Joey Bigio joined The Gang in 2003 after teaming up with Mike Paprocki and Tyler Ventura at UIC. As the group slowly became more production-oriented, Joey rounded out The Gang's new core membership, eventually taking on the role of director.

Contents 1 Before The Gang 2 UIC 3 Outside The Gang 4 As a Character 4.1 In The Gangverse 4.2 In UIC Adventures 4.3 In Viral Video 5 Filmography 5.1 Shenmue II: The Gang Edition 5.2 Doin' Stuff 4: The College Years 5.3 The Gang Wars 5.4 Doin' Stuff 5: Hoopin' and a Doppin' 5.5 Shenmue III: The Gang Edition 5.6 Viral Video 5.7 Doin' Stuff 6: The Final Countdown 5.8 The Final Jerkoff 5.9 Oh, Video! Vol. 1 5.10 Day Wulfe 5.11 UIC Adventures (Voice Credits) 6 Links

Before The GangEdit

UICEdit

Beginning his freshman year at UIC in 2003, Joey found himself in a sculpture class with fellow film major Mike Paprocki. When the opportunity to produce a video for the class presented itself, Joey was approached by Mike to collaborate on the project along with their other friends, Han Huynh and Charlie Jaimes. The result of this collaboration led to the UIC Gang's first video, The Jerksquad, and later its sequel. Since Joey and the others hadn't officially been inducted into The Gang at this point, Mike added "Jerkass Productions" to the credits, using Joey's face as the logo.

In his second semester at UIC. Joey once again found himself in class with Mike and his other new friends, Tyler Ventura and Eric Weber. As they started working on actual production projects for Cooper Battersby's time-based media class, they slowly began appearing in and helping with each other's projects. At the same time, a friendly rivalry was developing between Mike, Tyler and Joey, which was epitomized in Joey's audio project about a loser named "Mister Person," who just happened to have the same initials as "Mike Paprocki." Having solidified their group, the trio decided to continue coordinating their classes together as they proceeded further into the Moving Image program.

In the summer of 2004, Joey was given a minor role as Zhang in Shenmue II: TGE, giving him his first exposure to a full-on Gang production. After a semester of general education classes, Joey, Mike and Tyler had their first encounter with Jennifer Montgomery, who would be teaching their first video production class for the spring of 2005. Their spirits, which had been eager to start producing work for class, were quickly crushed by Jen's focus on experimental and avant-garde video art. Even worse was the attitudes of their classmates, who had a similar distaste for The Gang's Hollywood comedy style. Joey's first video, about a giant baby born in Brazil, prompted the infamous comment in a fellow student's critique: "I think you need to actually BE funny in order to make funny videos."

Somewhat disgruntled by this reaction, Joey and the others would struggle to find their place in the class. Joey found some success with his text project, "Inner Thoughts," but the grand plans for his final project, "Tell Tale," came up short. Looking to wash away the stench of failure from Jennifer's class, The Gang went on to produce a new original movie, The Gang Wars, in the summer of 2005. Joey was given a much bigger role, and stole the show in one of the movie's most memorable scenes where he reveals his mastery of "Booshe Fighting."

With Montgomery's class little more than a bad memory, The Gang retook Video I in the Fall of 2005 with Jennifer Reeder. The class was almost the complete opposite of their previous experience, and The Gang's confidence grew with each project. Joey produced a number of classic videos for the class, including "Sweet Dreams" and "The Only Hero," in which he finally brought Mike and Tyler back into the mix.

An extremely confident Gang would have to face Jen Montgomery once again for Video II in the Spring of 2006. Struck by an extreme bout of laziness, Joey would waste 3 of his 4 projects by safely crapping out some art videos. At his worst, he even attempted to disassociate himself from Mike and Tyler when Tyler's "Juggernaut" video came under heavy criticism. This led to some tension between them for a time, but Joey continued to at least appear in Mike & Tyler's projects.

Despite Joey's lack of effort in class, Mike had enough confidence to name Joey as the 2nd Unit Director of Shenmue III: TGE for the Summer of 2006. His main contribution was choreographing and shooting the final fight scene between Ryo and Lan Di for the film's climax. Due to the absence of Eric Pietkiewicz, Joey also had to step into the supporting role of Master Chen at the last minute.

