Latest news with #HollywoodImprov
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
‘He's still killing it': Ken Flores jokes on in Hulu's ‘LOL Live'
Beloved Los Angeles comedian Ken Flores died earlier this year, but not before giving audiences one final hearty laugh. On June 6, Hulu released two episodes of Kevin Hart's stand-up series, 'LOL Live,' featuring sets by Flores and Daphnique Springs. This is the first and last special ever taped by the budding comedian, who died in the midst of his headlining 'Butterfly Effect' tour at age 28, following a history of congestive heart failure. 'Ken Flores was exactly the kind of authentic comedic voice we sought to champion through our 'LOL Live' series,' said Jeff Clanagan, president and chief distribution officer of Hartbeat, Hart's entertainment company, which produced the program. '[The special] captured his unique ability to connect with audiences through genuine storytelling.' Born in Chicago and raised in Aurora, Ill., Flores was intrinsically comical, deeply convinced that he was funnier than any of the booked comics he witnessed on stage. 'These people suck!' he told the Comedy Gazelle blog in 2023. Flores honed his comic chops at popular Chicago-area comedy clubs, including the Laugh Factory and Zanies, and rose to greater popularity on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, where he shared snippets of his sets— often filled with his impeccable crowd work and self-deprecating humor. The comic often made his lifestyle the punchline, mainly taking aim at his own weight and Mexican identity. Gabriel Iglesias took notice of the rising star, tapping him to open for his 2023 'Don't Worry Be Fluffy Tour' in Chicago. 'It was a highlight to have his family. His mom, dad and friends were there with him — and 15,000 people that night,' said Iglesias, who remembers Flores as 'kind' and 'respectful.' The young act also went on tour with established comedians Jo Koy and Felipe Esparza. But it was after his move to Los Angeles in 2023 that Flores seemed to take flight, building a community across various comedy clubs including Hollywood's Laugh Factory, the Comedy Store, the HaHa and the Hollywood Improv. 'People did like him and that's very telling,' said Iglesias. Among those who loved and continue to mourn Flores are Rene Vaca and Ralph Barbosa — prominent Latino acts in the comedy world — who considered the late comedian a 'brother.' 'The most memorable thing about him was how real he was,' said Barbosa. '[Ken] never kissed anybody's ass, which made me respect him more, because that means everything that he got was through talent and hard work.' Two distinct memories linger for the duo. The first took place at a restaurant in L.A., which marked the first time they all got together. 'It was one of those Chinese restaurants with those spinning tables,' said Vaca. 'Ken was always trying to reach for the orange chicken, but every time he reached for it, [the table] kept spinning away from him.' Then there's their last reunion in L.A. when all three comedians got on stage to perform during Barbosa's set at the Hollywood Improv on Jan. 21, just a week before Flores' death. 'We had some drinks in us, we had the piano, we were improvising songs … Rene fell on the ground trying to pants Ken,' said Barbosa. 'It's hard not to get teary eyed when I think about that day.' 'It was as if the universe gave us our opportunity to have that moment with Ken before he left us, you know?' said Vaca. Vaca has already watched the Hulu special, marveling at Flores' ability to land the jokes perfectly. 'Like butter, man — it was beautiful,' he said. Barbosa, on the other hand, has only seen snippets. Choking up, he admits, ' I just don't want it to be over, you know?' The three had plans for a national tour this year, which Vaca and Barbosa continued in honor of their friend. They adopted his tour name, 'The Butterfly Effect,' splitting the profit three ways to include Flores' family. 'None of us would do it unless it was like we split this evenly,' said Barbosa. During every show, the pair play an unreleased 15-minute segment of Flores, who jokes about the fluttering impact of such majestic creatures. 'He's still killing it in the audience,' said Vaca.
