Author: johnnymacdcn

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Featured: John Mulaney, Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jim Gaffigan, Conan O’Brien, Stephen Colbert

What’s in This Episode

• John Mulaney wedding ring speculation
• Jerry Seinfeld heckler confrontation in Sydney
• Vatican meeting with over 100 comedians
• Pope’s audiobook narration by Stephen Colbert
• Jim Gaffigan on Catholic comedy and the Vatican event

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. John Mulaney and Olivia Months secretly get married. Hi, I’m Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. Okay magazine says John Mulaney was wearing a wedding ring and a now deleted Father’s Day post. Hmm, I’ve seen the now deleted image and he is indeed wearing a gold band much similar to the one that I wear because I’m married.

Hi, Doggie, Sorry, my old dog came to visit. I thought you were napping. We have to go out. I’ll tell you about Millennia a second. Sorry, where were we When the old girl comes by and gives you the face?

You gotta take her out. Why don’t you make an edit, John, because that’s not fun. I like to let you into my life here anyway. John m’laney posted a photo of himself with his son, Malcolm, who’s now two, and folks noticed a wedding band on m’laney’s finger. We’ll keep an eye on that.

Here’s a question for you. Is Jerry Seinfeld bad at handling Heckler’s I’m gonna play a slightly longer than clip here, which I have edited in places for pacing, but I think there’s evidence that Jerry might not be good at handling Heckler’s Jerry was in Sydney playing the Kudos Bank Arena. A Heckler yelled out from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. Here’s Jerry Seinfeld, queen a genius l He’s they’re gonna start munching about three seconds. I will try and get all of your genius accounts and be all from you.

You’re really did up here. We’re all we’re all on your side now because you have made your points so well and in the right venue. Do you come to the right place or a political conversation. Tomorrow we will read in the paper Middle East one hundred percent solved thanks to man at the Kudos Arena stopping to comedian. They stopped him, and everyone in the Middle East went, oh my god, let’s just get along.

We can’t do that because I know there are problems here with indigenous Aboriginal people and the white They have problems here. So maybe to solve that, I will screw up Tim Jeffries in a show in New York. If this works, that will work. You have to go twenty thousand miles from the problem and grow up a comedian. That is how you saw World Issue.

I feel like he was waffling there. The Jim Jeffries line is really good, but it took him two minutes to find that line. And you would think at this point Jerry would have a good heckler retort in his pocket, as he’s been heckled several times now at Palestine. So I don’t know. Maybe you know, everybody’s got a weakness.

As Jerry would say Superman as his kryptonite. Maybe hecklers are the way you defeat Jerry Seinfeld. Jerry appeared to be in great spirits as he was walking around Sydney’s Central Business district. I shared photos in the Facebook group, which is Daily Comedy News podcast group, and Jerry’s surrounded by at least three bodyguard looking type guys, and I was wondering, like, can Jerry Seinfeld in a baseball cap not walk around Sydney? Is he really going to be recognized?

Maybe the paparazzi stalks his hotel, who knows. But you know, sometimes if you see famous people when you’re not expecting them, you don’t recognize them. So if I were in Sydney, I wouldn’t be thinking like, oh, there’s Jerry Seinfeld. I’d probably walk right past the man in the baseball cap. Jerry was dressed in a long sleeve shirt and blue jeans.

He also wore a dark blue cap and had on a pair of white sneakers with red accents at the heel. Several of the Catholic websites have shared more details about the pope’s meeting with over one hundred comedians. Julia Louis Dreyfus said the meeting with the Pope was a wonderful experience, calling the Pope a lovely man who was obviously doing the best he can and I appreciate that. Jim Gaffigan said it was all comedians, So it was like a meeting of every poorly behaved kid from church and they stuck them all in a room. They thought it would be a good idea.

Everyone had ants in their pants, everyone was excited. Then it was like there’s a bunch of funny people in a room, So you know, it was like ADHD cranked up. Conan O’Brien said, most of my career has been me saying why am I here? It happens again and again and again when I’m at the White House. Anytime I’m in one of these situations, always the same like why am I here?

I don’t belong. I think that’s how a lot of us felt. We’re all looking at each other thinking something’s wrong. We’re in this beautiful, beautiful space in the Vatican, and for some reason they let comedians in, which is always a mistake. Stephen Colbert said he spoke to the Pope and broken Italian, telling of the Pope that he had done the English reading of the audiobook of his memoir Life.

Colbert tells the story, I got the craziest call from my manager. He goes, Baby, I hope you’re sitting down, because you’re not gonna believe you just called. I got a call from the Vatican saying would you be the person to read the Pope’s audiobook in English? Colbert said, I’d love to interview him, but I really want to do a cooking segment with him, because he talks a lot about cooking. Evidently he makes a great Tordellini and broto.

They asked Colbert why he thought the comedians were there. I still don’t know why comedians are here at the Vatican. I’m very grateful that we are. Deacon Mike, the guy that didn’t hook me up with an invite to this, sent me a text over the weekend explaining, James Martin SJ. Remember the whole thing where it’s like, I don’t think there’s a comedian James Martin, there’s a father James Martin SJA.

Well, apparently father James Martin SJ was the de facto chaplain of the Colbert rapport.

Also, because it’s Hollywood and everything has to be related to everything e…

Everyone’s in Apple Baby. James Martin is the editor at large of the Jesse would run America Magazine, where Janine Gaffigan has a column. Nothing’s ever pure, everybody always knows some there’s always a hook up. I’m sure it’s a coincidence. Gaffigan said he and Colbert were approached by organizers and asked to come up with a list of names of other comedians who might be willing to participate.

L Axwayan’s why I didn’t get an invite. Jim Gaffickin was like, you know, the guy that’s been ripping my bourbon for a month, I’m gonna invite him, to which I would say, Hey, Jim, remember when you weren’t that popular and I had yall serious, and then you stopped returning calls once she had some fame. I mean, this wouldn’t go well at all, Jim said. They were like, we don’t want anyone to do material, and we were like, then you can’t invite any comedian. Comedians are silly, but they’re also very sincere, and you know, they’ve got a healthy ego.

So it’s like, the Pope wants to meet me, why not? It was cool. Gaffigan described the Pope as very approachable and said being a Catholic comedian is the most punk rock thing you can do, is be a comedian that even admits they believe in God.

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And then to be Catholic, you’re like asking for trouble.

What about those non Catholics that were invited to this thing, Jim? It was universal. There was warmth, there’s openness. Even with the exceeding amount of problems that have existed and will exist. It was amazing.

Jim points out even non believers are familiar with figures like Moses and Abraham and the fossils. It can be a unifying thing and that even someone who’s agnostic or an atheist can embrace the comic idea. He notes that his own religious material is not making fun of God or making fun of people that are a certain belief. It’s making fun of humans. Sometimes I’ll see a clip, but it’s like an atheist organization that’s using my material, and I’m like, all right, that’s an interesting take.

So it’s just like human stupidity that’s behind most of my material. Conan O’Brien described the post as a really kind man, and it’s joked that he sat down at a beautiful chair. I want a chair just like that. It’s the chair I deserve. He said.

His handshake with the Pope was quick. It’s not like Santa Claus where you sit on his lap and he tell me you want for Christmas. You can’t do that. I was about to say I want to sled for Christmas, so I want a basketball, and they said no. It was so quick.

There’s a wonderful experience of being the Vatican. See this. It was quite extraordinary. New Italians are doing something right. This is amazing.

Will Conan O’Brien joke about the Pope of the future, I’ll have to think about that. I think the Pope has a good sense of humor, so we’ll see what happens. E WT and News caught up with Stephen Colbert, who said, the connection between faith and humorous in the back of my mind all the time. I mean not in the front of my mind. In the front of my mind is what the joke is.

But a certain point in the back of my mind you have to say, do I want to tell that joke? And does that go with everything else that you are besides the comedian, especially doing political satshi are You’re kind of dancing around with a knife in your hand a lot, and you want to be careful with what you cut. So it’s lovely to hear the Pope acknowledge that there’s a value in that for people’s hearts, and it made me think a little bit harder about how I want to use it. Jim Gaffigan brought his wife and kids. Michael Gaffigan said, I’m going to brag about meeting the pope.

That’s so cool, Jim told his son.

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And now you have to become a priest much like me.

Deacon Mike John Oliver wasn’t there. He was hosting Last Week Tonight and updating us on the thing with the bakery. You remember this thing I told you about last week where Dacing’s Bakery was trying to buy some new equipment that Oliver had acquired, and he said he would give it to them if they put his face on a beer shaped cake. Remember that bit. Well they did, and they’re selling the cakes for eight dollars and donating the proceeds to a local food pantry people’s place.

John Oliver said, I love everything about that cake bear. It’s wide open eyes, pleading, munchm munch bites out of my butt right now. I love the little pause, the little nose, and that each bear basically looks like it’s wearing a John Oliver Halloween mask. They made those bears so fast. The guy apparently woke up to a text about our show at three in the morning, a nightmare I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.

And by ten am the bears were ready on sale and even had honored my request that day that to be given an enormous butt and their Facebook post announcing them saying they have dog all caps and just like that, Facebook is good again. Coming up on Saturday, I’ll speak with Mike Chisholm. He hosts the Letterman podcast. We talked for about eighty minutes. I might cut that up into two parts, but uh, you know, so far, the Saturday interviews are getting a pretty good review.

Maybe Deacon Mike can hook up the Pope. The Pope likes comedy. I’ll talk to the Pope for an hour. I can be respectful. I’m a Catholic.

Come on, Deacon Mike, if you want to read me pontificating about various things, including music and podcasting. I have a substack. It is free. It is mcdeepod dot substack dot com. That’s in the show notes.

Also in the show notes. Would you like a National Donut Chain T shirt? They came out. They’re pretty snazzy. Link in the show notes.

And if you would like this podcast and a bunch of others on the network, ad free four ninety nine a month gets you to that this like twenty something shows man five bucks no commercials. Pretty good deal. Link in the show notes. Let’s hit gossip corner. Pete Davidson did two shows at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts on Friday night.

Earlier in the day, shoppers in Uptown saw Pete Davidson and several friends walking around the stores. Pete visited North Street Records, Graham Cracker Comics, Waiting Room Records, and Mother Murphy sounds like a cool town here. Luke is the manager at Graham Cracker Comics and said one of the customers was checking out with me and said, is that Pete Davidson. Simpkins hadn’t noticed because the store was busy at the time. Right exactly, Jerry Seinfeld can walk around Sydney at a baseball cap.

You’re not expecting Jerry Seinfeld in Sydney. He described Pete Davidson as laid back. He was pretty chill, honestly. I was like, anything I can help you with? Pete Davidson said, no, I’m just hanging out in a comic shop.

I’m doing really good. Pete Davidson did buy a rare comic, Hannah Barbera’s Laugh Olympics number one from Marvel Comics Group. I wonder how much that’s worth. Let’s look remember the Laugh Olympics. That was awesome.

I was always reading for the really Rottens to win. You either know what I’m talking about. You’re like, what is John babbling about? All right? Laugh Olympics?

Number one came out March tenth, nineteen seventy eight, cover price at the time thirty five cents. Back In October, an issue grated nine point six by the comics people went for seventy dollars. In June of last year, one with only a nine point two went for one hundred and thirty five bucks. I’m amazed Pete even knows what this is since he was born in nineteen ninety three. One of the customers asked, are you Pete Davidson.

He was like, I don’t know, Maybe again Jerry walking around Sidney, Hey you Jerry Seinfeld? No, and you keep walking. Maddie and Anna work at waiting room records. Maddie said, we were both kind of like, wait a second, and I prepared myself to ask a random guy if he was Pete Davidson. So I’m like, this might be a stupid question, but are you Pete Davidson.

Pete Davidson said, I might be again, Jerry. You’re walking down the street in Sydney, Hey, are you Jerry Seinfeld? I might be, and you keep going. As Pete walked in, Anna heard him say I’m gonna do some damage here. Apparently Pete Davidson spent around one hundred dollars on CDs and VHS tapes.

Colton is the manager and co owner of Mother Murphy’s. He said he treated Pete’s group like you would any other patrons of the fifty six year old business at one eleven and a half West North Street. They’re just regular guys that ever really thought more about the fact than there are a few guys and they want to come hang out and take a look at some cool stuff. Pete wound up buying a few tapestries that have a three D effect when special glasses are worn. Derrick Gaines, who opened for Pete Davidson, bought a custom handmade denim jacket that he talked about on stage.

Later that night, Gaines wore the jacket during his set. Pete Davidson wore a custom made Bloomington Fire Department hockey sweater given to him by the Fire Department.

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Also on Gossip Corner from Atlanta Black Star, remember Rob Schneider went of…

Well Ari Spears came to Will Smith’s defense. Ari’s jumped in on the comments on Atlanta Black Star’s Instagram post about Rob Schneider, saying, I don’t like the fact that Chris Rock kept talking bad for years about that man’s wife. Spears wrote, that’s not who he really was or is. Like most humans, just to come to the pressure of being in a horrible situation with a woman that he loves driving him crazy, and he had a breakdown. In Long Beach, California, Today, Gabe Iglesias gets the key to the city.

He’ll also do a show at the Long Beach A Terris Theater. Tickets fifteen dollars. If they’re still available, you can request one from your city council member’s office while supplies last. To me, that sounds like a lot of work. It’s just easier to spend fifteen dollars.

In a statement, Gabe said, I’m honored to be recognized by my hometown in this way, and I’m proud to be able to support Long Beach’s youth. At the same time, if you’re a kid growing up in a tough situation, you might not believe that there’s a whole other world out there waiting for you. But there is. I’m proof of that, and you can be too. Out Today on Netflix, Outstanding a Comedy Revolution, a documentary examined sand Up from the nineteen fifties through today, features Lily Tomlin, Billy Eichner, Joelkimbooster, and many others.

It examines how LGBTQ plus comedians sharpened their wit amid a struggle for equality.

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Also appearing in archival stand up performances and interviews, Sander Bernh…

And that is your comedy news for today. If you enjoy the program, you’d like without the commercials link in the show notes. Babe, see you tomorrow.

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Featured: Louis C.K., Charlie Rose, Caroline Suh, John Mulaney, Jerry Seinfeld, John Stewart, Langston Kerman, Pat Reagan, Robbie Hoffman, Cole Escola, Andrew Schultz, Rob Schneider, Will Smith, Chris Rock, Jimmy Fallon

What’s in This Episode

• Louis C.K. documentary ‘Sorry Not Sorry’ coming to theaters July 12
• John Mulaney discusses ‘Everybody’s in LA’ late night panel show experience
• Rob Schneider criticizes Will Smith over Chris Rock incident
• Jimmy Fallon renews Tonight Show contract through 2028
• Comedy industry scale and touring growth reaches all-time high

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 very very robust one today for a Monday, and especially a summer Monday. Hi, I’m met Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. The trailer for the documentary about Louis C.K. Is out. I’ll play it for you in a second.

The Daily Beast reviewed the trailer and they say it opens with footage of fellow accused predator Charlie Rose describing the comedian as philosopher king in the mold of Lenny Bruster, Bob Dylan. Yeah, there was a time there when c K was absolutely being compared to George Carlin. Pre cancellation Sorry Not Sorry is about c K’s ongoing and largely successful attempts at to come back after getting canceled in the fall of twenty seventeen. I’m not sure he’s all that canceled. Did he lose gigs, Yes, but he also can sell out the Garden, so he’s not that canceled.

But the Daily Beast tells us Sorry Not Sorry gives the woman who first spoke out against him a chance to tell their story with a little more time than some of the media coverage gave them. The documentary premier the Toronto International Film Festival. It will hit theaters and video on demand on July twelfth. I’m not sure how wide of a released this is going to get in the video on demand bothers me is a little strong, but I’d like more people to see this, and video on demand means you’re gonna have to go out of your way to be like, oh, yeah, this even exists.

And now that I know it exists, I want to throw some money in its direction.

I wish this were just streaming on Netflix or something so it could be more widely discussed. Let’s play the trailer here a little longer than I usually do for an audio excerpt, but I think you need to hear. I’m going to play most of the trailer. I’ll chop it a little part where there’s just some music and a slight warning for language here as they describe the things that Louis was doing in colloquial language, comparisons to Lenny Bruce, comparisons to Bob Dylan, comparisons to being a sort of philosopher. Can Jesus.

When I said I wanted to work with Louis C.K. I should have been more specific to like how it all panned out. Most female comedians quit because just a series of indignities that they have to suffer their entire life, because you’ve been socialized in this world where men get to treat women, howrder they want. If he’s done this stuff and he’s denied it, we just thought, well, let’s see how much of a story there is there. We got the sense that there were going to be other women.

They were told to keep quiet. People are scared. They want to be on his side for work. He didn’t use the word sorry, but he wrote a whole essay explaining that he knew he did something wrong. He got caught.

The man got caught. I was like, well, the fact that I thought it wasn’t my problem is the problem. Like, that’s exactly the problem Luis did. What was all rough? I don’t know how do we deal with this?

How do we welcome people back or not welcome people back? Usually white men get away with the stuff that they do. You know, he’s coming back, right. He started to do more touring, and they started to sell out. Everybody lives with a certain amount of hypocrisy, And this is the amount that I’ve allocated for myself making fun of the Victims is still good for business.

Women are hurting and feel like they’re crazy because everyone is letting all these predators back. Not only did he get away with it, he’s like rubbing it in all of our faces. Director Caroline Suh says, while Louis C.K. Certainly lost a lot in the process, he still has a lot of fans. You don’t really know or care about what happened.

I think you could say that a lot of women are canceled because before they even get a chance to do something, Because, as we try to show in the film, building or having a career after something like this happens can become more difficult. In an already difficult field like comedy, it can be easy to just focus on Louis and what we think should or should not happen to him, But the film shows that Louie’s behavior was an open secret for a long time. I think we also need to look at the role we play in these kinds of stories and whose careers we work hardest to protect. John Mulaney spoke to The Rap about his late night show. M’laney did a lot of press late last week.

That makes me think something’s up somebody’s laying the groundwork for something. M’laney told the Rap the best thing about everybody’s in la is we didn’t have time to learn. There was something great about not learning. I wouldn’t want to lose that, but I don’t know how you wouldn’t lose that. I’m a big fan of late night talk shows, panel shows, lots of things like that.

It was fun to do our version of it. We were very conscious we were gonna have people on that I really wanted to talk to, and some of them might not be TV savvy or might not have done much media before, but they were the core of the panel. To me, they were the whole reason to do a show. The extra fun of it was that every big comedian was in town at the same time. Mlaney describes himself as a pretty curious person.

Malani liked this compliment from Jerry Seinfeld, who said, this is so much fun. Eline says, I was really happy that he was much much more interested in hearing calls from people about coyotes than talking about comedy or his movie coming out. And same with John Stewart, same with everyone is he opened to another late night esque show. M’laney said, oh, totally. I’m open to so many things now.

John praised some fellow comedians that he wanted a spotlight, including Langston Kerman, Pat Reagan, Robbie Hoffman, and Cole Escolo, whom Alaney called one of the best solo performers I’ve ever seen anywhere. On the comedy industry, m’laney says, the scale’s bigger than it’s ever been. That doesn’t mean there weren’t stand up comedy superstars for forty fifty years even longer, but the sheer amount of comedians touring larger sized theaters is probably the highest it’s ever been. Yeah. I got into that over the weekend with Jason Zinnemann about somebody like Andrew Schultz plays the Garden.

There was a time when if a comedian even played the Garden, never mind sold it out, it was a huge news. Rob Schneider in the news again he called Will Smith an a hole. Schneider was on the Kyle and Jackie o Show where apparently he called Will Smith a liar and a complete utter fraud. Actually there’s a typo in the article, or maybe not Will He may have called Will Smith a layer? Is Will Smith a place where a wild animal, especially if fiercer dangerous one lives.

You’d have to ask Rob Schneider. Perhaps he’s a layer or a liar. I don’t know. Schneider said, it’s a deep dark thing to do that in front of all those people, and to a really legendary comedian who’s literally the best comedian of our generation. You wouldn’t have this whole wave of comedy that came after if it wasn’t for Chris Rock.

He kicked open the doors, Schneider said, I’m reading verbatim here. I’m not sure the second half of the quote makes sense, but the same article said Lair Will as a douchebag. The thing is, that’s how politically correct the academy is that they were so caroly, because if I would have done that, they would have been hauled off to prison. Thinking that should have said that Rob Schneider would have been hauled off to prison if he slapped someone who knows so much news about Late Night, like five stories in a row, let’s run through them. Jimmy Fallon has renewed his deal with NBC.

He will host the Tonight Show through at least twenty twenty eight. If it ain’t broken, Don’t fix it. NBC suit Mark Lazarus, in a statement, says, for nearly thirty years, Jimmy Fallon has brought laughter into the homes of millions and charmed audiences from the stages of thirty Rock. It’s been a privilege to witness Jimmy at the helmet of the Tonight Show, and we’re thrilled to see what innovations and the incredible staff will deliver in the years to come With the network, Jimmy Fallon said, for nearly thirty years, I’ve brought laughter those of millions and charmed audiences from the stages of thirty Rock. It’s been a privilege to be at the helmet of this night show, and I’m thrilled to see what innovations me and the incredible staff will deliver in the years to come at the Network.

No, I’m not changing my quote. Tell Mark to change his. That is amazing love. It may recall fallon faced allegations of creating a toxic workplace at the Tonight Show is detailed in a Rolling Stone story. We’ve made that go away.

We’re back to Hey, it’s Jimmy Fallon. Don’t ask questions about that other stuff. Seth Myers is losing his band now. Like many others, I reacted and said, Seth Myers has a band. Apparently there’s a band called the eight G Band that is a quote signature element of the Seth Myers program.

Now. To be fair, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen Late Night with Seth Myers. I’ve seen clips, I don’t think I’ve ever actually watched it. Apparently had a band they’re leaving. Eli Jenny, the keyboardist of the HG Band, told Vulture that the trio was informed in recent weeks that the band would cease to be a regular part of the program.

Do two budget cuts, Jenny said. In the end, NBC was adamant about where they wanted the budget to go to. It’s not just the ben there’s a whole crew that works with the man, so there’s a lot of people employed. I think this was an easy way for them to cut the budget. Easy’s not the right word.

Smart move by John Stewart. He’s going to host two live episodes of the Daily Show following the two presidential debates, the first one on June twenty seventh, the second on September tenth. The Daily Shows also going to go on the road for both the DNC and RNC conventions. Trevor Noah did live debate coverage in twenty sixteen. He did not do so in twenty twenty.

There was this pandemic. I don’t know if you heard about it. It’s unclear if the live episodes will mean that John Stewart will work two days those weeks, or if you’ll take Monday off and just do the Tuesday. John Stewart was the guest on a podcast called The Town. That’s a good podcast if you’re until this Hollywood business stuff, and he talked about what happened over there at Apple.

