Author: johnnymacdcn

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Featured: Nate Bargatze, Seth Meyers, Lorne Michaels, Michael Che, Heidi Gardner, Clint Eastwood, Denzel Washington, Mark Maron, Dave Chappelle, Jim Jefferies, Hasan Minhaj, Shane Brendan

What’s in This Episode

• Nate Bargatze hosts SNL with Coldplay, discusses colorblindness affecting Q card reading
• Lorne Michaels interview on SNL’s 50th anniversary and succession planning
• Mark Maron on comedy, cancel culture, and Dave Chappelle’s controversial trans material
• Jim Jefferies Rolling Stone profile on evolving comedy style and mental health recovery
• Hasan Minhaj Esquire interview on new special about racism within communities
• Lorne Michaels reveals Clint Eastwood and Denzel Washington as dream SNL hosts

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Caloroga Shark Media. Hello, Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. Saturday Night Live, which we’re going to talk about every day for the next eight months, is back tonight with a new episode. Nate Bergatzi is your host. He did some promos.

Let’s listen. Hi, I’m Niborghetsy and I’m hosting SNL this week with musical guests Coldplay and live from New York. No, sorry, you don’t do that right now. But we’re on the stage. Yeah, but there’s nobody here and it’s Thursday.

A lot of rules in this place. Hi, I’m Neigborghtsy and I’m hosting SNL this week with musical guests Coldplay. He’s in fifty Less Gout. So can you have been on the show fifty whole years? That’s amazing?

How does it feel? No, No, I haven’t been on the show. I mean you had to be ten probably when you started. You think I’m sixteen years O. Look amazing for your age.

Yeah you do. Thanks Coldplay. Nate was on with Seth Meyers and explained how he struggled with the Q cards last year. Nate explained that he has trouble distinguishing between black brown, green, and red, which are all colors they use on the Q cards to distinguish who says what. Nate didn’t tell the team about his color blindness.

Everybody figured it out when he was rehearsing the last time around. He said, during one of the rehearsals, I was reading all of Heidi’s lines in my head. I thought the whole card was me. He said. He was surprised how many lines he seemed to have.

It’s not really making sense, but I’ll trust Saturday Night Live. Who am I to know? Heidi let Nate run with it, thinking it was just a case of a host calling the shots. This time, they have it all figured out in advance. The Hollywood Reporter had done that big article with Lorne Michaels and asked Lorn was there.

Host Lorn wish he had snagged, but never did. Lauren said, we tried very hard for Clint Eastwood, particularly in the seventies. Movie stars in that period did not do TV. Occasionally they did with us, but there’s a real chance of being humiliated in front of millions of people. We don’t pay anything, so you’d have to do it because you were game for it.

In the end, pretty much everyone has come on, so there’s no one out there where I’d go, Oh, if this person would just do what, my life would be complete. Michael Jay chimed in and said, my white well at this point would be Denzel Washington. He’s like our brando, and it’d be amazing just to see him be silly and funny. Lauren discussed how he is not going to step away after the fiftieth anniversary. You know, I still think it makes total sense Lauren’s getting up there and it would be the right time to get out.

But Lauren says, I think there are not many network shows left and this one has taken on in importance. It’s more about keeping it on course than anything else. And obviously I really love it, and every year there are more and more people that I rely on for other things. But in the end, you really need someone to say this is what we’re doing. So I don’t really have an answer as to when he’ll go.

I just know it’s kind of what I do, and as long as I can keep doing it, I’ll keep doing it. There’s no immediate plan. Jo just chimed in and said, you’d think there’d be a lot of speculation about the succession internally, but there really isn’t because no one who works there thinks he’s leaving. Everyone’s busy figuring out what the bigger problem is this week. I think everyone thinks we plan way more ahead than we do.

But you have to deal with all the speculation from the outside and everybody asking you who’s it gonna be. Jase says maybe a lot of it has to do with being a child of divorce. But I don’t want to think about Lauren leaving. I mean, nobody wants to face the reality that it’s at some point he won’t be doing it. Honestly, I don’t think it could ever be done by one person again.

I think it’ll be a full committee. The show is in his image. I think people appreciate when he’s not around anymore how much he actually has done for comedy. Any other show loses a star like Will Ferrell and the show’s not the same s Andl’s lost maybe thirty of the biggest comedy stars of all time and it’s still on irrelevant. Joe said, it’s actually humiliating for Will Ferrell.

The Phoenix New Times spoke to Mark maron the question, do you think a woke world, kills comedic creativity or makes it more intelligent. Maren said, I don’t think either of those things are true. I’d tell you what happened. You know, everything’s become more fragmented. I don’t think there’s a common culture dialogue going on.

I think because of the fragmentation of the media universe, people are able to build their own bubbles and serve their own people. The Phoenix New Times follow that up with a fart joke will always be funny, right, Maren. I don’t think anybody’s anti fart humor. I think it might be considered a little easy in a little base. But I do think the idea comedy that basically tells vulnerable, marginalized people to suck it up and take a hit, that’s a different thing.

New Times Dave Chappelle tried it with the trans community. It didn’t go well, Maren. After thinking about it long and hard, outside of his obsession with the trans reality, I think, ultimately, if he’s methodical about what he does, which I think he is, I think initially what he was most upset about was there were a bunch of anonymous and angry voices through social media. Had the power to destroy people. I feel like he had people close to him that were affected by that, and I feel like he felt that was wrong.

I really think that’s the base of his attack, was to keep comedy free. Whether that got misdirected ultimately, which I think it did. Ultimately, it’s about encouraging your freedom to live the life you want to live if you’re not comfortable with somebody else’s way of living. The democratic idea is you figure out a way towards tolerance and acceptance. And once you remove tolerance and acceptance from the conversation, it really throws a wrench into the gears of the democratic idea.

So if you’re a wrench, you should at least know what it means to be doing what you’re doing. Jim Jefferies has the cover of Rolling Stone News Zealand not all his diehard fans are stoked about Jim changing a little bit. Jim says, people write to me all the time going he used to be much funnier, and I feel like going what are You was much funnier and other people I’m much funnier now. I’m just trying to evolve. I think it would have been very sad for me to be in my fifties wearing the tight leather jacket with a cigarette hanging out of my mouth, saying effing at sea word all the time, and someone’s a bitch or something, you know what I mean.

So he just evolved to where you are as a person. Jim is clinically depressed and said, I’m not on meds for the first time in many, many years, so I must be in a pretty good state. But I always keep an eye on it. Find therapy is the key for me. And marrying my wife helped a lot.

Is she makes me happy. But just the fact that I know that somebody’s got my back all the time, and how bad things have got, we got my best friend with me all the time. Hasan Minhaj profiled by Esquire in his new stand up special, He says brown people are more racist than white people. Quoting Hassan, what I was doing was saying, let me bring you in our community. You think they’re the problem.

Oh, we got some problems ourselves. We don’t talk about beige guilt and the idea of beige guilt and reconciling paradoxes like simultaneously, I’m fighting the problems and I’m part of the problem. I’m here to evoke what we’re really saying. On WhatsApp after this special, he says, I’ve already written my next stand up show. It involves the stage in another comedian in an interesting way.

A line producer looked at it and said, I don’t want to budget this, but I’m excited. I felt this before, and it’s exciting because it feels new and weird. Shane Brendan good buzz him right. He talked about the crowds in Portland and said, as much as I appreciate the Portland crowd, I’ve also had shows where I walk away thinking they’re being overly sensitive. You got to take the good with the bad.

I embrace all of it because it helped me get to where I am now and move forward. His new album is called either Way Pretty Funny. The title of the album comes from a joke Brendan tells about being biracial with a black father and a Filipino mother, and of a comment someone left below on an online clip. Shane remembered the comment, which says, this is either the blackest Asian dude I’ve ever seen or the most Asian black guy I’ve ever seen either way pretty funny. Over the years, I’ve had conversations with buddies other comedians.

They ask, how we don’t talk more about your parents. You’re basically a first generation and an American born with immigrant parents. There’s a period of time when a lot of comics that’s all they talk about. That’s all people wanted to hear. More power too them.

I’ve got buddies who talk about race and identity stuff. There’s so many things I talk about that I want to talk about. I guess I never really crossed my mind and put that in the forefront. Over here, just trying to talk about how to handle this kid, or whether or not to get fussed at my wife and daughter. That’s where I’m at, trying to write a joke as hard enough as it is.

But I don’t think I’d purposely sit and be like, let’s talk more about my race and identity here in this next chunk. If you missed it, he was my guest on last Saturday’s episode. Got good reviews of that one. I liked it, hope you check it out. LA Times had profiled Tom Sigora and Christina peas podcasting Empire.

Christina talked about how the show has always been a showcase of the couple’s ability to push every boundary. Christina says, we’ve a children, we’ve moved a bunch, and now with these middle aged people, and the fans have been there the whole time. We have these relationships with fans you’d have with your friends or family. The crazy thing is you forget how much they know about you. So when someone walks up to you and it is like, is Charro good?

You forget that. You relay all the stuff on the air, and now this guy knows so much about me. Tom says, we have a no ahole policy here. I have the same policy at Serious. There were some people that were just annoying and I just chose not to work with them.

It’s a good policy to have. High five Tom Sagora. No one who works here as an a hole, and that makes it a pleasure to come to the studio and work. Yeah, you get you start working with like poisoned people, it just ruins everything for everyone. It’s just not worth it.

I don’t care how famous you are. A Christina says, we seriously love everyone who works here, all of the hosts and the staff and of course, all the fans. It’s like a family. Kevin McDonald, you know, kids in the hall. He’s going to make his directorial feature debut.

The film is called One Week Left, written by Kevin. One Week Left is about an aging rock star that’s headed to jail for committing fraud against his best friend. Having one week before he heads off to the big House, he gets in his car and takes off on an apology tour. Kevin said, wait, I’m staring in this too. I must start reading the contracts.

In that case, I guess I’m excited for all the hard work it’s going to take for me to bring this script to life. This is a story that literally couldn’t be done without me, so I’m excited to be working with myself and far Point Films on it. Alice Adeg is taping his next comedy special let me check out here today and tomorrow he’ll bet the Majestic Theater in Dallas. And that is your comedy news for today. If you would like the program without commercials, there’s a link in the show notes today.

How at works short version five bucks a month. See you tomorrow.

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Featured: Nick Swartzson, Jim Gaffigan, Brian Reagan, Luis C.K., Chris Rock, David Spade, Nikki Glaser, Taylor Swift, Joe Koy, Phil Wang, Hasan Minhaj

What’s in This Episode

• Nick Swartzson discusses writing process and comedy output pressure
• Nikki Glaser’s Taylor Swift fandom and attending 22 Eras Tour shows
• Joe Koy’s Taylor Swift joke at Golden Globes and fan backlash
• Phil Wang on heritage and identity in his comedy special
• Hasan Minhaj’s new special and Esquire profile discussing his comedy journey
• Hasan Minhaj’s controversy over altering white powder anecdote in previous special

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Caloroga Shark Media hardly. Oh, I’m Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. The eight hundred Pound Gorilla website, a fantastic website. Asked to Nick swartzon a Nick Wartson how long you spend between your hours? Nick said, the new one I wrote pretty quick.

He was pretty surprising. I couldn’t believe it. It came out really fast. I’m already chipping away at a new one. I think I have maybe ten minutes.

I try to write as much as I can. I always trying to tell young comedians that they go, what device do you have? Write NonStop? Even if the joke doesn’t make sense now, ten years from now, you put it in your notebook or on your phone and you’ll figure out how to crack a joke. That’s happened to me several times.

The Gorilla said it’s amazing how people work at different rates, like Jim Gaffigan and has a new hour every year. Swartan said, I know, it’s super annoying. I love Gaffigan, He’s an old friend of mine. I’m just saying it puts so much pressure, like f I’ve got to turn out another one. Gaffick, it’s a machine.

Guys like him, Brian Reagan, Luis c kse at Bash and they keep dropping it. Look at somebody like Chris Rock. Chris Rock’s been doing it forty years and what does he have? Four specials? Maybe five and forty years.

Gaffigan’s been doing it as long as I have. He is what ten? It’s amazing. I plauw them. I’m a fan of all of them.

I asked David Spade, why don’t you have more specials? And he was like, because you burn that material. I’d rather just tour it for as long as I can because it’s so hard to write a new hour. Vogue interviewed Nikki Glaser. No, when you interview Nikki Glaser, what do you ask her about Taylor Swift?

Nikki, other than meeting Taylor Swift backstage, have you spent much time with her in person? Nicki said, we had an interaction on Instagram that you’re probably familiar with where I apologize for talking out of line and then she wrote a comment back. But nothing since that, Nicky, how many concerts have you been to? The final number, unless she adds more shows, will be twenty two. Right now, it’s seventeen, so I have five more to go, and I’m so excited.

I feel like she’s the Beatles in terms of a once in lifetime performer artist and songwriter talent. I don’t have liked to see The Beatles live, so I just need to capitalize in this while I can, and it’s the most fun thing I’ve ever done. Initially, when she announced the tour, I wanted to go as many as possible, but it’s kind of embarrassed by how much I like her. I’ve been mocked for it by my family and friends, and I’ll add people recording a podcast in their basement. My boyfriend was the one who actually said, I’ve never seen you happier than when you’re at these Taylor Swift sing alongs.

I’ mean going to a few of the Taylor Swift nights at different clubs and music venues when they just play Taylor Swift and you dance and sing with everyone. And I’d done some Taylor Swift day parties on Zoom. He said, you should go to every show you possibly can. I’m almost slipping in a triumph here for some reason. I might look ridiculous and people can make fun of me, but I honestly think anyone who’s making fun of Swifty’s is jealous that they don’t like something that much.

I really think that’s at the heart of it, like they’re too cool to let themselves like something that much and they’re not even capable of it. I do think it’s a special kind of personality that I have that leads me to be obsessed with things this much. But I’m so happy that I have that personality. It’s brought me so much joy. I make the joke that being a swift eye has brought me so much joy as being an ant.

It’s probably brought me more joy. To be honest with you, your niece is gonna love this article. In about ten years, I’m not gonna have kids, and this just felt like the right time and spent thousands of dollars in something I love. When all my friends were spending thousands of dollars on fertility treatments and kids, I was like, let’s do something fun with it. I’m always impressed by how on point Taylor Swift is and how she can just nail everything as well.

Listen to this. I’m always impressed by how on point she is and how she could just nail everything I really find similarities between how I do my act sometimes and how she does her thing. I’ll love a joke written. I like to make it fun for myself and to change it up for myself, but you still get the essence of what it is. So yes, I see differences in Taylor’s shows, and it’s been well documented, but her dancing has just become more free.

She’s become more comfortable within the steps that she’s learned and memorized. I’ve seen the comfort level grow. There seems to be more easy with her performing, and I respect how much fun she’s having every time. I’ve really never been able to sense any kind of performativeness that makes me think maybe she’s hiding something. I don’t think you’ve ever seen her pretend to root for a touchdown talk about performative geez.

People always ask how the concerts are different, and I’m like, they’re really not. She’s always ten out of ten perfect with the thing she says in between songs. You can tell when she likes a crowd more than another crowd. Boy, I’m gonna hear from the Swifties now, you don’t want to make fun of Taylor Swift. I mean, one time Joe Koy was hosting the Golden Globes and he made a Taylor Swift joke.

Here, let’s listen. As you know, we came on after a football doubleheader. The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL. On the Golden Gloves, we have fewer climber shots of Taylor Swift. That did not go over well.

That joke was so poorly received that Scott Becker right now is banging his dashboard because I brought up the Taylor Swift recurring joke. Hi. Scott phil Wang spoke to the Indie one hundred and said I would not be a comedian if I wasn’t mixed heritage. Of his new special, he says, it’s the trifecta of my material Asian ness, food and some kind of smut. When I got in a comedy at seventeen eighteen, when I first did stand up for me, was a way of dealing with my alienis of owning it.

If putting in front and center, in front of everyone, in front of this new country I was trying to assimilate into. Without that point of difference, I felt like if I fitted in, I felt like I was just like most other people. I don’t think I would have done that. So I think my heritage is central to me being a comedian. I think it’s why I am a comedian.

Hasan Minhaj had that big profile. In Esquire, his new specials out on October twenty second, he tells the story of when he started performing stand up twenty years ago. He wouldn’t get home until late at night. His parents thought he was on drugs or dealing drugs. Are both.

His dad said, I don’t think you’re pursuing a career in comedy. Hassan said, I wish I was cool enough to be dealing drugs. I was actually performing at a bar in front of eight people. They discussed his YouTube rebuttal to all the back and forth about his previous special. Hassan explains why he made the choice in the first draft, which he wrote to convey how scary the incident was.

His comedian friends thought that his wife came across as a knack when the envelope with the white powder arrived at their home. Being up, became upset about what it might have happened. Expressed her fear that her husband’s career put the family in danger. By altering the anecdote to have the white powder land on their daughter, he was able to convey faster and more sharply how the consequences of his career choices at something and they become very real. Plus Minaje, not his wife, was now the butt of the joke.

He says, it was a shortcoming on my part. I could have made the exposition better. I didn’t need to pull in my daughter. That’s the one thing where I’m looking back at it and like, hey could have changed that, but kept it the way it was. Our daughter was right there and we had this full on thing.

Write the scene, keep tweaking it. That’s the toughest thing about being a performer is that everyone has a character in your life. I have to balance that. They have to win and I have to lose. You never get it right, you know.

Taylor Tomlinson was recently in Portland at Helium. She posted a video celebrating this girl on National Daughter’s Day. In the clip, she’s talking with a member of the audience who says, my dad’s a bong. Tomlinson’s like, your dad’s a what? Oh, your dad’s ashes are a bong.

