Our guest, Danny Johnson, embodies the essence of clean, relatable comedy, having dedicated nearly two decades to the art of making people laugh while maintaining a sincere and genuine approach. Throughout his illustrious career, he has traversed the nation, performing at various venues including clubs, churches, and corporate events, where he draws upon his personal experiences with mental health challenges and physical struggles to craft humor that resonates deeply with audiences. His profound desire to momentarily alleviate the burdens of life for others underscores the heartfelt nature of his comedy. Danny's performances have garnered comparisons to iconic comedians such as Jerry Seinfeld and Kevin James, showcasing his exceptional writing skills, impeccable timing, and memorable facial expressions. As we engage in a revealing conversation, we explore the intricacies of maintaining a clean comedic style and the unique challenges that accompany it, all while celebrating the joy of laughter and connection within the audience. The podcast features an enlightening dialogue with Danny Johnson, a seasoned comedian renowned for his clean and relatable humor. With nearly two decades of experience, Danny has traveled extensively, showcasing his comedic talents in diverse venues, including clubs, churches, and corporate events. His humor is deeply rooted in his own experiences, encompassing struggles with mental health and the quest for self-improvement, which resonates profoundly with audiences seeking genuine and uplifting entertainment. Throughout the conversation, we explore the essence of clean comedy, the challenges and joys of making people laugh in a wholesome manner, and the significance of connection between the comedian and the audience. Danny's approach to comedy is not merely about eliciting laughter; it is about creating a shared moment of respite from the troubles of daily life. He emphasizes the responsibility comedians have to their audiences, especially when performing in environments where expectations for clean content are paramount. The episode not only highlights Danny's impressive career and notable performances but also delves into the nuances of crafting jokes that are both funny and appropriate, offering insights into the art of stand-up comedy that is both entertaining and thought-provoking.

Takeaways:

1. The podcast features Danny Johnson, a comedian renowned for his clean and relatable humor, accumulated over nearly two decades.
2. Johnson's comedy draws inspiration from his personal struggles with mental health, offering audiences a momentary escape from their own troubles.
3. He has performed at a variety of venues, including clubs, churches, and corporate events, showcasing his versatility as a clean comedian.
4. The discussion highlights the challenges of maintaining audience engagement, particularly in environments not solely focused on comedy, such as bars or casinos.
5. Johnson emphasizes the importance of building a connection with the audience to enhance their experience during performances.
6. The episode also touches upon the evolution of comedy in the age of social media, where content creators often leverage their online following to transition into live performances.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. dannyjohnson.com
2. youtube.com
3. apple.com
4. amazon.com
5. peacock.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

1. Comedy Central
2. Dry Bar Comedy
3. Netflix
4. Cobra Kai
5. Amazon
6. Peacock
7. Jim Gaffigan

Our guest today is a comedian who spent nearly two decades doing one thing exceptionally well.

Making people laugh while keeping it real.

Danny Johnson has traveled all over the country bringing clean, relatable comedy to clubs, churches, corporate events, and everywhere in between.

His humor comes from real life mental health battles, physical struggles, and the daily work of trying to be better.

Yet, his greatest joy is helping others forget their troubles, even if just for a moment.

Danny's standup has been compared to legends like Seinfeld and Kevin James, blending sharp writing with unforgettable facial expressions and timing.

You've seen him on Comedy Central, Dry Bar Comedy, and even A Blink and you miss it.

Moment.

On Netflix's Cobra Kai, he shared stages with some of the biggest names in comedy film.

Maitland Live in Nashville.

And his latest YouTube special exploded past 10,000 views in a single day and is still climbing.

Funny, honest, and wildly relatable, please welcome Danny Johnson.

How's it going, man?

Oh, man, I gotta.

I gotta hire you to do my intros.

Geez, I loved it.

Y' all do the work, man.

Y' all do the work.

I.

All I do is, who is this guest coming up?

I gotta see this guy.

So how you been, man?

I'm doing all right, man.

I appreciate you having me on, and I've been looking forward to it.

And I do have to ask off the bat.

I'm guessing you're in the Cincinnati area.

No, I'm in Missouri.

But you are.

Okay.

You got borrowed.

Yeah.

All this.

All the Bengals stuff back there.

Yeah, I got.

I got.

There's my idol back there, Ken Anderson.

That's his jersey.

My high school, I guess, is the most famous athlete to come from my high school in Long Island, New York, is Boomera Siason.

I got his autographed his rookie year on a pair of pants.

I was like, eight, I think, or ten, something like that.

Yeah.

His Bengals jersey was hanging up in our high school in the.

On one of the.

Near the gymnasium.

Then he bought the football team all new weight training equipment.

It's nice.

Yeah.

Damn.

Yeah, he.

He's a pretty cool dude.

The only person that I didn't get the autograph because I got Anthony Munoz, I got Max Montoya.

I got all those guys.

The person I didn't get was Chris Collinsworth.

When he came out of the tunnel, he said.

He said, yeah.

I asked him for an autograph.

He said, give me a minute and I'll be.

I'll get off the bus and give you an autograph.

And he got on the bus, sat down and never got back off.

Yeah.

I went to see him at a Chiefs game.

That's where I seen him at.

So, okay, is.

I know Munoz is a Hall of Famer, Right.

What about the other guy, Max Montoya?

I don't think he's in the hall of Fame.

No.

No.

Okay.

Yep.

Well, good.

How do you.

How do you become a bangle?

Cincinnati.

Do you grow up in that area?

No, I. I was raised in Nebraska, I think, to be honest, just at a very young age.

I like the uniform, you know.

Yeah.

I think that's what stuck out with me.

And I've just never moved from them since.

You know, I get all the work.

Half my life in New York, growing up in New York, and then half my life here in Florida.

So I'm a Giants Jaguars fan.

And typically it's just a bad all around NFL experience, but this year at least I have the Jags.

I just interviewed the exact.

