Daily Comedy News Podcast Transcripts

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Featured: Bill Maher, Dolly Parton, Tom Segura, Michael Che, Sacha Baron Cohen, Pete Davidson, Simon Cowell, Kenan Thompson, Blake Griffin

What’s in This Episode

• Bill Maher backlash over Dolly Parton mourning comments
• Tom Segura developing new material at Acme Comedy Club
• Michael Che Netflix special filming at First Avenue Minneapolis
• Ali G film backlash and racist caricature controversy
• Pete Davidson costume for Tommy Karate movie
• SNL cast announcements pending
• Late night ratings with Rosie O’Donnell on Kimmel
• Blake Griffin hosting new late night show The Step Back

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

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

Oh no, it’s September. Hi, I’m Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. We are like in overtime of summer now, like in September, but it’s not quite Labor Day. Get to the beach while you can. People are mad at Bill Maher.

I know that’s shocking to you. Let me give you a second to take that in. I know you’re like, wait, people are mad at Bill Maher? No way. No way.

But yes, Bill Maher complained on his HBO show Real Time that America mourned Dolly Parton too much after her death at 80. Way to be popular, Bill Maher. He scalded the country because you guys grieved Dolly Parton instead of paying attention to politics. Bill Maher did a monologue. He talked about the dispute we’re having with the Canadians.

Are we having a dispute with the Canadians? I think one guy is having a dispute with the Canadians. Moore said, all this is going on and all America could really talk about this week is how sad it was we lost Dolly Parton. He conceded that everyone around the country, even around the world, had been honoring Dolly.

And then told this joke much better than me.

London, they’re doing things. The Santa Monica Ferris wheels lit up with hearts. The Empire State Building was put up in pink. The Sphere in Las Vegas added a nipple. In the studio, that got some laughs.

Online, it got groans. The Minnesota Star Tribune has a really good comedy section. Neil Justin goes and sees shows. He went to see Tom Segura at Acme and said Tom Segura’s Acme shows offer a rare treat of a top comic starting from scratch. Spoiler is ahead.

Quoting Tom Segura, Tom’s opening line apparently is, you know, the Nazis got a lot of things wrong, but that’s a hell of an opener. Neil writes, the most shocking thing about the set was how smoothly it went, except for his occasionally glancing at his notebook and struggling to find the right word. It was nearly impossible that he had only started telling these jokes in August. He joked about watching the World Cup, again quoting Tom Segura. Tom said, I’m old enough to remember if you watched it here in the States, you were gay.

Neil writes, the most noticeable difference may have been his appearance. With his black-framed glasses, trimmer build, and groomed beard, he looked more like a college professor than your neighborhood bartender. As with most comics building a set, Segura often ignored transitions. In the course of about one minute, he threw out one-liners about guys with pet snakes, people who live on houseboats, and dealing with ice without bothering to tie them together. But it was a mostly tight set.

He did not do any material related to his split with wife Christina P. Neil also went to go see Michael Che at First Avenue, is the venue. We’re told the four shows had a weird rule. No bathroom breaks. Why?

Because they were filming it for Netflix. Che dressed in a gray hoodie and baggy jeans doubled down on jokes about Charlie Kirk supporters being hit on by a gay patron at an after-hours bar and his unorthodox thoughts on fatherhood. We’re told that Che’s routine about how we shouldn’t be so timid about using the R-word got some big laughs. Che said, that’s why I want to do this show here. Minneapolis is the center of the fight.

This is like the new Selma. Jay ignored the main stage, opting for a square box that took up a huge chunk of the main floor that left room for less than 250 folding chairs and a limited number of stools in the balcony. We’re also told that the place was cold, like actually cold, like wear a hoodie cold. Jay is expected for the new season of SNL now on September 1st. And unless this came out late yesterday after I recorded, I should probably check.

We still don’t know who’s going to be on the SNL cast. All right, it’s 1.35 p.m. On a Monday afternoon. We type in SNL cast and make sure there’s no late news. You never know.

Deadline sometimes drops things on Monday. There is no news at the time of this recording, as they say.

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And now my script has jumped down.

I could edit this out, but that’s no fun. I have to find where we were. Ah, yes. Oli G. The headline from Variety, a pretty big entertainment trade.

Oli G. ‘s grand return. Has not exactly been meant with widespread celebration. Ali G, Who Is I? Is due to be released on October 23rd, but Variety says backlash against the film has steadily intensified. Many have taken to social media to accuse Ali G, of course played by Sacha Baron Cohen, who is seen in clips wearing fake dreadlocks and a Rastafarian hat and discussing a desire to be an absent father of being an outdated and racist caricature.

News Cord is apparently a news comparison and media monitoring platform. They have started a campaign urging cinemas around the world to refuse to screen the film Ali G. Who is I? Is spelled I-Z. Emailing major chains with the request on behalf of those who register as of Friday, it claims to have been instructed to send more than 36,000 emails.

The campaign accuses Sacha Baron Cohen of using satire as a cover for enforcing racist stereotypes. There’s been controversy at least since 2000. In 2000, comedian Felix Dexter argued that the character allows the liberal middle classes to laugh at black street culture in a context where they can retain their sense of political correctness. Jeanette Winterson added, I don’t know what the difference is between him and the black and white minstrels. In a new Substack post, British writer and broadcaster Afua Hirsch writes, Black people don’t dress like that anymore.

Even white people imitating black people don’t talk like that anymore. Sexualizing black women and casually mocking working class women is not accepted anymore. Baron Cohen’s so-called humor is a crude compound of all those things. Pete Davidson has a new look featuring long hair and bright blue eyes. Why?

What’s going on? Well, it is Pete Davidson, but no, this apparently is for a movie. Pete Davidson was spotted working on the set of crime thriller Tommy Karate. Pete wore a dark wig with curtain bangs and a middle part instead of his typical short style. He used piercing light blue contact lenses during the shoot to enhance the terrifying illusion.

Pete wore a crimson Japanese mask and a black bomber jacket reading Okinawa. The jacket was worn over a black button-up shirt with a beautiful bird motif. The exquisite bird pattern on his shirt stands out against his black clothes. The film explores the lengthy pursuit of the character by a dedicated federal agency agent. Tonight on America’s Got Talent, Simon Cowell is off.

Kenan Thompson will sub in for quarterfinals round three. Simon has been sidelined by back surgery described as routine and linked to the serious e-bike accident he suffered in August 2020. You may recall Simon missed the 2020 season and had guest judges filling in, including Kenan Thompson. Quick note, I didn’t do a little short afternoon episode on Monday. There won’t be one today either.

I’m just tinkering with stuff back and forth, so a little experiment there. We’ll see where that heads in the future. Late Nighter took a look at the late night television ratings. This was the week of August 16th, which was Rosie O’Donnell week, which apparently did a lot better than Jelly Roll week. Jimmy Kimmel Live, starring Rosie O’Donnell, averaged 2.167 million total viewers.

Week of August 16th, up 40% from Anthony Anderson. In the 18 to 49s, Rosie averaged 237,000 viewers, up 34% from the week before. Fallon did all right, 1.429 million total viewers, unchanged week to week, 18 to 49s, 171,000. Comics Unleashed, Byron Allen’s Moneymaker, 654,000 total viewers, up 3%, and 75,000 adults in the 18 to 49s. At 12.30, Seth Meyers has a show for some reason and is in seven weeks of repeats.

He averaged 727,000 total viewers and 94,000 adults 18 to 49. Yikes, what a terrible number. How about this for a late night show? Blake Griffin, yes, the six-time NBA All-Star, will host The Step Back with Blake Griffin, a new weekly late night show premiering Tuesday, October 20th. I think that is the opening night.

Yes, it is the opening night of the 2026-2027 NBA season in which the world champion New York Knicks will defend their title. Blake has dabbled in comedy over the years. You know, he’s pretty good on TV. So sure, why not? The Step Back with Blake Griffin will find Blake Griffin weighing in on some of the bigger and thornier subjects surrounding sports with topics expected to include gambling, NIL, taxpayer-funded stadiums, analytics, and the state of sports journalism.

All that is boring, Blake. What you want to do is you want to study Charles Barkley and do that and have a couple celebrities on and just be fun. Nobody wants to talk about taxpayer-funded stadiums. Interview Miley Cyrus, trust me. Now, as I read ahead here, I’m even less excited.

The Step Back began taping episodes in June before a live studio audience with installments now in post-production. A new episode will arrive each Tuesday with Griffin’s documentary driving the format rather than a traditional parade of celebrity guests. Yeah, this is all awful. Blake Griffin said, I’ve watched and idolized shows like The Daily Show and Last Week Tonight, so to follow in their footsteps while putting my own stamp on the genre is an amazing opportunity that I’m grateful to take part in. But it’s not going to be timely at all if you taped it in June.

This is a terrible idea. Who approved this? The project comes from Amazon’s Wondery and Blake Griffin’s Mortal Media. Yeah, this ain’t going to work. Oh, this article also reminds us.

Remember when ESPN aired five episodes of They Call It Late Night with Jason Kelsey? Yikes, that bombed too. Anyway, the Step Back with Blake Griffin, October 20th on Prime Video and YouTube. Gold Comedy has launched a podcast called Funny You Should Ask, not to be confused with the Byron Allen 1230 CBS show of the same name. This Funny You Should Ask features candid conversations with comedians including Maria Bamford, Jeff Hiller, and Judy Gold.

The Bamford episode is already out. Each episode features an in-depth conversation with a comedian, writer, performer, or other entertainment luminary about their career, their process, and the realities of making a living by making people laugh. George Lopez will host the Big Boys Comedy Fiesta in October, October 15th, featuring co-headliners George Lopez and Marlon Wayans. And from the LA Times, some more of those comedians to watch. Let’s see how many of them are door people at the Comedy Store.

First up is Macy Isaacs. We’re told she’s an effortlessly dry say-it-like-it-is comic with an impeccable ability to twist the way we see the world. She was on Netflix’s Funny AF with Kevin Hart and was plucked to open for Chelsea Handler. No mention of being a door person that’s good alright next up is Ainsley Bailey Ainsley turns the darkest personal experiences like having too many daily meds and diagnoses including being allergic to bananas into the most perfect and surprisingly relatable jokes she offers fresh takes on subjects most comics won’t even dare to tackle Somebody’s PR people wrote that sentence. Number three today, Curtis Cook.

Curtis is a big, loud, disarming presence, which also makes him a Trojan horse for some pretty subversive ideas. His writing is so creative and original that it borders on poetic. No mention of working a door. All right, we’re making progress here. Ray Lau.

We are told by Josh Sandoval, the booker at the Ice House, that Ray’s ability to connect with an audience makes everyone else on a lineup step up their game. And our final comedian today is Jackson Banks, who won set of the night on a Sunday at the Comedy Store, giving him a guaranteed spot on the potluck open mic the next night, which led to him being hired as a door guy. Damn, we almost made it all the way through. Two years after that, he became a paid regular at the club, and he was one of the Just for Laughs new faces this year. He’s a menace on stage in the best way possible.

There’s a 70s rock star element to his appearance, but his rhythm on stage is that of a jazz musician. Never knowing what note is coming next. And that is your comedy news for today. See you tomorrow.

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Featured: Byron Allen, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Stavros Halkias, Hannah Burner, Jim Gaffigan, Melissa McCarthy, Jimmy Carr, Jon Stewart, John Mulaney

What’s in This Episode

• Byron Allen’s Comics Unleashed beats Kimmel and Fallon in 18-49 ratings
• Stavros Halkias self-reviews his role in Tony Bourdain movie on Letterboxd
• Hannah Burner hosts new Paramount Plus dating show Making Love
• Jim Gaffigan voices Santa Claus in animated Warner Bros film
• Jimmy Carr in talks to host new version of Top Gear
• Jon Stewart’s purple Daily Show couch from early 2000s listed for sale
• John Mulaney visits Tinker Air Force Base

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. I got a stunner for you in the lead off today. Hello, I’m Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. Remember I said don’t bet against Byron Allen? You know, Byron Allen’s got that late night show in the spot Colbert used to be on.

Now, maybe Colbert got let go for other reasons, or maybe the show was really expensive to make. And CBS is now airing the Byron Allen thing. Well, Late Nighter was going through the late night ratings. And one week ago tonight, for the first time, CBS won the 18 to 49s. Yeah, Comics Unleashed beat Jimmy Kimmel and The Tonight Show.

Now, Fallon was in reruns. This is an 18 to 49s. Fallon was in reruns. Kimmel, who I told you, Jimmy, don’t take the summer off. I told you, don’t take the summer off, had Jelly Roll Hosting.

And here’s how the 18 to 49s did. Comics Unleashed, first place. 161,000 adults 18 to 49. Jelly Roll, 158,000. And a repeat of Fallon, 154,000. It is also pointed out that even Byron Allen’s show was a repeat.

Now his show is made to be kind of generic and evergreen. Not kind of, it is. But wow, now among total viewers, so if you add in the old people, you know, the people 50 plus, the kind of losers that think they’re cool when they record a podcast by their pool, you know, the geezers, those people, if you add them in, Comics Unleashed finished third. Kimmel’s show was down 93,000 adults, 18 to 49. I guess the kids really like that Rosie O’Donnell.

She’s young, hip and cool. I don’t know what’s going on here. Uh, maybe Jelly Roll is a terrible idea? I don’t know. Tonight Show lost 24,000 viewers and Comics Unleashed added 71,000.

Meanwhile, at 12.30, make 12.30 great again. Late Night with Seth Meyers, he’s taking seven weeks off in what appears to this basement podcaster as a budget cut. Funny you should ask, beat Seth Meyers in total viewers. Okay. Did you hear what I said?

Don’t take seven weeks off. Actually, don’t even have Seth Meyers hosting at 1230. Let’s make 1230 great again. Call Chris Fleming. This is a red alert, NBC.

CBS is beating you without even trying. So you can beat up on CBS all you want, but so far they’re looking pretty smart because they’re winning and they’re spending a lot less money. Hey, Jimmy Kimmel, sign that renewal before ABC changes their mind. I’m going to put five exclamation points after that point. Signed, bro.

Stavros Halkias has started a trend on Letterboxd. He is in the movie Tony, the Bourdain movie, and he left a review of the movie, and it’s all about himself. In Tony, Haukias plays a line cook. I’m on Letterboxd now. User StaviBaby2, who is a patron, left the movie five stars.

His review says, Guy who plays the fat line cook in a bandana is really sexy. Hannah Burner has a new job. Now, this is not the Hannah Burner story that I keep bumping. That’s still bumped because I have this story to tell you. Paramount Plus has announced Hannah.

You know, Paramount Plus are the people that ruined Star Trek, by the way. So I love Des Bishop, who came on this show, and we’re both from Queens, and we seem like we could be friends. But, you know, if Hannah is going to be hanging out with the Star Trek ruiners, then we might have a problem, Hannah Burner, who will host the new reality dating series, Making Love. It will appear on Paramount Plus in early 2027, along with Star Trek episodes involving puppets. Yeah, Paramount Plus has not revealed the exact format of the show, but promises an exciting new way for singles to find love.

Making Love is, quote, a bold new relationship experiment which gives singles a completely original and unique opportunity to take destiny into their own hands. Can you actually find the person you’ve always dreamed of? With Hannah Burner steering the ship, equal parts hype woman, hilarious hall monitor, and hopeless romantic. Expect the drama, the swoons, and the one-liners to hit different. Jim Gaffigan’s going to play Santa Claus.

Not the worst casting I’ve ever heard of. It’s from Warner Brothers Picture Animation. See, now, I thought this was live action when I first read the story, and I was picturing Jim in a suit, and I was like, that’s pretty good. If he’s just the voice of Santa Claus, there’s definitely better people you could get for that. So I’ve changed my opinion.

This is now terrible casting. Sorry, Jim. Let’s do this in live action. In the movie, Santa Claus, who probably drank too much whiskey, and he’s voiced by Jim Gaffigan, goes missing on Christmas Eve. His sweet wife, Margie, does what any devoted spouse would do.

She grabs a century-old sleigh out of mothballs. I guess Santa’s off with his own sled and the reindeer. Oh, no. She puts together a wildly unqualified rescue team and ventures to the South Pole, where good cheer can get you killed. What’s going on in the South Pole?

