Month: December 2023

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Caloroga Shark Media. Hello, I’m Johnny Mack with your Daily Comedy News for your New Year’s Eve plans. If you’re gonna watch Ryan Seacrest, a couple comedians and beyond gab Iglacias, Sebastian Maniscalco, and Miss Pat We’re told each comedian will appear throughout the show, discussing different topics. Gab Iglesias will discuss his favorite fashion trends of twenty twenty three, Sebastian will touch upon pop culture moments in twenty twenty three that ain’t right, and Miss Patt will discuss projects that went on strike this year. Dave Chappelle specials out on Netflix Today, Dave Chappelle The Dreamer.

We’ll see what comes out of that one. I’ll talk about that one during the week, The Wall Street Journal profiled Dave Chappelle a little bit, and they were talking about his attempts to open a comedy club and Yellow Springs. The Journal tells us the comedy and music club bears his logo a white sea on a field of red, black and green. Outside on a video screen, there’s still construction fencing around the brick building. Restaurant one open for months and the venue’s current name, which is why s Firehouse could change.

But Dave is already breaking in a performance room designed for less than two hundred people. He’s performed there three times over a recent weekend for audiences including locals and family, according to one attendees. As the Journal, Chappelle said the club was one of his proudest achievements and linked to the village’s history as a haven for artists, freethinkers, and the liberal politics of Antioch College, where Chappelle’s late father taught. The Journal’s article then gets into the various controversies Dave finds himself in. They write.

Chappelle’s critics say he’s been using the global platform of Netflix to hammer on vulnerable groups, harping on their supposed sensitivities and social ranking. Former fans call it a fixation that damages his legacy. Chappelle defends such material. Mark Gomez attended a Chappelle’s show in San Antonio. Mark said I just respect him and the way he isn’t caught up in the machine of the industry.

It then gestured to all the ninety dollars Chappelle hoodies that were for sale, said this is all money, but it doesn’t seem like money is driving all his decisions. Meredith intended to show in Mississippi be and said that she’s hyper sensitive to Chappelle’s bits about LGBTQ people because one of her two adult sons is gay. Mereth said they hadn’t informed her son about seeing a comic that he can’t stand. Meredith’s husband, Brent, said he’s in immedia bubble just like the rest of us. He’ll give us hell, but he’ll understand.

I can laugh at what Chappelle says, or I can dismiss it, or I can be offended, but that’s fine because the next thing he says will probably be funny. Nineteen year old Arlow found the show funny. Arlow has cerebral palsy. In that show, Chappelle began with his mock promise of doing all handicapped jokes, and then Chappelle pretended to be a disabled person in the audience annoyed because they wanted jokes about the expensive trans people. Nineteen year old Arlow said that was the funniest part of the set because I could totally relate.

In The Daily Beast, Sean McCarthy writes, that this was the year that TikTok ruined comedy thinks Matt Rife. Sean recaps Matt Rife’s year back in January, and Matt re released his debut special titled OnlyFans on the eight hundred Pound Guerrilla YouTube channel. Then in February, Ryfe put out his second special, Matthew Stephen Wright on the Platform Moment. He re released that hour on his YouTube channel in April that has gotten more than eighteen million views. Then the Netflix special Natural Selection, Rife’s third comedy special in less than a year.

Maybe that’s why the material wasn’t good. I mean, how much do you have? McCarthy wrote, Because TikTok broke Matt Rife big time. His example somehow broke the brains of many other, mostly older comedians in the industry who suddenly believed they needed their own crowd work clips to replicate Rife’s rise to fame. Sam Morrel included captioning and reaction shots with the crowd work portions of his special.

Joe List made a running joke of hoping to generate clips in his latest special. Even Joe Parra got in on the action. A flood of crowd work only specials hit YouTube, Matteo Lane, Big, Jay Stavros, Jessica Kerson, t J Miller. Kyle Kanade mocked the trend on his social media and told Sean earlier in the year, I hate bad crowd work and the fact that people will perceive it as this easy bounce towards a viral clip. And so everybody’s putting out clips where I’m like, I would delete this from my phone if I took at a show, you put it online.

There’s this mentality of like, just as long as there’s content out there, Kyle says, I’m like, Wow, what a sea of cramp we’ve created. McCarthy wright, So what’s the problem. Gary Goleman lays it out in the opening minutes of his special. Gary says, I just want to let the people in the front rows know they’re safe for me asking what they do for work. I remember going to comedy shows when I was in high school and later, and the comedian will ask somebody what they did for work and then proceeds to ridicule their profession.

And I just remember thinking, if I’m Emverer in the front row a comedy show and a comedian and asked me what I do for work? I’ll stand up and say, what do you do for work? I didn’t come here to be forcibly cast in your TikTok video, you lazy hack. Sewan adds the dirtiest little secret about crowd work, it’s not actually stand up comedy. It instead transforms the stand up comedians to the thing they claim to hate the most and respect the least.

Improvisers Canaine says, if anything, I feel bad for the TikTok stores, like, all right, well you have a lot of followers. How you going to monetize that, Well, we’ll putting you in a comedy club. But they’re not stand ups. They’re TikTok folks, and they go and sell hundreds of tickets and people get there and are like, oh yeah, yeah, ten minutes of material. Now you’re stage for an hour.

I don’t even blame them. I blame the managers. Whoever gets a hold of them just puts them out there to make that quick percentage of follow them before they burn out and realize they’re not stand ups. Man. Late stage capitalism affects us all.

Rolling Stone dusted off what they called a previously unpublished interview with Tom Smothers from twenty fifteen under the headline Tom Smothers made the Variety Show cool, quoting Tom, I didn’t want to do the standard bs. I’ve shared this article in the Facebook group which is Daily Comedy News podcast group. Some mothers talked about fighting with the network and he had this theme song they wanted to do, and the network was like, no, no, no, you gotta have something like Bob Open thanks for the memories, something memorable. His mother said. We thought, oh Christ, that was the first argument we had.

Rolling Stone asked about booking rock bands like the Who did you get grief for that? No, none at all. Occasionally something would come up, like when Sonny and Share were on and there was this big controversy they could see her nipples through her duress. They wanted to put bandages over them. Jefferson Airplane came out and Grace Slick did Crown of Creation in blackface.

I don’t know why no one said a thing. Some mothers also talked about doing pot jokes. Did the censors flag it? Yeah. We kept making up things for it, like Mary Jane and a couple of different names I’ve forgotten.

And we had Goldie Keith who did the weather report. She said, if you have unslightly roaches around the office, send them in. We’ll take care of them.

And then we got rolled up joints in the mail from the kids.

Brian Reagan is playing Minneapolis tonight for New Year’s Eve? Does he always work New Year’s Eve? Brian said, I used to like to take it off and host a party, but I’m changing my tune on that. It’s good for audiences because they can go and see my show and still go out afterwards and party as long as we don’t have to be on stage at midnight. I used to ring in the New Year at comedy clubs and the staff on hand out noisemakers.

Adults think they’re adults, but they act like children when they’re given something that makes noise. Reagan talked about where he likes to film his specials, specifically theaters. Brian says, as much as I like comedy clubs, they often have people at tables. That means people of drinks and are looking at each other and they start talking to each other. Becomes less of a show and more of a party.

In a theater, the audience is more focused when people are in a place that’s cool and fun and comfortable. It puts them in a good mood. One less hurdle you have to jump over. If I’m not funny, at least there’s some beautiful stuff to look at. And that is your comedy news for the year.

Huh, See what I did there. If you enjoy the show, tell a friend about it. They might like it too. If you want to support the show, you can go to buy me at coffee dot com, slash Daily Comedy News, or if you’re hip to podcasting two point zero, you can use the Fountain app and stream some SATs in my direction. You can click on the show notes if you want to learn more about that Happy New Year, See you tomorrow.

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Caloroga Shark Media. Hello, I’m Hunny Mack with your Daily Comedy News. If you miss the last couple days, have been doing the top twenty three comedy specials of twenty twenty three today or the specials that did not make the list. So why do such an episode, John, if these aren’t your favorites. There are some huge, huge names on here, and I just wanted to talk through why they didn’t make my list, in no particular order other than kind of sort of when they came out.

Jim Gaffigan’s Dark Pale on Amazon. Now, if you listened earlier in the week, I have Jim as the most influential comedian right now. Jim’s at the top of the pack, touring with Seinfeld, working mostly clean, got a movie career, going, always gets great press, has respect of other comedians, and yet I felt like Dark Pale just missed. It’s perfectly fine Jim Gaffigan, but I think Jim has better in him. It’s by no means a bad special.

Don’t get me wrong, It’s a totally fine special. It just didn’t have that extra gear that some of Jim’s other work has. I know he tried to work a little dirker this time, and I just found it just wasn’t grabbing me, and I punched out of it halfway through. Next up is Joe Lists enough for everybody on YouTube, Very very very very funny. Really enjoyed it.

But here’s the thing. I gotta draw the line somewhere. The word special gets thrown around a lot. And if you were Ricky Gervais playing at the two, that’s a special. If you are Chris Rock and you’re finally responding to slap, yeah, that’s a special.

If your Joe List and you set up a couple of tripods and you do a really really funny thing that happens to be an hour long, that’s an hour or that is a set. I don’t know if it’s a special. So that’s why I couldn’t put it on the list. It just didn’t feel like it was in the same class as those other things. Funny, yeah, should you watch it, Yes, But a special I don’t know.

And there’s a lot of those. Part of the challenge of making this end of the year list was I saw somebody mentioned there were seven hundred things released this year that are ostensibly specials. You know, at some point it’s too much, or you’re gonna watch two of these a day. I can’t next up. I know this guy a little bit.

We cross paths at a previous gig. Jared Freed, cool guy, like his podcast work a lot. His hour is called thirty seven in single. That one on Netflix really great way to spend an hour. I just cut my list off of twenty three and that wasn’t in the top twenty three.

But nothing wrong with it. Amy Schumer Emergency Contact on Netflix. A few people wrote that her acts seemed a little bit tired. I don’t disagree. That’s a double negative.

