Sherri Shepherd has been a stand-up comedian, sitcom star, ‘The View’ co-host, and now, with her eponymous syndicated talk show ‘Sherri,’ a leading figure on the daytime TV scene. In this episode, Shepherd opens up about the inspiration and advice she received from Ellen DeGeneres, Oprah Winfrey and Barbara Walters, how she wants her own show to avoid the types of controversies that still fuel ‘The View’ and how she’s learned to handle the inevitable backlash that will come her way. She also sha...
Jan 30, 2023•51 min•Ep 193•Transcript available on Metacast Comedian Nate Bargatze describes what he does for a living as “saying dumb stuff in front of large groups.” And he’s very good at it. In his third appearance on the podcast for this bonus episode, Bargatze talks about making the jump from Netflix to Amazon for his latest special ‘Hello World,’ which premieres on Tuesday, January 31st and finds him grappling with the everyday challenges of parenthood and middle age as only he can. We also get into the pros and cons of being a “clean” comedian, th...
Jan 27, 2023•32 min•Ep 192•Transcript available on Metacast With five specials on Netflix and millions of followers on social media, Vir Das is an international comedy superstar who can sell out stadiums around the world. But his career nearly came crashing down after he put out his “Two Indias” video in 2021 and had charges brought against him for defaming his home country on foreign soil. In this episode, Das breaks down how he managed to turn one of the most painful experiences of his life into his strongest hour of stand-up yet in ‘Landing,’ which pr...
Jan 24, 2023•44 min•Ep 191•Transcript available on Metacast Jermaine Fowler has never shied away from a challenge. The comedian and actor dropped out of college to become a stand-up and painstakingly worked his way up the ranks of show business until landing his breakthrough performance opposite his comedy idol Eddie Murphy in 2021’s ‘Coming 2 America.’ In this episode, Fowler talks about his latest leading role in ‘The Drop’ as a man whose life is thrown into comedic chaos after his wife (‘PEN15’s’ Anna Konkle) drops their friend’s baby at a destination...
Jan 17, 2023•54 min•Ep 190•Transcript available on Metacast Jason Woliner is still trying to figure out why he has spent more than 10 years of his life working on a strange comedic docuseries about a middle-aged Florida man who tweeted at him out of the blue. Earlier this month, the director of ‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm’ and several ‘Nathan for You’ episodes finally premiered ‘Paul T. Goldman’ on Peacock. And as he explains in his return to the podcast, the impossible-to-describe project has left him with more questions than answers about its mysteriou...
Jan 10, 2023•49 min•Ep 189•Transcript available on Metacast Chelsea Handler knows exactly what she wants. After an eventful 2022 that included a celebrated guest-hosting gig on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ and the release in December of her latest Netflix special ‘Revolution,’ the comedian is gearing up for an even bigger 2023. She is set to guest-host ‘The Daily Show’ in February, and as she readily admits in her return to the podcast, she is actively pursuing that chair on a permanent basis. Handler talks about finding a new level of confidence on stage, why la...
Jan 03, 2023•44 min•Ep 188•Transcript available on Metacast In our final episode of the year host Matt Wilstein is joined by The Daily Beast’s Laura Bradley and Allegra Frank to share their lists of the funniest performances of 2022 across stand-up, TV, movies and more. If you’re looking for ideas about what to watch over the holidays, this episode is for you! See our full lists of the funniest performances of 2022 at The Daily Beast. Follow Allegra Frank on Twitter @LegsFrank Follow Laura Bradley on Twitter @lpbradley Follow Matt Wilstein on Twit...
Dec 27, 2022•59 min•Ep 187•Transcript available on Metacast It’s our annual, year-end crossover episode in which Matt Wilstein joins The New Abnormal host Andy Levy to talk about Dave Chappelle inviting Elon Musk up on stage to get booed at his final tour stop of 2022, how comedians and others have responded to a rise in antisemitic rhetoric, the state of “free speech” and “cancel culture” in the comedy world and a lot more. Follow Andy Levy on Twitter @andylevy Follow Matt Wilstein on Twitter @mattwilstein Follow The Last Laugh on Ins...
