Sept. 27, 2024

Michael Ian Black's issue with Joe Rogan

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac covers a range of topics in comedy news, featuring insights from Whitney Cummings on evolving her comedic style while maturing, and Michael Ian Black's perspective on engaging in thoughtful dialogue without attempting to change minds. Also discussed are Greg Fitzsimmons' experience with Ellen, Ali Sadiq's storytelling approach, and a controversial Ricky Gervais skit in court. Jason Zinaman questions the traditional comedy club booking process, while the Bushwick Comedy Club pioneers video submissions as a solution. The episode highlights new comedy albums from Shane Brendan and Paige Weldon, and previews the Because They're Funny Comedy Festival.

Note I realize I graduated in 1991 not 1987. Denzel was there though.

00:00 Introduction and Whitney Cummings' Insights
00:39 Michael Ian Black on Engaging with Arguments
01:34 Promoting My Substack and Michael Ian Black's Critiques
02:55 Greg Fitzsimmons on Working with Ellen
03:44 Ali Sadiq Reflects on Mistakes and Storytelling
05:12 Ricky Gervais Skit in Court
06:10 Comedy Club Booking Process Debate
07:39 Upcoming Comedy Events and Album Releases SHANE BRENDEN!
09:12 Conclusion and Podcasting 2.0

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Callaroga Shark Media, Hello Chunny Mack with your daily comedy news.

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Whitney Cummings tells The Dallas Observer, I always worried that

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if I ever got happy, I'd stop being funny. I

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wish that someone had told me sooner that that's not

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how it works. My act was about me and my

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self sabotaging behaviors. But now it's obvious about the world

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that I'm bringing up my son into and needing to

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understand it a bit better. It's a nice upgrade from

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an emotionally fraught, confused person to someone who is less

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confused and no longer emotionally fraught. As a comedian, I

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could stay image sure forever, but I learned I could

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be mature and be happy and still be funny. Micha

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Leean blacks All the Inside Hook on Twitter. I learned

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very early on I'm not going to change anybody's mind

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about anything, and I no longer try. I'm not trying

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to change anybody's mind. What I'm trying to do is

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engage with people on the basis of their arguments, not

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because I'm trying to convince them, but because I'm trying

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to help people who may feel the way I do,

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but don't necessarily know how to approach these conversations. And

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I don't either a lot of times, so a lot

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of time when I'm engaging, it's not because I'm so

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sure of my own position. It's to understand my own

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position better. It's to be able to defend my own

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position so that if I were to have a conversation

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with you in real life and something would come up,

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I might have an actually informed opinion rather than just

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kind of a knee jerk liberal response to something. Inside

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Hook points out that Michael Ian Black is not shy

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about calling out his fellow comedians, including appearing in the

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recent Louis Ck documentary Sorry Not Sorry, or about writing

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a piece about the time Andrew dice Clay threatened to

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kick his ass where Joe Rogan's lazy use of slurs

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in his latest special. Michael ian Black has a substack

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which I follow is pretty good, which reminds me I

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should promote my own substack. Mine is called media Thoughts

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by John McDermott. I'll throw a link in the show notes. Basically,

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I have music Mondays where I just write about whatever

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band I feel like writing about. Wednesdays or podcast recommendations,

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and maybe once or twice a week on the other

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days I'll write about podcasting. It is not a comedy blog.

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If I want to talk about comedy, that's this anyway,

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It's free. I hope you will check it out link

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of the show notes. Michael Black says it feels hypocritical

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of me to call out politicians for crappy behavior and

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then somehow not call out fellow comics for crappy behavior.

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I don't want to be that guy. Like in a

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case of Rogan in particular, he is such a massive platform,

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He's such an influential part of the culture that when

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he releases a special in the punchline to one of

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his jokes is I don't want to say the word

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rhymes with make it. I'm like, you can do better,

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and you oughte to your audience to do better. Because

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he knows who his audience is, and he knows the

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influence he has over them. So when he's giving them

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more a license to be a jerk faces, they're gonna

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take that license. Slight paraphrase there by me, I don't

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think it's enough when you're at Joe Rogan's level to say,

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I'm just a comic. You're not for better or worse

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or whatever the term actually applies to you. In particular,

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you're a thought leader, and I think if was me,

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I think you just have responsibility there not to make

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things worse for people. And I know that's not his intention.

