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Caloroga Shark Media. I am Johnny Mack with your Daily Comedy News. I feel like being conversational today. I’ve got some stuff on my mind. I want to tell you about Back to the Future of the Musical.
I want to talk about where I think comedy is right now, and I’m not sure it’s on the mark at the particular moment, So let me just talk for a little bit. In the second half, we’ll tell you about the comedy festivals and do some stories. Thursday night, I went into Manhattan, which, if you listen to the show, you know like, oh, I have to go to Manhattan. I would seriously rather drive to Chicago. It’s easier.
I would rather fly to Australia. It’s easier. Getting to Manhattan is a bear. But I went because my daughter hooked me up with tickets to Back to the Future the Musical and it was awesome, just a good time. I’m like jonesing now to watch the movies again.
The guy that plays Marty McFly does that Michael J. Fox creaky voice thing. I don’t think I have a half assed Michael J. Fox impression, but you know the voice he nails that shows a lot of fun the actors have a good time performing their roles. These special effects are amazing.
It really reminded me of when you’re in a waiting room at Disney World and they’re trying to distract you. Standing there for half an hour, just fantastic. It’s closing in January, which stinks. January fifth is the last day for the Broadway run. I do see there’s a Los Angeles run that goes until December first.
There is a national tour of it. I also see San Diego dates in January and a world tour that will hit Japan and Germany. Anyway, if you could see this thing a lot of fun. I was high on life coming home last night. So while I was in New York City, I’ve mentioned the New York Comedy Festival, which i’ll talk about in the second half.
Is Invisible Now. I walked from thirty second Street and Seventh Avenue up to fiftieth Street and Seventh Avenue. So if you’re not familiar with New York City, that’s Times Square and the extended area. So basically I walked from Madison Square Garden through Times Square too the Broadway district. So if you’re not from New York, and you think of New York, this is exactly the part of town that you think is New York City.
No New York Comedy Festival. I saw Barker’s holding up signs with Comedy Central logos on it, trying to get me to go to see some comedy shows. That’s always the thing that goes on. But New York Comedy Festival completely invisible. They’ve been nothing but good to me.
It’s a good festival. But New York is too big, and boy was Times Square packed Saturday Night Live tonight with Bill Burr. I’m very curious to see what they do tonight, so I’ll talk about the comedy part of it in a second. I saw this clip from Conan O’Brien. This is Bill Burr reacting to Trump being elected in twenty sixteen.
So perhaps this is insight into what Bill Burr’s thinking. And I don’t understand why everybody’s so upset. Yeah, get out, Like, what’s gonna happen to you? Do you liked Obama? Did he call you at all in the.
Last eight years? Did you ever put a sandwich on your table? You do that, You’re gonna keep doing that. You’re gonna be fine. Right, have you like Lona, Dude?
I have to say though, him winning is the most astounding thing I’ve ever seen. It was a surprise, surprise. Dude, Like you’re talking like like Lake Placid, the Olympics when we beat the Russian Barry sat Kirk Gibson’s home run is a joke, right, the Giant’s beating the undefeated Patriots, that’s all a joke. Through the star of a reality show is gonna run the country. I got decided if Brett Michaels or Cindy Lauper would make a better CEO for a company that doesn’t exist, it’s gonna be running stock.
It’s unbelievable. Yeah, he just reminded me like when I didn’t read the book and I’m just like just winging it. You know, how are you gonna do that? Oh you’ll say, you’ll say, did it worked. In twenty twenty two, Bill Burr, who’s hosting SNL tonight, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter.
In twenty two, Burr said, as someone who considers self liberal, it’s this point to see the left come how the right used to be when they went after the Dixie Chicks after the criticized George W. Bush. It’s not a lot of people like that. Most of them are not trying to get in trouble. But there’s this small collection of lunatics either on the right or left any given moment that causes hysteria.
You may recall in twenty twenty three, Bill’s wife was seen giving Trump the middle finger at a UFC event. I remember the events. I forgot that it was Bill Burr’s wife. Burr was on The Rich Eisen Show and said, I love my wife. You know where you stand with her.
The guy walked in the arena, everybody cheered, she gave him the figure. Nobody got arrested. That’s why his country’s great. Everybody expressed themselves, can we all be adults on threads? And I got to figure out how we refer to a threads?
So much easier saying tweeted, so triumph threaded on our mind you. Robert Smigel wrote many of the all time bits on Saturday Night Live, including Reagan mastermind Trium slash. Schnegel wrote snl open that won’t happen. Biden woken up suddenly getting visits from people he hasn’t heard from since July. All seeking preemptive Pardons, Pelosi, Shift, Liz Cheney, Stephanopolis, Lebron, Bill Maher, Beyonce plus Chris Christy and a guy who called Trump chump in college.
Biden no, now you need me. Biden cuts deals with each of them, ranging from scoring tickets to taking someone else’s shoes to smelling their hair. Somebody responded to that, saying, I got an image in my mind of Maya Rudolph sitting at a piano singing Hallelujah and now please excuse me, but I must go hurl yes, and now you’re gonna have a lot of eyes on you tonight. Before I dive in today, let me quote Caroline Hirsch, who used to own Caroline’s Comedy Club and has organized the New York Comedy Festival. Caroline Hirsch said, pay attention here.
