TRIGGERnometry - Tony Hinchcliffe: Cancelled for a Joke

Episode Date: October 29, 2023

Tony Hinchcliffe is a stand up comedian best known for his use of insult comedy. Tony is the host of the live podcast Kill Tony in which randomly selected stand ups attempt to make Tony and his friends laugh. In 2020, Tony began hosting an online course on ‘Roasting’ called RoastMaster Class, drawing from his years of experience writing for 8 Comedy Central Roasts and performing on various roasts and roast battles. SPONSORED BY: AG1. Go to https://www.drinkAG1.com/triggernometry/ to get 5 free AG1 Travel Packs and a FREE 1 year supply of Vitamin D with your first purchase! Become a Premium Member to receive exclusive benefits https://triggernometry.supercast.com/ OR Support TRIGGERnometry Here: Bitcoin: bc1qm6vvhduc6s3rvy8u76sllmrfpynfv94qw8p8d5 Music by: Music by: Xentric | [e-mail] | https://www.xentricapc.com/ YouTube:  @xentricapc   Buy Merch Here: https://www.triggerpod.co.uk/shop/ Advertise on TRIGGERnometry: [e-mail] Join the Mailing List: https://www.triggerpod.co.uk/sign-up/ Find TRIGGERnometry on Social Media:  https://twitter.com/triggerpod https://www.facebook.com/triggerpod/ https://www.instagram.com/triggerpod/ About TRIGGERnometry:  Stand-up comedians Konstantin Kisin (@konstantinkisin) and Francis Foster (@francisjfoster) make sense of politics, economics, free speech, AI, drug policy and WW3 with the help of presidential advisors, renowned economists, award-winning journalists, controversial writers, leading scientists and notorious comedians. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Give it up for the one and only Tony Hinchcliffe. This story's kind of crazy. I think you guys are in for a little bit of a treat. So here's the exclusive, is that obviously it was a coordinated attack. Obviously, he's in cahoots with the Chinese media. When you open your phone and you're on the front page of fucking everything for a joke. Whatever you do, do not apologize. Hey guys, Trigonometry needs your help.

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released 24 hours early just for you. We'll have exclusive bonus interviews that only you get to hear. Click the link on the podcast description or find the link on your podcast listening app to join us. Support us and help change the way we have conversations and make the world saner. Tony, so we had, when we had Uncle Roger on the show, he was like, so good to be on the show that you do when you get canceled. Yeah. So welcome. You were canceled a while ago that we haven't really talked much about it and we were hanging

out the other day and it's something we really wanted to discuss with you. So tell everybody what happened first of all. Well, I mean, this was in May of 2021 and I was doing a very routine Thursday workout set. I mean, very routine. It's called The Secret Show and it's called that because none of the names are announced on the show. show, which means that you, is in my position, you know, is someone that's been doing this for over a decade and a half stand-up comedy, you know, you don't have any pressure on you. So you don't have

to necessarily do your A material. You have a chance to work out new stuff. You can bomb if you want, technically. I mean, I don't go in with those intentions, but it is that kind of show. So it's literally the last show that you would expect to get canceled. It was at a big aluminum bar on 6th Street called the Vulcan Gas Company, which we made our temporary home during the pandemic when Joe was building up his club. So again, just a throwaway set on a throwaway night, a throwaway show, a throwaway lineup, just no expectations of anything. Very routine Thursday.

And I roll in and I always get to go on whenever I want on that show. is technically how sad of a world this is, but I'm the big celebrity on a show like that. That is sad. Yeah, exactly. Depressing. So I walk in. There's a comedian on stage.

I recognize him as Pang Dang, a guy that I had opened for me quite a few times in Dallas, Texas. Pulled him out of the bucket on Kill Tony many years ago, five, six years ago. I thought he was charming. and, you know, very Asian. So it's, like, different than me.

So it's fun to have someone like that open for you. So he opened for me a few times in Dallas. He was on Kiltony at least once. And so I knew that he knew me. I know him. And he's going on and on during his set about how white people are so bad. And Asian people have done all this great stuff.

