Loading summary
Transcript69 lines
- [00:08]
A
You're listening to all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. Hey. There are just a few tickets left for Thursday's Broadway on the Radio event. The cast and creative team from Cats, the Jellicle Ball, will be right here in the WNYC green space. The show's co directors and choreographers will tell you how you they brought ballroom to Broadway. And of course, we'll have live performances, including from the legendary Andre de Shield. It's all happening this Thursday at noon. It's going to be amazing. But you have to grab those tickets now. They're just a few left. Go to wnyc.org cats now, let's get this hour started with Josh Johnson. Comedian Josh Johnson is known for a lot of things. His work on the Daily show. He has a podcast. He does stand up sets which he posts on YouTube. He has millions of hits. And now he has his first HBO comedy comedy special. It's titled Symphony and it debuts this Friday. Like a lot of Josh's humor, really, they're kind of stories. He touches on the things that make life extraordinary and mundane at the same time. That's what's special about what he does. The Guardian gave his special five stars writing quote, Johnson has a remarkable ability to paint vivid visions and word with words. And his subtle physicality transforms amusing, if somewhat banal anecdotes into meticulously crafted joy and preposterous. If that isn't the most Guardian English review I've ever heard, Josh, I don't know if I've ever read one before. Nice to talk to you.
- [01:44]
B
It's nice to talk to you.
- [01:46]
A
So before you came to the WNYC studios, you were like on the corner of grand and Worcester Street?
- [01:51]
B
Yes, yes.
- [01:52]
A
What happened?
- [01:53]
B
So we did a little thing with everybody where people gathered together. I had them play some music on a giant keyboard and then we had ice cream.
- [02:04]
A
How'd it go?
- [02:05]
B
It was fun. Yeah, it was great. It was great to meet everyone. Yeah, it was. I was, I was very thankful so many people showed up.
- [02:12]
A
What kind of ice cream did you have?
- [02:14]
B
I'm. I'm a pretty vanilla guy.
- [02:16]
A
Just like a. Well, straight vanilla is good.
- [02:18]
B
Yeah, straight vanilla is fine.
- [02:20]
A
It's just fine. You are the person who figured out the Internet.
- [02:25]
B
I don't know about that.
- [02:26]
A
Well, you got close. Let me tell you, with your releasing your videos on Tuesday night. They go up. When did you realize this was the way to get your comedy out to the world?
- [02:36]
B
I've always written a lot. I've Always had lots of ideas and become a bit bored easily of doing the same set for no reason. Like, if I was doing the same set with no real goal towards what I was gonna change about the joke or the story or the delivery, then I just wanted to move on. And so a friend of mine was like, oh, why don't you talk about more current events and everything? And that sort of set me off on this path where I do the topical stuff on YouTube and everything. And I think that it's just done really well with what I was doing before, which was I was writing a lot and it had no place to go, you know? Cause even if you. Even if you show up to a record label, like, let's say there's a comedy record label, and they are willing to put out a couple of your albums, and they mean to put out these albums over the course of however long. And so if you came to them with 10 albums, they'd be like, all right, we're covered for five years or something, you know? And so if you want to release things or share things with people, the Internet, especially YouTube, has just given us the ability to just put the thing out there for the sake of it being out there. And I think that that's what feels different about what I do weekly versus the special. The special is meant to be something that doesn't really have ties to any particular period. And my intention and my belief is that it could be watched now or, you know, decades from now and still hold up. Is the. Is always the goal. It's the goal when anybody puts their work out. But I think that there are things that just can't be helped. Like sometimes if you are talking about politics and you just mentioned Trump or Ted Cruz by name, even if they're doing something that politicians have done for a long time, you immediately date the thing. You immediately date what you're talking about. And for anyone who doesn't understand the sort of cyclical nature of politics, you are talking about a specific thing, even if you allude to something that's been happening for decades.
- [04:49]
A
So you see what you do on YouTube, and the special is very different things.
- [04:54]
B
Yes. Yes.
- [04:54]
A
That's interesting. So when did you know. When you were with the YouTube part, when did you know that was working, that this idea of putting it up weekly, staying really topical was working?
