Johnson, Josh (Comedian)

He doesn’t have a tight five minutes like most stand-ups, but his up-to-the-moment, thoughtful sets are winning legions of fans.Josh Johnson is exactly who you think he is.Or at least very close to the wry, deeply thoughtful, country-mouse-turned-city-mouse persona of his standup sets. In real life, which in this case is a sushi restaurant around the corner from the Comedy Cellar, he’s wearing his stage uniform — fitted gray hoodie, jeans, sneakers, twists pulled back into a ponytail — and he’s speaking in circles, only to arrive at a sometimes funny but always poignant conclusion.After a decade of “up-and-coming” accolades, sets at major comedy venues, two hourlong specials and writing jobs on “The Tonight Show” and “The Daily Show,” the 35-year-old comedian is arriving right on time. Where once Johnson might have occasionally crossed your screen — take his superviral “Catfishing the KKK” set from 2017, about a brief online friendship with a white supremacist — his timely, topical material and fast-growing fan base are now inescapable.“I think a lot of stuff is kind of coming together,” said Johnson over lunch. “Some of it is me choosing to read certain things, learn certain things and pull from different people in my life. And some of it is just the accident of luck.”His sudden rise can’t be attributed solely to relentless touring or his ability to make people laugh. The fact is that no other working comedian is currently releasing the equivalent of new standup specials at the same clip: In 2024 alone, Johnson uploaded the equivalent of 28 hourlong specials to his social channels, and is on track to exceed that number this year, to the slight shock and complete awe of those who know him well.The comedian Jon Stewart returned to host “The Daily Show” last year around the same time Johnson became a correspondent on the program, and sums up the younger comic’s style this way: “You know the things that are bouncing around in your mind that you have neither the time nor maybe the facility to draw together into coherent and then really funny and surprising thoughts? Yeah, this guy’s doing it. He’s doing it actually for you.”Johnson draws on bizarre, terrifying or downright silly encounters that he gets involved in through no fault of his own.Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More