About this episode
Michael Harren interviews comedian Matt Koff about his new comedy special 'Cat Man' and the cultural perceptions of men who love cats.
I’ve been watching Matt Koff’s new comedy special Cat Man all week — it’s out now on YouTube — and this week I got to talk with Matt about it. He’s an Emmy-winning Daily Show writer and the winner of New York’s Funniest Standup 2023. We talked about the cultural discomfort around men who love cats, and the very real divide Matt has clocked between Manhattan audiences (who think men with cats are weird) and Brooklyn audiences (who emphatically do not). As a fellow middle-aged cat dad, I related more than I’d like to admit. We also got into how Cat Man came together: self-financed, shot in two shows on a single night at the Comedy Cellar, and made with a crew of longtime Daily Show colleagues who transformed the Village Underground into something out of David Lynch by way of The Muppet Show. And we talked about the shift from being angry about not being famous to being relieved about it — a turn that, for Matt, has a lot to do with the grease stains on his shirts. Matt Koff is a Brooklyn-based stand-up and Emmy-winning TV writer who has been at The Daily Show for 13 years. His debut comedy album, Who’s My Little Guy?, is out on 800 Pound…
People in this episode
Host: Michael Harren
Guest: Matt Koff
Topics covered
- comedy
- cats
- cultural differences
- stand-up
- interview
- Emmy-winning writer
Keywords
- Matt Koff
- Cat Man
- comedy special
- The Daily Show
- stand-up comedy
- cultural discomfort
- New York's Funniest Standup
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: The Daily Show, 800 Pound Gorilla Records
Books & works: Cat Man, Who’s My Little Guy?
Places: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Comedy Cellar, Village Underground
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