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Published on November 13th, 2012 | by Brad Sachs
Run The Light With Johnny Cardinale
In this edition of Run the Light, we interview comic Johnny Cardinale.
Brad: I followed your armed forces comedy tour for the troops on your Facebook earlier this year, looks like you performed in some cool places, what was your favorite place to visit and perform overseas?
Johnny: I’ve been on 7 overseas tours, all over the place, its allowed me to see some pretty cool things, the Ephesus Ruins in Turkey really stand-out (Cleopatra’s sister is buried there for petes sake!), also, Florence and Vienna (we do get some down-time) stand out.
Brad: You’re going on another armed forces tour soon right?
Johnny: Going on another tour this Christmas season, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon.
Brad: You’re big on the college touring scene, ever party at a frat house after a show?
Johnny: I’ve been doing colleges for the last few years, and yes I HAVE been invited to (several) frat parties and have gone to ONE at a frat house and played beer pong (and played well, I may add). But mostly after shows its more along the lines of going to Red Robin for a burger and then hotel to sleep (college gigs are not as exciting as a lot of people think
Brad: You were a guest panelist on the Chelsea Lately show, how cool was that?
Johnny: Chelsea Lately experience was awesome, she’s great, I knew her before she got SO big, I used to book her at O’brien’s when I booked it and I literally got on her show by emailing her at her personal email, not even sure if it was still active and she responded in like 15 minutes (had not seen/talked to her in years) and within weeks I was on, very cool person, Chelsea.
Brad: Singing and playing guitar on stage is part of your act, were you ever in a band?
Johnny: If I do an hour college show I play/sing for about the last 15 minutes, however I AM a good singer and I have sang in bands and I have an EP of actual singer/songwriter songs that I submit to singer/songwriter contests. I’ve also been booked around town as a singer/songwriter, places like Molly Malones and when it was active Coconut Teaser on Sunset, I think I can say I must be one of the only people to have my name on the signs of a club on Sunset Blvd both as a comedian (Comedy Store) and as a straight up singer (Coconut Teaser).
Brad: You’re a buckeye too, do you especially like performing in Ohio?
Johnny: I love the Buckeyes, I’ve performed at a lot of colleges in Ohio and at some awesome clubs, Hilarities in Cleveland and Funny Bone in Columbus, these are some of the best clubs/audience I’ve ever seen – in Ohio, you need a reason to laugh.
Brad: You claim to be a great paddle tennis player, still got the goods on the court?
Johnny: At one point I was a PRETTY GOOD but not great Paddle Tennis player, I was ranked nationally but the term “nationally” is taken with a huge grain of salt because I have no idea who does these rankings and who cares about them (save, for me).
You can find Johnny at,