Photo: provided
Like many comics, James Johann landed in the stand-up
business after washing out at a number of other vocations. “I used to be
a welder,” he recalls. “I don’t know what I made. They never even told
me what I was working on. It might have been golf carts, might have been
the space shuttle, I don’t know.” He got the notion to get on stage
from an unlikely career counselor.
“My mom one day said, ‘You know, you
think you’re so damned funny, why don’t you go down to the comedy club
and find out?’ ” She even gave him a lift. “I was hooked instantly. … I
knew that it was something I wanted to pursue.” These days, another of
his kinfolk works with him on his material. That writing partner happens
to be his non-comedian brother. “He should be (a comic),” Johann
states. “My brother’s probably funnier than I am, to be honest with you.
A lot of things that he says I’ll take to the stage.” $10-$15. Through
Sunday, March 3. Funny Bone on the Levee, Newport. 859-957-2000,
funnyboneonthelevee.com.
