Whether you’re an improv enthusiast or love “Doctor Who,” then boy does Joe Moses have a “showses” for you!
Okay, all rhyming aside, my interview with Team StarKid’s Joe Moses covered all the basics and then some – from his brand spankin’ new tour, “The Joe Moses Showses,” to the three basic steps to making the most of your college theatre experience. Prepare yourselves, pandas.
Q: If you could describe the “Showses” in three words, what would be those three words?
A: “I say…‘silly-tacular,’ ‘improvis-anity,’ ‘fanda-panda-monium.’”
Q: How did the idea for the tour come about? I know you’ve done shows around Los Angeles, right?
JM: “…It’s always been a goal of mine to tour. From the very beginning of the show, I knew that we had people that wanted to see us all over the country and I really wanted to come and see them. But I didn’t just want to go and do a signing or a meet and greet, I really wanted to go and do something with them, give them something that they can enjoy and see what I’ve been working on.”
Q: What sets the tour apart from the other performances you’ve done? Are there any special things planned?
JM: “Yeah, absolutely. First of all, it’s a brand new show – it’s 100% new, which is great. It’s going to be our most concise show, because it will be our best rehearsed, because for once we have the same cast (writer’s note: the other cast members are “Glee’s” Curt Mega and Tessa Netting) from city to city, which is new for us. It involves a lot of new parodies of things that just came out, or that I’ve been meaning to do for a long time…It’s also the most musical of shows that I’ve done, and it’s the most interactive by far – and this means not only are we interacting with the audience for “Joe Moses Supposes,” which is an improv Q&A segment we do live with the audience, we’re also bringing one audience member on stage at the end of the show to actually be a part of the closing number.”
Q: You said in the tour announcement it’s a “work in progress” – some cities don’t have venues yet, and fans can help with that. How can fans help out?
JM: “One of the biggest parts about it is that I don’t really do traditional media publicity. All of my advertising is by word of mouth and social media mostly, like the interview I’m doing with you right now…This all happened because of social media…so that’s a big way that the fans are helping, just by retweeting or reblogging. It spreads the word in a way that just wasn’t possible 5 years ago. It’s really because of them that I know where to go.”
Q: What are you most looking forward to on the tour – it’s kind of a vague question, but what are you most looking forward to?
JM: “It is really hard to just say one thing, but I would say traveling with my crew…I’m really looking forward to because I love those people very dearly…it’s just fun to go and have new adventures with them, travel new places. This might be the biggest thing – we’ve been working pretty hard on this content, and over the past couple of years, we’re finding what works and what doesn’t. Hopefully my writing has been improving along the way. To actually share what we’ve been working on with people that have never seen it before, that’s really exciting to me…I’m just really excited to share that with the fans in new cities, in cities that have never seen my show before.”
Q: What advice would you give any theatre majors in college that are either still in school or just about to graduate and go out into the professional world?
JM:
1. Do It As Much As You Can: “It’s one opportunity where you’re not expected to be earning money. You’re expected to be learning and performing, so take that time when you have it and just perform everything you can, because all of those skills you build up when you’re in college will show when you’re out in t the professional world.”
2. Create Your Own Work: “You have an opportunity where you’re in college where you have advisors available to you to help coach your work. You have a built in audience of your classmates…and you have free performance space, which is huge!…Free performance space is so key – try renting anything in New York City and it will not be free, I will tell you that.”
3. Work With Your Friends – And Choose Your Friends Wisely: “In my life, my friends have been the most valuable thing I got out of college. The training was great, the experience was great, but working with these people and creating stuff together – we still work together…it’s the people that you work with that inspire you and you inspire them and they make you better. That’s the most valuable thing you can take.”
Q: Is there anything else you want to add about college theatre or the tour in general?
JM: “You don’t have to be a StarKid fan to enjoy, you don’t have to be a Glee fan or a Harry Potter fan or a Doctor Who fan to enjoy the show. I encourage people if you’re gonna come, don’t be afraid to bring a friend who might be on the fence about ‘fandom’ and fandom humor, because it should be pretty accessible to everyone. There is a lot of fandom stuff in there, obviously…that’s just who I am. You don’t have to know that stuff to enjoy the show.”
“The Joe Moses Showses” tour begins on Saturday, July 20th in New York City. Be sure to check out either of the links before for more information and tour dates. Go forth, Pandas!
https://twitter.com/thejoemoses
http://thejoemoses.tumblr.com/
