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Caloroga Shark Media. Hello, Johnny Mack with your Daily Comedy News. You know, normally I record the entire weekend in one shot. I’ve been down here in this studio I recorded at my guest appearance on The Letterman Podcast. If you haven’t heard that yet, that came out yesterday The Letterman Podcast Special guest Johnny Mack.
Then I did Friday’s episode. Now I’m doing Saturday. But this room, it’s kind of small, and I feel like I’m running out of oxygen. So I’m gonna wait a day and record Sunday. I need to breathe.
On the interview on The Letterman Podcast, I mentioned how I put the show together, and I’ll put a shiny name in the title and move that to the first story. So I was happy when Bloomberg wrote a lengthy article that I haven’t read yet. I’m reading it cold here to you how Joe Rogan became comedy’s new king maker. Okay, let’s see what Bloomberg has to say. One day in March, during the taping of his podcast, Joe Rogan looked over at his guest comedian Kevin James, and delivered a will Paula Shales pitch it was time Kevin James consider a permanent change of scenery.
Rogan said, come to Texas. Come on, buddy, I got you. The article then tells us how Austin is now being pitched as the new center of the comedy universe. Rogan had a podcast studio, a sauna, a bow hunting range, and most importantly, a new club, the Comedy mother Ship. Rogan says, the club is always available.
You’ll have fun, we can work out together. We’ve got a beautiful gym. Rogan is a fan of Texas, saying they’re not interested in controlling what you buy and where you go and what you do on your land. You can own a zebra. Kevin James declined, I wonder where Kevin lives these days.
He definitely doesn’t live in Queens. Even I don’t live in Queens anymore. Queens is nice, but you know, sometimes you gotta move to the suburbs. Get a pool. Over the past two years, a glowing cadre of comedians and podcasters have heated Rogan’s Sirens song.
They include Shane Gillis, Brian Simpson, Duncan Trussell, Matt mccuster, and Tony Hinchcliff. Within the industry, Joe Rogan is widely believed to be the most popular podcaster on Earth. Now, Rogan is cranking up is Austin comedy podcasting machine to magnify the talent, wealth, and influence of his recruits and allies. The rewards of securing a close spot and the Rogan Verse are significant. Is blessing, guaranteeing a nice boost and audience share, and in advertisers looking to sell their products to consumers.
Bloomberg tells us it’s a good sign to be investing in comedy infrastructure. You know, maybe advertised on a daily comedy podcast. That’s all I’m saying. Stand up comedy gross ticket sales between twenty twelve and twenty twenty three nearly tripled, going from a three hundred and seventy one million dollars to nine hundred and nine million dollars according to Pollstar. Steve Adler, the former mayor of Austin, Texas, says, our tolerance for taking risks is higher than any other city than I’ve been to in the world.
The article then tells us what Rogan tends to talk about on a show and his bio fear factor UFC. You probably know that if you’re listening to me. Bran Gar, a Cap City regular, says, before Rogan, Austin was a good place for smart comedy, known for comedians who didn’t do a lot of easy jokes. Most stuck around and enjoyed the low key community. It’s always been a little bit of a sibling to the music scene.
Rogan decided build a club of his own. First, he considered buying a ranch, constructing an amphitheater, and throwing outdoor comedy shows featuring barbecue and a gun range. He scrapped that idea and overhauled The Ritz, a historic theater on Sixth Street. Since opening in nineteen twenty nine, the Ritz had evolved several times. It was the city’s first integrated movie theater, a center of Austin’s country music scene, a rock venue, a punk hotspot, and a porn hall.
Most recently had been a two screen movie theater. Is that different than a porn hall? Was the porn hall not showing movies? I mean, we can argue about the equality of the movie Is a pornhole not a movie theater? What’s a porn hall if it’s not a movie theater?
Brogan spared new expense. He wanted a comedy club designed by a comedian, four comedians, with state of the art lighting, sound system, and camera, a place where Netflix producers would be thrilled to film and from which new and influential comic voices would emerge. He had the ceiling lowered in the main performance room and make it feel more intimate. That was a suggestion from Louis C.K. Which Bloomberg calls the semi canceled comic Louis c.
