The Commercial Break - TCB Infomercial: Brandon Rogers

Episode Date: October 28, 2025

Comedian, filmmaker, and human fever dream Brandon Rogers drops into The Commercial Break this week to confirm what we’ve all suspected: there’s no off-switch. Bryan and Krissy try to get a straight answer out of the man who gave the world Blame the Hero, Magic Funhouse, and a thousand unhinged YouTube characters—but every question becomes a sketch, every story turns into a therapy session, and somehow Bryan ends up confessing his browser history. It’s a high-speed collision of absurdity, sincerity, and accidental wisdom as Brandon explains how he creates his twisted universes, why he never truly plays himself, and what happens when your fans quote your filthiest lines in front of your mom. Tune in for one part interview, two parts improv, and a splash of nervous sweat—because talking to Brandon Rogers is like drinking five espressos and waking up inside a TikTok. Brandon's things! YouTube Instagram TikTok Helluva Boss To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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And now, now you can't do that. And BAFTA award winner Lenny James. You're about to have a plague of outsiders descend on your town. Let me tell you this. It's got to be consequences. Mayor of Kingstown, new season now streaming on Paramount Plus. Excuse me. Can you please stop coughing? It's gross. Yes, I'm vaping. So what? You cannot vape on the plate.

I will breathe what I want, and I will be who I want. You got to stop vaping. You can't tell me what to do this close to pride months. Let the guy vape if he wants to. Thank you, Miss. On this episode of the commercial break. In a way, my work has always been really tailored for this vertical short form. grab the audience kind of system that we have now. And I'm trying to embrace that.

I'm trying to lean into it. No one's gotten anywhere by refuting progress and being like, imagine when the toilet came out, all the people were like, I refuse to adapt. I will shit myself continuously. I will continue to fill these pants. No, but so yeah, verticals, I think that's the biggest shift.

And just, you know, I watch a lot of comedy. I know what's hot right now. I know the things that are... I try not to do anything super topical so that people 10 or 20 years from now or further can find my work and still enjoy it. The next episode of the commercial break starts now. Oh, yeah, cats and kittens.

Welcome back to the commercial break. I'm Brian Green. This is my dear friend and the co-hosts of his show. Chris and Joy Haudley. Best to you, Chris. Best to you out there in the podcast. Best to you out there in the podcast. Podcast Universe. And thanks for joining us on a TCB infomercial Tuesday with comedian, actor, director, YouTube sensation, social media star. And now, writer and producer of a very popular streaming show, a cartoon called Hell of a Boss on Amazon Prime, Brandon Rogers. Now, for those of you who aren't familiar with Brandon Rogers, I am at a loss for words.

No, I know. There's really no thing, one thing to describe him. No, but I would say if I had to like intro him, I would say from, or I had to intro his work, I would say from the twisted mind of Brandon Rogers. His comedy is off color, offbeat, quirky, goes places that, you know, that most comedians don't go. Let's just be honest about it. It is weird, wild improv comedy. And I like it. It's dark humor. And I like it. Most of it, I like. and he has amassed an incredible following of people, and rightfully so. He's prolific on YouTube. He's done this now hell of a boss on Amazon Prime, and, you know, he's taken over social media.

He's got millions and millions and millions of followers, and I do understand why, because people like that. They like that twisted sense of humor. Look at Adult Swim. Adult Swim made an entire catalog of shows that, quite frankly, were never. fit for prime time. No, Mr. Pickles? Oh my God. Jeff and I, I remember the first time we saw that show, we were like, what? What? In the fuck children's hospital? A murdering psychopathic dog, satanic dog that runs around in Mr. Pickles. It's so dark, but it's hilarious. It is hilarious. And if you like that kind of humor, you are going to love this show. Royal Crackers is

another show that is, I think of Brandon when I watch Royal Crackers, which I believe is on, I want to say it's on Netflix, but I don't know, but it's a cartoon that's just twisted. I mean, it's fucked up. It's so twist. It's about a family that owns a crackers business. Like, they make crackers and they're rich and, you know, they're fighting the other cracker company. It's really, but they're killing everybody and heads are flying off and, you know, boners. And it's just a weird, wild show. And just like, you know, Tim and Eric, awesome show, great job. All those shows. It's in the vein of all of that type of comedy, but he's doing it in his own way.

He's building a little empire, quite frankly, over there. What I saw, and I'd love to talk to him about this, what I saw just in preparation for this show, he had the conjoined twins on. Do you know who I'm talking about the two conjoined twins? Let me see, let me, what were their names, conjoined twins married? One of them is married. Do you know who I'm talking about? Yes, I do. Abby and Brittany Hensel.

