Month: February 2026

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Full Transcript

Calorokashock Media. Hi there, I’m Johnny Mack and I’m high on life. I just hung up with Pete Holmes. He’s got a new special. It’s called Silly Silly fun Boy, available now via early access on eight hundred pound Gorilla.

I grabbed it myself and watch it the other night. It is fantastic. If you don’t want to do that, it’ll be on YouTube Tuesday, March twenty fourth, but spend a couple bucks. Pete Home special. Silly Silly fun Boy is really good.

I gotta tell you, I been doing this for a while. I always get nervous before interviews because you never know if you’re gonna click or not. And boy, I felt like I could have talked to Pete Holmes for three hours. He was awesome. I just feel good about everything we talked about.

Here a couple square words. You know, normally I keep the show pretty clean, but there are a couple words we don’t normally use on the show. I’m sure you’ll get over it. Let’s jump in. Here’s Pete Holmes.

Got a couple random things to ask you about before we get to the special proper. I was watching the Scrubs reboot last night during the commercials, so I started playing on my phone. I’m on Reddit, I’m in the next effing level Reddit, and I put up this clip of you on Pyramid, just like absolutely murdering, crushing. Are you a Pyramid savant? Because you got cocky at the end and you were like, do you want me to slow down?

I hate to correct you, but I remember it so vividly. I believe I said, do you want to take a break? It’s a little bit embarrassing how proud I am of being good at Pyramid, just because I did no lie grow up watching that, and especially when comedians were on, like Billy Crystal obviously one of the goats, so when they started using me for that show, it was very meaningful.

And then when you’re playing with somebody, it’s inevitably like a school tea…

I take it so seriously. It’s like the level of humorlessness is just Pyramid and like going to the airport, Like those are my two areas that I take it very, very seriously. So I get all jacked up on caffeine and dialed in and when we get in the Winter Circle, which I’ve done a couple of times, if they’re good at it, as that person was, I’m just like, we’re gonna we’re gonna win. It’s it’s really you just have to have bad luck and get a category that is just kind of unknowable. There isn’t that mind mild.

But she was there and we synced up, and it was a thrill. It was like, none of that is Hollywood. When I’m putting my hands up and when I’m celebrating, it’s one of the biggest thrills. I can’t imagine. It’s so fun.

It’s so fun. I’ve got about ten years in you I remember it was ten thousand dollars pyramid, which you know, if you didn’t now you’d be like, gee, thanks guys, Yeah, exactly five fifty. And at one hundred thousand dollars pyramid for primetime that was was Dick Clark, right. I believe so. And that’s always our joke is they win one hundred thousand dollars and they tell you what they’ll do with one hundred thousand dollars, and we’re always like, these people don’t, well, they’re not factoring in taxes from like, this is not on the sly.

Everyone knows you just made a one hundred thousand dollars So all of your family members, Uncle Sam, it’s gonna it’s gonna get whittled down. You gotta be careful. It’s like winning the lottery. I was shading Nates. He’s got his new game show and you win sixty seven grand before taxes, and uh, you know he’s looking at the BARGATSI yeah, it’s the greatest average American.

So the average American salary is sixty seven whatever, So he’s giving that amount, so it works for the bit, but you know after taxes, et cetera. And I’m like, and then ABC runs one thirty, and you know they’d make it out on that show. I that I this is my first time hearing about it, and I take issue with that. You should do it household. Then you should be both parents are working, and you make one hundred and thirty or whatever it is.

That’s just sixty seven. That’s that’s no good for me, just because they’re gonna walk with thirty, you know what I mean? Like, now that’s not a game show. Comeline, all right, let me get your web team in trouble if you will, Pete Homes, this is really props to the people at Cannabis and Tech Today. The biggest picture of you if you google Pete Homes is they’ve got it stamped Cannabis and Tech Today.

I guess you did an interview with them years ago, but that’s the number one. Then it comes out. I love to face your throwing at. Me when you well, I have no memory of that. How appropriate, but I really don’t remember doing that.

And when you say biggest, do you mean the highest resolution? Yeah, so there’s like a big square in a couple of smaller squares. I went to steal a picture of you from the Internet to post on my Facebook page. But the I’m Google image searching Pete Homes. Oh you get Cannabis in Tech Today.

Pete Holmes says, cannabis users ask the best questions. That is, that’s a reach right there. As you’re looking at that. So the other thing, and just because I was listening to you, I think it was with Bert and you happen to mention on that episode that you’re kind of done with the massage bit and they’re surfacing the massage bit there as well. On cannabis in tech No, no, no on.

The Google page. So if you as you search Pete homes, it’s. Every day. Yeah, yeah, No, I’m proud to say that the time in my life where I Google myself is over. That is a part of your life as a comedian when you’re beginning.

This is so funny. I wonder why you know it’s interesting. It’s not what you asked, But the massage bit is done. I retired it just because I’m at a place in my career where, for lack of a better, can we swear on this show? But it’s not really swear.

But like Dick jokes, right, I like Dick jokes. I think they’re very, very funny. I just having done you know, five or six specials now where the last joke usually has something to do with sex, I just kind of got it. I wouldn’t say I got it out of my system, but I’ve moved on to other areas where I’m like, can I mind something here? Instead of just going like, yeah, we can get a cheeseburger.

There’s nothing wrong with a cheeseburger. That’s that’s what those kind of jokes are. But like having been to stay with the metaphor a chef for twenty plus years, I just rather cook something else, even though I know everybody loves a cheeseburger. So when I did that joke, So that clip, that YouTube clip is the first time and the only time I did that on stage maybe twice, and it really works. But what’s great about YouTube is you can film it and you can throw it up and it’s not like it was to waste and I don’t have to do it seven hundred times on the road and feel sort of bored with the subject matter.

I want to ask you about the art of putting together a special versus an hour. So again, just a reference bird. Again. He put this in my head about a year ago. I forget who he said it to, and was talking about how in modern times because the TV viewing audience has, you know, some sort of add TV add that comics are moving the closers up to the first third and even sequences being thing.

So as I watched a couple specials this week, Kat Williams came out and did the old school, walked out to music, kind of settled it on the stage, grabbed the water bottle and then went into a set. Taylor does the the fake open, and hey, we’re backstage, and what do you know? The cameras are rolling and now suddenly I’m on stage and I think she’s into a chunk. So for you, what I wrote it down. You open with let’s see if we can laugh at this?

And I won’t touch the material there, but your first words are let’s see if we can laugh at this? So as we hit play on the special, we’re midstream. Yeah, I if I had seen you on tour? Was that the opener? Is that?

Later? I I draw the line at moving my closer up. I don’t think that this is just me. I’m old in comedy in the sense that like the closer works because of what came before it. It’s not just a great joke.

Closers are closers. You shouldn’t put a closer in the first five minutes of a special because it’s the best joke. That’s that’s ridiculous. That’s what they’re kind of doing in action movies and stuff. Let’s have the biggest set piece at the beginning.

But again, I’m forty six. I will cheat that. I’ll cut out what I’m doing to warm up an audience, and that is often bits about doing stand up. It’s bits about like, oh it’s seven o’clock, it’s the early show. Oh I’m kind of this way, I’m blah blah blah.

It seems like kind of handshake bits. I’ll cut those out. And what we did on this special jump to what I would consider still the beginning, but we’re warm, we’ve gotten the hello, how are you out of the way, because I actually think there’s something even more honest about that, because sometimes the early bits do better because there’s still the titillation of the show is starting. So like those opening ones will get a like a thirty percent boost. So we’re cutting all that grab ass and all that sort of overjuiced part, which is the woo.

Nobody needs to see that. We cut that out. I like that trend, but that on my set list was probably like, you know, the third thing I talked about, which is I think it’s Q tips or Mormon face or whatever it is, But like I like, I like what we’re doing with specials, which is like, let’s get to it because stand up isn’t compromised by that, It doesn’t doesn’t hurt the art to just kind of throw you in. You can’t do that live. I have gone out and just been like, hey, can the people that make you take your shoes off before you come to their house just fucking cut it out.

Nobody wants that. I mean, like you can’t you kind of do. But for me, I would much rather the comedian be there, be in the room, be in the city, address what’s going on before, just kind of like going into and doing the album, as we say, but when it’s the album, just do the album now. That makes sense. I had the fortune I got to know Jerry Hamseley was George Carlin’s manager, and he explained to me how Carlin would put together a set and that George would open up with the ratitat tat you ever noticed that, and then go into the long sweeping that he would warm up the audience, but then he had to let them breathe and go into the big statement of this particular hour that George was doing, and then finish up with the rat of tat tat.

So I always look at this stuff analytically. It’s right on and everybody can relate to this like you have a date. The beginning is when the nerves are high. Everybody’s kind of like just sniffing each other’s butts, you know what I mean? Like do that?

Don’t skip that? Like is a good date? Where like they just go like, so tell me your biggest fear? Like, that’s not that’s like a douchebags idea of a good date. You warm up to that.

But then if I’m going to cut a movie and I want to give you the best part of the date, I might cut into so what’s your biggest fear? Like, because that’s a weird thing to say on a date. As the delivery system has evolved, I suspect I know the answer to this one. In your case the specials on the eight hundred pound Gorilla, it will eventually be on YouTube. Is there any thought into pacing for YouTube that let me do eleven minutes here and then take a breath so they can throw in the commercial break so that you know the AD’s not stepping on mid sentence or mid chunk.

I just assume whoever’s doing that is doing an awful job, and it’s terrible. I’ve never I’ve never been like, I can’t think about things like that. I hope this is literally the first time I’ve thought about that. My first special is on Comedy Central, and you did think you had some say you were like, and this will be where the commercial goes. You call it an act break.

This is where the act break is. With this and with all YouTube, I’m just sort of like, God, I hope they have the sense to not put that little fifteen second go daddy ad in the middle of a bit, But I don’t know. I can’t control that. True, nobody asked me to control that. If they did, I would, I would chime in, But like it’s an online streaming service, I’m at their mercy on that one.

Sure, I felt like you were using more swear words early in this special that I’m accustomed to. Is that a conscious choice or am I imagining that? Then once we settled in and you were surfing the room, I felt they were less swears. But it just as I watched it, I was like, oh, interesting, I’m not offended. I just thought it was different.

No, I appreciate that. I think you’re right when I watch it, I noticed that. And what’s interesting about filming a special is you’re watching I’ll go back to the date metaphor, like you’re watching a date right, You’re seeing this exchange of energy and different dates, different crowds respond differently. All I’m doing, and I’ll use any color in my toolkit, is I’m trying to get them to laugh as hard as possible. I really want, I want to be understood, I want to be seen.

That’s in the mix, to just want to delight them and that crowd. I think the majority of the special was the late crowd. That’s not entirely true, but the majority is the late crowd on a Friday night at the Aladdin in Portland. It might have been a Saturday, but I think it was a Friday. So I remember we were starting and like there were seats empty, and my opener, my friend Matt McCarthy, is doing a set, and I’m noticing people are rushing in, like there’s stress in the room, like it’s fucking Friday, it’s late.

We had to find parking, it was hard to get here. I’m feeling that energy. So when you’re very right, when you’re looking at an ingredient like swearing, I would include the volume and the pitch of my voice, like how am I delivering these jokes? It was that night. It was that crowd needed.

That was my interpretation needed. That play called I’m mixing all my metaphors, but that was the play. It’s not because this material needs it. It’s not because that’s how it was every time I did it. It’s because that night I felt you need like, hey, I’m just now another metaphor.

I’m the coach of the team, and for some reason we’re starting the game. We kind of feel like we’re down a little bit, like I can feel your Friday stress a little bit. That’s a completely different play than that you would call on a Saturday at seven or nine o’clock. This felt, you know, every special I’ve ever done the first show, I go, well, that wasn’t it, And then I’m going in hungry for the second hour. We end up always using a lot of the first hour, but I inevitably think it’s worthless the second one.

I’m going in and the vibe the room is big, the energy was whatever. I mean, there were a great crowd, but there was a little chunk in the water. And the swearing is a and the and the way that I’m saying it delivering it, there’s there’s more oration going on. All of that is addressing a certain crackle in the room that I’m like, if I don’t harness this and claim it. Here’s another metaphor.

Like a pilot going on the PA, there’s a little turbulence, you have to get on and you speak in a different way. When there’s turbulence, you’re more calm, you know what I mean, You’re more authoritative. So yeah, I bet I could play you the other three hundred times I’ve done that hour and I might not have said, like do the Q tip. People know what the fuck we’re doing, But like I, I’m a scrapper, I Am not going to do badly on my special. You’re coming with me on this joke?

Would I prefer to be super laid back because, like you said, after I slap them around a little, my hands in my pocket, I come down. I bet you could look at my data, but my heart rate is lower. We’re all eased in. But guess what, everybody sat. Everybody snapped in.

Here’s another metaphor. I’m like a substitute teacher that those first couple minutes, that’s when they’re deciding does this person have our respect? So that’s why the beginning of that set I’m so with you has more fervor to it, and one of the symptoms of fervor. Is me saying fuck more because I’m like, this is happening. We got to do this.

I need you to come with me.

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And then once they’re with me, watch you know, once we get to the Mexico scor…

Yeah. As a watching, I made note of that that once you settled in this wearing kind of went away. Now I come out of talk radio, so everything you’re saying makes sense to me. I always teach my producers. We make a rundown, we make a script, but it’s not a blood oath.

You gotta feel the room. You gotta feel what’s happening with the show. That’s what I is infinitely fascinating about stand up. And I know we have too many podcasts with comedians talking about what’s beautiful about stand up, But I’ve always envied golf and racketball, these games you can play your whole life, you know what I mean, and stand up talking about Carlin imagine being something so compelling as to keep in mind, like George Carlin’s engaged until he died. And that’s why it’s like it’s never the same.

It’s not an album. In a musical sense. It’s way more like jazz. It’s way more like a conversation. And that recording was that night, that mood, that dinner, that night’s rest.

It’s a living thing. Like remember in Sideways, They’re like, you open a bottle of wine, it tastes different than if you had opened it on any other day. That to me is stand up. I’m all over with the metaphors. But I think you understand what I’m saying.

Sure, can I ask the magician? Are we looking at one show or two cut together? I think it is, Yeah, it’s. Two in fact, same night, two shows Mexico. I think is the first time we cut to the first show because that gopher broke tone isn’t always what you want, and you’re like, let’s bring it down, and it’s always nice to have that that variance.

So it’s happened with this special and I’m not for everyone. Every single one of them is two, and every single one of them, I said, except for Nice Try the Devil, I believe that was one, But every single one of them. I said after the show that that was garbage. We couldn’t use a second of that.

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And then it ends up being about thirty forty percent of the special, which is…

You don’t know you have to be humble enough to be like or or feel paid. You don’t have to be humble. I find one way to avoid the suffering of the process is to just go, yeah, I’m wrong all the time, I don’t know what I’m talking about, and listen to great directors like Ricky and my wife who helped edit it this special as well. You mentioned podcasts. You’re one of the ogs.

You might be the og now that Maren gave up. Hey, should we tell maarn he retired five minutes too early? There was Netflix money that was about three weeks away. Bro Oh no, right, Ah. I just saw Mark.

I was crossing the street in La and I saw him and it was he. I think he plays up how much he doesn’t like me question Mark. But he’s certainly like a big brother, like annoyed by my Golden Retriever energy kind of guy. And that’s fine. I wouldn’t change it for the world.

But I again, this is me for the first time, considering that maybe Marin could have been acquired but his wasn’t. Video Yeah, and I guess who knows. Who knows. I won’t put you on the spot here. I could see you on a streaming service and I would absolutely watch that.

I appreciate that. Yeah, yeah, we’d do it. I’ve got you a couple of times. I definitely maybe five years ago you opened up Sorry, you hosted New Faces up at Montreal and I’m trying to remember did you do one of the shows? I know John Marco did one of them this year, and I’m like, did I see Pete this summer?

And I’m just getting old and I can’t remember or not, but you definitely did it in the past. I’m trying to remember too, I didn’t do it. I think there was one I didn’t do because I did it two years in a row. And I do to answer the question I think you were about to ask, I do enjoy I sound old, but being with the young people, I think it’s really fun to do what no one in particular did when I did Montreal. And by the way, it turns out a lot of the kids don’t even need this, So it’s more about me feeling like I’m doing something because I noticed that so many of them are way cooler than I ever was.

But The fantasy was do new faces, just to say guys like, we’ve all been here, please please just have fun and I’m here if you want to talk, and some people did. Some people did, but I really just wanted to be like, fuck this, they have a festival. You guys are the real thing. Own it. Own it, You’re why they have the festival, Like you’re the thing.

Don’t let them think they’re the thing. I’m grateful for Montreal, but it’s not the thing. It’s container. The thing is the comedy. That’s the thing.

So I just wanted to, in an appropriate way, blow some wind in their cells and be like, just go do it. This is a victory laugh. Auditioning is when you should be nervous, go out and just fucking be yourself, all that classic stuff. I didn’t do a big speech. I just wanted to say like, if anybody wants to talk, and like these kids were amazing.

I didn’t get the sense that they needed that speech. But then the other thing I wanted to do was just have the tone as the host way more than anything I would say in the green room, just have the tone of like fuck you laugh, like you have to laugh, stop taking notes. This is their dream, like give it up, don’t? Oh is that good? Shut the fuck up?

This is the kid’s future. Give And I think that helped I could be pretty as a warm up comedian. I think I can be pretty insistent in a helpful way because I’m just like sweating, yelling at them, and then comedians who are amazing come out and clean up. That’s a nice you know what I mean. I’m not going out trying to crush, trying to set a nice tone for the whole show.

I’ve talked to other new Faces hosts about that. You. I was explaining my my son came with me one year and this was the one like twenty twenty two in the nice theater, the one with a balcony, and I said, I said, Pete’s throwing at about eighty six here. I’m like, he’s got more. But if he comes out and he does his a material and passes it off to a new bee, that’s a little unfair.

So I’m like, he’s just soft tossing it in there. It’s still that’s all you do. Very funny. Yeah, it’s more about when I every almost everything I’ve done, like when I did my talk show, I went out first and did my own warm up, and I just said, like, guys, no pressure, but this is my dream, you know what I mean. Like we’re filming a pilot to maybe have a talk show, and I’m not trying to freak anybody out, but I’m you know, hey, this is real, this really matters, and please give it up, Please please be generous, and please have fun.

And I had them chant let’s not fuck this up. Let’s not fuck this up. And that honesty and that icebreaker really made a difference. I was trying to do that for those guys, and then look who it was. Now.

The people I’m talking about are Shane Gillis, Jean Marco, you know what I mean. Yeah, it’s an incredible group. So yeah, they didn’t they didn’t need it, it turns out. More coming up with Pete Holmes. His special Silly Silly fun Boy, available now via early access on the eight hundred Pound Gorilla and it’ll be on YouTube Tuesday, March twenty fourth.

Pete Holmes is on tour right now. He’ll be in LA on March seventh, and you get to ask him about the tour because we went so long. I asked for twenty minutes and I kept him for forty so I didn’t get to ask him about the tour. It’s just curious he’s doing like two dates than taking a break, than doing some others. But let’s see Royal Oaks, Michigan, Tallass, Irving, Texas, Madison, Wisconsin, Denver, During, North Carolina, Charleston, Vancouver, Hey, Vancouver, October, Mike Chisholm, you’re listening Seattle and then Portland, Oregon.

Now interesting to me. He taped this special in Portland. He has taped a previous special in Portland. I didn’t get ask him about that either. I wonder if he’s going to wrap up the Pete Here Now tour by recording another special.

Time will tell. But let’s get back to Pete Holmes. As I watched this special and listen to you with Taylor, I couldn’t quite get a feel for where you are on spirituality or religion these days. You know, I don’t want to go deep here, but just at a top level, are you? Is there a higher power?

Or where are you these days? I? You know, I love that question. I’ll starve by thinking. It’s really hard to talk about these things without while maintaining some sort of felt experience of it, So I’m going to try and do that.

Usually you start getting in your head and all that feeling of connection or whatever goes away. So I’m going to try and keep one foot in each pool. The way that I would phrase it is is what science calls consciousness is what I would call God, meaning we’re talking about the same mystery. So it’s awareness. But the difference with awareness as opposed to like thinking, oh, I believe in God or I don’t believe in God?

Is you right now? John, You’re having the experience of awareness, like you are present and you are aware. So that’s what makes it different from like reading a book like the Bible all respect. I’m just saying reading someone else’s experience. It could be an Indian sage and reading about their experience.

What’s interesting, infinitely interesting about awareness is you’re having that experience right now. So we’re moving outside of the realm of belief and we’re moving into what mysticism is. Mysticism is experiential spirituality. So you’re going, Okay, I am present, I am aware. Meditation or self inquiry is going in and asking yourself what are the qualities of that awareness.

It seems like Pete’s personality. Like, let’s say my thoughts, my thoughts emerge and they recede in what do they emerge and into what do they recede? We could call this consciousness. This is almost you seem interested, by the way I’m just saying for the listeners, this is almost over. We’re looking at that which doesn’t change.

Your thoughts change, your body changes, your feelings change. We might think of awareness like a blue sky and everything else’s weather. So it’s not just oh, I know what the meaning of life is. That’s sort of meaningless. What’s meaningful is going, oh, I’m not who I think I am.

I am the awareness in which everything that I call Pete and everything that I call the world emerges. Now, what are the qualities of that awareness? Well, it’s very peaceful, it’s spacious, it’s empty, it’s quiet. You could also say it’s full of itself. It’s fresh, it’s alive, it’s present.

These are all the attributes human beings would like. And the good news is why they call it good news, is that’s what you are. You’ve just sort of forgotten yourself. Like when you’re looking at a movie, you think you’re looking at a landscape. You’re actually looking at the screen in the same way you think you’re talking to me.

What you’re actually knowing is knowing, and the qualities of that knowing is fresh, alive, peaceful, no matter what’s going on in your life. That’s what in the Bible they call the piece that passes understanding. That’s something greater than oh I have this teacher, or I have this tradition. I’m talking about something that you can tap into an experience on a normal day like today, when you’re dying, when the chips are up, when the chips are down. Spirituality is the exploration of that which does not change.

And I would call that your awareness. That’s where I’m at right now. So we can do that on our own, unorganized. We don’t need a physical building. Absolutely not.

I like churches. I think they’re very cool. If you look at them. A lot of them are very trippy. So churches can be very evocative places.

Reading books can be very evocative. Teachers can be very evocative. But what are they evoking. They’re evoking an experience that’s so familiar to you and I that we’ve overlooked at and why should we recognize it? Because its qualities are the qualities happiness.

You might call it peace, you might call it because it’s what you really are, and that’s what people that are meditating are doing. But it is sort of snuggling with your true self. But when it starts bleeding into your life, you recognize that we’re all, to use a very overused metaphor, we’re all waves in the same ocean. So if I’m a wave and you’re a wave, I’m not going to be mean to you. I’m not going to be cruel to you.

I’m going to be I’m going to love you. I’m going to be concerned for you to I’m going to recognize our shared being. That’s what love is. It’s not just I like Johnny, he asked good questions. It’s actually recognizing that what I fundamentally am and what you fundamentally are is the same awareness.

Because there can only be one infinite, boundless, boundaryless space, so we’re sharing that in the same way that Mario and Mario Brothers is made out of pixels, and so are the clouds, and so are the blocks, and so are the piranhas, and so is bowser. Mario recognizes that whatever his essential nature is must be the essential nature of the whole game, which it is, which ends up at the end of the day being the mind of the programmer. Let’s do some ketamine. I picked up somewhere in one of the things I listened to in the past week getting ready for this. Like many of us, you hit your forty and you just kind of hit that spot of this is who I am.

