Speaker 1: Callaroga Shark Media.
Speaker 2: Happy to hear. I'm Johnny Mack with your Daily Comedy News. Recently,
Speaker 2: I was a guest on The Letterman podcast with Mike Chisholm.
Speaker 2: We talked about all kinds of things comedy and asked Mike, hey,
Speaker 2: can I repurpose the interview for my show so I
Speaker 2: can take January first off? And Mike said sure. So
Speaker 2: today is a long one. I just want to get
Speaker 2: in front of something. The hosting company I use, I
Speaker 2: have to place a commercial break every twenty minutes or
Speaker 2: one will be automatically inserted, all right, And this entire
Speaker 2: thing raw was about an hour and twenty minute, so
Speaker 2: this is probably the longest episode of Daily Comedy News ever.
Speaker 2: But when you get around all the fourth commercial break
Speaker 2: and you're like, John, what the heck?
Speaker 1: Man?
Speaker 2: If I don't put a marker, it's going to get
Speaker 2: dropped in mid sentence. So at least I'm placing the
Speaker 2: commercials an hour and twenty of stuff today, with more
Speaker 2: commercials than you get in a ten minute episode, So
Speaker 2: I hope you can understand all that. Anyway, here's my
Speaker 2: wonderful conversation with Mike Chisholm.
Speaker 1: John when I'm so glad that every once in a while,
Speaker 1: when something happens in comedy, you'll just throw an email
Speaker 1: out to me and it's, oh, yes, John and I
Speaker 1: got to connect, and it feels like two comic books
Speaker 1: doing the crossover thing when we do this. I'm so
Speaker 1: glad that you're back on the show. So much to
Speaker 1: talk about in the world of comedy, in the world
Speaker 1: of Late Night, in the world of Letterman. Lots of
Speaker 1: stuff this week, even when it comes to David Letterman,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming back on the show.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate this, and I'm just looking forward to
Speaker 1: just conversing with you, my friend.
Speaker 2: Now, happy to be here. I'll tell you when you
Speaker 2: just sent me the link. My podcast, Daily Company News
Speaker 2: is just audio, so you've got the high pressure of video.
Speaker 2: So I'm like, oh, let me check my hair now.
Speaker 2: I've got the David Letterman Gulf of Mexico thing that
Speaker 2: he had in the eighties, so I got to make
Speaker 2: sure I moose it up otherwise I have that thing going.
Speaker 2: So I have that in common with Dave, but it
Speaker 2: hit him about twenty years earlier that it's hit me.
Speaker 1: The hair piece is securely in place. It looks fantastic.
Speaker 1: You're doing very well, sir.
Speaker 2: There are days William Shatner and I have the same
Speaker 2: hair minus natural, but his current piece looks pretty good.
Speaker 1: Good Canadian boy, William Shatner. One of the secrets that
Speaker 1: he said to life. People always ask him because he's
Speaker 1: like freakishly elderly compared to how he looks. And don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong, I want to I don't want to
Speaker 1: be an ageist or anything like that. But he looks
Speaker 1: fantastic for his age, and somebody frequently has that. He's
Speaker 1: been asked how he looks so good, and he says,
Speaker 1: every single year he puts five pounds on and that
Speaker 1: was his because I think the five pounds smooth out
Speaker 1: some of the things that would be wrinkles otherwise. But
Speaker 1: now this is great. How's Daily Comedy News Go? I
Speaker 1: love your podcast. I cannot endorse it enough for those
Speaker 1: of us out there who love this thing called comedy.
Speaker 1: The Daily Comedy News podcast is fantastic. It's a nice
Speaker 1: little bite where every day you get caught up with
Speaker 1: what's going on in the world. There's lots of little
Speaker 1: inside jokes if you listen to it along the way,
Speaker 1: like Letterman, there's ongoing little jokes that that you put
Speaker 1: into this thing. It is such a great show. How's
Speaker 1: it going for you have fourteen hundred episodes in something
Speaker 1: like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it probably five years or so. I feel like
Speaker 2: it's really in a groove that I have my creative
Speaker 2: voice and where I want the show to be. The
Speaker 2: show comes out to the same length every day without
Speaker 2: me checking the clock. It's got a rhythm. In the
Speaker 2: A block, I do people you've heard of Chris Rock,
Speaker 2: and then then take a break and in the back
Speaker 2: end do a little more esoteric stuff. Like you said,
Speaker 2: there's in jokes. We have a joke that's a year
Speaker 2: old now about Joe Coy, which my tailor's hired. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the Taylor Swift joke. So, just to catch everybody up,
Speaker 2: if you saw the Gold Globes last year, Joe Coy
Speaker 2: made a joke about Taylor Swift, and I've just turned
Speaker 2: it into a recurring gag. I'll set it up and
Speaker 2: the audience knows it's coming, and I'll be like, you know,
Speaker 2: I don't know if you remember this one time Joe
Speaker 2: Coy made this joke about Taylor Swift. Yeah, let's listen.
Speaker 2: To it, and I had some audience members are like,
Speaker 2: will you stop, and other people areud on the joke.
Speaker 2: I actually have the jokes shaved down to it's four seconds,
Speaker 2: but the four seconds sounds like an eternity because I've
Speaker 2: played it ninety times out of the last three sixty five.
Speaker 2: But it's a good recurring bit. I like that kind
Speaker 2: of stuff. It's silly, very much a Letterman. From the beginning.
Speaker 2: He always had these sort of things, and even up
Speaker 2: to the very end.
Speaker 1: Somebody was I saw somebody commenting on one of Dave's
Speaker 1: most recent it was either the YouTube, I think it
Speaker 1: was the on the YouTube, and he was talking about
Speaker 1: Letterman and drummers. And when you watch the end of
Speaker 1: Late Show, the run of the Late Sha the last
Speaker 1: few years, every other musical performance, as he would come
Speaker 1: out and thank the band after they were done, he
Speaker 1: would look at the drummer and say, hey, a, these
Speaker 1: are your drums. And it was just this thing that
Speaker 1: just kept going on and on, and people who I
Speaker 1: get people who ask me, hey, what's up with the
Speaker 1: drum thing? And it's like that, And there's so much
Speaker 1: of his humor that has permeated everything that gets done
Speaker 1: right now, And a lot of people have talked about
Speaker 1: the idea that, oh, it's going to be lost, it
Speaker 1: won't be credited back to Letterman. Maybe not so fast?
Speaker 1: See what I did there? See what I did there?
Speaker 1: With the not so fast, I almost missed it.
Speaker 2: I'm glad you said did you see what I did there?
Speaker 1: That's, by the way, should be stricken from the record completely.
Speaker 1: Did you see what I did there? Is one of
Speaker 1: those phrases that I think has been used enough that
Speaker 1: probably needs to be strict from the English language. Letterman
Speaker 1: launched a fast channel this week, and I thought that
Speaker 1: was really exciting news for me. I don't know, what
Speaker 1: did you have? You covered that on the show already?
Speaker 2: I heard it there yet it depends when we air this.
Speaker 2: Ah as we record this, No, but by the time
Speaker 2: people hear this, probably yes, travel So I'll just explain that.
Speaker 2: Production wise, I tend to record the weekends in advance,
Speaker 2: and I think this story appears on a Sunday episode.
Speaker 1: Gotcha.
Speaker 2: Look, I deal the audience straight. I don't do this
Speaker 2: seven days a week. I do it four days a week.
Speaker 2: And it's pretty predictable, and there are predictable events in
Speaker 2: comedy like Netflix specials come out every Tuesday or when
Speaker 2: he is New Year's Eve this year, so you can
Speaker 2: pre tape some of these. And as as a creator,
Speaker 2: if something I don't want to jinx anybody, but if
Speaker 2: somebody of note passes away, I run down to the basement,
Speaker 2: I put out a bonus episode.
Speaker 1: And it's appreciated. How you do it, I love it.
Speaker 1: And it's a predictably unpredictable when it comes to that,
Speaker 1: because it does stay spontaneous with the time. It's just
Speaker 1: like Letterman's YouTube channel. You can expect a clip every day.
Speaker 1: Sometimes those clips will be timed perfectly, like for example,
Speaker 1: when Wicked opened. Here's the clip from when the cast
Speaker 1: of Wicked showed up and did a number at the
Speaker 1: Ed Sullivant Theater. And then sometimes it's just something that's
Speaker 1: funny from the show, and sometimes it is an extra
Speaker 1: clip comes out when somebody has passed away. And it's
Speaker 1: interesting how the folks who run Letterman's digital wing of
Speaker 1: Worldwide Pants really at the end of the day part
Speaker 1: of their job Walter and his team is obituaries. And
Speaker 1: you have that mantle as well, where the guard is changing.
Speaker 1: I think we talked about maybe we talked about this
Speaker 1: last time with Newhart. I know we did off camera. Anyway,
Speaker 1: when some of these people are passing away, it's up
Speaker 1: to you to comment on it based on the brand
Speaker 1: that you're building.
Speaker 2: I'm talking about the changing of the guard, and this
Speaker 2: tees me up perfectly because I did want to talk
Speaker 2: about Jay Leno. So when Jay had his eepatch incidents. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I teach college class and I was asking the students
Speaker 2: and just talking about Jay Leno and one of my
Speaker 2: favorite students he sits in the front row. He asks
Speaker 2: who's Jay Leno? And I looked at him and I said,
Speaker 2: you just murdered me. And I stopped and I'm like,
Speaker 2: how do I explain to Jay Leno? Is he hosted
Speaker 2: the Tonight show before Jimmy Fallon? Was my best answer,
Speaker 2: So that brings me to it was just in the news,
Speaker 2: Lena was talking about why he stays in Hampton Inns
Speaker 2: and what went down, and he was pretty funny about it,
Speaker 2: explaining this was on Spike Thurston's podcast, and Jay was
Speaker 2: explaining that no, the mafia didn't come to Pennsylvania to
Speaker 2: find him and throw him down a hill, which once
Speaker 2: he pointed it out. I'm like, yeah, you probably if
Speaker 2: they wanted to get to him, they could get to
Speaker 2: him in LA he's around. But I was thinking about this,
Speaker 2: so here you have a college student. It was no
Speaker 2: idea who Jay Leno is.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Jay doesn't have the most generic face the way say
Speaker 2: is Steve. If Stephen Colbert took off his glasses and
Speaker 2: passed me in the airport, I might not recognize him.
Speaker 2: Jay has more of a character's face, definitely. But that said,
Speaker 2: if he checks into a Hampton in at one am
Speaker 2: in nowhere, Pennsylvania, there's a pretty decent chance that the
Speaker 2: person working is young and just goes, mister Lenno, you're
Speaker 2: in room three thirty two, and he could probably check
Speaker 2: in as Jay Leno.
