Speaker 1: Callaroga Shark Media. Hello, I'm Jenni Mack with your daily
Speaker 1: comedy news. Bert Kreischer's specialist on Netflix Today. It is
Speaker 1: called Lucky, and Bert says, I'm a glass half full
Speaker 1: m er. I feel very lucky to be alive and
Speaker 1: working at this point, he told Variety when asked about
Speaker 1: the state of the industry. TV and movies are about
Speaker 1: to explode in Hollywood in a really fun and crazy way.
Speaker 1: He believes comedians are entering an era of financial independence
Speaker 1: and creative freedom. Dudes, they're already there. Except those Netflix
Speaker 1: paychecks are pretty nice. Let's be honest, Bert, I'm sure
Speaker 1: you could put something up on YouTube, but let's not
Speaker 1: act like we don't like the Netflix paychecks. Bert says,
Speaker 1: it's like the gold rush right now. Look at Hollywood,
Speaker 1: and I see massive opportunities coming around the corner for
Speaker 1: all of us. Be careful. Ask the TV series producers
Speaker 1: what happens when you tear down the establishment. I would
Speaker 1: kiss Netflix as a ring. Bert, be careful. Variety said
Speaker 1: that they noticed watching Bert's special there were shirtless men
Speaker 1: in the audience. Bert said it started happening was doing clubs.
Speaker 1: Dudes ripped the shirts off and watch the whole show shirtless.
Speaker 1: When I did Red Rocks for the third time, we
Speaker 1: had a top off camera that was shooting the way
Speaker 1: they would women ripping their shirts off for a kiss cam.
Speaker 1: We did that for the whole arena tour. We just
Speaker 1: go to big dudes who ripped the shirts off. Not
Speaker 1: one camera ever hit a woman. Bert says, I idolized
Speaker 1: Jimmy Buffett. We'd go to his shows, and there's something
Speaker 1: really cool about getting lost in a group of fans
Speaker 1: seeing them dress up like crazy. Yes, Buffett shows were fun.
Speaker 1: I never thought the thing on have was going to
Speaker 1: be that big, obviously, but it's kind of cool that
Speaker 1: I get a bunch of overweight dudes with body positivity
Speaker 1: ripping their shirts off. These are guys that wear a
Speaker 1: shirt to go swimming, you know. Bert said, I wish
Speaker 1: I knew my brand better. It's hard to see from
Speaker 1: the inside of the forest. I think I give them
Speaker 1: permission to party. That's a good name for tour. Permission
Speaker 1: to party. That's a really good name for tour. I
Speaker 1: think I just named my next tour. I've always been
Speaker 1: the guy who like at the kid's birthday party, the
Speaker 1: dads will come to me and be like, if you
Speaker 1: open a beer, we can all have a beer. I'm
Speaker 1: also unapologetically in love with my wife. Not cheating on
Speaker 1: your wife is cool. My fans are guys who feel
Speaker 1: lucky to have the chick there with, lucky to have
Speaker 1: the life they have, lucky to have the kids they have,
Speaker 1: and that one night is the night to cut loose
Speaker 1: love this interview, we'll pick at this at the next
Speaker 1: few days. The Hollow Reporter caught up with Andrew Schltz.
Speaker 1: So they were talking about audiences and you know, where
Speaker 1: do you steer your comedy and they pointed out in Aperghetzi,
Speaker 1: who subscribes to the steer clear of anything that offends philosophy.
Speaker 1: Andrew said, exactly, But I don't know. Trump is a
Speaker 1: specific thing. There are a lot of people who could
Speaker 1: be critical of platforming somebody like Trump and they say
Speaker 1: they'd never do it. But you also didn't have the
Speaker 1: opportunity to So you really don't know what you do
Speaker 1: until you're given that opportunity. And yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I had three things that I wanted to tell the
Speaker 1: person that might be the leader of the free world.
Speaker 1: They were three things that are important to me. One
Speaker 1: was I wanted him to say on camera that he
Speaker 1: would protect IVF and he did. Another was stopping not
Speaker 1: all the foreign wars, but if there's ones that are
Speaker 1: senseless that are just to line the pockets of the
Speaker 1: military industrial complex, that maybe we could curb that. And
Speaker 1: then the last one was some empathy for illegal immigrants
Speaker 1: that aren't breaking the law, like maybe a pathway to citizenship.
Speaker 1: Doesn't look like you listen to me much on that one.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying I have any impact on him. But
Speaker 1: if you have the opportunity to be impactful and you
Speaker 1: choose not to do it for whatever reason because you're
Speaker 1: concerned about I don't know what your friends or your
Speaker 1: supporters might think, you're allowed to do that. But for me,
Speaker 1: I just thought it was something and I could sleep
Speaker 1: at night doing and I'm proud of myself for doing it.