I hope people like it. If you don’t, I don’t care. And you just seem very comfortable and understanding of who Pete Holmes is in twenty twenty six. Oh yeah, I didn’t know you were saying that about me. Yeah I was.

I’m right there with you the forties. There’s a great surrender to it. I think you know we can try. Obviously, I’m still interested in growth. I still go to therapy, I still accept feedback from friends I need to.

I’m always making an ass of myself. But the great gift of your fourth decade is like, I think I kind of know at least what my patterns are, and I go, oh, there, I am overreacting here. There I am, like I said, jackass, Like I’m a jackass all the time, Like stand up stand up is being a jackass at an allotted time, you know. So I’ve seen the pattern, I’ve seen the strings at the pot A show, and that makes me take it a little less personally while still being interested in improving whatever that means. I’ll head for home.

I want to be respectful of your time. But for the listeners, can you talk about that awesome Chicago comedy series at the turn of the century. I think we’re far enough now, and then I can say the turn of the century. Wow, I mean they were just in the century. There were killers, and you were one of them.

I know. I sometimes am stupefied at you know. I don’t want to Please don’t take this as me puffing myself up. I just noticed that there are certain trends. Bill Gates was seventeen when computers became available, so you remember that phenomenon.

So he was young enough to be porous just when computers were becoming available in schools. Obviously, I’m not saying i’m Bill Gates or at that level. I’m just saying there’s something about time and place, and when you look back in your forties, you go, oh my god, I’m the pro of a time and a place, and that time in that place was Chicago in two thousand and one, two thousand and two thousand and one, and what’s crazy, John Is? I swear I had a sense of it at the time. I said to people, they’re going to write books about this, Like I’m a kind of a mania kind of person, so that’s not entirely out of character for me.

But there was a sense. And Kumil was there when I said that, and he didn’t disagree with me. There was a feeling of like, you know what it was. It was like bad news bears. We weren’t, you know, like nobody cared about Chicago in a sense.

It was the improv city, but here for some reason, the open mic scene was really alive. And Hannibal and Cumale and John Roy, Matt Bronger, I always forget people, but like Matt Bridenstein, just really really good comics all coming together at this one open mic in two thousand and one. And it gets even weirder for me is I was resisting stand up because stand up is rather scary. I had done it maybe five six times. Then I moved to Chicago to do improv because I wanted to be with a group.

I thought that was and it is in a sense more fun. You know, you kind of have five people to either lick your wounds afterwards or celebrate with. It’s more communal. I started getting frustrated with that because I realized I noticed that I was way more committed and driven, Like I knew I wanted to do it for my job, so I wanted to rehearse more. I wanted to do more shows.

I was insatiable. So then I started getting curious about doing stand up again. I’d only taken a couple months off. It wasn’t like I retired, but I every day it was the Irving Park brown Line in Chicago. I would go to work at Bennegan’s restaurant downtown and I would take the Irving Park brown Line.

So I’d walk fifteen minutes to that train stop and I would pass the Lions. Then, which was the open mic, and it just said Monday comedy. It didn’t even say stand up comedy. You didn’t see open mic. It just said Monday comedy.

And I was still so, you know, like every hero’s journey, you’re supposed to resist the call. Like I’m feeling called to do stand up, but I’m resisting it. I’m a little afraid of it. It’s a lot, you know, these smoke filled nightclubs and people talking about their balls, and I didn’t know if I could fit in there, very much like the show Crashing, Like I really was that version of myself, a little doe eyed, kind of sweet, didn’t know what if I could do it. Talking about Nate Bargatsi, he and I had a similar experience in that way.

You walk into these clubs and everybody’s talking about the g spot and you’re just kind of like, golly, like, what am I doing here? My closer’s about RoboCop, you know. But I had to walk by the Lions then every Monday, and one Monday, I remember it wasn’t even a Monday. One day, I just walked in and looked at the stage like talk about putting a toe in, and then I left.

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And then one Monday I went and I watched, which to this day is still my advic…

I’m like, just go to an open mic and watch. Don’t sign up, what are you insane? Don’t sign up the first time you go to an open mic, Just go and watch. Like it’s masochistic to go. I’m gonna go to this crazy thing.

I don’t know what it is, and I’m gonna do it. No, go and watch, don’t sign up. That’s what I did, and I met Robert Ruscemi that night. The next night I did Covey Bear, which was another open mic. I met Kunail He and I became really close, really fast, and then I signed up and did it, and you just see it’s not It’s like driving in Manhattan.

You think the people that drive in Manhattan have to be special people. They’re not. They’re just people who took the wrong exit off the FDR. They’re just They’re just like you. And the people at the open mic are also just people.

They’re just people. They’re just trying. They don’t know. So you’re in good company, don’t be afraid. So then you know, as that scene got better and better, it just it just blew up.

There are so many great comics that had such a huge influence on all of us, and you know, I don’t want to say the rest is history, but like it really kind of baked a certain generation that I will always feel a kinship towards. Yeah, all Stars, you mentioned crashing and I was checking before we jumped on here to see where it’s streaming, and it’s pretty much streaming everywhere except Netflix. So here’s my prediction. At some point that show is going to land on Netflix and it’s you know, we see this with shows like Suits was the big one. This thing that’s been a you could have watched it on some other streaming service like mad Men now right, so everybody was watching mad Mental stuff.

But I feel like at some point, if Crashing gets on Netflix, people are gonna be like, oh my god with this. I had a college student today just in my class I teach, and I was telling them what I was doing later today and she knew about Crashing. I’m like, oh, good, this thing has legs because that was a fantastic. I look, I would love that. Obviously it happened.

I don’t know talk about my forties. It’s not that I’d given up on those things. There was a time when I was a little itchier and I was like, why can’t we get that on whatever? I’m happy it’s on HBO. I had that more for some of my specials, some of my Comedy Central specials.

I was like, if we could just get those acquired by Netflix, more people would see them. I always just got the run around. People were like, they don’t really do that, and I was like, what about Millennia. They did it with Millennia and they’re like, well it’s mullany and I’m like, this is a weird phone call, Like I hate this phone call. So I stopped.

I stopped kind of sniffing around in that way. But then something interesting happened was we’re just doing Silly Silly fun Boy on YouTube, and then my special that was on Netflix because Netflix now leases special so they’ll do it for three or four years. I don’t know, so I Am Not for Everyone, which was my Netflix special, became mine again. So after I don’t know when we’re doing it, but in like a month or so, we’re going to put I Am Not for Everyone on YouTube as well, so when you watch Silly Silly fun Boy, it’ll say, hey, there’s also this. I saw that happen with Nice Try the Devil, so Comedy Central put my full hour on YouTube.

I don’t know how it’s doing it. Like I said, I stopped googling myself, but more people tend to see these things, and at the end of the day, anything that gets something I’ve done in front of people that would like to see it. That makes me, That makes me happy. Yeah. Final question, could you tell me how you say the title of your book?

And the reason I’m asking is there are no commas and there are three different fonts. And I read it one way and I go, that doesn’t sound like Pete and then I read it the other way. But there are no commas. So how do you say the title of that book? I say, comedy sex god.

Okay, I put I. Put in You’re not a comedy sex god. No, I wouldn’t. I don’t do a lot of regrets. I I did consider after we published it, calling it comedy and sex and god.

You know those T shirts you see that say like Bono and Bruno and you know, like their favorites. I said, Bono, I’m old. But that could have been the style doing it again, Like you know, I tinker with another book from time to time. I would do a title that might be a little bit more clearer. That being said, my editor Luke Dempsey really loved the title.

He loved the people would be like, what, like wanted the to use the word itchy again, the itch that picking up the book would solve. It’s like, what does he mean, oh, it’s about these three topics. It’s about comedy, it’s about sex, it’s about God. But he really he was British, so he got a real kick out of the cheekiness of comedy, sex God. Pete Holmes, thank you for your time, my.

Sincere pleasure, John. I really I enjoyed every moment. Thank you for having me. Boy. I love him.

Pete Holmes. His special Silly Silly fun Boy, available now via early access on the eight hundred Pound Gorilla. Why don’t just support Pete because he was really awesome. I hope you enjoyed that as much as I do. Back in the morning with a normal episode.

Pete Holmes, thank you. Go Asian, African American types of people, races, mermaids, sunken ships, things under an aquarium, things in the sea, things in the ocean. I’m what you used to point at. People on your hand. You might say what a fingerprit said, the.

Obituaries, parts of the newspaper, the ocean, the sky. Things that are blue. You want to take the time, little break Ramen, things he might be eat in a bowl. Let’s get this don

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Full Transcript

Callarogashock Media. Hey there, I’m Johnny Mack with another bonus episode. This is a recap of Scrubs season ten, episode two, my second first day original air date, February twenty fifth, twenty twenty six. It’s been two days since the Scrubs revival and I am still thinking about it all the time. I wrote about it on my substack today link in the notes.

It’s free, you can read it. I just I’m in love with this show. I almost rewatched episodes one and two again last night, and I’m like, yeah, let me wait a couple days, and I wound up just watching wherever I am in my season five rewatch. But boy, I can’t stop thinking about this show.

All right, let’s do a recap, a mix of my memory and the AI.

Hopefully the AI is not hallucinating now in this episode. No John c. McGinley, No Judy Rayis. We’re gonna have to get used to that. That not all the regulars around all the time.

Plenty of articles about it. We’ve learned at mcginley’s in three of the nine episodes. I’m not sure how many Judy Rayis is in as Carla. But the crux of this show is the Big Three and the New Kids. So in the new episode we get a little dynamic of Churk versus Elliott with JD having to make a decision.

The decision is about are we’re going to get a new surgical robot which is super cool or some new simulation thing that I still don’t understand what we were trying to get. JD as chief of Medicine in the old doctor Kelso role, he has to decide. We also get a lot of Joel Kim Booster’s Doctor Park. I didn’t talk about him yesterday, but doctor Park is jealous that JD has gotten the big job and is kind of in the janitor antagonist role on the new show. And we also get into the first plots with the New Kids.

Asher is one of the young doctors. He has a patient, Stanley, who’s on heart medication. However, Stanley hasn’t been taking his medication because medical bills. JD encourages Asher to get on the phone with the insurance company. Interesting to me, I’ve mentioned this before before the pit my wife said Scrubs was the most realistic medical show.

So during this episode, when Asher calls the insurance company and he’s on hold for like hours. My wife said that is the worst that she’s done this serious. Creator Bill Lawrence kind of agrees with my wife. He said, I’m going to give Scrubs a pat on the back until the pit. It’s my favorite show.

I love it. My wife and I’ve been doing promo for it essentially. But you can type on the internet what’s the most realistic portrayal of medicine on television? Scrubs was number one for the last fifteen years, So my wife is on point. Laurence says, I’ll tell you why our medical cases were real.

The reason we did the show initially was because my buddy JD, the real JD s said, I rarely kick open a door, and Neil stat and all the medical shows at the time were like, there’s a bomb in his chest, we need two blood stat He’s gonna die. Real life. JD said, the real stuff was using gallows humor to get through the day and trying not to get torn up emotionally with the stuff you’re dealing with. The real JD. Back in the days when he was an intern, if you got paid to a code and you’re the first intern there, you had to run it, and on his first day of work, you got page two code and he hid in the closet.

We put that in the pilot of Scrubs, and that felt very familiar to the medical community, the fear of treating someone. Laurence says. This year, there’s a story that was taking from one of the doctor’s residencies of a family that didn’t want to come into the r and stayed out in the parking lot, hoping it would get better because they knew that once they got into the er, whatever savings they had would be decimated, and unfortunately someone passed away in the parking lot. That’s just a true Lifted story. As for the main dilemma, Turk is getting excited about he surgical robot.

His department is getting Turk and the team starts celebrating. Elliott shows up and she’s mad because it looks like JD has picked Turk over Elliott. She says, this isn’t just about the robot, it’s about the divorce. She feels like Turk took sides in the divorce and has been avoiding her. That leads to a nice scene between those two who really weren’t paired up all that much.

In the original series, and we see that they are indeed friends. JD has to make the call, are we getting the robot or are we getting whatever Elliott wants. He did pick what Turk wants and the reasoning, much like doctor Kelso, it’s better for the business of the hospital. We all become what we hate, right, We’ll come back. And there’s more from the Bill Lawrence interview in Deadline.

He talked about why to bring Scrubs back now. Deadline has a very good interview with Serious creator Bill Lawrence, very interesting. They were curious why to bring the showback. Deadline says, not all shows age well. Bill said, yeah, time’s change.

I’m not afraid of this because people that whine about, oh, it’s hard to do comedy now, I think you have to evolve with the zeitgeist of the time. I think that’s one of the things that makes comedy fun. I think funny always wins, and if you’re going to be dangerous, you got to be careful and make sure it’s funny. There was some I think it was in episode two, some fantastic the Todd moments, and as I’ve been saying since I got on the Scrubs, kick a week ago. Yeah, have to understand what the Todd is.

I’ve said this twenty five years ago. We weren’t like, Hey, that guy at the Todd he’s really cool. I like the way he harasses all the female staffers. We knew what it was, but it can still be funny. They’re all basically that’s what she he said jokes.

He’s a cartoon character. It’s fun Bill Lauren said, the one thing that held up from the original Scrubs is the humanity and the feeling that all these people in the teaching hospital were doing it because they were trying to be of service. The one thing that was canon was the medical advisors all said, you can’t make fun of the patients, and you have to show people that are actually sacrificing their lives to try and do good. But yeah, the comedy winds up with the actual show. In real life, interns and residents aren’t nearly as abused and treated the way they were back in those times.

Doesn’t mean they aren’t still stressed out, and doesn’t mean that they don’t still burn out, but times have changed in the medical world. Donald Faison talked about Turk’s storyline. We’ve seen at times a moody Turk In the new series, Donald Faison said, Turk is stuck. Before it was great to be stuck with your best friend because you guys could play after work and do so many great things. But his best friend’s gone and he’s stuck still.

How does he combat that? How do you combat doing the same stuff over and over again and losing patients? Sometimes there’s a win, sometimes there isn’t, and you don’t have anyone to share it with, someone to laugh about it with. It breaks him down. Even though he holds a brave face for the hospital, his wife and kids.

It breaks him down. Nian doesn’t want to talk about it. JD shows up and acts like everything’s normal again. It’s like, no, no, no, no, we got history, bro. We got to fix first before all that happens.

Faison said, I studied that scene for about a month and a half because I really wanted it to work. Bill Lawrence ads one of the few things that people loved about the early shows is a portrayal of a very non toxic, emotionally open male friendship, and a lot of that involved the joyful, childish exuberance of Turk and JD and fantasies and a voiceover monologue. The thing that convinced us we could still do it is Zach MacDonald’s Super Bowl commercials or their podcast. You can see their friendship as authentic. They still behave like they’re twelve years old when they’re together, and you can still be the people that are patriarchs of their families and directing movies and running businesses and stuff.

So we were like, what a cool thing to hold onto from the old show. Faison said, in real life we are man children. But let’s be honest, I do have to prevent my kids. Scrubs season ten loving it. If you haven’t watched it, check it out on the DVRs and on Hulu.

It’s a separate series. They have it posted as season one. We’re all calling it season ten, but for whatever legal reasons, behind the scenes writes and all that, it is Scrubs season one. Set your DVRs appropriately all right, back in the morning, Pete Holmes, it’s in the can. It exists forty minutes with Pete Holmes.

He was fantastic. It’s one of my favorite episodes I’ve ever done. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Catch you here tomorrow.

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Full Transcript

Caloroga Shark Media. Hello, once again, I’m Shredger’s surer, Johnny Mack with your Daily Comedy News, daily briefing on stand up comedy, comedians and the comedy industry. A sentence. The algorithm loves am I on jury duty that even survive long enough to see the Scrubs reunion? Who knows?

Hopefully you tune in tomorrow and my guest is Pete Holmes. If there’s no episode at all, uh oh, who knows what even happened? But while we’re all still together, Tonight on HBO, Chris Fleming Live at the Palace Chris, maybe off your radar. I like Chris a lot, but I will warn you this is not guy in front of a brick wall stuff. This is out there and I love it.

Chris Fleming Live at the Palace Well premiere at ten East and West tonight. But the knicks are on, man, So I’m not getting to this until Saturday. I need to catch up on my comedy specials. Boy, I got to dig in, I silliv and watch Cat or Tailor yet, And it seems that Friday night is becoming the night for the for lack of a better word, the weird stuff. This is when you put on the Chris Flemings and the Sarah Shermans.

This isn’t I don’t know, Mark Maron in front of a brick wall. This is the quirky stuff. Chris Fleming Live at the Palace, Filmed at the Cadillac Palace Theater in Chicago. Chris Fleming bounds across the stage, good description, sharing his takes on masculinity, Congo lines, Trader Joe’s oreos, NPR, dog Breeds and more. You’ll see, trust me tune in.

Fleming said, I hereby decream my first HBO special will soon be available for you to consume. Please enjoy and feel free to dance along. Thank you and thank you HBO. Conan O’Brien is getting ready to host the Oscars. What’s today the twenty seventh?

There, we’re two weeks out from Conan O’Brien hosting the Oscars. Conan, have you started writing and rehearsing for the Oscars? Is a question you would ask Conan if you were with The New Yorker, and Conan would answer it saying something like, yeah, I started writing a while ago. Ideas are like RAF pilots in nineteen forty. You have to generate a lot of them, a lot of them fall by the wayside, and then some duor so.

We’ve been going for a while. We’ve got a great writer’s room, and I’ve already started going to clubs to try out material, which is really fun. It’s good to keep you in shape and get you ready. Apparently Conan doesn’t do Apple Fitness Plus like I sometimes do. Because if Conan did, and he did a cycling class with Tye, ty would tell him you stay ready, so you don’t have to get ready.

Write that down Conan. The New Yorker asked Conan, Hey, where does politics play a role in that kind of night? Conan said, it’s tricky. I’ve done political comedy over the years. Certainly, I’ve done two White House Correspondents dinners on Late Night.

We used to do lots of political comedy. We do it on the TBS show as well. It’s never been in the front of my comedy brain. I don’t think it’s what drives me. I, for better or worse, have a brain that scrambles things, loves cartoon imagery, and probably is influenced by old movies or literature.

As I am by Frankly Warner Brothers cartoons, and it all gets mixed around in my head. It’s very impulsive. I don’t know where my sense of humor comes from, but I know that when I do political comedy or make a political joke, it has to really resonate with me. And I can’t tell you what that is, but it has to feel true to my comedic voice, or it feels hollow. Hey Cony asked The New Yorker, does Trump feel funny to you anymore?

Conan said no. I mean, I’ve talked a little about this, and I’ve said I think he’s bad for comedy. Years ago, when I was at Harvard and working on the Lampoon, we’d try and think of magazines we could do a parody of. There was one magazine we always knew we couldn’t parody, which was The National Inquirer. If a magazine has as its cover Elvis Still Live, Mary’s Alien and they have a baby that’s a three speed blender, if that’s what the real magazine’s coming out with, you can’t do a comedic take on that.

It’s very difficult, or I think I’m possible to do. I do think Trump, if he were a magazine. It’s the National Inquirer. There’s a lot that’s so bombastic and outrageous and so unprecedented that how do you do. Oh, I’ve got a great Trump oppression.

I have him saying this, Well, that’s not crazier than what happened yesterday. So I don’t know how this is funny? Does that make sense? Send your letters to Conan O’Brien. The conversation turned to things like SNL or John Stewart or Trevor Noah.

Conan said, no, that’s a different thing. There are comedians and when they talk about Trump quickly get very angry. And I’ve said this before, but I think it’s possible to surrender your best weapon. Your best weapon is to be funny. And if it involves in a name calling, I mean, I’m all for people trying.

And when there’s a really good joke about the president or the administration, if there’s a joke about the right left and it’s a good one, I’m elated. I just think of the current climate. Things have gotten so stretched out. Think about that Dolly melted watch that it’s hard to find purchase. The New York here was curious, when does the network get involved.

That’s a great question, Conan said, there’s always some issues. I’ve been dealing with networks for most of my life, so they’ll be stuff and that’s when you roll up your sleeves and you start arguing. Back the New York he was curious, so you win, Conan said, yeah, oh yeah, you can win. You can also lose. Certainly, there are rules about what could be said and what can’t be said.

The Academy is rules. I mean, everyone has rules. And I love this. You explain this. This is so great, Conan said, once you’ve leted in New York for a period of time, you come to this awareness that, oh, everything ultimately isn’t your co op.

They have their rules. You could say, hey, but on this other award show, I got to do this. Let’s say I’m living and I’m making this up. I’m living at one seventy two West eighty ninth Street, and they’ll say this is the Drake Building and you live here at the Drake Building. Yeah, I do.

What I’d like to do is put in my kitchen window. No no, no, no, we don’t let people alter the windows here at Drake. And you’ll say, well, okay, it’s funny because when I lived over at the Malcolmore and they’ll say, yeah, we know that’s the Malkilmore. I’ll say, well, I once did the People’s Choice Awards and they’ll say, oh, we know that’s the People’s Choice Awards. They don’t have standards.

Their windows and their kitchens are hard. Good stuff. I have to listen to. That’s a full podcast on the New Yorker. I think it’s called The New York or Radio Hour.

Have it in my I seriously have two hundred hours of podcast queed up because of the snow. I had a shuffle for two hours on Monday. I had to shuffle again on Wednesday, just nightmare. Taylor Solinson got the wax Job cover story out of the Hollywood Reporter. Now, I found it odd that the cover story came out Wednesday instead of Tuesday, which is when her special came out, because usually those things are at the same time, neither here nor there.

I just found the timing interesting. Like all Hollywood Reporter cover stories, it was very favorable and they wrote it’s not hyperbole to call Taylor Thomson a wonder kin. In her twenty she became a top grossing touring stand up, was tapped to host a late night’s show, and developed her own material more than plenty of her peers will over a lifetime. She started at age sixteen and told THHR Now I’m thirty two and I’ve been doing this half my life. It’s crazy to think about.

They asked her, there’s a moment early on in Prodigal Daughter where you say your team was nervous about you leaning too foreign to religious material. What’s the deal there, Taylor said, my team has never given me notes creatively, so that’s a little bit of an exaggeration. When we’re doing like the tour name Save Me, and they arn’t work for the tour where I’m wearing crosses and stuff, I think they were just like, well, Cake, we make it clear to people that it’s not all that and that we’re not just bashing religion the whole time, and we’re not. But I understand once they saw the hour, they got it. Their job is to think of it more like from a marketing perspective, so they were doing their jobs.

If you go back and watch my other specials, all of my jokes about religion are coming from a very wounded place because of the way I grew up a lot of resentment towards a lot of things that I was told and taught growing up in church. I had to work through a lot of that. She talked about her first sets at age sixteen, a lot of jokes about going to prom and being a loser and feeling ugly, and observational stuff about my family. Obviously I had no life experience. A lot of the jokes I were doing was apologizing for how young I was, because I could feel it was making people nervous for me in the audience, which I think is completely I’d be nervous if a sixteen year old god in stage was like, I’m a comedian.

I think I was pretty self aware and maybe that was a strength of mind back then, but obviously I was not good. People always ask about starting in churches because it’s a weird Oargin story, and for years I was embarrassed of it. Part of the growth in this new hour is me talking about a way as grateful and appreciative as opposed to ashamed and embarrassed. There is a lot more there. You can read it in the Holodaporter.

