James Austin Johnson is best known for his scary accurate Donald Trump impression, which he’s been doing on Saturday Night Live for years. Real ones who watch the show every week, however, know his stockpile of impersonations is a lot deeper than just the current president. He’s done more than twenty people on the show so far since he debuted in 2021, but he apparently can’t get his absolute best one on the show.
Video from a panel numerous SNL cast members did over the summer at the Television Academy recently emerged, and in it, special guest host Fred Armison tells a story about how he always wanted to get an Ira Glass impression on the show, but it always got shot down because the NPR host of This American Life wasn’t considered famous enough for the audience to get. Johnson spoke up and said he has the exact same problem.
He apparently keeps pitching an impression of longtime Rolling Stone editor David Fricke, but he can’t even get it to dress rehearsal because most people on the cast don’t know who he is. If the name sounds familiar to music fans, it’s likely because he’s been featured as a talking head in numerous specials and documentaries talking about classic music, but he’s not exactly a name that rings a bell for most people.
According to Johnson, however, he’s the comedian’s absolutely best impression. Here’s a portion of his quote, per Entertainment Weekly…
I’ve done it so many times. It’s always a resounding no from everyone in the room… It’s my best voice. It’s my best impression. I nail that guy. It’s just, you know, people don’t want to see it.
That’s the frustrating thing about doing an impression. It only ever works if the other person in the conversation (or in his case, the audience) has a frame of reference for what the other person looks and sounds like. I’m sure he does a great impression of some of his random family members too, but since we don’t know them, they’re only really worthwhile at holidays, reunions and weddings.
Still, that doesn’t mean there’s not a chance it could get on the show someday. Now and again, SNL does sketches that feature a ton of micro-impressions in a short amount of time. Often they’re various celebrities auditioning for roles in a specific movie (like Star Wars), but now and again, Johnson actually does his own impression round-up on Weekend Update. If he was able to work in Jay-Z screaming at Beyonce from the basement, it’s possible he could get David Fricke greenlighted too.
Regardless, James Austin Johnson has really found his place on Saturday Night Live. He was initially pretty much just the Trump guy, but he now appears regularly in other sketches, sometimes ones where he’s not even doing a celebrity impression and is instead just playing a character. Throw in how popular his signature impression remains and how much Lorne Michaels seems to like it, and it seems likely he’s got a lot of years ahead of him on the show if he wants to stick around. Fingers crossed he does and that someday, we get to see his Fricke in all its glory.
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