Daily Comedy News Podcast Transcripts

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Featured: Bruce Springsteen, Tom Morello, Amy Schumer, Howard Stern, Sam Morrell, Dane Cook, James Austin Johnson, Sarah Sherman, Jalen Brunson

What’s in This Episode

• Bruce Springsteen cancels Kimmel appearance replaced by Amy Schumer
• Sam Morrell Netflix special ‘Incorrect’ release
• Dane Cook documentary ‘Funny Money’ explores family theft scandal
• James Austin Johnson worried about Trump impression typecasting
• Jalen Brunson hosts Saturday Night Live with rigged trash can sketch
• SNL UK outperforming SNL US

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. Boy, talk about a downgrade. Jimmy Kimmel’s doing his show from Brooklyn this week. The guest was supposed to be Bruce Springsteen, who has dropped out for reasons unknown.

His replacement, Amy Schumer. Not quite the same star power there. Springsteen had been scheduled to join Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello for both an interview and musical performance on tonight’s show, but Bruce has canceled. Morello will still go. Nobody knows why.

The other guest tonight, the formerly cool Howard Stern. People are not not digging this HBO show. Howard, we all loved you, but it’s over. It’s time to go. This will be Amy Schumer’s first visit with Jimmy Kimmel since 2022, when she was slightly more popular than she is these days.

Sam Morrell’s special is out on Netflix today. It is called Incorrect. In Incorrect, Sam Morrell tackles his worst one-night stand gone wrong, the dark humor of infamous assassinations, his bizarrely unorthodox war against rats, and more. Sam was on Good Day L.A. Where he introduced himself, and I pulled the clip and didn’t put it in the notes, but I remembered.

Here it is. Our next guest is one of the sharpest, most lethal joke-writing comedians in stand-up today. He’s built a massive fan base through late-night appearances, hit specials, and his wildly popular podcast, We Might Be Drunk. Now he’s back with a one-hour stand-up special, brand new, where no topic from disastrous hookups to historical assassinations disappears. Is off limits.

There was one of these new big budget movies and it just turns into a game of like, how long can this last versus me checking my phone? It’s not long. Some $ 500 million movie. I’m like, damn, turns out I’d rather watch a guy power wash a sidewalk on TikTok. This cannot bode well for the future of entertainment.

His new special, Sam Morrell Incorrect, premieres September 29th on Netflix. Please welcome me, Sam Morrell. Woo-hoo! You did a great job. How’d that feel?

You killed it. How’d that feel? Natural.

Also out today, that Dane Cook documentary.

Dane went on the Obsessed podcast and shared this anecdote. Dane said, my mom said on her deathbed, your brother, you got to look out for him. There was a long, wild conversation with my mom that ended with her trying to warn me. I didn’t want to accept that, but it was the beginning of me starting to look at things differently. It was the last gift my mom gave me before she passed away.

And lo and behold, I finally uncovered a real terrible truth in my family. You can watch Funny Money, the Dane Cook story, streaming on video on demand starting today. You know the story here. Apparently, Dane’s brother stole from Dane. Well, Dane is saying he offered to forget about the debt under one simple condition.

Dane said, quote, I wanted to sit with him. That was the one thing I told the director. I said, I want to sit with him. I want to sit opposite him. And there was a correspondence, not between him and me directly, but through our legal team.

I’ll just leave it at that. The plot thickens. I think that the bagel bite slash sauce era is over. I missed my brother. I missed him.

I missed the guy before that call. It was weird because I didn’t think I missed him anymore. I thought I got past it. And it was such a season of my life. And I’ve grown from it.

I’m better from it. But man, I forgot that I still missed having a brother. In case you’re curious what happened to the note about play the clip from Good Day L.A. Apparently someone pasted it below the Dane Cook story, but that’s neither here nor there. The New York Times watched James Austin Johnson’s special.

That’s the thing I forgot to watch over the weekend. I caught up on— I finished The Gentleman season two, which is awesome. I finished Tires, which was really good. I started watching The Paper, which is, you know, something to have on while you play with your phone. It’s not great.

It’s not awful. It’s just, you know, a thing. The Dark Matter episode that came out last week— Fantastic. And I forgot to watch James Austin Johnson. I did watch Nimesh Patel for like 10 minutes.

I was like, eh, I don’t care. Anyway, the New York Times caught up with James Austin Johnson. He seems worried about being pigeonholed as the guy who does Trump impression. I think he’s right there. They used him in a few more sketches this week, and he was pretty good.

But he told the Times, I fully believed I haven’t even started doing the thing that is the main thing I’ll end up doing. He first met Sarah Sherman years ago, and they crossed paths again during their SNL auditions. Sarah told the Times, I was having a crisis of conscience during the audition because I was like, what am I doing here? And he was like, dude, it’s a live comedy show. That’s the thing you love most in the world.

And that one line totally shifted my entire perspective. James thought he would only occasionally play Trump. Oops. That’s pretty much every week. In the beginning, doing impressions was a way to survive on SNL.

He said, it seemed like a way I could make myself useful. You quite did. But since Trump was reelected and has been around for a long time, he feels kind of pigeonholed. He explains his new special, Heal Ya. Is a showcase for both his range and taste.

He said he’s perfectly happy when a quarter of the room is losing their mind at half his jokes while the rest of the room is either chuckling or looking over at that group, wondering why they’re not part of the party. Interesting take from James here. I’ve always been a little bit skeptical of the comedian’s drive to murder every second of a set. When I go to a concert, not every song sends me through the rafters. You’re given peaks and valleys and moments in between and a bathroom song.

Don’t forget a bathroom song. Do you do a bathroom chunk in a comedy set? I don’t think so. You’re on a journey with a beginning, middle, and end.

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Speaking of the middle, here’s the break.

All right, don’t forget, starting this Sunday, it is the new series, Is a Late Night Dead? In which Johnny Mac will wax poetic about late night shows and eventually come to some sort of conclusion whether or not late night is dead. You will not get that answer in episode one. That’s not how the podcast works. This week on Sunday, I wax poetically about 1230, David Letterman, Late Night with David Letterman, which is my North Star.

So Check out Is Late Night Dead? It’s its own separate feed. I will eventually use the episodes as bonus episodes in this feed, but not yet. Did you watch Saturday Night Live with Nick’s superstar Jalen Brunson? He’s good at basketball, but he’s not great at Saturday Night Live, which we kind of knew going in.

You know, they handled him pretty well, kept him pretty reined in. He even made a joke in the monologue about you can tell how excited he is between his voice and his face. You know, not the best episode at all. One interesting note. There’s a sketch in which he plays an office guy who’s trying to shoot paper wads into a trash basket like one does in the office.

And Jalen’s character not good at it at all. SNL writer Dan Bula posted on Instagram and explained they had to make sure Jalen Brunson would actually miss. Dan explained on Instagram there was a blower in the garbage can, making it literally impossible for Jalen to score until the final shot. Dan said Brunson and the cast members had two sets of cue cards drafted for the ending. One if he made the last shot and one if he missed.

He, of course, made it. He’s Jalen Brunson. However, we’re told he missed it at the dress rehearsal, but he hit the shot on air because Jalen Brunson is built for the moment. Pretty good. Did you watch SNL UK?

You should get on board with that. It’s better than SNL US. This week was pretty good. Last week was probably better than anything SNL USA has done in a year and a half. There was one sketch this week that I particularly liked about wax museums.

I won’t spoil it for you, but it’s on Peacock if you want to watch it. I had shared in the Facebook group, which is Daily Comedy News Podcast Group. Trevor Noah did an advertisement for the National Team of Comedy. So Trevor is the captain, has some various comedians on Team South Africa. And I was wondering, and I’ll ask you and you can answer in the Facebook group, Daily Comedy News podcast group, who should be on the Team America national team of comedy?

I’ll give you my list in a second. This is all subjective, neither here nor there. But I want to annihilate. So I’ll tell you my four in stage order. First, I’m sending out Jeff Ross because I’m going to roast the hell out of your dumb ass country.

So Jeff Ross is going to open. Now, if we were doing some other sort of ranking, some other sort of competition, would you pick Jeff Ross? Probably not. But here, I’m sending out the roast member to roast you. Then, I just want pure laughs.

John Mulaney, always reliable. Increasingly a little out there. So I’ll put Mulaney in the two slot. Then I’m going to bring Bill Burr, because again, I don’t want to just win when we play Team South Africa or Team England in the comedy competition, whatever this thing is. I want to destroy.

And I’m going to get Bill Burr out there and I’m going to fire up Bill Burr as the coach. I’m going to go, hey, Bill, didn’t you play the Riyadh Comedy Festival?

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And then he’s going to get a little, yeah, you know, I played it, played it.

Yeah, that was like a lame ass mood. And I’m going to fire Bill Burr up and get the angry Bill Burr out there to just be on fire and do something similar to what he did in Philadelphia.

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And then my closer, you got to go with the ace, Dave Chappelle, top of the ga…

Some other people suggested, how about Louis C.K. Not an absurd pick. I would put C.K. Where I have Mulaney. But on my team, Ross, Mulaney, Burr, Chappelle.

Who’s your team? Facebook group, Daily Comedy News podcast group.

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Speaking of Bill Burr, he’ll be the Saturday’s deep dive in this feed.

In case you missed it, on Saturday we took a look at Marc Maron. People did not miss it. That episode did pretty well. And let’s take a look at one of Vulture’s comedians you should know and will know, or whatever they’re called. I told you I wasn’t going to remember what it’s called.

Anyway, Lee Jin-Hao tends to deliver his stand-up at a soothing, unhurried coup, writes Vulture. With his blend of surrealism, wordplay, and philosophical observation, his performances can feel like an MFA student’s spoken-world recital until he flips his affect, unleashing bursts of aggression and machismo. When he talks about his debut special Swimming in a Submarine about his mandatory service in the Singaporean army, for example, he mimes a gun with his fingers and childlessly says pew pew. Then a terrifying expression overtakes his face as his imaginary gun transforms into an assault rifle and he acts out mowing down civilians in violent combat. His quote, the first thing they taught us in the army is you pull the trigger not to hurt what’s in front, but to protect what’s behind.

Yikes. After completing military service in 2019, Lee began performing open mics in Singapore before moving to Scotland. After graduating in 23, he moved to London, where he continued to develop his acting. And reach the finals of the BBC New Comedy Awards. Then he did Fringe, nominated for Best Newcomer, and they had two quick questions with Jin Hal.

One, what’s the biggest financial investment you’ve made for your comedy? He explains, when I started, my mom and stepdad rented out my room back home in Singapore to help me. They live with strangers, so I could do the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Wow. Second, when you think about the future of comedy, what concerns you and what excites you?

He says, I’m super excited that new subgenres of comedy are emerging, and from what I see, it’s no longer a simple binary of traditional versus alternative. I think of comedians as animals in a zoo, and it concerns me when the owl looks at the lion with jealousy and tries to imitate its growls without realizing that their specialty is staying up all night and being able to turn their head fully. It worries me when an artist measures their success Using someone else’s ruler. I worry. They compromised their voice for this.

I’m really sad that I’ve come to the end of the questions. Very philosophical. And that is your comedy news for today. I’ll see you tomorrow.

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Featured: Nikki Glaser, Brielle Adams Wheatley, Yakov Smirnoff, Joe Rogan, Taylor Tomlinson, Stephen Colbert, Byron Allen

What’s in This Episode

• Nikki Glaser apologizes for joke about trans influencer Brielle Adams Wheatley
• Yakov Smirnoff discusses escaping Soviet Union via Jimmy Carter’s wheat deal
• Taylor Tomlinson explains decision to leave After Midnight
• Speculation on CBS late night show cancellations and butterfly effect
• Taylor Tomlinson regrets not calling Stephen Colbert before quitting

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. Hey there, I’m Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. Now, if you’re watching on YouTube and you’re like, hey, John, didn’t you wear that outfit yesterday? Yeah, I might have taped these back to back. What’s it to you?

All righty. Nikki Glaser in a kerfuffle of sorts, but I think we have sorted it out. You see, influencer Brielle Adams Wheatley called out Nikki Glaser over a standup joke via Instagram stories as one does. Now, relevant to the details here, Adams Wheatley was born with no limbs and is trans. Stay with me.

A fan messaged Adams Wheatley on Instagram to say they had attended Nikki Glaser’s show in Ridgefield, Washington. And felt that Adams Wheatley should know that she was being referenced in the set. The fan wrote, Adams Wheatley asked what had been said. The fan described the joke according to the third party of the article John is cribbing from said the fan said Nikki Glaser said. So let’s put a major asterisk out here, okay?

But that version of the story has Nikki Glaser saying something like, She said that you already have a hard life with no limbs but still decided to transition. Then something about how you had to since you rubbed your penis off with the way you drag yourself across the room. Again, that is attributed to Nikki Glaser. I was not in the audience. That got booed during the performance according to the recap I’m reading from.

Adams Wheatley then posted the conversation to her Instagram story, tagging Nikki Glaser and asking, Why are you making comments about what is or isn’t in my pants? Glazer responded, apparently, it’s a dumb joke. In messages later shared by Adams Wheatley, Nikki Glaser apologized and said she should have reached out before including her in the routine. We were told Nikki Glaser wrote, Nikki also addressed the framing of the joke, writing, Nikki then ended her message saying she would remove the joke from her set moving forward. Very interesting.

I found this next clip super compelling. I kind of wanted to lead off with it, but the way podcasts work, you got to lead with the tabloidy stuff. This one is a little more serious, but I found it super compelling. This is Yakov Smirnoff on the Joe Rogan experience. The topic, Yakov’s father listening to the Voice of America.

What did he get out of listening to Voice of America? Like what was he, did he talk about it? Yeah, yeah. I would then start also waking up and listening and it would be just, standard American thing. Give me you’re tired, you’re hungry, you’re poor, something like that.

And, you know, and they would that there’s a Statue of Liberty waiting to greet you if you come to the United States. And he would always say, you know, this this would be something that I would love you to experience. And and my mom was she hated that because she was afraid that we’ll get in trouble. And so she didn’t want to even talk about this. So if I drew a picture as a kid, I would draw a picture of Statue of Liberty.

And she would like, don’t do that. Don’t let anybody see this. We’ll get in trouble. And when after I experienced the cruises and got to know this different environment, I came home and I go, mom, dad, I think we should consider tried to get out of, and mom was like mad at my dad. And my dad stood up, which was good for him at that time.

Normally he would just be quiet, but he said to my mom, Clara, don’t you, would you like your son when he is my age, sit there by the radio and listen to Voice of America, hoping, wishing that he would be doing something like that? Or would you like him to be in America doing this? And my mom kind of went, you know what’s gonna happen when we apply for a visa? People who consider your friends, they will cross the street and they will not wanna talk to you and be seen with you and you’re gonna go through hell. And my dad said, yeah, We will.

And she said, well, if you’re willing to do it, so am I. Smirnoff went on to say Jimmy Carter wanted to see some human rights in the Soviet Union and the Soviet leadership. They were starving. They didn’t have food. So they needed food from America.

So Jimmy Carter made a deal that we’re going to give you green and you allow people to get out. And that’s how we were kind of exchanged for some wheat. You know, that’s how we got out. Joe Rogan said, wow, sometimes you need to be reminded how fortunate you are. You know, Americans in particular are You know, it’s not our fault.

People become accustomed to where they live, and they think this is normal, which is one of the reasons why this push towards communism among young people is so infuriating to me. But the solution is not to make the government decide who gets what, because they never decide the right way. Taylor Tomlinson has a new book. She’s making the rounds. We’ll be talking about her a lot as she does the publicity.

The Daily Beast zoned in on the part where Taylor Tomlinson tells Stephen Colbert, hey, I don’t want to do the 1230 show anymore. Taylor explains in the book why she chose to step down from, I’m trying to remember what the show was even called. John, you host a comedy podcast, can’t remember, later, later, after midnight, after midnight. That’s what it was called, after midnight. Taylor Thomas has said, I realized this wasn’t just a bad year, a tough moment, a difficult chapter.

It was the inevitable result of a decade of overworking myself. Quitting the show was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made. Nearly 200 people worked on After Midnight. My leaving could jeopardize a job they loved. I almost stayed for that reason alone.

Let me jump in here because I have talked about this on the podcast before. But I’m heading somewhere with this. So here’s what I have floated as a theory. And before I float my theory once again, if you’ve heard this before, I am not blaming Taylor Tomlinson for anything. Did I say that clearly enough?

OK, but here’s my theory. All right. So CBS is sailing along. You may recall they had renewed the 1230 show with Taylor Thompson. They wanted it back.

