"Shane Gillis"

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Speaker 1 You know what the key is to these cold opens? You just start talking and stuff just tumbles out of the mouth. It's halfway interesting.
Go ahead. Will, give it a shot.

Speaker 1 Just start yammering. Oh, man.
Tech season this year really got me in nuts.

Speaker 1 That's pretty good.

Speaker 1 That's pretty good stuff.

Speaker 1 You think that's good? Wait till this whole new Smartless. Nice.
What one Smartlist?

Speaker 1 Smart.

Speaker 1 us.

Speaker 1 Will, where are you? I'm at home now. I know.
Why did you switch places? Because I was at my office as they were doing work here. Oh, that's right.
Oh, that's right. Remember the office, Sean?

Speaker 1 Yeah, that was extraordinary. Yeah, that lasted for just one recording.

Speaker 1 And now he's away from

Speaker 1 that work site.

Speaker 1 You know, it's so funny. You just have such a funny thing.
Don't make me go deep on this. Your thing about work, that you think that you go to office.
Hey, I'm actor.

Speaker 1 My new role is work.

Speaker 1 Look at his. Again, look at it.
I grew up. I did everything I could to not do that.
Right. Yeah.

Speaker 1 They don't want to sit behind a desk. Yeah.
Yeah. Right.
This is my dad. I mean, God bless him.
Yeah, we all, but we all sit behind desks during the day.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 right? We did everything. Not Will.
Not me. Will sits on the couch and he watches the Toronto Maple Leaves win.
I sure do. That's all he does.
Oh, look at that.

Speaker 1 I tell you who captures the camera real well is that Brendan Shanahan. He sure does.
You know,

Speaker 1 when they point that camera at him up in that power box,

Speaker 1 he's stuck there

Speaker 1 looking like the real. He's turned into a real silver fox, hasn't he? Yeah, Cameron loves him.
By the way, he's a silver fox. By the way, he's going to call me and be like, what do you mean, silver?

Speaker 1 You've got gray hair. That's a salty pepper fox.
A silver fox in a power box. I know.
How about the time that he tried to teach teach Sean?

Speaker 1 Sean asked Shanny when he was in town last year to teach him how to fight at the Beverly Hills Hotel out the back door.

Speaker 1 And Sean went at him. Shanny's like, okay, well, what? And Shanny's laughing.
20 seconds. Yeah.
And two seconds

Speaker 1 got me a headlight.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and Sean was saying, wait, aren't you supposed to take this off me? Isn't the shirt supposed to come off?

Speaker 1 I thought it shirts against skins. I thought we were doing shirts against skins.
I'm always skins. By the way, in high school, didn't you fear? Well, hey, Will, in high school,

Speaker 1 Sean, that?

Speaker 1 you're on board now now you're on board thank you sean um in high school didn't it freak you out or junior high when people when you the coach would say okay we're gonna do shirts and skins and like in basketball i would always i didn't want to take my shirt off i didn't want to take my shirt off i was always afraid of that it's traumatizing why do people why do they do that to kids and then they made us take showers and like at 12 13 years old i'm like well i don't want to do that i know it's so

Speaker 1 will likes walking around with his kid off just kind of

Speaker 1 well when i did it with a dunk

Speaker 1 I never stepped foot into

Speaker 1 a gym until I was about 24. So I was never like

Speaker 1 changed. Yeah, ever.
But you play sports.

Speaker 1 But I play sports, but I was, I just never, and then, but I went to boarding school, so I had to take showers, you know, starting at age 12 when I was at school. Yeah, at boarding school.

Speaker 1 So, like, I can't. With other, yeah.
It was, uh, it's weird. I went to camp once.
I think I said this, and we had a lineup outside a music camp, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan.

Speaker 1 And not a sports camp. No.

Speaker 1 Huh. Hang on,

Speaker 1 let me just adjust everything I know about you.

Speaker 1 And they made us line up outside to take a shower in front of, and one by one, we had to take a shower. And you had to like take your clothes off in front of all of these kids, your peers.

Speaker 1 And it was so Sean, when I was in seventh grade, age 12, I went from living with my folks to a place where they had

Speaker 1 four showers per side in a big, huge open room with no divider. Yeah, that's weird.
It's torture. Yeah.
Yeah, it's awful. It was.

Speaker 1 And by the way, by the time I got in the camp thing, by the time I got up there, all the hot water was gone. So

Speaker 1 I was taking a cold shower and I couldn't breathe.

Speaker 1 It was so cold. If I'm being honest, you probably needed it.

Speaker 1 You're showering with all those dudes. I mean, that probably helped.

Speaker 1 Just

Speaker 1 get get things back to normal.

Speaker 1 Anything to calm me down. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Oh, my God. What do you got? Selectrolytes going there, Sean, this morning? I do, yeah, yeah.
What happened to the milk? Is the cow dead? No, I had milk already.

Speaker 1 Oh, are you chasing it with some electrolytes? Good luck on the toy toy. What are you...

Speaker 1 Jesus, you're so obsessed with

Speaker 1 people's bowels.

