Month: July 2025

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Full Transcript

Caloroga Shark Media. Hello there, I’m Johnny Mack with your Daily Comedy News right into the holiday weekend. Craig Robinson, you know him from the office. He announced he’s stepping away from comedy to pursue quote something bigger. He uploaded a clip to social media saying, Hey, everybody, just wanted you to hear it from me.

I’m quitting comedy, but not for nothing. It’s been an amazing run and you’ve all been amazing and wonderful. But I’m following something bigger. So thank you so much. I love you and stay tuned.

In a caption alongside the reel, he wrote, life update, I’m officially quitting comedy to focus on my true calling. Stay tuned. I’m working on something huge. On Instagram, he posted, Hey guys, big shout out to all my small business owners. Hey, you guys, got any advice for me?

While I’m trying to get my business afloat? I hit a few bumps on the road and I sure would appreciate your guys tips. Thank you. So we’ll say, is this for real? Is it a marketing stunt?

Is he promoting something? I’m not sure if you were promoting something you would do it into July fourth weekend. But then again I am talking about it. The folks at the Berkshire Eagle went to see John Mulaney’s current tour. That tour called mister Whatever.

Some spoilers here if you’re planning on seeing Milany. The Berkshire Eagle writes, there’s still the classic affable Millenie. Of course, his flashing eyes and expressive face still accentuated every joke. His roster of impressions, including a raccoon and the President, still shimmered, especially an affected Boston accent that evoked my own grandmother. His physicality still stocked the stage.

From kicking down a door and looking up to it would be kidnappered or rising up from a bed like something out of the Exorcist. But there was a tinge of cruelty now in some of his jokes. They still went down easy, but more than a few deliciously burned the back of my throat. Maybe it was always there and the kid who tortured a diner with Tom Jones, but out in the open it felt subversive and exciting. Take hiss cathartic, ultra personal tear down of Jeff Bezos or a shark tank pitch for a service to beat up the elderly abusive dads that made us feel like we were in a group with him.

Less successful was that exorcist routine, a bit too long and a bit too reliant on the gimmick of a sweary lucifer, but prefaced as it was with a trigger warning and representing such a stark, shocky departure. I wondered where the awkwardness was the point. M’laney said, I’ve tried to explain your parents that I’m not the good of a guy, but they won’t listen. Mister whatever felt unfinished loose. Themes of age and family recurred, but there was no central theme.

As in his past show, Some anecdotes, like seeing an aging Frank Sinatra on that steamboat, cried out for more smoldering detail. Often Malini dangled a punchline so temptingly that we knew it, but still found a way to dodge expectations. Seeing an early show of this tour, it seemed that whole sections lives accordingately to this principle, just waiting for him to make the connections. Sary, that’s totally fair if it’s early to tories working out a new hour. Sounds like it was a good show.

I saw on threads. Somebody put this in my thought, and the next time I attempt to break out a half ass impression of John Mulaney, I think this is the key. Somebody said they can’t unhear on the B fifty two s I could love shack that. Frend Schneider sounds like John Mulaney, and I’m like, oh yes, And now I can’t unhear that because I keep thinking I’ve got me a car. It’s as big as a well, right, yeah, that might be the way into a half ass John MULLENIY Gianmarco Soresi RESSI does a pretty good one.

When he was a guest on this show, he broke that out and he kind of did a very good Mulleni. Taylor Tomlinson spoke to Evoke Ireland. She explained part of giving up what was it called sorry, holiday weekend networking after midnight is what it was called, right, She said, it’s a tough schedule to film a TV show Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and get on a plane Thursday morning and go to different cities to do stand up and then fly back Sunday night and go back to a lot on Monday. So it’s just a schedule that felt unsustainable to me. It was a great experience, and the team that I got to work with was just exceptional.

Everybody was so good at their job, and I had some really, really lovely people. But I didn’t think I could keep doing the show and stand up. There’s been so many great moments, but something had to give. I understand that early in my career, I was working at the radio station daytime and on a TV show at night. And the TV show money was good, but I had a new house and a new wife and a pool, and I was getting home at ten pm exhausted, and I was like, it’s just not worth the extra money.

I’m not enjoying my life. Taylor said, with the schedule it made it very difficult to date because all day, every day, just hanging out with the most successful comedians and them making me laugh. She has now decided to prioritize stand up and said, I’ve been doing this for half my life, and as soon as I started doing stand up, I was like, Oh, this is what I want to do, this is who I want to be, and this is where I want to be. When I took the TV job was very clear. I always said stand up is my first priority, and as long as I can do both, I’ll do both.

But if anything interferes with stand up too much, I have to prioritize stand up a new topic. In the same interview, Taylor always makes sure she checks with her family before making a joke about them. She says, you don’t have to, but I do. I think it’s the polite thing to do. I don’t think it’s worth ruining a relationship just for a couple punchlines, so I tried to run jokes past people first.

My friend’s family et CE Jimmy O Yang partnered with Hong Kong Tourism to tell good stories of Hong Kong. He shared a video on social media featuring some of Hong Kong’s most iconic tourist attractions. It showed him trying Chinese barbecue pork at a local restaurant, visiting the man Mo Temple and Shang Wuan, going to a cocktail bar, and riding the cable car on Lantu Island to see the Big Buddha. Jimmy speaks both English and Cantonese, and the clip and says that’s why you gotta love Hong Kong man. All in one place.

We saw the mountain, in the ocean, the Buddha. We eat the best at barbecue w Camal Bell’s new show is called Who’s with Me? He caught up with Kuow. Bell said, I feel like my assignment is to be clear about who I am, what I believe, and then ask you’re with me or you’re not with me. If you’re with me, yay.

If you’re not with me, fine, then we’ll be over there. Let me be clear. I’m team World Peace all day long. But the type of comedian I am, there’s no shortage of things to talk about. So in that sense, there’s a lot of gris for the mill, but I wish the mill didn’t have so much grist.

My audience is automatically more conservative than people realize because I was on CNN for seven years in despite what people think, CNN is not a left leaning political network. It’s maybe middle of the road, maybe center right network. I hear people. I don’t agree with everything you say, but I’ve learned a lot. I really appreciate the way you talk about this stuff.

I don’t have any issue talking to those people on an individual, one to one basis. It’s when they get into their team sport bag of like the president is my avatar. That’s what it becomes like, I really can’t talk to you right now. To me, there were a lot of people who’ve realized I’m not a Democrat, but I’m not what this is, and I can talk to those people. On Gossip Corner we found out why Adam Sandler was over at Montclair High School.

He’s filming a movie. An actor who declined to be named said she was playing a teacher in untitled Roommates Project. A casting call production sheet was seeking actors to portray students through August twelfth. Untitled Roommates Project is a Netflix production by Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions. A young man who’s thirteen years old so I won’t give his name, had watched the filming from behind a fence and said, I see this graduation that’s going on.

It looks like they put a load of effort in when it looks really nice, all the clothes, the suits that everyone’s wearing, the uniforms. Another young man, also thirteen, said I’ve seen him playing basketball just on the street. Happy Gilmore two is on Netflix. A July twenty fifth.

Speaking of Adam Sandler, Hey Alma caught up with Josh Gonoman, who asked, Jo…

Now? If he’s smart, Josh Gonoman said, Uncut Gems, the Basketball one, and say fifty first Dates. Those would be the top three if you’re correct here. But Josh Gonoman said, oh, this is such a good question. I gotta have Josh han We got to fight this out.

I think Punch Drunk Love for the one dramatic movie. I think Happy Gilmore is in the top three. Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison occupy a similar space in my heart mine too, just not the same as yours. Josh Gonoman, I’m trying to think of another era of Sandler I’d like to represent. Hold On, I’m gonna pull up his IMDb.

Okay, I’m gonna go a little bit off the menu. I’m gonna go with his first Netflix special, one hundred percent Fresh. I’m also going to give a shout out to his albums. My friend and I had his comedy albums when we were way too young and they were so dirty. We’d see the movies which were PG thirteen and Him on SNL, and we got these filthy comedy albums.

My friends and I were like probably ten to twelve years old and would have to listen to them in the woods on a boombox so no grown ups would hear them. And one by one all my friends who had bought them or see them as gifts had them confiscated by parents because they were so dirty. It was like an extremely formative comedy part of my youth. Yes, Adam Sandler comedy targeted at ten year olds exactly. The Cheerful Earful Comedy Podcast Festival returns this October.

They are expanding it. It’s going to be three cities across three continents. It is now in its fourth year. The fifteen day Festival will host over fifty live shows in London, Melbourne and New York City. Now, out of those three locations, if you said, John, do you want to go to this?

I’d be like, I do want to go to it. Do you want to get to the one in New York City? No? I hate traveling in New York City. It’s a pain in the neck.

It’s actually easier to get to London because I drive to Newark Airport and get on a plane. You want me to cross the Hudson River, are you insane? As much as I’d like to go to London, I’d really like to go to Melbourne. What a great city that is. I had a great time there, so I will rank them a Melbourne, London, New York City.

But I digress. In London, the Bedford is the festival hub. In New York City the caveat and in Melbourne stupid old Studios. And that is your comedy news for today. If you enjoy the program, please tell a friend about it.

