March 22, 2026

Jay Leno’s Comedy Mount Rushmore and Standup Lessons from Jerry Seinfeld and Nate Bargatze,

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac covers Jay Leno on Judd Apatow’s podcast discussing a comedy “Mount Rushmore,” with Mac calling George Carlin and Richard Pryor undeniable while debating other candidates and noting women like Joan Rivers; Leno’s four picks are Richard (“Richie”) Pryor, Robert Klein, Bob Newhart, and Rodney Dangerfield, with Carlin as his fifth. Mac also recounts Leno telling Craig Ferguson about failing to recognize an uninteresting Tonight Show guest he’d just interviewed. Kevin Nealon describes learning by bartending at the Improv and studying comics like Leno, Richard Lewis, Andy Kaufman, and Seinfeld, plus advice about not taking the business personally. Jerry Seinfeld and Nate Bargatze discuss touring as a muscle and staying sharp in arenas. Rob Riggle talks career highlights and writing his book, and Russell Peters tells stories involving Blake Griffin trying comedy and later heckling him at an NBA game.

00:17 Mount Rushmore Debate
01:52 Leno Picks Pryor
02:39 Robert Klein Case
03:17 Newhart and Dangerfield
05:14 Leno Guest Brain Drift
05:56 Kevin Nealon Lessons
06:44 Seinfeld and Bargatze Touring
07:53 Rob Riggle Grit Book
09:05 Russell Peters vs Blake

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This is the animal sanctuary mentioned in the February 10 episode.

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Caloroga Shark Media. Hither, I'm Johnny Mack with your daily

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comedy News, a daily briefing on stand up comedy comedians

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in the comedy industry. Jay Leno was on Judd Apatow's

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podcast and thanks Justin for sending this one in. They

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started to discuss the mount Rushmore of comedy. Always a

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fun topic, and I don't know what to do with

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it because I think people have a recency bias and

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get a little crazy and it'll be like we want

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to put somebody who's currently performing up there, or like

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sometimes a shooting star. You know, these things are hard

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and you only get four spots. So for me, George Carlin,

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Richard Pryor, and two I don't know's, And on any

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given day I might give you a different answer. Carlin

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is undeniable, including if you listen to the very very

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late George Carlin material, which at the time was described

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by people like me as angry boy as it aged

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will George Carlin is somehow the great profit of the

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twenty first century, So he's undeniable. And the other one

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who's undeniable is Richard Pryor. There are plenty of disciples

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of Richard Pryor starting with Richard Pryor cover act Eddie Murphy,

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who I love. But let's just be real about it,

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and you can see Richard Pryor descendants to today's comedy. Now,

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who you would put in the other two? I don't know.

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Like so part of it is how do you define

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the genre? Is Johnny Carson doing a monologue four nights

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a week for thirty years? Should he be in the list?

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Bob Hope for eighty years? And don't judge Bob Hope

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by what he did in his eighties and nineties. Go

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back and watch the Young Hope. Should he be there?

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Why aren't there any women on the mountain? Okay? Should

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we put say, Joan Rivers up on the list? I

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don't know, So Carlin Pryor, I don't know. I don't know.

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But Jay Leno gave his list. And listen to the

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name he uses for comedian number one. I've never heard

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anyone called person this other than Jay Leno.

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Okay, My four would be, uh, Richie. He was Richie

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Pryor when I know now he's Richard Pryor, But Richie Pryor.

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He would go on the car. He was getting ready

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to do Live at the Sunset Strip, the first filmed

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comedy special for theaters, not HBO. And I followed him

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every night because you couldn't follow Richie. And I realized

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I didn't have an hour worth of material. I had

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maybe eighteen minutes. But then I just realized, throw out

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everything that doesn't get a laugh.

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All right, Richard pryor Jay Lenno and I are aligned there.

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Let's see who Jay Leno had as number two.

