James Austin Johnson, the “Saturday Night Live” cast member known for his Donald Trump impression, brought stand-up comedy and a live audience question-and-answer session to DeBartolo Hall Wednesday night as a Student Union Board event.
Johnson, who is originally from Nashville, joined SNL in 2021 and is now in his fourth season on the show. Beyond SNL, he has also appeared in film and television projects including “Better Call Saul”; “Barry”; “Hail, Caesar!”; “She Said”; “Inside Out 2” and “A Complete Unknown.”
The event titled Wednesday Night Live was held April 15 at 7 p.m. and featured a live stand-up comedy set followed by an audience question-and-answer session.
Johnson opened with material that played off the room itself, joking about how unusually bright the auditorium was for stand-up. He told the audience that he was more used to performing in dimly lit venues where he could not really see people’s faces. The “surgically lit” setting became a recurring bit throughout the night.
Johnson also joked about trying to read Notre Dame politically.
“I was on a tour of campus, and you could suddenly see like these biblical statues, which makes you lean one way… then I learned Joe Biden had been here for a wedding last year, so I am just confused,” Johnson said.
His set included some of his best-known material, including his Trump impression and riffs on Trump’s attempts to cast Biden as “the wokest person ever.” Johnson followed that with, “I don’t know about you guys, but when I imagine the wokest person I can think of, a 97-year-old white grandpa is not what I envision.”
Shifting into the audience question and answer session, he was asked what advice he would give to students hoping to get into comedy writing or performance. Johnson recommended joining an on-campus improv club as a starting point.
The comedian then described his own path into comedy, explaining that he started doing improv in middle school. “In Nashville there were not comedy theatres like UCB or Second City to be a part of, so I chose to do stand up. I was a 19-year-old, sheltered, churchy boy going to bars full of men in their sixties, doing open mics with them because I just wanted to do comedy so badly.”
Recalling those early years, he emphasized perseverance, saying, “You’re not gonna be funny for eight to ten years.”
He also recounted how he ended up on SNL. During the 2020 election season and the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson said he began making front-facing videos while walking outside in Los Angeles — many of them built around his Trump impression. Those videos eventually reached SNL creator Lorne Michaels, leading to a sudden move to New York. Johnson said he had to tell his wife, who was six months pregnant at the time, that they would be relocating within a week.
When asked what happens when Trump’s political news disrupts planned material, Johnson answered with another joke. “He stomps on my dinner all the time, I make a beautiful dinner and he attacks it,” he said. “It’s really tough to try to thread this comedy in a way that makes both sides of the country laugh.”
He added that although he grew up in the South hearing that SNL was made up of liberals, the people behind the show are “all kinds of people, a true cross section of America,” which he said is intentional so that “the comedy we do hits with everybody.”
Johnson also leaned into self-deprecating humor throughout the question and answer session. At one point, he joked, “I hate when comics are handsome, comics are supposed to be ugly. If you’re hot and thinking of doing comedy just please go into finance. Comedy is for ugly people, I know I’m hot, but it’s the exception that proves the rule.”
Several lighter moments came when Johnson was asked about his favorite celebrity encounters. He called Jack Black “the coolest, nicest person ever” and said, “He should be president in a just society.”
He also praised Ariana Grande as incredibly talented. “I would never in a million years have predicted that I would get along so well with Ariana Grande. That’s my dog. We really vibe on theater kid wavelength. She’s a great impressionist — really funny. She could totally be a comedian if she wasn’t a beautiful pop star,” Johnson said.
