Daily Comedy News Podcast Transcripts

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Featured: Sebastian Maniscalco, Vince Vaughn, Kevin Hart, Nate Bregazzi, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Martin Scorsese

What’s in This Episode

• Sebastian Maniscalco’s rise from Four Seasons waiter to #3 touring comedian
• Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show and its impact on Maniscalco’s career
• Sebastian Maniscalco’s comedy style and influences
• Maniscalco’s transition into acting with The Irishman and About My Father
• The family-friendly comedian market and its growing audience
• Maniscalco’s latest Netflix special It Ain’t Right and touring success

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Caloroga Shark Media. From 1998 to 2005, if you had breakfast at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, there’s a decent chance your waiter was Sebastian Maniscalco. He did the job for seven years. He’d work the dining room during the day, carrying eggs to agents and movie stars, and at night he’d go do open mics in bars and bowling alleys for nobody. Last year, Sebastian Maniscalco was the number three touring comedian in the country behind only controversial MAGA comedian Nate Bregazzi and Kevin Hart.

Hi, I’m Johnny Mac, and with today’s Daily Comedy News Saturday Deep Dive, we are talking Sebastian Maniscalco. Sebastian was born in 1973 in Arlington Heights, Illinois. His father, Salvatore, came over from Sicily at 15 and became a hairstylist. His mother was a secretary. Sebastian was an altar boy.

He went to Northern Illinois University, was president of his frat, and got a communications degree in 1995. Hey, we could have been co-workers at the radio station or something, or You might be hosting a podcast in your basement like a loser. People do that. He’s not a damaged kid who found the stage. He comes across as a guy from a strict, loud, old school family who can’t believe how everybody else was raised.

He moved to L.A. In 98 and got the job at the Four Seasons. So I pretty much know of every celebrity’s tipping habits working at the Four Seasons. And what do we got? Shaq’s the best.

What does Shaq do? Shaq come in on a Sunday by himself, walk through the bar. He used to sit by himself. This is not every Sunday, but a few. Order a fruit plate.

A little, what else did he have? Oh, coffee. But I used to serve the coffee to him in a big cappuccino cup because. It’s like serving a giant. I could serve him a little teacup.

Bring out the big cappuccino. And he would never ask for a check, just left $ 100 under the plate. Every time. He’s told the story many times of asking to leave a shift early to do a set, running down to the comedy store and then running back to finish serving. He became a regular at the comedy store in 2005, which was the year he finally quit the hotel.

You know, to me, that feels like five minutes ago. Then I do the math and I’m like, oh, yeah, 2005 has been a minute. Sebastian’s first real exposure came from Vince Vaughn, who picked four unknown comics for a thing called the Wild West Comedy Show, which again, I feel like was yesterday. Wow, that went fast. 30 cities and 30 nights on a bus, and Vince made a documentary out of it. Sebastian was one of the four comedians.

Here’s the deal. This guy, yep, that’s big-time movie star Vince Vaughn, got an insane idea one night to take four up-and-coming comics, that’s them, and do 30 live shows in 30 nights while traveling 6,000 miles across America on a bus. And they made a movie. Crazy, right? Um, you could say that.

So. Who are these guys? I always want to hear Sebastian’s perspective on things because it’s so funny. Yeah, they’re at the health club. These people with the iPod strapped to their bicep.

It’s my pod. You know, just the smallest thing can really make him outraged, and he’s just so offended by it. I walk into the club, and the iPod people are like this. Look at this. Look at this guy.

Look at this guy. He’s got a CD player he’s got. Oh, God. Look at him search. My act is kind of like observational type of humor.

My point of view is very kind of disgusted with human behavior and how they conduct themselves in public. He’s the king of personal hygiene. If you didn’t take a shower, don’t stand around him. His whole persona is like amazed that somebody has the audacity to roll out of bed, not take a shower, and they’re in the food section at the grocery store. I don’t care what people think.

Well, I’m uncomfortable that you’re comfortable. Shower. I pinched myself every day I was on that tour because in this business, you never know when it’s going to happen again, if it’s going to happen again. So every day I felt like this was it. Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show, coming to theaters February 8th.

His first special, Sebastian Live, came out in 2009. Then he did three for Showtime. 2012’s What’s Wrong With People? Which I think I have in my mind as What’s Wrong With You People? Have I been reading that wrong and adding a word all these years? 2014’s Aren’t You Embarrassed? And 2016’s Why Would You Do That?

If you look at those titles, that’s pretty much the whole act. He said it took him close to 20 years to work out his voice, and he compares it to lifting weights, where you don’t walk into the gym on day one as a bodybuilder. He wasn’t an overnight anything. He was 45 before most people knew who he was. Most of the act is physical.

He doesn’t stand at the mic and tell you about the guy at the airport. He becomes the guy at the airport with the walk and the face and the whole body. He kicks his leg back, he throws his arms around, he does a strut. The material is about his father, his wife’s family, and people behaving in public in ways his father would have smacked him for. He lists his influences as Don Rickles, Johnny Carson, Dice, Seinfeld, Brian Regan, and John Ritter.

John Ritter might be the most telling name on there because John Ritter was also a physical comedian. What matters just as much is what he doesn’t do. He’s not political and he’s not filthy. He doesn’t have a take on the news. He’s not part of the Austin scene.

Not really a critic’s favorite. And these days, not his fellow comedian’s favorite either. We’ll get to that. You can bring your parents. You can bring your kids.

We did an episode on Nate a while back. It’s a similar lane. There’s a huge audience in this country that wants to laugh for 90 minutes without being lectured or embarrassed. And for a long time, almost nobody in comedy was serving it. Now, if you look at the top of the charts, look who’s up there.

That audience showed up. In 2018, a memoir called Stay Hungry, the Netflix special the same name, January of that year, taped at Radio City. He played Madison Square Garden. He hosted the MTV Video Music Awards. Listen, I didn’t mean to come out to a cloud of smoke, but backstage, my mother’s frying zucchini.

It’s not really her fault. She’s making it for 20,000 people tonight. So we crack the window and hopefully this all clear out for the Devil’s Home Opener. Welcome to the 2019 VMAs. My name is Sebastian Maniscalco.

And I’m gonna be your host tonight. Man, what a night. We’re celebrating music the way it always was intended. In a hockey rink, In the middle of Newark. Another Netflix special in 2022.

And then last year, a hilarious special called It Ain’t Right. Hollywood came calling. He had a small part in Green Book. Then Martin Scorsese cast him as crazy Joe Gallo in The Irishman. Opposite Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci.

Not bad. I waited on Robert De Niro. I waited on Al Pacino, who I subsequently worked with. You know, 25 years later, which was, you know. Did he remember you from the 4Z?

No, no, no. Again, I didn’t go there and, hey, I’m an actor. I’m trying to get, I’m a comedian. I just did my job. I was very polite.

I didn’t, like, sneak my way into, like, letting them know I was in the entertainment business. It was actually against company policy to, like, tell these people what you were actually doing. In 2023, Sebastian co-wrote and starred in About My Father, a movie based on his own life with Robert De Niro playing Salvatore the hairdresser. I just wish you hadn’t used my bowls. Well, you know, I used your bowls, Doug, because I wanted to add a special spiritual reverberation.

To the meal, so that’s why. So thank you for that contribution. Salvo, it’s delicious. Listen, given everything you’re doing for my son, this is the least I can do. And I just wanna say something that my father used to say.

The translation is the family isn’t just one important thing, it’s everything. And I like to toast to that. Lovely. Salute. Salute.

To everything. Time for some more vino, huh? Oh, yes. When in Rome. Because, you know, you guys are Italian.

You got a problem with Italian smell? Yeah, Bill. I thought he was serious.

And then the sign that you’ve made it.

Saturday Night Live starts making fun of you. Last November, Marcelo Hernandez, who does two things well, one of which is playing Sebastian Maniscalco in sketches. You’re not going to believe it. I’m driving my car, and I got the stick. Shift going, and then the traffic was on another level.

Okay, and then this genius cuts me off, and I’m like, why would you do that? Sebastian handled it about as well as you can. He said he was flattered. He presented at the Critics’ Choice Awards alongside Marcelo Hernandez, and he’s openly campaigning to host the show. His one note was that the wig was too white.

So as recently as like 18 months ago, the story on Sebastian Maniscal was simple. He was a guy who waited tables for seven years, built it slowly, and was now one of the three biggest draws in comedy with no enemies to speak of. But there’s always part two of today’s podcast. Listen up to all my friends in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I am making my return after a 16-year hiatus to the Riyadh Comedy Festival, one of the biggest comedy festivals.

In the world. Mark your calendars, September 26th through October 9th. This is going to be big. For Sebastian, the wobble started in September of 25 with the Riyadh Comedy Festival. You remember this one?

We’ve talked about it a lot. The Saudi government put on a two-week comedy festival and paid a bunch of American comics to play it. Human Rights Watch said the government was using the event to whitewash its record, and a lot of comics who didn’t go had plenty to say about the ones who did. Sebastian wasn’t the face of the festival, he wasn’t the guy that people were the most angry at, but he’d gone his whole career without his name appearing on a list like that, and now it had.

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And then the other one happened within the last month.

Back in April, the satellite radio people announced a multi-year deal with Sebastian Maniscalco, and the former Raw comedy channel became Sebastian Maniscalco’s comedy radio. He made a joke about how the hard part would be teaching his father how to find the channel in the car. Then, a comic named Liz Mealy posted a video about what the change had meant for working comedians who used to get played there, and that video took off pretty quickly. Hi, my name is Liz Mealy. I’m a stand-up comedian, and this video is for Sebastian Maniscalco.

The problem is, Raw went from playing 800 working-class comedians to now playing less than 300 celebrity comedians. Because of this action, hundreds of comedians will no longer be able to have these royalties. Working-class comedians, people that only make money on the road, that have no safety net, that depend on this money to just survive are going from having that money to nothing. Other comedians, including Patton Oswalt, Marc Maron, Dane Cook, Margaret Cho, Michelle Wolfe, and many others, well covered on Daily Comedy News, they all made videos of their own and addressed Sebastian by name. Sebastian Maniscalco has taken over that station, and apparently a lot of people are losing their airtime, which means they’re losing a lot of income.

That they need as working class comics. So this is sort of a plea and a request for Sebastian to make room and give all those comics their airtime back. The point being, a guy who had never been called out by his peers for anything suddenly had some of the biggest names in comedy doing it all in the same week. They were polite about it. Mealy said nobody was angry at him.

Batten Oswald said he didn’t think Sebastian meant any harm. But it was public and it was aimed at him. That’s a new experience for a comic whose whole reputation was that everybody liked him.

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And now if you look him up or if you ask the casuals, they’re kind of like, w…

What’s going on? Sebastian noticed on Instagram. He addressed his fellow comedians and told them, I heard you. I support you. I love you.

I want to let you know that I heard you. I support you. I love you. I know how hard the grind is. Believe me, I’ve been there.

But I wanted to let you know that I had nothing to do with removing the raw comedy from SiriusXM. That was a SiriusXM decision. But I also want to let you know that I’m going to work with SiriusXM to highlight a variety of different voices in stand-up comedy, from emerging to established to newcomers and everything in between. I just ask that you give me a little time, guys. I just got here, and I needed a little time to build out the channel.

So I just want to let you know that I heard you and just give me some time and be patient. And I think you’ll like the result. God bless everybody. But here’s where it gets wonky. His act is built around the phrase, aren’t you embarrassed?

It was the title of a special. He’s the man who watches how people behave and can’t believe they weren’t raised better. The act’s easy to live up to when you’re an outsider waiting tables and looking at everybody else. It’s a lot harder when you’re the name on everything and people are looking at you. Aren’t you embarrassed?

He’s still one of the best-selling comics alive. Nothing in the last year has changed that. You know, most of the people have gotten over the Riyadh thing. The casuals forget about the radio thing. But it’s still out there in the Google searches.

He had a 25-year run where nobody in comedy had a bad word to say about him. And, you know, people are being kind, but again, the Google search is more complicated this day. He’s handling it okay. He says he needs time. I don’t know how much time he needs than that.

Is your deep dive on sebastian maniscalco on a saturday normal episode tomorrow and tomorrow and the other feed is late night dead episode three we take a look at conan o’brien taking over the late night franchise i’m Johnny Mac see you tomorrow

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Featured: Sebastian Maniscalco, Vince Vaughn, Nate Bregazzi, Kevin Hart, Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci

What’s in This Episode

• Sebastian Maniscalco’s rise from Four Seasons waiter to top-3 touring comedian
• Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show and its impact on Maniscalco’s career
• Maniscalco’s comedy style and physical performance approach
• Maniscalco’s Netflix specials and film roles including The Irishman and About My Father
• Maniscalco’s clean, non-political comedy lane versus controversial comedians in the charts
• Tensions between Maniscalco and fellow comedians in the industry

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Caloroga Shark Media. From 1998 to 2005, if you had breakfast at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, there’s a decent chance your waiter was Sebastian Maniscalco. He did the job for seven years. He’d work the dining room during the day, carrying eggs to agents and movie stars, and at night he’d go do open mics in bars and bowling alleys for nobody. Last year, Sebastian Maniscalco was the number three touring comedian in the country behind only controversial MAGA comedian Nate Bregazzi and Kevin Hart.

Hi, I’m Johnny Mac, and with today’s Daily Comedy News Saturday Deep Dive, we are talking Sebastian Maniscalco. Sebastian was born in 1973 in Arlington Heights, Illinois. His father, Salvatore, came over from Sicily at 15 and became a hairstylist. His mother was a secretary. Sebastian was an altar boy.

He went to Northern Illinois University, was president of his frat, and got a communications degree in 1995. Hey, we could have been co-workers at the radio station or something, or You might be hosting a podcast in your basement like a loser. People do that. He’s not a damaged kid who found the stage. He comes across as a guy from a strict, loud, old school family who can’t believe how everybody else was raised.

He moved to L.A. In 98 and got the job at the Four Seasons. So I pretty much know of every celebrity’s tipping habits working at the Four Seasons. And what do we got? Shaq’s the best.

What does Shaq do? Shaq come in on a Sunday by himself, walk through the bar. He used to sit by himself. This is not every Sunday, but a few. Order a fruit plate.

A little, what else did he have? Oh, coffee. But I used to serve the coffee to him in a big cappuccino cup because. It’s like serving a giant. I could serve him a little teacup.

Bring out the big cappuccino. And he would never ask for a check, just left $ 100 under the plate. Every time. He’s told the story many times of asking to leave a shift early to do a set, running down to the comedy store and then running back to finish serving. He became a regular at the comedy store in 2005, which was the year he finally quit the hotel.

You know, to me, that feels like five minutes ago. Then I do the math and I’m like, oh, yeah, 2005 has been a minute. Sebastian’s first real exposure came from Vince Vaughn, who picked four unknown comics for a thing called the Wild West Comedy Show, which again, I feel like was yesterday. Wow, that went fast. 30 cities and 30 nights on a bus, and Vince made a documentary out of it. Sebastian was one of the four comedians.

Here’s the deal. This guy, yep, that’s big-time movie star Vince Vaughn, got an insane idea one night to take four up-and-coming comics, that’s them, and do 30 live shows in 30 nights while traveling 6,000 miles across America on a bus. And they made a movie. Crazy, right? Um, you could say that.

So. Who are these guys? I always want to hear Sebastian’s perspective on things because it’s so funny. Yeah, they’re at the health club. These people with the iPod strapped to their bicep.

It’s my pod. You know, just the smallest thing can really make him outraged, and he’s just so offended by it. I walk into the club, and the iPod people are like this. Look at this. Look at this guy.

Look at this guy. He’s got a CD player he’s got. Oh, God. Look at him search. My act is kind of like observational type of humor.

My point of view is very kind of disgusted with human behavior and how they conduct themselves in public. He’s the king of personal hygiene. If you didn’t take a shower, don’t stand around him. His whole persona is like amazed that somebody has the audacity to roll out of bed, not take a shower, and they’re in the food section at the grocery store. I don’t care what people think.

Well, I’m uncomfortable that you’re comfortable. Shower. I pinched myself every day I was on that tour because in this business, you never know when it’s going to happen again, if it’s going to happen again. So every day I felt like this was it. Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show, coming to theaters February 8th.

His first special, Sebastian Live, came out in 2009. Then he did three for Showtime. 2012’s What’s Wrong With People? Which I think I have in my mind as What’s Wrong With You People? Have I been reading that wrong and adding a word all these years? 2014’s Aren’t You Embarrassed? And 2016’s Why Would You Do That?