They might like it too. If you’d like to program without commercials or fee drops. As a way to do that, you can subscribe to Caloruica Plus. If you’re on Apple Podcasts, click that banner that says uninterrupted Listening. For five bucks a month, you’ll get this show, five Good News Stories, which I also host, and a bunch of others on the network, all commercial free.

This Sunday, We’ve got Crown and Controversy coming out. That is a spinoff to our Palace Intrigue podcast. Season one of Crown and Controversy, we’ll take a look at the courtship of Kate Middleton, and Prince William. If you’re not on Apple Podcasts, link of the show notes, Calierga dot com, slash plus, and that’s your comedy news for today, see tomorrow, and now stick around for this interview our sister. I’m going to bring forward and yours and give it to you now.

And he said, oh wow, that’s great, thank you. That’s so generous of you. Car that’s great. But his wife, my sister in law, went ballistic. She said, this is too much money, this is wrong.

I don’t want anything to do with and stormed out of the room. And I thought, well, that’s not what I expected. Oh my god. So I realized from that that this was not an easy thing to do. So I learned a lesson from that, and I knew that I had to do this authentically.

I had to do it right, otherwise it was not going to work. So that happened.

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And then the third thing that happened was that I was looking at my financial…

It was sitting there. I mean, it was growing, making profits and so forth, but it wasn’t being used. I wasn’t using it for me. I wasn’t using it for things that I really cared about, not for my people. So I thought, well, if I have all this money now, why should I wait until I die?

Why don’t I bring it forward?

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And then it was a long process for me to come around to that, but that’s what…

Now. Let’s back up just a bit. Tell us a little bit about your new book. What is the Happiness Experiment. Well, this is a recording of the real events with real people who I decided that I would bring forward the inheritance the money I had for them in my will and made it a prequest, so it was a chunk of money that they were going to get.

Well, they were still young enough to enjoy it, and I was still alive to see it happening. So I saw what they were doing. So when I sat down with them, I talked about money and happiness and how one can cognect and I said, look, I’m going to bring this forward to give it to you, but what I want from you is a plan so you use this money, so it’s really a big benefit for you. I don’t want this to overwhelm you. And they said what kind of plan?

I said, I want a happiness plan, and they said, a happiness plan? What’s that? So so you know, nobody has seems to have a happiness plan, but it’s one of the most important plans you can get, and it doesn’t have to be a very complex What is it that makes you happy? What values do you want to pursue? You know, what goals and dreams do you have, and you can pursue them.

And so I got them to write a happiness plan.

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And then when I saw the plan, I gave them all the money all at one time, and …

I saw all their plans, what they did, and how they became happier, and so you know, that had to be written about so because I wanted other people to see what they did so that they too could do the same thing. Which prequest is the most unique one you’ve come across. Well, it was a very very painful and sad story because two dear friends of mine had a beloved daughter and she was hit head on by a drunk driver and killed. She happened to be eight months pregnant at the time, so that killed the granddaughter too, and also their daughter. They were totally totally wiped out, devastated, and they died emotionally.

They had decided that they could never be happy again. It would be wrong to be happy. They didn’t deserve to be happy because their darling daughter had been killed. Tremendously painful, awful, awful story. So they were grieving six years later and I met with them and I told them how much they had added to my life and how much I was so grateful to them, and that I wanted to express the gratitude.

And I put them in my will and they could accept that. And I said, but I want you to have it now, and they said, oh no, no, we can’t accept it. They turned it down. They turned it down. Well, we worked, and I said, look, I’m leaving it open.

So several months later, I think his wife persuaded him to do it, actually, you know, and you know, so they said, okay, we’ll do it, because if we’re going to wait until you die, why not do it now. And they did it. And it wasn’t the money. Interesting now, they said, it was the coaching that made the big difference, that changed their mind their mindset from being so negative. You know, we’ll never be happy again.

We don’t deserve to be happy. And the coach turned there thinking that mindset around and said, look, you know it can be you can be happy again. And they started to get the mindset of happy people.

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And now you cannot believe what these people.

They’re traveling all over the world. They’re in Tahiti right now. They climbed Killimungarrett. These people are loving life. And it was a major change.

That is one of the most heartfelt, wonderful results of the And in a sense, she said, the wife said, this prequest changed or saved my life because we were no longer living, we were dead, and this brought us back to life. Yeah, I mean dealing with grief and many of us have. I have. You know, when you’re in those depths, it’s really it can be really difficult to find your way out of it. And you know, often it looks like there isn’t a way out of it, and you know, sometimes you want to map, right, and it looks like this concept could be a good map for you, if there’s like it was for these folks.

I always like to end interviews by asking is there anything that I didn’t ask that I should have. How can my listeners benefit from this book? What should they do? What would be good for them? And so I’ll answer that question.

First off, think about happiness, Think about being happiness. Do you you deserve to be happy? And you can be happy, but you have to make it as a choice. I’m going to increase my happiness just that if you make that Realistically, I want to and I’m going to increase my happiness that choice.

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And then talk to people about it.

Talk to a husband or wife, or a girlfriend or a friend, a therapist or coach, talk to somebody about it and say, look, I’m made the decision that i want to be happier, and I’m like you to help me create a happiness plan and then work on it. And it’s not that hard, but it is. It is challenging, but it’s a wonderful exercise. And if they do it, I guarantee they will increase their happiness. I guarantee it.

Carl Barney is the author and the book is called The Happiness Experiments, A Revolutionary Way to Increase Happiness. Carl. Where can people find the book? Wherever books are sold, and it’s now available for pre order from Amazon and they can go to the Happiness Experiment dot com and they can pre order it there, and I hope they will. Carl, thanks so much of the time.

I really appreciate it. Yeah, thank you Dan. It’s been fun.

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Full Transcript

Caloroga Shark Media man Aaron Johnny Mack with your Daily Comedy News. Hope your holiday weekend is going well. I’m having a good one. Hitting some beach time for sure, and I’m not doing that poolside. I heard from friend of the show, Scott Beckett, who was worried that I wasn’t getting enough beach time in and I explained him it was sixty five degrees in raining until about June twentieth here in the Northeast.

But a great weekend. Hope you’re enjoying it. Like I said yesterday, it’s light, so we’ll take it a little easy this weekend. But today I will compare it to just get in the middle lane, drive sixty five, hit the cruise control, just steer and listen to the radio. That’s what we got going today, and then we’ll wrap back up tomorrow with more of a regular show.

The twenty twenty five Lost Culturistas Culture Awards categories and nominees have been revealed. Why not this thing is a lot of fun. It gets bigger and bigger every year. This year, the fourth annual Lost Culturista’s Culture Awards are coming to Bravo TV Tuesday, August fifth, nine to eleven Eastern time. It’ll be on Peacock the next day as well.

The awards celebrate culture’s most iconic and consequential moments of the year. With more than one hundred unique award categories, live musical performances, and unexpected celebrity guests, The show brings culture’s most crucial moments to life. Some of the categories most Iconic Building or structure Okay, you’re ready. Even nominees are Universal Helios, Grand Hotel, the Gobi Tent at Coachella, the Coney Island Cyclone, Luman Headquarters from Severance, and the Mirror House from Abercadabra in the Lady Gaga SNL performance. That’s wonderful.

Let’s say most iconic. I’d have to say the Coney Island Cyclone, best Vibe. The nominees are Japan, the Spirit Tunnel on the Jennifer Rodson Show, Top Chef Canada, Seth Myers, and musician Doci hmm. Never been to Japan. Uh, I’m a big fan of Seth Myers.

I’m notough familiar with Dochi’s music. I’ve never seen Top Chef Canada and not really know the Jennifer Hudson’s show, I’m Gonna pick a pan. Nominees for best Breakfast include egg McMuffin, yogurt and berries, a banana crabcake, benedict or just a black coffee. I’m actually intermint in fasting. I’m gonna pick that.

Best Lunch, the nominees are half soup tomato, half salad, Caesar, fries in Caesar, half soup tomato, half grilled cheese, American preda Manger the UK version, or a free best Lunch. I’m going to pick fries in Caesar. Best dinner chicken parmesan, Korean food, todd egg quote, I actually heard the burger is really good here forty six dollars, or you get home in your new lover cook for you again. So far are they amazing? I’m gonna pick chicken palm.

Best Beverage, the nominees are Doctor Pepper, whole Milk, Martini that you order by saying filthy with way too much sauce, Big Airport, Assentia or Celsius hands down, Doctor Pepper. Best Gift for Dad, the nominees are golf, a rather nice pen, an Apple watch, and Evergreen Ticket to the Sphere. In Las Vegas, or a book about war that he already owns. I will say, get me an evergreen ticket to the sphere only because I already have an Apple Watch, and we’ll do one more. You get a vibe for what this is about.

This is the Woman of a certain age ward. The nominees are Jenna Ortega at twenty two, Dane, Helen Mirren at seventy nine, Queen Elizabeth the first Betty Boop, or Winona Rider, and they tagged on Winona Rider the age of Innocence. I’m not sure what that means. I’m gonna play it safe here. I’m just gonna go Helen Mirren looks really good in Mobland at age seventy nine, so I’m picking Helen Mirren.

Let’s move on, Like I said, Middle Lane Cruise Control sixty five. That’s what we’re doing today. Guys from Boston dot Com. They caught up with Josh Gomdoman. The discussion came up to the modern Seinfeld.

