Sept. 8, 2026

Stavros Halkias Drops New Netflix Special; Conan O’Brien on Adam Sandler Officiating Taylor Swift’s Wedding

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac highlights Stavros Halkias’s new Netflix special and his Vulture Maria Bamford Questionnaire answers, including refusing to return to Side Splitters’ Tampa comedy condo, wanting to live part-time in Greece, and a lacrosse-coach lesson about not quitting. Conan O’Brien recounts attending Taylor Swift’s wedding and praises Adam Sandler’s officiating. Atsuko Okatsuka shares fan interactions, says people copy her haircut, reveals she’s good at physical therapy for seniors, and lists a fantasy dinner party lineup. Kelsey Cook discusses joking about her mother’s dementia, her early dark material, and career help from Jim Norton, who also praises her character. Jeff Curie explains his evolving approach to crowd work. Omid Djalili previews his BBC Radio 4 series Namaste about stereotypes and comedy as truth. Leanne Morgan talks staying grounded, aging, and her distinct Netflix lane.

00:48 Stavros Netflix Special
01:07 Comedy Condo Horror
02:05 Greece Dream Life
02:44 Lacrosse Coach Lesson
03:32 Conan At Swift Wedding
04:25 Atsuko Fan Stories
05:17 Kelsey Cook Heartfelt Jokes
06:45 Crowd Work Craft
07:34 Omid Djalili Radio Special
08:25 Leanne Morgan Real Life

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WEBVTT

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I hate today. Today's the worst day of the year.

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It is the Tuesday after Labor Day. And boy, back

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when I used to actually have to go into an office,

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this would be the day the boss would be like, OK,

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summer's over. Let's do fall initiatives. And like just immediately

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jump from, dude, I was at the beach 16 hours ago.

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Now you want to work? No, stop. I hate today.

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We're as far from the summer in the Northeast as

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it gets. Every now and then you get like one

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last warm weekend day where you can go down the

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Jersey Shore and boy, the beaches are empty and the

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water's warm. If there's not jellyfish, it can actually be

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a pretty awesome late bonus day. But it's over. Now

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we're back and there's football and school. I've already had

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to teach my college classes. I hate today. Hi. I'm

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Johnny Mack with your daily comedy news. Stavros Alkias has

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a special out on Netflix today. He also answered some

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of the questions for the Maria Bamford questionnaire, a series

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of 25 questions designed by Maria Bamford. He showed up

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on Vulture. I did a few of them yesterday. His

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answers have been pretty funny. One of the questions, what

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place will you never return to? Now, see, if that

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was me, I would get all philosophical and be like, realistically,

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I don't know if I'm getting to Deception Island in

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Antarctica again. I loved my time at Deception Island. I

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would love to go there again. I'm just being realistic

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at my age. I don't know if I'm getting there again.

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Stavros went in a different direction. He said, the comedy

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condo provided by Sidesplitters Comedy Club in Tampa. It's bleeping disgusting.

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Here's how much that place sucks. And he had an

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extra word after sucks. Use your imagination. The headliners stay

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at a Holiday Inn instead. Nothing wrong with Holiday Inn,

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but you'd think a condo in Florida must be nice.

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But that condo, when I was an opener, this was

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probably eight or nine years ago, just feels disgusting. It's

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in a food desert. I walked on the side of

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a highway to get Hormel chili and heat it up

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and eat it with a coffee stirrer because there were

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no utensils in there. It's the kind of place where

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the carpet is dirtier than outside. So I promise you,

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no matter how bad stuff gets, I'll never return to

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that comedy condo. Stavros, if you had to move anywhere

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outside the U.S., where would you go? He said, easy, Greece, immediately.

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My goal in life is to end up in a

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place where I'm just living in Greece four months a year,

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beached up. Little shack. You know, a bunch of losers

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are pretending trad life. Like, trad is real, and they

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have all these anachronistic hot blonde ladies with large assets

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in a meadow milking a goat and stuff like that.

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Clean that up a little. That doesn't exist. I have

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trad Greek life where I go out and I fish

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and I have a little cap and my gorgeous wife

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with curly hair and huge assets fillets the fish and

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I grill it. I would chase that fake fantasy, which

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would probably be me splitting an apartment with a friend

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and we take a bus to the beach every once

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in a while, but I'm going to Greece for sure.

