Jan. 3, 2025

Jason Kelce's Debut, Whitney Cummings' Tour, and More

Show Notes
Transcript

In this episode, we discuss Jason Kelce's late-night show premiere on ESPN, Whitney Cummings' North American tour, including her reflections on motherhood and personal growth. Jim Jefferies about his gun control bit and the backlash it received. Anthony Jeselnik shares insights on the impact of social media on comedy and the rise of podcasting. John Mulaney recounts his father's reaction to his career choice, and Ali Siddique talks about the independent comedy scene in Houston and the importance of content ownership. Lastly, Jim Brewer reminisces about his time on SNL and a memorable moment with Richard Pryor at the Comedy Store.
00:00 Jason Kelce's Late Night Show
00:41 Whitney Cummings' Big Baby Tour
01:38 Jim Jefferies on Gun Control and Death Threats
02:22 Anthony Jeselnik on Social Media and Standup
03:59 John Mulaney and Parental Expectations
04:22 Ali Siddiq's Independent Comedy Journey
06:18 Jim Breuer's Comedy Career and Inspirations

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WEBVTT

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Callaroga Shark Media. Oh man, you're excited. It's Jason Kelsey's

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Late Night Show debut tonight at one am, which technically

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is tomorrow, but ESPN doesn't want you to talk about that.

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We're gonna pretend it's Friday night, not Saturday morning. Who cares, John,

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They call it Late Night begains its five week run

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Friday nights at one am Saturday on ESPN, taped in

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front of a live audience in Philadelphia. Topics discuss will

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be mainly football and the weekend's games. However, he plans

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to have guests from all walks of life. Whitney Cummings

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not wasting any time in the new year. The second

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leg of her Big Baby North American tour kicks off

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today in Austin. She will also play cities such as Tampa, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Napa, Milwaukee, Seattle, Phoenix,

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Las Vegas, and Knoxville. She'll also do four cities at

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the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival in Canada. Boy, they're booking

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quite the lineup. Fans can expect her to take on

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the chaos of personal growth, owning her mistakes, and her

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reflections on raising a son Whitney told Deadline, I'm so

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psyched to add more cities to the Big Baby Tour,

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especially since my Big Baby loves to tour. I used

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to think having a kid would be the end of

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my comedy and touring career, so it's been a miracle

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to see so many people coming out to hear what

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I have to say about motherhood and being so excited

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for me to finally grow up and start building a

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family after sharing so much about my crappy childhood and

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relationship mistakes. Also, I'm trying to leave California, so each

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city I go to, I'm also auditioning for a new hometown.

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Two shows tonight at Rogan's Club, the comedy Mothership seven

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and ten, also two tomorrow, and an eight o'clock show

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on Sunday night. Jim Jeffrey spoke to Rolling Stone about

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his chunk about America's need for gun control. Jim estimates

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that that sixteen minute chunk has been seen ten times

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more than anything else he's ever done. Some people don't

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appreciate the bit, and he's gotten death threats. Jim says, yeah,

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you get those, But if someone's going to kill you

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or they're not going to send you a threat. Every

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time I get a death threat, I feel a little safer,

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you know what I mean. Could there be a weaker

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action in this world than somebody on social media sending

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you a death threat. Hay then goes on to say, like,

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if insert famous people here haven't been assassinated, why would

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I be first. I've got to be low on the list,

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Like you're kidding me, right, They're gonna go Gandhi, Martin

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Luther King, JFK, John Lennon, Jim Jeffries come on now.

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And he says, I do feel like I'm this comedian

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who's both loved and hated by the left and the right.

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Anthony Jelinik talks who cracked about cutting up clips so

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the way the younger comedians do, and he says, I

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understand why the clips are popular and why they help.

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YouTube used to be the thing. Now it really is

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TikTok and Instagram. Everybody says, I love your clips, and

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I think I'm uniquely suited to that format. Just through

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sheer luck, where you can use all my back catalog.

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Even though I haven't been doing anything but touring for

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the past two years, I've had a social media team

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that's gotten me close to a million followers on those platforms,

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just through old things. I don't know what i'd be

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doing if I was starting out today. I don't know

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if I would try to get on more multimedia, maybe

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try to write more. Maybe I would have started my

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own podcast earlier on. I just always wanted to be

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a stand up and now it seems like the top

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thing you can do in stand up comedy isn't stand up,

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it's podcasting. Podcasting is its own TV show. Now it's

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gotten a little weird for my taste. It used to

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be we're just hanging out fing around. Who's listening to this?

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We have no idea. Now it's about money. Now it's like,

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if I show up and I'm not in a good

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mood on your podcast, I'm costing you money. If I

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say something bad about your podcast, it's affecting someone's bag.

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I think that's changed the art. I think talking trash

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about other comedians comics being like that joke sucks. What's

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what I can do. It's like in hip hop, where

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everybody's feuding all the time. It's good for the art form,

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whereas in stand up now there's so much money in podcasting.

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You can't say anything otherwise you're a hater or you're

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jealous of someone's Patreon, which is insane to me that

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that's even a real thing. Boy, that's a really interesting

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answer there, right, Justin and I gay. If you told

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me that I'd become a stand up comedian, it would

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be my greatest dream. I don't have a boss. I

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don't have to listen to anyone, but if they're like

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you better pay attention to what Joe Robin thinks and

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what he says, because Joe Rogan can really help your career.

