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Caloroga Shark Media. Hey, their Happy Derby Day. I’m Johnny Mack with your Daily Comedy News, daily briefing on stand up comedy, comedians and the comedy industry. Catherine Blandford is an amy she’d keep an eye on. She’s been to the Derby.
She said. I was in college and took my roommate to the Derby with me. She’d never been to Kentucky. I was like, porta potty racist tradition. I forgot to tell her it’s illegal.
She gets to the end and she’s dancing and celebrating and people are cheering and the cops are waiting for her to get down. I was hiding, and she was like, I’m a team mom, It’s my first night out. She went to the drunk tank for the rest of the Derby. Ha Lanford started performing comedy at the University of South Carolina. She says, I’ve done a competition for a fraternity when I was in college.
It was like a pageant. You had to do a talent portion. I wrote a sketch like I was Chelsea Handler. That’s when her show Chelsea Lately was big. I roasted a bunch of frat guys and then did an interview with the pledge from their fraternities, Charlie Sheen.
Obviously we won and I kinda had the bug. She hit it big in twenty twenty two when a clip of her joking about her parents being cousins went viral. David Spade saw the clip and they connected. Blandford started opening for Spade. That lasted two years.
She started headlining on her own, moved to La She’s a regular at the Improv and the Laugh Factory. She plans to record two specials this year. Interesting Maximini was asked by the Hollywood reporter do you think the rulers of Iran will ever loosen their grip? Max says, I think so, and it has I think of it as water and oil. The ideology hasn’t been able to penetrate a culture that people there have had in their DNA for centuries, go back to the attacks of the Mongols, to the Arabs, to the Greeks and so on.
These different ideologies and invasions have affected the country and the people in the culture, but the foundation cannot be destroyed. The minute young Iranians get an opportunity to show themselves. I think the world will see a very friendly, kind and enthusiastic nation who likes to smile. Look, despite forty seven years of this Islamic republic mentality, every household still has their parties and gatherings. They have art shows and man, the music they listen to.
They’re so open minded. You have social media and the younger generation of moderates. Over time, I think it’s going to de escalate. When I was in Iran, you weren’t allowed to have a cassette tape and you’d get arrested for listening to music. Today, the same regime allows concerts, obviously with a lot of guidelines, but the progression has happened.
It’s inevitable. Max says, I never really thought of the opportunity to do comedy in Iran. But when I came back to America, that true sense of freedom that I can do all these things I could have never done in Iran was the spark. When I started college, I decided to become a theater major and pursue acting in comedy. I was very funny when I did my improv with my classmates.
I discovered stand up comedy through that. In the last four or five years, a lot of young stand up comedians have popped in Iran. They’re doing open mics, and they have their little comedy cafes that didn’t previously exist in Iran. I feel like me hanging in there and doing stand up and four Sea is going to pave the way for Irunian comedians down the line to be able to tour and build from there. Right Max, what do you think he got popular?
He said, For many years, I was disappointed that the industry was not recognizing my talent. No casting director, producer director, no projects, no comedy festivals. But I’m one of the lucky people, and that social media gave me the opportunity to let the people decide who they like. The Cavalier Daily went to go see Hannibal Burris. Charlottesville comedian Chris Allen was the opener we saw.
At the end of his sets, Chris Allen offered a heartwarming introduction for Hannibal Burris, calling him a personal inspiration who proved that off kilter black comedians could succeed in the industry. Hannibal grabbed the mic and jokingly took offense to being called weird by his opener. Hannibal started with some political comedy Send your letters to Hannibal Burris, who lamented that America would be in much better shape if only Donald Trump’s television show The Apprentice had been renewed for another season before his first presidential campaign. Hannibal did some more topical jokes about the economy and the war in Iran and did an hour and a half Wow. This is different to keep things fresh throughout the set, different for Hannibal.
I’ve seen other comedians do this. Hannibal used to screen to the back of the stage to show funny text messages he received from his friends, and brief video clips that amplify the impact of certain jokes with meme like outbursts were told. The audio visual elements were you sparingly until the finale. After stepping off stage for a moment, Burris returned to an act a scenario in which a rap song he wrote called the Tallest Person at This Mexican Party became his most popular contribution to society. Seems like it was a good show.
Jeff Dunham talked about his new television show on Discovery, The Cars that Drove Us. This from the folks that made the toys that made us. In the movies that made us. Jeff Dunham and developed his love of cars from growing up on hot wheels. Remember hot wheels, fellow oldies, we were hot wheels.
Person are a matchbox guy. I was a matchbox guy. I never really liked the hot wheels matchbox bleeding cool as Jeff. If you guys get another season, do you know what cars? Jeff said, not a clue.
What I loved about this one was it with seven great cars.
And then in the eighth episode we did a call It’s called the factory.
It was some of the goofy things that car designers put in the vehicles. So we have an idea they’re not be there’s still a cars. And if you pointed a gun at me right now and said tell me which ones they are, I couldn’t do it because I can’t remember since we’ve gone through so many ideas. But I like the idea and a season of having one episode that’s an outlier, kind of a weird one. Switching to comedy, Jeff Dunham, do you have to temper your act?
You know, times are changing, tastes or changing, Jeff said, timings everything. I wouldn’t want to be a new comic coming up right now, trying to do stand up comedy because it’s been a long time since I did a show to a comedy club. But as I understand it now, especially out here in Hollywood, the audiences can be brutal if you say anything that’s somewhat too left or two right, and you will get nailed, nailed, nailed by the audience. I laugh when I talk to my daughter who’s in college in California, and she cancels me about three times a day. Now, if you listen to me every day, there’s two thousand episodes, you kind of get what my vibe is.
