Ep. 179 - Danny Johnson: Clean Comedy, Real Stories, and the Road

0:00 Stories from Real Life is sponsored by Forever, the digital shareable platform that preserves all of your precious memories forever. This is Melvin E. Edwards, the host of Stories from Real Life. One of the things I'm passionate about when I'm not doing this podcast is genealogy. And if you've ever researched ancestors, you begin to understand how short generations really are. That's why it's important to preserve those memories while you still have the chance. And that's where Forever comes in. Forever is the world's first permanent, shareable, digital home for all your memories. Look, your photos, videos, and family stories deserve more than temporary cloud storage. With a Forever storage account, your files are guaranteed safe and protected for your lifetime plus 100 years.

0:44 Your lifetime plus 100 years. And here's what I love. No endless monthly fees. You can make a one-time payment or break it down to 24 monthly installments and you own your storage. It's all backed by the forever guarantee fund built to preserve your legacy for generations. Check out my website, podcast, real life.com and click on sponsors or the link in the show notes. Your memories are the stories from your real life forever. Make sure they truly last forever.

1:27 Welcome to Stories from Real Life. Today, we have a special guest whose comedy makes you laugh and think, clean, sharp, and deeply human. Meet Danny Johnson, comedian, storyteller, father, and maybe secret stand-up philosopher. We dive into his origins, his craft, what's behind the curtain, and even some of the wildest moments he's had on the road. If you've ever wondered how real life gets turned into real laughs, this one's for you. This is Stories from Real Life with Melvin E. Edwards. And today's story is Danny Johnson's Clean Comedy, Real Stories, and The Road.

2:09 You are listening to Stories from Real Life, a podcast by engaging storytellers for engaged story listeners. Here's your host, author and journalist, Melvin E. Edwards. Hello again, and welcome to another episode of Stories from Real Life. I'm your host, Melvin E. Edwards. Thank you for joining me for the podcast where our personal stories remind us how much we can learn from each other. Today, we're joined by someone who actually knows how to turn everyday chaos into comedy.

2:51 Danny Johnson is here, a man who can take the most ordinary moment and make you laugh like it happened to you. And his dry bar comedy special has had millions of views to prove it. Danny, welcome to the show. Thank you, Melvin. I appreciate you having me, man. Thank you so much. Aside from that jersey, I think we're going to get along just fine. Well, it's your birthright to be a Jaguars fan. I appreciate people who root for their hometown team, so I won't give you too hard of a time. But I will laugh when you don't become the wild card and we become the South champs. It was fun to watch you guys play against the Chiefs, though, I'll tell you that. It was about time we beat them. It was about time.

3:31 Yeah. All right, so let's start off talking about your comedy. Sure. Take us back to the beginning. What was the moment you realized comedy wasn't just something you enjoyed, but something you think you really needed to do? Great opening question. If I was to psychoanalyze myself, I would say growing up in New York in a large family, it was sort of your birthright to be poked fun at, teased, ribbed, all in good fun. But being the oldest of five kids and watching the attention on me slowly diminish over time, I started to not act out, but I started to like...

4:16 do imitations of different relatives. I'd put on little skits and whatnot. And I was like, oh, I'm getting these laughs. That feels great. And I'm getting more attention. So I say that not knowing it consciously, but if I look back at it, that's where I first kind of got my taste of comedy. And my grandfathers were all funny. Everyone was kind of a big, loud, Long Island family, very funny and poking fun at each other. So it was always... There was tense moments, but it was always very light. Every situation. That sounds like fun. That sounds like a good life plan.

4:57 Make people laugh, get some positive attention. Yeah, it's sort of the opposite of what some people talk about with comedians. Like, oh, if you have a tragic upbringing, you're a great comedian. I don't know that that's the case. You pull from your life experiences and you make it what it is. Make the best of it. So you built your career on clean, relatable comedy. Yeah. What drew you to that approach and what keeps you committed to it? I would say that when I first got turned on to stand-up was the late night TV shows. So staying up late when I'm not supposed to, to watch Carson. So they were by default clean. And then when I got into it, it was just sort of an extension of my personality.

