Jan. 4, 2025

Jerry Seinfeld and Ronny Chieng Discuss Angering The Comedy Gods

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac dives into a conversation between Jerry Seinfeld and Ronny Chieng printed in Interview Magazine, where they discuss the 'comedy gods,' aging in comedy, and profanity in stand-up. Seinfeld emphasizes the importance of pleasing the 'comedy gods' while Chieng reflects on the separation between stand-up comedy and Hollywood. Tom Papa and Sebastian Maniscalco share insights about their careers and the evolution of comedy shows in big arenas. Interviews with Weird Al and Mike Kaplan reveal unique takes on comedy and life, while Aaron Chen and Gianmarco Cerezi provide fresh perspectives on the influence of TikTok and the challenges of creating stand-up content.

00:11 Jerry Seinfeld on Comedy gods
00:49 Ronny Chieng on Comedy Infrastructure
01:24 Stand-Up Comedy vs. Show Business
02:20 Profanity in Comedy
03:29 Tom Papa's Comedy Journey
03:57 Sebastian Maniscalco on Arena Shows
04:42 Weird Al's Quickfire Questions
05:10 Mike Kaplan's Clean Comedy
06:54 Aaron Chen and TikTok Comedy
07:36 Gianmarco Soresi on Comedy Craft

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Callaroga Shark Media. Hey there, Johnny Mack with your Daily comedy,

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and he was. Jerry Seinfeld and Ronnie Chang had a

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discussion printed in Interview magazine, and Jerry said, my daughter

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is writing comedy and I'm teaching her wherever I can.

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But the main thing I teach is, in this life,

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you must always please the comedy gods. They dislike arrogance

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and ego. They will smite you if you display too

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much arrogance, but they will also smite you quickly and

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seriously if you're not bold when the opportunity to presents itself.

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I actually believe in this and we watch it happen

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every single day. Anytime you want somebody do a set,

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the gods right there to smack them. You don't question them,

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you don't argue with them. You accept their judgments. If

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you don't supply what they demand, which has laughs, they

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will make you sorry. It's like a dog and food.

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Your dog is the most wonderful pet. Stop feeding them

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and see how long that lasts. New topic. Ronnie said,

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your generation created the infrastructure of comedy, and in many ways,

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you guys were the pioneers of stand up comedy. Did

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you age into a different perspective. Does your audience age

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with you? Jerry, I've seen many comics girre oled, I mean,

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all the guys I love in the sixties. They were old,

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but ages a little different now than it was in

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those days. Forty was pretty old. So it comes down

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again to what the comedy gods require. You. Love must

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be pure. Yeah, the money's great, famous, great, but they'll

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catch you at that if you try to pull that

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crap on them. They're the gods. They see everything. Ronnie,

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Are you trying to convert me to Judaism? Is that

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what this is? Jerry? Sure, But Jews don't look for converts.

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That's why they're so few of us. We sell everything

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else really well, Ronnie. Part of me loving stand up

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comedy is realizing that it's separate from show business or Hollywood.

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At least I used to want Hollywood to give me flowers.

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I wanted to be acknowledged that I had a good set,

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or I sawed out this venue. But the more I

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do comedy, the more I'm like, nah, I'm glad they

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don't know what I just did. I'm surprised when people

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know that I do stand up comedy. I'm genuinely shocked, Jerry.

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That's funny. Stand up comedy is an island off the

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coast of show business. The money we got paid last

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night versus the money Netflix basis, it's connected. I know

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it's not amusing interesting how it happened, but it happened

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twenty fifteen when Chris Rock was offered a big chunk

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of dough to do an election stand up special. What

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she couldn't do? That offers when everything flipped, Then all

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of a sudden, for the first time, it's like, are

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we important, Ronnie? You didn't feel that way with the

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sattires like John Stewart. Jerry, No, you were still in exile.

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Who's invited in a side dish that everybody likes? But

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it's not important, Ronnie. But that's what makes it cool, right.

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It took me so long to realize that what makes

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stand up cool was being the side dish, being outside

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of it. Like you said in your famous award winning speech,

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we don't want to win awards. We want to be

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in the back of the room making fun of people

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getting awards. Jerry, I would like to talk a little

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bit about some of the profanity you use. What's your

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philosophy with that, Ronnie, I don't want to rely on it.

