Candidate for
United States Representative; District 51

DAVID LEE JOY, The Candidate

Born: March 13, 1970 in Newport, Rhode Island Religion: Catholic Marital Status: Single, no children High School: Poway High School (1988 graduate) College: California State University, Fullerton BA/Communications (January 1994)

Professional Career: Business Owner and Founder of All Star Media (since August 1996), http://www.allstartapes.com

Family: Father: Capt. Ernest H. Joy II (Retired-USN) currently lives in Melbourne, Florida with wife, Ellie Joy Mother: Linda Knight Joy currently lives in N. Las Vegas, Nevada Sister: Wendi Kristin Joy currently lives in San Diego with step sister, Andrea Eekout.

Volunteer Duty:
-Charles Chenowith Foundation (provides fun activities and transportation for developmentally disabled)
-Special Delivery (founded by Ruth Hendrix, delivers meals to low income residents)
-San Diego Reads (founded by Scott Haimowitz, visiting elementary schools and reading books aloud to the students in the classroom)
-Hispanic Caregiver Conference (every August since 2000 with Frances Martinez Goodrich from UCSD Alzheimer's Disease Research Clinic)
-Latino Business Owners of America (David Sanchez, CEO)

Meet the Candidate, David Lee Joy

The Early Years

I was born on Friday the 13th, March 1970 in the little white Naval hospital right on the beach, next to the Atlantic Ocean and underneath the Newport Bridge in Newport, Rhode Island. My parents met while they were students at Old Dominion University in Virginia Beach, Virginia. I have a younger sister who was born in August of 1971 after we had moved to Charleston, South Carolina.

My father, Capt. Ernest H. Joy II (Retired-USN) served thirty-three plus years in the United States Navy and he had a very successful career, serving as captain of several US Naval ships. I witnessed my dad on those ships commanding thousands of men at a time, and to see him leading his officers and sailors on a common mission was truly remarkable. My dad was able to work hard and provide for a good, middle class upbringing for our family. My mother, Linda Knight Joy, watched my sister and I and worked hard in her own right, she inspires me every day to this day.

My family lived in six different places before I turned five years old--Rhode Island, South Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey, Guam and Florida--such is life as a Navy brat. In 1975 we moved to Burke, Virginia in Fairfax County, thirty miles southwest of Washington, D.C. My sister and I started school at Kings Glen Elementary and my dad worked in Washington at the Pentagon.

We had a great education at Kings Glen and my grade school class was lucky enough to take frequent field trips each month into Washington DC to see the history and the workings of our Federal Government. My mom helped organize and supervise the field trips for our class, as we visited all of the Smithsonian Museums, the United States Capitol, The White House, the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, the local Civil War battlefields and Mount Vernon (home of our First President, George Washington). The field trips were a great experience and such a great way to learn about history, it made reading the history books in Virginia school and school in California that much easier, fun and familiar.

Going to California

My dad accepted duty as Captain of the USS Schenectady in San Diego so in the Fall of 1978 my family, with our dog cocoa, drove across country from Virginia to California in our blue station wagon and our green chevy impala. My favorite part of the trip was stopping in at Boot Hill in Dodge City, Kansas, http://www.boothill.org, and seeing the history of the Old West and all of the old cowboy gear and memorabilia.

We arrived in Poway, California, "The City in the Country," in November 1978, although Poway was still unincorporated at the time. There were horses everywhere and it was weird to see people riding on horseback down Community Road, it felt like going back in time, almost like being a cowboy at Boot Hill. In fact, there were more horses/horse owners per capita in that town of Poway than in any other town or city in the United States.

My parents chose Poway as our home because of the reputation of the Poway Unified School District as one of the best in all of California. My sister and I were blessed to grow up in a school district with so many resources, teachers and help available anytime we needed assistance or help with our studies. That type of school district should serve as a model for all of our schools.

My parents were great role models, they were open minded, fun loving individuals, and they taught my sister and I rules and principles, among them: the value of honesty and hard work, the value of living within your means and not overspending, and the value of taking personal responsibility for your own actions. Our parents taught my sister and I to treat everyone we met equally and with respect, or as my mom would say, "Treat others the way you expect others to treat you." Not only did my sister and I practice these simple rules and principles, but I was able to apply the rules and principles to developing my own successful business. When the time comes, I expect to raise my children with the same care, guidance and discipline that my parents raised me and my sister.

College and Stand Up

Our high school, Poway High, was nicknamed "The Titans" and I chose to be a Titan in college upon being accepted to California State University, Fullerton (CSUF). CSUF was founded in 1957 and is home to twelve National Championships, including four NCAA College World Series Championships in Baseball, a remarkable achievement. I am proud to be a Cal State Fullerton alum.

CSUF provided a great education as I studied TV and Film (Communications), and being only 38 miles south of Hollywood I was able to land a job at KTLA Channel 5 on Sunset Boulevard. KTLA was the home where Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Steve Martin, Bob Hope and many others got their start in TV and comedy in Los Angeles. My job at KTLA was a great experience as I learned the TV trade and wrote stories for the News at 10 TV newscast. It was a thrill to get the TV ratings chart, posted on the wall of the news station, and learn that 800,000 homes were watching the newscast and hearing my stories on the newscast on any given night.

CSUF is a great business school and all of the TV-Film classes were taught from a business standpoint, for example how to produce a film and make a successful production within a budget. The most famous alum of CSUF is Kevin Costner, who studied business at Fullerton and then went into the movies, film. I studied film at Fullerton, and ended up in business, guess I should have studied business.

During my last two years of college, and the proximity to Hollywood, I took the advice of some college buddies and tried my hand at stand up comedy. I performed stand up comedy at many of the clubs in Hollywood, Los Angeles, and San Diego, including the world famous Comedy Store on Sunset Boulevard (the Fenway Park of comedy clubs). Performing stand up comedy in LA is difficult, the crowds always heckle you and they talk during your set, and if you can get a laugh out of an LA audience, then you can accomplish anything.

Stand up was a high, getting up on stage in a dark night club in the middle of the night and making people laugh, when it worked, was a great feeling. To this day, one of the most amazing feelings in the world is telling a joke and hearing 150-plus people all laugh at you at the same time, it knocks the wind out of you, literally. I met so many of the greats in the comedy world including Chris Rock, Rodney Danderfield, Bob Saget, Paul Rodriguez, many of whom gave encouragement for me to continue. But I was not a great stand up comedian and I gave up my stand up life within a year of graduating from college, four years of stand up comedy was enough and when I stopped doing comedy, my sense of humor actually came back.

The Real World

At the age of 26, in August of 1996 I founded All Star Media, http://www.allstartapes.com. I was living in a 450 square foot studio apartment in Pacific Beach, one mile from the beach, and I was determined to work hard and accomplish my goal of owning and operating a successful business, providing a great service for tens of thousands of clients and customers each year. Twelve years of success later, I have accomplished that goal more than I ever thought I would, and it is a tremendous feeling of accomplishment. And I no longer live in that studio apartment, although there are times in the summer when it gets so hot out here in the east county of San Diego that I still wish I lived at the beach.

All Star Media provides multimedia cds, video dvds and video/audio web casting of conferences and events for clients in the United States and abroad. I love my job, every day is a different day as I travel all around the country providing a great media service. I meet thousands of people each month, get to learn about a variety of different industries and work with such a diverse group of professionals, and I make a very comfortable living doing what I love to do, my passion. I am blessed to have started my own company and get such great fulfillment out of my profession, and I encourage everyone I meet who has not done so, to start a business and go with their passion, become self-sufficient and control your own destiny.