There's not much to say about Joey Johnson other than don't get him wet or feed him after midnight. If you've ever seen him skate, you know that he's incredibly consistant and can rip just about everything. He's also always in a good mood! He's the only dude I've ever seen laughing and joking around while he can barely walk with a rolled ankle. A couple of weeks ago we swooped up Joey and Jabari Pendleton in the blockmobile and turned on the voice recorder. The tale on the tape is typed out below.

48 Blocks: We're riding through your hood which is pretty much the hood. What's it like being a white dude living in Hunters Point?

Joey: It was kind of crazy at first. When I first moved out here I was kind of tripping on riding down the street in the daytime, not to mention night. There's a couple houses between Lane and Keith where there's just hella people out front with their motorcycles and there's a few crack houses that you gotta skate by, but it's cool. After a few times of skating through they just noticed me I guess and nobody has really messed with me. I got a couple plastic bottles thrown at me, that's about it.

48 Blocks: Originally you're from Seattle. When did you move to San Francisco and what brought you down here?

Joey: I moved in December of '06. It was pretty much just the weather, family issues, my girlfriend and I breaking up. I just kind of needed a change, you know what I mean? All my friends out there got fucked up on drugs and I was just ready to bounce.

48 Blocks: You were skating for 35th out there right?

Joey: Yeah.

48 Blocks: Talk about the vibe in Seattle and the whole scene out there.

Joey: Even before I was skating for 35th I was always skating with Lee Lee, that was like my main dude out there he's old school. He's in like old Thrasher videos and shit. I would skate with Minick a little bit whenever that fool was in town and like Brian Stangland. I grew up North outside the city, wherever I was at I would just end up downtown skating Red Square, West Lake, or whatever. I would get out of school and take the bus downtown. 35th was cool. Tony Crogan, the dude that runs it, he's always had my back since I was a little kid. They've had like three different shops, I started going to the first one that was on top of a Jazz record store.

48 Blocks: What was the biggest difference coming to SF and adjusting to the lifestyle?

Joey: I had come down here like three times before I moved here. The first time I came out I was like fourteen or fifteen and then came out a couple more times. It was cool, the weather is always nice. Actually the first week that I moved here I ended up living with York.

48 Blocks: What was it like living with Mike?

Joey: It was pretty fucking awesome, that dude is cool! We would go skate all day and just have hella fun. I got to meet a bunch of people too. He introduced me to everyone.

48 Blocks: Your nickname around your house is The Mogwai, how did that come about?

Joey: Fuck, I don't know. How did that happen Jabari?

Jabari: First we gotta have the definition of a Mogwai. For all you fools out there that don't know what a Mogwai is, watch Gremlins. A Mogwai is what Gizmo is in that movie. The rules for a Mogwai are don't feed them after midnight and don't get them wet or they'll multiply and turn into those crazy Gremlins. In Joey's case, don't get them wet means don't give him any alchohol; that's pretty much what that means. This fool goes to work, then he might be wasted by the time he gets off work then he'll go down to the Mission...he might go wherever, he's not just in the skater scene he's in a bunch of differnent scenes. He'll come home all crazy after midnight. He's cute and cuddly like a Mogwai before midnight, but after midnight he gets to eating and gets wet and turns into a Gremlin! That's how it started, there's been way too many nights when it went down like that.

Joey: Dude, I come home a little drunk and I'll be playing Black Sabbath at like two in the morning trying to wake Reed up while screaming at the top of my lungs. It's pretty hilarious. It's cool though, everyone in the house has their drunken moments. Except for Jabari, he comes home and just falls asleep.

48 Blocks: Jabari can definitely sleep! I remember a couple of summers ago I went out to DC and you ended up being out there skating. Talk about your experience there. Was that your first time skating on the East Coast?

Joey: Skating out there is SO good! I went out there with my girlfriend at the time, she was taking classes at Georgetown. We had a spot at Tenth and O, it was really close to Pulaski. I was just skating around, I wasn't even drinking or anything. I met Frenchy out there and we were just filming everyday. It was cool, I had a lot of fun in DC. I also went to Philadelphia and New York for a little bit; but it was raining the whole time. It was crazy. DC was the shit though, it was hot as fuck. We'd wake up at like 8:00 AM and go get lunch at this little ghetto ass grits and sausage place then go skate Pulaski till like noon. It would get too hot cause it was the summertime. I met Keir and Brian Tucci, we went skating around. It was so fun!

48 Blocks: That's rad, cause you ended up getting on Catalyst which is an East Coast company that's pretty much based out of DC.

Joey: I didn't even really know anything about Catalyst cause I was from the West Coast. I was just kicking it with Keir and he's just straight up one of the nicest dudes. He's just a cool ass dude, you know....you work with him. Anyway, he asked me to ride and I was like "I'm down, let's do this."

