Speaker 1: Callaroga Shark Media. He there, Johnny Mack with your daily
Speaker 1: comedy news. Jim Jeffries told Rolling Stone, New Zealand. I'm
Speaker 1: very interested in doing as many different things in entertainment
Speaker 1: as possible. I like a challenge, I like doing something new.
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's a stand up comic from
Speaker 1: Australia who's had a more diverse career, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. I think of myself like I'm an entertainer
Speaker 1: more than a comedian. Jim studied musical theater and opera
Speaker 1: at the West Australian Academy Performing Arts. Who knew He
Speaker 1: did a couple open Mike's spots in Western Australia and Sydney,
Speaker 1: and then decided Australia simply wasn't equipped to give him
Speaker 1: the career he envisioned. He wanted more, Jim said, you had,
Speaker 1: and I'm not kidding, maybe twelve rooms, two purpose built
Speaker 1: comedy clubs and ten rooms that did comedy occasionally in
Speaker 1: a country that at that stage was twenty million people.
Speaker 1: That's not enough to make a living. Even to this day.
Speaker 1: If you're a big comic on Australia, you're doing morning radio.
Speaker 1: I don't want to wake up in the morning. So
Speaker 1: in two thousand and one he went to England started
Speaker 1: getting work and said, I was doing over three hundred
Speaker 1: IT shows a year for the first few years, and
Speaker 1: that sounds like a lot more than it is, because
Speaker 1: I was doing three or four on a Friday, three
Speaker 1: or four on a Saturday. But if there was a
Speaker 1: corner of a room for me to stand up, I
Speaker 1: was taking the opportunity smile politely. He spoke to Hari Condobolu.
Speaker 1: They were curious about his pop culture references in his shows,
Speaker 1: and Harry said, I've been waiting for somebody to ask
Speaker 1: that question my whole career. I'm a full human being,
Speaker 1: and I felt like at a certain point, looking at
Speaker 1: my stand up, probably when I was in my mid
Speaker 1: dely twenties, I realized that I'm doing this job, but
Speaker 1: I'm not in it, you know what I mean. It's
Speaker 1: almost like I'm playing a role and I'm not into it.
Speaker 1: To make this material, mind have to be in it.
Speaker 1: People have to see me as a full human being.
Speaker 1: So why don't I talk about the other things I
Speaker 1: care about to find interesting? A five minute Weezer joke
Speaker 1: which doesn't seem to fit in anywhere else, but it's me.
Speaker 1: As long as there's enough for everybody. I feel like
Speaker 1: those moments are really special. They're both something I find
Speaker 1: funny and also wink to the other people who love
Speaker 1: those things. It makes me feel part of a community
Speaker 1: in a weird way, a community of fans. The goal
Speaker 1: is not to be pandery. The goal is to be like,
Speaker 1: I'm this too. When I drop a Pixie's reference is
Speaker 1: because I want people to know that I love the Pixies.
Speaker 1: I think, from a practical perspective, the more you personalize
Speaker 1: a show, both in terms of a shared moment in
Speaker 1: this town, in the space of the audience, as well
Speaker 1: as this is my family, this is my world. These
Speaker 1: are things I like. When you talk about the heavier stuff,
Speaker 1: you're hearing it from somebody you relate to, as opposed
Speaker 1: to some stranger that shows up and starts yelling at you.
Speaker 1: The more you can become friends with the audience, connect
Speaker 1: to the audience, the more they're willing to listen to
Speaker 1: things that might be uncomfortable. This is really smart. The
Speaker 1: audience is a reflection of me. In a weird way.
Speaker 1: You look out of the crowd, and you see all
Speaker 1: these people you could protest with, go to a concert with,
Speaker 1: talk baseball with, it's the same people. It makes the
Speaker 1: audience feel like we're all friends you just haven't met yet.
Speaker 1: Jim Brewer is out on the Survival with Laughter tour.
