Jake Johannsen made his comedic debut at San Francisco’s Cobbs Comedy Club during an open mike night. In 1986, he won the 11th Annual San Francisco Stand Up Comedian Competition. Jake has appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman 45 times. He has appeared in the HBO Young Comedians Special and PBS’s Comedy Tonight series, and was the host of Comedy Central’s series, Two Drink Minimum. He has also been nominated as “Best Male Stand-Up Comedian” for the American Comedy Awards. With a subtle and intelligent comedic style, With his ability to give the most common element new meaning. Jake quickly became one of the most respected comedians in the country. Not many comedians will devote six minutes to a single subject, especially one as seemingly mundane as a toaster or as strange as his conviction that extraterrestrials are working among us. His bizarre take on life has prompted critics to observe that he “conjures up some of the strangest imagery this side of Gary Larsen’s comic strip, The Far Side.” In 1992, he starred in his own HBO Comedy Special titled This’ll Take About an Hour, which premiered to rave reviews, and was named #36 in TV Guide's "The 100 Greatest Moments in Television" for that year. Jake also received an Ace Award nomination for best writing in an Entertainment Special for his work on that special.

Other television credits include comedy specials on HBO, Showtime, and Netflix. Man vs. machine, extraterrestrials and relationships are just some of the eclectic themes that Jake reflects upon. If anything is his trademark, according to Johannsen it is his longer, convoluted stories. “I’m talking about things that everybody can relate to and I think I have my own idea of where the problem is. I don’t feel I make them deliberately bizarre.”Johannsen has established himself as one of the country’s most prominent comedians and continues to headline across the country.