my three guests tonight we're gonna do
something a little different bring them
on
all at once uh alex edelman who has an
album out called
until now very funny comedian jack
knight who you know from big mouth
and a comedian that means the most to me
has been a huge influence on my career
she's got an audible special out
countless specials on netflix
maria bamford so welcome everyone to the
show
jack maria and alex
oh my god alex do you have a room that's
less
echoey but we love your cnn background
the audio is a little like right jewish
specialist
oh that's worse now go back go back to
your cnn room that's the worst let me
just go
in the closet it looks like you're on
the toilet
i'm not on the toilet this is my
this is my my i don't know what to do i
just want to see your place is super
cute though it is very
clean lines nice work british comedy
market his play
is paying incredibly well he's multiple
rooms are you living in england
no no i live in silver lake okay i was
gonna say somebody said something
or he spends a lot of time in the
british comedy community
it's good it pays well it really did
because american comics like maria
bamford
started doing well at places like
melbourne comedy festival and i thought
maybe there was an opportunity there
and wow and they also review comedy
like it's something you put more than 10
minutes of
thought into which i disagree with i
liked it better when we were
break listed right between karaoke and
strip clubs yeah
yeah don't add nuance to it to us just
leave it where it's supposed to be
don't bring yeah like that's what made
everything
like we aren't maria has a
review ever poisoned the way you view
your act like is that someone giving you
a dinner
too much of a a fluffy
interview or or yeah like like put a
point of view on you like what she's
saying is really about the seals
oh um well
i think it's just one you just feel bad
like a
like a three star review where you go oh
i shouldn't even exist
like i want to be at the half star i
want to be one star
or i'm at least providing inspiration
for people
who yeah can't do anything
or you know you want to be doing very
well but um
yeah so i've gotten a couple of three
stickers ones that have been pretty
sad they've i guess i mean a positive
review
where it's something that you just
thought was fun and dumb
and then someone puts this extra meaning
on it where it's like she's actually
talking about
inequality and poverty with women with
bangs you're like
i didn't need any of that well and i
think that's what critique is about is
to
uh make it not as funny right so it
breaks down
is it the purpose or the absolute side
effect of it the only thing you can get
from reviewing comedy outside of
is the joke funny or not is is there
nuance in the joke and i
think we all share the same thought with
our favorite comedians there usually is
not
and so it's a person looking for
something deeper in
a place that doesn't need to be that
deep and even if it is or it isn't it
shouldn't value the comedy you lesser
more like i remember i got three and a
half star
at um i'm drawing a blank on on the
wonderful theater in london
that everybody goes to yeah that was a
great show
but they gave me a three and a half and
it was like he's up there around
and like having fun
it's like what is that we don't do that
here i'm like oh okay that's that's fair
but then i went on twitter and it was
like this long
thread from this black girl who's just
like i want to go see jack knight show
and i love american humor and you know
and that like
they're both they're both wrong it was
phenomenal but like
right but but it was the i definitely
sat with the
the thread more than i said with the
review what was your thesis when you
said uh
booty be like well it it all it all
started at the
at the ripe age of 16. and uh i want you
to commit to this
little conceit right now and actually
take us from 16 to present day jack
that's what i was it was
it was just drinking and trying to
figure out what can i destroy
in front of me but also like comics like
comics there are good critics and bad
critics some critics i don't respect and
some critics i
really am like you know film
geek dot co dot nz and some critics are
like
like really like ao scott or paulie and
kale like there are really good
critics who do really good criticism
melbourne
what i some of my favorite reviewers
were from melbourne like when we when i
did all-stars like the
way they broke down everybody i was like
i agree with all of this
we suck
i don't read reviews but i pay my but my
friend
adam reads all the reviews and he's like
hey
every review is mentioning that you do
this so do you want to keep doing that
and that is a really good thing to have
my problem when i do a lot of shows in a
row
like for a month is that whatever the
best
response i got that's the that's what
i'm gonna expect
every show from then on and if i don't
do it i'll just like try to
be over something trying to get it out
of them so i always have to
does that make sense yeah has any of you
taking a negative review
as like oh that's actually right because
it's also kind of
a giant grain of salt of like well you
don't do this you know
you write about who you think is good
but you don't actually you're not on
stage but if you take in a negative
review and then like
i do do that thing i do bail early in
2015
kat williams said that i'm built silly
and i need to use it
so i i
like why is he very spicy writing for
[Laughter]
the underneath one was purple the top
one was white and he was with two women
who didn't want to be there
and he watched my whole set and then
like went joked for joke and broke it
down
and what he liked and didn't like
nothing of like interest and then he
stops he goes
looks me up and down and goes you're
built silly you need to use
that did you change your act in terms of
being
i tried to definitely like be more
animated when i deliver a joke
in march when we're all allowed to do
this but uh
