🎙️ Listen to this episode:
Featured: Dolly Parton, David Letterman, Johnny Carson, Tim Curry, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Christina P, Tom Segura
What’s in This Episode
- Dolly Parton passes away at 80; classic Late Show top ten list resurfaces
- Tim Curry death at 80
- Stephen Colbert endorses Jimmy Kimmel for Emmy in humorous video
- Christina P performs three days after separation from Tom Segura; Page Six story debunked
- Emmy voting deadline reminder
Questions Answered in This Episode
Did Dolly Parton pass away in 2026?
Yes, according to this episode from August 27, 2026, Dolly Parton passed away at 80 years old, and the U.S. President ordered flags to be at half-mast for a week.
What did Christina P say about Tom Segura in her comedy set?
According to a Page Six report, Christina P performed material about Tom Segura during a set in London in July, including jokes about his toilet habits and references to her cancer survival. However, Johnny Mac clarifies this was a three-year-old routine she’d been performing long before their separation.
Did Stephen Colbert endorse Jimmy Kimmel for an Emmy?
Yes, Stephen Colbert posted a video asking people to vote for Jimmy Kimmel for Outstanding Variety Series, reciprocating Kimmel’s Emmy endorsement of Colbert from the previous year.
Did Tim Curry die in 2026?
Yes, 80-year-old Tim Curry, best known for Rocky Horror Picture Show, passed away around the time of this episode.
Why was Christina P’s set at the Top Secret Comedy Club controversial?
A Page Six report made it seem like Christina was attacking Tom Segura post-separation, but Johnny Mac clarifies the material was from a three-year-old routine about relationships and marriage that predated their split.
Full Transcript
This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.
Man, let me set the scene here. Hi, I’m Johnny Mac with a poolside edition of Daily Comedy News. Now it’s late August and the weather’s gorgeous out today, so don’t get me wrong. I would be outside regardless. But my wife had the cleaning lady come over and she’s fantastic.
But she’s cleaning where the studio is, so I can’t even be inside if I wanted to. Not that I want to. Because I’m outside, the neighbor is doing some sort of grinding thing, so we might hear that. Oh, no, that’s a landscaper. Sorry, totally different sound.
I thought that was right on cue. There’s cicadas, there’s planes, all sorts of things.
And also, I’m hungry, but I can’t make a smoothie because the smoothie makes …
So I don’t want to like immediately ruin the blender while she’s still here. These are the pressures. Life is hard. All right, John, get to the show, will you? Oh, the other problem I have is I hit record and my computer died.
It’s not getting along with the heat so much. So I can’t even set the computer up on the table the way I usually do because the power cord is short. So I actually have my microphone in my lap and I’m sitting at a different distance than I normally do. All right, John, get to the show already, will you? Okay.
We were all sad to hear that Dolly Parton passed away at 80 years old. I mean, I think everyone was sad about it. The president of the United States even said the flags will be at half-mast for a week. Her passing did surface this clip. This is from 1995.
It’s the Late Show with David Letterman. But as I watch the clip, Dave still looks like NBC Dave. He’s got the Gulf of Mexico hairline, as I remember him calling it a million years ago. He’s not yet establishment 21st century statesman David Letterman. He still has the whimsy, but this top ten list is fantastic.
I will let David Letterman set it up. I do want to pre-warn you that the place I sourced it from cut it off rather quickly after number one. Number one is very funny, but pay attention because all of a sudden you’re going to hear the joke and you’re going to hear me talking again because that’s all the audio I have. But here is David Letterman.
And now, to assist us in the presentation of tonight’s top ten list, please w…
Dolly, there you go. Okay, the category in our top ten Dolly Parton pet peeves. Dolly, are you all set? Here we go. I’m ready.
Okay, number ten. Accountants who don’t understand how much it costs to make me look this chic. Yes. Number nine. Trying to play guitar in these five-inch fingernails.
They’re great. When are we going to have them on the show, Paula, five-inch fingernails? I’m telling you, that’s my favorite new band. Make that booking if you can. They’re alternative.
