Hello, and welcome back to Comedy Means Business.
It's been both the craziest and quietest of times in the comedy world over the last week.
On the one hand, you had the furor over, and subsequent resolution of, Jimmy Kimmel's deplatforming, as well as the Riyadh Comedy Festival, an event we got the scoop on in July, which is the subject of ongoing controversy. At the same time, it's been absolute crickets on the transactional front, with those aforementioned stories taking up much of the oxygen in the news cycle.
Congrats to Kimmel on a deftly handled return. The veteran late-night host had hinted prior to recent events that his current contract with ABC, expiring in May 2026, may be his last as host. So it'l be interesting to see where he chooses to take things now — and what the anticipated brouhaha around the Riyadh Comedy Festival means for the future of the event.
Today on the Comedy Means Business podcast, we have an engaging discussion with comedian Caleb Hearon on a "venture-capital" mentality that's been creeping into comedy and why he's chosen to steer clear of it. Listen to that here.
As it's booking season out there — with tour dates being finalized for Q1 2026 — it's a bit of a muted issue this time around for our flagship comedy newsletter. But read on for exclusive scoops on the latest podcast joining All Things Comedy, new specials from Mal Hall and and Myq Kaplan, as well as a recently wrapped indie from the filmmaking duo of Jessica McKenna and Zach Reino.
Plus, we have the regular roundup of recent comedy headlines, and a new Discovery of the Week in Pat Burtscher... |
'RIGHT NOW WITH JOHN GOBLIKON' JOINS ALL THINGS COMEDY'S PODCAST NETWORK |
| John Goblikon at All Things Comedy (Courtesy) |
DEADLINE EXCLUSIVE: Right Now with John Goblikon, the pod starring the goblin frontman of L.A. death metal band Nekrogoblikon, has joined the podcast network of Bill Burr and Al Madrigal's All Things Comedy. Originating as a web series, Right Now is a comedy interview show where John (aka Dave Rispoli) chats with friends from stand-up, music, and entertainment. Past guests include Andrew Santino, Pete Holmes, Paul Scheer, Steph Tolev, Lisa Gilroy, Ron Funches, Kumail Nanjiani, Gareth Reynolds, Chloe Radcliffe, and many more. Brandon Dermer (I'm Totally Fine), Rispoli (What Would Diplo Do?), and Alex Alereza co-created the show, which launched last October, and also serve as producers. Rispoli hosts each episode as the title character John Goblikon and also serves as showrunner. >>> More |
THE DEADLINE EXCLUSIVE - #2 |
COMEDIAN MAL HALL UNVEILING DEBUT SPECIAL 'WHAT ARE WE DOING TODAY?!' IN OCTOBER |
NEWSLETTER-ONLY EXCLUSIVE: Emerging comic Mal Hall is set to premiere his debut special, What Are We Doing Today?! — which counts Anjelah Johnson-Reyes amongst its EPs — on 800 Pound Gorilla’s YouTube channel on October 21.
In the special, filmed at Lou Lou’s Jungle Room in Hall's hometown of San Diego, CA, the comedian delivers his take on the chaos of millennial parenthood, diving into the wild ride of raising kids in a world where Gen Z is judging your every move. From choosing the right words to parent with, to surviving Costco on a Saturday, he finds humor in the everyday madness. He even explores the joy of eavesdropping on strangers’ arguments and the mystery of people who still don’t know where their gas tank is.
The special is directed by OG and exec produced by Hall, Johnson-Reyes and Stephen Gordon Walker. Mal fully owns the hour, which he self-financed and produced.
In a statement to Deadline, Hall said that his special reflects his "personal mantra" that "the long road is the best road."
He continued, "This special represents not just where I am today, but the 15+ years of shows that got me here. I’m so proud of What Are We Doing Today?! and excited to share it as my introduction to the world of YouTube comedy. I’m deeply grateful for Anjelah Johnson-Reyes and the incredible team behind me and for my small but mighty fanbase who continue to keep the wind in my sails.”
In his career to date, Hall has toured the country performing at hundreds of comedy clubs and colleges. He's also shared the stage internationally as the main support act for Johnson-Reyes and Alonzo Bodden. A finalist in NBC’s StandUp for Diversity showcase, his television credits include Fox's Laughs, AXS TV’s Mockpocalypse, and FuseTV’s Offbeat. He is managed by Stephen Gordon Walker of Walk the Walk.
Check out a trailer for Hall's special here. |
THE DEADLINE EXCLUSIVE - #3 |
MYQ KAPLAN DATES NEW SPECIAL 'RINI' |
NEWSLETTER-ONLY EXCLUSIVE: Myq Kaplan’s new comedy special, Rini, is set to premiere on Blonde Medicine’s YouTube channel on November 17, releasing as an album on December 12. Coming 20 years into his comedy career, and nearly a decade into his relationship with Rini Voskressensky, the special is a deeply personal project created by the duo — equal parts a comedy special and a thesis on love. In the show, which he performed at the Edinburgh Fringe, Kaplan offers advice to his past dumb self while discussing his evolving thoughts on traditional marriage, polyamory, quantum physics, psychedelics, music, God, and more.
