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writinganddirecting

Film, Stage, TV, & Internet

A web series. Shorts. An original musical. John has been exploring his writing and directing talents in a myriad of ways.

Scroll down to learn more & watch clips

If you like the clock and/or travel mug above, they are items I have designed for Red Bubble.

About Me

as a writer & director

John (he/him/his) is an actor, singer, writer, director, & voice over artist living in NYC. Represented by ATB Talent, John recently made his network television debut guest starring on Law & Order: SVU. A Master of Fine Arts graduate from the University of Houston School of Theatre, a large part of his training  included working on new plays and musicals with Stuart Ostrow, Edward Albee, Jerry Bock, and Jerry Sterner. He co-wrote the devised work, Gold Coast, with Stages on the Sound for Metropolitan Playhouse’s Gilded Stage Festival under the guidance of Tectonic Theater Project’s Scott Barrow. John has written and directed shorts and music videos ranging from satire and comedy to politics and activism for YouTube, including Broadway Zombie, Fierce iPhone Update, Starbucks is GAY!, The Bigot’s Guide to the Homosexual Lifestyle, Booty Text, and The Worst Christmas Pageant Ever. YouTube was where he wrote and directed one of the first ever web series, the 8-part The Message Board. John has also written the original one-man shows, Jerby: Fully Loaded, Jerby With A “Y”,  A Very Jerby Christmas, & The Lady Gaga Christmas Spectacular. He has directed with the Alley Theatre’s Houston Young Playwright’s Exchange (fun fact: one of his actors was rising star, John Behlmann). As a recurring guest on HuffPost Live, he offered his opinion on a variety of topics from politics to entertainment. 2018 saw the release of his debut album, Our First Christmas Together, which included nine original holiday songs. Future projects include more parodies and shorts, the concept album for Vampire Drag Queen, & Our First Halloween Together.

  • Snowmatica
  • Shorts
  • The Message Board
  • Brother Barker's Hell House
  • Vampire Drag Queen

Snowmatica–the complete “A Lady Gaga Christmas Medley” consisting of 33 of her songs parodied as holiday music in under 38 minutes will finally premiere February 28, 2021. We had missed our original Christmas window due to technical logistics both in and out of our control. We had thought we could premiere it on Epiphany, but January 6, 2021 turned out to be a horrific day that we felt would not be appropriate for this film. Since we had completely missed all holiday options, we decided that we should go back and fully complete the film, undoing any compromises that came about in trying to reach our previous deadlines. I couldn’t bare postponing the film to Christmas 2021 or even Christmas in July 2021. We decided that we could make fun of the film’s tardiness and release it for anyone who would find enjoyment in it now. Our hope is that it builds interest over the course of the year and finds its place by the holidays. 

The technological logistics of major special FX had given me and my husband & collaborating partner, Jared R. Pike, a run for our money. But we finally conquered these matters and can not wait for the world to see this film. I started pre-production on it almost 2 years ago, and most of the filming and editing has taken place during the pandemic. Fun fact: none of the sets are real. The entire film was shot against a greenscreen in our apartment with virtual sets added later. One more complicated scene had us using software to see the set while filming against the greenscreen so things would line up correctly. Whether or not we have achieved Hollywood level production values may be one thing, but what is not debatable is that we have pushed the bar lightyears ahead of our previous work–and that makes us proud.

I LOVE Lady Gaga, so it’s been pure joy creating these parodies for the past 11 years. I hope you will enjoy what I am lovingly referring to it as my Moonwalker, the dynamite long form music video or (collection of music videos) Michael Jackson released around the time of his album, BAD. We did not have his budget or crew or cast–literally two people put all of this together–but I hope it has the same magical whimsy and fantastical, hallucinatory experience.

