Neil Brennan's Comedy Ascendancy and Katt Willliams' unsung generosity

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Callaroga Shark Media. Hello, I'm
Johnny Mack with your daily comedy news.

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Neil Brennan will have a new special
on April ninth, Netflix. Neil is

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absolutely in ascendency. His podcast is
really good. Each special is better than

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the last. He's gotten out of
being like me having to qualify Neil Brennan.

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You know the guy from Chappelle Schell. He's just Neil Brennan now,

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and probably by the end of the
year we'll be right at the top of

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the comedy game. Definitely in acendency, Neil told The Hollywood Reporter. If

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you're watching this special because you saw
my other Netflix specials and I talked about

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having depression and you wanted to support
a fellow traveler, I have some terrible

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news. I feel pretty great.
He spends a healthy portion of crazy.

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Good is the name of a special
joking about the perks of bad mental health.

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The Hollywood Reporter said, Before I
got a chance to screen your new

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special, I found a thread on
Reddit where people had seen it started weighing

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in. Neil goes uh oh.
Holly reporter said, Now I bring it

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up because I was struck by this
one comment to who wrote his material was

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outstanding, probably the best I've ever
seen him do. I'm really curious how

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it translates to a special, and
I was fan base reacts because some people

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definitely see him as the mental health
guy. That's an idea you play with.

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Right at the top of the special, Neil said, and I'll tell

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you why I did. I did
the show in DC last summer. I

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just came out and started talking,
and a guy DM me after the show

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and said, I brought my girlfriend. It was my birthday. We'd bought

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tickets for the front row, and
I just kept waiting for you to show

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up, and I knew it was
going to happen something like that. I

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always want to do a bit about
the kind of heckles I get, which

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are like, be sadder, So
I put that at the beginning. I'm

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like, if you want me to
be sad, I'm sorry, I'm not

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sad. That sort of covered it, and weirdly it made the whole show

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better. It was a good note
from the guy. I've been feeling pretty

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good for a couple of years,
to the point where when I did blocks

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the previous special, I had to
kind of tap into the old feeling.

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So this was a new feeling of
optimism, or at least accepting that bad

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mental health can be good, or
whatever we consider bad mental health has propelled

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most of civilization. Of course,
you could argue that isn't My mental health

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got better, my comedy got better. So I'm saying one thing and maybe

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exhibiting another. But I wasn't going
to present to be sad when I wasn't.

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And I'm not saying don't go to
therapy. I'm just saying, like,

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don't want certain people to have a
good work life balance. I don't

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want like the head of Homeland Security
to take up photography or poetry. You

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know what I mean, do your
job all the time, be obsessed with

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it. Neil says. The other
big thing is this idea about who our

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cultural and civilizational leaders are now,
and how it feels like comedians are because

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everybody else is completely failed. There's
obviously lying religion, corrupts religious organizations,

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corrupt political leaders, corrupt corporate leaders, corrupt civic leaders, media, everyone's

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in somebody's pocket, and it seems
like comedians are the only ones incentivized to

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be honest. But then there's this
weird thing because now we're the moral leaders,

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and we're like what I almost called
the special What are the clowns think?

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Why is it up to Chappelle and
Brogan and Ellen and Kevin Hart and

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Shane Gillis Andrew Schultz? Why are
these people now moral leaders when that's not

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the job. I understand how we
got here, but I think it's a

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silly expectation. This is really interesting. Neil says, I'm in this weird

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place where I'm not famous enough to
get substantially canceled, Like I'm not going

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to get a job and lose it
the way Shane Gillis did, which again

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became his propulsion. It's quote Bill
Burr, what are they gonna do?

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Take away my podcast? Supreme Court
Justice Clarence Thomas takes bribes. Why you're

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worried about what Kevin said in his
monolog or what Bill said or whatever?

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Or junts do it's not allowed to
say that. Biden's old? Do you

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not understand what comedy is? But
whenever people talk about Dave or Joe being

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canceled, I just think they're doing
arenas. Shane just did the Chicago Theater

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five times. It's eighteen thousand tickets. The thing about being canceled is you're

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basically just getting free promo Alabama dot
Com. Al dot Com asked Marlon Wayans

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about his friendship with Tupac Shakur.
Marlon said, Pac and I were very

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similar in that we were two poor
kids that were lucky enough to go to

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performing arts high school. So there's
an ecotomy there because, yeah, you

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grew up in the hood, we
also appreciate the arts, and you're lucky

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enough to have this outlet and it
kind of saves your life in a sense.

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Everybody knew him as this gangster.
I knew him as very intelligent philosopher,

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extremely well read, really great at
poetry. Just one of those multi

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talented people, and he was funny. If you ever sat in a room

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with Pac, you laughed. Famous
comedy series The Bear on FX. You

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know, the hilarious The Bear.
I like that show a lot, but

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I can't believe they keep entering it
in Best Comedy. The voters go,

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yeah, that's a comedy. It's
not. It's great, but it's not

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a comedy. Source is confirmed to
The hollyd Reporter that The Bear has been

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renewed for a fourth season. They're
going to film seasons three and four back

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to back to accommodate everyone's schedule.
Netflix has revealed that Brian Simpson Live from

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the Mothership is out today, directed
by Baron Vaughan and is filmed at Joe

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Rogan's comedy Mothership. In the special, Brian Simpson covers everything from racism and

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gun violence to in vitro fertilization and
masculinity. Brian was named a new face

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at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival
in twenty twenty one. Has got bumped

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from last week for reasons, I
explained. On Saturday, Jim Brewer was

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playing Northeast Pennsylvania. He was excited
about. He said he'd been there a

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bunch. That's how I remember the
first time I played there. It was

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with Ralphie May. This touches me
because I know Jim are really well and

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I knew Ralphie pretty well. They
asked Jim to look back on his career,

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which includes Saturday Night Live and Half
Baked, and Jim said, I

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would say my favorite moments are the
most fun times, not so much the

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monuments. Whenever I got a chance
to do a thing with a rock star,

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like the lead singer of a CDC. Brian Johnson, go on stage

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at Madison Square Garden and sing a
song with Billy Joel or tour with Metallica.

