James Austin Johnson Knows Why Trump Is So Popular

Summary

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Good One: James Austin Johnson Knows Why Trump Is So Popular

Host: Jesse David Fox
Guest: James Austin Johnson
Release Date: January 15, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode of Good One features comedian and SNL cast member James Austin Johnson. Host Jesse David Fox delves deep into Johnson’s creative process—especially his singular impression of Donald Trump, his approach to musical impressions, his role as a “Glue Guy” at SNL, and his evolving relationship with comedy. The conversation is revealing about both the art and the workmanlike aspects of SNL, the nuances of political satire, and what makes Johnson’s Trump impression distinct, especially in its embrace of the "charm" that many others miss.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Opening Stories and SNL Origins

• James’s Humorous Medical Story (04:00–04:40): Shares a comedic story about discovering a bump on his neck turned out to be a pimple, professionally extracted by Sarah Sherman's uncle—a moment of classic SNL gross-out humor.
  • [03:54] James: “[The doctor] goes, ‘This is Sarah’s type of shit. We should be rolling on this. Sarah get a big kick out of this.’”
• How James Got on SNL (05:00–06:40): At Jesse’s prompting, James tells (as Trump) the story of his meandering path to SNL—firing off audition tapes, thinking he wouldn't get it, and then joining the cast three months before his son was born.

2. The Art and Process of Impressions

• Locking into Impressions & “The Duck” Metaphor (07:40): Johnson likens impression work to a duck paddling madly below smooth water—lots of hidden effort.
• Trump Impression Philosophy & Mechanics (14:00–18:00):
  • Process: James describes composing improvisatory audio memos, riffing as Trump, sending long voice notes to writers, and wanting sketches not to be “home runs” but to have some risk and randomness.
  • [17:00] James: “I want more, I want some risk in there, because that feels so fun to live through for me. I love an element of risk in the cold opens.”
• Dissecting Impressions—Teaching Methods (18:13–20:11): James conveys his reticence to fully “understand” his method, enjoying the mysteries, but details helping other SNL cast members with impressions (such as Elon Musk’s hybrid South African/British/Austrian accent).

3. Distinguishing His Trump from Others

• Embracing Trump’s Charm (21:09–22:17): Johnson stresses that his goal is to find what’s funny and charming about Trump, not just satirize.
  • [22:16] James: “His charm and popularity are extremely clear to me and have always been… I’ve leaned more into his charm because I think he’s a hilarious and charming person.”
• The Southern/Red State Perspective (24:42): James shares how his southern roots provide a unique vantage for performing Trump—aware of where his charisma truly lands with audiences.

4. SNL Work Life and Balancing Family

• Work Process at SNL (10:34–12:52): Johnson discusses the intensity of SNL’s early week schedule, emphasizing the anxiety of blue-sky brainstorming and his need for work-life balance as a parent.
• Physical Toll & Resilience (11:38–12:56): Details strategies for staying healthy amidst sleep deprivation and toddler parenting—constantly being “sick,” but the show’s adrenaline overriding illness.

5. Satire, Politics, and Audience Perception

• What’s the Point of SNL Satire? (29:12–33:00): James reflects on satire’s societal role; he’s less interested in converting audiences than reflecting cultural realities—letting people see the real appeal of Trump and his ongoing popularity.
  • [31:17] James: “I really can’t say anything about the character of Donald Trump or his fitness for any roles… What more could I say in the negative about Donald Trump that he has not celebrated... daily?”
  • Details sensing audience “sighs” when Trump appears post-2020, yet always aware of Trump’s enduring grassroots strength.
• Approach to Political Absurdity: James prefers his Trump as a Bugs Bunny-like figure, breaking the fourth wall, acknowledging meta elements of sketches, and ignoring the traditional conventions.
  • [25:46] Jesse: “He doesn’t adhere to the rules of a sketch. Where did that come from?”

6. Musical Impressions, “Duet Parades,” and SNL Sketch Types

• The Christmas Duet Spectacular & Musical Parades (36:56–42:09): Johnson describes planning a musical sketch for Ariana Grande, including the frustrations and fun of squeezing niche musical impressions (e.g., Cameron Winter) into mainstream TV.
  • He prepares meticulously—Bocelli is “singing correctly,” and he strives for live, raw music, inspired by a choir’s jagged humanity.
• On Performing with Ariana Grande: Johnson reflects on the equalizing force of SNL—focusing more on the sketch and fun than his duet partner’s superstar status.
  • [41:51] James: “I want it to be live. That’s what really the adrenaline of doing the live show is what really gives you the extra oomph.”

7. Being a “Glue Guy”—Roles Beyond Impressions

• Insider SNL Roles (53:06–54:58): Jesse and James discuss the “Glue Guy” role—a performer who manages voiceovers, announcers, and fills out the fabric of many sketches, in the tradition of Phil Hartman, Cecily Strong, and Bill Hader.
  • [53:45] James: “I’m starstruck around Cecily Strong. I’m starstruck around Tina Fey. That’s when I’m a little jelly.”
• Announcer and Voiceover Skills: James describes how early exposure to preachers, teachers, and infomercials fostered his talent for broadcaster voices, which he deploys across NFL sketches, airline pilots, and American Girl Doll commercials.

8. Writing Music for SNL & Sketch Creation

• “Family Meeting” and Live Guitar (58:50–62:12): Johnson recounts the creation of one of his favorite sketches—an R&B divorce song with Ego Nwodim, inspired by Michael McDonald and Patti LaBelle, performed live on guitar as his own “SNL challenge.”
  • [61:03] Jesse: “Did you play guitar live?”
  • [61:04] James: “I played guitar live.”

9. Relationships with SNL Legends and Mentors

• Advice from Dana Carvey and Martin Short (77:26–80:25): Johnson shares wisdom from two SNL icons—be audacious, have confidence, and trust your comedic instincts.
  • [78:30] James (on Martin Short): “He’s like, ‘You just don’t have confidence… you just gotta work on finding that confidence.’”
• Learning from Lorne Michaels (62:07–65:07): Lorne’s feedback on making Bob Dylan references more contemporary—“Our audience is like nine years old, you can’t be talking about Lon Chaney”—reinforces connecting impressions to modern relevance.

10. Longevity, Balance, and Identity at SNL

• Workmanlike Attitude toward SNL (65:41–69:40): Johnson expresses gratitude for his background, his “late start,” and his focus on sustaining balance between show, art, and family.
  • [66:14] James: “I more think about sustainability and balance... I literally kind of feel like I’m just getting started.”
• Lessons for Other Comedians: Johnson suggests it’s okay to embrace and celebrate your strengths, not shy away from being the “Impressions Guy” when that’s your best pitch.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Risk in Comedy:
  • “[I] want some risk in [the cold opens], because that feels so fun to live through for me. I love an element of risk.” (17:00)
• On Trump’s Popularity:
  • “His charm and popularity are extremely clear to me and have always been very clear to me.” (22:16)
• On Fear of Being Pigeonholed:
  • “I was really focused on showing range and wanting to show what I was more about outside of... loaded political impressions.” (50:25)
• On Getting Advice from Icons:
  • “The time for audaciousness is now. If there’s ever been a time to be audacious, this is the moment.” (79:00, paraphrasing Dana Carvey)
• Jesse on SNL:
  • “It’s fascinating on a very practical level... Every aspect of it.” (72:18)

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Noteworthy Segments with Timestamps

• [04:00] James’s medical story & SNL gross-out
• [05:00] SNL origin story told as Trump
• [07:40] The “duck” metaphor for performance effort
• [14:00–20:00] Building, refining, and teaching impressions; process for Trump
• [21:09] Discussing what’s unique about his Trump
• [25:46] The meta, fourth-wall-breaking style of Johnson’s Trump
• [36:56–44:19] Musical impressions, behind the Duet Spectacular, performance anxiety (or lack thereof) with Ariana Grande
• [53:06–58:35] “Glue Guy” duties and announcer versatility
• [58:50–62:12] Writing and performing “Family Meeting”—favorite sketch, live music
• [77:26–80:25] Advice and confidence from SNL legends Martin Short and Dana Carvey
• [62:07–65:07] Lorne Michaels on keeping references current
• [65:41–69:40] Sustaining energy and balance in an SNL career

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Final Segments: Personal Reflections & Comedy Philosophy

• Non Sequitur Humor from Family (73:11–74:49): Johnson shares how absurd humor in his formative years shaped his own comedic DNA—especially from his preacher grandfather.
• Legendary Comedian Interaction (75:06–80:25): Memorable encounters with Martin Short (advice on confidence), Mike Myers (learning “Elon Musk”), and Dana Carvey (“the time for audaciousness is now”).
• On Comedy and Taste (85:29–86:18): Johnson observes that not all comedy needs to land universally, encouraging audiences to cultivate discerning taste.
• Shaving On-Air: A Nod to SNL Traditions (90:17–92:26): Johnson shaves his mustache at the end of the episode, a playful acknowledgment of SNL’s aesthetic demands.

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Tone & Style

Throughout the episode, both Fox and Johnson are candid, self-critical, and warm. The humor swings naturally from goofy to deeply analytical, moving between industry nerdiness and personal vulnerability—a hallmark of Good One. Johnson’s SNL stories are rich with affectionate detail, his tone swinging between reverence for the institution and delight in its chaos and risk.

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For listeners and comedy nerds alike, this episode is a treasure trove of insight into how SNL impressions are built, the philosophy behind great satire, and the career journey of one of late night’s most distinctive performers.

Transcript

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[James Austin Johnson]

This winter the cold and flu have been especially bad. And the culprits, well, they're everywhere.

[Jesse David Fox]

Literally the the entire planet is just packed with viruses that are infecting everything. And I mean literally everything. Even other viruses.

[James Austin Johnson]

This week unexplain it to me from Vox, those pesky microbes getting us sick and how they might also be helping us stay well.

[Podcast Announcer]

New episodes Sundays. Wherever you get your podcasts.

[James Austin Johnson's Friend or Colleague]

Everybody. You know, I know a lot about ducks. I know a lot more about ducks than some of the other people Audubon or anything like that. But the duck, you know, it's a lot of paddling under the water, right? It's normal on top of water with duck, but there's a lot of movement and a lot of battling. So maybe it's that sort of iceberg. It could be like iceberg, you know. Bowen did a great job with.

[James Austin Johnson]

This is Good one.

[Jesse David Fox]

I am Jesse David Fox, senior writer at Vulture and author of Comedy Book. My guest today is James Austin Johnson. We talk about developing his version of a Donald Trump impression filled with tangents and digressions about pop culture minutiae that got him noticed and eventually cast on Saturday night Live in 2021. He joined the cast three months before his son was born, and he's been fighting colds on the show ever since. We also discussed developing Pitch Perfect singing impressions to do with Ariana Grande, while at the same time fighting to not be categorized as just an impressionist. That said, James does do many impressions on this episode, some that have yet to make it to snl. So here is James Austin Johnson. I'm here with James Austin Johnson. Thank you for joining me.

