Interview

When I was about seven years old, my parents would dress me up in a little suit and send me to first grade with a blue plastic briefcase. I collected notepads, pens, and library cards and was always writing down what people were saying. This made me a target for bullying, but ironically business and communication have been apart of my life. I’ve also always loved to sing. At my core, I am a writer. I think of myself as a visionary–someone with big ideas.

Throughout 2007-2010, I sung in Myspace competition, and got a chance to intern at Power 106 radio station in LA, and also at ASCAP. These were my “official” introductions to the entertainment business. It wasn’t until I published my first book, Views from the Cockpit, in 2019, that I realized I could be a writer per say.

After this book, I got into the studio to record the audiobook and slowly began creating music again. Those two events reminded me how much joy music gives me and how fun it is to develop characters and write stories.

I’d say I started young, but then took a winding road. I’ve loved making music, performing, and acting since I was little. My dad is a guitarist and works promoting rock concerts, so I got to go to shows from before I could walk. I was at Grateful Dead shows when I was two. I’d see Mick Jagger, Bruce Spingsteen, Prince, David Bowie etc and something about what they were doing on stage made me innately say to myself – “that’s what I want to do.”

So any time I got the opportunity to perform, I would. I jumped onstage singing Tutti Frutti at my grade school talent show, and I performed Thriller at another one (complete with all of Michael’s moves). I also loved movies and acting. I think watching Bruce Lee movies got me hooked (I’m a martial artist too). So I was in my grade school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (love me some Shakespeare).

The winding part of my story really began in high school. I loved playing football and I wanted to get into a good college, so I focused on that. I worked REALLY hard and I got into Harvard University. But once I got there I hit a wall. Some of the things that had been driving me stopped working. I’d chosen to pursue a degree in economics (I was at Harvard – I might as well figure out how to make money, right?). But that wasn’t my passion. I had, what I like to call, a “quarter-life crisis.” Ultimately I finished my degree, but I decided to move to LA afterward and pursue my original dream from when I was a kid.

In LA I started acting and I joined a band and started playing out. I got to be in movies and TV shows (Brick with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, ABC’s The Middle, and The Rookie most recently). And I got to play all of LA’s most historic clubs (The Viper Room, the Whisky A Go Go, the Troubador) as well as some of the biggest festivals in the country (Bonnaroo, the Outside Lands Festival, the Life is Beautiful festival, SXSW). We toured and made a couple of albums. It was a blast, but we didn’t break through the way we’d dreamed of. So, as most bands do, we fell apart.

After the band broke up, I retreated to the studio to get in touch with my next wave of creativity. I got in touch with the things that made me fall in love with music and performing when I was little. I had to decide what I wanted to say that would be more powerful than what I’d been saying to that point. And how I wanted to say it. Also, how I wanted to promote it so that it would have a greater impact in the world. That was the genesis of my new project – AVATARI.

The Jokers are all about their past. Their classic rock skews toward oldies, all favorites from the late 1950s and ‘60s when band members were kids and teenagers growing up. We all loved music. We all wanted to be in a band. We just all wound up in different bands at the time.
Lifelong friends who all went to Redondo Union High School in Redondo Beach, The Jokers went their separate ways after high school, but were always tied together by their love of fun rock n roll. So after being in various different bands over the years, the time was right in 2019 to finally come together and form The Jokers.
The Jokers include founding member and drummer Joey Bensoua, who chose the name because he is also a stand-up comic. Lead guitarist Eddie Mariscal knows over 500 songs and is the heart and soul of the band. Guitarist Daniel Herrera is blessed with one of the best rock n roll voices in the South Bay and is a true showman.
The Jokers also utilize alternating bass players. Dave Hallgrimson and Phil Gilbreth are both remarkable bassists and well-known in local music circles. Phil was a member of The Twisters, arguably the best South Bay band of the 1970s and ‘80s.
A fun-loving, joke-telling band that can play killer classic rock is a party favorite. In fact, the band bills itself as “Playing the Party Hits You Grew Up With.”
The band leans toward pure fun dance songs, but also specializes in “theme nights.” For example, one of The Jokers’ most successful gigs in 2020 was “A Night of Motown with The Jokers” at the Hey 19 club in Torrance. Other theme nights include “One-Hit Wonders Night with The Jokers” and “British Invasion of the ‘60s with The Jokers.”
Being versatile is just one hallmark of the band’s success. The group prides itself on always performing a successful gig for the host, be it a company or individual. Leaving guests happy and wanting more is a good measure of success.