And she had said yes. Then a couple of weeks later, maybe a couple of months later, she stepped down and then they decided, huh, what if we didn’t have a 1230 show? And my theory is because of that, that made them go, huh. What if we didn’t have an 1130 show, which led to Colbert’s demise? Because stay with me.

Assuming you take at face value that Colbert’s show was really expensive, etc. Etc. So what was the plan? Were they going to have Byron Allen at 1130 and Taylor Tomlinson off on an island at 1230? Or would they have moved Taylor Tomlinson to 1130, which is probably a less expensive show to produce than Colbert’s was, and Byron Allen at 1230?

So I think there might be a butterfly effect. Again, I am not blaming Taylor Tomlinson, but I think her decision to walk away maybe perhaps possibly led to executives who came to terms with the idea of not having a 1230 show and then somebody going, huh, what if we didn’t have an 1130 show? I’ve been in a lot of conference rooms with media executives, and I think maybe perhaps possibly that could have happened. Not blaming Taylor Tomlinson. Taylor says she didn’t talk to Stephen Colbert before deciding to quit, and she later regretted it when he called.

She said, I spent that call with Stephen, Mr. Colbert, not sure how to address him, crying and apologizing before I got off the phone, shaking with shame. I felt awful and guilty and yet again disappointing. Yeah, she probably should have called him if he was the godfather of the show. Yeah, that’s bad for him.

She continued, I understand why he was upset. He had told me to call him if I ever needed to talk about anything, and I hadn’t called him about this. I wasn’t trying to blindside him. I was just afraid to bother someone so important and busy. This is why we have agents.

Agents do this sort of thing. Taylor, you know this. Taylor, agents do this. Colbert discovered the star on social media, telling Entertainment Weekly in 2024. When she was just starting out, the algorithm started feeding her to me years ago.

I remember thinking, who is this special woman? Taylor said when Colbert got the news, it must have been infuriating and confusing. Watching someone you believed in, someone you would hire for what is objectively a dream job, throw it away. Nobody just walks away from a television show. Yes, Tomlinson wrote.

She wrote that the biggest change she needed was for CBS to allow a fill-in host when she was sick. She said, I was told CBS would just play a rerun and the crew would lose a day’s work. So regardless of my health, I never missed a day. She concludes, what’s the quote? You can’t set yourself on fire to keep others warm.

Some days this comforts me. Other days, I think I should have gone up in flames. Wow. All right. So this brings us to I’ve Started Another Podcast.

It is called Is Late Night Dead? Hopefully the title tells you what it is. It debuts Sunday. In its own feed, it is called Is Late Night Dead? I will eventually repurpose the episodes as bonus episodes in this feed.

But for now, it’s its own thing. And I’m eventually going to explore the premise of Is Late Night Dead? But I’m using the punchy title to get people to sample the show. I’m waxing poetic about my love of late night. And my love of late night all starts with Late Night with David Letterman, the 1230 version.

And that will be this weekend’s episode. So this week, I don’t solve the question, is Late Night dead? This week, I wax poetic about Late Night with David Letterman. So please follow the podcast, Is Late Night Dead? Now, as for the Late Night franchise itself, the 1230 NBC show, hashtag make 1230 great again.

I have many times spoken about how I just don’t feel like Seth Meyers is the worthy successor to David Letterman. And Conan O’Brien. I’ll leave Jimmy Fallon out of it. He had a cup of coffee there. But I just don’t feel like Seth is late night-y, you know?

If Seth was doing his thing at 1.30 or on another channel, fine. But it just doesn’t feel like the late night franchise to me. I want somebody who’s out there, like a Chris Fleming or a Robbie Hoffman would be amazing at 12.30. Come on. Anyway, Seth Meyers is back to work on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

Hashtag make 12.30 great again. He’s also working on a new project with NBC called The Game Room. It’s a half-hour workplace comedy called The Game Room, and we’re told the log line is under wraps because, you know, you wouldn’t want that to leak out. And over at Colbert’s Old Haunt and David Letterman’s Second Haunt, or Third if you want to count the morning show, CBS has taken down Stephen Colbert’s name from the Ed Sullivan Theater. The marquee that had said Late Show with Stephen Colbert now says Ed Sullivan Theater, which people are outraged about, but I don’t think that’s crazy.

I am tremendously excited about this. If you watch Last One Laugh in UK, you know how funny Bob Mortimer is and you know how funny Richard Ayoade is. Now, what if we put them together on a show called Hot or Cold? This is heading to Netflix of all places. Hot or Cold is set inside a mysterious institution where contestants tackle challenges with no obvious logic.

That’s a lot of fun. The premise takes the classic childhood guessing game and hands it to adults who Netflix says really should know better. Players get no instructions. Their only guide is the room itself, which glows red when they’re getting warmer and blue when they’re getting colder. I love it.

Bob Mortimer said, Spending time with Richard Ayoade is one of my all-time favorite things to do, closely followed by playing hot or cold, so this has worked out brilliantly. Love that quote. Ayoade, best known for the IT crowd and the former host of Travelman, which is just a.. If you’ve never seen that, go on Amazon, look up Travelman. So basically, Richard Ayoade goes somewhere, usually in Europe, for a long weekend.

And is not impressed by any of it. It is one of my favorite pieces of television. I love him so much, and he should be the next Doctor Who. Can we all agree on that? How do we make that happen?

Richard said, although I prefer mild temperatures, it’s been instructive to participate in something as binary as this. Okay, that sentence alone, if you’re ever like, what kind of humor does Johnny Mac like? That’s it. That sentence about hot or cold, although I prefer mild temperatures. That is wonderful.

Right there is everything. Hot or Cold, coming soon to Netflix. James Acaster has suggested that having a lot of comedians on UK Celebrity Traitors could become a problem as the comedians could become obvious suspects. Hmm. Celebrity Traitors on BBC One and on the Pirate Ship, if you know what I mean.

I might go out to sea and watch an episode or two, just saying. Although I think Peacock actually shows those. So no, no, no Pirate Ship. Sorry. Subscribe to Peacock like a good, honorable citizen.

That’s all you have to do to watch UK Traders. Anyway, I’m all into it. Episodes will air, at least in the UK, two nights a week on Thursday and Friday. Some of the comedians include James Acaster, Joanne McNally, Joe Lycett, Rob Beckett, Miranda Hart, and Romesh Raganathan. Acaster joked about the odds being stacked against the comics.

He said, even though it could obviously easily be three people who aren’t comedians, meaning the Traders.. I don’t know how it works out, but if math turns against us, we’re in big trouble. So here’s my question to you guys. Who would be good on American celebrity traders? So I put some thought into this.

And I think you need a specific kind of comedian. Like the Austin guys, even if you got them to do it, they’re not going to take it seriously. Like Tom Segura is not going to take celebrity traders seriously. So I’m like, who would take it seriously? So you need somebody like Jim Gaffigan, I think would be great at celebrity traders.

Mulaney might actually buy into it. Controversial manga comedian Nate Borghese would probably be really good at it. So I think you need that type of comedian. Let’s hear when Carlos Mencia, too. He’s been very interesting in the press.

I don’t know. So go on the Facebook group, Daily Comedy News Podcast group. Tell me who would be good for American celebrity traders and comedians. And that is your comedy news for today. I’m going to go change outfits, even though I’m recording a bunch of these in a row.

So those of you watching on YouTube aren’t like, hey, does he ever shower? I shower, just not during a marathon recording session. See you tomorrow.

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Featured: Norm Macdonald, Judd Apatow, Chris Fleming, Anthony Jeselnik, Joe Coy, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Jason Segel, Taylor Swift, Bill Simmons

What’s in This Episode

• Norm Macdonald Netflix documentary premiere October 16th directed by Judd Apatow
• Chris Fleming loses Emmy to the Muppets, calls for late night hosting change
• Anthony Jeselnik launches book club podcast on Bill Simmons’ network
• Jimmy Kimmel late night show cancellation rumors and ABC denial
• Joe Coy weather forecast segment and Taylor Swift joke controversy

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. I can’t wait to tell you a story, but I shouldn’t do it at the top. It’s bad for consumption rates, but let me start with Norm, The Tale of Norm Macdonald. That will premiere on Netflix Friday, October 16th, directed by Judd Apatow.

The documentary offers an intimate look into the career of Norm Macdonald, who will be the deep dive on this upcoming Saturday. But let’s listen to the trailer. I.D. That is a strange abbreviation when you think about it. I is short for I-D.

And then D is short for dentification. It’s funny with Saturday Night Live, isn’t it, that people either go on to huge fame or they fizzle into oblivion.

And then there’s you.

No, but.. It won’t go away. When I was a kid, I walked into my parents having sex. It was the most embarrassing half hour of my life. I think it’s kind of useless to go to school.

Like, I never graduated college. I never went to college. I don’t know if I believe that. Remember when you came and visited the set of Man on the Moon? Oh, sure, yeah, yeah.

I was also in the film. I’m not political. In my opinion, if you’re going to fight the war on terror, a good place to start would be this nation’s haunted houses. They’re terrifying. We all went on a tour to do stand-up, and he goes, I’m the best comic out.

Of all of us, and everyone went, Yeah. That’s true. No one fought back. And why would they fire you? This guy, Don Ohlmeyer, who turns out to be the president, he goes, I’m firing you there from the show.

And then I said, oh, that’s not good.

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And then I said, why is that now?

And he goes, oh, you’re not funny.

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And then I said, holy Lord, that’s even worse news.

You know? I don’t like to act. Actors look on me the way vampires look on Count Chocula. We regard you as the best of the best, the guy who has it in every fiber of his being. You know, there’s no such thing as unconditional love with human beings, but dogs, they don’t care.

Hitler had a dog. Now, you think of that. There was a dog in history who loved Hitler more than anyone. He would wake up in the morning and go, where’s Hitler? Norm, the tale of Norm Macdonald, traces the life and career of Norm Macdonald from his rise as the anchor of Weekend Update to his enduring legacy as a comedian’s comedian, a master of the absurd, the dry, and the unexpected, built entirely from archival footage, personal photos, and rare home videos contributed by fans and friends.

Looking forward to this one. I was telling my college students this was coming out, and they were excited about it. So Norm has a cultural footprint, as they say, which is great. Let’s make 1230 great again. Chris Fleming is upset about not winning an Emmy.

He’ll explain why. As you can see, I am in mourning. I lost an Emmy to the Muppets. Now, don’t understand that level of humiliation. Cross-culturally, everyone, like, if you were to tell a child in Nepal or an.

Old man in the end of his life in Peru, they would both go.. On a body level, I would describe it. I hesitate to use this term, shrinkage. Uh.. There’s a chronic, maybe generational shrinkage that I’m experiencing.

And this isn’t even the Muppets of yore that I lost to. These are the Muppets that Jason Segel dug up during the housing crisis. These are the. Muppets that Jason Segel pet-cemetered when he claimed God. When we were too vulnerable as a nation to stop him.

I think it’s time we hand 1230, the late night franchise on NBC, over to Chris Fleming. Seth Meyers not getting it done for me. Anthony Jeselnik will have a book club podcast on Bill Simmons’ network. I listened to Jeselnik on Simmons for a couple minutes, and he just doesn’t seem like a guy I would want to spend time with. I’m sure he’s lovely, but I don’t feel his vibe.

And I was really picking up on, and I think we know this from his comedy, but even in his normal speaking voice, he over-enunciates everything. Yeah. And I find it a little jarring. Anyway, Anthony Justin’s Book Club Now podcast.

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And now with the five-day forecast, let’s go to KABC’s Joe Coy.

This is so hard. This is like, we’re doing a science project. I don’t even know how you do this. So we’re looking at downtown LA. Yeah.

Very easy. What’s going on? Oh, well, it looks like it’s cloudy and there’s an 84% chance of humidity right now. The dew point is at 66 degrees and the pressure is at 29. So be careful when you drive.

Keep your eyes on the road. Keep your hands off that cell phone. Visibility is at 10 miles. So the wind is picking up at two miles per hour. Out at Long Beach.

Out at Long Beach. You know, this is so hard. This is like doing a science project. I don’t even know how you do this. Because you’re reading the temperature.

All I do is lie the whole time. I don’t even know what I’m doing. Let’s just take our shoes off and let’s just relax. Oh my God. Do it.

Do it. I can’t do that. Let’s do it. Yes, you can. Do it.

Take them off. Whatever. Let’s go. All right, we got 70 degrees in Long Beach, 71 in. Well, no, no, I was looking at Lancaster.

You were pointing to Lancaster. But let’s just remember that Ontario will always be special and dear to our hearts, and it’s at 69 degrees. Absolutely, love Ontario. Looking at along the coast, temperatures in the 70s too. And there’s a lot of, yeah, a lot of clouds.

And what we’re expecting, temperatures by noon, lunchtime. Why’d you leave me? Oh, I’m sorry. Why would you just leave me here? I look so stiff.

I’m trying to come out so viewers can see exactly what’s going on. Oh, my double chin. See, this is why the green screen always adds 10 pounds. There it does. That’s the thing.

It always does. But you look great, Joe. Yes, thank you. We have some pressure coming up from Russia. Coming down through Alaska.

What’s happening is that an area of high pressure is just dominating Southern California. So that’s why we have these really warm temperatures these next few days. But the good news is, as we head into Sunday and eventually into Monday, we have that nice cool down. So it’s been pretty hot these last few days. It’s been hot.

But it’s going to cool down Sunday and Monday. So you can take the. Jacket off on Monday. Let’s do it. On Monday, yes.

LA and Orange County, 87 today, warming up to 90 by Saturday. Yes.

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And then we finally have that cool down.

Sunday and Monday is what we can look forward to. Oh my God, I’m so sorry. Temperatures, temperatures. This is why weather is a one person show. It’s not- Tell you what, this is the best weather you’ve ever seen.

Honestly, you guys. This is awesome. Why do I look massive next to you? Because I’m 5’3. Oh, my gosh.

I’m 6’3. I have to stand in. How did I just become Niku? Niku, get in here. Because we are fast running out of time.

I’m told we have five seconds. Thank you, Joe Coy, for being here with us. Niku, you were spectacular and very well informed. Love you guys. You may recall one time Joe Coy told this horrible mean joke about Taylor Swift, and people are not digging the Taylor Swift new song.

No, people were ripping that on Friday when I recorded this. But anyway, one time, Joe Coy told a horrible, just a vicious joke about Taylor Swift. I hate to even play it for you, but I must. As you know, we came on after a football doubleheader. The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL, on the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift.

So what’s going on with Jimmy Kimmel? On September 8th, news broke that Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show would end. Hours later, ABC denied that Kimmel is out. Calling news of his departure inaccurate. Radar Online points out, however, the denial did not announce a new contract for Jimmy.

Their source is kind of stirring things up, a source said. In other words, he’s a dead man walking. His days could be numbered, could. Is doing a lot of work in that sentence. I don’t think he’s going anywhere.

Source insists that ABC absolutely wants Kimmel to re-up. Again, Jimmy is just slightly older than me. What are you going to do? Record a podcast in the basement like a loser? No.

You have proper lighting on your show. Don’t walk away. John Cleese is unhappy with the BBC. John Cleese is always unhappy with somebody. He’s upset about the whole Mitchell and Webb look thing.

I told you the BBC pulled some clips. Cleese went on Twitter and said, if the BBC could prioritize making great programs ahead of social engineering, that might be worth the license fee. In another post, John Cleese shared something from James Dreyfuss, a star of BBC comedies Gimme Gimme Gimme and The Thin Blue Line. In that post, Dreyfuss wrote, So, the BBC have decided that 11 of Mitchell and Webb’s sketches are no longer deemed appropriate for modern-day audiences, despite the fact that all, in caps, their material comes from an intelligent source base that pokes fun at and ridicules the foolish and ignorant, and people have the nerve to suggest that we’d miss the BBC if it suddenly disappeared. Cleese responded, the BBC knows what’s best for us, and some of us know what’s best for the BBC.

Some more details on the cut sketches. In one, Mitchell and Webb play English Civil War reenactors who’ve grown bored of their roles and recreate a conflict between government forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo and a rebel militia. David Mitchell asks, are you absolutely sure that this isn’t racist? They agree to stop the reenactment at the first sign of racism. When one threatens the other with a machete, they halt the reenactment, concluding, it’s racist, very racist, shame.

In another sketch, Webb and Olivia Colman parried a makeover show and are confronted by a woman in a burqa. Then they cut to Webb discussing whether or not the sketch is offensive. The woman in the burqa removes her garment to reveal David Mitchell in blackface. John Cleese has been mad at the BBC for a while. In 2020, he voiced his disapproval.

Of a decision by the BBC-owned studio UKTV to scrub an episode of Fawlty Towers. UKTV removed The Germans from its Goldbox set of downloadable episodes, saying that it contained racial slurs. They weren’t specific about which one, but they believe it is in which the character, the major.. Uses the N-word when referring to Caribbean sportsmen. John Cleese said, Still some kerfuffle over Ali G, who is I, again, is spelled I-Z.

