Interview with Joe Parisi from The Card Show

By Kelly Reed

Howdy y’all! I want to welcome everyone back for another featured hobby article. This is an ongoing series to showcase and educate our readership regarding the sports card and memorabilia collectibles hobby. This article will take a bit of a turn as we’re going to look at the hobby through the lens of a filmmaker. When I first saw the documentary The Card Show my mind was racing and genuinely wanted to know about the card show process. I don’t want to spoil the contents of the film so that’s all I’ll share. Trust me if you’re reading this article then click on one of the links and check it out. Now let’s meet and get to know the person who made The Card Show happen: Joe Parisi!

Joe, please share a little about yourself and how you got your start in the hobby.
My name is Joe Parisi. I’m a St. Louis-based voice actor, podcast host, professional emcee/announcer and independent filmmaker. Over the years, I’ve made several hundred podcast episodes on various pop culture topics, as well as a few documentary films. I’m passionate about creating fun and interesting content that revolves around topics I personally enjoy. My recent documentary The Card Show  has been making the rounds online, and I’m honored by the incredible response it has been receiving!

My involvement in the card collecting hobby began when I was a kid collecting baseball cards. I grew up in the 80s and 90s, so my introduction to the hobby was during what we now refer to as the “junk wax” era. Living in St. Louis, I primarily collected St. Louis Cardinal players (Ozzie Smith, Willie McGee) but was also a huge Jose Canseco fan as a kid. Around age 10, my dad started taking me to card shows when they would pop up around town, and I always loved seeing all of the incredible stuff on display and meeting players/getting autographs. 

Do you have a favorite card? Set? What makes it your favorite?
I’ll preface this by saying that dollar value has never been what I looked for in collecting.  I’m not a seller or a flipper, I just go after stuff that I think is fun and would like to display. My favorite sports card is the 1989 Fleer Bill Ripken error card, which I have a few versions of. Being a big fan of all things pop culture, I just love how so much mystery still surrounds the story of this card. 

I love the early Upper Deck baseball sets. They came onto the scene with a product that to me was just so far superior.  Beautiful photography, nice glossy cards, even the foil packaging just felt more high-end. They really raised the bar and forced the whole industry to improve.

Personally, I’m a big non-sports card guy. My favorites from my collection are these Breygent Marketing relic cards that I picked up a few years back. One has a piece of the yellow brick road from Wizard of Oz embedded in it, and another has a piece of leather from a boxing glove used by the character “Alfalfa” in a 1937 Our Gang short. I’ve also bought several unlicensed custom cards over the past few years. Several were made by “Jack’s Attic”. I look at that stuff like I’m collecting art more than I’m collecting cards. He recently put out some Domino’s Pizza/horror movie cards and I had to get some. That stuff is right up my alley!  

Do you still collect cards and memorabilia? If so, what are you collecting?
I got away from collecting in my teen and early adult years. What got me back into collecting was when my son started to show an interest in it (maybe 4 years ago). It’s been a ton of fun taking him to card shops and shows and seeing him enjoying the hobby just like I did at his age. As far as cards go, I’m really leaning into pop culture stuff and stuff that is just non-conventional. I recently picked up a Whatnot exclusive autographed Danhausen (wrestler) card, and a John Matuszak game-worn jersey relic card. I’m not much of a football card guy, but John was an NFL player who later played the character “Sloth” in The Goonies. That’s why I went after that. I saw it pop up in an eBay auction and managed to win it. Another recent pickup is a signed 1991 Upper Deck Otis Nixon card. That’s one you don’t see in a lot of collections!

I collect a variety of memorabilia as well. I have been able to acquire a few cool screen used pieces from films.  For example, I have a jersey from the movie Teen Wolf Too (1987) that was worn on screen by Jason Bateman. I have a piece of the porch from the main house in The Goonies, and I have a football jersey from the 1991 movie Necessary Roughness. Most of my collection gravitates toward things I was big into as a kid.  

Let’s talk The Card Show, I really enjoyed your documentary. What motivated you to make it?
What motivates me with all of my documentary projects is that I really love doing “deep dive” research on topics I enjoy, and I love creating art. I look at every film I’ve done and every podcast episode I’ve released as a piece of art. I just love the process of piecing everything together from scratch to tell a story, draw out emotions and entertain people. I get to be an investigator, artist, camera man, video editor and narrator all in one.    

