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Callaroga, Shark Media, Hidley Holmes, Johnny Mack with Your Daily Comedy News the LA Daily News and spoke to Sebastian Maniscalco. He said there’s no better testing ground to prove what you made of than standing on stage alone in front of a crowd. Sebastian said, everybody’s trying to do it at different levels, and when you get down to the court of it all, I think you have to embrace that fear because as a comedian, you’re up there spilling your soul to these strangers. I think it’s part of what makes the connection between you and the fans grow deeper. That’s the beauty of going up there.
I’m a huge fan of showmanship. Back in the eighties, Prince Motley, Crue, Michael Jackson, those were all musical acts, but there’s an element of production and excitement, and I want to recreate some of that by doing some of the things that might not be traditional in the world of comedy. He had been working on figuring out things like how do I get from the back of the house to the stage, or how do I make an entrance? Then of course I have to be funny or else. No one in the arena gives a crap how I got there.
I just want people to say I never disappointed them at a show. That’s kind of what most important to me. He says. Putting most of his energy into his live show is a better use of his time at this stage than worrying about boosting his profile on TikTok or Instagram. He did post a video with the lead singer of Creed, Scott Stapp.
That video got twelve million views. Sebastian said, I just put it up like a fun, stupid video and not thinking he was going nuts, rather than trying to figure out how do I get in the algorithm or what a kids want to see, what’s the other generation looking for. I just do what I do, and if you like it, great, and if not, that’s fine too. If you just do what you think is funny, I think people will relate. This tour kind of has a little bit more meaning to me in the sense that for the first time in my life, I’m sharing what I do with my entire family, in particularly my kids, because now they’re kind of aware of what daddy does for a living.
He makes people laugh. I don’t know if I’m going to be doing a dome show. In two years, I could be back at the theater or a comedy club. Who knows. So to enjoy this tour with my family is really important to me.
The Hollywood Reporter spoke to Matt Rife about crowd work. They were curious how respectful Matt’s fans are when he’s out there doing prepared material. Rife said, I’d say a large already to them. They’re respectful. Occasionally they aren’t.
But there are pros and cons of doing crowd work. He gets to interact with these amazing people that you choose at random, and then people at home are like, oh, if I buy a seat in the first five rows, that guarantees me a chance to speak to him, where they’ll purposely yell, thinking, Oh, if I talk to him and he turns into something funny, I’m gonna be in his next clip. And I gotta understand how that can be the perception, but it’s not how it works. It’s rarely the loudest person in the room is intion that’s the most interesting person to talk to. It’s usually the least assuming person who probably had no idea who I was in the first place.
That sparks the best kind of conversation. So yeah, people do yell out sometimes because they expect or want to be the person who get spoken to, and then I’m like forced to entertain it. And that’s the thing. People will disrupt a show, which is a bad thing, but then because I’m good at it, I turn it into a good thing, and then they were rewarded for doing a bad thing. But if I scold them or I don’t turn it into something funny, then I look like I can’t handle a heckler or I can’t think quickly on my feet.
That’s really interesting, isn’t it. Yeah, so I’m kind of forced to rise to each occasion, and most of the time it ends up being something wonderful and we get a good moment out of it for the show, and the whole audience appreciates it. But I’d be lying if I said there weren’t times that people do ruin a moment for the show. Raife said, here’s your headline. F the haters, like, I hear about what they say, and I think it’s so funny.
It’s pretty obvious the stereotypes of people who don’t like me, and that’s totally fine. I have no problem with people not liking me. Cool, stay as far away from me as possible, because I make a lot of people very happy and that means the world to me. And you don’t know how badly these people need to be made happy. So yeah, for me, it was just an opportunity to comedically and creatively take a jab back.
This doesn’t matter how good loose it is. I could wear in an Emmy for it and they’ll still say it’s trash. And I try not to give haters the time of day, but I was like, Okay, here’s one little opportunity to get in my licks. I suppose comedy is just intention right, So my intentions haven’t changed because they were never wrong in the first place. If people think I’m this person, then you haven’t done enough research.
I mean, I don’t think I’ve done anything controversial. Just because somebody does something that you don’t like doesn’t mean that they’re the devil. That’s crazy. People are allowed to like different things than you, People are allowed to laugh at different things than you. Even in twenty twenty four, he’s working on a Netflix series that’s set in a gym and said, right now, my writer and I are passing off a couple of different script drafts back and forth that will submit to Netflix and hopefully get picked up the series.
