Speaker 1: Calorokashock Media. Hey there, I'm Johnny Mack with your daily
Speaker 1: comedy news. Is gonna lead off today taking a look
Speaker 1: at Vulture's best comedy specials of twenty twenty five. I
Speaker 1: usually don't agree with them. It doesn't mean that I'm
Speaker 1: right and there wrong, or they're right and I'm wrong.
Speaker 1: It's just a list. My list is just a list.
Speaker 1: I will have my list for you on Saturday if
Speaker 1: you're new to the show. When I do these list episodes,
Speaker 1: when I'm commenting on other people's lists, I don't look
Speaker 1: at them in advance. I like to react in the
Speaker 1: moment to things so twofold from my own list. I
Speaker 1: want to make sure I didn't forget anything. And a
Speaker 1: good way to make sure you don't forget anything is
Speaker 1: to look at someone else's list. So we'll jump in
Speaker 1: the pool here. There are so many comedy specials I clearly,
Speaker 1: and if you listen to your list, I don't see
Speaker 1: them all. If you include the YouTube quote unquote specials
Speaker 1: recorded to the chuckle hut, forget it, you'd never get
Speaker 1: through it all. I do try to watch the majors
Speaker 1: on the bigger streamers. So let's see what Vulture likes here,
Speaker 1: and they probably got some screeners that I haven't been
Speaker 1: able to get access to. I tried to reach out
Speaker 1: to the HBO people to get a couple things and
Speaker 1: just couldn't get anywhere. It's so hard to even get
Speaker 1: through to a human. There was one website I was on.
Speaker 1: It was like, who's recommending you to even log into
Speaker 1: this press website? I was like, all right, relax, relax.
Speaker 1: Vulture writes many of this year's best comedy special share
Speaker 1: a reflective sense of mid career reconsideration. The most striking
Speaker 1: of these is from Kamil Nanjianni, whose special Night Thoughts
Speaker 1: allows him to reassess his career and relationship with comedy
Speaker 1: after more than a decade away from regular stand up. Okay,
Speaker 1: here's a perfect example of what I'm talking about. It's
Speaker 1: on Hulu and it's not out till December nineteenth, and
Speaker 1: as we all know, the Hulu publicists will not get
Speaker 1: back to me. So that's a good example of something
Speaker 1: that's on a list that I haven't seen. Apparently it's
Speaker 1: pretty good, according to Vulture, they write for other comedians.
Speaker 1: The retrospective meditation is about grappling with existential dread rather
Speaker 1: than non Gianni's focus on the trap of his external
Speaker 1: public persona. They name check specials by Berbiglia, Maren Cameron, Esposito,
Speaker 1: Bill Burr. Then they write Otsko at Kotska's Father on Earthquakes,
Speaker 1: joke telling Business are also reflections on their comedic identities,
Speaker 1: but they operate without the same wistful existentialism. Meanwhile, Steph
Speaker 1: Tolev's filth Queen and Jordan Jensen's Take Me with You,
Speaker 1: or a matched pair of specials on human debasement. Let's
Speaker 1: jump in all right, they have at number ten Jordan
Speaker 1: Jensen's Take Me with You from Netflix. They write, no
Speaker 1: other comedy special this year accomplishes quite the same mixture
Speaker 1: of emotion that Jordan Jensen's does. Jordan's appeal is how
Speaker 1: transparent she can make the glass while peering into her
Speaker 1: own brain, and there's no question that what's going on
Speaker 1: in there is darker than most other comedians work right now,
Speaker 1: up to and including Bill Burr's lengthy thoughts on death.
Speaker 1: Now I'm checking my notes. I feel like I had
Speaker 1: hit play on this and bailed on it. But I
Speaker 1: also have in my best of list. Personally, I have
Speaker 1: a section called not on list, and I don't see
Speaker 1: that I wrote this down. I do think I hit
Speaker 1: play on it and wasn't feeling it again, these are
Speaker 1: just list so vultures. Number ten as Jordan Jensen's Take
Speaker 1: Me with You. I've added it to my list of
Speaker 1: things to put eyes on. At number nine, they have
Speaker 1: earthquakes joke telling Business. I did not hit play on that.