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I'd be like, what are you talking about? Joe's fine,

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but I don't want to live my life in a

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way that I have to worry about what he thinks.

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I'm sure is a bleep and not gonna move to

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the city he lives in. I'm embarrassed by what a

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lot of comedy has become. John Laney told you that

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when John first told his father want to be a comedian,

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a dad's response was best case scenario. You're like, what,

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Steve Martin? Is there something wrong with being Steve Martin?

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Dude's had a Hall of Fame career, Melani said. Dad

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has since chilled. I think he enjoyed seeing Oh It's

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a thing people do respect, which was fun for me

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to watch. I didn't need them to suddenly become stage

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parents will love everything I say or even think that

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comedy is important. I don't need that, Ali said. He

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talked to the Philly Tribune. He works out of Houston.

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He said, I've always been proactive and independent, which is

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why I chose to live in Houston. The entertainment industry

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here is not as robust as in other cities, so

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our artists are primarily independent. We have a strong do

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it yourself mentality among our R and B singers, actors, actresses, rappers,

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and entrepreneurs. We do things ourselves because we know if

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we don't, we'll always be waiting for someone else to

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give us a chance. I've been a stand up comic

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for twenty seven years. I wasn't initially involved in social

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media because I began my career before it became a

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major platform. Back then, comics focused on getting TV shows

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or finding someone else produced their specials. I did a

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network special with Comedy Central, but they owned it and

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controlled it. They released it whenever they want, which felt

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like leaving my career in someone else's hands. As I

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prepare the content for my special, I began saving money

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and setting it aside. Simultaneously. I appeared on various TV shows,

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but a strategically avoided burning the material I intended to

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use for the special. Instead, I carefully crafted my performance

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within the context of each show, ensuring I would retain

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ownership of the specific content. I'm hearing more and more

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of that from comedians, and good for them, right, I mean,

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we have ways to distribute things. You could be some

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idiot and abasement talking about comedians and you can self distribute.

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It's kind of cool. This is interesting, he says. In

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my early work, I used physicality, but I always wanted

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to express a story through movement. As my artistic perspective evolved,

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I learned how important it was to understand the essence

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of my topics. Rather than focus on apparent similarities, I

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attempted to identify the distinguishing characteristics that set people apart.

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Take Richard Pryor, for example. Many people appreciate him for

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his profanity and frank comedy, but that isn't the real

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meeting of his work. Prior is comedy delves deeper presenting

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perspectives on life and the transformational power of personal experience.

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His debut film, Jojo n Answer, was a reflection of

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his personal life, while Paul Mooney and Des White brought

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their own narrative styles to the stage. I carefully consider

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the perspective from which I tell a story, the underlying message,

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and the reasons for sharing it when constructing it. For me,

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everything revolves around considering the responsibility I bear for something.

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Halfd dot Com spoke to Jim Brewer. Jim says his

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comedy really started in sixth grade. That's when it really started.

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I wrote sketch. We did a talent show, and I

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made everybody howl. He called it his first bug for

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show business. I started writing material and visualizing and following

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fellow Long Islander Eddie Murphy. By the end of high school,

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he was the class clown. He says. Landing Saturday Night

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Live was painful for him, as he feels he wasn't

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wanted by the show's management, but by NBC executives at

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a time when the show was not spiking in the ratings.

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Once he was on SNL, he learned about the power

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of a great sketch, saying Molly Shannon did that sketch

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Mary Kathyn Gallagher, and she murdered. I never saw an

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audience react like that from a sketch. That's what I

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wanted to do, not just some half ass sketches. He

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says he found his foot on the show by accident.

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He was talking to an intern and Brewer says, Harry

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me messing around to doing my Joe peshe in the

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break room and the intern said, hey, dude, you gotta

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do Joe Peschi on update, and that led to the

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skit the Joe Peschi Show that my opinion, saved my job.

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That's what saved me from that moment on Lauren Michaels

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told Brewer, you have to do something that people know you,

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so that they know it's you doing Joe Peshi. When

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the SNL gig came to an end, Lauren told Brewer,

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you're too nice for this industry. If you ever need

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a producer, I'm your guy. As for the future, Jim says,

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even if he doesn't do a full blown tour, he

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can't see himself not going on a stage. Jim says,

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I got to see Richard Pryor shortly before he was

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a mobile from MS and it was inspiring in one

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of the most powerful comedic moments. I always looked for him,

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and I went to the comedy store one night, literally

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hoping he'd be there, after going there every night when

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he was in La. On the very last night, magic happened.

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I was getting ready to leave, and all of a

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sudden they said, please welcome special guest, mister Richard Pryor.

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There was a whole bunch of people helping him walk,

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holding him up. They brought him onto the stage. He

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talked slowly, but he was so funny. I can remember

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his it was yesterday. I was talking about the most

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painful stuff in his life, but he was putting it

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out there and was powerful and amazing. To this day.

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It was such a powerful moment. I want to do

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that pretty much right to the end. And that's your

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comedy needs for today. If you enjoy the program, tell

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a friend about it, hopefully they'll enjoy it too, and

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you can all hit follow on one of them their

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podcast apps. If you'd like the program without commercial interruption,

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open up the Apple podcast app. There's a manner there.

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Click on it. Five bucks a month you get this

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show and a bunch of others, including five Good News Stories,

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which I also host. You get about twenty plus podcast

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commercial free five bucks a month. Great way to support

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the show. Appreciate those of you who do that, and

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I will see you tomorrow