Joshua Neal is more than just a TikTok comedian.
Neal has been busy on the video-sharing app creating viral, highly relatable clips that he writes, stars in, and produces. His hilarious videos are around three minutes long and he often plays multiple people, like in his popular series of multiple men attending group therapy. While most people view the app as a place where Gen Z is making silly dancing clips, it has since evolved into a hub for all sorts of content, including creative formats where people can showcase their natural talents. In Neal’s case, TikTok has become his outlet where he can flex his acting and comedic muscles. His hope is that it helps him kickstart his acting career.
“TikTok gives you this platform where you don’t need to reach out to Hollywood because Hollywood will reach out to you,” Neal tells Complex. “It’s catapulted me to getting my stuff out there. The best thing about it is people being able to see what you’re doing, finally. That’s the real joy in it all. I’m just grateful that people can see the work that I do and they enjoy it.”
All it took was the boredom of the pandemic and losing his job at Equinox to help get him started and now he has 1.1 million followers on Tiktok, 180,000 on Instagram, and 80,000 on Twitter. His videos get a lot of love across all platforms because of his acting skills and how relatable they are. One of his videos portrays a mundane situation that most of us have experienced: walking into a room and forgetting why we went in there in the first place. In this case, it was his phone charger, and it resonated with so many people, that the video currently has 9.4 million views. As talented and creative as he is, though, it’s not always easy to go viral. Neal says sometimes a video not performing well can throw off his mood for the day. That’s the crux a lot of social media creators carry and it’s a pressure that’s not easy to shake. Neal has found a way to keep those nerves at ease and it’s by simply creating content he himself enjoys. “There are some people that go viral every time. I’m not one of those people,” he says. “I got to jump off my roof, do a couple of stunts, put sound effects in there. Now, I just make content I think is good and makes me happy and people can feel that.”
His main purpose is bigger than going viral. While he had dreams of going pro with football and the pandemic took away his job at Equinox, thanks to TikTok, Neal is inching closer to fulfilling his acting dreams. Neil says he views his videos as audition tapes, hoping that someone at a movie studio sees them and reaches out to him so he can bypass the traditional auditioning route.“I feel so fulfilled acting. I love it. It’s a way for me to escape,” Neal says. “I was a weird kid, the odd one out growing up, and acting really just gives me that freedom to just be whoever I want to be. And I love that.”
Neal is also building a community online, whom he refers to as his supporters, who will undoubtedly follow his acting career when he gets there. And he’s not far from it. He recently landed a role in the A24 movie titled Earth Mama but had to back out of the role when he tested positive for COVID-19 on the set. It was a small role, but working with a production company like that could’ve catapulted his career. Still, Neal isn’t giving up. He’s still creating content regularly (Ed Note: One hysterical clip reimagining the studio session for Usher’s “That’s What It’s Made For” is the reason I reached out), performing at the comedy festival Just For Laughs, and staying ready for the next time an opportunity comes knocking. If TikTok can launch careers for people like Charli D’Amelio and Addison Rae, it sure as hell can and should happen for him.
Complex caught up with the TikTok star and chatted all about answering his calling, the pressure to go viral, and why he thinks social media is changing the game for the movie industry. Check out our full interview with Joshua Neal below.
Can you tell me a little about your interests before making these videos and how you feel about everything that’s happened since?
Joshua Neal: I was pursuing an acting career. I was working at Equinox in San Francisco. I was a pool monitor. I like to call it an aquatics director because it sounded fancier. I was going to auditions and going to work. And then the pandemic hit, and I was let go. I actually downloaded [TikTok] four days before the lockdown because it was really popular and I just wanted to have an account just to see other people’s videos. But I couldn’t dance that well. And then I started noticing that people were lip-syncing movie scenes. I was like, “Okay, I can do that.”
I started stripping small, funny movie scenes off of YouTube, putting them on TikTok, and lip-syncing them. I was enjoying it. I had nothing else to do. We were all just in front of our phones, looking for entertainment. It went from there to me taking funny situations in my notes and making them into very small TikTok videos. I started doing that and people started liking it, fortunately.
There have been a few opportunities to come out of it, as far as a short film [Wouldn’t Mean Nuthin’] with Mack Wilds, which was amazing. And an amazing cast as well. I did a couple of brand deals. And yeah, I’m just making content.
