Pints With Aquinas - Shayne Smith Reacts to Fellow Comedians | Last Call Ep. 15

Episode Date: May 21, 2026

It’s Last Call! Shayne Smith is back to laugh at TikToks with Matt, chat about the mechanics of a good joke and share advice for aspiring comedians. Pints: Last Call Ep. 15 - - - 📚Resources Mentioned: Shayne Smith: ShayneSmithComedy.com Shayne Smith Tour: https://punchup.live/shaynesmith Shayne Smith Alligator Boys: https://youtu.be/JApBR3AJq_s?si=WR2PDKWmsCh5y2hJ Shayne Smith Karate Stories: https://youtu.be/VDuzdATat4k?si=tIaJ_G4lhEnGP75t - - - Today's Sponsors: Seven Weeks Coffee: Save up to 25% with promo code 'PINTS' at https://sevenweekscoffee.com/PINTS Juvenon: For 30% off your order, head to https://BloodFlow7.com/PINTS and use code PINTS. #ad  St. Paul Center: Start your 30-day free trial today at https://StPaulCenter.com/pints - - - Become a Daily Wire Member and watch all of our content ad-free: ⁠⁠https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe⁠⁠ 📲 Download the free Daily Wire app today on iPhone, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Samsung, and more. - - - 📕 Get my newest book, Jesus Our Refuge, here: https://a.co/d/bDU0xLb 🍺 Want to Support Pints With Aquinas? 🍺 Get episodes a week early and join exclusive live streams with me! Become an annual supporter at 👉 ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://mattfradd.locals.com/support⁠⁠⁠⁠ - - - 💻 Follow Me on Social Media: 📌 Facebook: https://facebook.com/mattfradd 📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/mattfradd 𝕏 Twitter/X: ⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/Pints_W_Aquinas⁠⁠⁠ 🎵 TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠https://tiktok.com/@pintswithaquinas⁠⁠⁠ 📚 PWA Merch – ⁠⁠⁠https://dwplus.shop/MattFraddMerch⁠⁠ 👕 Grab your favorite PWA gear here: https://shop.pintswithaquinas.com - - - Privacy Policy: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.dailywire.com/privacy⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Brendan Steinhauser, CEO of the Alliance for Secure AI. We're a coalition of patriotic Americans who want to stop AI from taking our freedoms. Big Tech is propping up AI-powered mass surveillance and exploiting our children online. This is not the future we want. The alliance is working hard to ensure that we put Americans first. Join us at secureaI.Now.org to learn more. Paid for by the Alliance for SecureAI. Colorado is trying to silence free speech again.

A state law forces businesses to use customers' preferred pronouns, even if they're biologically inaccurate. With the help of Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian bookstore and a sports apparel company are challenging the law. But a court recently ruled against them. They appealed the ruling, and with ADF's help, they'll keep fighting another attempt by Colorado to skirt the First Amendment. Learn more about how you can support free speech by texting Wire to 83848 or going to join ADF.com slash wire. Some people think God created the universe. Some people think nothing created the universe, which is the funniest guess. He's saying a very deep and philosophical thing about the existence of God if you really get into it.

But the way he's saying it in this moment doesn't give you the opportunity to go hold up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, you're just in it. Shane Smith, welcome to last call. Thank you for being on the show. Oh, no problem. No problem. Did I yawn?

Is that, are you mimicking me? Yeah. I'm, I'm being exhausted slash. Do I, is that what I was doing? Oh man. A little bit. Yeah, I'll try again. Wait, you, let's restart.

How are you? Hey, man, how's it going? My Ozzy actor. It's crazy that you're here right now. Yeah, thank you. Today, we are going to review some hilarious TikToks that have been chosen for us to review. I love hilarious TikTok. Let's go.

Some people think God created the universe. Some people think nothing created the universe. created the universe, which is the funniest guess. And then nothing people make fun of the God people. They say God doesn't exist. I'm like, okay, maybe. But you know what definitely doesn't exist? Nothing.

