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Caloroga Shark Media. Hey there, I’m Johnny Mack with your Daily Comedy News, a daily briefing on stand up comedy comedians in the comedy industry. I’m gonna indulge myself here at the top, So if your first time listener, maybe skip five minutes in because you don’t know my backstory. For everybody else, I’m not doing a bit here. I’m really bothered.
I know this is going to sound like a bit, but I am truly bothered. I’ll give you the news story first. Sebastian Maniscalco is getting a channel on Serious XM. It is Sebastian Maniscalco’s comedy radio. And why I’m bothered is it’s taking over Channel ninety nine, which was the home of Raw Dog Comedy, which I used to program many moons ago.
And let me tell you, for a radio guy, this is painful. Raw Dog Comedy was one of the great radio stations of all time. Now, obviously I’m attached to it, I’m biased. I programmed it. But my radio hero growing up was Howard Stern.
And when I met Howard Stern, Howard Stern told me row Dog sounded great, which was the radio complement of my life. Sebastian Man of Skalko said, joining Serious XM and launching my own channel is a huge moment for me. Honestly, the real comedy may come from trying to teach my father how to find Serious XM and his car hilarious. That alone could be its own weekly series. Now, I will tell you back in the day, Raw dogg Comedy was right at the top of the most popular stations, and it was cool.
The other stations might be branded the blue collar guys. They were great to work with. Jamie Fox great to work with, but rowd Dog was its own thing. It was comedy uncensored, and when we came on the scene, that was a new thing, and like all great things, it was great because the bosses weren’t paying attention to it, and we did things to make ourselves laugh. We would just throw shows on the air and have fun, play uncensored comedy.
And then nine years into my ten year career, the organizational structure changed and I found myself in a room with a guy now running programming for some reason and says to me that his wife doesn’t know the comedians we’re playing on the Raw Dog channel, to which I said but that’s the whole value proposition of the channel is we’re on the forefront of comedy. We’re going to all these comedy festivals because that’s how we stay sharp, and then we come back and we play people before they become famous. While playing the hits, I programmed this thing. I did what’s called an ABC rotation. I’ll teach you music programming real quickly.
Okay, thre three categories, A, B, and C. And the A category you play things really tightly. B you have more than you have in the A.
And then the C is a big giant bucket of comedy.
So new stuff goes in the A, or stuff that you want to push goes in the A. So like right now, Robbie Hoffman would be an A right now because Robbie Hoffman’s hot. You want to play Robbie Hoffman and Nikki Glaser and John m’alaney and Jim Gaffigan and Sebastian Manaskalko, those would be your a’s.
And then over time that material gets, you know, a little tired because you’v…
And then overtime the b’s fall out of B and fall into SE and that’s how we program this thing.
And then, for I don’t know his last I wasn’t there very long, we dumped it do…
So now the Raw Dog channel has gone away. It’s been called raw Comedy for I don’t know when. At some point they stopped calling it raw dog and started calling it raw comedy, which is lame and vanilla in itself. So I am sad to see this go Now. The big guy in the corner office, he loves names, he loves putting faces on the brochure, and I’m sure the marketing people will be really excited to see Sebastian making a dumb face on the thing next to Conan O’Brien and Kevin Hart and whatever else is on there now.
But boy, this one personally pains me. Raw Dog Comedy uncensored, rest in Peace, one of the all time great radio stations. Sebastian might look good on the brochure, but is it cool in any way? Absolutely not. Back in those days, I got to know Ralphie May reasonably well, good guy who was very fond of him.
The documentary Come What May, is out on matche eighth. It includes archival footage of Ralphie May chronicling how the loving husband and father fell victim to enabler’s addiction and abuse, causing his brake light to burn out far too quickly. There is a trailer. Let’s take a listen, he telling my story. Be good, m I’m a very flawed in him perfect man.
You know. Problem in Houston, Texas. Ralphie May, Ralphie May can’t see this about that person and that about this person. The last group left is fat people. We’re we’re the last ones left.
He was a common man with uncommon abilities and insights. I want to go back in time, find a guy who’s been a carrot cake and plunge him in his face. He knew how to tap your soul to make you be like, Okay, it’s gonna be all right. I’m going to Tennessee. Raised an Arkansas and moved to Texas when I was eighteen.
I’m Southern. I’m my own cousin, okay. Who It was just detonation. It was really just like pulling the pin on a grenade. Every night.
I’ve lost like. Two hundred seventy pounds the last two year. Don’t clap. It’s not a real accomplishment. You lose a whole fat man, You’re still fat as hell.
I had gasher bypass surgery. I asked her again and marry me. He looked up. He said, I got gutted like a catfish. I want to be here with you.
I don’t know what else I can say. I had a lot of trauma when I was growing up, and then I started masking that with a weed and food. His pain was directed towards himself. Tell myself the truth, all food at it. He said he was off of pills and he did a great job of hiding them from me.
