Inside Julio Torres' Mind Palace

What does Julio Torres’s office look like?

That’s not a question I typically wonder about writers or comedians. But anyone with even a starter’s knowledge of Torres and his surrealist work would think that his unique comedic voice has to be an extension of wherever he comes up with his fiercely original ideas.

I’m referring to his viral sketches during those days as a writer on Saturday Night Live, like “Papyrus,” in which a man played by Ryan Gosling goes mad thinking about why the logo for the James Cameron extravaganza utilizes the pedestrian everyday font. Or “Wells for Boys,” an ad for a cute toy well for sensitive boys to play with, featuring a protective mother courtesy Emma Stone.

There’s also the quasi-autobiographical A24 movie Problemista he wrote, directed and starred in. Torres plays a toymaker and assistant to an eccentric boss played by Tilda Swinton, as well as the Peabody award-winning series Fantasmas he also created, directed and starred in. That series follows Torres on an absurd adventure across New York City, with healthy doses of puppetry and magic for good measure.

Judging by all that, one could imagine that his office space would be equally original.

So imagine my surprise when one morning, a small bird flew through my window with paper in its mouth, which I unfurled to see a mysterious address. Well, in reality, its location was texted to me by his publicist. Mapping it, I see it’s on an otherwise nondescript street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn: across the street is a pizza place, downstairs is a cafe. I walk in and start making my way up a large flight of grey stairs, round and round for six flights, popping out on the penthouse floor. Of course Torres has a perch overlooking the city.

I knock on the door, he opens it up into his world and we take a seat on a couch to talk about his new Max special Color Theories, creativity and more.

Is this your first office space?

Yeah, it is the first. I’ve been here for a couple of years.

I’m wondering what spurred the decision to get a workspace, and if it was a big moment for you?

I mostly wanted to decorate a place, and I was done with my apartment, so I got an office to do that. And now it's just accumulating clutter, which is fine, I need a spring cleaning moment anyway. But I like coming here to write, and there is something to the multidisciplinary thing that I do. I don't know that it needs office space, but I like having one. I think more of it as a studio. I have been wondering what are more productive, more communal ways of using this space, like using it as a gallery or hosting readings or shows. So I’m thinking about that.

When it comes to your work, I can’t think of many other of your peers who are as prolific as you. Does it feel that way to you?

I always feel like I'm not doing enough. I've always admired those careers where someone directs a movie every other year. So I feel like that is the kind of thing that would excite me. I also definitely feel excited to explore mediums where I'm not at the center of the story.

In the same way, like John Waters or David Lynch, you have such a voice that I don’t think anybody else could create the style of work you’re known for. Like, nobody else could make a John Waters movie but him.

Also, nobody else wants to, which I love. I don’t think it’s a road that people want to go down. I definitely have peers who I’ll see and think, okay, they’re ripping off or are highly influenced by this other person. But I don't think I have that because, because it's like, what will you get out of it?

Who inspired you to be as creative as you are?

My parents definitely had a big hand in that. They always let me think for myself and never prescribed thoughts to me or prescribed a way that I should be. They were always excited by creativity and uniqueness.

Is that who Emma Stone’s mother character in “Wells for Boys” was based on? Is she your mother? I remember when that first came out and so many people responded to it.

In many ways, yes. People really liked that one immediately.

Was it hard early on for people to understand your vision?

At first, it was hard for me to articulate my vision because I was very inexperienced. But I think actually that, because my standup was such a proof of concept, that became a proof of concept for SNL sketches and the SNL sketches became a proof of concept for TV, which became proof of concept for film.

We break for a moment. Torres keeps apologizing for how messy his cavernous single-room space is, but it looks just fine to me. There are multiple tables with stacks of papers and books; a stack of cardboard boxes is by the door. Behind us is a tacked-up work of cutout paper-and-paint collage from the artist Khari Johnson Ricks depicting a body-builder lifting a barbell up to the sky, accented by bright reds and greens under a yellow sun. “I don’t like social media, but I do like discovering artists on it,” said Torres. “I just didn’t want a framed rectangle here. It just shows so much confidence. Also, I’m a gay guy, so to have artwork of working out is not a total stretch.”