You just used Johnny Mack. Yes, just never felt like that one kicked into gear. Here’s a huge special that appeared at the top of a lot of people’s lists. John Mulaney’s Baby Jay John Mulaney’s addressing of the various issues he had, including his rehab, that surprised a lot of us. Like a few things I’ll mention on the list.

It’s fine. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. The place where I struggled was when I was watching it. It’s hard to pin down this feeling. I didn’t believe some of the tellings of the stories now I get what comedy is, and I get Hasan Minhaj Gait, and I understand that comedy is often taking a story based on reality and exaggerating it.

But as I was watching it, I just I was like, I don’t believe this version of this story, John. Whereas if I compare that with Gary Golman, I’m sure Gary was doing the exact same thing, taking things based in reality and exaggerating them. But Gary sold it in a way that I didn’t feel like Malini did. If you’re throwing stuff at your phone right now, going this host as an idiot, I get it, just didn’t feel that special. Lewis Black’s Tragically, I need you Lewis Black doing Lewis Black things.

If you like Lewis Black doing Lewis Black things, there you go again. Not everything can be on the best of list. Hannah Gatsby’s Something Special. You may recall Hannah Gatsby’s Nenette was considered by some who have reinvented comedy. I actually liked Douglas Her Other Special better than Nanette.

Like Douglas a lot. This one, I don’t know. The whole thing felt kind of tired to me. Next up, not on the list. Mark Maren’s from Bleak to Dark.

You’ll find that on Max. I’ve been struggling with this one. I’ve really been into Maren, especially in the back half of the year, and I feel like maybe I should go back and watch this one. But when I originally watched it, it just wasn’t grabbing me. And I was so excited for it because I like Maren’s comedy a lot, and I’ve loved his last few specials, But this one, I don’t know.

Maybe it was the subject matter. I saw on some people’s list they had Marin at number one. If you’re throwing things at your phone right now again saying this host is an idiot, I get it. Andrew Santino’s Cheeseburger came out on Netflix early in the year. What’s the line.

If you can’t say something nice, don’t say something at all. Bert Krascher’s special came out in March, Razzle Dazzle on Netflix. Like the beginning, I didn’t love the middle, I didn’t like the end. I did love the machine though, go watch the Machine movie. But this not Bert Kreischer’s best work, and what was a really strong year for Bird.

Kreischer but not that one. Continuing a look at the specials that did not make Johnny Max list, Greg Warrens the salesman that was on YouTube. I saw that on some folks top ten lists. I actually have in my notes here, hated Hardy Craig. One of the things that bothered me is I’d been working in audio for thirty years.

I don’t know it sounded to me. Don’t want to accuse anybody of anything. I’m sure this did not happen, but my brain was wondering, did they add in some extra laughs into the crowd. My brain was like, hmm, this sounds like they sweet in the audience. I’m sure Greg didn’t do that.

So I don’t want to suggest that at all. I’m just telling you what my brain that started hearing, and I punched out on that one, Kevin Hart’s Reality Check, that one on Peacock, that’s Kevin Hart doing Kevin Hart. And like, I get it, he made more money touring than anybody. And I’m just an idiot recording a podcast in the basement, So who am I to say that that’s not a great special. But it’s not a great special.

It’s Kevin Hart doing Kevin Hart. Louinel’s town business as part of the Chappelle’s Home Team brand. I lasted about two minutes with that one. Not for me, BET’s stelling on Netflix. I’ve seen that way up on a lot of people’s lists.

Same note, the crowd laughter, same thing I said about Greg Warren. I kind of was feeling here. I don’t know is that a thing that actually goes on? But Bet Stealing Special did not grab me. This next one.

I think the material deserved a lot better than the final result. That is, Joe Perra is slow and steady. If you’re not familiar with Joe, he works very slow and very steady, a very low energy, slow paced delivery, and he’s hilarious. And as I watched this special, I was like, the material’s great. The problem is the crowd gets out in front of him, so before he can actually get to the punchline, the crowd is laughing in anticipation.

Mitch Hedberg ran into this late in his career. His wife Lynn Shawcroft told me that Mitch was actually struggling with needing to speed up his act because of the same thing that the crowd was getting out in front And I felt like Joe Parra recorded in front of a Joe Parah crowd, and the material may have worked better had he filmed it in front of people who weren’t familiar with his act. If that makes any sense. Zarna garg One at a billion you’ll find that on Amazon Prime. Zorna is a comedian in acendency.

The challenge here is I felt like Zarna had a strong eight minutes, but the thing is an hour. Oh this next name I have, I’ll do that one last moving along. Stavros Halkias, fat Rascal. That one on Netflix and it just didn’t make the top twenty three. Perfectly fine, or you should watch it.

Mike Burbiglia, the Old Man in the Pool. This one at the top of a lot of people’s lists. I’ve talked about this one on the podcast a few times. I think, if you guys watch it, you’re gonna love it. My challenge, and it’s similar to a note I’ve given before.

He went into a bit about wrestling, and I just didn’t believe it. He didn’t sell it, as I said earlier in this episode. Do comedians take stories and embellish them? Of course they do. I understand the craft, but there is something to selling it, and I just felt like, as Birbiglia told the story, the whole thing was made up and it took me out of it.

Leo Reich just had literally who cares on HBO just didn’t feel it at all. I made it about eight ten minutes. Tina Hasham’s Dark Little Whispers, that one on Amazon Prime. I liked it. Filmed in a small room, although whoever did the editing.

She’s telling jokes and you see some stone faced audience members not laughing at all. You got to either tighten that shot or cut away or do something. I was watching her work and I couldn’t look. There was this one guy in the front row. He’s to the right of the stage as you watch your television, so I guess on Dina’s left shoulder, and he’s just sitting there stone faced.

It’s like, that’s weird funny, But I’ll compare it to Joe List. It’s funny. I’m not sure we need to apply the word special here. It’s a set or it’s an hour, but it’s not Chris Rock doing an hour live on Netflix, you know what I mean. But Dina Hasham, you know nice enough, you should enjoy it.

I’ll come back to the one I skipped. Some specials I did not see include Roseanne Barr and Maria Bamford. One of the listeners to the show, Richard through a note in the Facebook group Daily Comedy News podcast group and was really raving about Maria Bamford and I just didn’t see that one. And the one I skipped in some ways the biggest special of the year because it blew a guy up, not in the good way, Matt Rife Natural Selection. This came out November tenth, So for the first ten months of the year, Matt Rife’s narrative was, look at this guy, he’s blowing up.

He sold so many tickets, he sold out a billion, million, kajillion shows. Everybody he loves him, go look, hey, he’s popular. Women, he’s awesome.

And then this special came out, and then the backlash came hard.

The backlash came for one of the jokes. Then Matt started to double down defending his joke and did not do well at defending his joke, and that just brought more haters. Dusting off some sins of the past. Now we’re seeing headlines like Matt Rife wants you to think he’s edge of your thre and he actually is the rise and immediately he potentially strategic downfall of Matt Rife. What’s worse than Matt Rife’s Netflix special sexist joke.

Matt Rife isn’t funny. So I’m not sure where Matt Rife is going into twenty twenty four. Maybe he was just a shooting star. Maybe he’s got enough TikTok fans and fans remaining, then he’ll be fine. He had a good year, he had a good ten months.

Anyway, I’m not sure his year ended well, and I’m not sure he cares if it didn’t end well. If you enjoy the show, tell a friend about it. They might like it too. If you want to support the show, you can go to buy me a coffee. Dot com slash Daily Comedy News, throw some money in the tip jower.

Another thing he can do. Details on this in the show notes, Grab the fan Mountain app and you can throw some bucks in your Fountain account, and then as you listen to the show, it’ll stream some micropayments in my direction. That’s called value for value or podcasting two point zero. That’s the thing you’ll increasingly hear about on other podcasts, but that’s something you do if you want to check out the Fountain app and again details in the show notes. All right, see you tomorrow.

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Full Transcript

Caloroga Shark Media. Hello, Johnny mag with your Daily Comedy News. Today it is the rest of the top twenty three top stand up specials of the year. If you missed yesterday’s episode, I went over the top eleven, which really quickly was number one is Gary Goleman too, Todd Berry, three, Shing Gillis, Tom Sigora, Kyle Cranane, Nate Bergantcy Gervais, Michelle Wolf, j McBride, Jim Jefferies, and Pete Holmes. At number eleven.

You can listen to yesterday’s episode to catch up on that. At number twelve, Harry Condo Bolu’s Vacation Baby. You’ll find that on YouTube. Really strong special for the first two thirds. The last third’s a little soft.

This would have ranked higher, just I don’t know, just didn’t land number thirteen. This one was a big deal. You may have heard of it. Chris rock Is live on Netflix. Did you know about this?

He got slapped by Will Smith at the Oscars and then reacted to it. Selective outrage is the name of that one. That one was like a roller coast. There were points where it was like, Okay, Chris, get to it, get to it. Gets to it, and then he got to it and it was really great, and then he’d kind of take his foot off the gas and it was up and down.

Solid special. Not Chris Rock’s best work by any means, but a really good one. Number fourteen. You’ll find this one on Amazon. Jimmy O Yang’s Guess how much I love Jimmy O Yang.

Jimmy talks about loser friends and negotiating with his Asian parents.

Also some really solid jokes about BTS.

I surprised he didn’t get roasted by the BTS Army for that one. I wouldn’t mind getting roasted by the BTS Army. I’ll take the publicity. Number fifteen. This one came out in December.

Trevor Noah is Where was I Now? Despite it being all the way down at fifteen, I gotta say I liked the special a lot. Trevor’s one of those folks that I find just great company, easy on the ears. I think I just like his accent, but I like the way he thinks. I like the way he speaks and he’s trying to do something.

It’s not just joke joke joke joke jokes. So this one, too, allows you to breathe a time, and that’s something Carlin was great at. Ricky at times reminded me of George Carlin, and I don’t say that lightly, but the points he was making very Carlin esk and I think the beard cut helps. Trevor’s also great at developing characters by doing different voices. His accent work is fantastic.

