🎙️ Listen to this episode:
Full Transcript
The Shark Deck Johnny Mack with your Daily Comedy News downloads up this week. If you’re a new listener, welcome and thank you. Mark Marin spoke to Awards Radar dot Com and they talked about his recent special, From Bleak to Dark. That special was about the death of Mark’s girlfriend Lynn Shelton. Awards Radar dot Com said it feels weird to say because the nature of the stand up, but I enjoyed From Bleak to Dark, and Marin fielded that perfectly.
He said, I wanted people to enjoy it. It’s not weird to say. What’s the alternative to people say it’s terrible and really made me sad. They asked Mark if having the special on HBO is supposed to say Netflix made it special. Marin said, it really did.
Actually, despite what anybody says, I think the Netflix model has done more damage than good in terms of quality and stand up in a way that there are many things on there that you can’t find. I did two or three specials for Netflix within a week. It becomes difficult to find something on that platform. Whatever the algorithm honors is who gets the big cash and who’s put in a position to do more and more specials. In a matter of the quality HBO and I was coming up was not unlike a Letterman slot.
It was really the Holy Grail. It meant something and I was so honored in some weird way. It’s almost like a childhood bucket list to do things like an HBO special.
And also it’s a better place to be.
I got tremendous support from HBO, and they curate their content and there were great shows on there. It sounds like you didn’t enjoy his relationship with Netflix. Marin said, I think most of my audience are people who would engage with what I do, or HBO viewers. So for a number of reasons, it was a tremendously exciting thing to have an HBO hour. Which one of us is going to tell Marin about the whole Max thing.
With Netflix, you don’t even know what’s on there, But HBO is a brand does maintain its integrity to a degree.
Speaking of Netflix specials, Amy Schumer’s is out.
I have not watched it yet, maybe tonight. I did watch the first two episodes of season sixteen of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Fantastic, really enjoyable. Some LLL’s from Johnny Max sitting in the basement on the big screen. It occurred to me as I was driving to the National Donuts chain this morning.
Remember yesterday I said it was weird that Netflix had put the clip out of the special just the day before. Then I thought about it more as I was listening back to myself, Do you do that because you have a huge ego? No, I do that for quality control. Every now and then I make a mistake and I try and catch it before y’all catch it, make it quick, edit and repost the show. Anyway, it occurred to me that I didn’t see any reviews of Amy Schumer special day of which suggests that screeners didn’t go out And that makes me curious because usually when they’re excited about something, they put it in front of everybody.
For example, Paramount Plus is very excited about the upcoming season of Star Trek Strange New Worlds, and I’ve only seen great reviews for that. But I didn’t see anything about Amy in advance, and that’s weird. Anyway, it’s out now, so USA Today watched it and said Amy Schumer isn’t here to make friends in her Netflix special. I guess I should put out a spoiler’s warning here. USA Today rights spoilers in emergency contact.
The comic declares her liposection to be the laziest thing she’s ever done. She makes fun of herself for stuffing her face with fillers and turning into a laser treatment that render her skin blood red, only to look exactly the same. But and we’ll see this in a couple of reviews. It seems people really like the section about Alec and Hilaria Baldwin. Amy says, do you guys know who Hilaria Baldwin is?
I’m saying it wrong, I’m sorry, then says the woman’s name in any Spanish accent. Amy tells a story about meeting Hilaria backstage at SNL and Hilaria says she’s from Espania with a very thick Spanish accent. Amy continues, they have a von trop amount of children, and they’ve named them all I’m not sure, but very Spanish names like Hammone, Croquetta, and Flamenco. That’s a good joke, and all this would be fine and beautiful except that Hilaria from Espania is actually Hillary from Boston. This woman is in no way Spanish.
Her parents are not from Spain. No one in her life is from Spain. You’re going, what did you just think? I was doing a really racist Spanish impression. So I’m not trying to bully a sociopath.
I have a point, Okay. I think what happened is she went to Spain, and I’ve been lucky enough to go to Spain. Some of you been it’s great, right, don’t you love it? I loved it too, But Hillary from Boston loved it. Now USA Today goes out of their way to point out Hilaria born Hilary Thomas apologized in February twenty twenty one on Instagram for lack of transparency about her upbringing and giving the impressions she was Spanish.
I had no idea about any of this. This is hilarious, Amy says. My point is that all evidence points to this woman ever since she met her husband as straight up pretended to me from Spain and her husband shot someone. Shooting someone’s not funny, Johnny Mack, But the joke is funny. It’s a comedy podcast.
