The Three Questions with Andy Richter - James Austin Johnson

Episode Date: August 22, 2023

James Austin Johnson joins Andy Richter to discuss the importance of exploring interests outside of comedy, the "Television Show featuring James Austin Johnson and Others,” the difference between an impression and an impersonation, setting goals, and more.

Hi, James. Hi, Andy. How are you? Oh, man, it's wonderful to be here. It's good to be here. Yeah, you know, I have been a fan of yours. I got to know you like everybody by by uh internet videos yes you walking around pasadena uh yeah and glendale and hollywood and outside of auditions and uh just sweating and

doing voices and yes yes yeah and looking probably probably like a crazy person looking insane yeah yeah i don't have the i don't have the gene that it seems like the guys that are like 10 years behind me have where they just will film anything anywhere yeah like a like a somebody will plop their phone down and just do a little dance where they're tracing you know the outline of their shoulders or something over and over again they're really comfortable doing that and i have i have a deep repressed uh christian millennial shame yeah about performing about performance of any kind yes you know what i mean i know exactly what you mean no i mean yeah no i have a midwestern it's not it's not so much christian i mean and

we'll touch on your you because you were raised very religious uh yeah i was i was raised pretty religious uh i don't it's not so much christian thing but there definitely is and i mean and it exists in different places like when i worked in new zealand i was they have a thing called tall poppy syndrome which is that if you which which is and now is that what they call like a ham and cheese sandwich or something like that? No, no. Does tall poppy mean something completely else on the other side of the world? It means people in New Zealand, they're very proud of New Zealanders that make it big on the world stage. But then they immediately set about cutting them down, like destroying them in some way. And the notion of tall poppies is that you want all your poppies to grow to a uniform height. And if any of them grow higher than the other poppies, you snip their head off.

So like the flight of the concords are not allowed back in the country. I don't, well. They'll immediately be deported. I'm sure that within New Zealand, there's like, you know, those guys are fucking pricks. They have a PM for like a week and it's like alright new leader immediately feels wrong feels a little off to me

Peter Jackson he can't even say he's from there anymore that guy, the guy that colorizes things get him out of here we do not out of here have you been down there? I've never been.

The accent there, it's like someone from Australia that's trying to annoy you. It's a more annoying Australian? Yes. I had a radio ad there for a mattress company, and it came on and they said, do you have a bed, bed? Are you sleeping on a bed, bed? Do you have a bed, babe? Are you sleeping on a bed, babe? A bed, babe? Do you have a bed, babe?

A bed, babe? Yeah, somebody told me that the accent difference is like New Zealanders, Kiwis are like, it's fish and cheeps. Yeah, chops. Fish and cheeps. They say chops. Fish and chops. They're chops?

Yeah, fish and chops. I thought it was Australians that were like, fish and chops. No, they would say chops. I mean, I just remember people saying chops. Well, don't they know that it's fish and chips? It's chips. And really, it's fries. Yeah.

Okay. But anyway, we're going all over the place here. Tall poppy syndrome, and you feel that as a Midwesterner? Yes, I feel that same thing. I feel the shame of, we called it, the phrase that comes from my childhood, tooting your own horn.

Tooting your own horn. Yeah, that guy, like anybody, which, you know, to do what we do, there's an inherent ego to saying, everybody in this room be quiet now. I'm going to stand on this stage, and I'm the only one talking, and all the lights are pointed at me, and you be quiet and listen, and it on this stage and i'm the only one talking and all the lights are pointed at me and you be quiet and listen and it's worth your while to listen that's you can't

say the ego to everyone that does that there's no such thing as a humble performer no i mean i think as a tennessean definitely performers like performing and like the the sort of the redneck tradition of like hey y'all watch this like yeah that kind of thing it's definitely not my southernness that is keeping me from boldly tick-tocking in front of a bunch of people in some bank lobby uh i don't know what it is i think it's got to be generational it's got to be generational it's it's got to be uh feeling shut out from major economic swings. You know what I mean? I think it's millennial. It's like, well, I'm never going to

pay off any of these debts. I'm never going to own a home. I should just keep my head down. I'm not working for a bank. Yeah, exactly. And it's also like where we were when the internet took over our lives. I think the people of my generation, the internet was something that came out and we immediately had to learn it. And then our parents, I still have to go look at my dad's phone and be like, just click the button once, idiot. You're in your mid-30s, right? Yeah, I'm 34. I'm 56.

So, yeah, because the internet, I was working, I was already on television when I got my first computer. I was aware of computers, but I never really, like, you know, when I was in college, I had a word processor. You know, like some weird little shitty you know, dot matrix printer setup. Did you play Myst? Do you remember playing Myst? I did not. Do you know what I'm talking about? I know what you're talking about. It's like an immersive environment game.

This is my merch. This is my tote bag that I'm selling on my comedy tour and it's like a riff on the Falling Guy from the cover of the Myst PC game box art. And this is me falling face first. And this is a joke if you like Myst. I see. If you don't like Myst, you go,

why is that your merch? I don't want it. It looks horrible. Right, right, right. You're on tour. That's the other thing we got to talk about. We got to talk about that too. We're on strike.

Yeah. You and I are both on strike. We're on strike. Yeah. You and I are both on strike. We're on strike. Twice over. So I can't promote anything. We can't even mention that you're on a very

television show. A very popular sketch comedy show. We can say I believe that I'm legally allowed to call it the television show featuring James Austin Johnson

and others. Right. I think that's industry-wide. Legally what we're allowed to. I think that's industry-wide. Legally what we're allowed to call it. That's industry-wide what everyone calls it. That's what Bowen has to call it. That's what Devin has to call it.

Right, right, right. Lauren's been calling it that. Yeah. And hopefully we'll be back soon with James Austin Johnson, the NBC show that features James Austin Johnson and others. Yes. And I've been running that for a long time. And what you have to understand is that James is not the only person who was on that show.

There are others. And it's on television. And we do sketch comedy. Yeah. And we do sketch comedy. Yeah. And that, of course, is my famous impression of man behind television show featuring James Austin Johnson. Long time executive producer.

Yes. Long time comedy impresario. Yes. Legally, this is how I'm supposed to talk about this. Canadian. Canadian. Yeah, yeah. Canadian creator. Yes creator yes yeah everyone does

him it is hilarious how i've never heard anyone say then lord said to me hey come on out for lunch you know they always want to do the voice always do him and vote you know like and everyone does the voice of like the first time they met him, like what his vibe was. You know what I mean? Yeah. And, uh, I mean,

I, and I think Dana kicked it off. I think Dana is who kicked it off. Yeah. I think Dana was the first guy was like, I'm going to try it and do his voice or something. Yeah. Yeah.

Um, it's, uh, yeah, I, I appear on show and show is on television and, um, I love to entertain and perform, uh, and show is on television and I love to entertain and perform.

And show is on television. Yeah, yeah. Show is on television. Show is on television and I perform her. By saying, yeah. But, you know, just saying television is probably pretty risky. I don't think we should even say television. All right.

Let's go back to the drawing board. I am media participant. Right right good me too um and it's too bad that i'm a podcast host that's what i am now that's and i'm a stay i'm a touring stand-up comedian and podcast attender nice yeah nice now let's let's start at the beginning because you mentioned it. You're from Tennessee. I'm from Nashville, Tennessee. And you, I mean, just in sort of reading the sort of research that our team did on you. Uh-oh. No, just that you were, I mean, we touched on it. You were raised in a fairly religious home. Fairly religious, but- And fairly conservative.

Fairly conservative. Like- Fairly conservative. Like you mentioned being at a Thanksgiving dinner and saying, oh, by the way, everyone, I voted for Obama. And no one else had. And it was an awkward little moment for all of us. Yeah, that was very strange because it's like Obama.

It's like, I had a Coke the other day and everybody's like, we're Pepsi. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've never had Coca-Cola. Right, right. It's Coca-Cola. Yeah, that was like a very odd moment for me because I was like, the guy's a slam dunk. Come on. No, Obama. Obama. Yo. Yo, Obama. Yeah. So yeah, that was pretty awkward. But yeah, I was raised in a conservative and Christian home, but we had Andy, we had Seinfeld.

Yeah. We had MASH, you know. We also had the Andy Griffith Show. Yeah. And we had church. Yeah. And I don't think we, I'm still unfamiliar with Hee Haw. Okay.

