Transcript

Shane Gillis | SmartLess

From SmartLess · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 41 min · 8,335 words · 58 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Shane Gillis | SmartLess", an episode of SmartLess published May 26, 2025 (41 min, about 8,335 words). It mentions 49 people, works and ideas, including SmartLess, Shane Gillis, Ken Burns, The Civil War (Ken Burns documentary), Brendan Shanahan.

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Beverly Hills Hotel, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, Brendan Shanahan, Michigan
  2. – 10:00: Colorado River, Fear Factor, Shane Gillis, SmartLess
  3. – 20:00: Ken Burns, American Civil War, Harrisburg Comedy Zone, Mars, Pennsylvania
  4. – 25:00: Cleveland Cavaliers, Dan Soder, Fat Black Pussycat
  5. – 30:00: Knoxville, Tennessee, Village Underground
  6. – 35:00: Hell Let Loose, Post Malone, Sandler route, The Forum
  7. – 40:00: Columbus, Ohio, Curtis Wayne Wright, Mike Myers, Shane Gillis
  8. – 40:36: SmartLess

Notable quotes from "Shane Gillis | SmartLess"

  • That's all he does. Oh, look at that. I tell you who I tell you who captures the camera real well is that Brendan Shanahan. He sure does. when they point that camera at him up in that power box.
    about Brendan Shanahan · at
  • To camp once. I think I said this. And we had to line up outside a music camp, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan. And not a sports camp. No.
    about Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp · at
  • The funniest dude. Guys, it's Shane Gillis. Shane Gillis here on Smartless. Good morning. Where is There he is. Hello. I love you. This is I This is so cool.
    about SmartLess · at
  • 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 I didn't know that either. Yeah. Is that something that happens down there?
    about Colorado River · at
  • Did start standup, didn't he? He's he's still I mean he's done stand up the entire time. And remember Fear Factor?
    about Fear Factor · at
  • Then one of the one of the cooks was I'm going to go to open mic at the Harrisburg Comedy Zone tonight. And I was Oh, you can just do standup. And he was Yeah. So, I went and I watched and I thought everyone sucked and I was I can do.
    about Harrisburg Comedy Zone · at
  • It was a hotel in 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 What are you doing with.
    about Pittsburgh · at
  • You seen Have you seen both the Civil War documentary and the World War II documentary that Ken Burns did? I love them. I love them both. They're Yeah. Yeah. I like the Civil War one I like better. It's so powerful.
    about Ken Burns · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Shane Gillis — Person · 2 mentions · first at
    Writer. He's a incredible standup. He's the funniest dude. Guys, it's Shane Gillis. Shane Gillis here on Smartless. Good morning. Where is There he is. Hello. I love you. This is I This is so cool.
  • Ken Burns — Person · 2 mentions · first at
  • Brendan Shanahan — Person · 1 mention · first at
  • Dan Soder — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Funny back to the original the question was those moments I was with my friend Dan Soder. He's a he's one of the best comedians. His name is Dan Soder. He's unbelievably funny.…
  • Post Malone — Person · 1 mention · first at
    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 he's It's like 2:00 a.m. after…
  • Curtis Wayne Wright — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Into a standup where they just you kind of get into their rhythm. Like that's what I'm saying about Stephen Wright.
  • Mike Myers — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Like that guy just like he's like Mike Myers in Halloween, you know? He always walks towards the victim, never runs, you know? Right. Right. Right. Yeah.
  • Adam Sandler — Person · 1 mention
  • Jason Bateman — Person · 1 mention
  • Sean Hayes — Person · 1 mention
  • Shelby Foote — Person · 1 mention
  • Tate McRae — Person · 1 mention
  • Will Arnett — Person · 1 mention

Books & papers

Companies & orgs

Products & tech

  • SmartLess — Product · 3 mentions · first at
  • Fear Factor — Product · 1 mention · first at
  • Hell Let Loose — Product · 1 mention · first at
    Pathetic. What's the current What's the current e Xbox favorite? right now I There's a game called Hell Let Loose. That's it's pretty awesome.
  • Beautiful Dogs — Product · 1 mention
  • Chevy Cruze — Product · 1 mention
  • Pop-Tarts — Product · 1 mention
  • Xbox — Product · 1 mention

Concepts & topics

  • American Civil War — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Knows it all, man. He Right, Shane. You know it all. I Well, I don't know. I like World War II. I like American Civil War is great. Yeah. Right. Have you seen Have you seen…
  • Sandler route — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    The goal would probably be like the Sandler route, which is just Yeah. putting out movies with me and my friends. and then standup. I'll always standup's always number one.

