April 26, 2025

Brett Goldstein's HBO Special is out today

Show Notes
Transcript

In today's poolside comedy news, Johnny Mac highlights Brett Goldstein's HBO special airing tonight, discussing Brett's background as a comedian and writer, and his surprise at audience reception on his recent tour. Pete Davidson reflected on his time at SNL and his relationship with Lorne Michaels. Jay Leno opened up about caring for his wife diagnosed with dementia. Leslie Jones shared thoughts on making people laugh amidst current societal challenges and her career preferences. Kevin Nealon talked about the joy of communal laughter, and Sarah Milligan mentioned her favorite Canadian comedians and her love for Vancouver cuisine. Upcoming SNL guests and musical acts for May are also featured.

00:19 Brett Goldstein's Comedy Special
02:56 Pete Davidson Reflects on SNL
03:49 Jay Leno's Role as a Caregiver
05:09 Leslie Jones on Comedy and Change
05:58 Upcoming SNL Guests
06:19 Kevin Nealon on the Joy of Laughter
06:55 Sarah Millicam's Canadian Favorites

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WEBVTT

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Callaroga Shark Media. Hello, we are poolside once again. I'm

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Johnny Mack with your daily comedy news. I'm joined by

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the birds, the aeroplanes, the dogs and whatever else you

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think you hear. You're not crazy, but it's too nice

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to sit inside and record. Brett Can has a special

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on HBO Slash Max tonight ten pm Eastern. They make

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you wait, make you stay up late. Come on, Johnny

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Mac likes to go to bed, well, not on Saturday.

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I'm go to bed before ten on Saturday. Let's not

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be ridiculous. It's Brett Goldstein, The second Best Night of

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your life. Now a lot of people think this is

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just Roy Kent deciding to do stand up comedy to

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cash in. It's actually the other way. He was a

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comedian slash writer. He wrote the character Roy Kent, and

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then he was like, can I audition for it? And

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if my audition sucks, I'll pretend I never auditioned, And

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he nailed a part, and that's how he became Roy Kent.

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He's also never done stand up on Late TV and

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told the Last Laugh that he generally has avoid filming

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his act in any way. He explains, I just like

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it live. I really believe in the room with the audience,

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that's where you feel it. That's where you try stuff.

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The game of it and the fun is sort of

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this energy that happens live, and it's really hard to

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capture that. The beauty of stand up is every time

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you're trying something, you're kind of saying, is this normal?

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Is this, Madam I insane? If they laugh, it means no,

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and I think that too, or you are insane, But

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it's funny. Brett said, I had no idea what people

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were expecting when I went on tour, because I know

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that ninety nine percent of them hadn't seen me do

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stand up because they only know me as Roy Kent.

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I thought I was gonna have to address it. What

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I really didn't want to do, but was prepared to

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if I had to, was be like, hey, you all

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know me as Roy can't, but I'm more like this.

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I didn't want to do that. I'd rather just present

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this thing. To be honest, I was surprised delighted that

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I never had to do that, and I suspect reality

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was their expectations were probably very low because they probably thought, ah,

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this is an actor trying stand up and they didn't

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know that I actually have done stand up for a

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very long time. The Wall Street Journal got a screener

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of it. They've already seen it. S Boilers would be

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a strong word here. It's more of a vibe spoiler.

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But if you don't want to know anything about the special,

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skip ahead. But again, I'm not going to destroy it

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for you. The vibe spoiler from the Journal says the

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reasons why the special works or not has less to

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do with the material than with Goldstein's lack of a

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well defined stage persona interesting. When his humorous insights on love, sex, manhood,

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and money are made from a perspective of cool observation,

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it works much better than when he resorts to being vulgar.

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The Journal says, Goldstein can clearly deliver a joke a

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viewers simply isn't prepared for what direction it's coming from.

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One Brett Goldstein can observe that it is native England.

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The name Brett Goldstein is rather exotic, while in America

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everyone knows that Brett Goldstein, but another Brett Goldstein can

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go off on a tangent criticizing the architecture of public

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toilets in the US, and leave a listener wondering what

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in the world of entertimoty is talking about. Brett Goldstein

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The Second Best Night of Your Life tonight, ten pm HBO.

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Pete Davison told Indywier. I think I was very lucky

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to get my own video to the SNL fifty special.

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There's a thousand cast members and hundreds that are more

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popular and did better work than I did when I

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was there. I was just very grateful to be in

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a sketch and have a video and even be invited.

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It was very surreal to see. And I was there

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for almost a decade, but even when I came back

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and hosted, I was like, Wow, I do know all

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these guys. I know Lauren Michaels, most of the cast.

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It just hits different when you see like Meryl Streep

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doing a sketch. Pete said of Lorne Michaels. Yeah, he's

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like my dad kind of. He's really really sweet, and

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he's always been above and beyond understanding of my life

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and just supportive in all the right ways. I'm very lucky,

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Pete told John Bernthal's podcast, when your own show pokes

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fun at you, I'd be sitting in the backwatching the

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Cold Open, and the Cold Open is topical, political humor,

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whatever's in the culture. And they're making fun of you.

