Jerry Seinfeld on Mastery and the Essence of Comedy

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Caalaroka Shark Media and Hello, I'm
Jennie Mack with your daily comedy news.

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The New Yorker said to Jerry Seinfeld, it's possible that you've made a dollar

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or two from Seinfeld, yet you
still work hard. Why, Jerry said,

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because the only thing in life that's
really worth having is good skill.

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Good skill is the greatest possession.
The things that money buys are fine,

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they're good. I like them,
but having a skill. I learned this

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from reading Esquire magazine in the sixties. They did an issue on mastery.

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Do you remember that, The interviewer
says, I don't. I'm surprised you

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definitely read Esquire. Oh yeah,
of course I loved Esquire in the sixties

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and magazine for men. Remember,
yes, I do. Yeah, And

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they did one issue. In fact, I gotta get this issue. I'll

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get it on eBay. I'm sure
it's there. It's a very zen Buddhist

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concept. Pursue mastery that will fulfill
your life. You will feel good.

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I know a lot of rich people, so to you, they don't feel

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good as you think they should and
would. They're miserable because if they don't

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master a skill, life isn't fulfilling. So I work because if you don't

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stand up comedy, if you don't
do it a lot, you stink.

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They asked Jerry, who did he
start listening to that made him say that

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was the skull I want to learn. Terry said, Robert Klin and Jay

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Leno were the two guys that and
George Carlin, Bill Cosby I love,

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but I thought I can never be
that good. Switching gears. Jerry talked

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about naming the series. I thought, well, they'll just call it Seinfeld

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no matter what we call it,
so we might as well just call it

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Seinfeld because Carson wasn't the Tonight show. You're on Carson. It becomes the

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name of the guy, and that's
why we called it that. I never

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thought, well that's a Jewish name. What about Middle America never ever crossed

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my mind. The New Yorker pointed
out that NBC executive Brandon Tartakoff said the

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show originally was to New York and
too Jewish. Terry said, maybe we

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mentioned a bar Mitzvah one time.
Maybe I don't know. We would have

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done anything, and comedy do anything
that you think might work. Anything.

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The reason my show succeeded was the
brilliance of Jason, Michael and Julia.

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They took this really esoteric material and
the brilliant performers and actors that they were,

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they made this material accessible to a
wide audience. That's why the show

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worked. Those three people, Larry
and I could never have done it.

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Our humor is. I think maybe
it's a little more accessible now, but

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at that time no. Brandon Tartakoff
was right, but he didn't realize how

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great Jason, might and Julia were. That's what he missed. A tip

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from Jerry, don't try to be
funny if you're not funny, if people

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aren't always telling you you're funny,
don't be funny unless you're drunk and you're

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with your very very close friends.
I set out to find out if I

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was funny. I didn't think I
was any funnier than any friend I had

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growing up. I thought we're all
exactly the same. I drove to this

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club, the Golden Lion Pub one
forty three West forty fourth Street, no

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longer there. I'm still a Queen's
college. They have an audition. I

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think there were just a few people
there, and I did this joke about

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being left handed and They got a
laugh, and then they booked me.

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The interviewer says, I want to
hear the joke, and Jerry goes,

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all right. The joke is I'm
laught handed. Why are so many left

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things negatively associated? Two left feet? Left handed? Cop of it?

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You go to a party, there's
nobody there. Where'd everybody go? They

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left huge? It got a huge
laugh. Jerry tells an anecdote. I

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saw comedian do a couple of Tonight
shows and get bounced. I don't want

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to mention the name. He went
on, He did well. The second

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time he went on, he did
less well. The third time he struggled.

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They never had him back, and
I went, oh, now I

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get how this racket works. This
is a writer's game. If you can

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write, you succeed. If you
can't, you will not make it.

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The performing being funny on stage,
that's great. A comedy can be funny

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on stage, But the bullets are
the writing, Jerry. Do you watch

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tapes of yourself? For films of
yourself? Jerry said, sometimes every artist

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is only showing you his best.
When you watch a movie, every scene,

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they only show you the one take
that worked. Seventeen times they missed

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it, you're only seeing the peak
of it, and stand up. You

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gotta make it happen every night.
That's the difference. That's why actors I

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think they like to do theater.
They want to be honest, They want

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to be held to account, and
only a live audience holds you to account.

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Jerry, do you feel constant pressure
to make it new all the time?

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Jerry says that conversation would take another
hour. The short version is,

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there's no answer. If I love
a bit that somebody doesn't, I go

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and they do the bit. I
love it the comedian you've seen them after

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the show. You go, you
did the Beana bit? I love the

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bean A bit and they go,
I know I'm trying to get out of

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my act. Do something new?
You go, No, I love that

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bit. Who's right, there's no
answer, Jerry? Will you do another

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special for Netflix? He says,
no, why not again? We don't

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have time for that. Jerry.
Do you ever go to clubs? Yeah?

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I go all the time. I
don't sit there and pay for two

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drinks and watch the guys go.
That guy's fantastic. I gotta work out

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my own stuff, Jay Leno told
uh New Jersey one on one point five

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radio to me, there's nothing funnier
than comedy in New Jersey. I was

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at Rascals once years ago. So
next to Rascals is an arcade, literally

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right next door. So I'm in
the arcade. I'm playing one of the

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games. To see this guy looking
at me and he goes, hey,

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you look like Jay Leno. Jay
says, I am Jay Leno. The

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guy goes, no, you're not. Jay wouldn't be here. Jay says,

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I'm playing Rascals right next door.
I'm on in forty five minutes.