Places & events

  • Beverly Hills Hotel — Place · 1 mention · first at
    Asked Shanny when he was in town last year to teach him how to fight at the Beverly Hills Hotel out the back door and Shawn went at him. Shann's Okay, well, what? And Shanny's…
  • Michigan — Place · 1 mention · first at
    And we had to line up outside a music camp, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan. And not a sports camp. No.
  • Colorado River — Place · 1 mention · first at
  • Pittsburgh — Place · 1 mention · first at
  • Mars, Pennsylvania — Place · 1 mention · first at
    It was a hotel in 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 What are you doing with your life? And I was I'm a.
  • Knoxville, Tennessee — Place · 1 mention · first at
    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'm I think she's going to sit this one out. Okay.
  • The Forum — Place · 1 mention · first at
    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.
  • Columbus, Ohio — Place · 1 mention · first at
    He does this thing where he brings in like mu 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…
  • Yellow Springs, Ohio — Place · 1 mention · first at
    Ago and it was like Wuang was there in a what tiny 200 seat room in an old firehouse in Yellow Springs, Ohio. it's crazy what he's doing. That's amazing. That's pretty cool. Do…
  • Crypto.com Arena — Place · 1 mention
  • Ohio — Place · 1 mention
  • The Greek Theatre — Place · 1 mention

Full transcript with timestamps

You know what the key is with these cold opens? You just start talking and stuff just tumbles out of the mouth that's halfway interesting. Go ahead, Will. Give it Give it a shot. Just start just start yammering. Oh man, tax season this year really got me in knots. But that's pretty good. Thanks, man. That's pretty good stuff. Um, you think that's good? Wait till this all new Smart List. Nice. Welcome to smart list. Smartless. Smartless. Smart less. Will, where are you? I'm at home now. I know. Why did you switch places? Because I was at my office cuz 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. Um, and now he's uh away from that that 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 that you think that you go to office, hey, I'm actor. I'm my new role is work. Look at I grew up. I did everything I could to not do that, right? You know what I mean? 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 Will. Not me. Will sits on the couch and he watches the Toronto Maple Leaves win. Sure do.

That's all he does. Oh, look at that. I tell you who uh I tell you who captures the camera real well is that Brendan Shanahan. He sure does. You know, when they when they when they when they point that camera at him up in that power box. Yeah. Oh, he's stuck there looking like looking like the fox. He's turned into a real silver fox, hasn't he? Yeah. Camera loves him. By the way, by the way, he's going to he's going to call me and be like, "What do you mean silver?" "You've got gray hair." Fox. A silver fox in a power box. I know. How about the time that uh he tried to teach Sean? 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 and Shawn went at him. Shann's like, "Okay, well, what?" And and Shanny's laughing. Two seconds. Yeah. In two seconds got me a headlight. Yeah. 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 shorts against skins. I thought we're doing shirts and skins. I'm always with skins. By the way, in high school, didn't you fear? Well, hey, Will. In high school, thank you, Sean. That 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 going to do shirts and skins." And like in basketball, 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 why do they do that to kids? And then they made us take showers and 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 junk all over the place. I never went to I I never stepped foot into a into a gym until I was about 24. So I was never like in Yeah. ever. Did you play sports? But I played sports, but I was I I just never And then but I went to boarding school. So I I had to take showers, you know, starting at age 12 when I went to boarding school. 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 and we had to line up 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 hard. Sean, when I was when I was in seventh grade, age 12, I went from living with my folks to a place where they had uh uh uh four showers per side in a big huge open room with no divider. Yeah, that's weird. Torture. Yeah, it's awful. 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 I take I was taking a cold showers and I couldn't breathe.

Well, you if I'm being honest, you probably needed it. You're showering with all those dudes. I mean, that probably helped. Just get things back to normal. Anything to calm me down? Yeah. Oh my god. What? You got some electrolytes going there, Sean, this morning? I do. What happened to the milk? The is the cow dead? No, I had milk already. Oh, you're chasing it with some electrolytes. Good luck on the toy toy. What are you Jesus? You're so obsessed. Oh my god. People's 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? Yeah. Is it really? Yeah, dude.

