Daily Comedy News with Johnny Mac

Bill Burr on Finding His Voice, Conan’s Tonight Show Return, and Seth Meyers’ Longer BreaksJohnny Mac shares daily comedy news featuring Rolling Stone’s cover story on Bill Burr and clips where Burr discusses finding his voice, moving away from being “the angry guy,” East Coast vs. West Coast attitudes, and comments related to The Social Reckoning, Aaron Sorkin’s Facebook film starring Burr as investor composite “Charlie,” in theaters October 9. The episode also covers Conan O’Brien returning to The Tonight Show and joking with Jimmy Fallon, plus Conan recounting Johnny Carson’s advice to “be yourself.” Seth Meyers...

Johnny Mac covers several comedy stories: Live Nation Studios, Kevin Hart’s Heartbeat, and All Things Comedy are producing Golf Trip, an ensemble film starring Tom Segura, Andrew Santino, and Timothy Simons about three friends whose annual trip is disrupted when they’re paired with an intrusive solo golfer; Mac is skeptical the project will be good. Ron White on Joe Rogan’s podcast calls Kill Tony an important launching pad only if comics are prepared, discusses why he bans openers from doing crowd work, and shares health changes after moving to Austin. Carrot Top (Scott Thompson) is hospitalized and recove...

Johnny Mac delivers comedy news including Stavros Halkias blaming private equity for fast-food quality declines, citing Wendy’s lettuce and Jersey Mike’s changes. Chris Rock, speaking at TIFF, says he asked Adam Sandler for advice on moving into drama, praises Uncut Gems and Punch-Drunk Love, notes he lacks “Madagascar money” post-divorce, and mentions his film Misty Green arriving October 9. Jay Leno responds to criticism for avoiding partisan comedy, with commentary from Christian Toto about late-night audiences. Jo Koy describes shifting comedy late-night culture from cocaine and drinking to vaping/edibles. Nick Thune discusses his newly taped special Never Always a...

Johnny Mac closes out the poolside season with Pete Davidson and Colin Jost’s Staten Island Ferry comedy night, major Saturday Night Live cast news, and the competing accounts in the Chelsea Handler–Salma Hindy dispute.Pete Davidson and Colin Jost finally put their famously unusual ferry purchase to work, transforming the decommissioned Staten Island Ferry into a floating comedy venue. Johnny breaks down the jokes about the Coast Guard, the brutal heat, and the realities of staging stand-up aboard a boat. Performers discussed include Matt Richards, Casey Shornima, Ronny Chieng, Jay Jurden, Paul Virzi, Mike Vecchione, and Cait...

Johnny Mac shares comedy news including Taco Bell partnering with Kevin Hart to promote the Live Más Open on Nov. 2, where fans can qualify via Topgolf’s Shot Shuffle or an online sweepstakes to compete in a team golf event for a chance to bring back a chosen Taco Bell menu item; qualifiers run through Sept. 27, with a quote from Topgolf CEO David emphasizing accessibility. Chris Rock, at TIFF, says it’s harder to be Tom Cruise than U.S. president. Stavros Halkias tells GQ he’s chasing one undeniable stand-up special and continues podcasting mainly for money and schedul...

Johnny Mac delivers comedy news featuring Chris Rock discussing how fame has shifted from perks like free stuff to realizing fan interactions can make someone’s day, and accepting celebrity as part of who he is. A GQ profile of Stavros Halikis covers fan encounters, the origins and appeal of the “Cum Town” podcast, its unexpected success, and his decision to leave despite major income to focus on his own work after self-funding projects. Jay Pharoah says comedians help people laugh through pain, notes Jay-Z enjoys his impression, and jokes about audience members sitting up front. Eric Idle tells The Telegr...

Funny Money: The Dane Cook Story drops September 29, the documentary about the half-brother who stole twelve million dollars and hid it in pasta sauce. Before you watch it, Johnny Mac traces the full Dane Cook story: the website he built with his retirement savings before anyone thought that was smart, the MySpace page that got to a million and a half followers before social media was a strategy, Retaliation debuting at number four on the Billboard 200, the arena tours, the joke theft accusations and the four years of public warfare with Louis C.K. that got resolved in a genuinely...