5:40 And in the early years, I want to say that I did... curse on stage, not intentionally, just matter-of-factly, and quickly realize, one, it's not me. Two, it's not helping the joke. It does nothing for the joke. And there's nothing I like less than a joke whose punchline is an obscenity. I think you can be a better writer, a better performer. So I like that challenge. And then my 30,000-foot comedy goal is to make as many people laugh as possible. So if I want to have the broadest reach of just continue doing clean comedy and that it's, it sort of goes along with my personality to my personal life.

6:21 I really appreciate that, especially here right now, because my podcast is, is pretty clean. I like to keep it family friendly. So perfect. Perfect. And when my kids were young, too, it was like I would love for them to kind of come across me on YouTube and not have to switch it off, you know? Yes. All right. So you mentioned Carson. Who were some of your other early influences that shaped your comedic voice? Yeah, I would say, ooh, that's good. So when I first started sneaking and staying up late and watching Carson, it was Don Rickles and Robert Klein, Bob Newhart, some of the older folks. And then as I got older, I really got into Saturday Night Live. So I was a big sketch comedy fan.

7:03 And I would even reenact those sketches like at talent shows or whatnot for my church or youth group and stuff. And then we started writing our own sketches, original sketches. And then when I got into stand-up, I really dove deep into, unfortunate to say now, but Cosby is one of the all-time great stand-ups. Obviously, his personal life was the terrible things he did. But his early albums, Jerry Seinfeld. Again, Bob Newhart is a very underrated stand-up comedian. Very funny. And you could see a lot of his influence on comedians today, believe it or not. And then a little bit later, Jim Gaffigan. There's a guy named Greg Giraldo.

7:43 Some of the folks are not clean that I really enjoy. But Seinfeld, I think, is the... My top. I really enjoy his ability to dig deep into a subject and just pick apart the little nuances until he finds the funny. So I've seen and read everything Seinfeld's ever done and try to learn from the greats. Have you ever met him? Never met him. I was on the scene in New York for a while. Not for a while, for a short while, excuse me, but never bumped into him. But I understand he still does pop up spots all over New York City. So it would be something else. I thought I'd definitely be starstruck.

8:26 But he's a comedy fan. So he's not going to talk personal stuff with you. It's all about comedy and the jokes. And I think we'd get along. I'm going to need you to make that happen, Melvin. If you can make that happen. I'll see what I can do. I'll make some calls and see what I can do. All right. All right. So no offense here, but Danny Johnson is a fairly plain common name. So I think you need a nickname to fit your personality. So today I did some work and asked the chat to GPT what your nickname should be. All right. Based on your personality, it suggested your name should be Danny Johnson.

9:10 That's very appropriate. It's funny you mentioned that. I think because my name is so plain, I'm a huge fan of names. So if somebody has an interesting name, I talk about it with them immediately. I'm like, that's just a fascinating name. Because Danny Johnson really is, it sounds like your unemployed uncle on the couch. That's who Danny Johnson is. You know what I mean? It's not, you know, Melvin Edwards is also fairly common. Edwards is more common than Melvin, but that's a politician's name. That's somebody of stature in society. You know, that has a nobility to it, you know? But Danny Johnson is like, ugh, Uncle Danny, your drunk uncle on the couch.

9:52 Yeah. Well, everybody thinks they're funny. Of course, I think I'm funny. Right. My kids don't think I'm funny. Right. Really, nobody else thinks I'm funny. But I believe in me. People send you jokes that they think are funny that they want you to use on stage. Not that I use on stage, but I am a part of some group text threads where friends send memes or videos or... And I tend not to watch them because it's either something I've seen or heard. I don't want to get influenced by something that somebody has out there on the internet.

10:36 But I have gotten approached by some audience members after a show and go, hey... I read this on the internet. You can use it in your next show. And I kindly go, I'm pretty sure that's not how it works. But in all honesty, I go, yeah, let's hear it. And I just let them tell it. And of course, it takes 11 minutes to tell a 60-second joke. But yeah, I think that goes into a deeper... understanding or lack thereof by some audience members about comedy. It's like, why hecklers heckle? We're at work. We put a lot of time into these jokes. We didn't just make it up in the parking lot. And not only are we performing for them that night, we're performing to perfect that joke for future opportunities.

