In Defense of Ska Ep. 24: Nick LaVallee (Wicked Joyful)

Many of us collected action figures as kids. And guess what, it’s OK to keep on collecting them, especially if you’re buying the offbeat variety that you can't find at Toys r us: Chris Farley and Patrick Swayze’s Chippendales dancers. Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo, Will Forte’s SNL character Macgruber, or Bill Burr’s Star Wars character, but with a heavy emphasis on his Boston accent (Wicked Awesome!) These unique and creative custom action figures are the work of Nick LaVallee (Wicked Joyful). They are awesome! Some even go to absurd lengths, like Eminem’s “Mom’s Spaghetti.”

On this episode of In Defense of Ska, Nick walks us through his life as a ska musician turned comedian turned custom one-of-a-kind toy designer. Wicked Joyful has gotten a lot of attention in the past year, with several celebrities purchasing or even specifically requesting Nick’s figures. If you follow him on Instagram, you can easily see why. We also talk about his weird contribution to the Big D and the Kids Table universe, how he got Adam to start wearing shirts that were too tight, and what pro-ska joke he used to tell on stage back when he did comedy. 

If you’d like to support us and listen to early access, ad-free episodes with bonus content, check out our Patreon! 

If you like our theme song, go download the EP Lives by Slow Gherkin. They wrote the opening and closing songs for our podcast. You can get both tunes from their Lives EP. Also, check out Dan P and the Bricks two LPs. They provided the mid-roll ad transition music. 

Support the In Defense host Aaron Carnes by purchasing a copy of his book, In Defense of Ska. The 2nd, expanded edition of In Defense of Ska will release in Oct 2024. 

Co-host Adam Davis has a band called Omnigone. Their latest record, Against The Rest released on March 31, 2023. 

The In Defense of Ska editor Chris Reeves runs a record label called Ska Punk International. They have new releases coming out all the time.