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To Robert Klin, Because you have to understand, prior to

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Robert Klein, most comedians were men in their thirties or

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forties that grew up during the Depression that kids today

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with these hippies with the long hair, that was all

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that kind of stuff. Suddenly here was Robert Klein, middle

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class guy talking about things I would talk about with

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my friends because I couldn't do Depression era stuff or

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make fun of the music today because that was my generation.

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Interesting pick. I think Robert Klein has been largely forgotten.

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His name never comes up. Very very interesting, all right.

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At number three, Jay Leno, who do you have next

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to me? Bob Newhart?

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He was the close up magician of comedy, you know,

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new Heart had the great It was like a slider,

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like an inside fastball. He had a bit about the

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first astronaut to have extraterrestrial communication. So it comes down

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from you know, the thing lands, and of course he's

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the first. So all the presses are asking him questions,

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and our porta says, how far ahead of us are

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these aliens? And he says about six weeks, and you

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know it's two weeks is too soon. Six months is

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too far ahead head, but six you cannot catch up,

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you know, it's finding the right turn of six weeks

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is exactly rot.

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Not crazy again as time marches on mentioned a little

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less and less, a unique voice, one of the greats, Rushmore.

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And that's another thing, all right, Jay, who do you

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have for number four?

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And across Rodney Danefield, Rodney Dangeville was the economy of words.

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He could get to the joke quicker, I knew Rodney

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for forty years. I have no idea if he's a

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Democrat or republic. We never discussied. It was just jokes.

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It was it was the you know, like the joke.

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About one after another, the idea that my doctor said,

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I need a stool sample, a semen sample, and a

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urine sample, and I gave my underpants.

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That's an interesting take by Jay Leno. Not sure I agree. Again,

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I won't throw I want to say rocks and throwing

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rocks in the mountain. I won't throw rocks at any

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of these picks. But I don't know Lynn pryor, I

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don't know the conversation did go on. Jay Leno said,

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if he had a fifth pick, it would be George

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Carlin and I had. I don't know when I even

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saw this story, but I've just been sitting on it

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for an episode like today. Back at twenty fourteen, Jay

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Leno was on Craig Ferguson show. I don't remember that happening,

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but I believe everybody, and Craig asked Jay Leno if

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Jay's mind ever drifted when one of the guests was

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not all that interesting. Jay said, the classic examples I

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had on one of these reality stars, Trista, who apparently

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is Trista Sutter. Jay said, from one of those bachelorettes,

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and I'm looking at the side of her head. I

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couldn't be less interested. I've never seen this stupid reality show.

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You know what it was? And Jay said, to make

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it worse, Jay says he wraps up the show, he leaves.

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I go out on the parking lot. There's a woman

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standing next to me with a boyfriend. She says, can

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I have a picture? And I go sure. How you doing?

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She says good? And Jay asked her what's your name?

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It was like just the interviewed on the Tonight show.

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That's amazing. Kevin Nealan was on Icon versus Icon. He said,

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I learned from so many comments. I bartended the improv

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so I was there all the time, and I'd see

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these comics come that I really enjoyed and was a

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fan of every night to watch them perform and take

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it all in. That's how I learned by watching, and

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I loved it. It never even felt like work to me.

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There were comics like Jay Leno and Richard Lewis, so

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I watched closely. Andy Kaufman was a huge influence on

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me because he was so unique, so different, and so interesting.

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He played so much with the audience's mind, leading him

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in one direction, leaving people in sure of what he

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was doing, and really pushing boundaries. I also watched Seinfeld

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perform because we came up around the same time. More

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or less good advice from Kevin Neelan about the comedy industry.

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It's a business. You can't take things personally. I learned

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that a long time ago, and things don't really affect

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me that much anymore. Even think in regular life, I'm

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not easily shaken. I don't want to say I'm dead inside,

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because I'm not. But I've gotten used to a lot

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of rejection and disappointment, especially in the early stages. More

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from that Forbes conversation between Jerry Seinfeld and Nate Perghancy.

