Jan. 2, 2025

Cunk’s Latest, Dennis Leary's New Show, and Ronny Ching's Travel Tips

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac covers Philomena Cunk's new Netflix show tackling complex concepts humorously, Dennis Leary's military sitcom 'Going Dutch,' and Ronny Chieng’s laid-back travel preferences. Johnny also highlights Jimmy O. Yang's fear of infinity, and Jim Gaffigan’s comedic philosophy. Additionally, Gianmarco Ceresi criticizes unnecessary crowd work in comedy, advocating for high standards in the art form. The episode wraps up with reflections on the role of criticism in comedy and Johnny's daily comedy news sign-off.

00:14 Philomena Cunk's New Show on Netflix
01:13 Dennis Leary's New Sitcom 'Going Dutch'
02:57 Ronny Chieng's Travel Preferences
05:14 Jimmy O. Yang on Infinity and Fear
06:07 Jim Gaffigan on Honing His Comedic Voice
06:49 Gianmarco Soresi's Comedy Opinions
08:08 The Need for Inclusive Bullying in Comedy

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WEBVTT

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

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daily comedy news Today on Netflix. Kunk on Life, I

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Love Phil and Meena Kunk as played by Diane Morgan.

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Kunk on Life, We'll see Philamina tackle some of the

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most complex concepts have ever been discovered, including quantum physics, existentialism, nihilism, hedonism,

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and at least four other isms, as well as exploring

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subjects from the Big Bang to biology, morals to meditation,

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and art to artificial intelligence. In her search for answers,

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she'll also examine some of history's foremost thinkers and groundbreaking creatives,

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including whoever came up with those signs and kitchens that

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say Live, Laugh, Love. Along the way, she'll be meeting

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leading experts and academics and not letting them leave until

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she's gotten to the bottom of such questions as what

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is life? Why are we bothering to find out? And

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when's lunch. Morgan first introduced Kunk on Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe,

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a British series in which there of Black Mirror delivered

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his comedic takes on the week's news. On that program,

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she did Moments of Wonder segments tackling topics like time, philosophy,

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and art. You may know her from The Wonderful Kunk

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on Earth, which was on Netflix. Also out today, Dennis

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Leary's going Dutch. Everything about this just makes me go why,

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just why? But I guess someone will watch this. Dennis

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Leary stars as US Army Colonel Patrick Quinn, who's tasked

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with reinstating discipline and professionalism among his group of military misfits.

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You see Colonel Quinn, after an unfiltered rant, is reassigned

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to the Netherlands, where he's punished with a command position

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at the least important army base in the world. He

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now finds himself in charge of a base with no guns, weapons,

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or tactical purpose. Instead, it has a Michelin star level commissary,

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a top notch bowling alley, a lavender infused laundry, and

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the best from Mangerie in the US Army Danny Pouty,

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who should just go to NBC and go to Dan

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Harmon and be like, can we just do an abed

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spin off? Because this guy is talented but nothing is

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landing for him. He's in that Rob Mcalenny. What's the

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Apple Show about? The video games? I can't quest it's

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got a question. It's not good. I mean, I love

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it's always sunny. My son and I sit there trying

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to watch the mcal anything that Danny Pooty's in, and

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it's like it's actually unwatchable. We get mad at exists.

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We can't even struggle through it. Well, Danny's on this thing.

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He plays Executive Officer Major Abraham Shaw, the colonel's executive

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officer and codependant right hand man. Oh. Also in this

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thing Catherine Tate. Remember she showed up on the office

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and we didn't like her. What does she play? Katscha Vanderhoff,

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a smart, attractive Dutch woman with a PhD and intersectional feminism,

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the head of the city's Chamber of Commerce and the

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local brothel owner. Oh wait, and because it's a sitcom,

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the base's previous interim leader happens to be Dennis Leary's

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character's extrage daughter going Dutch on Fox tonight. Are you excited?

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You can hear? How excited? I am? Conne asked asked

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Ronnie about his travel. What do you want in a vacation,

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Ronnie ching? Ronnie says, when I go on vacation, I

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don't like to do touristy things. I tend to go

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to places I'm somewhat familiar with, like Hawaii, where I

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feel like a local. There are Japan. My wife and

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I go almost every year, so we ever spots. Japan

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is such a great mental reset you can't help but

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leave kind of refreshed. I like to go to Singapore

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because my mom is there. I love the food and

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I know how to get around. I also feel like

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a local in Australia because I live there so long,

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and same with Malaysia. I just like to go at

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a slow pace. It's Singapore. He goes to his usual spots.

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I actually have a food guide on Apple Maps, so

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if people want to see it, they can log into that.

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I usually go to Tongue a Eating house and get

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the ted Tarik, which is a milte. It's one of

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the few places in Singapore where you can still get

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it made from scratch. They have a really good Kaya toast,

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which is egg and coconut jam and coffee pork ribs.

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For long flights, he makes sure he has something and

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download it to his phone. Something relaxing. It'll literally beat

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Tibetan singing bowl music or Rainfall or Apple Sleep music,

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which is just relaxing brain music with no words. That's

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my key to surviving travel, having that kind of stuff

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on your phone ready to go. I've been finding a

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lot of joy in getting a newspaper at the airport

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or bringing a physical book with me. I'm very lucky.

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I've gotten back into reading. A couple months ago. I

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read Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, and that got me

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back into it. Reading a physical book really helps. The

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other thing I do is download this video game emulator

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that looks like a mini game boy with all these

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video games when I was a kid that I never

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actually got to play, so Nintendo or Sega Games. And

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my wife got me in a Korean face mask. Putting

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a Korean face mask on while you're flying as great

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inconsidered people, I mean that's nothing new, but people feeling

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entitled when they're traveling as my pet peeve, as though

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their problems supersede everyone else's. People WI lack of consideration

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really irritate me. His favorite cities do stand up. New

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York is obviously great. It always feels like a hometown crowd.

