Author: johnnymacdcn

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Featured: Jerry Seinfeld, Mike Letterman, Mindy Cohn, Octavia Spencer, Amy Poehler, Jennifer Aniston, Norman Lear, Lisa Whelchel, Nancy McKeon, Michael Hitchcock, Vince Vaughn, Dave Chappelle, 50 Cent, Alison Rees

What’s in This Episode

• Jerry Seinfeld’s declined cameo on South Park as Turkey number two in 1997
• The Facts of Life revival spoiled by cast member making separate spinoff deal
• Vince Vaughn becoming majority stakeholder of Coachella Valley Scorpions pickleball team
• Alison Rees gaining TikTok buzz for Kamala Harris VP selection impression
• Dave Chappelle concert tonight featuring 50 Cent
• Johnny Mac’s appearance on the Letterman Podcast

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. Tidley Holme, Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. You know whose pubblicist deserves a race today mine. I’m the guest on the Letterman Podcast. Apparently Mike the host, everybody must have said no to him.

Everyone else must be dead or on vacation. It is the summer. He had no one to turn to, and he had asked me to be the guest. And we didn’t even talk about David Letterman. Have you heard of David Letterman hosted a late night show for thirty years, does a thing on Netflix.

He’s not that famous anyway, If you’re a fan of me and you want to hear me talk about me for eighty ninety minutes with Mike the Letterman Podcast, I will attempt to remember to put a link in the show notes so you can one click it. There’s also a YouTube version. So if you listen to this podcast every day and you’re like, you know, Johnny Mac’s got a sexy voice. He must be a handsome looking dude, even though he admits to being fifty four and could lose a couple pounds. Well, if you watch the video, there’s two of us the guy that looks like George Clooney, that’s me The Letterman Podcast Wherever you get your Shows.

Had a lot of fun talking to Mike. One of the topics we talked about is how I build this show and how I will put in the first position a story that has famous names so that people click on the podcast. For example, say you had a story where Jerry Seinfeld could have been on south Park that would be good for a headline. You would use that as your headline and make it story number one. Well as the story goes.

Supposedly, Jerry Seinfeld reached out to the creators of south Park back in nineteen ninety seven, was like, Hey, I’d be on the show, and the south Park guy said sure, and they asked Jerry to voice Turkey number two. Lines would have included things like gobble gobble. Jerry declined. The role of Turkey number two was played by one of the usual south Park voice actors. My favorite headline of the day from Entertainment Weekly, the Facts of Life revival was spoiled by a greedy bitch.

According to co star Mindy Cone, all right, let’s break this down because it gets really interesting, really fast. Mindy Cone says she and two of her castmates were betrayed when the fourth member of their friendly quartet spoiled plans for a revival of Facts of Life. Now, first of all, what would a revival of Facts of Life even be in the twenty twenties for sixty year old women living together? Do we want to see this? I don’t think we actually want to see that.

If you told me you were bringing it back in. Miny Cone is now in the Missus Garrett role and they’re like some new college age girls. All right, that makes sense. But four sixty year old women living together? Did they never get married?

Do they just have sad lives? Are they four widows? Isn’t this just the Golden Girls? What are we doing? Don’t make this, Minny Cones said, And during the pandemic there was a round table with Octavia Spencer and Amy Poehler and Jennifer Aniston.

They all said, yeah, our parents grew up with all the family, but we grew up with Facts of Life. That’s the Norman Lear sitcom that we love. Well. Norman Lear heard that and he reached out to the main cast of Natalie Cohne. Lisa Welcher, who played Blair came fields as Tuty and Nancy McKeon, who Johnny Mac has a soft spot for, she played Joe Lea reached out to them, they hired a writer, they started meeting the revival over zoom.

But what happened next, con says was not cute. One of the girls went behind our backs and tried to make a separate deal for a spinoff just for herself and devastated the rest of us. Okay, let’s speculate. Who do you think it is? Do you think it was Blair?

Do you think it was two Dy Do you think it was Joe hmm. I don’t know what any of them have been doing since. Which one of them do you think double dealt the other three? On the podcast where Mindy Cone told the story, actor Michael Hitchcock was one of the guests. Hitchcock said, there’s always a greedy bitch.

Mindy Cohn replied, you know what, Michael Hitchcock, greedy bitch. She was a greedy bitch. I’ll say it. She did not name names, but she did suggest that a scroll through her Instagram account would give a clue about which former cast mate she spends time with and with whom she does not. I’m tempted to whip out my phone right now, but I got a record the weekend, so I’m not gonna do it.

You guys, do it and tell me in the Facebook group Daily Comedy News Podcast group who Mindy Cone interacts with on Instagram and who who she doesn’t. Mindy said, a couple of people can’t move past it, don’t want to move past it. We’re not as united. We were united for forty years over not talking about each other, not doing dirty, you know, all for one, one for all. All this kind of wreck that which is sad, really sad.

Now I kind of want to see the four six year old women living together with their sad lives that didn’t work out. Ugh, don’t make the facts life. What are you doing? Vince Vaughn is set to become a majority stakeholder of the Pickaball team, the Coachella Valley Scorpions. No, it’s not a slow news day.

I’m just amused by the stories today. The Coachella Valley Scorpions were launched in May. They’re one of twelve teams competing in the National Pickaball League’s champions Pro League, which welcomes players fifty years old and above. So Vince Vaughn owns a senior league team pickleball team. Vince Vaughn said, I’ve always enjoyed the game, and in meeting co owner Kim jagged I was impressed with her not only as a player, but her passion and style of coaching.

I’m excited to support her and the Scorpions on their journey. Kim Jaggs said, when you’re on the court with Vince, you can feel his energy and excitement for pickleball. His involvement is an exciting development for the team and will help the Scorpions continue to build their brand both in Coachella Valley and in the broader southern California arena. Hey, guys, have you seen Welcome Torexham, Vince Vaughan pickleball? Do it?

Film it? You know what? Give a piece of this team to Ryan Reynolds. That dude likes to hustle to the point where Kevin Hart is like, yo, we take a day off. Alison Reese getting some buzz for her Kamala Harris impression.

Now, if you listen to the show every day, you know sometimes I’m a little tough on TikTok comedians. Let’s see Alison Ree as Kamala Harris picking her VP. Let’s listen who should be my VP? Oh bars Kay Barrack and he’s never been Vie John Stuart White. People like him, Monopoly guy.

People like money. They also like cartoons. I’d love to get Michelle. This is troubly busy writing a book or whatever, not Corey book or his cousin ru Paul. As I said earlier in the week, the impression is pretty good.

Not sure the material is there, and I’m not sure that’s going to get old or really quickly. But I’ve been wrong about such things, and I’m not from the TikTok generation. I don’t understand it. I’m up here on old Man Mountain where I get excited about things like Dave Chappelle playing a concert tonight. He will feature rapper fifty Cents, known for the worst first pitch in Major League Baseball history.

The show’s at nine PM. Tickets went on sale yesterday at noon. I told you about it as soon as I heard about it. I guarantee it’s sold out, and he wouldn’t let you bring your phone in anyway, So who cares? Sam Marillo talk to crackt No, there’s nobody named Sam Marillo.

It’s Sam Morrill. But my talkument has corrected it to say Sam Marillo, and I just read it. No, Sam Marillo. I don’t know what Sam Marirello is doing. Let’s google who’s Sam Marrillo.

You can tell him loose today because they just did ninety minutes with Mike on the Letterman podcast. Let’s see, this is a guy named Sam Marillo who has an Instagram account. There’s a guy who’s a news producer at NBC. But I’m going to click on Samarillo dot com, which says Sammarillo hair, and a click on Samarillo dot com tells us the hair you always wanted, with the confidence you always deserve. Let’s click on about Sam.

Sam says while most stylists offer a great first service, I see my role as a stylist a little differently. When I’m not in the salon suite, I’m more than likely with my husband and son enjoying some quality time. All Right, I have quite aggressed. Let’s not talk about Sam Mariillo.

Let’s talk about comedian Sam Morrell, who talked to Crack and shared that I …

He was crushing at that point. It was cool to see somebody in that zone. It was a very different type of comedy. He was doing a character. It was also a well oiled machine of a TV show.

Sam explained the flow of a comedy act and said, there’s a reason you can’t tell certain jokes at certain places. I can’t open on an abortion joke. I can’t open on a really dark premise. You have to earn it, just like in a friendship or life. That’s why it’s easier now for me to do stand up because the audience that comes out usually trust me.

But then you’re pushing it even further. Even now, I still need to put a dark joke later in my set. And no matter what, I call them hard to follow jokes. A lot of comics get off on being like I said it. But anyone can say it, you have to say it cleverly.

That’s literally the job to make it funny. There’s an obsession now with being shocking for the sake of being shocking, And sometimes people will show me someone and they’ll think I’ll find it funny because it’s edgy in their mind. But you know, I like clean comedy. I like good comedy, darker light. I don’t give a whot People get a little too caught up and what is taboo rather than what’s funny.

Continuing with today’s theme of doing stories that are amusing to me, from the Johnson County Post, your home for comedy news, the headline KC comedian starts a new endeavor with Johnson County food truck. That’s right, Jake Triplett’s publicist would win Publicists of the Day. But I’m winning Publicists of the Day for my eighty ninety one and it’s on the Letterman podcast, available wherever you get your shows. But Jake Triplett plans to open his Bondai Bulls food truck later this year. This is why this publicist deserves a raise.

The food truck’s not even out yet. It’s coming out later this year. We’re told. Between touring as a stand up comedian, podcasting, and creating YouTube content, Jake Triplett is used to giving people a laugh. With his newest business endeavor, He’s hoping to make people smile, albeit in a different way, by handing them a fruity treat.

Now, if you don’t think this pulsit deserves a raise. The details of the story tell us. While an exact address for the food truck has not been pinned down yet, Triplet hopes to open the Bondai Bulls by late summer or early fall. Once it opens, it’ll likely operate from eight to eight daily. Okse you’re curious.

Customers can create their own bulls or smoothies. You can add a vast range of toppings. Those toppings include blueberries, chia seeds, and homemade vegan granola. The bulls are vegan, gluten free, dairy free, and sugar free. You can also get other items like frozen lemonade, shaved ice, and granola power balls.

It’s not a slow news day. I’ve actually bounced stories already from today. I’m just amusing myself. Triplet is a self described smoothie bowl enthusiast. He says it’s a growing industry.

I like them so much, I just thought what if I made my own. By the way, if you’re in Johnson County, they point out new healthy eatery Bonsai Bowl has opened up in Overland Park. A new exhibit at the Catskills Borsch Belt Museum in Ellenville, New York. This weekend. It’s Borsch Belt Fest Tonight through Sunday, with heaping portions of nostalgia and comedy, music and panel talks at several locations throughout Ellenville, which is not too far from New York City nor my house.

I don’t think I’m gonna make it. I’m back and forth. I kind of want to go see Van Hagar. You know what I mean, if you’re paying attention. If not, it doesn’t matter.

On Saturday night. I also kind of want to go to the beach. I don’t know what I want to do this weekend, so I’m probably not gonna make the borsch belt Fest, which is an annual event maybe all by next year, produced by the museum, which bills itself as dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Borsch Belt resort area. In addition to street fair vendors, Hey, maybe they’d be a guy with a smoothie trek who knows food, trucks and artisans. They’ll be all sorts of events and discussions, including a game of Simon Says and a screening of Dirty Dancing.

I don’t know why I find this story is so funny today Today’s silly. So yeah, you know, if you got nothing to do, maybe this week and drive up to Ellenville and play. Simon says, Tonight at seven it’s cocktails and comedy. Kickoff Tomorrow at eleven thirty A m. Borsch Belt talks My Daddy the Comedian with the children of some borsch Belt comedians.

Twelve thirty. Simon says, down at Liberty Square eight thirty pm, Dirty Dancing. Sunday nine thirty am. You can’t get into Meet the Archivist Sunday Brunch and field trip. It’s sold out.

Borsch Belt Archivist Alan Frishman conducts a tour of his home, but it’s sold out. No brunch for you. One o’clock My buddy cousin Brucey. I worked with Bruce several times in my career. Very good guy.

Well. At one o’clock, Belt talks, This is Sunday cousin Brucey’s Dirty Dancing affair. The Radio Icon talks about his role in Dirty Dancing. Five pm. The Jackie Mason Musical Cabaret.

Oh yes, all this ninety Canal Street, Ellenville, New York. It’s close to a lot of big cities. You should go. Details at borsch belt org and that is your silly comedy news for today. Don’t forget check out the Letterman podcast if you want to hear me talk about me for over an hour, and normal episodes here on this feed all weekend.

Have a good day.

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Featured: Tim Dillon, Patton Oswalt, Hannah Gadsby, Kevin Hart, Tom Brady, Lil Rel Howery, Weird Al Yankovic, Joe Rogan

What’s in This Episode

• Tim Dillon’s new Netflix political talk show special
• Patton Oswalt’s live-action Minor Threats adaptation in development
• Hannah Gadsby’s new show ‘Woof’ debuting at NYC Abrams Arts Center
• Kevin Hart reflects on Tom Brady roast and impact on family
• Lil Rel Howery’s weight loss and lifestyle transformation
• Joe Rogan refuses to visit Canada under Justin Trudeau administration

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, Jenny Mack with your Daily Comedy News. Big news for Tim Dillon coming back to Netflix with something being described as a political talk show type special. According to Deadline, Dylan’s new hour will focus on the most important but often overlooked element of our political system, the people. It will pose the question do we get what we deserve?

