Jan. 7, 2025

John Mulaney's Persona, Michael Ian Black on UFOs, Nikki Glaser's Taylor Swift Obsession, and More

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac covers John Mulaney's approach to creating his onstage persona, Michael Ian Black's thoughts on politics, UFOs, and poker, and Nikki Glaser's love for Taylor Swift and her music. Matteo Lane discusses the challenges of writing new comedy material, while travel tips and preferences from various comedians are also shared. The episode ends with insights from Paul Ogata on his comedy journey and Tom Green's life on a farm in Canada.

00:00 John Mulaney's Onstage Persona
00:58 Michael Ian Black on UFOs and Politics
02:08 Nikki Glaser's Love for Taylor Swift
03:42 Matteo Lane on Crafting Comedy
04:15 Travel Preferences and Overpacking
06:13 Paul Ogata's Comedy Journey
08:28 Tom Green's Life on a Farm

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Callaroga Shark Media. Hello Johnny Mack with your daily comedy News.

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John mulaney talked about how he put together his on

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stage persona and said, I consciously thought, what if he

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did Spuden Gray with the energy of Bernie Mack. What

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if what you were really saying was really confessional and

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had an edge to it. The language was specific and nuanced,

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it was personal and contradictory, dark, suicidal, whatever it was.

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But he kept saying it with this big show, busy energy,

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how big can you sell weird and specific? John said

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he thought, I'm gonna see if you could do a

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nine minute story about this and just hit it as

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though you're doing the best bit about dating ever. I'm

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gonna tell this long story about how my parents had

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a complicated relationship with the Clintons and how it sort

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of plays it and how me and my dad relate

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to each other, and I'm gonna go on stage and

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annihilate with it. That's how he handled twenty Fifteen's The

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Comeback Kid. Then for Baby Jay, he said, all right,

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this is the most confessional one, so it's gonna be

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all jokes. There's no moment that isn't supposed to be

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very entertaining. Michael ian Black told Inside Hook, there's really

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only two things on my mind at any given moment,

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maybe three things, politics, UFO, and poker. Really the only

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three things I think about with any regularity, he said,

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is childhood. Interest in UFOs was reignited in twenty seventeen

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when The Times New York Times did an article about

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a secret Pentagon program dedicated to investigating UFOs. Michael Lean

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Black said, they're like, yeah, we've been studying UFOs for decades.

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You're like, wait, you told us that you hadn't been.

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You told us for decades that you hadn't been, that

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there was nothing to it, and now you're saying there is.

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So at the very least, that's a very compelling story.

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The thing I find so fascinating about this whole topic

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is whatever the explanation is, even the most prosaic explanation,

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is going to be fascinating. Because the most prosaic explanation

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is that the US has somehow developed tech, or somebody's

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developed tech that nobody else has and nobody else even understands.

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That's a fascinating story. Or we all are the US

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and globally the victims of some sort of bizarre global

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disinformation campaign, which in a way makes less sense than

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the alternative, because you have these reports everywhere in the world, Russia, China, Brazil, Mexico,

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all of Europe to US, Canada, everywhere, So like whatever

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the explanation, none of it makes sense. And to me,

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that's what I love. I just love the mystery of it.

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In a way I don't want to know. Nicki Glazer

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loves her Tailor Swift. She likes being around Swifties and said,

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I just love her music so much and singing it

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with other people love it as much as I do.

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This is no slight to Tailor. It's just to speak

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to the power of her music and her fandom. But

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it was much fun at a Taylor Swift sing a

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Long Night as I do it in Aras tour concert. NICKI,

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do you have any goals, you know, a surprise song

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or something that you're hoping for when you go see

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Taylor live. I never have any goals because I like

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all of her songs so much that I really can't

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be disappointed. But being able to sing You're on your

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own kid with her in the stadium was really special.

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There have been songs that at first I overlooked, but

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I fall in love with Like The Lucky Ones is

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so good because it's about the way I feel about Hollywood,

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and you know you're quickly disposed of, and how you

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kind of have an exit strategy for when they decide

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they don't want you anymore. You have to learn to

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really like yourself and have other interests because your career

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could be taken away from you despite what you do,

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or what you put out or who you are, how

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talented you are. I always felt the Tailor was in

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a good mood performing. Of course she can't always be,

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but she never lets it show in her performances. It's

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probably because of her performances that she is happy. Do

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you have a favorite era, Nikki Glazer? I'm always in

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the era that she's in. The Tortured Poets Department really

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helped me get through preparing for the Roast of Tom

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Brady when I was really feeling isolated, alone and unsure

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of myself, and really all I was doing was thinking

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about roast jokes. It was the greatest gift because it

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was a distraction. Reminded me I care about other things,

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that my life is full no matter what happens with

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the Roast. It really held my hand through that really

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stressful time in my life. And then even after the Roast,

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that was a really tumultuous time for me, just handling

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that level of attention and feeling like I can't live

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up to it now, and I feel like I just

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turned to that album so much. But say Elane, I

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talked about putting together an hour of comedy and said,

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when I'm on the road, an hour's worth of material,

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that's at least a year's worth of doing stand up

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every single night at the Comedy Seller, working out new jokes,

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redoing jokes over and over. People think I do stand

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up every once in a while. I do stand up

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every night. I'm at the Comedy Seller every single night.

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To write new material, I have to be in front

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of an audience. I think in July I did fifty

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shows at the Seller. You could see it within a week.

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If I've done eighteen shows in a week and I

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start that joke on a Friday, the next Friday, it's

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a different joke. Usually I take May through September to

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write a bunch of material, and then you work them

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out in little clubs, trying to piece the material together.

