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Caloroga Shark Media. Do me a favor. If this is the first time you’re hearing this podcast, listen to any other episode. Hi, I’m Johnny Mack with your Daily Comedy News, and this one’s for me. Sometimes they just need to talk to the audience.
You can hear my voice. So I went to see The Stones Thursday night, right, and again, if this is your first time with the show, this is totally self indulgent, go find a different episode. So I headed out to The Stones and bark the car and I was sitting there with my buddy Glenn, and we had gotten Chipotle and we’re eating our burritos and you know, nice enough night. And I take a selfie of us, go to send it to my wife. Worlds at Tamos tailgate and I see two miss calls, a voicemail and a text that says call me now.
That’s never good, right, And nope, it was not good. Just took another stomach punch, some more terrible news. But you know, we were at the show and there was nothing to be done. And I don’t have a time machine. So Glenn and I saw The Rolling Stones.
I’ll have it in substack on Monday, that’s my free newsletter where I talk about the media. So if you want to get a full review of the show, that’ll be in the sub stack. You can hear. I can’t even form a sentence today. I think they were really good.
It was one of those things where I was not good company. Glenn understood. But I’m sitting there and I’m half thinking about the phone call for my wife, and I’m half enjoying the Stones, and I’m like, you know, kind of out of it, and then like, oh wow, this sounds really good. I really like the song Miss You. But what this conversation gonna be when I get home.
So that’s where I am today. But I just want to tell you the Stones I think they were pretty good, but I’m not sure because I was out of it. The other thing affecting me today is Morgan Spurlock passed away. Now, I worked with Morgan, and I’m trying to explain the Morgan Spurlock I worked with circa I don’t know, twenty fifteen, sixteen seventeen, somewhere in that range. Yeah, somewhere in that range.
Was like a really cool, thoughtful guy. He passed away on Thursday in upstate New York complications from cancer. He was fifty three. I’m fifty four. We did a podcast with him.
It was a weekly news recap show, A really good idea. I think maybe we tried it a little too early in podcasting’s growth curve. It was a show that deserved a lot better. I don’t even know if it’s still up. Let me look, yeah, I don’t see it.
My old company may possibly have taken it down. Let me read from his obituary and variety. This is where it gets a little complicated. In December twenty seventeen, as the me too movement continued to gain traction, Spurlock wrote in a lengthy social media post saying he was part of the problem. In the post, he admitted to serial infidelities and said he had settled an allegation of sexual harassment from a former assistant.
He also said he had been accused of rape and college. The post effectively ended as Spurlock’s documentary career, as Spurlock stepped down from Warrior Poets shortly after. If I remember correctly, he stepped down at the Christmas party that year. Yeah, December twenty seventeen, he had a lengthy lunch with him on the other side of that, I don’t know what happened or didn’t happen. I can tell you he was quite remorseful about everything, and I found it would be a very thoughtful person.
Again, I don’t know what happened, and if something horrible happened, I’m not here to defend it. I’m just telling you at lunch, the guy I worked with found to be cool. I found’ll be thoughtful. But he canceled himself for a reason, So I don’t know. So all that’s kind of on my mind today.
Also, out of that podcast that I worked with Morgan on, That’s how I know Tim Dylan. He was one of the frequent collaborators on the show, and you know, at that time, I’m like, I don’t know who this guy is, and he would crush every time he came on. So, you know, I often think of Morgan when I think of Tim, and just when I heard this news on Friday, I was just absolutely stunned. All right, let me see if I can find my fastball here. I also, personally, I need a couple of days off.
It’s been quite a stretch. I’m hoping to take Memorial Day weekend and just sit on the deck and listen to music and play video games and gonna watch Dune and stuff. I need to turn my brain off for a couple of days. So my goal here is to immediately find my fastball and then record a bunch of these and give myself a couple of days off. So thank you for that self indulgence here in the first five minutes.
Again, if this is your first time listening, that’s not normally what you get here. Right. Let me see if I can find my upbeat delivery, because our top story today, all right, let me find it. In three to one Dave Chappelle and the News. He was performing at Abu Dhabi Comedy Week and as part of his set, he said, a genocide is striking the Gaza Strip, all right, So that’s going to make huge news.
As I record Friday around lunchtime, this story just starting to bubble up. Chappelle’s comments get complicated. Abu Dhabi has maintained its diplomatic relations with Israel, although it has increasingly criticized Israel’s conduct in the Seven month war.
Meanwhile, pro Palestinian marches have swept across the Middle East since th…
DJ Trauma played the song My Blood Is Palestinian by Palestinian singer Mohammed Asaf. Now, no footage of this show yet, as it was one of those the Yonder Pouch shows. Keep an eye on that one. All right, I need a laugh. I’m going totally out of sequence here.
Did you see what happened on Wheel of Fortune? Here? Listen to this, let’s do it. Our first toss up is worth one thousand dollars. Category is phrase and off and golf.
Tomorrow’s right in the butt? What no blake that says the best? Yeah, that’s that’s it, I think. Yeah, I’ve got to also late night with a couple of random jokes. Jimmy Fallon pointing out that it’s Fleet Week in New York City.
If you’re in Manhattan this weekend, you’ll see a lot of sailors. Usually sailors are in shape and look good in a uniform. I’m a straight mail but I understand why, you know, some people would be like, hey check that out. Fallon said, of course, Fleet Week kicked off here in New York City with the braid of ships, and it ends Tuesday when all the bartenders wave away flag. Fallon again.
He talked about there’s a new airline, bark air is for dogs. I talked about this on the other podcast I host five good news stories. The short version is dog Airline. Okay, you get the setup there. Fallon said, the flights take a little longer because the plane has to do three circles before it lands.
New topic, Colbert talking about a Trump aid task with printing out copies of flattering articles for Trump. Colbert said, when she really needs his attention, she prints those on a slice of baloney. N silly joke. Another silly joke from Colbert unified Reich is the most fascist presidential ad since Dwight Eisenhower’s. I like Reich, just a silly joke, joke.
I love joke jokes. The New York Times as an article on what comedy specials you should watch this weekend, and I figure I better do this one today. Right is by Jason Zinnemann. I respect his work a lot. He recommends Nicky Glazers, Someday You’ll die.
I didn’t feel it at all. I understand that’s an unpopular opinion, but didn’t feel it at all. Nathan McIntosh on his list Down with Tech. I’m not familiar with this one. Let’s see Down with Tech.
Self produced focuses Nathan’s populist fury on the tech oligarchs with how much are attention we’ve conceded to their whims? All right, I’ll try and file that in the back of my mind. I don’t know how much comedy I’m in the mood for this weekend. I really think I need to watch like Dune. It just turned my brain off totally.
Part of it is if I start watching comedy special, I start mentally hosting the show again, and like I said, I just need I need a little break, need a little break. Rachel Feinstein’s Big Guy. I forgot that even came out here in this busy week that’s on Netflix. I want to check that out. Neil Brennan’s Crazy good, solid recommendation there.
He’s another one off the beaten path, Ian Abramson’s The Heist. This one on YouTube. Jason writes, if you’re a comedy fan with an experimental bent, give this Giddaly oddball performer a shot. He begins with a cinematic high scene and ends with a wild lark of a closure that no one will see coming sounds fun. All right, let me take the break here.
This was all new. I threw out the first half of what was originally Saturday. I’ll chop into pieces and I’ll use it over the course of the weekend. And the second half you’ll hear my normal delivery because I recorded a couple of days ago. Now, if you were listening last Sunday, you heard me say that, oh, I have a ton of leftovers.
Maybe I will record a Memorial Day weekend. That’s this part here. The Columbus Underground caught up with Bill Burr and they said, a few years ago Rolling Stone had you as seventeenth on their list of best stand up comedians of all time. You’re in the same tier as Bill Hicks, Robin Williams, and Andy Kaufman. Thoughts persaid, you know, it’s funny, bug me when I was left off it early on, or if there was someone I thought wasn’t as good, just mentioned I wasn’t, and then I just kind of realized somewhere along the line that I get this business to be on a list.
So much of it was also if you had a hot career at the moment, or if you didn’t, or who you knew all that stuff, just like the awards show, the effort, the promotion, the schmoozing, ah, the stuff you have to do just to get friggin nominated. I mean, it’s Washington, d C. It’s the same thing, like you’re running for office. I don’t pay too much attention to it, you know. It’s like, look at that the list of top drummers and musicians, something I don’t do, so I can have fund debates of like, dude, how can you put this drummer ahead of that drummer.