Number eight. When the county declares my hair a fire hazard. Number seven. Confused Dalai Lama constantly asking for theme park royalties. Number six.
You can’t get a wig repaired because Letterman’s got some kind of a hairpiece crisis. Hey, come. On. Very good. Thank you.
Yes. It’s like my goofy cousin is hosting the show tonight. Hello, I’m Dave’s cousin, Kenny. Dave was smoking a cigar and had to go home early. So Dave asked, could.
I fill in? Oh, man, where the hell are we? Have we done all ten yet? Number five. A rhinestone rash.
Yeah, okay. Number four. Number four. Okay. You ready?
Let’s just go home, Dolly. Number four. Okay, when he visits Dollywood gift shops, Garth Brooks always shoplifts stuff under that big hat of his. Yeah, let’s do go home. Just three more.
Dolly’s been smoking her own self. Number three, number three. Okay, smart-ass emcees who introduced me by saying, and now here they are, Dolly Parton. Number two. When the Super Bowl is over, winner never says, hey, I’m going to Dollywood.
That’s right.
And now, the number one Dolly Parton pet peeve.
Nobody notices I’ve got a great ass, too. Dolly Parton’s passing also surfaced this clip from Johnny Carson. I saw this making the rounds, but as I watched it, it’s heavily edited, so I’m not 100% sure that this is exactly how it went, and it’s possible this is even a created clip. However, it’s pretty funny, so let’s just enjoy the laugh and hope that it is real. The discussion point here is the size of Dolly Parton’s assets.
What would they call that where you grew up in Tennessee? I can’t say. Healthy? Healthy, I guess. Bosomy.
What did you ask me just before that? Have you always? Oh, well, yeah. I’ve always been pretty well blessed. People are always asking if they’re real.
I would never. I would never, you see. No, you don’t have to ask. I would not. I’ll tell you what.
I have certain guidelines on. I would give about a year’s pay to peek under there. As I’m recording this, I also learned that 80-year-old Tim Curry, best known for Rocky Horror, has passed away. Let’s hope it doesn’t go in threes this time. We’ll keep it on late night.
You may recall last year, Jimmy Kimmel endorsed Stephen Colbert for an Emmy. Well, Stephen Colbert has posted a video. We see Stephen sitting on a hillside. He’s got a beard, and he had this to say. Oh, hi.
Stephen Colbert here at the end of the world. You know, there’s 24 hours left in Emmy voting, and if you’re anything like me, you haven’t even started yet. So, let’s get going. First up, we have, oh, Outstanding Variety Series. Kind of a weird voting system this year, but, you know, I think we can all agree that Jimmy Kimmel deserves an Emmy.
I don’t care if you’ve never even seen his show. You know he deserves an Emmy. Besides, look how cute he is. Anyway, please consider thinking that Jimmy deserves an Emmy. I do.
I love you. All this bumped what had been my number one story from the New York Post. Christina P. Apparently performed in July of Three days after her separation made headlines, Christina was performing at the Top Secret Comedy Club in London. An audience member told Page Six she spent the whole set slagging off Tom Segura.
The audience member added that Christina P.
Also booed him and swore at him, presumably Segura.
The eyewitness said she spoke about her cancer recovery and said one of the best parts of survival was that she didn’t die so he wouldn’t get to be happy with a younger woman. That just sounds like a joke joke. I wasn’t in the room, but that just sounds like, you know, a routine. We are told that Christina P.
Also spoke about Tom Segura’s toilet habits, but that the British audience di…
The audience member said Christina then told the crowd they were no fun. But a source tells Page Six, and all right, so my spidey sense was right. This is a set she’s been doing for a long time. It’s three years old. She’s been talking about relationships and marriage from the very beginning.
It’s a comedian’s job to tell jokes about life, and now through the lens of a divorce, it looks different. Yeah, I mean, that all makes sense. The other day I was walking my dog. And I ran into my friend Ken for the second day in a row. And we were like, again?