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Amid Trump tariffs, the world responds with a free export: Humor
An evening show last week at the Hollywood Improv comedy club included poop jokes, a song about young people being too woke and a raunchy impression of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. There were no quips about President Trump's international tariffs, even from a comedian who had just posted a lengthy podcast episode about the on-again-off-again executive orders that have led to a global trade war and, many fear, could trigger a recession. To get your fill of trade-related chuckles these days, there's a much more reliable, if unexpected, source: the official Facebook page of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. The site has been rapidly manufacturing memes and sarcastic captions to capitalize — unrestrained by any tariffs — on a hot international export, namely jokes at the expense of the United States and its tariff-loving president. One meme shows a red MAGA hat on a store shelf bearing a "Made in China" tag. The $50 price is crossed out, replaced by a tariff-inflated cost of $77. Another cartoon — labeled "The Art of the Deal," after Trump's 1987 book — shows a pair of gambler's hands. One with the word "tariffs" on its suit sleeve draws from a deck of cards bearing percentages. The Embassy's caption: "But... the cards are made in #China. #Tariffwar." In Canada, the premier of Manitoba, Wab Kinew, signed a decree in an oversized folder and held it up with his signature, à la Trump. "This order," he said, "it's a wonderful order. It's a beautiful order. This order is pulling American booze off the liquor mart shelves." And on Norfolk Island — a remote rock in the Pacific Ocean with about 2,000 residents and essentially no exports to the U.S. — a children's book author memed a baffled-looking tropical wrasse fish. The caption: "When you find out Norfolk Island exports are getting hit with a 29% tariff ... guess that's one way to leave a fish floundering." There are many ways world leaders, businesses and consumers are grappling with the growing threat of a global trade war, but perhaps the easiest — and, for some, the most therapeutic — is to rely on dark humor. Joking about Trump's frenetic rollout of tariffs has become a common response to the altogether serious issue of an economic fight started by the president that has upended markets, led to boycotts of American-made goods and travel to the U.S., and sparked fears of a recession. Some of the humor has a barbed, geopolitical aim in a war for the world's hearts and minds — see the Chinese government's fusillade of memes — but political scientists say that, for many people, humor is a natural response to stressful times. Patrick Giamario, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and author of the book "Laughter as Politics: Critical Theory in an Age of Hilarity," said humor is an important part of the modern political process — and, for many, an attempt to make sense of events that feel overwhelming. "The fact that we're laughing so much now is a sort of sign of how broken things are," Giamario said. "We laugh when things stop making sense." Read more: Trump says Americans could feel 'some pain' from his new tariffs that triggered a trade war In addition to global angst, the levies have spawned: References to Trump as a "domestic tariffist." Videos generated by artificial intelligence that show obese Americans toiling in garment factories. And lots of memes about over-taxed penguins angry about Trump's tariffs, which targeted a few barren, uninhabited subantarctic islands. "Poor old penguins, I don't know what they did to Trump," Australian trade minister Don Farrell quipped to the Australian Broadcasting Corp. "But, look, I think it's an indication ... that this was a rushed process." Trump's tariffs have kept much of the world's collective heads on a swivel. When he announced them, he said they would bring 'jobs and factories ... roaring back into our country' — despite skepticism from economists across the political spectrum. On April 2 — which Trump dubbed "Liberation Day" — he announced a baseline tariff of 10% on imported goods from all foreign countries. He also announced higher rates, which he called "reciprocal tariffs," for countries he said were unfairly taxing American goods. Financial markets plunged. A week later, Trump changed course, saying he would pause the so-called reciprocal tariffs for 90 days while leaving the universal 10% tariff in place. He wrote on his Truth Social account: "BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well." Markets surged. Meanwhile, Trump escalated his standoff with China, hiking levies on Chinese imports — except, he later said, on electronics such as smartphones and laptops — to 145%. Beijing retaliated by raising its levies on U.S. goods to 125%. The trade war was joined by a meme war. Many of the Chinese memes portray American workers as unprepared