JOSH JOHNSON Took One-Tank Texas Road Trips

An all-new season of the Hulu Original Series: The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+. Four years ago, we were just making TikToks. But it feels like there are no friendships left in MomTalk. You act like you're better than everyone, you're not. I can't trust anyone in this group. She's just dead to me. There's so much the public doesn't know. Watch the new season of the Hulu Original Series: The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers. Terms apply. Hey, Poshy. Hey, Sufi. Very exciting news, Poshy. What's that? We're going to be doing our first American live family trip shows. Yeah, I'm very excited. I mean, I'm excited for both of them, but I'm particularly excited for the first one. You're excited for Philly? Yeah, because I've never been to Philly. You've never been to Philly? I know, and I keep meeting people from Philly. I saw the Roots picnic. I saw the Roots picnic this year, this weekend, at the Hollywood Bowl, and famously a Philly band. Philly's fine. Yeah, I sort of like, you know, I have so much love for Pittsburgh, and I just feel like I know Philly's, not Pittsburgh, but, you know, we did a lot of chatter for Visit Baltimore last year, which is a town I really want to get to, and I feel like Philly's in that same kind of pocket. Yeah. Yeah. You feel like maybe you should have done a little bit more for Philly while you were shouting out Baltimore all the time? I'm doing it now. I'm going there. We're going. Are you going to watch Mayor of Easttown or Task ahead of time? Well, I've watched them both. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, Baltimore, Philly, and Pittsburgh may be the three most jarring accents to hear live if you've never heard them before. Yeah. It'll be like when we did. When we were doing improv in Scotland, and it would take a few days of having audience members shout out suggestions to the stage to be able to actually decipher what it was they were saying. Yeah. Yeah. The ear has to get used to it. We're only going to be there for a day, so I don't know if you're ever going to. I know. I'm going to try to maybe go a day or two early. I think watching a full season of Task is probably worth at least four hours in Philly. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's going to be great. I will tell you the last time I was in Philly, I went for a run to go see the Liberty Bell. Yeah. And I listened to one song on a loop the whole time. The Rocky theme song? Great. That would have been a great choice. I listened to Philadelphia Freedom by Elton John. And the only thing I'll say about Philadelphia Freedom is if there's ever a song where I think you're supposed to be on rollerblades, it might be Philadelphia Freedom. Yeah. That's probably skates, actually, but. Right. It's more skates than rollerblades. Yeah. But I think, you know, and again, I think they're lovely people in Philly. I think if they saw a dude on, like, 70 Styles roller skates today, kind of rocking down the street, they might check a couple of double A's at them, D batteries. Yeah. But we're going to be at, yeah, we got a show at City Winery in Philadelphia on August 12th, and then one at City Winery. City Winery in Boston on August 13th, so very exciting. And pretty high percentage chance you might get to see Hilary and Larry Myers in person if you go to the Boston show. Yeah, I think high, high level chance for that. Could be, could be deep family for us at the Boston City Winery show. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's exciting. I think I checked. I think there's no Red Sox game that day, because I was, I was wondering if there was, that would work out nicely. Yeah. Have you been watching. Say lovey. World Cup? I have been. And I, as we record this tonight, is the Netherlands first knockout round match against Morocco. And yesterday, just sort of on a whim, I sent a text out to our sort of boom Chicago, LA brethren. And I think I'm probably going to have between six and 20 people over here tonight. I just can't tell. Fantastic. It's hard to get a read on it, but. Yeah. Deeply jealous of the West Coast start time. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I'm not loving a 9:00 PM kickoff. Yeah, that ain't right. That ain't right. It's been crazy. There's been like games that have started at midnight on the East Coast. Yeah. Those, like those Vancouver starts, those Vancouver games are somehow even later, I feel like. Yeah, but they're not supposed to be. It's crazy. I mean, there's never any West Coast sporting events that start at 9:00 PM in any of the major sports leagues. Yeah. They're like, well, nobody on the East Coast is going to watch them. But I think with the World Cup, they were like, yeah, we're okay with that. Yeah. We're going to, we're doing just fine. Been very exciting. I'm, I'm definitely nervous. I feel like the Netherlands, our beloved squad, has a tough, everybody, this might be the toughest first round matchup anybody has, Morocco, as far as. Yeah, Morocco's good. Morocco's great. Also, real connection, I think multiple players on the Moroccan team are are, are like from Holland. They're like, oh, yeah, there's a huge Moroccan community in, uh, in the Netherlands. And obviously in this day and age, a lot of players end up playing for countries where they're not from, but their parents are from. And, uh, so it'll be, uh, it's, it's gonna be, it's gonna be great vibes. Yeah. Um, yeah, I'm looking forward to that. And then, you know, I did just mention it, but, uh, we've got Mackenzie's mom. Linda is out here right now and she had never been to the Hollywood bowl. So I told her, I'm like, you know what? I told her, I was like, just look at the schedule for this year and pick a show and we'll go to a show. And you're like, and don't beat yourself up. I've never been to Philly. Yeah. It's not your fault. You haven't been in the Hollywood bowl. Um, so she looked and she picked this roots picnic as the show she wanted to see, which I already had tickets for. And it's so fun. Like they get like some classic hip hop acts. And then the roots are the backing band, the roots like perform, but then they back up De La Soul and Nas and T.I. And it is such a good vibe. It was such a fun night out. And I was so glad we got to take Linda to that. She really enjoyed it. And yeah, it was fabulous. How long a show is it? Like three hours. Okay. They say it starts at 7.30 and that's when the roots come out. And they were done by 10.30. Great. Yeah. It was awesome. It was like truly one of the best vibes I've ever experienced at the bowl. Like people were having so much fun. It's a picnic. Obviously it's called a picnic. It's not an actual picnic though. Like what's the vibe at the bowl with like bringing your own food and stuff? You can do it. You can bring in, yeah, food, wine, beer. We had a box. We had a terrace box, which is the garden boxes are like upfront, but we were set back from that. But, you know, nice tickets, nice seats. And if you get there early