Listen to Lady Gaga's versions that inspired us

Spotify

Or click here for a YouTube Playlist

starring John Raymond Barker

Directed & Produced by
Jared R. Pike & John Raymond Barker

Story Concept
Jared R. Pike

Parody Lyrics & Music Production
John Raymond Barker

Additional Music Production 

Jared R. Pike

The Lady Gaga songs parodied are

“Marry The Night”
written by

Lady Gaga & Fernando Garibay

“Chromatica I”
written by

Lady Gaga & Morgan Kibby

“Lovegame”
written by

Lady Gaga & RedOne

“Judas”

written by

Lady Gaga & RedOne

“Edge of Glory”

written by

Lady Gaga, Fernando Garibay, & Paul Blair aka “DJ White Shadow”

“Born This Way”

written by

Lady Gaga, Jeppe Laursen

“You & I”
written by

Lady Gaga

“Just Dance”
written by
Lady Gaga, RedOne, & Allaune Thiam

“Telephone”
written by

Lady Gaga, R. Jerkins, LaShawn Daniels, Lazonate Franklin, & Beyoncé

“Boys Boys Boys”
written by

Lady Gaga & RedOne

“Ayo”
written by

Stefani Germanotta, Hillary Lindsey, Mark Ronson, & M. Tucker

“Teeth”
written by

Lady Gaga, Taja Riley, Pete Wyoming Bender,

& Teddy Riley

“Perfect Illusion”
written by

Kevin Parker, Stefani Germanotta, Mark Ronson, & M Tucker

“Applause”
written by

Lady Gaga, Paul “DJ White Shadow” Blair, Dino Zisis, Nick Monson, Martin Bresso, Nicholas, Mercer, Julien Arias, & William Grigahcine

“G.U.Y.”
written by

Lady Gaga & Anton Zaslavski

“Rain On Me”
written by

Lady Gaga, Bloodpop®, Matthew Burns, Nija Charles, Rami Yacoub, Martin Joseph Léonard Bresso, Ariana Grande, & Alexander Ridha

“Chromatica II”
written by

Lady Gaga & Morgan Kibby

“911”
written by

Lady Gaga, Bloodpop®, Madeon, & Justin Tranter

“Alejandro”
written by
RedOne & Lady Gaga

“Speechless”
written by
Lady Gaga

“Shallow”
written by
Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, & Andrew Wyatt

“Aura”
written by

Lady Gaga, Anton Zaslavski,

Amit Duvdevani, & Erez Eisen

“Joanne”
written by

Stefani Germanotta & Mark Ronson

“Swine”
written by

Lady Gaga, Paul “DJ White Shadow” Blair, Dino Zisis, & Nick Monson

“A Million Reasons”
written by

Stefani Germanotta, Hillary Lindsey, &  Mark Ronson

“Is That Alright?”
written by

Lady Gaga, Mark Nilan Jr,, Nick Monson, Paul “DJ WS” Blair, Lukas Nelson, & Aaron Raitiere

“John Wayne”
written by

Stefani Germanotta, Mark Ronson, M. Tucker, & Josh Homme

“Always Remember Us This Way”
written by

Lady Gaga, Natalie Hemby, Hillary Lindsey, & Lori McKenna

“Chromatica III”

written by

Lady Gaga & Morgan Kibby

“Bad Romance”
written by

RedOne & Lady Gaga

“Poker Face”
written by

Lady Gaga & RedOne”

“Paparazzi”
written by

Lady Gaga & Rob Fusari

“Stupid Love”
written by

Lady Gaga, Bloodpop®, Max Martin, Martin Joseph Léonard Bresso, & Ely Rise

 

We are not affiliated, associated, authorized, endorsed by, or in any way officially connected with Lady Gaga, Interscope Records, Kon Live Distribution, Streamline, Cherrytree Records, or any of their subsidiaries.

 

FAIR USE COPYRIGHT NOTICE

The Copyright Laws of the United States recognizes a “fair use” of copyrighted content. Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act states:

“NOTWITHSTANDING THE PROVISIONS OF SECTIONS 106 AND 106A, THE FAIR USE OF A COPYRIGHTED WORK, INCLUDING SUCH USE BY REPRODUCTION IN COPIES OR PHONORECORDS OR BY ANY OTHER MEANS SPECIFIED BY THAT SECTION, FOR PURPOSES SUCH AS CRITICISM, COMMENT, NEWS REPORTING, TEACHING (INCLUDING MULTIPLE COPIES FOR CLASSROOM USE), SCHOLARSHIP, OR RESEARCH, IS NOT AN INFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT.”