Speaker 1: Yep, absolutely, it's We just did an episode. Actually, I
Speaker 1: still got it on the desk here. We just did
Speaker 1: a review episode. A couple we talk about Carson the
Speaker 1: Magnificent because the Zemi book just came out after all
Speaker 1: that time, and we've been talking about Johnny Carson, and
Speaker 1: it's funny. It's almost like there's not a day that
Speaker 1: goes by where I'm like, you know what, why we
Speaker 1: do this show. One of the reasons we do the
Speaker 1: show is because people are forgeting who Johnny Carson was
Speaker 1: and he was the biggest star in the world, and
Speaker 1: people look at me so quizzically. And even two years
Speaker 1: later after starting Letterman podcast, people will say to me
Speaker 1: sometimes they know I'm a financial planner by trade, and
Speaker 1: they'll be, oh, yeah, but he's got two podcasts too,
Speaker 1: and they'll be like, oh, what kind of podcast do
Speaker 1: you host? And I'm like, yeah, I host Amend's mental
Speaker 1: wellness podcast and the other one. And I ask this
Speaker 1: question now, I never used to do you know who
Speaker 1: David Letterman is? Wow? And to me, that is absolutely
Speaker 1: baffling that I have to ask that question. And even
Speaker 1: more baffling are the answers I get back, because even
Speaker 1: it happened to me yesterday. Yeah, that's I'm like, you
Speaker 1: know who? And I do the exact same thing that
Speaker 1: you do. And I don't even lead with Colbert. I say,
Speaker 1: do you know who Jimmy Fallon is? Because I feel
Speaker 1: that he's the one that that of all the late
Speaker 1: night hosts, I believe he's the one that speaks to
Speaker 1: the youngest demo at this point than any of them,
Speaker 1: even more than Taylor. I think even and oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I know Fallon Is. I said, okay, he has the
Speaker 1: Tonight Show, right, Letterman's one of those guys. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what that is baffling to me. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, I believe that the Worldwide Pants they're in
Speaker 1: a they're in legacy mode in some respects. They're combating
Speaker 1: that by creating this fast channel. I'm really excited about
Speaker 1: the fact if you're a Samsung TV owner you can
Speaker 1: go to Samsung TV Plus and I think it's channel
Speaker 1: one thousand. Yep is all Letterman all the time. It
Speaker 1: seems to be curated. I'm trying to get some answers
Speaker 1: to see exactly what the hunks are going to look
Speaker 1: like when the hunks are going to change. It seems
Speaker 1: like most of the stuff on there right now is holidays,
Speaker 1: and I don't know how that's going to go. But
Speaker 1: it's very cool that we have an opportunity, probably for
Speaker 1: the first time because Cavot and Carson and what Memurve Griffin,
Speaker 1: which has been focused on Murk Griffin the last couple
Speaker 1: of weeks here, a lot of their catalogs are inaccessible
Speaker 1: or completely erase. They're gone. Here, we have Letterman who
Speaker 1: owns all of his own stuff, and they're gonna put
Speaker 1: it out there. It's going to be very interesting to
Speaker 1: see how much of this new generation, who is a
Speaker 1: throwback generation, attach themselves and rediscovered Dave's comedy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I put it on during halftime of Thursday Night
Speaker 2: Football and they were doing chunks of either petricks or
Speaker 2: human tricks, and that they seem to be programmed in
Speaker 2: on a half hour blocks of compilations of that. And
Speaker 2: I have a Samsung TV. I rarely use the fast channels,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure I will now more, both because my
Speaker 2: provider just raised their hikes, their hike their prices, and
Speaker 2: a Letterman channel. But as I was looking at it,
Speaker 2: same thing I talked about last time I was on.
Speaker 2: Some of the clips were nineteen eighty for my Dave
Speaker 2: and some were older Late Show Dave, and some spoke
Speaker 2: to me and some didn't. But it's interesting how do
Speaker 2: you curate that thirty year career and are things like
Speaker 2: Netflix part of it? And there's the Late Night said
Speaker 2: stability and other than the first year and a half,
Speaker 2: the Late Show, grown up mature Dave sensibility, and they
Speaker 2: don't always mix too well.
Speaker 1: No, and it's funny. Let's throw Don Giller's channel into
Speaker 1: this as a because he, in my opinion, has a
Speaker 1: very unique voice, and how he decided to take his
Speaker 1: massive collection and assemble it and give it to us,
Speaker 1: and the idea again, I went through MERV Griffin's compilation
Speaker 1: not too long ago because it was boning up for
Speaker 1: the episode will be focused on him, and you look
Speaker 1: at Don Giller and how he would take chunks of
Speaker 1: one particular topic or guest and then go from the
Speaker 1: entire run, some of which being like mervh for example,
Speaker 1: that David Letterman show. The Morning Show was Mrv's first
Speaker 1: appearance all the way up to irv's last appearance on
Speaker 1: Late Show shortly fairly close to his passing. And you
Speaker 1: got to see if you watch the whole thing, you
Speaker 1: get to see the evolution of things, and that is
Speaker 1: a to me, that's a beautiful progression. And there's links there,
Speaker 1: but yeah, you're right, it's jarring when you see one
Speaker 1: clip from eighty four. Maybe something isoteric versus something that
Speaker 1: is created more for the masses, more pop music for
Speaker 1: the masses. And Late Show certainly didn't go as far
Speaker 1: as Leno did when it came to that, but he
Speaker 1: really did change the sensibility. Yeah, it's gonna be interesting
Speaker 1: mixing it that way.
Speaker 2: I'm excited for the channel. I'm sure you recall there
Speaker 2: was it used to be a cable channel called Trio,
Speaker 2: and Trio at some point, was this the nineties or
Speaker 2: early aughts dusted off the late night shows and I
Speaker 2: think they were running them at ten pm Eastern And yeah,
Speaker 2: I would have had a tvo that now I'm dusting
Speaker 2: it off so early o its probably And I was like, wait,
Speaker 2: I can just watch nineteen eighty three Letterman episodes. This
Speaker 2: was amazing and I took them all in So I
Speaker 2: like that. It's there the random factor of if I
Speaker 2: tune in and I'm not into this, guest, it's a
Speaker 2: little throwback. We're here in the age of on demand
Speaker 2: and streaming so af fast channels, a little bit retro.
Speaker 2: But how great that all this content will be surfacing again.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm really excited for it, and I hope that
Speaker 1: I hope that the people who love this thing that
Speaker 1: we love so much, which is comedy, I hope that
Speaker 1: a lot of these people will dive into this and
Speaker 1: take a look at some of the architects of what
Speaker 1: we have that is mainstay right now, Dave being and
Speaker 1: the writers of course, and all the producers like it.
Speaker 1: Dave is the first to say that it wasn't just him.
Speaker 1: He was a tip of the spear, but the support
Speaker 1: system and the team that he assembled behind him, how
Speaker 1: they changed comedy. They really did. And yeah, so it's
Speaker 1: great to see that love. I hope that we can
Speaker 1: see more of some of this old content that we
Speaker 1: might not have seen before and it gets utilized. But
Speaker 1: it's so difficult because of the red tape that exists.
Speaker 1: Right How many of these things that we loved so
Speaker 1: much have changed hands from a rights perspective because this
Speaker 1: conglomerate has swallowed up this conglomerate and now it becomes
Speaker 1: really difficult worldwide. Pants is in such a unique spot
Speaker 1: because Dave owned his show, he owned his content, and
Speaker 1: that that's a Yeah, it's a very unique spot that
Speaker 1: Dave has given himself.
Speaker 2: In the industry, a lot of this estate stuff gets
Speaker 2: tied up in an absence of rules. So, for example,
Speaker 2: if you wanted to license a clip of Steve Allen
Speaker 2: for use on a video podcast that you're going to
Speaker 2: stream on YouTube, is there even a rule.
Speaker 1: Yeah, great point, great point, especially if you're talking over
Speaker 1: it and you're now repurposing it a little bit. Is
Speaker 1: there a rule? Is there not a rule? And are
Speaker 1: they gonna Yeah, that's and who gets paid? Yep, yep.
Speaker 2: That's very complicated. And as I talked about at the top,
Speaker 2: let me drop a commercial break in here so one
Speaker 2: doesn't get dropped in on you be right back with
Speaker 2: more than Mike on Letterman Podcast.
Speaker 1: By the way, Dave won an Emmy. We haven't talked
Speaker 1: about that. Isn't that a neat thing? How his my
Speaker 1: next guest with John Mulaney won on Emmy. His current
Speaker 1: offerings are still current enough that they're being awarded things.
Speaker 1: I was very happy to see that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's funny. It happens to everybody. You start out
Speaker 2: as the counterculture, and if you put in your thirty years,
Speaker 2: you're the culture and there's some new guy looking to
Speaker 2: take you down.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it was neat to see that. And it's
Speaker 1: interesting because my next guest on Netflix and I wonder
Speaker 1: about the strategic value I was talking I had a
Speaker 1: conversation with Morning not too long ago, and we were
Speaker 1: talking about the strategic value of Okay, we're gonna put
Speaker 1: out a season which is gonna have a few different
Speaker 1: episodes in it, but then we'll put out a special
Speaker 1: one that is outside of the season, and it's titled
Speaker 1: Differently even and the Millenney episode was specifically titled different
Speaker 1: It wasn't in with the season with Miley and and
Speaker 1: the other one which it's escaping me right now, but
Speaker 1: it was its own, like it was a special my
Speaker 1: next Guest with d because John Mulaney's name was actually
Speaker 1: in the title of it as well, and that's the
Speaker 1: one that won the Emmy. It was a powerful episode,
Speaker 1: really cool. He's doing the thom Snyder thing and getting
Speaker 1: this stuff out of John, the dinner with his dad.
Speaker 1: It was just such a powerful episode. I'm glad it
Speaker 1: was recognized. But then you got Dave on Neil Brennan
Speaker 1: giving an interview that one of the best interviews I've
Speaker 1: ever seen. And then recently, have you had a chance
Speaker 1: to watch the GQ story of David Letterman and Zach
Speaker 1: Barron interviewed him. It was a phenomenal outing.
