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Caloroga Shark Media. Hi there, I’m Johnny Mack with your daily comedy. Hears. You’re feeling a little heavy after Thanksgiving and the leftovers, you should lose some weight. Like Jim Gaffigan who Till the La Times.
I wish there was some romantic story surrounding his weight loss, but it really came down to my doctor who brought it up. She said, I know she’d gained a fair amount of weight. In the nineties. I was working out twice a day to be thin, and then once I had kids, I was desperately trying to find time to work out, and then it got to a point where my kniece didn’t work. So my doctor said, you can try these appetites of pressents and I’m like, yeah, sure, but I didn’t have an expectation it would work, even when I was working out twice a day.
I have a joke where I was like, I need to work out a lot just to look like someone who doesn’t work out, and I was pleasantly surprised when it worked. That joke speaks to me because I go up and down ten pounds in like a day, So I’ll go out for an eight mile run. I lose a lot of water weight, and I’m like, I feel good, and then I come home and have you know, three cookies, and then I’m back up ten pounds. My body’s crazy like that. But even when I’m in marathon shape, I will say to people, I have to work really hard to look this fat.
Like, if you ever see me walking around it, I don’t one hundred and sixty pounds. You might start wondering who’s going to take over this podcast after me, which is a good question. Hopefully we have another fifty years before we have to consider that one. Ronnie Ching has spoke to the Wall Street Journal, thank you, friend of the show, Scott Beckett for setting this one over. Ronnie said his first exposure to American comedy was watching Jerry Seinfeld’s stand up intervals on Seinfeld back in Singapore, I watched Late Show with David Letterman on TV and the comics who came on his show.
Initially, I didn’t think I could do what they did. I watched because stand up looked interesting. Comedians would walk on stage, talk to the audience, make jokes and people laughed. He wound up living in Australia and said it took me two months to get a handle on the Melbourne comedy scene. Performing in English wasn’t a problem during our Manchester years.
My parents spoke to me in English, so it was my first language. As for my delivery, that’s a matter of developing the skill set and listening for the rhythm, the timing, the attitude, when to pause and so on. That came gig after gig. In twenty thirteen, Trevor Noah and I were on a bill at Just for Laughs. In myal I already knew him from the festival a year earlier.
Two years later I received an email inviting me to audition for The Daily Show, which Trevor had started hosting. I planned to move to New York anyway. Going from Australia to the Daily Show was such a step up. I have Trevor to thank, as well as John Oliver, who gave me guidance. Adam Ray was asked what was the re action from Doctor Phil’s camp when he found out about your show.
If you haven’t watched Adam Ray on Netflix, it is very funny. Adam said, I’ve been doing the show a little over a year and had never met him. His son reached out to me on Instagram was like, we’ve got to get my dad on your show. We got in touch with his publiciste and went back and forth for like six or seven months. Yeah, I’ve been there, done that.
That’s annoying. I’d almost given up, but then I was like, okay, here’s three more dates. They said, September eighteenth works. I FaceTime with Phil maybe an hour before makeup, just talk through what the show would look like. Then we locked up everyone’s phones.
No one knew and Phil was awesome. The grad went nuts, and the whole show was great. I asked him if he was online, and he was like, that’s how I found you. My son was like, you got to see this, and I’ll admit it’s hysterical. He gave me some nice flowers during the show, but he also told me backstage, you would have known a long time ago if I wasn’t cool with this little thread there.
Wow. I think he and his fans know that my intentions are pure with the character, and it’s also made him popular in a space that he might otherwise not be. And I think he’s got to be enjoying this extra pump of recognition right. He was also asked what would it be like if Doctor Phil went on tour, is Adam Ray Now that’s funny? Adam said, I don’t know if he has the cavs for it, but I’m sure he can get the voice down.
I’d watch it more from that big piece. On Crack to dot Com with Anthony Jessel Nick, Jessa Nick talked about not getting along with Norm MacDonald on Last Comic Standing and said it was anger, but it wasn’t anger that we’re not jelling. It’s Norm’s a difficult person. I’m a difficult person. It’s not crazy that we’re not chilling.