I’ve been to Antarctica. That’s not a joke. I haven’t been to the South Pole, but I’ve been to Antarctica. I didn’t see any evil down there. Anyway, she’s on an action-packed comedic rescue mission to save her husband and Christmas.

Well, I got news for you. It’s already Christmas Eve, and that’s when Santa delivers the gifts. So maybe you should deliver the gifts instead of going on a rescue mission, because, you know, unless you can do this in the next 20 minutes, we’re not going to have presents when we wake up. Melissa McCarthy said, I love Christmas so much, and so does Margie Claus. Our story is about showing up for the people you love the most of the holidays.

And it’s a reminder that you don’t have to be perfect to be lovable. Jimmy Carr is in talks to host a new version of Top Gear. I mentioned on one of the DCN Lives, my initial reaction to that was like, Jimmy Carr on Top Gear? But I’m coming around to it. A source told The Sun, which is a newspaper, not the star in the sky.

They don’t talk to celestial objects. But that source said, production has their sights set on Jimmy Carr. He’s the ideal host to take the show in a new era and revive Top Gear. He’s keen to work on something mainstream after spending so many years fronting comedy panel shows. Let’s not act like Jimmy’s not mainstream.

Come on. He hosts, I think, every third show in the UK by law. If you do a panel show, you have to offer the job to Jimmy Carr. I’m pretty sure that is a law. He’s a real car buff, too.

So it’d be a passion project. That and the money. Casting directors are now working to find talent to join him in the new look ensemble. Bosses are considering a woman and online celebrities to compliment Jimmy. Don’t overthink the show, guys.

You want a couch? The couch from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’s early years is available for sale. The velvety purple guest couch that sat on Jon Stewart’s set in the early 2000s was listed for sale by a lucky fan who had acquired the couch directly from the show. We’re told people who sat there included Senator Hillary Clinton and Val Kilmer. By early 2004, it was replaced by a blue couch.

The couches were given away via fan sweepstakes. The purple couch was the first to be given away in 2003. It has spent its time since in a living room outside Syracuse, New York. Late-nighters spoke to the seller, who said she won it back in the early 2000s. She recalled, I asked for a certificate of authenticity, but the show sent her a signed photo of Jon Stewart sitting on the couch, clutching one of its cushions.

Stewart wrote, May it bring you great comfort. I’ve taken all the change from the cushions. Couch lady said, My husband and I were huge fans of the show. Notice she said were. Hmm.

She noted she’s only selling the couch now because she has to downsize. I covered it with a fitted couch cover to protect it, so it’s in really good shape. I contacted Heritage Auctions, but they weren’t interested. The seller claims said couch is appraised at $ 3, 000, but at the time of this recording, it’s listed on Facebook Marketplace for $ 1, 500 or best offer. Guess what John Mulaney was doing?

Wrong. He was visiting Tinker Air Force Base. John Mulaney met with service members and civilian employees while learning about the people and the missions that keep Team Tinker moving. Mulaney was given a visit to the air traffic control tower and a look inside a KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft. Tinker Air Force Base shared some photos of John Mulaney exploring the base, talking with personnel, and getting an up-and-close look at military aviation.

Mulaney was in those parts because he had a gig in Oklahoma City. Got a couple controversies for you. Former NFL safety T.J. Ward is not happy with Drewski. You see, Drewski made a skit which shows Drewski acting as a football player who suffers a serious head injury and then goes on to exhibit erratic behavior that is attributed to chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

I’m just going to say CTE. According to T.J. Ward, the skit undermines the severity of the disease and how it affects former players and their families. Ward said, when something’s funny, it’s funny. Some of the situation that skit, there were a couple of funny moments.

But overall, I’m going to put on my sensitivity cap on like everyone else seems to do when it’s affecting them. These are life and death situations. And at the end of the day, it’s a life taking disease. And I think CTE universally is the only disease that’s allowed to be made fun of, which is crazy. Not sure I agree with that.

Pretty sure people make fun of alcoholism, for example. You wouldn’t make fun of somebody with cancer. You wouldn’t make fun of somebody with dementia. You wouldn’t make fun of somebody with AIDS. You wouldn’t make fun of anyone with those diseases that are taking lives.

But for some reason, across the universal platform, football players, people that have the effects of collisions and CTE symptoms, are the only people who are allowed to be made fun of. Stick to sports, Sean. Okay, comedian Patrick W. Cutler, apparently without me noticing, has built a viral online following. By posting a relentless series of satirical videos and parodies goofing on WNBA star Angel Reese.

Apparently what Mr. Cutler does is he wears wigs and mimics her on-court style. There are claims that he has been banned from attending her games. He posted on Twitter, The WNBA has officially banned me from attending any games that involve Angel Reese. Absolutely insane.

Meanwhile, James Acaster was accused of derailing his own show in Cornwall after being heckled, but that’s kind of his thing. Some spectators have accused James Acaster of not giving them the show they paid for when he apparently had a go at them for not getting it and for heckling him. In his current show, Acaster plays Craig Simons, the UK’s number one James Acaster talent. Tribute act. See, that’s funny.

One fan jumped on Reddit and said, Really sad that the show went completely off the rails again tonight. In Turo, James is clearly too in his own head about hecklers. I don’t think it’s really okay to just give up halfway through a show, though. So many paying audience members didn’t get to see what we paid for. Another said they were five rows back from the stage and said it seemed to me like the audience, myself included, were really enjoying the show and were obviously fans as they were getting the Taskmaster off-menu references, etc.

James obviously had a different perception and helped the derailment to a certain extent by criticizing the audience and suggested that they weren’t enjoying themselves. I’m so disappointed that we didn’t get to see the show we paid for. Another added, yeah, it was a shame. I saw the same show at the South Bank Center and it was incredible, but tonight felt like he didn’t trust the Cornish audience to get it. You may recall Acaster had a previous tour called Heckler’s Welcome, which invited the audience to heckle him or even be on their phones.

So if he’s rattled by hecklers, that’s a little weird. Spokesperson for James Acaster denied that he’d walked out on the audience. They said James did a full hour show last night. He didn’t walk off stage. Yesterday, I started to tell you about some of the comedians the L.A.

Times has to keep an eye on. Let’s do a couple more. One is Taylor Boss. We are told he is so funny, original and hard hitting. He rings every bell when he’s on stage.

He, too, was a door guy at the store who became a paid regular. He was a hit on Kill Tony episode 746, an incredible visual artist. He’s known for his painting of the late Mitzi Shore that sits in the Joe Rogan Experience podcast studio. Interesting. Boy, it sounds like you really got to be a door person because Angie Stroud, guess what she used to do?

Door girl at the store. Very young, we’re told, and only a few years in, but consistently funny and writing new jokes, destroys on stage during the weekly roast battle competition on Tuesdays in the belly rooms. She has opened for David Spade, Eliza Schlesinger, and the Bad Friends podcast. Not bad. Cat Bird.

Guess what Cat Bird used to do? Former door girl at the store. I’m seeing a pattern here. Is there no other way to become a cool comedian in LA? I have to work the door at the store?

There’s no other path to success? Apparently Cat Bird is a joke writing machine. The energy at her shows is always upbeat and positive, with some surprise darkness woven into her jokes. She’s headlining on her own and opens for Bobby Lee, Andrew Santino, Marc Maron, and Eliza Schlesinger. She has a Don’t Tell comedy special that came out earlier this year.

Next up is Devontre Coleman. You’re never going to guess what he does. You’ll never guess. I’ll tell you at the end. Devontre Coleman has a great deadpan style and execution and comes across like a very seasoned prodigy, even though he’s only three years in.

He was on Netflix’s Funny AF and opens for Andrew Santino and Nick Kroll. All right, so they’re apparently.. Two ways to become successful. You either open for Andrew Santino and or you become a door guy at the store. And I will now reveal to you what Devontre Coleman does.

He’s a door guy at the store. This is ridiculous. One more. Maddie Mays. I’m waiting to find out she works the door.

We’re told Maddie is a complete crowd favorite who’s fearless up there. She owns her truth, weaves in her background and delivers every time. He performs all over the country and is open for Marlon Wayans, Ralph Barbosa and Cam Patterson. Imagine opening for Cam Patterson. Jeez, at least she’s not working the door, right?

We found another success you can open for Cam Patterson. That’s unbelievable to me that someone’s opening for Cam Patterson. And that’s your comedy news for today on a Monday. I’ll see you later.

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Featured: Alec Baldwin, Anthony Atamanewick, Sarah Cooper, James Austin Johnson, Shane Gillis, Brett Terhune, Vaughn Mader, Osco at Costco, Chelsea Handler, David Spade, Ronny Chieng, Josh Johnson

What’s in This Episode

• Trump comedians say material is exhausted
• Sarah Cooper’s pandemic TikTok fame and Netflix special
• James Austin Johnson and Shane Gillis as recent Trump impressionists
• Vaughn Mader’s famous JFK impression legacy
• Osco at Costco interview on jealousy and hotel habits
• David Spade on SNL jealousy as compliment
• Ronny Chieng and Josh Johnson discuss comedy advice and humility

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

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

We are running out of August, friends. Hi, I’m Johnny Mac Poolside, as much as I can. With your Daily Comedy News, The Atlantic tells us that Trump comedians are tired. A writer over at The Atlantic caught up with Alec Baldwin. You may recall he portrayed the President of the United States on Saturday Night Live for a little bit.

Earlier this summer, Alec Baldwin said, None of it is funny. I don’t find it funny anymore. There’s nothing left to say about Trump. Anthony Atamnewick, who does a pretty good Trump, he’s got a fantastic album, The Trump vs. Bernie Debates.

It’s probably about 10 years old now. That was a fantastic album, one of my favorite things that I would play on the show over on Live One, where I host the weekly comedy thing. Look at me remembering to promote it on a Sunday. That’s right. Let me just go there real quick while we’re doing this.

So I host a show. It’s kind of like this, except I talk less, but I can actually play the bits. So if there’s a comedian in the news, I tell you about the story, and then I play a bit by the comedian. It is called the Weekly Comedy Thing. The app is called Live One.

Both are free. Check it out. Anthony Attenewick in 2017 hosted a show on Comedy Central called The President’s Show that I thought was pretty good. He told The Atlantic, I wanted my show to continue mostly because I saw each episode as an essay on an issue in American life, and the albatross I had was Trump. The Atlantic says Anthony’s hope was that for a liberal audience still reeling from the shock of the election, skewering the president could be a way to crystallize what had happened to the country.

The Atlantic pointed out the initial burst of left-leaning satire didn’t last. There were shows like Michelle Wolfe, Larry Wilmore, Hasan Minhaj, Wyatt Sinek. And they reminded me of this one. If you’re a longtime listener, you know this one drove me nuts. By 2020, the most visible Trump satirist was the comedian Sarah Cooper.

Do you remember Sarah Cooper? Now, during the pandemic, People were fawning over Sarah Cooper like she was like the next George Carlin. What she was doing was she was taking audio of the actual president and pantomiming his voice and making ridiculous faces. And this went great on TikTok because we were all stuck at home. But oh my goodness, like to act like she was one of the comedy greats was insane.

Somehow she got to guest host Jimmy Kimmel Live. Are you kidding me? And got a Netflix special directed by Natasha Lyonne. Go look up Sarah Cooper. It’s six years later now.

Like, what? No. That was insane. I’m getting mad that people were actually like, oh, she’s fantastic. She was pantomiming.

Stop. The Atlantic reminds us James Austin Johnson and Shane Gillis have both played the president with some success in recent years. Johnson’s impression hasn’t created the kind of splash that Baldwin’s once did. His version of Trump is reminiscent of the de rigueur presidential impressions of SNL seasons past. Brett Terhune talked about the character he plays on videos, that character’s alpha male.

A sort of disgruntled mega-vlogger, a reaction and a reflection of people that are Trump diehards, says Terhune.

And then this article goes to talk about Vaughn Mader.

Do you know Vaughn Mader? He’s the guy that did the Kennedy impression. The best description I ever heard of Vaughn Mader is, when you think of what John F. Kennedy sounds like, the voice that you have in your head right now, that’s actually not what Kennedy sounds like. That’s what Vaughn Mader sounds like.

Here, let me pull two clips. Here’s Vaughn Mader. The flowered hat. Yes. Not you, sir.

The lady in the back of you. Yes, yes. We recently heard that you sent an agent into Cuba. Didn’t you return with any information? Well, I didn’t send him for information.

I sent him for sugar. And here’s President Kennedy. There are many people in the world who really don’t understand or say they don’t. What is the great issue between the free world and the communist world? Let them come to Berlin.

Otsko at Costco told The Guardian, I think people think I’m more wholesome than I am. I love that description. They asked her, what’s the strangest job you ever had? Otsko said, I used to walk donks in L.A. And there’s a bad Yelp review about me saying that I only walked Charlie the Terrier mix for 10 minutes.

Instead of the full 30. And I did do that, but it was a rainy day and the dog didn’t want to keep walking and it was shaking. So I brought it back to the house, but it turns out the owner of the dog had a friend spying on me and timing me from the moment I let the dog out and back in. I guess it’s not a weird job, but it’s a memorable one. What’s the best thing you learned from someone you work with?

Chelsea Handler is a good friend of mine. Time out, time out, time out. I’ve been meaning to mention this for a week and a half. So as we all listen to the show, including me, we get different commercials. Like some of the commercials are regional, like I’m in New Jersey, so I’ll get a lot of things that are New Jersey related.

Your experience may vary. So, like, a week ago, I’m listening, and there’s just this woman, and her voice is just grating on me. I’m like, what is this commercial? I can’t stand this. It was Chelsea Handler.

Chelsea Handler is a good friend of Osco at Costco’s, though. Osco says, the tip was about jealousy. Just keep in mind that there’s room for everyone. You may go, I want a first place like that person, but you have a role in life in whatever field you’re in, so never compare yourself to others. We’re all made so different.

Here’s a random question. Oscar, when you get to a hotel, what’s the first thing you do? She said, every time. I’m generally so stoked that I’m not in my own house. Thank goodness I’m away from my dishes.

I’m away from my dirty underwear. I only have clean ones because that’s all I brought. Nice answer, but it didn’t tell us what’s the first thing she does. What is the first thing you do in your hotel room? I throw my bags on the bed, and usually I kick my shoes off because I’ve learned from traveling a lot that it’s good to give your feet a break while in the room, and then I usually have to check 4,000 work e-mails.

David Spade said he used to tell his fellow SNL stars he was jealous of them if they got more airtime than he did. I think that’s true of a lot of the SNLers. Spade confessed, I tell Sandler. That was funny. I’m so jealous because that’s at least acknowledging something was good or makes you better to go, OK.

Spade said it’s the biggest compliment whenever talented comedians know that they’re safe to riff and improv with you. He explains that’s an accomplishment right there, which you don’t really think too much. But that’s what other people think. They’re like, if those guys know what they’re doing. Ronny Chieng and Josh Johnson kind of riffed for Interview Magazine.

Let’s pick away at this. Josh said, when I first started, I would take advice from anybody because I was bombing. You know what I mean? So I was like, anybody might have a good idea. I find that even when someone’s advice is completely off base, it’s a reminder of what you don’t want to do.

Ronny Chieng said, I feel like I can do without that, but you’re more positive than me. I come in from almost exclusive humility. Like, no, please don’t praise me. I’m a nobody. But unfortunately, excessive humility can actually come out as arrogance because people think you don’t want to talk to them because you think they’re better than them.

Chang said, you’re always smooth and good with people. You’re very charismatic. Josh Johnson said, smooth is a very nice way to put it. I definitely walk away from most conversations being like, oh, I botched that one. This is interesting.

Chang said, I first met you, Josh Johnson, at The Daily Show, and you were a very talented writer and stand-up comic. You always contributed in the writing room, always had great ideas, great tags, very professional, very friendly, positive. There was a period when you were blowing up and there was a lot of momentum. Then I remember just before the pandemic, it felt like the momentum was kind of flattening or even going down a little bit. I think you fired your reps, your reps fired you, and you’re going through this creative rut or rediscovery.

I feel like you came out the other end of that guns blazing. Is that a fair description? Josh said it’s completely fair. Ronnie, what do you think caused it? Josh, I think the rut came from not being very certain about what I wanted to create next.

