More men, more problems? Not for Josh Tobin, a neighborhood actor who’s showing audiences the many, many characters who inhabit our dearly treasured McGolrick Park. Shot on location, often on a single bench, Tobin creates and brings to life a variety of histrionic, heartfelt, and hilarious men in bite-sized videos.
The first season took off a few years ago, and now, Tobin — who has appeared on The Other Two and The Gilded Age — is back in the park with new episodes released this week on the YouTube page for Characters Welcome, a long-running and beloved character variety show in New York City. See below for Greenpointers‘ Q&A with Tobin, who calls the series a “love letter” to the local park.
Greenpointers: You’re back for season 2! What did you learn from season 1?
Josh Tobin: We learned that we do in fact love working together and making each other laugh. So we needed to do that again. And I’d say we also learned that there are always more characters to find!
Give us the elevator pitch: what is this show?
More men? Fine. Featured in Vulture’s Funny Videos of the Month and shot on location in McGolrick Park, Men in the Park is a comedic mockumentary-style web series that profiles a menagerie of men in the park as they share their hopes, dreams, and hard-earned wisdom. Is wisdom the right word?
Tell us how filming in McGolrick Park works? Any snafus or highlights?
Filming in McGolrick Park is a treat, I mean it’s a truly gorgeous park with lots of variety. And inevitably we run across real-life characters who are as unique and eccentric as the characters in our show, probably more-so, honestly. One highlight: while filming the Sebastian character (a drunken gourmand who is full of stories and Oreos), an older gentleman approached us who was…dressed exactly like Sebastian, complete with tweed blazer and ascot. He told us this was “a big opportunity for him.” Still not sure what he meant, but we loved it.
What do you think people can look forward to this season?
Folks can look forward to meeting an irrepressible raconteur who trained for the circus, a deeply sensitive and frightened poet, a reformed British gangster with a pug, a rule-following park attendant who loves pigs, and several other marvelous men of McGolrick Park. And hopefully they make you laugh!
You work with neighborhood creators. Has that made the experience extra special?
Working with my fellow Greenpointers makes this project extra special for sure. Our director Desi Domo, our producer Suzanne Lenz, and our director of photography Tom Bean — we all live within a few blocks of each other near McGolrick (our editor Sam Geer splits his time between Texas and Los Angeles, but he’s an honorary Greenpointer now). Making something so close to home was a gift. It’s a love letter to McGolrick and all the folks who are doing their thing out there. We love our neighborhood and I feel grateful that we get to feature it!
Anything else for folks to know?
You can also catch the episodes on Instagram and TikTok: @joshingtobin
