Emma's World: Volume 2, Issue 2
Featuring an interview with L.A.'s finest, Josh Borgschulte.
A mid-month send! How exciting! I had the pleasure of (virtually) sitting down with a dear friend of mine, Joshua Taylor Borgschulte, to talk about creativity, comedy, and piano recitals.
The exact moment I met Josh is unclear, but we’ve confirmed our paths began crossing near the end of our freshman year at the University of Missouri. By the end of junior year, we were inseparable. Enjoy this relatively tame conversation between the two of us.
Emma: Okay. Are you ready? Your first question is, how would you define our relationship?
Josh: Is it crazy to say brothers, lovers, more than anything? No, I would say we're soulmates.
Emma: Aww.
Josh: Not even joking. I genuinely think that you and I were born to be in each other's lives. Whoa.
Emma: Speaking of destiny, do you feel like you were born to perform?
Josh: Absolutely. Sometimes I find it difficult not to perform. I feel like I am performing all the time and sometimes people don't even want that. I'm trying to unlearn performance.
Emma: Tell me about your first performance memory.
Josh: I played piano for seven years in elementary school and my favorite thing about piano lessons was the recitals. My favorite part about the recitals was when I would finish the song on my recital set, stand up, place my hand on the piano, and bow in front of an audience. I was like, this is what I was born to do. Not play the piano, I was not good at piano, just bowing. I thought, this is it. People clapping for me, and me being like, “Oh my god, thank you.”
Emma: I also took piano for many years and I refused to perform at the recitals. I would exclusively be an audience member despite having taken lessons for years.
Josh: Your parents are so patient. I would’ve been like get your dumb ass up there. I paid for these expensive lessons. Piano lessons are not cheap.
Emma: No, they weren’t cheap. And I just would sit in the crowd and at the end, my teacher, Mrs. Bartz, would always look at me, and be like you wanna get up here? I would just shake my head.
Josh: She’s also patient, but she gets paid regardless, so.
Emma: So what advice do you have for someone who isn’t a natural performer?
Josh: I mean, every show needs an audience. Sorry, I'm performing right now. I'm sick. I don’t know. I'd say the best advice I can give is to go into any situation and convince yourself that everyone in the crowd is already your friend and you're just telling a story.
Imagine that you're just over at your friend's apartment and just telling a story that you’ve memorized. Memorized. Cued. Choreographed. That's what I do. I memorize stories when I go over to friends’ houses because I'm crazy.
Emma: You’ve been in L.A., what, almost three years now?
Josh: Yeah, it'll be three years on August 1st.
Emma: Do you feel at home there?
Josh: Yes. I don't have this experience, but I do feel like a child of divorce with two homes. You know? Can I say that? They're not a minority. They're fine. When I'm in St. Louis, I'm home in a very different way than I feel at home here. When I'm in St. Louis, I'm at child Josh's home. And when I'm here, I'm in my adult home. But, in St. Louis, my mom's there and my mom is my everything.
Emma: What grounds you in L.A.?
Josh: People that also came from the Midwest or another city. It’s hard to feel like I'm not floating in a miasma of fame when I'm surrounded by people who grew up here. Sometimes I feel like I'm the dumbest idiot in the world when I'm at an event and everyone there is famous and cool. But then last night, when I was doing my [stand-up] show, that was grounding too because everyone in the show was doing the same thing.
Emma: I’m curious, what do you consider your craft?
Josh: I would say stand-up. And sewing. I love sewing! I was thinking yesterday about what makes me different and I was having an identity crisis, like, oh my god, what am I good at? I've never been a talent show kind of guy.
Emma: That’s shocking.
Josh: For so long if there was a talent show, I wouldn't know what to do. When I went to a redacted Christian camp, there was a talent show and I was so jealous I didn't have a talent. I went up on stage and I did the worm across the stage one way, stood up, turned around, and did the worm back the other way, and then went and sat down.
The counselors asked me, “What song do you want to play when you do it?” I said, “I don't know, just play something.” They're like, “Name any song.” As a child, and as an adult, I don't know any songs. That's just not one of my skills. I don't remember what song played.
Emma: I hope it was silent.
Josh: I have an inkling that it was. But I was just so jealous of people with performable talents. But now I have recently discovered that I'm good at stand-up and I have that performance ability. And then sewing almost fulfills me more because that’s a less common skill, especially amongst people our age. And I have something to show for it, you know?
Emma: I get wanting to have something to show for it. Comedy-wise, what draws you to the stand-up medium as opposed to something like improv?
Josh: For context, for the readers, I did the introductory level of groundlings where I tried improv and I think it helped me a lot with stand-up. But I compare improv to a team sport and stand-up to an individual sport. I don’t feel like I am going to let someone else down if I mess up. I like having all the responsibility and if I succeed, that's all because of me too. It's more risky, but the payoff is bigger. I also like that I get to write everything. I don't have to depend on someone else to provide content. I love writing and I love writing jokes, but I feel like right now in my career, in my craft, I don't have the opportunity to get someone to read my jokes. So stand-up is the way for me to get people to at least listen to them.
Emma: Is there a medium you want to try?
Josh: Drag. Does that count? Yeah. Okay. For sure. Drag. When I got that little bite of it for my Barbie birthday, I loved that. It's just so fun and so freeing. I think drag queens are superheroes, what they do is incredible. You have to be able to act, sing, dance, do makeup, sew your outfits, comedy, host, it's really impressive. I love all those things individually and I could do that, you know?
