Sept. 21, 2026

Kevin Hart & Taco Bell’s Live Más Open, Chris Rock on Tom Cruise, and Jo Koy’s Road Diet

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac shares comedy news including Taco Bell partnering with Kevin Hart to promote the Live Más Open on Nov. 2, where fans can qualify via Topgolf’s Shot Shuffle or an online sweepstakes to compete in a team golf event for a chance to bring back a chosen Taco Bell menu item; qualifiers run through Sept. 27, with a quote from Topgolf CEO David emphasizing accessibility. Chris Rock, at TIFF, says it’s harder to be Tom Cruise than U.S. president. Stavros Halkias tells GQ he’s chasing one undeniable stand-up special and continues podcasting mainly for money and schedule, wondering if podcasts drain comedians’ material. A Notre Dame paper reviews Jim Gaffigan (with opener Ted Alexandro). The LA Times profiles Jo Koy discussing his new Netflix special, stepdad material, and healthier eating on the road. Mac notes late-night August ratings, Wanda Sykes’ comments on Saudi comedy festivals, and a Toronto Guardian interview with comedian Sam Sferrazza.

00:13 Kevin Hart Taco Bell Golf
02:03 Chris Rock Tom Cruise Take
02:31 Stavros Special And Podcasting
03:38 Jim Gaffigan Show Review
05:22 Jo Koy Netflix And Health
10:16 Basement Video And Schedule
11:23 Late Night Ratings Roundup
12:32 Wanda Sykes Riyadh Festival
13:06 Toronto Comic Sam Sferrazza

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Hello, I'm Johnny Mac with your daily comedy news. If

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you're a longtime listener, you know that I like to

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say that Kevin Hart is not afraid to work. He's

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got another gig and he's teamed up with Taco Bell. Yes,

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Taco Bell is giving nine lucky golfers the chance to

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bring back a menu item of their choosing. And who

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would you tap into this if not Kevin Hart's? Taco

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Bell announced they were teaming with actor Kevin Hart, interesting

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designation there, actor Kevin Hart to deliver the Live Moss

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Open on Monday, November 2nd. Prospective participants can earn spots

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through either participating in the Shot Shuffle game at top

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golf locations across the nation, or you can enter a

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free online sweepstakes to be among 100 selected to submit

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a video entry. Then nine fans will be selected to

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take part in the team golf competition. They'll complete in

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foursomes with professional athletes, celebrities, and content creators. Okay. Nine.

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All right. I see. Three plus one, three times. Got it. Wait,

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it's not Live Moss. I'm leaving it in. I can

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do the whole thing over. You guys can just throw

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stuff at the screen and be like, stupid idiot in

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the basement. It's Live Moss. It's the Live Moss Open.

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I'm reading a script. It says L-I-V-E. Leave me alone.

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The Live Moss Open. Qualifiers open until Sunday, September 27th.

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The CEO of Topgolf. There's a new Topgolf in my area.

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I've been waiting for years for them to open it.

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And now that it's open, I haven't had a free

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moment to go. I forgot to catch a guy who's

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up on jury duty. I'll do that after the break.

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I've been so, so busy. Topgolf CEO David said... Topgolf

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has always been about making golf more accessible and social,

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which is why the Live Moss Open is such a

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natural fit for us. Together with Taco Bell, we want

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everyone to feel like they can be part of the game.

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Whether they're picking up a club for the first time

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or have been playing for years with a chance to

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earn their way into the field and experience golf in

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a way they may have never imagined. No quote from

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Kevin Hart in this thing. That's suspicious. You can usually

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get a quote out of Kevin Hart. Chris Rock says

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it's harder to be Tom Cruise than it is to

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be the president of the United States. All right. What's

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the theory here? Chris Rock was at the Toronto International

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Film Festival, Mr. Fancy. He told Entertainment Weekly. My theory

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is it's harder to be Tom Cruise than president. There's

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no system design that every four years we're going to

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have a Tom Cruise. This apparently not a system where

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every four years we're going to have. Never mind. Tom Cruise.

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I don't know what you thought I was going to say.

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I was going to say Tom Cruise. I was just

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agreeing with Chris Rock. I don't know what you thought

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I was about to say there. I didn't say it.

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Star Wars Algae has told GQ, I want to make

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one great standup special. That's the only thing I want

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to accomplish. I wonder if he feels this way about

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the recent one. I think I'm good at standup, but

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it doesn't mean you've created a great special. I think

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you can be great at standup and great live, and

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it doesn't mean you've created a great lasting thing. There's

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no testament one thing. And look, that might be naive, right?

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Maybe what's going to be great is a body of work, right?