And see there, it's also, that's a time thing. Okay. And see there, it's also that's a time thing. Because like I had, not so much in our family, but I had relatives that it seemed like every time in Springfield, Illinois, that I would go visit. It seemed like there was a Hee Haw channel. I just feel like Hee Haw was constantly on in my relatives' homes. Yeah. Oh, man. Yeah, that's, I'm so unfamiliar with it.

And Seinfeld was just as foreign to me as a child. Oh, really? But my, and Seinfeld was just as foreign to me as a child. Oh, really? But my parents loved Seinfeld, and I would say that Dave Letterman and Seinfeld were very much like, I don't know what you would call it. Beacons is too pretentious and not what I mean at all. But those were cool comedy things that were in definitely led into my home I was not raised some like weird

like Luddite farmer type thing you know what I mean we participated in society yeah

it would just come with the caveat of like now I love this guy's movies but I just don't like his politics so much man I just don't and I'd be like

okay I'll internalize that, and that won't make me feel weird forever. That definitely won't come up every time I make a decision for the rest of my life. Not to, like, dump on my parents or anything, because I think I had an amazing childhood. Right, but I mean, like, I know I grew up in a house where, like, fairly racist stuff was said fairly frequently by my older

relatives. I wouldn't say like, you know, not like by my mother or my father, but certainly aunts and uncles and older, you know, older relatives. You know, it was just kind of like there was racism. There was, I mean, I don't even think we bothered with anti-Semitism because it would, it, you know, to like, to have a problem with Jewish people would be like having a problem with,

you know, the lapse of, of the Arctic region. You know, it's like, it's like we not, we never, I mean,

I think the only Jewish person I knew was my pediatrician for like the first 22 years of my life. Just that's the way it was. You would have had to gone to like a gun range or something to experience really adult racist thoughts. You know what I mean? You would have had to go. I knew the whispered kind. You heard the whispered kind. Yeah. A fearful sort of Protestant or Catholic? Protestant. Yeah. I am just now learning about all that and reading the books about it for the longest time i was the in my heart about religion and all of that stuff where i came from i was a moody teenager where i was very much slamming the door on everything and yeah screaming get out and now i'm like starting to like read i'm trying to

unpack it and learn about it and play with it. I'm trying to like accept everybody and go with the flow and stuff. I've been doing comedy since I was like 14. And I've been, let's see, I lived in LA for 10 years. And I just was like very ambitious, would hit it real hard and then quit for a year. And that's just, that's how it would always go. I would like go really hard at it and then get burnout and stop.

And probably- What would you do for that year? Well, the best one that I ever did was like, I went to weekly therapy for two years instead of doing open mics every night. And that's what I did in the middle of my like LA years was like, I was like, I need to become a person. I need to like become a man. And that was like probably the best thing I got out of therapy

was like learning to accept and love like where my parents come from, what my family's intention was with like what our environment was growing up. So while I don't personally want to be anywhere near that stuff as an adult, I still like, I'm more at peace with it. I understand. You know, I'll go to, I have a bit in my standup right now where I talk about going to regular church. Yeah. Anybody go to regular church?

Not Christmas, not Easter. Yeah. No weddings, no funerals. Yeah. Regular church, scrimmages,, no weddings, no funerals, regular church, scrimmages, three-on-three pickup church. Yeah, I'll go and do that every once in a while. And it's like, it's nice to not be in the zone where I'm just like screaming and stamping about all of my ideology anymore. That feels so important when you're like 22.

It's like to demand everybody accepts you for the like weird, like I just graduated college. I'm done now. Yeah. I'm done becoming a person. Right. Except this new version of me. Yeah.

This version of me that will change in six weeks as soon as I start paying bills. This version of me that I have come to the conclusion is right. Yeah. I'm right about stuff. Yeah, yeah. You, like, grow up a little bit, and you're like, I was wrong constantly. Well, and also, too, you get— I don't know anything. The older you get, the more you're just kind of like, well, yeah, it takes all kinds, you know? Like, oh, yeah, some people believe that.

Yeah, well, you can do, you know? Yeah. I mean, I do it more—for me, it's more like, especially in comedy, like I've just forever have been where there are people that, well, to borrow actually a Lorne Michaels phrase, he said it about somebody else. Like, for them, comedy is a jihad. And I have a lot of like peers who, you know. It's like a banner that they hold. Get in trouble because on social media they'd be like, Leno sucks while they're working in late night.

Sure. And it would be, you know, and it's like. Has ramifications. You're a professional public figure. Right, exactly. It's like, but even if you're, you know, not, it's like, well, yeah, of course Leno sucks. But that doesn't mean that there isn't like a lot of people that are going to eat them up with two spoons. Yeah.

And it's also like there's lots of shitty stuff out there. Who are any of us to make these kinds of sweeping declarations? Yeah. It feels very outmoded. It's like it's like an era of hipsterdom that I think hopefully people have grown out of. Even the cool people have grown out of. You know, I'm not even I don't know. I think it's just something you got to go through. I got to, I think it's part of, and also because I have, I have a, I have older children.

I have a 22 year old, 17 year old, and then I just got married and we have a three year old. Oh my. So I have a wide range. So I have been thinking a lot about parenting in sort of a meta context of, you know, now I got this new, you know, still gelling human. Yeah. And then I got, you know, a 22 year old who now is supposedly fully baked.

You have some persons. Yes. And, and I do kind of feel like part of the individuation process is a rejection. You know, like the first step in a child's, the development of a child's autonomy is to say no. Yeah. That's why little kids love no, because that's like, they're like, hey, I'm not you, mommy. And I'm certainly not you, daddy. I'm me.

And I say no. I'm not getting in the car. My boy is 18 months. Yeah. And he loves, yeah. I'm like really loving this period before no. Yeah. Where everything is yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even when it means no. It's just like, how you doing, Homer? Yeah. Yeah. You want to watch TV? Yeah. We put it on for him and he's like,

he like does this like, I don't want to watch Clifford the Big Red Dog. I want to watch Miss Rachel count to 10. But he can't express any of that. And he hasn't learned no yet. He's just saying yes to everything we ask him. I'm really enjoying the yeah part. It's cute. The more they talk, the better it is.

I mean, babies are cute and everything, but I don't know what to do with them after 10 minutes or so, you know? Sure. But once they start talking, then it's a lot better. And her latest thing, we don't know where she got it, was where you say, like, come on, it's time for dinner. And she'll be, never. Never. Never. Like Jafar or something like that she got obviously got it from a show or something yeah yeah like put on your shoes we gotta go never that's like and she

says it with all the all the mustard like she's like she's rattling a saber yeah can't you tell my loves i think i think there's a point in your life where you have to believe you're right about everything yeah and you have to loudly proclaim that so i don't even know i don't think that like today's kids are being less god damn it that's fucked up and that's wrong yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah right no i think it's and as an artist i think there's a there's a period where you have to be convinced of your own genius yes and uh uh it's great also to get like destroyed after that like for your your tower of babel to be struck down. Well, and I also like, I mean, I think it's very, it speaks well of you and of also your parents that you had the sense to be like,

especially having started to do comedy when you were 14, to stop and go like, maybe I should be about something other than just doing comedy. Oh, I've done that so many times. It was always like i mean i know in high school that's when i discovered like the literature world and i thought i needed to not be a comedian because like i i remember going into going into my first like creative writing classes being like i am gonna i'm gonna uh leave high school and go be

a chicago improviser. That was like my loose plan. Yeah. And then I started doing standup like my freshman year of high school at like a talent shows and wherever a high schooler can do standup. Right. Right. Not in bars or clubs. Of course.

But like the, the first like Kitty Hawk style trying to get flying, you know, and the first couple of times were, um, were so good. I was natural, loose, feeling groovy. Yeah. And I like, it was. Nothing to lose. Nothing to lose. And I think I, you know, uh, I think I had good taste and stuff that was guiding me to

a good place at that age. Yeah. Um, and, uh, and then I kind kind of like i bombed a few more times yeah i bombed like 10 times in a row the most horrific bombs of my life yeah um actually no i would say that when i bomb now those are horrific yeah when they're stakes well 14 is when you're really at your most secure yeah exactly and really ready to you know to be hated by large groups of strangers. Oh, yeah.

It's like, it's, but the emotional wounds are so deep when you're bombing as a stand-up at 14, 15. I can imagine. Now the bombs that I have as an adult are like a new kind of shame. It's like, I'm still getting paid, but I have to make,

I'm like trying to not make eye contact with these other auto dealers at this convention in Maui that I just beefed it last night in front of all their kids and wives. Like it's a completely new professional level of shame. Well, I didn't know you got to hang out with them afterwards. You're on an island together. You were the hired thing and it's a resort. What, you're going to leave early from the island?