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Jerry Seinfeld was curious, what's it like touring for you

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these days in terms of workload. Nate said, it's like

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a gym. It's a muscle. You got to stay on

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top of it. When you don't go out for two

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weeks and then you get on stage and you're like, rough,

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I'm awful. Jerry was like, what about when your wife

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wants to go on vacation. Nate said he'll try and

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pop in somewhere to do one show to stay fresh.

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Jerry said, it's funny how fast it goes. I find

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not only can you not remember lines, but I louse

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your nerve the you should be even be doing this

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who am I talking to in front of all these people? Wow?

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Jerry Seinfeldt thinking that, Nate said, Yeah, there's a thing

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in your head that goes like, who do you think

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you are? You out to your mind? Nate continued, I

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had to work on my own mind wandering. I had

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to work on pulling my mind back to the story,

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the joke I was telling. Every time i'm telling it,

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I visualize it. I love it so much. And you're

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in front of a different crowd every night. Because I'm

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in the round, I'll pick like four people. It might

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be an older lady, could be a family further back,

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a woman with her husband. You keep an eye on them.

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It's a good way to keep a gauge, like, is

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it too harsh? You're picking four people to do the

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show for weirdly enough instead of a mass. Nate said,

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I like stand up in the arenas. It's really pushing

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stand up to this higher level. I've got big screens,

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a sound system. It's like watching a live special. It's

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about the community and everybody laughing. You want to give

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them a full show. When they all leave, hopefully they're

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very happy. Rob Riggle spoke with Clutch points. Rob said,

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Getting on Saturday Night Live was a dream come true

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with something I'd worked for for a long long time,

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and when it finally happened, it was hard to process.

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And then being on the stage when they roll credits,

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and I've watched it in my whole life when they

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roll credits everyone's on stage. To be on that stage

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looking back out to where the audience and in the cameras,

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it was surreal. Being on the Daily Show. Getting that

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job was a great, great moment. Get to do movies

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with people that I admire, get to do scenes with

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Tom Hanks or people you just love their work and

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appreciate them so much, and then you find yourself in

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a scene with them. I've worked with Rob, I think twice.

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I found out to be super, super awesome in person.

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What a great guy. Rob wrote a book, Grit, Spits

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and Never Quit. He explained, you get to a point

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where you tell enough stories and people go, hey, you

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should write a book, and you go all right, and

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you hear that enough times you're like, all right, maybe

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I should, And then I write down my goals every

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year at the beginning of the year. So I wrote down,

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I'm going to write a book, but it was the

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one goal that didn get accomplished. It just kept rolling

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and rolling over until finally I was ashamed of myself

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and I said write the book, and so I did.

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Took two years, and he explains, you got to remember now,

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it's not just like I locked myself in a log

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cabin and sat down a road. It's not how it works.

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I gotta go out there or eat what I kill.

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I'm out there for work every day, and if I

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get to show you get a movie, I gotta do that,

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and then everything gets put on hold. So it takes

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time to grind out a book. And Russell Peters told

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a fun story about NBA star Blake Griffin. Blake Griffin

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has dabbled with comedy. Russell runs into Blake Griffin and goes, hey,

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I'm a big fan. What are you doing here? Blake

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Griffin goes, I'm trying comedy. Russell goes, really, but you're

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a basketball player. Blake goes yeah. Russell says, well, what

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are you because you got red hair? Blake says, I'm mixed. Russell,

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where'd you grow up? I think you grew up in

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Milwaukee or something. Oklahoma. Gotta suck being a big half

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black kid with red hair in Oklahoma, No wonder you're

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good at it? And his face is like, what the

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F Russell says? I'm like, anyway, good luck, stupid, That's

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just how I am. So fast forward in time, Russell

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Peters is court side at the Raptors game Blake Griffin

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playing for Detroit. Russell Hills out Blake Blake, and Blake

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Griffin turns sees Russell Peters and he goes, ah, ef you,

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And that's your Comedy's for Today's Tomorrow