October 12, 2025 • 8 mins
Mark Normand discusses cancel culture and its misuse, highlighting examples like Shane Gillis. Sheng Wang shares his pandemic hair journey and office work experiences. Brian Regan talks about the personal challenge of performing clean comedy. Bob Odenkirk reflects on the Midwest's influence on his comedic perspective. Stavros Halkias opens up about his evolving views on wellness and masculinity. Greg Gutfeld elaborates on becoming 'the king of late night' and his approach to making late-night TV enjoyable for everyone.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/daily-comedy-news-with-johnny-mac--4522158/support.
Become a premium subscriber! (no ads). For Apple users, hit the banner on your Apple podcasts app which says UNINTERRUPTED LISTENING and the bonus “DCN8” show.
You also get 25+ other series (it’s only $4.99 a month with a free-trial month)
Contact John at john@thesharkdeck dot com
Media Thoughts is mcdpod.substack.com
dailycomedynews.substack.com
DCN on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@dailycomedynews
https://linktr.ee/dailycomedynews
www.buymeacoffee.com/dailycomedynews
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/daily-comedy-news-with-johnny-mac--4522158/support.
Become a premium subscriber! (no ads). For Apple users, hit the banner on your Apple podcasts app which says UNINTERRUPTED LISTENING and the bonus “DCN8” show.
You also get 25+ other series (it’s only $4.99 a month with a free-trial month)
Contact John at john@thesharkdeck dot com
Media Thoughts is mcdpod.substack.com
dailycomedynews.substack.com
DCN on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@dailycomedynews
https://linktr.ee/dailycomedynews
www.buymeacoffee.com/dailycomedynews
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Kalaroka, Shock Media, Hi there, Johnny Mack with your Daily
Company News. Mark Norman talked about cancel culture with al
dot com and said, obviously, like Harvey Weinstein and Bill
Cosby and Jeffrey Epstein and or Kelly and list goes on,
these are people that should have been taken down years ago,
and these are criminals. He should be in jail. So
(00:24):
I get all that, But some people, no one ever
brings us up. Some people were using cancel culture like
get their way. It wasn't about justice or doing what
was right. Was about, oh, I can use this and
call this person a racist, then they'll get fired and
I could take their job or whatever. People started using
it for their own benefit and it wasn't about doing
what was morally. Just was about, hey, let me spind this,
I get what I want. That's really when it got ugly.
And I know a lot of examples of that, But
(00:45):
to me, I think we're kind of pasted it, we're
kind of over it, and you just ignored. Tends to
kind of be okay, But yeah, that was a dark time.
I mean then we did that weird thing we were like,
look at Shane Gillis, he got canceled. Now he's huge.
I'm like, yeah, but he's also talented. Let's not act
like him getting canceled was the best thing that ever
happened to him. That's like saying, hey, your mom got
stabs and now you're all over the news. So yeah,
I don't worry about it. I think just as long
(01:06):
as you tell jokes, you're fine. If you're going up
there to saying the N word and yeah, maybe that's
a problem, but maybe you don't have an act. You're
just trying to be edgy. Yeah, but I talk about everything.
I have dicey topics and quote unquote edgy stuff, you know,
but it's all jokes, and it's all in jest. Mark
Norman's best to come back to a heckler. Mark said,
one of my best counterpunches was a big fat lady
who for some reason hated me, and she just yelled
out boo, and I said, are you saying boo or moo?
(01:29):
And the place went nuts and she hated me more
than she left, So that was a real wind. Shang
Wang with Cleveland Scene. They were curious about his hair.
What made you grow out your hair? Shang said, it
wasn't really a choice. I canceled my haircut appointment on
More to thirteenth, twenty twenty. Was the pandemic. At one
point my currey I tried to grow it out. When
it was between short and long, I cut it and
never gave it a chance. People started complimenting me on
(01:52):
my hair. I thought it might not make sense of
cut it now it matches the vibe of the comedy
and writing. For now it really works. It's all an accident.
Remember that, did you cut your own hair? Or the pandemic?
At one point I had to take out the I
let this hop grow out, but the sides just my
hair gets really wide. I had to take out the
razor and just be like, all right, let's hope for
the best. Here. It was okay, you know, it was
like pandemic. Okay. I wasn't leaving the house anyway. Shane
(02:15):
jokes the best part of an office job is being
able to print for free. Did he ever actually have
an office job? Oh yeah, I still have to have
different jobs. I had some temp jobs and was always
so blown away by how much printing and trash comes out,
going from printing at home to printing out an office.