The audience member says no, they’re made into a bong. Tomlinson says, God, we’re in Portland right now. If you’d put me in this room right now and we’re like, we won’t tell you. If you’d put a sack over my head, put me in a big suitcase, driven me around for three days, put me on the stage and been like, guess where you are? And I heard they turned my dad’s ashes into a bong, I’d be like Portland, Oregon.

Molly Kearney, who’s no longer on Saturday Night Live, which, by the way, I don’t know if you know, this is turning fifty this year, and we are going to talk about SNL every day for the next nine months, including this sentence. Molly is joining that sitcom DMV that’s the one that stars Tim Meadows. DMV’s a workplace comedy set at the place everyone dreads going. Most the DMV are quirky and lovable characters and making minimum wage doing a thankless job where customers are annoyed before they even walk in the door. Good thing they have each other.

Carney will play Barbara, the boss, who considers herself one of the gang, even though the gang does not. Barbara is a glass half full oversharer who’s incredibly inappropriate and terrible at reading a room, so she’s Michelle Scott from the Office. Barbara cares deeply and tries very hard but misses the mark, so she’s Michelle Scott from the Office. Tim Meadows plays a driving examiner. JB.

Smooth is getting a game show. Apparently Prime Video was all about the game shows. They’ve already announced pop Culture Jeopardy with Colin Jost, who’s on Saturday Night Life, which I don’t know if you know, is turning fifty and we’re going to talk about it every day for nine months, and Wishless Games with Nick Cannon. The JB. Smooth one is called Buy It Now.

It’s a business competition where entrepreneurs get ninety seconds to pitch their product to an audience of potential customers. They’re called the one hundred. If the one hundred like the product and price, then the entrepreneurs get to a panel of Amazon executives and celebrity entrepreneurs. The panel selects which products join Amazon’s exclusive Buy It Now store and award one entrepreneur twenty thousand dollars whoa Jeff Bezos Way to open up the wallet. There twenty thousand dollars.

Woo, big spender wy Gred al Roker was on Instagram and he announced his comedy crush. It’s Kate McKinnon, who was on Saturday Night Live. I don’t know if you know this SNL’s turning fifty. We’re going to talk about it every day for the next nine months. In the picture, al Roker is smiling at Kate McKinnon, seemingly listening to her as she spoke to him during a break.

He captured the post I had here Kate mckinn and she is my hashtag comedy crash. One word. Her inventive goofiness and goodness shines through and is genuinely nice. Here’s an idea you didn’t think was gonna happen, and maybe it’s not a terrible idea. The UK is thinking of doing their own version of Cheers.

You may recall Cheers Ted Danson played Sam Malone. Now some of you were like, yeah, we know what Cheers is, and then some people are like, I was born in two thousand and four, I have no idea what you’re talking about. All right, So Cheers was a sitcom in a bar Ran for eleven seasons and two hundred and seventy five episodes on NBCC. Back in the twentieth century they made more than six episodes of things. I mean two hundred and seventy five episodes on something on Netflix would have to run what thirty years Kelsey Grammer was on this show Cheers.

He played a character named Frazer. You may have heard of him. A quick overview of some shows that have crossed the pond, as they call it. You may have heard of The Office. Yes, that was a British show.

Originally Ghosts was a British show heading the other way. They tried to make a British version of The Golden Girls called The Brighton Bells didn’t work. The seventies show called Days Like These didn’t work, and Married with Children called Married for Life didn’t work. One of the suits over there said the British pub is an endangered species. So there’s an answer for the why now about it.

The attitudes of Cheers of the eighties are very different to the attitudes of today, so there’s a massive amount of work to be done around taking inspiration from the original characters but creating something fresh. The daughter of one of Australia’s most famous comedians claims her stand up gig was canceled because she makes jokes about trans people. Biddy O’Laughlin, who was due to perform at the Cranker Comedy Show on October fifteenth in Adelaide. Biddy’s mother is the famous comedian Fiona o’lachlan. Biddy has been kicked off the lineup following a complaint made by a pub staff member.

Biddy told the Advertiser, I know some of the bartenders see me as a churf that’s trans exclusionary, radical feminist, but I don’t consider myself a feminist. Biddy’s Instagram involves clips of her making jokes about trans women, along with photos of her and a red cap with the slogan make Women Female Again and giving off some Trump vibes there. She caption one photo fighting for you ladies and for your daughters, she continued. Even if you don’t think it’s an issue, and you want to call me a hateful bigot, I’ll take the hit. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and men are not women.

They call me the JK Rowling of the Adelaide comedy scene. There’s put that on a poster, which is weird because I’ve never written a book. She also shared a clip from one of her stand up gigs where she responded to a heckler, but he said, I saw trans comedian once and he was so bad that I thought for a second he might actually be female inside.

All right, let’s wash that off with this from The Toronto Sun.

Comedian Ben McKay, a rising star on the comedy scene, blend’s lighthearted fun and punchline heavy humor with personal stories and spontaneous moments. So again to recap here and The Toronto Sun’s done this before. He is a comedian who blends stories, spontaneous moments and punchlines hmm, innovative. He’s influenced by Sean Mlandy, Gary Goldman, Hannibal Burris. How would you describe your comedy series, Ben McKay, Ben says, I’d like to think my comedy is lighthearted and fun, yet precisely written and punchline heavy.

Plus I get distracted easily, so there’s lots of in the moment stuff as well. John Mulaney’s probably been my biggest comedic influence. He was the first comedian I really identified with. Beyond that, I’d say Gary Goleman and Hannibal Burris were also influential to me early on growing up, Mullany was always my favorite. Wow.

Imagine growing up to Mullaney. I saw it like Mulany’s new to me. He’s like new wave to be Wow. I’m old. When I was young, I just fell in love with stand up in general.

I’d take any opportunity to see stand up, so I was always watching Comedy Now specials just for laugh galas and anything i’d get my hands on. Who are you into these days? Some Canadians Alex Wood, Andrew Barr, Nigel Grinstead, Adam Christy and Jarrett Campbell. They’re all fantastic and I feel fortunate to get to work with them. I’ve also discovered a lot of American comedians that I really like from the Don’t Tell Comedy tapings on YouTube.

We’re hearing only great things about Don’t Tell Comedy. I might have to get out to one of those shows, but then I would have to leave the house. That’s your comedy news for today. If you enjoy the program, tell a friend about it. They might like it too.

If you’d like the program without commercial interruption. Check think of the show notes, so to tell you how that works. Four ninety nine is the short version, all right, see tomorrow

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Featured: Tim Dillon, Michael Che, Jimmy Fallon, Doug Emhoff, Andy Samberg, Maya Rudolph, Nate Bargatze, Shane Brendan

What’s in This Episode

• Tim Dillon’s Netflix special as nineties trash TV talk show format
• Michael Che developing late night talk show titled ‘Don’t Sleep With Michael Che’
• SNL’s 50th season premiere with Nate Bargatze hosting
• Doug Emhoff praises Andy Samberg’s SNL portrayal and Maya Rudolph as Kamala Harris
• Nate Bargatze joins National Comedy Center board of directors
• Shane Brendan’s new album and comedic philosophy on darkness and personal material
• Jimmy Fallon’s ‘Tonightmares’ Halloween attraction at NBC

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Caloroga Shark Media. Hello, they are Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. I have not yet watched this Tim Dillon thing on Netflix. As I’ve mentioned the past, I like Tim Dillon a lot, although I’m not sure this particular special that I haven’t seen is what I want out of him. Why haven’t you watch it?

Johnny Mac? The Mets are in the playoffs. There was the debates Wednesday night. I played trivia, so I’m not home. I will get to it.

The folks at OutKick spoke to Tim Dillon and they called Tim Dillon legendary, tap the brakes legendary. Really, I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you walk down the street and ask the next five hundred people you meet who Tim Dillon is. I am willing to wager you you go zero for five hundred, not even one for five hundred, zero for five hundred. Now, if you’re at a college or something, you might get better numbers, but you know, go to the mall and ask some people who Tim Dillon is.

Legendary? A little strong there. The La Times did see Tim Dillon and special. Let’s see what they said. Apparently, the conversation with Netflix was never to do a comedy special.

The conversation was, what do you want to do? Netflix wanted something unique and unscripted. Tim says, initially they brought something political and I wasn’t really into that. I wanted to bring back nineties trash TV. That’s what we did, and it’s a nineties trash TV talk show.

So I don’t know if i’d call it a comedy special. I mean, they’re going to call it that on Netflix, because I don’t think they have a term for it, but it’s kind of what it is. It ends up being a better satire of America than a political special or anything like that, doing something at a convention or doing some kind of daily show ripoff. I think it ends up being a really good satire of America because they’re all real people that have come to talk about things that are real cultural themes. There’s no script and we basically don’t know where any of it’s going to me that’s what makes it fun.

It’s not really knowing what’s gonna happen. We shot a bunch of segments and we only use five because we thought they were the most interesting and the funniest and the best. That’s the thing. Not knowing what’s going to happen is what I like about the format. This project was about learning to be a good interview where it’s learning to work with the crowd, which I know how to do from stand up, but it’s learning to integrate all of those different elements into it to make it feel like it’s got a flow and the crowd is to be it.

The people on stage have to be into it, you hope the people watching it. Obviously you are into it. So you’ve got to make sure that it’s not only entertaining in the room and interesting in the room, but that it’s going to translate when it’s on Netflix. I’m confused because everybody keeps asking if these are real people. I’m morning, if anyone’s been outside in the last few years.

I mean, what a lovely view of the country that you almost have. The hollerand Reporter caught on that Michael Chay is working on a late night talk show. You listen to this podcast, so you knew that because I mentioned it, because I read Late Night Er, which is where the Hollywood reporter is catching wind of all this. The working title Don’t Sleep With Michael Chay. Jay says he’s still sorting it out.

Sometimes you just got to motivate yourself to get on stage and try things, especially me, because I’ll come up with an idea and that I’ll get bored and it dies in my imagination. So I have no idea where this goes. But you never know. Maybe nbc’ll put it on at three in the morning. Jay has stopped short of shopping the show around a lot of s’s in that sentence Johnny Mac, you’d like to keep testing it with audiences, Jay explains, I always think comedy fans select what they want to see, and so ideally I just do it live for a while and listen to what the response is and find the identity of the show that way, and then have something to say, well, is this part of an SNL exit strategy?

Chase says, you get moments where you love it so much that is Drasha crazy, and you want to be as far away from it as possible. Will he come back for the fifty first season? I don’t know if you know this. SNL is turning fifty this year, and we are going to talk about it every day for the next eight months. I’ve updated the calendar.

It’s only eight months now. Jay says, I try not to think about that because I think it ruins the morale for the rest of this year. I don’t know, you never know. As for the talk show, I’m having fun, but it’s like any relationship that’s new, you can’t start talking marriage too soon. The second Gentleman, Doug m hoff enjoys macpacker Andy Samberg’s portrayal of him on SNL.

Doug Emmahoff was on The Jennifer Hudson Show on Tuesday, which Johnny Mac just learned to exists. Doug said, I’ve been watching that show my whole life, and I think somebody’s playing me. First of all, it’s wow, and then I got a hand it to Andy Samberg did a good job. He also likes Maya Rudolph as wife Kamala Harris. Doug says, she’s so good as Kamala.

She did a really good job. Nate Bergatzy hosts Saturday Night Live this Saturday. I don’t know if you heard. It’s the fiftieth season. We’re going to talk about it every day for eight month.

He has another gig. He has joined the advisory Board of Directors at the National Comedy Center. In a statement, Nate said, I’ve immersed myself in the exhibits for hours each time I’ve explored the National Comedy Center in Jamestown. It’s the only place that truly celebrates the essence of what we do. For an artist, It’s a tribute to this thing we work so hard at, and for the average visitor, it pulls back the curtain on what elevates it to being an art.

The experience is just awesome.

Also on the board of directors Amy Poehler, wkmal Bell, Lewis Black, Tiffany …

Seems like you all enjoyed Shane Brendan on a Saturday’s episode of this podcast. That’s good. I enjoyed him a lot. His new album is out either way, pretty funny, Brendan told The Portland Tribune, and I can’t speak for the entirety of the comedy community, but for me personally, I have to find something funny. Comics are regular people.

They go through emotions and everything else, but the comic brain never shuts off no matter how dark things get. I acknowledge the darkness and the same breath. There’s an angle here in this moment of not feeling great. What makes me feel good? I’m not on the edgy and devisive side.

A lot of my stuff is personal. Spoilers for that Jimmy Fallon a Halloween thing. The av Club had it over there. They say, you are in Jimmy Fallon’s bedroom. It’s a dark, dank at chili space, bathing an eerie, musty fog that laps up your ankles.

You’re taking your surroundings, noticing a half open picture book and shivering at the sight of the murky green glow emanating from under Jimmy’s bed. Johnny Carson rolls over in his grave. You hear Fallon’s voice echoing around you, but you cannot see him. This is terrifying. Jay Leno dies and rolls over in his grave.

You feel the need to escape, to hide. See a high tail it into Jimmy’s closet, is hung up clothes hitting you in the face as you push through, Steve Allen rolls over in his grave. The closet was a mistake. It leads to a small black ante chamber, and now you find yourself somewhere far more terrifying. You are in Jimmy Fallon’s mind as Jack Parr rolls over in his grave.

Nowbe’s the premise of Tonightmares, the av Club. It’s a concept so demented that it could only have come from the twisted imagination of the man who brought you all about that base performed on xylophone. I’m going to guess it came from the mind of NBZ executives who were like, Hey, we make a lot of money here at Christmas time, what can we suck the tourist in with at Halloween. I’m gonna guess that’s where it came from. And Jimmy just went, yeah, sure we could do that.

But what do I know. I’m recording a podcast in the basement. I’m also aware I name checked all the Tonight Show primary hosts except Conan O’Brien didn’t have a ConA joke for you, Zari. I’m a guy in a basement recording a podcast. Jimmy found Tonightmare or this is a new haunted attraction.

You see up until now Rockefeller Center with its skating rink, music hall, roquettes and the Big Tree has owned Christmas. It’s a logical next step to turn the complex into a destination for another major holiday, filling a Jecklin Hyde Club shaped hole in the city’s Halloween market. Despite me mocking this thing, it is not the worst idea. Know that area very well. I worked across the street for quite a few years.

It’s not the worst idea, And the tourist kind of it sucked away like it doesn’t bother the real New Yorkers. If the tourists want to go over there and do this, fine, Wow, this sounds like a big thing. Av club rights. After descending the escalator, I went through a metal detector and took note of the warning sign which cost visitors not to enter the experience if they have a medical sensitivity to strobe lights or fog through the doors spoilers. We found ourselves in a pre show room themed like a decrepit elevator loading dock.

It was filled with rusty pipes and flickering lights, complete with a wall of old control switches. The vibes of Oke the loading zone of Disney World’s Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Right, this doesn’t sound horrible. After Jimmy set the scene, the down light lit up, the elevator doors open. We were ushered inside into a room that simulated a moving elevator.

Av Club rights. I think people who like Orlando coated things in the heart of Midtown, who appreciate the immersive thrills of forty X and the Top of the Rock Beam and the stupid fun of Margaritaville Times Square, we call those tourists. We’ll find this worth the cost of admission. People who want a truly haunting experience can visit the American Girl Doll Store just upstairs. Hey, it’s always great to hear from you all.

I’ll put my contact in the show notes today. A friend of the show, Scott Beckett, and I were emailing the other day. Appreciated that, and I heard from Travis who hit me a note on the side and tell me yakof Mernoff’s podcast is pretty good. So I’ve added that to my endless qu of things I’m never going to get to, which reminds me I have a substack and every week on Wednesday, I do podcast listening recommendations, so if you want to check that out link in the show notes. I caught up on The Simpsons the other night between the Met’s playoff game and the VP debate.

That was the Simpsons series finale. Very very good at times, even touching. I think they absolutely nailed it, although I’m shocked Conan O’Brien can’t deliver lines a little better than he did. The Office Ladies have made it to their end of their rewatch, so were they ending the podcast? No?

Jennif Fisher and Angela Kinsey will now have the podcast twice a week asterisk. As of early November, Office Ladies will have two episodes. The Wednesday episode will be called Office Ladies six point zero, a reference to the season one episode Hot Girl, when Michael Scott insults Pam by comparing her to Amy Adams character. New episodes will feature new interviews, more stories from the set, and they’re patented deep dives into random topics and in depth of character studies. So what’s the second episode?

They’re just rerunning the rewatch as somewhat of a podcast expert. Rerun episodes are lame, so why are they doing it? Because they want the inventory. I get it, but it’s lame because if you’ve listened to the show, you’re just gonna delete all those It’s gonna goof you up in the charts. It’s gonna make people actually unsubscribe to the show because they’re gonna be like, I’ve heard all these I’ll just download them manually and then you break the habit so bad move office, ladies.

I’m just telling you now. Bossom Usef is taping his at New special tomorrow. He’ll be at the Wiltern in La also recording tomorrow and on the fifth at Cobbs Comedy Club in San Francisco. Irene TiO her show in twenty twenty four was named one of the funniest by the La Times. I like both of those comedians a lot, but I’m on the East Coast, so I won’t be at either taping, and that is you’re co many news for today.

If you’d like the podcast without commercial interruption, check the show notes. If you’d like to email me on the side, check the show notes. If you’d like to subscribe to the free Substack newsletter, check the show notes.