The assistant executive of their legal team for the Jaguars.

Yeah, it was a pretty good assistant manager.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yep.

It's pretty cool hearing how many attorneys that team has, man.

Everything is run.

Everything has to have people are sue happy.

So everything's got to be on the up and up.

Yeah.

I'm surprised podcasts are more regulated.

I'll give.

Give them a minute.

I'll edit that out.

I don't want to give him any ideas.

So what brought you into the comedy world, man?

Oh, geez.

If I. I think growing, I think it helped.

Growing up in a large family in New York, I'm the oldest of five and now I have, you know, since divorces and marriages, I have a bunch of half siblings and step siblings.

So I think I'm the oldest of 10.

Tennis.

And it was just a thing in our family.

Like if you weren't being poked fun at, then you weren't part of it.

It was just.

It was almost a sign of love.

Sounds like the veteran world, man.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I think if I really like, if I was really to psychoanalyze myself, I am the oldest of five, like I said.

And then it seemed like during my adolescence years, my.

My mom was just having a kid every other every 18 months or something, so the attention on me was less and less.

Right.

Yeah.

So I remember started like I would start imitating relatives at family gatherings, like doing impersonations of them, and then caught Saturday Night Live.

I got, I got into that and I was like, oh, and then the late night TV shows where you see, you know, Carson and then later Letterman, you would See, just comics on there.

I'm like, wow, these guys are just talking and people are laughing and, And.

But between those two things, lack of attention and having really funny relatives, you know.

Well, I'd tell you, couldn't have picked a more cutthroat industry to jump into.

That is for sure.

It.

That is.

It's a tough, tough crowd, man.

Yeah.

I jokingly tell new comics that ask me for advice.

They go, what do you think I should do?

And I said, quit.

There's not.

I'm trying to get some work here, buddy.

Trying to fill the count.

Yeah, I mean, you're right.

You know, I listened to a lot of Joe Rogan's show, and he has a lot.

Obviously he has a lot of comedians, but just hearing, you know, how they all started, it was, you know, all of them have the same story, man.

It was, you know, eating ramen and.

And trying to get a gig anywhere you could get one.

Yeah.

I mean, I've probably done more shows over my career for $0 than I have for pay.

Yeah.

And that's saying a lot is because I've been doing it for decades.

So those first formative years, and even now, if I want to try out new material, you know, I'll go to some open mics.

It's unpaid.

You would.

I could drive an hour.

I try to keep it under an hour from doing an open mic, you know, and an hour there hour back just to do five minutes of new stuff.

And maybe it does.

Well, maybe it doesn't, so.

And then the pay isn't that great until you.

Until you either start headlining, and that's even.

That's not great, depending on where you are.

But I work clean, so a lot of the private shows pay more, corporate shows, church shows, you know, things where they kind of pick you specifically.

They're not just looking for a comedian, they're looking for you.

You know, they choose you.

You know, pay, pay really well.

And then, you know, so when I first started, it was all, you know, obviously open mics.

And then I got.

I got on at this club in Jacksonville, Florida.

My home club to this day, Comedy Zone in Jacksonville.

It's like a 300 seater and became house emcee.

Me and three or four other people and we just kind of rotated.

Back then the comedy club was open Tuesday through Saturday, so we were working almost every night, taking our licks, so to speak.

And.

And then the other comedians that we were opening for, you know, as we got better and perform more, they would start bringing us on the Road to open for them.

And it's just a huge chain reaction over the years.

You just kind of get in with that booker.

I would say it's about relationships more than anything else.

Yeah, yeah.

I run a non profit for veterans that want to become musicians.

And man, it's the same thing.

It's the same there.

You know, all of them will tell you the same thing.

You know, when you go play at a dive bar or whatever, the time that you're on the stage is not the important time.

It's what you do when you get off.

And all the networking and talking to people, you know, is, is what it takes.

But yeah, and I don't even know that I'm that good at it now.

I, in the beginning, I certainly was.

And I was like, oh, my talent will carry me.

You know, if I do well, I'll get booked back.

Well, not necessarily.

Not before the three people this booker plays basketball with.

Yeah, yeah, that is true.

Well, let me ask you this.

Yeah.

When you're, when you're up on the stage, right.

I, I can only imagine being a clean comedian has to be harder than some of these guys that, you know, out there talk about anything any way they want.

Keeping it clean, man, that really cuts your, the way you say things, how you say things, the timing of things, everything changes because, just because of what you're talking about and how you're talking about it.

Yeah.

And I would say even more specifically the venue.

There's different levels of clean too.

So like, I remember I, I was headlining this small theater in Ocala, Florida, and I, I, this guy reached out to me, he's like, I work clean now.

He used to not be, he's like, can I open for you?

So I said, sure.

And he goes up and does his act.

Maybe 20 minutes.

It's 20 minutes long before me.

And it was still dirty.

It just, he just didn't curse.

He just replaced the curse words with the scientifically or biologically, you know, talking about his girl and all this stuff.

And my audience is just like, you know, I got hired at that theater specifically because it was a clean show.

And he goes, how was that?

And I was like, let's talk after the show.

And I had to tell him, like, hey, you know, funny stuff.

You didn't get the reaction you wanted because it wasn't.

That's not clean.

It's.

Yeah, so.

And then churches are even more, I could say more on late night television than I can in church.

Church gigs.

So there's different levels of clean.

But I agree.

I. I think it's harder.

I think that's.

It's.

I love the challenge if.

If, like, if I'm writing a joke and the punchline is a.

Is.

Is an.

A curse word, I think I could do better writing.

I think anybody can do better writing.

And I like all kinds of comedy.

I like dirty comics, clean comics, you know, all kinds of comedy.

So I'm not against it.

I just.

It's not for me.

And I think if I hear a joke that ends in an expl.

You know, explicit.

Whatever.

What am I trying to say?

Explicit.