I remember the warmth of fresh printed paper that's stuck
with me. It's based on real life office experience as
a comedian. You going to an office with fresh eyes,
(02:36):
and everything feels so alienating and interesting next to I
have asked Brian Reagan about performing clean. That seems to
be like, if you ever meet Brian Reagan, you have
to be like, hello, you're Brian Reagan. Yes I am.
You were clean? I mean it's every interview, but okay,
it's the weekend. Brian said, Well, I was always mostly
clean even when I started, just because that's how my
brain works, at least comedically. When I'm with my friends
(02:57):
hanging out, I could be as filthy as anyone else
on stage. Hey, just the kind of stuff I like
to do is conceptual and doesn't normally go in that
four letter word direction. But it wasn't completely clean when
I first started. Maybe about five percent was dirty. When
I first went out on the road, AD a handful
of jokes that were attention getters. When you're playing a
rough room like a bar that does a comedy, it's
aequila night out of jokes that would hopefully get their attention,
and I try to slide to stuff that I like,
(03:17):
but then I got to the point where it's more
about being meticulous than wholesome. You know, people got the
wrong idea of why I like to work clean. I
like to work clean just because I like the idea
of seeing if I could be one hundred percent of something.
I see this a personal challenge. How well can I
do how hard can I get people laughing without hitting
certain buzzwords or topics that can disproportionately work in front
of audiences. I started going one hundred percent clean just
for the challenge of it, and along the way I
(03:38):
found there's a following for that. I didn't do it
for that reason. I did it for my own reasons.
IPM Newsroom asked Bob Odenkirk about the role of the
Midwest in his comedy. Bob said, the Second City is
the name for a theater, and it's a name that
was borrowed from a name for Chicago. The Second City.
It's like you're the underdog, and as a result, you
have a suspicious chip on your shoulder towards all that
(03:58):
whatever's happening, whatever's hype and happening. That's good for comedy
because that's what comedy does. Comedy undermines. Growing up here
lends itself to that perspective on the world that wants
to poke with the world and doesn't take things seriously.
As long as there are irritating things in the world,
there's comedy, So please keep irritating us. You know, nobody
quits show business. Stavros Halki has spoke with GQ about
(04:19):
his current views on wellness and said, early on in
my career was like, oh, this is fun. Let me
get as messed up as possible. Let me get good
at something so I get attention from women, and let
me get drunk and have sex with any girl that
will let me, and eat like garbage to reward myself.
Clean that up a little. There's also a little bit
of nihilism, like living like nothing matters around the path
to a coward suicide, where it's like, I don't want
to take care of myself. Who cares? I'm not going
(04:40):
to be around forever. And then my life's gone pretty good.
I got a nephew, My best friends have been kids,
and I'm like, oh, I've gotten successful. There's people that
care about I guess I want to live. So I've
been trying over these last five years to lose a
little weight. I did really well during the pandemic, and
then I started working got fat as f again. I
just do whatever takes the stick around with the ultimate
goal of being I never want to get skinny, but
I want to be strong. On the road, especially on tour,
(05:02):
I just start walking. I like to call myself the
twenty thousand step bastard. Every day on the road, i'd
walk like eight miles. I'd walk into my feet hurt,
and then over time my feet stopped hurting. I could walk.
The thing that's helped me is to be completely honest
with yourself and slowly build from there. The theme of
this interview is masculinity. I think this is an interesting answer.
I definitely see myself in a lineage of those fat
(05:22):
guys that are really up to even as a kid.
We're talking Farley, John Candy, Jack Black. I don't think
anybody would look at me and say that guy's feminine.
I don't think I'm getting that, but I guess I'm
just trying to say for people who feel like they're
not masculine, there's a version of them that is. You
could be a mix of masculine and feminine. If you
want to be masculine, you don't feel it, there's a
path for you to project that. I think for me
it was when I unlocked, Oh, women don't actually care
(05:42):
that much if they like you as a person, if
you can show what's good about you. A lot of
my body in security kind of stem from just general
insecurity about relationships and getting attention from girls. But I
think for me it was when I unlocked Ouh, women
actually don't care that much if they like you as
a person, if you could show what's good about you.
When I was confident myself in all these other ways,
when I felt like I'm doing what I need to do.
I have a nice life plan, I feel confident in
my abilities. That inner confidence sort of projected. I've been
(06:05):
enjoying these He's really in touch with himself. This is
good stuff. What does he look for in a relationship,
he said, I've been thinking about this a lot. I
think it's cool to be a provider or whatever. But
I'm also very attracted to ambition. I like somebody who's
doing their own thing. I like talking to somebody about
their long term goals. I have to think strategically about
my career. I like having those long discussions with somebody.