That's the defining characteristic of nothing, is that it doesn't exist. So what are we talking about? Either you think it's God, something you can't see, touch, taste, photograph, and science can't prove, or you think it's nothing, something you can't see touch, taste, photograph,

and science can't prove. But I think we can all agree if nothing, if your nothing, sometimes spontaneously erupts into everything. That's a pretty magical, fucking nothing, you guys. And ask, ask the nothing people. What happens when you die? They'll tell you, nothing. You go into nothing.

I'm like, you mean you merge back with your creator? That's heaven, bitch. Oh, it's pretty good. Dude, what's great, is this is Pete Homes. What's great about this? is that he's not, from what I can tell, a practicing Christian. I think he dabbles in it from what I can tell. Maybe you...

Yeah, yeah. I know, so I'm a huge... When I first started comedy, Pete was huge for me. I love Pete Holmes. His podcast was really important to me and all of his albums. Yeah, he's great. This is a really good hit. He was an evangelical Christian for a long time,

and then he became a deist. I want to ask you why that was funny, but I do want to say that first part was absolutely excellent. when he closed with pretty special magical effing something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel like that should have been the closer. The next bit about prayer, the continuation of the joke, wasn't as good. Really?

When he says bitches at the end, that's funny, sure. That's a nice little thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But if, yeah, I just, the first part was so tight, so hilarious. Yeah, it's so good. I think it's too because there's comedy is the relieving of tension, right? Okay. It's that you build tension and then you relieve it.

Oh, okay. You're like constantly building steam and then releasing the steam. Oh, that's a great way of thinking of it. And so he's building tension as he broaches a topic that is awkward for everyone. It's awkward for God people. What is he going to say? Is he going to mean to me? It's awkward for atheists.

Like, where's he going with this? Isn't he kind of into God? You know, and then he's releasing the pressure. And he's not being mean to anyone necessarily or anything. But he's pointing something out that is silly. Yeah. And the immediacy of it doesn't allow you to think about it. Right?

The immediacy of what he's saying like, because he's saying a very deep and philosophical thing about the existence of God if you really get into it, right? But the way he's saying it in this moment doesn't give you the opportunity to go, hold up, wait. You know, you're just in it. Return from nothing. That's a pretty magical nothing.

Like you don't have time to, like, dissect what he's doing. You're just in it with him. I think that's why the new atheists, at least Christopher Hitchens, were so good at what he did. Because in a way, he was a comedian. Christopher Hitchens was very funny. So very quick.

He would say things that if you could pause to think it through, you would realize, oh, none of that's an argument against the existence of God or the truth claims of Christianity. But you're saying it so quickly and with such a beautiful British straw that, yeah. Do you think that you're the Christian answer to Christopher Hitchens? Me?

Yeah. Both of you, funny guys from across the pond on a crusade to get everyone to see the truth that you also see both very funny, kind of intellectual, kind of great, a little bit chubby, loves whiskey,

both very famously said women aren't funny and got in big trouble for it. That's true. I mean, no, I definitely don't consider myself that Christopher Hitchin. I can play along with a joke, But that man was far too brilliant and correct. He was very courageous guy.

Yeah, yeah. I liked him. He actually was. Yeah, he was. Like, when you're up on a stage and you're going, he was talking, I think about the Iraq war, perhaps. Yeah, yeah. And everyone turned against him in the crowd. And he just gave everyone the finger.

Yeah. I thought, well, all right. Debating John Lennox. You got to have big, big Cajonais to do that. That man is terrifying. He knows what he's doing. Now, when he debated William and Craig, did you watch that debate? I did.

should, okay, you have so I won't tell you, you should watch it again. When I first watched that, I was afraid, because I didn't want to see another Christian apologists get destroyed by pretensions. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The opposite happened. Craig took him to the woodshed. Yeah, man, if the new atheists were around today, they'd get eaten alive. I mean, they are getting eaten alive, actually. So, I mean, Sam Harris literally won't even, like, talk to anyone about apologetics anymore, because there are atheists today who are very articulate and intelligent, but they're not, they don't have the new atheist swagger. There's nuance, there's vulnerability, there's agnosticism in the mix. In authenticity, too, I do feel like a lot of the atheists nowadays, or you're kind of just

