The Perils of Being Joxer
By Joe Nazzaro.
Mighty hero… or in over his head?
The Official Magazine: Issue 02
Although many actors draw upon their own real-life experiences to create a character, it would be far too easy to say that Joxer, Xena’s over-enthusiastic semi-sidekick, is based on Ted Raimi. In real life, Raimi is witty and intelligent and fun to be around; the kind of guy you used to hang around swapping comic books with as a kid. Still, the seeds for what Joxer would become are firmly rooted in Raimi’s own past.
“I was beaten up and teased a lot when I was a kid,” Raimi explains, “and that has a great effect on a person’s life and still does to this day. You crave attention in whatever way you can get it, and I found that I had a knack for doing physical comedy, so I really pushed that, and I think it’s one of the reasons I enjoy it so much. As an actor, you try to find things that are close to who you are and that you can relate to in order to keep it real. But that’s not hard with Joxer, because all he does is get picked on.
“The difference between me and Joxer,” the actor continues, “is that I knew I was being teased, but Joxer doesn’t know. I think deep down he does, but he never lets on. I think that’s why people can relate to that, and it’s not just the overt picking-on that I find fascinating about Joxer. In all our adult lives, at one time or another we’re made to feel small, and so we have to keep a certain guard up because we can’t let everyone see who we really are. That can get very difficult and exhausting after a while, and Joxer does it to the nth degree, so you know there’s got to be a lot of hurt under there. He’s trying to keep up the veneer that nothing is wrong, but he’s really turning himself inside-and-out on the inside.”
Raimi was actually cast as Joxer after a chance meeting with executive producer Rob Tapert at Universal Studios. While the character was originally scheduled for just one episode, there was a possibility of future appearances if Joxer caught on with viewers. “I’ve got one word to say about that: scary. You think, ‘I really want the part, and I want to play it like they want it, but I know that if I set myself in this mode by playing it that way, they’re going to want it again and again.’ That was a concern, but I was out of work at the time and nothing was happening, so I really didn’t care… I just wanted to be asked back. If worse came to worse, it was a free trip to New Zealand, which is a beautiful country, filled with some very nice people.”
Based on his appearance in the episode “Callisto,” Xena’s writers immediately saw the comic possibilities of adding Joxer to the mix from time to time. Unfortunately, a small number of vociferous fans on the Internet were less happy about the character’s presence and quickly made their opinions known.
“They hated Joxer, no question about it,” Raimi recalls with a rueful shake of the head. “When I first started working on the show, I was really interested to see what people were saying. There were hundreds of responses, and they hated Joxer! ‘Get him out! Joxer sucks big time! He stinks!’ I think the fact that he’s male has everything to do with it, and I was definitely threatening that world.
“What really saved Joxer was, first of all, I’m not a typical male character in an action show by any means. Secondly, Joxer is not very masculine in a classic sense, so that didn’t threaten the balance of the show. He’s not strong, he’s not particularly handsome; he’s none of those things, and finally the fans realized he wasn’t. I think when they started fleshing out his character a little more, and I have to thank (co-executive producer) R.J. Stewart as well as (writers) Adam (Armus) and Nora Kay (Foster), that turned it all around.”
One of the turning points for the character was “For Him The Bell Tolls,” in which a spell by Aphrodite transforms Joxer into a swashbuckling hero whenever he hears the sound of a bell. The episode was an acting tour-de-force for Raimi, who considers it one of his favorites.
“It actually came out of a conversation I had with R.J. Stewart once while he was in New Zealand, months before that episode came around. He was in my trailer and we were talking about our favorite comedians and he said, ‘You know, you remind me a lot of Danny Kaye in some stuff you’ve done.’ I said that was a great compliment, because he’s one of my favorites as far as physical comedians are concerned. I told him that my favorite was THE COURT JESTER, and R.J. said, ‘Oh yeah, I love that one!’
“We talked about it for almost an hour, and he said, ‘You know, we should write a scene like that with you as the Danny Kaye character,’ and about an hour later, he came back and said, ‘Okay, I’ve got it!’ He already had the plot laid out, so he gave the story to Adam and Nora and they did a terrific job.”
“For Him The Bell Tolls” also introduced the Joxer song, a tongue-in-cheek little ditty that Raimi ad-libbed with some help from director Josh Becker. “Apparently, they’re going to stick it in every single episode that they can, and they’ve been doing so. In ‘Warrior… Priestess… Tramp,’ there’s a musical number in the middle of the show that comes out of nowhere. I sing a song in a bordello, and the girls are singing the Joxer song, praising Joxer’s virtues, so to speak. I actually based the melody on an amalgam of several different Saturday morning super-hero cartoons I had seen… a combination of Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk and some other ones, robbing two-note phrases from each one.”
