Sept. 20, 2024

Kill Tony - what it's like when you're a comedian selected

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac delivers today's comedy news, opening with Michael Che's frustration over a successful pun made by Colin Jost on SNL. The story highlights some behind-the-scenes moments of the comedy duo. The script then covers the debut of CNN's 'Have I Got News for You' American version, Michael Ian Black's thoughts on the show, and Alexa Cimino's experience on 'Kill Tony'. It also discusses upcoming projects such as Ana Valenzuela's new comedy album and a detailed biography of Lorne Michaels. Caroline Hirsch reflects on comedians' fashion evolution and the legacy of Caroline's Comedy Club. JB Smoove shares insights on the importance of humor and living in the moment. The episode wraps up with thoughts on the changing pace of society and the role of comedy.

00:11 Michael Che's Joke Controversy
01:12 CNN's New Comedy Show
01:25 Michael Ian Black's Experience
03:29 Roy Wood Jr.'s Perspective
04:04 Alexa Cimino's Kill Tony Experience
06:50 Upcoming Comedy Releases
07:49 Caroline Hirsch on Comedian Fashion
09:02 JB Smoove on Life and Comedy

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WEBVTT

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Callaroga Shark Media. Hello, I'm Jenny Mack with your daily

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comedy news. Michael Jay and Colin Jokes apparently have a

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good relationship, but seems there was one joke Michael Jay

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didn't like. He told this story to Dana Carvey and

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David Spade. They were curious if there was any punchline

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that he didn't like. Chase said, I think jalapagno business.

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I was pretty furious about that one. Joe said, you

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were just upset that it worked so well. The joke

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in question related to a twenty fifteen Ohio criminal case,

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which saw a woman charged with stabbing her boyfriend because

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he ate a tub of sauca they were meant to share.

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Chase said, I remember and run through when you did

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it because I'd never heard it before. I don't remember

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what the setup was, but the punchline was halapano business,

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a play on words on the saying all up in

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your business. On the final airing, Jose recapped the crime

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and concluded by saying you'd be angry too if your

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boyfriend was jlapagno business, and Chase said, I was like,

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if you tell that joke on the air, I'm leaving

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him quitting the show, and he did it on air

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and it destroyed. I was so frustrated. I was like,

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I don't even know what we'd do anymore. On the

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original airing, Chase shared, first of all, I hate you

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for laughing at that. My joke got pulled after dress

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rehearsal because they said it was too offensive and way

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over the line. Man. The PR people over at CNN,

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they definitely worked hard at getting word out about how

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I got news for you. You've got a couple of stories today,

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and I'll do some more tomorrow. Since the show airs

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on Saturday. And look it's canceled because it's scheduled on

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Saturday night. I know if anybody's gonna watch it. Micha

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Lee and Black told Inside Hook, I'm so plugged in,

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like annoyingly so, I know so much about the news,

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mostly as a function of being unemployed. I live on

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Twitter discuss even me. Black appeared in a pilot for

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an NBC version of the show years ago that never

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took off. When CNN came calling, he was like, why

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see it in doing this? This doesn't make any sense

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to me, So I asked that question to CNN. I'm like,

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this doesn't make any sense, and they said they've been

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airing Bill Mahers show on Saturday nights and reruns and

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it'd been performing really well for them, and they saw

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an opportunity there and they were looking for something to

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pair with it to expand their weekend programming from just

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Sunday Originals to Saturday Originals. Seem like a good fit,

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some one was explained to me. I was like, oh,

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you're smarter than I thought you were. They've been really

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respectful of Roy Amber and I in terms of letting

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us do what we want, never saying well, in the

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British version they do this or they do that. I

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think they're very cognizant of the fact that this has

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to stand on its own two legs with an American

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cast doing it the way we would do it. So

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I'm sure the architecture of it, the way the show

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is constructed, and the design and the games that are

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all within it, that's all lifted from the British one.

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But in terms of how we executed here, they haven't

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give us any notes other than go as far as

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you want to go, which is the best possible note

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to receive. He said. The crew instantly connected. While filming

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a test episode, even though they didn't know each other,

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Black says, I felt so familiar and so comfortable, and

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they were so funny. It felt to me like we'd

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be doing it for years. I was shocked, it really was.