If you look at those titles, that’s pretty much the whole act. He said it took him close to 20 years to work out his voice, and he compares it to lifting weights, where you don’t walk into the gym on day one as a bodybuilder. He wasn’t an overnight anything. He was 45 before most people knew who he was. Most of the act is physical.

He doesn’t stand at the mic and tell you about the guy at the airport. He becomes the guy at the airport with the walk and the face and the whole body. He kicks his leg back, he throws his arms around, he does a strut. The material is about his father, his wife’s family, and people behaving in public in ways his father would have smacked him for. He lists his influences as Don Rickles, Johnny Carson, Dice, Seinfeld, Brian Regan, and John Ritter.

John Ritter might be the most telling name on there because John Ritter was also a physical comedian. What matters just as much is what he doesn’t do. He’s not political and he’s not filthy. He doesn’t have a take on the news. He’s not part of the Austin scene.

Not really a critic’s favorite. And these days, not his fellow comedian’s favorite either. We’ll get to that. You can bring your parents. You can bring your kids.

We did an episode on Nate a while back. It’s a similar lane. There’s a huge audience in this country that wants to laugh for 90 minutes without being lectured or embarrassed. And for a long time, almost nobody in comedy was serving it. Now, if you look at the top of the charts, look who’s up there.

That audience showed up. In 2018, a memoir called Stay Hungry, the Netflix special the same name, January of that year, taped at Radio City. He played Madison Square Garden. He hosted the MTV Video Music Awards. Listen, I didn’t mean to come out to a cloud of smoke, but backstage, my mother’s frying zucchini.

It’s not really her fault. She’s making it for 20,000 people tonight. So we crack the window and hopefully this all clear out for the Devil’s Home Opener. Welcome to the 2019 VMAs. My name is Sebastian Maniscalco.

And I’m gonna be your host tonight. Man, what a night. We’re celebrating music the way it always was intended. In a hockey rink, In the middle of Newark. Another Netflix special in 2022.

And then last year, a hilarious special called It Ain’t Right. Hollywood came calling. He had a small part in Green Book. Then Martin Scorsese cast him as crazy Joe Gallo in The Irishman. Opposite Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci.

Not bad. I waited on Robert De Niro. I waited on Al Pacino, who I subsequently worked with. You know, 25 years later, which was, you know. Did he remember you from the 4Z?

No, no, no. Again, I didn’t go there and, hey, I’m an actor. I’m trying to get, I’m a comedian. I just did my job. I was very polite.

I didn’t, like, sneak my way into, like, letting them know I was in the entertainment business. It was actually against company policy to, like, tell these people what you were actually doing. In 2023, Sebastian co-wrote and starred in About My Father, a movie based on his own life with Robert De Niro playing Salvatore the hairdresser. I just wish you hadn’t used my bowls. Well, you know, I used your bowls, Doug, because I wanted to add a special spiritual reverberation.

To the meal, so that’s why. So thank you for that contribution. Salvo, it’s delicious. Listen, given everything you’re doing for my son, this is the least I can do. And I just wanna say something that my father used to say.

The translation is the family isn’t just one important thing, it’s everything. And I like to toast to that. Lovely. Salute. Salute.

To everything. Time for some more vino, huh? Oh, yes. When in Rome. Because, you know, you guys are Italian.

You got a problem with Italian smell? Yeah, Bill. I thought he was serious.

And then the sign that you’ve made it.

Saturday Night Live starts making fun of you. Last November, Marcelo Hernandez, who does two things well, one of which is playing Sebastian Maniscalco in sketches. You’re not going to believe it. I’m driving my car, and I got the stick. Shift going, and then the traffic was on another level.

Okay, and then this genius cuts me off, and I’m like, why would you do that? Sebastian handled it about as well as you can. He said he was flattered. He presented at the Critics’ Choice Awards alongside Marcelo Hernandez, and he’s openly campaigning to host the show. His one note was that the wig was too white.

So as recently as like 18 months ago, the story on Sebastian Maniscal was simple. He was a guy who waited tables for seven years, built it slowly, and was now one of the three biggest draws in comedy with no enemies to speak of. But there’s always part two of today’s podcast. Listen up to all my friends in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I am making my return after a 16-year hiatus to the Riyadh Comedy Festival, one of the biggest comedy festivals.

In the world. Mark your calendars, September 26th through October 9th. This is going to be big. For Sebastian, the wobble started in September of 25 with the Riyadh Comedy Festival. You remember this one?

We’ve talked about it a lot. The Saudi government put on a two-week comedy festival and paid a bunch of American comics to play it. Human Rights Watch said the government was using the event to whitewash its record, and a lot of comics who didn’t go had plenty to say about the ones who did. Sebastian wasn’t the face of the festival, he wasn’t the guy that people were the most angry at, but he’d gone his whole career without his name appearing on a list like that, and now it had.

---

And then the other one happened within the last month.

Back in April, the satellite radio people announced a multi-year deal with Sebastian Maniscalco, and the former Raw comedy channel became Sebastian Maniscalco’s comedy radio. He made a joke about how the hard part would be teaching his father how to find the channel in the car. Then, a comic named Liz Mealy posted a video about what the change had meant for working comedians who used to get played there, and that video took off pretty quickly. Hi, my name is Liz Mealy. I’m a stand-up comedian, and this video is for Sebastian Maniscalco.

The problem is, Raw went from playing 800 working-class comedians to now playing less than 300 celebrity comedians. Because of this action, hundreds of comedians will no longer be able to have these royalties. Working-class comedians, people that only make money on the road, that have no safety net, that depend on this money to just survive are going from having that money to nothing. Other comedians, including Patton Oswalt, Marc Maron, Dane Cook, Margaret Cho, Michelle Wolfe, and many others, well covered on Daily Comedy News, they all made videos of their own and addressed Sebastian by name. Sebastian Maniscalco has taken over that station, and apparently a lot of people are losing their airtime, which means they’re losing a lot of income.

That they need as working class comics. So this is sort of a plea and a request for Sebastian to make room and give all those comics their airtime back. The point being, a guy who had never been called out by his peers for anything suddenly had some of the biggest names in comedy doing it all in the same week. They were polite about it. Mealy said nobody was angry at him.

Batten Oswald said he didn’t think Sebastian meant any harm. But it was public and it was aimed at him. That’s a new experience for a comic whose whole reputation was that everybody liked him.

---

And now if you look him up or if you ask the casuals, they’re kind of like, w…

What’s going on? Sebastian noticed on Instagram. He addressed his fellow comedians and told them, I heard you. I support you. I love you.

I want to let you know that I heard you. I support you. I love you. I know how hard the grind is. Believe me, I’ve been there.

But I wanted to let you know that I had nothing to do with removing the raw comedy from SiriusXM. That was a SiriusXM decision. But I also want to let you know that I’m going to work with SiriusXM to highlight a variety of different voices in stand-up comedy, from emerging to established to newcomers and everything in between. I just ask that you give me a little time, guys. I just got here, and I needed a little time to build out the channel.

So I just want to let you know that I heard you and just give me some time and be patient. And I think you’ll like the result. God bless everybody. But here’s where it gets wonky. His act is built around the phrase, aren’t you embarrassed?

It was the title of a special. He’s the man who watches how people behave and can’t believe they weren’t raised better. The act’s easy to live up to when you’re an outsider waiting tables and looking at everybody else. It’s a lot harder when you’re the name on everything and people are looking at you. Aren’t you embarrassed?

He’s still one of the best-selling comics alive. Nothing in the last year has changed that. You know, most of the people have gotten over the Riyadh thing. The casuals forget about the radio thing. But it’s still out there in the Google searches.

He had a 25-year run where nobody in comedy had a bad word to say about him. And, you know, people are being kind, but again, the Google search is more complicated this day. He’s handling it okay. He says he needs time. I don’t know how much time he needs than that.

Is your deep dive on sebastian maniscalco on a saturday normal episode tomorrow and tomorrow and the other feed is late night dead episode three we take a look at conan o’brien taking over the late night franchise i’m Johnny Mac see you tomorrow

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Featured: Jerry Seinfeld, Shane Gillis, Theo Vaughn, Michael Che, Charlie Kirk, Chris Rock, Nate Bregazzi

What’s in This Episode

• Jerry Seinfeld heckler incident with Palestine comment — authenticity questioned
• Theo Vaughn Netflix special trailer — suspected fake crowd work
• Michael Che new Netflix special release — production timeline and material age
• Michael Che SNL experience — why he refuses to perform in sketches
• Chris Rock interview on context and taking quotes out of context
• Nate Bregazzi on AI and career transitions from water company to comedy

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Hello, I’m Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. No Shane Gillis today. I taped Thursday and Friday back-to-back. I’m speaking at a conference in Philadelphia today, so I needed to record two in a row. You may notice I’m wearing the same outfit.

I am surprised the media, as I record this Wednesday around lunchtime, has not gotten interested in the Jerry Seinfeld story yet. Just to catch everybody up, on last Friday, Jerry was doing a show. A heckler yelled out, Seinfeld, you will see, Palestine will be free.

And then Jerry interacted with the audience.

I pulled a couple clips here from different sources. These appear to be in the audience. I haven’t heard Jerry yet say he said these words. We do live in an age of AI, but this appears to be Jerry Seinfeld saying these things. Here, let’s take a listen.

This does quite seem to be some sort of setup because we have multiple camera angles and the people yelling out are quite well mixed. So I think it was you sit there. I’ll sit here. We’ll both yell out. And we will try and get Jerry Seinfeld.

That said, his full quotes, and we’ll get into this in the comedy stock market, are the kind of things that if you just pull out are not going to read well in text. I’m really surprised the mainstream media hasn’t yet, as of 11.55 on Wednesday, gotten into Jerry Seinfeld. I remember the Theo Vaughn trailer I played the other day, and I suspected that the crowd work was fake. Well, if you go on the Netflix post on social media.. The comments are not kind, wondering if that’s the joke that they pulled out of the special, how bad the special is.

People are wondering if this is the special that, remember last year or so, Theo Vaughn kind of had a breakdown on stage while taping a special? Is this that special? And others point out that the hamster joke in the trailer already appears on an album. So if he did this 10 years ago, it’s quite the coincidence that somebody would yell out something that would allow Theo Vaughn to go into the said routines. So I think the case for fake crowd work is there.

This thing’s out next week. We’ll see how funny it is or not. Michael Che’s new special is out. I did watch it, and I just wasn’t feeling it. I didn’t last too long.

I like Che a lot. I liked his previous special. This one just didn’t grab me. Complex asked him why it took two years. He said, And it’s a lot of two weeks on, one week off with a special.

You sort of want the real estate to be able to really, really test it and work it out and tweak it and take it on the road. Now, does Michael Che not know that SNL is three weeks on, one week off? I just find it fascinating that he said two. All right, whatever. You need an extended amount of time to be able to build it.

It was just a matter of trying to find that real estate, trying to line up the dates to make sure I got it right. So it took about two years to really where I felt, all right, this is something that’s ready to go. It was filmed in August and it’s already out on Netflix. Chase said, I feel like comedy is like bread. It’s good fresh.

We wanted people to get it as soon as we could. Netflix gave us a date and we wanted to be as good as it is. Working at SNL for years, we’re used to working fast. Complex is curious, how recent is some of the material? You start with Charlie Kirk, so at least a year.

Chase said, yeah, at least a year. Yeah, that’s pretty new. There’s a lot of tags in there. There’s some stuff that I’ve been doing for five years that just makes sense for the story of the special. I’m not too sure what’s the newest, but a lot of it I just literally tweaked up until the day, even before we taped it.

Maybe four shows there, just at some bar, just trying to tweak, try little things, different segues and different tags. And yeah, kind of came down to the wire. This is how I like to work, though. I’m sure there’s a more efficient way to do it. In that same Complex article, I thought this was interesting.

Speaking of SNL, Che said, I shouldn’t say this, but even sometimes with hosts and guests, I’m like, who? He then adds, I’m also not a super pop culture guy where I know every show. I like six things. Most of it is sports or wrestling or whatever hip hop for about 15 years ago. In his 12 plus years, did he ever want to be in a sketch?

He said, never. He said, I don’t like doing sketch comedy. I truly don’t like it. I love writing it. I love being part of the puzzle.

I love fixing it. I love watching it. Doing it makes me very uncomfortable. I don’t think it’s my strong suit at just taking away time from a guy that really wants it. I’d rather let the pros do it, but it is what it is.

I’ve definitely been asked, but it’s always like, don’t put me in that. Now, a few weeks ago, and I’m doing this on the fly here, a few weeks ago, the New York Times interviewed Chris Rock. And, you know, sometimes I like to mix up the stories and I don’t want to do like 13 minutes on one person. So apparently weeks ago, I had pulled out this paragraph from Chris Rock, but I find it particularly timely of the moment. The New York Times had asked Chris Rock, Do you think that taking things out of context is an ongoing problem for artists and comedians?

There’s so much discussion about whether somebody said something offensive or who’s allowed to say what. Chris Rock said, I hate to say it, it’s just BS. It’s just nerd bullies. Do you know how easy it is to go, what did you mean by that, before you elect to be angry at something? It’s so easy to ask somebody, hey man, could you not say that thing?

I just felt a certain way when you said that. Then if you’re ignored, yeah, reply with anger. But it’s so easy to pause and just go, hey, what’d you mean? I don’t know who I was having this argument with, but they said, people are so sensitive. And I’m like, no, they’re not sensitive.

They’re mean, and they can’t stop being mean. People are entitled to their feelings. Don’t get me wrong. We’re all entitled to be offended. Don’t take me out of context.

Context does matter, though. A lot of people are ignoring context because it prevents them from being mean. Controversial mega-comedian Nate Bregazzi caught up with the Detroit Free Press. The topic, artificial intelligence. I’m sorry, superior intelligence, as we’re supposed to say these days, right?

Yeah, I don’t want to get in trouble with the you-knows. SI was the topic. The controversial mega-comedian said, also, as the world expands its use of AI, apparently he didn’t get the talking points. Somebody’s going to give him a talking to. No one knows where any jobs might go or develop into.

Nate said, I used to do a joke like, your mechanics and plumbers are about to become your doctors. We don’t know. Everything’s changing so much that I think it’s a very secure place to get started and somewhere that, as I did, read water meters. But I went down this path of comedy, but that’s what I would have been doing if, you know, I didn’t get into comedy. I always wanted to do stand-up comedy.

I didn’t really know how to start, and I was working at the water company and had a buddy that kind of wanted to go to Second City in Chicago. I just needed a person like, yeah, let’s go try this. And I do remember a guy we worked with that was like, you should do it. I took a comedy class when I first started just because you do. It’s not going to teach you how to be funny, but it’s like you’re nervous and you’re scared and you don’t know what to do.

So you just want to go be around people that are also scared and nervous. He said the fact that he had a class every Wednesday forced him to keep at it. Like, just go down there. It’s kind of getting the nerves just to kind of calm down and then you get comfortable. As he got more established, he felt like he had a skilled trade.

He said, I talk about it in stand-up. I talk about an act. If you have an act, if I have an hour of material that I can rely on, then it’s like that’s something no one can take away from me. Well, except maybe Carlos Macias, but I digress. I have this hour, so you have something to give people when you’re selling tickets, something to perform.

Again, going back to the trades where if you know how to build and take apart a car, you have an act, something you can use. Worst case scenario now, I’m going to do cruise ships, but I’m going to do this thing I wanted to do. Then you say, now that gives me the chance to go leap and do that next level until you finally start making marks that you can just kind of set and you can set your marks higher. Dane Cook returns to the New York Comedy Festival on the 20th anniversary of a historic achievement. That achievement was two sold out shows at Madison Square Garden in one night.

That’s 20 years ago already, back when comedians selling out the garden was major news. It happens a lot more now. Dane said, it feels like the beginning of a new book instead of another chapter, and I’m appreciative to the festival. I’ve known a lot of them, from Caroline Hirsch back in the day when I was doing Caroline’s to Louis Ferranda and everybody. Louis was the booker at Caroline’s.

Probably is the book or the festival, I haven’t checked, to be able to go back and have a great time and watch this film that traveled through that festival in Madison Square Garden, the greatest stage in the world. It’s almost hard to describe because I was there, I did it, and I was sitting and watching a story about it and all the drama and intrigue around it. So to be part of the festival, then go back and celebrate that moment, what it was, what it means to both the festival and me now, an embarrassment of riches. I look at it, that’s the beginning of the next part of my career in comedy and beyond. All right, Dane, what do you want out of the next phase?