i don't know why we're speaking like
we're currently performing every night
but i don't know i know i know moses is
but
i am i'm gonna hear you guys
i'm out there at super spreader events
uh performing maria
you had an inter a review that made you
think different
you know these are amalgamation of
several thousand criticisms that i've
had um
most of them on youtube saying i should
kill myself surprisingly
how many times when i've already thought
of it so many times myself
um but uh no they said uh
that actually um
that's not an insult when i i i'm
already thinking of it
[Music]
um you know all my voices sound the same
very true i only do about six voices
i i totally agree to that and then um
that i
not uh political in terms of
i will say something very passive
aggressively which is ins
so you're not totally clear where i
stand if i yeah i don't actually say
outright
um you know donald trump is a you know
like i won't
say it i'll just uh yeah do a
metaphorical thing
which is very true once i did a terrible
show
fresno california uh where i did not
rehearse for the show and as i've gone
older i need to rehearse
um anyways didn't rehearse i mumbled
uh throughout the show not the greatest
idea i wrote the stuff you'd think i'd
project it
yeah and uh i refunded everyone their
money
um and then some of those people re uh
gave that refunded ticket money to a
local
mental health charity ah
you asked them to be unprompted oh my
god
unprompted yes where was this
on uh it was in fresno uh there's a big
theater fresno
um authority on mental health fresno
california you know the progressive
thought leaders of fresno
that is insane but they were not wrong
but it was what was hilarious after the
show it was like very you know
people were fans saying oh it's great
show great but then
there was like this big thing on
facebook just people saying
i really i was really disappointed and
they were correct i was defensive at
first and then i listened to it and i
was like
oh oh i'm sorry
um so so sometimes i think criticism is
extremely helpful
um to go wow i i need to be honest that
i i need to rehearse
before shows otherwise uh i
might uh be mealy-mouthed and confused
on stage
that makes me feel better because i do
the same thing like in the hotel people
like let's meet up before the show i
run the entire hour out loud like a
psycho
in my hotel room where i need to talk
because i'm just not good if i don't do
it
i don't do that that's so wild to me
that you
but like it makes to me being prepared
as i i record
every show and then i listen back the
next morning but i
before i go on stage i try to have my
mind be like
i try to focus on the songs that are
playing from the front of house playlist
so that i don't
so that because for me selling a show
like set like like trying to sell the
material
after i've done it a bunch of times is
its own unique
challenge so i feel like if i rehearse
it i'm gonna be like
hey how's everybody doing tonight
fantastic okay
so i was at the super you know like it's
just gonna come out oh to be excited
about stuff you've been doing for a
while
yeah and i don't perform probably i'm
not performing as much as you do
but you're also a a integral live
performer
in that the kind of laughs you get i
mean the three of us we've all been
in the back of the room when you're
performing it's not the
kind of laugh where it's like i
recognize a joke happens
you're getting like deep guttural laughs
from something that you've committed
so hard to that there's no balance
there's no like
part of people are laughing like she's
really doing this for a group of adults
so i i understand that and that you have
to if you're doing characters and you're
you're
really selling a performer and not just
here's the written joke
next you have to warm up your voice your
whole instrument
yeah and and it's also i've gotten older
and and also with the loss of ambition
with age
which i i just don't
generally don't care as much so i i have
to
i have to do it over and over again um
to to remind myself
of of what i wrote down um yeah
and i'll do it for other people off
twitter too because i can't i can't even
get myself to do it by myself
in the hotel room i have to get a fan to
meet me
at a donuts parking lot and we'll
and sometimes want to be the person i'm
not kidding you'll be like
hey is anybody and i'm like i'll go to
houston today if
i can spend an hour just hearing your
jokes face to face wait you you guys you
would do this before
covid you would rehearse for someone i
thought this was just a copic thing
no before covid i for a couple the last
couple years i've just uh
just because i need to rehearse and i
don't have the willingness to do it by
myself
anymore i have to get a witness
and uh and twitter is beautiful uh you
can get somebody to meet you at any time
of day i just say
uh i don't tell everyone where it is but
just the one person i picked
and then it's always turned out to be
super nice person
um because they're afraid too does that
person come to the show
later or they're like well i saw it at
dunkin donuts so yeah
exactly sometimes i'm like oh my god
all right why are you coming to the show
tonight you'll have already seen it
but uh yeah i i don't yeah it's
the only i haven't had any bad
experiences but
i've also kind of done some like if
somebody has
because you know what somehow you get
fans who don't listen to any of your
politics
and they're like you're just fun we love
you from
target you know yeah you're so funny
we saw just a billboard of you at the
target and we're like
what is her from 15 years ago but then
there's like
some flags and yeah people talking about
skull shapes and like
yikes i don't want to do well for you
yeah so that's
that's and it's helped me and i yeah
i've been doing the zoom things where i
do it one-on-one with people
um and i'll do it as a six foot distance
too
you know what uh outside if people want
that here in duluth
i've been doing that a little bit