Dec 23, 2022•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Paul Walter Hauser is the rare actor who can make audiences laugh hysterically and break down crying, sometimes within the same project. From early guest spots on comedies like ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ and ‘Community’ to his breakthrough roles in dramatic films like ‘I, Tonya’ and ‘Richard Jewell’ to his deeply disturbing performance as a deranged serial killer in the Apple TV+ series ‘Black Bird,’ Hauser has proven himself to be a force to be reckoned with as a performer. But as he r...
Dec 20, 2022•53 min•Ep 186•Transcript available on Metacast For the past two decades, comedian Thomas Lennon has spent more time on screen in short shorts than he could ever imagined. In this bonus episode, Lennon returns to the podcast to talk about his latest performance as Lieutenant Jim Dangle in the new holiday film ‘Reno 911!: It’s a Wonderful Heist.’ He explains why he thinks the show’s characters keep getting funnier as they age, shares the story of how he found out Steven Spielberg was a fan and looks back at the earliest days of his influential...
Dec 16, 2022•32 min•Ep 185•Transcript available on Metacast Comedian Atsuko Okatsuka can’t seem to stop blowing up on the internet. Sometimes, it’s by accident, like when she joked through an earthquake on stage, and other times more deliberately, like the Beyoncé-inspired #dropchallenge she started on TikTok with her grandmother earlier this year. Now, those fleeting moments of online attention have culminated in her explosive new HBO stand-up special ‘The Intruder.’ In this episode, Okatsuka opens up about her often difficult journey from Taiwan to Ja...
Dec 13, 2022•50 min•Ep 184•Transcript available on Metacast Tom Papa has to be considered one of the least controversial comedians working today. And yet, as he explains in his return to the podcast for this bonus episode, even he has been subjected to “cancel culture” for a past joke that was considered culturally insensitive. The veteran stand-up comic, whose latest hour-long special ‘What a Day!’ premieres on Netflix next Tuesday, December 13th, reveals the gig he lost out on and why more famous comedians may be able to evade similar fates. He also br...
Dec 09, 2022•27 min•Ep 183•Transcript available on Metacast Sebastian Maniscalco is consistently one of the highest-grossing stand-up comedians in the country. And now, with a new Netflix special ‘Is It Me?’ and upcoming autobiographical movie ‘About My Father’ co-starring Robert De Niro, he’s about to finally become a household name. In this episode, Maniscalco opens up about doubling down on nostalgia and (mostly) avoiding controversy in his new special. He also talks about how the comedy world has changed for better and worse since he got his start in...
Dec 06, 2022•54 min•Ep 182•Transcript available on Metacast Matt Rogers can’t quite believe the year he’s had. From his first regular TV role on Showtime’s ‘I Love That for You’ to his scene-stealing work in the Hulu movie ‘Fire Island,’ the Long Island-born comedian has seemingly been everywhere in 2022. And it all culminates this December with his big holiday special ‘Have You Heard of Christmas?’ In this episode, Rogers talks about how unofficial “Queen of Christmas” Mariah Carey inspired him to become a Christmas prince and why the tears streaming do...
Nov 29, 2022•54 min•Ep 181•Transcript available on Metacast Comedian Patton Oswalt’s role as a desperate father who ends up impersonating a beautiful woman on social media to catfish his troubled son in the new film ‘I Love My Dad’ just might make him the perfect person to weigh in on Elon Musk’s crackdown on Twitter parody. In his return to the podcast, Oswalt talks about finding the humanity in his “monstrous” character and why he will never pay $8 a month for a blue checkmark. The elder statesman of comedy also breaks down the bit from his most recent...