Okay. Abby and Brittany Hensel, very famous conjoined twins. They've been on all the shows, Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, Dr. This, Dr. That. Really, because of the medical oddity that is conjoined twins, the rarity, the oddity. But Brandon puts them in a whole different light, and they are wild in his skits. I mean, wild in his skits. And I love it because here's what I like about it. He's not making fun of them. He's having fun. with them and that is a completely yeah those are two different things he handles it with he handles it with care essentially but he still goes there it's still crazy and they're still making fun of themselves and the people around them and their condition and it is awesome because otherwise what would these two twins like who else is going to put them in a movie or a skit or whatever brandon you know put them in there and he's put them in a number of different skits and every fucking one of them is hilarious every one of them.

So I love it. I love that he's, you know, giving... Opportunities. Giving the opportunities, but then also looking at the... And for people not to be like, oh, no, like, sorry for them. Yeah, they can do for themselves. Let's help them to be pitied and, you know, puddled and humbled and all this other stuff. No.

Brandon's like, no, these two girls are funny. Let's let them rip, right? And they do rip. There they go. And also, he puts a cast of characters around him. that is similar in the way that they are not stereotypical Hollywood actors, actresses, comedians. They are just people who are funny, but would probably be overlooked in the typical Hollywood setting. And then he goes to fucked up places with them.

I mean, fucked up places with them. It is really. And he does a cast of characters. Brandon's great. Crabapple on crack. That's what Brandon does. And he does it for real on video. It is fucking fantastic.

So I'm going to put all of the links in the show notes. Go watch Hell of a Boss on Amazon Prime. I'm really curious to see what we get here. I have seen him do interviews and character. Okay. So I don't know. We don't know what to expect. I have no idea.

There's no expectations. So let's just, we're all going to wade through this together. And, you know, if you don't hear from Chrissy and I after this, then it was Brandon's fault, I guess. There you go. All right. What do you say? We do this.

Let's take a break. And when we get back, through the magic. of tele-podcasting Brandon Rod, the very famous Brandon Rogers, right here with us in studio on that TV. I say, let's do it. We'll be back. Hey, it's Rachel, your new voice of God here on TCB. And just like you, I'm wondering just how much longer this podcast can continue. Let's all rejoice that another episode has made it to your ears, and I'll rejoice that my check is in the mail.

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Now, I'm going to go check the mailbox for payment while you check out our sponsors. And then we'll return to this episode of the commercial break. And the twisted mind of Brandon is here with us, Chrissy, right now. I'm very excited. Welcome. Welcome. Maybe we can untwisted a little on this podcast. Well, who would want that? I mean, who would want the untwisted mind of Brandon Rogers?

A lot of people wanted me straight for many years. I was talking about that kind of twisting, but I, I wonder, where do you, where is this comic sensibility comic? Listen, I'm a huge fan of the dark humor. Yes. Of the, just like, you interviewed those conjoined, or not interview, but you did the skits with those conjoined twins. And I thought to myself, this is brilliant. Not, and one of the reasons why I thought it was brilliant is because they were in on the, they were in on it. And that makes it to me so much more funny that. it's not just beating down on someone. It's like, hey, let's have fun with this. Where does this comic sensibility come from? We need to be okay with laughing at dark things because life is dark and humor needs to keep up if it's worth anything.

And so I just, I've always had a family who joke about dark things, joke about death and disease, joke about conflict, divorce, religion. Nothing was off the table with my family. It was just how we got through things. get through tough times, you just have to laugh at stuff. Because, you know, you're going to die, and then that's that. And we exist in this small little window between two eternities.

You know, why take it so fucking seriously? Anyway, I think the twins are a great example of that. The twins are a prime example of laughing at just what life has given you, because what else are you going to do about it? Just lay tormented with it and just exist miserably. I don't plan on that. And so, no, I appreciate you saying that. I think that there's a lot of people who feel uncomfortable laughing at stuff that they believe they should be taking seriously when, I mean, life is so short. I think that's, I think the way that you described it is best said. If we can't laugh at the darkest things, then we're kind of fucked, right? Because then what are we doing?

Then we're just sitting in it forever and wallowing in it forever. And I think also that comedy helps to open up energetically to a place that can allow for healing and all this stuff. And these conjoined twins, when I saw that, again, the part that I thought made it even funier was they're in on it. It's fun with them. They are having fun with it, too. How did you come up with that idea, by the way? Well, actually, it's actually the one on the right, Lupe, she's the one that came up with everything. Carmen is often the more vocal one,

but Lupe's the sick, twisted, fucking, she's the one who thought of the worst humor, you know, one of them, we just did a film called The Night at the Park, and it's all my character, it's like my end game of all my,

like, most recent successful characters, and of course I had the twins in there, and there's this big storyline that one of them is secretly dating, a trans lesbian, and the other one doesn't, about it because she's chloroforming her every night. And just the shit they came up with, and she says, you try being conjoined without chloroform.

Or, oh, we're dating a trans girl. Am I, are we pregnant now? Do we need to find some stairs? This is just shit that she was saying. And I'm really glad we got it on camera because a lot of that dialogue, she just comes up with on the spot. And, you know, you could argue that she's just really funny. But I think that for someone improvised like that, with such a dark, tasteful sense of humor, it speaks to a larger genius that I think she has. And I think that, I hope that she has a future in comedy writing because some of my greatest jokes on my channel this year came from her.