11:20 So whether it's a TV spot or an audition. So we're All the material that we do, we're working on to get it better and honed for a bigger opportunity. And we want to put on a good show for you, of course, in real time. But it's very interesting to me how comfortable people feel interrupting a live performance as if, even if I was struggling on stage, I don't need help. I mean, I think some people think they're helping. And I've gotten that before. I was just helping out. I'm like, I don't need help. I can mess up on my own. I don't need you. And oftentimes I'll say to hecklers too, on stage, I'll say to them like, here's the great part about being an audience member.

12:02 You have zero responsibility tonight. You don't even have to laugh. I understand that 100% of my jokes are not going to hit 100% of the audience members 100% of the time. So you don't even have to laugh. You can just sit there, have your drink, have your appetizer, and stare at me for an hour or laugh occasionally. But you have no responsibility and that should be of comfort to you. So be quiet or leave. Yeah. Well, just to clear for legal purposes, I'm willing to give you my Danny Johnson joke for free. I'll sign a waiver. You can have that. AI is very – that makes me doubt AI's powers.

12:44 I didn't actually use AI. All right. That was just part of my joke. You know, I learned something. You mentioned my name sounded like a politician. I learned something about comedy from working in the political arena. I was a speech writer for the former Texas governor. You see, I knew politics. You figured it out. And I learned this lesson, and this was 25 years ago, and it stuck with me. He was giving a lighthearted speech at like a hunter's gathering, like a Ducks Unlimited. And so I was supposed to write some lighthearted jokes, and nobody laughed.

13:27 Nobody laughed. And then a few weeks later, I wrote a much more serious speech that He was the guest speaker at the Capitals. It was National Day of Prayer, and he was a speaker. And so I just put a little joke in there to start. And people were doubled over in laughter. Like, I didn't think it was that funny. So you never know what people are going to laugh at. That's what I learned. And that's how comedians get better. You have to try it. It's unlike any career out there. Someone tomorrow can go, I want to be a comedian and then get up on an open mic somewhere and try it, right? I can't tomorrow say I want to be a heart surgeon and bust into the Mayo Clinic.

14:11 Give me that scalpel there. I want to try this heart surgery thing I've been hearing about. And maybe that's why people heckle, right? Because they think, oh, I'm fine. That's a real opportunity. Yeah. And I'm sure some of them have had several drinks. That's probably- Yes, yes. That's why I like, a lot of my work is private shows, corporate events, fundraisers, churches, neighborhoods. A lot of these master plan communities have their own event center. So go in there and the drinking's minimal. So they're there for the comedy, which is what I want the audience to be there for. Okay. Well, you just released a new comedy special on YouTube. When you're developing new material, what's your creative process from idea to stage-ready joke?

14:54 Ooh, it's a long process for me. So these great comedians that do Netflix special year after year or Hulu, Amazon, whatever, and they come up with a new hour in 12 months, and it's not just a new hour, it's a new good hour, is mind-blowing to me. Yeah. So I want to say I filmed my first special, my Drybar comedy special, which, like you said, got millions of views on social media through... Drybar is a company, for those listeners that don't know, is based out of Provo, Utah. They're a faith-based organization. And they publish and produce clean comedy specials. And they have millions of followers and... So I did that in 2019 and I didn't do my second one until 2025.

15:35 I could have done it earlier, but I really wanted to capture certain jokes and have sort of a through line in my new special. Immediately you retire all the material you did in the first special is the first step. And then you go, what do I have left? And then what ideas do I have in reserve that I haven't touched yet and haven't written about and haven't tried on stage? Once you have a good... I mean, for me, two hours of what I think I want to put on a special, and a special is typically 30 to 60 minutes, and the process of whittling it down starts to come in. So, every show I have from that point on to the filming, I am developed.

16:18 First, I want to develop my opener and closer. I want to know what I'm opening with. I want to know what I'm closing with. And then how do I transition from one topic to the next? And are the jokes appropriate for the theme I want? So the title of my special is Everything Bothers Me, right? So if you watch it, you'll detect an underlying frustration and maybe anger towards just the littlest nuances of life, right? But the real through line of it is mental health and self-image. And if you watch it, you'll see me talk about my struggles with weight, my therapist, my doctors, my sleep apnea, all this stuff. That I deal with on a daily basis. So maybe six or eight months before the filming, I kind of got the final lineup of the way I wanted it.

