CAMDEN — This is the story about a girl who made up her mind to be a comedian some day and then went out and did it. A former Midcoast resident, she flew in this week from Los Angeles to hang out in Camden for the Camden International Film Festival before she takes off on a three-month comedy tour.

But let’s back up. Josia (pronounced Jo-see-ya) Elliott was living in Camden in 2011 with her then-boyfriend, Justin Stroup, and bartending at Cappy’s Chowder House. Like a lot of 20-somethings, while slinging beers she was dreaming of what she wanted to do with her life. One summer day, she and Justin were goofing around, imagining an animated cartoon idea with one of their friends, Blake Trenholm, a waiter at Cappy’s, about what Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Mr. and Mrs. Claus would be like in the off-season. Josia and Justin saw Rudolph as this dysfunctional child star, “kind of Corey Feldman meets The Dude from the movie The Big Lebowski,” she said.  And they pictured the Clauses to have bumps in their marriage.

“It wasn’t the Rockwell portrayal,” she said. “Mrs. Claus is a woman who never reached her potential and she is now overcompensating by getting Botox, losing the weight and wants to re-brand herself as the new face of Christmas.”

As they talked about it more, Blake, a caricature artist who attended Full Sail University, began sketching out the characters on paper. And suddenly, an animated cartoon series called Northern Tights was born, just waiting to be pitched to a TV producer.

Around this same time, Josia thought to herself: I could make it out in L.A. I could be a comedian and work the comedy circuit.

Despite having little-to-no experience (with the exception of one five-minute improv set she’d done at a bar several years earlier), she made a plan. She was going to quit her job at Cappy’s and move to L.A. Her first move was getting in with an exclusive bar there. Then, as a bartender, she used her natural ability to connect with people and networked with industry insiders.

“I started meeting people very similar to myself and they were moving forward with creative projects and TV shows, and I thought, ‘I could do this, too,’” she said.

While at CIFF this past week, Josia was busy setting up tour dates and coordinating with Justin and Blake on getting the Northern Tights series in front of producers. It was just green-lighted this week.

“I’m pushing for online distribution of the show because I think that’s how people want to consume content now,” she said. “Because it's online, I’m keeping it about three-minute episodes. No one my age can pay attention for longer than that, anyway.”

Right after our interview, Josia had an appointment with L.A. voice actors to call in on Skype and work with Justin and Blake as they recorded the voices for the script of Northern Tights.

She’ll be leaving in a few days for the rest of her comedy tour.

“I’ve always been creative, painfully so,” she said. “What I love about Maine and why I keep coming back every year is that the culture here is very creative and whimsical. They love sea stories and folklore and legends.”

Since the age of 21 she’s been collecting comic bits and stories on bar napkins and notebooks and a lot of this material has ended up in her act. She was able to make this her full-time career as of last year.

“I'm not rolling in the dough, but I'm a working comedian... And that's pretty sweet,” she said. She describes her act as mostly observational humor. “I talk a lot about relationships, kind of a little insult-y and a little dirty. I have been banned for being ‘too vulgar,’ which makes me feel like I’m on the right track,” she said, smiling.

Recently, she was part of a professionally taped show called “Drunk Comedians Gaming,” in which she got together with some popular comedians such as Sam Brown from TV sketch comedy show, The Whitest Kids U’ Know. “We just got drunk and played video games and it was pretty funny. We’re looking at the footage Monday or Tuesday and again, we plan to release this online through our official YouTube channel.”

Pretty soon, she’ll fly out to kick off the tour in Montana, then do a few sets in Wyoming, where she grew up, then head out to Colorado and end up in Washington and Oregon before getting back to L.A.

As to where all of this comedic content is going to end up, she takes a laissez faire approach. “You know, people always ask what’s your end game? I honestly just want to be undeniably good at what i do, and build online content.”

You can keep tabs on Josia through her website, josiaelliott.com

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com