enough, they will set up these little tables for you in the box. So you can have dinner there, which is what we did. And then you break those tables down. What are you laughing about? I'm thinking about something I'm about to tell you. Okay. You're not listening to what I'm saying? No, I'm listening, but it's like, I know what a picnic is and now I'm like kind of ahead of you. Okay, yeah. Well, you're the one that asked the question. I just thought of something that made me laugh and hopefully it'll make you laugh. Yeah, okay, go ahead. We went out last night and we went to some place. A place that I once brought mom. And I'm always trying, in standup, I'm always trying to find an example of the kind of questions mom ask. Yeah. That are, you know, that it puts you in a corner because to answer the question, there's almost no way to answer it without being rude. Hmm. Because it's so, I don't want to say inane 'cause mom listens to the pod. But we went to a place and we brought her and on the menu it said kimchi oysters. Mm-hmm. And mom said, "What's kimchi?" And I said, "It's like a fermented cabbage." And she went, "Oh." And so, "What are the kimchi oysters?" And like, I swear I almost had like an aneurysm, like trying to figure out a way. I'm like, "You know what? "I bet it's oysters with kimchi on it." Yeah. Also, mom wouldn't, she's not into oysters. She's not gonna eat or kimchi. Yeah. But the good one that I've been doing on stage that I should think is like maybe the perfect one, which is we were backing out of a friend's house. They were visiting us. We were backing out, mom was shotgun. And as I was backing out of the car, we were facing a barn. Have I told you this? I don't think so. So like picture every barn you've ever seen in a children's book. Mm-hmm. That's what it looks like. Yeah. And so we're facing it. And mom says, "Is that a barn?" And like this is where I, again, that's why I'm so happy when mom appears on the pod. Like, you know, her he has an active mind, a voracious reader. And like sometimes I tell stories about her and I think that people must picture like her just like drooling while we like feed her his soup. - Is that a barn? - Yeah. And I'm like, just like sitting there and I'm like, I don't know what you want me to say. No, that, that's a pizza. Oh, man. So, yeah, well, we might get some of that action in Boston, everybody. Yeah, you might get that. She'll have a long explanation for why it was a very good question. You can never be, she's always said, you can never be too safe with the question of is it or isn't it a barn? Josh Johnson, a delightful conversation. He's a great stand-up comedian with a fantastic new special. You know him as a Daily Show correspondent. And we love talking to him. Yeah, Symphony is his new special. You can see it now. And, yeah, cool. And every now and then on the pod, I'm very taken. This is an example of someone who the sound of their voice plus their character. Cadence is just sort of mesmerizing to me. Yeah, I feel like there are a lot of comedians out there and it's sort of like being strafed by a machine gun. Yes. But Josh Johnson is not that. He is a thinking man's comic and his cadence is just like, it's soothing and, yeah, got a really smart outlook. Sometimes when I watch him crush by talking at the pace he does, it's a reminder. It's a reminder that maybe I could give myself the grace to slow down on stage. It's not your style. I just white knuckle it. I'm like, I gotta get to the next joke. Or else you're gonna remember you don't like me. I gotta get out of here. All right. Well, enjoy everybody. Yeah. Oh, and there was something I forgot to say. Yeah. But first, Jeff Tweedy. Posh hates when I do that. That's fine. And I kind of finally backed off it, but I wanted you to know that you're never, you're never free of me. Take it away, Jeff. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. ♪ Family trips with the Myers brothers ♪ ♪ Family trips with the Myers brothers ♪ ♪ Here we go ♪ Hello. Hey, hey, hey. How are you? I'm doing well. I want to make sure that you're doing well. I want to make sure I'm not too noisy. There's, I live in Brooklyn and there is a lot that's always happening outside of my apartment, but I also just want to see for what I can control if this sounds good. We would, it looks like you're in a limbo in outer space and sounds like it as well. Yes. Okay. Yeah. That, that part is just having a lot of bare walls. I'm not, I'm, I, as much as I love posters, I can never decide which ones to put up, so. We're not, we're not much better in terms of. Yeah, we, we have liminal spaces that we're existing and it's all very back rooms at the moment. Yeah, but, but at least it's back rooms. This feels like from a different decade. This feels like a different indie movie and not one that ends well. Before you joined, Josh and I were talking about how much we enjoyed Symphony, especially your karate story, right? Yeah. I don't want to spoil it for anybody. Oh, yeah. It's just a killer. Thanks. Just a killer bit, killer story. So many good jokes within it. And for anybody who hasn't seen Symphony on HBO Max, I don't want to give anything away, but the Kevin Karate story is an all-timer. Oh, well, thanks, man. That means a lot. I, yeah, I, it's crazy because you put stuff out there and then you meet people who watched and it's like, you watched? Yeah. That feels, that feels wild. It's also funny because especially when it's like personal stories, which I do a great many of when I do stand up, it also feels weirdly like a violation when people are like, oh my God, I love stories about your kids. I'm like, hey man, those are my kids. Yeah. You're the one who said it. Oh my God, right, right, right, right, right. You'll forget, especially like every once in a while, I will forget that I shared something and I will think that this person just knows this about me because I wear it on my face. Right. Yeah, yeah. Like there was someone I met one time, I'm trying to remember what story I put out, but they were like, hey man, I really like your stuff and I want you to know I was bullied a lot too as a kid and I forgot I had just talked about bullying. So I was like, did I just, do I just walk like that? But also as you put stuff out over years, you've had several specials now. There are things that you've talked about in your earlier material that someone else might have just seen and it's very fresh for them and it lives, but it's also in your deep history now and they will talk about it like you, you know, told them that this morning and then you have to sort of pull back in your history where it even originates from. Yeah, or it wasn't me. Well, sure. Ooh, that does happen, yeah, that one stings. Just when you think you're like a little bit famous, it's like there's a person with just your forehead even, they don't look like you and then everyone's like I love your bit but from this other person that you're like, I don't remember saying that ever. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we met years ago with Neil Brennan and you were just on Neil's podcast, "Blocks" and that was also great and very funny. Oh, thanks. Yeah, no, Neil's great. I can't believe he helped me so much and then forgot. Yeah, there's a great story about how Neil literally helped you buy clothes, new clothes and it is a wonderful, wonderful thing to watch. I was joking with Neil, I'm like this is why, this is the most Neil thing in the world, that you are so hard on yourself that you actually forget you're helpful. Yeah. You know, he's doing, like, I'm like, I wish you could like go tell your therapist like, hey, actually, I got it wrong, I'm a great person. Yeah, that's such a, that's so funny too. 'Cause he saw I say it to him all the time too, like my, you know, Neil was an incredibly helpful asset to me in my darkest times, and I think he does that for a lot of people and then he doesn't give himself enough credit for being helpful. It is the opposite of the realization some people have that they were a bully. Right. Do you know what I mean? Like, you know, years, years, years passing, you're like, oh, I was kind of like mean to that kid one time. And Neil's case, it's like, oh, I have been doing community service. Right. He keeps, he keeps acting like he's gonna get caught for some crime. He never did and get a sentence to community service. And instead he's just been doing it for free. Yeah. Yeah. On his own. So you are from Alexandria, Louisiana. Is that where you fully grew up? It is, it is. I moved to Shreveport for college, but I was in, yeah, I was in Alexandria, good portion of my life and then moved to Chicago after college. Gotcha. And is your mom still in Louisiana? No, no. A lot of us are in Atlanta now. Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha. Mm-hmm. And what was, what was growing up in Alexandria like? Hmm. I mean, it's, it feels tough to call the first, you know, 18 years of your life mid, but like, it is, it's like, look, I wouldn't replace it because then I wouldn't be who I am and everything, but yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's hard to not look at, if you look at lives on a shelf and how the first 18 can go, there are places where you're like, all right, I could have, I could have done well anywhere else. But I, I feel very fortunate in that all the experiences I had there kind of like molded me into the person that I am now. I really don't think, like I, when I moved to Chicago, there was a small part of me and I'm still young as well. At the time, I'm like 22 and I'm in Chicago for the first time. There was a part of me that was like, I wonder what my life would be like if I had grown up here instead. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I, I try not to like dwell on that sort of thing because the truth of it is that if I didn't come to Chicago with so much curiosity and with a real hunger for comedy, because I just didn't have access to much live comedy the entire time I was growing up, even though I was upset, obsessed with standup and I was obsessed with comedy, then I don't think, yeah, I might've petered out. Like I might've still started standup and then been like, all right, this is fine. But I also live in Chicago, which is dope. Yeah. I think, I mean, I think mid beginnings are incredibly helpful for creative people. I think, and I often think this, you know, through the lens of the fact that I'm raising three kids in New York City. And so they're exactly what you're talking about. But Josh and I had a similar journey. We kind of had different journeys to you where we kind of started in very mid suburbia. Then we worked our way to Chicago and then, you know, we just kind of kept going to bigger and bigger cities. And I think that's like a nice aversion to live your life of just sort of like going to places where there's more going on each step of the way, as opposed to less. - No, that's very fair. And that's also what I tried to remind myself when I moved to New York and New York was even more intense than Chicago and the stakes were higher and everything. 'Cause I feel like in Chicago, you can very much get by only like not even chasing your dream, just sort of following. yeah i think that's right yeah you know the person that you're like they're not i guess you can stalk your dream in in like in a comfortable city and then in new york it's like it's expensive enough and i didn't move with money you know i mean like i don't come from money like that so then it's if you're here you have to be here on purpose it's very important that you're here for a reason And so all goals aside, just for you as an individual, you look at the prices of everything and the prices of everything everywhere else, and you're like, yeah, you need to be here on purpose. This has to be what you want to be doing. I'm blown away by people who move to New York. I rented out my room. This is – man, this is bad. So I rented out my room when I went on the road for the first time because I was like, okay, I can offset the cost of my travel with just not having to pay rent for the months that I'm gone. And then because I was doing all the booking myself, I just very poorly handled the books. So there was one point where I got back into town and forgot I had sublet my room. So then – Yeah. But I really didn't have anywhere to go, and I didn't have money for a hotel. And so I came back home and then slept on the couch in my apartment and just got – I was only back for like 18 hours, but I got a real glimpse at the guy renting my room living the dream. It was kind of devastating because I was like, oh, this room is already being put to better use than I was. And then I – I flew back out and then I took a bus. It was just – it was one of those things where looking back versus Chicago, it was like that – the gigs that I got and just being out on the road for the first time, so not making much money at all, it still would have stretched so much further in Chicago than it did in New York because then I did all that stuff and sublet my room just to like have to be sure I was back to clock in at the grocery store on Monday. You know? Yeah. And so it's – I think it's good, though. I'm glad that it went this way. Hey, we're going to take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors. Support comes from Quince. Hey, Poshy. Hey, Sufi. One thing I love about Summer Poshy is how easy everything feels. Days are more relaxed. I find myself reaching for the same comfortable go-anywhere pieces again and again. And I'm talking about clothing pieces, Posh. Yeah. Not handguns. Yeah. No, that's not your style. No. That's why I keep coming back to Quince. 