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But you want to chase that one undeniable special. Now,

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why does Stavros still podcast? He says, it pays so

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much money, dude. I had to pay the bills. I

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see podcasts as the most blue-collar thing I do. It's

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on a schedule. We do it, we book it, and

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people depend on it. I like podcasts, too, and I'd

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be mad if my favorite podcast just stopped or if

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they were late a day or whatever. So it's the

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most job-like thing I do. I've done it in a

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way where I'm like, oh, this is actually really fun now,

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but I would stop if I financially didn't need to. Now, honestly,

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I like doing it. The only reason I might stop

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is if I have the sneaking suspicion that I'm just

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wasting a lot of being funny on the podcast, which

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other generations would get to channel into their stand-up. I

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think there's only so much of yourself you can give. Like,

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I do wonder, are we crappier at stand-up as a

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generation because we're all podcasters? I don't think so. I

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don't think that's a thing. But I don't perform. I'm

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just a podcaster. The Observer. That's a Notre Dame newspaper.

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They went to see Jim Gaffigan. They tell us the

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stage design was fairly standard for a stand-up show. Colored

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lights illuminated the back of a stage, populated only by

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a microphone, a stool, and the performer, Jim Gaffigan. Video

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boards were on either side of the stage, allowing people with,

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I'm paraphrasing here, cheap seats to clearly see the performance.

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I mean, I know we do this when we go see, like,

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the Rolling Stones, but if you're going to see Jim

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Gaffigan and you have to watch the screen, what are

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we even doing? Just stay home and watch Netflix. opening

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guest Ted Alexandro. We're told his best material drew from

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his experience teaching middle school students the recorder, or as

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he called it, Satan's little flute. We're told nothing in

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his act was truly exceptional, nor was anything egregious. There's

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a backhanded compliment. It's did its job of loosening up

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the crowd for Jim Gaffigan. You know, this isn't good.

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The reviewer says, I struggled to hear the opening act

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at some points. This was due to several factors. One,

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his microphone wasn't loud enough. Two people still looking for

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their seats and members of the audience were chatting with

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each other. That is not good. Uh-oh, Ted, you're getting

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murdered here. The lights were only at half level, which

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wasn't as effective as full darkness. When Jim came on,

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the venue fixed the audio and turned off the lights. Hmm,

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conspiracy against Ted Alexandro. We're told Jim Gaffigan's set was, quote,

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overall very funny, unquote. He began with some Notre Dame-related comments,

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including his prediction that the Fighting Irish would beat Rice

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at the football game. That turned out to be correct.

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He said American Catholics love three things, Notre Dame, alcohol,

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and serially, funerals. A decent portion of the set, minor

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spoilers devoted to anecdotes about the struggles of raising teenagers.

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We're told his delivery and content were similar to some

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of his previous material, but this time it felt more

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grown up, reflecting his current parenting stage. The LA Times

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caught up with Joe Coy. Now, if you're like, Joe Coy,

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who is that Johnny Mac? He's the guy that had

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the Netflix special recently, like last week on Tuesday. It's

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pretty good. I liked it. You don't know who I mean?

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Let me remind you, one time Joe Coy hosted the

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Golden Globes and told a horrible, horrible, just viciously mean

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joke about Taylor Swift and You can understand why Taylor

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Swift was really mad at this one.

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As you know, we came on after a football doubleheader.

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The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL.

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On the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of

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Taylor Swift.

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Anyway, the L.A. Times got up with Joe Coy and

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we're curious how he stays healthy on the road as

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a superstar comedian. We're told it's just before 1 a.m.

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and Joe Coy's outside. Days before the release of his

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new Netflix special, he's gone live on Instagram, standing on

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Sunset Boulevard next to the Laugh Factory. It's late, but

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he spends a few minutes promoting the special and encouraging

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people to find the Netflix posters and take pictures of

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themselves in front of the Netflix posters. The LA Times

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was curious about the special. Joe Coy said, I opened

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up a lot. I got to talk about my stepdad.

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Minor spoilers, that's part of the closer, which is very,

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very good. Very good closer. There's a whole story about

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my stepdad and what he meant to be being You know,

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a product of a divorced family, and then this stepdad

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came into my life, and that was the one thing

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I really, really needed when I was a teenager. So

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I talk about him, but it was also sad, because

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usually when I do jokes on my special, I retire

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the bit. It's kind of like, you know, the end

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of the story, but I'm happy that it'll live forever

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on Netflix. And I don't want to spoil any more

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of it, so I'll skip ahead here. I want to

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get to the food part. Joe Coy said, I'm like

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down to one meal a day, basically. I'm not scraping

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my plate like I used to. But then again, I

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got to shut up. I still drink coffee. And, you know,

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I guess that's my unhealthy fix is coffee bad. I

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drink so much coffee. He says it's not even a

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regular coffee. It's got all the crap in it. So

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there's that. But we're a lot of one little crutch yet. Yeah.