Daddy, please pick up some break called back. Gadgie made conversation and he just went, I love stand up. It’s fantastic. It’s the greatest job, but I don’t have it all my life. He was very kind, he was very generous.
He’s a great person, and he loved to make people laugh. A lot of comedians want to me these guys. I just wanted to be a great comedian. How many people in this world can legit make you lose yourself in laughter. Rouffie was larger than life.
He never did anything with subtlety. Everything was big. He spread a lot of laughter and a lot of joy. Yeah, I’ve been great, Thank you so much. David Letterman has weighed in on his whole Byron Allen CBS eleven thirty.
Thing here is David Letterman. It’s comics on leash. Yeh, yeah, that’s what’s going to be here instead of the Byron the Barber game, the Billionaire oh Man. And as we always mentioned, when he was a kid, like fourteen, he and I were together with a group of people who wrote for Jimmy Walker. Did you know back then that you were looking at a young No, he was a kid, and I always thought, this is great.
Here’s a kid who is interested in show business. Jimmy Walker, big, big, big star.
And then you had Stooges.
There was a guy named Wayne Klein who was a joke machine. Elaine Boosler was also a very funny young comedian Jay Leno and myself and I think Marty Nadler who had something to do with Lavernon Shirley and Byron Allen who was literally fourteen and his mother would drive him to these writers meetings. Why would they replace. The talk show with that money. Yeah.
Yeah, they don’t want to spend any money, so they’re going to make money. They charge Byron Allen some reasonable price. He sells all the advertising for his comics Unleash, and it’ll be I think ninety minutes or two hours of comics talking about funny stuff. It’s the show is a pretty good idea. It’s all panel.
Nobody’s doing any stand up, except they’re seated doing stand. Up while I’m depressed about rod Dog Comedy Uncensored and meeting an unstimely death. Philamina. Kunk is back, so at least there’s some good in this universe. The character created by Diane Morgan, who plays Kunk, known for her dead pant style and ill informed questions as host of several documentaries, is returning for another mockumentary series, this time about movies.
It’s called Kunk on Cinema, which follows Kunk on Britain, Kunk on Earth, and Kunk on Life. It is build as her most glamorous series to date. It’ll be a three parter. It’s nown production. It will air on the BBC and Netflix.
The log line Kunk will attempt to demystify it all while sitting in lumpy seats with stale popcorn, asking herself where did cinema come from? And why? And what does it want? And why can’t it tell us? Kunk said, cinema has given the world some of the most profound, memorable and moving visual moments, and it’s unswerving depiction of the human condition.
The shower scene in Psycho Death playing chess, and that Swedish thing and Tom Selex glistening mustache and three men in a Little Lady, to name it all three of the only examples I can think of at the moment. There will unfortunately be some bits in black and white, but we’ll keep that to the barest minimum. Looking forward to that one, The Flight of the Concords. Boy, They’re hot. I mentioned last week.
I thought about going out there and I saw the six hundred dollars ticket price and I’m like, Eh, maybe not. My new kick is concert DVD slash blu rays. Then I talk about this, I know, I wrote about it on the substack. I was like, I’m not going to see Springsteen. He’s charging too much.
But I was in a Springsteen mood, so I just threw in the DVD of his London show and hit play, and I was like, this is great because this is the two thousand and nine E Street Band, which was a lot closer to the traditional E Street Band. No Danny, but Clarence was still there.
And then at one point Bruce went into one of his speeches and I was like, at …
So I got up and got a drink and went to the bathroom and came back and Bruce was still in the middle of the story.
And then I watched the rest of the show and then I was home in zero seconds.
So that’s kind of my move. Maybe I’ll just watch the Flight of the Concords on HBO. I digressed. Brett mackenzie discussed how the reunion came to be, said, they were always offers simmering around. We haven’t done anything for a while.
We’ve been jamming a little bit last year, just trying to write some new ideas with no intention of booking a tour or anything, but just for fun. We’ve got a great booking agent, Nick, and Nick said, oh guys, here’s this offer. It’s in LA What do you think and it was just sort of the right type of gig for us. It’s not too big. We’re not going on the road for six months.
I think it was just one gig and then they had a a second show. We were committed to one gig, so we’re like, we can manage one gig. Brett says, We’ve got a song called Jenny, which is about two people. The song’s about a guy and a woman Jenny. Anyway, we’re like, let’s have it go, see how much we can remember.
And the song’s about him struggling and remember, and both of us are struggling and remember. And we got halfway through the song and like, I don’t know what happens. I mean, I know there’s a baby, but I know how we get to the bit about the baby, and then we have to pull up the recording and you can actually just google our own lyrics. So we were laughing at jokes that we’d forgotten. There are no plans for the Concords after the festival, although based on the demand, I’m saying I won’t be shocked if that changes.
Brett McKenzie said it’d be fun to do some more, but we’re just gonna take it and see it as we go. Playing live is pretty fun for us. Jamaine has a really busy schedule, a lot of filmwork, acting and stuff. The live shows are quite good because you go, oh, we can get a week, so maybe we could do something there within those few weeks. It seems more realistic than blocking out a year or two.
