Comedy and Everything Else

[Americas Team]

I think Louis CK also mentioned seeing Bring the Pain as a turning point in his stand up career, in a recent interview.

[Matt Mira]

New one is up... as of 14 seconds ago. I hope you all enjoy the first minute or so when Todd "takes over" it may be my favorite moment yet. He did that simply because I was playing the Chicken dance into everyones headphones before we started.... Anyway its there, so gather round the Podcast Machine!

[nathansmart]

another hit!

[Itslikeimsayin]

I think the thing with people asking how much you make is due to there being a natural curiosity of how payment is arranged in such an unorthodox profession. The spectrum of pay in entertainment in general is so broad that I think people have no idea if doing a half hour on Comedy Central pays like an average half-hour's work or if it's enough to coast on for a few years afterward. What also contributes to this is that I don't think the layperson considers the time spent developing your act into how you earn your living. They just look at it like you have your jokes and then you work an hour a day if you're working a club, which makes it appear easy. (In other words, they think you already have little bowls of jokes sitting around your kitchen and then you put 'em in your Magic Bullet on stage. They don't realize you need to count the time preparing the jokes to go in the bowls, too.)

Not defending their rudeness or stupidity, but just trying to give you the outside-of-comedy perspective.

[nathansmart]

such a great magic bullet/todd glass joke analogy!

[Darryl]

I think the thing with people asking how much you make is due to there being a natural curiosity of how payment is arranged in such an unorthodox profession. The spectrum of pay in entertainment in general is so broad that I think people have no idea if doing a half hour on Comedy Central pays like an average half-hour's work or if it's enough to coast on for a few years afterward. What also contributes to this is that I don't think the layperson considers the time spent developing your act into how you earn your living. They just look at it like you have your jokes and then you work an hour a day if you're working a club, which makes it appear easy. (In other words, they think you already have little bowls of jokes sitting around your kitchen and then you put 'em in your Magic Bullet on stage. They don't realize you need to count the time preparing the jokes to go in the bowls, too.)

Not defending their rudeness or stupidity, but just trying to give you the outside-of-comedy perspective.

Well put. But show business is like other businesses in many ways as well. There's a lot work to support the "billable hours." In my web design business, some clients think I'm rich because they compare my hourly rate to what they get paid per hour on their jobs. The reality is, that hourly rate has to cover the time getting new business, time for paperwork that I can't bill to a client, paying for computers, software, and other expenses, taxes, office supplies, etc. No matter what the business is, there are certain rules and principles that just about always apply. For something like show biz, where there can be a huge payoff, that also means there's almost always a lot of work leading up to it. Sure, some performers happen to get a lucky break right out of the box (and many of those never live up to their promise), but for most people, overnight success takes years of hard work to achieve.

[Itslikeimsayin]

Hearing the Benny Hill theme and Todd's voice -- but no visual -- is almost comedy torture. Please bring back the Benny Hill theme bit next time I see you live, Todd! (And every other time after that, too.)

[HeadEgg]

very funny show this week.

it would be great if listeners could post topics on here and they could pick one to talk about each week.

wouldn't that be great?!




..guys?

[ericluxury]

I was really impressed with the letter than Jimmy Dore wrote his friend. Sometimes I think Jimmy expresses his distaste with the way the government is run in teenage anarchist terms, but he stated it uniquely well in that letter.

[pauliophonic]

Jimmy's poor computer. I hope the show doesn't end because he spilled on it.

[nathansmart]

well, it sounds like they are still able to record without it

[Gene George]

Ironically, I was already off my bike by the time Todd mentions playing a good song for those people who listen to the podcast during their workout.

The thought counts though.

[nathansmart]

And it's hard for you to listen because you are usually taking credit collection calls, although I see you've given up on that work.

[Gene George]

And it's hard for you to listen because you are usually taking credit collection calls, although I see you've given up on that work.

Operators are no longer standing by.

[scamboogah]

This was my favorite episode yet, about 1 hour of 'cold open', a solid 30 or 40 seconds of show, and then a 1/2 hour cold close.

Jimmy's letter was pure brilliance. I wish he could send it to members of my family.

Todd podcasting alone really made me appreciate Mike Schmidt, but it was still great anyway.

Yay this podcast!!

[jenkirkman]

jimmy should consider posting his letter on his blog or here in downloadable format so we can all copy it and send to the bushies in our lives.

[Darryl]

Good idea, Jen!

I'm a conservative-leaning independent, and the stuff Jimmy said in the letter are, I think, beyond left or right, conservative or liberal, Democrat or Republican.

The events of the last few days should especially drive home Jimmy's point that we all get equal distribution of risk, without equal distribution of wealth. Too many people on both sides have knee-jerk reactions to issues simply because the party line dictates it, instead of taking each issue on its own. God forbid that agreeing on an issue puts anyone in agreement with "the other side."

[CaptainBreakfast]

Here's the transcript of what Jimmy said on the podcast, hand typed by Eu. Obrigado.

I'll just very quickly surmise what he said, ya know, he made the case that he had to pay 50% income tax, if you combine that with his federal with his state tax, it comes up to roughly 48%, but that's only tax after you make half a million dollars or something like that. Anyways, so, he was very upset about that, he goes, "plus I paid property tax to pay for poor kids schools, and, ya know, how much tax do I have to pay before I'm not an asshole? 60%? 70%?"