Remember that social media account, Josh explained. My friend Dan always said, and it’s true. If they had cell phones, you’d lose half the episodes, I thought, But think of all the episodes you’d gain because it’s not just we can’t just find each other in this movie theater. It’s the etiquette of using the technology. I tweeted a couple from my own account.

My friend Jacqueline was like, this could be something We started at Seinfeld today. We were both plugged in on comedy Twitter and media Twitter. It blew up overnight. We stopped doing it in twenty fifteen when we got too busy, but it was a great calling card. It opened a bunch of doors.

His favorite plotline one was something like Jerry had to break up with his girlfriend because her phone automatically connected to Newman’s WiFi. One of the earliest ones was like Elaine’s neighbor and makes his WiFi pass word an insult about her after they break up so the whole building will see it. That is pretty good, Josh said. It was one of the first things I got into where I thought, oh, this is what the grown up world is like. Obviously it’s not really, but in some ways it kind of is.

I grew up with this swarped sense of how much scheming and machination is required to be an adult, just because of how much George Coustans inform my lens on the World. I gotta get Josh on the show. He was in GQ as a Duncan clothing influencer. You’re a noted hardcore Duncan fan. Gotta talk here, Josh said, Okay, I have several pairs of dunk and adjacent sneakers.

I have to have him on now because I also have an item to tomorrow where he’s talking about adam Is Sandler movie, So right there, I could just do two topics and let him go. The ones you’re talking about where they’re collabed with Sogny for the Boston Marathon. I don’t wear them much because I could never replace them. Dude. I’ve got a pair of Jones Beach Edition Nikes the same reason.

I’d barely ever wear them, and I paid like two hundred bucks for them, but I just had to have them, and they just sit there every now and then I bust them out. Josh says, I also have a pair of new balances that have Duncan colors, not an authorized collaboration, just coffee brown with the pink and orange on the end. And I have a pair of Airmax nineties and dunkin colors they wanted sale I was like, I’m going to get a second pair of when I run through the first. Josh, do people ever give you our time about leaving Boston for New York? Josh said only once.

I was opening for John Oliver at the Wilburn twenty fourteen. I said to the crowd, it’s very meaningful for me to be here with you. This will always feel like home. I got a nice round of applause, and then I said, oh, I did move to New York City three years ago because I wanted to be happy and successful. I got boot and booed, and I said, no, you’re not allowed to boo.

You could also leave if you wanted those things. Goodwill hunting is in science fiction. I got boot and booh. My next bit got a little applause and said, no, you’re ready decided to wear against me. I don’t want your applause.

Eddie Peppertone has a new special. It is called The Collapse. It is executive produced by Patton Oswalt. It’ll be out on Veeps July seventeenth, and as a comedy album August fifteenth. Patton Oswalt says Eddie Peppettone is the Pixies of modern comedy, working class but aching for utopia, quiet and then loud, and then quiet again, willing to take the twistiest route to the most uncomfortable, hilarious truth.

His audiences don’t just laugh, they erupt in cackling disbelief that Eddie sang the things he’s saying. Chilean comedian Fabrizio Capano will have his first English language comedy special, From the Future, that One through the eight hundred Pound Guerrilla on July fourteenth. In From the Future, Capano talks about identity, fatherhood, and cultural whiplash, capturing humor in the rhymes from the immigrant experience, millennial parenting, and the absurdity of living between two cultures. Copano became a US citizen soon after completing the special and said, maybe I should make sure I can actually stay in the country. Some other stories while we’re on cruise control here.

Aaron Berg will take over as co host on the SDR Show podcast. He replaces Big Jay Ogerson. Matt Friend got a nice wax job from People magazine. Seems like the PR department at Rewards Platform built work something out for some good mentions in People. Matt was out there hawking for Built Neighborhood Comedy and said comedy shows are always the same thing to drink minimum.

There’s kind of mediocre food. You see the same kind of lineup. We wanted to create sort of a party like atmosphere, and it’s exclusively for BUILT members. The next events are July sixteenth in Brooklyn July twenty third in Chicago. They did one in December at a Brooklyn pizza spot.

Matt Friend said, Anne Hathaway and her husband were there, which was very cool. I don’t think anyone really called her out. I think she was very incognito. That was cool. People tells us the gigs have attracted folks like Marcelo Hernandez, who probably showed up and did that one thing he does really well, Mark Norman, and Roywood Junior.

Now, my Friend says, every comedian is hitting me up trying to get in on one of our shows. Matt Friend’s title is Built Director of Neighborhood Experience. He’s trying to highlight up and coming talent, he said, I mean I’m up and coming. I just turned twenty seven, so I’m young, but I’m also now in a position with bills to be able to help discover new people and bring them into this network. It’s very very cool.

Apparently John Stamos and Hank Azaria are friends. He’s quote unquote particularly close with unquote them, and they’re kind of a big mentor father figure entertainment people in my life. Let’s do this one. Since Americans probably aren’t listening today. For the Edinburgh Fringe, the Guardian looked at twenty shows to see this summer, let us pick it.

Some of the names we might know here as Yanks who aren’t listening. You’re contradicting yourself. John Jacqueline Novak is there, The Guardian writes. It’s hard to think of a stand up so indelibly associated with one hit show as Novak. But what a show?

You know? That one? It was Get on your Knees, The Guardian writer described as Get on your Knees, Blue Global and then Netflix audience is away. Okay, I see what you did there, Guardian. Now we discover what else has the New Yorker gotten her Locker Monkey Barrel is Jackie’s new show July thirtieth to August twenty third.

Michelle Wolf is over there, The Guardian writes. Not many people have landed glove on Trump and Crewe since the Donald became president Wolf did. Whether this week long fringe delivery is a political comedy or something homeler about new parenthood remains to be seen. She’ll be the Pleasant Courtyard from August eleventh through the seventeenth. Reees Darby the Legend returns his stage performances silly symphonies of antique, mime and sound.

His new show revives that stick after thirteen years to address the specter of AI. He’s also at the Pleasants Courtyard August first of the tenth. Rosie O’Donnell at the Gilded Balloon for ten days in August she will debut her recent relocation to Ireland and a bunch of other shows. You can find that on the Guardian dot com. And that is your comedy news for today.

All right, we’ll ramp things back up tomorrow as everybody gets back to work. Unfortunately, only sorry to crush your groove there. I enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend. I’ll see tomorrow

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Full Transcript

Caloroga Shark Media. Hey there, Johnny Mack with your Daily Comedy News. It’s a quiet one. It’s a Saturday after July fourth. I did do a new sweep on Friday morning, and it’s a little light.

So think of today like the day after Thanksgiving. Let me make you a turkey sandwich and I’ll heat up some mashed potatoes in the microwave and tell you what I’ve got for you. Okay, you understand where I’m coming from here today? Yep. In Philadelphia, Max Tavern, the old city bar and restaurant known for its ties to it’s always sunny in Philadelphia, it is closing down after fifteen years on Market Street.

They posted on Instagram at the bar part owned by Rob Mack and Caitlyn Olsen, it’s closing. They thank supporters. They did not give a reason for the closing. The bar. On the Instagram post said when we open this bar, our hope was to create a welcoming down to earthplace where people could gather, share stories, laugh a little too loudly, and enjoy a drink or two among friends.

What we got was so much more loyal and loving community that made Max Tavern feel like home. Not just to us and the staff, but to everybody who walked through its doors. Though Max Tavern may be closing, our gratitude to you will remain open and overflowing forever. It’s all kinds of interesting, especially the liquor license part, right, So what are they gonna do with that liquor license? Won’t keep an eye on that one.

Rob Mac making a lot of news lately, And you know it’s always sunny in Philadelphia. Is coming back? Let me check the date for you, July ninth. Oh yeah, We’re gonna hear a lot from these guys this week as they drum up attention for the new season. Not sure closing a bar was the best way to do it, but and then again I’m talking about it.

Good news if you like Johnny Carson. They’ve unearthed fifty episodes that haven’t been seen in decades. These will go to Johnny Carson TV, the free ad supported streaming channel that brings the total number of streaming episodes to four hundred and seventy one. These will begin to air on the Corson TV Fast channel today, with a marathon of exclusively new episodes running through Sunday and then again every Weekend in July. Guests include loose Ball, Gilda Radner, Melbrooks, and Muhammad Alli.

Variety caught up with Seth Myers and said they weren’t going to ask him the lorn question because he’s probably sick of the lorn question. Seth said, I’m only not sick of it because I find it incredibly flattering anytime anyone asked me if I take over SNL, mostly because my first five years on SNL, I felt like I was falling into an elevator cheft. So it’s a very nice question for someone who really thought they were terrible at the show. Well, Seth, do you really believe Lauren’s never going to retire? Seth said, I do.

I’m not being glod with that answer. He just loves it so much. If he had a hobby that was like, if I can only get the show off my schedule, I’d start fishing. But that’s not Lauren. This is his first love, and nothing keeps you more young than being surrounded by young people.

Lauren is smart enough to know that. I agree with Seth there. I strongly believe as you age, you need something to do in your life. I enjoy being semi retired. I don’t think i’d ever stop doing anything.