John says, has things went along and I did a bunch of other projects. I started having this idea in the back of my head about the sort of difference between whether in climate when it came to the institutions and the media and all these different things. And the Daily Show had always been a little bit more about the weather, you know, we were kind of every day in there. And the genesis of the problem was what if we looked at it more as climate systems, what causes the weather? How did these things arise?

And I felt invigorated again by it. There’s something about changing the perspective and looking at it from the slightly skewed place that felt revelatory to me and kind of excited me again. That was the Apple Show.

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And then Apple said, would prefer you not do that?

And then I said, oh, no, no, no, but I’m excited again and they were like, yes, we are less. So got news for you, John apples right here and so you know, we had some disagreements about the direction of it, the tone of it, and the subject matter, et cetera. Yeah, if you listened to John’s new podcast, Apple’s right yuck it up, John Stewart said, And when you’re working for a company like Apple, there are a lot of factors to take an account, like when you work for a corporate entity, that’s part of the deal. Like even in Comedy Central, the dealer is I get to do what I want until they think it’s going to hurt their beer sales or whatever it is they want to sell. And that’s the deal we all make.

Nobody is owned a platform. And when you’re in somebody’s house and they want you to take your shoes off, you take your shoes off. You go to somebody Else’s house. Taylor Solison has been renewed through the twenty twenty four to twenty five tDCS and Amy Reisenbach is a CBS suit who said Taylor is a gifted comedian who brings a unique voice, energy, and plenty of riz to Late Night. I learned riz as a real word thanks to the show.

It’s the little things. I’m glad. She added that because I was going to totally rip that quote. A. Ratings for the show overall are lower than what James Corden was doing.

However, we’re told it’s a solid ratings performer in eighteen of forty nine, and again, if you factor in budget, probably makes more money. Who knows from the Vatican News, your home for comedy news, the comedians were over there at the Vatican on Friday. I wasn’t there. Deacon Mike, who knows a lot of bishops. I’ve seen Deacon Mike talking to bishops.

They clearly know him. So you know, he might not know the Pope, but you know it’s people who knows the Pope. Did he hook me up with an invite to the Vatican? He did not imagine what this episode could have been. Instead, I’m playing Louis c.

K Trailers, Thanks Deacon Mike. The Pope said, because laughter is contagious, can break down social barriers and create connections. Vatican News tells us. The Holy Father went on to highlight another miracle of comedians, the ability to make people smile even when tackling serious issues. The Pope said, I can’t believe I’m saying.

The Pope said, I don’t think that’s ever come up on the show before, other than last week. The Pope said, you denounce the excesses of power, give voice to forgotten situations, highlight abuses, point out inappropriate behavior, but without spreading alarm and terror, anxiety or fear divine wisdom. Practice your art for the benefit of none other than God himself, the first spectator in history. Remember this. When you managed to bring intelligent smiles to the lips of even a single spectator, you also make God smile.

We can even laugh at God, just as we play and joke with those we love. But the Pope pointed out this must be done without offending the religious feelings of believers, especially the poor. Continue to cheer people up, especially those who find it hardest to look at life with hope. Help us with a smile, to see reality with its contradictions, and to dream of a better world. So more coverage of this event.

Remember I mentioned I didn’t think there was a comedian named James. There might be a comedian named James Martin, but that comedian was not invited to the Vatican. It was indeed, Father James Martin sj as I suspected, but he was on the list of comedians. Don’t know why, doesn’t matter. According to reports in the media, Jimmy Fallon was seen larking around the front of the audience hall before proceedings got underway.

He was reportedly quickly he told to take a seat as the Pope was about to walk through the door. Conan O’Brien described his meeting with the Pope and said, well, it was brief. He spoke in Italian, so I’m not quite sure what he said. It was quick. Had a wonderful time.

If you took the weekend off, Hey, in the Northeast, the weather was gorgeous. I don’t blame you, but go back and listen to Saturday’s episode where I talked to comedy with New York Times critic at Lord’s Jason Zenniman. I think you’ll like that one a lot. The upcoming week, I have already corded eighty minutes or so before the edit with Mike Chisholm, who hosts the Letterman podcast. We got all nerdy about David Letterman, so that’ll be coming up on Saturday.

A nice benefit for me is I can take the transcripts from these things and put them in the sub stack. I do a substack where I write about the media, sometimes comedy, but often not comedy. For example, music Monday and Wednesday is what I’m listening to, which is podcast recommendation. So it’s not a comedy newsletter. But if you’d like to subscribe to that for free, link in the show notes.

But it’s mickdepod dot substack dot com and it’s free and want you just sign up and delead all the emails. At least that way, I’ll be like, hey, I picked up some new followers, and I’ll feel good about myself. And I don’t know if you read it or not, but I’ll be like ooh followers.

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Also link in the show notes.

Caloroga dot com slash merch my business partner Mark he got all creative and he made some National Donuts Chain T shirts. Don’t you want one? They’re pretty snazzy. I’ll be hawking those as we go forward. But National Donuts Chain A T shirts available in the merch store.

Link in the show notes. If you’re on a podcasting two point oh app this podcast supports value for value. If you want to throw some Satoshi’s my way. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, don’t worry about it. If you would like this program ad free, also a link in the show notes.

Boy, those show notes are pretty busy today. Calor roga dot com slash you can get this show and a bunch of the others on the network. Four ninety nine a month gets you them. Commercial free comedy recommendation. You probably heard me over the weekend say I had not yet watched Connor O’Malley Stand Up Solutions.

I didn’t lie, but I had taped it before I watched it. I have seen it. It’s pretty good. It’s on YouTube. I liked it a lot.

Connor O’Malley stand Up Solutions A recommendation from me. Spoilers for season four of the Boys. I’ll give you a second here. If you watched the Boys. Yet that’s what I’ve been watching all weekend.

That’s why I’m behind on my comedy specials. Again, as tends to happen. Plus, I was outside all weekend. It was so nice. All right, there was a cameo in the Boys, and I’m about to spoil it.

Will Ferrell, hilarious has always made a cameo in The boy is that they’re making a movie about a train who’s kind of sort of not quite the flash. In the movie within the Boys, Will Ferrell stars as a train’s coach who warns a train against throwing aways talents to sling yayo from gangbangers. I’m sure we’ll delivered it in a much funnier way than I just did. Hello, I’m not sure. Coach Will Ferrell says, you can either outrun this life or you can outrun yourself into an early grieve.

The director says, Holy f We’re not going to beat that. That was effing perfect, literal tears. Who’s happy they spent two weekends at the Compton Youth Center. Now, Will Ferrell, as Will Ferrell says, I’m not giving off too much of a blind side vibe. Am I The director says, as if that’s a bad thing.

Wait what does that smell? Everyone? Stop? What does that smell? Is that you?

Will Ferrell spawns hilarious as always, I had falafel for lunch. The director then critiques a train. According to showrunner Eric Kripke, one of the scenes with Will Ferrell did not make it. Kirk Ke tells the Rap as you can imagine, these guys are world class improvisers. We have so much film on them riffing and trying different things.

At one point they make out there’s just so much material there that we couldn’t use it, but hopefully in the special features of deleted scenes, because they have a lot of really good stuff. As I just mentioned, I haven’t seen Hannah Einbinders special yet, but the Rap did, and they said, the reason she looks so confident in her day you stand up special everything must go because she’s been working on the joke since twenty seventeen or twenty eighteen. There’s no comedic comparison to what Einbinder does. On one moment, she leans into a round of tried and true dating jokes, only to subvert them at the last minute. Spoiler as a bisexual woman Einbinder has dubbed men idiots and women annoying.

The next she pretends to be the moon, making use of the thick red curtain most other performers would ignore. The joy of Einbinder’s new special is you never know where the comedian’s going to go or what to expect from her punchlines, but you always know that the journey will be interesting. That sounds good. I want to check this one out. They asked her favorite pieces of comedy.

Hannah said, Oh my god, it’s so hard. I got to sound super interesting here, gotta be Niche. Probably The Mighty Booshe, which is a wonderful character driven sketch show. The Brits are like, yeah, we know the answer, Like, what’s the Mighty Boosh? I think it’s on Hulu.

It’s a good show. Check it out, Hannah. What comedians have been impressing you lately? She says, Michael Longfellow. I think he’s the most brilliant, succinct, distinct comedic voice that I’m aware of.

He’s so original and so funny and whipsmart and I look forward to seeing his special and that he’s your comedy news for today. To you tomorrow,

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Featured: Jason Zinoman

What’s in This Episode

• Jason Zinoman’s approach to comedy criticism at the New York Times
• Balancing live comedy attendance with online content consumption
• The role of first impressions in critical analysis
• Dave Chappelle’s recent specials and focus on trans community material
• Festival coverage strategy versus local club attendance
• Montreal Comedy Festival cancellation
• Impact of social media clips on comedy consumption and criticism

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. I’ve got a great one for you today. My guest is Jason Zenniman, critic at large for the Culture section of the New York Times. Jason writes a column about comedy, and we talked comedy for the better part of an hour on his biopage on the New York Times dot com, Jason Wrights. I cover comedy with critical rigor and curiosity and explore how it reflects and influences the broader cultural and intellectual landscape.

I’m particularly interested in work that is innovative or unexpected, but it’s enough if it’s just really funny. My aim is to always capture the comedy scene in its complexity while translating it clearly for a broad audience. That is a theme that came up several times during this discussion. I just want to give you some notes on the recording here. So we recorded this on a program called squad cast, basically zoom for podcasters, and when you do that, you don’t quite get studio quality sound, and sometimes you get little dropouts.

The reason I’m bringing this up is I just want to be clear. There were three different points where I used a program called descript which has a feature called regenerate, where I used it to regenerate short phrases said by Jason. Nothing materially changed, The words aren’t changed. It just regenerated the wave so that it didn’t fade a little bit. Just want to be clear about that.

Also, when I use the script, it has a couple of neat buttons that I use every day on this podcast. One is remove retakes, so when I recorded every day, believe me, I stumble and I start over and descript has a one button remove retakes. It’s wonderful. There’s also a feature that I used on this interview, which is remove filler words, because when you listen to Johnny Max speak the way Johnny Mac does over the course of an hour, there are a lot more ums and you knows than you might get during a typical ten minute script that I’ve edited down. And there’s also a one button click called shortened word Gaps, which just tightens the pacing.

So I’ve used all those features on this interview. Nothing materially changed. But I just want to be clear that I did in a traditional podcasting way, nothing nefarious. I did edit the audio all right, And here’s my interview with Jason. I’ve been a fan of your work.

I don’t even know how to explain it. It’s not stupid. There’s a lot of stupid in comedy, and I don’t feel like you do takes. I feel like you write really thoughtful, smart pieces. And I’ve been quoting you in episodes for months and then the other day I freaked out.

I go, wait, what if his name is pronounced Zinoman? And I’ve said it wrong forty five times?

And then I actually checked.

I was like, anyway, So I’m curious about your approach as someone who just does off the top of his head ten minute podcasts and maybe a half assed written substack. I know how long it takes me to do that, so to appreciate what you’re doing for The New York Times.

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Also, you’ve got to be putting out a ton of work.

First of all, let me say, if you call me Zinoman, I’m not going to complain the it’s like cinnamon, but I’ll take any reference. I’ll take any pr is good pr and the Zionoman sounds also always more like the superhero version of my name. But yeah, it’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of work. Although that makes it sound.

Sometimes it comes very easily, as I’m sure, and sometimes more work doesn’t always mean better work. Is one thing I’ve learned, and that’s one thing that’s evolved over the course of this. For instance, I would say when I started this job, I spent a huge I spend a huge amount of time most of my time going out to see shows clubs, and I still do that, but I don’t do it as much as I used to, and that has to do both with how comedies change, but also I think that I try to spend a little bit of time every week thinking about letting my mind roam and thinking of ideas, and then if I have a good idea, I try to find the right form for it that because so sometimes sometimes that’s a review, sometimes it’s an essay. Sometimes it’s a bigger piece and it’s a profile. And it’s funny like the things that I write in a in an hour or a half hour are the most popular, and the things that I sweat over, like I’m working on something now for months and no one cares.

I feel like I totally know that one yes, yes, and they’re sometimes they’re wrong, but they’re not always wrong. Sometimes you cannot trust you you. Let’s put this way. As I’m first a critic and I’m a big believer in something, I’m a big believer that your first impression isn’t always right, but it’s always important. So you have to be really sensitive to your first impression of something.

And it’s why people like Pauline Kal, who’s probably the critic who most inspired me as a kid. She would write she would go see a movie and go home write the review right away, and because she really valued that first impression, I’m happy to hear that you’re not clubbing as much as he used to. One of my guilt trips. I run Serious XM Comedy for ten years ten years ago now, but even then it was hard to go see shows because I was still expected to be in the office and be a manager from eight am until six call it. So to stay out till one point thirty in the morning doing shows was difficult.

I tended to rely on the people who were younger on my staff, and then to keep my knowledge fresh, I’d hit festivals and as I always tell this audience, if you go to a festival, don’t go see Chris Rock. You can go see Chris Rocks some other time, go hit all those smaller shows. That’s where the action is. I’m upset that Montreal is gone, or perhaps back or this new group that bought it, But no Montreal. This summer is a bummer.

It’s interesting to hear what you do, because I think that’s a very smart strategy. It’s I have taken the opposite approach, which isn’t necessarily better, which is that, if anything, I undercover festivals because I feel like a lot of the people you see at festivals I already see New York. But what that means is like comedians from other cities when they come through here, I make a point of trying to see them, or I try to go to La periodically to see that. But I miss things for sure, And there’s no question that you could. It’s funny.

The truth is that there’s like a pool of performers in New York, and if you go often enough, you see them all and it’s changing, but it doesn’t change radically. It doesn’t change like the number of people changed. I still like to go, and I think I pick up things. I learned things from going. But now the thing is you could probably the most time efficient way is probably just to look at your computer and fillow.

Because everyone’s online and there’s so much material online, and a lot of consumers of comedy are first accessing comedy not from clubs but from a clip on a TikTok or Instagram. So that has to change. I feel like if the way that we have to have along with the consumers. Yeah, and for any content creator, no matter of the format. We’re all living in a headline world, right, So the easiest thing to write is why Joe Rogan, Shane Gillis and Nikki Glaser are something that’ll get the clicks as opposed to Hey guys, Jen Marco Cireesis awesome, Just it doesn’t do the same.

Uh. But CIESSI will contact you and be like, how come you’re not con righting about me? He’s fantastic Switching gears I wanted. One of the main things I wanted to talk to you about Dave Chappelle. It bothers me that he has seemingly chosen to turn his legacy into The second line in his oh bit is going to be something about the trans community.

And he’s so much better than what he’s done on the last few specials, which is Jason you know why I had you on today because of the trans And he slaps his knee and he mugs for the camera and he gets a laugh, and he’s so much better than that. And I don’t know why he’s dug in on that. To be curious to your thoughts, it’s a good it’s a good question. Look, I loved Dave Chappelle. I’ve wrote an ebook on Dave Chappelle eight years ago, searching for Dave Chappelle.

I grew up in Washington, d C. Where he’s from. I have I’m around. He’s a few years older than me, but I’ve been following his career since the since the eighties. I have a tremendous he’s incredible comedian.

His sketch show, I think people have now forgotten about it, but it’s one of the greatest comedies ever on television, and he’s one of the greatest. He’s one of the greatest stand ups. I think it’s his first specialist terrific and he still has a lot. I say all this as a way to be like it’s one of the I’m agreeing with you. And one of the reasons it’s depressing is that when we talk about Dave Chappelle, we tend to talk about these culture war things and because that’s what he’s put out put forth, and so why has he chosen to do that?

I think Gerard Carmichael made us ask the more question recently. My sense, if I again I’m just speculating, is that Chappelle always liked two didn’t you know? Prized? His freedom prize is independence he and I think I think the good faith, genuine interpretation is that when he did trans jokes and people said got offended or said, don’t you his first instinct is to then double down right, And that’s always been his first instinct. It’s been his first instinct through his whole career.

We can go chapter in verse. Even before he was famous. I’ve written back before his Chapelle show, he had a big falling out on his comedy on a ABC show called Buddies. I’ve traced this in ambols has served him in this case. Look, it may have served him well for his audience.

He’s still selling out, he’s still popular, but for his art, I agree with you. I think it’s kept him in a rut. And I’m still optimistic when I see a new Dave Chappelle thing. I hope he moves past it. But yeah, what’s interesting to me the last one came out is that I don’t even think it caused that much controversy.

I think people are just bored. Yeah, I imagine in your travels you’ve run into him. He’ll do sets and I’m being generous with that. He’ll he’ll take stage time and he’s not even really working out. He’s just talking to the audience when he does that downbeat, soft spoken Dave, and he’ll just come out with some brilliant things just to listen to that.

Maybe it an’t even funny and he’s got that there, and I just I’d like to just see him do something else. But to your point, Dave Sapelle announced his new Netflix special already. The conversation is going to be, is he going to bring this up again? And it’s I think he nailed it. It’s boring, It’s it’s predictable.

I mean, like, if you were to say, like, what’s the least interesting thing for him to do next, it would be to talk about that again. That’s the part of it which flabbergasting. I think that the thing the other issue might be is that he always had these two modes, which was doing like a stand up set with this with more traditional collection of jokes in his very idiosyncratic style, and what you described this like, he would go into go into clevit. He would be on stage for four hours. And there was something incredible about those sets.

He could go places that others could not. And I believe he got she fell in love with that, and there’s something indulgent about those and I think that’s true for not just in terms of the amount of time he’s spending there, but also they became very self serious. This bothers me less than other people. But I think another reason people got bored with him is that he seemed his material seemed less punchline driven. It seemed less about being funny and more about being profound.

And if he’s saying things that are profound and poetic, that’s fine, and maybe it’s better than fine, it’s great. But if he’s saying the same thing over and over again, that’s a problem. All right, new premise off all the recent protests that Jerry Seinfeld ran into, I find myself wondering what if Jerry went political? Now I know that’s crazy. He’s seventy years old, and it’s very easy to just write it out and go, hey, do you ever notice but what if Jerry showed off and went all in?

Could you ever imagine that in a million years? No? But I mean I would be interested. I think there’s another question which is similar, which is what if he went vulnerable or introspective personal? And I think there’s room for that.

I think that he I don’t think I think people would be interested in either in going political. I don’t think he wants to, and I don’t think he has to. I don’t even think he’s got to. Cut from the last interviews from him, he doesn’t seem like he wanted it to come out with any special ever again. And he wouldn’t need to.

He wouldn’t need to see any people forget. But he came up at a time when everyone didn’t need to release specials, and he didn’t. He for most of his career he didn’t release specials, and he could and he did just he did obviously did just find Some people think that he has gotten more political, but I’m with you. I don’t think he. I don’t think he has.

I thought I found all the backlash of the popsarts movie bizarre. I liked it. I thought it was this is a silly movie. We’re having fun, my friends are in it. Want you to turn your brain off for ninety minutes.

And people seemed like mad that that movie even exists. It was weird. I know, you mean, I think some people were mad about the interviews in which he said things like, you know, the PC left and the were ruining sitcoms or whatever. But yeah, there was the initial response from some I think one film critic called it the worst movie of the decade or the year or something, and I was like, that made no sense to me. That made zero How you could that there’s something going on outside of the screen to think that a movie with that ambition and also that amount of there’s plenty of talent on screen there is the worst movie.

And it’s not funny. I say ambition, a low ambition. It’s not a movie that’s swinging for the fences. Yeah, it’s not like he made some bro dude version of Oppenheimer and missed the politics of it. It’s a pop starts movie.

Yes, it’s a popp bar. It’s it was a it’s a bizarre response, but I that’s the age we’re living in, right that, I think the more hyper hyperbole you you mentioned if you put Joe Rogan in the title against a lot of hits. The other way to get it is to have a more extreme point of view. Right, all right, we’ll take the break here back with Jason Zenimann after this the rest of Tom Brady, I feel like it. It cuts through, seems to have done well.

Did Nicky Glazer step up in class? Did Tony Hinchcliff step up in class? Or these now names that the civilians would know? Actually, let me sidebar there. This comes up a lot.

There are a lot of really popular comedians. But if you and I walk down the street and grabbed one hundred people in New York City and said, hey, Andrew Schultz, what are we going three for one hundred, I think you’re right. I think you’re right. Yeah. No, you’re putting your finger on a big phenomenon of the moment, which is like, what does it mean to be a famous comedian?

In twenty twenty four, Andrew Schultz played Mason Square Garden, right, And there was a time when that was like hardly anybody, hardly nobody had played Masters for a Garden, but he’s played massots for Garden, and as you said, I think most people don’t know who he is. But I think that’s not just a question of comedy. That’s a question of the culture in general, which is that it’s so fragmented, it’s so balkanized that you as long as you have very passionate fans in your niche, you can sell a lot and be very successful even without being widely known. I think it’s also answers the previous question, which is the wiser everyone so worried about Jerry Seinfeld. All the people who became famous in that generation have a kind of fame that’s way bigger than the kind of fame you get now, with the exception of Taylor Swift, if you manage to get famous.

Even Drogan, I think, is an example of this where Rogan likes to protact like he’s anti establishment, anti mainstream media. But I have this sort of pet theory that the difference between his fame and Tim Dillon Andrew Schultz, who will never be as famous as Joe Rogan, is that Joe Rogan was on Fear Factor, and Joe Rogan was on news radio and he hosted a after Bob Costas left. Later he or he had an NBC talk show for a second. Though, that’s a bigger fame than these podcast fames that you get now. It’s a kind of fame that reach which is a much broader demographic than you reach out.

I must have a race from my brain. There was a Joe Rogan late night show. I did a piece a year ago. It’s now it seems already maybe longer than that seems very dated. When Daily Show was doing rotating guest hosts, and I was making an argument for how this might not be a terrible idea to do permanently.

This is before they announce John Stewart, which is a better idea, but are once a week. But although I guess they still do, I guess they are to entertaining guest hosts around with John Stewart. And I was looking around for precedent, and I realized that in the late nineties NBC did this after maybe an some of the details wrong, but it’s in my story. After you know a letterman, and they had a crazy series of people who I like hosted for a week than a week, and among those people were Joe Rogan and he had he interviewed and eight people he interviewed. It was a similar version to his podcast, but it was on NBC and I was really shock it.

I couldn’t find any versions of it online, but I nailed it down that had happened. I found it on an old like TV guy those things. Oh wow, You’re gonna send me down a rabbit hole, and I didn’t forget. I will circle back to my Nikki Glaser question, but now I’m like three questions deep. I just had Mark malcoff on and he retriggered my late night obsession.

