April 18, 2026

Kill Tony Heads to WrestleMania Weekend

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac’s daily comedy news previews Tony Hinchcliffe bringing Kill Tony to WrestleMania 42 tonight after night one at Dolby Live at Park MGM with WWE stars, legends, comedians, and surprise guests, noting last year’s Roast of WrestleMania felt underwhelming. Bowen Yang reflects on not seeing himself as a star at SNL, Lorne Michaels advising him not to be a “poster child for racial harmony,” and the value of bombing and moving on. The LA Times profiles Sheng Wang’s new special Purple, with Ali Wong praising his craft and process; Wang discusses touring growth, post-special writing fear, and the title’s “purplish” themes. Chelsea Handler shares her views on casual dating and marriage. Ben Carlin discusses how Stephen Colbert might end his late-night run and praises The Colbert Report. The Moon Tower Comedy Festival and Melbourne International Comedy Festival wrap up with show listings and clips, plus Philadelphia’s “Weeding Out The Stoned” live show details.

00:16 Kill Tony WrestleMania
01:09 Bowen Yang SNL Reflections
01:43 Shang Wang Purple Special
03:49 Chelsea Handler On Marriage
04:22 Colbert Late Night Future
05:42 Moontower Festival Picks
06:38 Melbourne Fest Clips
09:46 420 Philly Comedy Show

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This is the animal sanctuary mentioned in the February 10 episode.

WEBVTT

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Callaroga Shark Media.

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Hi there, I'm Johnny Mack with your daily comedy News,

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the daily briefing on stand up comedy, comedians and the

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comedy industry. It's WrestleMania weekend and Tony Hinchcliff is bringing

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Kill Tony to WrestleMania. That's right. Tonight's following the conclusion

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of Night one of WrestleMania forty two. Tony Hinchcliff will

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have a lineup consisting of Tony Hinchcliff, current WWE superstars,

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WWE legends, well known comedians, and surprise guests. It's Killed

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Tony WrestleMania, nine pm Pacific at Dolby Live at Park MGM.

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It's the second year in a row Tony has been

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part of WrestleMania. Last year's underwhelming the Roast of WrestleMania

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featuring Tony Hinchcliff and Friends that featured comedy performances by

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WWE stars like Paul Hayman, Our Truth the Miz and others.

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I don't I think they kind of buried that, if

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I'm remembering correctly. I feel like that was underwhelming, and

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I'm not even sure they even shared any clips on that.

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So this is a reboot. Just go down the middle

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and do kill Tony should be a lot of fun.

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Esquire caught up with Bow and Yang, who said, most

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of my time on SNL, I never thought of myself

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as a star, even after the Emmy nominations, because my

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point of origin in SNL was this national story on

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cancel culture. That's right. Remember he was kind of paired

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up in the news with one Sheen Gillis there for

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a while, Lauren. Michael said to me, the last thing

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I want you to do is be the poster child

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for racial harmony. It was a wonderful thing to imparton me,

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but I think I also took it too far. He said.

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I love Weekend Update. It's my favorite place on the show.

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The other thing SNL taught me, if it bombs, that's okay.

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We're gonna move on to the next one. If you

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get it this time, there's another chance at bat. The

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la Times caught up with Sheang Wang. His new special

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is called Purple. I didn't love it. I didn't hate it,

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but I didn't love it as much as I thought

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I was gonna love it. But for Sheng Wang, purple

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is more than a color. It's a way of being

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Ali Wong, longtime friend, director of both his specials, and

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kind of his comment guru here till The La Times

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comics universally adore Sheng because he's a true artist. He's

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all about finding the perfect wording for a joke. He's

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all about the process and the work, and does not

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have a single thirsty bone in his body. I honestly

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can't believe he's even doing this La Times profile peace

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because outside of stand up, he just wants to spend

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his time exploring botanical gardens and eating great food with

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the people he loves. He's my best friend in comedy

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and the godfather to my children. My daughter wants through

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away her and visil line by accident because it was

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wrapped at a tissue and Shang spent about an hour

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digging it out of the trash. The La Times said

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to Shang, a lot of people got introduced to you

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in twenty twenty two when your first special, Sweet and

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Juicy premiered. How's it going, I paraphrase their question a

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little bit. Shang said, It's been very exciting. It's been

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a fun ride. I think when you first retire an

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acta after the special comes out and then the act

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is done. There's a sense of like, there's no way

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I'm going to write another one. I'm feeling that now

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after Purple came out, there's supposed to be another one

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after this at some point, and I feel so daunting

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and big to me. But I just love doing the craft.