17:03 And then I just did that set repeatedly over and over and over again. And then you edit, add, edit, add. So when it came time to filming, luckily, I think I just removed one joke. from the final product. And it was because it was a local reference to Jacksonville, Florida, which I didn't want in the YouTube special. And we launched it. And gosh, it's so much more pressure launching a YouTube special with no backing from a company like Drybar. Drybar has a built-in audience. I'm pretty much saying, here's me. I hope the internet likes it, right? And so the first night it was released, my son comes to me right before I'm about to go to bed and he goes, hey, you have 139 views.

17:51 I'm like, oh, that's not bad for a couple hours, I guess. And I wake up the next morning and I check it and it was at 7,700 overnight. And that's about a month and a half ago it was released, and it's at 100... Fast approaching 150,000 views from all over the world. Yeah. And for little old me, non-celebrity, non-household name, and it's continuing to climb. I think I'm averaging... you know, 500 to 1,500 views a day. And it's been overwhelming. I'm trying to respond to all the comments and the people sharing it. I get notifications of all that stuff, the new subscribers.

18:31 And I've been very happy with it. So hopefully folks enjoy it. Nice. So one of your specials that I actually watched is called The Chusky Life. Tell us how you came up with the term Chusky. Yeah. So that's my dry bar special. And... It is something... I still have this notebook, believe it or not, from seventh grade. It was funny. I titled the notebook Funny Ideas. What kind of ego did I have back then? So I've always struggled with my weight throughout my life, up and down, up and down, up and down. And when I was in seventh or eighth grade... Every year, my mom would take all the kids to the mall to get two new school outfits for the school year.

19:18 My mom's a typical Long Island mom, loud. Just a loud person. She's not... And when you go to the mall with your parents, at least in my age, as a teenager, you just want to get away from your mom and go hang out with your friends. So I would sneak away. And I remember mom took us to Sears for clothes, which is ideal, behind the washing machine. And I snuck away from her. I got away. So all I hear from her... I'm with my friends, and I'll back away from the mic. So all I hear from her is just yelling, Daddy, Daddy! Daddy, I found some jeans for you.

19:59 You have to meet me over here in the husky section. What's your waist now, 42? I'm mortified. I'm with my friends. And there was a husky jean, right? And they were the tough skin jeans. You can slide on cement with those things. And you could lean them up against the wall. They don't even fold. But it was a husky. I don't know if that was the brand or the type, but it was husky. And I go, mom, husky is embarrassing. She's like, you're a little chubby. I'm like, chubby husky. And then so chubby husky became chusky. So in eighth grade or seventh grade, I have written in my notebook, chusky life.

20:41 And later on down the road, when I became a comic, it became a joke. And it's stuck with me since then. And I used to have merchandise with the Chusky Life on it. It sold really well. And people really dug it. It's just a nice way of saying you're sort of in between. You're not super fit. You're not super fat. You're a chubby, husky hybrid of Chusky. You were a comedy prodigy back then with your funny stuff notebook and the jokes that you can use many years later. I must have had a lot of terrible ideas because it was one of those spiral notebooks that was a single subject. So it was already thin, but I have it to this day and there's 10 pages in it and the rest has been ripped out.

21:24 So I must have had so many bad ideas. I tore out of there and threw out. So in your experience, what separates a funny moment from a joke that's actually worthy of a set? Oh, great question. So you have to have the ability to – this is what separates – I know I have friends that are funnier, I think are funnier than me, but they can never do stand-up. They're just funny people. So they make their friends, family, and sometimes strangers laugh. But can you do it – can you make that relatable to 300 people in Iowa, right, when you're doing a show? Yeah. So the comedian's challenge is to take that moment and dissect it to the point where it's palatable and relatable to most people.

