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JJ Josh Johnson On Breaking Bread with Tom Papa

“What we do, to me, at least in our minds, is the equivalent of a runner actually winning a medal, but then being like, am I fast though? I know everybody was cheering, and I know I came in first, but am I really fast? And maybe I was only fast because that other guy wasn't in the race.”

Breaking Bread with Tom Papa · Food & Beverage · October 2026

“What we do, to me, at least in our minds, is the equivalent of a runner actually winning a medal, but then being like, am I fast though? I know everybody was cheering, and I know I came in first, but am I really fast? And maybe I was only fast because that other guy wasn't in the race.” — Josh Johnson, Breaking Bread with Tom Papa

Johnson and Tom Papa, both stand-up comedians, are talking about the self-doubt that never quite goes away, even after a great set.

Transcript

Breaking Bread with Tom Papa Around 1:08:18 into the episode
Josh Johnson

hard to move past that because there's a little bit of fear on the other end of, will I kill this heart again?

Tom Papa

Yeah. And so it's such a weird, it's such a weird thing that you never really shake. Yeah. At times you can put it, you can tamp it down. Yeah. But it's always kind of present and sometimes is larger. And it's like, what will it take to believe that I can do this? Yeah,

Josh Johnson

especially after doing, because that's one of the weirdest things where it's like, what we do, to me, at least in our minds, is the equivalent of a runner actually winning a medal, but then being like, am I fast though? Like, I know everybody was cheering, and I know I came in first, but like, am I really fast? And maybe I was only fast because that other guy wasn't in the race. Like, maybe

Tom Papa

that's really true. Maybe I'm

Josh Johnson

trash. I don't know. Like, actually, I probably am trash. Now that I think about it, take this gold medal. Back because I haven't earned it.

Tom Papa

I did a benefit for Michael J. Fox. And it's a lot of some comedians and some artists and all these people on the thing. And Katie Couric was coming up after me to do something. And I went up and I did my set and it went great. You know, like it was a really great set. Everyone's laughing. You're…

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode

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