Pop Culturalist Chats with Josh Lamon

Josh Lamon’s career has, so far, spanned a great swath of shows (Into the Woods, Finding Neverland, Groundhog Day, and The Prom to name a few) that captured audiences hearts and made them laugh. He’s even made his way to the screen in TV shows like 30 Rock and Inside Amy Schumer.

Needless to say, Josh Lamon’s star is on the rise, and you’ll want to catch his newest project now. It’s a podcast called Josh Swallows Broadway. We chatted with Josh about theater and all about his hilarious podcast.

PC: What drew you to theater, and when did you know that was going to be your career?
Josh: Honestly, I’ve always known from the time I was pretty much a toddler. My parents would agree. I was really into the Muppets. I’d put on old episodes of The Muppet Show and force my family to sit down and watch me perform in front of the TV.

Then, my happiest memories growing up were [because] my mom would take me to see every play at the San Diego Junior Theater. [It’s] sort of a famous junior theater in the sense that so many wonderful, incredible entertainers started as kids at this Junior Theater: Casey Nicholaw, Annette Benning, Brian Stokes Mitchell. It was all that I wanted to do. I was obsessed with it. My mom signed me up for Junior Theater classes, and then it took over. At the same time, my parents wouldn’t allow me to pursue a professional child’s acting career. They were not interested in me doing that, and I was very upset with them for that.

PC: Out of the roles you’ve done in your career, what has had the biggest impact on your life?
Josh: Probably my most recent one in The Prom. It was a show that I helped develop from the very beginning. I fell in love with it mostly because I would get to understudy the lead role who is very similar to me. He’s an overweight gay man that is very funny, but also has some real depth [from] what he went through being gay as a teenager. [Then he] sees this young queer person and takes them under his wing [to] make sure that they get a better shot than he did. So, getting to play that role really struck a chord with me and with audiences as well.

PC: Speaking of The Prom, it has really dedicated and rabid fans. Was there a particular interaction with a fan that has stuck with you?
Josh: Yes, there are two that really stand out. The first was [when] I was signing at the stage door and there was this guy there. He was a young fellow who just started sobbing when I got up to him. He told me that he was bisexual, that he had never told anybody this before, that he didn’t know what to do, and that he didn’t know who to tell or how to tell people. It struck a chord with me. I gave him a giant hug and reassured him that he is perfect the way he is; that the family that he tells will be supportive, if not now then they will soon. And, that he’s never alone. He’s special and important and perfect the way he is. A few weeks later I heard from him. He did come out to his family and his friends, and it was beautiful. Everybody was very supportive and very loving. It made my day because ten years ago–even today–you don’t always hear a happy ending to that story.

Another time I just finished signing and was about to get into my car when this couple came up me. The wife was crying and said, “My daughter’s a lesbian, and I don’t know what to do.” Like in a good way–she wanted her daughter to have an incredible life, and she didn’t know what she could do to help. All I could say was, “Just love her. Love her, support her, google queer history so you can learn a little bit about LGBTQ life and where we are politically because, unfortunately, if you are born under anything in the umbrella, you are political whether you want to be or not.” That moment struck a chord with me as well.

PC: Because The Prom is so relevant and captures what a lot of people go through, are subjects that are timely and relevant something you look for in potential future projects?
Josh: Absolutely. Ideally every performer, every director, and so on wants to be a part of something that really matters to them. Having this experience was really eye-opening to me because I could do the work of the show, but it made me want to be active as an activist as well. I do look for projects that make me feel passionate in that sense.

PC: What inspired you to start Josh Swallows Broadway?
Josh: I basically just act like a fool all the time. My favorite thing to do is to make people laugh. I feel like the world that we’re living in is so awful that we have to find as many ways to laugh as we can.

