March 22, 2025

Ari Shaffir's Dark Years and Gary Owen's Golden Age

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac delivers the latest comedy news. Ari Shafir reminisces about the challenging early days in West Hollywood, while Eliza Schlesinger talks about her social media habits and love for Australian audiences. Gabe Iglesias discusses his collections and career longevity, and Felipe Esparza reflects on navigating audience reactions. Gianmacro Soresi shares insights on comedy evolution, and Gary Owen praises the current comedy landscape. Chelsea Handler opens up about her relationship with Jo Koy. Tune in for a deep dive into the lives of your favorite comedians. Unlock an ad-free podcast experience with Caloroga Shark Media! Get all our shows on any player you love, hassle-free! For Apple users, hit the banner on your Apple podcasts app. For Spotify or other players, visit caloroga.com/plus. No plug-ins needed! You also get 20+ other shows on the network ad-free!

00:52 Iliza Shlesinger's Morning Routine and Social Media Insights
01:49 Gabriel Iglesias on Collecting and Career Reflections
03:29 Felipe Esparza on Comedy and Controversy
04:54 Gianmarco Soresi's Evolution in Comedy
06:33 Gary Owen on the Golden Age of Comedy
07:12 Chelsea Handler on Relationship Lessons

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WEBVTT

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Callaroga Shark Media. Hey there, I'm Jenny Mack with your

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daily comedy news. Ari Shafir caught up with Fox News

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Digital and tell some stories about the dark years starting

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out in La. Ari said his early days learning the

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ropes in West Hollywood's Comedy Store were the dark years.

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It was evil. We were like doing crazy stuff. We

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had like gambling rings in the back. People would be

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hooking up in the back. It was just like crazy

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stuff would happen there, drug use and it was awesome,

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but there was no crowd. Every two weeks would have

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a show where there was just no show because nobody

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showed up. But because of that we got used to failure.

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Ari said, it's harder to break in in La compared

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to the other big comedy cities. It's so disheartening. The

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open mics, the little level stuff is so crappy. It's

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so crappy that almost all my funny friends like failed out.

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There's no positive feedback ever. It's just terrible. Eliza Slessenger

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is going to be down in Sydney and at Sydney Fest.

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She caught up with The Sydney Morning Herald and explained

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her morning I have a strict tied of two cups

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of coffee and at least nine hours of scrolling in

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the morning before even talk to my children. I try

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to remember how much of this is not real. I think,

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especially in the past few years, you're an idiot if

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you think what you're being fed is based in any

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kind of reality. She does like social media. It's allowed

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more international fans to discover her work. She had just

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recently played some dates in Japan. Eliza said, at its finest,

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social media has a connective tool. The Internet is a

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credible thing, but at its worst, the way most of

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us experience it, it's our sugary demise. If you go

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see her at Sydney, she'll be doing her latest hour

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get ready, and she enjoys the up for anything energy

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of Australian crowds. You guys love a good time. Anyone

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who's ever gotten drunk while in Australia knows this. You're

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like tropical British people. I'm really looking forward to coming

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back down Under, though please note I did cringe when

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I just said down Under. I sound like such a tourist.

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Gabeglacias talked about one approach to his comedy which is

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nobody wants to hear about you having a good day.

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They want to hear about the struggle. Gabe collects watches.

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He also is known to collect cars and Marvel memorabilia.

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Neil E. Times is curious where does the drive to

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collect stuff come from. Gabe said, that comes from not

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having stuff. When I was a kid, I always wanted this, this,

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and Mom's like, now, we can't afford it. So when

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I got in a position where I could get those

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toys that I wanted as a kid, I made sure

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to do it. I figured out I don't have any

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crazy habits. There's no drugs. There's just nothing that's like,

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you know, I'm spending money on. So I'm gonna buy

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the toys. I'm gonna buy the goodies, the collection from Marvel.

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That comes from me being a fan of the brand.

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I love Marvel. I watched DC, but I'm pretty one

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sided on that one. I even got offered an opportunity

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to be in a DC film, and I turned it

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down because I'm like, I'm gonna be a hypocrite if

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I do it. That's crazy. Gabe. First of all, I

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wonder who he would have played in a DC film.

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And that's crazy, dude, that's like really crazy. You should

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have said yes, game said, I'm gonna hypocrite if I

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do it. As far as the buses go, my first

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car was a sixty eight Volkswagen Bus. Many years later,

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I got my ex her first car back. I said,

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you know what, I want to get my first car back.

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I got one, and the guy who got me the car,

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I said, if you want another one, let us know.

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And I was like, well, if you come across something

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to cool, let me know. And it kept going and

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going and going, and now the whole building's full. I

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recently got a free car from Volkswagon because they found

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out about the collection. They came down here and said, wow,

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you aren't battinate about our product. Gabe's grateful that he

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still has his career. He says, this career as a

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shelf life. It's not supposed to last this long, and

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I feel very fortunate that I'm still able to do it.

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And the fact that we're still going up it's insane

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to me. So I'm enjoying every day and I want

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fans to know that I feel lucky and I'm grateful.