Ask Deadline. Dane said, more collaborations. Thank you for watching. I feel like I’m better at stand-up than ever. People go, oh, you’re a little older.

Yeah, maybe the knees aren’t what they were, but actually, they’re pretty good. All right, you ever think to yourself, Johnny Mac, anybody can make a podcast? I mean, you’re making one. All right, well, go ahead and make a podcast. I’ve got just the thing for you.

It is called Linnet, L-I-N-N-E-T. Here’s how it works. You go, I’d like to make a podcast, but I don’t know how. I don’t know how the tech works. I don’t know how to find music.

I don’t know how to upload so people can download it. How do you do all that stuff? Well, If you go to linitmedia.com and sign up for the free beta test, it’ll walk you through it. There’s this little AI box. You go, hey, I want to do this.

And it’s like, all right, hold on. Here’s what you do. It’ll walk you through the whole thing. So if you don’t know how to make a podcast and you wanted to make a podcast, Check out Linnet, L-I-N-N-E-T. You will go to linnetmedia.com, L-I-N-N-E-T, media.com.

There’s a free beta. I was talking to Mark the other day. The free beta was supposed to go at the end of October. He’s going to extend it, I think he said, through the end of November. Don’t hold me to that, John.

You just own the company. You don’t even know what’s going on. Look, it’s been a busy week with the Shane Gillis and all. Just go to linnetmedia.com. You at least have October, and I’m pretty sure into November.

And check out linnetmedia.com. It is Friday. It is time for a very complicated Comedy Stock Market. Comedy Stock Market.

---

All right, let’s start with the easy one.

We’re going to buy some more Norm MacDonald. People really like the comedy deep dive I did in this feed last Saturday. Go back and check that out. There is the Netflix documentary that is out. People are going to be grooving on Norm MacDonald.

It’s a good time to buy some Norm MacDonald before everybody else. Else figures it out. So grab some Norm MacDonald stock ASAP. We’re going to sell some more Sebastian Maniscalco. It is 12.07pm on Wednesday as I record this sentence.

And I don’t know how much time Sebastian needs to help out the working class comedians, but boy, dude, it is taking you forever. Again, I don’t work there. I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know what I don’t know. But if Sebastian had asked me in 2013 when I ran the Raw Dog channel, hey, can you add some comedians to the rotation?

I could have had it up there the next day. I also could have manually dragged stuff in for the next hour if I really, really wanted to. But come on, man, get this done. So sell your Sebastian Maniscalco, who will be the subject of tomorrow’s deep dive. Sell your Jerry Seinfeld.

Look, I am not going to solve peace in the Middle East. But as a poll quote, quote, I am a racist. It’s a genocide. I’m into it. Never going to look it in print.

I don’t know if you’re joking. I don’t know if you’re serious. I haven’t mastered the issues. But the quote, I am racist. It’s a genocide.

I’m into it. Never going to look good in print. Sell your Jerry Seinfeld. And Johnny Mac, what are we going to do with our Shane Gillis stock? Boy, this is a tough one.

I think we hold. There’s a lot of evidence for Shane Gillis being super popular. And a lot of people are upset right now. So when it comes to just comedy stock markets.. Don’t panic trade.

So just hold your Shane Gillis, sell your Jerry, sell your Sebastian, buy some Norm MacDonald. Let’s do one more. I got to record a bunch of these today because I’m down in Philadelphia. Vulture has their comedians you should know and will know. One of them is Ethan Simmons Patterson.

And we are told if Ethan Simmons Patterson stand up materials to believed he’s lived in New York City since 2015. Where he’s had a constant stream of improbable experiences, including being asked by unhoused people whether he’s got any sandwiches, getting romantic advice from a racist cop while the cop had his gun pointed at him, and having a run-in with an environmentally conscious crackhead on the street. He says in one joke, we gotta stop letting Gen X and Baby Boomers pretend like they didn’t make us who we are. Y’all looked us in the eyes when we were kids, and y’all were like, You could be whatever you want to be as long as you put your mind to it. You can do whatever you want to do.

And then we grew up and we were like, I want to be a woman. And they were like, WTF? Clean that up a little. And we were like, no, I’m calling your bluff, dude. That’s a great joke, which I’m sure he told better.

Two quick questions with Ethan from Vulture. One, what’s the biggest financial investment you made for your comedy? The answer, having a separate job as a nurse to be able to live a semi-normal life and pull jokes from a place of exploring my environment. Second question. What do you think about the future of comedy?

The answer, what concerns me about comedy is people from richer backgrounds flooding the scene and being able to outlast people from humble backgrounds. Then the voice of comedy kind of becoming this fake thing that’s based not on merit, but on how long you can survive pursuing it.

---

Also, I’m afraid of people with established careers in something else, pivoti…

All right, that is your comedy news for today. Tomorrow on this feed, a deep dive about Sebastian Maniscalco. And on the Is Late Night Dead feed, episode three on.. Are we up to three? Yeah, sorry, I record these, you know, in advance.

This week is episode three. Conan O’Brien takes over the late night slot. So that is the other podcast, Is Late Night Dead. And that is your comedy news for today. Go see Digger.

Have you seen Digger yet? Go see Digger. At some point, I’m going to talk about Digger. See you tomorrow.

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Featured: Jerry Seinfeld, Shane Gillis, Theo Vaughn, Michael Che, Charlie Kirk, Chris Rock, Nate Bregazzi

What’s in This Episode

• Jerry Seinfeld heckler interaction and AI authenticity concerns
• Theo Vaughn Netflix special fake crowd work allegations
• Michael Che new Netflix special review and production timeline
• Michael Che SNL experience and sketch comedy aversion
• Chris Rock on taking comedy out of context and nerd bullying
• Nate Bregazzi discusses AI and career pivots in comedy

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Hello, I’m Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. No Shane Gillis today. I taped Thursday and Friday back-to-back. I’m speaking at a conference in Philadelphia today, so I needed to record two in a row. You may notice I’m wearing the same outfit.

I am surprised the media, as I record this Wednesday around lunchtime, has not gotten interested in the Jerry Seinfeld story yet. Just to catch everybody up, on last Friday, Jerry was doing a show. A heckler yelled out, Seinfeld, you will see, Palestine will be free.

And then Jerry interacted with the audience.

I pulled a couple clips here from different sources. These appear to be in the audience. I haven’t heard Jerry yet say he said these words. We do live in an age of AI, but this appears to be Jerry Seinfeld saying these things. Here, let’s take a listen.

This does quite seem to be some sort of setup because we have multiple camera angles and the people yelling out are quite well mixed. So I think it was you sit there. I’ll sit here. We’ll both yell out. And we will try and get Jerry Seinfeld.

That said, his full quotes, and we’ll get into this in the comedy stock market, are the kind of things that if you just pull out are not going to read well in text. I’m really surprised the mainstream media hasn’t yet, as of 11.55 on Wednesday, gotten into Jerry Seinfeld. I remember the Theo Vaughn trailer I played the other day, and I suspected that the crowd work was fake. Well, if you go on the Netflix post on social media.. The comments are not kind, wondering if that’s the joke that they pulled out of the special, how bad the special is.

People are wondering if this is the special that, remember last year or so, Theo Vaughn kind of had a breakdown on stage while taping a special? Is this that special? And others point out that the hamster joke in the trailer already appears on an album. So if he did this 10 years ago, it’s quite the coincidence that somebody would yell out something that would allow Theo Vaughn to go into the said routines. So I think the case for fake crowd work is there.

This thing’s out next week. We’ll see how funny it is or not. Michael Che’s new special is out. I did watch it, and I just wasn’t feeling it. I didn’t last too long.

I like Che a lot. I liked his previous special. This one just didn’t grab me. Complex asked him why it took two years. He said, And it’s a lot of two weeks on, one week off with a special.

You sort of want the real estate to be able to really, really test it and work it out and tweak it and take it on the road. Now, does Michael Che not know that SNL is three weeks on, one week off? I just find it fascinating that he said two. All right, whatever. You need an extended amount of time to be able to build it.

It was just a matter of trying to find that real estate, trying to line up the dates to make sure I got it right. So it took about two years to really where I felt, all right, this is something that’s ready to go. It was filmed in August and it’s already out on Netflix. Chase said, I feel like comedy is like bread. It’s good fresh.

We wanted people to get it as soon as we could. Netflix gave us a date and we wanted to be as good as it is. Working at SNL for years, we’re used to working fast. Complex is curious, how recent is some of the material? You start with Charlie Kirk, so at least a year.

Chase said, yeah, at least a year. Yeah, that’s pretty new. There’s a lot of tags in there. There’s some stuff that I’ve been doing for five years that just makes sense for the story of the special. I’m not too sure what’s the newest, but a lot of it I just literally tweaked up until the day, even before we taped it.

Maybe four shows there, just at some bar, just trying to tweak, try little things, different segues and different tags. And yeah, kind of came down to the wire. This is how I like to work, though. I’m sure there’s a more efficient way to do it. In that same Complex article, I thought this was interesting.

Speaking of SNL, Che said, I shouldn’t say this, but even sometimes with hosts and guests, I’m like, who? He then adds, I’m also not a super pop culture guy where I know every show. I like six things. Most of it is sports or wrestling or whatever hip hop for about 15 years ago. In his 12 plus years, did he ever want to be in a sketch?

He said, never. He said, I don’t like doing sketch comedy. I truly don’t like it. I love writing it. I love being part of the puzzle.

I love fixing it. I love watching it. Doing it makes me very uncomfortable. I don’t think it’s my strong suit at just taking away time from a guy that really wants it. I’d rather let the pros do it, but it is what it is.

I’ve definitely been asked, but it’s always like, don’t put me in that. Now, a few weeks ago, and I’m doing this on the fly here, a few weeks ago, the New York Times interviewed Chris Rock. And, you know, sometimes I like to mix up the stories and I don’t want to do like 13 minutes on one person. So apparently weeks ago, I had pulled out this paragraph from Chris Rock, but I find it particularly timely of the moment. The New York Times had asked Chris Rock, Do you think that taking things out of context is an ongoing problem for artists and comedians?

There’s so much discussion about whether somebody said something offensive or who’s allowed to say what. Chris Rock said, I hate to say it, it’s just BS. It’s just nerd bullies. Do you know how easy it is to go, what did you mean by that, before you elect to be angry at something? It’s so easy to ask somebody, hey man, could you not say that thing?

I just felt a certain way when you said that. Then if you’re ignored, yeah, reply with anger. But it’s so easy to pause and just go, hey, what’d you mean? I don’t know who I was having this argument with, but they said, people are so sensitive. And I’m like, no, they’re not sensitive.

They’re mean, and they can’t stop being mean. People are entitled to their feelings. Don’t get me wrong. We’re all entitled to be offended. Don’t take me out of context.

Context does matter, though. A lot of people are ignoring context because it prevents them from being mean. Controversial mega-comedian Nate Bregazzi caught up with the Detroit Free Press. The topic, artificial intelligence. I’m sorry, superior intelligence, as we’re supposed to say these days, right?

Yeah, I don’t want to get in trouble with the you-knows. SI was the topic. The controversial mega-comedian said, also, as the world expands its use of AI, apparently he didn’t get the talking points. Somebody’s going to give him a talking to. No one knows where any jobs might go or develop into.

Nate said, I used to do a joke like, your mechanics and plumbers are about to become your doctors. We don’t know. Everything’s changing so much that I think it’s a very secure place to get started and somewhere that, as I did, read water meters. But I went down this path of comedy, but that’s what I would have been doing if, you know, I didn’t get into comedy. I always wanted to do stand-up comedy.

I didn’t really know how to start, and I was working at the water company and had a buddy that kind of wanted to go to Second City in Chicago. I just needed a person like, yeah, let’s go try this. And I do remember a guy we worked with that was like, you should do it. I took a comedy class when I first started just because you do. It’s not going to teach you how to be funny, but it’s like you’re nervous and you’re scared and you don’t know what to do.

So you just want to go be around people that are also scared and nervous. He said the fact that he had a class every Wednesday forced him to keep at it. Like, just go down there. It’s kind of getting the nerves just to kind of calm down and then you get comfortable. As he got more established, he felt like he had a skilled trade.

He said, I talk about it in stand-up. I talk about an act. If you have an act, if I have an hour of material that I can rely on, then it’s like that’s something no one can take away from me. Well, except maybe Carlos Macias, but I digress. I have this hour, so you have something to give people when you’re selling tickets, something to perform.

Again, going back to the trades where if you know how to build and take apart a car, you have an act, something you can use. Worst case scenario now, I’m going to do cruise ships, but I’m going to do this thing I wanted to do. Then you say, now that gives me the chance to go leap and do that next level until you finally start making marks that you can just kind of set and you can set your marks higher. Dane Cook returns to the New York Comedy Festival on the 20th anniversary of a historic achievement. That achievement was two sold out shows at Madison Square Garden in one night.

That’s 20 years ago already, back when comedians selling out the garden was major news. It happens a lot more now. Dane said, it feels like the beginning of a new book instead of another chapter, and I’m appreciative to the festival. I’ve known a lot of them, from Caroline Hirsch back in the day when I was doing Caroline’s to Louis Ferranda and everybody. Louis was the booker at Caroline’s.

Probably is the book or the festival, I haven’t checked, to be able to go back and have a great time and watch this film that traveled through that festival in Madison Square Garden, the greatest stage in the world. It’s almost hard to describe because I was there, I did it, and I was sitting and watching a story about it and all the drama and intrigue around it. So to be part of the festival, then go back and celebrate that moment, what it was, what it means to both the festival and me now, an embarrassment of riches. I look at it, that’s the beginning of the next part of my career in comedy and beyond. All right, Dane, what do you want out of the next phase?

Ask Deadline. Dane said, more collaborations. Thank you for watching. I feel like I’m better at stand-up than ever. People go, oh, you’re a little older.

Yeah, maybe the knees aren’t what they were, but actually, they’re pretty good. All right, you ever think to yourself, Johnny Mac, anybody can make a podcast? I mean, you’re making one. All right, well, go ahead and make a podcast. I’ve got just the thing for you.

It is called Linnet, L-I-N-N-E-T. Here’s how it works. You go, I’d like to make a podcast, but I don’t know how. I don’t know how the tech works. I don’t know how to find music.

I don’t know how to upload so people can download it. How do you do all that stuff? Well, If you go to linitmedia.com and sign up for the free beta test, it’ll walk you through it. There’s this little AI box. You go, hey, I want to do this.

And it’s like, all right, hold on. Here’s what you do. It’ll walk you through the whole thing. So if you don’t know how to make a podcast and you wanted to make a podcast, Check out Linnet, L-I-N-N-E-T. You will go to linnetmedia.com, L-I-N-N-E-T, media.com.

There’s a free beta. I was talking to Mark the other day. The free beta was supposed to go at the end of October. He’s going to extend it, I think he said, through the end of November. Don’t hold me to that, John.

You just own the company. You don’t even know what’s going on. Look, it’s been a busy week with the Shane Gillis and all. Just go to linnetmedia.com. You at least have October, and I’m pretty sure into November.

And check out linnetmedia.com. It is Friday. It is time for a very complicated Comedy Stock Market. Comedy Stock Market.

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All right, let’s start with the easy one.

We’re going to buy some more Norm MacDonald. People really like the comedy deep dive I did in this feed last Saturday. Go back and check that out. There is the Netflix documentary that is out. People are going to be grooving on Norm MacDonald.

It’s a good time to buy some Norm MacDonald before everybody else. Else figures it out. So grab some Norm MacDonald stock ASAP. We’re going to sell some more Sebastian Maniscalco. It is 12.07pm on Wednesday as I record this sentence.

And I don’t know how much time Sebastian needs to help out the working class comedians, but boy, dude, it is taking you forever. Again, I don’t work there. I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know what I don’t know. But if Sebastian had asked me in 2013 when I ran the Raw Dog channel, hey, can you add some comedians to the rotation?

I could have had it up there the next day. I also could have manually dragged stuff in for the next hour if I really, really wanted to. But come on, man, get this done. So sell your Sebastian Maniscalco, who will be the subject of tomorrow’s deep dive. Sell your Jerry Seinfeld.

Look, I am not going to solve peace in the Middle East. But as a poll quote, quote, I am a racist. It’s a genocide. I’m into it. Never going to look it in print.

