May 7, 2025

Bill Burr's Perspective on Fame P:US John Mulaney's Show Struggling?

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac discusses Bill Burr's feature in The New Yorker, where Burr reflects on the temptations and challenges of fame, and his approach to comedy. The show also covers John Mulaney's Netflix series, noting its initial success and subsequent decline in viewership. Additionally, Johnny highlights insights from the comedy industry, including Nate Bargatzes profile in Esquire, Paramount's halting of a civic initiative project linked to The Daily Show, and changes at Just for Laughs under new ownership.

00:00 Introduction and Bill Burr's Profile
02:18 John Mulaney's Netflix Show
05:58 Nate Bargatze's Rise and Style
08:14 Paramount's Civic Initiative and Just for Laughs

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Callaroga Shark Media. Hi there, I'm Johnny Mack with your

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Daily Comedy News, another busy one. There is a big

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profile of Bill Burr in the New Yorker under the

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headline bill Bird does not want to talk about politics?

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Or does he? I've shared the link in the Facebook

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group Daily Comedy News podcast group. The link his paywall.

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But if you know your way around the internet you

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can probably figure that out. Bert told The New Yorker

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in my business, you can lose your way. You know,

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people blow smoke up your ass, gets start to believe it,

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start carrying yourself a different way. One of my favorite

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things to watch is when even your circle of friends

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becomes a career move. You and I are cool, and

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then I get an inch ahead of you, and then

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I'm looking for the inch ahead of you. Friends, This

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business is brutal. When nobody knows who you are, you

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have this loneliness laying in bed going, oh my god,

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am I the guy who doesn't make it? Then you

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do get somewhere, and then you have to learn how

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to handle that. And I find the way to handle

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it is to disengage with it. Try as much as

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I could do to just do what I always did,

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and I find if you act normal, people act normal.

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It's a law of attraction. If you show up with

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three stvs, people want to see who it is. Yeah.

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I always found that. On the other side, you know,

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as somebody running radio stations or being a suit. Anytime

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I worked with somebody in entertainment, act normal and they

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act normal back. I mean, there are people in the

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industry we used to call them star efforts who would

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be like, oh, Bill, Burt, can I get a selfie?

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And like they'd make up some crap that it was like,

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you know, hey, can I get a picture and I'm

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gonna sell it on eBay and raise money for charity.

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And it was just about. It was just about, like

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I don't know, collecting a portfolio. I very rarely took

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pictures with anybody back in the day. It's like Bill said,

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just act normal. First said, I consider what I do

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to be a job, and my idea of what the

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purse of the job is changed over the year. My

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thought now I look at it like somebody had a

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tough week or somebody had a great week, and they

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had an all right week. It's my job. Remember kind

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of week you had to make either you forget about

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it or make it a better week because you're laughing

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for an hour. My job is just to make fun

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of things. One of things I'm most proud of is

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the people on the right thing I'm liptard and my

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wife writes my jokes, and the people on the left

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think I'm a trumper. And for that reason, when I

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go to a red state, I go extra hard making

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fun of the red guys. When I go to blue state,

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I just go off on liberals because selfishly it's a

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fun thing to do. But I also say, if I'm

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in a red state, I'm making fun of red people,

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and then I hear the Blue people go woo, then

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I go after them. More from that article tomorrow. Also

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big article week this week the New York Times. Under

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the headline is this late night TV's last Gasp. The

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focus here John Mullaney and by the time we get

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to the end of this article very interesting. Mulaney describes

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his weekly Netflix show as a throwback. In some ways,

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it's almost like the way you might remember a bunch

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of shows from the past, but it's not exactly what

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they were like. No element is new, but the way

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they're being laid out might feel a little bit. We

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learned more about the origin of the show. You may

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recall during the Netflix Is a Joke Comedy festival last May,

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they asked John to host the show. Mulaney said it

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was originally envisioned as a show that would be a

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bit like MTV. The host would serve as a VJA

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introducing one comic and then the next. Laney decided he

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could host it himself, and before long the concept started

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to morph into the current show, Laney explained, and it

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became like, well, people can come out and I'll talk

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to them, and then they'll sit there. Then I'm interviewing

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people and we're doing bits like we couldn't have backed

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into it in a more convoluted way. I was like,

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what kind of show do I want to watch? And

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it is not a topical could you believe socio political

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story of the day show, because that ground is well

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covered by Greek people, John Oliver, Jon Stewart, Daily Show,

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et cetera. Now here's where it really caught my eye.