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It's kind of a natural thing for me to notice

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things and then eventually things fall into place. But it's

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been a really fun journey from the first one of

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the second one, because after the first one, all of

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a sudden, there's people wanted to come out to the shows.

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I'm selling tickets. That's all pretty new to me in

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the scale of people coming out. So it's my first

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major tour and I go around the country, all around

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the world. I'm playing these theaters, I'm playing shows where

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people come out to see me specifically. So that's all

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quite new, and it's very exciting because it kind of

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makes you feel safer and for you to be more yourself.

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So that's kind of been the last two and a

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half years for me. Good instincts here by Shang. He said,

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one thing I wanted to steer a clear way from

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or just be wary of, is getting too like especially

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with the outfit and the hair too. Culty and purple.

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As far as the name goes, it was just a

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fun name. I mean, I love the color. There's a

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joke on the special that references a purple toothbrush, and

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there's a reference to my aura based on the fact

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that I'm cooking with shallots. There's just sort of a

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big purplish themes throughout the special, and it also represents

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strength and royalty, and to me, the second special, I

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feel like there's ability of growth and leveling up. But

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I thought purple would be a fun way to go

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with the title. Chelsea Handler said, I'm here for women,

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and I'm here for myself. I've never been very thirsty

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for a man or a partner. You got to really

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kind of get my attention to me, to pay attention

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in a serious way, because otherwise it's a bunch of

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casual and care, you know what I mean. I like that,

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I like traveling a lot, I like cooking up with guys.

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I don't like to get too serious. I don't want

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someone in my space all the time. I'm just not

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interested in that right now. She doesn't view marriage as

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something she needs to or aspires too, adds at some

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point I might go, Okay, I'm fifty years old, I

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might as well go get married. What could go wrong

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at this point? I don't care about marriage. I don't

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care about that. I feel like that's a very patriarchal thing. Anyway,

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You're kind of like a property a little bit. Former

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Daily Show head writer and Colbert Rapport co creator Ben

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Carlin predicts how Stephen Colbert the Star trek Ruiner will

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end his late night run. Carlin said, he gets to

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go off, justifiably, not as a martyr, but certainly as

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someone who kind of stood his ground and stay true

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to who he was. The fact that there's this built

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in sunset for him, to me, it's kind of a

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dream come true. But I don't know if he would

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necessarily see it that way. Obviously, it's a little icky.

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The way things are shifting right now doesn't feel good

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in terms of comedy and the political environment of where

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these worlds used to feel somewhat a little more separated.

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I think Steven's capable of killing it with kindness. I

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think what he doesn't say is sometimes better than what

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could be said. At the end of the day, they

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paid him a ton of money, he got to do

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a version of the show that he wanted to do

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for a long time. Carlan said he prefers the host

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older work, explaining I have a soft spot for The

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Cold Bert Report, not just because I was there at

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the beginning, because it felt like it was really trying

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to do something different in the late night space. When

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you go to these big institutional shows. Yeah, there's some

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runa kind of fussed with the details a little bit,

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but ultimately you're kind of a slave to the format.

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Carlan recalled Comedy Central, saying of the Report, we don't

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know if this thing is going to work long term.

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We think it's really funny, but is that character of

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staying power? Are people just gonna get sick of it?

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He's such a good man that he was allowed to

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be bat crazy and say horrible things. The success of

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that show existed in the tension between the absurdity of

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the character and the reality of his radiating decency. There

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was so much about it that felt kind of ahead

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of its time. The moonstow Our Comedy Festival wrapping up today.

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If you're down in Austin, some of the shows you

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can consider Carolyn Ray six thirty at the Sunset Strip.