I don’t know if you’re joking. I don’t know if you’re serious. I haven’t mastered the issues. But the quote, I am racist. It’s a genocide.

I’m into it. Never going to look good in print. Sell your Jerry Seinfeld. And Johnny Mac, what are we going to do with our Shane Gillis stock? Boy, this is a tough one.

I think we hold. There’s a lot of evidence for Shane Gillis being super popular. And a lot of people are upset right now. So when it comes to just comedy stock markets.. Don’t panic trade.

So just hold your Shane Gillis, sell your Jerry, sell your Sebastian, buy some Norm MacDonald. Let’s do one more. I got to record a bunch of these today because I’m down in Philadelphia. Vulture has their comedians you should know and will know. One of them is Ethan Simmons Patterson.

And we are told if Ethan Simmons Patterson stand up materials to believed he’s lived in New York City since 2015. Where he’s had a constant stream of improbable experiences, including being asked by unhoused people whether he’s got any sandwiches, getting romantic advice from a racist cop while the cop had his gun pointed at him, and having a run-in with an environmentally conscious crackhead on the street. He says in one joke, we gotta stop letting Gen X and Baby Boomers pretend like they didn’t make us who we are. Y’all looked us in the eyes when we were kids, and y’all were like, You could be whatever you want to be as long as you put your mind to it. You can do whatever you want to do.

And then we grew up and we were like, I want to be a woman. And they were like, WTF? Clean that up a little. And we were like, no, I’m calling your bluff, dude. That’s a great joke, which I’m sure he told better.

Two quick questions with Ethan from Vulture. One, what’s the biggest financial investment you made for your comedy? The answer, having a separate job as a nurse to be able to live a semi-normal life and pull jokes from a place of exploring my environment. Second question. What do you think about the future of comedy?

The answer, what concerns me about comedy is people from richer backgrounds flooding the scene and being able to outlast people from humble backgrounds. Then the voice of comedy kind of becoming this fake thing that’s based not on merit, but on how long you can survive pursuing it.

---

Also, I’m afraid of people with established careers in something else, pivoti…

All right, that is your comedy news for today. Tomorrow on this feed, a deep dive about Sebastian Maniscalco. And on the Is Late Night Dead feed, episode three on.. Are we up to three? Yeah, sorry, I record these, you know, in advance.

This week is episode three. Conan O’Brien takes over the late night slot. So that is the other podcast, Is Late Night Dead. And that is your comedy news for today. Go see Digger.

Have you seen Digger yet? Go see Digger. At some point, I’m going to talk about Digger. See you tomorrow.

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Featured: Jerry Seinfeld, Theo Vaughn, Michael Che, Charlie Kirk, Chris Rock, Nate Bargatze

What’s in This Episode

• Jerry Seinfeld heckler incident with Palestine comment – authenticity questioned
• Theo Vaughn Netflix special trailer – suspected fake crowd work
• Michael Che new Netflix special release and two-year production timeline
• Michael Che’s SNL experience and discomfort with sketch comedy
• Chris Rock on taking comedians out of context and context mattering
• Nate Bargatze discusses AI impact on jobs and his path to comedy from water company work

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Hello, I’m Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. No Shane Gillis today. I taped Thursday and Friday back-to-back. I’m speaking at a conference in Philadelphia today, so I needed to record two in a row. You may notice I’m wearing the same outfit.

I am surprised the media, as I record this Wednesday around lunchtime, has not gotten interested in the Jerry Seinfeld story yet. Just to catch everybody up, on last Friday, Jerry was doing a show. A heckler yelled out, Seinfeld, you will see, Palestine will be free.

And then Jerry interacted with the audience.

I pulled a couple clips here from different sources. These appear to be in the audience. I haven’t heard Jerry yet say he said these words. We do live in an age of AI, but this appears to be Jerry Seinfeld saying these things. Here, let’s take a listen.

This does quite seem to be some sort of setup because we have multiple camera angles and the people yelling out are quite well mixed. So I think it was you sit there. I’ll sit here. We’ll both yell out. And we will try and get Jerry Seinfeld.

That said, his full quotes, and we’ll get into this in the comedy stock market, are the kind of things that if you just pull out are not going to read well in text. I’m really surprised the mainstream media hasn’t yet, as of 11.55 on Wednesday, gotten into Jerry Seinfeld. I remember the Theo Vaughn trailer I played the other day, and I suspected that the crowd work was fake. Well, if you go on the Netflix post on social media.. The comments are not kind, wondering if that’s the joke that they pulled out of the special, how bad the special is.

People are wondering if this is the special that, remember last year or so, Theo Vaughn kind of had a breakdown on stage while taping a special? Is this that special? And others point out that the hamster joke in the trailer already appears on an album. So if he did this 10 years ago, it’s quite the coincidence that somebody would yell out something that would allow Theo Vaughn to go into the said routines. So I think the case for fake crowd work is there.

This thing’s out next week. We’ll see how funny it is or not. Michael Che’s new special is out. I did watch it, and I just wasn’t feeling it. I didn’t last too long.

I like Che a lot. I liked his previous special. This one just didn’t grab me. Complex asked him why it took two years. He said, And it’s a lot of two weeks on, one week off with a special.

You sort of want the real estate to be able to really, really test it and work it out and tweak it and take it on the road. Now, does Michael Che not know that SNL is three weeks on, one week off? I just find it fascinating that he said two. All right, whatever. You need an extended amount of time to be able to build it.

It was just a matter of trying to find that real estate, trying to line up the dates to make sure I got it right. So it took about two years to really where I felt, all right, this is something that’s ready to go. It was filmed in August and it’s already out on Netflix. Chase said, I feel like comedy is like bread. It’s good fresh.

We wanted people to get it as soon as we could. Netflix gave us a date and we wanted to be as good as it is. Working at SNL for years, we’re used to working fast. Complex is curious, how recent is some of the material? You start with Charlie Kirk, so at least a year.

Chase said, yeah, at least a year. Yeah, that’s pretty new. There’s a lot of tags in there. There’s some stuff that I’ve been doing for five years that just makes sense for the story of the special. I’m not too sure what’s the newest, but a lot of it I just literally tweaked up until the day, even before we taped it.

Maybe four shows there, just at some bar, just trying to tweak, try little things, different segues and different tags. And yeah, kind of came down to the wire. This is how I like to work, though. I’m sure there’s a more efficient way to do it. In that same Complex article, I thought this was interesting.

Speaking of SNL, Che said, I shouldn’t say this, but even sometimes with hosts and guests, I’m like, who? He then adds, I’m also not a super pop culture guy where I know every show. I like six things. Most of it is sports or wrestling or whatever hip hop for about 15 years ago. In his 12 plus years, did he ever want to be in a sketch?

He said, never. He said, I don’t like doing sketch comedy. I truly don’t like it. I love writing it. I love being part of the puzzle.

I love fixing it. I love watching it. Doing it makes me very uncomfortable. I don’t think it’s my strong suit at just taking away time from a guy that really wants it. I’d rather let the pros do it, but it is what it is.

I’ve definitely been asked, but it’s always like, don’t put me in that. Now, a few weeks ago, and I’m doing this on the fly here, a few weeks ago, the New York Times interviewed Chris Rock. And, you know, sometimes I like to mix up the stories and I don’t want to do like 13 minutes on one person. So apparently weeks ago, I had pulled out this paragraph from Chris Rock, but I find it particularly timely of the moment. The New York Times had asked Chris Rock, Do you think that taking things out of context is an ongoing problem for artists and comedians?

There’s so much discussion about whether somebody said something offensive or who’s allowed to say what. Chris Rock said, I hate to say it, it’s just BS. It’s just nerd bullies. Do you know how easy it is to go, what did you mean by that, before you elect to be angry at something? It’s so easy to ask somebody, hey man, could you not say that thing?

I just felt a certain way when you said that. Then if you’re ignored, yeah, reply with anger. But it’s so easy to pause and just go, hey, what’d you mean? I don’t know who I was having this argument with, but they said, people are so sensitive. And I’m like, no, they’re not sensitive.

They’re mean, and they can’t stop being mean. People are entitled to their feelings. Don’t get me wrong. We’re all entitled to be offended. Don’t take me out of context.

Context does matter, though. A lot of people are ignoring context because it prevents them from being mean. Controversial mega-comedian Nate Bregazzi caught up with the Detroit Free Press. The topic, artificial intelligence. I’m sorry, superior intelligence, as we’re supposed to say these days, right?

Yeah, I don’t want to get in trouble with the you-knows. SI was the topic. The controversial mega-comedian said, also, as the world expands its use of AI, apparently he didn’t get the talking points. Somebody’s going to give him a talking to. No one knows where any jobs might go or develop into.

Nate said, I used to do a joke like, your mechanics and plumbers are about to become your doctors. We don’t know. Everything’s changing so much that I think it’s a very secure place to get started and somewhere that, as I did, read water meters. But I went down this path of comedy, but that’s what I would have been doing if, you know, I didn’t get into comedy. I always wanted to do stand-up comedy.

I didn’t really know how to start, and I was working at the water company and had a buddy that kind of wanted to go to Second City in Chicago. I just needed a person like, yeah, let’s go try this. And I do remember a guy we worked with that was like, you should do it. I took a comedy class when I first started just because you do. It’s not going to teach you how to be funny, but it’s like you’re nervous and you’re scared and you don’t know what to do.

So you just want to go be around people that are also scared and nervous. He said the fact that he had a class every Wednesday forced him to keep at it. Like, just go down there. It’s kind of getting the nerves just to kind of calm down and then you get comfortable. As he got more established, he felt like he had a skilled trade.

He said, I talk about it in stand-up. I talk about an act. If you have an act, if I have an hour of material that I can rely on, then it’s like that’s something no one can take away from me. Well, except maybe Carlos Macias, but I digress. I have this hour, so you have something to give people when you’re selling tickets, something to perform.

Again, going back to the trades where if you know how to build and take apart a car, you have an act, something you can use. Worst case scenario now, I’m going to do cruise ships, but I’m going to do this thing I wanted to do. Then you say, now that gives me the chance to go leap and do that next level until you finally start making marks that you can just kind of set and you can set your marks higher. Dane Cook returns to the New York Comedy Festival on the 20th anniversary of a historic achievement. That achievement was two sold out shows at Madison Square Garden in one night.

That’s 20 years ago already, back when comedians selling out the garden was major news. It happens a lot more now. Dane said, it feels like the beginning of a new book instead of another chapter, and I’m appreciative to the festival. I’ve known a lot of them, from Caroline Hirsch back in the day when I was doing Caroline’s to Louis Ferranda and everybody. Louis was the booker at Caroline’s.

Probably is the book or the festival, I haven’t checked, to be able to go back and have a great time and watch this film that traveled through that festival in Madison Square Garden, the greatest stage in the world. It’s almost hard to describe because I was there, I did it, and I was sitting and watching a story about it and all the drama and intrigue around it. So to be part of the festival, then go back and celebrate that moment, what it was, what it means to both the festival and me now, an embarrassment of riches. I look at it, that’s the beginning of the next part of my career in comedy and beyond. All right, Dane, what do you want out of the next phase?

Ask Deadline. Dane said, more collaborations. Thank you for watching. I feel like I’m better at stand-up than ever. People go, oh, you’re a little older.

Yeah, maybe the knees aren’t what they were, but actually, they’re pretty good. All right, you ever think to yourself, Johnny Mac, anybody can make a podcast? I mean, you’re making one. All right, well, go ahead and make a podcast. I’ve got just the thing for you.

It is called Linnet, L-I-N-N-E-T. Here’s how it works. You go, I’d like to make a podcast, but I don’t know how. I don’t know how the tech works. I don’t know how to find music.

I don’t know how to upload so people can download it. How do you do all that stuff? Well, If you go to linitmedia.com and sign up for the free beta test, it’ll walk you through it. There’s this little AI box. You go, hey, I want to do this.

And it’s like, all right, hold on. Here’s what you do. It’ll walk you through the whole thing. So if you don’t know how to make a podcast and you wanted to make a podcast, Check out Linnet, L-I-N-N-E-T. You will go to linnetmedia.com, L-I-N-N-E-T, media.com.

There’s a free beta. I was talking to Mark the other day. The free beta was supposed to go at the end of October. He’s going to extend it, I think he said, through the end of November. Don’t hold me to that, John.

You just own the company. You don’t even know what’s going on. Look, it’s been a busy week with the Shane Gillis and all. Just go to linnetmedia.com. You at least have October, and I’m pretty sure into November.

And check out linnetmedia.com. It is Friday. It is time for a very complicated Comedy Stock Market. Comedy Stock Market.

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All right, let’s start with the easy one.

We’re going to buy some more Norm MacDonald. People really like the comedy deep dive I did in this feed last Saturday. Go back and check that out. There is the Netflix documentary that is out. People are going to be grooving on Norm MacDonald.

It’s a good time to buy some Norm MacDonald before everybody else. Else figures it out. So grab some Norm MacDonald stock ASAP. We’re going to sell some more Sebastian Maniscalco. It is 12.07pm on Wednesday as I record this sentence.

And I don’t know how much time Sebastian needs to help out the working class comedians, but boy, dude, it is taking you forever. Again, I don’t work there. I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know what I don’t know. But if Sebastian had asked me in 2013 when I ran the Raw Dog channel, hey, can you add some comedians to the rotation?

I could have had it up there the next day. I also could have manually dragged stuff in for the next hour if I really, really wanted to. But come on, man, get this done. So sell your Sebastian Maniscalco, who will be the subject of tomorrow’s deep dive. Sell your Jerry Seinfeld.

Look, I am not going to solve peace in the Middle East. But as a poll quote, quote, I am a racist. It’s a genocide. I’m into it. Never going to look it in print.

I don’t know if you’re joking. I don’t know if you’re serious. I haven’t mastered the issues. But the quote, I am racist. It’s a genocide.

I’m into it. Never going to look good in print. Sell your Jerry Seinfeld. And Johnny Mac, what are we going to do with our Shane Gillis stock? Boy, this is a tough one.

I think we hold. There’s a lot of evidence for Shane Gillis being super popular. And a lot of people are upset right now. So when it comes to just comedy stock markets.. Don’t panic trade.

So just hold your Shane Gillis, sell your Jerry, sell your Sebastian, buy some Norm MacDonald. Let’s do one more. I got to record a bunch of these today because I’m down in Philadelphia. Vulture has their comedians you should know and will know. One of them is Ethan Simmons Patterson.

And we are told if Ethan Simmons Patterson stand up materials to believed he’s lived in New York City since 2015. Where he’s had a constant stream of improbable experiences, including being asked by unhoused people whether he’s got any sandwiches, getting romantic advice from a racist cop while the cop had his gun pointed at him, and having a run-in with an environmentally conscious crackhead on the street. He says in one joke, we gotta stop letting Gen X and Baby Boomers pretend like they didn’t make us who we are. Y’all looked us in the eyes when we were kids, and y’all were like, You could be whatever you want to be as long as you put your mind to it. You can do whatever you want to do.

And then we grew up and we were like, I want to be a woman. And they were like, WTF? Clean that up a little. And we were like, no, I’m calling your bluff, dude. That’s a great joke, which I’m sure he told better.

Two quick questions with Ethan from Vulture. One, what’s the biggest financial investment you made for your comedy? The answer, having a separate job as a nurse to be able to live a semi-normal life and pull jokes from a place of exploring my environment. Second question. What do you think about the future of comedy?

The answer, what concerns me about comedy is people from richer backgrounds flooding the scene and being able to outlast people from humble backgrounds. Then the voice of comedy kind of becoming this fake thing that’s based not on merit, but on how long you can survive pursuing it.

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Also, I’m afraid of people with established careers in something else, pivoti…

All right, that is your comedy news for today. Tomorrow on this feed, a deep dive about Sebastian Maniscalco. And on the Is Late Night Dead feed, episode three on.. Are we up to three? Yeah, sorry, I record these, you know, in advance.

This week is episode three. Conan O’Brien takes over the late night slot. So that is the other podcast, Is Late Night Dead. And that is your comedy news for today. Go see Digger.

Have you seen Digger yet? Go see Digger. At some point, I’m going to talk about Digger. See you tomorrow.

