my career, I certainly want more accomplishments, but I’m proud of the things I’ve done, and most importantly, I make a point to enjoy them every day.
I paved over that particular pothole in the road. And now I try to engage with the city as much as possible and take inspiration from it. I went to Musso & Franks for a martini in the middle of the afternoon and to sit at the bar and write. I got a call from my manager and sat in the old telephone booths.
It was the most Los Angeles I’ve ever felt.
Tell us about your business– what should we know?
My business is multi-faceted. I love comedy, so everything I do has a sense of humor to it. I love genre–horror and fiction and fantasy–and the possibilities for both wild escapism and a mirror to the real world that they provide.
In my writing, I like to think I’m known for mixing comedy with genre and characters that seem absurd but have deep, true, relatable human emotions.
For my podcasts, I’ve become known as, for lack of a better term, a voice of reason, I guess.
In particular, for our Star Wars podcast feed, I do a show called Star Wars Counseling. It’s a show where I collect “grievances” from people about the parts of Star Wars that make them upset. It started off as a bit of a joke and a one-off panel I did with a friend when I was a guest at the big Atlanta convention, Dragon Con.
But I quickly discovered how much I loved doing. I love digging into the minutiae of Star Wars and celebrating it, but what I really discovered is trying to help people see things in Star Wars from lots of different perspectives.
Do you think it’s stupid that Yoda uses a lightsaber? Okay, well, why did George Lucas make that choice? Why would Yoda do that? How would a fan who was born in 2000 feel differently than a fan that was born in 1970?
It’s a podcast about a weird space fantasy where wizards cut each others’ limbs off with laser swords, but taking the time to really talk through perspective and how much that matters has been really profound.
Oftentimes, the Star Wars counseling just kind of turns into real counseling about understanding other people’s experiences, letting go of your anger, using your imagination, and accepting things you don’t like.
I love it, and I wonder if I should have just become an actual counselor.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
I think my best qualities are love and understanding of comedy but also an appreciation that comedy doesn’t have to be tearing things down.
Ideally, I think comedy can be used to see and understand different perspectives.
I think I bring an open mind and a curiosity to all my projects. I truly want to know and understand what other people think. It helps me be a better interviewer; it helps me be a better writer and collaborator. It even helps me be better at random general meetings with Hollywood executives who sometimes just want to hear my opinions about Star Wars.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.josephscrimshaw.com/
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/josephscrimshaw/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joseph.scrimshaw
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/JosephScrimshaw
Image Credit:
On the phone at Musso & Franks (selfie), Meeting Kylo Ren at Disneyland (Sara Scrimshaw), Appreciating a Tigtone bus ad (Sara Scrimshaw), Performing a comedy show with Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy (Jason Roop)
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition, please let us know here.
