Dec. 21, 2024

John Mulaney Early Days in Comedy

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac highlights interviews and stories from popular comedians. John Mulaney recounts his rise from the alt comedy scene to mainstream success, Eliza Schlesinger discusses the challenges female comedians face, and Leanne Morgan shares how humor helps her stay positive. Phil Wang talks about the evolution of his comedy, and Vic Michalis reflects on experiences and lessons from the comedy world. Additionally, details about the upcoming Comedy Fantasy Camp hosted by Jay Leno and Adam Carolla are shared.
00:00 John Mulaney's Early Comedy Days
01:08 Iliza Schlesinger on Balancing Humor and Public Opinion
02:03 Leanne Morgan's Positive Attitude and Humor
04:06 Phil Wang on Comedy and Identity
05:15 Vic Michalis and the Changing Landscape of Comedy
06:58 Jay Leno and Adam Carolla's Comedy Fantasy Camp

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WEBVTT

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Caalaroga Shark Media. By there, I'm Johnny mack. If your

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daily comedy news. John m'laney spoke to GQ about his

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early days in how he was part of an old

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comedy scene. John said, I didn't feel like we were

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black flag or anything, and I was on the straight

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edge of it, but it did feel like we were

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weirder than the norm. Then he noticed he was getting

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big laughs on the road, just like he was in

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New York. He said, I might have been in Madison, Wisconsin.

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It was like twenty thirteen. It was older parents at

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the show with their teen kids, and they both seemed enjoyed.

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I thought, this plays in East Village, but it's also

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working in Wisconsin. Maybe we should see how far we

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can push it. It was around then that he started

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wearing a suit. Yeah, I think from memory. If you

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look at his earlier albums, he's in a hoodie. Mulaney said.

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An AHA moment came when he was playing a club

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called Laughing Skull Lounge in Atlanta. I remember that club

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when all six comics on the bill wore the exact

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same nerdy white guy outfit, and so did everyone in

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the crowd, and he said, I remember thinking they paid

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money to see something. Why does it look like one

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of the audience members is standing on stage talking and

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he began to suit up. The Harvard Gazette spoke to

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Eliza Slessinger. She discussed the balancing act between not offending

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and not allowing public opinion to ruin a good joke,

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and says female comedians are always judged more harshly, quoting Eliza,

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as women, we are constantly having to justify everything and

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make sure that you know I don't mean to offend.

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We love to pick apart people and women. We do

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it deliciously. We love the shodden fruit of I know that.

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All she said was she loves fluffy clouds, but she

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didn't say she loved ring clouds also, which means you

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hate the rain, which means you love climate change. So

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Lussingery discussed the algorithm and said, we all have our

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own personalized channels on Netflix, and we all have our

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own personalized comedians because we have so much to pick

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from on social media. That's just not the way the

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human brain works. How could I tailor something that one

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percent speaks to you. At the end of the day,

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we're all people we all go through the same things.

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When you could tap into that, which I always strive

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to do, that's how you over to play Kuala Poor

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and also Irland and also Tokyo. You're reaching a very

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human thing. Leanne Morgan says she gets her positive attitude

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from her mom. I'm from a rural farming community of

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five hundred people and my extended family, my grandparents, aunts

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and uncles, a lot of family. We were always around

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and we all seem to make jokes out of the

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bad times. Did you hear me say, Aunt, I'm from

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Queen's Why did I say, Aunt? I'm leaving it in

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aunts and uncles. That's how we talk what's going on.

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I'm selling out. Listen to me with the aunt's crap.

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You guys should throw pies in my general direction. I

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hope you miss, but if you don't, I'll understand. Leanne said,

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we use humor together. I can't believe I said, Aunt,

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Deacon Mike and Cleveland. You've known me for thirty years?

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What is wrong with me? Leanne Morgan said, we use

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humor to get through things. Bad things would happen, but

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we would make light of what we could get through it.

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I think humor can help us see that when bad

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things come, there are silver linings like oh, that happened,

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and this wonderful thing came out of it. Leanne says,

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I can get bogged down and start looking at social

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media and freak out. It's easy to get sucked in

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and start thinking the world's on fire. When that happens,

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I get off social media and try to remember that

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God is in control. I pray, and then I try

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to get out and walk. Being in nature helps me.

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Seeing my magical grand babies keeps me grounded. I agree

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with her, going for a good walk and getting fresh

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air and clearing your head. I know personally when I write,

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I write better in the morning. I write better promos

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in the morning. I write better scripts for the show

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in the morning by like three four in the afternoon,

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I do tasks I call them like, oh can I

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just addit something where I don't have to think but

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morning brains where it's at. And go for a walk today.

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I actually exercise before writing the podcast, before recording the podcast,

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So I feel good today. You know what I'm saying,

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Leanne says, I come home from la or I'm shooting

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a sitcom from Netflix or everybody thinks I'm a star

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and my name is on things and I feel like

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Beyonce and my family's like, can you wash my panties?

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And I need to go pick up a prescription at Walgreen's.

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That keeps me grounded. That is hilarious. Leanne any advice

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for those of us who want to be funnier, She says,

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go see live shows. Go see your favorite comedian, or

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go see a funny Broadway show. Back to the Future

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the musical it's closing soon. You should go. It really

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does feel good to laugh with other people. Well, you

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could even go on social media and find somebody that

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tickles you and watch them instead of all this other

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mess about death and impending World War III. The Guardian

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spoke to Phil Wang. He said, no matter how much

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experience I have, no matter how many times I've been

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on TV, I always approach every gig assuming people don't

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know who I am and have noticed that I'm Asian.

