The Comic's Comic Presents Last Things First

Sean L. McCarthy: Comedy journalist

4.6 (42)
COMEDY INTERVIEWS

Asking comedians about the historic lasts and firsts in their lives as their comedy careers have blossomed.

12/26/2024

Episode #465: Comedy MVPs of 2024 with Jason Zinoman

We did it, comedy fans. We withstood another year of craziness, hundreds upon hundreds of comedy specials, and have gotten my friend and colleague in comedy criticism, Jason Zinoman from The New York Times, to join me for another December to Remember and try to make sense of it all. 2024, a year that started with a fake AI George Carlin and a captivating Katt Williams performance on Club Shay Shay, that saw the relaunch of @Midnight as After Midnight on CBS, that saw Just For Laughs go bankrupt and cancel their Montreal bash only to promise a revival in 2025, that saw the major presidential candidates sit down with so many comedians for election-season podcasts, can we make sense of all of that? It was a year when Netflix went live in a big way, but were their specials funnier than the hundreds of offerings on YouTube, and can upstarts at Hulu, Veeps and Dropout provide some much-needed competition? What does it say about comedy that a comedy D&D show, Dropout’s Dimension 20, as well as a glorified Gong Show in Tony Hinchcliffe’s Kill Tony, both sold out Madison Square Garden? And who were our Comedy MVPs for 2024? It was obviously a big year for Nikki Glaser, who will host the Golden Globes to kick off 2025, and another banner year for Nate Bargatze. It was also a breakout year for Cole Escola and Alex Edelman, each of whom won over Broadway. Josh Johnson and Conner O’Malley won the internet, or showed us how to defeat the algorithms. Whom else did we give shoutouts to? What made us worry about comedy trends? There’s a lot to get to, so let’s get to it!

36 min
12/19/2024

Episode #464: Kelly McCaughan

Kelly McCaughan is an actor, writer, comedian and clown whose show, Catholic Guilt, was nominated for Best Newcomer by the 2023 ISH Edinburgh Comedy Awards, and then brought back the following Fringe, where her show received a Best Show nomination from the 2024 ISH Edinburgh Comedy Awards. Originally from outside of Pittsburgh, McCaughan went to college with fellow renowned clown Natalie Palamides where she studied theater, learned improv through the Upright Citizens Brigade, and Bouffon from Red Bastard. Her TV credits include roles on HBO’s Crashing and Apple TV+’s Servant, and she has taken her Catholic Guilt show across America. I caught up with her during her SoHo Playhouse run in New York City in November, which took place the weekend after Election Day. There’s a lot to get to, so let’s get to it!

36 min
08/21/2024

Episode #463: Chad Daniels

Chad Daniels is a Minnesota stand-up comedian with more than a billion streams to his credit, and in July 2024 released his 10th comedy special and first for Netflix, Empty Nester, marking his freedom from raising two kids as a single dad in small-town Minnesota. Daniels sat down with me over Zoom to talk about how he balanced it all in his early years as a stand-up, what he learned from working with Mitch Hedberg as a young comic, why he resisted the pull of Los Angeles and New York City, and how landing his 2017 album on Pandora gave him both a new set of fans and placed a new set of expectations upon himself. Since that 2017 album, “Footprints on the Moon,” Daniels has put five hourlong specials across YouTube, EPIX, MGM+ and Netflix — and that’s not even counting another hour he has in the can for Netflix already. There’s a lot to get to, so let’s get to it!

37 min
08/15/2024

Episode #462: Kyle Ayers

Kyle Ayers is a comedian from Missouri currently based in Los Angeles who hosts the popular podcast and live show, Never Seen It, where comedians rewrite famous movies and TV shows they’ve never seen. You may have seen Ayers perform his stand-up on Conan or on the OnlyFans comedy showcase, LMAOF. Ayers also created and hosted the live comedy show, Boast Rattle, which as it name suggests is the opposite of Roast Battle, and which he adapted for the aborted streamer Quibi as Nice One! Ayers met up with me during the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe, where Ayers has debuted a new hour, Hard To Say, in which he describes his ordeals with chronic pain since 2017, when he discovered he was suffering from Trigeminal Neuralgia, a condition also sometimes referred to as Suicide Disease. Because of the subject matter, I also want you to know that if you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available by calling or texting 988. Kyle Ayers may seem like he’s more than OK joking about it on the outside, but how is he holding up on the inside? I asked him. There’s a lot to get to, so let’s get to it!