This work may contain certain copyrighted works that were not specifically authorized to be used by the copyright holder(s), but which we believe in good faith are protected by federal law and the fair use doctrine for one or more of the reasons noted above. If you have any specific concerns  about this work or our position on the fair use defense please contact us so we can discuss amicably. Thank you! 

Costume, Wig & Make-up Design

Jared R. Pike

Additional Costume Design

John Raymond Barker

Production Design, Special FX, & Editing

John Raymond Barker & Jared R. Pike

None of the visual or sound FX would be possible without the generosity of a community of artists who provide use of their work for free through Creative Commons Licensing or the like.

A great deal of work was originally created by pexels.com – @gamol-755060

Santa in “Santa Claus” – pexels.com: @cottonbro

Reindeer in “Rein On Me” – freepik.com: @brgfx

News Reporter in “D.U.I.”: Kevin McMahon via Behance/Adobe

Animated elves in “North Pole” – GraphicMama.com

Additional artwork & stock footage was remixed or used directly from the following web sites

pixabay.com

pexels.com

unsplash.com

videezy.com

Wikipedia Commons: @Dschwen
for his photo
Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Additional stock footage provided by Videvo, downloaded from https://www.videvo.net
including the Snowman in “Man Made of Snow”
Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)

Additional Videvo artists utilizing Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0):

@Beachfront  for light-leak-orb & bad-tv-output

@Khaj1t for shopping-and-entertainment-centre-

@mattiamc for snow-close-up

@oasisamuel for confetti falling

@pilotsflying for light-bulb-turned-on-and-off

Additional sound effects from
zapsplat.com: @blastwave-fx & freesoundeffects.com

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents, even those based on real people, either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

 

Special thanks to Jillian Coneys, who always brings a brilliant, heartfelt, powerful perspective.

 

All original footage filmed entirely in Harlem, NYC primarily during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Shorts

These are various shorts that I have  written and directed. Five of these videos feature my character Brother Barker, who is a flamboyant, conservative Christian ex-gay. In Don’t Pick & Choose Leviticus, I play his wife, who is also ex-gay, using some simple, fun movie magic.

The Message Board

The Message Board is an 8-part web series about Broadway Universe, a theatre web site where different people can come together to chat about Broadway, divas, cabarets, chorus boys, politics, internet addiction, gay marriage, religion, sex, suicide and anything that crosses their minds. Perhaps that ranting theatre queen or Wicked-obsessed teen will become your new BFF or your next worst enemy? Maybe that anonymous, alleged “hot chorus boy” will become the love of your life? You’ll never know until you log in.

YouTube was a different world in 2009. I hadn’t yet acquired a HD camera, nor did many of us record dialogue separately. Still, I am fond of the ideas here and the lovely performances my actors gave to me. Each actor was filmed separately, which made scheduling easier than usual. It is flawed, but charming, and it was one of the first web series ever.

Another big difference about YouTube was that there used to be a 15 minute limit on videos. Thus, some are split into two parts (released the same week). I also had some fun stuff to create a bloopers reel. 

 

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Brother Barker's
Hell House

When I heard about the kind of haunted house conservative Christians put up at Halloween, I knew I had to create the kind that Brother Barker would, The year is 2010, and these are his current fears.

At the time this was created, YouTube had a fun feature that allowed linking within a video. Thus, these videos reflect a “choose your own adventure” concept. That no longer works within the user experience. The playlist will play them in numerical order, but you may certainly watch them in any order. Just start with the prologue and end with the epilogue.

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Vampire Drag Queen
a musical thriller

Vampire Drag Queen is a new, original pop musical thriller I’ve written that is a hybrid of revenge tragedy and the comic book hero origin story.

possible poster artwork for Vampire Drag Queen
Click to visit the musical's website to learn more

headshots

Click the headshot for a PNG.  Visit Press for hi-res options.

reel & resume

Click the resume for a PDF

For individual clips, please visit

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For ProfessionaL Inquiries

I am represented by ATB Talent for all work in Film, Television, Theatre, and Commercials. Please contact my agents if you are interested in auditioning or booking me for any of these types of work.

ATB Talent Agency LA and NY Logo
917-397-0282 | 323-761-0282

Email by clicking the applicable name or department.

Todd M Eskin

Robert Miller Jr

Roxanne Clark

Anthony Esposito

For all other inquiries, please visit the contact page.

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