The History of GameJew

You start so many projects, and you never know which are going to be the ones that last. Add to this the fact that as far as archiving goes, you’re skills and patience leaves much to be desired, and you have my fuzzy picture of how GameJew came to be.

What I do remember is that I was just coming off of a two year stint at CalArts, where my life had been consumed by The Mario Opera, my thesis, the world’s only (and therefore best) rock opera based on the Super Mario Bros. I had gathered together an amazing array of people, from costume designers to set builders, musicians, actors, the works, and had written ten songs which told the story of Mario and his eternal plight to save the princess. We put the show on in it’s biggest form twice, once for a 4 night run at CalArts, and then again for a one night only event at the Barnsdall theater in LA.

I really thought we could get the show off the ground. But after two years of putting everything I had into the project, after many shows played, from the seedy dives to the sunset strip, I finally decided to put the kibosh on the whole thing and move on. Without getting the license from Nintendo, we would be eternally hitting our heads against the proverbial brick wall.

It was around this time that YouTube was really just starting to take off. The year was 2005. Web shows were cropping up. Most notably for me, at the time, was “Game Life” a collection of seemingly mildly retarded boys talking about, reviewing and obsessing over video games. They had a brush with fame when MTV picked up some of their stuff. I had a simple thought: If they can do it, I can do it. And so I did.

I had my overalls and Mario cap. I had an obsessive passion for video games. I had my guitar, and the ability to write catchy songs on a dime. The Wii had just been announced, and it was lighting a fire in my heart. All I needed now was a name. If I recall correctly, the name came to me in the shower (like many of my ideas). GameJew. Simple. True. And really, why not? It’s not like anyone is going to see or notice this web show anyway.

I set myself a song goal: 40 songs for the Wii. I didn’t know what else the show would contain other than that. I was reading the gaming blogs day in and day out, feeding on the information like my life depended on it. The politics, the intrigue, the new games. I figured I’d talk about that. OK…what else. Maybe talk about Miyamoto, and how cool he is. Awesome. I got my video camera, hit record and shot the first episode in a couple of hours.

I was working, at the time, at a commercial music company called Human Worldwide. It was a pretty easy job, and there was a lot of time when there wasn’t much for me to do. I remember I edited that first episode (in iMovie) at work. I started a YouTube channel (novoxrobot) and uploaded it. A day went by. Then…HOLY CRAP! It’s on KOTAKU!! Kotaku is/was one of the biggest gaming blogs out there, and I read it constantly. Having my video posted there was as big for me as if it had been aired on CNN. HOLY CRAP! 2,000 views! Comments! This is AWESOME! And I was hooked.

Over the next two years, I would do a lot of different things as GameJew, and most of it is collected here. Ultimately, like many obsessions, my passion for video games started to fade. And once that passion goes, keeping a show like GameJew going is nigh impossible.

Looking back on the material now, it’s almost like I don’t recognize myself. I’m a little embarrassed, and at the same time very proud of all that I accomplished. 4 years removed from that first episode, I think I can see what people liked about it. It has heart. It came from a real place of excitement.

There’s also a layer of bittersweet in there as well, that feeling of nostalgia that accompanies any recollection. Thanks for the memories, GameJew, and thanks for the games.