Sometimes that stuck feeling isn’t just about being stuck. It’s literally about being able to move in whatever direction you want. Having that much freedom to do the next thing is what makes you feel stuck. Once I made the decision to apply myself a bit more, that’s when everything really opened up in my mind, which helped me to do more and help people to notice me more. I got to a point where I was pretty good, and now pretty good can either be met with people noticing or could be met with, well, you could be better and people won’t notice you until you’re better.

Ronnie said, when you started coming out of your rut, I didn’t want to be condescending, but I was trying to give you a little bit of advice on how to move into theaters. I feel like when you move into a theater, you gain control of your schedule, you get a little bit more money. I encourage all comics to try to do it, which is easier said than done. But your way of doing it was you started releasing long-form stand-up content regularly at a time when it was the opposite of what you’re supposed to do. Even now, it’s flood the zone with short-form clips until something hooks.

What made you do that? Josh said, I had always actually written a lot. Like, a lot, a lot. Even when I started in Chicago, I was doing open mics. I rarely did the same five minutes, which I think is a different way of getting good.

Obviously, if you have your five, you can tighten your five.

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And then that teaches you how to put your joke through the grinder.

But my version of getting better, this is fascinating, isn’t it? This is really good. I think I know what did and didn’t work from that thing, and I have some other things in my mind. Some of it was just being scatterbrained. The other thing is when you don’t know what you want, you end up wanting what you see other people have, because those are the only things available in your mind.

So it’s like, what if I had the best catalog? What if I had 100 funny hours? Here’s my thing. I would never tell anyone that what I’m doing is what you need to do. Let’s say we’re being hardcore capitalists for a second.

You’re now in the market giving away a lot for free, and who knows what you’re going to get back versus the model we’re all used to, which is hone this thing, make it as funny as you can, and then get paid for it. The BBC has renewed sci-fi comedy Android for a second season. The show was written by, created by, and stars Diane Morgan, who some podcasters have a crush on. It is a fun show. Season one followed the relationship between a woman and her elder care robot, played by Diane Morgan, in a press release.

Diane Morgan said, The response to Android has been so incredible. We’re totally blown away. I’m really looking forward to not blinking, needing physio, and hearing Cotton Eye Joe on repeat. Now, I’m not surprised that was renewed. I am surprised that I’m here to tell you Cam Patterson got a role in another movie.

What? What are people seeing that I’m not seeing? I get the Kill Tony version of Cam Patterson. I don’t get the SNL version, and I don’t get the movie version. He has joined the cast of Love, Love, about a struggling tennis phenom who falls for a ball boy at the U.S.

Open. It is currently in production, so they’re probably filming it during this year’s U.S. Open. And it is Cam Patterson’s second film role for some reason. He was also in 72 Hours, which that was that Kevin Hart movie that starred Marcelo Hernandez, who does one thing well.

Billboard put out the top comedy concerts for July. Number five, Maximini grossed $ 1. 9 million across 22,000 tickets, 11 shows. Matt Rife in fourth. He did 10 shows, sold 50,100 tickets and grossed $ 4. 7 million. Weird Al, not including that free show in Montreal, tickets $ 114, 000, 20 shows, grossed $ 7. 7 million.

Al secretly loaded. He comes across as normal Al. He’s loaded. Number two is controversial MAGA comedian Nate Bregazzi. He’s normally number one.

You can see the damage his career is taking on. He did nine shows, only sold 101,000 tickets, and only grossed $ 8. 3 million. Winning the month, Dude Perfect. They did 16 shows, 135,000 tickets. They grossed $ 8. 5 million.

Well, we’re not going to get into that Hannah Burner story yet again. It’s not even a bit. I mean, check the clock. You know, if you listen every day, I try to keep the show a certain length. Thursday was kind of long.

Friday was a little long. There’s a certain length to the show. We’ll get to it. I mean, Labor Day weekend’s coming in that first week of September. Often I’m scrambling for stuff.

So if I have a Hannah Burner story in my back pocket, it’s okay. I do want to start chipping away at this. The LA Times had an article, 15 comedians that the bookers say you should know. Maybe we’ll do five or so a day. Their premise, to help you figure out which comics in L.A.

You want to keep an eye on, we’ve tapped the expertise of some of the city’s most seasoned bookers. All right, first up, Takara Williams. The L.A. Times calls one of the most genuinely likable comedians out right now. Every woman wants to hang out and have brunch with her, and every man wants to date her.

Even the younger generation of girls love her hilarious impressions of her teenage daughter. She makes her family come alive in her jokes and reminds us that we’re all living the same life, dealing with kids, dating, and everyday struggles. Next up, Ron G. One of the greatest entertainers in the world, says the LA Times. If you’ve seen him host Chocolate Sundays, you know exactly what I mean.

He can get a 22-year-old black dude from Compton to rock out, and he can get an 80-year-old grandma to twerk on stage. Steve Fury is an ex-door guy at the comedy store and now a paid regular. We were told he’s an incredible writer, very consistent, very polished, hilarious. Got pretty far on Netflix’s Funny AF. Oh, yeah, that guy.

Willie Simon is another ex-door guy and another paid regular at the store. Originally from Hawaii, he flew through the door program and got passed as a regular a few years ago. The guys over at the store said, I’d consider him a prodigy. So funny, goofy, but no corn. He also has great writing skills, part of a fun online sketch group, Almost Friday, and does a podcast with Steve Furrier.

We’ll check that out. And Joe Maurice was the captain of the door guys at the store. So apparently you got to be a door guy at the store who recently became a paid regular. He’s unique and it’s such a fun style of comedy from Chicago. And this booker said that he’s obsessed with the video clip series Joe Eats Online.

He’s one of those guys that everyone will have an impression of by the end of his performance. OK, that’s good. This from them.us. Comedian Matt Matthews has had it with the pronouns. So as I understand things, Matt was on a podcast with Real Housewives of Atlanta star Candy Burris, who was curious about Matt’s partner Rob and assigned Rob the pronoun them.

Burris asked about you and your boo. When did you meet them? Matthews said, them? I only got one. Burris responded, well, you know, these days I got to know the pronouns before I start talking.

Matthews said, quote, we ain’t got no damn pronouns. I got a tallywhacker. That’s a he. We don’t do all that stuff. I ain’t doing all that they them.

Then he used some swear words. Then he put a bunch of letters together. The transcript reads L-G-Q-I-L-M-N-O-P-W-W-F. Shut the F up. You’re a boy.

You’re a girl. You got a thing. Cleaning that up a little. You’re a girl. And he said, I’m going to tick people off with that.

Saw a lot of buzz on that online during the week. Fringe is wrapping up. Dan Tiernan’s show got three out of five from The Guardian. Dan’s show Quartz and All, a furious comedy show about healing crystals. We were told you have to strap in for the ride, and Quartz and all is no less so than its predecessors.

It opens with Tiernan seething with his usual self-loathing and cracking a fantastical gag about getting glasses. Now 30, he’s still ambivalent, bordering on hostile about his sexuality and appearance. The healing crystals are a last resort, he argues, because only magic can redeem a man as freakish and unlovable as he. From a comic who, when good is very good, there’s an excellent joke and a callback. They spoil it.

I’m doing take two here. I don’t want to spoil the joke. Okay, that’s a good callback. You don’t have to spoil it. At such moments, Tiernan feels like a comic worth choosing to believe in.

And that is your comedy news on a Sunday. All right, not much August left. Enjoy the weekend. See you tomorrow.

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Featured: Richard Jeni, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Jay Leno, Johnny Carson

What’s in This Episode

• Richard Jeni’s life and comedy career overview
• Richard Jeni’s Tonight Show appearances and Johnny Carson connection
• Richard Jeni’s Showtime specials and Cable Ace Awards
• Platypus Man HBO special and UPN sitcom
• Richard Jeni’s suicide in March 2007
• Gap between Richard Jeni’s critical acclaim and public recognition

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

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

Quick note before we do today’s program. Today’s episode is a deep dive on the life of Richard Jenney, one of the funniest humans who ever lived. We are going to discuss his death by suicide. So if that’s a hard topic for you today, please take care of yourself first and come back when you are ready. The crisis line is 988.

If you need to connect with somebody, you can call or text 988. All right. Here’s today’s Daily Comedy News. Caloroga Shark Media. Today we’ll take a look at Richard Jenney.

Hi, I’m Johnny Max. At the start of the summer, I started doing deep dives on single topics, and the feedback has been really strong. So we’ll keep doing these even as the summer turns into fall. And for the past couple weeks, I’ve been looking at some of the greats from earlier this century. The people, you know, late 90s, beginning of the zeros.

We’ve done Ralphie May. Did Robert Schimmel? That one got a lot of downloads. So today we will take a look at Richard Jenney, who passed away in March 2007. Jerry Seinfeld put out a statement around then and said, I don’t know of one comedian who did not think Rich Jenney was amazing.

Chris Rock called him a friend, a mentor, and one of the best comedians he’d ever seen. Jay Leno said, he just made me laugh. When you were in a room with other comics, he made them laugh. That’s three of the most successful comedians of that generation independently saying the same thing. That Richard Jenney was operating in a level that his public profile never fully captured.

I think this is another one of those guys that came along a little too soon. His stuff probably would have crushed on Netflix. Not sure he would have been a podcaster like some of these other guys, but Netflix would have liked his specials. The gap between what the comedy world knew about Richard Jenney and what the general public knew about Richard Jenney is one of the more instructive cases in the recent history of stand-up. It wasn’t a failure of talent and it wasn’t a failure of effort.

He was talented. He worked constantly. Richard Jenney, born Richard John Colangelo in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, 1957. Italian-American Catholic family, the kind of neighborhood origin that produced a specific set of sensibilities about family and embarrassment. And the absurdity of everyday social life that you can hear running through his material from the earliest specials to the last one.

He graduated with honors from Hunter College with a degree in comparative politics. That helped train his mind, a trained instinct for looking at how systems work and how people behave inside of the systems. He got fired from five different PR firms, and two years after graduating, he did an open mic night in Brooklyn in 1982 and decided immediately that stand-up comedy was his thing. Not the thing he did on the side while trying to figure out something else. This was the thing.

He was in clubs within months and on the road within a year. By the late 80s, he was doing the Melbourne Comedy Festival, JFL Montreal, and the Las Vegas and Atlantic City Circuit. Sorry about my outfit. I know it’s a little formal, but the airline lost one of my bags. I don’t want to say the name of the airline.

Let’s just say it rhymes with Bear Wanata. He won Comedy USA’s Best Nightclub Comedian in 1989, voted on by comedy club owners and other comedians. That’s important because those are people who know what’s actually good rather than who’s popular. Comedy snobs, people like me. 1988, The Tonight Show, starring Johnny Carson. People who worked on and around the show have described Johnny Carson’s genuine laugh response to guests versus his professional courtesy response to guests, and they were different things.

And Richard Jenney got the genuine laugh consistently. Johnny Carson brought him back, and then Johnny waved him over to the couch. He didn’t have to just do a set leave. Jenny came over and sat down on the couch and hung out with Johnny Carson directly. Panel guest status meant Johnny Carson considered you someone worth talking to, not just someone worth watching.

When Jay Leno took over The Tonight Show, he kept having Richard Jenny on. By the end of his career, Richard Jenny had more Tonight Show appearances than any other stand-up comedian of his era. Think about that. Please welcome Richard Jenny! You’re in a good mood, aren’t you?

Yeah. Yeah, I knew it would be. Thursday night, the crowd is always good because they’re thinking, you know what? Even if you suck, we still have the weekend. So I know I was watching backstage.

You’re thinking this crowd is so good. This is like the second easiest job in the world making you happy. First easiest, whoever gets to put Michael Jackson in the witness chair and create reasonable doubt. How hard can that be? I don’t even have a law degree.

And I think I would just go, if I had the jury there, I’d go, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, there he is. That’s all I have. Y’all get a good look at him, see if you think he’s capable of anything out of the ordinary. There he is. Yeah, but that’s..

There were Showtime specials. Boy from New York City in 1989 got a Cable Ace Award nomination back when that was a thing. A show business award is a little like a social disease, you know? Nobody really deserves it, but if you screw around long enough, you’re bound to get one. You know what I’m saying?

So, thank you. And yet, people are nervous about it. I don’t know why. I don’t even know why I’m rambling about awards. People waste too much time in this country as it is.

Case in point, why did it take so long to figure out what to do with this guy Jeffrey Dahmer? I’m not a lawyer or anything, but to me, once the guy admits he’s a cannibal, is there a lot left to discuss? I mean, what is there? How many things are there to talk about? To me, this should be the trial.

Are you a cannibal? Yes, I am. Next, that should be the end. How many things are there to discuss. With the guy?

Crazy from the Heat, 1991, drew the highest ratings of any stand-up special in Showtime’s history. And I think for me, this was the breakthrough because I wasn’t a Showtime guy. I was an HBO guy. I grew up in Queens and there was some kind of way. So Queens didn’t even get cable till 1987.

Like there was no cable TV to be had. But prior to 87, there was a way you could get HBO. Like a guy would come around and be like, you want HBO? No. And we could somehow get HBO on Channel 6.

They stuck like a stick antenna on the roof, and I don’t know, you could somehow, you had to flip like an AB switch, and you would get HBO on Channel 6. And if you slipped the guy a couple bucks, and maybe my dad did, it would just magically work for months or a couple years until the guy came around and you slipped him another couple bucks. There was no HBO bill. You just had HBO. It was great.

In 1992, Platypus Man on HBO won a Cable Ace Award for Best Stand-Up Comedy Special. And that became the basis for a UPN sitcom also called Platypus Man. Do you remember that one? No, of course you don’t. It ran for one season in 1995 and was canceled.

Platypus, a small egg-laying mammal that attempts to mate frequently but spends most of its time alone. Man, an adult male human. Platypus Man, an adult male human that attempts to mate frequently but spends most of its time alone. Platypus Man, brought to you by Burger King, where you can get your burgers worth. And by Saturn, a different kind of company, a different kind of car.

From New York, it’s time for Cooking with the Platypus Man.

And now, here he is, the Platypus Man himself, Richard Jennings!

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Welcome to the show. We are coming to you from New York City, where our motto is, show me a guy with one foot, and I’ll show you a guy who tried to hide his money in his shoe. Folks, say hello to him. There he is, the man who comes to your town and helps your party down.

Our musical director, Mr. Vern Tuttle. Hello, master of the microwave, commandant of the Cuisinart, lord of the fries. Worked on that all weekend. Hope you didn’t miss one of your Star Trek conventions.

Okay, folks, you picked a great night to tune in because tonight on our show, I would like to make a nice duck a l’orange stuffed with truffles. And I’d like to be in a hot tub naked with Cindy Crawford, but hey, let’s be freaking realistic. Next special, 1997’s A Good Catholic Boy. Somewhere along the way there, I saw Jenny in person. My buddy Fitz used to go down Atlantic City a lot and we’d get comped and we went down and we got comped Richard Jenny tickets and we went and saw Jenny and he was fantastic.

But we wouldn’t have been 21 until, I want to do the math there, 1990 or so. And I know I wasn’t doing this after I got married in 98. So yeah, probably around 95 I saw Jenny in AC. A good Catholic boy, 97. And probably the big one, a big steaming pile of me for HBO in 2005, his last special.

Still the same guy, still the same material, still the same energy. Six specials across three networks. Richard Jenney’s writing was dense, not dense in the sense of difficult to follow, dense in the sense that there was more joke per sentence than most comedians put in a paragraph, more observation per minute than most performers can do without the material starting to blur. He worked fast without working rushed, which is a hard balance. He could do broad observational material about men and women in everyday life, and it landed because the angle was always his own rather than borrowed from the consensus of what that kind of material was supposed to sound like.

He could do character work, voices, physicality, full performance mode, and he could turn that completely off and go straight at an idea with nothing but language and timing. You don’t have to understand the game because they always have a lot of announcers. They have people up in the booth wearing the headset, analyzing the action. Boy, look at that hit, Tom. Looks like that guy’s lungs squirted right out of his helmet.

You’re our $ 700, 000 football analyst. What’s your opinion? The other guy goes, that’s gotta hurt, Jim. I thank you, Captain Obvious. No wonder you’re getting the big money.