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I like six thirty. That's great. I can go to

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a show and go to bed kind of early. Can

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I tell you last week on Saturday Now, I was

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up at six in the morning and and my daughter

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had a soccer game which was streaming from the West Coast,

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So I watched two soccer games, a bunch of TV,

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and then by like ten forty five, I had been

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sitting in front of the TV for like seven hours,

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including the soccer games, and I was just like, I'm

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just going to bed. I felt so old. It wasn't

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even eleven o'clock on a Saturday. Nish Kumar is at

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the State Theater tonight at seven. That's stelling at Caps

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City at seven, Sarah Sherman and Meg Statler at the

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Paramount at nine thirty. Looks like the Big show tonight.

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Jay Jorden at ten thirty at Sunset Strip. Ben if

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you want to head it over to Antone's for the

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closing night party, that's at eleven o'clock. And that's a

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rap on this year's Moontwer Comedy Festival. And let's check

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in one last time with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival,

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which wraps up on the nineteenth, which is tomorrow, but

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probably today. If you are in Melbourne, and if you're

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not on your way to Melbourne, you're not going to

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make either of these shows. Let me play some clips

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for you. Daniel Connell's the show is called Prairie Dog.

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I'll tell you about a serious relationship on him in

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at the moment. Give us a chiev you in a

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serious relationship, A five papal cool. I'm in a serious

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fun with my wife at the moment. That's taken a

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long right, We've been together for thirteen years. My wife

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and I, well, at the point of our relationship, we're

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starting to lose the spice in the bedroom, to be honest. Yeah,

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anybody else doing that? Yeah? I never believed it when

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I was a kid. It does happen. I never believed

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it when I was a kid. My AUNTI used to

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tell me that. But it's true. It does happen. It happens.

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Yeah.

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Get a couple of West Coast callers into it and

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she tell us everything in your kids, my wife and

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I ever resorted to doing the role play in the bedroom.

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Anybody else doing the role play?

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Give us a cheer?

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All right? No, worries we're doing the role play. Look,

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sometimes I'll get my wife to dress up as a

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famous Australian sporting hero gets me going. Sometimes she'll get

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me to play the role of a man who moves

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into a motel for a month.

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That was a lot of fun. And one more. Jeff

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Green's show was called Jeff Jokes.

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Lovely to be in the beautiful city of Melbourne with

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your trams and your pole the weather because I love

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the anonymis anomalies of Australia, because Australia's are dichotomy. Yeah,

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I don't know what that means, but it sounds impressive

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when you say it. Australia's a dichotomy. What do you mean,

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I'm leaving now, No tell us what you mean. Because

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you're lovely, warm hearted, kind people. Then you get into.

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Your cars, you become fire.

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Breathing, psychopathic maniacs. Then you I'm terrified driving in Australia.

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My friend says, in Germany they drive as fast as

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they want on the Autobahn. We should have that in Australia.

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Said no, no, it shouldn't.

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You see, the Germans drive very expensive cars with robotic precision.

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That's how it works. In Australia, You're descending from Anglows

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and Celts with a few Asians and Mediterraneans thrown in

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the consequences of which the roads are a cauldron of chaos.

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You've got trainers on the inside doing one hundred k's

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an hour, drug hand old truckies on the outside. Some

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nearly dead grain nomad in the middle at thirds with

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his face center weaving through all this is a pea

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plater that's fitted a McClaren exhaust to his Toyota Starlet.

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He's got five friends in the back, mooning people and

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shouting homophobic slurs behind him as a teenage princess in

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the dad's BMWX five to want to show that women

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can multitask by driving, texting, put an ellipstick on in

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the rearview mirror, and crashing the car all of the

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same time. On the inside is some toothless battler whose

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cars held together with gaffer tape and hope. Say to

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that lot, go as fast as you want.

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Everybody that'll put a rap on the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

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Meanwhile in Philadelphia this weekend for four to twenty weekend.

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If that's your thing. Weeding Out the Stone is a

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Sidequest Theater in Center City. The live show blends stand up,

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improv and game show elements. Eight comedians competing while the

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audience tries to spot the one person who's not high.

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Host Alex Grubberd puts performers through a mix of quick

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thinking challenges, strange prompts, and intentionally chaotic games. Design exposed

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who's clearheaded? I love it? Some hits test memory and focus,

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Others leaned into improv. A few are ridiculous on purpose.

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Weeding Out the Stone to seven o'clock at the side

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Quest Theater in Philadelphia tonight sounds like fun. Twenty bucks

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at the door. You should go. And that is your

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comedy news for today. Catch you tomorrow.