Aug. 24, 2025

Matt Rife is out of ideas....for you

Matt Rife is out of ideas....for you

Johnny Mac reviews The Hollywood Reporter's list of the 44 most powerful players in podcasting for 2025, discussing notable comedians and their influence in the podcasting world. He highlights key figures like Tony Hinchcliffe, Joe Rogan, Michelle Obama, and others. Johnny also touches on the impact of social media on comedians' careers, with perspectives from Matt Rife and Danny Frankle. Additionally, he shares tips for comedians submitting to festivals, mentions the Edinburgh Fringe, and humorously laments the impending end of summer.  

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

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daily comedy news. It is a summer Sunday, one weekend

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left after this. I'm getting depressed anyway. Summer Sundays are

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a good time to catch up on articles that I

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hadn't gotten to. Here's one from the Hollywood Reporter. It is,

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of course, the forty four most powerful players in podcasting

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in twenty twenty five. Let's just skim down this and

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see what they say about the comedians. Do we count

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the SmartLess guys? I don't think so. I believe these

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are in alphabetical order by last name, which brings us

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to Tony Hinchcliff, The Hother Reporter tells us. A former

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staffer on the Comedy Central Roast series, Hinchcliff helped usher

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in America's post woke era when at a trip rally

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he told that joke, you remember that one about the

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floating island of garbage. That one. The next day, on

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his popular Kill Tony show, he said, I apologize to

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absolutely no. Tony was asked what his current favorite podcast is.

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He said mine, not Johnny Max. He meant Kill Tony.

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I thought I had missed something here they have on

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the list Michelle Obama with Craig Robinson. I was like, wait,

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Craig Robinson is doing a podcast with Michelle Obama. Well,

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a man named Craig Robinson is. But it's not that

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Craig Robinson, not the guy that quit comedy as part

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of a stunt, not him, a different guy. That would

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have been very interesting had I missed that one. I'm

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going to pay attention to that. Amy Poehler on the list.

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Joe Rogan listened as talent on The Joe Rogan Experience.

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The Holland Reporter says in the past year, the long

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time self proclaimed centrist waded deeper into partisan politics and

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demonstrated the influence of the medium over which he reigned

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Supreme Rogan's three hours sit down with then candidate Donald

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Trump last October and his subsequent endorsement were credited with

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boosting Trump's re election campaign. Matt Rodgers and Bowen Yang

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run lists for Las Culturistas. THEO Vaughn listed as talent

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this past weekend with THEO Vaughan. We are till at

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Vaughan's podcast has risen to third on Spotify's chart. That's

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a random pull whych you pull Spotify' chart on the

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strength of the host every man blend of humor, vulnerability,

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and straight talk, which makes disaffected dudes see him as

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there Mark Twain and powerful men across the ideological spectrum. Trump,

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Van Sanders, Zuckerberg want to sit with him. The born

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and bred Louisiana and a touring stand up comic and

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sometime actor, recently garnered headlines for his commentary about the

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humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which he's called a genocide. That

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paragraph was all kinds of loaded. Wow. Conan O'Brien on

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the list. A lot of this list is not perform with.

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It's a lot of executives and suits and friends of

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the Hollywood Reporter, et cetera about under Conan were told

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In May, Conan o'briany's friend began to release full video episodes.

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It worked. Team Coco's views increased seventeen percent from the

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prior year. Andrew Schultz listed as talent the mustached, fast

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talking comedian who yaps opposite Charlomage the god on the

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Brilliant Idiots, hosted Donald Trump on his ascended cultural commentary

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showcase Flagrant just before the election for a talk that

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went among Schultz's key demo of postpartisan young men. But

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by July he'd had his Howard Beale on air moment.

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You do you younger sisters even know what that means?

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I know what it means, but I'm ancient. Howard Beal

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is the guy in the movie Network that yells, I'm

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mad as hell. I'm not going to take it anymore.

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Do you even know what that is? He may have

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seen it as a meme anyway, breaking with the President

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about a variety of grievances, from policy issues to the

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Jeffrey Epstein betrayal, mirroring an apparent broader shift in the

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president's coalition. They asked Andrew which podcast completely changed how

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you think about the medium? His answer, Joe Rogan experience

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that has defined and redefined the genre over and over again. Honestly,

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I don't even think it gets enough credit. That's it.

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In terms of comedians on the list, Deadline had done

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a lengthy article about social media these days, starting with

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Matt Rife. Matt has often asked what advice he'd give

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to those looking to make a mark online. Matt Rife

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says he has no idea. He says, my only advice

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is you're so eft, there's nothing you could do whatsoever.

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It's so one million percent sent out it for your control.

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Now the algorithm changes so much. You can build a

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fan base on social media. It's great, but it's getting

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harder and harder and harder to do, and you can't

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just rely on it. Rife admits he was super lucky

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to have been discovered broken through found my audience before

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doing so became harder. I'm not sure if this article

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was a paid piece or a partnership. Why I'm confused

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is they had a big logo that'said powered by punch

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Up Live, So I don't know if it was a

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paid piece. But in the piece regardless, they quote Danny Frinkel,

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the CEO of punch Up Live. He says ticket sales

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by way of Instagram have increased nearly fifteen percent as

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punch up has expanded to host more and more comics.