Good Lord.

I can't even say the word for cursing.

The.

That's how clean.

And if the joke ends in that or if that's the punchline, I'm like, I think you can write something better, you know, be better than that.

But, yeah, I just say, do what you do up there and have fun, and then you'll find your way.

And for me, it was just making it as challenging as possible.

And then what I really like doing, diving deeper into each segment or topic that I'm talking about on stage is getting into the nitty gritty, the nuts and bolts, the real detail of it, you know?

Yeah, I think.

I think that's important.

What you said was doing what works for you, because one of the most important parts I think that.

That you guys have is.

Is you have to relate to your audience.

If you.

If that connection's not there, every joke after that doesn't matter.

Yes.

Because they've tuned out and they're already against it.

Yeah.

You know, that.

That connection, that bond has to be done earlier.

As the guy that's warming up the audience, the guy that's opening for you, that's.

That's his main job there, is to warm up the audience and.

And get them into your show.

Yeah, I think that's even.

Yeah, we can break it down even further.

Like, if I'm headlining a show and the opener still, you know, it does their job.

Does.

Does what you said, what you said about relating and capturing them, even for me, if I notice it's a maybe older demographic, and I did plan on, let's say, doing jokes about my grandmother until the end of my show, I might move it up to very first because it'll help me bond with them, relate with them, and then you can then also get away with more in your show.

And not that I'm trying to get away with more, but if I have some jokes that I think might ruffle a feather or two, because just Because I'm clean doesn't mean I'm not touching on subjects that are a little, you know, touchy or upsetting to people.

I'm just doing in a clean way.

But if I already have them with me, they're more likely to take that journey throughout the whole set, you know?

Yeah.

When, when you, when you're up there.

Right.

And, and I'm sure this comes from experience, but, you know, part of that bonding with the crowd is, is what you all call crowd work.

Right.

You know, just to kind of warm them up and, and, and build that bond.

Because now you're talking directly back and forth with somebody in the audience.

You know, I, I listen to Matt rife.

Riff Rife.

I'm probably saying his name wrong, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

He is hilarious.

You know, and, and that's the one thing that, that you see all the time on, on his YouTube videos and, and that is all his crowd work, you know, you don't see.

And he's good at it.

He's definitely not clean, but he is good at, at building that relationship.

And I think, you know, that is tough to do because you have to basically, as you're standing backstage waiting now, you became a psychologist and you're analyzing the crowd's mood, what kind area, all this stuff matters.

Yes.

Because you have to relate to them, whether you're from that area or not.

Yeah.

And I think it's a double edged sword.

I'm not a fan of interacting with the crowd.

People say I'm good at it, but that's nice of them to say.

But you could be lighting a match, you know, starting the fire, because you, you might be opening it up to them, to them thinking that's what the whole show is.

Yeah.

So you have to be able to have enough experience and command if you choose to do that, to take the show back.

And then if it goes, if it derails, you need to reel them in.

And then all of a sudden you're done with your crowd work and you're trying to tell hundreds of people that this, hey, stop talking now.

Well, you just talk to them for 15 minutes of what do you think's gonna happen?

So it is something I try to avoid.

I know, I do know comedians that do it very well, and they, and, and they're very like, there's a comedian named Big J Okerson who I love, and I got a chance to watch him and work with him for five or six shows in Florida here.

And he does crowd work in such a fashion that it doesn't matter what the response is to the folks he's talking to, he, he weaves it into his next bit that he's already planned on doing.

So whether it's, let's say he's doing a bit about women, cops, he, you know, he'll start talking to a couple, make some jokes, you know, probably sexual jokes or some, something about the couple and the race and, you know, and if something they say or he says triggers the authorities.

And he's right into his bit that he planned.

So he uses that to engage the crowd, get everybody involved and, and then right into where he wants them to go.

So it's not random, you know.

Yeah.

And that was, I thought that was absolutely genius.

It was so fun to watch him.

And then interestingly enough, we.

One night after the show, I was booked at a later show in the same town at a cigar bar and he tagged along and he went up there and did the same thing in a cigar bar and did great.

So this didn't even matter, the venue, you know, with his experience and just killed it.

And I struggled at the cigar bar.

People wanted to be talked to and I was like, I didn't do it.

So it is a double edged sword and I think a lot of comics lean on it for social media so they don't burn through jokes.

Yeah, they seem to think if you publish a joke then you can never do it again.

And maybe with some TV deals you can't.

But I'm all for, I'll just write new jokes, you know, I'm all for.

And I have some crowd work stuff on my social media.

Not much, but a little bit.

Well, you know, what you said is 100 because Matt Rife came out with that.

He actually put it out that, hey, look, you know, you, you think because you see my social media that my whole show is, is crow.

And what you said, that will bite you in the butt is exactly.

What has bit him in the ass is people came to the show expecting to see what they see on YouTube and everything else for an hour and a half.

Right.

You know, and you just.

It doesn't work that way exactly.

But, but yeah, it is, it is a touchy play.

There's a balance to it.

And he has a Netflix special that's called Crowd Work.

It's all crowd work.

So he can, he can specify so people know, hey, this is all crowd work.

But you're.

He's right.

You're right.

I mean, it is.

I don't want to risk.

Not.

Not only do I not Want to risk opening up the room to 50, 60, 100 people yelling or talking.

I also am excited to, to do my jokes that I prepared.

Yeah.

So I'm like.

And sometimes I'll even tell a heckler or somebody who's chatty.

I'm like the great.

The greatest thing for you as an audience member now is that you have zero responsibility for the next 60 minutes while I'm up here.

You have no responsibility.

You don't have to talk.

You don't even have to laugh.

You can sit there, eat and drink.

Yeah.

Just listen.

Just listen.

That's the.

You have no.

It should be of peace to you to know that you have no responsibility.

You don't have to talk.

You don't have to think of anything to say.

I got it.

I'm fine.

