Joe Moses is known to million of Harry Potter fans worldwide as one of the original members of Team Starkid, playing Snape in both of their A Very Potter… shows. After graduating from the University of Michigan, Team Starkid spread far and wide across the USA, some calling Chicago home, while some chose Los Angeles. But when he’s not coming together to work with his Starkid buddies, Joe calls New York City his home now, and for the past nine months he has been entertaining fans in the New York area with his live comedy show, “The Joe Moses One-Man Showses.” During this time, the show has featured many special guests and sold out many performances. He recently took the show to Washington DC, and next week, Joe and his writing partner J.D. Durkin are flying out to Los Angeles to perform the biggest “JMOMS” yet, on Monday March 5th, at the El Rey Theatre in Hollywood.
Natalie Fisher: Are you in New York, still, or…
Joe Moses: Yes, I’m in New York right now.
NF: Okay, and you’re going to LA just before the show?
Joe: Right, I fly out on Friday, Friday night actually, and the show’s a week from Monday.
NF: Cool, so you’re going to spend some time in the space, or just hang out with everyone..
Joe: I basically just show up an hour before and do my thing.. no, we’re going to have some dress rehearsals because this has a bigger cast than we’ve had before, so, we’re going to have some actual rehearsal in the space, on the day of, and some table rehearsals before that, which should be interesting.
NF: And there maybe people that you haven’t worked with in the show before?
Joe: Right, there’s a couple of people who have not done our shows before.
NF: So it’s going to be your biggest show yet, do you know what the capacity of the El Ray Theatre is?
Joe: I think the capacity is somewhere around 600 people. I know we’re going to put out 300 seats.
NF: And then have standing room, is that right?
Joe: Right, and standing room.
NF: And how did that come about, getting that show there, and the signing at Whimsic Alley? It’s a pretty big leap from New York!
Joe: Yeah, it definitely is. Well, we knew we wanted to do a show in LA, even ever since the first couple of shows I did, last year in August, that were so small by comparison. We knew that eventually that this was something we might want to take to other places, and LA’s a natural place for us because we have so many friends there, and a lot of the Starkids are out there, and we know we have a lot of fans on the West Coast that don’t get to come anywhere near the stuff we do in New York! We knew we wanted to go out there, and in terms of the venue, it actually came because of Whimsic Alley, which is that big Harry Potter store out there, and our agent Pat is friends with the guy who runs Whimsic Alley, Stan, he’s a great guy, and he knows a lot, he’s very in touch with the Harry Potter community, and since he’s right across the street from the El Ray, they have sort of a working relationship where we thought it would be a good cross promotion or it’d just be a good synergy between the two to have that big venue and then be able to turn around and, he’s got a great space inside Whimsic Alley that looks like the Great Hall? So we’re going to set all that up for signing of autographs and stuff, so we don’t have to do it outside the theatre or out in the cold, there’s actually a really good space where we can go and sit down and meet the people.
NF: So everyone who’s going to be involved in the show will be coming to sign?
Joe: Ah, I can’t say that. I would say that the people who are announced officially [will be signing], but you might see some people up on stage, that you’re not expecting, and those people might not necessarily be able to make it to the autographs.
NF: So there will be some guests who will not be announced until they show up on the stage?
Joe: Absolutely! You better believe it!
NF: That’s exciting! Do you also want to tell me a bit about how you started working with J.D. to do these shows? He’s someone that maybe some Starkid fans aren’t too familiar with yet.
Joe: That’s true. He’s a New York based guy and he’s never been in a Starkid production, so I’m sure he’s new to a lot of Starkids. But he’s a friend of mine from the People’s Improv Theatre, from the PIT in New York, and I started out – after college, so after Potter, I moved to New York, I didn’t really know anybody, so I started working for the PIT as an intern, and taking classes there, and getting to know them, and J.D. was already doing a solo comedy show there called “Stephen Colbert, Hire Me”, a shameless ploy to get hired by Stephen Colbert. And I saw his show and I liked it, and it was a one-man show, which is always difficult, you know, he had correspondence stuff, but he was a one-man show. So we became friends, we started talking, and I was in the process of developing my Joe Moses Showses for the first time, and I asked him basically at first just to help facilitate it, like “I’m going to need somebody who’s going to announce some things and basically host the show while I do all the bits in between.” So he came on to do that for a bit, and for about the first five or six shows, that’s just how it was, he didn’t write for it, he didn’t produce it or anything like that, he was just the host for it.