I’m gonna hold on to some of it for next week. In case I find myself on the OJ trial and need to pre tape a lot of these episodes. I’ll tell you, though, as somebody who does this every day, it is better to have too much content than not enough content. I can assure you of that. Earlier in the week, I thought this was fun.

Drewski went to Indianapolis, where he caught up with Mike Epps, who suddenly is in the news three times a week after never being in the news. I don’t know what’s going on there. Maybe Mike EPP’s got new pr people they were hosting auditions for It Could Have Been Records. Drewski’s Could Have Been Records is a popular comedy music label parody series, sometimes featuring celebrity guests, say Mike Apps. Drewski plays a record exec where auditions aspiring singers, rappers, and dancers, and even quote unquote signs some of them to the label.

That’s a good Time. Tonight’s in Tampa. Sam Morrill will be taping his new comedy special That’s at the Tampa Theater. The Netflix comedy lineup all of a sudden got a lot clearer. They made a few announcements.

Derek Stroup will have his first full length special, Nostalgic, which is produced by Nate Pergatzy’s Nateland Entertainment that’ll be out Tuesday, March tenth. In Nostalgic, Derek Stroup dives into his experience being a nineties kid in rural Alabama and everything that comes along with it, from partying with friends to board games and printal relationships. The special was taped at the Lyric Theater in Birmingham, Alabama. We’re told while Stroop is indeed a waffle house enthusiast, he’s not your average slow talking Southerner, known for his detailed stories and over the top energy with the cadence of an angry auctioneer. He’s set to make his third appearance next month on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, and he’s also in that Nate Brighatzy movie The Breadwinner.

You know that the why that I think Kevin James must have turned down? So that’s more tenth than hey. The next week, Mark Norman, He’s got a special yeah titled None Too Pleased Mark Norman March seventeenth on Netflix. In None Too Pleased, Mark Norman turns married life, fatherhood, and hot button topics into rapid fire punches in this witty free for all where nothing is off limits. Yeah, Norman has a good joke in the trailer, which is here in the copy.

I went to pull the trailer, but it’s naughty. It’s too naughty for this. But the good opening joke there is Mark Norman say, I actually got caught going to strip club recently by my wife. I don’t know how she caught me. I only talked about it on four podcasts Comedy stock Market.

Thank you, Bert Reynolds, Voice of the Comedy stock Market. If you’re a new listener, every Friday, I give give you some recommendations for buying and selling stock in comedians. Now, the premise here is we’re not saying someone is good or bad. We’re looking for the value. Just like in the actual stock market, you try and buy low, sell high.

That’s what we’re trying to do here now this week, you know, for all my curmudgeony negativity, I’ve got six buy recommendations and no sells. What got into me this week? Is it the jury duty? Is it because Scrubs is back? Who even knows?

Here are the recommendations. Let’s buy some Conan O’Brien. Now, John, everybody knows about Conan O’Brien, I know, but nobody’s been thinking about Conan O’Brien, and the oscars will suddenly sneak up on people and Conan is going to crush it. So let’s buy some Conan O’Brien. Let’s buy some Pete Holmes because he did this show.

I think hopefully, hopefully he recorded it yesterday and you will hear it tomorrow. You’ll find out tomorrow what happened. Let’s buy some Pete Holmes. Let’s buy some Chris Fleming. Chris Fleming on HBO tonight.

I’ve got a good feeling about this one. But Chris is a little out there, just warning everybody. We gotta buy some Max Amini. Remember that guy. That’s the guy that I saw was selling out the garden and I was like, who’s that.

Well. In the last week Friend of the Show, Jason Zenneman for The New York Times wrote a big piece about Maximedi that I think was subheadline something like the biggest comedian You’ve never heard of, something like that. I’ve had to kick that a couple times this week. I have it in the script right now for Monday, and then like a day or two after Zennemann wrote about it, Deadline wrote about Maximini. So there’s something in the air, and Max’s people are getting the word out that he’s getting a time at bat.

So let’s buy some Maximini before everybody else figures it out. Although apparently a lot of people other than me have figured it out because he’s selling out the Garden without me mentioning him. Let’s buy some Mark Norman. Yeah. Norman is a really solid comedian.

He hangs out with the cool kids. He’ll have a Netflix thing, which means Rogan will have him on. I mean, Rogan has him on all the time. But I feel like Mark Norman’s been in the on deck circle for next up for quite some times. So let’s load up on Mark Norman.

I got a feeling this Netflix special will push him into the mainstream. And I didn’t originally have this one, but I just added it only I kind of liked that story. I just told you about Derek Stroop, and I’m like, all right, the Nate Berghetzi thing, Yeah, okay, so let’s buy some Derek Stroop. So that’s your comedy stock market for this Week by Conan, by Pete Holmes, by Chris Fleming, by Maximini, by Mark Norman, by Derek Stroop, No sells this week. Look at Johnny Mack being all positive.

You know what else Johnny Mack did? He didn’t put any stories in the second half of his script. There’s supposed to be another storier here too, because we do comedy stock Market and then we do other things. What are you gonna do now, John? I guess I could pull something out of the Saturday script, especially if hopefully that’s going to be Pete Holmes got this whole Robbie Hoffman thing that’s too long.

Do I have anything quick in here? And I can tell you I have a Jim Brewer story, but my voice is too shot to get into that. How about Jackie Kasan? She caught up with the Shepherd Express. She said, while growing up, I wanted to act.

I think I certainly played a lot of What If FONSI was on the Starship Enterprise and acted out all the parts. I vaguely remember answering that I wanted to be a lawyer, or teacher or forest ranger. When asked, I went to U. W. Madison and there was a comedy club we went to it went to the open mic three weeks after seeing the show, and I was hooked.

She then told the story I told the other day about heckling Sam Kinneson. As for comedy right now, she says, it’s crazy out in the world, and there’s two kinds of comedy I like seeing now. One very open about the things we’re all living through, mostly to relieve the pressure, and it make people know that they aren’t alone or crazy. The other is just normal driving, family, food and relationship material, which is just the kind of fun comedy that you can just keep writing no matter what the situation. She’s got that new special out this week, Altercation, so there’s plenty for you to watch watch Jackie Caason, Pete Holmes, Taylor Tomlinson.

If there was one other this week, what’s the other one? I don’t know. My brain is full. Okay, Now, hopefully tomorrow you tune in and Pete Holmes is the guest. If Pete Holmes is not the guest, that meant I have jury duty.

If there’s no episode at all, that means something horrible happened. So come back in the morning and we’ll all find out together, What the hell happened, See you then,

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Full Transcript

Caalarocashock Media. Hey bonus episode. I’m Johnny Mack and this is a recap of Scrubs Season ten, episode one, my return. Original air date February twenty fifth, twenty twenty six. I just needed to get on Mike today.

Sometimes I just do a show for me, and this is one of those. Boy, am I happy? I watched that show last night, and I was so happy that Scrubs landed properly. So many things that I love, specifically Star Trek, have gotten ruined in modern times, and that Scrubs came back and felt like Scrubs and made me laugh and gave me the feels. Oh my goodness, so fantastic.

So if you haven’t watched yet, bail out of this episode because we’re gonna break it down as a recap here seen by seeing him doing this from a combination of memory and AI, and I’m hoping the AI isn’t hallucinating spoilers. We open up with a cold open. It’s a prestige medical drama fake out, perhaps kind of sort of like the Pit. The coloring is a little different. It’s blue, gray, handhaild cameras, tight lens, no music, a Gurney slams through the er doors.

Doctors are speaking in clipped jargon, BP crashing and get me a line, and we see JD in the center of the frame. He’s calm focused, completely different body language from classic JD. It’s like we’re in the pit, except it’s JD.

And then cut suddenly we’re in a luxury apartment.

JD is in concierge medicine. He’s checking a rich guy’s pulse. The guy asked if kombucha counts us water onto the title sequence. It’s a lot like the original. The music is back, we see the new interns, and then last is JD, who doesn’t hang up at X ray puts it on some sort of electronic skinner thing.

Creator Bill Lawrence spoke with Deadline. He said the new season is conceived as if the original series ended with season eight. Okay, so we’re just gonna hand wave there is no season nine. Don’t ask any questions. It just want we meet up with the old folks.

Turk is stuck in a rut, Doctor Cox is doing his tough love thing. But you know, times change in these kids today, there’s a new annoying hr rep played by Vanessa buyer, who I think is gonna get old real fast if they don’t modify that character. Elliott is there. She heads the simulation lab now out to the parking lot for the first scene. It’s the same physical geography as the pilot episode, but JD is walking slower.

Nobody recognize him. We check in with Carla. She’s at the nurses station. She appears to be some sort of boss. Now he runs into Turk in the hallway.

They scream like children, JD Churk and they decide to do the eagle thing. That’s where JD jumps on Turk’s back. They make a couple steps, they collapse in a heat. Turk has a bad back. Now we’re all fifty years old.

He’s excited to see JD.

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And then the big reveal spoilers.

We run into Elliott. We find out that they are divorced. We find out that she ended it. Bill Lawrence talked about the divorce. He said, here’s the scoop.

The eighth year of Scrubs ends with just once, I’d like to believe my dreams came true. We all felt that way to be dark about the world. But even though I’m very grateful about how my life is gone. Not everything works out the way you want to work it out of a huge believer in writing what you know and what you see. Our show runner is someone that when I left Scrubs was married and having a young child and now is a single parent co raising that child with somebody.

That doesn’t mean it’s acrimonious, and that doesn’t mean that it’s his own journey. I’m sure you have that same experience. Some people in your lives work out, some don’t. Bill said, I was really resistant at first, and the one things these guys all drove home to me, They’re like, if you watch the nine thousand episodes of Scrubs, you would say Turk and Carla are gonna make it, and then you would say, I don’t think j D and Elliott have had more than an episode and a half that they seem like a functioning couple. So it’s a good storytelling device.

Doesn’t mean their story’s over, but it’s certainly something that adults have to navigate all the time. Zach braftag Danny said, what JDC’s projected on the sheet at the end of season eight again ignore season nine, is what he hopes and dreams will happen, but that doesn’t necessarily come true, especially when you’re fifty years old. Things that you want to happen happen. Some marriages fail, some don’t. You have the contrast with Turk and Carl where they’re as happily married as ever, compared to us who are learning how to copare it and eventually work together.

So I think that was a good way of showing a wide array of how marriages can turn out in midlife. On to meet the new characters. Now, I kind of like the new characters. I mean, I’m not in love with them, but I didn’t hate them, which for me says a lot. I was ready to not like them.

I think Star Trek has done a lot of damage to my brain. But they’re all fine. And one of the things I’m really enjoying about the show, and I said to my wife as we watched it, it puts the characters twenty five years later or twenty years later, you know we’ve all changed. One thing you learn as you get older is you can’t put the band back together. You can maybe get together for dinner every now and then for one night, but you just can’t put the genie back in the bottle.

People change things move on anyway. We meet the interns and then in walks my personal hero, doctor Cox. He’s older, his voice isn’t as strong as it was. I don’t know if that is how McGinley sounds now or if that was a choice it did. Keep noticing it.

JD thinks he can’t call me nuby and doctor Cox now calls him, which got a chuckle out of me a few times. As viewers, we can tell that doctor Cox is setting up JD for success. He kind of manipulates JD into watching over the terrans for a couple of minutes. There’s a thing with a patient. We see JD come in, takes over.

He’s very confident, he’s a veteran doctor.

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And then the big twist at the end of the episode, it’s Cox and JD.

Cox gets very serious. This is John McGinley dropping the guff doctor Cox character. He invites JD to come back. JD mentions as he’s excited to work with doctor Cox. Doctor Cox says, you’re not going to be working with me.

You’re going to replace me, and he offers JD the job of chief of Medicine. Now it might brain I don’t know how that works. Like in the Chief of Medicine, it’s not the monarchy just to point the next guy. But maybe we’re gonna learn that Jordan is still on the board. Anyway, doesn’t matter, it moves the plot along.

JD accepts he is now the Chief of Medicine, so he is now in the role that doctor Kelso was in twenty five years ago and Doctor Cox was in towards the end of the original series. Doctor Cox seems kind of worn down by these kids today and he says a line, I’m tired. I’ll talk about that in the second half. What that might mean. Doctor Cox says, I feel like this particular time has passed me by.

Let me take a quick break and I’ll talk a little bit about John C. Mcginley’s Doctor Cox. Now, unfortunately McGinley is only in two more episodes. He’s not in episode two, so it seems like he really is not in the show all that much. I thought they were just going to do the dynamic where he was JD’s boss, but it seems like they’re going for something else.

And as I read the interviews spoilers, it seems like there might be something with doctor Cox’s health now. Deadline asked McGinley. Is doctor Cox a relic? How does his character fit into today’s world. McGinley said, I think people who understand fatigue and being exhausted will understand doctor Cox’s dilemma.

I think he accomplished everything he set out to accomplish, and he’s ready to move on. Bill Lauren said, the showrunner when they came to me with their idea was it’d be cool to see these students teachers now, and to do that, you need somebody to take doctor Cox’s role. Then to do that, it was really important to see JD maybe entered a little bit of cush your life, because when you work at a teaching hospital, you’re there because you’re being of service. There’s no other side to it. But even then we knew that meant in the opening of the show, JD had a step onto the mantle of you need to be there for these kids.

What I was to you, Lawrence says, Doctor Cox is a huge character on the show. He comes back at the end of the year and will continue on next year. Now that’s interesting is Lawrence telling us that this show has secretly been picked up for season two. I’ve been assuming that they would do one of those day one. Oh my god, the ratings were so big that it’s immediately coming back.

So it looks like Bill Lawrence knows that this will be back, which is great now possible major spoiler here. McGinley said, I’ll come back to the hospital in a profoundly different capacity. Deadline said, I hope doctor Cox is not dying. McGinley said, we all die. Nellie, yikes, can you imagine.

Don’t do that to me. Don’t just don’t do that to me. I can’t handle that. Zach, how do you feel about JD being the new Doctor Cox? Zach brav said, I think one of the things you see in the pilot is that JD hasn’t been a teacher in years, but you can see how good he is at it, how much you miss is it.

Whereas Cox is such a tough love kind of teacher that doesn’t really work, and as we learn from researching, isn’t not really in a loud anymore, and he sort of burned out. He’s like a dinosaur.

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And then he clocks JD helping the interns and being able to actually speak to…

I’m too old. The line is they need someone to do for them what I did for you, and I think that’s one of the main themes of the first season. Plenty more to unpack. I’ll do another one of these tomorrow, but Johnny Mack is thrilled that Scrubs is back. If you haven’t checked it out, please do make sure you set the DVR.

This is technically season one according to YouTube TV, so if you go to record Scrubs, make sure you’re not recording old Scrubs and you record the new one. But great to have the show back. So happy. I know I’m rambling today, but I’m so excited about this again. We’ll do another one of these tomorrow, back in the morning with a normal episode by

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Full Transcript

Caloroga Shark Media. Hello, I’m Schrodinger. Sure, Johnny Mack It’s face. Daily Comedy News, a daily briefing on stand up comedy comedians on the comedy industry. A sentence that the algorithm loves.

So I don’t know if I have Jerry duty or not. So I’m taping Thursday and Friday back to back. Today is political. If you don’t like politics, you can skip today. I’ll remind you yesterday I did like five minutes on John Mulaney beer.

Okay, but today we are serious because it was the State of the Union. I like this thing Tim Dillon posted on Facebook prior to the State of the Union. Here’s how Tim envisioned it going. I think this is brilliant. Trump points to Eric Kirk, who seated in the balcony.

She stands up and takes out a mike. She begins to sing a song no one understands. Trump is swaying to the beat. He says she’s top notch. Then Trump says, we bombed a round five minutes ago.

Eric is now singing louder and the words don’t make any Since Trump reprimands her, it says he doesn’t you got to build on the chorus. Then Jeffrey Epstein and Julaane Maxwell stand up a mix of cheers and booze. Trump says, you too have caused me a lot of trouble. They both laugh. Aoc rolls her eyes, a Dominatrix quawk, shirtless, Lindsey grahmman on a leash.

Graham Yell’s death is the one true God. Erica Kirk is now scream singing to the point where everyone is uncomfortable. Trump is shaking his head, saying she’s blowing at big time. Then Trump brings in the little kid from the last State of the Union, saying he’s in ice now, and everyone cheers pretty much. If you’ve never listened to Tim Dylan, that’s what Tim does on the late night shows, Jimmy Kimmel said of the State of the Union, UoN was angry, right, It was an angry speech.

The theme of the speech was all foreigners are murderers. Trump said zero illegal aliens had been allowed in the United States on his watch, but the door’s always open to those who come in to be his next wife. So that’s something Jimmy Kimmel continued, And you can send your letters to Jimmy Kimmel, we have a nut job want to be king who’s doing everything he can sense her opinions he doesn’t want to hear. He has his goons arresting, of course, and killing American citizens. He’s got funding for cancer research and children’s hospitals.

He’s gut funding for cancer research and children’s hospitals while he breaks in literally billions of dollars for himself and his family. He’s protecting pedophiles and won’t explain it. He’s lining the pockets of billionaires, all while neglecting the sick, the poor, the hungary. In the name of Jesus. By the way, you can read all about in a Donald Trump edition of the God Bless the USA Bible.

It is made in China and available for ninety nine ninety nine. That is the state of the Union. Kimmel added, the speech went on so long Christy Nomes’s dog shot himself. Stephen Colbert was live after the show. He joked that he dropped an edible and strapped in.

Colbert described the state of the Union as according to Trump’s team, the official theme of the speech was America at two fifty strong, prosperous and respected, though, if you have to say you’re strong, prosperous, or and respected, it kind of feels like you’re not. Colbert noted Trump looked a little tired, but his hair was nice and fluffy. Yet did you notice that as the President was walking in it was kind of uh, kind of could have used a brush, Colbert said, Personally, I think he could have kept his head in the cotton candy machine a little bit longer. Jimmy Fallon with his Biting Edge commentary noted that Trump’s speech focused on his major accomplishments, and when those eight seconds were up, he just riffed for an hour and a half. Wow, even Fallon getting in on the president of the United States.

Falon said, And if you didn’t want to watch Trump, there was an alternative State of the Union with bad Bunny instead. Yeah. Trump walked into the Capitol where he saw members of the House, Senate, and Supreme Court and was like, oh crap, is this an intervention? Second joke. Trump was greeted by the House, Senate, Supreme Court, and he said, wow, everyone, I ate in one room.

Amazing. Fallon said, it was basically two hours of Trump telling us how great he is. I feel like we’ve been getting that State of the Union address every day since he took office. You know who to send your letters to. Tomorrow’s fun.

Okay, I’m taping back to back. No politics tomorrow, actually a little politics. They asked Conan about politics. That’s tomorrow. I’m shroudingers Drewer.

Did I survive to see Scrubs last night? Who knows? None of us know? I pretape this at what time? Is it?

One thirteen in the afternoon? Hopefully I made it to eight o’clock? Who knows? Is Friday the last episode ever? Did I like Scrubs?

Am I on a jury? Who knows? If everything goes according to plans, Saturday’s episode will be guessed Pete Holmes unless the United States District Court decides they would rather me talk to them than talk to Pete Holmes and will feel very bad if I have to cancel on Pete Holmes. So let’s hope you tune in Saturday and hear Pete Holmes, at which point you would know I lived long enough to see Scrubs come back. I digress.

Did you see the USA men’s hockey team gold winners beat those Canadians? Making the people up in Moose Antler’s British Columbia. Pretty sad the USA, USA, USA, the hockey team came by the State of the Union. Michael ian Black on social media posted one day at least some of these hockey players will have to explain to their children why they allowed themselves to be used by a fascist. Bill Maher jokingly called for the end of the State of the Union this on last week’s A Real Time mar said, nothing has misled the American people to the warp belief that the president can act like a king more than this stupid, boring performative after dinner speech from hell, with members of Congress lining the aisle like medieval peasants hoping to touch the royal garments.

Then he proceeds to tell Congress what he wants them to do, making it look like the president’s in charge of everything and it’s he who sets the agenda. But that’s not what it says in the opening manual, you know the Constitution. Bill Maher said that he will not tours a stand up. The seventy year old is concerned about the political anger out there and worried he might get quote unquote assassinated due to the political climate. On The Club Random podcast February twenty third, while talking to guest John Mellencamp, Mars said, I never wanted to make an announcement because maybe I’ll go back, but it doesn’t seem like it now.

First of all, I wouldn’t want to be on the road right now. I feel like I got off the road at a very good time. There’s just so much political anger out there. I could get shot from either side. They could get together and have a joint assassination.

You know, they all have a reason to get me. I mean, I just want to want to be out there in the atmosphere we live in today. I mean, it’s just chippy out there. Later in the podcast, Bill Maher said he fears Democrats less than Republicans. Despite being unhappy with the Democrats, mar said, Yeah, there’s a certain wook part of this country that hates me that refuse to just let them get away with insanity that they never used to try before and never used to say things like that before.

But in general I find them of the Democrats less alarming than the Republicans and the Conservatives who don’t believe in con seating elections. Lots of other basic democratic stuff. But yes, I think both sides have to be called out. Bill wanted you to notice he was criticizing both parties and said, and I live in Hollywood. This town does not believe that.

They do not believe in calling out both sides. A little kerf fluffel in Houston, The House of Blues in Houston booked a show called The Right Side of Comedy. It’s not until June twelfth. The Right Side of Comedy would feature three conservative comics. People on social media are sad.

One person posted on Instagram hosting this is so embarrassing. The marketing for the show is aimed at conservatives. They’re calling it the Gulf of America tour. Comedian Kenny Webster had both said on Facebook, I promised you all a big announcement for the twenty twenty six Texas GOP Convention exactly one block from the convention on Friday, June twelfth. This will be the biggest party of the event.

Our social media responses, one person wrote uncensored, unwoke, unapologetic, unfunny. Kenny Webster wrote, the Right Side of Comedy is a show that laughs at itself as much as others. We might lean a little of the right, but a lot of our jokes are aimed at Republicans. SNL creator Lauren Michaels once famously said his show pokes fun at the GOP more often than dims because Democrats tend to ticket. Personally, Republicans think it’s funny if people on social media are upset about our event.

That really proves Lauren’s point. We don’t mind when people host pro LGBTQ plus theme comedy shows or other left leaning events. Why should we comedy before politics. Well, there was a follow up to that. Kenny Webster in the Houston Chronicle wrote, when my buddies Jesse Payton, Alex Stein and I hatched the plan host the Right Side of Comedy the Gulf of America tour at the House of Blues this June, we thought we were geniuses.

The Republican State Convention will conveniently be happening right next door, filled with attendees ready to buy tickets for a conservative stand up. We pictured a packed house of folks who get our style EDGI but not evil, making fun of everybody, including ourselves. We booked it, posted the fly, and went back to whatever losers like us do. Then the internet happened. Liberals saw the event posted on the House of Blues website and lost their minds.

It was like we’d announced a show called Kicking Puppies for the GOP instead of just three dudes telling jokes. Next thing, you know, my favorite local newspaper Round a story about the controversy, and conservative swarmed the comments section with their own flavor of outrage. They weren’t mad at us, thank god, but at the lips for being mad and a Houston chronicle for covering the story. He continues in this day and age, getting canceled for comedies practically right of passage. Kevin Hart lost his Oscars gig over decade old tweets that were dumb but not evil.

Yeah, I forgot that happened. That was the thing, wasn’t it. Shane Gillis got bounced from SNL before even landed a dressing room because of his old podcast bits. Dave Chappelle had Netflix staff walking out over trans jokes. Gilbert Godfried lost his role voicing the affleck up for being Gilbert Godfried.

