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Caloroga Shark Media. Hello Johnny Mack with your Daily comedy. He was pretty robust one for a summer Sunday rumor kill Tony could be moving from YouTube to Netflix in a deal being compared to Joe Rogan’s two hundred and fifty million dollars Spotify contract. Apparently at UFC three oh three, Tony Hinchcliff was caught hyping up a supposed deal he was striking with Netflix said it was comparable to quote the Spotify deal, which people assume means Rogan. Back in June, on episode six sixty six, Tony announced that Netflix executives and owners were in attendance, only to be surprised when the audience booed them but cheered YouTube executives.
Tony then joked that the crowd may have effed up a multi million dollar deal for us. Very very interesting, which segues nicely into this was one of those stories I couldn’t get to on Friday. If you heard Friday, I told you there’s so much going on. This was too long to deal with in what was already a twenty minute episode. A big story in the Hollywood Reporter, and you know I’ve been doing this for a while.
I’m doing media a little longer. Somebody, some agent, somebody got this thing written. Would be my guess the headline the war for laughs. Why streamers are battling for stand up comics. Platforms from Hulu to Amazon are spending wildly to wo comedians like Nate Bergatzy and Bill Burr to put a dent in Netflix’s dominance.
All right, let’s dive in here. My Spidey sense is tingling that this is more than the Hollywood porter going, hey, we should write an article. What should we write about? Somebody encouraged this as my guest I reporter. Right at the tail end of June, Bill Burr took the stage in Seattle.
Blah blah blah. But those who know Burr say he wanted to feel imported, or at least less like a cog in the wheel at a streaming behind which now spits out specials on a weekly basis and largely relies on internal algorithms to get them seen. Plus, there was an excitement about being on the ground floor of something new, so Burr ink to deal with Hulu time out. You see what I’m saying here, This to me feels like I don’t know, somebody went, hey, watch you guys write a nice article about Hulu’s comedy, or maybe somebody’s mad at Netflix. I just I don’t know.
This really could be, Hey, guys, what should we put in the August eighth edition of The Hollyood Reporter. I thought we write about some streaming comedy Susially, yeah, that’s a good idea. I mean, that could absolutely be what happened THHR right, So burr ink to deal with Hulu, the latest entrant into what’s quickly become an arms race for stand up specials. Time out. You know, if you’re a comedy agent.
The narrative had been that Netflix was no longer paying the big bucks. So if you’re a comedy agent, it’s not the worst thing. If there’s either an arms race or a perceived arms race, you want those comedian salaries to go back up up time in thhr right, So burr in to deal with Hulu, the latest entry into what’s quickly become an arms race for stand up specials. One of the few bright spots and in otherwise bleak entertainment landscape. The same companies that have slashed budgets and cut back on serious orders are now pooning up as much as eight figures for stand up comedy.
In fact, Hulu is said to have shelled out roughly fifteen million dollars for Burr’s hour, the result of an increasingly common multi platform bidding war. So also interesting that we’re putting a dollar amount. A lot of times you don’t see something. So fifteen million dollars for an hour of Burr? So how much is Hulu these days?
Fifteen bucks? Let’s do lazy, lazy math here do we think a million people are signing up for Bill Burr? Maybe? I guess you know. People used to ask me about the Howard Stern deal.
I did serious pay Howard Stern order million dollars or right, it was thirteen dollars, And I would ask people how many people do you think signed up for it? And people would say a million, And I felt that was low, and I go, okay, find a million. A million times thirteen is thirteen million times twelve months a year is one hundred and fifty six million dollars. Let’s give Howard one hundred million, and now there’s a fifty six million dollar profit, plus the ads you sell, plus the goodwill, plus the brand went up, people stop saying cyrus. And that’s if it were one million subscribers.
Imagine if it were two million or a different number, you’d have to ask the boss. As a series, I don’t actually know. I can tell you I worked at Serious at one point when we had fewer than one million subscribers total, and towards the end of my run there, I think we are around twenty million, and I think these days there’s around thirty million. So you do the math. So fifteen million dollars for Bill Burr maybe, I guess that’s a lot of money.
Bil Burr. Wow. Mainstay Entertainment’s Derek Van Peltz, whose clients include Trevor Noah and Roy Wood Junior, is quoted in this story. Mister Van pelt addresses how the comedy landscape had been dominated by HBO and then later by Comedy Central and to a lesser extent, Showtime. Mister Van pelt says, but no comedian did it to make money back then.
It was just an advertisement for the tour.
And then ne Flix comes along and all of a sudden, it’s like, wait a minute, t…
Yeah, I don’t know. I’ll ask Kelly Carler, I’m gonna guess George got paid by HBO, just to guess. I don’t know, could be wrong. The article then talks about how Netflix spent a lot of money by twenty seventeen executives at other places, including HBO, and raise the White Flag, an HBO executives quot of saying it’s hard for me to pay exorbitant prices. Back to the article.
