Dec. 30, 2024

Dave Chappelle's influence on Donnell Rawlings

Show Notes
Transcript

Mitch Hedberg's comedy approach and story, including his journey to Ireland and his performance insights. Also covered are Don L. Rawlings' reflections on evolving his comedy post-pandemic with advice from Dave Chappelle, Russell Peters' take on maintaining different material and managing career pressures, Sheng Wang's enjoyment of his career journey, Brian Regan's stance on staying true to his comedic style and the misconceptions about clean comedy, and Skylar Higley's career reflections and a memorable Conan O'Brien compliment.

00:00 Mitch Hedberg's Comedy Secrets
01:17 DonnellRawlings on Evolving Comedy
02:33 Russell Peters on Career Challenges
03:19 Sheng Wang's Career Reflections
04:06 Brian Regan on Staying True to His Style
04:50 Skyler Higley's Career Highlights and Lows

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WEBVTT

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Callaroga Shark Media. Hey, I am Jenny Mack with your

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daily comedy. Hew's a cool article on cracked dot com

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Mitch Hedberg's secret to comedy, he apparently told Kevin Nalin.

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I started to delete stuff is what it comes down to.

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I have jokes that have maybe three or fourth the

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most punchlines, but I started to make it come down.

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I figured out that one or two is the best.

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You know, the second punch line of the first punch

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line works better than the third or the fourth. Hegburg

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talked about performing in Ireland, saying I got a lot

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of food product jokes that I do. I know that

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some of the food products don't translate and up to

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the point now where I'll still do them regardless. Audiences

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just have to be really hip to understand a food

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product that is several thousand miles away from them. If

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they only know their local food restaurants, you know f them.

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Times have changed way back. Heedburgh said, I'm working very

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hard to get recognition. It takes so long. Man. I

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got like a small percentage of recognition in the States,

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but I decided to say f and I'm going to Ireland,

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where I have no percentage. I like the fact that

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I could basically go to zero and away and humbles you.

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It's like all I could do is impress them. Each

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show is getting better, and I'll play all the countries

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as long as they give me a chance to get better.

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The first show will suck, but the seventh show will

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be sweet. You know that's the bottom line. Hebburg passed

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away March thirtieth, two thousand and five. Wow, twenty years

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goes fast. The Chicago Defender spoke to Donnel Rawlings. He said,

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A New Day wasn't my first special, but it truly

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evolved my comedy. The first time I taped it, the

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material was two tied to the pandemic. It featured COVID jokes.

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They didn't age well. Chappelle advised me to aim for

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something timeless, so I took that feedback seriously. I rewrote

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my material and refined my point of view, resulting in

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a final version that could stand the test of time. Initially,

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my special felt like a collection of jokes that needed

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a clear beginning and personal perspective. However, I realized I

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had to capture everything I needed at the moment. It

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was my third attempt at the special recorded right after

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the pandemic, when audiences still felt its effects. While some

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jokes may have been funny, didn't create a great special.

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By listening to constructive criticism, I returned to the drawing

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board a craft relatable and meaningful jokes To speak about Chapelle.

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He said, our friendship means more to me than any

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business relationship. While Chappelle's show helped boost my career, our

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connection genuinely matters. We've been there so much together. He

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was there when my son was born. We've attended weddings

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and funerals, including Charlie Murphy's. Whether we're doing comedy or not,

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He's one of my closest friends. Many people assumed I

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must be upset about Chappelle's show not moving forward, but

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my genuine concern was his mental state. He didn't often

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share his feelings, making things uncertain regarding the Comedy Central situation.

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When I ran into him a club in New York,

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I wanted to hug him and slap them, but felt

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relieved because I hadn't seen him in a while. Monday

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Man caught up with Russell Peters. He says, gotta keep working,

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ex wives, you got baby, mamas, you got it all.

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You know. I hadn't accountant who I found out wasn't

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doing his job properly, and now I'm paying the price

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for it because I got to get out there and

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hustle to pay the irs, which I thought he was doing.

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Some people on social media accused Russell of doing the

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same formula again and again. Russell says, the people that

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say that, don't come and watch me. If you do

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see me, you'll see I do different material every night.

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Now there's a whole generation of com that are doing

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my formula and making millions of dollars off it. But

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it's okay for them and not me. When he plays Canada,

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he says, I'm home, they get it, And when he

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takes a show around the world, he says, listen, you

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should never talk about things you don't know about. Number one,

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If you're going to another country and try to tack

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their religious beliefs, of their government, or anything, that's a

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definite no go. Even if you know something about it,

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just don't do it. Jang Wang says he's pretty happy

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with where he is in his career. He says, I

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don't have any big long term goals beyond just kind

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of what I'm doing right now. My goal right now

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is just enjoy the ride. I feel like, you know,

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even with this level of success, I'm dealing with more

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things than I had to in the past in terms

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of just simple things like marketing, or taxes or tax

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withholdings from different countries, talk to Russell Peters, uh or

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things I never had to think about too much beforehand.