Topics will lead to conversations no one wants to have at the holiday table, but Tim Dylon isn’t afraid to lead. He’ll host the special in front of a live audience. Interesting title, location, and date yet to be announced. It’s an interesting play. If you’ve been listening over the years, I’ve been very enthusiastic about Dylan’s career.

Recently, he had on Alex Jones and it kind of sapped my enthusiasm for Tim. I did check out the episode to see what they were doing, and Tim wasn’t being goofy or doing his usual shtick. It was like a normal conversation with Alex Jones, and I’m like, do you do you not? And it just, I don’t know. It left a bad taste in my mouth.

So my Tim Dillon enthusiasm is lower than usual today. Did not enjoy that. Not sure why he had mister Jones on other than a download grab, so uh yeah, move on. Patton Oswaltz is also in business with Netflix. They are developing the live action adaptation of Minor Threats, the hit comic book co created by actor and comedian Patton Oswalt You know, Minor Threats the hit comic book, Yeah, What’s Coming to TV.

The project is described as being in the early stages of development. Minor Threats centers on low level super villains usually find themselves bound in front of a police station with a note saying courtesy of your friendly neighborhood Batman. Spoilers the initial story arcs averted Superhero Convention, kicking off with the psychotic stick Man murdering the young hero kid Dusk, who’s the sidekick to Twilight, Citi’s premiere crime fighter, the Insomniac. With that vigili anti heroes teammates turning the city into police state in a desperate attempt to capture Stickman. Small time Dalist villains find their lives turned upside down, thus with a bounty on Stickman’s head, a former villain assembles a ragtag team to find Stickman and kill him themselves.

Apparently, Minor Threats was a big surprise hit for dark Horse when it debuted in August of twenty twenty two. Sounds interesting. Hannah Gatsby has another show, Woof. We’ll Make It to New York, debut this fall at the Abrams Arts Center. Hannah says, I get the impression of the world is ending, so I’ve decided to go down the nostalgic route over the ambitious one.

So New York City, you’re part of a tour. I’m revisiting many of my old haunts, such as the Edinburgh Fringe of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and my cousins in Sandy Bay. Woof begins performances on September twenty seventh for four weeks. Hannah says, this is my best ever show, hands down. I might quit after it for fun this time.

Kevin Hart, who Will Remind You, is out promoting at least three different things this week, is getting some headlines over the roast of Tom Brady. Sure, why not? Kevin Hart said, I like when the jokes are about me. I thought they were so fun. I didn’t like the way they affected my kids.

It’s the hardest part about like the bittersweet aspect of when you do something you think is one way and then all of a sudden you realize I wouldn’t do that again because the way it affected actually the people I care about most on the world. I’d have to go back and watch. I don’t recall what Kevin Hart’s kids would be upset about, but I’m sorry that they’re upset, I guess. But on the other hand, that’s what a roast is. Kevin Hart says when Tom Brady says he regretted doing it, I think what he’s referring to is saying I could have tapered it a little differently, or had a conversation of pre like guys, let’s go and do this, but let’s not touch this or that.

I think like the idea of going all in and just saying f it. I don’t care, because I know the world would love to see me being on the receiving end of stuff, because I’m Tom Brady and I’ve been at the highest stage all my life. I think it was that Kevin said what it did for comedy and our climate of sensitivity I think was necessary and valuable. Although I can side stop doing both sides. Pick a stand, Kevin Hart, Come on, I’ll pick a stand.

It was the best thing of the year. Pick a side, Kevin. Kevin said, although with Tom and see where he’s coming from, and just him wanting to protect the idea of family and conversation attached to that, that’s probably where that’s coming from. Tom Brady. Nobody made you do a roast.

Nobody put a gun to your head and said, hey, we’re going to roast you. You signed up for it. Kevin said, I’m not privy to what he dealt with after, so I know his response and saying something about it was a result of possibly that. But that thing made people comfortable with the concept of a joke being a joke. That’s what a roast is.

Everybody, you don’t accidentally wind up on a roast. People are commenting on Lilrell Howary’s appearance. He has lost a lot of weight. How He says his new body is the product of a radical lifestyle overhaul, daily workouts, and therapy. In an Instagram post, he said, this is my own appreciation post for myself.

I’ve worked really hard on myself the last five years, physically, mentally, spiritually, professionally and personally. I’m so proud of myself. This is the best I’ve ever felt and looked in my whole life. Honestly, to stop drinking, eating better, working out almost every single day, writing, building a closer relationship with God, therapy, and honestly accountability has taken my life to the next level of pure happiness. Whatever you do, please do for yourself, and if you can, don’t take the short cut.

Really put the work in. This is just a whole straight, hard work stuff that’s the honest to God’s truth. Let me be an example of truly putting the work in. Some people were suspecting he had taken ozepic, which he says he has not.

Also, coincidentally, he’s out promoting his new film, Harold in the Purple C…

Hey, weird Out, it’s been ten years since Mandatory Fun. How do you think it is? Is it your best album or what? Weird Al said, that’s a good question. With every album I’ve put out, I’ve said it’s the best thing I’ve ever done, and I’d always believe it at the time.

Now at ten years of distance, if I’m looking over my entire career, I don’t know if it’s my best album, but I would say it’s still one of my best. I would say for sure that the last six albums that it produced are better than the first six, and I’d like to think I’ve gotten better over time. I think the songs are better crafted and better overall. So if it isn’t the best album, I’d like to say it’s one of my best. Joe Rogan is refusing to travel to Canada.

Okay, fine, he won’t do it while the nation’s prime minister is Justin Trudeau. Rogan was talking on his podcast with Sam Morrel. Rogan said, some people they’re always just trying to define themselves to you. They always wanted to find themselves in a very nice way. Sam said, I do kind of miss types of people who are like, hey, let’s bond over something else other than the world ending.

Rogan responded, yeah, but you know, when people don’t have any legitimate conflict in their life, they manufacture conflict. Rogan and mocks people who say they have PTSD from the last four years when Trump was in office. Sam Maurel said, not to mention, I’m moving to Canada, and I’m like, you think Canada wants all our whiners. Rogan said, not only that, but Canada has like ridiculous hate speech laws. They can come down on you for a lot of things.

The people were donating to the trekkers, they seize their bank accounts. That’s not a good place. It’s not a good place under this administration. At least they went sideways. Newsweek has contacted the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada via email for comment.

I’ll let you know if I see any comment from Justin Tchoudeau from The Cambridge Day. You’re home for comedy news. It was the inaugural addition of the Heck Yeah, heckle My Show. I was on Tuesday at the Rockwell in Summerville. The Cambridge Day asked co host Caroline Moore, how would you describe the concept of a heckle mic to someone who’s never heard of it.

Co host Caroline Moore said, if you’ve ever seen one of those videos where an audience member just shouts something out, that’s the basis of a heckle mic. Sometimes you’ll get a person who’s too drunk or too high and they feel like they want to be part of the show, and in the moment I realize you’re ten minutes to listen to Daily Comedy News, you probably know what a heckler is. I’m going to skip ahead. The comedians get on stage, they have one minute to do their standard material. After that one minute, they have four minutes where people get to ask them questions or roast them.

It depends on what the audience feels. If the audience is, ah, this joke sucks, they’ll let you know. Everyone knows what they’re signing up for, except possibly Tom Brady and maybe Kevin Hart, depending on which way the wind’s blowing. Politically, we got business deals to make people are expecting to be heckled. It’s not a surprise like it is at a normal open mic.

Even as an audience member before it was doing stand up, I would think, oh, that’s not a funny joke. You’ll hear jokes at open mics and you go just get to the point and you want to say that aloud. It’s a very aggressive feedback mic, but it brings camaraderie too, because you’re connecting with people and joking around. You can positively heckel too. A lot of people think there’s only negative heckling.

There are so many ways of heckling. It’s for people who are open to that experience. It’s a chance to be goofy. If you’re in Somerville. It’s at the Rockwell two fifty five Elm Tuesday, seven o’clock.

Hell yeah, heckel Mike. The show is free and I’m a little cynical today. Here’s this next headline. Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld have a date with the Greenwich International Film Festival. You see, Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld will receive the change Maker Award honors at the Greenwich International Film Festival’s gala event on November thirteenth.

The change Maker Award honors artists like Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld who have used their public platform and the power of film to further positive social change. Previous winners Lin Minwel, Miranda Eva Longoria, John Legend, Ashley Judd, Harry Belafonte, Mia Farrow, and now Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld. GIFF founder and cheerwoman Wendy Stapleton said Jerry and Jessica are the perfect fit for change makers in this momentous year. Jessica has used her platform for decades. No, i’dn’m blowing at it.

Let me read that again. Jessica has used her platform for decades to advocate for the disenfranchised, underrepresented, now the Jewish community in their battle against the rising tide of anti Semitism around the world.

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And then she added Jerry having created the iconic comedy show her lifetime.

I mean, is he even famous? That guy is the perfect balance we’ve always had looking for a change maker. He’s a celebrity who is able to tackle difficult topics while making us laugh. What an incredible gift laughter is to carry us through challenging times. Boy, they are lucky that Jessica has such a wonderful husband and that he’ll balance the events.

So yeah, that’s November thirteenth. If you’re rich enough to live in Greenwich or visit Greenwich, you can go see Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld. That’s your comedy needs for today. I think I’ve said it all between the lines to day, don’t you see tomorrow

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Featured: Jimmy Fallon, Joe Biden, Taylor Tomlinson, Alison Reese, Kamala Harris, Pete Davidson, Kevin Hart

What’s in This Episode

• Jimmy Fallon’s Biden resignation joke
• Taylor Tomlinson announces ‘Save Me’ tour with new schedule
• Alison Reese TikTok profile and Kamala Harris impression
• Pete Davidson discusses drug use and car accident on stage
• Kevin Hart Airbnb Icons hosting weekend at Coromino Live Lounge
• Just for Laughs Montreal Comedy Festival returns with new ownership
• Eliza Shlesinger free performance at closing night of Montreal fest

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 man, Jenny Mack with your Daily Comedy News Jimmy fallon joke, Joe Biden is now getting credit for guiding us through the pandemic, creating millions of jobs, rebuilding our nations crumbling infrastructure, and eliminating billions of student loans. Democrats heard that and we’re like, hey, this guy should run for presidents. Allen also said, typically on Sundays, everybody thinks about quitting their job. Biden’s the first person to actually go through with it.

There is actual news today, unlike yesterday’s podcast. Taylor Tomlinson has announced a tour. It is called Save Me. It’ll kick go off this fall. Taylor will deconstruct her faith, explore her sexuality, and decide whether or not having children is worth it.

Taylor has previously said I took After Midnight hosting gig because they were like, we film Monday through Wednesday. You can tour on the weekends, and once you’re on tour by yourself, you don’t see other comedians. So I was like, oh, you can play around with other comedians on TV for half the week. That sounds that’s great for the Save Me toward Taylor Thomason will perform on Fridays and Saturdays so she can be back in La on Monday. The New York Times has profile TikToker Alison Reese.

It seems Alison Reese has the Kamala Harris corner of TikTok. The Time says she’s known for her impression of Harris and that Reese puts on pearls and a distinct vocal effect for the satirical sketches she posts on TikTok. She has more than two hundred thousand followers. I’m sure she’ll have a lot more soon. She gained another ten thousand of them on Sunday.

I checked it out. I went through several clips because I wanted to pull one for you, and then I was like, none of these are really that funny. I think the impression is good. I think the impression is better than the material. I’m not sure she will be the definitive Kamala Harris of our generation, but she’s off to a good start.

Like I said, I pulled a couple clips and I couldn’t find anything hilarious, But let me share the impression with you to check out anyway. A lot of people be like she laughed too much. Have you ever seen Donald Trump laugh? I don’t think he can’t. He don’t land, he can’t last.

I bet if he did land to be something. Here’s my impression of Donald Trump lamping ready because he must. It’s pretty good. But I think doing the laugh every five seconds is going to get old pretty quick. But what do I know.

I’m recording a podcast on my basement and I don’t have two hundred thousand followers. The Times spoke to Reese on Sunday night, and re said, it’s been a weirdly crazy day. I can’t imagine what Kamala’s actual day was like. Reese first stepped into the role of Harris during an SNL showcase. Re said, I was like, wow, as a half black woman, when am I ever going to get the chance to use this skill.

I could do a lot of different vocal impressions, but it was never applicable to be the voice took a couple of tries to get right. Harris’s delivery is musical with a touch of vocal fry. She lifts the pitch of a phrase when she feels it’s important, and splits long words into equally enunciated syllables. After that, the laugh, it’s like you’re surprised I have laughed, and then you’re really settling into enjoying that you’re laughing. It’s a very difficult time to do these impressions.

You can’t just be like, I’m a silly goose. You have to be intentional and thoughtful because some people take it very seriously. I think she’s got a good head on her shoulders. I don’t agree with everything, but who would. Re says she’ll be watching Harris’s next moves, a thing will happen, and I’m like, all right, get the wig.

