Callaroga Shark Media. Hello, I'm Johnny Mack with your daily comedy news.
Neil Brennan will have a new special on April ninth, Netflix. Neil is
absolutely in ascendency. His podcast is really good. Each special is better than
the last. He's gotten out of being like me having to qualify Neil Brennan.
You know the guy from Chappelle Schell. He's just Neil Brennan now,
and probably by the end of the year we'll be right at the top of
the comedy game. Definitely in acendency, Neil told The Hollywood Reporter. If
you're watching this special because you saw my other Netflix specials and I talked about
having depression and you wanted to support a fellow traveler, I have some terrible
news. I feel pretty great. He spends a healthy portion of crazy.
Good is the name of a special joking about the perks of bad mental health.
The Hollywood Reporter said, Before I got a chance to screen your new
special, I found a thread on Reddit where people had seen it started weighing
in. Neil goes uh oh. Holly reporter said, Now I bring it
up because I was struck by this one comment to who wrote his material was
outstanding, probably the best I've ever seen him do. I'm really curious how
it translates to a special, and I was fan base reacts because some people
definitely see him as the mental health guy. That's an idea you play with.
Right at the top of the special, Neil said, and I'll tell
you why I did. I did the show in DC last summer. I
just came out and started talking, and a guy DM me after the show
and said, I brought my girlfriend. It was my birthday. We'd bought
tickets for the front row, and I just kept waiting for you to show
up, and I knew it was going to happen something like that. I
always want to do a bit about the kind of heckles I get, which
are like, be sadder, So I put that at the beginning. I'm
like, if you want me to be sad, I'm sorry, I'm not
sad. That sort of covered it, and weirdly it made the whole show
better. It was a good note from the guy. I've been feeling pretty
good for a couple of years, to the point where when I did blocks
the previous special, I had to kind of tap into the old feeling.
So this was a new feeling of optimism, or at least accepting that bad
mental health can be good, or whatever we consider bad mental health has propelled
most of civilization. Of course, you could argue that isn't My mental health
got better, my comedy got better. So I'm saying one thing and maybe
exhibiting another. But I wasn't going to present to be sad when I wasn't.
And I'm not saying don't go to therapy. I'm just saying, like,
don't want certain people to have a good work life balance. I don't
want like the head of Homeland Security to take up photography or poetry. You
know what I mean, do your job all the time, be obsessed with
it. Neil says. The other big thing is this idea about who our
cultural and civilizational leaders are now, and how it feels like comedians are because
everybody else is completely failed. There's obviously lying religion, corrupts religious organizations,
corrupt political leaders, corrupt corporate leaders, corrupt civic leaders, media, everyone's
in somebody's pocket, and it seems like comedians are the only ones incentivized to
be honest. But then there's this weird thing because now we're the moral leaders,
and we're like what I almost called the special What are the clowns think?
Why is it up to Chappelle and Brogan and Ellen and Kevin Hart and
Shane Gillis Andrew Schultz? Why are these people now moral leaders when that's not
the job. I understand how we got here, but I think it's a
silly expectation. This is really interesting. Neil says, I'm in this weird
place where I'm not famous enough to get substantially canceled, Like I'm not going
to get a job and lose it the way Shane Gillis did, which again
became his propulsion. It's quote Bill Burr, what are they gonna do?
Take away my podcast? Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas takes bribes. Why you're
worried about what Kevin said in his monolog or what Bill said or whatever?
Or junts do it's not allowed to say that. Biden's old? Do you
not understand what comedy is? But whenever people talk about Dave or Joe being
canceled, I just think they're doing arenas. Shane just did the Chicago Theater
five times. It's eighteen thousand tickets. The thing about being canceled is you're
basically just getting free promo Alabama dot Com. Al dot Com asked Marlon Wayans
about his friendship with Tupac Shakur. Marlon said, Pac and I were very
similar in that we were two poor kids that were lucky enough to go to
performing arts high school. So there's an ecotomy there because, yeah, you
grew up in the hood, we also appreciate the arts, and you're lucky
enough to have this outlet and it kind of saves your life in a sense.
Everybody knew him as this gangster. I knew him as very intelligent philosopher,
extremely well read, really great at poetry. Just one of those multi
talented people, and he was funny. If you ever sat in a room
with Pac, you laughed. Famous comedy series The Bear on FX. You
know, the hilarious The Bear. I like that show a lot, but
I can't believe they keep entering it in Best Comedy. The voters go,
yeah, that's a comedy. It's not. It's great, but it's not
a comedy. Source is confirmed to The hollyd Reporter that The Bear has been
renewed for a fourth season. They're going to film seasons three and four back
to back to accommodate everyone's schedule. Netflix has revealed that Brian Simpson Live from
the Mothership is out today, directed by Baron Vaughan and is filmed at Joe
Rogan's comedy Mothership. In the special, Brian Simpson covers everything from racism and
gun violence to in vitro fertilization and masculinity. Brian was named a new face
at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in twenty twenty one. Has got bumped
from last week for reasons, I explained. On Saturday, Jim Brewer was
playing Northeast Pennsylvania. He was excited about. He said he'd been there a
bunch. That's how I remember the first time I played there. It was
with Ralphie May. This touches me because I know Jim are really well and
I knew Ralphie pretty well. They asked Jim to look back on his career,
which includes Saturday Night Live and Half Baked, and Jim said, I
would say my favorite moments are the most fun times, not so much the
monuments. Whenever I got a chance to do a thing with a rock star,
like the lead singer of a CDC. Brian Johnson, go on stage
at Madison Square Garden and sing a song with Billy Joel or tour with Metallica.
