The House Passes Gun Reform | Michael R. Jackson

for you tonight. Joe Biden is beefing with Mexico's presidents, Congress is trying to do something about guns, and the price of gas is still rising. So the next Fast and Furious is just gonna be Vin Diesel giving piggyback rides to everybody, but only for family plus. Really excited about this. Our guest tonight is the creator of one of the most amazing Broadway shows ever created, nominated for eleven Tony Awards. Michael R. Jackson is gonna be joining us.

So let's do these people. Let's sun streat at today's headlines. Let's kick things off with the price of gas a K A petrol, a K A car cocaine. There are a few commodities out there that affect the cost of living more than gas. You know, it's how we get to work, it's how we ship products across the country, and that's how we let our X know that we

busted them cheating. Now, I don't need to tell you that over the past few months, the price of gas has been climbing faster than your grandpa's heart rate on viagraph. In fact, gas is so expensive instead of champagne, boilers have started ordering canasas of premium at the club. Yeah, I was like, baby, baby, that club was really lit.

And as the national average in America hits five dollars a gallon for the first time ever, people all over the country are doing whatever they can to stretch a tank as far as they can for a nation that feels like it's stuck right now, when gas gridlock, many drivers aren't sitting idle with soaring costs. They're getting creative that My salary hasn't changed, so I carpool hit my sister to work. One week she drives in the one

week I drive. I just bought the motorcycle now for twenty bucks I used like for three days before days. It saves me a lot at a time. Gas prices are so high, bike sales are exploding. I've moved to the city, I don't need my car can for gas, and even Google Maps is your friend with an option

to navigate based on fewer hills and traffic. Even police departments are understrained this she can Sheriff's office is feeling the pain at the pump as well, according to its Facebook post, and has advised deputies to manage non urgent calls over the phone. Well well, well, I guess Joe Biden did end up defunding the police. Yes, the secret it's just defunding everyone at the same time, so we

didn't notice. I see you, Joe, very slick. But yeah, gas prices are so high even police have to do their jobs over the phone, which you gotta admit is gonna be tough for some cops. You know. It's just gonna be like, all right, sir, are you black? Okay, then I'm gonna have to ask you to whoop your own ass a little bit. Yeah, just risk yourself for

no reason, just to be safe. You know. He was actually gonna be hit the hottest by this, right, it's the Karen's Yeah, because they're the main people calling the cops with non urgent shits. But like, hell a police, there's a black man at the grocery store. Bryan tricks cereal, which is illegal because tricks are for kids. Hurry, hurry quickly. But yeah, all over the country, Americans are doing anything they can to save on gas, car pooling, switching to motorcycles. Ship.

I pretended to be sick this morning just to get a free ambulance ride to work. It's definitely AIDS monkey poplic symbol. I don't think I'm gonna make it. I don't know how much longer I have. Oh wait, that's my office. You guys can put you can drop me off here. Yeah, I'm gonna pull through. I'm gonna pull through. You guys can pull over here. I'm good. I'm good. Yeah, I'm good. I'll see you guys tomorrow. All right, by back,

by back, you know, for real. It's it's actually times like this that a lot of people are glad they live in New York City because you don't need to pay for gas here. All right, you can walk, you can ride a bike, you can take the subway. And then with all that money that you saved, not buying gas, you can afford a room the size of a coffin. Yeah, in New York concrete jungle where you have ten roommates, there's no space or any of you. That was the verse they cut out of the song, but it goes

to show you how desperate times are. America will do anything to save on gas right now. I mean not investing in mass transit obviously, but anything else, anything else, And that means we're gonna have to move on, because unfortunately, gas prices aren't the only problem affecting American people right now. And yes, I'm talking about guns, the never ending problem that America just can't seem to solve, which, now that I think about it, maybe America they shouldn't keep hitting

the same brick. Well, maybe America can just use some of its problems to solve some of its other problems, you know, like like maybe the price of gas will get so high that mass shooters won't be able to drive to a gun scrope to buy weapons in the first place. You don't need red flag laws the gas before you got to the gallon. But until that happens, you won't make it. In Congress are trying to find any measure that can help reduce the amount of guns

that end up in the hands of madmen. And yesterday the House took action. A major legislative package on new gun measures is headed to the Senate. After passing in the House yesterday by a two three to two hundred four vote, lawmakers approved the Protecting Our Kids Act. The legislation is a collection of six new gun safety measures, including raising the minimum age to buy semi automatic rifles from eighteen to one and requiring that all firearms be traceable.