for the kinds of jobs that bring products to their homes at cheaper prices. During a press briefing last week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about Chinese officials sharing AI-generated videos depicting Trump, Vice President JD Vance and billionaire Elon Musk working in factories. Read more: Canadian snowbirds love Palm Springs. But Trump is making them say: Sorry! We're leaving "I have seen the videos," Leavitt said. "I'm not sure who made the videos or if we can verify the authenticity. But whoever made it clearly does not see the potential of the American worker, the American workforce." Screenshots of Leavitt herself being trolled by a Chinese diplomat who accused her of wearing a Chinese-made dress in the White House briefing room also have gone viral. "Accusing China is business. Buying China is life," Zhang Zhisheng, China's consul general in Denpasar, Indonesia, posted on X. "The beautiful lace on the dress was recognized by an employee of a Chinese company as its product." Ramesh Srinivasan, founder of the University of California Digital Cultures Lab, said it is clearly strategic for the typically staid Chinese government to turn to memes and internet jokes to communicate its stance on the trade war, which is that it "is ridiculous and unnecessary." "They're presenting it in a much more innocuous and funny way, and that's very, very intelligent," Srinivasan said. "It's a sign of the times." Trump and his acolytes, of course, are veterans of the meme wars (his son and advisor, Donald Trump Jr., lists "Meme Wars General" in his Instagram bio). The president's meme-filled X, née Twitter, account helped launch his political career, as did his crude-but-catchy nicknames for his opponents: Crooked Hillary Clinton, Sleepy Joe Biden and Little Marco [now Secretary of State] Rubio, among others. Srinivasan said Trump, the former reality television star, has long been skilled at using dark humor to his advantage, especially online, where he is "this kind of hybrid troll-meme person." On the internet, the tariff jokes keep coming. One widely-shared POV — internet lingo for "point of view" — video on TikTok shows a grumpy toddler striding officiously through an empty office. The caption: "POV: Me on my way to HR yet again for nicknaming my co-worker 'Tariff' for costing the company more than they're worth." On YouTube, Penguins International, an apolitical conservation nonprofit dedicated to studying and protecting penguins, couldn't resist getting in on the fun. Read more: What to know about the Trump tariffs upending global trade and markets After Heard Island and the McDonald Islands — Australian territories where lots of penguins and no humans live — were listed on Trump's tariffs list, Penguins International announced an online Protest March of the Penguins. "Waddle we want? No tariffs!" read one digital protest sign. "Beaks up!" read another. On Wednesday, the Colorado-based organization posted a YouTube video of the birds' annual migratory trek across the ice to their breeding grounds. As they squawked and brayed, a narrator said: "This year, they march in protest. They are peaceful. They are flightless. But they are certainly not voiceless." "We wanted to take an unusual current event and make light of it and stir up some support for some penguins that are endangered and threatened to go extinct," David Schutt, executive director of Penguins International, said in an interview. Before the tariff announcement, he added, "most people didn't know about the islands that these penguins are on." During an Easter-themed "Saturday Night Live" skit this month, Trump, played by James Austin Johnson, said: 'Many people are even calling me the Messiah, because of the mess I, uh, made out of the economy — all because of my beautiful tariffs. So beautiful. They were working so well that I had to stop them.' On her "Good for You" podcast on April 13, comedian Whitney Cummings joked about Trump's stated motive of using tariffs to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S., where workers — especially young ones who prefer remote work — don't want them. "I have nieces who are Gen Z," Cummings said. "They're not going to work in a factory. They won't even work at the Cheesecake Factory because that would mean they would have a boss." American manufacturing largely moved overseas, she continued, because "no one in America believes they should be working for some corporation who treats workers badly. They want to be the head of the corporation who treats workers badly." Two nights later, Cummings did a stand-up set at the Hollywood Improv, performing on a stage that has hosted comedy legends such as Robin Williams, Chris Rock and Eddie Murphy. Cummings made some mildly political jokes — including one about growing more conservative after having a child and trading in her electric car for a gas model because gas stations are the only places where it's socially acceptable to leave a small child alone in a vehicle. But during her short set, she stayed away from tariffs — which are, perhaps, funnier on the internet. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