Nov 22, 2022•51 min•Ep 180•Transcript available on Metacast Neal Brennan has always felt like an “outlier” in the comedy world. He’s a successful stand-up who’s still best known for co-creating ‘Chappelle’s Show’ and as he jokes in his latest special ‘Blocks’ on Netflix, he’s often the least famous comedian in a room that contains some of the biggest comedy stars on the planet. In this episode, taped before Dave Chappelle’s most recent SNL monologue, Brennan talks about trying to get to the bottom of what’s “wrong” with him on stage, why he still thinks ...
Nov 15, 2022•54 min•Ep 179•Transcript available on Metacast Comedian Natasha Leggero doesn’t think she’ll ever make a Netflix special about her daughter. So instead, she wrote a laugh-out-loud hilarious book about what it has been like to become her mother. In this bonus episode, Leggero returns to the podcast to talk about the cathartic process of writing her new book, ‘The World Deserves My Children.’ She also breaks down how much her parenting style differs from husband and fellow stand-up comic Moshe Kasher and opens up about how motherhood has affec...
Nov 11, 2022•28 min•Ep 178•Transcript available on Metacast It was never Chris Redd’s dream to be on ‘Saturday Night Live.’ And yet the rapper-turned-comedian seemed to just be hitting his stride on that show when it was abruptly announced less than two weeks before the 48th season premiere that he was leaving the cast. In this episode, the comedian unpacks the mysterious circumstances surrounding his departure and talks about grabbing the spotlight for himself in his new HBO Max stand-up special ‘Why Am I Like This?’ Redd also shares the gory details fr...
Nov 08, 2022•55 min•Ep 177•Transcript available on Metacast In this preview of our upcoming episode with Chris Redd, dropping next Tuesday, the comedian and recent SNL alum opens up about the brutal attack outside of the Comedy Cellar in New York that left him bloodied and landed him in the hospital last week. Subscribe to The Last Laugh now to hear our full conversation when it’s released next Tuesday, November 8th. Follow Chris Redd on Twitter @Reddsaidit and Instagram @chrisreddis Follow Matt Wilstein on Twitter @mattwilstein...
Nov 03, 2022•5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Nick Kroll is an actor, stand-up comedian and co-creator of one of the funniest shows on television, ‘Big Mouth.’ Season six of the Emmy-nominated animated series just dropped on Netflix and Kroll joins us to talk all about how it continues to push the envelope and how its themes led to his first real hour of stand-up, ‘Little Big Boy,’ also streaming on Netflix. He also explains why so-called “woke culture” has never stopped him from getting away with “crazy shit” on screen, shares the story of...
Nov 01, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Comedian Fortune Feimster has had an incredibly busy two years. And she put as much of it as she could fit in her new Netflix stand-up special ‘Good Fortune.’ In this bonus episode, Feimster returns to the podcast to discuss how she wanted to move past her coming out story in her second Netflix hour, explain why she decided to respond to a particularly “nasty” Instagram message on stage and share stories from the set of the upcoming action series in which she co-stars with Arnold Schwazenegger.&...
Oct 28, 2022•31 min•Ep 176•Transcript available on Metacast Melissa Villaseñor was among the eight cast members to leave ‘Saturday Night Live’ after its most recent season. And in this episode, she opens up for the first time about everything that led her to the difficult decision to step away from the show that had become her home for the past six years. The comedian and author of the new book ‘Whoops… I’m Awesome’ also talks about how she got her start doing celebrity impressions on ‘America’s Got Talent,’ looks back at the most surreal highlights from...
Oct 25, 2022•47 min•Ep 175•Transcript available on Metacast When Trevor Noah announced he would be stepping down as host of ‘The Daily Show,’ he cited a conversation with Roy Wood Jr. as part of what made him decide it was time to move on. In his return to the podcast, the longtime ‘Daily Show’ correspondent, who started the same day as Noah, talks about this huge moment of transition for the show and addresses the speculation that he is on the short list to take over as host. Wood also opens up about how Jerrod Carmichael’s ‘Rothaniel’ special lit a fir...
