10 Good Things from Jim Gaffigan, Jay Leno, Steve Martin, and more

Also: Jerry Seinfeld on the things you choose to not do, Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, on learning to laugh, and more.

💥 Jason Zinoman: Jim Gaffigan’s Quintessentially American Comedy Gets Darker and Better.

His focus on single subjects can be knowingly, preposterously long. Who else does 10 minutes on horses? There’s an element of showing off — look at how I can make foliage funny — but also the excessiveness, the stubborn commitment of it, gets its own laughs.

Gets at something key to Gaffigan’s big chunks: The meta joke is how long he sticks on the same topic. 7 minutes about bacon!? Eventually the subtext of every punchline is “I can’t believe he’s still talking about this.”

💥 Jerry Seinfeld on the things you choose to not do:

It’s one thing to create. The other is you have to choose. 'What are we going to do, and what are we not going to do?’ This is a gigantic aspect of show-business survival. It’s kind of unseen, what’s picked and what is discarded, but mastering that is how you stay alive.

💥 The advice Jay Leno gave Mike Binder.

When I was a kid, the first time I was doing stand up, I didn’t get it. I would get laughs, but I wasn’t that good.  I didn’t put the work in. Jay Leno used to give me a hard time. We used to sit at his house and he’d lecture me. ‘You have no act, Binder. You just fuck around on stage. You make jokes with the curtains, talk to the audience, mess around. What jokes you do have you do the same ones every night and just throw them out there. It’s not an act. There’s no pace or energy to it. You’re not writing enough.’

💥

Sean L. McCarthy

tracked responses to “What’s a comedy opinion that will have you like this?” Some notable ones:

Sean O’Connor: “A comedian should only do three specials in their lifetime. The hour a year model has led to a lot of half baked shit that has ruined the art form.”

big shelley: “If your whole set is “what do you do for work?” or “Who’s single?” you’re not a comedian you’re a census worker”

ashley ray is on vacay: “so much of that alt comedy some of y’all do is not funny at all and i wish you ever had to perform in front of black audiences so you could realize that”

Jeremy: “the reels/video podcast/youtube special business model is helping good comedians find success without traditional industry bullshit, but it's also making them less funny”

💥 People buzzing about the hotness of rising comedian Matt Rife…

If "struggling" is selling 70 tickets a night while dating Kate Beckinsale, then I don't want to succeed.

My .02: Comedy was the last safe space for ugly people. Now we can’t even have that.

Up ahead:

• Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, on learning to laugh. ​

• The “benign masochism” of cringe comedy.

• The math of comedy.

• Barry Katz on confidence.

• Sarah Silverman tells Howard Stern a great Steve Martin joke.