July 5, 2025

Rob Mac Closes His Bar Mac's Tavern

Show Notes
Transcript

Topics include the closing of Mac's Tavern, a popular bar in Philadelphia tied to the 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' TV show, and the return of unseen Johnny Carson episodes. Seth Meyers discusses the possibility of taking over SNL and the endless passion of Lorne Michaels. Steph Tolev touches on the evolving LA comedy scene and her experience hosting the AVN Awards. Jeff Ross shares a humorous encounter with Milton Berle, and Kathy Griffin reveals why she turned down hosting 'The View.'

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WEBVTT

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

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comedy news. It's a quiet one. It's a Saturday after

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July fourth. I did do a new sweep on Friday morning,

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and it's a little light. So think of today like

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the day after Thanksgiving. Let me make you a turkey

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sandwich and I'll heat up some mashed potatoes in the

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microwave and tell you what I've got for you. Okay,

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you understand where I'm coming from here today? Yep. In Philadelphia,

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Max Tavern, the old city bar and restaurant known for

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its ties to it's always sunny in Philadelphia, it is

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closing down after fifteen years on Market Street. They posted

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on Instagram at the bar part owned by Rob Mack

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and Caitlyn Olsen, it's closing. They thank supporters. They did

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not give a reason for the closing. The bar. On

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the Instagram post said when we open this bar, our

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hope was to create a welcoming down to earthplace where

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people could gather, share stories, laugh a little too loudly,

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and enjoy a drink or two among friends. What we

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got was so much more loyal and loving community that

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made Max Tavern feel like home. Not just to us

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and the staff, but to everybody who walked through its doors.

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Though Max Tavern may be closing, our gratitude to you

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will remain open and overflowing forever. It's all kinds of interesting,

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especially the liquor license part, right, So what are they

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gonna do with that liquor license? Won't keep an eye

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on that one. Rob Mac making a lot of news lately,

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And you know it's always sunny in Philadelphia. Is coming back?

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Let me check the date for you, July ninth. Oh yeah,

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We're gonna hear a lot from these guys this week

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as they drum up attention for the new season. Not

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sure closing a bar was the best way to do it,

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but and then again I'm talking about it. Good news

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if you like Johnny Carson. They've unearthed fifty episodes that

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haven't been seen in decades. These will go to Johnny

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Carson TV, the free ad supported streaming channel that brings

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the total number of streaming episodes to four hundred and

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seventy one. These will begin to air on the Corson

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TV Fast channel today, with a marathon of exclusively new

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episodes running through Sunday and then again every Weekend in July.

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Guests include loose Ball, Gilda Radner, Melbrooks, and Muhammad Alli.

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Variety caught up with Seth Myers and said they weren't

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going to ask him the lorn question because he's probably

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sick of the lorn question. Seth said, I'm only not

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sick of it because I find it incredibly flattering anytime

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anyone asked me if I take over SNL, mostly because

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my first five years on SNL, I felt like I

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was falling into an elevator cheft. So it's a very

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nice question for someone who really thought they were terrible

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at the show. Well, Seth, do you really believe Lauren's

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never going to retire? Seth said, I do. I'm not

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being glod with that answer. He just loves it so much.

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If he had a hobby that was like, if I

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can only get the show off my schedule, I'd start fishing.

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But that's not Lauren. This is his first love, and

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nothing keeps you more young than being surrounded by young people.

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Lauren is smart enough to know that. I agree with

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Seth there. I strongly believe as you age, you need

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something to do in your life. I enjoy being semi retired.

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I don't think i'd ever stop doing anything. I'll probably

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host this podcast until I just physically can't. Won't that

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be fun? Some ninety one year old guy ranting about

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comedy in Adam Saylor Movies The Only Times asked Steph Toleev.

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Does your comedy help open the door not just for

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more great female comics, but comics who are female, who

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were out there scaring the crap out of anyone and everyone.

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That's a great question, Steph said. I think there are

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a lot of us. Maybe you haven't seen a lot

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of them. I don't know. If you know Jordan Jensen,

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she's incredible. She's out there giving it to people too.

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There's so many. But I feel like there's so many

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women like me, and they just don't have the platform

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to openly talk about this kind of stuff. In my

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meet and greet lines, it's all women being like, I

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like these things. I want to say these things, but

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it's like they've either lived a sheltered life and they

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don't feel comfortable, or they're surrounding themselves with people who

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don't like when people talk like that. Nothing I say

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is like some weird, orpulsive thing. It's something gross we've

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all done we've all had a bad sex story, we've

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all embarrassed ourselves, we've all had really bad one night stands.

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I'm giving a voice to not even just women, men

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too maybe feel sheltered and feel like they can't be

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their full self. The conversation switched to the LA comedy scene.

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Steph Toolov said, I think the LA scene right now

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is amazing. All the main clubs, the bookers are women,

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and it's very nice to see that because they're much

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more inclusive with a lot more people in the lineups

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are way more diverse. You're seeing a lot of new

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people who kind of came out of nowhere that are

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really funny. They've been doing comedy for a long time,

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but now getting the opportunity to be these bigger stages.

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I don't know if it's because I'm on a higher level,

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but the community feels much more inspiring and much more supportive.

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That's awesome to hear. I feel like when I first

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moved here eleven years ago, i'd go to places like

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the Comedy Store and I felt like people didn't want

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me there. But now I feel like, even when newer

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comics come, everyone is so much more supportive and they

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want to meet people, and it just feels like a community.