If I recall correctly, that was after his post nine to eleven joke. Sarah Silverman and Amy Schumer had to grovel over old satirical bits. The problems there were punchlines, not hate crimes. None of those come needs for bad guys. At worst, they were just not that funny.

But apparently it’s easier to get folks upset about bad comedians or in my case, an excellent comedian and his two friends, then about things that actually matter. I like this an next section, but here’s the part that the clinically online canceled crowd conmediately ignores. Jesse, Alex and I do a ton of charity work with our shows and events. We’ve raised money for veterans, local causes, to children with cancer at the Sunshine Kids you name it, Operation Comedy Therapy benefit nights where tickets go to good stuff, help support disabled military veterans, at wheelchairs for warriors, or fine homes for shelter dogs at Citizens for Animal Protection. Even if you don’t like our politics, even if you incorrectly you believe our jokes aren’t funny, you gotta admit that we’re actually trying to do some good in the world.

They had some more podcast awards. Now I can’t get excited about podcast awards. There are podcast awards, maybe once a week, maybe three times a week. There’s just too many everybody in podcasting. Can we just stop with the award shows?

We don’t need five thousand of them? Okay? The Ampies had podcast Awards. ConA and O’Brien won Best Comedy Podcast. He also won Best Ad Read.

Whatever Comedy Survivor continues today as the last day to vote for what are we in? Week seven? Week eight? I lost track? What you do is you go to the Facebook group Daily Comedy News Podcast Group.

There you will find a drawing of me extinguishing the torture of Jim Gaffigan. You’ll see a list of who is still in the game, and you can vote one of those comedians off Still in the Game Nikki Glaser, Kevin Hart, John Mlaniosco, At Kotzka, Sebastian Manascalco Signataro, Sarah Silverman, Leslie Jones, and Bert Kreischer. What you do is you write down a name and you say I’d like to vote off whoever. Make it super clear so we don’t have one of them there controversies. We don’t need that Comedy Survivor in the Facebook group Daily Comedy News Podcast Group.

You know what’s back? Actual Survivor. I had no idea because Scrubs and Jackie Kashin and Pete Holmes and The Knicks and the State of the Union. There’s a lot of TV going on this week. But yeah, last night Actual Survivor came back.

And the reason I noticed it was Jeff probst when on the Tonight Show at Jimmy Fallon. So see that a good promotional appearance, because otherwise I would have a week from now went wait, Survivor was on. We learned on the Tonight show starring Jimmy Fallon that Jeff Probsed is finally putting himself into the shoes of the contestants. In the Survivor of fifty teaser, several famous Survivor fans, including musicians Zach Brown and Billie Eilish, social media personality Mister Beast, and Jimmy Fallon himself are involved somehow in this new Survivor fifty season. Probes to explain the theme of this season is in the hands of the fans, And in the back of my mind, I thought, man, there’s some really cool famous Survivor fans.

I wonder if they would want to be part of it. Propes to remember last time he was on the Tonight show. Fallon told them you should compete on the show, and Probe said I will if you will, and we shook on it, and that night is when I decided we should have a few celebrities. Hmm. We didn’t get too much out of Probes.

He said, I am a man of my word. I’ll just leave it at that. Fun was like, do you compete? Prope said, I’ll just leave it at that. It’s enough of a tease.

Fallon continued, Jeff Probes can be Survivor. Prope said, yeah, I do. Was only fitting that I’ve talked so much smack for so many years that I finally compete. And I’m not gonna say how it went. I’ll to say I have a lot of respect for the players.

Hmmm. Survivor Season fifty, not to be confused with completely legally distinct parody comedy. Survivor got a lot of TV to watch. The Pit. You like the pit, I love the pit.

My wife loves the pit. Boy Between Scrubs and the Pit, we’re gonna be like a couple watching TV together twice a week. What are we? Newly Weeds? Been twenty years since that happened.

You’ve been married for a while. Hey, I’m going downstairs see in two hours. People in their thirties and they were like, that’s horrible, they’re not in love anymore. And the people in their fifties like, yeah, I get it. I didn’t realize the person on the pit playing the American Sign Language interpreter is comedian Mosha Kasher.

I didn’t put that together at all. There was a quick scene the minorist of spoilers. There’s a patient who is deaf. Mosha Kasher, the interpreter signs happy to be here, and then the scene ends and that’s always see if Mosha Kasher. But Kasher wrote on it in Instagram.

Thus begins the saga of Jacob the Interpreter. Interestingly, in real life, Casher is a child of deaf parents, which resulted in him becoming a certified ASL interpreter. In real life, Casher said every child of deaf adults has essentially the same experience, which is a fifteen year non consensual Sign Language Interpretation internship training program. Apparently, the son of TV’s John Oliver is upset that baseball player Pete Alonso left the New York Mets for the Baltimore Orioles. The Baltimore Orioles posted this clip from Pete Alonso addressing John oliver Son’s concerns.

Hey, what’s up, John. It’s Pete Alonso here. So I saw what your son had to say about being upset of me signing with the Earls, but hey, he can always become an O’s fan. Would love to extend an invitation to you and your family to come down to Camden for a game this year, and you guys can get out on the field for batting practice and hopefully you guys come down, have some fun and hope to see you soon. Go ohs.

You may have seen that Martin Schwart’s daughter, Katherine Elizabeth Schwart passed away earlier in this week. Because of that, obviously, Martin Short and collaborator Steve Martin have postponed dates for their tour. The Milwaukee Miller HIGHLFE Theater posted just a very clean statement saying, due to unforeseen circumstances, Steve Martin and Martin Schwart’s show, originally scheduled for Friday, February twenty seventh in Milwaukee, has been postponed. Catherine was the eldest of three children Martin Short, adopted with his late wife Nancy. A representative for Short put out a statement saying, it is with profound grief that we confirmed the passing of Catherine Hartly Short.

The Short family is devastated by this loss and asked for privacy at this time. Catherine was beloved by all and will be remembered for the light and joy she brought into this world. Catherine Short was forty two years old that your comedy needs for today

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Full Transcript

Caloroga Shark Media. Hi there, I’m Johnny Mack with your Daily Comedy News, a daily briefing on stand up comedy comedians in the comedy industry. How about that State of the Union. Huh, We’ll talk about that one tomorrow because we have so much to talk about today. Plus I went to bed big TV day.

We have the Scrubs reboot. I have lived long enough that Scrubs came back. Well, don’t chink yourself, John, If nothing horrible happens today, well one, if two things are gonna happen, I’m either gonna watch the Scrubs reboot or this is the final episode of Daily Comedy News. Hopefully there’ll be an episode tomorrow. You know what I’m saying.

Oh wait, No, I record earlier in the day, so it’s possible that I record Thursday’s episode, then something horrible happens, and then Thursday is the final episode. So if there’s not a show Friday, call my wife. I digress. Scrubs is back, and Nate Brigatzy’s Game show is around. Now.

I was thinking I was gonna be coy and say that. A friend of mine said, there’s no way this thing’s going to be good, right. But then I realized Nate’s never doing the show. And I say that because when he announced his book, I reached out six months before the book came out, and this is before he really popped, and the agency types that run Hollywood and run show business decided Nate was it. Before any of that, I reached out and I still didn’t get him, So there’s no chance of him doing the show now.

So I’ll just say it. There’s no way this thing’s gonna be good, right. A press release from ABC shared a description of the show, The Greatest Average American, which premieres today on ABC right after the Scrubs reboot. You don’t even have to get off the couch. You can just sit there, we are told.

Each round is packed with laugh out loud challenges and trivia as contestants try to guess how every day Americans think and live, which reminds me I have a debate tonight because Wednesday night is trivia night. But I already told the guys I still don’t know if I have jury duty. I can’t call until five pm today, so I can’t even tell the boys until after five if I can go to trivia or not, because if I have jury duty tomorrow, I have to work tonight and record some shows, which again leading into the horrible option there maybe I record a show at seven thirty and then something horrible happens and I don’t live long enough to see Scrubs return. But because I’ve recorded early, there is a Friday show, so you might have to wait till Saturday to find out if you need to call my wife or not. Boy, it is this morbid.

I’m just trying to have fun. We’ve had so much ridiculous with the politics that I’m just trying to fund with the show. Where were we? Oh? Yeah, we were on the couch, still alive watching Scrubs and then Nate Pergatzy come on if he didn’t go to trivia.

And of course I have the complication of my wife wants to watch Scrubs with me. So if I do stay home tonight, do I grab her and go, hey, can we actually watch Scrubs? Because you know, I host this comedy podcast. I’d like to actually talk about it. But if I go to trivia, I won’t get home to nine twenty, and then even I won’t want to watch it tonight, So who knows?

Who Knows? Stay Focus? John The Greatest Average American premieres tonight after the Scrubs reboot. Nate Pergatzy said, each round is packed with laugh out loud challenges. I challenged that premise laugh out loud challenges or snicker?

Okay, that was kind of cute. Challenges Who Knows? And trivia as contestants try to guess how everyday Americans think and live? Can I tell you something? Pete Corielly the Gator did this with Jim Brewer and Jeff Foxworthy a million years ago.

Cori Elly called it the out of touch game. Foxworthy was in at I think the clip exists, Yep, yep, I have found the clip, So let’s play it here. Now. I’ve cut this down a little bit. But also I want you to pay attention to case you’re like Johnny Mack just makes up crap.

He doesn’t know any of these people. If you listen to the very beginning here, you’ll hear Jim Brewer say, what’s up, John? What’s up? Jeff? I’m the John, what’s up?

Job? What’s up? Jeff? How are you? Can I say one thing?

Jeff? Go ahead? Last time we had you on here, it was so cool to meet you, and how you just you really are a regular dude.

And then I always say brew because Bruce’s a regular guy too, but you know he…

And I would make up this stuff. And though I wrote some stuff because you were coming in, I’m always like, your best one, this is I’ll give you the best one. So you gonna do like what you do to me? What Yeah, I want to do them with both. Then I will tell you this and you gotta bat me up being the redneck guy.

People get like disappointed that I don’t live in a trailer, you know. You know, I was like, oh, you have a regular houseow. Man, you know, like you ain’t nothing like THEMN jokes. Yeah, but god knows, I spent many a night in a trailer. It’s just when you’re making a little money, you’re like, you know what, screw this corrugated metal around the bottom.

We’re getting a house, you know. And here’s what you guys, tell me, what do you think cours Moore, A John dea right on lawn mower, cheapest one. Right now, we went on the site that you could buy or a bottle of crystal at the forty forty club jay Z’s Club in New York City, a brand new ride on John expensive a bottle of crystal. A jay Z’s the bottle of crystal. I’m gonna say that to you only because if it’s jay Z, it’s gotta be bling bling.

They’re right, a touch nine hundred dollars. Forth bottle of champagne. Low Moow is fifteen hundred dollars cheapest one. Does this put me more in touch? If I actually own a John Deere tractor?

Let’s see attractor. No, it’s the attractors we got lowmows. It’s my poor event, Georgia. I got a tractor you own, George. That’s what I’m trying to say.

I have digressed again? Where were we? Abraghats? He said? Each round is packed with laugh out loud challenges, a notion which Johnny Mack challenges, and trivia as contestant to try to guess how every day Americans think and live.

In the end, one lucky player will be crowned the greatest average American and get the chance to win the ultimate grand prize, the average American salary of sixty seven twenty dollars. Okay, let’s talk about sixty seven thousand, nine twenty dollars. Is that a lot of money? Sure? Is it?

Almost definitely less than ABC’s charging for one thirty second commercial during the show. Yeah, And how much do you think Nate is being paid for this? Let me see if I can find that. I can’t find that. Now.

I get that they’re probably saying sixty twenty dollars is a funny amount. But everybody’s making money on this thing except the winner. We’re told, with his signature dry wit and clean humor, comedian Nateperghancy, he’s stepping into the game show spotlight. Nate told Pause Rewind, I travel all over the country. I would jokingly always call myself the greatest average American that I know all the average American things, and so I wanted to make a game show that kind of celebrates that.

It’s fun, it’s silly, it’s weird, little questions that you wonder. I kind of came up with the idea and then got paired up with John Quinn, who’s a producer who actually knows how to make the game. So then we created it, and yeah, I’m excited for it to come out. As for the prize money, Nate says it could change each season as the economy fluctuates. It should be going up, so you hope goes up.

Everybody. He’s going to know the average American salary, so you hopefully will get to see that go up, and we will go up with it. We are sold Nate brigets. He doesn’t just stand on the sidelines. He jumps into the hilarious challenges himself without knowing what’s coming.

Nate explained, I don’t know what the challenge is before we go in. I was like, I’d rather just go in and not know. Don’t tell me what it is. I need my natural reactions. So if my first answer is probably gonna be the dumb one, let it be the dumb one.

Here’s one of the hilarious segments. We put shopping carts into the cart return station. You see if you can make it into the railing of the parking lot. And so that was one I enjoyed. I was better at it than I thought.

Nate hopes the game show becomes destination worthy. He said, it’s like when you see people want to go on Prices, right. I like the idea of creating something that people want to be part of. If you get to come to the show, there’s a great chance you’re going to be shown on the show and you play a big part in it. Boy, I am excited about this one.

Nate also caught up with ABC thirteen dot Com. Nay were curious if he watched game shows growing up. Nate said, I did. I watched Pressure, Luck, Prices right, all that kind of stuff. I was a big game show fan.

You could tell because he named two game shows. But nothing’s so crazy that I imagined I’d be hosting a game. We’ve got some more details in the second round. They’ve got to get into my mind. I do a challenge like one was naming state capitals.

How many state capitals can I name in sixty seconds? Then they bet the over under and someone picks a number to see who wins. I do free throws and other challenges, so they’re betting on me and the last one is betting on the audience. ABC thirteen asked Nateprigetzy if we asked your family what the most average thing about you is. What would they say?

Nate said, it’s going to be food. It’s gonna be McDonald It’s my fast food. I love fast food. Nate BERGATZI the Greatest average American Tonight, nine pm Eastern, right after the Scrubs reboot on ABC. Are you excited?

I am? I know you guys are like John, Can you please talk about the state of the Union and get all political on the show? Stop having fun? Well, no, nope, We’re gonna keep it fun today. Boy, are we really this?

Wow? I just checked the clock. We’re pretty foreign already. All right, Maybe I should hold on to this one. I’ll tell you what it is.

From chowhound dot Com, I tried years John Mulaney’s non alcoholic brand of beers, and this is the best one. Maybe I should do it because I can kind of do a half assed Milleni today. Okay, they reviewed John Mulaney’s non alcoholic brand of beers. Choehound writes, non alcoholic beers usually don’t taste like actual beer. Some come pretty close, as I found when comparing brands of NA beers to their alcoholic counterparts, but there was always something a little bit off, not to say they’re all bad, just different.

I’m kind of nailing that today. Mike Biggley is gonna write my name down and pass it to John Mulaney, isn’t he? And they have been ranked coming in third at number three. The classic Pale. We’re told the classic pale tastes like a bright, authentic pale l which, as you know, is similar to an ipa, but with less hop content.

It builds gradually inside your mouth and leads up to an aftertaste that sort of punches you in the head in a good way. It’s worth knowing which NA beers are worth buy and which ones to avoid, because many NA beers have an aggressive aftertaste, and not in a good way. Beer number two is the Belgian Wit. We are told. The Belgian wit is very pleasant.

It’s very drinkable. It’s softer and hazier than the others, just as a Belgian witch should be. As they take a drink of it, it literally feels like I’m at a brewery, does it? Are you sitting there going? You know we’re doing well, But these trivia guys are gonna ask the Mariana Grande questions in the fifth round, and only the fifth round matters anyway, so stop arguing about question two in the third rounds.

It all comes down to do they ask old man questions in the fifth round or do they ask music questions? You don’t know the answer to you, old guys, is that what it feels like when you drink? Sorry? Sorry, I went off on a tangent there. It’s trivia Night, Bestmantrivia dot Com.

Check them out, Hire them. They’re based out of New Jersey. I don’t know how far they go. Will they go to San Diego to do your trivia show? Ask them?

And the number one non alcoholic beer beer Number one, the original pilsner. We’re told if you had to compare it to a regular beer, Year’s original Pilsner tastes pretty similar to a bit burger, but fruitier. It tastes like a classic German style pilsner. The tastes seest of beers, which quite frankly, is a tiny miracle. Okay, Johnny Max getting long in here today because we’re silly.

What do I need to tell you about? Tell you about Bill Martin? But see that’s political that going for tomorrow.

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Now, let’s do this a vibe spoiler for Taylor Tomlinson’s new special, new con…

If you know, last night there was Taylor Pete Holmes trying to get Pete Homes on the show. Everybody say nice things about Pete Holmes on’t once you like tweeted Pete Holmes and tell them to do Daily Comedy News. I’m trying to get Peed Homes on. I’ve asked the people over there behind the new special. Well, last night alone we had Taylor and Pete Holmes and the State of the Union and the Knicks.

That’s a lot of TV. I don’t know how late you stay up. I don’t, but the guys at Ready Steady Cut must have had one of them fancy screeners there or else. They got up at midnight and banged this thing out. But they wrote.

Sure some of the specials derivative. There’s a great sentence and not particularly illuminating, but the payoff in the final third works pretty well. A surface level breakdown of some of religion’s most morribly questionable fables and inherently hypocritical teachings feels ald. There’s a personal quality to the gradually unfrilling of religious trauma and how that relates to matters like being a professional comedian and coming out as bisexual. That lends a newer, more specific tint to the subject.

And this is kind of a backhanded comment. And Tomlinson’s finally hon stage persona is enough to carry audiences through to the good stuff. So it sounds like Taylor is a better performer than the material. That’s what I’m getting there. A bit of serious news to get in.

Russell Brand has pleaded not guilty to two fresh charges of rape and sexual assault. He did that in London on Tuesday. The BBC reported that Russell Brand wore a leopard print shirt and dark coat. Brand denies charges of sexually assaulting a woman in London in two thousand and nine and raping another woman in that same year. His bail was renewed at the end of a brief hearing.

He’s due to face trial in June. In May, he pleaded not guilty to five other charges relating to four women, one count of rape, one of oral rape, too of sexual assault and one of a decent assault between nineteen ninety nine and two thousand and five. Awkward segue Today at eight pm East on YouTube. It is the YouTube premiere of Jackie Kation’s a new special Altercation, Love It, Get It, and Jackie will be hanging out in the chat. There will be a premiere event at seven Eastern with Jackiecation hanging out in the chat.

All right, so you could line things up. You could hang with Jackie at seven Scrubs, more Scrubs, and then of course Nate Pergatsy’s the Greatest American Average whatever it’s called. I could have made an edit there, I chose not to and we’re very busy today. Or I would point out that part of the description here for Jackie Caation is she’s been quote heard on Bob’s Burger’s interesting phrasing there, but I can unpack that today. Altercation includes stories of her buddy system parameters around reaching against strangers, including a story from the years when the drinking age was eighteen before she set foot on stage.

Forty years ago, while attending college, Jackie was asked to perform comedy for the first time. More specifically, she was approached by security while heckling Sam Kinnison mid set That’s Bold and was told that open mic is on Sunday. I imagine Sam was really good at shouting down Heckler’s. She loved it so much she did it every night for the next year. I got a one point eight GPA that semester alter Kation YouTube premiere eight pm Chat Hangout thing at seven pm Eastern when we come back.

The rest of the episode will be about Scrubs. John, you did a Scrubs preview on Sunday, I know, but I didn’t do the Scrubs reviews, all right, So if you have no interest in Scrubs, you might as well bail now. If you’re excited for Scrubs, come back after the break. I will be talking about some reviews. So if you don’t want to know or you don’t care about Scrubs, I’ll catch tomorrow.

Everybody else, hang out. I’m having fun today, all right. Scrubs tonight, eight o’clock Eastern ABC. Case you missed it, I did a preview of this on Sunday, That entire episode of Scrubs. In case you can’t tell, I like Scrubs even when we are fighting off fascism during the summer.

You will remember I didn’t just sit there and push that green Hulu button on my Roku remote. No, I went all the way upstairs to get the DVDs in solidarity with Jimmy Kimmel. You remember that, right, yes? TV Insider reminds us where we left off spoilers ish picking up with JD returning into Sacred Heart, Scrubs awkwardly attempts to settle back into familiar rhythms. It speeds through significant updates with all the show’s main characters while introducing us to a scattering of underdeveloped new ones.

For fans who are tuning in since two thousand and one, they may recall that Scrubs technically at two finales, one in season eight and another in season nine. But as we get ready for the new season, forget about season nine never happened. Don’t ask questions, Just watch season eight and then skip to this. I’ve seen good reviews and bad reviews. This one’s a bad review, but stay around.

Most of the reviews I’ve seen have been pretty good. This one says most of the show lives in the shadow of JD returning to his past while taking on a new role, one that Zach Brath lacks the comedic range to ever live up to. Ouch. It’s so centered on him trying that it leaves a shallows sense of how the medical field knows in it of change, beyond many eye rolling asides about how the youths are too sensitive. Now, oh, I’m going to eye roll that later in this episode.

I know what I have in my script. Now, any want to know who wrote this? Megan Doorwish for TV Insider, I’m going to guess Megan Dorwish is not a fifty six year old man, TV Insider says. Megan Dorwish is a senior writer for TV Insider and contributor to Swoon and TV Guide magazine. She has worked with the team since twenty sixteen, and that took me to this.

She is a class of twenty seventeen from her particular college, So someone who graduated college in twenty seventeen is probably around thirty one years old, And looking at Megan’s picture here, I would guess she’s around thirty one. So all I’m saying here is this cranky fifty six year old man recording a podcast’s basement relates to doctor Cox like a lot, whereas someone who is thirty one years old may have a different perspective like I lost my mind on Sunday with people getting mad about the Todd. They missed the point of the Todd character. As I said Sunday, even in two thousand and one, we knew the Todd was ridiculous and you can’t do that kind of thing. But that’s where the fun comes from.

It’s a sitcom, the review continues. Instead of bringing the same self facing humor and sharp jok them into pacing that define the show decades ago, the reboot is trapped in the shadow of its better days. It’s like an adult going to a college party, silly, though mostly just sad. What are you saying? Hmm?

And then there are some more spoilery type things that I won’t ruin for you for here, I just ruined it for myself. But that’s why I didn’t do this on Sunday. But I’m up against the clock now I gotta hand it. In a podcast, Seattle Times said the Scrubs reboot is missing its heart and brain. Oh no, they write, Zach Braff’s character still loves his apple Teeni’s, but his shell just leaves a sad, sour taste in the mouth.

Oh no. Variety writes the revival airing on ABC feels so off. In the warm glow of nostalgia, Scrubs is inoffensive, and the harsh light of the present its age begins to show. Oh No. In the series fifteen year absence, the medical show is progressed where Scrubs has not.

John, I thought you said there were positive reviews. No, I have some, my promise now. The rap got smart people over there, like Jennifer kelsh and Armstrong who writes Scrubs review or fresh. ABC reboot feels like a medical miracle skipping around there. It’s a testament to John C.

McKinley that he doesn’t lose his edge, while also making a touching case for JD to do so. The main cast slips right back into their roles effortlessly, with the chemistry of the original and a long history together reads on screen. It’s a particular pleasure to see Sarah Chalk and Judy Race in these roles again, with Rays as commanding as ever and Chalk having grown into her authority as I’ve been doing a Scrubs rewatch. Judy Rays is a killer in that role. It’s like when I went back and watch Seinfeld that I came away and I was like Julia Louis Dreyfiss is the MVP.

