Today we’d like to introduce you to Joshua Onimus.
Hi Joshua, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for sharing your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
I began life in Press Media during the early years of my Comic Book collecting, sometime in early 2013. I worked at a call-center job in the Delray Beach area when I became work colleagues with someone who operated a fairly large Comic Book website (Comic Book Speculation Site WWW.INVESTCOMICS.COM). This was certainly at a time when Comic-Books were becoming more prevalent on a mainstream level. This gentleman was an early adopter of the internet to generate content and traffic on the topic—a brilliant guy. As we developed a good working relationship, he eventually extended the offer to attend some Comic Book conventions, which I was fairly new to at the time, as press media under his site’s banner. He wasn’t particularly crazy about being in front of a camera, and that’s where I came in. He’d want interviews with figures in the Comic book and Pop-Culture landscape for his site, but he’d have me do them while he filmed. I’m fairly sure my first sit-down interview for them was with Mr. Lou Ferrigno (The Incredible Hulk) in Fort Lauderdale for a Wizard World show. The interview went well. I was very comfortable, and I think Lou was too. It turns out I wasn’t so bad at this. That’s when I knew I’d had an immediate interest in media—covering all facets of it! Talking with exciting people! It all appealed very much to me!
Please talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned. Has it been easy or smooth in retrospect?
While I was successful at breaking from InvestComics.com by starting TheVariantNewssource.com, I could hold momentum for a couple of years with regular articles and semi-frequent interviews from voice actors, writers, actors, and just a matter of different personalities. I closed the doors on the site in late 2020 due to the increasingly large competitive space for this type of content and the overhead needed to keep running the site. It became more apparent that if I could create a youtube channel and maintain the name and brand (a site domain I still own to this day!), youtube could keep it successfully afloat. Also, I’d continue contributing content in some fashion by finding a site I could apply to and provide columns if they liked my work. I landed at Reviewfix.com as a staff writer and have remained there until this day. They’re also kind enough to host my videos on youtube as well. Great Staff! Good people.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I have been fortunate to work doing Press Media, creating outreach with popular figures, and covering events in the Florida area. Some of my favorite material came right out of Orlando, Florida! There’s a fantastic Retro-Gaming show in Orlando called Free Play Florida. They’re a non-profit event and draw a very loyal and dedicated audience of attendees every year. Each year I’ve had the privilege of attending and have all access to film the speaking panels and interview guests. The event organizers are tremendously helpful and care about the community. I’ve managed to build goodwill with the audience that tunes in because I have my hands in so many events and community gatherings that it has afforded me rare opportunities. Proud to say I am the only and the last person on youtube to have interviewed the very best original arcade Donkey Kong player in the world and even dubbed “The Retirement Interview,” I’d like to think that there’s a level of unbias trust in speaking with me. I want to chat with my guests, and it is genuine. I am very proud that an upcoming documentary titled Token Taverns: An Arcade Bar Documentary by director Bob Rose will be coming to a streaming service soon, and I was able to provide footage for the film. I shot some stuff with the legendary father of e-sports Walter Day (Twin Galaxies founder), and it ended up in the movie! How cool is that! We promoted it by debuting the trailer at Free Play Florida this past November. The reception was great! So yeah, Very proud of that!
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
I learned during Covid that you must get creative with your content. The desire for people to feed their entertainment sides never goes away, in sickness or health! But the amount you can do is greatly decreased. I had to learn quickly how to interview via Skype or Zoom. I even learned how to do an Instagram live and have it exported to the editor to be turned in a youtube upload. You have to be creative!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://reviewfix.com/author/joshua-onimus/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thevariantnewssource/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VariantNEWS
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/variantnewssrce
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheVariantNEWSSOURCE
Image Credits
Photo Credit: Shawn Kelley.
