Madea Men

Under normal circumstances,  a Madea movie would not catch my attention. That changed when I saw the trailer for “Madea’s Witness Protection” as I waited to see “Men In Black III” recently. My friend Jeff Joslin appears on screen 28 seconds in to the trailer.

Jeff was the driving force behind “Fish Bait: The Movie,” in which my character gets eaten by a giant catfish. In the time since then, he’s appeared in several projects. He moved from New York to Los Angeles to pursue more acting roles.

I posted a congratulatory message about the Madea trailer on Jeff’s Facebook wall. About a week ago, he contacted me with news of his plans to attend a screening in Knoxville with family and friends on Saturday, June 30. They’re going to the 3:40 p.m. show at Regal Pinnacle Stadium 18. After the movie, they’re going to celebrate at Roger’s Place, 8807 Kingston Pike, in the Rothchild shopping center. Jeff has asked attendees to bring a donation of school supplies for Water Angel Ministries.

“Madea’s Witness Protection” was filmed in Atlanta. Jeff shot his scenes on location at the Federal Building. He said he was impressed by how efficient Tyler Perry is as a filmmaker. His shooting days started promptly at 8:30 a.m. and were done by the afternoon. Perry shoots multiple TV episodes in less time than it takes for a network show to shoot one episode.

When Jeff got the audition, he quickly went to Amazon Instant Video and watched several Madea movies. He likes that they have a good message and can make you laugh and cry and then laugh again.