Honestly, it’s almost an honor. It’s like someone telling you you remind him of your dad. But Norman and I were both very angry that we took the job. We were mad that we had to be there for the amount of time we had to be there. We thought we were getting into something else, and so for those eight episodes we weren’t mad at each other.
We were just mad, and when we butted heads it was a lot. We both wish we had gone back and not taken that job. I think everybody hates Last Comic Standing. I used to hate it because, you know, at serious I was the comedy expert, and people would come in and be like, to watch Last Comic Standing, Do you see so and so? And I’m like, yes, so and so is hysterical for forty seconds.
I understand why you think so and so is hysterical for forty seconds.
And then I would illustrate even stupid Johnny Mack can be hysterical for for…
The example I used to use is a line I later heard Dave Chappelle say, and I later heard President Trump say. I would say something so out of character for me, so vulgar, that people would be so shocked and laughed, and I’d be like yeah, and I would point out I didn’t even tell a joke there. I just said something shocking and you laughed at it. Anyway, Last Comic Standing nobody liked that show. Cracked asked Anthony, what makes you a difficult person.
He said, I’m not the friendliest. You can work with me and think he was totally professional. He was great, but I don’t really have a sense of who he is. We didn’t really hang out. I’m not trying to bond with everybody.
Let’s just be professional and do our jobs. People on the road with me are like, he’s professionally, he does his jock. We don’t hang out much, but I’m not mean. Norm wasn’t mean. It was just aloof And when you’re trying to go and connect with that becomes difficult.
When the two of us going back and forth on stage. I was looking forward it and he was not, and that was difficult. Why don’t you want to hang out? Dan Denny? There’s a lot of comedians who said is the least important thing of their night.
It’s the hangout. It’s who you’re gonna see. We’re gonna go to this other club. Watch someone else said, I’m not doing that. I’m never gonna do that.
I’m like, I’m gonna do my work and go home. That’s the job to be. The fun part is the writing. Even before I stopped drinking, I was never a go out person. I don’t want to meet people after the show.
I want to get back to my room, relax, read a book. That’s the job. Would he ever just become a writer? He said, I love being up there. Obviously there’s an adrenaline that comes from that.
Also, these are my jokes. Most people wouldn’t tell them not just wouldn’t tell them the way I tell them, They wouldn’t tell them at all. Early in my career, if Sarah Silverman had said, I want to buy you for life, just write jokes for me, I would have happily done that watching her tell my jokes. If I thought a joke was great, Sarah Silverman always thought it was great. Jimmy Kimmel always thought it was great and did his best to do it.
I would have been happy writing for them for a while. Anyway, was in my twenties when I wrote for them jokes here and there, but I enjoyed that. When you get into Jimmy Falln, it’s not a knocking a inint Jimmy Faun. But Jimmy Fallon couldn’t tell my jokes. He wouldn’t have the job he has today if he told any of them.
The editor points out. Jessainnick was hired to write on Late Night with Jimmy Foun in two thousand and nine. Someone says, I hate the travel, I hate the sound check, but I love being on stage with a thousand people were there to communally laugh at this darkness. That’s something that I’ve grown into and I wouldn’t want to give it up. NBR spoke to DJ Dimmers.
He has hearing loss and says he doesn’t want to be the hearing aid guy to reach others in the deaf community. DJ Demmers is often joined on stage by a sign language interpreter, Jennifer Lees, has interpreted many of his shows. DJ says without his hearing aids, he’s considered deaf when he takes them out to sleep at sketchy hotels, he jokes, I’m very easy to murder, and since hearing aids aren’t waterproof, pool parties are a nightmare, and I’m not very good at marco polo. This is funny. He’s a new dad.