And he was asking about the podcast and how to listen to it. So he said he was going to listen to the podcast. And as I told Ken, you know, as I like to tell everybody who knows me in real life, sometimes I will exaggerate. Again, I’m not being fake. I’m really sitting by a pool.
I’ll send you a picture if you want. But sometimes I play it up a little. And I told Ken, I go, you know, I might say I ran into you nine days in a row just for the comedy bit. So, yeah, Christina talked about things from her life and it made it to stage. That totally adds up, as I’ve explained in the past.
John doesn’t like Adam Sandler movies. Johnny Mac hates them, as you know. But, John, I don’t walk around kicking my dog going, I can’t believe they’re making Grown Ups 3. You may recall the president of the United States had a spokesperson comment on Rosie O’Donnell. Rosie O’Donnell shared a photo of Donald Trump at his Florida golf resort from 2024.
She captioned it, this is the guy calling me a slob, hashtag mirror mirror. It was not the most flattering photo of the president of the United States. Andrew Santino revealed that he tried to make Saturday Night Live for the 2013-2014 season. Santino was testing opposite Pete Davidson. Santino left.
He thought he did a good job impressing Lorne Michaels. He got a call from Lorne inviting him back to New York City for a one-on-one meeting.
Now, here’s the twist.
Santino said, I flew to New York. And I was like, is this it? Am I going to move to New York? This is wild. He shows up, has a meeting with Lorne Michaels.
Santino said, we talked for an hour about Chicago. He loved talking about Chicago because he knew I was from Chicago. He ate popcorn. I walked around, met all the writers.
And then Lorne Michaels said, I think you’re going to have a great career.
I don’t think you’re the puzzle piece I’m looking for. Wow, that is brutal. Santino said he doesn’t have any ill feelings about the rejection, and he wasn’t surprised that Lorne Michaels picked Pete Davidson. He said, yeah, Pete Davidson is like a decade younger than us. He was a kid.
So I was like, yeah, they’re going to pick this malleable cute kid whose dad died in 9-11 versus a vulnerable red-headed crackpot. Do you like golf? Do you like Cat Williams? Do you like Cat Williams covering golf? Well, good news for you.
Cat Williams will return today and tomorrow as an on-course correspondent for the rounds of the PGA Tours Tour Championship at Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Club. Say that three times fast. What you just heard was take two. That, of course, is the final event of the 2026 FedEx Cup Playoffs. All that airs on ESPN, where you will find Cat Williams.
Cat will follow each round’s marquee group, offering commentary over the first 36 holes of the competition. Cat Williams tells The Hollywood Reporter the gig is a joy. Cat likes his own game. He said, I think I still have the ability and the age, he’s 54, to still play professionally. If I do get a few things taken care of, if that happens, then the rest of it will open up for me pretty organically.
There’s no other sport where you could ever dream of such a thing, you know? Cat says he’s cut eight strokes off his handicap. He’s now an 11th. And he wants to wipe out another eight. Cat explains, I was able to do that with just a couple adjustments.
I was trying as good as I could get before I started taking lessons, which are guaranteed to get me better. As for the gig, as a fan, you know how important a good commentator slash narrator is for this thing in their home. The Great Ones really breaks that gap, so that’s what I’m going to be doing. He says he does not have a rooting interest, but as a comic.. I guess preferably, just as a comedian, as a writer, one really great guy and somebody sticking up the place would be great.
I’d love to see a minus six with a plus six. Apparently, golf and comedy are crossing over. A new unscripted sports comedy series co-produced by Peyton Manning’s company is called PGA Tour Alter Ego. You’ll find this on the PGA Tour YouTube channel. The chief marketing officer of the PGA Tour, Andy Weitz, said, We think we got a generation of really fun PGA Tour stars who are looking to connect.
And build their brand and their game to try stuff like this out. This is a play to get younger fans into the golf. Mr. Weitz explains that they’re a fan of comedy if they’re a Will Ferrell fan, if you’re a Drewski fan, if you’re a YouTube golf fan, if you like simulator golf, if you like gaming. There are all kinds of different ways through our original content strategy.