20-04-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Amid Trump tariffs, the world responds with a free export: Humor
An evening show last week at the Hollywood Improv comedy club included poop jokes, a song about young people being too woke and a raunchy impression of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. There were no quips about President Trump's international tariffs, even from a comedian who had just posted a lengthy podcast episode about the on-again-off-again executive orders that have led to a global trade war and, many fear, could trigger a recession. To get your fill of trade-related chuckles these days, there's a much more reliable, if unexpected, source: the official Facebook page of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. The site has been rapidly manufacturing memes and sarcastic captions to capitalize — unrestrained by any tariffs — on a hot international export, namely jokes at the expense of the United States and its tariff-loving president. One meme shows a red MAGA hat on a store shelf bearing a 'Made in China' tag. The $50 price is crossed out, replaced by a tariff-inflated cost of $77. Another cartoon — labeled 'The Art of the Deal,' after Trump's 1987 book — shows a pair of gambler's hands. One with the word 'tariffs' on its suit sleeve draws from a deck of cards bearing percentages. The Embassy's caption: 'But... the cards are made in #China. #Tariffwar.' In Canada, the premier of Manitoba, Wab Kinew, signed a decree in an oversized folder and held it up with his signature, à la Trump. 'This order,' he said, 'it's a wonderful order. It's a beautiful order. This order is pulling American booze off the liquor mart shelves.' And on Norfolk Island — a remote rock in the Pacific Ocean with about 2,000 residents and essentially no exports to the U.S. — a children's book author memed a baffled-looking tropical wrasse fish. The caption: 'When you find out Norfolk Island exports are getting hit with a 29% tariff ... guess that's one way to leave a fish floundering.' There are many ways world leaders, businesses and consumers are grappling with the growing threat of a global trade war, but perhaps the easiest — and, for some, the most therapeutic — is to rely on dark humor. Joking about Trump's frenetic rollout of tariffs has become a common response to the altogether serious issue of an economic fight started by the president that has upended markets, led to boycotts of American-made goods and travel to the U.S., and sparked fears of a recession. Some of the humor has a barbed, geopolitical aim in a war for the world's hearts and minds — see the Chinese government's fusillade of memes — but political scientists say that, for many people, humor is a natural response to stressful times. Patrick Giamario, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and author of the book 'Laughter as Politics: Critical Theory in an Age of Hilarity,' said humor is an important part of the modern political process — and, for many, an attempt to make sense of events that feel overwhelming. 'The fact that we're laughing so much now is a sort of sign of how broken things are,' Giamario said. 'We laugh when things stop making sense.' In addition to global angst, the levies have spawned: References to Trump as a 'domestic tariffist.' Videos generated by artificial intelligence that show obese Americans toiling in garment factories. And lots of memes about over-taxed penguins angry about Trump's tariffs, which targeted a few barren, uninhabited subantarctic islands. 'Poor old penguins, I don't know what they did to Trump,' Australian trade minister Don Farrell quipped to the Australian Broadcasting Corp. 'But, look, I think it's an indication ... that this was a rushed process.' Trump's tariffs have kept much of the world's collective heads on a swivel. When he announced them, he said they would bring 'jobs and factories ... roaring back into our country' — despite skepticism from economists across the political spectrum. On April 2 — which Trump dubbed 'Liberation Day' — he announced a baseline tariff of 10% on imported goods from all foreign countries. He also announced higher rates, which he called 'reciprocal tariffs,' for countries he said were unfairly taxing American goods. Financial markets plunged. A week later, Trump changed course, saying he would pause the so-called reciprocal tariffs for 90 days while leaving the universal 10% tariff in place. He wrote on his Truth Social account: 'BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well.' Markets surged. Meanwhile, Trump escalated his standoff with China, hiking levies on Chinese imports — except, he later said, on electronics such as smartphones and laptops — to 145%. Beijing retaliated by raising its levies on U.S. goods to 125%. The trade war was joined by a meme war. Many of the Chinese memes portray American workers as unprepared for the kinds of jobs that bring products to their homes at cheaper prices. During a press briefing last week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about Chinese officials sharing AI-generated videos depicting Trump, Vice President JD Vance and billionaire Elon Musk working in factories. 