05-03-24 Interview - Comedian Jamie Lissow is Very Funny

COMEDIAN JAMIE LISSOW IS VERY FUNNY And maybe you've seen him on the #1 late night show Gutfeld, but you can also see his very funny standup this weekend at Comedy Works South at the Landmark. Buy your tickets here. The early Saturday show is sold out

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
The comedian that many of you mayhave seen on Gutfeld and he's also got
many, many more more funny thingsthat he's done, and he's going to
be at Landmarks South this weekend.Jamie Lizza, welcome to the show.
Hey, thanks for having me.So you are the kind of comedian that
I like because you do that sortof observational humor and a lot of times

(00:23):
I find you talk about me ina way, but I didn't know it
was me until I heard you sayit. How how did you begin?
Yeah, yeah, I don't knowit's me. And then I'm like,
I kind of looking around, likeI'm pretty sure he's talking about me.
How did you? How did youget here? How did you start comedy?
Was it just you realize that thethings you thought about life were funnier
than everybody else's. Well, that'sa good question. I honestly wanted to

(00:50):
be a comedian since I was alittle kid. I don't know where the
idea came from or where the thoughtcame from. I always thought it was
kind of funny, but it wasnever the class clondering. And I remember
like my other friends, you know, like like one of them wanted to
be in Ninja and the other onewanted to be like, you know,
mine was the only one that wasreal. I think I grew up not

(01:10):
knowing it was a real job,no kidding, And I remember finding out
there like, oh yeah, youcould actually be a comedian, and I
was thinking, like, wow,that's so crazy. That's like one of
those little kid jobs. You couldactually do it. So I just started
doing open mics, where you goon stage and try to be funny.
I think the hardest part about standup comedy is that it's pretty easy to
be finny with your friends because youhave a built in context. Yes,

(01:30):
they know who you are, theyknow what you're like, you have all
these inside jokes, and when yougo on stage, no one knows who
you are, so you have avery short amount of time to convince them
that you're funny and sort of likebring them along into into the joke and
the relatability. It's when you saidthat about being relatable. I started off
comedy. I was not relatable atall. I did really random jokes that

(01:53):
I thought were funny, and thenone day I think I started talking about
how terrible it was to go tothe craft store and just what an awful
experience. That was, And thatwas the first time I ever felt the
entire audience relating to what I wassaying. Yeah, exactly, remember,
sort of like folding that element intomy comedy, like how great it does.
Some people have been there, exceptthe one lady in the back that

(02:14):
was just super mad because she lovesthe craft store and she didn't understand why
you were picking on her. Isthat what happened? Yes, I don't
care about that woman. I'm willingto sacrifice her for the betterment of the
crowd. Well, what are thethings that I've seen you do? In
a couple different clips, And Iput a dry bar clip on the on
the blog today that didn't go tocollege clip where you're talking about, hey,

(02:37):
who's gone to college? And noone raised their hands. You know,
you're not afraid to talk about otheraudiences in front of a different audience,
which I find is an interesting approach, Like, hey, you guys
are great, but this last audiencesucked and here's why. So I enjoyed
that. Yeah, it makes mefeel smart, right, Yeah, that's

(02:59):
really funny. I used to dothat more than I do now, But
sometimes I called attention to the factthat as comedians, we oftentimes pick a
town that's not where we are,right, Like, you're sort of like
picking on someone depending on Warrior geographically. And I got to a point where
I would say, man, Iwas like last week, I was in,

(03:21):
uh, whatever city makes it funnyfor you. I started switching it
to call out the fact that comedianswe do kind of sometimes pick on the
town that's going to get the biggestlaugh. But yeah, I'm not afraid,
Mandy. I'm not afraid to talkabout some of the bad shows I've
had. Do you want to hear? H Do you wanna hear the worst
bombing show I've ever had? Absolutely? Who doesn't? Okay, this is

(03:46):
this is the worst experience I've everhad on stage. I got hired by
this college and it was in SouthCarolina or something, and it was in
the summer, and I got tothe show and you're always greeted at the
door by these student activities people thatput on the show. So it's students
that are in charge of booking thefacility and everything and getting the crowd there.
And they meet me at the doorand they say, we have horrible

(04:08):
news. This theater was packed tenminutes ago. There were eight hundred people
in here. It's packed wall towall. The air conditioner broke and it
immediately got swelteringly hot and it wassweltering, and everyone left and they emptied
out. There's like twenty die Hardcomedy fans in there. We're so sorry
that you still want to do ashow. And I go, yeah,

(04:29):
I'll do a show. I don'tcare. That's nobody's fault. That's fine.
So I get on stage. Whereverthis was in Carolina, it's like
eight o'clock at night. The sunjust went down. The windows are open
because they're trying to get like someair flowing and you know, get some
kind of ventilation. There's about fifteenpeople in the crowd and every time I
tell it joke and it doesn't geta really big laugh. I actually hear

(04:53):
crickets, like actual and I waslike, oh my god, this must
be where it came from. Thosepeople bombing at the beginning of time are
on a campfire. Is that isfantastic, Absolutely fantastic. Actually, I
tried to do stand up one time, and this was I was like twenty

(05:13):
and I'm old now, so itis. It is not for the faint
of heart. It is the mostunnerving experience I've ever had. And I
sit behind a microphone for fifteen hoursa week. That is just tough because
you've got all these blank faces lookingup at you when you're working on a
set and you're like trying new jokes. What is it like to try,
like loft a joke that in yourmind is hilarious and then get the dull