Five Republicans joined Democrats and also supported the bill. It is, however, unlikely to pass in the Senate, where control is evenly split. One Republican congressman who voted against the bill, Congressman Steve Scalie, explained his opposition to new gun control laws. I go back to September eleventh. Airplanes were used that day as the weapon to kill thousands of people and to inflict terror on our country. There wasn't a conversation about banning airplanes. Wow. Wow,

that is a good point. I can't think of anyway flying changed after nine eleven. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get to the airport fifteen hours early, so the TS as time to on a background checking on my champoon to see if it has any links. Six. This is a terrible comparison. Nobody's trying to ban all guns. They're trying to add small measures to make people more safe, which is exactly what happened to air travel after nine eleven.

I mean, do you even remember what airport security was like? Before? You could basically walk onto a plane and just browse around like it was an IKEA. Yeah, you could just be like, no, I don't have a ticket. I just wanted to check out the cockpit. This is nice because what does this do? Boop boo boop boop boop boop boo. This is fun alright, I have excited trap. But this is the problem, you see, this is the problem that gun loves having America. There's nothing else that is as

unregulated as they want guns to be. Sore, the options and the like, the analogies that they use always don't make sense. There was like cars kill people too, but you don't regulate the wait, wait, actually I mean alcohol kills people too, but they wait, Actually, no way, Medicine kills people too, but we don't regulate or no, wait, we do. Let me think of guns killed people, but we don't regulate those. See what I did, That's I've

gone back on myself. That's what I've done. But despite despite these dumbass objections from people like Steve Scalise, the House still passed a gun control bill. The only problem is that everyone already knows that it has zero chance of passing in the Senate, which has gotta be rough for the House. You know, you work so hard on something that you know is going to lose. You know,

they're like the New York Knicks of legislation. Like what a weird system in America where one chamber of Congress spends all this time passing legislation that they know the other chamber is going to shoot down. It's such a strange system. Normal for America, crazy for most of the world. America is basically doing that thing that parents do with their kids, you know. You know those parents that are on the same page, Like you ask your dad, Dad,

can we eat ice cream for dinner? And he's like, yeah, sounds good to me. But you've gotta ask your mom, And you know mom is gonna say no. So I should have just asked her, why are you even a part of this process? Well, if I got your mom on the record saying no, that I can run ads against her next year and then we can get a new, cooler mom. Yeah. But what's especially interesting to me is that as modest as this bill is, only five Republicans voted for, only five, and get this, four of them

aren't running for re election. Yeah, which is really interesting time and time again. You see, whenever Republicans aren't worried about pandering to Trump voters, all of a sudden, they make common sense decisions. And I'll be honest, this this has shown me something that like, maybe American needs to relook the process. Maybe people in Congress shouldn't get to be real acted. You just do one term and you're done. That's it. Yeah, because then American's politicians would finally care

more about governing as opposed to getting re elected. You know. It's kind of like the same way people in relationships finally tell the truth when they're breaking up, you know what I mean. Yeah, because the whole time you're worried about saving the relationship. But if you'ren't worried about that anymore,

you become a lot more. Honest, all of a sudden, You're like, well, it's gonna end anyway, so I might as well tell you now that you fought like a beat boxing machine and your sleeve Sarah the whole night back, Papa. Moving on, this week, Los Angeles is hosting the Summits of the America's because, contrary to popular belief, America isn't

the only America in the world. Yeah, there are dozens of countries in North and South America, and every once in a while they get together to discuss issues that affect the entire region, and then they bitch about Christopher Columbus. But for this year's summits, the person most countries are bitching about is Joe Robinett and Biden drama before the diplomacy officially begins this week in Los Angeles, where President Biden will be hosting the Summit of the Americas, there

is a significant snub. The president of Mexico has announced that he is refusing to attend the summit because the US is not inviting Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua over their lack of democratic values. But Mexico says the agenda of migration economics climate, and COVID is just too important to exclude any of the nations from this region. The White House counters that it believes that no dictator should be invited. Wait a second, Joe Biden has stopped a Mexican from

coming to America. You know, wherever he is. Trump must be so piste off right now. He's that Joe Biden is stealing my ideas. I'm the Mexican man. Mom. Well, seriously, too, is such a petty story. This is a meeting of the leaders of an entire hemisphere, but instead they sound like middle school mean girls. You know. It's just like, Hey, Mexico, I'm having a party and you can come, but don't tell Cuba and Venezuela and Nicaragua because they're not invited.