Johnny Mac covers an interview with Carlos Mencia, who faces 12 LA County felony tax-evasion counts, has pled not guilty, and says he never “evaded,” expects past tax years to be filed soon, and titled his tour “Keep Me Out of Jail,” while reflecting on joke-stealing fallout, Joe Rogan’s role in amplifying it, and a decade of therapy about being a jerk. Chris Rock tells Variety he winters in LA, calling it a complicated place where fame has shifted from greatness to notoriety and where “dreams” drive extreme behavior. Robby Hoffman tells NPR she’s still figuring out what’s off-limits, discus...

Johnny Mac recaps daily comedy news after falling behind due to jury duty, focusing on the Emmys and Stephen Colbert’s appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. He highlights a widely shared John Mulaney Emmys bit about male TV actors and reads a passage from Frank Vincent’s A Guy’s Guide to Being a Man’s Man. Colbert wins an Emmy for The Late Show’s final year and uses his speech to credit writers and encourage hiring his staff; he later visits Kimmel, jokes about CBS, gets his beard shaved on-air, and gives Kimmel a Captain America shield from The Late S...

Johnny Mac covers a gossip report claiming Taylor Swift is furious at Nikki Glaser for saying on stage she attended Swift’s wedding despite barely knowing the couple, with sources alleging many celebrity guests scarcely knew Swift and comparisons being made to Meghan Markle’s wedding guest list. He highlights Dave Chappelle’s short arena tour culminating at Madison Square Garden for the New York Comedy Festival. He discusses reports that Howard Stern was upset about backlash to ending Howard 101 and reducing his show to one day a week, plus an alleged HBO Max deal framed as a “middle finger” to critics...

Johnny Mac previews Stephen Colbert’s guest appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live and notes Kimmel will again tape a week of shows at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Sept. 28–Oct. 2. Eric Idle says “Python is dead,” rejects any Monty Python reunion (even without John Cleese), and hints at deeper issues amid past disputes over money and management, while Greg Daniels tells Variety an Office reunion isn’t needed because the ending worked. Saturday Night Live Season 52 premieres Sept. 26 with host Jalen Brunson, followed by Dakota Johnson Oct. 3 and Shane Gillis Oct. 10. Other updates include Shane Gillis being spotted in Green Bay, Jo Ko...

Sam Morril’s New Netflix Special, Kimmel FCC Concerns, and Comedy News RoundupJohnny Mac shares comedy news, led by Sam Morril’s Netflix special “Incorrect” premiering September 29, his second for Netflix, covering topics like a disastrous one-night stand, assassinations, and a war against rats. Katt Williams is on a book tour for his memoir “Nine Lives, No Wives, and 69 Concubines,” about surviving Hollywood while keeping ownership, voice, and peace. Jimmy Kimmel says his interview with Texas Rep. James Talarico (running for Senate) won’t air on broadcast due to concerns about FCC threats to ABC station licenses and will be posted...

Johnny Mac cold-reads and reacts to Rolling Stone’s “50 Best Stand-Up Comics of All Time” list from Feb. 14, 2017, noting the magazine’s modern-stand-up criteria and reassessing choices nearly a decade later. He questions or comments on many rankings (including Wanda Sykes, Aziz Ansari, Reggie Watts, Tig Notaro, Patton Oswalt, Jonathan Winters, Mitch Hedberg, and others), flags some comics as forgotten, and highlights entries like Gary Shandling, Dick Gregory, Redd Foxx, Rodney Dangerfield, Eddie Murphy, and Dave Chappelle. He discusses the complications of figures like Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, and Louis C.K., and explains that Louis C.K.’s cancellation came after...