Hey, what do you think will happen in the second half I think they’ll try and get some points right away aha so you don’t think they’ll try to lose the game on purpose then no I think they’ll try and win it that’s the mark of the better teams oh shut up you’re watching the game on TV all the guy has to say is see that so did I back to you that’s all he has to say but thank you but You give a guy a microphone, there’s no shutting him up. It’s.. Even the referee in football has his own microphone so he can humiliate the players every time they break a rule. I don’t know if you know, every time they break a rule in football, they stop the entire game so the referee can click a little button on his belt, activating a giant microphone so they can point the guy out on TV and embarrass him. They stop the whole game just so the ref can go..

The reason we stopped.. The reason we’re all hanging around in the snow, not doing anything right now, is because some people don’t seem to know the rules. Isn’t that right? Number 71. 71, I hope your mother’s watching. 71. The longtime listeners to this program know that I ran SiriusXM Comedy for a decade.

One day, I’m sitting at my desk, and I answer the phone, and I It sounds like I’m making up these stories. People would just get through to me. One day I picked up the phone and it was Bill Cosby. One day I picked up the phone. It was James Hetfield from Metallica.

One day I pick up the phone and it’s Richard Jenny. Hey, hey, Rich. Good to hear from you. What’s going on? And he asked a question about one of the bits on one of his albums.

And he’s like, how do you have that bit? I’m like, what are you talking about? It’s on your album. He’s like, no, it’s not. And I’m totally confused because I’m looking in the computer.

So what we would do this in the days of CDs, you would put the CD in the computer and And he would rip the tracks on the computer.

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And then there’s coding on the back end so that the artists get paid.

And I forget what the bit was called. I’m in my office here and I’m looking at Red Garbage Can. So let’s say the bit is called Red Garbage Can and it’s track 11. So I’m like, Rich, you know, it’s on the album. Between track 10 and track 12, track 11 is Red Garbage Can.

He goes, no, I never put that out. I don’t like the finished version of the bit. I’m like, I don’t know. I don’t know how I would have invented a bit, Richard. It’s on your CD.

And he’s telling me, no, it’s not. And I’m like, I’ll get back to you. Let me figure this out. So I go deep diving on this. And I’m like, what?

Because it doesn’t make sense because obviously I didn’t like bootleg a recording and put it in the middle of an album. It’s not a stray. It’s clearly like track 11 between track 10 and 12. And it’s got codes and everything. But he’s telling me, because he’s the artist, he never put it out because he didn’t like it as a finished bit.

So I go looking and looking and I go find the actual CD and in the record library, which is all the way downstairs closet. And we had gotten an advanced copy of the CD and the track in question was on the advanced copy of the CD, but not on the final version approved by Richard Jennings. I called him back and told him that, and we stopped playing the track in question, no harm, no foul. But that was one of those that had me going like, what? I didn’t like invent a bit.

Bill Maher performed with Richard Jennings as a young comedian and Maher dedicated an entire episode of Real Time to Richard Jenny after he died and talked about Richard Jenny on Larry King Live. The character of Richard Jenny among his peers is something that comes up consistently across every account of him from people who worked with him or near him. He was described as brotherly and supportive in a business that is not always either of those things. Fraser Smith opened for him regularly at the Ice House in Pasadena and said young comedians looked up to Jenny and treated him as someone they were trying to become. Watching how he worked a room, paying attention to the specific decisions he made on stage.

Ginny wrote material for the 2005 Academy Awards, hosted by Chris Rock. He won a Clio Award for commercial copywriting, that is the advertising industry’s highest recognition, meaning he could translate his comedy instincts into a format with completely different constraints and still produce exceptional work. Another credit, The Aristocrats. Did he do The Aristocrats, the 2005 film built entirely around comedians telling the same filthy joke their own way? Not sure I could play a clip for that for ya.

Quite naughty. But what The Aristocrats does is it shows how different comedians think and perform, and what each person does with the same raw material tells you about how their mind works. Richard Jenney was named one of Comedy Central’s top 100 comedians of all time. He was number 57 on Comedy Central’s 100 Greatest Stand-Up Comedians. That was a list he helped assemble as a panelist himself.

He ranked himself and his contemporaries simultaneously as which of course requires clear-eyed honesty about where you actually stand among the people you’re being compared to. Now our story goes sideways. In December 2006, three months before he died, Richard Jenney was involuntarily hospitalized on a psychiatric hold after showing up to a hospital emergency room reporting suicidal depression. Richard Jenney died at age 49 March 10, 2007. Chortle reported on the coroner report, which revealed that Richard Jenney was diagnosed with suicidality, homicidality, and depression, and placed on 5150 hold, which had allowed medics to detain him for up to 72 hours.

Jenney was on antidepressant pills, had demonstrated suicidal behavior again a week before his death. His girlfriend Amy reportedly saw Jenney talking to himself, saying, just squeeze the trigger. She told investigators, says Chortle, that Richard Jenney was suffering insomnia and paranoia because of the stress of his work schedule, which involved relentless touring. At around 9.30 a.m. On March 10th, Richard Jenney placed the barrel of a. 38- caliber Colt Detective special in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

The reports are that five minutes earlier, he had been discussing the day ahead with his girlfriend, who went downstairs to make breakfast. She heard a popping sound and went upstairs and found Richard Jenney on the bathroom in a pool of blood and called the emergency 911 number. No note was found. His family released a statement saying rumors have been circulating as the cause of his death. That haven’t included speculation of Richard being depressed over the state of his career or physical ailment.

Truth is, earlier this year, Richard Janney was diagnosed with severe clinical depression coupled with bouts of psychotic paranoia. He was not down or blue. He was ill. Perhaps Richard’s passing will encourage people to have sympathy, compassion, and understanding for those who are afflicted with mental illness. Four and a half years later, the posthumous Beach Crowd DVD came out in 2011.

It was previously unreleased performance material that had been sitting in an archive. Richard Jenney’s final performance had been in February of 2007, a corporate dinner at the Rio in Las Vegas. Richard Jenney was 49.

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Featured: Nate Bargatze, Shane Gillis, Jim Gaffigan, Jerry Seinfeld, Byron Allen, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Jelly Roll, Richard Jenny

What’s in This Episode

• Nate Bargatze vs Shane Gillis career comparison
• Byron Allen’s show beats Kimmel and Fallon in ratings
• Jimmy Fallon contract renewal negotiations with ABC
• Richard Jenny Deep Dive episode and influence on Jerry Seinfeld
• Johnny Mac’s marathon training run and walk 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.

Hey there. So today we’re out on my run. This is actually the walk break. We’ll talk about that at the end. I’m Johnny Mac with the Afternoon Check-In.

A couple things on my mind. One, I saw a social media post, one of those engagement traps, that asked a question, but I keep thinking about it. Whose career would you rather have for the rest of their career? Nate Bregazzi or Shane Gillis? Huh.

That’s a tough one. So if you tell me Nate is going to continue to do comedy.. And not open theme parks and stop touring? I think the answer is Nate. Nate could have Jim Gaffigan’s career, maybe even Jerry Seinfeld’s stand-up career and tour for a long time.

Boy, I’m out of breath on this hill. That’s why I take the long break. Shane, clearly selling out stadiums, 70,000 seats. I love him. Tires is great.

But as he’s even talked about, as he hits 40, does the frat boy thing work long term? Like, what is 60-year-old Shane Gillis? I’m not sure. I had to pause there to catch my breath. I used to podcast to get in the middle of a run.

Second topic, this stuns me. Late night of reporting that at 11.30 on Monday of this week, Byron Allen’s thing beat Kimmel and Fallon. Fallon was in a rerun, and the Kimmel show had Jelly Roll hosting, and Byron Allen’s show, which was also a rerun, won the night in 18-49. So you can hate on CBS all you want, but from a financial standpoint, they’re being paid to run Byron Allen’s thing and beating Jelly Roll, hosting Jimmy Kibble. Boy, that’s crazy.

So Jimmy, if you’re watching this video, listen to me, buddy. Take that renewal from ABC before they start looking at things and ask, like, why don’t we just run game show reruns at 11.30? I mean, Jimmy’s contract is up in May. Take the money, buddy. At 58 years old, I think Jimmy is, maybe 57, unless you’re out of breath taking a walk break on your run.

By the way, first mile, I shaved 30 seconds off my usual time today, so give me some credit there. Anyway, Kimmel, if ABC calls, just say yes, take the money. Third topic, tomorrow on the Deep Dive, is a look at Richard Jenney. And as I put it together, what I want you to listen out for is listen to how much Seinfeld is in Richard Jenney’s delivery. And I don’t mean the, hey, you ever notice?

But just like the things he’s saying and his pacing. Take a close listen to the Jenny clips in the Saturday episode. And I’m going to give you a premise here. Yeah, there’s a lot of Seinfeld and Richard Jenny. I’m now wondering, is there a lot of Richard Jenny and Jerry Seinfeld?

All right, let’s take some running tips here. So why are we walking, John, other than you’re clearly out of breath? When I marathon train, I follow a guy named Hal Higdon. And he’s got this wonderful training plan. The short version is you have to, on the weekend, do a long run.

And on Wednesday, you do half of what the long run is. So if your long run is, say, 10 miles, you do five on Wednesday. And you run a couple threes during the week. But one thing I learned from Hal, especially as I age here, it’s okay to walk. Because the walk gives you your lungs back, unless you’re recording a podcast for some reason.

But you get lungs back, and then you can run that next mile a little stronger. So I’ve done two New York City marathons. And I did the run-walk thing both times. And here we are at the top of the hill. I’ve got my lungs back.

We’ll treat ourselves to this nice downhill here. Again, this is not a training run. This is a nice, easy run. People seem to be digging these DCN Lives. Let me actually go on a run as the camera bounces.

People seem to be digging these DCN Lives. The numbers are doing okay, so I’ll continue doing them. And I’m going to continue to try and make them slightly weird. Back in the morning with Richard Jenney. Pretty good episode, if I say so myself.

And I’m going to go finish out this run now. Enjoy your Friday.

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Featured: Norm Macdonald, Martin Mull, Maria Bamford, Theo Vaughn, Sam Morrell, Nate Bargatze, Jimmy Kimmel, Judd Apatow

What’s in This Episode

• Netflix October 2026 comedy documentary lineup featuring four releases
• Norm Macdonald intimate documentary produced by Judd Apatow
• Martin Mull documentary produced by late Bob Saget and Neil Berkley
• Maria Bamford documentary ‘Paralyzed by Hope’ from Judd Apatow
• SCTV documentary and full series arriving on Netflix
• Theo Vaughn NASCAR Chase promotional campaign
• Sam Morrell on how Knicks championship affects his comedy writing
• Nate Bargatze launching edgier production company after family-friendly success
• Jimmy Kimmel contract renewal discussions and potential retirement considerations

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

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

From Poolside, I’m Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. October is going to be very exciting on Netflix. They have four comedy documentaries. I think the big one will be about Norm Macdonald, but I’ll tell you about them in order. These will be on Fridays.

On October 7th, we’ll get Who is Martin Mull, produced by the late Bob Saget and Neil Berkley. Who is Martin Mull tells the story of the Chicago-born actor, musician, and painter known for Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, and for playing Jean on Arrested Development. We’re told that the doc traces his restless reinvention from smoky folk clubs to primetime sitcoms to gallery walls, told in his own words and by their friends who watched it happen, including Steve Martin, Tom Waits, David Alan Greer, and others. Then on October 16th, we get Norma. The Tale of Norm Macdonald, an intimate portrait of Norm Macdonald, including his rise as the deadpan anchor of Weekend Update to his enduring legacy as a comedian’s comedian, a master of the absurd, the dry, and the unexpected.

The doc is built entirely from archival footage, personal photos, and rare home videos. This is really great. Judd Apatow is the force behind this one. Then on the 23rd, we get the Maria Bamford documentary, also from Judd. It is called Paralyzed by Hope, the Maria Bamford Story.

It made its premiere earlier this year at Sundance. It is a funny and tender glimpse into the childhood, early career, and present-day life of a comedy great who’s known for turning radical honesty into radical comedy, often blurring the line between performance and personal crisis. I know people that like Maria Bamford love Maria Bamford. Never quite been my thing, but I know people are really, really into her. So that is Paralyzed by Hope, the Maria Bamford story.

Then on October 30th, we get SCTV, The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of, which is just a fascinating title, because if you’re my age, of course you’ve heard of it. Plus, by the time October 30th rolls around, SCTV is coming to Netflix September 1st, so it will have been on Netflix for two months, so people will have heard of it anyway. SCTV, The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of, except you have, tells the story of one of the most influential sketch comedy series in TV history, although ostensibly you supposedly haven’t heard of it, even though you have. Second City Television helped boost the careers of John Candy, Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Catherine O’Hara, Rick Moranis, and more. No love for Dave Thomas there?

Why is there no love for Dave Thomas? Come on. Anyway, we’re told through intimate interviews with surviving members of its legendary cast and an emotional reunion in Toronto, the film explores the creative partnership that transformed a small Canadian television production into a cultural phenomenon, etc. Etc. Etc.

Jimmy Kimmel has an executive producer credit on this. As I previously mentioned, all episodes of Second City TV arrive on Netflix September 1st. NASCAR has teamed up with Theo Vaughn. USA Sports brought in comedian and podcaster Theo Vaughn to star in a new promo for The Chase, breaking down how the NASCAR playoffs work in simplest terms. Vaughn explains, 16 drivers, 10 races, one champion, the rules are easy, winning insanely hard.

Then there’s a video where we see some drivers in a classroom. Let’s cut to the trailer. Now, I did make edits for pacing. And honestly, I struggled to make it all the way to the end, so at some point we’re going to bail here, but here’s Theo Vaughn doing his NASCAR thing. Welcome to USA Sports Racing School.

You’ve battled all season for a shot at the championships, And now you’ve graduated. To the chase. Are you talking about me? I am not, but big fan. Did you just say chase?

Hey, Chase Briscoe, pipe down. We’re talking about NASCAR’s postseason. Wait, the chase is back? The chase is back, Ryan Blaney. Thank you, man.

And apparently so are 70s mustaches, huh? 16 drivers, 10 races, one champion. The rules are easy. Winning, insanely hard. Johnny Mac, stick to sports. OK, Sam Morrell was on Rich Eisen’s podcast and they talked about the world champion Knicks.

Sam said it hurt my comedy that Knicks run because it’s hard to write jokes when everything is great. A lot of comedy comes from irritability and like, you know, oh, this is annoying. But what am I going to be like? You ever notice that God is real and everything’s cool? Like, what am I going to write about?

I couldn’t believe it. Pajiba wrote an article about that controversial mega comedian, you know, the guy Nate Bregansi. That’s right. I didn’t have to tell you who it is. Pajiba’s headline, Nate Bregazzi does edgy comedy now, losers.

Let’s just read this one verbatim from Pajiba. After the breadwinner whimpered into theaters, Nate Bregazzi immediately went mask off and stumbled around the White House UFC fight like some sort of mega Forrest Gump. He had just spent months carefully saying he’s not a political guy, only to prove that anyone who says that is totally political but self-aware enough to know that they should keep it under wraps. Well. In an entirely predictable move, Nate is reportedly moving past his family-friendly shtick that made him a massive success on the standout circuit.

His Nateland Entertainment just announced the launch of No Pictures, a new company producing film and television that will delve into edgier genres and stories more suited for older audiences. Pajiba continues, While I just assumed Nate would stay arm’s length away from anything that uses words stronger than dorn, He’s already full steam ahead on some pretty spicy stuff. Hold on to your butts. What does any of this mean? Well, for starters, I’m guessing roller coasters cost way more than Nate realized, and he wants to open an amusement park.

He’s going to need more than Mr. Mom rehashes to bring in eyeballs. Pajima says, I’m also reminded of Nate’s May 2025 interview with Esquire, where Nate confessed that he was very tempted to go the canceled comedian route, but ultimately chose not to pursue those riches. Riches that would not be available to him unless he had views that would get him canceled. Are we about to learn what those views are?

This certainly looks like a start. Unless we’re about to witness a very expensive foray into four chokes. Sounds like Jimmy Kimmel’s not going to retire. I mean, that makes sense. Once they make you the king of late night, why would you walk away after a year in your late 50s?

What else are you going to do? Sit in the backyard recording a podcast like a loser? No, Jimmy Kimmel, you keep hosting the show. You already have the summers off. Call Rosie O’Donnell up and tell her you want her for six weeks next summer.