[James Austin Johnson]

This is very exciting. It's very exciting to be. To be here at Vulture, which is arguably my favorite vertical of the New York magazine family.

[Jesse David Fox]

We'll clip that.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah, I appreciate it.

[Jesse David Fox]

So what is the funniest thing that happened to you this week?

[James Austin Johnson]

I've had a big bump on the back of my neck, and I haven't known what it is. And I've done a lot of Googling about sebaceous cysts and tumors and stuff like that. It kept getting bigger and kept hurting more. And I finally went to an urgent career near me, and I went into the urgent care, and a real doctor was there. He came in and he said, you look familiar. And I was like, all right, I'm going to talk about snl. He's like, I'm Sarah Sherman's uncle. I was like, okay, cool. He's like, well, what do you got? And I was like, I got this big, nasty bump. And he's like, probably an ingrown hair. Let's take a look at it. So he numbs it up and he cuts it open, and it's oozing pus and it's oozing oil. And he's like, I was right. It's a pimple. And then he goes, this is Sarah's type of shit. We should be rolling on this. Sarah get a big kick out of this. Oh, she'd love this. He's digging poison and pus and piss and shit out of my neck hole. Yeah, it's an abscess.

[James Austin Johnson's Friend or Colleague]

Sorry.

[James Austin Johnson]

I'm doing a meaner version of the voice. But, you know, it was my friend Sarah.

[Jesse David Fox]

It's like a Chekhov thing where you're like. You introduce Sarah into the story. You're like, something gross better happen at the end.

[James Austin Johnson]

I know, right? Yeah. You know that the gun's gonna go off and that it's gonna. It's gonna spray out confetti and human sputum and. Effluvia. That's a word that I've had to learn in my friendship with Sarah.

[Jesse David Fox]

So we're going to talk about snl. Be one of those times, of course. And as these things go, there will be people who will have never heard the story of how you got this show. But in preparing, I've heard the story 10, 15 times in this circumstance. I usually ask people, can you tell the story as fast as possible in an attempt to kill two birds with one stone? Could you possibly tell as fast as possible as Donald Trump.

[James Austin Johnson]

Sure.

[James Austin Johnson's Friend or Colleague]

You know, there's this guy James, and he's just sitting around la. He's not doing anything right. He gets some lady pregnant and then he's reading Keith Richards Life. Keith, he's called. They call it Keith Richards and he's reading Keith Richards Life. He's getting sunburned. He's got a big. He's got the COVID pot belly, ate too much Hawaiian food or whatever it was. He's firing off tapes. He says, I don't think I'm gonna get in, honey. I don't think it's gonna happen. They drag you around, they see you once and it's a badge, right? You think of it as a badge, comedy badge. To audition and then they cut you loose and it's going to be right back to Taco Bell audition. It's going to be right back, honey, I'll be the primary parent. I'll be auditioning. Dad, I'll be right back. And then he gets it. He's got to go and he's got to do it all. And he does it all and he does it so good. Everybody likes it and nobody knows anything about it. And it all there and they all did it. And you look at Japan, you look at China, you know, we are getting our ass kicked if you. And nobody knows and only I can do it.

[James Austin Johnson]

Only me.

[James Austin Johnson's Friend or Colleague]

And. And his wife was seven months pregnant. That's a big part of the story. And Lauren was like, you're going to wear wigs. And he goes, oh, I don't know if I got it. I hope I get it. Same same shit that happens just about every time but in a different, slightly different. Permutation. That's a new word I learned. Permutation. We love to say permutation. And. And then it's gone and it keeps going and it keeps going. And so we say, I'm happy for a consistent job because I'm a father, so I'm happy to have a paycheck.

[James Austin Johnson]

And we're trying, right? We're trying.

[James Austin Johnson's Friend or Colleague]

Maybe he's not the biggest one on the show, but he's trying very hard. The duck, everybody. You know, I know a lot about ducks. I know a lot more about ducks and some of the other people, Adon or anything like that. But. But the duck, you know, it's a lot of paddling under the water, right? It's normal on top of water with duck, but there's a lot of movement and a lot of battling. So maybe it's that sort of iceberg. It could be like iceberg. You know, Bowen did a great job with that, but it's. It's very much like still waters run very fast with the duck legs.

[James Austin Johnson]

Great.

[James Austin Johnson's Friend or Colleague]

If you've ever had that duck. Duck confit. You know, a lot of people say it's too tough. A lot of people mess it up. You're supposed to leave it a little raw, the duck breast. That's why they score it.

[Jesse David Fox]

Right.

[James Austin Johnson's Friend or Colleague]

You've heard of scoring. I know a lot more about scoring duck breasts than some of the other people, than Eddie Wong and maybe even more than Ivan Rahman.

[Jesse David Fox]

Is it hard to stop when you get on a.

[James Austin Johnson]

It's like a fun. It's a fun thing to lock into and it is fully. It is hard to stop. I very consciously have gates now for it.

[Jesse David Fox]

So let's talk about a specific one, which is the last one you did. The last episode was the mid season finale, as we used to call it. Now that doesn't mean anything to anybody. It was the Christmas episode. Ariana is hosting. I'm sure you're still reeling from Dijon's performance from the week before.

[James Austin Johnson]

Oh, it was so sick. Amber Kaufman was there, who I knew first from the Dirty Projectors, which David Longstreth of the Dirty Projectors. One of the voices that I have pitched over and over again to the show, always to maybe not. Can I hear it? To make you the sunrise. Spot on. I live in a new construction home. That man is a friend of mine now. And I just love his music. I love, love, love his music. And he has such an iconic voice that I can't not sing in it. I have a list of 150 probably voices that. Oh, cool.

[Jesse David Fox]

The last 10 minutes, we're just gonna go through all of them and be like, do that one, do that one.

[James Austin Johnson]

Cause it'. It's fun for me, but this is my art. It's more like, yeah, I don't know.

[Jesse David Fox]

We'll get into the general. So the episode happens. There are two main sketches that you're heavily involved in. So generally going into the week, how are you feeling? How do you feel as a cast member? Like, I'm probably gonna be on the air every show. Yeah. Which is different than almost everyone I've ever talked to in the history of being on snl other than the Weekend Update guys.

[James Austin Johnson]

Oh, it didn't even feel that way for me on my first one when they, you know, when they were like, do you have a Biden? And I just sent off a short 10 second tape of where my Biden was at at that moment, which was probably not ready. But I'd also started reading a lot of books about SNL at the time when I first got hired. And I knew that not being ready is one of the flavors of the show and so I just embraced it. And I try to do that pretty frequently. But yeah, I mean, the, the, the cold, open aspect is a very privileged position to be in. I don'. Lightly. And it has weird pressure on it that I think with my comedy philosophy, I don't know, it's just thrilling because it's, it is a space where risks can pay off big or, you know, fall flat. And it's, it has more of a athletic kind of feeling to it. And I hosted shows in LA for years and I just did that for so long and to the point that the thought of opening up a show like ours is just. It's more just like the challenge is just fun rather than a crushing kind of anticipation. It's liberating considering.

[Jesse David Fox]

What are your Monday and Tuesdays like? What are you. Do you pitch much on Monday? Do you Tuesday, like, how late are you staying up?

[James Austin Johnson]

I came to the show with a woman who was really pregnant and then we had a baby and that baby is a toddler now. And so I think I have a little bit different of a health and sleep concern from some of my castmates. I'm a little bit more focused on balance than I am on sheer number of. Yeah.

[Jesse David Fox]

Numbers of awake hours.

[James Austin Johnson]

So I try to really focus on, on making sure that I have my mindset on what I really want to do when it comes to like, Monday and Tuesday. Monday and Tuesday have been the hardest days for me. It's so scary. The, the blue skies brainstorming part is terrifying for me. And I always just worry that I'm betting on the wrong horse or, you know, like I said, my obsession with doing things that are of limited general interest that has caused a lot of my pursuits to like, you know, maybe flame out quicker.

[Jesse David Fox]

How are you not sick all the time?

[James Austin Johnson]

I am sick all the time.

[Jesse David Fox]

Then follow up question. Does the show do something for people who are sick? Because in my head, because it's like you have had a toddler. Exactly the time period in which you've been on the show, which you already are up late in my head. You should have me sneezing on air most episodes.

[James Austin Johnson]

No, no, no. The adrenaline magically. When it's showtime and the lights are on and it's time to Go. And I know this from my years in musical theater growing up, too. It's like when you are doing the performance, it all goes away. No, you're coughing on people while you're blocking things. You know, if I don't get enough sleep, I will get sick. And I think I'm at the point just in my maturity as a man that my brain is not so consumed by as much frivolous thinking late at night that I can kind of start to get to sleep now. I'm not tortured in the way that I used to be about every little thing. I really don't know how anyone does the show any other way than just Constant green juices. 19 hours sleep a night and a free mind because it's the NBA or something. You just have to keep yourself in good physical condition. And it's like, I need to keep a. Like a harmonious body balance because there's things I want to do on Saturday night at 1 in the morning.

[Jesse David Fox]

Is that something you learned, like earlier seasons where you like burning the candle at both ends?

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah. When I had a newborn, it was impossible. I was, you know, not managing stress effectively. I would get done with the show and then be trying to go to sleep at, you know, 5:00am and then he'd be crying and, you know, and we were. We had a newborn. I didn't know what the crying meant. It's so great to know now that he either needed milk or to be changed. And those are the only two things it could possibly be. But at one point, I didn't know that. Why is he crying? Is he mad about something? Did I say something weird? Yeah, he said during Ms. Rachel.

[Jesse David Fox]

So you do the cold open.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah.

[Jesse David Fox]

The thing about the cold opens, which I think is always challenging about them, is the sketch often does not have a central propulsion that, like, there's a setting and then you're talking and you have information, but your characters not grow or change or nothing really. Often, especially like in one like this, just kind of giving you a speech about different topics. Related.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah.

[Jesse David Fox]

Is that a thing that you have to think about performance of? Like, how do I bring a certain sort of arc to this talking so.

[James Austin Johnson]

That it feels, you know, when we're putting together Trump stuff, there is the needs of an SNL cold open, which is the. The framing of an event, of a press event, or, you know, a real speech he gave. Or, you know, there is the aspect where we are recreating something that happened, and that is. That is, you know, one wing of it, and then the Other half of.

[Jesse David Fox]

It.

[James Austin Johnson]

Would be kind of like content.

[Jesse David Fox]

Right?