Yeah.

Isn't it, isn't it kind of crazy how yalls industry has, has blown up just from social media?

Yeah.

The old days it was way harder for people to get gigs because you physically had to go to these clubs and, and ask and, and hope, you know, now people are getting picked up from TikToks and everything else.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that's a double edged sword too.

But if you think back to what you originally think back in your memory to in the, you know, 20 years ago, maybe one or two comedians were doing arenas.

Yeah.

Or large theaters, you know, and unfortunately, you know, Cosby, we hate to bring him up, but Cosby, Seinfeld, Prior.

Yeah, Prior Eddie Murphy.

And now you can name two dozen that are doing giant theaters or arenas and, and then even smaller theaters, you know, and I'm starting to get into smaller theaters here and there.

But yeah, so here's the, here's the thing about the Internet.

I've opened up for some Internet sensations that have turned comedians because of their following.

And it makes sense.

Makes financial sense.

You know, you can make a ton of money on the door deal.

Once you become a draw for your audience, meaning people are paying specifically to see you, you can command a part, a part or all of the door tickets.

So if they can even go to a small comedy club, you know, and they have a couple million followers on social media and like now I'm going to do comedy now.

And they charge 30 bucks ahead, 300 seats and 100% of it goes in their pocket.

Right.

So what's that?

It's that nine grand for the night for one show.

Yeah.

Now the, the bullet sword I mentioned is do they have an hour of material and if they do, is it good?

And if they do and it's good, is it good enough for somebody to want to come back the next time?

So what.

What I'm seeing is they'll go through a city once, maybe twice, and by the third time, they're having a hard time selling tickets because they are not a comedian.

And some of them I've worked with are working really hard, and they've become really good comics, which is fun to see because, like, several of them I've worked with after the show, and even in between the shows, they're.

They're asking me more questions about comedy than I'm asking them about social media.

So that would make sense.

Yeah.

I mean, and I'm making, you know, 1/100th of the dollar amount they are, you know.

Yeah, but they fill the seats.

The comedy is a restaurant that has entertainment.

So, yeah, comedy's not number one on the list even for auditions.

And I had a very famous television show currently airing, competition show casting person.

Tell me this was during.

This is during the time when Donald Trump was running for second term.

Hey, we're not going with single white males, so don't audition this season.

Wow.

I said, okay, that's not.

That's not sexist or racist or.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure.

But they.

In the entertainment industry that you could do that.

I mean, I auditioned for commercials or don't all the time that say, you know, prefer Asian male, 35 to 45 or whatever.

That's just what they're looking for.

So I get it.

You're not looking for the best talent.

Right.

I had a talent manager, so I just put out my second comedy special on YouTube called Everything Bothers Me, and a surprising turn, you know.

Well, you'll get a kick out of this, I think.

So for somebody you've never heard of, like me, I'm at 162,000 views in two months.

So.

Wow, that's pretty good, right?

For 80,000 views a month.

So I posted about that.

And then, you know, Jim Gaffigan is.

I've heard the name.

I can't put the face to it.

He's a comic.

He.

He.

He does theaters, he's been in TV shows, and he's just one of the hottest touring comics the last 10 years.

Multiple Amazon, Netflix specials.

He put a YouTube special out all about whiskey because he has his own whiskey now or Bourbon.

And the.

The day I posted, celebrating a hundred thousand he posted.

I thank you for the million views.

In its first hour on my YouTube, I was like, oh, geez, what am I Doing, But I understand, you know, this guy is a, you know, a gajillionaire, and he does giant theaters and arenas, performs for the Pope.

And, you know, it's just.

It's a different ball game.

But it just made me feel like, all right, I know where I am.

Right?

Yeah, it is.

It is funny.

You know, I've had stuff.

I've had interviews that I just was like, man, this is.

This is not going to go over well.

You know, maybe one view, it's just horrible.

The next thing I know, I look, and it was one of the better taking off episodes.

I'm like, what did anybody find interesting about.

You know?

And, you know, I was.

I was scrolling through YouTube because I've only been on YouTube for a year or two, so I never really put a bunch of focus on the video side of podcasting, Right.

And I was scrolling through because I had.

At that time, I think I had like 180 subscribers or something like that.

Right.

And I found this guy on there, called his name was the sleeping streamer, and he had 30,000 followers, and all he does is turn the camera on, get in bed, pull up the covers, and go to sleep.

I'm like, we've hit rock bottom.

Yeah.

People are now officially brain dead.

Yeah.

I'm working on this social media series of videos that I'd like to do.

Do about.

Have you ever seen those videos on social media scrolling, where it's a.

There's a couple guys that do it and they go, you mean it's.

It's all do it yourself life hacks.

Like, do you mean to tell me, for the past 21 years, I didn't know how you can do this with a can of Pringles or whatever.

I want to do that with, like, the outrageous things I see on the Internet with much more followers than me.

Like, there's a guy that all he does is put mayonnaise all over his body.

He sits in a chair and he starts yelling, mayonnaise.

And he smears it all over his head and face, and it's like a thick layer of mayonnaise from his torso to his head.

And he's got, like, if I remember, like, 34,000 followers, I'm like, so I want to do like a.

You mean tell me all I needed to do and just bring a tub of mayo out?

Yeah.

I mean, at the end of the day, in the world of social media, there is no such thing as bad press.

You know, the.

The guys that hate you are going to click on your video as much, probably more so than the people that like.

My highest dude.

One of my highest viewed tick tock videos was me slamming car salesman.

It was meant to be a little sarcastic, a little therapeutic, and it was just highlighting, exaggerating my recent experiences buying a car.

And I just went on a couple minute rant.

It got more views, Stitches shares comments, hundreds of comments.

I was like, all the jokes, all the other videos, nothing.

Not nothing, but you know what I mean?

Yeah.

Bash somebody you're not.

I'm not being engaged with unless I'm, I'm controversial.