Judy Rayis is awesome. Now John McGinley is the MVP of Scrubs, but Judy’s really fantastic there. The rap says, it’s interesting to consider why this reboot works while so many others have failed so miserably. Raps, it’s mainly due to the hospital setting. As long as you don’t turn over all the characters at once, viewers can remain engaged and a scrub shows us here characters can also return seamlessly, while the turn of patients provides dependable short term storylines that reminds me, I was driving with my wife last Friday.

Why don’t they bring back love Boat? Like I don’t know, how about Kelsey Grammar is the captain of the love Boat.

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And then on any particular episode we have I don’t know, Zach Braff mister be…

I digress and I’ll leave you with this from John C. McGinley, who talked about his wonderful rants. I love doctor Cox. Doctor Cox is my favorite. McGinley said, I didn’t improvise those Billy wrote them.

But I crossed gender GD a couple of times. I called him girls’ names, which may or may not be acceptable in twenty twenty six, but he says Doctor Cox still does it a little in the new series because old habits die hard. Dude’s okay, Johnny Mexican to get canceled. Here, guys, it’s a sitcom. If we can’t deal with Doctor Cox sitcom character calling J D.

Shirley, I mean, pull up your bridges, folks, I mean, at that point, let’s just not even attempt to do anything the least bit Funny. McGinley says Cox is one hundred percent burned out because the new crop of students he has are also an exercise in mediocrity. So now he’s charged with trying to teach them and it’s an ongoing frustration. So he has tools to deal with the frustration, and it’s usually pretty aggressively gruff. And that’s why we love Doctor Cox.

And that is your comedy news for today, Right. That was fun. Now tomorrow I imagine I’ll have something to say about whatever Stephen Colbert is said about the state of the Union. So tomorrow you just remember that I spent like seven minutes talking about John mliney beer. Okay, you remember that when we’re political tomorrow.

See then,

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Full Transcript

Caloroga Shark Media. Hey there, I’m Johnny Mack with your Daily Comedy News. A daily briefing on stand up comedy, comedians and the comedy industry. A sentence the algorithms really love. The numbers are up.

It’s incredible. All you have to do is say that sentence. I guess today is a mix of happy and sad politics and goofy will get to it all today, We’ll start with the sad. Conan O’Brien opened up to The New Yorker Radio Hour about the murders of Rob and Michelle Reiner. You may recall the Reiners where at Conan’s party earlier on that day.

Conan said to have that experience of saying good night to somebody and having them leave and then find out the next day they’re gone. I think it was in shock for quite a while. I mean, there’s no other word for it. It’s just very It’s so awful. I think about how Rob felt about the things that are happening in this country, how involved he was, how much you put himself out there and have that voice go quiet and an instant is still hard for me to comprehend.

Meanwhile, well, Nick Reiner pleaded not guilty. On Monday, Nick Reiner appeared in La Superior Court, spoke once, and agreed to a future court date of April twenty ninth. Nick Reiner is facing two counts of murder with an enhancement that could carry the death penalty or life without parole if convicted. No mention was made of Reiner’s mental state during the hearing. Reiner is being held without bail at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown LA.

Meanwhile, Conan spoke about what’s going on with Stephen Colbert, quoting Conan, Yeah, he’s pissed, I think rightly, but he’s got a big staff and cares about those people. I’ve been in that situation and that is excruciating, and so I think he has all the appropriate feelings. What I try to tell him is, there’s so much of this that doesn’t have anything to do with you. Those giant glacial plates are moving and you’re doing the best you can, and you’re such a talented guy, and he’s done an amazing job. And yeah, there’s definitely a thumb on the scale.

We all saw that with Jimmy Kimmel with the FCC that was just outratous and wrong. But the larger picture, when you look worldwide and see voices being silenced, they really get silenced. I don’t think that’s going to happen with Amy Kimmel or Stephen Colbert or anyone who’s doing a late night show. Conhan pointed out about life on the other side, there’s a lot of really beautiful opportunities, and I’ve been having a blast and getting to have these types of interviews I never could have had in that old you’re up in the attic format.

Speaking of Colbert, he’ll be live after Tonight’s State of the Union broadca…

This is a late show tradition and apparently will be the last one unless somebody uncancels the show. Tonight should be particularly interesting. If you’re not in the mood for the State of the Union, you can watch The Knicks like I’ll be doing, or you can watch Taylor Someilet send his new standup special, which I’m also going to watch, but not while the Nicks are on, you know what I’m saying, And I will also check out the State of the Union. I’ll probably be doing the side by side on the Big TV tonight anyway, Taylor Thompson. She’s on Netflix.

It is her fourth comedy special, this one called Prodigal Daughter. Filmed at the Fountain Street Church in Grand To Rapids, Michigan. We are told Taylor tackles topics ranging from coming out as bisexual in her thirties to why Easter is better than Christmas. Netflix says Taylor Thompson returns to her roots with a tight new hour about deconstructing your faith, processing religious trauma, exploring your sexuality, and confronting your fear of death.

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Also out Pete holmes new special, Silly Silly fun Boy.

Now that’s a great title. That’ll premiere on the eight hundred Pound Gorilla is a YouTube channel at h pm Eastern tonight. We got lots to watch. We got the Nicks State of the Union tailor Pete Holmes. I still haven’t watched Kat Williams because the Olympics has been on for two weeks.

Pete’s always good. Definitely check this one out. In Silly Silly fun Boy, Pete Holmes delivers fresh takes on parenting, marriage and more. Pete Holmes Tell’s Deadline I’m very proud of Silly Silly Fun Boy, an hour of pure silliness and fun and boyitous. It’s my favorite special to data.

Love the way it looks, the amazing Portland crowd, but most of all, I love these jokes and hope people will too. As also out today on the eight hundred Pound Gorilla, Matt Rife and Paul Elia’s Low Key Comedy Special, Brian Posain caught up with Northern Public Radio and said I was always an alternative comic before they had a name for that. I just don’t feel connected to the mainstream, and I never did. Brian thinks the current climate of comedy is a little different than it was a few years ago. Brian says it’s a little bit of revenge of the jocks, if you want to look at that way.

It’s kind of a win for the good looking, tough guy. Jim Jeffries told Life Without Andy. I’ve always seen myself as a right wing Australian and a left wing American, and I’ve read this. This makes a lot of sense, he says. I believe in fairly type borders and things like that, but I also believe in a woman’s right to do what she wants with her body.

I believe in national healthcare, I believe in social services and all types of stuff, and I’m an anti gun guy. But those beliefs make me the biggest hippie on earth in America. I’m a left winging extremist in America, and then in Australia people are like, I’m all right. Jim says, I don’t think religion should be in our politics. They think religion should be in our politics.

God bless America all this type of bs. As Jim jeffries, eighty percent of us are moderate. It’s eighty percent of us are sitting in the middle, and we’re the most silent, and then we’ve got the ten percent extreme left and the ten percent extreme right. Jim, do you miss doing the Jim Jeffrey Show. Jim Jeffries said, I’m very happy that I don’t do that show anymore, because I wouldn’t want to be hosting a show right now and having to talk about people from ice shooting people the streets.

I don’t want to dissect the bloody Epstein files. I don’t want to talk about every week something stupid. The Trump said, I’m glad I don’t have that show. In twenty twenty six, had a great time doing the show. I made a lot of friends and that type of stuff.

But if I had to do another comedy program, I want to do a sitcom is all I want. I want to do a multi cam sitcom. I want to do friends. Imagine that with Jim Jeffries. Comedians are meant to perform in front of audiences, and that’s when we’re at our best.

Give me an audience and give me a script, then off we go. Jinny’s Agrino is raising funds for her new comedy special after Birth, which explores themes of transformation and draws from personal experiences like her sister’s death and a breakup. She caught up with the Minnesota Post and asked, how do I break the algorithm to go viral to make money? I think comedy is suffering husually on that because it used to be that these jobs paid us enough that we could focus on our craft. She explains.

I was in movies, I was in television. I was fully wrapped by agents and managers, and I felt like the world was my oyster.

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And then COVID happened and slowly everything fell apart.

We learn her first special for Comedy Essential, produced in twenty seventeen earned her twenty thousand dollars. She says it felt really cool that money gave me two to three months a time. By twenty twenty one, she had to raise money herself to make a special tapping her fans through GoFundMe. That special, gen Z, was picked up by Comedy Central and released in twenty twenty three on YouTube and Facebook. On Facebook, she has a business page for videos that go viral or photos that get a lot of shares.

Facebook pays her. She says it’s not uncommon for some comedians to make two to three thousand dollars a month that way, but you got to feed the beast. Jenny says, I want to make great work, and great work doesn’t happen in one week. As for after Birth, I have to hope someone buys it, and if they don’t buy it, I have to put it on YouTube and then I have to pump my own marketing into that. Because Netflix won’t even look at you unless you have five hundred thousand or more followers.

It’s a cutthroat system that discounts comedians who might have families and kids and can’t dedicate all this time to social media. Now this next one. I can hear in my own voice that my voice is thin. So I’m not sure I’m going to be able to channel my best inner Jim Brewer today. I’m not sure I’m going to be able to get gravelly enough.

But apparently Jim is mad at American Airlines. He’s even put out a video with the cringe title never flying American Airlines again. Jim Brewer reacts, Oh, Jim, all right, let’s do the story straight first. Comedian Jim Brewer has publicly criticized American Airlines after Jim Brewer says he was removed from his paid first class seat to accommodate a commuting pilot. The incident occurred on a recent flight from Honolulu to Phoenix.

Now I’ve gone ahead and pulled some of the clip, and I’ll play some of the clips for you. But for some reason, maybe I’m delusional. I prefer my inner Jim’s version of this to what we actually got out of real Jim. I’m flying back from Honolulu, right and they say to me, hey, we need your seat. We may need my seat.

We got a pilot and the pilot needs to sit down. Jim was flying from Honolulu to Phoenix. Jim claims he purchased a first class ticket but was reassigned to an economy seat shortly before departure economy. The comedian described the experience is unfair and labeled to move. Theft aviation blog View from the Wing published additional details about the incident.

Apparently the airline needed to reposition a pilot for operational reasons. Brewer says airline staff informed him that a pilot required the seat and Jim would be moved to Row eighteen in the main cabin. Brewer said he was not given an equivalent first class alternative and felt blindsided by the decision. We learned the Honolulu to Phoenix route is typically phone by an AID three twenty one, where first class is arranged two to two across an economy is three to three on a narrow body aircraft. The difference is not subtle so far.

I don’t think Jim is wrong here. Brewer said he was offered a next day option, but only in extra leg room economy and not seated together with his family, so there’s no real recovery path back to any sense of comfort. I’ll let alone first class. At the time, Jim’s video was recorded Jim had received a four hundred dollars refund and a five hundred dollars voucher. Let’s check in with Jim.

I know for a fact fact I am personal friends with an American Airline captain. There’s pilots and then there’s captains captains at different level even though they’re a pilot. I’m also a good friend with two flight attendants who tell me the way it works is they’re narrow when they show up, they’re not guaranteed to be on. A flight period. If they got to go in a different flight, they’re not even in uniform.

They’re not guaranteed. We learned that Jim Brewer, before boarding, was told fill out a complaint form, which I did, and I got an email several days later. I asked, Hey, can I speak to somebody from American Airlines? But that request has gone unanswered according to this report. I’ll keep you posted on what develops there.

My voice is giving out in case you missed it. Yesterday I dropped a surprise bonus episode with Mike Chisholm from The Letterman Podcast. Now. The reason I dropped it immediately rather than holding on to it is a couple of reasons. One, we talked about the blizzard that hit the northeast too, we talked about the hockey game, and three.

But I didn’t want to wait the weekend because by then Mike’s encounter with David Letterman would have been about two weeks old. So I just wanted to get it out. So I did like eighty minutes or so with Mike earlier today. So that’s I’m sure why my voice was shot. Plus doing Brewer never really helps, so you’ll find that in the feed.

Comedy Survivor really interesting last week, so we had to not count something that may or may not have been a vote. It was unclear if it was a vote or not, and the AI ruled that it was not a vote, So a mini controversy on Comedy Survivor. But Jim Gaffigan went home, which is really really stunning. So you want to get in the Facebook group Daily Comedy News podcast group. You’ll find a picture of me extinguishing the torch of Jim Gaffigan and you can vote for who is like left on Comedy Survivor.

I should actually tell you who they are still in the game. Nikki Glaser, Kevin Hart, John Mulaney, Osco, at Katska, Sebastian Manascalgo quietly going along in this game, Star Trek Ruiner, Tick Nataro, Sarah Silverman and Leslie Jones and Bert Kraser. A couple early votes here so far there’s a vote for Sarah Osco, Nicki and Kevin so Jump on the Facebook group Daily Comedy News Podcast Group, and again, please be clear who you’re voting off, not just be like, ah, I’m thinking about maybe. No, just right, I’m voting off so and so. We don’t need any controversies and just a goofy bit that was designed to get us through the winter when comedy news is a little slower.

A Comedy survivor Daily comed News Podcast group here. Let me do this one. Since my voice is a little shot. I got an email from one of the listeners. Now, I don’t use anybody’s name just you know, because it’s an email, unless you tell me you want to be shouted out.

But this person knows who they are and they say they believe that my speaking voice sounds like Maynard Jay Keenan from the band Tool. Interesting. Now. The email was titled Today’s Comedy survivor so on Comedy survivor. I use a different speech pattern because there I go into the very deadpan and I’m making up these votes.

You know, Fred has voted for Joe Coy, Tim has voted for Jay Leno, and I’ll get very deliberate like that. So I don’t know if he means that or if this normal sing song delivery that I use on the podcast. This is not my normal speaking voice either. This is just a little bounsier than the way I would speak in real life because I’m reading you scripts and I’m trying to word paint a little bit. None of it’s fake.

It’s all just different shades of my speaking voice. Plus I have a little processing here. On the podcast. I had a little deeper end to my nasally voice, and I get rid of a little the high end. So even the podcast mix is a little different than if you met me in real life.

Anyway, I pulled some audio of Maynard J. Keenan from the band Tool, and let’s listen to mister Keenan speak, and I’ll let you guys decide does he sound like me. And I at this room effect, you’re coming back through the mic and you’re driving all the stuff, and you’re hearing the effect is now being applied to the snare drum right, or you know, or the base next to you, or you know, the art symbols, nemesis symbols. As a singer, you hate the symbols, of course. But what we’ve done is because around the grid we can then take effects that would be on the vocal open mic facts and that’s actually on the tracks.

And we’ll do one more here and we’ll go home. Well, I’m already home. I recorded in the basement, you know what I mean. Joel McHale and Dennis Leary were doing some press together to promote their sitcoms on Fox. Animal Kingdom is now also airing on Netflix, so people are watching that.

They did press together and spoke to the rap. Dennis Leary said, my dream is to literally do a musical one day. Is that because Bill Hicks did a musical? Oh? Sorry, did I say that out loud?

Sorry? Sorry, No, he didn’t. He didn’t mention Bill Hicks. They’re sorry. Why would Dennis Larry mention Bill Hicks?

My dream is literally to do musical one day? He said. His first experience with show business happened in high school when a nun stuck me in musicals and I hated it. I really don’t like most musicals, but he ad it’s. My two favorite musicals are the anti musical Spam A Loot, which is a brilliant show, and Book of Mormon, both fantastic shows.

I saw both on Broadway. Dennis Leary thinks he would be a good Sir Lancelot, a role once played by Hank Azaria. Leary then mentioned how Going Dutch and Animal Control, which is Joel Mchal’s show, are both on Hulu, but only Animal Control was on Netflix. Joel McHale explained they were like, we’re putting yours on Netflix and not Dennis. Joel says, I went why and they were like, just to tick them off.

It was a weird move. And that is your comedy news for today. Go vote on Comedy Survivor, and if you missed the late yesterday episode with Mike, check that one out to meet you back here tomorrow.

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Full Transcript

Caloroga Shark Media. From the hockey capital of the world, the United States of America. I’m Johnny Mack. Joining us from Canada is Mike Chisholm, host of the Letterman podcast. Mike, Anything New, What’s going on?

I can’t dispute what you just said. Congratulations to the American hockey Olympic Hockey teams, both the men and the women’s for that matter. One of the greatest games of all time that I’ve ever I’ve just I, uh wow, what a game that was yesterday. I’m doing good all things considered. Considering my boys, we thought that we were going to get gold, but ran into a hot goalie and it turns out an American team.

Had had so much heart. I just I was astounded at the heart that the US hockey team had. Congratulations the Hockey capital of the world. Will have to accept that until the World Cup at least. But other than that, I’m I’m doing very very well.

It’s good to see you. I would like, if possible, for you to compare to me, someone who lives on the West Coast. Whatever we hear of something called a nor’easter. Over the years, we have seen various effects, especially in my view, Letterman having his show either audience free or postponed because of it. Compare this nor’easter that you guys are going through to ones of the past.

Sure, so so much to unpack there. First of all, I want to point out the difference between Americans and Canadians. I went out of my way to get my USA jersey. For those of you listening on audio, you don’t see it, but Mike does. So I have my USA jersey on, which of course I wear every day, and you know I come on here to raz you and you just are very gracious and congratulate the winners.

So there’s that. As for the nor’easters, that is a term I never heard until the mid nineties when I worked at WOR Radio in New York, and then all of a sudden there was a nor’easter. It just seems to be one of those things that like a duret sho, like I never heard of derecho until like ten years ago. This one we probably got just I’m a little Inland. Maybe the coast was harder hit as we record on Monday morning Inland we got kind of the same amount of snow a month ago.

People were talking about the equivalent of Category two hurricane winds. I saw a watch tweet about twenty foot waves off the coast of Long Island, So maybe a little further east it’s bad. But here up in the hills, it’s just another winter snowstorm, a big one. It was up to my knees. But you know, I’m sure others also get snow.

It’s not the biggest deal in. The world, okay, but a snow day for the kids. Kids are staying home today. Yeah, all the schools are closed in New York City. The mayor didn’t even make them do virtual He gave them an old fashioned snow day.

Nice, but you know, you’re not going anywhere. You got to dig your cars out, and there are safety restrictions in place. You’re not supposed to go anywhere. There’s nowhere to go even if you get out. So it’s just kind of a it’s a snow day, good.

Excuse to get some more podcasting done. Exactly. So, I want to ask you about hockey a side fil service, yes, sir, so stereotypes aside. How big a deal was that game? Is the nation watching?

Are you guys crushed or you know, what’s the what’s the feeling there. I have friends who are certainly crushed who I spoke to throughout the day yesterday that were you know, their whole day was was well, and it’s because of the way this day started. So I’m on the West coast. So the game was five am, and I mean, we had restaurants that were open, ticketed events, things like that that were so so there was activity definitely happening at. Five in the morning.

I got up and just watched it in my house and then was you know, through social media, you know, and text messages going back and forth through friends. This is a gigantic, gigantic thing up here. We winded back to twenty ten when we when we host didn’t now that at that time the Olympics were in Vancouver, but the gold medal game, the men’s hockey gold medal game, Sidney Crosey, what we call what’s known in Canada up here as the Golden Goal, just you know, pandemonium, pandemonium, and I’m certain that would have happened yesterday as well, but you know, it didn’t go that way, and so you had a lot of people. I went to get my wife a coffee at around eight in the morning and driving by the Starbucks there was. A long, sullen line going through that drive through.

There were a lot of people at eight in the morning that were that were, you know, punched in the gut, and it was it was a big deal. But I mean, at the end of the day, most people that I know, when you look at how the Americans finished, and it was it was an unbelievable Johnny Goudreau. I don’t know if you’re how big of a hockey fan you are, but Johnny Gudrou, who had played for the Calgary Flames, Johnny Hockey, we loved him up here. That’s the thing about Canadians is that that when an American comes up here, I think of the Toronto Maple Leafs captain by Austin Matthews. You know, unbelievable, unbelievable talent.

When an American comes up here and in his place for one of our teams, typically they’re very, very embraced, and Johnny Hockey was certainly that. When the game ended, before the team picture was taken on the ice, players went and got Johnny Gudrou, who who tragically passed away far, far, far too soon. They went and grabbed his jersey, brought it out and then his kids, his two kids, one of whom had. Their I believe it was his first birthday for. Johnny Junior yesterday, and so they brought them on the ice to have the picture taken with them, and at that point, I’m just like, Okay, the hockey guds are at play here.

The Canadians played the best possible game we could play and it was ours to lose. I mean, the chances so so so I think most folks, most of my hockey loving friends all kind of accept that as to as it was our game to lose and we the Americans were so resilient, and so yeah, it was. It was. It’s a huge thing. It’s a huge, huge, huge thing up here.

But at the same time, all it does is build fire for the World Cup, and I were already talking about that. So I think we had the perfect team. I don’t think there’s gonna be any second guessing. I think that it was just one of those things where we ran into a hot goalie and a team that was leading with their heart, and absolutely the heart won that day. So that’s the way I see it.

I don’t want to make it sound like it’s nothing down here. Going into the game. It was a big deal the famous nineteen eighty Olympic hockey team and the movie Miracle that comes up in popular culture all the time. You might know, maybe three weeks and somebody will bring up that game. So it’s not like it’s bigger than if say, America made a run in the World Cup.

And that might be different with the World Cup being in the three countries this year, yep, But you know, if if the Americans had made a run in the World Cup four years ago, I still think the hockey is a bigger deal because nineteen eighty always gets dusted off, and now we’ve got new folk heroes and Jack Hughes’s and a couple of teeth and getting back out there and happening to be the one scoring the goal. I mean that’s movie stuff, right, Oh. Yeah, oh yeah, it was. It was Uh, like I said, the hockey guys were at play, and I love that. I love the drama of sport and and and sometimes the things that come out of it and and I mean, you can’t it’s funny.

I had uh. I remember people were talking about our first two games to get to the gold medal game, and you know they’re come from behind. You know, over time for the for the one game, and and and people were were scared and like, oh no, Canada is not dominating. I just look at them and go, it doesn’t matter if Canada just dominates. You can’t have that.

You have to have the chase. You have to have the drama, you have to have the the back and forth. You know, I don’t want us to be a dominant I want us to win. Of course it’s our game, but man, it’s got to have. Like I think about the Canada Cup eighty seven, you know, you know, Gretzky Lemieux on the same team and playing the Soviets.

It just I mean, and again you go back to the maraklon Ice again playing the Soviets. Isn’t it fun that we have gotten a chance to see the Soviets kind of rise and fall.

And now it’s Canada and the US that are that are those two dominant teams, an…

And I just I love the hockey culture when it comes to that. I thought the Olympics were wonderful this year and seeing the Americans take it. Both of the men and the women was a sight to be seen. And again tip of the cap back in twenty ten. It’s one of my favorite Letterman clips and it’s not available anymore.

I remembered it. I remembered it because it was such a wonderful night, the night after the golden goal. So this is be The golden goal was scored on a Sunday Olympics end and then Monday night you go and watch Letterman and he did a desk piece after the monolog and he sat down and he said, hey, everybody watched the hockey game, and everyone a cheering and all that sort of stuff, and he he kind of leans into the cameraon he goes, you know, I was watching the game and as it’s going, and as it’s going, and as it’s going, he looks into the cameraon he goes, I wanted the Canadians to win. And I just really appreciated that because you know, we’re on our home ice and all that, and it was just this the fervor was unbelievable and I appreciated that, and and and I could appreciate the sentiment especially at like I say, once, once I saw the US win yesterday. So but yeah, it was it’s it’s been a it’s been a it’s been a pretty crazy week, John, I’ve had a pretty bonker’s week this week.

