Episode
Comedian Denny Johnston joins host Rich Stein
- Podcast
- Catching Up With Comedians
- Published
- Sep 15, 2025
- Duration seconds
- 3940
- Processing state
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Summary
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 wit…