Speaking of political humor, check out the Ballot podcast. We’ve been putting out at least two a day. We’re kind of in a rhythm right now of a morning episode and one around I don’t know, five thirty six pm Eastern. There’s just been so much going on. I want to get that back down to once a day.

It’s a lot of work. I mean, it’s not torture. It’s riffing jokes about the plutal news of the day. We still have to make the thing, but so much going on, and hard work is rewarded. The numbers on ballot are way up.

It actually outdrew this show, and this show’s five years old. Ballot where you get your podcast? Pete Davidson making headlines, everyone including me, going with the headline the one drug Pete Davidson can’t quit The Daily Mail reported in Atlantic City. On set, Pete david said on stage said I can’t quit weed yet. It’s all I have left.

I did coke and ketamine and all the pills and all that stuff. All I have is weed left. So it’s almost over, but I’m holding on for a bit longer. Pete Davidson talked about his car accident. I guess that was last year, earlier this year, who can remember.

Pete said, I saw the house and I was like, I don’t think you could die if he hit a house. Usually in sitcoms they go right through it. So I swerved and I aim for the house and actually hit the garage pretty good. Even at my worst, I’m pretty spot On March twenty twenty three, this happened. He slammed into a Beverly Hills house after driving one hundred miles an hour down the street, despite me understanding that he was doing stand up comedy.

There is nothing funny about a speeding accident. Pete said, the cop came and he was all mad because I drove into a structure. I was freaking out and I had to calm myself down. He said he was scared of potentially going to jail. Kevin Hart never afraid to work.

He’s got yet another gig. Well, he’s got like five gigs. This week He’s doing an Olympics thing on Peacock. I think that kicks off Friday. But for this story.

As part of Airbnb Icons, Kevin Hart will become an Airbnb host for one weekend only. He will welcome visitors to the Corimino Live Lounge, named after Grand Coromino, which is his tequila brands. So not only is he working, he’s tied two things together to make some money. This guy knows how to make a bucks. During the evening, Kevin Hart will join guests and enjoying stand up comedy from surprise guests teased as a listers, as well as a tasting of all three Coromina tequilas with a bartender Chai Lee.

Even Jim Gaffigan is like sounds kind of lame bro. The visit will also include music from a live DJ, four signature cocktails, and a plant based appetizer. Why a plant based appetizer? Oh yeah, Remember Kevin Hart’s got his hand in some fast food chain that’s a plant based Yeah. This guy’s tying it all together.

Why not record a podcast and a TV show and recap the Olympics while you’re doing it? Kevin On Kevin Hart’s official Airbnb host profile, his page reads, what’s up, world, It’s Kevin Hart. You might know me as an actor and comedian, but I’m also a producer, media mogul at a one time underwear model. Not a joke. I’m also a lifelong lover of tequila and the founder of Grand Cormino.

It may sound like a lot, but hard work tastes different. I’m excited for you to get a taste of all that hard work at the Cormino Live Lounge. Market calendars. It’s about to go down. Jim Gaffigan may have said, dial it down, buddy, Come on enough.

How much money do you need? Kevin Hart’s Lounge would cost zero dollars to request. Bookings will open August twenty first at nine am Pacific, and you can visit to Kevin Hart’s Airbnb if you are selected September twenty fourth through the twenty sixth, twenty twenty four in Los Angeles, California, this weekend. I had forgot about this. It’s the Zombie just for laughs.

Montreal Comedy Festival. Remember the fest went bankrupt and then they got new owners, and the new owners slapped something together. Well, you can see quote famous American comedian unquote Eliza Sluzenger for free as part of the closing nights. If you’re in Montreal, head over to the place Day Festivals. That’s how it’s pronounced in French, and that is Sunday at nine fifteen, and we’re told, don’t miss this unique and free opportunity to see Eliza live, because missing her show would be a big joke, but not a good one.

I appreciate you all listening every day, especially as the show comes up on the fifth anniversary. I think Monday, I’d have to go back and see when I publish the first one, but July twenty ninth is in my marine. But anyway, we’re coming up on five years, and I wanted to shout out to Isaac who dropped me a note. Hello, Isaac, appreciate you thanks for listening. Ariel Dundas gave Broadway World her tips to doing the Fringe over in Edinburgh.

Ariel says, the fringe is kind of like a marathon you have to run. At Sprint, I’ll be doing an hour long solo show twenty four times over the course of twenty five days. During those days, I’ll be seeing as many shows as I possibly can. In between performing on shows with multiple performers. I also need to be constantly promoting my own show at the fringe.

It’s customer, I’m ready to promote your show by doing what New York comedians would call barking. That means handing out flyers to people as they passed you on the street. In Edinburgh they call this flying. Let me talk about that for a second. Back when I was really deep into this, at the prime years of running zero s X on Comedy, there would be these poor comedians handing out flyers in Times Square and I’d walk through Times Square to catch the bus on the way home every day and I’d be like, do you like comedy?

And I wanted to. I never did it because I’m not such a jerk, but like, I wanted to have a famous comedian on the phone and be like, actually I do here talk to my friend Larry or something like that. I never actually did it. I don’t know why I wanted to do that, but it was just I don’t know, somebody handing me a flyer when I just like would have walked out of a room with Deane Cook and somebody going do you like comedy and be like, m yeah, anyway. Ariel Dundas says, I think the biggest benefit of doing the Fringe is getting to do the fringe.

Like, personally, can’t imagine anying more fun than getting to do stand up for at least an hour every day. On a practical level, it means you improve by leaps and bounds. It’s basically time dilation, a year’s worth of improved in just one month. On top of that, you’re meeting creative people from all over the world. Pro Tips applications open in January, and while most of them are on a rolling basis, I would suggest having a description of your show, a marketing plan, and an artist bio ready to go in December, so you can apply as soon as they open.

Once you’re selected, usually in February or March, I would immediately get started making branding for the show, get pro pictures taken and hire someone to make the posters and flyers for you. You’re also going to want to post about the show on social media. I recommend just incorporating reminders that you are going to be in Edinburgh to your current social media presence. That reminds me I got to update on my email signatures. That’s on the list of things to do for today.

Luca Zelnik has announced a thirty plus city stand up tour as the headliner of the first ever Java Monster Highly Laffinated Comedies. You know, the publicist sent this over this morning and I was like, oh, I’ll put that into the show. And I read the Luca Zelnik park and I never got to the Java Monster Highly Laffinated Comedy Tour poard pretty good. I like at The tour launches in North America on August eighth in Brooklyn. Is that how we describe Brooklyn?

Now it’s in North America, not even New York, it’s just North America, Brooklyn. It’s over thirty cities before wrapping in North America. On one of the dates this year known as New Year’s Eve in Buffalo, North America. Other cities include North America’s Washington, d C, Dallas, Atlanta, and Boston. Lucas Zelnick As an NBA from Stamford, I have one out of Saint John’s What does that get you?

You host a podcast in your basement? On stage, Lucas’s conversational stand up challenges his cushy Manhattan upbringing with punch heavy material, while his quick witted crowd work in death maneuvering with hecklers and outtakes has gotten him over one hundred million views on socials Nice. He gave a quote, could be more excited about partnering with Java Monster to debut the Highly Elafinated Tour. Their tasty drinks will be a perfect combination with my tasteless comedy. Get your tickets before they sell out.

Hey, Java Monster, I know a guy that this was a daily podcast about comedy who’s been known to drink coffee. Anyway, if you want to see the Java Monster Highly Laffinated Tour, Brooklyn, North America, August eighth, Tempe, d C. Richmond, Jersey City, Hampden, Connecticut, Charleston, Wilmington, Columbia, South Carolina, and Naples, Florida, Johnia, Beach, Florida and New Orleans, Nashville, San Antonio, Dallas, Las Vegas, San Diego, Cleveland, Philly, Salt Lake, Denver, Lincoln, Nebraska, Springfield, Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri, Athens, Georgia, Atlanta, Boston, Vancouver, Buffalo. I was wondering why we were being so specific about North America, and that’s because of that one. Actually it’s two pesky Vancouver shows, but it’s not like he’s playing New Zealand.

And that’s the comedy news for today. I have one more thing I want to talk about, but it’s not comedy news. If you only came for the comedy news, you are dismissed for everybody else. Remember last week I talked about the commercials, and there was one listener who’s like, going to keep hearing promos for the TJ Show to drive me nuts. So I heard back from him.

Turns out the listeners in South America, which sounds pretty cool until you realize Lucas Zelnick’s tour is not going there. It’s a North American tour starting in Brooklyn at North America anyway, so he’s in South America, which explains everything. As I pointed out last week. A lot of the ads are geographically targeted, so a lot of American advertisers probably don’t run ads in South America. So you were hearing the TJ Show.

Now, once I put this all together, you know I probably shouldn’t promote the TJ Show in South America. So good news, listener, I have blocked the TJ Show promo from running in your country. Unless you travel, you should never hear it again. Now. Interestingly enough, I was listening to a ballot earlier today.

Oh, this is what I want to share with you. There’s this weird glitch in my neighborhood when I drive around. If I download a show in my house, it thinks I’m in New Jersey. If I drive around the neighborhood specifically an Apple podcasts and I stream a podcast rather than download it in advance. For some reason, Apple Podcasts think I’m in Ireland.

So I get all these spots for like Irish TV shows and the Irish Lottery.

And then driving around this morning on my way back from the National Donus C…

I guess I should block Ireland as well. All right, that’s your podcast for today. See you tomorrow,

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Featured: Dave Chappelle, Jon Stewart, John Oliver, Maya Rudolph, David Cross, Taylor Tomlinson, Mike Birbiglia, Bob Odenkirk, Atsuko Okatsuka

What’s in This Episode

• Dave Chappelle and Jon Stewart perform together at Apollo Theater
• President Biden withdraws from 2024 race; late night shows scramble for response
• Maya Rudolph potentially returning to SNL to play Kamala Harris
• David Cross discusses tour life, taking criticism, and the apocalypse
• Comedians on personal boundaries and creative control in 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. Hi. I’m Johnny Mac with a podcast called Daily Comedy News. But I gotta be honest, I’ve been doing this. It’ll be five years next week, and this might be the slowest news day I’ve seen, you know, other than something like Christmas or something.

Now. Normally, when I put together the show, I’ll google words like comedy and comedian. There’s a couple of websites I hit. I went through all that. I have one real story for you, and the rest is filler.

Another thing I’ll do is i’ll give you an example. So last week there were a bunch of articles about Sam Marrill. Sometimes I’ll take half the article and i’ll take the other half and I’ll push it into the future, because you don’t want to hear me talking about the same comedians every day. So I’ll take say half the samurial article and put it three weeks from now on a weekend, and use that to pad out a weekend episode. But for today, I’ve got one real story and I had to pull everything else up.

I’ll walk you through it as we do it. The big news over the weekend. I don’t know if you heard President Biden not running for reelection. Now, as I record this on Monday afternoon, nobody from Late Night has done a show yet. John Oliver got caught with his pants down.

They pretty openly record last week Tonight on Saturday Night, and the news broke Sunday at about one forty six pm Eastern, So Oliver got stuck with this immediately dated show before it even airs. Ouch. I feel your pain. As for me, I was in the pool at one forty five and I came out and I checked my phone and I saw the news and I was like, oh, I have to get to work, and I got to work on the Ballot podcast. So if you would like some snarky late night commentary, check out Ballot wherever you get your shows.

From a comedy standpoint, John Stewart put out a one sentence statement that said, legend and the other thing everyone’s talking about is Maya Rudolph hypothetically returning to SNL to play Kamala Harris. I think that would be a smart six week sprint for both the show and Maya. All Right, the one piece of actual news. On Saturday Night, John Stewart and Dave Chappelle did a show together at the Apollo Theater, and I was stunned to see this because I do prep this show. Maybe there’ll be a day where I don’t jump on the internet.

Like Saturday, I went to the beach. But I pretty much keep up on everything six days a week anyway, and Chappelle is definitely a name I googled daily to see if there’s any news. I saw nothing of this, but they played the Harlem’s Apollo Theater on Saturday night like any show involving Chappelle, yonder pouches, put your phone away and all that, But somebody has reported on it. The Hollywood Reporter said John Stewart was in great form as he dropped his unfiltered and very funny takes on Biden’s debate performance in candidacy and Trump’s Trumpiness. The Hollywood Reporter writes, there’s something about that moment when Dave Chappelle grabs a mic, stands or sits on stage before live audience and just riffs.

Some of the best gags of the night came early in his set, when you explain that fame is like running up a hill with bullets constantly whizzing past your ear, a reference to Trump’s recounting of the assassination attempt, and he joked about Sean Combe, saying, oh, they got puffed daddy, in a reference to mister Combe’s legal issues, which include accusations of assault and sex trafficking. Some of Chappelle’s topics were told included Trump, Biden, Fame, Ohio’s men, and Gaza. On politics, Chappelle pointed out how the entire process is a snake eating its own tail. He also joked at twenty twenty four is the first year that white voters got to feel as hopeless about no good candidates as blacks do every year. CHR says the set grew unpredictable at times, with Chappelle’s shouting back at Heckler’s who had beefs with Dave?