Well we’ll get to that. Just before we do. I have a note here. The President asked me to remind you we do have an offer for you to join the United States of America, and I stay with me. Huh, that would solve your problem because you would then be part of the greatest hockey playing nation in the world.

You would be winners, and to be fair, you would immediately have the best state flag. I mean that would easily be the of the fifty one, the best state flag. So you guys might want to consider our offer and join us, and then you could say things like we haven’t won the Stanley Cup since twenty twenty five, we are gold medal winners in the Olympics, and it would solve a lot of your problems. So just consider that, all right. Well, it’s something to go workshop, and I think you know we’ll have We’ll get the team on it to see if they can iron out a potential thing there.

But Dave certainly talked about that when he saw something when we saw him in Vancouver. But we’ll get to that. Let’s get let’s get to the reason we are together today. They say, don’t meet your heroes, and you made your way over to Vancouver and there was one David Letterman and you met him because I know that, because I saw a picture of you and David Letterman. What happened?

How did that go? Was he a jerk? Was he like you have a podcast about me, loser? Or was he super cool? Tell us about David Letterman in real life?

It was amazing. It was an amazing experience. I’ll talk about the don’t meet your heroes like it was cool. It was one of those world colliding kind of moments. I love when worlds collide, like when the things that I’m interested in kind of mix up with each other.

This one here is a little bit more nostalgic. Perhaps. I used to go to Vancouver, so I live in a place called Colonna. Colonna is about four hours east of a drive and a mountain range. You gotta drive over a mountain range to get to Vancouver.

Since I was a child, I would go to Vancouver to go see concerts because every major act, for the most. Part, would come through Vancouver. Vancouver’s is an amazing city, and most artists who do come through are just struck by its beauty right away because it’s surrounded by mountains and water and it’s just this beautiful place. And I would go to see my favorite bands play, and there’s there’s a couple of venues in particular that I would go see them play, and I would go and hang out by the stage door so I could meet some of my favorite acts as they would either arrive or you know, sometimes I would go see the sound checks and that was fun. But I’d remember when I was maybe nineteen or twenty, I think I was going out to see Faith No More.

And there was a bunch of us at the stage door behind the Commodore Ballroom, and I met this old guy and I then he was an old guy. He was probably about forty five, okay, but I was nineteen and to that, to me, that was an old guy. And it was a bunch of these kids who were waiting to meet Faith No More. And there’s this old guy that was there as well, and I mean he started telling his story. So there’s a lot of downtime when you do this, and and he was started telling.

Us these stories. He’s telling us the story. But when you two showed up when you know, in seventy nine, and he met them when they were going up before they went up for their show, and and and different different bands that he met, and and and he gave me a piece of advice that I’m forever grateful for. And it was exactly what you’re talking about. Don’t meet your heroes.

Well no, he said, meet your heroes, just make sure you have zero expectation whatsoever when you meet them, Just zero, because what if you meet. Him on a bad day. What if you meet him after they just had a fight with their wife or their husband or whatever. What if you just met them after, you know, something something major happening. They’re also probably jet lag.

They’re also waiting to do a show, they’re you know, they’re they’re in a different spot. And if they’re your hero, chances are this part here, I’ve kind of refined over the years, this part here, like, you know, if they’re if you’ve got notoriety, chances are they get him of a stressful life and they may be able to make time, they may not. But either way, just enjoy the experience because you just got something that most of the people that are going to be in there watching that show that night didn’t get, and so I carried that with me. Now with Dave, those kid gloves have an extra kid glove on top of each of them, because he’s known. He’s got this personality that is unique, I think, misunderstood personally.

I you know, people call a shaff famously, you know, call them an a hole on on on on national television. But I don’t think it’s so much that. I just think it’s a It’s just a different, unique personality. And when you have somebody with that much talent, guess what, they may have some quirks in their personality, you know. So so, But that being said, those of us who were there and met him that day, you know, not even a week ago, we all knew the score.

There were no autograph hounds out there other than us who just would love to get something signed. The small group of people that were there there were fans of my show, which was very very interesting. We were all decked out in letterman stuff, and so I think because of that he decided to stop and take some time and spend it with us. It was a fantastic experience. He had a wise crack For every single one of us who who said something to him, immediately he had a wise crack back, which delighted us all.

And yeah, it was it was a very very positive experience. So that’s what we did. We went to the stage door. But it wasn’t going to the stage door to see a you know, a band that I’m kind of into at the moment. It was to see my childhood hero.

And so merging the world’s colliding of those two moments was unbelievable. That’s super awesome. So he was just walking out from the stage to the town car or whatever, and that’s it the other way. So so we show up at the stage door and you know, we’re sitting there talking and it was cool because I got a chance to get some of my you know, nervous energy whatever you want to call it out. Because the guys when I got there, they were like stoked to see me.

And so they start asking me all these questions about stuff about staffers, about you know, stuff that I talked about on the Letterman podcast, and they wanted to talk to me about stuff that I. Don’t say on the show. And and and there are things that are kind of in that little neutral zone of here’s the stuff I say on the show, here’s the stuff that’s in the circle of trust for all of these staffers and these people that I know that I would never say out loud. But then there’s some of this stuff in the middle here that is probably okay to talk about, but I wouldn’t talk about it necessarily on the show. So a lot of that stuff came out.

I want to unpack all that, because you know, we’re not on any kind of clock and we can get to Dave I’m fascinated by. So I’ve been in media for thirty something years, so I’m a little more used to this than I think you are. Of running into Letterman podcast fans, and one of the things I learned in talk radio in the nineties and I’ve talked to people, is you mentioned your cat Fluffy one time, and seven years later you run into a fan and they go, hou’s Fluffy the cat doing? And You’re like, how do you know the name of my cat? And it’s because one time, at six fourteen in the morning on a blizzard Monday, you mentioned Fluffy the cat, and your fans create these parasocial relationships with you, and they they think they know you, so they know Mike from the Letterman podcast, who I assume is a shade of the real person, just like I often talk about how Johnny Mack is an exaggerated version of john that’s all real.

I don’t like Adam Sandler comedies, but I don’t rent and rave about Adam Sandler comedies being an example of that. So I find that really interesting. You also alluded to and I’ve tried to explain this to folks over the years. The people who get access don’t talk about it. It’s kind of like the people who were actually getting laid didn’t need to tell you they were.

And it’s like you can just go about your business and have stories and then because you know how to role people trust you. Like I’ve talked about sidebar. So this is the thing I find in my own life that if I just talk about my own life, I wind up name dropping. And I’m not trying to show off. I’m just talking about my life.

My wife and I went on a long drive on Friday and we were listening to Bruno Mars, and factually I have met Bruno Mars and he was very cool, and we just talked about that, and I was just reflect on my own life that I’ve been fortunate and I’ve been able to do things. I met Bruno Mars. I met him for two minutes once and he was super cool. But I’ve met Bruno Mars and most people haven’t met Bruno Mars, and you just alluded to that. Yes, you know so in my own life.

The example I usually use is I worked with Stephen van Zant from the E Street Band for maybe five years before I said the word Springsteen. But then our relationship was I was just John that produced the show, not Springsteen fan. Who’s gonna askt even for tickets someday. Yes, you know, maybe by us mosis you pick up that I speak the language or I know what’s going on. But I was in the role of I’m here to produce your show, mister van Zant, let’s let’s work on this today, not oh my god, I’ve seen you forty five times and I watched his friend hasn’t all that?

So your instincts are correct. There are things we talk about. There are the things that we might talk about. There are things that we never talk about, and especially things that are clearly off the clock. You know.

So back to the celebrities. If you’re David Letterman, you probably just want to walk the fifteen feet and get inside and get your head into the show. But here are these people who love you, and you’ve got to turn it on for a couple of minutes and you have to be there for them because and we’re all human. If Dave or van zandt to Bruno Mars has a bad day that one time you met them, Oh so and so was a jerk. I don’t like so and so, and it can ruin it.

So for the celebrity, they’ve got to be on all the time. Some of them choose not to and don’t care. Some of them are really really good at it, and you’ll walk away going wow, I feel like I’m David Letterman’s best friend. He knew most so much about me. So I just find that all interesting as you found yourself in those waters with people who listen to you, because we do this right, and it’s like, all right, you know, my guy in on the guy in a basement doing a podcast, it’s a Letterman podcast.

I don’t know who actually listens. Well, people actually listen, and fans of yours and that’s all interesting, right. It was, uh, it was, it was fascinating. And and the good news with me is that I’m me just with the volume turned up. But for the most part, I’m pretty high energy.

I’m I’m I’m like in real life, you meet me, and and if you get me excited about something, the enthusiasm just can’t help but come out. I’ve got the I’ve got a boylike enthusiasm that just pops out. So that part there is super easy. Now, if I had just had a fight with my wife again, that that’s that’s you know, the situational part of it, I might not be. But that day, because everybody was sort of on the same page and everybody had a singular focus.

We were all little kids and and and so they start asking me questions, and most of the questions are like, hey, like like, let’s talk about what’s Rupert really like. So I’m like, all right, well, let’s get the let’s get the FaceTime out. Let’s FaceTime Rupert and and you know, and to them, they’re like, oh my god, like they just their heads exploded. So I didn’t need to even really like, I’ll go I’ll give you an example of I’ll give you an example of what you just said, and and something they asked me and they said, okay, so are. They going to record this?

Is it going to come out? Is it going to come out? And I said no, and they said, well why not. I said, here’s the thing. Dave has a show on Netflix.

It’s called My Next Guest needs no introduction. It is, as far as Netflix goes, a very prestigious show for their brand. It’s one of their most prestigious shows. Netflix views David Letterman as one of their signature stars, and he is. He absolutely is.

And the show has a very distinct flavor. Over the seven or eight years or whatever they’ve been doing them, they have really, really, you know, it’s got an identity of its own. And when Dave does something like this at one of the comedy festivals where he interviews somebody or has a conversation with somebody on stage, it is similar to My Next Guest. And if they were to record that and put it out anywhere, that would diminish the star power or the prestige of the uniqueness of what Dave is to Netflix, and that wouldn’t be a good thing, especially when you consider Dave’s got a staff and producers and people and a team where their livelihoods depend on that show and if it gets diminished, well that’s not a good thing for anybody. And so you know, they completely understood that when I said them, great, I’m not telling him where I got that information from.

I’m not telling them who if anybody specifically told me that or if so. There’s an example of sometimes you can let information out without saying necessarily where it came from and how you know, and all that sort of stuff. And so I had a few little moments like that, and then there was a couple of ones where somebody said, ask me a question. I’m just like, I don’t know, you know, and I just I can’t answer that. It’s also because you are expert in the Letterman verse.

You just know stuff by osmosis or you just pick up on things. No one has told me anything that you said. No one has told me anything about a Netflix deal or whatever. But it makes total sense. Netflix has a comedy festival, JFL is a different comedy festival.

Yes, of course they don’t want Dave to step on the Netflix brand with something really similar. That all makes sense, But I have no inside information there. But just top of mine, because we’re on this corner. I’m picking up that Stephen Colbert keeps going out of his way to say he thanks Letterman, he thanks CBS for the eleven years. And I keep noticing he keeps phrasing it a certain way, and my spidery sense is just going, huh, that seems deliberate.

And I don’t know why, but it seems deliberate. No one has told me that, but I’ve just been doing this long enough and I notice things. Yeah, I’ve noticed that too. I’m grateful for the eleven years that I’ve had on CBS or something like that. Yeah, he’s very and I mean I would think that it like, what a unique way for his show.

It’s gonna be interesting to look back, you know, five years from now, to look back on this time and how how Colbert show ends. I mean, you think about how Conan ended his Tonight show run. You think about how and then then his uh, his TBS run for that matter. You think about how Dave of course left uh CBS and and and it’s just gonna be interesting to see what Stephen does after this and reading the tea leaves that you’re reading right now, how the tea actually tastes on the other side one when it served to us. It’s gonna be very very interesting to see how that goes.

But with all of the polarization that’s happening, Dave sure got out when he did at the right time, because I look at the reaction he got in Vancouver, and I mean, the guy is an icon and Colbert will be an icon as well. We’re just gonna see how that shapes out. But yeah, I I uh. When you talk about seeing the seeing things that are going on, U, that’s exactly right. And sometimes it is common sense, but sometimes you also have things confirmed that with a little bit more specificy.

So more with Mike Chisholm from the Letterman Podcast after this, So I love talking to you. We’re a half hour in the topic is you met David Letterman? And so far half hour in we’ve gotten as far as you’re standing there and David Letterman’s about to get out of a car. That’s as far as we’ve gotten into the story. Half an hour in.

Yeah, it’s. So. What happened was the stage door for the Queen Elizabeth, the Queen of his Elizabeth Theater is a beautiful, beautiful Theater, you know, and it’s about three almost three thousand people. And you know, Dave did thirty seconds on named after Queen Elizabeth after her legendary run of whatever it was. In the seventies, and that’s why the theater was named after her.

And it was just, you know, he. Made a an amazing Stanley Park joke, just such a such a wonderful, wonderful night that was completely curated for the audience that was in attendance. But the Queen Elizabeth Theater has a main entrance and then there’s a stage door. We were by the stage door, and what happened was it was actually Dave’s entourage. In the entourage is two people, his assistant and UH and and his guy.

They showed up and they showed up in front of Dave. I was around the corner. So the other four fans, two of them of our show or three of them actually of our show. UH, were there and I was around the corner. Wait, is Heave a limo guy or a town car guy?

No, it was an it was a it was a white tahoe. Wasn’t a black tahoe or anything like that. Zach came in a black one Dave came in a white one but shows up and Park’s partner. That alone is interesting to me because I have this whole story I won’t tell her right now of uh looking a white limousine for Jamie Fox at the super Bowl one time and he wouldn’t ride in a white limousine. The short version of this story is white limos are for proms, and we had a black limousine out of our hat and it was very, very stressful.

But it’ll take me half an hour tell that story, all right, So it’s a white tahoe. Dave is okay with all sorts of palettes for his vehicles. That’s good to know. A R. Yeah, it was spit dropting, no, no, no, please.

And anytime it was it was uh. It wasn’t even like it didn’t even look like there was no pomp and circumstance with it whatsoever. It was. It was not I would even say, nondescript. And uh.

So, So I was around the corner doing something and one of the guys texted me get here now. I’m like, oh, okay, So I go back around and uh and as I’m walking towards I’m seeing Mary Barkley who you know. Dave’s Dave’s right hand. She’s on the Barber Gain show. Everyone loves Everybody loves Mary.

She’s awesome. I see her, she is just going into the venue. I think we caught eyes, and I was just kind of like, I’m terrified of Mary. I’ve said that from the very beginning. Every time I’ve seen her in an event where she’s there, I just kind of look at her.

I’m like, I’m terrified of you. It’s just I don’t know if it’s a bit, but I really am terrified of her. She’s the gatekeeper, she’s she’s you know. I don’t want to piss Mary off. Ever.

I see her, I see Dave starting to talk to the guys, and she goes into the venue. I’m like, okay, and then I see Dave’s guy as I’m walking over. The second was maybe the third of the of the group that were there had their moment with Dave, and I just kind of sidle up to Dave’s guy and I kind of, you know, let him know that I’m there and I’m just watching Dave blow these guys’ minds. And it was cool because I didn’t get starstruck at all. I had a care package, a little care package for him that I didn’t end up giving to him, but it had like funny things that had picture of Bruno Jerusi, who the beachcomber.

I had that Dave was on Bruno Jerusy’s Celebrity Chefs. That was his first television appearance once he became a comedian, and it happened to be in Vancouver. So I had a picture to. That some Canadian snacks and things like that that I would give to him if the opportunity arose. So I’m sitting there just that with that patiently, and he finishes with I guess the fourth guy and I and I just said, Dave man, I please take a selfie.

And this is where people said to me, did you tell him who you were? Did he recognize you? And all of that. Never in a million years would I identify myself as to who I was. If if if if it happened, great, if he recognized me, great, I know the deal.

There’s no way I’m gonna do that. Dave, I find wasn’t really looking up each other in the eyes or anything like that because they were late for rehearsal. Dave’s other producer Walter, who runs the let YouTube channel. He’d shown up about twenty minutes earlier and get a big hug, good to see you, and he’s like, I got to get in I’m late for rehearsal, and. We’re like, okay, no problem.

And Dave didn’t show up for another twenty minutes after that, so you know, they needed to get in there. And so I think Dave just wanted to give us our moment, but he needed to get in there because he had stuff to do. The show was much more complex than anybody ever realized it was going to be. There was a need for a rehearsal and a blocking, there’s no question about that. But he did take that time for us.

So when he came over to me that the selfie was great, he took us out. We made sure it was a good picture, which was which was. I love that.

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And then I got him to sign a que card.

I’ve got David lit him an autographs. There’s one que card in particular that I have that I just love. It’s actually a CBS joke and and and so he signed it, and as he signed it, I was I was hoping that maybe, just maybe we could get him to perform the joke, and I’ve got. It right here. I know it’s it’s yours’ audio mind’s video though, So this is from I believe it’s ninety six.

It might have been the very first year of Survivor, and this is the first show after the Survivor finale. Welcome my Name is Dave. So Dave comes out, the monologue is about to start, Welcome my Name is Dave, CBS’s only true Survivor, which to me, with the benefit of hindsight, is ironic as all get out. Dave the only guy that has that called his own shot at CBS. He started when he started, and he ended when he ended.

While Survivor is over, now forty million Americans can now get back into the habit of not watching CBS, which to me is funny beyond all measure. There’s Dave’s signature on the bottom there. By the way, if somebody is ever going to look to get an autograph from one of their favorite celebrities, make sure you test the pen, even if it’s a brand new pen. Get it rolling here. Dave made a comment about how crappy of a pen it was.

It was brand new, but I hadn’t tested it, yet on the back of the card the head monologu writer at the time gave Abelson, he signed it for me and stuff. So this is a very special piece of cardboard to me. And I said to Dave, I said, Dave, I would love maybe if you could perform the joke, and he goes, if I was any good at performing jokes, I’d still have a show, which again was worth the price of admission rate there for me. But I was wearing a Barbara Gain shirt and so Dave’s guy, as we’re going through this, points at my barber Gain’ shirt and he says, hey, Dave, look look like he tried to give me. And of course Dave’s guy knew what knw I was, and so he’s pointing at my barber Gain shirt.

And I appreciate that very, very very much, because if there was more time or in another, you know, slightly different tick of the universal time clock, Dave might have looked at it and it might have created another opportunity to then have that. But he was late for rehearsal, so it was like no, no, no, you gotta go. There you go, guys, and we’re all just flabbergasted. And it blew our minds. It blew our minds.

It was an amazing encounter before an even more amazing show. So so that was that was That was a very very very. Special moment for these guys, especially like most people who love David Letterman don’t ever think they’re going to have an encounter with David Letterman, and they all did. It was a positive experience. I think you saw the video of all of us afterwards.

We were all giddy as schoolboys. It was just a it was a phenomenal experience. So yeah, and then the show, well, this one other thing happened. One of thing happened. But anyways, keep going ask that question and I’ll tell you the other thing that happened.

You also have a selfie with our good friend Paul Shaeffer. Okay, so Dave goes he goes in, and we’re all standing there and we’re all letting the moment kind of breathe, but also like, what the hell just happened, and we were just kind of decompressing, and we had all this crazy, univerous energy that was going out, Like I think there was a little bit of dancing at one point. It was just lovely, and then another very shiny, you. Know, you can tell it’s kind of a high end rental. But again, nondescript minivan shows up and we’re all guy like, all right, let’s go meet Zach.

And we’re just like. Okay, And there’s a you know, maybe one hundred feet or fifty feet between the where the vehicle stops in the stage door, and we’re like okay, and out pops Paul Shaffer and all of us just kind of looked at each other and we’re like what because he was not advertised for the show, makes a lot of sense that Paul might be there because they’re up here in Canada. But it’s West Coast Canada, you know, that ain’t where Paul resides. Paul’s yeah, you know, Canada is a big country. It’s it’s pretty big.

But yeah, I was I when I saw the selfie, I was like, I don’t think they announced Schaeffer and you know, well he’s Canadian, so of course he would. But like like I said, like, you know, I’m not showing up in La today, right. It it was. It was. It was a coda, and a surprising one, to say the least for all of us, Completely unexpected and we’re like, okay, so what’s better than meeting Dave.

Let’s meet Dave and Paul. And Paul gets out of the van and he looks and he goes, guys, guys, guys, I’m really late, but I can’t. I can’t. I gotta go. I gotta get in there.

And and he just we’re like okay. He goes after like all right, true to his word. About forty minutes later, Paul comes out immediately recognizes me, which I was so stoked about because I met Paul a few times and he’s been on the show and whatnot, so I’ve been it a few times. So he which delighted me to no end. Again, the inner child in me is just alive and well at this point, gives us some gives us all the glad hand and selfies and all that stuff.

One of the guys, who’s. A really really really old school late night fan, asks Paul about a song that he did for a bit called Mister Humidity. Paul’saying, I think, so, I think I think I kind of remember it the guy sang it. He goes, yeah, I think I remember it, and uh and and that was fun and and and we had a we had we had a good time with him, and then and he’s like, Okay, I gotta go. He left, and then we messaged, like Don Giller to find out about mister Humidity, and we found out all the details about that, and he messaged us back and told us about the dates and times and the lyrics of the song and so that was fun.

But yeah, we had no idea Paul was going to be there. Now I had heard that the original thought was that Marty Short was going to be the guest. And it makes sense. The Canadiana of it all makes sense, and having Paul there and whatnot. Marty Short has now been announced that he is going to be one of two guests that Dave will speak to at the Netflix as a Joke Comedy festival in May down in La So one would think that Paul is of course going to be a part of that because he and Marty have this connection and whatnot.

So it makes sense if that was the case. I don’t know for a fact that it’s the case, but I know that there were some people that were scratching their heads before the show as to why Zach Galifanakis was chosen. But during the show it became very parent why it was Zach that was on stage with Dave and I can go into that here. But at the end of the day, seeing Paul there definitely threw us through a loop. But when the show began, everything at all kind of all the pieces kind of came together.

This was a very very well curated show. David Letterman is seventy eight years old. He could have very easily just come out, made a couple very surfacy jokes. Everybody would have been so happy about that, brought Zach out, had a meaningful conversation with him. He could probably do that on autopilot, because you know, he’s had him on My Next Guest before and it was a very very good episode.

I highly recommend it. But that wasn’t this. This was a very well put together show and a very well curated show, and having Paul there is a part of that curation. Where does Paul live these days? I think New York is where That’s what I thought, where he spends most of his time.

I think that’s where he is most of the time. Yeah, you know, just living my life as a New Yorker. I was on Ninth Avenue at some point. I don’t know in the last forty years getting food, and so was Paul Schaeffer. But as New Yorkers, that happens, and New Yorkers tend to leave the celebs alone, and you know, just you’d notice.

So, yeah, this Paul Shaffer and you just go about your business. So that’s why I thought he was from New York as well. He plays a lot still, like like he and Will Lee will do gigs down at the Bitter. End with with OSINOI and and different musicians as well. He plays a lot of gigs out there still.

And the night I saw him do that a few years ago, you know, Paul’s wife Kathy was there and all that you could tell. They just they came from home. You know, she stayed there for the first show, she went home and then and then Paul did the second show as well. So yeah, I think I’m pretty sure he spends most of his. Time in New York.

And he also blew my mind. I guess I just don’t pay attention that David Letterman is seventy eight, which is kind of sort of almost eighty. Yeah, boy, time goes fast because he seems younger, whereas I’m running into clips of the worst person who ever lived Jay Leno, and Jay seems old at these Like Jay all of a sudden got aged. His speaking voice has aged, He looks old. I’m sure it’s the stress with Mavis doesn’t help, but Jay has gotten old.