Are you supposed to do more than one night in this situation? No, it was. You just do one night and then you just got to kind of be by the pool in your shame? Yeah. Well, it's Hawaii. It's like, you're not going to go for one night. Like that would wreck your body to like try to adjust. So that was like one of the worst bombs of my life was like going and going and performing in hawaii for these very sweet people it was just i i i don't know if it

was me i don't know if it was everything else about it it was just it was it was a tough it was a tough little private gig and uh sometimes it's like as a stand-up you know the the club environment and i'm not a club standup. I perform at clubs, but I am not a club standup. Yeah. I am a, um, I am a media performer on NBC broadcast,

a show style performer. Please don't say NBC. I am a media performer on American television network. Right. Uh, channel. Yeah. And, um, and, uh, on American television network channel. Yeah. And that's like who I feel like I am at my core,

not really a club stand-up. And, oh gosh, it's at least at the clubs, you have some control over certain things. Air conditioning, amplification. You have, in general, like an eclectic mix of people yeah everyday people come you know but who came there specifically to see what you're going to you and others are going to do came to see me or at the very least came to see stand-up comedy specifically yes uh there's like that contract for those two hours we have all signed this contract and it's and it can be very

daunting and hard. And of course, that's why it takes a professional and the rewards can be high. It can be really daunting for a private gig where everybody knows each other. And everybody kind of works with each other. And everyone's kind of afraid to laugh in front of the lawyers.

Everyone's afraid to laugh in front of their boss. Oh, there's a comic? Oh. I was just expecting a luau. Exactly. It's like, well, I got to choose between listening to this guy for an hour or finishing my baked potato. Yeah. And, you know, it was, oh, man, those bombs are so high stakes now. And luckily, I am now at a level where that is not derailing me and causing me to go on a years of soul

searching thing. But I'm really grateful for the bombs as a teenager that led me to getting into, you know, like new journalism and creative nonfiction. That was a great period of my life when I got really into that stuff. But I got really into Annie Dillard and Joan Didion and stuff like that. Like that grew another part of me. And then I came back to the acting and performing thing at the tail end of high school, then went into college and I was like, I have to be a poetry professor at a small private college in Eastern Tennessee

or something like that. That's what I thought I had to be. And I didn't do any theater in college. And what a shame. What a shame to turn your back on the thing that you're going to do for the rest of your life well you get a life of doing it you know i know but i when i am asked to go speak to drama clubs or like my my former teachers like classes now yeah yeah when i go speak to theater students i'm like buddy buddy, for 99.99% of y'all, this is the last time you're going to be in Les Mis. Enjoy being in Les fucking Mis. You will never be at the level

that the people who are actually in Les Mis for the rest of their lives, you probably won't be at that level. You'll never be in Wicked again. You'll never be in Fiddler. Drink this up. You get to sing these songs in front of an audience when is this ever going to happen again yeah you're in the you're you are one of the 25 people who like this in your high school like go for it i wish i could have told myself that at like 17 it's like uh except guys and dolls i hate that show but like uh you know it's um uh oh man sometimes there's times when i regret when I left the path. But it builds you into like a Voltron of comedy.

You know what I mean? All of these different pieces make you into. And, you know, I remember somebody saying, because I went to film school. And, you know, I heard somebody lamenting the fact that there's so many kids now going to film school that they don't know. They make movies about movies. Right. And I think there's lots of stand-ups that do stand-up about stand-up. Like they don't, you know what I mean?

They just because they become so focused on I'm going to be a comic. Yeah. And I'm going to get up there and I'm going to get up there. be a comic yeah and i'm gonna get up there and i'm gonna get up there and then and i mean i'm sure that we both know comics who don't really seem to care much about whatever happens in their life when they're not on stage or in a comedy club i know brilliant comics who can't talk about anything else and it's why i don't hang out with those guys yeah yeah exactly yeah it's um that's like uh that's for sure a disease and it like it catches the most brilliant people in the world um yeah i didn't i'm i don't know i really felt

like i wanted to be a comics comic type when i was coming up and i was very concerned about killing with smart comedians and stuff like that and i didn't care about audiences and and everything and i guess that's good when you're an open mic-er. But at some point, there's some rhyme and reason to those who get lift off. And it's because they're kind of like talking about things, I don't know, maybe audiences might like and relate to. And also, another thing that's great about stand-up is like,

it's not that rewarding for the super young. I know there are people that take off when they're really young. I was so focused on that. And what a distraction that was when I started young. And I was like, I have to be the young guy. I have to be the guy of, oh, isn't he amazing? And he's three years younger than me. Yeah, isn't that amazing?

And I'm so glad that I didn't hit at all until I was like 32 because your comedy in general this isn't true for everybody but because there are some guys that are just like geniuses and

I use guys you know to include everybody I mean I didn't really but thank you for clarifying. That's a folkism. Right, right. No, I do this. I call everybody guys. I don't actually know a single good man.

I want to go ahead and say that right now. I don't think I've ever met a good man. Yeah. Present company included. Whoa. Yeah. Both of us. Yeah.

I'm going to go punch a mirror after this. I murdered three people on the way well we'll we'll we'll talk about that at lemonade after this but um um i i'm so glad that i didn't hit until i was 32 because i feel like you're just not as interesting a performer until you've been fired, until you've been married or divorced or had a child. You need to have life experiences. That's incredibly important is like having life experiences. That's where comedy really comes from.

And it's odd that I did want to be in like poetry world for a little bit because that's another field of art where you're not interesting until you're like 80 yeah it's the older you get the better you right become at that art form yeah just because it's like it's about relaying these experiences and also you need it seems just seems like you nobody like you have to have a just this mountain of written work behind you before people are like, all right, well, now it's time to really start. Yeah. You know, like, it's like, you know, it's like having written a verse of a song as opposed to putting out 30 albums, you know. Yeah.

It's like. Although, with music, though, sometimes being 19 is perfect for music. Sure, sure. Yeah. Because it's like, I'm going to make something epic out of, I dated somebody six times and it was weird. Yeah, yeah. It's like, oh, that works in music.

Yeah, yeah. Or also too. The fact that you don't understand anything, that's great for music. Or somebody comes up with, doot, doot, doot, doot, doot. And it's somehow, and like, oh, doot, doot, doot, doot, doot.

That's fantastic. Let's make that, let's have that be a hundred times and then we'll just sing about broken, your broken heart. And that's the biggest Let's make that, let's have that be a hundred times. And then we'll just, can you imagine about broken your broken heart? And that's the biggest thing in the world. Can you imagine being in the room when push a tea came up with bada, bada,

bada for McDonald's? Can you imagine being a fly on that? I believe it's push a. Wow. It's like one day I'm going to write a song that Brian Cox, uh, mumbles over footage of hash browns, steaming.

Some food artist comes up and sprays it with the fast food steam. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did it. I did it. Or, you know, or like Seven Nation Army. Oh, man. Jesus Christ. That's, you know.

I got to hang out with that guy the other night. Oh, Jack? Yeah, now that I'm a nashville public figure oh yeah you know we're riding the strikeout in nashville he's he's very oh you are yeah oh you didn't stay in brooklyn or whatever no we're we're um the first like as soon as i got a little bit of money i was like i should i need to buy a home near my parents or something like that i'm so afraid of everything going away and everything evaporating. That's the other thing of not hitting until you're in your 30s is like, well, I'm going to use every extra cent that I have as a cushion for when I inevitably fail. I don't have any of that

piss and vinegar of if I had just like become some superstar when i was like 24 you know i feel like i would be renting a house in the hills or something absolutely blowing it on like nine bedrooms right or like a car that's like just ridiculously expensive oh man like too expensive of a car guy andy i used to be more so. And then I started having children destroys everything. Yeah, there's ketchup everywhere. I had a very nice car that I had on lease and it was coming back from lease

and it was so disgusting. And especially because there was a center arm, you know, flip down console with the cup holders. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It had had milk spilled in it so that it was inside the armrest. Yes.

So the entire car smelled like vomit. Like baby puke yogurt vomit smell. Yeah. Unbearable. I had to basically dismantle the back seat in order to get it presentable enough to be able to return it on the lease. And at that point, I was just like, I'm getting cars made of plastic that you can hose out now. Oh, yeah.

