March 29, 2026

BTS Fans Mad at Jimmy Fallon Warmup? The ‘Anyone Here From the North?’ Kerfuffle

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac reports on a controversy involving Tonight Show warmup comic Seth Herzog, who drew backlash during a Guggenheim Museum BTS taping after asking “anyone here from the north,” which some interpreted as a North Korea reference; TMZ says he apologized and was replaced by Ryan Rice for the subsequent Rockefeller Center taping, though it’s unclear if related. The episode notes Seth Meyers is taking three weeks off until April 20 and Jimmy Fallon two weeks off starting April 7. Cheryl Hines responds to Chelsea Handler’s claims about buying a “toxic” $6M house from Hines and RFK Jr., saying she knew of no issues and suggesting Handler wants attention. Mack discusses a Deadline report on Netflix targeting podcasts, high talent costs, meeting audiences where they are, and whether carrying a weekly podcast could reduce incentives to buy comedy specials. Other items include Leanne Morgan throwing a ceremonial first pitch at Tennessee, a rumor Kelly Ripa is freezing out Howie Mandel, and Melbourne International Comedy Festival show recommendations.

00:19 BTS Warmup Controversy
02:25 Late Night Shows Breaks
03:06 Cheryl Hines vs Chelsea Handler
04:23 Netflix Podcast Strategy
06:42 Leanne Morgan First Pitch
07:08 Kelly Ripa Freezes Howie Mandel
08:23 Host Celebrity Encounters
09:02 Melbourne Comedy Picks

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This is the animal sanctuary mentioned in the February 10 episode.

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Caloroga Shark Media. Happy Sunday. I'm Johnny Mack with your

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daily comedy news, A daily briefing on stand up comedy

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comedians in the comedy industry. A sentence the algorithm just

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can't get enough of. All Right. There was a little

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kerf fluffel involving BTS. You know, the Korean band that

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everybody loves. Well. Apparently, Seth Herzog was doing warm up

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for the Tonight show starring Jimmy Fallon, and Seth came

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under fire for making an improvised remark during a local taping.

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Before I tell you what he said, I am going

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to say something I have said on this podcast. And

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I tell my class, if you say something into a

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microphone enough times, you will eventually say something stupid. You

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will eventually wish you had freeed something. Differently, it goes

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with the territory. You're just riffing and you say something

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while warming up the audience. Seth Herzog apparently said, anyone

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here from the North. The line was apparently intended as

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a general question about where the audience was from. However,

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some people thought it was some sort of comment about

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North Korea in relation to BTS. Who are from South Korea.

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Audience members took to social media because it's twenty twenty

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six and we have to get offended at everything, and

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they posted describing the remark as offensive and inappropriate. The

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BTS global fan base immediately got involved with this boy.

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I hope they don't notice this podcast episode and download

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it and share it on social media. That would be awful.

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According to TMZ, Seth Herzog later apologized directly to BTS.

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NBC apparently discussed the incident internally with the comedian again.

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I'll remind you what he said. Anyone here from the North, now,

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this is interesting. This took place at a special taping

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at the Guggenheim Museum where BTS performed for a select audience.

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Then The Tonight Show taped its regular Wednesday night show

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in studio at Rockefeller Center. BTS was interviewed by Jimmy

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Follon on that episode. A source tells Late Night Or

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that Herzog, who usually does warm up, didn't do the

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warm up for the second taping and was replaced by

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comedian Ryan Rice, who is the usual warm up comic

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for Seth Myers. It is, of course unclear whether Herzog's

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absence was related to the earlier incident or not. As

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I'm checking TMZ on Friday afternoon, they have asked mister

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Herzog for comment and so far no word back. Stay

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on Late Night for second Seth Meyers taking three weeks off.

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He won't be back until April twentieth. I mean, what

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will we all do, all seven hundred of us that

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watch Late Night with Seth Meyers? How will we possibly

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fill the time? Jimmy Fallon is taking two weeks off

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starting April seventh? This is all weird. We used to

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not do this. Is this like quiet budget cuts? Is

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that what's happening here? I mean, I know everybody hates

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j Leto, but the guy worked, and in olden times

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that Tonight show would have a guest host. Are they

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really going to run two weeks of reruns on Fallon?

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Are they going to run three weeks of repeats for

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Seth Meyers where they display the national anthem and run

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a test pattern for an hour and probably still get

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the same viewership? Honesty, very very strange. Cheryl Hines has

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responded to those comments from Chelsea Handler. You may recall

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Chelsea Handler had said on the Dear Chelsea podcast that

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she had bought an La house from a blind trust.

