How Joseph's Machines Builds Crazy Contraptions

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[Narrator] For years Joseph Herscher

has been fastidiously building incredibly complex machines

to simplify his life.

They turn newspaper pages for him.

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They cut his hair.

And they serve him cake.

I'm Joseph and I make useless machines.

[Narrator] Of course, utility is in the eye

of the beholder.

It burns a string which releases this hammer

which shoots the asparagus.

[Narrator] But in an age of computer graphics

and slick video editing,

Joseph's single continuous shot videos

of wacky contraptions

stand out for their intricately kinetic lo-fi whimsy.

And is delivered to my open mouth.

Machines are usually designed

to be as efficient as possible

and to then go and make a machine that's super inefficient

and playful, there's something sort of delightful

and absurd about it.

[Narrator] His creations have delighted millions

on his YouTube channel, Joseph's Machines.

The first machine I ever made

was to pour a cup of tea for my roommates

and it would take so long to run

that the tea would be cold.

So that didn't really work

but we filmed it and they put it on YouTube

and that was the one that went viral

and that's how I ended up with this as a career.

[Narrator] Machines often start

with a small personal irritation.

I hate always trying to get the last bit

of ketchup out of the bottle.

So, you know when the sauce gets stuck

at the bottom of the bottle, annoying right?

So, that motivates me, like there's gotta be a better way.

Here we go.

And then I remember one day thinking oh, I know.

If I attach it to a fan

and then spin the fan,

so I made a video for that.

Perfect.

[Narrator] Joseph, who grew up in New Zealand,

was fascinated by problem-solving machines from a young age.

Growing up I had no siblings

and I would spend hours and hours on the floor

of my room making contraptions

and for me that was the best way to spend the day.

On my own, solving problems,

making crazy stuff happen.

I'm so happy that has an adult

I still get to do that.

And I still get to play every day.

[Narrator] Now he's working on his latest contraption.

I'm making a lunchtime feeding machine

so that I can keep working through lunch

without taking a break and get more done.

[Narrator] Here's the plan.

It starts with me doing work as per normal

on my computer and when I pull a handle

it triggers a ball that knocks a Brussels sprout

to start rolling

and that Brussels sprout rolls into my mouth

and then that triggers a hotdog to swing into my mouth

on a pendulum.

There's a bow and arrow that shoots an asparagus spear

into my mouth

and finally, some soup on a tray pours down my throat

and all of this happens without me having

to actually move positions,

so it's very convenient.

[Narrator] But actually making the machines,

not so convenient.

Basically all the food items

are the worse things to work with.

They just terrible for mechanical repetitive actions

'cause they're all slightly different

and as they dry out they start to change,

like the bread dries out,

then it won't bend properly,

then the hotdog bounces out of it.

There's just a myriad, a whole lot of problems

and I tell myself every time,

don't work with food again but then I do it.

I don't know why.

Why?

[Narrator] To make his absurd machines,

Joseph starts with sketches to plan out

how the work in his tiny New York City apartment.

This is me figuring out the exact angles

of the bowl of soup so that when the clock ticks,

it will lift it correctly into my mouth.

[Narrator] Then it's time to find all of the parts.

This is where I buy all my materials

and I live upstairs,

so it's very convenient.

I spend a lot of time foraging for objects

in the neighborhood.

Very time consuming.

If I know I need a certain cup to fit from here to there,

I'll go to every 99 Cents store on my block

of which there's 12

until I find exactly the perfect cup.

Sometimes I'll spend the whole day looking for one object.

[Narrator] Even with the right item,

it takes a lot of time to perfect a machine.

And then I'll build the thing

and that might take, I don't know, a few hours

and then I'll spend days testing it.

That's the longest part.

(clanking)

Trial and error.

(clanking)

(chuckling)

Failure after failure after failure.

[Narrator] Some of those failures are pretty epic.

[Narrator] The page turner was quite stressful.

It boils water

which then steams and goes into a sponge

and the sponge gets heavier

and so, I thought I'd be smart and use acetone

instead of water 'cause it boils much more quickly

'cause no one likes to watch water boil

and I tested that out

and of course acetone is very flammable

and I didn't really think that through

and so it caught fire

and then the sponge caught fire and exploded

and then there was like sponge on fire everywhere

and then the whole machine caught fire.

[Narrator] Even without infernos,

getting a machine to work with clockwork precision

takes a long time.

It usually takes me about a month to make a machine.

It's a time-consuming process.

[Narrator] But the payoff?

Well, just watch for yourself.

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There's the tricky Brussels sprout.

Joseph had to weigh each one

and find the best rolling vegetables.

(clanking)

(rumbling)

Here's the hotdog.

Joseph has to aim the hotdog back to the magnet right here.

it's a bit of human choregraphy

in the midst of the machine.

(banging)

Finally the soup.

(playful music)

It's actually water, food coloring

and a thickening agent which Joseph finds easier

to drink that real soup.

Ah.

[Narrator] And after a hearty meal,

it's back to the drawing board

to come up with the next marvelous machine.