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Featured: Tom Segura, Christina Pazsitzky, Joe Rogan, Brian Redband, Rob Schneider, Dikembe Mutombo, John Oliver, John Stewart, Jimmy Kimmel, Andy Richter, Conan O’Brien, Kevin T. Porter

What’s in This Episode

• Dikembe Mutombo passes away from brain cancer at 58
• Rob Schneider’s controversial COVID vaccine tweet on Mutombo’s death
• Tom Segura and Christina Pazsitzky’s Your Mom’s House podcast origins and growth
• John Oliver frustrated with HBO Max delaying Last Week Tonight YouTube uploads
• John Stewart’s return feels less endearing than original Daily Show era
• Jimmy Kimmel Live cancellation predicted after Andy Richter casting
• Ellen DeGeneres backlash origin traced to Kevin T. Porter’s 2020 tweet

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Caloroga Shark Media, Rob Schneider, Man, what are you doing? I’m Johnny Magne, your Daily Comedy News. Basketball player Da Kimbe Matumbo passed away on Monday from brain cancer at age fifty eight. Mtumbo, seven feet two, was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Back in nineteen ninety eight, he raised money to build a three hundred bed hospital in his native Congo.

During the COVID pandemic, he became a public advocate. In December of twenty one, Dicimba posted a video on Twitter urging people to get vaccinated against COVID. In that tweet, he wrote, this holiday season, stay informed from trusted sources like the World Health Organization and get vaccinated. Only together can we be safe and defeat COVID. Dcombe passed away on Monday.

Rob Schneider retweeted the COVID tweet and wrote, rest in peace. I’m sure this is just another coincidence, but I took a pass on the job, and I’m not going to let anyone I know who will listen get it either. You know, Rob, there’s a time to get your message across, and there’s a time to just not be a jerk and pick your spots, dude. The La Times wrote a big profile Tom Sigore and Christina Pizitski’s podcast Empire. Tom said the Joe Rogan experience paved the way I thought Joe was insane when he started JI.

I thought it was some rich guy thing where he’s talking in a room in his house and had some message board. A few months later, after seeing Christina do you stand Up? He was like, you two should do a podcast together. Brian Redband recalls when we started at Jar in two thousand and nine, it was Rogan promoting a shows and giving him an outlet to talk. Then it just blew up.

Overnight. Something clicked and I was like, what’s going on with Joe? Was helping him so much? I want to make podcasts for all my friends. It was so new.

I definitely had to do some convincing. Christina was like, what the f is a podcast? It sounded like building a space shuttle back then they finally got on board. Redband convinced them and they started your Mom’s House. Christina said, we’d go to Burdbank in the summer and sit on this gross leather couch.

All he had was a wall unit air conditioner and would have to turn it off to tapes, so it would just be sitting there sweating. Eventually they moved the podcast to their own home in Silver Lake. So Gore said. We did about forty episodes with Red Band, and then I took it over and had a huge tiic error, making it unlistenable. Christina says, to my brilliant husband’s credit, there was no podcasting.

This was a technological medium that was essentially invented as we went along. We lived in a crummy two bedroom apartment. We were newlyweds and we had no money. We got a mixing board too MIC’s and a computer. At that point we slept in one room and these the other room is in office.

It boarded this other house where this lady would cook the smelliest food and have aggressive sex. Tom said, oh yeah, she was newly divorced and very performative with her cheering. I love cleaning things. It’s more fun. I teach this to the college kids.

I could have just said the O word there. It’s not particularly naughty, but when I cleaned things up, I think it makes it more fun. Tom said. In the early days, it was like I think we can probably get to the point where this podcast pays our rent. It was such an exciting thing because we’d go into the room and talk for an hour and it actually did pay our rent.

From there, it just kept growing, which is a good time for me. I want to thank you for listening. The numbers September was really strong, and the ad sales are good, and we’re into the fourth quarter now, which is when podcasts really make their money. You always make the most money in the fourth quarter, so I’m a little excited and quite thankful. Thank you for listening every day.

John Oliver is upset with the bosses over at Max. John Oliver was on the Interview podcast with The New York Times the topic HBO announcing they’re holding back segments from last week Tonight for a few days from YouTube after the premiere. Previously, we’re able to watch the show’s main store on YouTube and the morning after episode aired. Oliver said, it’s massively frustrating to me. I was not happy with it at all.

What I love about having the show on YouTube is that we can reach beyond HBO subscribers. That feels really important to me. I really really appreciate the fact that they do that. I would rather they did it straight after the show, the way we’ve always done it, but I’m very grateful that they’re willing to still do it at all. So, John, I don’t know if you know this.

The reason HBO pays you and other creators is to get consumers to give HBO money to see the programming that’s behind the paywall. That’s how this all works. If they were to put Last Week Tonight up on YouTube, there’s really no reason to pay you. I don’t know if you understand that part of the business. I get the sentiment that you want people to see it, but that’s not how this works, a spokesperson until the Hollywood Reporter a few months ago, when Last Week Tonight with John Oliver premiered on HBO, the convenience of watching on Max did not exist, so YouTube allowed flexible viewing for the main story as well as promotional exposure.

We’re now delaying that availability and hope those fans choose to watch the entire show on Max. When this was announced in February, Oliver tweeted, I know I usually share a link to our main story here on Mondays, but HBOS decided they’re going to wait until Thursday to posted them to YouTube. From now on, I hope they changed their mind, but until then, you can see our piece about the Supreme Court on HBO, on Max and on YouTube in a few days. John is currently signed through twenty twenty six and said I work with John Stewart for a long time. I saw him get exhausted, so I know what that looks like.

I saw him reckoning with I’ve done this every possible way that I can do it, and he was right about that, like, you can’t really do it any better. I’ve not hit that point yet. I still absolutely love making the show. I get excited. I’d like to your point of bouncing up and down the chairs when we feel like we’re onto something with a story.

If we worked out something really dumb to do, it’s so fun. I can’t believe that we get to ram stories down people’s throats that they might not naturally want to hear and then watch it. And I can’t believe that we get to play with HBO’s resources. Yeah, you get to play with HBO’s resources, and that’s why your show’s behind the pay wall and do dumb things on fiscally irresponsible scale. So I guess my answer to that point might come.

I don’t feel like I’m there yet. I was just thinking about John Stewart. I started to listen to his interview on Conan. I feel like the return of John, that John is somehow less endearing. His first Daily Show run, he felt like the cuddley Rascal, and this time he just feels like older, more establishment John Stewart.

I don’t know, it’s not as warm and fuzzy this time around. I can’t quite put my finger on it. I really feel bad for Jimmy Kimmel. Jimmy doesn’t quite realize that Jimmy Kimmel Alive is going to be canceled. Johnny Mac, Why why are they canceling Jimmy kim Alive?

Well, here’s why. They added Andy Richter to the show. Andy Richter is the modern day Ted McGinley. Andy has taken out Conan three times by himself. Andy Richter had sitcoms Andy Richter appears on your show.

I will never have him on the show because this show will get canceled, and I own the show. I would have to self cancel anyway. Andy Richter is now playing Tim Walls on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Which makes me think in about nine months, I’ll be telling you that the Jimmy Kimmelive Show is ending. You can bookmark this cracked caught up with a guy that started the backlash against Ellen.

Remember all that the remind us the Ellen backlash came from a twenty twenty tweet posted by comedian Kevin T. Porter. The tweet appears in Ellen’s recent special, although his name is blocked out. Back in twenty one, Porter told Metro he wasn’t trying to damage the notoriously I mean talk show host. He was merely trying to find a funny way to do something positive in the early days of the pandemic.

Explained in twenty one, we are about two weeks into the lockdown. A lot of my friends were doing kind of interesting, creative things to raise money for different charities. So my version of that was to do the thread on Twitter. Bec I I thought it would be funny. Porter initially assumed he would receive only super niche applies from the La comedy scene, but the thread went viral.

Porter pointed out the consistency of the stories being posted made the claims hard to dismiss. The Gilbert Godfrey to State has revealed the title and release did for his posthumous comedy album, Still Screaming. Still Screaming will be out November fifteenth. The album is a curated compilation of some of Gilbert’s greatest bits and impressions, delivering as only he could. Some of the material comes from the twenty seventeen documentary Gilbert.

The album will be released on a limited edition vinyl featuring rare photos of Gilbert with family and friends, a heartfelt and funny historical account of Gilbert from longtime friend pen Gillette, and a vinyl side etch with Gilbert’s own original artwork. Hulu continues to be hilarious. They’ve announced another comedy special, This one It’s Chris DeStefano, which is being executive produced by Jimmy Kimmel, who doesn’t yet realize that his show’s about to be canceled. The special is called It’s Just Unfortunate Hilarius kicks off in November with Jim Gaffigan, Hulu’s head of Scripted Content, Jordan Hillman. T Tol the Hollywood Reporter, the mantra is very much quality over quantity.

The Stefano will be out in twenty five, no date yet. The other hilarious comedians pretty Good run here, Bill Burr, Alana Glazer, Roywood, Junior Osco, At Kotzka, Jessica Curson, Jim Gaffigan, and Sebastian Maniscalco. Fun note here. In twenty twenty three, to Stefano became the first stand up comedian to sell out both the Radio City Music Hall and the theater at Madison Square Garden, which is not the Garden, that’s the theater at Madison Square Garden on consecutive nights. I don’t know if you know this, but Saturday Night Live is turning fifty.

Well, we’re going to talk about it every day for the next nine months. Spirit Halloween not happy with Saturday Night Live. I don’t know if you watched the episode. There was a very very funny sketch that destroyed Spirit Halloween. But as I was watching, and I’m like, this is a great advertisement for Spirit.

But the folks at Spirit apparently don’t understand the value of getting people talking about you. They tweeted, alongside a photo of a fake SNL costume, we are great at raising things back from the dead. Who’s zing the costume was labeled irrelevant fifty year old’s TV show. The packaging set it included dated references, unknown cast members, and shrinking ratings zing in case you missed it. The gist of the sketch was how Spirit Halloween is helping the economy by opening stores for six weeks and then disappringing into the night, and made fun of the knockoff costumes.

For example, a young girl wanted a Tailor Swift costume and Chloe Fineman gives her blonde singing woman. The girl points out the costume is in Taylor Swift, and Chloe says, and neither are you. The punchline, Spirit Halloween. When you need us, we’ll be here for six weeks because I remember first we’re gone and all this junk will be in the dumpster. Laugh it up, Spirit, It’s good stuff.

People like the upper episode. It got five point three million viewers. That’s the best start for a season since twenty twenty and up fifteen percent over last year’s four point six million. For episode one, Seth Myers and his grip Kenny have a bet about an upcoming Jets Steelers game. If the Jets win.

Seth Myers, who’s a Steelers fan will be forced to place a mug with the score on his TV desk throughout the end of the football season. If the Steelers win, Kenny will get a tattoo with the final score and Meyer’s signature on his wrist. Ugh, I mean the Jets aren’t going to win. But don’t even take that bet that I mean, it’s so lopsided, Myers told his viewers. Kenny set the terms, Kenny said, I want to change the terms.

If you win, I get two tattoos. Wow. A’hmed A’hmed was at the Palm Springs International Comedy Festival Awards and then suddenly event president Paul Kruz presented him with a special award. I’med said with the name I’m Ed. I’m ed.

I can’t even fly a kite in this country. I’ve only won one other award in my life. It was the Richard Pryor Award for Ethnic Comedy at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival in two thousand and four. That was the first and last time they ever gave it out. And let’s take a quick overview of the finalists of the twenty twenty four Comedy Wildlife Awards.

These include an otter guru, and a squirrel stuck headfirst in a tree. The Comedy Wildlife team has narrowed down nearly nine thousand submissions to forty standalone photos, four portfolio entries, and three videos. Some of the finalists include a smiling elephants seal, an otter holding its feet up in the pose of a guru, a contemplative chimpanzee, a cheetah playing hide and seek, and the squirrel stuck headfirst in a tree. Other images capture a raccoon appearing to whisper in a fellow raccoon’s ear, a fish chasing an eagle across the sky, and a frog whose head is enveloped by a large bubble in the water. You can go to the competition’s website through October thirty first.

The winner will sive a cash prize of about six hundred and seventy dollars, depending on the exchange rates of the British pounds on that particular day. All winners of the competition will be announced at an award ceremony in London on December tenth. And that’s your comedy news for today. If you enjoy the program, tell a friend about it. They might like to.

I guess some of you are doing this. The numbers are up. Thank you very much. If you like the show without ads, this isle of the show notes tell you about that, and I’ll see tomorrow

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Featured: Katt Williams, Sean Diddy Combs, Marlon Wayans, Shaquille O’Neal, Samantha Bee, Dana Carvey, Bowen Yang, Marcela Hernandez, Maya Rudolph, Chapel Roan, Sidney Sweeney, John Stewart, Michael Costa, Stephen Colbert

What’s in This Episode

• Katt Williams’ Diddy baby oil joke and credibility reassessment
• Marlon Wayans defends himself on Club Shay Shay regarding Diddy parties
• Samantha Bee’s new podcast and encounter with Diddy at DNC
• SNL 50th anniversary episode with Dana Carvey as Biden
• Bowen Yang SNL dominance and Chapel Roan boundary support
• Daily Show and Colbert postgame coverage after VP debate
• Dana Carvey discusses developing Biden impression for SNL

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Caloroga Shark Media, Idly Home, Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News, Big VP debate tonight. That’s right, we’ll be covering that on the Ballot Podcast. By the way, both the Daily Show and Colbert will go live after the debate. Now, what’s interesting about the Daily Show is John Stewart’s not working No Tuesday night, Buddy, No, Michael Costa will do the live postgame show. Usually John shows up for those.

I wonder if that is a hint as to what the future of the Daily Show actually is. Hmm. After the Trump Harris debate, Colbert doubled his audience with the eighteen to forty nine’s John Stewart hosted a Tuesday episode of The Daily Show that week and got the show’s highest rating since twenty seventeen. So again, very interesting that Michael Costa is hosting. All right, we got to start paying attention to Kat Williams.

I know, you know some of us. I’ll raise my hand. We’re like, Cat, you’re crazy. Time is starting to prove that perhaps Kat Williams not so crazy. At a recent show, he went after Sean Diddy Combs Cat made fun of Diddy’s attorneys claim that Diddy had bought some baby oil from Costco.

Williams joked, they put the drugs in the baby oil. You think you’re getting a massage, you can’t even get up. He said, that’s the reason God gave me egzema. I can’t even use baby oil. That got a lot of laughs.

Earlier in the year on with Chen and Sharp, You remember that interview, Kat said all lies would be exposed. P Diddy be wanting to party and you got to tell him no.

Meanwhile, Marlon Williams was on Club Shay Shay recently and said, I’ve neve…

So I’m not rushing to take down old tweets or anything. I ain’t got stuff to hide, period. I’ve been to plenty of Diddy parties. I left early. I swear to you I’ve never seen it.

Those aren’t the type of parties I go to. I don’t frequent those type of parties. And even if I go, like I said, I’d never seen any of this, want to hear about it. I’m like, what did that happen? At?

What time did this go down? Because I was there until two three thirty. You mean it too, so they waited for me to leave, like all right, good that Wayns is gone. He talks too much. Wayins did admit that he has seen drugs at these parties, but was unfamiliar with the other reports.

He told Chennon Sharp, I watch how I conduct myself because I’m not doing this for me. I have to answer to God. I have to answer to my brothers. I have to answered to my legacy. I can’t act a certain way.

I have to answer to black people. I have to answer to kids who want to be like me. It’s a lot for me to answer to. I owe it to my fans to walk through this life and be an example as best as I can.

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Meanwhile, new topic.

Wayns was on the Shaquill O’Neal podcast joking about Magic Johnson and said, I said he had the good aids. I said, what aids do you want to get where you lived fifty years? I want those aids. He became a billionaire with aids. Give me those aids.

What kind of aids is this? Financial aids? Sam Bee has her new podcast. She talked about Diddy and said she had a chance encounter with Diddy. Ages and Ages ago and was not invited to one of the freak offs be recalled.

She was at the Democratic National Convention, but can’t remember which one. When Diddy walked in, Sam said, I was grabbing whoever I could ask them questions about what was going on. So I went up to him and said, do you mind off ask a couple questions, and Diddy’s voice was very soft. She said, it was in an area where you’d expected to be interviewed, too, so it wasn’t outrageous. After the interview, b said, Diddy immediately, like instantly, turned to his assistant.

He held out his hands helplessly, and his attendants squirted copious amounts of purel into his hands, and then he softly rubbed his hands together to extinguish whatever microbes I’d put on his hands. The way he did it was so rude. I do understand you shake a lot of people’s hands and your hands feel dirty, but you don’t typically need to sanitize while the person is standing before you expressing your disgust. It occurred to me in the light of all these freak offs, it’s always the germophobes who want to go home and recreate Caligula. Every Tuesday afternoon, let me catch up on Saturday Night Live.

Let’s say before I go to my notes, just top of mind. I thought it was really good. It felt big, it felt very show busy. The open was pretty strong. But I gotta wonder, if you’re on the cast and your name’s not Bowen Yang and maybe more solo Hernandez talk about that in a second.

How are you feeling? Because yes, Daya Carvey great, and yes it was great to see Mac Packer, Andy Samberg, and yes, Maya Rudolph is nailing the Kamala voice. But you know, if you’re on the cast, aren’t you like, hey, why has this turned into an alumni show? But I guess for the fiftieth year it’ll be an alumni show, and maybe season fifty one it’ll be a reset. I could see a lot of people departing.

Bowen got like nine sketches. Nine might be an exaggeration, but I felt like the whole night was Bowen Yang and he was great as always. And Marcela Hernandez, I’m wondering, does he do one thing but he does it really well where he does the one thing with an over the top accent that worked really well. In the Pyramid sketch. It worked really well in the I Love Lucy sketch, will try.

