BY JAY K. JOHNSON - Journalized rants and ramblings from a fragmented ventriloqual mind. ©Copyright and common sense apply to all the material contained in this blog.
Saturday, November 10, 2018
What is the Truth?
Thursday, October 11, 2018
Life is NOT like the Movies
Sunday, September 30, 2018
Halloween ZEN
Thursday, September 20, 2018
The Judgement of Kavanaugh
Friday, September 14, 2018
The Pirates of the Congress
As you were,
Jay
Thursday, September 13, 2018
Mule Deer Meme
Monday, September 10, 2018
Prime Time Pitch
This is a new game show reality program that is sure to keep America watching. Shot on location at the Whitehouse and privately owned golf courses, starring an aging television pitch man and failed public servant.
Monday, August 27, 2018
The Black Rabbit Rose
At N. Hudson and Hollywood Blvd in Hollywood, CA (only blocks away from the world famous Magic Castle) there is a new club called “Black Rabbit Rose”. The word Magic is not in the name but the show is a magical experience nonetheless. I went there last weekend to see our friend Liberty Larsen perform. She also serves as the hostess/producer/conjuror for the event. I did not go there to review the evening but came away with such a wonderful experience I want to share it with everyone.
Thursday, August 23, 2018
It won’t get far...
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Tell me what it says on the screen?
Sunday, August 19, 2018
Facing It
Wednesday, July 11, 2018
Birthday Thoughts
Friday, June 29, 2018
Justice Winks
We claim to be a country ruled by law. The concept of “rule by law” means that justice is blind. This concept is built on the fact that truth is immutable and the truth for one person is the truth for all. Determining the truth should not be influenced by age, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientations and certainly not wealth. Unfortunately this truth in justice is being parsed out by humans, who are not blind at all but full of opinions and bias. Just as unfortunate is the fact that the easiest influence on a justice system that “peaks” is money.
Wednesday, June 27, 2018
Advice from Harry Anderson
It is the day of the second line tribute for Harry in New Orleans. Most of the out -of -towners stayed at the same hotel and I did not know any of Elizabeth’s family except a brother I met the night before. Needless to say the second line eve was filled with toasts to Harry who’s departure from this world brought us all together for this event. I mention this to say that because it was the morning after in New Orleans, it was a staggering march to find coffee.
Wednesday, June 13, 2018
Memory
Saturday, June 02, 2018
My Friend Robert Mandan

I repost this article I wrote about my friend from his birthday in 2012, preceded by this editors note written today.
There are friends, there are people you have worked with and then there is a person like Bob who is both. I recall so many fun times together when we roamed with a group of actor/publicists/writers called the "Terrible 10". We got that name because we were a terrible table of ten if you were sitting next to us at a restaurant. We laughed the entire time and were not quiet about it. If you were looking for a quiet evening's meal we were not the table you wanted to sit close to.
Happy Birthday Mr. Mandan. I cherish your friendship.
Nothing has changed in the way I feel about you since I wrote the blog below.
![]() |
Robert Mandan, Bob Campbell, Jay Johnson, Jay Sandrich Opening night of "Jay Johnson: The Two and Only" |
![]() |
Robert Mandan |
![]() |
Robert Mandan in "Barney Miller" |
![]() |
Chester Tate and Benson |
![]() |
Bob Mandan on "Three's a Crowd" |
![]() |
Bob Mandan on "Star Trek,The Next Generation" |
Saturday, May 19, 2018
Good Night Harry
Note: (I wrote this the day after I heard that Harry had passed away. It has taken me more than a month to feel like I could read it again to correct it and publish it. I hope this is part of the healing process from grieving. Mostly it just makes me realize that some things take much longer than 30 days)
Thursday, May 17, 2018
Sometimes a Snake is just a Snake
![]() |
Amigo is pictured at the 4 o'clock position. |
Monday, April 16, 2018
Friends are family you get to Choose
What's a BFF?
Once in a lifetime you connect with a person who becomes your Best Friend Forever.
It was a chance meeting at the Circus Circus Reno showroom with a guy who was hired to be my opening act. I don't know what draws a comic magician to a ventriloquist, but it was an instant connection.
I became the "roper" to the "wise guy", the pitchman to the carnival lifestyle of Harry Anderson. Before the two weeks were up at the Reno gig we had hustled the pit bosses, played on the trapeze and cuffed the head of security with his own handcuffs. They closed the showroom after we left and turned it into a Keno parlor.
It was the crest of "Soap" for me, but Harry went on to become the star of "Night Court", "Disney's Absent-Minded Professor" and "Dave's World" as well as several network and cable specials, most of which I participated in either by producing or performing in or both. We co-wrote scripts, acts and I even wrote the introduction to a couple of his books. For a while we were developers for Macintosh software, and even converted a Mac program into an application we sold to Disney.
But live shows were where we really excelled. We did annual Halloween shows and April Fool's shows and New Year's Eve shows at any venue that would let us do our thing, mostly during the rock and roll days of the Comedy Magic Club in Hermosa Beach. We would spend more time and energy in producing those shows than we did for NBC or CBS.
After his series ended Harry moved to a Green and Green mansion in Pasadena. We converted his basement into a "walk through" spook house that took months to construct. For a party of special invitees one Halloween we tricked, amazed and scared a group of friends with every illusion we could come up with at the time. It was special enough that David Copperfield flew in, before we took it apart, for a command performance. After we tried to establish several companies together we realized that having fun together was much more interesting to us than trying to make a buck. My wife says, "Jay and Harry play together very well." It was Harry who coined the phrase that became the title to my Broadway show, "Jay Johnson: The Two and Only."
Harry moved to New Orleans where he opened a magic shop and nightclub called "Oswald's Speakeasy" dedicated to Lee Harvey Oswald. There was a drink called the "single bullet" and a "grassy knoll". The men's room was papered with the Warren Commission report. Harry's act was the main attraction. We made a deal that I would come into the club and do my act several times a year so he could go on vacation. The club was going strong for several months, and I was ready one week end to come down and survey the club for my show. I never made it. That very weekend the airport closed due to something called Katrina. The town was never the same, Harry closed the shop, sold the club and moved to North Carolina.
After 30 years of friendship it is not so surprising that he would fly across the country to celebrate my birthday a couple of week-ends ago. There were other friends there, but we could have had a great time just the two of us. As usual his toast was the highlight of the evening. His funniest line, "You have to remember, I knew Jay Johnson before he was what he no longer is today."
My Buddhist friends say we are friends now because of our connection in a previous life. I don't know about that, but I hope we find each other in the next one. Harry always says, "Friends are the family you get to choose". I am godfather to his kids and he is godfather to mine, so I guess we made it official.
I don't know why I feel compelled to write about this in the blog except to say this. Hold your friends dear, friendship is one of the great gifts we humans have been given. Don't let friends slip away even if they move across the country. In today's high tech world distance is no barrier. Make sure you tell the people close to you that you value the gift of their very existence.
BFF is thrown around on the Internet like it was a :) or "sincerely" attached to a letter. Not to me... if I use it, I want to mean it. In this case it could not be more accurate, to me my BFF is a BFD.
As you were,
Jay