[James Austin Johnson]

So we have like framing and a set and all that kind of big picture thinking that I think is happening, that I'm, I'm not as involved in that because I'm running around doing all kinds of other writing and sketches and stuff. I'm also a cast member on the show.

[Jesse David Fox]

Yeah, I know. I've heard.

[James Austin Johnson]

In addition to my.

[Jesse David Fox]

I learned that you do other things.

[James Austin Johnson]

I also do other stuff on the show. I'm getting texts kind of throughout the week from head writers, just being like, here's what we think it is. What's in the Trump voice that you kind of are thinking about this week? And I remember there was a couple weeks where I was just obsessed with Trump talking about piece of Cake moving, you know, the big pink trucks all throughout Manhattan. I think it was around when the Zoron election. And so it was a little bit more New Yorky on the show and I felt a little bit more like, oh, I can do some New York inside baseball, because this is kind of the time to do it. So it was a lot of like.

[James Austin Johnson's Friend or Colleague]

You know, piece of Cake movement.

[James Austin Johnson]

I'm sending like voice memos where I'm.

[James Austin Johnson's Friend or Colleague]

Like, piece of cake movie. You see the pink trucks everywhere and it says cake. You think there's going to be cake in there. And then you open it up and it's just two Balkan guys throwing you, throwing your lamps around at top speed, shouting in Russian or whatever it is, you know, and they just, they just pick up another jingly box like it's kindergartners at Christmas and they're just slinging your Legos all around that truck. But we love piece of Cake. We like, we like the other one. We like.

[James Austin Johnson]

I don't know, it's always that kind of stuff. And sometimes I'll send like a 20 minute voice memo to one of the writers and just be like, so you'll be doing something else while you're writing.

[Jesse David Fox]

And then you'll just be like, here's. They're just like, do Trump for 20 minutes and we'll see if there's a thing in here.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah, I'm sure they don't want me to do it for 20 minutes. I'm sure they want me to give them perfect nuggets that are ready to be placed into a final draft document. But I think a lot of the fun is the meandering and the finding it, and I, I really enjoy that part of it. And then we just kind of keep like, like a Fresco or something. We just keep adding layers of color all the way up to the live show because, you know, obviously Cold Open wants to be as up to the minute as possible. Sometimes there's a big news story on Friday, Saturday morning, and. And things change around, so it kind of keeps getting painted over and layers keep building up. And so hopefully the Metal Gear Solid thing that I thought was so funny on Monday night survives all the way to air. And sometimes it gets taken out, and sometimes I'm like, I want that back in. Because I want. I want a few things to, like, not be home runs. Yeah. Like, I want more. I want some risk in there, because that feels so fun to live through for me. I. I love an element of risk in the cold opens. I grew up watching the SNL cold Opens, wanting to be a part of the adult world. I wanted to understand what Darrell Hammond's Al Gore was so funny and why my parents, friends at church thought it was so funny. And I remember doing Darrell Hammond's Al Gore at adults, trying to get a little bit of that good feeling that you get from performing for people. I've always wanted to be 36, and I'm very lucky that my time has come. Yeah. You were talking about an arc to it. Yeah, it's a character performance, and I'm always kind of thinking of it primarily as a character performance. It's like, this is one of the SNL sketches. This is one of the silly characters in a wig. I'm sort of leery of a cogent thought getting communicated in Cold Open. Yeah, it's. I want the effect of it to be a statement, but, like, moment to moment and joke to joke. I would like it to be kind of just a random assemblage of things, because that's what it's like. Listening to it.

[Jesse David Fox]

I want to break down where the. What the voice is Frank Calando style. For those who know Frank Alando, a master impressionist, will very specifically explain how he does impressions.

[James Austin Johnson]

I'm a little bit afraid of dissecting it too much because I wonder if I even really understand everything that's happening. But I definitely have to teach impressions to other cast members from time to time. And that is. That is an exciting thing. I remember someone. Someone heard me do Elon Musk and wanted to know what I was doing, because they were creeped out by it. You know, Elon had hosted the show before my time, and there are a lot of people at the show still who were there when he hosted, and there are a lot of Fraught feelings in the air about the guy. I mean, every. We deservedly. And so I was just doing my Elon, which is not funny. It's just like what I think he sounds like. I don't have like an idea of how to make the character funny just yet. And it's. It's not my responsibility currently. But I remember someone was asking me how I do it and I was like, okay, how do you. What is this? It's like a South African accent. How would I describe how I do a terrible South African accent? It's like it's British, but it's also Arnold. There's also this like, you're venturing further east in Europe from England. The accent has some of the contours of something that is more Germanic. So it's a little bit Austrian too. Yeah, yeah. So basically, you know, like, basically what. What we're talking about is it's like, I don't know, it's not like a character that I have figured out at all. You're making me fire off some half cocked.

[Jesse David Fox]

But it's interesting because it is almost.

[James Austin Johnson]

Like I was trying to help someone else find a bit and I was like, oh, I don't have a bit here yet, but here's kind of what I think I'm doing in my throat and here's how I'm kind of holding my mouth.

[Jesse David Fox]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's like you look back in the last one, there's the Venezuela joke, which is like, we're gonna invade Venezuela. Venezuela.

[James Austin Johnson's Friend or Colleague]

Shout out.

[James Austin Johnson]

Oh, hello. Yeah. I mean, there's no denying that oh hello. And my love of oh hello has crept into some of my Donald Trump stuff. I really try to play him like a New Yorker. That's who he sounds like to me.

[Jesse David Fox]

Yes, it's the same thing. You literally did it when you said like and you have audition like that as a sort of oh, hello.

[James Austin Johnson]

Dropping articles. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's certain things like that that I've noticed over the years that he's very much an oh hello guy. And in a different world he would have come out at the Broadway show for the. For the tuna.

[Jesse David Fox]

So like that Metal Gear Solid joke was yours? Yeah.

[James Austin Johnson]

And I asked for it back in. Honestly hoping that it would connect live, but happy that it got what it did because. Yeah, I don't know. Because it just feels kind of like what I do with that guy.

[Jesse David Fox]

So then when he does invade Venezuela or whatever and you hear about it.

[James Austin Johnson]

He ended up doing that. Right.

[Jesse David Fox]

What happens to you?

[James Austin Johnson]

What does Oh, I don't think about him. I don't. Let me say this. I really am only just trying to be funny. Lots of different people have done lots of different versions of. Of Trump comedy for decades, and. And my mission with it is just to make it funny, even after it's kind of reached a. An over saturation. I guess, in the comedy world, sort of like nothing's better than a Michael McDonald impression or a Christopher Walken, but everyone has one and everyone's done it, and maybe there's nothing left to discover, you know what I mean? I really am trying to find more funny bits in something that has, you know, kind of been done a lot. That's what kind of led me around to the more, I guess, absurdist version that maybe I'm doing. His charm and popularity are extremely clear to me and have always been very clear to me. And I've leaned more into his charm because I think he's a hilarious and charming person.

[Jesse David Fox]

Yeah.

[James Austin Johnson]

And as I said, his political actions and his behavior I feel entirely neutral about. I have no opinion about him in that way, but I do find him to be kind of just like an irresistible personality. And so I've leaned into that, for sure.

[Jesse David Fox]

It's almost like people, in their impressions would ignore the parts of him that was charming or funny as a way of making whatever satirical point they were. Your impression seemed so much more accurate because it is funny.

[James Austin Johnson]

He's a popular politician. And I think that that was an element of. Of Trump comedy that maybe was missing for a while, was like, well, no, this is speaking to a lot of people. I. I remember when. January 6th. When we say January 6th. The January 6th. That happened when that happened, which I feel entirely neutral about. He was telling everybody to go home. That was him covering his tracks. And so I did a video of him talking about it was the way he was saying that January 6th was over. I did one about Pokemon where I was like, it's over when you beat the Elite four, not when you catch them all. And it was this way that I could emotionally kind of talk about what he was doing in that moment, but it was about this other abstract thing, and I thought that was just a really funny way to express myself about it. Are you familiar with the games journalist Jason Schreier? No. He's the Jesse David Fox of gaming journalism. And then this games journalist was kind of covering it or tweeted about it or something, but he was basically saying, I think I have finally learned what the fans of Donald Trump love about him. Like, I watched James Austin Johnson say this thing that I agree with about Pokemon games, which is that, yes, they're over when you beat the final strongest trainers. They're not over when you collect them all. He was saying the things I wanted to hear.

[Jesse David Fox]

Yeah.

[James Austin Johnson]

And he's saying them in the coolest, funniest way you've ever heard anything. Yeah.

[Jesse David Fox]

No one's ever.

[James Austin Johnson]

It is like this. No one has ever spoken in this way. And it is so fun. He talks like me. No, he doesn't talk like you. He talks like Donald Trump. He talks. He's Kendrick Lamar or something. It's. It's. No one else can talk this way and say these words this way. That's what makes it so entertaining.

[Jesse David Fox]

Do you think it's something you got because you're from the south, where a lot of people maybe were not who are doing these takes on him?

[James Austin Johnson]

I don't know. I'm very grateful for the background that I've had because there's always been a little bit of a dissonance or a disconnect on the coasts, maybe. I have to describe the denomination that I'm from to people over and over in LA and here, because they just have no context for it. And I don't begrudge them that. I. I personally am not trying to get more into evangelicalism than I already did. Some would say I'm running Pell mell in the opposite direction, but I definitely. I'm really grateful to have that context. It feels like a really important part of what I do. And if you've ever watched me for an hour, it's not all impressions. It's. It's. It's. That's a smaller part of it. A lot of it is me exploring country music and the sort of Christianity from the south and how that ties into family and all that stuff. I think that those are really. The themes of my stuff, are that kind of Americana. And so I'm happy to be someone who represents that.

[Jesse David Fox]

So in the last cold open, you say, cross the tree. I know I'm not supposed to say that out loud, but it helps me. Yeah, that aspect, which is there's this also meta. Postmodern thing that you do that will periodically. I've been fascinated because the other ones will be. A scene will happen and you'll freeze the scene and you'll talk in front of the scene, but then comment on the cast members and be like, new cast members. They got to just stand still. And it's like, look at Liam, he's laughing. Whatever. Almost like Bugs Bunny. He. Yeah, he doesn't adhere to the rules of a sketch. Right. Where did that come from?

[James Austin Johnson]

The first time we did might have come from the fact that we already, like, just had that set built. I think we were going to do another Passover sketch, and at some point somebody was like, it may have been Lorne said, hey, we have this Passover set. Why not make that where Trump is or something? And then we had to, like, put that puzzle together. It was really fun. And I just remember that being kind of an electric little cold open. And we did it at dress. And I remember, I think Streeter, one of the head writers, was like, this is really fun and you can have a little fun with it. And I think you should make a joke about, you know, whoever it was. I can't remember who.