Speaker 2: I thought, I read the article and I don't want
Speaker 2: to take over your show and start dragging you around,
Speaker 2: but I do want to discuss the part where Letterman
Speaker 2: talked about not being able to live up to Carson
Speaker 2: and then talked about Today's hosts and threw them a bone,
Speaker 2: as if I think he may have caught himself on
Speaker 2: the fly realizing like, oh, I'm going to say it
Speaker 2: sound like a jerk saying these Today's hosts aren't as
Speaker 2: good as Carson, which they're not. Let's all be real,
Speaker 2: No one is. Absolutely that was Letterman's original part point, yes,
Speaker 2: but then he started talking about maybe some of them
Speaker 2: are as good as Carson. And I'm not here to
Speaker 2: be negative, but who could that even mean? Like, clearly,
Speaker 2: Jimmy Fallon is not Johnny Carson. No, Colbert is doing
Speaker 2: something else and not trying to be Johnny Carson. So
Speaker 2: is Jimmy Kimmel Today's Johnny Carson. I could maybe drag
Speaker 2: it up to Jimmy Kimmel's Today's David Letterman, but I
Speaker 2: don't think Kimmel's Today's Johnny Carson.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I heard that as well, and I think I
Speaker 1: don't know he was talking about like when you think
Speaker 1: about somebody, because I listened to that as well, and
Speaker 1: I was thinking, Okay, that's very interesting. Throwing them a
Speaker 1: bone is a fantastic way of putting it. But I
Speaker 1: thought about Johnny's skillset, and I've been down that rabbit
Speaker 1: hole for the last month probably I've been watching a
Speaker 1: lot of Carson clips again with the Zemi book and
Speaker 1: talking about that. Carson had a skill set that Letterman
Speaker 1: never ever even tried to emulate when he did his show,
Speaker 1: Number one, because he wanted Late Night to be very different,
Speaker 1: and Late Night had to be very different than the
Speaker 1: Tonight Show. But also because again they just celebrate, celebrated.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's a high lighted on Dave's
Speaker 1: YouTube channel on the Barber Games Show, just highlighted when
Speaker 1: Dave was on Mary's Variety Show and how how much
Speaker 1: he hated the dance number and to the point where
Speaker 1: he didn't only had to do it a couple of
Speaker 1: times and then they said, Okay, you don't have to
Speaker 1: do this. Being on that variety show, Johnny Carson had
Speaker 1: a skill set that very few people had at that time,
Speaker 1: from the magician, the singer, a little bit of actor sketch,
Speaker 1: the sketch stuff he would do as well as the
Speaker 1: host game show stuff, and then broadcaster. All of these
Speaker 1: things won And as I heard that Dave talk about that,
Speaker 1: to me, I thought he was talking about Fallon from
Speaker 1: that perspective, because I look at Jimmy Fallon, like him,
Speaker 1: don't like him. That dude can do a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1: He can get. He is very I hear him sing
Speaker 1: Neil Young imitating other things, and I the fresh Prince
Speaker 1: of bel Air theme is the one that comes to mind.
Speaker 1: But he does these very interesting things. Whether you like
Speaker 1: him or don't like you cannot dispute the talent that
Speaker 1: guy has and the enthusiasm he has, the little sparkle
Speaker 1: in his eye the way Johnny did. And when I
Speaker 1: heard that, I thought, oh, he's talking about Fallon and
Speaker 1: his skill set. But it was interesting hearing Dave talk
Speaker 1: about that on that interview. Also, his dad and Paul
Speaker 1: shaff are both organists. That's one thing I took from that.
Speaker 1: That was an interesting story about his dad with the Organs.
Speaker 1: That was really compelling to me. Whenever Dave goes into
Speaker 1: his past and pulls out these little nuggets, there's a
Speaker 1: story that Zach. I don't even know why it came
Speaker 1: up or how it came up, but Dave revealing a
Speaker 1: story about his dad, and maybe some comparison there, but
Speaker 1: it was a very good interview.
Speaker 2: I thought, let us be fair to Jimmy Fallon. Jimmy
Speaker 2: Fallon's job is to host the Tonight Show at eleven
Speaker 2: thirty on NBC. That's a specific job. We are playing
Speaker 2: to Middle America. For example, David Letterman at twelve thirty
Speaker 2: was I'll just use the word weird. He goes to
Speaker 2: eleven thirty, puts on on Armani suit, and after a year,
Speaker 2: goes towards Middle America. You have Conan O'Brien being weird
Speaker 2: at twelve thirty. He comes to eleven thirty and tries
Speaker 2: to be weird, and we know what happened there. So
Speaker 2: you bring Jay Leno back and you play back to
Speaker 2: Middle America. Now, you and I and fans of this
Speaker 2: podcast remember the young Jay Leno and a leather jacket
Speaker 2: that would show up on late night and be edgy.
Speaker 2: I would describe Jay Leno as edgy. Now some people
Speaker 2: might be like, Jay Leno edgy, You're crazy. I'm telling
Speaker 2: you go back and watch the clips. They're on the
Speaker 2: Fast Channel. He's there, he's edgy. So Fallin he's executing
Speaker 2: the tonight show. He has a lot more to his game,
Speaker 2: but that's not what the job is.
Speaker 1: That is exactly right. I'm glad that you said it
Speaker 1: that way, because even people who sometimes sometimes watch this show,
Speaker 1: the dozens of fans that we have of the Letterman Podcast,
Speaker 1: a lot of them are still in that Team Day
Speaker 1: versus Team J camp. But when you watch the two
Speaker 1: of them together and again on Don Giller's channel, you
Speaker 1: can go and you can see the entire compilation, the
Speaker 1: entire evolution and run of when Dave and j used
Speaker 1: to play off each other and it You're right, that's
Speaker 1: exactly right. I wouldn't necessarily compare him to Burr, but
Speaker 1: he might be that generation's kind of comparison. There's there's
Speaker 1: some observance that was there that had bite to it.
Speaker 1: It had real bite to it compared to what we saw.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it's just it's a fascinating evolution watching this stuff,
Speaker 1: watching how there are so many late night hosts, and
Speaker 1: because of that, it's had to be I hate to
Speaker 1: use the word homogenized. I don't know if that's the
Speaker 1: right word, but it's diluted. It certainly is diluted compared
Speaker 1: to what it was.
Speaker 2: Now, let me ask you a question. I've mental exercise.
Speaker 2: I've never actually done that, and I haven't done it
Speaker 2: as I just thought of it thirty seconds ago. It's
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety two. Is that the year? Yeah, David Letterman
Speaker 2: takes over the Tonight Show, Jay Leno. Maybe he doesn't
Speaker 2: get a show at all, maybe he gets CBS, maybe
Speaker 2: he gets Fox. But David Letterman is hosting the Tonight Show. Yep,
Speaker 2: what do we actually get? Do we get the CBS version?
Speaker 2: Do we get a guy throwing pencils through a window?
Speaker 2: What do we get? And do you and I like it?
Speaker 1: Yeah? And like I have, I said this to Bill Carter,
Speaker 1: I've said this to I think I said it to
Speaker 1: Zennaman and some of these other people too. I am
Speaker 1: so grateful that he didn't get the Tonight Show. Obviously
Speaker 1: at the time, sometimes it's one of those things, sometimes
Speaker 1: a blessing comes like a kick in the teeth. But
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that he didn't get it, because again
Speaker 1: we're talking about Carson here. Carson was so powerful and
Speaker 1: he had evolved his place. He had worked the way
Speaker 1: into the seat that he was sitting and in the
Speaker 1: groove was so uniquely suited to him. He was so
Speaker 1: powerful that was his chair to the point where he
Speaker 1: had ownership, and Letterman walked literally into being able to
Speaker 1: leverage himself to move over to CBS. Got to take
Speaker 1: basically the blueprint of what Johnny had, the idea of
Speaker 1: owning his show, the idea of the next time slot,
Speaker 1: and his company being able to do that and continue
Speaker 1: it on for twenty some odd years. If he would
Speaker 1: have gotten the Tonight Show suddenly, ownership for the first
Speaker 1: time in well over a decade would have come back
Speaker 1: to NBC, which they were very excited to have. And
Speaker 1: you think about the network executives and Dave's relationship from
Speaker 1: Late Night at that point, how can Tate cantankerous? It was?
Speaker 1: Imagine what would have happened if he would have then
Speaker 1: moved into the big chair, with all these networks now
Speaker 1: trying to poke in prod that would have been I
Speaker 1: don't know that we would have liked. I think personally
Speaker 1: if he would have been awarded the Tonight Show. From
Speaker 1: everything I've looked at and read, I don't know that
Speaker 1: NBC was ready to bring the Tonight Show back to
Speaker 1: New York. I feel like the way the Tea leaves
Speaker 1: have been written. I feel like Dave would have moved
Speaker 1: to Burbank. I feel like that's what the what would
Speaker 1: have had to happen to me? New York City is
Speaker 1: a character in Dave's show. I just I really think
Speaker 1: that that even.
Speaker 2: The same factor the late show set is son of
Speaker 2: the late night set, And if you're in Burdbank, you
Speaker 2: probably wind up with something that looks more like maybe
Speaker 2: not the purple j Leno set, but something more like that.
Speaker 1: Certainly lots of plants.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, but all that stuff plays into it. I'll
Speaker 2: just repeat myself. A guy in sneakers versus guy in
Speaker 2: an Armani suit, a guy sitting in front of a
Speaker 2: bridge silhouette versus a guy sitting on a set with
Speaker 2: a bunch of plants. These things do matter, Yeah, they
Speaker 2: really do. And tone is everything. And Dave is interesting
Speaker 2: in that GQ interview too. Zach again, Zach is just incredible.
Speaker 2: I live vicariously.
Speaker 1: I don't know that I'm ever going to have the
Speaker 1: chance to have a conversation on camera with Dave, and
Speaker 1: I live vicariously through the people who do I know
Speaker 1: the questions I want to ask him, and the questions
Speaker 1: that these guys ask him that Neil Brennan and Zach
Speaker 1: just did. They're asking him questions that I wouldn't ask him,
Speaker 1: just out of respect. If I talked to him today,
Speaker 1: I'd want to talk about just current things that he sees.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't want to go into the past because of
Speaker 1: the reputation of how he doesn't like talking about that stuff.
Speaker 1: These guys of the Plum and the esteem that they're
Speaker 1: able to talk about this stuff, And to me, Dave
Speaker 1: is a New Yorker, but he was talking about, Hey, Indianapolis,
Speaker 1: we're here. This is your hometown, right, And it's interesting.
Speaker 1: One of the things I want to ask Dave is
Speaker 1: are you a New Yorker or are you a Hoser,
Speaker 1: a Hooser or is it a combination of both. Are
Speaker 1: you a new Hooser?
Speaker 2: It's interesting to me that he's doing press at all.
Speaker 2: Was the GQ to promote the Fast Channel or is
Speaker 2: that a coincidence?
Speaker 1: No, they talked about it, and it was in November
Speaker 1: that they shot it, and they did talk about it
Speaker 1: near the end they did, so I assume it was
Speaker 1: to promote it. But also it feels like to me
Speaker 1: where they positioned Dave are in very specific spots. You
Speaker 1: think about Dax's podcast that he was on, you think
Speaker 1: about Neil Brennan's podcast The GQ. That's a great to me.
Speaker 1: If Rolling Stone hadn't gone through some of the I
Speaker 1: don't know. In my opinion, I don't know, and maybe
Speaker 1: I'm way off on this. Rolling Stone isn't what it
Speaker 1: was back in the day when Dave was gracing covers
Speaker 1: and doing a lot of these stories. With Rolling Stone,
Speaker 1: it's a different it's a different beast now, but GQ
Speaker 1: seems to still have that same I would say the
Speaker 1: same thing with Vanity Fair still seems to have that
Speaker 1: kind of tone and prestige. To me, that's those are
Speaker 1: the spots that they're putting Dave into to do press
Speaker 1: with occasional lighthearted appearances here and there. But to me,
Speaker 1: it was very classy the piece that they did.
Speaker 2: There's also with the legacy media, there's a way you roll.
Speaker 2: So I've played in I'm doing I do a podcast
Speaker 2: in my basement. I've worked for Serier six M, I've
Speaker 2: been entertainment adjacent for thirty years. So if you do
Speaker 2: Rolling Stone GQ sixty minutes unless Mike Wallace is sitting
Speaker 2: around for you. You're not going to get Dave, have you
Speaker 2: ever done crack? That question is not going to happen.