Tell ABC you don’t want to work in December. Rosie will do it. That’s a good solution, actually, everybody. Rosie can waltz in. Everyone will go, oh, Rosie’s great.

Kimmel doesn’t have to work. ABC has a show. Why are we not doing this? Jimmy and his wife Molly went on Dax Shepard’s podcast. Kimmel said he still asks himself if the demands of doing a nightly show are worth it.

Quoting Jimmy, weirdly, I deal with it less now than I used to because now I feel like the show’s an outlet for people who are outraged by what’s going on, and I feel some responsibility to those people. So it’s not just like, oh, man, why do I need to get up? It’s like, well, yeah, there is kind of a reason, a non-financial reason that you need to do this. Kimmel’s current contract runs through May. Recently, Kimmel told Vulture that ABC hadn’t yet talked about a renewal.

Kimmel at that point said, I don’t know what ABC is going to want to do. Jimmy’s wife, Molly, said she could picture her husband with a fly rod in one hand and a torch in the other, finally getting a chance to relax. But she believes his voice is important. Now, this is where we get down to it. Jimmy was asked, could he see himself retiring and then regret it?

He said, yeah, I do. And he said he had watched others announce their retirement only to make a, quote, lesser comeback. Jimmy said, I always look at that and go, oh, is that going to be me? Yeah, don’t walk away, dude. Will he retire, retire?

It depends on what you mean by retirement. He said, I’m never going to stop doing things. That is my like I’m already pretty much retired. I’m sitting next to a pool. Talking into a laptop and making money doing this, and thank you for listening.

You help fund this ridiculous lifestyle that I have. I am so blessed. Thank you. I have no reason not to do this. I already pre-taped some days of the week when I want to go to the beach.

I mean, Jimmy, apply that. Again, call Rosie O’Donnell. In fact, Rosie, if you want to host this podcast on the weekends, I’m happy to have you. The Great Outdoors Comedy Festival is stepping up their lineup. If you’re free on Friday, the 11th of September, and you want to hit the Mississauga Festival weekend at Arendelle Park, Stavros Halkias and James Austin Johnson have been announced.

They were replacing Mike Birbiglia and Nick Kroll, who can no longer appear on the show on Friday due to scheduling conflicts. We’ll get into that in a second. But it is a pretty solid lineup at the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival Mississauga lineup. On the 11th, you get John Mulaney, Stavros Halkias, Fred Armisen, and James Austin Johnson. I mean, when Fred Armisen’s the fourth best guy, that’s a pretty good night.

Then the afternoon show on the 12th is Adam Ray’s Dr. Phil, Miss Patton, T.J. Miller. Then the night show on the 12th is Jeffrey Curie, fresh cut featuring Brad Williams and Grace O’Malley. Then the afternoon show on the 13th, we’ll be watching football, so I feel bad for Matt Matthews and Jordan Jensen and also Catherine Blanford, who is fantastic, but there’s football that day.

And then you can blow off Sunday night football and go see Hasan Minhaj and Ronny Chieng plus Michael Kosta. Now, why isn’t Mike Birbiglia going? Remember he said he had a bail on the Mulaney tour because he had a dream job? Well, apparently it is this. Focus Features has greenlighted Old Friends, New Friends, a comedy marking Mike Birbiglia’s first feature effort in a decade.

When a tight-knit group of college friends travels to a summer camp for their old friend’s wedding, they discover he’s built a new life with new friends, forcing them to confront what they’ve lost, who they’ve become, and whether growing up means growing apart. Michael Ian Black, who looks fantastic, and I say that because I watched the trailer for the thing I’m about to tell you, which is His new comedy special, it’s titled First Annual Retirement Special. It is now out on Comedy Dynamics. Michael Ian Black reflects on his 27 years of experience as a married man and the difficult choices that come with it, like choosing between intimacy and watching Better Call Saul. Caring for each other through sickness and health and discovering just how important accent pillows are to bringing home together.

He also takes on the increasingly unhinged world of snack and soda flavors, living abroad in Rome and London. Where he learned that London theatre might not be all it’s cracked up to be, and recounts the time he hit it big at the poker table against a man named Dave. Now, there is a trailer. Michael Ian Black, who’s 55 and looks fantastic, goes a really long way for a joke here. I’ll let it roll into the laugh line.

There’s a tag after the laugh line that’s more visual, but I’ll cut it before we get to that because it’s visual. But this is a long way to go for a joke. If you ever get the chance to live abroad for any length of time, Take it. It’s such a great experience. You learn so much, not only about the cultures that you’re in, but about your home culture.

And what eventually happens is you will accumulate approximately $ 36, 000 in credit card debt. Here’s what happened. Towards the end of our stay, I got a call from my friend, Joe. Joe works for this big poker company putting on a high stakes poker game in Las Vegas. Would I like to participate?

Now, I am a poker player. I’ve been playing poker my whole life. But when I buy into a poker game, it’s for like $ 300, $ 500. The buy-in for this game, $ 50, 000. Okay.

Okay. Now, my strategy is very simple. We have 150 hands of poker to play. When the 150 hands are over, the game is over. So my thinking is, I’m just going to hang back.

I’m not going to do a thing unless I absolutely have to hope to put a dent in this $ 36, 000 of credit card debt that I’ve got. On the second hand of the 150, I hear myself saying these words. I’m all in. Well, once again, I’m bumping that Hannah Berner story because the podcast is getting long. We’ll eventually get to it.

And, you know, sadly, it’s not that good. But it is Friday and time for the Comedy Stock Market. Take it away, Burt Reynolds. Comedy Stock Market. All right, despite me constantly bumping Hannah Burner stories from the podcast, we’re going to buy stock in Hannah Burner.

She’s got a lot of projects coming along. Not that I ever tell you about them, but someday I will. But just trust me. You trust a guy sitting by a pool hosting a podcast, don’t you? Hannah Burner is a buy for us.

Let’s also buy some Stavros Halkias. He’s got a lot going on, and I’m seeing a lot of press. I already have a few things into next week’s scripts.

And also let’s buy..

Can you buy Norm Macdonald? Let’s buy some Norm Macdonald estate. I feel like this Netflix documentary will re-shine the light on Norm. Not that the light has really diminished. He’s revered.

I’ve even caught in grief from people like friend of the show Scott Beckett would be like, what do you mean when I say Norm Macdonald is not one of the best standups of all time? So, yeah, people are into Norm and I think this doc will really help. And if you’re on Twitter, people will either repost old Norm stuff or do stuff in the style of Norm on this breaking news. So Norm is in the zeitgeist. So we’ll buy Stavros.

We’ll buy Hannah. We’ll buy Norm MacDonald. And that is your comedy stock market on a Friday next to the pool all week. I’ve had this in the notes every day. And what happens, because it’s just one sentence, I’ve been glossing over it and forgetting to put it in.

Remember like a week ago there was the thing at Penn State with the frat guys who were accused of being coke dealers? Did you hear that? And the ringleader was tagged with the nickname Pablo Pledgobar? Have you heard this story? Anyway, a comedian named Chris Barnes made a video of what it might have sounded like at the fraternity.

Taz, today you. Gotta move this brick! You gotta move it, man! You gotta move this brick! It’s a ton of cocaine!

It’s hazing! It’s fun! I sell it or snort it, but you gotta get rid of it! It’s gotta be go- You really gotta move this! You will all be getting one brick!

And you gotta cut it with this! Is that Fent? Yes! Yeah, assface, it is Fent! And you better mix it in well, because it’s not good quality!

Get a whisk! Like, really get it in there! Tonight we’re doing a scavenger hunt! You gotta get on an 18-wheeler! You gotta go to Bogota!

Over the border! In Colum- Columbia? Yeah! Oh! Oh, you’ve seen a map before.

Did you major in math? Oh, geography guy. You’re going to get a selfie with the head of the cartel, and don’t fake it. We know what he looks like. Don’t just take a pic with a random Mexican guy.

He’s a loner. He’s a legacy. He’s class of 08. I like that a lot. If you are on my texting list, you got a copy of that sent to you by me.

From the Sunday Post, let’s head up to the fringe. Comedian Sasha Neslobin fled Russia after making an anti-war protest. He doesn’t know when or if he or his family will ever be able to return. He was performing in a small space, capacity 83. He was once Russia’s most successful comic, a household name with his own sitcom, who could fill arenas with his stand-up shows and directed successful films.

He sounds like the Russian Nate Bergenzi, huh? Then Sasha Nazbolin criticized his country’s invasion of Ukraine and was forced to leave everything he knew behind, fleeing Russia. One of the last direct flights from Moscow to the U.S. Are there not direct flights? I haven’t looked.

I’m going on kayak. No, I’m not going on kayak, because then guys in sunglasses will be like, why is he looking up flights to Moscow? I’m not looking. You look it up. Got to be careful what you Google.

Sasha explains, in Russia, I have thousands of people in the audience, but it’s all understandable. I’m on a different road, and I don’t suffer. I don’t want to do arenas right now on my show. I want to do 100 people 100 times. Then, of course, I desire to have more.

I’m fine with this amount. This amount makes me happy, and I can do pictures afterwards with all who want them. Now I have more connections with my audience because I’m talking with them after my shows. People come to my show to see a guy who made the same decision they did, who left his country, who left everything there. They come up to me and say, wow, it’s so cool.

You’re telling stories about your struggles and it helps us to live in the same situation. They hug me a lot right now. 10 years ago, people wanted a picture just to show it on the internet. Now it’s completely different. It’s people with the same perspectives, values, and views. I’ll miss them when I’m selling out 4,000 seat venues, he laughs.

They’ll be saying, Sasha was so nice when he was unsuccessful. As for his set, he says, I talk about struggles with politics, relationships, and the future of my childhood. I think anywhere in the world you can experience this. The U.S. U.K.

And Russia have a lot in common and a huge history of relations, most notably World War II. Johnny Mac’s been listening to a lot of the Tom Hanks World War II podcast while walking his dog. When we last left Tom Hanks, we were at Yalta. So yes, the U.S. U.K.

And Russia do have a lot in common and a huge history of relations. Sasha says, some small things or stupid laws that we have now in Russia I can explain and turn into jokes. This has got to be really hard. He said, I told my girl we were going on vacation and we packed up her favorite toys. I took two big suitcases and we flew to New York.

A week or two later, my wife decided she wanted to leave because countries were closing their airspace. She had to go via another country, only bringing a small carry-on bag because she didn’t believe we’d be going for long. Four years later, they’re still in the U.S. With no idea if they’ll ever return home. Getting even more serious, Sasha said, I read Viktor Frankl’s book about Auschwitz.

I read that in college. High recommend, very powerful book. I read Viktor Frankl’s book about Auschwitz and there was a theory that that the people who believed it would end in a year died first. Those who believed it would end in five years also died, but those who stayed alive are the people that believed it would end, but they didn’t know when. So I’ve decided to live my life in the here and now and not think about it.

I don’t know what will happen in the next 10 years, but I’ve experienced so much. I have so many new experiences in life, and everything is nice. One of my dreams is to go back to Russia and educate students to teach cinema, stand-up art, something like that. I think that could be really profitable if I learn here, then take that experience and give it back to my homeland to build a new generation of people. That would be nice.

Staying over at the Fringe yesterday when we wrapped up, I was telling you about Warren Morton, who’s putting on two shows at the Fringe. This from comedy.co.uk. Warren says the part of the Fringe that nobody really prepares you for is what happens when you finish your show. The audience leaves, the adrenaline disappears, and suddenly you’re alone. The Fringe can be incredibly social when you’re surrounded by performers and audiences, but there are moments when the crowds have gone and the Fringe feels strangely lonely.

Would I recommend doing two shows at the Fringe? Absolutely. Would I recommend doing two solo shows at the Fringe? Probably not. One of the shows is selling out every day, while the other has a consistently almost full room.

Audience feedback’s been outstanding, and artistically it’s been fantastic. From the Scotsman, comedian Stephen Gordon says the Fringe was built on risk. Comedy should be allowed to fail again. He compares live comedy to rugby and said it has the same electricity. A brilliant comedian is not just someone who recites a polished routine.

There is someone with a strange private logic and the ability to feel a room shifting between their feet. Comedy, at its best, is a live negotiation between idea, performer, and audience. The Edinburgh Fringe understands that better than almost anywhere. At least, it always has done. At its best, the Fringe has a punk spirit.

Messy, ambitious, experimental, occasionally ridiculous, sometimes life-changing. It has also become increasingly expensive, slick, and professionalized. Posters are better, PR is sharper, reviews matter, awards matter. A month in Edinburgh can define a comedian’s career or bank balance. Awards, reviews, and agents don’t just recognize comedy, they shape it.

When the most recognized path is the polished 50-minute hour, comedians naturally optimize for that form. It’s worth asking what gets squeezed out with the fastest route to legitimacy most rewards completion. At the biggest comedy festival in the world, it is oddly difficult to find space for the most basic act in comedy, trying something out. He explains, there’s a difference between unfinished and careless. I’m not arguing for laziness or for charging audiences to watch comedians read out scraps.

The question is something else. What happens when skilled people meet genuine uncertainty? The same way a world-class rugby player uses years of training when the ball bounces wrong, a great comic uses timing, instinct, and nerve when an unfinished idea suddenly has to live in front of an audience. That’s why I created Notes, the comedy B-sides. Comedians open up their Notes app and perform live, half-written premises, 3M voice memos, strange fragments they once believed were worth saving.

See, I love that. That is great. He explains, what has surprised me is how quickly brilliant comics have understood the appeal. Acts with polished hours, international followings, and serious reputations have still jumped the chance, not because they have nothing finished, but because even the best comedians still want rooms where they can play. Comedy B-sides at the tonic. 11 40 p.m claire smith went to go see rury miller miller’s show is called autocorrect thinks my name is rubbish uh rury is spelled r-u-a-r-i-d-h i had to look up the pronunciations So Rory Miller, spelled R-U-A-R-I-D-H, autocorrect, thinks my name is Rubbish.

Claire Smith, writing for Entertainment Dash Now, says, Finally, I feel seen. This is a brilliant hour of comedy. I knew I was in for a good time as soon as he walked onto Dog Dribble by Get Down Services. Rory reveals he’s named after a dog shortly before getting into his place in society. Middle class, of course.

The show begins with the painfully relatable pain in the neck that is autocorrect when you don’t have a boring name. Autocorrect thinks my name is Rubbish. 8 to 20 p.m. At the Penny at the Gilded Ballroom Patter House until the Fringe ends on the 30th. That is your comedy news for today. All right, tomorrow, what’s the deep dive?

I haven’t recorded it yet, which is why I don’t know. I have to check my own script. Richard Jenney is who we’re doing tomorrow. I’ve written it. I just didn’t record it yet.

All right, Richard Jenney tomorrow. On the Comedy Deep Dive, a normal episode on Sunday. I’ve got a lot, including the eternally bumped Hannah Berner article. Maybe I’ll get to it on Sunday. Who knows?

From Poolside, I’m Johnny Mac. Back in a couple hours with the short afternoon check-in and Richard Jenney in the morning. See you then.

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Featured: Bill Burr, Theo Vaughn, Nate Bregazzi, Rosie O’Donnell, John Mulaney, David Letterman, Jerry Seinfeld, Bob Hope

What’s in This Episode

• College students unfamiliar with Bill Burr’s comedy
• John Mulaney’s Netflix late-night show failure despite star-studded guest list
• Rosie O’Donnell late-night show rumors and likelihood
• Rosie O’Donnell responds to White House criticism with Trump golf resort photo
• Arthur Treacher’s opens new location in Lakewood, Ohio after bankruptcy comeback
• Bob Hope’s connection to Arthur Treacher’s launch in 1960s

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

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

Hey, Johnny Mac, cool side. We are outside today. The cleaning lady’s here, and she’s cleaning the basement studio. So, aside from the beautiful day, we are outside. As you can see, I finally got the pool reasonably clean, which is nice.

We’ll see if the leaf robot kicks in at some point. A couple of random things I wanted to talk about today. I do teach college classes, and on Monday night, I asked the college students if they knew who Bill Burr was, and they had no idea. Boy, it goes quickly. I mean, I know I do this for a living, but I don’t think Bill is the most obscure comedian out there.