As much as I love stand up, essentially I'm running
(06:25):
my own business. I've been overdoing it because once you
get a shot in entertainment, you kind of have to
take it. I remember thinking, oh, I'm so tired to
be cool. If I got home and the place was
clean and maybe there was food, I don't want to
order food. I was like, what if I was dating
somebody would just be here. It'd be cool if she
lived here and then took care of stuff. I'm doing
so well, she wouldn't even need a job. I backwards
invented the concept of a traditional housewife. A little more
(06:46):
from that Gutfeld thing I told you about yesterday, he
talked about the whole King of Late Night thing and explained,
I think I'm trying to think where the King came from,
and I think after credit Dave Rubin. I think Rubin
was on dur in the first week of the show
and said something like, you're gonna be the King of
Late Night. You're gonna be number one. I don't like
saying stuff like that because then it'll just be thrown
back in your face, but he was right. Then, of
course I had to put it on my book cover.
(07:06):
I don't even have that I happened, but putting it
on the cover of my book was like this audacious
and ridiculous thing. He was asked what late night even
means anymore? Like whatever you watch, you're choosing a side.
Greg Guttfeld said, yeah, it kind of became defined as
maybe a person who wanted to go to bed angry
with somebody who wanted to go to bed happy. One
thing I always want to do is not send people
to bed and reached. Sure, maybe you're sad that Biden lost,
(07:27):
but we're gonna have so much fun. This is gonna
be great. And then Trump wins, this is gonna be
so much fun. It's gonna be great. So we're gonna
have fun and things are gonna be great no matter
who wins or loses. I'm not gonna let that impact
the time that we have. I think doing a late
night show that makes everyone feel bad is a disservice.
I don't understand that. That's when you have people switching
the channel to come to us. They didn't even know
he existed until then again, we're comparing red apples and
(07:47):
yellow apples. Gutfeld is on at ten Eastern, but he's
on at seven Pacific and eleven thirty five pm Pacific,
or not at all the same thing. Greg said, there
was literally free money on the table, and so I
took it, and I showed mainstream media that they don't
own the culture. I think it's not just about late night,
it's about all of culture. It's about the ability to
tell people you aren't the cool kids at the table anymore.
You'd took people for granted, you insulted everybody else. We're
(08:08):
the ones now we're having fun for your OZ told Variety.
I don't think comedians speak truth to power, you know.
I think journalists speak to power ideally, but I think
comedians speak to a tiny voice in the back of
your head, and perhaps over time we've forgotten how powerful
that voice is. I also don't think you can predict
whatever is going to get you into trouble. It's the
thing you really thought of, this thing. You never imagine
that it's going to be the complaint that gets filed,
(08:29):
and it's a thing you thought that, oh, this is
going to hurt people. It never hurts people at all.
So your best bet is just to say it and
deal with it. When the time comes, and that is
your company news for today, see tomorrow.
Kalaroka, Shock Media, Hi there, Johnny Mack with your Daily
Company News. Mark Norman talked about cancel culture with al
dot com and said, obviously, like Harvey Weinstein and Bill
Cosby and Jeffrey Epstein and or Kelly and list goes on,
these are people that should have been taken down years ago,
and these are criminals. He should be in jail. So
(00:24):
I get all that, But some people, no one ever
brings us up. Some people were using cancel culture like
get their way. It wasn't about justice or doing what
was right. Was about, oh, I can use this and
call this person a racist, then they'll get fired and
I could take their job or whatever. People started using
it for their own benefit and it wasn't about doing
what was morally. Just was about, hey, let me spind this,
I get what I want. That's really when it got ugly.
And I know a lot of examples of that, But
(00:45):
to me, I think we're kind of pasted it, we're
kind of over it, and you just ignored. Tends to
kind of be okay, But yeah, that was a dark time.
I mean then we did that weird thing we were like,
look at Shane Gillis, he got canceled. Now he's huge.
I'm like, yeah, but he's also talented. Let's not act
like him getting canceled was the best thing that ever
happened to him. That's like saying, hey, your mom got
stabs and now you're all over the news. So yeah,
I don't worry about it. I think just as long
(01:06):
as you tell jokes, you're fine. If you're going up
there to saying the N word and yeah, maybe that's
a problem, but maybe you don't have an act. You're
just trying to be edgy. Yeah, but I talk about everything.