Before TikTok, you wanted to be an actor?
Yeah, but it was really tough. I was driving back and forth from LA, being on Backstage.com and SF castings, and submitting myself for stuff. I would literally rent a car, drive to LA, audition, and drive back and return the car the same day because it saved me a lot of money.
I took acting classes in high school, college, and junior college. I took acting classes at my four-year. I went to the University of Oklahoma for a year, playing football. I thought I was going to go pro. Obviously, that didn’t work out. Around the time that I was playing football there, my passion for acting was really growing. That was just where my heart was. I called my parents and I was like, “I’m not really feeling this college anymore. I want to come home. I want to pursue acting. That’s what I want to do.” And they were very supportive, but they were like, “You need to still go to school.”
So I transferred to Morehouse to play football there. But then, I literally was in a football meeting the first day and I was like, “I quit. I can’t do this anymore.” I wanted to be an actor. I came back home and I submitted to local talent agencies. So I started pursuing an acting career officially at 21 years old, just trying to find any way I can get my foot in the door.
Did you know inside of you this is really what you were born to do?
I think so. It’s funny how things work. I remember, I went to see a movie called Lottery Ticket. That was probably the first movie I saw that I feel like I could have played a part in. That’s when I told my mom and dad that I wanted to leave. So the next day, we had a football game. I was waiting outside the stadium for my good friend and I was talking to his parents. I’m just rambling and his dad just stops me and he’s like, “You ever thought about being an actor, Josh? You have an animated voice. Have you ever thought about that?” I took that as a sign. This is what I need to be doing.
I have to ask you, how do you come up with your ideas? What’s your process like?
I love composed music. Hans Zimmer is one of my favorites. I’m always a big fan of the music scores that come out of films and those usually always give me ideas. Our lives are movies. We’re just not really turning them into scripts. But a lot of the things that do the best on TikTok are things that are just relatable, so I usually just write about things that I feel like are relatable. A lot of my ideas are really just from real-life situations or toxic situations that I know I can get away with if I put it on TikTok.
Do you sometimes feel pressure to top your previous videos?
Listen, I’ve had some dark days where I’m like, “What are you going to do when they find out you’re not going to top that?” But you know what? I think that was definitely a learning curve for me.
The first time I went viral, I had some flops after that. There are new people that come over when you go viral. So they’re expecting that quality every time. And if it does badly, then you lose all these followers. Bryan Cranston, I think it was after he won his Emmy for Breaking Bad, somebody asked him does he have any advice for actors when it comes to auditioning. He said that when you go into the audition, don’t focus on getting the role, just go in there to have fun. I really took that to heart, to focus on putting out content that I like.
I was stressing myself out, going viral or having to put out great content. I’m like, “Oh, man, this didn’t do good in numbers.” And then it just messes up your whole day and you’re all down. Ever since I started having that mindset, it’s a bit easier, and the videos do better versus trying to go viral every time. There are some people that go viral every time. I’m not one of those people. I got to jump off my roof, do a couple of stunts, and put sound effects in there. Now, I just make content I think is good and makes me happy and people can feel that.
TikTok, social media in general, has changed so many people’s lives, especially creatives of color. How do you think it has benefited you as a person and as a creator?
It’s benefiting me a lot. I have a manager now. I have a lot of people in the industry that follow me on Twitter [Ed Note: Insecure alum Sarunas J. Jackson and Jean Elie are among his famous followers], which is great because some of them have DM’d me saying how great my stuff is, to wanting me to maybe possibly audition for roles and everything like that. It’s really helpful because everybody doesn’t have someone that’s in a talent agency to refer them to an agent and they don’t have access. But TikTok gives you this platform where you don’t need to reach out to Hollywood because Hollywood will reach out to you.
I feel like social media, and especially TikTok, is changing the game a lot. People are now going out here to see us versus us trying to get to them. It’s making talent agencies go about the way they find talent a lot differently. It’s a new day and age. We’re not going to mail you our CD of our highlights. Come see the talent.
It is also important for people to see where these trends are coming from. A lot of people of color, Black people, setting these trends, making these dances—going to the source to see where it comes from is very important. A lot of Black creators, people of color, aren’t getting paid. A lot of us are just doing this to try to get to where we want to go and just doing it out of fun. So the credit is where the opportunity comes in. When these big brands or fashion designers come in, it’s important that they do research and find out where the source is. Black people and people of color on the app are not getting as much as they should be.