22:09 And if it's too niche or too unique to you, you have to broaden it a little bit to make it relatable. So a comic might intertwine it with a story about their family and it'll just be a little offshoot, a little comment, a little side note to the story or whatever. But that's the real challenge. you getting accused of stealing from the grocery store relatable to 300 strangers. That's the big challenge. Sometimes it doesn't work. Sometimes you can't. It would be different like, I don't know, just make up some. If I collected caterpillars and something funny happened with caterpillars, I'd have to really explain it to people unless I was doing a caterpillar convention or something like that.

22:55 so it does have to have some sort of appeal to the to the greater population okay makes total sense so what's one misconception people have about clean comedy specifically Clean comedy is cheesy, is what people's misconception is. And sometimes that's true. So I think people stay away from it. So to the point where I stopped advertising my shows as clean comedy. If I book a venue or a venue books me and I see a poster or an advertisement on social media that says clean comedy night, I tell them to remove that. And I find, because some people get turned off by it or won't even buy tickets.

23:38 And some of the best compliments after a show is, and I'll bring my own openers so I have a through and through clean show. And some of the best compliment after the show is, they go, did you realize you didn't curse at all? I go, yeah. They're like, the audience member is like, I didn't even think twice about it. I didn't think it was great. And you didn't need to do that. So people enjoy it. They just not. Like I was doing a show a couple of years ago at a club. in mid-Florida. And the host gets up there and does his little opening promotions about the drinks, the food specials, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he curses while he does it and he catches himself and he goes, oh, I forgot tonight's a clean comedy night.

24:23 And the whole audience is like, oh. And I'm like, and I said to him after the show, I'm like, don't say, don't. Because you're not even asking them if clean comedy is something they want. You're telling them that it's terrible. You're telling them it's a disappointment by like, oh, it's a clean comedy, not I can't. It's not edgy. Not edgy enough. Yeah. And you can be clean. I mean, for me, the edginess, if I have any in certain jokes, is the anger and frustration at the situation I'm talking about. It's absurd to be angry and frustrated at some of the topics that I dissect, right?

25:04 Because that's what makes it funny. But that's where the edginess comes from, you know? Yeah, makes sense. All right. So let's talk personal a little bit. So offstage, how do you balance being a comedian with being a husband, father or a friend? Here's another misconception that will lead into the answering this question. Most performers, entertainers of any kind, really, are introverts offstage. So I'm very quiet and reserved, just a sponge soaking it all in. And people are often disappointed. If you go hang out with the crowd after the show, they ask you, what's wrong? Everything all right? I'm like, no, I'm done. I'm done. I'm finished with the show.

25:46 Yeah. But I would say the biggest challenge for me in my personal life is to – my first instinct in any situation in my head is to find the funny, find the absurd, find the thing that you shouldn't say. Without being disrespectful, right? And I have to sometimes hold that back for a later time, a later date. So where I cope with everything through humor, that's not what everybody does, right? So that's the biggest challenge, I would say, in my personal. So what do you like at home? I'm very quiet.

26:27 I'm very reserved. I do a lot of writing, a lot of note-taking, a lot of self-reflection. But I am a bit of a goofball. I'm silly. I like silly humor. I like slapstick humor. I joke around with my son. It's just my son and I in the house right now. He's a man. He needs to leave. Sometimes I joke that I want to call Child Protective Services on me. I don't think this kid's getting the care and love he needs. He needs to be removed immediately. But yeah, so sometimes in my personal life, I'll be joking around and the person I'm talking to will go, hey, I'm serious. This is what I want to talk about. I'm like, all right, I'll back it off.

27:09 But I'll make note. I'll make note if something catches me as humorous to talk about it on stage. Okay. Actually, that leads right into my next question. Are there any personal experiences or relationships that show up in your comedy more than people might realize? Yeah, everything that I talk about on stage has happened to me or is an exaggeration of what happened to me. Nothing's off limits. A lot of stuff about my upbringing, my wacky family, my mom. That'll actually be a big chunk of my next special is a lot of material about my mom and my family. But my newest special goes from my – I think I open – my opening joke is a bit like a nine-minute bit about me getting my first ever massage, my only massage ever.

27:56 It goes massage to my DNA testing results for my heritage, to my therapist, to loving dogs, to going to the gym, to my sleep apnea. It's all these – events physically and mental challenges that I've dealt with over my life. But yeah, there's really nothing off limits. Until you get to the point of being, I don't poke fun. I don't punch down, so to speak, unless it's about me. And I don't want to offend. So if I can skirt any of that, I'll push the envelope a little bit. In my newest special, I do get on the folks that this woman at a restaurant next to me ordered chicken Marsala.