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I really, in my heart, I believe that. But that's

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the effect it has. And so Joe Rogan doesn't give

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a hoot about what I think. Joe Rogan doesn't know

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who I am. But I thought it was incumbent on me,

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just to my own conscience, to calling out Greg Fitzsimmons

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talked about working with Ellen and said, working with Ellen,

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what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right, And I

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think that it killed me. It was amazing watching the

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evolution of that show. I was run in to help

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come up with ideas for the show before it launched.

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It was a really exciting feeling about it. It was all

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about positivity and possibility. Then we started winning Emmys and

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it became very unpleasant. There was a lot of fear

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going around. It didn't feel fun at the end. I'd

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go on the road and all these Midwestern housewives would

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come up to me after the show and be like,

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oh my god, you were with Vellen what she like?

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And I would tell them what she's like, and you

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could see their shoulders slump and tears wall up in

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their eyes and they'd be like no, and I'd be like, yeah,

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America loves to tear down its level icons. In some cases,

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I feel like it's unwarranted. But in this case, it's

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amazing to me to see her going out. She's doing

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this new special where she was talking about how she

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got thrown under the bus. Let's just say it was warranted. Wow.

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Ali Sadiq spoke to the spokesman. Ali said people make

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a lot of mistakes in their life and go through

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things you should have went right, but he went left.

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He zigged when you should have zagged. Things happen. You

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don't get a chance to pinpoint a lot of times

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when you went wrong. During his time in prison, he

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reflected on the mistakes he had made and pinpoint into

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the exact year in which the first domino fell, leading

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to his incarceration. The Domino effect was supposed to be

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a one off, but he says, as people got to

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wonder how I got locked up, I want to give

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the history of it. Once I did Domino Effect and

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people were interested, it was like, oh, what a way

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to go, and I can continue to do them. He

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recalls comedian Billy D. Washington telling him, when you're not

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being funny, be interesting. Ollie says, the Domino effects are

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a reality of that. When I'm not being funny, the

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story's interesting. I don't even start off trying to be funny.

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It's me telling the story and taking this deep dive

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into what I've experienced versus what somebody else has experienced.

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I'm still trying to get better as a storyteller. I'm

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not the best that I can be, yet I can

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get better, I can develop better. I'm doing other specials

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in order to get better what I actually do and

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put out all these different works. He says he wants

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to be like Denzel Washington. By the way, you know,

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if you had a time machine. So when I graduated

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from Fordham at University in nineteen eighty seven, the commencement

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speaker was some unknown actor Denzel Washington. We weren't impressed. Boy,

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I like a do over on that one. Dumb teenagers,

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Ollie says, denzil Ell is Denzel Regardless, it doesn't matter

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what role he's in, he just tells you something else.

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I want to get better in my craft, to beat

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myself and give you all this different work. It's like, Yo,

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he was great in this. He was great in that.

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He was different than this, but he was still great.

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Same chair, same microphone. He's just giving us something different

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from the Daily Mail. A Ricky Gervai's skit was shown

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in court. Man claimed he was copying at Ricky Gervase

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when he allegedly did a Nazi salute outside a Jewish

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museum in Sydney. Three men were charge with behaving in

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an offensive manner in public after knowing displaying Nazi symbols

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without an excuse near the Sydney Jewish Museum last October.

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The men told the police they were joking. One of

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the men said he was copying a Ricky Gervay's routine,

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and a clip played for the court. Ricky Gervas performs

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a mock Nazi salute while pushing his hair down to

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Mimick Hitler and says, I do that quick so no

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one can take a picture of me doing that. Not

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a traditional subject for comedy. The Old Holocaust Magistrate Jennifer

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Atkinson question the timing of the acts, which occurred less

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than a week after the attacks by Hamas last October.