I don’t want to look at a list of something I’m doing because there always only somebody off it I feel strongly about. But the worst is it’s just kind of a lazy list. If who’s selling the most tickets and stuff. To be honest with you, that’s how I made it on those lists, certainly because of my looks. Eventually you start selling tickets, someone goes, well, this guy’s selling tickets, he’ll bring eyeballs or he’ll sell magazines.
By the way, this is not meant to be a bilber impression. It’s more of a vibe. Once you finally make it a list, then you gotta wonder how much of what’s on there is true the fact because you know I played Madison Square Garden. If I did the exact same thing but only did it at Funnybone Clubs, why don’t you even make the list that if I do? Where am I in a list?
I mean, it’s nice to be mentioned, but it’s not something I hang my hat on or really start believing, like, Wow, I guess I’m on eleventh of all time or whatever the hell I have. That’s hilarious. If you look at the people who are actually the reason the R form exists, there’s about thirty people right there. I feel like you have to tell of like an Eddie Murphy or something like that. Maybe I don’t know, but you look, I think wherever I am on those lists?
Because it’s twenty twenty four and I’m selling these tickets right now. Let’s say twenty years from now, when I’m a senior sists and nobody gives a hoot about me, if I’m still making a list, and I’d be like, yeah, that’s pretty good. That’s all right. Let’s see, since it is a holiday weekend, let’s see if the list is around. By the way, someday I’m going to get the flu or something I have had for two three years.
There’s a couple safety episodes sitting on the back end in case I just can’t speak or I’ve deep dove into these lists. They’re gonna be pretty moldy by the time it actually runs. All right, I think this is the list, and I’m not sure when they made the list, but the list is something like this. Number one Richard Pryor to Carlin, three, Lenny Bruce four, Woody Allen, five, Chris Rock, Steve Martin, Rodney Cosby, Roseanne at nine, Come on stop Eddie Murphy, who again, I’m from the eighties. Love Eddie, But the more I pay attention, it’s just a Richard Pryor cover band top to bottom.
Now, if you’re my age, we loved him. But it’s a Richard Pryor cover album. So I don’t know. I gotta move Eddy way down the list in these days. Carson Seinfeld, Robin Williams, Bob Newhart, Letterman, Ellen Rickles, Jonathan Winter’s Hicks, Canison, Dennis Miller, Klein, Stephen Wright, Red Fox, Bob Hoe Open, twenty five, ver Mono, Leno, Jack, Benny Milton Burrole, Gary Shalaling, I’m just trying to get to Bill Burr.
But maybe this list might be from like two thousand and four, George Burns, Albert Brooks, Handy Kaulfman, but He Hankett, Phillistiller, Jim Carrey, Martin, Lawrence, Bill Maher, Billy Crystal, mort Sahl, John Stewart, Flip Wilson. I mean John Stewart’s great but best stand ups of all time John Stewart, number forty one, and number forty three is Dave Chappelle. Now, clearly, if you made that list today, there’s no way that that’s the rankings right, No way. And number forty six is Adam Sandler, so obviously the list is complete garbage. Sebastian Man of scalco I was talking about AI in comedy, said I don’t know how it’s gonna affect stand up comedy.
Guess I really haven’t seen that yet. I haven’t really been on the pulse of things going oh wow. I mean my wife used it to redesign our kitchen, what our kitchen might look like if we remodeled it, which is cool to see. He said. He thinks live entertainment will always be around, but who knows.
Twenty years from now, I might be talking to Union, might be going, wow, you never saw AI coming, and I’d be like, yeah, now I’m unemployed. Look, you’re always gonna want to see the actual performer again. And I would to see The Rolling Stones a few days ago, and I have Rolling Stones DVDs. It’s not the same. You want to be there, you’d be part of it.
Can a AI write some stuff? Sure? It can write some stuff. Can it AI voice some stuff? I use AI to revoice a couple of my stumbles three four times a week, including this phrase right here.
If I said welcome to the month of July and I meant to say June, I can replace the July with June and you won’t notice, and I won’t notice, and I’m me. But if I start to use a lot of AI, it falls apart. But that’s as bad as the AI is ever going to get. So it should be pretty interesting as we head forward. And that’s your comedy news for today.
Enjoy the holiday weekend. I’ll have episodes for you all through the weekend and meet you back here tomorrow.