Yeah.

I, I mean, but again, we're, we're talking about careers and these guys that grew up in that world.

There's other parts of this industry that now they are going to walk into.

You know, not every show is a success.

You know, sometimes you go out there and bomb and it's not like that when you're making jokes on the Internet, you're recording and you don't care if the people that watch it laugh or don't laugh, as long as they click on the video.

Right.

But you don't know how to recover from that when it does happen in real life and you get on that stage.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I would like.

It's just, it's so bizarre what go.

What gets a lot of traction and what doesn't.

Yeah.

You know, I could think it's the best joke in the world and put it out there and people are like, okay, thank you.

You know.

Yeah.

It almost makes me want to fake like fake certain views that I don't believe in just to be controversial.

But then they'd be disappointed if they came to see me live.

Like, this guy's really nice.

He's nothing like, like he is on the Internet, you know.

He already bought the ticket though.

Yeah.

One time purchase.

That's.

Yeah, that's it.

Yeah.

No, it, it is tough.

It is a tough industry, just in all sides of it, you know, especially if you're self managed, you know, because now you, you're doing the same thing like most of us podcasters.

You gotta market, you've gotta learn how to manage your brand, how, how to schedule, you know.

Yeah.

And why do certain Facebook ads work and certain social media ads work?

Why don't.

You know?

Yeah, absolutely.

It's.

I hate that part of the business and.

Me too.

Me too.

It's the worst.

Yeah, it is.

But it's worth it because I'm sure you feel the same way because that time that you're on the stage makes up for all the.

Behind the stage.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know.

Yeah.

That's the old.

That's the payoff.

I, I get.

I, you know, comics often joke, we get paid to travel.

The show's for free, you know.

Yeah.

And there's nothing like it.

There's nothing like putting on a show.

Like, that's, that's my, you know, my, my what broad stroke goal is, is to make as many people laugh as possible.

Right.

Yeah.

I want to make, I want you to spend.

If you took money out of your account to have a night out, maybe you got a babysitter and you chose the show, my show.

I want you to have the best time.

I want you to forget about everything for the time I'm up there, leave smiling, your cheeks hurt, you're crying.

Yeah.

And I did my job, so.

Yep.

If I.

And that's the hard part about being sort of someone without a big name.

It's like, how many people.

You know, I'm actively looking for a marketing company to assist me get better at social media ads, to fill these rooms and to get, you know, by default you get more followers, so on and so forth.

But it's a challenge if it.

People often equate fame to funny or fame to success or talented.

I shouldn't say success, fame to talent.

And it's always not the case.

You know, like, I got this one of the comments on my YouTube special, and I don't believe this guy's intent was to be malicious.

It was just a comment.

And it's sort of, it's sort of a backhanded compliment.

But I don't think he meant it that way.

He said he was something along the lines of the production quality of this special is absolutely amazing.

And I was dying of laughter the whole time.

It's so great to come across such a great comedy special on such a small platform.

Yeah.

And, you know, referring to my smaller following on YouTube and I, I don't think he meant that in a bad way.

I think he was saying, typically small following garbage content.

And that's not always the case.

You just need the shot.

Just give me the shot and I'll show you that you'll have a good time, you'll enjoy yourself.

So that's a little frustrating.

Especially like, I'll see friends.

For 10 years now, I've had friends tell me, I gotta come to your next show.

You've never been to a show.

And they're more acquaintances.

Right.

Friends and family come, but, you know, all money's tight.

And then the next week they spent 200 bucks a ticket to see Kevin Hart, which Kevin Hart is great.

Yeah.

But stop, stop asking me.

They'll be.

Excuse me.

They'll be the first ones to hit me up for tickets if I ever get to that level, you know.

Yep.

Yeah, I get it.

You know, I had, I've had two veteran comedians, three veteran comedian comedians on my show.

One is in Yalls area on the east coast.

Brandon.

I can't.

I think his last name is Jones.

He was a Marine and he, he got into comedy because he found that calmed him down.

You know, he.

It helped with his ptsd.

Yeah, yeah.

It got him out there interacting with crowds again.

Yeah.

You know, and he's pretty good.

Yeah, he does some small tours, but he's mostly VFWs and, you know, arenas like that.

And I think what happens is these small platforms that are free, anybody can pick up a mic and say, I want to try to be a comedian today.

And it gives those areas a bad rep. Yeah.

So I've been at a gathering or two over the years where somebody will introduce me to somebody as a comedian, you know, oh, he's a comedian.

And they'll go, oh yeah, my cousin's a comedian.

And then the wife will go, you mean, whatever.

You mean Gary that works for ups.

I'm like, yeah, he does the comedy at night sometimes.

So we're in the same bucket automatically.

There's no respect for it.

You know, it's.

And he may be, he may very well be a great comedian.

What do I know?

Right?

But it sounds like this guy's just doing open mics at night and has a day job.

And so there's no levels unless you're famous.

Yeah, yeah.

And, and people don't realize that was what this, this comment is exactly what led to me starting that non profit.

But people don't realize that when you don't have a day job when, when comedy or music or anything in that entertainment realm is your income.

Right.

Tomorrow's meal and tomorrow's check ain't guaranteed.

Right, Right.

So, yeah, I do, I do, you know, voiceover and commercial work as well, but when those checks come in for a really nice gig, I gotta be very careful.

Yeah.

With it, you know, because although my calendar may be full, so to speak, the next month, you never know when something could get moved, canceled, bumped, replaced by, you know, in the past I've been replaced by celebrities frequently.

You know, it used to be that way.

The venues I do now are more strictly hiring me.

Right.

Yeah.

But like comedy clubs in the past, I would be scheduled to headline and they'd be like, oh, Ralphie May wants that week, or whatever, somebody, you know.

Yeah.

So I'd be bummed.

I think that show that you were talking about, that's still airing.

I believe Ralphie May was on that same show.

