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Caloroga Shark Media. Hello, I’m Jenny Mack with your Daily Comedy News. Today we’re taking a look at the top eleven most Influential Comedians of twenty twenty three. Couple notes here, there are plenty of great comedians who are not on this list. For example, Shane gillis huge year, not on the list, Todd Berry one of the best specials of the year, and I’ll go over the best specials of the year tomorrow, not on the list.
I’m also very very very very well aware you don’t have to shoot me a note that this list is eleven men. And I spent some time thinking about it, and I’m like, well, who should be on this list? Amy Schumer? Maybe I don’t know, But as I do the list, I’ll explain my reasoning. And as with all lists, it’s all subjective.
Your list will be different. The person next to you their list will be different. I’m gonna throw out some name. You’re gonna be outraged that I said, Oh, I can’t believe that person on a list that’s Setti’s list. Go, so why is it eleven?
We’re doing this to help promote a new podcast, which is called The Top Eleven The Top eleven launches on January eleventh. Each week, the Top eleven looks at the top eleven things for a single topic. Topic can be anything iconic, movie moments, mythical creatures, album covers, history, space facts, you know anything the Top eleven. Whether you’re a fan of eleven’s or simply somebody with a thirst for knowledge, tune into the Top eleven on your preferred podcast platform. This week we’re taking episodes like this and putting them in the feed as a preview, and then on January eleventh, the Top eleven launches.
All Right, you’re ready for my list? You’re gonna get mad. Number eleven Most influential Comedians of twenty twenty three. Pete Davidson, I hear you now? Is he the best stand up comedian?
No? Even Pete Davidson doesn’t think he’s the best stand up comedian. But he’s in the news all the time. He moves the headlines. Pete Davidson moves the downloads.
Who’s he dating? Is he in rehab? Why is he crashing into cars? Sometimes even does comedy at a TV series called Bupkiss. Remember that one.
He’s got a special coming out January ninth, called Turbo Fonzarelli. He co owns a ferry with Colin jos. For some reason, Pete Davidson to talk about always in the news. Number ten Matt Rife. Matt Rife had quite the year.
The buzz for nine tenths of the year was that Matt Rife was it. His problematic World tour went on sale. It broke the ticketing site. He sold out one hundred dates. He was on top.
Then he started doing some press for Matt Rife Natural Selection, a special on Netflix, and then we all watched the special and we were like, oh, eit, this special’s not that funny.
And then somebody had a problem with one of his jokes and then Matt instead o…
Lost a lot of his fans. Then the haters came from matt Rife and started digging out old tweets. Matt Rife was a lot more popular. The day before that Netflix special came out. Matt Rife at number ten.
Number nine, Bert Kraser, did you see the machine? The machine was fantastic, And that was the culmination of probably Bert’s entire hurry up to this point. He got famous off to bit the Machine Now it’s a movie, and the movie was good. Bert also had a huge tour. He also has the very popular podcast he does with Tom Segura, Two Bears, One Cave, Burt Riding High.
In twenty twenty three, next up number eight Nate Bergatsey Nate was named a Comedian of the Year by Consequence of Sound, and Nate had a couple big things, including a fantastic special that’s one of my favorites of the year, Hello World on Amazon Prime way back in January. Nate also set the record for most tickets sold at the Bridgetone Arena in Nashville nineteen three hundred and sixty five. He threw in one extra seat somewhere in a corner to set the record. He hosted the Best Saturday Night Live and quite some time, and I think broke through to new fans. He also has his podcasting network in his own podcast, Andy shepherding comedians who are lesser known, like Dusty Slay.
So Nate’s got a little power base going there. Good to see him coming up. A guy that went from nobody really knows who he is other than his fans fans to having a huge year. Theo Vaughn. If you kept your eyes on the podcast charts all year, you noticed this past weekend went from being number one on the stand up subgenre and then started showing up on the mainstream charts.
I think theo is primed for a huge twenty twenty four. He’s a good storytelling. His pot is easy on the ears. Dio Vaughn at number seven, number six, and in some ways it’s weird that this guy is so low on the list because he is a king maker and a major influencer. It’s Joe Rogan, Joe obviously host of The Joe Rogan Experience, a very very very influential podcast.
You go on The Joe Rogan Experience and suddenly you’ve got a lot more fans. Comedians like Tim Dillon, who’s fantastic, have seen that their speculation that Joe Rogan’s deal with Spotify is up. Will they renew him? Will he stay with them? Will he go somewhere else?