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Featured: Shane Gillis, Emma Spector, Jessica Valenti, Jenna Bush Hager, Cecily Strong, Bobby Bones, John Schneider, Dan Soder

What’s in This Episode

• Shane Gillis SNL monologue backlash and misogynist humor criticism
• Cornell 2024 sexual assault case connection to comedy
• Jessica Valenti’s rape culture commentary on Gillis’ remarks
• Jenna Bush Hager Today Show segment on derogatory language
• Cecily Strong Instagram response to Gillis monologue
• Bobby Bones apology for defending the fishing lure joke
• Saturday Night Network podcast analysis of dead audience reaction

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

There’s a lot of stuff for adults on today’s podcast. We’re a little more serious than usual, so if for some reason you share this program with your children, don’t today. Hi, I’m Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. For Vogue, Emma Spector writes, There’s never a great time for lazy misogynist humor, but the details of Cornell’s 2024 sexual assault case being litigated in public adds a particular sting to Shane Gillis’ words. The thought of having to muster a laugh at some half-baked reinvention of the wanton woman stereotype when online so many survivors of sexual assault are sharing their stories of being dehumanized and debased by men just feels like a bridge too far right now.

Writer Jessica Valenti drew a connection between the monologue and the Cornell allegations in an Instagram video. She argues that Shane’s remarks should not be dismissed as a simply poorly timed joke. She said, Shane Gillis knows there’s a major national conversation happening right now about sexual assault. He’s very well aware of that fact. He’s very well aware that tens of thousands of women, hundreds of thousands, maybe more, are sharing their stories of being raped or talking about how painful it was when the good men in their life didn’t do anything or blame them.

When you demean and denigrate and dehumanize women and say that they’re not real human beings, that they’re just whores, their clothes are bait. What do you think rape culture is? On the Today Show, Jenna Bush Hager did a long segment about it. Now, if you’re watching this on YouTube and the clip isn’t there, NBC likes to copyright strike things. That’s what happened on Monday’s episode that they took out the Shane clips.

So if this skips ahead here, that is why you can always listen to the clip on the audio podcast. Here’s Jenna Bush Hager. So whatever if. That’s what they want to wear Godspeed, but I think when you say the word or I think it feels. Most derogatory almost yeah, it just feels.

Kind of like I wouldn’t want my kids to. Yeah, it feels mean yeah right and so and that is the energy that I think made people upset and there are obviously other reasons but for me I think that’s what it is like I walk around without shirts on at the gym all the time and they like are proud of their body so if the guy can be proud of his body let the girl be proud of her.

And also who is he to comment on women’s bodies for that and I think like we …

Shane Gillis among many so many where online creates I mean he’s obviously on Saturday Night Live but this perpetuates what is happening in our culture where people are commenting on women’s looks like ad nauseum. And it makes it it’s almost made it okay yeah. And it’s not okay it’s not okay and and I think like if we want to be good role models for our children like stop talking about the way women look period like and I think you know, there’s many of Women have said like what this is enough. And so I think like I honestly and especially in like the time we’re living in Like I wouldn’t want my son to hear me that if my husband talked like that about somebody have. A problem First of all, you wouldn’t he would never married if he did.

Yeah, I would be disgusted by it, you know, and I think like when we’re having conversations And here around, you know, the horrible things that are happening in the world and how to talk to our kids about it. Maybe the first place to start is for some of these people to start acting like role models. Yeah. To stop using words that are perpetuate, you know, disgusting. Yeah.

Disgusting. Like I was like, I think this word we can perpetuate. Cecily Strong, SNL’s longest-running female cast member, posted an Instagram story in it. She wrote, On my way to Pilates and my newly slutty ass orange shoes and rainbow socks. Might sell sex on the way, not sure.

That was posted alongside a picture of her gym attire. She adds, P.S. There was a gang rape at Cornell that maybe won’t count because the New York law says if you consent to drinking, you consent to all that happens to you. Bobby Bones, who hosts a national radio show, had posted a TikTok video, now deleted. We are told in the original TikTok video, Bobby Bones shared that he found Shane Gillis’ comments funny.

Country Now says in the original video, Bones said, quote, he said it looks like the color of an artificial bait, artificial lure, and I thought that was so funny. According to Country Now’s version of the TikTok, Bones had said, people who don’t get the joke are probably not from the South or have probably never been fishing. Bobby Bones has now issued an apology. Here it is. All right, I’m not too good to come on here and say that I think I probably missed the mark a little bit.

And maybe a lot of it, but I literally just saw the joke that Shane Gillis made about the, um, athletic wear the same color as a fishing lure and thought that joke itself was funny. And it has blown up into something. I wasn’t planning to come and say anything. I was just going to let it pass. But, um, even my wife was like, Hey, I think that’s probably interpreted a little worse than you think.

So I am definitely not too good to come on here and be like, hand up. That’s on me. I saw the one joke. I I really was just going to set it out and let it pass, but I don’t want to let it pass because that’s not. Who I am.

So I am sorry about all of this blowing up like this because it really was not my intention. I actually posted the video before it even became controversial because I just saw the fishing joke and thought, oh, that’s a funny analogy, but it is not. And that’s on me. So apologies. And I saw different people covering it now.

And so the last thing I want to be is something that looks like an advocate for something that I am not so um hand up on me my fault I should have watched the whole thing should have uh thought before I posted so I’d also like to thank my wife for kind of telling me hey you should really pay attention to what you’re saying so that’s on me um my fault I learned a valuable lesson here and I definitely will not do that again. So sorry, guys. I think all of us, all we can do every day is try and be a better person than you were yesterday. And opinions on things do evolve. On a similar note, I was walking the dog on Tuesday afternoon.

It was like 80 degrees in October in New Jersey, which is awesome for walking the dog. And I listened to two episodes of SNN, the Saturday Night Network podcast. The first was the initial reaction to the Shane Gillis episode. In the rapid reaction, they did not dwell on the joke in question at all and were more focused on how dead the room was for Shane Gillis. Then when they did their recap show and had a minute to think about things, they had a different opinion.

I’m going to play a long clip here. I want to be fair to host John Schneider as he sets up everything here. But here’s Saturday Night Network. Tonight, though. We’re going to talk about what everyone’s been talking about, which is this monologue here from his third time hosting.

There was a lot of apprehension from the SNL community that they decided to bring him back because his monologues, truth be told, have been the thing that I think most people have been discussing from his last two times hosting. There’s been a lot of things that he said in his monologues that people don’t agree with. But I think that the biggest focus, at least for what I see from critics, is just simply that he plays to a room that’s extremely quiet. And that’s something that we felt was important to point out. And I will admit that was my focus coming into Saturday night when we started our coverage was, all right, is that going to be better?

Like, are we going to see more laughter from the audience? And that was my thought, right? When he maybe pointed, I think, to Dan Soder in the audience and said, like his buddies up there, like maybe he tried to improve by filling the audience with his buddies. And I was really so focused on that, you know, now doing this for so long, that I completely missed exactly what he said in the monologue to the point where I got on here on Saturday night, and I didn’t address it directly. And that’s on me.

So for any of our listeners that feel like I didn’t do a good job in discussing what he said on Saturday, and we’re going to talk about it, I apologize for that. That’s on me. I try and do my best here. Obviously, we go live immediately after the show. But that’s no excuse because saying women are whores is not funny.

I don’t like to judge SNL as being funny or not. But it’s not funny in any context. And that should have been something that we should have just started the show with on Saturday. So I’m starting that with here. I’m starting that here right now to say that and put that out there.

Saying all that, we’re going to talk about what we heard. In the National Review, Daniel Forster writes under the headline, The Shane Gillis joke is undercooked, not a capital crime. Daniel writes, My impressions are more mixed overall, but I find a lot of his stuff funny. Anyway, we got to the bottom of the contretemps about what the Atlantic solemnly dubbed Gillis’ quote, troubled, unquote, Saturday Night Live monologue. I’m with my co-belligerents in the culture war on the ridiculousness of the overreaction on everything it says about who thinks they own comedy generally and the institution of SNL in particular.

The only thing I’d add is that this probably wouldn’t have happened without the Cornell news cycle and the segment of the left that feels its power is set to once again wax. But the main thing I want to say is that the women at the gym bit was undercooked. Not very interesting. This isn’t a mortal sin. It’s just a failure of tradecraft.

This is surprising because Gillis is part of a cadre of comedians who, despite presenting as gonzo, even reckless slayers of cultural pieties, are actually very careful and very self-aware technicians. Gillis understands exactly what he has to do to walk the audience to the place he needs them to be to laugh at his punchline. I will quote my friend anonymously. Skipping ahead in Daniel Forster’s piece for the National Review. He says, So yeah, the reaction is bonkers, but I’ll bet that.

No defense is softened up, but more relevant, there are no tags, no button, barely an observation. It feels like the start of a brainstorm, not something you put on national TV. So yeah, the reaction is bonkers, but I’ll bet that if Gillis had workshopped a bit for a few more weeks before taking it on stage, there wouldn’t have been a reaction at all. In The Hollywood Reporter, Tony Maglio writes, I’ll leave it to individual opinions as to whether or not Shane Gillis’ joke is offensive and to what degree, but one thing is for sure, it was not built for the SNL audience in 2026. Tony Wright’s SNL attracts liberal talent and a similar audience.

It films in New York City, and its main target is Donald Trump. The show’s writers and cast members are generally a diverse group of Gen Zers that came up in improv, sketch, and stand-up comedy. They don’t listen to Joe Rogan, and they don’t drink the Bud Light Gillis endorses. Studio 8H is not the place for gay jokes and jokes against women. At the very least, if you try them, they’d better be really strong.

Gillis’s were not. Comedy’s about pushing boundaries, and Gillis is really good at that. His substantial Guinness Book-sized audience is anti-woke, which is actually a pretty logical, though rare, position for comedians. The same material would probably kill the Gillis crowd, though those probably do not have a ton of crossover with your average SNL viewer. It wasn’t just the wrong place for the joke.

It was decidedly the wrong time. Women wearing what some people consider especially revealing clothing in the gym is in no way a new observation inside or outside the comedy community. The fake bait line is a good one, but really not good enough to justify the bit. Gillis’s filming tag makes the conceit a bit more timely. Self-recording in public gyms really is pervasive and invasive, and Gillis ultimately makes himself the butt of the joke, but the material is still misplaced.

Skipping ahead to the Hollywood Reporter writes, SNL creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels seems to court controversial hosts with purpose. Trump infamously hosted SNL during his 2016 president campaign, which did not sit well with much of the cast and writers the prior season, two years before being canceled for masturbating in front of female comics without their consent. Host Louis C.K. Closed his monologue by joking about how much child molesters must love their crimes. In 2022, Dave Chappelle poked fun at Kanye West’s anti-Semitic rants of the time while himself referencing Jewish power in Hollywood.

The Chappelle monologue is no longer on SNL’s official YouTube channel, but Louis and Shane’s are in full. Interesting. In Newsweek, Anna Ramanen writes, Anna writes, when Shane Gillis joked on Saturday Night Live that women wearing tiny shorts at the gym look like whores, I laughed, perhaps because I indeed wear shorts at the gym and I indeed seem to have retained my sense of humor. My disposition changed when Gillis complained about men not being allowed to look at said women. I understood the suggestion that women invite attention through their clothing and then unfairly object to it, but the way he phrased it felt uglier than the original joke.

When Dan Levy responded by calling their marks misogynistic, I virtually stood up and applauded. I was laying in bed, mindlessly scrolling through Instagram, which made the gesture somewhat less impressive. Both reactions were genuine, and impressively, some might say, I was able to hold on to two seemingly opposing truths at once. That women wear shorts at the gym and film TikTok videos of themselves more than they used to, say a decade ago, and that the way Gillis phrased and continued his joke was inappropriate. Apparently, though, that dual position is becoming a difficult one to occupy in America.

Skipping ahead, she says, we’ve become remarkably careless with words while simultaneously treating every word as potentially catastrophic. Skipping ahead again, I can still laugh at Gillis, agree with Levy, and recognize that neither reaction cancels the other. Gillis could have exercised more restraint in his language, levied more proportion in his response, and the rest of us, perhaps a little more judgment in deciding how much weight to give either, because if we can no longer distinguish a comedian’s ugly joke from genuine danger, while still recognizing that careless language has consequences, how can we expect to have a sensible conversation about anything? I suppose that’s exactly where we are in America right now, and I think this is the right time to take the break. Out today, Jack Asadorian Jr. ‘s special.

The LA Times said Jack didn’t know what to expect when he booked shows in Armenia. People in his life told him the culture there was very old-fashioned compared to the material in his act. They also told him they wouldn’t accept him because he wasn’t fully Armenian and he didn’t speak the language. He recalls people telling him, they’re not going to like you and you’re going to get arrested. Instead of calling it off, he booked his own shows using social media, sold out four of the dates.

A month later, he returned, sold out more shows and extended his tour to Beirut. Growing up, Jack didn’t even know that side of his heritage. At home, his grandmother and mother would speak to him in Spanish. As far as he knew, his heritage was Mexican. He said, I was just kind of bouncing around just a little bit of everything.

It was really hard to find out where I came from, who I was.

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And then as I got older, I kind of understood more and more.

And it was just a very different experience. You know, like we’ll be speaking Spanish one day and English one day, Armenian the next. His special Mexican-Armenian is out on YouTube today in it. Asadorian explores how he navigated his multicultural upbringing and how that experience has shaped him as an adult raising multicultural children. In the UK, prosecutors said of Russell Brand on Wednesday that Russell was a ruthless predator who raped or abused six women despite their protestations to satisfy his voracious sexual appetite.

Russell Brand is on trial facing three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, and one count of indecent assault relating to six women from 1999 to 2009. Russell denies all the accusations. As he arrived in court, he said, Today I feel blessed. I feel, of course, concerned, but hopeful that this process will lead to good outcomes for everybody involved. The prosecutor said he was ruthless.

He was calculating. He was manipulative. And the prosecution say he was a sexual predator. If you’d like to keep up on that trial, we are covering it on Daily Crime and Justice. I will cover it here and there on this show as warranted.

Michael Palin has canceled his book tour. He took a fall and broke a hip. He called it a comedy fall with no audience there to see it. He had been scheduled to visit venues across the UK to promote his new travel book in the Philippines. He says that tour and any other events over the next few months have now been cancelled.

He said, my accident was quite unsensational, a slip in the family bathroom where I’ve walked for 58 years. I fell heavily on my left side, resulting in three fractured ribs and my pelvic fracture. Hope he’s doing better. And that is your comedy news for today. I’ll see you tomorrow.

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Featured: Shane Gillis, Michael Che, Ego Nwotum, Maren Morris, Phoebe Robinson, Dave Chappelle, Sam Morrell, Jamie Foxx, Louis C.K.

What’s in This Episode

• Shane Gillis backlash over misogynistic gym joke material
• Michael Che’s Instagram response to Shane Gillis SNL controversy
• Shane Gillis walks off SNL stage early during good nights
• Comparison of Shane Gillis jokes to Dave Chappelle 2011 material
• Michael Che interview on stand-up vs Weekend Update persona
• Sam Morrell special review with weak closer
• Jamie Foxx Netflix special review

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

My, I hope we find something to talk about. Hi, I’m Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. Yeah, we’re going to talk a little Shane Gillis. And I’m also going to have fun with the Daily Beast. They love tagging comedians with headlines.

So when you hear me saying, like, mega comedian Nate Bregazzi, that’s what I’m making fun of here. They say SNL’s Michael Che has called out mega-friendly comedian Shane Gillis. In a series of Instagram stories, Michael Che wrote, got to do more press this week to promote the special. Wonder what every effing question is going to be about. Thanks a lot, Shane.

People pointed out, if you pay attention to Michael Che’s work, he’s probably not mad at Shane. He’s just having fun with the whole thing. One social media user wrote, if you generally thought he was upset, you haven’t been following him much at all. I agree. More people upset with Shane Gillis include Ego Nuotum.

She posted a picture of herself at the gym. She wrote, Whore reporting for duty. I haven’t been to the gym in so long. I didn’t know women just dress like whores now. Look, I’m sorry.

There’s no other way to describe it. Have you seen it? Singer Maren Morris, who I’m unfamiliar with, posted a video of herself at the gym with the caption, me being a whore at the gym. Comedian Phoebe Robinson called Shane Gillis’ jokes mediocre BS, adding, aren’t we sick of this misogynist, lazy-ass, hack, mediocre, straight male effing disdain for women that’s masked as effing comedy? Flavor Flav, you know him from Public Enemy.

He shared Dan Levy’s video that I shared on the podcast yesterday. He tagged it with the message, Important Allyship.

Meanwhile, Travis Kelsey liked the clip.

