June 21, 2025

Iliza on Feminism, Odenkirk on Cross, and Seth Meyers Gets Real

Show Notes
Transcript

Iliza Shlesinger on feminism and comedy, Bob Odenkirk's reflections on his creative partnership with David Cross, and Jimmy O. Yang's take on creating relatable content. Rachel Feinstein opens up about working with ADHD, while Seth Meyers discusses the challenges of finding humor in politics and adjusting to the loss of his show's band. W. Kamau Bell's charitable standup shows, and a glimpse into Tokyo Comedy Bar.

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Calarogus Shark Media. Hey there, I'm johnny Man with your

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daily comedy news. Eliza Slessengers been doing a lot of press,

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and Eliza says, feminism, it has become such a divisive word.

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And it wasn't even a word I used until I

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realized women are totally misunderstood. Feminism is about getting your

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point across without aiming to exclude anyone. You can stand

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up for women without bashing men, because feminism, by definition

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is about uplifting everyone. And so I try to be

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skillful at getting the point across about the way women

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are represented and the way women feel, our point of

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view while including the men in the audience, the men

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who love us, who date us, who reject us, who

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brought us there, who are friends with, and who are

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related to. Because if you don't get the other half

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on your side, whatever the debate, you're gonna lose. Nobody

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wants to spend money to see your performance and leave

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feeling bad. I'm a big believer in being fair, taking

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shots at everyone, and always, even if I hurt your feelings,

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bringing you back in good question of Eliza here, she

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was asked how big of a factor is the perception

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of being quote unquote trying to clean this up kissable,

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you know what I mean In comedy all I said,

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I don't care about the perception and stand up comedy,

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but it is something that gets put on women anyway.

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I show up with my jokes, ready to do the work,

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and in the common is always about being at an

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attractive level or being hot. That's not to say that

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women don't want to be attractive, but you're factoring these

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variables they have to reckon with whether you want it

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to or not. And that applies to the way we dress.

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Is that tight? Are you attractive? Are they distracted? These

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are just microhurdles that are not insurmountable, but it takes

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a lot of practice to be like, well, I'm wearing

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this and I'm talking about this. Get on board. Bob

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Odenkirk told Esquire his creative partnership with David Cross is

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like magic, pure magic that you cannot label or find.

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It's not unlike a marriage. I could sit here and

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list things that make us great partners, but there's a

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dimension of blind trust and love that you can't put

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a label to. If you're not stupid, you have to

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appreciate that and respect it and be thankful for it.

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Bob talked about growing up and said, my dad's indiscretion

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were so self evident in public. He was just a

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black hole of presence and of leadership. He was just

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a zero. The lessons I got from my mom that

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were of value to being a decent person or self evident.

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She worked her ass off. She was mission oriented, which

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is to say, do the laundry, get the food on

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the table, get the kids where they're going. When you're

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a little kid and you live in a fairly nice neighborhood,

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but you drink powdered milk, you don't quite know do

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we have money or do we not have money? I

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think we have no money, But does that mean we're

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gonna be living in a corn next week? Your life's

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on steady. You're very wobbly inside. We watched the Carol

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Burnett Show. I don't really know how consciously what I

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was getting from that, but when I think back in it,

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you saw adults making each other laugh, and you're happy

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to feel that warmth on the TV. It's a wonderful

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thing to give to the audience, that warmth that's genuine.

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I saw Monty Python when I was eleven, I was

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absolutely like the world peeled back then. The veneer of

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things being legitimate was laid bare by Monty Python. Jimmy

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O Yang spoke about his comedy and said, I feel

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like you can really create something out of thin air

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without any tools. It's just your brain and then a microphone.

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That's all you need in an audience, and I fell

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in love with it. In America, not everybody grew up

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with immigrant parents, not everybody grew up Chinese. But me

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getting more and more specific about my truth and letting

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people into seeing a piece of my life, that's when

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people started relating to me. That's when I was able

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to sell a lot more tickets because now people aren't

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just coming to watch me for the jokes. They're coming

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to watch me because they feel like they know me.

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ADDD tuned bag add attuned mag I spoke to Rachel

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Feinstein about her ADHD. Rachel said, I'm insanely disorganized. I'm

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always running late, I shed debit cards, I'm always leaving

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a shoe in somebody's car. I lose a passport almost

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every year. My husband, who is OCD, always says to me,

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whyt you just put things back in the same place,

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and I'm like, you're assuming I know where I put them.