Some British comedians are arguing that the character is no longer associated with its roots of satirizing white men trying to adopt black street culture. Instead, they say Ali G perpetuates racial stereotypes. Deadline spoke with Colton Dunn, one of three black writers who worked on Ali G, Who Is I? Who said he didn’t recognize that criticism. He argued that Sacha Baron Cohen remains faithful to Ali G’s origins, adding that the jokes target the movie’s subjects rather than black people.

Dunn said, from my point of view, Ali G is not a racist character. Ali G is a tool to expose racists. He puts himself in the most ridiculous situations and he doesn’t do that because he’s racist. He goes into these crazy places, places where people would kill him if they knew it was going down. I don’t think he’s doing that from a racist point of view, me and Cohen.

That’s why I signed on. I wouldn’t sign on to work with somebody I thought was racist. That’s against everything I’ve ever done. All right. The story I couldn’t wait to tell you.

So a listener to the show, I don’t want to share which listener because, you know, the person’s private. Um, had mentioned to me that they were going to Iceland. And I said, okay, when I was in Iceland, I wanted to go to the hot dog stand that Anthony Bourdain went to, and I couldn’t go because when I went there at 11 at night, it was closed. So I sent the listener a picture of the hot dog stand and said, this is your challenge. Get a hot dog.

That’s it. I’m not telling you anything else. Find this place. That’s all I told him. Send him a picture.

And I just got like two seconds before I hit record the listener with a hot dog in front of the hot dog stand. Well done. You know who you are. Love it. Hey, remember Bowen Yang?

Remember him? He was really popular on his Saturday Night Live and walked away because he was going to do all kinds of really cool projects. Remember that guy? Well, he’s out hawking skin care. And he got one of those advertorial articles, and my comedy tracker caught it.

So Bowen Yang was asked, Bowen, as a chemistry major, how important is the science behind skin care for you versus word of mouth? Bowen Yang, who used to be the star of Saturday Night Live and left a little early to go do other things, he said.. I’ve always been fascinated by the industrial applications of chemistry, but in skincare I’ve always thought, I guess I’ll follow the trendy thing. Now, I have this wonderful dermatologist that I really rely on, who’s also Asian and very specifically understands the particulars of our skin. His training and understanding resonate with me, which makes me think I’m a little more science-minded behind skincare now.

You know. There’s a lesson here. Kenan Thompson, hey, Lauren, can I come back? Sure, Kenan. Kenan says yes.

Jost and Che, hey, can we come back? Lauren says yes, they come back. Remember Kate McKinnon? She was a bit of an SNL superstar. Yeah, she should start a club with Bo and Yang for people who probably should have stayed on the show longer.

It’s not 1975 anymore, guys. Ken Jeong discussed joining former Major League Baseball player Chan Ho Park’s consortium and buying a stake in the Sacramento A’s. And said that Chanho Park getting an ownership is a victory for Major League Baseball. Ken Jeong was on SportsCenter and said this is also a victory for Korea because Chanho Park is now the bridge between Major League Baseball and Korea. Jeong added that he’s lucky to be part of the A’s in any capacity.

He also said, how can I say no to Chanho Park? I don’t know. And let’s see here. I’m going to bump this time out, put out a list of comedians that they think you should know and watch. But I have some travel coming up and need to record like 17 episodes today.

So if you’re watching the videos and you’re like, hey, I saw that outfit already. Yeah, you did. So we’ll get to time out a different day. So that is your comedy news for today. See you tomorrow.

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Featured: Marc Maron, Barack Obama, Brendan McDonald

What’s in This Episode

• WTF with Marc Maron podcast ends after 16 years and 1,686 episodes
• Marc Maron’s final episode recorded in Barack Obama’s office
• Obama’s 2015 appearance in Maron’s garage as pivotal moment for podcasting credibility
• Marc Maron’s career trajectory from Air America to podcast success
• Burnout and decision to end WTF on their own terms

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. Has it been a year already? Hi, I’m Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News on Saturdays with Doing Deep Dives. And on October 13th, 2025, Marc Maron got in a car, drove to Washington, D.C. Walked into the office of Barack Obama and recorded the final episode of WTF with Marc Maron, episode 1686.

The first episode had gone up on September 1st, 2009, from the garage of Marc Maron’s house in L.A. Recorded on equipment that cost a few hundred dollars with an audience of basically nobody. Sixteen years later, the last episode was recorded in the office of a former president of the U.S. Who had appeared on the show once before in 2015, sitting in the same garage in L.A. Which was the moment that definitely answered the question of whether podcasts were a real medium or a niche hobby for people who couldn’t get on the radio.

We’ve known this was going to happen for a little while, and we thought it would be a fun idea. A great thing, an honor to have the president stop by on this trip to Los Angeles. I’m a little nervous because he’s the president and I’ve got to have a person in here. But that on top of the fact that they just swept my house with a dog. I had to hide my cats in the bedroom.

They had to sweep that separately. There was a lot of panic. I was in, as you know, in Hawaii. While a lot of this was going on, my producer, Brendan McDonald, was dealing with a lot of pre-prep. But today, they’ve tented my entire driveway.

I’m told there’ll be a sniper on the roof. There’s something in here that looks like an armed yoga mat I didn’t ask too many questions about. There are Secret Service everywhere. There’s people, three or four people, maybe five or six people out there with headphones on listening to this. Again, the entire walk from the street, that section of the street where the The motorcade’s going to come up.

It’s tented. Oh, see? Look at that. I should turn that off. I put a lot of pressure on myself about this kind of thing.

I want to connect, but I don’t want to do a policy discussion. I don’t want to do an interview that’s been done before. I’d like to connect with him as a person. I got to hope that happens. When I teach the subject to college students, I always share that as the definitive episode of podcasting.

If you listen to it, when Obama first gets there, he’s the president of the United States. He’s very serious.

And then along the way, he drops the president stuff.

And it’s just Barack hanging out in the garage with Marc Maron. You can hear him get comfortable. And it just it’s two guys talking now towards the end. I think Obama’s brain kicked back in and he became the president of the United States again and talked about issues. But for a while there in the middle, it’s just two guys in the garage.

What do you do to have fun? I mean, I can’t imagine what it’s like to raise a family in the situation that you’re in as president. It must feel sort of insulated. You know, the biggest fun I’ve had is watching my girls grow up. And they are magnificent.

Look, hopefully every parent feels the way they do. I do about my daughters. Yeah. But I think they are spectacular. And when Michelle and I came into office, the biggest worry we had was, is this going to be some weird thing for them?

And are they going to grow up with an attitude or are they going to think that everybody eats off of China? Right. Right. And are they? And, you know, it turns out that they’ve just become.

They’re kind, they’re thoughtful. They treat everybody with respect. They, uh, don’t have any kind of errors. Uh, they’re confident, but without being cocky, um, they’ve got great friends. They’ve been able to, uh, you know, they’re not stuck in the bubble the same way I am.

Uh, you know, they go to the mall, they have sleepovers, they go to prom, Malia’s started to drive. Um, you know, they’re, they’re, they’re doing great. So, My biggest fun has been watching them grow up. Now, unfortunately, they’re now hitting the age where they still love me, but they think I’m completely boring. And so they’ll come in, pat me on the head, talk to me for 10 minutes, and then they’re gone all weekend, right?

And they break my heart. And so now I’ve got to start thinking, well, what’s going to replace that fun? Right. But the one thing you don’t have to worry about is like, well, I hope they don’t get lost. That never happens.

Yeah. The other episode, Obama in his own office for the finale, was an acknowledgement from one of the most significant figures in American public life that WTF with Marc Maron had mattered, enough to warrant that kind of closure. Maron announced the show was ending in June of 2025. He and his producer, Brendan, who’d been running the operation together since the beginning, described themselves as burnt out and satisfied with the work. 16 years. 1,600 episodes. 55 million listens a year by the end, reportedly. 600 million total downloads by 2022. This started.

You know, the old garage, the, you know, just no one knew what a podcast was. I was coming out of a horrendous divorce. I was wanting to figure out how to continue living my life. Things were not looking good for me. Brendan McDonald, my producer who I’d worked with for years on other things, radio and streaming related.

And when Brendan and I started this thing, All we knew is we were going to do it every Monday and Thursday and there was no way to make money. There was no way that we knew how to build an audience or anything. And it was, it was crazy. We were doing it in a garage at the beginning. That was just a garage.

It was filled with junk and it, it slowly evolved into the show that became what you listen to twice a week, 16 years. We’ve been doing this and, uh, We’ve decided that we had a great run. They said they started it on their own terms. They grew it on their own terms and they were ending it on their own terms. Interesting to me, Marin got out right before the video boom or just as the video boom was starting.

And again, I can tell you when the camera is on, you behave differently. And I wonder if there had been cameras filming Barack Obama in the garage, would you have gotten the president of the United States to drop it and just be Barack? I’m not sure. Marc Maron, born in Jersey City in 1963, grew up partly in Alaska and partly in New Mexico. He went to Boston University, dropped out, drifted into stand-up in the mid-80s in San Francisco and then New York, and spent most of the 90s and early 2000s in a position that’s arguably the worst position to have in comedy.

Talented enough that the industry kept putting him in proximity to opportunities, not quite commercially viable enough that any of those opportunities converted into career stability. He was on Morning Sedition on Air America, remember that? The radio station for the left? He was on in the mornings. I’m gonna go out there and give them the best damn final show they’ve ever heard.

I’m going to embrace all my insecurities. I’m going to talk about candy and cats and iPods and my parents. I’m going to talk about the issues. And if all goes as planned, I’ll have a major meltdown, just like my bosses want. Yeah, everyone goes home happy.

And I get to do my final show. Ladies and gentlemen, for the last time on Morning Sedition, Mark Maron. Go. And writing geniuses, philosopher kings and queens, working class heroes, progressive utopians with no sense of humor, lurking conservatives. This is it, Mark Reilly.

This is the final show. We’re going to do it. We’re going to reflect. We’re going to get some closure. We’re going to talk to our friends.

We’re going to make it a nice time. We’re going to have a party. Is that all right with you? I’m fine with it. All right, Reilly.

How are you feeling, man? Are you sad? He had conversations about TV that didn’t go anywhere. This will shock you. He had a reputation inside the comedy world as someone who’s both genuinely brilliant and genuinely difficult, who could be his own worst enemy in rooms that required a certain kind of professional smoothness that Marc Maron didn’t consistently possess.

His stand-up from that era is good in ways that reward attention. It’s neurotic, confessional, self-lacerating in a way that felt specific rather than performed. Anxiety and anger and self-awareness folded together into material that the comedy community appreciated even when broader audiences weren’t getting it. You have a father, right? No, I was cloned.

I don’t know. You know, your popular TV personality, it could just, all right. Right, they may be in a lab, of course. I just have some advice. If you have a father and you’re a guy, what you gotta do is at some point, you just sit down with him over coffee, lunch, look him right in the eye and say, OK, is there any way I can avoid becoming you?

Is there any way? Because it’s happening and I want out. Did you keep a diary? Is there a map? Don’t look at me like that.

He was a comics comic in the sense that his peers recognized something real in the work, even when the commercial machinery was not amplifying it. Marin was, by his own account and by the account of most people who knew him during that period, not easy. He had relationships that ended badly, professional situations that ended badly. He carried things loudly and in public, which is what made him interesting as a comedian and what made him harder to work with as a professional. The podcast started in 2009, partly out of necessity and partly out of impulse.

He needed something to do. He had a garage, he had a microphone, a computer. He called comedians he knew and asked them to come on. Then he posted the conversations for free on the internet. An audience found it and then a bigger audience found it and a bigger audience found it and it kept growing in the way that things that are genuinely good keep growing when the mechanism for distribution is available.

What WTF was doing that no one else was quite doing in 2009 is more than just saying he invented the long form comedy podcast. It’s true. It gets the job done. But Marin was doing something specific with the interview that was different from what podcast interviews had been doing and different from what radio interviews did. He wasn’t asking comedians about their projects.

He wasn’t doing a press junket. He was asking comedians about their lives, specifically the part of their lives that shaped the work, the early years, the difficult years, the family stuff, the failure stuff. And he was doing it in a way you could tell he was actually invested in it rather than just professionally curious. He cared about the answers. You could hear it.

When he was talking to a comedian who had been through something specific, he was drawing on his own specific things, and the result was a conversation rather than an interview, which is a different kind of listen. The Robin Williams episode was entered into the National Recording Registry as the first one-on-one podcast episode to receive that designation, which is to say the Library of Congress identified that episode as a document of cultural significance worth preserving. You know, in the old days, yeah, there was that whole thing about just going from club to club to club. It’s one of my, yeah. Yeah.

There are a lot of people that was like, you would say like, there were styles and you’re like, but he’s doing him. I go, yeah, it’s, and a bird hurts doing Taylor Negron. Yes. You know, you go like at that point, you’re going, look at the blending. Well, that behind every genius, there’s a guy going, he stole my soul.

But it’s that whole thing of what’s the bitterness versus do you want to hang out? Do you engage it? And you say, what’s the truth of it? Yeah, I know the truth of the old days, but now it’s like, I don’t hang, so I don’t know. Well, that’s the weirdest thing is that there’s this idea that when you have show business, which is just a community of bitter people aspiring to something, and they’re children because what they’re aspiring to is ridiculous.

I mean, you’ve had a tremendous career for a lot of reasons. But there’s a lot of people that, you know, that they just they go to Hollywood. I used to do a line where I said it took me years to realize Hollywood wasn’t my parents. Wow. Looking for approval.

Well, yeah, just like I’m here. Where’s my where’s my trailer? And I think that the bitterness that when when people dismiss somebody who’s had a career, you know, as big and huge as yours, that the idea that like, you know, if he didn’t take that one joke, he wouldn’t be Robin Williams. I mean, it’s ridiculous. I mean, you look at even you look at someone like Pryor, who literally did Cosby for the first time.

Two years of his life. Before the auteur theory of comedy happened in the late 50s, where comics actually owned their point of view, I mean, it was what people did. I mean, you know, the Warshaw guys were like, are you doing that bit about the uncle tonight? Can I do it? All right.

And it was interchangeable. It’s also the idea of.. You know common ground when you say when there’s certain subjects you go you talk about you talking about the president i talk. About the president well yeah the obama garage episode from 2015 was the moment that made undeniable something that the podcast audience had understood for years which is that wtf had become a place where serious things happen where people said things they hadn’t said elsewhere and the format produced honesty that other formats didn’t produce. It’s kind of hard to say okay i okay look you know we had the fight like 10 years ago and I, I, I have held that against you for 10 years and that’s, that’s hard to even say because, okay.

I mean, from my point of view, it’s always been that you did something really, really wrong to me. And he, and then you just refused that. I mean, that’s the way that I looked, I looked at it, you know? And, uh, so the other day I was thinking about it again. I guess I hadn’t really thought about it for a long time, not in detail.

And I really went over in my head. I don’t, you know, I don’t know why. And, I realized that. It was my fault. Completely.

And it’s like, I was. A total asshole to you and I stopped being your friend. And I’m shocked now when I think of it. That I would ever. Have thought it was anything that you did.

You did nothing. And I know that now. And I don’t know how to look back at, you know, you look back at your actions and. Man I don’t know I don’t know if this has any meaning or worth to you and I don’t maybe this is just more of me being selfish but I just want to say Mark that I’m sorry and I wish that. I don’t know what else to say.

Okay is that it or. Yeah I guess so. All right. Well, I appreciate that, but I guess you don’t remember, but you came over here five years ago and said the exact same thing. I did.

Other great guests, Louis C.K. 2017, Lorne Michaels. That was a great episode. Robin Williams, Keith Richards, Carol Burnett, Conan, Jerry, Chappelle. It’s a document of the comedy world across 16 years. The interviews are durable in a way that junkets aren’t.

They’re real conversations. They don’t expire. Go back and listen to any of them. Along the way, Marin got sober. He started talking about that on the show.

And the audience started to include people who were listening for the sobriety material, the anxiety material, for the honest account of what it’s like to be a middle-aged man trying to figure out how to live without the things he’d been using to not live. There was a crossover audience, comedy fans and people in recovery, people with anxiety, people who just want to hear someone talk honestly about being a mess. Mark fell in love with Lynn Shelton. Who died unexpectedly in May of 2020. He talked about that on the show eventually after months of silence and grief that were documented in real time.

