Why Being Funny is Actually Serious Business w/ Danny Johnson, Clean Comedian

Have you ever wondered how stand-up comedians keep an audience roaring with laughter? Is it just a God-given gift? Or does it require a discipline that is rarely noticed or understood? 

In this episode, you're going to get a inside-look at the real life of a comedian - how they break into the industry, work on their craft, and find a place in an ultra-competitive industry.  But that's not all - you'll also learn how you can maintain your values and stay true to your authentic personality when the industry sometimes treats your faith like a obstacle instead of a strength. 

Our guest, Danny Johnson, is a nationally touring clean comedian with 20+ years of experience whose style has been compared to Jerry Seinfeld, Kevin James, and Jackie Gleason. He's a Dry Bar Comedy Special veteran (Apple TV, Amazon, Peacock), a NateLand Live alumnus at the legendary Zanies Comedy Club, has appeared in numerous TV commercials, and tours the country regularly.

Having not only faced the critics and the struggles of making a name in a fiercely competitive arena, he's also overcome health and mental challenges and continues to mentor others outside the comedy world as an author. 

You'll learn how faith, discipline, and radical honesty are your greatest weapons in the battle to make your way in your creative path - and how laughing at yourself might be a superpower you can use to your advantage. 

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Transcript

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (00:00)
the last time somebody made you laugh out loud? The ability to have the perfect punchline, to be funny. It's the gift that has transformed careers and catapulted once unknown comics into star status. But let's unpack this as everyday creators. Is this simply a God-given gift for humor? Or do the people that take the stage to make others laugh actually spend way more time being seriously dedicated than anybody really realizes?

And what can we learn from them that could make our careers more impactful?

Our guest today, Danny Johnson, has been a touring clean comedian for over 15 years.

He's performed for churches, corporate rooms, and comedy clubs across the country.

doing the unglamorous work of building an audience one room at a time. Even when the industry told him clean comedy wasn't marketable. Now in this conversation, we're going to go behind the laughs to talk about the real discipline it takes to turn a creative gift into a sustainable career. We're going to see how Danny built his act from the ground up. What kept him going through years of rejection and why it's so important to remain true to your faith and your values.

even when people question whether it's good for your career.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (01:16)
If you've ever wondered what actually makes your favorite comedian so funny and the hard work that goes behind the scenes, this is the episode you're going to want to listen to.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (01:27)
If you're new to this podcast, welcome. My name is Alen C. Paul, and this is The God and Gigs Show, where we help you to become the creator that you were created to be.

And by the end of this episode, you'll have a completely different picture of what it looks like to take your gift seriously. And you'll have a framework for the kind of patient, disciplined, and dedicated creative work that will build something that you can be proud

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (01:54)
Danny Johnson, how are you today?

Danny Johnson (01:56)
I'm well. Thank you so much for having me.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (01:58)
the reason I am so grateful for you to accepting this interview is because this entire time we've done this almost 400 episodes as I'm recording, we have never had someone who is in the art of comedy, is a creative comedian. And so I am looking forward to this to, you know, just educate me on what it takes to do what you do and to be who you are. But I have to start this with one of the hardest questions every interviewer has to ask this question. Usually it feels kind of weird. So I'll ask it like this.

Danny Johnson (02:19)
Yeah.

Mmmmm

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (02:28)
If somebody is meeting you for the first time, but not in a comedian or a artistic space, they're just meeting you at a coffee shop at the grocery store. What are the first couple of things that you want them to know about you? Just the person upon their first meeting.

Danny Johnson (02:44)
Well, if they're asking about my profession, I'm a stand-up comedian, a clean comic. I've been touring for over 15 years. My goal is to make as many people laugh in this world as possible, to bring joy to your life, spread joy and happiness for you and the family. It's clean, family-friendly. Come to my show, get rid of your problems for an hour, sit down, relax, laugh, and let's have a good time. So that's my...

That's my short short elevator speech.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (03:13)
it. Yeah. So I see that right away. I can see a lot of the through lines, which I always try to get to that extend beyond what you do. Right. So you mentioned bring your family. So clearly already, even when you start to say, okay, well, this is what I do for a living. I'm a standup comedian, but family and being connected to that kind of, um, that kind of goal, right. That value must mean something important to you. So talk a little bit about like,

Danny Johnson (03:22)
Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Yes.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (03:43)
Where does that come from? Before you get into the comedy part, like, do you have like this connection with, want to serve or bless or help families?

