Today we’d like to introduce you to JJ Carroll.
Hi JJ, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I moved from Billings, Montana to California in 2011 for film school. Culture shock doesn’t even begin to describe the initial feeling I had. My inexperience quickly gave me away the first time I mapped how long it would take me to get to Hollywood from the border of Orange County and Los Angeles. I thought to myself, “26-mile trip, 26 minutes…no problem!” That’s because in Montana, you can drive 80 mph on a freeway with virtually no traffic and only deer to worry about. I guess my dreams of hanging out in Hollywood every weekend, rubbing elbows with the likes of Frankie Muniz, were crushed when I found out that it would be well over an hour-long commute… Boy did I learn fast…
Despite not being “in” Hollywood all the time, I loved my time in film school. It was a place I could try new things and fail, but the failure was always moving toward a greater goal.
I was driven during my college years to create comedy. Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, and Adam Sandler were my heroes growing up, and I have always wanted to find a way to work with them. I started a sketch comedy show my sophomore year with a couple of buddies, where we made seemingly stupid ideas come to life. Still, to this day, it was some of the most fun I’ve ever had. We got a little bit of notoriety on campus, which was cool, and in turn, it created new work for all of us.
When I graduated, I partnered with my friend Matt Tory to start a production company and begin writing our own shows and movies. We’ve been spending the better part of the last 7 years building it and producing original content.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Not in the slightest. I’ve fought resistance every step of the way, but to be honest, I’m grateful for it. Every single time I’ve hit a roadblock, it has just made me try and think through different ways to accomplish what I’m setting out to do. I work with an incredible team of friends, and when resistance comes, we look at it to see if it’s something that is fixable in the moment or if we need to pause and shift the energy somewhere else. I’ve learned that to get anything done, I have to be adaptable.
As an example, a couple friends and I started a project in 2015 called “Bigfoot & Jeff.” It’s a buddy comedy about Bigfoot and his best friend, Jeff, who’s a Park Ranger. Our intent was to film in the summer of 2016, but we had a roadblock, and unfortunately, we weren’t able to film. Rather than waiting for that specific project, we pivoted and put our energy into creating another show so we could keep making material and stay sharp. We put the Bigfoot project on hold, and it was one that we would constantly go back to and see if it was possible to get done. We’ve had several false starts, but we kept pushing forward as much as we could, and we just shot our pilot last month. The biggest thing I’ve learned is to never give up on the projects you believe in, no matter what the roadblocks are.
There have definitely been moments of discouragement, and while I haven’t “figured it all out,” I just keep walking forward and doing everything that I can. I believe in the end persistence and passion win.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I do a little bit of everything… but acting, writing, and producing are my main focuses. My writing partner and I started a production company called Good.Clean.Fun productions, and this was born out of a desire to go out and create rather than wait for someone to give us money. We just realized that nobody is going to hand us the keys if we don’t have anything to show.
Over time, we have assembled an incredible team with the same goal of honing our craft and creating great material on little budget. We have three seasons of an original comedy series on Tubi called “The Beech Boys” and are currently in post-production on the Pilot for our new show “Bigfoot & Jeff,” which I co-wrote and play Bigfoot in. We also just started filming a new sketch comedy show called “Halfway Handsome,” which I created and starred in with Matt Tory, Josh Fasold, and Jamie Costa and will release later this year.
I also recently wrapped a short film with David Tracy titled “I’m Really Sorry” and I acted in my first feature back in September called “Clawface.” The Director, Mike Streeter, was amazing to work with, and the whole crew was phenomenal. It was such a fun experience.
I think the thing I’m most proud of is the fact that I’ve kept going all these years. It would’ve been so easy to get discouraged and give up, but that has never been an option for me. I look back at the stuff that I’ve created with people close to me, and I’m constantly amazed at what we pulled off with little to no budget. We just took an idea, looked at what we had available to us, called in some favors, and made it happen. We always dreamed as big as we could, not thinking about budgetary restrictions, and we found a way to make every single one of our crazy ideas work. It is 100% a team effort. I would be nothing without my friends. Their partnership has been so valuable to me, and I’m so grateful that I found a group of people who are insanely talented and want to make similar stuff.
What were you like growing up?
I grew up with four older sisters, so I always felt like I was on my own island in some ways. My sisters were all incredible athletes, while I didn’t get a single athletic bone, although I would go buck wild on the dodgeball court. Despite my lack of athleticism, I did, however, get the performance genes. Most of my interests have revolved around the arts. I’ve always loved acting, music, and movies, especially comedy. I love the power of comedy because it helped me get through so many dark and lonely days. I’ve always wanted to be able to help others when they were going through tough times. So, I always made it my mission. If I saw somebody who was struggling or seemed sad, I would do anything I could to make them smile or laugh. You would find the childhood version of me making silly videos for school projects and church events in middle school or walking around the neighborhood selling popsicles to the neighbors in a British accent. Since then, I caught the bug and haven’t stopped since. I have no plans of stopping anytime soon.
Contact Info:
- Website: bigfootandjeff.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/j2carroll/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jj-carroll-809b5791/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@gcf/featured https://www.youtube.com/@bigfootandjeff
- Others: short film: https://youtu.be/C9B8OgOugPc?si=jTQP6-hfVLKUo6qc
trailer for claw face which just dropped: https://youtu.be/J84QQRthPPU?si=-VAteaXeWzgVQQv1
Image Credits
Mike Streeter