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Subject to credit approval, Apple Card is issued by Goldman Sachs, Bank USA, Salt Lake City branch. Terms and more at applecard.com. In partnership with Apple Card, Apple Card is a free app. In partnership with Airbnb, I'd like to share a travel story. Oh, yeah, go for it, Sufi. You know what I like, Pashi? What's up? I like a neighborhood. Yeah, me too. You know what I mean? I like to feel like I'm traveling and I'm amongst the locals. I'm not near a chain restaurant that I have in my hometown, but I'm by a cafe that only those who live there and walk those cobbled streets are familiar with. And so when Alexi and I went to Paris, on a vacation, we booked an apartment on Airbnb. What neighborhood were you in, Sufi? We were in the Marais, Pashi. Oh, the Marais. And if you haven't been to the Marais, I don't even know how to describe it to you. You know what they call it in Paris? What's that? La Marais. Or Le Marais. One of those. You've been. I haven't, but I would love to. And let me just tell you that it's just wonderful. You're just in a home that the owners have. They've taken great care and attention to make comfortable for you on your vacation. And you're just amongst everyone. You're a me. It's friend, Pashi. Oh, you're a me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Les amis. Booking a trip on Airbnb makes for a better trip. You could be traveling with family. You could be looking to discover authentic and local experiences. You could be taking a trip with a group of friends. A group of a me. Two les amis. here we go your parents uh were both educators yes uh our mother was a school teacher uh how did they how were they with your uh journey into the arts is that because college was that as well it wasn't comedy obviously but they knew you were artistic yes yes yes so i went to college which they were both very much pro and uh educators tend to be yeah they they tend like this is the this is a weird thing that i i feel like a lot of teachers look at education the opposite of how uh football stars look at football like you you talk to an nfl player and they're like is your kid gonna play and most of them are like no like yeah the whole reason that i bash my skull on sundays is so that they don't have to do this you know that would be a punishment in their mind and then with educators it's like you should probably learn as much as possible because from what i've learned about the world you're not going to get very far if you're not very smart yeah and and so i went to college i majored in design for lighting thinking maybe i'd do lighting for theater like at one point i was like maybe i can be an ld on broadway and everything like you know really shoot for the stuff but i still had this this sort of quiet obsession with with comedy and i really love making people laugh and i always have and so when i moved to chicago chicago was the perfect place to basically go still have a fork in the road because chicago was where i could get like a union start and everything but chicago is also where i could just start doing open mics and be part of like um io or the annoyance or or something like that and so i still move there with the intention of getting into comedy i was just very quiet about it and then i really didn't tell my mom how much comedy i was doing until i got passed at my first club because then i was like okay at least if there's like some income involved right and i haven't quit my job uh because i was working at a grocery store uh in chicago as well but i did a bunch of odd jobs and i was like as long as i look like i'm taking care of myself i think that they'll be nothing but supportive and they were that's really great did they ever travel up to chicago to see you do stand up there you know what was rough okay so my my mom did come to chicago and i had a set my mom and aunt came and that was like the worst set i had in months i had been and and i'm not this type of person i'm really not trying to pump myself up but this is just to show you how far i fell i was killing like like i was i was from the time i this i i still remember my first night after being passed like first night as a paid regular and like yeah for those listeners who don't know like getting passed means you have done like free sets and then the club's like you know what we would love to have you as like a paid performer at the show is that an accurate representation of it yes like you just become a paid regular so now you're on the roster and you're part of the schedule and everything they're going to give you spots you're in the you're in the world yeah and and from the first set that i had i was like absolutely killing so then i was i was extra proud that my mom and my aunt were going to be there and everything and then i didn't quite like i didn't like bomb to the point where i left the stage quiet but just it nothing was going as well as it had ever gone before it was like they knew my mom and my aunt were there and they were like we're gonna give you less did you do you feel like there was any difference in your performance knowing that they were there even subconsciously are you someone who is i mean i'm so hyper aware when my parents are in the crowd you know i think i only thought about them being there once the third joke didn't get what it usually got like initially i was like all right like it it'll be nice that my mom will see me do this thing and and something i'm so passionate about and want to pursue and also i think it will give me some extra i won't say leeway because it's not like anything was being held over my head but i think it would give me some extra trust if she saw how well this thing went in the room you know yeah yeah and so then for it to go for it to not look like i should quit the grocery store was like particularly devastating it was like i and you can't really tell people it doesn't matter where else you you were winning they watched you just do uh you know a six out of ten so it's like not a whole bomb or anything but just like do you go out with them after that like is there you go out for a drink or do you go out for food and do you we just went back to um uh my apartment and i and my mom and my aunt were at a hotel and i can't remember whatever my mom said i was i was like partially devastated i can't remember what it was i think i've blocked it out but like like it was it was in the vein of you did your best right right right which is like not a wholly devastating thing to say to a person but it is when the thing is completely subjective as an art form and so you have just you've revealed to me now that you think it was subpar our dad your best our dad uh our dad leads the league in partially devastating comments yeah just just all you just constantly from from any place on the court he can he can sink a partially devastating comment uh it is really josh just did convocation at northwestern school of speech and invited uh our parents late because you wanted to make sure you had a real solid speech before you were willing to risk having him there yeah i i finally got it written maybe three days before and i and i called them and i was like do you guys want to come and they came and i was i was glad that i did it but prior to having it written i was like i don't know uh if this is gonna work and yeah yeah because our dad would be there with tried your best he would be there's there's also and this one this one more comics do than uh than parents but