A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
I could scroll clips of stand-up comedians all day and all night. I've had to have watched thousands by now, but there was one that I saw a few years ago that I can't forget because this clip really took me back to my childhood.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOSH JOHNSON: I don't know if you can tell by looking at me, but I was fired from being in a gang.
(LAUGHTER)
JOHNSON: They kicked me out because I was too positive.
(LAUGHTER)
MARTÍNEZ: That is comedian Josh Johnson. Now, you may know him as one of the correspondents and hosts of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show." His debut HBO Max special is called "Symphony." Josh, that clip, no matter how many times I hear it, makes me laugh and laugh and laugh. I connected with it because I was a weak, scrawny kid, got pushed around a lot. My uncle was in a gang, and I asked him if I could join, and he said, no, we really can't use you. So I feel like...
JOHNSON: (Laughter).
MARTÍNEZ: ...I kind of shared that emotion with you.
JOHNSON: Yeah. Like, if you're a comedian, you're at least attempting to be a professional room reader. General things you observe and small moments offer up some of the best opportunity for jokes or for a story that would normally be really boring. But when insane things happen, we'll all stop and notice.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOHNSON: When I was little, I was in karate, and everybody in my class was 11, except for one student. Kevin (ph) was 45.
(LAUGHTER)
JOHNSON: Our parents thought it was funny that every class, one of us had to fight a 45-year-old.
(LAUGHTER)
MARTÍNEZ: Right at the start of the special, there's an artist standing outside the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. That's where you filmed this. He's standing in front of a sign that reads, if art is how we decorate space and music is how we decorate time, comedy is how we decorate reality. Explain what that last line means - comedy is how we decorate reality.
JOHNSON: The same way that there's a blank canvas in front of an artist and then the artist paints on it, comedy also works on this blank canvas, using the moments that we have that we know are just as is, then redecorating them with the feeling, the emotion and the subversion of what our expectations were versus what actually happened, which is, like, just what life is.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOHNSON: My mom would cook some Brussels sprouts, and I'd be like, ooh. She'd be like, boy, there are starving children in Africa, and you over here wasting food. Like, it makes me wonder what parents say in Africa.
(LAUGHTER)
JOHNSON: Are they like, (impersonating African accent) listen - listen to me.
(LAUGHTER)
JOHNSON: There are children in America eating unseasoned food.
(LAUGHTER)
MARTÍNEZ: On your YouTube page, Josh, you post brand-new stand-up comedy - an hour's worth every week. You've done it for the past three years. That sounds like an impossible pace to keep up. Why do you do it?
JOHNSON: I do it 'cause I really love it. I really love writing all week. I really love performing. If you're not enjoying yourself, then you could get burned out. But I think that it's still fun, and it's still something that I look forward to doing and look forward to sharing.
MARTÍNEZ: The way I kind of feel about stand-up comedians, Josh, it all stems from this one scene from this movie. It's a 1981 Mel Brooks film called "History Of The World, Part I," when Comicus - that's who Mel Brooks plays - he describes what he does while in the unemployment line during the Roman Empire. Let's listen to that.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HISTORY OF THE WORLD, PART I")
BEA ARTHUR: (As character) Occupation.
MEL BROOKS: (As Comicus) Stand-up philosopher.
ARTHUR: (As character) What?
BROOKS: (As Comicus) Stand-up philosopher. I coalesce the vapor of human experience into a viable and logical comprehension.
ARTHUR: (As character) Oh, a [expletive] artist.
BROOKS: (As Comicus, groaning).
MARTÍNEZ: So, Josh, I don't know if you've ever seen that movie or that scene, but I think that's what comedians are, to me, at least - stand-up philosophers. And I think it kind of describes you in this special. Do you see yourself as a stand-up philosopher in any way?
JOHNSON: I mean, I just don't think that's for me to say. I think that if people have that takeaway, then great. But I'm not going to - yeah (laughter), I'm not going to call myself one.
MARTÍNEZ: That is comedian Josh Johnson. His HBO Max special is called "Symphony." Josh, thanks a lot.
JOHNSON: Thanks for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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