Bryan Callen on Eating Corgis (Yes, The Dogs) and Improving Creativity (#47)

Hi Tim,

My absolute favorite comedian is Stephen Colbert. I love him because his comedy doesn’t need to be vulgar or exaggerated to be funny. It’s smart comedy. It’s like he’s winking at you when he says something like he’s telling you “You know what I’m saying is BS right?”

Extremely talented, hope you invite him on the show one day!

Theo

Looking forward listening to this one after work Tim! For one of your future podcast I would love to hear Penn Jillette (Penn and Teller) or maybe even both of them together on the show! Penn is an entertainer at heart and I think someone worth “brain picking” as he has made a career as an illusionist, comedian, musician, inventor, actor, and best-selling author (I love the show Bull$hit!)

Louis C.K. – He’s not afraid to go too far, he’s a self made man, and he’s not afraid to do things his way (writes, produces, and directs most of his work)

Dylan Moran

Jimmy Carr

Bill Hicks

Svutlana love too much George Carlin, Woody Allen and Dr Seuss.

Tim..

I’m looking forward to listening to this podcast.

It’s hard to narrow my favorites list of comedians down to three, but right now they would be:

-Jerry Seinfeld

-The Sklar Brothers

-Gary Gulman

Seinfeld and Gulman have great material that pulls from everyday life. They are both able to deliver it in such a hilarious way.

The Sklar Brothers are so quick and play off each other so well. I’ve always enjoyed their connection to sports dating back to when they hosted the show Cheap Seats. I’ve also really enjoyed their podcast Sklarbrough Country.

Henry Phillips

Dennis Miller

So many comic styles out there – it’s hard to pick a favorite few.

Stewart Lee. While most comedians try to raise the audience’s energy, he’s happy to let it drop. Often part of his act is commenting on how parts of his act don’t work. He can go on for five minutes just varying a single line. Basically he does things that would be unfunny with most comedians but he’s great at it

The sound when the pump up music ends sounds exactly like the Ali G Show intro to interviews.

Tim Minchin…because…well, of this, for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyBvbot3emM

Billy Connolly, Dice, Harrie Jekkers (dutch guy, sorry). Tim, Did you say you are looking for a hang, the instrument? My friend wants to sell, I asked him as I heard somewhere you were looking for one. This is a very good one I understand.

Bill Hicks : The man is just a legend, some incredibly deep, dark and hilarious moments from his career.

Chris Morris: His 90’s stuff here in the UK was groundbreaking, ridiculously funny and was the forerunner to Jon Stewart, Colbert and other comedians who mock the very media they work in.

Tim, thanks for the great podcast! I would love to see you interview

Phil Hendrie. He is a genius, surely a bit insane and incredible character.

Bill burr

His new special comes out on netflix this Friday.

Michael McIntyre: http://www.michaelmcintyre.co.uk/ – hilariously funny for those of us in the UK. Presume you would understand. Check out some YouTube clips and see what you think.

Jeff Dunham.

Hugh Laurie.

Solid podcast. I always enjoy your podcasts and Random shows. Makes me want to request that you make yourself a guinea pig on “how to become a more polished speaker” or something along those lines. To my ears, Tim, it seems that you come off as timid or uncertain sometimes as you search for the right question or a response back to your guest…seems to lack a crispness that you could improve upon. Interestingly, I don’t really pick up on that as much when you are doing your Random show. And, I make the request because I want to be better speaker/communicator, too. I hate those instances in my life where I say to myself, “Oh, I wish I said that better,” or, “I wish I just said ANYTHING.”

Really enjoyed Bryan. I remember him as the Cabana Boy from the MadTv years!

Joe Rogan. His tell-it-like-it-is style is amazing. His podcast is awesome.

Jake Johannsen’s album I Love You. Real life stories that are hilarious; delivered in a deadpan, easy-going style like your buddy is just talking to you.

Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee is absolutely worth the listen. Jerry is solid and you get a peek into all these people’s lives just for a second and what you see is fascinating.

Thanks for all that you do!

George Carlin and Bill Hicks. In addition to being very smart and very funny, both were fearless… speaking truth to power in a way that few comedians, journalists, or other public figures would ever dare. Intelligence, humor, and courage… powerful combo!

I would love for you to interview Kayvan Novak, the man behind “Fonejacker” and “Facejacker”.

