Meet Joy Wolfe

We were lucky to catch up with Joy Wolfe recently and have shared our conversation below.

Joy, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

I am one of the most confident people I know, and it has been a consistent and conscious choice to trust myself each step of the way despite all my self doubt. My childhood was very traumatic, and it left me with crippling self hatred. Despite being high achieving, I found school growing up very anxiety inducing, and I became extremely shy. I often wouldn’t even raise my hand when I was the only one in class who seemed to know the answers. I would just sit in silence, too afraid to speak up. As a Leo sun and mercury (and future comedian), that killed me, but I was frozen in fear.

Skipping ahead to adulthood, I really hate to say it but waiting tables at godforsaken Bubba Gump’s really helped me get over my fear of public speaking. We had to sing these mortifying birthday songs every shift, and I bombed every single one for almost two years in front of hundreds of shrimp patrons. To push myself, I went to acting school to help get me out of my shell. My whole life changed, and despite getting tremendous stage fright every single time, I was hooked. None of it was easy but I found my confidence growing. And when my confidence was absent, I found myself with a choice: I can choose to enjoy this or I can choose to be anxious.

It’s not a straightforward journey, especially when it came to pairing my newfound confidence with self esteem. You would think they would go hand in hand, but I found myself at a manic breaking point last year as a very confident stand up comedian with non-existent self esteem. I’m still working on bridging the two but I’m going a lot easier on myself now.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

Creativity has always been my path to attempting to make sense of this whole human experience thing. Label wise, I’m a comedian, filmmaker, actress, model, and podcast host among other things. Los Angeles herself has been the obsession of most of my work thus far. I grew up in a very strange alternate universe on Hollywood Blvd and I spent my entire adolescence in Albuquerque yearning to return. During my tenure in LA, I’ve written, produced, and directed a short film, web-series, and featurette. I have even walked on fire with Jeff Goldblum on his tv show. Spirituality, magic, holistic healing, and taking the wild witchy path has definitely influenced me both as a creative and as a person. In my six years of performing stand up comedy, my favorite projects were producing “Comedy Coven” and “Feel Good Comedy” at the one and only Hollywood Forever Cemetery. At the end of the day all I can hope for is that my artistic work and comedy leaves people just a little zestier then when it found them.

My latest film, The East Hollywood Project, is available to stream for free on Youtube. I’m currently releasing season two of my podcast, “Just Happy To Be Here” on Spotify throughout the rest of the year.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

“Do it Scared.”
Everything epic I have ever done, creative or life wise, I’ve done with terror in my heart To paraphrase The Princess Diaries, it’s not the absence of fear but choosing to move through it. I think nerves (within reason, not doing dangerous stuff) mean you’re heading somewhere exciting past your comfort zone.

“It’s hard to be an icon when you hate yourself…”
I’ve always set truly ridiculous standards and been really hard on myself. One of my biggest regrets is how much my anxiety was at the helm of most of my creative career. Despite the decades of therapy and healing modalities, I never fully enjoyed creating my work. So perhaps I’m still being too self critical but I really hope I’m able to not put so much pressure on myself… And like actually have some fun with it in the future.

“Does it actually feel good?”
This ties in with the previous nugget but self love, respect, and care has become a generational mantra. None of the shininess or success matters if you aren’t healthy mentally, physically, and on a soul level. I’m still learning this lesson as well. Obviously we all need to be fed and pay rent (which is a freaking challenge in a place like LA) but our time/energy really is the most powerful currency.

If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?

Despite how much I’ve created in my career, I feel really disconnected from my purpose in a way I never have before. Making it in Hollywood was my coping mechanism leftover from my dysfunctional upbringing. It’s my Saturn Return in Pisces, and I’m currently regrouping in New Mexico. Returning to the desert (and my mom’s house) wasn’t what I wanted but it’s what my soul needed. I think I’m finally starting to get comfortable with the uncertainty and becoming more present. These days, I’m trying to lean into trusting myself and the infinite Universe.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejoywolfe/
• Youtube: https://youtube,com/@joywolfe
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9190418/?ref_=ext_

  The East Hollywood Project: https://youtu.be/XGHHYa7vmRk?si=j3a7cIKRlWM0KnOc

Image Credits

Debi Del Grande
Elise Maroun
Jason Watson
Tiffany Marie Lepe
Joe Welkie
DDC Visions
Jim Sundance
Vincent Vallela