It’s really really fun. The gym is something that’s very important to me, and I believe should be important to everybody, not just for your physical health, but for your mental health. Everybody goes to the gym isn’t trying to be a powerlifter. For me personally, it’s the one hour I get out of my day that I don’t have to think about work and I can just focus on myself and it’s a stress release. Like right now, I’m totally exhausted, but as soon as we get off the phone, I’m gonna squeeze it an hour before a show tonight because I know it’s part of my routine and I really need it.
The Columbus Underground spoke to Mike Kaplan about reviewing past material. Mike said, I’m sure that I’m not the only comedian who reviews and reflects. I can only speak from my own experience, and I think comedians aren’t a monolith and there’s a range. I don’t know if this is accurate, but Tony V was one of the first comedians ever saw on Boston. He’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever seen.
There are a lot of comedians that come from there, but there’s a rich lineage of really strong joke writers. In addition to great performers. You have Dane Cook and Bill Burrn and Patris O’Neil coming from there, and also Gary Goleman, who I think is a masterful performer, And there are masterful writers like Wendy Leeman. There are a lot of Boston comedians who are still there and still crushing it, and you might I see them tell their perfect joke equations night after night. Tony Vee was one who I remembered.
Even it was telling the same jokes of the same stories, it would often come out differently. I don’t know if he ever wrote anything down, or at least that’s what it seemed to me. He might have. Maybe he tricked me in the way that many comedians trick many people, but it’s my sense that he was like, I have these ideas, and I know I’m funny. I’ll express them this way one night, in another way another night.
Mike Kamplan started talking about seeing Rory Skovell in the two thousand and six Seattle International Comedy Competition. Everybody was doing basically their tight fives. It’d be their audition set to get on TV, and that served a lot of people. Well, Rory completely did not do that every night. It was something different.
It was inspirational to me. From that point on, I realized I didn’t have to just do the jokes as written in the order. I decided I could leave room for chance and open up to the moment and start riffing and experimenting more at the ends of jokes or in between jokes. So the Lasher point is there are some comedians and never write things down, when there were some comedians that write things down meticulously. When I first come up with an idea, usually I’ll record it in my recorder out loud.
Then I’ll write it long hand in a notebook. Later I’ll type it in my computer, and at each stage, when I’m revisiting, I’ll a stents quote unquote the same idea. Or visiting something can always spark something new to happen. So I’m not saying that every comedian should do what I’m doing, but it certainly serves me.
All right, let’s stay comedically philosophical today Dina Hasham spoke to Sl…
Dina said, yeah, I mean, having new experiences definitely helps. It’s not like you’re not having new experiences and you can’t joke about being a comedian for the whole time. So I have to consciously make an effort to do new things or have new experiences, and that definitely helps have new ideas. What happens to a lot of comedians become rich and famous, it changes their act and for the worst for the most part. Like it’s hard for me to think of comedians who’ve gotten better with fame and fortune.
My all time favorite is Norm McDonald and he just managed to be funny his entire life somehow. Sam Campbell is one of Vulture’s comedians. You should and will know. Sam spin on my radar for a few years for his work at the various festivals, the proudest moment of his career so far. There’s a funny comedian called James Gill who runs a Great Night in London at a pub called the Tommy Field.
He host the show and one says, I left the stage, he said to the crowd, give it up for Sam Campbell, the Maestro. I got a real jolt for him, called the Maestro, did wonder for my confidence. Unfortunately was short lived. I’ve done the gig a few times since. Discovery calls quite a lot of comedians the Maestro.
He says it all the time about people. But you can’t discount something just because it’s short lived. Whose career trajectory would you like to follow? He says? The answer is simple, Shelley Berman, interesting, worst show ever.
I’ve boon more times than you’ve had hot dinners. Every time I go on, I’m trying to showcase rather than just goose around. I almost always die very badly. I’ve had some really awful, unforfiable ones lately. Sorry, it’s not a specific answer.
If I try to access some of those memories and depth, I I could trap to not be able to come back. All Right, what comedy opinion hill will you die on? Sam says, A lot of people give me a hard time for laughing at my own jokes on stage. I’d like to dress this once and for all. They’re not my jokes.
I stole them from various open my comedians and foreside comic strips, and my laughter is always genuine. Best comedy advice, worst comedy advice, the best. I have a boozy lunch with Jimmy Carr whenever he’s not touring, and it’s always an honor and a masterclass to listen to him muse on the craft. He recently said, be careful when you get to the top of the mountain. You might not be able to breathe that air.
That stuck with me. Worst advice. Johnny McCallister, who runs the Comedy Lounge in Perth, Australia, would say to me, only do your gold There was a lot of pressure. If I was a promoter, I would say to every act your golden Go out there and see what happens when the light bounces off of you. And that is your comedy news for today.
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