Danny Johnson (03:44)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yes, it started, so my comedy career started before my son was even born. My son is almost 20 now. as I got into it, I'd always been clean, Christian. I was raised Catholic, I'm a Christian, but I'm not a Christian comic. My show is not, I don't do altar calls or anything like that, or not that I couldn't, probably not very well, but it's just, I'm proud of my jokes and...

and a love scene fam as get together, you know, I'll see grandkids. You know, my show is not for kids, I should say that. Kids can attend, they're just probably not gonna, they may not get it. But you know, I see grandkids and kids and their parents all sitting and watching my show.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (04:33)
Got it. Okay.

Danny Johnson (04:40)
growing up in a very large family. I'm the oldest of five I have a thousand and a half cousins So every family function was huge Everybody's kind of roasting one another in a in a way that everybody could hear you know it was just something that was ingrained in me and laughter was

huge part of family gatherings. If it wasn't, if you weren't getting poked fun at, you were not liked. It was this very bizarre thing. And that's the way comedians are actually too. If I'm working with a comedian and he or she does really well and they come off stage and they know they did well, I'll go, what do you think? where do think you lost him? So just teasing. So, and then that parlayed into me then having children.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (05:19)
you

Danny Johnson (05:24)
And I was like, well, I'm a clean comic. How cool is that that they get to see what I do? And early in my career, my son would travel with me. Even my, she's my now ex-stepdaughter. I consider her my daughter. I'll refer to her as my daughter. ⁓ She's out on her own. She's in her twenties. ⁓ you know, both of them would come and just sit in the crowd and watch my show. And people would say, wow, it's so amazing that you can bring the whole family.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (05:40)
Yeah.

Danny Johnson (05:52)
And I say, you know, I say that is great. I do caution them. Don't waste money on a ticket for a 12 year old. While they may be able to sit and listen to me, I'm not sure they're going to get the relationship humor and other, you know, I'm not making balloon animals up there. But it was important to me to be able to do, original content that everyone can enjoy.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (06:07)
Got it, yeah.

now I want to kind of get to you and your actual entrance into the industry, because I've always wondered this and I'm kind of asking a two-part question, which is not good, but I feel like they kind of come together.

Danny Johnson (06:17)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (06:27)
One is how did you get into the industry? then the second part, which is right next to it, is what makes you like realize that you're funny? Like, is it a natural gift? Is it something that like someone just says, you should be doing standup or, you just say, well, I guess that's a natural gift that I have. Or like, what makes you, you know, feel that kind of confidence that or maybe it's not confidence to step into an industry, which is. Yeah, maybe, but yeah, explain to us, like, how does that actually work when you actually get into it?

Danny Johnson (06:35)
Yeah.

Yeah.

huh.

Hmm, insecurity maybe.

I think I could probably answer them both together, both those questions together. if I'm sort of to like step back and psychoanalyze myself, ⁓ Being the oldest of five, it seemed like in my teenage years, early teens, you know, 12, 13, 14, my mother was having a child every other year. And if you think about that, I'm the oldest, I'm the only, and then over the

years less and less attention is being spent on the Danny boy over there. He's old news. So I remember as a young kid, my grandfather was very funny. My mother's very funny. And they don't know they are, they just are. so as I got older, I started to imitate relatives. And then at family gatherings, I would put on skits.

It would either be original skits, impersonations of uncles, whoever, or reenactment of Saturday Night Live sketches. I subconsciously probably was like a dopamine, you oh, I'm getting attention paid to me now again. So parlay that into my teenage years. I'm in a youth group at my church. It's huge. 50, 60, 100 kids sometimes.

And we did talent shows and I would write sketches with my buddies and do it. then

I wasn't until 18, I did my first standup, me and a buddy of mine, I did a comedy duo. That's how scared I was. We went to this local comedy club in Long Island, New York, where I grew up and we did a, there were 73 people in the crowd. We brought 63 of them. So we did, we did very well. I go to college for two years in New York. I didn't do standup again. I was so petrified.

