Josh Brooks
@koorbhsoj on his new apartment’s balcony
-Theatre-
Josh is one of those funny people who is constantly kind. I mean constantly. I have never seen or heard him say a harsh word to or about anyone. He is a thoughtful artist and I’m honored to know him.
I pulled up to his fresh apartment building and we made our way up to his two bedroom he shares with his girlfriend Erin Anastasia. They moved in together into this unit in March. I just had to find out not only what he was up to but also how a couple who had just moved in together a the top of this mess was handling being together 24/7.
Interviewed 5.28.20
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Casey: So first and foremost, how are you?
Josh: I'm well. I'm an extrovert, so this is weird for me. I get a lot of energy from being around people and from bouncing around every place that I go. So the working from home thing, the attempting to be very creative on my own from home, has been a challenge. Also very new territory for me. I'm all right. I'm drinking too much. I'm gaining a little bit of weight, but I've been also cooking more, and attempting to work out more, and attempting to just find what it means to live in this way for a little while. So, yeah, it's been weird.
Casey: A you having more up days or more down days emotionally?
Josh: It's definitely a roller coaster for me. I mean, if work goes pretty well, then I feel pretty motivated to continue throughout the day. I'm doing mostly cold-calling to contractors, trying to sell them software. So they're experiencing it too, as well as being a small business, their experience. I would not want to be a small business right now. That has to be very, very intense. So sometimes they'll say, “fuck off.” And I'm like, all right, well, I can't blame you, but also you could say that in a more nice way. So, yeah, I would say I have mostly positive days, but there are definitely days where it's just like I need to go be around a massive gaggle of people and be talking to everybody.
Casey: And you've been missing that.
Josh: Yeah, totally.
Casey: So what are you doing in quarantine? What have you been doing since you moved into this brand new apartment and started a new job, essentially?
Josh: I'm working with my buddy Dylan and we are writing sketches, which I think we've always both wanted to do. I really, really enjoy writing but it's just—a lot of times, we just don't get down to it and just start. I need somebody else's input and somebody else's joy for it, I guess. So he and I have started writing stuff and we've started finishing things, which I'm really excited about.
I've been playing a lot of guitar—an absolute shit ton of guitar. Been learning a lot of Beatles songs, which has been fun. Taking care of fish. We just got some fish. Three white tetras. I've got to clean their tank today. Just taking care of animals. We've got two 15-year-old exotic shorthair cats.
Casey: Are you finding it hard to create during this time? Is the motivation there?
Josh: A lot of times, it feels impossible. I mean, I'll only have maybe one good day a week of creative flow. I don't feel like I'm doing a whole lot of acting, obviously. The auditioning is pretty much nonexistent right now, as we know, as it should be. But, yeah, a lot of the time, I'll just be completely unmotivated to do anything and just, you know, sit back and watch TV. I have been actually watching a lot more TV. I've never been a TV watcher, but I've been almost more soaking in inspiration. We've watched “Broadchurch” and we're watching “Downton Abbey,” and things I've just never watched before that are just really wonderful and inspiring performances and stories. So I've been doing maybe a little bit more soaking in of the arts than attempting to practice it, I guess.
Casey: Do you think it'll change the way you create on the outside?
Josh: Yeah. I think maybe I'm just kind of going through a moment in my life where I really like the Atlanta theater scene. I absolutely adore it and I always want to be involved. But there's a part of me that wants to be a little bit more on the actual creative generation side of things. And that's something that's been kind of progressing over the last year for me. This is kind of solidifying that I'm really enjoying, you know, writing a seven-minute scene and then getting the opportunity to play it out or something. So yeah, I think it may change up, but I don't know how I've done it in the past. I'm just really excited to—hopefully in the next six months—go over to a friend's house with three or four people and all of us sit down and read things, and we all sit down and work together. And that's where I get the most fired up. Here it's learning for me to see if this is—you know, can I create on my own. Man, it is a lot harder than it looks.
Casey: Do you think six months is realistic? Do you think you'll be in a room with three or four people creating art again in six months?
Josh: I don't know. I look at the number of cases every day ... Maybe we'd be in a room creating, but I don't know about putting on a live show and I don't know what it looks like to have six hundred people in an audience again … I mean, to imagine us getting back to a festival type situation, I don't know about six months. I don't know. I don't think that's gonna happen.
Casey: What do you miss beside theater?
Josh: I don't necessarily suffer too much from depression, but I can suffer from anxiety. And not having anxiety when you just go out that you may catch this, and you see an article online that says a perfectly healthy 28-year-old has passed away. It's just like one of those things where it can be very frightening to go out, and although I would consider myself a brave individual, I'm still very frightened to go out. So I miss having that level of security, of just being a person in this world and not having a ton of fear. But, man, that's going into some real deep socio-economic stuff, because there's lots of people out there and they have fear without coronavirus.
I miss the community. I miss being able to go out. I know I haven't done it yet, but living in Little Five Points and just being able to walk around on a sunny day with a bunch of people out there and being boisterous. And the communities of the world almost are shutting in. It's just been depressing for everybody.
Casey: What do you think you'll take away from this time? What do you think you'll look back on in this chapter of your life, but also our life collectively?
Josh: Like I said, I'm very extroverted, so it's been a time of introspection. And I've seen the introverted side of myself and what that does to me. I think I'll take away the joy of maybe silence and peace within myself, and when I find those moments to remember that they're really, really beautiful moments for every single person individually across your entire life. When you get a moment of stillness you can learn a lot from that.
Casey: Do you think you'll be able to hold on to that on the other side?
Josh: I hope so.
