Joseph Scrimshaw is an American comedian and writer for radio, television and theater, whom City Pages, a Twin Cities newspaper, describes as having an "irreverent and insightful wit." He is the author of a book of comic essays called Comedy of Doom and hosts a monthly podcast called Obsessed with Joseph Scrimshaw, where he and his guests discuss their obsessions. He performs across the country in a variety of venues, including comedy festivals like San Francisco's SketchFest and science fiction conventions such as Dragon Con and CONvergence, and his plays have been performed internationally. He has collaborated with performer Bill Corbett on a number of plays and written for RiffTrax, Corbett's joint comedy venture with Kevin Murphy and Michael J. Nelson. Scrimshaw has toured with musicians Molly Lewis and the Doubleclicks, and performed live for musician Jonathan Coulton's JoCo Cruise and the geek vaudeville w00tstock. Scrimshaw has been involved with writing and performing for American Public Media's radio variety showWits, writing sketches and appearing as the character Theater Ghost. He has also written for the nationalsketch comedytelevision show M@dAbout.
Career
Scrimshaw began his career in Minneapolis, MN, performing sketch and improv comedy with his brother Joshua English Scrimshaw in late night cabarets called The Ballyhoo Players, Look Ma No Pants and The Scrimshaw Show. Scrimshaw wrote and performed multiple best-selling shows in the Minnesota Fringe Festival, including comic plays, solo shows, and audience interactive comedies. From 2008 to 2013, Scrimshaw was an active member of the Rockstar Storytellers, with whom he performed regularly at the Bryant-Lake Bowl in Minneapolis. In 2009, Scrimshaw formed his own production company Joking Envelope with his wife Sara Stevenson Scrimshaw, which focuses on creating, producing and publishing comedic works. The company takes its name from Sigmund Freud's essay on comic theory, "Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious." As a writer, Scrimshaw is currently working with John Kovalic's Dork Storm Press developing Dr. Blink, Superhero Shrink for movies and television. As a performer, he regularly appears at theaters, concert venues and science fiction conventions across the country, and hosts his podcast Obsessed.