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Right now, I'm playing a video
game. The guy asked leto for his

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ID. Jay Leno declined to provide
his ID. So I go on stage.

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I see the guy sitting like two
seats right in front of me.

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I go, do you believe me? Now? Wartschatter dot Com spoke to

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Mike Burri Bigley about what started him
in comedy. Mike says, I want

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to say I was maybe fifteen or
sixteen years old. My brother Joe took

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me to see Stephen Wright, and
that sent me into a rabbit hole of

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writing in my notebook like random thoughts, you know, because it perform what

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Stephen Wright does. So well as
he performs this match a trick of here's

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some things I was thinking about,
and I'm just reeling them off the top

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of my head. And you know
it's an illusion because he's written them and

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workshopped them, and he knows they'll
get laughs in these different places. So

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I started writing a ton of jokes. Was acting ever going to be your

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focus? Mike? Mike said,
When I got into comedy in the late

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nineties, the path success was you
became a comedian, then you got a

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sitcom, and that was Ray Romano, that was Roseanne Seinfeld, et cetera.

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I was on that trajectory until about
two thousand and eight, when I

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shot a sitcom pilot for CBS based
on my life. It was like an

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untitled Mike Birbiglia project. Then it
didn't get picked up. Then I kind

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of doubled down and tripled down on
making these specials. I made Sleepwalk with

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Me my girlfriend's Boyfriend. Thank God
for the jokes, the new one and

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the most recent one, which is
called the Old Man in the Pool,

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And weirdly those become what I do. Forbes talk to Brad Williams about his

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new special Starfish. Brad, who
is a little person, says, Look,

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there will always be dwarf jokes.
I'm a little person. I don't

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know how to write jokes from the
perspective of a six foot guy. But

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on this special I dive into a
lot of different topics and I'm really happy

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to leave my comfort zone. I'm
at the stage of life where I'm a

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father and I've been married a few
years now. I want to give something

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new as a comic. I love
the laughs, I live off those,

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but the moments that really get me
excited to the silences, Because if the

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audience is quiet and that's what I
planned, I've got them. There's a

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moment where I reveal something about my
daughter and the audience goes quiet. I

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can tug it your heartstrings a little
knowing that I have a joke to bring

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you back. I want you to
feel everything when you come to my show.

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I want you to feel joy and
laughter, but I also want you

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to think a little bit this is
great, and I also want you to

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be sad that I want to bring
it back up and have you always leave

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happy. There was a famous speech
by Jim Valvano at the sb Awards where

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he said something like if you can
laugh, cry, and think on the

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same day. That was a hell
of a day, and I want to

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make people do that, but just
in an hour. So pretty profound answer

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there, right, What do they
follow up with? Do you find it

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hard to work out material for your
specialist while people are taping with their phones?

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Wait to listen to the answer and
follow up on it anyway, Brad

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said, I call people out.
Hey, dude, I'm working on stuff.

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Let's put the phone down. There's
a joke in my special and I'm

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most proud of about the bud Light
transgender spokesperson controversy. When I first told

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the joke was horrible and I got
to a point where it was getting last,

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but it wasn't kind of last I
wanted. They were aggressive, so

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I kept tooling with it and I
finally got the joke to point where it's

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about the right laughter, The message
reflects my personal beliefs. Nailed it,

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and you need to be allowed that
process. Here's some well written copy that

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I'll read verbatim. Step right up, Comedy lovers, get ready to witness

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a night of hilarity and heart as
the incomparable Gina Brillan takes a stage tonight

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at the legendary Gotham Comedy Club to
film their fifth stan up special Mind Your

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Business. The Washington Post has been
covering the DC comedy scene. Matthew Deakins

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describes his comedy style as I wouldn't
describe my comedic style. Describing one's comedic

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style is pretentious streetely like that answer? All right, what do you like

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to tell jokes about? Matthew Deacon
says, Applebee's Loreina Bobbitt Disney Adults,

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German adults seven to eleven. What's
the best thing about the DC comedy scene?

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Matthew Deacon says, On any given
night, you might be performing for

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the architects of the Iraq War.
Tomorrow you might be performing for the architects

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of the next war. Someone in
the audience works for Raytheon and Grumming.

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Somebody else works for a nonprofit that
helps orphans in far away places that I'll

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never visit. They're all here,
and they're all doing the same thing.

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They make spreadsheets and powerpoints, and
most of them want to go home to

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somebody who loves them, and most
of them will go home to an empty

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apartment for ninety minutes. They forget
their apartment is empty, and they forget

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the mission statement of the organization they
wish they didn't work for. They don't

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check email, they can't look at
LinkedIn for ninety minutes. They think about

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their dad, and their yard and
their dawn. They wonder if anything will

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ever be as good as their memories. Wow, all right, Matthew Deakons,

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What else should we know about you? I've told you everything. Democracy

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might die in darkness, but privacy
thrives in it. If you want anything

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else, listen to my podcast.
It's called half a Nice Day. Sounds

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like an interesting dude. That is
your comedy news for today. If you

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