Meet Bo Johnson | Stand Up Comedian

We had the good fortune of connecting with Bo Johnson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Bo, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I fell in love with stand up when I was in middle school. The iTunes music store had just come out and started publishing Live at Gotham and Comedy Central half hour specials. I spent all of my summer lawn mowing money consuming one special after another, early favorites include Mitch Hedberg and Demetri Martin. When I graduated college I was busing tables while I lived at home with my folks and would listen to comedy podcasts on the bus to my shift every day and night Having a window into the lives of folks who’s worlds centered around joke ideas and bits painted a clear picture of what I wanted my ideal life to look like. My first open mic was in the back of a Thai restaurant, a night that led to countless other open mics in the basements or backroom of a variety of pubs, restaurants, and clubs.

To this day my favorite part of stand up is talking about bits with friends. My biggest goal with stand up is translating the same energy of laughing with my best friends in a basement to performing onstage in front of a group of people I’ve never met before.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Most of my stand up is observational comedy drawn from life experiences and events. I talk about growing up with massage therapist parents, living with 9 roommates in college, the various jobs I’ve held over the years. Some of my favorite jokes are bits that begin with a simple idea and expand into what is essentially a long monologue. One of the jokes I’ve been doing a lot lately is tied to how when I’m parallel parking and other cars start to stack up behind me I feel like I’m in the final hole of a PGA tour trying to sink a big putt. Which sets up a 2 minute whispered sports announcer description of me trying to park my car as traffic builds behind me.

When my Dad was in his mid 30’s he built a sailboat from scratch, a boat he would go on to live and explore the Pacific Northwest in for nearly 20 years. As a little kid I thought that was so cool, but it wasn’t until a conversation with him in my 20’s where I really put together what learning to build a sailboat from scratch entailed. I left the conversation understanding that “my boat,” stand up and writing, would likely require a minimum of 5 years of hard work before even starting to see real results. And from there it would remain a continued practice of growth. That work has in many ways been challenging, but also incredibly enriching. I can credit stand up with so many memories I never would have been able to dream up.

Looking back over the past 8 years I’m proud of having gone from struggling to do three minutes of material at an open mic, to getting to fly around the country to perform 50 minutes or longer- sometimes even for a handful of folks coming out specifically to see me. I’m in a moment of my life where a full living from stand up is still very challenging to sustain, but I also am able to walkup each morning living the life I dreamed about as a 7th grader. I feel immensely grateful for this moment wherever it leads.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We would eat drink and hangout in one place and one place only, The Magic Castle. If you aren’t familiar with the Magic Castle already it is the world’s most exclusive magicians club. Essentially the Playboy Mansion of magic, so really nothing like the Playboy Mansion at all. I think it’s one of the best and most exciting tourist activities in the city.

A day trip out of the city to Mt. Baldy with some homemade sandwich’s. And in terms of catching comedy you can’t beat the Don’t Tell Comedy shows across the city or Faded a weekly Friday show on Melrose.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Some of my earliest stand up inspirations where comedians like Mitch Hedberg, Hannibal Buress, and Mike Birbiglia. But even before that I fell in love with cartoonists like Gary Larson, the creator of the The Far Side, and Bill Watterson, the creator of Calvin and Hobbes.,

In actually starting stand up you realize that so much of practicing comedy comes from the support of other comedians around you. I was working the door at the Comedy Underground in Seattle when I met my friend Andrew Sleighter. At the end of his weekend at the club the host for the show had to cancel last minute and I was thrown on. From there Andrew was kind enough to be the first working comedian to take me on the road with him and provide the opportunity to perform in other states doing longer sets. Through going on the road with him off and on for a few years I was also able to watch the process of his act evolving and turning over with newer jokes. I don’t think I would have had the chance to grow as comedian in the same way without his support and guidance.

Website: bojohnsoncomedy.com

Instagram: @bojohnsoncomedy

Image Credits
Quinn Russell Brown and Dominic Angel