And, you know, this is during, what they were trying to make appear to be Asian hate time. Like that was different during that time because there was a lot of homeless people that with mental illness attacking Asian people in New York City. So the media tried to make that a storyline. Like it was some, you know, epidemic that's happened. Yeah, like people in a comedy club need to be lectured about it

because that will stop homeless people in New York. Right. Right. Yeah. I mean, wild what the media is. covers and what they don't cover. And it was Asian Heritage Month, which no one knew at the time. That was never a thing.

I do a thing to this day where if I meet a likable Asian person, I ask them, hey, do you know what Asian Heritage Month is? And they never know. It's May, by the way. I'll never forget that one again. Anyway, so he's going on and on. And he's also, I do believe he went slightly over his time. There's just a thing that I've always.

done. I was built in the darkness of the comedy store in L.A. at a very dark time with very, you know, the comedy wasn't even that cool yet. It was more of a carnival type of thing back then. The leading, you know, Chappelle was retired and Dane Cook was on top. And it was like, it was just a dark time for the art form. And there was no Netflix. There was no real, there was no YouTube specials. So it was just up to HBO kind of in Comedy Central, which was a sinking ship. Anyway, my point is that the time when I started, when I was constructed as a comedian, was so dark, and I've always been a maker funner of people, a roaster before, that was even

a famous word, you know, it wasn't, you know, if I could take you back to 2007, you'd be surprised to know that there were roasts. They called them roast. Oh, there's the old roast with Dean Martin, and there's the Comedy Central. roast that happens every other year. But it wasn't a term like it is now. Anyway, so I got good at it. I got really, you know, I worked on it. And so I became known for that. Everybody knows that I make fun of people. Anyway, so cut back to the night that show, I am already frustrated because he's going a little long. I just want to get up and get out of there. He's saying that white people basically ain't shit and

it felt like it was kind of like you know another thing about that show specifically is sometimes they get a dumb crowd. Yeah. You know, they're going to a workout show on a Thursday night. They don't know who's going to be there. So they're kind of chuckling along and I'm thinking of myself, these

fucking idiots are laughing at fucking, you know, kind of like, yeah, I don't want to say lefty leaning, but it kind of was that night. A groaning, lefty-leaning kind of crowd that's kind of like, I'm not laughing, like giggling at the stuff that he was saying because they felt like he had the timing of it being funny.

But if you watch the video, it ain't really funny. Anyway. So it's all boiling up, and I figure, okay, I'm going to take a few jabs at him. By the way, I didn't even know he was Chinese. I was going to use the C word on him, whether he was Japanese, whatever. You know, it didn't matter to me.

I was just in the mood to use a funny, dark word. That's how I often, establish my sets at the top. I like to hit them so that the rest of the set, they're like, okay, we know what we're in for with this guy, right? So yeah, it happened. I made fun of them, the famous, very well-edited by him clip. Hello, good evening, welcome, hello.

Have about one more time for the filthy little fucking chink that was just up here? All you fucking race traders are hooping and hollering. I'm back there watching you puking in a fucking bucket. Oh, we make it a gunpowder. Oh, you wear extra soy sauce. Oh, you borrow money from us. And you guys just eating it up, you fucking pussy.

Fun facts about the moment that it happened was, you know, I had a camera rolling for my set that was rolling throughout the night. We don't ever do anything with anybody else's set, but he didn't know that there was a camera rolling throughout the night. And when he found out that he was bringing me up, he asked Red Band, the co-host and producer, Kiltony, the guy that I've worked with, we've made, you know, worked together for over a decade.

He asked him, it's his show, if he could record his set, which is, you know, rare in Texas for Austin for that to happen. But Red Band gave him permission. Red Band thought it was interesting that he asked after he found out that he was bringing me up. That's something to remember for later. This story is kind of crazy. I think you guys are in for a little bit of a treat.

And I notice that someone's recording from the audience, and it was the friend that he asked to record his set. But I ignore it. I noticed that it ends a couple minutes after I'm up there. I'm already into material, so I don't care. Who cares if they recorded me making fun of Pang Dang, you know, on a random Thursday show. No big deal. If anything, I figured if anything were to happen with that clip, he would post it under the type of caption of so fun to be roasted by my pal, you know, someone that I look up to, literally.

