Comedian-composer…Wait, what??? Is that even legal?
Meet Durrell Johnson, a unique double-edged sword
HARK!
I hear…new ground being broken…
Writer-director?
Sure, that’s an old one.
And we’ve heard of singer-songwriter, DJ-producer, comic-actor and, of course, actress-model.
But comedian-composer?
Is that even allowed?
It is, and Durrell Johnson is doing it.
“I’m a 50-50 person,” Johnson, one of the most multi-dimensional talents around Phoenix, said with a laugh.
Click here for a Facebook Live he did with HARK Valley.
A self-described nerd, Johnson used his tech skills to pay the bills when he worked for Microsoft; he’s now a trainer at Waymo, which has self-driving cars zipping around Chandler, Mesa and Gilbert.
Taking a break from his day job for a Zoom with HARK Valley, Johnson talked about a big month of February: He is promoting a new album while doing stand-up comedy shows every Tuesday night this month at Brigett’s Last Laugh.
There is nothing funny about “Altostratus,” his eight-song recording streaming on Spotify and YouTube. It’s big and dramatic, sounding like the score of a sci-fi thriller.
Leaning toward classical music, Johnson’s dignified compositions are a jarring dichotomy—coming from someone who gets on stage, grabs a mic and tells hard-edge jokes.
On white people complaining about the quarantine:
“And what are they protesting? ‘Um, we want our haircuts! We want to go to Applebee’s!’ I’m like, ‘Oh, hell no! Y'all aren't about to fuck this up for me!’ I’m up here working on my 2k profile, got my Madden game. I’m like, uh-uh. Nobody needs to rush back. Let’s just chill out.”
On white response to Black Lives Matter:
“We’re like, ‘Just stop killing us!’ …White people are like, ‘OK, we’ll take Aunt Jemima off the syrup bottle.’ That is NOT what we are asking for!...Black people are telling America what we want. And white people are like, ‘Well, here’s what we’re gonna give you: We’re going to reboot ‘The Wonder Years’ with an all-Black family.’”
Asked how he describes himself, Johnson modestly hesitates, then grants his music has been compared to Phillip Glass. For comedy, “My best compliment was ‘a young Richard Pryor.’ He’s a legend, I’ll take that.”
The secret behind Johnson’s split-personality creativity is doing things he didn’t want to do.
Now living in Mesa, he grew up in Glendale, where he “learned piano at a young age. I never took it seriously—it’s something my mom wanted to do. I wanted to be running around, playing sports or video games,” he reflected with a laugh.
But when he started studying music theory and learning how to record electronic music, he discovered his piano background was a solid foundation.
He was just starting his music career when he started going to an open mic night with a comedian friend. The friend who was hosting the show told him, “You should sign up—I think you’re funny!”
Nope, nope, not me; I’m not getting up there in front of strangers, Johnson responded.
But the friend went ahead and signed Johnson up, without telling him. When he heard his name called, Johnson groaned, and to encouraging/insistent applause went up on stage. “I got up there and told a couple things off the top of my head,” he said, chuckling at the scary memory.
“I think I talked about people in the front row, maybe some jokes around sports. The only thing I could really remember was how much you couldn’t see anyone; you could hear, but you couldn’t see.”
His “nervous energy” carried him through, and he got a few laughs before getting off the stage.
Far from a one-and-done, the experience of hearing people laugh stoked his fire; he came back the next week, this time with a few written jokes. Nearly a decade later, he is splitting his creative energy right down the middle.
“I’m a 50-50 person,” he said.
He budgets his time to work on structuring his comedy routine and doing multiple performances per month.
Most days find him working on scores for small films and commercials, as well as practicing an hour a day at the piano and an equal amount of time crafting digital music. “The computer is my other instrument.”
His plans for 2022?
“I’d love to say goodbye to my day job.”
Whether it’s signing a deal to compose or touring as a comic, Durrell Johnson is looking to clock out and become a fully professional entertainer.
“This year, the big focus is how far can I get. Let’s see if I can take it a step further.”
Links
@durrelljohn24
Music composer/Stand up comedian.
Durrell Johnson comedy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBLmeZYAhw0
Durrell Johnson music
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCinREvFlE6w2_TwCLG91fkw
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4pQ0j9WiW2g4jvJc86VAXe?si=uhEQ-ToURGq9oMQT28tmxw&nd=1#login
Website: https://dfilmcomp.wixsite.com/djcomposer
Email: dfilmcomp@live.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dj_composercomic/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/djcomposer/