I wonder what that’s about, Hopefully Morall coming about that. I wonder if that’s about Gaza or why would you accidentally wind up at the Apollo Theater seeing Dave Chappelle if you don’t like Dave Chappelle. The two comics were on stage together to close out the show. No details and what they talked about there. As I mentioned Slow News Day, I pulled some stories up from future weekends.

David Cross spoke to Entrepreneur magazine about staying motivated, and Cross said, sometimes it’s tough. I’m tired. We were out until two in the morning and we had to get up and go to Spokane and make it connecting flight to Oklahoma City and you don’t get into late and it’s just needing free doos. But I mean it’s professionalism. You have to figure out how to get yourself ready to go, whether it’s doing a bunch of bush ups or whatever.

One thing I pride myself on is I give one hundred percent every time I’m up there, and even if the crowd sucks, which doesn’t happen that much anymore. I always imagine a sixteen year old kid in the balcony who’s at his first comedy show. That’s stolen from Joe Demaggio. Joe Demaggio said that there might be a kid who’s seeing me play for the first time. I know your trick’s David Cross.

Cross says, all he or she wants to do is stand up. I want to do the show for that kid because I was that kid at one point. As for taking criticism, Cross says, the people whose criticism I always listen to or my wife Amber, Bob Odenkirk, and a handful of people including John Benjamin, when they give me a compliment. I know it’s not bs and I know it comes from an intellectual place, but some people like my stuff way too much, and some people just hate my stuff. I try not to listen to those extremes.

If the criticism is something like you’re offensive or you shouldn’t talk about that, those things aren’t really criticisms. But if somebody has a critical take on a bit and I can see their point and where they’re coming from, that’s a criticism I’ll take and acknowledge. Whether I choose to do anything about it, it’s a different story. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. He also cleared up any confusion about the end at times.

Dave A. Cross said, aliens are not going to be the cause of the apocalypse. We’re in a very very very very very slow, yet absolutely real apocalypse. Apocalypse doesn’t necessarily mean a bunch of fireballs to send on planet Earth and in seven seconds we’re wiped out.

And now we’re going through the apocalypse right now, in real time.

My plan go out on tourstell some merch and then just invest in fresh water. The Hollywood Reporter had done a round table with a bunch of comedians and they were asked, do you guys have a third rail? Taylor Tomlinson said, I don’t do jokes about people in my family, are friends of mine, or people I’m dating without running it past them, because I just don’t think it’s worth destroying relationships for ninety seconds. When I was twenty one, I was like, burn it all down to be a legend. But then you get older and you’re like, oh, I’m alone.

Mike Birbiglia told The Hollywood Reporter in his twenties he wanted to be a star. Then at thirty, I was given my own sitcom at CBS and they shot the pilot and Bob Odenkirk, by the way, if you’re playing Bob Odenkirk bingo today Drink played my brother and Nick Kroll played my cousin. And was like, Oh my god, I can’t believe it.

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And then by the time it went through the factory, that is, the studios and th…

It wasn’t my creative vision, and it didn’t get picked up to air and thank god I went back to New York. I made Sleepwalk with me. Nathan Lane put his name in a reputation behind it, and it changed my life. Otsco at Costco was recently in Manila. She wrote a jeepney for the first time during her visit, and an Instagram post she shared a video of that experience and said, what’s up, guys, I’m in a jeepney.

That’s pretty much their public transportation a bus. You ever been in a bus where the windows are all open? Hole? You ever been in a bus there’s a hole in the back. Welcome to the Philippines.

She compared the jeepney to a roller coaster that’s more than just a ride, and said, this is like a roller coaster, except it gets you to work. Come on, how fun is that? Slow? News Day, John Slow Newsday listener. So this would have been the lead story it was.

David Letterman was scheduled to do a fundraiser for Joe Biden. I guess he’s not going to do it anymore unless he’s doing it for Harris or other candidate. The Mortha’s Vineyard Gazette had announced the event as part of the Biden victory fund as President Biden makes his bid for a second term later this year, invites to the event hinged on donations of twenty five hundred to twenty five thousand dollars. Interesting that Letterman was going to do that, and I assume now it’s not happening. I’ll let you know if I hear more.

As a deep dove of looking for things to tell you about today, I type the words Adam and Sandler into Google, and I’m kind of glad I did because I saw this one from film critic Mick Lea sal in the San Francisco Chronicle, who was doing a Q and A and one of the cues asked him about mister Sandler, and film critic Miklasal from the SF Chronicle said, I used to think Adam Sandler was one of the worst things on earth, not just one of the worst actors or comedians, but one of the worst things period. Now, let me clear something up. A lot of people think I am secretly Miklasal from the San Francisco Chronicle. I’m not. We’re two different people with apparently the same opinion.

Mick said, not just one of the worst actors or comedians, but one of the worst things period. Not quite up there with the most horrible things like war or femine, but still one of those awful nuisances that are impossible to escape, like the flu. But then there’s a twist. Mick lasl San Francisco Chronicle Film critic rights, but I started liking him with click with click, and my positive opinion of him was solidified by funny people, and just go with it. In retrospect, I must have, at least in part, been wrong about the guy.

But he also changed. He went from being a comic to the person who gets laughed by reacting to other people being funny. His talent is not to be lu Costello, but to be Bud Abbott. He’s an excellent straight man, maybe the best out there. One of the not so great aspects of being a film critic is being forced to watch movies made by people you don’t like.

But the flip side is that seeing everything allows you to not get stuck in an opinion. Hmmm, I don’t know about that. I mean, Adam Saylor movies are inherently terrible, except for uncut gems, the basketball one, what’s that called Hustle? The Spaceman one that came out last year, wasn’t terrible and the ones with Drew barrymore everything else complete garbage. Frankie French’s new special is out today.

It’s called let Me Be Frank with a key at the end. There you’ll find it on YouTube. The description We’ve all heard tales of just how unpredictable and wild the Big Apple can be, and New Yorker Frankie French fully embraces that in her new special, Let Me Be Frank, particularly when she weaves a colorful yarm about a man. Num. I guess I could say this pleasuring himself.

Whatever you think that means. Maybe was having a slice of pizza, going hmm, this is good. I’m glad I bought myself a slica pizza. Anyway, whatever the man’s doing, he was doing it on the subway, and you shouldn’t eat on the subway. I mean, that’s something.

Just do it at a restaurant. Word belongs. Frank’s emphatic delivery and keen, comedic timing bring her jokes to the next level. And it short doesn’t hurt that she’s got an amazing singing voice as well. And that’s what passes for your comedy news today.

Hopefully we’ll have something tomorrow. Now, What’s good for Me is as stretchy as that was. I didn’t burn my Sam murl story, so I’ll save that for another rainy day. See you tomorrow. Go listen to Ballot.

Bye,

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Featured: Andrew Schulz, Taylor Swift, Scooter Braun, Mark Normand, David Cross, Shane Gillis, Weird Al Yankovic, Bob Newhart, Johnny Carson, Craig Ferguson

What’s in This Episode

• Andrew Schulz’s commentary on Taylor Swift and Scooter Braun controversy
• Scooter Braun stepping back from music management career
• Mark Normand discusses growing up in New Orleans and Brooklyn
• David Cross on stand-up comedy material and touring different regions
• Shane Gillis Trump impressions on Killtonia podcast
• Weird Al Yankovic’s evolution of polka parodies
• Bob Newhart’s potential to replace Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

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

Hi, Ai, Johnny Mac. Here. Today’s show was recorded a few hours before Biden announced he wasn’t running. I thought it would be weird not to mention the story anyway. Here’s real Johnny Mac with today’s Daily Comedy News Caloroga Shark Media.

Hello, Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. Is Andrew schultz career almost over? He took on Taylor Swift. You know what happens when you do that, right? Apparently there’s a YouTube video around where Andrew said, Taylor is the greatest artist I’ve ever seen live.

She’s truly brilliant, and she’s incredibly genuine. The power of when someone is genuine is when they say something, you believe it to be true. All right, John, what’s wrong there? Well, nothing’s wrong. But where he might get into trouble is Andrew theorized that the reason that Taylor Swift had fans target Scooter Braun is because his name gets no clout, so she starts referencing Scooter.

Andrew said he could understand her frustration with the situation. It’s all about royalties and stuff, and then added, has there ever been anyone in history that is a billionaire? The most successful in their field and also unanimously thought of as a victim. To manage those two things is masterful the emotional iq to have all your fans still see you as a victim, while everybody who’s aggrieved he has been punished and thrown to the wayside. I told Scooter, nobody’s going to feel bad for you because you’re a billionaire too.

I understand where you’re coming from. Where you like people think of me this thing that’s not true, Like there are facts and evidence and emails that show that she is lying, that is not a true thing, and people think of me this way, and that would frustrate the f out of me. Scooter announced on June seventeenth that his music manager career was coming to an end after twenty three years, and he’s also parted ways with Justin Timberlake and Kanye West. Mark Norman spoke to the Gazette about growing up in New Orleans and said it’s a weird place to grow up since we were constantly getting robbed. It definitely had an impact on me.

I would often walk into the house and somebody would be in my dad’s office stealing a computer or something. But our house was usually a disappointment for criminals that wanders who are weird home and found that that was really not much worth stealing. I love New York. You have to love it to be in New York. I’ve been mugged three times, but that’s what happened when he lived in Brooklyn before sections were gentrified, and you’re young, dumb and drunk.

I’m personally frustrated. If you listen every day, you know I drop into what I call half ass impressions. My Mark Norman has totally drifted back into doing the Seinfeld everyone does, and I can’t find it again. I’m gonna have to work on that. Norman’s comedy heroes, George Carlin, Mitch Hedberg, I could see that, Bill Bird, Gregg Giraldo, and Steven Wright.

All those guys are comic legends to me. George Carlin could do it all social commentary jokes. I’ve been in a comedy ever since I was a little kid. I was a big Groucho Marx fan. He was the funniest, weirdest guy.

Who ever thought I’d follow in their footsteps as a comic. David crosspoke to Entrepreneur and said, like most comics want you to do a special on your stuff’s out there. Unfortunately that stuff is done. Stand up is the only place where this exists in the arts. The materials done, you burn it.

You’ve got to start fresh every single time. When I start out, I don’t have a particular theme in mind. I riff a lot and then bits will expand. I write on stage of the stuff I’m doing at the end of the tours different than the beginning. When it comes time to make a special, I always need to cut some stuff I’ve developed because I don’t want to be up there for two hours.

I’ll always have about twenty minutes of stuff that I haven’t done yet that I can carry in to the news show, so I’m not starting completely from scratch. Then they asked him about insulting parts of the country he performs in. David Cross said, when was the last time he went to Phoenix? Because I was there recently. I had really fun shows.

But those people aren’t under the impression that they’re living in a place that doesn’t suck. We know this place sucks. I have to be here for school, I have to be here for work. Look, a third of our country lives in areas where they’re required by city ordnance to put out cooling water misters, otherwise half the citizenry will die. Believe me, people who live in these places know it sucks.

If you haven’t listened to Kiltonia with Shane Gillis doing Trump, it is hilarious. There is a compilation video of just the Trump parts that I want to share in the Facebook group Daily Comedy News Podcast Group, but Facebook locked me out and they were like, hey, you got to log in on your phone, and my phone was inside charging and I just moved on with my day on Sunday because it was nice out. But I may or may not have shared that in the Facebook group Daily Comedy News Podcast Group. By the time you’re hearing this weird. Al said when he was trying to get into his friend’s rock bands, they thought it was very funny when I tried to play a rock song on the accordion.

To them, everything on accordion sounds like poka. So I decided to lean into that idea and start doing Poka ed leys of rock songs and people think it’s funny. Case you missed it out put out a new Poka on Friday. Al explains as the pok has evolved. They started taking more inspiration from Spike Jones, the nineteen forties band leader who did like funny versions of songs, and he’d always incorporate gunshots and slide whistles and cow bells and weird sound effects, and I started incorporating that as well.

So yeah, the pokem Dleys nowadays is sort of like a cross between traditional poka and old school Spike Jones from Late Night Er. They tell the story of how Bob Newhart could have possibly, perhaps maybe succeeded Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. Newhart telled the story to Kriick Ferguson in twenty fourteen. Back in nineteen sixty seven, NBC was having one of their arguments with Johnny about salary. Johnny wanted to raise an NBC said that’s it no more.

He’s not gonna hold us up anymore. So they were trying out other hosts, and I did the show for three weeks in New York. Newhart did three weeks as guest hosts in the summer of nineteen sixty seven, a few months after Carson had temporarily quit the show over contract dispute. That dispute was about NBC’s decision to air reruns of the show during the after strike. Carson felt it violated his contract.

Jimmy Dean hosted the show for two weeks during that dispute. By July, Johnny was taking off three weeks to perform in Las Vegas. That’s when new Heart subbed. New Heart subbed for another three weeks that November, when Carson did more shows in Vegas. New Heart told Craig Ferguson, I was kind of being groomed, but there was no bad blood.

Mark Malkoff, host of the Inside late Night podcast We Know Mark he was a guest a few weeks ago, said Newhart and Johnny were friends. Newhart did it the right way and checked in with Johnny. Newhart said at the end of the three weeks, I was a blithering idiot. It’s the toughest job in the world. Malkoff says new Heart was one of the rare guest hosts that could have hosted the show permanently.

