I know everyone is all busted up over Robin Williams death, but the industry lost another guy that wont get nearly the attention, but was a bigger gut punch to those of us who got to know him or work with him. His name was Joe Viscocil and he was the pyro guy in the industry. If you ever get asked who blew up the Death Star in Star Wars, the answer wasnt Luke Skywalker, it was Joe Viscocil. His zero-G explosions set the standard for all onscreen explosions since. He also did nearly every James Cameron movie including the Terminator movies, Aliens and True Lies. He also famously destroyed the White House and just about every other major world landmark in Independence Day and numerous other movies. I got to meet Joe working on this little TV show called Ultraman (it never aired in the U.S. and isnt the Australian or Japanese version). To this day, working on that show was one of the greatest things in my life that I ever got to be a part of and loved the people I worked with on that show, well not like family, but more than family. Joey Jo-Jo was one of those guys. He loved that I was a movie geek and worshiped him. Whenever I was on set, I always made it a point to hangout with Joe and his assistant Emmet in the pyro truck. He never bored of telling me great behind the stories about Cameron, Schwarzenegger and George Lucas (who he hated with a passion). He also let me play, yes play, with squibs, explosives and the flame thrower from True Lies that Joe nearly killed Arnold with. He also insisted on me operating the camera when we spent an evening shooting zero-G explosions and watching my life flash before my very young eyes with each blast. It was great. Im gonna miss the Hell out of you, Joe. imdb/name/nm0899670/
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 00:58:11 +0000
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