And so, you know, yeah. That's great. And I love that. I love that. Yeah. And I love that also that one of the things that, you know, I don't want to make comparisons because there is no comparison. But one of the things that I appreciated about, like, Stern with the whack pack is that he would bring them in and people would laugh at them, but they were also in on the joke, too. And he was also giving opportunities to people that might otherwise just be walked, that would be taken as an oddity, right? But then they're people and they have personalities. And, like, it humanizes people who sometimes might get overlooked. So I really, I really appreciate what you're doing in that sense. How do you come up with these characters? these wild fucking characters.

Yeah, what's the process? Is it just like wake up one morning and as twisted as I can get, figure it out? Not really. I mean, my videos are largely a reflection of the resources I had at that time and whatever I was inspired by what movies I was really into at that time.

It's sort of just whatever I felt like making. And the actors that I choose, you were saying, you know, talking about diversity and giving roles to people who might not otherwise shine elsewhere, I've considered myself really lucky to have the actors that I do.

I think that not only are they talented, but they're extremely enjoyable to work with. I think I like a group of people that don't look like they belong together. Like, whenever we go out and grab dinner after a video or drinks, I think people try and determine, like, are these coworkers? Are they, there's, who are these people?

Why? Because we don't look like we would hang out with each other. To me, whenever I'm casting, obviously, you have to, you know, you have to act. That's number one. But then on top, like, in terms of appearance, I'm always drawn to people who look very unique or have a very unique element to them. I don't know. I feel like Hollywood is still very, very attractive, and it's still very, and I know how

I sound about body positivity and this and that, but it's true. It's still very much like a beautiful place where being a good-looking gets-you places. And I don't know. I'm just not drawn to a character who looks like society is kind to them. There's nothing about that type of, that I don't relate to it. I certainly don't see myself as that. And so when I see characters who have a uniqueness to them or who don't look conventionally attractive or don't fit that very thin mold, inherently I'm going to listen to them a little

bit more. I'm going to side with them a little bit more. I kind of understand them more. And so, anyway, I think that Carmen and Lupe, I think that they're two of the most talented people I've gotten to work with this year. And I just, I really also just love working with them. They're really great on set. They're very chill. We worked late hours into the night, and neither of them complained.

And so hopefully I get to do more with them very soon. Is there like a line, Brandon, that you ever feel? Do you ever have a line in your head where you go, oh, that's too far? Or do you just let it fly and let it sort itself out later? I mean, the line is if it hurts anyone, if anyone is upset by something. Obviously, comedy is supposed to be meant to be a positive getaway from whatever the viewer is going through in life. And the moment you make them reflect on something negative or make them – because art can do that. You can be watching a funny movie and something can trigger something in you that, you know, hurts.

Obviously, if that's my one line is just, you know, like, I fully believe in just doing whatever the fuck I want to do in life unless it hurts anyone. And so, like, that's the one caveat I have, not just with comedy, just with anything I do. I feel like happiness at all costs except the pain of others. And so, yeah, same thing goes with my work with comedy. I think that's pretty much the only line, though. I feel like if the person's laughing, then fuck it. Who cares what it was shot on or how it was done or whether they laughed. And that's really the bottom line of the channel since day one.

Now, I agree with you. I think that it's a good philosophy in life to have it. You know, first of all, live and let live, no matter what it is, unless you're hurting somebody else. Right? That's like the one thing. It's the golden rule, right? Do unto others. And so as long as you're not hurting anybody else, I don't give a shit what you do. It doesn't matter to me. Right, right, right. Those are personal choices that you make and I don't have to agree with every single one. But, you know, as long as it's not hurting anybody, I really don't care. But I have to imagine, and I'm not trying to dig or poke, but I have to imagine that some of your comedy sometimes gets a reaction out of people. I mean, it's just the nature of what you do. Oh, yeah. I just did a video where I play a cult leader. And that, offended. And weirdly enough, that offended Catholic people. And so I'm like, well, I'm playing a cult leader. I'm not playing a Catholic priest, so the fact that you're getting offended is more telling about what your beliefs are. But yeah, I mean, here's the thing. The larger the audience grows, the larger the chances are that a fraction of those people are going to

not enjoy a joke that you make or something like that. But I feel like at this point, at this point, people often know what they're getting into when they, or at least when they're a video or two deep in my arsenal, I feel like they know what they're getting. It's a way of sorting itself out. Yeah. Right, right. Usually people's first introduction to me, there's probably some kind of swear word or a, like, my naked body or something. There's vomit or something, you know. So, yeah, I'm very upfront about what my comedy is. and I don't try and pull in people and trick that. I mean, there's enough safe comedy on the internet.

I'm very upfront about being bad with mine. Well, that's very, that brings up an interesting thought in my head is, as you have been on YouTube and a YouTube creator growing your audience, which, by the way, for those listening that aren't familiar with Brandon's work, he's immensely popular. And as you have grown on YouTube and become, you know, more of a prolific creator and getting more attention, how has the evolution of YouTube affected your own creative process? Verticals have been the biggest pivot in my career. Because I'm a filmmaker at heart, and I've learned this is how you tell a story, this wide script.