We can make them more familiar with our players, more familiar with the competitive format, and translate that over time into a larger fan base. More sports. This from Cubs.com, which you thought was your home for Chicago Cubs baseball news. No, it’s where you get your comedy news. Other than me, of course.
It’s the first ever fastball comedy festival bringing some of the biggest names in comedy to Sloan Park in Mesa, Arizona in October on the weekend of the 17th and 18th. Now, don’t roll your eyes. Here’s your headliners. Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr, and Tom Segura. So you don’t have to go to Riyadh to see some of these folks.
You can just go to Arizona.
Also in a desert.
Interesting. Is Mesa a desert? I don’t know. I should probably look that up. Leave the joke in.
Who cares about the facts, John? Two-day passes go on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m. Mountain Standard Time, which is noon Central Daylight Time. The rest of you can do your own conversions. Go to sloanpark.com.
Justin Piper is the GM of Spring Training Operations for Sloan Park, and he says.. The Fastball Comedy Festival combines world-class comedy with the unique atmosphere of a professional ballpark, creating a one-of-a-kind live entertainment experience. Produced in collaborations with Bruce Hills Entertainment. Oh, that’s interesting. You know I don’t pre-read these articles.
That’s Bruce Hills, who I know from the old Just for Laughs Montreal days. Oh, good guy. And Wrigley Field Events. They’ve teamed up. This is great.
Great to see. So that means Bruce can still pull if he got Burr, Segura, and Chappelle. All right. Good job, Bruce Hills. Throughout the weekend, fans can shop for merchandise and enjoy food and drinks, with rotating acts performing at a second stage beyond right field.
There are also premium tickets, which include complimentary ballpark food and non-alcoholic beverages. Press box club tickets include alcoholic beverages for you alcoholics or non-alcoholics who know the difference between two beers and eight. It’s a phone-free event because Chappelle’s there. You know how that goes. Boy, I got a lot today.
Should we just keep going? Why not? It’s beautiful out. John Mulaney. He played Minneapolis, and Neil Justin from the Minneapolis Star Tribune was there, and he wrote a column titled Three Ways John Mulaney’s Minnesota Return was Extra Special.
Neil explains, most touring comics tend to stick to the same material for one or two years, polishing their bits along the way. Mulaney’s No Exception is set at the Ledge Amphitheater. It didn’t much vary from his three-night stint at the Armory five months ago, but there were a few differences. One were the openers, Mike Braviglia and Dan Mintz, who’s part of that Bob’s Burgers hoax that we talk about sometimes but not today. One of Dan Mintz’s jokes told better by Dan Mintz was, I’ve been selling my bathwater for $ 50 a gallon at refugee camps.
Ouch. We’re told by the time the crowd warmed up to Dan Mintz’s unusual approach, his set was done. This was an outdoor show. John Mulaney joked about the insects and said, Several bugs have been circling my mouth for some time and insisted he had to negotiate around a spider web to get on stage. Mulaney did a couple jokes about the venue, which he kept referring to as a quarry, but for the most part, his set was identical to the one from five months earlier.
Toronto Just for Laughs has announced Gerard Carmichael will play the Paradise Theatre at September 27th. I would never be able to walk into that building without thinking about Styx, the band.
Also at the Toronto Festival this year, John Cleese, who’s always involved in…
Another person who’s always involved in controversy is Bassem Youssef. Like, I’ll put him in the Kathy Griffin.. Category of I never name check Bassem Youssef and be like, oh, Bassem Youssef was petting a puppy and enjoying the nice sunny day recording his podcast by the pool. There’s always something with him. Well, he says he was asked by Australian authorities to provide a background check from the FBI in the U.S.
As well as his criminal record in Egypt. Whoa, what’s going on here? He announced his imminent Australian tour has been postponed after the request for the background checks as part of his visa application. We are told that Yousef has attracted criticism from Australian Jewish groups for jokes and commentary about Israel and Palestine. In a video statement, Yousef said, My shows in Australia and New Zealand have been postponed, rescheduled.