Like I feel like I could throw a suit on Dave and maybe ask him to shave the beard, and he could fill in for Colbert next week, and you would be like, yeah, this makes sense. And I’m not one hundred percent sure I could throw Jay Leno on the Tonight Show for a week in twenty twenty six. I don’t say that with malice or anything. We’re all getting older for everybody else. The first thing I said to Mike before we hit record, I jumped on the camera, looked at myself and said, oh my god, I’m getting bald or whatever I said about my own hairline.

So you know, it’s not a dig, it’s just time passes. But yeah, I I didn’t think of Dave as somebody who’s sort of almost eighty. Yeah. And and and for me thinking about that kind of watching him on stage, I was in the second row. And and and I no offense to Zach, but I basically was watching Dave almost the entire time just to see mannerisms and things like that.

You talk about when you know he might have to turn it on for the fans or whatever. I think that I think that you know, similar to when you know shortly after nine eleven, within a couple of years after nine to eleven, Dave stopped going to rehearsals and and and part of that was energy conservation. When he came out on stage, he was the Dave that we the energy was super high, was super high. The way the show started was he did his own intro, and his intro was hilarious. He was off stage and he’s like, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Queen Elizabeth Theater.

And then he starts talking about the curling scandal that had been happening at the Olympics with the Canadians with the double touch and things like that that were happening. And Nice did not have a good week. I forgot, why are you cheating at curly? What are you doing? And it was more than once right the Swedes.

The Swedes were not happy with with the way that the Canadians curled, and and and uh yeah, it was it was oh man, and and and funny to hear because it had just because we saw him on the Wednesday, I think it was the Monday where where where that all happened. So clearly he’s he’s he’s uh, you know, clearly his introduction for himself is a living document because you know, let’s throw in this, let’s. Throw in that. And he comes out on stage and he any and he starts. You know, when Walter Kim was there and and and Walter was is the guy who runs all of Dave’s his his his curated content, his his late night his late show stuff, the YouTube channel, all of that stuff that’s Walter’s world.

Walter runs all of that, the Barber Gain show, you know, he films that and and edits and puts it all up. So Walter was there, and and as Dave comes out on stage, she’s sitting there talking about his history. And he would go through his history and then Walter would put clips up, and so we got clips of Dave. By the way, a lot of people don’t remember this or or have noted this necessarily, but back in the day when Dave was at the radio station, I believe it was in Muncie. I don’t know if it was at Muncie.

I just like saying Munsie, but he was there, and it showed a picture of him and he had this huge beard and now it was a hutter right beard. He had no mustache, but he had a big beard at that point and it was it was neat to see that. So they would show pictures of him. Then they showed as he was building his They showed the clip with him and Bruno Jerusy Canadian own beachcomber Bruno Drewsy. They showed clips of that.

They showed the Mary Tyler Moore clip, the famous clip where where Dave and Michael Keaton are doing the singing and dancing on stage, and it was fun. It looked like Walter was messing with him a little bit because the clip was on and then Dave’s like, Okay, that’s enough, and they let the clip keep going and he’s like, Walter, no, like he’s really to stop the clip. They let the clip go all the way, showed. Clip from my shows. Listeners just really quickly explain, please sorry.

After the Mary Tyler Moore show, Mary Tyler Moore at a variety show on CBS, and the cast did include Michael Keaton and a youngish David Letterman. And if you want to see Dave dressed like a nerd doing typical I guess that’s early eighties variety show, singing and dancing, picture the Brady Bunch Kids Variety Hour, and throw David Letterman on that and you’re close enough. Sorry I have interrupted again, Mike. No, please, do I do that all the time. I assume people know what I’m talking about, which is rarely the case.

And so he uh, you know, went through his history and hilarious as he did it. I mean, he brought up the they brought up the Trump tweet where you know, whatever happened to David Letterman, no talent, no this or like you know, it’s it’s a kind of worked like a badge of honor. But then he he started talking about how much he loved loves Canada and and and uh, I don’t know. It was almost like if there was a theme of the show was acting as an emissary, you know, to say, hey, you know, we acknowledge some of the stuff that’s being said in the greater narrative of the world right now, and what’s happening in the Canada US tensions and things like that, and and and he really really did a great job of playing on that, not in a way that the current late night talk shows do, not to create more polarization. Not to I mean, he poked.

Fun at at at Donald President Trump, of course, you know, because of the tweets and some of the direct things or whatever, But he didn’t really it wasn’t a it wasn’t a bashing or anything like that. It was just more of a recognition of what was going on, and hey, let’s let’s. Make this better. By the way, the ovation that Dave got I should I really need to note that when he brought himself out the place. To say the place went nuts is not accurate.

It was way more than that. And and I’d never seen Dave in a space that big before. I’ve seen him at the Rector Mantamon Theater and and another theater in la And then of course he had Sullivan Theater, you know, at Sullivant Theater four hundred seats, five hundred seats. That’s the most Manzban’s least like the other ones are intimate, they’re smaller, but this place three thousand seats, and the entire place erupted in a standing ovation that would shake the foundation. It was, and it was long, long enough that Dave got really uncomfortable.

Okay, like it was a long, long, long thing. Then he went through what I just talked about, uh, you know, roll at Walter and and and and and and the video clips and whatnot, and then he brought Paul Shaffer out on stage, and everybody went crazy for Paul Shaeffer and uh as almost as crazy for Paul as Dave. And Dave said here, this is a. Song that I’ve I used to get Paul to play every once in a while on the show. And he goes, it’s a song that I love and we’re going to sing it together right now, and a huge Canadian flag comes from the rafters down and we sing Oh Canada, and Paul leads us to sing o Canada with his beautiful Steinway and Soun’s grand piano that’s on stage just off to the left of the chairs that Dave and Zach would occupy.

So we sing O Canada together and that was a lot of fun. So that was how the show started. And this is probably twenty minutes before Zach even comes out, So that alone the prep for that, you know, the writing of it, the rewriting, the revisions of it that would have taken a lot of effort to do. That wasn’t necessary because the place sold out in four minutes. So they rose to the occasion to give us something that was unique.

And this is all before Zach comes out. So it was a beautiful, beautiful precursor to what was then about to happen. Take one more break and we’ll come back and talk more with Mike Chisholm from The Letterman Podcast. My mind is now thinking more about this event, so let me break this support several ways. We’re just for laughs.

We’re going to throw a comedy festival. It’s not our big one. Our big ones in Montreal, we have some international ones. This is a bit of a newer one. Let’s book some comedians.

Okay, So and so’s touring. We’re tight with these agents, We’re tight with these managers. These people are friends of the festival and off and do the festivals. Let’s get some local people in.

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And then somebody said, let’s ask David Letterman like that just seems odd.

I’ll continue. If you’re David Letterman, Okay, yeah, I’m reasonably retired. Ish if I need to scratch a creative itch. I’ll just go on the Barber Gain Show. If I’m I want to comment on current events, I’ll go on the Barber Gain Show.

Or I could, I guess, just go on YouTube myself. I could give an interview with The New York Times. If I feel like I need to be heard, if I need to perform, I can go to Los Angeles and the Netflix Comedy Festival, with whom I have a relationship. So why is David Letterman at JFL Vancouver. Even JFL Montreal would be a one hour flight in and out and I’m back home for dinner.

Why is David Letterman going to Vancouver? And all Schaefer comes that just this is I’m adding up two and two and I’m getting seventeen here. Well, and I mean, it’s funny at seventy eight that this kind of of a path might reveal itself. But first off, JFL Vancouver, I believe this is ten years, like I remember just before the pandemic, and I’m talking maybe weeks before the pandemic. In twenty twenty, I went and saw Bill Burr for the just for laughs.

So this is back in twenty twenty, I saw Burrs one of the headliners. But I hear where you’re coming from. Yeah, it’s it’s. And there was a at some point, just for laughs, teamed up with an existing Vancouver comedy festival. I believe the actual festival is longer than something titled JFL Vancouver, because exactly I remember this being around when I was that serious and some of my serious stories are twenty years old now.

But the this is adding up to as a one off. Dave’s in Vancouver and Paul shows up and yeah, okay, Paul’s Canadian. Fine. Uh, just seems like something is afoot. I think it’s a blueprint personally, and I don’t necessarily have any information to back that up other than to say to me where Dave has carved himself out.

You know, they kind of positioned him that he was headlining the festival, which is kind of neat, and I think I believe where are we here? I think tonight Jerry Seinfeld finishes the festival at the same theater Dave was at. I believe that’s tonight. I believe that’s happening. So there’s probably some sort of connection there as well, because I believe they have some common people in their administrative teams that that that might have maybe made that happen.

So that’s one way you know you’re gonna get Seinfeld. Well, hey, what if we also brought Dave? That might be part of it. I don’t know. I’m not exactly certain about that.

But the idea though, to have a comedy festival that’s all stand ups is one thing, okay, But what if we included performance art? What if we included some podcasts? What if we included which which they did at JFL Vancouver this year.

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And then also, oh, here’s a unique way.

What if we brought Letterman in and he talked to Zach isn’t necessarily known as as as a stand up, but certainly a performance artist. What if what if David Letterman came in and had a conversation with one of the top stand ups. He’s been doing that for a few years here, He’s been doing it on Netflix, but also on these little one off shows for other festivals and things like that. To me, that’s a that’s a bankable different face or a different event to put into a festival. Some of my favorite bands, they don’t really tour anymore, but they will go to all the different festivals in Europe and all the different big festivals and things like that, it’s an easier road to travel to me, if Dave did need to scratch this itch, which clearly he does, because he loved it.

So you could tell he loved being up there. He loved that moment, just like he used to talk about, you know, my whole day is a terrible day except for the hour between five and six o’clock, and that is my you know, the favorite part of my day. He got a chance to experience that there. I think the idea of him doing this at other festivals or perhaps even going out and having an evening with you know, David Letterman and somebody in different cities, to me, that is something that he would have access to whenever he wanted to at this time in his life. And that’s a that’s a beautiful, beauty thing that he has that.

Okay, I’m adding up too and two and I’m getting nine hundred and forty four. I want you to write this conspiracy theory down. Okay, uh huh. So you’re David Letterman. Remember the Cone Intour?

Yes, of course, you remember the Cone Intour. Remember the Cone Intour you, David, Yes, Dave does seem a little bothered by the news of the day. More often the key hit out for a while and he’s a little commenty. Now, so let’s put that out there. Mm hm.

The Ed Sullivan Theater becomes vacant in June. Yeah, okay, but just put that there. Maybe you go to Vancouver because it’s a three thousand seat theater, so it’s even if jfl overpays him, it’s not a oh my god, I got I can’t turn this down. I’m playing Wembley Stadium typeay day. It’s a three thousand seat theater.

So even if you overpay the man, you still have to run a festival and it has to makes sense. So it’s not about the money. It’s about the performance. And if you workshop a show at the Netflix Festival in Los Angeles, you’re being noticed. Maybe perhaps possibly maybe perhaps we’re looking at some sort of theater run involving Paul Schaeffer, and there’s going to be a theater available.

And again I added up to and two and just got four thousand. But let’s just write that down and maybe in August you and I can connect and be like, see, I almost had it right, except for the part with the datata. Yeah, Dave’s former executive producer and one of my favorite people in the world. His name is Robert Morton Morty as he was known on the show. He came on my show, I don’t know how long ago, six months maybe, and we.

Talked about that. We talked about the Insullivan Theater and the idea was thrown out Netflix should buy the theater. Yeah, right, you think about what we forgot to verbalize that as part of my conspiracy theory, yes. Yeah, like what if they did that and what if there was an opportunity that once a month, once every three months. You think about Billy Joel, you know, playing Madison Square Garden once a month, you know, just to leave the house, go to MSG, play a show, go home there you go.

Pretty pretty cut and dry, right, Imagine if they had that tool at their disposal where some of their performers could go and utilize that theater with this with its history, with now its technology. They upgraded that a lot of that place and like a year ago or a year and a half ago for the first time the audio room, there’s a guy by the name of Harvey Goldberg who who is the the maestro of the musical performance there. How they blend live and produce music and create this amazing opportunity for live performance for artists. I mean, they spent a lot of money on that thing to upgrade that. The recording studio they have there in the and the and the mixing studio they have there a lot of money.

So there’s a ton of technology in that place as well. Well. Imagine if they had that for when they. Have some of their featured comics to do specials and and and to be able to use it as a utility tool for what Netflix is trying to build. To me, that’s a it’s it’s it’s a no brainer.

But again I’m coming from a fan perspective saying that as well, right, being excited about the idea. But it all makes sense. You want to tell me? Saturday, September whatever, ten pm, Live from the Ed Sullivan Theater. My next guest is yep, Stephen Colbert, who we haven’t heard from all summer.

Yeah, that’s Netflix’s playbook. Again, I’m deep in the weeds. But why would David Letterman go to Vancouver? Whye I know who is lovely but he’s David Letterman. Why?

Yeah, yeah, I uh, I couldn’t agree more. There’s some stuff I’ll tell you offline as well that the parts of this that I can’t I can’t say here, but I will. I do not believe this is a one off. And I’ll say that and and and and I’m pretty sure if it’s not a one off, there are gonna be other places that that that have the opportunity, uh to to experience what I got to experience last Wednesday. And and I certainly hope that that is the case.

And anybody out there who does enjoy David Letterman, if you have the chance to go see him, it is worth it. It will be money well spent. Highly recommend it. So, yeah, which Letterman am I getting? Am I getting watermelon?

Letterman? Am I getting? Throwing cards? Am I getting Elder Statesman Dave? Or?

Is it depend on the minute? What Dave am I getting? I think it depends on the guest. I think the Dave that came out and and and and you know, but pre show, the pre show Dave, you’re getting somebody who really cares about what you’re gonna see to make you laugh, to to enjoy. Is he gonna throw macaroni and cheese in the audience, like the Bare Naked Ladies do sometimes when they perform in Canada.

No, not necessarily. I don’t think you’re gonna see that zany part. I think you’ll see reference to it perhaps, But then it depends on the guest. And the guest that we had here was Zach Galvinakis. And let me tell.

You, Johnny, it was a There were a couple of moments there that were Andy Kaufman. There was an Andy Kaufman moment during this show. Now it’s not watermelons being thrown off a tower, but it was that same manipulation of feelings that isn’t just we’re gonna make you laugh. Now, we might touch you a little bit, then we’re gonna make you laugh and make you laugh more. No, it was, it was.

It was more than that. So I would say the answer to that question is it depends on the guest, because I think Dave can as as as in my opinion, the greatest broadcaster of all time. Dave can be Barbara Walters and ask the tough questions and and and and or not even tough questions, but maybe the heartfelt questions and and and go for a narrative. He’s got that skill. But he’s also got the skill where he can shoot the shot the bull about comedy, where comedy comes from, where these premises come from, and and and and and like he like I saw him do with Nate Bargassi a few years ago, or he can do what he did with Zach, which which which is yes, ask about some of the things going on with Zach.

Why was Zach chosen? He lives you know, in Vancouver now or just off Vancouver, one of the islands out there, with his Canadian wife, and and and has kind of he talked about how he did not want to be in la anymore. He did not like the way he does not like the way technology is driving things, He does not like the way the show business is and and wanted to get away from that, despite still wanting to be a performer. He just couldn’t live in it anymore.

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And now we’re all in the audience going, oh my goodness, oh my goodness.

And he starts to you know, articulate on some very very serious things, but then would go on a dime to zany and then on another dime to something completely Andy K. Kaufman esque. So really I think it’s your question. Is it depends? Okay, I’ve got a quick Kaufman story that I have to get out of my system, please.

So the New York Comedy Festival had started the Kaufman Awards and Christian Shall had won it, and that’s how I got to know Christian Kristen a little bit. So I got to know Michael Kaufman, Andy’s brother, and we started to talk about what we could do to honor whatever term you want to use Andy Kaufman. At Serious we used to have these things called town halls where you would book a celebrity and have some super fans come up. So David Letterman’s coming up and twelve people like you would kill to be in that room, and we would broadcast these things. So Michael Kaufman agreed we would do Andy Kaufman town Hall.

He was totally in on this. I couldn’t convince my boss that this was a great idea, and I’m sad we didn’t do this. So the idea was we were going to announce the Kaufviman estate was willing to announce that on you know, whatever day, Andy Kaufman town Hall was going to happen. And Andy was going to come, and then we were going to have the event and invite people up, and Andy would run late and continue to run late, and continue to run late, et cetera, et cetera. And we were going to have Kristin Shaw kill time for us, and we never really got to how that would all resolve itself.

But he was willing to put out a press release with a quote from Andy, et cetera. And this but the other thing. As I’m sitting there having lunch with him, since he’s Andy’s brother and many years have gone by, I start going down in my brain. I’m like, wait, maybe this is Andy Kaufman and he’s doing a bit to me. Maybe there is no Michael, and I’m in my own head getting crazy with this thing.

But we never actually did it. Around that same time, I got to know Bob Zmuda a little bit who was in the Kaufman cycles, and some people think talking some people think Bob would sometimes play the role of Tony Clifton, but but Zmuda was kind enough to book Tony Clifton to come up to Sirius the next day, and mister Clifton showed up in the lobby and didn’t have any id that said Tony Clifton, so security would not let Tony Clifton in the building. And Tony Clifton, being Tony, threw a tantrum and stormed off and never came in.

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And then Bob called me later and told me what would happen and out come Clift…

Fun stuff. Tony Clifton is one of my dream guests for The Letterman Podcast. He would be the ultimate because I love featuring people who have been on the show on our show and I want, I hope that that grows into that more. And Tony Clifton has always been He’s. In my top five guests to be on the Letterman Podcast for for reasons just like that.

The idea that he’s down on the lobby and can’t get up is just hysterical to me. And I feel bad for whoever. Not just the security guards because that’s what they’re meant to do, but the people who are behind, like the counter the administration people that day. I just I feel so bad for them. They had no idea what was coming for them that day that they came to work.

That is just a beautiful, beautiful story. I love that. So let me just for again my listeners who may be less hip to this. So back in the day Andy Kaufman, there were people who believed that sometimes Andy Kaufman would perform a character known as Tony Clifton, who was this big, loud guy who thought he had invented show business. Now, of course Andy Kaufman is not Tony Clifton.

Tony Clifton is a completely distinct, separate person. But talk shows would book Tony Clifton thinking they had booked Andy Kaufman. But of course Andy Kaufman and Tony Clifton are two different people, so they would have Tony Clifton on the show thinking they booked Kaufman. However, there are some who believe that sometimes they would book Tony Clifton and Bob’s Muda would dress up as Tony Clifton, and the talk show would think they had booked Andy Kaufman, but they had actually booked Bob’s Muda pretending to be Tony Clifton. Winkwig, nudge, nudge, Know what I mean, say no more?

Love it so great? I love that stuff. And and and Zach did one of these to Dave, and I want to like I’m I don’t like destroying. I don’t like revealing bits, right, you know I I don’t. I don’t ever want to do that.

You know you? You you got me credentialed to go see a couple of a couple of comics at JFL outside of Dave red Richardson comes to mind. I want to I want to celebrate, like three of the bits that he did there. There was a nine to eleven bit, there was a canceling bit, and there was something else. I want to celebrate them and articulate them with people.

But he is clearly working on them for another special, so I’m not going to go into how he made it clever and even. Innocent, even though he did this one. However, I believe is A is a one off, and I think that I’m okay to talk about what Zach did on stage here because there’s a little bit of a codea to it afterwards that I just adore. One of the things that famously about Dave out there is that he doesn’t like to be surprised. Early on, they had to create in in Dave’s run, they had to create, uh, they had to create a sort of a I don’t know, a culture where instead of surprising Dave with something and and and and enjoying his wit, his off the cuff wit which is second to none, you let Dave in on it.

But it’s okay because he knows he’ll react to it the way that he would have if he were surprised. He’s he’s got the ability to do that because he just gets irket being surprised. Well, I believe Zach did that to Dave on stage, and and and and I don’t believe that he was ready for it. So they were going about having a lovely conversation about life and what they uh. You know, Zach was amazing.

He at one point hands one hundred dollars bill to somebody in the audience and it’s a real one because it’s he handed to the guy right in front of me. You know. He he was messing with. The audience talking about how he married a Canadian girl. We all clapped, and then Zach’s like looks at all of us and he goes, yeah, but she’s from Calgary.

And the entire audience turned. On him for a second because the rivalry between the Vancouver Canucks and the Calgary Flames, and it was just like like playing with us, right. He called the leader of the of the Conservative Party here in Canada’s aames Pierre Paulia. He called them Pierre poutine. You know, just did did a great job showing us.

Who he was. They were going back and forth, and then they started settling down and getting serious a little bit, and they started talking about their personal lives and and and and it came out, does your wife like when you like, do you do bits in regular life, like with like, you know, servers at a restaurant or people or whatever. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, does your wife like that? No, my wife thinks I’m very unfunny. Oh yeah, mine too.

Both of them going on about how they have these goofy personalities and how their wives do not think that they’re funny. They do not like when they do bits, And Zach starts telling a story about his mom, and he starts saying, growing up, it was like that in Dave’s like Guests for Me as well, you know, you know, kind of the round peg in a square hole kind of scenario. And Zach was talking about out how he would love to make his mom laugh, and she had this guffaw, like it was an involuntary kind of a thing that would happen when he said the right thing in the right combination of things. But the problem is is most of the time it would be inappropriate. And so Zach got this weird back and forth because he would get the guffaw, but then he would get in trouble and it was just like okay, good, but then bad.

And and that happened a lot. And he brought up a couple of stories about that, and then he told one and it was just so powerful, like he was talking about how he got the guffa and and he goes in this one here and I got the gaffa from my mom. And he stops and he goes h and and and and. Just I just need and Johnny, I swear to God, A tear is coming out of his eye, like I’m there, I’m watching it and it’s happening, and I’m looking at Dave, and Dave’s entire energy changed and shifted and became extremely uncomfortable, like extremely because Zach galifan Akis is crying on stage right now, and Dave was unprepared. It was it was just a moment talking about comedy and suddenly and he like like literally I’m watching the tear fall down his face.

And Dave, even though he’s got the lapel mic on, he says very softly, oh is this this is this is real? Like he’s really really really softly, and zachly, I’m so sorry. I just I just lost my mom last month. And the entire audience just oh, like like the just all the breath went out of the room because it was just sotal and then you’re the empathy for him was just you could feel the empathy for him, and it was just and. Dave was like, oh, I and and he didn’t know, you know.

He talked about how he watched the entire run of Between Two Friends, and he watched The Hangover and he watched them these other things, and it was unprepared to know that Zach just lost his mom.

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And then Zach said a couple more things and it was like, and he goes, I was j…

I didn’t really lose my mom last month. It was like what Dave included, And then a few sentences later he said, oh no, no, no, really no, my mom really is dead. And we were all just not knowing what to do with that, and Dave kept preferring he this is where I think it wasn’t. That wasn’t script. I’m ninety nine percent it wasn’t script.

Dave wasn’t in on it because he kept coming back to it, and when he came back to it, he was doing it almost as grumpy Dave. Oh yeah, it’s as good. It’s every bit as good as a dead mom bit. You know. He would say say things, but he called it back maybe two or three times.

So anyway, the code of that story is. Apparently after the show, David and his team went out for dinner, not with Zach, but David is to his team went out for dinner, and for a good portion of that dinner, they were trying to figure out if Zach Kalvinax’s mom is dead or alive or not. And that, to me was just lovely. And I’m not the first person to put that out there. The Georgia Strait put it out there.