I had like a little road rage problem in LA. I had a zippy little car. Not a nice one, but it was just zippy. Yeah. And when I moved to L.A., I was just like an anxious wreck all the time trying to get from like shitty part-time jobs and temp jobs and offices to open mics and commercial auditions. And I was just zipping around, aggressive driver, screaming at people, vaping, all of that anxious guy shit. Yeah, yeah. screaming at people yeah vaping all of that anxious guy shit yeah yeah and uh at some point you know as i'm going through therapy learning how to calm down and have defense mechanisms my wife like meeting my wife and her being like quit smoking i was like okay you know i just

needed someone to tell me to quit smoking all of these things that just like uh trying to start calming down the best thing that I did for myself was I got rid of the zippy car and I got a 1994 Ranger. I got in a little truck that could not zip. Yeah, yeah. I got in an old man truck that just doesn't go when you need it to go. And that changed everything about driving in LA for me. I became a calm and patient person. I was like, no, you, after you, please, because I just can't accelerate. Because I'll get us both hurt.

And that just like brought me back to earth in a really great way. My truck years in LA were like very calming. And those were my best years in LA, I would say. That's, yeah, that's, there's, I mean, there's probably big philosophical implications of like finding a slow car. Yeah. You know, like the spiritual, psychological version of. That's my self, that's my self-help book. It's going to be me.

Yeah. It's called Get You a Truck. Get You a Slow Truck. Get You a Truck. Get You a Four-cylinder truck. I want to talk about because, I mean, what brought you to everyone's attention is your talent for mimicry. Yes, the impressions. The impressions.

Yeah. Was that always a feature growing up? Because it is. It's, you know, impressionists are unique creatures. Yeah. I mean, and it does seem to be a thing you're born with or not, you know? Yeah. Or something that's nurtured really early. Yeah.

And it just becomes a part of you. It's weird because in my head, I see the full tapestry of my comedy. And I'm like, I'm just a comedian. I'm just a stand-up. And I've acted in things. And I tell one-liners. And sometimes it's when I put out a video of me doing Louis C.K. or something like that. Or Trump.

Or Bobby Flay. Or Bob Dylan. Or any of the people that I like to do. And I see just how much it catches on and how much people love it. And I'm, you know, I have to go back to the Jerry Seinfeld quote of like, the audience tells you how you are funny. It's like, you should listen when the audience tells you something. So I have, I've had a little journey with embracing it. I've had a little journey with like coming to terms with it and embracing it because I'm like, in my head,

I'm like, I'm this full comedy buffet. It's like, well, yeah, but if the crab legs are just ridiculous on the buffet, that's what people are going for. You have to keep refilling the crab legs for people. I think it's a natural thing to when you have a

facility, when you have, well, it's a natural thing to a certain personality type because i just everything that i'm good at easily yeah discount yeah and if i get compliments for it i'm like okay great yeah that thing that i do you know okay great yeah yeah yeah of course that's great like when you know and it's also, I mean, I've always been quick. I've always had a smart mouth, as they said, when I was younger. And then I found a way, like my mother once said, to make a living out of the things that used to literally get me sent out into the hall in grade school. And so people will come like oh you're just you're so quick and everything and i just feel like yeah but i didn't you know i didn't do

anything like it's not like i went to the gym for that yeah it's just there so it's like like that but then but what about the script i wrote it's okay you know i mean it's like all right okay and then you're right but you do kind of be like alright well I mean this is what people like you have to well yeah it's a

it's a thing I had to a little bit learn to embrace and come to terms with because I would trot out a little voice at the end of my set and I just wanted to be seen

as this legitimate stand up yeah I did not want like a gimmick I didn't want to be a gimmick guy and I remember there was this devastating experience of uh famous stand-up whose name I will not say

introducing me to someone else as a you know I'm a younger stand-up and he's showing me around um it was a guy showing me around at LA and he was introducing me to this like comic I really loved and he was like uh this is James he uh he does voices and i was just like oh god but what about the writing and all the other stuff and uh that was like so scary to me and that sent me into my little hole where i was like i can't do voices for five years i can only be regarded for the stuff that i am foolishly saying is the only way to be a legitimate comedian or something like that. So I was, yeah, I hid that under a bushel basket for a long time.

And then I started doing this Louis bit. It was like, in my standup, it was like positive vibes, spiritual Louis CK was like my, you know know he's so negative so like what is like a what is like a buddhist enlightened louis who's one with everything sound like yeah so that's what i started doing at the end of my sets was like a little dumb little closer well you ever do you ever go outside and the sky is nice and every day is a gift i have two daughters they're amazing like instead of the right right the negative right right and uh um so that's like

a thing i would do and people would just be like oh that's like a really fun louis impression you should do more impressions i mean ah maybe and then i'd never do it again like because they liked it i would never do it and you big baby big baby big baby and um i definitely i guess like the front facing comedy of people posting just videos they're taking on their ip. That became like a more popular way to release videos online. Like you don't just have to post a clip of your standup. You can just make a video of yourself. And other people were starting to do that.

And I started playing. People making careers out of it. I mean. Yeah. People were like. I mean, you were already working, but there, I mean, there were people who were like, holy shit, look at this hilariously funny person doing, you were already working, but there were people who were like, holy shit, look at this hilariously funny person doing first-person selfie comedy, and now they're in it.

I know. It's a great thing, obviously, to see what it has become now. Absolutely. It's a gatekeeper-less kind of area in many ways. And like, gosh, like there's just, it's great to get rid of that like grumpy old man in your head that's like, that's not real comedy. Like, did it make people laugh? Well, that's kind of what comedy is. But yeah, that's, I started to get a little bit more of a self-belief in that. And I remember trying Trump a little bit in 2017 and the voice was real rocky. It was not there. You know what I mean? It was really not there.

And it just took a long time. I just like kept playing with it on stage until I found the thing of it. And, you know, first it was, I hated Trump. I thought he was the devil, and I had to fix what was wrong with evangelical America, and I had to make them look at the diarrhea that he's spouting. And then I was like, okay, no, therapy kicking in. Just this is the way that the world works. This guy's president. Accept things. Go with how things are going. Audiences don't want to be lectured at.

things are going audiences don't want to be lectured at yeah nobody i do not want to be some sort of political um activist comedian that's not what my genre is right it's not where my strengths lie and i started just making the trump into a sillier and sillier character and it started sounding more and more like him and less like him in a way that it was becoming a comedy character yeah like i said less stuff he says and i made the voice stronger and then i made it him saying things that he wouldn't say but saying them the way that he would say them right you know like talking about rory gilmore and or scooby-doo like scooby-doo the one that really that one really popped something about scooby-doo and because and but like i bet you because having watched trump you know like i've listened to howard stern for years and trump used to go on howard stern and he would go on and just basically they'd talk about other things but when

he would come alive was when it was hey let's objectify women right now i'll name names and you just talk about how effable they are yeah and he would you could just tell finally we're talking about the stuff that i donald trump yeah my wheelhouse yeah yeah so you know like what i like and i do think it's subversive and i do think there's a political end to it, is that this guy, who we know is a vainglorious idiot, talking that in-depth about Scooby-Doo, he probably could and would. But he would probably talk about, I'd do Daphne, but not Velma or whatever, that kind of thing. Yeah, I will let it veer into the perverse sometimes. I'll let it get hypersexual, but it's just so much more funny if he's being… Just hung up on bullshit.

Yeah, if he's sexualizing something really stupid. Yeah. Like, you know, like, I don't even know what it would be. Yeah, like something from Wacky Races, some Hanna-Barbera cartoon or something like that. Yeah. That's, that's what's, that's what's fun to me is having Trump in the manner that he would be

speaking about, uh, the border or AOC or something like that. But instead having him be like, you know, the bugs life, the bugs life ants, they've got four legs,

but an ant, they've got six. So we're going to be looking into Pixar because the ants should really have a lot more legs. They should have a lot more legs than they're having. And under Biden, you won't have ants. You won't have Bugs Life. There won't be any more. No bolt. You know, having him talk about dumb stuff dumb stuff yeah like mid-level unpopular

unpopular animation animation that no one cares about at all yeah yeah because that's that's like my favorite thing about watching as much rally footage of his as i have is like there's 30 seconds that we see on twitter where everybody's screaming about some sensationalist thing. And then the rest of it is like six hours of really boring process that he doesn't seem to enjoy. They don't really seem to enjoy. And I find that like mesmerizing. Yeah. That reminds me so much of like the Church of the Nazarene conferences that I went to as a kid.