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Large iced coffee, caramel and milk out of the National

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Donuts chain. I'm there every morning. Now I want another one.

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I think I've got a I think I got a

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Starbucks container. In the fridge. I might have a second

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iced coffee after this recording. Anyway, Joe Coy said, we're

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allowed to have some. It's not just a coffee with

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a tomahawk steak and all the sides. My son is

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on a health kick and he did this on his own.

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He doesn't drink soda because it made him feel weird.

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He cut bread because he knows that he was breaking

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out and getting rashes when he was eating bread. And

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there's certain foods that he eats that he knows it

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gets very clammy and greasy. So he cuts all that out.

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It's crazy. My son, he's like, you should get a salad, dad.

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So he's my favorite guy to be on the road

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with because he keeps me in check. Now I want

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a salad. But I have to record all these shows

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today because of a scheduling reason. So I don't have

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time to go to Chopped. Plus, I love Chopped salad,

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but they're like $ 18 now. I haven't been going as much.

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Joe Coy said, I was really, really bad with morning food.

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Back in the day, it was always a thing that

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you flew in on a Wednesday just so you could

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do morning press and the club would book, you know,

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at six in the morning and go on about four

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hours of morning news and radio and all that. It

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was disgusting. It was so gross. It was like an

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egg McMuffin, a cinnamon roll, Coca-Cola, and just coffee. And

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I look at my old pictures of myself back in

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the day and it's like you could see it in

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my face, just all that crap. I will jump in there.

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I produced morning drive radio for four months and put

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on 20 pounds and I'm still trying to lose that

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20 pounds. Here's why. I used to get up at 3.34

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in the morning because that was the latest I could

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possibly get up and drive from Queens to Times Square

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where I worked at WOR Radio. I had a parking pass.

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I could actually park on the street. I had a

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press pass. So even the city that never sleeps, even

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at four in the morning, sleeps. And I could get

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from my house in Queens to Times Square in 13

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minutes between four and five in the morning. Anyway, I

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was just always exhausted. And then around seven in the morning,

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maybe 630, the guy that ran the board, this guy, Bobby,

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would go cheeseburger. And we would get a cheeseburger and

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fries at 630 in the morning just to get through

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the day. Now, That wasn't breakfast. That was fourth meal

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because around seven 30 in the morning, the morning show

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team would get like bagels and stuff. So yeah, even

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though I just had a cheeseburger and fries, let me

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get a bagel with butter and some more coffee because

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I'm always tired and miserable. And I got up at

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three 30 in the morning and I hate life and

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I just need to eat. So I feel you, Joe Coy.

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I digress. He says, I really was a road dog.

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So it was like, I lived on the road. That's

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all I knew. I was happy to be on the road.

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Give me the chicken wings for dinner. Amen, brother. Joe

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Coy and I could be friends. I mean, you know,

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he did make that horrible mean joke about Taylor Swift.

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I would never do that. But other than that, we

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could be buddies. He loved the road. Give me chicken

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wings for dinner. Give me some beer. Let me tell

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some jokes. That doesn't happen anymore. Now it's like, do

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you have any more coconut water and some hummus? We're

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out of hummus. I asked for celery sticks, you guys.

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The funny thing is, I'm not even trying to be

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funny right now, said Joe Coy. Back in the day,

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it used to be like this big metal bucket just

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filled with ice and 24 Coronas. and chicken wings and

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onion rings. And I'd walk into my green room and

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I was the happiest man alive. That sounds perfect, to

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be honest. If I see that in my green room now,

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I start yelling at somebody like, get this out of here.

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And I'm like, no one's eating this. It's bad for you.

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A lot of good stuff from the LA Times. We'll

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save some of that for the weekend. So I had

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to do this section over. I started doing the podcast

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to camera. So if you want to see what the

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basement looks like, you can find the episodes on YouTube now.

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I'm posting them a little later, about 11 a.m. This

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is still, in my mind, an audio podcast, but I'm

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trying not to be a Luddite. And I just looked down.

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So now I'm looking at the bottom corner to make

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sure the timer is actually running because I did the

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second half of the podcast, which fortunately wasn't that long.

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and the timer had stopped. I don't know what happened.

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Sometimes the mic kicks out and it, I don't know.

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I've been really crazy lately. I had jury duty last week.

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I was freed by 11 o'clock. The judge let me go,

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which was nice, but that kind of gummed up my Tuesday.