⁓ But then I go away to college to University of South Florida. I'm writing and writing and writing. Any funny idea, anything that triggers an emotion, love, hate, anger, frustration, joy, happiness, sadness, everything, just writing it down. When I finish college, I move from Tampa, Florida, up to New York for a little while on my own, and then my family moves to Jacksonville, Florida, so I move with them later. Right down the road is this.

is the biggest comedy club in the Northeast of Florida called The Comedy Zone, and they offer this workshop. It's like how to become a house emcee.

It's a eight week program and you kind of just learn, you learn everything from joke structure to microphone handling techniques. Where do you put the mic stand? How do you too far, too close with the microphone? Just a little stuff like that.

And then you get it five to fifteen minutes set up front Tuesday through Saturday if you're a house MC Opening up for the other two comics on the bill. I did that for years So I was probably two or three years in to doing that maybe every other week or once maybe even one week a month sometimes And then those comics that I opened for started bringing me on the road to open for them So it's usually MC then a feature spot

30 minutes and then a headliner 45 to 60. So the feature at that big club would headline smaller rooms. So then I would be their feature and then I would bring an MC. Does that make sense? Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (10:02)
Yes, no. Yeah. It makes a lot of sense, but I love the

fact I wanted to go back to the workshop part just because That doesn't sound like fun. Being in a position where I'm learning to be funny, I'm learning how these little details actually get the room to laugh with me because you are paying attention. And then the part you mentioned earlier, writing jokes every day.

Danny Johnson (10:08)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (10:26)
So again,

like the reason why I keep going back to that is because in my head is like, well, you have to have that funny bone. You have that kind of sense of just, Hey, I just know how to make people laugh. But the stuff that you're saying now leading up to you actually getting to the industry and becoming like a pro involve things that are just like every other sounds like every other creative discipline,

Danny Johnson (10:32)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Right.

Yep.

so let me throw this at you too. So think about becoming a house emcee for show that's two, three, one to 300 people. They paid to see the headliner. They don't even know you're there and you're your house emcee. So not only are you going up cold, there's just an announcement. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage. And it's just boom. You're going up cold. You have five to 15 minutes.

you only have in your brain a total of five to 15 minutes of material. You don't have any other jokes because you're new. So if things don't work, you are just plowing forward until you make it work or you just go on to something works or you just bomb, which is all those lessons are so valuable. And then the waitress drops the glass or the customer yells out or a table.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (11:15)
about it.

Danny Johnson (11:31)
this table of 30 in the set, they're not there. Halfway through your set, they all come and they're all sitting and they want to order drinks and you learn all that. And then, hopefully your emotional intelligence is enough where you have a good enough mentor or you know yourself that, all right, I got to listen to every show. What I used to do in the very beginning, I don't do this so much now, I would transcribe my act I would highlight where I thought I got laughs, I thought I should get laughs.

Then I would go home the night of the show or the next night, listen to myself, because back then it was a little cassette recorder, little things like a Walkman without the headphones. And then I would follow along on the transcript and I would come to a highlighted part, did I get laughs there? No, why? Did I say it wrong? Were they not paying attention? Did I say the word wrong? Was my cadence timing off? All that stuff. And then you just rework the set. ⁓

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (12:07)
Mm-hmm.

Danny Johnson (12:28)
Now for me, I'll just I'll have planned out my hour long show and I'll know where the new bits are that I'm working on. I kind of can't wait in my head. I kind of can't wait to get to those. You know, I want to get to the new stuff to try to see if I can make it work ⁓ But yeah, it's if you're diligent and disciplined enough to. Be so honest with yourself. Because there's way too many comedians that I meet where I'm watching a show. It's an open mic. I'm there to try out new material.

and they come off like, I killed it up there. And in my head, I'm like, I don't know what show you was watching. I and it doesn't, I'm not judging them. doesn't matter.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (13:05)
No, but

Danny Johnson (13:08)
But you know, bombing is a good thing. It's not a, Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (13:08)
stuff, the self-awareness, sounds like it's huge as far as be willing to be honest with yourself

and not blame the audience. Cause this is in every single creative space where it's like, well, they weren't ready for me. I had it and they didn't. it's like, sounds like what you're talking about is being ruthlessly honest and saying, no, it comes back to me. Did I do what I needed to do?

Danny Johnson (13:19)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (13:32)
to give them the best night and to give my best performance. I want to get to this isolation that you mentioned about you're the only one on stage it's you and you alone, you and that microphone. And I got to think if you are bombing, if you are, I don't know if you want to tell the story about the bomb or something, but.