His special From Bleak to Dark, released in 2023, dealt with that grief directly and was the special that most clearly shows what WTF had always been doing, taking the material of a specific life and making something honest out of it. Not really therapy, not really entertainment for entertainment’s sake, something in between where the laugh and the real thing exist at the same time without canceling each other out. There was the documentary in 2025, Are We Good? Which tracked Mark’s return to comedy after Shelton’s death, the HBO special, and the process of figuring out what comes next. Since then, Mark has been on Stick on Apple TV Plus with Owen Wilson.

I also skipped over, what was the wrestling show? Glow on Netflix. Mark Maron, the actor. We will see what Mark Maron does as his career continues to evolve. On September 1st, 2026, Mark Maron posted briefly, just to check in, just to say hello and let the audience know he was still out there.

No announcement, no project to promote. Just a guy who would talk to an audience for 16 years, touching base, because that’s what you do with people you have a relationship with. WTF showed that you could have long-form conversations about comedy. Radio won’t do it. TV won’t do it.

Seven Minutes on The Tonight Show doesn’t do it. Promotional interviews don’t do it. WTF proved if you gave people access to those conversations in a format that had no time limit, no advertiser notes, and no producer in an earpiece telling you move on, people would listen. 55 million times a year by the end. The thing is, you can’t just do what Marc Maron did. There’s so much to the show that is unique to Maron.

The garage was specific to Marin. The cats, specific to Marin. The anxiety, specific to Marin. The anger, specific to Marin. You can take parts of that.

You can try, but it’s never quite going to be what WTF with Marc Maron was. The show worked because those specifics were real rather than performed. And an audience that’s been trained by years of media recognized the difference between real and performed and recognized it immediately. Mark Maron ended the podcast on his own terms almost a year ago. Barack Obama flew him to Washington to help close it out.

The National Recording Registry has the Robin Williams episode, 600 million downloads, and cat angels everywhere. That’s the show. It’s a show about them. And comedy is not therapy, just because it’s the truth. Wait a minute.

But if you’re talking about a show about them, if you’re saying that a person that talks about themselves on stage is not a comedian, then you’re dismissing a great many great comics. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They did it wrong.

No, they didn’t do it wrong. Okay, you walk into a doctor’s office and he talks about his problems instead of one. Well, that’s an old joke. If a comedian talks about himself, and that is funny. If a comedian is a storyteller.

See, by your rubric, you’re dismissing people. He can’t work at State Fair. Who wants to work at State Fair, necessarily? Everybody. Really?

Yeah. So in order to work a state fair, you have to take the Gallagher class. You have to work faster and more general. There are families out there and they’re not interested in your long, subtle story. Okay, that’s fine.

That’s a state fair circuit. But the comedy club circuit, the cabaret circuit. Can indulge it differently. Why can’t you just see it as all being part of show business? Why are you angry?

Because there’s no show involved. There are a bunch of slovenly, they hunch over, they turn their back on the audience, they take a drink of water. That’s their style. It’s show business. Why are you drawing lines?

Why are you taking the other side of everything I say? I’m not. You are. Why did you want me to do this interview if you don’t think I know anything about what you’re asking me about? I’m just telling you.

You’re done? You’re just arguing. It’s Howard Stern. I’m not. I was just having a conversation.

I have more respect for comedy. You’re trying to be controversial. I am not. Yes, you are. You’re just arguing with me.

I have 30 years of experience. Well, then tell me about comedy. I just think that show business is show business. Well, then just why don’t. You do the interview and tell people your opinion?

We were having a good conversation. Oh, come on, Gallagher. All right. Well, that didn’t. Well, maybe it really went well.

I don’t know. I’m certainly not going to chase after him. That’s your comedy news for today.

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Featured: Stavros Halkias, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, Jay Leno, Joe Coy, Nick Thune

What’s in This Episode

• Stavros Halkias on private equity ruining fast food quality
• Chris Rock seeks Adam Sandler’s advice on transitioning to dramatic roles
• Jay Leno defends avoiding partisan comedy on late night
• Joe Coy discusses evolution of comedy culture from cocaine-era 80s to modern vaping generation
• Nick Thune tapes special ‘Never Always’ at Den Theater exploring control and parenthood
• BBC cuts Mitchell & Webb programming
• Jalen Brunson to host SNL on Saturday

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

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

Let’s go Knicks. Jalen Brunson hosts SNL on Saturday. Hi, I’m Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. Stavros Alkias is all fired up about the fast food, man. He was on Pablo Torre’s podcast, and I got a clip for you.

There are a lot of bleeps here, but here’s Stavros. I think it’s clear that what’s f * * * ing us up is, like, private equity and.. And money taking over these things that are all, products that are awesome, right? Let’s, sports is the easiest one, but the one I’ve actually latched onto recently that I think goes hand in hand with sports is fast food. Because everybody understands that Wendy’s has gotten here.

The spicy chicken sandwich now uses shredded lettuce. Exactly right there, that is private equity. That is someone saying, we don’t want a fresh head of lettuce, that costs more money. So we’re gonna get you bagged lettuce. And I know that in the grand scheme of things, it’s not a big deal, but people will notice Jersey Mike’s was bought, I think two years ago.

It started to get. It was one of the, it was the best sandwich chain. It’s getting because some head who’s never spread mayo in his life decided, oh no, actually instead of a sandwich, this is now a commodity, right? And what’s important is that by turning the buyer experience, the consumer experience shittier, I, some dickhead that’s never made a sandwich, gets a billion extra dollars. Chris Rock explained at the Toronto International Film Festival that he had to tap a friend to help him move from comedy to drama.

Now, who better than the great dramatic actor Adam Saylor to help you become a dramatic actor? Because that’s what Adam’s good at. He’s not good at comedy at all, unlike Chris Rock, who’s really good at comedy. But Adam Sandler, he’s got great films like Uncut Gems, Basketball Movie, Space Movie, and the ones with Drew Barrymore. Everything else is garbage.

But Chris Rock said he asked Adam Sandler for help. Are Rock and Sandler competitive when it comes to moving into dramas? Rock said, no, we’re not. I mean, please. He’s so far ahead.

See, Chris Rock recognizes the greatness of Adam Sandler, dramatic. Actor, supposed to unfunny comedian who makes. A lot of money. I get it. I get that he makes money.

You know, I can’t begrudge the guy for taking $ 50 million from Netflix to make garbage, but it’s garbage. Rock said, no, I just take notes from the Sandman. I did watch. I’m sitting there like, wow, Uncut Gems is amazing. Punch Drunk Love is amazing.

If you don’t remember Punch Drunk Love, that is from 2003. Adam Sandler played a man who’d been unable to fall in love until meeting a mysterious woman. Chris Rock says he doesn’t have Madagascar money anymore after divorce. He would like there to be a sequel to Madagascar. That’s funny.

He describes his new movie as Female Uncut Gems. I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Chris. Maybe find something else. He says, it’s weird how few movies have money in them, like on a regular level. In movies, usually money is like we’re robbing a bank or something, but it’s never like I need to pay my rent.

The movie Misty Green arrives in theaters October 9th. The worst person who ever lived, Jay Leno, you know, the jerk that takes care of his wife at night. Yeah, that guy, he’s the worst. He continues to face criticism, telling the Unexpired podcast that he’s getting criticism for avoiding partisan comedy. Apparently a lot of people would like to see Jay Leno comment on the president of the United States.

Jay said, I get beat up for this all the time, but as someone who works in the real world, when you go to Indiana, I’m sorry, a third of your audience is going to be Trump people. Christian Toto from the website Hollywood and Toto told Fox News Digital, late night hoes don’t care who they eliminate in 2026. They’ve chosen an audience period. Jimmy Kimmel infamously said of his Republican fans, not good riddance, but riddance that says it all. Some familiar beats from Jay Leno.

I mean, Johnny and I used to pride ourselves on making fun of both sides equally. Now I get beaten up for that, but OK, that’s all right. Toto said Jimmy Fallon had a chance to be the new Jay Leno. Sadly, after he tousled Donald Trump’s hair on the Tonight Show in 2016, he was hounded by the media and the left for humanizing the real estate mogul, which is not a sentence a human would say. That’s like not how you’d phrase it.

I don’t know. That’s a weird quote. Toto called Joe Rogan the new Johnny Carson. Tap the brakes. I mean, yes, Rogan has a lot of influence, but the new Johnny Carson?

Relax. Hey, Joe Coy, how do you tell someone who’s starting out in comedy how to manage late night culture when it comes to eating and drinking? Joe Coy, who once told a horrible mean joke about Taylor Swift. Do you want to hear it? Okay, twist my arm.

As you know, we came on after a football doubleheader. The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL, on the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift. Joe Coy said when I was younger, I was around the old school vets. So my guys are from the 80s because I started in 89, 90. So I was the new generation of comics in the 90s.

And I’m being mentored by the guys from the 80s who were like really, really bad. Those were the cocaine guys. You know what I mean? Yes, I know what you mean. I’ve worked with some of them.

It was like cocaine, weird and beer, man. That’s all you need. And some bacon, you know what I mean? And I’m not saying all of them were like that, but it was a different time. They weren’t very health cautious.

Then my generation was very fast foodie. It was just a different time when I was coming up. But now I’ve noticed that you can see right now that these kids don’t drink. The drinking culture is not what it used to be. And I think it’s more the vape generation and the edible generation.

I feel like the comics I see coming up tend to be on the healthier side, but the late night culture is beautiful. So embrace it and enjoy it. There are late nights, but the camaraderie of comics is always fun. Imagine surrounding yourself with laughter the whole time. I remember doing a show and going to Mel’s Diner.

That’s in L.A. And I’ll be sitting with all these comics, you know, and just enjoying life. That’s from the L.A. Times. Nick Thune spoke to the NewCityStage.com.

He just taped a special last week at the Den Theater. The current name of the show, and it’s gone through a whole bunch of different variations, says Thune, is Never Always. The special is kind of in three parts. On the first part is like this fantastical world that I control and make-believe. Which is kind of like my older stand-up.

Then the second part is a world that I can’t control at all. That’s my son. Hmm.

And then the third part is me realizing that even if I don’t have control, I’…

The idea of never always comes from the idea that I’m out of control in life, but never always. It’s like a relief that there’s a bit of optimism. Nick Thune talked about working clean. He says his parents sheltered me from all of those topics, sex included. Part of the special is me going overboard in the other direction, trying to make sure that my 12-year-old son knows everything, and then realizing maybe there’s a middle ground.

He grew up in Seattle, admiring the comedy of Martin Mull, Steve Martin, and Chevy Chase. He admired Chevy Chase’s flesh, because I love the way the guy talked and the way that he confidently said things that didn’t really mean anything.

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And then I found that within Martin Mull and Steve Martin.

He even said, I learned how to confidently tell stories that were totally unrealistic and with a wink. Kind of knowing the nonsensical things that I was saying, and I think that Martin Mull was pretty good at that.

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And then later in life, I found out more and more different ways that I align…

I’m fascinated by his career. Anthony Jeselnik has a book club. The New York Times asked Jeselnik, describe your ideal reading experience. Jeselnik said, I’m sitting on an airplane in the dark with a Kindle lit up in my hands. I’ve got earplugs in and I’m tearing through a novel while everyone around.

Me is asleep. A flight attendant comes by once in a while to fill my water glass. That’s some pretty good writing there, Anthony Jeselnik. All right, why don’t you think men read fiction, dude? He said, this is a question that fascinates me.

I think a lot of men view reading fiction as a frivolous waste of time. We’ve been conditioned to ignore the beliefs of empathy. I think it’s a marketing problem. Reading should be sold to men like lifting weights for your brain. But it’s not just men.

People are happily staring at their phone all day, don’t want to pick up a book. Their attention spans are fried, but I’m hoping the fall of literature is just a trend. Trends can be reversed. Interesting. We learn Jeselnik Book Club’s motto is, you don’t shoot dogs.

He says it’s an unofficial motto we came up with to separate ourselves from Oprah’s book club. Why’d you start a book club in the first place? He said, I was really sick of podcasting. Hey! But as a Tory comedian, I wanted to maintain a presence online.

A book club felt organic to me, and I’ve always found success with things that come naturally. I wonder if he has a rivalry with the John Mulaney book club. How did your fans respond to what seems like a change in your image, Mr. Jeselnik? You said the fans who followed my old podcast weren’t surprised at all.

I was always recommending a new book at the end of every episode. And I’ve been doing a top 10 of my favorite novels of the year for a while. But it’s fun to see people who only know me as a stand-up react like Paul Giamatti started making porn. Comedy stock market. All right.

On the comedy stock market this week, if you’re new to the show, what we do is we buy and sell comedians. Hypothetically, of course, we’re not actually buying and selling people like stock in comedians. You get it. Comedy stock market. It’s in the me.

It’s in the name. I can’t explain it to you. That’s what it is. Here’s what we’re doing this week. We’re going to sell Andrea Santino and Tom Segura.

I don’t think this golf thing is going to be good. They’re both pretty near peak right now. So let’s cash out on those two. And make some money before everybody goes, wait, are you going for getsy on us? What is happening here?

So sell Santino, sell Tom Segura. Sell Nikki Glaser. She’s also at peak, and I think the backlash is coming. So let’s get out on top there. Let’s buy some Maddie Kelly.

I’m seeing a lot of buzz on Maddie. I’ve seen her opening for Otzko. Maddie is really good. Buy Maddie Kelly. And let’s buy Jalen Brunson.

You saw what he did with the Knicks. How could he not be great at Saturday Night Live? The man is great at everything. All right, so we’re buying Jalen Brunson and Maddie Kelly. We’re selling Nikki Glaser.

Andrew Santino and Tom Segura, that is your comedy stock market for today. Apparently Mark Maron is doing video podcasting just like me. Us old guys have gotten webcams now. So if you want to check out Mark Maron, I’ll let him tell about it. So this is it.

The new world. I’m you know, I got to figure out how to just sit here and talk on. Hey, Charlie, Charlie, Charlie, I got to sit here, figure. Out how to to talk. On camera.

It’s a weird thing. This computer is the computer that I had out in the podcast studio for years, and I’ll just let you know what’s going on. It was the, what was it, the first year anniversary of the end of the podcast a few days ago, and for some reason over the last couple weeks, I’ve just.. Charlie, I’ve just now been able to break it down. So I took this out and I’ve set it up in here.

But all this stuff out there, the table, all the mics, just taking everything apart. It’s now all on the floor. Mics, mic stands, all the other crap that I had out there. Guitars, everything else. It’s all sort of broken down, but it took me a year and I didn’t wait on purpose.

And now it looks like a, like a garage sale in there. I got to figure out how to unload some pedals. That’s my, uh, that’s my project. I gotta, I gotta be a pedal pusher, but, um, so that’s done. And this is here.

I got a light. I got stuff. I know I’m a little late to the game on this long form video business. And I honestly don’t know that I’m going to do it regularly unless it feels good. But I’m here and I guess I can just try to tell you what’s going on in the world.

This is interesting for Mitchell and Webb. I don’t know if all of you know that sketch comedy series. It’s one of my favorites. The BBC has removed nearly a dozen sketches from that Mitchell and Webb look. After deciding they, quote, no longer work today.

That Mitchell & Webb look originally ran for four seasons, 2006 to 2010. The show recently returned to the BBC iPlayer to mark the 20th anniversary, but some old sketches, including one that showed the guys in blackface, have been cut. In a statement, BBC said, this is a 20-year-old sketch show in consultation with the program makers. We have included the ones that still work today, not the ones that don’t. So the sketches are in one Mitchell and Webb act as war reenactors in Blackface.

There’s also a sketch about a contestant on a makeover show wearing a burqa and a quote-unquote tribe living in a garden center. Mitchell and Webb did not comment, but fellow comedian Dom Jolly of Trigger Happy TV told The Times, I totally get it if the BBC is putting out something really racist, which is laughing at and encouraging other people to feel that it’s okay to do that, but it’s so clear that Mitchell and Webb are not doing that. Their intent was not to be racist. Jimmy Mulville, co-founder of Hat Trick Productions, which makes the British Have I Got News For You, said the BBC are in an impossible position. He said producers have to be careful, though, that this is not the thin edge of a wedge where we cut things out.

Mitchell and Webb are best known for the scene where they’re dressed as Nazis, asking the question, are we the baddies? That remains online. Very well. They’re coming. Now we’ll see how these Russians deal with a crack SS division.

Er, Hans? Have courage, my friend. Yeah, er. Hans, I’ve just noticed something. These communists are all cowards.

Have you looked at our caps recently? Our caps? The badges on our caps. Have you looked at them? What?

No. A bit. They’ve got skulls on them. Have you noticed that our caps have actually got little pictures of skulls on them? I don’t..

Hands. Are we the baddies? And Walter put out their list of comedians you should and will know, or whatever it’s called. I told you I’d forget. One on the list is Dukes.