Because that's how our eyes are. That's how we examine a room when we walk into it. That's how everything is horizontal to us as our eyes are like this. But our palms are like this. And we now have this device that it was only a matter of time before this is going to happen. Before we have devices, we can watch movies in our hands, and our hands hold things like this. So now we have to relearn telling stories in a vertical way, which provides new options. but also provides a lot of limitations.

You know, characters, if two characters are talking to each other on screen, they have to stand this close to each other. Otherwise, or you have to see their whole body and, you know. Yeah, very interesting. Yeah, that's true. So, yeah, in vertical, I mean, it's just, if you want something to pop off, it's far more likely with a vertical video than a horizontal video. That's just how the algorithms on almost every platform are tailored now.

Who knows how long this could last? It could be forever. It couldn't just be for another few years. I don't know. But the truth is, if you really want something to go viral, it's not going necessarily to happen the same way it did 10 years ago, which is, oh, let me think of a video that a lot of people are searching, and hopefully a lot of people will look for it.

We're in this sort of stumble upon time period, where you have to make something that's really going to Google Gaga catch them in that moment right there, as opposed to, like, being educated about what their interests are and trying to find what they're going to be searching for. It's more just, for me, at least, I've been finding a lot of success in getting people to stop scrolling. And as a doom scroller myself, I'm very aware of what makes me stop scrolling.

This isn't a way I would think 10 years ago. This way of trying to grab people's attention was not... But ironically, it's how I got famous, because I never made Vine content that took off. People were taking my clips out of context from YouTube and throwing them on Vine. And that sort of go-go-go-gaga grab your attention aspect of them is what blew me up. And so, in a way, my work has always been really tailored for this vertical short form,

grab the audience kind of system that we have now. And I'm trying to embrace that. I'm trying to lean into it. No one's gotten anywhere by refuting progress and being, like, imagine when the toilet came out, all the people were like, I refuse it. to adapt. I will shit myself continuously. I will continue to fill these pants.

No, but so yeah, verticals. I think that's the biggest shift. And just, you know, I watch a lot of comedy. I know what's hot right now. I know the things that are, I try not to do anything super topical so that people 10 or 20 years from now or further can find my work and still enjoy it.

But I do try and follow comedy, especially if there's a comedic trend that I find funny. I try and jump on it as much as I can. But yeah, vertical short form. That's the biggest change. That is interesting. And you do bring up a point that's pretty obvious to content creators, which is, you know,

even when we first started, you were playing for the search, right? You were playing for the search. What is being searched? What is trending? What is searching? Now, it is more of what gets someone's attention in the first two seconds, because that's what everyone is doing is flipping, flipping, flipping on this. And what you're describing is a very technical requirement of trending right now, which is it's got to be vertical. It's got to be

short. It's got to capture people's attention in the first three seconds. Anytime we have a reel go viral, the number one thing it says on the back end, on the dashboard, is this reel is trending because it catches people in the first three seconds, right? And so everybody knows that. And really your stuff is so visually either disturbing, whatever it is, right? It's that you have to stop. And that's why I'm not really that angry about all this, right?

Because I do feel like my stuff lends itself to that grabby kind of format. And also, the vertical shape, like, I'm not grabbing anyone with my, like, you know, landscape imagery or my beautiful cinema. I'm grabbing people with character stuff, and characters are vertical. You know, they're, so when I say that there's cons to the, you know, vertical, it's mainly because you can't tell a story the same way as a filmmaker,

but you can tell a story as a clown easier because it's about this. It's about the person. And so that's why I don't think it's better or worse. I think it's just new. I think that we are in this new aspect ratio that is a clown comedian, you know, actor. It's great for me because it makes it more. about the subject than it is about the situation. And so, yeah, the inner filmmaker in me still makes horizontal videos because I love making

short films, but I think the comedian in me or the clown in me really is embracing the vertical lifestyle. And so, yeah, it's just, it's different. And it's fun, because here I am at 37, re-learning a way to do what I love. That's really cool. And it doesn't bother me at all. And so I like to think of myself as adaptable for whatever kind of changes the algorithm throws at us down the line. And yeah, I'm just thankful that this is a pretty fun limitation.