Speaker 2: Letterman's not going to do a random podcast because he
Speaker 2: doesn't know that. I'm not going to say, Dave you
Speaker 2: ever do crack? Because what does he do with that question?
Speaker 2: He says no, and then the headline is David Letterman
Speaker 2: comments on whether he did crack, right, So they don't
Speaker 2: want They don't want to do that at all. And
Speaker 2: I'm not at all suggesting Dave did crack. Let me
Speaker 2: be very clear, David Letton has never done crack. Point
Speaker 2: is he doesn't know that. I'm not going to ask
Speaker 2: him that and an awkward question. Whereas the bigger brands,
Speaker 2: the legacy media, are more known, and it's both sides.
Speaker 2: You don't even have to say, You're not gonnask Dave
Speaker 2: about crack, right like you just know you invite somebody
Speaker 2: on your show. It's a friendly environment. My point being
Speaker 2: a basement podcasters, we're lesser known, so it's just not
Speaker 2: going to happen.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I would imagine in your case, you probably do have
Speaker 2: enough Letterman whisperers who could tell him. This guy's are right.
Speaker 2: He's not going to ask you if you let me
Speaker 2: change it up, eat Peter Butter and jelly for lunch.
Speaker 1: That's why they haven't had me killed up to this point.
Speaker 1: That's exactly right.
Speaker 2: But celebrities have brands, and you control your brand, and
Speaker 2: you don't want to overexpose if we look at this.
Speaker 2: I reached out to you and went, oh my goodness,
Speaker 2: David Letterman actually did an interview. That's why I reached
Speaker 2: out to you. And if he were on a podcast
Speaker 2: every third day, I wouldn't have shot you a note.
Speaker 1: That's right, And I don't know that I've said this publicly.
Speaker 1: I've certainly talked about it with a few of my
Speaker 1: guests and a few people that are close to Dave,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't seem to be It seems to be
Speaker 1: the shit. Say the last person I talked to about
Speaker 1: this definitely inside but adjacent, but also very high up
Speaker 1: and inside, and he said, if you were in Dave's camp,
Speaker 1: what would you have him do? He asked me that question.
Speaker 1: It was like literally throwing a softball down the plate
Speaker 1: to me, and it wasn't recorded. But I'll say this
Speaker 1: to you because I just to me, I know that
Speaker 1: you are certainly when you Joe Rogan is so big
Speaker 1: now we talk about Carson and who's our current Carson.
Speaker 1: To me, there is no other answer than Joe Rogan.
Speaker 1: The Rogan bump is crazy. You talk about Nicki Glazer
Speaker 1: a lot on your show. I believe a huge part
Speaker 1: of her ascension and people observing her talent cannot be understated.
Speaker 1: I want to be very clear about that. But the
Speaker 1: spotlight was certainly put on to her over the years
Speaker 1: by Rogan. She has definitely been a recipient of the
Speaker 1: Rogan bump in many ways. Tony Hinchcliffe, same thing to me,
Speaker 1: the softball going down the plate. I'm like, if it's
Speaker 1: me as a fan, and this is exactly how the
Speaker 1: person said to me, he goes, boy, you are answering
Speaker 1: that question as a fan. But to me, fan service
Speaker 1: in this day and age is not a bad thing.
Speaker 1: To me. If you want to have a compelling, tying
Speaker 1: it up with a bow kind of a scenario, you
Speaker 1: have Dave go down to the Mothership. You have a
Speaker 1: Night at the Mothership in Austin, Texas, which is based
Speaker 1: on the Comedy Store, except let's fix the comedy store
Speaker 1: and make it even better. If you look at the
Speaker 1: blueprint that Rogan has created at Mothership, the bar is
Speaker 1: called Mitzi's and the dorm. They've taken that blueprint. Adam
Speaker 1: Egitt is there. You take the you take Letterman there
Speaker 1: with guys like Drecent, guys like Altman, you get you
Speaker 1: bring out some of the people who are not doing
Speaker 1: as well health wise maybe and have one last little
Speaker 1: hurrah there a tribute to these things. You have Dave
Speaker 1: show up on Rogan's podcast and then you do a
Speaker 1: my next guest on the stage of the Mothership with
Speaker 1: Joe Rogan, who like it or not, he is the
Speaker 1: And to me, that is, oh my gosh, what I
Speaker 1: love to see that. But I just don't know if
Speaker 1: Rogan's too polarizing because of exactly what you just said,
Speaker 1: how well Letterman's positioned himself. I don't know that whatever
Speaker 1: happened from a fan perspective, my god, that would be compelling.
Speaker 2: But so I love the idea of Dave going on Rogan.
Speaker 2: I like listening to Rogan's podcast for many reasons. I'd
Speaker 2: like to listen to podcasts as I'd drift off on
Speaker 2: Rogan's audio. He doesn't start screaming or get hyper. These
Speaker 2: are very deep conversations.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: I am able, like I can with any conversation. I
Speaker 2: can take some of it and go I agree. I
Speaker 2: could take some and say I don't agree. For example,
Speaker 2: if you said to me Patricks is better than a
Speaker 2: five story tower, I would vehemently disagree, but I wouldn't
Speaker 2: like dislike you. I would just be like, oh, he's
Speaker 2: wrong about that, and I would just move on with
Speaker 2: my day. Yes, if you told me Dave went down
Speaker 2: there for three hours and twenty minutes and we got
Speaker 2: a long conversation that wasn't so what was it like
Speaker 2: when you didn't get the Tonight Show asked an answer,
Speaker 2: and he's talked about it exactly. Rogan would ask him
Speaker 2: about He might ask him about drones, and then that
Speaker 2: tease it up for Letterman and be funny. And again,
Speaker 2: let me be clear, David Letterman has never done crack.
Speaker 2: But if Rogan not a guy in his basement, if
Speaker 2: Joe Rogan said do you ever do crack? That would
Speaker 2: get comedian Dave Letterman to snap too and answer that
Speaker 2: with a witty remark, and that wouldn't be like an
Speaker 2: accusatory thing. You would get the comedy there because it's
Speaker 2: two people with a body of work who would have
Speaker 2: the respect of the language of comedy, and they are
Speaker 2: both celebrities, and it would just be different that if
Speaker 2: I randomly throughout that question, I would love that. And
Speaker 2: then the flip side of that, I think would make
Speaker 2: a lot of sense. You also talked about what should
Speaker 2: Dave do these days? And I think doing hits on
Speaker 2: Mullaney's thing is actually perfect. It allows him to be
Speaker 2: elder statesman, but it allows him to appear as the
Speaker 2: Dave that you and I fell in love with. So
Speaker 2: for seven minutes he can be goofy eighties Dave and
Speaker 2: let Mulaney be goofy eighties Dave turned Mulaney and do
Speaker 2: the weird o late night show, and Dave can show in,
Speaker 2: show up and do seven minutes and be fun and
Speaker 2: then go back to hanging out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly I think mullany show and twelve more.
Speaker 1: He's got twelve more coming?
Speaker 2: Is that the Yeah, we don't know when or where
Speaker 2: or what it's going to be called, but yes, twelve
Speaker 2: more at some point, and that's going to be an event,
Speaker 2: right because the first six six ' eight whatever it was,
Speaker 2: we're very well received. So that raises the bar. So
Speaker 2: Netflix has to book a little harder because all eyes
Speaker 2: are going to be it on this time. Now it's
Speaker 2: not an experiment. Now it's John Mullaney's a late night show.
Speaker 2: Have Dave back, because you know what Dave's gonna do,
Speaker 2: and he'll do it well for eight minutes, and then
Speaker 2: he can hang out further down the couch, which is
Speaker 2: just a wonderful phrase to say. Right, that's very Carson
Speaker 2: moved down the couch and it's great. We're all gonna
Speaker 2: watch it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think, okay, so Dave was on the
Speaker 1: first hunk, why put him on the second hunt? No,
Speaker 1: because the idea of Friends of the Show, like, we've
Speaker 1: got a little segment called Friends of that you are one.
Speaker 1: You're gonna be invited him one day. We'll bring in
Speaker 1: a couple of letterman writers or people or whatever, and
Speaker 1: then a couple of friends of the show and we
Speaker 1: all just have a We did our first one a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago, and it was fantastic. The idea
Speaker 1: that mulany is building friends of the show. And one
Speaker 1: of the friends of the show happens to be the
Speaker 1: best of the guy who is the best ever at it.
Speaker 1: I think you know again, I don't. I don't go
Speaker 1: the King, I go the Godfather. Okay, fine, Johnny was
Speaker 1: don Vito, Dave is Michael. But to have him have
Speaker 1: these friends of the show come back on and have
Speaker 1: some fun again, that's old Carson, like you just said,
Speaker 1: like when Frank and Dean would come on and they
Speaker 1: would do this, or Rickles would come on. That I
Speaker 1: believe is something that John would certainly want to add
Speaker 1: as an ingredient to what he's doing.
Speaker 2: In my mind anyway, Yeah, you're handing in an entertainment show.
Speaker 2: So whether it's me booking you, you booking me, we
Speaker 2: know what each other is going to do. We didn't
Speaker 2: prep it all for this. You just said, do you
Speaker 2: want to come on? I said, yeah. We didn't talk
Speaker 2: at all. I didn't ask you what we're going to
Speaker 2: talk about. Obviously, David Letterman is a subject on your podcast.
Speaker 2: I knew would be all over the place, like I'm
Speaker 2: dragging you all over the place.
Speaker 1: Good, but thank you.
Speaker 2: Please, do you know what I'm going to do? I
Speaker 2: know what you're gonna do if we go in the
Speaker 2: other direction. So if you book David Letterman, you know
Speaker 2: what he's going to do. If I ever had John
Speaker 2: mullaney on my podcast, I'd ask him a question like
Speaker 2: what are you up to, and then shut up while
Speaker 2: he told a six minute story, because I know m'laney
Speaker 2: tells six minute stories, and you don't step on them
Speaker 2: and ruin the flow. You let him get to the punchline.
Speaker 2: And that's back too. And I teach this at my
Speaker 2: podcasting companies. I teach this to host and it's called
Speaker 2: Johnny Carson theory. And when you have a good guest,
Speaker 2: shut up and let them tell their story.
Speaker 1: My o mind.
Speaker 2: We're having some fun now and we're making money today
Speaker 2: when all these commercial breaks. Look, it's a long episode.
Speaker 2: And as I told you the top, if I don't
Speaker 2: do a break every twenty minutes, one gets dropped on
Speaker 2: your head mid sentence, and that's worse than this. Hey,
Speaker 2: let me make a couple bucks and it'll be right back.
Speaker 1: Carson was so perfect at letting somebody go on about
Speaker 1: something and then would come back with that razor sharp
Speaker 1: response that would take It was like a bow. It
Speaker 1: was like that person was assembling a present for them,
Speaker 1: and Johnny just put the bow on it and made
Speaker 1: the present look so much better. He was so good
Speaker 1: at making his guests shine, whether they were at the
Speaker 1: pinnacle of entertainment, like a Frank Sinatra or the gal
Speaker 1: from nebra wherever it was Nebraska or the Midwest who
Speaker 1: had the potato chip collection. He was just so good
Speaker 1: at building these little moments with very little and listening
Speaker 1: being one of the paramount skills.