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She didn't know who the owner was and found out

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that the owners had been Cheryl Hines. An RFK junior.

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Chelsea Handler had said Cheryl Hines had left her a

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note after she moved in, urging her to call she

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needed anything. Handler said she quickly discovered some issues in

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the quote unquote toxic house. Cheryl Hines has now said

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she wasn't aware of any issues with the house. Cheryl

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Hines suggested Chelsea Handler is seeking sympathy in attention, especially

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given the Cheryl Hines is married to Robert F. Kennedy Junior.

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Hines was on the Tommy Laryn Is Fearless podcast and said,

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I think, yes, you have to question the timing of it, right,

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because she bought this house five years ago and she's

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just now complaining about it. She's also getting a lot

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of sympathy from people. She's buying a six million dollar

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house and talking about how she was duped and that

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we try to sell our house. That was her word, toxic,

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which also doesn't make sense. The story doesn't really hold

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water because I did write her a personal note when

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she moved in, saying how much we love the house,

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and I hope that she's a beautiful life in this house.

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And if you need anything, call me. And I left

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my number, So if we were trying to unload a

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toxic house on her, I would have left my number.

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I think she's just trying to get attention. It's probably

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fun for her to make fun of Bobby. What are

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you gonna do? I've been sitting on this one for

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a couple of weeks. I actually want to get to it.

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I find the topic really interesting. A few weeks ago,

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Deadline wrote, as Netflix targets podcasts, comics weigh the risk

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of leaving YouTube, and I thought there was some really

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interesting insights in here that I hadn't come up with

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on my own, Deadline said. Multiple sources we spoke with

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several weeks ago suggested that Netflix hasn't been able to

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scale its podcast library at the pace some in the

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industry anticipated. After getting what one called a very quick

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education on this and other matters. One agent that's told Deadline,

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we're talking to licensing teams that are used to going

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to with Sony or Warner Brothers. A soemenity that owns

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a catalog of content. I think their first expectation was

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do the same thing. We're gonna go to the Ringer,

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iHeart Sirius, and we're just gonna be able to get

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a slate of content. A source says the quote price

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to engage with comedic podcast talent has been quote a

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lot higher than he believes Netflix expected the quote. I

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don't think they realized just how much money some of

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these talents are making when there are majority participants in

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AD supported revenue. One manager said, in an ideal world,

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you're baking these comedians into the streamer ecosystems and then

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you have more opportunities. So I'll editorialize. Berd Krascher might

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be an example of that, although his podcast isn't up there.

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Alan Abdeen, who's head of AD revenue and Partnerships at

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Ymah Studios, that's the Sigora Christina pea company that I

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think produces Berd Krascher's podcast. He said, a very important

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core truth of podcasting is you meet your audience where

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they live. He adds, regardless of how many millions of

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dollars are being offered, he would never advise talent to

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take a new captive audience at the expense of alienating

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the core audience that got you to where you are now,

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the theory being that risks creating an adversarial and problematic

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relationship with the community. You're basically telling your community you'll

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watch it, well, I'll tell you to watch it, versus

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we'll meet you where you live. But here's the big one.

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This was the big takeaway for me that I had

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not at all thought of on my own as some

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sort of podcasting expert. One executive wondered, specific to comedy,

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and I think this is a great point. If Netflix

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feels like they can get your audience every week from

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your podcast for a relatively low price, are they then

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going to be incentivized to get your special or these

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bigger projects from you? Right? So, well, yeah, why should

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we pay for a special if you've got the pawn

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on every week? Very interesting, this executive said. It's something

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we're discussing internally in a very coordinated way because we're

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cognizant of the potential impact it might have on other

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pieces of the business and we don't want to continue

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to be at a race to the bottom. Today at

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one thirty pm, University of Tennessee Graduate LeAnn Morgan will

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return to campus. Why leand Morgan is throwing out the

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ceremonial first pitch at a Lady Ball's softball game. Fourth

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rank Tennessee is hosting Old Miss for a three game

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series this weekend. LeAnn Morgan will throw out the first

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pitch at Sherry Parker Lee Stadium, game scheduled for one

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thirty pm. Leanne Morgan graduated from the University of Tennessee

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in nineteen ninety two. Gossip site rob Shooters Naughty or

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Nice said Kelly Rippa has quietly freezed out Howie Mandel.