like, are you just talking about atheism because this is what you've fallen into? Like, Christopher Hitchens was on a mission. He was an intellectual who wanted truth. But he, he was, he was, he was, He was a truth seeker. And if his, I truly believe someone who seeks the truth in the way he did, even if he came to the wrong conclusions because of the limits of his intellectual ability, I think people like that still go to heaven. I think God's mercy is so infinite that if you genuinely, truly, with your whole heart, come to the, you mess up Christopher Hitchin style, I hope and pray with all my might that at the

very end, he shows up and. I love that we got on at Christopher Hitchens. I don't even know how we got here because we're looking at this guy. I guess he's talking about God and he's doing it in a funny, winsome way. You know, it's funny about this is like he's really, he is poking the atheist. Yeah. That's what he's doing in this, but not in an aggressive way, but just as like, that's kind of funny. He's very funny.

He did very well. It's very subversive too. These days to be to like be a comedian and be like pro-god and to do it in any way, like blows people's mind. To get on stage and crap on Christianity doesn't show you're a free thinker anymore. No, no. It's so common. So vanilla. Any open mic night in the country you go to, someone's going to bad mouth religion.

Yeah. Every time. They saw a sign today that upset me. It said abortion is health care. And it was on a shop that sold clothes for children. This hurt me both as a Catholic and a businessman. Like, what are you doing? That's the demo

It'd be like if Lulu Lemon started murdering dumb women It's just crazy What if the secondhand bookstore Started murdering lesbians Let's think about it Pop-I's chicken Write your own punchlines

Come on Come on This is interesting I love James so much This is subversive Like the first one Yeah Now, it may be more subversive, right?

Because whereas in homes stand up, maybe a good majority would have gladly said, yeah, I believe in God. Yeah, yeah. But I would think that most people in that audience, just my guess. He's in Portland, Oregon, too. How do you know that? That's helium in Portland, Oregon. Come on.

So he's in Portland, Oregon, and he's showing that abortion is murder. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he's somehow able to make all these people, I would guess, right, the majority of whom are okay with abortion in certain circumstances. One million percent, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy. This is next level. Comedy doesn't get better than this. This is a perfect joke. Why do you say that? It just is. A joke can become so perfect that it becomes undeniable. Like, it doesn't matter that he's in Portland, Oregon. I assume those are his, maybe his fans. I mean, James is popular. He does well. Maybe not, though. He might just be on a showcase. Like, even if those people didn't like him, they're laughing. That's a good joke. Like, you, you, you, you. That joke can't be stopped by what you think about abortion. Do you know what I mean?

That's how that's an undeniable joke. It just is good. Okay, so it's undeniable based on the consequences of the joke, namely that it worked. What could he have done poorly that would have stopped it in its tracks? He could have over-explained it. He could have made his actual sincere beliefs on it known before he began to talk about it. as I bumped the microphone, I'm a pro, everybody. I'm just smashing it with my hand.

And then, yeah, he's just doing it, man. This is just a great joke. And there's no pain points where a person who hates what his actual beliefs are can get off the ride in order to criticize the joke. Again, this is the Pete Holmes thing, where the immediacy of what he's saying prevents you from over the way. thinking the joke. Yeah, yeah.

That's a big thing. You don't have the luxury to get upset, to have the time to get upset. To broach a subject where people can get upset, like religion or like abortion and stuff, yeah, you can't let them off the train. Towards the end of the joke, I love that everyone catches strays. Right. Women, lesbians, black people. Like, how did he do that?

Yeah, it's so funny. It's so funny. But it's also funny in a way where like he's not demeaning anybody. Yeah. You know what I mean? But he is, he's getting you. It is funny to be like, ah, you got me. But he's not hurting anybody.

It's such a, he's just like on the line. It's like watching a motocrosser like perfectly hitting their jumps and you're like, you're walked in, bro. You're there. Have you been, because I think I told you about him. Did I? Yeah, you did. Because he came to our cigar lounge up in Steubenville.

That's right. And I remember he got off and I said to him, like, there is no reason you come. be as successful as Carl Barron, who's one of our Australian comedians. Yeah. And he's done really well. He's been on Rogan Show twice. He's been on Kill Tony, Netflix. Yeah, he's big in the Austin scene. I know we've not met, but we have so many mutual friends. I'm always hearing people be like, do you know about this guy? You and him would be friends and I'm like, yeah, probably. Yeah. All right, let's look at the next and final one. Ah, our buddy John. Do you ever think about if you die in an accident?