Of course, I owe you an explanation, and it seems there are new conditions and procedures for Australian visa applications. If you want to work there, perform there. We tried as much as possible to fulfill these requirements. It was a bit strange for me to have to provide a criminal record from Egypt, a country I left 12 years ago, but I respect Australian law. I respect the immigration laws.
He has toured Australia in the past, in 2023 and 2015. In 2015, he gave a keynote speech about freedom of expression. Yousef fled Egypt after his satirical TV show was taken off the air when he mocked the country’s president and military. He’s lived in the U.S. Since 2014.
He is currently a U.S. Citizen. He further explained, I cannot get on a plane in Australia unless I have the work permit because you have to go respect the law of the country that you go to. So I truly apologize. I want to thank everybody involved.
We were hopeful that when my criminal record arrives, hopefully I haven’t done anything in the last 12 years when I left Egypt. We’re going to apply. I’m very looking forward to seeing you again. I apologize once again. It’s unclear to me what his criminal record is.
Now, this is interesting. I’m asking AI here, and the AI says, if you mean the Egyptian-American comedian, I can’t find evidence that he has a conventional criminal record involving an actual criminal conviction. What he does have is a significant history with Egypt’s criminal justice system stemming from his political satire. Then they break that down. But AI is on it because they wrote, this is suddenly relevant today.
Because Yousef has postponed his Australia-New Zealand tour, etc. Etc. So if you’re asking because of today’s Australia story, the important distinction is, quote, asked to provide a criminal record check does not mean, quote, has a criminal record. Okay, good job on the AI there. Glad I asked.
Gossip Corner, whispers in the street. Gossip Corner, probably about Pete. Gossip Corner, where the rumors meet. With Johnny Mac, it’s always a treat. On Gossip Corner, we are told Hannah Berner enjoyed a birthday meal with Bobby Flay.
That’s right. The co-host of the Giggly Squad revealed that Bobby Flay and Bobby Flay’s girlfriend, Brooke Williamson, invited Hannah Berner and her husband and former guest on this show and cool guy Des Bishop over to celebrate their birthdays. We’re told that the couples kicked things off with a little tennis before Bobby Flay got to work in the kitchen. Hannah Berner said on her podcast, I celebrated my birthday with Bobby Flay. Shout out Bobby Flay, a friend of the pod and an avid Giggly Squad listener.
He literally was like, it’s really educational. As for the food, Hannah says, all I have to say, make friends with the chef. These people, they love it. This is how he expresses love. Bobby Flay made what he casually presented as a soft shell crab sandwich.
Hannah observes, but he’s Bobby Flay. So he’s like, yeah, there’s something together, you know, some crab on a bun. This is some five star restaurant appetizer. Hannah asked the chefs when they last ordered through DoorDash. She said they were like, what’s DoorDash?
Meanwhile, up at Cape Cod, Fortune Feimster was seen in Provincetown. People up there said she took in the sights, sounds, and local flavor, including some Portuguese natas, a delicious custard pastry that the locals say they’re very familiar with. I was not, so I looked it up. Apparently, pastel de nata means cream pastry. It’s a Portuguese egg custard tart pastry, optionally dusted with cinnamon.
Outside Portugal, they’re particularly popular in other parts of Western Europe, former Portuguese colonies such as Brazil, Mozambique, and, of course, Cape Cod. The Macau variant has been adopted by KFC, which you know is Kentucky Fried Chicken, and is available in regions such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, and not Cape Cod. Now, if you’re like John, we knew that, then you’re a food snob. I tell you what, we’re going long here. I do want to get in a bunch of these Edinburgh Fringe shows today.
Because the Fringe is coming to an end, and it doesn’t make sense to do these reviews three weeks from now. So how about this? If you’re not interested in the Edinburgh Fringe, you’re done. You are dismissed for the day. If you enjoy my company, let’s take one more break.