That was kind of shocking to me. I was listening to Theo Vaughn. His guest was controversial maggot comedian Nate Bregazzi. I didn’t last with it long. I know Theo’s show is super popular, but he’s just not smart.

That’s all I have to say on that. I’m still hung up on Rosie O’Donnell getting a late night show, which is just not going to happen. Rosie, 66 years old. The more I think about it, you may be familiar with Colbert’s show ending, possibly because of budget. You may be familiar with Jimmy Kimmel being suspended at one point because the people in Washington were not too happy with him.

Why would you go out of your way to hire Rosie O’Donnell and put the red flag in front of the wild bull? That’s just not going to happen. Plus, I was thinking, Netflix gave a quote-unquote late-night show to John Mulaney and couldn’t get people to watch it. Even with John Mulaney’s star power, the guest star power, which I’ll talk about in a second, and the algorithm, nobody was watching the Netflix show. So the guests on Mulaney’s show included David Letterman, Jerry Seinfeld, Nikki Glaser, Stavros Halkias, Bill Hader, Wanda Sykes, Pete Davidson, Hannibal Buress, Marc Maron, Ronny Chieng, and others.

Now, sure, the show was misproduced, which I’ll talk about in a second. But, I mean, if Netflix couldn’t get people to click on that, how is anybody going to watch Rosie O’Donnell on, I don’t know, ABC at 1230 in the morning? That’s just not going to happen. Now, I had a long career in radio, and I worked on a show called Rambling with Gambling, which was actually the longest-running radio show. And I worked with John R.

Gambling, who was the third-generation John Gambling, to host the show. And I just remember one time in the mid 90s, I was asking him something about the format of the show. And he said, we’ve been doing it this way a long time and it works. Leave it alone. And he’s right.

So I felt with Mulaney’s late night talk show, it was misproduced because if you have Jerry Seinfeld on the couch, talk to Jerry Seinfeld. But what that show did was they were trying to be quirky and mix and match the various guests. But it just didn’t work because nobody knew. All right. Should I jump in?

When do I jump in? Is it my turn? If you’ve got Jerry there. Just go, hi, Jerry, and shut up and let Jerry be funny. I call that Johnny Carson theory is, you know, Johnny knew how to make his guests look good and would stay out of the way.

And then the next day, people would say, did you see Johnny Carson last night? I did tell you the other day that the White House had some comments about Rosie O’Connell. Well, she shot back. She shared a photo of Donald Trump from his golf resort from 2024. She captioned it.

This is the guy calling me a slob. Hashtag mirror mirror. And as I put together the show today, this from Cleveland dot com, the headline is, Arthur Treacher’s opens in Lakewood. Tap’s like, what? What is this?

The story is, let me tell you the big news story from Cleveland dot com. Arthur Treacher’s is celebrating a grand opening in Lakewood, marking its first location on the West Side. The new location at eleven seven five Madison Avenue. Hey, if you’re in Cleveland, bop on over. Officially open the doors at ten thirty a.m.

On Wednesday. The space, as you know, was most recently Joe’s Deli and Restaurant. But was previously home to an Arthur Treacher’s, so it has returned to being an Arthur Treacher’s. Where’s the comedy? Stay with me, Cleveland.com.

Who wants us to remember that the chain got its start in 1969 in Columbus and once boasted more than 800 locations worldwide. However, after bankruptcy in the early 80s, the Arthur Treacher’s brand dwindled down to just a couple local-owned restaurants. Now, why did this show up on the comedy tracker? Because of this next paragraph. Bob Hope, the famed comedian showman originally from Cleveland..

Loved fish and chips, and helped launch Arthur Treacher’s by suggesting that its founders hire the British actor as the public face of the company. Who knew? Arthur Treacher’s is best known for its fish and chips, fried chicken, clam chowder, hush puppies, and other comfort food favorites, and apparently the pool robot is not going to move today. All right, back in the morning with a normal episode.

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Featured: Dolly Parton, David Letterman, Johnny Carson, Tim Curry, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Christina P, Tom Segura

What’s in This Episode

• Dolly Parton passes away at 80; classic Late Show top ten list resurfaces
• Tim Curry death at 80
• Stephen Colbert endorses Jimmy Kimmel for Emmy in humorous video
• Christina P performs three days after separation from Tom Segura; Page Six story debunked
• Emmy voting deadline reminder

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

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

Man, let me set the scene here. Hi, I’m Johnny Mac with a poolside edition of Daily Comedy News. Now it’s late August and the weather’s gorgeous out today, so don’t get me wrong. I would be outside regardless. But my wife had the cleaning lady come over and she’s fantastic.

But she’s cleaning where the studio is, so I can’t even be inside if I wanted to. Not that I want to. Because I’m outside, the neighbor is doing some sort of grinding thing, so we might hear that. Oh, no, that’s a landscaper. Sorry, totally different sound.

I thought that was right on cue. There’s cicadas, there’s planes, all sorts of things.

And also, I’m hungry, but I can’t make a smoothie because the smoothie makes …

So I don’t want to like immediately ruin the blender while she’s still here. These are the pressures. Life is hard. All right, John, get to the show, will you? Oh, the other problem I have is I hit record and my computer died.

It’s not getting along with the heat so much. So I can’t even set the computer up on the table the way I usually do because the power cord is short. So I actually have my microphone in my lap and I’m sitting at a different distance than I normally do. All right, John, get to the show already, will you? Okay.

We were all sad to hear that Dolly Parton passed away at 80 years old. I mean, I think everyone was sad about it. The president of the United States even said the flags will be at half-mast for a week. Her passing did surface this clip. This is from 1995.

It’s the Late Show with David Letterman. But as I watch the clip, Dave still looks like NBC Dave. He’s got the Gulf of Mexico hairline, as I remember him calling it a million years ago. He’s not yet establishment 21st century statesman David Letterman. He still has the whimsy, but this top ten list is fantastic.

I will let David Letterman set it up. I do want to pre-warn you that the place I sourced it from cut it off rather quickly after number one. Number one is very funny, but pay attention because all of a sudden you’re going to hear the joke and you’re going to hear me talking again because that’s all the audio I have. But here is David Letterman.

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And now, to assist us in the presentation of tonight’s top ten list, please w…

Dolly, there you go. Okay, the category in our top ten Dolly Parton pet peeves. Dolly, are you all set? Here we go. I’m ready.

Okay, number ten. Accountants who don’t understand how much it costs to make me look this chic. Yes. Number nine. Trying to play guitar in these five-inch fingernails.

They’re great. When are we going to have them on the show, Paula, five-inch fingernails? I’m telling you, that’s my favorite new band. Make that booking if you can. They’re alternative.

Number eight. When the county declares my hair a fire hazard. Number seven. Confused Dalai Lama constantly asking for theme park royalties. Number six.

You can’t get a wig repaired because Letterman’s got some kind of a hairpiece crisis. Hey, come. On. Very good. Thank you.

Yes. It’s like my goofy cousin is hosting the show tonight. Hello, I’m Dave’s cousin, Kenny. Dave was smoking a cigar and had to go home early. So Dave asked, could.

I fill in? Oh, man, where the hell are we? Have we done all ten yet? Number five. A rhinestone rash.

Yeah, okay. Number four. Number four. Okay. You ready?

Let’s just go home, Dolly. Number four. Okay, when he visits Dollywood gift shops, Garth Brooks always shoplifts stuff under that big hat of his. Yeah, let’s do go home. Just three more.

Dolly’s been smoking her own self. Number three, number three. Okay, smart-ass emcees who introduced me by saying, and now here they are, Dolly Parton. Number two. When the Super Bowl is over, winner never says, hey, I’m going to Dollywood.

That’s right.

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And now, the number one Dolly Parton pet peeve.

Nobody notices I’ve got a great ass, too. Dolly Parton’s passing also surfaced this clip from Johnny Carson. I saw this making the rounds, but as I watched it, it’s heavily edited, so I’m not 100% sure that this is exactly how it went, and it’s possible this is even a created clip. However, it’s pretty funny, so let’s just enjoy the laugh and hope that it is real. The discussion point here is the size of Dolly Parton’s assets.

What would they call that where you grew up in Tennessee? I can’t say. Healthy? Healthy, I guess. Bosomy.

What did you ask me just before that? Have you always? Oh, well, yeah. I’ve always been pretty well blessed. People are always asking if they’re real.

I would never. I would never, you see. No, you don’t have to ask. I would not. I’ll tell you what.

I have certain guidelines on. I would give about a year’s pay to peek under there. As I’m recording this, I also learned that 80-year-old Tim Curry, best known for Rocky Horror, has passed away. Let’s hope it doesn’t go in threes this time. We’ll keep it on late night.

You may recall last year, Jimmy Kimmel endorsed Stephen Colbert for an Emmy. Well, Stephen Colbert has posted a video. We see Stephen sitting on a hillside. He’s got a beard, and he had this to say. Oh, hi.

Stephen Colbert here at the end of the world. You know, there’s 24 hours left in Emmy voting, and if you’re anything like me, you haven’t even started yet. So, let’s get going. First up, we have, oh, Outstanding Variety Series. Kind of a weird voting system this year, but, you know, I think we can all agree that Jimmy Kimmel deserves an Emmy.

I don’t care if you’ve never even seen his show. You know he deserves an Emmy. Besides, look how cute he is. Anyway, please consider thinking that Jimmy deserves an Emmy. I do.

I love you. All this bumped what had been my number one story from the New York Post. Christina P. Apparently performed in July of Three days after her separation made headlines, Christina was performing at the Top Secret Comedy Club in London. An audience member told Page Six she spent the whole set slagging off Tom Segura.

The audience member added that Christina P.

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Also booed him and swore at him, presumably Segura.

The eyewitness said she spoke about her cancer recovery and said one of the best parts of survival was that she didn’t die so he wouldn’t get to be happy with a younger woman. That just sounds like a joke joke. I wasn’t in the room, but that just sounds like, you know, a routine. We are told that Christina P.

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Also spoke about Tom Segura’s toilet habits, but that the British audience di…

The audience member said Christina then told the crowd they were no fun. But a source tells Page Six, and all right, so my spidey sense was right. This is a set she’s been doing for a long time. It’s three years old. She’s been talking about relationships and marriage from the very beginning.

It’s a comedian’s job to tell jokes about life, and now through the lens of a divorce, it looks different. Yeah, I mean, that all makes sense. The other day I was walking my dog. And I ran into my friend Ken for the second day in a row. And we were like, again?

And he was asking about the podcast and how to listen to it. So he said he was going to listen to the podcast. And as I told Ken, you know, as I like to tell everybody who knows me in real life, sometimes I will exaggerate. Again, I’m not being fake. I’m really sitting by a pool.

I’ll send you a picture if you want. But sometimes I play it up a little. And I told Ken, I go, you know, I might say I ran into you nine days in a row just for the comedy bit. So, yeah, Christina talked about things from her life and it made it to stage. That totally adds up, as I’ve explained in the past.

John doesn’t like Adam Sandler movies. Johnny Mac hates them, as you know. But, John, I don’t walk around kicking my dog going, I can’t believe they’re making Grown Ups 3. You may recall the president of the United States had a spokesperson comment on Rosie O’Donnell. Rosie O’Donnell shared a photo of Donald Trump at his Florida golf resort from 2024.

She captioned it, this is the guy calling me a slob, hashtag mirror mirror. It was not the most flattering photo of the president of the United States. Andrew Santino revealed that he tried to make Saturday Night Live for the 2013-2014 season. Santino was testing opposite Pete Davidson. Santino left.

He thought he did a good job impressing Lorne Michaels. He got a call from Lorne inviting him back to New York City for a one-on-one meeting.

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Now, here’s the twist.

Santino said, I flew to New York. And I was like, is this it? Am I going to move to New York? This is wild. He shows up, has a meeting with Lorne Michaels.

Santino said, we talked for an hour about Chicago. He loved talking about Chicago because he knew I was from Chicago. He ate popcorn. I walked around, met all the writers.

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And then Lorne Michaels said, I think you’re going to have a great career.

I don’t think you’re the puzzle piece I’m looking for. Wow, that is brutal. Santino said he doesn’t have any ill feelings about the rejection, and he wasn’t surprised that Lorne Michaels picked Pete Davidson. He said, yeah, Pete Davidson is like a decade younger than us. He was a kid.

So I was like, yeah, they’re going to pick this malleable cute kid whose dad died in 9-11 versus a vulnerable red-headed crackpot. Do you like golf? Do you like Cat Williams? Do you like Cat Williams covering golf? Well, good news for you.

Cat Williams will return today and tomorrow as an on-course correspondent for the rounds of the PGA Tours Tour Championship at Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Club. Say that three times fast. What you just heard was take two. That, of course, is the final event of the 2026 FedEx Cup Playoffs. All that airs on ESPN, where you will find Cat Williams.

Cat will follow each round’s marquee group, offering commentary over the first 36 holes of the competition. Cat Williams tells The Hollywood Reporter the gig is a joy. Cat likes his own game. He said, I think I still have the ability and the age, he’s 54, to still play professionally. If I do get a few things taken care of, if that happens, then the rest of it will open up for me pretty organically.

There’s no other sport where you could ever dream of such a thing, you know? Cat says he’s cut eight strokes off his handicap. He’s now an 11th. And he wants to wipe out another eight. Cat explains, I was able to do that with just a couple adjustments.

I was trying as good as I could get before I started taking lessons, which are guaranteed to get me better. As for the gig, as a fan, you know how important a good commentator slash narrator is for this thing in their home. The Great Ones really breaks that gap, so that’s what I’m going to be doing. He says he does not have a rooting interest, but as a comic.. I guess preferably, just as a comedian, as a writer, one really great guy and somebody sticking up the place would be great.

I’d love to see a minus six with a plus six. Apparently, golf and comedy are crossing over. A new unscripted sports comedy series co-produced by Peyton Manning’s company is called PGA Tour Alter Ego. You’ll find this on the PGA Tour YouTube channel. The chief marketing officer of the PGA Tour, Andy Weitz, said, We think we got a generation of really fun PGA Tour stars who are looking to connect.

And build their brand and their game to try stuff like this out. This is a play to get younger fans into the golf. Mr. Weitz explains that they’re a fan of comedy if they’re a Will Ferrell fan, if you’re a Drewski fan, if you’re a YouTube golf fan, if you like simulator golf, if you like gaming. There are all kinds of different ways through our original content strategy.

We can make them more familiar with our players, more familiar with the competitive format, and translate that over time into a larger fan base. More sports. This from Cubs.com, which you thought was your home for Chicago Cubs baseball news. No, it’s where you get your comedy news. Other than me, of course.

It’s the first ever fastball comedy festival bringing some of the biggest names in comedy to Sloan Park in Mesa, Arizona in October on the weekend of the 17th and 18th. Now, don’t roll your eyes. Here’s your headliners. Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr, and Tom Segura. So you don’t have to go to Riyadh to see some of these folks.

You can just go to Arizona.

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Also in a desert.

Interesting. Is Mesa a desert? I don’t know. I should probably look that up. Leave the joke in.

Who cares about the facts, John? Two-day passes go on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m. Mountain Standard Time, which is noon Central Daylight Time. The rest of you can do your own conversions. Go to sloanpark.com.

Justin Piper is the GM of Spring Training Operations for Sloan Park, and he says.. The Fastball Comedy Festival combines world-class comedy with the unique atmosphere of a professional ballpark, creating a one-of-a-kind live entertainment experience. Produced in collaborations with Bruce Hills Entertainment. Oh, that’s interesting. You know I don’t pre-read these articles.

That’s Bruce Hills, who I know from the old Just for Laughs Montreal days. Oh, good guy. And Wrigley Field Events. They’ve teamed up. This is great.

Great to see. So that means Bruce can still pull if he got Burr, Segura, and Chappelle. All right. Good job, Bruce Hills. Throughout the weekend, fans can shop for merchandise and enjoy food and drinks, with rotating acts performing at a second stage beyond right field.

There are also premium tickets, which include complimentary ballpark food and non-alcoholic beverages. Press box club tickets include alcoholic beverages for you alcoholics or non-alcoholics who know the difference between two beers and eight. It’s a phone-free event because Chappelle’s there. You know how that goes. Boy, I got a lot today.

Should we just keep going? Why not? It’s beautiful out. John Mulaney. He played Minneapolis, and Neil Justin from the Minneapolis Star Tribune was there, and he wrote a column titled Three Ways John Mulaney’s Minnesota Return was Extra Special.