Trevor Noah on Netflix. Where was I? Number sixteen? I know when I say this one, people think I’m nuts until they actually watch it. It’s the roast of mister Peanut.

So this showed up in commercial form during the Super Bowl, but there’s a full version on YouTube. Jeff Ross is Your Host, also appearing Natasha Laziro, Otsko at Coontzka, Yamanika Saunders, David Lucas, Sarah Tiana, Frank Castillo, and it’s exactly what it’s claiming to be. Jeff Ross is Your Host, and then everybody gets up and does a couple of minutes about mister Peanut. But it’s funny. You’ll find the whole thing on YouTube.

I know I sound like a crazy person, trust me. Number seventeen, Big Jay Okerson’s Dog Belly. That one, also on Netflix. Filmed at Skankfest twenty twenty two in Las Vegas. Jay having a good time on stage, doing some CrowdWork, some storytelling.

That’s a fun one. Love this guy. Number eighteen Mark Norman Soup to Nuts. Norman is one of those comedians in ascendency. Each special you just find him refining it and refining it.

I wouldn’t be shocked if he had a huge twenty twenty four well liked by his fellow comedians. Good description here from deadand dot Co. March delivery is awkward and affable, goofy even he talks like he’s just some guy the kanude apologize to a table for bumping into it, Except that guy happens to be making some of the most vicious, mean spirited remarks you’ve ever heard, in the same tone he’d used to wish somebody a pleasant morning. It’s black comedy tinged with hot pink and vivid tangerine. He’s saying all these horrible things, but he’s also suggesting to you that he doesn’t mean any of it.

It’s number eighteen, Mark Norman Soup to Nuts Number nineteen and Nimesh Patel. You’ll find that one on YouTube. Lucky Lefty. Can someone create an entire hour out of being diagnosed with testicular cancer? Yes, the answer is yes.

Nimesh Patel Lucky Lefty Number twenty on the Top twenty three stand up Specials of twenty twenty three. Sarah Silverman Someone you Love on HBO Max or Max or HBO or Max Max whatever we’re calling it these days. Sarah’s really good about setting up a premise and then taking a right turn. Really like that one’s number twenty one. Chris Fleming’s Hell.

This one on Peacock, and it’s one of those specials that as soon as you hit play, you go, oh, okay, this is different. How do I describe this one? Fleming is super animated, singing and dancing and using the entire stage. It’s another one of those shots in a small club, specifically Dynasty Typewriter in Los Angeles. He has characters, there are sketches.

Can’t put this one into words, and that’s a good thing. Chris Fleming’s Hell on Peacock, Number twenty one. Similar one that Broke the Mold. John Early is Now More than Ever on HBO, a faux documentary about a musical act, but with sketches, and some funny songs. Jason Zenniman and The New York Times nailed it as he always does.

It’s generally mixing cringe and cabaret. Really fun. Special here and number twenty three of the top twenty three Ralph Barbosa’s Cowabunga. That one on Netflix. I expected more out of this one.

I was following Barbosa all year and I thought he was about to step up in class, and he didn’t quite come to that level. It’s fun, but it’s not amazing. I think Barbosa has more to come, and we’ll keep an eye on him. I think he’s really going to move up the list in future years. All right again, real quick.

The Top twenty three Number one, Gary Goleman two, Todd Barry three, Shane Gillis four, Tom Siguera five, Kyle Kanaan six and eight, Berganzi seven, Urky Gervais eight, Michelle Wolf nine, j McBride ten, Jim Jefferys eleven, Pete Holmes twelve, Harri Condobolu thirteen, Chris Rock fourteen, Jumio Yang fifteen, Trevor Noah sixteen, The Roast of Mister Peanut seventeen, Big Jay Okresen eighteen, Mark Norman nineteen to Mishpateel twenty, Sarah Silverman twenty one, Chris Fleming twenty two, Joan Early twenty three, Ralph Barbosa, And those are your top twenty three specials of the year. Some big, big names not on the list who put out stuff this year, and that’ll be tomorrow’s episode. I’ll explain why they didn’t make the list. But there are some huge names who did not make the list. If you enjoy the show, a couple of ways you can support the show.

Go to buy me a coffee, dot com slash Daily Comedy News. There’s some money in the tip jar. Or if you want to download the Fountain app and learn about value for value in podcasting two point zero real quick, you throw some money in your account there, and then as you listen to podcasts you’d like, it’ll kind of pay micropayments, like a couple cents per episode. You could read about that in the show notes, but that’s the Fountain app. If you want to try that out.

Meets you back here tomorrow

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Full Transcript

Caloroga Shark Media. Hello, I’m Johnny mag with your Daily Comedy News. Today it is the Top eleven Comedy Specials of the Year. If you listen to the podcast every year, you know I do an end of the year top stand up specials list. This year I have twenty three of them, but today I will do the Top eleven and part of that is to cross promote a new podcast called The Top Eleven, which is a fun show that takes a topic and discusses the top eleven things in that subject.

In today’s episode will be the top comedy Specials of twenty twenty three. Follow the Top eleven wherever you get your shows. I’m not going to go from eleven to one. I’m going to go from one to eleven. The best comedy special of the year, and it came out pretty late in the year, but wow, it was fantastic.

Gary Goleman born on third Base. Here is a comedian who you see in a scendence. A great guy. I’ve worked with him, spent some time with him, tried to hire him. The boss wouldn’t give me the budget to hire him.

Oops, boss Man. But Gary special The Great Depression got a lot of praise and that was Gary in ascendancy, and I think this is next level Born on Third Base. When you watch it, Gary’s very natural delivery, his choice of words, the way he crafts a story, the way you can tell he’s having fun telling the stories, his pacing, his changing of speeds. The special is almost clean. He uses a swear word pretty late in the special just for effect and nails it.

Good use of a swear word there. He made some very funny material about Jerry Seinfeld that I want spoil. That really cracked me up. So Gary Goleman, Born on Third Base Best Special of the Year, number two and this guy held the crown for most of the fourth quarter. And I really love the special.

Todd Barry’s domestic short here it may even be funnier joke for joke than Goldman’s. Just Gary, just like he just nailed the art of an hour. But Barry had me laughing out loud several times. And as I’ve discussed in the past, I do this. I call it the Emperor of Room thing that I’ve listened to so much stand up comedy over the last twenty years that I’ll do the thing the comedians do where you’ll stay on the back of the room and you’ll be like, oh, great set, great set, great callback.

Oh wow, that was really well written, but you don’t actually laugh. So when something makes me actually laugh out loud, I treasure it. I recommend on Todd Berry’s Domestic Short Hair on YouTube. Number three Shane Gillis Beautiful Dogs. That one’s on Netflix.

Here’s a guy, very funny special. And here’s a guy that you can tell as he’s doing the special, he’s just having a good time. His body language is like, isn’t this fun? And I just he’s so charismatic. It’s just a good time.

Shane Gillis Beautiful Dogs at number three. Number four Tom Sigoor’s Sledgehammer. That one also on Netflix, same kind of note there. You can just tell Tom’s having a good time with it. Plenty of solid laughs.

And that special. Number five. I had this one at number one for a while. Kyle Kanaan Shocks and Struts. That one’s on YouTube.

Great storyteller, a great way of changing speeds, setting up jokes. Kyle kanay and Shocks and Strats at five six. This guy had a huge year. The special came out eleven months ago January thirty first on Amazon, Nate Bergatzy’s Hello World. I was enjoying that special so much that I paused it and thought my wife would like it, went upstairs, grabbed her, and I went back and I watched ten minutes of it for a second time.

Number seven Ricky Gervais over Again. That came out Christmas Day on Netflix. I loved it. Ricky just went into total DGAF mode. Of all the comedians who have fought back against wokeness, I think Ricky found a pretty good take on it, slipping into character that he had now gone woke and then totally being unable to actually do that.

Ricky at times reminded me of George Carlin. And I don’t say that lightly, but the points he was making very carlin esk And I think the beard kind helps the controversy about some of the jokes about dying children totally overblown. When you see it in context, it’s nothing. It’s clearly a joke. Riggy stops down a few times to explain that he is a comedian telling jokes.

Sometimes people forget that stuff. Number eight Michelle Wolfe’s It’s Great to be Here on Netflix. Now, what’s interesting about that special is rather than making a single hour, it split across three small parts. They’re all about twenty to thirty five minutes. She didn’t want to artificially tie the chunks together, so she just made them separate chunks and it worked really well.

Another one of these specials that you watch and you can tell that the artist is having a good time performing the special, and she’s just a good company to be around. High energy Michelle Wolf, It’s great to be here. On Netflix at number eight. J McBride Daddy’s Girl filmed in Brooklyn in a small setting, nice lean production. You know, some of these specials in these big, beautiful theaters and multicams are great.

Sometimes I like just a smaller show. It makes me feel like I’m in the club. Jay is transgender and she makes a lot of jokes about that very very funny special. At one point she explains she transitioned fifteen years ago, and then jokes, don’t clap. I only did it to compete in the Olympics.

Great special there. You’ll find that on YouTube. J McBride Danny’s Girl. Jim Jeffries High and Dry.

Also on Netflix.

Jim jokes about how he is quit Drinking another special where he’s in DGAF mode and also clearly just having a good time telling the story. One of the weird trends this year was everybody having to make trans jokes. Jim found a good angle on it and saying I have no problem with trans people, but I do like press Jim Jeffries Number ten and a rounding out the top eleven. Pete Holmes, also on Netflix. Netflix, you guys had a great year for comedy, didn’t you.

Pete specials called I Am Not for Everyone. Pete’s another one of those comedians I just like spending time with. He’s got that nice guy vibe. He’s got that body language where he’s having a good time and he just wants you to have a good time, good storytelling, good solid set that flows. Pete homes I Am Not for Everyone on Netflix at number eleven.

Tomorrow, I’ll do twelve through twenty three. But when we come back, I’ll tell you what the actual funniest thing of the year was. Hmm, A quick list of some things that were funny but not stand up specials. The funniest thing of the year even funnier than Gary Goldman’s stand up special Kunk on Earth that came out on Netflix in February. Diane Morgan stars as Philhemina kunk an illiformed David Attenborough or Richard Addenborough, one of those guys.

