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The Open
Hey Zingers,
Back in Issue #02 we told you Sam Morril wasn't a household name yet and to give it two years. It took one. His second Netflix hour drops tomorrow, he directed it himself, and one of the through-lines is the comedy of famous assassinations — so you already know whether it's for you. Also tonight: SNL came back without one of its best impressionists, and the Kill Tony bucket pull who broke the show's own promotion record and is playing Houston on Friday.
🎙️ Weekly Feature
"Incorrect" premieres globally Tuesday, September 29 — Morril's second Netflix hour after 2022's "Same Time Tomorrow," and the first one he directed himself, with Molly Mandel, Daniel Powell and Alex Bach executive producing. The material is exactly what you'd expect from the most precise dark comic working clubs right now: a one-night stand that goes wrong in ways he clearly enjoys describing, an escalating and genuinely unhinged personal war against rats, and an extended stretch on the dark comedy of infamous assassinations.
That last one is the tell. Most comics at this level have a team quietly steering them away from the bits that make a streamer's legal department call a meeting. Morril directed himself, which means nobody was in the room to talk him out of anything.
Why it matters for this lane: Morril isn't a roast comic, but he's the closest thing stand-up has to a technician of cruelty — jokes built so tight that the mean part arrives before you've finished processing the setup. That's the craft roast comedy runs on, done at the sentence level instead of at a dais.
Hot take: a comic directing his own hour is usually a vanity credit. Here it reads as risk management in reverse — the point wasn't creative control, it was making sure nobody with notes could cut the assassination material.
📋 Open Mic Bites
SNL came back Saturday night — Season 52 premiered September 26 with Jalen Brunson hosting, the first active NBA player to do it since LeBron James in 2007, fresh off dragging the Knicks to their first title in 53 years. KATSEYE played. Two new cast members, Grace Reiter and Saidah Belo-Osagie, got thrown straight into the deep end.
It was also the first premiere without Chloe Fineman since 2019 — she left after seven seasons and is off to Netflix's "Myron Bolitar." The show lost its sharpest impressionist right as it's trying to rebuild a bench, which is going to be very noticeable by about week four.
Nimesh Patel's first Netflix hour, "Buy the Dip," landed September 22 — the former SNL writer filmed it across four nights at the Lincoln Theater in DC. The best stretches are the domestic ones: kids' conspiracy books, hospital bill shakedowns, and an Indian family group chat he describes as a war crime. Reviews were split on the rest.
"A Different World" came back September 24 — the Hillman College revival landed on Netflix with Jasmine Guy, Kadeem Hardison, Darryl M. Bell and Charnele Brown all returning, plus Method Man and Tichina Arnold in the new cast. Legacy sitcom revivals are usually a licensing move with a laugh track attached. This one got the actual people back, which is the only version worth anyone's time.
Quote of the week: "He's too short to lead the FBI. You can't be 5′7″ and in charge of finding missing people." — Nimesh Patel, "Buy the Dip"
😂 The Joke Drawer
🍞 Dad Joke of the Week: I got fired from the calendar factory. All I did was take a couple of days off.
🔥 Dirty Joke of the Week: What's the difference between a job and a marriage? After five years, the job still sucks.
🚨 The One That'll Get You Fired: My review said I "lack appropriate boundaries." I said that's not what your wife told me. I now work remotely. Permanently. (If HR asks, you read this on a competitor's newsletter.)
🎙️ One to Watch
Pat O'Neill — the fastest rise in Kill Tony history, and if you've been anywhere near comedy TikTok this year you've already seen the clips.
Here's the part that hasn't happened before. O'Neill pulled his name out of the bucket, won a golden ticket on episode #758, and by #766 in May he'd been made a full-time regular — the first comic ever promoted straight from golden ticket to the permanent roster without the usual years of proving it. He's been closing the show since. The clips have done millions of views apiece, UTA signed him, and he's now headlining club weekends in his own name off a résumé that was sixty seconds long eighteen months ago. Watching a bucket pull turn into a touring headliner in real time is the entire promise of that show, and he's the cleanest proof it works.
Go see him: The Pink Flamingo, Houston — Fri Oct 2, then Hyena's Dallas, Oct 9 and Hyena's Fort Worth, Oct 10. Wiseguys Salt Lake City closes out the month, Oct 30–31.
🗺️ Comedy Mic Check
Each city: the two rooms worth your time this weekend.
City | Club pick 1 | Club pick 2 |
|---|---|---|
NYC | Gotham Comedy Club — the Gotham All-Stars, Fri–Sun Oct 2–4, multiple showtimes nightly | Comedy Cellar — MacDougal St., five to seven comics a show, 6:45pm through 12:30am. Lineup drops Thursday and the drop-ins are the reason to go |
LA | The Comedy Store — Marc Maron both nights: "Best of the Store XL" with Vicki Barbolak, Orny Adams and Frankie Quiñones, Fri Oct 2, 7:30pm; then Al Madrigal and Sarah Tiana, Sat Oct 3, 7pm | Hollywood Improv — Phil Hanley, Thu Oct 1 – Sat Oct 3 |
Nashville | Zanies Nashville — Kyle Kinane, Thu Oct 1 – Sat Oct 3, with Dylan Carlino | Zanies Nashville — Dale Elliott Jr. closes out the weekend, Sun Oct 4 |
Austin | Cap City — Trae Crowder, Fri Oct 2 at 7pm and 9:30pm, Sat Oct 3 at 6pm and 8:30pm | The Velveeta Room — Austin All-Star Comedy, Fri Oct 2, 8pm. Five bucks, still the weirdest room in town |
Boston | Laugh Boston — Santi Espinosa, Fri Oct 2; Nick Alex, Sat Oct 3 | Nick's Comedy Stop — nothing posted for the weekend yet |
DC | DC Improv — Fahim Anwar's fourth headlining weekend, Thu Oct 1 – Sat Oct 3, with Red Richardson making his DC debut | The Comedy Loft of DC — Katie Boyle and Leah Lamarr, Fri–Sat Oct 2–3, Lamarr's Cellar Loft debut |
Chicago | Zanies Chicago — Ali Macofsky, Fri–Sat Oct 2–3, 7pm and 9:15pm both nights | Zanies Rosemont — the Best of Chicago showcase, if you'd rather see six locals than one headliner |
💬 Crowd Work
Reply to this email with the worst possible thing to say out loud on your first day at a new job. Best one gets featured in a future issue.
📼 ICYMI
"Terminal Crew of Dudes" premiered on HBO August 14 — songs, skateboarding, and a birthday party at Benihana that goes as badly as a birthday party can go. Thomas has always worked the seam between stand-up, music, and something closer to a one-man show, and this one leans further in that direction than the last. Reviews split cleanly down the middle on whether earnest and funny can occupy the same hour, with one critic landing on "raw and reflective" and "not terribly concerned with punchlines." Whether that's a recommendation depends entirely on what you want out of an hour. It's the most interesting argument any special started this summer.
RATE TONIGHT'S SET
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🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤 Absolute headliner 🎤🎤🎤🎤 Solid set 🎤🎤🎤 Decent open mic energy 🎤🎤 Needs work 🎤 Booed off stage
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