Danny Johnson (13:34)
Yeah.

might.

Yeah.

yeah, I got it.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (13:49)
I mean, sure, those are painful, but that sounds like, like I said, something where you just have to have this intestinal fortitude, you know, just to be able to say, I'm going to get through it then I will learn from it. Right.

Danny Johnson (13:59)
Yeah,

yeah, well, let me a couple things on that and you know as a musician, what instruments or instruments do you piano? OK. Imagine this, so here's the difference between comedians and musicians

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (14:05)
I know, I'm pianist, yeah.

Danny Johnson (14:11)
If you miss a key or you're off key for a second, chances are out of 100 people, maybe one notices, maybe none. I'm guessing none. ⁓ And then I could say the same thing about ⁓ no one in that room can also play the piano. So no one can do what you're doing and no one really notices. If I'm a comedian and I bomb a joke, ⁓ not only does everyone notice,

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (14:29)
Interesting.

Danny Johnson (14:38)
but everyone in that room can do exactly what I just did. Talk. Talk without a response. and another thing is I find it hilarious that I as the comedian, we as comedians are the expert in what's funny. However, the general public, the audience tells us if we're right.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (14:43)
Yes.

Yes, so true. Yes, 100%.

Danny Johnson (15:00)
You know what mean? It's like I'm the professional.

It's like if you went to a doctor and you're like, ⁓ I think I have this, and the doctor's like that, and you're telling him, don't think you're I don't think it's.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (15:14)
I was like, exactly. And you're so right about the response. I guess, again, comedy, and I would guess you could go into acting and drama and some of the things. But mostly in terms of this area, where it is automatic response, yes, no, did you win, did you lose? Whereas so many other art forms there is, like you said, it's a lot more forgiving. ⁓ So I actually want to the...

Danny Johnson (15:15)
right.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Right.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (15:36)
pivot from there in terms of the content and what you're delivering in the fact that you chose clean comedy and even the phrase, right? We're going to do for the people listening, we're going to do air quotes, right? Because clean is subjective, but I just wanted you to talk a little bit about that. Cause now you're talking about your choices and what do feel is funny? What's appropriate? What, why do you choose what you choose? And especially, unfortunately, when we do that clean comedy, the second

Danny Johnson (15:43)
Right.

Right. It's subjective.

Right.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (16:05)
be part of that is do people assume that clean means basic clean means cheesy. Yeah. So tell me how you deal with that label.

Danny Johnson (16:11)
Cheesy. Yes.

I never hear that label, but I you you you sense it. You know, like I remember doing a room in Saint Cloud, FL and I said hey this time when I come around, let's promote it as a clean comedy show. See what kind of response we get and we got a great response ticket sale wise. ⁓

But it turns out it didn't matter. They didn't even read the flyer or the advertisement because the MC gets up there and he's doing his spiel and he drops a curse word and then immediately stops his set and goes, sorry, this is a clean show. And then the whole audience was like, ⁓ man. so I told them going forward when I'm back at your club, let's just promote it as it's just funny. And then at the end of the night, my second favorite compliment is, hey, you know you didn't even curse one time up there?

like yeah and you had a great time right see so to back to your first question my choice of topics is anything that moves me so if I feel moved by politics or ⁓ anything I'm trying to think of anything that will be off-bounds you know out of bound any kind of over overly sexual stuff I don't do innuendo I mean that's that's I think it's too personal and I don't find myself

thinking about how funny that is. I'm not looking for the shock value. I'm looking in for the best joke I can write. That's the challenge. I'm not here to shock you. I'm not here to be sensationalized or whatever. here's an example.

in my latest comedy special on YouTube, it's called Everything Bothers Me, and truly everything bothers me to some extent. I poke fun at a woman who stopped a waiter and asked if the chicken Marsala she just had ordered was cage-free chicken. Did it roam free? Did it have friends? Did it play Pee-Nuckle on Thursday? it was, so I kind of poke, so sometimes those people get a little ruffle in their feathers, no pun intended. ⁓ But I'll still do it.