Whenever I see people eating yourself over a toilet within the next 60 minutes, I never think this 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 people doing. Same. You out of your mind. You know, they should do it from a toilet. Oh, yeah. You won't catch me on that show. No, of course not. Not once. No, no, no. Of course you will. Whose guest is it today? Narcoleptic guest or something.

Will No, no, no. Well, he's he's a great guest and I was I was about to get to it and then I was thinking about you talking about [ __ ] everywhere, but uh our guest uh the only thing he he hasn't [ __ ] everywhere. All he's done is he's scored everywhere. This guy has been making everybody laugh. He has been un he's been making people [ __ ] themselves. He makes me [ __ ] myself laughing. He's so [ __ ] funny. He's such a great dude. Uh 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 uh on our film and he uh he has just been his specials have been unbelievably wellreceived. 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 a incredible standup. He's the funniest dude. Guys, it's Shane Gillis. Ah Shane Gillis here on

Smartless. Good morning. Where is There he is. Hello. I I love you. This is I This is so cool. Yeah. So funny. Hi, Shane. Hi, Shane. Where do we find you today? Are you 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 uh humid a lot. Hot already. Oh, [ __ ] 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. It's It's the one of the worst places I've ever lived. I Do you ever do you ever do you ever jump in that river that they call a lake and and cool off a little bit? Yeah. Yeah. That's very nice. Why do they call it a lake? It does 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. Is that I didn't know that either. Yeah. Is that something that happens down there? That's just the Colorado River. Yeah. And it doesn't even look like a lake. It's just a river. Yeah. There's nothing lake about it at all. You could throw a rock across it. Wait, so Shane, do you is it you live there by choice? I mean, like you it sounds like you hate it. So it sounds like you're being forced. Like is there somebody off camera with a gun?

Yeah. Joe Rogan. He's right here. He's got a gun to my He's down there, right? Uh yeah, he's down here. And he opened a club here. And it was either for a comedian, it's either New York, LA, or that was always the only two options. And then he opened a club here. So you can, you know, that's great. You can evade some taxes and do stand up here. He was a standup, right? And then I remember he was on a the one of the greatest shows ever, news radio. So he was an actor for a minute, right? But he did start standup, didn't he? He's 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. Did Fear Factor. So So Shane So Shane uh I 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 have uh twice have like 10 minutes of his time on stage. All right, Shane, give us a review on Will. No, he doesn't have to. Yeah. No, I want to hear it, right? No, it's going to be Will doesn't want to hear it cuz it's flattering. Well, that's what I thought. I was like, so they asked me to help write on this uh write some for the movie and I was like, if I write any material that's good, I I need to You're going to keep it cuz I have nothing. Sure. So, so I was like, the only way to do it is uh just to actually do standup. So, he came down and we did stand up and I was like, he's going to [ __ ] 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 that natural um and I mean not as a porative the sort of this ham gene, right? Like you are comfortable with the spotlight on you down your [ __ ] You're comfortable giving a toast. You're comfortable and I I don't have that. I I just don't I don't like the spotlight on me. I don't like a lot of attention. Well, you're comfortable with it and it puts puts the audience at ease. It's And it's a 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. I I I hemmed my way and hawed my way through it. Shane getting up there is so uh natural and and good.

And I know you've been working on it and you 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 and and you I don't know you kind of like you don't really like take sides. You kind of like you you play to a wide a 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 think it's kind of I mean, yeah, it's 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 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 [ __ ] idiot. Yeah. I don't know. I don't I mean, unless it's like a glaring thing that he should support, whatever. Uh, but I I want to go back to the the Austin thing by the So, the first show he went up and it was fine. The second show we did like an hour later, it was great and it was uh it was really frustrating how good you were at it. Oh, with Will. Yeah. Yeah. He was reading a script. He's using your material though. No, he wasn't. They they did it themselves. In fact, I read the material first and I was like, I don't think this is going to [ __ ] work. So, wait. So, what what what type of what type?