Speaker 1: You'll find that on Netflix. Just earthquakes not really my thing.
Speaker 1: They write catchphrases or a high wire act. They deliberately
Speaker 1: swim upstream against the current fashion for naturalism and stand
Speaker 1: up sets. But the catchphrase in Earthquakes Joke Telling Business
Speaker 1: is really canny. As he talks about his family, black fatherhood,
Speaker 1: marriage and immigration politics, he keeps inserting the same pivot
Speaker 1: line between each section. These ain't jokes. Number eight Ian
Speaker 1: Edwards untitled on YouTube. Okay, see, I'm glad I'm doing
Speaker 1: this list. This was not on my radar at all.
Speaker 1: Great and I love this description. Ian Edwards reinvents no
Speaker 1: comedy wheels in untitled. This is a YouTube special shot
Speaker 1: at the comedy store where a guy stands next to
Speaker 1: a stool tells jokes about relationships hotel check in lines
Speaker 1: and gender reveal parties. I will add that to my
Speaker 1: checkout list. Good job so far. Vulture. Number seven, they
Speaker 1: have Bill Burr's Drop Dead Years. Absolutely no, it's Bill
Speaker 1: Burr's worst special. I'm not even going to couch. It
Speaker 1: is not his best, it's his worst. This is a
Speaker 1: bad pick. This is one of the specials that makes
Speaker 1: me say, Hulu is where you go to do your
Speaker 1: comedy special when you're on the way down. So that
Speaker 1: could be a warning for Kamil Nan Johnny as well.
Speaker 1: I can't agree with you here on Bill Burr Vulture Road.
Speaker 1: Is there anything better, sharper, more ticklish, or more thrilling
Speaker 1: than Bill Burr doing comedy about he's slowly realizing that
Speaker 1: he and everyone else will eventually die. Yeah, I can
Speaker 1: name twenty five other specials this year that's better than that. Sorry,
Speaker 1: I normally like Bill Burr specials. When that one. Number six,
Speaker 1: they have Otsko at Kotska's Father on Hulu. I think
Speaker 1: I have that one in my middle tier. I mean check, yes,
Speaker 1: I have that as number two in my middle tier.
Speaker 1: And again I'll do my list next weekend. It's on Hulu.
Speaker 1: I liked Otsco's previous special better than this one. That
Speaker 1: seems to be the theme that I find with Hulari's specials.
Speaker 1: They did pull out the best joke in the set,
Speaker 1: which always seems to get pulled out. Otsco tells it better,
Speaker 1: but she says, I asked my husband how to turn
Speaker 1: on the washing machine, and that's how he realized that
Speaker 1: he'd been doing the laundry all these years, which is
Speaker 1: a great joke. And I got to take a break
Speaker 1: at some point, so halfway seems to make sense. Be
Speaker 1: right back. Taking a look at Vulture's Best comedy Specials
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty five, at number five, they have Mark
Speaker 1: Maren's Panicked, which I'm I'm gonna have at number one.
Speaker 1: I don't see what's going to pass this. This is
Speaker 1: peak Mark Marin was an HBO special. Vulture Rights. It's
Speaker 1: not exactly Mark Maron's fault that he's become such a
Speaker 1: great comedian for this moment in history. At another time,
Speaker 1: a perpetually anxious comedian who can't keep from ranting about
Speaker 1: his paranoid worries about the end of the world probably
Speaker 1: would not feel like such a helpful guide to life.
Speaker 1: Maren's new special speaks to a national mood better than
Speaker 1: anyone else this year. I wonder why they have this
Speaker 1: so low. Number four, Cameron Esposito has Four Pills. I
Speaker 1: do like Cameron a lot, but this one is on
Speaker 1: dropout and I don't have dropout, so I haven't seen it.