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WHOA what happened here? An insider tells naughty but nice,

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Howie Mandel disrespected her in her house. That's her show,

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her audience, her tone, and he bulldozed right through her.

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An insider explains Kelly runs a tight Paula ship. She

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expects guests to play along, keep a light, protect the vibe.

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That interview did the opposite. Apparently, Howie Mandel pushed back

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on Kelly Rippa's comments about his age. The source says

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She'll never say your band, but suddenly bookings get tricky,

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schedules on the line and invites Vin as another insider

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says Howie won't be asked back, not after making her

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uncomfortable on her own set. A source ads in daytime TV,

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chemistry is everything now. I wrote about this on my

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substack link of the show notes about a week ago.

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I was in a waiting room and was subjected to

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this program. Now, Kelly's co host is her husband. They

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have no chemistry. I was stunned for a married couple.

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They have no chemistry. Mark looks like they grabbed a

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guy off the street and said, hey, we need somebody

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to co host Live with Kelly this morning. You're free,

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and the guy was like, yeah, okay, I'll do it. It

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was stunningly lack of chemistry. So I don't know what

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went down here, but if you're gonna make me pick

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team Howie, I met Howie once million years ago. I've

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been keeping a note getting older. Now I'm starting to

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reflect a little bit. I've been keeping a note of

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the people I have met over the years, and every

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now and then I'm like, oh, yeah, I met so

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and so. Started a couple of weeks ago, I was

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just in the car and Bruno Mars came on and

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I remembered I had met Bruno Morris once. That was

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when we had Henry Winkler up. Bit serious. You think

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I would have taken pictures with these people, but I

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tried to explain to people the reason you get access

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is because you know how to behave, so like, you

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don't take pictures with these people. I know I met

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Bruno Mars, I know I met Henry Winkler. I guess

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if I had a picture, I could throw up on

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social media and look cool. But like, it's just not

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how you roll anyway, I met how we mentel ones.

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Melbourne Arts Review suggested some more shows at the Melbourne

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International Comedy Festival, which we talk about a lot. This time.

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Viria continues until April nineteenth. They like the show Transcendence,

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which places a side splitting spotlight on the complex love

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hate relationship of owning a dice and vacuum cleaner love it.

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They also like Circus Oz Here, there and Everywhere at

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Melbourne Town Hall, fresh from their holiday season on forty

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second Street in New York City. I probably should have gone.

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Then Circus Oz returns the wonderfully silly cast ricochet between

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brilliance and nonsense, flanking themselves and anything not nailed down

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across the stage in a joyous explosion of acrobatics. Here's

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the title for you, Skank Sinatra and Dolly Diamond. They'll

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be at the Grouse in Room seven, April seventh through

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the nineteenth Dolly Diamond and Skank Sinatra teaming up for

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a cabaret catastrophe of epic proportions, and it's going to

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be the funniest musical comedy failure you've ever seen. We

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follow down on their luck cabaret producers Dolly Diamond and

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Skank Sinatra. I can't say enough times as they hatch

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a scheme to save themselves from unpaid Edinburgh fringe tax

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bills by producing a short fireflop. Is this not just

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the producers but different when their guaranteed disaster turns out

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to be a surprise success, Chaos, comedy and show tunes ensue.

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Expect dazzling costumes, razor sharp banter and musical parodies and

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Broadway's biggest hits as these two CAMOI icons do everything

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in their power not to succeed. Eva Seymour is the

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understudy at the Motley Warehouse spelled wh E R E

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h a U S the premise she knows all the line.

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She's memorized every cue. Now she waits for call to

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tell her. Amy has Gastro exploring the anxiety fueled existence

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of the professional swing. The other study dives into the desperation,

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jealousy and gratitude for the gig that fuels the perpetual waiting.

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But the waiting has consequences. When you put everything on hold,

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what do you have left? And Marcel Cole is doing

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Smile The Story of Charlie Chaplin. After selling out Natalaie

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and Edinburgh in twenty twenty five, the Fringe sensation about

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the life of Charlie Chaplin coming to the Melbourne International

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Comedy Festival. There's mime, music, audience interaction and even a

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bit of ballet. The show is in the spirit of

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Charlie Chaplin. The show with a laugh and maybe a tear.

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One man physical comedy. That is your comedy news for today.

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Have an awesome day to see tomorrow.