Advertisement

Michael Joyce, a 31-year - old...

Share

Michael Joyce, a 31-year - old El Cajon resident, began acting in school plays at the age of 8, and he’s never gotten rid of the performing bug. His father thought he should have something to fall back on, so Michael went to college to become a paramedic, but he always longed to perform. He got his first big break with Ringling Brothers Circus as a clown and has since worked at a variety of show-biz jobs. He is now a show coordinator at Sea World, in addition to doing stand-up routines at the Comedy Store and entertaining at the Corvette diner every week. Kimberly Luoma interviewed Joyce at Sea World, and Barbara Martin Pinhero photographed him.

I grew up in Pittsburgh, and I lived there for 21 years. I was the youngest of seven kids, and my brother, John, was always trying to get me interested in comedy. He’d explain why something was funny, or he’d show me something funny and teach me how to do it. We used to watch together Jerry Lewis, Red Skelton and Dick Van Dyke. Those are my three favorites.

My wife, Sandi, and I have been married for almost five years now. We have a little boy, Sean Michael, who’s about 20 months. I met my wife while working in the circus. She did the Shriners for a while, in fact she used to open the show doing a “slide for life,” hanging by her neck, and she did some high wire and trapeze.

Advertisement

While she was doing that, I was with Ringling Brothers, clowning. Every year Ringling Brothers has a clown college that meets in the fall, and they have about 5,000 people apply to the college every year and they accept 60. They hire 25 out of the 60. Being a circus clown is one of the hardest-working performing jobs there is. It doesn’t pay well, but it’s excellent experience because you’re working with some of the funniest people in the country.

I worked at Busch Gardens after that, strolling around doing mime. Then Circus World, and I even worked at Disney for a while doing mime. Physical comedy is my forte, it’s something I really enjoy doing.

I started at Sea World about 3 1/2 years ago. I was touring the country in a one-man show and wanting to settle down somewhere I could still perform, so I applied at a theme park. Now I am a show coordinator and what I do is help write, produce and and critique shows. I just do the general things a director would do.

I’ve been performing for over 12 years, and stand-up comedy is my newest venture. It’s the most difficult of all entertainment, you’re naked on stage, you have nothing to rely on but yourself and, if you don’t do a good job, the audience knows it. They can read you like a book, you have nothing to hide behind, there’s no set, no other people, you’re by yourself, and it’s a scary feeling. It’s almost like everyone should try it just to see how difficult it really is. My inspiration all comes from within, all from within the heart.

I’ve been doing stand-up for over a year. I’m a comedic character actor, so characters are what I do. I will find something funny about a person and take it to the extreme. I want to go up and set up a scene and act it out, it’s stand-up comedy, but it’s a solo character comedic performance. I want to be different from other stand-up comedians.

When you’re up there, and people aren’t laughing, it’s the worst feeling in the world, but it absolutely has to happen, because if you don’t have those nights you’ll never have the really good ones.

Advertisement
Advertisement