What was Will's what was Will's style? Was he like telling stories or was he kind of going joke to joke to joke? Uh, it was it was more storytelling, but it was uh it was exactly how I like the standup. It was 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? No. Well, a lot of it, as Shane knows, he read it because a lot of it is stuff that we use uh in the film. So, we were working on it. So, it's various stages of Yeah, because we didn't say it. This is the film that's come that you just shot and that's coming out later this year. What's it called? Well, the film is this thing on. Is this thing on? Yeah. Is this thing on? We can get that at a later date when when I'm the guest on the show. Yeah. Right. Are you going to book yourself? No, sir. Go ahead. No, go ahead, Shane. Sorry. No, there we were laughing. I was just at

the cellar this week and we were laughing cuz there's a comedian there. His name's Will Sance and Will's playing a character on stage and after the show he goes on with the comedian and ask 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 really script you idiot. He did the first time the first time I did New Joke Monday over there around the corner with him. I and he comes up on stage and he asks you questions and he was like like Shane said he was like a sounds really rough and I 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. And now back to the show. Wait, Shane. So I So doing what you do for a living, do you wake up and go to sleep constantly thinking of like I gota like that was funny today. This is funny. Oh, I got to write that down. Like do you ever get out of that or you were 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 uh 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 standup. Okay. For real? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, otherwise I don't know. I You feel like you're not coming up with any new material. Uhhuh. Well, then how do you do what you do? Do you do you set us You set aside some time to really focus on on work? 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 uh if

I get it, great. Well, so you just figure it out on stage and it's all straight improv. You haven't really worked on any of it. No, I mean you 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 like I just know every word to it and then I'd maybe try five minutes and see what happens and uh probably abandon it and then have one of my friends in like four or five months go, "Hey, that was a funny idea." Then I'll try it again. And so when you're putting together an hour like to do to do a Netflix special like uh 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 I wouldn't want a date on it. Maybe 2026 cuz I got I got

to right now I'm doing arenas and I don't think the best way to work an hour out is in an arena cuz it's just it's just different. I don't know. 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. I don't want to rush a special. When did you 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. When you guys get in the van together and all that stuff and you got you've got such rich and your cousins and your and your you know your family. You've just got such great rich stuff. When what was the first moment? This is like the question like how did you start in comedy? Like when did you start going like, "Oh, the stories that I'm telling about my family or the [ __ ] 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 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 standup. And then uh one of the 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 standup." 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, uh, I went back every week for like two months just watching. And then I finally got on stage and I [ __ ] bombed. I was like, I don't have to write any material. I'm just funny. I just got up, couldn't talk. It was crazy how bad it was. And uh, yeah, then 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 the career plan or were you did this did this derail something uh 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. And uh Wow. The first I remember the first show I ever did I [ __ ] it was a road the first time I ever went on the road.

It was a hotel in 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 uh with your life?" And I was like, "I'm a college student. I go I'm studying to be a history teacher." He was like, "Why don't you just do that instead of stand up?" Like I was like, "All right, man. I kind of took it to heart. Were you Were you done with your set yet? Yeah, exactly. Hey, it was I swear to God it was in between shows. I still had another I still had another set.

That'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 Arnette. Specifically World War II history. What's your favorite? You like that? You the uh the European or the He knows it all. He knows it all, man. He Right, Shane. You know it all. I Well, I don't know. I I like World War II. I like uh American Civil War is great. Yeah. Right. Have you seen Have you seen both the Civil War documentary and the World War II documentary that um Ken Burns did? I love them. I love them both. They're Yeah. Yeah. I like the Civil The Civil War one I like better. It's so powerful.

The West Vietnam is great. His Vietnam documentary was great. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz I didn't know [ __ ] about Vietnam. I remember what did you say about the Ken Burns documentary? You said that that it's literally kryptonite for women. Yeah. Yeah. If you put it on, they're going to fall asleep. I remember you used to talk with the other thing that really made me laugh, you used to talk about that dude Shelby Foot, that historian, and the way that he would Yeah. Right. I did that uh I did a bunch of Ken Burns material at my SNL monologue and everyone was kind of like, "What the [ __ ] is he talking about?" That was that was recent. It was recent, right? Yeah. Every time I um my monologue doesn't go great on SNL. I'm 0 for two on those things.