Oct 18, 2022•48 min•Ep 174•Transcript available on Metacast It wasn’t until Judy Greer had more or less given up on becoming a Hollywood star that it finally started to happen for her. The perennial “best friend” in early aughts rom-coms like ‘13 Going on 30’ and ‘The Wedding Planner’ has spent the past few years popping up in huge franchise films like ‘Ant-Man,’ ‘Jurassic World’ and this month’s ‘Halloween Ends.’ Now, she is the co-lead—and the funniest part—of Hulu’s high-profile meta-sitcom ‘Reboot.’ In this episode, Greer opens up about her uniquely ...
Oct 11, 2022•58 min•Ep 173•Transcript available on Metacast Hasan Minhaj has had a very busy five years between the release of his first big stand-up special ‘Homecoming King’ in 2017 and the premiere this week of his new hour The King’s Jester on Netflix. The former ‘Daily Show’ correspondent roasted Trump in absentia at the White House Correspondents Dinner, launched and ended his weekly Netflix series ‘Patriot Act’ and found himself in the crosshairs of the Saudis for his unflinching criticism of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. All of it and more fo...
Oct 04, 2022•56 min•Ep 172•Transcript available on Metacast Jena Friedman is a former ‘Daily Show’ field producer, an uncompromising stand-up comedian and, as of this past year, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter for ‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.’ Now, she is headlining her own hour-long stand-up special ‘Ladykiller’ on Peacock and taking on the true crime industrial complex as the host of ‘Indefensible,’ which premieres its second season on SundanceTV and AMC+ next month. In her second appearance on the podcast, Friedman talks about exposing “crisis pregnan...
Sep 30, 2022•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast Comedian Sheng Wang has spent much of his comedy career trying to hide in plain sight. Now, thanks to a boost from his longtime friend and colleague Ali Wong, he is reluctantly stepping into the spotlight. In this episode, Wang opens up about everything that led to his first hour-long stand-up special ‘Sweet and Juicy,’ which premiered on Netflix earlier this month and also marks Wong’s directorial debut. He breaks down how seeing the late, great Mitch Hedberg perform forever changed the way he ...
Sep 27, 2022•49 min•Ep 171•Transcript available on Metacast Alison Brie had one of the luckiest big breaks in the history of television. Before the age of 30, she managed to simultaneously co-star on TV’s most celebrated drama (‘Mad Men’) and most obsessed over comedy (‘Community’) before the age of 30. In the seven years since those two shows ended their iconic runs, she has gone toe-to-toe with both comedy stars like Will Ferrell and acting legends like Meryl Streep on the big screen and rose to the top of the call sheet in her beloved Netflix series ‘...
Sep 20, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep 170•Transcript available on Metacast Jay Duplass never wanted to be an actor. For years, he remained entirely behind the scenes of the intimate indie films he wrote and directed with younger brother Mark Duplass. Then, he was handed the role of Josh Pfefferman in ‘Transparent,’ which transformed his life and career more than he ever could have imagined when he still thought it was a little “web show” for Amazon. In this episode, Duplass reveals how his latest acting gig as “Mr. COVID” Jesse Bloom on HBO’s ‘Industry’ was inspired by...
Sep 13, 2022•58 min•Ep 169•Transcript available on Metacast Emmy-nominated comedian and actress Natasha Rothwell talks about her very big year, from facing off with Jennifer Coolidge in ‘The White Lotus’ to stealing scenes in the final season of ‘Insecure.’ And things are only looking up from here, with two new shows in development at HBO, a third in the works with Disney-ABC and a mysterious role in the upcoming ‘Wonka’ movie starring Timothée Chalamet. In this episode, Rothwell opens up about auditioning for ‘Saturday Night Live’ as part of that show’s...
Sep 06, 2022•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
