March 19, 2025

Bert Kreischer's notebook, PLUS Andrew Schulz, Rosebud Baker and Bill Burr on doing more personal material

Show Notes
Transcript

In today's episode of Daily Comedy News, Johnny Mac delves into the creative processes and personal anecdotes of comedians Bert Kreischer, Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, T.J. Miller, Rosebud Baker, Andrew Schulz, and Bill Burr. The discussion covers how Kreischer writes his material, Kreischer's resistance to corporate gigs, and his experiences with international shows. Oswalt shares his views on touring different regions and interacting with audiences. Posehn reflects on returning to perform in his hometown. Miller talks about becoming an advocate for Bitcoin. Baker opens up about incorporating her miscarriages into her comedic material. Schulz and Burr discuss their approaches to comedy and how audience feedback impacts them. Burr also provides his take on political comedy and the importance of balancing perspectives.

00:00 Bert Kreischer's Writing Process
00:49 Corporate Gigs and International Shows
02:27 Patton Oswalt and Brian Posehn's Insights
03:28 T.J. Miller and Bitcoin
04:17 Rosebud Baker on Personal Material
05:42 Andrew Schulz on One Man Shows
06:26 Bill Burr's Reflections and Comedy Trends
08:28 Conclusion and Show Information

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WEBVTT

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Caloroga Shark Media.

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Hey there, I'm Johnny Mack with your daily comedy news.

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Bert Krasher shocked about how he writes his material down.

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He told Variety, I'm an old school pen to paper guy.

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I love being on a plane, getting a cocktail and

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writing during takeoff. I have a certain kind of book

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I use, and a certain kind of pen I use.

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The jelly roll oh Age is my favorite pen. Back

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in the day, i'd carry the book on me all

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the time. Now I just have my phone. I have

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a note section that says new material, and it's probably

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twenty pages long. It's everything I find funny. Like I

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talked to a guy the other day who said he

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and his wife went to Paris, and I asked what

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they did, and he goes Disneyland in Paris was so awesome,

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and I was like, what, who goes to Disneyland in Paris?

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I write that down? Then, when a building an hour,

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I might pepper those observations into a story to make

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it a little richer. I collect them. It's almost like

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a spice rack. Bert, do you ever do corporate gigs? Never?

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You can't get me to do one. I have no

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interest in that. I don't like being told what to do.

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I have what my wife would acknowledge as bad behaviors,

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and I'm not a good employee. I'm not good with

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a bunch of millionaires telling me what to do. I

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did a corporate gig in Aspen. That's when I really

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needed the money. I got paid twenty five grand, which

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is still a lot of money, but back then it

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was take care of us for a couple of months money.

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It was for a hedge fun and I got up

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there and they're like, well, kind of watch you wearing.

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I tried doing some material on my watch, and then

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one guy in the front row goes, dude, do the machine,

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let's barty. So I did twelve minutes, I told the

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machine and we went to a bar and got wasted.

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Having said that, I did do a gig for a

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company called Planeter back when they were just a startup.

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They gave me five grand. I just came in and

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rost with them for an hour. Broady said you should

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ask for equity when you do these gigs. Bert, I

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almost guarantee you they offered me equity, and I had

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no idea what planet or was these two dudes. We

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smoked cigars drink whiskey and talked about securities or something.

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Bert what about international gigs. He said, there's one gig

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I'm toying with an Abu Dhabi, but the rule is

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you can't take a shirt off. I don't trust myself.

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I think every comic has this weird anti authority behavior.

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If you tell me not to, I'm gonna it'd be

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weird to see Bert with a shirt on at this point, right,

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that's kind of like his image. Or I'm gonna get

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so close to it that the Hall monitor is gonna

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get a little upset. But every other international gig Dublin

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is probably the best show I've ever had. It's so

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funny how small the world has gotten. Netflix has changed

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the game with comedy because people come out to hear

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your show in Dublin and they look like a dude

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from Omaha. They just sound different. Greece was a little weird.

