Keith Brown (right) interviewed Joshua Peck (left) about his life and career to a full house Tuesday night. |Photo by Grace DeSanti.
On Tuesday, Josh Peck, who is most famous for his role Josh Nichols in the Nickelodeon show “Drake and Josh,” brought major nostalgia to the University of Rhode Island when he came to entertain students in Edwards Auditorium.
Keith Brown, a film media professor at the University of Rhode Island, mediated the presentation by interviewing Peck about his life and career. Peck’s jokes and stories about his childhood role on “Drake and Josh” caused waves of laughter for the fans filling the auditorium.
Among Peck’s many amusing stories was one regarding his role in the movie “Red Dawn.” Peck joked about the starstruck feeling of working with Chris Hemsworth, saying that “Once I made a joke and Chris Hemsworth laughed, I had to go. I had to get out of there.”
This starstruck feeling was definitely matched by the audience of college students watching their childhood idol in person.
Peck also went on to joke about how he was required to uphold a certain physique and train with intimidatingly athletic people for his role in “Red Dawn.” While off the set, sitting in his car and eating ice cream despite the restraints of his role in the movie, Tom Cruz came up to his car.
Cruz asked Peck what he was doing alone, even offering for him to come inside and eat with his family. Peck was overwhelmed by this encounter and said no. Between laughs of relaying this story to the crowd of students, Peck jokingly said “I said no to Tom Cruz for ice cream, but I’m on YouTube now so it worked out.”
Peck, in addition to being a YouTuber and podcast creator, also recently became a father to an eight month old son named Max. Peck humorously accounted his struggles with learning to be a parent. His son is now featured in his Youtube channel. Peck joked that he extorts his adorable son to his channel as a form of clickbait to watch his videos.
After countless jokes about his childhood stardom and his life, Peck explained the many changes that his career has experienced between being a 12-year-old actor and a now 32-year-old dad.
After being on “The Amanda Show,” Peck was recognized along with his costar Drake Bell. Dan the Creator, producer of the beloved “Drake and Josh,” was introduced to these two and told they were his next stars. This was the beginning of the comedy and the launch of his career. After having experienced film and television, Josh Peck continues his love for talking,
Even while entertaining the audience with stories of “Drake and Josh” and his YouTube vlogging with famous YouTube influencers such as David Dobrik, Trisha Paytas, Jason Nash and many others, Peck still managed to get serious. He encouraged everyone to pursue any dreams of producing Youtube content or contributing to the film and media world. Peck said that if you produce something you are proud of, then it will find an audience.
He also described himself as an “overweight and awkward” kid and that humor and acting have always been an important outlet for him. Peck loves what he does, which showed in his performance to the audience of Edwards Auditorium. Peck also answered audience questions.