It’s the history of the world told incorrectly. It is hysterical. There’s a recurring gag that cracked me up every time. I don’t want to spoil I recommend on Kunk on Earth. I’ve watched it twice.

You’ll find that on Netflix. The other truly great thing that came out this year I have this one ranked lower than Todd Berry but higher than Shane Gillis was South Park’s Into the Panda Verse, which made fun of how every movie has become the brave teenage girl showing the old white dude how stupid he’s become. That is every single movie now, and they just rip that to Shred’s South Park Into the Panderverse. Treat yourself if you haven’t seen that one. Several memes have come out of that that have just savaged.

Kathleen Kennedy from Lucasfilm, Bob Iger from Disney, the Marvel Universe. They nailed it with that one.

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Also really fantastic Cocaine Bear, a nice tight hour thirty five, just a fun…

If you have not seen Cocaine Bear, treat yourself. I have that one. Not as funny as Nate Berghatzy, but more funny than Ricky Gervais. While you’re enjoying comedy movies, Burt Krascher’s The Machine. It delivered, nice fun film.

I was very happy with it. That could have been awful, but it was pretty good. I have that one at number ten and a half between Jim Jefferies and Pete Holmes. If you listen to me every day, you’re probably familiar with Burt Krescher’s The Machine story. So this is a follow up sort of of that.

But watch The Machine. That is fantastic. And the other thing I would encourage you to watch is Jury Duty. You’ll find that on free v go on Amazon Prime, you’ll find it there. There’s a trial, there’s a jury, and all of it’s fake except for the one guy that doesn’t know it’s all fake, and it is hilarious.

And that is your comedy news for today. I’ll come back tomorrow with numbers twelve through twenty three. And if you enjoy the program, you can support the show ad, buy me a coffee. Dot com slash Daily Comedy News, or if you’re familiar with what value for value is in podcasting two point zero, you can use the app Fountain to listen to Daily Comedy News and can stream some SATs in my direction. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, click on the show notes so it’ll explain it to you.

Let meet you back here tomorrow.

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Full Transcript

Caloroga Shark Media. Hello again, It’s Tuesday afternoon. I’m Johnny Mack, and there’s just enough Daily Comedy News for me to throw in a mini episode here. Earlier today was the Normal episode, which was the eleven most Powerful Comedians of twenty twenty three. Tomorrow morning the top eleven comedy specials of the year.

But let me tell you a couple of things that are going on. John Clees is in a little bit of a controversy. He compared Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler in a tweet. Clees wrote that there were five ways in which Hitler was preferable to Trump. His reasoning, one he fought for his country.

Two he never used to teleprompter. Three he was nice to dog’s four he wrote his own books. Five he never played golf. Six he wasn’t a big fat slob, So that’s actually six, not five. Then he continued listing five ways that Trump is preferable to Hitler, writing one doesn’t practice genocide, two he has nicer hair, and then left the other three spaces empty.

Got very upset, and Clees then wrote it was a very bad joke, especially on Boxing Day. He then reposted a number of messages supporting a joke, including one saying they both have a silly walk. One person tweeted at John and said the original tweet was not funny and not true either. Clees replied, some people think it was funny and not true. Someone else suggested that Clees’s best comedy as were behind him.

John said at the age of eighty four, I should hope so. Clees wrapped it up by saying some people thought it was very funny, but they have a sense of context. Easily solved, just don’t follow me anymore. Yahoo had a little more detail about Pete Davidson canceling a bunch of shows. Pete had been working on a movie called Riff Raff.

Apparently, there was a paparazzi photographer whose attempts to take some pictures allegedly sent Pete Davidson off the deep end. According to in Touch magazine, initial efforts to dissuade the photographer were ignored, which is said to have angered Pete Davidson to the point where he attempted to engage in a personal confrontation. The incident allegedly made Pete Davidson so angry that after multiple staffer stepped up in an attempt to calm him down, Pete allegedly stormed off and then allegedly trashed his personal trailer. A source said Pizez a good guy. Everybody likes him.

He’s obviously going through something right now and people are worried about him. He has canceled upcoming shows in Chattanooga, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Louisville, and Milwaukee. The next show that is still on the docket is January sixth at Foxwoods in Connecticut. Tiffany Hattish was on stage on Christmas and apparently made some jokes about her recent arrest. She joked, I’m sorry, but you ain’t live until you got to rest in Beverly Hills.

Okay, it’s beautiful over there. I mean in quite a few jails, just like the rest of y’all. If you’re gonna do something, I say, get arrested over there, because that jail is nice. It’s so clean. But the food I ain’t eat.

I was fasting. I already ate four times. I was serving food all day at Thanksgivings. I didn’t have nothing to eat, but they did offer me juices and stuff. I was like, oh, this is so nice.

And then my cycle had started in while there, I’m bleeding on the jail. But they are the best Maxi pads. I’ve never seen a pad so big and went from the top of my belly button to the top of my behind. And I was wearing a thong too, so it looked like I had a pillow and a rope. I said, let me get one more of those paths and use it as a pillow.

It was comfortable, was nice. They gave me one of those fleace blankets they get in first grade or something to take a nap on, and I did that. I took a nap. Was beautiful, wonderful experience and sad news. Tom Smothers, half of the famous Smothers brothers, passed away on Tuesday at age eighty six.

His death was announced on Wednesday by the family and National Comedy Center. His brother Dick’s Mothers, who’s eighty four, said in a statement, Tom was not only the loving older brother that everybody would want in their life. I’m forever grateful that I’ve spent a lifetime together with him on and off stage for over sixty years. Our relationship was like a good marriage. The longer we were together, the more we loved and respected one another.

We were truly blessed. In nineteen sixty nine, CBS canceled the Smothers Brother’s Comedy Hour. That was CBS reacting to the Smothers Brothers making fun of the powerful in the country and boosting critics of the Vietnam War. In twenty nineteen, there was an event to celebrate the fifty year anniversary of the firing Tom. Some mothers told the AP at that time, it’s really an honor to be honored in this way.

We’re both alive and not having someone speak for us, we can mumble our own way through Tom’s Smothers was eighty six years old, all right back in the morning with the top eleven comedy specials of the year. See you then,

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Full Transcript

Caloroga Shark Media. Hello, I’m Jenny Mack with your Daily Comedy News. Today we’re taking a look at the top eleven most Influential Comedians of twenty twenty three. Couple notes here, there are plenty of great comedians who are not on this list. For example, Shane gillis huge year, not on the list, Todd Berry one of the best specials of the year, and I’ll go over the best specials of the year tomorrow, not on the list.

I’m also very very very very well aware you don’t have to shoot me a note that this list is eleven men. And I spent some time thinking about it, and I’m like, well, who should be on this list? Amy Schumer? Maybe I don’t know, But as I do the list, I’ll explain my reasoning. And as with all lists, it’s all subjective.

Your list will be different. The person next to you their list will be different. I’m gonna throw out some name. You’re gonna be outraged that I said, Oh, I can’t believe that person on a list that’s Setti’s list. Go, so why is it eleven?

We’re doing this to help promote a new podcast, which is called The Top Eleven The Top eleven launches on January eleventh. Each week, the Top eleven looks at the top eleven things for a single topic. Topic can be anything iconic, movie moments, mythical creatures, album covers, history, space facts, you know anything the Top eleven. Whether you’re a fan of eleven’s or simply somebody with a thirst for knowledge, tune into the Top eleven on your preferred podcast platform. This week we’re taking episodes like this and putting them in the feed as a preview, and then on January eleventh, the Top eleven launches.

All Right, you’re ready for my list? You’re gonna get mad. Number eleven Most influential Comedians of twenty twenty three. Pete Davidson, I hear you now? Is he the best stand up comedian?

No? Even Pete Davidson doesn’t think he’s the best stand up comedian. But he’s in the news all the time. He moves the headlines. Pete Davidson moves the downloads.

Who’s he dating? Is he in rehab? Why is he crashing into cars? Sometimes even does comedy at a TV series called Bupkiss. Remember that one.

He’s got a special coming out January ninth, called Turbo Fonzarelli. He co owns a ferry with Colin jos. For some reason, Pete Davidson to talk about always in the news. Number ten Matt Rife. Matt Rife had quite the year.

The buzz for nine tenths of the year was that Matt Rife was it. His problematic World tour went on sale. It broke the ticketing site. He sold out one hundred dates. He was on top.

Then he started doing some press for Matt Rife Natural Selection, a special on Netflix, and then we all watched the special and we were like, oh, eit, this special’s not that funny.

And then somebody had a problem with one of his jokes and then Matt instead o…

Lost a lot of his fans. Then the haters came from matt Rife and started digging out old tweets. Matt Rife was a lot more popular. The day before that Netflix special came out. Matt Rife at number ten.

Number nine, Bert Kraser, did you see the machine? The machine was fantastic, And that was the culmination of probably Bert’s entire hurry up to this point. He got famous off to bit the Machine Now it’s a movie, and the movie was good. Bert also had a huge tour. He also has the very popular podcast he does with Tom Segura, Two Bears, One Cave, Burt Riding High.

In twenty twenty three, next up number eight Nate Bergatsey Nate was named a Comedian of the Year by Consequence of Sound, and Nate had a couple big things, including a fantastic special that’s one of my favorites of the year, Hello World on Amazon Prime way back in January. Nate also set the record for most tickets sold at the Bridgetone Arena in Nashville nineteen three hundred and sixty five. He threw in one extra seat somewhere in a corner to set the record. He hosted the Best Saturday Night Live and quite some time, and I think broke through to new fans. He also has his podcasting network in his own podcast, Andy shepherding comedians who are lesser known, like Dusty Slay.

So Nate’s got a little power base going there. Good to see him coming up. A guy that went from nobody really knows who he is other than his fans fans to having a huge year. Theo Vaughn. If you kept your eyes on the podcast charts all year, you noticed this past weekend went from being number one on the stand up subgenre and then started showing up on the mainstream charts.