And if you haven’t heard of Dukes before, they say chances are you’re familiar with the two stars or at least come across their work online. Dukes’ Jane Wick line and Live a Pierce. Yes, that Jane Wick line from Saturday Night Live. Vulture, I think these are comedians we do know already, but okay. In their self-titled show, they performed in baggy button-downs with teenage boys still growing into his limbs’ physicality and casual ease.

That belie hard-hitting punchlines in one song. Pierce impersonates themselves as a teen whose attempt to seduce the mom of a child they’re babysitting gets sidetracked by the mom. Taking too much of an interest in their androgyny, Vulture had three quick questions with Dukes. One, what’s the biggest financial investment you made for your comedy? Jane said, our ill-advised off-Broadway show is a complete financial disaster.

We invested in ourselves by paying for production costs with our tour earnings. We’re recouping our losses with the currency of fun. Okay, if you taught a comedy class, what’s the most crucial lesson? Here said, I took a lot of comedy classes as a young adult in an openly careerist way. I really wanted someone to tell me how to get famous.

If I taught a class now, I’d try to weed out anyone who was sick like I was and kindly tell them that their goals are bad and they need to first figure out a way to enjoy toiling in obscurity forever. My solution has been to try and write and work with people that I think are one, geniuses, two, kind, three, available to hang out, and after that, Just try and keep up with them, which is quite enjoyable. All that said, I hope I never have to teach a class on comedy. I don’t know a thing. What’s your biggest goal, your most earnest goal?

Jane said to write earnest music. Beer said, I want my work to be so undeniable and so big that I get to throw my phone in the garbage. There’s sometimes a reductive narrative among young comedians that’s like, these digital natives can’t get enough of the internet. Their phone is their paintbrush and their canvas. Maybe this is because I’m at the older end of Gen Z, but it’s the opposite for me and most of my friends.

Many of us feel forced to make content online. Because we’re trying to keep up with the broader, often corporation-driven trends around media monetization and the evolution of digital marketing. Mark Maron and I say hello. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, and that is your comedy news for today.

Tomorrow, a deep dive on Mark Maron, actually. He’s tomorrow’s deep dive, and then Sunday should be a normal episode. You have an awesome day. Go Knicks, go SNL. That’s what I meant.

Go this guy, Brunson. Bye.

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Featured: Bill Burr, Aaron Sorkin, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Fallon, Jay Leno, Paul McCartney, Jim Downey, Seth Meyers

What’s in This Episode

• Bill Burr Rolling Stone cover story on finding his voice
• Bill Burr stars in Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning
• Bill Burr discusses moving away from anger-based comedy
• Bill Burr commentary on Luigi Mangione and tech CEO accountability
• Conan O’Brien returns to guest host The Tonight Show
• Conan and Fallon discuss SNL 50th Anniversary encounter with Paul McCartney
• Seth Meyers announces new schedule with longer breaks

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. Should be an easy one for me today. I’ve got a ton of clips. Bill Burr got a cover story on Rolling Stone.

There’s a lot to unpack today. And we’ll pick at that for the next few days. Bill Burr stars in the Aaron Sorkin movie The Social Reckoning, in which Bill Burr plays an investor composite character named Charlie who confronts Mark Zuckerberg. That’ll be out in theaters October 9th. We’ll get a lot of press from Burr in the next couple weeks, including this from Rolling Stone.

Let’s just jump in here. Here’s Bill Burr talking about finding his voice. I feel like I’m finding it now. Yeah. Because I actually am who I would have been Like, that guy I was wasn’t who I was.

That was traumatized me. You know, fight or flight mode, alopecia, losing clumps of hair. And so I figure out, like, you know, I had a style. I had a thing that I was doing. I had something that was true to who I was, but I’ve changed now.

So, you know, that’s another thing about doing this stuff and that whole, oh, don’t get happy, whatever. It’s like, dude, if you’re funny, you’re funny. Like, imagine if you were angry, but you could sing. Right.

And then all of a sudden you weren’t angry anymore.

You can’t sing anymore. It’s like you don’t lose talents because of emotions. Yeah, really interesting. Burr is talking a lot about not wanting to be the angry guy. He wants to be the meat in the middle guy, which is a new Bill Burr.

Here he talks about anger. Anger to me was embarrassing because it reminded me of my dad who had no control. And I used to always be like, I’m not going to be like him. And what happens? Yeah.

There you go. You’re doing exactly what he was doing. So I always felt shame and all of that. I hated it. It’s the thing that made me hate myself, which made me go darker, which made me get angrier because I didn’t know how to get out of it.

It was just this spinning down thing. It was just like, it would be like, okay, you’re going to write a song on this piano, but you can only use these notes, you know, as opposed to you can use the whole piano now, you know what I mean? So it’s like, I can still, believe me, dude, I can blow my top like anybody. You know what I mean? I know how to do that.

I got 50-something years practice that. I would like to learn how to do these other things. The social reckoning is not exactly a follow-up to the social network. I mean, it’s Aaron Sorkin, it’s Facebook, different cast. Bill Burr also talked about the East Coast versus the West Coast.

Here, I don’t disagree. You know, being in the East Coast, like, an East Coast thing is like, you know, hey, man, don’t lose your edge. Don’t go out to West coast and lose your edge. It’s like, what? Don’t start enjoying my life.

Don’t be a chill person to be around. And like, and that’s also another thing too, like that, you know, in comedy, there’s this big thing, you know, don’t get happy. You get happy. You’re not going to be funny. And it’s the exact opposite.

It’s, it’s, it opens you up. You can, you, you’re, you have access to all these emotions now that you can add into your act.

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And then also you can revisit all of these topics that you just, you just wer…

Like my favorite part of me, this whole journey of being a comedian is when I stopped doing this and started doing a little more of this. It’s like, dude, if you’re funny, you’re funny. And as Bill Burr talks about the social reckoning, he also got a little bit political. Here he talks about Luigi Mangione and stuff. You know, this whole thing that, you know, we live in a world where, like, if somebody’s..

Tells their version of the truth of what’s going on. And especially if it is true, like they have to like, you know, it’s like they’re trying to escape Russia in the 80s. It’s insane. And it’s like, I thought this was like, this is an American company. What’s going on here?

And they all seem to function like the CIA, which is really sort of like indicative of that you’re kind of doing something wrong. I mean, if you look at all of this stuff, like the response to the Luigi thing, was not to be like, well, hey, maybe we need to look at what we’re doing if what we’re doing makes some crazy person do this. Their response was to take their faces off of the internet and get security. It’s like, you don’t think you need to examine.. You know what I mean?

It’s like you’re not the president. You’re just the CEO of a of a business.

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Meanwhile, Conan O’Brien returned to The Tonight Show.

You may recall Conan hosted The Tonight Show for a little bit before the worst person who ever lived, Jay Leno, took the job back. Here is Conan and cracking up Jimmy Fallon. Welcome back. You look fantastic. I always love running into you and seeing you.

Although I have to apologize. I think the last time. We hung out, it was the Saturday Night Live 50th. Yes. Anniversary.

What happened? I interrupted you. I was so wasted. No you were not. I was not wasted.

I interrupted you, you were having a, there’s a very funny writer named Jim Downey. Yep. Who we both know. One of the great comedy writers of all time, yeah. He’s fantastic.

There’s a documentary about him on Peacock if you want to check him out. Eh, don’t watch it. All right, sorry, sorry, I take it back. We don’t have time to plug that. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

But he had an accident and he’s fine, but he had an accident and he was wearing an eye patch. I just remembered this. Yeah. And so I was walking around with Jim and you were talking, and I came over to do a bit, but you were talking to Paul McCartney. It’s not but I was talking to Paul McCartney.

I was talking to Paul McCartney. I know, I know, but this is a huge deal. I mean, we meet people all the time, but there’s a couple of people who will always be, you can’t believe, you step outside your body and you say, I’m talking to this man. He’s a legend. I was talking to him and you suddenly interrupted and you said, Conan, your Uber’s here.

Which is funny. But not while I’m talking. To Paul McCartney! But you looked at me, and I go, I pointed at Jim, and you go, hey, your Uber’s here. Yeah, and you pointed to Jim, who’s got an iPad.

And Paul is sort of like, and by the way, Paul was in the middle of telling me, I think he is very talented. And if you’d been in the Beatles, it would have been even bigger. That’s not true, that’s not true. And I said, well, gee, and then suddenly, ah! Hey, your Uber’s here.

You go, dude, I’m not doing a bit with you right now. I’m talking to Paul McCartney. I’m not doing a bit. Anyway, you go, don’t ruin this conversation. I said, don’t, I said, you can’t.

You can do bits whenever you want. I love the Uber bit. Fantastic. Like he legit told me this. Conan told Felon about his career.

I was working at the Simpsons when I got the job, the late night job. 24 hours later, I was the new host of Late Night. I fly to Connecticut. I go to this thing. No one knows who I am. I get there.

Johnny Corson. Who he qualified. This is how we’re all getting old. He had to tell people, Johnny Carson, the host of The Tonight Show, this show, for 30 years, when I was growing up, the most famous person in America for 30 years, and I teach college kids. They have no idea who that was, if you want to feel old.

The most famous person in America for 30 years, he’s standing there. Johnny told Conan, just be yourself. That’s the only way it can work. I decided, well, he’s right. I just got to go with this Conan thing, whatever that is.

Seth Meyers was back from seven weeks off. He sat down with The Wrap. He explained the new structure will have longer breaks. Oh, goody. Seth said, there’s a nice consistency to our show when it’s rolling, and we want to be able to provide that as much as we can, as much as it’s in our control to our audience.

Obviously, we’re not going to go straight through, but if we can find our way into that SNL schedule that relies on summers off to make sure that when more people are watching TV, we’re on with better regularity, we’re going to do that. Uh-huh. Totally not a budget cut. Totally not. He also did the podcast.

Views on some episodes of that topped over 1 million on YouTube. Seth explained, We didn’t want to disappear. We wanted people to know that we want to be making stuff for them. Sal and I always talk about how without the show as an outlet for our own anxieties and everything else, we go a little bit crazy. So it was a bit of catharsis for us, and we really enjoyed doing it.

Meyer said that they hope to stick to a similar time off schedule next year. We always really want to let people who would rather be doing the show than not. And if it was in our hands, there would be more weeks on the air for us, and people don’t quite believe that. Count me as one of them. You just pretty much told me.

Budget cut. Certainly over the course of a long summer break, people have every right to call us out for what they perceive as a sort of laziness and living a good life. What we want to do with Proof of Life, the podcast, was just kind of hammer home as much as we could by doing it. He was asked, is this the longest break you’ve ever had? Seth said, certainly without a writer’s strike, this was the longest.

Yeah, it felt reminiscent of what I was used to with SNL. Obviously, I’ve worked for a show that takes the summer off, but a seven-week break was very out of the ordinary for us, and I think everybody, based on the energy here, was chomping at the bit to get back. The goal is to have less breaks over the course of the fall, winter and spring. Obviously, we’re not going to go straight through, but if we could find our way to that SNL schedule, we’re going to do that. He was asked about there being one fewer late night show now.

He said, I think it’s too early to tell if it impacts bookings. It’s never been a situation where we’ve been upset about the quality of guests we’ve been able to have. One of the nice things is obviously Stephen was talking about politics. We’re talking about politics. There always seemed to be room for both of us, so it was never a case where we were anything but grateful that he was also on the air.

So we’ll see. One of the great things about Strike Force 5 was getting to know those guys as people, and that’s how I’ve seen them ever since. The way our show has ever worked is when we make the show we want it to be. So whether there were double the late night shows or one less, I think we’d have the same approach. Jalen Brunson, host of Saturday Night Live this week.

Can’t wait. You know he’s going to be great. He’s great at everything. Maybe we should give him 1230. Not the worst idea, but we need him on the Knicks.

Not yet. Maybe we’ll do 10 years of Chris Fleming at 1230, and then Jalen Brunson can take over for Chris Fleming when Chris Fleming gets the Tonight Show. I don’t think any of that’s going to happen, but it’s a plan. Jalen Brunson was on Tamron Hall’s podcast. He was asked if he was prepared for anything SNL would throw at him.

He said, probably not. Being honest with you, I have no idea what I’m walking into, but I know it’s going to turn out great. Will he sing? Jalen Brunson said, no. Pete Davidson was asked for advice and Pete said, Jalen doesn’t need any advice from me.

He’s New York royalty forever. He’s really funny and his podcast is great. He’s going to do great. I’m very excited for him. On Gossip Corner, the prime minister of Greece ran into Dave Chappelle at a Greek restaurant in San Francisco.

Paul Kirby is the managing partner at Kokari restaurant. He told the SF Chronicle Dave Chappelle stops by whenever he’s in town. A Greek news outlet posted video of the exchange with the prime minister and Dave Chappelle. Dave was asked about his relationship with his audience. Dave said, Meanwhile, Adam Sandler was spotted out on September 9th.

I think that’s his birthday. He turned 60. Sandler was dressed the way I do, kind of like how I’m dressed now, except Sandler’s hoodie was purple. It was a bright lavender zip-up sweatshirt pulled over his head. He was wearing a pair of dark sunglasses covering much of his face.

He paired the hoodie with a green t-shirt, loose white basketball shorts, and wildly colorful sneakers. I think Adam Sandler and I could be friends, except for the part where I don’t like his comedy work, and I think he does. The man accused of allegedly trying to extort money from Carrot Top says the public has the wrong idea of the case. The man even posted a video on YouTube responding to common reporting on the case. Blaming a judge for branding him vexatious.

That’s a Scrabble word. V-E-X-A-T-I-U-S. Vexatious. Use it in a sentence. The judge said I am vexatious.

The man says he was just following the judge’s orders. It’s not as black and white as people try to make it. The man said he will do any live interview at any time to clarify what’s really going on. And Vulture put out the list of the top comedians you should and will know. Did I get the title right today?

I’m not going to get it right every day. I’m not sure I did it today. First up, Jack Benziger. We’re told by Vulture Jack’s comedic universe is Saw-esque, filled with traps, ensuring no character he creates will ever see things go their way. He delights in the freaky, the grotesque, and the embarrassing.

Benziger came up in the Chicago improv and sketch comedy scene where he met future collaborators including Sarah Sherman, Connor O’Malley, and his Joy Tactics podcast co-hosts. Walter had two quick questions for Jack. First question, at this point in your comedy career, is there someone you’ve proved wrong? Jack said, I tried doing improv in Chicago for many years before realizing stand-up is a better fit. One time I had an improv coach tell me I should be myself less.

I don’t fault them because I was a nuisance to do improv with. I was doing written stand-up jokes in scenes and had a catchphrase. I was soaking wet one time, which isn’t cool. I was using my phone to Google things during scenes. Eventually I realized I should just quit.

But yeah, the person who said to stop being myself, I disagree, probably, in a sense. Question number two. When you think about the future of comedy, what concerns you? What excites you? Jack said, And not because they want to eventually start their own non-alcoholic beer or sexual liquor company.

Is the N.A. Beer a dig at John Mulaney? Who knows? All right, some housekeeping. This week’s Saturday Deep Dive will be Marc Maron, then the week after Bill Burr, and the week after that, Norm MacDonald.

Then on October 4th, I finally sat down and recorded at least one episode and a trailer of the Late Night series I wanted to do. That will be in its own feed, so make sure you subscribe to.. Is Late Night Dead. OK, the new show is called Is Late Night Dead. I will eventually use those episodes in this feed.

But for now, it will be its own separate podcast called Is Late Night Dead. And that will be out on October 4th, wherever you found this show tomorrow. Now, did you notice we up early Wednesday morning? Johnny Mac pre-taped the Friday episode because I teach on Thursdays. That’s why I do that a lot of times.

And I had misscheduled it. So if you were up early on Wednesday, you got the Friday episode early. But then I deleted it and it’ll be back. So if you already heard the Friday episode. So Saturday is Marin.

Sunday is normal.

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And then October 4th will be the Is Late Night Dead feed in.

Its own feed. And that is your comedy news for today. See you tomorrow.

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Featured: Tom Segura, Andrew Santino, Timothy Simons, Kevin Hart, Ron White, Joe Rogan, Brent Reid, Big Jay Oakerson, Carrot Top, Nikki Glaser

What’s in This Episode

• Golf Trip ensemble comedy film with Tom Segura and Andrew Santino
• Ron White on Joe Rogan Experience discussing Kill Tony and crowd work
• Ron White’s health transformation after moving to Austin
• Carrot Top hospitalized after suicide attempt
• Carrot Top extortion attempt involving explicit recording
• Nikki Glaser’s Sunday Night Football opening monologue
• Vulture’s 12th annual list of comedians to know

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. I’m glad a bunch of comedians are choosing to jump the shark together. Listen to this one. I hope this is good, but I have a feeling. Live Nation Studios, Heartbeat, that’s Kevin Hart’s company, and All Things Comedy got together.

