Comedian Denny Johnston joins host Rich Stein

Denny Johnston started his entertainment career performing with the Back Porch Majority in 1967-68 and went on to work with The Christy Minstrels in 1969. Young comedian Steve Martin was opening for these musical acts at the time and Denny watched Steve carefully and was amazed how he came out every night to just entertain the audience using every tool he had in his bag to be funny!  Denny became friendly with Steve Martin, Gary Muledeer and other comedy acts who used musical instruments, lyrics, and singing to add variety and entertainment to their act.  As this was the era of The Smothers Brothers and other anti-war musical acts, It was not uncommon to use songs and musical accompaniment to spread your message however Denny, Steve and Gary were not trying to forge any political statements and if anything they were there really just trying to spread humor, laughs and bring some joy and happiness to a nation and a world that was already feeling the effects of war and a growing sense of hostility between the youth and the older generations. Denny has worked as a comic for over fifty years which is why I am featuring him in  two separate podcast recordings. His story is quite unique as he never really made the millions that some comics who achieved sitcom level fame and notoriety but as a comic myself and a student of comedy I never saw him do anything but kill on the live stages when I worked on the bill with him or I watched him from the audience. He was a throwback to when comedians of the " olden days" went out every show to KILL, lest they be pulled from the stage with a hook or a hoop or worse yet LOSE a gig or a FUTURE gig if word got out that you failed to produce LAUGHS! You will hear stories today of his start ups at THE TROUBADOUR in Los Angeles/ reconnecting with his father who had been a famous crooner with Jimmy Dorsey and had a successful film career for a period of time. Denny getting his Carson Spot but with John Davidson and getting his Letterman spot as well.  His Las Vegas Years, Placing NUMBER ONE and Beating out four other famous comedians for The NATIONAL LAFF OFF in 1980, and second place the next year out of 109 entrants in the highly coveted and respected SAN FRANCISCO COMEDY COMPETITION. Denny Johnston regularly played all the television shows that featured the top comedians of the time such as EVENING AT THE IMPROV, SHOWTIME COMEDY CLUB NETWORK, THE ARSENIO HALL SHOW, DR.DEMENTO 20TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION and many many more. Where Denny truly shined, like many other great performers such as Shecky Greene, Don Rickles et al was on the live comedy stage. Some entertainers, and often some of the greatest could not be captured on the small screen as their talent was being in the moment and performing for that crowd that was assembled in front of them that night. In our discussion here, many reasons why the live performance is the true barometer for what makes a GREAT COMIC, come out organically in Denny's stories of the things that worked in his career and the things that did not.  I was honored to have Denny on my podcast and if you are a fan of comedy and comedians Denny is a living time capsule on stand up comedy, with over a half century of time where he performed to audiences and with a very high batting average of laughs and success.. Please Welcome to the mics of CUWC/  DENNY JOHNSTON