Dan Has Jokes

Is it possible to appeal to Tyler Perry in exploring common ground between white and black people? Kiragu thinks so, although he explores different ideas for which white political leader Perry most reflects. Meanwhile, Dan is trying to add a new element to an old, well-established joke in his act.

Kiragu teaches comedy to students at Frederick Douglass High School, and has some fascinating things to say about what that entails. Dan shares an email from another comic regarding a joke discussed in a previous podcast, which involves an old academic article based on a very odd scientific experiment. This leads Kiragu to reflect on his comedy, which is an attempt to speak his truth to white audiences in the hopes of disrupting problematic white narratives.

Dan recently hosted a weekend at a club, where the headliner suggested some ideas for expanding one of his jokes. It is an old bit involving Dan's dad volunteering some strange jokes for Dan's act. Dan wants to come up with a way to cap the bit off by giving his dad an equally strange joke idea in return. Meanwhile, Kiragu wants to bring his own personal narrative more into his act, and he and Dan discuss some ways to build on a joke about a funny argument with his wife. They also talk about Tyler Perry, and Kiragu makes a surprising analogy between Perry and a certain political leader.

Mike is a music snob who won't listen to anything past Now That's What I Call Music 14, but what else would a person like that be snobbish about? And how do you make it funny? Mike knows there is something there, and just wants to figure out what it is. Meanwhile, Dan is looking for a good way to misdirect the audience about his new living situation.

Dan has been a fan of Mike's comedy since becoming a comic himself, and swears he once heard Mike do a joke about sequels and Mountain Dew: Code Red, although Mike doesn't remember working on the bit. Dan and Mike talk about being identified as one-liner comics, even while explaining why they don't feel the label is entirely accurate. Mike and Dan talk about the "satanic panic" and Dan reveals just how sheltered of a fundamentalist setting he grew up in, much to Mike's delight.

Dan is trying to write a joke about moving into a new apartment, but its current form doesn't strike Mike as particularly good. But Mike does suggest a punchline that Dan likes. Meanwhile, Mike has a joke about listening to Jock Jams on vinyl that isn't getting the laugh he wants, but he and Dan kick around some ideas until they stumble into the concept of treating a terrible movie as an arthouse cinematic masterpiece. This leads into the further absurdity of growing to appreciate an extremely low-quality direct-to-video cartoon, because the director's commentary was just so amazing.

How do you take a fun idea for getting rid of offensive team names in sports, and turn it into a workable bit for the stage? Christine's joke is in its early stages of development, but it definitely seems to hold a lot of potential for good comedy. Meanwhile, Dan is still talking about hipsters.

Christine talks about her pathway to comedy through the world of performance art, and chronicles a fascinating letter correspondence that she shared with Starbucks for about a decade. Dan and Christine talk about things they've learned from meeting or observing some of their favorite comedians: Michael Ian Black (whom Christine recently opened for), Maria Bamford, Janeane Garofalo, and Hari Kondabolu.

Dan is desperately looking for a way to improve his joke about hipsters in the afterlife, but the final product is still a long way off. Christine is horrified that the Washington Reds***s have still not changed their name, which is, after all, a racial slur. Her suggestion is to rename the teams based on systemic problems related to their regions. Dan loves the joke, but it is missing a crucial piece in order to work onstage. Dan and Christine discuss the idea of turning these concepts into mascots. Christine shares a joke she is working on about new country music, and this turns into a whole discussion about how to skewer white privilege as white performers. Inevitably, Lena Dunham becomes a prominent topic in the conversation.

It's the most stonerific episode yet! Ian has some ideas for jokes about Frasier and alcoholism, but oh boy does the conversation go off topic and get weird. Really, guys… this is a hard episode to describe. But it's fun!

Dan and Ian talk about local comedy competitions, and Ian doesn't really need to pay attention to underlings like Dan now that he has been crowned the most important comedian who ever lived. Dan talks about opening for a comedy hypnotist, and he and Ian speculate about how a hypnotist preps his material. Ian encourages Dan to hire an intern for the podcast, an idea which Dan isn't thrilled about. Ian hates when fantasy football leagues show up at open mics and Dan suggests getting revenge on them by showing up at their football game viewing parties.