[Jesse David Fox]

Yeah, there was one about Mikey where you made fun of that. He had to do this in this sketch.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah, he had to keep that pose or something. I think Streeter was like, if you feel like you can throw that out there. Cause I think I was just standing around on set making fun of people as Trump. In some of the President's stuff, it seems like there's a little bit of a room to play because usually it's a locked off shot.

[Jesse David Fox]

Right.

[James Austin Johnson]

And it's a monologue. And, you know, I think every once in a while I go, what's three seconds here? If.

[Jesse David Fox]

Was it written across the tree or did you say it out loud?

[James Austin Johnson]

That one we added in between dress and air. Because at dress it was. Trump was interrupting the Survivor finale. And we had a whole Survivor set. And we had Ashley and Chloe and Sarah as Survivor contestants. We had Mikey as Jeff Probst. And it was cutting between Trump's address in the hallway to interrupting Survivor, and then they cut the Survivor element between dress and air. That probably. That probably shrunk us down from like six minutes down to like four. Everybody was kind of like, it's all on you now. Because it's not. You know, we haven't been rehearsing this as just a Trump monologue, but we need to make this a moment. And this is the Christmas episode. I think I got some sense from Lauren that he really wanted something special. And I was just worried that it maybe wasn't special enough as written. And so I think we kind of had a huddle with me and the head writers that were there, and we were like, all right, how can we make this more playful, more fun, and how can we pad it out with performance? We thought of Hugging the tree. And then it was like, oh, I should say cross to tree. I know that is an old joke. And, like, you've heard that a million times, someone reading out the action on the cue card. And I'm also. I'm very concerned with keeping up with his mental state. And he is definitely more visibly tired and more visibly kind of befuddled.

[Jesse David Fox]

During the first term, there are a lot of conversations about political satire and impressions of Trump. And, like, what is it supposed to do and what does it mean? And are they doing this? And does it help or they. Whatever. There are just conversations.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah.

[Jesse David Fox]

You're in it. Yeah. What do you feel like the audience gets out of it? Beyond. They are. They are laughing at a thing. But, like, in so much as political satire is a societal thing that exists.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah. In American society because we have freedom of speech.

[Jesse David Fox]

Yes. And, yes.

[James Austin Johnson]

I'm worried that people don't read enough for one thing. And I'm happy to be a part of whatever way cultural awareness flows towards people. If I'm a part of someone becoming more aware of the machinations of our elected leaders, I'm there. The magazine reader in me is happy. I needed that. At one point in my life, I was a very unaware and sheltered young kid. And comedy, daily show clips, late night clips, SNL were my window to the world of adults and the world of influence and wealth. I did not know who the newsmakers were, and comedy led me to having that context. And so I think that's hopefully one thing that's happening with it. But I really am not focused on converting anyone or teaching anyone, because I really can't say anything about the character of Donald Trump or his fitness for any of the roles he's played in our lives that he hasn't already said himself. What more could I say in the negative about Donald Trump that he has not celebrated with fanfare of trumpets daily? Like, the things that I don't like about him are the things that people love about him. And the things that I love about him are the things that people don't like about him, because I feel entirely neutral about the man. And I hold him like a diamond in my mind. I'll say this, and I hope I don't get in trouble for saying this, but this is a personal experience that I had. I remember when I have played Donald Trump during Joe Biden's presidency, which was this beautiful dream we all had, and I remember that when I would play Donald Trump, I would feel our audience sigh at seeing Donald Trump walk out for A monologue at the front of the show. I would feel the New Yorkers in the room. I would hear from people as they saw me walk out in makeup and towards the end of Biden's presidency. And in my head, I remember thinking, like, please take this man seriously. He is still extremely popular, but there was a time when many people were convinced he was defeated. And I remember that feeling coming from people when I would be doing Trump comedy, coming from, I think more from liberals than conservatives. Although I perform all over the country, I remember people kind of feeling like, we defeated Voldemort. He's gone. You know? And it made me want to do it harder because I was like, you don't understand. He is growing more powerful than you could possibly imagine. I think that's where the Red State connection comes in for me, and I think that's where the being from Tennessee comes in for me, is that I do go home a lot. And I do see, I do take the temperature of that part of things in America probably more frequently than some of the other. I don't know people. And so I have always been very aware of his charisma. Even when he was defeated, I was like, he can come back so fast and so hard. And I kind of wanted. I've always wanted to illustrate his charm to people who don't take it seriously.

[Jesse David Fox]

So before the season, there was a lot happened.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah.

[Jesse David Fox]

Colbert got canceled for reasons that. It's not for us to say at this moment. Jimmy Kimmel got it suspended for reasons that seem much more clear for why it was. But definitely Trump related. And then also Charlie Kirk was shot.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah.

[Jesse David Fox]

And I think everyone in the orbit of talking about politics at all probably had a day or a week or more where they're like, what should I do? Whatever.

[James Austin Johnson]

What.

[Jesse David Fox]

What was it like for you? How did you feel? How do you feel now?

[James Austin Johnson]

When I'm on break and when I'm not making the show, I literally don't have to think about what I think about this. When Trump met Zoron and was just so gaga over him. We weren't on that week. We were on break. And I remember getting texts from people being like, this. This would be such a good, cold open. I'm, like, going to be old news by the time I'm back there. It's not going to be. It's not going to be what we do. We're going to do something else. Whatever happened then, and that's. That's pretty great and helps me. Helps me not be totally consumed with the world of bummer politics and every little last thing that happens, because I really only have to think about the cold open that we're going to do, the weeks that we are shooting, and I don't even really do Trump voice unless you ask me to. And again, it's one character that I do. It's a character that a lot of people have a personal investment with for a lot of reasons. But I'm always just thinking about my own comedy and what I think is funny. And the Trump character is just sort of a character that's sort of taken off. I'm a huge, huge, huge Dana Carvey fan, and getting to work with him and Mike Myers was huge for me. And they both work. They both approach SNL different ways. Mike Myers, when I was doing cold opens with him, his papers were, like, covered in notes and highlights and all of this sort of, like, hieroglyphics all over it that meant something specific to him. And he kind of had it rolled up in a scroll. And he'd done a lot to his papers of lines, and that was amazing to see up close and then get to, like, rehearse the scenes with them and see, like, the journey of that just as a comedy fan. And then Dana was. Works the way that I do, which was fully, messily, just sort of riffing in the moment and trying to more. Trying to keep things on the level and trying to keep things on a swivel and making it really about the moment that actually matters and trying to have as much fun in that moment. So when I did the Oasis sketch with Sarah where the Weekend Update, that was a similar thing, because Sarah's more in the Mike Myers world of, like, wants to have it all figured out, and I just kind of want to.

[Jesse David Fox]

So you feel like in those moments, you're just like, I am not doing the show. I will feel about the show when I'm at the show.

[James Austin Johnson]

I try not to think about that heavy stuff when we're not in production, because what can I do? What can I really do with it? And thank God I'm not really on Twitter or Instagram anymore. I'm not releasing my thoughts constantly like I used to. I'm. My Donald Trump character is my contribution to the discourse. Yeah. And for. For better or for worse, and if it doesn't say enough in one direction for you, I'm sorry, but this is. This is my thought about this current moment. And I. I love that I have 75 cold opens that you can you. If you really wanted to get in There you could determine my philosophy about this person. I think it's in there.

[Jesse David Fox]

Yeah.

[James Austin Johnson]

But I'd rather it be implicit rather than. Rather than a message I'm sending.

[Jesse David Fox]

You know, we've done it. We now will never talk about true.

[James Austin Johnson]

Again for the rest of the interview.

[Jesse David Fox]

So the other big sketch was random Christmas duet Spectacular.

[James Austin Johnson]

Sure. Yeah.

[Jesse David Fox]

You did three impressions at this is a SNL sketch that often will happen, which is like, we found a way to contain as many impressions as we can in this thing. And you are a person who can do impressions. How. How are you brought into a thing like that? Are they go like, we thought you should do these? Or they're sort of like, we're doing a musical thing. How was it brought to you?

[James Austin Johnson]

This is interesting. I mean, I wanted to do something with Ariana where we both got to do a bunch of stuff. Yeah. And I came into the week being like, I want to write something. It was with Jake Nordwin, Mike DeCenzo and Dan Bola. And I hadn't worked with those guys enough in my mind. And I love them. And I was like, I want to do a sketch with these guys and I want to do one of these impressions. Parades. We call them parades. Sometimes I call it an inventory. If it's just like, if we're just rooting through a desk and pulling things out, those are always kind of loosely made up of things that we have seen each other do at the table that didn't go. You know what I mean? Because it's just like. It's just ephemera. And you can't make an entire sketch out of any one of those things. And some of them, like the Cameron Winter, which weirdly got picked up because he's such a buzzy name right now, there wasn't really much to that. I just was like, oh, I like how he kind of sings like Rufus Wainwright and Tom York and some of the, like. Some of the, like indie rock adjacent singer songwriters that I love from the 2000s. Me and that guy probably listened to a lot of the same music growing up. So I was just trying to find some thing to do right there. And I'm always pushing to do singing impressions of people that nobody cares about at our show, people that do have lots of fans. And I know because I go to those shows and I see them and I'm there with them. But harder to do on broadcast television. It needs to connect with so many people to justify being.

[Jesse David Fox]

Was that one a hard sell. Like they. It's. They are now have been announced to be on the show. But I was like, I was shocked.

[James Austin Johnson]

That Cameron winner get on. I'm always pitching stuff that people have no context for or don't care about. And Ariana Grande had come to the show before. Her approach to impressions felt like mine, where it's like, oh, you love getting to be this person for a second.

[Jesse David Fox]

Were there a few people that you pitched for this, or do you sort of had an idea of this mix?

[James Austin Johnson]

Let me see. I have a note in my phone of, like, the earliest form of this had some people that we did not do. Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, Dave Longstreth and Annie Lennox, Cameron Winter and Dua Lipa. This is just me throwing down names that I was like, maybe she has one of these. And I knew that I wouldn't have a whole lot of her time, so I was just throwing out names for her, and the other writers were throwing out names for her. And we landed on Christina Aguilera, which was in until right up until we shot it was taken out. Maybe she didn't want to do Christina because of a vocal concern of preserving her voice, and I respect her for that. But that did take us back to the drawing board to be like, okay, so maybe it's Katy Perry and Bob Dylan, and after you've already got the context of the Bing Crosby and David Bowie, the next thing you see can be a little ridiculous. It can be Bob Dylan and Katy Perry in an astronaut suit.

[Jesse David Fox]

What is it like?

[James Austin Johnson]

Killed it.

[Jesse David Fox]

The Andrea Bocelli.

[James Austin Johnson]

Andrea Bocelli.