Neil explains, most touring comics tend to stick to the same material for one or two years, polishing their bits along the way. Mulaney’s No Exception is set at the Ledge Amphitheater. It didn’t much vary from his three-night stint at the Armory five months ago, but there were a few differences. One were the openers, Mike Braviglia and Dan Mintz, who’s part of that Bob’s Burgers hoax that we talk about sometimes but not today. One of Dan Mintz’s jokes told better by Dan Mintz was, I’ve been selling my bathwater for $ 50 a gallon at refugee camps.

Ouch. We’re told by the time the crowd warmed up to Dan Mintz’s unusual approach, his set was done. This was an outdoor show. John Mulaney joked about the insects and said, Several bugs have been circling my mouth for some time and insisted he had to negotiate around a spider web to get on stage. Mulaney did a couple jokes about the venue, which he kept referring to as a quarry, but for the most part, his set was identical to the one from five months earlier.

Toronto Just for Laughs has announced Gerard Carmichael will play the Paradise Theatre at September 27th. I would never be able to walk into that building without thinking about Styx, the band.

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Also at the Toronto Festival this year, John Cleese, who’s always involved in…

Another person who’s always involved in controversy is Bassem Youssef. Like, I’ll put him in the Kathy Griffin.. Category of I never name check Bassem Youssef and be like, oh, Bassem Youssef was petting a puppy and enjoying the nice sunny day recording his podcast by the pool. There’s always something with him. Well, he says he was asked by Australian authorities to provide a background check from the FBI in the U.S.

As well as his criminal record in Egypt. Whoa, what’s going on here? He announced his imminent Australian tour has been postponed after the request for the background checks as part of his visa application. We are told that Yousef has attracted criticism from Australian Jewish groups for jokes and commentary about Israel and Palestine. In a video statement, Yousef said, My shows in Australia and New Zealand have been postponed, rescheduled.

Of course, I owe you an explanation, and it seems there are new conditions and procedures for Australian visa applications. If you want to work there, perform there. We tried as much as possible to fulfill these requirements. It was a bit strange for me to have to provide a criminal record from Egypt, a country I left 12 years ago, but I respect Australian law. I respect the immigration laws.

He has toured Australia in the past, in 2023 and 2015. In 2015, he gave a keynote speech about freedom of expression. Yousef fled Egypt after his satirical TV show was taken off the air when he mocked the country’s president and military. He’s lived in the U.S. Since 2014.

He is currently a U.S. Citizen. He further explained, I cannot get on a plane in Australia unless I have the work permit because you have to go respect the law of the country that you go to. So I truly apologize. I want to thank everybody involved.

We were hopeful that when my criminal record arrives, hopefully I haven’t done anything in the last 12 years when I left Egypt. We’re going to apply. I’m very looking forward to seeing you again. I apologize once again. It’s unclear to me what his criminal record is.

Now, this is interesting. I’m asking AI here, and the AI says, if you mean the Egyptian-American comedian, I can’t find evidence that he has a conventional criminal record involving an actual criminal conviction. What he does have is a significant history with Egypt’s criminal justice system stemming from his political satire. Then they break that down. But AI is on it because they wrote, this is suddenly relevant today.

Because Yousef has postponed his Australia-New Zealand tour, etc. Etc. So if you’re asking because of today’s Australia story, the important distinction is, quote, asked to provide a criminal record check does not mean, quote, has a criminal record. Okay, good job on the AI there. Glad I asked.

Gossip Corner, whispers in the street. Gossip Corner, probably about Pete. Gossip Corner, where the rumors meet. With Johnny Mac, it’s always a treat. On Gossip Corner, we are told Hannah Berner enjoyed a birthday meal with Bobby Flay.

That’s right. The co-host of the Giggly Squad revealed that Bobby Flay and Bobby Flay’s girlfriend, Brooke Williamson, invited Hannah Berner and her husband and former guest on this show and cool guy Des Bishop over to celebrate their birthdays. We’re told that the couples kicked things off with a little tennis before Bobby Flay got to work in the kitchen. Hannah Berner said on her podcast, I celebrated my birthday with Bobby Flay. Shout out Bobby Flay, a friend of the pod and an avid Giggly Squad listener.

He literally was like, it’s really educational. As for the food, Hannah says, all I have to say, make friends with the chef. These people, they love it. This is how he expresses love. Bobby Flay made what he casually presented as a soft shell crab sandwich.

Hannah observes, but he’s Bobby Flay. So he’s like, yeah, there’s something together, you know, some crab on a bun. This is some five star restaurant appetizer. Hannah asked the chefs when they last ordered through DoorDash. She said they were like, what’s DoorDash?

Meanwhile, up at Cape Cod, Fortune Feimster was seen in Provincetown. People up there said she took in the sights, sounds, and local flavor, including some Portuguese natas, a delicious custard pastry that the locals say they’re very familiar with. I was not, so I looked it up. Apparently, pastel de nata means cream pastry. It’s a Portuguese egg custard tart pastry, optionally dusted with cinnamon.

Outside Portugal, they’re particularly popular in other parts of Western Europe, former Portuguese colonies such as Brazil, Mozambique, and, of course, Cape Cod. The Macau variant has been adopted by KFC, which you know is Kentucky Fried Chicken, and is available in regions such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, and not Cape Cod. Now, if you’re like John, we knew that, then you’re a food snob. I tell you what, we’re going long here. I do want to get in a bunch of these Edinburgh Fringe shows today.

Because the Fringe is coming to an end, and it doesn’t make sense to do these reviews three weeks from now. So how about this? If you’re not interested in the Edinburgh Fringe, you’re done. You are dismissed for the day. If you enjoy my company, let’s take one more break.

We’ll come back. We’ll do a little Fringe stuff. Website entertainment-now.com is this guy John Conahan, and he’s been hitting a lot of the shows at the Edinburgh Fringe. He gave this one five stars. So now we know the scale.

If you’ve heard me comment on his previous reviews, there were some four stars ones, but I didn’t know if it was four out of four or four out of five. It is a five star. Well, I assume maybe somebody got a six star review. I haven’t seen a six star review yet. So I’m going to assume this is five out of five.

What got the five out of five? Johnny Mac. Tom Cashman’s NPC, which stands for Nearly Proficient Comedian. This was at Monkey Barrel. Apparently Tom Cashman said, I do more jokes than any other comedian.

I am that fast. John Conahan said, he’s not lying. For those who only know Cashman as the meek assistant of Australian Taskmaster, the bundle of energy that explodes onto the stage at Monkey Barrel may take you by surprise. His mind and mouth run at a million miles an hour, and yet he still has time to be fastidious with his PowerPoint presentations. Nearly proficient comedians, the show design helped Tom’s audiences become more confident.

It’s clear he’s taking this task seriously. There are graphs, equations, idioms rewritten as code. This is some nerdy comedy. Apparently, Tom went to a barber in Edinburgh on his first day.

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And then Tom admits to three and a half hours worth of investigative work on …

But fear not. NPC is not a dry lecture. It’s a joyous whirlwind of stories and anecdotes. That sounds fun. The same site, but a different reviewer.

She’s Molly Rie. She went to see Madeline Bredingham’s show called Legend that also got five stars. We’re told Madeline Bredingham grew up as a pub kid sitting in a bar for hours waiting for her dad to finish drinking. Been there, done that. Usually with a packet of potato chips or crisps, as it says in this European article.

There she learned what a true geezer was. Basically, her dad. After giving a definition of what an old geezer is, which included acting out how a crab walks, she picked someone from the audience to be the show’s geezer, who she named Gary, and would give a nod to every time she said something sexist or overly orthodox. The super-fast-paced performance is full of quick jokes, so much that the reviewer found it hard to finish her laugh from the last joke before a new topic or piece of crowd work came flying at her. That’s great.

Less successful, two stars for Stephen Catling’s Clownfish Out of Water. This is John Conahan again, who says it’s a chaotic hour of stand-up Stephen Catling’s crowd work and props showcase his very strange animal facts. The show jumps between autism, Disney remakes, Oasis, AI, sex, marine life, and Stephen’s experiences in the workplace, often without much warning. His strongest quality is his willingness to commit to the bit. He moves around the audience, repeatedly acknowledging how close he is getting to people, and turns the awkwardness into part of the joke.

His sarcastic delivery works particularly well, although audience members, including the reviewer, became recurring parts of the show, and his ability to build jokes from the response is Didn’t always work, leaving the room silent in points. Well, it’s not going on a two-star review. Here’s another five-star, also from John Conahan. Gary Starr’s Classic Penguins. John tells us Gary Starr is and always has been born to be a star.

What a performance. Five stars easily. Wow. On paper, this show sounds like an exercise in absurdity. A naked performer, the Penguin Book Collection, and audience members pulled it into action, yet Starr takes what could easily become cheap or stupid and flips it completely on its head.

The result is inventive, intelligent, and remarkably well-crafted. The premise is simple. Starr works through the Penguin Books catalog, recreating every book title at miniature scene, each one unfolding through a camera positioned above the stage. He flips a new book into view, and instantly another world appears. Hamlet, Dracula, and countless others become fuel for increasingly imaginative scenes.

The nudity is deliberately confrontational. Audience participation becomes central, with volunteers repeatedly drawn into increasingly outrageous scenarios. At one point, Starr even crowd surfs naked through the audience. Conant says, I’m forever left with the memory of an audience member who was a 70-year-old man stripping naked and running on stage with Starr. Wow.

All right, hop on a plane and head on over to Pleasant’s Courtyard for a 9.20 show. Boy, I got three more of these. Hey, I put in the extra commercial break and it’s nice out. We’ll hang out. I was going to head for home there and rap and I scrolled down my script to bump one thing to tomorrow and I’m like, oh no, there’s a lot left.

Let’s just keep going. Four stars for the Underground Monk Show. I remember this one came up, I think this one was at Melbourne. Four performers, two men and two women, take to the stage as monks and communicate entirely through physical performance and what sounds like golem grunts. There’s very little dialogue, but somehow you still understand the different personalities and problems each character is dealing with.

At the center of the show is a bowl of water. Whenever one of the monks puts their face into it, they’re transported into a completely different world or dream. The physical comedy is excellent, with the performers constantly finding new ways to make each other laugh and involving the audience along the way. Underground Monk Show. I’ve heard good things about this one. 10.15 at Assembly George Square Gardens. 10.15 p.m.

In case you’re curious. Four stars from John Conahan to Roger O’Sullivan’s Devil May Cry. John tells us Roger has a brilliant way of mixing Catholicism and Irishness into comedy that’s impossible not to laugh at. The show opens with a video featuring online game characters, the devil, and Roger himself. His material about growing up Catholic and the family and normalities that come with it had the audience in stitches, particularly the Irish members.

But there’s more. There’s plenty of inventive colonial humor, including a comparison between the IRA and ISIS not having the same style of soundtracks, which we’re told was hilarious. You’ll find that one at Monkey Barrel at 5.45 p.m. And some tips from Warren Martin, who’s putting on shows. This article comes from comedy.co.uk.

Warren says, I’m an Irish comedian traveling to Edinburgh with Proud Father, Exhausted Dad, which is a whimsical look at the chaos of trying to be a good father while barely functioning as an adult, and his other show, Paddystinian, a much more political show exploring Ireland, Palestine, history, and solidarity. They’re very different shows. Both are unmistakably me. See, I love all this stuff that I’m talking about here. I know it’s not for everybody, and that’s why I put it in the very rare segment three, but I dig this stuff.

Like, Paddy Stinian just sounds fascinating. When I was up in Belfast last year, there was actually a fair amount of.. Graffiti kind of makes it sound lesser, but artwork on walls about the Palestinian experience and how it might have applied to life in Belfast, far too complicated to get into on this show. Warren says the real challenge is the daily schedule. I have an hour between shows, which seems reasonable.

And so you remember it’s the fringe. A typical day involves flyering from around midday, performing Palestinian at 115 in the afternoon, then going back out to flyer before performing Proud Father, Exhausted Dad at 310 in the afternoon. There’s no leisurely lunch, no time to sit around contemplating the merit of your last performance. There’s at best time to shove something resembling food into your face while wondering where your flyers went. Then you have to do it the next day and the next day and the next day.

Then there was the venue saga in early July. My original venue decided it didn’t want to host a controversial show, so Patty Stinian was moved. The show’s not actually that controversial at all, but I guess not everyone would agree. I actually sympathize with the venue. But once you’ve been told your show’s controversial enough to warrant a venue change, it does leave you in a slightly paranoid state.

A week later, unrelatedly, I received an email from Eventbrite to say my comedy club’s most recent payment was, quote, stopped in our sanctions screening system, unquote, because my name was an exact or close match to a name listed on the Office of Foreign Asset Control list or other global sanctions watch list. Wow. Suddenly I found myself looking over my shoulder and imagining the worst. And remarkably, the paranoia didn’t seem quite so ridiculous when the worst actually happened on the pro-Palestine show next door. Two protesters interrupted their performance and tore down the show’s posters, somehow managing to completely miss mine.

In the ultimate act of anti-Irish racism, apparently even the protesters couldn’t be bothered to pick on the Irish guy. Which is a good line to get out on. I’ll do more with this Warren Morton article tomorrow. And that is a very long Daily Comedy News for today. Back in the afternoon with a quick check-in from Poolside.

And I’ll see you here tomorrow with a normal episode.

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Featured: Jimmy Carr, Kat Williams, Kamel Bell, Jeremy Clarkson

What’s in This Episode

• Jimmy Carr considered to host Top Gear reboot
• Top Gear revival competing with Amazon’s Grand Tour
• Kamel Bell interview on unappreciated apps and map services
• Johnny Mac’s idea for highway ‘jerk detector’ app feature
• Kat Williams returning to golf as on-course correspondent for PGA Tour Championship

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

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

That’s Challenger the Eagle. Hi, I’m Johnny Mac with the afternoon Daily Comedy News update. Remember turn of the century, Challenger of the Eagle would be like Yankee playoff games. Well, they made a statue with him. A little beat up over the years, but that’s him there and he’s part of today’s b role for Daily Comedy News.

As I take you to my weekly beach volleyball game, We’re about to play a seven to thirty PM game. I recorded this last Wednesday when I went on over to beach volleyball. Jimmy Carr is being considered to be one of the hosts of a reboot of top Gear. Now, I love Jimmy Carr. If you ever get a chance to see Jimmy Carr, he is fantastic.

Don’t miss Jimmy Carr when he comes to your neighborhood. My initial reaction to this was Jimmy Carr top Gear. Aside from the obvious like car pun. Okay, that is kind of funny, But I was like, I don’t know Jimmy Carr hosting top Gear. Love Jimmy love top Gear.

Not sure the to mix well, but I texted had one of my friends who loves top Gear and he was all in on it. So we will see a source tells of the Sun newspaper, not the actual Sun, and you probably figure that out. Our production has their set sight on Jimmy. He’s the ideal host to take the show into a new era and revive top Gear. So that’s interesting as well because the Amazon Grand Tour series is coming out with a new cast and maybe top Gear feels like they can steal the thunderback from Jeremy Clarkson and friends.

We are told Jimmy Carr is a real car buff two so it would be a passion project and they’re looking to pair him up with a woman and quote unquote online celebrities and I don’t know, I don’t know. Three dudes and cars just do that? Who online celebrity? No, that just don’t don’t don’t hope.

Speaking of cars, The Verge caught up with w Comel Bell and asked him they di…

They asked Comel what is the most unappreciated app? He said, I probably use the map app every day. I wish map Quest app was better, so it didn’t have to use the Trump billionaire as guy’s apps. You know who I’m talking about, I actually know. I mean, are we talking about Apple Maps, Gooba Maps, wheez an they’re billionaire or something?

Trump Billionaires is map Quest some sort of like hippie free open world. I don’t know. Come out says the map apps that have the Gulf of Mexico listen is the Gulf of America. So embarrassing. Here’s my idea.

I was driving home over the weekend. If you use ways, you know, hell like, you can like help other drivers and push the button and say like, yeah, this is a speed trap there, or there’s traffic that kind of thing. We need a hole detector. So here’s what’s gonna happen. I’m this is a real thing.

