EMT Justin Tsai gains more fans of his own

And to think, we knew him when!

Congratulations to Justin G. Tsai, NREMT, BSN, “EMT to the Stars,” whose Paramus-based Tsai Mobile Health LLC has now been profiled in “EMSWorld.”

Of course, we wrote about him first, both in his work with the Washington Township Volunteer Ambulance Corps and later with the growing success of Tsai Mobile Health, which provides EMS coverage for major film, television, and live productions.

(See “Serious A-list adventures with local EMT Justin G. Tsai,” Sept. 5, 2022.)

Tsai told “EMSWorld” for its March 6 feature on him, “If anyone had gone up to teenaged me and told me that, in less than 10 years, my EMT career would bring me from my humble beginnings in small-town Washington Township to being invited to attend private parties with the likes of Matt Rogers [“Have You Heard of Christmas,” “Las Culturistas,” “Fire Island”], Doron Max Hagay [director, “Saturday Night Live”], Bowen Yang [host, “Las Culturistas”], and Meghann Fahy [actress, “White Lotus,” “Chicago Fire,” “Law and Order,” “Blue Bloods”], I would have been in disbelief!”

The publication said, “Even before establishing Tsai Mobile Health, Tsai had been providing EMT services to commercial shoots and modeling shows for clients such as Cadillac, International Womanʼs Day, Maybelline, and Red Lobster. However, his big break into the A-list world didnʼt come until February 2021, six months after he had founded Tsai Mobile Health and had been working full time with Washington Township.”

Tsai said his first celebrity gig was working the pilot episode of “Pause with Sam Jay” for a week in various New York locations for HBO. “I got it because my name was already listed on a website for industry insiders. Someone from the show saw my credentials and felt I was the right person for the job.”

As the feature notes “The life of a celebrity EMT isnʼt all fun on set, selfies and parties.”

Tsai said, “On one occasion during a shoot for a rural countryside movie, our main actor reached into a bag—not realizing there was an open knife inside. That knife sliced our actor down the middle of his finger through an artery, causing a bleed that could not be stopped until we got to the emergency department.”

Tsai treated a similar serious injury during the Sam Jay show. “Finger lacerations—not so much against paper but against sharp blades and scissors—seem to be a common theme across several shows that I worked on,” he said.

Highlights from the feature

• On how he gets jobs: “In some ways this is a legit trade secret. As far as how I first got myself into the industry, I was noticed by a producer who thought I had the skills and potential to succeed here, so he recruited me. I originally served on food commercials and quickly expanded into other forms of commercials as well as some modeling gigs, all thanks to a small group of clients who passed my name around.”

• On marketing: “I learned how to make my own portfolio and hired a graphic design artist to improve the advertising. I worked my way up to getting invited to … online forums in which I could use my portfolio to network to producers, directors, showrunners, project organizers, celebrities, and their representatives.”

• On growing the business: By the summer of 2021 “not only was I picking up more clients and their projects through my advertising, but my company received a large boost from positive word-of-

Pascack Valley

mouth referrals amongst various clients, as well as a number of repeat clients who asked me to return over and over again for one project after another.”

Tsai can be reached at https://linktr.ee/justingtsai

—Staff report