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And so I just really want to do what I'm

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doing and enjoy it the whole time, you know, not

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get too caught up with the business of these things. Well,

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I think it's cool you have audiences along for the ride. Ultimately,

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what I find to be the most satisfying is writing

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a new joke. You know, touring, having a fan base,

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that's all great, and it's fun to do a killer show,

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but you know, really rocket for a whole hour in

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front of an adoring fan base. For me, the most

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satisfying thing is still just to write a new joke,

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come up with a new bit, and have some new

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insight about something. The Whitmer Daily News spoke to Brian Reagan.

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He says, I don't adapt, I just do it the

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way I like to do it. I think it's a

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mistake to try and figure out what other people are

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doing or what audiences are looking for. I'm just gonna

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do what I think is funny, and if there are

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enough people out there who agree with me, then I'll

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be fortunate enough to have a career. The stuff I

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think about doesn't really bump up too hard against anything

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that's super controversial. I've never had it just accordingly. Sure,

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there are some jokes to avoid in today's world. And

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since it's an article with Brian Reagan, they asked him

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about clean comedy, and he said, for my side, we

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never push out that I'm a clean comedian. I feel

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like it is the wrong connotation. I feel like if

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someone were to hear that word before they see what

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I do, that put a connotation on that has nothing

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to do with my comedy. It happens to be clean,

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but that's not the point of it. When people hear

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clean comedy, they leap frog over to thinking, oh, he's

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trying to make a point here, and it's like, no,

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I just enjoy doing it this way. Skyler Hickley is

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one of Vulture's comedians You should and will know proudest

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moment of your career so far. Listen to this. When

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my former boss, Conan O'Brien pulled me aside and said,

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you're by far the most talented person I've ever met. Wow.

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I mean never mind people that Conan may have casually

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met hosting his show, like Paul McCartney comes to mind,

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but even the people that he's worked with that is

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high praise. Skyler says, having been a staff writer for

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The Onion and Conan, I do recognize that I've lived

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a lot of gen X white guy's dreams. Being a

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part of the end of Conan on TBS was very special.

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Once he emailed me complimenting something i'd written, I emailed

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him back, this is a big deal coming from you.

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Ever since I saw Conan O'Brien Can't Stop when I

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was fourteen, I've been a huge fan of jay Leto.

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I was only there for the final season, which is

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like taking a paddle boat out to the Titanic to

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hop on it as it's sinking into the water. But

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then you get to say you're on the Titanic, which

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is legendary, and I got a nice little trophy, which

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is what it's all about. Worst show ever I was

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supposed to do five shows in a weekend. I'd only

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sold fifteen tickets total, but of course there'd be some

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walk ins. The first show went better than I thought,

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pretty good, but then there was the second show. I

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bombed for forty minutes straight. The few handfuls of people

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who did buy tickets at the door heck old made

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high pitched bomb dropping noises after every punchline, and walked

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out during the show, talking crap about how bad it

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was and refusing to pay for their drinks. The club

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canceled the rest of the shows that weekend, so I

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spent the rest of the weekend in a hotel room,

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depressed about my existence and truly resentful of how many

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comedians would have also bombed that situation but would have

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never been booked there. How to deal with the issues

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of being an outliner? All right, what's your comedy opinion? Hill?

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You'll die on? Higby said, The majority of older famous

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stand up comedians should retire. They're not offering anything that

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insightful or well written. What they accomplished was great, but

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like with superstar athletes, there's a point where they simply

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can't be good anymore. Imagine if Jordan kept playing for

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the Wizards, but also every shot he made. How to

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be about cancel culture or trans people another one. The

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Internet has changed the value and form of comedy, and

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it's become very easy to be creatively lazy, which is

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strange since we have the tools to make things very

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well the concept demand and not only write stand up

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all the time. But what everything on social media makes

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me feel like I'm dumping more crap into a river

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of crap. Comedy is simultaneously better and worse than it's

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ever been, and there are a lot of Itmazingly talented

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people could be making some great stuff given more opportunity.

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That is your comedy news for today. If you enjoy

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the program, tell a friend about it. They may like

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

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I get it. I got a solution. Check out the

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show notes, Callaroga dot com, slash plus, or if you're

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on Apple Podcast click then Benner and Apple take you

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what to do there see tomorrow.