Comedy has always been a serious business for James Austin Johnson.
“I would always run into the room when I heard people laughing as I grew up,” says the Nashville native who begins his fourth year as a featured player on “Saturday Night Live” with the Sept. 28 season-opener.
“And if people at school didn’t think I was funny, that was me not accomplishing my goal.
“I remember one time in middle school,” the 35-year-old Johnson continues, “a friend of mine tore the (page) No. 2 out of his planner. And he handed it to me again at the end of the school year and said, ‘This is for the amount of times you were funny this year.’ I was like, ‘OK, I’ve got to get my numbers up.’”
Johnson’s numbers are way up from those early days. His impressions of former President Donald Trump have drawn rave reviews since he first started posting them online during COVID. A 2020 Vanity Fair headline dubbed Johnson “the best Trump impersonator of all.”
When he made his SNL debut as Trump a year later, former Politico writer Tara Palmeri wrote this about Johnson’s performance: “It’s an uncanny likeness – better than any Trump impression we’ve seen – that captures not only his mannerisms and vocal tics, but his jigsaw-like thought pattern as he speaks. Expect to see a lot more of it – and for Trump to notice as 2024 approaches.”
Now that 2024 is here and the show’s 50th anniversary season is about to debut, the plaudits for Johnson’s talents continue. An August New York Times article on who SNL might cast as political figures for the coming season called Johnson’s casting “a lock” as someone who does “arguably the definitive Donald J. Trump impression.”
Johnson, who appeared at Zanies last month, says that whether he’s doing a comedy club show or performing a skit for SNL’s audience of more than 7 million viewers, his goal is always the same – to make people laugh.
“The most rewarding thing about all this is that people want to come to the show,” he says. “I mean, that’s the most delightful thing to me because I’ve always been trying to be funny … and that’s very rewarding.”
How Johnson got started
Considering his over-the-top impressions of Trump, President Joe Biden, Sen. Lindsey Graham and others, Johnson’s conservative upbringing raises eyebrows. The Trevecca Nazarene University graduate credits parents Michael and Sarah for nurturing his acting dreams the way they supported the athletic aspirations of older brothers Chad and Brian.
“They did their best to come to high school plays and things like that. They drove me to auditions. I didn’t have stage parents, though,” James says, noting that his first audition with an agent was around age 11 or 12. “I didn’t have parents who stuck around and coached me or anything like that.”
Michael, an administrator at Trevecca, says an inner drive helped his son reach today’s level of success. Since James joined SNL in 2021, his parents haven’t missed an episode.
“I don’t know that any parent can ever predict that their child will rise to a certain measure of stardom or that millions of people would know their son’s name. I don’t know that you can predict that with any degree of certainty or confidence,” Michael says.
“But I do think that we knew early on that he had a gift for entertaining. And even though he was shy at times as a kid, when the lights came on, so to speak, he could always perform. That was something to behold.”
James’s acting seeds were planted first at Meigs Magnet School (middle grades) and then at Davidson Academy (high school). James credits retired Metro drama teacher Kaul Bluestone “for encouraging my dalliances with improv.”
Bluestone – who still calls him Austin, the name he went by at Meigs – says that in a school full of academically gifted students, “he is one that definitely stood out.
“Austin had a gift for comedy that was true to improv,” Bluestone says. “He was very unique. He was an impish redhead as a fifth grader (who) had a real depth about him, too,” adding that she’ll never forget their conversation near the end of his eighth-grade year.
“He came into my class and said, ‘I want to be a comedian. I know that sounds kind of ridiculous. I know that sounds hard to try to accomplish. But that’s what I really want to do.’ I listened and said, ‘That is your dream, that is your goal.’ I pointed out a couple of things to him that I thought he had done very, very well and understood why he felt the way that he did.”
From that point, Johnson says he pursued his dream with a laser-focus. He would go to open-mic auditions, take theater roles and commercials.
“(Local actress and producer) Janet Ivey sort of gave me my start as far as my early stand-up performances when I was a teenager. And my dad gave me opportunities to perform stand-up at Trevecca. I did stand-up on a riverboat once as part of a Trevecca student event,” Johnson recalls. “I was still underage during college, so every open-mic in Nashville that I went to, I was under 21. So I would either sneak in a side door or hope not to get carded.”
After his Trevecca days, Johnson moved to Los Angeles to pursue his comedy dreams while attending a Christian film school in Hollywood.
“I had an interest in film and was majoring in film studies at Trevecca or the equivalent. I went certainly to get the education, but the side benefit was that it was a way to move to Los Angeles that felt would be an easy conversation with my family,” he says. “So I used that school as a way to audition living in Los Angeles as a lifestyle, and to this day I love Los Angeles very much. I spent my 20s there. Who doesn’t love where they spent their 20s?”
Laughing through COVID
Johnson was getting regular work in the Los Angeles comedy and entertainment scenes, appearing in the Coen brothers’ 2016 Hollywood satire “Hail, Caesar!,” a 2018 episode of “Better Call Saul” and voice work in several animated projects, including the 2024 summer blockbuster “Inside Out 2” (he’s Pouchy).
But when the pandemic hit in early 2020, it forced clubs to cancel shows and most entertainment projects to be delayed or scrapped altogether.
Jobs dried up, but bills still had to be paid. It meant comedians had to find new revenue sources to keep making people laugh when they needed a good guffaw most.
“COVID was interesting and definitely threw a wrench in everyone’s plans in every industry,” he says. “It forced a lot of artists, especially comedians, to find different ways to get their comedy out there.
“But COVID is when I started walking around and making videos of myself doing characters. And I think I grew a fun kind of audience and business on my Instagram and on my Twitter profile and everything. So in many ways … (COVID) taught me that I have some different tricks up my sleeve.”