40 min
08/06/2024

Episode #461: PunchUp Live’s Danny Frenkel and Alex Dajani

The state of the comedy industry, like most everything else in 2024, feels very much in flux. Danny Frenkel and Alex Dajani have seen firsthand how technology and social media have changed the relationships between performers and fans in the 21st century, and have set about finding a better way for them to connect today. Danny worked at Facebook since 2010 in various aspects of marketing and data strategies, while Alex was a software engineer at Apple and Meta — until they partnered up to launch PunchUp Live in 2023. Their platform, which had about 200,000 monthly active users when I spoke to them earlier this year, aims to serve up data for comedians to better grow their fan bases, while providing those fans with ad-free viewing experiences, bonus content and a better ability to know when their favorite comedians are performing near them. Steve Byrne was the first comedian to visibly promote PunchUp in 2023, but the ranks have grown to include Sam Morril, Mark Normand, Michelle Wolf, Liz Miele, Joe List and more. Danny and Alex sat down with me over Zoom to explain how they got into the comedy business and what they hope to prove with PunchUp Live. There’s a lot to get to, so let’s get to it!

34 min
07/30/2024

Episode #460: Ashley Gavin

Ashley Gavin is a comedian from New York City who studied computer science and helped craft the curriculum for Girls Who Code, before deciding to embark on her own path in comedy in 2012. Gavin says she became Carnival Cruise Line’s first openly gay performer later that decade, and when the pandemic shut down that gig, she pivoted to podcasting and social media, where she has found even greater success. First with a hit podcast, We’re Having Gay Sex, and then accumulating more than 1.4 million followers on TikTok. Gavin’s self-released special, Ashley Gavin: Live In Chicago, has garnered upward of a million views since she uploaded the hour to YouTube in April 2023. Gavin sat down with me over Zoom to talk about her inadvertent branding of a look, how she applied her coding experience to navigating the new technologies for comedy and show business, the art and science of crowd work, and what she has learned from going viral in both the very best and very worst possible ways. Gavin is bringing her new hour to the Edinburgh Fringe, My Therapist Is Dying, which goes back farther into her childhood. Her comedy may be dark, but she most certainly isn’t. There’s a lot to get to, so let’s get to it!

38 min
07/02/2024

Episode #459: Sam Reich, Dropout CEO

I spoke to Sam Reich on this podcast back in the fall of 2020, when he was in his first year running Dropout, the subscription-based streaming platform he founded as a follow-up to CollegeHumor where he had worked for much of his adult life. Four years later, Reich and Dropout are ready to graduate to the big leagues, with one of their shows already selling out Madison Square Garden for a live event months in advance, and other shows eligible for the first time for Emmy consideration. Reich talked to me this time about what it’s like seeing his name on an Emmy ballot for the first time — he hosts the game show Game Changer — and why Dropout now is producing and releasing comedy specials. Dropout’s first comedy special from YouTube star and VidCon founder Hank Green debuted in June 2024, with more to come, including two shows Reich saw in 2023 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Sam sat down with me over Zoom to talk about all of that, and how he successfully runs a streaming platform when the rest of the industry feels upside down and backward. There’s a lot to get to, so let’s get to it!

26 min
06/24/2024

Episode #458: Hank Green

Hank and John Green began influencing online viewing long before we tied the word influencer to social media, launching their Vlogbrothers YouTube channel on Jan. 1, 2007, 17 years, 3.77 million subscribers and almost a billion views ago. Three years later, the brothers founded VidCon, the first and largest global gathering of YouTubers, growing since 2010 to include video pioneers, stars and would-be stars on YouTube, Vine, Facebook, Twitch, Instagram, TikTok and whatever comes next. Hank Green also co-created The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, a YouTube adaptation of Pride and Prejudice that in 2013 became the first webseries to win an Emmy (for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media – Original Interactive Program). Hank, who majored in biochemistry in college, then earned his master’s degree in environmental studies from the University of Montana. Hank has mega millions of viewers these days — watching him host the educational Crash Course series or SciShow on YouTube, or following his exploits on TikTok, Instagram and X/Twitter. Although you may have laughed more than once at his videos, Hank Green never toured as a comedian until he decided to present his diagnosis and recovery from Hodgkin lymphoma as stand-up. His debut special, Pissing Out Cancer, came out in June 2024 as the first of six comedy specials for Dropout, the subscription streaming platform that rose out of the ashes of CollegeHumor. Green joined me over Zoom to talk about making his debut comedy special, making it for Dropout, how he can still enjoy making videos for any brand of social media in 2024, and what he expects to see when he attends his first VidCon in four years at the end of June in Anaheim. There’s a lot to get to, so let’s get to it!

34 min

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4.6

out of 5

42 Ratings

Awesome!

03/09/2022

Cotter Kid

I love Sean’s writing, reviews, and interview skills! He knows so much about comedy! Fun, Funny,
Nerding Out on Comedy

11/10/2019

wowokiloveit

This podcast is my happy place :)
The best

11/10/2019

ShellyB19

Sean gets his guests to say things I’ve never heard anywhere else
Most insightful

11/10/2019

chillbrew344

These interviews are Hands Down the most insightful I’ve been able to find about comedy. Really gets down to the nitty gritty!