Camrus Johnson Talks ‘There’s…Johnny’ on Hulu [Exclusive Interview]

There’s…Johnny, the new series produced and created by Paul Reiser almost didn’t make it to air. Originally produced for Seeso, the show was set to premiere about a week after the network folded.

I recently spoke with series regular Camrus Johnson about his late night TV preferences, the Marvel Universe and his experience shooting a show that almost ended up without a network to air on.

“At the time, when I wasn’t sure what was going to happen next, my heart completely dropped,” he recalled. “This is my first role like this where I’m really invested and I just want the show to do so so well.”

“When I heard about Hulu, I screamed I was so happy. It feels good just to know that someone else saw all the potential in this show that I saw. Because when I read these scripts, I would read one episode and I couldn’t stop. I had to read the next one. I just had to keep going,” Johnson said.

The show is a coming of age story about Andy (Ian Nelson) — a kid from Nebraska who dreams of working at The Tonight Show and gets a job working as a gofer for the show.

According to Johnson, the story centers around the relationship between Andy and a talent booker named Joy (Jane Levy).

“She meets Andy, and they are polar opposites because she’s sort of hard and had to deal with all the toughness of the world,” he said.  “And Andy is very young and soft and innocent and naive, and they have this instant connection.”

Johnson’s character Rasheed is a standup comedian, vying to get on The Tonight Show.

“He has these gigantic dreams of working in Hollywood. He wants to be seen by millions. He wants to be on The Tonight Show,” Johnson said of his character. “Andy is his direct ticket to his gigantic dreams.”

If you’re going to be playing a stand-up comedian who wants to be on Carson, there’s no better person to learn from than Paul Reiser. Reiser, who created the show, performed on The Tonight Show about 25 times during Carson’s era.

“Every single day he was making somebody laugh. He’s just so funny,” said Johnson. “Being around him is an automatic class in comedy. He can turn something that’s not funny into something hilarious, and to see how he does that in a matter of seconds, is incredible.”

Although the characters of Rasheed, Joy, and Andy were created for the show, Tony Danza has the responsibility of playing The Tonight Show‘s real-life executive producer Freddie de Cordova.

However, the one character you won’t see much of is Johnny Carson. He’s primarily seen in archive footage of the real Tonight Show.

“I think the reason they didn’t want to cast an actual Johnny Carson in the show is one, no one can be Johnny Carson. You can’t cast a Johnny Carson,” explained Johnson. “But also two, I don’t think they wanted anyone to think the show is about Johnny Carson. It’s more so about the magic of the world he created. It’s about what happened, what made the show tick.”

Younger audiences might not be as familiar Johnny’s work as they are with Jay Leno’s or Jimmy Fallon’s. Johnson admits that he never saw Carson perform before getting the gig on There’s…Johnny.

“I watched a couple of clips to see who Johnny Carson was,” Johnson said. “My favorite was one where it started rough and the audience wasn’t really laughing, and he commented on them not laughing. He just kept going, and kept going, and found a way to make them bust out laughing even though it started out so badly. ”

As far as modern-day late night hosts are concerned, Johnson says he’s a huge fan of both Jimmies — Fallon and Kimmel.

“I want to be on Jimmy Fallon so bad. I love Jimmy Fallon,” he gushed. “I love the games — I really love the very fun bubbly aspect of it. You watch an interview, but you wish you were being interviewed. You wish you were playing the game. You wish you were in the audience. You wish you were behind the scenes. You wish you were there. ”

Although Rasheed is one of Johnson’s first big recurring roles, audiences might already be familiar with him from his role as Torre on Luke Cage.

Johnson had been a fan of the character since he was a kid, and would often play as Luke Cake when playing Marvel video games.

“He was basically the Superman of young black kids back in the day, so he’s a huge deal, and not everybody knew who Luke Cage was and I did,” Johnson said.  “Luke Cage was my first TV role.”

“It was a dream come true. It’s crazy because when I heard Luke Cage was coming out years ago, I said no matter what, I’m going to find a way to be on that set. I don’t care how. I’m going to find a role on that show because I love Marvel. I love the comic book world.”

Johnson not only managed to land a role in the series, but he’ll be back, sharing the screen with series star, Mike Colter in Season 2.

“Mike Colter, as you probably guessed, is amazing — one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met and they brought me back for another scene in season two recently and I got to work with Mike again,” he shared.  “It was cool — a little reunion with me and Mike Colter.”

His next appearance on Luke Cage isn’t the only thing fans can look forward to. He also recently appeared on Fox’s Star, and is working on some writing and producing projects.

Be sure to catch Camrus Johnson on There’s…Johnny, now streaming on Hulu.

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