Here's how my brain works. If you die in an accident, do you think when you get to heaven, they tell you what happened? How did it work out? If you die in a plane crash, wouldn't you want to know, was it the engine,

was it the pilot? What? You know, does that information get up there? Because we got murder mystery podcasts, and we got investigate. We figure it out. I was watching the news the other day. This is a true story.

There's a husband and wife, asleep in bed, okay? A sleep in bed. There were some violence going on. In the neighborhood, the husband caught a stray bullet, died in his sleep. How are you going to be a good night, babe, babe, love you?

middle the night. What? How did I? I would be like, my wife shot me, dude. My wife shot me in my sleep. Shiganooga 30 years later, it was a straight bullet from the neighborhood.

Liar! He is so fantastic. He's someone I've watched over the years where, if I'm honest, I think some of his earlier stuff, I'm like, oh, he's funny. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely funnier than I could ever be.

But then I watched movies stuff recently. I'm like, oh, this is becoming incredible. That's so funny. I'm so Catholic that I got off the joke train at one point and derailed myself. But the punchline was far enough away that I got back on by the time the punch landed and I enjoyed it. Which was what? I got off the train when he said, when you go to heaven, do you think you know what happens? And I was like, yeah, I do.

Yeah, I do. I think I know everything. I get to heaven, I think I'm intellectually satisfied at my maximum amount. I took him to Mass recently, and we filmed the drive to the Latin Mass. I don't know if you heard about that or not, but it did quite well. But what was funny is sort of like what you're talking about. He's always joking. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And it's very charming. And I'm always trying to be serious. And so it makes for this kind of awkward interaction where he's the comedian who's trying to be funny. And I'm like the Catholic podcaster that's like desperately trying to give the accurate Catholic answer. So he'll ask a question and I'll give the right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's so funny. How do you be funny at Latin Mass? You're on the altar rail and you receive communion and you're having a moment and you look over and you a little wink.

We have the kind of spiral staircase that gets up to where the priest gives the homily. Yeah. He's like, is that like a Catholic tree house? A little bit. No, it's very good. So is Christian comedy seeing a resurgence? I don't think so. Or is it Yeah, that's good because none of what we just watched, I would consider Christian comedy. I don't think, even as someone who's doing a very, my set right now is so heavily Christian, and I don't even, no, I don't think it is. Was there a point maybe even in the 90s where people tried to be Christian comics and then we all realized, you know what, I don't want to be known for being a Christian comic?

And how did that shift take? Those guys, a bunch of people were like, I'm a Christian comic around the same time. There were dudes who were like, I'm a Christian bodybuilder. I've ripped phone books in half for Jesus I'll come to your school and do that Did you you guys have those in Australia? No, we don't We had them in America

They were traveling around in the 90s Like bench pressing for the Lord And making kids be like Dude well I guess I could get super strong for God too I don't know what they were doing necessarily I do As a grown man I'm like yeah when I see a guy lift a lot of weight

It makes me believe in God Because weightlifting rocks And you And yeah, but... This is what's interesting about Protestantism, right? So with Catholicism, we have the 2,000 years of tradition, and we have a hierarchy. And so no bishop is going to consent to me traveling around doing crazy things like this in schools. Ripping phone books in half.

Protestants have no oversight, so they just try everything. And sometimes it seems to work well. Sometimes it seems to work. But if you... Yeah, I can't imagine a bishop telling a priest, like, so what you do is you rip the phone book in half, and you tell kids it would be impossible without the strength of Jesus. And then he's like, well, what if the kids figure out how to rip phone books and half themselves? And he goes, that's a risk, we're going to have to take.