I’ll probably host this podcast until I just physically can’t. Won’t that be fun? Some ninety one year old guy ranting about comedy in Adam Saylor Movies The Only Times asked Steph Toleev. Does your comedy help open the door not just for more great female comics, but comics who are female, who were out there scaring the crap out of anyone and everyone. That’s a great question, Steph said.

I think there are a lot of us. Maybe you haven’t seen a lot of them. I don’t know. If you know Jordan Jensen, she’s incredible. She’s out there giving it to people too.

There’s so many. But I feel like there’s so many women like me, and they just don’t have the platform to openly talk about this kind of stuff. In my meet and greet lines, it’s all women being like, I like these things. I want to say these things, but it’s like they’ve either lived a sheltered life and they don’t feel comfortable, or they’re surrounding themselves with people who don’t like when people talk like that. Nothing I say is like some weird, orpulsive thing.

It’s something gross we’ve all done we’ve all had a bad sex story, we’ve all embarrassed ourselves, we’ve all had really bad one night stands. I’m giving a voice to not even just women, men too maybe feel sheltered and feel like they can’t be their full self. The conversation switched to the LA comedy scene. Steph Toolov said, I think the LA scene right now is amazing. All the main clubs, the bookers are women, and it’s very nice to see that because they’re much more inclusive with a lot more people in the lineups are way more diverse.

You’re seeing a lot of new people who kind of came out of nowhere that are really funny. They’ve been doing comedy for a long time, but now getting the opportunity to be these bigger stages. I don’t know if it’s because I’m on a higher level, but the community feels much more inspiring and much more supportive. That’s awesome to hear. I feel like when I first moved here eleven years ago, i’d go to places like the Comedy Store and I felt like people didn’t want me there.

But now I feel like, even when newer comics come, everyone is so much more supportive and they want to meet people, and it just feels like a community. I don’t know when that happened, but it definitely feels like that right now, which is awesome. I started out here in the alt scene, which I think might be in a bit of a down swing right now because some of the bigger shows are not happening, but I think it’ll swing back again. They asked Steph about hosting the Adult Video News Awards, the AVN Awards. I found myself at the av AND Awards one night.

I think I’ve told the story on the show. We had the giggles because I don’t expect you to know this, but people who know porn movies know that sometimes they have parodies based on real movies. I can’t remember any actual titles, and I won’t make them up here, but we had the giggles as they came out.

And then also, you know, all the categories of best combination of us your im…

And then they gave us a gift. And I got back to the hotel room and opened up the gift and it was a glass thing several inches long. Here’s your imagination, And I’m like, what do I do with this? And I’m not bringing this home. I’m not bringing this on the plane.

So I just left it in a hotel room and I guess the maid wonder what happened with that. Steph said, my buddy was actually one of the writers. Every year they asked a different comedian and they just put my name for it, and that was it. I got it. And I will say that was one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever done in the porn industry.

No matter what you think about it, those people are so genuinely nice. I will agree with that from my experience at the av AND Awards, and they were so supportive, Like for every award, people were getting up and clapping. One of the girls I hosted with her parents were there, Like these Midwestern parents were so happy their daughter was there. Like you’re seeing stuff on screen, you’re seeing the clips that they’re showing you what she’s nominated for, You’re seeing stuff and they were like, ooh, great show, and what a great award show. And I was like, what the heck.

It was really nice to see parents being supportive and I got flashed a lot. Jeff Ross talked about out working with Milton Burl. Burl passed away in two thousand and two, so the stories get some dust done it. Jeff Frost hold at Howard Stern. Milton had giant hands, and every time I got a laugh from behind the podium, he’d poke me in the ribs and I would jump.

And then I kept going and I’m hitting pretty consistently getting good laughs, and finally he’s just interrupting me. I’m killing and he’s interrupting me. Finally I go, Milton, didn’t I see you in an antique shop this morning for a hundred bucks. Milton gets up and starts doing a two man show, and I’m trying to keep up with him. Buddy Hackey yells out, hey, Milton, let the kid work, remember when you used to.

Milton runs down, kisses Buddy Hacket on the lips. The place explodes, and I go, oh, there it is Milton and Buddy over eighty years of homosexual experience, and the place goes wild, and I felt like I’d found my Yankee Stadium moment. I went back to the Friar’s Club afterward. I said to Buddy Hackett, why would Milton do that? And he goes he doesn’t like when other people get a lot of laughs.

He was trying to trip you up. Ross decided to speak to Milton himself and said, I went and had a cigar with him, and I said, Milton, why would he poke me like that? Milton said, remember they only remember the home runs. It means I had too many jokes and had to edit down just the home runs. And even though he was trying to interrupt me and mess me up a little bit, I was like, that’s really good advice.

Milton and I went on to become very good friends. I think he was testing me. Kathy Griffin. You know, Kathy, do I ever come on to hear and tell you a story about Kathy Griffin that’s like, Hey, Kathy Griffin had an awesome day and impetted a pony and said life is great. She’s one of these comedians that we talk about on the show that this just always strife.

Well, Kathy Griffin reveals why she turned down hosting the View. She said, I’m gonna be honest, I had to turn it down because at the time, between doing my life on the D List and touring, I was making about ten million dollars a year. She tried to negotiate with the View. The money the View had wasn’t enough to uproot her life to another coast, she said. She told Barbara Walters, I’m gonna be honest.

This is how much money I made last year. I’ll show you my tax returns. I don’t want you to think I’m blowing smoke. But between moving costs and I’m so entwined with my mom and dad, I have a house in LA just isn’t feasible for me to do. But I want you to hear it directly from me, that all sounds perfectly reasonable.

Apparently Barbara Walters did not like that one bit. She didn’t care up their offered by a penny. I think I might have said something like can you meet me halfway? And they didn’t. But that’s the real story, that all seems fair.

Joe Quasala is the writer and star of a mockumentary called American Comic. It follows two stand ups as they try to navigate the modern comedy world. Joe said, every time he watches a movie or TV show that incorporates stand up that doesn’t look like a comedy club, audiences in a room that size wouldn’t sound like that that wouldn’t get a laugh. So when Joe made his own project, he said he tried to reverse engineer it. By analyzing what doesn’t work.

It would hopefully become clear what to avoid and I could forge my path to success. I thought about my main problems with depictions of stand up comedy and landed on three areas, the setting, the audience reactions, and the material. When one of those doesn’t come across correctly, it all goes south. So I had to nail all three. Among comedians, there might be varying opinions on the ideal setting for a stand up show, but most will agree that intimacy is key.

That means close quarters, low ceilings, the audience’s proximity of the stage and to each other. A lot of comedy clubs are designed with these qualities in mind. And that is your comedy news for two. I hope you’re enjoying the holiday weekend. It’s very very nice weather here in the Northeast, and hopefully everybody has an awesome three day weekend.

I’ve got stuff for tomorrow and I’ll see then.

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Full Transcript

Caloroga Shark Media. Hey there, I’m Johnny mag and we’re halfway through twenty twenty five and it’s July fourth, so I thought today it would be a good day to take a look at what I’m calling the best comedy specials of twenty twenty five so far that I’ve seen. Now, it’s a list, and I always like to preamble, it’s just a list. Don’t get upset. You don’t have to flame me in the comments.

You can disagree. You could say my list is perfect. You can send me a list is stupid. It’s all good. We have a Facebook group where we can discuss this Daily Comedy News podcast group.

It’s just a list. While I’m on the soapbox. A couple things I’ve talked about this in the past, the use of the words special. There was a time, and I’m an old man, now there was a time. What a special was George Carlin on HBO at Carnegie Hall.

That’s kind of special. Now a special might be your friend shot your Tuesday night set at the Chuckle Hut and you threw it up on YouTube and you promoted on social media. Hey, check out my new special. As a programmer, I have always tried to come in at eye level. I was emailing with a friend last week and I said, I try and do Jim Gaffigan more than say Jimmy O Yang, although candidly I love Jimmy O Yang and talking about him.

But the casuals know who Conan O’Brien is. The casuals know who Jim Gaffigan is. So what this list is not is me spending eight hundred hours deep diving YouTube looking for the uncovered gems. No, this is like the mainstream. Here are the ones that they were put in front of you on Netflix and Hulu and HBO and Amazon and the others.

These are the eye level specials, and the ones that I think are even more better than the others. Haven’t seen them all. I haven’t even seen Jim Norton’s new special yet, and I love Jim Norton. Okay, by top tier, the must watches. The funniest thing of the year so far Conan O’Brien’s Mark Twain Prize.

It’s not a stand up special, but in terms of comedy, nothing funnier. The whole hour and a half just totally rocks by a mile. Is It’s the equivalent of the Tom Brady roast from last year. This is like the shiny object in the comedy space. Highly recommend it if you haven’t seen that already.

And the other two things I have in my must watch top tier neither are stand up specials, but they’re from stand up comedians and they’re fantastic. Tom Sigora’s bad thoughts I can’t get enough of. Just please just mainline it into my brain. He could do that totally not Garth Brooks thing all day, every day, and I will continue to laugh at it. It has been renewed for a second season on Netflix.

I am happy about that. The other thing that is fantastic Season two of Shane Gillis Tires. At times it reminds me of the Office at its peak, and I don’t say that lightly. I hope Netflix picks that up again. Shane Gillis he is just naturally funny.

He can be funny just making a face for the camera. Shane Gillis Tires fantastic. Okay, John, get to the stand up specials all right? Well yeah, sure I will. Again, It’s just a list.