I enjoy it a lot, so he’s fun. I just don’t know what else he can do. The Daily Beat spoke to Dana Carvey, who showed up as Joe Biden and did a very good Joe Biden. I mean, he’s Dana Carvey after all. Carvey said, it’s been top secret.

I kept it under wraps for weeks, but I was asked by Lauren to come on SNL to do Biden. He said he began developing his take on Biden while producing his podcast YouTube clips, and said mimicking Biden is trickier, but the rhythm of the impression comes from the President’s high energy moments. The true North stars to try and make it funny and not really get it to be a political message per se. Bowe Yang caught some backlash from fans of Chapel Rowan. Yang grown on Instagram.

Everything she has ever asked for has been reasonable. Bowen was dressed up as Pigmy Hippopotamus of MoU Dang, and in character, he referenced Chapel Rowan’s past comments about maintaining boundaries with intrusive fans. On Instagram, Bowen wrote, everything she has ever asked for has been reasonable. If my personal stance and the piece aren’t absolutely clear in terms of supporting her, then there it is. I guess everything she’s asked for has been reasonable, and even then we can connect it to another story about boundaries or whatever.

In character as Moo Dan, he spoke with Colin jo just about setting some boundaries with Zoo attendees. In character, he said, when I’m in my enclosure, tripping over stuff, biting my trainer’s knee, I’m at work. That’s the project. Do not yell my name or expect a photo just because I’m your parasocial best year, because you appreciate my talent. Last week, Rowan canceled her weekend performances at a festival, saying I feel pressures to prioritize a lot of things right now, and I need a few days to prioritize my mind health.

Bringing this full circle. Separately from all this, Bowen was recently on the Dana Corvey podcast well along with David Spade. He shared some behind the scenes details about when Sidney Sweeney was on last year that was a great episode, Bowen said, I get caught up in the meta narrative. Sometimes I’ll get roped in like a headline or some pickup every now and then I’m like, oh god, this is so unfair, this is so stressful. That’s not what I meant, or this is not what I was doing.

Like when Chappelle was standing on stage with me, Yang said, Lauren knows this is what the show is now. I think Lauren has an awareness of it. I think Lauren knows how that it’s a reality show. He said. Sidney Sweeney was an example of a host who came in and understood how she was being consumed and perceived already.

She came in and was like, please, everyone make jokes about my boobs. John Stewart, who’s not hosting The Daily Show tonight, was on Conan O’Brien’s podcast, and he told Conan, we’ve created this incredibly eccentric business where you need an agent and a manager and a lawyer and they’re going to take about sixty percent of what you make. But without them, there’s nothing you can do. And you join the studio and the studio will give you a deal and you’ll sit in your room it’s the most inefficient way Silicon Valley walked into entertainment, and the way that Elon Musk walked into Twitter and went, how many people work here? Ten thousand?

Make it two? They go writers’ room. Wait, you’ve got fourteen writers and they’re with you from start to finish on the production. Well, it’s important for the writers to be invested.

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And also we’re showing them how they’re on the page, because it’s different a…

They got to understand how that works and understand how we interact with the props. Amazon and Apple hear those arguments and respond with something like they can have three weeks and it’s got to be on Zoom, and you can have four of them. I can’t function like that. My writers, like what Conan said, I’m friends with so many comedy writers, many comedy writers of my vintage. You’re younger of trouble getting work now.

It’s changing radically. Stewart said. The large tech companies don’t believe in institutional knowledge that allows people to grow and get better and create more. As for Apple, I couldn’t help them in the way that maybe I had been able to help Comedy Central, But I think in their determination, I could hurt them. Themes of comedy names of tech often do not align.

And that’s when I knew we were in trouble. Wow, very interesting. I haven’t listen to that one. I’ll add it to Mike Queue. During the SNL premiere, Amazon announced that Colin Jos Pop Culture Jeopardy will debut December four.

You’ll get three new episodes a week on Wednesdays. Bill Hayter is developing a comedy pilot for HBO. Untitled project stars a woman in a small town who has a big secret revealed and then massive colossal spoilers for The Simpsons. I didn’t even know this happened. I’m gonna spoil the heck out of Sunday’s episode.

I’ll go slow here, all right, So I’m gonna I’m gonna give you a minor spoiler in a second. Then I’ll take a beat, and then I’ll majorly spoiler it. Medium spoiler. Okay, you’ve been warned, right, medium spoiler for The Simpsons. They hand it in the series finale.

But the show’s not over yet, all right. That’s that’s the headlined spoiler. If you want particular details, hang out otherwise, you’re dismissed. See you tomorrow, all right, more spoilers coming up. You’ve been warned.

Bart’s Birthday is the Simpsons take on what a finale might look like. Inspired by the season seven clip show The Simpsons one hundred and thirty eighth episode Spectacular a great episode, Bart’s Birthday is formatted like a hosted special, but instead of showing clips from the past and making up fake ones, Conan O’Brien introduces a brand new, AI written episode designed to be the series finale. The episode within the episode follows Bart as he watches the show’s characters go through cliche over sentimental finale type storylines with increasing consternation. Showrunner Matt Selman explained why a finale and said, when you’re write for The Simpsons, you get asked a lot about what a finale episode might look like. It’s a tricky question.

He’s worked on the show since nineteen ninety eight. He says he can go on forever because it doesn’t have a hard canon or dense continuity. During the twenty twenty three Strikes, it hit him, what if we did a fake finale that makes fun of finales? Wrap itings up? But then rejects it in the simpsonsy way.

They brainstormed what Fox would actually do if there was a Simpson finale and landed on the idea of a grand Starfield celebration that would serve as a meta takedown of showbiz self mythologizing and poke fun at the reverence. Some fans have a certain era of the show. You know, if you heard Sunday’s episode, I pointed out, the show hasn’t aired in years. Bob’s orgiz doesn’t exist at all. The Simpsons, I think stopped in season nine.

When’s the last time you watched Simpsons? Come on? Is it even on? Did this finale even in Bart’s birthday? Conan O’Brien serves as the host of the finale celebration.

Conan, you may know, worked as a writer on The Simpsons for two seasons and wrote what is one of these series all time episodes, the Monorail episode don’t start me. I’ll start singing the song you Never want to be near Me. If the word monoail comes up, ask my children monarel. Since that represents these shows so called golden age, the writers were interested in poking fun at that. They roast Conan Conan delivers jokes like it’s such an honor to be here for the series finale of The Simpsons.

They knew I was right for the job because I’ve hosted the last episode of three of my own shows and counting. Selman says Conan was smart enough and funny enough to know he was one hundred percent the best person to tell the story. All right, what happens to everybody? More spoilers. Principal Skinner announces he’s leaving to become the headmaster of a school in Sacramento as a delightful mid season replacement, adding all no doubt, find a whole new, eclectic cast of characters to interact with, and also groundskeeper Willie will be my roommate.

That’s great. Bittersweet music plays as Skinner says, I’m going to miss this place while’s turnning off the lights. That’s a Nazi. The Mary Tyler Orphinelle comic book Wife’s Guy Comigo gives birth. Mister Burns dies first as a prank, then for real.

His fortune goes to the power plant staff. Bart attempts to stop Krusty from taping a final show. Selman discusses if they’re trolling the audience conan in the show jokes. When the very first episode aired in nineteen eighty nine, viewers agreed on one thing. It wasn’t as funny as it used to be.

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 this program without commercial interruption, there’s a link in the show notes that I’ll tell you how that works. Don’t forget.

I also host the five A Good News Stories podcast number five Good News Stories. It’s five stories and they’re all happy stories. See you tomorrow.

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Featured: Hasan Minhaj, John Stewart, John Mulaney, Nikki Glaser, Matt Friend, Jay Pharrow, Jimmy Kimmel, Howard Stern

What’s in This Episode

• Hasan Minhaj loses Daily Show job after New Yorker fact-check
• Nikki Glaser’s Brady Roast performance
• Matt Friend’s pandemic Quarantine show and impressions career
• Jay Pharrow’s impression work and early comedy breakthrough

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Caloroga Shark Media. If you host a podcast seven days a week and you can’t hear yourself, the answer might be maybe you should plug the headphones in Hello, I’m Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. Hasan Minhaj’s bubblicist. You get a raise for the wax job a new cover story in Esquire magazine. Minaj confirmed to Esquire that, yep, the daily show job was his.

Hassan says, we were in talks and I had the gig, and we were pretty much good to go. Then there was that infamous profile of Hassan and The New Yorker that fact checked some of his jokes. It was revealed that Hasan Minhaj had embellished several stories for stand up as and because of that, no daily show for you, he said, that’s part of show biz. Esquire says. In the aftermath of the story, Hassan minhajh spoke with other comedians were friends and mentors.

Mike bur Bigley and Rama Yusef reached out, so did John Mulaney and John Stewart. He spent hours on the phone with them. Hassan says, I remember John Stewart called and he said, why the f are they doing this and who does this benefit? Well benefits John Stewart, He’s back on Mondays. It was painful, There’s no doubt about it.

It was the first time I saw the speed velocity of the Internet and how quickly a story can take off. That part of it was new to me and disorienting. The most painful thing is my wife and parents, to see them hurt, to see them engage with so I’m reading this on the internet. That’s so painful. I’m the eldest.

I feel really, really sad that I let my parents down. I’m very lucky they got to see many beautiful highs of my career. Watching them experience a painful moment and embarrassing moment in your career, I wish I didn’t put them through that, And that’s the tough part. After the Big kerfluffle, Hassan told Variety, all my stand up stories are based on events that happened to me. I use the tools of stand up comedy hyperbole, changing names and locations, and compressing timelines to tell entertaining stories.

That’s inherent to the art form. You wouldn’t go to a haunted house and say, why are these people lying to me? The point is the ride stand up is the same. You know, all that is really fair. But I also I’ll understand why the Daily Show was like, oh, we can’t do this.

At the time Hassan spoke to Ronny Chieng Ching’s reaction, I didn’t think it was as serious as it was, and in some ways I still don’t think it’s so serious as it was. The cultural gatekeepers loved him. I found it surprising that the cultural gatekeepers would turn on him so quickly and not give him the benefit of the doubt. Nikki Glaser told Indy Wire popping down on the couch after that set, the Brady Roast was maybe the greatest feeling I’ll ever have in my life, the amount of relief of nailing it when it’s live, when you’re on your period and you thought it ended, but it just started again right before you walked on stage. And there were no tampons in the key of form, so you had to use a folded up napkin and make yourself a pad which was only being hung in plaze by a tiny strip of spandex on your thong that could fall out at any second.

There were so many things that could have gone wrong on live TV in that moment. I don’t know if I’ll ever have a moment in my career like that again. And I’m totally okay if I don’t, because I felt it once and that was enough. The Daily Mail spoke to Matt friend. Friend says, while studying at NYU, he took any chance he could get to immerse himself in the world of comedy.

Matt says, I was very obsessed and focused. It became my extracurricular activity. I’d go to class and I I’d go an open mic, and I was getting a name for myself. I was getting paid spots in the comedy club while I was still in school, and I was feeling the momentum build.

And then the pandemic hit.

I’m sitting in home with my parents and my sister, and I was like, what do I do? He created a mini late night talk show he called Quarantine. He produced more than fifty episodes of the sketch Show. He wrote a topical monologue and conducted interviews. He did Now, I don’t claim to know everything, Okay, I really don’t, but I’ve been hosting this particular podcast since twenty nineteen, pre pandemic.

And believe me, during the pandemic, I was looking for things to talk about. You know, it’s not like everybody was on tour. It’s not like any of us were leaving the house every single day. I minimum prep will google the word comedy, and I will google the word comedian. I don’t recall ever hearing one thing until just now about quarantine.

Really, this exists. I gotta google this, Okay, it exists. One video from four years ago, Quarantine with Matt Friends. He’s in two premiere has six hundred and eighty seven views. That’s not a lot anyway.

He produced more than fifty episodes of the Sketch Show. He wrote a topic called monologue, and conducted interviews. Really, but it was pivoting the social media that really changes his life. During the pandemic, Jimmy Kimmel started talking about Friends Impressions, which triggered a wave of media interest, including getting a spot on Hoda and Jenna. Matt says they did a bit with them, and then all these media appearances started to happen, and my following was starting to build.

As for working on the Impressions, he says, it just kind of happens. I watch a lot of the movies, I read a lot of the books, I watch a lot of shows. I’m very up to date with what’s happening in pop culture and politics. And as a result of that, I just kind of hear the voices of the character and then I start doing it. I couldn’t tell you it’s a process.

I don’t sit down in practice. It just starts. It just sort of happens. When Howard Stern got wind of the impression he had friend on his show, yeah, I mean, I guess my opinion is coming true here right. Howard is okay?

But like Howard hasn’t been relevant in twenty years. Like yeah, and we all do, Jimmy Stuart, we all do Ronald Reagan. So let me move on Cracked. Talk to Jay Farrow. He does some impressions.

I personally, you may disagree. I think Jay Farrow’s impressions are way better than mad friends. Jay Farrow said, I remember the first time I made a crowd laugh. I was five years old. I pressed through security to get to my pastor.

He had security like the club. I just pushed. I don’t know how I did it. I know how I was allowed to do it. I pushed through everybody.

They said, excuse me, excuse me. A little five year old and I’m talking to him and he asked me, hey, man, can you fight? And I’m like yeah, I’m like Muhammad Ali, you want to see and everybody starts laughing. I would always say slick stuff as a kid. Uncle Patrick he would pay attention.

He was keen to it. I was really shy around my parents. Everybody else knew, but they didn’t because I was shy around them. My parents are hilarious. They’re really funny.

So my measure of comedy will always come from them. Are they laughing even when they come to a show or something. I don’t give a damn about anybody else in the room. I’m looking at them. My first impression was Gilbert Godfried.

There was this thing called the Virginia Idol Talent Search where I got up at a comedy club three hundred people. I got fifth place. The only people in front of me were four singers. I’m good with that. I’m not going to beat Beyonce.

I was sixteen years old. To be that young and get that was a boost of confidence. Other impressions, he says, will Smith was one at first, but then a lot of mini mes were born. They started doing him. People have it down like seventy five percent, but they’re not one hundred.

Will Smith finally commented on the video I did, and he was like, yeah, next time I got to do some ADR, I’m definitely calling you Shannon Sharp. He didn’t like it at first, then I refine it. Now he likes it. Looking back at it. It wasn’t as good as it is now.

When I first did it, it was like I was mocking him and not really doing the impression. Once I dialed into it, it became one of the good ones.

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And then Kanye, but you know that doesn’t count because he just has a problem…

And he talked about Saturday Night Live because I don’t know if you know this, SNL’s turning fifty. We were going to talk about SNL every day for the next nine months. He said, come on, man, it’s SNL. I feel like I’m getting old, but I feel good to be part of such a prestige institution. You’re not going to get higher than that.

As far as sketch comedy goes, it’s literally the NFL of sketch comedy. I feel good to be part of that history and actually be invited back for the fiftieth. You know, everybody I can get the invite really interesting. I wonder who didn’t get the invite, So the fact that I got sent three of them, I thought one was spam. Then I’d show up, but it would just be a check.

I won’t talk about the SNL premiere tomorrow. I had to record this one rather early to accommodate my schedule. Because I recorded a few episodes early to accommodate for said schedule. I haven’t had a chance to tell you about Ellen DeGeneres a special which I watched. I like it.

I’ve added it to my list of things that I will mention at the end of the year when I do an episode or two of best specials of the year. It’s not in the top group. My takeaway is twofold. I like Ellen’s stand up comedy. Some of you are going to throw your phone through the window as I remind you for the million time that I used to program serious XM comedy and I currently program the comedy on the Live one app.

By the way, sidebar, I should probably remember to promote the weekly comedy thing. It is a weekly show I host on the Live one app, So it’s like this, except I can actually play the bits, so I talk a lot less. For example, the Jay Farrell story, I’ll tell the fifteen second version of that and then play Jay Farrow. I’ll tell you fifteen seconds about Ellen and then play Ellen. So it’s called the weekly comedy thing.

The app is called Live one. The app is free, the show is free. You should do it. Having program comedy for who is it twenty five? You know it’s twenty to twenty something like that twenty something years.

I have always been a fan of Ellen DeGeneres’s stand up work, and in her current special you see bits and pieces of it. She has a wonderful bit about a pigeon that I don’t want to spoil. What I didn’t like about the special is it’s such a victory lap, like that review I shared with you about the standing Oh, they weren’t kidding. The standing oh goes on and on and on and on, and there’s a couple of points in the special it’s not even clapped. It’s just Ellen says a sentence and the audience just claps.

It’s like an athlete’s final game. I know it’s positioned as her final special. The whole thing is just weird. Somewhere in there is some really good material, but the pacing is just off. Not because of Ellen, but because of the crowd.

Though she did stand there for four minutes and soak in the standing ovation, she could have easily put up her hand and told the audience to shut the hell up so I can get back to stand up. She didn’t. In Soviet Union podcast downloads You, Yakhov’s Smirn Office launched his first ever podcast, The Comedy Couch. In the new show, Yakov combines his comedic genius with his psychology degree to analyze what makes the world’s top comedience tick. That.

Isn’t Neil Brennan doing that, isn’t Craig ferguson’t doing that? Doesn’t Mark Marra do that? Yakoff digs into their past, childhood and family stories while sharing his own unique journey. Funny, insightful, and packed with unforgettable moments, this podcast offers a fresh take on comedy and what’s behind the laughter? Sure, I mean, what’s a fresher take on comedy?