Speaker 1: I agree with everything he said there. Kelsey Cook spoke
Speaker 1: to Vony Land about the difference between opening for Jim
Speaker 1: Norton at the Wilbur and headlining the Wilbur. She explained
Speaker 1: there's a level of pressure with either situation when opening
Speaker 1: for someone is where you want to make sure you're
Speaker 1: doing your job and setting them up for as much
Speaker 1: success as possible. But there's something extra special about headlining
Speaker 1: because it's your crowd, so there's a little bit more
Speaker 1: built in confidence in a sense that people came to
Speaker 1: see me, to have the chance to be at the
Speaker 1: Wilber and have it be my crowd, it's just really cool.
Speaker 1: She talked about her current material and said, I've had
Speaker 1: some things happen last year that I've become part of
Speaker 1: the material in a more natural way. I stopped drinking
Speaker 1: last year, so I talk about being sober, being diagnosed
Speaker 1: with depression, and I go a little bit into my
Speaker 1: mom's dementia. I don't go into it as much as
Speaker 1: I did in market territory, but those themes are sort
Speaker 1: of connected here, and I'm just trying to find the
Speaker 1: silver linings and all of it and bring humor to it.
Speaker 1: I feel really fortunate because the Hustler was received so
Speaker 1: well and that helped my ticket sales boom, and I
Speaker 1: was touring so much and got right to work on
Speaker 1: the next thing and was able to turn around a
Speaker 1: lot of the new material and get it to a
Speaker 1: good place. Was also exciting to have this new added
Speaker 1: fan base for me to work the Mark your Territory
Speaker 1: material out too. That hour gave me more confidence and
Speaker 1: permission to just be myself and talk about the things
Speaker 1: I really wanted to talk about, opening up and talking
Speaker 1: about depression. Especially. It's been cool enough people come up
Speaker 1: to me after shows and thanking me for talking about
Speaker 1: my struggles with it and antidepressants, intrusive thoughts and all that.
Speaker 1: It's definitely not a taboo as a topic as it
Speaker 1: used to be. But I do you hope for anyone
Speaker 1: dealing with any of those issues they can walk away
Speaker 1: feeling seen. Matt Friend tells the Chicago some times, if
Speaker 1: you go see him, it's something for everybody. Old references,
Speaker 1: newer references, everything from Milton Burrel to Timothy Shallamy. Friend
Speaker 1: got famous walking around New York City. He'd encounter celebrities,
Speaker 1: people like John Oliver as a bashi in Madscalco and
Speaker 1: talk show host Andy Cohen. He would take videos of
Speaker 1: himself impersonating them. He'd upload them to TikTok. No celebrities
Speaker 1: he said ever told them to get lost. Matt explains,
Speaker 1: I'm not ambushing people, it's out of respect and admiration.
Speaker 1: And then it kind of organically happens. He can't I
Speaker 1: quite explain how he does what he does. He says,
Speaker 1: I'll walk down the street and King Charles comes out.
Speaker 1: I don't really think about it. It's just sort of
Speaker 1: part of my life. He told a story about meeting
Speaker 1: a representative from the Obama team when a friend was
Speaker 1: in d C for the Correspondence dinner. A few months later,
Speaker 1: Obama's team reached out to meet in Chicago before the DNC.
Speaker 1: Matt says, I'm like freaking out. Suddenly I find myself
Speaker 1: in a room with Obama and I'm doing all the
Speaker 1: greatest hits. It was an insane, insane moment. He's not
Speaker 1: worried about cancel culture. I don't fear that. I just
Speaker 1: do what I always think is right. If you're living
Speaker 1: a life like that, fearful of one side or the other,
Speaker 1: you're not going to go for Michael ian Black sometimes
Speaker 1: gets called a progressive and says, I don't really think
Speaker 1: of myself in those terms. They feel sort of self limiting.
Speaker 1: But anybody who follows me or knows anything about me
Speaker 1: would call me a liberal progressive. Some have called me
Speaker 1: a communist, a term I would not apply to myself.
Speaker 1: He does add that we're living in a fascist healscape.
Speaker 1: We're in a very catastrophic way re examining everything about
Speaker 1: the nation. There's a way to do that. I do
Speaker 1: think we're long overdue for a constitutional convention. I think
Speaker 1: it would be an excellent, excellent exercise for the nation
Speaker 1: to participate in. I think it could have potentially very
Speaker 1: beneficial outcomes if people take it seriously. If you go
Speaker 1: see him these days, he's not going to make fun
Speaker 1: of Trump. He says, give me an Obama, give me
Speaker 1: a Jimmy Carter, give me a Richard Nixon. Richard Nixon
Speaker 1: was funny. Trump not so much. Felipe, as Barza said,
Speaker 1: George Lopez and Paul Ardriguez have always been the coolest
Speaker 1: people to be. They're the kind of people who always
Speaker 1: up my back even though they don't get along. But
Speaker 1: who cares now because I'm friendly with both of them.
Speaker 1: George Lopez took me to World Series Game five against
Speaker 1: the Astros, and we were right behind the Dodger dugout.
Speaker 1: I was high five in Kershoff from my seat. Bro
Speaker 1: Paul Rodriguez gave me good advice twice. He was the
Speaker 1: first comic to give me a lot of money and
Speaker 1: take me on the road. He even bought me a suit.