Your list is just as valid as mine. Don’t freak out. But here’s the order I have in the top tier of stand up specials. Justin Wilman Magic Lover. Now, is it the funniest thing I’ve ever seen?

No, But in terms of like a guy in a recliner watching an hour of comedy, it is charming as hell. It’s a magic show, but it’s really not a magic show. It’s just a great, solid hour of TV that I’ve been telling people to watch, and so far everybody I’ve put that in front of has been like, Hey, good recommendation, So you want to check out on Netflix. Justin Wilman, Magic Lover. Next up, Bert Kreischer is lucky.

It’s just funny. Kreischer knows his lane, he stays in his lane, and sometimes that’s exactly what you want Bert doing. Burt things fantastic. I really liked Brett Goldstein The Second Best Night of Your Life that’s on HBO Max, the nice solid hour, and I found him just to be nice company. Again, a dude sitting in a chair watching something.

I enjoyed it. Same note on Sarah Silverman’s post Mortem that’s on Netflix. It’s not her funniest, but there’s something just genuinely touching about this one. Sarah of course, a good storyteller and I have it in my notes here. Nice company for an hour.

I really liked him with Tel Lane’s Al Dente that’s on Hulu. You need something light, that’s it. He’s got tremendous energy. And Tim Dillon’s I’m Your Mother on Netflix. I’ve been evangelizing for Dylan for a few years now, and I think he’s kind of hit the mainstream now.

If not, he’s pretty close. Comedy fans definitely know who Tim Dillon is. But a nice, solid hour out of Tim Dillon. Okay, next group, Best of the Rest, drud Carmichaels Don’t Be Gay HBO. Max.

I thought the opening twenty minutes was really strong, stronger than I was expecting, and I was like, oh, I’m in on this one.

And then it kind of flamed out.

And he’s a good storyteller, but I was just like, all right, I’m good here. Roy Wood Junior at Your Age that was back in January on Hulu. Solid Wood knows how to build a bit, deliver a punchline. Totally fine hour. If you’re a casual, if you’re a civilian, put that on.

You’ll enjoy it as a bit of a common I’m like, eh, it was okay Otsko at Cotska’s father. I love Otsco. I do feel her previous special was better than this one. Totally worth your time, but not her best. Ari Shaffer America Sweetheart.

It’s fine Ari Shafir doing Ari Shafir things. Nothing wrong with that. You know what you’re getting. I like Ari Shafir, Gabriel Iglesias The Legend of Fluffy. It’s funny, but it is too long.

Can you guys edit this thing down? I mean part of it. When I sit down and watch a special, if you tell me like it’s like an hour and forty minutes, I’m like, oh man, that’s that’s like a commitment. That’s not just me making that up. Comedians have said that what they’ve been doing in their specials is moving what would normally be their closer up into the first twenty minutes because people have TV add and make it twenty minutes in and punch out.

I know I do that on comedy specials all the time. So you got to make sure your specials not too long these days. One of the best last year was David tel special, which I think was like thirty seven minutes but it crushed, got in, got out done. Mike bro Bigley The Good Life. Civilians are gonna love Mike Berbigleia of the Good Life.

That storytelling style out of Mike specifically hasn’t really clicked with me. I tend to start fidgeting with my phone. If you know what I’m saying, He’s got his audience. I’m not really into it. But that’s a solid special if you’re not a comedy snob.

Jessica Cursons I’m the Man from Hulu. That is another one that I recommend to the civilians. I have a listener to the podcast who text me on the side is like, what should I watch tonight? And that was the one I put in front of him the other day. So check out Jessica Cursons, I’m the Man.

All right, I’ll take the break here and I’ll come back and I’ll talk about a bunch of big names that are not on the list. All right, some other specials that have come out this year that I feel are skippable. I put this out as a sub stack, and within five minutes I was getting text from people going, how did you not like Andrew Schultz’s special? I just didn’t feel the storytelling. I like Schultz, this one just didn’t click with me.

He went for it. I think he accomplished what he wanted to do. Just one idiot in the basement with the podcast and just wasn’t feeling Andrew Schult’s life on Netflix. But I can tell you I got texts about that opinion. That’s fair Again, it’s just a list.

Rosebud Bakers. The Mother Load had the gimmick of switching between a set when she’s pregnant and one from after having the baby. I felt the premise war thin pretty quickly and it was just fatiguing to watch. I punched out on that. Christa Stefano’s It’s just unfortunate.

I don’t want to get flamed in the comments, but I’ve used a word that rhymes with tack for that one. That one who George Lopez mie Katalako I have in my notes horrific. It might be the worst stand up special of all time. George is great, but skip that one and watch his old stuff instead. Eliza Treeger’s Night Owl on Netflix.

I really liked her energy, but I didn’t think the material was there to support it. Eliza Slessinger’s good on Paper was on Amazon. I felt like she wasn’t surfing the crowd, Like the crowd was reacted in such a way that disconnected with how Eliza was performing on the material, and thus it didn’t work. It was like, I have material, I’m going to recite it in this order. In the crowd, you guys can clap or boo or be bored or be silent, and it just there was a disconnect there.

Bill Burr The Drop Dead Year’s Hulu not Burr’s Best. Sorry, I didn’t even make it all the way through. That one. Just out. Recently, Steph Tolev’s Filth Queen too filthy for me.

Now it’s in the title filth Queen. She’s trying to be filthy. She accomplished what she wanted. I could see other people going, I loved it, it was great. It’s just not my cup of tea.

So I personally passed on Steph Filth Queen.

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And then there’s probably two hundred other specials, including your favorite…

But again, it’s just a list, and it’s July fourth. Let’s take another look at this list. In December, usually the stronger specials come out in the second half of the year. That’s been the pattern in the last three years anyway, So we’ll see and we’ll take another look at this list in December. If you would like to come in to join us in the Facebook group, won’t you It’s Daily Comedy News podcast group.

We’d love to know your favorite specials. You can tell me which ones I missed. You can tell me my Andrew Schultz opinion is just plain wrong, and that’s all fair. Like I said several times, it’s just a list, all right. Back tomorrow with a normal episode of Daily Comedy News.

See you then.

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Full Transcript

Callarogas Shock Media. Hello, my name is John McDermott, and let’s pick up where we left off on yesterday’s Daily Comedy News. Rob Mack wants us to call him Rob Mack. Happy to do it, Bro, I still don’t get it. But Rob Mack himself released a video explaining the decision to go by Rob Mack.

I’ll play the whole thing here. There is a couple points where it’s a little bit visual, but when you’re like, what’s going on, he has on the video he’s showing an alternate spelling of his name. Here is Rob Mack. Hai. Okay, I’m going to dedicate exactly one minute to start the car.

Yes, I’m shortening my name to Rob Matt mostly a stage named by I digress is a kind of doucheet. But the amount of time that I have wasted trying to give people to either say or spell my name correctly is literally days of my life, trust me. I added it on. More importantly, it means thousands of you have had minutes of your lives stolen buying me because of my last name, including so it’s a family name, my grandparents, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, and I all share it, and I love them and I want to stay connected their heritage. Except it’s not even really our tame.

Not only have many generations changed its spelling, the current one was just given to my ancestor by a government official who decided that this was now the spell. Quick example my great great grandmother. Oh that’s different. All good. It was a crazy time, but times have changed, and most people already call me Rob Mac anyway.

My family knows me and loves me, regardless of family syllables I have, and that’s the only thing that I really care about. There are so many things going on in the world and this is a silly one to continue to waste your time for it. Honestly, call me whatever you want, Marion, Jerome, archfall Here, Maurice, Stephanie, Francis, Marvin Gordon, or say, but maybe we just keep it, sup one try I Rob back, Let’s see how it goes. Good news, Shane Gillis Tires renewed for season three. That’s fantastic.

I was worried that Netflix was going to netflix this thing and not bring it back, but it is great. You’ll hear me talk about it in tomorrow’s episode, which is the top of funny things of the year so far that I’ve actually seen, and Tires is way up the list. I think Tires at times is like The Office at its best. I know what I just said out loud, but that’s how I feel. Season three of Tires will come out in twenty twenty six.

Part of the original Tires deal, the one that cradd season two, included Shane getting another stand up special for Netflix. Looking forward to that one. His first Beautiful Dogs in twenty twenty three spent two weeks on the US Top ten list on Netflix. All Right, this next story is a little zorik from Pete Davidson. I read this whole thing and I just came away feeling weird.

So there’s Pete Davidson. He’s at the Prudential Center in Newark last weekend with John Stewart and John Mulaney. They’re doing a show, and according to the Post, Pete started talking about his maternal grandfather, sharing with the crowd that the grandfather got the lung cancer and I’m not close with him. I’ll quote Pete here via The New York Post. I’m close with my dad’s dad.

I don’t like my mom’s dad. He used to beat the s out of me, and I don’t like him very much. He’s old school. He’s very Irish. You know those old Irish Jews that are so Irish, they’re like pink.

Right now, I’m reading this very seriously. For all I know, Pete was, you know, being very joky about this. But all I can react to is the text version, because I wasn’t there, and I just come away going like ooh, continuing to read Pete via The New York Post. His veneers are somehow brown. He’s just an old school dude, and he’s dying.