Then Yakov’s off Sean you’re a hater today, am I? I guess? Ben Stiller is working on a pickleball movie called The Dink. Jake Johnson will lead. He plays a washed up tennis pro in order to save a club in crisis.

Does the one thing he swore it never do, play pickleball. Ed Harris will be in this movie. That’s great. How old’s ed? Now?

Though Ed’s seventy three, all right, I can see him playing some pickleball. Ben Stiller and former tennis champion Andy Roddick will have supporting roles. And let me clear this one out. I’ve been sitting on this one for a while, and I think I can get my half assed impression of work today. Matt Barry spoke to The New York Times.

They were curious, what can we learn from your character Laslow? Matt Barry said, he attacks and grabs life. I suppose to letting things happen. He has no interest in technology or any kind of science. He thinks it’s mostly nonsense, and I quietly envy that.

What’s the fun of playing Laslow? Matt Berry said improvising was obviously encouraged and expected. That’s where I’m happiest to sit and trade insults with the others in character. It’s such good fun as ever a bit of scene so outlantish that you’ve resisted it. No, because I’m in favor of things being highly ridiculous and hopefully memorable, I would encourage it.

Are there any vampire powers that you would enjoy? I don’t think so. Other than advance hearing, there isn’t anything that I be interested in. I mean, I suppose the flying bat thing, but you’ve got to turn into a bat. That’s your comedy news for today.

If you enjoy the program, tell a friend about it too. If you would like this thing without commercial interruption, there’s a link in the show notes tell you how that thing works. Yep, yep, yep. You could do that. See anymore

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Featured: Weird Al Yankovic, John Mulaney, Lynn Manuel Miranda, Jimmy Fallon, Adie Bryant, Tim Meadows, David Cross, Hannibal Buress, Greg Fitzsimmons, Joe Rogan, Bill Hicks, Mike Cannon, Michael Ian Black

What’s in This Episode

• Bob’s Burgers Mandela Effect conspiracy theory
• Weird Al Yankovic announces Bigger and Weirder tour with Madison Square Garden and Key Arena dates
• John Mulaney joins Broadway production ‘All In’ with Lynn Manuel Miranda
• Greg Fitzsimmons reflects on early comedy days with Joe Rogan at Boston’s Comedy Hell open mic
• Mike Cannon releases special ‘Traumatized Animal’ on Christa Stefano’s YouTube channel
• VEEP cast hosts virtual table read benefiting Democratic Party of Wisconsin
• The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert planning live post-VP debate episodes October 1st

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Caloroga Shark Media. Hey, I’m Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. Bob’s Burgers supposedly returns for season fifteen tonight. Now I have two questions for you. Longtime listeners know the questions and they’ve thought about it, and they know that I’m right.

If you’re new, let me ask you two questions here. One, have you ever seen Bob’s Burgers? You haven’t. I know you think you have it. I’m gonna explain why you think you have, but you haven’t.

And more interesting to me, have you ever met anyone who has seen Bob’s Burgers? You haven’t. Isn’t that weird? So I looked more into this, and it seems a lot of people are talking about how Bob’s Burgers doesn’t exist. Some of the theories theory one mass misremembering.

Millions of people genuinely believe that they’ve watched Bob’s Burgers. Like some of you listening to my voice right now, I get it. I know you’re like Johnny Mac’s doing a bit, He’s crazy. These are false memories. What has happened is people’s minds are constructing entire episodes from the promotional materials and discussions about the fake show.

The marketing for Bob’s Burgers was so effective that it created artificial nostalgia. People remember watching it as part of their Sunday night routine, but those memories were subtly implanted through clever advertising. Fox was smart. They had Joe Buck promote Bob’s Burgers, knowing darn well after the football game you were going to switch over to NBC and watch Sunday night football. Fox doesn’t even air anything on Sunday nights.

They go dark. I know you think the Simpsons is still on. When’s the last time you watched the Simpsons nineteen ninety four. It’s a big hoax. At least the Simpsons did exist at one point.

Switch over to Fox tonight around I don’t know nine see what’s on? Nothing. These shows, plotlines and characters have seeped in a popular culture through memes, merchandise, and discussions, creating the illusion of a source material that doesn’t actually exist. The idea of Bob’s Burgers has spread as a meme, with people to dicussing and referencing a show they’ve never seen, but they believe it must exist because everyone else seems to know about it. There’s also the concept of the digital phantom.

Proponents of the Bob’s Burger’s conspiracy theory like me will point out to you, in the age of streaming in digital media, it’s become impossible to distinguish between shows we’ve actually watched and those we’ve just seen discussed online.

And then I like this theory.

It’s the quantum theory. Bob’s Burgers exists in a state of quantum superposition, simultaneously real and non existent until somebody tries to actually watch an episode, at which point the show disappears and doesn’t exist, kind of like Schroedener’s Cat, but Bob’s Burger’s anyway. Feel free to discuss this in the Facebook group Daily Comedy News podcast group. There’s no such show. Have you seen it?

No? Have you met anyone who’s seen it? No. Weird Al is coming back. After taking two years off touring, Weird Al’s embarking on his Bigger and Weirder tour.

He’s even playing Madison Square Garden in New York and the Key of Form in La. His last tour was stripped down, this time back to normal with all the costumes and visuals and fans have come to expect from weird Al. Wow. I can’t believe he’s playing stadiums. I saw him in the local theater, which was awesome.

I don’t know if I would go all the way to Madison Square Garden to see Weird Al, because going to New York City from where I lives a pain in the neck. I won’t read the whole thing. But some cities you’ve heard of Las Vegas, Boston, Philly, Palmer, Alaska, San Diego, Phoenix, LA Nashville. Pretty cool. He remember.

John m’laney is joining that Simon Rich Broadway production all in comedy about love. Apparently it’s the new trendy thing. Some people have joined Lynn Manuel Miranda. Now he’s not a comedian, but you know somebody worth mentioning. Lynn will take over for John Mulaney as the lead once mullaney rotates out.

Also, part of the second cast will be Jimmy Fallon. Wow.

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Also Adie Bryant, Tim Meadows, and David Cross.

Oh. Hankaz Aria also rounds out the cast. Wow, that’s gonna be a thing. Greg Fitzimmons said, Joe Rogan and I started comedy the same week we went to Stitches Comedy Club in Boston the same week and sign up to do five minutes. Then he was dating my roommates, so we basically lived in the same apartment.

When we first started. The show was the Monday night open mic show and it was called Comedy Hell. The mc a guy named George McDonald, would get up at the beginning of the show and his first words were, welcome to comedy Hell, where the pipe dreams of a bunch of comedy bozos can sore as high as the lights on Broadway, or crash and burn in a fiery pit known only as comedy Hell. One night we went out and Bill Hicks was in town. We’d only be doing comedy year, but he was probably the biggest influence on both of us.

He was just a guy who wasn’t gonna budge for the crowd. Boston crowds were tough. If they didn’t like you, they just shut down. And when they started shutting down on him, he went, oh, really, well, how about this, and he would drag out abortion jokes and they started leaving. Mike Cannon’s special Traumatized Animal is out today on Christa Stefano’s YouTube channel.

Chris is also the specials producer, taped in April at the New York Comedy Club in Stamford, Connecticut. Traumatized Animal provides an irreverent, honest look at parenting as a millennium father looking to break the chain of generational trauma, and an hour jam pack with jokes and stories. Mike candidly speaks about his own mental health struggles and love for his child and one on the way, as well as deep dives in his own childhood while breaking down how it is impacted his approaches a father. This is a relentless and refreshingly authentic hour of comedy from a comedian who’s ready to launch. Cannon tells the eight hundred Pound Guerrilla News this special means a lot to me for a multitude of reasons.

I put a tremendous amount of work into the material over the last two years, and I think comedically it’s the strongest and most personal hour I’ve ever put out. I’ve also managed to make it a family affair. Who was produced by my best friend christ de Stefano. It’s directed by my former podcast producer and collaborator, Nicole Lyons. My wife designed the floral arrangement on stage, and both my sisters performed the original song and the credits.

The cast of VEEP is hosting a virtual table read in a half of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. Today. The cast will reunite for a table read of the episode Create, in which Vice President Selena Meyer finds out that the president is stepping down and Shield take his place. Juliet’s all the Hollywood Reporter. We try to find an old episode where President Meyer accused immigrants of eating dogs and cats.

But back when we were making VP, that seemed insane and over the top. Staying political. Both The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert will air live episodes on the East Coast after the VP debate on October first. Both shows did the same thing after the presidential debate that week. Colbert doubled his audience.

Michael ian Black as a substack. Actually, so do I I should remember from my substack. It’s free mcdeepod dot substack dot com. Like in the show notes, mondays, I write about music Tuesday, I often write about podcasting. Wednesday, I give podcasting recommendations, and then the other days I write about whatever I want.

I really don’t write about comedy on there because if I want to talk about comedy. I have this. It’s not like I’m anti comedy, but like it’s my outlet for other things. Anyway, check it out. Michael ian Black has one like his a lot.

He wrote about going to the dentist and said, if you’re one of those people who thinks going to the dentist isn’t so bad, ask yourself this. What other doctor gives you presents on the way out? Doctor does this? Sure, pediatricians give stickers, but no other medical profession has to bribe their clients with actual parting gifts. No other doctor of swag bags your eye doctors and like, thanks for stopping by, here’s a free pair of sunglasses.

No, only dentists do this because they know you’ve been traumatized and they’re trying to shut you up. That little bag of mini tooth bases and toothbrushes is their nda. In fact, is a good chance they’ve killed me today for speaking out and going to the dentist today. If I don’t make it back, you know why. Liz Meely is taping her six stand up specials called Space Camp at the Bellhouse in Brooklyn.

Today. Mike Kaplan spoke to Columbus Underground about starting out and said, when I was starting out, I would say I didn’t know what I was doing. I just knew write and perform as much as possible, and that’s why any idea that I had was precious to me. I’d come up with a thousand things, and maybe only a couple of them would work, but I didn’t know I’d be able to keep coming up with things. I thought any idea was worth something, I throw it out the wall to see what’s stuck.

I was more led around by the audience’s reaction, and the audience reaction is valuable, but in the beginning I was more acting jokes than telling jokes, sort of like, hey, audience, what about this joke? And they’re like, should you be telling us? Through the course of time, I became better and more confident in what I’m doing. I’m excited now that I know that I don’t have to just try everything, see what the audience responds to and head in that direction. I can spend more time delving more deeply into ideas that I want to that I care about, that I want to share with people, and do my best to attract people to those ideas.

Rather than throwing ideas to where I think the people are, which is often going to be a losing proposition. And that is your comedy news for today. If you enjoy the program, tell a friend about it. They might like it too. Follow my substack.

It’s free. Talked about that already. I host another podcast. It’s called five Good News Stories. Number five Good News Stories and tell you five stories.

And they’re all kind of happy, smile stories, Guinness records, lost animals, coming home, quirky things in the news. There was one about an suv that wound up on top of a dumpster. I’ll cut to the chase there a construction worker was mad at where somebody parked. If you’d like the program without commercial interruption, there’s a link in the show notes that I’ll tell you how that works, all right, See tomorrow.

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Featured: Shane Brendan

What’s in This Episode

• Shane Brendan’s new comedy album ‘Either Way, Pretty Funny’
• Taylor Swift’s presence at NFL/Chiefs games and impact on team dynamics
• Comedy albums vs. comedy specials — industry standards and definitions
• The decline of audio-only comedy albums in the streaming era
• Classic comedy albums from George Carlin, Kyle Kinane, Pete Holmes, and Lewis Black
• Eddie Murphy’s ‘Raw’ and ‘Delirious’ specials and aging comedy

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Caloroga Shark Media. Benner Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. Today, my guest is Shane Brendan. I loved Shane. This was such an easy flowing conversation.

We really hit it off. He’s got a new album. It came out yesterday. It’s called either Way, Pretty Funny. We’ll talk about that, and I kind of dragged Shane into some of my comedy snobbery along the way.

I really clicked with this guy. I like him a lot. Here’s Shane Brendan. So my new attempt to get listeners. As I’m asking comedians about Taylor Swift so I can put in the episode title, Shane Brennan says, Taylor Swift is.

Is is probably not great for the NFL. Oh. I like that. That’s a good hot take. I’m a college football guy more so than an NFL guy.

But I think if Taylor was slipped, she’s such a distraction from what’s really going on. And I believe that if I were in the chief’s locker room, if I had a problem with all the shine that my teammates girl is getting instead of focusing on like me as I don’t know, Patrick Holmes or something, like that. Then I would internalize that because that would it would break down team dynamics if I came to you like, yo, why is your girl always getting all the coverage? Dog like? So because of that, I’m burying all that.

I’m burying what i really feel inside. And while we’re at practice, I’m not even focused on the game or what we’re supposed to be doing because I’m so heated thinking about the things I want to say to Kelsey about his lady being in all the games. It’s gonna basically, she is a yoko for the Chiefs Kansas City. He’s going to lose the football team. And you know what, that’s fine, That’s fine.

I don’t like them anyway. Hey, you gave me in my episode headline great talking next Lite, So my take on Taylor that we’ll actually talk about comedy. So I grew up in the Northeast, so Springsteen is our god, and I’ve seen Springsteen fifty times, and then I went to see Taylor Swift. And I would tell you this after seeing Taylor Swift. If Bruce and the guys want to tell me, hey, we’re going to stand at one end of the arena and play guitars for two and a half hours.

That’s nice. I’m no longer impressed like she put on yeah, I mean show. I’m not taking anything away from her as far as being an entertainer. From what I hear, she is phenomenal, but hey, keep it to your arena, all right, don’t bring it to our arena. Let’s let us watch in football.

She’s really bad at rooting. Kelsey will do something, and she’s just over the top with the hugging everybody in the skybox. It just seems very good try. I talked shit, but I would also if I got an invite to be in that box, I’d be there in a heartbeat. Hang now, of course I would.

I dug enough of a whole forest. Let’s talk comedy. You’ve got an album and an album? Why an audio album? It is called either way pretty funny, but why on an album.

I didn’t realize that it was weird that I was only putting out an album until I started talking to people about it. I didn’t think anything about it. Everybody’s putting out specials, all right, or you can call it a special you can. Well oh wait, yes, let me jump in there, because that’s one of my pet Peeves, no problem anybody putting out anything. But I think we’ve gotten a little carried away with here’s my latest special.

Now I’ve talked about this with other comics. I don’t know where the line is. But at one end I’ll put George Carlin at Carnegie Hall, and at the other end it’s somebody’s eight minutes on Tuesday Night at Chuckle Hut. Those two things are not equal. I think there’s some combination of who you are and what’s the room.

Right. So if Adam Sandler plays the Chuckle Hut on Tuesday Night and puts it out a special, if somebody else plays Carnegie Hall on a Saturday night in the middle of the New York Comedy Festival, that’s a special. But somewhere in there, I’m with you. So I distracted you. But yeah, not every.

Yeah, I mean, I’ll be honest. I came up when I was when I first started, I was like anybody else that gets in the comedy. I found the albums. I found the Kyle Kanaines, the Pete Holmes and the Lewis Blacks. I found all their stuff and their albums, and I just listened to them religiously.

Right, and then later on I was like, oh, yeah, there’s specials. Let me watch these specials, you know what I mean? And me and with these guys I mean too. This was like I find like their first record, and I listened to it over and over again. I even did that thing a lot of comics do, as you just start doing bad impersonations of your heroes, like I was basically doing Kanang for the first two years of doing open mics and all that, and then you start watching their specials after a couple of years in and it’s special then not to say, look, I’m putting out a record.

This is my first album. I love it. It’s basically the first decade and some change of me trying to figure out how to do stand up, figuring out some bits, and then figuring out about forty five fifty minutes worth of stuff that I’m like, Okay, if people listen to this today or in ten years, I’ll still be okay with it, But is this a special It is not the next thing I do. Hopefully I will have leveled up and I feel confident in myself and they’ll be like a I guess a kind of demand. But if I put a special out.

You wouldn’t be talking to another comic in my head. My name wouldn’t pop up in your head. Like not everybody’s putting out something special. I want my Special to be special. But yeah, people are like, why did you.

Do the visuals? I did? We did do visuals, and it’s just to chop up. And throw out there on socials, just to stir the product a little bit. But I don’t think I ever had any plans on putting out The first thing I ever do, like on my YouTube page is hey, check out my special because it ain’t special.

I love that it’s an album. Quick on me. I run Serious XM comedy for ten years. I run the comedy properties at Live one slacker, so I schedule comedy albums. So I’m a bit snobby about this.

It bothers me when Dave Chappelle wins the Grammy for Best Comedy Album, when I love Dave, but I’m not sure what he’s doing is a comedy album as opposed to what you’re doing. I hope you win the Grammy because you are putting out a comedy album. But that’s neither here nor there. But I love it because as things have trended more towards video. A lot of stuff’s not coming out for audio.

And there are all these artists that I want to play and I would play the heck out of but there’s stuff just doesn’t exist in an audio format. Part of that is a royalties Wardora get it, totally get it. But it just sucks that the old school album has gone. Yeah. Yeah, so I’m fighting a good fight by just putting out an album.

But also it’s just like put out something I’m already when I’m working and I’m going on the road. It’s I finally have something that I can push besides stick or some small pins or something like that. Hey you like that I just did. There, here’s the whole hour worth of stuff you didn’t hear merched. I think I’m thinking I’m about ten years behind the time to all this.

I don’t know how this is going to affect my career, but I just like it this way. It’s great. I’ve got a couple of years on you. We used to go to the record stores when that was the thing, and there’d be a big barrel of the nice price and there was always Carlon cassettes in there. That’s how I found a bunch of his early stuff.