It's a way of staying relevant, right? What you're describing is relevance is understanding where we are in kind of the arc of time and the arc of popularity and the arc of ending and then you say, okay, I can meet it there by doing the following things. I can take my own creative process. Yeah, it's always changing. Yeah, it's always changing. And it's always been changing. There's nothing new under the sun. It's moving faster, I think, than it ever has before. But it's changing. Do you find yourself close to any of your characters that you create? Are there ones that you just like, I'm sure you're close to all of them, right? They come from you. They're your babies. It's just like when the commercial break. It's our baby. We love it. But,

Are there any characters specifically that you feel attached to, closest to? Very, very much so. And in fact, sometimes I kind of lean into behaving like my characters without realizing it almost as a way to, like, how I'm supposed to behave at a certain setting. I don't know if that makes sense. I know it makes sense to, I don't know if it's a, I feel like we all kind of do this. We all kind of become certain versions of ourselves when we go to, say, like a, a, christening versus the library, versus a pub, versus a concert, right, versus an orgy, versus, you know, it's like, we're all, in a way, I find myself adopting traits that my characters have when I go to certain places, almost as if I'm taking parts of those characters, characters, and wearing them as armor, uh, social armor when I go to place, you know, I have characters who are confident and I almost kind of pick, have them in my mind when I'm self-perceiving, like, it's weird. Yeah. And also, if I play a character for a long time, if I'm talking like them all day, and then let's say we go out to a bar

after we're filming, I'll be talking to people at the ball. I'll find, like, that voice still coming out of me, as if this stranger I'm talking to is in on the joke, like, as if they're, because I'll do it with my crew. I won't break character, for instance, with my crew, just as, because, like, when I'm playing, like, Diana Halliburg, she's a Hollywood actress, right? When I'm playing her, we'll be done, we'll cut, I'm out of the makeup but the whole crew, we're all talking like her, we're all in on the show, and then we'll go out for drinks

and we'll still be doing it, but now to strangers, and they don't get what the voice is, and they're not... So that's kind of where a character, they can kind of stick to you like glitter, or or beach sand, you know, but also

they're just fun to play. I create them for a reason. They're just, it's fun drag, and it's Sometimes you don't want to get out of it. Sometimes I'll leave a costume on if I go to a party or something just for fun. Especially on Halloween. If we're filming during October, I'll go to a Halloween party and just wear whatever character I was playing. And it's like, oh, I already have the costume.

Do you get recognized a lot out there as just regular Brandon? This last year, it has happened a lot more than ever. Like, this last year it happened. To a point where I don't leave. I've stopped leaving my house without sunglasses or makeup just because I've had people just right out in the street as soon as I walk outside. They just happen to recognize me as they're walking by.

I don't think they're waiting for me. But I've had people just flat out recognize me when I look like dog shit. And then sometimes they don't ask for a photo. They'll be filming. I've had people film me when I'm in the line at the airport for TSA. There's like a 20-minute video out there of me just in line at TSA the whole time, just zoomed in, like, Sasquatch.

But it's, in my audience, they're all, I mean, I love them. They're amazing. And they're weird, but I'm weird too. And mostly, largely, my audience are people that I was in a previous time in my life. Most of them are people, like, remind me of college, me, or high school me. Like, really authentically me, like, someone I can understand. when I see them. And I'm really glad because not everyone has a fan base that they can identify with.

I do a lot of conventions, and I meet a lot of actors who have these lines of people who not a single one of them they relate to. And I'm just so fucking thankful that I can, that I know what my fans are finding funny about my work because I find it funny because we have the same sense of humor. And so, yeah. The difference might be, just flying on, you know, thinking off the rip, is that you are creating the characters that come from you. But a lot of actors who get famous, they get famous from playing a character or a part. That's someone else handed to them.

That's right. Right? And if they don't embody that character, they acted that character. They lived it for a short period of time and then it outlived them. And they never expected that. Now they go to these conferences and they see people who are in love with the character. And then the only living thing that they can get close to. to about that character is the actor who played it. And so I think that, you know, you're not having, there's still a parasycial relationship going on there. You don't know any of these people who are filming you.

But for some reason, right, you identify with them because you created the characters that they fall in love with. You are that, that is that. And it's all just one and the same. So I think that I'm just guessing that that is part of the reason why you identify with your fans so much. They're in love, not with some goofy characters. but the Brandon who created the character.

And you know that. Right. Which is a very authentic part of me. You know, I grew up with a family who didn't always understand what I do or like, or, you know, they've always supported me, but they weren't necessarily, you know, my mom and my dad are now my biggest fans, but they weren't always. You know, they, it wasn't, it was very much a hobby of mine for a long time. And, um, I, I feel like, what was, what was the question you were just asking? I was, I'm just wondering if the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, I was saying that I believe that you identify with a lot of your fans. Yeah. So, yeah. Okay. So my family knows a very specific part of me. They know a very personal side of me and they love me for that. And I always felt like this frustration because the people

who love me didn't necessarily also love me for this thing that I cared very much about. But then my fans loved me for that. And I felt. like I was kind of split between, like, my family and my fans who, like, loved me for different reasons. And then it took me a long time to realize that these characters that I play come from a very authentic part of me. And if my fans love that, they are also loving an equally real part of me that my family, you know, just doesn't. So it took me a long time. What I'm trying to say is it took me a while to legitimize what you're talking to, to think that, like, where these characters are coming from is just as much part of my soul.