[Jesse David Fox]

You have to sing so good, seemingly to a person who doesn't know singing. I'm like, you guys are singing really good singing right now.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah. And we were singing live. Yeah.

[Jesse David Fox]

What was that like doing it? You are comedian.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yes.

[Jesse David Fox]

You have a singing background, but she is famous number one singer, number one.

[James Austin Johnson]

Pop star, famous person in the entire universe.

[Jesse David Fox]

It's a very SNL conundrum to be put in. But who cares what it was like for you.

[James Austin Johnson]

When these guys come and do the show with us, you know, they're a cast member and we're all in the same boat. And that's a great equalizer. Again, I was just not thinking about the fact that I'm singing with the most famous singer ever. I was like, we're gonna have fun playing the comedy of this sketch. We're doing the same thing here. But we had done a version of it a year before, and I don't know enough about music to really talk about this. And we should really be interviewing David Foster, who wrote it. But it sounds like to me that Selene is singing in Andrea's key. And so Celine doesn't have a super, super, super demanding Selene part, I think, in that. The prayer song, I think it was mostly written for. As an Andrea Bocelli in Andrea's key. And how can Selene add to that? That's what it here. When I. And I've heard that song a billion times now. That's what I think is happening. So I knew that Ariana was gonna crush it no matter what, because she gets to color it in with all the selenisms that she wants. And if I fuck that up, I mean, it's really not gonna be anything, because it needs to be. It either needs to be all about Ariana and her spectacularness, or if I'm inserting me singing opera into this, like, I need to do it well.

[Jesse David Fox]

Yeah.

[James Austin Johnson]

So I just remember doing the things that you do to keep your voice well. I was trying to get rest and drink a lot of water and not drink alcohol and be prepared in a different way. And I never. I can do Trump with a full ass sinus infection because his voice sounds like a monster. So I can be a monster. And I can be in terrible shape to do a bunch of the other, especially the septuagenarian characters that I'm always doing. I love old men's voices, but you're putting junk on them to simulate those things. And with Andrea Bocelli, I'm like, I'm gonna have to, like, strip away all of the affectations that I do to just get to, you know what the impression of Andrea Bocelli is? It's singing correctly. Do you know what Andrea Bocelli sounds like? It sounds like when someone sings correctly. The first time we did it at the table, it was like a diaper commercial. Dan Bola had written this impressions parade that was like, you know how diapers have characters that your kids care about, like Elsa and the Hulk? I'm the one looking at the diaper. Why isn't it a character I care about? So here are diapers featuring Neil Young and Bob Dylan and all. That was the original thing about years ago when she came back to the show and I didn't even bring up the Selena and Andrea thing. She brought it up. She was like, why don't we try that again? Cause that was fun. And I was like, that was fun. So I was like, okay, I have a job to do is to be ready for this. And luckily, it all came together, and I think I had practiced that song enough in the interim and it was gonna be live. I wanted it to be live. I remember how fun it felt to do it at the table and get pretty close to nailing it at the table. And I was like, well, if we can do it at the table, then we can do it live. That's how I always feel is like. I don't pitch a whole lot of pre tapes really. Cause I'm like, this should be in front of people. I mean that's what really the adrenaline of doing the live show is what really gives you the extra oomph to do this. Well, I also want this to be the weird moment that it was at the table where it was like. It was funny. But it was also like this theater.

[Jesse David Fox]

Feeling of people singing live. Which is a different thing when you're. Yeah.

[James Austin Johnson]

Where you're. If you've ever listened to someone who's a great singer sing live, your heart's in your chest.

[Jesse David Fox]

Chest.

[James Austin Johnson]

Like your heart's always in your chest, but your heart's in your throat, you know. And I wanted to have that kind of the air sucked out of the room feeling of hearing people sing for real. I think there's nothing more beautiful than just raw human voices. Like a choir is so many people in sharp and flat. And it all comes together in this thing that feels very human and stirring. Stirringness comes from those little nasty mess ups. And I think that like. Yeah, autotune melody and pitch shifting and all that. All those tools that are used all the time and now our ears are used to them. I think that is so sad because we're losing shape.

[Jesse David Fox]

Perfect transition into Bob Dylan. So how many Bob Dylan do you have?

[James Austin Johnson]

Well, the main one that I have a speaking one that is my favorite speaking one. And then I have a singing one that is my favorite singing one. My favorite speaking one is Bob hosting Theme time radio on SiriusXM. Is. You're listening to Theme Time Radio, SiriusXM. This week we're talking about flowers. Rosebuds, hydrangeas, chrysanthemums. You gotta clip them early. You put them in a vase. You gotta make sure that you cut one inch below the top leaf that you want poking out of the top of that vase. There's like he had a radio show. It's probably. Probably the copy for it was written by somebody else. Maybe his. His manager or something like that. With. Yeah, with some Bob contribution. But I. I remember driving around like in my dad's car in high school and he had. He had satellite Radio. And I remember just being transfixed by that crazy voice. In high school. I loved Tom Waits and like, you know, man man and Animal Collective, like singers that had a kind of nastier tone, I guess. And Bob Dylan was always a little bit far off for me, a little bit inaccessible. I knew I was supposed to like it, and I knew that it was intellectual on some level, but I could never really hook into it. And my brother's got me. Maybe this is why the way I do it is the way that it is. When I. When I got a record player When I was 16, my brothers got me some records from Tower Records in Opry Mills Mall in Nashville. And those records were Rainy Day Music by the Jayhawks, Being There by Wilco, Greatest Hits of Frank Zappa, which I think I got rid of pretty quickly. And the Times, They Are a Changing. Bob Dylan. A re release of that.

[Jesse David Fox]

Yeah.

[James Austin Johnson]

And Times, They Are a change in Bob, I think, is the one that most people have in their heads and that's important. Bob, he's still left wing and he's still a protest singer and all this stuff. That's him running around the Village with Susie Rotolo and all that stuff. But being the year that it was, that was 2005, when I heard the Times They Are Changing. There's beautiful stuff on that. Yeah, I. You know, boots of Spanish Leather edges out Girl from the North Country.

[Jesse David Fox]

For me, Spanish Leather is my favorite Bob Dylan song.

[James Austin Johnson]

Oh, there we go. And then the next year, Modern Times came out, which is his 2006 record. And that's. That's a different Bob. And he sounded crazy. I was thinking about Alicia Keys. He sings about Alicia Keys in the first 10 seconds of the album. Couldn't keep from crying she was born in Hell's Kitchen. I was living down the line and so I was just kind of triangulating theme time, radio, modern times and the times, they Are a changing. And Bob has always been a funny comedy character to me. I didn't really get into his full discography until Homer was born. And I was like, building a crib in Nashville between my first and second seasons. And being like, if I do this guy as a character on podcasts and stuff, I should probably know more than, like, a handful of albums. I should be a little bit more aware of the guy. And getting into his full discography, I think, is how I got a little bit more in touch with where it was all coming from and what I thought was funny about him and stuff. And I have shitty little offhand impressions that are less than 10 seconds long that are really stupid and that I barely think about. And they're just there, and they just happen. And then I have certain impressions that I do that are, like, probably more closer to what Austin Butler went through to be in Basil Armand Zelda, where there are people who are lifelong obsessions who I can't shake. And for me, like, if you see my hour, I'll do a bunch of little quick impressions, but there are some impressions that are. That are in the context of me talking about this person I'm fascinated with for, like, 15, 20 minutes. And so you'll see me do a bunch of little impressions either at the front or the back end of the hour, but you'll also see me talk about Donald Trump for, like, 25 minutes, or Joe Biden for, like, 25 minutes, Or Bob Dylan or longtime Rolling Stone editor David Frick, or any of the people that I'm obsessed with. I have a lot of feelings and a lot of thoughts, and I do a lot of research, and it's just. It just keeps building and building. And then. Yeah. The journey that you take with Bob Dylan, through many peaks and valleys in cultural relevance, I've always worried about peaking and going away, and I don't want that from my comedy career. Like, if I want to be anybody in comedy, I want to be Martin Short. I want to be funny forever. So I was like, who's somebody who has done this, aside from Martin Short? Who's somebody who has continued to make great stuff for forever because they like to do it? It's not always about being famous or killing. It's like, no, this is just. I make this kind of thing. This is what I do. And no one exemplifies that better than Bob Dylan.

[Jesse David Fox]

When you were starting you as a person who knows us now, I'm sure you were. Of not being pigeonholed as an impressionist.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah.

[Jesse David Fox]

Because I do think the show, though they need impressionists, sometimes looks down upon people who are, like, too good at impressions.

[James Austin Johnson]

Oh.

[Jesse David Fox]

Which is a theory that I have. But, no, I'm sure you're aware of it. What did you then do to try to, like, not because you only have so much control.

[James Austin Johnson]

I think feeling that cold open was kind of gonna be my best showcase for my energy and myself. I think I. I got a sense of that early on just because that's the way that I was deployed in. In many important ways. And I was like, okay, well, then I need to get really good at this. That did kind of scare me off from pitching impressions elsewhere in the show. And I've always wanted to kind of be seen more as a. Just as a comedian than a standup or an impressionist or any sub label. And I was just really focused on showing range and wanting to show what I was more about outside of. I mean, when you're playing. When you're playing one of these loaded political impressions, you can kind of disappear behind the weight of this person's, you know, cultural heft or whatever. And I wanted to make sure that I was spending the majority of my energy doing just sketches, like, being good in other people's sketches or writing the kind of stuff I write with Andrew Dukes, who, you know, if I'm really. What I do at the show is right. With Andrew Dismukes, that's what I spend 99% of my time doing. Yeah, I spend 1% of my time trying to be as funny as possible as Donald Trump. But that's the thing that happens at the very end of the week, the full half. First half of the week, I am pitching to Sarah or to Andrew or to Chloe or whoever's around and whoever we're, like, coming up with ideas with. You know, I'm just trying to think of funny sketches. And when I first got to the show, I think to a fault, I ran away from just being Impressions Guy. I think might have been. Looking back, I kind of wish that I had hugged myself more and been like, hey, it's really cool to be really good at something, and it's really cool to do something well. And if you can do this well, don't resent that. Like, play the.

[Jesse David Fox]

Let the audience see that you're good at this thing.

[James Austin Johnson]

Pitch your fastball, play the hits. This is probably my favorite thing about the show is just this advanced ropes course of, like, learning how I'm funny. I get to keep learning how I'm funny. And one of those lessons that I learned was like, I should do more impressions on the show. I should just be Impressions Guy. That's okay.

[Jesse David Fox]

Well, I think what you've done is there. You have taken on what is in the SNL nerd communities called Glue Guy roles. Phil Hartman was sort of the definitive Glue Guy. But then I think Cecily did that a lot, which is. And Bill Hader famously did, which is like, I'm gonna be the voiceover person. I'm gonna be an announcer.