Ian suggests that Dan add a jingle to identify the beginning of the joke-writing half of the podcast, and Dan obliges. Dan has an idea for a joke about ghosts and hipsters, but thinks it might be a mistake to try to talk about hipsters. Ian wants to joke about how Frasier began as anti-white propaganda, although somehow the conversation turns to all manner of topics. Ian has another joke about alcoholism and then after that it's anyone's guess what the podcast is actually about. It all comes back to hypnosis and robots.

How do you build an entire surrealist narrative out of a normal everyday bumper sticker? And what, if anything, does this have to do with Facebook friend requests? Greg wants to do something fun with a joke about taking a "how's my driving?" truck sticker too seriously, but he's not sure what direction to take it in. Meanwhile, Dan is working on a joke inspired by a very strange recent news story.

Greg runs a monthly showcase in Mt. Vernon and, much to Dan's delight, publicly invited Bill Burr to fill a spot that had opened. Greg and Dan discuss jokes that comics tell for their own personal amusement, even when audiences hate them, although Dan thinks there is value in resolving not to do this. They explore the common experience of comedians being told by well-meaning friends and relatives to put things in their "skits," and break down the reasons why such comments don't really make sense.

Dan wants to write a joke about a Scottish woman who sabotaged her own vacation to America by accidentally checking a box on a form indicating that she was a terrorist. That idea is funny enough, but Dan and Greg have a good time pondering the rationale for having such a checkbox on a form to begin with. Meanwhile, Greg wants to concoct a narrative about someone so impressed by a truck driver's driving skills, that it becomes almost an obsession. Dan suggests that Greg write himself into the joke, and Greg sees a couple possible directions. This spawns an elaborate, absurdist, completely improvised dialogue on a trucker whose driving was so good, it made a positive impact in the world.

Is she Syracuse's favorite Baltimore comedian, or Baltimore's favorite Syracuse comedian? Probably both, but either way, Anna Phillips is a force to be reckoned with onstage. Dan and Anna talk about how to make a joke with a really long setup work, using Anna's poetry joke as an example, and then Dan shares a joke he's been working on that takes four minutes to get nowhere.

Before getting to that, however, Dan shares some exciting news about Kurtis Blow, who (I must remind the listener) went to college with Dan. They discuss meeting each other and Anna relates the time she shunned Phoebe Robinson with the best of intentions, a strategy Dan recognizes from an classic John Lithgow movie. They talk about adjusting their material to the needs of the audience in real time, and the dangers of blaming a badly received joke on the audience.

Dan busts out some old one-liners, but then shifts gears to telling Anna a long, meandering joke about a fictional childhood experience when he built an elaborate Lego town with a remarkably dramatic history. Meanwhile, Anna is working on jokes about the marginalization of redheads, and a homeless man who kissed her on the cheek. They also talk about the challenges of performing jokes that touch on the topic of religion. All throughout, their joke-writing really serves as a loose framework in which they continue to discuss how to gear one's material to specific audiences. It's a lot of fun!

At what point does it become unhealthy to make yourself feel positive feelings? Stefen can't stand "positive vibes" people, but needs to find a way to joke about them while getting the audience to side with him. He also has a joke about people who overshare, and perhaps there is a connection to be made between these two bits. Meanwhile, Dan is preparing for a big college gig, and has some ideas for how to engage the audience with college-related jokes.

Stefen is a relatively new comic who used to work for the US Post Office, and if you've ever suspected your mailman of being on drugs, Stefen is here to tell you how right you are. Dan talks a little about how being a collections agent was such a miserable experience, he needed to start performing stand-up for the mental relief. They talk about the importance of knowing what you're working on every time you go to an open mic, and the difficulty of maintaining healthy eating habits after you've bombed horribly.

For an upcoming college show, Dan is looking for ways to engage the students by riffing on their degree programs. Unfortunately, the jokes he has in mind are not very good. (Note: Dan's college show went great, everyone! The crowd work was a huge success.) Meanwhile, Stefen has some things to say about blinds and why they suck. He also rants about positive vibes people, and observes that negative emotions are a crucial part of human life. This leads him and Dan to explore funny ways to get a person to stop feeling positive for the sake of their own health. They end by talking about how full honesty is inappropriate for certain contexts, which leads to an unexpected but delightful ending in which two unrelated jokes get fused together in a very entertaining way.