as just who I am in real life. Like, it's my art. It's my self-expression, and it's what I spend a lot of time and thought on. And for someone to enjoy that part of me, that's a big part of my soul. And I wasn't giving that enough credit way back in the day. But, yeah, these characters all come from a very personal side of me. I'm not cranking out characters that I'm hoping the algorithm at that time loves. I'm coming up with characters that I've kind of always had in my head.

a lot of these characters I've had since like childhood or high school just characters you know you come up with drag fantasies of like certain types of people like when I was a kid I always had this like semi-drag fantasy of this 80s business woman that later

turned into Bryce and and so on and so far like a lot of the characters that I play came from somewhere very rooted inside of me and there's still other characters and personalities I want to play that are you know I'll still from my youth. So anyway, yeah, I think that they all come from somewhere very, some of them are more rooted

in me than others, but theoretically I don't really play a character unless I feel like I understand at least part of their point of view. And I think that's why the audience relates so much not only to, they get excited not only about the characters and the videos and the stuff that you do, but then they also get excited about Brandon, too, because they recognize that comes from his brain. Right, and I love artists for, like, musicians or directors for that reason. I think what I'm most a fan of when it comes to an artist of any kind is their sensibility of what they curate into their work.

So, like, you know, Lady Gaga, Tarantino, Tim Burton, you're not necessarily like, oh, my gosh, they are, the movie is about this. or they cast this person, for me, with those artists, it's like, I'm getting a slice of someone's sensibilities that I already love. And I'm getting what they curated into something that they like, so hopefully I'll like it. And so I want to be more than acting, more than directing or editing.

I want to be known, I think, mostly for just my comedic sensibilities and comedic taste, for someone to watch. watch something and be like, wow, this feels like a Brandon Rogers production. That's a huge compliment because it means that there's already a brand of mine out there. And I think that that brand, especially in the world of comedy, is super rare. I'm sorry. Well, what were you know? It's okay. I just wanted to share that I do think you have a certain style, a certain sensibility that feels very recognizable, right? I think it's very unique. And anybody who watches the videos, just even a short amount of time, is probably going to identify that

That's a very unique sensibility and styling. Well, going back to what you were saying about characters coming from one's self and not from the exterior, like, all of my heroes, just about all of the people who have inspired me, it's the same thing. The stuff that they, the characters they played or the work that they produced came from themselves. Like, Paul Rubin is a huge inspiration of mine, and just about everything he ever did came from himself or everything he was really known for was, like, you know, it wasn't necessarily, that I loved him acting as Pee Wee Herman, I loved the things Pee We did because I know it was the

things Paul was doing. I know it was like him pulling the strings and you kind of admire it through the character. Same with Mr. Bean. Same with Amy Sedaris, Jerry Blank. These are characters that were created with love because they would have to be played by the creator. And same with John Waters. I know John Waters is an actor, but his films you're looking into a very personal part of him. Like, that's part of his, that's his soul. And so, again, it's an artist's brand or their familiar sensibilities. That's what I, more than anything, am attracted to in an artist, but also want to be known

for as an artist, above anything else. But yeah, so anyway, that's all to say, thank you for saying that, because I, that's what I work hard, I try to achieve that. Well, it comes from a place of sincerity. When you have so much success, now you've got a prime show, right? Hell of a boss. And so now you really have reached mainstream. The little characters that had their seedlings when you were a kid and running around

and having these drag fantasies. And then it's all manifested into now this incredibly popular YouTube channel, kind of like a little empire that you're creating. And then now you've reached. into Amazon Prime. How fucking outrageously crazy is that, Brandon? I'm just trying to put myself in your shoes and think of that little kid running around

having characters in his head and fast forward to 30 years later and you've got a show you can turn on on Prime. There's certainly a lot of noise that can be funneled into things like imposter syndrome or just distracting overwhelming noise. And I think I keep telling me,

myself, we've made it this far, stick to your guns. Stick to what you think is funny. Stick to the, because I always have. I've always stuck to, you know, what I, what I, I've never done jokes thinking that like, oh, this is really popular right now, so let's do this thing. You know, it really has to tickle me from inside. I think way back in the day when I was, like, when I was trying to vlog and trying all these different forms of YouTube videos, I was doing things. I was doing things that I didn't necessarily believe in because I was hoping the algorithm would favor me. But it wasn't until I really started being authentic to what I find funny, what I think, what I think the world needs more of or what I want to put more out there of. Then the channel

started to take off. And so now that we're on prime, it's just this level of like, don't change yourself. Don't alter yourself. Don't be someone you're not because you've made it this far. You made it here because of a certain brand of humor. So don't go back on it now. And also the fans that have stuck around because of my brand of humor, the fans that have grown to be familiar with my sensibilities, my biggest fear is changing them because I'm on a bigger platform or because I have a bigger audience.

So anyway, and also, I think more people laugh at dark humor than they're willing to admit. I agree with that statement. I really do. You'd be surprised how many parents I meet that look conservative, act conservative, but kind of chuckle under their breath and just be like kind of, they'll come up to me at the table and they'll be like, you know, he doesn't know I watch your stuff. Like after their kid walks away, they don't know I watch your stuff. Like, I do think that there's an inherent part of us that is like clamoring and clawing to laugh at the dark stuff in life. But especially as the world gets darker, right? If we're not, listen, we should be fighting it, but then if we're not fighting it, then we should be laughing at it because that's the way that we're going to get through.