He’ll be keeping an eye on that. In twenty twenty four, Joe also opened his club in Austin, the Comedy mother Ship, which has basically turned Austin’s comedy scene into the third Coast behind New York and La Sorry, Chicago, you can send your letters to Johnny Mack, some of the comedians of pop by there, Tim Dillon, Roseanne Chappelle. Ron White has come out of retirement. I guess from hanging out Rogan and having fun, Whinney Cummings, the guys from Kiltoony. You’ve started doing this.
Yeah, with the Comedy mother Ship. Number six is Joe Rogan. We’ll take the break and we’ll come back and we’ll look at the top five. This guy was already at the top of the business and then he got slapped in the face. Yes, of course, Chris Rock, he’s number five.
Almost every single article about a comedian somehow comes back to the slap, and we’re year and a half two years out from that now Chris Rock’s name comes up with that, whether he wants to or not. And this year he finally responded on stage during Chris Rock’s Selective Outrage is Live special on Netflix. Then that garnered a whole bunch of reactions, and the other comedians reacted to Chris Rock’s reaction, and it’s still a topic. But aside from that, if Chris Rock’s behind a microphone, you want to hear what he has to say. Hopefully he does a lot more.
In twenty twenty four at number four, Kevin Hart. Billboard recently released that he was the top touring comedian of the year, making sixty seven point five million dollars in ticket sales. He sold six hundred and thirty one thousand tickets over eighty two shows. That’s a lot of money, and that doesn’t include all the various endorsements he deals. If you watch football, he’s always hawking a gambling thing.
If you listen to this podcast, Kevin announces, I don’t know, two new projects a week. He’s got his fast food chain. Netflix just did the documentary about Kevin and Chris Rock. So Kevin Hart at number four. Next up, number three, John Mulaney and the press really really is in John Mullenie’s corner.
Lot of good praise for John Mulaney, Baby Jay. I do not have that on my top Specials of the Year list, which I’ll explain on tomorrow’s podcast. Despite my personal opinion eighty six percent favorable on Rotten Tomatoes. It was Mulanie’s return to the stage after some personal turmoil. We learned that mullani had a drug problem, he went to rehabb he had broken up with his wife.
He’s got a baby with Olivia Munn. Number two Dave Chappelle. Much like Chris Rock, almost every single interview with a comedian comes back to Dave Chappelle. Every move Dave Chappelle makes is news. He’s got a new special out on Netflix on New Year’s Even if you host a podcast in its early January, you’re gonna be very thankful that Dave Chappelle has a new special and’ll be stirring it up again.
Dave Chappelle Number two and your number one most influential comedian for twenty twenty three. Jim Gaffigan. Jim is getting better and better at stand up. He’s right at the top of the mountain right now. Has the respect of his fellow comedians.
Additionally, he has the reputation for working clean, which broadens your audience. He’s got his acting career going. He released Dark Pal, which showed Jim expanding his comedy styling getting a little darker. That was very well received. He toured with Jerry Seinfeld.
He had a great interview with Maren Jim Gaffigan is number one. If you hate my list, you can go on the Facebook group, which is Daily Comedy News Podcast group, and you can say this list is terrible. That’s okay. I’d love to hear your opinion. It’s just a subjective list.
Some names that I had down for consideration that I left off because you only get eleven. Mark Marin I really got back into his podcast this year. I really love his perspective on stand up comedy as an art and it’s like listening to the guy talk Tom Sagora. You know I have his partner in comedy, Bert Kreischer on the list. Why don’t you have Tom?
I only had eleven spots, and I just felt like Bert had a slightly better year than Tom. Trevor Noah, aside from his awesome stand up comedy, the void he has left on the Daily Show is tremendous. It’s been a year plus and they still haven’t solved the cherry issue. Trevor’s recent special on Netflix is fantastic. Jerry Seinfeld not on the list, which is weird because he’s probably the top comedian in the game.
But Jerry just goes about his business doing his thing, goes home. And Conan O’Brien wanted to have him on the list as well for his influential podcast. Eventually, Conan will come back to TV, right He’s been developing a show with Max HBO, Max HBO and Max or whatever we’re calling it this week for years now. Is that ever gonna air? Conan?
But he gets some great guests on his very very popular podcast. So Conan O’Brien will someday return to TV and we’ll be talking about him even more then. So that is the list of the top eleven most influential comedians of twenty twenty three. Back tomorrow with a look at the top eleven stand up specials of twenty twenty three. If you enjoy this program, you tell a friend about it, they might like it too, and you can all follow it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows.
See you back here tomorrow.