We’ll come back. We’ll do a little Fringe stuff. Website entertainment-now.com is this guy John Conahan, and he’s been hitting a lot of the shows at the Edinburgh Fringe. He gave this one five stars. So now we know the scale.
If you’ve heard me comment on his previous reviews, there were some four stars ones, but I didn’t know if it was four out of four or four out of five. It is a five star. Well, I assume maybe somebody got a six star review. I haven’t seen a six star review yet. So I’m going to assume this is five out of five.
What got the five out of five? Johnny Mac. Tom Cashman’s NPC, which stands for Nearly Proficient Comedian. This was at Monkey Barrel. Apparently Tom Cashman said, I do more jokes than any other comedian.
I am that fast. John Conahan said, he’s not lying. For those who only know Cashman as the meek assistant of Australian Taskmaster, the bundle of energy that explodes onto the stage at Monkey Barrel may take you by surprise. His mind and mouth run at a million miles an hour, and yet he still has time to be fastidious with his PowerPoint presentations. Nearly proficient comedians, the show design helped Tom’s audiences become more confident.
It’s clear he’s taking this task seriously. There are graphs, equations, idioms rewritten as code. This is some nerdy comedy. Apparently, Tom went to a barber in Edinburgh on his first day.
And then Tom admits to three and a half hours worth of investigative work on …
But fear not. NPC is not a dry lecture. It’s a joyous whirlwind of stories and anecdotes. That sounds fun. The same site, but a different reviewer.
She’s Molly Rie. She went to see Madeline Bredingham’s show called Legend that also got five stars. We’re told Madeline Bredingham grew up as a pub kid sitting in a bar for hours waiting for her dad to finish drinking. Been there, done that. Usually with a packet of potato chips or crisps, as it says in this European article.
There she learned what a true geezer was. Basically, her dad. After giving a definition of what an old geezer is, which included acting out how a crab walks, she picked someone from the audience to be the show’s geezer, who she named Gary, and would give a nod to every time she said something sexist or overly orthodox. The super-fast-paced performance is full of quick jokes, so much that the reviewer found it hard to finish her laugh from the last joke before a new topic or piece of crowd work came flying at her. That’s great.
Less successful, two stars for Stephen Catling’s Clownfish Out of Water. This is John Conahan again, who says it’s a chaotic hour of stand-up Stephen Catling’s crowd work and props showcase his very strange animal facts. The show jumps between autism, Disney remakes, Oasis, AI, sex, marine life, and Stephen’s experiences in the workplace, often without much warning. His strongest quality is his willingness to commit to the bit. He moves around the audience, repeatedly acknowledging how close he is getting to people, and turns the awkwardness into part of the joke.
His sarcastic delivery works particularly well, although audience members, including the reviewer, became recurring parts of the show, and his ability to build jokes from the response is Didn’t always work, leaving the room silent in points. Well, it’s not going on a two-star review. Here’s another five-star, also from John Conahan. Gary Starr’s Classic Penguins. John tells us Gary Starr is and always has been born to be a star.
What a performance. Five stars easily. Wow. On paper, this show sounds like an exercise in absurdity. A naked performer, the Penguin Book Collection, and audience members pulled it into action, yet Starr takes what could easily become cheap or stupid and flips it completely on its head.
The result is inventive, intelligent, and remarkably well-crafted. The premise is simple. Starr works through the Penguin Books catalog, recreating every book title at miniature scene, each one unfolding through a camera positioned above the stage. He flips a new book into view, and instantly another world appears. Hamlet, Dracula, and countless others become fuel for increasingly imaginative scenes.
The nudity is deliberately confrontational. Audience participation becomes central, with volunteers repeatedly drawn into increasingly outrageous scenarios. At one point, Starr even crowd surfs naked through the audience. Conant says, I’m forever left with the memory of an audience member who was a 70-year-old man stripping naked and running on stage with Starr. Wow.
