HEART AND SOUL PATCH Johannsen turns his life into bread and butter.

Photograph: Most Wanted Entertainment

Considering the limitless media outlets and instant Internet stardom of today’s comedy industry,Jake Johannsen is a rare breed of comic. He rose steadily in the stand-up clubs of the ’80s; did his first HBO special, This’ll Take About an Hour, in 1991 (it holds up today); and now, 27 years into his career, he’s still a touring headliner. The 46-year-old comic, who chatted with us from his L.A. home while baby-sitting his two-year-old, performs Thursday 17–Sunday 20 at Gotham Comedy Club. And even though he’s performed on The Late Show with David Letterman 31 times, he remembers the name of the guy who beat him on Star Search.

Would you wager that you’re the only comic who’s done both Carson and I Love the 80s?

And don’t forget Star Search.

Wow. I didn’t know about that.

Not many people do.

Did you win?

A guy named Steve Schafer won. He knew how to score on that show. But the Carson thing is just—the more time passes, the more pleased I am to have that: as a memory and a piece of tape, and a thing that I can say I did. I hope I feel the same way about I Love the 80s.

You’ve been around for a long time.

I better start taking pride in that instead of having it freak me out. I started on the road in the late ’80s. And since then, I’ve been working the whole time—never had more than a month off, and I work about two weekends a month.

So, the bottom line is: You have a very patient wife.

Well, yeah. But when I do the math of the amount of time I spend with my daughter when she’s awake, it’s more than if I had a nine-to-five job. Same with my wife. And nowadays…I’ve got the iChat thing on my computer, so if I stay in a hotel room that’s high-speed, I can actually see my daughter and wife.

Interesting. So is it becoming easier to be a road comic?

In the sense that you’ve got someone at home you’re missing, yes. But trying to get gigs and make a living on the road…it might be a little bit harder today. There are less gigs overall. But there are more good gigs.

Do you know anyone who’s done Letterman as often as you have?

Probably a guy like Richard Lewis has—but he didn’t do stand-up. I may have done more appearances doing stand-up than anyone else.

You must have an enormous library of jokes.

Hours and hours of jokes. People come up and say, “Hey, remember this joke?” And I’m like, “Oh, that sounds funny.” They’ll say, “You used to do a joke like this.” And I’ll go, “Boy, I’ll have to look at a tape to remember it.” Then they tell me the punch line and I think, Why aren’t I doing that one now? [Johannsen’s daughter becomes audible in the background.]

You must be doing material about her now.

Only a little bit; a lot of people coming to nightclubs don’t know what it’s like to have kids. I’m not going to bog them down by getting all sappy and putting slides of her up on the stage.

Even though you want to, right?

Look, she does some pretty good stuff. I was down in New Orleans talking to her and she said, “Someday, I can go on your airplane with you?” She has this idea that I’m flying around in my own plane.

So how does the industry differ today from when you started out?

When I started, it was The Tonight Show and Letterman. That was it. In San Francisco, there were four clubs in town and only one of them had nationally touring acts. Now there’s such a network of clubs on the road and a huge selection of comedy shows you can watch on TV.… Hey, hang on a second. [To daughter] Are you okay, Honey Bunny? Can I help you? Do you want a hug?

Can I have a hug?

[To daughter] No, Mommy’s not on the phone; this is another lady. I’ll put it on speaker phone. Do you want to say hi to Jane?

Hello.

Daughter: Hello. [Long silence]

I should let you go. Thanks for your time.

Are you coming to the show? You can have your hug then if you want.

Jake Johannsen performs Thu 17–Sun 20.