Right, I have to let the creative ideas flow and then the filter, my filter of faith, my filter of clean comedy, my filter of how can I make the most people laugh, it all goes through that. So it either goes to the wayside or it goes to a friend, because I'm a fan of all kinds of comedy.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (18:32)
I definitely want to kind of stay on this because you're mentioning so many things about, okay, well, this moves me. This makes me laugh. I think it does go down to how your makeup is ⁓ designed, right? How God made you and your personality.

Danny Johnson (18:39)
Okay, nice.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (18:47)
makes your comedy or your funny actually funny. If you were trying to be Bernie Mac, if you were trying to be Kevin Hart, everyone would recognize it instantly that that's not that doesn't work. So I feel like ⁓ I think this will help. Maybe some people who are not only comedians, but just all kinds of areas where

Danny Johnson (18:54)
Right.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (19:05)
Like film or whatever where they're scared to say, well, I only do this and see it as a negative versus seeing as no, I'm actually leaning into my strengths. So talk about that a little bit about how maybe on less the negative side, right? well, people think clean is cheesy. Maybe lean into where your ability to make funny things that aren't necessarily, you know, risque. Where has that helped you? Where has it helped you get jobs? Where has it helped you like get into your.

Danny Johnson (19:12)
Right.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah,

Here's what's what's sad and exciting about I think what I think about my career. I would be embarrassed to tell you how many years it took me to find who I am and my voice on stage. Now that I'm in that.

⁓ I'm excited because I now believe that my best comedy is yet to come. And I've already put out two specials and been doing this for almost 20 years. So that's why I say if a young performer can find, can just be themselves and find their audience, don't change yourself to find the audience, you know, to fit a certain mold. You will eventually, and again, my audience is, if you consider my audience my following, my literal,

click the button, follow. It's fairly small. Pretty well known in the clean comedy circuit or fairly well known, that's better to describe it. ⁓ it's hurt me because there's gigs that I've said no to. There's gigs that I wasn't considered for because, he's clean. ⁓ We don't want that and doesn't fit our, you cause if it's an all dirty, know, sometimes there's late night.

dirty shows or whatever, you know, and I don't want to be a part of those anyway, I would do it just to see if I could, you know, if the audience would even know that I didn't curse or anything. But lean into yourself, be yours, because the most authentic version of you will produce the most creativity. And it's okay if everyone in the room doesn't like you, you know, I get company, if you want, if you want to feel bad about yourself, read the comments. ⁓

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (21:04)
Good.

Gosh.

Danny Johnson (21:13)
They're pretty few and far between lucky enough for me, know, but I remember posting a joke a week or two ago and someone just put, bro, nah.

And I like, and I commented, I hardered it and I was like, you know what, sometimes you're right. And it wasn't, it was actually my least favorite joke in my special. So he was right. It's not the best, but it's funny to me and to some people. So I'm okay with that. used to be ⁓ very, you know, hope everyone's just dying of laughter and that's important, but ⁓ you can't fake, I don't think you could, if you're a performer, you can't fake it.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (21:54)
Yeah.

Danny Johnson (21:54)
You can't

fake being, because eventually, you you're gonna meet these folks either through social media or at the merchandise table or outside the show if you don't have a merchandise. And it just comes through. It's not, it's not authentic. That's I'm trying to say.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (22:08)
Yeah,

no, I love this so much because it does speak so much to everyone that the creators really just people general about being yourself. God making you a certain way that he knows who you're called to, who you're supposed to perform for the next gig. Like it's in his hands once. That's the faith component. But then, like I said, I love the fact that you said you're not for everybody. You know, I forgot where the quote comes from, but they said the best way to please nobody is try to please everybody. Right.

Danny Johnson (22:13)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (22:37)
And, the other thing I want to talk about quickly, cause we mentioned this earlier, ⁓ was talking about the big following, the signs of success where maybe you're in a big comedy club and you just feel like that's the sign that you've made it, or you've made this gig on HBO special things like that. And that's the sign that we all, every creative space has like their big, you know, Grammy winning, whatever label that means you've made it. I'm pretty sure you can speak to this where just because you have people.

Danny Johnson (22:53)
Right.

Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (23:05)
all over your social media. It doesn't mean you've really made it. Talk about a little bit about how like you've dealt with making sure that you are not putting those big signs of success as the, you know, the only goal. Like you've made it as a, yeah, just to find success. Cause you, to me, you're successful cause you're literally a professional comedian. To me, I just already like, I can't even imagine making that happen as a full-time gig.