And I spent the week watching YouTube videos. And somebody made this homebrew thing about the Carson Letterman, Tom Snyder trifecta, and I just I’m back into that whole move. And I know you wrote a Letterman book. Can you explain to me why I worship twelve thirty Letterman lasted a year and a half at eleven thirty Letterman after spending a decade going man. If only I didn’t have to stay up till one thirty in the morning, if only Dave were on at eleven thirty, I would watch Dave every night, And then a year and a half into it, I don’t know if it was just I was in my mid twenties and going out and doing things people do and not watching late night TV.

But twelve thirty Letterman is my north star. Eleven thirty Letterman, okay, And then he’ll put out something on Netflix and it takes me three weeks to watch it. What is wrong with me? It’s so funny that you asked me this question today, because you and I are identical on this point. And just today somebody sent me a podcast in which it was the guy who’d wrote that was the Letterman podcast, Mike Chris Som, and he said, oh, I mentioned you on a podcast, and he was on a podcast with somebody else, sorry to be on a podcast talking about another podcast, but my name came up and it was asking I guess the podcast?

Hast said, how do you press him when he was on your podcast about why he focuses so much on his late night twelve thirty show and not on his CBS show, And there was a kind of there was a they were upset, both of them because they both really there. They both liked the CBS show. And it made me wonder for a second, because I putting aside me for a second, I think to people who are younger, who maybe didn’t grow up with that show, the CBS show means more. But I’ve watched both as an adult, so my opinions on them are not just like nostalgic. And despite what they said in this podcast, the reason I didn’t is because I agree with you that from nineteen eighty two to ninety three David Letterman on NBC made some of the most brilliant talk show comedy and most innovative talk show comedy ever that really created a sensibility, invented all kinds of forms mainstream to sort of irony.

That is really significant, that deserves that will be here to your point about legacy, that will be the lion’s share of his legacy. Now, his first couple of years in the CBS Show are probably arguably the more popular and were more covered more because of the late night wars, and some of them were quite good, and they were periods in the CBS show that were better or worse. But in my opinion, the NBC show was vastly more ambitious and better than the CBS show. Now that again, there are big exceptions to certainly his response to nine to eleven and many other ones. He still was David Letterman.

He still was doing great work. But and my book is essentially a book length answer to the question of why right. If you want to know why, that is by my book, Letterman Last China Malee. And part of it has to do with him, Part of it has to do with the network, but a lot of it has to do with what’s around him and the writers around him, and the relationship between the writers and Letterman and all that. I would say that you were just smart and discriminating, and that’s that’s why I think what attracted me to it was the whole twelve thirty vibe.

And once Conan found his fastball, he’s had the same vibe of maybe this bit isn’t working, but I know it, you know what, we all know what. Let’s just stick to it and left together with it.

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And then you go to eleven, which is a different animal, and you have to wear …

I’ve always called it establishment Letterman as opposed to the twelve thirty, Like we’re off our game tonight, we got forty seven minutes left whatever, yep, yep, yep. No. I think it was clearly a bigger, more show, busy show in a big theater where the previous show was intimate, and it felt like conspiratorial between the viewer and Dave, and it was going backstage and doing all these fourth wall breaking things. It was very different there was It was a very I would make the argument that it was the things that really made him unique. The new version of CBS was going directly against.

That doesn’t mean that he was totally different. He still had some lot of reverence. And I think what’s interesting that you bring up what he’s doing now. It’s remarkable if you would have told me, the young version of me who loved his late night show, that Letterman would be now doing a show in which he interviews famous people and is incredibly complimentary and gushing about all of them and solicitous. What made him really stand out as an interviewer in the eighties, and you can just go and look at the press on this is he adopted a kind of almost hostile, if not skeptical, attitude towards the celebrities who came out and promoted, and that was part of his appeal.

So it’s interesting he’s I don’t blame him, you know, but it’s quite a one eighty. The next rabbit hole I want to go down is trying to track down clips of his daytime show. Until I watched that Homebrew doc this week, I had no idea that Patricks or viewer mail were leftovers from the daytime show. I’ve barely seen clips of that. It’s incredible, it’s incredibly out there.

There are yeah, yeah, yeah, if you go on YouTube, there’s They’re not all of them, but a huge number of them. And he and Meryl Marco a lot of the great stuff from the Late night if not most of it, were established in the Morning Show. And they had Andy Kaufman as a maybe his most one of the most brilliant appearances ever was on the Morning Show. There’s incredible Steve Martin appearance they did. I’m pretty sure they definitely did stupid Patrick’s first in the Morning Show.

I think they might have done viewer mail, a lot of the man on the Street stuff. Hal Gurney, the director started with him on the Morning Show, started there. It was the wrong time slot, but they were trying things there that it was the blueprint was established there and just when they figured it out, they got canceled, and I think that that’s what was the secret sauce to the show is that by the time that they started on late night, they had a much better sense of what they wanted to do than they would have if they did have the morning show. When I recently watched Mullaney, I went for a whole ride here. So, just to catch you up on my resume, a big chunk of it, I worked in talk radio w or New York and did a lot of phone screening, which is relevant to what I’m setting up here.

As I was watching Mulaney, my initial reaction was, oh, my goodness, twelve thirty Dave is back. This is so loose and goofy, and I loved it.

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And then I started screaming and this is arrogant.

Somebody needs to produce this thing. And my sticking point was when they went to callers, because as a call screener, I can tell you civilians cannot take tell a story. And I’m screaming at my TV saying Jerry Seinfeld is sitting there. I could have hosted that when hey, Jerry has that movie going and then shut up for ten minutes. I would did you enjoy me?

Lee? I really think something’s there. I’d like to see more of it just and maybe this is counter to my whole twelve thirty Letterman argument a little more focused. Oh, I’m with you. I really enjoyed it because I like novelty, and I like experimentation, and I like things that are different.

So I was tiggled by it. And just like you it Fello. There are bits of cable access, there are bits of we just with super famous people. There are bits of Lettermen there. But it was interesting the incongruity between the critics reaction, which was pretty glowing, and normal people’s action, which almost most people who I talked to loathed it or found it unwatchable, including I should say, I’m not going to name it, but it was on my Facebook page.

People who worked for the first Letterman show the wow that And I think the reason for that is one is what you’re saying is that like he indulged a lot. There was a lot of dead air. There was like having the call in go on while you have these other people on the show. It was the thing that made it exciting, which is like anything could happen here is also what made it can make it tedious, and if it was on for a month or a year, I think that would have been more clear that that would become People are now saying, oh, we should do it full time. And I saw he did an interview where he was like, I’m intrigued.

But I think that this was great for a week during a Netflix festival where they could get every star in the world on it and it was a lark if they if it was a permanent thing, I think its flaws that you’ve enumerated would be more clear. Yeah, I wear many hats, and in my career as a podcasting executive and bec as a programmer, it’s serious. I would explain to people talk to me about show twenty three, because even I can call in some celebrity favors and I can book a great week of shows just for myself. What happens when it’s week forty seven? And to your point, Jerry Seinfeld’s not in town.

Who are you talking to? Who’s the guest? Now it’s back on the host. They’ll sample for the guests, they will come back for the host. Is the way I teach that what let me ask you what how the call in aspect what works in that?

What do you have to do to make that? Because obviously that was a huge part of popular culture for a long time, that you now that was one of the things about that Lenny Show that I was like, oh, I it’s interesting that he’s doing this. It’s not quite working. But not only was that on talk radio, but Larry King used to do it. It’s so, what’s the secret of that?

And how come there’s not more of it? Callers are diminishing returns, so the call screener needs to So if I’m interviewing, Hey, Jason, what do you want to talk to John about? And I have to get it out of you, and then I have to really try and coach you and go Okay, when you get on, don’t bother saying Hi, don’t say thanks for taking my call. He knows we really appreciate it. I want you to open up, and I just want your first sentence to be hey, da da da da da da da da.

Now, I’m still on a tight rope because you might get on the air and be like, hey, thanks for taking my call, and it just drags everything to a halt. Unless you have a really good caller, you just want to take their initial point and fade them out, and you don’t need them other than to facilitate a discussion. Point that said, back in the day, there were regulars who knew how to do it, but most civilians can’t tell a story interesting. Interesting, Okay, no, that makes sense. Saturday Night Live, turning fifty will Lorne Michael stick around.

I’m looking at this and going take the victory lap. You’re eighty eighty one years old. It’s not going to get any better. I don’t see anyone going. Season fifty two was great, Lauren.

I think you got to get out here. People who know him, like Seth, seem to think he’s gonna stick around. What do you think? The short answer is, I don’t know. But as you say, the people who are closer to it than me think he’s sticking around, and the people who know him better than I do think he’s sticking around until he can’t do it anymore.

And it’s such a hard thing to replace him. I think, much harder than people realize that. I don’t think, And God knows, no one’s going to push him out, so I can. I guess we’ll still be, but who knows, we’ll see Look We’re all gonna have to be thinking and writing and talking about SNL next year for a year a lot more. Let’s not do it now because we’re all gonna have to do it next year a lot.

Will Ferrell Tina Fey in the top thirteen SNL get ready for all there’s people who got it are gonna have to watch every episode of all fifty years. We’re gonna have to write lists. There’s gonna be there’s a book, The Lorne Bio is finally gonna come out next year. Wow, by bye, Susan Morrison from New Yorker. That’s probably like the most anticipated comedy book of next year.

And I imagine that will be a big doorstop with all sorts of comedy dirt in it. Even if it wasn’t the fair V anniversary, that would be week a big source of conversation. Did you say this thing? I’m sure you did with Kimmel and Letterman developing a talk show for Lunel. I just saw that before I jumped on with you.

That’s like a real life Hacks episode. I looked it up. She’s sixty five, and when I watched Hacks my initial reaction and they addressed it was like, they’re not going to give Deborah Vance a show at her age, and here we are living a Hacks episode. Yes, I did see that. Well, I’ll believe when I see it, and I and but I think, why not.

I feel like she’s one of these people who’ve been around for a long time. I think I saw her open for Kat Williams at Barclays a little while ago. I just saw her pop up in a movie from like the nineties. Anyways, I think she so, yeah, she’s paid her dues. She deserves a show, just like just like Debora Vance says, all right, three hours ago, I asked you if Nikki Glaser has stepped up in class.

I think yeah. I think that she was probably the big winner of the Netflix weekend. I think, although it’s funny, I think there’s one what was interesting about her week is she was the star of the roast on Netflix and then she released a special on HBO Max on Max and which raises the question why didn’t Netflix have that special? And I do think that that points to another issue, which looking to the future, which is is are these other streamers going to start to eat into Netflix’s territory and the fact that they didn’t have Nikki Glaser, which they did have her previous special, and she clearly is still figure on their streamer. Was interesting to me.

Did she raise the thoughts? Yeah, I think so. But she’s been steadily building for a while. You could her reality show is doing well. She has an incredible First of all, I think I find her very incredibly consistent, amazing work ethic, talented in a lot of different ways.

She’s somebody who I think could go in a different direction with a special, could be more. She’s so on talk shows she’s so good and so revealing and so introspective, and on specials she is sometimes, but she’s usually just like a killer joke, just an incredible joke teller. I feel like if you could sort of merge those two things, she’d have a real blockbuster. It was a weird week of press. She crushed so hard on the roast, there was no buzz on the special.

It was very strange. The special kind of came and went and people were still talking about the roast. I think that’s partly us to do with just Netflix and alsoasts that roast guy. So, although I don’t know, maybe you can know more than I, but I felt like I saw conflicting reports about the ratings. That’s another example of something that was like an hour too long that if it was not live, there’s no question it would have been edited down an hour and would have been better, and probably I would assume it would have got higher ratings.

But I saw some reports that I got crazy ratings. I saw others that Cat Williams got better ratings. Now who knows but the but I don’t. I think her special didn’t do worse because of that roast. I think because it’s like you’re saying before, there’s still a ton of people who don’t know Nico Lasers right, He’s a tremendous and successful stand up comedian.

But that that rose still raised her profile because it was a thing that everyone was talking about and it was trending for days. So ratings wise, I think I saw what you saw the first weekend, that more people watched Kat quote unquote live than the roast. But I saw something last night that vague numbers here, two hundred and thirty nine million view’s eyeballs whatever the Netflix metric is on day one, but it held that number all week, so it seemed like it had legs off the buzz. I think part of Nicky and you brought up Netflix versus HBO, HBO Max, HBO Max. They’ve goofed up the brand.

So this week Hannah Einbender has a new special. Normally HBO specials come out Saturday at ten pm, and Hannah is this out on a Thursday.

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And then I started wondering, so is this not an HBO special?

Did she get a Max special? And what the heck does that even mean? And does it matter? And it’s just it’s confusing. Most civilians aren’t gonna care.

But I just looked at it and I’m like, so is this special? Somehow? I don’t mean this is dig but like lesser, it’s not the equivalent of a Saturday night HBO special from back in the day. It’s a Thursday Max special. I don’t know.

They’ve confused me. Yes, No, I think they that. I think they’ve given up a lot of the prestige of their brand. That said, or that’s said, and clearly like they’re that the company is not doing well. They’re going to lose Charles Barkley and inside the NBA that are in debt.

Right that said, all right, let’s try to defend them a little bit, which is that what I think they’re trying to do, which is the smart move that they can’t compete with Netflix in terms of money and in terms of scale, And now you’ve got Hulu coming in which is going to have a big special every month, and they’ve already signed up people like Gaff again and Savashia Mescalco. What what Max is doing, I think is trying to get the kind of slightly ardier dar Carmichael, Julio Torres, Hannah Einbeinder. They’re not going for the biggest mass appeal in a way that I think is consistent with their traditional brand writ large, but it doesn’t mean the same thing that it did in the seventies when they had the whole market it to themselves, or the nineties when they had Chris Rock and it was like a major events. Those days are gone, so now the big events tend to be on Netflix. So what do you do if you’re a secondary streamer?

And I think they have a decent strategy, and that’s I think what I like. I agree with your point that it’s a mess and confusing to be a consumer of comedy these days and to fight where everything is and I think in a couple of years is going to look different. And what I hope it looks like is that each of these platforms has a personality, has a style, and people who want that can go there right what it will probably be will not be. That will be a mess. So that’s why I like the fact that h that Max, even though it’s not Friday, seems curated in a specific taste.

Well they had even in this century, maybe not for comedy, but for drama shows that they could have thrown this conversation on Sunday night at nine pm and people would have sampled it and assumed it was prestige. Maybe it is, maybe it’s not, but we would have gotten the goodwill off the first episode. People would have tuned in. That’s true. That’s true.

No, it’s interesting. I didn’t realize about that Hers was coming out on Thursday. That’s I wonder why.

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All right, let’s take one more break here.

Don’t forget you can get these shows add free. You know, four ninety nine a month gets you this and all the other things on the network. Link in the show notes. Go to Calieroba dot com slash plus check it out. Maybe you can help me sort my feelings here.

I’ve been struggling with this one. As close as I’ve gotten is special versus hour. So every comedian tweets out, hey, check out my new special on YouTube. And if we graph everything out, at one end, I don’t know, there’s Carlin at Carnegie, and at the other end there’s I happen to have a still camera at the Chuckle Hut Tuesday night at ten pm, and everyone’s using the word special, and I have got a new special. I don’t even know what I want from you, but help me not everything is a special that.

It’s very fuzzy these days. Right, here’s my glass half full version. I feel like it’s the best of times, the worst of times. There’s more specials than ever now are more releases than ever, and the goods part of that is the funniest comedy out there. Doesn’t tend to be the most famous people for totally boring reasons.

They have other things to do then work on their jokes, right, They’re busy, right, So the people who tend to be have the most worked out jokes are the kind of mid career comedians who have trouble getting a Netflix deal, right, and now they have a place and an outlet to release their stuff YouTube, right, so you see people like Nathan McIntosh who or the next one I saw is Renon Hirschberg, or who has one coming up soon, Liz Meal. These weren’t a time where these people. Now you can see their stuff not only as eavy as you can see the stuff in HBO, but easier. And I think that’s a good thing. And I don’t want to stay oither and that’s not special.

And this is special because not only is it not true that they’re worse there, in many cases they’re often better. But two, it’s like, cool, what’s the point in policing these genres? I do think we’ll look back and we’ll say, man, there was more bad comedy then than ever, but there’s also more great comedy than ever. It’s harder to find the good stuff now because there’s so much of it. And that’s part of our job is to be like, hey, like, all right, everybody knows Joe Rogan and the Roast and all this, but that’s not really the best comedy.

Nobody who knows comedy thinks that’s the best comedy. That’s increasing to the point that we started with it, which is like all right, how have our jobs shifted? We’ve got to cover the big stuff because that’s what people want to read, and that’s important. But I think we have an increasing responsibility to be like, Okay, let’s look at what’s going on in these on YouTube tube, on TikTok, etc. And find the good stuff.

You’ve been incredibly generous with your time. Let me pick your brain and I’ll let you go about comedy snobbery when I ran serious comedy. So I’m sitting at a desk five days a week, got the radio on from May to six. All I’m hearing is the best stand up comedians performing their best material that they’ve pressed. And it fried my brain.

And I call it the Emperor of Rome syndrome. So if I go see a show, I don’t laugh. I am now a psychopath, but my brain is analyzing and going, oh that’s hilarious, and I’m thinking it just in the manner I did. Oh that’s really funny, Oh great callback, Oh wow, this is an awesome set. Has doing what you do?

Has it fried your brain? It’s a really good question. The short answer is yes, that when it becomes your job. First of all, if you see comedians in the back of comedy clubs. They don’t laugh right the way regular people do, and it’s no different than people like you and I who do.

Often you’re not the best audience member. One weird phenomenon of my job is I feel bad sometimes I think something’s funny, but I don’t laugh, and I know it makes me a bad Sometimes I fake laugh, just like if it’s if I’m in a small room where the laugh really matters, or having someone stonefaced is like going to disrupt the proceedings, like I’ll fake laugh, which I’m not as convincing as a fake which comes up ridiculous. You do what you do. But so I do think that it’s a danger of the job, which is you, and it’s something you have to be aware of and you have to factor in because you don’t want You want to be in touch with both your honest reaction to something and also what how the ordinary consumer receives the stuff. I like it’s self justifying, but I tend to think that the advantages of being experienced and well versed in comedy and knowing the vast site of the history of the form and seeing enough to know what’s good versus bad must ambitions is not what didictable, what’s cliche?

All that stuff outweighs the negative of becoming of not laughing quite as much. And I also will say this that like the moment when you aren’t excited about seeing something, the moment when you get cynical or jaded about comedy is when you when I’ll quit. So that’s something you got to always be kicking the tires on, or I have to be kicking the tires on which I do. Have you ever run into I ran into this early in my career, not so much lately, but hey, you’re not a comedian. How come you’re doing this and all this?

And I was explaining, like, I don’t play guitar, but I can recognize that Eddie van Halen’s pretty good at it. Like I’m not claiming to be a comedian. I’m a dude in a basement. Or I was a radio programmer. I don’t know.

Yeah, that doesn’t bother me the If anything, I consider it a benefit of plus because uh uh, in the fact, you’ll never find me doing the gimmick piece of oh.

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And then I went and tried stand up and I bombed, and I learned how much I res…

Comedians are good at what they do, and what I do is quite hard as well, And it also looks easy, right, Just doing comedy is easy or looks easy, but is actually incredibly hard. Being a critic covering an incredibly diverse, complicated field is and then translating that into prose that both the expert and the casual fan can understand without limiting the complexity of a nuance. That’s very tricky, and that’s enough of a challenge for me. And I actually tend to think that not being a comedian helps me in that job, besides the fact it reduces the conflict of interests and keeps your independence, etc. But I think that it’s a fundamentally different skill set.

And so when people say, oh, you’re not a comedian, I said, that’s right, I’m not a comedian. Yeah. Sorry. When I was programming the stations, and I still program for Live one, I wanted to make sure I was coming in at civilian eye level, and the civilians are listening to Jim Gaffigan. You and I can go to a club and be too cool for school and deep dive.

But it’s the same thing I brought up nine times, But play the hits. No, You’ve got to look. I don’t understand people who do it my job. I know there’s some of them who say this, and I respect a lot of them, or I respect all of them who it’s hard. There’s a hard job.

But my audience, my primary audience, is the reader, and there I don’t see. The comedy world is not my community. I’m a journalist who’s working in my and my audience is the reader. I have obligation to be fair to the artists, and I know I hear from them, and I know I want their respect as I want anybody else’s respect. But I do think it’s important for people, just as I think it’s important for comedians to see their audience their primary audience, not they’re only audience, their primary audience, as they’re people sitting in front of them are watching their special that I have to think about what the reader wants first, and when I get away from that, I think I could run into problems.

So yeah, I think there’s room. People have different points of view on this, but but yeah, it’s funny because I’m a critic, but I’m also a reporter, so I talk to comedians interview them. I learn a lot from that that helps me understand what they’re trying to do. There’s value in that, but there’s also value in independence and distance, and you sometimes can see and you know, comedians frankly understand this better than other artists because they’re often critics of whatever social conditions, politics, whatever, and they can often diagnose something more perceptively than people in the newscan because they have or journalists can because they have a little more distance. So distance can be an advantage as well, and it keeps you out of the fights.

There are enough to name particular names. There are comedians who do really well and aren’t respected by the brick wall cigarette smoking crowd in the village, and I will name names. I worked with the blue collar guys. Larry, the cable guy, Dan is the nicest guy you’ll ever meet, unless Jeff Foxworthy is in the room. They are awesome people, and you know, I’ve been backstage with them, and Larry would write Jeff a joke that just didn’t work for Larry’s act, and Jeff would write something a little naughty and pass it back and forth.

And they’re not They’re just trying to make people laugh. They’re not going, oh, Larry the Cable Guy, this is high art, like it’s just jokes, and some of that, especially in New York, that bitterness about somebody else’s success would get fatiguing. You know what else, Larry the Cable Guy is good at what he does. I’ve when I wrote about them, I made a point of I went to Beaumont, Texas to see that tour. I didn’t I wanted to go to like there, and I watched all of them, and Larry, I believe, came last.

And I think that was the right move because he’s a he’s a killer, and he is an incredibly dense, punchline rich set. Not every joke is great, but if you don’t like it, another one’s coming down the pipe fast. You know, it’s not like the hippis obviously brand of comedy, and it’s a character driven comedy, which it feels there’s it’s you don’t see it quite as much in the clubs as he used to but anyways, the Yeah, I think it’s the kind of journalism that I do, and not everyone has to be like this, but I try to have Catholic tastes. I try to meet artists where they are. That doesn’t mean that everything is equally good, but I think that’s part of the fun of the job is seeing people of artists of wildly different genres, aesthetics, ambitions.

That’s what makes this fun to follow. I love that you went to Beaumont when I first put together Blue Collar Radio. The first time I met them, I went to see a show. The show was a Nashville and I specifically asked them, please don’t vip me. Put me in the upper deck with the civilians.