I want to be there for my mom. She’s sad about it. I don’t want to be rude to my mom. I think I have the best mom in the world. I’m very, very lucky.

So I’ve been trying to remember a good time that me and my grandpa had so I could hold onto it. Pete did recall a few positive experiences with that grandpa, including, according to the Post, an inside joke about an internet personality known as cake fart Girl. Back in April, Pete had told People Magazine, I had a really crappy childhood and the worst thing that ever could have happened to me. Happened to me when I was seven. Referring to his father dying on nine to eleven, Pete explained that has altered his mindset over the years.

I’ve kind of been like, ef it, who the f cares? You know? And like if everyone at the end of the day, it’s like family matters, and you’re two or three friends that you have matter. Everybody else can go f themselves and you don’t have to put all this pressure on yourself. This is sort of newer for me, but it kind of shows if you see me now, it’s a little different because I went through something pretty tough.

I just think who cares what? People you don’t even know? Think like, who the f cares? You don’t know them. Pete had told The Real Ones podcast, my dad said he was going to pick me up from school on nine to eleven.

I got picked up by my mom. She didn’t tell me what was going on for like three days. She kept telling me Dad’s at work, he’s coming home whatever. I had no idea, And one night I turned on the TV and I just saw my dad on the TV. I was like, oh, okay, and they were like, these are all the firemen that are like dead.

It was weird because we didn’t know he was dead for like three weeks. They were finding people, you know, they were pulling people out of stuff, and there was just sort of hope. Like it was just up and down and nobody knew how to deal with it. You know, Dad said he’s coming home to pick you up, but he doesn’t for life. I’m like, I don’t believe anyone.

I’m trying to learn how to believe people. In Hollywood isn’t exactly the greatest place to learn that skill. My mom was like thirty, I’m about to be. I wouldn’t know what they have to do. And that’s why as they get older, I’m like, my mom was awesome.

She really loves me to unpack there. I mean, you get it right. You know, Dad says I’ll pick you up after school, and then you don’t know what’s going on. If you were in New York City or the area around nine to eleven, you just remember that whole time. I remember, as I was reading the story, you would see on the news.

Hospitals had all this staging area waiting for the mass casualties to come in, and none did. I was working at WR Radio at the time, and one of our reporters had gone down to the World Trade Center. We hadn’t heard from her for hours and hours, and I happened to be in the hallway when she returned back to work many hours later, and I gave her a hug, and she looked like I was being inappropriate, wanted to send me to HR, and I was like, I’m sorry, I thought you were dead. Very powerful day and honestly not making for a great comedy podcast here. So let’s switch topics.

Bill Burr is developing a half hour comedy at Fox based on the life of Earthquake, the comedian Earthquake real name Nathaniel Strouman. The half hour comedy at FA based on the life of comedian Earthquake will be called Earthquake, Little Kurf fluffel Over. At south Park, the season twenty seven premiere on Comedy Central was originally slated for July ninth. It’s being moved to July twenty third. The delay comes back to south Park’s streaming rights.

There’s some uncertainty over Skydance’s acquisition of Comedy Central’s parent Paramount Global, which co owns the joint venture between south Park, south Park Digital Studios and Trey and Matt. Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, posted on social media, this merger is a stuff show and it’s effing with up South Park. I’m not already grammar there, but we’ll move on. We’re at the studio now working on new episodes and we hope the fans get to see them somehow. Apparently, the show had an exclusive streaming licensing deal with HBO Max worth five hundred million dollars that expired a week ago and has not been replaced by a new exclusive one where multiple non exclusive ones.

Paramount Global wants to be able to stream the show on Paramount Plus. That makes sense. Daven told investors on their earnings call that starting this July, South Park will becoming a Paramount Plus in the US.

Meanwhile, the South Park streaming rights have been streamed to other platfo…

The Hollywood Reporter has told about a letter in which Parker and Stone threatened legal action over what that document claims, including an attempt to get WBD, Warner Brothers Discovery to agree to a shorter five year term deal and to take new seasons of South Park after They’ve had a twelve month exclusive window on Paramount Plus. Boy, there is a lot going on here. Many fans had expected the show to launch on Paramount Plus on July first. That did not happen. It is the third of July.

And this has nothing to do with comedy. When I was a kid, I would go with my parents to Belmont Racetrack and go see the horses, and there was a horse named third of July, and that name always stuck with me, and I always think of that horse on this day. My father put in like a one dollar bet for me on third of July. It was like my favorite horse ever, and I just felt like mentioning it today. Now the horse would have to be fifty years old, and I don’t think horses live that long.

But third of July the horse, I’m thinking of you. On Netflix, they’re going to screen a bunch of classic comedies already up on Netflix, Anchorman and Anchorman, Two Blades of Glory, Cone Heads. I forgot that was actually a movie, Good Burger, Grown Ups, Happy Gilmore, which makes sense with Happy Gilmore to coming out later this month. Animal House a friend of mine, where we were we the other day. I feel like alcohol is involved.

But we just started quoting Animal House. I forget where we were, but I blurted out, wait till ODIs sees us, he loves us Night The Roxbury Old School, The Other Guys, road Trip, Tommy Boy, Wayne’s World, Wayne’s World two, Zoolander starting July eleventh, Threading in Caddie Shack, Groundhog Day, Mean Girls. There’s something about Mary. They came together trading places starting on the eighteenth City Slickers Clue coming to America. So I married an axe murderer.

Stripes. I haven’t seen stripes in a while. I should rewatch that super bad Tommy Boy, Waiting for Guffman, and one of the few rare good Adam Sandlor movies, The Wedding Singer. As listeners to this program, there are what five good Adam Sandler movies. They are uncut Gems, Basketball one, Space Alien one and two with Drew Barrymore, including The Wedding Singer and fifty First Dates.

Not on the list not good movies blended storing Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, and isn’t it romantic? Storing Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. Those are not good movies. There are only five good Adam Saanlor movies, and I just told you what they are. That is your comedy news for today.

Yeah, it’s starting to slow up in two July fourth weekends, and tomorrow I will take a look at the best stand up specials of twenty twenty five so far that I have seen. Then I’m holding on to some news for Monday, so I have Monday’s podcast. As for what I’m doing Saturday and Sunday, that’s a great question, my friend. I love the show and you’ll find out when I figure it out. See you tomorrow.

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Full Transcript

Caloroga Shark Media. Hey there, I’m Johnnie Mack and my Lucky is holding out here. On July fourth week, there’s still comedy news that I have it for you. How about this one? Andrew Schultz has joined the cast of the movie street Fighter.

Remember the video game street Fighter. There’s gonna be a movie and Andrew Schultz is in it. He will play character Dan HIBICKI. Although I’m a big gamer, you know, I have everything from anatory twenty six hundred and ford, all five PlayStations, a couple xboxes. I got a Collegal Vision upstairs.

I’ve got the original NHL game, so I don’t want to hear about NHL ninety four, NHL twenty twenty five. If you want to play NHL Hockey, I’ll go upstairs and get it. However, in the nineties there, you know, I was graduated college, had a little money, had a girlfriend, kind of missed a couple of years of the video game thing, and that’s when Street Fighter was super popular. So I had to look up. I don’t know anything about Dan Hibcky, and I want to make sure I’m pronouncing it right.

I did a little Internet research, which and I have learned first appearing in Street Fighter Alpha in nineteen ninety five, Hibiki is consistently portrayed as an over confident, arrogant, and utterly feeble character Andrew Schultz. In the series storyline, Dan was a student trained by I’m going to get all these names right. Send your letters to me. I don’t know what I’m talking about. All my pronunciations are wrong.

Street Fighter fans, get it. I apologize. Trained by Gokin, the elder brother of Akuma, who also trained Ken and Ru. Go can stop training Dan once he acknowledged the ulterior reasons Dan has in his mind. Dan’s goal is to defeat Segat, who killed Go Dan’s father.

What are you even talking about, John, I don’t know either. Let’s just move on and dumb this down to Andrew Schultz is in the Street Fighter movie. Burt Kreiser not messing around with this free Birch show. Alana newspapers are reporting that the series is shooting at the Sinnispace Studios in Atlanta. The scheduled production dates are July eighth to August eleventh, according to Local four twenty nine of the you Gotta pending here Write this down Local four twenty nine of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, COMMA Moving Picture Technicians, COMMA Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, COMMA its territories in Canada.

That’s a mouthful. What are they? They are the Atlanta Union, representing most of the crew on Bert Kreischer’s upcoming show Free Bert, which, as much as I like Burt, sounds like a lame CBS sitcom. I don’t know about this one, buddy. I’m happy to be wrong, but I don’t know about this one.

Like if we were at the casino and I had a bet on thomsigorre Lt Gray all In, if I had a bet on Free Bert being good, I’m betting against. Sorry, no offense. In case you missed the story over the weekend. In Free Bert, Bert plays a shirtless comedian, party legend, perpetual wildcard. Okay, fine, he’s good at that.

The machine was fantastic. I love the machine. But his two daughters are accepted into an elite private school in Beverly Hills, where his reputation turns the family into outcasts. He tries to put on a shirt and stifle his true self in order to fit in, but naturally it doesn’t work. Now.

