Improv, Puppetry, and the Freedom of Comedy with Joseph Lopez
In this exciting episode of Creator/Shift, Erika sits down with the multi-talented Joseph Lopez! Joseph is a writer, actor, improviser, and puppeteer who has worn many creative hats over the years. In this conversation, Joseph shares how improvisation has fundamentally transformed his approach to both performance and writing. He talks about his experiences with open jams, including performing in his second language, Spanish.
Joseph delves into his innovative puppet shows, such as Edgewood Avenue, and how puppetry allows him to explore characters and scenarios he wouldn't normally tackle as himself. But that's not all! Joseph is currently diving into the world of coding with the ambitious goal of blending comedy and video games. Don't miss this fascinating discussion about the intersection of different creative mediums and the future of comedy in new formats.
5 Key Tips
Improv Insights:
Discover how playing with different people and engaging in open jams can transform your creative thinking.
Pushing Boundaries:
Learn how stepping out of your comfort zone, like performing in a second language, can open up new avenues.
Puppetry Magic:
Find out why puppets can make bolder choices on stage compared to human performers.
Collaboration Wisdom:
Joseph’s golden rule for working with others—how to respect and elevate each other's vision.
Comedy as a Lifeline:
Understand how comedy can be a way to navigate through life's ups and downs.
The Intrinsic Value of Improv
Pushing Boundaries and Embracing Diversity
Joseph's journey into improv began as a means to explore different perspectives and expand his creative horizons. Open jams, a hallmark of the improv community, play a pivotal role in this exploration. As Joseph explains, "An open jam is when people of any experience level, brand new improvisers, experienced improvisers, people from all walks of improv can meet and play." By engaging in open jams, Joseph meets a diverse array of performers, each bringing their unique style and experiences to the stage.
Comedy as a Catalyst for Life
Balancing Reality with the Absurd
Comedy serves as a crucial outlet for Joseph, offering him a means to navigate life's challenges. The duality of comedy—balancing the real with the unreal—provides a unique lens through which to perspective difficult moments. "The most important thing about comedy is that balance of the unreal and the real and how it kind of can ground you and really release you from certain pains and certain troubles," Joseph reveals.
Innovating through Coding
Looking ahead, Joseph is keen to explore new mediums for his comedic expression. Armed with freshly acquired coding skills, he envisions creating a video game that blends his improvisational and comedic talents. "I love trying different mediums in the same way that, like, I started with sketch comedy, moved into improv, moved into puppetry, and now I want to explore how can I put these improvising skills and comedy skills that I've developed over the last six years into a new medium," Joseph shares with palpable excitement.
🎉 Fun Fact
Did you know that Joseph once had his puppet Albert "poop" on stage during an improv session? It's wild, it's hilarious, and it's something he swears he'd never do as himself!
Joseph Lopez’s creative journey is an inspiring story of breaking boundaries, embracing diverse forms of expression, and continually seeking new learning opportunities. Whether through improv, puppetry, or his future ventures into video game design, Joseph epitomizes the transformative power of art in enriching and navigating life's myriad experiences.
▶︎ Find Joseph on Instagram at @albertonedgewood @idratherstayseated
Follow Imagine Alley and Creator/Shift at--
▶︎ YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/@ImagineAlleyX 🎬
▶︎ Website : https://www.imaginealleydigital.com
▶︎ Instagram : https://www.instagram.com
▶︎ Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/groups/Imaginealleydigital
▶︎ TikTok : https://www.tiktok.com/@imaginealleyx
🔔 Subscribe to Creator/Shift on your favorite podcast platform
FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW
Joseph Lopez:
I'm a writer, I'm an actor. I do improv, comedy. I dabble in stand up, but I try to stick to improv. Man, improv has changed me, for better or for worse. It definitely really changed how I approach new ideas and my willingness to approach from different angles, rather than just from my typical perspective that I like used to have when I would be writing. One of the things about improv that really changed, kind of my perspective in my process, is the open jams. And having played with so many different people from different ranges of experience and understanding, and even having played in Spanish, where I speak Spanish, but it's not my first language, it's not my strongest language, for sure, and I can understand pretty well. But, you know, communicating back can be difficult.
Joseph Lopez:
But when doing improv, there's like something about having to let go of that pressure of speaking it well and just focusing on that way to communicate other than speaking. And I think that sort of has really changed how I attack my writing processes or when I'm acting, how I enter the stage, or when I'm doing improv with someone completely different, how I interpret the words that we get, and how I interpret movements just so that I can try to match or try to follow.
Erika Christie:
You mentioned open jams. Can you tell us what an open jam is?
Joseph Lopez:
An open jam is when people of any experience level, brand new improvisers, experienced improvisers, people from all walks of improv can meet and play. It's a great chance to kind of flex your muscles, learn from other people, learn from yourself, make choices that you wouldn't typically make on stage in front of a more casual audience. Oh, man. With a level of stress. I definitely, when I am creating something, there is a little bit more focus from my end.
