June 14, 2025

Matt Rife's 40 shows a month - The Math

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac discusses the Tribeca Festival conversation between Jim Gaffigan and Michael Ian Black on the trials of parenting. Additionally, Matt Rife talks about the challenges of balancing crowd work and prepared material while managing an intense tour schedule. Meanwhile, Brad Williams shares his journey into comedy, and Zarna Garg reflects on self-care in the entertainment industry. Kevin Pollock, Jenna Fisher, and Donald Gleason also feature, offering insights and personal stories. Lastly, the upcoming Columbus Comedy Festival and comedian Chad the Bird's unique approach to journalism are highlighted.

00:11 Jim Gaffigan on Parenting
01:21 Matt Rife's Comedy Math
05:05 Brad Williams' Comedy Origin
05:51 Zarna Garg's Self-Care Struggles
06:12 Kevin Pollak's Nerves of Steel
06:50 Jenna Fischer's SNL Encounter
07:45 Donald Gleason's role in The Office spinoff The Paper
08:11 Columbus Comedy Festival Preview
08:49 Chad the Bird: A Viral Sensation

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Callaroga Shark Media. Hey there, Johnny Mack with your daily

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comedy news. For some reason, the Tribeca Festival locked Jim

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Gaffigan and Michael ian Black in a room together to

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talk to the audience about parenting. Okay, Michael was curious

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how Jim's perception of being a father has changed over time.

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Gaffigan said, I would say twenty years ago, I mean,

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I have a twenty one year old, but I was

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much more of the view that I'm kind of befuddled

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by parenting and I'm not equipped for it. And my

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viewpoint now is that children are evil. I joke around

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and say parenting is the most important thing I'll fell out,

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and there is something to that. But I think if

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human beings remembered how difficult and complicated and impossible teenagers are,

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the species would cease to exist. I think we forget

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that parenting is similar to the entertainment industry. Wait, by that,

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does he mean that, like, if you help somebody around

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their career, you stop calling them back. Does Jim not

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call his kids back? Is that what Jim is saying there,

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that as twenty years goes by, he doesn't call back people. Sorry,

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I digress there you could figure it out between the lines.

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Jim said, I think that we forget that parenting is

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similar to the entertainment industry, filled with enormous amounts of

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humiliation and you're biting your tongue a lot. When kids

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are younger, there's a cuteness to it, and when your

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kids are teenagers, they're not conscious of it, but there's

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a cruelty that you're exposed to. The Houston Press wrote

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about Matt Rice's crowd work. Rice said, there's just something

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kind of unique. It's either unique or not language snob

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and special to my show that I just do for fun.

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On top of the prepared material. I've been so lucky

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it'd be so many people's introduction a comedy, view the

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success I've out online and the people who have found it.

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But it's easy for people to think that's all it is.

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But there's so much work that goes into the preparation

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and the crafting of material, and they should in no

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way expect that from every comedian, honestly, not even myself.

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I don't force situations. I can't guarantee a certain amount

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of the show will be crowd work, but it is

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something I personally like to do. The sponsoredaity of it

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makes it new and re freshing to me. That does

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rife find time to write new material, he said, that's

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the hardest part, especially over the last year and a half.

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We're doing forty to almost fifty shows a month, sometimes NonStop.

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You have to find some time for your life. When

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life happens, that's when material happens. But I don't really

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have time to sit at a desk for six hours

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a day and go, hmm, pin to Pat, how do

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I read a joke about this? Let's write a joke, premise,

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set up, punchline. That's not my creative style. Things happen,

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something will happen in my life that sparks humor in me,

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makes me laugh. Then I think, now we're onto something,

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We've got the foundation of something, and now I can

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take pen and paper to etch this out. My brain

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has locked on the almost fifty shows a month, all right,

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So a typical month has say thirty days. Let's assume

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he takes one day off a week, so those are

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six day weeks, so that would be twenty six days

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of work. So is he doing two a days Friday Saturday?

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So I could do the math here, right, So if

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there's twenty six days, and then if you did two

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shows on the Friday, that'd be four more, so it'd

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be thirty And if you did two shows on Saturday,

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that'd be thirty four. If you did two shows on

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the Thursday, thirty eight. I can get to forty. I

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can't get to fifty. I'm sorry, Matt Rife. I'm gonna

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ask Chatchpt to help me out here. Let me look

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at Matt Riffe's actual touring schedule and see what I

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come up with. Sorry, I am digressing here, but my

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brain is totally locked on this. Does Matt Rife not

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have a website? Matt Rife Official Shows here? We go? Okay,

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So he's got a show June twenty first in South Carolina.

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There's a wait list. There are tickets available for June

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twenty second, there's one show. Then July fifth in Hawaii

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there's one show and tickets still available. Yeah, I don't know.

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I'm looking at this. I don't know how you get

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to fifty. Let me ask chat Shept to help me out.

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I have typed in. Comedian Matt Rife says he plays

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forty shows a month. What would a schedule like that

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look like For a typical comedian, Chat says, forty shows

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a month is an ambitious schedule that would involve a

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high level of travel and consistent performance. Here's an example

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of what it might look like. If Riife does forty

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shows month, that averages out to ten shows per week.

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That would mean two to three shows per day for

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three to four days a week. Here's a sample itinerary. Again,

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this is all made up by the AI, but I'm

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obsessed here. Monday would be a travel day and then

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a show at seven and nine thirty. Tuesday you do

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shows at seven and nine thirty, then travel to the

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next city. Wednesday do seven and nine thirty, have some

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free time, get up. Thursday, travel to the next city,

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do two shows, then do two shows on Friday and

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maybe a third show at eleven thirty pm on the Friday.