Against the wall are two chairs Dr. Seuss would approve of, with extra-extra-long backs that Torres found thrifting. In another corner sits a lamp with a twirling stand which came from Swinton’s character’s office in Problemista. “The production designer just gave it to me, which is great 'cause I was really eyeing it throughout the whole shoot.” Torres and Swinton became close, with the two kindred creative spirits. “I think the reason why she and I clicked is because she has so many ideas and they are outside the box of what she technically does and she’s excited about making things” he told me. “One time in between takes, she was like, ‘You should make a theme park!’ And then it was like, ‘And, action!’ and we never spoke about it again. But I’d love to make a theme park someday. Or, maybe a haunted house that’s not haunted.”

One of Julio’s latest creations is his aforementioned special Color Theories. Much like his debut show My Favorite Shapes, in which he concocted an hour of comedy about just that, he has now shifted his focus to assigning character and personality to colors. In his view “Gold is the color of a person who says 'Do you know who I am?' before they've even finished saying hello.” Silver? “It’s just Grey that has decided to believe in itself.” Meanwhile, “Brown is the color of reliability. It is the color of a cardboard box that contains something you ordered three weeks ago and no longer want.”

I don’t think of you as just a writer or comedian, you're an artist. Even when I’m watching Color Theories I can see all of the paper and cutouts, and assume they were created in this room. You’re known for very unique thinking and zeroing in on otherwise boring topics and bringing them to life. So how did you think of the concept of a show about color?

I don't know why the idea of doing impressions of colors came into my mind, but I started humoring myself by posting them online and that was fun. When I was doing standup, those ideas came back, and then they eventually started taking over the stand-up sets. And then I was like, “Okay, I have enough to weave in an hour of this.”

Do you now think about colors in a completely different way after working on the show? Like were you focused on wearing black today, with green socks?

No, I’m not, but I do think a lot about the intention of colors and how colors are often a mask that was chosen to convey something. I do think that most of the bad things in the world are orchestrated by men wearing suits. The suits have a very efficient job at having the suit communicate intelligence, stability and logic. Someone wears a suit, and you trust them more than someone wearing a t-shirt. And yet, the world is falling apart because of men in suits.

Speaking of black clothing, what about the current uniform that a lot of gay men like to wear now: plain black tees. In your estimation, what does that mean?

The gay black tee is definitely like, in itself, a way of saying, I fit into this world and boy, do I just want to thrive in this world. I don't want to rock the boat. I just want to be seen as an option, and I don't want to think too much about this.

There’s a framed picture on a desk that Torres was gifted by a friend. It’s of Mickey Mouse in 1940’s Fantasia, waving his hands to conjure life into a mop and bucket in a famous scene. “She was like, ‘This is you.’” His friend has a point, considering his world usually involves made-up characters. For his Instagram followers, Torres sometimes posts from the perspective of his ‘assistant,’ Pirulinpinpina. In Fantasmas, there’s an emotional moment involving an furry alien named Melf. And in Color Theories, he has a rascally sidekick robot named Bibo (voiced by Joe Rumrill).

But as silly as it can be, his work also explores deeper subjects. That includes immigration, (Torres was born and raised in El Salvador; Problemista’s plot focuses on him obtaining a green card) and his own sexuality (the last time I saw him was at his annual Halloween party, Cursed Amulet, which raised money for the Black-Trans-led discrimination-fighting charity G.L.I.T.S,). In Color Theories, Julio recounts a story in which, at an earlier show in the Hamptons, an audience member randomly yelled out to call him a “faggot.”

When did you realize you were going to talk about that moment in the special?

I was initially so caught off guard by how much I cared about it, while at the same time trying to think, how much am I projecting into this? I think it was my partner (the actor James Scully) who I called rights after and he said, “You have to do something with this.” Like having the last laugh, sort of.

Have you ever been called that otherwise?

I'm pretty sure, yes. I heard that they were like drunk young men and I definitely don't think they knew what they were coming to see. But the thing that really stayed with me was that I was performing in the Hamptons, which is the most per capita affluent place. I’ve performed for tourists and around Times Square, shitty dive bars with bachelorettes letting loose (and that never happened).

So you’re saying it’s the entitlement?

In the special, I say the Hamptons is where the color Navy Blue goes to relax.

Photography by Ashley Markle
Story by Rob LeDonne
Styling by Angel Emmanuel

Executive Creative Director: Jordan Bradfield
Senior Editor: Joan Summers