Speaker 1 Well, I just, I don't, he's creating a bomb. That electrolyte is going to cut right through that milk like a knife.
Is it really?

Speaker 1 Yeah. Is it really? Yeah, dude.
Whenever I see people eat. Get yourself over a toilet within the next 60 minutes.

Speaker 1 I'm never thinking about it. Let's wrap this up.

Speaker 1 Whenever I see people eat, I'm never thinking about, man, that's really going to come back to hunt them on the toilet. It just doesn't occur to me.

Speaker 1 You know, when I see clips of that hot sauce talk show, that's all I think about. I know, same.

Speaker 1 Same.

Speaker 1 Out of your mind. You know, they should do it from a toilet.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 You won't catch me on that show.

Speaker 1 No, of course not.

Speaker 1 No, no, no. Of course he was.
Whose guest is it? Yeah, it's my guest, anarcoleptic guest or something, Will? No, no, no. Well, he's a great guest.

Speaker 1 And I was about to get to it, and then I was thinking about you talking about shitting everywhere. But

Speaker 1 our guest, the only thing he hasn't shit everywhere. All he's done is he's scored everywhere.
This guy has been making everybody laughing. Another word for it.
He has been unbbed. He's Jeremy.

Speaker 1 He's been making people shit themselves. He makes me shit myself laughing.
He's so fucking funny. He's such a great dude.
I had the pleasure of kind of getting to know him over the last couple months.

Speaker 1 He's been very generous as I was going through the process on our film. And he has just been, his specials have been unbelievably well received.
He's maybe the biggest touring comic out there.

Speaker 1 His new, his show, Tires, is about to start second season on June 5th. He's a great writer.
He's an incredible stand-up. He's the funniest dude.
Guys, it's Shane Gillis. Oh, Shane Gillis.

Speaker 1 You're on Smartlist. Good morning.

Speaker 1 There you are. Hello.

Speaker 1 I love you.

Speaker 1 This is so cool.

Speaker 1 Easy. Easy.
Yeah, so funny. Easy.

Speaker 1 Hi, Jane.

Speaker 1 Where do we find you today? Are you at home? I am at home. I'm in Austin, Texas.
All right. And how is it in Austin? It's all right.
It kind of sucks. It's hot and humid a lot.

Speaker 1 Hot already?

Speaker 1 I don't love it. I don't love it.
Yeah, it's hot. It's been hot.
It's going to be hot until December. Wow.

Speaker 1 It's one of the worst places I've ever lived.

Speaker 1 Do you ever jump in that river that they call a lake and you cool off a little bit? Yeah. Yeah, that's very nice.
Why do they call it a lake? It doesn't

Speaker 1 snakes around like a river.

Speaker 1 It's literally the Colorado River. I don't know.
They call it a lake. I have no idea.
Oh, I didn't know that. Is that it? I didn't know that either.
Yeah, is that something that happens to you?

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's just the Colorado River. Yeah.
And it doesn't even look like a lake. It's just a river.

Speaker 1 There's just nothing like about it at all. You could throw a rock across it.
Wait, so Shane,

Speaker 1 you live there by choice? I mean, like, it sounds like you hate it. It sounds like you're being forced.
Like, is there somebody off camera with a gun? I mean, yeah, Joe Rogan.

Speaker 1 He's right here. He's got a gun.

Speaker 1 He's down there, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah, he's down here. And he opened a club here.
And it was either, for a comedian, it's either New York, L.A., or that was always the only two options. And then he opened a club here.
So

Speaker 1 you can evade some taxes and do stand-up here. Right, he was a stand-up, right? And then I remember he was on one of of the greatest shows ever, news radio.
So he was an actor for a minute, right?

Speaker 1 But he did start as a stand-up, didn't he?

Speaker 1 He's still, I mean, he's done stand-up the entire time. And remember Fear Factor? He did Fear Factor.
I used to watch that. Fear Factor.

Speaker 1 So Shane, I first met Shane at Joe's club in Austin. On the way.
Yeah, I went down there, and he was kind enough and gracious enough to let me have twice have like 10 minutes of his time on stage.

Speaker 1 All right, Shane, give us a review on Will. No, he doesn't.
You don't have to. Yeah, no, I don't want to hear it right now.
No, it's going to be...

Speaker 1 Will doesn't want to hear it because it's flattering. Well, that's what I thought.
I was like, so they asked me to help write on this, write some for the movie.

Speaker 1 And I was like, if I write any material, that's good. I need to.
You're going to keep it. Because I have nothing.
Sure. That's it.

Speaker 1 So I was like, the only way to do it is just to actually do stand-up. So he came down.
And we did stand-up. And I was like, he's going to fucking bomb.
This is a lot harder than he thinks. And he was

Speaker 1 so naturally funny right away. I was in the back of the room room like, God damn it.
He does have, Will, you do have that

Speaker 1 natural,

Speaker 1 and I mean, not as a pejorative, this sort of this ham gene, right? Like, you are comfortable with the spotlight on you. You hamm down your fucking throat.
You're comfortable giving a toast.

