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Joe Rogan and Shane Gillis Enjoying February 2024 More Than You, Plus Last Month’s Specials And Late-Night Sets

Hi! It’s Super Bowl Sunday, and with the big game comes a ton of comedy news, big and small, so much so that I’ve decided to divide it up into two dispatches — one pre-game, and one post-game — so as not to overwhelm your email reading capacities.

Also, new for 2024, I’ve added a new page on the newsletter’s home page for Comedy Festival listings in case you’d like to submit your reel to festival programmers, attend as a fan, or a third thing! OK, now on to this week’s top story-ish.

Joe Rogan in his Austin podcast studio in 2024. Photo courtesy of Spotify.

Why is this man smiling? After earning a reported $200 million from Spotify over the past three-plus years under an exclusive deal he signed in 2000, Joe Rogan just inked a new contract with Spotify worth as much as $250 million that allows the Joe Rogan Experience to go back onto YouTube with full video as well as audio on other platforms such as Apple and elsewhere. Spotify announced the new deal Feb. 2, saying: “JRE remains podcasting’s king, consistently ranking as the most-listened-to podcast globally and our users have ranked the show as Spotify’s Wrapped top podcast each year since 2020.”

Shane Gillis also is getting the last laugh on everyone who thought he was dunzo four and a half years ago when Saturday Night Live dropped him in a New York minute as a new cast member the moment his past podcast proclamations proved more embarrassing for NBC than it did for Gillis, who refused to issue the network’s apology. Now Lorne Michaels is welcoming him back with more than open arms, as Gillis has fast-tracked past featured player and repertory cast to HOST on Feb. 24 with musical guest 21 Savage.

What a coinky-dink, then, to find out Rogan’s first episode after the announcement he decided to record with Gillis and his podcasting partner, Matt McCusker. And yet their three-hour chat mentioned nothing about Rogan’s Spotify deal or Gillis’s SNL gig?!?

They did talk plenty about diarrhea (thanks to the carnivore diet Rogan gets all his boys into), a reference to Gillis also getting named a Bud Light spokesman (with Rogan zinging Dylan Mulvaney once more), and you know it’s a new talk because they reference Killer Mike’s arrest at last Sunday’s Grammy Awards, with Rogan immediately jumping to a bogus conclusion steeped in political conspiracy theory. Eventually Rogan does dish halfway through the episode with details about the aborted first attempt at siting his Comedy Mothership, claiming Ron White had convinced him to look into buying property outside downtown where White had once performed. Rogan said building issues helped scuttle that deal, but perhaps not as much as the comedian learning about the previous owner’s gay sex cult, and that’s the detail that got him sidetracked with Gillis and McCusker.

Perhaps toxic isn’t as precise as insecure masculinity to describe their ensuing discussions, which included plenty of talk about violent animal videos, another cult where the leader’s skin turned blue and somehow turned to them looking up dildo reviews, Rogan imagining if there were an Ozempic for dick size and Gillis making self-deprecating jokes, unsubstantiated postulating that Democrats are hoping to recruit migrants as new voters while “the right wants to help Americans” (again without evidence of how they’re helping and who, exactly), then talks about Nazis fleeing to South America and the U.S., an offhanded remark about sugary soda drinks leading to diabetes gets Rogan to claim “well that was one of the number one reasons why people died of COVID.” Rogan and McCusker professed their admiration for failed Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswany (with McCusker now preferring RFK Jr.’s candidacy). McCusker often led Rogan and Gillis down wild tangents based on information he had read or experiences he has had, while Gillis often steered them away toward sillier topics when he felt they were getting too serious.

Perhaps the great irony, of course, is that Gillis and McCusker’s “Secret Podcast” might not have popped off like it has on Patreon if not for Gillis’s original hiring-firing fiasco at SNL.

Freelance journalist Seth Simons, who first exposed their podcast in 2019, posted a selection of the vitriolic emails he has received in the past week on his site, Humorism, under the headline: Portrait of a Fanbase: “Comedy is about having fun.” 

So, yeah.

Let’s get into a couple of other big things worth catching you all up on, and then we’ll circle back tomorrow with the rest of the comedy news you may have missed in recent weeks.

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R.I.P. Al Martin

Al Martin on A&E’s “An Evening at the Improv” (1994)

Another sign that New York City’s old-school comedy scene has come and gone, as Al Martin died last week. Martin, born Abraham Neil Mevorah (his rabbi joked at his funeral (available to view online for a limited time) that Al had 15 different names and identities), was 65. He died a week after his birthday, which he celebrated by watching a comedy show. Of course.

As a comedian, Martin appeared on season 15 of A&E’s An Evening at the Improv in 1994 (available to watch on FreeVee). As a club owner, Martin kept the stages open for aspiring stand-ups to find their voices at Broadway Comedy Club and later Greenwich Village Comedy Club. Martin also ran New York Comedy Club until 2014. In an interview with Best Comedy Tickets, Martin talked about his very first venture some three decades ago and then some: “The first room I ran was a place called the Eagle Tavern, it was on 14th street.  It was actually right next door to what later became Comix.  At the time that place was a supermarket.  We did the longest-running open mic there, it would run from four o’clock in the afternoon till about eleven at night, and a lot of the bigger names in comedy now started at that open mic.  Sarah Silverman worked that open mic, Judah Friedlander worked that open mic.  (Chuckles)  I worked that open mic.”

Here’s a clip from a decade ago of Martin explaining his club and philosophy.

Rest in peace, Al.

Last Month’s Specials

Who released new specials in January 2024?

New on Netflix — 4

New on Prime Video (Originals) — 1

New on FOX Nation — 2

New on YouTube — 12

This list does not include several re-releases either by the comedians themselves or by other outlets such as 800PGM and Comedy Central.

New on 800 Pound Gorilla Media (rent/buy) — 2

New on Amazon Prime Video (rent/buy) — 9

New HALF-HOURS: 10

In case you’re curious…

JANUARY 2024

  • 30 HOURS
  • 10 HALF-HOURS

JANUARY 2023

  • 24 HOURS
  • 20 HALF-HOURS

So we’re already ahead of last year’s breakneck record pace?!?!?

Seen & Heard

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has begun booking stand-up comedians again, and having them perform within the actual show (they used to bulk tape stand-ups separately and plug them into later episodes). Last week we saw Usama Siddiquee.

Late Night with Seth Meyers also booked at least one stand-up in January in Nico Carney.

Jimmy Kimmel Live welcomed and welcomes plenty of stand-ups, but as panelists for sit-down chats and not stand-up sets.

Last but certainly not least, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon continues to be the most reliable supporter of stand-ups. Here’s who has stopped by in the past few weeks.

Emmy Blotnick got a plug for her upcoming special taping at Union Hall with a set this past Thursday.

The week before that, Rob Haze got a chance to promote his new YouTube special:

Before that, Jourdain Fisher:

And before that, one of Fallon’s favorite stand-ups made another appearance. It’s Pete Lee!

But wait, there was more. Here was Dustin Ybarra:

And Dusty Slay got to plug his new Netflix special with a Fallon slot, too.

OK, I think that covers that. See you again after the Big Game for more comedy news.

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