I think theo is primed for a huge twenty twenty four. He’s a good storytelling. His pot is easy on the ears. Dio Vaughn at number seven, number six, and in some ways it’s weird that this guy is so low on the list because he is a king maker and a major influencer. It’s Joe Rogan, Joe obviously host of The Joe Rogan Experience, a very very very influential podcast.

You go on The Joe Rogan Experience and suddenly you’ve got a lot more fans. Comedians like Tim Dillon, who’s fantastic, have seen that their speculation that Joe Rogan’s deal with Spotify is up. Will they renew him? Will he stay with them? Will he go somewhere else?

He’ll be keeping an eye on that. In twenty twenty four, Joe also opened his club in Austin, the Comedy mother Ship, which has basically turned Austin’s comedy scene into the third Coast behind New York and La Sorry, Chicago, you can send your letters to Johnny Mack, some of the comedians of pop by there, Tim Dillon, Roseanne Chappelle. Ron White has come out of retirement. I guess from hanging out Rogan and having fun, Whinney Cummings, the guys from Kiltoony. You’ve started doing this.

Yeah, with the Comedy mother Ship. Number six is Joe Rogan. We’ll take the break and we’ll come back and we’ll look at the top five. This guy was already at the top of the business and then he got slapped in the face. Yes, of course, Chris Rock, he’s number five.

Almost every single article about a comedian somehow comes back to the slap, and we’re year and a half two years out from that now Chris Rock’s name comes up with that, whether he wants to or not. And this year he finally responded on stage during Chris Rock’s Selective Outrage is Live special on Netflix. Then that garnered a whole bunch of reactions, and the other comedians reacted to Chris Rock’s reaction, and it’s still a topic. But aside from that, if Chris Rock’s behind a microphone, you want to hear what he has to say. Hopefully he does a lot more.

In twenty twenty four at number four, Kevin Hart. Billboard recently released that he was the top touring comedian of the year, making sixty seven point five million dollars in ticket sales. He sold six hundred and thirty one thousand tickets over eighty two shows. That’s a lot of money, and that doesn’t include all the various endorsements he deals. If you watch football, he’s always hawking a gambling thing.

If you listen to this podcast, Kevin announces, I don’t know, two new projects a week. He’s got his fast food chain. Netflix just did the documentary about Kevin and Chris Rock. So Kevin Hart at number four. Next up, number three, John Mulaney and the press really really is in John Mullenie’s corner.

Lot of good praise for John Mulaney, Baby Jay. I do not have that on my top Specials of the Year list, which I’ll explain on tomorrow’s podcast. Despite my personal opinion eighty six percent favorable on Rotten Tomatoes. It was Mulanie’s return to the stage after some personal turmoil. We learned that mullani had a drug problem, he went to rehabb he had broken up with his wife.

He’s got a baby with Olivia Munn. Number two Dave Chappelle. Much like Chris Rock, almost every single interview with a comedian comes back to Dave Chappelle. Every move Dave Chappelle makes is news. He’s got a new special out on Netflix on New Year’s Even if you host a podcast in its early January, you’re gonna be very thankful that Dave Chappelle has a new special and’ll be stirring it up again.

Dave Chappelle Number two and your number one most influential comedian for twenty twenty three. Jim Gaffigan. Jim is getting better and better at stand up. He’s right at the top of the mountain right now. Has the respect of his fellow comedians.

Additionally, he has the reputation for working clean, which broadens your audience. He’s got his acting career going. He released Dark Pal, which showed Jim expanding his comedy styling getting a little darker. That was very well received. He toured with Jerry Seinfeld.

He had a great interview with Maren Jim Gaffigan is number one. If you hate my list, you can go on the Facebook group, which is Daily Comedy News Podcast group, and you can say this list is terrible. That’s okay. I’d love to hear your opinion. It’s just a subjective list.

Some names that I had down for consideration that I left off because you only get eleven. Mark Marin I really got back into his podcast this year. I really love his perspective on stand up comedy as an art and it’s like listening to the guy talk Tom Sagora. You know I have his partner in comedy, Bert Kreischer on the list. Why don’t you have Tom?

I only had eleven spots, and I just felt like Bert had a slightly better year than Tom. Trevor Noah, aside from his awesome stand up comedy, the void he has left on the Daily Show is tremendous. It’s been a year plus and they still haven’t solved the cherry issue. Trevor’s recent special on Netflix is fantastic. Jerry Seinfeld not on the list, which is weird because he’s probably the top comedian in the game.

But Jerry just goes about his business doing his thing, goes home. And Conan O’Brien wanted to have him on the list as well for his influential podcast. Eventually, Conan will come back to TV, right He’s been developing a show with Max HBO, Max HBO and Max or whatever we’re calling it this week for years now. Is that ever gonna air? Conan?

But he gets some great guests on his very very popular podcast. So Conan O’Brien will someday return to TV and we’ll be talking about him even more then. So that is the list of the top eleven most influential comedians of twenty twenty three. Back tomorrow with a look at the top eleven stand up specials of twenty twenty three. If you enjoy this program, you tell a friend about it, they might like it too, and you can all follow it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows.

See you back here tomorrow.

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Full Transcript

Caloroga Shark Media. Hello, I’m Johnny mag with your Daily Comedy News. Hope you had a good Christmas. This is an extra episode. There’s enough going on that I just wanted to check in.

I’ve got a lot of special episodes this week with end of the year list that I already have in the can, but I wanted to just check in with you and talk about a couple things that are happening. This episode to be a little shorter than usual. Pete Davidson has canceled a bunch of shows. Hope Pete is doing okay. He was supposed to play the Beacon Theater on Friday night, and the Beacon announced in an Instagram story post that the show had been canceled.

They did not give any reason. According to Deadline, ticket holders were made aware of the show cancelation in an email two hours before the show. You know somebody who lives a good two hours away from the city. I could see where that might be a little late and frustrating, but again, I hope Pete is okay. Here.

Ticket goers were automatically refunded. All of Peach’s shows have been canceled up until January third. According to Ticketmaster. His next scheduled event is January fourth in Milwaukee. Messages shared on websites for Chattanooga’s Walker Theater, Pittsburgh’s Bay In Theater, and Milwaukee’s Riverside Theater say the cancelations were due to quote unforeseen circumstances.

Netflix released the trailer for Dave Chappelle’s New Year’s Eve special. It’s quirky. Let’s listen. What do you dream about? Not the dreams you have in your sleep, the one to hold in your heart.

Don’t be intimidated by the audacity of your dream, be inspired by it. What happens to a dream deferred? Look at the Dave. He doesn’t know the dreamer. I’m looking forward to that.

Another reason I wanted to check in is I did, indeed watch both Ricky and Gary Goleman. I’ll speak more about these at length later in the week when I do my top special. So the year Jervais’s Top ten. I liked it a lot. Maybe it got a little long in the middle there, but he basically went to DGAF mode and did some probably the best material I’ve heard about the anti woke crowd.

Really solid special. If you haven’t had a chance again. I’ll talk about that later in the week. Gary Goleman special is the best special of the year. I won’t pull my punch there.

I watched that on Friday night and thought it was absolutely fantastic. Gary. Gary’s now really moving up the list. I feel like, maybe one more special and people are going to be like, oh wow, he’s just a wonderful wordsmith and the schedule is just well crafted. So right now I have that at number one, and since I won’t be watching any more specials before I record my top of the Year, because I’m about to do that next Gary Goleman is going to be number one.

Spoilers, I’ll leave you with a sad note. Stand up comedian Neil Nanda has died at age thirty two. Nanda known for appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live and Comedy Central’s Adam Devine’s House Party. Matt Rich tweeted, rip Neil Nanda. You were one of the nicest, hardest working comedians I’ve ever called a friend, and I hope you can be at peace.

Brother Dane Cook shared a tribute along with the number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Dane wrote, I didn’t know Neil Nanda personally, but reading several tributes is both heartbreaking and eye opening. I echo so many expressing that there is help out there. Please remember you were never alone. People want to help you.

There’s a path through your pain. Peror to Neil’s family, friends and fans, dial nine to eight eight for help and love. Nanda told VC Reporter in twenty eighteen that he used to copy down his favorite jokes from Comedy Central into a notebook to retaill his middle school friends, and then he joked, I didn’t realize I was stealing jokes until I was in high school. When I was in high school, I started writing my own jokes, using the structure of some of the jokes I had previously stolen. A friend read the notebook and told me, you know, you could just go perform these right.

I didn’t know, but after a quick Google search, I was off to the laughing skull open Mic told VC reporter, I would say my proudest accomplishment thus Foreign Comedy was performing on Jimmy Kimmel Live. I’ve always wanted to do a set on late night, and Jimmy Kimmel was my first choice. I performed when my parents were a fan of the host. If you’re just catching up, today is December twenty sixth. There was a normal episode in the feed, and I did episodes all over the weekend.

I’ll be back in the morning with the eleven most powerful people in comedy. See you tomorrow.

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Full Transcript

Caloroga Shark Media. Hello Johnny Mack with your Daily Comedy News. Hope you had a good Christmas. Did you see Aaron Rodgers name check Dave Chappelle. Recently, former NFL running back at Rashard Mendenhall has suggested an all black versus all white bull.

Aaron Rodgers was asked about it when he was on the Pat McAfee show last week, and Aaron said, I think, off the top of my head spitballing. We need to have a draft, and it has to involve Dave Chappelle. We should have a draft because there’s a couple of people we’re not sure which team they’d be on, so we need to have a draft. Mendon Hall had started a little mini Twitter controversy when he tweeted, I’m sick of average white guys commenting on football. Y’all not even good at football.

Can we please replace the Pro Bowl with an all black versus all white bull so these cats can stop trying to teach me who’s good at football. I’m better than your goat. Joe Coy is going to host the Golden Globe Awards. Those are on January seventh. Joe’s selling out Arenas, but that’ll make him pop in the mainstream a little bit more like Nateprigatsey has this year, So the regular folks will get to know Joe.

That is cool. He gave a statement which is I’ve stepped on to a lot of stages around the world in my career, but this one is going to be extra special. I’m so excited to be hosting the Golden Globes this year. This is the moment where I get to make my Filipino family proud. Esquire did a wonderful profile with Gary Goleman under the headline Gary Goleman can make absolutely anything funny.