Speaker 1 You're comfortable. And I don't have that.
I just don't. I don't like the spotlight on me.
I don't like a lot of attention. Will, you're comfortable with it, and it puts the audience at ease.

Speaker 1 It's yes, and it's a talent. It's a gift.
It's a talent. Shane, you have it too.
Oh, well, Shane, Shane's got, here's the difference.

Speaker 1 I hemmed my way and hawed my way through it. Shane, getting up there is so

Speaker 1 natural and good. And I know you've been working on it and you've crafted it, but

Speaker 1 you've got such a great way about you on stage. And you kind of, you bring, what I love is you kind of bring the audience in with you and you laugh and

Speaker 1 you.

Speaker 1 I don't know, you kind of like,

Speaker 1 you don't really like take sides.

Speaker 1 You kind of like, you, you play to a wide audience you play to different parts of what people and you get to kind of just what's funny so no matter where you land on any subject you're like you got to admit that's funny whether you're talking about politics or whatever it is and i'm sure that that's not i'm sure it's that's something that's a skill right like that's to be able to do that that's something you kind of work on i mean i i think it's kind of i mean yeah it's a it's a skill i guess but it's also like uh that's kind of how i feel most of the time you know like i i don't uh i don't like picking a side on i don't know publicly picking a side on an issue typically comes back to make you look like a fucking idiot yeah

Speaker 1 i don't know i mean unless it's like a glaring thing that you should support whatever yeah uh

Speaker 1 but i i want to go back to the the austin thing by the so the first show we went up and it was fine the second show we did like an hour later it was great

Speaker 1 And it was

Speaker 1 really frustrating how good you were at it. Oh, with Will, yeah, yeah.
And he was reading a script. Well, it's because he's using your material.
He's using your material, though. No, he wasn't.

Speaker 1 They did it themselves. In fact, I read the material first and I was like, I don't think this is going to fucking work.
So wait, so what type of stuff? I didn't want to say anything.

Speaker 1 What was Will's style? Was he like telling stories or was he kind of going joke to joke to joke?

Speaker 1 It was more storytelling, but it was...

Speaker 1 It was exactly how I like the stand-up. It was stories with jokes, with jokes within it, which was...
Do you remember any of it, Willie? Or have you deleted the files? Can you give us a taste?

Speaker 1 No, well, a lot of it, as Shane knows, he read it because a lot of it is stuff that we use in the film. So we were working on it.
So it's various stages of. Yeah, because we didn't say it.

Speaker 1 This is the film that you just shot and that's coming out later. What's it called, Will? The film? Is this thing on? Is this thing on? Yeah.
Is this thing on?

Speaker 1 We can get that at a later date when I'm the guest on the show. Yeah.
All right.

Speaker 1 Are you going to book yourself? No, sir.

Speaker 1 No, go ahead, Shane. Sorry.

Speaker 1 No, we were laughing. I was just at the cellar this week and we were laughing because there's a comedian there.
His name's Will Sylvance.

Speaker 1 And Will's playing a character on stage.

Speaker 1 And after the show, he goes on with the comedian and asks questions about the set. And I think he took the set very seriously.
It was like, man, I'm really sorry you're going through all that.

Speaker 1 Really? He did this script, you idiot. Yeah, he did.

Speaker 1 The first time I did New Joke Monday over there around the corner with him, and he comes up on stage and he asks you questions. And he was like, oh,

Speaker 1 like Shane said, he was like, ah, this sounds really rough. And I just kind of answered him as if it was all real.
And he's like, hang in there, buddy.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 And we will be right back.

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Speaker 1 And now, now back to the show.

Speaker 1 Wait, Shane,

Speaker 1 so

Speaker 1 doing what you do for a living, do you wake up and go to sleep constantly thinking of like, I got it, like, that was funny today. This is funny.
Oh, I got to write that down.

Speaker 1 Like, do you ever get out of that? Are you always in that mode? Yeah, I would say, yeah. Although, I don't know.
I used to be a lot better at it. Now I'm kind of just.

Speaker 1 I should be like that, and I'm not. Okay.
I got to work on that. I got to go back to only thinking about stand-up.
Okay. For real?

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, otherwise, I don't know. You feel like you're not coming up with any new material.

Speaker 1 Well, then, how do you do what you do? Do you, do you set as you set aside some time to really focus on

Speaker 1 work?

Speaker 1 No, I don't really, uh, I don't really write that much. I just kind of, I go, this could be a good idea, and then I go on stage and try it.
And if I get it,

Speaker 1 great. So you just figure it out on stage and it's all straight improv that you haven't really worked on any of it? No, I mean,

Speaker 1 yeah, you do that for like, like I'll do, if I did stand-up tonight, I would do basically 10 minutes that I know I'm, I know.

Speaker 1 I just know every word to it. And then I'd maybe try five minutes and see what happens and probably abandon it.
And then have one of my friends in like.

Speaker 1 Four or five months go, hey, that was a funny idea. And then I'll try it again.
And so when you're putting together an hour like to do, to do a Netflix special, like,

Speaker 1 you know, are you,

Speaker 1 is that something something like that they set the date for and they go, hey, man, we need you to deliver this special by this date.

Speaker 1 And so then that's when you kind of hone in and start working on actual stuff?

Speaker 1 I think they do that sometimes.

Speaker 1 I told them I didn't really, I wouldn't want a date on it, maybe 2026, because I got a, right now I'm doing arenas and I don't think the best way to work an hour out is in an arena. Because

Speaker 1 it's just, it's just different. I don't know.

Speaker 1 I think I'll do arenas for maybe the next, for the rest of this year and then go down back to clubs and really try to focus on hammering out the hour that I'm doing right now.

Speaker 1 I don't want to rush a special.

Speaker 1 When did you start? I love, I mean, you've got so much good stuff that you talk about growing up. I love all that stuff about going to Notre Dame games with your family.
That's my favorite.

Speaker 1 When you guys get in the van together and all that stuff. And you've got such rich, and your cousins and

Speaker 1 your family. You've just got such great, rich stuff.

Speaker 1 What was the first moment? This is like the question, like, how did you start in comedy?

Speaker 1 But when did you start going like, oh, the stories that I'm telling about my family or the shit that's going on, people are laughing enough that I should go to a club and tell it in front of other people?

Speaker 1 Like, what was that? Yeah, I was washing dishes at my friend's restaurant, and I always thought I was funny, and I just had no idea how to get into stand-up. And then

Speaker 1 one of the cooks was like, I'm going to go to Open Mic at the Harrisburg Comedy Zone tonight. And I was like, oh, you can just do stand up.
And he was like, yeah.

Speaker 1 So I went and I watched and I thought everyone sucked. And I was like, I can do that.
And then I went back every week for like two months just watching.

Speaker 1 And then I finally got on stage and I fucking bombed. I was like, I don't have to write any material.
I'm just funny. I just got

Speaker 1 talk. It was crazy how bad it was.

Speaker 1 And yeah, then

Speaker 1 stopped for a while after that traumatic experience, but I always still wanted to do it. And then eventually I went back and really applied myself and tried and did it.
And

Speaker 1 were you studying to do anything, anything else? Like was this always the career plan or were you did this did this derail something

Speaker 1 else? No, it wasn't really great. I was at Westchester University in Pennsylvania.
I was studying to become a history teacher. Oh, yeah.
And

Speaker 1 the first, I remember the first show I ever did, I fucking, it was a road, the first time I ever went on the road, it was a hotel outside of Pittsburgh in Mars, Pennsylvania.

Speaker 1 And it was in like a hotel lobby. And I bombed so badly that the club owner took me aside and was like,

Speaker 1 what are you doing with your life? And I was like, I'm a college student. I'm studying to be a history teacher.
He was like, why don't you just do that?

Speaker 1 I was like, all right, man.

Speaker 1 I kind of took it the whole time. Were you done with your set yet? Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 I swear to God, it was in between shows. I still had a number.
I I still had another set.

Speaker 1 It's really funny. I had to go up there like, this might be it.
This is my retirement. You know who loves history? Our host, Will Arnett.

Speaker 1 Specifically, World War II history. What's your favorite? You like

Speaker 1 the European or the

Speaker 1 right, Shane? You know it all.

Speaker 1 Well, I don't know.

Speaker 1 I like World War II. I like American Civil War.
It's great. Yeah, right.

Speaker 1 Have you seen both the Civil War documentary and the World War II documentary that Ken Ken Burns did?

Speaker 1 I love them both.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. I like the Civil War one I like better.
This is so powerful. The West, Vietnam is great.
His Vietnam documentary was great. Yeah.
Yeah, because I didn't know shit about Vietnam.

Speaker 1 I remember, what did you say about the Ken Burns documentary? You said that it's literally kryptonite for women.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 If you put it on, they're going to fall asleep.

Speaker 1 I remember you used to talk at fight. The other thing that really made me laugh, you used to talk about that dude Shelby Foote, that historian, and the way that he would.

Speaker 1 Right?

Speaker 1 I did a bunch of Ken Burns material at my SNL monologue, and everyone was kind of like, what the fuck is he talking about? That was it. That was it.

Speaker 1 That was recently. It was recent.
It was recent, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah, every time

Speaker 1 my monologue doesn't go great on SNL, I'm 0 for 2 on those things.

Speaker 1 I loved it. I love it.
I like it. Look, I like it, and I'm having fun up there, but it was

Speaker 1 Tate McRae was the musical guest. So the audience was like

Speaker 1 20-year-old

Speaker 1 chicks just in the front. And I'm up there talking about fucking Shelby Foot and Ken Williams and Civil War.

Speaker 1 And they had no idea, literally.

Speaker 1 Just some ogre walked out onto the stage and talked about Shelby Foote. They were probably scared.

Speaker 1 You literally referenced the Battle of Fredericksburg.

Speaker 1 Hey, so with such a

Speaker 1 drastic, like, are you happy with where you're at?

Speaker 1 Like, is this the current, like you find yourself at the top of your career in this particular field, which is drastically different than this other path that you thought you would be on?

Speaker 1 Like, have you, have you adapted? Like, are you digging it? Right.

Speaker 1 It's, I don't know. You guys probably know what it's like.
It's kind of uncomfortable.

Speaker 1 There's definitely some weird parts to it. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. It's pretty uncomfortable,

Speaker 1 you know, with the imposter syndrome and depression and all that. But,

Speaker 1 you know i just

Speaker 1 i just drink a lot so that helps yeah yeah that'll round the edges that really fucking makes things easier you know right but i get but like we all have we all have the option to just sort of get off the highway and like you know hide i guess um and you know everyone forgets about you after a few years anyway so we could find anonymity if we wanted it right um like did you have that did you have that moment i remember that when um you know you you take in your case, stand-up gigs or specials or whatever.

Speaker 1 In my case, it was a sitcom. And you.

Speaker 1 This guy.

Speaker 1 We love that show.

Speaker 1 It was then the first time that it started. I took it because it was a job, right? You audition.
You're just looking for a job. And then you have no idea what's going to happen.

Speaker 1 You just look at yourself and then you become famous. It's like

Speaker 1 by accident almost, right? You just kind of want to work as an actor. It's not like, I want to be famous.
I just want to work.

Speaker 1 And then it happens. And then in the moment, and I remember thinking, I'm like, oh, this is what,

Speaker 1 this is what I read about, I read about. This is what I watch TV and this happens.
So did that happen to you in that moment?

Speaker 1 Do you remember that moment where you're like, oh, shit, this is what it feels like to kind of become successful?

Speaker 1 Yeah, there's a couple. Yeah, there was definitely some moments along the way.
I mean, hosting SNL when I did that was, that was.

Speaker 1 That was one of those moments because I had gotten fired from the show before and I was like, oh, that's right. Yeah, I just wanted to

Speaker 1 yeah for the four days yeah

Speaker 1 oh my god really for four days yeah I remember seeing when when they announced that you were gonna host

Speaker 1 and it must have been kind of surreal considering the history you had yeah it was I don't know but you knew like it was like oh great we're gonna go through this again there was pressure because once they announced it everyone's like fuck him don't let him back that and it's like I was fine without it I was you know I I'm doing all right but uh yeah it was still awesome and I was so happy they let me back on and those people the everybody there has been they've been awesome but uh it was funny back to the original the question was uh those moments i was with my friend dan so he's a he's one of the best comedians super funny his name is dan soder he's unbelievably funny uh but he was like one of the first people to take me on the road and then he and i were doing a an arena we were doing like the cleveland cavaliers arena and i was standing in the tunnel before i went out there and i was i looked at him and i was like dude i really just wanted to do a one-nighter at the local comedy club.

Speaker 1 I thought that was the ceiling. I don't know what the fuck was that.
Fuck a lobby.

Speaker 1 I got here.

Speaker 1 Right. This is going, this has gotten out of hand.
Wow. And did you have, and so you have that moment before?

Speaker 1 And if you, do you still have moments on stage where it kind of out of body, where like you, you, you land a joke and the place is going crazy and you're standing, and I'm sure you're caught up in it, but you go, you look out, and there are literally tens of thousands of people

Speaker 1 of people laughing and going like, holy fuck. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Usually that happens when the joke doesn't land. Yeah.

Speaker 1 There's the silas even locking 20,000 silent people and you're standing there going, oh, that's much more powerful. Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's a real powerful moment. Well, you know, one of the interesting things about

Speaker 1 that I found in the, in the, in the, just the short amount of time that I did it, just in the small clubs over at the, in, at the underground and, and, um, at the, uh, the cellar rather, and at uh, and the one time in Austin is that,

Speaker 1 like I went, we went one night and we were working on something and we went to the cellar in that main room downstairs and it went great. We're like, holy shit, that really worked.

Speaker 1 And then we went around the corner to the underground 20 minutes later and it was like, pretty good. It was the same material.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And it was pretty good, right? It was a big room. And then we went to the

Speaker 1 fat black pussycat next door and it was

Speaker 1 absolutely bombed.

Speaker 1 And I remember at the time, my buddy Bradley was there and my buddy Bob, who you you met, and they're in the back and they're dying laughing because literally the same material that 30 minutes ago had killed,

Speaker 1 silence. Yeah, yeah.
It's, it's the best feeling in the world watching one of your friends bomb. There's nothing better.

Speaker 1 It's the most fun possible thing.

Speaker 1 But yeah, that happens. And it happens.
But what's crazy and that feeling was of uh which was what was like, oh, you're, it's just you. There's nowhere to hide.
You You can't do, you're just up there.

Speaker 1 You can't just go, you can't start crying and drop the microphone and run off stage. You know what I mean? Well, but

Speaker 1 talk about that, you guys.

Speaker 1 Because like, I think

Speaker 1 an actor can ruin a good script and they can also,

Speaker 1 you know, make a bad script good just based on performance, whether it's good performance or bad performance. Do you find that it's the same way with

Speaker 1 stand-up? Like in your case, Will, you had the same material, three different places.

Speaker 1 How much of it do you think it was the audience or was it you in the different way in which you were telling a joke?

Speaker 1 I don't know. I don't have enough experience to really answer that.
In that moment, I have to blame the audience just to maintain my self-esteem.

Speaker 1 But Shane, Shane, you have a lot more years of experience. I mean, what do you think it is? Like, are there bulletproof jokes, you know, that like any, you know,

Speaker 1 there should be, and you think you have one.

Speaker 1 Like, a good example is the cellar is a perfect example because it's like four different rooms.

Speaker 1 And so like I would do, there was one night I did the Village Underground, which is a great room downstairs.

Speaker 1 It's one of my favorite rooms in the country, but I killed. I was doing, it was crazy how, I couldn't believe how good it was.
And then I was on next upstairs.

Speaker 1 So I literally walked off stage and walked on stage upstairs. And in your head, you're like, oh, I just, you go on with the same confidence you just had momentum

Speaker 1 where you're like, this crowds, wait till they fucking see this. And then

Speaker 1 the first joke doesn't work, and you're just immediately crushed. And so it's kind of a mix of the crowd and you.
You went up there kind of fucking arrogant.

Speaker 1 And then as soon as they fucking shut you down, you're like, I just shut down completely. And then

Speaker 1 at the end of my set, I did like a fucking Trump joke, and they all laughed. And I was like, fuck you guys.
You guys hated me this whole time. You know, I just laugh now.
I hate you guys.

Speaker 1 We'll be right back.

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Speaker 1 And now back to the show.

Speaker 1 Are you doing any acting at all? Have you, how's that? Well, he's got his show. He's got a second season of his show, Tires, that he created.
Oh, great. Okay, gotcha.

Speaker 1 How do you like that where the words, you've got to fit the words as opposed to the words have to fit you when you're doing stand-up?

Speaker 1 I don't mind it.

Speaker 1 I really like acting, especially on tires, because that's just me and my friends. And

Speaker 1 it's all just our friends, so we can kind of fuck around. And you don't really have, you know, you can improv a little on that.
Gotcha.

Speaker 1 I do have some kind of real acting coming up in a couple weeks, and I'm pretty nervous about that. We'll see how that goes.
Oh, can you tell us what it is? Not that my show is not real.

Speaker 1 I don't know if I can tell you.

Speaker 1 Okay, no way.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 it's material that you haven't written and you can't improvise.

Speaker 1 So you've got to study these lines, learn these lines, and play your character in such a way where it makes sense that these lines come out of that mouth, right? I mean, like, it's a different.

Speaker 1 Yes, and it's a serious director. Yeah, it's scary.
Yeah. And it's with real actors, and that's the

Speaker 1 act. I'm not like shitting on my friends.
But yes, you are. Yeah, you are.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. And they just.
The first one's real. It's not that bullshit.

Speaker 1 What does your family think about, because you talk about your family sometimes in your stand-up

Speaker 1 and you're obviously really close to them.

Speaker 1 What's their reaction been to all of it? Are they like caught up in the whirlwind?

Speaker 1 Are they freaked out? Yeah,

Speaker 1 it took them a while.

Speaker 1 weren't on board for a long time. And then,

Speaker 1 especially early, like I did a YouTube special was like the first thing I put out. And in it, I talk about

Speaker 1 my sister

Speaker 1 and her addiction. They're like, I talk about my sister doing heroin on a YouTube special.
And she was like, what the fuck?

Speaker 1 Trust me. Trust me.
It's going to work for us. Just hang out.
Trust me, it's going to pay off for me.

Speaker 1 It's going to pay off. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Right. No, she got an apartment and a Chevy Cruz out of it.
She's all right. Okay, sure.
Chevy Cruz. There you go.

Speaker 1 How do you like life on the road? How do you like, you know, what is that like from a social standpoint? I'm sure you're not meeting a lot of new friends out there.

Speaker 1 You know, like what's dating like and all that kind of stuff? Were you married? I'm not married. I have a girlfriend.
She lives here with me in Austin.

Speaker 1 She comes on the road sometimes if it's if it's like a cool venue. Yeah.
She'll come. Like this weekend I'm going to tomorrow I got to go to Knoxville, Tennessee, and then Birmingham, Alabama.

Speaker 1 So I think she's going to sit this one out. Okay.

Speaker 1 She's not coming.

Speaker 1 How do you get your, how do you get, because when you're not in the mood, you know, you're set to go on at a certain time. It's kind of like Broadway or theater or whatever.

Speaker 1 It doesn't, you can't have a headache, you can't have a stomachache, you can't like, you have to go on, you have to deliver, right? So how do you, how do you get by that?

Speaker 1 Like, how do you prepare yourself? Yeah. If you're not salt feeling, and Jason also has a follow-up question for sure.
What happens when you have to take a shit, depending on what you eat?

Speaker 1 Jason, we'll get to that in a second. Because if you haven't emptied, you know, you got it.

Speaker 1 The shit goes away right away.

Speaker 1 The adrenaline, the adrenaline of the stand-up, the shit goes away. The headache goes away.

Speaker 1 The nausea, like, because I've done shows, a lot of shows hungover, and I've been like, oh, this is going to be terrible. And then as soon as you get on stage,

Speaker 1 it cures it. Yeah, yeah.
Isn't that interesting? Other than one, I had one show.

Speaker 1 I did Crypto Arena in LA, and it was, i did the forum the night before it was the best week ever i did the greek the night before then the forum then crypto wow it was incredible but after the forum uh i'm buddies with post malone and he came to the show we're hanging out and he's it's like 2 a.m after the show i have to do crypto in the morning but he was like do you want to come to my studio and listen to my new album and i was like yeah definitely

Speaker 1 So then he kept us there. We drank till like 6 a.m.
And the whole time I was looking at my watch like, oh shit. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So then I wake up, and it's, I wake up at like 4 p.m. The car is outside to take me to my next show.

Speaker 1 And I was like, all right, this, this hangover will go away. I've done this a million times.
The hangover just didn't go away on stage. And I kind of fucking bombed it crypto.
Oh, really? Oh, no.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it was like the biggest show of my life. Did you let the crowd know?

Speaker 1 They could see it. There was a jumbo drum in my head.

Speaker 1 They could see yours.

Speaker 1 They could smell it on the jumbo drum.

Speaker 1 They could smell light beer.

Speaker 1 So, Shane, do you have anything like, you know, for endurance when you perform on stage? Like, do you work out? Like, how do you keep up your energy?

Speaker 1 I literally just started a trainer. I'm on week two.
I got to go to that today. Good for you.
Yeah. I saw some photos and I was like, all right, it's time to.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 How do you like that, an appointment for working out?

Speaker 1 I need it. Otherwise, I would, you know, after this, I would go, well, that was tough.
That was a long day. I'm going to take a nap.

Speaker 1 Right. I'm kind of the same way.
Well, Sean, Sean, I was going to say, and Shane, I'll pose it to you too. You know, obviously,

Speaker 1 diet is such a huge thing, like the things that you put in. And Sean, Sean, we always say, Sean eats like he's going to a 12-year-old's birthday party every meal, every day.
It's true. It's true.

Speaker 1 Right, Sean? I mean,

Speaker 1 what did you have? What have you had so far today, if anything? Well, it's so so funny you say that. I did have a Pop-Tart, but then after, I'm just saying,

Speaker 1 I really did. But then I had a bowl, like I had yogurt with berries because I was like, I have to balance it with something.
You have to offset it.

Speaker 1 But my brain works in the way that, well, I did that so I can have spaghetti for lunch.

Speaker 1 Right. And do you have dessert at lunch?

Speaker 1 You do, you know?

Speaker 1 Sometimes I do. But JB, like, we'll play golf and he'll be like, hey, can I just get a couple slices of apples and a handful of nuts, please? And then that's all he'll eat.

Speaker 1 And this is, I'm not making it, I'm not even exaggerating. That's what he'll have.
And I said to him one time, I said, you know what?

Speaker 1 You're doing all this, eating nuts in the thing, and you're still, you're going to fucking die at 65, and I'm going to be standing at your bed, at your hospital bed, eating a Sunday with 30 years to go.

Speaker 1 You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 But I'll look nice and thin there in the box.

Speaker 1 Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1 Jesus Christ. Oh, he died without any water weight.
Look at him. Beautiful.
Shane, what do you think?

Speaker 1 So now you're going to go do this serious movie with these serious actors. And again,

Speaker 1 no offense to your buddies. Hopefully, yeah.
Hopefully. Right.
Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully. But

Speaker 1 is that for you?

Speaker 1 Is that the target for you? Is that what you want to do? Are you doing it just because you have opportunity and it's coming at you? Like, where do you see yourself?

Speaker 1 Do you have a plan for the next five years or are you just like, fuck it, whatever happens, happens? I think it's more fucked, whatever happens. I'd like to just kind of work with my friends.

Speaker 1 If i could the goal would probably be like the sandler sandler route which is just yeah putting out movies with me and my friends um

Speaker 1 and then stand-up i'll always stand up's always number one yeah just stick with that would you consider stand-up like

Speaker 1 your job and your hobby in a way like you just love doing it when you have time yeah for sure people are like yeah that's the only thing i do really people like what do you what do you what else do you do it's like that's kind of it that's it so your days are filled with maybe getting a going to to the gym with a trainer?

Speaker 1 Maybe go to the gym, buy the Xbox, then

Speaker 1 Samuel. Sure, sure, sure.
It's pretty pathetic.

Speaker 1 What's the current Xbox favorite?

Speaker 1 Right now,

Speaker 1 there's a game called Hell Let Loose that's

Speaker 1 pretty awesome. It's just a World War II.
What's it called? Hell Let Loose. Hell Let Loose.
Is there a headset involved with this?

Speaker 1 There is. People take it very seriously, which is pretty funny.
Like, guys, it's like...

Speaker 1 Are you playing multiplayer? Yeah, it's multiplayer, and guys take it very seriously. It's like a World War II, like simulation.
So, you know, there's no radar or anything.

Speaker 1 Like, it's uh, it's very funny. There's guys, like, you'll hear, you'll turn your headphone on, guys.
Will be like, I need ammo on this hill. Where are the materials?

Speaker 1 It's really funny.

Speaker 1 That sounds so crazy. And also, how do you spell that?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 No, the game rules. Who are your guys? Who are your? your, did you have stand-up idols, Shane?

Speaker 1 Or do you?

Speaker 1 Yeah, it was always Louis and Chappelle. Yeah,

Speaker 1 for sure. Was it surreal when you started doing it and then you started seeing those guys out in the world? Was that surreal as hell? Yeah.
Now I'm like, I'm friends with both of them. It's crazy.

Speaker 1 I was just in Ohio. I was just at Dave's house two weeks ago.
Wow. And

Speaker 1 he built a club and he basically owns the entire town.

Speaker 1 He does this thing where he brings in like mute like music to this small town like an hour outside of columbus ohio where like i was there a couple weeks ago and it was like wu-tang was there in a what tiny 200 seat room in an old firehouse in yellow springs ohio i mean it's crazy what he's doing that's amazing that's pretty old Do you ever want to do anything like that?

Speaker 1 Like

Speaker 1 as you go on to

Speaker 1 more and more? Or you want to do a hip-hop band? I don't think

Speaker 1 wu-tang good enough to build a town yeah i do want to be in wu-tang you're the best i don't smoke weed but i had to smoke

Speaker 1 no i mean wouldn't that be wouldn't that be cool i mean your your your star is rising so quickly and so great and so

Speaker 1 you know incredible that that you know do you ever aspire to be like those guys to have that kind of ability to do things like that i think that would require a lot of longevity and we'll see we'll see if i think you have it i think you have it you're not you're not really bullish on your on your on your future, on your mortality right now.

Speaker 1 It rose too fast. And now people are going to go, all right, that guy, the fucking Bud Light commercial guy, get him out of here.

Speaker 1 I fucking love. By the way, I love your Bud Light commercials.
I fucking,

Speaker 1 they're hilarious.

Speaker 1 I'm not fucking doing it. They're really funny.
Watch the one where you're standing behind the guy and they're asking him, and then you just start drinking. I'm like, this is funny.

Speaker 1 It's hard to make a funny commercial, man.

Speaker 1 It's a very short amount of time. That's a very tough medium.
Yeah. We know.
We do it too.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And you guys did great.
Oh, thanks. Yeah.
I don't know. You ever seen that dog shit one that Sean and Jason did? It was fucking terrible.
Well, listen, you know. Which one's that? Exactly.

Speaker 1 Which one's that? They've made so many dog shit commercials. You guys are very good.

Speaker 1 Jesus. I love you, Sean.

Speaker 1 I love you, JB. You're such a great work partner.
Oh, God. You guys are the fucking worst.
Shane, listen, man. You're such a great dude.
You're such a fucking funny dude.

Speaker 1 You've been so kind and generous to me personally, so I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 Thanks for coming to do this. We wish you all the best.
You got Tire Season 2 premieres June 2nd on Netflix.

Speaker 1 5th. June, sorry.
Is that right? June 5th. Yeah, good for you.
Thank you. Sorry about that.
June 5th. Now we got to say it a few times.
So June 5th

Speaker 1 on Netflix.

Speaker 1 You're on tour right now. You're touring internationally on fucking arenas.
You've got your podcast. You've got a tremendous amount of success.
Wish you continued success.

Speaker 1 You're a great dude and a hilarious guy. Shane Gillis, everybody.
I'm a big fan of all three of you guys. You guys are awesome.
Thank you. Thank you, Shane.
Becky. Thanks for being a singer.

Speaker 1 You're a great dude. Thanks, bro.

Speaker 1 Thank you.

Speaker 1 Shane Gillis. Super fun.
That guy's really funny. Yeah, he's got that real chill thing going on where it's just like, he's real, like, he's really cool.
He's really low temperature. Yeah, he is.

Speaker 1 He's really low temperature. He's really cool.

Speaker 1 Jamie, remember we watched a bunch of his beautiful dog special at New Year's? Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, he's got that really unique delivery

Speaker 1 that I find really,

Speaker 1 it pulls you into a stand-up where you kind of get into their rhythm. Like that's what I'm saying about Stephen Wright.
Like that guy just like, he's like Mike Myers in Halloween.

Speaker 1 You know, he always walks towards the victim and then he runs.

Speaker 1 Right, right, right. Yeah.
What a strange analogy, but you're kind of right.

Speaker 1 But he does. He pulls you in.

Speaker 1 He's great. I mean, I've always been, I've always thought he's like, yeah, he's like Al Pacino and Godfather 3, right? They just keep pulling you back in.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Did they make a third one?

Speaker 1 Godfather 3? Yeah, it's a joke.

Speaker 1 Because it didn't make a thunderbolt.

Speaker 1 Giuseppe loved that one.

Speaker 1 But Godfather, no.

Speaker 1 Where is number four?

Speaker 1 We'll be waiting on the number four.

Speaker 1 You guys, when you talk like that, you really sound like you speak two languages. Really? Like, what would you call that?

Speaker 1 What would that make us, Sean? Bilingual. Bilingual.

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