Yeah. Just like there was so there's in every church service, there's going to be like a big emotional pop, like usually towards the end, you know, like an altar call or like this thing that happens in the worship music part of it. But then there's so much of it that is like, oh, we're just we're just a big group of silent people listening to like a middle aged guy talk about golf. Right, right. That's what we've been doing for 25 minutes. Yeah, yeah. With it with a parable involved. Yeah. I think this is going to loop back around to Ephesians eventually, but

we've kind of been talking about kind of been talking about looking for a lost glove for a while. And yeah, Trump definitely has a lot of that sort of boring pastor thing to him that I find, I started to find that relatable. And, and this might come as a huge shock, I think to people, because I think they forget that I'm a Tennessean and stuff, but when it comes to Trump,

I actually don't, I actually don't want him to be president again. And I think he was kind of bad the first time that he, and when i tell people that they're like huh and um yeah i don't think he was a particularly good leader but um do you do you get worried that somehow that you're uh making him more palatable like you're making him fun and funny i don't think so i think i'm like uh i think i'm enjoying a little like um uh bonus level because like your opinion of him is fully baked

yeah there's i haven't met a single person that's like well let's see how he does on term two everybody's done thinking about him they've already it's cemented yeah how you feel about him is cemented if anything it's like casually eroding at this point yeah um so uh i really don't care if you like him or don't like him i i think it'd be very silly to i personally think it'd be very silly to like be like he'd be great again yeah i don't think he would be great again um it's hard it's hard to really divorce the idea your own like for me like i cannot get inside the shoes of somebody that goes like, well, I look at that guy and he really seems capable and he really seems like he's on it. I don't really think he really cares about other people. It's not about that.

It's about just hearing confirmation of your views in a forceful way. There's something awesome about that. He doesn't necessarily even really do that. No, he doesn't really deliver for people. There's so much projection onto him of just like, he figured out the border. No, he didn't. Yes, he did. He's a real answer to prayer for a lot of people.

And this is their exciting moment in the in the democratic process like this is this is where i've come to and this is not me trying to make him more palatable to anyone again i don't think that's even something that can be accomplished right at this point i it's more like well this is a comedy character and the way that i, I'm not, I don't look at it as an impersonation of him. This is a comedy character that I've built. It's an impression, not an impersonation, right? I'm not an impersonator. Right, right, right.

That's the one that I really take umbrage with is like political impersonator James Austin Johnson is here. I'm like, I don't, I don't do that. Yeah. I don't show up at parties and like, you know, take photo booth pictures with people dressed as Kim Jong-un or something like that. Here comes Jimmy Carter. Yeah. I'm not an Austin powers at like a kooky Vegas bachelorette party,

you know? Yeah. Um, but, uh, uh, yeah, it's,

uh, it's this character that I've built and to, to play any character, to play Darth Vader, to play anybody, you have to like find something to love about that person. You have to put on the mantle of like, I'm a genius. You know what I mean? It's like Ron Burgundy, that character is not a very good man. But like, you know, when Will becomes Ron Burgundy burgundy you know you have to like love being ron

burgundy yeah you know what i mean yeah you have to love being this misogynist yeah neglectful kind of guy yeah and a high status idiot a high status idiot and that's what a lot of comedies made out of yeah and so with trump i had to like find what is silly and fun about doing this yeah and uh so it has a lot of me in it. And I think that's part of why I think I have so much fun and what's connecting with people about it is there's a lot of me in there. When Trump is talking about Lego Batman

or something like that, it's usually an opinion that I have about whatever property it is. Sure, of course. People didn't give Last Jedi enough. It took big swings. And we love the little phone calls that they make to each other through the force. God forbid there's some sexiness in a Star Wars.

God forbid it. People said, oh, I hated Last Jedi. What'd you hate? The adult emotions? Get them out of here. Get the hell out of here. We loved it. We love Kylo.

We love Rey. We love Porgs. We love Porgs. Yeah, it's got to have a little bit of me, and there's got to be something you like about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And with any impression that I do on television show or in my stand-up, you've got to find something to like about that person. And that puts me in the audience in a weird place sometimes because it seems like I excel at performing canceled men.

It seems like I excel at performing sticky personalities for people. Yeah. You know what I mean? But those, some of those guys have hilarious voices and they're,

they're fun to shout in those voices. Sure, sure. I don't, I don't know what it is about. It's something about those strong personalities. You know,

it's fun to carve out an impression of. They're high status idiots. The high status idiots. A lot of them. You know, I think, yeah, a lot of, like, because, I mean, there's, Donald Trump, there's all kinds of things

that happen with him where there is, like, an amazing, there is some genius to him, but it's about bad things. You know, it's like about bad things. It's like finding the ugly stream of thought among a large group of people, bringing that to the surface and exploiting it. Or the true superpower that he has shown the rest of the right wing is absolute bulletproof shamelessness. Oh, yeah. Like, just lie.

I hope. Just assert things that are just patently untrue. I hope people are just like. Just not give up on it. But there's something positive to be taken from that, of just like, if this guy can do this for the dumbest reasons in the world. Bad reasons. You should speak up in the boardroom and be like,

I think this is a good idea. Yeah. I hope good people take the correct lesson from the bloviating of Donald Trump. Right, right, right. Speak up. Like, if you believe in something, like, shout it. That's a good thing to do.

I think so much sadder than whatever Donald Trump is talking about right now, which probably doesn't matter at all I think the sadder thing is watching people retreat in the opposite direction of like well we should draw a contrast by whispering and

being scared of everything all the time and it's like no you should there's a lesson here be a silly person put on a silly hat and shout the correct thing. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, don't retreat. Be shameless about helping poor people.

About good things, yeah. Be shameless and be like, just push. Just push. That's the thing. It's just like push and push and push. And eventually you get the Supreme Court that you want. Yeah, when you say, do i worry if i'm making trump palatable it's like i think no i think comedy is like this place where you can um defang and yeah

and and destroy and dismantle i ask because i know will ferrell started to get when he would do george w bush yeah he made a george w Bush that was kind of, because it's Will Ferrell, first of all, and Will Ferrell, like even when Will Ferrell played, and Will Ferrell's played comedic heavies, but he's played villains and you're still like, that's my favorite guy in the whole movie is the guy that's trying to murder everyone. And I think when he was doing George Bush,

he started to feel like I'm making him into this kind of lovable screw-up. Lovable screw-up? Yeah. Unfortunately, that is what George W. Bush was. I know, but – He was really a lovable screw-up. Yeah, kind of. When you think about the long-term ramifications of stuff that he did as president, they're crazy.

We're still living through a lot of them. I know so many people that say he's 10 times worse than Trump. Because he was effective. But he's hilarious. Yeah. I mean, he's... No, he's like the fuck-up son

of a rich family that's like, all right, I'll run a baseball team. He's hilarious and cool as hell. I mean, you can't control that about some of these people. Right, right. Yeah, I try not to look too deeply into that. And there might be a new wave of guilt about that the older I get.

You know what I mean? If we're all living in some sort of Mad Max scenario in 2026. But I don't think – but I honestly, I don't think that you're – I mean, I asked you that because I was curious about that. Because I'm not – I don't do impersonation stuff. And so I just am wondering about when you do that and people say, we want more of that. And you're doing it about a kind of heinous, shitty person that's affecting our lives in a detrimental way. You're getting people to laugh at him, but, you know, but, but I do think that you're getting them to laugh at him in a way where you're saying, this is a clown. Like I'm, I'm, this is a clown time. Like this isn't, and you know,

you're talking about him. Like he's a statesman. No, he's a clown here. Let me do more. Here's me being him as a clown. And I think that that ultimately i has to help somewhat i don't know i don't know i i'm uh again i think you know journalists are journalists and comedians are comedians and and i think that there's there's a lot of comedy that feels preachy and instructive and i don't know how much that's helping people and it's not and i don't i don't like it i think like i said like when you said like if you come up and be like donald trump sucks and here's my impersonation of him no you do the impersonation of him and you show them that he sucks yeah you know what i mean the way that i do trump is not

dignified in any way i know i do find it really odd when people are like – because I perform in the southeast all the time. And that's where I live a lot of the time. I want to be near my parents. I have a little baby. And I want to get along with those people. I want to shove that baby off on those people and get out. Take this thing from me. And when people come up to me and they're like, you know why I like your Donald Trump?

