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Caloroga Shark Media been there. I’m Johnny Mack with your Daily Comedy News Jim Gaffing. Until the La Times that stand up has changed so much, to the notion that people are putting out multiple specials didn’t exist when I started stand up. But I think that people who consume a stand up comedian’s material, there’s a familiarity, but it’s like a friendship. You can’t have the exact same conversation.
Even though we all have friends where it’s like we’re having the same conversation about high school. It has to be different. You both have to challenge each other. So for me working on the special or working on this new hour that I’m working on now, it’s self assignment. So some of it.
Any creative person’s like, what can I talk about that is embarrassing or revealing. I think that people that have tracked me along the way in my stand up would be interested in my view and parenting. I’ve always had the view that I suck at it, but I have greater empathy for what all parents are dealing with, and I think also parents of this era, we’ve made mistakes and it doesn’t help. With social media and the apps and the screens. And that’s something that’s revealed in doing my stand up and in reading some of the parenting books.
Parents of teenagers have this perspective. Adults have an impression of what their teenage years were like, and I’m providing this point of view about what it’s like to live with these people. It’s kind of a cliche raising teenagers is like raising a mentally ill person. It sounds harsh. We know this is a natural separation process where teenagers challenge things.
But I love that I’ve gained this perspective of was my data jerkface? Or maybe I was a jerk face? He used the D word. Maybe it’s kind of basic, but that’s something that’s universal. We all went through being teenagers, and not necessarily the conflict, but the misunderstanding between the teenager and the parent, which I find fascinating.
Jim Jeffreys told Rolling Stone that he wants to act more. Name dropper Jim said, I texted Russell Crowe excuse me, and I said, Russell, I’ve got an acting job. Can I call you quickly for some tips? And I think he thought I just wanted acting tips, and I was asking him more about when you talk to a director, what do you do here? Is it too much for me to add a line here or there?
Do you not do that? In trauma? But Russell sent me a quote from Hamlet and told me to hold up a mirror to nature and I went, thanks, mate. Rolling Stone asked him if stand up could take a back seat to film. Jim said, that’s like saying, do you think you’ll have sex with more tractive women?
It’s not my decision, is it. They get to make the choice. Now. Obviously I’m joking, I’m a happily married man. Blah blah blah blah blah.
But you get what I’m saying. It’s up to the movie industry. It’s not up to me. I look at Sammy Davis Junior. I watched a documentary about him.
He was a really good singer, an amazing dancer, and outstanding impersonator and all that type of stuff. He was a ball of entertainment, and I’d like to be that. I like the idea that I can entertain at any time. So whether it be TV presenting or acting or doing stand up, I just consider myself to be an entertainer first and foremost. I don’t think I can because of my voice or whatever.
But I’d like to do a bit of musical theater or something like that. I’d give that a crack. I’m up for doing everything but juggling and mime. Anthony Jesson expoke to crack dot com about his influences Stephen Right, Ronnie Dangershfield, and Mitch Hedberg. They were curious where he discovered those guys.
Anthony said, it must have been late night TV as a kid, waiting for those last five minutes of Carson to see who would show up. I remember watching a lot of end of Carson’s waiting for Letterman to come on. They would usually have a comic at the end. I’m sure, well, Stephen writes HBO special at some point, but I must have been introduced through late night sets Hebburg. I didn’t find out about until i’d been doing comedy for about a year, but Stephen Wright was the first, and then Dangerfield was like, oh, I’m into this guy too.
But Stephen Wright to me was huge. Did Jessinic try and mimic, writs Cadence. He said, no, surprisingly not. You could say Christopher walk In for sure has had an impact on how I speak, even though my dad gets the same comparison, But Stephen Wright was almost too much of a departure from my character. Maybe there would have been a couple of years in college when I was smoking too much pot that I could have had a Hebburg kind of personality.
But I never had that burnout thing either, which just more of how did they think of? That? Crazy twist? Never really entered into my persona with my friends in the beginning. Has the Anthony Justinic character evolved over time, and he said, I think of the character as an aging punk rocker.
