Jimmie ‘JJ’ Walker is Still ‘Dyn-o-mite!’

“I’m a comic, not an actor,” Jimmie “JJ” Walker clarifies, reiterating, “I don’t know much about acting.” 

Yet, it’s the acting role for which Walker acquired his quote-marked middle name. Walker portrayed JJ Evans—the lanky, artistically-minded son prone to exclaim “Dyn-o-mite!” whenever something good happened to him—in “Good Times,” the “All in the Family” spin-off sitcom that spent the latter half of the 1970s on CBS’ prime time schedule. The stand-up comedy that preceded his television stardom—which he will be plying at the Northern Lights Theater in Potawatomi Hotel & Casino on Saturday April 9 for 7 and 9 p.m. shows—has essentially maintained the same spirit with which Walker imbued it during the Nixon administration. 

“I come from the Johnny Carson era. Totally clean,” Walker says of both his vintage and his humor. 

Though Walker is still able to play up his unexpected fame from a few decades ago, his greatest current satisfaction comes from a far less flashy goal. “I'm just trying to be funny, topical and clean,” he says. As to whether he remains game for an acting role, Walker seems open to the possibility. “Who knows what the industry thinks? I'm just a road comic.” And the circuit Walker navigates keeps him behind the mic “doing clubs 250-300 days a year,” by his estimation.

Walker seems grateful to number contemporaries such as George Wallace, Gary Muledeer, fellow sitcom star Gabe “Welcome Back Kotter” Kaplan and Williams & Ree as fellows of roughly the same era who are still entertaining crowds. As for those any surprises awaiting those who come out to see him at the Northern Lights Theater, Walker stays coy.

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 “Oh, there's always something. The crew and work hard on that,” he says.

Though it’s been canceled recently, Walker makes a stack of comedic hay in his animated appreciation of Maury Povich's talk show here...