I love I loved it. I like it. Look, I like it and I'm having fun up there. But it was uh it was Tate McCrae 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 [ __ ] Shelby Foot and Ken Civil War, right? And they had no idea, literally. Uh-huh. Just some ogre and walked out onto the stage and talked about Shelby Foot. They were probably scared. You literally referenced the battle of Fredericksburg. Shrek. Hey, so with such a with such a drastic like are you happy with where you're at?

Like is this the 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? Like have you have you adapted? Like, are you digging it? Right. Uh, it's 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 imposttor syndrome and uh depression and all that, but uh you know, I just I just drink a lot, so that helps.

Yeah, that'll round the edges. That really [ __ ] makes things easier, you know, when you 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 standup gigs or specials or whatever. In my case, it was a sitcom and you We love that show.

It was then the first time that it started. I took it cuz it was a job, right? You audition. You just 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 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. 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 happened." So So did that happen to you in that mo do you remember that moment where you're like, "Oh [ __ ] this is what it feels like to kind of become successful." Uh yeah, there's a Yeah, there was definitely some moments along the way. I mean, hosting SNL when I did that was that was that was one of those moments cuz I I had gotten fired from

the show before and I was like, "Oh, that's right. I forgot. Yeah. For 4 days. Yeah. Oh my god. Really? For 4 days? Yeah. I remember seeing when when they announced that you were going to host and uh it must have been kind of surreal considering the history you had. Yeah. It was I don't know. But you like it was like, "Oh, great. We're going to go through this again." There was pressure cuz 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 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 those moments I was with my friend Dan Soder. He's a he's one of the best comedians. 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 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. I thought that was the ceiling. I don't know what the [ __ ] how I got here." Yeah. Right. This is going This has gotten out of hand. Wow. And did you have and so you have that moment before and have you do you still have moments on stage where 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 thousand people of people laughing and going like holy [ __ ] Yeah. Usually that happens when the joke doesn't land. Yeah. The silence is even louder. and 20,000 silent people and you're standing there going, "Oh, that's much more powerful." Yeah, that's a real powerful moment. Well, you know, one of the interesting things about uh 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 the in at the underground and in and at the the cellar rather and at the 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 uh the seller in that main room downstairs and it went great. We're like, "Holy [ __ ] 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. Deliverance and it was pretty good, right? It was a big room. And then we went to the uh fat black pussycat next door and it was absolutely bombed. And I remember at the time my buddy Bradley was there and my buddy Bob who you met and they were in the back and they're dying laughing because literally the same material that 30 minutes ago had killed. Silence. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's uh the best feeling in the world watching one of your friends bomb.

There's nothing better. It's the most fun possible thing. Uh but yeah, that happens and it happens. But what's crazy and and and that feeling was of uh which was was like, oh, you're it's just you. There's nowhere to hide. You can't do 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 Well, but but talk about that you guys. The the the cuz like I think uh uh an actor can ruin a good script and they can also um 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 with with with standup?

Like in your case, Will, you had the same material three different places. How much of it do you think it was the audience or or was it you in the different way in which you were telling a joke? I I don't know. I don't have enough experience to to really answer that in that moment. I have to blame the audience just to maintain my self-esteem. 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 there should be and you think you you have one like a good example is the seller is a perfect example because it's like four different rooms and so like I'll 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 but I killed I was doing it was crazy how I 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 you go on with the same confidence you just had from killing where you're like, "This crowd's wait till they [ __ ] see this." And then uh the first joke doesn't work and you're just immediately crushed. And uh so it's it's kind of a mix of the crowd and you you you went up there kind of [ __ ] arrogant and then as soon as they [ __ ] shut you down. You're like I just shut down completely. And then uh at the end of my set I did like a [ __ ] Trump joke and they all laughed and I was like [ __ ] 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. And now back to the show. 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. How do you like that? Where where the words You've got to fit the words as opposed to the words have to fit you when you're doing uh standup. I I don't mind it. I I really like acting, especially on tires cuz that's just me and my friends and it's all just our friends. So, we can kind of [ __ ] around and you don't really have, you know, you can improv a little on that. Gotcha. Um, I do have some kind of real acting coming up in a couple weeks and I'm 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 that's but it's it's but it's material.

