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With 12 siblings, comic Zainab Johnson has plenty to joke about in new special NPR
Comedian, writer and actor Zainab Johnson is known for telling stories about dating, being a Black Muslim in America and her very big family.
“You know in a house with 15 people, a journal ain’t safe,” she jokes in her new standup special Hijabs Off on Prime Video, “They were so disrespectful. They read my journal, made notes, corrected my grammar… Like, ‘You’ve been talking about him for two years. Let it go.'”
Johnson is also returning as a cast member in the third season of the sci-fi comedy Upload.
For someone so funny, off stage Johnson can be pretty serious. Raised by a stay-at-home mother and a father who worked for New York City’s transit authority and then managed buildings, she says writing jokes was not her first career choice.
“I studied math and education. I thought I would be a teacher in another life. Maybe I would have been a lawyer. I’m an amazing debater,” she tells NPR, “but the first time I did standup comedy, it felt very different than anything I had ever done. It felt like this was already a part of me.”
Like so many aspiring comics, Zainab began her career doing open mics several nights a week. In her new special, she explains that open mics aren’t like regular comedy clubs. Audiences, she says “were there to smoke hookah,” not watch a rookie try to hone her jokes.
Her first big break came when her friend and fellow comedian Wil Sylvince urged her to drive from LA to Sacramento to try and convince Shawn and Marlon Wayans to be part of one of their shows, resulting her first, paid standup set.
Another big break came in 2014 when Wanda Sykes and her producing partner Page Hurwitz invited Johnson to compete in the NBC-TV series Last Comic Standing.
“There’s nobody like her in standup,” says Hurwitz who recalled that, at the time, Johnson was bald, which you also “don’t see very often with women in comedy.”
Johnson has mined her bald period for standup material. “Women were like, ‘Wow you must feel so free, so spiritually lifted.’ I was like, ‘It was Tuesday. I didn’t feel like doing my hair. So I shaved it off,'” she says in one.
Hurwitz says Johnson knows how to hit “the sweet spot” of comedy.
“She can be silly and absurd, but she can also just give you a really good gut punch with a line that’s so poignant and substantive,” she says.
That mix of silly and serious seems to come naturally for Johnson. But, she says, her family didn’t always think so.
“I was talking to my mom a couple of weeks ago and I was like, ‘Was I funny as a kid? And she was like, ‘No,'” Johnson laughs. The first time one of her younger brothers watched her standup, he confessed he was terrified she would bomb, “‘Because I don’t ever remember you being funny,'” Johnson recalls him telling her.
Cat’s out of the bag now. Johnson is a regular on the comedy club circuit. In addition to her recurring role on the Prime Video series Upload, she’s appeared on Ramy, A Black Lady Sketch Show and the kids’ series Tab Time.
In Hijabs Off Johnson spins some not-so-funny topics into laugh-out-loud anecdotes, including a traumatic personal experience from her childhood.
Without giving too much away, Johnson found herself, alone, in a dangerous situation when she was seven years old. The comic relief comes when she tells the audience she escaped, running down “25 flights of concrete steps and didn’t fall once.” She goes on to say she has trouble watching horror movies because, “Every time the girl fell I was like ‘Well that don’t need to happen. My 7-year-old legs made it. You’re a cheerleader, right? You got this.'”
For Zainab Johnson, that’s part of the power of comedy, to allow people to both process and bring levity to painful experiences.
As a Black Muslim, she also hopes her personal stories help non-Muslims see how much they all have in common.
“To walk into a room and try and make a body of strangers laugh and they all come from very different places and walks of life… That’s a very difficult thing, but it is also very rewarding when you do it.”
Johnson says her next project is developing a TV show based on her life growing up in Harlem with her parents and 12 brothers and sisters.
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Transcript :
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
In her new stand-up special, comedian Zainab Johnson jokes about growing up in a big Muslim family with 12 siblings.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ZAINAB JOHNSON: You know, in a house with 15 people, a journal ain’t safe. Oh, they were so disrespectful. They read my journal, made notes, corrected my grammar, was writing – like, you’ve been talking about him for two years. Let it go.
MARTIN: Johnson’s “Hijabs Off” begins streaming today on Prime Video. She also has a part in the third season of the sci-fi comedy “Upload.” NPR’s Elizabeth Blair talked to Johnson about how she mines her life experiences, including traumatic ones, for her comedy.
ELIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE: For someone so funny, Zainab Johnson is pretty serious. She’s been doing stand-up for about 13 years, but writing jokes was not her first career choice.
JOHNSON: I studied math and education. I thought I would be a teacher. In another life, maybe I would have been a lawyer. I’m an amazing debater. You know? But the first time I did stand-up comedy, it felt very different than anything I had ever done. It felt like this was already a part of me.
BLAIR: In her stand-up, Johnson is known for talking about what it’s like to be a Black Muslim in America, starting with her name.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOHNSON: So I’m not naive, right? I know that I’m not going to go to, like, the Grand Canyon or a Universal Studios souvenir shop. I know I’m not going to see Zainab, like, on a keychain, right?
BLAIR: But then she went to the Middle East.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOHNSON: Zainab’s everywhere, everywhere. I could not walk into a souvenir shop without seeing Zainab on everything – on mugs, on rugs, on keychains. I got a pair of fake Gucci sneakers with Zainab written up there. It was amazing. The girl who sold me the Zainab merch – her name was Zainab. It was fantastic. You know, I’m feeling like a bad B letting the Zainabs rain on me. I see this sad white woman in the corner looking for her name. I’m like, I know that look. So I tried to help her. I said, dang, Jessica, this ain’t your scene.
PAGE HURWITZ: There’s no one else like her in stand-up.
BLAIR: Page Hurwitz and her producing partner, Wanda Sykes, first met Zainab Johnson about 10 years ago when they cast her in the NBC TV series “Last Comic Standing.”
HURWITZ: At the time, she had a completely shaved head, which you don’t see very often with women in comedy.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOHNSON: I had a shaved head for seven years. That was great. I was never late anywhere.
HURWITZ: She can be silly and absurd, but she can also just give you a really good gut punch with a line, you know, that’s so poignant and substantive. And that’s the sweet spot.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOHNSON: Women were like, wow, you must feel so free, so spiritually lifted. I was like, it was Tuesday. I didn’t feel like doing my hair, so I shaved it off.
BLAIR: That mix of silly and serious seems to come naturally for Johnson, but she says her family didn’t think so.
JOHNSON: I was talking to my mom a couple of weeks ago, and I was like, was I funny as a kid? And she was like, no (laughter). One of my first TV appearances, my mom and some of my siblings, they drove down to Atlanta, Ga., to come to the taping of, like, a seven-minute stand-up set. And one of my younger brothers, he said, I was so scared when you walked out. He was like, it was the most scared I had ever been in my life. My stomach was hurting. And I was like, did something happen? He was like, I was scared for you. And I was like, why? He was like, ’cause I don’t ever remember you being funny.
BLAIR: Johnson turns some not-so-funny topics into jokes in her new special, including a traumatic personal experience from her childhood. She sets the story up by talking about how her parents tried to keep her safe from the rough neighborhoods near their home.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOHNSON: My father used to say, Zainab, make a beeline home. Beeline home – now, I didn’t know what that meant, so I’m walking in a B.
BLAIR: One day when she was 7, she wound up in a dangerous situation. Without giving too much away, she managed to escape.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOHNSON: Took off, straight down 25 flights of concrete steps – didn’t fall once. Yeah, made it so I couldn’t really watch horror movies growing up ’cause every time the girl fell, I’m like, well, that don’t need to happen. My 7-year-old legs made it. You a cheerleader, right? You got this.
BLAIR: Johnson never told her parents what happened to her that day. She says for years, it was out of the question that she would share it on stage.
JOHNSON: I felt very protected by my parents, but there was a moment there where I felt like I couldn’t – I was so protected that I was scared to share that their protection hadn’t worked in that moment, you know?
BLAIR: At a friend’s urging, she started putting the story in her act. But figuring out how to tell it was a process.
JOHNSON: It was really hard to navigate. But because it was hard, it was so much fun for me. And I found every time I told the story, I felt a little better.
BLAIR: For Zainab Johnson, that’s part of the power of comedy, to allow people to both process and bring levity to painful experiences. She says her next project is developing a TV show based on her life growing up in Harlem with her parents and 12 brothers and sisters.
Elizabeth Blair, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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