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Also three shows on Saturday and then a show on

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Sunday and then travel. So that's no days off. So

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I don't know. That seems a little high. But I'm

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not a touring comedian. I'm an idiot in the basement

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with a podcast. I digress. Let's get back to it, right,

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said I. Forget every single day that I have the

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recognizability I have Now, I'll wake up and think no

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one knows me at all, thinking I'm right back where

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I was five years ago. I can't go at any

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restaurant or store without someone giving me a compment or

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giving thanks to the videos I post online from the

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laugh at It's very surreal, man. I'm very lucky in

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I'm very blessed for people to find what I do

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funny and find me at whatever time they need to

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find me in their life. It's a very giving job.

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Brad Williams told Macon dot com he started making jokes

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as a defense mechanism, realizing he could never be the quarterback,

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but I could be the funny guy. At age nineteen,

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and Brad was brought on stage by Carlos Mencia after

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Carlos made a joke about people with dwarfism. Mencia had

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noticed that most of the crowd laugh with the people

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sitting near Brad didn't laugh, and then he saw Williams.

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Mencia wanted to ask him questions. Brad answered questions honestly,

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not meaning to be funny, but the crowd laughed. He

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asked me what I did for a living at the time,

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and Williams said, not a joke. I just said, I

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work at Disneyland, and I heard some people chuckle and

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I said, shut up, I'm not one of the seven,

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and that made them laugh again. That's when I thought, oh,

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maybe this comedy thing could be a lot of fun.

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There's no greater compliment than someone who comes in is

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kind of unfamiliar with the work and then enjoys it.

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Zanagar got a big profile in The New York Times.

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In it, she shared that I have a complicated relationship

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with self care. If you're a South Asian woman, you're

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taught that self care is be ye, it's selfish. If

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you want to look good, why you're already married, It's

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about your kids. Now. As her entertainment career took off,

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she grew motivated to take better care of her appearance

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and said it's not helping anybody for me to stand

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up on stage and not look put together. It's just distracting.

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Kevin Pollack spoke to the Pitch k C. Kevin says

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he doesn't get nervous about anything. Yeah, it might be

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signs of a sociopath, but nothing's ever made me nervous.

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Including sitting on Johnny Carson's couch the televised one. Ever

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since I was ten years old and started being a

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natural born ham in front of an audience, I've always

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felt excited. It's like Christmas Morning. Kevin's going to be

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in Tulsa King. He said, yeah. Drops in September, I'm

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a new series regular. The next couple of seasons came

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out of nowhere, and I was shocked at how much

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fun it was. Sometimes they make it fiscally irresponsible to

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stay on the couch and it doesn't really matter if

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it's quote unquote fun. But every now and then it's

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incredibly fun, and then this ridiculous bonus. And that's what

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Tulsa King has been. That's a good show. Jennif Fisher

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told The Fly on the Wall podcast that it was

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Molly shann And who changed her life. She said, I'm

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a huge SNL nerd. The greatest part about being on

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the Office and being on NBC was that I got

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to breathe the same air as SNL people. I was

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a total groupie, Fisher explained. Before being cast as Pam

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on the Office, she worked as a typist. She'd attend

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TV critics Association events. As a transcriber, she heard about

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an upcoming event dedicated to SNL and said, I wanted

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it more than my little new heart in La could stand.

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I started pretending like I didn't feel good because I

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was going to make an excuse that I was sick

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so I could get off work on time, and then

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sneak into this party. She sneaks in. I can't even

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tell you. It was amazing Norm MacDonald. I'm looking at

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him in the flesh. I can't My mind has blown.

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Then I see Molly Shannon. I think I'm gonna do it.

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I'm going to say hi to Molly Shannon. She looked

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at me, took me by the shoulders, looked me deep

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in the eyes, and said, don't give up. Whatever you do,

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don't give up. It took me ten years to get

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on SNL, and my best advice to you is just no,

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it'll hop and eventually if you stick with it. Sticking

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Office Ish Donald Gleeson is the lead in the paper,

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which is the office spin off of Sorts. Gleason hopes

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people will find a reason to love his character. He

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told people, I don't think my character is like Michael

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Scott at all. I think if you're trying to compete

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with what Steve did, with what Ricky Gervais did, I

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think that'd be a massive mistake. We made a whole

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new character and it's a whole new sort of setup.

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But I hope people will find a reason to love

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him as well, just in a different way than they

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did the guys before and long the heads of the

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Fall the Columbus Comedy Festival, They've got a pretty decent lineup.

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Heear September fourth through the seventh. This year's festival features

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Polly Shore, The Second City, Sam Talent, Mo Welch, and

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some others. The lineup will include a mix of stand

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up comedy, improv, sketch comedy, live podcast recording, variety, slash,

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alternative shows, game shows, industry mixers, and more. Several fan

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favorite shows that were turned including Female af and All

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Woman stand Up Lineup, Drunk power Point, You Can Figure

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Out What That Is? And Chicago Showcase five Chicago Comedians

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hosted by viral sensation Chad the Bird. I'm not familiar

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with Chad the Bird. Back to Google. Chaddbird dot Com

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luckily has a link that says what's a Chad Bird?

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Chad The Bird has been Chicago's laziest journalist and only

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avian op ed columnists for fifteen years until I got

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drunk and joined TikTok when viral traveling get up early.

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He's even got a podcast, The Bird Cast. I'll have

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to check that out, all right, cool, I'm going to

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check out the May tenth episode called We're Not going

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to Talk about Star Wars. The description is in which

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I discuss new details that have emerged about the birthplace

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of Plato and totally not Star Wars. I'm in now

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in the next episode is about Pinball City. This is

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right up my alley. All right, that's your comedy news

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for today. See tomorrow.