Its early days when it first started.

If.

If it's the same show I think you're talking about.

No, it's.

It's.

It's going on to.

To this day.

It's.

Yeah, it's a very.

It has a lot of talent on it.

The show.

Yeah.

Well, I remember when Ralphie May did that.

The last.

He did Last Comic Standing, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Last Comic Standing.

And I think he was like, season one, you know, maybe two.

It was very early.

Yeah.

And I think his best joke was in the semifinals.

And all he did, he said one thing.

He.

He walked his.

His butt up those stairs over to the mic, took about four or five deep breaths and said, ain't that bitch.

Las Vegas knows that.

I only got 30 seconds and it took me 25 to walk up here.

And he turned around and walked off.

And I just laughed.

That he is.

He was funny.

It's.

I'm sad that he passed, but.

Yeah, I. I auditioned for Last Comic Standing at one of the mid seasons.

I forget which which one it was, but it was in Nashville, Tennessee, and I didn't make it to the next round, but I went to the.

The show that night for the semifinals, and the eventual winner of that year's Last Comic Standing left that venue that night with the two judges in the same car.

Oh, wow.

And I come to find out the executive producer of Last Comic Standing also represents comedians, Ralphie May being one of them prior to casting this show.

So.

Wow.

There are ties.

They're just trying to make a good TV show, you know?

Yeah.

They're not trying to find the best comic.

Yeah.

They need to make it entertaining.

Like a comedian I worked with not too long ago was telling me about the audition process he just went through for.

They're bringing back Star Search on Netflix.

Okay.

And they were asking him about his life story and it wasn't dramatic enough, apparently, because they probed him more like, hey, don't you have anybody that was real close that passed?

Or were you abused in any way or homeless at any time?

And he's, you know, this person is like, I don't know what you're fishing for.

I don't have any.

I'm not.

You know, it's.

It's very they're just putting on a show.

It's not to find the best talent.

So.

Yeah, and it is what it is.

People eat it up.

They love it.

Yeah, you are, you are 100% right.

Because my, my tattoo artist that, that did all my tattoos, he tried out for Ink Masters and made it.

And then when it came to the final cuts, they just told him, they're like, look, you don't have the image that we're looking for.

Well, he's got a trick in his, his throat.

So he's hard, hard to understand in the way he talks.

And, and like you just said, he didn't have that younger look.

You know, used to paper and pencil and they're drawing on computers and shit and.

Yeah, just, you know, it's about an image and what's going to sell.

I had, as a result of my YouTube special, I had a talent manager contact me, email me, say, call me, I want to talk to you.

And I had never spoken with this person before and he represents quite a few big names in the world of clean comedy.

And he's like, I just wanted to tell you how great your special was.

I mean, I, it's.

He goes, it's, it's funny, clean and a little, with a little edge to it.

It.

He goes, it's not cheesy.

It's clean and a little edgy and I can feel your, your frustration and anger with certain topics or whatever.

I said, thank you very much.

And you know, he's like, I know who he manages.

So he just went on and on and on.

I'm like, great, you know, were you thinking about taking on new clients?

And he goes, no, I already have two bald, middle aged white guys.

He goes, I'll keep you in mind for bookings.

Don't get me wrong, you know, because obviously he'll get a cut.

But to take my talent wasn't enough and my follower wasn't enough.

So he already has that, that slot filled, that demographic fills.

Very.

It's a very.

I have to play the game and I'm not mad at anyone.

It is what it is.

I'm not gonna change it.

I'm not bitter or mad.

I just have to play the.

I have to find, continue to find my people, my crowd.

Yeah.

Continue to work and put out quality work and hopefully people will continue to come along, you know.

Well, like you said, you, you also do voiceovers.

Yeah.

And, and I have thought about that as well, you know, and just how hard that has to be.

Tough, man.

Yeah.

Because just people say well, yeah, you're just reading from a script.

Yeah.

Okay, well, read from a script and know you're, you're being recorded and see.

How good you read and sound like you're not reading.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I think it's harder.

The voiceovers for me, and they're pretty sporadic, but the voiceovers for me are harder when I'm in the studio with people watching.

So you're in a booth, your back's turned to them, and they're, they're on the other side of the wall or wherever, and they're just listening.

They're not.

And it's just.

And you'll, you'll read your lines and you'll just hear it in the headphones.

Like, if you can just do that one.

And you're a little bit more happy about Barbara entering the room.

Okay, I got it.

And you got to redo it again.

The easier ones are the ones we just pre record, send it in and they go, hey, change this, this, this, or it's great.

You send in a couple different versions and it's like just back and forth via Dropbox or whatever.

Yeah.

But yeah, you have to read and then sound like you're not reading.

You have to, you get a chunk of script and you, they give you some context, but not all context of what the situation is.

You have to have creative freedom to kind of give them a couple different versions.

Watch your.

You don't think, people don't think they have an accent.

You have.

Everyone has a way.

They say certain words, and it may not.

You may be.

I did a dentist commercial in Ohio and in my new accent was to New York.

And I was like, I, I, when I recorded it, I was, I said, I don't think I have a New York accent.

And I had my buddy listen to it from the South.

He's like, yeah, yeah, it's there in certain words.

So I had to re record and re listen and re record and re listen and, and what words sounded, you know, not so New Yorkish.

Yeah, I can't even imagine these guys that do full cartoons, you know, and, and how, how they get through.

I mean, it would take, it would take forever.

I'd make a lot of mistakes.

So, yeah, a lot of redos.

But I think at that level, you know, if you're a celebrity and you're in the studio, they give you like a little stuffed animal or character, what you look like, and they sometimes they even play the movie silently up in front of you with the script.

So they're like, Acting it out.

They have enough microphones and sound equipment around them that they can move and be more free to.

It's almost like performing a play.

I got you.

So they have a better idea.

But you make all the mistakes in the world and just redo it.