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His answers are fantastic. Next one. What was the best

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thing you ever learned from someone you don't like? Stavro said,

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I played lacrosse for half a season in high school

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and I effing hated it. It was too much running

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and I'd rather play video games and hang out with

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my friends. So I made up a lie to my

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lacrosse coach that my mom was forcing me to quit

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the team. I think he could tell my voice I

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was lying. And he was like, hey, man, just want

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to let you know, life is about sticking through hard stuff.

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You just can't quit when times get tough. No matter

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what's going on, we could figure it out. He's been

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real with me. He also gave me the space to

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just admit I was lying. I was like, you're right, coach.

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You're making a lot of sense. Unfortunately, my mom is

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really dead set on me quitting. But now I'm curious

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what in that story means that Stavros didn't like his coach.

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I think he didn't like lacrosse. Sounds like the coach

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was a nice guy. I will save some of those

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for tomorrow. It's probably going to be a slow news week,

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usually is this week. Conan O'Brien was humble bragging about

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being at Taylor Swift's wedding, a fancy schmancy regular guy,

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Conan O'Brien. He said Adam Sandler, who you may recall,

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officiated the wedding. I mean, just what kind of decision

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is that? Like, I'm being serious. Hey, we're getting married.

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We're going to stand before our friends, including Conan O'Brien.

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and God, and pledge ourselves to each other, and who

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should officiate this beautiful, momentous occasion here at Madison Square Garden.

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How about Adam Sandler? I mean, what is even the

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thought process there? And I'm not even dumping on Sandler,

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who I think he and I could be friends. We

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seem to dress the same, and we both like his

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dramatic acting roles. But, I mean, what are you doing? Anyway...

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Conan said Adam Sandler was brilliant and really sweet and perfection.

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And I kept bothering him because we're friends. I kept

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telling him how it's one of the finest things I've

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seen a person do. He just hit the tone. He

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was funny. He was sweet. It was perfection. The Guardian

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asked Otzko at Costco, what's been your most memorable interaction

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with a fan? She said a couple of people have

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cut their hair to look like mine. Time out. I've

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seen you live, Otzko. It's not a couple. There's a

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lot of people in the audience who show up with

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hair like yours. Asko, what are you secretly really good at?

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She said, I'm really good at physical therapy, especially for

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senior citizens. Like if my grandma's knees are hurting or

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my mom's knees are hurting, I know the right exercise

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to strengthen the muscles around there. I think it's from

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my days teaching dance fitness. I really got into dance

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fitness in junior high and studied a lot on my own.

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I was cheerleader too. Asko, if you could plan a

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fantasy dinner party of people living or dead, real or fictional,

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who's on your list? This should be interesting. She said

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Lucille Ball, Stitch from Lilo and Stitch, Charlie Chaplin. I

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want to meet Hachiko, the Akita dog that everybody in

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Japan loves because he's loyally waited for his owner at

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the same train station for years. And Paddington Bear. Kelsey

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Cook talks to the Minnesota Star Tribune about including her

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mother's dementia in her act. One of the jokes in

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this show is sometimes my mom thinks of my brother

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and I'm like, oh, I shouldn't have cut my hair.

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That doesn't get a big laugh, but she says the

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longer I do comedy, the more I want to make

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people do more than laugh. I want them to feel connected.

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Taylor Tomlinson said, Nobody works harder than Kelsey. She's one

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of the best comedians working today, and she only gets

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better and better with each new special. Husband Chad Daniels said,

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It makes me feel like I'm not doing much. I'll

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just sit down and write and rewrite. I don't have

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the concentration for that. Cook talked about her early days

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in clubs in Spokane and then Seattle and said, I

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was really dark. One of my early jokes was that

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I was driving with a friend who had hiccups and

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she told me to scare her, so I swerved into

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oncoming traffic. She's paralyzed now, but the hiccups are gone.

