“I can’t wait to get out of this city and start my life,” are words spoken too often, mostly said by hopefuls with crazy-big-dreams. But, I have news for those hopefuls – one’s life started years ago and living with that attitude and mindset will deliver a rude awakening.

Unfortunately, I used to be one of those “hate where you are from,” people, seeing that at age 13, I had a burning desire to become an actor.  I was shy, I was scared out-of-my mind and I was a child who had never completed a single stint of acting. So, after a year of hiding that desire, I went to my family and said, “Mom, I’m being called to be an actor, so we need to start looking at houses in Los Angeles.”

Despite how mad it makes me, I can admit that my mother has a sense of wisdom that some people will never possess. With that being said, she took me aside after my acting epiphany and told me, “You see, Joe, that’s great that you want to be an actor, but I don’t think that we’re supposed to move to LA.” She continued, “ I know you’re questioning how will you get discovered in the midwest. Well, these are the kinds of stories God loves writing. A pure South Dakota boy getting discovered. There is a plethora of people in Sioux Falls that you can learn from – acting is an art; an art started by learning how to tell a good story.”

My mom is from Louisville, KY, and with her stints of wisdom and spiritually, her southern twang shines, and when I see the sparkle I know I should shut up and watch it thrive. But, when she gave me that advice, I was young and those words were not ones I wanted to hear, because deep down I knew she was right.  I didn’t want to be patient, I wanted to get out of Sioux Falls and I start my career immediately.

Looking back now, I laugh towards my foolishness, but also I empathize with myself because I know that flame for acting was pure. I’m eternally grateful for the words my mom said to me then, because I eventually ended up taking her advice and followed actors, waited for opportunities and took every chance I had to learn.

By this time, I had started high school and knew I needed to get myself involved with something that pushed me out of my comfort zone. On the night of freshman orientation, I still had an open period in my schedule. My mom, after talking to different teachers, turned to me and said “You know, Joe, if you want to pursue acting, you should join Oral Interp, this could be really good for you.”

And with that, I did. I joined, and by my sophomore year I had qualified for nationals and ended up placing within top 30 in the nation for drama. I ended up quitting Oral Interp for lack of time, but that didn’t stop me from studying my craft.

Without interp, I started dedicating all my time to studying the work of the great acting teachers such as Constantin Stanislavski, Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner, Lee Strasberg, Larry Moss, etc..  I read the timeless plays by William Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Neil Simon and John Patrick Shanley, in the sake of naming a few. I started writing and developing my own stories, I watched the masters in the great movies they were in such as Marlon Brando, Kim Stanley, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Daniel Day Lewis, Meryl Streep, Dustin Hoffman, etc.. I started to understand how to develop my characters, through believing that those characters were already inside me before I even knew how to portray them, my job is to look deep within myself to pull them out.

I had also developed relationships with some great people in my city, most importantly filmmaker Dalton Coffey. I first met Coffey in the summer of 2014 and immediately hit it off, seeing we both love movies and telling great stories. Before I even realized it, I was starring in a short film written and directed by Coffey and only five months later, we were down in Arkansas making a full length feature film.

I love Sioux Falls, considering it is my home and a phenomenal city to thrive in.