🎙️ Listen to this episode:
Full Transcript
Caloroga Shark Media. Hi there, I’m Johnny Mack with your Daily Comedy News. Burt Kreischer. Did you enjoy his special? He was talking to Variety sold a cool story.
I was walking in Savannah, Georgia one time before playing the arena, and I saw my fans partying before the show down by the river. I was jealous. I was like, dude, I want to be with them, and I think they know it. I love getting into stuff and being a fan of something. I love discovering something and then becoming obsessed with it and buying tickets for me and ten friends, like, Hey, have you guys heard of the Red City Strays.
They’re coming to town. They’re about to be a new favorite band. I bring all the comics, Shane Gillis, Mark Norman, Big, Jay Ogerson, my wife, my whole team, six of my friends. I get his tickets. We saw Jimmy Buffett, we saw Goose, we saw Wilco.
So I’m lucky to have fans that are like me. Variety talked about that cliche that rock stars want to be actors and actors want to be rock stars. Back when I was working at Serious, I remember comedians were in the mix, there was it. The comedians wanted to be rock stars, and the rock stars wanted to be actors, and the actors want to be comedians. I think that was the triangle anyway, Bert, do you feel that way about live music?
Bert said, oh yeah, I’d love to be able to just have a set list that I know is going to murder instead of going up at the comedy store trying to figure it out. You could play your hits for years. Look at Creed, they’re doing stadiums now. I think all comedians wish they were rock stars. We all wish we were taken seriously and sexy.
We’re goofballs. Ironically, the sexiest thing about us is that we’re not sexy at all. At the beginning of this special Spoilers, Bert rips his shirt off and throws it in the air and it lands perfectly on the mic. They were curious how many times on tour did that workout versus not? And Bert said, it never worked.
That’s why you could see the look on my face as sheer exuberance. We had that ridiculous outfit made because I noticed in all my specials I’m wearing the exact same thing, jeans, and no shirts, so they all look identical. Netflix would brand my specials with different outfits on the thumbnail to draw people in, but then I’d be in jeans, so I wanted to have a VERSACEI Miami style suit made. The taping was special, if I’m not mistaken, we use the entire set front to back from that taping. With comedy, you can get a little bit of magic.
That’s why crowd work is so fun. When my shirt landed on the mic, everyone went crazy. We had one taping where someone out a stroke, so we’re not gonna use that one. Oh that’s awful. They were curious about how he works in his family, and Bert said, I write everything in the hopes that my daughters and wife will like it.
Land saw the act a couple of times. It definitely had notes and doing that material. There was a certain point in my act where it became less jovial. It wasn’t coming across the right way, and she had a note about that. She was like, all I need is a little bit of Rascal smile on your face.
You’re doing it so much that you’re losing that. Remember the way you did it the first time. Great note from Leanne similar discussion between Samarl and WAMC, who said, when a rock band goes out on tour, people just want to hear the old stuff. With comics, it’s the opposite. Sam said, yeah, I was just watching that Bob Dylan movie.
The big scene is that he wants to shake things up and go electric, and he’s like, yeah, screw you, I’m going in electric and it was so funny that, Like, no disrespect to musicians, but boy, they have it easy, especially the big ones. You know, obviously if you’re struggling musician, having a middle class lifestyle as a musician’s probably harder than a comic. I think they’re the easier trajectory. But then if you’re like Billy Joel, you’re like, oh, I don’t have to write for forty years. That’s incredible.
Topic of podcasts came up and how every comedian has one. Sam said, I think the problem is there’s so many things you have to do. Remember years ago, David tell told me like enjoying now when all you do is wake up and write jokes, and he was right. But now it’s very hard for me to find time to work on my act. The hollyw reporter asked Andrew Schultz, you have a lot of success, why don’t you just post on YouTube?
Schultz said, I did the first Netflix special during COVID, and that was just based on these turn your phone videos that I do. And the last one I did where we sold it ourselves, was really supposed to be on Amazon, but they gave me push back about a couple jokes, and I don’t even blame them. I’m like, hey, you’re a billion dollar company that sells toilet paper. Why would you risk tarnishing your brand over my Michael Jackson take or whatever the joke was. So my initial idea was to do that one with the streamer and see how that worked and see if that brought it in a different audience, etc.
But then people were able to rally behind me and that was pretty sick, all right, So why go Netflix this time? Schultz explains there was a time during COVID when people were so engaged online with creators where we were buying these live moments and live events, and it became part of what we did because there was so little content out there. Then the second that COVID ended, the studio started pumping stuff back out and people were like, all right, I don’t need to buy that little moment. I’ll just watch Severance on TV. Culture changed in the way we consumed in my estination, So I was like, yeah, I think it makes sense to go over here to Netflix.
But one of the cool things is that I had a number that I could do on my own, meaning I knew how much I could generate. No comic really knows their worth. You just think of a number, you go, Okay, Chapelle got that, But I had a number having had that experience on my own. But even then, in order to get an offer, you need another offer. That’s the other thing I realized about this business.