NF: He just EmCee’d it?
Joe: Right. But then we started working together a little closer, and I wanted to do – I think the first one that it really happened for was in November when the Starkids were on the SPACE Tour, we knew we were going to have some Starkids in town, so we wanted to write specifically for them, and I was like “it’s just too much content for me to do on my own, J.D., can you write some of this content with me, let’s do this together?” and he did, and I had so much fun and I thought the show went so much better because of it that we’ve sustained that partnership ever since, where he and I split the writing about evenly, and the production end goes back and forth between us, and then I end up on stage more, obviously, I end up performing more, but then he ends up directing a lot of the bits.
NF: I personally have never been to a JMOMS, because I am Australian, obviously, and I just missed you last time I was in New York, so for me and the people that might be looking to come, what generally happens? You’ve got bits of straight stand-up, skits.. All sorts of things mixed in together.. What can people expect to happen in the shows?
Joe: Oh man! Almost anything! It’s almost like – I’m trying to think of something it’s akin to, but there’s nothing I can quite pinpoint. But basically, it’s not so much straight stand-up any more, there is some of that, but I would say there’s a lot of characters, some of them familiar, some of them that you have not seen online before but have been put on stage before, and there’s a lot of sketches, sort of in the vein of Saturday Night Live or something like that, self contained little bits of comedy. Basically anything we find funny, we put together in a show that’s tied together by sort of an overall theme of the Joe Moses Showses. I’m really excited for what we have here, actually, because of the new guests we have, we have brand new content, and some of the sort of “Hall of Fame” from our previous shows in New York are going to make it in there, because we really enjoy doing them. But we’ve got new guests, and we’re going to put new people into some old familiar sketches and we have a brand new through-line for the show, the show ends up being connected by the through-line of myself, I guess, the character of Joe Moses. So that’s going to be brand new for this show because it’s a new event and a new environment, pretty fun.
NF: Cool. So the guests are involved in the sketches sometimes? Are the sketches joking about them, like Saturday Night Live having Daniel Radcliffe on and making fun of him within the show? Is it that kind of thing?
Joe: It is, yeah. Sometimes, they just play characters in the sketch, like anything else, and sometimes we sort of point out who they are.
NF: So do you want to talk a bit about who we’ve got so far?
Joe: A couple of people that have been confirmed already: Joey Richter [AVPM/S’s Ron, MAMD’s Joey, Starship’s Bug] is coming back for his second Joe Moses Showses, so we’re really excited for him, because he was such a blast to have in the other one that we did in November. So he’s sort of Secret Guest #1, I guess it’s not secret any more, but I guess he’s Special Guest #1. J.D. Durkin, of course, is going to be there, he’s sort of my partner in crime in this thing, so he’s definitely going to be on stage. We have tentatively confirmed Tessa Netting, she made the Harry Potter “Hello!” Book of Mormon parody video, which if you haven’t seen, I recommend you see, because it’s quite funny, having seen Book of Mormon now I totally get it, and being a Harry Potter fan of course, it’s very very funny. She’s probably the second or third biggest Harry Potter fan I’ve ever met, which is saying something. [Note From Natalie: Tessa has also got some serious professional stage cred: she’s just moved to LA to pursue her career after a long run as one of the original Broadway cast in the Tony Award-winning Billy Elliot] We’ve also confirmed that Brian Rosenthal [AVPM’s Quirrell, AVPS’s James Potter] is going to be there with us, Devin Lytle [AVPM/S ‘s Cho Chang, MAMD Miss Cooter], and Brant Cox [Starship’s Roach]. So we have quite a line-up of Starkids and special guests.
NF: So that’s already quite a few! Are you announcing anyone else between now and the show?
Joe: I won’t be announcing anyone else. Those are going to be the announced guests for this one, and then the other ones that you’ll see.. it depends on their schedule, sometimes they’re quite busy. But we’ll see, you’ll see them on stage and I’ll be sure to let you know afterwards. We’re hoping – there’s a possibility, I don’t want to put this out too soon because I’m not sure if it’s going to come through – I’m really hoping there’s a way we can try and livestream this event, or at least get a nice recording of it, so that maybe we can put something together for iTunes or for Youtube where people would be able to get ahold of it if they can’t make it all the way out to LA, which of course I completely understand. So that would be great, I think people would be interested in that if we could get a livestream going, something that they could log into and check it out. I would love to be able to do that but I’m just not sure what the best bet is for that, and there’s a lot – LOT – of other things on my mind right now!