He gave it a thumbs up. A Swifty account posted on threads, even the ones you think are good ones aren’t. This was a poor choice for Mr. Swift to make. Does that mean we can drag Taylor Swift into this whole thing?

That would be amazing. It would be really, really good for the show, Taylor, if you could comment on Shane Gillis. Can you please, please do that for me? Please?

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Also from the Daily Beast, the headline, MAGA-FRIENDLY SNL HOST walks off sho…

Now, this is interesting. Late Nighter had the clip. This was not shown live. I don’t know where Late Nighter got the clip from, but Shane Gillis can be seen walking offstage before the good nights are over, exiting through the center of the stage. This is reminiscent of when Morgan Wallen walked off during the good nights in March of 2025, after which he posted to Instagram, Get Me to God’s Country.

I was paying attention to the part of The Good Nights that they did televise, and it seemed like not too many people were warming up to Shane other than Cam Patterson, described here in The Daily Beast as Tony Hinchcliffe acolyte Cam Patterson. As I put the show together, a clip of Dave Chappelle from 2011 has surfaced. Now, I’m not playing this to shame anyone for what they wear to the gym. I am sharing this to demonstrate what the material could be in the hands of a better comedian. Here, I think we see some parallel thinking.

Do you think Shane Gillis is ripping off 15-year-old Chappelle jokes? I don’t. But hey, more controversy. Is Shane Gillis stealing jokes from Dave Chappelle? Let’s start that controversy while we’re at it.

But anyway, what might a better comedian do with the material? Here’s Dave Chappelle from 2011. I did make a minor edit. I try not to do F-bombs on the show. I know we did a couple Monday, but we try not to.

So I took that word out. But here’s Dave Chappelle. The girl gets mad at you. Oh, oh, oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute.

Wait a minute. Just because I’m dressed this way does not. Make me a whore. Which is true. Gentlemen, that is true.

Just because they dress a certain way doesn’t mean they are a certain way. Don’t ever forget it. But ladies, you must understand that that is confusing. It just is. Now, that would be like me, Dave Chappelle the comedian, walking around the streets in a cop uniform.

Somebody might run up on me. Thank God. Officer, help us. Come on, they’re over here. Help us!

I’m like, oh, just because I’m dressed this way does not make me a police officer. You understand what I’m saying? It’s like, all right, lady, fine. Fine. You are not a whore.

But you are wearing a whore’s uniform. I’ll tell you that’s the point. I watched a couple specials, actually three specials before Monday Night Football on Monday. Sam Morrell’s special, pretty good. I was enjoying it.

I was like, this is pretty strong. This could be way up the list.

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And then at one point I realized I had kind of checked out and I was playing …

The closer was surprisingly weak for that pretty good special. Now, I’m wondering if this is the was it Bert Kreischer thing where Bert was explaining that comedians are moving their better material to the front of the special because people don’t make it to the closer. So maybe Sam structured his set that way. I don’t know. You’d have to ask Sam.

But, you know, it’s an OK special. Just disappointed with the closer. Then I put on the special from my former coworker, Jamie Foxx, and I will use the word unwatchable. It started. I’m like, hey, Fox, get to it.

Can you get to it? Can you get to it?

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And then he got to it.

And then I hit next. Hard pass on the Jamie Foxx special.

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And then I don’t know if you saw this.

Netflix has put up a bunch of the Louis C.K. Specials from the Louis C.K. You have to buy my specials on the website era. So you’ve got some fresh C.K. If you never did that.

And I was watching one of them. And boy, he’s just a better comedian. I’m not here to defend Louis’s behavior, but just in the art of standup, when you watch, say, Jamie Foxx or Sam Morrell, And then you put on CK. CK’s playing at another level. He’s just a better comedian.

I have not yet watched Michael Che. I’m recording pretty early on a Tuesday. It’s not even 11 a.m. Which is early for me. But the L.A.

Times caught up with Michael Che. They asked, hey, what’s your real self, the Weekend Update guy or your stand-up persona? Che said, the stand-up is the most me. Update is a job and it’s a character. On stage, you get to hear more nuances.

On Weekend Update, it’s a short segment, and I’m splitting time with Colin and guests. There are more needs being met than just mine. I say that respectfully. There are things we touch on that I wouldn’t in my personal work, and there are other things people write, so it’s never all me. Specific to stand-up, he said, I can listen, I can build, I can take you on a journey, I can make you think this is a bad joke, but it’s actually a good joke.

I can make you think it’s a dirty joke, but it’s a clean joke. I miss doing stand-up full-time, but maybe that’s only because I don’t do it full-time, and maybe if I did it full-time, I’d miss doing it part-time. Getting this hour together, Lorne was nice enough to let me go on the road even during show weeks, and he didn’t ask as much of me this past season. It was really kind, and I really appreciate it. The LA Times followed up and said, Your stand-up persona is definitely more thoughtful and open-minded than your weekend update one.

It’s called comedy, everybody. Even on Saturday Night Live, some things are just jokes. I don’t know why people can’t understand this. I’m not shading the L.A. Times.

I just think in general. Yeah, he’s playing a persona. He leans into the persona if you watch it every week. The Times is curious. Are you conscious of revealing yourself on stage or just thinking about what’s funny?

Chase said they tell you in the criminal world that the longer you talk to the police, the more chances there are you’re going to reveal something. And I feel like it’s true for comedy, too. A lot of the stuff I do is just thoughts that we haven’t said out loud and explored yet. I start with a thought. And if I can get a joke, a one liner for the thought.

Looking ahead a little bit on SNL, Drewski will be your host on November 7th. Now, I remembered Drewski controversy something something, so I looked it up on Tuesday morning. Back in March, Druski posted a sketch to X captioned, quote, how conservative women in America act. In the sketch, Druski wears prosthetics, including a blonde wig, heavy makeup, a white jacket. Some people use the term whiteface.

Druski moves through a series of scenes as a conservative woman praying for troops at a rally. Clutching a Bible during a rambling faith testimony, and delivering a speech about protecting, quote, all white men in America, many people think it was a parody of Erica Kirk. The video got 100 million views. Druski, who will host Saturday Night Live on November 7th, was also profiled by Rolling Stone on February 22nd, 2024. I will read two paragraphs verbatim, quoting Rolling Stone.

His rise hasn’t been without controversy. In 2022, he posted a skit called That friend that tries to make the girls overly drink, where he played a man who encourages women to excessively imbibe so he can sexually assault them. Audiences were split. Some commended Druski for calling out the behavior, while others felt that joking about rape was insensitive. I think I displayed the character too well, he says, discussing the subject for the first time.

After the controversy bubbled up, he took the clip down. I didn’t want to continue to trigger people, he says. It’s always coming from a good place. But Druski isn’t done exposing this kind of behavior. His characters often touch on misogynistic standards and the early signs of emotional toxicity in relationships.

I was like, yo, you have to remember, this is the same stuff I’ve been doing. This is my comedic voice. Again, that was Rolling Stone in 2024. And he is hosting Saturday Night Live on November 7th. We’ll see if the social media warriors do their homework.

Bubbling up on Tuesday morning as I record Jerry Seinfeld finding himself in some hot water. There are posts being spread on social media. I’ve seen a few of them. They’re a little blurry. The audio is not great.

It appears to be Jerry Seinfeld in Chicago this past Friday being interrupted by some pro-Palestinian protesters in the audience. Apparently, at one point, Jerry ends a joke by saying, I’ve definitely had enough. Then a protester shouts from the audience, well, I’ve had enough of genocide. Other members of the crowd begin to boo. The protester goes on, citing the estimated death tolls of Palestinians killed by the war in Gaza.

As the protester is escorted out of the show, Jerry is seen dancing. On the stage, according to some accounts, while mocking the protester. Jerry is quoted in an article on MSN.com as saying, I’m racist. It’s a genocide. I’m into it.

Jerry then apparently goes on to tell the protester, I’m going to find out how much your ticket was and I’m sending it to Israel. Jerry then apparently tagged that joke with, no, I won’t. I’m keeping it. And another account tells me that tag got laughter, applause, and cheers from the audience. I’ll be curious to see how much this bubbles up.

Meanwhile, the Good Plus Foundation is gearing up for another night of stand-up to mark the organization’s 25th anniversary milestone. The foundation, launched by Jessica Seinfeld, has headliner Jerry Seinfeld, so I assume he won’t be canceled by Jessica.

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Also appearing Leanne Morgan, Louis C.K.

Marcelo Hernandez, who does one thing well, and George Wallace. We are promised an unforgettable night of laughter and purpose, raising funds to support Good Plus’s work with families. Gabe Iglesias was in Oakland, and apparently they broke into his SUV. He was taking a picture at the edge of Lake Merritt. Gabe Iglesias posted on Twitter, Hello from Oakland, so beautiful.

Hard to believe they broke into our SUV only 200 feet from this pic. One social media user chimed in, Not hard to believe it. You’re in Oakland. You’re only five miles away from the closing of the only In-N-Out ever. Hey, don’t forget to go beta test Linnet for us.

What’s Linnet, John? Well, you can make your own podcast, but I don’t know how to make a podcast. That’s the point. Linnet will talk you through it. Go to linnetmedia.com, L-I-N-N-E-T, media.com.

Play around with it. If you’re like, hey, I wanted to make a podcast about Shane Gillis, you can just tell it what you want to make. It will help you make it. You can voice it yourself or you can have an AI voice it. If you’re like, I don’t know how to edit, trust me, it will edit for you.

I was playing with it on the weekend while crushing Scott Beckett at the football pool, as I like to mention over and over and over. Yeah, I was having it clean up some episodes of this very program. Works just fine. So why don’t you beta test it? It’s free for the rest of the month.

Linnetmedia.com, L-I-N-N-E-T, media.com. The LA Times, for the second time today, makes the podcast. They caught up with David Mitchell. You know him from Mitchell and Webb. David also stars in Ludwig season two.

They were curious if he was aware of American TV. He said, I suppose the first sitcom that had a big impact on me was Cheers, which seemed to be in the vanguard of a series of brilliant American sitcoms that are both very funny and sort of terrifying in the number of episodes they were able to produce. But yes, I mean, yeah, can you imagine as a Brit being like, they made 200 episodes of something? But yes, I absolutely loved American comedy and American comic films as well. There’s something I quite often rewatch, films from the 80s.

I remember quite enjoying and you go, I sound like such an old person. They don’t make them like that anymore. He points out that they don’t make enough of them for there to be the 5% best of them. You don’t get When Harry Met Sally by making one romantic comedy. You get it by making 200, and one of them is that.

Another show approaching 200 episodes, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. This new season was really strong. You know, some of the seasons in the teens.. Especially around COVID time. We’re a little off the mark, but I liked this season a lot.

Like I found myself laughing out loud and I’m a comedy snob. Vulture agrees. They wrote more than a victory lap. This 18 season feels like an argument that it’s always sunny could continue on indefinitely. Even if it’s become a bobblehead of nods to its past, it remains impressive how the series’ writers keep coming up with new ways to remix these elements, and the actors keep finding new shades within the characters.

As always, Glenn Howarden is the cast MVP, with his elastic, expressive face selling all of probable serial killer Dennis’ most hyperbolic reactions. It’s his quiet moments, and the guys have a sleepover that’s so powerful. The tentative way he says to Charlie, that was awesome, dude, maybe we should call it.

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And then his pleasantly surprised expression when he says to Charlie the morn…

I really did. Vulture writes, both lines can be construed metatextually, like Dennis is admitting the gang has come to the end of the road. I hope not. The show’s been great. Keep going.

Why not? Late Nighter took a look at the late night ratings. Kimmel averaged over 3 million viewers across 13 first-run episodes in September. We’re not really going to get rid of that show, are we? Why would we do that?

Jimmy, why would you walk away at the height of your power when you’re only a little older than me? All you’ll wind up doing is being a loser in a baseball cap in the basement recording a podcast. You don’t want that sad ending to your life. No, keep hosting the show. You have proper lighting.

Kimmel’s up 43% from August. In the 18 to 49s, now 336,000 viewers. The Tonight Show, starring Jimmy Fallon for now, averaged 1.5 million total viewers, down 3%. However, in the 18 to 49s, it was up 24%, 230,000 adults watching the show. Make 1230 great again, Seth Meyers has a show for some reason.

He’s sitting in David Letterman and Conan O’Brien’s old chair. Don’t even start me. That came back, and the new episodes, after seven weeks off, averaged 1.04 million total viewers. In the 18 to 49s, Late Night with Seth Meyers got 139,000 adults, which is a very respectable number for a podcast. The Daily Show back, 1.01 million total viewers in the 18 to 49s, 157,000.

That’s like Seth Meyers numbers, guys. What’s going on there? That’s terrible. I mean, CBS isn’t even trying. Byron Allen got 787,000 total viewers.

And in the 18 to. 49s, 106,000. Pretty good numbers for a podcast. At 12.05, the second half of Byron Allen airs. Got 72,000 18 to 49s. Not even good numbers for a podcast, but CBS doesn’t care.

They’re being paid. And the other Byron Allen thing at 1230, it’s called Funny You Should Ask. 528,000 total viewers.

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And then the 18 to 49s, 86,000.

Which, what was Seth’s number again? 139. I don’t know, NBC. I don’t know. And that is your comedy news for today. I hope we find something to talk about tomorrow.

See you then.

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Featured: Dan Levy, Shane Gillis, Theo Von, Sebastian Maniscalco, Nate Bargatze, Bill Burr, Dave Chappelle, Larry David, Nikki Glaser, Norm MacDonald

What’s in This Episode

• Dan Levy criticizes Shane Gillis’ SNL monologue about women at the gym
• Theo Von’s new Netflix special ‘I’m Doing Fine’ releasing October 20th
• Sebastian Maniscalco removes audience member during Las Vegas show
• SNL audience reception differences compared to stand-up comedy crowds
• Nate Bargatze discusses work ethic and sense of urgency in interview

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Caloroga Shark Media. Hi, I’m Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. Boy, Dan Levy is not happy with Shane Gillis’ monologue on Saturday Night Live. I played the clip on Monday’s show. I won’t play it today because YouTube took all the clips down.

It’s just too annoying to deal with. But Shane Gillis said, and told it better than I will, I haven’t been to the gym in so long. I didn’t know women just dress like whores now. Well, Dan Levy did not like that joke. He went on Instagram and posted this.

Women wearing short shorts to the gym does not make them whores. It makes the men calling them whores misogynists. There’s a difference there. By the way, I’ve seen more men’s nipples at the gym than I’ve ever seen women showing their bodies off. But I, I’m speechless that something like that can exist on live national television.

And to be perfectly honest, more men need to be standing up in opposition to it because it’s complacency that has created the environment with which women are sexually assaulted. And it’s a conversation as opposed to a crime. Men need to be defending women more. This is not a women’s issue. This is an everybody issue.

Because the more that men objectify women in the media, the more that other men see them as objects and treat them as objects. They are not objects. They are superior human beings to men, okay? And I’m sorry if this gets me in trouble with the Internet. Dan then had one more sentence, which I clipped into paraphrasing.

He said something like, I don’t want the entire Internet mad at me. Oh, F. And the reason I took it out was because of the F-bomb. In a previous Instagram story that also appeared to be inspired by Shane Gillis’s monologue, Levy bemoaned the vile, repugnant, disgusting trash that has been pouring out of people’s mouths lately, according to USA Today. Dan Levy is 43 years old.

CinemaBlend talked about previous SNL scandals. They reminded us that Nikki Glaser got gasped from the audience last year when she talked about her young nephew wanting to shower with her. Bill Burr got into trouble because he said we shouldn’t cancel people who are dead because God already canceled them. Dave Chappelle joked about Kanye and anti-Semitism. Larry David joked about flirting with women in concentration camps.

Some people didn’t like that. CinemaBlend writes, There’s a murderer’s row of stand-up comedians who’ve taken the stage at Studio 8H and have gotten mild applause at best. Their theory? The average person sitting in the Studio 8H audience, and even the average person at home, is not the same person who goes to stand-up comedy shows. Like the 70-something thousand that went to go see Shane Gillis at the Eagles Stadium?

Those people? Yeah. Cinema blend, right? Certainly they’re not the same people who would buy a ticket to go see Shane Gillis, so what he’s joking about and how he’s joking about it are probably not the sort of thing that the average person in the audience at SNL is predisposed to laugh about. It’s just easier for everyone to get on the same page and laugh about Debbie Downer than it is about Chris Rock’s thoughts about the Boston Marathon bombing.