He definitely was in the conversation before, like when they were going to replace Jack parrge out to deb Debs joined the two dollars club at Buy Meancoffee dot Com. Slash Daily Comedy News, John, what’s the two dollar club? You sign up and you’re in the club, and I shout you out, Hi, Deb, and then you support the show by spending two dollars in my way every month. If one million people do it, I will have two million dollars minus fees. Not quite at a million people yet, but Deb much appreciated, and even more appreciated than the two dollars.

Is you listening every day? So hope you’re having a good day, Thanks very much. The Daily Beast pulled out some more quota from Trey Crowder. I think this is from the rant that I mentioned the other day. The words of Trey Crowder are according to the Daily Beasts, y’all.

In twenty sixteen, Trump rose I went viral. JD’s book came out. We got to know each other a little bit. He came to my show, hung out afterwards, went to a bar. All we talked about the whole time was the existential threat we agreed Trump posed to the American people.

While I was not charmed by the man, in fact, it was like pounding beers with a spreadsheet, I did leave there thinking, at least there’s some saying Republicans left, Crowder says, nobody tongue polishes a boot heel like this m effort. The only reason any of us know who JD is is because he’s bought, paid for, and wholly owned by Peter Thiel. Peter Thiel, the billionaire whose current pet project is military AI. So yeah, if you thought Dick Cheney and Halliburton was bad, you just wait till my boy Jim Dave unleashes his sugar Daddy’s or mona of autonomous murder drones on Gaza. F JD vance the laugh Out Loud Loveland Comedy Festival, returning August first, which is not too far away.

If you were friends with me in real life, you have to realize, I panic that summer’s over. I start worrying on July third, that summer’s over. I live in New Jersey. We get ten weekends, and I start doing the countdown immediately. So the threat of August first to me, Oh, August first is like the two minute warning of summer.

I understand that I’m crazy in this four or five weeks left, and I work from home and it doesn’t really matter, and I can record the podcast early and go to the Beach on a Tuesday and September. I get it, but boy, I’m panic when August is coming. But at least this August will have the laugh Out Loveland Comedy Festival. It’s in its second year to bring over twenty five comedians from across the country to perform at various venues in downtown Loveland for a four day event. Friend of the show, Dan Boublitz Junior, is behind this one.

It said, the response and support received in our first year was overwhelming. We were unsure how this new comedy festival would be received, but every show sold out. That’s very impressive, and we had to turn people away. That’s a good problem to have in our first year, and we hope to have that same problem this year. Headliners include Adam Clayton, Holland, Georgia Comstock, Elan Stribling, Hannah Jones, Shaney, Ross Zach Reinert, and Rosalie.

The festival will also feature some of Colorado’s finest up and coming comedians, along with comedians from across the country. Details at laugh Out Loveland dot com. Dan was kind enough to send over bios of the comedians. I have them here in my show notes, but this morning, Johnny Mac had some bagels and there’s something in the Bigel ingredients giving me allergies. I’m having trouble even speaking today, so I’ll dive in on these comedians maybe tomorrow or maybe closer to the festival.

But Dan, thank you for sending that over. Bill Maher has switched agencies a few months after a report that he had grown disenchanted with CAA. Bill Moore now with WME. Ronny Chieng is part of a new ad campaign with something called Ratio. Tiffany Cealin is a senior manager of brand Experience for Dairy at General Mills.

Tiffany, the senior manager of Brand Experience for Dairy at General Mills, says, our Ratio portfolio makes it super easy for people to hit their macro goals. Oh souit much, but we also know that process can sometimes feel super serious. We decided to work with Ronnie because he brings the exact mindset that embodies the Ratio brand, embracing the small winds with a lighthearted approach and a delicious snack in hand. No quote from Ronny Chieng, though, hmm. Paychecks are nice and that issue.

Daily Comedy News for Today I have to go drink some water or something clear. These allergies, I’m all stuffed up. No, I don’t have COVID. I had bagels. This happens every Sunday.

Why do you have the bagels? John? Have you had bagels? They’re good? See you tomorrow

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Featured: Kevin Hart, Andy Samberg, Chris Kattan, DJ Lou, Hannah Einbinder

What’s in This Episode

• Kevin Hart proposes SNL Hall of Fame concept
• Johnny Mac’s personal SNL Hall of Fame ballot and selections
• SNL’s 50th anniversary coming up
• Chris Kattan discusses energy and character work on SNL
• Chris Kattan on difficult host experiences during his SNL tenure

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. Well, I’m Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. Kevin Hart is kind of an interesting idea. He wants there to be a Saturday Night Live Hall of Fame. He was supposedly hosting his show Heart to Heart, which I don’t think anybody’s actually seen, and the guess allegedly Andy Samberg.

As the story goes, the conversation was Kevin Hart asked Andy Samberg does that exist? Is there an SNL Hall of Fame? As if Kevin Hart didn’t already know the answer to that, Andy Samberg was like, what do you mean, like an actual organization? Hart said, Look, you know all the cast members that were on SNL, but there should be an SNL Hall of Fame. Kevin Hart says, what I mean by that is the people that did the show that were able to do multiple things after the careers that were built after the show, and then after that you have another one with the careers that have existed that are still on the show, for example Keenan Thompson.

In twenty fifteen, SNL had an offside exhibit in New York City titled SNL The Exhibition. Then that exhibition was brought to Chicago from twenty seventeen to twenty nineteen as SNL The Experience. Kevin said, if there was an opportunity to give jackets and have all that comedy history in one room, I mean, the fiftieth is coming up, so I thought I would take a look. I’m on Wikipedia, and here’s a list of everyone who’s been in the SNL cast. So let’s keep this simple.

We’re not gonna do guest hosts. I know, someday, if we have the SNL Hall of Fame, like Tom Hanks will get in. We’re not gonna do musicians. I know. If someday we have the SNL Hall of Fame, somebody like Paul Simon will get in.

I’m going to put Don Pardo in first, right, He’s my first nominee. Don Parto the longtime announcer on the show. Other than that, let’s just focus on the cast. Obviously, Louren Michaels makes the SNL Hall of Fame as well. Cast wise, I’m just going to read everybody and react quickly.

Somebody take notes and let me know who I actually put in ready in alphabetical order by last name, Fred Ormison, No Aristotle AUTHORI stop, Dan Ackroyd yes, Peter Ackroyd no, Morwena Banks from nineteen ninety five No Vanessa Bay no, Jim Belushi no, John Belushi yes, Beck Bennett No Brewer No. Paul Britton was on the show from twenty ten to twenty twelve. No. A Whitney Brown No. Eighty Bryant no, Beth k Hill no, Dana Carvey yes, Chevy Chase yes, Michael Jay Hmm.

Ten seasons at the Desk Ing yes, Ellen Kleighorn no, George Coe from the nineteen seventy five cast No Billy Crystal no, Jene Curtin yes, John Cusack no, Pete Davidson no, Tom Davis no, mikey Day no, Denny Dillon, know, Andrew de Smukee’s no, Jim Downey, Robert Downey Junior, Brian Doyle, Murray, Rachel Dratch, Robin Duke, Nora, Don, Christine Eversol, Dean Edwards, Abbey, Elliott, Chris Elliott all no, Jimmy Fallon six seasons no Chavon Fallon Who once season nineteen ninety one No, Chris Fourley yes, Will Ferrell yes, Tina Fay yes, Chloe Feinneman no Will Forte, know Al Franken eleven seasons No, Heidi Gardner noh, Janine garoffalo and a guest star Gilbert, Mary Gross, Christopher guest, Bill haterr No on everybody through guest Bill Hayter. I’m gonna say no. I’ve got a pretty high bar for the hall here. Anthony Michael Hall No, Brad Hall, Rich Hall No, Daryl Hammond Yes, Bill Hartman Yes, Marcello Hernandez, Lauren Holts, Jen Hooks, a Von Hudson, Melanie Hutzell, Victoria Jackson, James Austin Johnson, Punky Johnson, Leslie Jones No, Colin Jost eleven seasons at the Desks, Chasen, jos is In, Chris Gatan no, Tim Kazarinski, Molly Kearney, Nora Kitelinger one season ninety four, Tarren Killem, David Keckner, Gary Krueger, Matthew Lawrence, Julia, Louis dreyfus All No, Michael Longfellow, John Lovetts No, Nor McDonald yes, even though he only did five seasons. Very memorable, Gail Matthias, Michael McKean, Mark McKinney No, Kate McKinnon eleven strong seasons.

I didn’t realize she was on eleven years. I thought she was on like five. Hell. Yes, Tim Meadows for ten seasons. Hm.

Was he memorable or did he accumulate stats? Is they do in baseball? No, Laurie Metcalf, No, Seth Myers thirteen seasons. I know he’s at the desk. I’m gonna say no.

Send your letters to John at the shark deck dot com. John Milliser was on the twenty thirteen season. No Dennis Miller for six I’ve had the bar above Dennis Miller. So no, Jerry Minor, Vaness, Mitchell, Alex Moffatt, G Moore, Kyle Mooney, Tracy Morgan. Interesting, see, I feel like Tracy made an impression.

I might put Tracy in, but for now, I’m gonna say no. Garrett Morris for five seasons in that early cast. I’m gonna say yes. Bobby moynihan nine seasons. Uh No, because he’s not Eddie Murphy for four years.

But come on, Eddie Murphy, Yes, Bill Murray, Yes, Mike Myers yes, Kevin Nielan hmm. Now he’s on par with some people have said no to just the subjectivity of this and your letters to John at the Shark Deck. I’m gonna say yes for Kevin Neiland’s nine seasons, Larie Newman in for those first five years, Don Novello, Father, Guido Serducci, No, Luke Nol, No Ego, Nuotom, No, Michael Brian Michael, O’donahue, Cherio, Terry, Chris Parnell, Na Scene per DoD, Jay Farrow, Joe Piscopo, No, Amy Poehler. Yes, let’s see Emily Prigger. No, Rinny Quaid, No, Colin Quinn five seasons, No Gilda of course, yes, Chris red Noo, Jeff Richards, rob Riegel and Rizzley, Tim Robinson.

No, Chris Rock three seasons, SNL Hall of Famer. Yes, No, I’m gonna say no. He’s in some other hall of fame. He’s in the Comedy Hall of Fame, but not for SNL. Sorry, Chris Rock, Charles Rocket, Tony Risotto, John Runitski.

I thought he was gonna have a better career. He was a new face in Montreal million years ago. Maya Rudolph, I’ll I’ll say no to all them. Andy Samberg, he’s in the macpacks. You know I’m putting him in.

Adam Sandler, I gotta say yes. I don’t get it, but others like him. Adam Sandler five seasons in the SNL Hall of Fame, Ratio Sands, Tom Schiller, Rob Schneider, Paul Schaeffer, Molly Shannon, Harry Shearer, Sarah Sherman, Martin Short, Sarah Silverman, Jenny Slates, Robert Smigel two seasons, No to all them, David Spade six seasons. Maybe I’ll put him in the Tracy Morgan class of Welcome back to It, but not today. Pamela Stevenson, no Ben still Or no Cecily Strong’s eleven seasons.

SNL Hall of Famer. Think about the people I’ve left off now, She’s fantastic, wonderfully talented. I’m gonna say no. Sedakas for nine seasons. I’m gonna say no.

Julia Sweeney, Terry Sweeney, Keenan Thompson twenty one years in and he gets to MC the event, Chloe Trust, Denny Trevance and Melissa Villa, Signor, Dan Vittally, Devin Walker and Nancy Walls, MICHAELA. Watkins, Damon Wayans, Patrick Weathers, Noel Wells, They’re all knows. Brooks Wheelan No Kristin Wigg Yes in, Casey Wilson, Fred Wolf, bohen Yang not in yet. I’m not ready to put you in yet. But you’re on your Wife five Seasonsers and Ellen’s why Bell.

That’s who I’m putting in the SNL Hall of Fame. Let me know what you think. Somebody who’s not in the SNL Hall of Fame is Chris Gettin. He spoke to DJ Lou and I ninety five and Chris said, a lot of my characters did have a lot of energy. Like you said, I think having energy or having whatever feeling you have put in your performance in whatever character you’re doing, whether it was the Mango character of mister Peepers or whatever you just put into the character.

You just perform as much as you can. You kind of channel the character in away because you’re not really aware of what you’re doing sometimes when you’re really involved in doing your character so deeply. DJ Lou was curious on SNL were there are certain hosts that were difficult to work with or write for. Chris said, no, nobody really difficult. People always used to say, Steven Sagal, that’s before I got there, So I don’t know that’s a hard question because everybody is so great, you know.

I remember Jamiroquai said something about the show being rubbish, and that was about it. W Magazine spoke to Hannah Einbinder. She said, before I started acting, I was still local comic. I just started featuring for other comedians on the road and being an opening act hacks. It gave me the ability to to warn my own I was doing improv in college and I had some good moments, but I was too in my head to be excellent at it.

Nicole Bayer came to my school to perform. She asked if any of the kids from the improv team wanted to open for her. I volunteer. That was the first time I ever really did a show, was opening for her. I have a hazy memory of that time, and frankly my whole life due to copious drug use, but that’s a moment I’ll never forget.

