Chris Rock on Divorce and the Oscars Slap

0:01 Hi there, I'm Johnny Mac with your daily comedy news. Big GQ cover story featuring Chris Rock. Chris opens up on the dissolution of his marriage and what porn had to do with it. He also discussed the infamous Will Smith Oscar slap. He said something happened. It wasn't cool and I'd like to move on. Fair enough. We learned that Rock has come to accept being asked personal questions.

0:46 We live in a gossipy culture. Chris Rock said, we live in a world where Andy Cohen is Norman Lear and Ryan Murphy is Steven Spielberg. That is the world we live in. So people want gossip. We're righteous people that follow nine commandments. And the one command we don't follow is thou shall not spread false witness. We're all about spreading false witness now. That's the world we live in. And that's what journalism or at least entertainment journalism has become. Chris Rock talked about his divorce, saying nobody has a successful divorce. So that takes time. Then once it's done, you're not sitting on the money you had before. So now you really got to make some money. So you go on tour, two tours. So there was a lot of stand up. There was a lot of getting my life together. You got a pandemic. You got a bunch of nonsense going on out there. I was not a great husband. I watched a lot of porn. I don't watch porn anymore. I haven't watched porn in five, six years.

1:29 Rock says he plans to direct more feature films and possibly hit the comedy stage again. Chris said, I got like six, seven specials, man. That's a lot. So I don't know. I'm not announcing anything or anything, but if I do it, I want to do it right. In sports, especially in football, they always talk about separation. Can he get separation? You know what I mean? Yeah, he's fast, but is he fast enough? Can he get separation? That's the way I feel as far as stand-up. As long as I can get separation, I'll do it. I'm going to write. That's basically what it boils down to. Wake up, write. That's it. Just write, write, write, write, write. Get it all out. Thank you for voting this week. Conan O'Brien was asked by an audience member about comedy's place in this strange moment in American history. Conan said, I myself find the current state of things very depressing, said Conan, so I'm grateful that I don't have to try every night and try to find something funny about what's happening right now because I get very angry and depressed. Maybe the thing I can do, that provides the best services, the stuff where I can maybe connect with someone on the subway and make a funny moment happen that's human.

2:37 I think everybody has to do what they have the talent to do that would be somewhat helpful in a human sense. As for contemporary politics, Conan said, you have to have a set of things that you'll do and won't do. You have to have a conversation with yourself about who you are. He talked about some of the aspects of Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign, saying, I look at it and I think, well, you have no soul if you do that. You have no soul. I think in modern politics, we've gotten to the point where someone figured out if you don't have a soul, you're more aerodynamic and you'll go faster. He said the current political climate is the most nihilistic thing he's ever seen. We'll talk more about Conan on Sunday. Mark Maron got a little political as well. He was profiled in the LA Times. We'll dive in on that on Sunday. But Maron did say, theoretically, we should be on the streets protesting every day, all day long, everybody. But, you know, I got things to do. I got potting soil and, you know, plant to plant. There's a new Cat in the Hat movie. I'll tell you, I was at the USC football game last Saturday, and the USC band is amazing. But the halftime show, man, they did this Cat in the Hat thing, and Bill Hader pre-recorded some video stuff that I think he might have been at gunpoint. I think they may have forced Bill Hader to record this. He did not seem into it. And then there was someone in a Cat in the Hat costume basically doing the Trump dance while the band played behind it. It was exceedingly lame. Bill Hader told Jimmy Kimmel that Hader feels pressure to be in his group chat with Fred Ormison and John Mulaney. Hader told Kimmel, we do a lot of texting throughout the day to the point where it's become a problem in our various homes.

4:04 I get really paranoid and neurotic because it's like three incredibly funny guys. Oh, Kimmel's on this text chain as well. You and John and Fred. And then I'll get a ha-ha on something and then I won't get a ha-ha and I get really anxious. If I'm going to send another video, I'll be like, do you guys think Jimmy Kimmel would find this funny? Is this something Jimmy would laugh at? Kimmel said Fred is the most giving as far as ha-has. Hater said, I'm like, I don't even know if you read that. I'll be like, yeah, I got the flu. And he's like, Bill, that's great. Hater added, if you get a ha-ha from Mulaney, I'm like, dear diary, John Mulaney ha-ha'd my text today. Tomorrow is the 30th annual Comics Come Home comedy benefit in Boston. Dennis Leary will be there. He told NHL.com that he knows Cam Neely's speech at the beginning. will be very touching and heartwarming because, remember, this all started because of his parents passing away due to cancer, and so that's the motivation.