And I sat there and I paid attention, and I was just trying to take the vibe in. And I always remembered the two things that got big applause where y’all ever been to the Walmart? A mention of Jimmy Buffett and a mention of Elvis, And I factored that into my programming. Whereas the Raw Dog Channel was if it were a person, maybe it would be Bill Burr and a real fu in a rock and roll kind of vibe. And blue Collar Radio was god Flag country veterans, straight people by acker barrel, straight down the middle, and it did tremendously well.

Yep, yep, No, it’s true. And that’s one of the great things about stand up is that you’ve got all these regional forms that are that do well. Sometimes I worry that the internet’s sort of flattening that out. And I wrote a story last year about how the internet is the Internet hurting distinct local scenes because there used to be like Boston at a specific aesthetic that you could have SA San Francis, which was different than San Francisco, which was different than DC, which was different than Nashville. But now since everyone is in the same room together online, this idea of oh, the comedians and my senior are the only ones I know coming up is obsolete?

And is that going to stand off the edges of local difference? And I don’t know some people I talked to, some people in various local scenes who suggest that’s happening. And there’s so much out there. We’re nearly an we’re in and we’ve really only talked big comedians’. We haven’t talked alt, we didn’t talk improv, we didn’t talk sketch.

We didn’t talk one person shows like somebody like Natalie Palamini is just doing amazing work. There’s just so much out there. I just saw her new show, which, I’ll be honest with you, I was like, how can she top Nate? But I saw her new show which at the Netflix Festival in la and it was the best thing I saw there. It wasn’t finished, but it was thrilling.

Hard wait to see it when it’s done. It’s basically like a rom com where she plays both She plays both parts of this romance, and the physicality of it is incredibly inventive. I’ve neversed anything like it. Yeah, the whole clowning scene is boom. That’s just great.

Jason. You’ve been very generous with your time. I hope you’ll come back down the road when there’s an excuse for me to ask you to come on again other than just hey man, want to fill an hour for me. But this was fantastic thing. This was incredibly fun.

Thank you for asking, and it’s great to have a conversation with someone who knows their stuff. He was fantastic. I enjoyed the heck out of that, and he was very gracious with his time on this program. Tomorrow a look at the best comedy specials of the year so far. See it then

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Featured: Shane Gillis, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, Bill Burr, Keith Robinson, Eric Idle, John Oliver, Jim Gaffigan, Chris Rock, Whoopi Goldberg, Conan O’Brien, Stephen Colbert, Ardal O’Hanlon, Tommy Tiernan

What’s in This Episode

• Asian American groups call for Shane Gillis to be dropped by Bud Light Netflix
• Seth Meyers jokes about Trump’s guilty verdict and rally
• Bill Burr criticizes white liberals at UC Berkeley show
• Keith Robinson releases Netflix special ‘Different Strokes’ after two strokes
• Pope meets with comedians at Vatican including Fallon, Colbert, and Conan
• Eric Idle announces new one-man show ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life Live’ tour
• John Oliver bakery cake challenge in Kingston

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, Jumarrow on this program, Jason Zinneman from The New York Times, and I talk comedy for an hour. That one is really good. Check that out. Sunday, Dad’s treating himself to Father’s Day. Will take a look at the best specials of the year so far.

Some leftover jokes from the week. Seth Myers really crushed it. He made fun of Trump’s rally last week, saying on Sunday, Trump held his first lard’s rally since his guilty verdict, where he laid out a detailed policy plan to tackle the nation’s challenges. And I’m just kidding. He screamed about teleprompters, batteries, and sharks.

More from Seth, former President Trump told the crowd he was sweating like a dog, and he was immediately shot by Christynam. Trump is no longer allowed to associate with convicted felons, sorry, other convicted felons, Seth said, you know who. This is really bad news for his family. Now he’s gonna have to spend more time with them. Alanie is so worried about this, she’s probably gonna knock over a liquor store.

And broad Daylight just so she can have a rap sheet. Jimmy Fallon said things got off to a rough start when Trump offered his parole officer one hundred and thirty thousand dollars. Some Asian American organizations have asked bud Light Netflix to drop Shane Gillis as a representative of their brand because of his insensitivity and hurtful remarks towards the Asian American community. The groups include the Chinese American Citizens Alliance Los Angeles, the Japanese American Citizens League Greater Los Angeles, the Anti Asian Hate Coalition of Southern California, and the Media Action Network for Asian Americans. The founder of the MANAA says, we’ve gotten beaten up long enough.

We got second tire to this. Try saying the N word and see what happens. If you comedians think we’re being unreasonable, do the substitution test. Substitute Asian with black or Jewish and see if you feel comfortable. If you feel uncomfortable, maybe you shouldn’t have done it against us.

He notes, some native born Asian Americans say it’s comedy. Just try to laugh it off and give excuses for it, and they’re giving permission for more of that kind of treatment. In episode three of Shane Gillis’s Tires, an Asian father and daughter come in and speak Mandarin Chinese, and later the owner in tires Will also speaks passable Mandarin. There are no attempts to speak pretend Chinese. In the same episode of Tires, Shane Gillis imitates Japanese but sounds more like a grunting Samurai than somebody speaking Japanese.

From Fox News, Bill Burr called out the hypocrisy of liberals during a show at u C Berkeley last weekend, reportedly telling the audience that he effing hates them. Oh no. According to Fox, burd told the audience, I oftn’ hate liberals. It is believed he was referring specifically to white liberals. He also had some comments about people who put Black Lives Matter signs on their windows without taking any actual actions.

Burr apparently said, it’s like, if I tell you my great grandmother Germany had to knock it off Nazi sign. If you run in a white person who says they’re an EmPATH, run the other way. Burr said, such people like making other people suffering about themselves. Keith Robinson’s special came out on Netflix on Tuesday. It’s called Different Strokes.

After suffering two strokes, Keith was able to make it back to the stage. He tells The Philly Tribune, I wasn’t gonna quit doing something I love so much. I always wanted to be a comedian, and I intend to continue just doing that. Born and raised in Philadelphia, he chimes, don’t forget to say South Philly. I loved making people laugh and love to watch all the comics of the day, although I didn’t have to bring that all together.

One day, a friend of mine gave me a song by a gospel singer that talked about why we should stop just dreaming and doing something to make those dreams come true. While reading the Want Ads, that’s a phrase I haven’t heard in a while. While reading the Want Ads, I saw an ad for a gig at a comedy club and decided to give it a try. In nineteen ninety three, he was on Ed McMahon’s Star Search. Remember that, when’s the last time you thought of that.

He did not win, he did make it to the finals. Keith says that was a great boost to my ego. It always wanted to be a comic, and at that point I felt like I had made it. I think comedy and making people laugh is the greatest job in the world. I have the freedom to say anything I want to say.

In fact, I could say my comedy is my drug of choice. Actually I get high on comedy. Well, Deacon might let me down because I’m here in the basement and not at Vatican City with one hundred comedians. Thanks, you know, it would have been nice to cover. Could have asked Jim Gaffigan about his bourbon.

I’m sure he would have loved talking about it. Anyway, the Pope’s hanging out today with Fallon and Colbert and Conan O’Brien and Chris Rock and Whoopy Goldberg. What did I say the other day, like sixty seven comedians from Italy that a burgeoning Italian stand up scene that we don’t talk too much about. The Irish Times wrote about it and they said, we imagined the crack in the Vatican green room time out, time outsime out. If you are not familiar with the Irish slang crack, neither was I.

In the early nineties, when I was hanging around with a lot of people from Ireland, they were like, hey, you want to go get some crack, and I’d be like, no, again, this is New York City. In like nineteen ninety three. Crack was crack cocaine to the Irish, crack cr a I c is good to fun. So lest you think the Pope is doing crack with Stephen Colbert, he is not. He may be having crack with Conan O’Brien, or perhaps drinking father Time bourbon with Jim Gaffigan, and just even the Pope losing all his coolness.

I digress. The Irish Times wrote about some of the irishm going, not some of them, all of them, three of them. Ardell o’hanlin. You know him from Father Ted? Have you ever seen Father Ted?

Father Ted is fantastic. Art All fronted a documentary this year about the crisis in the priesthood. He said, I have renounced my God and my religion, yet I still ask a Catholic priest to come along and baptize my child. Am I a hypocrite? In interviews he said at one point he thought of joining the priesthood himself, but it was not a real thing for him.

Tommy Tiernan is open about his faith and speaks about going to Mass regularly. Deacon Mike’s gonna like today’s episode. You know, Deacon Mike, this episode could have been really about Catholicism if somebody had hooked something up just saying Tyrnean says, I’d probably love to go to Mass every day if I could. Actually, it’s funny where you end up. I would consider myself pro choice and Catholic.

So that’s a constant negotiation between the independence of your mind, the realities of your heart, and a man made organization that is the church. But the experience of being at Mass, I don’t know what it is. I don’t know all the prayers, but I love it. It’s a community thing. I think.

Eric Idol’s got a new one man show called Always Look on the Bright Side of Life Live. It starts on the West Coast this September. Written and performed entirely by Eric, audiences will be treated to never before seen sketches, original songs, jokes, and the humorous wisdom that comes with being a living legend. Tickets go on sale today ten am local time, September fourth, Santa Barbara, then San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Oregon, Vancouver, Salt Lake at Denver, Phoenix, Santa Fe La nine to twenty seven in San Diego. I gotta stop waiting five days to watch John Oliver so that I know what’s going on.

Apparently, Oliver extended a challenge to a Kingston bakery, and the bakery responded with a new line of cakes bearing a photo of John Oliver’s face on edible candy paper. Peter Dasing is the co owner of Dacing’s Bakery and Restaurant in Kingston, says we’re really speechless here on the June second episode of Last Week Tonight. All right, I’ve had a week and a half to watch it. I’m behind. Apparently, in a segment highlighting the downfall of Red Lobster, John Oliver announced he had purchased all of the contents of the Red Lobster chain’s Ulster County location through an online auction and recreated the Red Lobster in his studio.

Soon after the Red Lobster closed, Eric posted a note on the front door asking to buy a flat grill and convection of an if available, and later learned that John Oliver had already bought it all. Oliver made the Dazing’s an offer. The good news is we’re willing to buy those items for you on one condition. All I want return is a baked good with my face on it on sale and your bakery specifically a cake bear with my face on it. I want to be a cake beer, Oliver said, I don’t like cake bears, Ifing love cake bears.

Dazing’s cake decorator, Jenna Ice is her real name, Jenna Ice. That’s amazing, Jenna Ice says, I can’t believe this is real life right now. I thought it was hilarious. Had me laughing pretty good. The cakes are selling for eight dollars.

All the proceeds will go to People’s Place food pantry in Kingston. A representative from last week Tonight expected the grill to arrive this week. Gabriel Iglesias back on Gossip Corner in Santa Antonio, out for food again, this time at Garcia’s Mexican Food. He apparently hung out with the owners and had some tacos a lot less fun. A court in Indonesia has handed a comedian a seven month prison sentence for blasphemy.

Aulo Rochmann made a joke about the name Mohammed. The comedian was imprisoned after being reported under a blasphemy law that carries a maximum sentence of five years. The law forbids anyone from making statements at odds with one of Indonesia’s six official religions, or trying to prevent someone from adhering to one of those religions. A spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office said the defendant admitted and regretted his actions, behave politely at the trial, and the defendant has never been convicted. The aggravating factor was the defendant’s actions have disturbed society seven months.

It seems there’s a brew haha going over in the UK at the Latitude Festival. It is a music festival. Apparently some comedians performed there as well. Some celebrities will be there. David Takovny, Rick Astley, Duran Duran Keen.

On the comedy side, comedians Sophie Jucker, Grace Campbell and Alexander Hadow have pulled out of Latitude Festival and protest over sponsor Barclay’s ties to the Israel Hamas War.

Also pulling out Joanne McNally and Alexander Haddo, both comedians.

McNally sat on social media. I’m no longer doing Latitude. I was due to close the comedy tent on the Sunday night, but I pulled out last week. I’m on the old artwork, but I haven’t been listed on the site since I pulled out a week ago. Jason Signs is performing at the Lyric Hyperion Theater in La.

He tells the story of falling through a skylight onto a flight of stairs and shares the realities of being a paraplegic in Hollywood. His show is called The wheel World. The comedian shares his struggles with grief, adapting the changes in wheelchair accessibility, accepting limitations in his new body, his wheelchair bound TV rolls, and altering his perception of sex and manhood. Tonight at seven thirty, If you’re out in La and then is your comedy news for Today again? Tomorrow Jason Cinnamon and I for an hour Sunday Best specials of the year, Little Father’s Day, Foot off the Gas.

But Tomorrow’s really awesome. I’m dealing straight. Tomorrow is awesome. Sunday is you know Sunday filler. I’ll let me feel it this summer.

See you tomorrow.

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Featured: John Mulaney, David Lynch, Werner Herzog, David Lee Roth, David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Ray Romano, Will Ferrell

What’s in This Episode

• John Mulaney’s late night show inspirations and guest rejections
• Jon Stewart’s podcast debut at number one and return to work
• Jimmy Kimmel taking summer off with guest hosts
• Bill Maher refusing to perform at colleges
• Will Ferrell wanting to be Sexiest Man Alive and his comedic career timeline

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. Wow, what famous comedian hasn’t been funny since two thousand and six? Are we gonna go there? John? Yeah, I think we are.

But first we’ll start with John Mulaney, who has even been funny in twenty twenty four. So it’s not John Mulaney. I’ll tell you who it wasn’t about three or four stories from now h m’laney talking about his late night show. Deadline has more information and m’laney said, what’s great about the Netflix Festival is everybody’s in town at the same time. We get to see each other and we go to each other’s shows.

There’s that brunch where we all eat salty waffles that doesn’t happen a lot. We’re not in the same place at the same time. I thought, what’s cool is the place that we’re in is the weirdest, most interesting city in the world, just the strangest place I’ve ever been. I’ve always wanted to do something about La Would he do it again? He joked with Nick Kroll about doing it and maybe Montreal around the just for last festival, but that event went bankrupt.

He said his inspirations included Glenn O’Brien’s New York Public Access series TV, which ran between seventy eight and eighty two. I grew up in New York City. Now, if you grew up in New York City, you only had cable if you lived in Manhattan. I lived in Queen’s. We didn’t get cable until listen to this nineteen eighty seven.

So I’m not familiar with Glen O’Brien’s public access series. And well, John Mulaney, John Mlaney’s not old enough for that. John Mulaney’s forty one Lazy Matt twenty four minus forties eighty four. When did you see this thing? John?

I’m very curious about that. I’ve never even heard of Glen O’Brien’s New York public access series TV. Party doesn’t mean it’s not good. Maybe it’s on YouTube. Maybe I’ll check it out.

Move along, Okay. Other inspirations Larry King Live and Oh that one, early MTV and the McLaughlin group. Remember that, the syndicated public affairs show that discussed politics in a roundtable format, and SNL made a lot of fun of it. Some guests who passed included David Lynch, Werner Herzog, and David Lee Roth. M’lleanie says, David Lynch passed.

He said, I don’t understand what this is. I’m working on a new art and I have to keep my eye on the donut. Which was the best pass. Everyone did pass in a nice way. Werner Herzog passed.

He said, I have to keep away from the comedians. M’laney told Jimmy Kimmel David Lee Roth was one of so many people who turned down an appearance. Melaney said, he passed, which is okay. I respect the man. He’s a solid guy.

I originally asked him to be the band leader, but then I was like, oh, or just a guest. M’laney said he really wanted to talk about life in Altadena. I hope I pronounced that correctly locals a part of La County that’s located just north of Pasadena where Roth once resided. But David Lee Roth said no to that too. I honestly like, I don’t know how to appeal to him because I’m like, it’s David Lee Roth.

I just call him up and say let’s party, and he might show up. Kimill reminded Melaney that davidly Roth is an EMT. Remember when David Lee Roth was in New York City. EMT, maybe just call and say I’m bleeding and he’ll come over. That’s really funny.

M’laney then said, can you imagine being in a medical crisis and you’re strapped down on the board and your head’s in that brace and you look up and it’s David Lee Roth, Like that must be insane. Melaney said he was the most self conscious by the appearance of David Letterman. I worried that he’d be like, oh, you think you know how to run a weird T show. I certainly wasn’t. But then again, I don’t think he or I were trying to run a weird show.

We’re trying to do a good show. And those were the ideas we had, and yeah, they’re weird. I did actually have the thought a few times it might be too mainstream. People will think I sold out. No, not at all.

John. On Saturday, I have an interview with Jason Zinman from The New York Times. We talk about mulaney and Letterman. I got really good response to last Saturday’s interview with Mark Malkoff from the Inside Late Night podcast on The Carson Podcast, if you didn’t listen to last Saturday, please go back and check it out. It was fantastic.

This Saturday also fantastic. Might John Stewart be sticking around a little bit, that’s the current speculation. His podcast debuted at number one. It’s not that good though, John. I actually got a text from an industry peer going to listen to this thing yet, and the industry peer and my notes over the same, so we’ll see there.

Back in April, Stuart told the Daily Show audience, I have to say it’s been lovely. Once a week is about right for me with people and people with me. At an event on Friday night, Stuart said, the one thing I will say is I walked away nine years ago because I was burnt out, and I don’t feel that right now. I feel reinvigorated. Latenighter, dot Com, Reorport Jimmy Kimmel will take the summer off again.

He’ll have guest hosts. Bill Maher on his podcast was chatting with Ray Romano, and it’s told Ray that Bill’s not gonna play colleges anymore. Mars said they don’t want to hear anything they don’t already agree with. They don’t want their minds, pride open, and you know what, let somebody else do it. Ray said, you’d have to be half this way and half that way, maybe meaning both sides of the political spectrum.

Mars said, first of all, that protests before he even got on the campus. I was uninvited when I was invited to be the keynote speaker at the Berkeley graduation, then reinvited with today. Are you kidding these kids? That’d be the first thing they would do. They don’t want to hear anything they don’t already agree with.

I’m not gonna hold my tongue when they embrace stupid ideas, and of course they’ll just say the trightest, easiest, most erroneous thing lobbed at people like us. You’re old now, it’s about just get off my long. You put zero amount of thinking to the actual point of making. You don’t engage with the actual idea. Should we bring communism back?

Because I think it’s a bad idea? Maybe because I remember what happened the first time and you don’t. You don’t care to learn. Wow, Will Ferrell remember how I open up the podcast? Will Ferrell wants to be people’s sexiest man alive.

Will tell people he’s planning the seeds stand up on the cover because you guys never have comedians, so it’s going internally all right, sexiest man. So that got me wondering Will Ferrell. Hmm, when’s the last time Will Farrell was funny? Was it a the roast of Tom Brady? Nope, but definitely wasn’t then, so I went to IMDb dot com.

Now I know right now, you’re like, John, you’re being a donkey hole.

All right, let’s just go through the IMDb.

You ready, well up a chair. I got a lot to read here. You let me know when we get to something. Okay. Most recent appearance John Malini’s Everybody’s in La Not Funny TV series In the Know.

He played Gene Quiz, Lady Streees, Barbie Spirited, Have your ELFA Merry Christmas, The Shrink next Door, Eurovision Song Contest, The Story of Fire Saga you want to go with that? In Practical Joke, Ris, the movie Downhill Between Two Ferns, The Movies Ville, The Lego Movie Two, Drunk History, Holmes and Watson, I Love You America. The twenty eighteen Rose Parried No Activity, where he played Adrian back in twenty seventeen, You want to give it to Daddy’s Home two. In twenty seventeen, his appearance on the Jim Gaffigan show Zoolander two, Daddy’s Home, The Last Man on Earth, The Spoils before dying a deadly adoption Get hard? Are you mad at me yet for reading this list?

Because I’m gonna keep going till I get to one. Welcome to Sweden, The Spoils of Babylon, The Lego Movie twenty fourteen. He’s great in that, he’s not funny. It’s a great movie. He’s great in it, fantastic job, but he’s not funny in it.

Twenty thirteen Anchorman two, The Legend continues. I might give you that one. I’ll give you that one. You know what. I take back my two thousand and six twenty thirteen Anchorman two, The Legend Continues.

He played Ron Burgundy, so I’ve changed my mind. I was wrong twenty thirteen of two thousand and six. Now other things. He was really good in the office as D’Angelo Vickers, where he played it straight. I thought he was great in the office, and I was sad when they they didn’t kill him off, but they knocked him off, but he was great in that he would have been good playing that role, not for laughs.

In two thousand and nine, he’s in something called The Goods Live Hard, Cell Hard. He plays McDermott, interesting used car liquidator Don Reddy is hired by a falling auto dealership to turn their Fourth of July sale into a majorly profitable event. It stars Jeremy Piven, Ving Rains and David Keckner, and of course Will Ferrell as McDermott. That’s not what I was going for either. Two thousand and six Talladega Knights, that one was going to give him.

All right, now, you’ve made an error to me of Will Ferrell. But he was ice called to me when I met him fifteen years ago, invited him on Jim Brewers Show, which I think was more about his feud with Jim than me. But hey, met you once, didn’t enjoy it. Hannah Einbinder’s special is out today. Among the topics spoilers her time as a cheerleader at Beverly Hills High School.

She says, I was very dedicated to perfection. I think my work ethic can be very obviously to me, at least be attributed to my time as a cheerleader. She also dealt with ADHD and said, I was really rambunctious, and I really think Jim Carrey’s physical style spoke to me, and I kind of started to mimic him. In college, she got the opportunity to open for Nicole Byer. Then she realized how important comedy would be to her life.

That’s what became very clear to me. I didn’t really view it as this is my career. I just maybe naively viewed it as I’m obsessed with this and I’m going to pursue this and I can’t stop doing it. Mo Welch’s special is also out today. Now, the initial release had it coming out on eight hundred Pound Guerrilla tomorrow, but the eight hundred Pound Gerilla website itself says it’s out today.

I assume they would know when their own special is out, so let’s guess it’s today. Filmed at the Lawnd Room in Highland Park in all Over, Illinois, mo Welch’s debut special follows her as she explains her lifelong obsession with dad jokes as a way to process the aftermath of her own father’s abandonment. Kevin Hart never Afraid to work. He’s back for a fourth season of Heart to Hearts on Peacock. The new season will feature Mac Packer, Andy Samberg, Jutt Appato, Ben Affleck, George Lopez and others.

That’s out June twentieth on Peacock. Dan Ackroyd is doing a deep dive on the Blues Brothers. It’s a new podcast on Audible, so behind a pay walla is called Blues Brothers The Arc of Gratitude. Dan will accompany listeners through late nights in the early days with John Belushi at Dan’s Speakeasy in Toronto, to working with Blues Legends of Refa Franklin, James Brown, and Rich Charles on the Blues Brothers movie, through the founding of House of Blues, the Blues Brothers two thousand sequel, and beyond. That’s out July twenty fifth.