Jerry Seinfeld was asked which joke he'd send to aliens to represent all of comedy. He picked Rodney Dangerfield. Johnny Mac looks at why — the no-respect premise as a structural achievement, the rapid-fire construction that makes the jokes work even when you already know them, the 31-year comedy club on the Upper East Side that launched Seinfeld, Roseanne Barr, Sam Kinison and Robert Schimmel, the Caddyshack role that was written for Don Rickles, and the honest question of whether the film fame softened the thing that made the early club material great. Rodney Dangerfield built jokes the way a watchmaker bu...

Johnny Mac delivers daily comedy news on 9/11, leading with Pete Davidson reflecting on the anniversary as a 33-year-old father, discussing his firefighter father Scott Matthew Davidson’s death at the World Trade Center, his daughter Scotty’s name, and how he learned of the death from TV. He then covers a report that John Mulaney may star in a Get Smart reboot, recapping the franchise’s history. A Variety cover story on Chris Rock highlights his careful approach to comedy, views on controversy and club workshopping, shifting identity as a “director guy,” his film Misty Green premiering at TIFF, and why he wou...

Jimmy Kimmel returned from summer break for his 4,000th episode, joked he and Donald Trump “accomplished nothing” all summer, mocked the Reflecting Pool cleanup and the Strait of Hormuz, and Page Six reported his show could end when his contract expires, which ABC denied; Bill Carter compared the report to a fabricated Johnny Carson-era story. Jon Stewart also returned and used the “You Can See Everything” trailer concept with Trump superimposed to riff on Natalie Harp. John Oliver will host Comic Relief Live Oct. 19 at Carnegie Hall with performers including Roy Wood Jr., Josh Johnson, Zarna Garg, and Mary Beth Barone...

Johnny Mac’s Daily Comedy News covers Nikki Glaser’s Caesars Palace set where she jokes about attending an alleged top-secret Taylor Swift wedding at Madison Square Garden, with phones surrendered, A-list guests, a night spent with J.Lo, and a punchline involving Tom Cruise and a cake topper. Stavros Halkias discusses his crumbling health, injuries, stress, and relapse into edible addiction while promoting his new Netflix special. There’s major buzz around Nathan Fielder’s nearly three-hour A24 hybrid documentary “You Can See Everything” about Elizabeth Holmes, screened at Telluride with phones locked away. Other updates include Theo Vaughn joini...

Johnny Mac highlights Stavros Halkias’s new Netflix special and his Vulture Maria Bamford Questionnaire answers, including refusing to return to Side Splitters’ Tampa comedy condo, wanting to live part-time in Greece, and a lacrosse-coach lesson about not quitting. Conan O’Brien recounts attending Taylor Swift’s wedding and praises Adam Sandler’s officiating. Atsuko Okatsuka shares fan interactions, says people copy her haircut, reveals she’s good at physical therapy for seniors, and lists a fantasy dinner party lineup. Kelsey Cook discusses joking about her mother’s dementia, her early dark material, and career help from Jim Norton, who also praises h...

Johnny Mac delivers daily comedy news on the last day of summer, led by Netflix renewing The Pete Davidson Thing and ordering a new project from Katt Williams. Davidson also meets aspiring comic Liam, who has 5p syndrome, while filming Tommy Karate in Brooklyn and reportedly donates $20,000. Joe Rogan criticizes a claim that Lake Ontario was renamed “Lake America,” calling it a distraction from war concerns with Iran. The Telegraph reviews Ricky Gervais’ new tour Legend, saying it recycles material, mixes an identity crisis with familiar routines, and includes bits about his father and online culture. Stavros Halikis promotes a Netfli...

On September 17, 2001, David Letterman came back and didn't do a monologue. Jon Stewart came back the same night and cried on camera before becoming recognizably himself again. SNL came back September 29 with Lorne Michaels asking Rudy Giuliani if it was okay to be funny, and Giuliani delivering the best line of the night. Bill Maher said something true at the wrong moment and lost his show. Gilbert Gottfried made a 9/11 joke at the Friar's Club three weeks later, got booed, and pivoted into the Aristocrats and won the room back. Johnny Mac — a New Yorker who was there — traces how come...