Even Norm MacDonald’s return monologue, which is one of the most lauded openers ever, got a mixed response from the crowd. The legendary coach of the Chicago Bears, Mike Dicca, passed away last week. Some people wondered, would SNL do a tribute.. Robert Smigel posted on social media, I believe SNL had planned to run a brief superfans clip in tribute to Mike Ditka and ran out of time. He says he was contacted to suggest a favorite Ditka joke.

Theo Vaughn will have a new Netflix special. It is called I’m Doing Fine. It’ll be on Netflix October 20th. Hey, that’s next week. It’s Vaughn’s third special, his first in five years.

We find the freewheeling Theo Vaughn dishing on his rural upbringing and acid-filled adventures. There is a trailer. Now pay close attention here. I suspect, I don’t know, but I suspect we’re seeing some fake crowd work here or Theo Vaughn is the master of improv and took a throwaway line from somebody who seems to be in the first row or two and did a nice solid five minutes here. Here’s Theo Vaughn.

We have some characters in our area growing up, though. I know that. They just busted a dude in my hometown with a 30 pound bag of hamster bones on him. Oh yeah, they got him. How many hamsters do you think that is, big dog, right here?

If you had to guess, 100? Bro, what are you talking about? What are you talking about? 100 houses? You don’t know what a house is, bro? One of the Lord’s McNuggets, bro?

What? You think 100 hamsters have 30 pounds of bone in them? You got Galapagos hamsters? You got them rideable hamsters, yeah. Come on, Nibbles.

We late for the derby. No, bro, it’s about 2,000 hamsters, bro. Dang, boy. But good guess, pretty good guess overall. And for this area, great guest, buddy.

You started it. Enemy of the working class comedian Sebastian Maniscalco playing Las Vegas on Friday night. He said, this is my last weekend here at the Wynn. I’ve been performing here for six years, but I’m taking a break from performing here in Las Vegas. I didn’t want this to go down on my last week in here.

The this is not the whole kerfluffle from last week. The Las Vegas Review-Journal says a woman in a black outfit with glittery silver sleeves was escorted from the venue midway through the Sebastian Maniscalco show. Apparently the woman is enjoying herself and was a little chatty in the audience. Guests around her called security to her row. There was a brief conversation as Sebastian paused his act.

Then a few minutes later, Sebastian saw more commotion from that area. Then Sebastian summons security. Sebastian is quoted as saying, lady, just take a walk. It’s over. Take care.

Goodbye. I’m sorry that had happened, but you were ruining the show for everybody here. Maniscalco then told the crowd, get your phones out, guys. This is a good moment. Get this on social media.

You think we’re at a UFC fight? Now, that’s interesting because Sebastian also has a no social media policy at his win shows. As the woman was being escorted out, apparently she started shouting towards Sebastian Maniscalco. He then said, this whole section doesn’t like you, lady. I’m sorry.

I told you to stop at the beginning. I gave you a warning. I don’t like doing that. It was ruining the show for 1,400 people who paid good money to see some entertainment. So if you’re wondering why Sebastian doesn’t put the working class comedians back on, he says he needs time.

This is what he’s spending his time on. He doesn’t have time to just go, hey, can you reactivate the Z category? How would he do that? We are told the entire interruption lasted about five minutes that could have been spent. On changing the categories on his radio station, but Sebastian’s very busy.

We’re told he had been in the middle of his routine about his son’s soccer game when the team was losing 13-0 in the second half, but the scoreboard then showed 12-0 all the way down to 2-0, so the kids wouldn’t feel bad. Returning to the bit, Sebastian reset it, saying, OK, so the score’s now 2-0.

Meanwhile, controversial mega-comedian Nate Bergesi caught up with Fatherly.

They were curious, hey, what’s the most important thing you’ve learned about work in your life? Nate said, I always wanted to go back when I waited tables at one point, our manager there always talked about a sense of urgency. And that’s always stuck with me for some reason. I’m just going to a table and I have a sense of urgency. It goes a long way when you get to that table and they feel like they’re being taken care of.

I think I’ve kept that even as I’ve gone forward. If you respond to emails or my team is talking to you, I don’t want to be like, I’ll get to them next week. You just want to be like, no, let’s get to them and let’s make sure that we stay on top of it. Hey, maybe we should give the controversial mega comedian A. Pregazzi a radio station because it sounds like if somebody wanted him to tweak the rotations, he wouldn’t take a lot of days to do it.

He would just do it. He would see the urgency and pick up the phone and be like, hey guys, can you reactivate that stuff? And it would be done within a day. But you would have to ask Sebastian Maniscalco about all that. Chris Rock, it’s all the Breakfast Club.

Comedians have the hardest job in the world, okay? Because we always have to come up with new stuff. I wish I could go do the Bring the Pain tour and do the same joke over and over. Boy, there are days I can jump in here in the basement and knock out five of these.

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And then there are days like today where I can’t go a sentence without stumbl…

If you watch the podcast on YouTube today, you will see the amount of jump cuts. You don’t hear it on the audio, but on the video, you’ll just see it. Oh, my goodness. I cannot get through a sentence. Now, if you’re like, hey, Johnny Mac, I’d like to make my own podcast.

How can I do that? Well, my company has a new product called Linit, L-I-N-N-E-T, and we are looking for people to beta test it for free. Linit is a podcast studio that lives in your browser. You can write your podcast, voice it, add music and video, and publish it all in one place. I was using it on Sunday while watching football, while winning the football pool by 25 points.

I mean, I just crushed it. And while doing that, I was using Linnet to edit some of the shows. It did a nice job. Linnet can even build you a first draft of an episode while you make a sandwich or crush a friend of the show, Scott Beckett, at the football pool. It’s very easy.

So here’s what you’re going to do. It’s in beta now. We want you to try it out. If it doesn’t work, we want you to tell us what’s broken. That’s what a beta test is.

Now, we think it works, but you’ve got to throw these things out in the wild, and then you see what’s broken, and then people tell us. So let us know. It’s free. Try it out. Things might break.

It’s kind of the point. We want you to try it. Go to linnetmedia.com. That’s L-I-N-N-E-T media.com. Linnet, please try it out for us.

Hey, did you see Digger yet? I told you Digger’s the best picture. You need to go see it. We are now.. Learning that Digger is on track to lose $ 245 million.

Yikes. Then what’s going to happen is this thing’s going to show up on streaming and people are going to watch it and be like, oh my goodness, that was the greatest movie ever. So just go see it. It is a comedy, which allows me to talk about it. I just absolutely love it.

I am an evangelist for this movie. Go see Digger. It has the potential to wind up as the biggest flop of all time.

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And then again, you’re going to watch it on streaming and it’s going to be a …

So just go see it now. Russell Brand’s rape and sexual assault trial has begun on Monday. He appeared in court to start this week’s trial on charges of rape, sexual assault and indecent assault. Russell Brand faces seven charges related to incidents that the prosecution say involve six women. In two previous hearings, Russell Brand pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

When entering the courtroom on Monday, Russell briefly knelt down as if in prayer and then took a seat in the glass box at the back of the room. On Sunday, Russell Brand published a video on his YouTube channel in which he discussed Jeffrey Epstein. At one point, Brand said that he himself was on trial for sexual allegations that I deny in the strongest possible terms. The trial is scheduled to last up to 10 weeks. If you would like daily coverage of this, we have a sister podcast, Daily Crime and Justice.

Daily Crime and Justice, they will be covering this trial. I’ll cover it as we go along because Russell Brand is a comedian, obviously not at all a fun topic, and I try and make this show fun, but we’ll cover that as need be. VoiceMag UK has been watching Taskmaster. They’re wondering why Richard Ayoade, who should be the new Doctor Who, by the way, is not that good at it. They say Ayoade has been a victim of timing.

There’s something that feels a little off about this Taskmaster series. The contestants don’t quite have the same level of shared dynamic as we’ve seen in recent series. Ayoade, more than anyone else, has clung tightly to his persona throughout filming. This in itself isn’t a problem. The issue is his long-held persona is an awkward fit within the world of Taskmaster.

The Ayoade character is always positioned at arm’s length from what he’s doing as if he’s better than it. He continued this approach when he recently appeared on the Taskmaster tie-in podcast, describing the show as a national service for comedians and claiming not to have enjoyed the experience at all. The real Ayoade might have had a ball making the show, but the persona is king and is set in stone. Taskmaster airs on Channel 4 in the UK every Thursday and on your local pirate ship. And that is your comedy news for today.

I will see you tomorrow.

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Featured: Shane Gillis, Mikey Day, Joe Rogan, Theo Vaughn, George Carlin, Jimmy Fallon, Alan King, Roy Wood Jr., Nikki Glaser, Bill Burr, Tom Cruise

What’s in This Episode

• Shane Gillis drops F-bomb on SNL monologue
• SNL audience reaction to Gillis’s gym commentary
• Pentagon plans to livestream Fort Hood shooter execution
• George Carlin’s commentary on capital punishment as entertainment
• Comics Unleashed beats The Tonight Show in ratings
• Roy Wood Jr. discusses comedy royalties on Threads
• Nikki Glaser performs at Florida Gator Growl
• Bill Burr discusses theater seating preferences

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Caloroga Shark Media. Hello, I’m Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. Well, as expected, Shane Gillis made his mark on Saturday Night Live. Now, normally, I keep this podcast clean. Today, we’re going to have some F-bombs because Shane Gillis dropped an F-bomb on Saturday Night Live.

Here’s the clip with the F-word in it. But he made like green eggs at hand. Bro, it’s a non-starter. He told me, he said he doesn’t fucking. Jeez, like a.

Oh, man. Thank you. Now, although Shane moved on, Mikey Day found some humor in it, adding dialogue, Zachary’s the one who’s going, I want you out of this house. You’re a loser, and you said a bad word. Shane Gillis did apologize in the good nights.

I thanks the road for Lydia. And I’m sorry about earlier. Thank you guys very much. Have a good night. As I peruse social media on Sunday, people did not seem to enjoy the monologue.

I don’t want to swim upstream. I find Shane funny, sorry. But people did not. Deadline wrote, Gillis’ opening monologue was a tight five about his Bud Light commercials and getting into shape with workout buddies Joe Rogan and Theo Vaughn, during which he put on his best femme voice to mimic Jim Gaze and complained that, quote, women just dress like whores now at the gym. Here is Shane Gillis getting icy stares from a redheaded guitar lady in the band.

I try to go to a public gym. Going to the public gym as a fat guy, especially in New York, is a nightmare, dude. Everyone’s just the hottest gay guys you’ve ever seen. They’re jacked and they look at me, they’re like, yeah, right. I know, dude.

Also, I haven’t been to the gym in so long, I didn’t know women just dress like whores now. Look, I’m sorry, there’s no other way to describe. I say, have you seen it? I’ve seen it, the shorts. Have you seen the shorts?

Those neon, they’re like the only, they’re like artificial bait colored. The wrinkles go like around the cheeks and all combine at the butthole. And don’t look. You’re not allowed to look. For real, don’t look because they are filming.

I’m in the background of like 10 TikToks right now. In the monologue, Shane commented on his hairlines, saying he’s getting balded directly into an Adolf Hitler haircut, and the only other option is looking gay, quoting Shane Gillis, that’s it, you’re either gay or Hitler, and isn’t that where we are as a country? Well, I will tell you where we are as a country. The Pentagon announced plans to livestream the execution of the Fort Hood mass shooter. The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, said, we’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public.

Which brings us to the great prophet of the 21st century. His name was George Carlin. And the things George Carlin recorded have aged amazingly well. And we will have our second F-bomb of the day. Here is the great prophet George Carlin.

Now, I don’t care about capital punishment one way or another because I know it doesn’t do anything. It doesn’t do anything except maybe satisfy a kind of biblical need for revenge. You know, if you read the Bible, you see that it’s full of retribution and revenge. So really, capital punishment is kind of a religious ritual. It’s a purification rite.

It’s a modern sacrament. And as long as that’s true, I say, let’s liven it up a little. I honestly believe if you make the death penalty a little more entertaining and learn to market it correctly, you just might be able to raise enough money to balance the stupid fucking budget. The stupid fucking budget. And don’t forget, the polls show the American people want capital punishment and they want a balanced budget.

And I think even in a fake democracy, people ought to get what they want once in a while just to feed this illusion that they’re really in charge. Let’s use capital punishment the same way we use sports and television in this country to distract people and take their minds off how bad they’re being fucked by the upper 1%. Unfortunately, unfortunately, Monday Night Football doesn’t last long enough. What we really need is year-round capital punishment on TV every night with sponsors. Gotta have sponsors.

I’m sure as long as we’re killing people, Marlboro Cigarettes and Dow Chemical would be proud to participate. Proud to participate. Holy cow, Jimmy Fallon, late-nighter reporting. For the first time since taking over Colbert’s slot, Comics Unleashed beat The Tonight Show. Wow.

CBS not even trying. So whether or not you thought they were losing $ 40 million or this was about politics, they’re not losing $ 40 million now. They’re beating The Tonight Show without even trying. Late Nighter reports, the first of CBS’s two back-to-back comics unleashed drew 1.073 million total viewers and 161,000 18-49s. The Tonight Show, 1.018, that is less than 1.073, in case you forgot the number I just said, and 128,000 in the 18-49s.

Yikes! LateNighter points out, because CBS is actually airing two half-hours, it gives Comics Unleashed a bit of an advantage, because late-night audiences decline as the night goes on, meaning Fallon’s midnight half-hour pulls down the overall number. Still, however we’re splitting things, there’s a story here, Jimmy Fallon. LateNighter points out, among the 1849s, no caveat. The first, Comics Unleashed, got 161,000 viewers in the demo.

The second, 160. Fallon, 128 and 129. Guess a thousand people. Switched at midnight? LateNighter says it’s probably because Tuesday marked the first time that Comics Unleashed had followed new episodes of NCIS, giving Alan a good lead-in for the first time since this all started happening.

We will see. If you were on Threads on Saturday, I believe it was, I watched these clips Saturday night. Roy Wood Jr. Posted six videos in a row, and they’re quite long, where he discussed royalties. At a top level, I think Roy really nailed it.

I could nitpick some of his thoughts on the programming of serious comedy at the time, but they would be minor nitpicks, so I’ll just go, yep, watch Roy Wood. He knows what he’s talking about, because watch Roy Wood Jr. He knows what he’s talking about. You’ll find that on Threads. It’s too long to excerpt here.

It’s probably like 40 minutes of videos. There are six different videos, but you’ll find that on threads. From Alligator.org, your home for comedy news, Nikki Glaser was at the Gator Growl. The Alligators wrote, Nikki Glaser’s jokes range from the football team’s recent loss to Missouri to state politics, where she teased that her heels mirrored those of Governor DeSantis. After about 10 minutes, she dived into her regular set, bantering about her personal life, celebrity culture, and the backlash she faced after her viral Tom Brady roost.

What backlash? There was no backlash. Everybody said Nikki Glaser was great, and that started the whole Nikki Glaser mania. There’s no backlash. What are you talking about?

The Alligators say after dedicating her last five minutes to a monologue about attending Taylor Swift’s wedding, Glaser entered the show to a standing ovation. Did you go see Digger yet? Digger’s a comedy. Tom Cruise. I don’t want to say a thing about Digger.

Here’s what I want you to do. Go see Digger. Don’t read a thing about Digger before you see it. Don’t watch the trailers. Don’t read Tom Cruise’s social media.

If you see anybody writing about Digger, don’t read it. Go to the theater tonight and see Digger and get back to me. Digger. Is the best picture, okay? Are you listening to me?

Digger is fantastic, and I’m not going to tell you a thing about it other than it stars Tom Cruise. Go see Digger. Collider asked Bill Burr when he goes to the theater, where does he like to sit? Burr said, the middle. The middle of the middle.

I don’t like going to the back. I like dead center. They were curious about Bill Burr doing an Alan Sorkin meeting. And they threw in this backhanded question. Hey, did you think they were trying to reach a different Bill Burr?

Burr said, oh yeah, I thought the whole thing. I thought he wanted to pitch the movie to me. It was hilarious. Dude, you’re Adam Sorkin. Like, I’d literally dust around a room with no lines just to be in a movie with you.

But it’s real. He’s super humble. You wouldn’t know he’s a legend. He’s really passionate. I love the guy.

I love the guy. Couldn’t have had a better time working on this. We’ve hung out a couple times. He’s going through the attic. You know, I smoke cigars.