Met Dan once in Chicago at a Blues Brothers themed event that is not easy to say. He was super cool. Jimmy Kimmel and David Letterman are teaming up to develop a talk show for Lunell. Kimil said, Lunell’s a super funny person and obviously she impressed David Letterman when she was on with Millenia on Everybody’s in La. Apparently the three of them were on a zoom call talking about some concepts.

And that is your comedy news for today. If you like these episodes, add free, go to Calaroga dot com slash plus follow instructions there. Four ninety nine a month, we’ll get you this thing. Add free and the other shows on the network add free. Do you really like casino as that much?

I don’t see tomorrow

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Featured: Pope Francis, Whoopi Goldberg, Jimmy Fallon, Conan O’Brien, Chris Rock, Stephen Colbert, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Joe Koy, George Lopez

What’s in This Episode

• Pope Francis hosts 100 comedians at the Vatican
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus comments on political correctness and comedy aging
• Joe Koy discusses hosting the 2024 Golden Globes controversy
• George Lopez walks out of Eagle Mountain Casino show early

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, remember when I blew off Kat Williams to go to Deacon Mike’s ordination. I hope Deacon Mike remembers that and can hook me up with the Boss. Hi’m Chunny Mack with your Daily Comedy News. The Pope is having one hundred comedians over.

Johnny Mac needs tickets. Deacon Mike, call the Boss. Call in the favor. You guys are tight. Whoopy Goldberg, Jimmy Fallon, Conan O’Brien, and Chris Rock.

I don’t know why Whoopy’s first on that list. I guess why not. I will be among more than one hundred entertainers at the Vatican on Friday. Why am I not at this? Deacon Mike.

A statement from the Vatican says the Pope recognizes the significant impact that the art of comedy has on the world of contemporary culture. The meeting between Pope Francis and the world’s comedians aims to celebrate the beauty of human diversity and to promote a message of peace, love and solidarity. Last month, in an interview, Whoopy said she had offered the Pope a cameo in Sister Act three. She joked. The Pope said he would see what his time was like.

I’m on vannigannews dot com. You’re home for comedy news. That’s right. A list of artists taking part. I’m not gonna read all one hundred.

For example, the artists are listed by a nation of performance origin. I don’t know what what country they’re from. And if you are familiar with Molna Guensburg, who represents Argentina, you should be hosting this show from Ireland. Ardell O’Hanlon, Tommy Tiernan and Patrick Keelty. I know two of the names, Patrick being the one I’m not familiar with.

Hey, mister Pope, here, whoa, whoa whoa. Of these one hundred comedians, sixty seven are Italians. That’s pretty suspicious. Wasn’t really hip to the whole Italian comedy scene, your holiness? Only one comedian from Poland.

I bet the previous guy or two guys ago I guess it is, would have had more Polish comedians. Only two from the UK Ian Hisslop not familiar with and Stephen Merchant from the US Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jim Gaffick, and Hey, your Holiness, did I tell you about father Time, Bourbon Boopie Goldberg, James Martin, Tig Nataro, Chris Rock, Conan O’Brien, comedian James Martin. Or is this the James Morton SJ that shows up in religious articles. I’m googling James Martin. I’m not familiar with comedian James Martin from the United States.

I apologize if somebody wants to correct me. That’s why we have the Facebook group. All right, Uh boy, I got lost there. Colbert found Gaffing and Goldberg, James Morton, tag Nataro, Chris Rock, Conan O’Brien. You think Jimmy Kimmel feels left out?

Colbert fallon Conan anyway, Deacon Mike, hook it up Deanerk post stirring it up, Julia Louis Dreyfus said some things. She never said the word Jerry. She never said the word Seinfeld. People are connecting some dots here. The post reminds us that Jerry recently said is the result of the extreme left, the PC crap, people worrying so much about offending other people.

Well, Julia Louis Dreyfus was at a little event and said, if you look back on comedy drama both let’s say thirty years ago through the lens of today, you might find bits and pieces that don’t age well. And I think to have an intent about sensitivities is not a bad thing. It doesn’t mean that all comedy goes out the window as a result. When I hear people starting to complain about political correctness, and I understand why people might push back on it, but to me, that’s a red flag because sometimes it means something else. I believe being aware of certain sensitivities is not a bad thing.

My feeling about all of it is that political correctness, insofar as it equates to tolerance, is obviously fantastic, And of course I reserve the right to boo anyone who says anything that offends me, while also respecting their rights to free speech right. I just know the lens through which we create are today, and I’m not going to just specify it’s a comedy, it’s also drama. It’s a different lens. Even classically wonderful indisputably great films from the past are riddled with attitudes that today would not be acceptable. So I just think it’s good to be vigilant again, never said the word Jerry never said the word Seinfeld, and I thought her opinion quite reasoned.

Anyway, spin the headlines, Seinfeld cast fighting, blah blah blah, you’ll see all that. Joe Koy was on the View Put your seat beout on Scott. Joe was promoting his Netflix special. Now, I was thinking over the weekend, it was weird that there was no Joe Coy press, like really weird. But at least he was on the View.

On Monday, they asked him about hosting the twenty twenty four Golden Globes. Now, if you’re not familiar with what happened, he told a controversial joke about Taylor Swift and boy who. People got upset. Do you want me to play it? No, I’m not playing I’m not doing it.

Everybodys sick of it. Joe said, let’s shout out that I took that thing with ten days. I thought it was nine days. Let’s also say to the fact that in the eighty two years that the thing was on, they never ever went to an Asian person. So the opportunity came, they asked everyone before me anyway, and they all said no because they were like ten days no, and I was like yeah, because if I don’t say yes now, it’ll be eighty two years before I have this opportunity again.

So I took it. Whatever Whoopee said, it’s a tough gig. All those gigs are tough and people don’t know about them. I always say, unless you could do this, shut up about it. Go see Joy in the arena.

Then you’ll see what he missed. You got the clean version of what you got to see. Go see him at Marina and then talk about what he does. I watched the Netflix special. Oh maybe get some jokes in there.

I like Joe Coy. I just did this new special is just not good. Joe Coy then gushed over how much Whoopy Goldberg influenced his career. I love every bit of you, every single bit of you. I say this all the time, and people think I’m kissing her butt.

It’s like, You’re the reason I sat there in my room, rewinding, rewinding, because before there was the Internet, before there was anything, I could rewind it tape and watch Whoopee. The producers wanted to go to a commercial break. They started playing the music. Whoope wrapped her arms around Joe Coy and kissed him on the cheek, and then break finally happened, all right. More feistiness from ew dot Com.

George Lopez. You know him from George Lopez. Tacos left a headlining comedy set thirty minutes early on Friday, but the reasons why are in dispute. The Facebook page for California’s Eagle Mounted Casino post that on Friday tonight, George Lopez let down his fans and sold out audience by walking out and ending a show thirty minutes early. They offered funds to anyone in attendance.

Lopez claimed the exit was due to an unruly crowd that made the comedian feel unsafe. A spokesperson for George Lopez till the New York Post it’s the venue or casino’s job to provide a good experience for both the artist and the fans, but the casino failed in this regard. The audience was overserved and unruly, and the casino staff was unable to provide a safe and enjoyable experience for the artist and guests. George is not obligated to perform in an unsafe environment. He feels badly that those who came to see the show weren’t able to do so.

As a result, he w writes. Something’s not adding up, though, because Ego Mountain Casino disputes this account of events. In a statement posted to their website, casino representatives said claims of unruly guests are not consistent with casino footage and surveillance. They say that any outbursts were affectionate rather than derogatory. While we did see Guess yelling out, we see recordings showing those say we love you, can we buy you a drink, etc.

We also know the comedy show. There are also likely some outbursts that casino security would have been happy to address had any issue been made known. Oh wait, there’s more. Lopez was originally scheduled to perform at the casino on April twentieth, but canceled the last minute. According to the casino, since he cited a medical emergency and gave the make up date of June seventh, quote, the casino supported the entertainer and wished him well.

The statement reads, mister Lopez or his private security had every opportunity to inform the casino team if they wanted a guest escorted out, and they did not the two prior openers, also comedians, did not have any concerns or issues, so this was quite a shock to everyone attending. This is fun. Johnny Mac likes this kind of stuff. Let’s see what happens. More about Rob Schneider last week, remember he was in Regina.

Tyan Allen says he attended the Hospital of Vagina Foundation’s Four Seasons ball. He told the CBC Schneider’s set included transphobic, misogynistic, and anti vax jokes. Allan said he was horrified by the content as a black queer person who works in equity, diversity and inclusion. Alan and his quota is saying everyone in the room was groaning, saying what’s going on, like whispering themselves, not a single laugh at times. It was just very apparent how uncomfortable everyone felt and how unacceptable the things he was talking about were.

Page six ran into Rob Schneider on the street. They say he was seen walking through the streets with drink in hand when The New York Post caught up with him just before he left with friends now drink in hand, I don’t know, was it a plastic cup of coke from McDonald’s. Was it a jack and coke in a shot class. What was he? What drink in hand is a little loaded?

There no pun. The cameraman said, hey, what do you think of cancel culture? Schneider said, it’s over. Hey, they’re gonna make a grown ups three. They’re better be I must feel bad, robed Schneider having to deal with this stuff walking down the street with drink in hand, a barstool mixing it up a little bit, they write.

Last week, a TikTok by comic Anthony Zacaro blew up when he accused another comedian of gaining a massive following in a dishonest way, basically faking stand up sets from his own aportartment and then editing them to look like he’s killing on stage at live shows. Barstool writes, let’s just say, hypothetically, there’s a comedian who’s gained a million followers by faking most of his videos. Theoretically, let’s just say this guy exists. I love this writing here. Z Carro didn’t name the accused comedian, but Barstool says it took point zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero one seconds.

I may have missed zero there or added one too many you get the point anyway, That long for people to begin tagging who they thought it was. In the comments. The most common guess is Pete Guercio from Low Kick MMA, your Home for Comedy News. Dana White, the UFC boss. He has come clean when he walked out on Howie Mandel’s podcast.

That was what’s the term? There’s a wrestling term for a bit? It was a bit. Anyway, I can’t think of the term. You can tell me in the notes.

Back in February, Dana was on how He’s podcast and said, I’m so bleep and tired of doing podcasts and took off his headset and got up and walked out. So it turns out the whole thing was staged a work. That’s what I was like for this is a work. White was on Andrew schultz Flagrant podcast and said, so what happened was I did the Sage Steel podcast where she called me Joe Rogan. First of all, Sage Steele and I are good friends.

I love Sage. She asked me to be your first guest on the podcast I Go out there now. The studio is owned by Howie Mandel where these podcasts take place. She was signed to Bill Maher’s podcast company and they’re all down there in Howie Mandel’s studio. So we get done with the podcast and Howie Mendel walks in.

He’s like, one hundred podcasts a week ab in year. I’ve never watched any of them. I watched the whole podcast love Who you Are, what you stand for in this stuff. We hit it off, started talking, great dude. So he’s like, let me show you around the studio.

Smart guy, great guy. So we’re walking through and stuff and he goes, would you do me a favor? I said, yeah, what’s up? He’s like, would you come on and get up and walk off my podcast? I go, I’d be honored to walk off your podcast.

So, because I’m so sick of doing podcasts it’s not funny, we go in there and do it right. He’s like, take this to the grave. I said done, I’ll take it to the grave. So what do we make of this Howie Mandel doing works? Dana White can’t be trusted to take something to the grave.

He can keep a secret. What six months well, Dana has explained why he has revealed the secret he was originally going to take to his grave. According to Dana. He was making another public appearance and a group of loyal UFC fans began an anti Howie Mandel chant. That’s when he decided to come clean and prevent any unwanted backlash being directed at Howie Mandel.

Robust one today, We’ve got two from Gossip Corner. Gabriel Iglesias visited a popular Mexican restaurant. He was at Grumpies at Mexican Cafe on Sunday. Gabe shared on Facebook, thank you to everyone at Grumpies in San Antonio for the awesome brunch. I am so tempted to go through Grumpy’s menu, but I’m also looking at the clock here and I’m like, hmm, do I really want to spend five minutes on the menu?

I mean, I really do, but also I don’t need this podcast to be half an hour. Gabe cracked a joke about how the establishment had chicken fried steak the size of a tire rim and how he appreciated the unlimited refills. Based on the Facebook post, looks like Gabe had one of Grumpy’s favorite signature plates for fourteen nine, which features chicken fried steak slathered in gravy. Texas toast and eggs. That sounds yummy.

Meanwhile, Dave Chappelle and wife Elaine spotted in New York City as they grabbed a bite at celebrity hotspot Sedell’s. We’re told Dave kept us look casual with cargo pants, a burgundy T shirt, and white trainers. Yes, I’m sourcing this from a UK newspaper. Lane was dressed for the heat. Wasn’t that hot Sunday?

Wasn’t that hot? It was mostly cloudy on Sunday. Dressed for the heat and a gray tank top and a skirt with a draw string waist. She also wore white trainers and added a black crossbody bag to her ensemble. Dave kept a cool and smoked a cigarette as he walked down the street.

Matt Rife will return to the stage today in Memphis. Matt recently had to postpone some shows due to exhaustion. He is scheduled to do a pair of sold out shows at the Orpheum tonight. And that sound you here, that is all the coolness sucking out of Jim Gaffigan’s body. Jim, am I gonna have to get the Pope involved.

Deacon Mike, You’ve got some way to get to the Pope. We’ve got two days. You need the Pope to tell Jim Gaffigan the Father Time Bourbon it’s not happening. It’s not cool. We don’t care.

It’s not a good look. All right, Deacon Mike, call your boss have them talk to Gaffigan in person on Friday, because we need to stop this. Jim Gaffigan stop by the Delish Kitchen studios to share some cocktail wisdom. Let’s listen. My name is Jim Gaffigan.

And if you’re just joining us here, it’s almost Father’s Day, and I know you forgot. What we’re gonna do is we’re gonna make a drink your father would like. It’s an old fashioned but I have my own twist on it. What are the chances that it would be my bourbon father Time? And by the way, this is a Kentucky bourbon.

For it to be a bourbon has to be over four years, so it is over four years. And I specifically pick this. I’m not like one of those celebrities that just put their names on it. And this is a precious batch, meaning there’s only a limited supply. And by the way, when this airs, it’s going to be sold out, so tough beans.

Gotta stop, Jim. I’m trying to help you. You gotta stop that your company needs. For today. On Saturday, I’ve got Jason Zinneman from The New York Times for an hour fantastic again.

And if you didn’t listen to last Saturday with Mark Malcoff where we talked about Late Night, that was really good. If you liked Malkoff, you’re gonna love Zinnamon. And if you like all this ad free, go to Caalaroga dot com a slash plus four ninety nine a month. You’ll get the shows ad free. You don’t have to listen to five million online casino ads.

I feel you. I might pay myself five dollars. See you tomorrow

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Featured: Joe Rogan, Robin Williams, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Sam Morril, Hannah Einbinder, Dana White, Neil Brennan, Bill Burr

What’s in This Episode

• Joe Rogan accuses Robin Williams of joke theft
• Trump loses NYC gun permit, Colbert and Meyers react
• Dana White reveals Bill Burr wrote his Tom Brady roast jokes
• Sam Morril releases new special ‘You’ve Changed’ on Prime Video
• Hannah Einbinder’s new special ‘The Hour’ premiering on Max
• Discussion of nepotism in comedy and entertainment industry

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, I’m Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. Did you see the NYPD is taking away Trump’s gun permit? Stephen Colbert said that he’s gonna have to change one of his signature brags. Tell you what, I could still stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and I don’t know, give somewhat a purple nurple.

Seth Meyers talking about Trump accepting the GOP nomination from potentially behind bars. If he wins, they won’t be able to swear him in on the Bible until that one inmate comes around with the book cart while Seth again. According to a new poll, fifty eight percent of Republican voters believe that convicted felons should be allowed to become president if they’re elected, which is up fifty eight percent from last week. Joe Rogan making the headlines accusing Robin Williams of being a joke fief. I’ve heard this many times.

I believe it has been established by others. Perhaps maybe my lawyers are passing me a note. Allegedly, some have said, I I’ve heard that Harlan Williams told Rogan I’m sure he could do anything on his own volition. But I always heard stories that Robin Williams was that guy. Did you ever hear anything about that?

Rogan said, yeah, I heard a lot of stories that he was that guy. I think Robin Williams was like part of that manic sort of style. It’s like a constant needs have this bit about anything that you’re talking about. Ever, killing, I think was more important, and filling that hole inside of him was more important than anything. So he would just do other people’s stuff if he didn’t have anything to say.

Rogan said that Sam Kinnison got mad at Williams. Rogan added, He’s still from everybody. He still from a lot of people. If you ask any of those comics from back then, there’s always instances of Robin going on a talk show and doing your biddor going on this and doing your bid at a club. Harlan said, maybe he was just so spontaneous he would just puke it out.

Rogan said, that’s not real. There’s no way I think he wanted to kill more than he wanted to be ethical at any cost, and especially back then when nobody was really watching you other than other comedians. In a biography, Robin there’s a story that takes place at the Comedy Store in nineteen seventy nine when an unnamed former was heads of their own Robin Williams against a wall and ordered Robin to pay him three hundred dollars for the parts of his routine he had believed had been lifted, a shakedown that Robin supposedly agreed to. Rogan said, the thing about these people, and they always get caught, and when they get caught, everything after that sucks. This is how you know a thief is legitimately a thief.

If they’re being unjustly accused, they’re always going to come up with new material. They’re always going to be creative. They’re always gonna have new great jokes because they’re actually writing and working on it. But if it’s true what you see as an initial special or something, or a few things they do that are really funny, and then you see this massive drop off and like the concepts that they talk about, the irony they discover, they don’t have any legitimate points. When you’re like, wow, this is crazy.

There’s none of that. It all goes away and it almost becomes like a person doing an impression of the original successful person because they have no creativity. With every thief, you see a couple big early specials or something, and then you see that massive drop off and terrible performances after that. It’s because they’re not real. They’re parasites.

It’s what they are. They’re vampires. I have nothing to add. I think Rogan just absolutely nailed that. But yes, I have heard accusations against Robin Williams in the past.

Dana White was on Andrew Schultz a Flagrant podcast, and Dana let us know who wrote his roast jokes at the roast of Tom Brady. The answer Bill Burr. Now that you know that, I can hear the Burr in it. Let me see if I can channel a Burr like Cadence. Anyway, Tom, you played for the Patriots so long.

I was actually starting to believe you were from Boston. Then I saw you run and I was like, nah, he’s definitely from San Francisco. Right, you can hear it. Dana said, stand up is the most underrated thing of all time. If you’re public speaking and you f up, you can recover.

You f up telling a joke, It’s a downward spiral. You’ll never be able to pull yourself out of because you’re not a professional comedian. F that stuff. I’ve done it twice. Remember I said it here.

You’ll never see me do any of that stuff again. We’ll see. Neil Brennan talked about some of his peers being elevated to oracle status and said, when I see them being elevated to oracle status, there’s probably a protective part of me. That’s probably a grateful part of me, And there’s also part of me that’s like, what those guys are idiots? What him?

Sam Morrel will have a new special on Amazon on Prime Video, this one called You’ve Changed, taped at the Wilberth Theater in Boston. Sam Riff’s on the worst person he’s ever dated, the complications of getting older, and his perspective on everything from cable news to the parils of social media. There is a clip, and it’s a good clip. Let’s listen. I was on the subway the other day in New York.

I accidentally made eye contact with a crazy person. That’s a terrible moment as a man. That is the closest you come to feeling like a woman in a bar. They’re like, oh no, we locked eyes and now he’s coming toward me, which is not what I wanted. He sits next to me on the train, puts his hand to my leg.

There’s nothing you can say. You can’t be like, oh, I don’t like that when people do that. I don’t feel safe right now, so I have to get up. I walk away. I put my hand the pull.

He follows, and he puts his hand right above mine, so it’s touching. He’s just staring at me. Everyone in the train’s watching, but they’re not watching like they’re gonna help. They’re watching like, thank god he chose you. That could have been a problem.

Vendor’s special is out this week. The La Times did a big profile of her. If you Hannah’s publicist, you deserve your money. This week, Esther Zuckerman wrote the article and wrote, when I told Hannah at the start of our interview I’d seen her new comedy special, a look between terror and elation crossed her face. Hannah says, it feels like the most intimate extension of myself being in soul that I’m sharing.

But hear you say you’ve seen it is the first time I’ve heard someone say they’ve seen it. It filled me with joy and excitement and anticipation at a little shock. The Hour comes out Thursday on Max. She called it her very short life’s work, so no bresh, it’s casual. In Everything Must Go, Hannah discusses her bisexuality, her judaism, her passion for the environment, and her period, in addition to different areas of her life from her stone days to her time as a competitive cheerleader.

Now the article bugged me a little bit. They just casually threw in there that Hannah grew up in Westwood, California. Okay, what it didn’t mention at all is her mom is Lorraine Newman. Now why is that relevant? Johnny Mac, You’ve probably heard the word nipple baby, And I’m not here to say Hannah’s not talented.

Many things can be true. One, you can be talented while someone in your family has some connections. For example, dear listener, do you know how to get an agent? Are you on any auditions today? You know why you’re not on any auditions today because you don’t know they exist.

The world works on relationships. If somebody could make a phone call and be like, hey, do you mind if my kid reads for this thing? Or Hay, do you know anybody who or you’re just at a party and you hear of something. Information can help you. If you’re just sitting in your basement, you don’t know.

This an audition today. So and this isn’t a Bashan Hannah. This is just in general. Anyone with famous parents in the industry. At some point it helped.

I’ll switch to sports. Joe Buck at some point, it helped that his dad was Jack Buck, who did Saint Louis Cardinals games. At some point that helped. No Eegle the sportscaster. At some point, it kind of helps that your dad is on an eagle.

If nothing else, there’s an agent or I know somebody at the Lakers and talks to them for you. You know, stuff like that goes on. Move on, John, before everybody hates you. Chris Fleming is llying Pittsburgh this weekend. Spoke to the Pittsburgh City Paper.

Chris used to be better known as Gail, a character he played in the twenty tens in online videos parodying anxious suburban mothers. Fleming told these city paper people strive for relatability, and I don’t. I think the fun is the challenge is doing something incredibly specific and making them see it and having them feel what I’m feeling and then relate to it. I really love that mass communication, the thrill of it. I love that, and also the body goes into a state that’s so unnatural.

There’s nothing like it. It’s so unnatural, That’s how I describe it. Fleming says he’s never been to Pittsburgh for these shows. He plans on using newer material, no older than eight months or so. Fleming says, I can’t do something for too long.