And also, like I said, energetically, it opens us up to. solutions and other perspectives and different, you know, but not the, beyond all of that, beyond all of the, like, the lofty goals of comedy, right? The reality is, sometimes you just need to laugh to get through a really shitty thing. Yeah, and honestly, I like to normalize that idea. I hope, if anything, my channel allows people to feel like they can laugh at things easier, or at least it's a place where they can safely laugh at things. it's the internet so anyone could just go under their covers and just it's a very personal form of

comedy yeah and um i don't know i i know how much comedy got me through high school middle school i was a big fan of mad tv and i think mad tv oh way over snl not no shade on snl but i mad tv was like fearless and it had sketches written by people of all walks of life so they got away with jokes just because they were written by voices that didn't on other shows get a voice. And so seeing that, even as a middle schooler, that wasn't lost on me. I could tell they were doing something different. And I loved it for the diversity. I loved that the cast, again, was a group of people who didn't look like they would necessarily

hang out with each other. They all had different comedic flavors, and I really enjoyed that. And I think if I didn't have that show, I wouldn't necessarily have that love for creating an ensemble cast of weirdos. Because, like, Mad TV, they were all just very differently weird. And they're still fucking amazing. I still follow all of them. And I want to have that kind of effect on people because that show opened so many doors

in my brain. It showed me ways that I could laugh or sketches that I could do or type. of ways to convey just comedy to a large audience that just felt unique and original. And so, anyway, I forget where I was going with that, where I was going with that. Have you ever met any of the mad TV people that you admire? I have. I was in a Sum 41 music video with Will Saso. I have met Michael McDonald. He was directing a movie in an apartment building. I was living in at one time.

And shit. Yeah. And what the fuck else? That might be it, actually. I would love to meet Deborah Wilson. I think, of all of them, Deborah Wilson was probably my favorite. And Alex Borstein. Fucking funny, man.

Yeah. I think the seedling for Madd-D-V was living color. In living color. Yeah. Which was popular when I was in middle school. and then that, then Mad TV came along. I think the difference is that Saturday Night Live was on a main, like Fox was trying to make a name for itself, right?

And so they were willing to do things that pushed the envelope. And they were willing to allow the creators to just kind of take the reins on both in Living Color and Mad TV and Saturday Night Live, Lauren was always playing for the next season. He was playing defense where I think Mad TV and In Living Color were playing all that's when it came to, when it came to comedy. And Lauren just wanted to make sure he got another season, right? So, no, knock on, on Lauren. He's obviously the most successful, Saturday Live is one of the most successful television shows ever, and it will continue on, I think, for years and years.

So now you've got hell of a boss on Prime. What is next for you? What is in the works? Is it to continue to do, continue to creatively expand on YouTube and social media? Or are there other things in the works you can tell us about? Break news here on this show. nothing that I can necessarily outwardly say that I'm working on yet

but it's honestly YouTube is just a place where I don't feel like I'm reaching a ceiling of any kind I feel like YouTube every I just have the resources and the network now to make whatever production I want and it almost becomes so overwhelming because it's like what do I want to spend the next few months making or what do I want to spend?

And that's just a wonderful thing to have I have the sandbox to play with and the audience to, you know, play it for. And then beyond that, yeah, I think beyond YouTube, I would love to continue expanding my brand of comedy onto other platforms, you know, like, I would like to see what my comedy looks like, you know, maybe as its own animated thing or as a Netflix sketch special or something to that, you know, I think that the voice that I have can be translated into different formats that could be really interesting. Yeah, I look at some of your stuff and I think to myself that there is some streamer out there, I would imagine. I mean, even maybe an OTT streamer,

like, you know, Tooby or whoever it would be that would love to onboard some of your content or create new content. You would think that would be a good thing. Well, if you hear from them, give them my email. I'm still waiting to hear from them on me. So I think that's why you are in the driver's seat, Brandon, is because you have now built this audience of your own that lives on YouTube and other platforms. And the audience is undeniable. And the people in the Hollywood positions or whatever you want to call them,

the executive producers and the content directors and all that, they will find their way to you. They will. It's happening more and more. I mean, I just read that someone who makes, You know, one-minute soap operas just got like a $20 million deal to make one-minute soap operas. Have you heard about this? If one-minute soap operas are getting greenlit, I'm sure some of your content is going to get greenlit also. I think you're in for a ride here, buddy. I really do. Well, I told Netflix, I knocked on their door, I said, I do anything. And now I'm not allowed within 20 feet of their headquarters. Brandon Rogers has a YouTube channel that's extremely popular. There are links. down in the show notes hell of a boss is now on amazon prime you can stream it there um