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off and make sure you use my promo code pints so they know I sent you. So is it just that Christianity has become the subversive message today that we're beginning to see things like this. Yeah, yeah. I think it's, I don't even think that Christianity's so subversive as much as the predominant culture has become so unwieldy and bloated

and like vast. You know, there used to be some kind of balance and now the predominant culture is like so gross and overly large and unwieldy that it just makes everything else by comparison seems subversive. Like, I don't know if that makes sense necessarily. No, it doesn't really, because I, it's like I want to say yes, but it doesn't, so I don't

know how else to say no. No, no, and here's why, right? Because I could see it being a subversive message where everyone's an atheist. But I also couldn't see this kind of comedy working on an ordinary crowd back in 2015 when atheism was at its peak. Really? Yeah, I couldn't, right? Because I just think maybe it would work with Christians, but atheism was so cool,

back in 2008, I should say, not 15, 8, 2009, that's what I meant. I was going to say in 2015, he was torn around. No, you're right. That's when it would have worked. But, like, so at its height, when Christianity could have been seen as the most subversive, I don't know if it would have worked, but is it that atheism just kind of burnt itself out in culture and we all got kind of tired of the atheist blowhards and now's the time to get in with the subversive messaging? I don't even know. Maybe. I think with atheism, I don't think most people were honestly atheists. It's kind of like that thing where like everyone,

when you're a kid, everyone is punk rock for a time or like trying something out. Yeah. Sometimes that ends poorly and the thing everyone is trying out is changing their gender. But like, because, you know, that is the emo of Gen Z. Wow.

Being like gender queer or like... Right. Or weird. That is their version of emo. Yes. We were like straightening our hair and wearing girl jeans and like watching Bam Margera. That's what they were doing. That's what they did. And then the generation after them, I hope are wearing jinkos and have green hair or something. Like can you guys get way into corn? We need to not be doing some other weird stuff. But yeah, the subculture. I don't know. You know, Christianity always kind of has in its own way been subversive, even when it's the most popular. Because even if Christianity's the predominant culture of your country, you're still going to have your base urges. And it will still be subversive to subvert your urges. Because Christianity is never asking you to overt.

It's always asking you to subvert. You know, it's always like control yourself. Yeah. But I don't want to. Yeah. I wonder, though, how the Christian message, when it's spoken like this, especially in the first two, right, these are like subversy. trying to be combative, but in a way that's funny. I guess it's like, how did they,

how do those first two make Christianity essentially cool, or Christian beliefs essentially cool? And then you compare that with like a evangelical Hollywood-type movie where you just feel preached at and you're bored and disgusted. So I have the answer. Yeah. The answer is that they're being totally authentic.

And there's so little authenticity these days that even to be authentic about something popular makes people stoked. Like, we're living through the rise of so many controversial people who are so popular who say things that aren't that are obvious or dumb. And you're like, why is this person so popular? It's just because they're being themselves. People are so, so, so tired of fakeness or performativeness or whatever. everyone's burnt out from like the last five years of like the, you know, your aunt Kathy has

some opinion and then every single person at the table has got to change their politics so we don't make her mad. You know what I mean? Like we've all lived through like five years of that. Okay. And we're all doing it culturally all the time. And now everyone's just tired. So when Pete Holmes is like, God, it's real, suck it. You're like, good for him. Uh-huh. I bet even atheists are like fun, cool. Yeah. You know, good. That he's like being honest with himself and like, Just people want to see authenticity, even if it hurts them. Are comedy clubs springing up in a way that they weren't 30 years ago? Are you hearing of new comedy clubs getting started?

Or is it more just the ones that are there are becoming more popular? Because we said in our conversation that because of AI, there's going to be a heightened demand for in-person performance. So to me, it seems like, well, comedy is the perfect thing. You just need a microphone, so it's easy enough to do. and gather people together. Sometimes you don't even need that. Yeah, make them laugh, make them feel like humans. Yeah, my best show I've ever done was a house show with no mic.