Anybody my age can probably do Eddie Murphy’s special from memory. The Raw Delirious one hasn’t aged so well. Ye, it’s funny. When I went back and watched that randomly, maybe during the pandemic. After five minutes in, I was like, damn, all right, shit, forgot how this goes.

Yeah, it’s interesting that I think all art you’d have to judge it by its time, because I was there in nineteen eighty three. I was a kid. Nobody was walking around going, oh Eddie Murphy cut that out. We were all laughing around a little different times. Yeah.

Yeah, So I’m curious. I’d love to know more about Don’t Tell Comedy and your involvement with it. I’m seeing every day there’s an article about it. As I put this podcast together, I’m seeing more and more articles about it. So how did you get involved with that?

And you’re programming the Portland Room like just I’d like to know everything about it. I met Kyle Guy who runs Hotel the CEO there. We met years ago when I was doing Sketch Fest in San Francisco and he was brand new. He I think he was at one of my shows, showcases and hanging out, and he was like, hey man, I’m doing this little private show at some rich kids parents’ house. Do you want to jump in?

I’ll get you some extra bucks. I was like sure. So it was like me in a comic buddy of mine, Steph Tola, We drove down there. It was in somebody’s living room and they had a little poster in the back that just said don’t tell well the lady’s lips and like that. It looked like an Ashley Madison poster.

And I was like, this is cool. What do you do. I’m just trying to set up stand up shows and places like the private events and places to what you wouldn’t expect, so people’s houses, backyards, stuff like that. I was like, all right, this is pretty cool man. And we kept in touch and then over the years, yeah, once they started filming sets.

Like I said, we had cross. Paths a couple of times just doing festivals stuff like that. So I always followed what they were doing.

And then he hit me up.

He said, hey man, I want you to get on and tape your little set, tape a set of your own for one of these little showcases that we’re doing. I actually had to do two. Went down to Santa Monica and did the first one, but that crowd was so dog shit that no one. Everyone had to take their set over again because I don’t know, it’s a Santa Monica crowd. These people they saw the cameras around, so they all just tightened up.

No one, no one got anything. So they brought us all back. Went to Santa Barbara. Better crowd killed that one and then that came out. But yeah, once they started spreading out all over the country, he knew that I was up here in Portland and he was like, would you be interested in bringing down Tell up there?

And I almost didn’t do it because I’m like, hey, man, I live here, but I’m not really here that much anymore. Starting to work very bad B and C rooms. I’m out there. So yeah, but I got a buddy of mine who’s another Portland comic. I was like, if I can bring in another guy to help me co produce, we’ll do it.

And I’m glad we did it because it really is a great show to have in a local scene because a lot of the comics that come from out of town too. They’ll hit us up like, hey, I heard you got it. Don’t tell. I’m doing like a one nighter at the Helium on a Thursday. Are you gonna do it?

Don’t tell on a Friday. I’m like yeah, so we can piggyback off what the clubs are doing, and these comics coming in you can get a little extra cash in their pocket. And some of these people that are that maybe have never been to a comedy club. BUTOK know a boy, some of these bigger names from social media and stuff that they’re surprises hell when they walk in and I don’t know, like a Ralph Barbosa is here in a sneaker shop for some reason on a Friday. So I think it’s a good thing to have in like mid level scenes, b scenes other than the Austin’s, the New York and LA’s.

So I’m glad I’m part of it. As a performer. Is it weird? I have so many questions about the setup. So let’s say we’re at a sneaker shop.

Is there a riser? Is there stage? You just flat with the audience? What are they sitting on it? Like?

All right? For instance, the sneaker shop is one of our popular go to spots it seats about seventy five eighty. You’re performing in front of a wall of sneakers. This is not like a foot locker or anything like that in the mall. These are like expensive, like a boutique, high end sneaker cool hip.

It’s also like an NBA like retro clothing store. So it’s got all the chotchkes and it’s like a cool vibe atmosphere. Crowd is into it, they’re close, they’re right there. We got lights, we got the cameras, we got the whole setup.

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And then on the upstand of the spectrum, we have this place called Hallowed H…

So we have the whole spectrum of venues. The craziest thing about Don’t Tell is these people don’t know where it’s going to be until the day of. They don’t know who’s going to be there, but they always sell out. It makes you think, like for years, like comics, are we putting too much priority on how cool our poster is in all that stuff and who’s there? Because these people are buying tickets and they have no idea who’s going to be there.

So you’re selling like a you’re selling a night out, You’re selling a whole vibe that is buying it blind. As that brand grows, is there more pressure to make sure you’ve got an a list or a solid headliner in There are people coming to shows and be like, oh, it’s just six regular points whatever. I don’t feel the pressure. HEYK where you live. I know where I live, don’t.

The dontels in LA are way different than the down tails in Portland. I had a lady we always we like to ask people what they have been here before when they’re checking in, and one lady goes, yeah, I’ve been the one in LA saw a bunch of famous people. I was like, cool, you ain’t seen that tonight, but thank you for coming, and they had a good time. The pressure is just to make sure we don’t put on a shift show and just book good comics that get people their money’s worth. I guess it’s just like any other show.

So as a producer can mean many things. I’m just really curious about the logistics of this. Are you showing up early, are you plugging in speakers? Are you running the room? You’re get everybody.

I do everything for me between me and my buddy Brent Lowry is another good twenty Portland comic. Don’t Tell is an exercise and how well you can pack chairs and equipment into a super cross track and how in time management, Like if we want doors at seven point thirty and I live thirty minutes away and this place will only open the doors to us at six point thirty, can me and another guy successfully set up one hundred and ten shares, two spotlights, a PA system and make the lineup and make sure these knuckleheads show up the comics on time, and then afterwards make sure we go in into the system so everybody can get paid. So you’re doing everything you get paid, but Don’t Tell also gets paid and the comics get paid too. It’s it’s like just producing and running your own show. But the cushion, I guess the safety that is.

I know that Don’t Tell I was going to promote the hell out of it. They do a lot of targeted ads and all that, so they’re spending money to make sure people there’s butts and seats that way, I know I’m not setting all these comics up. Most of my friends to come to a half empty room and have a boring show, you know what I mean. So yeah, every show you can basically bank on it being a good a good packed out crowd. That’s the one thing you can guarantee from a comics perspective.

Are you running into knucklehead? No show? A shame? Bro? Sorry, man, I’m meant to make it.

But it’s all right. I just can’t. Like we’re the guys. There’s been There’s one guy in particular I can think up, but he flakes on everyone. And that’s just that’s the character flaw for you.

But it’s not so much that people not showing up. The problem is when you’re in a scene. The problem is there are a lot of comics that know you are a booker for Dometeo, and they they will bug you and bug you about getting a spot, and it’s just like you walk that fine line. I’m not trying to hurt anybody’s feelings, but I’m just like, man, I’ll try to get you something, but it’s just like I’ve just seen you each shit all over town every opportunity you can, and then you’re always. Hammered around me.

Hey man, when you’re gonna give me a spot. It’s just it’s not gonna have a brother. That’s the hard part is trying to like duck and dodge people who just be funny on stage, and then word will get around and be like, yo, you should book so and so. Don’t wait until I’m at a bar and look, Shane’s with three drinks. He looks like he’s vulnerable.

Now let me ask him for a spot, because that has happened in the past, and that has worked in the past, and I’m not gonna do it anymore. Yeah, there is. And again I’m a guy in a basement recording a podcast. But I’ve been, as I’ve called it, show Visit bab adjacent for most of my career. And you got to learn how to roll.

You got to learn that when there’s a time to ask, and when there’s a time to all right, Shane’s just at the bar with his friends, like, hey man, we do my podcast. Yeah yeah, it’s people get very creative when they want to get booked for things. And I guess call me old school again, but I can’t up at a time where it’s it’s say hey, if you want to get booked, just try to do well for the people that you know, like you walk too a venue. Oh okay, I recognize that’s so and she books that show, that so and so he books that show. Let me maybe not do all new stuff tonight for fifteen minutes.

Maybe let me just try to do my best ten so these people will be like, huh, that guy was pretty funny. Maybe I should put it on my show. To me, it sounds like so simple, but man, some of these kids are just like they focused on They’re focused on everything but what they’re doing on stage to get known, to get numb followers, to get booked. I’m just like, oh dude, this sucks so bad. You brought a couple of things to mind.

All right, let me in order on my mental list. So back to the hustle culture and comedy albums. So when we first started playing comedy records on serious this was a new thing, right. There was no comedy radio before. You couldn’t do it on FM, can’t play anything.

So satellite radio comes along. We start playing the records and we start hearing from artists, you’re stealing my material, you’re burning my stuff. Nobody’s coming to see me, right, So we go through that. Then some comics realized, oh, I’m being heard on serious and more people know who I am and they’re coming to see me. But then the royalty check showed up.

I saw a pretty and known comedian one time backstage, and I was his best friend because he had just gotten an eighty thousand dollars royalty check. So suddenly we went from thieves to oh, how come you’re not playing my stuff? Can you play my stuff more? Can you play my stuff? And I said, no, I’m playing Louis c.

K. It’s two thousand and five. Yeah, man, the hustle you’re talking with the hustle culture. I think it’s just like with the clips, with the crowd word stuff and all that, the pressure to have to post clips every day or multiple times a week. It’s just sometimes I get upset, but I’m just like, hey, the algorithm, the industry is rewarding these folks because they’re doing.

What I guess the algorithm of what people. Want right now, which is every day there’s a crowd work bit or some or just a half baked premise, there’s something, but there’s something every day, and I can’t get mad that this person will get followers and get all this stuff because I’m not doing it because I, hey, don’t do crowd work and be I’m not going to throw out a half baked premise just because it’s Tuesday and it’s twelve thirty and the algorithm says I need to do it. Maybe I’m not hustling as much as I should be. I’m just working on it’s the joke. No, I yeah, I was going to ask you about feeding the beast.

It’s got to be just like you said, just relentless. When YouTube shorts came out, I played around with a little bit of pulling shorter clips from this show and putting them up and you’d see you to get like this little burst of I don’t know, three thousand views in an hour, and then just it would go straight to zero. And it was like, all right, what is this? I’m just a dumb podcast, but you know it is it actually converting to anything, and I have to feed it every day.

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And then I imagining you’re up on stage age, maybe not you, but somebody else…

Let me work this clown in the front row with the orange sweater to pull eight minutes. I get three days of clips out of that. You could see it in the room. I’ve been on shows where I’ve seen some comics they’re just going through their material, but then someone will pipe up and then they just change. They snapped their like, oh this is a moment I can let me do the crowd work.

Let me this is the clippable moment, you know what I mean. And they get that and then they’re out. And like I said, I used to be a big hater. I’m trying to tell myself now, hey, don’t hate. It’s just not my cup of tea.

It’s not meant for me. So I’m just like, all right, that’s what they’re doing. You do that. Everybody has their own journey, so to speak or whatever. But it didn’t make it any better.

When one of my good buddies is Canane and he takes I go, I’m on the road with him for his tour and all this stuff now and he is me and him sidn’t basically talk about what me. You’re talking right now. Just the crowd work guys, And not everybody does crowd work as ship. There’s great at it. There’s a there’s a bunch of people that are great at it, or a handful of people that are great at it, but then there’s just a majority of the people that are out there that people see on the internet are terribles.

And then that makes a crowd that makes people think that, hey, you know what, I’m going to go. I like these people online, these crowd work guys. Let me go to my local comedy club or just some local show.

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And then those are the people that start chirping ash you, and then they’re c…

They’re like, well, no, I thought this was no I’m just helping I’m just trying to help you out. Bro. Like earnestly, they’re not trying to be dicks. They just think, but my favorite guy on on TikTok does this, I’m just trying to help you. I think you’re fornny too, which is a real thing that some bro said to me after a I chewed him out after I thought you were really funny man.

I was just trying to give you some prompts or something to go off of, and I was just like, no, dude, please don’t do that work. There’s a generation and I’m on old Man Mountain now growing up flipping through things on TikTok on their phone. Who don’t I don’t want to use the word understand, but and I don’t want to explain comedy to a comedian. But the art of the callback, the art of the line I said here was set up seventeen minutes ago. There’s at arc to it, which is a lot different than comedian Slam’s heckler.

Yeah, you’re right, Yeah, you’re absolutely right. There’s no way any of these new I wouldn’t even call them comedy fans. I think they’re just fans of the TikTok And there’s no way they would know anything about a callback. The algorithm or the format doesn’t allow for a video to be long enough for a callback or anything like that. Or they don’t know about the rule of threes.

They don’t know about any of the basic stuff that any comic worth their way has worked on for however long, because that doesn’t exist to them as viewers, and it, honestly, it probably doesn’t even exist to the comics that they’re watching. They’re just see you get me fired up man talking about this. I’ll give you a real example. Aside from the hypothetical twenty something on their phone, and my audience is going to be sick of me saying that’s going to be the saying this to every comic. So I watch a lot of specials because of what I do, and of the time, not ninety nine of the time.

My wife shows up thirty seven minutes into the hour with a laundry basket, stares at the TV for a minute, and then goes, is this guy funny? And he was till you made me hit pause And you don’t understand that thing he said there he set up three things ago and it was misdirect And again I’m not explain comedy to you, but it’s yeah, he is funny, but you can’t just walk in the middle. That’s yeah, that’s you know what. Yeah, put that on my tombstone. That happened to me All the time.

When I’m watching comedy, my wife will come in and ask me. So I asked if this is a person funny? And I’m like, yeah, I’m just trying to or I’m trying to figure it out. You do comedy, you should know if someone’s funny. I’m like, okay, man a chill I do this.

Because she’ll be like, are you watching this? Are you can enjoy it. Because I haven’t heard you laugh. I’m like, that didn’t mean I don’t think it’s funny. I don’t know when, but like a lot of comics, something happened to where I stop.

And there’s times I genuinely will laugh if something is just silly enough. But now I just, oh, that’s good, that’s funny. I’ll acknowledge it. I am so with you. I call this Emperor of Rome syndrome because again, not a comic, no kidding, not a performer, didn’t want to be a performer, but sitting at serious for ten years listening to comedy radio nine ten hours a day, five days a week, and it was everybody’s best of the best, right, So it’s not just you being funny.

It’s the one you put down on record, right, So it’s everybody’s best of the best. And along the way I stopped laughing. But the same thing, I can watch a set and I’ll just do the thing the comedians in the back of the room do is go. Oh, wow, that’s a great show. Wow, that’s hilarious.

What a we called back? Oh?

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And then every now and then somebody will set up a misdirect and I’ll actuall…

I’d treasure that stuff when somebody actually gets me and I don’t see the back to the word algorithm. I remember being sitting with one of my hosts. We were at when the jfl ustaffed the Chicago somebody you have heard of. We were at their set, and I felt bad because it was like back in grade school when you would graph a sentence like I could see it. It was like, okay, premise duration, thing that didn’t actually happen callback And I’m like, dude, I can see I could graph yourself for you.

It drove me insane that I had gotten deeper math comics. It’s all formula. Yeah again, I’m trying not to be a hater. I’m working on myself. I’m dragging you down, all right, let me go the other way.

Kyle Kinane’s chunk on the fast and Furious. I’m putting in a class with Eddie Murphy Barbecue, Baseball and Football by Carlin. That is an all time chunk. Please tell him myself. Well, he’ll be like, hey, you know what’s it’s so nuts working with him is it’s a double edged sword for me because for what it’s just crazy that now we’re pals.

And I used to listen to him when I first started. I’m like, and I told you again, like I was doing a bad canine for the first two years, and you fast forward about eleven years later. Now we’re neighbors because he left La he lives up here and well he takes me out on the road with him. So over the years I’ve been able to watch him like we were at that Fast and Furious when we went to the Fast and Furious because me and a couple of him in a couple of comics, we were laughing so hard about how ridiculous it was, and we were all sitting around afterwards he threw out like just one line from that actually made the bit, and then to see him go from we’re there, we’re watching this, yeah, this funny kind of throw away, we’re wearing a circle of comics and then fully. Stretch it out.

I forgot how long the bit is, but just that’s to see how his brain works in comedy. It makes me have to step my shit up and also makes me furious because I’m just like, why am I even trying to do this? I’m glad I have to go. I’m glad I go before you to get people okay with the idea of comedy, I don’t I don’t ever want to have to follow it. I love those films.

I saw the first one Blockbuster video. I just pulled it off the shelf. Nobody cared about that franchise. Let me rent this. You know, those guys have gone from being from stealing DVD players.

To international lovengers. Somehow. Ludacris is the just a tech guy that knows everything about computers and all that. I don’t buy that Tyres is in space. What are we doing?

We do it? So I think Kyle’s a great example of everything we’ve talked about. Whether it’s short clips or my wife in the laundry basket, there’s a vibe there, right, So at some point and dworphins are kicking into your brain, you’re just feeling the room. You’re along for the ride with the performer, and I just don’t think the short clips get you there. They can be funny, and comedy can come in many forms.

So I don’t want to snob too much, but there is something for all right. I’ve bought into what this performers selling. Let me just go along for the right. Yeah, those fans tend to stick with you. They become they trust you.

They trust that and you’re going to give them that performance or that kind of a feeling when they first discovered you. Kylesmans are They’re great. They’re a great crowd. I love performing in front of them because I know that these folks are here because they like comedy. I’ve had to open for these kill Tony guys, these like these one minute dudes.