I was so nervous, I could feel my heart beat in my throat. I had crazy chest pains. The second I walked out, it just melted. I love that feeling. I don’t know if I should say love, but it was more like drug use.

This full body high and it’s equally as painful when it doesn’t go well. Who are some of your favorite comics, she said, I would say that Jacq Linovak’s Get on Your Knees and Rory Scovel’s latest special. Both comedians aren’t so unique. You can either be unique or non. Hannah can’t be so unique.

My all time great so like Steve Martin, Jim Carrey’s early work, and Richard Pryor’s live in concert special and the albums of Bob newhartnellen degenerous actually as well, Liz Meely said, I think with my new Hour, which is almost a complete story, it has an art to it, it’s going to be harder to clip it out with the callbacks in it and stuff for social media. But you kind of have to go on that journey with me as well. Of course you can stand alone. I constantly perform for people who don’t know me. But there is a difference between the emotional how you show up at a comedy club and just showing up in your real after people falling and tax advice whatever people watch.

It’s a different heads base than when you’ve bought a ticket. Sit down, I know you’re gonna see a comedian, even if you don’t know who the comic is, as someone who puts out specials for free and stuff. You put the clips out or specials out when they’re done. If you want to see what I’m working on my newest stuff, you come see me live. If you want to see the stuff that’s done and off the roster that’s online.

Like I’ve had fans say they didn’t watch my special because they’re going to see me live in Texas, and I’m like, it’s done. I haven’t done those jokes in over six months. Like, as soon as it’s out, I’m on my next hour. In August, the Iowa State Fair is celebrating ten years of Jimmy Fallon leading the Tonight Show by making Jimmy into a giant statue made of butter. Well, they’re not gonna actually turn Jimmy into butter, you know what I meant.

They’re also going to make butter out of Johnny Carson, who is dead, so maybe they are making Johnny Carson butter. I haven’t really investigated this, and Fallon’s announcer Steve Higgins, we’ll also get the butter treatment. The comedians will serve as sidekick sculptures to the fairs famous butter cow centerpiece, which has been a tradition, as you know, since nineteen eleven. Previous butter sculptures have included Elvis Presley, Tiger Woods, Harry Potter, the Gang from Sesame Street. Last year, the fair honored Iowa athletes to Jack Trice, Kurt Warner, and Caitlin Clark.

The Iowa State Fair kicks off August eighth, and that it’s your comedy news for today. If you like the program, tell a friend about it. They might enjoy it too. If you would like this without commercials, link in the show notes caallerrha dot com, slash plus see you tomorrow,

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Featured: Weird Al Yankovic, Joe Rogan, Sam Morrell, Reggie Watts

What’s in This Episode

• Weird Al’s 10-year anniversary of Mandatory Fun hitting number one
• Weird Al’s new Pokémania medley with 12 song parodies
• Joe Rogan’s story about a comedy club cutting his pay 25% after Fear Factor ended
• Sam Morrell on Netflix oversaturation and struggling comedians in the streaming era
• Reggie Watts’ improvisational special ‘Never Mind’ launching on Veeps

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 nine Jommy Mack with your Daily Comedy News. It’s been busy around here, all right, Just to catch up on the feed. Yesterday, around one pm Eastern, I dropped celebrity reactions to the passing of Bob Newhart. There was a normal episode Friday. I know, sometimes, especially if you use Apple Podcast, you might miss an episode because it only puts the most recent one in front of you, So yesterday there were two.

Thursday night, around seven pm, I shared an episode of TV in the Basement where Joe Mitchell did a really nice recap of Bob Newhart’s TV career. Before that was the O bit and before that was the normal episode on Thursday.

All right, let’s move forward.

Ten years ago, Weird Al made history Mandatory Fun, his fourteenth and final studio album, hit number one. I remember listening to that for the first time. I could tell you exactly where I was. I was out for a run. I was listening to the song Foil and I’m like, this is kind of lame, like it’s Lord’s Royals, but it’s about aluminum foil and it’s kind of dumb.

And then I should have trusted Weird Al we got to the second half of the song with the wonderful twist where he went into crazy conspiracy Land. I was like, oh, gotta trust weird Al. Here, nobody’s reached number one with a comedy album since Weird Al said, I know it feels ironic to decide to stop making albums after having a number one album, but I just like the freedom of being able to really use whatever I want whenever I want, not have to be behold into a label. Al has a new release. It’s a pokem ed Lee poke Mania.

I like Al’s pokem mixes. On this one, he takes on Billie Eilish’s Bad Guy, Adele’s Hello Miley, Cyrus Flowers, We Don’t Talk About, Bruno from Disney’s and Canto Olivia Rodrigo’s Vampire, Lil Nas Exis, Old Town Road, Lewis Ponsi and Daddy Yankees, Desposito at Sheeran’s Shape of You, Mark Ronson and Bruno, Mar’s Uptown Funk, Cardi b and Meghan Fee, Stallion’s Wap Wap, Mariana Grande’s Thank You Next, and Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off. Al says with the changing of media, he doesn’t like to have to sit around and wait till you have twelve songs. He can release them all at once. Sometimes that means some of the tracks aren’t going to be quite so topical as for this release.

Over the last ten years, there’s been a lot of songs that’ve been on the charts that, for whatever reason, I didn’t take a shot at, and I thought those were missed opportunities. I wanted to circle back and pay tribute to a lot of those big hits over the last ten years. How do you pick the songs? Al Al says, I started by limiting the songs that have been number one on the Billboard charts. That narrowed it down quite a bit.

I didn’t do like one song per year, but I wanted it to be pretty spread out over the ten year period, and I picked songs that I thought were iconic, an artist that I thought were iconic with some of the most memorable songs. Did anyone decline? Al Al said, Well, we heard back from Taylor Swift right away, which was amazing. Miley Cyrus and Billie Irish both are apparently delighted they could be in a pokea Inmedley, the one we never heard back from was Sizza, we wanted to use kill Bill. She didn’t say yes or no.

She just never turned our phone calls. Joe Rogan was hosting his Joe Rogan Experience podcast Have you heard of it? It’s pretty popular? He had on Sam Talent and Joe started telling a story. As Joe says, there was a club that when Fear Factor ended, they decided that even though it sold out every show every time I’d been there for years, they decided I wasn’t a draw anymore.

Oops. They tried to decrease my amount by twenty five percent. I was like, what the afterre you talking about. They’re like, we don’t think you’re draw anymore. But I sold out a year ago when I was here, Like, what are you saying?

Rogan did not name names, but said of the promoter, it was one of those big clubs, a big company that has a lot of clubs. I think I could figure that out, but I’m going to leave that alone. Sam Morrell was talking a Decider and they brought up an interesting thing deciders that I’ve talked to some comedians who left at Netflix, specifically because they felt like they weren’t being served unless they were huge name. They were just kind of lost in the shuffle. Sam said exactly.

It’s like you hit that Netflix top ten for a minute and then you’re immediately out right because they put out a special every week, so as you said, not special. So sure, I mean for me, I didn’t leave. I would have entertained Netflix if it was a more substantial offer, but the offer was like very low where they said that’d make one with me in twenty twenty five, and I’m like, okay, that’s nice, but it’s ready now. I mean, I have no issue with Netflix or Hulu or any of them. I mean Netflix is obviously the big name, but sure oversaturation is a problem, Like I mean, YouTube specials aren’t doing what they used to do.

Netflix specials probably aren’t doing what they used to do because there’s so many, Like not everyone got that Tom Sigora Alley Wong bump when it was a desert over there, and they just got to hang on that home screen forever. So yeah, there’s a lot of crap. I assume you said crap. The transcript says s dashline. I do think if you make a good thing, it’ll hopefully get shared.

But I think you just have to work when in doubt, work harder because there’s a lot of competition. I don’t mean comics in competition, I mean like all forms of entertainment. Sam says, I have a podcast, and I’ll tell you how often I get hit up by a comic I’ve never heard of who’s got a special I’m like, Wow, there’s a lot of specials. Decider asked if Sam needs validation from his peers or within the industry, and Sam said, they all matter. I mean, it’s hard to rank them.

They all matter, obviously. I want to comics. I respect to think I’m funny. That means a lot to me. Fans are so important because they keep you going and they keep you writing.

I mean, if I went back to when I couldn’t sell tickets on the road, it’d be very hard for me to write New Hours because that was hard. You’re playing the video game on Hall of Fame mode when you’re young, and you know, then you kind of move up. It gets a little easier. You’re busy, so your brain is a little bit more mush these days, so you don’t have time to write. But yeah, having no one there papered rooms on the road, that was tough.

Reggie Watts has a special out today on VEEPS. You’re probably like, what’s veeps? I’m looking here too. Veep’s official website get unlimited access to live shows, on demand content, and exclusives from artists you love. A bad news for VIEPS.

I clicked through the link that comes up on Google and it goes to can’t find the server. That’s not good anyway. I found a deeper link. They’ve got a bunch of specials up on Nick swartz In, David Cross, Rory Scovell, Brad Williams. So yeah, good stuff here.

Reggie Watts never Mind will be available to stream on VIEPS today starting at eight pm Eastern Time. This one has a bit of a time out travel hook. Reggie says the time travel hook keeps us away from some of the divisive issues that are playing us now. It’s tapping in how I really thought it was going to be back then, and it still can be in many ways. I think the Internet is obviously an amazing tool, but capitalism has ruined it for the most parts.

Watts worked completely off the cuff. Moments before he walks out on stage, he says, I’m not preparing at all. I create the room of the environment for something going to happen, but I’m not preparing for what I’m going to perform inside the environment. Watts isn’t even sure he needs people to laugh. He’s seeking to produce a sense of disorientation or disassociation that takes people outside of themselves.

They might be laughing, but it’s more the type of laughter he associates with a psychedelic trip than a traditional comedy club. Reggie says, audiences that really know me, I can still laugh with them. I just have to not work a little harder, but maybe just be fresher in the way that I’m being on stage. This special is set in the mid nineteen nineties and points out how wild our current situation is from the perspective of only a couple decades ago. Matt Matthews will be taping his special tonight at the Alabama Theater in Birmingham, Alabama.

This is from his Newest Too, when that thing and got to thing in all right. For the last few days, I’ve been telling you how excited I was about this Hank Azaria thing. All right, Johnny Mac, what is it? This better be good. I’ve probably oversold it unless you’re a Springsteen fan.

Hank Azaria answered my prayers. Remember the other day, I said, I did this whole thing about how comedy was kind of stale right now and nobody was doing anything interesting. Hank Kazaria must have listened to the episode, traveled back in time three months and put together a Bruce Springsteen cover band. Vulture caught up with Hank, who said, my whole life is about sharing vocal impressions. This, in some ways is the ultimate of that to me.

I think of it as a theatrical performance. I’m staying in character as Bruce, even though I’m telling stories about myself. It’s a performance piece, but I’m not a Bruce impersonator. He did a gig recently that went so well he was offered to acting jobs later in the week, and he turned them both down and spent all morning pursuing whatever’s next with the Easy Street band. They’re gonna play New York City in August and maybe do a full tour.

I’m a major Springsteen fan. I have seen and Bruce fifty something times. When I worked at Sirius, I worked closely with Stephen van zandt on something called The Wise Guys Show. I’ve been to rehearsal shows. I met Clarence, I’ve met Max.

I was in the bathroom with Bruce. You don’t talk to Bruce in the bathroom. That’s awkward. You know, I’m there, he’s standing next to me. You don’t be like, hey, I really like your music.

That’s not the time to do that. Anyway. Let’s let Hank iss Area take us into the break with Glory Days and dudes. I’m a big Bruce fan and I thought this was gonna be horrific. This is pretty good.

Enjoy. I had a friend was a big baseball player back in high school. You can pull down street ballfire, make you the l a fool moment. So the other night out out this rone sidebar, I was talking in he was walking. We went back inside, sat down bad a few French HOLLI temps topping what’s Holy Day?

Well pass you by. Conan O’Brien is going to appear on the Simpsons co Showinner Matt Selman was on the podcast Dough Boys and said, can I give you guys a Simpsons scoop? But they say, now, we don’t want that. Of course they said yes. He revealed Conan O’Brien will be guest appearing on the season premiere of The Simpsons.

Conan O’Brien will play Conan O’Brien. It’s not Conan O’Brien’s first time as a character on the show. He makes an appearance in season five’s Bart Gets Famous. Back in nineteen ninety four, Bart appears on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, which was just five months old. Selman says Conan’s role in the upcoming episode will be much bigger.

Cheech and Chong making waves in the cannabis industry, but they’ve hit a snag when it comes to shipping in certain states. Idaho is the main punchline in their marketing. Cheech and Chong have decided to advertise saying cruise Chooser one hundred percent legal in every state except Idaho. Sorry, folks, you know what it’s like one hundred and five degrees in my basement studio right now. I’ve got three more stories, but I’m being honest with you.

I’m hot. Let’s let’s wrap it up there. More comedy news tomorrow. See you then.

