"Nobody Knows" with Joey Johnson

'Nobody Knows' with Joey Johnson is a talk show from inside the Denton comedy scene, and it makes no attempt to hide the seams. Half the joke is in the name. Some episodes start on the street, where passersby are asked whether they know a local comedian, have heard of the DAM Awards or listen to a Denton radio site. The answers are mostly no. One person, told the show is called Nobody Knows, simply says that is ironic. The questions keep coming anyway. Someone who is not a fan of most comedians gets asked whether magic is any better. Someone who resists the word artist is pressed until craftsman becomes creator and the questioner guesses chain mail. That habit of asking one more question is how the show makes awkwardness funny. Once a guest is in the room, the conversation goes wherever it likes. In 'Joey & Ritchy' it drifts to the kitchen at Hyenas, where one of them gets to pick through the fryer leftovers, and from there to why comics who travel put on weight. A claim about giving up a thousand dollars to go eat chicken is called a lie within seconds, though everyone agrees the chicken fingers happened. The 'Dylan Withers' conversation includes a generous review of a starter mustache and the story of a friendship that began on Snapchat, back when one of them posted so often that people asked when he slept. 'Episode 14 - Nick Fields' has a stretch about a famous improv book that was received as a gift, eagerly annotated and then left to gather dust. Improv is also the thread in part of 'Episode 15 - Dalton Pruitt'. There, a good-natured back-and-forth weighs what the form offers someone riffing alone on a stand-up stage, and one line gets at the local scene: everyone is supporting each other, and nobody is trying to take over. 'Episode 8 - Patrick Burke' keeps drifting toward space. It starts with a street question about a romper being sent there and ends up riffing on a flat-earth documentary and who might be nominated for a free trip up. None of it is tidy. Plugs for Deep Wax Productions and Classic of Denton bookend several episodes, and in one the room admits it forgot to ask the sponsor what to plug. Another sign-off cannot remember its own episode number. A third has the room pretending to hear outro music that is not there yet, with a cheerful explanation that this is how pre-recording works. Someone called Richie Flo gets thanked for putting it together, and the stock outro points to a Denton radio site for local artists and where they are playing next. The mood is mostly warm and tips into awkward or irreverent when a bit takes over. What a listener gets is a local scene talking to itself about venues, free food, mutual friends and carpools to Arlington Improv, with the rough edges left in.