I feel, okay, The Georgia Straits like an indie Vancouver, an indie Vancouver publication or newspaper, so they put it out there, so I don’t feel like I’m wrecking anything by putting it out there. It was a phenomenal moment to be a part of And if Zach actually got one over on Dave. Good for him. And if he didn’t, and Dave was in on it like he was when Jerry Lawler slapped Andy Kaufman back in the day on the show, Dave was in on that, you know, then even more power to Dave because he fooled everybody making us think that he didn’t know about it. So that encapsulates the show really at the end of the day, without me destroying any of the other stuff that they they said, that was my favorite moment of the show.

It was just such a lovely experience. John, I can’t even I can’t even tell you. It was just such a such a lovely experience. I’m so glad you got to meet him and you got to see a show which is great as well, and. A phenomenal show.

Like there wasn’t anybody who left there wishing that they they didn’t come the Goodwill. It was just the energy afterwards as people were leaving. It was just it was a lovely, lovely experience. And I just highly recommend it if you see him, If you see if you’re able to see Dave live. Go see him.

If you have any affection for him whatsoever. You will regret not seeing him in years to come, you know, when the inevitable that happens to all of us happens. If you have the opportunity to see him, go see him. What did Shaeffer do at the show? Oh?

Sorry, yeah, so this is the way to finish the show.

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And then I’ve got six minutes and then I’ve got a bolt.

So this is a perfect way. Thank you very very much for saying that. Oh my gosh, leading leading everybody in O Canada at the beginning. But then at the end, after they finished all of the footage they had at Zach because I mean the big screen behind them, so they’re showing clips in between two ferns. They’re showing clips of the hangover.

They’re showing clips and talking about some of these things. Dave says, I have a wonderful way to end the show, and he and he dedicates it to Zach. And Paul comes out and he starts playing on the piano and he plays it’s raining men. Zach is killing himself, laughing like like this is what like like it almost felt like it was a bit of a surprise to Zach as to how they were going to finish the show, and Paul sings It’s raining men as soon as the show, and it’s a very high energy song, and so we’re all Paul of course a writer of that in the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame for that song alone, I believe, and so so so that’s how they finished the show, which I thought was spectacular. It was.

It was quirky, but at the same time high energy and fun, and people were singing along with it.

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And then they got up and they thanked everybody and they all kind of walked.

Off stage and it was. That was lovely, awesome good grats. Yeah, thanks man, it was. It was. It was fantastic.

And I just got to say, I adore our friendship, I adore our our, our kinship. I love your show. I love this show so so so much. And I can’t thank you enough for reaching out to them and having them kind of take a chance on me to cover a couple of the other stand ups that were there. It was really really fun to do that, So Johnny, thank you so much for giving me that opportunity to go out and do that as well.

That was that was more trimmings on a beautiful beautiful, beautiful experience. No thanks for going, and I you know you’re helping me.

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And also I think it’s good for the listeners to hear you reacting to somethin…

And you were in small rooms and you clearly enjoyed it. So that made me happy to see that you weren’t like what did he sent me to? And you saw the magic of comedy festivals, yes, sir. And the difference, you know, seeing when you’re in a small room for an open mic and you’re seeing people kind of stumble their way forward. That’s one thing when you’re in a small room for some people to see people who are not open micers.

They’ve clearly established who they are, their voice, their personality, their character, if you want to look at it that way, and then you see them played to a small room. It’s the same thing as watching your favorite season band. You watch Pearl Jam play to a room of four hundred people, that’s a very special thing. Seeing Red Richardson, for example, he sold the room out, but it was one hundred and thirty people. As a sellout phenomenal and intimate and beautiful.

And Catherine Blandford, same room but only thirty two seats sold, and her playing with that the way that she did, because she isn’t just an open micer that’s oh it’s another room of thirty two people. No, she is sharp as attack and she gets a chance to go play a small room and boy did she have fun with it. So yeah, those were both two very very good shows. Yeah, I’m telling my listeners Catherine Blandford learned that name. That’s definitely somebody to keep it.

I haven’t seen Red, so I’ll take your word for it, but Catherine I’ve seen, and that’s somebody to keep an eye on. All right, I’m gonna go shovel and you probably have a job or something, so I’ll let you go and we’ll talk some more. Thanks man, I appreciate you. You’re just I love your friendship, I love your show, and thank you for being you buddy. Back at you, all right, talk to you soon.

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Full Transcript

Callaroga, Shark Media outbit Outlaugh Outlast. This is Comedy Survivor. I’m Johnny Mack and these are the results for Week seven of Comedy Survivor. Many weeks ago, we stranded sixteen comedians on an island. Every week, the listeners do this program go to the Facebook group Daily Comedy News Podcast Group and they write down one name and that person has to leave Comedy Island.

Eliminated so far are Amy Schumer, Adam Sandler, Joe Coy, Ron White, Jay Leno, and Seth Myers. Still in the game, Jim Gaffigan, Nicky Glazer, Kevin Hart, John Mulaney, Otsko at Kotzka, Sebastian Manascalco, Tig Nazaro, Sarah Silverman, Leslie Jones, and Bert Kraser. I’ll tell you the votes. Matt votes for Kevin Hart, Andy votes for Kevin Hart. That’s two quick votes for Kevin Hart.

Mike votes for Tig Nataro, Richard votes for Jim Gaffagan. Michelle votes for Jim Gaffigan. That’s two votes for Jim Gaffigan, two votes for Kevin Hart. Mary votes for Leslie Jones, Rob votes for Osco, at Cotska, a. Vaughan votes for OTSCO at Cotska, two votes for OSCO at Cotka, two votes for Kevin Hart, two votes for Jim Gaffigan.

Mike votes for Jim Gaffigan. That’s three votes for Jim Gapigan. Todd votes for Leslie Jones. That’s two votes for Leslie Jones. We have a very close vote here.

Cheryl votes for Kevin Hart, three votes for Kevin Hart, Lindsey votes for OTSCO at Cotska Otsco with three votes. Raffie votes for Leslie Jones. That’s three votes for Leslie Jones. We have three votes for OTSCO at Cotska, three votes for Jim Gaffigan, three votes for Kevin Hart, and three votes for Leslie Jones. And our final vote comes from Aaron, who votes for Jim Gaffigan.

Jim Gaffigan has been eliminated from Comedy Survivor. Lots to talk about. We had a vote that didn’t count. I had to go to the AI for a ruling, and I had someone try to vote via email and you can’t do that. We’ll talk about the controversies and the shocking elimination vote of Jim Gaffigan after the break, as I counted the votes.

I saw something that I struggled with. The phrasing on one of the comments was I can get on board with that, and I’ve discussed please make your vote very clear. We don’t need a comedy Survivor controversy. Each week. I have the AI check my votes.

I’m happy to share the thread with you, and the AI reads the Facebook page as Matt, Kevin Hart, Andy, Kevin Hart, Mike Tigg, Richard Gaffigan, Michelle Gaffigan, Mary, Leslie Jones, rob otsgo a Von Otsgo, Mike Gaffigan, Todd Leslie, Cheryl Kevin Hart, Lindsey otsgo Aaron Gaffigan, and RAFFI for Leslie Jones. The AI counts the votes the same way I do. Gaffigan at four, Otsgo at three, Kevin at three, Leslie Jones at three. The AI, on its own, unprompted set here’s the clean, auditible count using your standard rules. One vote for person.

Only explicit votes count, and it rules out the phrasing. I can get on board as an unclear vote. That vote was rejected by the AI. That vote would have taken Kevin Hart to a fourth vote, and we would have had a tie, and the AI would have settled the tie anyway, So I’m going to let the AI settle the tie the way it has. Jim Gaffigan eliminated from Comedy Survivor.

Please post clearly. I’m voting off so and so, but I think here, since the AI would have had to choose anyway, I will let the vote stand. Jim Gaffigan going home. The AI says a previously quiet safe player got hit by a coordinated vote multiple coalitions split their targets. The loser only needed four votes.

That means the game has entered the fragmented voting stage, where small blocks can decide everything. The AI points out, we have to look at that middle tier Otsco at Cotsco with three votes and Leslie Jones with three votes. They both have almost gone home and only been saved by AI tiebreakers. They’re still in the game, but barely hanging on. Kevin Hart momentum picking up with three votes.

Now, the AI says that is the battlefield. Who still looks safe? Well, Jim Gaffigan was on this list a week ago, so I don’t know if these people are actually safe, but the AI thinks still safe are Mulaney Nicki, Sebastian, Sarah and Kreischer. So here’s what you do. As we begin week eight of Comedy Survivor.

You go to the Facebook group Daily Comedy News Podcast Group. You will see me extinguishing the torch of Jim Gaffigan, and you will vote for one of the remaining Comedy Survivors. They are Bert Kreischer, Leslie Jones, Sarah Silverman, Signatsaro, Sebastian Maniscalco, otsko At Kotzka, John Mulaney, Kevin Hart, and Nikki Glaser. You get to send one comedian home, and by home we mean the Comedy Island spa and hotel where they have to hang out until we finish taping. Sorry about the controversy, but the AI has spoken back in the morning with a normal episode.

See then.

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Full Transcript

Caloroga Shark Media. Hello, I’m Seannie Mack with your Daily Comedy News, daily briefing on stand up comedy, comedians, on the comedy industry. A sentence the algorithm loves. This is a big week. We’re gonna have Scrubs, Nateprighatzi’s game show that’s out this week, and we know that’s gonna be great.

A new special from Taylor Thomason very exciting. Have you paid attention to this? You know Barry Weiss, that’s the woman that’s running CBS News right now, and boy is she doing a great job. A report from the Naughty but Nice Substack, which tends to be a little gossipy, says that Barry Weiss, who’s running CBS News and doing a hell of a job, she’s considering putting Joe Rogan on sixty minutes. You know you didn’t, misse hear me, You’re like John, you misspoke there?

No, I didn’t. I’ll say it again to be clear, Joe Rogan sixty minutes. A source says Barry respects disruptors. Joe built a global platform without legacy media that matter to her. A second source said they want oxygen in the room.

Not someone preaching to the choir. They’re looking for reach. A source said, Rogan’s not gonna do it. He makes more from podcasting than CBS could realistically offer. However, this wouldn’t be about money.

It would be about finally being accepted by the people who hate him. I don’t think Joe cares at all. Jim Jefferies told a story about meeting Dave Chappelle backstage at a Netflix event. Jim explained, Chappelle is playing the Hollywood Bowl two nights in a row, and I got the Dave wants to talk to you call. So I went off to a room and I met Dave and he’s obviously smoking a cigarette and all that, and he goes, I was just chatting to Bill burd and he showed me the video of you being punched on stage.

What was that like? I told him the whole story. We chatted for about five to ten minutes. He’s very friendly, he knew some of my stand up. Was all very pleasant.

Anyway, the next night he gets rushed on stage by that guy with the fake knife. The next night, like eighteen hours, he gets attacked on stage. The coincidence was insane, ha interesting Jeffries went on to say he prefers doing his own shows and set of festivals. To be honest, I like performing in front of my fans. My comedy’s gotten a stage now where I can start referencing old jokes of mine, or I can reference my parents, my brothers, or an ex girlfriend or something, and people can sort of follow that.

My shows are almost serialized now. You know, on this tour there are three venues where ten thousand people will be coming. Jim sounds pretty groundy. He says, I’m not someone who needs to get up every day just to have the elation of the crowd and all that type of stuff. But I’m also hyper conscious of that it won’t last forever.

I’m not gonna be selling out big venues in Australia in my eighties. Hopefully we could play this footage back when I’m selling these stadiums out in my eighties. My future is not always going to be like this. I put so much of myself in a stand up comedy, and so much of my identity of self worth is whether an audience likes me or not, and I’m trying to be very zen about it these days. I’m trying to enjoy my family while they’re young.

If I’m at home in LA, the best night I can have is watching movies with my kids and having an edible. They say, don’t meet your heroes. We’re gonna have to get Mike Chisholm from the Letterman Podcast on this program because I have photographic evidence that Mike Chisholm from the Letterman Podcast met David Letterman. I haven’t asked Mike about that. We text regularly almost every day, but I haven’t asked him about it because I just want to do that on Mike rather than text.

But last week at Just for a Last Vancouver, Mike went to see David Letterman’s show and he sent me this audio. Okay, I’m sitting here, leaning up against the stage at the Queen Elizabeth Theater in Vancouver. I’m watching everybody file out, all twenty one hundred people. It was a legit sellout. The place was absolutely jam packed and it was a phenomenal, phenomenal show.

It started with Dave doing his own intro and he did a couple of bits about the Canadian curling fiasco that’s going on, made some Trump comments. So he’s doing the intro off stage, and then he brings himself on stage and it was absolutely hilarious. It was so good, and does some trump jokes, very funny. Then brings out Paul Schaeffer and brings out Paul Schaeffer. A Canadian flag drops and we all sing Oh Canada.

The Vancouver Canucks singer of Oh Canada came out and they brought her out as well, and so we all sang Oh Canada together. Dave talked about how much he loved Canada. It was amazing. He then went and did a very funny rundown of his entire career, helped by Walter Kim who came on the trip here, and so there was a big screen behind Dave and they did hilarious bits about Dave growing up and I don’t even want to spoil it all, but an he was growing up and it had really funny pictures attached to it, and then through his show business career as well, absolutely spectacular.

And then of course he brought Zach alphan Akis out and it was so good.

It was so good. They talked about the mechanics of comedy, they talked about Zach’s career, they talked about where Zach is right now. They talked about the impact about technology on our world. Zach lives in an island near Vancouver Island, and so we discussed that kind of become a bit of a I wouldn’t say a recluse, but he talked about why he wanted to be away from city life, and they talked about the show business and all. Sorts of stuff.

It was absolutely hysterical. There were a couple Andy Kaufman type moments in the show where Zach just did a phenomenal job of taking the entire audience one way and then flipping it a little bit and then flipping it in a completely different direction that you had no idea it was going to go. He actually like broke down in tears at one point, and it seemed like it was a really really touching like Barbara Walter’s emotional moment, and then he realized it was a bit and he even fooled Dave. It was fantastic. Dave recalled it many times throughout the show because he felt he legitimately fooled him.

It was a fantastic show. I’m so grateful met him before the show. I met fans of my show before the show, which was really weird and it was absolutely spectacular. So if you have a chance to see Dave interview somebody as they take this thing on tour, they can’t record them because that would violate the Netflix deal. I think that’s my inkling anyway.

But it was absolutely spectacular and highly recommend Again. Thanks to Mike for covering Vancouver for us. Thanks to the JFL Vancouver folks for letting Mike cover Vancouver for US SNL fans. A documentary is coming out. It is called Lorn.

Want to Guess who It’s about? The log line tells us, while SNL is one of the most examined in celebrated shows in TV history, the man who built and sustained the institution for nearly five decades as largely remained out of you, We’re told this is the first ever behind the scenes look into the life of Lorne Michaels, and that the film reframes a cultural story audiences think they know, offering unprecedented access to the quiet force who shaped American comedy. Am I allowed to say out loud? Too soon? We just did a whole year of SNL too soon?

You know who’s on SNLIS. That’s Sarah Sherman, Well, she’s going to be in a movie. It is called Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. It is a slasher film. The premise is after years of slapdash sequels, the Camp my Asthma franchise is handed over to an enthusiastic young director for resurrection, But when she visits the original star, a now reclusive actress, shouted in mystery.

The two women fall into a blood soaked world of desire, fear, and delirium.

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Also in This Thing, Heinah Einbinder, and Julian Anderson.

Voni Lan caught up with Rory Scovell. He was recently in Boston. He said the tour has been great because you get the repetition of the shows, and the shows themselves start to really mold and smooth out the edges of the actual show as you go. He compared this torch to the last and says, that’s say, the difference between that show then and this hour now is that I’ve learned structurally how the show needs to go in these bigger spaces. So instead of just taking the jokes that I had now, I kind of prepare a show from the beginning knowing that I’d be saying it in bigger spaces, and I decided, at least with this one, to be more personal and more honest about my deeper opinions about politics, religion, and family.

Even though there are moments that are silly, there are also moments where I really try to take the opportunity to say something I really feel now that I have more people’s attention. As for politics, he says, people exist on both sides of the EYEO politically in our country, so it feels validating to know that I feel like I’m in the right space about it. And I think what feels good is I’m on stage telling people I’m not necessarily a good guy either. None of us really are in the way we’d like to believe, but we could all be better. If that gets a good response, that’s great.

I don’t want to just be a comic who goes around and gets paid to tell jokes. I’d like to think maybe someone sees the show and it changes their perspective of something It is really important and something that really matters. I agree with Rory there, and you hear me struggling with this show. I’m trying not to get too political, but We’re going to be political in the second half today, trying not to chase anyone away, but I’m also trying to use my time on the planet wisely. This is interesting, he said.

I see a lot of my friends and I see their success, and it gives you that little seed of jealousy because you want that success as well. But also because of the jealousy, it plants the seat of motivation to work arder and figure out how to get there. I think I kind of needed to see my friends prove that we can succeed on a massive level in this business if we really apply ourselves. And I’m milaukey. I do think I’m good at stand up and I think the only thing I needed to learn at forty five years old was how to apply myself.

Brad Paisley and Kimberly Paisley will present the fourth annual Groceries with Dignity and Comedy Without a fundraiser at Zany’s Comedy Club, Nashville April nineteenth. That happens to be during the Nashville Comedy Festival. It benefits The Store, a nonprofit org co founded by the Paisleys that offers a free referral based grocery store to empower families and individuals in need across Middle Tennessee. Past events have featured appearances by Naprighetzi, Henry Cho, Kevin Neil, and Dusty Slay and others. We’ll see who shows up.

Hulu is developing a comedy series about a washed up reality store. Who could play a washed up reality store Chelsea Handler, That’s who. The series follows Chelsea Handler’s washed up reality star with her living entourage of misfits as they scramble to rehab her image and reboot her career. When her estranged daughter unexpectedly moves in the TV has been is confronted with the one role she spent her entire life avoiding motherhood? Did an Ai write that that sounds like the most generic thing ever?

Who’s this for again? You just told us John Hulu? Oh, that’s right, the Hulu comedy brand where you go when you’re on the down side of the mountain? Did I say that out loud? Get back to me, publicists, all right, the rest of the show today is political.

If you’re not in the mood for that, come back at newon Eastern for Comedy Survivor. I haven’t recorded yet I don’t know who’s in or out, and we’ll have a normal episode tomorrow. Everybody else enjoy these commercials which pay my heating bills, and then we’ll get political. The CBC had a discussion about that guy, Ben Mankis. You may recall Ben.

He went viral for a quote joke about Renee Good Renee the woman who was driving the car and shot and killed by ice in Minneapolis last month. As Bankas has been touring, some people have protested his shows on the CBC co meaning Ali Hassan said, Ben, and there are many other comedians like him. They believe they’re speaking truth to power, and they believe at some level there’s some type of George Carlin Bill Hicks type of reincarnation. And this has been said by many people many times. Dude, George Carlin would hate you.

George Carlin would absolutely despise you. Those are men who actually spoke truth in power. Power felt ashamed hearing the jokes that George Carlin made about them. He exposed people in power and talked about how they were corrupt. Ben’s comedy is all punching down.

This is easy, easy pickings. It’s low hanging fruit. I don’t consider good comedy. There’s no actual joke writing going into the boltk of it. He continued and said Ben’s roots are racist.

From the beginning is comedy was mediocre and when he discovered during the pandemic was this impersonation of a former chief public health officer of Canada. I’ve been doing this for twenty years. I follow all kinds of comedy. Comedy people would be like, Oh, I can’t believe you like that comedian. Yeah, I do, but I’m not sure where this doesn’t descend into hate speech.

There’s a comedian who can be like, imagine if I said something like this and it’s couched in that, and then there’s the I’m kidding, I’m kidding, I’m obviously kidding. There’s none of that. It’s direct head on racism and pulling out the worst of the audience. From my perspective, it’s garbage. The Washington Post profiled Ben Palmer told you about him maybe a couple months ago.

He set up a fake tip line that people could use to report anyone that they thought was an undocumented immigrant. Wash Post says one tip came from a teacher reporting the parents of a kindergarten student at the school. According to the Post, the woman told Palmer on a call, I mean, they seem like nice people or whatever, but if they’re taking up resources from our country, I’m not into illegal people being here. So that apparently is why the woman thought it’d be a good idea to call a hotline to report on the parents of her kindergarten student at her school. Will Johnson, described by the Post as a pro Trump podcaster and content creator, said Palmer is leading people on who think they’re reporting a crime, and suggested that perhaps possibly maybe who knows, Palmer could go to prison for impersonating law enfce Horseman.

Johnson said in an interview, he’s making people who are reporting people taking advantage of the system look like just bad human beings. The Post ads neither Palmer nor the website say they represent a government agency. The site’s privacy policies include disclaimers at the bottom saying they’re intended only for parody, joke purposes, and sociological research. In one call post Online, Palmer told a tipster that he is affiliated quote in a non affiliated way with the government, and then he works quote coherently and cohesively with the isis unquote. Some of the examples on the hotline, one woman reported the new girlfriend of her ex husband.

Another homeowner reported a neighbor. The neighbor had used the first person’s trash can. One person was at a Publix and said the worker who helped her find water didn’t speak English. Palmer asked on the call and then did she help you find the water? And the woman responded, right, she walked me right to it.

Palmer said, if these are the calls I’m getting as a fake, not legitimate person, imagine what’s happening at the actual ice. As for the kindergarten call, the teacher, oh, I didn’t realize it was a teacher. Wow. A teacher decided to report the student’s parents after looking them up in the school files and seeing they were born in Honduras and El Salvador. According to the Washington Post recap, the teacher said the student was born in New York and was five or six years old, but the teacher didn’t like people taking up resources from our country.

Palmer read back her report in a flat tone. The teacher apparently said, according to this recap, you make it sound terrible. Later in the call, says wash po The woman asked to speak to Palmer’s supervisor and said, I can’t help that they have a six year old that’s on them. Tomorrow is the State of the Union, and the state of the Union is strong. Deadline caught up with writers from The Daily Show last week, Tonight, SNL, and others to solve the riddle is Donald Trump actually funny?

Zubin Peg writes for The Daily Show and said Trump is very funny, both intentionally and unintentionally. I don’t think he can deny that. The guy knows how to tell joke. The guy knows how to be mean in a very funny way. Late Night with Seth Meyer’s writer Jenny Hagel said there’s a difference between him being funny and him being good for comedy.

That’s the thing people ask me about a lot. They’re always like, wow, your job has got to be pretty easy these days. Trump’s great for comedy, and I think it’s the opposite because I think so much comedy is heightening and he’s so extreme all the time. I don’t know how you’re right about it, because it’s already the version i’d make up as a joke. John Glazer was part of this Glazer was a writer on They Call It Late Night with Jason Kelcey, one of the very very famous late night shows.

Glazier said, I don’t think he’s funny at all. I really don’t. It’s like watching some crappy hack clean that up a little who thinks he’s funny because there’s so much confidence in that delivery. I just feel like that confidence is so unearned when it comes to him trying to be funny. That’s the other thing that makes me so mad about It’s a kind of comedy that I personally love.

The overconfident smug a hole could be such a funny archetype. The twenty twenty six State of the Union address is set to be given tomorrow at nine pm Eastern, And that is your comedy news for today. Back at noon Eastern with the results of a comedy survivor. Back tomorrow with a normal episode. Hopefully it’s fun stuff.

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