But, yeah, I think that comedy was having a renaissance a couple years ago, and everyone was like, mind-blown, like, especially us comedians, because it was dipped for a while. TV died, and then every comic was like, I guess we don't have careers now? That sucks. It used to be, you become a stand-up, you get on TV, you do late night, you start to tour, little bit, you get a writing job, and you get health insurance and make a bunch of money, and now you're good to go. And maybe you become famous and maybe you don't, but you have work. And then that TV died and it's all gone. And then now there's like, it's, I don't know,

it just became like a, what do you do? And then we all figured it out, oh, I have to be famous on the internet. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But now comedy is going through a resurgence where live comedy's big. But I don't know if that necessarily ties into anything else happening that's just been happening. I don't know there's new comedy clubs but comedy's doing well I'm sure you get asked this a lot what advice do you have to someone who's like I think I could do that

because I'm sure people come up to you and say I think I could do that and you look at them and go you couldn't all the time just looking at you I know you couldn't try something else before you waste 10 years in your life but then there are people who like maybe you were one of these people who are like I think I could do this and you would have loved it if someone had

given you actual advice do you know what happened I said I think I can do this and then people were like, don't. Other comics were like, don't. Really? Yeah, and that fired me up. I liked that. Okay.

I was like, yeah, then I will. I can and I will. That's the type of person I am. Right. I have told other people not to. They go, I think I'm going to start comedy and I go, don't. It's not. But if me saying don't stops you, then you're done.

Yeah. It's going to get so much worse. It's going to get so much worse. If you want to be a comedian, you have to be okay with total and complete humiliation in public on multiple occasions. In front of possibly people you know, you're going to fail in ways that are like people's worst fear.

And if, so if me being like, don't be a comedian stops you, then you're done already. So the reasons they said no to you, Were they good reasons? Yeah, they were just like, most people don't make it. You're going to waste your time. Most people aren't funny. You're not going to put in enough work.

You're already too old. You know, there's all these reasons, and they were all super valid. I did it, by the grace of God, you know, like, I'm lucky. They're so, I always like the statistic that's very funny to say is there's more Navy SEALs than working comedians. Which is real. There are a few thousand Navy SEALs. They're not a few thousand comedians touring for a living. Yeah.

You know, it's very hard. There's not very many of us. It's already oversaturated. There's so many podcasts. I'm on one right now. Like, it's crazy. So doing comedy's tough. So when someone's like, should I start it, I'm like, do you love it?

Like, that's the answer. Like, do you, if you need to ask me if you should, then you, you don't have what it takes. Yeah, that kind of reminds me of how people will ask me about a podcast. And as Dave Rubin has said rightly, there are more podcasts than humans at this point. But when somebody might say that to me and be sincere about it, my answer is, if you're okay, no one ever listening and you'd still do it, then it's worth doing it.

Right. Like, if you're okay with no more than 100 people will ever listen to your show, then you should do it. Yeah. That's fine. if you'd get life from it, if you'd find it enjoyable and enriching. But if you'll, see, that's, again,

that's the difference maybe for, like, Pines with the Coin is 10 years old now. I was going to say, when I started, there was like three podcasts in the world. Yeah, but also when you start, you have that life in you, and you also need people to know, like, hey, just so you know,

if you really love this, in 10 years, it'll be a job. You'll still love it, but it'll be different. And you won't want to do it, really. and you it's going to change everything about how you feel about it like it will be work yeah and people don't get that like to be to be a comedian isn't to be your funniest when you're doing well it's can you be your funniest on the worst day of your life when i tell you to i tell you to like you're a comedian you don't get to decide yeah another person goes 7 p.m. Friday be the funniest you can be

300 people bought tickets. Oh, your dad died? That's not my problem. Fly in, do the show and go, you know what I mean? And not that people are that mean about it or anything. Sometimes they are. But like, that is what it is. So when people are like comedy and like they think about like being silly with your friends, I'm like, you could just be as funny as possible with the people you love or make funny things for the people you care about. But to be a comedian is to pursue, and this is the lamest thing I could possibly say. And I'm aware of how up my own butt I am when I say it. But to be an actual comedian, you're entering into the space of like, I'm an artist. And artists are sad in a lot of ways and beat down and sort of experiencing their art.

Even if it's positive, it's like heart. So people need to be ready for that. I know a ton of comedians who have made it to like before where I am and then quit, which is so hard. So like 10 years of comedy, built as much of a following as you can. You've put in hundreds, maybe thousands of hours of work. You've done all these other people's podcasts and stuff. And maybe you have a manager and you're finally there and you think you're going to get a TV show or you're going to write.