Since then, Raimi admits the song has struck a chord (pun intended) among Xena fans, and he now has to sing it at virtually every convention appearance he makes. “I remember being at a big convention in Los Angeles several months ago. I got up and did my schtick, and somebody got up and said, ‘What is this Joxer theme song we’ve heard about?’ So (executive producer) Rob Tapert comes up to the stage and says, ‘Now ladies and gentlemen, Ted Raimi will sing the Joxer song!’ I was so mad at Rob, because there were more than two thousand people waiting for me to sing that dumb song. So I had to sing it in front of all of them!”
With the third season of Xena: Warrior Princess well underway, Raimi had already logged several appearances in the show, as well as a crossover episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. So far, his biggest challenge has been “King of Assassins,” where Raimi played Joxer and his nasty brother Jet. Directed by the actor’s old pal Bruce (Autolycus) Campbell, it was a rewarding but tiring experience. “It’s a very Lucy-lite episode, because she just needed a break so I’m in just about every shot. Jet is everything Joxer wanted to be but couldn’t be. I played both parts, mostly in the same scenes, so it was exhausting.
“What they would do, first they’d get a double who was my size and dyed his hair and cut it, and that was for the over-the-shoulder shots. This guy was a good actor, too, so it wasn’t like working with a brick wall. That was fine for all the over-his-back shots, but then we had to do split-screen and that was really tricky, because if you reach one inch too far with your hand, you lose your hand; it goes into the negative zone, so we had to work on some very complicated blocking for that, because you can’t touch or interact. It’s very aggravating for the crew because it takes so damn long, but they wrote it so everything in that episode took place in one studio, so there was never a location change.”
During his down time from Xena, Raimi has continued to pursue a number of his own projects, including several low-budget features and a possible comedy series he’s writing. Having a recurring gig has made life easier for the actor, who can now concentrate on doing his best work, rather than looking for the next job. “I’m glad at least for the moment, that the pressure is off,” he admits. “I can concentrate on making the work I’ve got great. I always wanted to be a great actor, but I’m not quite there yet. I think I’m competent, but I’m not great, and that’s what I’m working for.”
SIDEBAR: Other Worlds, Other Roles.
Before joining the cast of Xena: Warrior Princess, Ted Raimi was already a well-established character actor in film and television. A native of Detroit, Ted was the youngest of three Raimi brothers - his elder siblings are writer Ivan, and director Sam, also an executive producer on Xena.
Ted started his acting career by doing a series of industrial films in Detroit. In 1988, he moved to Los Angeles, where he worked with Sam on the EVIL DEAD movies and later DARKMAN, playing a mob henchman who literally loses his head. Although the brothers have worked together several times, Ted is quick to point out that “getting a job is one thing, keeping it is another. If it was just Sam who hired me for anything, I’d only have had four jobs in my entire life. But I’ve been working solidly for ten years.”
Raimi began landing parts in such films as SHOCKER, HARD TARGET, CANDYMAN, BORN YESTERDAY, FORCED EXPOSURE and PATRIOT GAMES, playing opposite Harrison Ford - and he later reprised his role as a CIA satellite analyst in CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER. He’s had starring roles in LUNATICS: A LOVE STORY (for future Xena director Josh Becker), and SKINNER, in which Raimi plays a serial killer who murders his victims and wears their skins.
Ted’s television credits include guest appearances in Twin Peaks, ALF, Alien Nation and American Gothic. His big series break came in 1993 with the underwater epic seaQuest DSV, when he landed the role of communications officer Tim O’Neill. For Raimi, who’s made a sideline of playing computer geeks, O’Neill was the perfect showcase for the actor’s gift for dialects. “That’s the part I do most of all,” he agrees, “that seaQuest kind of computer hacker.” Raimi was one of the few cast members who survived the show’s numerous shakeups and cast changes, and also collaborated with producer David Burke on the episode “Lostland.”
In between episodes of Xena, Ted has worked on a number of independent and low-budget features, including BETWEEN THE SHEETS, a comedy written and directed by his former seaQuest co-stars Peter and Michael Deluise (“I play a strange, wacky studio executive”); PATHOS (“a very European-style drama; I’m a workaholic married to a nymphomaniac!”) and SYRACUSE with Frank Whaley. He also appeared in the recent Family Channel production of APOLLO II, playing Steve Bayles, the project’s guidance and propulsion expert. “We shot it on location in Houston, at the computer board he was at 30 years ago,” adds Raimi. “You really feel a need to present it right, especially when that person is standing 20 feet away, watching you while you’re acting!”
Raimi is currently spending most of his free time preparing his own projects, and can usually be found on the Xena set pounding away on an old Olympia typewriter purchased especially for use on location. He also plays a mean blues harmonica - can an R&B rendition of the Joxer song be far behind?