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I was getting ready for my Razzle Dazzle special and

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I had this joke it wasn't working about getting some

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manscaping done. Let me leave it there, and it's quite

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aggressive man escaping, but it said I did it in Greece,

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and it was like I was reading the Bible. They

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were losing their minds. It made the joke better because

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they really experienced it. Patton Oswall talked about touring the country.

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He tries to separate people from politics and welcomes almost

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everyone to his shows. He says, I never go to

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a place in dreadite like Ugh, I'm in Mississippi now.

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There's always pockets of coolness and resistance everywhere in the

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red estates. Also, five minutes outside of LA you're basically

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in a red state. Then you can be an Asheville,

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North Carolina, which is one of the most left wing

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progressive places on Earth. So it depends where you are,

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and now you treat the people you meet. Brian Possayin

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spoke to the Sonoma's Sun. Brian was excited about returning

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to Sonoma, where he grew up. He said it was

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a big gig for me. Usually when I have performances

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coming up, I'm not thinking about what to do because

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I already have an act. But to be performing in

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the theater where I first saw Jaws is next level.

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My mom used to drop me off at the theater

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with movie money and be gone all day here. I

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remember that kids from these seventies and eighties. The Sebastiani

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Theater was a big part of forming who I've become.

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The first time I performed comedy in Sonoma was ninety

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one on the stage at the Plaza. The last time

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was in ninety two. I had to do it at

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the theater where I may or may not have written

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George Washington's slept here on the seat in front of

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me during a Clint Eastwood matinee. Is pretty cool and

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kind of a full circle moment from me from the

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Coin Telegraph, your home for comedy news. Explain why TJ.

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Miller wants to be a trustworthy face for bitcoin. And

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if you can't trust TJ Miller, who can you trust?

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He explained. It all started with a casual coffee run

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in Manhattan. While in town for a Bitcoin investor week,

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Gareth stopped by the Romeo and Juliet Cafe where his

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bitcoiner Radar went off. Tells us the Coin Telegraph sitting

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nearby in that cafe TJ. Miller, who it turns out,

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was happy to dive into an impromptu conversation about all

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things bitcoin. TJ explains, you can tell that I'm passionate

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about it, and so That's what I'd like to do

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is sort of be able to be somebody that brings

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cultural awareness, spread awareness, and just be a trusting name

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and face in the bitcoin community that hopefully will bring

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more people to it. Because it's important for people to

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buy bitcoin, but it's all important for people to understand

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why and not just buy bitcoin, but why bitcoin. Rosebud

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Baker spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about her decision to

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work her miscarriages into her material. Her recent special shows

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her both pregnant and then after delivering a healthy child.

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Rosebud explained, Look, I'll be honest with you, I didn't

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have a lot of faith that she was going to

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make it. I've never had a superstition about it where

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I thought, oh, if I talk about this, something bad

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could happen. It was more like, if I talk about

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it and then something bad happens, how do I address that.

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I really sat on my original material and then the

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jokes that were in it, so I could talk about

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what this feels now asposed to what I thought it

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would feel like when I was pregnant. The special something

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I would have really appreciated when I was battling with

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whether or not I wanted to have kids. I made

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something for my former self. I joked about my miscarriage

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the week hand happen. I was going on stage and

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doing those jokes. That being said, after about three weeks

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of running those jokes, I realized I hadn't processed enough

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to be telling them. It went for being excited to

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I need a second with this alone before I can

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bring the topic back up. So even though I can

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write a joke about something sad right away, until I've

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actually dealt with it, it's not fun. Audiences need to

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feel safe to laugh at this stuff, and if I

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don't feel truly cool about laughing at it, they don't

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have a shot. At the beginning of my tour, when

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I was pregnant, I knew I was going to tape

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that hour because I didn't think i'd have a lot

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of time afterried the baby. It's not a good enough

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reason to actually put a tape out there. But then

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I was talking to my comic friend Ryan Hamilton, and

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he suggested holding onto it and revisiting it after the

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baby whenever I got to it. So then I filmed

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a whole news special with the updated material and decided

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to just send both tapes to my incredible editor Killie

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and told her pit whatever works and just airr on

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the side of funny, So it became a combination of

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the two specials. Andrew Schultz talked about one man shows

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and said, I have respect for the one man show people,

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but sometimes I feel like you're asking the audience to

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lower their comedic expectations. And that's okay because there's another

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component that might fill that void. But for me, it

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was like, what could I do to make you laugh

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as loud as you've always laughed when you come to

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my shows? And one of the most rewarding things that

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I get these dms to this day. People come to

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the show. They had no clue because I didn't promote

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it like this. They probably saw the Life tour and

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they thought I was bragging like I'm living a life.