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Robbie Prat, who is Netflix's VP of Stand Up in Comedy,

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said that Netflix had not initially been looking or aspiring

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to do another talk show, but they were interested in

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being in the John mulaney business because John is so singular.

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We'll come back to praw on a second. The Times

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article quotes Jim Bell, former show runner for The Tonight Show,

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mister Bell said, of all the legacy broadcast day parts,

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morning shows, evening news, late night, late night might be

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the first one headed for the wood chippers to make,

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tough to monetize and no longer appointment viewing. It's still

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got cultural juice, but from a business standpoint, it's the

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most vulnerable. Some stats from the Times. As recently as

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twenty eighteen, the five broadcast network late night shows Colbert, Fallon, Kimmel,

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Cordon and Seth drew in around four hundred and thirty

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nine million dollars in advertising, according to Guideline and advertising

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data firm. By twenty twenty two, that four point thirty

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nine had become two hundred and seventy seven million. Guideline

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said last year it was down to two hundred and

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twenty so that's half in five years with Covid in

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the middle there. Now, let's pay a lot of attention

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here because this echoes something that I have been seeing.

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The Times rights It's not clear how the show is performing.

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Millenis show, but critical attention has been more muted this season.

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The first episode appeared in Netflix's daily ten most watched

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TV series in the US, but the show has not

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returned in the subsequent seven weeks. That's what Johnny Mack

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has been saying. Now listen to this. Robbie Prat said

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that Netflix was not prepared to announce anything yet about

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a potential third season. Now that caught my eye because

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I was like, but didn't they announce that this was

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a two season pickup? And I went and looked that

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up and yep. Deadline had reported mulaney received a two

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season order from Netflix, which greenlit the show last year.

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So were they now, like, eh, maybe not. Robbie Prau

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is quoted as saying, every show we've ever done, we

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want more people to watch. So it sounds like Netflix

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is a little iffy here, and they do tend to

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cancel things. And if it went from you know, being

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in the top ten to not being in the top ten,

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maybe they sense that there's no buzz on this thing.

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I thought it was misproduced. They finally produced it correctly.

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The week Letterman was on and let Letterman have Space

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two himself and brought out the guests one person at

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a time. But the uncontrolled chaos that John went for,

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I don't think it worked, which is a shame because

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I really liked the LA series last year. All Right.

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More from that, Napri getsy article in Esquire, a major

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profile on Nate. His book came out yesterday. We pick

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up where Nate hosted SNL for the first time, and

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Eschoire writes one of the top searches on Google that

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week was who is Nate Brighezzi. Nate explains, I knew

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I had to destroy in the monologue. I knew it

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was a welcoming a hello. Jimmy Fallon apparently is the

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one who pitched Nate to Lorne Michaels, Fallon telling Michaels,

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I think he's the guy. I know he's kind of

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an unknown, but I'm telling you he will score. Nate

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then talks about doing politics in his actor not doing politics.

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If I want to give you my opinion on who

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I voted for, who's that for? It's for me, really,

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because I want you to know that I'm smart. I

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don't think it's really helping an audience. You don't think

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they know who to vote for their living life. Once

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you run out of celebrity's opinions on politics, maybe I'll

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jump back in. But right now I just want to

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do the opposite. He talked about his style of comedy.

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I need you to be able to trust that when

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your kids are in the car, you can play my

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album and you're not having to think. Let me make

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sure there's nothing I don't want to have a conversation

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about right now. There's a trust interesting quote from Mark

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Maron in the Eschoire article. Maren says Nate's coming at

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a time when comedy in some ways is in trouble.