You understand comedy. It was a good joke. Variety also focused in on the Hillaria from spain part Amy says, my point is that neither of them give an f Amy then talked about the joke she was not allowed to make during the Oscars. Amy says, I want to preface these Oscar jokes by saying that my lawyer said not to say these. Don’t tell anybody, don’t get mad at me.
Don’t look up as the name of a movie, more like, don’t look down the barrel of Alec Baldwin’s shotgun. That is a hack joke. Amy, Wow, that’s not good. That should be cut for being terrible. Hack hack hack hack hack.
The Daily Beast right Samy, Schumer mocks the idea that it’s dangerous to be a comedian right now. Amy jokes, when they ask me, I’m like, yes, I’m on the front lines every night. My people are like me, We’re tired. Nobody’s tackling anybody. We’re all too tired.
The Daily Beasts take Emergency Contact is a mixed bag. One minute, Schumer is invoking and honestly kind of riffing on Chappelle, and moments later she’ll delivery skating punchline about our healthcare systems utter lack of interest in conditions that affect only women. Schumer’s brash charisma shines through each knowing grin and comical palt like the one she puts on as she mimics a man who doesn’t want to swallow a pill. Similarly to John Mulaney, who opened his most recent Netflix special by picking out a young audience member blah blah blah, Schumer selects a twenty seven year old named the Libby, who shall occasionally tease with the horrors of aging. At the same time, some of Schumer’s material can feel dated, either the spiritually or is a cultural reference.
For instance, viewers arrived at the Chapelle discussion through a story about Schumer’s visit to the home of a secret blind millionaire, meaning he’s blind, but as somebody explains Schumer, everyone around him acts like it’s not happening. I’m like, you can be that rich that you’re just not blind. Unsurprisingly, the best material and emergency contact is all personal, like when Schumer jokingly compares herself to Libby, perhaps as an analog for her younger self. In those moments she’s undeniable, it’s hard to fathom why she’d waste precious time on anything else interesting. Maybe I’ll watch that tonight.
Pete Davidson has shocked fans after making a surprise appearance in the latest viral video from Mister Beasts This from the Sun. Do you know? Mister Beast YouTuber known for his philanthropy, often giving thousands of dollars away to his fans and strangers. He has more than one hundred and fifty million subscribers on YouTube and over forty billion views. In a recent video of mister Beast decided to document he and his friends living for day on yachts of various worth, starting at just one dollar and going up increments to one billion dollars.
One of the yachts was worth fifty million. The magaship is two hundred feet long, four stories high, can hold over two hundred people, and comes up with a twenty person crew, apparently Pete Davidson’s. In this video, another yacht pulls up, Mister Beast tries to wave a friendly hello. One of the partiers on the other yacht mooned Pete Davidson and pals. Mister Pete said, I was waving and him and he showed me his butt.
Pete said, that’s going to be someone’s dad one day. Eventually the to me boats slowed down to create some distance. Beat said, where are they going? Are they backing away from us? Are we just that good?
Hank Azaria spoke to NPR’s code Switch about the whole ap poo thing, and he said, I think that’s a good example of how a really uncomfortable conversation could turn into a really productive one. He said, if he had any doubts about a poo being problematic, a racist attack and a store clerk where the assailants held up who changed his mind? He said, a pooh had become a slur. Now. Azaria doesn’t voice any non white characters on The Simpsons at all.
He said, there’s no public outcry over the other characters he dropped, and they weren’t considered stereotypical or harmful in any way. But I realized, if nothing else, why am I taking the job away from an actor of color with so much less opportunity than I have. Paul A Poundstone was on the Laugh last podcast. She talked about her own podcast and said, quite correctly, the podcasting world is very much like the economy as a whole. There’s the one percent and then there’s the rest of us.
Who are wrestling with whether or not we should still be doing it. Paula says, I fall into the latter category. Sadly, nice story here with some good coming from some bad. A Canadian comedy grant has been established in the memory of the late Nick Nemeroff. The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television announced the creation of Misdirect the Nick Nemerov Comedy Grant.
It would be awarded to emerging Canadian comedians who embodied the spirit of his namesake. I wasn’t hip to Nick’s comedy until he passed away, and I’ve been playing in a lot on my show on Live One, which is called the Weekly Comedy Thing. He was fantastic. The grant seeks to nurturally amplify the next generation of comedic voices by providing a cash prize of up to ten thousand dollars Canadian to the winning comedian, intended to be utilized for their next TV special, album or other comedy related project. Lewis Calabro, VP of Programming and Awards for the Canadian Academy, said Nick Nemeroff was a groundbreaking comedian on the precipice of greatness and that’s our hope that this grant will serve as a sign of encouragement and reinforcement for the next generation of innovative, fresh and creative Canadian comedians were pushing boundaries.