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Are we talking about swear words or just profane premises?

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Jerry profane premises. I don't mind. I shouldn't even be

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doing this in his interview. It's only because your language

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skills are so exceptional. This is my personal opinion. Feel

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free to reject it. But the reason we're paying to

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see Ronnie Chang is because he talks better than us.

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Some comedians say, well, I like to use words to

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help people talk. If I want to hear people talk,

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I don't need to pay for that. I get his

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open the window. It does hit me sometimes when I

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see you use certain words, I go, Ronnie could get

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that same laugh without that word. Not because the words

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are offensive, because they're not, but because it's an opportunity

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to demonstrate your superior skill level. That's the reason I

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bring it up, Ronnie. I appreciate that. But you've given

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my mother fuel for the rest of her life. She's

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been telling me you gotta be more like Seinfeld. He

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has unswear. Now Seinfeld is literally telling me to stop swearing. Jerry.

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My mother wanted me to have more sexual material, Jane,

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are you serious? Jerry, I'm serious in her eighties and

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nineties should complain, why don't you ever talk about sex?

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Isn't that funny? Ronnie? Honestly, if your punchline is swearing,

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I think that's when it gets a little lazy. But

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pushing herself to not swear at all is a degree

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of difficulty. Sometimes the economy of words makes it so

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that it's the easiest way to get across a certain emotion.

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But I hear you, Tom Papa has told WTP. When

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I was a kid, the first comedy albums I ever

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heard were George Coroland and Steve Martin. I was in

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like seventh grade and I heard Class Clown and Let's

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Get Small. In one week, my friend's older brothers had

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these albums that it seemed mysterious, and we went in

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and heard these albums. I was always funny as a kid,

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but it dawn on me that week, Oh, there's a

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job out there for grown ups to continue being funny.

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He launched his career in nineteen ninety three New York City,

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where he met Jerry Seinfeld. Tom says that was after

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his TV show when he came back to the clubs

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and he saw me on stage. I thought it was funny.

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I just grabbed on his coattails and didn't let go.

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Sabash in Maniscalco was about keeping the intimacy of a

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comedy show in a big arena. Sebastian said, I mean

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we grew up in a world where were always looking

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to screen. Anyway, I've noticed even in my own shows

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that people in the third row were looking up at

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the screen even though I'm right there. So screens are

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very important as well as lighting. I've also tweaked the

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lighting where it brings a little bit more of a

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dramatic look to the stage, so it's almost as if

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we're shooting a special every night in terms of the

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way the arena is lit. Really took some time and

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trying to make this more an event than it's been

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in the past. I like my shows in the past,

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and I've had pirotechnics and smoke when i come on stage.

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It's not like I'm new to production. But this was

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looked at from a different angle. So yeah, it's been

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along road. It hasn't been easy. You don't become the

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CEO overnight. You got to work your way up. I

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started waiting tables at the four Seasons hotels for seven

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years when I was doing stand up comedy, and here

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we are playing Dilms twenty five years later. I had

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some rat tat tat with weird Al from Interview magazine.

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Where do you dance? Aw only on stage when looking

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like an idiot? Is somewhat appropriate? Interview? The world is Ending?

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What are you wearing? Al? Obviously not clean underwear? Interview?

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What eighties fashioned tran? Do you want to make a comeback? Ol?

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Parachute pants? Interview? What song is playing in Heaven? Al?

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Never Going to give You Up? By Rick Astley? Interview

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Do you have any rules for life? Al? Do you

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want to others and then just keep doing it even

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if they beg you to stop. The Columbus Underground caught

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up with Mike Kaplan. They said they were listening to

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a set he did for dry Bar Live from the Universe.

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What struck them was my Champlan's pacing. There wasn't a

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wasted moment. How do you purchase pacing, Mike Kamplan? Mike says, well,

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there's a story attached to that particular set. I hope

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it doesn't take anything away from your praise. Dry Bar

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is a company based in Utah. The recordings are made

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of venue that doesn't have alcohol. It's in a bar.