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Three List spoke to a partner, Ninturilla, about travel. They

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asked her window, middle or aisle seat. Johnny Mack loves

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the window. A partner said, I've historically been a window

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seat person. That's right, that's the correct answer. I like

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being able to nestle into the road, having that wall

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you can nap against. Now, because of in my weakening bladder,

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I think I may have to eventually accept that I'm

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gonna have to be an aile person because I'm too

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conflict averse staff to keep asking someone to get up

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so I can go to the bathroom. One hundred percent

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on every piece of that answer. Love it all right?

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Do you pack light or do you overpack? She says,

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I'm an overpacker. Johnny Mack is not an overpacker. I

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went to Australia with a carry on. I can get

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it done. MacBook airs and I sent in to that helps.

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And you don't need to bring a big USB mic

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with you. You know, if a famous comedian dies when

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you're on the road and you have your book with you,

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you can use the microphone in the laptop of your

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audience will understand. Parna says, I'm bringing things that don't

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make sense. I think if I had a go bag,

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it'd be like a three piece set of suitcases. I

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was just gone for two weeks, and I brought maybe

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seven or eight outfits. I'd say probably were four of

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the Moner rotation. The thing about being an overpacker is

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when you suddenly need one of those random objects like

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your old journal, You'll be like, see, this is why

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I need this favorite way to pass time on a plane.

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I was hoping get some work done on a few

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times I have. I'm like, can I get credit for this?

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I feel like a shner in miles for this. No,

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don't do work in a plane. Planes are wonderful times.

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You listen to music you never get to listen to.

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You close your eyes, you listen to podcasts like don't

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Do Work in a Plane. Wi Fi should be banned

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on planes, and oh man, if they start with the

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starlink and start people start making phone calls on planes again,

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no no no no no no no no no. But

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partner said, I used to be someone who could sleep

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on flights, but I seem not to have that ability

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much these days. So I end up watching something or

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reading most of the time. Her biggest travel fear something

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going wrong with the plane. Obviously crashing is the endpoint

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of that fear, but then I think really bad turbulence

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almost feels worse to me. You don't know whether it

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means you're going to crash orf it's just going to

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be scary for some unforeseeable amount of time. Favorite travel

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snack some sort of trail mix where you're getting different

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bits in one bag and it's not all one thing,

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like a pretzel mix or something. Paula got I spoke

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to the South China Morning Post. He says I was

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born in Hawaii in nineteen sixty eight, in the early

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morning hours after Richard Nixon was elected president. My mother

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contemplated naming me Richard, but thankfully she was also a

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Beatles fan and ended up naming me Paul. I have

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one sibling, a brother who's fourteen months older than me,

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which is the two of us in a small Japanese family.

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He was the eldest son, which meant I was out

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of luck. He got all the love, attention and adoration

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because in Japanese culture, the first born son is treated

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exceptionally well. It explains how I ended up in comedy,

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the need for attention and approval. I was on the

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city championship basketball team when I was a kid, but

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then everybody kept growing, so I stayed indoors, listening to

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comedy albums. There's a lot of truth in comedy. The

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first comedy album I listened to was Gilda Radner. In Hawaii,

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we only had one stand up comedian, Andy Bumasai. I

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had all his albums and listening to him on repeat

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day and day out. I could recite them verbatim. I

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wanted to be like Andy. The opportunity to elicit approval, laughter,

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an applause with my version of the truth really spoke

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to me. In Hawaii, there was only one comedy club

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and that closed down, so there was no place for

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me and my friends to perform. In ninety six, I

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had a very bad idea to open a comedy club

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in Waikiki. The Comedy Cow was open about a year.

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Me and my friends had a place to perform at.

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Robin Williams came through one night. It was great while

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it last did, and my finances, hopes, and dreams burned

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down around me. I learned I'm a terrible business person.

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I ended up massive debt and shame. I read in

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the newspaper that one of the morning DJs got fired

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from the local radio station. I sent a letter to

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the GM and said, hey, I'm the kind of person

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that likes to capitalize on other people's misfortunes, so please

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hire me to do your morning show. That turned into

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two and a half years at the station. That's what

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convinced me that I should devote my life to comedy.

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Morning radio was a great creative experience. You have to

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write three hours of material every day and then burn

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it down because you couldn't do the same show the

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next day. It forced you to be creative, and I

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enjoy that. I didn't like the hours. I had to

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wake up at four am to get to the station

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at five point thirty, which was bad. I did a

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morning drive. It's thirty years ago now. I lasted four

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months on that shift. It was hell. The alarm would

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go off at three thirty three every morning or weekday mornings,

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which was the last possible second where I could shower

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and get into New York City. And again no interney yet.

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I had to go find actual newspapers and read them

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really quickly to do the show. Prep before the five

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AM morning show. Anyway. The alarm would go off at

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three thirty three every morning, and the first thing I

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would say started with the word F hated it. I

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hated it. Tom Green caught up with US magazine. He's

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living on a farm in Canada and says, after a

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hectic day, I decompressed by being outside in nature with

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my dog or writing my mule Fanny. She's a big mule,

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very large and majestic mare. He made a list of

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twenty five things you don't know about Tom Green. I

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won't read them all, but some of them. Miss Piggy

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from The Muppet Show was my celebrity crush growing up.

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His favorite movie is Jaws. His favorite karaoke song is

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Space Oddity by David Bowie. His first job was working

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at Dairy Queen. He made the peanut butter part and

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said the trick is extra fudge. I collect old coins

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and I don't know why. Norm MacDonald was always my

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favorite stand up comedian. I discovered him live in the

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comedy club when he was young and before he was famous.

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It was the greatest thing I've ever seen and made

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me want to be a stand up comedian. And that

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is your comedy news for today. If you enjoy the program,

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tell a friend about it. They might like it too,

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And I'll see you tomorrow.