Jim Gaffigan’s “Hot Pocket” Legacy

0:03 Calaroga Shark Media. Hello, I'm Johnny Mac with your daily comedy news. The always hilarious Jim Gaffigan caught up with King 5 in Seattle. That's a TV station. Here's Jim Gaffigan being hilarious. Do people scream or whisper Hot Pocket to you? What can you tell me? They do. It's never really ending. I was just dropping off, you know, we've been spending the past week or so just dropping kids off at school. You know, there's Hot Pockets, you know, or Meow from the Super Troopers. And I'm kind of a goofy looking guy. So it's, and then when I, people recognize my voice, it's something I'm kind of used to.

0:47 I feel like at this point you should like be sponsored. Well, you know, there was a time they wanted me to do a commercial. I mean, the reality is, is like, I've been fortunate enough that I've been able to do a lot of things in my career. But if I died tomorrow, I'm sure the headline would be Hot Pocket Comedian Dies. Controversial mega comedian Nate Bregazzi said his first jobs weren't that fancy. Not like this fancy schmancy Ford spokesperson gig he's got going now. Nate said his early jobs were pizza delivery man, valet driver, mover. Titles that were always exactly what the job was. I remember going to one house and they wanted me to go buy them beer. This happened when he was working for Pizza Hut. He said they give you a little extra cash. You'd be like, all right, that's nice. A little extra 20 in the pocket and you'd go get them beer. From the BBC, a yoga teacher said it was a joy but surreal to give a lesson to Gianmarco Cerezi. Gosia Federwitz lives in Birmingham. She reached out to Gianmarco Cerezi on Instagram after booking tickets to see him live to see if he wanted any local recommendations. She was surprised and excited when Gianmarco booked a private lesson before he played the Birmingham Town Hall. She explained it felt a bit surreal that he actually said yes. Gianmarco shared a photo of himself mid-headstand in her studio with his 1.4 million Instagram followers. Wow, Gianmarco's doing all right. I wonder if I could still get him on the show. He's been on like three times.

2:13 I wonder if I could still get him. He said, if you're looking for a private session in Birmingham at a gorgeous home studio, look no further. He explained the photo was after class when she asked me to measure how high the ceiling was. Now, I love the story that I grabbed here has an accessibility caption for the photo. They described the photo as a man with dark hair and beard and wearing glasses grins as he holds a microphone. He is sitting down at a wooden chair wearing a blue suit and white T-shirt with brick wall behind and green plant next to him. Ghosh explained he posted about going to yoga very frequently when he was in New York and on tour. So on the spur of the moment, she wrote, Hi, welcome to Birmingham. And do you want some recommendations for food and yoga? He responded the day before his gig and turned up jet lagged, but very friendly, very kind, very warm and very focused on his yoga.

3:01 She said, I didn't want to appear too starstruck. I just thought of him as every yoga client that I had. He definitely enjoyed it. And he said it was just what he needed. She added, he was just a person who needed yoga, rather than the global comedian that he is. I think that's what happens in yoga. It felt quite amazing, and I was hoping to know I could help him in some way do the amazing show that he did. Taylor Tomlinson talked about writing her book. My wife wants to read the book. My wife brought it up to me, which was kind of interesting. She's added it to her queue. All right, Taylor, why a book? Taylor Tomlinson said, I wanted to write books before I wanted to do stand-up. When I was a kid, I wanted to write young adult fantasy novels. Then Bossy Pants by Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling's Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me came out when I was around 17. Those books were hugely inspirational.

3:48 I was about a year into doing stand-up and I was like, oh, I could do both at some point. But I felt in my 20s I hadn't experienced enough yet. And if I was going to do a book like that, I'd need some sort of loose theme to tie it together because I didn't have the self-confidence to go, here's a book of everything I think right now. Then when I was 30 or 31, boy, everybody is younger than me now, I thought of an idea and was ready to take some meetings, see if anyone was interested. Luckily, people were. And it was right around that time that I got dumped. Oh, no. Didn't she used to date Sam Morrill? Am I making that up? I wonder if that's who dumped her. AI says comedian Sam Morrill and Taylor Thompson dated from the fall of 2019. They broke up in February of 2022. do some more detective work. Taylor Tomlinson was born in November of 93, so she would have been 30 or 31 in 2002. I think we know who broke up with her, neither here nor there. It was right around the time I got dumped. So it was like, okay, you have this idea now, and you have all this time that you were allotting for this relationship. I think it's a workaholic's reaction to take on another project when they're failing in their personal life. I was also like, I would love a job that I could do in bed.