They’re making Golf Trip, an ensemble comedy starring Tom Segura, Andrew Santino, and Timothy Simons. Some other people are in this. In Golf Trip, three best friends have their annual golf trip ruined while they’re paired with the universally dreaded single. You see, for 20 years, four best friends have held on to one sacred tradition, their annual golf trip. No matter how much their lives have changed, this trip has remained the one weekend they can count on to reconnect, compete, and briefly escape from the pleasures of adulthood.

This to me just sounds like the thing they just did with Marcelo Hernandez and Kevin Hart in Miami that was a bachelor party. It feels like that, but 20 years later. Because you see, when one of the four drops out at the last minute, the remaining three arrive at the picture-perfect golf resort, only to be paired by Chuck Wheeler, an aggressively friendly, completely unfiltered solo golfer with no sense of personal boundaries, which should be a relaxing weekend, veers off course as Chuck inserts himself into the group and tests the limit of their patience. Andrew Santino, who’s an avid golfer known for his podcast No Bad Lies, a golf podcast. He plays Jason and Simon plays Don.

The director of Golf Trip last sold the comedy pitch Fantasy Camp to Amazon. Nate Bregazzi is attached to start of this one. This is why I think this is going to be lame. I don’t think this is going to be, you know, Caddyshack 3. I think this is going to be tame and a waste of the talent.

I mean, you just have to listen to the suits. The head of film and television at Live Nation Studios said, Golf Trip is a great example of giving our Live Nation comedians an opportunity to expand their talents to scripted projects. We found a really hilarious story and assembled an incredible group of comedic talent that audiences will want to tee off with. Uh-oh. That sentence did not land well.

I almost threw up in my mouth. So they’re all jumping the shark together. Congratulations to those folks. Ron White was on the Joe Rogan Experience and says, but only for performers who are ready when the moment arrives. Rogan compared a successful Kill Tony appearance to landing a sitcom.

I don’t know about that, Joe, but Joe said it’s like the new Hollywood. You got a sitcom thing. Ron White cautioned that simply getting on the show guarantees nothing. Ron said if you’re prepared for the opportunity, then that’s the best thing out there for you. And if you’re not, then it was just another day at the park.

Both Ron and Joe pointed to comedian Brent Reid as an example. Joe Rogan praised Reid for being honest about his performance. Reid said, I just had to get my stuff together, man. I had to figure out what the hell I’m doing. Reed now opens for Ron White on tour.

Ron White says he does not allow his opening acts to perform crowd work because then they feel like they can talk to me, which they cannot. Ron said he once used crowd interaction for a practical reason when he had 41 minutes of prepared material but was expected to perform for 45. Crowd work helped him fill the remaining time. Once he had enough written material, he didn’t do the crowd work. Now he hears younger comedians announcing that they need to work on their crowd work, and he said, well, you don’t.

Rogan argued that crowd work can be legitimate when it supports a comedian’s material. He cited Big Jay Oakerson as an example. He said the crowd work is nice, but it’s not the only thing he does, whereas some people, that’s their whole thing. Ron White said, I learned this art form watching my uncle preach. He was very funny and always getting a laugh on stage, saving souls every week.

Ron has made changes to his health after moving to Austin. He said he arrived drinking heavily and carrying 30 extra pounds. Now he has taken weight loss medication, hormone treatments, and regular exercise. During a recent European trip, he said he was able to climb mountains in Switzerland without his legs failing him, but he said, out of breath, but my legs are fine. And let’s keep a good thought for Carrot Top.

Carrot Top has been hospitalized and is recovering after an attempt at suicide over the weekend. His representative put out a statement using his real name, Scott Thompson. Mr. Thompson is recovering in the hospital and is receiving the care and support he needs. His family and those closest to him are deeply grateful for the concern, prayers, and respectfully ask for privacy.

Born in Florida, raised in Cocoa Beach, Carrot Top appeared on Star Search in 1991. Even though he lost, he’s still impressed. Three years later, he won the American Comedy Award for Funniest Male Stand-Up Comic. In 1995, Jay Leno introduced Carrot Top on The Tonight Show as the comedian taking America by storm. In that appearance, Carrot Top came out in a dress that converted to pants and had two trunks of props, including a pasta strainer to be worn dangling from a belt to dissuade sniffing dogs, and three baseball bats for replacement players so they’ll get a hit.

In 1999, Carrot Top got a Razzie Award for his role in the movie Chairman of the Board. He also played himself in Pauly Shore as Dead in 2003 and played himself in Hacks in 2024.

Also over the weekend, TMZ reporting that Carrot Top’s legal team is speaking…

In a filing obtained by TMZ, the lawyer said that a man threatened to enter a sexually explicit recording on a USB drive depicting Carrot Top into a court’s legal docket unless he was paid $ 500, 000 as a settlement. If you or someone you know is struggling or is in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or you can chat with 988lifeline. Org. Did you watch Sunday Night Football?

Did you see the Nikki Glaser opening? Now, what’s really interesting is that NBC was able to use a Taylor Swift song. That probably didn’t come cheap, but it’s going to totally goof up my monetization here on YouTube. I’m totally going to get a flag for this. So that’s annoying, but not as annoying as Nikki Glaser.

Let’s listen. When you’re on top of your game, everybody roots for your downfall. People love a winner. Until they win too much. People want dynasties to die and for champs to become chumps.

And when that downfall finally comes.. They are out of the playoff picture for the first time since 2014. It hurts. Like a tush-push you weren’t expecting. But without the downfall, you don’t get the thing that people love most of all.

Showtime, this buzzer. The comeback. And for Chiefs Kingdom, the comeback starts now. You can never count out the Chiefs. Are you seriously not starting Mahomes and Kelsey in your fantasy leagues this year?

Oh, so you, like, love losing? Okay. You think you’re done seeing Andy Reid in chicken commercials? I don’t want to live in that world. And you know Collinsworth is going to keep gushing over Mahomes, changing his arm angle?

Oh, man. Are you ready for it? I mean, boy crushes like that are forever. And it’s safe to say the world’s greatest singer-songwriter is now a permanent fixture at Arrowhead. And I speak for all Swifties when I say we want more cutaways.

So here we go, Kansas City. Tonight, we take on the Colts. Before you know it, we’ll be back on top.

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And then the rest of you can go back to hating us all over again.

Vulture has put out their 12th annual list of comedians you should and will know. I’m going to have to memorize that phrase because I’m going to forget it. And every time I bring this up for the next three months, I’m going to be like, the comedians you should know or whatever they call it, Vulture thing. This is the list. Vulture says, here you will find dropouts, TikTokers, road dogs, competition winners, crap posters.

I almost said a naughty word there. We try not to do this on this show. Brits and clowns. They’re on tour in clubs, online, and in writer’s rooms. They polled over 200 comedy scene experts, including sources of comedy clubs, festivals, late-night shows, improv theaters, TV networks, podcast studios, record labels, production companies, and film studios, as well as comedians previously featured on the list.

I will pick at the list over the next few days, but the comedians are Jack Bensinger, Dukes, Grace Johnson, Hayden Johnson, Linjin Hao, Anya Magliano, Janet McNamara, Courtney O’Donnell, Milan Patel, Hassan Filz, Tanisha Just Nash Rice, Ethan Simmons Patterson, Ron Taylor, Sereny Wirasekera, Lou Wilson, Ivy Woke, is it Chloe or Zoli? I guess Zoli, X-H-L-O-E, and Natasha. Jimmy Kimmel back from vacation. How did the ratings do? He drew more than 2.5 million total viewers.

During the three new shows Labor Day week, it was a rerun on Monday and Friday. Jimmy Fallon also was up after two weeks of repeats. He averaged 1.311 million total viewers. So basically, Kimmel is doubling Fallon right now, which is what we thought would happen. And all that with Fallon getting a lead in from the NFL.

The show did kick off a little later than usual because of the NFL kickoff game and the Wednesday night game that opened the season. But Fallon was up, but Jimmy Kimmel more up. Colin Jost and Pete Davidson’s ferry had a ton of propaganda. Variety tells us the main room was packed because the ferry naturally didn’t have one big corridor. An overflow room projected a live feed of the main stage.

An event coordinator asked Variety, you’re media, right? The person said, yes. Well, then we better put you up here. The event coordinator whisked this Variety person straight up to the front, pointed at two young women who immediately jolted to their feet and shuffled towards the far end of the bench. The Variety person said, I’m sorry I took your seats.

The women glanced at each other and said, it’s okay, trust me. Variety says it took a couple minutes to figure out what they meant. Then, quote, I pulled out my phone to take a picture of the stage. A black bar stool, a glass, peach tea snapple, and a mic stand. I wasn’t just in the front row.

I was in the hot seat, the very hot seat, directly under the mic stand. Stage lights beamed down on me, and the ferry cabin itself was extremely muggy. We’re told the room skewed younger millennials and older Gen Z. I know some of us old Gen Xers tried to get tickets and couldn’t get in. This is interesting.

Most towards the front looked like or probably were influencers who look good on camera. I see what you did there, Pete and Colin. Okay. Variety says, usually I’ll recognize at least a few media friends in a crowd like this. Not here.

Hmm. At nine o’clock sharp, the lights went dark. Davidson and Jost emerged from beneath the neon Snapple Island ferry sign to applause. This would be the first and last time we’d see the two co-hosts all night. That’s lame, boys.

That is lame. Pete said, this is something we’ve wanted to do for like five years. Thank you guys for coming out. Thank you to our sponsor. Jost said, everyone feeling hot and nauseous?

That’s a good feeling. Obviously, we’ll get going soon. We’re going to stop at the Strait of Hormuz. Then Jost looked over at Pete to tee up the next punchline, and it became clear that the reference sailed over Pete’s head. No shocker.

Pete said back, I like how you thought I knew what that is. He glanced down at the clock, 8.17 remaining. Pete said, I love that this is our body language. It’s truly like we’re waiting for someone to start a fight. Joe said, we don’t exactly know what to do.

This sounds pretty rough, actually. We have an incredible show. There are so many great comedians here. Macklemore is here tonight. The crowd liked that one.

That’s a good joke. Matt Richards served as the emcee. Parentheses, filling the role many of us presumed Davidson and Jost would play. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Set the tone for the night by chugging an entire Snapple in one go.

And then he told a very naughty story that I’m not even going to go near. All right. He says Caitlin Palufo stormed the stage with material in the let’s call it advanced workshopping stages. Did everybody mail this show in? This sounds terrible.

The New York Times said Davidson and Jost performed a loose seven minute opening set before a lineup of well-known and rising New York City comedians. The Times pointed out poor air conditioning and a lack of ventilation made the upper deck performance area stiflingly hot. It was very hot in New York City on Thursday. I was in for the podcast conference and it was a hot day. The Times quotes a 35-year-old Lower East Side resident named Mia who had come to the event because she was a big fan of SNL and said, with such big names attached to it, I feel like you expect more.

But it was a fun time. Sounds like it wasn’t that good. That is your comedy news for today. I’ll see you tomorrow.

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Featured: Pete Davidson, Colin Jost, Dave Chappelle, Conan O’Brien, Seth Meyers, Joe Rogan, Ron White, Chelsea Handler, Salma Hindy, Kate Berlant, Matt Rife, Matt Fraser

What’s in This Episode

• Pete Davidson and Colin Jost Staten Island Ferry comedy event
• SNL Season 52 cast announcement with returning members
• Dave Chappelle adds second Madison Square Garden show
• Chelsea Handler and Salma Hindy tour dispute over Palestine comments
• Kate Berlant HBO comedy special announcement
• Paranormal concerns over Annabelle doll at Warren Museum tourist attraction

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

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

One last time this summer before we put the cover on high, I’m Johnny Mac with a poolside edition of Daily Comedy News. Pete Davidson and Colin Jost had their Staten Island Ferry event. Colin Jost joked, can you believe the Coast Guard let you guys on tonight? Pete Davidson said, this is something we want to do for like five years, so thank you guys for coming out. Pete and Colin riffed off one another, joking about the ferry, the crowd, and the challenges of turning a ferry into a comedy venue.

Pete added, this is nice, the amount of crap that people have talked.

And then he added, suck it.

It was very warm. I was in the city that day, and it was pretty warm. Jost acknowledged it, saying attendees were feeling hot and boaty. Pete Dave. Hot and Bodie.

Hot and Nauseous. That’s a good name for the next comedy festival. Your performers, Matt Richards, Casey Shonima, Ronny Chieng, Jay Jordan, Paul Verzi, Mike Vecchione, and Caitlin Palufo. Richards cracked a OK joke. Two rich white guys bought a broken ferry.

Not sure how funny that is. I’m sure he told it better. Caitlin Palufo said, I went to Staten Island. I loved it. I never had that much fun in an above ground pool.

She later added, the dumber that has to, the acorns are attacking me. Yeah, there’s a ton of acorns here on the deck pool side. Oh, no, another one just hit me. I’m distracted. Caitlin said, the dumber the tattoo, the hotter the guy.

That’s why I love Staten Island. Dave Chappelle has added a second Madison Square Garden show. He will now perform November 7th on top of November 6th, part of the New York Comedy Festival. On Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show Tonight, a former Tonight Show host returns for the second time. It’s Conan O’Brien.

Meanwhile, Seth Meyers is back from seven weeks off. Late night with Seth Meyers, we’ll have Taylor Tomlinson, who used to compete against Seth at 1230. About 90,000 people will wind up watching that thing. SNL announced their cast, and boy, Johnny Mac was wrong about something. Almost everybody is back, including the five freshmen.

Ben Marshall, Jeremy Culhane, Tommy Brennan, Veronica Slowakowska, and Cam Patterson is back. I don’t know why. I don’t know what.. He’s all right as a stand-up, but I don’t see him working on SNL at all. The usual suspects, Kenan, Colin, Che, Mikey Day, they’re all back.

So are Sarah Sherman, Ashley Padilla, James Austin Johnson, Marcelo Hernandez, who can do one thing really well. We’ll probably see a lot of that. Andrew Dismukes and Jane Wickline. Boy, that’s a pretty good cast. You know, now that you look at it, you know, you’ve got the aces in Keenan, Colin, and Shay.

That’s reliable. And you’ve got Sarah Sherman and Ashley Padilla and Jane Wickline as part of that cast now. And James Austin Johnson. You know, that’s a pretty good cast they have. Last year I didn’t think was too good, but the cast is good.

Joe Rogan had Ron White as a guest on the Joe Rogan Experience. They discussed the president of the United States. Let’s listen. But, you know, Trump supporters are nuts, man. They’re rabid.

He represents something other than just a person to them. Oh, it’s Christ. Yeah. Well, he represents something, a leader that they wish they had, you know? Yeah.

Which is a real problem in our society in general with leaders. We look to them as if they’re something different than every other person that’s ever been a leader before. Like, this is the one. This is the one that’s going to save us. Send your letters to Joe Rogan.

Chelsea Handler in a little kerfluffle, as I pronounce it incorrectly. Comedian Salma Hindy has accused Chelsea Handler of kicking her off tour. I will let Salma explain it. I lost my position as Chelsea Handler’s opener after I spoke to her about Palestine. My name is Salma Hindy.

I am a Canadian-Egyptian stand-up comedian living in New York City. Beginning in 2022, I opened for Chelsea Handler on two tours, performed at her Just for Laughs Chelsea Handler Gala. And generally had a very warm, loving, sisterly relationship with Chelsea Handler to the point where she actually used to invite me to ride her private jet with her. October 14 of 2023, I messaged Chelsea asking her if she wanted to speak about the Palestine-Israel thing after noticing that two of her closest friends, Amy Schumer and Sarah Silverman, had posted some.. Disgustingly racist, dehumanizing posts toward Palestinians.

I texted Chelsea about it lovingly, to which she did not respond. Immediately the next day, I got taken off of three of the 12 upcoming tour shows. I was told that she had promised those dates to somebody else. Regardless, Chelsea and I did end up going on tour in December of 2023. We did four shows together in Canada.

After one of the shows, I spoke to Chelsea privately about Palestine at dinner. To which I found out that Chelsea Handler has actually been to the West Bank. And in her own words, she said it looked like the Arabs had their souls sucked from their faces. The clip is a little long, so I cut that short, but you can watch that online. Chelsea Handler responded to it and said, eh, that’s actually not what happened.

You quit opening for me and I have the emails from your agents. Your agent is full of it. I would never fire someone for disagreeing with me political on this issue. Handler then shared screenshots from her Instagram story to support her version. One message dated January 29th, 2024 appeared to show Hindi writing, Chelsea, something has now come up, but I won’t be able to do the remaining four shows anymore.