[James Austin Johnson]

These are great names to be hearing sent my way. I mean, like. Like, I. If people ask me a lot about hosts, that I'm starstruck. Around and I'm like, I'm not starstruck around hosts much. I'm starstruck around Cecily Strong.

[Jesse David Fox]

Yeah.

[James Austin Johnson]

I'm starstruck around Tina Fey. Like. Like, that's when I'm a little, like, bit jelly.

[Jesse David Fox]

I think there is. People are fans of, like, especially, like, Cecily and Bill Hader, which is, like, people. They have fans and they know the things they do from the big things through the show, but they also filled out the show.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah.

[Jesse David Fox]

To people who notice a lot. I think CES especially did all the voiceovers for the entire thing. I think it's a good way to be. And I do think you. If you're often the voiceover person, you're often an announcer. You've done talk show host reels. I think if there's a sketch, there's.

[James Austin Johnson]

Sketching Chloe Feynman, too.

[Jesse David Fox]

Yeah.

[James Austin Johnson]

Chloe. Chloe Feynman is somebody who you maybe don't realize always, like, how seamlessly she is just in everything. Yeah. Like, she's. She's. I mean, I. I try to be good at voices, but there's. I just real quick want to say there are times when Chloe Feynman does something that I'm. I can't believe I just heard it. It's. She's incredible. I just wanted to say that real quick. Like, it's like, even stuff that people think is, like, a computer. Like, the way that she does the voices that are coming from a computer is, like, incredible. I don't know. She's just awesome.

[Jesse David Fox]

But I think you're good at two camera, like, announcer things. I was thinking of three sketches.

[James Austin Johnson]

I love that stuff.

[Jesse David Fox]

So it's like NFL and Fox, which is what you're playing Joe Buck or whatever. But, like.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah, it's not really an impression, but.

[Jesse David Fox]

You have to essentially read a lot of things. Yeah, there's also.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah.

[Jesse David Fox]

But also from this season, pilot announcement was that type of sketch where you're sort of just like, talking in a broadcaster y voice, even though that's like pilot.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah.

[Jesse David Fox]

And the other one that I think is probably the best example of it is your role in American Girl Doll xl.

[James Austin Johnson]

Oh, yeah.

[Jesse David Fox]

Because you come on and you are doing broadcaster voice.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah. Taking over the spokesman role. Like stealing the steering wheel from Nikki. Yeah. That's funny that you brought that one up. Cause I had a lot of fun doing that on set. I wasn't involved in the writing of that sketch. I just remember reading it at the table and being like, oh, I can't wait to do this. If we Film this because I. Because it's not just, it's not just broadcaster voice. It was also like the energy of taking over someone else's commercial. You have to see that in my eyes from the minute I'm already talking.

[Jesse David Fox]

Yeah.

[James Austin Johnson]

Because the part of the fun of that is going to be the audience trust getting yanked away. And I know that that's like. That's like going to be in the.

[Jesse David Fox]

Eyes and stuff because there's going to be a second where they. You're so much of an announcer on the show and just in general.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah.

[Jesse David Fox]

That they will forget that that was Nikki's role in the sketch.

[James Austin Johnson]

That's like the bit mission right there, right?

[Jesse David Fox]

Yeah.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah. So I love broadcasters. I think that's maybe the first impressions that I did as a kid was like, if I was watching Cartoon Network all day, they would also be playing like makeup commercials because it's, you know, that's. Who's watching Cartoon Network too, is the mom folding clothes. Right. So, like, I remember memorizing full infomercials as a kid and I would just do these to my parents, friends at parties or Bible studies or something where I would do a full four minute infomercial for. Do you remember the. It was like a carrier that would roll out. It was basically like a tackle box, but it was for like household objects. Anyway, I remember it's dim in my mind, but I remember it rolls up and it rolls up and rolls out and displays everything at your fingertips. And if you call now like it was one of those types of things. And I love the stilted way that people talk on television. And I'm not a sports guy, but I get assigned a lot of sports stuff. I don't know anything about anyone that I'm talking about ever, but I get assigned a lot of sports stuff. And, you know, I was in the same room with my two older brothers and my dad watching basketball or watching football, and I heard these guys talking. But I was. I was reading a dragon novel or I was playing Game Boy. I was not wanting to be a part of the football, but I heard these guys talking like that all the time. Oh, all right. Well, while we take a moment, let's talk about. Thursdays just got crazier. So, like, that's, that's where that stuff comes from is I've just heard voices like that all my life. And then I also come from a lot of teachers and preachers in my family. It just seems like everything in my life has always been oriented around the oldest dude. Like, of that church or something like that, or that college. And so I'm just used. I'm used to a specific type of male authority of like a soft, soft power, you know what I mean? Like a gentle educator or a broadcaster or whatever that is. And I think that's why I can do that.

[Jesse David Fox]

The other thing you get on the air consistently is singing obviously your sugar feet, Lake Beach. The jingle pitch I always like. I think that song's really good.

[James Austin Johnson]

Thank you.

[Jesse David Fox]

And then obviously the most catchy song is the family meetings, the one where you and I watch in the corner.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jesse David Fox]

Do you write that hook?

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah, I wrote that with Dan Bulla and Eggo, the brilliant, important, beautiful and hilarious ego wodem who we don't talk about enough.

[Jesse David Fox]

I'm talking about it all the time.

[James Austin Johnson]

You better.

[Jesse David Fox]

Well, one truth on the show, I was talking about all the time.

[James Austin Johnson]

I mean, I love Eggo and I've always wanted to work with Eggo. And one day we were sitting around on set of a pre tape and we'd just be like, what's something we can do together? And we didn't know each other super well at that point. But I, I was just, I think I was dressed like Michael Imperioli. We were doing the Black Lotus. This is a few seasons ago. And I love 70s and 80s R&B. And I was like, oh, you know what would be really fun? So I've always wanted to do a sketch of this Michael McDonald and Patti LaBelle song called on My Own. And it has a great music video. And so this. So the family meeting was an homage to the Michael McDonald and Patti LaBelle music video for On My Own. And that's where it started. We wrote it as a pre tape that it would be like the parents showing the children a music video. And it's a divorce R B song. It is a grown up RB story, you know what I mean? It's not even that sexy. It's more just like a lament. And we did it at the table and they called us into a meeting after table and we're like, let's figure out a way to make that a live sketch. And I was like, I, it's a movie. I really don't see it any other way. And they were like, well, you, you did do it just now. You performed it, so you can do that. And that was, that was the first time I learned that lesson of like, if I can, if I can do this at the table, I can do it on the show, I can do it live. It's a very bizarre sketch, really. Like just compared to a lot of the places that we usually go. It's very strange. I mean, we've got, we've got Travis Kelce is a guy named Sucre Wolodarsky. There's a lot of moves playing Streets of Rage 2 on a game gear and wearing a Kappa suit. I mean, it was. It's pretty silly, but when people ask me what's my favorite sketch on the show, it's that. I mean, that really is my favorite thing I've ever done on the show.

[Jesse David Fox]

Did you play guitar live?

[James Austin Johnson]

And I played guitar live.

[Jesse David Fox]

I does that has. I literally can't remember if anyone has done that other than like Fred.

[James Austin Johnson]

Fred was always plugged in. I like I said, I love the way that things sound when a person is making music and the little mess ups and stuff. And you could always kind of tell that Fred's characters were playing the guitar live. But one time when I met him at a party, I think I asked him of like, if I'm maybe I had just had a prop guitar and a sketch and I was like, I wanted to learn the song and be plugged in. He was like, you can ask for that. I was like, okay, so every time you had a prop guitar in the sketch, he was like, I was plugged in. It was live. I was in the mix. I learned the song. I was like, I'm enough of a musician that I can do that. And so that's one of my little SNL challenges I've set for myself is that if, yeah, if I'm. If I'm playing guitar, I should, I should play guitar. And that is a dinky little solo. If you can't play that solo, then gotta do a lot.

[Jesse David Fox]

Do you have a story that captured your relationship or dynamic with Lorne Michaels?

[James Austin Johnson]

Wow, Lorne. I love Lorne. You know, a story. I shut it down with him at the party. At the last one at the Ariana party. I ended up at his table and it was just me, Marcelo and Andrew. And we were there until the lights came on. I really like Lauren. I really like that I get to talk to somebody who has the, the he. He has a personal connection with thousands of people throughout show business history. And so that's something that, as somebody who's always reading like books about entertainment history, that makes getting to know him in my own way so fun because it's like he, he can talk about like where he was when, like, like when John Lennon was shot. Like, I can hear about that night.

[Jesse David Fox]

Yeah.

[James Austin Johnson]

You know what I mean? And, like, I can talk to him about, like, when. When this person hosted in 1998, you know what I mean? Like, it's like I have all of these things that I'm just interested in, and it's more than likely that he has a take on it that is informed by being there. You know what I mean? And. And so that's. That's really fun. If we're trying to, like, hone in on one specific thing. I think that a lot of people go back to just the first time they were in his office and met him.

[Jesse David Fox]

We covered.

[James Austin Johnson]

Which has been covered plenty. One time when I was doing Bob Dylan for the first time live on the show, he had some thoughts, and he had resisted that impression many times before. And this was finally a time when it was relevant because it was. There was a Timothee Chalamet movie about it. And I had made one too many references within the sketch that were. To things that Bob Dylan has actually tweeted about. Like, I was talking about the. I was talking about a Lon chaney movie from 1927, which he had recently tweeted about. And. And like Dick Powell and stuff like that. And he fell in the hallway and he was like, lon Chaney, Dick Powell. Our audience is. Our audience is like nine years old. You know that, right? You can't be talking about Lon Chaney. Find something else. He was like. He was like, trying to impress upon me, like, can't Bob Dylan talk about Sabrina Carpenter? Or at the very least, like, someone from this century.

[Jesse David Fox]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Austin Johnson]

You know what I mean? Like, even if it's from the last 30 years, give me something. And that was a really important lesson for me was like, hey, I can do the thing that I did with Donald Trump where I can have Bob Dylan talking about some more modern stuff.

[Jesse David Fox]

You're the only person I know who does the modern lore and voice. Everyone still kind of does Dr. Evil, but you do.

[James Austin Johnson]

Can you tell that my approach to impressions has a specific methodology? Yeah. You know, that's when I met him. And I think that people tend to do the impression of these people at the moment that they met. Yeah, right. With a lot of people's. Donald Trump, for instance, they're doing like 2000s Trump when he was at every Diddy party in New York social event. You know what I mean? Like, that's like the Trump that a lot of people do is. Cause that's when he was like, you know, really on TV the last time.

[Jesse David Fox]

Yeah.