I'm sorry, I'm doing a southern accent. That's all right. A lot of them talk that way. That's the way they do. You know what I like about your Donald Trump is you don't make it political. And it's like, you do know that the impression I'm doing of him makes him sound like a gibbering cashier of some liquidating uh liquidating dillards somewhere it was like checking people out and he's like i don't i don't know if we have any more of these but this is beautiful and uh did you by the way did what happened to who wants to be a millionaire remember that and you get the question

right and you'd be like i could i could do it better than that guy and i i wouldn't use any of the lifelines i wouldn't even use 50 50 what the hell was a 50 50 for they just took out the jokey one you know half of them are jokes you know it's like who was the first man on the moon a pencil some toothpaste you know like the way that i'm doing donald trump is like that's that's not how that's not how a diplomat speaks. No. That's how like some really hilarious like Supercuts guy. Yeah. A guy at Supercuts talks. So, again, I just think it's on you if you're going to walk away from that going like.

Right, right. Oh, yeah, definitely give him the nuclear cuts again or whatever. or whatever do you i mean are you have you made peace too with like your your uh ability to mimic people because it you know it's helped you to get you know that the television job that you have and um yeah i mean um i uh i love because it was that that was that first i should ask was that like expressly a reason that they were like hey hey, James, we're interested in putting you on this, you know, famous sketch comedy show? Yeah. We love the impressions. Let's see what impression.

I mean, I just I was just asked to send in a tape and the tape that I sent in was just like I maybe did one or two little original character jokey things. But most of it was like impressions that i that i do and uh so that was just i think a creative choice i made where i was like you know you you look at you look at um an opportunity and with anything any acting anything yeah it's just like well what does what does jadge what's the jadge way of doing this what is what is the thing that only i can do what is my unique approach to this yeah and so i just like i took out you know 15 impressions that i do and i was like well i don't really 15 that's fucking crazy and i cut the ones that sucked uh and i and i left in the ones that are great yeah and you know nine of the ones that i think still suck but that's my view on it right um but uh yeah i was like well nobody's nobody's gonna send in a tape to

television show with um of like bobby flay yeah uh talking about putting ketchup on sushi or something yeah that's something that i am i am the only one who is interested in that guy yeah in the room very very often and um that's how it bears out in a lot of my stand-up sometimes where I'm like well no I mean well that I mean personally that's why I think you are sorry impression comics listening to this you're a much you know not only are you doing the voice, you have words. You have interesting, funny words. It's got to have a bit. That come out of the voice because there are people like, great, you picked up on that one vocal tick or those three vocal ticks about this particular person.

But and besides, gosh, gee whiz, sounds just like them. You got to say something. Well, I mean, yeah, I mean, both both in sustaining an hour of stand up for a paying audience and in the job that I have now on TV, like you've got to be a writer. Yeah, it's like writer first. And I'm glad that I'm glad that the bombs and standup kept leading me back to focusing on writing because the writing part is just a huge part of it. And yeah, to me, it's just fluff. It's just fluff if there's not a bit behind it.

It's like, okay, I can do this voice. Why? Otherwise, you're just doing a cartwheel. I don't want to do a cartwheel. I want to do a cartwheel in an action sequence with an explosion, and I'm dressed as a superhero. I want a reason for a cartwheel. I don't want to do a cartwheel. I want to do a cartwheel in an action sequence with an explosion and I'm dressed as a superhero. Like, yeah, I want a reason for the cartwheel. Yeah. And otherwise you're just like making people giggle during a fire drill. Right. You know what I mean? Or you're just like going, look, I'm double jointed. You know, I have this facility for this that I was, you know, like, look what I can do.

All right. You know? Yeah. And, you know, again, the restrictions that you lament all your life, they're good to have. Like, I mean, I was always I was always kind of like timid and afraid of announcing to my family, like, I'm going to do this professionally. And this is what I am going to become successful at. That was a scary thing to like insist upon because it's not how things work. You go to college and you learn how to be

a poetry professor. You go teach at a private Christian college in rural Tennessee. Like that is a legitimate job for a legitimate man. And so I just had to, I've always felt this need to relentlessly justify everything that I'm doing. I have to show before I, before I announced that I'm quitting my job just to be a standup, I've got to make sure that I like have some major achievement behind it. You know what I mean? I need to get JFL and Montreal and say, look, I've got this, this, I've hit this marker. So now it makes sense for me to quit the finance temping. I've been legitimized by somebody that knows

in this particular industry that I'm trying to get into. And even in my act, it's like, if I'm going to do a voice, it needs to be triple justified with there being a standup bit that is driving it. Like it, I, like Louis CK being super positive.

Yeah. Yeah. And it also is just like, there's this like little thing in me where I'm like, I feel cringe and corny. If I'm like, here's, here's Jeffrey Tambor eating lasagna.

Yeah. It's like, I have to find some way to seamlessly make, like get into that voice in a way people don't notice that i'm teeing up an impression yeah yeah like that's really important to me stylistically yeah and um yeah there's art there it's that's the artfulness yeah because it just it's it's not for me it is not enough to be a stand-up or be an impressionist i have to be a really unique version of that. And so it took me a while to find my way of believing in it and presenting it. And I'm glad that it really glad that it

worked out the way it did, because I do feel I'm doing the artist's way now, you know, the artist's way, that book, I'm doing that now. And I'm like trying to get rid of my negative self-talk about being an artist and stuff like that. Now I'm trying to get rid of my negative self-talk about being an artist and stuff like that. Now I'm trying to celebrate myself about these skills that I have and the craft I've been working on. That's good. Yeah, I'm trying to embrace things. The way I look at it is I do more for people that talk nice to me. So that's my version of that.

Decades of saying, saying you fat lazy fuck like i didn't really feel like doing much for that guy right yeah yeah like you fat slob why don't you fucking stop being so fucking fat and be not fat and i'm just like that guy's mean i don't want to hear him anymore i'd like him to go away you know know. Be your own best friend. You need to find a way to be your own best friend. You want to hang out with yourself. Yeah. Well, now you're doing a tour now. Yeah.

Is that sort of open-ended now because of striking? I just keep adding dates to it because I don't know what's going on, right? Yeah. So every day you look at a newspaper and they're like, we're settling in until 2025. And I'm like, oh, that blows. Yeah, yeah. I'm not. I'm not settling into that at all.

I sure hope I return to television. I'm terrified. But, you know. So, yeah, I just keep adding dates because I, that's, this is my current project. Yeah. my current project is just being as good a stand-up as i possibly can be meeting meeting fans and um building um you know there's going to be a point where i'm not on tv as much everybody has the ebbs and flows of their career and uh stand-up will always be a big part of my life and i just want to be as good at it as possible and i and i just i like to do it it's this like it's this thing that

i can punch in and be a comedian on my own terms that's like really great yeah and so i'm touring my little butt off right now so that we can are you doing an is it an hour that you do or i sometimes i do more yeah it's so weird i and is it the same are you kind of or are you kind of having fun and doing a mixed bag of whatever you feel you know there's a lot of riffing and there's a lot of like uh playing around everything there's a lot of riffing riffing a lot todd berry todd berry we love todd berry um yeah it's there's definitely trump and Biden stuff in it. And some other little impressions sometimes. But it's mostly a lot of stand-up about who I am, where I'm from.

A lot of fake country songs in it. Really? Yeah. Stand-up is this great thing because you get to tell people who you are. And so before I was being offered headliner spots and stuff, that was a neat little side effect of getting on TV was like, now I have

people paying to come see me, which is amazing. I've always wanted that. I've always been the guy that was 15 minutes before a much more famous person. And I'm trying to glom onto a sucker fish on like a great white shark you know i'm trying to scoop up some of those little plankton you know um yeah uh it's great to have people come out and they're like they're finding out who i am you know because they just see me on tv and see me playing characters they don't know who i am really you really. They know what they like of what they've seen.

So I'm in this really exciting time where I get to do comedy about my life and sing these fake country songs and do Trump and Biden stuff and Bobby Flay stuff and Bob Dylan stuff. It's fun to just have a lot of ownership and control over what the night is. And I just get carried away. I, I, when I first started getting these hour long gigs, these headliner gigs, I thought, oh, I've got nothing. I've got nothing to show for it. I hate all my comedy. And, you know, I'm a couple of years into being able to be a headliner and I'm circling like two hours of material that I like.

