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The Shark Deck. Did I just swallow a bug? I am chunny back with your day company dudes. Right before I start recording, I go check, check, check to make sure I actually plugged in the microphone and the headset and everything’s working and it’s not distorted. And there was a bug flying in front of my face and now the back of my throat feels like I swallowed a bug.
It’s not why you’re here. Gary Goldman has a new book. It’s called Misfit Growing Up Awkward, and he wants you to read the entire book to prove it. In the introduction, he wrote, some people skip the intro. I don’t trust them.
It makes me wonder where else they cut corners, where else they’re phoning it in, and what other flim flammery they’re perpetrating some good Goldmanese language there. Gary talked about David Brenner. I got to do a few shows with Brenner and really enjoyed my time with David Brenner. Gary said, I discovered David Brenner on The Mike Douglas Show. Was magical to me because it was so eerie that it was doing this observational humor and it felt like he was spying on us.
It made me laugh, but it was also so empowering that this man and I always pictured as how I would look when I grew over, was behaving very creatively. I love George carlin silly ideas about language and his observational stuff. Later on I came across Gary Shandling. My brother had been bumped from a flight and got two free tickets, but couldn’t use them, so from my bar mitzvah. My mother took me to La and we waited in line with my cousin Della to see Johnny Carson.
Gary Shandling was his guest. I fell in love with them immediately. It was this interesting thing where a man was very neurotic and anxious but also seem to have that bugs bunny confidence. The other guest was Carrie Fisher, and he was flirting with Princess Leia. I eventually worked with Gary Schandling at the Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa Beach.
He couldn’t have been much nicer. It was it really great to meet your hero’s moment awesome. Jason Zinniman writes about comedy for The New York Times, and he got into the whole Hasan Minhaj thing. You know, Hasan Minhaj made up some things first comedy act. But Zinniman, I think really got to it.
This guy’s fantastic, What a great writer. I love Jason Zinneman at the Times, and he talked about, you know, we’re gonna start fact checking everybody’s comedy, and he pointed out, for example, Roddy Daintrefield was respected. He did get risk backed right. So, yeah, that all makes sense. We don’t assume everything coming out of a comedian’s mouth is true, but there was something a little wonky about Hasan Minhaj, and Zinneman writes, watching the King’s Gesture, that’s Hassan special.
Now hits differently. In some ways, it’s more interesting than the first time I saw it, when it seemed mawkish. Some jokes, like his desperation for social media clout, seem like clues, and others come across as the work of a guilty conscience, like the moment when Minhaj faces the audience and says, everything here is built on trust. Zinniman rights, this is the truth. Every comic has an unspoken pack with the audience.
The one Seinfeld has is different from Minhaj’s, and part of the reason has nothing to do with their intentions. Whether or not critics like me think authenticity is important, it does matter to the audience, so dishonesty and comics understand that. It’s no accident that many of the political comedians working today, especially on TV, employee researchers from traditional news sources. Getting facts right matters, especially when the comedy is about grave social issues. That’s not just because the comics.
Credibility can take a hit when stories told about reese, religious profiling, or transgender identity or exposed as inventions that can lead to doubt about the experiences of real people. Jason writes, one of the most notable aspects of the minha story is the lack of nuance in his response, the complete confidence he projects. It’s striking that he seemingly has no concerns about possibly deceiving some of his audience. His special is about his wife challenging him to take responsibility for how his words can negatively affect his family. One wonders if there will be any more introspection great stuff in the New York Times.
I’ve been on a mark Marin clip catching up he had Nimish Batel on in August. I only got to listen to it the other day when I was out for a run Humble Brig and I thought a chair a quick clip. As Mark Marrin explained how he’s putting together his next hour, I’m working a small room. My fans know what I’m doing. It’s only one hundred and fifty people there, and they kind of like they’re willing to go along with it.
So I just risk failing. Yeah, and I’m not afraid to fail. You know. It’s not going to take the window in my sales, but there’s going to be awkward moments and that’s all right. From Yahoo.
Leslie jones new book, Leslie Effing Jones features a chapter called killing Whoopie Goldberg. Well, what’s that about, Johnny mcdun sounds a little scary, don’t worry. According to her story, she smoked weed and teamed up with Keenan Thompson to write a sketch for SNL. Some context here. Sometimes Leslie Jones would play Whoopi Goldberg on SNL, but for this sketch it would be actual Whoopie Goldberg.
And in the sketch, Colin Jost would say, Leslie, I know it’s you, and actual Whoopee would say no, no, no, I know Leslie plays me, but it’s really me. I’m really Whoopee. Colin says, yeah, yeah, So what would happen if I do this and pulls out a gun. Whoopee looks terrified and says, no, seriously, I’m Whoopi Goldberg. I’m not Leslie, I’m really Whoopee.
Colin looks at her and doesn’t believe her and says, oh yeah, and then shoots her. Jones writes that the sketch would have cut back and forth between panic in the studio as Jost and Michael Chay realize it’s the real Whoopi Goldberg bleeding out live on air, and a station break pre tape of Lorne Michael’s taking port in various activities like writing, a was playing golf, taking a shower, and a voiceover saying Who’ll be right back is shown in between shots of the on screen slaughter. Leslie said, Keenan and I were weeping with laughter when we wrote this. We were actually going to shoot Whoopy Goldberg. On SNL head Brighter Brian Tucker according to Jones, looked at them and said, you guys are crazy.