With The Card Show, I got to know the guy who puts on this local card show that I started taking my son to, and realized after a while that he was the same guy that was putting on the shows I was going to as a kid. I was blown away to learn that this particular show is the longest continually operating show in America, and I thought there was a fun and interesting story to be told there. The show promoter (Dave Jackson) was kind enough to give me all of the access I needed to wander around his shows and get footage.

What do you think was/is the biggest challenge to making your own film?
My biggest challenges have come down to access. Do I have access to the footage/photos/interview subjects that I would want to have in order to do this project the way I feel it needs to be done? With The Card Show, I was fortunate in that I basically had full access to whatever I needed. I had a very friendly show promoter who was willing to go on camera, plenty of vendors at the show willing to show off their collections and let me film them, and then the show itself, which I was allowed to spend a full day at with cameras rolling. That was really a best-case scenario situation in terms of access. When access is limited, nobody wants to talk on camera or you can’t find good or usable archival footage, it’s a real challenge for a documentary project.

A perfect example of this is that a few years back I started doing some initial legwork on a documentary I really wanted to make about a now defunct water slide park here in St. Louis that is very memorable. I think people would have loved seeing a documentary about this place and the topic was right in my wheelhouse as I’d spent a lot of fun summer days there as a kid.

What I found was that since it had closed down long before cell phone cameras were a thing, and people in the 80s and 90s typically wouldn’t have taken a camera to a water park (because water would have ruined it), there were very few pictures to be found of the place. After about three months of research, I only found maybe a dozen pictures total and absolutely no video footage. Tons of people remembered going there, but nobody had pictures or video. To top it off, the person who owned the place did not want to participate. The access I needed on a variety of fronts just wasn’t there for me to make the film I wanted to make. So as much as I wanted that film to happen, I decided to move on. Now, anytime I get an idea for one of these projects, the first thing I consider is what sort of access I’ll have. 

Can you share with us one of the surprises or joys with making The Card Show?
I’ve been really surprised by the amount of people who have reached out to compliment the film, who have nothing to do with card collecting. A lot of people just started watching it for some reason and found themselves fascinated with the story and the people involved, and that really brings me a lot of joy! Plus, I got to spend some time hanging with Otis Nixon, which was never something I had on my bingo card. He was a delight! 

What is your next project or film that you are currently working on?
On Friday, July 26, I am releasing my third documentary short of 2024. It’s called One More: The Lucas Lopes Story. This film follows a Brazilian-born professional fighter with a very long career (56 pro fights), as he prepares to come out of retirement and fight one more time. Along with telling the viewer a bit about his story, I wanted to show how there is so much more to martial arts and MMA than fighting. It’s an incredible community, that in Lucas’s case, has been an incredible support system.

The National Sports Collectors Convention aka The National is currently taking place in Cleveland, Ohio. Have you ever been to one? Any desire to go to one?
I’ve never been to The National, but I would love to go sometime! 

For your card collection, which cards would be on your Mount Rushmore of cards?
I’d like an autographed 1989 Fleer Bill Ripken error card for sure. There are some really cool 1959 Fleer Three Stooges cards that I would love to pick up. I’ve never seen one of those autographed… but if that exists it would definitely be on my Mount Rushmore.

When you aren’t making documentaries or collecting cards, what do you like to do with your free time?
I have a wonderful wife and 11-year-old son. Spending time with them is #1. We love to travel. I’m a big fisherman, so you can often find me on the bank of some body of water here in the Midwest. I stay very busy as a voice actor, doing projects for things like commercials, corporate videos, video games, etc.  

I also do a lot of live-event announcing work, which is something I’m very passionate about. I ring announce for Shamrock Fighting Championships, I public address announce for Maryville University hockey and several NCAA D1 sports at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and I host two podcasts which I spend a lot of time on.  Those shows are “America’s Pop Culture Trivia Show” and “The Odd Podcast with Joe Parisi”.

What is the best way our readership can support The Card Show? Do you have any social media channels that we can promote?
You can watch all of my films, including The Card Show and One More: The Lucas Lopes Story on my Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmdIpmZbxqIahhXqd3t0yucyz7qOUlGFe

I’m on Instagram @joeparisivo and my website is www.joeparisivoiceover.com

Thank you! 

Do you have a hobby story or know of someone who would like to be featured in this series? Reach out to Kelly Reed at [email protected] or find us socially on Instagram, X/Twitter, or Facebook.