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I think all of us have enough experience in the

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format sitting on a stage, there's an audience, there's four

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or five cameras, and you're just like shooting at the stuff.

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I think it felt natural for all of us and

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a very easy place to fall into. The X factor

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is always like, well, what's the chemistry going to be? Like?

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So far is so good. I mean they were making

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fun of me. I was making fun of them. They

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were making fun of each other. That's all you want.

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That's all I want. If some tragedy or something, or

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I should say, when there's some tragedy or something, it's

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entirely possible we will be preempted that week, depending on

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the nature of whatever's happening, and I'd be fine with that.

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I'm not trying to get up on September thirteenth to

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joke about September eleventh, you know what I mean. I

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think my approach would be to treat the events with

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the seriousness they deserve. That doesn't mean you can't find

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the humor in them. But then there's just some things

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that are not going to be funny, and I won't

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try to make them funny. If a school shooting happens,

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you're not going to see me up there making armpit

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fart noises over it. I'm just not The CNN press

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machine got Rolling Stone to write an article. Roy Wood

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Junior said, I wouldn't mind RFK Junior as a guest.

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It would be funny, I guarantee you that, and at

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times it would be very what the f is happening,

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but informative at the end of the day, and I

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think that part of it's fun to see. The thing

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that I'm trying to remain conscious about the American version

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of this is there's still a lot of people suffering

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under a lot of these policies that are quarterback by

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people that were thrown around a pure as guests, and

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so there's a way to tend of the wins of

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the people that are in pain while creating a sense

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of accountability or explaining yourself for people that have pushed

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some of these policies. I don't want to laugh at

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stuff that's insensitive. At the end of the day, I've

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had six days to yell, curse and cry. On Saturday nights,

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we will laugh. In the Daily Mail, Alexa Semino talks

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about being at participant in Kill Tony. I found this

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very interesting, Alexa writes. I had waited in the sign

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up line on the first day of the show, even

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convincing my editor to let me out of work early.

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I arrived at four pm, thinking an hour was plenty

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of time to screw my place in line for the

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five pm sign ups. I was very wrong. At least

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eight hundred aspiring comedians had been waiting and sweltering ninety

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five degree heats since eleven am. By the time I arrived,

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only three hundred to four hundred lean in and I

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didn't make the cut that day, but I was determined

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the next day. I came prepared. There were only twenty

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or so people in mind when I arrived at mid day,

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so I was golden. I chatted with the other comics

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who had flown in from all over the country. Wow,

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it felt like a comedy tailgate party, where instead of football,

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we discussed the kill Tony bump. Referring to the possible

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career boosts that would come from being selected to perform

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on the show. When it was time to sign up,

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we were herded like cattle through metal detectors made to

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sign waivers. We were given wristbands and ushered beneath the

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arena on the left side of the stage. Especial section

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was reserved for comics who had entered their names in

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the bucket. A live man fired up the crowd. The

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show kicked off as Tony began explaining the bucket poll system.

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That's when I realized I had willingly signed up for

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three hours of anxiety because no one knew who was

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going to be called. I whipped out my trusty red

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Joke book, frantically flipping through the pages and knowing I'd

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be so shocked I'd probably forget my own name. I

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needed to strategically select jokes that were second nature, like

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the kind of jokes I knew so well I could

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recite them in my sleep. Eventually, her nerves calm because

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she's not being called, and then she writes it turns

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out my chances of being called were far higher than

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I thought, for one reason. I was a woman. Tony

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wanted a woman and had one last bucket poll left

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for Saturday night show, so he kept drawing names until

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he found one mine. I was rushed backstage by the

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production crew. My face pale, my hand's trembling. The production

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assistant laid down the law. Don't touch the judges, don't

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go over your time. When you hear a kittens me

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owt from the soundboard, wrap it up, Tony says, make

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some noise for Alexa Semino. I walked up the stairs,

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picked up the signature red microphone, looked out to the

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sea of twenty thousand faces stretching out before me. You

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could hear a pin drop. I launched it into my set.

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The words tumbled out with a confidence I didn't know

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I possessed. The crowds laughter echoed throughout the arena. In

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comedy terms, I had killed it. I managed to banter

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with Shane Gillis, dressed as Donald Trump. I was awarded

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a big Joke book, a prestigious symbol that the bucket

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pull had impressed the judges. Stepping off the stage, I

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was greeted by some of the most famous names in comedy.