Speaker 2: And then we see in the GQ article where they
Speaker 2: brought up the abrasive David Letterman from the eighties where
Speaker 2: his rep was not a good interviewer, not a safe harbor.
Speaker 2: You might go on there to promote your movie and
Speaker 2: get attacked by this contankerous host who doesn't want to
Speaker 2: do guests and just wants to throw stuff of a
Speaker 2: five story tower. He did evolve into a really good interviewer,
Speaker 2: but the early Dave almost had no time for celebrities
Speaker 2: and would rather have the wacky guest that showed up
Speaker 2: at one point fifteen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he was nervous. You watched them of the
Speaker 1: Morning Show clips and he's nervous. And I love watching
Speaker 1: his interactions with Tom Snyder. I really got into that
Speaker 1: earlier in the year we had Tom's daughter on and
Speaker 1: so I went down that rabbit hole big time, and
Speaker 1: I've been down it many times before. But one of
Speaker 1: the things that Tom Snyder and is he would call
Speaker 1: people kid. And he used to call that to Dave.
Speaker 1: He say, oh, it's okay kid. Watching Dave and Tom
Speaker 1: tok during the Morning Show era was very interesting because
Speaker 1: you could just see reverence but also nervousness that he had.
Speaker 1: And then we have been able to This is the
Speaker 1: wonderful thing about these legacy the very very few legacy
Speaker 1: entertainers that we have seen, we've been able to see
Speaker 1: their evolution. Whereas now he turned he completely switched the
Speaker 1: volume switches. It used to be that the right equalizer
Speaker 1: was turned up all the way, the goofiness, the isoteric stuff,
Speaker 1: the observational with the twist stuff, and now it's still there,
Speaker 1: but it's turned down, and the interview was down. But
Speaker 1: now the interview he's what's Dave doing? Now he's doing
Speaker 1: the Tom Snyder thing. He's doing the long form and
Speaker 1: making someone like me, who's forty eight at the time
Speaker 1: it's recording, give a damn about Billie Eilish and I
Speaker 1: do and my gateway I really I get it. I'm
Speaker 1: a music guy. I'm a huge music guy, and about
Speaker 1: I don't know. A year and a half ago, I
Speaker 1: was listening to one of Billy's songs. It just come
Speaker 1: on and instead of it just being in the background,
Speaker 1: I actually I get it. I'm a fan. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: a huge fan of Billie Eilish now the way I
Speaker 1: was with some of the bands that I loved growing up,
Speaker 1: and the gateway to that was Dave introducing me to her.
Speaker 1: And it's interesting watching that happen, and I'm so grateful
Speaker 1: he's still doing I'm so grateful he views retirement completely different.
Speaker 1: I loved when Zach talked to him about that. Al
Speaker 1: Franken right before Dave retired, he came on for his
Speaker 1: last Senator. Franken came on and said, before you go
Speaker 1: off and become an eccentric recluse. And I think we
Speaker 1: all thought that was gonna happen, and he's done anything
Speaker 1: but that.
Speaker 2: And the Beard kind of screamed eccentric recluse. Talk about
Speaker 2: Tom Snyder. There's a guy that if we had an
Speaker 2: alternate timeline with technology, Yep, the headline in nineteen eighty
Speaker 2: two would be Tom Snyder starting a podcast, and he
Speaker 2: would have been really good at it. Let him talk
Speaker 2: to somebody for three twenty.
Speaker 1: Yep, yeah, oh good. That is a fantastic point. Because
Speaker 1: he took he would be able to take long form anywhere. Again,
Speaker 1: like you said, makes it a little makes it a
Speaker 1: little dangerous. He wasn't afraid to talk about anything. He
Speaker 1: was a big man. He was not afraid to talk
Speaker 1: to people, ask them the hard questions. Wasn't afraid to say, hey, buddy.
Speaker 1: I disagree. He wasn't like Rogan in the sense where
Speaker 1: Rogan doesn't he shows interest, he's engaged, he's very well read,
Speaker 1: but he doesn't show a ton of emotion, where Tom
Speaker 1: brought that to the table. And I love that about him.
Speaker 1: I love the emotion that he would bring when he
Speaker 1: was talking to people.
Speaker 2: I think Cavitt would have been a great podcaster. Bob
Speaker 2: Costas would have been a great podcaster. And they're all
Speaker 2: doing shades of the same thing, long form deep interviews
Speaker 2: without a clock.
Speaker 1: It's what people want. I understand the algorithm and what
Speaker 1: the algorithm wants to make technology sticky, to keep people
Speaker 1: looking at it and whatever and have them tune out.
Speaker 1: I understand that, but I think the reason that the
Speaker 1: biggest podcast in the world and many of the other
Speaker 1: runners up are long form. And Dave during the press
Speaker 1: conference when they brought tom over, one of the ways
Speaker 1: he introduced him was he said, I was one of
Speaker 1: those people that probably watched eighty to eighty five percent
Speaker 1: of all of the first run of The Tomorrow Show
Speaker 1: no VCRs back then. He was so long form and
Speaker 1: radio of course, so your backgrounds radio as well. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm really glad that long form is I think, and
Speaker 1: not to get political, because I don't have a dog
Speaker 1: in the fight. I'm Canadian, so all of my tidings
Speaker 1: and opinions have maple syrup flavor attached to them. I
Speaker 1: believe the last election had to do with long form
Speaker 1: versus sound bites down on the States. I really do
Speaker 1: believe that long form will win the day because it's
Speaker 1: what people are craving. People want this exchange where we
Speaker 1: are present and the conversation will win the day. It's
Speaker 1: why stand up is so big. Right now, you have
Speaker 1: somebody who's up on stage for an hour not being interrupted,
Speaker 1: and the beginning, middle and end of these presentations as
Speaker 1: leading to bucks it's leading to commerce. It's been a
Speaker 1: big year this year. We're at the end of the year.
Speaker 1: While we're recording this thing, I want to ask you.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've actually released the list yet
Speaker 1: and when you're going to release the list, but you
Speaker 1: constantly talk about on the Daily Comedy News what's going
Speaker 1: to be in the top twenty, and I'm super curious
Speaker 1: how your list is forming. Is the year? Is the
Speaker 1: list done? Are you ready to go? Is it close?
Speaker 2: The list starts on so this is the list of
Speaker 2: top comedy specials of the year. It starts on January first.
Speaker 2: I open up a new note and as I watch
Speaker 2: comedy specials, I rank them. So I was joking, somebody's
Speaker 2: got one coming out like January eighth, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: that's going to be the number one special of the
Speaker 2: year at that point, and then the next one is
Speaker 2: either higher or lower. And I work the specials and
Speaker 2: I'm going to record it after Ronnie Ching comes out,
Speaker 2: because Jason Zinnemann from The New York Times, he has
Speaker 2: that as the number one special of the year. So
Speaker 2: if he's got it at number one, I'm pretty confident
Speaker 2: it's got to be in my Top twenty. But back
Speaker 2: to Zinnaman. So I've been talking about this a little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeap.
Speaker 2: Now before I get letters, everybody, listen to what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Before I get letters.
Speaker 1: Our audience actually throw darts. They don't send letters. Our
Speaker 1: audience throws darts.
Speaker 2: So anyway, continue, all right, everybody, I'll say something and
Speaker 2: I'll ramble for a second to let you think about it.
Speaker 2: Who is the comedian of the year? Everybody, Okay, who's
Speaker 2: the comedian of the year. Now, I'll let everybody think
Speaker 2: about that on all ramble for a second. I could
Speaker 2: make a case for Joe Rogan. Some people think he
Speaker 2: helped win the election. I can make a case for
Speaker 2: Tony Hingecliff. Some people thought he had cost someone the
Speaker 2: election and killed. Tony's pretty popular. I can make a
Speaker 2: case for Nate Brigetzi, who has a Christmas special out
Speaker 2: and a Netflix special December twenty fourth, before the end
Speaker 2: of the year, and everybody loves him and he sells
Speaker 2: out arenas. So Jason Zenneman named Nicki Glazer. And this
Speaker 2: is where I fear the letters that, oh, you just
Speaker 2: ate women, and I don't have two daughters. NICKI killed
Speaker 2: at The Roast, But I don't think her. I don't
Speaker 2: think her HBO special. The critics seem to like it,
Speaker 2: but I don't see that it had a big impact.
Speaker 2: I didn't see buzz on it. Even the week after
Speaker 2: her special came out, people were talking about her on
Speaker 2: The Roast and she had probably the set of the
Speaker 2: year at the Roast. Yeah, and The Roast is probably
Speaker 2: going to be number one on my list, and I've
Speaker 2: been open about that unless Chang knocks it off. I
Speaker 2: have things like a Tell or way up there. But
Speaker 2: The Roast was just an amazing television anyway. So Zennyman,
Speaker 2: who has Rodnie Chang as number one, maybe I won't
Speaker 2: agree with him because he gave Nikki Glazer Comedian of
Speaker 2: the Year. As I've said on my show, Jason Zinneman
Speaker 2: knows more about comedy than I do. I dip my
Speaker 2: head in bow.
Speaker 1: To the supremacy of Zinnemann.
Speaker 2: Absolutely one hundred, but I personally am not feeling it.
Speaker 2: And I would personally put Nate as number one this year.
Speaker 2: Oh and Malany is definitely in the conversation as well.
Speaker 2: Malaysia should be in the conversation. Gaffigan should be in
Speaker 2: the conversation.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: Anyway, that was three minutes of me saying that I
Speaker 2: may not agree with Ronnie Chang.
Speaker 1: Why this is why you are a friend of the show.
Speaker 1: This is this. I love hearing your opinion on this
Speaker 1: stuff and being able to like the one thing about Bergazi. Okay,
Speaker 1: So when you say the comedian of the year, it's
Speaker 1: such a subjective. It's a subjective topic anyway, because if
Speaker 1: you're picking Glazer, you're picking Hinchcliff. You've got people who
Speaker 1: have polarized. They've done what some of the comedians in
Speaker 1: the past that would have been called controversial in the
Speaker 1: eighties and nineties, there are controversial comedians that kind of
Speaker 1: came along. Was Sam Kinnison in his at the zenith
Speaker 1: of his career? Was he the comedian of the year?
Speaker 1: If he was, and he very well may have been.
Speaker 1: At the height of when Kinnison was doing what he
Speaker 1: was doing, he was dividing a lot of people. He
Speaker 1: was not the family comedian. He was not the person
Speaker 1: that the whole family would sit around and watch or
Speaker 1: listen to a record of. And Tony and Nicky would
Speaker 1: certainly be in that category. Where's he got a guy
Speaker 1: like Nate who is literally for the whole family, but
Speaker 1: can kill just as hard. It's like Norm MacDonald going
Speaker 1: on Communitians and cars getting coffee, actually saying to Jerry,
Speaker 1: you know what, being clean is the harder discipline. Now,
Speaker 1: I personally I love Jerry, always have. Norm MacDonald has
Speaker 1: such a special place in my heart. Do I let
Speaker 1: my six year old granddaughter watch Norm? No? Not unless
Speaker 1: he's on Letterman then maybe. So. I like Nate. I
Speaker 1: can see why you would say Nate, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: I think the worldwide appeal that he has. I think
Speaker 1: the I watched him that week when the roast happened.