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Then you've got to walk out and do a sketch

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next and hit your mark. And the show just made

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fun of you. What are they gonna do? Laugh at

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you like they just dogged in front of everyone. You're like,

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I'm a loser man. Jay Leno is the conservator of

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his wife Mavis. She was diagnosed with dementia. Jay has

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been the conservator since April of twenty twenty four. Jay

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to people about it and says he stepped up for

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Mavis in her time of need. That's what love is,

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and I'd rather be with her than doing something else.

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When you first get married, you sort of take a vow. Well,

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I live up to this, or it'd be like a

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sleazy guy. If something happens to my wife, I'm out

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banging the cashier at the minimart. No, I didn't. I

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enjoy the time with my wife. I go home, I

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cook dinner for her, watch TV and it's okay. It's

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basically what we did before, except now I have to

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feed her and do all those things. But I like it.

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I like taking care of her. She's a very independent woman,

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so I like that. I'm needed. Jay explained that something

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he does with MAVs is they go through memories on

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flash cards, and he says that's brought some laughs. Jay

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tells it it's kind of fun. I go, honey, that's

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President Obama. Remember we had dinner, And she'll say, oh,

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not me, and I'll say, yeah, honey, that was you.

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But says there are challenges when you have to feed

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someone and change them and carry them to the bathroom

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and do all that kind of stuff every day. It's

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a challenge, and not that I enjoy doing it, but

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I guess I enjoy doing it. I'm not just this

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person's attractive and sexy and having sex with them and everything.

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At some point in my life, I'm going to be

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called upon to defend myself. And I think that's what

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really defines a marriage. It's really what love is. It's

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what you do. I mean, I'm glad I didn't cut

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and run. I'm glad I didn't run off with some

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woman half my age or and in that's silly nonsense.

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I'd rather be with her than doing something else. Totally

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switching gears Leslie Jones spoke to Seven Days Vermont about

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being comedian, said, ain't hard. If you're offing funny as

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a comic. You need to take that kind of stuff

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and say, I'm tired of these mfforts being depressed. I'm

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gonna make them laugh about this stuff. I'm getting older

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and I really don't like to travel that much anymore.

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I'd be down to do a late night show or

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maybe a sitcom something where i'd be working here in

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LA from my home. Doing the Daily Show is great,

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but it's in New York and I don't want to

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live in New York. Leslie continued, what's wrong with everybody

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right now? They're too scared to change, too scared to

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face their problems. You have to endure change. Change doesn't

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give a hoot about your feelings. Change is going to happen,

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and it's either going to be painful or not painful,

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based on how honest you are with yourself. And right

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now our society is choosing the painful way because nobody

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wants to effing change. Things are dark, but I want

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to give people a reason to laugh instead of cried.

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At the end of the day. It's my job to

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cultivate people's happiness and not go all in on their sadness.

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There's no snl A this week, but they've announced the

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guests for the next few weeks. May third, Quin de

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Brunson hosts Benson Boone, a musical act. May tenth, Walton

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Goggins and Arcade Fire they're still around really And May seventeenth,

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probably the season finale here Scarlett Joynson, so Michael Jay

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will have a good week with that one and Bad

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Bunny your musical guest, Kevin Neil until the post independent

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laughter is contagious, and I think it's much easier to

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laugh when other people are laughing as opposed to sitting

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at home. I'm sure somebody's done a psychological study that

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always kind of amuses me how joyful it is to

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laugh with other people and look at the other person

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when they're laughing. This people do, they laugh and they

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look at the other person. It really brings people together,

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feel it kind of makes them forget all the insanity

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in the world. Kevin is now seventy one. That seems

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impossible and explains my goals to just basically deliver the

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package so that they formulated in my head, which is

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the premise, the set up, the delivery, the punch line

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of that particular bit. It's kind of like sending a package.

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You put it all together, you tape it up, you

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put it in the mail, and the other person receives it.

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You go, yes, it worked. And British comedian Sarah Millicam

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is in Vancouver. The Vancouver's Son I had some questions

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for her, which she fielded expertly. If you're trying to

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appeal to Canadians, the question who are some of your

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favorite comics and why? The answer, Some of the funniest

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people I've ever seen are Canadian comics debrah D Giovanni,

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Mike Wilmot, John Hastings, Steph tole Evan mark Ford. They

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all make me hoot with laughter and be jealous of

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their jokes. All right, Sarah, what do you like to

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eat when you're in Vancouver? She said, I will try

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to get poutine and I don't like cheese curds. I

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need to go somewhere where they won't throw me out

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for asking for poutine without the cheese curds, which is

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essentially chips and gravy. And also, you have my favorite

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type of food here, which is huge portions. Love it

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all right, Brett Goldstein tonight and that's it from Poolside.

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I will see you tomorrow