I know it’s all like Bert Crazier. But if I told you Kevin James was storing in Free Gems, in which Kevin plays a comedian party legend perpetual wild card. But his two daughters are accepted into an elite private school and his reputation turns the family into outcasts, and he asked his stifless true self in order to fit in. But naturally doesn’t work. If I told you Kevin James was storing in this, you’d be like, that sounds horrific.

And that’s what I’m worried about here, Bert, But you know I will be happy to be wrong. Todd Barry got me wondering is a comedy downturn Coming off the pandemic, comedy has been kind of red hot. Part of that is because everybody who was big went out and played big buildings, and there was pent up excitement to go see people live. And because the big buildings were filled with the big people, some other people had to play smaller venues, et cetera. So there’s been a comedy boom the last couple of years.

But Todd Barry spoke to the pitch Case c and it got me thinking. So the question from the pitch Tutson Berry, how do you feel about the current wave of releasing specials directly to fans through companies like eight hundred pound Gorilla, Todd Barry said, paying an engineering because this is what’s got me worried. Via Todd Barry. Todd said, well, I mean, it’s good to get it out there if you think of it as a calling card or just an advertisement for you. It’s a little different because I used to be able to just get paid to do a special.

I mean, I guess I’m getting paid in a way, but not like I used to get paid. But I don’t know. I mean, I think a lot of people have hit pretty hard from just releasing it on YouTube. Back in the day when people watch TV a little differently, you could say it’s going to be on it this time, whereas with Netflix you can just watch it at your leisure. Same with YouTube.

So it’s nice to be able to say, if you ever want to watch this, this is where it’s going to be. Sounds like he misses the paychecks. I’ve been doing this thirty seven and a half years or whatever. When I started, there was no YouTube. If you did a show that was a one person show.

He’d make postcards for it and have to order five thousand of them, and then you’d have forty two hundred left. But it was an email lists. I think promotion is a big thing that’s changed and people getting famous because there are comics I run into who I think are not even professionals, and then you see they have four hundred and fifty thousand Instagram followers. Just staying on top of it. I find it really difficult.

And I mean when you moved to New York or LA or something. I started in Florida and we weren’t really talking about TV deals or anything. We were just kind of talking about getting gigs and jokes. Josh gonom In told THEFOD dot com. I try not to be disgusting.

There are lots of really funny comedians who are kind of disgusting in what they say, But what you’re seeing are people who don’t yet have the skills to be both disgusting and funny. You can be disgusting without a lot of practice. I think comedy is a learned skill more than an innate talent. When I started, I was very tentative on stage, and I didn’t have super compelling thoughts to share. He worked as a preschool teacher in Massachusetts and began to develop the quote ear to ground nature for examining my own life that allowed him to x ray the every day and find the comedic skeleton underneath got him until the Ford.

I think so much of comedy is just about the noticing. There are so many topics that are really serious, but when you’re close to them, you can see the kind of absurdity. Kevin Ort’s got that show Cold as Balls. You know, Kevin sits in a cold tub. The guest sits in a different cold tub.

It’s like hot ones, but not at all that show. Ravens QB. Lamar Jackson was the guest. Kevin Hard asked what position Kevin could play if he joined the Ravens. Kevin thought he could be a slot receiver.

Lamar Jackson said, we might have you on the sideline. On Gossip Corner, Adam Saylor was seen in New Jersey working on his basketball game. A TikTok video posted over the weekend showed Adam Saylor participating in a two on two with a small group at rand Park in Montclair.

Also on Gossip corner.

Comedian Sean Walsh was mugged in London, his phone snatched out of his hand. He was walking down the street in broad daylight. Sean has used to find my phone and has reported in his phone is now on Huaking South Road in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. He joked, if anybody happens to be in the area, please go get his phone. I mentioned this yesterday from a variety.

Rob Mclelhenny, Rob mclehenny, say it with me, Rob mclelhenny, Say it with me, Rob, Rob, Rob, you got it? Say with me, Rob? Okay. Now say with me mclelhenny. That wants a little hard All right, let’s break it down.

Mackel Henny, all right, let’s practice mackel you say it? Okay? Good? Good job. Now say Henny, okay, good, Jenna put that together.

Macl Henny, all right, let’s put the whole thing together. Rob mackel Henny, you got it, Rob mclelhenny, I say it fast, Rob mclelhenny, okay. Good. You could guest host the show someday. Rob mclelhenny has legally filed in Los Angeles to change his name to Rob mack.

Now, I’m of a couple of minds here. One. I think a person’s name is super important. I try to get people’s names right. Like, for example, I play volleyball with this guy Alex.

The first time I met him, he goes, Hi, I’m Alex. I’ve been calling him Alex. Then I noticed on the roster his name is Alexi, and I said, I can say Alexi. Do you go buy Alexi or Alex? And he’s like, Alex is fine, So fine, I’ll call you Alex, but I’ll also call you Alexi.

So if Rob McElhenny wants us to call him Rob Mack, I’ll do it. But I think Rob is really overthinking this. I’ll give you an example. If you’re in the Facebook group, which is Daily Comedy News podcast group, you may know that my name isn’t Johnny Mack. My name is John McDermott.

It’s not a secret. I’m not hiding it. Why do you go by Johnny Mack. Here’s why, even though it’s my own name. If I go, hey, it’s John McDermott with Today’s Daily Comedy News, the N into the M is very hard to say, even though it’s my own name.

Whereas the hey, it’s Johnny mac roles. I just first discovered this doing college radio at Fordham University in nineteen eighty seven. It’s hard to say John McDermott. Quickly Johnny mack rolls off the tongue and it’s serious. People started calling me Johnny Mack, so I haven’t adopted it as the name I use hosting podcasts.

Rob mcklelhenney. It’s held variety. About a month ago. People already called me Rob Mack or mac obviously from the TV show It’s always on in Philadelphia. It just makes things so much easier.

As Rob Mac’s new company, More Better Industries has gotten global, you know they’re big time soccer magnets now. Rob Mack found that his last name McIlhenny was a constant source of confusion, and he explains that’s why, as our business in our storytelling is expanding into other regions of the world and other languages in which my name is even harder to pronounce, I’m just going by Rob Mack. As I get older, people are more prone to calling me Mac or sir. I just say Rob or Rob Mack, and I find that makes things a lot simpler and easier. People already call me Rob Mack or Mack obviously from the television show That Makes Things Easier, mister mac all, that makes total sense to me.

Again, from Johnny Mack to Rob Mack. Totally get it, bro, But why are you legally changing your name? For example, are you familiar with the singer Paul Hewson. Perhaps not? If I tell you his name is Bono?

Do you know who I’m talking about now? So if you read a newspaper article, it’ll say Bono has a new special ad on Apple TV. You know who that is. He didn’t have to change his name from Paulhuson. Are you familiar with Gordon Sumner?

You may know him as Sting. Same note. Are you familiar with Johnny Mack? Same note? Variety tells us.

Before committing to the change, Rob Mack was worried that he might be disrespecting his ancestry. I did a deep dive into my ancestry, so I was always very proud of the name, which is why didn’t change it at the beginning when everybody was begging me to. That makes total sense. It turns out, as I did my genealogy, my last name has been changed, so many times. As late as the sixties, there was an offshoot of the Mcalennies that changed our name.

And it’s not like everybody was so precious about it. Prior to nineteen sixty five, my brother said, I was actually considering running for government in Culver City and I was going to be Pat Mac. Mac’s sister Katie revealed, literally every person in the world calls me Katie Mack again. I’m Johnny Mack. I get it, but I’m not legally changing my name.

That’s the part I don’t understand why. Rob Mack’s wife, Kaitlyn Olsen say that their teenage children aren’t on board. Caitlin said earlier this year, the kids are really not happy about it because they have that last name, and so do I leally. I don’t know. I don’t know.

I don’t get it. I have a similar problem. I’m not near famous, but I found a solution. Just call yourself Rob Mack and leave the paperwork alone. I don’t understand why you’re changing it anyway.

That’s Study Staley Comedy News. I’m John McDermott. See you tomorrow.

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Full Transcript

Caloroga Shark Media an Aram Johnny Mack was your Daily Comedy News. So far, so good for what’s traditionally a slow week. Dave Chappelle was in Abu Dhabi on Friday night and he started talking about Donald Trump’s handling of the Israel Iran conflict. Dave said, Trump, I don’t know about this guy. Can’t tell if he’s gonna do good or not.

What a week you guys must have had over here in the Middle East. Trump wrote that we did a meticulously perfect attack. We’ve disabled a nuclear facility.

And then at the end of the post, he said, and now is the time for peace.

Word. I don’t think that’s how that works. Champ Trump bombed ran in an attack that was carefully planned. On WhatsApp. Everybody in America is scared.

It’s not good. When Bible places are in the news, that means it might be the end of times. And if it is, you know what. I had a good run. This is a great set by Dave.

Naunio’s member yelled out the name of Palestinian American musician DJ Khaled. Dave responded, said, DJ coled, let me tell you something foran This man is awfully quiet right now. And as a Palestinian, how could you be that quiet right now? And why are you so fat? People are starving?

He’s the only fat Palestinian on earth right now, Dave. Again, Now that I’m a big, powerful voice in America, I’ve learned I have to be careful and get in some kind of trouble and they’ll try to extort me and put words in my mouth so that I come out here and lie to you. So if that ever happens, we need a phrase that has to be something that I would never say. So if I say it, you know, not to listen to anything I say. After that you’re ready.

