March 21, 2026

Nate Bargatze on Finding Comics, Seinfeld on Standup’s Rise, and Marc Maron on Riyadh

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac’s Daily Comedy News recaps a conversation with Jerry Seinfeld and Nate Bargatze, with Nate describing building opportunities for comics via showcases and longer sets, highlighting Greg Warren’s rapid success after a short arena spot and noting Derek Strope’s Netflix presence. They discuss how standup became a destination as sitcom paths narrowed, alt rooms expanded, and arena/Netflix-era careers grew, with Seinfeld arguing standup avoids third-party gatekeeping that can obstruct comedy in TV and film. Marc Maron tells Consequence he made a joke about the Riyadh Comedy Festival but criticizes rationalizing money from autocratic countries and says nothing would entice him to go. Jessica Kirson tells Pride Source internet exposure helps touring but isn’t a living, and explains her “internal monologue” turn-away bit. An LA Times item describes an unofficial Conan O’Brien plaque by Tim Hamill. Maria Bamford rejects “best” rankings, comments on Billboard’s list, and suggests more women should be included. Sheng Wang discusses finding humor in ordinary life, working clean, and interest in nature and plant photos.

00:22 Nate Bargatze Finds Comics
01:13 Seinfeld on Standup Boom
02:42 Marc Maron Riyadh Controversy
03:58 Jessica Kirson Touring Reality
04:56 Conan Plaque Street Story
06:39 Bamford and Billboard Rankings
07:14 The Top 25
09:06 Sheng Wang Comedy Philosophy

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

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Callaroga Shock Media. Hi there, I'm Johnny Mack with your

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daily Comedy News, a daily briefing on stand up comedy,

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comedians and the comedy industry. This one from a while back.

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I pre taped today to accommodate my schedule how to

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do some stuff. Yesterday, Jerry Seinfeld and Nate Bergatzi had

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spoken to poll Star, but let's pick away at this

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Nate talked about how he's been finding comedians. He said,

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I've done every show you could possibly do. I've done

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Bowling Alleys to Arenas. We have a YouTube page where

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we have the showcase and they're doing ten minutes, and

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we try to shoot some half hours with comics doing

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an hour and try to give them a path. As

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someone pops, they pop. I've been going after a lot

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of older comedians. They could be my age or whatever,

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but they have the chops and the experience to be

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able to create this material. One in particular is Greg Warren,

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very funny comedian. He's been doing comedy for thirty years.

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I brought him in. He's come with me. We were

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in Kansas City and he got a date at the

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Comedy Club of Kansas City. Two months later, we do

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two shows in the arena there. Out of doing ten

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minutes on two of the arena shows, they added fourteen shows.

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That's just from him doing ten minutes. But he murdered

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so hard we had another one. Derek Stroop did nine.

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Derek Stroop recently out on Netflix is fantastic. Jerry Seinfeld said,

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what's changed in the past twenty years for comedians. It's

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like a destination. We're gonna go see this comedian. This

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is an important thing for us to do. What changed,

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Nate said, A good beginning was your Comedian documentary. I

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come from that. We watched you build a new set.

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I'd never seen an inside look like that, especially for

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someone like me who's not from New York. I was

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already trying to do comedy and seeing it, but I

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wasn't seeing someone that was you go and not get

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laughs at Gotham or wherever, and you run around to

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the clubs and you work on this thing. You started it. Essentially,

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it was a large group of people around my age

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that kind of made it, and like, all right, we

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want to go do this. I want to be a

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stand up comedian. After that, comics weren't getting sitcoms anymore.

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That route was shut down. Now you're just gonna do

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stand up. Then he had all rooms open up and

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it started to expand. Another one was Dane Cook when

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he did tour Gasm and was doing arenas on HBO.

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He was the biggest comic on the planet, Like that's

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dude's a rockstar from just being a comedian. Then you

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had your Jim Gaffigan Sebastian. You had comics having full

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careers and doing big arenas, big things and stand up.

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Brian Reagan's another never did stuff in the Hollywood world

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was a comedian that got big and Netflix was a

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part of that. Comedy Central was a giant part of

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that as well. You Jerry said something about what hurt sitcoms?

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What was going to be funnier than the standup comedian?