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She told the court, it really is a matter of

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common knowledge what occurred in Israel days earlier. You might

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have said it as a joke, But why that location,

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why that time, the magistrate added, I'm not making a

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decision about Ricky Gervais. Friend of the Show, Jason Zenneman

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writes in The New York Times under the headline is

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the comedy club booking process broken? The owners of a

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new spot say hiring comics based on referrals from other

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stand ups is no guarantee the acts will be funny.

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This is the Bushwick Comedy club owner Jad and his

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partners plan to book via tape submissions rather than referrals.

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Jad tells Jason, whether or not you get on stage

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at most clubs in the city is very little to

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do at this point with how funny you are. Most

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major clubs use a referral system to varying degrees. That

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means to get on stage you need other comics to

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vouch for you. Naturally, comedians pick their friends. There's even

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motivation to promote mediocrity. Jad told Zenneman Honestly, you don't

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want to follow someone who buries you. Wow. Our main

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difference is gonna sound stupid, but simply put, we're gonna

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actually watch submission tapes. Referrals will not matter, nor will

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social media followers. Only how funny you are on tape?

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On its Grambush What Comedy Club promotes itself as the

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only club in New York who books that's line up

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purely off video submissions. So what's gonna happen? You submit

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a tape, the three owners watch it. If all three

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give a thumbs up, you become part of the rotation.

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If one doesn't like it, you're out. They've already pored

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over one thousand tapes and signed up seventy comics. I

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got news for these guys. That's gonna get old really quick,

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and comedians gonna be like, hey, you know who's funny?

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You should check out this guy, Zenman writes. Several newer

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club owners, including one of the Tiny Cupboard, describe only

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watching tapes as impractical because there's not enough hours in

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the day. Amen. They also say this critique mischaracterizes the process,

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which typically finds talent through multiple sources, including submissions. This

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weekend in DC. It's the second annual because they're Funny

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Comedy Festival, the BTF Festival. I mentioned this before. I

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think they're being very generous with the word festival. Saturday

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at eight o'clock, Dean Cole hosts the second annual Breakout

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Comedian of the Year competition, All Right to Get Dion

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Cole and six comedians. Leslie Jones performs Sunday at eight eight.

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It's not really a festival, guys. That's two shows and

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some good branding. Shane Brendan has an album out today.

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It's called either Way Pretty Funny. It is a funny

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album and Shane Brennan is way cool. How do I

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know because I listened to the album and I interviewed

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Shane Brendan. He'll be the guest on tomorrow's podcast. Loved him.

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I got to talk to him for another hour, but

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I had a volleyball game at ten minutes after the

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end of the recording and I had a split. Portland,

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Oregon based comedian and military veteran Shane Brendan releases his

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debut album Via Blonde Medicine at today in in either

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Way Pretty Funny, Brendan obsesses over NBA rookies and endearingly

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gripes about his family and if you ever want to

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hear somebody do slam poetry about working at McDonald's, well

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he's got you covered. He is my guest tomorrow. It

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is a wonderful conversation. Please check it out. Also out today,

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Paige Weldon's comedy album I've Turned Out Fine. This one

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from a Special Thing Records, Recorded in la It's Page's

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third comedy album and includes personal stories about working in

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a library, being an only child, and not attending high

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school reunion, as well as takes on her parents, tattoos,

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surprise continents, and health Therapista likes strippers now I'm remembering.

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I asked the record label if Page Weldon wanted to

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do the show. I didn't hear back from them. What's

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the deal with that? And that is your comedy news

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for today? Why? Because my voice just gave out. I'd

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recorded three of these in a row to accommodate my schedule.

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So that's your comedy news for today. If you'd like

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the program with us commercial interruption, there's a link of

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the show notes. I'd tell you how to do that.

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This podcast supports podcasting two point zero if you want

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to stream some SATs my way, use a podcasting two

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point zero app and you can do that. I like

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true Fans. I also like Hastematic is another good app

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for that sort of thing. And it always helps to

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grow the show. If you tell a friend about it,

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if you like the show, they might like it too.

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You know what I'm saying. Yeah, see you tomorrow with

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Shane Brennan. He's really great.