NF: Fair enough! And you’ve got some VIP tickets for this show as well, are they sold out yet?
Joe: I don’t think so, I’m not entirely sure about that. The El Rey is set up almost like a rock venue. The seated seats are going to be leading up to the stage, they’re right there on the ground leading up to the stage. Standing room is going to fill in around them, and then there’s actually a VIP balcony area. So it’s further away from the stage, but they have sound reinforcement right there, they’ve got speakers right there and you actually get to sit down at a little table and everything. And of course we’re going to find something special to do for our VIP guests cause they’re going to be up there in that little section.
NF: Is there anything else that you wanted to say about the show specifically before we move on to a couple more general questions?
Joe: It’s Monday, March 5th, 8pm at the El Rey Theatre, we’ve got tickets online right now, please let everybody know! And just be prepared, because I think it’s going to be a really spectacular time! There’s a lot of great sketches we’ve been working on in New York, and we’re ready to show them in LA, I’m so excited about our guests, we’ve got an all-star line-up of guests, and then get ready to come and meet us at Whimsic Alley afterwards.
NF: And it’s all ages?
Joe: Definitely an all ages show, yes. I would say my shows in general are PG to PG-13. I don’t like to hurt the ears of children. Swearing at children, as fun as it may seem, is not high on my priority list. So yeah, it’s going to be an all-ages show, I would say nothing you wouldn’t see on television in the middle of the day.
NF: This summer, when we were at the Harry Potter theme park, I saw you guys, the Starkid crew, get treated like total celebrity rock stars – moreso than some of the actual Potter film cast in attendance. Yet to all intents and purposes, walking down the street, you’re not household names – you have a very specific fan base and group of people giving you that celebrity treatment. What’s that dichotomy like? Is it hard to step in and out of that zone, or is it easier because you get to switch it if when you don’t want the crazy attention?
Joe: Sometimes I think of it like a real luxury, because Darren’s [Note from Natalie: for the four people in the back who haven’t heard this news: Darren Criss, Starkid’s Harry Potter and their composer, has landed a very successful regular role on Glee] sort of crossed that line now, where he can’t really switch it off any more, you know? So I see that, and I think it becomes somewhat stressful after a little while. For us, we LOVE going to Leakycon, and I’m going to Ascendio this year, before that it was Infinitus – we love doing that, because it is so much fun to meet our fans. We know that they exist from online numbers, and now that I’ve been doing more live events I see it a lot more frequently, but it really was, for a while, one of the only times we got to really see our fans, so that was really cool for us, because it’s always nice to have somebody that appreciates what you do. And as far as the dichotomy, that’s kind of what – a lot of our New York Times article was about it.
NF: Yeah, I saw about someone coming to your work and freaking out, does that happen often, every now and then on the street someone will see you?
Joe: Yeah, it’s like an every now and then thing. It really depends on what’s going on. Like, when Darren was here on Broadway doing How To Succeed, I couldn’t really walk through Times Square without [meeting someone], cause somebody was there to see the show, we had a lot of fans in town, 2000 fans every night or something like that, whatever the house could hold, so that was kind of incredible, but now, if you watch the promotional video I just put up, I’m walking through Times Square with my panda hat on and nobody knows who I am. So it just depends on where and when. It happens somewhat frequently, but not all the time. It’s a strange thing. It does feel a little weird. But on the other hand, it helps you keep some perspective. It’s sort of like a nice way of being eased into to that sort of lifestyle. I feel really bad for people who are these sort of young celebrities who just get thrown in and there’s no way.. and then they’re trapped. They get thrown into that lifestyle and then they can’t go back to their old life at all. At least I have some time to have a normal regular life, I can go to the park, I can ride the subway, I can do all these things.
Joe Moses and Darren Criss at Darren’s opening night in “How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.”
Joe: That’s correct.
NF: Will you be heading out there [to Chicago] to see it?
Joe: Oh, absolutely. I will definitely be there. I am definitely going to go see that, it’s going to be hilarious.
NF: But Starship was the first show that you guys did outside of the school environment – when did the company realise that Starkid was something that was going to be practical and financially viable to do outside college? I know that some of the guys in Chicago, that’s their full time job, that they don’t have another job, that they produce for Starkid and that’s it. Obviously the Harry Potter shows were not something you could make much revenue from – when did they realise that it was you guys yourselves – not Harry Potter – was the product, and that you had the support available to take this into the ‘real world’ and do original shows?