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And then Thursday and Friday, we had the big podcasting

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conference in New York city. So I had to do

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last week, basically five days work in two, maybe one, uh,

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which was a little tough, but we should get back

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to normal now. Plus I am challenging myself to do

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the video stuff, which, uh, At first, it was taking

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me like four times as long. Now it's maybe an

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extra 10 minutes. So if you want to see what

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the basement looks like, the basement looks like this, and

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it's not very exciting. And I'm not good at video.

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I know that. You don't have to flame the comments.

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Be like, you're bad at video. I know I'm not

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good at video. That's why I wasn't doing video, but

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I'm trying to figure it out. So that's a whole

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thing going on. Late Nighter has the late night ratings

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for August. Now, whatever I cut and pasted here, I

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didn't grab Kim Holm, but the Jimmy Fallon show, it's

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called The Tonight Show, starring Jimmy Fallon. I don't know

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why I called it The the Jimmy Fallon show. That's

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not what it's called at all, John. Anyway, they averaged 1.54

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million total viewers down 1% from July in the 18

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to 49s. They had 186,000 adults. CBS is airing Byron

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Allen stuff. There are 767,000 of you watching it down

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from July, but up in the 1849s to 93,000. At 1230,

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different Byron Allen thing has 483,000 total viewers up 2%

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month to month, and they're getting 60,000 adults 18 to 49. 12.30,

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make 12.30 great again. Seth Meyers was in repeats. Repeats

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averaged 701,000 total viewers, and in the 18 to 49s,

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a very podcast-type number of 89,000 adults. Not a great number. Gutfeld,

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he thinks it's a late-night show, but it airs at

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10 o'clock in the East, which makes 7 in the West,

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which is not late night at all. But if you're curious,

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he had 18 to 49, 180,000 viewers, and overall 2.71

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million viewers. I'm going to guess they're not getting a

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lot of teenagers watching Gutfeld, so old people watch Fox News.

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Wanda Sykes was on Z-Way's podcast. The topic turned to

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the Riyadh Comedy Festival, which Wanda, I guess, didn't do

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or was offered. She told Z-Way, did I turn it down?

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I don't even know if it was offered. She then added,

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I'm a black gay woman. What am I going to do?

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I like my head on my body. It fits. Last year,

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Wanda Sykes had told Variety, I'm a black gay woman.

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I have no business there. I wouldn't feel comfortable with

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the treatment of the LGBT community. But then again, I

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think Jessica Curson went and she was going to talk

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about being a lesbian. I guess that worked for her,

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but I wouldn't. The Toronto Guardian has a nice weekly

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segment where they talk to local comedians. One of them

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is Sam Sferrazza. We're told Sam's style is best described

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as acerbic, ranty and angry, though joyful. Makes a list, too.

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Fueled by a sharp eye for the absurdities of the

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world from U.S. foreign policy. Hey, watch it, Canadians. Watch it. OK,

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watch it with the jokes. To the humiliation ritual of

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eating your yogurt before airport security, Sam channels outrage into

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comedy that cuts with precision and lands with glee. Who

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are your influences? They include Maria Bamford, Chelsea Peretti, and

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Lady Gaga. Favorite comedian growing up? She said, I think

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the only comedian I watched growing up was Ellen DeGeneres. Anyway,

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too bad she was really mean to people. It's because

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of her that I promised to be a bitch up front.

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Great joke. Favorite comedian right now? Meg Statler. Favorite pre-show ritual.

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The ritual begins when I decide what to wear, which

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is always fun because most comedians dress like slobs. So

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I look really amazing next to them in the green room.

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By the way, jury duty. I was like Pierce Brosnan

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and I wasn't dressed that nice. I had on like

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a nice fleece. But so what some of these people wear,

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it's like they're hosting a podcast in the basement in

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the light blue T-shirt. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, that.

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She says, I write down my set and then I

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debate if I should bring the notebook on stage. Eventually

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I do. And I convince myself it doesn't make me

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any less of a pro. Because one time I saw

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Sarah Silverman perform and she checked her notes the whole time.

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All right, Sam, what's your favorite bit you've written? She

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spoils her own special here. So don't get mad at me.

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This is in the Toronto Guardian. You could have read

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this on your own. If you want to be spoiled

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by Sam's for us is closer. You can bail now.

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But she says, I have a bit about trans kids

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in sports. I'm proud of it because it shows how

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utterly stupid the debate is. Basically, I make the argument

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if we're going to exclude trans kids for so-called valid reasons,

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I think we should exclude straight kids from the arts

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because they're bad at it. All the arts. Most art

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is queer. Straight people only know how to mimic queer

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people to be creative. You all are a hack. She

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says it's the last joke of her new special and

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her closer. That special artistic intent is out on YouTube

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if you want to check that out. And that is

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your comedy news for today. I'll see you tomorrow.