Now it's like this overabundance where I've got to, now I've got to trim and, and shave and prune. And, um, and that's honey. And that's just to leave the hotel room. Oh boy. Um, so. Well, you know what I say, leave them wanting less. Exactly. That's really the key when you're on stage in front of people uh yeah I I get carried away and sometimes I'm up there for an hour 15 and uh I and that I

think has that's just a result of having done this for so long I've been in comedy for so long that I can't I can I can go further and do more than yeah I realized when I started out and do you like, you have like an end point that you're waiting to hit and then, and you just kind of like, oops, it took a little longer to get to that end point. Um,

there's definitely, I would say that there's about 25 minutes. I keep shoving in there. That does not work. That does not work that I am like in five years, this is going to be one of my signature things. So I keep forcing that stuff on people because I just believe in it and I want to see it become something. But you know I have

when I get done with that stuff I'm like alright let's get back to the stuff people like and then you know I'm at the end of the night I'm always picking from about you know four or five different things that could be the closer. Yeah that every new set is a different attempt at the sequencing of whatever this special or album or whatever it's going to be um actually is yeah um and uh oh gosh so so yeah it's uh it's pretty

much learning to just leave on, okay, that was a pretty big laugh. I should just stop. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Why pull them back around for another nine minutes of something? Right, right. Why have to, like, get the machine started up again

until it really, you know, starts. And a lot of my bits are, like, there's, I feel like a lot of my bits are, like, long setups to some sort of big explosion. I see. And having an audience that is like 35 plus, I would say that a lot of my audience is like people with kids. Yeah. You know, we're all sweaty and tired by the end of my set.

You know what I mean? We're all melting. Yeah. We're just thinking about how expensive the sitter is. Yeah. Like, buddy, it's been an hour. Wrap it up.

Yeah, yeah. I'm very conscious now of sitters. Yes. Now having my baby where he's at and knowing how much it costs for my wife

and I to go out on a night in New York. And also, I feel that for people. Also, I feel, I just feel, too, like the initial kind of 50-50-ishness about even showing up in the first place.

I could go see a comedy or go see comedy. That would be fun, but I don't know. I could also stay home. Oh, yeah. So, yeah. Are you somebody that has goals? Like, do you have, like, set goals now that things are, you know, like you said, it took a little while to get the train moving. But now that the train's moving, do you have definite stations you want to?

I super have goals. I am very much like a guy who sets some impossible watermark for himself and then tries to get as close to it as possible. Doing Just for Laughs in Montreal was my first goal when I came to LA. Kyle Kinane told me, have goals. He was like, you should have a game plan. I asked him when I got here from Nashville because I knew him from him coming to Nashville

and me opening for him and stuff. I was like, what should I do? And he was was like i wish somebody told me to have a game plan you should probably have a game plan so all over my house they're like paintings like wherever i have a painting very often when i've had like a couple glasses of wine or tooted a little jazz cigarette or something like that i will start getting misty eyed about being an artist and I'll get a Sharpie and I'll write out my goals on the back of a painting. It's so funny to like pull them down. Are they paintings that you painted or?

No, it's just like the art hanging in my house. I will hide like a, instead of a safe full of jewels. Right, a goal. I will hide my little comedy goals on them. What made you do that? Like what, what, how did that first occur to you? Cannabis or three light years or something like that.

Did your wife find some of your motivational notes and make fun of you? She's like, I gotta hide. No, she thinks it's really cute. Who wouldn't think that's cute? A man wrote his professional goals on the back of a silly painting. Come on, that's cute. It's endearing.

Now people are going to, anybody at your house they're gonna like try to look at but it's like it's like yeah write us write a spec pilot for new girl this is a very outdated goal he's gonna host wheel of fortune too late uh yeah so i have like goals scribbled all over the place and it's it's a thing that really helps me and And ultimately, it just comes down to... Helps you in what sense? It gives shape and structure to what can be a really formless existence. So much of being an actor and a comedian is just throwing tapes down the toilet. Waiting for the phone to ring.

Waiting for the phone to ring and getting a breakdown, and it's the same breakdown you always get where it's like, he's a nerd, but he's a nerd but he's shredded and he's hot and sexy nerd yeah like i'm definitely getting this one looking down at my misshapen pot belly i'm like yeah i'm definitely getting shredded yeah yeah yeah i'm like calling my agents quit sending me out on the shredded nerd right can you bring in lumpy creative person nerd really a thing i mean i get i know that they want everyone to be fuckable these breakdowns are impossible yeah i've never booked a taco bell commercial

because taco bell they they want hot people on taco bell and i don't know if you've ever been in a taco bell they're jesus christ i'm a little bit like a meat market i look a little bit more like the people who eat a taco rather than those who advertise. Right, right. And that's a fitness goal for me is look like a guy who could get cast in a Taco Bell commercial. Yeah. By never eating Taco Bell. By never eating at that restaurant or by just being 23 and that doesn't matter.

Sure. Yeah. I will set an impossible goal for myself and that gives form and shape to a really nebulous pursuit. And when I first got here, I was like, I want to do a big comedy festival. I want to do one of those festivals where everybody looks at you and you get a manager. And of course, by striking in that direction, it all happens out of order. You get a TV spot, but it's on MTV, and the show's canceled before your thing airs.

You get a manager from doing five minutes on an improv show that you were never supposed to get a… This person happened to be there. Happened to be there. You don't get it from the big, big show. By the time I did end up getting Montreal, I had already done everything that I wanted from it. Like I already had like a manager that I liked and I already had like an idea for what a show might be at some point.

And, you know, so like these goals that you set for yourself, a lot of times they don't result really in anything tangible. in anything tangible the moment that you get that goal. It's more like it gave me this mission and gave me ambition that took me to all these great places. And at some point after I did Montreal, I was like, I want to audition for it. And that just became the overarching goal. Oh, I want to audition for for live television program. Yes, right.

For Lauren's Club. Yes, I want... So, yeah, that was a thing that I, that was a goal that I set for myself. And it's crazy to think that in 2017, how like impossible that seemed. And to be living the life I get to live now is incredible. What are scribbled on the back of the paintings that you haven't done yet?

The things that I haven't done yet. I've gotten to accomplish some really great stuff. Like the TV show I'm on. One time I wrote down, work with a real director. And two years later, I had three lines in a Coen Brothers movie. It was like just setting the goal does a lot for your brain's health, I feel like. It's good to set a goal. And not that it immediately results in anything.

It's just sometimes you might surprise yourself. Yeah, no. I mean, I don't do that much. And I like the sound of it. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. It's fun. I'm more sort of like, I don't do that much and i like the sound of it you know what i mean yeah yeah it's fun uh i'm more sort of like i don't know wait around see what happens let's see what happens yeah uh the things that are left are like um you know i think it would be really fun one day to be like the kind of person that like directs family movies or something like that

i think it would be really fun to be like robert rodriguez or something like that that that seems really fun to me so that's the new goal that i have no time limit on it's like one of these days i'm gonna get the chance to make some sort of like a silly effect driven like action movie for 12 year olds yeah because that seems like a fun genre to work in yeah something where uh something where uh it's like they're stunts and ultimately it's uh it's uh low stakes you know what i mean it's like that that would be really fun it would be really fun to uh to be one of those guys so that's that's the new impossible goal i've set for myself but i like the i like the urge that it's experiential yeah you know what i mean it's like it's not because i have you know in my life i've gone on because i

used to kind of want to do something important and now i don't really i mean i want to do good work yeah and i want to entertain people but that's about it you know like i don't want them to say like like because i you know i now that i have more time to do it i've been directing television commercials because i started in chicago in television commercials i'm working with people that i was a pa with yeah back in the 90s you know and uh and and you know i directing is just there is there's no surprise why people want to do it it's really fun it's fun like first of all you get to tell people what to do and then listen to you like when you say i think we should do this i've been doing that for 30 years now in television and you know most of the time it's like well that's nice that you

think that yeah but when you say i think we should do of the time it's like well that's nice that you think that yeah but when you say i think we should do this and then there's like all these like really grown-up adult types that go okay yeah well that sounds like a great idea you're just like yeah wow wow you know it's like you know like your rich parents paid for you to have friends that you know will say like yes let's go to the zoo today but i but i do think you know like i used to want to do important stuff now i just want to do stuff that would be fun like if i just direct commercials that's okay i like it it's fun i like the people that i work with i like be i've come to the conclusion i really like being on sets and I like figuring out comedy problems.