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That is dark. She reached out to Jim Norton, asking

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Norton to appear on her obscure podcast Norton Accepted, and

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then gave her a shot as a regular opener. She said,

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When I found out about my receptionist job, I cried

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at my desk and then put in my two-week notice,

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Jim Norton is my comedy fairy godmother. Jim said, I

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was at a fairly low point in life when Kelsey

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and I toured together, and she was a much more

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valuable friend than she probably realizes. She has the ability

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to laugh at herself as well. I missed loudly accusing

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her of stealing when we were at stores while paying

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at the register. Jim was impressed by how Kelsey Cook

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handled the rise of her buddy Taylor Tomlinson. Jim said

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there wasn't an ounce of jealousy or bitterness, just pure

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joy for the success her friend was having that says

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so much about the person she really is. Jeff Curry

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talked to NPR about doing crowd work. He said, I

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would basically cut my sets in half and then supplement

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it with crowd work. I just kind of asked the

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audience about a premise before I'd get into it, and

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I was finding there was a lot of fun to

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be found in premises from the audience's perspective. For a

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few months when I was on the road, I'd start

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the show by saying, this is kind of how it works. Like,

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I'm going to engage with you guys. I don't want

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you randomly yelling out. I was giving this little speech

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before shows, but it felt very condescending to tell them

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how to listen to me. So I stopped doing that.

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I started kind of adjusting on the fly. So if

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somebody was yelling out, I'd kind of separate them from

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the rest of the crowd. And I say, this is

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kind of what not to do. When somebody's being a

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jerk or whatever, I like to find an avenue for

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them to become someone that we clap for. Like, I'll

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have a moment where I'll be like, hey, buddy, you're

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doing good. You haven't yelled out in 20 minutes. I'm

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so proud of you. And then the audience goes, oh, wow.

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And that's how that guy got attention in a positive light.

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Homa Jalili has a new four-part stand-up special on Radio

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4 in the UK. He says comedy is one of

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the last bastions of truth. So many posts are created

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specifically to make discourse more polarized, but thankfully, comedy's one

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of the last bastions of truth. Comedians, by and large,

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wish to only entertain, inform, or elevate. Doing all three

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is a challenge, but it's a good test to set yourself.

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Such noble intentions will always yield good and juicy fruits.

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In his new special, Namaste, Jalili explores how people's lives

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can be shaped by stereotypes. He said, all too often,

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human beings think in boxes. Sometimes we have narrow frames

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of reference, so we can't really compute what has actually

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happened and how to react to it. Stereotypes are broad-stroke

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frames of reference to make us understand the world. Namaste

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begins September 10th at 6.30 on BBC Radio 4. Episodes

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also available on BBC Sounds. Leanne Morgan sounds pretty down-to-earth.

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She says, I still love to wash clothes. I love

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going to the grocery store. I love a Costco run.

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I even do that on the road sometimes, which is crazy.

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And I try to cram stuff in a suitcase. Not

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sure if she's talking about herself or my wife. I

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think they would really get along. My wife loves her show.

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Leanne said, I really am doing the same thing I've

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always done. I'm driving an older car. I think about

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grandbaby toys. That sets me on fire. I do get

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to stay in nicer hotels. I get to do that now.

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I'm very lucky, and I think I'm in a lane

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by myself. They tell me that all the time at Netflix.

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There's nobody like me talking about the things I'm talking about.

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Talked about getting older. When I turned 40, I cried

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all day. Don't even know why, because the next day

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I was fine. When I turned 50, that scared me

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to death. But then it was the most freeing decade

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of my life. A wonderful decade. And then 60 was,

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that was a booger. I felt like, okay, am I

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a senior? I do think that it's now the new 40.

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I really feel that way. I think women are going

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and doing and feel good and feel pretty and taking

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care of themselves. It's not like when my little grandma

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was in a house dress killing a chicken out in

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the yard and then frying it in front of me.

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She was a farm woman. She looked 100 when she

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was 50. But nobody looks like that now at her age.

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And that is your comedy news for today. Summer is over.

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I'm depressed. Dang it. I like my summers. I'll get

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over it. It's not even volleyball tomorrow. Volleyball's over. Now

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we're back to being a trivia team. And we'll see

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the trivia guys. Hi, trivia guys. And have a beer

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or two. And then you don't sleep well. And it's

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a whole cycle. See you tomorrow.