The Comic's Comic Presents Last Things First

Nick Vatterott grew up in St. Louis but discovered his comedy voice in Chicago. You may have seen him perform on Conan, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, or his own half-hour special for Comedy Central. Or you may have heard him on his podcast series, Get Rich Nick, in which he and fellow comedian Nick Turner attempt every get-rich-quick scheme under the sun to teach us and themselves about capitalism in America. Vatterott does have a "day job" writing for HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher. But the former winner of the Andy Kaufman Award demonstrates his own out-of-the-box break-the-mold approach to comedy with his latest stand-up special, Disingenuous, released at the end of 2021.

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Justin Spitzer is a television writer and producer who worked as a writing assistant on Queer as Folk and Grounded for Life before breaking into the writers room on The Office, where he worked for seven seasons and received three Emmy nominations. Spitzer went on to create, executive produce and showrun his own beloved NBC sitcom, Superstore. In 2021, he signed a new four-year overall deal with Universal Television — his first big project under that deal is American Auto, which received a sneak preview on NBC and Peacock, and stars Ana Gasteyer as the new CEO of Payne Motors in Detroit, who just so happens to know nothing about cars. Spitzer spoke to me about his love for workplace comedies, his own career trajectory in Hollywood, and how having a wife who's also in the biz — Jenna Bans, the creator of NBC's Good Girls — helps them both keep on the right track.

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It's time once again for Jason Zinoman, the comedy critic for The New York Times, to sit down with me as we deconstruct the year that was. This time we're taking our best cracks at 2021. Was anyone bigger in comedy than Dave Chappelle? Was anyone better than Bo Burnham? We talk about the good, the bad and the ugly of everything in comedy worth talking about in 2021. Was there a Most Valuable Performer in Comedy this year? What does it even mean to be an MVP in comedy? Jason and I hash it all out, and through our differences, we find some common ground. It's the only year-in-review comedy podcast you need to listen to, so listen up!

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Russell Howard is one of the UK's most successful comedians, the writer and star of The Russell Howard Hour on Sky and Russell Howard's Good News on the BBC network. After releasing his first Netflix special, Recalibrate, in 2017, Howard prepared to embark on a world tour in March 2020, with a documentary crew filming his preparations and family life. Instead, his new wife went back to work as a doctor on the COVID frontlines while he quarantined with his family — and from his childhood bedroom, began broadcasting a pandemic talk show for Sky called Russell Howard's Home Time. When gigs began opening up again, Howard jumped at the chance to perform for live audiences, no matter where or how. You can see the results of his pandemic work in a new documentary, Until The Wheels Come Off, which accompanies his 2021 Netflix stand-up special, Lubricant. Howard spoke with me about his approach to comedy and to life, and how it may have changed 20 years after he first got onstage as a teenager.

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Mary Elizabeth Kelly is an actress who studied musical theater at Northwestern before moving to New York City. She didn't quite land on Broadway, although she did rack up TV credits performing on Law & Order: SVU, Alternatino with Arturo Castro on Comedy Central, and Netflix's Master of None, where she went on a date with Aziz Ansari's character. Kelly and her husband moved to Los Angeles thinking she'd further her acting career, but the COVID-19 pandemic had other ideas. Instead, she found herself on TikTok, where her impersonation skills and mouth-acting parodies introduced her to millions of new fans. Kelly spoke with me about adapting her career from musical theater to TikTok, auditioning for Saturday Night Live in the summer of 2021, developing her first solo live comedy show, and what comes next for her.

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I first met Alex Edelman when he was just a teenager, aspiring to become a stand-up comedian while already scoring a lucrative internship with the Boston Red Sox. He achieved much throughout his 20s. A New Face at Montreal's Just For Laughs. Multiple performances on Conan. Co-founded the Off The Wall Comedy Club in Jerusalem. Wrote on The Great Indoors on CBS. Opened on tour for the likes of Beck. Wrote and produced the YouTube benefit Saturday Night Seder, raising millions for COVID relief. He's written and starred in three hit stage shows in London and at the Edinburgh Fringe. His first, Millennial, won him the Best Newcomer Award. His third, Just For Us, launches its first proper U.S. run in New York City in December 2021 at the Cherry Lane Theatre. Directed by Adam Brace and presented by Mike Birbiglia, Just For Us recounts what happened when Edelman decided to attend a meeting of white nationalists in New York City so he could face anti-Semitism, well, in the face. Edelman talked with me about growing up and finding his comedic voice, with plenty of shout-outs to the comedians and others who've helped him along the way.

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Carole Montgomery racked up dozens of TV credits as a stand-up comedian during the 1980s comedy boom, with her first big break coming on Showtime's Comedy All Stars hosted by Don Rickles. After giving birth to her only child, she began a 10-year stint in Las Vegas, initially hired by Steve Schirripa at The Riviera, then eventually over at The Luxor. After returning to New York City in 2006, she performed on Nick at Nite's The Search for the Funniest Mom in America, Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen, and on the TV Guide Network's Standup in Stilettos. But at 48, she couldn't find regular work in the clubs. So she started her own showcase, Funny Women of a Certain Age. It quickly became a fixture back on Showtime, with stand-up showcases airing on the premium cable network in 2019, 2020 and again in 2021. Fran Drescher, who appeared on that first showcase, is now president of the SAG-AFTRA actors union. Her third showcase features actress Teri Hatcher, plus performances by Wendy Liebman, Monique Marvez, Leighann Lord, Marsha Warfield and Montgomery herself — she joined me to share her firsthand perspective as a funny woman of a certain age.

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Lukas Arnold is an actor and voiceover artist who graduated from Northwestern University in 2017 and decided to pursue stand-up comedy after taking a class at Carolines on Broadway. He was just starting to get gigs around New York City when the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down. On March 18, 2020, Arnold posted his first TikTok video. A year and a half later, he had amassed 2.2 million TikTok followers. The young comedian sat down with me over Zoom to talk about using his voice to his advantage both before and during the pandemic, whether there are any secrets to TikTok success and more.

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Jenny Zigrino first hit my radar in 2014 via the Marlon Wayans comedy contest on TBS, Funniest Wins. Zigrino didn't win the contest, but much like her colleagues who didn't "win" Last Comic Standing, she may just be winning the long game. Wayans cast her in his parody movie, 50 Shades of Black. She also won a supporting role in the big-screen sequel, Bad Santa 2. She performed stand-up multiple times on Conan, and followed that up with appearances on @Midnight, Adam Ruins Everything, and Adam Devine's House Party. She also has starred in and created her own Comedy Central webseries, "Bad Ass Bitches of History," and has both a Comedy Central half-hour and a stand-up album already to her credit. In 2021, she co-starred in the horror comedy movie, Too Late, and Zigrino sat down with me just before she's ready to film her solo hour special as part of the 2021 New York Comedy Festival.

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As befits her name, Joyelle Nicole Johnson is a comedian and writer who brings joy to the stage. She made her network TV debut in 2018 on Late Night with Seth Meyers, but it was her May 2021 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that made such an impression that Fallon decided to executive produce Johnson's debut stand-up special for Peacock. Her previous credits have included writing on Broad City, warming up the audiences for Netflix's Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, and she'll be seen on the upcoming season of HBO Max's Search Party. Johnson released her first comedy album, Yell Joy, on Juneteenth of 2021, and recorded her Peacock special, Love Joy, on her 40th birthday. The comedian talks to be about all of that and more.

If you like this conversation, please consider subscribing to my Substack called Piffany at Piffany.Substack.com so you can read bonus commentary on this episode as well as more comedy news and insights. Thanks in advance, and now that that's out of the way, let's get to it!