TGS Live at the Comedy Cellar

The Glenn Show

Glenn Loury

Politics, Society & Culture, News

4.8 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2022

⏱️ 89 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Over the last couple years, I’ve been in communication with Noam Dworman, the owner of the Comedy Cellar in New York, which is one of the most influential comedy clubs in the country. He suggested that we collaborate and put together a show that would explore the relationship between truth, free speech, and comedy. After a lot of back and forth, we came up with the idea of putting non-comedian intellectuals into conversation with professional stand-up comics. We weren’t quite sure what would happen, but we both sensed the idea had great potential.

And so, last month, The Glenn Show held its first live event. Roland Fryer, Coleman Hughes, and I served as the “serious” participants, and Noam invited the comics Andrew Schulz, Judy Gold, Shane Gillis, T.J., and Rick Crom to come up and offer their thoughts. The event also included special appearances from Nikki Jax and the stellar Sam Jay. Noam and I wanted to know, are there certain truths that only comics can get away with telling? Can delivering a potentially unsettling idea in comedic form make people more receptive to it?

The place was packed—tickets sold out in just a few days. The atmosphere was electric. After I introduced the event and kicked things off with an opening provocation, the show took on a life of its own. As you’ll see, the comics took the idea and ran with it. There are moments of chaos, moments of profundity, and a lot of laughs. I couldn’t have asked for a better live debut for TGS, and I am excited to be able to share with all of you who made it possible through your support.

We’re planning on doing more of these events in the future, so let us know what you think!

Many, many thanks to Noam Dworman for his hard work, generosity, and for providing video and audio of the event. The title sequence was created by our own Nikita Petrov.

This post is free and available to the public. To receive early access to TGS episodes, an ad-free podcast feed, Q&As, and other exclusive content and benefits, click below.

0:00 Some unspeakable truths

8:07 Are comics now afraid to speak their minds onstage?

19:38 The difference between telling the truth and getting a laugh

28:42 Can jokes actually do harm?

36:50 Nikki Jax on comedy and trans issues

43:34 Who actually “cancels” comics, audiences or corporations?

50:26 Sam Jay on artistic freedom and mob mentality

55:55 Q&A: I’m worried people won’t understand that my one-woman show is satire. What should I do?

58:42 Q&A: Does comedy have real power or is it ‘just jokes’?

1:06:35 Q&A: Do comics sometimes inadvertently reinforce wrongheaded points of view?

1:10:23 Q&A: Why are Ivy Leaguers so unfunny?

1:13:13 Q&A: Are college campuses inhospitable environments for comedy?

1:16:45 Q&A: What got Roland suspended at Harvard?

1:20:20 Q&A: Does the general public need social media training?

1:22:31 Q&A: Is there a way to stop corporations from folding to social media pressure campaigns?

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	In the house at the comedy seller, I mean, I'm just a professor, you know, they didn't
0:29.0	teach us this in graduate school. But good even in everybody, Glenn Lowry, Brown University, I am with
0:35.4	Roland Fryer, Harvard University, Coleman Hughes, extraordinaire musician, podcaster and writer,
0:40.8	Columbia University graduate, and our host, Norm. We've got some talented comics in the audience.
0:51.4	The theme tonight is comedy and politics. Now, I came to this from many years of trying to write
1:00.3	about race and racial inequality issues in America and finding that there were third rails.
1:08.2	There was stuff that you couldn't say. There was a lot of political correctness. There's a lot of
1:12.6	self-sensorship. And I have this idea. My idea, and we'll see with my colleagues here, think about it,
1:20.6	here at the Glenn show. I don't think I said that. That's my platform. That's my podcast,
1:29.1	loose letter at Substack, and you can find a YouTube channel, Glenn Lowry show. But trying to talk
1:37.0	about these issues in a way that opens up some space for exchange of ideas, for grappling with
1:42.6	the stuff that we really have to grapple with that we're going to get to be in a better place.
1:47.7	And for let some air into the room, the stifling suppression of debate and open discussion leads
1:57.0	to a limiting of our own ability to think about the issues that we're confronted with. And I see
2:02.5	comedy, I mean, again, I don't know what my esteemed colleagues will say about this. And I certainly
2:06.4	don't know what you comics out there going to say about this. We're going to find out. I see comedy
2:11.4	as a way out, as a way to open up the room, as a way to get some honesty into the discussion,
2:19.0	as a way to have some debates. Now, my mouth is not a prayer book, but I do have some ideas.
2:27.4	Here's some things that I wish comics would help us talk about.
2:33.4	Male-female cooperative and non-exploitative relationships in the workplace have been
2:38.4	undermined to women's detriment by the Me Too movement.
2:46.4	I don't agree with that.
	...

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