At this point. In the beginning, it was like, there are no lines. If everybody offend everybody, let’s go. And I’m glad I did that in my twenties and that helped me out a lot my idols who have softened as they get older. I find that to be interesting, and as the world changes, you find yourself going from the villain of the hero.
My past is my past, then I’ll never apologize for it or try to whitewash it. But I think I’ve gained a lot of wisdom, a lot of knowledge and life experience. I like that I’ve softened and that the act isn’t as hardcore as it used to be. I think that’s good, and I think that’s more interesting. I don’t think of the character evolving, but as I write, I’m reacting to what’s popular around me.
If the biggest comics in the world started getting real family friendly, maybe I would go darker and would go harder. There’s plenty of comics now that are just as dark and hardcore as I used to be. It’s next part too justting listen to this. I think they lack my writing talent now. I just see a lot of culture personality.
I think having a popular podcast is more important than having a good act. That’s how it dies with the podcasting. You don’t really have to do anything other than have a popular podcast to sell tickets, and you’ll have a great show because the audience loves it, and you’re never really testing anything out. That’s why I see all these podcasts put out a special. They’re immediately savage by critics and forgotten about to the point that people don’t even want to write about it, because there’s no point in writing a negative review of something that’s just friends hanging out, which is what comedy’s becoming.
He’s both not wrong and somewhat wrong. I mean, I get what he’s saying about things having less artistic reaching. But on the other hand, from the consumer point of view, Hey, I went out, I saw somebody I dig. I had a good time and laughed, and I went home hopefully, and I’m home by ten thirty because I’m old. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.
Not everything has to be art, and I know I sometimes argue that both ways, but I don’t know. If you go out and you have a good time, that’s fine. Like as I reviewed these specials, some of them are just fine. I can be a comedy snob, I admit it. Shang Wang, I like him a lot.
He spoke to The Texas Standard talked about his friendship with Ali Wang, who executive produced a special, and said, yeah, she’s a friend of mine. We met in the early days of doing stand up. We were both in the open mic scene in San Francisco in the early two thousands, and we’ve been friends ever since. I mean we got closer later on. We both moved to New York together around the same time.
She moved to LA to be a writer, and I followed her out there, And so I’ve been sort of following her footsteps and just kind of following her playbook in a way, so to speak. I kind of live in the ghost of Alley’s past. I have her old furniture, her old couch or old nightstand, and I might even tape my second special where she taped her second special. So I’m just kind of following the Alley Wong playbook in a weird way because it works. But I’m very grateful for our friendship and for all the sports she’s given me.
It’s pretty incredible to have a friend like that. I mean, she’s an incredibly talented person, but I think it’s also helpful to have a friend succeed to that level where you get a sense of like, this is a friend. This person also kind of looks like me, she’s an Asian American, and just makes it feel a little bit more accessible, like these things are possible. Of course, it helps when she produces a direction comedy special. JB.
Smooth as advice for aspiring comics, it is find who you are, constantly work on your style, matristylity of personality, say things that only you would say, and talk about what you know about. Don’t be stuck in one place. It’s great to have material, but you don’t want to be a robot. You want to be able to connect with people. If you can walk on stage and grab that microphone, you’re fifty percent there already fifty percent of what it takes is to get up there.
There’s rules, of course, you gotta have an intro, you gotta have a presence on stage, you gotta have a certain amount of last person minute. But you don’t have to go buy those rules. There’s something being offbeat and true to yourself and talking about what you know about, which is absolutely golden because you’re taking people on vacation, on a trip through your brain. Kevin Nielan said cancel culture has stifled some comedians. For someone like me, I don’t have a problem with it because I never really ventured in that area.
I may touch on something where someone’s like, hey man, you can’t do that, but some people get away with still. I don’t really have a problem with the woke stuff. Although my wife and son won’t come to see my shows because they’re afraid I’ll get canceled and be the last person to get canceled. People won’t even cancel my reservation if I don’t show up. I think a lot of comedians hopefully will evolve, like people do in their profession or whatever it is, They’ll find better ways of doing it.