And then that gets the rug pulled out from under you and you just quit. Yeah. I know so many people. who have made it to that point and been like, I quit. So when they quit, though, I mean, if presumably if they loved it, they might be heartbroken that they had to quit, but presumably they'd be willing to get up on a Friday night. Yeah.

Yeah. Do they? Still for fun sometimes. Because I was just thinking, like, if I got the axe here and made no money at all, I would, you know, I'd probably, I have to find another job, so I wouldn't have the same kind of time to invest in these things. But if I did have that time, I would definitely want to film conversations. I just love doing it so much.

Exactly. Yeah, I would probably, I'm always saying I want to quit comedy so I can do it on my terms. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but I get, you have to love it for sure. All right, but suppose you meet someone who does love it and you get the sense, no, they should do it. Then, I mean, what's your advice? If they've, so this would be, I've run into this person.

This person is usually like a teenage kid. who just has like dreams. This isn't, when a full grown, like, one 25-year-old drunk adult at a comedy club, like, I think I can try a comedy. What's your advice for me? I'm like, don't. Please.

Stop talking to me as well. Yeah, yeah. Just probably don't, bro. I don't think you're going to like it. But when, like, a 15-year-old kid is like, I dream of writing for S&L, I think comedy's so cool. I want to be a comedian. My advice for him at that point is just keep.

your head down, don't be mean, work hard. Like, um. Don't be mean. Explain why other than it's the right thing. Bill Burr, this is so funny. I'm doing like real comedy like passing down. Pete Holmes told me that he was told by Bill Burr. He asked Bill Burr for advice when he was not even headlining.

Yeah. And Bill Burr said keep your head down kid, everything will work out. Like stay working, be funny. do your best, keep your head down, things will work out. And then he also said, what else did he say? One other person gave him a piece of advice that said, live a life worth commenting on. Yeah, that's good.

That's a good. So, anyway, Pete said those two things to me when I asked him for advice at a show, the way an open micer asked me for advice. Now, were you an opener for him? No. No, I was just some guy. See, there you go.

I wasn't even, I was like. But I mean, that's, what if he had to, what if he had to said, Don't bother. It probably would have fired me up. I would be way better than I am today. Yeah, he would have made me even better. No. I was an open micer at the time, so I didn't ask him, I should start comedy. What do you think? I said, I'm a comedian. I'm an open micer here, and I've started, like, opening.

Yeah. So he, like, telling him, I'm moving up in my career. And he says, here's what Bill Burr said to me. And I said, do you have advice? And he said, this is what Bill Burr said to me. And then he said, the other piece of advice. What does that mean? Keep your head down. Keep your head down. means like just don't be a dick, don't get in other people's way, don't be gossiping.

Just like, stay to yourself, worry about you. It's really like, it's Bill Burr's way of saying don't look in someone else's bowl unless it's to make sure they have enough. You know? And so that's good advice, especially in comedy because it's in show business in general, it's so, so easy to fall into the trap of screw this guy, this guy sucks. This person is awful. I fall into that trap still today. It's so easy to do. Yeah, it's funny you say that because I enjoy, if I see an interview with Seinfeld,

I almost always click it because I find him really interesting. Right. Insightful. But I've never heard him speak poorly of another comic. Yeah. Yeah. Or Regan or, I don't know, maybe none of them. Maybe because you realize how bloody difficult it is.

Maybe. Also, though, when comics hang out together, we love to gossip. Okay. It's like... So maybe not for the camera and the mic, but in person. In person is where the comics. problem is. That's where you keep your head down. As Catholics, we are called not just to believe, but to share our faith. The challenge, of course, is showing that it's a real encounter with Jesus

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Pints or just become an annual member right away. You'll love it. And when you do, they'll send you a free copy of the complete Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, which is an incredible resource for anyone serious about growing in the faith. Again, just visit St. Paul's Center.com slash pints to start your 30-day free trial. So you said earlier that you might say to somebody, don't do it because, yeah, if they can't handle me saying no, they don't know what it's going to be like to bomb. Right. And you said, you're not going to want to bomb. And obviously nobody wants to. to do that. So what is the thing that pushes you and other comedians through that bombing? Through that bombing. You bomb, it's probably the worst feeling you could possibly have.