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It's like a sick for me. I can't stop trying

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to bridge the gap by joking about it. I'm writing

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new material at the moment and are ready. The first

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few minutes are about being Chinese. It's not conscious. Jerry

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Seinfeld once said, every comedian only really has the same

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ten minutes, and I think there's something to that. Doing

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stand up about Asians is a way of me taking control,

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addressing what I think is the elephant in the room.

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As my career has progressed, comedy has become a different

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experience the way I see it. I used to date

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comedy and now I'm married to and I still love it,

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but it's not all about new experiences in places. It's

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now just part of my life that's not the same.

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I'm complacent. I still worry about not getting eighty percent

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in whatever I do. I recently watched my first special

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on Netflix and thought, this could have been better. I

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got that bit wrong. Next time, maybe I'll get one

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hundred percent. I'll jump in there and I teach this

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to my fellow podcasters. I teach a couple college classes.

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You will drive yourself nuts and in the homework at

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some point the show's done. Believe me, every single episode

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of this podcast I listen, I'm like, oh, that could

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have been better, that could have been better, and yeah,

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but at some point you got a hand in the homework.

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Vultra had done their list of the comedians you should

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know and will know. One of their comedians is Vic Mchayliss,

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whose career would you want? Vic says, the landscape of

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comedy is changing so rapidly it's hard to say. I

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love comedy based folks who really lean into acting and

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use their success to choose their work. Lisa Kudrou, Paul F. Tompkins,

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and Quinta Brunson are all people I would love to follow.

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Worst show ever. When I was first starting out, my

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indie team got booked on a show at a venue

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none of us were familiar with through someone's cousin. When

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we arrived to check in, we realized we'd be performing

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in a club, not a comedy club, a club club

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as in bottle Service. My best guess is the booker

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thought we were doing stand up, but he was hoping

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would say funny things while hyping up the crowd as

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the DJ switched out. What she was not expecting were

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six over eager improvisers looking for one word suggestions to

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get started. We have been paid a very small amount

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of money upfront, so the show had to go on.

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The DJs were so mad they wouldn't turn the music

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down and lay it on the horns Ount effect. Every

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time we tried talking the whole thing, I ended with

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a locally known rapper getting the entire club to chant

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muppets until we left the stage. Some life lessons. The

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biggest thing I've learned is that if I'm not doing

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things outside of comedy, I have nothing to pull from.

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Sometimes it gets so caught up in shows and work

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I forget to do things that make me a complete person.

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I've learned it's not only okay, but necessary to take

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a break and live my life where everything becomes self

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referential and boring. I try to do things I'm bad

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at and work on things that require spending actual time

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with people I love. Comedy requires so much of your

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heart that if it's empty, it's noticeable. What comedy opinion

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Hill will you die on? VIC says comedy videos on

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social media aren't going anywhere anytime soon, and you don't

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have to participate, but it is a valid form of comedy.

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Comedy is supposed to be fun, and making videos for

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people to see without putting studio quality lighting and sound

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behind them is a really cool way to see if

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your ideas resonate with folks. Jay Leno and Adam Caroll

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will be hosting the third annual Comedy Fantasy Camp in

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Los Angeles from July twenty third through the twenty sixth.

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Corolla told The Rap, I met the guy who started

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the rock and roll Fantasy Camp, and I was like,

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this is a great idea. We should do this for comedy.

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The first two Fantasy Camps went so well that we thought,

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why not turn it into something we do once a year.

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And Jay Leno was kind of enough to get involved,

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but not just let his name to it, like really

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get what the campers and really get granular, really spend

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time and burn calories. And I think Jay had a

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good time. Jay Leno says, I had a good time

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because when I was starting out, it was lucky enough

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to meet the comics, Robert Klein, Gabe Kaplan, all these

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comics will come through Boston. I'd meet them and talk

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to them, and that's where I learned from. Because you're

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usually taught from somebody who can't do it, you kind

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of go, who's this guy? People who respect his comedians,

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they're gonna have a more unorthodox way of how you

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do it. If you're going to do it, it's the

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only thing you can do to say I'm thinking about

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being comedian, maybe I'll be a writer. Well know, I'm sorry,

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Then you're a writer. I think if you're a comedian

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and a writer, you're a writer. If you think you're

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an actor and a comedian, you're an actor. Because comedians

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just want to commit. That's the whole thing. You just

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want to do stand up. It's something you have to do,

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and you'll go to humiliating lengths to do it. Corolla said,

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I always tell young comedians or young anything writers or

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podcasters that go, what do we need you for? Like,

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we've got a lot of comedians, you know what I mean.

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There's a lot of podcasters. A lot of people think

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they're funny. There's a lot of people think they can

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sing country music. Why you And if the answer is no,

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then maybe it's no. But if you think you're different,

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your angles are different, we've never met you before, then

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show up and bring us something we need. Leno's as

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the best advice I always give young comics is don't

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go up as a comic, Try and be an MC.

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If they have a talent show in your town, try

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to be the MC. Speak of your synagogue, your church,

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an AA meeting, whatever you need to do to get

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in front of an audience. Just talk and if you

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get a laugh, continue to talk. If you don't get

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a laugh, then sit down and introduce the next act.

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But get comfortable in front of people talking. And that's

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all the voice I have for you today. You know

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it's the holidays. I'm recording a bunch of these in

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a row, so I don't have to, you know, record

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on Christmas Day. I'm sure you understand. If you'd like

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to support the show. One way to do it. I

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really need this iced coffee today. You can go to

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buy me a coffee dot com slash Daily Comedy News.

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You get. There's some money and the tip jar. I

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go to the National Donuts chain. I buy one of these.

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This is a large iced coffee with caramel and almond milk,

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and I drink these to keep my voice going so

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I can record multiple episodes in one day. You know

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what I'm saying? All right? If you'd like the show

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without commercials, there's a link in the show notes to

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tell you how that works. If you're on Apple Podcast,

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