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I don't know when that happened, but it definitely feels

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like that right now, which is awesome. I started out

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here in the alt scene, which I think might be

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in a bit of a down swing right now because

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some of the bigger shows are not happening, but I

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think it'll swing back again. They asked Steph about hosting

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the Adult Video News Awards, the AVN Awards. I found

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myself at the av AND Awards one night. I think

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I've told the story on the show. We had the

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giggles because I don't expect you to know this, but

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people who know porn movies know that sometimes they have

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parodies based on real movies. I can't remember any actual titles,

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and I won't make them up here, but we had

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the giggles as they came out. And then also, you know,

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all the categories of best combination of us your imagination,

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we just had just the big laugh. And then they

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gave us a gift. And I got back to the

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hotel room and opened up the gift and it was

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a glass thing several inches long. Here's your imagination, And

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I'm like, what do I do with this? And I'm

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not bringing this home. I'm not bringing this on the plane.

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So I just left it in a hotel room and

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I guess the maid wonder what happened with that. Steph said,

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my buddy was actually one of the writers. Every year

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they asked a different comedian and they just put my

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name for it, and that was it. I got it.

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And I will say that was one of the coolest

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experiences I've ever done in the porn industry. No matter

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what you think about it, those people are so genuinely nice.

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I will agree with that from my experience at the

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av AND Awards, and they were so supportive, Like for

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every award, people were getting up and clapping. One of

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the girls I hosted with her parents were there, Like

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these Midwestern parents were so happy their daughter was there.

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Like you're seeing stuff on screen, you're seeing the clips

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that they're showing you what she's nominated for, You're seeing

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stuff and they were like, ooh, great show, and what

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a great award show. And I was like, what the heck.

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It was really nice to see parents being supportive and

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I got flashed a lot. Jeff Ross talked about out

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working with Milton Burl. Burl passed away in two thousand

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and two, so the stories get some dust done it.

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Jeff Frost hold at Howard Stern. Milton had giant hands,

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and every time I got a laugh from behind the podium,

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he'd poke me in the ribs and I would jump.

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And then I kept going and I'm hitting pretty consistently

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getting good laughs, and finally he's just interrupting me. I'm

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killing and he's interrupting me. Finally I go, Milton, didn't

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I see you in an antique shop this morning for

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a hundred bucks. Milton gets up and starts doing a

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two man show, and I'm trying to keep up with him.

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Buddy Hackey yells out, hey, Milton, let the kid work,

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remember when you used to. Milton runs down, kisses Buddy

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Hacket on the lips. The place explodes, and I go, oh,

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there it is Milton and Buddy over eighty years of

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homosexual experience, and the place goes wild, and I felt

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like I'd found my Yankee Stadium moment. I went back

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to the Friar's Club afterward. I said to Buddy Hackett,

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why would Milton do that? And he goes he doesn't

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like when other people get a lot of laughs. He

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was trying to trip you up. Ross decided to speak

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to Milton himself and said, I went and had a

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cigar with him, and I said, Milton, why would he

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poke me like that? Milton said, remember they only remember

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the home runs. It means I had too many jokes

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and had to edit down just the home runs. And

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even though he was trying to interrupt me and mess

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me up a little bit, I was like, that's really

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good advice. Milton and I went on to become very

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good friends. I think he was testing me. Kathy Griffin.

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You know, Kathy, do I ever come on to hear

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and tell you a story about Kathy Griffin that's like, Hey,

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Kathy Griffin had an awesome day and impetted a pony

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and said life is great. She's one of these comedians

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that we talk about on the show that this just

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always strife. Well, Kathy Griffin reveals why she turned down

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hosting the View. She said, I'm gonna be honest, I

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had to turn it down because at the time, between

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doing my life on the D List and touring, I

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was making about ten million dollars a year. She tried

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to negotiate with the View. The money the View had

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wasn't enough to uproot her life to another coast, she said.

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She told Barbara Walters, I'm gonna be honest. This is

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how much money I made last year. I'll show you

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my tax returns. I don't want you to think I'm

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blowing smoke. But between moving costs and I'm so entwined

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with my mom and dad, I have a house in

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LA just isn't feasible for me to do. But I

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want you to hear it directly from me, that all

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sounds perfectly reasonable. Apparently Barbara Walters did not like that

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one bit. She didn't care up their offered by a penny.

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I think I might have said something like can you

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meet me halfway? And they didn't. But that's the real story,

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that all seems fair. Joe Quasala is the writer and

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star of a mockumentary called American Comic. It follows two

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stand ups as they try to navigate the modern comedy world.

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Joe said, every time he watches a movie or TV

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show that incorporates stand up that doesn't look like a

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comedy club, audiences in a room that size wouldn't sound

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like that that wouldn't get a laugh. So when Joe

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made his own project, he said he tried to reverse

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engineer it. By analyzing what doesn't work. It would hopefully

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become clear what to avoid and I could forge my

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path to success. I thought about my main problems with

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depictions of stand up comedy and landed on three areas,

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the setting, the audience reactions, and the material. When one

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of those doesn't come across correctly, it all goes south.

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So I had to nail all three. Among comedians, there

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might be varying opinions on the ideal setting for a

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stand up show, but most will agree that intimacy is key.

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That means close quarters, low ceilings, the audience's proximity of

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the stage and to each other. A lot of comedy

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clubs are designed with these qualities in mind. And that

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is your comedy news for two. I hope you're enjoying

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the holiday weekend. It's very very nice weather here in

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the Northeast, and hopefully everybody has an awesome three day weekend.

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I've got stuff for tomorrow and I'll see then.