4:49 That would be great. She explains, my stand-up is a very heightened version of me at different points in my life. I talk about this all the time, the difference between Johnny Mac and John McDermott. I'll drop the facade here. Do I like Adam Sandler comedies? No, absolutely not. Do I walk around kicking my dog all day going, I can't believe they're making Grown Ups 3? No, I don't. But when I'm behind the microphone, yeah, it's fun. Taylor said, my standup is a very heightened version of me at different points in my life, but with a book, it can say everything. You don't have to just pick the funniest angle or the silliest or hottest take. You don't have to worry about as much if there's not a laugh every 20 seconds and people are going to check out. But it's definitely an adjustment to go from being a joke machine for years to, oh, you have to be getting as many punchlines out and saying things as quickly as possible in a very concise way to like, no, expand on that. Tell us how you feel. The biggest thing I'm scared of, and I'm scared to even say it, is that people are going to be like, she's a terrible writer. That's what I'm most worried about at this point.

5:39 I know I'm good at stand up. I have enough specials, enough years under my belt, but I've never in a book before. So I guess we're going to find out together if I suck. Congratulations to Ashley Padilla, who made Time Magazine's list of the world's most influential rising stars. Time tells us Ashley Padilla had heard the stories. SNL's a competitive workplace, a shark tank, but to hear her tell it, the job is pretty much sunshine and rainbows, save for sleep deprivation. She explains, I find it so collaborative and fun. Everyone's just trying to make people laugh. It can't be too serious. Padilla spent a decade pursuing comedy in LA. She considered giving up, and her manager suggested a showcase of her best material. That reached the Netflix's Joke Festival, and eventually SNL came calling. She says, had I gotten the job maybe a little younger for myself, I don't think I would have felt as comfortable. But she's already talking about other things. She says, I want to direct. I want to make things. That excites me, that jump. You know, ask Bowen Yang how that's going.

6:33 Ask Kate McKinnon how that's going. Then go have a conversation with Kenan. Don't walk away from that show. It's not 1975 or 1985 anymore. Don't walk away from that show. Hey, Dane Cook, what's been the reaction to the documentary? Dane told EW.com, I was fortunate enough to get invited to the Netflix Emmys party. Fancy, Dane Cook. And people with Emmys were like, I saw the trailer. Talk about another surreal moment. A career of surreal moments. I was so moved. Because I didn't realize so many people had seen the trailer and were rooting for me. Even a lot of people outside my industry coming to me and saying, I want to see you back doing what you love in a regular season away. And I said, I'm ready to go. For years, people said to me, your material got me through this thing in high school. And some of the stories are way more harrowing than things I've dealt with.

7:16 But we were there for each other. And my comedy was something in that moment. And now I think I have this other thing where I could say, you can survive your buzzsaw moment. You can put your arm around it. And if you take it and win with it, it's nothing like it. The Nebraskan went to go see Josh Johnson. We are told Kelly Howard opened for Josh Johnson. Howard cracked jokes about her family, husband, and health, and it was impossible not to laugh as she was so animated in every story she told, says the Nebraskan. They apparently loved her and said after a short set, I could have listened to her for the entire night. Josh Johnson was introduced. I was a little disappointed with how short her time on stage was, but I soon learned Josh Johnson would not disappoint. The reviewer had never heard of Josh Johnson. But we're told within the first few words out of his mouth, Josh had the crowd cackling as he shared his first experiences with visiting Nebraska. Josh told tales of awkward experiences around couples living in New York City, cramming in the middle of a seat on planes, and a broken-up couple co-parenting a gerbil and a friend's fat cat.

8:13 And added that a lot of people are one cat away from being a lunatic. Send your letters to Josh Johnson, cat people. Josh tagged it with, if Kash Patel can be the director of the FBI, you can be anything. Max Zimini told the New York Times he always likes to give the disclaimer that he's not a politician. He's not someone who's well-informed about the world of politics. He says, I want to make sure my head doesn't get too big and talk about things, and all of a sudden I think I'm an expert on these topics now, because you can fall in those traps when you're not the expert and you're taking a very strong stance. You have to be responsible as a public figure, and if you take on these topics from a place of responsibility, then it forces you to go educate yourself, look into things, and to be sensitive about whatever you're talking about. Matt Rive caught up with the LA Times. Reif co-stars with Owen Wilson in the recently released film Rolling Loud. The movie filmed some scenes at the actual Rolling Loud festival.

9:03 Matt Reif said, With Owen Wilson, it was what I would imagine a parent feels like when taking their kid through a haunted house. I was also scared, but I couldn't let him know I was scared. And then, at the bottom of my script, is a big, long dead space. I thought I had more, but I don't. So that is your comedy news for today. I'll see you tomorrow.