I have dicey topics and quote unquote edgy stuff, you know,
but it's all jokes, and it's all in jest. Mark
Norman's best to come back to a heckler. Mark said,
one of my best counterpunches was a big fat lady
who for some reason hated me, and she just yelled
out boo, and I said, are you saying boo or moo?
(01:29):
And the place went nuts and she hated me more
than she left, So that was a real wind. Shang
Wang with Cleveland Scene. They were curious about his hair.
What made you grow out your hair? Shang said, it
wasn't really a choice. I canceled my haircut appointment on
More to thirteenth, twenty twenty. Was the pandemic. At one
point my currey I tried to grow it out. When
it was between short and long, I cut it and
never gave it a chance. People started complimenting me on
(01:52):
my hair. I thought it might not make sense of
cut it now it matches the vibe of the comedy
and writing. For now it really works. It's all an accident.
Remember that, did you cut your own hair? Or the pandemic?
At one point I had to take out the I
let this hop grow out, but the sides just my
hair gets really wide. I had to take out the
razor and just be like, all right, let's hope for
the best. Here. It was okay, you know, it was
like pandemic. Okay. I wasn't leaving the house anyway. Shane
(02:15):
jokes the best part of an office job is being
able to print for free. Did he ever actually have
an office job? Oh yeah, I still have to have
different jobs. I had some temp jobs and was always
so blown away by how much printing and trash comes out,
going from printing at home to printing out an office.
I remember the warmth of fresh printed paper that's stuck
with me. It's based on real life office experience as
a comedian. You going to an office with fresh eyes,
(02:36):
and everything feels so alienating and interesting next to I
have asked Brian Reagan about performing clean. That seems to
be like, if you ever meet Brian Reagan, you have
to be like, hello, you're Brian Reagan. Yes I am.
You were clean? I mean it's every interview, but okay,
it's the weekend. Brian said, Well, I was always mostly
clean even when I started, just because that's how my
brain works, at least comedically. When I'm with my friends
(02:57):
hanging out, I could be as filthy as anyone else
on stage. Hey, just the kind of stuff I like
to do is conceptual and doesn't normally go in that
four letter word direction. But it wasn't completely clean when
I first started. Maybe about five percent was dirty. When
I first went out on the road, AD a handful
of jokes that were attention getters. When you're playing a
rough room like a bar that does a comedy, it's
aequila night out of jokes that would hopefully get their attention,
and I try to slide to stuff that I like,
(03:17):
but then I got to the point where it's more
about being meticulous than wholesome. You know, people got the
wrong idea of why I like to work clean. I
like to work clean just because I like the idea
of seeing if I could be one hundred percent of something.
I see this a personal challenge. How well can I
do how hard can I get people laughing without hitting
certain buzzwords or topics that can disproportionately work in front
of audiences. I started going one hundred percent clean just
for the challenge of it, and along the way I
(03:38):
found there's a following for that. I didn't do it
for that reason. I did it for my own reasons.
IPM Newsroom asked Bob Odenkirk about the role of the
Midwest in his comedy. Bob said, the Second City is
the name for a theater, and it's a name that
was borrowed from a name for Chicago. The Second City.
It's like you're the underdog, and as a result, you
have a suspicious chip on your shoulder towards all that
(03:58):
whatever's happening, whatever's hype and happening. That's good for comedy
because that's what comedy does. Comedy undermines. Growing up here
lends itself to that perspective on the world that wants
to poke with the world and doesn't take things seriously.
As long as there are irritating things in the world,
there's comedy, So please keep irritating us. You know, nobody
quits show business. Stavros Halki has spoke with GQ about
(04:19):
his current views on wellness and said, early on in
my career was like, oh, this is fun. Let me
get as messed up as possible. Let me get good
at something so I get attention from women, and let
me get drunk and have sex with any girl that
will let me, and eat like garbage to reward myself.
Clean that up a little. There's also a little bit
of nihilism, like living like nothing matters around the path
to a coward suicide, where it's like, I don't want
to take care of myself. Who cares? I'm not going
(04:40):
to be around forever. And then my life's gone pretty good.
I got a nephew, My best friends have been kids,
and I'm like, oh, I've gotten successful. There's people that
care about I guess I want to live. So I've
been trying over these last five years to lose a
little weight. I did really well during the pandemic, and
then I started working got fat as f again. I
just do whatever takes the stick around with the ultimate
goal of being I never want to get skinny, but
I want to be strong. On the road, especially on tour,
(05:02):
I just start walking. I like to call myself the
twenty thousand step bastard. Every day on the road, i'd
walk like eight miles. I'd walk into my feet hurt,
and then over time my feet stopped hurting. I could walk.