[James Austin Johnson]

And so, yeah, I like to do things updated and current and just try to find something a little bit different. And yeah, even with my Lauren, I knew Lauren the moment that I met him, you know, in 2021, Darrell Hammond.

[Jesse David Fox]

Was on the show 14 seasons. That is the potential of an impressionist. I do feel like you have an uncommon, like, workman, like, quality to how you discuss being on snl. You're like, this is my job. I'm on snl. It's not. You're able to sort of take.

[James Austin Johnson]

I came in with a child and a wife, and I think that that's different than a lot of people do.

[Jesse David Fox]

How do you. Can you imagine just sort of just being a person who's on the show forever?

[James Austin Johnson]

I really enjoy it, but I don't know, I more think about. I more think about sustainability and balance is kind of what I'm thinking about when it comes to the show. And I know that there will be a point where I. I'm. I think it happens with anybody anywhere where it's like you might notice, like, slippage or your work suffering because of. Because of what you're. Of what. Of life that you're not living or something like that. That hasn't happened yet. For me, I feel like. I literally kind of feel like I'm just getting started. And I do hope that I get to do it for as long as people want me to. You know what I mean? I can't believe that it's already been five years because it feels like my second or third. Because just the. The amount of lessons that I've had to learn is. Is nuts. When, when there was that big discussion about Napo babies last year, I. I've met a lot of. I met a lot of them. And those people as children had a context for what the entertainment world was. And I had to assemble all of that on the fly. The Church of the Nazarene, the denomination that I come from, was firmly anti show business. My grandparents never stepped foot in a movie theater. Movie theaters were the devil for so long. And my parents. First movie that they saw in the theater, I think was Aladdin, Disney's Aladdin. It was the 90s, so they were like in their 40s, maybe 30s, 40s, they did that. So. So I come from a world that was just very sealed off from show business. And I always wanted to be Conan o' Brien or Tina Fey or Fred Armisen or one of these people that I saw, thankfully, on NBC, which was a thing I could get. And I had access to and so I've had to build all this on my own. And that is, that's, that's been an exhausting journey. And I fully get the ease with which some of, some of the, the people in entertainment can step into the role because their parents were able to show them the way. And I had to, I didn't have access to that kind of guidance. I'm learning it all right now and I, I'm thirsty for knowledge and I'm a repository of a lot of dumb bullshit and I'm really enjoying getting to add to the pile. And so I really feel like I'm sort of in, I don't know, I'm, I'm very much still in my academic career at snl. I feel like I am still learning and assembling the person I'll be for the rest of my life. And yeah, I could, I could probably do this for a lot longer, but we'll see because at some point I will probably have another newborn or I'll have a 12 year old or something and that'll make me go, okay, what's where? Where is my energy best served? Like, am I still able to serve SNL in the way that I know is demanded? I wonder. So far I'm doing everything okay and all my friends tell me I'm doing okay at parenting and snl. So I'm like, well, we're balanced right now. Let's see how far this goes.

[Podcast Announcer]

Some of this video coming out of Minneapolis is telling a story about the surge of ICE agents that started last week after Renee Goode was killed.

[James Austin Johnson]

Another controversial video has emerged of ice. It turns out the people being arrested were U. S. Citizens.

[Jesse David Fox]

These are observers making sure that kids can walk home from school without being.

[James Austin Johnson]

Taken apart by the horrible gestapo that we have here. A group of men approached a woman at a bus stop, pulled her aside, and then walked her into a vehicle.

[Podcast Announcer]

The polling is also telling a story. Support for ICE is dropping and more Americans than ever before. 46% told economist YouGov pollsters they want ICE abolished. Meanwhile, the messaging from the White House is that ICE has immunity. So what does that mean for the people, people, some of them citizens, that ICE agents are dragging out of cars and workplaces and off of streets around Minneapolis. That's on today explained. We air every weekday.

[Version History Host]

For most of the history of television, if you missed a show, you just missed it. It was over, it was gone. But then this little company called TiVo came along and gave people superpowers. You could pause live television, you could Rewind it, you could save it and watch it theater. It was incredible. And the people who had it could not stop talking about it. This week on Version History, a new chat show about old technology. We talk about the history of TiVo and how it is that a company whose products actually no one ever really had or used became one of the most iconic stories in tech. All that on Version History. Wherever you get podcasts.

[Jerry Lee]

This week I'm chatting with Jerry Lee, the career wizard and co founder of Wansulting, who left Google to help millions land their dream jobs. Jerry gets brutally honest about the career myths that are keeping you broke, why six figures may not be the flex it used to be, and the exact three steps you need to take right now if you're dreading your job search in this spooky market. Plus, he's spilling the tea on the worst resumes he's ever seen, his biggest money lesson, and why he's giving away free career resources to his 3.5 million followers when he could be charging for everything. Whether you're hoping to lock in that promotion, pivot to something new, or finally crack six figures, Jerry's breaking down the real strategies that actually work. Get ready for an unfiltered conversation about building the career and the bank account you actually want in 2026. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch on YouTube.com/your rich BFF.

[Jesse David Fox]

But now it's time for the final segment show.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah.

[Jesse David Fox]

Called Laughing Around. It's like a lightning round.

[James Austin Johnson]

But is this the longest one you've ever done?

[Jesse David Fox]

No, but snl, the thing I could talk about for forever.

[James Austin Johnson]

It's fascinating.

[Jesse David Fox]

It's fascinating everything, every aspect of it. I have another three hours of questions. Of course, as a person who cares about the process of comedy, it is only that it is a place where every aspect of and like prospect as it interacts with psychology and all these things and it's just like a bunch of people doing at the same time. It's fascinating and not even for the way all the ways that their documentary is about. It's also just sort of fascinating on a very practical level.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah, they also. It was a little bit the Disney vault for a long time and now there's this. I think it's maybe the influence of new media, but there's a little bit more of like, well, what is happening in there? And like, you know, we're. We're kind of from time to time getting to show and share some of this stuff.

[Jesse David Fox]

Just like professional wrestling in that way, really shout out to Anne. Yeah, I'll explain later. We truly have gone too long for me to explain the nature of modern kayfabe. Do you have a favorite joke? Joke?

[James Austin Johnson]

Favorite joke? Joke. This isn't really a joke joke, but I feel like it's really important to me. Non sequitur is really important to me. And it's. It's one of the great sort of uncharted oceans, really, because there's nothing to chart. Usually it's a dead end. I love that stuff. My. My granddad on my dad's side. My dad's dad, Talmage was this, for most of my life, this terrifying, just massive presence of a preacher man. And he had such a weird sense of humor. And he loved absurdists. He loved non sequitur. He would boldly do comedy to a child that a child couldn't possibly appreciate.

[Jesse David Fox]

Can you imitate any of it?

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah. He would, like, pick me up and just say, which would you rather be? Or an Easter egg? It was like, stuff like that. It was like, stuff that made no sense. It was like. He was like, you want to hear a joke? I was like, sure. He's like, where was Moses when the lights were out? And I was like, I don't know. He was in the dark. It was. It was always stuff like that where you're like, the. The way that. And it's so Alti.

[Jesse David Fox]

Yeah, yeah. You know, Bob and Ray.

[James Austin Johnson]

It is. It's. It's the foundation of a type of comedy that is so non. Commercial.

[Jesse David Fox]

Yeah.

[James Austin Johnson]

And I loved it because it was this joke that he was in on that I was not. I think that had a mystery to it. That was really delicious. So when I started to actually put those together, like, what's happening there? It was pretty fun. And then just a joke. Joke.

[Jesse David Fox]

Oh, that's a good point.

[James Austin Johnson]

I mean, that's the best tell you.

[Jesse David Fox]

That's, like, also revealing about all the other things you talked about, which is usually not the case with that question. Do you have a short story of an interaction with a legendary comedian, living or dead, you're willing to share with us? I don't know if you meet any at your job.

[James Austin Johnson]

I do. I mean, so many of the times that I was hanging out with these legendary people was in the middle of the night, where I'm not really imprinting a whole lot of memories. I'm more just, like, trying to pick up pieces of armor. Like I'm playing Skyrim or something like that.

[James Austin Johnson's Friend or Colleague]

But.

[James Austin Johnson]

I think I can go ahead and say this. I think I teed this up and then chickened out at the very beginning of the episode. And it was when Mike Myers came and he was playing Elon Musk. One morning I was walking into work and I got a call from an unknown number and I answered it and it was Mike Myers. And he was like, how do you do Elon Musk? Because he was still kind of forming the character and he was going to do it that night. And I found myself. I found myself doing a goofy South African Bond villain to, to Dr. Evil, like to a guy who does this all the time. And he wanted, and he wanted my input, which I was just kind of like, found kind of confusing. But also it was such a moment for me. And I remember doing it for him. And I remember what he did was not what I was doing, but I hope that a little bit of what I did helped him towards his own instincts. He needed, in that moment, he needed to do what his own instinct was and not another comedian's. And maybe he just wanted to hear what I was doing because I. Because I had done it at another table or something and he heard it. He was like, do that a little bit more for me. So I hope I helped him somehow. But that was a crazy moment. And, and yeah, getting to know Dana, I. I had more. I've had more time with Dana over the years and getting to know him was. Was really, really, really special for me just because I really like him as a guy. You know what I mean? I don't know how much else to say other than I have been blessed to just be around these people. But the moments where you connect with people as dudes, that's this other thing that happens and kind of makes you. It's made me more confident. Martin Short, anytime I've been around Martin Short has been incredible. Well, I'm here. I've been walking around trying to do Martin Short. That's good. We can start. I am in love with Martin Short. There are parties that people have come over my house that just become Martin Short, YouTube parties. Because he's got so many great late night appearances. And I'm so. My moments that I've had with him have been really, really special. And one time, this wasn't a read. This was more just something I needed to hear. It was just one time. He was, he was just like, you know what your problem is? I'm not going to do the voice anymore because I'm not good enough at it. But he's like, you know what your problem is? You just don't have confidence. You have all the other stuff that you need, and you're great, but you're just gonna need to work on finding that confidence. He said that to me, like, my first or second season.

[Jesse David Fox]

Wow.

