Joel Kim Booster

And that was, again, like another big moment for me where I was like, OK, this is what I want to do, because the response to the play was really positive.

And and and it was the first time that I felt remarkable, I would say, like I never felt remarkable as an actor at school.

I never set myself really apart as a performer.

But a writer, that was like, that felt really like, oh, no one else is doing this at my school.

I mean, there was a lot.

I mean, the play went up in one of the student theaters, which was in the basement of a house that they painted black and put up a rudimentary light plot.

So it wasn't like anything fancy, but the response to it was really overwhelming.

And so I really focused in on that because I just never I never thought that I was a good enough actor or performer in general to to pursue performing full time or as a profession.

But writing felt a little bit more attainable to me.

And I would say to this day, I think of my graduating class of less than 20 people in my theater class, I would say I don't think anyone thought that I would be the one to be in this position now.

Like, I think everyone is pretty shocked consistently because I was not the person who was getting the leads in plays and shows.

And I was not somebody who was standing out in classes.

And I was not somebody who...

felt really remarkable in college.

Yeah, I mean-

The nice thing about my school was that it was a school for self-starters in a lot of ways.

It was a small school in Millican University, downstate Illinois.

And it really was like you can make anything happen for yourself if you take the initiative to do it.

And there were so many student-run theaters like This Basement.

Um, where you could, you know, it was pretty open season.