So they pitched it to the weekend update team. In the update office, we were acting out the sketch and laughing the whole time. When we finished, Keenan said, it’s so funny. Right, someone said, you guys are nuts. You can’t kill Whoopi Goldberg on Live TV.
Leslie said, she’s not dead, she just got shot. They ended up writing a flushed out version of the sketch to present at a table read the next day. They even got Lauren Michaels to read the voiceoverports and then he stopped and said it wasn’t going to make it to air. Lauren said, we’re not going to kill Whoopi Goldberg on National TV for a personal joke. That sentence sounds like a funny sketch to be.
Whitney Cummings is recording her next special at the Comedy Store in la two day. Sam Jay’s Salute Me or Shoot Me is on HBO today, But m says Kate Berlant is the quote most influential slash imitated comedian of a generation, a millennial Lenny Bruce. This from The Independent, Burlant insists she’s niche for life. The Independent rights, chances are you’ve seen the thirty five year old somewhere, or maybe if she jokes, you’ve just confused her for Katherine Han. Burland is amused that she was listed in New York Magazine’s NEPO Baby List.
That’s a fun list to look at, by the way, there’s a lot of people working in Hollywood with the famous parents. But The Independent says, I would argue that Burland’s dad’s career as a visual artist and the fact that her mother quote made the Stonehenge for this is spinal tap is not quite the same as being able to call too Oscar nominees mom and dad. Regardless, she said, I was thrilled to be on the list because it made me seem so much more famous than I am. She’s also worried that theater is dying. It’s a quaint form at this point.
If people are seeking comedy, they go to TikTok. They’re certainly not going to the theater. There’s almost nowhere left in culture where people are all actually together looking at something. She’s at the Soho Theater. If you’re in the UK until thirty September let’s mix up the order today and see who’s at the High Planes Comedy Festival in Denver on this Saturday night.
Chaos Theory. It’s six o’clock open mic, seven o’clock at Mutiny Information Cafe. Sky’s the Limit at seven. Mattale Lane quotes High Planes headline or show seven thirty at the Paramount. The Growlocks are there at nine, and then a couple of local shows.
So yeah, if we were there, Mattale Lane would be the move for sure, and then we could bounce around catching local shows.
Now, let’s see who’s at JFL Toronto on a Saturday.
If you listened to yesterday, I was a little underwhelmed by the Friday night lineup and I love JFL, but they got better in them than that. SETV backup at seven, Jay Jordan at seven, Michelle Wolf and Ariel Alias at seven. All right, we hypothetically saw both of them yesterday, so let’s do Leslie Jones. I’ve been talking about her a lot this week. This would make her our seven o’clock show, seven thirty New Faces of Canada eight o’clock Saturday Night set Tire eight o’clock Double Threat, Rachel Menson and Clifton Cremo.
Love the name of this one. This is gonna work on me. Eight o’clock Beer Beer Comedy. Beer Beer Comedy is thrilled to bring its brand of underground Toronto comedy to the bright lights of JFL, featuring Toronto’s top comedians. I’m sold on that we’re doing that, all right, that’s all right.
O’clock show, Beer Beer Comedy, so Leslie Jones, then Beer Beer Comedy, The nine o’clocks, Gavin Matt’s Ariel Elias, Joe to Rosa, Dan Smith nine fifteen. Reggie Watts. Have you ever seen Reggie Watts? Very very interesting in person? Nine thirty Neil Brennan nine thirty Ronny Chieng, WHOA.
I was on my way to Reggie Watts and I’m like, oh, I really want to see Neil Brennan. And I was like, I really like Ronny Chieng. Hm. Which do we see? All right?
Reggie Watts, Neil Brennan, Ronny Chieng. I’m gonna eliminate Reggie Watts, Neil Brennan, Ronny Chieng, Neil Brennan, Ronnie Chan Let’s go see Neil Brennon at nine thirty, ten o’clock Saturday Night sets Hire Alison Leebley, SETV ten thirty, Best of Absolute Comedy eleven o’clock, Andrea Gin Alternative Show, Patty Harrison, Jay Jorden An eleven thirty After Hours Let’s do Jay Jordan at eleven o’clock. There’s also the Hampton’s Comedy Festival. Some of your performers tonight, Eric Haft, Richie Byrne, Scott Baker, Vinnie Mark and if you’re in Scranton and you’ll like kittens. Animal Care Associates is a local nonprofit all volunteer foster and rescue that’s been serving the community for twenty years that they are teaming with the Scranton Comedy Club for Comedy for the Kittens.
It’s a fundraiser tonight, seven o’clock at the Scranton Comedy Club fifteen bucks. The show features Steve Marshall and Bob A. Finney as headliners. Aaron Bader is your feature. The event also features basket raffles, merch and Moore.
For details LNK Tree Slash Aca, Scranton. There will also be some kittens there. Maybe adopt one on your way home. That’s your comedy news for today. If you enjoy what I do here, Tell a friend about it.
I’ll see you here tomorrow.