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Johnny Taylor, Jr. is an American stand-up comedian, writer, actor, and podcaster from Sacramento, California.
Johnny Taylor, Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 5, 1977 |
| Occupation(s) | Stand-up comedian, actor, podcaster, writer |
| Years active | 2011-present |
Taylor has released two comedy albums and a charity single on Stand Up! Records. His debut, 2014's Tangled Up in Plaid, reached No. 7 on the iTunes comedy chart.[1][2] His 2018 followup album and video Bummin' with the Devil reached No. 1 on both the Amazon and iTunes comedy charts.[3][4][5]
Taylor was born March 5, 1977, in Riverside, California.[6][7] He has called his childhood "rocky"; his family moved several dozen times before settling in Sacramento.[7]
He was an amateur boxer from 13 to 19,[8] and competed in Police Athletic League and Golden Gloves tournaments in Sacramento and Reno, Nevada. He hoped to turn professional, but a detached retina forced his retirement. He became a boxing trainer and co-owned a gym before becoming a comedian full-time.[9]
Taylor began performing stand-up in May 2011, at age 33.[9][10][6]
Taylor's work ethic helped fuel his rise in the Northern California comedy scene; in his first year as a comic, he would drive to San Francisco and perform at as many open mics in one night as he could, appearing on stage between 300 and 400 times that year.[11][12] He won the Stand-up Shootout competition in Sacramento in 2011,[6] was named the city's best comedian in 2016 by readers of the Sacramento News & Review,[13] and came in second in the same poll in 2014.[14]
Taylor considers himself a "storyteller comic", and much of his material is drawn from his own life.[15][16] He is known for his deeply personal, brutally honest and often dark comedy, which includes routines about his divorces and his parents' deaths.[6][17][9][18]
He has toured across the U.S. and Canada,[7][19][20] and is a regular on the comedy festival circuit, performing at San Francisco Sketchfest,[21] the New Orleans Hell Yes Fest, the Asheville Comedy Festival,[22] Altercation Fest,[23][24] the Sacramento Comedy Festival,[25] and the Chico Comedy Festival.[26] He tours frequently with Brian Posehn.[8][27][19]
Taylor also writes for punk-rock satire website The Hard Times. In September 2020, he began hosting pop-culture podcast Hipsterocracy for The Hard Times' podcasting network, on which Taylor has interviewed other comedians as well as musicians such as Brendan Benson and Blag Dahlia of the Dwarves.[8][4][28]
In 2015, he co-hosted the podcast It's Funny Because with fellow Sacramento comic Keith Lowell Jensen, in which the pair interviewed national and Sacramento-area comedians.[29] The Sacramento Bee called it "a riveting and eye-opening dissection of the art and craft of comedy."[30][31] With comic Daniel Humbarger, he co-hosted the sports podcast Cowbell Kingdom in 2015 and 2016.[32][33][34][35]
In 2021, he began hosting the talk-show/news-commentary webseries The Nonfiction with Johnny Taylor, Jr.[36]
He has also written for the Huffington Post,[37] Laughspin, Laugh Button, McSweeneys,[10] and The Interrobang.[38]
Albums
Taylor has released two comedy albums and a charity single on Stand Up! Records.
His debut, 2014's Tangled Up in Plaid, [39] reached No. 7 on the iTunes comedy chart.[1][2] It was reviewed positively by critics. Chris Spector of Midwest Record praised Taylor's "punk-rock energy" and said "he's got a sharp wit that really cuts to the bone."[40] Brett Watson of The Serious Comedy Site said "Taylor is an absolute master of misdirection. Many of the punchlines go in directions you will never see coming."[18]
His 2018 followup album and video Bummin' with the Devil reached No. 1 on both the Amazon and iTunes comedy charts.[3][4][5] Aaron Carnes of the Sacramento News & Review called it an improvement over his debut, saying that Taylor "never rushes a punchline and tells true stories with absurd details."[12] Lara Smith of Austin, Texas, website ComedyWham noted Taylor's "evolution and growth" as a comic, saying "he’s grown more comfortable as a performer and a polished storyteller."[41] Richard Lanoie of The Serious Comedy Site praised the "dark and autobiographical humor" but felt his Donald Trump material (recorded before the 2016 election) was dated.[42]
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- Johnny Taylor, Tangled Up in Plaid (Stand Up! Records, 2014)
- Johnny Taylor, '"Trump. Sugar. Sux. Tragic." (Stand Up! Records, 2017, charity single)
- Johnny Taylor, Bummin' with the Devil (Stand Up! Records, 2018)
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