Oh wow yeah, and they’re like, I hate that show. I think it’s bad for comedy. I think it gives people the wrong idea of what stand up is because these some of these kids that go on there and they’ll get a viral one minute clip from the show. Next thing, you know, and he walked walk into the local comedy club and that kid’s face is on the poster for a one night er. I’m like, all right, Yeah, they got millions of views online, but they only have one or two one minute clips.

Now I go, hey, watching, I’m like, let me see you struggle. Do you have forty five minutes? Can you do an hour? Because you’ve only been around since breakfast, So let’s see what happens. And I went they Unfortunately I saw this one kid.

He packed it out on a Wednesday night, and his fans were exactly who I thought they would be, just the other inceel looking little dudes. And he went up there and for about the first five ten minutes he just said all the stuff that you’re not supposed to say, and then had nothing and it turned into a Q and a. I left, but from a buddy of mine who works there, it was pretty bad. For about thirty five minutes, he was just like, well, you guys got to ask you some questions. Let’s go show me, you guys, any pictures of hot girls.

I’m like to see. This is what it is? Now, this is what it is? Oh wow wow. I don’t want to get vulgar here, so I’ll pull the final word of what I’m about to set up.

But I teach a couple of college classes, and I would explain to them and I would just suddenly say and then they punched her in the and naughty word there and I would get a laugh and I would say to them, I didn’t even tell a joke, guys. I didn’t set that up. I just said something out of nowhere and made it super vulgar. And you guys are laughing. I’m like, that is that doesn’t mean I can get.

Up and do ten Damn I take that class. If my professor said that every now and then, that’ll wake me up. Yeah. It’s a bit of a departure from my normal personality, all right. I hate to ask things that I guests have been asked five hundred times.

But you’ve got two things on your bio, and I’m sure you know what they are that I’ve got to ask about your first stand up set Afghanistan. I was, I was deployed, and that was I think it was as like my second or third diployment at the time. Yeah, we were. I was with this mobilized unit. We were just in one of the smaller out post in the Helmet province and we’re only supposed to be there for a couple of days to get some work done and we were supposed to leave, but there was a sandstorm, so the helos were down.

That was going to transport us out for at least the next forty eight hours. In that forty eight hours having to be Christmas, right, so that bass at post anyway, they have what they call MWR Morale Welfare and recreation, so like to get people a break. It’s Christmas time. It sucks we’re all out here. It was a base of like maybe three four hundred people, So like, hey, in the cafeteria area, we’re going to do a talent show.

And so I saw flyers all over the place, and me and my buddies in my unit, we’re like, shit, we’re stuck here. Let’s just go and see what’s going on. After about the fourth or fifth guy I saw go up with an acoustic guitar and play a Radiohead song or a Creed cover, I was just like losing my mind. And I was a guy in my unit who I talked shit, I cracked jokes all the time because that was my fight or flight. And I was back there getting pretty loose lip, making fun of all these guys.

And then there was a couple of dudes sitting around. They’re like, once you go up there and tell some fucking jokes, why don’t you go up there and yeah, cracking jokes people, I want to hear what you’re saying. Trying to defend their buddies because I’m like roasting the hell out of these guys. And I was like, all right, I’ll sign up. Can I sign up?

Let’s do it. And I went up there. I signed up, and yeah, they let me go up there, and I just I did what I know now to be just panic riffing, crowd work. But it all worked because. I was just I just talked about it was already we all.

It all sucked. Being out there sucked. The food sucked. Those guys playing guitars sucked making fun of the higher ups they were sitting in the front row. If I was to say any of the stuff I said to any of those guys without a microphone, without that context, they would have put me in the brig that I would have been busted down so many ranks.

I would have gotten so much trouble. But because I went up there and the hosting MC was like, Hey, this is so and so he’s gonna tell some jokes. He’s a funny guy or whatever. There you can feel people leaning in They’re like, all right, what’s he gonna do? And I just just roasted people for a good five ten minutes.

But then the next day there was a lot of There was a couple of people there was like I would be walking by and they’d be like, hey, man, you were pretty funny last night, or one of the one of the captains that I was getting after is he walked up to me, I saluted and I was like, sirs, do you remember me. I was like, yes, sir, you’re pretty funny. You’re lucky that shit was funny. I would have busted your ass. So like, I thought about that and when I shortly after the deployment was over, I was home stationed in San Diego.

And in San Diego we had I think four dedicated comedy clubs. You got the Manhouse Comedy Club, American Comedy Company, Comedy Store, La Joya Comedy Palace. So I went on leave for the whole month. When we got back and I had nothing to do, so I started popping into these comedy clubs my first time ever, just sitting in the back of open mics, and I was like, some of these guys are funny. Most of these guys are really bad.

If they can be really bad, then I know I can go up there pretty bad. For a while. That was the book. I did the first set in Afghanistan, and I think I told somebody, I’m gonna give it a shot when I get back home, and I just followed through and then I literally I just didn’t stop going after. It took me about two months from the first time I went to an open mic to write something and then build up the courage to go up.

But then once I got up, I don’t think I missed a day where I didn’t get up on stage. For the first two three years, it was going after Oh wow. And unfortunately I’m still going after. I mean still that story. I’m a big fan of Bob Hope, and unfortunately Hope gets judged a lot by maybe hanging on a little too couple too many NBC specials where he’s eighty five and reading off the Q cards.

But the younger Bob Hope was quick and just getting back to the art of it. I’m I’m sure you’ve seen clips of the USO shows and when one way they just seem really dated. They are from another time. But something you said, he would get up and just have he’d get a little bit of information about the locals and then do it, do the pacing and then mug for the camera, mug for the audience. A typical Hope joke would be like I see Captain Johnson’s here must be for the free hot dogs and then hit mug and get a laugh off and it’s not even a good joke, but just like everybody’s like yeah, Captain Johnson, it’s just as this vibe of we’re all in this.

Yeah, it really is easy. When I think back now, the only reason I did well was because it was the pressure release valve. Everybody knew. It was all common knowledge. Everything sucked.

No one was. You’re not really allowed to talk about it, but for some reason, if you go up there and someone gives you the title of a comic or comedian, then you’re allowed to go ahead lit a rip. So good times and you also did it looks like a pretty cool show with the Trailblazers. Oh more for a couple of years. Because I moved up here to Portland with the wife in twenty eighteen twenty seventeen ninety and I’m a big NBA guy and a buddy of mine.

There’s a comic named Ian Carr who is used to be here from Portland now write it for years for the Late Show. James Forten all that so real, good guy and became buddies over the years. Right when I got up here, he was like, hey, because he used to work for NBC Sports doing Lee be the goofy comedian guy they cut to and he’d say something weird or whatever. He reached out to them and said, Hey, I got a guy who just moved up there. He’s a big NBA guy, he’s a Blazer fan.

I think he’d be perfect for this thing you guys are looking for. Because they were doing auditions all over the Pacific Northwest, from Portland to Seattle for a crew of guys to do like an official pregame and then postgame show for the Portland Trailblazers. Yeah. I went in a couple of times, a couple of rounds audition with a different sets of guys, and I just knew. I was like, Okay, I’m funnier.

Then it was weird because they had to separate. They had to separated into Hey, if you’re here to audition, that’s the funny guy. Go over here and sit in this corner with these group of funny looking dudes. If you’re here to be like the straight up I’m the sports guy. I tell you the x’s and o’s.

Go over there. But they didn’t know like I can talk well, I know basketball and all this stuff like that. So I think I knew I had the job right off the bat, and it ended up being a good easy money to sit and I got paid to watch basketball, talk about it and just track jokes for a couple of years. Yeah, that’s me not saying no to a good opportunity. Are you getting VO work because you’ve got great sypes?

Me again, I don’t say no to opportunities presented. I do. I do VO stuff all the time. That’s there’s nothing better than just showing up reading a couple of lines in a booth and then going home and getting a check later and for doing minimal to no work. So I’ll take it.

I’m impressed you still going to a booth as a long time radio guy. One of the things the pandemic, For like about thirty six hours, we were like, what are we going to do?

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And then we just everybody figured out how to broadcast from home.

You’d see people on cn when they’re in their living room. Was great. We figured out so back in the day. So clearly you and I are three thousand miles from each other and we’re doing this and it sounds fine. Back in the day, I’d have to bug you like, Hey, do you mind going over to the local radio station in Portland and we’re going to hook it up over a thing and it’s going to cost two hundred dollars and it’s two hours out of your day.

So, like a long way of saying, I’m a pressure not just recording in your base. It’s good a while since I’ve been to a booth, Mike. What I ended up doing, especially during the pandemic, is my little office space in the house just became all in one podcast recording studio slash. I go audition for a lot of things, but during the endemic, they just want you to self tape everything. So one corner of my office was in the audio podcast equipment set up, and in the other corner there was like my camera and then I had my lights and my backdrop pulled down so I could sit there and talk to the camera and be these auditions, which it does suck.

I used to book a lot more stuff and I could be in the room with a casting director, especially the comic because we could work the room. There were gigs that I knew I was going to book before we even started doing the lines, because I would go in and just start working the room like a comic deest, talking shit and riffing and making people laugh, and then they’d be like, oh, you’re pretty great. I’m like, are we going to read the lines? They’re like, oh yeah, go ahead and read the lines, and then boom you get the gig. But it’s hard.

It’s hard to show how charm you started to turn the charm on when you’re just recording yourself in your office, trying to keep your voice down because the baby sleeping and your wife is just trying to have a nice quiet time in a living room. The amount of times again my wife in the laundry basket, I’m recording the podcast and she thinks she’s sneaking down and is totally distracting me. And you’re married. You just don’t want to pick the fight of can you not do the laundry when I’m recording work great? Well, then you do the loader like it’s just like I just eat it and get stopped.

And it’s interesting to me that you say about working the room, because as we’re doing this, I’m finding the opposite. So I look at the way I look and in person, I give off suit vibes to comics. So I’m finding doing this in this style, I’m connecting a lot easier because hopefully it seems like you did we get a minute in, you go, Okay, this guy knows what he’s talking about at least, whereas I walk in and I’ve got my doctors on and you’re like, ah, all right, here’s another radio guy who suits. So this actually works better for me. That’s great, man.

I figured anybody that has a pod called Daily Comedy News probably knows what they’re talking about when it comes to comedy. If that makes so any better I was. I didn’t come into this skeptical at all. The absurdity of someone will be like, all right, let me do a podcast to focus only on comedy and just have no idea what they’re talking about or who they’re talking Like, now did I say that out loud? I have done a couple of interviews where the guy was like, so you have a joke about Steph Curry and so this guy’s right, he’s a sports The said, I don’t know why they sent me over, but the guy just does a sports talk radio kind of thing, and I pr people they’re just like, oh, he has a joke about basketball.

To talk to and I get there and I’m talking to the guys. So you have a joke about Steph Curry. I’m like, yeah, he goes, that’s crazy, man, I’m like, yeah, how did you come up with it? I’m like, you really want me to I’m not going to break down a joke for you, man, it’s just dude, good audio. Good on you.

I’m like, okay, I’ll tell you on the flip side. Sometimes you get a guest who you ask a three minute question, you just get a yeah back. So here’s my safety list. Don’t answer any of this. What inspired you to get into comedy?

Who are your influence is? How do you handle hacklers? Do you have any pre show rituals? How do you balance your career with your family? Those are my like, oh my god, how am I going to pull twenty more minutes out of this?

Dude? But I didn’t mean to do that today, But all the questions just asked me. I can think about all the people that right out of that’s all they did. They came right out of the gate. So how did you get into comedy?

What inspired it? And I’m not I’m very grateful. I’m glad to be doing this. Thank you for having me on all that. But I’m still this is my rookie album, you know what I mean.

So I’m not used to talking about the material. Just shit, just selling it, you know what I mean. Like I’ve spent all these times, all these years trying to figure out the material, and then I sell it when I’m on stage. So now this is a different kind of thing where you’re like talking about the album. I’m just like, Yeah, I think it’s good.

I’m proud of it. I think you should get it. If not, I don’t know. I can’t feed my family. I don’t know, I don’t care.

I don’t know what’s gonna happen. Make sure your peeps put it in sound Exchange so I actually can play it on those various digital platforms. Ointgere gonna be on Standard Change shouts the sound Exchange. I love getting those emails, but that lets me know I got another little deposit in the bank because it’s a serious spinning my stuff. So I’m glad for those guys.

And you were going straight into hot new releases. Good talking, Yeah, to make great talking, man. I appreciate it. Boy, it wasn’t he fantastic? I really, really liked him.

His album is called either Way Pretty Funny, available now from Blonde Medicine. Nice to see an old fashioned album album, isn’t it? And I hope he wins the Grammy. Shane Brendon either Way Pretty Funny, Really liked him, Hope to have him back someday. And that is your comedy news for today.

I’ll see tomorrow

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Featured: Whitney Cummings, Michael Ian Black, Joe Rogan, Louis C.K., Andrew Dice Clay, Greg Fitzsimmons, Ellen DeGeneres, Ali Sadiq, Billy D. Washington, Denzel Washington, Ricky Gervais, Jason Zinoman

What’s in This Episode

• Whitney Cummings on happiness and comedy evolution
• Michael Ian Black criticizes Joe Rogan’s use of slurs in latest special
• Greg Fitzsimmons discusses toxic work environment on Ellen’s talk show
• Ali Sadiq’s ‘Domino Effect’ storytelling special about his incarceration
• Ricky Gervais Nazi salute routine used as legal defense in Sydney
• Jason Zinoman New York Times piece on comedy club booking process

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Caloroga Shark Media, Hello Chunny Mack with your Daily Comedy News. Whitney Cummings tells The Dallas Observer, I always worried that if I ever got happy, I’d stop being funny. I wish that someone had told me sooner that that’s not how it works. My act was about me and my self sabotaging behaviors. But now it’s obvious about the world that I’m bringing up my son into and needing to understand it a bit better.

It’s a nice upgrade from an emotionally fraught, confused person to someone who is less confused and no longer emotionally fraught. As a comedian, I could stay image sure forever, but I learned I could be mature and be happy and still be funny. Micha Leean blacks All the Inside Hook on Twitter. I learned very early on I’m not going to change anybody’s mind about anything, and I no longer try. I’m not trying to change anybody’s mind.

What I’m trying to do is engage with people on the basis of their arguments, not because I’m trying to convince them, but because I’m trying to help people who may feel the way I do, but don’t necessarily know how to approach these conversations. And I don’t either a lot of times, so a lot of time when I’m engaging, it’s not because I’m so sure of my own position. It’s to understand my own position better. It’s to be able to defend my own position so that if I were to have a conversation with you in real life and something would come up, I might have an actually informed opinion rather than just kind of a knee jerk liberal response to something. Inside Hook points out that Michael Ian Black is not shy about calling out his fellow comedians, including appearing in the recent Louis C.K.

Documentary Sorry Not Sorry, or about writing a piece about the time Andrew dice Clay threatened to kick his ass where Joe Rogan’s lazy use of slurs in his latest special. Michael ian Black has a substack which I follow is pretty good, which reminds me I should promote my own substack. Mine is called media Thoughts by John McDermott. I’ll throw a link in the show notes. Basically, I have music Mondays where I just write about whatever band I feel like writing about.

Wednesdays or podcast recommendations, and maybe once or twice a week on the other days I’ll write about podcasting. It is not a comedy blog. If I want to talk about comedy, that’s this anyway, It’s free. I hope you will check it out link of the show notes. Michael Black says it feels hypocritical of me to call out politicians for crappy behavior and then somehow not call out fellow comics for crappy behavior.

I don’t want to be that guy. Like in a case of Rogan in particular, he is such a massive platform, He’s such an influential part of the culture that when he releases a special in the punchline to one of his jokes is I don’t want to say the word rhymes with make it. I’m like, you can do better, and you oughte to your audience to do better. Because he knows who his audience is, and he knows the influence he has over them. So when he’s giving them more a license to be a jerk faces, they’re gonna take that license.

Slight paraphrase there by me, I don’t think it’s enough when you’re at Joe Rogan’s level to say, I’m just a comic. You’re not for better or worse or whatever the term actually applies to you. In particular, you’re a thought leader, and I think if was me, I think you just have responsibility there not to make things worse for people. And I know that’s not his intention. I really, in my heart, I believe that.

But that’s the effect it has. And so Joe Rogan doesn’t give a hoot about what I think. Joe Rogan doesn’t know who I am. But I thought it was incumbent on me, just to my own conscience, to calling out Greg Fitzsimmons talked about working with Ellen and said, working with Ellen, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right, And I think that it killed me. It was amazing watching the evolution of that show.

I was run in to help come up with ideas for the show before it launched. It was a really exciting feeling about it. It was all about positivity and possibility. Then we started winning Emmys and it became very unpleasant. There was a lot of fear going around.

It didn’t feel fun at the end. I’d go on the road and all these Midwestern housewives would come up to me after the show and be like, oh my god, you were with Vellen what she like? And I would tell them what she’s like, and you could see their shoulders slump and tears wall up in their eyes and they’d be like no, and I’d be like, yeah, America loves to tear down its level icons. In some cases, I feel like it’s unwarranted. But in this case, it’s amazing to me to see her going out.

She’s doing this new special where she was talking about how she got thrown under the bus. Let’s just say it was warranted. Wow. Ali Sadiq spoke to the spokesman. Ali said people make a lot of mistakes in their life and go through things you should have went right, but he went left.

He zigged when you should have zagged. Things happen. You don’t get a chance to pinpoint a lot of times when you went wrong. During his time in prison, he reflected on the mistakes he had made and pinpoint into the exact year in which the first domino fell, leading to his incarceration. The Domino effect was supposed to be a one off, but he says, as people got to wonder how I got locked up, I want to give the history of it.