Speaker 1: Vulture says, calling Four Pills a special about the pandemic
Speaker 1: is unfair. Cameron's New Hours about marriage, divorce to Spare
Speaker 1: ag retrieval's mental health, and what it's like to discover
Speaker 1: things about yourself after the age of forty. Number three,
Speaker 1: they have Mike Birbigli as the Good Life. I don't
Speaker 1: really dig what Birbiglia does. I do have it in
Speaker 1: my middle tier at number five, and I wrote civilians
Speaker 1: will like it. I'm a comedy snob and I don't
Speaker 1: really like these shows that Birbigley does. It's just not
Speaker 1: my style of thing. I get that people like it.
Speaker 1: These are just lists, but this will not make my
Speaker 1: top ten, Vulture says, given Birbiglia's track record, it's not
Speaker 1: exactly a surprise to turn a New Hour and discover
Speaker 1: a painstakingly crafted meditation on the meaning of life. But
Speaker 1: it's still a magic trick every time it happens, and
Speaker 1: by embracing a more casual mundanity, the good life sneaks
Speaker 1: its way into the top tier of Verbiglia's work. See
Speaker 1: I think that magic trick line. They're saying it as
Speaker 1: a compliment. That's my problem. I just feel like it's
Speaker 1: a performance. And I understand all these things are a performance.
Speaker 1: But like when she and Gillis gets up there and
Speaker 1: I understand these are written jokes and he's performing them, well,
Speaker 1: I just feel like he checking and driving these of
Speaker 1: the room. I always feel like Berbiglia is performing a
Speaker 1: stage played. It's very, very crafted. It's just not my thing,
Speaker 1: but fine. On number two they have stef Toolev's Filth Queen.
Speaker 1: You'll find that on Netflix. I have that in my
Speaker 1: personal not on list section. The title gives it away.
Speaker 1: It's just not my thing. Vulture rights. Filth Queen does
Speaker 1: exactly what it says on the tin. It is proudly
Speaker 1: and thoroughly gross. Steff Toolev catalogs the many horrible qualities
Speaker 1: of the human body with the care and consideration of
Speaker 1: an obsessive collector. Each fort is treasured for its own uniqualities.
Speaker 1: Et cetera, et cetera. Not my thing, not interested in that.
Speaker 1: And they have number one Kamil Nanjianni's Night Thoughts again
Speaker 1: on Hulu December nineteenth. Haven't seen it, Who's not going
Speaker 1: to get back to me? Who knows Vulture rights? He
Speaker 1: probably could have rolled up to an hour long standup
Speaker 1: special taping, delivered a half hearted life update, and walked
Speaker 1: away mostly on scathe. Instead. Night Thoughts slices deep into
Speaker 1: his last decade, carefully excavating how fame in the public
Speaker 1: eye have changed how he sees himself. Vulture has some
Speaker 1: other how many highlights from the year. They have listed
Speaker 1: Brent Weinbach's Popular Culture on YouTube, Rosebud Baker's The Mother
Speaker 1: Load on Netflix, and Roywood Junior's Lonely Flowers are the
Speaker 1: other three they spotlighted. Now, if you're relatively new to
Speaker 1: the show, I could totally fairly imagine you right now going, John,
Speaker 1: do you even watch comedy specials? Because I mentioned I
Speaker 1: didn't see a lot of the ones that Vulture liked,
Speaker 1: I'll fly down my list really quickly. Right now. I
Speaker 1: have it as Marin, Kevin Hart, Riife, Jim Jeffries, Justin
Speaker 1: Willman's Magic Lover, John Marco, Moe Ammer, Dusty Slay, Kreischer,
Speaker 1: Brett Goldstein, remember that one was real good. Michelle Wolf,
Speaker 1: Sarah Silverman, Matt McCusker, Mattelane, and Tim Dillon would be
Speaker 1: my fifteen top right now, and then I've got nine
Speaker 1: more in my middle tier and a whole bunch on
Speaker 1: my no thank you list. But again, I will do
Speaker 1: that next week. It'll be out on my substack, and
Speaker 1: it'll be an episode or two in this feed. And
Speaker 1: that is your comedy news on a Sunday. Have a
Speaker 1: great day.