'I have seen the videos,' Leavitt said. 'I'm not sure who made the videos or if we can verify the authenticity. But whoever made it clearly does not see the potential of the American worker, the American workforce.' Screenshots of Leavitt herself being trolled by a Chinese diplomat who accused her of wearing a Chinese-made dress in the White House briefing room also have gone viral. 'Accusing China is business. Buying China is life,' Zhang Zhisheng, China's consul general in Denpasar, Indonesia, posted on X. 'The beautiful lace on the dress was recognized by an employee of a Chinese company as its product.' Ramesh Srinivasan, founder of the University of California Digital Cultures Lab, said it is clearly strategic for the typically staid Chinese government to turn to memes and internet jokes to communicate its stance on the trade war, which is that it 'is ridiculous and unnecessary.' 'They're presenting it in a much more innocuous and funny way, and that's very, very intelligent,' Srinivasan said. 'It's a sign of the times.' Trump and his acolytes, of course, are veterans of the meme wars (his son and advisor, Donald Trump Jr., lists 'Meme Wars General' in his Instagram bio). The president's meme-filled X, née Twitter, account helped launch his political career, as did his crude-but-catchy nicknames for his opponents: Crooked Hillary Clinton, Sleepy Joe Biden and Little Marco [now Secretary of State] Rubio, among others. Srinivasan said Trump, the former reality television star, has long been skilled at using dark humor to his advantage, especially online, where he is 'this kind of hybrid troll-meme person.' On the internet, the tariff jokes keep coming. One widely-shared POV — internet lingo for 'point of view' — video on TikTok shows a grumpy toddler striding officiously through an empty office. The caption: 'POV: Me on my way to HR yet again for nicknaming my co-worker 'Tariff' for costing the company more than they're worth.' On YouTube, Penguins International, an apolitical conservation nonprofit dedicated to studying and protecting penguins, couldn't resist getting in on the fun. After Heard Island and the McDonald Islands — Australian territories where lots of penguins and no humans live — were listed on Trump's tariffs list, Penguins International announced an online Protest March of the Penguins. 'Waddle we want? No tariffs!' read one digital protest sign. 'Beaks up!' read another. On Wednesday, the Colorado-based organization posted a YouTube video of the birds' annual migratory trek across the ice to their breeding grounds. As they squawked and brayed, a narrator said: 'This year, they march in protest. They are peaceful. They are flightless. But they are certainly not voiceless.' 'We wanted to take an unusual current event and make light of it and stir up some support for some penguins that are endangered and threatened to go extinct,' David Schutt, executive director of Penguins International, said in an interview. Before the tariff announcement, he added, 'most people didn't know about the islands that these penguins are on.' During an Easter-themed 'Saturday Night Live' skit this month, Trump, played by James Austin Johnson, said: 'Many people are even calling me the Messiah, because of the mess I, uh, made out of the economy — all because of my beautiful tariffs. So beautiful. They were working so well that I had to stop them.' On her 'Good for You' podcast on April 13, comedian Whitney Cummings joked about Trump's stated motive of using tariffs to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S., where workers — especially young ones who prefer remote work — don't want them. 'I have nieces who are Gen Z,' Cummings said. 'They're not going to work in a factory. They won't even work at the Cheesecake Factory because that would mean they would have a boss.' American manufacturing largely moved overseas, she continued, because 'no one in America believes they should be working for some corporation who treats workers badly. They want to be the head of the corporation who treats workers badly.' Two nights later, Cummings did a stand-up set at the Hollywood Improv, performing on a stage that has hosted comedy legends such as Robin Williams, Chris Rock and Eddie Murphy. Cummings made some mildly political jokes — including one about growing more conservative after having a child and trading in her electric car for a gas model because gas stations are the only places where it's socially acceptable to leave a small child alone in a vehicle. But during her short set, she stayed away from tariffs — which are, perhaps, funnier on the internet.