I always try to be unique in my voice, because that’s what matters, That’s how you stand apart from other comedians. Now that we have zillions of comedians, it’s hard for comedians to become unique or be unique and also have something original say that isn’t about McDonald’s or whatever. A hard reporter I spoke to Matt Rife who said other comics have told me they miss not only the pace of stand up, but the level of control. Do you want to be an actor? Right?
Said? I don’t feel like I need control. I’m not a point now where I want to learn something new. I want to get better at something else. I mean, I’m getting so much better, so much faster at stand up, and I’m learning how to hopefully prepare for a lifetime of this, And now that I see that that’s achievable, I’m like, Okay, awesome.
What are some other skills that I can sharpen along the way that are only going to help everything else that I do. The better comedian I am, the more people are gonna want to watch the movies that I’m in, and the more movies I’m in, the more people are gonna want to see what I do live at a stand up show. Whose career mighty want to emulate? You have the Big Three Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, and Adam Sandler. Imagine Matt Riife doing Adam Sandler type movies.
I might have to quit the podcast. Those are the ones who did best, and I don’t know that anybody will ever do it at that level again, That’s my dream. Comedians who took their fan base into the theaters with their comedic talents and then they were able to transition over to different genres, especially dramas. I mean, my god, Robin Williams A Goodwill Hunting is one of my favorite acting performances of all time. Ryan Reynolds is my idol.
That’s who I’d love to work with more than anything, and he has this type of acting career that I’d love to try to emulate, and he’s done everything new top Egg Mett Rife, Who do you see is your core audience at this point? Young people, older women? Rife said, it’s a mix of everybody, which is so crazy and so cool. That’s a non answer. Nobody has everybody, most comedians, and this is exactly why you’d asked this question.
I have a relatively specific audience, whether it’s a specific race or gender or age range. But for us, it’s kind of everybody. There’s many people in their early twenties as there are fifty and up, just people who love comedy. What’s on your bucket list? I’d love to do more movies and TV, and I’d love to work with Ricky Gervais.
Adam Carolla and Jay Leno are getting ready to do a Comedy Fantasy Camp in La January twenty third through to twenty sixth. The four day camp offers workshops, Q and as and panels on all things comedy, from TV writing and podcasting to performing on stage. The Rap spoke with them. They pointed out that Adam’s from Southern California, Jay’s from Boston. Is there a difference between the comic sensibilities you know, Southern California vers East Coast?
Leto said, no, you know. Mark Twain said travel is the enemy of bigotry, and the fact is more you travel, the more you can pick things up and take them from other people. When I started to get popular in Boston and I left town because I was gonna wind up having a Boston base act. And I left and I said, I’m gonna go someplace else. But back in New England, I was a lazy guy.
I came here and suddenly I was the hardest working person because I didn’t have the southern California mentality. I didn’t go surfing in the daytime. So I think it’s good to travel around. If you got a joke that works in Texas and Anchorage, it’s gonna work everywhere. Awful things happen to you your first year you come here, you learn who’s a crook, whose agent is bad.
Second year you get a couple jobs. Takes three or four years before things clicked. This sounds horrible. You sort of learn who’s in town, who’s a real agent, who could really do something for you. You know, it takes a while.
It’s a lot of fun. It’s a great way to make a living. I mean, I figured I’d do it until I had to get a real job. I just never had to get a real job. It’s a job.
Don’t hang out with your pals at night. I mean I saw it at the comedy store. It became people just live there. You’re doing coke in the back. You have jokes about the thing on the wall the comedy store and about the window, and then you go to a real place and it doesn’t have those things.
Nobody knows what you’re talking about. I’d say that happen in Boston. Guys have twenty minutes on Kenmore Square. Then you go to Hartford and people go what. And that is your comment news for today.
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