48 Blocks: Keir's the man. So Catalyst just happened for you this year and you just dropped that little part in Pandemic. What's your opinion on your part in retrospect.

Joey: When they told me I was gonna have a full part I was super psyched. I was just really trying to go out and film everyday. In San Francisco it seems like it's really hard to motivate filmers. I would hit up like three or four different people and get no call back. Seriously, I feel like I could have done more. All of that footage was like three or four days with different filmers and like four or five tricks were filmed in one day. I just wanted to take advantage of the opportunity when I had it. I felt like I lagged a little. I was always skating regardless, I just wasn't filming everyday. I guess you always feel like you could do better, it's like "fuck it, just focus on the next thing."

48 Blocks: True, so what's up next? You working on anything?

Joey: Yeah, 35th's doing a little video. I want to have some tricks in that. Then Keir's been talking about something. Oh and I want to get some footage for this new video that Leo Valls will have a part in coming out of France. He wants me to have a couple tricks in his part. I'm just trying to skate again, my ankle is still jacked right now. I'll be back on it in another week. I really want to do this French video right now, I've seen all the footage and it's looking super proper.

48 Blocks: Yeah, I think it's that dude Yoan that's filmed a lot of Leo's stuff that people have seen on the site.

Joey: Yeah, that dude is an amazing filmer.

48 Blocks: Jabari, you got anything else to add about Joey?

Jabari: I remember the first time I met this dude, it was at a new spot in the city. I think you found it, remember that ledge on Folsom?

48 Blocks: Oh yeah, I didn't find that...someone told me about.

Jabari: Yeah, we were skating that place hard, everday for awhile. That was the first place I met Joey. It was York and Joey, I think Lee Smith was there that day. I just remember tripping off this fool, like "man, this dude is REALLY good." It was a nice size ledge and he was doing nollie 180 switch 5-0's the hard way. He seemed really nice and humble, just chill. That's why you're not supposed to get your impression of somebody when you first meet them. (laughs) Now I figured out this dude sucks! It's different when you live with somebody. Nah, I'm just kidding. I also wanted to say that if there's any girls out there reading this of the Asian persuasion, holla at Joey. He has yellow fever! (laughs)

Joey: I went out with some Latino girls.

Jabari: Yeah, but we won't even go into that story. (laughs) Oh yeah, this is the number one thing that I wanted to say. I remember this one time I was on my way to the bank when I saw Joey and Tons or maybe it was Nate....somebody from out of town that was couch surfing at the crib. Anyway, these fools skate by and say they're on their way to the Island and I'm like "let's do it." So we go down there and I think Joey was already a little wet....The Gremlin was coming out. There is this thing where all the bikers and roller bladers ride all over town on like the first Friday of every month. They were all down there kicking it with boom boxes and everything and Joey starts talking shit to them.

Joey: No, I just said "why aren't there any skateboarders in the bunch."

Jabari: Yeah, and they were like "they can't keep up."

Joey: I was like, "fuck that!" I was kinda drunk and said, "I'll skate circles around you guys."

Jabari: There was this one dude there and Joey says, "I'll race you right now, I'll put a hundred on it. What!" Dude was like, "nah, I've been smoking and drinking" and Joey was like, "Me too, so it'll be all good." Then dude was like, "I'm also handicaped."

Joey: He didn't look handicaped.

Jabari: I'm gonna keep it real, he was handicaped; but there's different levels of handicaped. I thought he had a steel rod for a leg or something, but he pulled his pants leg up and one leg wasn't as developed as his other leg. Anyway, dude was on roller blades saying "I don't want to race" and Joey's drunk ass was still talking shit! I was trying to pump dude up, like "you got it no problem." Dude was finally like, "alright I'll race you, but not for a hundred dollars." To make a long story short, the drunk, high, and handicaped roller blader beat Joey! They raced from one end of the Island to the other and dude smoked him. To make it worse, Joey tried to take the handicaped dude out by cutting him off!

Joey: I didn't try to take him out! He was behind me and I was trying to go for the corner and I didn't think he was that close behind me.

Jabari: Okay, we both have our opinions but mine is that Joey's a low down dirty rat. (laughs) The funniest thing is that after it was all over we were sitting down and still just chilling with the dude.

Joey: He killed it, he fully beat me.

Jabari: Yeah, then he started bragging! He gets on his cell phone and is like "yeah, I gotta call up my ride." He calls up his ride and we're all still chillin. Then he's like "oh there goes my ride" and points across this street. It ends up being a minivan that comes and picks up handicaped people! (laughs)

48 Blocks: That's hilarious. So other than getting beat by handiman, you got anything else to say?

Joey: Thank you everyone.