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.
