In 2023, Josh Johnson found himself running toward a ledge, hoping that when he leaped he’d reach the other side safely instead of crashing down.
No, the stand-up comic was not actually in any danger, nor had he traded in his “Daily Show” gig for an action-hero role. This ledge and leap were strictly metaphorical, a move he was making in his mind.
That’s a place where Johnson spends much of his day musing. In fact, his ledge-jump moment came last year shortly after the premiere of his Peacock special, “Up Here Killing Myself,” in which he riffed on topics he had discussed in therapy (the lasting effects of poverty, his father’s death, encounters with the police) and which he sprinkled with interstitials of him talking to an unseen therapist.
“After that I just bottomed out and felt a little lost,” Johnson recalls over pizza in Brooklyn, where he lives.
When he hit that “low moment” his career was going well. He’d graduated college after growing up relatively poor in small-town Louisiana and by his mid-20s had appeared on and was writing for “The Tonight Show” before joining “The Daily Show’s” writing staff in 2017. He’d sharpened his stand-up voice opening for host Trevor Noah and then created two well-received specials. Still, he felt like he was treading water.
“Things were fine, just fine, but I was not fulfilled,” he says. “I needed to change things up and try something scary, even knowing if I jump from this ledge I may not make it to the next level.”
Johnson, who likes reading biographies because he’s inspired by seeing all the failure that comes before the success, had always written quickly and written a lot of material. But he was playing it safe, not putting it all out there; like most comedians, he was honing his best jokes for the next one-hour special.
“I have a lot of opinions on things, which in normal life is annoying, but a friend said, ‘I like your insights and take on things and you should put it out there for people,’” he recalls.
And so he just went for it. He’d perform new material constantly and release it online almost immediately. While most comedians aspire to that hour of new material each year, Johnson has posted more than 22 hours of new material on YouTube since mid-2023, including five hours in just one month this summer.
He relishes the challenge of constantly creating, saying he can tell when a comic has told a joke so often they’re just reciting it. “With my new material it feels fresh, like I have this secret to tell you,” he says. “When you’re excited to share what you’ve created with people, it’s the most exciting thing in the world. You feel giddy.”
Much of his new material is observations about his life or about American culture, but he is also responding to the news of the day — whether it’s Simone Biles at the Olympics or the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump — that he is writing “pretty much in real time.”
Some bits are sharp and polished, while some timely jokes sound more like the thoughtful musings of your smart and funny neighbor. “People don’t have to agree with me, but I want to make them laugh no matter what,” he says. “Joy and happiness aren’t partisan.”
He’s comfortable talking about big ideas and ideals but doesn’t pretend to have solutions at the policy level. “I’m usually wrong about things in a way that’s scary,” he says. “‘I’m working on a joke about how I believe in climate change but I know so little about it that if I explained it to you, you’d say, ‘That sounds so dumb I don’t think it’s real.’”
Johnson clearly is getting something right. In February “The Daily Show” promoted him from writer to correspondent, filling an opening created when the show’s senior correspondents began rotating behind the host desk, according to executive producer Jennifer Flanz.
“Josh is a rising star,” she says. “He has his own voice and as a writer for the show he knows how his voice fits into the ‘Daily Show’ lens.”
Johnson’s personality and his prodigious output have both impressed his elders. “Josh Johnson is the future,” says Roy Wood, who left “The Daily Show” last year after eight years. Wood and two other longtime correspondents, Michael Kosta and Ronny Chieng, who now share co-hosting duties, say Johnson deserves his success. “He is effortlessly funny and a joy to be around,” Kosta says.
“He brings friendship and good nature to the show, plus he has a very funny comedic voice and he makes it look easy,” Chieng adds.
Johnson is calm and self-effacing by nature, with the same low-key charm and thoughtfulness that he brings to his stand-up. He’s happy to ruminate about life or talk politics, but he’s equally at home discussing his penchant for still playing the same video games he loved when he was a kid (yes, he still plays Sega’s Madden 93 football), the oddball sports he watches over mainstream ones (“I’m not huge into football but I’ll watch darts — someone is the best at the world at throwing a needle into the wall exactly where they want to hit it and I can’t help but be impressed”) or how his Shiba Inu prefers his girlfriend to him. “When I unlock the door, he runs out past me to jump on her and only after they walk in he comes up to me,” he says. “If I’m by myself, he looks behind me and only then jumps on me as if I won’t catch it.”
Chieng says Johnson’s low-key, calm voice works well for social and comedic political commentary, especially in contrast to more amped-up performers. Johnson agrees.
“Sometimes I’ll get pretty wild, but I’m usually talking about pot pie or something,” Johnson says. “But I try to approach these topics as if I’m talking with friends. And I think satire and commentary work best when they are the opposite tone from the events and times.”
Chieng and Kosta say Johnson is ahead of the curve in comedy trends when it comes to a barrage of content.
“That’s the new algorithm for the path to success for comics in America, but that doesn’t work for everybody,” Chieng says. “Josh’s style is very conversational and ‘The Daily Show’ helped him build the muscle of making topical jokes and of not being too precious with his material.”
Kosta, who runs a New Joke Night at a New York comedy club for comedians to hone their material, agrees. “There’s never enough content, so I think we’ll see more comedians following what Josh is doing and being less precious about their material, but they may not be as good as Josh at it,” says Kosta. “I don’t think the public understands how difficult it is to be that prolific. I know I’d be fearful if I tried it.”
Johnson says perfectionism is impossible in any art form. He can write a joke that seems technically perfect, but it’s up to the audience to decide. “I’ve started to accept the things that I can’t control and I’ve stopped being so hard on myself.”
The audience is deciding they like him. His exposure from the steady stream of YouTube videos and his new TV role has increased his fan base. “The perception of me has definitely changed,” he says, which is the closest he can bring himself to being immodest. But it doesn’t last. “It’s partly because this show is an institution and with Jon [Stewart] back and an election year, there’s a different energy.”
The more material he posts, the more he attracts an audience coming specifically to see him, as opposed to the days when he was just another 10-minute slot in a night’s lineup. “I’m finding myself and my people at the same time,” he says, but he doesn’t let himself get comfortable knowing the crowd is inclined to like him. “You’re always new to someone there and you want to give it your best effort every time.”
He has become popular enough that next year he’ll be playing in theaters, but he sees any pressure as “an enormous privilege.”
“It’s better than when there’s no pressure because you barely sold any tickets and they have to move everyone down to the front,” he says. “I’m thankful because there were whole years where no one really cared what I did.”
Johnson, who loves doing meet-and-greets after his shows, says his biggest concern is losing his connection to, and sense of community with, the audience he has built, but he is seeking ways to do that with the bigger shows. He’s also worried about keeping shows affordable and helping fans avoid scammers and scalpers. “I feel that responsibility,” he says, explaining that he created an email list for his website so people can find out about extra shows and can link to tickets at the price he set for them. “I’m still learning the business side.”
Writing and performing, writing and performing, writing and performing at this clip can’t last forever. “It’s not sustainable over time because I don’t have time for thinking about or doing much else,” Johnson says. “But I love it so much that it doesn’t feel like I’m working all the time. And I’m definitely enjoying the moment. So I am thankful I listened to that little voice in my head.”
