We recently connected with Phil Johnson and have shared our conversation below.

Phil, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Some of the most interesting parts of our journey emerge from areas where we believe something that most people in our industry do not – do you have something like that?

There are two ideas the general public thinks about standup comedy that really aren’t true.

Cancel Culture – Comedians joke about being “cancelled”, but for the most part it’s just not a thing. Sure, if you really do something stupid you’ll lose some gigs and some fans. But just about every comic that complains about being cancelled has found an audience elsewhere for whatever they’re peddling.

The rest of it is just business. Venues are at the mercy of their customers and comics are at the mercy of venues (generally). So if you’re making the customers mad, there will be some blowback.

Which brings me to the next item: “Funny is funny, right?”

Nope. Somebody will always be offended by, put off by, or just not interested in what the comic might be saying on stage. Even the most mainstream, cleanest, most agreeable comedians have stories of someone being offended by a joke about some mundane topic you’d never expect someone to be mad at.

Each comedian brings a specific life experience and frame of cultural reference to the stage. And you might have a joke that does great 8 times out of 10 and one or two audiences just don’t connect with it for a variety of reasons:

They don’t get the reference
They’re too drunk or not drunk enough
They wanted a dirty show and we’re doing a clean show or vice versa
Two tables aren’t laughing as loud and that spreads to the rest of the room
Sometimes it’s just an off night.

The person that goes to the Friday late show (notoriously difficult) might have a totally different experience than the person at the Saturday early show.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

There have been two big pivots in my creative career.

Originally, I just wanted to be the guitar player in a rock band. Collaborative writing with the rest of the band. The rock n’ roll dream.

At one point I’d split up with my bandmates and wasn’t able to find a singer to work with. I’d been demoing new songs and putting my own scratch vocals on them. My friends encouraged me to take on the role of singer myself and after a lot of prodding I decided to jump in. Spent 6 hours a day for a year in my studio figuring out how to be a singer, lyricist, and frontman before going into the studio to record my first album as a singer.

A couple of the songs I wrote were funny and those started to click with people at live shows. That brought on the 2nd pivot.

To me those funny songs were just goofy, b-side stuff. But again those friends and mentors came at me, urging me to lean into my sense of humor. I was a “serious songwriter” and it took a lot of convincing.

At my first official comedy music show, the MC, Lynn Ruth Miller, asked if I would play guitar for a bit in her act. She started taking me around to the comedy shows in our area and getting the producers to give me a little stage time to do my songs.

I found I really enjoyed the laughter, but also felt a little like I was a trespasser. As much as I always loved standup comedy I never pictured myself doing it.

Since I was finding myself in those places more and more I decided to lean into and develop that skill as well – both to expand my creative repertoire and to shut down the naysayers who look down on “guitar comics”.

After a few years of writing, bombing, rewriting, bombing, driving hours to do 10 mins, bombing and writing some more, I did my first small headline gigs and it’s all been a whirlwind since.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I love that every day isn’t the same. When I had regular jobs that was the worst part. Always knowing what to expect and doing the same thing every day.

Now I always have something to look forward to: Flying off to do shows in a strange city for a week, coming back home to write, record, and teach, releasing new work and seeing how it flies, meeting people from all over who appreciate what I do.

It’s all stable enough to feel like a life and varied enough to feel exciting. And I get to do all of through my own wit and skill.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://PhilJohnsonComedy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philjohnsoncomedy
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/philjohnsoncomedy
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PhilJohnsonFunny

Image Credits

Jim McCambridge
Quickstyle Photo
Media Biz Photo