Moving into advanced film production classes under the guidance of Ben Russell, The Gang decided to truly solidify their position as a group by joining forces to collaborate on all their projects rather than simply helping each other on individual projects. It was at this point that Joey fell into his role as director (with Tyler writing and Mike editing). Out of this system would come several classic projects, including "Raiders of the Lost Degrees" and "A Trip to Europa."

Carrying the success of their collaborative efforts into their graduating year, The Gang embarked on "Viral Video" for the first part of their senior thesis. Joey once again doubled as director and actor for the project, which was a tremendous success on-campus. For their final semester in the Fall of 2007, Joey took the helm as director one last time for "The Final Jerkoff."

Outside The GangEdit

Following The Gang's graduation in the spring of 2008, Joey begang working as a production assistant on the Judge Mathis Show. That same summer, he moved to Oak Park and got an apartment with Mike. While still an active member of The Gang, Joey has taken a less active role in their latest productions - contributing as an actor and cameraman when necessary. He has, however, taken up a renewed interest in visual fx work, and recently started doing After Effects work on some of The Gang's "Oh, Video!" shorts.

As a CharacterEdit

Like most of The Gang, Joey often portrays himself in the movies.

In The GangverseEdit

As shown in DS5's "Orientation" flashback, Joey first joined The Gang when he stumbled into Mike & Tyler's freshman orientation group at UIC. In the chaos and confusion of orientation, Joey would quickly develop a competitive rivalry with his new friends, especially Mike. Joey would round out the lame superhero group, "The Jerksquad," in which he wielded the utterly worthless "Kissing Booth of Love." He would still be a member of the group in the year 2070, and he sacrificed his life saving Mike (who he thought was Han) from Dr. Fiend. Unfortunately, he was still alive after the battle. In contrast to his rivalry with Mike, Joey would take on a mentoring role towards Tyler as the "Jerkmaster," teaching him the ways of assholery. As shown in DS4, Joey somewhat mindlessly works his way through his first two years at UIC while preoccupied with thoughts of sex, Jessica Alba, and the Matrix movies. In "Tell Tale," Joey finds himself plagued by echoes of his own past, and eventually discovers that he's actually dead. Or something.

Later that summer, Joey would join Tyler, Kelly Perry, and Eric Pietkiewicz in answering a distress call from Mike and Terry, who had been captured by the Council of Elders. Joey led the charge into the Elders' UIC hq with his "booshe fighting" techniques and escaped with the rest of The Gang moments before the building exploded. Following the excitement of the Gang Wars incident, Joey returned to his banal existance as a sophomore at UIC, facing such trials as his clogged dormroom toilet, being sucked into the world of video, and oversleeping for important exams - all the while dreaming of becoming his future self, Joey 2Cool (a world-famous and filthy rich movie producer). For the moment, he had to settle with getting better critiques on his art projects than Mike or Tyler. After a period of reclusiveness, Joey emerged to confess to the world his love of bad entertainment.

Anxious to graduate, Joey and the others are sent on a wild goose chase by the Council of Elders to earn their film degrees. Joey is faced with a choice between claiming his degree or partying with a bunch of 16-year old hookers. He manages to choose his degree, remembering that the other choice had only led him into trouble in the past. However, the entire scheme was a rouse by the Council to cause the group to miss their advising session. With no idea of what classes to take, Joey bungled his way through his senior year with Mike and Tyler. Along the way, he would take a trip to Europa (and inadvertantly help foil another of the Elders' outlandish schemes) and accidentally kill a monster that turned out to be Tyler.

Along with Mike and Tyler, Joey's spirits had been almost completely drained by the time they were preparing to graduate. Tensions rose during the production of their senior thesis, "Viral Video," and the group started to collapse on itself. The final product was so bad that Joey and the others were expelled from UIC without receiving their film degrees. While Mike and Tyler went their separate ways, Joey managed to reapply to UIC's undergraduate program and tried to make it as a video artist. A year later, he hadn't progressed very far when Tyler, Mike and Terry Mulrenin showed up to recruit him onto Stalker Dude's "Shenmue IV" project. Joey refused to work with his former colleagues again, and retreated to his beer-filled apartment. While reminiscing about the good times, Joey went into a drunken rage as he tried to come to grips with his conflicting emotions. This would leave him vulnerable enough to be captured by Stalker Dude as bait to lure the rest of The Gang back to his hideout. Joey was rescued, but not before being forced to endure playing the original Shenmue for Dreamcast. Joey would help defeat Stalker Dude once and for all. Having finally reunited with his friends, Joey participated in the release of Shenmue IV and recieved his honorary film degree from the Council of Elders at the film's premiere.