The exposure is amazing and it means a lot. It’s just a great way to showcase your talent. Access is everything. And with this app and with social media, you can create your own access and that’s where the opportunity comes in.
For sure. I believe it was last year where there was a boycott and Black creators stopped making content for a month and it was kind of dry.
It was dry. [Laughs] That month I was seeing dances and I said, “This ain’t it!” There’s been a lot of progress as far as them trying to reach out to creators and give them proper credit and making sure there are opportunities for everyone. I don’t necessarily blame the app itself. I think it’s a mirror, to me, of society. I hope everybody is starting to get the opportunities they deserve and that we can move forward in a way that’s just fair for everybody and allows everybody to show their creativity in a way that brings us all together and just makes everybody happy.
Do you hope that people stop treating influencers as just influencers?
Yeah, I do. The only difference between them and us is a budget. There’s a lot of people, they have so many talents. They’re just not on that big platform yet. I think that creativity is creativity. Tyler, the Creator, he’s one of my favorites. And I remember way back, he was on the internet, with his homies. Just fooling around, being dope personalities. But if you look at him now, he’s always been that talented. He’s always been a creative person. But it just took an opportunity, time, and the right people to see him or give him that opportunity. For me, you can put me in a room right now and say, “Write a 30-page script,” and could probably write 50 pages.
That’s beautiful.
It’s what I love to do. But I do hope that they look at these creatives on this app and realize it’s an audition. So this is just the idea that they’re selling. Let’s give them an opportunity to really put them in a space where they can really show us what they can do. That’s what an audition is. It’s just to sell you the idea.
I do hope that they start to see creatives far beyond just the app. We could probably make 60 more videos, but let’s start picking out people, these creatives, to see what they can really do. And I think they have. They’ve been letting some creators host the Met Gala. I’ve seen them interviewing people, like big-time stars, on the red carpet and everything like that, which is amazing. I hope they start reaching out to creators and giving them opportunities far beyond the app. Because that’s how you find your next Leo or Jamie Foxx. You find the next big star.
You mentioned Tyler, the Creator. Whose career do you admire?
Childish Gambino. By far.
Do you like Atlanta?
Oh, love it. I love it. Childish Gambino and Tyler, the Creator. Childish Gambino is in more films, he inspires me in so many ways. Because honestly, he gave me the confidence to be myself. Back in the day, like in 2008, it was kind of hard to be yourself. It’s kind of easier to be yourself now, but back then there was a little bit more pushback because people were a lot more mean. There were no repercussions. Now, there kind of is. And I’ve always admired him. He sings, he acts, he directs, he writes. And he’s good at everything. He’s good at all of it. And he represents every type of person, especially Black people. And I say this because coming up, there were the cool Black people. Then there were the nerdy Black people. Then there were the anime Black people. And then there were the athletic Black people. He embodies all of that in his show. But it brings us all together in a very dope way.
He’s very confident in the way that he writes and the way that he portrays people and Black people and people of color. His shows have real messages in them, but they’re still very entertaining and funny. I just like Childish Gambino a lot. I think to watch him evolve is really dope. He’s a full-blown artist now. He’s kind of in that element where he’s really just putting out amazing stuff. He definitely inspires me a lot. Authenticity is important. People feel that. They know when you’re talking from your heart or when you’re making things that make you happy.
Do you have any acting projects in the works or something that you really want to do for the next year?
Okay. You’re not going to believe this, but I booked a role for A24 production, and I lost it because I tested positive for COVID on set.
Oh, no. I’m so sorry.
Yeah, I cried about that. I cried all night, real tears, but I had like six lines. It wasn’t a leading role, but it was perfect. It was great. The director reached out after. It’s a really great, great production, great crew, so I understood. I dodged this thing for two and a half years and the day that—anyway, I don’t want to cry. But I definitely want to get into voiceover acting. Voiceover acting is a passion of mine and I’m determined to get on Peacemaker. I don’t know if you watch that show on HBO.
It’s hilarious.
That show, it’s by James Gunn, is hilarious. I’m determined to get on there. I don’t have anything in the works now, but I feel like something will come soon. Something will be coming.
Something is brewing.
It will. And I’ll be ready.