brandon i really appreciate you coming on here you have a sick and twisted mind and i love it i think it's great i i really think that i think you're doing something so unique we need it now that you know adult adult swim has kind of been defanged and a lot of these other places where we would normally mainstream see this type of stuff is getting defanged a little bit of bit. I think we need the Brandon Rogers out there pushing the envelopes, making it funny, making it fucked up, because that's where something really funny can live, but that's also something that pushes the envelope and allows for the next creators to come in and push the envelope even further. You're pushing boundaries. I love it. Thank you. Thank you. And I just want to

say, you host an amazing show. This is, y'all are such great hosts and you keep a great flow moving. I feel like almost no editing is needed here. We have, we, we, we, we, we, we really filled in all the gaps and um we won't edit anything yeah and you're and you're just you're just thank you for promoting comedy i mean i don't i feel like we need it now more than ever and uh y'all are helping bring to light some really great names out there so thank you brandon roger thank you i really we really do appreciate that and we are big supporters of comedy and that's mainly who we talk about and it's mainly who we talk to and um we're glad that we finally had a chance to connect with you. Brandon Rogers, links in the show notes.

Thank you so much, my friend. Thank you. Thanks to you. And you're welcome back anytime in the future. Thank you. Okay, you're probably wondering why I, Rachel, have taken over the voice duties at TCB. It's pretty simple. Astrid asked me to shut Brian up, even for a minute.

Well, lovely, Astrid, your wish is my command. Do you want to help Astrid, too? You know you do. Leave a message for her, or me or Chrissy, at 212. 4333-3-3-tcb. That's 212-433-3822. You can be on the show too. Mm-hmm. Just call and say something. Anything. Or text us and we'll text you're right back. Promise. Then head over to TCB Podcast.com and get your free sticker. It's your constitutional right to a sticker and we must abide. You get the point. Follow us on Instagram at the commercial break and watch all the episodes on video at YouTube.com slash the commercial break. Best to you. and Astrid, especially Astrid. Well, we did not get Brandon in character. What we got was a very down-to-earth, a nice guy.

Yeah. There you go. I know. I really loved talking to him. When the only thing you see of Brandon is his skits, then you have no fucking clue what to expect. And what we got was a very pleasant human being. I liked his background in the back, too.

It was very colorful. of Flaming Lips Show. You got to go to YouTube.com slash the commercial break because to see his background, is that his bedroom? I don't know. Is he living like a pink castle? There were like balloons, sparkly balloons and things, I think. I don't know.

I loved it. It's kind of the background I would have expected from Brandon Rogers, but not the Brandon Rogers I would have expected from Brandon Rogers. He came to us very prepared to have a serious interview. But, you know, as you mature in life, maybe you say, well, I'd like people to know the real Brandon. Rogers. And there he was. I liked him. Paul is glory.

Yeah, I liked it. And as I said, keep doing what you're doing, Brandon, because the world needs you. The comedy needs that kind of push. You know, he mentioned Pee Wee Herman. He mentioned Paul Rubens. Yeah, Paul Rubens. And Paul Rubens was always very, kind of, family friendly. That's not necessarily how he started out, but he quickly went there to family friendly.

But he was also twisted in his mind, and he always considered himself a performance artist, as per his own words. And he was just doing performance. art that came to his brain, you know, all kind of improv, weird, wild stuff. And so I love that Brandon's out there doing it. I love what Brandon's out there doing. Go check him out. All the links are down in the show notes. Uh, and go watch Hell of a Boss on Prime. I'm sure he'd appreciate it. I don't think he needs our help, but okay. Yeah. That's 16 million followers or whatever he's got. I think on YouTube, the guy's got like 22 million followers or something like that. That's, um, uh, Brandon, Rogers, YouTube.

Uh, no, 7.2 million. He's got 22 million combined. Oh, combined. Okay. Okay. Well, we have 22. So, there you go. Combined. Yeah. We're just seven zeros away. Chrissy, just seven zeros away.

So close. So close, but yet so far. Yeah. Yeah. Brandon's been doing it for, you know, a little bit longer than we have. But at this rate, I'll be 91, and we'll have our first 10,000. Yes. No, to be fair, we've got 13, 14,000 Instagram followers.

Well, I know I saw that, and I'm super proud. Super proud. Every one of them, Venezuelan, but that's okay. We'll take it anyway. We can get it. Okay, go to TCBPodcast.com. That's where you find out more information about the show, all the show notes, all the guest interviews and the links to what they're doing and where they're at. You can find all of that

on the website. Also get your free sticker. Hit the contact us button. Drop down menu says I want my free sticker. Give us your address and we'll send you one. Add the commercial break on the aforementioned Instagram. Please follow us. TCB podcast. I think we're almost up to 200 followers there on TikTok. YouTube.com slash the commercial break for all the episodes, including this one, the same day it airs here on the video in 212-4333 TCB. okay chrissey that's all i can do for now i think so tell you that i love you i love you i'll say best to you best to you and best to you out there in the podcast universe until next time christie and i will say we do say and we must say goodbye

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you just let me fly.