All right, hop on a plane and head on over to Pleasant’s Courtyard for a 9.20 show. Boy, I got three more of these. Hey, I put in the extra commercial break and it’s nice out. We’ll hang out. I was going to head for home there and rap and I scrolled down my script to bump one thing to tomorrow and I’m like, oh no, there’s a lot left.
Let’s just keep going. Four stars for the Underground Monk Show. I remember this one came up, I think this one was at Melbourne. Four performers, two men and two women, take to the stage as monks and communicate entirely through physical performance and what sounds like golem grunts. There’s very little dialogue, but somehow you still understand the different personalities and problems each character is dealing with.
At the center of the show is a bowl of water. Whenever one of the monks puts their face into it, they’re transported into a completely different world or dream. The physical comedy is excellent, with the performers constantly finding new ways to make each other laugh and involving the audience along the way. Underground Monk Show. I’ve heard good things about this one. 10.15 at Assembly George Square Gardens. 10.15 p.m.
In case you’re curious. Four stars from John Conahan to Roger O’Sullivan’s Devil May Cry. John tells us Roger has a brilliant way of mixing Catholicism and Irishness into comedy that’s impossible not to laugh at. The show opens with a video featuring online game characters, the devil, and Roger himself. His material about growing up Catholic and the family and normalities that come with it had the audience in stitches, particularly the Irish members.
But there’s more. There’s plenty of inventive colonial humor, including a comparison between the IRA and ISIS not having the same style of soundtracks, which we’re told was hilarious. You’ll find that one at Monkey Barrel at 5.45 p.m. And some tips from Warren Martin, who’s putting on shows. This article comes from comedy.co.uk.
Warren says, I’m an Irish comedian traveling to Edinburgh with Proud Father, Exhausted Dad, which is a whimsical look at the chaos of trying to be a good father while barely functioning as an adult, and his other show, Paddystinian, a much more political show exploring Ireland, Palestine, history, and solidarity. They’re very different shows. Both are unmistakably me. See, I love all this stuff that I’m talking about here. I know it’s not for everybody, and that’s why I put it in the very rare segment three, but I dig this stuff.
Like, Paddy Stinian just sounds fascinating. When I was up in Belfast last year, there was actually a fair amount of.. Graffiti kind of makes it sound lesser, but artwork on walls about the Palestinian experience and how it might have applied to life in Belfast, far too complicated to get into on this show. Warren says the real challenge is the daily schedule. I have an hour between shows, which seems reasonable.
And so you remember it’s the fringe. A typical day involves flyering from around midday, performing Palestinian at 115 in the afternoon, then going back out to flyer before performing Proud Father, Exhausted Dad at 310 in the afternoon. There’s no leisurely lunch, no time to sit around contemplating the merit of your last performance. There’s at best time to shove something resembling food into your face while wondering where your flyers went. Then you have to do it the next day and the next day and the next day.
Then there was the venue saga in early July. My original venue decided it didn’t want to host a controversial show, so Patty Stinian was moved. The show’s not actually that controversial at all, but I guess not everyone would agree. I actually sympathize with the venue. But once you’ve been told your show’s controversial enough to warrant a venue change, it does leave you in a slightly paranoid state.
A week later, unrelatedly, I received an email from Eventbrite to say my comedy club’s most recent payment was, quote, stopped in our sanctions screening system, unquote, because my name was an exact or close match to a name listed on the Office of Foreign Asset Control list or other global sanctions watch list. Wow. Suddenly I found myself looking over my shoulder and imagining the worst. And remarkably, the paranoia didn’t seem quite so ridiculous when the worst actually happened on the pro-Palestine show next door. Two protesters interrupted their performance and tore down the show’s posters, somehow managing to completely miss mine.
In the ultimate act of anti-Irish racism, apparently even the protesters couldn’t be bothered to pick on the Irish guy. Which is a good line to get out on. I’ll do more with this Warren Morton article tomorrow. And that is a very long Daily Comedy News for today. Back in the afternoon with a quick check-in from Poolside.
And I’ll see you here tomorrow with a normal episode.