Massholes, Music, and Mayhem with Johnny Dismal

From punk shows on “Slutsbury” Beach to running massive festival bars and painting decapitated kids for fun, Johnny Dismal has lived many lives. This episode dives into how a roaming military kid became a Masshole, a touring musician, a prolific artist, and the kind of manager people actually want to follow.

Summary

This episode of Ducking Realitea is a chaotic, tender wander through the life of Johnny Dismal: bartender-turned–festival boss, punk rocker, and darkly hilarious visual artist. Johnny and Siobhan trace his journey from a childhood bouncing between Air Force bases in Europe to becoming a self-described “Masshole” obsessed with hardcore shows along the New England coast.

Johnny unpacks how music and art showed up early, parents spinning John Denver and Peter, Paul and Mary, while he dove into horror flicks with his brother and formed teenage bands with friends who barely knew how to hold their instruments. A brutal early critique (“you have absolutely no talent”) became a lifelong vow to never shit on anyone’s creative dreams, a value that quietly shapes everything he does.

They go deep into festival bartending and people management: herding 600 bartenders, de-escalating drunk chaos, and why you should never punch a guest over tip money.

Johnny and Siobhan riff on grief, humor, classism vs. racism in Boston, walking as therapy, and why bars still matter as community hubs, even if you don’t drink.

It’s a conversation about art, work, chosen family, and humanity from two folks who’ve spent decades doing that shit from behind the bar.

Johnny Dismal

Johnny Dismal is a Bay Area–based artist, musician, and longtime festival bar manager. He’s played in roughly 40 bands (including Houndsmen, Fuzz Attack, and Marty Robbins’ Ghost) and has spent over two decades running high-volume festival bar operations across major events like Outside Lands and Coachella. As a visual artist, Johnny is known for his darkly humorous, cartoonish work, spanning painting, drawing, and sculpture, and for making original art accessible and affordable so it can live on real people’s walls, not in his closet.

Find Johnny’s art at Dismal Things

You can also find Johnny’s are at Alameda Gallery & Collective on Webster St in Alameda, where he is a featured artist.

Resources & Mentions

• Bands & Musicians

  • Rammstein

  • Dropkick Murphys (and Al Barr)

  • The Bruisers

  • Murphy’s Law, Biohazard, Sick of It All, Shelter

  • Marty Robbins (namesake of Marty Robbins’ Ghost)

  • Pointer Sisters

  • Beyoncé

  Movies / Shows / Media

  • West Side Story

  • Jesus Christ Superstar

  • The Wiz

  • Beat Street

  • The Polar Express

  • Christmas Evil

  • The Little Mermaid

  • Little Monsters

  • Beetlejuice

  • Airplane!, Top Secret!, The Naked Gun

  Podcasts

  • The Joe Rogan Experience

  Places / Bars / Venues

  • Outside Lands (festival)

  • Coachella (festival)

  • Red Jack’s (SF)

💡 Key Takeaways

“If you really want to play guitar or paint or whatever, I will support it 1,000%… Why would I tell someone they suck?”

~ Johnny Dismal

• Being “from everywhere” can be a superpower. Moving constantly as a kid made Johnny fearless about starting over, making friends, and hitting the road for festivals and tours.

• Humor and darkness can coexist in healthy ways. His art leans creepy and violent-but-funny, grounded in horror movies and dark jokes as tools for processing life, grief, and fear.

• Good management is quiet, human, and behind the scenes. Johnny leads from the back—protecting his crew, prioritizing breaks and band sets, and de-escalating instead of flexing authority.

• Art is for walls, not closets. Pricing accessibly and experimenting nonstop, Johnny rejects elitism in art and treats new tools (including AI) as additions, not threats.