I’m a bigger guy, and I got so sick of watching Instagram videos of really fit people doing their crunches and making their shakes with aloe and sand. So I was like, “I’m going to get some healthy shots like ginger shots or wellness shots, and I’m gonna do a segment called ‘Josh Swallows Healthy Shit’ on my Instgram.” It turned into these wild reaction videos of me swallowing these things in one gulp and dealing with the fact that every healthy thing in the world tastes like cancer. Every shot that I took tasted like resentment, and it became this really popular thing that I was getting all these requests like, “Have you tried ginger and carrots and arugula juice?” All this awful, awful stuff. I was cursing the healthy community. That’s sort of where it started. I thought maybe it would be funny if I swallow healthy shit and talk to health professionals, but I felt like after you swallow the five healthy shots that exist, there’s not much out there.

So, I figured I would turn it into a Jackass situation where I’m just drinking charcoal and cactuses to get a response. Then, I thought, “What about a candid, late-night formula talking to my favorite Broadway stars or TV people?” But not necessarily [talking] about the business; I want to just talk about life. Life in New York City and actual realities of being a person who happens to be an actor. I decided to take Josh Swallows and change it to Josh Swallows Broadway.

PC: Have you discovered any new challenges or lessons working in the podcast format?
Josh: Yeah, it’s a whole new world, and I’m actually very lucky. I did my pilot episode which featured Stephanie J. Block, Matthew Morrison, and Christian Borle. Those were like my three guinea pigs. And after that, the Broadway Podcast Network came in and picked me up. They wanted to buy the show and help produce it. I was very fortunate with that, but what I learned [is that] the podcast world in a new frontier. It is literally the Wild West. Nobody knows what’s going to happen with it although all these major companies are acquiring all the podcast platforms. And there’s millions of them.

Every day is a learning experience. We’ve been really lucky. We’re in the top 25% of podcasts worldwide. For a theater podcast with a handful of episodes out so far, that’s pretty mind-blowing to me.

PC: Do you have a dream guest?
Josh: Yes I do! I am dying to get Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury for an original Sweeney Todd reunion! We’ll Skype in Stephen Sondheim because I am not going to make him come into my recording studio. Bar Mitzvah Josh would freak out. I would have to add a ninth candle to the menorah; that would be a new miracle!

PC: Do you have a vision for where the podcast goes?
Josh: I mean, I have so many ideas. What I want to do eventually is start doing live shows, especially at old New York theater haunts that I don’t want to die out because old New York is slowly disappearing. Like, if you take a venue like Sardi’s or Bar Centrale and you have a studio audience and you interview or do a cast reunion show of something that really made a mark–like the original cast of Rent or the people who helped create Ragtime. These are monumental pieces of theater that have helped shape where theater has gone. To be able to talk to these people in front of an audience would be a dream.

PC: Is there a podcast you listen to that has helped you shape yours?
Josh: Oddly enough that’s the tricky part. I’m obsessed with true crime so I listen to a lot of scary podcasts about murder. That was a big challenge coming into this. I would listen to a few theater podcasts, but I didn’t want to copy anyone. I’m the same way when I act. I’ve been in some shows that have films, and I never watched the movies because I didn’t want to get someone else’s version of the role in my head. So a lot of it was just hoping that it worked so we were just lucky that it did.

PC: Is there something you’re hoping to explore in the future?
Josh: I always said I would be a criminal psychologist if I could, but I’ll never do that. I’ve been doing Broadway for about ten years now. I love it, but I’m really trying to explore more television now. I just finished an episode of The Blacklist, and I’m going to be on Katy Keene on The CW.

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

Last TV Show You Binge-Watched
Oh god, this is embarrassing: Big Brother.

Favorite Film
Silence of the Lambs

Favorite Play or Musical
Musical: Anything Sondheim or Michael John LaChiusa; Play: The Crucible

Musician or Artist You Could Listen to on Repeat
Amanda Palmer

Dream Dinner Guest
Stephen Sondheim!

Listen now to Josh Swallows Broadway and follow Josh on Instagram and Twitter!