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So they come to the show expecting one thing, and

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then they leave and they'll DM me like, oh my god,

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we just started our IVF journey. Then they'll message to

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me months later like here's a picture of our baby.

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We just got pregnant, where some people were struggling and

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they say this gave him a little more hope. And

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again that's not what you go in expecting. I just

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wanted people to come laugh, but have that kind of

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connection with people on top of it. It's been awesome.

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Bill Burr was talking about his special drop dead years,

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and he said, sometimes late at night, I put the

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kids to bed and I can't go to sleep. I

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think about them and I get sad. But I don't

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look at death as something to be feared. And I

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don't think there's this angry, invisible guy that's gonna be upset.

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Who has the time to watch the tapes of my life.

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I don't want to be up there just pointing my

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finger at the crowd the whole time. God knows I

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was guilty of that early in my career, but that's

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just where I was as a young man. I was

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lashing out at everything. As you get older, hopefully you

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realize that you're bring some of the problems to the

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table and maybe the way you handle things isn't the

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best way. Much like Schultz, Burr has heard from fans.

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He says, I hear it in the way they're laughing,

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and it's good for women here. That's understand there's perception

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that men are just dimensional. Get man sandwich a man happy.

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There's a little more nuanced to guys than perhaps they thought.

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One of the fun things about getting older is your

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perception changes on things. For me, we was starting to

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understand women a little bit, which is crazy something I

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never thought I would do. I thought forever they'd be

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confusing to me. Maybe it's because I can communicate better,

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or the women in my life communicate better with me. Still,

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God knows, it's Alwa's going to be our fault. Spoiler

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for the new special. He talked a little bit about

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Israel and Palestine, and Bill explains, if you listen to

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that bit, it's apolitical. I'm just saying we need to

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come up with a way to solve our differences without

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dropping bombs on children. I don't think anybody would have

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a problem with that. The great thing about travel, if

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you travel with your ears open, is you see way

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more similarities than differences. Everybody kind of wants the same thing,

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to chill out with people they love, to have enough

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money for food and clothing and shelter, and to be

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able ex hail and not worry about what's coming around

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the corner. What really bothers me when I travel is

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the level of angst and worry out there from hardworking people.

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That's why when I tour, go to the twenty five

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cities you're supposed to go to after you make it.

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I just did a whole tour of the Central Valley,

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and I got to tell them my perspective on things,

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and I got to listen to theirs. I learned a

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lot more about California than I ever knew. I've been

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out here for seventeen years. It's interesting seeing what they

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find funny and what they don't. Bill has asked what's

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the worst trend in comedy right now? He says, I

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don't tell people how to do things. What I feel

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like I should be doing is making fun of both sides.

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My job's not to pick a side. You come to

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see me because you want to forget about your problems.

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Even if I do make fun of a politician, I

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always make sure I get them both. If I'm gonna

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make fun of CNN, I gotta make fun of Fox

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and make fun of the whole thing, because I don't

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feel like politicians work for us. They work for the

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super rich, and they're grossly underpaid, so they're open up.

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Bribery gives regular people something to get mad at. And

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that's your comedy news for today. If you enjoy the program,

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tell a friend about it. They might like it too.

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If you would like the program without commercial interruption, if

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you're on Apple Podcast, click that banner that says uninterrupted listening.

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If you're not, click the link in the show notes.

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It says Cali Rugua dot com slash plus short version

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five bucks a month, no commercials. Some other shows on

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the network also no commercials. See you tomorrow.