Emma: I hear you slipping into your performance voice at points during this conversation.
Josh: No! No! My voice is an octave lower when I'm answering these questions, it's insane.
Emma: I’m going to speak for a second.
Josh: Thank god.
Emma: I’ve been grappling with what it means to be a creative adult outside the confines of school. For most of college, I was forced to brainstorm so much. In all our classes it was as much an expectation as the finished product. And now, I don't really have to brainstorm at all.
In college, I felt like ideas came so easily because that skill was so strong. You and I would sit down to work on a project and we could come up with our final idea in 15 minutes. But, I don't think we could have done that so easily if it hadn't been for all the practice.
Now, I struggle with the lack of ideas I have. And even when I sit down and brainstorm for something, I feel kind of stupid and don't even know where to start. And it’s discouraging to feel like I don’t have the mind I had in college.
So I'm curious, how do you stay creatively agile when no one's forcing you to be?
Josh: I think the thing is you can't be creative when no one's forcing you to be. So you have to force yourself. Also, you still have the same mind. I just want to speak as your friend.
Emma: I know. Yeah.
Josh: Yeah, you have to force yourself to be creative. I think that's another reason why I picked up sewing. I recently made a little red top. I could have gone out and bought something or just worn something red that I already had, but I wanted to give myself this assignment to make a new red top for this party. So I was like, I'm going to do 10 little drawings. I drew them all out and then I kind of pieced them together and it was like giving myself a little mission.
Emma: Ok, now we're looking forward. Is there something you're most excited about in this coming season of life?
Josh: Am I allowed to say the “Wicked” movie?
Emma: Absolutely.
Josh: Then that. Because I think that's going to be timeless.
Emma: Okay, quick pin. This might go in or not. Do you feel like the wigs are bad?
Josh: The what?
Emma: The wigs.
Josh: Oh, um, I didn't notice them. So I guess I thought they were okay.
Emma: Okay, I think Ariana's Galinda wig…I don't know.
Josh: Is that a wig? I don't think it is, girl because that's why her hair's been blonde for so long and why her eyebrows are blonde now. I think that's her real hair. Because if it were just a wig, I don't think she would have dyed it blonde, right?
Emma: I’ll find some pictures.
Josh: Put this in.
[FIVE MINUTES OF LOOKING AT “WICKED” TRAILER IMAGES]
Josh: I think it should have been a wig.
Emma: But don't you just feel like, that doesn't look like, hair.
Josh: It looks like it's just kind of like Playmobil or Lego'd right on top of her head. Also, hi Bowen in the back.
Emma: King.
Josh: I’m really excited because that's a completely new character.
Emma: I know. And if anyone can bring a new character to “Wicked,” it's Bowen.
Josh: Absolutely.
Emma: I'm curious if there are any spaces you think my readers should be watching.
Josh: I feel like I should change my other answer so it's not “Wicked” because this one would be “Wicked” too. Oh, no, I know what it is, it's women in country music.
Emma: Absolutely. Stay tuned, next month, I'm putting out a think piece on the commodification of a niche republican aesthetic which I think intersects with that as well.
Josh: Speak on this.
Emma: This is the trend I'm predicting for this year. And we're already seeing it. True hunting camouflage, trucker hats, cowboy boots, which have always been in. And you know how there's cottagecore? Now there’s like Missouri gas station core, like the t-shirts that say “I only like my wife and my gun” or whatever.
Josh: Sunglasses. Little sunglasses.
Emma: Yes, exactly. So I think there's something about commodifying that which almost takes its power away. And I do kind of like the look. But the concern I have, politically, is that it's going to further polarize us. Those who have previously participated in these trends earnestly might see it as mocking, which I think is at the root of the polarization in this country. There's something there.
Josh: I think you could write a piece on this and pitch it to a real publication I'm not even joking.
Emma: Yeah, and that publication is Emma’s World.
Ok last question, there’s nothing I cherish more than laughing and having fun with you, and when comedy is your —
Josh: Stop it.
Emma: When comedy is your craft how do you bring fun and silliness into your day-to-day without feeling like, oh, should I use this?
Josh: That's something I'm working on. It's really hard. As someone who's dating a comedian, we have to have conversations where it's like, “Okay, time out on comedy for a little, real talk.” and then we have an actual genuine conversation.
So it's another time where you have to be consciously aware and I'm really bad at that because I'm often worried that if I'm not being funny, I'm not providing anything to the conversation. I know a lot of funny people think that, so I'm trying to find more confidence in not telling jokes and confidence in what I say having value even if it's not funny. I think once I find enough of that self-confidence, I'll have a better separation of craft and self.
Emma: What an amazing place to end.
Josh: Oh, are people vulnerable? That was crazy, right?
Emma: Yes. Also, we're not hanging up after I finish this, because we have more to talk about offline.
Josh: Baby, I'm never hanging up.
Emma: Thanks for talking to me and being the debut talent in Emma's World.
Josh: I know you have some really cool people reading, I'm not even joking, my gay accent made it sound hateful. No, I'm honored. I'm honored to be here.
Emma: Is there anything you want to plug?
Josh: I guess you can put my Instagram in there.
Emma: Perfect.
A big thanks to Joshie for spending an hour and a half on the phone with me. Thanks for reading! See you in March for the typical round-up!