Following his graduation from UIC, Joey and his former rival Mike would join forces and get an apartment together in Oak Park. Though most of their rivalry had been settled, they would still need to adjust to living with each other - which was not easy to do with the ghost of Detective Otto Royben haunting their apartment (though many of their friends suspected an underlying sexual frustration as the reason for their bickering). As time goes on, Joey and Mike continue to share a friendly, if somewhat antagonistic, living relationship.

In UIC AdventuresEdit

In the UIC Adventures universe, the character of Joey is again based pretty much off the real thing, but with subtle differences due to the more fantastic nature of the series. Joey attends the same freshman orientation as Mike, Tyler and Eric, but is in another group with Han and avoids being trapped at Club Inferno. It is not until classes begin that Joey meets the other jerks. Finding that Mike and Tyler are Moving Image students as well, he joins the group (much to Tyler's chagrin). He is instrumental in defeating Cheyanne Medina when he reveals her schyzophrenic personality.

In Cultrural Geography Class, he quickly falls in love with Julie, the girl sitting next to him in lecture. Their passionate relationship is cut tragically short when Professor Davis unleashes his Aggregator machine on the campus, turning Julie into a monster. Joey has no choice but to kill her, and even though the Jerks are eventually victorious against Davis, Joey is deeply affected by the death of his lover.

In Viral VideoEdit

Though still playing himself, Joey's character is radically different in the story of Viral Video. In this alternate universe, Joey had been friends with Tyler and Mike for years, and together they had made loads of outrageously stupid viral videos. Upon reaching UIC, Joey and the others were brainwashed into becoming video artists by the Council of Elders in an effort to suppress the radical ideas put forth in their videos.

As a video artist, Joey focuses on the medium's ability to turn even the most common everyday occurences (like taking a crap) into bold performance pieces. However, about a year after their brainwashing, Joey and the others are contacted by the mysterious Terry, who reveals their forgotten past. Joey is reluctant to believe his story until Terry leaks one of their old viral videos to the world. Though overly skeptical of the whole situation, Joey is convinced to give Terry a chance once the Council of Elders begins hunting the students.

After Terry's training fails to restore their lost sense of humor, Mike, Tyler and Joey decide to infiltrate the Council's laboratories in an effort to regain their lost memories. They are confronted by Rex, the Elder's chief of security, who destroys the disc containing their memories and easily defeats them in battle. However, when their lives flash before their eyes, their memories are restored, allowing them to once more tap into their Power Realities and defeat Rex. With his memories and friendships restored, Joey joined with Tyler, Mike and Terry to continue fighting the Council of Elders from within the system of UIC's Art Department.

FilmographyEdit

Presented here is a complete listing of the characters Joey has portrayed in each of The Gang's movies.

Shenmue II: The Gang EditionEdit

• Zhang
• Thug

Doin' Stuff 4: The College YearsEdit

• Himself

  

• The Jerkmaster
• Sweet Tooth
• Chip Stevens
• Nate Crawford
• Francisca Santos
• Big Ears

The Gang WarsEdit

• Himself

Doin' Stuff 5: Hoopin' and a Doppin'Edit

• Himself

  

• Barry Burton
• Chip Stevens

Shenmue III: The Gang EditionEdit

• Master Chen
• Thug

Viral VideoEdit

• Himself

Doin' Stuff 6: The Final CountdownEdit

• Himself

  

• The Color Theorist
• Dr. Calen Schriem
• Student Organization Recruiter

The Final JerkoffEdit

• Himself

Oh, Video! Vol. 1Edit

• Himself
• Dr. Calen Schriem
• Booshe Fighter #1

  

• The Vampire's Assistant Guy

Day WulfeEdit

• Old Man

UIC Adventures (Voice Credits)Edit

• Himself
• Brandon

LinksEdit

• The Official Website of The Gang
• Joey on Facebook