4:53 He'll mention them, and it'll be a very emotional thing for him, and that becomes emotional for me, and that becomes emotional for the rest of the people backstage. I'm actually wondering if I shouldn't just have a moment where we just bring out all the comedians, we all cry for a second, the crowd cries, and get over it and get back to comedy. It's the third decade. It's going to be an emotional thing. Dennis talked about the origins of this. Literally, the plan was to do it once, just to draw attention to Cam's foundation, because he was just announcing it with the idea he'd build the Neely House eventually. So the idea was we were going to do this one-off gig and get a lot of attention and publicity so that people would become aware of the idea and the foundation itself. So it was a one-off, and here we are, 30 years later. Tomorrow at the TD Garden, Lenny Clark, Jimmy Fallon, Leslie Jones, John Mulaney, Ray Romano, and Jon Stewart will join Dennis Leary and Cam Neely. That is some show. Are you hungry? Carl's Jr.

5:40 is adding a steakhouse-inspired flavor to the menu. Without asking guests to make a reservation or learn the rules of fine dining, who would be a good spokesperson for that? Of course, Burt Kreischer. Yeah, we'll get to Burt in a second, but I know you want to know about the steakhouse-inspired burger. It features two seasoned charbroiled 100% Angus beef patties totaling one-third pound, topped with savory grilled onions, two slices of Swiss cheese and bistro steak sauce on a buttered toasted brioche bun. The chief marketing officer for Carl's Jr. said Carl's Jr. has always believed a great burger should be all about the food, not the fuss. As the weather cools, we're leaning into the rich, satisfying flavors that make a meal feel a little more special.

6:21 We like the idea of steakhouse indulgence, but at a Carl's Jr., you can leave the hassle of steakhouse formalities at home. I'm curious, where's the nearest Carl's Jr. to me? I don't really see them in New Jersey. Let's see, the AI says there are currently no operating Carl's Jr. 's in New Jersey. There was one in Somerset, but it's permanently closed. They're not even recommending one. They want me to go to the Carl's Jr. store locator. I'll do that. Wow, even the Carl's website is like, yeah, there are no locations near you. Let me type in my zip code here. All right, the map is zooming into New Jersey. Wow, I'm zooming way out. There must be one somewhere. No, nothing came up. I have to sort by states. Let's see. Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wyoming. Out of that, what's the closest to me? Is Oklahoma the closest one to me? All right, I'm going to visit the one in Ardmore, Oklahoma. The Maps app is opening up. I have to make my way to 1608 North Commerce Street.

7:25 And it will only take me 22 hours and 16 minutes to drive there where I can get one of these steakhouse-inspired burgers. Spokesperson Bert Kreischer is in the ads. He cleans up for a burger. You get to see Bert with a shirt on for once. Yeah. He doesn't seem to have on fancy pants. It's not like he's naked from the waist down, but I don't know. There's some sort of joke where he's wearing a shirt but not pants. Anyway, Bert Kreischer. And if you want to drive 22 hours, he'll sell you a burger. comedy stock market. Every Friday, we take a look at the comedy stock market.

8:06 That's where we buy and sell hypothetical stock in comedians. It doesn't mean they're good or bad. It means they're overvalued or undervalued. Pretty quiet week. It's been two weeks of not much noise. My one buy recommendation is Marc Maron. He's going to win the Richard Lewis Humor and Humanity Award, and he's got a little press going, and he's out there promoting Stick on Apple TV. So there's a little buzz on Marc Maron now, and Marin's great, and he's been sort of under the radar for a year, so let's buy a little Mark Marin. And I don't have any sales this week. I do have a hold for you. I told you I was going to come after Sebastian Maniscalco every week because he said he needed time. Well, to be fair to Sebastian, I went on a website that will tell you what has been added to certain radio stations out there, and I am seeing some lesser-known comics being added back to Sebastian's radio station, so it seems like the amount of time he needed was three weeks.