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And if this goes away tomorrow we can all say

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we did all this. Felipe as Sparza also spoke to

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the La Times and said, I think as a comedian,

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you can make a joke about anything you want, but

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you got to be prepared to take the consequences of

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your words. You can't forget that part. One time, early

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in my career, I was asked to do a clean

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comedy show and I didn't cuss, but he did some

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jokes about racism and religion, and I said the wrong thing,

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and it ticks some people off, and the microphone was

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cut off. And I had a lot to do with

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the content, not necessarily the cursing. But it's important as

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a comedian you know the audience, especially when you get

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hired for private or corporate events. Now though, if I'm

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hired when he do shows, people know when you you

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get what you get. If you know my shows, you

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know I'm gonna make jokes about drug, sex, marriage, race,

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religion and more. I'm gonna use vulgarity. But it's a

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stand up comic. I've evolve from a one liner to

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comedian that tell stories, and it's some really dark stuff,

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but I find it all funny. I don't like to

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be too political. But I do touch on immigration and

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race somewhat in a soft way to make people laugh.

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For instance, in one joke, I noticed how white people

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don't work all month at their jobs then send money

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back to Scotland or Ireland. White people don't have immigrant

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relatives from Germany or Belgium showing up the door with

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blankets saying they need a place to live. If I

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get people to laugh at some of the topical jokes,

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that's a good thing. One thing we proved in this

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last election is you can't put Hispanics and Latinos in

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the same category anymore. We're not all the same brown people.

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There are some Mexicans that want other Mexicans and Central

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Americans deported from the country. It's insane. But overall I

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try not to take the angle where I come out

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saying all whites are racist and kill all white people,

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because that's not really funny. There really isn't a joke there.

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I try to make little jokes about the topics and

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get people to laugh. Trenmarco Ciresi, a friend of the show,

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described how his comedy has evolved. He said, coming up,

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I worked at a club in Times Square called ll

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that no longer exists, Thank god. Yeah, John Marco's not

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kidding there, you know, wasn't the greatest New York City

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comedy club, just saying a lot of the crowd was

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not paying attention for some English was their second language,

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some were drunk or just noisy, and he had to

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cut through all that. So your jokes had to move quick,

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and he tried to really pop. I got a lot

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of skills out of it, but the turns and twists

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had to be so sharp, they were less true and

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relied on being a little extra dirty or edgy. It

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was tough to build a world or tell a story.

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Now that I could tell a story of paint more

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of a picture, the punch line's more meaningful. Explained it.

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In his newest work, He has a joke about feeling

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suicidal and having a friend who's suicidal and explains if

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I've done that in at ten minute club set, people say, dude,

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I just want to have a good Friday night. What

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are you doing? But my fans know my point of

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view and like darker things, so I can explore these topics.

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But almost every comedian, even the greats, gradually get worse.

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One factor is performing for your fans who like you

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and will laugh even at a failed joke, you lose

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the fear about keeping their attention and having to write

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something so sharp. Stand up is it's a tricky art.

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For him, you can feel like a try hard. In

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the beginning. You could have accused me of being too

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theatrical without the jokes to back it up. I got

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labeled as two to one man show at one club,

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which was frustrating. But for me, it's pretty natural. When

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attention is thrust upon me, a flamboyance emerges. I'm trying

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to lean into that without exaggerating it, always asking how

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can this be funny and serve the storytelling? As my

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stages literally get bigger, I look at the real estate

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and think, after use it for something, what can I

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use the stool or the mic stand for in a

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way that doesn't feel overly choreographed but still adds a

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dimension that a lot of comics in the generation above

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me veered away from. Gary Owen thinks we're in a

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golden age of comedy. He says, you don't need the

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machine anymore. It used to be when I started, you

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needed a producer or director or somebody to see something

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in you to put you on something. Now, as long

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as you got your phone, you can record anything you want.

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If you can put any stand up clip you want

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out there, you never know what's gonna go viral. That

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brought the conversation to Matt Rife. Wife's a guy. You

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post something on TikTok, goes to bed, wakes up the

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next morning and it's like, seventy million people saw this joke,

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and he's like, what happened? I think you got more

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comedians right now, selling tickets, doing theaters, doing arenas. Comedy

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clubs are packed. You see Andrew Schultz, you see Shan Gillison.

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The way they're pushing the envelope, you could see this

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is what we want. We want to go into these

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rooms and be uncomfortable. We want this dark humor, and

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nobody's taking it personally. Chelsea Handler was on Zack Shephard's

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podcast and said she did not want to break up

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with Joe Cooy, but felt like she had no choice.

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She explained, I felt like it was a decision between

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having a relationship and being full honor, choosing myself and

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my sanity. Sanity is an overstatement, but I would have

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compromised my own value system. That's interesting, She explained. What

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I thought was a mature, healthy relationship and what he

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thought was a mature, healthy relationship with two different things.

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I know have had to compromise everything I stand for,

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and I wasn't willing to do that. We had a

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couple instances where it was obvious that we had different

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ideas about togetherness and the amount of time would spend

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together in the expectation of me as his girlfriend, which

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to me were very outdated, old fashioned and not gonna work.

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The biggest takeaway from that relationship was that I was

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able to be in love in a vulnerable, mature, healthy way,

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and that when I realized it wasn't going to work out,

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I was able to end it in a healthy, mature

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way and not divulge all the stuff and the ugly

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that might have happened in between, because I didn't want

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to focus on that. Chelsea said, Joe Cooy got me

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to point in my life where I needed to be

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reminded of my strength and my power of who I am,

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and he reinstalled that in me because I had kind

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of lost interest in my work in the job and

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that is your comedy news for today. If you enjoy

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the program, tell a friend about it. They might like

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it too. See tomorrow.