SNL's Continued Downward Spiral Thread

I was hoping Gillis would be good, which he was not.

But I've always been clear, I think it's dumb to hang a life-long tag on somebody for something stupid they tweeted when they were young. If someone is homophobic at 17, it is no sure thing that they are homophobic at 37.

And I thought it was an overreaction to rescind the casting offer.

As it turns out, he is kind of a one-trick pony, with that one trick being "I'm a goofy ex-jock." But that doesn't mitigate what I'm saying.

 

Full disclosure: I started doing open mics with Shane in Harrisburg in 2011 when he first started doing this. He's ridden in my car to shows and I've been in his. So I've had a front row seat for his progression from open mic guy to opening act, then doing feature work for people like Rich Vos when he came to town before ultimately moving on to Philadelphia and New York around 2017 where he got in front of the right people and took off. When the story came out that he was in trouble for his comments on that podcast many of us were shocked and felt it was like Al Capone going to jail on taxes, considering some of the other stuff we'd heard him say.

He's definitely where he is right now because of his ability to make connections with the right people (Big Jay Oakerson first and now Rogan) while also continuing to get out there and get on stage. I remember one Tuesday night there was an open mic in Reading when we were getting blasted with an ice storm. He texted me and asked if I was planning on going to the mic (we lived a mile from each other at the time) and I was like "Nah. Look at the ice. I'm out." Three hours later, I see posts from others that Shane's in Reading on stage. I think football gave him that mentality of needing to outwork everyone else.

All of this said, I don't know if he's polished or ready enough to be where he is. But that's not my decision to make.

 

Now, there's background.

 

"Making the right connections -- Big Jay Oakerson and Joe Rogan" feels like the kindest way possible to phrase that.

 

I'll also add this: every comedian in the last 20 years who has burned hot like this for a spell -- Mencia, Schumer, Dane Cook, Chelsea Handler, Whitney Cummings -- gets all of the jobs for a couple of years and then just vanishes. Hope he's saving just in case.

I also think his entire monologue was intentional. All of it was his way of saying, "If you think I'm going to backpedal on the words I was fired for using, forget it." His idol is Louis C.K. in case that wasn't obvious. He's also very much his dad's son.

Another Shane story to give you insight on how complex he can be (this came to me second hand from multiple people).

Summer of 2016, the local comedy club had a guy come in running "The World Series of Comedy," a traveling competition that ends with the finals in Las Vegas. There would be elimination rounds Weds through Friday with a championship on Saturday with the winners qualifying for Vegas (which they would have to pay to go to btw). They gave some of the local people free entry into the event, and Shane, me and a few others were given the spots. If you won Wednesday, you came back Thursday, etc. I was slated for the first night, meaning I'd have to do these four straight evenings to reach the finals, all for free by the way. So, already I'm questioning how committed I really am to doing this.

The creator tries to sell this as "valuable experience and networking!" and "a chance to be seen by the industry's biggest names!" In reality, it was a scam and bullshit and a quick view of the website would reveal that winning this thing had launched the career of literally no one. Now I'm really on the fence.

For four weeks, we received a daily email from this promoter on how great and important this event was and to make sure you are ON TIME for the pre-show meeting, that it was his BIGGEST pet peeve. Each of these emails was more arrogant and delusional than the next, to the point that I was beginning to dread even being a part of this. A few months earlier, I had started freelance writing again and the steady paycheck that came with that side hustle was much more rewarding than driving to New Jersey on a Saturday and fighting a crowd as an opening act so you could argue that I already had a foot out the door. Never one to shy away from self-sabotage and realizing this was comedy's version of the Cutco knives sales presentation, guess who arrived three minutes late for the preshow meeting...

I was of course scolded for this but, when I saw this competition drew a whopping 10 people to a room that sat 200, well, it all kind of spoke for itself. For perspective, the weekly open mic draws 75-100 on average. I had the best set out of about 25 people and didn't advance, then was reamed out by the promoter after for holding the microphone stand. "I don't like people who do that. You could damage the equipment." And thus closed any real interest I had in doing comedy professionally, because every city has a club owner like this.

Fast forward to Friday and Shane is on the show with another local guy, who was heckled nonstop by a member of the crowd. Our illustrious promoter did nothing to shut down the heckler or police the room whatsoever. So, Shane gets on stage and spends his entire act going in on this heckler until she leaves the room, drawing applause from the crowd, who also apparently was sick of this audience member and also sick of nothing being done about it.

Shane then looks around at this sparse crowd (keep in mind the club gave up a weekend of bringing in paid professionals that usually fill the room to do this) "so........World fuckin' Series huh?" and the place erupts. When he was done and walked off stage and told the promoter, "Look, I have a show tomorrow night with Vos in Baltimore so don't advance me," and leaves.

Soon after, I start getting text messages about what Gillis just did so I sent him one and said he might be my new hero. He replied, "hahaha That contest is a joke. he did nothing about *** being heckled and spent the whole preshow meeting bragging about eliminating you for holding the mic stand. F*** that guy."

He definitely marches to his own beat.

 

When your previous experience is doing unpaid gigs with the local hack radio DJ and $50 weekends in Williamsport, PA opening for a magician or a guy who bills himself as "the Amish Comic," which is just a regular comic who curses but he has a hat and a beard, getting in with Big Jay (which got him on SkankFest, which got him invited to Montreal Just for Laughs) and Rogan (and the audience exposure that comes from being on that meathead's podcast) is a golden ticket.

 

That brought back memories of a local club that hosted comedy nights on Mondays (I think...this was a while back), and a local DJ who was a bit full of himself fancied that he could do stand-up. He was a friend at the time, and I didn't laugh at his stuff. It was bad.

 

I worked at a newspaper with a guy who decided to try standup. He worked real hard at it and would run jokes and punchlines by us before testing them on stage.

I went to see him in a club and his act surprised me. He gave off a douchey bro vibe at work but while all the other comics on the bill were doing sex and fart jokes, he did real cerebral stuff.

He gave it a good run for awhile before giving up.

 

We have a local guy (Shottie will know him) that was the sidekick on the local rock station morning show for years that still does shows on the weekends at every VFW, fire hall, Elks and Moose in a 200 mile bubble. He's been doing the same exact act for 20 years, would rake in a couple grand cash and not pay his opening acts -- usually open micers getting their feet wet -- one nickel. Oh, and when these opening acts got to be good he dumped them because he didn't want competition on his own show.

 

I do indeed.

 

Yeah, I get that.

He also has the rep of a guy who got fired for being a racist/homophone and decided to lean into it hard, making a career out of being canceled and mocking minorities and the disabled in his act. He used the word "retarded" in his monologue, which is a calculated choice and one being celebrated by people with blue checks.

Big Jay Oakerson is a business partner and frequent pod guest of Gavin McInnes, founder of the Proud Boys.

I'm sure associating with Oakerson and Rogan pays better than opening for the Amish Comic. Not all money is good money.

 

I stay in contact with a couple of the guys and we all must feel like guys who played youth league ball with Dame Lillard feel watching this. We also ask ourselves if flirting with the hard right as he has is worth it. Here's another observation: from what I and others have seen, we don't think his dad has ever really been happy or even been proud of the guy. He was raised to be a division I football player and be a guy's guy like his MAGA dad. He quit West Point within a month and started doing comedy while finishing at West Chester. I think so much of this persona is to make Phil, who he frequently talks about, proud. "Look, dad. I met Trump. Look dad, they're talking about me on Fox News..."