Yeah, yeah, comedy problems. So that's, you know, I mean, it's like I don't need to make any big messages anymore. I just want to have fun and make entertainment, you know. But do you think you would have gotten to that place if you didn't at some point go, I need to be the greatest filmmaker of all time? That was probably a good little goal post to throw down yeah at the end of the well and i think field well and i think i mean you i also want to have standards i don't want to you know yeah even within within being like hey man i want to have fun it's like yeah but i don't want to do a piece of shit you know i don't

want to do garbage i don't want to be embarrassed by things um so you know i but i mean i think that's great i think that's a great way to because i always i always would and i've said it on here before my philosophy about for the years that i did the show was i need to have you can't say that oh right it was it's a defunct it's no longer on say red-haired red-haired chatty that irish propaganda show that was on red-haired chatty invisible string dancer i think is legally what you're allowed to say thank you um but all the years i did uh you know that i did a strip show that he did a talk show. I thought it's important to look like you're having fun. So you might as well have fun.

Like that's people are watching that show to live vicariously through the people that are on the screen. So have fun. And I think that's a pretty good system. Like just generally for lots of different things as to like, like, you know, like you said,

make a big family film. Like why not? Yeah. Everybody gets to feel good about that you know fun fun with rules yeah i think that's that's led me to a lot of good places i think that's how can you have how can you have the most fun yeah like let's set up some structure and some rules to it for our fun you know what i mean it's like that's how improv works and stuff like that. Right. You got to have some sort of restriction on it. Yeah, because otherwise it's just noise. Otherwise it's just noise. Yeah.

Yeah. Do you have big points that you've taken out from your journey on this, you know, on your time on this earth? Like, do you have like philosophies that you kind of, I mean, you're writing shit on the back of paintings. You must have some kind of mottottos relax yeah shut up relax yeah um what if i learned like you've been kidnapping people shut up relax yeah stay down it's just a spooky basement. I'll bring some soup down later. Relax. That's the thought of a kidnapper being like, calm down. Yeah. What are you screaming about?

Relax. Yeah. I'm coming back later. Yeah. It's not a real gun. There's some books down there. Chill out. What have i learned um i've got i've got so much more in the tank

even even when i'm on e there's there's more left that's that's something that the that the tv show has taught me and that uh i'm learning in my stand-up it's like i i've had so many moments where i'm like that's that's fucking it that is all that's the last drop from the bucket you know you don't have anything more you don't have more ideas no more ideas or you're you're tapped or you don't have any there's no i know there's an audience out there and you haven't slept at all and you can't do it and i'm like no i can i i have experience it's i just have so much more left in me than than i realize and um and there's no way that I would be able to sustain the things that I'm doing without some resilience. And, um, I, you know, what was a big,

this is, this is a little silly, but you know, it was a big thing that I went through from my career accelerating a little bit, fear of flying and having, and having to learn how to accept flight and getting on planes and stuff. Was that something that you hadn't had? And then all of a sudden you had something to lose by a plane crashing and then started to worry about it? At some point, I just got really scared of flying to the point that I would like be freaked out in bed thinking about being on a plane instead of at home. bed thinking about being on a plane instead of at home yeah and um and uh i had to face that i had to face that when stand up and and being a tv actor started jetting me around a little bit yeah yeah where you know if i was going to if i was going to uh you know i remember my first like

college gig where i was like i can get an engagement ring if i go do this college gig remember how i keep saying i'm too poor to get the 600 ring or whatever yeah it's like well that's not an excuse anymore if i go do this college gig and that college gig means flying to the east coast so how do we negotiate this because you have been avoiding avoiding all flying for like eight years straight wow because. Because you're scared of it. Wow. And so learning that I could go through something like that and push myself through that much discomfort and arrive on this place that I'm at now where I still get a little jumpy sometimes.

I get jumpy when it's bumpy. Who doesn't? Everybody does. I don't. You love losing altitude. everybody does i don't know every you love i know i don't losing altitude i honestly i have i think this is a one of the silver linings of low-grade depression lifelong low-grade depression is i don't feel any real particular stake in just existing yeah so like that there's a bumpiness on the plane i think a my anxiety does nothing in terms of holding up the plane

yeah so i'm powerless and b you know this shit happens all the time and you know at the plane if we really start to drop then i'll start to get worried but for right now i'm gonna be okay oh yeah it's uh yeah learning that it's just oh'm uncomfortable. It's funny when you say that, because I, there was a point early on in me getting on, on TV where all of the stressors that I'd had in my life, money, relationships, career, the, the, the big, you know, the three, the Cerberus of, of my life, they were all kind of taken care of. I was like a newlywed, very much in love, very happy. I was on television. I was making money.

And I think I started to have these crazy mortality. Yeah. I just thought about like, well, what's, yeah, great. Things are going great. But in five minutes, I'm going to be dead. You know, like seemingly five minutes. Like, or what does any of this matter anyway?'re all just gonna be dead yeah and i think it was just my brain still being the anxiety factory that it always was but the shoots that the anxiety went

down had been stopped up and so it was just the anxiety was still being produced but it was just looking for a place to land and you know i'm gonna die is the first place for anxiety of any of us big-brained apes yeah we're like we that's you know that's the what that's the real fucking shitty part about being us is like yeah we know we're gonna die yeah you know so i think and i you know it took a while you know to where the the depression went over and i realized like you know so i think and i you know it took a while you know to where the the depression went over and i realized like you know 50 50 live die whatever you know yeah you gotta you just gotta have good defense defenses and good coping skills yeah um it was talk therapy that that got me to that place yeah so i can talk myself through difficult situations people ask me a lot if being on the show if i get nervous being on the show.

And I'm like, that's where I'm not nervous. Yeah. Like, that's the fun thing. Yeah. That's the fun thing. Right. Being silly for people in like a big way. Right.

And like the way that I've always wanted to do it. With cue cards. That's the fun part. Yeah. With cue cards, too. You know what you're going to say. Yeah. That's the fun part. Yeah, with cue cards too. You know what you're going to say. Yeah, my nerves and anxiety and stuff is like when I'm sitting on a couch thinking about some stuff that doesn't matter. That's where all the anxiety comes from.

Yeah, it's – I guess that's what I have learned the most from doing what I do and being led to the place that I'm in is just that I can handle a lot. I'm doing what I do and being led to the place that I'm in is just that I can, I can handle a lot and, um, I can, uh, reward myself sometimes for, you know, celebrate myself a little bit for,

for getting there. You know what I mean? That's, um, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well,

uh, you've gotten there, buddy. Hey, you did it. It's only just beginning. It's only just beginning or it's about to beginning. Or it's about to end rapidly. Yeah, but that's a beginning of its own.

The nightmare that happens after it ends. The new guy. That's the new thing. And I'm going to be the cashier at Dillard's. Yeah. Decades of downward spiral. Yeah. That's exciting.

Seriously, thank you so much for coming and doing this. Yeah. It was nice to meet you. Yeah. And. It was very nice to meet you too, Andy. Thank you. Thank you so much for coming and doing this. Yeah. It was nice to meet you. Yeah. And. It was very nice to meet you too, Andy. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah. And you, is there a website people? It's the age of J-A-J or JADJ. Is that what you say? The age of JADJ is the tour that I'm on right now is the age of JADJ. JADJ. Age of JADJ. You can go to James Austin Johnson dot com

for more information about that. All right. And follow me on I guess the good one and don't follow me on the bad one. I don't know. I don't know what the rules are. They're all bad man. They're all bad. Yeah. Yeah. I yeah I'm shrimp J.A.J. shrimp judge on

the socials and yeah you can find tickets for my shows on jamesaustinjohnson.com. All right. Yeah. Well, thanks again for being here. It was great to meet you and get to hang. This was lovely. It was.

And thank all of you out there for listening. And I'll be back next week to not plug things for those bastards. The Three Questions with Andy Richter is a Team Coco production. It is produced by Sean Daugherty and engineered by Rich Garcia. Additional engineering support by Eduardo Perez and Joanna Samuel. Executive produced by Nick Liao, Adam Sachs, and Jeff Ross. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, with assistance from Maddie Ogden. Research by Alyssa Grahl. Don't forget to rate and review and subscribe to The Three Questions

with Andy Richter wherever you get your podcasts. And do you have a favorite question you always like to ask people? Let us know in the review section. Can't you tell my love's a-growing? Can't you feel it ain't a-showing? Oh, you must be a-knowing I've got a big, big love This has been a Team Coco production.