Los Angeles Times
14-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Russell Howard on how tell parenting and political jokes without sounding corny, ‘authenticity is key'
British comedian Russell Howard has that special knack for pointing out both the absurdity in the mundane and the ridiculous in the terrifying. He became a household name in the UK through programs like the celebrity panel show 'Mock the Week,' which is similar to NPR's 'Wait Wait …Don't Tell Me,' his own headline-riffing 'The Russell Howard Hour,' and the rite of passage for all personalities willing to make fools of themselves on air by competing in hilariously ludicrous challenges: 'Taskmaster.' In his most recent special, 'Live at the London Palladium,' which he released in January via his website, he notes that his wife Cerys Morgan's job as a medical doctor means she saves lives. His? To think of funny ways to explain the difference between the words 'out' and 'down.' He also compares humans' fear that artificial intelligence will take their jobs to the way goats must have felt when we invented the lawnmower. His new tour, which includes an appearance at the Hollywood Improv on Mar. 23, will again find new takes on some of stand-up's most well-worn topics: parenting and politics. Howard and Morgan welcomed their son in May. And, despite this new time constraint, he somehow found time to scour the news for new material. Speaking in January over Zoom, Howard says he took paternity leave before heading to Canada to workshop material he'd jotted into his phone during those early parenting days (and nights); some of which he freely admits might as well have been 'hieroglyphics from a lunatic in a cave.' He says he'll also frequently try out material at London's Top Secret Comedy Club just to 'throw sh— at the wall and see what sticks.' 'Normally to get it cooking, it takes me about six months and then, like really simmered and turned into a nice casserole, it takes me about a year,' Howard explains. He also adds that 'I'm lucky enough that there are people who will let me know whether my feelings are correct by laughing. And if they do, it's fine. If they don't, okay, I'll try it three or four more times to see if it works … it's about being ruthless, I think, with yourself.' In an interview that has been edited for length and clarity, Howard elaborated on his process as well as his thoughts on the state of the world and how comedy podcasts can be mined for good. Parenting is a well-tread topic of stand-ups. How can you still make it interesting? It's such virgin, fertile ground becoming a dad. You're in it and loving it. And then humor naturally arises … That's the thing about stand-up. It's the sidecar to the motorbike of your real life [and] there's always something you can just pop in. To non-parents, or indeed, parents, talking about your child is a bit like explaining what your tattoo means. Not that many people are interested. So it becomes a really fascinating challenge to see what is universal. My stuff has been quite political and sociological in the last couple of years. This is quite emotional, I guess. It's really funny, but it's all done from a position of naivety and love and excitement. Just that feeling of being smiled at by somebody for having done nothing is an incredible feeling. As an adult, you have to try so hard to get a smile and for it to just appear from somebody who looks like you and your wife, it's pretty magical. There was a real phase where, because Louis CK was doing this stuff about his kids, a lot of comics ended up kind of ripping him off and just saying 'my kids are p—cks.' It becomes a very hack way of talking about 'f—ing children.' And they become the new mother-in-law. I just don't feel like that. I just can't imagine ever describing my son as a p—ck just to make strangers happy for a nanosecond. How do you tell stories like these without it sounding corny? I think authenticity is key. There's an awkward truth to every human being. I love watching videos of Deaf babies hearing for the first time [and] seeing the look of excitement when they can hear their mums. I also love it when I see drunk men who've fallen asleep on a train and their friends have written something on their foreheads. My dad's got this brilliant phrase. He calls it the Red Face test. If you can tell it to an audience or somebody without going red in the face, then it's fine. He used it to talk about it for taxes and if you're doing tax schemes. If you're explaining it to somebody and your face goes red, then it is illegal. Similarly, President Trump was constant fodder for comedians during his first administration. Is it hard to find new things to say about him now that he's back in office? If you talk about something with passion or interest, you naturally figure out when you're boring on stage, or when you're pushing people, and your brain will say something funny to get you out of it. Talking about the rise of Elon Musk within the kind of cultural discourse is kind of fascinating to me. I'm an English guy watching a South African control an American president, and seeing him [also support] Tommy Robinson, who is a football hooligan from the UK. It's hilarious to me that he's clearly an intelligent man — he can put a rocket