Queer and Fat-Positive Creator Joshua R. Pangborn Interview

Joshua R. Pangborn Interview

1.       Thank you so much for joining me! You have so many incredible projects out in the world! For those who don’t know your work, can you please tell us a little about yourself and your brand?

Thank you so much for taking the time to explore the Crewniverse and share it with your audience! I’m grateful to have the chance to talk about what we do at SideKick Productions–we are a production company focused on telling queer, fat-positive, and sex-positive stories, mostly in film and television, having migrated from the stage in 2014. So far we’ve produced our soap opera, Skeleton Crew, which just finished its 5th season, our horror comedy series, Demon Doctor, which will be premiering its second season in the fall, our mockumentary (created by Ashley Monique Menard), The Art of Blowing It, and two short horror films, Wasted on the Young and Scratched. We’re in production now on our first feature film–A Taste of Youth, a queer, fat-positive horror film inspired by our short, Wasted on the Young. We’re so fortunate that our work has found audiences all around the world (based on YouTube analytics, Skeleton Crew’s second largest audience is in Saudi Arabia!), and critically has resonated with festivals around the globe–we’ve won numerous awards for all our productions.

2.       Skeleton Crew is amazing! What inspired you to create this incredible queer fat-positive series about a polyamorous couple?

Skeleton Crew started life as a play, called The Skeleton Crew–but, like Facebook, I dropped the “The” and transitioned to the screen! But seriously, I had known for a while I wanted to try my hand at making a series–and when I wrote The Skeleton Crew,  it was the first play I had written that I felt I had more story to tell. It was around this time I was also really figuring out what I wanted to be as a creator–people were telling me I had to be sure I had enough “straight people” in my work (even today, I’m still hearing that), but I wanted to make something unapologetically queer, that featured people who reflected the world I knew, and the people that were a part of it. You generally don’t see polyamorous couples in cinema and television unless in a negative way, and you certainly don’t see fat characters in leading roles having sex. And while the series is mostly a comedy, there is nothing funny about the way we treat our fat characters–they are real human beings, kinks and all.

3.       How did Dueling Pianos: A Skeleton Crew Musical spin off from the Skeleton Crew and what can viewers expect from this series?

As I was writing Season Five, I knew I wanted to make a musical episode, but I felt it was going to be too hard and too taxing for the resources I had at my disposal. So I canceled those plans and resigned myself to putting it off for the future. Then Nakia came along and heard about what I wanted to do and told me we had to do this. So he and I worked together and wrote 15 incredible songs for what has become a feature-length episode of the series. And then as we were in the middle of filming, the pandemic happened, and that forced us to slow down, retrace our steps, and redo a lot of the work we had done to make it better. In some ways, I’m a machine who doesn’t like to stop, so being forced to stop gave me the opportunity to really perfect this incredible musical with Nakia and the cast and crew. And now we have not one but three albums streaming for this episode–the cast album, a karaoke track version, and an album by Nakia. 

When you tune into Dueling Pianos, you are thrown into the virtual reality world first introduced in our Season Four sci-fi/horror extravaganza, “The Huxley Proxy”--which was, up until Dueling Pianos, probably one of the most challenging and yet exciting arcs we’ve made. Simon, played by Mark-Eugene Garcia, takes the audience on a journey which is ultimately about love–loving yourself, loving your partner, but also realizing love isn’t always enough. Plus, it’s also very funny, and a tinge scary.

4.       Let’s talk about Demon Doctor. What can horror fans expect from this spooky series? 

Demon Doctor is my homage to 90s genre television. I grew up on Buffy and Charmed and The X-Files, and I still have a deep love for those series. I wanted to delve into my love of horror fantasy and create something which celebrates fat and queer characters in a horror fantasy setting. 

Demon Doctor is the story of a demonologist and a detective who meet under unfortunate circumstances, and who develop a deep friendship with each other, all while fighting against the creatures lurking behind The Veil. 

We feature all practical effects for the most part, creature makeups, and most of all, a good dose of horror and humor. It’s a sexy, fat, queer good time! And for fans of Skeleton Crew, it’s a chance to see many of the same actors in different roles.

5.       When did you first develop a passion for storytelling?

I think storytelling has always been a part of who I am. My mother once told me how, as a young child, I would often come into the room and start regaling the adults present with fantastic stories and adventures. When I played with my toys, I always selected the “cast” I needed to enact the story I woke up with in my head. I can’t remember a time I wasn’t moved to tell a story (my mother probably still has dozens of notebooks in storage from half-finished novels and ideas I had written down over the years).  

6.       If you could collaborate with any writer/actor/producer on an episode of Demon Doctor, dead or alive, who would you pick and why?

I am a HUGE fan of collaboration–I love to explore the ways my ideas and others intersect for the betterment of the project. And I’m such a huge fan of so many people who have influenced me, this is a tough question. I think Kevin Smith, Sam Raimi or James Gunn would be dream director/producer collaborators for me. They all started where I am now, I think–they started indie and low-budget and made the most with the least. I think I could learn a great deal from them. Plus, they infuse their work with a great deal of comedy, regardless of the genre, and that’s sort of my style too. I’d love to work with Ari Aster too because the films he’s created are so incredible. 

The list of actors I’d like to work with is endless–that’s a tough one to answer! I suppose I’d say Nick Frost is at the top of the list–he’s made a mainstream career for himself despite not looking Hollywood, and that’s very on brand for me. 

And, if anyone has A24’s number–I’d love to have their help producing a film! 

7.       What is your favorite horror subgenre and why?

I’d say it’s probably body horror–I imagine it stems from my own issues with body image over the years. While I’m pretty happy with my body now, it took me some time to get to this point, and I think a lot of body horror tends to come from a similar place–people being unhappy with who/what/how they are and seeking change. And there is something so universal about it. 

8.       Where can readers learn more about your and your various projects?

You can watch all of our content on our YouTube Channel at youtube.com/sidekickproductions. If you want to support us, please do so by joining the Crewniverse at patreon.com/sidekickproductions. You can find me on Instagram and on Twitter . If you want to follow Skeleton Crew, you can on IG @Skeletoncrewtheseries and on Twitter @TVSkeletonCrew. Follow Demon Doctor on IG @Demondoctortheseries and on Twitter at @DemonDoctorTV. For Dueling Pianos, stream the albums and watch at nakia.me/duelingpianos1 and follow on Twitter @DuelingPianosSC. And you can follow the adventures of making our feature film by following @ATasteofYouth on IG and Twitter, and visiting www.atasteofyouth.com.