He has the occasional cigarette. So we’d meet up and hang out and just talk about life and everything. He’s just an awesome, awesome guy. Collider was curious. Hey, Bill Burr, you are known for your distinctive comedic voice and your timing, et cetera, et cetera.

How did you deal with Sorkin Scripps? You gotta hit the comma. What was it like adapting to his rhythm and structure? Burr said, you know, it’s not like that. It’s more like you’re in a scene with somebody else.

You just listen to them and then react to what they’re doing. So it’s not like, hey, I’m so-and-so. It’s not like music. This is seven and I’m not in four. It’s not like that.

You just do it. It was like we’re doing a play, it felt like. Chris Rock, after promoting his movie, he said, LA is a complicated place, man. Fame’s a complicated thing. I’ve seen the switch in my lifetime.

It used to be that everybody wanted to be great, a great singer, a great actor, a great comedian. Now it’s just fame, and the greatness is almost assumed. I mean, you’re always going to be outed at some point if you don’t have the goods. But L.A. Is the mecca of that.

It can be beautiful. It’s got the best weather in the world. But it also attracts an underbelly that people want to pretend doesn’t exist. Sounds like Chris Rock did not enjoy L.A. Sticking to movies, The Guardian asked, can Ali G, who is I, save character comedy cinema?

They write, it seems very dubious that we are now regressing back not just five years, but 25 years to bring back a character that was able to flourish. Because there were no accurate portrayals of Black Britishness on screen, but it would be a shock if Baron Cohen wasn’t wise to the current sensitivities. In 2020’s Borat subsequent movie film, he mostly successfully updated the Kazakhstan reporter for the post-truth COVID era in times of Trump’s U.S. His choice of target interviewees in Who Is I remains to be seen, but it would be surprising if he didn’t pick up a few where he could opportunistically needle both woke and anti-woke camps. All right, I need some beta testers.

We’ve got a new product. It is called Linnet, L-I-N-N-E-T. What’s Linnet? Johnny Mac? Well, you use it to make your own podcast.

Here’s what we want you to do. We want you to go to linnetmedia.com. I’ll spell it again at the end. Create an account, mess around with it, break it, send my business partner Mark a note going, this thing sucks. It doesn’t work.

Here’s what’s not working. That’s what we need right now. We need beta testers to break it, okay? Linit is a podcast studio that lives in your browser. You can write your podcast, voice your podcast.

You can have the AI voice your podcast if you want that. You can add music and add video. You don’t have to know how to edit. You just go, hey, Linit, edit this for me. And it will.

It’ll publish it all in one place. It’s in beta right now. It’s free to try through November. Things might break. We want you to break it.

Tell us. That’s what a beta test is for. Go to linnetmedia.com. That’s L-I-N-N-E-T media.com. Linnetmedia.com.

Hook it up. Play with it. Break it. Let us know. Roseanne Barr has wrapped production on an eight-episode family comedy called Meemaw.

The series shot in Austin, Texas features plenty of comedy world notables, says Page Six, including Randy Quaid, my high school classmate, Drea DeMatteo. Fun fact, I was two years older than her, I think. Well, I’m still two years older. You know what I mean. We weren’t in the same class.

We went to the same school. Omar Gooding and Doug Jones, as well as guest appearances from John Lovitz and Tony Hinchcliffe. You just know the mainstream media is going to give this thing good reviews. They’re going to go, Roseanne Barnes, Tony Hinchcliffe, A +. Yeah, that’s what’s going to happen.

I could see the article on Vulture right now. They’re going to love it. The poster for the comedy series Meemaw, a modern-day fable, features an older woman in a fur coat holding a gun and a rooster against a rural background. Roseanne Barr says it’s every bit as revolutionary as the Roseanne show, if not more, and my work has improved with time. I want everybody who disagrees in a family to sit in the same room and just laugh and go, yeah, maybe I was an a-hole at that time.

Well, you weren’t a-hole this time. Oh, we’re all a-holes. Let’s get a beer. Roseanne Barr plays the matriarch of a mixed-race family of preppers in Texas who’s on a quest to, quote, throw her granddaughter the most fantastic bat mitzvah Texas has ever seen. Jimmy Fallon, you know, the guy losing to CBS who’s not even trying?

Come on, Jimmy. Wow, you can’t even stand on the, well, the 18 to 49s are watching it. Now they’re standing on, well, we have 3 million viewers on TikTok. That’s nice. Does that pay the bills?

I hope so. Because otherwise, here’s a pitch to NBC. Let’s just throw this dumb podcast on. I mean, how much worse could you do? Definitely you could give me 1230.

I’m sure 90,000 people would stare at 888 in the basement, plus we could light it properly. Anyway, I digress. Jimmy Fallon announced he is partnering with Major League Baseball on two new books. One book is called Your Baby’s First Word Will Be Yankees. Now, between him announcing this and me recording this, the Yankees were eliminated, so I’m not sure about that one.

The second book is called Your Baby’s First Word Will Be Dodgers. Jimmy Fallon, who is losing to Byron Allen, said parents spend months of their lives trying to get the babies to say mom or dada. Some parents dream bigger. Written by Jimmy Fallon. The 32-page board books are set to be released in February.

Does it really take that long to put these things out? Jimmy Fallon’s got a whole side business going here. He had a 2015 bestseller called Your Baby’s First Word Will Be Dada. Then he did one with Mama. Then a book called This Is Baby.

Nana Loves You More. Then Papa Doesn’t Do Anything But Love You. There’s also Five More Sleeps Till Christmas and Five More Sleeps Till Halloween. And you wonder, how is he losing to Byron Allen? Colin Jost is working on a new comedy series, this one called Six Bed, One Bath.

Six Bed, One Bath is six episodes following a group of roommates in their 20s who share an apartment with a man who has lived there since 1982. Continue to build new bedrooms every time his rent increased. Jost said, we found a new innovative way to do it outside of the normal studio system. We feel very lucky about how the cast and the crew came together. We’re excited for everyone else to see it.

I like it, Colin Jost, but I’m going to point out that when your wife is making Scarlett Johansson money because she’s Scarlett Johansson, you can do things like buy a ferry and try and make a show outside the normal studio system. I’m not saying he’s bad. It’s not quite nepo, baby. It’s like nepo husband. Yeah.

Former SNL art Punky Johnson has announced that her debut stand-up special, Long Titty Short Story, will be on Kevin Hart’s Heartbeat LOL stand-up YouTube channel October 21st in the special. Punky Johnson steps into the ring to reflect on her time at SNL, her complicated relationships with queerness, and her own questionable life choices. It is billed as a brutally honest and unfiltered hour about marriage, sex, drugs, and what can transpire when you pretend. To be normal. He’ll also be available as a comedy album starting November 13th.

Maybe not on Sebastian’s channel, but you’d have to ask him. And available for pre-order on October 21st. And that is your comedy news for today. See you tomorrow.

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Featured: Bill Carter, Nate Bargatze, Pete Davidson, David Cross, Hasan Minhaj, Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, Prince, Max Amini

What’s in This Episode

• Is Late Night TV Dead? Johnny Mac’s new podcast explores late night’s future
• Nate Bargatze on simplicity and depolarization in comedy and culture
• Pete Davidson’s sobriety: two years without hard drugs, one year without weed
• Pete Davidson removes 200 tattoos, keeps Hillary Clinton tribute
• David Cross stars in new romantic comedy film with Hasan Minhaj
• Chris Rock discusses self-esteem, Prince’s friendship, and the ‘woke 1.0 era’
• Max Amini on staying humble while selling out arena shows like MSG and O2

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Hello, I’m Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. Bill Carter, who wrote the wonderful two books about late night and is an expert in the subject, wrote about late night. And, you know, this is a good time for me to plug my new podcast, Is Late Night Dead? Out today, episode two, talking about 1130 Letterman. Bill Carter.

Doesn’t seem to think Late Night is dead. We may disagree there. I don’t know. I haven’t gotten to my conclusion yet. I’m just waxing poetically on the episodes.

Again, is Late Night dead wherever you got this podcast? I do disagree with Bill Carter. He said, Yes. And no, like, I think outside of, like, great, great, great websites like LateNighter.com and us comedy nerds who, you know, listen to a guy in the basement reading headlines, I don’t think most people care that Kimmel was in Brooklyn. I didn’t think there was a buzz on it.

Now, Bill Carter says more than 150,000 people requested tickets for the week. That’s no joke. That’s a lot. Carter asks, is all that going to be replaced by podcasts? That’s the current wisdom.

The old-fashioned late-night show is expected to evolve into an appealing host sitting on camera in radio-style studios. Interviewing or bantering amusingly with a guest. I mean, I think Conan has proven that is the model. But Bill says maybe podcasts will evolve and a big audience is sitting and laughing inside a TV studio with a big theater and a band and a monologue and a desk. But wouldn’t that just be a late night show?

We will see. Is late night dead wherever you get your podcasts? Controversial mega comedian Nate Bergetzi talked to Fox News as controversial mega comedians tend to do. The topic, simpler times. Here is Nate.

I don’t know. Everything is so polarizing and everything’s so extreme and life or death of every, you know, everything. And not that stuff’s not serious. It is serious, but you know, it’s also people just taking their kids to school and they got to drop five kids off or three kids off and you got a soccer game and then a baseball game and you got, you know, you’re just living life. You just, you know, so I think right now is a point where, Everything has felt so spread up and it’s been sped up and it’s been speeding up more and more and more.

And so I think it’s time for people, they want to take a breath and they want to take a step back and just kind of like, all right, not everything needs to be so polarizing. Things can still be different. Just simpler. And I mean, I’ve seen that with the tour that I go on. It’s like people, you know, I’m not talking about politics or anything crazy.

And, you know, it’s a ton of people are coming out and they’re, They have fun, and they get to laugh, and that’s what they need, and that’s what I want to be there for them. Pete Davidson told Variety in a cover story he’s sober now, save for around four beers a year. Pete said, I don’t F with drugs anymore. It’s been two or three years from doing really hard stuff and about a year or more from weed. Weirdly, the hardest thing to stop was weed, and now it’s easy because I have a kid.

Anytime there’s ever a thought, I look at my phone background and go, oh yeah, no. Pete is still getting the tattoos. He had 200 removed. He said, one, they were horrible. Two, it was a business decision.

I hated coming to the makeup trailer three hours early to spray paint over horrible tattoos. And third, I was like, I’m not this dude. I got these when I was in an immense amount of pain and I was trying to show people my pain. Pete said he struggled with self-harm. I used to cut.

Some of the tattoos covered up the cuts. He’ll be keeping a few. One of them, the one of Hillary Clinton in a power suit. You’ll find that on Pete Davidson’s right leg. Pete said, she stays.

That’s my dog. I love Hillary, man. She’s awesome and a good friend. David Cross joins Hasan Minhaj and some others in a new movie in Untitled Film. We follow Lucy, who endures a devastating breakup and ends up moving back in with her quirky single dad, played by David Cross, as Lucy navigates cringeworthy dates and other personal challenges.

The New York Times did that big profile with Chris Rock, and they were curious when Chris has self-esteem questions. Rock said, all artists have self-esteem questions, especially the good ones. An artist is an egomaniac with an inferiority complex. I would absolutely fall into that. I could feel that way.

Eddie Murphy makes me feel like that. In the presence of Eddie Murphy, I can get a little insecure. And that’s a name drop, but one of my biggest regrets in life, Chris Rock said, is I could never relax around Prince. He wanted to be friends. Hanging out, I couldn’t be like, oh no, Prince is drinking iced tea.

I remember I was at Prince’s house. I’m in Minneapolis. I’d just done some shows. He had a party for me at Paisley Park. I’m literally in the vault and he’s playing me new music.

There’s a lot of people there and his wife called. And he was like, everybody quiet, be quiet. It’s like 200 people. His wife called, he’s picking up the phone. He goes, hey, yeah, nothing.

I’m just chilling. Yeah, I’ll probably go to bed in a couple hours. Love you too.

And then the party started again.

Topic change to the woke 1.0 era. The Times is curious, Chris Rock’s thoughts about it. Said. The problem is when you institutionalize it. My half a joke, the Salem witch hunts, I’m sure the first three witches they caught were actually witches, but then you open up a witch office and now you got to start lying because you got overhead.

You got to justify the witch hunters pensions and stuff. I’m glad all that stuff happened. It needed to happen because it happened. Maybe I’ve heard some voices that I probably wouldn’t have heard otherwise. Times jumps in, goes, let me switch gears and ask a comedy question.

Rock takes it back and says, sure, but before you do, because I keep saying how bad my friends are, I have some genius friends who are unproblematic, the most progressive. Some of the greatest artists that have ever lived, some that you know and some you don’t, are my friends. The Times also caught up with Max and Meany, and they were curious, you know, you’ve been selling out big places like MSG and the O2 Arena in London. How do you not have it go to your head? Max said, this is really good advice.

The way it doesn’t get into my head is watching other comedians destroy their careers because of their big egos. So growing up in the comedy circuit in LA, every comic who let the success and entertainment talk go to their heads ended up digging their own grave. It’s important to learn from other people’s mistakes. Stay humble. Stay true to the reason you started this journey to begin with.

It’s going to be the best outcome. As for not getting overwhelmed by big crowds, Maximini said, first, you learn who you are as a performer. That takes years. Once that clicks and you sort of understand how you function, then when you play it on Arena, it’s not something you think about like, how do I do this? You just tap into the energy.

You know, you go, all right, this is what I’m talking about. This is how I connect to people. And this is how a moment of performance is going to be special. Not taking it for granted is very important. I think people that are very professional, they treat every show like it’s their last show.

Sounds like he’s super grounded. They asked him about blending American culture with his Iranian culture. He said, I was born in Tucson, Arizona. I’m American and I’m also Iranian. I’m Iranian-American, and in this world today, I’m from two of the most hated countries in the world, Iran and America, but I’m extremely loved as a person.

So it makes me realize we’re not who our government is, and that goes for every country and every people. You’re representing you as a human being, and if you’re a loving, kind, accepting human, people will treat you the same. Politics aside, my brand of comedy is love. They asked him about touring globally. He said, if you go to certain countries, there are certain limitations.

Middle East and certain countries, they ask you not to talk about certain things. To me, first and foremost, if you’re going to another country, you got to respect that country’s rules and regulations. If you don’t want to respect it, why bother? But if you’re showing up, you have to think, does my brand of comedy still resonate within these limitations? In my case, I have very observational humor.

I talk about my family and my life story. My point of view is I show up when I leave the stage. Did I make the world a better place? Did I walk away and make a difference in some people’s world? And I think that’s special.

Max got popular on YouTube. He said, it’s phenomenal. The numbers were presented to me and they said I’m the most watched comedian in the world. And frankly, I think it should be a motivating factor for everybody, not just comedians or artists, meaning anybody who has a company, anybody who has a product, anybody that’s doing any sort of job can utilize social media to reach out directly to the people and present their product and immediately see a result. Quality speaks for itself nowadays.

You don’t need a middle person. And if you have something that makes the world a better place, you would definitely see some positive feedback. Billboard published the August box score report. Topping the list, controversial mega-comedian Nate Bregazzi at the top of the list for the sixth time in 2026. The controversial mega-comedian did seven shows in August and grossed $ 6. 5 million and sold 87,000 tickets.

Doesn’t seem like going to a UFC fight has affected his career too badly, despite the Daily Beast trying to get us all upset about the controversial mega-comedian. Matt Rife and Max Amini were second and third. Matt Rife grossed $ 6. 2 million, Max $ 5. 9 million. And Drew Carey has signed on to host season 12 of Undercover Boss on CBS’s The First Time Undercover Boss Will Have a Host. The show hasn’t been on CBS since 2022 and a suit at CBS said we couldn’t think of a better time to bring back a reimagined version of Boss with Drew Carey serving as our host through undercover journeys that tap into the heart and authenticity of hardworking employees that audiences have always loved seeing.

No premiere date yet. We’re told Drew Carey is perhaps best known for the Drew Carey show, Whose Line Is It Anyway? And The Price is Right, which he’s been hosting for like 20-something years already. Time goes fast. I feel like I just watched Bob Barker’s last show, but no, it’s been 20 years here.

Let me look it up. Drew was named host in July of 2007. The first episode with Drew Carey’s host aired October 15th, 2007. So 20 years. Wow.

And that is your comedy news for today. Go check out the other podcast, Is Late Night Dead? And I’ll see you here tomorrow.

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