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But the main deal about the esthetic is that it's

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essentially clean comedy of a specific type. There were very

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specific guidelines and topics they prefer to avoid, if I

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remember correctly, they don't even love it when comedians speak

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meanly about their spouses. I think we settled on about

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an hour's worth of material that we felt was potentially

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perfect for it. Out of the five hours of material

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we had, they only asked for half an hour. Over

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the course of the next month, I decided which half

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hour would be and essentially constructed it, so the whole

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piece was essentially like a cleanest and greatest hits on

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my past decade and a half of work. I decided, Okay,

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I think this joke would be a good ending, and

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I think this would be a good beginning, and then

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we group the other jokes. There may be a few

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vegan jokes, few jokes about relationships, few jokes about movies.

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It was a fun thing to put together in a

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different way than creating a new hour from scratch. It

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was like old costumes that I was trying on again

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and being like, oh, I can stretch this one out

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again and find new youth in it. It's really funny

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to revisit a joke I wrote fifteen years ago, because

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sometimes it seems like it was almost written by a

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different person in a way. With respect to how I

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achieved my cadence, I guess the simple answer is I

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don't know. I did a show the other night in

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New York and it was a French name Matthew in

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the audience with a French accent. I asked him a

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question and I forget what I asked, and he said,

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if you want me to understand, please speak slower. And

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I was like, this might not be for you then,

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not yet. I said that as a joke, but I

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probably think I kept in mind that he was there

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and it became a fun item to return to check

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in with him. I got a lot of notes early

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in my career to slow down, and I understand on

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different nights of different material for different crowds, I'm not

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always going at the same clip. I wasn't the special.

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We're talking about fascinating stuff there, right. Aaron Chen was

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on Vulture's list of the comedians You Should and Will

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Know Comedy Opinion You'll die on. I really believe that

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the innovative creativity of TikTok and other more unconventional platforms

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and ways of entertaining should be just as valid as

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the conventional modes. Great comedy could be found anywhere. In

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the beginning of my TikTok journey, there were some people

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who suggest that I step out of my character for videos.

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I'm so glad I stuck to my gut and didn't.

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I'm so grateful that my platform is, for the most part,

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this totally fictional world for me to play in. Best

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advice was from my mom, who told me to keep

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pursuing comedy because, according to her, you have to be

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in comedy because you can't help it be funny. That's

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why I've been laughing you since you were little. Oh

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all right, fri end of the show. John Marco Cirezi

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was also on the list of the comedians who should

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and will know. His answers were so long, I've split

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this up into like five of these. Check back in

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with John Marco. He says, what I've learned is nothing

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can replicate saying a joke, chunk story out loud in

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front of a full audience, even if I haven't come

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up with an alternative line, even if it means I'm

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gonna bomb or worse, get a soft laugh, I just

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have to keep saying until something deep in my subconscious

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screams out a better version loudly enough for me to hear.

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Embarrassment is unfortunately one of the best tools for making comedy.

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I've also tried to fine tune the ability to go Okay,

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that might be funny, but who gives an f for? Yeah,

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this joke is in his fine tune, but it's clearly

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what you want to be talking about right now. I

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tend to write far more than I would ever actually

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need stand up wise, and I'm trying to be more

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purposeful in what I choose to spend my creative time on,

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because oftentimes writing a new joke is just an excuse

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to not finish the old one. They got a little

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bit into money, and he said I should mention that

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I really wish I could make money off Twitter. I

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know it wouldn't be much, but boy, I want the

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ability to post long videos and make money off tweets.

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Let that speak to just how much I hate Elon

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Musk and how full of bleep I am acting like

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any of these other social media giants are not equally

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contributing to the downfall of civilization and meaningful art. I

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don't know what's worse, trying to understand algorithms or having

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your entire career depending on whoever the hell book The

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Tonight Show starring Jenny Carson. I would imagine one's opinion

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would entirely depend on if that guy liked you or not,

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Considering I haven't gotten on the Tonight Show now, I'm

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fine with the former. And that is your comedy news

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for today. If you enjoy the program, tell a friend

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about it. They might like to see. If you would

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like the program without commercial interruption, And there's a link

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of the show notes. I tell you how that happens.

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If you're an Apple podcast, click that banner there. Five

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00:09:04.679 --> 00:09:06.240
bucks a month you get this show and twenty plus

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others on the network commercial free. See you tomorrow.