in space and create an electric car — but he can't do his research to know that Tom Robinson defended a Winston Churchill statue by [being part of a group that did] a Nazi salute. We're not dealing with wisdom here. The deeper you go, there's always a layer of absurdity. It's finding the absurdity within it and then getting big belly laughs once you've zoned in on your angle. With Trump 2.0, it's sort of that thing of how do you go a bit deeper? Do you even want to talk about him? In Europe, there's a sense of resignation where people are just like, 'Ah, really, America?.' There doesn't seem to be anger. There just seems to be this still sadness. It's the observation of the machine because you see how everything is weaponized and everything is tribal. Even comedy's become tribal in America. I'll tell you what audiences are definitely bored with is the just regurgitated 'isn't Trump orange?' joke … You're trying to find the meat rather than the gristle. I think Trump is gristle. You also have a podcast, Five Brilliant Things, that is much softer. You ask celebrities and comedians like John Oliver and Stephen Merchant to tell stories about things that bring them happiness. How do you balance this with your stand-up persona? The difference is you're listening to people. That's the skill of interviewing, isn't it? It took me years to do that for my TV shows. We're taught that comedians are some of the most hardened people in the world. How do you get them to let down their guards? I think that's so lovely about the concept because you can put anybody on there and you'd see a different side of them [because you're asking them] 'What do you love?.' It's illuminating when you let somebody ramble about things they adore because they give away [sides of themselves]. It's very easy to talk about things you hate. But it takes a lot of courage to tell people what you love And it doesn't matter how dark you are. That was the aim, really. I just wanted to do something that was forever funny or forever interesting. So it wasn't attached to topicality. Every comedian seems to have a podcast now. How do you choose which of your material will go on a podcast or social media and how much will appear in your stand-up? Some people view podcasts as entertainment and some people view them as religions. That's the big thing, isn't it? What do you take from this? Is it a long radio show or is that person a prophet? And I definitely think it's a hang. What's great about a podcast, and why people have such a strong relationship with them, is because this [person] goes to work with you; is in your ears when you're on the train. There are people who feel like they've had a chat or a voice note from Marc Marron from [listening to his 'WTF' podcast]. As a consequence, he can probably go deeper to his fans at a gig. His last special, ['From Bleak to Dark,' which was about the death of his partner Lynn Shelton] was obviously dealing with something horrific. But it was a really honest assessment of devastation. He probably couldn't have done that if he hadn't done the podcast because that gave him the space to have that kind of role.
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ken Flores, Beloved Comedian, Dead At 28 Amid National Tour
Comedian Ken Flores died on Tuesday at age 28 after embarking on a national tour. A Los Angeles County Medical Examiner report confirmed his death after it was announced on Flores' social mediapages. While a cause was not officially confirmed, TMZ reported the beloved comic suffered a cardiac arrest via law enforcement sources. Flores was scheduled to perform Thursday at a club in Phoenix after a gig in Norcross, Georgia, People reported. His tour had begun Jan. 10 in Portland, Oregon, and was supposed to conclude in San Diego in mid-April. Rene Vaca, a friend, told the Los Angeles Times they had put together another tour that would reap a deserved windfall for Flores, who had built a following through gigs at venues such as LA's Laugh Factory, The Comedy Store and the Hollywood Improv. 'We were gonna break seven figures, we were gonna be millionaires together, it was gonna be special,' Vaca told the Times. 'Hopefully we can still do it in honor of him and give all the money to his family or something. The timing is so messed up because we just found out the news about the tour the day before and then this happens.' A routine by Flores shared by Jam Comedy in September 2023 went viral. Flores, who's originally from Chicago, riffed on eating at Golden Corral, befriending gay people, and his conflicted relationship with street-food vendors since moving to Los Angeles. He also had taped a yet-to-be-released comedy special, the Times said. Stardom was inevitable, according to one club that featured him. 'We were honored to share your talent on our stages,' the Hollywood Improv wrote on X. 'You were greatness, and it was only a matter of time until the whole world saw it. You were also kind and a tremendous friend to all lucky enough to know you. We love you Ken, thank you for all the laughs.' Jimmy Fallon's Oscars Dig At Donald Trump Is Comedy Gold Amy Schumer's TMI On Oral Sex With Baseball Player Heads Into Foul Territory Seth Meyers Says Trump 'Had To Do That Thing' Melania Likes On Their Anniversary