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Featured: Bob Newhart, Jason Zinneman, Ellen DeGeneres, Don Rickles, Jay Leno, Carol Burnett, Dean Cook, Jimmy Walker, Judd Apatow, Bill Prady, Jamie Lee Curtis

What’s in This Episode

• Bob Newhart passes away at age 94
• Bob Newhart’s comedy legacy and influence on stand-up
• Bob Newhart’s signature comedic style and techniques
• Tributes from fellow comedians and celebrities
• Catchy Comedy Network Bob Newhart weekend marathon

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. Bob Newhart has passed away at age ninety four. This episode is about Bob. There’s the normal episode in the feed right below this one from this morning.

A friend of the show, Jason Zinneman, writes in The New York Times, Bob Newhart holds up great stuff from Jason as always. Jason writes, It’s hard to think of a stand up from that era. Who’s a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well. His work doesn’t just live on and its influences. You can definitely hear his pregnant pauses in the stand up of Fellain DeGeneres, who has cited him as a key figure in her career.

Put on his old comedy albums and you will chuckle. The Bob Newhart shows half a century old and remains hilarious, paving the way for shows like Seinfeld. He played a straight man surrounded by eccentrics, giving him an opportunity to express endless kinds of exasperation. Later, his friendship with John Rickles gave him another wonderful foil to playoff. Here’s a clip from the roast of Don Rickles.

Bob Newhart here making some really funny jokes about Don. Don is my best friend, which just give you some idea of the difficulty I have in making friends. As some of you may have already known, Don’s hotel room was recently robbed. The only thing that was taken was the music to Don’s act. So by the Chicago police have picked up thirty three thousand people who might have had a possible motive.

So Don has not done that well in television. He’s had four series now. The last one, a couple of Don’s, received a minus four Nielsen rating. This name’s note but no one watching. But several people with our TV sets had heard about the show and said if they got one, they wouldn’t watch it.

Jason Zinneman writes, Newhart, who got started in comedy in the nineteen fifties working on bitsy taped with a friend, understood that the real partnership in comedy is with the audience and knew how to plant an id in their heads and let them run with it. That’s why the phone was such an effective enduring tool for him. It allowed him to use pauses to tell the story of what you don’t hear most comedians are in a hurry filling the room with quips. There’s a wonderful tension to this brand of comedy. But Newhart showed us there’s another way you can find surprise and adjusting speeds.

Not everyone understood Newhart’s stammer was an incredible tool, but network executives for his TV shows told him to stop using it. His response was the stammer got him a house in Beverly Hills. Jay Leno told people Bob was always very kind to young comics. Jay said, never a mean spirited bone in his body, never had jokes that were based on anything uncind, you know what I mean. And there were no gimmicks.

A lot of comics they have an ethnic cook or they have a catch for they have something they do when the jokes aren’t going that well that they go to it. It always works. It’s just the tool to trade. But he always relied on just clever jokes, I mean, his old gimmick. He was just an ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances, which is my favorite thing.

He always had these kind of really clever jokes. He had to listen to, you had to pay attention. It was intellectual enough for intellectuals and easy enough to understand for regular people. He never talked over anybody’s head, and he never used particularly big words or anything like that. It was just a very clever way of doing things.

He never had a shot joke. He always had a good, solid joke. Sometimes it slipped in over the audience’s head, but most of the times it scored pretty good. Kara Burnett tweeted, I had the great pleasure of working with Bob and being his friend. He was as kind of nice as he was funny.

He will be missed. Dean Cook tweeted, Bob was and is one of the best comedians to ever deliver, and man he delivered, always funny, always from the heart. Always a reminder to me of why I started in stand up legend, Bob Newhart, you are forever funny. Jimmy Walker dinah Miight said his comedy albums were great. His TV show Knew Heart was cerebral genius.

I remember seeing him in twenty nineteen at the Pale Honors, a special tribute to television’s comedy Legends, where Bob was supposed to get up and say a few words. He did like a half hour and kill at age eighty nine. Judd Apatow said, Bob Newhart was the kindest, most hilarious man. He asked me to make a documentary about his friendship with Don Rickles. I was so lucky to get to spend time with my hero.

His brilliant comedy and gentle spirit made everyone he encountered so happy. Bill Prady, co creator of The Big Bang Theory, where Bob Newhart guest starred as Arthur Jeffries, said, heart explain how important Bob Newhart was to every comedian and comedy writer who came after him. Working with him, ever so briefly was one of the greatest joys and honors of my life. Jamie Lee Curtis on Instagram. They’ll be laughing wherever people go when they leave us.

God, he was funny. Bob Newhart, You will be missed. Jerny Gunderson is the executive director of the National Comedy Center. Until the Hollywood Reporter, Bob Newhart’s groundbreaking work in stand up and television and his beloved deadpan delivery have lesst an indelible mark in the art form of comedy and will be treasured by comedy fans for generations to we are proud to celebrate and preserve his extraordinary work at the National Comedy Center. In a nineteen eighty six Rollingstone interview, Bob Newhart said the secret sauce of his sitcom was brevity.

It’s saying it in the fewest number of words and giving the audience some credit for being intelligent being able to figure it out. One self description of Bob Newhart’s persona is the last sane man on Earth. If you’re in the mood for some Bob Newhart, the Catchy Comedy Network might have to deep dive on your cable system there, but they’re doing a weekend binge with the Bob Newhart Show. Newhart and Bob, that third TV series that didn’t last so well. The tribute begins tomorrow Saturday at noon Eastern on Catchy Comedy, and we’ll go all through Monday until six am.

Go to Catchycomedy dot com for more about that. In this feed, I shared an episode of TV in the Basement that’s in the feed A couple episodes down now. Joe Mitchell did a really nice tribute to Bob’s TV work other Bob stuff on The Hitmaker Chronicles. A deep dive into the buttoned down mind of Bob Newhart. You’ll find that podcast.

It’s called The Hitmaker Chronicles and on five daily trivia questions. Today’s topic Bob Newhart. I’ll see you guys in the morning.

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Featured: Nikki Glaser, Tom Brady, Bob Newhart, Hank Azaria, Lauren Michaels, Jamie Lee, Bill Lawrence, Joe Cooney, Taylor Swift, Billy Joel, Dave Chappelle, Dick Van Dyke, Trevor Noah

What’s in This Episode

• Bob Newhart passes away at age 94
• Nikki Glaser’s Tom Brady roast success and media coverage
• Nikki Glaser’s HBO special ‘Someday You’ll Die’ release
• Nikki Glaser’s Emmy nomination for Outstanding Variety Special
• Nikki Glaser’s Amazon comedy series ‘Unsettling’ with Bill Lawrence
• Nikki Glaser’s interest in hosting Saturday Night Live
• Nikki Glaser’s ambitions to host award shows like the Golden Globes

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

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

Bob Newhart has passed away at age ninety four. You won’t hear me speak about Bob in today’s episode. I had recorded it. I was actually editing it just as the news came in the episode below. This one on the feed is an oh bid episode published around five pm on Thursday afternoon, and later this morning.

I plan on doing a follow up to talk more about Bob Newhart. So in the meantime, here’s the normal Friday episode. Caloroga Shark Media really busy again, especially for a summer Friday. Hi, I’m Johnny Mac with your daily Common News. I had pumped that Hank Azarias story till tomorrow.

I’ll do it tomorrow for sure. I’m planning on recording back to back here, maybe sneaking a beach Friday. Nikki Glaser’s publicist, you have earned your money. Nicki got one of those wax job articles in Variety. Nikki also got a wax job article in Deadline.

Wow, let’s start with a Variety. They wrote. It may have only been nine minutes in a two decade comedy career, but it was one that had all eyes on Nikki Glaser in a very good pivotal way her set roasting Tom Brady, etc. Et cetera. Yes, it was a very good moment.

Nicki said, I knew it was going well, but ride this way if you can’t relax, I can’t celebrate anything until it’s officially over. That’s what her head was telling her as she was doing the roast. You have this really short amount of time where you have to be excellent. There’s no room for error because it’s live and just the amount of eyes on you, the amount of detail that was involved in each joke, it felt like a balance beam routine. Honestly, as soon as I stuck the landing and finished it and walked back to my seat, then I just felt like it was a dream.

Yeah, she nailed that set for sure. Varidy’s wax Job says her name was immediately buzzed about and people became aware of her who weren’t aware of her before. As luck would have it, within day she hit the bullseye for a second time. Her HBO comedy special Someday You’ll Die was released and was another huge hit. I’ll push back on that.

I don’t have the numbers, but I feel culturally nobody talked about that special at all. And off the heat of her roast. That should have been a huge special, and it was on HBO. It wasn’t onlike Johnny Max’s basement streaming service should have been major. But I don’t feel like anybody saw it.

I could be wrong, Nicky says. Even though all I crave and want is attention and all those things. When I get it, I kind of cower need to undermine myself and create all the reasons why I don’t deserve this. I must have done something snaky to get this. How can I prove myself that I don’t deserve this?

Comedians don’t operate from a place of I’m amazing, look at me. It’s more like, am I amazing? Will you look at me? And when you do, do I really deserve it? It just never happened to me where something has been that critically and societally accepted and celebrated like this.

And I don’t ever want to base only happiness around if people are recognizing me at a Starbucks or not.

Now here’s where the publicist is really going for their money.

They just slipped to Variety that you know Nicky would really like to host Saturday Night Live. Boy, I hope somehow Lauren Michael sees this. Do you think he reads Variety? You think anyone will put this in his news clippings package he probably gets every morning from NBC. That’s a thing that happens in the business.

You get a news clipping package. I don’t know if Louren Michael’s gets one every day, but I guarantee you the news clipping package exists. Nicky says, I have loved the show forever and admire the cast they have. Now I’m not waiting for the call, but when it comes, it’ll be an absolute Yes. It’s like you’re dying for the call.

But you’re also like, please don’t call me, because I know that my life will be so hard. But you know, that’s what this career is. It’s just a series of hard things. Variety writes Lauren Michaels, Are you listening, so publicist? You earned your money?

Not just that one. Here’s the one from Deadline. They wrote about Nicky’s news series and development at Amazon called Unsettling. She’ll play the lead in it, opposite fellow comic Jamie Lee. Nikki Glaser said, I just love the people involved it.

They make some of the funniest most heartwarming TV there is, and I’m so excited to move forward with it. It’s slowly coming along, so it seems like something that will be happening, but you never know what is it. It’s a half hour single camera comedy about two childless best friends in their thirties who decide to go in on a baby together, navigating their lives as brand new platonic co parents. Bill Lawrence is behind this one. You know him from such things as Scrubs and ted Lasso.

Good pedigree there. Nikki received an Emmy nomination for her special We’ll talk about that in a second, says, it’s the kind of thing. It’s a big moment for an artist, just because I’ll always get to be Emmy nominated Nicky Glazer. Now, it’s like you have that title for the rest of your life, so they can’t take that away from me. I’m just excited to go to the Emmys.

I love going to award shows. It’s one of my favorite things to do as a person in this business. Publicists laying some more groundwork. They got this one and I are in deadline. I think hosting an award show is something I’ll be doing a lot of in my future, just because it’s something that falls in the same kind of category as the roast ray of this prepared monologue.

And there’s a lot of pressure on Nicky, dare you host the Golden Globes and mick a say Taylor Swift joke? You know that doesn’t go well. One time Joe Cooy made a Tailor Swift joke. Let’s listen the big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL. On the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift.

Oh, Scott beck in front of the show. Who hates that bit? He emailed me on the Thursday morning, So Scott, you’re on my mind. That one was for you. Scott Beckett, thank you for listening.

Nicky says, I really thrive at those kind of settings when you’re an audience some people that showpen this and you have to do a really tight, tonally perfect and funny monologue. I’d love to do it. I think my name is being tossed around in those kinds of conversations, but we’ll see. Yes, please host the gold Globes. Actually, I want Joe Cooi to come back just so I can do the bit for another year.

I run out the chance to do things that generally would scare other people. I think that stand up and risting are both categories of entertainment, and other people in the business are like, I wouldn’t touch that, and thankfully I don’t have that aversion to it. Paublos is getting it more done. They got this in there. I’d like to make a movie and being a round comm at some point, I’d like to act alongside Julia Louis Dreyfus.

At one point, I’d like to host SNL mentioned again. I’d like to host an award show. I’d like to sit in the VIP box at a Taylor Swift concert. I mean, there’s little goals here and there, but I’m really just happy with how things are. And that’s been the greatest realization is I honestly want more free time with my family and my friends and my dog.

I love how she’s thrown out this list. I’ll throw out a list. I want to host the Tonight Show on a Friday night. I want to do The Daily Show on a Tuesday. I want Letterman a guest on my podcast.

I know those three things are happening, but I’ll throw them out there. I’ll also host Saturday Night Live. If Lauren asked, Lauren, are you listening? All right, you’re me. Hominees for Outstanding Variety Special pre recorded are Billy Jowels Live at Madison Square Garden, Dave Chappelle for The Dreamer, Dick Van Dyke’s ninety eight Years of Magic, Nicky Glazer Someday You’ll Die, Trevor Noah.

Where was I out of those five? I would say, well, from a comedy standpoint, Trevor was the best of those five. I didn’t see the Dick Vandyke. I did see some of the Billy Joel. You know, Billy could get a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dick Van Dyke, for sure could get a Lifetime Achievement Award. I’m not sure Nicky is gonna win this one. And award shows do love giving awards to Dave Chappelle.

