Oct. 11, 2024

Saturday Night movie - which parts are true?

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac discusses the wide release of 'The Saturday Night Movie,' detailing the dramatic behind-the-scenes moments leading up to the first episode of SNL. Spoilers include rumored incidents featuring comedians like Milton Berle and John Belushi. Brian Regan shares his comedic evolution and new project endeavors. David Cross and David Spade talk about their current creative projects, while Eugene Merman reminisces about his comedy festival. Langston Kerman shares a humorous mushroom experience with Sam Jay. Comedy fans are encouraged to share and tune in for more comedic insights.

00:11 The Saturday Night Movie: Behind the Scenes
00:48 SNL Spoilers and True Stories
04:22 Brian Regan's Stand-Up Evolution
05:28 David Cross and His Podcast Journey
06:05 Upcoming Comedy Specials
06:27 Eugene Merman Comedy Festival Origins
06:56 Langston Kerman's Mushroom Adventure

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

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The Saturday Night Movie has been in limited release until now.

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Today it goes into wide release. The film tells the

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tale of the ninety minutes leading up to the very

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first episode of Saturday Night Live, then titled NBC's Saturday Night. Yeah,

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there was a Howard Cosell show called Saturday Night Live.

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This happened October eleventh, nineteen seventy five. Young producer Lauren

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Michaels races against the clock to put together a live show.

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Director and co writer Jason Reiman interviewed lots of past

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and president SNL staffers and research written accounts of these

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sketch shows opening night. Of course, it's a movie, so

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we had to take some dramatic license. Entertainment Weekly looked

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at the true stories. Okay, some spoilers here, but you know,

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the show's been around for almost fifty years, so you

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had a minute. But if you don't want me to

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ruin the movie, I don't know, skip ahead five minutes

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maybe because I'm going to tell you a couple of

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stories here. Boiler is a coming spoiler. Number one, did

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Milton Burrell really flash Chevy Chase. E W says there's

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no record that Milton Burle was lurking around SNL in

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premier Night or that he flashed Chevy. However, it was

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widely rumored that Uncle Milty had you know, big charisma

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and liked to show it off. Nudge nudge, wink wink.

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In the SNL Oral History book Live from New York,

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writer Alan's Wybell said he was flashed in Burl's dressing

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room when Milton hosted in nineteen seventy nine. Chevy had

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left the show by then. Spoiler number two was Louren Michaels,

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the original host of Weekend Update before turning it over

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to Chevy. E W tells us in lesser known SNL lore,

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Michaels has said he was actually planning to anchor an

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early ineration of Weekend Update, but he didn't hand over

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to Chase minutes before the show. It happened before Chase

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was even on the cast. Michael still Deadline in twenty fourteen.

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I'd done the equivalent of Weekend Update in Canada, but

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as we got closer to the air show, I began

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to realize that I didn't think I could be the

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person who cut other people's pieces and left my own inn.

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Spoiler number three three, did Garrett Morris sing a song

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about killing white He's at soundcheck? E W tells us.

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Although there are no stories about Garrett Morris singing at

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the show's first sound check, he did perform the song

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for the movie on SNL in the first season, episode

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eleven featured this song. Next spoiler was Jenny Carson openly

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hostile to SNL, he W tells us, contrary to the

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film's portrayal of Carson rooting for the show's demise. SNL

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was created as a solution to the host insisting NBC

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stop airing reruns of The Tonight Show on weekends so

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he could cut his talk show down from four days

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a week to three days a week and air repeats

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on the remaining weeknights. Per the book Live from New York,

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Carson was skeptical of the show and later openly appalled

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by some of its more outrageous gags, but did not

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make a threatening phone call to Lorne. Michael's Lorn regularly

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invited Carson a guest host, but Johnny never appeared. Next

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boiler was NBC prepared to air a Tonight Show rerun

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in case SNL wasn't ready. E W tells us, actually

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it was Lorne who wanted a backup plan, but not

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of the tonight show. Associate producer Craig Killum remembered in

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Live from New York, we almost didn't get on the

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air because dress rehearsal went so poorly. I remember Lauren

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seriously asking the network people, or having me ask them

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to have a movie ready to go just in case.

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Then I don't think he was kidding. Next spoiler, did

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John Belushi he refuse to sign his contract until moments

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before the show went live. A W tells us Belushi

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was indeed without a contract until moments before starring in

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the cold open. Apparently John signed it five minutes before air.

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That's wonderful. That may do one more. Did Chevy and

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Belushi get into a physical fight backstage? He W says,

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similar to the film Chase was involved in a FIS fight,

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but now with Belushi, it actually involved Bill Murray. Bill

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Murray said in the Live from New York book, I

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got into a fight with Chevy the night he came

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back to host in nineteen seventy eight. Bill didn't join

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SNL until season two it was almost like I was

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goaded into it. You know, I think everybody was hoping

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for it. I did sense that. I think they resented

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Chevy for leaving for one thing. They resented him for

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taking a big piece of the success and leaving it

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and make his own career go. Everybody else was from

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the improv world, where you didn't make it about you.