They tell the story. It’s November twenty nineteen. Goleman is scrolling through his phone on Twitter, and a tweet from Jason Zenman from The New York Times caught his attention. Zenniman had asked, what stand up have you liked that is about class? However you want to define it.

That intrigued Gary Golmany realized he couldn’t think of a comedian who’d built a whole act around socio economic status. George Carlin had touched on the topic, certainly with riffs about how the ruling class operates to keep themselves on top. Gary says, but I hadn’t seen anybody who made the entire hour about class, and I thought, Oh, that’s it. That’s a great area.

And then I just started the article discussed about how Gary is well respecte…

I’ve met Gary a few times. Great guy. I tried to hire him at the place I used to work, but the boss didn’t get it. The boss wasn’t really that good at looking forty yards downfield. I kind of am good at that.

Oh well, sorry, Gary, I would have liked to have worked with you. We tried. You were there, you know. Jud Appatsol said, I think every comedian would agree that Gary is better than most everybody. There’s certain people you go, oh, they’re on another level.

Their artistry, their ambition, their willingness to try new things, how much they’ll open up. No matter how many comedians there are, only a few were working at the highest level, and Gary is one of them. Ryan Hamilton, who I love, shared an apartment with Gary and a couple other roommates in New York City in the early twenty tens. Ryan said, we’d’s just so special to Gary, and he really has a gift for finding just the right word that can turn a joke. Hamilton says having Gary for a roommate was inspiring because Golman was always writing and working on his craft.

The apartment effectively didn’t have a living or dining room because the living room had been turned over to one of the roommates for a bedroom, but Hamilton and Goldman would stand in the kitchen in the morning and talk comedy while eating seals. Ryan says he was constantly threatening to start a newsletter that was just for our apartment, you know, with all the big news of the day about who left what in the fridge. Seeing our apartment filtered through his comedical lens was really fun. Esquire writes, Goldman has a rare talent for making an esoteric topic funny in a broadly accessible way. But sometimes that means sitting on an idea for years until he figures out how to make it work on stage.

One of his best known bits centers on a made up Netflix documentary about the US Postal Services effort to give every state its own to capital letter abbreviation. When Goldman’s fictional team of abbreviators get stuck, they’re forced to bring in a contractor, a specialist that created contractions. Goldman said he scribbled the original idea in a notebook in nineteen ninety four, but it took him until around twenty thirteen before he figured out how to successfully incorporate it into his act. Wow Variety caught up with Robert Smigel. They gave Robert quite the wax job on Adam Sandler’s LEO, but I was more interested in the part about Triumph and would Triumph have a run for office?

Smigel said, I thought about doing it, believe it or not, not run for president, but some office and just doing the entire campaign is trying. But part of it is campaign finance laws are really strange and strict, because I would want to chronicle it, and there are certain rules about how cameras can’t be following you unless there’s a separate documentary crew, and I don’t only want to do it if I could do it in a humorous way. I love covering the election as trying for Hulu in twenty sixteen, and it was one of the most well received things I ever did in my career. They asked, Smile, was there any sketch that you loved that he couldn’t get on the air at SNL. Smichael said, actually, there was one that Dina Carvey and I released.

Bob Odenkirk had written about it in his autobiography and talked about it on a show as the funniest sketch that never aired. There’s a host talking about early footage of Charlie Chaplin. Dina Carvey plays Chaplain and we see outtakes where he’s basically unrecognizable and not funny at all. Then this waiter character comes out and he’s dressed like Chaplain. Take after take, you see Chaplain slowly steal every part of his persona to the point where the guy ends up serving him in long underwear.

We did it at dress rehearsal and it never made it to air, but we put it online. Depress Enterprise caught up with Howie Mandell. He told a story about being in the casino and said there was a lady playing a slot machine, very focused on machines, so I thought it’d be funny to sneak up behind her just before she pressed the button, I said in her ear Deal or no Deal. She never turned her head. She just elbowed me in the chest, knocked the wind In and said, get away from me.

She didn’t know who I was. Now I like to approach them from the front. Howie says he has a slot machine version of Deal or No Deal in his LA office, but he says he’s not much of a gambler. He added, if he were on Dealer No Deal, he’d take the first offer and go home. All right.

I got a couple more of those end of the year lists for you. This from Decider, the ten best stand up comedy specials of twenty twenty three. I’ll have mine for you later this week. I wanted to watch Ricky Gervais and you know today’s December twenty sixth. No, I didn’t tape this on Christmas Day.

I actually recorded this on Friday, So at this time I haven’t seen Jervais nor Goldman yet, but looking forward to it and hopefully in the real world I’ve watched it both buy now, but we’ll get to that later in the week. You know, these lists are hard, Decider wrote, when the calendar year finally ends, we’ll have seen several hundred new stand up comedy specials in twenty twenty three, at least seven hundred counting hours and a half hours. They have a list of fifty seven that they reviewed. That’s what I’m saying. Like, I know, sometimes I sound crazy here when I’m like, I haven’t watched that one.

I haven’t watched that one. Like I love doing the podcast, but you know, sometimes I don’t want to watch comedy. All right. This is Sean McCarthy who made this list. He knows what he’s talking about.

Let’s see who he liked here. He is number ten, Greg Warrens, the Salesman. I started to watch that one and I felt like they had added artificial laughter to it. You know, I do this for a living, and it just didn’t sound right to me. And that made me go, I’m out.

McCarthy writes, close your eyes. You might just imagine hearing what almost sounds like Mitch Heiberg if only he could do corporate gigs. And I don’t know if I can roll with that one. Number nine Ralph Barbosa’s Cowabunga. I have that on my list pretty low, but okay, eight my name is Monique on Netflix.

That one didn’t grab me. Seven Jim Gaffigan’s Dark Pall. I’ll have a lot of great things to say about Jim later in the week. This particular special did not make my end of the year list. Joe paris slow and steady.

I will comment on that when I do my list. Number five Gary Golmans Born on third Base, tied with Maria Bamford’s Local Act. Why is there a tie for Barbiglia the Old Man on the Pool. As I’ve said, I think you’ll like it, and I’m a comedy snob. Three want of psychs.

I’m an entertainer. I didn’t feel that special at all. Two Beth Stealing. If you didn’t like me, then I didn’t feel that special at all. But I see that at a lot of people’s list up top.

Wow, he has Mark Maren’s from Bleak to Dark at number one. I’ve been on a Maren kick and I don’t even have this on my list. Not my favorite Maren special at all. Wow. All right, we’ll agree to disagree.

Cratt wrote the ten comedy voices that mattered most in twenty twenty three. Ten Sabrina Bryer, Johnny mack Goes, who may write your annoying roommate is slaying on TikTok, proclaimed The New York Times. That’s Briar, whose TikTok following has nearly doubled since our national newspaper of record wrote about her in the spring. Briar’s secret is her willingness to be hateable and yet relatable. Nine Hasan Minhaj, Right, we know about his little kurf luffel with the New Yorker writing the xpos A news stories not being all that true.

Eight Diane Morgan from Kunk on Earth. Good call to jwatch Kunk on Earth. You had that was probably my favorite thing of the entire year. Seven Pedro Pascal what In addition to killing it on HBOS The Last of Us, Pascal also became the unexpected MVP of Saturday Night Live. I don’t know about that, guys, really really all right?

Move on? Six Fran Dresher, Okay, yep, she was involved with the strikes. Fine. Five John Mulaney crack right. So if you’re getting tired of Mullany, it’s only because the story has been everywhere in the past year.

Baby Jay Drew deserved comparisons to Richard Pryor’s Live on the Sunset Strip for its ability to generate huge laughs whiles telling harrowing stories of drug addiction. You know, I never thought about that at all. I guess that’s not a ridiculous comparison. Four George Santo’s crack You’re trying two hard three Matt rife Well discussed on this podcast. Two Greta Geri cracked rights.

Let’s shower Gerwig with her well deserved flowers. Barbie obliterated Box office records, et cetera, et cetera. And they have number one. Elon Musk. No one wanted to be funny in twenty twenty three more than Musk.

In fact, it’s what he’s always wanted. Paste Magazine the ten Best Comedians of twenty twenty three. They were deciding who were the best comedians of twenty three is admittedly a really difficult task by what metric? What counts as a comedian always a good question. Let’s see who they have.

Nate bergatsy Well discussed Io at Aberri. She had a really good season on The Bear Great show, Okay. Joe Firestone interesting pick. With the release of her debut novel, Murder on Sex Island. The year brought an exciting new venture for Joe Firestone and a clever marketing tactic.

Firestone released each chapter to audiences for free via audio streamers, building intrigue and momentum with listeners in order to boost book sales. H Robbie Hoffman, Paste writes what makes this comedian so special as her candor mixed with her sincere curiosity and compassion. You’ll find her on Netflix’s verified stand up pace, continuing to throw deep. Next up, Micky Leaper, They’re right. Whether you thought Jury Duty was a stroke of genius or an unethical project in the relentless pursuit of laughs, you have to admit it was a phenomenon.

Leaper wrote for Jury Duty and stars as Naive Drew or Noah, Okay cool good pick May Martin, I just don’t get it. A partner in on Churla. Good to see her back. I’ve been a fan of hers for several years. Paste writes for The Nervous among Us, A partner in Trilla sings your tune quietly in the back.

Actually, she wouldn’t be caught singing out loud at all. Instead, you can find the anxiety written expert in deadpan delivery on back shelves everywhere. With the publication of her debut memoir, Unreliable Narrator Me Myself an imposter syndrome. Sarah Sherman. I love Sarah and I’m glad everybody’s getting to know her through Saturday Night Live.

She crushes every time she’s on. Just she’s fantastic. You know, they could build a pretty good cast. They’ve got Sarah Bowen Yang who hopefully sticks around for a couple more years. He crushes every time as well, Jostin Chay.

Just leave them at the desk for another ten years. Yeah, Sarah’s fantastic and I see I scroll down by two. They do have Bowen Yang on the list. Okay, we’re on the same page there. But before bow and Yang they have Jess.