Wanted you to hear it from me. Thank you for everything. It’s been such an experience. And you’re right. It would have been wonderful stage time.

Very interesting there. Kate Berlant getting an HBO comedy special. It’s called Parmesan, I assume, unless she is pronouncing it Parmesan, but Parmesan, I guess. HBO, October 16th. Parmesan is described as a hilarious tour de force that skewers the many contradictions of modern life and the art of stand-up comedy itself.

Nina Rosenstein, big time HBO suit, said when it comes to Caperland, the comedy is everything. A look, a gesture, a pause that lasts a little too long. People are worried about Matt Rife and evil energy. The story, Matt Rife’s haunted Warren Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, is drawing visitors from across the country and concern from paranormal believers. Who questioned whether Annabelle should be a major tourist attraction.

So interesting to me that there’s a controversy involving Salem, Massachusetts, right before October Halloween season. Boy, that’s weird. Now, you may know of Annabelle, the allegedly haunted doll, which became famous through paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. According to Ed and Lorraine, the case began in 1970 when two nurses believed an unseen presence had attached itself to the doll. The Warrens removed it and kept it contained, believing The doll was connected to a dangerous entity, now psychic medium Matt Fraser, worries that putting Annabelle in front of large crowds changes the situation.

Very interesting. He told the Daily Mail, Ed and Lorraine took them seriously and contained them for a reason. When you turn something that was once contained into an attraction, you completely change the relationship people have with it. Matt Reif enthusiastically promoted the museum’s expansion. He said, Matt Reif said, We’ve collected over 1,000 of the world’s most haunted objects and added them to the Warren’s already historic collection.

Fraser said, and now you’re taking Annabelle and bringing her together with an entire collection of objects that reportedly carry their own histories and energies all under one roof while thousands of people continuously walk through that environment? Every visitor brings their own energy with them, and whether that fear is grief, curiosity, skepticism, or even the desire to provoke whatever might be there. My concern is that evil energy loves attention, dark energy wants to be acknowledged, He wants people talking about it, challenging it, fearing it, and feeding it with their attention. I almost feel like he’s describing Amy Schumer, but I digress. Well, good news for the worst person who ever lived, Jay Leno.

Jay Leno’s law has passed. Governor Newsom announced last week he had signed legislation exempting classic cars made before 1981, model year 1981, from state smog checks that measure pollution levels. He also signed a bill to create a specialty license plate commemorating lowrider vehicles. The governor said these bills protect a treasured part of California culture, giving car owners a way to preserve these pieces of history for generations to come. The announcement was accompanied by a video of him touring Jay Leno’s car garage in Burbank.

In the video, we see the governor and Jay Leno walking past a 1957 Buick Roadmaster, a 1966 Chevrolet Corvair, a 1989 Bentley Turbo R, and some open-wheel roadsters and vintage British sports cars. Out on Netflix today, Party Down. Party Down’s not new, but it’s going to be new to a lot of people. There are three seasons of it. They did two seasons like over a decade ago, I feel like it was.

And then a third season, maybe like two years ago. But the cast is Adam Scott, Ken Marino, Ryan Hansen, Martin Starr. Martin is Homelander, right? Lizzie Kaplan, Megan Mullally and Jane Lynch. They are actors who are not really acting that much and making a living as caterers.

It’s a fantastic show. I feel like this is going to pop on Netflix, which is good because that’s a good show. Out on Netflix today, Nimesh Patel. His special is called By the Dip. Patel discusses the absurdity of parenting, the insanity of the Indian family, and the rampant corruption in Washington, D.C.

Send your letters to Nimesh Patel. There’s a new podcast out today called Petty Cases. The premise is put ridiculous arguments on trial. And let comedians decide who’s right in each episode. Willie and Steve preside over absurd, low-stakes disputes that would never make it anywhere near a real courtroom.

I had jury duty last week. The judge let me go. I appreciate that. I was home by 11 o’clock. It was very nice.

All right, so some of the comedians who will be stepping into the courtroom. Good list here. Bert Kreischer, Ron Funches, Morgan Jay, Frankie Quinonez. Let’s see, Caitlin Palufo gets a second mention today, and a bunch of, oh, Steph Tolev and a bunch of others. We’re told because Willie and Steve are stand-ups first, every case becomes a comedy set in disguise.

This keeps reminding me, and I never know how to explain it without hanging myself. When I was at Sirius, there was a judge who turned comedian, and we had um in a premise we called racist court And we could never figure out how to do racist court without accidentally being actually racist. But the idea would be if you did some sort of behavior, were you just being normal or were you being racist about it? And I really can’t explain it. But the gang, which was a diverse crowd, we all kind of got it, but we never figured out how to do it without just, you know, accidentally being racist, which was not the idea.

I asked ChatGPT to explain it. And it would be something like if we went out for, Chinese food and the waiter brought just the person of Asian descent chopsticks and the rest of us forks. Now we’ll try that person on racist court. Did they profile our Asian friend in this hypothetical situation? Like that kind of thing.

Just like harmless fun, but we could never figure it out. Josh Johnson’s been hitting comic shops from comicsbeat.com, which isn’t about comic comedians. It’s about comic books. We’re told last month Josh stopped off in Minneapolis and he went to Odd Mart. Which combines Indian alternative comics, zines, vintage items, local artist showcases, toys, and more.

They even host their own Saturday cartoon cabaret. Then he stopped off at Comic Book College in Roseville. That’s known as Minnesota’s longest-running comic book specialty store, going back to 1974. Then in San Francisco, he went to Comics Experience, Comics with an X. That was founded in 1989 and is now the oldest comic book store in San Francisco.

Josh Johnson commented on how unique and diverse its choices are and how to categorize books opposed to other comic shops. He said that sets comics, what is this, comics experience apart and makes things worth exploring. Next, Dr. Volt’s Comic Connection and the Nerd Store in Salt Lake. And Josh Johnson has been filming all this.

I wonder what he’s up to. The man puts out a lot of content. And that, one last time for this summer from Poolside, is your Daily Comedy News. There’s regular Daily Comedy News tomorrow. And every day, but we probably won’t be poolside as the pool guy’s coming and putting the tarp on.

And living here in New Jersey, it gets cooler out. So I’ll put the Hawaiian shirt away and sunglasses go back in the car. You have a great day.

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Featured: Kevin Hart, Chris Rock, Tom Cruise, Stav Stavros, Jim Gaffigan, Ted Alexandro, Jo Koy, Taylor Swift

What’s in This Episode

• Kevin Hart and Taco Bell’s Live Más Open golf competition
• Chris Rock on difficulty of being Tom Cruise versus president
• Stav Stavros on making one great standup special and podcasting
• Jim Gaffigan’s Notre Dame theater performance review
• Jo Koy’s new Netflix special and personal stories about his stepdad

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. If you’re a longtime listener, you know that I like to say that Kevin Hart is not afraid to work. He’s got another gig and he’s teamed up with Taco Bell. Yes, Taco Bell is giving nine lucky golfers the chance to bring back a menu item of their choosing. And who would you tap into this if not Kevin Hart’s?

Taco Bell announced they were teaming with actor Kevin Hart, interesting designation there, actor Kevin Hart to deliver the Live Moss Open on Monday, November 2nd. Prospective participants can earn spots through either participating in the Shot Shuffle game at top golf locations across the nation, or you can enter a free online sweepstakes to be among 100 selected to submit a video entry. Then nine fans will be selected to take part in the team golf competition. They’ll complete in foursomes with professional athletes, celebrities, and content creators. Okay.

Nine. All right. I see. Three plus one, three times. Got it.

Wait, it’s not Live Moss. I’m leaving it in. I can do the whole thing over. You guys can just throw stuff at the screen and be like, stupid idiot in the basement. It’s Live Moss.

It’s the Live Moss Open. I’m reading a script. It says L-I-V-E. Leave me alone. The Live Moss Open.

Qualifiers open until Sunday, September 27th. The CEO of Topgolf. There’s a new Topgolf in my area. I’ve been waiting for years for them to open it.

And now that it’s open, I haven’t had a free moment to go.

I forgot to catch a guy who’s up on jury duty. I’ll do that after the break. I’ve been so, so busy. Topgolf CEO David said.. Topgolf has always been about making golf more accessible and social, which is why the Live Moss Open is such a natural fit for us.

Together with Taco Bell, we want everyone to feel like they can be part of the game. Whether they’re picking up a club for the first time or have been playing for years with a chance to earn their way into the field and experience golf in a way they may have never imagined. No quote from Kevin Hart in this thing. That’s suspicious. You can usually get a quote out of Kevin Hart.

Chris Rock says it’s harder to be Tom Cruise than it is to be the president of the United States. All right. What’s the theory here? Chris Rock was at the Toronto International Film Festival, Mr. Fancy.

He told Entertainment Weekly. My theory is it’s harder to be Tom Cruise than president. There’s no system design that every four years we’re going to have a Tom Cruise. This apparently not a system where every four years we’re going to have. Never mind.

Tom Cruise. I don’t know what you thought I was going to say. I was going to say Tom Cruise. I was just agreeing with Chris Rock. I don’t know what you thought I was about to say there.

I didn’t say it. Star Wars Algae has told GQ, I want to make one great standup special. That’s the only thing I want to accomplish. I wonder if he feels this way about the recent one. I think I’m good at standup, but it doesn’t mean you’ve created a great special.

I think you can be great at standup and great live, and it doesn’t mean you’ve created a great lasting thing. There’s no testament one thing. And look, that might be naive, right? Maybe what’s going to be great is a body of work, right? But you want to chase that one undeniable special.

Now, why does Stavros still podcast? He says, it pays so much money, dude. I had to pay the bills. I see podcasts as the most blue-collar thing I do. It’s on a schedule.

We do it, we book it, and people depend on it. I like podcasts, too, and I’d be mad if my favorite podcast just stopped or if they were late a day or whatever. So it’s the most job-like thing I do. I’ve done it in a way where I’m like, oh, this is actually really fun now, but I would stop if I financially didn’t need to. Now, honestly, I like doing it.

The only reason I might stop is if I have the sneaking suspicion that I’m just wasting a lot of being funny on the podcast, which other generations would get to channel into their stand-up. I think there’s only so much of yourself you can give. Like, I do wonder, are we crappier at stand-up as a generation because we’re all podcasters? I don’t think so. I don’t think that’s a thing.

But I don’t perform. I’m just a podcaster. The Observer. That’s a Notre Dame newspaper. They went to see Jim Gaffigan.

They tell us the stage design was fairly standard for a stand-up show. Colored lights illuminated the back of a stage, populated only by a microphone, a stool, and the performer, Jim Gaffigan. Video boards were on either side of the stage, allowing people with, I’m paraphrasing here, cheap seats to clearly see the performance. I mean, I know we do this when we go see, like, the Rolling Stones, but if you’re going to see Jim Gaffigan and you have to watch the screen, what are we even doing? Just stay home and watch Netflix.

Opening guest Ted Alexandro. We’re told his best material drew from his experience teaching middle school students the recorder, or as he called it, Satan’s little flute. We’re told nothing in his act was truly exceptional, nor was anything egregious. There’s a backhanded compliment. It’s did its job of loosening up the crowd for Jim Gaffigan.

You know, this isn’t good. The reviewer says, I struggled to hear the opening act at some points. This was due to several factors. One, his microphone wasn’t loud enough. Two people still looking for their seats and members of the audience were chatting with each other.

That is not good. Uh-oh, Ted, you’re getting murdered here. The lights were only at half level, which wasn’t as effective as full darkness. When Jim came on, the venue fixed the audio and turned off the lights. Hmm, conspiracy against Ted Alexandro.

We’re told Jim Gaffigan’s set was, quote, overall very funny, unquote. He began with some Notre Dame-related comments, including his prediction that the Fighting Irish would beat Rice at the football game. That turned out to be correct. He said American Catholics love three things, Notre Dame, alcohol, and serially, funerals. A decent portion of the set, minor spoilers devoted to anecdotes about the struggles of raising teenagers.

We’re told his delivery and content were similar to some of his previous material, but this time it felt more grown up, reflecting his current parenting stage. The LA Times caught up with Joe Coy. Now, if you’re like, Joe Coy, who is that Johnny Mac? He’s the guy that had the Netflix special recently, like last week on Tuesday. It’s pretty good.

I liked it. You don’t know who I mean? Let me remind you, one time Joe Coy hosted the Golden Globes and told a horrible, horrible, just viciously mean joke about Taylor Swift and You can understand why Taylor Swift was really mad at this one. As you know, we came on after a football doubleheader. The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL.

On the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift. Anyway, the L.A. Times got up with Joe Coy and we’re curious how he stays healthy on the road as a superstar comedian. We’re told it’s just before 1 a.m. And Joe Coy’s outside.

Days before the release of his new Netflix special, he’s gone live on Instagram, standing on Sunset Boulevard next to the Laugh Factory. It’s late, but he spends a few minutes promoting the special and encouraging people to find the Netflix posters and take pictures of themselves in front of the Netflix posters. The LA Times was curious about the special. Joe Coy said, I opened up a lot. I got to talk about my stepdad.

Minor spoilers, that’s part of the closer, which is very, very good. Very good closer. There’s a whole story about my stepdad and what he meant to be being You know, a product of a divorced family, and then this stepdad came into my life, and that was the one thing I really, really needed when I was a teenager. So I talk about him, but it was also sad, because usually when I do jokes on my special, I retire the bit. It’s kind of like, you know, the end of the story, but I’m happy that it’ll live forever on Netflix.

And I don’t want to spoil any more of it, so I’ll skip ahead here. I want to get to the food part. Joe Coy said, I’m like down to one meal a day, basically. I’m not scraping my plate like I used to. But then again, I got to shut up.

I still drink coffee. And, you know, I guess that’s my unhealthy fix is coffee bad. I drink so much coffee. He says it’s not even a regular coffee. It’s got all the crap in it.

So there’s that. But we’re a lot of one little crutch yet. Yeah. Large iced coffee, caramel and milk out of the National Donuts chain. I’m there every morning.

Now I want another one. I think I’ve got a I think I got a Starbucks container. In the fridge. I might have a second iced coffee after this recording. Anyway, Joe Coy said, we’re allowed to have some.

It’s not just a coffee with a tomahawk steak and all the sides. My son is on a health kick and he did this on his own. He doesn’t drink soda because it made him feel weird. He cut bread because he knows that he was breaking out and getting rashes when he was eating bread. And there’s certain foods that he eats that he knows it gets very clammy and greasy.

So he cuts all that out. It’s crazy. My son, he’s like, you should get a salad, dad. So he’s my favorite guy to be on the road with because he keeps me in check. Now I want a salad.

But I have to record all these shows today because of a scheduling reason. So I don’t have time to go to Chopped. Plus, I love Chopped salad, but they’re like $ 18 now. I haven’t been going as much. Joe Coy said, I was really, really bad with morning food.

Back in the day, it was always a thing that you flew in on a Wednesday just so you could do morning press and the club would book, you know, at six in the morning and go on about four hours of morning news and radio and all that. It was disgusting. It was so gross. It was like an egg McMuffin, a cinnamon roll, Coca-Cola, and just coffee. And I look at my old pictures of myself back in the day and it’s like you could see it in my face, just all that crap.

I will jump in there. I produced morning drive radio for four months and put on 20 pounds and I’m still trying to lose that 20 pounds. Here’s why. I used to get up at 3.34 in the morning because that was the latest I could possibly get up and drive from Queens to Times Square where I worked at WOR Radio. I had a parking pass.

I could actually park on the street. I had a press pass. So even the city that never sleeps, even at four in the morning, sleeps. And I could get from my house in Queens to Times Square in 13 minutes between four and five in the morning. Anyway, I was just always exhausted.

And then around seven in the morning, maybe 630, the guy that ran the board, this guy, Bobby, would go cheeseburger. And we would get a cheeseburger and fries at 630 in the morning just to get through the day. Now, That wasn’t breakfast. That was fourth meal because around seven 30 in the morning, the morning show team would get like bagels and stuff. So yeah, even though I just had a cheeseburger and fries, let me get a bagel with butter and some more coffee because I’m always tired and miserable.

And I got up at three 30 in the morning and I hate life and I just need to eat. So I feel you, Joe Coy. I digress. He says, I really was a road dog. So it was like, I lived on the road.

That’s all I knew. I was happy to be on the road. Give me the chicken wings for dinner. Amen, brother. Joe Coy and I could be friends.

I mean, you know, he did make that horrible mean joke about Taylor Swift. I would never do that. But other than that, we could be buddies. He loved the road. Give me chicken wings for dinner.

Give me some beer. Let me tell some jokes. That doesn’t happen anymore. Now it’s like, do you have any more coconut water and some hummus? We’re out of hummus.