K. At the door, customers must hand over their mobile phones, which are sealed in pouches and made inaccessible. Rogan is set on his podcast this helps improve the audience’s focus. Of course, it allows him to control what the public seeds from inside the Mothership. Social media can cut both ways.
This article is long, and I’m skimming it. The Mothership takes no chances. During a recent visit, a security guard not only inspected a Business Week reporters perse, but also her sunglasses, explaining that sunglasses can be outfitted with recording equipment. Joe Man, if you’re worried about me wearing like Google glasses to bootleg a Tuesday night show, stop, just stop The only images from inside the club that make it to social media are the ones sanctioned by the Mothership’s producers. This article just went sideways on you, Joe.
This started off as a wax job, and now we’re getting into the oh, Joe Rogan exposed a part of this. The tight control also allows Rogan and his colleagues to work on new material without having to worry that’ll get out into the world prematurely on the wrong hands. Comedians of the Mothership get paid from one hundred dollars to five hundred dollars, dificly more than what they’d make at other Austin clubs. According to one comic, that’s not why most comics are there. The money is made by hosting ads, supported podcasts, tory arene is, and selling stand up specials top acts.
Selling such specials can get anywhere from five million dollars to at the very high end, twenty million dollars. According to comedy agents. Rogan typically performs three days a week at the Mothership, making jokes about such things as Neanderthal jeans, the pregnant man emoji, donkey sperm, and Jeffrey Epstein. Rogan says, I think we need another club. It’s mobbed every night.
We then get into kill Tony, a wonderful podcast that’s every Monday night of the mother Ship. Hingecliff sits at a table flanked by fellow comedian Brian Redband, the original producer of Rogan’s podcast. They’re joined by a rotating guest entertainer or two, such as David Spade or Post Malone or theo Von. They then explain how kill Tony works. Since the show’s relocation of the Mothership, new episodes of kill Tony typically get more than two million downloads.
It’s currently ranked number nine on Spotify. On YouTube, the show has more than a million subscribers. In August, Kill Tony will do two nights at Madison Square Garden in New York. I didn’t know that, Wow, Which is not to say the club is for everybody. There are plenty of established comedians who will probably never perform at the Mothership, whether because they belong to other less aggressive schools of comedy because an association with Rogan would feel too off brand.
At some level, it’s a club for joke tellers who are already in Rogans circle or do whatever it takes to work their way in Wow, there’s a lot more left to this article. So this is what I was talking about with Mike on the Letterman podcast. He said, you know, do you plan to do these special episodes? This is a perfect example of I thought this was just going to be story number one. As I mentioned the beginning, I didn’t preread it.
Could I preread these things? I could, but I like to react to them as we go. If I pre read it, then not that I’m faking it, but I don’t react the same way as whereas I go, oh wow. I like to hear these things first try. But boy, there’s a lots of this article left, and as I mentioned, there’s no oxygen in this room.
So I’m going to take a break, literally, go upstairs and have a drink of water and breathe, and I’ll come back and we’ll do more of this. It is not a slow news day, I could tell you. Now. I’m gonna bump five, six seven stories into tomorrow and Monday, which is great from a creator standpoint. I like having extra stuff.
But yeah, this is Bloomberg’s look at Joe Rogan. I’ll be back in a second. This article we’re looking at is from Bloomberg. It is titled How Joe Rogan Became Comedy’s New King Maker. Bloomberg tells us when local comedians first heard Joe Rogan was coming to town, some grumbled.
One local comedian, Ariel Isaac Norman was not a grumbler, but says the downside to the Rogan invasion is a boom and open mic nights around town that are borderline unwatchable thanks to a certain strain of amateur who thinks aggressively attacking wokeness, no matter how ham handedly amounts to comedy gold. She says, it can be really awful to listen to men making disgusting reap apology jokes, that kind of stuff, saying big getting things, talking disgustingly about women. I’m not one of those people who’s easily offended, but it needs to be funny. Inside the mother Ship, on the top floor is the green room and inner sanctum, where the regulars of Rogan’s clan can catch up with visiting comics, trade gossip, chomp on cigars, shoot tequila, crush chackos, or watch whoever’s performing. From a balcony overlooking the main stage.