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San Francisco is greater Seattle. If you want the more

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unexpectedly great comedy cities. There's Washington, d C. Or Madison, Wisconsin,

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or Denver or Minneapolis. Nobody really knows why, but we

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all know which are the great comedy cities. It's a

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combination of a comedy savvy crowd who loved to attend

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live performances and the venue is are they up for comedy?

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Do they get it? Some people think can just do

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comedy anywhere, but the venue is such an important part

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of it. The height of the ceiling has to be low.

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It's intimate. A high ceiling changes the dynamic of the

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gate completely. The culture and venues combined and it becomes

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a really cool comedy city and the word spreads and

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all the comedians love going through these cities. NPR asked

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Jimmy O Yang. You know, because you're interviewing Jimmio Yang,

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you can ask him anything. They asked him. Does the

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idea of an infinite universe excite or scare you? Yang says,

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Infinity scares me. If it's something you put a number on,

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it could be a billion, trillion, whatever, it's fine. I

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can wrap my brain around it. Infinity is something I

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can't wrap my brain around. And I think it's why

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me and probably a lot of people are so afraid

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of death, because you're gone forever. If you're telling me

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I'm dead for a trillion billion million years and then

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I get to come back for one day, and then

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I'm dead again, and then I'm fine. But if I'm

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gone forever, very scary. So infinite universe is a little scary.

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Anything infinite is scary. I look at the ocean at night,

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I get a little scared. It seems so vast and infinite.

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Yet people pay extra for ocean views. I'll pay extra

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to not look at the ocean. Give me the city view.

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I'll look at your parking lot, your utility closet, you know.

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Give me a room with no winds. I'm not paying

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extra to see the cliff of my death into a

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vastness of infinity. All right, one more, it's light off

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the holiday. The La Times asked Jim Gaffigan, Hey, add jehone,

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your a comedic voice, and why do you think your

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brand of comedy is important these days? Jim said it

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joke is a surprise, and irreverence is kind of a

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short cut to that surprise. And by the way, we

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all love it. But I kind of nerd out when

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talking about the idea that there's an aftertaste of comedy.

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We have that really kind of bitchy friend that makes

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us laugh, that's a little mean, but then afterward we

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feel a little guilty because you know, they went too far.

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He shouldn't have laughed and what they said. I believe

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there's an aftertaste, so you can take that short term approach.

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I think some comedians just do what they have to do.

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Irreverence is also something when it's not in my wheelhouse.

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Some comics are really good at it and that's their thing.

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I believe you can be respectful and highlight some important

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stories and also present the humor of it. Jermarco Ciresi

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was on Vulture's list of comedians you should and Will know.

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He spoke at length that I've had to cut this

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into like five different parts. But this time of year

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it's been good for patting out episodes, and I've saved

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this for a rainy day, and it's raining today. What

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Comedy Opinion Hill, which ren Marco die on, He says

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it is simply bad manners if you're not the host

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to do excessive crowd work on a showcase show. If

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magic strikes, go for it. All rules are meant to

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be broken, and that's particularly true in comedy. But talking

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to the audience for a prolonged period of time changes

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the relationship between the audience and performer in a way

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that's a disservice to the other comedians on the lineup.

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It's not even a matter of this is bad comedy.

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It's just rude and breaks the presumably agreed upon premise

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that this is a venue for on stage joke telling.

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Gather your own audience if you want to farm for clips. Wow,

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he's right. Oh that's said comics complaining about comedians doing

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crowd work on their own shows. Can I don't even

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know how to clean this up? Buzz off? Let's say,

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buzz off, I can't even explain what he wanted you

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to do. He wanted you to eat something and know

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not that something else. No, I don't think audience has

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become more trained to heckle or interact because of CrowdWork clips.

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If someone wants to ruin a comedy show, it can't

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always be stopped. It's not Matt Reich's wault. We've all

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seen street performers random crowds of people who aren't even

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looking for a show into being an attentive audience. You

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certainly can do that while elevated on a stage with

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an amplification device. One more, we need to bring back bullying,

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not just random acts of cruelty, but like the story

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of Patresa Neal throwing a phone book on stage while

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Kevin Art was performing and saying something along the lines

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of find one person in there who thinks you're funny.

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Obviously it can go too far, and the boys club

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nature of stand up led to bullying that was a sexist, homophobic, transphobic, racist, ablest,

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ETCeteras all articulated further, we need to cultivate inclusive bullying

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that holds comedians accountable for crappy work. Art forms need filters,

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and anyone could look at the average quality of comedy

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spuscles right now to see that our filters have been

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turned off. And not because everyone's nicer now, it's because

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we all want to be followed back on Instagram. So

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crap talk criticized, call someone a hack, say some jokes

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so lazy. I don't give an f if you're going

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to be a piece of crap, at least do it

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in a way we haven't seen before, because nobody is

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being made into a better artist. Buy in. Everyone on

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our lineup was fire story post hoping they'll reshare and

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I get a new follower out of it. Bs. The

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more I write this, the more I feel like I'm

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coming off like an a hole, and I am. But

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there was something I gained from working at LOL Comedy

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Club and occasionally having an older comic boom me from

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the back of the room where they're looking out for

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me and trying to steer me in the right direction. Absolutely,

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not booming your coworker is psychotic behavior, but art is psychotic,

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and the pressure to not get booed made me nervous

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to get on stage on the right ways. There's still

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more to this. I'll you pick away at it, and

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that is your comedy news for today. If you enjoin

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the program, please tell a friend about it. They'd like

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it too. If you would like the program without commercial interruption,

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there's a link in the show notes to tell you

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how that works. See you tomorrow.