[James Austin Johnson]

And he was right. I mean, I have a lot of swag when I'm doing Trump or certain other types of things, but finding the confidence to really bust it open for people and be spectacular the way you need to be to. To. To develop a relationship with fans and be an SNL star. I don't always have the confidence to really stand by my comedy and. And get it out. And the Ariana episode was an episode where I really kind of felt confident and really went into it with a tremendous amount of confidence because I knew. I knew I was up to the task. And I've always had Martin Schwartz words floating around in my head to just kind of. And Dana told me a similar thing when I first started because I had a phone call with him before I ever met him. I just asked for his number because he had a similar start to me where a lot. He had a lot of SNL responsibilities right up front because it was that big cast wipe, and it was like, Dana, you're this guy. And he did Church lady and Broccoli on his first episode. He was in the cold open, all that stuff. So he was one of the only people that I could talk to. And he said a similar thing where when he first started, he had a friend tell him, the time for audaciousness is now. If there's ever been a time to be audacious, this is the moment. And I've spent years wondering how to be audacious really, and what that actually means for me. And I think I've used the young dad thing as an excuse to take my time and bide my time and learn and listen and build up that confidence. But I think it's. I'm having the most fun I've ever had at the show lately, because I think I have earned that confidence now. I think it's been built by reps.

[Jesse David Fox]

You know, what was your SNL50 like? Who did you hang out with? Who's the most surprising person that you found yourself having?

[James Austin Johnson]

I think SNL 50. For me, the big one was Beck Bennett. I had just not met Beck Bennett.

[Jesse David Fox]

This is crazy.

[James Austin Johnson]

What? This guy, Beck Bennett, he's the greatest living sketch comedian. We should be talking about Beck Bennett more.

[Jesse David Fox]

Well, literally next week, it's going to be all Beck Bennett on this podcast. But tell me so Cyr had the Same answer. So what was Beck Bennett like to you? Let's go viral twice, talking about how Bennett is the greatest guy.

[James Austin Johnson]

Beck Bennett is the greatest guy. I think he is. I. He's. He's got to be in the top 10, at least in my top five of SNL performers. But just his range and his drive to do the comedy he thought was funny, you can smell that in all of his pieces. He's a risk taker. And just the way that he could do the. The Mike Pence and Vladimir Putin kind of like, you know, stuff that we're gonna do the way that he could do that so well, but then also be like a little boy in lederhosen in makeup asking for chocolates and stuff like that. Like, that's. I'm a little bit missing that. I'm a little bit missing the. The willingness to go out there in lederhosen and sing in a high voice about eating chocolate. And he. He's just so ready to do whatever is the funniest thing in the moment and. And capable. And I came in on the season that he had just stopped working, and I think I had more or less inherited a fraction of his clients. You know what I mean? When he left the company. And so, so that. That was. Those were big shoes to fill. And I remember hearing a lot of people mourn his absence because it's like this thing needs a rich buffoon. And like, I play. I play a lot of 1 percenters on the show. Yeah. But I'm more like play. I think what. What I'm more gifted at playing is, like, erudite or inscrutable or something like that. I'm not as good at that Beck Bennett, Will Ferrell, douchey loser.

[Jesse David Fox]

Yeah.

[James Austin Johnson]

Kind of thing. And I'm. It's. It's what a lot of the greatest comedy is made out of. And he, like a music analogy would be like, he's one of the greatest, like, lead guitarists or something like that. It's like. It's like a style that is everywhere, but there's only a few people who do it as good as he does. And so I. I don't know. It was. And also, he's a great man. He's a good person. Watching him interact with production staff and crew members and other cast members in the couple of episodes that we've shared together, I wasn't just jealous of his talent. I was jealous of his demeanor and his esprit de kerr and decorum. And it's like the things that I wish I Had that this man so effortlessly exemplifies. There's not even words in American English for what they are. Like, it's sort of the same thing of when I get to work with Martin Short. And I would put back on that level, too, where I'm like, you are funny now at this moment, when everyone's so crabby and hungry, you're like. And the way that you're roasting, the way that you're getting out, your negative energy is becoming a positive thing. That's the other thing that's incredible. And I've only. I've only seen that happen on sets with certain people, and they're big, big names. George Clooney, you know what I mean? Tom Hanks, like, Back Bennett is. Has the. The onset vibe of Oscar winners that I have had the time to spend with. So it's not just that I wish I was as funny as him. It's that I wish I behaved the way that he does in life.

[Jesse David Fox]

We're gonna make him cry again. That's our goal.

[James Austin Johnson]

I would love to make him cry. I'm a good crier, too.

[Jesse David Fox]

We'll send it right to him. All right. What's something that people think is comedy that you think isn't Podcasts? That's fine. I don't think this is comedy.

[James Austin Johnson]

Well, this is great because we're actually talking about something, but there's a lot of. Podcasts are the main comedy that people listen to, and I just think that. I just think that they're going to be at the Pearly gates, looking at how much time they spent listening to unverified facts be bandied about. I would say that most of the comedy that is hitting right now is comedy that does not connect with me. And you could take from that what you want.

[Jesse David Fox]

But.

[James Austin Johnson]

Something that I think is.

[Jesse David Fox]

That's an answer you already.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah.

[Jesse David Fox]

Yeah, that's good.

[James Austin Johnson]

I would say most comedy. That's. The other thing is, like, I don't think you should like most comedy. I think comedy is this. Like, it's not even, like, food. Where. Like, when. When people ask me who my favorite comedians are, I can really only name, like, five or six names off the top of my head. But it's not all of comedy.

[Jesse David Fox]

No.

[James Austin Johnson]

You should really only be gravitating towards the voices that. That speak to you. And if a lot of voices speak to you, I'm like, honey, you got to start narrowing down some interests. Like, you need hobbies. Yeah, it's. It's too wide open. You're gonna Get. That's too much influence.

[Jesse David Fox]

This is something I talk about. I can talk about for too long.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah. So, yeah.

[Jesse David Fox]

More on this on comedy book by Jesse Day Fox and the idea of comedy taste. But just sketch. That's never worked. But you'll go to your grave being like, I was right there wrong.

[James Austin Johnson]

Probably David Frick. So David Frick is this guy who's in every rock doc. He is a journalist. Rock journalist. He has an amazing voice and just a really fun train of thought that feels like reading a magazine feature. The way that he speaks. I've met him at. I've met him in New York a number of times, and I just think he's the coolest dude in the world. And I love his voice. And when he pops up in the Wilco documentary, I Am Trying to Break youk Heart, he is so different from every single talking head that has talked about the band Wilco throughout the whole thing. And it's so refreshing. He looks like a Ramone. He's got a little bit of a punk bowl cut and, like, some cool glasses. And he's just got this other way of speaking about Jeff Tweedy, who's another one of my favorite dudes. That is just so entertaining to me. And I've watched that documentary a bunch of times, and so I just love that voice. And me. And I keep talking about Dan Bola. Dan Bola. And I conceived of a way to do David Frick, which was, we're gonna make it an original character. It was a piece of advice I got from Dana Carvey early on, which was, if you do a voice and nobody is like, it doesn't matter that it's an impression of someone. Just make it a character.

[Jesse David Fox]

Cecily was really good at that.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah, she was. She's doing probably, you know, Joan Crawford from some specific.

[Jesse David Fox]

Or like a Real Housewife or a.

[James Austin Johnson]

Real Housewife or something. It doesn't matter who she's doing an impression of. She makes it into original character and it suddenly makes sense. So I thought that that would work. So Mianne Dan had Peter Chick, who. Peter Chick was a. Was a. Yeah. A rock journalist who was there to talk about, you know, technology or something on Weekend Update. And it's just the game of. The thing is, the. Is the overwrought and boring way that a lot of rock journalism tries to sum up what music is. And it was. It's always like, you know, all right, what is. What is a basketball? You know, because a record. Record. It's physical media. It's not like A basketball? What is a basketball? You know, I. I go to a basketball store, I buy a crate of 200. I. I like that. You like this. I take it home, I get my crowbar, I wedge the box open and I pick it up. You know, what does it feel like? It's. It's sharp, it's sweat, it's baking hot. I know that if I were to pick up this basketball and throw it at the hoop, I might get, I don't know, 11 points. It's more about trying to mimic the way that a smart person dumbs down their train of thought. I don't know, it's asking so much of the person that it is supposedly supposed to delight. And it's some of the hardest that he and I have ever laughed in an office. And Andrew just mukes and I talk a lot about, like, why do we do this? We do this because we get to have that moment where we are in an office pitching on something that maybe won't see the light of day, but it is thief hardest that we have ever laughed. And it's in the pursuit. It's in the pursuit of broadcast ready. Stand up, broadcast ready. Sketch comedy. But just the entreating certain ideas for as long as we do is just. Is so fun.

[Jesse David Fox]

Thank you so much.

[James Austin Johnson]

Oh, I wanted to do something for you.

[Jesse David Fox]

Sure.

[James Austin Johnson]

So I have a Phillips one blade.

[Jesse David Fox]

Okay.

[James Austin Johnson]

And you wrote an article during the SNL50 coverage. That vulture, you know, I'm a vulture reader. You wrote an article called SNL needs more mustaches, I think.

[Jesse David Fox]

Oh, yeah, I forgot I wrote that.

[James Austin Johnson]

And pretty long piece.

[Jesse David Fox]

Yeah, it's like an actual. I really thought that one.

[James Austin Johnson]

You were thinking about how Dan Aykroyd, you know, had a mustache for a lot of his time. And Lorne wants us to be trimmed up and clean shaven so we can play different characters. And I just thought that you might like to watch me prepare myself to go back to work. Yeah. So, Lauren, this is for you. I know that mustaches are a thing of the past, and I need to prepare my face for potentially wearing a fun prosthetic in character, you know, so this is it. You know, this is the. This is. You saw a little bit of the real me, and now you're seeing the me that is. That's for tv. You know, I'm getting TV ready here, and I'm finally ready to go back to the show. The. The vacation facial hair is gone and there's a little bit on your table here.

[Jesse David Fox]

Immediately you've evaporated.

[James Austin Johnson]

Have I. You've no one do I read different.

[Jesse David Fox]

I can imagine putting on a wig.

[James Austin Johnson]

Yeah.

[Jesse David Fox]

And being well.

[James Austin Johnson]

You can?

[Jesse David Fox]

Yeah.

[James Austin Johnson]

Donald Trump couldn't have a dirty little Ned Flanders mustache. Okay. I can't. I want to, but that's just not in the cards for the guys I play on the show. You know, dads sometimes have full beards or no beards. These days it's not just, you know, one thing, but eagle eyed viewers can see there have been some times on the show where it's been my real mustache. Maybe in a pre tape. Now your turn.

[Jesse David Fox]

Oh, I can shave my mustache. Thank you so much.

[James Austin Johnson]

Thanks for having me, Jesse.

[Jesse David Fox]

That's it for another episode of Good One. Good one is produced by myself, Zachary Mack, Neal Janowitz and Ann Victoria Clark. Music Composed by Brandon McFarland. Write, review and rate the show on Apple Podcasts. Five stars please. I am Jesse David Fox and you can follow me essydavid Fox. Buy my book, comedy book, wherever books are sold. Thanks for listening to good one from New York magazine. You can subscribe to the [e-mail] pod you'll be back with a new episode next week. Have a good one.