- [05:05]
B
I mean, I felt like it was working when it was working for me. I enjoy putting it up. I enjoyed having something that definitely kept a writing practice intact. And I think that long before it was videos were getting like millions of views. I was still enjoying what I was was doing. And it was something that I felt like was meeting a purpose. And so I got really excited about doing it long before there was like, this level to it, I guess you could say.
- [05:39]
A
So with the HBO comedy special, you said it's supposed to sort of last years into the future. How is that to write?
- [05:49]
B
I think it's. I don't want to say easy, but I think you can pretty clearly speak to something that everyone will most likely go through, even if not in the way that you went through it. I think that when you are talking about a celebrity couple, once again, it's a dated thing. If you're talking about two people and what happened between them, it is in relation to people's assessment of whose side they even took and what tabloid they read or something. But if you're talking about love in general and the ability to fall in love or the ability to be loved, those things are so open and universal that I think that speaking to what is universal then speaks to what is timeless.
- [06:38]
A
I'm talking to Josh Johnson. His new comedy special Symphony, premieres on HBO Friday, May 22. Second, the words the beginning of the special at Symphony, it says, if art is how we decorate space and music is how we decorate time, comedy is how we decorate reality. The first part was written by Jean Michel Basquiat. Tell us a little bit about the second part. Comedy is how we decorate reality.
- [07:04]
B
I think that you could look at something that happened and just as it happened, just as it is, and then as it is is the same thing as those other elements. Space is as it is, time is as it. But then that decoration is a choice. It's a decision to engage in what you already have, but how you want to experience it. And so I think that making art out of a white wall or a canvas and making music out of the time you have in your day is very similar to making comedy out of the thing that we all noticed, like the thing that's in the room or the thing that someone said, or most of what I think comedy is and why people laugh is there's a relation to what the comedian has said with something that you've already been thinking. And then the same way that people express a vision of like a beautiful visa across a canvas and it pulls out of you your experiences with views. And the same way that people might pull a piece of music out of themselves through their experiences, that connects with the current experience you're having, whether it's Heartbreak or joy or like a new feeling. And I think that comedy meets people where they are, in a way, of this is the thing that's happening. And maybe you know how you feel about it, maybe you don't, but here's me expressing, pulling out of myself all the things that I think about what's happening around us.
- [08:38]
A
And.
- [08:39]
B
And I think that connection, while funny, is also a connection to what's going on with people and a sort of. Not back channel, but a sort of thing that unintended. There's an intention for the comedian, and I think it's unintended by the audience to sort of lift the veil of how they feel about something. Because when you. One of the reasons sometimes people don't want to laugh at a joke is because we have an inherent belief that laughter is agreement. And so I think that if you can pull that agreement out of people, then you have rightfully expressed yourself and you've decorated the sort of reality like I think it is. I'll just give an example because I feel like I'm not expressing it as well as I could. It is not funny as in haha funny all the time. But it is funny that, like a reality star became president. And it's not ha ha funny as in, like, no one, oh, no one cares whatever, let's just move on. But it is funny as in crazy, the things that happen every day. And so if you feel like this thing that's happening right now is insane, and then I express that, I also feel like it's insane. It has that same. It has that same notion that you pull out of when you make a piece of art for someone that they immediately connect with. It's just, in this case, you're connecting with words and with intention around an economy of words and a point of view.
- [10:10]
A
It's interesting because I watched an interview with you and the gentleman was just going down a checklist of questions, and you wanted to stay on the first question, and you sort of like, held him there and you talked it about a little bit more, and it was funny. It was an interesting exchange between the two of you, but you just had to like, Wait a second. You just asked me an interesting question.
- [10:29]
B
Sure, sure.
- [10:30]
A
And we had to kind of talk
- [10:31]
B
that a little bit.
- [10:32]
A
And I thought that was a very. I don't know if you did that intentionally or if that's just the way your mind works.
- [10:38]
B
Yes. But if you get a question that you don't normally get, or if you get a question that phrases something in a way that you've never thought about before. Most people have this sort of internal monologue anyway, so you're asking and answering questions for yourself all the time. And so when someone asks you a question that you genuinely not been asked in a certain way, or they are making you think about something that you haven't, that you haven't already come up with an answer for, especially not throwaway answer, then I think it's a lot like experiencing a new color, where you're like, every once in a while, someone will be like, we've discovered a new color. And if you wanted to just breeze by it, you'd be like, it's blue. I know what blue is. But then if you look at it deeper, you're like, oh, is it. I guess I haven't seen this before. It's a type of blue I've never seen.