People warn him to be ready for a lot of sleepless nights and he jokes, it’s been pretty chilled. Loved eltmore, but got this damn disability, you know. Interpreter Jennifer said, I’ve seen concerts with interpreters from music, and I’ve seen lots of spoken word stuff, but comedy definitely there was a gap there for deaf and hard of hearing consumers who just want to be able to go out to yuk yuks in one of the other comedy chains. And have some fun. Nobody’s ever talked about hearing loss in a funny way, you know, people very rarely talk about it at all, never mind with an incredible insight into how awkward and strange communication can be.
Demer said, if I really leaned into being the hearing aid guy, I could capture that market. But at what cost? I have to explore more beyond it just to be artistically fulfilled, all right. The folks over at late night are noticed during a broadcast of aew Dynamite Wrestling on TBS that somebody was holding a sign that said bring Tunsis back for SNL fifty. You may recall the sketch on SNL tune Sis the cat who could drive a car.
It was the same joke over and over, never not hilarious. Tunsis Spoilers was a cat who could drive a car? You’ve had thirty years spoilers. At the end of every sketch we would learn that the cat cannot drive very well and the car would always crash. They would use the same piece of footage every time.
Look on the driving reached the hurtles. The dude with the sign is Jose Echeveria. He said, I see a lot of pop culture signs about yesteryear at aw shows. We haven’t seen Tunsus on SNL since ninety three, so I felt Tunsis was the way to go. I thought about making a Simpsons reference, which I’ve done in the past at a w W B Rass show.
But a year ago I saw somebody on social media repost a Tunsa’s Giff Jiff. I say, Giff, send me a letter, and that’s what got the juices flowing you Jiff. People are insane. It’s a hard g look at the word. Robert Smigel recently said on Mark Malkoff’s Late Night Or podcast, a Fantastic podcast, Michael said, I have to admit I was obsessed with Tunss.
I was obsessed with particularly the opening credits where they used the live cat and they had the two arms operating the steering wheel. I mean, I’ve never seen that done before. Eagle Wit is one of Vulture’s comedians. You should and will know Wor Showever, I did a show at Jamaican restaurant where they would pay us in food. I’ve done it a few times and it was always a somewhat impossible show.
This particular night was so bad. They gave us food and money because they felt bad about how rough the show was. Biggest financial hurdle you’ve encountered since being a comedian. We used to get dollar slices in between open mics, and a fellow comedian would put hot sauce on the slices because it was almost like getting a Pepperoni slice, but didn’t cost pepperoni money. He was right.
I used to go home every night and eat ramen with canned peas and tuna, sometimes corn. What comedy hill? Will you die? On? Social media is good for the business side of comedy, but terrible for the art of comedy.
And I’m not just talking about the crowd work thing. I don’t believe material gets enough time to develop In this sprint era of comedy. Quality over quantity used to matter. Bring that back when it comes to audiences. I don’t think they have to change the thing.
I think them being more sensitive will just make the best comedians smarter writers. I’m happy they’re more sensitive. It brings out the best in me. I can’t be lazy with my pen. Best comedy advice, worst comedy advice.
Best. Derek Gaines told me to never play to the back of the room. A lot of comics try to make the other comics laugh focus on the crowd. Sam Jay told me, if my only source of income is stand up, I won’t let myself take the type of risks I would take if it wasn’t my livelihood. When your whole livelihood is stand up, there’s a small voice in your subconscious saying if I bomb, it might not get booked again, So he takes smaller risks.
Roy Wood Junior told me to keep the word diabolical in one of my jokes. It sounds simple, but he followed up by saying, never stop letting them know just how messed up white people are. Where it’s like that are cutting in sharp diabolical Monda Carlo. It’s told me to keep doing the style of stand up I do and eventually the industry will come around. It’s probably a whole bunch.
I’m forgetting. My comedy OG’s have always been good to me. Worst advice I ever received not to do comedy the way I do it. And that is your comedy news for today. If you enjoy the program, tell a friend about it.
Hopefully they’ll also enjoy it and hit follow on one of their apps that’d be kind of groovy. See you tomorrow,