Those things are way more exciting to me than any TV or film or
anything like that. They asked me to open up their shows, to basically
set the mood and create an atmosphere, and do it however I wanted.
It was the greatest thing. Ever, the fact that I got paid is
almost silly. In a recent Instagram live video, Monique revealed that Cat Williams
had been looking out for comedian a Vett Wilson before she passed away in twenty
twelve, losing a battle with stage four cervical cancer and kidney disease. Wuik
said, I want to say this about our brother, Cat Williams. Throughout
the years, ID always hear things like, all right, he won't show
up with the shows. He ain't this, he ain't that. That's one
of the purest cats in the game. A friend had started an online fundraiser
for twenty five thousand dollars for the actress. The website only reached fifty six
percent of the twenty five Atlanta Blackstar reported the Cat donated twelve thousand dollars to
the cause. Monique said, there was a woman named Vette Wilson who played
Adella on The Parkers, and it was a man named Cat Williams who just
stepped in and took care of that sister until she left this earth. Hey,
remember that recent Willy Wonka disaster thing. While a new musical is coming
out, Willy Fest, a musical parody, will take inspiration from the Scottish
event that went awry. You may recall the event was billed as an immersive
experience. The organizers used AI generated photos to track customers, who, upon
arriving, found themselves on a drab warehouse. Customers compared the event to a
meth lab. Actor Paul Connell, who was among three actors hired to play
Willy Wonka, said he had been sent to script that was fifteen pages of
AI generated gibberish of me just monologuing mad things. The musical will be a
b horror movie inspired by the event, The creator said. Imagine if Edwood
and p. T. Bornham got into environmental experiences fueled by a million dreams
and zero dollars, it might turn out like this. While mostly nothing but
wreckage and a disaster of this magnitude, we think it screams out musical.
The Guardian has seen the new documentary Remembering Gene Wilder. They write, generations
of viewers got to know Gene Wilder as Willy Wan Blanka, and the new
documentary argues that's the goodest place as any to start. Were transported back to
the fond memories of the candy Man's immortal introduction. He hobbles out to meet
his adoring public with cane in hand, staggers a bit, starts to stumble,
then somerselts himself into a sprightly upright stance. Like so many of Gen
Wilder's finest moments, it was surprised to his scene partners, proving his nimble
versatility as a performer. He could mind humor from tension, aggravation or anxiety,
but his desire to keep the public on their toes always gave way to
a welcoming friendliness in his art, as in his life. With his mother's
hard condition, he had to make her laugh instead of making her angry.
Wild they grew up another premise that comedy and pain were close cousins, evident
in the development of screen persona constantly teetering on the brink of a breakdown.
The director says he was good, as though, why is this happening to
me? Guy? While there is dynamic with co star Clevon Little and Blazing
Saddles pointed to his next partnership, that one with Richard Pryor. For Blazing
Saddles, the executives at Warner's had declared Richard uninsurable and insist that on a
replacement. Over the course of four films together, Wilder and Prior would forge
a close bond, even though Prior struggled with addictions that often threw wrenches into
the production process. Wilder's final film with Prior was called Another You, was
also his final film appearance. He did a short lived sitcom called Something Wilder
and a two episode stint on Will and Grace I Don't Remember Something Wilder.
Something Wilder ran on NBC from October first, ninety four to June thirteenth of
ninety five. A fifty something husband, Gene Bergmann played by Wilder, and
his wife Annie, who's in her thirties, are learning to cope with raising
their four year old fraternal twin sons. Eighteen episodes three never aired. Alice
Cooper guest starred in the fourteenth episode, which was titled Hanging with Mister Cooper.
Gene unexpectedly finds himself cast on a TV appearance promoting Cooper's new hit single,
Marlon Maples. She was married to somebody famous one point. Guest starred
on the episode Love Native American Style. I have no memory whatsoever of this,
but it was nineteen ninety four and I was hanging out, the director
says. When we talk to Alan Alda, he shared a story about worrying
before one of the films he directed came out what the critics might say.
He was commiserating with Gene, who told Alan Alda, what difference does it
make if they pay the film? So? What big deal you made it?
It's finished, it's over. Be proud of it. Gan knew how
to live life well, remembering Gene Wilder is in theaters now. And that
is your comedy news for today. If you enjoy the program and tell a
friend about it, they might like it too. See tomorrow