- [11:29]
A
Yeah, that was kind of interesting.
- [11:31]
B
Oh, thanks.
- [11:32]
A
You're wearing your normal hoodie that people are used to seeing.
- [11:35]
B
Sure, sure.
- [11:36]
A
But you've changed your look. I saw you years ago opening for Trevor Noah.
- [11:41]
B
Okay.
- [11:41]
A
And you had, like, a full fro.
- [11:42]
B
Yes.
- [11:43]
A
And you sort of, like, bestoon, like, had this beautiful brocade jacket on. And I was curious, was that a decision that you made to, like, pare down jeans and a hoodie versus your earlier versions of yourself or. Kind of. Cause in the special, you're kind of in between.
- [12:00]
B
Sure.
- [12:01]
A
You got, like a brocade jacket, like, sort of low key.
- [12:04]
B
Sure, sure. I think that once again, for a special, there's something about dressing up or dressing differently that also nods at how unique this thing is. And then I think that for the hoodie, to me, it's like, it serves a lot of purposes, you know, one, I think, even just as an aesthetic reminder to sort of, like, be the same wherever you are, whether you're on stage or you're at home or you're meeting someone new or whatever it is. And then also there's the fact that it's just comfortable. It's just like. It's just genuinely. I think that I could, you know, I could probably, like, wax poetic about it forever. But also the truth of the matter is it's very comfortable, and I'm heavy on comfort. I'm, like, obsessed with just being comfortable.
- [12:58]
A
You and Steve Jobs, same thing.
- [13:00]
B
Yes, yes, yes. Hopefully not the same person.
- [13:02]
A
No.
- [13:02]
B
But, yeah.
- [13:03]
A
We're talking to Josh Johnson. His new comedy special Symphony premieres on HBO this Friday. Symphony. It's beautiful how much music is in the show and how it all ties together at the end. I don't want to give too much away. How much does music, how much of it is a part of your life?
- [13:21]
B
I mean, I'd say it's a pretty big part of my life, not just listening to music, but I think that, I think that a lot of comedians are consistently chasing the thing that musicians get. I'm not even saying musicians take it for granted, but with music there is a replayability and there is a way to be rediscovering a song all the time. And you don't really get that with jokes and stories. Like jokes and stories. Once people are aware of what the thing is, it's like, you know, they might enjoy it just as much a second time, but that's the best you can hope for is that they enjoy it as much. If you can make it so that people catch something they didn't catch the first time and there's layers there, then you're onto something special. But for the most part, you will not see people go back and listen to like 70s comedy. It's not a thing that people really do. They might like comedians from the 70s, but they like those specific personalities. Whereas you could have a whole radio station of rock 80s, you know. And so I think genre wise music is so expansive, but also our relation to it and the ability to pull out of music the thing that we connect with, think or feel versus comedy, which is pretty straightforward. Like someone tells you the joke and then they've told you a joke about that thing. Now it could be misinterpreted. You might have a conversation with them and they're like, oh, actually it was meant to be about this. So sometimes within the writing there's little notes of something else. But I think that music has its own timelessness and its own ability to create connection. That comedy is, or at least I, through comedy am in the pursuit of, but is much more difficult because I think that the connections that people make in music aren't even sometimes dots connected by the writer, producer, the creator of the song.
- [15:27]
A
You know, it's interesting, One of your YouTube commenters said, no, no, no, wait. Weekly full length specials of new material, hosting the Daily show, touring full time, and puts out an HBO special. What on the Superman on steroids is going on here? How magical is this, man? It's a grueling schedule that you've got for yourself. How do you decide what to do and what not to do?
- [15:52]
B
Like in life or on stage?
- [15:55]
A
Oh, let's start with on stage.
- [15:59]
B
Okay. I think that I try to only talk about Things that I am genuinely interested in. I think that the level of interest that you hold for a thing is gonna be the level of interest you can convey, which is probably the level of interest people are going to have. I think it's very rare, even though it does happen, when someone is completely checked out of their art form, but then they still garner the same amount of connection with the audience. I think that the ability to. Let's say you're a musician, the ability to write a song, perform a song, and make an entire body of work if you really don't want to do it, or if you're just not as interested in it, is going to show at some point.