Speaker 1: I was in La and I saw David Letterman interview
Speaker 1: Nate Bergazzi at the Ricardo Montabon Theater, which was laced
Speaker 1: with rich Corinthian leather by the way, and Nate is
Speaker 1: just He's one of these guys who you can tell
Speaker 1: is so dedicated to his craft, partially because of the
Speaker 1: things he could say but doesn't say because he wants
Speaker 1: to stay in that lane. He's an extremely talented and
Speaker 1: the heart that he has. I can totally see why
Speaker 1: you'd say, Nate, that is a That's a great answer
Speaker 1: for me. For me, it's probably Neil Brennan. Neil Brennan
Speaker 1: Special this year. I absolutely loved that special and I
Speaker 1: love what Neil is doing. He's probably my personal favorite.
Speaker 1: But when you're gonna go and say, Okay, who's the
Speaker 1: community of the Year, Nate Bergazzi, I think is a
Speaker 1: phenomenal answer, that's it.
Speaker 2: And like you say, this is all subjective, Like I'm
Speaker 2: not looking to arm wrestle Jason Zinnemanner, You're wrong, Nate.
Speaker 2: Neil Brennan's not the Comedia of the It's all subjective.
Speaker 2: Whatever you found funny, whatever somebody found funny, it's all good.
Speaker 1: It's just a list.
Speaker 2: I'm just pre taped an episode because I don't want
Speaker 2: to work Christmas Day. That's all.
Speaker 1: This is love that you have the roastes number one,
Speaker 1: because would people necessarily gravitate to that towards a comedy special?
Speaker 1: And here it is something that that gives Michael j
Speaker 1: and Colin Joe's a shot at the title with the
Speaker 1: show that they're doing highlighting other comedians, which I love
Speaker 1: that the throwback kind of a deal where they're showcasing
Speaker 1: like Rodney used to do back in the day. It's
Speaker 1: a good. But one thing that I think that all
Speaker 1: of us will probably agree with it is a very
Speaker 1: good time to be a fan of comedy.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, distribution, ability to see people that we have
Speaker 2: all these Netflix specials, now Hulu's jumped in, you have
Speaker 2: the HBO specials. Anyone can sell release on YouTube. And
Speaker 2: this is why I always advise my audience if you
Speaker 2: go to a comedy festival, go to the showcase shows,
Speaker 2: go to the local small club slash bar where they
Speaker 2: have six comics doing sets. Don't go see Chris Rock.
Speaker 2: Do I like Chris Rock?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: I at the Las Vegas Comedy Festival one time. I
Speaker 2: saw Seinfeld and Rock on back to back nights, and
Speaker 2: Seinfeld is justifiably at the top of his game and
Speaker 2: Rock was a very close number two. But if I
Speaker 2: went to I don't know, the Toronto Comedy Festival, I'm
Speaker 2: not going to go see Chris Rock because I know
Speaker 2: what he can do and I can watch him on Netflix.
Speaker 2: I'll go see ten people I've never heard of. I
Speaker 2: get much more out of that discovering comedy because the
Speaker 2: big acts. Nate will come to your house on Christmas Eve.
Speaker 2: You don't have to go see him anymore. And I'm
Speaker 2: not trying to not sell tickets for people. Don't worry
Speaker 2: Nate and Jerry and Jim and they're all going to
Speaker 2: sell out very well. But for comedy fans, go see
Speaker 2: a smaller show. You never know who you're going to see.
Speaker 2: I remember Chicago Comedy Festival. It was a rainy night
Speaker 2: and we were at it zanies and a guy named
Speaker 2: Hannibal Barrus got up and crashed, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: this is great.
Speaker 1: You think about how the phenomenon that has killed Tony
Speaker 1: and for these overnight successes, right, we all know that's
Speaker 1: a bunch of bs that most of the time it's
Speaker 1: not an overnight success. There are people who have been
Speaker 1: busting their butt for so long in the small clubs
Speaker 1: and kill Tony who people would go see it, or
Speaker 1: they would watch it or listen to it, and they
Speaker 1: would say, this is the funniest thing that's out there
Speaker 1: right now. And seventy five people are a part of it.
Speaker 1: Brian Redman and those guys. You got to whether you
Speaker 1: like them the concept whatever or don't, you cannot deny
Speaker 1: the success that they've become. And it started as you're
Speaker 1: talking about one of these showcase things, and it's so
Speaker 1: much fun. Just like a band when you discover the
Speaker 1: band that's the next Beec's thing before they become the
Speaker 1: next big thing. It's a great feeling. Oh that's great advice.
Speaker 1: You're like a wealth of knowledge when it comes to
Speaker 1: the stuff. You've been doing this for a while. Stop stop.
Speaker 2: I love kill Tony. I understand the comedy snobbery of
Speaker 2: it's just a minute, and a minute is not a
Speaker 2: tight five, a tight eight, not an hour. I get it.
Speaker 2: I get it. Kill Tony is a show. I'm a civilian.
Speaker 2: I just want to sit down and listen to something,
Speaker 2: watch something and be entertained. Somebody gets up for a minute.
Speaker 2: They're funny. Sometimes more often than not, they're not. Tony
Speaker 2: comes in with a sleigh, rips them to shreds. We
Speaker 2: all laugh. One of the funniest of the year was
Speaker 2: Shane Gillis coming by in character as Trump and co
Speaker 2: hosting the show as Trump. Oh my goodness, was that hilarious?
Speaker 1: Oh so good, so good, Shane Gillis there, you go. Okay,
Speaker 1: So we mentioned a whole bunch of killers here who
Speaker 1: were in the conversation. There's a guy right there you
Speaker 1: talk about a guy who's dealt with adversity, the public
Speaker 1: perception adversity in a way that just Chappelle same thing.
Speaker 1: People are apparently up in arms and just said, no,
Speaker 1: I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: let my voice be heard. And Shane gillis right now
Speaker 1: just a phenomenal talent. And yeah, that night where he
Speaker 1: came out as Donald Trump was fantastic.
Speaker 2: And even Lauren Michaels admitted he blew it and count
Speaker 2: out to NBC when they didn't want Shane on the
Speaker 2: cast of SNL. You wish he had.
Speaker 1: Shane, here's another reason why I love your show so much.
Speaker 1: What I read one of the quotes, because I follow
Speaker 1: this stuff all the time and I see the stuff
Speaker 1: online and recently though, Lauren, he did the same thing.
Speaker 1: In my mind that what he did with Norm McDonald
Speaker 1: a little bit, he passed the buck over to the
Speaker 1: network and you caught it too, and you talked about
Speaker 1: it on your show. I love that you catch some
Speaker 1: of these things and throw that out there because he
Speaker 1: blamed it on NBC with Shane gillis.
Speaker 2: My old mentor, guy named David Bernstein taught me this
Speaker 2: many years ago. He was I was the assistant program
Speaker 2: director w or New York. Dave was the program director,
Speaker 2: and he was teaching me the concept of Steinberner meaning
Speaker 2: George Steinberner. So anybody who is familiar with eighties letterman
Speaker 2: knows who George Steinberner is.
Speaker 1: I want to have to explain.
Speaker 2: And he said to me, you know, sometimes George calls
Speaker 2: you up and go, hey, I signed a player and
Speaker 2: he's now the left fielder, and your job as the
Speaker 2: manager is to make that work. And then you can
Speaker 2: go back to your office and you can throw a
Speaker 2: rock against the wall and be mad that Steinberner is
Speaker 2: interfering with the plays you would have called and the
Speaker 2: team you would have had. But your job as the manager,
Speaker 2: you're going to play this guy because the owner said so,
Speaker 2: even if you're Lorne Michaels. Sometimes you got to play
Speaker 2: along with the network. We all have capital that we
Speaker 2: can use. Is this battle you want to fight or not?
Speaker 2: So is Lauren going to use his capital to defend
Speaker 2: a guy that had been announced on the cast two
Speaker 2: days earlier and take on the network for that as
Speaker 2: opposed to say, I don't want to name names. If
Speaker 2: somebody on the current cast did something yep, and I
Speaker 2: don't know what they would have done, and ABC was like, oh,
Speaker 2: we should get rid of so and so. Maybe Lauren
Speaker 2: goes to bat for somebody who's been on the show
Speaker 2: for several years, a little more than using the political
Speaker 2: capital against all Right, we announced this guy, nobody knows
Speaker 2: who he is. Whatever, We'll just pick somebody else to
Speaker 2: be in the cast. Whatever. It wasn't a big deal.
Speaker 2: Shane Gillis wasn't yet Shane Gillis.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, that's a very good point. That's where it
Speaker 1: differs from norm. This is the current this is the
Speaker 1: current anchor of Weekend Update, and this is happening where
Speaker 1: Shane at that time. Yeah, so that's a very good point.
Speaker 2: And let me drop another break in here, be right
Speaker 2: back with more with Mike Chishom on The Letterman Podcast.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Satura in life here for a second,
Speaker 1: because everybody seems to be I don't hear it's turning fifty.
Speaker 2: That is a recurring joke on my show, inspired by
Speaker 2: Letterman style humor.
Speaker 1: Did you hear SNL is turning fifty? Yeah? I did
Speaker 1: hear something. I still think about SNL forty. I thought
Speaker 1: SNL forty was one of the greatest, even though it
Speaker 1: was some people say how long it was, Yeah, guess what,
Speaker 1: it's forty years and it should be and let's highlight
Speaker 1: everybody before they start passing on. And in that ten
Speaker 1: years a lot have So I will always voraciously defend
Speaker 1: SNL forty, but boy, SNL fifty has a lot to
Speaker 1: live up to because of that. And I can remember
Speaker 1: in high school when the SNL fifteen anniversary, the Prime
Speaker 1: Time fifteen anniversary happened, and how much I loved it,
Speaker 1: and how being just in high school and seeing some
Speaker 1: of the stuff from the Chris Guest Marty Short era
Speaker 1: that I hadn't seen before because there were no VCRs
Speaker 1: at that point as an elementary school, and I didn't
Speaker 1: My cast was the day in the Carvey cast. So
Speaker 1: seeing some of this stuff and these anniversary shows were incredible.
Speaker 1: And they've just gotten bigger and bigger and bigger. SNL
Speaker 1: fifty is gonna be. It's February, right comes up in February.
Speaker 1: I think I think it's February that it's coming out.
Speaker 1: And apparently they're inviting everybody back again. Apparently they're gonna
Speaker 1: do the same thing that they've done in the past.
Speaker 1: What a high wire act Michael's and company have.
Speaker 2: So I have questions for you. Let's work work this through.
Speaker 2: Let's start with the credits. Do you have Daryl Hammond
Speaker 2: do Don Pardo and announce two hundred names? Like, how
Speaker 2: do you even handle the credits? How do you handle that?
Speaker 2: Who gets to say live from New York?
Speaker 1: Do you pick?
Speaker 2: Do you go across the eras so it's somebody from
Speaker 2: the original cast and Eddie Murphy and Will Ferrell and
Speaker 2: Tina or somebody and Bowen Yang? Like how do you
Speaker 2: handle that? Who gets to say it?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: Where do you give the honor to one person? Do
Speaker 2: two hundred people come out on the stage and say? Like,
Speaker 2: how do you even produce that show? It's one thing
Speaker 2: to be like, Okay, Gary Krueger stand in the back.
Speaker 2: That's fine, and we understand that part of it. But yeah,
Speaker 2: what a show that's going to be and an absolute
Speaker 2: must watch.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And Lauren, whether you don't like, I think SNL
Speaker 1: is suffering from a little bit of what's going on
Speaker 1: in the culture here. I've jokingly called again the American
Speaker 1: election the bud Light election. Where you've got this sort
Speaker 1: of just like with bud Light, you've got a sort
Speaker 1: of silent majority that sits there and when something happens,
Speaker 1: they react. I think SNL has been trying to figure
Speaker 1: out its tone as to what should we be putting
Speaker 1: out there, and I think this season, because of me,
Speaker 1: you're talking, it's SNL fifty and the ratings are at
Speaker 1: a place where it's okay, is the tone exactly what
Speaker 1: everyone is looking for because the ratings have been soft.
Speaker 1: I don't think SNL fifty is going to be soft,
Speaker 1: by the way, and I don't think SNL fifty is
Speaker 1: going to have a political tone or leaning. I think
Speaker 1: it's going to be a historical look, which is why
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be such an almost a
Speaker 1: refreshing show because it's not going to be about social
Speaker 1: commentary in any way. And I think that might be
Speaker 1: something that they're wrestling with right now. I think that
Speaker 1: might be I didn't want to call it a growing
Speaker 1: pin because they're grown, but it might be a little
Speaker 1: bit of a struggle that they're having right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have found this season weird. So season forty
Speaker 2: nine was not good, ye, Season fifty has leaned into
Speaker 2: this weirdness I'm finding now again I'm a podcaster of
Speaker 2: the basement and LORDE. Michaels is Lord Michaels. So again
Speaker 2: I bend the knee. Loren, you clearly know what you're
Speaker 2: doing and I don't, yep.
Speaker 1: But as a watcher, yeah, as the audience, and I
Speaker 1: think the audience has a this is why podcasting has
Speaker 1: blown up. The audience gets to speak back sometimes.
Speaker 2: What is the point in season fifty of Dana Carvey
Speaker 2: opening the show as.
Speaker 1: The church lady? What is the point of that?
Speaker 2: He wasn't the guest host, It was just and Dana
Speaker 2: Carvey's sort of on the cast? Now, what is the
Speaker 2: point of having Jim Gaffigan play Governor Wallas? Was Jim
Speaker 2: Gaffigan good at it? Absolutely? But is that such a
Speaker 2: complicated impression that nobody on the current cast could take
Speaker 2: that on? Like, I don't understand the creative choices of
Speaker 2: not using the current cast because you're not building stars.
Speaker 2: So a year from now it's going to be SNL
Speaker 2: fifty one. Do you still have jostin Cha? Do you
Speaker 2: still have Bowen Yang? And if you don't have those guys,
Speaker 2: you're in a rebuild year off the big celebration that
Speaker 2: could get ugly really quick.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: The breakout star next one might possibly perhaps be Marcelo Hernandez,
Speaker 2: but I also feel like he does a one note
Speaker 2: character and YE shows.
Speaker 1: Up that Marcelo's funny. But let's see if it, if
Speaker 1: he can evolve or whatever else. What Sherman's my girl?
Speaker 1: I love her.
Speaker 2: I think Sarah Sherman is fantastic, but so let's put
Speaker 2: her in some sketches.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. You don't want The last thing you want
Speaker 1: is to be on that show. Is that is the
Speaker 1: Chris Rock there for three or four years or whatever.
Speaker 1: And I love Chris when he was on the show.
Speaker 1: But then he goes and does the HBO thing. He does.
Speaker 1: What was his big special? I was gonna say, row,
Speaker 1: that's Eddie Murphy and Chris Rocks was bring the paint.
Speaker 1: Was to bring the paint.
Speaker 2: It was bigger and blacker.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he leaves SNL and suddenly, oh my god,
Speaker 1: look at the guy. And you don't want to if
Speaker 1: you're producing that show, you don't want to have too
Speaker 1: many of those people. You want those people to pop
Speaker 1: like Eddie Murphy did while we are actually on the show.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's a fantastic time to be looking at
Speaker 1: all this stuff. Gosh, you and I could do this effortlessly,
Speaker 1: and I love that what happened we talked about what
Speaker 1: were some other things that we.
Speaker 2: Oh, we haven't talked about David Letterman. Isn't this a
Speaker 2: David Letterman podcast?
Speaker 1: It was not.
Speaker 2: I have you ever seen a show?
Speaker 1: You would like it? I'll check it out. I'll check
Speaker 1: it out. I said, I gotta go get a Samsung TV.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I wonder if because on the YouTube channel, I've had
Speaker 1: a couple of people reach out to me and say, hey,
Speaker 1: it seems like on YouTube they did this experiment a
Speaker 1: couple months ago. Or if you looked at the Letterman
Speaker 1: YouTube channel, there was a live tab and you could
Speaker 1: just click it and it was going through a lot
Speaker 1: of these clips, many of which hadn't gone on. I
Speaker 1: wonder if that was a test pattern or a test balloon.
Speaker 1: I should say for the Fast channel. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: interesting to see if they put those back on YouTube again.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's an exclusive thing with Samsung.
Speaker 1: I don't know if some of these other could Roku
Speaker 1: now also say oh, Samsung did it we're gonna sign
Speaker 1: a deal. I don't know if it's exclusive. I didn't
Speaker 1: see that word in any of the press releases this week,
Speaker 1: did you now?
Speaker 2: I didn't you know that they gave it channel one thousand. Yeah,
Speaker 2: says something to me. I know when I was at Serious,
Speaker 2: what channel number you would get would be a massive discussion.
Speaker 2: You have no idea what a big discussion is what
Speaker 2: channel number you get?
Speaker 1: Really?
Speaker 2: Notice, Howard is channel one hundred.
Speaker 1: One hundred and one to one Howard? Yeah, And I
Speaker 1: know that as a Canadian that doesn't even have Serious
Speaker 1: and I know that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that was a discussion as opposed to what's
Speaker 2: the next available channel? Okay, Howard one thirty four? Yeah,
Speaker 2: so that was a thing. So that it's channel one
Speaker 2: thousand makes me think that it's some sort of showcase
Speaker 2: for the Samsung TV product. So I have a Samsung TV.
Speaker 2: There's a button on the remote that will take it
Speaker 2: to those channels. The only time I ever use it
Speaker 2: is when I accidentally hit the wrong button and that
Speaker 2: comes on and then I'm an old man. It takes
Speaker 2: me half an hour to figure how to get out
Speaker 2: of it. PlayStation damn it yeah, And last night I
Speaker 2: was trying to get to the Letterman channel and I
Speaker 2: got to it and I had trouble getting out of it.
Speaker 2: But they did have a showcased in their big advertising carousel,
Speaker 2: So maybe they're trying to draw more attention to using
Speaker 2: those service because there is money in advertising. I don't
Speaker 2: know who sells for them, but as I tell my
Speaker 2: college students and my producers, the answer is always money, right. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I do agree with you that there's a legacy point
Speaker 2: to this, because I've dealt with people in the Hope
Speaker 2: of State, the Cavita State, and those two cases. There
Speaker 2: are definitely legacy parts of let's keep the name out
Speaker 2: of the carson A State as well.
Speaker 1: Yeahsolutely absolutely.
Speaker 2: And you and I've talked to all the same people
Speaker 2: we are referring to here, and it's not a secret.
Speaker 2: I'm not like, oh, don't tell anyone who we were,
Speaker 2: but that's not saying nobody knows who that is. We've
Speaker 2: talked to those guys. So I think there's a legacy
Speaker 2: play here. But fast channels, you can't skip the ads,
Speaker 2: so let's make some money. I don't know, but that
Speaker 2: it's Channel one thousand isn't an accident.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. I totally agree with that also, But
Speaker 1: before we finish too, and I know it's an interesting
Speaker 1: kind of seguey back, but you think about Legacy, who
Speaker 1: also has a fast Channel as Conan O'Brien, he was
Speaker 1: there before hosting the Oscars this year. Really excited about that.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, that guy is he's having
Speaker 1: a tough week, and I just want to throw a
Speaker 1: shout out to Conan O'Brien right now. I can't even
Speaker 1: imagine what he's going through, losing his parents this week
Speaker 1: and within days of each other, and I'm really glad
Speaker 1: that he's hosting the Oscars. I love Conan. I've always
Speaker 1: loved Conan unabashed lee, and I think it seems right
Speaker 1: to me that he's going to host the Oscars. So
Speaker 1: we want to throw love out to him very much.
Speaker 1: So I know both of us feel that way. But
Speaker 1: Conan hosting the Oscars. I love that Kimmel did it.
Speaker 1: I think it's a car I love that Letterman did it,
Speaker 1: of course, unnaturally, love that Dave only did it once.
Speaker 1: Even though people say it was a disaster, it was not.
Speaker 1: It was actually really good. Then they started immediately creating
Speaker 1: the narrative that it was a disaster, which I think
Speaker 1: is charming and very Dave. But I believe Conan. This
Speaker 1: is long overdue. He killed it at the Emmys before.
Speaker 1: I'm excited about Conan doing the Oscars. How about you?
Speaker 2: Yeah, because unlike Dave, where it's Dave's unnatural element, Conan
Speaker 2: will put on a straw hat and perform at a
Speaker 2: live version of Mono Rail became the Sensen sketch and
Speaker 2: walk around and sing and dance, and if he's awkward
Speaker 2: singing and dancing, doesn't care, and he will do that.
Speaker 2: So I think as a performer he'll do really well.
Speaker 2: I think the industry likes him. There aren't anti Conan people.
Speaker 2: He's someone that people root for. He's charming, He's been
Speaker 2: around for thirty years. And then after the first fifteen minutes,
Speaker 2: unless something wacky happens involving Will Smith, the host disappears
Speaker 2: the back end of that show.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Kim Oll a couple of years ago came out
Speaker 1: and did a Trump joke on the fly, which was
Speaker 1: clearly written during the show. I'll be very interested to
Speaker 1: see if Conan's sitting there with Smigel and somehow, some
Speaker 1: way they can figure out a way to add and
Speaker 1: not necessarily political necessary, but something that would be very
Speaker 1: current in that moment and spontaneity which Conan is of
Speaker 1: course very good at. If you watch him in front
Speaker 1: of some of these crowd that he would perform. He
Speaker 1: he'd go to Comic Con every year and do a
Speaker 1: show there, and the spontaneity that would happen there obviously
Speaker 1: also very let him and ask let him and used
Speaker 1: to add spotan eighty to his programs. It would be
Speaker 1: very cool to add some of that to what could
Speaker 1: be a very dull show. I've loved episodes of the Oscars.
Speaker 1: I have loathed episodes of the Oscars. I believe that
Speaker 1: the DAC is stacked for this to be a love.
Speaker 2: I would caution Conan and smile. I come at this.
Speaker 2: I come at this as a strategist, not from a
Speaker 2: political angle. If we look at the recent election cycle, yep,
Speaker 2: factually Trump won. Yep, that's just a fact. I may
Speaker 2: like him, you may like him, you may not. So
Speaker 2: somebody out there is a fan of Trump, generally profiling
Speaker 2: the stereotypical Hollywood celebrity, the stereotypical Hollywood celebrity. I think
Speaker 2: if you walk down the street, most people would be like, oh,
Speaker 2: they're Democrats. Okay, fine, Yes, So if you on the
Speaker 2: fly start making Trump jokes during the Oscars, yes, you're
Speaker 2: playing to the room. You will kill in the room. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but do you kill at home? And then my question
Speaker 2: is a strategist on a celebration of the Academy Awards,
Speaker 2: why are you even going there make a joke about
Speaker 2: Tom Cruise?
Speaker 1: Yeah? And that's where I was talking about. I wasn't
Speaker 1: talking about the topic so much. I was more I
Speaker 1: just really was impressed with when Kimmel came out and
Speaker 1: it was a it was something that was done kind
Speaker 1: of real time because he was responding to something that
Speaker 1: was happening in real time and you could tell it
Speaker 1: was spontaneous. And that's more the spirit of what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about, exactly. If it's something about one of the
Speaker 1: biggest stars in the audience and something they're wearing or
Speaker 1: something they're doing, something that you can tell wasn't canned.
Speaker 1: And Conan is very good at that, and I hope
Speaker 1: he does that when he does host the Oscars. That's
Speaker 1: gonna be a lot of fun. I hope he's parted
Speaker 1: at SSNL fifty as well.
Speaker 2: By the way, Yeah, when I say make a joke
Speaker 2: about Tom Cruse too, I don't me say make a
Speaker 2: mean joke about Tom Cruise. You'll make a joke about
Speaker 2: his love of doing stunts, or how are you so
Speaker 2: handsome at sixty one sixty two? Or you have great hair?
Speaker 2: Or I love your smile. You make that kind of joke.
Speaker 2: This is not a roast. This is not Ricky Gervai's
Speaker 2: the Golden Globes. This is the Academy Awards. Go down
Speaker 2: the middle. Here are some films we all liked. Let's
Speaker 2: celebrate them, Let's do some light jokes. Let's get out
Speaker 2: of here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I love that we can do this, but
Speaker 1: maybe we finish on Nicki. I'm excited Nicki is hosting
Speaker 1: the Golden Globes. I hope that they let Nikki be
Speaker 1: Nicky the way they used to let Ricky be Ricky.
Speaker 1: That is what my hope is. Watching the commercials for
Speaker 1: it and the promos for it, I'm just shaking my head, going, oh,
Speaker 1: I feel like they're putting Nicki in a cage. I
Speaker 1: hope that they don't do that for the actual broadcast,
Speaker 1: because the Golden Globes can be one of those shows
Speaker 1: that steals the show when it comes to awards, award
Speaker 1: banquets as well.
Speaker 2: I think a very big key there is the room.
Speaker 2: So she's been doing comedy on Thursday night football to
Speaker 2: buy football announcers, and she sounds like she's bombing. Whether
Speaker 2: or not the writing is good or she's delivering it,
Speaker 2: she sounds like she's bombing. So back to my friend
Speaker 2: Joe Cooi. I'm not his friend, but back to Joe Cooy.
Speaker 2: In the recurring bit, Joe Koy told a joke that's
Speaker 2: pretty good. The only difference between the NFL and the
Speaker 2: Golden Globes is we have fewer pictures of Taylor Swift.
Speaker 2: That's the joke. And then they cut to Taylor, who
Speaker 2: either could have went and I'm making for those listening
Speaker 2: on audio, I'm smiling and holding up a drake. She
Speaker 2: could have done this. Instead, she gave a stoneface and
Speaker 2: killed the room. Taylor Swift killed the room. Swifty's come
Speaker 2: at me. Taylor Swift killed the room. So if NICKI
Speaker 2: gets up there, and I've read some interviews with her,
Speaker 2: she is aware that America doesn't know who she is,
Speaker 2: so she's got to win America over quickly. She's aware
Speaker 2: that she's not one of them Hollywinterers, yep, so she's
Speaker 2: got to win them over. So if she tells a
Speaker 2: joke and it lands and the room is loose and
Speaker 2: she's getting laughs, I think she can crush. But if
Speaker 2: she runs into an audience like the Thursday night football crowd,
Speaker 2: it could be a challenge for the same reason it
Speaker 2: was a challenge for Joe. Yeah, I think she's gonna crush. Oh.
Speaker 1: I love hearing you say that. It gives me the goosebumps.
Speaker 1: I hope she does. I hope it's an elevation for her.
Speaker 1: I really do. Yes, I'm a Nicki Glazer fan. And
Speaker 1: when you know her story again, go back if you
Speaker 1: listen to any of the time she's been on some
Speaker 1: of these shows, Rogan, I mean one of them. Her
Speaker 1: story is unbelievable, and to see her where she is now,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of fun. I'm a big fan of that.
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of you. I'm really grateful that
Speaker 1: we've made this connection, and I hope that our paths
Speaker 1: cross more and more. I know they're certainly going to
Speaker 1: I hope that also that we're coming up to the
Speaker 1: ten year anniversary of Dave calling it quits on Late Show.
Speaker 1: That's happening within the next six months. The ten year
Speaker 1: anniversary is going to be happening. We're doing some special
Speaker 1: stuff on this show to commemorate that. And again, you're
Speaker 1: a friend of the show. So thank you so so
Speaker 1: much for coming on here again. John. I appreciate that
Speaker 1: you're in my life. Brother.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for having me on again. Like I told you,
Speaker 2: I'll be your Tony Randall. Anytime somebody cancels hit me up.
Speaker 1: It's going to be a lot more than that, although
Speaker 1: that is charming nonetheless, of course this has been great
Speaker 1: Daily Comedy News and not okay, hold on Daily Comedy News,
Speaker 1: but also you've got the Good News podcast as well,
Speaker 1: and the meditation one is what I love what you're doing.
Speaker 1: You got your little podcast network there, deep podcast network.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about that and promote that a little bit too.
Speaker 2: Sure, so Daily Comedy News, I think we've covered what
Speaker 2: I might be doing on that one. I also host
Speaker 2: one called five Good News Stories. Yes, it's inspired by
Speaker 2: what Krasinski did during the pandemic and also inspired by
Speaker 2: it was my wife's idea. So it's a short show.
Speaker 2: I do five new stories that are all good news
Speaker 2: or smile stories, or as we used to call them
Speaker 2: in radio, kicker stories. So I'm not going to tell
Speaker 2: you about the horrible murder. I'm going to tell you
Speaker 2: about the wacky Guinness record and the dog that came
Speaker 2: home from four thousand miles away, and what the scientists
Speaker 2: are up to. And the format behind the scenes is
Speaker 2: the first and fifth story tend to be quirky, some
Speaker 2: science in the middle. I limited to one. I really
Speaker 2: could every episode could be and another dog found its
Speaker 2: way home, and then this other dog. So I try
Speaker 2: to do one animal story, maybe one science, two quirky ones,
Speaker 2: and then whatever fits my mood. So number five, five
Speaker 2: good news stories is the name of that show.
Speaker 1: Off best.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we have all five Minutes of Gratitude, which is
Speaker 2: my Wednesday Friday and just a quick show. I don't
Speaker 2: host that one, but my company produces it. Five minutes
Speaker 2: of Gratitude and just get up and think about like,
Speaker 2: all right, things are okay, here's something to be thoughtful about,
Speaker 2: and then go about your day.
Speaker 1: My men's mental wellness podcast that I host very quickly,
Speaker 1: a couple of themes came up. We're one hundred and
Speaker 1: I forget how many episodes, well over one hundred episodes
Speaker 1: in that thing, and a few themes came up with
Speaker 1: guys who are talking about their mental wellness and sometimes
Speaker 1: struggles and victories and all that sort of stuff. And
Speaker 1: one of the themes that very quickly came up is
Speaker 1: that the antidote for many of these things that we
Speaker 1: go through is anxiety and things like that is gratefulness.
Speaker 1: And the thing I love about your podcast unlike this one,
Speaker 1: really short, really sweet, You get the points immediately, and
Speaker 1: it really does affect the way that you're viewing the day.
Speaker 1: And I love that, whether it is talking about comedy,
Speaker 1: whether it is hearing these good news stories, because there's
Speaker 1: a lot of good that goes on the world. Much
Speaker 1: of it, unfortunately, just doesn't get publicize the way that
Speaker 1: it probably should, and gratefulness is a huge one. I
Speaker 1: wanted to ask you what was the so you guys
Speaker 1: produce it, what was the genesis? Where did it come from?
Speaker 1: I've wanted to ask you that for the last month.
Speaker 2: The Gratitude podcast. Yeah, yeah, real answer, Yeah, we're podcast business, yep.
Speaker 2: Five Good News Stories was doing really well, and we
Speaker 2: brainstormed and said, what else could we do that people
Speaker 2: might like? And candidly, we could make some money doing Sure,
Speaker 2: it's the podcast business.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: Like I tell my audience daily coming news. Look, I
Speaker 2: like talking about comedy.
Speaker 1: It's fun.
Speaker 2: I also run commercials and it pays my mortgage. It's that.
Speaker 2: That's why I do the show. Otherwise I would just
Speaker 2: email you and be like, hey, did you watch that?
Speaker 2: And get that out and get it out of my system.
Speaker 2: But yeah, we were just five Good News Stories started
Speaker 2: to do really well and we thought, okay, what's been
Speaker 2: the same lane that we could do? And that's where
Speaker 2: that came from.
Speaker 1: Oh, there we go, and it's awesome. It's water in
Speaker 1: the desert for a lot of people, and I just
Speaker 1: I'm really excited and I'm grateful for your gratefulness podcast.
Speaker 1: We love it. I've talked about the same trust promotion.
Speaker 1: I would, oh would love to do that.
Speaker 2: To do it well, email we won't bore the listeners.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll do that. I just appreciate you very much,
Speaker 1: thanks for coming on the Letterman podcast, and thank you
Speaker 1: for doing everything that you do.
Speaker 2: Thank you Mike Chisholm, host of The Letterman Podcast. Thank
Speaker 2: you so much for having me on. That was a
Speaker 2: lot of fun to record, but we didn't plan it
Speaker 2: at all. And at the end he hit stopped and
Speaker 2: I'm like, how long did we go? Like an hour
Speaker 2: and a half? And yes, an hour and a half. Anyway,
Speaker 2: happy to your normal episode tomorrow, See you then,