It gets really stale on my head. The shelf life is I want to shoot it pretty fast, and recently I’ve been doing bits. I just put three bits out online that I was doing for the first time, first or second time, because sometimes I can get glazed over and dead in the eyes if I’m doing material I’ve been doing for too long. But in Pittsburgh, I’m anticipating being able to mess around a little bit. As they say, in a big theater, he didn’t say mess in a big theater, you kind of have to make saying a sense of structure, otherwise people get really freaked out.

In the balcony. The further people get from you and the louse of the show is the more uneasy people get, whereas in a little room it could feel more like a party or a train that’s breaking down in fun ways. After his recent Peacock special, Fleming doesn’t wrestle with wondering if he’s weird enough, writes The Gazette, Fleming says, I feel like I was able to lean into the esoteric on a mainstream platform that has now freed me to feeling like I’m not afraid anymore not being odd enough. And when I say odd enough, I mean hack. I don’t want to be hacked.

I even allowed myself to do a bit about the difference between a male doctor and a female doctor and stuff like that. I don’t think I would have felt free enough to do because I came from this club. It’s a burden that’s been lifted. Alex Edelman, you know him from the recent Just for Us a Comedy special, the one where he attended a meeting of neo Nazis. Edelman sells Variety he was recently walking in New York City when he thought he recognized someone from the white nationalist meeting, and Edmund says, I wasn’t gonna go Upstille and be like, excuse me, do I know you from a meeting of neo Nazis and queens?

Because you look exact like this person. The Washington Post has been profiling DC comedians. Hey, Maddie Brennan, what’s your pre show routine? Maddy says, I always brush my teeth right before leaving the house for an important show. All right, tell us about the time you bombed.

One time, I was visiting some friends from college in San Francisco, not long after I started doing stand up. I booked a show to do when I was visiting so that my friends could see me to perform for the first time. When I got to the venue, it was a pack small theater. It was pretty excited, but it turned out that was the show. Before the show I was on, the show let out and everyone left.

My friends got there and they were the only audience members I’ve performed to, just them. That’s awful. When we left, I forgot my credit card at the bar. I was so embarrassed by the whole experience that my friend had to go back in and ask for my card. That’s the last time I asked friends to watch me perform.

Jeff Cirrouley’s debut comedy special Live at the Bomb Shelter out today on Comedy Dynamics, we have a clip. Let’s listen. These Tuecome podcasts are so popular. There’s one called My Favorite Murder that’s like the most popular one. I’m like, they’re ranking murders, they have favorites.

Imagine like your cousin died and you’re just like trying to get some info and you come across two women having a great time. You’re just trying to get some info and they’re basically like, look, I know, it’s like really sad that your cousin like got stabbed and left on the side of the highway. But listen, it was our favorite murder. I mean, we loved it, and it was just you’re not topping it this year. I mean, our three favorite murders all time Jeffrey Dahmer’s second victim, Ted Bundy’s third victim, and your cousin.

I mean, that’s just far money. Top three favorite murders. And that is your comedy news for today. See you tomorrow.

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Featured: John Mulaney, Rob Schneider, Mark Malkoff, Jimmy Fallon, Jerry Seinfeld, Jimmy Kimmel, Kamala Harris, Adam Sandler, Joe Coy, Rachel Feinstein

What’s in This Episode

• John Mulaney’s Netflix late-night show ‘Everybody’s in LA’ and guest curation approach
• John Mulaney discusses call-in segment challenges and listener behavior on his show
• Rob Schneider criticizes cancel culture’s impact on comedy during Australian tour
• Joe Coy comedy special review: energy without substance
• Rachel Feinstein comedy special review: solid material with character work
• Roast of Tom Brady viewership numbers and streaming performance
• Jimmy Kimmel interview with Kamala Harris interrupted by pro-Palestinian activists

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

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

Caloroga Shark Media. Hello, Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. If you skip the weekends, the weekend was really good. Saturday, my hour long interview with Mark Malkoff, Sunday’s episode, and I’m the first one a cop to a lot of times on the weekend, there’s filler stuff. Yesterday’s episode was all new stuff that I had found when I recorded, and it’s really strong, including a fun Triumph story and a really fun Rob Schneider story.

So if you miss the weekend, check that out. And premium subscribers, boy, on Saturday morning, they were treated to three three and a half minutes of me talking to my phone as I drove home from the National Donuts Chain. I mean, what a treat that alone worth the four ninety nine for premium subscribers Today is good too. A late night joke from Jimmy Fallon. In an effort to boost the birth rate, Tokyo was launching the first government run dating app.

That’s nice. Apparently in Japan they have government benefits and government with benefits love it. John Mulaney profiled by Indie Wire he talked about that late night show. Mulaney said the pitch was Netflix wanted a show every night coinciding with the festival. They didn’t know what they wanted.

They brought it to me and said, would you want to produce this and be some part of it? And I was like that, we didn’t know what this is. Do you want to do it? I was intrigued by six live nights, the run of it, and the finite amount of time. Originally, Melanie didn’t even plan to host it.

I knew we wouldn’t be able to start until February, even in pre production, and I thought, Oh, that’s so fun. We’ll just get a staff together, get a lot of great people together, and then we’ll just have to go, go, go, and then it’ll be done. May tenth. I was kind of ripping off The Chris Rock Show. That’s Chris Rock’s nineteen ninety seven HBO series.

He had Johnny Cochran on, and I remember watching that as a kid and going, Oh, he’s having on who he thinks is interesting. I filed that away as like, oh, of course you do that. If you can get somebody interested in who would be really cool to an audience, everybody wins. And so I had Marcia Clark. All right, he has now addressed some of my concerns with the program.

Mlanie explained, you have Jerry Seinfeld and he’s sitting next to a coyote expert that was anorth star from the beginning, so the fact that that specifically came together was really great. When pitching the experts, Malanie assured them they weren’t going to be a punchline of the joke. I learned quickly you have to say, oh, we’re not making fun of you, which I would have never thought you have to say. But of course they’re saying it’s a comedy show and we’re comedians, and I was like, no, no, no, I’m much more interested in you than I am in the other comedians. Fan response to Everybody’s in la In particularly felt really gratifying because most of the comedy I’ve done, like Sack, Lunch Bunch or Oh Hello, is actually about external topics and not about my own life or psyche or whatever.

Was never about my personal life. To me, I mainly make fun of TV shows and random things I’ve seen. So this show, being entirely external in a way, in the end becomes the most personal thing you can do. I promise you, I think more about earthquakes and ghosts than I do my own life. All right, John Mulaney, are we getting more of this show?

M’laney said, I’m really not sure. I think what I loved about the show so much is that every sort of minute looked like it was about to get out of control in every possible way. M’lanie talked about the callers. Johnny Mac has pointed out some of the callers were kind of killing the show. Mlanie said, but there was one story I won’t name, but I thought, are you kidding?

I was so bored, and I was like, you got to hold it together. You did invite the calls. My biggest takeaway was I feel like on Larry King Live or on drivetime Radio, people knew what a call in segment was. They hit the ground running and they go, yeah, I got three things to say about Lendy Dichster. But our callers tended to be younger.

I’d be like, hi, and they’d be like, so, I know, you talk about earthquakes. Get tell the story. You got to come in hot, exactly, John Mulaney. And that is why you need a producer. That’s what I’ve been saying.

Rob Schneider in the news again, this time international. The Daily Mail writes American comedian Rob Schneider slam’s cancel culture, claiming it has changed the world of comedy for the worst. He told Channel seven’s Sunrise that audiences are getting too upsight about what you could joke about on TV, which is why he prefers stand up comedy. Although if you’re doing a hospital benefit, be careful booking Rob Schneider, see yesterday’s episode for why people get uptight about stuff. That’s why it’s important I have a dark theater to perform in where people can hear things that they can’t hear on TV.

Schneider is currently touring Australia. The idea is to be able to express things and let it out. People can laugh at things. It’s not attacking anybody, although some people claim it is. It’s tough for now, But at the same time, anytime people get uptight about something is an opportunity.

You have to get it in a way the audience can laugh. Schneider was asked about Happy Gilmour too. He said, I think Sandler just can’t stop making movies. He doesn’t know what else to do with his life. I finally got around watching some comedy specials.

Joe Coy Boy, that review I read on Friday, it was on point. The guy was saying how it looked like a comedy special and there were no jokes. Boy, I agree my notes where Joekoy is all energy, stop cursing and tell a joke. It was just like all vibe. He’s very charismatic.

The energy’s there, but dude, do some material. It was five minutes fifty seconds in before the first solid joke land. I won’t spoil it. It’s very solid, but it was like, come on, dude, life’s too short. I bailed on that.

Sorry, Joe Coy, Life’s too short. I bailed on that one. So I switched over to Rachel Feinstein and the complete opposite. She gets right to it. I don’t even know if she said hello and immediately gets into the material.

Is it her special life changing? No, it’s a nice, solid hour of comedy. I’ve added to my best of twenty twenty four list all the way at the bottom, but it’s on the list. It’s fine. It’s a nice hour.

As I analyze it, are some of her stories exaggerated? Fake? Sure? Absolutely, but she’s doing characters and the voices of the various firemen she does in her act. I feel like I know these people.

I’ve met these people, so I like Rachel a lot. The Closer could have been a little stronger. The special just kind of ends, but it’s nice. The TV grim Reaper reported that although The Roast of Tom Brady did two hundred and seventy nine million minutes in its first live night, it averaged two hundred and thirty nine million minutes a day for the following week. Wow, a lot of people watched it after the fact.

I guess it had really good buzz. Last week Jimmy Kimmel had Kamala Harris on seems they made an edit and we didn’t know about stuff. A video shared on social media by an anti war group called Code Pink. They described themselves as a feminist grassroots organization working to end US warfare and imperialism and support peace and human rights initiatives. In their video, pro Palestinian activists of the audience at Kimmel can be seen interrupting the interview with Harris by shouting phrases like stop the genocide and you’re a murderer to Harris.

Kim Will tells the crowd, you’re interrupting my flow. Security personnel appear to remove the person disrupting the proceedings. Kim Will tells Harris, sorry about that, and then quips if anybody else has something to say, this is the time. The video then cuts to a different person interfering with the taping, a security officer and then is on the video saying you are under arrest at the moment for interfering with a live television broadcast. It is unclear if that person was Jimmy Kimmel’s security secret service LAPD or someone else.

Code Pink is now demanding the Late Night Show address and apologize for the un necessary use of brutal force. Yikes. The Washington Post had a large profile of Joel Kim Booster. Joel Kim Booster’s publicist, you earned your money this week. Boy.

This was a wax job. As a former coworker used to say, you know, that’s when you bring your car over to somebody’s house and they wax it down and make it look nice. That’s what that term means. The Post writs, for a while, Joel Kim Booster’s brand was oversharing. Joel says if I was feeling something, everybody online would know about it.

Now it’s just like if I’m feeling bad, I don’t want any of these lunics to know about it because they’ll just go for the kill. I’m very happy being a Dalist gay celebrity. I can’t imagine what it would be like if street people knew who I was. I have a very strict do not engage policy. I hardly ever spawned anyone’s sweets or comments publicly, or dms for that matter.

The Santa Fe Reporters spoke to Brian Reagan. Brian was an ECON major until his football coach suggested he switch. Reagan said, I took a speech class and for one of the speeches, we had to try to be humorous. So I wrote this speech and killed But not only did it feel good. Remember the teacher in the back, This woman was laughing like crazy, and I was thinking, I’ve never impressed a teacher in my life with anything that.

I remember walking back to the dorm after the class and I was on a cloud, thinking I don’t feel like this when I walk back from any of my other classes. So I was like, whatever that was, I know, I want that in my life. Has comedy changed since Brian Reagan started. Yeah, it’s like anything else that grows and evolves. In fact, if I were young now trying to get in to stand up comedy, I don’t even know.

I wouldn’t how to do it. When I started comedy clubs which just opening around the country, and the way you got on stage was going to open mic at a comedy club. Now a lot of comedy clubs don’t even have open mics. The Washington Post has been covering the DC comedy scene. Some comedians doing well there include Jasmine Burton, a practicing attorney.

Jasmine started in comedy a little over two years ago. My long term goal is to be a late night television show host like Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Coberer or Trevor Noah. A lot of hosts get their start in comedy, so I thought it’d be a great way to get my name out there and start preparing me for the big leagues. I’m the perfect combination of West Coast and East Coast swagger. I’m known for my high energy, witty punch lines, and infusion of the law and my life experiences in a co When you see me.

I want you to feel like you are just like me, or have a best friend that is. I love to talk about law school at Howard University and my career now and how policy affects us in our day to day lives. Well, tell us about a time you bummed, Jasmine said. One time I was trying new material and was not going well. One audience member yelled keep your day job, and although they meant it as an insult, I actually found it to be extreme sound financial advice, so I thanked them for that.

That’s really funny, and that is your comedy news for today. My voice is shot. I recorded Sunday and Monday back to back. That half ass triumph impression killing me. Don’t do a triumph impression.

You’ll destroy your voice. See tomorrow

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Featured: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, Rod Blagojevich, Ryan Dempster, Rob Schneider, Taylor Tomlinson, John Mulaney, Jimmy Kimmel, Kamala Harris, Matt Rife, Conan O’Brien, Seth Meyers

What’s in This Episode

• Triumph the Insult Comic Dog’s comedy show with Rod Blagojevich and Ryan Dempster
• Rob Schneider controversy at Regina Hospitals fundraiser for LGBTQ and vaccine jokes
• Taylor Tomlinson Reddit AMA about Taskmaster panelist preparation and Conan O’Brien interest
• John Mulaney opens door to hosting the Oscars after hosting Governors Awards
• Jimmy Kimmel interviews Vice President Harris about Trump weaponizing Department of Justice
• Matt Rife reschedules Chicago and Nashville shows due to health issues

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. I am jazzed right before he record. I’m like, let me just throw Triumph the Insult Comic Dog into Google and see what comes up. There’s a new story. I haven’t even read it yet.

I found it less than thirty seconds ago. Can’t wait. A couple jokes from Late Night Seth Myers. In a new interview, former President Trump credit himself for not launching a criminal investigation. It’s a Hillary Clinton while in office.

Unfortunately, he could never figure out which porn star she paid off. Trump said he’d be willing to serve jail time after being convicted on thirty four felony accounts, which would be the first time he shared a bedroom in a while. Trump hinted that he would arrest Hillary Clinton for something. Ronnie Chank said, You’re gonna jail Hillary Clinton. Haven’t you done enough to this woman?

It’s like the Russian mob killing John Wick’s dog, and John Wick is like, you know who’s gonna pay for this? Hillary Clinton? All right? From WTTV they were at Triumph the Insult Comic Dogs show the other night. This was Monday night at the theater.

WTTV wonders why former Governor Rod Blagoyevitch would accept an invitation from a puppet dog with a pension for profanity? Is it a need for attention? Is he trying to show that he’s a good sport? Triumph hosted a Jeopardy style game show with celebrity contestants, including Blagoyevitch and ex Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster. The governor was greeted by light applause and loud booze.

Triumph said to the former governor, you should give Trump your recipe for toilet wine. Lagoyevitch said, I’m a trumpet crap? Is that like a transervative? The former contestant on Celebrity Apprentice said, you get me out of prison, you get my vote. Triumph said public schmublic abortion a schmort that was funny, just to say.

The game began. It was called Let’s Make a poop. Each contestant given a buzzer with a specific sound effect. Dempster’s was Harry Carey saying where am I? Blagoyevitch had Trump saying Hannibal Lector, a supervisor from the Department of Streets and Sanitation, was introduced to big applause.

I could see this twist coming from a mile away, until it was announced that he was the person responsible for paving over the rat hole. Remember the rat hole. One clue in the game was this loud and incessant noise is louder than cicadas? The answer, what is the press talking about cicadas? I’m losing it now.

I’d like to doing this impression. Though there was more Trump bashing, he now slurs his slurs. WTTV says it was a silly, fun and inexplicable evening. Sounds like a really good time. Rob Schneider in the news the Hospitals of Regina Foundation, and yes it does sound dirty to say Regina, And yes I did look it up.

The Hospitals of Regina Foundation has reiterated its sincere and unconditional apology for a set performed by Rob Schneider. Oh No, what happened? The Leader Post tells us Schneider was advertised as the main entertainment act for the Four Seasons Ball, a fundraiser that took place. According to public accounts of the evening shared on social media, Schneider’s comment set included jokes made the expense of the LGBTQ two plus community He also made several jokes about vaccination policies and the COVID nineteen pandemic. According to witnesses, Schneider was roundly booed during his performance, which ended much earlier than planned.

I feel like this has happened before, right. The Hospitals of Regina Foundation set in a statement. While we recognize that in a free and democratic society, individuals are entitled to their views and opinions, and that comedy is intended to be edgy, the content, positions and opinions expressed during mister schneider set do not align with the values of our foundation and team. We do not condone, accept, endorse, or share mister Schneider’s positions has expressed during his comedy set and acknowledge that in this instance, the performance did not meet the expectations of our audience and our team. People don’t seem to do their research when they book comedians.

Regardless, The four season ball raised more than three hundred and fifty thousand dollars for Regina Hospitals. Taylor Tomlinson took part in an ama on Reddit on Tuesday. One fan was curious about how much info do you give the panelists you know maybe people are writing jokes in advance. Tomlinson said, we have an amazing writer’s room full of hilarious comedians who helped prep all of the panelists, so they go into the show with great jokes prepared. There’s still plenty of room to improvise and make jokes off the cuff, though, and certain games specifically call for improv so it’s like Hollywood Squares.

No problem there. Ay ridiculous question. Would you like to have Conan O’Brien on? Gee? What is she gonna say?

No? I don’t want Conan on this show, Tomlinson revealed. I would love it if Conan came on the show. A dream Conan is also welcome on this show. In fact, if Conan does this show, I won’t even show up for that episode.

I’ll just let Conan do it. There’s a big article about John Mulaney going around. I’ll dive into that tomorrow. But a quick thing, John Mulaney is not saying no to hosting the Oscars. I think mullanie would be great at it.

I also think leave it alone. Let Jimmy Kimmel host it for the next twenty five years. It ain’t broken, don’t fix it. M’lanie can host the Golden Globes. I mean, what could go wrong if you host the Golden Globes?

Malani said, I used to have strong opinions. I’ll only do this, I’ll never do that, and I don’t want to get pigeonholed. And I think both I and the entire entertainment business has changed so much. I mean, there are people who one hundred percent host a game show every week and we have no idea except the millions of people watching them. Blaney hosted the Academy’s Governor’s Awards, which is what got people talking about him hosting the Oscars.

He said, I really had fun doing that. I will say I’m open to whatever. I personally have an affinity for something lower key. It’s so fun to try and do your absolute best at not the biggest award show, like the Spirit Awards or Governor’s Awards. They’re just a little more relaxed and casual.

Going in and trying to have a crop load of fun is a great feeling. Jimmy Kimmel had on Vice President Harris he was worried that, you know, maybe he’d be a victim of lock him up. Kimmell said, Trump has made it pretty plain that he’s planning to go after his enemies or whatever you want to call them. Realistically, what can a president do to say, uh, talk show host this and making fun of him, What can he actually do to like, for example, me, The Vice President said, in all seriousness, Jimmy, your right to bring this up. Trump has been very clear he intends to weaponize the Department of Justice against his political enemies.

He had my dictators and says he’ll be a dictator. On day one, Matt Rife went on Instagram. You know it’s new dates for Chicago and Nashville shows. Rife wrote, first, I wanted to say thank you so much for all the well wishes. I’m working on getting better and can’t wait to come back shortly and give you the best possible shows that you deserve.

Having the reschedule shows broke my bleeping heart and I hate it, but I deeply appreciate your understanding and wanted to update you on those. The Chicago dates are December twenty six, twenty seven, and twenty nine, and thirty. The Nashville shows at the Ryman Will We moved to a new venue because the Ryman didn’t have any dates to reschedule until June twenty five. An announcement with Nashville dates is coming soon. On Gossip Corner, Chloe Kardashian and Chris Jenner went to go see Ellen Degenner as a due comedy.

We’re told Chloe paired her newly dyed red hair with a black bodysuit and black leather pants, while Chris spotted an all black outfit. An update on kmita ha, they are doing a festival in Montreal July eighteenth to twenty eighth. This year’s one will be primarily a French festival. President Sylvain Parentz Badard said, it’s great for us, it’s great for the artists, and it’s great for the fans. The ten day event, we’ll have around thirty shows featuring two hundred artists.

Comedian richardson Zephears said there are a lot of different shows. Yes, their stand up, but there’s also a country night. They’re going to be musical shows, so I think there’s a beautiful variety of shows so that the shows can answer to different kinds of crowds. I’m happy because I’m going to just for lass since I was young. I came to see a lot of shows.

I did a lot of shows, I produced a lot of shows. So I’m happy to see that there’s a continuity, and I think it’s exciting that it’s something new. The CEO per and Badard said, we’re going to announce an English speaking program soon and it’s going to be under the Just for Last brand that we just acquired. Right, that’s cool. The Washington Post it profiled ten comedians doing the DC scene that you should know.

One of them is Liz Barlow, and they asked Liz about a time that she bombed. Liz said, my favorite bomb is in a dive born Virginia Beach. Not to brag, but I’m banned now. And I got on stage in a room of very racist military folks and told every race in police joke I had in my notebook at the time. I didn’t even pivot for sex jokes, just straight gunning.

I wanted to be walked to my car. Your pre show routine, water drinking, prayer, and lots of women rappers. What else should we know about you? I’m a single mom who works too hard and loves her kid and never stops. And I’m a survivor me Johnny Mac.

I’m losing my voice because of my half assed triumph impression. I don’t know how Smichel does that for an hour. And that’s your comedy news for today. You know you get the show’s ad free, right, Yeah, you probably heard the promo. Do it see tomorrow

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Featured: Mark Malkoff, Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Jay Leno, Robert Smigel, Spike Fereston, Rachel Dratch

What’s in This Episode

• Mark Malkoff’s new Inside Late Night podcast exploring late night TV history
• Johnny Carson’s longevity and skill as a late night host
• The controversial transition from Carson to Jay Leno in 1992
• Helen Kushnik’s role as Jay Leno’s producer and behind-the-scenes drama
• Johnny Carson’s preference for David Letterman as successor
• David Letterman’s NBC show versus his later CBS run
• The decline of late night viewership and Johnny Mac’s personal viewing habits

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. I have quite the treat for you today. It was quite the treat for me. Mark Malkoff is my guest. Mark is the host of the Inside Late Night podcast.

It’s tied to the Late Night or website that I’m a big fan of. He also used to host the Carson Podcast all about Johnny Carson. I was a listener to that one, and when I saw Mark had this new podcast, I reached out to him. I was like, hey, man, will you give me some time? I asked him for half an hour.

We talked for an hour here, and then afterwards I think we talked for another ten minutes. I loved this conversation. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Again. Inside Late Night is Mark’s podcast.

