The Work That Made Me: Joaquin Machado

Uppercut editor Joaquin Machado is known for his award-winning comedic and quirky spots for top brands and agencies. Joaquin's career started in the vault at Nomad, where he worked his way up to assistant editor. After moving on to cut at HutchCo, he joined Uppercut’s New York team in 2020. Joaquin has worked extensively across markets including San Francisco, New York, Austin and Minneapolis. Working with celebrity talent such as David Hasselhoff, James Harden, and Guy Fieri; Joaquin has edited spots for Gatorade, Toyota, Skippy, King’s Hawaiian, Trolli, Harrah’s, Subaru, EA, among other global brands.

The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…

I grew up in LA watching a lot of surf and skate videos. It’s not an ad or music video, but you know what really stands out to me to this day? Old Looney Tunes cartoons; the sense of comedic timing, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck’s reactions or Wiley Coyote running off a cliff and waiting just long enough before the fall, it’s just timeless humour.

The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…

One of my first jobs in high school was working at a video store so I got to watch a lot of movies.  I found that I really loved old comedies, everything from the Marx brothers and Buster Keaton to Airplane!, Better Off Dead and Blazing Saddles. There are things that didn’t age well, but there’s a lot of it that’s still funny and is always going to be funny.

The creative work that I keep revisiting…

I still listen to a lot of the same music I did in high school, a mix of old punk, ska, reggae and hip-hop. I also find myself revisiting Shel Silverstein’s Where The Sidewalk Ends and A Light In The Attic. I loved the books as a child and have been able to revisit them with my children.  The poems are fun and the illustrations are amazing.

My first professional project…

My first professional project was Denny's ‘Nannerpuss’. It’s still one of my favourite things I’ve done, it’s just ridiculous. I may have peaked early. I was working at Hutchco at the time and Jim Hutchins was doing two Super Bowl spots that year and there were these little 15-second spots that were part of the deal. So, I got to work on it as the assistant editor, along with the junior creatives. If you go on YouTube, there are millions of views and you can still buy Nannerpuss t-shirts.

The piece of work that made me so angry that I vowed to never make anything like *that*…

I’m not a fan of the ‘Red Bull Gives You Wings’ campaign that Red Bull has been doing forever. I don’t know why, but those have always struck a chord with me and I don't like them.  

The piece of work that still makes me jealous…

The Miller ‘Evil Beaver’ commercial! It’s ridiculous. Jim Hutchins cut it and I think it’s the funniest, most ridiculous spot. I love the weird quirky style, the beer, the motorcycles, all of it.

The creative project that changed my career…

‘Nannerpuss’ got me editing. Prior to that, I was solidly an assistant, but it was the first thing I could really use as a reel and it aired right after the Super Bowl, so it got talked about like it was a Super Bowl spot. Not too long after that, I did some web spots for eBay with a bunch of stand-up comedians like Kevin Hart, Sarah Silverman, and Jim Gaffigan. So, then I had these famous comedians on my reel with Nannerpuss.

In a way, Petco also changed my career in that they were my first steady client.  I did some Joe Biden commercials for the last election. But, I keep coming back to comedy and I enjoy it. To me, I think it’s the most fun and it’s very challenging especially in the format of a TV commercial to set up a joke and be able to execute it in such a short amount of time. 

The work that I’m proudest of…

The work I’m proudest of is the spots I’ve done for Trolli, Funner California, and Hint Water. With the Hint spot, I thought it was really funny while being super awkward and uncomfortable, and that's the kind of comedy I like to play with and I love how people in the YouTube comments either really love or really hate it.

The recent project I was involved in that excited me the most…

I did a Toyota ‘New Norms’ spot that recently won Bronze at the Addies, so I’m pretty excited about that. I also did a spot for Affirm where a girl was making a YouTube video with her uncle. We filmed it at the end of last year and it felt like we were tipping that question of ‘are we ready to laugh again?’ coming out of the pandemic.