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He said, I think going into this survey they did,

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you would have expected that YouTube would play a significantly

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larger role because everybody's putting all their company specials there,

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and you would have expected the TikTok would play a

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larger role because that is or was a bit of

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the talk of the town, and I think now everyone

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is unclear on exactly what's happening with the long term

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of TikTok and what's happening in the short terms, and

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are people still investing in it. Comedian Paul Elia said,

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I look at Instagram as the portfolio app where you

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put the best of your best. Facebook is where old

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people go, and that's where you just put all the

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whatever stuff. TikTok is for kids. You can have a

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massive TikTok following, but it doesn't translate to ticket sales

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because all your fans are thirteen, so no one is

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going snapchat same thing. Instagram is probably the most tried

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and true app for sure. If you're following on Instagram

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as strong, people know you, and those people on Instagram

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have money to buy a ticket Facebook, I'd say the

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same thing anyway. We'll find that in the Comedy Means

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Business newsletter, The Deadline has a very long piece. Hey,

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thanks to Adam for sending this over. Augie Smith had

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posted this on Facebook. Hey, comedians, I've spent much of

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the last week watching submissions to the Big Sky Comedy Festival.

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I love stand up comedy. So this is one of

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my favorite parts of the festival producing process. Here are

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a few tips for submitting to festivals. Okay, comedians, you're

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paying attention, Augie Smith says, try to keep your tape

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between four and six minutes. Remember that festivals are watching

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a lot of submissions, and sending something that's over fifteen

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minutes is completely and totally cuckoo bananas. Think of it

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as a late night set and hit as many punch

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lines as possible. Get to the first joke quickly unless

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it's your whole act. Don't do crowd work. There's no

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reason to use notes in a five minute set. I

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know it's always an easy thing to do, but the

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actual quality of the tape is important. If the sound

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is so hollow it's hard to hear you, it makes

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it difficult to judge your set fairly, let me jump in.

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I used to give similar recommendations in my radio career

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to people who wanted to be talk show hosts, and

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then to comedians who would send things in. So here's

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what happens as a media executive. I mean, well, I

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really want to get to stuff I would have back

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in the day. Depending on the year, A pile of

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cassette tapes, then CDs, then a folder with digital submissions. Anyway,

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I would intend to someday get to it, and then

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every now and then on a Friday, I'd be like, oh,

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it's the end of the week, all the work's done.

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Let me go into the pile. Once I hit play

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for talk shows, you have two seconds to get my attention,

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because I would do what's called distracted listening. So undistracted

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listening is, as a radio exec, you get in your

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car and you drive somewhere and you park like in

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a parking lot, and stare at trees and just focus

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on the audio, and you have your phone off. Distracted

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listening is you hit play in the office and then

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your coworkers coming and distract you and ask what we're

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ordering for lunch, and you and the phone rings, and

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you answer the phone, you get distracted by an email.

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That's distracted listening. I do distracted listening because that is

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how people consume media. So like, right now, are you

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sitting in the dark only concentrating on my voice? Maybe

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are maybe you're one going to sleep or are you

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driving a car in like kind of half listening? And

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that's fine. So that's distracted listening. So when you send

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a tape in, I'm gonna hit play and you got

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to be really good, really quickly. Also, I would tell

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people I don't want your best of tape. I'm glad

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you had on the President at one point. I want

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to hear Tuesday Hour two. I want to hear what

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you are on a normal, boring day. Oggie Smith writes,

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I know this sounds obvious, but send a set where

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you did well, even if the jokes are good. If

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the crowd is digging you, that affects my view of

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your act. All right. The fringe is wrapping up. The

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Guardian said the Edinburgh Fringe has almost four thousand shows.

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What does it take for a stand up to stand out?

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Alfie Peckham writes, the fringe is in full swing and

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I'm looking for my posters, which, given the function of

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a poster, doesn't bode well for the marketing of my

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stand up hour. Johnny Woolley is co founder of the

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clown Ensemble Stamptown. Wooly has some opinions on posters and

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said I've always had a pet pee for comedians doing

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funny faces on their posters. It's always been a turn

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off for me. Yes, I hate comedian headshots with the

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dopey face. Just take a nice picture. You don't have

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to make your wacky face face stop. Woly said. When

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I started making posters nearly a decade ago, no comedy

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posters look cool, and I was really influenced by album

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mart movie posters. There are so many posters of comedians

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sitting on the toilet. I'm interested in trying to make

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art for the posters. It feels like it could be

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a more long standing representation of that show. Jordan Gray said,

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I like having a stupid title and a picture that

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makes you think that I'm very, very serious about this.

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That lack of self awareness is quite funny. Adele Cliff

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was at the Fringe Voicemag caught up with a deal.

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What advice would you have for an artist considering bringing

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a show to the Fringe. Her advice, stay out of

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my way, nerds. I love it. If you had the

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power to change one thing about the Fringe, what would

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it be wrong? Finally a different answer, She says, I

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would make the Edinburgh Fringe artists pass universal so it's

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accepted at all venues. To fill empty seats artists get

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to see the shows and fill up the space. Two birds,

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one stone, everybody wins. Look at that, You thought she

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was going to complain about how much it cost us

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stay at the thing, and that is sure comedy news

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as it was on a summer Sunday. Let's get some

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beach in this week. Oh my goodness, I's just the

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worst day of the year is the Tuesday after Labor Day.

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That is absolutely my least favorite day of the year.

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My favorite day of the year is Friday afternoon. Well

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that's not a day, but Friday into Memorial the weekend.

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You have the whole summer in front of you, wide

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open skies for so much possibility. Once we get to

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Tuesday after Labor Day, it's just like, ah, winter is coming.

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I have to work more because they teach, can't go

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to the beach minside all the time. How depressing. See

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you tomorrow.