- [16:48]
A
It's like in the encore, when they're like, yeah, play your greatest hits. And they strums through it.
- [16:53]
B
Yes, you know that feeling. And. And I think that if you are only talking about things that you are fully engaged with and that you find interesting, even if it's not on its face, something interesting to other people, I think that you can make some real connection there. And so, for instance, a good example is tonight, my set that's coming out is about Hulk Hogan and Hulk Hogan's connection with Hulk Hogan's image trajectory, with America's image trajectory. Right. And I know that plenty of the people who watch me may not be wrestling fans, but I feel like I have an interesting enough thing to say about what happened that maybe they'll give me some grace here and that they will while. And I also will approach the topic from a place of. You may not be a wrestling fan, but here's why I think this is an apt analogy.
- [17:54]
A
That's interesting. So that's onstage, offstage. How do you decide what you have the energy for?
- [18:01]
B
I think that. I think that Covid proved a lot of people. Like, it proved to a lot of people what they will or won't do, like being on lockdown is how I knew I'm probably not gonna learn the Italian. That's probably not gonna happen because not only was I alone and in my room for a good portion of the day, I live with my girlfriend, but she would have work, I would have work, and then we would have that off period where it's like, okay, we live together and we're in the room together, but, like, we both need our personal time, whatever, right? And in that time where I'm alone in my room and we're in a. You know, we're in a pandemic, and the city is, like, essentially locked down, there's no better Time to learn some Italian. And I still didn't do it. So clearly it's just something I say in my head that I'll do if I get the time, but I got the time, and I didn't do it, which means I don't actually care to do it. And so rather than living in that delusion, I need to just start actually picking the things that I actually care about. And sometimes they won't be convenient, you know? Like, I've started playing chess, and I'm not. I'm not good at chess. I've become just good enough to know when something bad is about to happen. I don't even. I don't even know. Like, I. Like, the thing will happen, right, and someone will move their rook. And all I know is, like, that's not good. And it's not. And it's not coming from a place of, like, I've studied the lines and the openings and everything. I just know. And it's. You would think that the knowing would help you, but it doesn't. Because me playing chess and knowing something bad is about to happen is a lot. Like, if you were walking down the street and you saw banana peel and you were like, oh, something about to happen. Oh, no. It's like, yes, there's a world where you don't slip on the banana peel because you are steps away from it. But I don't know how to walk around the banana peel of the rook. And so I. But I really like playing chess. And while I don't necessarily have the time or make the time, because that's another distinction I've learned is, like, accepting what you have the time for and accepting what you make the time for are also two different things. And so I've been in a situation where I play as much as I can every day. I learn what little bit I can from playing. But I've bought two books on chess and been gifted one and have not made the time to read too far into the book yet. Because every time that time comes, I'm like, all right, I know I get better if I just read some more pages of this book, but I'd rather play. And I'm using it to relax. And I'm. And I'm having fun as I play. And there's little interesting. Like, it just. You can. You can almost feel like synapses firing off when you're finally playing a game you never played before where you've, like. You've never seen this position before. So that's great. But if I'M if I'm being honest with myself about reaching a level of chess that is exceptional, I'm not making the time to do that. And I don't know if I care to at the moment because also I have to accept that some of those things are not shelvable. If you want to reach an elite level of something, it needs time and dedication. And so if I'm not putting in the time and dedication now this late in life in relation to when people get good at chess, then it's probably not gonna happen. And I have to accept that unless I'm gonna change something about my approach. But I would much rather be like the Magnus Carlsen of comedy than attempting to be the 18,000 rate Magnus Carlsen. And so that's how I make those decisions as I go.
- [22:02]
A
Can I ask you a question that's got nothing to do with comedy and it's got nothing to do with your special and you can tell me to move on. I saw in an interview that your mom, she was a special ed teacher and then she had neurosurgery and she became a librarian and I recently had neurosurgery. I had brain surgery. Oh, so we're similar situation. Sounds like your mom. What did you learn from that experience as her son dealing with her, her illness?