And you wouldn't believe how many times they want a line or two done, you know, 10, 15, 20 times.

And it's like, just send it all.

And they'll pick, you know, wow.

If you had to choose and you can only do one, would you rather do be up on the stage doing stand up or would you rather be doing professional voiceovers?

Stand up for sure.

Stand up.

It's that immediate live feedback.

Yeah.

And it's the risk that they don't find it as funny as I find it.

And it's the challenge of even if they found it as funny as I found it.

Did I word it correctly?

To get the point across?

Yeah.

So that's the building of the set.

Right.

Or the joke.

Because it is.

And I heard Seinfeld say this on multiple occasions.

As a comedian on stage, we are the experts in funny.

However the audience tells us, what if we're right?

It's the most bizarre thing.

We have literally spent hours and hours developing these jokes.

We're the expert.

And then you collectively, group of a thousand, tell me if I'm right or not.

It's the weirdest thing.

Exchange in the world.

I never thought about it that way, but yeah, you are absolutely right.

Right.

And then another analogy I love is Colin Quinn.

I don't know if you know him from Saturday Night Live and whatnot, but he does.

He's a great stand up.

One of the best I've ever seen.

And he says, you know, if you're obviously, if you're a musician and you're up, up there and you miss a chord on the bass, no one's gonna notice.

And even if they did notice, they probably can't play the bass as well as you.

But if you're a comic and you're bombing, not only does everyone notice in the room, everyone in the room can do the same thing you are doing right now.

Bombing.

Just saying words to nothing.

Yeah.

A musician can bomb.

And he's still a better drummer than everyone in the building.

And no one knows.

But a comic can bomb.

Everyone knows.

And everyone's.

Everyone can do that in the room.

Yeah.

I mean, the only thing that would stop them is.

Is stage fright.

But if they got on the stage.

Absolutely.

They could bomb just as well as you did.

Yeah.

They're like, what the heck am I doing here?

I can do that too.

You know.

But I think.

I think the one thing that's unique about Yalls industry is, is the ones that make it are the ones that have imagination.

And.

And I don't just mean on the stage, but.

But they figure it out on how do I get on that stage and what routes do I got to take.

I had a comedian on here and I thought it was just genius.

He was struggling to get booked, so what he started doing was he was going to all these apartment complexes and talking to the owners and saying, hey, I will put on a show for all your people that live here that are for free for them.

You know, you pay.

Pay me for the show and I'll do all the work and.

And it's something you can advertise.

And that worked for him, you know, and I was just.

I was impressed about how out of the box thinking you guys have to be.

Yeah.

To make it work.

Yeah.

One of the.

One of the most interesting venues that has poppy popped up in the past decade or so is these master plan communities that have an event center.

And.

People can just drive their little golf cart up to the event center and they have card games or whatever event, but they also now have comedy once in a while.

So a good number of my gigs are going to these neighborhoods doing shows for the residents and it's been great.

They already have the space.

They have the chairs, they have the sound system.

They advertise it.

They usually use part of the HOA money or, or they charge their residents a ticket price if they can and, and you can negotiate a good price and you put on a show and it's.

It's like they don't even have to leave their neighborhood.

Wow.

Yeah.

I. I mean it, it.

It's great advertisement.

You know, I. I mean it.

What it is one hell of a promotion, you know, to give somebody buy a house in this neighborhood because you got a pool, you had golf course and you got your own comedian, you know, so.

Yeah, it makes sense.

Yeah.

I mean they have everything from live music to magicians, to like kids arts and crafts.

People come in of all sorts to make, to put on a workshop for painting and all this.

All these live performances, it's such a great add on to your.

Or complement to your residence experience.

Yeah, I would agree.

I agree 100%.

Let's talk about a time where things didn't go so well.

Can you think of a time that you were up on a stage and and you were like, oh, that did not work.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Especially in the early days, I would do.

I would do almost any, any gig that I. I'm very selective now.

I could be more selective, but in the beginning I would just take everything.

Can you do this gig?

Yeah.

How much?

Doesn't matter.

Just.

I'll do, I'll do whatever.

So I got this one night show in this bar in Georgia somewhere.

And I pull up to what looks like a double or triple wide trailer.

But it's not a house, it's a bar.

It's like, I don't know what the name of it is.

The Dude Drop In.

Yeah.

I go in the front door and I'm the opening act.

I'm not even the headliner.

And our headshots are up against the wall as soon as you walk in.

And they're hung by one push pin.

So it's like, you know, hanging in the.

And we go in and right to the left is like a live music here.

It's like country music.

A country bars, like you know, maybe 100 chairs and a stage nice enough.

And then straight ahead was like six pool tables.

To the right was the bar and all the college football games were on.

All the TVs all over the place.

So I'm like, okay, well, there's a lot of people in here playing pool, watching football at the bar.

I'm like, it's going to be a good turnout.

So 8 o' clock rolls around and the owner starts turning off the pool tables and the televisions.

And people are appalled.

They're yelling, they're in the middle of taking a shot, just lined up and just.

He's shutting everything off.

You know, Florida, Georgia, whatever.

The games were on.

Just turning off all these TVs and people are not.

What the heck is going?

What the heck?

And he gets on the mic, the owner, he's like, it's comedy time.

And they were like, f you, it's coming.

I go to the bartender, I'm like, did you know there was comedy?

He's like, no, this was a surprise to the patrons.

Way to warm him up.

Yeah.

So he starts waving people over and they're reluctantly, slowly coming in, filling up every fifth chair, arms crossed, just looking at us.

And they go.

He goes, ladies and gentlemen, Danny Johnson.

And I go up there and just.

It was like I was giving a lecture.

I might as well have been giving like an architectural, you know, lecture about the facility itself or.

Or the history of whatever.

Doesn't matter.

I was sweating and I Was new.

I was, I was doing 30 minutes to open and I, I literally had 30 minutes of material.