This is very important. Caroline Hirst said. Ideally, comedy is about taking information that may be controversial or polarizing and making it more palatable in a communal setting where everyone comes together to laugh and let off steam. We live in a country where fifty percent of the people are pissed off and fifty percent are happy. How do we bring those two sides together?
By making them laugh. Laughing is a healing process. It soothes the soul. I’m glad I found that quote from Caroline because I have struggled to capture my feelings here and I think Caroline has captured them again. Comedy is about taking information that may be controversial or polarizing and making it more palatable in a communal setting where everyone comes together to laugh and let off steam.
Let’s dive in. So where I am with the election, and stay with me. If you listen to me every day, you kind of get my vibe here. I was not surprised at all by the result. Whatever my political opinions are, I was not surprised by the result.
And I think Hacks on Tap, which is a podcast, nailed the vibe. And I’m leading up to something here. You may recall Tony Hinchcliffe told a joke, terrible joke, told one joke. It was a joke in the middle of a six hour event, in the middle of a four month campaign. They drilled down and everybody focused on that.
And then I look at my friend Tom. My friend Tom has to work six days a week. I’m friends with some people who were very happy with the result. This week. I’m friends with some people who are very unhappy of the result.
This week, hacks on Tap talked about the optics. So say you’re standing on a stage with Beyonce and Bruce Springsteen. Hacks on Tap said, you got to understand how off putting this is to so much of America. It feels very comfortable if you’re having a dinner party at Tina Face House, but out there where they’re bending metal and parking squad cars for a living, it’s not only a shortcoming, and it’s an off putting vibe. That’s how I feel about comedy right now.
I get where the late night hosts are coming from. I get that comedy is supposed to comment on the current situation. I think Late Night is not helping themselves this week. I’ve mentioned here we have a podcast called Ballot, which makes fun of politics. I’m working with AI to take stories and make fun of the stories.
If there’s comedy to be mined, we make fun of it, pure comedy. Trump is a more colorful character than Harris was. Joe Biden. You can make old jokes. Jade Vance is a bit of a character.
Tim Wallasle is a bit of a character. So we throw those things in there and we make fun of it. All Since the election, we’ve taken the point of view of us. We never made fun of Trump. What are you talking about?
We love Trump and we’re having fun with that, and then we talk about how much we love Trump while making fun of the stories. I think the late night guys are off tone. This week, Jimmy Kimmel said, let me tell you, that was the worst Taco Tuesday of my whole life. We had the choice between a prosecutor and a criminal, and we chose the criminal to be the president of the United States. More than half this country voted for the criminal who was planning to part in himself for his crimes.
The Borto pick out there is more than half the country voted for the guy. And Kimmel I thought this joke was terrible. Donald Trump is like the Emperor from Star Wars. He’s old, he’s evil, and he keeps coming back with no reasonable explanation whatsoever. So a supertopical twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen Rise of Skywalker joke a better joke, Kimmell said.
Kamala Harris called Trump today, She conceded and then explained what the word conceded me. And see that’s funny, Kimmel joked, I can’t stay for another four years of this. My only request to President elect Trump is that he let me share a prison cell with Taylor Swift. I’m really good at making bracelets, and I think we get along just fine. Stephen Colbert said, Hey, there, how you doing.
If you watch the show regularly, I’m guessing you’re not doing great? Yeah? Me neither. Some people said to me, sorry, you have to do a show tonight, which is nice for them to say, but I don’t have to do a show. I get to do a show.
They’ll be jokes because it’s what we do. And I’ll let you in down a little secret. No one gets into this business because everything in their life worked out great. So we’re built for rough roads, you guys ready. Seth Meyer said, I don’t think Donald Trump’s a good person.
I’ll even go as far as saying he’s a bad person. On my defense, I’m only basing that on everything I’ve ever been taught about what makes someone good or bad. This is real and something I accept. Half the country thinks he’s a good person or don’t care that he’s not, and thinks he’s a good person and because of that, he’s going to be our president again. Jimmy Fallon hacked joke.
Well, guys, last night in America decided to get back with a crazy X and elect Donald Trump as the forty seventh president of the United States. No matter who you voted for, I think we can all agree that it’s going to be a rough Thanksgiving. I assume there’s a punch line in there somewhere. Kim Oll then the next night went on about Elon Musk and said, at least my children like me, which, again, I guess there’s a joke in there somewhere. Now you probably just heard that segment and think you know who I voted for.
You’re wrong. Just from a comedy standpoint, I think it’s off tone right now. Joe Rogan had on commie and libertarian Dave Smith, who does a political podcast of sorts. I like listening to all sorts of things, and I have a brain. I can listen to things.
Whether it’s Joe Rogan or Steven Colbert. They might have different takes on things, and I listen to things and sometimes I go, huh, interesting point, and other times I listen to things, and I go, that’s crazy talk. Rogan has advice for Trump and said, this is one of the first times ever where there’s a real chance to make real, tangible change that’s going to be for the good of everybody. He’s got to unite people. He’s got to not attack the left and not attack everybody.