So that's that. that was a Thursday night, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday night. And I have, for some reason, this crazy dream that I'll never forget. And this is like totally off subject and kind of corny. But I have this weird dream about my old house. And I'm in the backyard of my old house. And there's another floor above that was never there. And I'm looking.

And I go, what is that third floor? And I go in and everything's different. how weird dreams are. And I'm going up this like ladder spiral staircase. It's all weird. And it's like all old creepy shit. There's like old dolls on the walls and stuff. And it's just creepy.

One of those weird. What is all this? What does this mean like nightmares? And I wake up and it's like, I think like 4.30 or 5 a.m. or something like that. It's Tuesday morning. And I look at my phone because I'm like wide awake. Kind of like, you know, you want to go right back to sleep.

but the dream was so weird that you're kind of like, ugh. So I'm looking at my phone, and I checked Twitter for some reason, and I have, it says, you know, when you hit the max, it just says 20 plus. Yep.

You know what I mean? And I'm like, that's weird. I went to bed, whatever, four hours ago, probably checked it then or whatever. And I click on it, and it's all these misspelled, diabolically, like, weird,

words in wrong place. As you are, fuck, fuck of you. You got message by Yoda. A lot of, I mean just every... Asian Yoda is how to go here. Different combinations of words. You, you, you suck, fuck. Nothing will you be, ever shall you fail?

I'm like, what is all this? I mean, it sounds mystical. Oh, I know. And I'm literally like, what is going on? What in the world? the world is going on. So I end up clicking on some of the profiles to see, like, what are they even referencing? Like, normally if you click on something, there's like a video or something that, you know, and then you see what they're commenting on or anything, but there wasn't anything to comment on.

But I click on another profile and another profile, and I'm clearly seeing that it's Asian, but all these people have zero followers for some reason. Zero posts is a big thing. Very common. with this. So I have no idea what's going on. And then I find one that has a video. And there's Chinese captions. And then there's a whole Chinese letter, Chinese written article underneath it. So I copy and I paste it into a translator. And it says, this is where things get weird. I think you guys will appreciate this. Because my cancellation is kind of. of special and weird in a way. Kind of like you, Tony.

Yeah. Yeah. I think so. So, I translate it, and it literally says, Chinese American comedian Pang Dang was, what was the radical terminology that they used? I mean, it was, you know, was racially, whatever. I can't even think of it.

Racially abused? Yes. Yes, something like that, just ridiculous verbiage by Tony Hinchcliffe. It doesn't say roaster, doesn't say comedian. I find it all so interesting. And it said, comedian Pang Dang tweeted at 1115 a.m. That this, and it was what he said. But what's interesting, if you remember, is that it's 4.45, 5 a.m.

1115. a.m. on Tuesday, which I'm reading in the translator, hasn't happened yet. I go to Pang Dang's Twitter to see if he's tweeted anything and he hasn't. Yes. There is no video. There is no tweet. 1115 hasn't happened yet. So I'm like, I don't know what any of this means. This is so weird. Who gives a shit? I'm going back to bed. Fall asleep, wake up an hour later. Hundreds more. You fuck die. Shit. Brain. brain shit. Fuck you. Die, die, die.

You gonna die. Die, you gonna. Gonna, you die. I'm all of these things. And I'm just scrolling like, what the fuck is going on? It's getting bigger. I fall asleep. Wake up an hour later.

It's getting bigger. Now it's like I wake up and I'm actually awake now. It's like 10.30. I check again. Pang Dang hasn't tweeted this thing. What is going on? What is this article? 1114. 1115.

And now I'm looking at it because I'm getting all of these things from this one big Chinese article. It makes sense now. It's coming from China. They're not allowed on Twitter. So that's why they have zero posts. That's why they have zero followers. This is their one way of harassing somebody in America. By creating a fake screen name or whatever, logging on and saying a bunch of jibber jabber out of place bullshit. 1115 happens and there it is. Pang dang tweets. And I remember seeing it with zero likes and zero. And zero retweets. I saw the tweet. I saw the video. The interesting thing that I forgot to mention is that in the Chinese one, it's in Chinese captions. I think it's like neon green or something like that.