Nick’s parents said Nick’s comedic legacy as one of perseverance, commitment, and generosity that will forever be grieving his passing. We are credibly proud to honor his qualities through this grant, providing up and coming comics a chance to pursue their dream with the same fever Nick was known for. Nick passed away June twenty seventh of last year, age thirty two. The Only Times wrote another article about the Austin comedy scene. I shared one of those with you on yesterday’s podcast.
Today, they spoke to specific comedians and club owners. David Lucas, you know him headlining the LA comedy scene these days. He said, the thing that I love about the Austin comedy scene right now is that there are no agencies or studios out there. Well, if you keep writing articles in the La Times, give it five minutes, buddy, they’re gonna be all over you guys. Lucas said, My focus ain’t checking and Chivy to be seen by Netflix or HBO.
It’s pure comedy. I’m gonna get a place where it’s pure comedy. You get to see some of the best stuff. David, Yeah, sure. But I imagine if I tell you, hey, somebody on the back is from Netflix and they’re considering you for special suddenly you’ll be like, Oh, I love Netflix.
Come on, you’re all in it for the money. I’m in it for the money. I’m not recording a podcast as a board stop. Dean Stanfield, comedian said Austin was more free to say anything you want from a comedy perspective, but these days it’s bottlednet. Used to be you could get away with saying anything because there’s nothing to lose.
No one’s careers were on the line. But now there’s more people coming in, so there’s more pressure. Like, you say something wrong, what was the start of your career could end just as easily. It’s still a lot more free than LA’s comedy scene, I think. David Lucas said, the comedy Mothership is changing the game.
That’s Joe Rogan’s club. Never in the world as a comedy club been made by a comedian taking suggestions from comedians and been built four comedians. The Comedy Mothership even offers comedians healthcare. Joe Rogan made this club so the comedians can work in town and pay their rent and take care of their business. When you start working at the Comedy Mothership, it’s like, damn, is this what fairness looks like.
Taylor Dowdy, is the GM of the Velveta Room and also a comedian, said, as a comic, I think somebody like Rogan opening Mothership is kind of a blessing. What else could he ask for? Really? You always heard legendary stories of the Comedy Store. But who’s got the time and money to fly out to LA and try to get on stage there?
It’s nearly impossible. Now in Austin, it’s basically right down the street. Brian Redband, comedian and co owner of the Sunset Strip Comedy Club. I liked that name a lot, he said. After I invested in Sunset, I realized, Oh, I gotta tell Rogan about this.
I’m opening a club right next to him. I still work for Joe full time, and this is probably a bad idea. Maybe I could get fired for this, but I kind of fell into it because I love the other owners in the comedy club. They made the fact that it was a historic building. It just screams classic comedy club.
It’s like a playground for comics. I’m sure it was really uncomfortable to tell Joe I got really drunk at his club. He’s a bar called Mitsy’s, named after Mitsy. Sure. I was hanging out with him on the opening night the Mothership and I said, hey, Joe, I got something to tell you, so glad I was drunk When I told him.
His reaction was like, are you evan kidding? That’s awesome?
And now we joke about it all the time, me and Rogan.
We’re not doing this for the money, right yea meat either just recorded podcasts supporting the basement. I’m sure some other club owners are, but I don’t give a crap about money. I did this more as an investment in a comedy into the city. We’ve talked so many people in the living here. This is the best place to live.
Now we’re just blowing it up. Comedian bach Zoom and Eguly said, I personally don’t see the growth of the Austin comedy scene as a bad thing, especially because Caps City Comedy Club is not the only gatekeeper anymore. Before as a comedian, if you had a beef with Caps City, then you weren’t doing Moontower Comedy Festival, which the club is affiliated with. And when south By Southwest came up with his own comedy conference, he had to pick either Moodtower or south By. As a comic, he couldn’t perform it both.
So, coming out of the pandemic, if a booming scene where you have a lot of new people running things, So comedians took it upon themselves and run their own shows. The industry here is now run by comics and there’s more stage time for everybody. It’s like a big high school, but at least it’s decentralized. And as we learned today, nobody’s doing this for the money. No one, me neither.
So you know what, don’t follow the show, don’t download it, don’t follow me on Apple, don’t follow Spotify. If you’re on YouTube, don’t smash the like button. We’re all just in this for the fun and the love of comedy. Nobody’s trying to make a buck. Really, see you tomorrow.