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You have these very tribalized camps of comedy, the anti

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woke crew, bravely speaking power to truth, and he sort

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of transcends that. I don't know what to make of

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that comedy is not in trouble right now, unless Maren's

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coming at that from an art form and buying into

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this thought that Man of Sphere Rogan Bros. Have taken

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over comedy. I mean, comedy goes in waves, and there

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are different styles, and I'm looking at who the streamers

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are putting on. They're not putting on the man bro

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sphere stuff. But the man bro sphere stuff is selling tickets.

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I think there's plenty of comedy to go around right now,

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So I'm not sure what Maren's getting at there. You

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have these very tribalized camps of comedy, the anti woke

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crue bravely speaking power to truth, and he sort of

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transcends that. Okay, Nate jokes about hosting the Emmys, quoting Nate,

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why did they pick me to do it? Well, the

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election probably helped God Hollywood executives asking who doesn't live

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in LA and who's available. Back to Maren, who comments

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on that and says he bigger than what's going on

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socially because of his talents, point of view, and the

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way he does comedy, which is truly unique. He would

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have been a big star and no matter where the

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culture is. I don't know what to make of any

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of that. I have shared the entire article in the

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Facebook group, which is Daily Comedy News Podcast Group. An

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interesting story out of Late Nighter dot Com. Apparently Paramount

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has pumped the brakes on a daily show branded civic

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participation initiative. According to the article, this is out of

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concern that the partner organizations on the project might prove

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to be controversial. The project, called Take a Seat had

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apparently been in the works for months. The goal to

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encourage people to run for local office by connecting them

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with organizations that could provide them with resources to mount

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a political campaign. Now, as part of this there were

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apparently a left leaning group called Run for Something and

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a right leaning group called the Women's Public Leadership Network.

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But the report says Paramount delayed the project after it

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became concerned that partnering with organizations would carry quote too

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much risk. Airmount is currently trying to go through a

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merger approval. You may have seen the sixty minute story

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in the news, so an interesting development there, and Variety

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did a profile with the new owners of Just for Laughs.

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So Van part Badard is the head of Comedy Ha

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or Kamitah. I still haven figure that out. That's the

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company that acquired Just for Laughs last year. Merging the

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two brands seems like there's a little back history there.

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He told Variety, I wanted to launch Just for Laughs

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in Quebec city, but the former owner told me it

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was impossible, so I launched my own festival and then

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continued with all the respect I have for the old owners,

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you do not manage a creation company with a finance ideology.

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When I met the CEO of Just for Laughs in

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twenty eighteen, I had the phone number of every stand

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up comedian, their management, their agent. He did not have

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won but he had the phone number of the bank,

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He had the phone number of the sponsor. He knew

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nothing about comedy. We learned a little more about the festival.

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Just for Laughs as partnering with Rob Mceleenny and more

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better p actions on an initiative geared to writers. Will

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Arnett and the Electric Avenue Banner will work on a

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shorts and pilots platform, and YouTubers Smash will have a

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program for social media creators. Spencer Griffin, head of Development, says,

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we want to be additive. We want to introduce artists

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to the industry at the festival and then actually help

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them succeed in the industry. Whereas the old company just

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said good luck, now, we want to say, here's how

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to take the next step together. Friday quotes one comedy

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manager as saying, a lot of pipelines have disappeared in

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this industry in terms of building your career. I mean,

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is that true? Do we not have social media now?

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Or are you're not able to just go on YouTube

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and create your own thing. I'm not sure I agree

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with that comedy manager. Having a respected institution like Just

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for Last backing you and guiding you is actually exciting,

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all right. I am looking forward to the festival coming back.

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I think I'm going to head up there. I haven't

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thought that far out yet. Plus, they haven't announced what

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the lineup is. Are they doing new faces? I hope

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they're doing new faces. That's my number one thing to

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go for. So we will see what happens when jesser

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Last returns this summer. And that is your comedy news

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for today. See you tomorrow