It is fantastic. The website is Late Night Or. Some of the guests he’s had so far, Robert Smigel, who is fantastic. Spike Ferenston, who you probably don’t know his name, but he’s been in the Seinfeld Camp. His name’s come up a little bit recently with the pop Tarts movie.

The official Description. Mark Malcoff, host of the Johnny Carson Dean Podcast, The Carson Podcast, explores late night television past and present. Again, to be clear, this is a new podcast. The Carson Podcast, as we talked about, went almost four hundred episodes. This is a new podcast that talks about SNL, Letterman, Conan, and Moore, presented by Latenighter dot Com.

Guests will include people who appeared on those shows, cast members, writers, staff, and crew. Yes, so far have been Rachel Dratch, Robert Smigel, who’s fantastic, and Spike Ferinston. And he talked about a bunch of big guests that they’ve got coming up. Here is my conversation with Mark Malkoff. You don’t seem old enough to be a Carson fan.

I won’t ask you how old you are, but I’ll go first. I’m fifty four and Carson was the thing I watched as a killed time until Letterman came on. As time went on, I got more into Johnny and we can talk about that. But why are you such a Carson fan? You know, I was a fan of the genre, but definitely Carson was this guy that just fascinated me in terms of his longevity, in terms of his likability, that he could, you know, talk to the A listers like Audrey Heppern and even though he got very nervous with her and Jimmy Stewart and Hope and then be talking to kids, and then he’s with animals and then civilians, which were people just you know that had never even a lot of them out of their hometown and never been on an airplane, and just he was able just to be likable and make people feel comfortable.

And I think that that’s why his success was. He just played to Middle America, he played to the cities, and I in terms of a host, in terms of his skill set as a listener, I don’t think anybody has come remotely close. There’s a lot of great hosts and things. But I was just always fascinated by him, and then I would hear that he was this other guy, and I just as growing up as a kid, I just was really fascinated by what he might have been off camera versus on camera.

And then I would watch it as a kid with I mean, I don’t know, six seven with …

I just couldn’t believe. I thought this was all just you know them talking back and forth. Famous people are always witty, and I just was wondering, how do you get a job like that to be the pre said that somebody would pre interview it. Just all these things what went on behind the show. And I’ve always just been into him.

But I think his stuff a lot of it still holds up. You know, he’s been off the air, what now thirty two years. It’s crazy that it’s thirty two years. I have Upstairs. I stole the title from it was the TV Guide cover.

I have a VHS that I labeled Johnny’s Last Jam, which was what the TV Guide is, Show me too, I’ve got Johnny’s Last Show. In Jay’s first show with the Purple Show, Yeah, I don’t know I’m going to do it, but it’s upstairs. Yeah, the purple set with all the curtains opening in the mentage, and that was live. Jay did the first two weeks live, which was pretty unheard of for late night. It still is.

But yeah, that was an interesting transition to say the latest. That whole weird move of not acknowledging that somebody else hosted the show last week. Yeah, it stemmed from Helen Kushnik. It was Jay’s producer. Jay had it was a very unhealthy relationship, and you know, he basically deferred to her and she I don’t want to say she was a bully to him, but it just was not a healthy relationship.

And Jay’s a very nice man, and she was doing all these things behind the scenes that Jay supposedly didn’t know about it, and I probably I believe it’s that it’s true. And one of the things was is that, you know, Bob right at NBC, the President’s like I went Jaya to thank Johnny and Kushnik absolutely not, and she was just playing as Bob Wright I think said she was always held him overplaying her cards and it led to her demise. But it would have just been the most easy, simple thing for him to mention Johnny. Yeah, and especially Jay had been doing Mondays, so it’s not like, you know, somebody dropped in out of space and started hosting the Tonight Show. There was Clan’s constant.

Carson was baffled by the whole thing, just because you know, Leno would have never been able to do the permanent guest host if it wasn’t for Carson. They were always, you know, on good terms. I mean, definitely, Johnny privately wanted Dave to take over the Tonight’s show, but in terms of Carson Productions, Johnny on the show, Jay was guest hosting for Scale. He was getting paid is less as you possibly and Leno was so smart about it because Leno knew that his club dates, he could play Vegas in all these places and make so much more more money, and just thinking like, you know, I got all these these behind me, these guest hosts, which you think two hundred or more times that he would have a better running to get the Tonight Show. I mean, everything was very calculated with him, and uh, it just got to the point where there was just so much stuff with Helen and the way that some of the people at the Tonight Show and including Branford and Marcellus denies it, but he said some stuff about Doc and the band apparently on the Today Show about not being hip and they were going to bring this back.

So Doc quit and the band were very very upset with that, and it just kept it kept escalating. But yeah, Carter covered it, but Helen Plant did a false story and the New York Post about NBC one in Johnny out and Johnny knew right away it was Helen, and it was proven it was Helen, and there was just all this stuff that was completely unnecessary behind the scenes. It’s crazy that it’s thirty years already worth three or four hosts later, depending on how you want to count. You know, as I was thinking this morning getting ready to speak with you, I was doing some self analysis, and if you had asked me when I woke up over breakfast, I would have said, yeah, I’m a huge late night fan. I definitely talk about it all the time on the podcast.

And then I realized I really haven’t watched it regularly since maybe year two of CBS Letterman. So I’m exposing myself here that you know, that’s a good twenty seven eight years ago, But yet I love the genre. I just maybe it’s just time has changed. I was a huge Letterman fan, and boy if Dave ever moved from twelve thirty to eleven thirty, and I didn’t have to stay up till one thirty in the morning to watch him. I would watch this thing every night.

And I did that for like a year or two, and then I don’t know if I hit my mid twenties or what happened. I just kind of fell out of the habit, but I do love it. I think Dave the definitelyands CBS disappointment television for a generation. The NBC show still holds up. It was just a brilliantly conceived show and to do something that had never really been done and influenced so many comedy I think for the first maybe two or three years, Dave was putting in maximum effort and then he just pulled back and it was just so obvious.

I know he was tired, he was exhausted. I get that, and the show just changed and it was not the same thing.

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And then over time Dave developed more to be known as an interviewer and just…

But Dave was such an amazing broadcaster that people just followed him no matter what he did. But yeah, once the show shifted and he stopped going to rehearsal, and even before that he stopped doing pre tapes, it just became a different thing. And I knew he couldn’t do remotes anymore because he was too famous. But it just, you know, it was just a different show. And I mean, I still think he was probably the funniest person behind the desk.

I think Carson was the best overall host, but in terms of funny and stuff, I would say Dave’s NBC show, and yeah, maybe the first few years of CBS, Yeah, Dave had the twelve thirty vibe of no one’s watching. I can make something out of nothing. Now Conan once Conan found his fastball, sort of picked up that torch. But to me, eleven thirty Dave. I always thought of it as the guy at twelve thirty was wearing sneakers and the guy at eleven thirty had on on Amani suit, and just that alone was just different.

You had to play at eleven thirty. There’s definitely change that have been the need to be made. But I think any of the shows that the people started at twelve thirty and then went down at eleven thirty, I prefer the twelve thirty looseness. And I get the prestige of going to eleven thirty and playing to a mass audience, but the necessary changes, just at least to somebody to me, people that grew up or that watched the twelve thirty, it was it was not the same. And I really do think that in terms of the best work that they did when they were looser and they didn’t have to worry as much about making the changes, the twelve thirty shows were the best.

All right, So let’s talk about the new podcast. Where did it come from? How did you hook up with Bill in the site? The site is late Night or, which is fantastic. It’s already one of my key resources as I’m listening, especially specifically the Smigel interview.

When I listened to the Carson podcast, I thought, Oh, this guy’s just a big Carson fan.

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And now I’m sensing, are you industry or you seem to know people a little bit…

I worked in TV at day jobs for a bunch of years, and I’ve just been around people that I’ve been able to have some private conversations with that trusted me, and I definitely when I’m talking to Robert, who I’ve known since I was seventeen, I mean during the whole Carson podcast, I mean, Robert was very nice to do my last episode and bring Dana Carvey in. I just wanted to talk about Carson because he wrote the Johnny Carson sketches on SNL that Johnny did not like, and talk about some other things about Carson with Smigel. But I’ve known him since I was seventeen, knew I know more about SNL than I did it of Carson, and I was very I knew a lot about Carson, so it was one of those things where I had a lot of information. I mean I had a day job at Letterman too, so I always wanted to talk to people about the other shows and maybe broad in because I knew I had this knowledge, and I definitely had questions that I just I really wanted to be answered. So I thought this was a good fit.

Jed, who runs Late Night Er, was a fan of the podcast Carson, and he said, you know, if you ever want to do something, let me know. We had a couple of conversations and it made sense. I mean, yeah, Bill Carter’s editor at large, and I there’s just there are a lot of people I wanted to talk to. The host Bert Sugarman for Midnight Special is the guest next week, so we’re going different time periods. I mean Sugarman Midnight Special seventy two to I think eighty one, and he was the creator and producer of Bert Sugarman’s Midnight Special, which every rock act you can imagine and not country, I mean everyone from Johnny Cash to led Zeppelin, to Kiss to David Bowie and just kind of going back every Friday Midnight Special and to just just talk about the evolution of late night and Johnny Carson was very influential and Midnight Special.

Sugarman and Carson were next door neighbors in bel Air, so there’s a lot of Carson that goes with it. So yeah, it was that was fun. So we’re just going to go around the genre and see who we can talk to. I love that you’re going that deep with it. That’s cool.

I remember that show. That’s awesome. Yeah, it’s his YouTube channel’s amazing. He’s an amazing businessman. He owns it, which I mean Carson didn’t get ownership till like nineteen eighty of his Tonight show, but Sugarman in seventy two or whatever.

NBC didn’t believe in it and basically had to bought airtime on NBC, and NBC said, fine, if you pay for everything, so he owned it. He has everything, and yeah, the channel is just phenomenal. I mean people like Linda Ronstat, she went on Carson and I think sixty eight or sixty nine and would not do Johnny’s Show because the audio. A lot of acts did not want to do Johnny’s Show because TV was perceived as a lot of times the audio people and stuff just were not able to adjust to rock in different sounds and stuff. So like Neil Diamond didn’t do Carson Show or any show including Midnight Special, and they try to get him until Johnny’s last year.

His Diamond had a bad experience with it. So Carl have to go across the hall to watch Linda Ronstadt on Midnight specially because he was such a fan. He’d go over to visit Richard Pryor when he was hosting, so he would definitely go over. But there were certain acts, Yeah, like Linda Ronstadt he wasn’t able to get into, like eighty four, eighty six and yeah, the Tonight Show, the Carson audio people stayed up till the middle of the night the night before just making sure the audio was good.

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And then you know, Ronstadt was so ron stet was so happy and ended up doing C…

Are you finding this podcast easier to book? Because I’m imaginally say we wanted a book. I know Branford More Salas, there’s a road to get to Branford More Sallas. But if you want to book somebody from the back offices from Carson circa nineteen seventy six, that seems to me like it would be a lot harder. I’d rather try and book Branford than a random civilian forty years long.

I’m you know, I’m going wide. I mean, I just asked somebody who worked at the Tonight Show in New York because I wasn’t aware of them if they would do it. But yeah, going to a Branford, even though I’d be very surprised if he said yes, he publicly said bad stuff about Jay Leno, publicly said bad stuff about Carson. I would love to. I’m gonna ask him.

It’s you never know, people are gonna say yes or no. But yeah, I mean definitely to talk to some of those types is definitely easier to get to. I mean some of the people to track down took me forever, I mean months, sometimes the kind of the behind the scenes people. I was just so obsessed with the New York Tonight Show era from sixty two to seventy two. It was worth it.

And I was just I mean, people like Jason Bateman that were kids on the show now we’re in like their fifties, so I mean, it was just so many of the people that I wanted to get were just I mean, they were passing away, and it just got it got very hard to be guessed at the end, just because the pool of people that were still around was tiny. And this is definitely a lot easier so far in terms of the book, and but I think it really comes down to so many people. I got a lot of big guests on Carson, and people have been very nice on this is for Carson, and I did not know this. It never occurred to me, is that it was one of the best times in their lives generally for a lot of these people, and they’ve never gotten to talk about it at length, certainly, So I mean I always equate it to somebody that had the best college experience, but they never get to talk about it. No one really cares.

But they suddenly have this audience of somebody that knows all these things about them when they were on Carson and things, and people said yes to me that I just never would have expected in a million years. And hopefully this is kind of the same, you know, talking about your first time on Latterman and just you know, Dave meant a lot to a lot of the guests and so forth, and so we’ll see what happens. I just hope that people will trust me to come on, and my whole goal is is to present to my audience things that they probably do not know, things that the guests have never talked about, stories that maybe they’re rarely talked about. Buried but just with Carson and everything, I mean, I didn’t ask Rachel Dratch how she came up with Debbie Downer because she’s talked about that on Saturday Night Live so many times in interviews. It’s so easily googleble and I don’t want to be that guy.

There’s no reason for me to ask some of those questions that they’ve answered a million times. So we’re just trying to go in deeper. And yeah, so far, it’s been fun, and guests have been very generous with their time and with just sharing their stories. You gave me flashbacks when you mentioned New York era Carson Tonight Show and how so many of the archives are gone. It was kind of cool what Jerry did in the pop Tarts movie.

Yes, you know, in another life, I worked at WR Radio late nineties. We found an entire room, probably the size of my office, of just stacked real to real tapes. But I was tasked with throwing them out. And I’m going through these tapes, and you know, I’m twenty something years old. What am I going to do with all these tapes?

And it’s like, all right, Viking six launch, toss, random LBJA toss, JFK something, All right, let’s try and keep that. I dubbed everything down to mini disc back in the day. I had left the art When I left WA, I left the archives behind. When they did their one hundredth anniversary, I lent them a dub of my archives. So I was happy that that happened properly.

But my larger point here is here in the digital age, I wonder how much stuff disappears, Like somebody like Mark Marin has almost definitely every episode on a hard drive or some technology somewhere, but especially celebrity shows working with podcast companies that are really radio companies. I wonder how many of these shows are just going to vanish because nobody bothers to back it up, or somebody stops paying for hosting, and all these things are just going to go away. I really worry about it. Yeah, I hopefully now people are a little bit better about it, but certainly Johnny was furious when if NBC erased everything. Luckily there are i’d say from sixty two to seventy two, there’s probably I don’t know, maybe at least a couple dozen, if not more, shows that existed.

There’s absolutely kinescopes dating back to Johnny’s first month on the air. I’ve seen them. It is pretty wild to watch. I don’t think anybody’s ever seen these clips and things. But you have people like Bob Newhart guest hosting in sixty four, and there’s definitely some of the guest hosts and just random kiness scopes.

It was such a shame that they erased the most pivotal things. It seems like every year, and it could be off on this that somebody comes up with something and to find something, people did have them an addicts and stuff and whenever they’re able to find something. It’s like a treasure quest to find some of these clips. Like Carson, people were so desperate to get clips because they went to Burbank in seventy two. They moved and had an anniversary show where they caldn’t really do when think is all the clips where gone?

Johnny and his brilliance requested the at Ames thing, so he had that, and they had a few things. But they were actually taking ads in newspapers of the Tonight Show people around at least in LA probably around the country, asking people if they had clips from New York, if they happen to tape them themselves privately, if they could send them into the show for the anniversary shows. Was that very second that my microphone could out see here? Mark end up on an up inflection there and I don’t respond. I don’t want to think we got mad each other.

So a figure, let’s take the break right now, let’s walk up through the Tonight Show. You seem like a very positive guy, so I’m not looking for any sort of pylon, but let’s talk. I’d love to know what your thoughts are on Leno Conan Leno two fallon we can go quick. Yeah, I mean, I think it’s one of those things that NBC could could have handled it better the whole like four years Conan’s going to get the Tonight Show thing. I understand Jay being upset because he was still number one, and it just rarely do they just force somebody out when they’re number one, with all the demographics in the raid ins.

At the same time, NBC was afrad Conan was going to go somewhere else. I mean, Fox offered him a lot of money to go there, and I just think that they were just afraid of that situation.

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And then once Conan was given the Tonight Show, Jay was given this ten o’cloc…

And if NBC would have gotten rid of j they would have had to pay him over one hundred million dollars, so well didn’t realize that. Oh yeah, I mean it was ridiculous money. So NBC would have looked so foolish having to pay him over a hundred million. If they got rid of Conan, they would have paid him forty million, So forty million versus over one hundred million. Then it turned out Conan had ten months to figure out the Tonight Show, which he had problems, but everybody did.

I mean I touched a Jay on the phone. He was very nice to me, but diplomatically, I mean I was just like, Jay, you didn’t figure out your show in ten months. I mean, it took you at least a year and a half until you did this show in h and New York where your show found your voice. I said to him, there’s no way in ten months Conan did it. I mean anybody from Jay certainly to Colbert who’s number one now didn’t figure it out the first year.

I mean people forget they look at the success, but Colbert was number three and just everybody was piling on him with criticism and stuff. So the show is they take a while. John Stewart’s first year on the Daily Show, certainly people were like, we missed Craig Hillbourn, we missed Craig Hillboord and just the new somebody that’s doing something new, especially than making change. It just takes a while. I don’t think Conan was given enough time.

Certainly there’s host including Jay. If they were only giving ton months. I don’t think that they probably would have lasted. So, you know, Conan could have gone to twelve I guess they could have moved tonight show to like twelve oh five or something, and I get you know, Conan didn’t want to move backwards. NBC paid him I believe it was forty million dollars, and then he went to TBS, which it was tough.

I mean, just you know, people, really, I don’t think we’re really watching that as much as they would have Network shown it. They did great work, some of the stuff did, I mean, did very well online.

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And then Conan now ironically being doing a podcast once a week, I feel like …

But I feel like full circle that was the best thing that ever happened to him, and that he can do his HBO show right now, which is really funny, and uh yeah, I feel like this was this was his strength. And doing those shows five days a week for years is not healthy for the person. Some people it’s just affected them in negative ways. And I just think Conan’s probably in the best possible place, and everything worked out bet the best it could have. I actually think the Leno ten pm idea was the right idea, but too soon.

My premise. If I told you right now, you could have sixty four year old j leto at ten pm, four nights a week on NBC in today’s network environment, at that kind of budget for producing a show, I think NBC would kill to have that show. Maybe not seventy four year old J but right show, wrong time, it could have been. I watched the first show and there were certain things that I saw that I was like, I just couldn’t believe that that was the choice they were making. And I just in my head, I’m like, if they keep making certain decisions like this, I don’t see the show going.

It was so bizarre as a Jay the very first time that I know of in his career challenged one of his guests, kind of I’m sure he was pressured into it just to get publicity for the show, but asking Kanye West, who had just had I guess, you know, got in thrown out of the MTV Awards or whatever it was, I forget what it was for going in front Taylor Swift won an Award and Kanye grabbing a mic and I think he said, Jase, that’s what would your mom think? Because j I think his mom Kenye’s mom had passed away. It was this different Jay, and obviously I think that they were trying to do different things. I just I mean Fred Silverman, I think was one of the NBC chief is one of the I think he made even had the idea at first that they should do this. I don’t know if Silverman inspired or what, but like Silverman, I asked him about it because I said, this was your idea for Jada to to do this, and He’s just like, I just, I mean, it just wasn’t well executed, basically, is what he said.

I don’t know. Jay to me is still one of the best stand ups. I mean, if you look at the NBC show, the Letterman thing is stuff is incredible. It just wasn’t a fit.

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And then NBC’s like, what do we do with j And then if he leaves, we have to p…

It would be a nightmare scenario in terms of the press. I mean, people would still be talking about that if they had to pay him over a hundred million. So it makes sense talking about it anyway, though, I still think if Jay was on at eleven thirty, I mean, in terms of the ratings, I think he would be really doing well. In terms of the online stuff, they would have had to figure that stuff out. That was not his thing.

But now I think anybody competing against Jay Leno would not be fun for anyone because that guy’s work ethic is just like, I mean, nobody puts the amount of work into anything other than him. His friends will all tell you, his famous friends will all say the same thing. You know, everyone dismissed him when he was getting his butt kicked by Letterman for the first like year or two, and he just yeah, I mean, he’s just his whole thing. All he wanted was to be number one, and he succeeded wildly in being number one. I think a lot of people have said the show is largely forgettable, and I don’t know how many moments people can go back, specific moments, be like, these are my moments that I remember from the show, other than the Hugh Grant thing, which wasn’t even a joke or anything witty.

It was just like, what the hell were you thinking? People remember that, But in terms of like people remember certain bits like jaywalkin, but specific things that happened on that show. I think that there was a lack in where as like Letterman, people can go back and just there’s very memorable incentences that happened. And yeah, it just the line Out show was different in terms of, like I think what they were going for, but they succeeded wildly and being number one. Yeah, I agree, it’s one of those weird things.

It was number one forever, very successful, lasted a long time and just has a vanilla ice cream legacy to it. I mean it’s great, but I think you nail that we’re not sitting here going on over the time, whereas I bet we could go down a very deep eighties Letterman rabbit hole and maybe some other day I’ll invite you on to do that. Oh yeah, please. It’s true. And I even think the CBS thing people can can come up with with moments and it just was different.

I you know, I think it’s if I had to guess, I think it’s probably hard for Jay now because at Letterman is like the guy that everyone just kind of at least comedically they worship. I mean, if Dave goes on any of those shows like Colbert, it’s like Royalty, it’s such a huge deal. Like when Dave went on John Mulaney’s Netflix talk show and it’s I mean, for him to do anything his show on Netflix, he gets people that just do not normally do these things that are very elusive to being guessed, but they seem to all say yes to Dave. So I think that that’s probably hard for Jay just to be in a different position where he doesn’t really get that accolade or the I don’t know, the the prestige that Dave has given. I’m sure that that I’m guessing that that has to be hard for him.

Yeah, I would agree with that. So what did you think of Mlaney? I thought it was great in terms of something that had not been really tested. I mean, normally those things take forever to get on its feet and to have a cohesive feel, and I thought that we’re definitely there were raw and moments and stuff. But I think overall, in terms of doing six shows that have never been these are his first six shows, I thought, or whatever it was, I thought he did great.

I thought the format was really fun. I think it was one of those things that they just kept doing the show, which I get. I mean that those things that are just pressure cookers and they take over your lives. I think if he just kept doing it and stuff it just obviously I think, you know, it would just get stronger and stronger. But I thought for what they did and what they set out too, that they did phenomenal.

And yeah, I hope they come back and they do it. But Mullany’s smart enough to know that having one of those gigs is just man. I mean, how many people, funny people like Chris Rock, Tina Fey, Amy Schumer just said no to those gigs. I mean, they’re it to do that on a rate where you’re going on every night. I mean, Johnny Carson would have tried, and people over there say it and it’s true, would have told Joan Rivers if she would have gone to him that going to Fox was a mistake.