8:56 So it looks like he or the staff most likely have figured out how to drag comedian names into the log, but it looks like they're back on there. So good enough job, Sebastian. I'm not going to congratulate you on a thing that should have taken three seconds, but okay. The New York Comedy Festival kicks off. We won't do all the shows. I'll scroll down here and see what's interesting tonight in the Big Apple. If you want to head out to Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Improv, you can see Jeremy Pivot at 7 o'clock. Miss Pat is at the venue on Music Row at Hard Rock Hotel. What? Just say at the Hard Rock. 7 o'clock. Paul Verzi at the Stand. West at 7. Adam Ray at the Gramercy at 7. Dave Chappelle. at Madison Square Garden at 7.30.

9:37 That'll be the big show tonight, and I don't know what you would trump that with, no pun. Both Jeremy Piven and Ms. Pat have late shows and a bunch of smaller things. Not awful. Now, somebody pre-taped Saturday's show and forgot that the festival was starting when they pre-taped it earlier in the show, so we'll just blame that guy, and we'll take a look at Saturday's lineup. We have at 1.30 in the afternoon at the Caveat Theater, Drunk Black History. Jay Jordan at the Bell House at 4 o'clock. Boy, this is perfect for me. If you just want to go see some comedy shows and be home by 7, that'd be amazing. Now, I just scrolled down past a bunch of smaller shows. I'm waiting for the big names here. Piven again at 7. Chappelle again at 7.30 at the Garden.

10:20 The UCB's Ask Cats at 8.30 is at the UCB. The funnily titled Pretty Gay Live at the Bell House at 10. And that is it on a Saturday. Vulture has their list of comedians you should know and will know. One of them is Lou Wilson. You may know Lou as the announcer for Jimmy Kimmel Live. Two quick questions with Lou from Vulture. What's the biggest financial investment you've made? The answer for an episode of Dropout TV's Game Changer titled One Year Later. I was given 15 tasks and one year to complete them. One of the tasks was who can get the silliest license plate. I decided to get a Joker-inspired wrap from my 2012 Honda Civic Hybrid to accompany the license plate. I am da Joker. I am D-A-J-K-R. He says he wound up spending $ 50 to the California DMV for the actual license plate, $ 7, 000 on the design and the wrap, $ 600 on rental car because he still needed to commute to his job on Kimmel, $ 50 on bus fare when rental cars were getting expensive, $ 500 to change a busted tire and fix up his sister's car, which he then borrowed because he was tired of taking the bus. So $ 8, 200. He adds, before you ask, I still drive it and I haven't taken the wrap off.

11:30 If you spend eight grand on a Joker wrap, you'd still drive it too, right? All right, Lou, what concerns you about the future of comedy? He said, I've spent the years since COVID in a Jean-Claude Van Damme-esque split between two Volvo trucks. One, comedy's most tried and true format at Jimmy Kimmel Live. The other, the burgeoning internet-first world of Dropout TV. The journey at both has been wild. One, coming under the direct ire of the President of the United States. The other, propulsively blasting from near death to a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden. Watching these two spaces change, what concerns me and excites me is the same thing. People are looking for comedy in different places than they were when I started. When I wanted to laugh, I'd watch a TV show or movie. Today, that's not most people's first instinct. It's a YouTube video. It's your meme folder. It's an endless scroll of individuals doing something amusing for 15 to 90 seconds. That's tough for me, because my dream was to make the movies and TV shows that inspired me growing up, and there's simply less appetite for those things than there once was. Amen, brother.

12:26 And that is your comedy news for today, right? This weekend, normal episodes on the weekend. There will be episodes of Is Late Night Dead? I think I've got one queued up for both Saturday and Sunday in that feed. And those are going to start showing up in this feed as bonus episodes on the weekend as Johnny Mac tries to reel in some fourth quarter ad dollars. Just blatantly fourth quarter Christmas advertising or it's a November now. That's when us podcasters make our money. So I like to put out a lot of extra content for the next six weeks. So extra content you shall get. And that's why I'm not going to lie to you. Like ad money is good. It pays for things like iced coffee. All right. See you tomorrow.