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My hands take trips throughout the day. It's like my

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hands aren't connected to my body. I'm a workaholic, but

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only if somebody's sitting with me. I always have to

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have a babysitter for myself. I pay people to sit

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with me. For example, an editor expressed interest in work

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with me on my Netflix special, but I knew I

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was never going to go through it and email them

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time code. So I said to the editor, I'm going

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to come to your house and sit with you and

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edit every line with you. I don't think he thought

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I was really going to do it. Then I was

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over at his place, just me and him and his

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wife in a little apartment. I'd leave and bathe and

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give him time to implement notes. But we were together

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for two weeks and we got it done. I think

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we were common law wed by the end of that process.

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Seth Meyer spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about how it's

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increasingly hard to find humor and politics, and my barking

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dogs weren't impressed by what Seth had to say or

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that I was recording. They don't give a hoot. I

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don't know if you could hear that or not. The

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noise reduction might get it, but I hear it. Guys,

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I'm trying to record. Why don't you edit this out, John,

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because that's not fun. Seys said, I feel like a

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lot of people early on election night, when you realize

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what was happening, It was certainly a real feeling of

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dread about how do we do this again. I'll admit

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to thinking in twenty sixteen like this terrible mistake has

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been made, but at least I know it won't happen again,

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and then it happens again. I just couldn't emotionally approach

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it the same way. Would have felt really empty. I

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do think we're in this unique situation whereas comedians opposed

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to the news, you can totally talk about things however

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you want to talk about them. So there wasn't a

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big meeting or anything of the show, but we did say,

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all right, we have to still be joyful in the

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making of the show, and even when we're talking about

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how bad things are, it has to be through an

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expression of joy with people who also want to feel

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like they're coming for an hour of joyful performance. The

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Holly reporter asked Seth about losing the band from Late Night,

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Says says, those conversations were not fun. We don't always

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agree with the people in charge, but we always do

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believe them, and it's nice to know they're coming to

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you sometimes with bad news from an place, and in

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this case the news is industry wide. So we didn't

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take it personally and we came up with a solution.

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And while it's really hard to lose the band that

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on a personal level, I missed them all a great deal.

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We don't feel as though the show has been massively

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affected on a quality level. I don't feel like we

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hear from anybody. It's just not the same. And it's

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funny when we talk about innovation. We were never going

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to innovate by making the show bigger. We weirdly innovate

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by making it a little smaller. Nice job by w

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come out Bell. He's been doing a run of stand

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up shows and giving the proceeds to thirteen local arts organizations.

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Those organizations lost funding when the National Aldowment for the

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Arts canceled some grants. Bell said it's about supporting the

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local arts scene and making up for what our government

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refuses to do. We're going to try and make those

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whole that didn't receive any reimbursement on their grants and

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then split the proceeds evenly with the rest. The shows

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benefit the Berkeley Repertory Theater, the American Conservatory Theater, Theater Works,

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Silicon Valley Theater, Bay Area, San Francisco Youth Theater, Marie

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Shakespeare Company, Oakland Theater Project, New Conservatory Theater Center, Magic Theaters,

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Fan Francisco, Children's Ferryland in Oakland, Crowded Fire Theater Company,

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Co Dance Theater, and Dance Mission Theater. Belle said, without

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theater's nurturing talent, I don't have the career I have

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right now. Nice job, sir from Stripes dot com, which

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is Stars and Stripes, you know, the military newspaper. Yeah,

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they wrote about a comedy bar in Tokyo, and I

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found it interesting and I like doing this sort of

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thing on the weekend. It's called Tokyo Comedy Bar, and

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you'll find it near Shibuya Station in Tokyo. We're told

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the third floor club includes a cramp bar serving craft

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beer and snacks. The room has fifty five fold out

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chairs a small stage in a sound system. Comedian Tim

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Toe got up and told some R rated jokes related

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to his experience as a Chinese Canadian before a local favorite,

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Yuri Collins explained her dream of landing a sugar daddy

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who could fund cosmetic surgery. Karon Chew shared a story

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about getting upgraded to business class and leaving his wife

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to ride an economy in a recent flight. That's very relatable.

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Tokyo Comedy Bar now hosts around seventy five show a month,

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and both Japanese and English. That's a lot. The main

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draw is the nightly seven thirty PM stand up comedy showcase.

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A nine o'clock slot usually features open mics, international headliners

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or Japanese language acts. If you find yourself in Tokyo

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would have cost you about two thousand and en to

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get in. That's around fourteen dollars, and we're told dress

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is casual. Tokyocomedy Bar dot com if you're curious about more,

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and that is your comedy news for today. If you

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you tomorrow,