The audience is just psych man, it’s cool. I mean this one benefit of not playing for eight years. It builds up a little bit of interest. A lot of our audience has never seen us play. Last time we played all Australia was twenty twelve.
It’s a logo. A lot of people have never had a chance to see the live show. Don’t forget to vote for Comedy Survivor. We’re down to the finale, Nikki Glaser versus Sarah Silverman, who will win Comedy Island or whatever we’re doing. Here’s what you do.
You go to the Facebook group, you vote one of them off. We are voting off. You’re voting against somebody, so you vote off Sarah Silverman or you vote off Nikki Glaser. You go to the Facebook group Daily Comedy News Podcast group and you write down the name of the person you want to lose.
Speaking of Sarah Silverman, she’s got a new gig.
The team behind Netflix is nobody wants this. Have cast Sarah Silverman to play Rabbi Eden in the upcoming third season, described in Variety as the warm, quirky teacher of an intro to Judaism class and a supportive presence for Joanne and Noah. Fun fact, Sarah’s sister, Rabbi Susan Silverman, is a rabbi. I could have phrased that better, but I’m depressed over raw dog comedy. But you probably figured out when I said Rabbi Susan Silverman that Susan Silverman is a rabbi.
I need a laugh to cheer myself up. Tim Dillon made fun of Megan Markle, which is one of the things I do as the writer on the Palace Intrigue podcast. We’re having a big week because Megan and Harry are down in Australia and everybody’s just hating on them, and it makes writing the show really easy. Tim Dillon was on that podcast with David Spade and Dana Carvey. Tim Dillon said, I think Megan will eventually find her way into some type of talk show because she’s failed at the Martha Stewart route, which she wanted.
She was slinging Jam and Target. She wanted to have a lifestyle brand. Spade said Jim was an interesting choice. It’s probably an uncrowded market o than Welch’s. I can’t think of too many.
Tim Dillon said she definitely needs to adjust her strategy. I could also see her going back to the UK and saying let’s give it another go. Dana Carvey said, I think they do have to go back and stir the brand again. Dylan said, I think we’re all a little tired of her stick here. I don’t think it worked as well she thought it would.
I think her idea was to come back to America and say, listen, the British are really racist, but they do know a lot about dinner parties and I’ve learned that. So I’m here to tell you how to live like a human being and what fork to use you pig, American pig. And I think that felt a little condescending. She had that show on Netflix where she was basically like, now, well this is what they call a saucer. You put your coffee cup at it so it doesn’t spill.
Over your illegitimate children, you animals. I think people got huttle turned off by that. Thank you Tim Dillon for cheering me up. The Moon Tower Comedy Festival gets a little more serious in Austin today. Let’s take a look at the schedule.
Brad Williams at the Paramount at seven o’clock. That’s pretty cool. Matthew Bissard and Jackie Kashin doing a doubleheader at the Cap City Comedy Main Room at seven Beth Stelling at the Greek of the Cave at seven p fifteen, maybe for a late show. The texs Ins at the Velveta Room looks like a bunch of comedians from Texas. At nine point thirty, the Melbourne Comedy Festival continues.
The folks at Sceinester went to see lou Wall, they write. Last year, a clip of Lou Wall performing a musical number about selling a bed on Facebook marketplace went ridiculously viral online. Three separate people sent it to me, so you can imagine. I had high expectations when heading to check out Lou Wall’s twenty twenty six show. Where are all the tall Grandma’s scenester wrights?
The show left me wondering is there a prize for best opening to a show? Because if there is, Lou Wall my ticket. In twenty twenty five, Wall was nominated for Most Outstanding Show, and it was easy to see why. All right, we should probably play a clip from Lou Wall. John, all right, here’s a clip from Lou Wall.
What is U? Hello? My name is Lou, and recently I’ve started going to therapy. But I’m not like normal therapy, like completely online virtual therapy, which is a risk. But I thought, what’s the worst that could happen?
Like if it doesn’t work out, I’ll turn it into a comedy bit. And here we are. This is how it began. Hi, Lou, my name’s Jessica. I’ll be your new internet therapist.
Shall we start with some personal details so I can get to know you better? Stop, Jessica, I’m Lou really excited to be working with you. What would you like to know? Name, age, address, credit card? In fire, I was like, oh, my name is still Lou.
That hasn’t changed since my last message to you. My address and credit card to private. I’m twenty nine, but honestly I’ve looked forty since I was twelve. Ha ha ha said the cook. Sorry, I’m just like jocking around plase I type that as a reflection of my mental health.
Good stuff there, Seinsters says Wall was an affable presence on stage and dearing themselves to the crowd from the get go. Their impressive singing voice was a surprise, but their goofy humor combined with smart quips was as brilliant as I anticipated. That is your comedy news for today, all right, Go vote for Comedy Survivor Facebook group Daily Comedy News and raw Dog Comedy Uncensored. I miss you, old friend. Rest in peace.