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Those things are way more exciting to
me than any TV or film or

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anything like that. They asked me
to open up their shows, to basically

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set the mood and create an atmosphere, and do it however I wanted.

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It was the greatest thing. Ever, the fact that I got paid is

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almost silly. In a recent Instagram
live video, Monique revealed that Cat Williams

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had been looking out for comedian a
Vett Wilson before she passed away in twenty

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twelve, losing a battle with stage
four cervical cancer and kidney disease. Wuik

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said, I want to say this
about our brother, Cat Williams. Throughout

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the years, ID always hear things
like, all right, he won't show

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up with the shows. He ain't
this, he ain't that. That's one

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of the purest cats in the game. A friend had started an online fundraiser

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for twenty five thousand dollars for the
actress. The website only reached fifty six

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percent of the twenty five Atlanta Blackstar
reported the Cat donated twelve thousand dollars to

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the cause. Monique said, there
was a woman named Vette Wilson who played

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Adella on The Parkers, and it
was a man named Cat Williams who just

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stepped in and took care of that
sister until she left this earth. Hey,

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remember that recent Willy Wonka disaster thing. While a new musical is coming

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out, Willy Fest, a musical
parody, will take inspiration from the Scottish

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event that went awry. You may
recall the event was billed as an immersive

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experience. The organizers used AI generated
photos to track customers, who, upon

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arriving, found themselves on a drab
warehouse. Customers compared the event to a

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meth lab. Actor Paul Connell,
who was among three actors hired to play

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Willy Wonka, said he had been
sent to script that was fifteen pages of

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AI generated gibberish of me just monologuing
mad things. The musical will be a

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b horror movie inspired by the event, The creator said. Imagine if Edwood

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and p. T. Bornham got
into environmental experiences fueled by a million dreams

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and zero dollars, it might turn
out like this. While mostly nothing but

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wreckage and a disaster of this magnitude, we think it screams out musical.

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The Guardian has seen the new documentary
Remembering Gene Wilder. They write, generations

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of viewers got to know Gene Wilder
as Willy Wan Blanka, and the new

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documentary argues that's the goodest place as
any to start. Were transported back to

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the fond memories of the candy Man's
immortal introduction. He hobbles out to meet

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his adoring public with cane in hand, staggers a bit, starts to stumble,

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then somerselts himself into a sprightly upright
stance. Like so many of Gen

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Wilder's finest moments, it was surprised
to his scene partners, proving his nimble

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versatility as a performer. He could
mind humor from tension, aggravation or anxiety,

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but his desire to keep the public
on their toes always gave way to

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a welcoming friendliness in his art,
as in his life. With his mother's

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hard condition, he had to make
her laugh instead of making her angry.

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Wild they grew up another premise that
comedy and pain were close cousins, evident

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in the development of screen persona constantly
teetering on the brink of a breakdown.

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The director says he was good,
as though, why is this happening to

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me? Guy? While there is
dynamic with co star Clevon Little and Blazing

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Saddles pointed to his next partnership,
that one with Richard Pryor. For Blazing

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Saddles, the executives at Warner's had
declared Richard uninsurable and insist that on a

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replacement. Over the course of four
films together, Wilder and Prior would forge

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a close bond, even though Prior
struggled with addictions that often threw wrenches into

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the production process. Wilder's final film
with Prior was called Another You, was

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also his final film appearance. He
did a short lived sitcom called Something Wilder

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and a two episode stint on Will
and Grace I Don't Remember Something Wilder.

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Something Wilder ran on NBC from October
first, ninety four to June thirteenth of

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ninety five. A fifty something husband, Gene Bergmann played by Wilder, and

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his wife Annie, who's in her
thirties, are learning to cope with raising

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their four year old fraternal twin sons. Eighteen episodes three never aired. Alice

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Cooper guest starred in the fourteenth episode, which was titled Hanging with Mister Cooper.

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Gene unexpectedly finds himself cast on a
TV appearance promoting Cooper's new hit single,

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Marlon Maples. She was married to
somebody famous one point. Guest starred

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on the episode Love Native American Style. I have no memory whatsoever of this,

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but it was nineteen ninety four and
I was hanging out, the director

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says. When we talk to Alan
Alda, he shared a story about worrying

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before one of the films he directed
came out what the critics might say.

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He was commiserating with Gene, who
told Alan Alda, what difference does it

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make if they pay the film?
So? What big deal you made it?

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It's finished, it's over. Be
proud of it. Gan knew how

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to live life well, remembering Gene
Wilder is in theaters now. And that

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is your comedy news for today.
If you enjoy the program and tell a

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friend about it, they might like
it too. See tomorrow