Speaker 1: Al dot Com was curious why that name, and Jim said,
Speaker 1: it's pretty simple. It's gonna be the craziest few weeks
Speaker 1: probably I've seen a long time. Can't get much crazier
Speaker 1: than four years ago. So no matter who he feels right,
Speaker 1: or who you believe in, or what team you've joined,
Speaker 1: ain't nobody surviving this one unless we unite, and we
Speaker 1: got to start by funding the laughter and all of it.
Speaker 1: As for doing political material, Bruce says, the only way
Speaker 1: I know is to bring it down to as common
Speaker 1: street sense as possible, so that no matter what you think,
Speaker 1: you believe that you've learned from the news and all
Speaker 1: your favorite slow and all the favorite things you like
Speaker 1: to talk about your opponent, he didn't create any of that.
Speaker 1: You've been told that. So to find the common sense,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not even political. But if you want
Speaker 1: to start with Joe Biden, would you allow the CEO
Speaker 1: of your company to talk the way he does and
Speaker 1: ramble and not know what he's doing. You're gonna let
Speaker 1: that guy run the biggest company in the world. Why
Speaker 1: don'd you allow it in your presidency? So right there,
Speaker 1: the whole things are ready to choke. What do you
Speaker 1: get into in your shows these days? Brewer? Usually the
Speaker 1: first ten to fifteen minutes is please everyone wake up,
Speaker 1: and then after that we talk about other things, like
Speaker 1: the way I've been hitting other cultures and going to
Speaker 1: other countries, and then I go into family stuff and
Speaker 1: where I'm met in life, we all do fast things.
Speaker 1: We're like, oh, let's have a fast on sugar, Let's
Speaker 1: have a fast on food. How about you have a
Speaker 1: fast on everything you've been watching and see how it does.
Speaker 1: And That's what I've been doing. When I've been traveling.
Speaker 1: I like to go to remote places. I've been in
Speaker 1: Africa three times this year. Yes, for the SA Far East,
Speaker 1: but it's also one of the most peaceful places I've
Speaker 1: ever been to because I don't have to stare at
Speaker 1: the screen the whole time, and then when I come back,
Speaker 1: I realize how nutty everything is. David Cross said, I
Speaker 1: don't live in Los Angeles. I lived there for as
Speaker 1: little time as I possibly could, and then get out
Speaker 1: of there. I've been in New York for twenty four years.
Speaker 1: I see things every day. I talk about things extensively
Speaker 1: that have happened to me in New York. Things I
Speaker 1: see in New York are things I experience in New York.
Speaker 1: And I'm a firm believer in that LA makes you
Speaker 1: a different person. Whether that's better or worse is relative,
Speaker 1: but it's certainly not better for me. As an artist,
Speaker 1: Cross played Central Park. It was called David Cross in
Speaker 1: his Superpals. Cross said the summer stage thing. They approached
Speaker 1: me about this big show and said here's the budget,
Speaker 1: and I don't want it with that chunk of money.
Speaker 1: And I don't think I'm at the place where I
Speaker 1: can do an hour and a half by myself, at
Speaker 1: least when I accepted the offer. So I said, let's
Speaker 1: get some friends together and we'll divvy up a check. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: I got rained out on the original date. We lost
Speaker 1: literally half the lineup, but we replaced those guys. Outdoor
Speaker 1: shows bring a challenge, he says. I've done a bunch
Speaker 1: of outside shows, and I think every comic will say
Speaker 1: the same thing. You can kind of figure out why
Speaker 1: there's not a lot of time for silence, like in
Speaker 1: the theater and the focus on you it's dark. You
Speaker 1: can tell a story you want up telling jokes differently
Speaker 1: when you're doing an outdoor show, at least I do.
Speaker 1: CNN wrote about Don't Tell Comedy. I'm only seeing great
Speaker 1: things about Don't Tell Comedy. Lea Samson was about to
Speaker 1: give up comedy and then got booked to do a
Speaker 1: shit Don't Tell in La. Then Don't Tell Comedy posted
Speaker 1: her full set on YouTube along with a clip on TikTok. Overnight,
Speaker 1: her Instagram follower count doubled. The TikTok had four million views.