Rody asked him about all the various streamers getting into the business. Hi, Hulu public says, how you guys doing today? You know you don’t have to answer, It’s fine. Schultz said, this is the best thing that can happen for comedians. I’m putting this special on Netflix, but every comedian should be rooting for Hulu right now.
They should be rooting for Amazon. My dog is apparently rooting for Amazon. I can never tell if the directional Mike picks up the dog, but she’s barking, which is a story I recently did an industry podcast, and I asked my wife, I’m like, can you just take the dogs for an hour? Because I need to seem like an industry professional. It’s one thing when I’m doing my own silly comedy podcast, I can reference the dogs or make a bit out of it.
When I’m trying to come across as guy that owns podcasting company, I need to be an adult and I can’t have crazy dogs. I was on a job or interview lately and an online teaching course was looking for me to teach a class about podcasting. In the middle of it, the dogs went bananas, and like, I’m texting her on the side, so it’s a zoom call and I’m trying to keep eye contact with the person interviewing me, and I’m texting her like with my phone, blow the camera, like will you get rid of the bleeping dogs? And she ignored my texts. So it was very embarrassing.
I digress. Andrew Schultz said every comedian should be rooting for Hulu right now. They should be rooting for Amazon because the more people out there, the more competitive they have to be. We created a competitor in YouTube, and what I think that partly did is it loosen the constraints? Netflix has always been good with putting out content, not censoring, but it made comics go, oh, I could potentially get more for myself, not even money wise, just to get more reach on YouTube.
I often tell comics that are younger in the game, putting your stuff out on YouTube and clipping the whole thing and putting it out everywhere before anybody knows about you is more beneficial for you. Variety variety, push, and the stamp of approval then Netflix seemingly provides. Doesn’t outweigh that, Schultz said, I think it depends where you are in your career. I think early on people want to find you. If somebody sees you at Madison Square Garden, they’re gonna be like, oh, he’s popping.
We don’t want to feel part of that discovery because you represent their dreams. Good follow up A few years ago, apparently Andrew on Rogan’s show said Netflix is done. Andrew explained awestly anything, it’s why he can’t take me too. Seriously, Ry was curious if that impacted the negotiation. I’ll answer having worked at companies, and I haven’t even read his answer yet.
Talent wins. If somebody wants to be in business, you could throw pies on the boss’s face. And if they think there’s money to be made off somebody, they’ll work with somebody. Let’s see what Andrew said. Oh, that didn’t matter.
They don’t care. They’re in the business of putting out the best comedy and they want to make sure it’s on their platform. Yep. So they’re not gonna let me say Netflix is dead. Before the last special I put out get in the way of me going to Hulu or Amazon.
They were right by the way. I thought I was right, though, I was like, how can they win this race? Everything’s going to be on YouTube? But they figured it out. Man Bill Burr was on Terry Gross’s show last week.
He was doing some therapy. It sounds like he said, I’d get off stage and just feel like, God, what was that? What was that? That didn’t feel good? Meaning the laughter, even though the response was good, it just kind of felt like it didn’t feel good.
It was gross. It’s just dark, ugly, just plain hurt, just coming out the wrong way. Where it’s so funny because some comedians that I love the most, the way they process their pain was a very empathetic short way, which I’d say Richard Prye was the king of that. He just really had this ability of talking about his mistakes that he made in a way that you could see that it bothered him that he did some of these things, and it also made you root for him, Like I felt like that was the biggest thing I had as far as being a fan of his work was beyond finding it hilarious and jaw droppingly brilliant, was that I found I was rooting for him in his personal life as he was going through all these marriages and vorcees and problems with the cops and abuse and lighting himself on fire. Like you know, I love the guy, and I was just hoping he was going to find peace.
Where my comedy act right now is I’m trying to get regular people to stop yelling at each other. I talked about that last week. Remember when Billy Corgan showed up on Howie Mandel’s podcast and they started floating the conspiracy theory that Billy and Bill Burr are brothers? Was it a bit? Is Billy Corgan for real?
Apparently he for real? He told people it was one of those rare moments where I think all three of us really didn’t know where it was going. And you see that, and that’s what makes it sort of interesting. There’s enough energy there. That’s why it’s not a bit, because it’s really about confronting something in a way that none of us really knew what that confrontation would lead to.
And you see it play out. You see jokes, but you also see like, oh, there’s something there. A really good friend of mine said to me, all right, tell me the truth, and I said, I don’t think so. I don’t think we’re related.
And then my friend said, well, I think you are, and I said, well, I guess it’…
So then my friend goes, we’ll get a DNA test. No word on a DNA test yet, or if Bill Burr would be interested in that. Corgan said, it’s taken out a life of its own. It’s sort of strange. It really started from honest things, which are my father may have fathered twelve other children, and the facts of Bill’s life actually do match the story that I was told.