The thing that's helped me is to be completely honest
with yourself and slowly build from there. The theme of
this interview is masculinity. I think this is an interesting answer.
I definitely see myself in a lineage of those fat
(05:22):
guys that are really up to even as a kid.
We're talking Farley, John Candy, Jack Black. I don't think
anybody would look at me and say that guy's feminine.
I don't think I'm getting that, but I guess I'm
just trying to say for people who feel like they're
not masculine, there's a version of them that is. You
could be a mix of masculine and feminine. If you
want to be masculine, you don't feel it, there's a
path for you to project that. I think for me
it was when I unlocked, Oh, women don't actually care
(05:42):
that much if they like you as a person, if
you can show what's good about you. A lot of
my body in security kind of stem from just general
insecurity about relationships and getting attention from girls. But I
think for me it was when I unlocked Ouh, women
actually don't care that much if they like you as
a person, if you could show what's good about you.
When I was confident myself in all these other ways,
when I felt like I'm doing what I need to do.
I have a nice life plan, I feel confident in
my abilities. That inner confidence sort of projected. I've been
(06:05):
enjoying these He's really in touch with himself. This is
good stuff. What does he look for in a relationship,
he said, I've been thinking about this a lot. I
think it's cool to be a provider or whatever. But
I'm also very attracted to ambition. I like somebody who's
doing their own thing. I like talking to somebody about
their long term goals. I have to think strategically about
my career. I like having those long discussions with somebody.
As much as I love stand up, essentially I'm running
(06:25):
my own business. I've been overdoing it because once you
get a shot in entertainment, you kind of have to
take it. I remember thinking, oh, I'm so tired to
be cool. If I got home and the place was
clean and maybe there was food, I don't want to
order food. I was like, what if I was dating
somebody would just be here. It'd be cool if she
lived here and then took care of stuff. I'm doing
so well, she wouldn't even need a job. I backwards
invented the concept of a traditional housewife. A little more
(06:46):
from that Gutfeld thing I told you about yesterday, he
talked about the whole King of Late Night thing and explained,
I think I'm trying to think where the King came from,
and I think after credit Dave Rubin. I think Rubin
was on dur in the first week of the show
and said something like, you're gonna be the King of
Late Night. You're gonna be number one. I don't like
saying stuff like that because then it'll just be thrown
back in your face, but he was right. Then, of
course I had to put it on my book cover.
(07:06):
I don't even have that I happened, but putting it
on the cover of my book was like this audacious
and ridiculous thing. He was asked what late night even
means anymore? Like whatever you watch, you're choosing a side.
Greg Guttfeld said, yeah, it kind of became defined as
maybe a person who wanted to go to bed angry
with somebody who wanted to go to bed happy. One
thing I always want to do is not send people
to bed and reached. Sure, maybe you're sad that Biden lost,
(07:27):
but we're gonna have so much fun. This is gonna
be great. And then Trump wins, this is gonna be
so much fun. It's gonna be great. So we're gonna
have fun and things are gonna be great no matter
who wins or loses. I'm not gonna let that impact
the time that we have. I think doing a late
night show that makes everyone feel bad is a disservice.
I don't understand that. That's when you have people switching
the channel to come to us. They didn't even know
he existed until then again, we're comparing red apples and
(07:47):
yellow apples. Gutfeld is on at ten Eastern, but he's
on at seven Pacific and eleven thirty five pm Pacific,
or not at all the same thing. Greg said, there
was literally free money on the table, and so I
took it, and I showed mainstream media that they don't
own the culture. I think it's not just about late night,
it's about all of culture. It's about the ability to
tell people you aren't the cool kids at the table anymore.
You'd took people for granted, you insulted everybody else. We're
(08:08):
the ones now we're having fun for your OZ told Variety.
I don't think comedians speak truth to power, you know.
I think journalists speak to power ideally, but I think
comedians speak to a tiny voice in the back of
your head, and perhaps over time we've forgotten how powerful
that voice is. I also don't think you can predict
whatever is going to get you into trouble. It's the
thing you really thought of, this thing. You never imagine
that it's going to be the complaint that gets filed,
(08:29):
and it's a thing you thought that, oh, this is
going to hurt people. It never hurts people at all.
So your best bet is just to say it and
deal with it. When the time comes, and that is
your company news for today, see tomorrow.
Popular Podcasts
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.