Now, nearly a decade later, Netflix remains the premitive buyer, paying anywhere from a two hundred thousand dollars license fee, which it considers its starter tier for comics like Hannah Burner. All right, so next time you’re watching something like say Tim Dillon’s special that seemed a little homemade and the audio wasn’t that good, he probably got two hundred grand from it, is what we’re learning here to some twenty million dollars at the Chappelle level. I don’t know if you’re paying Burf fifteen twenty for Chappelle. Seems cheap. But the streamer no longer has the same stranglehold on the industry’s output because the latter has grown considerably.
One report picked the total number of comedy specials released in twenty twenty three at more than one hundred and fifty. Oh, it’s way more than one hundred and fifty. Kidding me, wme. Agency co head of Comedy Mike Berkowitz says it’s interesting he’s quoted in this article, isn’t it. There’s now the opportunity for every artist to get what the market value is, and it’s no longer one company that’s setting the price.
Sounds like a sports agent, doesn’t it. Yeh, same thing going on here. I see what this article is. For comics in their reps, the decision of where to sell a special typically comes down to a combination of money and eyeballs, though other sweeteners include awards, potential turnaround time, and the opportunities beyond the hour itself. My opinion, it comes down to money.
That’s it. That’s what the various platforms all eager to boost and retain subscribers. The appeal is largely the same. It’s relatively cheap, prepackaged content that’s already been tested on the road. Plus notes Uta Agency partner and head of comedy touring Nick nuke fourro interesting that he’s quoted in this article.
The comedians not only bring their own fans, but also do the heavy lifting and marketing through the social media and podcast Unlike most other talent, comedians have this direct relationship with their audience and they can grab that audience and bring it with them, which brings a big role in the ability to promote a special levity. Live founding partner Judy Moore Mill, whose roster includes Taylor Thomason, Bert Krascher, and Leanne Morgan, is also quoted in this article. She attributes the explosive demand in part to a lack of comedy alternatives. Judy says, they’re not making funny movies the way they used to, so people no longer have their relief, so they’re coming to live stand up specials because that desire to laugh is still very much there. Some more numbers thrown around Bert Kraser, who grows more than thirty million dollars on the road in twenty twenty three, enough to land him at number two on the annual Pollstar chart.
That is amazing joke that he’ll have a short list of people to thank it as Funeral and Netflix as at the top. Berkowitz. Remember he’s the wm E co head of Comedy said, those other placers are going to have to prove that they can compete with Netflix in terms of eyeballs and artists relations, or it won’t matter how much they’re willing to pay. Yeah right, Hey, hey, mister Berkowitz, well I got two deals here. Netflix wants to pay me two hundred thousand dollars, but Joe’s streaming service wants to pay me five hundred million dollars.
And now you know we should go with Netflix. I think it’d be best for your career to take to two hundred thousand. Get out of here, get lost. With that quote, the Dollar Reporter continues. By all accounts, it’s taken Amazon a few years to settle on a definitive strategy, but that hasn’t stopped it from outbidding the competition on multiple occasions.
Though given Netflix’s track record, many comics have opted to stay there even when it’s offering less. I’d like to know who accepted less. I don’t think the article mentions who accepted less. They mentioned some people who did not accept less, an example being Kevin James, some other names coming up. Some artists describe Amazon as main Street America, whether it be Kevin James, Jim Gaffigan, or Nate Bergancy, Amazon’s head of content acquisition at Chris Mansililo doesn’t argue with the main street thing, but he points out Jimmy Oyang and Tig Nataros recent accesses.
According to Nukaforo, who is the touring agent for Gaffikin and Bergazy, who were both previously at Netflix. So let’s not act like people are switching from Netflix to Amazon. Okay, let’s not act like that. The former served as a test case for Amazon’s viability, and from what we learned on Gaffigan, we knew that Nate’s sensibility and its humor could really thrive there by any platform standards. Bergazzy’s clean comedy Hour was big, racking up two point nine million viewers in its first month alone.
Soon he jumped from theaters to arenas, where he now smashes records at nineteen thousand seed venues like the Bridgetone area in Nashville. This is a publicist wet dream this article. This is an agent’s wet dream this article. This year, it is said Nate has grossed nearly ninety million dollars on the road. Wow, Judy Mormel says, to date, Nate’s the most undeniable example that Amazon has had, and the industry is watching really closely to see if it was a one time thing or if it could happen with other artists.
Man Solilo is optimistic, telling the other reporter, we believe it can continue to happen with other comedians. So too Sam Morrell, who dropped a Prime Video special. Sam said, because everyone is prime, right, who’s not a lazy piece of crap American? Here? Come on?