Joe: I think it was a gradual realisation, but it was kind of a risk, too, you know? It wasn’t a sure thing. And it did end up working out for us, which is wonderful, we’re so happy about that and the way that Starship went, it really, really went well. And I think it was probably because they did another musical, right after the first Potter..
NF: Me and My Dick, yeah.
Joe: And that was successful, and what kind of first tipped us off was that it hit the Billboard charts. [Note from Natalie: The soundtrack became the first-ever student-produced college musical to reach the Billboard 200 – it debuted at #11 on Top Cast Albums, sandwiched between two top Broadway shows] And that’s something where we went “well this has nothing to do with Harry Potter, it’s just us and our silly humor…” That one was one I had very limited involvement with – I came for the weekend that they ran it, I had a walk-on, a little cameo role, just part of the team and part of the community, but I was not around when they were rehearsing that, so I wasn’t really a part of it.
NF: It was a great show, and I think that at that point people loved the Potter show so much that they were willing – when the music came out for Me and My Dick, it was like “oh, finally something we can pay them for and throw money at!”
Joe: That’s the great thing about our fan base, they want to see us continue and so they’re willing to support us, and that comes through with soundtrack sales and merchandise and to come and see us at these conventions where we go and it’s – I think that was another part of it, that people were interested in meeting us, not in character, just us as ourselves, and they were willing to pay an extra dollar, ten dollars for the autograph ticket at the convention to come and talk to us personally. And so I think that sort of tipped them off that it wasn’t just about Potter, obviously we’re Potter fans and this is something that started it all, definitely, it will always be with us, just, I think, like Harry Potter is with so many people in their life. The series may be over, but they’re not going to forget Harry Potter any time soon. So in that way, it’s a part of us, and definitely what gave us a start and we’re forever grateful and forever a part of it. But, on the same hand, just as everyone else is growing and moving on, so are we, we’re trying to make it our life. We’ve always wanted to do this, what we’re doing now. For most of us, it’s been our dream since we were kids to do stuff like this.
NF: To go back a bit further, what was it like the first time you had a grasp on how big Team Starkid was becoming, world-wide, after AVPM came out? Was there an incident that really made you sit back and say ‘whoa’ or was that kind of realisation gradual as well?
Joe: You know what, I had never seen something on Youtube that was so viral and created intentionally. The stuff that I had watched on Youtube was like these happy accidents, funny little one of a kind things that had happened, or videos of their kids doing silly things, really funny, but I’d never seen something on Youtube that was sort of created, intentionally, almost FOR Youtube, that had gone as viral as we had, at that time. Now I have, now I’ve seen a lot of stuff like that, but at the time I just wasn’t that familiar with Youtube. So I remember when I got the call from, I think it was Darren being like, “hey dude, look at this! Our stuff online is just like.. everywhere.. People love it..” And I was like “what? no. what is that, like.. people from the school?” and he’s like “no no, dude, LOTS of people, they love it.” And I remember going through, looking at the view count and being like “oh my gosh”, then going through and looking at the comments section and being like “wow! People really do like this! And they have no idea who we are… but they really enjoy it!”
Joe Moses performs at the El Rey Theatre, on March 5th 2012 and will meet with fans after the performance at Whimsic Alley, right across the street.
Tickets are available now at this link.
The show will feature J.D. Durkin, (@jddurkin), Joey Richter (@joeyrichter), Brian Rosenthal (@brian_rosenthal), Devin Lytle (@devdevnumnums), Brant Cox (@brantcox) and Tessa Netting (@tessanetting) as well as some super special, super secret LA-based guests who you’ll have to attend the show to find out about. Given that his promo video advertises guests from “Team Starkid, Broadway, and some of your favorite films and television,” and given what we know about Joe and his friends, we can make an educated guess about at least two of these top secret guests – let us know in the comments if you have any ideas!
Follow Joe –
Twitter: @thejoemoses
Tumblr: http://thejoemoses.tumblr.com/
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/thejoemoses
Keep your eye on Hypable for part two of our Joe Moses interview where he talks about his feelings towards Snape in the actual HP canon, the technicality of taking Starship to Broadway, his secret undercover open-mic night performances, and which actor he’d most like to follow in the footsteps of. Finally, we’ll finish off with some fun questions from our fans on Twitter and we hear that there just might be a JMOMS in Chicago around the time of Holy Musical B@man – you heard it here first!
We’ll also have the complete audio file of Joe’s interview for you to download, and a giveaway of some signed New York JMOMS flyers!
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