Danny Johnson (23:06)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, defining success.

again.

Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (23:31)
So I just

Danny Johnson (23:32)
Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (23:32)
want to, know, to talk a little bit about that, how you define success, even if you didn't get like, like you said, all those big metrics.

Danny Johnson (23:36)
Yeah.

You know, when you first start out, you're like, I'm to be on Netflix. Netflix wasn't around when I started, I don't think.

I'm going to be on Netflix, going be on HBO, I'm going to sell out arenas and you potentially will or can, but if that's your target, then it's like my five-year-old son when he was a kid saying I want to be on the Yankees. So maybe, but you know, 1 % of the 1 % of the 1 % are playing professional sports. There's no Derek Jeter out there undiscovered.

So yeah, I had to come to the realization or chose to embrace happiness in making a living at jokes. When you take a step back and go, I'm going to pursue the highest of heights, knowing that I'm carried by my faith, carried by my skill, trying to find my audience, be authentic. ⁓ And if it.

Be happy with where what you've accomplished where you are and what you learned from your failures. So if I just spend the rest of my life making people laugh and making a decent living, then. I'm successful and and the set this here's the heart that sounds so easy, right? You know the hard part is. I don't know a lot of people that believe that.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (24:57)
Yeah. You're finding the tribe that actually kind of validates validates validates your goals.

Danny Johnson (25:01)
Yeah.

Yeah. And I don't know that I needed someone to validate it. I, you know, but it's, it's your will be, you know, there's unfortunately, a majority of people will be like, where, where might I seen you from? And my funny answer to that is I don't know what you watch. I don't, you know, how am I supposed to know? But yeah,

I always tell people where I'm performing locally, because they always ask. I only tell the people that ask. And I'll tell them I'm three miles away at this venue, this state. It's a month out. And there's a good sect of people that are constantly busy, and that's fine. But then they'll turn around and buy tickets.

for $300 to see a big celebrity because they have 5 million followers. and that person's funny and they're doing a great job on stage and the people can have the right to do that, but they deem, they look at that success, not what I'm doing.

my family and friends have been great with supporting my career and coming out to shows and whatnot. So I didn't want the previous section to come across that my family and friends aren't there. They are. It's just a certain number of people that it's sort of a queen's like, you know.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (26:12)
Yeah, of course.

Danny Johnson (26:14)
Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (26:13)
Exactly. Exactly. Let

like you said, not everything's for everybody. if those people need to spend that much money and that helps them like appreciate it, that's fine. But you're right. Like let the people who

Danny Johnson (26:16)
Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (26:25)
appreciate you and your comedy and don't let the price or the follower count become the thing. Like that's a huge thing.

Danny Johnson (26:31)
Right.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (26:34)
outside the circle. Yeah.

this is super powerful. think seeing your

Danny Johnson (26:36)
Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (26:40)
evolution as a person, what would you say to the guy that had just taken that workshop gig and tried those first eight weeks and just was realizing, Hey, I'm pretty funny. My family thinks I'm funny, but I don't know if anybody else thinks I'm funny. And you've now had this long time in the business where people rejected you, didn't accept you, didn't accept clean comedy. What would you say to the person who is where you were? Cause someone else might be considering right?

Danny Johnson (26:48)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Right, right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

number one, experience matters. Do your thing as often as you can, many times as you can. Yeah, that's number one. Number two, be intelligent enough to be your worst critic. Honest and intelligent enough to be your worst critic. And all of this is a lot of work, yes. You put your heart and soul into it.

⁓ You're going to be tempted to hang out after the show and party. I would encourage you to stay after the show and network. You don't have to party to network. It's not for me. Great phrase. It's not for me. You want a beer? It's not for me. Thanks. ⁓ People will respect that. So one is ⁓ do the work. Constantly do it over and over again. And then two, be intelligent enough to be a worst critic and improve on what you can improve on.

Three, and this is new to me the past 10, 15 years, it wasn't available. When I first started, you were chasing the comedy, you were chasing the venue. Now, there are tons of artists creating their own venue. Comedy club says no, jazz club says no to you. Good. ⁓ Find a spot. Create your own audience. Do your own promotion. I'm doing a, there's a nonprofit faith-based

theater in Jacksonville called Murray Hill Theater. I'm doing it in mid-June, June 13th. And it's a door deal, right? So performers sometimes do door deals. I just created a marketing plan. I'm appearing on local TV, June Fert. Like I'm texting, I'm emailing pastors and friends. I'm putting in more work because people just think, you went, did one hour of comedy. You made, if we sell out, made good money. What about the hours I put in? So.