(05:36):
star of the dairy cow back.Yeah, it happens, you know,
it happens. And I think asI got older and I get bored on
stage very easily. So if Itell a joke. It used to be
I would have jokes that were tenyears old, you know, and I
would do them and people would last. Somewhere along the line. I think

(05:56):
part of it was from doing TheGutfeld Show that I do brand new jokes
every time I'm on, and youdo them in front of two and a
half million people without ever trying themout like you did them for the first
time. The beauty of that is, though, just like in radio.
I like in radio and on TVwhere you kind of decide what's funny,
Yeah, you're not really asking theaudience to respond at that moment. There's

(06:16):
like a beauty in that if youdon't use it. But I think I
have definitely been there where I've thoughta joke was gonna be the funniest thing
ever, and I have gotten blankstairs. But I think, as I've
been doing this for a while,I'm getting better at knowing. I think
I got one here, I thinkI got a good one here. I'm
getting better at knowing what's gonna workand what isn't. Well, there are

(06:39):
still those times when I'm wrong.Part of the charm of Gutfeld is that
so many of the jokes just endup with like wanh wah wah whah.
But then Greg just looks at thecamera and is like, sorry, you
know, we're moving on. Howdid you get on? How did you
get connected with Gutfeld? Oh man, good questions. So, but yeah,
there is an art to bombing.You also have to be very comfortable

(07:00):
in the silence. I'm very comfortablehaving a joke now working on GUTFLD because
of what I just kind of saidto you, Like, I just wrote
these jokes. I just wrote eightminutes worth of jokes earlier today and now
I'm on TV, and so Ifeel like I should get a little leniency
when I get on some people,it's really funny, like they'll go,
man, you said a joke thatwas kind of like that two weeks ago,
and I want to go, dude. I have been on Gutfald ninety

(07:23):
nine times in the last two years. I'm not that good at math right
now because I got up to itearly, but like one hundred appearances times
five minutes in appearances, five hundredminutes. Like, I'm just trying my
best. I'm trying my best outthere, some of them marking a land
but you gotta take your shots.But I met Gutfald. I was in
New York City twenty years ago andhe was doing did you ever hear of

(07:45):
the show Red Eye that got Didyou remember that show? Yeah? It
was a long time agoes on atthree in the morning. Not a lot
of people watched it, but Ihad a cult following. And so he
was doing an audition to be onRed Eye. It was a guy comedies
of in New York City and Iwas doing the audition, and I was
wearing a white dress shirt, ablack suit coat, and black losses.

(08:07):
Right, So a white dress shirt, black suitcus, black lives and I
go up. I do my set. I feel like it went pretty good.
You didn't even have to be political. They just wanted comedians on.
And after the show, I wasat this bar, this guy tapped her
on the shoulder and he goes,hey, man, you gotta do my
show. You're really funny. I'mgreat gutfall. They oh that's great,
and I go, you thought itwas funny and he goes, honestly,

(08:30):
I had I took a link duringyour set. I missed it. I
like, okay, why are youhaving me on the show? And he
goes because people keep coming up tome saying that I'm really funny because they
think I'm you. And he hadon a white T shirt, black suit
coat and black glasses and that wasour That was kind of our first meeting.
And he was like, that's enoughfor me. People are telling me
I'm funny and I didn't think I'mthat guy. And so then he put
me on the very next week.That's hilarious. Now you can see Jamie

(08:52):
this weekend at Comedy Work South.His early Saturday night show has already sold
out, but if you can't seehim this weekend, and he also has
a new podcast out with his fiance, who is I'm just gonna say,
probably smarter than you because she's adoctor. I feel like she's probably smarter
than both of us. But itis. I put a link to it
on the blog today if you wantto check it out. What is the

(09:15):
podcast about? Jamie? Thank youthe podcast, And you're absolutely right.
I think she went to medical schoolfor twelve years, so she has twelve
years more education than me. Wow. So the podcast is people called with
questions are afraid to ask, andthen we actually answer them. It's actually
useful medical advice. It can beabout anything. It could be about birth

(09:37):
control, it could be about youknow, one guy called the other day
and he said his son had likelucky underwear because he was winning in football
and he hadn't changed him in ayear, and he wanted to know,
like what could happen to this kid? And so we give advice about that
and then I make jokes and wejust did a whole thing on I swear
it makes me feel like I'm doinga good We do get questions that I

(09:58):
think people are scared ask, butthere's no it's anonymous. You can go
on our Twitter page and leave avoice message and so we play the voice
message, but we don't say yourname, and we answer whatever question.
If you got something that looks weirdsomewhere where you don't want to tell anybody
about it, we'd be happy togive you our opinion, like we like
we just talked. We did allepisode about birth control and about like plan
B, you know, and forme, plan B is always when the

(10:22):
girl ends up sleeping with me,she always have other plans. I was
the Plan B. But then Erica, well, doctor Erica will explain,
like you know, how to getit if it's expensive, how to use
insurance, like what's it called?And so it's a it's the most fun
thing I swear, it's the mostfun thing I do. Right now.
We're having so much fun, Jamie. It comes out every week. It

(10:43):
comes out Wednesday mornings, way latefor a break. So I'm gonna go
ahead and cut this interview short.But it's been a joy talking with you.
I know you're gonna enjoy yourself.Head to the zoo. I'm just
saying, and uh, I willcheck out your podcast a SAP. I
appreciate you making time for me today. I love it. Thank you at
the time. Have a great restof your afternoon, Thanks a lot,
Bye bye,