It was like, oh, America, it's so brave that you think you're cool enough to even throw a party, you bitch. Oh my god, I will say this. I think we can all agree that Mexico is making a good point. America's stance on human rights violations seems a little inconsistent a right. Think about it. You won't even talk to Cuba and Nicaragua, but then you're gonna fly to Saudi Arabia and beg Prince Bone sort to release more oil. Huh. I mean it seems like America is a lot more

tolerance of countries that have a little ch change. Is that what it is? In many ways, the American government is like a stripper. Yeah. Yeah, it's like if you ain't paying, they don't care about you. And I hope you know that Saudi Arabia, America is not actually into you. They're just saving up for college. That's all this is. It's not about to you, America. The transactions. Here's a thing. Here's a thing. Whether the US likes it or not,

it is connected to these countries, right. They affect the United States, and the United States affects them. Don't you think it's weird that you're gonna be talking about migrants from Nicaragua, but then Nicaraguay is not going to be at that summit. I don't think it's strange. It's gonna be like staging an intervention without the person there. You've got to get your life together, Barry, is what I would say. If Barry was here, I think this would

have been good. Guys, This would have gotten through to him. It really would have been great. Where is Barry by the way, what drunk again? Well we tried, all right, that's over the headlines. But before we go, let's check it on the traffic without very own Roy would Jr. Everybody little knows what's up, Roy, We're happening. We're happening the place I'm just looking. Man, Ain't nothing happening. Ain't nobody out there gas cost you damn much? Everybody at home.

Ain't nobody on these roads today. Man, it's looking pretty looking pretty good there, you know. I'll be honest man with this is these gas prices. Man, I kind of it's got to be kind of rooting for monkey pox. Sorry, what how was traffic during the last shutdown? It was good, wasn't it? It was good the last pandeffic It wasn't no traffic. So bring back another pandific boom traffic fix problem solve. The gas prices are getting out of hand, Like I like, I kind of like the fact though

that the police can't respond to every call. That's cool for now, but then when the emergency start really start piling up, then it's gonna be bad. Man. Eventually the police gonna help to start car pooling with the fire department and the avalance. They're gonna have to ride together. Like, the only way they're gonna come save you is if all three things are happening to you at the same time. Like if you get shot, you got to set something on fire, then they'll show up. They're gonna have to

combine their vehicles. It's gonna get bad. They're gonna have to come check on you. And a fire truck, ambulance cruiser. Yeah, the fire truck, ambulance cruiser. That's what all three police cruiser, ambulance, fire truck using boys and what's happening in the traffic. Boy, it's just just people going to Errand's. People are just going to and fro Man. It's just it's a beautiful thing. Man. It's just real quick about the gun loss stuff, the

gun whatever they're trying to pass. Yeah, the gun safety, that's part of it, all right, Can we like that's the only solution to gun violence is gun regulating guns and a lot of different things contribute to gun violence this country. I agree. You start with the guns, but then you at communities, you you look at schooling, you look at eradicating poverty. I hear what you're saying, right, I don't talk about that. I'm talking about lonely white dudes.

I'm talking about we gotta have legislation, Like every lonely white dude got to have a friend. We got to legislate friends for lonely white man. And I think that's how we get that's how we fix some of it, Like like it would be like jury duty, Like you think you gotta you think you can get to go out this week, but then you get a letter in the mail, report to Gary's basement, and you gotta be Gary's friend for a little while. Because then them them

lonely white and ain't got no friends. Man, So we don't let the lonely white men not have a friend. Okay, but then but then one from a friend, every lonely white dude gets a friend. Yeah, don't take a group of friends. Yeah, but then, but then what if they put a lonely white man with another lonely white man. Then isn't that double dangerous. Oh that's called a militia. That's safer than a lonely white man. A militia is