He would have supported her in terms of how much money if you want to do this, but out of him just being love and Joan. It was great on the Tonight Show. Ever, as Carson said, every like five weeks, she could do one week, but doing it every single night, it just wasn’t gonna work. And Johnny would have told her that but given her her blessing. And I mean, and then Joan does this show and guests don’t want to be doing and I mean she was counting on Barry Dillar to maybe try to get some of the bigger guests and stuff.

But like when you insult your guests like that or not guests, I mean public figures, people aren’t gonna want to go on the show. And it’s exactly what happened. She was very good Joe to her own guests, making them look good, but just in terms of her what she was known for and stuff, it just it just didn’t work. And I mean, Joan is is such a pioneer and very funny with a lot of her stuff, but it just to do that every single day is Yeah, most people, I mean our Sineo ended his show, but after four years, I mean they get burned up. Part I think Jack part at four years.

Steve Allen might have done five. But there’s a reason that these people got out, Craig Ferguson, they just, I mean, it just got to be just too much. And it’s that’s why it’s kind of a miracle the Carson was able to do it. For so long. Yeah, he had a lot of guest hosts and things.

But still, I mean, I don’t think people know this, or maybe you do. Probably in the beginning, Carson was doing an hour and forty five minutes every single night in New York. That is just baffling his first bunches of years. For today’s host doing an hour, they would have to host their show every single day of the year, plus like forty other shows to make up of during that. To add to that, I mean, it was bafflin what Carson was able to do all that in the ninety minutes.

I have friends at all the shows, and for them to do an hour is it’s hard enough, But to do ninety minutes, which Carson was doing up until like eighty eighty one something like that is just yeah at the wear and teara it takes on the host. Yeah, today, I don’t know how that would work.

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Also, to the back end of those Carson shows were pretty deep guests.

It’s one thing to go, hey, my first guest tonight is Jerry Seinfeld has got a new movie. Please welcome Jerry, and then shut up and let your guests be funny. As I teach radio, you know this. The famous example is shut up and let your guests be funny, and then the next day everybody goes, did you see Johnny? He was hilarious and what they really meant was Burt Reynolds told a great story.

But those ninety minute shows, those longer shows, guess he had to carry that. You can’t assume that a less famous Carl Sagan is gonna come out and be super compelling. Yeah, he would. Johnny was very good at reading the books, like John Stewart is about if somebody was coming on, but he would have a lot of authors that would give them. He would put on certain people he agreed with politically that Johnny publicly couldn’t say he agreed with, like Paul Erlick, doctor Paul Erlick with population control, and he would go to dinner with Paul Rlick after the show, would go with Jim Fowler, zoologist.

He’d go to dinner with certain people. He was fast and never famous movie stars, but there was like maybe three people in Erlick was one of them, in Carl Sagan that he was just Carson was just I think those were some of his favorite guests, and he would go and just ask them more questions, very curious man such as such as Letterman. But yeah, having to put having those people on at twelve thirty, and then you know, once the show went to a ninety sixty minutes, it was like bye bye Buck, Henry, bye by. You know, Phyllis Newman wasn’t really doing that. It was these amazing talkers that were just phenomenal.

A lot of them went away. Gord Vadal was one person Johnny kept. There were certain ones, but for the most part, the more just the people that I thought really shined on this show. It just it just turned into something else. But that last half hour.

Carson always said, especially in New York, after an hour and forty five, that he would just like, you know, just barely hold on to the conversation. Sometimes. I found myself when they first put The Johnny Carson Show into syndication, the non branded Tonight show reruns on me TV. Maybe it was the eleven o’clock when it was on at eleven. I found myself really attracted to the seventies shows more than the eighties shows.

Part of it the lighting of the style of guests. What you just alluded to was more a celebrity b celebrity and let’s get out of here. And those seventies shows just feel more free flowing. Even the combination of people on the couch. There’s just like everything else, it’s a different time.

But like I love those seventies, I feel like, in terms of it being loose and spontaneous, there’s stuff that was supposed to be spontaneous that viewers think are spontaneous. I feel like there could be danger with certain guests and with certain things that would happen on the show in the eighties up to ninety two. Yeah, I think the seventies, in terms of Carson as having the voice as a host, the best clips I would say were the seventies. I mean, I love Johnny until the end, but if I had to pick my favorite moments ninety percent, I would pick seventies. And I mean the sixties definitely is like this time capsule, and they did some really funny stuff in the sixties as well, But I definitely think the peak of the show was seventies.

And I’ve heard people at the top that worked for him say the same thing. The other thing Johnny did that was smart was he went away and stayed away. There’s that one Letterman appearance, but we they don’t have memories of past his prime Johnny. I was talking to a friend the other day. I heard a legendary jock from a New York City radio station still on the air somewhere, and I was like, ooh, it’s it might be time to hang it up.

I get it, and just you don’t remember. My last memory of Johnny is showing up on Letterman. It was tough for him to watch certain people that he really admired, like Jack Benny, he felt stayed way too long. Bob Hope was the biggest example. But you know that was his fear.

You want to leave while you’re on top, and you don’t want to. I mean there were people like Don Rickles who I loved, and people like Rageous Film in up until they passed. They needed that audience, they needed to be in front of an audience. They loved when people would come up to them in public. I know that a lot of people that maybe that aren’t in entertainment or haven’t been around it.

I think you don’t want to bother these people. It’s some of them and I’ve been out to dinner and lunches with them. I’ve said they needed. They like when people come over. Some people not as much, but there’s certain people that needed that, and Johnny was not one of them.

People would come up and pay him compliments and stuff. This meant so much. This got made through a tough time, and they would send him letters and stuff. He always loved that. But he almost came back once to do an NBC special.

But I you know, he had stopped smoking ninety two. He had tried earlier many times, but his physical appearance started to change and he started gaining weight, and I think that probably contributed to some of it. That he just didn’t want to look different than he did. And yeah, I just like a lot of those factors. He just wanted the work to speak for itself and to not I mean, he just saw it on the Tonight Show all the time.

He felt Grouch Show near the end too, It’s like, why are you going on TV like this? I’m smiling. I’m thinking of Gilbert Godfried’s grouchow imres, which he only did Old Grouch Show. Yeah, yeah, Gilbert oh Man, And I was just talking about him yesterday. He was great.

It was I know him a little bit and I was a guest on his podcast for some bonus episodes at least one or I don’t know, and I got to spend time with him. I had him on the Carson podcast and he insisted that for me to interview might to buy him a sandwich, which I did. He was like, Kaiser role, go to this deli by my house in Chelsea, Kaiser role with this and this, and I had to get him a drink and all these things. It was like six point fifty to interview Gil and I went to his home and we yeah, he did it, but he was quirky like that. He was fun, kind of known for that type of thing, getting free things and stuff.

But what a talent. I was really felt fortunate to know him just a little bit. I enjoyed the economy between on air Gilbert and Gilbert in the hallway high nice to meet you, yeah, right, and then like Goan and Gilbert, godfre you. It’s really true. I first met him.

They had this comedy writer party that I got invited too. I think maybe Frank Santa Padre invited me, and uh, I don’t know. It’s probably eighty people and stuff, and gil was just on like by himself on a on a chair you know, some comedians are a little bit shy, a little shy here and there. So I just wanted to go up to him just to let him know I’m doing this Johnny Carson podcast and we have met before, and I just expected, like, I don’t know, like a minute or two.

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And then I was like, I want to leave him alone, but I don’t know.

We talked for like it seemed like at least forty minutes. Maybe it was an hour, I’m not sure, but he just we had this bond right away when I mentioned Carson, and it was just throughout the whole thing. I’m like, I just don’t want to be bothering him, but it wasn’t a bother And I think if people knew comedy well and they could connect with him, and I think to this day it’s probably true of a lot of comedians. When you know that much about something, and there aren’t a lot of people that do, it’s just this bond.

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And then a lot of times like time how long I’ll do this in interviews and stu…

But gil was just such a lover of comedy, and yeah, I was lucky to be able to do that and just to have these conversations and just to hear a lot of his stories, which I mean, just a phenomenal storyteller. I loved his podcast because it really dove into the monoculture that had gotten into your brain by osmosis. So those of us of a certain age that grew up on five channels kind of knew who people were because Bugs Bunny did a Humphrey Bogart impression that kind of stuff, and Gilbert would talk about the lawn Cheney’s of the world, and you kind of sort of knew who these people were. Whereas if my son is twenty one now, if I showed him anything from the twentieth century, I could be like, this is John Travolta. He’s really famous.

He would have no idea. It’s just a different tay, it really is. I’m always fascinated when I get emails from people in college or just people that are in their twenties that listen to the Carson Podcast and found Johnny on YouTube, and yeah, that people just get into cavit or anything from from the retro years and yeah, the typically that no one under forty knows who Carson is. I would probably say people under thirty, I don’t even know if Leno, I mean Leno said it was like only a couple of years after he left that you know, he was in my home where I grew up a lot on Hershey, Pennsylvania, and he was at a theater and somebody younger person was like, have you done anything else other than this, like stand up and no clue he was hosted the Tonight’s Show or anything. Yeah, people forget pretty quickly, but now they did great.

I mean Frank Santa Padre, who was wonderful, did pretty much all the research of the guest, and gil would just show up and just you know, sometimes even fall asleep during the taping. But yeah, Fry, it was a good pair because Gilbert was charming and had some good questions. But if it was bored, man, you can tell sometimes like thirty minutes goes by, it’s just Frank and you like, where’s gil and it’s like, yeah, he’s Especially in the early years it was like The Frank Show with Yabbert and then but it’s the same thing we keep talking about, right the first year, you’re kind of finding your way. Yeah, they did a great job. I mean, talk to Frank about this.

Sometimes it’s just like it’s so heartbreaking and obviously it’s inevitable. At how many people have passed away on both of our shows. I mean, I think with Carson podcasts, we’ve had forty people that I interviewed. I mean a lot of people in their nineties, late eighties and stuff.

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And then you have people like they did this amazing photo like a year before …

It’s like Gilbert Godfrey, Bob Saggan and Louis Anderson, and these are people I’m like, oh, I put off interview and then they’re gonna be around forever. And luckily I got all of them to do the podcast, and then within a year they’re all gone. It’s just I feel very I never thought like a Bob Einstein, who I had on twice so I got to know a bit and talk on the phone. It’s just like you don’t think about them being gone, and I’m just so glad that I was able to get them, and you just never know when they did the same thing. They just got so many people who just think are going to be around for a while longer, like Peter Fonda, and they were just able to get these stories that some of them I’m sure have never been told or quite told like that.

Looking to the future, how do you think late night factors in the streaming era? Is there a play? Does it have to be eleven thirty? Could we stream Malaney at eight o’clock? Do we not need this anymore?

Even the network shows. If Jimmy Kimmel does retire, which I don’t believe he will, do you even bother in terms of the streaming, I think for one of those shows to survive on streaming that they’re going to probably take a more mullany approach, which is like, maybe they do a show like Lanny, does it like maybe four times a year or whoever it is, maybe does like six here at a time. But I can’t and I could be wrong that there would be anybody doing a show five nights a week on streaming where they felt they had to check in. I mean, so many of the mat treks are people watching the next day on YouTube and online. They’re just there has to be a reason for people to make it.

Appointment television that they’re going to stay up and there I don’t know if there was a danger when Dave was at twelve thirty where you just never knew what was going to happen, and part of that just to stay up, and I felt like I always had the expectation there’s just gonna be something a bit dangerous what he was going to say, what was going to happen, and that I don’t know if that exists now. I think for the networks it’s still a cash cow. Not as much money as it was. I mean, the viewers every year or go down on broadcast TV, but they’re still I mean, you have Harrison ford On and you’re paying him scale. I mean that started with I believe Steve Allen that there was somebody over there producer on Steve Allen’s Tonight Show that’s like, no, let Sullivan pay them exuberant money.

We’re just going to pay scale. And it stuck. So you can still get these amazing guests. You’re paying them not a lot of money. And yeah, I mean there’s this whole myth that Cordon’s show was losing money and that’s why James Corden left, which could not be further from the truth.

It was so not true. They were still making money. It’s just they were not what they were. I mean say that with broadcast television. I remember when I was an intern on a Spen City Michael J Fox ABC, when they were still throwing around crazy network money and the parties and just everything was this and then they just the network started.

I mean that was back when people were leaving Saturday Night Live. I think it was near the end. I remember Cherry O Terry and Chris Catan after I said out. They got big network deals, her at CBS and him at ABC, and it was still like the peak at the network paying writers that couldn’t even write creates that comes like crazy money for development deals and that’s I remember when it started stopping, and it’s just, oh man, it’s just network. It happened with network.

It’s yeah, it’s in terms of the primetime stuff, with how it’s dealt with now it’s night and day and I have Yeah, it seems like with late night it’s just different. I mean, I hope you know I’ll share this with you. I haven’t really talked about it this much. There were two late night shows where the network made the head producers and the hosts take significant pay cuts to stay on the air. It was never talked about publicly that I’m aware of, but these are people that I think would be very surprised their shows were made to take ahead just because they weren’t what they were, and it’s what it is.

Shows kept going, and as possible, one of the I was paying out of his own pocket to his staff the producers just to make up for the money. I’m not sure, but everything changes and stuff. I think those franchises will still be right. I mean, NBC very smart, like just put Fallon’s tenth anniversary in primetime and it did well. But as I told somebody over there, they should be doing that every year.

A couple of years ago is talking into somebody high up on the Totem pole and I’m like, you have to remind your viewers that Jimmy Fallon has done all this memorable stuff on the shows with guests and gotten all these people that normally don’t do talk shows and stuff, and just remind your viewers. I mean, Falen’s whole template was trying to be Johnny Carbson. He’s still to this day doesn’t come out before the show to do a warm up like most of the other shows, because Johnny did not. Kimmel when he first started, for most of his years would come out before the show because Dave did. But then Rickles was told him, I’m like, why are you coming out beforehand?

It ruins the energy you want to come out like being shot out of a cannon. And Kimmel said He’s tried it, and Wrickles was right immediately completely. Jimmy noticed it was better for him not to do the warm up, but Fallon, you know, Carson didn’t do the warm up. Fallon doesn’t do the warm up. Falons and Carson’s old studio in six B.

There’s a lot of similarities towards both of them, but one of them that he should be doing every year is an anniversary show. I mean, you have to remind your audience of the especially in prime time, why you exist and the work that because he did. I mean, it’s a different show than the other Tonight shows. But as a clip show, they have some amazing, amazing stuff and I hope that they continue to do that with the clip shows. Yeah, again, back to Letterman, where those first five years that he did anniversary shows, and I think you make a great point that Fallon for a clip show.

Fallon’s the one I mentioned as somebody high at NBC that when they do the clips show, they should be eight h because six B is you know. I mean, they expanded it, but it’s still a tiny studio. But he did it at eight h like Leno when he was in New York. It’s just the energy of having more people, especially people close up. You can have people really close up, like if you watch Saturday Night Live, they have those seats that are just right there.

And when Leno the first time he went to New York, I mean I was there. I was in those seats right close the thrust Age too. It was so successful and worked so well. He went back to Burbank and that’s when they built the thrust stage that was right there. And I felt that that Fallon would just it would have just been so much more exciting for him in the audience of just a different energy if he did it in eight age for the anniversary shows.

And maybe they will at some point, but it makes a difference. The reason I’m laughing now is last night I was at my daughter had a school performance, and a bunch of the students got up and sang songs, and I was doing this thing that I tend to do where I’m the last personal clap. If you clap, I give it one more clap. And my older daughter looks over at me and she’s like, flexing your ego, and I told her I started doing this. It was my fifteenth birthday and I got to see Late Night with David Letterman.

You had to be fifteen to get in, and I got in, and my buddy and I wanted to hear ourselves on the playback, so we just did one extra clap every time, and I’ve kind of never stopped doing it.

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And then as my career went along and I became a producer, I learned the art o…

So just the memory of the studio there brought that back. I mean, I have so much empathy because I worked in the medium, and I know how hard it is for those hosts or for performers to be up on stage when they’re not getting that energy from the audience. I’m the clapper, I’m the laugher. If I’m invited from somebody to go to one of those shows, I will tell the people next to me, I’m going to be laughing really, really loud. It’s one of those things where I’ve talked to the host and the audiences have no idea.

But usually late night audience, I don’t know, twenty percent of the people are so excited to be there and so was starstruck that they forget to laugh, especially during the monologue opening remarks, and then you just have people some people that just are not They laugh, but they’re just not audible. And it was just I mean, when I were do on The Colbert Report, we got mostly good audiences, but it was one hundred and seven seats every night. There would just be people that were so excited to be there and I watched them and they just weren’t. So they would have these giant grins and expressions, but they would not laugh. I would have to before the show always talk to them and to remind them to laugh, and it helped.

But still there’s people, and all the laughs count, they really really do. Letterman was the most obsessed host with the audience, and not the best way that I thought was probably positive for him. But yeah, to get the clapping, which the host. Actually the clapping is important, but they all want laugh more than clapping, like I would bother Letterman when there would be too much clap in for sure on his show. They just want the pure laughs, but clapping, definitely, the energy that you’re talking about is what they need.

And when I go to one of those shows, I’m exhausted afterwards, just because I feel that responsibility as an audience member and just knowing how tough that is for them, just that I’m going to be that person. We’ve talked on this podcast a lot about clapter. Yes, watching us special in the comedian does four minutes and gets applause, I’m not sure that’s the best thing. Now, this medium is different. The audience is hearing the audio version.

You and I are looking at each other in video as we record, and I’m smiling and sometimes pointing at you and giving you some feedback. But I’m deliberately not stepping on your stories. And that’s back to the you know, everyone’s going to tell me this was a really good episode. What they’re going to mean is Mark was great, but I’m going to get credit for it because I’m shutting up and letting you tell these wonderful stories. It’s just different.

I could sit here and laugh, you know, at every thing you’re saying. But I’m just choosing phenomenal broadcaster. I mean, there’s certain people that and it took me and I’m not even putting myself in your league, but it took me a while to be able to not step on people. Once in a while, it’ll still happen, like I’ll if I feel like I need to interject something, I try really not to let the person speak. But I think you’re right what you just said.

But yeah, it’s definitely you should get the credit. I mean, you’re setting me up for all these things. You know what you’re talking about, your professional and you make it easy versus some of the people that have taught to me, and it’s just like pulling teeth sometimes, and those are the worst. I had a comic on who was a fan of and I was just getting nothing back and I cut it short. I just I couldn’t.

Yes, like, there’s certain people that, Yeah, I think there’s only one or two maybe I couldn’t air. And I know Gilbert and Frank had the same thing that happened with at least one or two people and it’s just I guess they’re trying as hard as they can, but it doesn’t really can’t doesn’t show that they are. I would hope that they’re trying their best and it’s just what it is. But yeah, you can tell pretty quickly if it’s going well and if you know, it’s those times when it’s like pulling teeth. Yeah, not fun.

So Mark, I’ve kept you twice what I asked for. You’ve been very generous. Oh yeah, it’s great. Proper podcast plugs, Oh you’re nice. Sell your show Inside Late Night with Mark Malcoff on Apple podcast, on Spotify, wherever you get the podcast.

Every week we are going to be telling late night stories, the stories that people do not know for the most part, and just going a deep dive. I love Dana Carvey and David Spades podcast Fly on the Wall at SNL. They talk about SNL, but I learned pretty much, very little to nothing. They don’t go deep. It’s very fun and I like it and people should check it out.

But this is the one where people will walk away. Were talking to Robert Smigel about stuff or Spike Ferrist and where people are going to walk Spike was great. See I just stepped on. It’s great. He was was great.

I was excited. I wanted to talk to him because I just knew that there were stories that I did not think the audience probably knew about his time at Dave in SNL that we would have those type of stories. And I knew from his podcast he’s a great storyteller. And yeah, he worked in the medium. He had his own show on Fox for three years, Talk Show with Spike Ferrist And so we’re talking to people like that.

We had Rachel Dratch from Saturday Night Live, David cross Is coming up, Rob Cordery from The Daily Show, Michael ian Black who was on the State, and did Letterman’s show Mean Worldwide Pants produced Ed which he was on, So we is Letterman stories. He was the number two finalist when Craig Ferguson got the gig, So we talk about all that drama. So yeah, just really just talking to these people. Every I learned things I can use my knowledge from over the years, which I have nowhere else. The old podcasts, I couldn’t really tell these stories that I know as well, so there’s nowhere else I know that people are going to find these stories.

It’s great when these people go on other shows and stuff, and occasionally stuff will come up, but the research that I put into it hopefully will show. And the guests have been very nice to comment on that. They appreciate that, and we’ll see where it goes. But I definitely think a big emphasis will be on Saturday Night Live, stuff that has never been talked about and good year for it. Yeah, I hope, so, I really do.

And then you know, I would love to have Cavet back. I would love to talk to even I want to do devote a show or two to certain shows like Magic Johnson or at Thick of the Night and talk to the people that were there about what went wrong. So I will hit everything we can talk to. I’d love to talk to Bob Costas later. With Bob Costas is that show is incredible the people he talked to, and it was almost like an early podcast.

It had that feel of like that’s what I say, yeah, right, the first show. I would love to talk to Costas. I’ve met him once or twice. But I’m just hoping to talk to these people and just yeap the pull the curtain aside like we did with Johnny Carson for almost four hundred episodes, So yeah, was it that. Yeah, we I kind of kept going.

I just was really really tired and it just didn’t make sense for me. But we did almost four hundred episodes of that show. It was three hundred and ninety some certainly. So. Yeah.

Late Nighter dot Com Forward Slash podcasts. You can listen to the podcast as well and see it pretty good. Normally. I think they’ve been doing transcripts as well, which is really nice on Late Night or and you can go to Late Night or just for if you want to know ratings, the guests that are coming up, and they’ve Bill Carter talked exclusively to Jimmy Fallon. I know they’ve had some of the Daily Show people exclusive interviews.

So definitely with Late Night Or they’re doing stuff that you’re not gonna find anywhere else. And I’m glad that you like this site. Yeah, I think it just it makes sense for me to be to be there with them, and I’m glad that they’re having me and they’ve just been very supportive of me. Fab Well, I hope you come back, you know, with someone something comes up the Late Night Maybe I’ll use that in schume. Oh please, this is great.

I mean, back, I don’t get to talk to a lot of people like this that know what they’re talking about with Late Night in terms of the history, in terms of the power players. It doesn’t happen a lot that I get to talk to somebody like that. So, yeah, this was fun, and yeah, I’d love to come back at some point, And yeah, I appreciate you asking me. Man, wasn’t he great? I hope you really enjoyed that.

Inside the Late Night is the name of that podcast. Definitely check that one out. I hope to have morek on again. I really enjoy that. Could have done another hour easily back tomorrow with a normal episode.

Hope you enjoy that one. See ya.