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After the show, I was bombarded with congratulations autograph requests

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and so much love, especially from female audience members. It

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took me nearly an hour to leave the venue. In

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a few weeks I'll find out if the Kiltny bump

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is real or if we'll be back to climbing the

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stand up ladder from scratch again. I gotta remember to

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watch those shows. The MSG shows are up on YouTube now.

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You know this football like nine nights a week now.

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There aren't nine nights in a week, John, There's like

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football like eight nights a week now, and I was

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having a time to watch kil Tony. But the MSG

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shows are definitely up there out today. Anna Valenzuela's a

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new comedy album, A Murder Puss, is available from a

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burn This Records. There's going to be a book about

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Lauren Michaels entitled Lauren Then, who invented Saturday Night Live.

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Get ready for nine solid months of SNL talk starting

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with this movie ending with the fiftieth anniversary show. This

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new book, written by Susan Morrison from The New Yorker,

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will introduce you to him in full for the first time,

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with unprecedented access to Michaels, who has spent his career

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mostly avoiding reporters and the entire SNL apparatus. The New

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Yorker's Susan Morrison takes you behind the curtain for the rollicking,

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definitive story of how Lorne created the institution that would

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change comedy forever. Sidebar Mark Maron had lorn On at

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one point, I think two episodes worth, maybe only one.

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That was a great listen. I know Maren put stuff

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behind the paywall after a while. I don't know if

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that's still available, but that was really good if you

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can still get it. Other people interviewed in the book

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Paul Simon, Paul McCartney, Steve Martin, Chris Rock, Amy Poehler,

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and Jason Sadeikas, Bill Hayter Buck, Henry Chevy, Chase and Moore.

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The book will be out in February. Forbes spoke to

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Caroline Hirsch, who used to own Caroline's Comedy Club in

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Caroline Hirsch is a big part of the New York

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Comedy Festival. They spoke to her about how comedians dress.

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Airlines said to me many many years ago, Robin Williams

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always presents it himself in kind of a you know,

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it was a cool way on stage in the beginning,

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he wore T shirts with suspenders. It was kind of

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his look after get rid of the Hawaiian shirts. Later

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he was a very chic dresser. She says. JB. Smooth

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is the coolest dresser around. Tracy Morgan also make sure

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he's dressed to the nines. Kevin Hard as well is

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dressed to the nines. Those guys really do out there

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and make sure they have a look, very very much

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a look on what they do. Caroline says, once comedians

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get the means, they dress up, that's their thing. I

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watch people go from jeans and T shirt to there

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are many suits. You could see the transition of people

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going through it. Her favorite is when comedians wear bling.

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It's almost like do they dress up so people take

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them more seriously or is it a way to show

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their status that they've made it. It's really about making it.

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Look at Nikki Glazer, she's impeccantly dressed on stage all

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the time. As for the now closed Caroline's Comedy Club,

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she says, it lives on through the festival. That's what

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we've been doing. And look, when the news went out

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that we were closing club, I had so many offers

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from different real estate people around New York saying, Oh,

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come work with us, open another club. But I needed

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sign a step back a bit, and we've been exploring

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other ideas about the Caroline's brand. Speaking of the well

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dressed JB Smooth, The Port City Daily caught up with JB,

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who said, people forget how short life is, and people

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really focus on too much stuff that keeps them stagnant

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and keeps them at a certain mindset for a long

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time until they realize that being in that mindset has

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affected them long term. By the time they get to

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a certain age, they realize they can't fix it. They

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can't repair it because they're locked into it. They presented

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someone to everybody and now everybody knows them as that

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personality and that person. But if you can't find a

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way to laugh, find a place in there for humor

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and growth, we're in trouble. And I think comedy is

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a departure from the normal world. You should put your

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phones away and be in the moment with somebody. It's

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kind of like an intervention. We as humans have definitely

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attached ourselves to a different speed of the world, and

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there's something really intimit about a setting like comedy when

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somebody leans forward in their chair and I'm like, oh,

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I got them. That's the fun thing about stand up man,

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sat yourself to the heartbeat, and that it's your comedy

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

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friend about it. They might like it too. If you

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would like this program without commercial interruption, there's a link

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in the show notes so to tell you how that works.

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Have an awesome day, See you tomorrow.