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All right, Let’s talk about the intersection of politics and comedy.

Alonzo Bowden was asked, when can you make a joke about, say, someone trying to assassinate someone. Alonzo said, it’s never too soon unless it’s not funny. Comedians will always make it funny no matter what happens. That’s what we do, it’s how we communicate. In this case, Donald Trump is such a character, and the fact that he wasn’t killed the joke started immediately.

And I don’t think he minds. He’s one of those people. As long as you’re talking about him, it’s a win. Matt Friend wrote in an op ed for The Daily Beast, and he said, I dealt with my shock and sadness by posting a graphic of my social of the instantly iconic image of Trump with blood on his face pumping his fist. Under the photo, I wrote, how long before this becomes merch?

Got admit I had the same thought As expected, I received a mix of positive engagement and furious backlash. I had conflicting thoughts. On the one hand, the joke was making fun of Trump’s habit of turning everything he does in a merchandise. On the other hand, I was trying to be funny after a former president was nearly killed. I ended up taking down the post, and that caused my head to circle with questions, does this mean I didn’t stand up for comedy?

Where’s the lines that I cross it? In order to get closer into answering these questions, I’ve been turning to comedy’s pass for advice. Johnny Carson once said, I think one of the dangers if you were a comedian, if you start to take yourself too seriously and start to comment on social issues, your sense of humor suffers. Somewhere in nineteen eighty one, Carson hosted the Oscars one day after Ronald Reagan was shot. At that time, Johnny said, he happens to be in very good spirits.

After all, you must remember this as a man who, yesterday, while he was in the hospital unable to speak, wrote on a sheet of paper, all things considered, I’d rather be in Philadelphia. So tonight the show does go on, my friend said, while a delicate joke, Carson managed to gracefully touch on the attempted assassination of Reagan. Trey Crowder apparently knew jd Vance back in the day and did a three minute joke field rant about him. Trey Crowder said, you know, if you were to tell me when I was a kid that one day a white trash hillbilly would have a shot at the White House, I would have been like, what with a potato gun? No?

No is the vice president. Damn, that’s wild. Tell me more about this hero. What was he? A man of the people, civil rights attorney, no Ivy League educated venture capitalists who first rose to fame by selling us all out.

Oh well, that’s disappointing. From the Guardian, a twenty eight year old German comedian got in trouble with Trump supporters and then Elon Musk after a series of tweets. Sebastian Hats, who posts and performs as el Hatso, lost his job as a broadcaster this week for the tweets. He apparently tweeted something along the lines of that the attempt on Saturday had been like the last bus. Unfortunately just missed those of the words of Hats, not me.

He also published a post saying it was absolutely fantastic when fascists die. Hatts has seven hundred thousand followers on Twitter. He deleted the original post, but screenshots of them we were published on social media. He then wrote absolutely no one forces anyone to sympathize with fascists. You can do without it without the slightest consequences.

The controversy prompted the Berlin based public broadcaster RBB to cancel Hots’s involvement with one of its radio shows, which he had co hosted since twenty twenty two. The program director said his remarks are not compatible with the values for which RBB stands. I always like hearing from you guys. My email is in the show notes. The Facebook group Daily Comedy News podcast groups another a great way to hit me up there.

You can hit me up in Facebook Messenger. I always love hearing from people. Heard from Tom yesterday around lunchtime. Always good to hear from you, Tom, and Tom is a supporter. Buy me a coffee.

Dot com slash Daily Coming News. Much appreciate it. Always great to hear from you. Out today a new song from weird Al. We don’t know what it is yet.

Well we might by the time you’re listening to this. As Johnny Mac records this, Johnny Mac doesn’t know if it’s a parody or an original. Will it be a physical release. His last new song was called now You Know, played over the closing credits to weird the Al Yankovic story back in twenty two. In twenty twenty three, weird Al told comicbook dot Com, I don’t think I’ll do another conventional album.

The soundtrack came out last year, but that’s a various artist album. I’m not giving up music. I’ll probably put out at least one new track next year. I guess he didn’t lie, but I don’t really like the business model of waiting until I have twelve songs and then putting them all out at once. I like coming up with an idea and if it’s good enough, I want to get it out immediately.

And now I can because I not be holding to any contract of business model. Roywood Junior will put his next stand up special on Hulu. He’ll tape in in September at the Lincoln Theater in Washington. Hulu is bringing the comedy This Falls. So far, they’ve announced Jim Gaffigan and Bill Burr.

They’ve also licensed a bunch of specials from eight hundred Pound Guerrilla. See we’re hearing a lot about those guys now in Comedy Dynamics. Netflix will have Matt Riffe’s next special. This one going to be all crowd work. Rolling Stone reports for a full hour at the Comedy Zone in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Matt Rife alied solely on his audience to keep the show afloat Rife’s off the cuff performance was captured for his upcoming Netflix special Lucid out on Netflix August thirteenth.

Matt Riife says that this show is going to be completely different from anything you’ve ever seen live or on Netflix before. This is just me and you guys. There is a trailer. Let’s listen to the beginning of it before he gets a little too naughty. This show is going to be completely different from anything you’ve seen live or on Netflix before.

This is an entire crowd work special. This is just me and you, guys. I don’t know what you’re gonna say. I don’t know what I’m gonna say. I want you guys to be aware you are equally as at fault for how this goes as and that istra comedy news for today tomorrow normal episode.

Ran out of interviews. That’s fine, there’s plenty of news. I bumped a lot of stuff from today’s show. So tomorrow’s a normal episode. Monday’s a normal episode.

If you enjoy the program, tell a friend about it. They might like it. To see you tomorrow and I’ll have a new hard thing mid morning. See you back in a bit

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Featured: Bob Newhart, Suzanne Pleshette, Tom Poston, William Sanderson, Tony Papinfuss, John Voldstad

What’s in This Episode

• Bob Newhart’s death and TV legacy
• The Bob Newhart Show career overview
• Newhart series finale twist ending
• Bob Newhart’s influence on modern sitcoms
• Guest appearance on The Big Bang Theory

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. Today we’re taking a break from our usual recaps to pay tribute to a true television legend, Bob Newhart, who sadly passed away on July eighteenth at the age of ninety four. Let’s dive into the incredible TV career of this comedy icon. Now, when you think of Bob Newhart, you might first picture that deadpan delivery, that signature stammer, or those one sided phone conversations. But today we’re focusing on how this stand up comedy genius translated his unique style to the small screen and became a sitcom star for the Ages.

Before we get into his TV work, let’s set the stage a bit. Newhart’s journey to stardom was anything but conventional. Here was a guy who, at thirty years old, was still living with his parents, working as an accountant, and looking more like a junior executive than a comedy superstar. But his nineteen sixty comedy album The Button Down Mind of Bob Newhart changed everything. It soared past Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley to hit number one on the Billboard charts, making new Heart the first comedian with a chart topping album.

This success catapulted new Heart into the spotlight, leading to frequent appearances on TV variety shows, but it wasn’t until nineteen seventy two that he found his true television home with The Bob Newhart Show. Running from nineteen seventy two to nineteen seventy eight on CBS. The Bob Newhart Show was a game changer. Newhart played doctor Robert Hartley, a Chicago psychologist dealing with a quirky cast of patients and an equally eccentric group of friends and family. The show was part of CBS’s Powerhouse Saturday night lineup, alongside classics like The Mary Tyler Moore Show and All in the Family.

What made The Bob Newhart Show stand out was how it perfectly captured Newhart’s understated comedic style. His character was often the straight man, reacting to the chaos around him with that trademark deadpan delivery, and let’s not forget his on screen wife, played by the incomparable Suzanne Plachette. Their chemistry was off the charts, and they created one of TV’s most believable and lovable couples. Newhart was insistent that his character not have children on the show. In a two thousand and one interview with The Newark star Ledger, he explained, I didn’t want to do a certain kind of show, which was the dumb father who keeps getting in these pickles and these precocious children and mother get him out of it.

This decision allowed the show to focus on adult relationships and situations, setting it apart from many family sitcoms of the era. The show tackled some pretty progressive topics for its time, including sexuality and mental health, but always with Newhart’s gentle, understated humor. It ran for six seasons and one hundred and forty two episodes, earning Newhart two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. But Newhart wasn’t done with TV sitcoms yet. In nineteen eighty two, he returned to CBS with Newhart, a show that in many ways was even more surreal and absurdist than his first series.

In this show, Newhart played Dick Louden, a how to book author who moves with his wife Joanna Mary Fran to a small town in Vermont to run an in. New Heart ran for eight seasons from nineteen eighty two to nineteen ninety, and it allowed Newhart to play the straight man in an even zanier world. The show was populated by some truly unforgettable characters, including the dim witted handyman George Utley, Tom Poston, and the backwoodsman brothers Larry Darrell and Daryl, William Sanderson, Tony Papinfuss, and John Voldstad. One of the most memorable aspects of Newhart was how it leaned into absurdest humor. The show often broke the fourth wall and played with TV conventions, culminating in what is widely regarded as one of the greatest series finales in television history.

In the final episode, Dick Louden is hit on the head by a golf ball. The screen goes black, and when the lights come up, we see new Heart in bed, but not with Mary fran Instead, he’s next to Suzanne Plaschett, his wife from The Bob Newhart Show. He wakes up and says, Honey, wake up. You won’t believe the dream I just had. The entire eight year run of New Heart is revealed to have been a dream of doctor Bob Hartley from the previous series.

This twist ending was a stroke of genius, catching viewers completely off guard and cementing New Heart in TV history. It’s a testament to Newhart’s comedic instincts and his willingness to take risks, even after decades in the business. But Newhart’s TV career didn’t end with New Heart. In the nineteen nineties, he starred in two more sitcoms, Bob nineteen ninety two to nineteen ninety three and George and Leo nineteen ninety seven to nineteen ninety eight. While neither achieved the long running success of his previous shows, they demonstrated new Heart’s enduring appeal and his ability to adapt his style to new premises and co stars.

In his later years, Newhart became a welcome presence as a guest star on various TV shows. He had recurring roles on Desperate Housewives and Er, showing his range by taking on more dramatic parts, But it was his role as Professor Proton on The Big Bang Theory that introduced him to a whole new generation of viewers. This performance earned him his first Primetime Emmy Award in twenty thirteen for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. What made new Heart such an enduring TV presence. I think it comes down to his unique comedic voice.

In a landscape often dominated by loud, brash comedy, Newhart’s understated style stood out. He didn’t need to shout to be funny. His carefully timed pauses and stutters could get bigger laughs than any punchline. New Heart’s TV characters were often the calm in the center of the storm, the voice of reason in a world of chaos. This made him incredibly relatable.

We all sometimes feel like we’re the only sane person in an insane world, and new Heart captured that feeling perfectly. Moreover, Newhart’s comedy was always intelligent and observational. He found humor in everyday situations, in the absurdities of modern life and human behavior. This approach gave his shows a timeless quality. While some sitcoms from the seventies and eighties feel dated now, new Heart’s work still holds up because it’s rooted in universal experiences and emotions.

It’s also worth noting how new Heart influenced the sitcom format. His insistence on not having children in The Bob Newhart Show allowed for more mature storytelling. The surreal elements of New Heart paved the way for more experimental sitcoms in the future, and that finale it’s still being referenced and parodied today, over thirty years later. New Heart’s impact on television comedy can’t be overstated. He showed that you don’t need to be loud or crude to be funny.

He proved that intelligence and subtlety have a place in prime time comedy, and he demonstrated that a strong comedic voice can translate across different shows and formats. Many modern comedians cite new Heart as an influence. You can see echoes of his deadpan delivery and reactive comedy in the work of comedians like Jerry Seinfeld and Jim Gaffigan. His ability to find humor in everyday situations pave the way for observational comedians like Seinfeld and Ellen DeGeneres. As we remember Bob Newhart’s incredible TV career, it’s important to note that he never really left the medium.

Even in his later years, he continued to make guest appearances and take on recurring roles. His love for television and comedy never dimmed. Bob Newhart’s passing marks the end of an era in television comedy. But his influence lives on in the shows we watch today, in the comedians who were inspired by his work, and in the countless reruns that continue to make new generations of viewers laugh. So the next time you’re watching a sitcom and you see a character react to the craziness around them with a deadpan stare or a perfectly timed stammer, think of Bob Newhart.

Remember the man who showed us that sometimes the funniest reaction is no reaction at all. Before we wrap up, I want to share a personal anecdote. I remember watching New Heart reruns with my dad when I was a kid. At the time, a lot of the jokes went over my head, but I was fascinated by this mild mannered man who seemed perpetually bewildered by the world around him. As I got older and rewatched these episodes, I began to appreciate the brilliance of Newhart’s performance.

He could say so much with just a raised eyebrow or a well timed well. I uh. Bob Newhart’s TV career was a masterclass in comedic timing, in finding humor in the every day, and in creating characters that feel like old friends. He may be gone, but thanks to the magic of television, we can still spend time with doctor Bob Hartley and Dick Louden whenever we need a laugh. Bob Newhart was ninety four.

I’m Joe Mitchell. Rest in peace, Bob