Speaker 1: Eight hundred thousand people have seen the full ten minutes
Speaker 1: set on YouTube. Samson said, I've always felt like I've
Speaker 1: been a really good comic, a hard worker, and I
Speaker 1: just needed people to see me, and Don't Tell did
Speaker 1: that for me. At a recent show in Atlanta, one
Speaker 1: hundred and forty nine people packed into a basement boxing
Speaker 1: gym to see seven local comedians perform. Rather than hoping
Speaker 1: a clip post on TikTok blows up, Don't Tell gives
Speaker 1: comedians access to a built in audience on social media.
Speaker 1: Don't Tell founder Kyle Kazanjian Amri says, the tough thing
Speaker 1: in comedy is you're either living in a multimillion dollar house,
Speaker 1: so you're scraping by to pay rent. The pathway to
Speaker 1: make money as flipped, comedians have to develop and nurture
Speaker 1: their fan bases through other avenues like a podcast or newsletter,
Speaker 1: so fans want to buy tickets to see them perform.
Speaker 1: But the idea of comedians having fans as a relatively
Speaker 1: new phenomenon, the article points out in the past, sure
Speaker 1: there was Jerry Seinfeld, but for the most part, comedians
Speaker 1: were just some name on a Friday night at the
Speaker 1: comedy club. Comedian Grace Johnson says Don't Tell right now
Speaker 1: stands out as one of the premier places to go
Speaker 1: for comedy and the way that Comedy Central has been
Speaker 1: especially as someone who's been doing it for a shorter
Speaker 1: time than others, it's been a really legitimizing thing. Don't Tell.
Speaker 1: It doesn't care how many Instagram followers you have. They
Speaker 1: just care that you're funny. Johnson said. The secret sauce
Speaker 1: of Don't Tell is just like is it good? Okay?
Speaker 1: Sabrina Bryer is one of Vulture's comedians you should know
Speaker 1: and will know. Worst show first. Then one that comes
Speaker 1: to mind is a small show I did in Brooklyn
Speaker 1: with friends. I'm pretty sure there were more performers there
Speaker 1: than audience members. One by one, my friends and I
Speaker 1: got up on stage four sets and just reacted to
Speaker 1: the super awkward energy in the room. Do you have
Speaker 1: any comedy opinion hills that you will die on? She said,
Speaker 1: I really believe that the innovative creativity of TikTok and
Speaker 1: other more unconventional platforms and ways of entertaining should be
Speaker 1: just as valued as the conventional modes. Great comedy can
Speaker 1: be found anywhere. Best comedy advice, worst comedy advice, best.
Speaker 1: In the beginning of my TikTok journey, there were some
Speaker 1: people who suggest that I step out of my character
Speaker 1: for video, and I'm so glad I stuck to my
Speaker 1: gut and didn't. I'm so grateful for the platform. It's
Speaker 1: a totally fictional world for me to play in. Best
Speaker 1: advice I got from my mom, who told me to
Speaker 1: keep pursuing comedy because, according to her, you have to
Speaker 1: be in comedy because you can't help but be funny.
Speaker 1: That's why I've been laughing at you since you were little.
Speaker 1: That is your comedy needs for today. If you would
Speaker 1: like the show without commercials, there's a link in the
Speaker 1: show notes so to tell you what to do. Or
Speaker 1: if you're an Apple podcast, click on that banner four
Speaker 1: ninety nine a month you get this show and five
Speaker 1: good news stories and a bunch of other things. Ballot,
Speaker 1: you get Ballot our political podcast. You get that the
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Speaker 1: on the banner thirty day free trial. Why wouldn't you
Speaker 1: try it out for thirty days? Well, because you have
Speaker 1: an Android phone. In that case, you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: click the link on the show notes and on the androids.
Speaker 1: No thirty day free trial. Sorry, Apple hooks it up.
Speaker 1: I don't know what to tell you. It's you tomorrow.