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You were an ensemble, you were company. So when he left,

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there was resentment about that. It was a shock. Chase

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put most of the blame on Belushi in the same book,

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Chase said, in a sense, John caused that fight with

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Billy because we both ended up hitting John by mistake.

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Billy came after me and tried to throw me off

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a little bit just before I was going on air. Ultimately,

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Billy's still Billy and I'm still me. But it didn't

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phaze me for the show. I was sure was upset,

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But I noticed John when I was going into Billy's

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dressing room, and John was like the cheshire Cats, sitting

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in there like mission accomplished. Brian Reagan used to have

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a bit of a dem guy persona in his stand

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up and said, for a long time, I did feeling

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inferior fantasies on stage, like you say the dumb guy.

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Reagan told the Burlington Free Press it was comedy from

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a perspective of a person who doesn't want to put

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his foot in his mouth or feel inadequate in certain

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social situations. My brain is bigger than that dumb guy persona.

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I enjoy thinking about a lot of different things. It's

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fun to share a comedic point of view that's more

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observational in nature than biographical. But I still do a

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little bit of everything. I like ancient civilizations, and I

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make a joke about Stonehenge, and I have jokes about

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space exploration, things that I think might surprise people that

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are familiar with my old work. It's very funny stuff.

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He's been acting a little bit. He says things are good.

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That doesn't mean at some point I won't want to

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get off the ride. I've been thrilled to be a

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stand up comedian for my whole adult life. It'd be

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nice to experiment with some other ways of being creative.

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He's working on an idea for a talk show where

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he would be on stage but would produce behind the scenes.

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He calls it a talk show with a twist. He's

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also working on a Christmas production. He didn't want to

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talk about that in detail, and said it's a Christmas

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idea with a twist. These are things that people might

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not expect from stand up comedian Brian Reagan. David Cross

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has a podcast called Senses Working Overtime. Cross says, I've

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started branching off to people I don't know, and for me,

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the whole way I presented it is I'm just gonna

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have a conversation. It should be similar to I met

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you at a bar in a strange town I haven't

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been in, and start a conversation with the person next

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to me. That's how I approach it. Obviously, a bunch

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of these people if I'm not fully aware of them.

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I know, at least your comics we have that to

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talk about. But I've had a lot of people on

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the show that I didn't know before I met them

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when they walked in the room. I wouldn't be doing

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the podcast if I didn't enjoy it. It certainly doesn't

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pay anything. No, really it doesn't. Maybe it would if

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I roge it up a little bit. We need more

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conspiracy theories, Half asked conspiracy theories would increase my paycheck.

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David Spade is taping a special tonight at the Paramount

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Theater in Denver. Stephen Rodgers will tape his a special.

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He's got a little bit of Mark Norman in him.

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Stephen has teamed up with Nate Bergatzy's Nateland Entertainment. Stephen Rodgers,

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the Syracuse at raised comedian now based in New York City.

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He'll record his show tonights and tomorrow at the Comedy

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Fort in Fort Collins, Colorado. WPR spoke to Eugene Merman.

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They were curious about the origins of the Eugene Merman

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Comedy Festival. Merman said, I did a weekly show in

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Brooklyn with my friend Julie Smith Klem. There was an

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event that made me joke with her and Mike bro

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Bigley at the time that I was going to do

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a Eugene Merman Comedy Festival, but that I wouldn't do

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it because I wasn't a known comic. It was particularly

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ludicrous to suggest, But then I thought we should do

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it because it would be really silly. It was really fun.

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So sometime we decided to do a second one, and

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then that grew in doing a decade of these very

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silly shows. Vaulter asked Langston Kerman, Hey, you tell a

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story in your special about the day you spent with

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your friends high and mushrooms at the park. I know

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your friends with Sam Jay, who also has a story

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in her last special about doing mushrooms with her friends

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at the park? Are those the same day? Likeston said,

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Same day, Sam got really excited about watching the white

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people dance because they had set up a DJ booth randomly,

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and it then became this weird war between them and

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the other people would try and have a baby shower,

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were very put off by the music, and she was

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getting very angry at the fact that these white people

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had finally found their freedom dancing peacefully in the park

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were being told by a richer class of people that

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they needed to shut it down, and that became the

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inspiration for her story. Then, after Sam sat there watching

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this war happen for an hour and a half, we

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wanted to the ballpark and I lost my mind watching

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a man play softball poorly. It was great. And that's

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your comedy news for today. If you enjoy the program

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and tell a friend about it, they might like it too.

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And i'll see you tomorrow.