A private tunnel system allows comedians to arrive at the back entrance and travel up to the green room. When somebody like Chappelle stops by, the crew can get him into the club and on stage without spoiling the surprise. That’s a good thing. On the main floor is the bar Mitzi’s, named after a comedy store owner, Mitzi Shure, mother of poly Shore. The club will hold auditions from time to time.
The most promising comedians get jobs as door guys. They get paid hourly to help around the clubs several nights a week and frequent opportunities to perform at cast shows. Up and comers get to work on their show, grow their stature, and if they’re funny enough, were in a rare slot alongside Joe Rogan himself. Tucker Carlson dropped by the club and said, I remember what a big deal it was to fly out to burd Bank. Can do Jay Leno?
Who’d bother doing that for a linear TV show? Now we’re in a Rogan moment. Wow, What an article. Langston Kerman has announced his next comedy special, Bad Poetry, on Netflix August twentieth. Langston Kerman hawks parenting a top tier baby teaching mean teens and managing his mother in law’s dating apps.
Directed by John Mulaney, The new hour was taped at The Green Meal in Chicago. Mullaney said Langston is a champion, said is ridiculously funny. The Guardian profiled some shows you might want to say the Edinburgh Fringe. These are six of the funniest comedians. Number one Joe Kent Walters, who grew up on a diet of the Mighty Boosh and Vic and Bob, started out running an alternative comedy night in the basement of his Leads student house.
His show immerses Us in Frankie’s Mad Place as he stalks the stage, playing with the audience and singing catchy tunes. Number two Andrew Dherty, the man behind this year’s most striking show title Gay Witch Sex Cults Love It. He’s making his solo debut with this queer folk horror comedy. The already hopes he leave thinking anything like that before. Number three Kate Chica.
Her style is chatty, sarcastic, like you would tell stories to your mates, A bit gossipy, expect top tier sexual anecdotes, dissections of race and gender, and insights from her travels. Basically sex and colonialism. Number four Marjoralina robertson I’m putting the numbers here. They didn’t rank them. I’m just trying to keep track of if I’ve gotten them all.
Folk tales have always influenced her work. She spent lockdown nights telling stories on Twitch and weaves them throughout her stand up. She’s a compelling narrator. Every show has a folk tale to illuminate the story, but there are moments where it’s brutally real. I want to make people laugh but also potentially help people.
Number five Sarah Roberts who five years ago is a scriptwriter and arts journalist. After her first successive stand up, she says, I was so delusional, I quit my job the next day. She’s crafted a compelling persona, a deadpan delivery, and knowing girlishness that give her punchlines a sharp but chrimming edge. She admires Catherine Coen and Kate Blant and says there’s an element. I think it’s amazing, but nothing’s going right.
And Number six gin hal Lee Jin how Lee was inspired by Eddie Murphy’s delirious He honed his craft in the clubs of Singapore and Scotland. His stand up is sweet, calm and reflective, just like Eddie Murphy with tail spanning army conscription at Singapore, Scottish seagulls, recurring nightmares and childhood dreams. Jin how Lee says it’s like a violent children’s story book. There are moments when animals come alive, but moments when it’s grotesque and scary. Oh and today up at the Zombie just for laughs, Montreal Comedy Festival, Dane Cook.
I continue to speculate that that was booked when they were going to have a traditional festival I’ll call it, but here at the zombie version of it, Dane Cook. Tonight it just for laughs in Montreal. I missed going this year. Hopefully they could do a traditional festival next year. With the way it was, I understand what happened this year, and I want to put down their efforts this year.
But you know, it’s not the same as say the fortieth aniversary just for laps where they showed off trying not to be vulgar. What I was gonna say, showed off, you know what I meant, trying not to use that phrase. It’s kind of crass, isn’t it. Yes, sir, and that’s your comedy news for today’ see tomorrow