28:40 And then she stopped the waiter and asked him... to ask the chef if the chicken was cage-free. You know, was it cage-free? Did it roam? Did it have friends? Did it play Pinochle on Thursday? It's just, and it got under my skin. And, you know, of course, I make a joke about that. And some people don't like that I make a joke about that. But I'm not, you know, that's not too bad, right? But I definitely don't want to offend. I want to, like I said at the top, right? I want to make as many people laugh as possible. All right. So have you ever had a performance where everything went wrong, but somehow became unforgettable anyway?

29:24 So the short answer is no, but I have had performances where it hasn't gone as planned. It's gone terribly wrong. I can think of one in particular, but we weren't able to dig ourselves out of it, right? And it was very egotistical of me to think this way that I think back on it. So me and two other comedians are doing a show for a corporation in a ballroom as part of their Christmas party. And we were doing almost 100% improvisational show. So we would play these improv games, like whose line is it anyway? And it's going okay up to a point.

30:05 Two of the guys are up there and one of them says, makes a joke in which the punchline, oh, so he makes a joke and his hand accidentally slides down and hits the other comedian in between the legs, inadvertently. And the other comedian turns to my buddy and goes, AZ man, what are you, gay? And the whole room shut down. This is a corporate event, right? So it's not even a funny punchline. It's not derogatory. It was just that term that shut the room down. Several months prior to that, I had just appeared on Comedy Central for like five seconds. I was part of a nationwide contest.

30:46 I made it to the semifinals or finals, and my stand-up aired on Comedy Central, and my ego was through the roof, right? So I run up on stage, and I pull one of the comedians off, and the other one just starts doing straight stand-up. It's not going well. I go, hey, man, we got 15 minutes left, 10 minutes left. I go, go up there and announce that I'm going to do stand up and I'm going to do the same set. He was just on Comedy Central, ladies and gentlemen. The great Danny Johnson will do his Comedy Central set for you tonight.

31:26 In my head, I'm like, yeah, I'm going to save the evening. And they announce it. I go up there and do 10 minutes of stand-up to almost silence. I'm already a bigger guy, but the amount of sweat, I think it was coming down my ankles and my socks were like, it was horrific. And the executive table, table of executives was front and center, staring at us. We literally, I end my set. I had a hard time putting the microphone back in the stand because my hands were so sweating.

32:08 And I had only been doing standup maybe five or six years. And we jet off into this, exit this door into this little utility hallway. And the woman is already waiting there with our check. she doesn't even say anything and she just puts it in one of our hands turns and walks away and then we just had to leave and i was like i laugh now because how egotistical of me to think that i'm going to be the savior just because i was on tv for five seconds But little stuff like that, you know your audience. The comedian that made that mistake wasn't as experienced as me, so I would have chose a different word. And it just goes to show you have to know your audience and be more prepared.

32:52 So that was probably the worst stage experience possible. And I think second place would be, I auditioned one year for this TV show called Last Comic Standing. Have you ever heard of that? I have, yes. And it was disappointing in the fact that I waited. It was a cattle call. So I waited outside in line in the snow in Tennessee, in Nashville, Tennessee, for hours. And when you finally get in there, you get two minutes in front of two judges, no other audience, just the camera crew and two judges. And you get, I think it might have been even two minutes. And they go, and it's literally just name. I go, Danny Johnson.

33:33 Okay, go. And I'm shaking from the cold and I'm doing, I did two minutes of jokes. One guy laughed, one did not. They go, okay, thank you. And you just leave. What was more disappointing was during the whole time of us waiting in line, some comics were just getting in right in the front, auditioning and leaving. And come to find out they had had or have representation. So they have agents and high power managers, and they didn't have to wait in the line. That particular year, I went back that night to the showcase to watch the people who made it to the next round. The person that left in the same car as the judges ended up winning the whole season of Last Comic Standing.