The phrase is I stand with Israel. Wow. Send your letters to Dave Chappelle. It is a comedy season in Abu Dhabi. I will conclude on July twelfth with Bill Burr.

John Mulaney has started a book club. Yeah, I know, really cool right, Yeah, It’s called Malanie Reads. He went on social media and announced I will tell you about some incredible things I’ve read recently and then you can make your own decisions from there. This month, Playworld by Adam Ross the best new novel I’ve read in many years. Playworld follows a high school student child actor named Griffin as he navigates the world of New York in the late seventies and early eighties aka my favorite time period and place ever.

It’s a really beautiful story about the heavy and adultness of being an adolescent. I couldn’t like this book more. It’s available at small booksellers and wherever else books are sold. Stay tuned for next month, when I’ll probably forget to do this. WWE announced WWE Late Night featuring Tony Hinchcliff.

Right, these are three pretty big stories for July fourth week. This is great, all right. WWE Late Night featuring Tony Hinchcliff at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood, New Jersey, Saturday, August second, at eleven pm. Easter And that is late Night. Yes, it’s part of SummerSlam weekend.

It is described as a non televised event. SummerSlam is August second and third at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Boston Bruins were, of course part of the twenty twenty five NHL Draft, and their selection in the first round was announced by Adam Sandler in character is happy Gilmore Yep, We’re going to see a lot of Adam Sandler in the upcoming weeks. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman tees the intro, and then Happy Gilmore walked out on screen, hockey stick in hand, said, my name is Happy Gilmore. How are you proud to be part of the twenty twenty five and draft the Boston Bruins select from Boston College?

James Hagens, So, I do put the show together in shifts, Like you know, every morning, I’ll go and I’ll look for new stories and I kind of slot them and I’ll move stuff around. I’ll be like, all right, this one I’ll hold, like for example, this week, I’m like, you know what, it might be a slow weekend, let me hold this one for Saturday. That kind of stuff. So when I got back to doing the show after the weekend on Monday, I was like, what does tola Vella ties mean? Tollavella ties, And I couldn’t figure out what my note to myself Tolavella ties meant, and then I went, oh, Tolllev La Times and the La Times did talk to you, Steph Tleev Tolavella Times said I want to be in a wrestling ring so badly.

I don’t know how I have, and I look like a wrestler already. I watch a little bit growing up, you know. Editor’s note, I probably should have put this before the Sandler story. Oh well, too late. It’s not actually too late.

I could edit it, but that’s not fun. Johnny Mac messed up over the weekend too, and got the day wrong on mel Brooks birthday. I guess I’ve been a bad week Tellavella Ties said, I love the bad guys. I’d be a bad guy, of course. Steph Tolive said, I look and sound like a wrestler already.

I watch a little bit growing up. I wasn’t a massive wrestling fan, but I watched the intros and stuff. But the wrestling itself, I was like whatever. But I love seeing wrestlers come in the crazy storylines, getting the crowd all on your side or getting them not on your side. I love the bad guys.

I’d be a bad guy, of course. I’d be ripping everybody in half, just getting choke slammed. I’d love it. Is WWE listening to this, please cast me.

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Also from the La Times ots Goo at Cotska, she got into comedy when a friend i…

Otsko was like, I was like, this is badass, But nowhere did my brain go. That’s got to be me. I dream pretty small when I was a kid in LA and my dream was to work in an ice cream parlor.

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And then at seventeen, I did cold Stone Creamery in West LA.

By the way, it took me three takes to not say Stone Cold Creamery because my brain is in wrestling mode. I said, now what, I’ve already reached my goal. I peaked at seventeen. I have to dream more. In twenty eighteen, she got her signature bowl haircut.

She jokes about being stuck with it because it’s my brand, but also her fans have gone through the trouble of buying customizing lookalike wigs. She said, I mean, in this economy, they gotta be able to wear their wigs again the next time they come to see me. All right, gossip Corner, let’s start with me. I told you over the weekend, Colin Jost is pushing blue Moon Beer, and since I did that story, the advertising is working. I was in the mood for a Blue Moon beer, so Sunday, my son was around him, like, let’s go grab a meal.

So we went to the local bar restaurant and they had a sign outside for blue Moon beer. I was like, great, I’ve been in the mood for one for a couple days. I went in. The waiter was like, we don’t even serve blue Moon, and like it was all I could do to not get into an argument about but you guys have a blue Moon sign outside. So I got a Miller Light, which I also told you over the weekend is a beer that I enjoy.

So Scoreboard, Marcelo Hernandez One, Colin jost Zero. I didn’t want to mention real quick. I see the Rob mcalenny story about him changing his name. The short version there, the headline is he has legally filed to change just named to Rob Mack. I have a lot of thoughts.

I’ll discuss that tomorrow. I did watch them specials over the weekend. Steph toe Lefs not my cup of tea that I don’t want to just like dump on it, but like, I don’t know, I just don’t like the when you’re talking about like crapping over yourself or whatever whatever her opener was. I made it about two thirty in and a minute of that was a produced open. By the way, comedians, comedians are listening, Can you guys stop with the produced opens?

Can you just have somebody go ladies and gentlemen, comedian name and just come out or just come out? These things were like you’re walking on the street and wacky Hyjink’s happened. It’s very eighties and it’s lame, and just stop doing that. So Steph had one of those, and then the special started and it was just I sound like an old man, and I’m the first one to say I love an old man Mountain, but it’s just like just so filthy, and I get that’s what it is. That’s what the title of the special is, right like the specials actually called filth Queen, So she nailed what she was going for.

But just num me, I just hard pass on that one for me on because it’s July fourth, Candidly, I have already put together a list of the top stand up slash comedy specials of twenty twenty five so far that I’ve actually seen. You can read it right now. It’s on my substack, which is mcdeepod dot substack dot com. I’ll put a link in the episode notes. It’s already out in a print version, but that will be Friday’s episode because it’s July fourth, and you know we’re halfway through the year.

All that made sense for a pre tape one that I really really really liked. Justin Wilman Magic Lever. Just trust me. Is it the funniest thing I’ve ever seen? No?

But was it entertaining for solid hour? Yes? Slight spoilers here. If you don’t want to be spoiled, hit skip. I’ll do this real quick.

Spoilers coming up. So it’s a magic show along the way. My brain starts over analyzing how did he do that? I do that? And I’m on the internet and I’m reading along and just oh okay, I get it now, and like it didn’t ruin the fun for me because I was playing along at home.

But really funny special. Just turn your brain off and watch it. Justin Wilman Magic Lever. I’ll tell you on Friday where I have that ranked, but shockingly high, I’ll put it that way.

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Also out is a Jim Norton special on YouTube haven’t gotten to yet.

Also out is Josh Gomleman on YouTube that one’s called positive reinforcement. Haven’t gotten to that yet. He talked about being an elder millennial and said, we came of age at the turn of the century. Turn of the century is such a silly sounding thing to say. About nineteen ninety nine, when Limp Biscuit ascended, Josh told Boston dot Com the new special came out of the pandemic and performing live again.

It really jumped out of me. Oh, I’m one of the older guys. Now I feel you, Josh, I feel you. A big part of agent gracefully is the intellectual and philosophical gracefulness of accepting change and embracing new things when they’re good. But to know, I don’t have to say cryptocurrency is new and that’s beautiful.

I was performing in Bloomington, Indiana college town. There was a young woman in the front row. I told a why two K joke. I could see something in her face and I said, when I say why two K, does that have any meaning to you? She said no?

And then I had to explain why two K. We thought all the world’s missiles would launch and all the computers would crash because nobody thought a year wouldever have a zero series z heuro it that it took this herculean effort to make sure it didn’t happen. It sounds ridiculous. Boston dot Com and Josh started talking about technology. Josh Gonoman said, remember the laser disc era, when it was like a music a CDs, A movie is big CDs.

When was the last technology that basically was good with minimal drawbacks? I came up with the GPS unit for your car. That wasn’t your phone. Good stuff. I’m talking behind the scenes with Josh’s people to get him on here, so that special is on YouTube.

Check that out. The National Comedy Center announced a bunch of stuff for this week. Lewis Black is the curator of the Comedy Now week and said comedy is more than just entertainment. It’s a lifeline at times like these. Laughter helps us stay seen and connected even when the world feels upside down.

I’m thrilled to be working with the National Comedy Center and to bring some of the funniest and smartest voices in comedy today. If you’re up there today, it’s behind the scenes at the Daily Show featuring members of the writing team. Tomorrow, Johnny Carson at one hundred with Wayne Fetterman and David Bioncooley. Pretty Cool. Thursday Paula Poundstone, moderated by former guest Jerny Gunderson, who runs the museum and was on this show one time.

Friday, Tony Shaloub and Brooke Adams moderated by friend of the show Kelly Carlin. And there are comedy performances as well. Tomorrow night Lewis Black. Remember he retired, I guess not. He’s still touring.

Lewis Black’s The Rant is due tomorrow night. And Thursday, roy Wood Junior is performing so good stuff with the National Comedy Center, And that is pretty good. Daily Comedy News for the middle of July. Fourth week Tomorrow is good too. I can tell you that because I have a lot of stories already in the folder.

And I’ll meet you back here then