Modified On January 8, 2006
Discovered this among the AP obits:
CHICAGO (AP)– Allan Johnson, whose career started as a copy clerk and ended as one of only a handful of blacks writing criticism for a major newspaper, has died. He was 46.
Johnson died Friday of complications from a brain hemorrhage at University of Chicago Hospitals, a family spokesman said. He collapsed after attending an event with his wife and had been hospitalized for nearly three weeks.
“He was witty in the most gloriously droll way. And no matter how chaotic the newsroom, he was a rock-solid presence,” said Chicago Tribune editor Ann Marie Lipinski.
Johnson began working at the Tribune in 1979 as a copy clerk. His byline first appeared in the Tribune’s financial section in 1987. The next year, he began the “Just for Laughs” column in the Friday section, focusing on the then-booming local comedy scene.
In the following years he would review and interview some of the nation’s leading comics, later adding television reviews and features to his duties.
“Al was just good people. He was honest, he was fair and he knew what was funny,” said Bernie Mac, whose career Johnson charted from Chicago comedy clubs to television and movies.
We occasionally corresponded with Mr. Johnson over the past five years or so and were quoted in some of his most recent comedy-related articles for the Trib. His sense of humor came through in his emails and his phone calls. It was plain that he loved standup. We had a standing appointment to meet at the next Chicago Comedy Fest to discuss the legitimacy of the phrase “different than” (as opposed to “different from”); sadly that fest never materialized. Though we chided him on occasion in the pages of this magazine, it was understood that he was one of only a handful of major paper writers who understood and appreciated the art and the craft of standup comedy.