much safer than a lonely white man. Militia got uniform, They got a website, they got a schedule, they get permits, they that you know when they're gonna show up. Who would you rather do with a militia or a lone wolf militia. That's what I'm saying. That's what we need. We need to because we gotta do. Somebody got to talk to these white white dudes in person. We tried talking to him over the internet, but read it didn't work. It was a big failure. Okay, well, um, let's get

the traffic right. It's just so beautiful when you're just scared. Let's get too. We got time. No, we ran out of time again for you. We got time. Yeah, we we just let me just know we we had we had just real quick. Okay, what are you gonna say? It's just so that guy's gonna have it wreck. You's going thank you so much? Right with you and everybody where we go. I want to find out what MAGA interactionists and black people have in common. You don't want

to miss it. Talking about to the very show. Tonight's Congress officially launched a major round of hearings into the events of January six, Juneteenth for Trump supporters, the day when white people visited the Democracy store and demanded to speak to the manager. And by the way, there's still arresting people for this. You may not know that, but they are. In fact, just today they arrested a guy who's running for governor of Michigan because he also stormed

the capitol. Yeah, and you know, that's definitely going to change the whole course of the election because now we know he's going to win the Republican nomination. I mean, you can't do that. And this is this is a new experience for a lot of these white people. You know, all of a sudden, they're finding out what it's like to be on the bad side of the police. And it turns out they do not like it one bit. The January six diffinite so are being treated differently on

a whole another level. They are denied religious services, haircuts, shaving, the ability to trim their fingernails. Imagine a group of men being held in jail with no idea of when they're going to go to court, no ability to bail out, no ability to see their family. If you're Peter Navarro, they will literally pull you off of a plane, shackle you, and throw you in the brig I wand up in

leg iyres. I wasn't allowed to call a lawyer, no food, no water, solitary confinement, illegal aliens to al Qaeda terrorists were treated better than I was. They actually followed him in the car to the airport to make a scene at the handcuffle. Um, why would they do that? It actually puts an exclamation point on the fact that we have a two tier justice system. Uh, if you're a Republican, you can't even a lie to Congress or a lie

to an FBI agent. Are they're coming after you? You can't even lie to Congress or the FBI without them coming. You realize he's just stating the law, but in an angry voice. You can't hit pedestrians and drive away. You can't even sell another man's kidney on Craig's List. And if you're steal your neighbor's dog and sell it back to them for the money, it's also not allowed. As that's America. That's that's America. It is wild that Louis gome over here is complaining about not being allowed to

lie to Congress because he's in Congress. Why does he want people to lie to him? Why would you want that. I feel like he must have asked someone for their honest opinion at some point and then gotten it. Tell me the truth? Do I look like someone three D printed Elmer fudd wait? I changed my mind? Lie to men, lied to me. But yeah, as you can see, many many Trump supporters saying that they're being oppressed and they're just learning how tough the justice system can be. You know,

I mean, Mogorlie Taylor Green. You heard what she says. She's like, can you imagine a group of men who can't pay bail and can't see their family? Well, you don't. You don't have to imagine it. America has already got the largest population of them in the world. And then, just so we clear, it's so we clear. I'm I'm glad the people who stormed the capital are being held accountable, but I don't take delight in the idea of them

experiencing the shitty side of America's criminal justice system. Yeah, so, Marjorie Taylor Green, I hope you keep this exact speech ready for the next time black people in America are complaining about the exact same thing. You'll have to change

the words. We don't even have to change the words, it was a wild that they've been treated like this for like five minutes and all of a sudden, like it's a two tier system, but like it's so hard big a Republican in this country, there's also always waiting for them to go into it, like a white Negro spiritual and al it's just like wo, go go to the Whole Foods, gluten and toddlerance is getting me anyway.