there's also the uh how'd you feel about it you could have just stabbed me i mean i who directed your special who directed symphony uh so my best friend jacob minacci okay um we've we've worked together on pretty much all my stuff like he also does my uh weeklies a good portion of the time great um he did the special that we sent to peacock for a little bit the up here killing myself and everything so he's he's been directing for years and um he directed this one we were like concepting it out a while back and yeah he was like really the the sort of glue that held together the ideas um as we progressed but yeah he was like really the sort of glue that held together the ideas um as we progressed but because i really came to him with the sort of nugget of the concept before i even had all the the jokes and the stories in place i've had neil has directed both my specials because neil is never will never be gushing with his praise but he also if he tells you you have it you believe him yes that's exactly how i feel about jacob where it's like if jacob says i got it i believe that i got it yeah and and so it was so i was like i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't so good to yeah wrap up and have him be like we did it because then you're you're in your head as far as how the jokes and the stories go but you you don't even see the other aspects like you you know whenever whenever people direct their own thing i'm always so uh perplexed how that happened yeah jb like when when people directed the thing but you were on the other side yeah like you were performing so what signals were you giving someone to turn the camera a little bit like when do you have a lot to weigh in on in terms of lighting design in your shows because you studied it do you do you lean back on the degree not not as much because i feel that here's the thing as far as an act as an actual designer i felt like i was okay but i i really look to a sort of like overall big picture look and then i speak the language enough that i can communicate it but then i trust other people to like deliver how that thing is going to look because i personally feel like once i get involved it's like i i technically know what i'm doing i don't actually know what i'm doing yeah especially now you know been been doing comedy for all these years and not doing design so i've been left behind by a lot of the tools i've been left behind by pretty much every program so yeah yeah yeah he uh uh i remember i was over my vanity was getting in the way just in the way like i think i look and i was like choosing different shots purely on like what i think is better angles and neil was like i'm gonna tell you something this is how you look to people people see you from every side it's fine also you're never gonna watch it again and yeah can i can i tell you something yeah you do an impeccable neil thank you i might i like might talk too much like neil in red in real life he is one of my i think cadence wise he might be my favorite person to listen to that's so funny yeah because it is everything is a matter of fact and everything lands on yeah he's very good at making the last word of his sentence the most important one and the one you remember well i've he yeah like like he he does this even with me even when he was even i told him this on the podcast i was i was like i walked in and you were like you don't know how to dress and i and i'm i'm i'm just standing like huh what happened i just walked in oh man uh did you uh uh what uh you're an only child correct josh yes yes um so did you guys uh where'd you take training from where'd you take training from where'd you take training from when you were little where would you guys go so we would take a couple of trips to texas we were in louisiana and i guess at the time gas was expensive uh we yeah we went to mesquite texas one time because my aunt was living there she had moved away which i was so um broken over because my aunt was the closest thing i had to a sister as far as hanging out and like taking me places or um just like spending time talking and everything and i don't know how old i was maybe i was like nine or something like that and she moved to to texas and i remember just being devastated i was just like oh no what am i gonna do because i wasn't like a cool kid either right so i was like i was like all right y'all get get ready i'm gonna start talking to the wall i dare you to move yeah and so so then we went to visit her and there was a place that they took me to called celebration station i think it is and it's basically just a dave and busters uh but hanging out there with with everyone was one of the most fun trips i i had up until that point um now i've been blessed enough that i'm able to you know save up every year and take a trip to texas and i'm like oh my god the family on trips so i i try to schedule a trip for us at least once a year uh but when i was growing up we didn't really have that much money for trips or anything and so i remember that one and then i remember um we went to dallas one time i think everything was texas everything was like this is how this is what we how far we can get on tank i mean it's a good way it's a good good way to sort of uh benchmark to give yourself yeah yeah that's that so this this is gonna be the circle we're gonna this circle is where we're gonna get and wherever the car stops is where we're gonna vacation are you still close with your uh aunt yeah yeah i'm still fantastic still close with all of the family and so my aunt's part of all the the trips that um we go on together where so how when you take a family trip uh these days uh sort of uh that you uh help organize how how big is the group it is My girlfriend, my mom, my aunt, and I. So really just four, and that allows us to do some cool stuff. If it was five – Yep. Five is a problem. Five becomes like – because now five is like, okay, there's three hotel rooms now at least. Yeah, right. Because my mom and my aunt could usually stay together, and then I say with my girlfriend, if we bring a fifth person, now it's like it changes the whole – now I'm dealing with like, here's a tank of gas. We'll see how far we can get. Well, we have – when we had a third kid and became five, I said to my wife, like, we should have just had six. Yeah. We should have – once we went over four, we should have just gone for eight because that would have just – Yeah, because even numbers help you out. They do help you out with all things. How is your – how many trips has your girlfriend taken with your aunt? Your mom? Wow. It's been a lot. That's great. So I would assume it's a good relationship then. They all get along. Yeah, it's good. It's good. It's very nice. And my girlfriend's good about planning aspects within the trip that really helps. It really helps it all look like I'm super thoughtful. Is she like restaurant and excursion based? Like, is that the stuff that she's planning? Yeah, restaurant and a little bit excursion but more just activity. Like, it's more destination because we're very much a – we need to be at this place for the day. Oh, that's a good way to travel. Yeah, we're not the type of people who can hop a bunch. I can do that with my girlfriend, but we can't – as a group, we got to pick one, maybe two places. And that's when I'm in Atlanta. Like, wherever we go, we need to really want to be there and only there and then go back to a hotel. Is your aunt still in Texas or is she close to your mom now? No, no, also in Atlanta. Oh, great. Yeah. That's fantastic. I'm glad they found their way back together. What's the best trip, best destination the four of you went on? First time we went to Hawaii. Oh, fantastic. Yeah, and just like the way that, yeah, the way that everything worked out was just perfect because my mom had been a little bit sick. She's much better now, so she's doing great. But I told her, you know, when you get better, I'm going to take you to Hawaii. And she was like, really? And I can just remember her face and everything, and she got so excited and stuff. And so, you know, the time comes. We have that part of the year. Everybody's in good health, good spirits and everything, and then we make the trip. And my girlfriend was amazing. She planned pretty much the whole thing as far as like where we were going to stay and stuff and had all these like incredible reasons why we should stay at this place and what it was close to and what we could eat and everything. And then we all made it over there. And I just remember both. I remember both my mom and aunt being so like floored, like they, you know, when you are from where we're from, it's not something that's not just top of mind. It just doesn't seem possible to be able to have like this free vacation that they got. And so it was really special to be able to do that with them. There's also that burden of like how excited people are for a trip. And then the trip has to actually like follow through and be as excited. and And what they've started doing now is that they are putting a bunch of lettuce in there. Yeah, it's mostly lettuce. You'll see it say romaine, and you're like, that seems wrong. That seems like it's not helping me at all. This episode is brought to you by IQ Bar, our exclusive snack, hydration, and coffee sponsor. IQ Bar protein bars, IQ Mix hydration mixes, and IQ Joe mushroom coffees are the delicious, low-sugar brain and body fuel you need to win your day. What's up, Haji? What's up, Sufi? I'm getting ready. You know, I run a 5K every summer. I run more than just 5K every summer, but I run a 5K race every summer. So I'm trying very hard. I have a window. I think I have a window of time where I could try to finish in the top 10 in my age group while I'm on the early side of the 50s. Yeah, very good. Well, go get them. I think something that might help you achieve that goal, Sufi, is by getting the ultimate sampler pack from IQ Bar, which is a great way to try all the IQ Bar products and flavors. You get nine IQ Bars, eight IQ Mix sticks, and four IQ Joe sticks. I am a big fan of the IQ Mix zero sugar drink. It hydrates with electrolytes, improves mood, boosts clarity, and after I bang out one of my runs, Pasha, you know I got to hydrate. Yeah, got to. Got to. Yeah. And right now, IQ Bar is offering our special podcast listeners 20% off all IQ Bar products, including the ultimate sampler pack, plus free shipping to get your 20% off. Text TRIPS to 64000. Text TRIPS to 64000. That's TRIPS to 64000. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details. I applied right for my iPhone in as little as a minute, and now I use it for everything travel related. for your birthday. No fuss. You know? On the roads. Less traveled. Applying the Wallet app on your iPhone today. Subject to credit approval, Apple Card is issued by Goldman Sachs, Bank, USA, Salt Lake City branch. Oh, yeah. Go for it, Sufi. What's up? Yeah. Me too. I'm not near a chain restaurant. That I have in my hometown, but I'm by a cafe that only those who live there and walk those cobbled streets are familiar with. And so when Alexi and I went to Paris on a vacation, we booked an apartment on Airbnb. Oh, the Marais. And if you haven't been in the Marais, I don't even know how to describe it to you. What's that? La Marais. Ah. Or Le Marais. One of those. You've been. You've been. You're just in a home that the owners have taken great care and attention to make comfortable for you on your vacation, and you're just amongst everyone. You're a me. It's friend, Pashi. Oh, you're a me. Les amis. Les amis. Yeah. A trip on Airbnb makes for a better trip. A group of a me. To les amis. Take me back to Celebration Station, if you wouldn't mind, for a moment. So it's a Dave & Buster's kind of place. Are you more of like a hands-on, a skee-ball kind of a guy? Are you more of a Dave & Buster? Are you more of a dance-dance revolution? Are you video game, pop a shot? What's your go-to? I wish I was a DDR-type dude. I don't have that type of rhythm. Yeah, I've never been. That type of rhythm, it escapes me. But I will do a little bit of skee-ball. Big on arcade when I was little, like some Tekken, Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Tapper, Frogger, like all classic. Yeah. I was really into games. I was really into arcade games. I was big on. And then as far as new stuff, I could get into the shooting games, but I was never really good at like the buck hunt. You know the stuff that's like actual hunting and you got to hit the deer and the meat or whatever? Yeah. That was always like, well, I think I did, like I couldn't get joy out of that because, one, it was just like. Yeah. It was just like the deer would just fall and it was too recent to me having seen Bambi. Yeah. And so I couldn't get down with it. But also the way the game is set up feels weird because it's like the game is so purely about the kill that you will then shoot the deer and the deer keeps running. You're like, I don't think that's how guns work. But I. Yeah. Yeah. You have a deer friend who's an actual, lives in Maine, is an actual hunter in like deer season. Like he will spend like 12 hours in a deer blind basically waiting and waiting and waiting. And this past year he finally saw like the buck of his dreams and when the moment came he could not pull the trigger. Yeah. I. Wow. And based on how you play buck hunt, I think the same would happen for you. Yeah. If you couldn't do it at the video game level. Well, I've talked about this before. It's like if I actually had to do the hunting. Yeah. I'm vegan that day. Oh yeah. That's. Oh yeah. I will throw up if I have to shoot a deer. And by the way, you're not done once you shoot it. That's the beginning. Yeah, exactly. That's. No, the whole thing is terrible. And so my thing that I got really into through that trip was a little bit of like whack-a-mole. Those started to peak my interest every time. And then I got into a little bit of like the. Yeah. Yeah. And then there's a couple of. I don't even know how to describe them. They're like spins on older games. Like there's a Pac-Man you can play, especially at Dave & Buster's, where it's flat. Like you're all looking down at the table. Oh yeah. The four player. The four player? Yeah. Man. Yeah. Man. I remember the first time I got on one, I was like, "Y'all must be crazy. I'm not leaving. Now I'm not leaving." Yeah. I like those. Yeah. I mean, I still remember the first place I ever was where I saw Ms. Pac-Man. It was at the original in Pittsburgh, Seth, and it's. Oh yeah. Yeah. I loved it. I was very, very good at it. And. Yeah. Even now, there's like a. Good story. Good story. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's like a trampoline park I take my kids to that has an arcade. And I'm very taken with the fact that I feel like the games people play at home now are so advanced. Yeah. Yeah. And the arcade kind of have to be like big and basic. Like nothing seems very futuristic now. It also feels like maybe like five years more advanced than when I was a kid, and it's been like 40. Yes. Yes. Because the thing that you get, obviously there's the actual margins for a business and everything, and those cabinets are much easier to fix. That's true. That's true. But also, I found that there's a game, I can't remember what it's called, but it's like Time Crisis-like, where you sit in this big thing, it's a two-player game, you sit in what is like basically half of a minivan, and the whole thing shakes and like has hydraulics, so it's like bouncing you around. And instead of a steering wheel, you have your machine gun, whatever. And I remember getting out of it, and I was with Jacob, and we got out of it, and I was so sick. I was actually like. And I couldn't tell. I don't know. I don't know. I couldn't tell. I don't get motion sickness, really, so then I couldn't tell if I was sick from it visually, or the shaking, or if I'm just like, "Oh, this is what getting older feels like." Maybe a kid wouldn't care about this at all, but I'm like, "No, a kid has a smaller body." A kid would've died. I think the way that I was getting shook up in there, I was like, "This isn't built for someone that's under 100 pounds." We. I took my kids to a little county fair with the janky rides that they are packing up every weekend to take to another town in New England. My daughter went on this little dragon ride that. It was a roller coaster in name only. It was just up and down on light hills, and she's under five, right? She's four and a half, and she came off, and I'm like, "How was it?" And she goes, "I kept banging my head on it." And I was like, "No, you didn't." And then the next day, she had a big black spot on her head. Oh, jeez. I'm like, "Oh." And my wife was like, "What happened to her?" I'm like, "Looking back, I think it was the ride that she was banging her head on." Yeah. Yeah. Did you go to. you let those type of fairs travel to you or did y'all ever go to them we went uh oh no i mean i i i haven't traveled very far to go to a county fair i've kind of waited for it to yeah nor have i yeah we we would have the parking lot type circus fair that would come to our town yeah and that one was always um a little distressing because there would be someone at the end of the night like if you really shut the place down and you're getting a funnel cake at the very end and just walking around as stuff is closing there would be somebody walking around checking for screws like checking for like bolts and stuff like that i was like my man no yeah you you gotta wait until everybody's clear to bring out the metal detector and start wanding underneath the the fairs wheel that's crazy the worst is like they just the minute they turn on the metal detector it's like like they never don't find a bunch yeah they don't find a lot and you're like all right mine felt loose like like i'm not i'm not a expert on ferris wheels but as soon as i got in it felt like it twisted a little bit yeah yeah well was that always a big thing was that an annual it would come to town sort of a fair deal there there's definitely one fair that comes to town every year that i was growing up the parking lot thing i feel like it stopped when i was 13 okay and i don't really know why but it but it seemed like a um a function that was either like partially funded by the parish or was yeah or or just went bankrupt but i feel like if you're looking for screws at the end of the night you don't exactly have state of the art no yeah yeah were were you the who was the first in your family to move to atlanta my aunt your aunt and so what was going there i imagine she was there before you had ever gone to atlanta like what was it like going to visit her there yeah so it was it was cool you know she she had lived there for a little bit already and then my mom basically went to kind of join her we once my grandparents um were like not able to take care of themselves and everything with they they were moved into assisted living and it was really when my grandmother passed and it was just my granddad now in assisted living that my mom was trying to figure out like okay should i yeah should i stay here or is there more opportunity for us to go somewhere like atlanta just because we all grew up in alexandria and so we kind of know the ins and outs of like what the prospects are you know and so uh she made the decision to move up to atlanta and then also move my granddad up with her and everything and so that was uh that was that was great to now have everybody in one spot because alexandria is not is not easy to get to like you it's it's always at least two flights and they're never big flights yeah so it's also hard to get out there was one time where delta overbooked a flight everyone showed up because everyone was very eager to leave and they went up they did the they did that sort of 400 600 800 dollar thing and they got up to two thousand dollars wow before anyone was willing to leave and they were like oh my god i'm gonna go to atlanta and i'm gonna go to atlanta to stay which feels like a testament to the state of the of the city right now it's like it's really true like maybe like maybe everyone really did have plans but it feels like yeah we don't want to stay here for long it's also like i think two thousand dollars means i'm going to be here for a long time yeah two thousand dollars and they were even like hey there's a flight tomorrow and you could tell nobody believed them because they were like two thousand dollars and they were like two thousand dollars is rent yeah that's nuts that's actually rent in every city yeah that's a it's such a real life game show moment when they start jacking that price up or the what the kickback's going to be to you if you're willing to wait because someone eventually is going to take it and if you're have an inkling so you want to let it ride for as long as you can but you don't want to be like you don't want to be left out and what makes it a truly uh a truly american game show is that if no one takes it they just pluck someone off and they don't give them anything yeah right and that's like that's those you know those moments on uh on weakest link right it was like y'all