Tom Pace is a big fan of Jess’s show Less Lonely. Less Lonely digs into love at the end of the world, change and a lot of weird sex. That’s your comedy news for today. Now tomorrow, we’re promoting the Top Eleven podcast. That’s a new podcast where every week you’ll get the top eleven things on a single topic.

The topic can be anything, could be album covers, movie moments, quirky hobbies. You’ll find the Top eleven wherever you get your podcasts. So, as part of promoting the top eleven. Tomorrow I will give you my list of the top eleven most powerful comedians of twenty twenty three. See you tomorrow.

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Full Transcript

Caloroga Shark Media. Merry Christmas, thank you for choosing to spend a few minutes with me and your years. Today there is comedy news and Hi, I’m Johnny Mac Griggy Gervais. Armageddon new special out on Netflix today. I you’ve got a clip for you.

I have trimmed this a little bit because he says some naughty words and we don’t do that on this podcast. But here’s Ricky. It’s very sad, but we all die. We all know we’re going to die, and we all do die, so it doesn’t really matter if we die one at a time along the way or all at once in one big fine lamageddon. The result is we’re all going to be dead one day, and we’re all going to be dead forever.

And I’ve been to a lot of funerals in my time. You live this long, you know a lot of people, they die, and I don’t mind funerals because it’s the end. I mean, I hate weddings so much, hope you know what I mean.

And then needy and arrogant, Oh do you want to come up watch us for twelve ho…

No?

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And then you go, oh right, yeah, when is it?

And they go two years time. They know you haven’t got an excuse for two years time, so they just have to hope that one of them dies. Ricky had previously said in a statement, for the next two thousand years, people will remember. The twenty fifth day of December is the day Armygedon was released on Netflix. There has been some controversy about this show a joke about terminally illed children.

I talked about that as the first story in Thursday’s podcast if you want to go back when social media user said we can all take a good joke, but this is below the belt for Ricky and that one part of making jokes about ill children is funny vile. Another user said this is the most vile attempted comedy I’ve ever seen. Sick and dying children wish for a video for him and he mocks them like this. Shame one you, Ricky Gervais. This is quite the Christmas episode so far, isn’t it.

As I recapped on Thursday, I’ll do it again quickly here, Ricky told BBC Radio five Live. People don’t analyze the joke. They feel something. That’s what the offense is. It’s feeling.

That’s why I’m offended. It’s quite meaningless. What do you want me to change? Some people were circulating a petition to have Netflix at at the special, and Ricky responded, good luck. I’ll even retweet it.

From Rolling Stone UK, The Office UK’s Christmas specials turned twenty this month, Ricky said, I’m still very proud of it. Despite experiencing fame. Before the Office, Ricky had a short lived pop career and two Channel four TV shows. It was David Brent who helped him break through. Ricky said, The Office is where all those big opportunities really started for me.

It was the thing I tried my hardest at and I got an a growing up. As comedy fans, writes Rolling Stone, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant were well aware of the power Christmas specials held on viewers and saw them as something to aspire to when developing their own sitcoms. I guess that’s why Ricky released a special today good Call, because you know, after the morning, it’s kind of like, what are we going to do? Watch football?

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And then you need something to watch.

I’m looking forward to watching this one so I can finally include my top comedy specials of twenty twenty. Three or not included, and maybe it’s not good. I think it’s going to be good. Steven Merchant said, Christmas TV was a big part of my childhood, sitting down as a family and watching a Christmas edition if something felt like in a k That’s why we did Christmas specials for extras in the Office because they felt significant. So the fact that this features on lists of favorite Christmas TV is very pleasing.

Ricky likes that The Office is twelve episodes and done. He said we didn’t want to do a third season because we always thought Faulty two hours was the paradigm. Well, somebody better tell John Clees he’s bringing it back, Merchant said, without the specialis a bonus. Merchant added, we were worried would run out of steam. I mean, how many embarrassing faux pas can we have David Brent make And how long is this simmering romance between Tim and Dawn gonna go on?

I don’t know. Apparently you could have done four seasons and then had them get married and then brought in Ed Helms and had the show go downhill in quality could have done that. Merchants said there was anxiety around quality control dipping and it not being as good. Yeah, I think I could show them a model for that. Originally conceived as one long episode, but later split in two by the BBC, The Office Christmas specials aired on December twenty sixth and twenty seventh, two thousand and three.

Catching up with David, Tim, Dawn, Gareth and the rest of the Warnham Hog Office. A year after we last saw them, battling redundancy and swiftly fizzling fame, we find and David Brent at his lowest eb while Tim is still recovering from his awkward attempt at winning Dawn’s heart in series two’s Bittersweet finale, where Down went to Florida, where her boyfriend Lee Ricky said, we thought the hook could be to the first two seasons had gone out and the characters were now aware of it secretly. It was always about fame in comedy. David Brent thought he was a comedian. It’s all about ego, being loved and please please make me famous.

It was nice to show that things didn’t always turn out well and he had the wrong sort of fame. Merchant says. By two thousand and three, the reality TV format had become quite set. By that point, you’d have shows a bit of downtime, and then they’d revisit the old Ganga sey what they were up to. It seemed like a natural way of doing it.

In that downtime, David Brent had been busy. He spent his nights making guest appearances at dive bars. It’s a nomadic existed, spent either alone in his car, in cheap hotels or haunting backstage. Harry as showing us David Brent at his bleakest but also his most sympathetic. Ricky said, I wanted people to feel it.

It was a fake documentary, but had to be real. When people are crazy comedy characters, you don’t care about them when something goes wrong, whereas if you’ve earned it, it resonates because you suddenly feel responsible. Someone can be an idiot in the office, but they might go home and cry for all we know. So I wanted that discomfort. I want us to feel a bit guilty about what we do to normal people because they want to be famous.

Merchants said, I think perhaps we took it too far. I was in a pub playing pool in the night. The second episode aired and some guys next to me said, did you see The Office last night? And his friend said, yeah, it was all right, but that ending was a bit depressing. I wanted to lean over and go it was a two porter.

Go home and watch the second one, because there’s a happy ending. From The Independent, Ricky Gervais was not impressed by Jamie Oliver’s Christmas turkey hack, which Oliver showed on a recent episode of The Graham Norton Show. The short clip shown on Norton shows Jamie Oliver securing a bay leaf to a clement sign, using a clove to stab the fruit. Jamie Oliver then microwaves at the clement sign until piping hot before placing it inside his raw turvity’s cavity. Jervase jumped in and said, sorry, how is that a recipe?

Stick an orange up a turkey’s butt? How’s that a recipe? We all know that Diehard is a Christmas movie, but Gabriel Iglesias has a point. Gremlins is a Christmas movie. He says, there are Christmas trees, there’s snow, and you know the Gremlins destroying Santa clauses.

All right, I’m not sure how comedy related this one is, but it made me laugh when I was prepping for today. Apparently, in Ireland there’s addition called the Twelve Pubs of Christmas. Love it. Irish Central rites on Christmas Morning all over Ireland they’ll be countless people thanking they’re lucky stars. Not because they’re looking forward to opening presents.

It’s because they know that once Christmas arrives they no longer have to suffer the wrath of the Twelve Pubs of Christmas hangover. Santa Con may be happening in the US now, but as usually, the Irish come out on top in terms of how to properly have the crack. This Christmas time brought up crack recently cr aic. No, we’re not doing rock cocaine. Crack means fun, all right.

How does this work? Over the course of an evening, you, along with your sisters and brothers in indulgence, visit twelve bars an attempt to have a drink in every one of them. Okay, that’s pretty straightforward. You wear Christmas jumpers or sweaters or Santa hats. Okay, we know how to do that.

But Iris Central points out anyone who thinks the hardest thing about the night is to drink twelve points. Should think again because there are rules vary from group of friends, but here are some of the rules that you might follow. No drinking with your right hand in the first pub. No pointing at people in the second pub. No talking to anyone you know in the third pub.

No sitting, resting, or leaning in the fourth pub. I’d fail there, And no using the restroom in the fifth pub. I’m definitely out, and so on and so on. There’s usually a maximum limit of thirty minutes per pub and a designated rule keeper with a whistle to keep the guy on track. What if you break a rule?

Will you face a penalty? You might have to gulp down a large amount of your drink ire centil rites and nearly every twelve pubs this author has ever tended is usually added with a happy consensus to stay put around bar number six or seven, with fellow twelve pubgoers only too happy to enjoy the crack and merriment in the bar. Then braave the cold, rainy December warmth in search of another from Harper’s bizarre fifty Christmas Movies That’ll make you less miserable this season. I’m not going to read all fifty. Let’s skim down this and see what I find.

The Santa Claus Okay, that’s number one. Jingle all the way, Get Santa Home alone. Two, The Grinchtoole Christmas, Ernest saves Christmas forgot that happened. I’m just waiting to see if there’s an Adam Sandlor movie on here. There’s gotta be right el pH at number seventeen, Scrooged at nineteen, Christmas Vacation at twenty trading places.

How’s that a Christmas movie? You can tell me on Facebook. I don’t care. No Sanilor on there. Isn’t that surprising.

There should be some sailor on there. I’m gonna ask chatchpt to write the plot of an Adam Sandler Christmas movie. Okay, it has called it The Christmas Chaos Crusaders. Chat Ept’s plot. Adam Sandler stars as Dave.

I’m reading this. It just printed a lovable but perpetually unlucky guy who has a deep passion for Christmas but always seems to find himself in holiday related disasters. Dave lives in a small, tight knit neighborhood. It takes Christmas decorations and festivities very seriously. One year, Dave’s neighbor, mister Johnson, declares that he will win the annual neighborhood Christmas decorating contest at all costs.

This is the Eddie Murphy plot. Chat EPT. That’s what I’ve been saying, that Eddie Murphy Christmas movie that just came out, that that should have been an Adam Sailor movie. The Internet agrees with me. I’m not even reading the rest of this.

The Christmas Chaos Grusaders come on chat GPT. Not only is that a bad Adam Saylor movie, it’s not even original. That’s your company needs for today. Merry Christmas, see you tomorrow.

