May 18, 2025

John Mulaney's Rock Hall Thoughts

Show Notes
Transcript

John Mulaney's commitment to reviewing Rock Hall of Fame inductees and snubs annually, despite past hurdles like Covid and personal issues. Mulaney also shared his humorous thoughts on 'Let's Twist Again' by Chubby Checker. Johnny Mac highlights the 12th annual Patrice O'Neill Comedy Benefit Concert with a stellar lineup and recounts his past experiences with O'Neill. The episode also features a detailed recount from Nora Dunn of her confrontation with SNL's decision to host the controversial Andrew Dice Clay, including the fallout with Lorne Michaels. Additionally, Iliza Shlesinger shares her approach to inclusive comedy that resonates across diverse audiences. Johnny wraps up by encouraging listeners to support his show on various platforms.

00:15 John Mulaney's Rock Hall of Fame Insights
01:59 Patrice O'Neal Comedy Benefit Concert
02:52 Nora Dunn's SNL Controversy
06:16 iliza Shlesinger on Reaching Diverse Audiences

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WEBVTT

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Callaroga Shark Media. Hey there, I'm Johnny Mack with your

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daily comedy news. As I mentioned a few times, I

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want to take the weekend off. It was my son

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graduated from college. I didn't want to be sitting there

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on Friday at four in the morning recording a bunch

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of episodes before I headed out. A Rolling Stone caught

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up with John Mullaney. This is lengthy here. Apparently Mullaney

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first broke down the Rock Hall of Fame inductees and

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snubs with Rolling Stone in twenty eighteen. The plan was

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for it to be an annual tradition, Laney said govid

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and some personal problems got in the way, but he's

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ready to recommit and says I'll make this an annual

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thing now. Mullaney started off with some advice when you're

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in your twenties, take as many photos of yourself as possible.

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You're so good looking. The topic of chubby Chicker, Rolling

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Stone asked Mullaney, does he have any experience with the

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twister Let's Twist Again? Malaney said, well, I really appreciate

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Let's twist again like we did last summer. It's a

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funny lyric for a reboot I really like the bald

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faces of Let's Twist Again like we did last summer, saying,

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remember we did the song the Twists last year, we're

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doing it again. And also, I think Let's Twist Again

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is a better song than the Twist. I don't think

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I'm alone in that. Sorry, didn't meaning make it sound

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like such a novel ideas. Chuppy Chick are still with us.

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Rolling Stone asked John, is there a group that you

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don't care about that you want to see in the

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Hall of Fame? He said, okay, I mean a lot

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are in already helped me think a little. Buttole Surfers,

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Flaming Lips, they're not in right Stone, No, they're not.

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Olney talked about Phish. This was hugely important music to us.

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It really kept bands alive. Dad, you have a band

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in nineteen ninety nine playing guitars, piano and Drum's was

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not easy to find. Funny exchange here, John, I have

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no opinion on the Black Crows being diplomatic. No, I

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genuinely have no opinion. So if that's the pull quote,

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we've got a viral story. In twenty eighteen, John said

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that the Hall had an anti Chicago Bias. O'Laney said,

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a lot of things I said in twenty eighteen could

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be buffeted with, but in reality, John's a little off.

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I like that. They don't say, well, John's just misguided

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and might be on speed. They're like, is there some truth?

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We won't say no? All right? Moving on. Tonight is

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the twelfth annual Patrise O'Neill Comedy Benefit Concert, Rosebud Baker,

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greer Bourne's DC, Benny Bill Birds Him Dylan to Mesh Patel,

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Sean Patten, and Rich Voss. Pretty good lineup. That's at

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New York City Center at seven point thirty. I've told

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the story in the past. I'm not gonna be shy.

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Never ever once enjoyed an encounter with Patrise O'Neil. He

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just had this thing of like he would just come

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at you for no reason, just to see how you

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were to react. And like, dude, this is a professional workspace.

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We're at a comedy festival. You know, we're trying to

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do interviews. Don't do your stupid thing. Go away. So personally,

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Patrise O'Neil's comedy funny. Patrise O'Neil, the dude, I know

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the comedians revere him, love him, never enjoyed my time

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with him. That said, let's raise some money tonight with

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a good lineup. Dylan from the Facebook group which is

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Daily Comedy News Podcast group share this one with me

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from crack Nora Dunn. Remember when Nora Dunn was on SNL.

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Well back on May twelfth, nineteen ninety Andrew Dice Clay

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hosted SNL. He was quite controversial back in that time.

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Nora Dunn refused to participate in the show. That week,

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SNL doubled down. They kept Dice and made repeated jokes

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about Nora Dunn. Cracked assd You'd been on the show

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for five years at that point, did you plan on

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coming back the next year? Nora said, I actually wasn't

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coming back after my five years, but the reason was

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only because I didn't want to do any more sketches.

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I didn't have any more sketches. I was really anxious

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to move on. A lot of what I call kids

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were coming in. I thought, boy, this humor is now

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bending towards twelve year old boys. She's referencing Adam Sandler. There,

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Nora Dunn and I could be friends. She says of Sandler,

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a great guy. But I have to tell you, when

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I saw him on the show playing that thing, I

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was like time to leave anyway. So Dice is gonna

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host the show, Nora tells Al Franken, I ain't doing

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the show. I'm not coming in. I called several other

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cast members and said, you know that Andrew Dice Clay's

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doing the show, and They're like no. Some were saying, well,

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I'm not to perform with him, and I won't write

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for him, and I said, well, I'm not going to

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work with him. That's how the word got out to NBC.