He is SO good at improvising on the spot and under pressure not to mention an insanely good impressionist.

Watch some of his episodes on YouTube if you want a run down.

Keep up the amazing work with the blog!

Wow, another great show, and hilarious. The best was his soap box on how to live life and get the most out of it. Great stuff there. He could quit comedy and start a motivational speaking career if he wanted.

Hi Tim,

I enjoy getting the updates, but for a few days in a row I’ve getting “confirmation” emails from signing up for the update email… even though I signed up a while ago.

Any ideas why this is happening?

Thanks,

Alex

Hi Tim,

Kudos to highlighting Goldacre’s Bad Pharma in your recent podcast. It’s troubling how poor/deceptive the “peer-reviewed” evidence is many available/widely prescribed drugs. (Statins, for instance…probably one of the biggest cons even perpetuated by pharma on the public, as you must know. To accurately interpret studies, distinguishing relative risk vs absolute risk reduction is essential. See Erik Rifkin’s book The Illusion of Certainty.)

Speaking of pharma/biotech, I’m very surprised, having read 4-Hour Body and knowing your interest in the field, that your blog hasn’t touched on any of the new medical paradigms that are emerging along with the ebola epidemic.

Have you done any reading on the use of lectin agents to remove cancer exosomes and other pathogens (viral, bacterial, etc.) from blood ex vivo? Or Aethlon’s Humopurifier tech? Little in mainstream news about it currently, which is kind of disappointing, and puzzling, given that it’s already purportedly been used in Germany to successfully treat ebola. Like a month ago. Tricky thing, the diffusion of innovation.

Jim Gaffigan! He is soooo funny. I especially love it when he uses his high voice, & talks like he’s an audience member.

Great podcast as usual. Sounds like you are going to try some standup Tim. Go for it. It is good practice for grasping at incremental progress. I think the point that comics under sell is the development of what some call the “comic voice.” You kinda touched on the subject when you talked about on-stage persona. One way to look at it is that there are two aspects of comedy. There is the materials (a joke that would be funny if you read it on paper) and there is the performance. The comic voice is the performance where for example one could tell a story and the humor is in how the story is told. My main point here is that the performance includes some subtle non-verbal cueing and communication that communicates funny to people. When Byran said it takes 10 years to master comedy this is what he is talking about. If one is good at acting then it is easier to dial in the “being funny” or comic voice. For me, I really only began to dial in some slight comic voice before I quit. My performance anxiety interfered with my comic voice. The comic voice is a very individual thing. Many comics get there by having a performance with a lot of attitude or sarcasm. Lewis Black is example of all attitude. Chris Rock has a lot of attitude, but he like Richard Pryor has range of voices for different material. There is a real tonal element to it and since we don’t really hear our own tonal sounds it is something that is the product of trial and error.

Hi Tim, I’ve been checking on the Nutritional Science Initiative since it began and am really interested in the research that’s being done, but I haven’t seen any of the results of the studies that they’re conducting. Specifically I noticed that the Energy Balance Consortium Study finished in June. Do you know when or if the results of these studies will be published?

Thank you,

David Wheeler

Hi Tim – great post thank you.

Comedians I would recommend:

Eddie Izzard – he is the polar opposite of Bryan Callen but his equivalent in comedy, acting, political opinion, bravery. He also ran 43 marathons in 51 days!

Frankie Boyle – because he is a noble Scottish Man.

Enjoy!

John

Bill Burr, Louie CK, Greg Proops. I guess what makes them memorable is their witty critique of cultural norms that we take for granted. However, this is not unique to these three. There are many other comedians about whom this could be said.

I remember a specific quote in the podcast about the difference between x and y is that x read books.

I cannot find the quote or remember what x and y are. If someone can drop the time of the quote it would be much appreciated!

Tim, I’d like to nominate Tim Anderson and Geoff Neuport from the Original Strength system for your podcast! I’m just a big fan of your work and of the OS system and would love to see you guys link up and chat.

Kids in the Hall sketches were gems. I also recommend Bruce McCulloch’s writing as he employs interesting descriptors. I miss Louis C.K.’s “balls-out” style, and am still mad Eastbound and Down was canceled. I feel like Paul Rudd’s best script hasn’t found him yet. And, I’m

sure I’m not alone here… Vince Vaughn is the hottest thing on two legs.