I was on I eighty. I’m in the middle of lane, out of my own business, and one of those jerk holes comes up and passes me on the right and is doing, you know, three times the speed limit. What I want to be able to do is push a button that warns somebody half a mile ahead of me that there’s a jerk coming. We need this. I try and keep the show clean.

I have an idea for what to call it, but uh, you know, ahole detector is pretty close, So let me know if you like that idea. Kat Williams is getting back into golf. Cat will serve as the en course correspondent for the Thursday and Friday rounds of the PGA Tours Tour Championship but Atlanta East Lake Golf Club, the final event of the twenty twenty six fed Ex Playoffs. Gat Williams, who’s fifty four, said, I think I still have the ability of the age to still play professionally if I do get a few things taken care of. If that happens, then the rest of the world will open up for me pretty organically.

There’s no other sport where you could even dream of such a thing, you know, I don’t know. I know some old guys that play beach volleyball on Wednesday nights. Here, let’s look point for them. Cat said he took eight shots off his handicap. I was able to do that with just a couple adjustments.

I was trying to get as good as I could before I started taking lessons, which I guarantee you’re gonna get me better. PGA Tour Lie which features Kat Williams, he’s off on the ESPN app eleven Eastern Thursday and Friday, and that is your afternoon check in again. If you’re hearing this on the audio feed, these are quick YouTube videos I’ve been doing. This is week three of this little experiment. And if you’re staring at you right now, hi, And this is really an audio podcast and you can check out the audio feed there and they’re like twelve to twenty minute episodes every single morning, seven days a week.

So that’s it for now, see you tomorrow

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Featured: Tim Dillon, Jon Stewart, Bill Burr, Sam Tripoli, Adam Carolla, Bobby Lee, Andrew Santino, Dan Cummins, Jonathan Kite

What’s in This Episode

• Oxford Road Comedy Podcast Ad Performance Ranker study
• Top 15 performing comedy podcasts for advertisers
• Tim Dillon Show advertising efficiency despite poor ad reads
• Comedians using Instagram carousel posts instead of video clips
• Comic strip style social media strategy gaining traction
• Jonathan Kite’s Anthony Bourdain impression

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, Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. And I’m actually gonna start with a couple of articles that I’ve been really interested in. This is not like filler stuff. This is the stuff that I’ve wanted to talk about and haven’t been able to really get into the full show.

The second one I talked about in the live episodes that have been putting out in the afternoon. But let’s start with this one. Oxford Road. They’re like, if you’re in the podcasting industry like me, they’re like, A, I don’t know. They stick up for advertising basically as their whole thing, and they put out a study about comedy podcasts.

They say comedy is a highly competitive category and as a result, our Orbit ranker for the category is always in flux. Old favorites are regularly displaced by new hits, while shows hosted by eight list comedians are largely absent from Orbit’s performance picture altogether. Even a some of the fifteen hit shows listed on their comedy ranker aren’t on your radar. They’ve earned their place on the list, says Oxford Road. Many are led by creators who’ve built up loyal audiences over a long period of time.

So this is a top fifteen performing comedy podcast. So what this is orbit normalizes performance across different advertiser goals, Orbit factors and what advertisers paid and what they were trying to achieve. Right, So this is for comedy podcasts that do well for advertisers. And as I like to remind everybody, sometimes my podcast industry gets little snobby. We’re trying to make money, like I’m trying to make money.

I like doing this. I have a lot of fun doing this. I hope it comes across. It also pays the bills for me. So the top of fifteen shows, Now this is interesting to me.

Let me know if you’ve heard of this first one, because I hadn’t, which you know, might not mean anything. I do host a comedy podcast every day for eight years, and I’m in the podcasting industry, and yet I haven’t heard of Crash Dummies podcast with Pat and Mike. Have you? Maybe I’m just stupid, Maybe I’m old, And I’m not saying it’s bad. I’m just saying I’ve never heard of it.

Patrick Johnson and Michael Asubio dive into current events and scenarios that probably will Never Happen seems to be one of those video podcasts that they talk about. Again, I don’t know that one, but apparently the advertisers love it, so good for those guys. That’s number one. Number two is The Foyle Hat with Sam Tripoli. Again Sam not a name that normally comes up on this show, but doing well.

Three is Adam Carolla. Four Ride with Benito Skinner and Mary Beth Burn. Five The Weekly Show with John Stewart. Six The Tim Dillon Show. Now that is stunning to me because Tim Dillon’s ad reads are atrocious, Like when you listen to it, you can tell he does not give an f about the ad at all.

I wow, I am stunned by that because I’m offended Sometimes when I hear his live reads, plus on the audio version, the commercials just drop in in the middle of nowhere, like no effort put in whatsoever. But the advertisers are happening with Tim Dillon, So what do I know? Number seven is The Toast. Eight was I in a cult nine Monday Morning podcast with Bill Burr, ten kill Tony eleven times stuck with Dan Cummins. Every time Dan’s name comes up, I think I bowled with Dan at the Montreal Comedy Festival, like twelve thirty in the morning, and I might have had a beverage or two.

I seem to remember that happening, and I seem to recall having a good time, and luckily the bowling alley was in the hotel where we were staying. I think I might have to check with former coworkers to see how much of that is accurate. Number twelve is something called Some More News. What’s that? Median Cody Johnston hosts this always fair, always well researched, but most importantly, always entertaining take on the topical news of the week.

Every Tuesday, Some More News dives into the world’s weekly the events. Wow, that has never ever hit my radar, and not saying it’s bad. I’m just saying it’s never hit my radar. And that is number twelve. Thirteen Bad Friends, that’s Bobby Lee and Andrews Santino, fourteen smash Mouth, and fifteen Jeff Lewis has issues and Jeff often goes on.

Rogan Oxford says only four shows from the November twenty twenty five Comedy Ranker are held on to their spots during the new round the takeaway when it comes to comedy buying, don’t just sit and forget. They say. Nearly half of the one hundred and twenty five at qualifying comedy shows tracked in orbit are proved to be efficient, but the genre as a whole lags. Why because the more efficient shows don’t get enough ad spend, spend sore money. You got guys in the basement.

Try to do a show by the pool. They need money. Chlorine is not free. Oxford Road tells this, Four of the five highest efficiency shows on this ranker cost under twenty five hundred dollars per episode. That means to advertise on you can get in this show a lot cheaper than that, just saying.

At the same time, household name shows command premium price points and deliver a massive reach, yet lag and efficiency. Remember when you need major results, you don’t need a big name or a big price. And just because you haven’t heard of a comedy podcast or doesn’t mean they don’t have a loyal audience. Exactly, support your local guy in a basement. Another article that interested me from the New York Times how comedians are using social media that instead of posting clip clips, they’re now doing comic strip style panels with captions.

Have you seen this? They use an example of Mike Kaplan doing three images, kind of like the old comic strips. If you’re old, remember comic strips in the newspaper. Some of you were like yeah, and some of the people are like, what are you talking about? But that whole one, two three beat the comic strips tend to have.

Comedian Eric Walsh said he started posting carousels in the spring and found he was reaching more Instagram users than he had with videos. He explains, and this makes sense. Some people just don’t want to watch clips at work and stuff like that, and so the fact they can just scroll through the pictures, it makes it easier to consume and distribute. Julian Brenny is a thirty six year old stand up comedian who said, sometimes you have a joke you love, but sometimes you get a tape and maybe the video’s not so good or the audio’s not so good, and the crowd didn’t love it, and so it takes a long time to get a really good tape of a joke, whereas with a carousel you can kind of do it straight away. Dtyes Shunkar is the thirty two oerd comedian and said the hook is much faster with these.

People are able to see the first punch line on the first page immediately, so there’s not even this ten second delay that you have with the videos. Younger generation, your breens are fried. Now. I’m somebody who’s on the internet sixteen hours a day and listens to podcasts at two point three speeds. So I don’t want to be holier than now.

But if you can’t wait ten seconds, I mean, what does this younger generation do? Says the old man in the basement. Regina Lutrell runs Syracuse University Center for the Creator Economy and said, there’s no sound to turn on, there’s no video to sit through, there’s no waiting for sort of a payoff. Geez, what are we doing people? I get it all right.

Let me indulge myself here. I keep forgetting to put this in the show. Jonathan Kite does this wonderful Anthony Boardine impression. It’s probably my favorite thing happening in comedy this year. Anyway.

Jonathan Kite’s Anthony Boardine went to Pizza Hut. Let’s listen in for a bit. Welcome to the reboot of the red roofed Rendezvous Pizza Hut, an old friend putting on its old face to remind us of simpler times when apps meant appetizers, the cloud meant weather, and everyone didn’t have a podcast, back when no one out pizza the hut. We begin with the salad bar, a terrarium of water logged iceberg, lettuce and bland accouterments. Top it off with French, Italian or Thousand Island exotic flavors from around the globe, all made in a windowless factory in Ohio, and shielding.

This garden of eton is a sneeze guard so useless it could only pass safety standards in a Wuhan lab. Next, a plate of piping hot breadsticks dusted with garlic and parmesan, served with a cup of marinera basically deconstructed pizza for people who would never use the word deconstructed. He’s Jonathan Kite. Follow him on Instagram. He regularly does those boarding bits and I love him.

From the OC Register. Gabriel Iglesias and Long Beach Chef collab for special menu at Yamava. That’s right, the Japanese Mexican fusion dishes will be available for a limited time at the Highland Casino. You see, Martin drove trucks for fifteen years before COVID took him off the road and put him behind a grill. He told the OC Register, I couldn’t find anything good to eat anywhere.

It could get a good pancake anymore because it didn’t taste authentics. I just put together what I could decide to start an eatery out of my own driveway, and it blew up. Jeff Martin opened Mexi Hanashibachi Grill in Long Beach in twenty twenty and expanded from a ghost kitchen to a full fledged eatery. He specializes in quickly roasting vegetables and meats over a flats up growth for Japanese Mexican fusion dishes, and considers it to be a hole in the wall. However, word got around, including to comedian and to actor Gabriel Fluffy Iglesias.

Now I like Gebe, and I’ve worked with Gabe specifically when we launched Comedy Central Radio. I don’t think of him as an actor. I know he does some voice work, but now I’m going to hop on his IMDb here and see what I’m forgetting. He plays Speedy Gonzales in the short Daffy season. He played Fluffy on Shifting Gears.

That’s like me playing Johnny Mac on a podcast. His acting credits include Kill Tony, and he was in one episode of the Neighborhood where he played Luis in twenty twenty three. Yeah, so I’m not sure I’m wrong about that actor and comedian thing. Here again, love the guy. But oh and here’s the credit Reond Comedy Festival.

That’s interesting. The chef said, I actually met Fluffy from a direct message. He congratulated me for opening my restaurant and for the billboard sign we had right off the four of five, which caught his attention. He told me he’d like to come by and try out the food, and he hasn’t stopped coming by since. To have a person like Fluffy coming to my establishment, it’s like a dream come true.

The chef tells us, Fluffy has his own shelf at our restaurant. Whatever he needs, it’s always there. We don’t have to scramble. It’s like a vip shell for him, and he appreciates it and we appreciate it. All right, John, Well, you got us hungry.

What are they serving? Well, you see, there was a secret menu that the chef said had only been tasted by Aglacias, but will now be available to you to your listener for a limited time at the Yamava Resort and Casino in Highland. It’ll be available through October thirty. First guests can order dishes inspired by the meals Gabe orders most often. The chef said, Fluffy would come in and do a regular fried rice, which has the choice to add chicken, shrimp, or beef to go with the fried rice if they like, which, by the way, reminds me, I’ve got leftover ty food.

So as soon as we’re done recording here, I’m in. One day, Fluffy came through the door and was like, Hey, I got this can a spam. You want to bake it up and throw it at the fried rice? I told him sure, and I went next order the pizza shop, grabbed a couple of cups of pineapple, threw them in the diced up spam, and we made it happen. Other tasty concoctions include the Beef Chow Maine top with Mongolian beef and vegetables and served over chop suey hibachi noodles.

Then there’s the fluffy Rito love It. That, of course is a burrito stuff with spam, fried rice, Mongolian beef, chop, suey noodles, and vegetables. I’m not sure that sounds good. The beef and Cheese Quesadia is one of Gabe’s other favorite orders, and that’s filled with guey Chihuahua cheese and Mongolian beef inside of flower tintia that’s crispy after a few flips on a flat iron grill. For dessert, Guess can enjoy the carrot cake, which weighs half a pound.

The chef said it was delicious enough to get Gabriel Fluffy Iglesias to give his favorite pastry chocolate cake a break. You know, I might have to start doing a bid here. I’ve got this Hannah Burner article that gets bumped every day. I might just tell you every single day it got bumped. But we are long into the break.

Leonard Woods he’s been around for a while. He’s releasing his long awaited debut comedy special, talk about Long Away to Day. He’s been on my radar for at least twelve years. It’s called lil some some l l s um n sumn lil sumsum. That’ll be out on the eight hundred Pound Gorilla.

The special is availed now on Gorilla Comedy Plus. It’ll be on Gorilla’s YouTube channel September tenth. It’s seventh Central. Leonard Hoitz says, you ever been a Texas roadhouse? Well, this is my cinnamon butter rolls while I finished cooking the main course.

It’s just little something, something to put on your stomach. I like it. Leonard is a large man, at least the last time I saw a photo of him. Growing up as a military brat in Chesapeake, Virginia, Leonard Oitz reflects on life with a navy father, living in Japan after nine to eleven, and navigating parents returning to college while raising him. He shares funny and heartfelt stories about family dynamics, including being bribe with McDonald’s to keep secrets, coping with loss of his mother before his father quickly remarried.

He mixes vulnerability, sharp commentary, and laid back charisma into a deeply funny hour of comedy. He is very funny. Out of Tel Aviv, a magistrate court has ordered stand up comedian Vova to Marken to pay three thousand dollars to a woman in the audience who he allegedly mocked over her wheat during a comedy performance. The judge ruled that the comedian’s comments went beyond what could reasonably be considered part of a stand up performance. The woman attended a Russian language stand up show.

According to the lawsuit, the comedian told her during the performance, buckle up here. If you think the tailor Swift joke that Joe Koy made was harsh, I should play that if you just to refresh your memory. The big difference between the Golden globes and the NFL. On the golden gloves, we have fewer camber shots of Taylor Swift. Now, if you think that Joe Coy joke was harsh, listen to what the comedian said at a comedy show about the woman’s weight.

The comedian said, soon a man will come on stage who weighs as much as you. He’s been involved in boxing fights for eight years. Whoa dude at a comedy club back that down. She also claimed that the comedian said, now listen to this, Okay. I don’t know if anybody listen to this, you remind me of my cat.

You’re as fat as she is. Whoa at a comedy club? Are you kidding me? Can’t have crowd work like that. The comedian Who’s twenty two, deny making the statements.

However, he also argued that audience’s attending stand up comedy understand that the genre involves provocation, humor, and jokes at the expense of audience members, and that such interactions are part of the experience. He also disputed the woman’s account, claiming she had attributed statements made by other comedians to him. The judge, however, found the woman’s testimony credible, determining that Timarkan’s testimony was not equally reliable. The judge wrote, language used in standup performance is, to put it mildly, not clean, and participants who attend such performances should be aware of that. However, humiliation that goes beyond the boundaries of that unclean language should be avoided.

The judge ruled at the comments concerning the woman’s weight, including the references to a quote fat cat and a boxer, crossed the line of what could reasonably be expected at a comedy performance. The court rejected the woman’s full compensation demand amount of UH to do a currency conversion here, let me see what this is in dollars. She was asking for fifty thousand Israeli new shekels, and according to my exchange rate, that’s approximately sixteen thousand, six hundred and seventy nine dollars and seventy three cents. Again, she was compared to a boxer and called a fat cat and wanted sixteen thousand dollars, but the judge was like no, no, no, till Markan was ordered to pay ten thousand new Israeli shekels, including four thousand Nis toward the woman’s legal expenses. To Markin said, why I do my stand up My only goal is to make the audience happy with quality comedy.

I never go on stage with the intention of hurting anyone. But yes, although the court’s decision left a bad taste from this whole story from my career as a stand up comedian, gave me a serious boost and that’s obviously something I can’t help but be happy about. Dude, buy yourself a ticket to Austin and hope your name comes up in the hat. And that is your comedy news for today. This was a fun one.

I enjoyed this one. Say Tomorrow,

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