About 10 years ago, I came across a young man named Josh Johnson on an ancient internet relic known as MySpace. At the time, I was a relatively popular blogger on the site, and I enjoyed finding other up-and-coming writers to help inspire me to stay hungry, and to keep my brain from being less bored. I also have always been the type that would rather share the work of someone who wasn’t already mega-popular, but had talent in spades nonetheless.
At the time, Johnson was in high school, and I immediately saw a wisdom way beyond his years. We became fast online friends, and helped support each other’s work whenever we got the chance. Over the years, Johnson’s writing consistently improved and continued to inspire, but along the way, he joined the Army, and MySpace was imploded to make way for the Facebooks and Twitters of the world. I lost touch with Johnson, and unfortunately, dozens of other friends and colleagues whom I admired greatly.
A couple years ago, I came across a Josh Johnson on Facebook. This Josh Johnson was a stand up comedian, but upon further investigation, I soon gathered, to my delight, that this was the same Josh Johnson I had met years earlier on whateverthenameofthatsitewas, but this time, Mr. Johnson was an official grown up, and as I mentioned, was now, like myself, trying his hand at stand up. We got to know each other again (admittedly not as much as I would have liked-he’s just a cool cat) and late last year, he released his debut comedy album.
In about six years of performing, Johnson has garnered a loyal fan base, made a name for himself with numerous clubs and scenes, and become a respected colleague among loads of other stellar comics. After listening to Tabitha for just a few seconds, it becomes immediately evident why this is the case. Johnson is simply an easy to like person. He’s good looking, but not annoyingly so, and his delivery is fun, smooth, and he sounds like he’s having the time of his life up on stage. He doesn’t need much time to warm up. He just starts talking, and makes you feel right at home inside of his brain space.
He self-deprecatingly starts things off by saying that he is about to disappoint the audience, but he does so in such a fun loving way, that it immediately gets the crowd on his side, and they are fully on board as he waxes poetic about the reason he decided to get a vasectomy. A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Johnson has a very infectious, and unique drawl, but if forced to come up with a comparison, I would say that it sounds a bit like what Dave Chappelle would sound like if he was more hyperactive, and born a little south of Washington D.C.
Johnson is gifted at storytelling, and improv, as he rips rapid-fire through his first few jokes, which touch on subjects such as music festivals, eavesdropping on breakups, and performing in less-than-favorable cities. It’s impressive to hear a comic who has only been at it for a handful of years already comfortable enough to just riff onstage, as opposed to relying on gimmicks, or going for easy laughs, as so many others choose to do, sadly. Johnson isn’t always getting guffaws, or huge belly laughs, but they are definitely more than a few here, and his timing and delivery are always on time, which, along with his far above average energy, means never a dull moment, as a reward for the steadily chuckling room.
Highlight from “Buffy”: (on homeless people in Hollywood wearing mascot outfits) “I’m not going to give you money for wearing a dirty Spider-Man costume. Also, there’s like six other Spider-Men on this block. Do you not have territory? Like there’s six Spider-Men… Spider-Mans? Spider-Men. What’s the plural for a group of assholes, ’cause that’s what they were.”
Josh Johnson is the quintessential comedian who is writer first, and comedian second. This fact is displayed most prominently on “Spike”, in which Johnson eloquently tells a story about how he stopped catching the city bus in Fort Worth after a homeless man kissed him on the lips after he missed his stop and fell asleep. It’s one of those shining moments of pure comedy gold, non-judgmental social commentary, master storytelling, and improvisational wizardry that takes some comedians twice as long to develop, and honestly, some never will. Not at this level. Patton Oswalt would be proud.
The greatness continues on “Buffy”, where Johnson shouts out his dad in the audience, who he goes on to say thought that Josh was gay, which the heterosexual Johnson defends by saying that he loves musicals, and wore a lot of nail polish as a goth teen. Following that comes a story in which Josh (whose inner-child is a girl named Tabitha) loses his virginity at a very young age, only to run home crying before writing about it in his diary. On the next track, “Lorne”, he speaks candidly about being clinically depressed, and is still able to do so in such a joyous manner. It’s complexities such as this that have helped make up many of comedy’s greatest legends. I would obviously prefer that Josh not have to deal with depression, but I felt it necessary to note the parallels between his brilliance, and others who have dealt with similar issues. Let’s hope if he experiences the success that he has all the potential in the world to reach, that he’s able to manage his depression better than some of our fallen heroes. The world needs people with this much lust for life to stick around as long as they can.
Johnson gives love to so many of topics, and that is my favorite kind of comedian. It’s basically like being on Twitter, but it’s only one guy talking about all this awesome stuff. He talks about cats, Ken Burns’ baseball miniseries, Christianity, and the NBA over the next few tracks. Colorful wordplay, and a healthy grasp of the English language helps lines like “Chris Bosh looks like a chocolate ostrich.”, or “They should pimp Xzibit’s career.” hit even more delightfully than they already would.
On “Darla”, Johnson talks about how weird job interviews are, specifically when the interviewer brings up unlikely scenarios. An interviewer at Best Buy asks Josh how he would sell a cellphone to her if she was from the 1800s, and Josh’s first instinct is to welcome the person to the future, and inform her that black people are now free. He follows this up with an encore that includes a couple of nightmare date stories.
The entire set goes about as well as one could hope for their debut album recording, and much of that is owed to Johnson’s skill set, but a very giving, and attentive crowd definitely helped. Regardless of the reasons, the album is an accomplishment, and sets in stone Johnson’s standing as a force to be reckoned with for years to come. I am proud to say that I witnessed his writing prowess years before he did stand up, and am so happy to be able to hear him share that on a grander, and far different stage than the blogosphere.
Johnson will be appearing soon on Comedy Central, and before long, will probably be all over the place, so listen to this now, and share my pride in watching an up and comer become larger than life, while staying humble, and true to himself. Johnson is not just fun to root for because he’s a great artist, but because he also just seems like a great guy.
Tabitha is available now on iTunes, Bandcamp, CDBaby, and a bunch of other places, and you can find a criminally underfollowed Josh on Twitter @joshthesandwich
pocket knives AND lint 