Joseph Lopez:
And it's not necessarily focus and, like, paying attention or following, but it's making sure that what I'm doing is exactly what I want. It is very. For example, with Edgewood Avenue, when I approached that, it wasn't just, I want to do an improvised puppet show, it was, I want to do things with puppets. It was I. There's a specific structure, I want to do an improvised show. It's not just going up there and doing long form, or just going up there and doing short form. It's the world around building those things and the blocks around that. While when I'm working with somebody else, I'm much more willing to just go with the flow, accept things as they are approached to me, because I want to see their vision come through the way that I would want my vision to come through.
Joseph Lopez:
So I try to make sure that as much as I want to suggest, and I want to be hands on, somebody said this to me when I was working on a little short or about sometime last year. They said, you may not understand it, but they know what they're doing. And I think that was like a moment in my brain where I was like, oh, yeah, I may have a completely different view of what a puppet show would look like, as opposed to when I'm working with Shay and we put a puppet in, her show might look completely different. And that's because she knows what she wants for her show in the same way that I know what I want for mine. And I try to approach that with that in mind. When I'm doing a skit, I'm more focused on the joke, on the bit, and what that bit means and how that can be explored. While when I do a show with multiple segments, I focus more on almost the vagueness of it. For example, our last puppet show we did, we did like a theme with the word open.
Joseph Lopez:
And that meant a lot of different things for us. That meant how we opened the show, it meant how we approached the skit within the show, affected how our stand up comedian wrote their bits around that. So every bit or every segment, I want to have, like, almost a through line where it doesn't have to be as focused on exploring a specific bit or joke as it would be on a smaller scale, but it still has those elements throughout it. What can I do with puppets that I can't do with people? Just about anything. When I first did improv with my puppet Albert, I experienced something that I rarely do in the sense that I made choices that I don't think I'd ever make. As Joseph the performer, Albert pooped on the stage, and that's not something that I would ever do myself. But there is a level of separation that Albert introduced. When I do improv, I am representing myself, and I am representing my thoughts in the way I move, the way I act.
Joseph Lopez:
The choices I make represent a part of me. And sometimes exploring further parts of myself can feel not restrictive, but I feel like I'm holding myself back in a way to where I have to make sure that I'm presenting myself in the best light possible. While often open jams allow me to explore other avenues in that way. But having a puppet completely separates me from the improv I'm doing and allows me to make choices that, like I said, I wouldn't make without that puppet, because the puppet can really do anything and be perceived in ways that are not as aggressive, I guess, as if I was doing it myself. I think adults enjoy puppetry partially because of the nostalgia. We all grew up. Most of us, at least now, have grown up with if Sesame street or the Muppets. The Muppets had their huge revival in 2011 with the Muppet movie that was really successful.
Joseph Lopez:
And there's something fun about them. There's something that is freeing about enjoying the things that you enjoyed as a kid in a light that feels more mature, but just as grounded and silly as it did when you were a child. I think as a performer, as an artist, I'm always learning, and that's a big reason why I do open jams and why I like to perform with so many different people and help out on so many different shows. When I started working for Shay with late night, with Shea Dominguez, I had never really explored the world of late night shows. I've watched a couple of them. You know, I love Conan. I like Steve Colbert and Jon Stewart. I'm a big fan of comedy.
Joseph Lopez:
Bang. Bang. Like, there's a level of experience that I had watching these type of shows. Working with Shay, I saw how really she put them together and how she kind of built her show, how she focused on the elements she wanted in her show. And I was learned. I learned so much. I'm still learning so much from her. And that's what I think the most important thing is.
Joseph Lopez:
I will work with just about anyone that I feel like I can really learn from. And our community is full of people like that, where they have really specific talents or tricks that they do and they pull off to make their shows successful. And whether I employ that into my own shows or not is neither here or there. But I learned something, and I learned how to make my things better because of it. Comedy is freedom. It is a way to express yourself. The most silly, goofy, freeing way that I have ever experienced. There is nothing that has really affected my life more than comedy, than being part of comedy.
Joseph Lopez:
Being part of the scene here in Atlanta has really, like I said, changed me, and it changed how I approach difficult things in my life, changed how I approach stressful environments or moments. And I'm sure we've all had the experience where something bad happens and you have to laugh it off. The most important thing about comedy is that balance of the unreal and the real and how it kind of can ground you and really release you from certain pains and certain troubles. Up next is I like to learn. I love to learn. And right now I'm learning coding. So the next thing I want to do is create a game that explores comedy in another sort of medium. I love trying different mediums in the same way that, like, I started with sketch comedy, moved into improv, moved into puppetry, and now I want to explore how can I put these improvising skills and I comedy skills that I've developed over the last six years into a new medium.
Joseph Lopez:
And that medium I really want to try is video games.