Conservatives are not learning at interactions with law enforcement don't always end well, which means they're going to have to have some hard conversations with their children. As a Trump supporter in America, you already know that cops treat people like us differently. We can be profiled and misjudged any time just trying to overthrow a free and fair election. That's why it's time for us to have the talk. As a Trump supporter, it's important to remember that law

enforcement is always out to get you. You can be targeted solely because of how you look, or what you chant, or who you're assaulting with a flagpole. How many young and middle aged men have already been arrested just because they tried to vote for Trump one too many times? And then stormed the Capitol and then posted on Facebook for some reason. And they'll use anything against you, your skin, color, your politics evidence if you so much just think about

overthrowing the government and then actually attempt to. There is nothing anyone can do to protect you, unless your husband is like on the Supreme Court, youre so. First rule, always listen politely to the police. Don't freak out and call them bullies or fascists until after you're booked. On Tucker Carlson, the bad news is that if they do arrest you, you can expect the worst kind of abuse. They'll put you in handcuffs, take you to the station, and put you behind bars and then lock them. These

are things no criminals should have to suffer. And now they're openly throwing around the word trader with a hard art. You know, every time I see a young man being hassled by police for smearing theces on the walls of Nancy Pelosi's office, I think that could be our son. He's a sweet boy and we're proud of him. He is a proud boy. So that's the way things are. And hopefully the next generation of conservatives won't have to have this talk because there won't be elections exactly. Paulson

Polson moment. Thank you, Jessie and Michael or I stay tuned because we're gonna be joined by the playwrights Michael R. Jackson right up to the break. You don't want to miss it. Welcome back to the Danna Show. My guest tonight is Pulitzer Prize winning playwrights Michael R. Jackson. He's here to talk about his smash hit new musical, A Strange Loop, which is currently nominated for eleven Tony Awards. Please welcome Michael R. Jackson. Welcome to the show. Mr

Michael R. Jackson. Thank you for having me. Before we get into the show that you have created that is getting everybody buzzing, Let's talk about the name. Let's talk about it. How many people do you disappoint when you show up? I mean, like not now obviously maybe now it's more like a probe, like Michael R. Jackson, people just see Michael Jackson. I don't know. I think like I always get people to perk up a little bit

when I make here, Like my name precedes me. You just show Mr Jo Mr Jackson, and then um that was there are always was always the I'm assuming I kind of dropped it in there. Well, that's on Facebook on the Living Michael Jackson. I like that. It's the only other person who I think has is Michael B. Jordan's that's right right, Why he interned all my children. I interned all my children when he was like a kid working there. It's really weird. There's a connection. Look

at it. All the famous names people going on to create their own famous things, and that's exactly what you've done. A strange new congratulations eleven Tony Award nominations. I've had the pleasure of seeing this production and I can't even explain it to people, But you know what I love about it is it makes me seem cool when I recommend it. You know, no, no, no, because you know, in this world there's not many things you can recommend to people that will have them leaving feeling like you're

so cool because you told them to go. Everyone I tell to see this goes and sees it, and then they're like, Trevor, oh thank you. So I'm like, yeah, that's what I do. Did you know when you finished creating this show, did you know that it was going to be the hit that it is um not even close like it was like not on my vision board even a little bit. So it was really exciting. But

you took twenty years to write it. Yeah, yeah, that's wild, George George R. Martin would be like, yeah, I know, that's like, that's like a did I would love to know that, like where this where the this idea came from? Because I don't want to give anything away from the audience, because part of the joy of the show is that you won't really know what it's about and you'll just

be in a story. But what we can tell people is it is a story of a gay black man who is in the world of theater and he's in the world of being black and in the world of being gay. But it come into and every gay black fat Yes, and you talk about that in the show. One of the funniest shows I've ever seen, one of the most point in shows I've ever seen people crying, people laughing like that. I see why it took twenty years. Yeah, yeah, it just started off. You know, I was about three

years old. I'm thty one now, and I had just graduated from undergrad playwriting n y U. I didn't know what I was gonna do with the b Athey degree. I was living in this old lady's bungalow style house in the middle of nowhere Jamaica Queens. But if you live in New York, that's like all the way to the end of the eye or the train and then you take a but that's like ten minutes to get to the house. It was crazy and so and I was just like, didn't know what I was gonna do

with my life. And so I started writing this monologue called why I Can't Get Work, and it was just about, you know, a young black a man walking around New York wondering, my life is so terrible. So and from and sort of the show sprang from that sort of primordial soup. I didn't know that it was It was true that you worked as an usher at The Lion King. Yeah, I worked at when The Lion King used to be at the New yandsterday In Theater, and I worked there