Speaker 1: Paul Rodriguez taught me this be nice to everybody, because
Speaker 1: you're gonna meet the same people on the way up
Speaker 1: in your career as you will on the way down.
Speaker 1: That was the first thing. When I started. There were
Speaker 1: a lot of Latino comedians who would never play Latin rooms.
Speaker 1: They'd never walk in a room with their whole audience
Speaker 1: was a Mexican American in LA because they wanted to
Speaker 1: cross over to a wider audience. They wanted to perform
Speaker 1: the improv the comedy store of the ice house, so
Speaker 1: they never wanted to go to the East Side to perform.
Speaker 1: They'd go, Now, bro, I don't do those beaner rooms.
Speaker 1: So they lost out on a lot of fans by
Speaker 1: not going to those rooms. Paul Ardriguez. But you know what, man,
Speaker 1: don't worry about crossing over in a mainstream audience or
Speaker 1: white people. If you're funny, like really funny, they'll cross
Speaker 1: over to you. That was the second thing, and that's
Speaker 1: been the model for my career. Moa mayor was recognized
Speaker 1: by the Arab American National Museum. The Mayor of Dearborn
Speaker 1: honored Mo with a framed attribute for his contributions to
Speaker 1: storytelling and representation. The mayor said, the way you've shattered
Speaker 1: stereotypes has opened up doors for us as public servants,
Speaker 1: as people who want to give back to the community.
Speaker 1: Oftentimes it does take the comedian, It does take the
Speaker 1: notable actor. It does take the individual who's speaking to
Speaker 1: our narrative, who understands our narrative because they grew up
Speaker 1: in it, student it and understood better than anyone. So
Speaker 1: on behalf of the entire city of Dearborn. I want
Speaker 1: to say thank you and welcome home. If you watch
Speaker 1: Mo on Netflix, good series, you should watch it. Moe
Speaker 1: is often seen carrying a small bottle of his mother's
Speaker 1: homemade olive oil. Mo explains, some people carry hot sauce,
Speaker 1: I carry olive oil. But beyond that joke, the bottle
Speaker 1: is a symbol of his Palestinian heritage and the traditions
Speaker 1: that anchor him. But toul Azin is a Palistine Nian
Speaker 1: American who grew up in ann Arbor and is a
Speaker 1: fan of Mo, and explains, so often we're depicted so
Speaker 1: negatively in Western media, either our stories about war or
Speaker 1: worthy enemy. But I think this show depicted what it's
Speaker 1: like to grow up with the trauma of understanding the
Speaker 1: family history of occupation in war, but also trying to
Speaker 1: find happiness. You don't see a lot of Arabs and
Speaker 1: popular media being happier laughing, but the show did that
Speaker 1: really well, letting you laugh but also reminding you of
Speaker 1: the struggle, what it means to be Palestinian, but also
Speaker 1: the beauty. The Laughing Buddha Comedy Festival is back for
Speaker 1: its third year. Baby It features the best emerging stand
Speaker 1: up comics in New York City. The festival takes place
Speaker 1: today through Friday, April fourth at the Saint Mark's Comedy Club.
Speaker 1: Laughing Buddha will be giving away more than five thousand
Speaker 1: dollars in cash, including a grand prize of three thousand
Speaker 1: dollars in a year's worth of spots to the winning comedian.
Speaker 1: This year, one hundred and twenty comedians will be chosen
Speaker 1: to showcase a diverse lineup who will compete in front
Speaker 1: of fans, industry pros, and comedy legends. Winners will be
Speaker 1: decided by a panel of judges and audience responses. Each
Speaker 1: show will feature professional hosts and headliners including Jeff Lawrence,
Speaker 1: Kevin Dobrowski, Alexis Carbono, and Moore. Judges will include comedy
Speaker 1: club owners and industry professionals. Eric Walsh won the festival
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four and said winning the festival has
Speaker 1: been a game changer for me. A year of spots
Speaker 1: has been invaluable for developing my material and growing as
Speaker 1: a performer. It was incredibly well organized and gave me
Speaker 1: the opportunity to perform alongside some seriously talented comedians. That
Speaker 1: sounds like a lot of fun and looking ahead, get
Speaker 1: this one on your calendar. Comedy is going to have
Speaker 1: its own film festival. The The inaugural New York Comedy
Speaker 1: Film Festival will take over Asylum, New York City, February
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty six. Write This Down and YCFF celebrates
Speaker 1: both seasoned creators and emerging voices in comedy. The CEOs says,
Speaker 1: when things are going good, people want to laugh. When
Speaker 1: things are going bad, people need to laugh. The festival
Speaker 1: will feature red carpet arrivals, world premiere film screenings, TV pilots,
Speaker 1: original digital content, private parties, and live performances, including a
Speaker 1: special live celebrity tablescript read of a beloved comedy classic.
Speaker 1: It is the New York Comedy Film Festival February fifteenth
Speaker 1: through the twenty second, twenty sixth, and that is your
Speaker 1: comedy news for today. Go watch Bert Chraser. Will you