How do you convince an audience that you're so desperate for laughs, you may actually be willing to subject them to a live colonoscopy? And is there a way to work in a swimming pool noodle as a prop? These are just some of the questions pondered by Jen Diamond and Pam Hugi, members of Baltimore's favorite two-person comedy group, OLGA. Meanwhile, Dan dredges up a painfully awkward memory from high school in search of a joke.

This episode marks the first time in Dan Has Jokes' long and distinguished (two-month) history that two guests have appeared on the podcast together. Jen and Pam have been performing together as OLGA for years, in both improv and stand-up comedy formats. They reveal lots of fun and interesting things about the nature of writing for a two-person comedy act, and talk with Dan about bombing, heckling, and trying to get onto bigger comedy shows at the last second. There's also some discussion about YouTube celebrities, and how to give your YouTube video a killer title (in the end, nobody can solve that puzzle).

Dan shares a story about a time he took a joke too far in high school, while watching a Robin Williams movie with his friends, and Jen and Pam offer thoughts on how a story like that could be adapted for the stage. In the meantime, Jen and Pam want to come up with a new OLGA routine involving props. There is discussion about them putting everything on hold to explore the contents of a mysterious backpack while an audience watches, but then Pam discloses her wish to do something related to the topic of colonoscopies. This turns into a full blown discussion about how to create tension for the audience, even to the point of hilarious discomfort, before breaking the tension in a funny and satisfying way. They end by talking about Kevin James' recent comedy special, and the intrinsic humor of a grown rich man pretending not to understand things in society that are completely understandable.

Face tattoos, escape rooms, and squeegee kids - these are just some of the ideas occupying Josh's mind. Why would someone do that? Who would pay for that? And how did those kids know his name was Josh? As Josh contemplates his inner Joshness, Dan tries to draw material from his past experience of professionally chasing bears away from campers.

Dan and Josh talk about the differences between improv and stand-up while Dan's unpaid interns crumble under the stress of their job. Josh really digs into an analogy about eating a turd sandwich, and Dan admits that he's been eating turd sandwiches for over four years and highly recommends it. They discuss the rewards of seeing yourself get better at comedy, and share a few funny stories from the stage.

Dan reveals to Josh that he used to be an assistant camp director, which mainly seems to have involved dealing with wildlife and pest control. There is humor in the mere thought of Dan being someone who is paid to deal with bears, but Dan wants to use a story from his bear-chasing days as a callback to another camp-related joke. Josh sees potential in one particular story from Dan where a camp staffer described a bear over the radio in racially uncomfortable terms. Meanwhile, Josh is working on a bunch of jokes, some more established, and some brand new. He likes joking about the Baltimore accent, but wonders if the joke can find a general audience. He also wants to find a better setup for a story about squeegee kids who figured out his name was Josh just by looking at him, and Dan explores some ways to say more about life as a Josh - whatever that means. Josh also sees comedic potential in face tattoos and escape rooms, and Dan is absolutely delighted at the thought of how an escape room could go horribly wrong.

It's easy to make jokes about vegans, but what happens when a vegan makes a really dark joke about depressing animal cruelty videos? It may not sound like a recipe for comedy, perhaps until you hear it in the voice of beloved Baltimore comedian Dark Mark. The joke lands really hard for Dan, but they acknowledge that a regular audience might find it too disturbing to laugh at. And yet Dan thinks that, framed as a plea for veganism, Mark could still pull the joke off.

Dark Mark has been hosting the legendary Sidebar open mic for around four years. Dan and Mark talk about the nature and perils of crowd work, and whether certain interactions with an audience should even be considered crowd work. They discuss various approaches to joke writing, whether it's carefully planning every syllable in advance, or going onstage with a vague idea and letting the audience guide you to the finished joke. Regardless of the comic, there seems to be value in trying different approaches. Dan asks Mark about a specific joke involving dogs and bees, and learns a little about how the joke was developed.

Speaking of dogs, Mark is working on a doozy of a joke about dog cruelty. Mark reveals in the setup that being a vegan has changed his Facebook feed, with the end result that he is now subjected to numerous disturbing videos. A small but brutal observation turns the bit into a joke, although he and Dan explore how to make the joke work for a general audience. There seems to be potential. Meanwhile Dan wants to make a joke about the time he went to college with Kurtis Blow, the rapper (true story). He and Mark kick a few different ideas around, and Mark challenges Dan to take the story onstage at a mic and work the bit out in front of an audience. They also discuss jokes about the purge, bloody Mary, and a couple of trashy TV shows.