One of them, yeah. One of them. One of them. Yeah, okay, relatively speaking. But you're not turning around. So is it because the laugh is so good? Is it the connection with the audience and helping them find something that you find interesting, interesting is so good that it's worth going through that, or what? I don't, for me, it was just the task. Like, this is just a part of it. Like, if I wanted, I'd like set my sights on what I wanted and I just wasn't going to be stopped by how negative one of the possible outcomes was. Like I'm just not risk averse. So I was like, oh, the risk almost makes it more fun. Yeah. I bet a lot of guys, men specifically fall into that where they're like, the possibility of bombing is exciting. The excitement of comedy is what they like about it.

Yeah. I don't know. I also, people are going to be like, oh, yeah, Shane, but I haven't bombed too much. Yeah. So there are people who go on bombing streaks. Like, I have a friend who I genuinely believe is funnier than me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he, like, there was like two weeks where him and I were doing spots together hanging out in New York.

And he bombed for two weeks straight. He literally could not have a good set. Oh, my gosh. It was crazy. We did like eight shows. And he just kept getting back up. He just kept bombing. And he was like, dude, what am I?

Like, what is going on? And he's good. Yeah. And eventually he got it together. And then he was good to go, but he was like, what was that? And that's scary. I mean, it's possible. It happens.

Yeah. So you just look at it and you go, that's a part of it. But then it makes it so exciting, you know? Yeah. No, I get that. I mean, it's why anything dangerous is exciting in a way. Like, lower the bar, like karaoke. Like, if you and I went karaokeing tonight, which we should.

should. Right. There would definitely be a sense, right, in which I'm like, let's do it. And that excitement is, I'm doing it in front of other people and this is potentially humiliating. Right. Except for I'm about to nail it because I can do a perfect headstrong from trapped. Totally. Final question is you, I think, got your break through, Vind Angel or in Angel Studios, whatever they called. Dry Bar. I'm so sorry. Dry Bar. It's all the same. Who is run by. They own, they're owned by Angel. Is there a fear when you get on with them that you'll be pigeonholed? There was. Not just for you, but for other people?

Do they find, like, oh, I don't want to know. I think maybe because they're clean, people will be worried. I was worried about it. Before my conversion, I was, like, overtly dirty in my podcast that I used to have and in my live shows and stuff, just to sort of juxtapose myself. Like, I'm not just, I was like, I can be clean. I have nothing against being clean, but like, I'm not a clean comic. I'm like a lot of things.

And then after my conversion, I was like, what am I doing? Just be clean. I'll perform for more people. I'll make more money. There's no reason to be gross or mean or rude. So I was like, what am I doing? So, but yeah, I don't know. I don't know.

Final question. If you could have people right now look up a clip of you doing a comedy bit, what is the clip you would have them? Like if there was one clip that existed on the internet, everything else was deleted. Everything else was deleted. Of your catalog. Only one thing left. Yeah, what would it be so that they can go check it out?

Alligator boys. Yeah. That's the one everyone loves. Lately though, people have been getting really into my karate story. Oh, it's excellent. I've had so many people be like crying stories my new favorite. The way you said those three words is excellent. All holds barred.

Yeah. Dude, when I was writing that joke, that's when I was writing that joke, That's when I realized what that means, that certain holds are barred. So when you're in a fight and no holds are barred, all holds are okay. They're saying you could choke people out or whatever. At the time, I was like, whoa. I didn't get that before. I just learned that as you said it.

Yeah, yeah. If you had it just said to me, what does no holds barred mean? I would have just went, I think it means you can do whatever you want, but I didn't, that makes sense. Yeah, yeah. All right. So Shane Smith, Alligator, boys, Shane Smith, karate, check those out. Yes. Thank you for being here.

So stoked to be here. What is your website that probably has a... Shane Smithcom.com. Shane spelt with a lie. It's so easy to find me. Google Face Tattoo a comedian. Yes. I'm the only one that I know of.

We will put links in the description below so they don't even have to remember how to spell your name. Thanks for being here. Dude. So happy to be here.