could have banked that's i've i've i felt crazy watching this dude have a meltdown so basically i was i was this is a totally different flight uh i was on and they got up to 1200 and everyone and i was not in alexandria this is in chicago and everyone still was like i have to get where i'm going right and so then finally they were like they plucked this dude off the flight and he was like all right so who do i see about the 1200 and and the gate agent is like oh that time has passed gosh and to just watch this dude like slowly realize what was happening was it was it was insane to watch that like that one of the main reasons i'll miss spirit is because spirit was like actually how everyone feels at every airline spoken out loud yeah i don't know what i don't know what it was with the public where they were willing to be too honest too quickly to a spirit agent and and there was something special about the spirit agent where they were willing to give it right back immediately yeah immediately that's such a tough position for that gate agent to have to tell that guy like oh you're off and you're not getting the 1200 yeah like who knows maybe they broke him off with like 200 or something but they were like no that that when i was saying 1200 was when you were supposed to but also it's i do you know the gate is like no there was a time where i was looking to collaborate where you could have helped me yeah yeah but now everybody's even angrier and i will not yeah um josh congrats on uh you're on tour yes yes i'm doing my comedy band camp tour we are going all over the u.s and to parts of europe this year and then we're doing even more next year we are going to be on the road um i'll be in ashville greensboro going to dublin and manchester going to be in cincinnati and columbus doing as many seasons as i can this year and then what we don't do this year we're definitely going to do next so yeah 34 cities is what i got for you for 2026 and that's a big year so yeah yeah so i'm very excited to to extend it and um you can get your tickets at joshjohnsoncomedy.com i always tell people to go to my website for the tickets because then sometimes i'll meet people at the show and they're like we went to fakedickets.com and they scammed us real hard and i want to make sure that does not happen to anybody that's very very good advice and uh congrats again on symphony it's such a great special yeah on hbo right now you can catch that uh before you go though uh josh is going to hit you up with the speed round of questions yes yes okay all right here you go you can only pick one of these is your ideal vacation relaxing adventurous or educational um educational what is your favorite means of transportation playing uh if you could take a vacation with any family alive or dead real or fictional other than your own family what would you do if you could take a vacation with any family alive or dead real or fictional other than your own family what family would you like to take a vacation with i feel like the was it robinson caruso did really well yeah yeah they were yeah yeah yeah they crushed oh i think you mean swiss family robinson like swiss family robinson robinson caruso did bad got you yeah thank you yeah i used to make that mistake all the time yeah that's like buying that's like buying josh johnson uh tickets on tickets.scam yeah when you end up with robin tickets.scam yeah if you had to be stranded on a desert island with one member of your family who would it be yeah i think my mom all right yeah uh what is your dream destination for a family vacation i think i think seeing the northern lights all right very very good answer um you are from uh it's alexandria yes uh if you had to get more people to come visit where you had a mid first 18 years in alexandria louisiana what would you tell them to get more families to come visit your town okay all right i hope i hope you're ready and yeah who knows you you may not like this at all this may not actually do anything for you but uh there's a place called let me see the greenbrier motel in um alexandria louisiana and what i'm going to do right now is make sure that this is still there so that way this will be the most up-to-date information okay uh greenbrier motel It's on Masonic Drive in Alexandria, Louisiana. Now, it does, as a motel, have 2.9 stars, okay? But that is because there is so much color. There's so much stuff happening. It's like imagine if Euphoria was a sitcom and that is the Greenbrier Motel. In fact, if you want to go to your Google Maps right now and look up the Greenbrier Motel, you'll see one picture. Let's see if I can find it. You'll see one picture in particular that shows exactly the type of thing that I'm talking about because every picture tells a story. Oh, yeah. Okay. Let me see if I can find it. There is a picture of – yeah, if you go to photos and you scroll to the bottom, there should be a picture of a dog on the roof. Oh, yeah. I see it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I see it. That's just a Tuesday. Yeah. I don't know if my camera is going to focus on this or not, but yeah. Yeah, that's just a Tuesday. You know, the Greenbrier Motel has been the source of so many stories that I think that it should be a landmark. Yeah. The interesting thing about the Greenbrier Hotel – and by the way, everything is interesting – is the front of it has some like column, like some – you know, you wouldn't think of it as a place with columns, but they sure have them. They have columns. They have columns as if they are a house. Yeah. And people do live there. I think that at one point the Greenbrier cost $15 a night or something. And when I tell you, wow, the – I've never hung out at the Greenbrier Motel, but I have had friends who had, and they're like, it is insane. Yeah. And you read the reviews and you'll see why it's 2.9. Well, you did a great job of selling it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So if you're ever passing through, don't – look, I'm not saying stay, but pass by and be like, oh, that's where this thing happened. And Seth has our final questions. Have you been – Josh, have you been to the Grand Canyon? I have not. Do you want to go? I do. All right, good. Yeah. I'm very happy to hear it. I'm hoping that by the time I am able to go, whenever there's time that opens up, that Trump has not filled it for some reason. That's true. That's true. He might fill it. That's where they're going to put all the garbage they've dug up from the new ballroom. That's where all that shit is going to go. They're going to just throw it in there. Hey, man, what a pleasure to talk to you. Great to see you again. Keep up the great work everywhere on the road, on The Daily Show. Yeah, thanks so much for having me, y'all. Our pleasure. Delight to see you. Our pleasure. Great to meet you. Yeah. Hopefully we get to see you again soon. Have a great rest of your day. You too. I hope so too. All right, be well, buddy. You too. Bye. Bye now. Bye now. Bye now. Bye now. Bye now. Bye now. Bye now. Bye now. Bye now. Bye now. Bye now.