“I'm a better person because of her. I'm a better comedian because of her,” Kaplan says of Rini. “We created this show about our relationship together, an artistic collaboration about our romantic collaboration. The show is a celebration of love. So, I hope everyone loves it. And laughs at it, because it’s funny.”
Prior to Rini, Kaplan released the Dry Bar special Live from the Universe, unveiled the hour Small, Dork, and Handsome with Comedy Dynamics, and performed an additional half-hour for Comedy Central. The host of two podcasts — The Faucet and Broccoli and Ice Cream — he has also appeared on The Tonight Show, Conan, Letterman, James Corden, Seth Meyers, Last Comic Standing, and America’s Got Talent.
Kaplan’s discography includes eight chart-topping albums of both stand-up and comedic songs. His last album, A.K.A., debuted at #1 on the iTunes chart. He also put out Heart Brain Art Train, a book of his jokes illustrated by Ramin Nazer, and is repped by Independent Artists Media, Throw It Hard Entertainment, and Cohen & Gardner. |
THE DEADLINE EXCLUSIVE - #4 |
JESSICA MCKENNA & ZACH REINO WRAP ON 'MOCK TRIAL' |
Jessica McKenna and Zach Reino (Sela Shiloni) |
NEWSLETTER-ONLY EXCLUSIVE: Director Jessica McKenna has wrapped on Mock Trial, a semi-scripted, semi-improvised ensemble mockumentary in which she stars with Zach Reino, with whom she wrote the script.
Shot in Los Angeles, the film also stars SNL alum Cheri Oteri, Lennon Parham, Lilan Bowden, Paul F. Tompkins, Zeke Nicholson, Mario Houle, Brianna Reed, and more. Billed as Mighty Ducks meets Best in Show with a dash of A Few Good Men, it’s an underdog story about the passions that burn bright when we’re young and how those glory days shape who we are.
Pic is inspired by McKenna’s experience winning an Orange County championship with her high school mock trial team.
"General wisdom is that it's unhealthy to hang on to your high school glory days, you should really move on,” she deadpans in a statement to Deadline. “Totally. Good advice. BUT what if INSTEAD you could nurture them for twenty years and turn them into your dream project?”
McKenna continued in part, “I've been in love with Mock Trial since I was sixteen, I'm excited for the rest of the world to fall in love too.”
Matt Kane and Marc Underhill produced Mock Trial for Thundercane productions, with Zack Freedman, Max Ash, Mitch Lerner, and Chris Wade exec producing.
Reino and McKenna are a musical comedy duo who wrote and composed music for the WGA Award-winning Peacock Series Baking It starring Maya Rudolph, Amy Poehler and Andy Samberg. The duo has also written songs and musical sketches for the hit animated series Rick and Morty, the Fox sketch show Party Over Here produced by The Lonely Island, Peacock’s Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin, Buzzfeed, Funny or Die, and Nickelodeon.
Known for their musical podcast Off Book, which they’re currently touring across North America, they created and starred in Serious Music, a digital series for ABC, and have also developed film and television projects with Dropout TV, David Wain, and Elizabeth Banks’ Brownstone Productions. The pair have been featured at Comedy Central’s Clusterfest Festival, Moontower, the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal, and the Netflix Is a Joke Festival in L.A. They released their first full-length musical comedy album, The Calendar Album, with Comedy Dynamics in 2019 and are repped by Zack Freedman at Omnipop and Ginsburg, Daniels, Kallis.
Oteri is repped by Brave Artists Management and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman; Parham by Rise Management, UTA, and Yorn, Levine, Barnes; Bowden by M88, Prototype Talent, and Myman Greenspan Fox; Tompkins by UTA; Nicholson by Artists First, UTA, and Ginsburg Daniels Kallis; Houle by Brave Artists Management; and Reed by Key Talent Management and Michaela Mahoney. |
Pat Burtscher (Jim McCambridge) |
Today's Discovery of the Week is Pat Burtscher, a comedian who has been seen touring with everyone from Bert Kreischer to Brett Goldstein and Steph Tolev.
Born in Austria and raised in Canada, Burtscher is a regular at The Comedy Cellar in in New York City, where he's currently based. His debut album, Patty Cakes, can be heard on SiriusXM.
Burtscher has performed at the San Francisco Punch Line, Caroline’s on Broadway, the New York Comedy Festival, the Melbourne Comedy Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Adelaide Fringe Festival, and Singapore Comedy Fringe. A finalist in both the Seattle and San Francisco Comedy Competitions, he was also part of the Home Grown Comics showcase at Just For Laughs 2018, which aired nationally in Canada on the Comedy Network. He is repped by Mosaic.
Check out a Don't Tell Comedy set, in which he riffs on immigration policy, here. |
The Comedy Means Business newsletter runs bimonthly on Mondays. Sign up to receive our companion podcast here. The pod can also be found on Apple, YouTube, and Spotify.
Got a tip, pitch, comment, feature idea, or Discovery of the Week? Reach out at mattgrobar@deadline.com. |
|
