Jonno answers our questions ahead of Jonno: Here Comes Mr Funny heading to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Jonno: Here Comes Mr Funny is Daran “Jonno” Johnson’s solo stand-up debut. After sixteen years at the Edinburgh Fringe as one third of cult sketch favourites Sheeps, and fresh from his first stint as head writer for SNL UK, he heads to fringe with a joyful, gag-heavy hour packed with whimsical, odd tangents and nonsensical comedy. The show explores friendship, ambition and the experience of watching your peers become successful. Touching on the low-level panic of trying something on your own for the first time, whilst always prioritising laughs over lessons. We chat to Jonno about missing your moment, Ducking camera at SNL UK and being a identifying as a stand-up.

After sixteen years at the Fringe with Sheeps, you're finally stepping onstage entirely on your own. What convinced you this, 2026, was the right moment to make that leap?

Actually, I think 2025 was the right moment to make that leap. And I missed it, so I’m doing it a year late.

I had a sooooooort of breakdown in 2024, which I talk about very lightly in the show. And afterwards, I lost all interest in most of my day-to-work and instead I spent a few months writing Christmas songs and asked my friend Alex Cartlidge if he’d be up for producing an album together. And it was the happiest I’d been in years. I went a bit insane putting it all together, writing string and brass arrangements, making demos and stuff. I just threw everything into this weird totally arbitrary thing that no-one had asked me to do. There weren’t TONS of people who listened to it, but a few people I’m a fan of were really kind about it. And, although Al Roberts wrote some of my favourite songs and the thing couldn’t have happened at all without Alex Cartlidge, I left the thing feeling like there was an outside chance that people might be halfway interested in specifically Jonno stuff.

Anyway, when it was all finished, I just wanted a Jonno thing I could drop my days into. And this is that thing.

The show is described as packed with silly ideas and odd tangents. Where do your stranger ideas actually come from?

I didn’t write that tbh, so this is news to me. I don’t think the show is in any way silly or odd. But I might not be a good judge of that. I’ll find out who wrote that and ask.

Alongside all the silliness, the show touches on the strange feeling of trying something new later in life. Why is that such an important topic for you? Do you think we put unnecessary pressure on ourselves to have everything figured out by a certain age?

I’m just late to everything. I talk about this in the show, but I take way too long to do the things that matter to me. I have on so many occasions taken too long to tell people how I feel about them. I didn’t come out as bi until I was 29. I still haven’t watched Succession.

I didn’t plan to write a show about that, but it just quickly felt like that was what it had to be about. I couldn’t really write about anything else. It’s weird to start anything at 38. But the best time to plant a tree was 100 years ago and the second-best time is now. That’s not a quote, so don’t look it up. That’s a thing I came up with. Stop looking it up. It’s a new thing.

You're Head Writer on Saturday Night Live UK, where comedy is created collaboratively and at speed. Did writing an hour that rests entirely on your own voice feel like a very different challenge?

It’s way easier. Cos you just write it down how you’d say it. Honestly, Here Comes Mr Funny might be a BAD show for all I know, but it was definitely an easy show to write, cos it’s just a list of things I want to talk about, written how I would say them. And then I do some songs, which is my favourite thing to do.

SNL UK is this massive machine with literally thousands of moving parts. And I’m very proud of it. But every show feels like pulling off a heist. It’s a thing you get away with, week to week. And then on Sunday you collapse just long enough to get ready for another heist.

Whereas for the stand-up show I just pop onstage, do the show, ask my producers Alex and Kathryn if they like the new bits, then do it again, and again until they mostly say yes. And then that’s the show. Also, since it’s only me saying this stuff, if I don’t fancy doing a bit that’s coming up, I can just say something else. Or talk to the audience. It’s fun.

You've written for sitcoms, animation, sketch shows and now for yourself. Which is your favourite, do you think?

Generally, I enjoy live shows the most. Which is nice because SNL UK is a lot more like a live show than it is like a TV show. You could almost forget that anyone’s filming it at all if you didn’t have to keep ducking to avoid cameras and stuff. I just generally think really good live shows feel like a secret. Like you and the audience are in on something cheeky. And that’s obviously harder to do on telly.

Animation is easily my least favourite. It’s just a nightmare and takes forever and by the time it comes out you’re so far removed from the final product that it barely feels like you were involved. So many insanely talented pals of mine do animation and I’m in awe of them. For myself, though, I would consider it a life well-lived if I can get tucked up in my grave before I ever have to be involved in animation again.

Sheeps have built a reputation for surreal, high-concept sketch comedy. Here Comes Mr Funny is described as your most personal and most exposed work so far. What have you discovered about yourself as a performer through making it?

I still think it’s a dumb, silly show. There are fleeting sad bits but it's only really personal and exposed insomuch as I mention things people tend to be embarrassed talking about. Other than the fact it makes me really happy to do it, I don’t think I’ve discovered anything particularly new about myself as a performer. But I do think I’ve learned some writing stuff through performing the show. I’ve learned that a below-average joke about something that is happening in the room right at that moment is always going to go down better than a joke I’m really proud of that’s about something daft I made up. Which always used to annoy me about stand-ups, but now I’ve decided that I am one, I think it’s nice.

Jonno: Here Comes Mr Funny will be performed at 7:10pm at Monkey Barrel 2 from 3rd – 30th August. Booking link: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/jonno-here-comes-mr-funny