- [22:32]
B
You know, I was, I was little, but still there's an appreciation for how precious she is, how like absolutely like special she is. And, and it, and it was a. Yeah, it was, it was a clue in to how special so many people are and how delicate those relationships are and how, and how delicate the time is that you have with people. I'm very thankful that, you know, she not only pulled through, but she's been living a great life and I want to give her an amazing life and everything. You know, when I, yeah, when I, any. Anytime I can, I'm spending time with her and anytime that, that I'm able to, I'm trying to make sure that she doesn't want for anything. But yeah, that, that was a real clue into like, like impermanence and everything. And so it, I think even as a kid it made me take a lot of life a bit more seriously because I didn't really have. And I'm blessed in this case. I didn't really have any great losses until I got a little bit older. And so just that, that one mixed in with, you know, my, my grandma had some health issues when I was really young as well. And I was so young that I don't. I like admittedly don't even fully remember what they were. And. And so there was that same thing with. With my grandmother as well, but more so with my mom because that felt like I was finally old enough to have an understanding of what was happening
- [24:25]
A
with Symphony. What do you hope people will talk about after seeing the show?
- [24:31]
B
I mean, I hope that they can take away the central message and maybe the Internet is as good as it is bad. So I'm hoping that.
- [24:46]
A
I think you're pretty well liked, though, on the Internet.
- [24:48]
B
Oh, yeah, thanks. No, I'm not even talking about. In relation to me. I just think if you. I think if you share a positive message in the. How do I put this? I think sharing any sort of, like, unifying or positive message in the face of, like, divisive rhetoric and, like, open tragedy and like, cruelty in the world, there's ways that you can do it that are trying to remind people and call people, even yourself, to, like, our better nature as people. And then there are ways of doing it that sound completely and totally naive to situations that are happening right now. And so I don't think that positivity is naive, and I don't think that having a. As close as you can to a calling back home is naive. But I can respect how people who are going through it right now or people who are at the forefront of the unfairness of governments, of countries, of, you know, the current world that we're in, might not meet that same message with the level of grace that would be needed to the level of grace that would need to be accepted. Like, I think that if you have been victim of an injustice or if you were a survivor of systemic injustice, then someone calling to an idea of how connected we all are may not resonate with you. And I think that's perfectly fair. And so my hope is that people can take from it the thing that I intended, which is a reminder of how two main things. One is that everybody is pretty much the same and not the same as in the exact same person or people do all the same stuff. But I just believe that when I try to meet people where they are, I do it with a certain understanding of if I can find out as much information about them as possible, I can come to an understanding of why they might be the way that they are. I think that that doesn't mean that I will condone their behavior. It doesn't mean that I might even like them. But I think that if you have a real understanding of someone, then how they got to be the way they are is usually no great mystery. And the other thing is that everything is connected. I think that there are levels of connection and through lines that if you were telling a grand story about humanity pulled together like pieces of a plot that can only be seen a certain way by certain people. So there are people who come up with stories I could never come up with, and there are people who draw conclusions and make connections that I would never be able to. And I think that those two things like that everyone's kind of the same in a way, and that we're all connected are the ideas I would like to impart with the special.
- [28:23]
A
The name of the special is Symphony. It premieres on HBO this Friday, May 22nd. My guest has been Josh Johnson. Thank you for coming to the studio and for being so candid.
- [28:32]
B
No, thank you. I appreciate you. Thanks for having me.
- [28:37]
A
When it comes to weight loss, you don't need more advice. You need more of what works. That's Weight Watchers with real tools designed to take the guesswork out of what to eat, how to move, and how to build habits that actually last. That's why Weight Watchers members lose more weight. Real people, real Results. Weight Watchers Core+ get started@weightwatchers.com In a six month clinical trial of over 370 people, those using Weight Watchers saw significantly better results than those following standard nutritional advice alone. See the 2025 study published in the AJCN. Hi, I'm Maggie Smith, poet and host of the Slowdown. Each weekday I share a poem and a moment of reflection, helping you turn listening into a daily ritual.
- [29:20]
B
It's five minutes to slow down, pay
- [29:23]
A
attention, and begin the day with intention. Find it in your favorite podcast app and make the Slowdown your new daily poetry practice.