for five years. I did like four years of Lon King and a year at Mary Poppins, and then I did a couple of years later a seasonal sin of The Laddin. So I ran through the whole Disney pantheon was there anything that was there anything that you saw where you were like, I don't ever want to see this again in the Broadway show, so I'm going to create something differently. Or was there something you show that inspired you that made you want to create the show

the way you did? What was kind of both? It was a strange loop. I like, okay, okay, um, yeah, Like you know, you're standing in the back of the theater, you're ringing the bells, You're watching audience at night after night after night. So after show you get a little forward and luckily, you know, I was there with my

thoughts and just sort of thinking to the show. I used to We used to have the stuff to play bills and sometimes I would write little ideas for that would go into the show on the back of the inserts for like today that on this, understudies in or whatever, and I would collect them and being on my pockets when I got home. Um, but so it's wild like but I again, I never expected that anything would kind of it, But I just was doing it to sort of keep myself saying, what do you think you have

taken away from this? You know, I saw so many people in the audience who were touched for different reasons. You know, if people grew up in a religious family, I saw them connecting with the show in a different way. Of people, you know, had had issues with their identity growing up. Maybe they were bullied, maybe maybe they're struggling today. It doesn't matter what it was. You're looking for work in America. You you know, you're just trying to get by,

You're trying to find friends, love. All of these themes are touched on, and I watched people in the audience feel something. I watched everyone walked out just making sounds. That's when you know, no one no one said anything. Everyone's just like, ah, it was. It was beautiful. But then I wondered what you got by creating like for yourself,

didn't change anything in your world? I mean, I guess for me, the best part of the show has been actually talking to people after when when it lets out, because what I've been finding is that for some people the show is a mirror and for other people the show is a window, and that seeing people there together experiencing the same thing but through those two different lenses has been creates a really powerful energy that sort of goes up onto the state goes to the actors on

stage and they send it back, and it really brings the audience into the loop of the show, of the character's mind that we're in as we're watching you. You had a great I forget was the phrase you called it. You said it was like it was a big gay, big black and queer ass American Broadway show. I love that. I love that. You don't know, you know what I love about that? Yeah, it was because what you just said.

I've seen some shows where, you know, if an audience, let's say from New York, they really get the show. If they're not from New York, maybe they don't enjoy it as much, or if the audience is black, maybe they get it more or later. This was one of those shows where everyone was enjoying it from from a different A lot of different reference points sort of in it, because that's kind of what it's like to be a person. You're made up of all of your reference points, your history,

your different memories, everything. And so the main character, Usser, that's his name, he loves a lot of different things and he hates a lot of different things. And so my sort of hope was by exposing the audience to that everybody can sort of meet user and the show wherever they are and they can take from it what they need to and um, and that the show is sort of promoting a spirit of inclusion for anybody who decides to come in and stick it out. I don't

think anybody's sticking it out. I will tell you no, genuinely. I know there's some difficult moments for some people, but but you know what that's I think that's what made it so amazing is it's not difficult for the sake of being difficult. It's difficult in like, it's not it's not gratuitous, it's it's not at all. And and I I've seen shows where audiences go, I'm uncomfortable, but here it was people experiencing the discomfort that somebody else may

be living through. Yeah, And because that's what the character and I am trying to do. If we're trying to get the audiences to feel what it's like to walk in the skin that they may not be either that they don't feel familiar with, or that they feel familiar with but feel unseen, unheard, or misunderstood. It's phenomenal. It's one of the funniest most intelligent, just everything. This is that you put. I hope you in every single Tony

Award that you're nominated going for. Congratulations and everyone needs to go watch the show. Thank you for being here a strange new It was nominated for eleven Tony Award. It's now playing at the last same data on board rate. Go and watch it. I promise you know it's the best thing you love to see. You're gonna take great break pullbe right back after this. Look, don't forget above.

Thanks that sought to night before we go. Please consider supporting March for Our Lives this Saturday, June eleven, the youth led movement dedicated to eliminating gun violence is marching again on Washington and in communities across the country. So if you can, please go to the link below to donates and get more information on how you can show up and demonstrate too elected officials that we demand and

deserve a nation that is free of gun violence. Until next time, stay safe out there, and remember gas costs money, but holding onto the back of your neighbor's car while he drives that's free. What's the Daily Show weeknights and eleven ten Central on Comedy Central in stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast