"Shane Gillis"

This episode is brought to you by WhatsApp. If you're like me, your personal messaging is also your personal space, completely private. That's why it's nice to know that on WhatsApp, no one can see or hear your personal messages. So the calls with your mom, chats about the latest work drama, late night voice messages, and all those photos and videos of your dog. Every personal message stays private because no one, not even WhatsApp, can see or hear your personal messages. WhatsApp.

PIF is accelerating strategic growth, empowering a wide range of sectors and sparking new opportunities for all. That's the PIF effect. PIF. Invested in better. Summer and vacation are practically synonymous. So if you're listening to this while you're on vacation, good for you. But if you're listening to this while you're at home,

wishing you were somewhere else for a much needed mid-year break, go check out Airbnb. I've used Airbnb before. It's fantastic. Guess what? You get a whole house to yourself. You don't have to go to a hotel and have that awkward... pass through the halls with people you don't know every day. Hi, how are you? How are you? Good. I'm fine. How are you? It's a house. You just have to spend time with your family and yell at them in a house. It's great.

airbnb makes summer travel so much better because you can find places with pools outdoor barbecues proximity to beaches or lakes whatever you want to soak up during your summer is there for you and they're great for getting the whole squad together because you can find places with enough

privacy and bathrooms that you won't drive each other insane. Plus, with guest favorites, you're sure to find some homes that will blow the lid off what you think a summer home can be. It's finally summer, so get an Airbnb and start summering.

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. Just start yammering. Oh, man. Tax season this year really got me in knots. That's pretty good. Thanks, man. That's pretty good stuff. You think that's good? Wait till there's all new Smart List. Nice. Welcome to Smart List. Smart. Will, where are you? I'm at home now.

I know. Why did you switch places? Because I was at my office because they were doing work here. Oh, that's right. Oh, that's right. Remember the office, Sean? Yeah, that was extraordinary. Yeah, that lasted for just one recording. And now he's away from that work site. 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.

You think that you go to office. Hey, I'm actor. My new role is work. Again, I grew up, I did everything I could to not do that. Right. Yeah, yeah. You nailed it. You don't want to sit behind a desk. Yeah. Yeah. Right? That's my dad. I mean, God bless him. Yeah, we all, but we all sit behind desks during the day. Yes. I mean, you do, right? We did everything. Not well.

Not me. Will sits on the couch and he watches the Toronto Maple Leafs win. I sure do. That's all he does. Oh, look at that. I'll tell you who captures the camera real well is that Brendan Shanahan. He sure does. I like that guy. camera at him up in that power box. Yeah. He's stuck there looking like the boss he is. He's turned into a real silver fox, hasn't he? Yeah, Cameron loves him. By the way, he's going to call me and be like, what do you mean silver? You've got gray hair.

A silver fox in a power box. I know. How about the time that he tried to teach Sean? Sean asked Shani when he was in town last year to teach him how to fight at the Beverly Hills Hotel out the back door. And Sean went at him. And Shani's like, okay, well, what? And Shani's...

laughing. In two seconds, he got me in a headlock. And Sean was saying, wait, aren't you supposed to take this off me? Isn't the shirt supposed to come off? I thought it was 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, Sean, that hurts. Now you're on board. Thank you, Sean. In high school, didn't it freak you out or junior high when the coach would say, okay, we're going to do shirts. and skins and like in basketball. I didn't want to take my shirt off. I was always afraid of that. It's traumatizing. Why do they do that to kids? And then they made us take showers at like 12, 13 years old. I'm like, I don't want to do that.

I know. It's so... Will likes walking around with his kid off, just kind of... shaking his junk all over the place. I never went to, I never stepped foot into a gym until I was about 24. So I was never like- Oh, really? Yeah, ever. Yeah, but you played sports. I played 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 went to boarding school. Yeah, it's so like I can't. Yeah, 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 and um not a sports camp no huh hang on let me just let me just adjust everything i know about you 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, and it was so awful. Sean, when I was in seventh grade, age 12, I went from living with my folks to a place where they had four showers per side in a big, huge open room with no... divider yeah that's weird yeah torture yeah it's awful it was and by the way that by the time I got in the camp thing and by the time I got up there that all the hot water was gone so I take it I was taking a cold shower

And I couldn't breathe because it was so cold. If I'm being honest, you probably needed it. You're showering with all those dudes. I mean, that probably helped. Just get things. Get things back to normal. Anything to calm me down. Oh, my God. What, you got some electrolytes going there, Sean, this morning? I do, yeah. What happened to the milk? Is the cow dead? No, I had milk already. Are you chasing it with some electrolytes? Good luck on the toy toy. What are you...

Jesus, you're so obsessed with people's bowel movements. Well, he's creating a bomb. That electrolyte is going to cut right through that milk like a knife. Is it really? Yeah. Is it really? Yeah, dude. Whenever I see people eating, I'm not thinking.

For a toilet within the next 60 minutes. Well, let's wrap this up. Whenever I see people eat, I'm never thinking about, man, that's really going to come back to haunt them on the toilet. It just doesn't occur to me. You know, when I see clips of that hot sauce talk show, That's all I think about. I know. Same. Same. You got your mind? No, they should do it from a toilet. Yeah.

You won't catch me on that show. No, of course not. Not once. No, no, no, of course you won't. Whose guest is it? Do you have a narcoleptic guest or something, Will? No, no, no. Let's get to it. Well, he's a great guest, and I was about to get to it, and then I was thinking about, you're talking about shit.

Shitting everywhere. But 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 laugh. That's another word for it. He has been... Ron Jeremy on Smart... 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. He's been very generous as I was going through the process on our film. And he is...

just been his specials have been unbelievably well received he's maybe the biggest touring comic out there his new his show tires is about to start second season on june 5th he's a great writer he's this incredible stand-up he's the funniest dude Guys, it's Shane Gillis. Shane Gillis. You're on Smartless. Good morning. There he is. I love you. This is so cool. Easy, easy. Yeah, so funny.

Hi, Shane. Where do we find you today? Are we 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. Hot already? I don't love it. I don't love it. Yeah, it's hot. It's been hot. It's gonna be hot until December. Wow. It's one of the worst places I've ever lived. Do you ever jump in that river that they call a lake and cool off a little bit?

Yeah, that's very nice. Why do they call it a lake? I'm not sure. It snakes around like a river, right? 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. I didn't know that either. Is that something that happens down there? Yeah, it's just the Colorado River. Yeah. And it doesn't even look like a lake. It's just a river. There's just nothing lake about it.

at all. You could throw a rock across it. Wait, so Shane, you live there by choice? I mean, it sounds like you hate it. It sounds like being forced. Is there somebody off camera with a gun? Yeah, Joe Rogan. He's right here. He's got a gun to my head. He's down there. Right? 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 you can evade some taxes.

Do stand-up here. He was a stand-up, right? And then I remember he was on one of the greatest shows ever, news radio. So he was an actor for a minute, right? But he did start a stand-up, didn't he? He's still, I mean, he's done stand-up the entire time. And remember Fear Factor? He did Fear Factor. Oh, that's right. I used to watch that. Fear Factor. So Shane, I first met Shane at Joe's Club in Austin. Oh, no way.

Yeah, I went down there, and he was kind enough and gracious enough to let me twice have like 10 minutes of his time on stage. All right, Shane, give us a review on Will. No, you don't have to. Yeah, no, I want to hear it right now. No, it's going to be... Will doesn't want to hear it because it's flattering. Well, that's what I...

I thought I was like, so they asked me to help write on this, write some for the movie. 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. 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 so naturally funny right away. I was in the back of the room like, God damn it. He does have – Will, you do have that natural – And I mean, not as a pejorative, the sort of this ham gene, right? Like you are comfortable with the spotlight on you. You're comfortable giving a toast. You're comfortable. And I don't have that. I just don't.

don't like the spotlight on me i don't like a lot of attention will you're comfortable with it and it puts puts the audience at ease yes and it's a it's a talent it's a gift it's talent shane you have it too oh well shane shane's got here's the difference i i i hemmed my way in

hawed my way through it. Shane getting up there is so... natural and good and I know you've been working on it and you've crafted it but you've got it 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 you, I don't know, you kind of like...

you don't really like take sides. You kind of like, 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 a skill, right? Like that's, to be able to do that, that's something you kind of work on? I mean, I think it's...

Kind of, I mean, yeah, it's a skill, I guess, but it's also like, that's kind of how I feel most of the time, you know? Like, 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. I don't know. I mean, unless it's like a glaring thing that you should support. Whatever. But I want to go back to the Austin thing. So the first show we went up and it was fine.

The second show we did like an hour later, it was great. And it was really frustrating. How good you were at it. Oh, with Will, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he was reading a script and it was still funny. He's using your material, though. No, he wasn't. 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 was Will's style? Was he like telling stories or was he kind of going joke to joke to joke?

It was more storytelling, but it was exactly how I like the stand-up. It was stories with jokes. jokes within it, which was... Do you remember any of it, Willie? Or have you deleted the files? Can you give us a taste? 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're working on it. So it's various stages of...

Yeah, because we didn't say it. This is the film that you just shot and that's coming out later this year. What's it called, Will? The film? Is This Thing On. Is This Thing On. Yeah. Is This Thing On. We can get that at a later date when I'm the guest on the show. Yeah. All right. Are you going to...

Oh, sorry. No, go ahead, Shane. Sorry. 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, and Will's playing a character on stage. 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. Oh, really? That's great. You idiot. He did. 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, Like Shane said, he was like, ah, it sounds really rough. And I just kind of answered him as if it was all real. And he's like, hang in there, buddy. Yeah, yeah. And we will be right back.

PIF is accelerating strategic growth, empowering a wide range of sectors, and sparking new opportunities for all. That's the PIF effect. PIF. Invested in better. And now, back to the show. Wait, Shane, so 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. Like, do you ever get out of that? Or 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, I should be like that, and I'm not. Okay, great. I got to work on that. I got to go back to only thinking about stand-up. Okay, for real?

Yeah, I mean, otherwise, I don't know. You feel like you're not coming up with any new material. Well, then how do you do what you do? Do you set aside some time to really focus on work? No, 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. Wow.

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, 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. But 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 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 to do a Netflix special, like, you know, are you... Is that something... Like that they set the date for and they go, hey man, we need you to deliver this special by this date. And so then that's when you kind of hone in and start working on actual stuff or? I think they do that sometimes. I told them I didn't really, I wouldn't want a date on it. Maybe 2026. Right now I'm doing arenas, and I don't think the best way to work an hour out is in an arena.

Because it's just different. I don't know. I think I'll do arenas for maybe 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. I don't want to rush it as special.

When did you start? 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. Yeah, that's my favorite. When you guys get in the van together and all that stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. and your cousins and your family. You've just got such great, rich stuff. What was the first moment? This is like the question, like, how did you start in comedy? 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. 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 one of the cooks was like, I'm going to go do open mic at the Harrisburg Comedy Zone tonight. And I was like, oh, you can just do stand-up? And he was like, yeah. 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.

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 up there and couldn't talk. It was crazy how bad it was. 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 was there, were you, were you, were you studying to do anything, anything else? Like, was it, was this always the career plan or were you, did this, did this derail something? Something else? No, it wasn't really great. I was at Westchester University in Pennsylvania. I was studying to become a history teacher. Oh, yeah. Wow.

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

I was like, all right, man. I kind of took it to heart. Were you done with your set yet? Yeah, exactly. I swear to God it was in between shows. I still had another set.

I had to go up there like, this might be it. This is my retirement. You know who loves history? Our host, Will Arnett, specifically World War II history, what's your favorite? You like the European or the American? He knows it all, man. Right, Shane? You know it all. Well, I don't know. I like World War II. I like American Civil War. It's great. Yeah, right. Have you seen both the Civil War documentary and the World War II documentary that Ken Burns did? I love them both. 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. I remember, what did you say about the Ken Burns documentary? You said that it's literally kryptonite for women.

Yeah. If you put it on, they're going to fall asleep. I remember you used to talk, 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... 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. It was recent, right?

Yeah, every time my monologue doesn't go great on SNL. I'm 0 for 2 on those things. I loved it. I loved it, too. Look, I like it, and I'm having fun up there. But it was... Tate McRae was the musical guest, so the audience was like 20-year-old. Yeah. Chicks just in the front, and I'm up there talking about fucking Shelby Foote and Ken Burns in Civil War. And they had no idea, literally. Just some ogre walked out onto the stage and talked about Shelby Foote. They were probably scared.

You literally referenced the Battle of Fredericksburg. Shrek. Hey, so with such a drastic, like... Are you happy with where you're at? 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. Have you adapted? I don't know. You guys probably know what it's like. It's kind of uncomfortable.

There's definitely some weird parts to it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's pretty uncomfortable, you know, with the imposter syndrome and depression and all that, but... You know, I just... I just drink a lot, so that helps. Yeah, that'll round the edges. That really fucking makes things easier, you know, when you wake up and go, oh, fuck. We all have the option to just sort of... get off the highway and like, you know, hide.

I guess. And, you know, everyone forgets about you after a few years anyway. So we could find anonymity if we wanted it. Right. Like, did you have that moment? I remember that when, you know, you take... in your case, stand-up gigs or specials or whatever. In my case, it was a sitcom. And you... This guy! We love that show!

It was, and 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. You're just looking to feed yourself and then you become... famous it's like right and 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 yeah and then it happens and then in the moment and i remember thinking i'm like oh this is what 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? Do you remember that moment where you're like, oh shit, this is what it feels like to kind of become successful. Yeah, there was definitely some moments along the way. I mean, hosting SNL when I did that, that was one of those moments because I had gotten fired from the show before and I was like, I just wanted to do it.

Yeah, for four days. Yeah. Oh, my God, really? For four days? Yeah, I remember seeing when they announced that you were going to host, and it must have been kind of surreal considering the history you had. Yeah. It was, I don't know, but it was like, oh, great, we're going to 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'm doing all right.

It was still awesome. And I was so happy they let me back on. And those people, everybody there has been, they've been awesome. But it was funny. Back to the original, the question was those moments. I was with my friend. Dan Soder. He's one of the best comedians. Super funny dude. His name is Dan Soder. He's unbelievably funny. But he was like one of the first people to take me on the road. And then he and I were doing an arena. We were doing like the Cleveland Cavaliers arena.

And I was standing in the tunnel before I went out there, and I looked at him, and I was like, dude, I really just wanted to do a one-nighter at the local comedy club. I thought that was the ceiling. I don't know what the fuck this is. Hotel lobby would be nice. I don't know how I got here. Right. This has gotten out of hand.

Wow, and did you have, and so you have that moment before, and do you still have moments on stage where kind of out of body, where like 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, lookout and there are literally tens of thousand people of people laughing and going like holy fuck yeah usually that happens when the joke doesn't land yeah silence is even louder

20,000 silent people, and you're standing there going, oh, fuck. That's much more powerful, yeah. That's a real powerful moment. Well, you know, one of the interesting things that I found in just the short amount of time that I did it, it's in the small clubs over at the underground, at the cellar rather, and the one time in Austin is that...

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

fat black pussycat next door, and it was absolutely bombed. And I remember at the time, Bradley was there and my buddy Bob, who you met, and they were in the back, and they were dying laughing because literally... the same material that 30 minutes ago had killed? Silence. Yeah, yeah. It's the best feeling in the world watching one of your friends bomb.

There's nothing better. It's the most fun possible thing. But yeah, that happens. And it happens. But what's crazy in that feeling was, which was like, oh, you're... It's just you. There's nowhere to hide. You can't, you're just up there. You can't just go, you can't start crying and drop the microphone and run off stage. You know what I mean? You could. Talk about that, you guys.

I think an actor can ruin a good script and they can also 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... With stand-up, like in your case, Will, you had the same material, three different places.

How much of it do you think was the audience or was it you in the different way in which you were telling a joke? I don't have enough experience to really answer that. In that moment, I have to blame the audience just to maintain myself. theme but but but Shane Shane you have a lot more years of experience I mean what do you what do you think it is like are there bulletproof jokes you know that like any you know get them back there should be and you think you you have one

Like a good example, the cellar is a perfect example because it's like four different rooms. And so like I would do, there was one night I did the Village Underground, which is a great room downstairs. It's one of my favorite rooms in the country. I killed. I was doing, it was crazy how, I couldn't believe how good it was. And then I was on Next upstairs. 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 for killing, where you're like, this crowd, wait till they fucking see this. 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. And then as soon as they fucking shut you down, you're like, I just shut down completely. And then...

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 don't get to laugh now. I hate you guys. We'll be right back. PIF is accelerating strategic growth, empowering a wide range of sectors, and sparking new opportunities for all. That's the PIF effect. PIF, invested in better. And now, back to the show.

Are you doing any acting at all? 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. 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. I don't mind it. I really like acting, especially on tires, because that's just me and my friends, and 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. 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.

I don't know if I can tell you, so... Okay, no worries. But it's material that you haven't written and you can't improvise, 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... Yes, and it's a serious director. Yeah, it's scary. Yeah. And it's with real actors, and that's going to be... Yeah.

Oh, boy. I mean, not relaxed. I'm not, like, shitting on my friends. But yes, you are. Yeah, you are. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they deserve it. No, this one's real. It's not that bullshit. What does your family think about... because you talk about your family sometimes in your stand-up, and you're obviously really close to them. What's their reaction been to all of it? Are they caught up in the whirlwind? Are they freaked out? Yeah, it took them...

It took them a while. Yeah, they weren't on board for a long time. And then, especially early, I did a YouTube special. It was the first thing I put out. And in it, I talk about my sister. And her addiction, I talk about my sister doing heroin on a YouTube special, and she was like, what the fuck? I was like, trust me. Trust me, it's going to work for us. Just hang on. Trust me, it's going to pay off for me. It's going to pay off for me.

No, she got an apartment and a Chevy Cruze out of it. She's all right. Okay, sure, sure. Chevy Cruze, there you go. 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. 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. She comes on the road sometimes if it's like a cool venue.

She'll come. Like this weekend, I'm going to... Tomorrow I got to go to Knoxville, Tennessee, and then Birmingham, Alabama. So I think she's going to sit this one out. Okay. She's not going. How do you get your... Because when you're not in the mood...

You're set to go on at a certain time. It's kind of like Broadway or theater or whatever. You can't have a headache. You can't have a stomachache. You have to go on. You have to deliver, right? So how do you get by that? How do you prepare yourself if you're not 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? Jason, we'll get to that in a second. Because if you haven't emptied, you know... The shit goes away, right away. The adrenaline... The adrenaline of the stand-up, the shit goes away. The headache goes away. 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, it cures it.

Yeah, yeah. Isn't that interesting? Other than one, I had one show. 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, I'm buddies with Post Malone, and he came to the show. We're hanging out.

And 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. 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. 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. 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 the crypto. Oh, really? No, no. Yeah, it was like the biggest show of my life. Did you let the crowd know? They could see it. There's a jumbo drone on my face. They could see it.

They can smell it on the jumbo drive. They can smell light beer. 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? I literally just started a trainer. I'm on week two. I got to go to that today. Good for you. I saw some photos and I was like, all right, it's time to. Yeah. How do you like that, an appointment for working out? 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. Right. I'm kind of the same way. Well, Sean, I was going to say, and Shane, I'll pose it to you too. You know, obviously... Diet is such a huge thing, like the things that you put in. And 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. Right, Sean? Yeah, yeah, it's true. What did you have?

you had so far today, if anything? Well, it's so funny you say that. I did have a Pop-Tart, but then after, I'm just saying. 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. But then like, but my brain works in the way that like, well, I did that so I can have spaghetti for lunch.

Right. And do you have dessert at lunch? You do, don't you? 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. And this is, I'm not making, I'm not even.

Exaggerating. That's what it'll have. And I said to him one time, I said, you know what? You're doing all this, eating nuts and the thing, and you're still, you're going to fucking die at 65 and I'm going to be standing at your hospital bed eating a sundae with 30 years to go. You know what I mean? But I'll look nice and thin there in the box. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. He died without any water weight. Look at him. Beautiful.

Shane, what do you think? So now you're going to go do this serious movie with these serious actors. And again, no offense to your buddies. Hopefully, yeah. Hopefully. Right. Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully. But... Is that for you? 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? 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, fuck it, whatever happens. I'd like to just kind of work with my friends. If I could, the goal would probably be the Sandler route, which is just putting out movies with me and my friends.

And then stand-up. Stand-up's always number one. Just stick with that. Would you consider stand-up like 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 are like, what else do you do? It's like, no, that's kind of it. That's it. So your days are filled with maybe going to the gym with a trainer. Maybe go to the gym.

A lot of Xbox than standard. Pretty pathetic. What's the current Xbox favorite? Right now, there's a game called Hell That Loose that's... It's 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? There is. People take it very seriously, which is pretty funny. Like, guys, it's like... Are you playing multiplayer?

Yeah, it's multiplayer, and guys take it very seriously. It's like a World War II simulation, so there's no radar or anything. It's very funny. There's guys, like, you'll turn your headphone on, guys will be like, I need ammo on this hill, where the fuck are you? It's pretty funny. It's really funny. That sounds so crazy, and also, how do you spell that? No, the game rules. Who are your guys? Did you have stand-up idols, Shane? Or do you? Yeah, it was always Louis and Chappelle. Yeah, 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 friends with both of them. It's crazy. I was just in Ohio. I was just at Dave's house two weeks ago. Wow. And he built a club and he basically owns the entire town. He does this thing where he brings in 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. 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 cool. Do you ever want to do anything like that? As you go on to see more and more? Do you want to do a hip-hop band? I don't think I'm good enough to build a town. I do want to be in Wu-Tang. I don't smoke weed, but I had to smoke weed.

No, I mean, wouldn't that be cool? I mean, your star is rising so quickly and so great and so, you know, incredible. 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. I think you'll have it. You're not really bullish on your future, on your mortality right now. 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. I fucking love, by the way, I love your Bud Light commercials. I fucking, they're hilarious. I like them. I'm not fucking joking. They're really funny. What's the one where you're standing behind the guy and they're, asking and then you just start drinking. I'm like, this is funny. It's hard to make a funny commercial, man. It's a very short amount of time that's a very tough medium. We know. We do it too. And you guys did great.

Oh, thanks. 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. Which one's that? They made so many dog shit commercials. Jesus. I love you, Sean. I love you, JV.

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. You've been so kind and generous to me personally, so I appreciate it. Thanks for coming to do this. We wish you all the best. You got tired. Season 2 premieres June 2nd on Netflix. 5th.

June 5th. 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 on Netflix. 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. You're a great dude, hilarious guy. Shane Gillis, everybody. I'm a big fan. Big fan of all three of you guys. You guys are awesome. Thank you. Thank you, Shane. Back at you. Thanks for being here. Thank you for being here. Great dude. Thanks, bro. Thank you. 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 just a cool guy. He's really low temperature. Yeah, he is. He's really low temperature. He's really cool. 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 that I find really...

It pulls you into a stand-up where you kind of get into their rhythm. That's what I'm saying about Stephen Wright. That guy, he's like Mike Myers in Halloween. He always walks towards a victim, never runs. Right, right, right, yeah. What a strange analogy, but you're kind of right. But he does. He pulls you in. He's great. I mean, I've always thought he was so funny. He's like Al Pacino in Godfather 3, right? They just keep pulling you back in. You know what I mean?

Godfather 3? Did they make a third one? Godfather 3? Yeah, it's a joke. They keep pulling you back! I love this line. Giuseppe loved that one. I love a godfather. Where is number four? We're waiting on the number four. Cuatro. You guys, when you talk like that, you really sound like you speak two languages. Really? What would you call that? What would that make us, Sean? Bilingual. Bilingual. Smart.

Smartless is 100% organic and artisanally handcrafted by Bennett Barbaco, Michael Grant Terry, and Rob Armjarf. Smartless. PIF is accelerating strategic growth, empowering a wide range of sectors, and sparking new opportunities for all. That's the PIF effect. PIF. Invested in better.