Once I did Domino Effect and people were interested, it was like, oh, what a way to go, and I can continue to do them. He recalls comedian Billy D. Washington telling him, when you’re not being funny, be interesting. Ollie says, the Domino effects are a reality of that. When I’m not being funny, the story’s interesting.

I don’t even start off trying to be funny. It’s me telling the story and taking this deep dive into what I’ve experienced versus what somebody else has experienced. I’m still trying to get better as a storyteller. I’m not the best that I can be, yet I can get better, I can develop better. I’m doing other specials in order to get better what I actually do and put out all these different works.

He says he wants to be like Denzel Washington. By the way, you know, if you had a time machine. So when I graduated from Fordham at University in nineteen eighty seven, the commencement speaker was some unknown actor Denzel Washington. We weren’t impressed. Boy, I like a do over on that one.

Dumb teenagers, Ollie says, denzil Ell is Denzel Regardless, it doesn’t matter what role he’s in, he just tells you something else. I want to get better in my craft, to beat myself and give you all this different work. It’s like, Yo, he was great in this. He was great in that. He was different than this, but he was still great.

Same chair, same microphone. He’s just giving us something different from the Daily Mail. A Ricky Gervai’s skit was shown in court. Man claimed he was copying at Ricky Gervase when he allegedly did a Nazi salute outside a Jewish museum in Sydney. Three men were charge with behaving in an offensive manner in public after knowing displaying Nazi symbols without an excuse near the Sydney Jewish Museum last October.

The men told the police they were joking. One of the men said he was copying a Ricky Gervay’s routine, and a clip played for the court. Ricky Gervas performs a mock Nazi salute while pushing his hair down to Mimick Hitler and says, I do that quick so no one can take a picture of me doing that. Not a traditional subject for comedy. The Old Holocaust Magistrate Jennifer Atkinson question the timing of the acts, which occurred less than a week after the attacks by Hamas last October.

She told the court, it really is a matter of common knowledge what occurred in Israel days earlier. You might have said it as a joke, But why that location, why that time, the magistrate added, I’m not making a decision about Ricky Gervais. Friend of the Show, Jason Zenneman writes in The New York Times under the headline is the comedy club booking process broken? The owners of a new spot say hiring comics based on referrals from other stand ups is no guarantee the acts will be funny. This is the Bushwick Comedy club owner Jad and his partners plan to book via tape submissions rather than referrals.

Jad tells Jason, whether or not you get on stage at most clubs in the city is very little to do at this point with how funny you are. Most major clubs use a referral system to varying degrees. That means to get on stage you need other comics to vouch for you. Naturally, comedians pick their friends. There’s even motivation to promote mediocrity.

Jad told Zenneman Honestly, you don’t want to follow someone who buries you. Wow. Our main difference is gonna sound stupid, but simply put, we’re gonna actually watch submission tapes. Referrals will not matter, nor will social media followers. Only how funny you are on tape?

On its Grambush What Comedy Club promotes itself as the only club in New York who books that’s line up purely off video submissions. So what’s gonna happen? You submit a tape, the three owners watch it. If all three give a thumbs up, you become part of the rotation. If one doesn’t like it, you’re out.

They’ve already pored over one thousand tapes and signed up seventy comics. I got news for these guys. That’s gonna get old really quick, and comedians gonna be like, hey, you know who’s funny? You should check out this guy, Zenman writes. Several newer club owners, including one of the Tiny Cupboard, describe only watching tapes as impractical because there’s not enough hours in the day.

Amen. They also say this critique mischaracterizes the process, which typically finds talent through multiple sources, including submissions. This weekend in DC. It’s the second annual because they’re Funny Comedy Festival, the BTF Festival. I mentioned this before.

I think they’re being very generous with the word festival. Saturday at eight o’clock, Dean Cole hosts the second annual Breakout Comedian of the Year competition, All Right to Get Dion Cole and six comedians. Leslie Jones performs Sunday at eight eight. It’s not really a festival, guys. That’s two shows and some good branding.

Shane Brendan has an album out today. It’s called either Way Pretty Funny. It is a funny album and Shane Brennan is way cool. How do I know because I listened to the album and I interviewed Shane Brendan. He’ll be the guest on tomorrow’s podcast.

Loved him. I got to talk to him for another hour, but I had a volleyball game at ten minutes after the end of the recording and I had a split. Portland, Oregon based comedian and military veteran Shane Brendan releases his debut album Via Blonde Medicine at today in in either Way Pretty Funny, Brendan obsesses over NBA rookies and endearingly gripes about his family and if you ever want to hear somebody do slam poetry about working at McDonald’s, well he’s got you covered. He is my guest tomorrow. It is a wonderful conversation.

Please check it out.

Also out today, Paige Weldon’s comedy album I’ve Turned Out Fine.

This one from a Special Thing Records, Recorded in la It’s Page’s third comedy album and includes personal stories about working in a library, being an only child, and not attending high school reunion, as well as takes on her parents, tattoos, surprise continents, and health Therapista likes strippers now I’m remembering. I asked the record label if Page Weldon wanted to do the show. I didn’t hear back from them. What’s the deal with that? And that is your comedy news for today?

Why? Because my voice just gave out. I’d recorded three of these in a row to accommodate my schedule. So that’s your comedy news for today. If you’d like the program with us commercial interruption, there’s a link of the show notes.

I’d tell you how to do that. This podcast supports podcasting two point zero if you want to stream some SATs my way, use a podcasting two point zero app and you can do that. I like true Fans. I also like Hastematic is another good app for that sort of thing. And it always helps to grow the show.

If you tell a friend about it, if you like the show, they might like it too. You know what I’m saying. Yeah, see you tomorrow with Shane Brennan. He’s really great.

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Featured: Keegan Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Marc Maron, Robert De Niro, Sam Morrell, Michael Che, Sarah Silverman, Josh Gad, Chris Rock

What’s in This Episode

• Key & Peele reunion prospects and current separation
• Marc Maron’s Joker experience with De Niro
• Sam Morrell’s Joker 2 role on Howard Stern
• SNL at 50 years old with Michael Che interview
• Sarah Silverman on dark comedy and processing trauma
• Chris Rock’s Everybody Still Hates Chris reboot premiere
• Josh Gad regrets voicing Olaf in Frozen, hints at Frozen 3 and 4

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Caloroga Shark Media. Say there, I’m Shohnny Mack with your Daily Comedy News Keegan Michael Key. He’s in the macpack. I’ll tell you why. At the end of this story, he says that although Key and Peel were once an iconic duo, they don’t see each other that often anymore.

Keigan said, we lived together for a few months. We would write and talk about comedy, who we liked and why we liked them, and how that worked in the architecture of what we were trying to build comedically. When we were on camera, it was alchemy. It was just like, why is this working. It’s been almost a decade now since that show ended, and we don’t see each other that often anymore, which is to me a tragedy.

Peel lives in la Key lives in New York. Our evolution, I think is tied to both of what our desires are. His desire was to start exploring the horror genre. My desire was to do more dramatic work like had been trained in school. After Kean Peel, both of us jumped to another platform, but we needed that first platform.

He talks about in the early seasons, I was playing the clown more and doing more physical comedy in the beginning of our time together, and then I find myself into playing more of the straight roles and teeing up Jordan to play the clown. I got to work with those guys. A few times. I’ve mentioned I helped put together a Comedy Central radio for series XM, so I was in the room with them several times. Here’s the reason why I love Keegan.

Michael Key and Jordan Peele totally cool, but I love Keegan for this. So it’s my last day at Sirius. We’re at the super Bowl radio row and I’ve called in every favor. I have to get Comedy Central to give me really good guests for the super Bowl because it’s serious. The super Bowl is a big deal.

So we’ve got the cast of the work Alkoholics here, and we’ve got Key and Peel there, probably five minutes too early. Again, it was my last day. I had been let go, but I’m a professional, so I was like, I’ll stay on and finish the super Bowl broadcast. I called in the favors. I’m a pro, I will produce the show, and I did so.

Now, about two months later, they were on the cover of Newsweek is like comedy’s hottest thing. So on this Super Bowl day, one of the bosses just didn’t get it and got all excited that Jamie was there and the Cardinal of New York was there, and decided we were going to put the Cardinal and Jamie fox On together, which took away the set that I was going to use for Key and Peel. So the engineers put together I called it the kiddie table with like a snack table and the leftover equipment and stuck Key and Peel in the corner. And I’m just apologizing to those guys, and Jordan’s cool with it, and Keegan looks me out and he goes, dude, I see what’s going on. I get it.

It’s all good. And I will always appreciate that guy for reading the room and seeing that I’m trying and it ain’t me. So Keegan, Michael Keay, I love you. Mark Maren talked about watching Robert de Niro film the First Joker movie. Maren on his podcast said, I did that one scene with de Niro and Joker, and I was literally watching him because I was on the set all week and he’s playing that talk show host.

He doesn’t know his lines and they’re doing it over and over again. It was totally demystifying de Niro to me because I’ve watched him my whole life. Obviously he’s a great actor, but they understand something. People live their lives on cameraon be doing it that long. Because I’m watching it, I’m like, this is a disaster.

How they got cut this together? He knew was gonna be cut up alright, He’s been on set so many times. I was just gonna do it and do it, do it, and they’ll find one. Sam Morrell talked about his time on The Joker. He told Howard Stern, I think they expected me to suck, so I was kind of pumped.

I’m in my trailer and director Todd Phillips is going over with me and I was like, it says I’m an open micro this. Do you want me to be crappy like an open micer? And he was like, yeah, well you’re doing any jokes. Sam said, well, I’m not gonna bomb my stuff. I’m gonna kill Joker too.

Out on October fourth, do you like Saturday Night Live? Well, good, because we are going to talk about Saturday Night Live every single day for the next nine months. Did you hear SNL’s turning fifty? Michael Chase says, as the writing staff grows and as the cast grows, SNL’s like an apartment building, not a house. We all live together, but we don’t really live together.

A cold open could go down. I’ll be like, I don’t like it one bit, but it’s not my voice and it’s not up to me. I can’t agree with everything political we’ve had on the show, and I’m sure this stuff I’ve written that’s made some castmates bristle or some writers go, what are we putting on? We can’t say that, but we have to live with each other. We’re rid digging the space and trying to get this real estate for our ideas.

So there’s no one mission statement. I don’t believe beyond Funny’s funny maybe Lauren idea of what he wants the identity to be. As I always say, as Corny s it sounds at SNL, we’re not the A students. We’re the kids in the back of the class learning spitballs with the teacher. But I think the audience might feel like comedy is going to tell them the truth because they don’t trust politicians anymore.

They don’t trust news even and so they’re very protective of it, and they feel like if you say something against the side, it’s almost traitorism. It’s almost trees. It as to make fun of Biden or the left when Trump is running, and I get that feeling. But as time goes by and we face more disasters and crisis, we’ll understand that this was all a ridiculous time. Sarah Simmerman spoke to Saint Louis NPR.

She said, I think the one consistent thing with me is I’ve always kind of tackled the darkest reaches of humanity. That kind of started with speaking at my dad’s funeral and eulogizing him and realizing there was a lot of funny stuff in it. I’ve always felt that all comics become funny and developed their sense of humor as a means of surviving childhood. I would say one hundred percent of comics become funny that way. So it’s been a survival skill for us since we were kids, and so it’s very natural to me that processing death, especially big ones like this, feels very natural to process it through stand up.

I think the two things that helped me grow as a person our therapy and stand up. I think a lot of comedians have really feared getting well because they feel like their comedy comes from not figuring out their stuff. For me, I disagree. I’d rather be happy because I think we lived just one time on this rock and outer space, and it’s crazy not to figure out your joy, but to be able to utilize it and use it in poignant, ridiculous and silly ways. That really works for me.

Chris Rocks Everybody Still Hates Chris premieres today ten pm East and West on Comedy Central. Not sure why they made this, but Everybody Still Hates Chris features Chris Rock as adult Chris narrating stories inspired by his experience growing up as a skinny nerd and bedsty I like this one from Josh Gadd speaking to people. He says he wishes he hadn’t used his regular voice to voice all Off in Frozen. Josh Gadd said, if I could do it all over again, I would have not lent that snowman my voice, so I would have created a different voice because it’s very weird being in a supermarket and having a little child stare at him. So that was my first big mistake.

But you know, if people tell me I have a very unique voice, people seem to like my voice. I try to give it to them when I can. I saw Josh he was in the Book of more And when it first premiered million years ago, he crushed in that. Oh what a good show if you’ve never seen the Book of Mormon. Apparently they’re making more Frozens, he told Kelly and Mark.

All of a sudden, my phone’s blowing up. People are like, I’m so excited about Frozen three and Frozen four, and I said, so am. I I had no idea. Nobody thought to call us up and be like, oh, by the way, we’re doing two sequels to your movie. Bubba shared this one on the Facebook group, which is Daily Comedy News podcast group.

At the Norman Rockwell Museum an exhibition called What Me Worry The Art and Humor of Mad Magazine. It’s the Norman Rockwell until October twenty seventh. The exhibition explores the unforgettable art and satire of Mad from its beginning ens in nineteen fifty two. I’m scrolling down here on NRM dot org. They’ve got some of the cover arts, some of the old Mad fold ins.

Remember those. There’s an online symposium on Friday October eighteenth from six to eight and again on Saturday, October nineteenth, called the Usual Gang of Idiots and other suspects. Mad Magazine and American Humor join us for this lively exploration of the art and history of man. That’s cool NRM dot org if you want to check that out. The museum is in Stockbridge, Massachusetts if you’re up that way.

Open Thursdays through Tuesdays ten to five. They have an app as well, closed Wednesdays. Guys wait to schedule the article. John Adam Connover spoke to Variety. I think there’s some spin here.

Conover till Variety. A lot of people know me as an informational comedian, right, I do comedy about important topics. They don’t know me as a stand up comedian. And stand up comedy is my first love. So I want to do a straight stand up show.

I didn’t want to do information. I didn’t want to do Here’s how you can change the world. I just want to do jokes about myself, about my life. It’s personal story. What’s the spin?

John Well? He brought the quote to very personal special to drop out, to be able to care about every single detail and have it come out on this incredible platform where people are going to watch it and give a hoot about it. That’s very rare to be able to do as a comedian now. So not a it’s very special up on YouTube for free and hope that people watch or do it on a big streamer and hope their algorithm is going to show it to people. Yes, I mean the algorithm on Netflix.

If you don’t want Netflix money, that’s fine, But you know Netflix, every Tuesday they put a big, giant special in front of everybody’s face. It’s not really the algorithm, but okay. Adam says the specials called unmedicated not because I’m against prescription treatments for add but simply because they never worked for me and they caused me problems. I felt addicted to them for a while and they caused me to have other addictions as well. And I turned out fine, but other people maybe not.

Bo When Yang said he was obsessed with Gray’s anatomy growing up and he was going to pursue medicine, he realized later that his interests had to do more with Sandra Oh than with healing the sick, but it was a convenient way to satisfy his parents. He tilled The New Yorker. I think I did the drag of saying, well, maybe I’ll be a doctor. He then got into improv. Improv was my only wait point for a billion.

We were all fifteen year olds performing with beer drinking thirty year olds. Maya Rudolph says, when you’ve seen his funny, tend to be pigeonholed as the wacky best friend because there’s a lot of meat in that role. You think that’s where the fun is. He wants to be the straight guy, but you’re never the straight guy, and that’s all you ever want to be. I remember at SNL sitting in Lauren’s office saying I want to play the wife sometimes.

Why can’t be the girlfriend? He was like, you don’t want to be the girlfriend, you want to be the crazy German art dealer neighbor Kevin neil In told the Union his biggest influence was Chevy Chase. It’s been thirty years since I’ve been on SNL. It’s hard to believe so things are different. Back then, I was portraying more of a newscaster like a dry delivery.

And for the last fifteen years or so, people are more being themselves. They’re like comedians commentating on things and smiling and laughing about it, unlike newscasters. But things are changing. Newscasters on CNN or Fox News of personalities that are more entertaining. I’d probably fall more into that category with the snide comments more myself.

As for SNL’s fiftieth they told me to save the date. It’s almost overwhelming. At the fortieth after where I looked at it was like Madame Tussau’s wax Museum of Hollywood. Eddie Murphy was there and Prince Taylor Swift. It was crazy.

I’m so grateful for the career I’ve had and continue to have, to be honest with you, The highlight of my career was really early when I did the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. That was the only game in town for talk shows that validated he as a stand up. After the Tonight Show, I’ve never felt such a natural high. Tim Meadows also from SNL Third Straight SNL are here. Yeah, I line these up on purpose.

He’ll still we are in the CBS Comedy Pilot DMV, a single camera comedy pilot set at the place everyone dreads going most, the DMV. I’d put it second. I’d rather go to the DMV than the dentist our quirky and lovable characters and making minimum wage doing a thankless job where customers are annoyed before they even walk in the door. Good thing they have each other. Tim Meadows plays Greg, a former high school English teacher.

Greg is the examiner who likes to get through the driving tests and the day as quickly as possible. Greg is sardonic, defeated, and would love nothing more than to retire. Zarna Garg is getting a CBS comedy Zarna. Garg will play Zarna. The ship was also called Zarna.

In Zarna, Zarna plays Zarna, a proun immigrant woman who’s been raising her American born kids on Indian values, but now that they’re getting older, it’s time for Zarna to focus on her own American dream. And that is your comedy news for today. If you enjoy the program, tell a friend about it. They might like a two. If you would like the program without commercial interruption, there’s a link in the show notes so to tell you how you do that.

If you’re hip to podcasting two point zero and you want to send some SATs my way, that’s the thing you could do. And I’ll see tomorrow