It's material that you haven't written and you can't improvise. So, you've got to like 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 uh it's a serious director. Yeah. It's scary. And it's with real actors and that's going to be Yeah. Oh, boy. I'm not I mean, not real actor. I'm not like [ __ ] on my friends. Yes, you are. Yeah, you are. Yeah. No, this one's real. It's not that [ __ ] Yeah.

What is your what does your family think about uh cuz you talk about your family sometimes in your in your standup and you it and you're obviously really close to them. What do they what's their reaction been to all of it? Are they like caught up in the whirlwind to the are they are they freaked out? Yeah, it took them it took them a while. they uh yeah, they weren't on board for a long time. And then uh especially early like I I did a a YouTube special was like the first thing I put out and in it I talk about uh my sister and her addiction. They're like 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 around. Trust me, it's going to pay off for me."

All right. Oh my god. No, she got an apartment in a Chevy Cruz out of it. She's all right. Okay. Sure. Sure. Chevy Cruz. There you go. Um, how do you like life on the road? How do you like uh, you know, what is that like from a social standpoint? You I'm sure you're not meeting a lot of new friends out there. Um, you know, like what's dating like and all that kind of stuff. Were you married? Uh, I'm not married. I have a girlfriend. Uh, she lives here with me in Austin. Uh, she comes on the road sometimes. If it's 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'm I think she's going to sit this one out. Okay.

But she's not coming. 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. It doesn't you can't have a headache, you can't have a stomach ache, you can't like you have to go on, you have to deliver, right? So how do you how do you get by that? Like 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 [ __ ] depending on what you eat? Jason, we'll get to that in a second. Cuz if you haven't emptied, you know, you got the [ __ ] goes away right away. The adrenaline, the adrenaline of the standup, the [ __ ] goes away. The headache goes away. The nausea like cuz I've done shows a lot of shows hung over and I've been like, "Oh, this is going to be terrible." And then as soon as you get on stage it it cures it. Yeah. Yeah.

Isn't that interesting? other than one. I had one show. I did uh 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 2:00 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." Yeah. So then he kept us there and we drank till like 6:00 a.m. And the whole time I was looking at my watch like, "Oh shit." Uh so then I wake up and it's I wake up at like 400 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 [ __ ] bombed at Crypto. Oh, really? Oh, 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 drum in my face. They could see. They could smell it on the jumbo drum. They could 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 I'm I just I literally just started uh 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, boy, it's time to Yeah. Yeah. How do you How do you like that? An appointment for for working out." I I need it. Otherwise, I would, you know, after this, I would go, "That 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, 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 Sean and 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. He Right. Sean did what? Honest. What did you have? What have you had so far today? If anything, well, it's so funny you say that. I did have a pop-tart, but but then after I'm just saying I really did, but then I had a bowl like I had yogurt with berries cuz I was like I have to balance it with something. You have to offset it. But then like I but my brain works in a way that like well I did that so I can have spaghetti for lunch. Right. Do you have dessert at lunch? You do? Uh sometimes I do. But JB like we'll play golf and he'll 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 he'll have. And I said to him one time, I said, "You know what? You're doing all this, eating nuts in the thing, and you're still you're going to [ __ ] 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." You know what I mean? But I'll But I'll look nice and thin there in the box. Jesus. Jesus Christ. Oh, he died without any water weight. Look at him. Beautiful. Shane, what do you think? What do you So now you're going to go do this serious movie with these ser serious actors and uh again no no no offense to your buddies. 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 [ __ ] it, whatever happens happens? I think it's more [ __ ] it, whatever happens. I' I'd like to just kind of work with my friends kind of 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 and then standup. I'll always standup's always number one. Yeah. Just stick with that. Would you consider standup 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 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 the gym with a with a trainer. Maybe go to the gym, buy lot of Xbox, then uh stand. Sure. Sure. Pretty pathetic. What's the current What's the current e Xbox um uh favorite? Uh right now I There's a game called Hell Let Loose. That's uh it's pretty awesome.

It's just a World War II. What's it called? Hell Let Loose. Hell Loose. Is there a headset involved with this? There there is. People take it very seriously, which is pretty funny. Like guys, it's it's like You do multi Are you in m playing multiplayer? Yeah, it's multiplayer and guys take it very seriously. It's like a World War II like simulation. So Oh, wow. You know, there's no radar or anything 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 Where the [ __ ] am I?" Pretty funny.