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You can't make a movie I have as much laughs

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as stand up. To that, Jerry said, it seemed like

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those forums deteriorated. The reason was that someone has to

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prove each thing in the movie or TV show, Where

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a stand up we just go right to them and

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say what do you think of this? Having a third

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party make a decision was an obstruction of being funny.

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That was one of the reasons my show did well

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in the nineties. It was Larry David and I and

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nobody said anything to us. We just did what we

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wanted and there was no network involvement really at all.

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Mark Maren caught up with Consequence of Sound and they

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discussed how Maren works politics in and Maarn said, I

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didn't make a statement. I made a joke, That's what

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I do. An example of that was his comments about

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the Riod Comedy Festival, in which Maren said, how do

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you promote that for the people that brought you nine

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to eleven? Maren said, I made a joke about it,

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and I guess the joke had some residents and kind

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of sparked a more culturally active look at the participants

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in that festival. Consequence writes on this subject, his voice

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dips with contempt. Maren said, it's about money, dude. It's

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really about can you rationalize taking that money? And most

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people can because that's the world we live in. And

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I'm not even on any kind of high horse. I

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get it. Hey, all money's crappy. Maren clarifies there is

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no dollar amount that would have enticed him to Riodd.

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He also does not buy the argument that those comedians

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were spreading Western values. Maren said, autocratic countries that become

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culturally westernized. I don't think it ever changes the politics

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of those countries. It just does what it does here,

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creates more distraction the sense of freedom of choice because

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when you have a few different restaurants and a few

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different places you can go online adopting Western culture. It's

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not helping us right now. Maren continued. If you can

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rationalize taking the money and live with that, that's how

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this world works. You know, our president, who's supposed to

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be an example of something American, might be the most

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American president we've had in years, who knows. Get away

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with what you can get away with. Get all the money,

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you can double down on anything. Don't take responsibility or

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apologize for anything. Jessica Kerson was one of the comedians

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who played the Riant Comedy Festival. She caught up with

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Pride Source. They did not talk about said festival. They

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talked about touring, and Jessica Curson said, you can't make

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a living from the internet. It helps, but it's more

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that a lot of us put up videos to build

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an audience. We can perform four on the road because

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people follow you. They look at your schedule, they look

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at way you're performing. Plus I've been doing live stand up.

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I just started my twenty seventh year, and online is

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not the same, you know, because you don't have the

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audience reaction. Now that I'm performing for a thousand people

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each time, it's very different from the years and years

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of just doing it and hoping that an audience shows up.

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The demand is there now. The traveling is very hard,

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the planes and the hotels and all that stuff, but

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the shows are amazing, so when you get there it's

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all right, But on the way it's a lot. They

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were curious how the bit where Jessica turns away from

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the audience to share her internal monologue evolved. Jessica said,

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I just did it on stage one night. I don't

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even remember where it was or when. For a long

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time it didn't work. People were like, this woman has

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a metal disorder. Until I realized it was a save line.

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I had to do it when a joke didn't go

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over well or when there was awkward silence. Then the

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response was so positive. I kept doing it. From the

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La Times in Los Angeles, Miracle Mile neighborhood flanked by

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the Libreat tarpits, The La County Museum of Art and

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a Diner is a dense concentration of charming Art Deco

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and Spanish Mediterranean style apartment buildings. And on the corner

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of Fourth and Cochrane you'll find a plaque. Strapped to

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a street sign. You'll find a golden plaque commemorating Conan

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O'Brien's time living on Cochrane. The plaque features Conan's face

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as a bronze bust, with a short description of his

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life there before he became an Oscar's host. It is

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not official. It was created by the Cochrane Committee of

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Conan Connoisseurs. I guess they're the CZ which we're told

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is actually just one guy who lives on Cochran Avenue,

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occasionally listens to Conan's podcast, has a free time, and

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no real authority to put up a monument. But did

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it Anyway. We know all this because it says that

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on the inscription I love everything about this story. So

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who is the Cochrane Committee of Conan Connoisseurs. Well, it's

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Tim Hammill. He's the entire committee. He wanted people to

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know that Conan O'Brien used to live on that block

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in the nineteen eighties. The plaque riffs on the Baseball

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Hall of Fame plaques and the cream colored California historical signs.