I asked for celery sticks, you guys. The funny thing is, I’m not even trying to be funny right now, said Joe Coy. Back in the day, it used to be like this big metal bucket just filled with ice and 24 Coronas. And chicken wings and onion rings. And I’d walk into my green room and I was the happiest man alive.

That sounds perfect, to be honest. If I see that in my green room now, I start yelling at somebody like, get this out of here. And I’m like, no one’s eating this. It’s bad for you. A lot of good stuff from the LA Times.

We’ll save some of that for the weekend. So I had to do this section over. I started doing the podcast to camera. So if you want to see what the basement looks like, you can find the episodes on YouTube now. I’m posting them a little later, about 11 a.m.

This is still, in my mind, an audio podcast, but I’m trying not to be a Luddite. And I just looked down. So now I’m looking at the bottom corner to make sure the timer is actually running because I did the second half of the podcast, which fortunately wasn’t that long. And the timer had stopped. I don’t know what happened.

Sometimes the mic kicks out and it, I don’t know. I’ve been really crazy lately. I had jury duty last week. I was freed by 11 o’clock. The judge let me go, which was nice, but that kind of gummed up my Tuesday.

And then Thursday and Friday, we had the big podcasting conference in New York city. So I had to do last week, basically five days work in two, maybe one, uh, which was a little tough, but we should get back to normal now. Plus I am challenging myself to do the video stuff, which, uh, At first, it was taking me like four times as long. Now it’s maybe an extra 10 minutes. So if you want to see what the basement looks like, the basement looks like this, and it’s not very exciting.

And I’m not good at video. I know that. You don’t have to flame the comments. Be like, you’re bad at video. I know I’m not good at video.

That’s why I wasn’t doing video, but I’m trying to figure it out. So that’s a whole thing going on. Late Nighter has the late night ratings for August. Now, whatever I cut and pasted here, I didn’t grab Kim Holm, but the Jimmy Fallon show, it’s called The Tonight Show, starring Jimmy Fallon. I don’t know why I called it The the Jimmy Fallon show.

That’s not what it’s called at all, John. Anyway, they averaged 1.54 million total viewers down 1% from July in the 18 to 49s. They had 186,000 adults. CBS is airing Byron Allen stuff. There are 767,000 of you watching it down from July, but up in the 1849s to 93,000.

At 1230, different Byron Allen thing has 483,000 total viewers up 2% month to month, and they’re getting 60,000 adults 18 to 49. 12.30, make 12.30 great again. Seth Meyers was in repeats. Repeats averaged 701,000 total viewers, and in the 18 to 49s, a very podcast-type number of 89,000 adults. Not a great number. Gutfeld, he thinks it’s a late-night show, but it airs at 10 o’clock in the East, which makes 7 in the West, which is not late night at all.

But if you’re curious, he had 18 to 49, 180,000 viewers, and overall 2.71 million viewers. I’m going to guess they’re not getting a lot of teenagers watching Gutfeld, so old people watch Fox News. Wanda Sykes was on Z-Way’s podcast. The topic turned to the Riyadh Comedy Festival, which Wanda, I guess, didn’t do or was offered. She told Z-Way, did I turn it down?

I don’t even know if it was offered. She then added, I’m a black gay woman. What am I going to do? I like my head on my body. It fits.

Last year, Wanda Sykes had told Variety, I’m a black gay woman. I have no business there. I wouldn’t feel comfortable with the treatment of the LGBT community. But then again, I think Jessica Curson went and she was going to talk about being a lesbian. I guess that worked for her, but I wouldn’t.

The Toronto Guardian has a nice weekly segment where they talk to local comedians. One of them is Sam Sferrazza. We’re told Sam’s style is best described as acerbic, ranty and angry, though joyful. Makes a list, too. Fueled by a sharp eye for the absurdities of the world from U.S.

Foreign policy. Hey, watch it, Canadians. Watch it. OK, watch it with the jokes. To the humiliation ritual of eating your yogurt before airport security, Sam channels outrage into comedy that cuts with precision and lands with glee.

Who are your influences? They include Maria Bamford, Chelsea Peretti, and Lady Gaga. Favorite comedian growing up? She said, I think the only comedian I watched growing up was Ellen DeGeneres. Anyway, too bad she was really mean to people.

It’s because of her that I promised to be a bitch up front. Great joke. Favorite comedian right now? Meg Statler. Favorite pre-show ritual.

The ritual begins when I decide what to wear, which is always fun because most comedians dress like slobs. So I look really amazing next to them in the green room. By the way, jury duty. I was like Pierce Brosnan and I wasn’t dressed that nice. I had on like a nice fleece.

But so what some of these people wear, it’s like they’re hosting a podcast in the basement in the light blue T-shirt. You know what I’m saying? Yeah, that. She says, I write down my set and then I debate if I should bring the notebook on stage. Eventually I do.

And I convince myself it doesn’t make me any less of a pro. Because one time I saw Sarah Silverman perform and she checked her notes the whole time. All right, Sam, what’s your favorite bit you’ve written? She spoils her own special here. So don’t get mad at me.

This is in the Toronto Guardian. You could have read this on your own. If you want to be spoiled by Sam’s for us is closer. You can bail now. But she says, I have a bit about trans kids in sports.

I’m proud of it because it shows how utterly stupid the debate is. Basically, I make the argument if we’re going to exclude trans kids for so-called valid reasons, I think we should exclude straight kids from the arts because they’re bad at it. All the arts. Most art is queer. Straight people only know how to mimic queer people to be creative.

You all are a hack. She says it’s the last joke of her new special and her closer. That special artistic intent is out on YouTube if you want to check that out. And that is your comedy news for today. I’ll see you tomorrow.

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Featured: Chris Rock, Stavros Halkitis, Nick Mullen, Eric Idle, Jay Pharoah, Adam Sandler, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Jones

What’s in This Episode

• Chris Rock on how fame has changed since Bring the Pain
• Stavros Halkitis discusses leaving Cum Town podcast
• Cum Town podcast origins and success story
• Stavrios Halkitis launches Stavis World Studio after leaving podcast
• Eric Idle on Monty Python conflicts and breakup
• Failed 1999 Monty Python Final Crusade project
• Monty Python 2014 O2 Arena reunion shows
• Jay Pharoah on his Jay-Z impression and comedy role

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. Variety caught up with Chris Rock and they reminded him, bring the pain is when you truly became a celebrity. What has changed about your experience of fame from then to now? Chris Rock said it used to be about getting free stuff and how you’re basically on the third date with anybody you date.

They’re like, I know you. You’re at least on the second date. You skip a date just by being famous. When people come up to me, it used to scare me. Now I realize you’re making somebody’s day.

I try to ask them at least one question, like, where are you from? As simple as that. And they’re like, oh, I had a conversation with Chris Rock. I’ve learned to accept this is who I am. It’s like basketball.

If you’re seven feet tall, you can’t get mad at people asking if you play. I try not to think about fame, but it could be a lot worse. You could be infamous. So I accept it. It helps me get work.

Stavros Helki has had a profile in GQ. He says his workplace hazard is a bunch of guys that look like him stop him when he goes to get pails. He says most of the time I actually really like it. The only time it’s tough is if you’re having a bad day. I remember one time I just made an attempt to get this girl back.

We were talking. She had started dating somebody who was fresh. And I was like, I think I might have a little window to get back in here. Maybe I can grab the cheese before the trap hits me. And I gave it my all.

We’re getting oysters. I picked a beautiful restaurant. I’m making my pitch. I’m like, let’s be together. I messed up so bad.

She hits me with a, no, absolutely not. Are you out of your mind? I tried to do this. You’re just a piece of crap who can’t accept love until it’s gone. And that messed me up.

And I’m walking home to keep it together. And some guy’s like, stop, my boy. And I’m like, come on, I’m crying, dude. I’m heartbroken with a belly full of oysters. I got to make a video for your friend.

You want me to set the fantasy football order for your draft this year right now? Dude, I can’t do that for you, man. So that’s the only time it’s a problem. Most of the time, like I said, I live a hysterical life. And on a regular day, if I got to say hi to a couple of people, that’s nice.

I actually like it. Then he talked about the end of the Comptown podcast. He said, I thought we would do eight episodes. I was doing it to appease my buddy, Nick. At the time, he was like, let’s do a podcast.

I was like, dude, podcasts are over. Marin did it. In 2015, it kind of felt like that first wave of podcasts had crested. Little did we know. I think the year we started ended up a whole bunch of other things we launched.

We launched the Doughboys, Pardon My Take, Blank Check, and I’m sure I’m missing a ton. Those are just the ones in my world. Nick was right. No, of course, I didn’t think it would work. It was one of those things where it was like, yeah, who gives an F?

We can buy a Zoom and three microphones and see what happens. And it ended up being wildly successful beyond anyone’s dreams. I think what people liked on an immediate level is just that it was recreating the middle school cafeteria table. It’s like three dumbasses saying insane stuff to make each other laugh. It’s like, how funny can you get inside the intimacy of a real friendship and once you have buy-in and trust each other?

The funniest jokes are to make saying the most effed up things, because how far can you push it when the other person still knows you’re a good person? That’s kind of the joke. And if you’re really good friends with someone, you can say insane stuff. Now, we happen to broadcast that to people that don’t know us personally at all, and I think that was the ultimate appeal. It was really funny as hell.

I mean, Mullen is one of the best in terms of riffing. Nick Mullen is a savant on podcasts. We were making so much money, and I quit. It’s the scariest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I was getting a check for, I don’t even remember, like 40 grand a month or something.

Let’s do the math on that. Times 12, that’s 40. That’s half a million dollars a year. Not bad. If nothing else happened in my career but that, I still would have considered it a success.

You don’t get to that level in comedy most of the time. I was working clubs. I was basically doing my initial dream, but I realized exactly what I wanted. And as much as I love Nick and as funny as he is, it was his show first and foremost that And I did feel like a support player, which now I’m happy to do in these broader contexts because it’s stuff I’m interested in, like movies or whatever. But I didn’t want to be the second guy on a comeback when I was 45.

And so it was a really scary thing to do. I just paid for my first special out of pocket. Nobody wanted it. So I did it myself on YouTube and I lost 50 grand on that. I had to spend another 50 grand on the Stavis World Studio after that.

And so it was a really scary moment after leaving. But it was like, great. It had to end. I mean, that’s the other thing. That’s a young man’s game.

Uh-oh. Wait, he was 45 and he says, podcasting’s a young man’s game? Uh-oh, somebody tell the guy in the basement doing Daily Comedy News. He says, Sandler’s At a Medium Pace is one of the funniest things of all time. Okay, now as a known Adam Sandler, not hater, but like I don’t find Adam Sandler funny, I do like At a Medium Pace.

It is a funny song. He says, we made some awesome dumb BS, the stuff that I would have loved when I was 14. We made that and that’s cool, but you don’t want to be that guy forever. Apparently Adam Sandler does though. See, that’s the thing.

But I think the relationship can go in different ways. Nick comes on my podcast all the time. I’ve had Adam on. I’d love someday to collaborate on something when it makes sense. But in that context, no, I don’t think that podcast could have gone on.

Jay Farrow told WTOP, I think it’s our job as comedians to make people forget about their problems or forget about the problems at all, or just laugh about their problems so they can forget about the pain. He talked about his impression of Jay-Z. He says, Jay-Z loves the impression. He calls me fake Jay-Z every time he sees me. Jay Farrow warns, if you go see him, don’t sit up front.

If you don’t want me to get into your browser history, you shouldn’t sit in the front. That’s great. Let’s bring us to the Monty Python War. I’ve been enjoying this because I love some drama. Eric Idle speaking to The Telegraph.

He talked about the various pythons. They started with Graham Chapman, who passed away at age 48 back in 1989. Idle says, if you think of John Cleese as the father.. Graham Chapman was the mother. He could be horrible when drunk and vicious, certainly to me.

And then once he stopped drinking, I think he saw me. The whole process of him being ill and dying was very emotional for everybody. You know, he was lovely. Then in 1999, a 30-year reunion was set to happen. It fell apart.

Eric Idle at that point, a TV interview said, I realized we would never agree on anything ever again. That sunk his idea for a final Monty Python movie, which was called The Final Crusade. In which a group of grumpy old knights reluctantly agree to carry King Arthur’s ashes to Jerusalem. I’d be curious to read a script of that. Then they talked about Spamalot.

We learn that a significant rights royalty is paid to the pythons as a group. Eric Idle gets the biggest share. He says, I think I have more business sense. I think they’re not very good at it, a lot of them. But then one of the producers of the original film sued for a share of the pot.

Then there was a legal battle, and the fees from that created the 2014 Python reunion at London’s O2 Arena. That was a one-off show that sold out in 45 seconds, so they did four more. And those sold out in an hour, and five shows became ten. But that’s most likely it. Terry Jones died in 2020.

And then there’s John Cleese’s comment from 2024 on Twitter, which read, We always loathed and despised each other, but it’s only recently that the truth has begun to emerge. People thought that was at Eric Idle. Cleese claimed it was about the others, too, and he was joking anyway. Eric Idle said, I think it might be what he secretly feels. We’ve been good friends from time to time.

There are things I’m grateful to him for, seeing I was funny, putting me in a show, and then being supportive of me many times in his life, and then suddenly deciding, I don’t know what happened. I felt it happened during COVID, and I called him up, and he was getting more and more angry. I don’t know. It’s like they all got angry about Spamalot, and you go, excuse me, I made you all a million effing dollars each. When you pay that back, we can talk.

Obviously, one likes to feel that you’re not vilified unjustly. I don’t read what they say, and sometimes someone will say, there’s another clip. Eric Idle’s proud of his own comedic chops. He was the only one who wrote without a partner. He said, it’s harder, but I still write by myself, and I don’t think Cleese can, actually.

He always has to have a partner. The famous Monty Python veto is no more. It is an ex-veto. It used to be, unless everyone in the room thought a sketch was funny, they wouldn’t do it. Idol says that was removed under dubious circumstances a few years ago.

They have three votes. I have one. They don’t have board meetings, or at least they don’t tell me about them. That’s not great emotionally, but I can live with that easily. You mean I don’t have to go in a room and bicker with those folks again?

I think it’s sad and horrible, though, particularly given it’s against me. It’s like, what did I do wrong in the last 20 years for you? He has determined not to become a bitter. He said, I’ve known many, many comedians, so many funny people. And on the whole, they become sweeter and sweeter.

But I think some get grumpy. Death makes them very anxious, especially if they were more narcissistic at times in their lives. It’s hard for them to let go of what they once had, which was sometimes a masterful control of comedy. I feel like he’s talking about one person in particular. Eric Idle’s not a fan of looking back.

He says they could have done a world tour after the London shows, but Michael turned it all down. I think that was fair. You shouldn’t be forced into doing things you don’t want to do when you’ve gotten older and you’ve got more interesting things you want to do. I think regret is not a useful emotion. I say as you get older, you either get old and better..

We’re old and bitter. From the Chicago Reader, this is some Sunday kind of stuff if you’re relatively new to the show. You know, sometimes I’ll pre-tape a weekend, perhaps right now. We do some of the more esoteric stuff on Sundays, especially in the second half. Chicago Reader took a look at how comedians eat before and after going on stage.

Jordan Wilson likes to caffeine and carb load. Yeah, that makes sense. He said, Today I woke up, made my quad shot oat latte. Then for lunch, I had a jerky stick and a plain bagel. I really like raw dogging bagels.

Often I have two bagels for lunch, just raw. And four slices of wheat toast to the face. It’s good carbs. For the past 13 years, he’s been performing as half of a musical comedy duo with Bobby Sullivan. During this interview, Sullivan was eating salted pistachios and chasing them with his second Dr.

Pepper of the day. Sullivan said, I mostly don’t think about food. But on this particular day, he said he’d eaten a lot for a performance day. Four rice cakes slathered with peanut butter, followed by a Jersey Mike sub with barbecue chips. Wilson chimed in, I don’t think about food much either, except is when this is going to give me diarrhea.

Yeah, that would be bad if you were on stage. He adds, I’ve definitely had spicy Korean barbecue before a show and felt gurgling.

And then I’m like, I got to tell the audience, but there’s nothing they want …

Cynthia Levin says before show she might eat half a baked potato at home or part of a veggie burrito in the car. Most of the comedians for this said they try to go for bland and protein rich. Protein bars factor heavily as does chicken bake or a chicken Caesar wrap. Ashley Lusk explains you don’t want a full stomach. You don’t want anything to hold you back or weigh down on stage.

Dan drees recalled wolfing down a bag of flaming hot cheetos before set then he sweated through his set with bright red fingers and that is your comedy news on a sunday we’ll see you tomorrow

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