And the success of those videos caught the attention of SNL talent scouts.
“There’s people scouting for talent sort of year-round, and they kind of head-hunt you a little bit,” Johnson says, explaining the lengthy, step-by-step process that went from submitting a requested video (his included 20 different characters) to auditions in LA and New York.
“After that I was invited to a meeting with (SNL producer) Lorne Michaels. So it all kept progressing and I was very fortunate to get on the show when I did because my wife (Rebekah) was very pregnant and I needed to pay a lot of bills,” he says. “So it all worked out.”
Today, the couple and their son Homer split time between New York and Nashville.
“We bought a house in Nashville the summer after my first season at SNL. And so we spend a good portion of the summer in Nashville. And Christmas, as well,” Johnson says.
“We try to keep our connection to Nashville as much as I can. But we live in New York primarily because we want to be as together as possible during the (SNL) season. I feel like I’m doing my best comedy work when I am with my family at home in the morning.”
Being Donald Trump
Though he has appeared on SNL as a cavalcade of characters, Johnson is best known to viewers for having served as two presidents, Trump and Biden. Friend and castmate Mikey Day took over the Biden role in 2023 so Johnson could focus on Trump.
“I definitely love playing real people on the show. There’s an excitement when you come out … because there’s something in the audience where they recognize who it is and they always respond,” Johnson says.
Johnson says his job is to make fans laugh and not influence voters.
“I tend to not like putting much of a political spin on it because I’m kind of weary of comedians who talk so much about their personal politics. I will say that there are comedians that do that who I think are funny,” he notes.
“But in general, when it comes to impressions-comedy, I’m just trying to get laughs. I have a complex for myself where I don’t view myself personally politically informed enough to tell others sort of what to think about Biden or Donald Trump.”
In a recent interview with “The Hollywood Reporter,” Michaels discussed both Johnson’s portrayal of Trump and how it might change this season.
“I think we have the people to play (the candidates), and it should be fun. And Trump has morphed,” Michaels says.
“James, who I think is brilliant, played Trump (in 2023) as the sort of diminished Trump. The guy at the back of the hardware store holding court, and that played because it felt relevant. But we are going to have to reinvent it again because, well, you saw the debate.
“One of the great parts of show business is that you can’t come back with the same show. So, all of these characters have to be reexamined, and if it makes sense and feels relevant, you know you’re on the right track.”
Johnson explains his process for getting the Trump character down pat, how he studies videos of his appearances.
“When it comes to doing my Trump comedy, I try to do whatever is the silliest and leave it at that. People’s minds are pretty made up about Donald Trump. … I’m trying to be as funny as possible with the character that I do,” Johnson says.
“As far as getting into Trump’s mind, you know, he’s an odd duck. … The minute you get him up onstage, he can’t help but do some Def Comedy Jam-style of stand-up comedy for, like, an hour-and-a-half. I watch a lot of video of him and you expect him to talk a little bit more about policy, but when he gets up there, he’s talking about windmills and water showers and he’s talking about sharks.”
Johnson’s background was “in acting and theater first” and his routine didn’t include a lot of impressions until fellow comedians told him it was one of his strong points.
“To be honest, I always thought impressions were kind of corny,” Johnson says. “It felt like if I were to do my impressions in my act, I sort of worried that it would be sort of a trick.
“Every once in a while, I would throw something out there onstage. And other comedians started telling me, ‘Hey, you should do that more often because you’re really good at it and not a lot of people are doing it.’ And I started to listen and I’m glad that I listened to that advice because it’s become a bit of a trademark.”
He has grown to appreciate the craft and skill that goes into doing impressions but adds that it’s another tool in his comedic toolbelt to make people laugh.
“The key to impressions is finding the character. You can find some vocal quirks very quickly but finding the character and the personality, that takes a little bit more homework,” Johnson says. “That’s why there’s a big difference between the kind of Trump comedy I was doing in 2017 and 2018 and the kind of Trump comedy I do on SNL now. It’s a character. I’m doing it as a comedy character that I have created.
“Even now I’m referring to the characters rather than impressions, because to me, they’re characters, they’re parts that I play rather than the voices that I’m affecting.”
Contemplating life after SNL
Johnson, who has an unidentified role in the upcoming Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” calls SNL his “dream job” but admits there are other avenues in the entertainment world he’s eager to explore someday – dramas, action, horror or whatever.
“I’d love to do it all. I love acting and I grew up in theater. We didn’t just do comedy in theater, we did dramas and musicals and all that stuff. So I plan on doing it all,” Johnson says. “I love being an actor and throughout my time on SNL I have been acting and filming television alongside it. I do a lot of voice work. … There’s lots of things in the acting world and Hollywood that I would like to do. And there will be time for that, sort of, when it’s time for that.”
Johnson, who writes his own material for “Saturday Night Live,” says he would like to expand that aspect of his entertainment career.
“I like making things myself. The SNL gig has taught me how to produce and so I look forward to producing my own stuff, writing my own stuff. But I’m sure that as he gets older and as I get creative freedom to try things out, I would love to make my own TV shows, my own movies – all kinds of stuff like that.”
Some 40 years ago, when a 33-year-old Jay Leno brought his stand-up show to Zanies, he was asked by this reporter what he’d like to be doing in 30 years. The future “Tonight Show” host replied he’d like to still be doing stand-up.
That same question was put to Johnson, who would be 65 in the year 2054.
“Thirty years from now, I would hope that my hardest work would be behind me at that point. At 65, I would like to be resting,” Johnson chuckles. “But all the old guys that I know seem to really enjoy work, so maybe I will want to be working constantly. But who knows?
“I love doing stand-up and I love acting. I think I would like to be known as a great comedian and there’s a lot of ways that I can achieve that moniker.”
And fans will accompany him on that journey, laughing all the way.