J. Elvis Weinstein
Josh Weinstein (later known as J. Elvis Weinstein) was one of MST3K's original writers and cast members. He portrayed Dr. Laurence Erhardt, aide to Dr. Clayton Forrester, and was the original voice and puppeteer of Tom Servo and Gypsy. He also voiced Crow in MST3K K01 - Invaders from the Deep and a few other episodes on KTMA. He departed from the show at the end of its first national season, and adopted the name "J. Elvis Weinstein" to avoid confusion with another writer named Josh Weinstein (known for his work on The Simpsons).
From 1999 to 2000, Weinstein was a writer and executive producer on the cult-favorite NBC series "Freaks and Geeks" which was created by Paul Feig and executive produced by Judd Apatow. The show also featured Trace Beaulieu and Joel Hodgson in supporting roles.
In fall of 2014, Weinstein appeared in the music video comedy short The Frank along with other MST3k members. It was made available exclusively for DVD. He later reprised Tom Servo in the Turkey Day '14 marathon.
Personal quotes
- "I met Joel after he came back to Minneapolis. I was 15 and had just started doing stand-up. He had an air of specialness about him, because he had been in the big time. He was definitely an artist among comics."
- "We eventually realized, hey, this might be funnier if we had some jokes in our back pocket."
- (on choosing the moniker "J. Elvis") "I decided on it because when I joined the writer's guild there already was a Josh Weinstein, and I gave myself the Elvis because I loved that it gave me the initials J. E. W. and also somewhat inspired by being a fan of Elvis Costello, but mostly it's about J. E. W."
- (on the difference between geeks and nerds) "Geeks will talk to us, nerds find us too weird." [1]
Post-MST3K riffing projects
Josh first returned to riffing in 2005 when he joined Joel Hodgson and Trace Beaulieu and riffed two segments of the fan documentary Star Wait.
In 2007, he joined Hodgson, Beaulieau, Mary Jo Pehl and Frank Conniff in Cinematic Titanic, a riffing project created by Joel that produced seven studio episodes, five live DVDs and toured extensively through 2013.
He returned to the role of Tom Servo for Turkey Day '14 and the concurrently released Turkey Day DVD collection.
His final riffing project to date was a commentary track on the Blu-ray for The Heat, a film by Paul Feig. He was joined once again by Hodgson and Beaulieau to riff the film.