And these American captions that are tweeted at 1115 in English are neon green. So immediately I'm like, okay, whoever made that, made that. And this was a coordinated, without a doubt, this was coordinated over the weekend an attack on me. So blatantly, blatantly, and this has never been, you know, I never blew this up anywhere or anything. This is exclusive trigonometry.

This is what we built this channel for a time. Yeah, because I mean, I made it through this. I'm wildly more successful, thank God, than I've ever been. So here's the exclusive, is that obviously, it was a coordinated attack. Obviously, he's in cahoots with, the Chinese media, you know what I mean? Like, it's just blatant. They did a report about a tweet that didn't happen. And they fucked up because they didn't get the timing right. However, the time

zones or whatever, somebody fucked up because they leaked this story before it even happened. So 11, 15, the tweet goes out. And again, right then in that moment, I'm still thinking of myself, because I haven't put it together that this is a cancellation, that this thing's going to blow up. I'm literally thinking of myself, Pang dang, what the hell?

You didn't write this right. Like what he wrote in the caption was, whatever. It's terrible that I was insulted in this way, blah, blah, blah, happy Asian Heritage Month, hashtag Asian Heritage Month, hashtag whatever. He tried to get as much traction as he could.

And I'm thinking of myself, literally still at that point, I'm like, his captions wrong. Like, I'm like, I'm going to hit him up and be like, yo, fix your caption. You're making me look bad. I had no idea. You thought what was happening is what happens between comedians, which is when we take the piss out of each other. We make it look like I've been insulted, but it's a fucking joke. Exactly. So you hear them up?

No response. And I hit him up on Instagram. no response. And I hit up my buddy who also has him open for him. I go, hit a Pang Dang, have him call me. What is going on? Because this thing is starting to click, click, click, click, 100 likes, 500 likes, 800 comments. The ratio on it was insane because this is also, we're in like almost peak virtue signaling time. May 2021 is like, oh yeah. Oh, yeah. I think the vaccine's just rolling out right around then. I mean, everybody's just, you know, it's a, weird fucking time. We're 11 months out of George Floyd, but still, you know,

most of the, a lot of the country closed, closed again, reclosed. So just a weird time for anything to happen. And so my buddy says that he talked to Pang Dang, and Pang Dang doesn't want to talk to me, which is also so interesting because he starts going to media outlets immediately blowing this thing up. I mean, you know, I'm getting hit up by everyone. It starts coming in. My agents, my managers, Washington Post, New York Times wants to talk to you because everybody's picking up this, you know, story that involves race and these disgusting, disgusting media people want their clickbait. So I turn everything down, of course, because what the fuck do I have to defend? What am I going to do? Really? Am I going to say it was a job?

That's my style. But of course, they all write it up. None of these journalists have any integrity or common sense whatsoever. I thought news was fake before. But let me tell you, when you're in the storm, you're like, holy shit, these motherfuckers, if you Google me, the first thing that pops up

is Tony Hinchcliff is an American insult comedian, famous for making fun of comedians and writing for the Comedy Central Roes. Like, it's literally the backbone of, what I do. Even though I've been doing stand-up comedy for 16 and a half years, I'm best known for making fun of comedians, whether it be writing on the roast, hosting Kill Tony, and just in normal life. If you see me in a green room, you know, whatever. It's just what I do to everybody. I hold back. Anytime I see anybody, I scan them, and I think of what I would say.

It's a defense mechanism from having too big of a head when I was in kindergarten, the same size head that I have now when I was in kindergarten, but on a little body. So like, there's my chin, and there's the top of my head. There's the rest of my body. So you had like one of those wobble heads? Yes, big time. I mean, it was fucking grotesque. But it's the same size head that I've now, so I grew into it. Yeah. It only took an extra three feet of growth to fit into it properly. I do feel sorry for your mother, though, Tony, if that was the size of the head. Well, I was the fifth kid of her, so I came out like a water slime. That thing was ready for me.

My mom's got a giant, giant pussy. You know what I'm talking about? All right. So it happens. My agent says, don't worry, we're going to get through this. Everything's going to be fine. My manager, who I actually really, really, really liked at the time, is like, I'm here for you. We're going to stick with you.