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It must have been Monday morning. I got a call

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from the AP. He told me S and L was

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posting a piece on me that said my contract wasn't

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going to be renewed. Cracked. Who did you voice your

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objections to that you weren't going to do the show?

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Just Al Franken, Norah, Yeah, just Al Franken. I called

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Lauren on Monday morning, too, but I believe he was

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at a funeral. He didn't return my call. Franken wasn't surprised.

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He actually asked Lauren that week not to have him

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on the show. He said, it's a mistake. He's divisive

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and people are going to turn against us if you

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have him on the show. But Lauren said he was

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an interesting phenomenon worth examining. Nora said, well, I was Hitler.

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I've been examining him for years. That doesn't mean I

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accept him. I know. He says he was doing a parody,

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but the laughs are coming because they love the character

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and they agree with that character. He was Andrew Dice Clay,

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he was billed as him, he's came out as him. Cracked,

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why do you think Lauren went forward with him as

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the host? Nora, I don't know. I think he didn't

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want admit he was wrong. I think he was very,

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very upset the way I did it, which he calls

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bad form. But he did call him and he did know,

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and I didn't think that anyone would notice. Crack said,

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how come you never objected to someone like Sam Kennison? Nora.

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I love Sam. He was a smart comic. I got

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along with him very well. I'd seen him in clubs

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and he wasn't hateful. Most of his jokes turned on himself.

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Dice was so hateful. He's whipping people up by saying things.

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Even Johnny Mack doesn't want to repeat thirty years later.

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I'll paraphrase jokes about aids. I'll leave it there. People

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would pound their tables. One of the good pieces I

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read on Dice was saying, if you listen to a show,

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people aren't laughing, they're pounding on the tables. They're expressing anger.

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That's what they're angry about. Interesting to change here. Have

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you spoken to Lauren about any of this? No, he

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never spoke to me again. He did hire me to

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do some things. He was the producer on a Seth

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Rogan movie and I got worded that Lauren wants you

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to do it, but he only wants to pay you

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twenty five hundred dollars and for the size of the role,

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it should have been like twenty five grand. I did it,

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but it was one of those things that his little message,

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you're going to come and work for me for scale.

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I also noticed in the credits that I was put

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last after every character that could have been a walk on,

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and I had a pretty long scene too. That's the

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kind of thing I suspect. Laura of Wow I was

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seated at the fiftieth Aniverse in the last row of

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the studio. I wasn't asked to be in anything, and

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in the montage of the year that I was on,

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I wasn't in it at all, and I shouldn't be

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saying this. I went on the floor afterwards. I ended

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up standing next to Marty Short watching Paul McCartney sing,

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and when we finished, we looked at each other and

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we had tears in our eyes. Then I turned and

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there's Lorne standing there. I hadn't talked to him in years.

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I went up and I said, Lorne Michaels and hugged

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him fifty years. Good work. He just said yeah and

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walked away, and I went, now that's a petty man. Wow.

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The only times caught up with Eliza Slessinger, they were

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curious how she reaches different age audiences. Eliza said, I'm

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always developing jokes for me, and I'm mindful of who

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might be in the audience. But I'm very lucky that

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I don't have a homogeneous audience. I think with some comics,

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you know exactly the archetype of their fans. And because

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I'm fortunate enough to be able to play audiences across

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the country, you don't really know who you're gonna get.

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You can kind of guess, but we have everyone from

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conservative veterans to a super queer contingent to people who

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just look like your parents gen Z. So it's always

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about the truth, and it's always about saying something honest,

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because comedy comes from vulnerability and from honesty. I don't

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hate gen Z or baby boomers. Comedy comes from a

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place of very much wanting to be seen and explain myself.

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I don't ever write anything to hurt anyone deliberately, and

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so all my comedy comes from this unending need to

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understand what the bleep is going on. I think we

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make the mistake of thinking that if it's pro female,

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it has to be anti male, and both things can

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be true. That you're critiquing something without aiming to harm

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and also wanting women to feel a little bit better.

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One of the comments that I sadly still get is

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women will come up to me and they'll say that

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was my first stand up show, and I'll be like, yep,

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that's right, because your boyfriend probably only showed you his

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favorite male comics, so you thought comedy wasn't for you.

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I'm not the only woman he does stand up. Thankfully,

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there's so many more now that when I started. So

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everybody can find something for them. But I think there's

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a way to bring men in. I call it digestible feminism,

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bring men in a way. So you just present the facts.

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You make everyone laugh, but you're saying something that women

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in the audience can vibrate with, and men, if you

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don't hate women, will be like, hey, that's a good thought.

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Nobody buys a ticket to a comedy show to hear

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why their politics are wrong, while their gender is wrong,

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while their colors wrong. And so I try to keep

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it all social and light and just hate you with

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skating hot facts that are irrefutable wrapped in comedy so

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you can digest it and talk about it on your

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drive home to lacrescenta later. And that is your comedy

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

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friend about it too. If you've discovered this thing on YouTube, Hey,

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I'm an old guy in a basement doing an mostly

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audio podcast. So hook me up, bring the bell and

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like and follow and whatever you're supposed to do on YouTube.

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Just do that. Hook the old guy up. Okay, see

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you guys tomorrow.