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Full Transcript

Caloroga Shark Media. Hello, I’m Johnny Mack with your Daily Comedy News. Earlier in December, Vulture put out their article the Best Comedy Specials of twenty twenty three, So that doesn’t include Trevor Noah, won’t include Ricky Gervas, and won’t include Chapelle. As for me, I’m planning on putting out my list towards the end of next week. I want to get on the other side of Ricky Gervas.

I won’t include Chappelle because it doesn’t come out to New Year’s Eve, so I wouldn’t be able to do it in twenty twenty three unless Netflix hooks me up with a screener, which they have not as of yet. If you are a new listener. When I do these article episodes, I don’t look in advance because I like to react as I go along. So I’m hitting click here from Vulture, The Best Comedy Specials of twenty twenty three. This was published on December sixth.

They have number ten Saser Zamada’s The First Woman. I haven’t heard any buzz whatsoever on that, and I haven’t seen it, so maybe it is awesome, but no buzz you’ll find it on YouTube. Vulture tells us the specials title comes from a joke at the end of a long and pointed joke about the history of female aviators. That’s part you’re wrong about episode, part feminist screed, and part that thing when you’re a hilarious friend can’t help but tell you about this fascinating Wikipedia rabbit hole that they fell down last night. Number nine is John Early is Now more Than Ever.

That is on my list towards the back half, part sketch, parts stand up, part concert documentary of a fake cover band, John Early is Now more than Ever gleefully puts its tongue in several nested layers of cheek. Yeah, I enjoyed it because it was quite different. I think that’s the thing I like about it. Vulture wrote. The whole thing is absurd.

It’s almost certain there are one or possibly a dozen too many ideas in here, all shoehorned into the concert documentary conceit then undermined by the cynicism of the entire production. You’ll find that on Max. Next one up, Mike bur Bigley as the old man on the pool I’ve mentioned on this podcast. I think you would really like it. The comedy snob in me kicked in and I was watching it.

Mike was telling a story about wrestling, and I didn’t believe the premise of the story. I just didn’t believe the story ever actually happened. I may be incorrect, but I didn’t believe the story, so I punched down on it. I think you guys, not being comedy snobs, will enjoy Mike Broviigley as the old man on the pool. Vulture has it at number eight.

You’ll find that on Netflix. At seven. They have Zanab Johnson’s His Jobs Off. I have seen buzz about this one, haven’t gotten to it yet. Vulture writes.

Johnson’s not interested in waiting or in storing gowing material for some later point in her career. This is her debut special. Now is the time to talk about the hard stuff, to embrace it as part of who she is from the gymp, and to establish the kind of comedian who can do it with grace. That one’s on Amazon Maria Bamford’s local act. Haven’t seen this one, haven’t purchased it.

This one not free streaming anywhere, and by free streaming, you know what I mean, Like you know you give Netflix seventeen dollars a month or whatever it is, and they give you stuff. This year, you’ll have to actually go purchase. There’s been a lot of buzz on Maria in the back half of the year, and apparently this special is pretty good. Next one, Gary Goleman’s Born on Third Base. So we’re doing some time traveling here.

Apparently Vulture saw this early in December. The special came out two days ago on Max. I’m recording this on December fourteenth, so I haven’t seen Gary Goleman yet. I suspect it’ll make my end of the year list because I like Gary A. Lott and his previous work is fantastic.

So with that time traveling in mind, I’m not sure how I can review it, so I’ll tell you. Vulture said, Born on Third Base is a comedy special about income inequality and the fraying social fabric that creates lasting poverty in America, a topic that feels like a dubious framework for an hour of laughs. But Goldman’s so good at negotiating that tension and weaving material about his childhood together with more general ideas about culture and class. That one is on Max number four Sam Jay’s Salute Me or Shoot Me? Wow.

That one’s also on Max. I think I started to watch it and just wasn’t into it. Vulture says, Salute Me or Shoot Me is all about Sam’s ability to move in and out of jokes, that swagger and jokes that approach with delicacy and grease. Every other comedian wants to stand on a stage and say bad words to get people who all up desperately wishes they had what Sam Jay has. Good review there, huh.

Joe Parra is slow and steady. I struggled with this one because the audience was kind of out in front of Joe. I know, Hedberg ran into that late in life, so I think the audience kind of screwed up his special. But Vulture says, the rhythm of Joe para joke can feel like water dripping from a faucet. Yeah, I don’t know if you’re familiar with Joe works very deliberately.

That’s a big way of saying slow. The punchline will come at the same beat as everything else, and yet when you’re waiting for it, the gap between the last line and the next one can feel like time slowing down and just hovering for a moment. Number two Vulture has Beth stellings if you didn’t want me, then I started to watch that one and just wasn’t feeling it and punched out of it. Vultra says her comedic persona, which ticks between cool disaffection and full throated weirdness, is especially effective in this special. It’s full of recollections on her childhood, and Stelling comes at those stories about her youth with both fondness and a sense of absurdity.

And their number one special of the year, Wow, I love this guy. I’ve been on a kick about this guy, and yet I did not like this special and didn’t make it to the end of it. That’s how much I didn’t like it. And I’m really into this guy. I’m a big fan of this guy.

I’m hoping to get to talk to this guy. Number one on Vulture’s list, Mark Maren’s from Bleak to Dark. You’ll find that one on Max. Wow. All right, they have some honorable mentions.

Shane Torris is the blue eyed Mexican Dina Hasham’s Dark Little Whispers. I gotta get to that one. Chris Fleming’s Hell That’s on my list I like that one a lot. You’ll find that one on Peacock, Ali Sadiq’z The Domino Effect. That one is on let me scroll down here YouTube.

Didn’t like that one. John Mulani’s Baby Jay. I know we’re all supposed to fall and over that one. It’s not on my list Netflix. Monique’s My name is Monique.

I check that out, bailed on it. That one’s on Netflix. Mae Martin’s sap is on Netflix. Didn’t like that one. Kyle Kanaan Shocks and Struts.

Love that one. That’s gonna make my top ten, maybe my top five, depending on how things like Jervaise shakeout culture writes. His cruise ship material conjures a nightmarish, heatonistic carnival. His story about a van goes places no one could have predicted, but shocks and stresses a reminder the Canaane is so good you can do it with no words too. There’s an act out about a jam band that is somehow perfectly exasperated while nearly silent.

That one’s on YouTube. Highly recommended by me. Marlon Wayns God Loves Me. Yeah, I wasn’t feeling that one that was on Max Nprighatsy’s Hello World. One of my favorites could be top five.

That one was so good I had pause, grabbed my wife and watched twenty minutes again because I knew she would enjoy it. That one’s strong. That’s on Amazon, way up my list, but I’ll tell you I just double check my list. I have it below Kyle Kaneen’s That’s how Much I like? Those two?

From December eleventh, Paced Magazines the Best Comedy Albums of twenty twenty three. This one I have skimmed, and I didn’t know most of these, so it’s excited to read this one. These are listed alphabetically. Maria Bamford’s Crowd Pleaser, So that’s that same special that we just talked about that’s out on Comedy Dynamics. Next, they have Liz Barrett’s Getting by Getting with an apostrophe.

There, it didn’t drop the jeep because of my queen accent. Liz shares her secrets to living well. I’m having a great year because I’ve given up. Between her deadpan delivery and shrugging sarcastic observations, Barrett’s comedy is a perfect marriage of tone and content. Derek Brown’s a close Shave with Heaven.

Derek takes the Boston stage accompanied by a twinkling piano, and this musical choice sets the tone for an LP that clearly would be at home on the airwaves of NPR. Yet Brown keeps from being pretentious. He reminds us to stay stupid everybody. Carack Connor’s Straight for Pay past writes, there’s a lot of pressure on a stand up comedian’s debut album to properly introduce them to a sight unseen. You need to be confident in your ability to sell jokes based on your voice and your voice alone.

Luckily, for La based comedian Karack Connors, her voice is one of her strongest suits. Connor’s vocal elasticity is truly a wonder, immediately bringing to mind Adam sing Handler’s goofy impressions. Not sure that’s a good comparison there, and not sure that’s helping. It’s not helping with me John Glazer’s soothing meditations for the Solitary Dog. The album begins with spa ready ambient music and twinkling sounds in the background, as the gentle voice of Uncle John reassures lonely canines that their humans will surely be home soon.

He plans to record the perfect calming audio companion for needy dogs, although more and more issues crop up. It’s the type of escalating chaos Glazer excels at, aided by sound design expertise, sounds awesome. Pap Johnson’s Timeless Papp Johnson past writes. The first thing you notice about Pap Johnson is the timber of his voice. It’s sonorous setting depth to his unhurried, care free delivery.

He set is full of pregnant pauses, some so long they’ll think you’ve accidentally stopped the track. Love it. Sometimes Johnson’s trailing off is the punchline itself, and again this demonstrates just how comfortable he is on stage to make such a risky choice. Greg proofs Gregg’s comedy albums are pretty strong. I play them a lot on live one.

I’d like to play all of these. So many of these are not available for digital release. That’s why I’m not really familiar with them. I guess I could purchase them, but I’m trying to just stream them and they’re not available. French drug deal involves an extended tangent about bats an anecdote about the view, a bit about performing at then Prince now King Charles’s birthday, and multiple stories starting off with travel destinations.

We’ve made quite a leap in the alphabetical order. We’ve gone from p to Van Natasha vain Blatt, We’re all dads here. Natasha emigrated from Russia at the age of seven, and some of her funniest anecdotes touch on the differences between Russia and American cultures. World Dads Here is a hilarious look at vain BLAT’s family life, her marriage of ten years, and the various scrapes she’s gotten herself into. Her droll delivery of increasingly silly jokes like a call in response bit where the crowd guesses the veracity of odd workout classes is the perfect packaging pace.

Magazines Best of twenty twenty three comedy albums, and that is your comedy news for today. I hope you have a Greek Christmas, even a fantastic Christmas. There is an episode tomorrow. There’s always an episode. If you enjoy the show US Somebody about It.

You can follow the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify Again. Merry Christmas, See you tomorrow.