However, Nate is now returning to Netflix, where he’s said to be getting recognition as a top tier comic, both in compensation and Ted Sarandos’s attention, and Jim Gaffigan is now moving to Hulu. So what we’ve definitely learned is Jim Gaffigan is like a sports free agent who’s like, who’s got a check. I’ll go again, no problem with it. Make that money when you can where you can over at Hulu. Billy Rosenberg, who ran the Streamers comedy division until this spring, had identified what he believed was a hole in the market for a more curated approach that hinged on just twelve specials a year.
What I sold up the chain was for the cost of one mid sized TV comedy series, we could program a year’s worth of specials, and unnamed rep though says sure Hulu’s willing to pay more, but does it end up costing me touring revenue because not as many people see it. In the meantime, Hulu has licensed older specials and remains committed to making noise with its upcoming roster, which pending deals interesting This New to Me also includes otsco At Kotska and Jessica Kerson. Multiple sources say they tried to get Jamie Fox and Andrew Schultz, but both went with Netflix. Hulu’s head of scripted content, Jordan Hillman, says they’re being really thoughtful about how to leverage relationships throughout the Lord tre Disney ecosystem, But Jim Gaffigan says, I know the intention is really good, but also because I’m doing a special for Hulu, I don’t have any expectation that I’m going to be in like the Mandalorian. Oh, I gotta check the clock.
What do we like? Half an hour into this? This is way longer than I thought. All Right, HBO is going smaller and more niche with a max of eight specials a year. That’s a shame, one of their VP said, And when we’re doing eight specials, the difference is our specials really feel special.
Johnny Mack has not been impressed by Alex Edelman, Rama, Yusef, John Really, and Nikki Glaser so far this year, although the article points out all four of those were rewarded with Emmy nominations. So what do I know? Ugh, that was a lot.
All right, let’s take a break.
I got a lot more news man. Bill Burr is heading to Broadway. That’s right, you’re in kulkin. Bob Odenkirk and Bill Burr hit Broadway next year in a revival of Glen Garry Glenn Ross, set for a Spring twenty twenty five opening. The Broadway debut for Bob Odenkirk and Bill Burr.
The press release tells us Burr a wildly popular stand up comedian and star of stand up TV specials. We’ll play Dave Moss, the big mouth, often ranting salesman. I’m having trouble picturing Bill Burr is a big mouth, ranting salesman. Interesting casting there, Roy Wood Junior, We’ll host Have I Got News for You CNN’s adaptation of a British show of the same name. I don’t know about this one, Roy, because they’re airing at Saturdays at nine pm.
It’ll be available to stream on Max the following day. But Have I Got News for You? Makes its ten episode debut on September fourteenth, and My Guests will be canceled ten weeks later. I’m rooming for you, Roy, but I don’t know that’s a rotten time slot. The panel comedy series features comic observations from the satirical to the surreal through the lens of a news quiz.
Roy Woods said, for far too long, immigrants have been coming to America and taking black jobs. Kudos to CNN and the immigrants at Hat Trick Productions for bringing a black job to the States. To an honor to be part of such a hallow British institution. It helped make sense of American institutions of chaos, name calling, disinformation, reality TV, and the eight hour news cycle. I guess ten weeks will get it through the election and then they’ll cancel it.
The Olympics are wrapping up. Apparently Kevin Hart was on Peacock. Did you hear anybody talking about it well. Kevin Hart, he enjoyed it. He said, the Olympics are great.
You know, me and Keenan have tapped into a world of chemistry. I don’t think I have to talk about it. I think it’s easy for the world to see. I haven’t heard one human being talk about this other than Kevin Hart. I have not seen one article mentioned the Olympics show that Kevin Hart’s doing.
I’m sure it’s fantastic, but buzz wise, Kevin Hart, it’s got zero. Kevin also gave love to Snoop Dogg, saying Snoop is great. I think he’s been great, and I think what you just look at is what we’re all doing. We’re just giving the world a different eyesight as to what comedy can be with humor. I like the idea, but I’m not sure anyone’s watching this next story.
I really want to bump, but I want to get in front of it before the twist happens, because my Spidey sense is catching something the article. Stay for the twist here. Okay. In Dayton, Wiley’s Comedy Club will host its final show in September. Okay, that’s kind of sad.
Wiley’s comedy club is closing after forty two years. They put out a statement saying, thank you for your generosity and support over the years. We could not have done it without our amazing customers. The farewells show is on Saturday, September seventh.
Now here’s the twist.
In twenty twenty two, Iron Table Holdings LLLC, a real estate holdings company, bought the building that houses Wyley’s Comedy Club, which is now closing after forty two years.
Now here’s the twist.
Iron Table Holdings LLLC, a real estate holdings company, is owned by Dave Chappelle. Yeah you didn’t see that coming, did you know? Huh? So is Dave taking it over? Is Dave kicking them out to open a dunkin Donuts?
Time will t well. Time is telling me that the rest of the stories you’re getting bumped in tomorrow. And that’s your comedy news for a very robust Sunday. If you like the program, tell a friend about it. They might like it too.
You know, see you tomorrow.