It's really funny. So that sounds so crazy. And also, how do you spell that? Yeah. No, the game rules. Who are your guy? Who are your Did you have standup idols, Shane? Or do you? Uh, yeah. It was It was always Louis and uh Chappelle and 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 like I'm friends with both of them. It's 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 like mu 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 Wuang 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 cool. Do you ever want to do anything like that? Like if with as as you go on to Do you want to build your own more and more? You want to do a hip-hop band? I don't think um Do you want to be in Wu good enough to build a town? I do want to be a Wu Tang.

You're the best. I don't smoke weed, but I had to smoke. No, I mean, wouldn't that be wouldn't that be cool? Well, I mean, your your your star is rising so quickly and so great and so, 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 Well, 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. It rose it rose too fast and now people are going to go, "All right, that guy [ __ ] Bud Light commercial guy. Get him out of here."

I [ __ ] love, By the way, I love your Bud Light commercials. I [ __ ] They're They're hilarious. I'm not I'm not [ __ ] joking. They're really funny. What's the one where you're standing behind the guy and they're asking him and then you just start drinking. I'm like, "That's 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. Yeah, we know. We do it, too. Yeah. And you guys did great. Thanks. Yeah. I don't know. You ever seen that dog [ __ ] one that Sean and Jason did? It was terrible. Well, listen. You know which one's that? Exactly. Which one's that? They made so many dog [ __ ] commercials. These guys Jesus. I love you, Sean. I love you, J. Such a great work partner. Oh god, you guys are the [ __ ] worst. Shane, listen, man.

You're such a great dude. You're such a [ __ ] funny dude. You've been so kind and generous to me personally, so I appreciate it. Uh uh, thanks for coming to do this. We wish you all the best. You got Tire season 2 premieres June 2nd on Netflix. Uh, 5th. June, sorryth. Is that right? June 5th. Yeah. Good for you. Thank you. Sorry about that. June 5th. Well, now we got to say it a few times. So, June 5th on Netflix. Uh uh you you're on tour right now. You're touring like internationally on [ __ ] arenas. You 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. Thanks for being here. You're great. You're a great dude. Thanks, bro. Uh, thank you. Shane Gills, he's 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 he's really low temperature. Yeah, he is. He's really low temperature. Uh Jamie, remember we watched a bunch of his uh uh Beautiful Dog special at at New Year's, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's he's got that really unique delivery uh that I find uh really uh it it pulls you into a standup where they just 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, you know? He always walks towards the victim, never runs, you know? Right. Right. Right. Yeah. What a strange analogy, but you're kind of right. But he does he pulls you in. He's he's he's great. I mean, I've always been I've always thought Oh, yeah. He's like He's like Aluccino and Godfather 3, right? They just keep pulling you back in. You know what I mean? Did they make a third one? They keep Godfather 3. Yeah, it's a joke. Pull you back in. I love his life. Jeppe loved that one. I love Godfather.

Where is number four? We waiting on the number four. What? Uh, wow. You guys, when you talk like that, you really sound like you speak two languages. Really? Like, what would you call that? What would that What would that make us, Sean? Bilingual. Bilingual

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What is discussed in "Shane Gillis | SmartLess"?

In order: 0:00 Beverly Hills Hotel, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, Brendan Shanahan, Michigan; 5:00 Colorado River, Fear Factor, Shane Gillis, SmartLess; 15:00 Ken Burns, American Civil War, Harrisburg Comedy Zone, Mars, Pennsylvania; 20:00 Cleveland Cavaliers, Dan Soder, Fat Black Pussycat; 25:00 Knoxville, Tennessee, Village Underground; 30:00 Hell Let Loose, Post Malone, Sandler route, The Forum; 35:00 Columbus, Ohio, Curtis Wayne Wright, Mike Myers, Shane Gillis; 40:00 SmartLess.

What is mentioned in this SmartLess episode?

49 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including SmartLess, Shane Gillis, Ken Burns, The Civil War (Ken Burns documentary), Brendan Shanahan, Beverly Hills Hotel. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Shane Gillis | SmartLess"?

The episode runs 41 min; the transcript is about 8,335 words in 58 timestamped sections.

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About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated November 19, 2025.