So there’s no invention there. MOA Mayer talked to the BBC for his show. He said he wanted to keep the greater context in mine and didn’t want to focus on October seventh and its aftermath because that almost insinuates that this just started. Mo explains that couldn’t be farther from the truth. He spoke about the final episode, which I won’t spoil.
Originally it was sixty minutes long and they cut it down to thirty nine. He says it was almost like we filmed a movie. He wanted to cover the main strokes, which included how difficult it can be to enter and live as a Palestinian. Once over there, Mo explains, immediately, you’re not on vacation, You’re on edge. Actually, he says he can’t walk away from being seen as a spokesperson for Palestinians.
I think everyone just needs to manage their expectations. But I’m not going to shy away from it. Those that agree with me or disagree with me. It’s important to continue the dialogue and have a conversation. He has that he’s always hopeful that things can get better.
Seattle Magazine caught up with Tom Papa the topic touring and when he toured you get some weird meals. What’s the most depressing tour meal you’ve had, Tom? Papa Tom said, what’s depressing is when you’re in some hotels and you see they have room service, so you get room service, which seems like a good plan because of the timing. You know, I got to get to the show. I’m coming home late, or at least they have room service.
And then they show up my door with a paper bag with the room service in it. It’s a leftover from COVID. I’m like, oh, I thought it was actually going to eat and now I’m just burrowing through the trash looking for food. Zach Zimmerman will premiere their debut comedy special, Surprise Me, on April twenty seconds. Zach has been hailed as a rising star by The New York Times and was named in Vultures Comedians You Should Will Know.
Filmed at the Bellhouse in Brooklyn, Zach takes a look at the definition of love across evangelical Trump trained family members, Romance gone Wrong, and Donuts Done Right. You won me over at Donuts. The special is described as sweet and salty. I see what you’re doing there. It’ll be on YouTube Tuesday, April twenty second, eight pm Eastern.
Surprise Me will also be available as an album. Johnny Mack likes when people put things out as albums. Out tomorrow on Amazon if you’re in the right geographic location. I don’t think this will air in the States, John, Why are you talking about it? Because John likes Jimmy Carr, who’s the host of Amazon’s Last One Laughing.
Hopefully they show it here. On Last One Laughing, comedians are put into a reality TV style house, and chill should keep a straight face while other contestants try to make them laugh. Jimmy says the format plays into stand up strengths, as we’re competitive and we don’t like our colleagues to be funny. It’s strange should be working for Amazon, a soulist, capitalist, dubious money making machine, but Amazon still thought I was the man for the job. Last One Laughing is based on a Japanese game show, prompting Jimmy to joke.
Amazon are continuing their policy of supplying cheap knockoffs from Asia. Some of the contestants names you may know include Richard Ayoade. He didn’t watch the show at the screening. He chose to read a book. Trotle tells us the book is Absolute Beginners by Colin McInnes.
Richard said, I still haven’t seen it because of psychological problems, but well done everyone. I have a strong policy about seeing my own face, and it’s a no for me. Richard Liken the show to a hostage situation, Last One Laughing on Amazon tomorrow, depending where you live. Susie Eddie Hazzard is going to tour Shakespeare this fall September thirteenth through November fifth. His art will perform Hamlet.
Not really comedy, but I thought it was an interesting item. Took fifteen seconds for me to tell you. A Nashville scene caught up with Andy Marie Tillman two and a half years ago. She began posting clips to social media and the guys of various original characters. They became a hit.
Tillman has around five hundred and seventy three thousand followers on TikTok another four hundred and sixty nine thousand on Insta thanks to characters like Papa, who’s an ornery, overalls clad Appalachian, Pam, who’s your southern aunt who’s prone to oversharing, and I love this Nashvaratu, a Countree count count Country Countree musician and vampire trying to fit into the Nashville scene but having a rough go. I love that as a premise, Tillman says, you know, maybe, perhaps possibly it’s been inspired by some of her family. She says, my family takes bets on who’s who, so all of them think they’re everybody, and I think they like the down home kind of stuff. Nashvaratu was too weird for them. They’re like, I don’t get the vampire stuff.
You’d probably do better if you did more, Papa, that’d probably launched you somewhere else. I’m like, okay, don’t need the no. She said, when the check started coming in, I was able to quit cleaning houses the thirty hours a week that I was happy to do that to make the ends meet.
And then I thought, all right, maybe this social media thing isn’t so bad.
There’s something about getting a check that just makes everything. You put your soul on the line for that money. She is Andy Marie Tilman, and that is your comedy news for today. If you enjoy the program, tell a friend about it. They might like it too.
If you would like the program without commercial interruption. If you’re on Apple Podcast, click that better that says uninterrupted listening. If you’re not on Apple Podcast, there’s a link of the show notes that will take you to Calibrougo dot com a slash plus and either way. For four ninety nine a month, you don’t have to hear any of these pesky commercials, but I still get to pay for food and electricity and stuff, you know. And you also get the other shows on the network, including Five Good News Stories, which I host three times a week.
If you haven’t checked that one out yet, please do. It’s called Five Good News Stories. See here tomorrow.