‘Daily Show’s’ Josh Johnson Grabs the Mic

The Last Laugh

The Daily Beast

Comedy Interviews, Comedy, Interviews, Tv & Film, Society & Culture, Tv, Movies, Film

4.6 • 661 Ratings

🗓️ 14 September 2021

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Comedian Josh Johnson spent the first few years of his comedy career writing monologue jokes for Jimmy Fallon at ‘The Tonight Show’ and then crafting longer bits for Trevor Noah at ‘The Daily Show.’ Now, after an extended pandemic-induced delay, he is getting his own voice out there in a big way. In addition to his new stand-up special ‘Hashtag,’ which is streaming now on Paramount+, Johnson also put out a mixtape album this year called ‘Elusive’ that combines both deeply funny comedy and deeply emotional music. On this episode, he opens up about how a fear of dying young pushed him to expand his creative ambitions and shares stories from his late-night writing gigs, including what it was like to watch Fallon playfully ruffle Donald Trump’s hair and how working with Trevor Noah has made him a better comedian.

Follow Josh Johnson on Twitter @JoshJohnson and Instagram @joshjohnsoncomedy

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Stream Josh Johnson’s ‘Elusive’ mixtape

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The comedian on this week's show had a rough year.
0:03.0	I had a hard time in lockdown.
0:06.0	I really did.
0:07.0	In quarantine, it was hard.
0:09.0	It was really, really hard.
0:12.0	Because it made a liar out of me.
0:15.0	It did.
0:18.0	Because I've always said my entire life, if I just had the time.
0:31.1	This is the last laugh.
0:33.3	I'm Matt Wilstein from The Daily Beast,
0:35.4	and that was my guest on today's show, Josh Johnson, from his debut stand-up special, hashtag.
0:41.8	For the past four years, Josh has been a writer on The Daily Show. Before that, he wrote for The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
0:49.0	But in March of 2020, he was about to get his first real big break, his own hour-long special on Comedy Central.
0:57.0	The rest is, well, you know.
1:00.0	He had to wait a full year before he could tape the special, throwing out all of his old material
1:05.0	and starting from scratch to create an hour that is even stronger and deeper.
1:10.0	And in the meantime, he produced a full-on mixtape album with both comedy and music called Elusive.
1:16.4	So maybe this past year wasn't so bad for Josh after all.
1:20.0	So with The Daily Show returning to the air this week and hashtag now available to stream on Paramount Plus,
1:25.7	I thought now would be the perfect time to chat with him about all of it.
1:29.9	Here's me with Josh Johnson.
1:33.1	So yeah, welcome. Thanks for being on the show. I want to start with your special hashtag.
	...

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