Create your own venue, create your own Facebook page or Instagram page around it, know, creative lists. Performers now can just create their own venue. It was never done before back in 10, 15 years ago when I first started. It was just, you're chasing the improv and the comedy zone and the comedies, you know, all these big clubs. And ⁓ if they said no, you're like, ⁓ okay, well. But create your own comedy night. I got an email from my, I don't even know how he got on my email list. ⁓

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (29:04)
So true.

Danny Johnson (29:25)
some radio host in South Dakota. He's like, our comedy club closed four years ago. I'm trying to be a stand up comic, but he's a syndicated radio host of 300 networks around the country, AM and FM, faith based. And he goes, I want to bring a comedy night to this community, maybe raise some money. Would you be, I came across your videos. I love them. Got your email, love it. And I was like, I don't even know how this guy got on my list. I said, yeah, let's put something together. So we're working out a door deal and we're going to create our own audience with our own venue.

⁓ so do that and repeatedly do that step one, two, and three over and over again and build your audience. And the bigger your audience, the bigger your venue, the bigger your opportunity. ⁓ and then I think that's really the three in the beginning. That's the first five, six, seven years, you know, where you can do something dumb on day one and make it huge on the internet. And then, well, then you run into a problem, man, let me tell you, I've opened up for some internet sensations. ⁓

who have millions of followers and make way more, much more money than I do. And they're headlining and I'm opening for them. And they have a hundred questions about standup for me. Cause it's new to them. They don't, and sometimes they don't have the content.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (30:36)
Yeah. Yeah. It's not the same as

on like a 15 second TikTok as to be able to get a live audience. That's huge. And there's clearly a spirit of mentorship and a spirit of like just helping people, whether it comes to your books or you're helping other comics that's clearly coming through. So Danny, this has been a blessing, man. I appreciate you so much. I'm sure they're already clicking the links, but just for the old school people, tell them where they can find you on socials. You know how this works.

Danny Johnson (30:42)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Absolutely.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (31:04)
to the next person that wants to laugh and have a good time with you, tell them how they can find you.

Danny Johnson (31:04)
Yep. Yeah, absolutely. So if you just go to my website, it has everything. It's DannyJohnson.com, D-A-N-N-Y-J-O-H-N-S-O-N.com. And it has links to my first comedy special, which is a Dry Bar comedy special. That's a faith-based organization in Utah called VidAngel. They did it in 2019. So you can watch my Dry Bar special. There's a link to my YouTube special, which just came out.

⁓ And then I'm in the process of putting the links to my books on there, but you can find them eventually somehow on the site And then my socials are all the same. It's Danny Johnson comedy easy Instagram Facebook and tick-tock, but I would love to connect I enjoyed this kind of I could talk to you for hours about entertainment your artist I'm an artist, but I know if we talked for hours, you know, your listeners would click off at some point

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (31:50)
Yeah.

Yes, we don't want any, we don't want any empty chairs in the seat. Not in this case. And that's the funny thing about podcasting is that it is a captive audience in this case, because you're right in your ears and you can't get away.

Danny Johnson (31:57)
Yeah.

Yeah. Oh,

right. Oh, and the book. So my book's on Amazon. It's not on my website yet. It's called GLP-1 and Muscle Growth, The Flying Squirrel Syndrome. If you just type in that, you'll find it. And it's available now. And I hope you learn from it. I hope it encourages you to do things smart. Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (32:06)
Good.

Absolutely. Well, Dan, this has been a pleasure for

me, man. Again, like I said, artists, artists, you have made me laugh so many times to this. But more importantly, the laughter made me think. And I think that that's the key that all of this stuff we're opening up the doors for other creators. And so we know hopefully this won't be the last time you're part of the God and gigs tribe automatically, whether you like it or not. And so we appreciate you so much being on the show and hopefully this won't be the last time. But God bless you, my friend.

Danny Johnson (32:25)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I'd love it.

Yeah,

God bless you too. Thank you.