34:20 Suspicious. yeah so i mean and this person is funny so it wasn't like they just handed it to some rando um but he was connected and very funny but it was just as i'm like oh this guy already he's left with the judges after one night one round and then all of a sudden you know weeks months down the road when the show airs he wins it all it's very disappointing Very suspicious. All right, so if you could perform a set at a dinner party for any three people, alive, dead, or fictional, who would you invite and why? Definitely alive. And... Oh, man, that is a...

35:08 Because immediately I want to, you know, immediately I want the big name comedians to see me, but then that's even more pressure. So I'm going to go number one, my grandmother who passed away last December. Sorry to hear that. Thank you. Thank you. 95 or 97 years old, something. She only got to see me once, and she was a big fan of my comedy. And people would show her clips from time to time. And she grew up in the circus, actually. She grew up in the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus in her early years. That's pretty cool. Yeah, her parents were tightrope walkers and elephant trainers. Yeah.

35:49 They ran away from home when they were 13 and joined the circus. It was very wild. So cliche. So cliche. Right. Classic American love story. At her funeral, it was cool to see pictures I had never seen before. Her at age 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, up to like 12 or 13 hanging out with elephants and clowns. And then my great-grandparents went from the circus to vaudeville, the old pre-movie, pre-Broadway kind of New York scene and did live performances. So grandmother being one, maybe Jerry Seinfeld, although I don't think he wants, he doesn't want to watch comedy.

36:31 Fictional or past or living or dead. What a great question. Because it is what I do. This is probably weird to say or weird to hear. I like performing for strangers more than I do people I know. There's more pressure to perform for people you know, especially those as loyal as they are, keep coming to shows so soon in between one another, the shows that I'm like, I don't have any new jokes yet. I mean, you've heard this two weeks ago. Yeah. They're like, no, we love it. We love it. I'm like, all right. Well, you better laugh because I don't need silence because you've heard it before.

37:15 But I would just say, let's just say grandma and Jerry Seinfeld. That would be my two. Jesus, God sees everything. So he's already seen. He's already there. He's already there. He doesn't need a seat. Yeah, he's already told me to stop doing this joke. Don't even think that. Do this instead. Yeah. So what do you think comedy's role is in a culture that feels increasingly tense and polarized? Interesting question because a lot of comedies is polarizing, right? It does the opposite of bringing people together. There are left-wing comics and right-wing comics and different social groups have different comics or whatnot.

37:59 So I think you can tackle any subject in a humorous, non-offensive way and get laughs out of it. So even during my grandmother's, you know, I got to speak at her funeral and it was heartfelt and funny. And I think she would have loved it. And that's what made it so special to me. I remember opening up, two of my cousins spoke before me at the funeral and they both cried. And I get up there and it's all my family, extended family, friends up in Long Island, New York. And I said, I've been public speaking and doing comedy for a couple of decades now and never have I had two opening acts that cried in front of me.

38:44 That's going to be tough. So I said, I'm glad that you all came here to honor grandma today. And I said, I got a chance to speak to grandma not too long ago. And I'm glad you're all here today because she gave me a list of grievances she wanted me to cover. So when I say your name, please stand. And big laugh, you know? So, and then I get into the heartfelt part of it and whatnot. And that's fun. But I think for me, I love when I see a very diverse crowd all laughing together. Men, women, even though my show is not geared towards kids, a lot of times if it's listed as a clean show, they'll bring their teenage kids and I see them laugh sometimes.

39:30 It's like, wow, I can make grandma and the 18-year-old laugh. And I like that. I like the idea that you can take a break from whatever you do for a living In honor to me, you take the money you earned and bought tickets and got a babysitter potentially and dinner and drinks and now you want to just escape. So I don't get into politics. I don't get sexual. I may have a little innuendo here and there, but I want to make the whole table laugh and I won't stop. If there's 100 people there or 300, whatever it is, and the one person...

40:10 is staring at me the whole night, I will remember only that face. What could I have done differently to get this person to laugh? I think in today's society, it should be more unifying. But unfortunately, there's people that have certain, they've made a choice. Like I'm going to be this right wing bash the left wing comic or left wing bash the right comic. And some of them are very funny. They're great at it. I just, it's just not for me. I'd rather it be unifying. Okay, that makes total sense. So if you could go back and give your younger pre-comedy self one piece of advice, what would it be? Yeah, perfect.