So without laughter, that's probably 22 minutes, right?

So there is no laughter.

And one by one, people are just getting up and leaving, going to the bathroom, getting more, Trying to turn the TV back on, playing pool in the dark.

And I did maybe 20 minutes and just introduced the headliner.

When I got off, my undershirt under my regular shirt was stuck to my body.

It was so much sweat.

And the owner was fine.

He was like, well, you gave it a shot.

Good job.

You gave it a. I don't think that had anything to do with you.

Right?

I didn't work on any new joke.

I mean, I was throwing out stuff that I, the most basic, I was cutting out some filler stuff to get right to the punchline.

I was doing everything I knew in my toolbox to get a laugh.

And I was, you can't surprise people.

And then, first of all, I always tell venue, especially if they don't normally do comedy, I'm like, look, the only option for the audience has to be the comedian on stage.

If there's TVs, let's find another room or turn them off way before the show.

You can't.

These people are literally having the time of their lives.

Watching football, playing pool.

He might as well have gone on the mic and gone, hey, you guys are having a good time.

Well, cut it out.

It's comedy time.

It's like the bar saying, all we're gonna serve now is non alcoholic beer.

Free waters for everyone at the comedy show.

This is the wrong way to do it.

Yeah, no, I, I, I get it.

That is, you know, and it seems like because I've had another comedian that, that when, when I asked him about it, he said something similar.

It was, he was at a casino and it was time for him to go on stage and perform.

And there was nobody there.

And he looked at the person, he's like, do you want us to start or what?

And he says, well, if you want paid, you need to perform.

He said, just give it some time.

There'll be bingo will be over here in about a half hour and then everybody will be coming out.

And he said, he said, everybody came out and one person sat down because she was out of breath and needed to catch her breath walking with her walker.

That reminds me of.

I got it years and years ago.

I got booked at a casino in Biloxi, Mississippi.

I'm trying to think Imperial palace is the name of it.

And it was like a week long.

Tuesday through Saturday or Wednesday through Sunday.

One show each night.

And every show, not only was there not a lot of people at the show, it was miserable.

The audiences were miserable.

They just were not happy people.

It was a really tough show.

A giant showroom, maybe 400 seats and maybe 30 people.

And they let them sit wherever they want.

So in a giant room like that, that'd be, you know, three over here, two over here, you know, 60ft apart.

You need a cohesive unit.

Right.

So anyway, I struggled all week, and at the end of the week, I get paid.

And I was just talking to the manager of the casino just in, you know, small talk, and I'm like, just.

The crowds just seem so.

He goes, yeah, who do you think we give free tickets to the comedy show to the people that have lost all their money.

They don't have anything else to do, and they've already lost all their money.

So here's the buffet, and here's a free comedy show.

They're miserable.

I'm like, oh, thanks for the heads up.

I appreciate it.

Oh, man.

Well, at least you didn't, you know, come out with any, like, loser jokes or stuff like that, you know?

Yeah, no, I was so nervous because it was a.

It's a nice, nicer casino from what I remember.

And it was my first casino gig.

And I was more nervous because their casinos are very strict on time.

And it's because.

Because, like, every minute that somebody's not gambling is X number of dollars.

So when they tell you the show's an hour long and I do 20, and maybe the headliner does 40 or I.

My.

My opener does 20, I do 40.

You better do exactly that.

Any.

Anything over that is costing the casino money.

These people are not back out gambling.

You know, they're stuck in your show, and that's not making us money.

So.

So they're very strict on that.

Yeah, I mean, that whole industry has it down to a science.

You know, they don't.

They don't play.

They know how they're going to make money and what they got to do to get you out there.

Yeah, they pump pure oxygen in the casinos.

The rugs are ugly on purpose to draw your attention up towards the gaming tables.

And it's.

It's all.

And there's no clocks.

Yep, it's the same.

It's actually similar setup to a supermodel market.

There's no clocks in a supermarket.

It's designed.

The perishable items are in the back corner.

So you have to walk through everything to get to what you need more on a replenishing basis.

Milk, eggs, cheese, yogurt, stuff like that.

Yep.

That's how they get you, baby.

Yep.

The damn marketers, man.

I need those marketers to help me fill the seats in some venues that I need.

I'm going to sell milk.

I'll sell milk behind stage.

Here's your dozen if you come to the show.

Oh, that'd be an expensive ticket.

If you gave away a dozen eggs, though, that'd be a very expensive ticket.

Yeah, they're.

Luckily they're down now, but.

Yeah, but they were pricey.

Yeah, absolutely, man.

Well, brother, I'm gonna bring you forward and.

And let you tell everybody where they can find you and.

And maybe where some of your shows are and.

And all that good stuff.

Yeah, thanks.

Well, my website's dannyjohnson.com and you can see all my social media links on there and my links to my two comedy specials.

My social media handles are Danny Johnson Comedy.

That's Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

And my new YouTube special, Every Everything Bothers Me.

Me.

Everything Bothers me is on YouTube.

And we're gonna hit a million views.

Not in the hour it took Jim Gaffigan, but in months and months and months.

So watch it.

I want to make you laugh.

Come see me live.

You can see tour dates on my social media as well, and I hope to see you out at a big show.

All right.

Yeah.

Everybody, I want you all to go follow this guy and check him out.

I have no doubts in my mind.

I've been laughing through this podcast, and it wasn't meant to be a joke.

So I think.

I think your.

Your money will be well spent.

And as I've always said, supporting the.

The smaller guys in your areas is extremely important.

You know, the millionaires already made millions.

It's.

It's the small guys that are still trying to buy the stake, so.

That's right.

Thank you for having me.

I enjoyed our conversation.

I appreciate it, and I'm looking forward to the episode, and I'll certainly share it, and I'll get the word out.

Absolutely.

Well, y' all take care.

Y' all have a great day.

Remember, don't let the day kick your ass.

Kick the day's ass.