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The CCCC explains, I wanted something that would look like

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a plaque from far away that would catch people's attention,

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make them want to come over and read it. He

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then had it to Staples, printed out a large, sturdy

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poster and fastened it to the stop sign on his block.

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In describing Conan O'Brien's time on Cochrane, the plaque reads,

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it was a time of struggle, ingenuity, and questionable mayonnaise

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based decisions. From these humble beginnings, the street witness the

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rise of a comedy icon. May the monument quote a

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poster affixed with zipsies inspire Cochrane Avenue residents to chase

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their dreams, embrace the originality in one day upgrade to

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a home with more than one bathroom. Maria Bamford was

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on the Last Laugh podcast. They pointed out that Netflix

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CEO Ted Sorrando said her show Lady Dynamite is the

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best original series the streamer has ever released. Bamford said

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that clearly isn't true. There is no best, there is

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no worse. There's just a bunch of people out there

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doing a craft and doing it beautifully in all sorts

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of ways. We are reminded that last year bill Board

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ranked Maria Bamford the ninth best comedian of the twenty

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first century, which is of course crazy talk. There's an

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episode somewhere in the December feet if you want to

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hear me comment about that. Nothing against Maria Bamford, but

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seems a little high. Can we talk about that list.

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Let's talk about that list. Where's that list? Let me

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pull that up for us. I won't spend a lot

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of time on this, but looking at their list. One

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Dave Chappelle, of course. Two Chris Rock fine, pick three

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c K even though he's canceled. Fine, pick for Mulaney,

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sure fine. Five Bill Burr. Bill Burr had a good

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twenty four years before losing it last year. Jerry Seinfeld.

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You know, you might think of him as more of

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a twentieth century comedian, but if you've seen him in

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the twenty first century, can't argue with that. Kevin Art

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at seven, Norm McDonald at eight. I don't want to debate.

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Norm MacDonald today, that's fine. Bamford is the nine. Robin

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Williams at ten is he a twentieth century comedian or

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twenty first? See I don't like that pick either. Sebastian

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at eleven is just insane. Nay to twelve is way

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too high. Sandler at thirtie we've discussed this. Attel at

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fourteen is criminally underrated. Hepburg at fifteen love Hebburg. But

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it's two albums or three if you want to count

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the posthumous one and out. But okay, love Hebburg. If

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you listen to the show, you know I love Hebburg.

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Gervais at sixteen, Wanda Sykes at seventeen is a little

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crazy to me eighteen Patrese O'Neil. You've heard me speak.

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I did not like the man, so I'm biased. Ali

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Wong at nineteen, Sarah Silverman at twenty seems high, Gabe

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Iglesias at twenty one, gaff Again at twenty two. He

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might not call you back, but it seems really really underrated.

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Trevor Noah twenty three, Billy Connolly at twenty four, and

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John Stewart at twenty five. And I respect John Stewart

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a lot, but I'm not sure he's in the same

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category in terms of stand up. I know he tours whatever. Alright,

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so back to Bamford, who's number nine on that list,

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She said of the list, it's just a trend and

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clearly not true. She suggested other women like Nicki Glazer

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and Kathy Griffin should be on the list as well,

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but she did repost it. She said, Oh no, I

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retweeted it just to be clear if the propaganda has

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been reposted. Shang Wang, one of my favorite current comedians,

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finds the most ordinary of things to be funny. He said,

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it's about taking a step back and look at the

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world as if you're an alien, meaning you're not taking

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any of it for granted, you're just an aw of

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what this thing is. But I'm also taking a step

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in and looking closely at what it appears to be.

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Some of his inspirations photographers William Eggleston and Elliott Erwitz

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stay with me. Shehangwan explains. Eggleston would take pictures of

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a tricycle but from a very low angle, and Elliott

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Erwit was catching interesting and funny little moments when things

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in life just lined up like melon's on a stand

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that looks like a lady's boobs. Wang tries to work clean,

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explaining the reason that I don't really use profanity is

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because I want to find the most unique and specific

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way to say what I'm trying to say. I think

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part of my comedy is to remind people that were

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human and were not separate from nature. I think it's

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important for us to pay attention to and appreciate the

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flora and fauna and how the ecosystems work. In the past,

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I've done a kind of comedy show with pictures of

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plants that I've taken. I might go back to doing

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some ver Know that and that is your comedy news

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for today. Catch it tomorrow.