Right, Like I was explaining to her about Season one of Survivor. I bought this is all true. I bought the DVDs of season one of Survivor. Fellow oldies, did you watch Season one of Survivor? Remember Root the old Guy.
There’s a clip you can go on YouTube because I sent this to my daughter where one of the contestants, Rich is gay. But twenty five years ago, people are like quizzing him, like, so is it okay to say that you’re homosexual? And Rich is like, yeah, I’m homosexual. Let me pull up the clips. So you don’t cancel me.
Here’s Richard Hatch explaining, it’s okay, guys. You’re not just homosexual. I know gay guys don’t like to be called that because you’re not homosexual. You’re gay. You know you’re I’m homosexual.
Do we not like to be called? No? Because it just makes no If you classify that, it’s own classifying people’s sexual lifestyle. Right, and well, there is a lifestyle associated with being gay, but it’s not something you can’t say I decided to be gay. But it’s been interesting in this new environment to kind of decide when to say what about yourselves?
I think there’s only one person you got worried about. Oh, I’m not worry about it at all. As people get to know me, they learn who I am, and then eventually over time find out I’m gay. I’ve never once in my life encountered prejudice based on my being homosexual anyway. So I want to watch a Survivor one with my daughter just to watch her freak out and cancel me for liking a show.
Twenty five years ago, I Digress. Jeff Denham said audiences can be brutal, and if you say anything that’s somewhat too left or to right, you will get nailed by the audience. They don’t like it. When all this business started rumling a few years ago, as at a point in my career where there are two different ways you can go to comedy club. You’re either paying money just to go to the club and you know who’s going to be there, you don’t care, just want a night off, or you’re paying a little bit more to specifically see a particular person.
That’s a little bit easier because the audience who pay to see you, most of them know what to expect. When I was doing theaters and arenas, it was eighty five to ninety percent already my crowd. They already loved Acamed the Dead terrorist Jose Halapino. Want a stick. If I came about those characters right now, there’s no way they would work.
As a comic. You must, as you say, temper things, or at least I’m not gonna use the word temper. I’m going to show you how I present the comedy. And because I do it as a ventrill quist, I have a little bit of a huge advantage over the other comics because I can point and counterpoint the dummy can make a joke and I can argue with him, and I can say, ah, that’s not okay. So it’s a conversation, a debate.
I like this a lot. The true ingredients of comedy are conflict and tension. I can create that on stage myself, and by the time I’m finished with whatever I’m talking about, whatever the subject is, the audience walks away going, I really don’t know what he thinks or what he believes. Friend of the Show, Ismo, remember he was on. He was a guest.
He has teamed up with a Finland based production house they’re pushing into the live comedy space. Ismo said, it’s exciting to take the next steps with ic S Nordick. We share the same ambition to build comedy of the Travels internationally while staying true to its roots. Not entirely sure what they’re up to, but I’m behind it because he’s a cool guy. Hey are friends.
At the eight hundred Pound Gorilla. They’re starting a new premium ad free service called Gorilla Comedy Plus, launching May fifth. Gorilla Comedy Plus will feature exclusive news specials, plus the full eight hundred Pound Gorilla catalog that includes more than two hundred and fifty titles. At launch, you’ll have access to things like Star Trek Ruiner, Patton Oswalt’sle Hour’s Heat in Scotch, and specials from the likes of Pete Holmes Gorilla Comedy Plus, priced at nine to ninety nine per month. The folks from CNNs have I Got news for you.
They are Roywood Junior, Amber Ruffin, and Michael ian Black. They will be hosting the upcoming Sports News and Documentary Emmy ceremonies, but individually on different nights. On May twenty sixth, Roywood Junior will host the forty seventh Annuel Sports Emmy Awards. Michael ian Black will host the Documentary categories of the News and Documentary Emmys on Thursday, May twenty eighth. Amber Ruffin will host the news categories on Wednesday, the twenty seventh, Michael ian Black the documentary categories on the twenty eighth.
All these events take place at the Jazz at Lincoln Centers, Frederick P. Rose Hall in New York. Paralyzed by Hope that Maria Bamford story recently played the Milwaukee Film Festival, filmmaker Neil Berkeley said, so many comedians these days have put her on the Mount Rushmore of the Greatest of all Time with Richard Pryor and Rodney Dangerfield. She’s that revered in this industry. I’m so tempted to bog down on a Mount Rushimore of comedy that has Richard Pryor, Rodney Dangerfield and Maria Bamford.
That’s not too bashed Maria Bamford. But you only get four on Mount Rushmore’s. And he also gave a spot to Rodney I Digress Paralyzed by Hope. The Maria Bamford Story explores Bamford’s comedy journey and the mental health struggles that have influenced her material. Neil says, I want people to experience Maria.
I want people to know there’s this person who gets up at eight in the morning and is comedy for ten people in a bookstore, and then that weekend goes to a thousand seed theater. She has this ability to turn all of her life’s experiences into these incredibly funny but also useful stories. And this isn’t always the goal of stand up comedy. But you can go to her shows and everyone in that audience can hear something or learn about one of her experiences. That they can empathize with.
The film looks at Maria’s creative process, switching between interviews, stand up tapings, and other archival footage to show how Maria’s mental health struggles and trauma have informed her comedy. And that is your comedy news for today. I will see tomorrow.