Let them all talk their crap, but unite now. It’s time to unite everybody. Rogan said, it’s Donald Trump as the messenger was so polarizing that people lost what’s really going on just based on who this guy is. Just like Tony Hinchcliff is an insult comic, Donald Trump’s entire career is you’re fired. You’re a loser.
Rosie O’dnald’s a loser. Like that’s this whole stick. Recently, Rogan talked about Obama and said he didn’t come through on a lot of things, but as far as like a representative of the United States, who better than Obama? He’s the best of all time, the most educated and eloquent and even keeled, and he was a statesman and the way he spoke inspired confidence that truly the wisest among us is the king. I listened to a bunch of Rogan’s.
I don’t know if it was the Dave Smith one or if it was Tim Dillon, or maybe a different one. But he pointed out Harris, who did not appear on the Rogan podcast. According to Rogan, Harris one ad Rogan to go to him. Rogan pointed out Obama was the sitting president and went to Mark Maron’s garage. Jay Leno thinks the election was a great day for democracy.
The nice thing about the election is it was fair, was honest. I was not a fan, but that’s okay. It’s the president of the United States. Let’s all get together, thank you very much. In his view, the election was done professionally, there was no cheating.
Everybody says it was honest. I mean, it’s a great day for democracy. In my day, you kind of made fun of both sides, I agree with jay leto. Jay Leno had a very successful run hosting that Tonight show. Make fun of both sides.
Wherever the comedy is, find the comedy there, Leno said, you’d get angry letters from both sides. Now you kind of have to take a side. And yet it’s a little bit different. Dad Letterman’s social account, it’s unclear if David Letterman himself handles it. It’s unclear if David Letterman approves these things, but David Letterman’s Instagram account posted a video of Green Day performing America Idiot just hours after Trump was declared the victor.
Anyway, back to the future of the musical. It’s really good. You know, this one got overshadowed the three to one to two Comedy Festival in Chicago, and they’ve got great artists. Note it’s been going on since Wednesday, and I’ve talked about this during the week. Weird week to schedule things, guys and I did prep the show.
It didn’t come up. You got no Google results, and I forgot that this thing was going on. But tonight at the Chicago Theater at five o’clock Larry David Nate Jackson plays at seven at the Riviera. Ryan long As a show at Zany’s at seven, Angelo Colleen at Park West at seven, Kevin Herrera at zany seven to fifteen, Mark Norman at the Chicago Theater eight o’clock, Lisa Triggers at Zany’s, Kevin Herrera Well the Late show at Zany’s the New York Comedy Festival. I don’t want to read every show.
It is a pretty big festival. But let’s see what’s interesting here. What’s bot a swing? That sounds like a show that Trenmarcos Siresi and I were making fun of when I had him as a guest recently, Michelle Chan Bennett and Josh Nasser are Bobby Bingis and Tommy Laguini to nineteen sixties cruiters whose careers, livers and opinions have seen better days. That sounds like a good time.
We’re allowed to make fun of things again, right, Yes, we’re not going to freak out. The Italian American Defamation Society’s not going to showup because somebody did a character named Tommy Laguini. Right, I don’t know. Maybe they are, And I think this is back to the vibe we used to be able to just get along and kind of have fun. Not everything has to be a big deal.
It’s a comedy show. Jimmy o Yang Carnegie Hall at seven o’clock. Awesome, Joe List at Town Hall at seven, Jordan Jensen at Grammercy at seven, Sophie Duker at Union Hall at seven thirty, Joe Kim Booster at the Billhouse at seven thirty, jud Appatoo and Friends at eight o’clock. It’s a fundraiser, right, I’m asking you as if I’m not hosting the show. It doesn’t actually say and it doesn’t say who the friends are either.
It’s a little hard to you gotta tell me who’s on the lineup, guys. Don’t tell comedy at eight o’clock. What’s the location? That’s how don’t tell comedy works. It’s a secret indoor location.
B Yob show. That’s all we know. Sam Morrison and friend Sam is really good. That’s the name you should know at the Little Field at eight. Sophie Buttle at Second City at eight thirty.
A lot of shows to night. Believe me, I’m skipping a lot. I’m not reading the whole thing here. Jimmy Yang a second show at nine to forty five, Joe Kinbooster, second show at ten, the Mister Rogers Variety Hour. Oh that’s tomorrow, all right, Well that’s the Golffhanger.
I don’t know what it is. I almost clicked on it. We’ll see what that is tomorrow, and I think it’s time for me to go. If anyone is still listening, I probably lost everybody in the first half. What are you gonna do?
I’m gonna leave you with this TikTok that somebody sent me. See tomorrow. So you know how those lids all right, because this is fun speak, Okay, so this is it. So you know how those lids on the Starbucks cuts, they’re white, right, and so if you were lipstick, they get all over the lid. And so then I find myself in meetings if I’m the only woman, and that’s kind of until I keep taking the lid off and having my cub out so that I don’t have that big lipstick.
So I said, can we do something about the color of the lid. So that was that conversation.