40:51 This may seem cavalier, but I would say to my younger self, in some year's time, there's going to be this thing called social media that is going to play a critical role in your success as an entertainer. You need to embrace it, master it, and it will separate you from the pack, especially early on. And I was one of those guys who... held off for a long time getting a smartphone. I was like, I don't think these things are going to catch on. Who's going to want a phone that does everything? So not only am I technologically not savvy, I am not good at social media.

41:36 So I've partnered with this social media company about a year and a half ago. So they've really helped me. But that is the name of the game right now. It is... Unfortunately, creating your own fan base, creating your own following helps you get more gigs and gigs that are pay well too. And on the unfortunate side, a lot of people equate follower count with funny and popular and good. So they might say no to my $30 ticket because they don't know me, and it didn't take the time to look at clips to see if I was funny.

42:19 But they'll immediately spend $150 on somebody with 10 million followers, because everybody else is doing it. And I don't know who they are, but they got to be good. And they very well may be good. I don't know. But I'm not the biggest fan of It's not bandwagon. I'm not the biggest fan of people just... One of the comments on my new special was a backhanded compliment, but I don't think that was the person's intention at all. It was 100% a compliment. But he says something to the effect, he commented, I'm absolutely blown away by this special.

42:59 Totally hilarious. Can't wait to share it. Whatever he said. And then he said, surprising to find this on such a small channel. surprised to find this quality on a small channel. And so I get his intent was to compliment me and I took it that way. He wasn't there to bash me or passive aggressively, I don't believe. But it goes to show you, right? I have a small follower count or small compared to others on YouTube and he comes across this. The cameras used for my comedy special are Netflix quality cameras and they're not mine. But it is a top-notch production. And I think the jokes, I really like them.

43:41 I spent a lot of time honing them. So I was really, I love that compliment. He's like, wow, this is like a television piece on this channel with a thousand followers. This is great. All right. So final question today. What's one question you wish a podcast host would ask you, but they almost never do? Wow, I don't think, I've never been asked that question before. That's a great question. Maybe, I wonder if, okay, maybe this is self-serving for me, but I would love to be asked, what do I wish of my audience members?

44:25 And for that self-serving purpose, I would say there is great power in, Going back to social media, there's great power in following me or following anyone that you enjoy on social media and sharing their stuff and commenting on it and liking it. If you want to see that person's career get bigger, and they are, like I think I am, providing quality content day in and day out. You're not just blind following somebody because they did one good thing. It's consistent. And I think I put out good content. But if you really want to support somebody, it costs no money other than going to see them live.

45:07 So if you like, if your listeners watch my special, everything bothers me on YouTube and they comment, share it, post it on their social media, follow me, that is invaluable because the more of that... It helps me broaden my scope, broaden my fan base, broaden my ability to tour and travel different places and pack out comedy clubs and theaters and whatnot. So that's what I think I would want a podcast host to ask. Okay. That's a good way to conclude today's episode. So our guest today has been comedian Danny Johnson. Danny, thanks so much for being here today. Yeah, I appreciate it. And if you don't mind, I can plug my socials.

45:50 Yes, please do. I'll put the links in the show notes too. Perfect. So all of my socials are very easy to remember. Danny Johnson Comedy. And just like my nickname, Danny Johnson. Danny Johnson Comedy on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. And you can... My own sense of humor, so I'm laughing at myself. See? Yeah. I'm calling back to your joke. And then my website is dannyjohnson.com. I've had that for 20 years now, so all my links are on there. And if you do like it, and I think you will, share it, comment... Post it. I would love to hear from you. My goal is to make all of you laugh and bring us all together and create world peace.

46:31 Is that too hard to ask for? If a beauty contestant can ask for that, why can't a comedian? Thanks for having me, Melvin. I enjoyed our conversation. Well, thanks a lot. I appreciate it. So a big thanks to Danny Johnson for proving once again that everyday life is basically a comedy routine just waiting to happen. So if you laughed or learned anything today, please do us a favor and hit follow. Share this episode with someone who needs a good laugh. This is Stories from Real Life. Until next time, don't forget to shine your light wherever you go. See you then.