So, that's kinda his, those are all valid points, I don't mean to demean anyone, but yeah, taxes blow, I wanna pay less taxes, I'll vote for guys who'll lower my taxes in a second. But there are other issues involved. Like the guy's gonna lower my taxes, tap my phones, start another war, put us in debt, lower the value of the dollar by 50%, wreck the infrastructure of America, I'm not going to vote for that guy, just cause he's going to lower my taxes 5%. So... I can find a better alternative.

So anyway, we had an email exchange, so I'll just read you the umm..., it was one of those things where he responded like," Oh my God, here I am wasting another hour out of my day talking about, this is why I don't like to talk about this, I'll spend an hour of my day wasting it, so I'll just," so I wrote back," Well, I didn't mean to suck an hour out of your day, but I love this stuff, and it's not only important to the work I am doing, but it is actually important, and makes a difference to the kind of world we live in, and anything else I talk about seems trivial in comparison, what are you talking about all day?"

......

So I say," I find your opinions interesting, and obviously you speak for a lot of people, I appreciate you sharing them with me, it is very instructive and I always keep in mind that you know a lot of stuff that I don't know about. If you feel our friendship cannot withstand these kinds of discussions, I will not push it, I will say good day, (which I like to say, good day), but I think we can handle it, I mean I'm not a faggot and I don't think you are either, and I'm not gonna trash my friendship with a quality person, that I enjoy immensely, ...... but I think we can handle it, I'm not gonna trash our friendship with a person that I enjoy immensely over tax policy.

Just for the record, I pay about 40% on income taxes myself, and let's just get that out there, I paid about 90% of my income on medical bills last year. How much of my income should I pay for health care? 95%? 96%? How much 'till I'm not an asshole liberal?

It seems to me that you vote based on your taxes, which is valid, but very myopic. I try to place my vote for a person that will make a positive difference in the country overall. Country first, right? And the fact that you look around today, and think "four more years," is where the disconnect begins. I agree we don't need higher taxes, I guess our real disagreement is how we spend the taxes.

Why is socialism bad when it comes to health care, but good when it comes to banking? Why am I a communist when I want people to be able to get sick without going bankrupt, while billionaire bankers who privatize profits but socialize the risk and the losses are just good ol' capitalists that know how to work the system? This is socialized banking, of course, the market ran it's course, and it failed. So the government steps in to bail them out. Well, the free market of medicine has run it's course, and it has failed, miserably, over and over and over, but you are against the government stepping in to help sick people out? Or to provide education for poor kids? I'm sorry, it's either fund schools or fund prisons. Your choice. I choose fund schools.

The Neil Cavuto clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWpC_...vuto-on-sicko/) was not meant to highlight a tax debate, it was meant to highlight that we miss the point, talking about big government vs small government, who should pay more or less taxes, we need to ask a better question. The question is: how do we fix the horribly broken system of delivering health care to working people and children. And then, we compare solutions. So you vote republican because the democrats will raise your taxes, and you spend it on social programs, like health care and education, but bush cuts your taxes and borrows trillions from the Chinese to pay for his big government that doesn't even attempt to fix any of our problems. He throws a trillion in a whole in Iraq, that you have no problem with, another trillion to bail out the banks, you have no problem with, and when are we gonna pay for this? How much more do you think we will be taxed, because of this fuckin' debt we have run up, and the dollar is now less than the value of Canada's.

You payed 50% on your income, not your capitol gains, which is my point exactly, why do we tax work higher than investments? If taxing investments discourages investment, doesn't taxing work discourage work? So the real elite, the super wealthy, the one's Ben Stein was talking about, are the people that don't work, they make their money off investments and capitol gains, they only pay capitol gains tax, so they pay a lower rate than you and me on our work. And now we have a certifiable ignoramus next in line to be president, and that's the disconnect that makes me shake my head. Let's remember, ignorance is not an opinion, are you really saying four more years. Jesus, the American dollar now's worth less than Canada's, isn't that a tax?

If you think that your income tax are only bottom line, then you're being colossally short-sighted. We have doubled the debt to nine trillion, people are losing their houses at rates not seen since the depression, we have an energy policy that has lead to four dollar a gallon gas, with no plan in sight unless you think that "Drill Baby Drill" is an energy policy, we have no health care plan, and I am not even getting into the absolute shredding of the constitution.

How many times, do you need to get hit over the head before you figure out who is fucking hitting you? These are not republican problems, or democrat problems, these are the problems Americans are facing now. Do you have any solutions besides "don't raise my taxes", or is you solution "four more years" of the same shit that got us into this mess. Do you see how I could think there is a disconnect?

[BFH]

I enjoyed 99% of the letter, but I'm going to throw in my two cents only to say there was one very unnecessary word in there. I'm glad everyone else on the podcast spoke up about it. I love the show and everyone on it, but homophobia and hate language undermines everything positive and progressive. It's not about political correctness, it's about being a thoughtful and compassionate person, and not perpetuating the lexicon or the agenda of homophobes, even if unintentionally. If you're truly down for the cause, which I feel everyone on the podcast honestly are, then keeping that word out of circulation out of respect and love for the LGBT community is much more important than your right to say it (freedom of speech is important, I'm saying we should make the CHOICE not to use the word).

[Gene George]

I enjoyed 99% of the letter, but I'm going to throw in my two cents only to say there was one very unnecessary word in there.

I think Jimmy was using it in the context of its archaic meaning of a bundle of rods or sticks*.

(*I do not think that is true at all)