So as it's all happening, you know, just dread kind of is setting in, but also I'm like, this is fine. News articles, who cares? This is going to blow over. I go at dinner that night with my girlfriend at our favorite little sushi restaurant. I'm starving, but I also don't have an appetite. And I talk to Joe, and he's like, dude, this is not good. I'm like, oh shit. Now I know it's not good.

Now I know something's wrong. Because it's just a bad time. And he's like, this is bad news. And, you know, there's a lot of fucking death threats on you coming in. I'm seeing a lot of hate. Let's not do... Why don't you take a couple nights off of these shows tomorrow? Just little throwaway shows at a little dinky comedy club around the corner.

Which is fine. Who cares, right? Take a couple nights off. I don't ever get to do that. But once they take my name off of that lineup, then there's a new news article. And the news article is Tony Hinchcliff removed from Joe Rogan shows because of racial, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So now people online are going, ha, hi, your buddy just stabbed you in the back. Shame on Joe.

These people don't know anything. They don't know that it was a throwaway 20-minute set anyway. But they smell blood. Exactly. And that's all anybody cares about. So now there's a new news article that night about Tony Hinchcliff off of Joe Rogan shows. So it keeps it going. There's a new news cycle. The next day, it's still going. And at the time, it's funny we're talking about this, at the time Israel and Palestine were bombing each other left and right, back and forth.

It was probably the last big one until this one that just started. couple days ago. But I remember that because I'm like, why is the news not talking about this? Why the hell are they talking about a dirty comedian at Vulcan Gas Company on a Thursday night in Austin, fucking Texas? Like, none of, an insult comedian, none of these things are adding up to me. Like, how in the world? What is happening? How am I the news? How is me making fun of some completely unknown comedian that has probably seven minutes of good material to, you know, to his name. How is this the world news?

So, but it is. I wake up the next day, and by the way, I couldn't eat the sushi after that. I couldn't eat that night. I'm starting to get, like, sick. I'm starting to think, holy shit, this is bad. I'm pacing continuously.

Are you thinking my career could be over here? Could be. Could be. It's what it kind of seemed at the time, which is crazy to me, because I'm like, there's just no way. I can't get in trouble for making fun of people. That's like you guys getting in trouble for asking questions.

That happens. That's the world we live in. To get in trouble for what you do and what you're supposed to be good at is crazy to me. You guys leave your eggs out? Is that a British thing? Yeah. Are you fucking serious?

You don't keep them in the fridge? No. It's amazing. Are you guys are... Okay. Charlie, focus. No way. That's crazy.

I've never seen that in 39 years of living in America. That's a British thing. You just leave them out all the time? You don't need to put them in the fridge. You don't have to. You don't have to. You have to leave this in. Yeah, we will do.

You don't edit this, right? We will do. Motherfuckers leave their eggs on the counter. How much of your percentage of listeners is American? About 40%. And 60% British? No, 40% British, 20% the rest of the world. So Americans, you've been educated.

Exactly. Keep your eggs out. Put your eggs in the fucking fridge. This is why we beat their ass in the war of revolutionary times. Okay, so anyway, here's where it starts to get cooking. Because the next day I'm like, well, yesterday was crazy. No way, I'm going to be the world news today. And at about...

I also messaged the venue in which we were doing Kiltony at the time, a really, really, really small venue here in Austin, Texas that famously is like a small corporate venue that I only chose as the home of Kill Tony when we first arrived here because one of my very good friends, Gary Clark Jr., is a partner in the place. However, he doesn't run the place. He's not hands-on. And he was in Australia at the time.

Very busy with some very busy stuff that I won't get into. But he was out of the loop being a creative genius. And I messaged the running partner of that club. I go, hey, stuff's crazy right now. but it's going to blow over. Trust me, if you want to talk about it, give me a call, and I'll explain everything and how we will execute moving forward. Again, very small venue.

I always felt like I was doing them a favor by having the show there. Very, very, very, very left-leaning venue to where they restricted how many people were in the audience, so much space in between the audience. And again, it's May 2021. We're like, what are we doing here? Because we're doing stand-up shows where people are shoulder to shoulder every other night of the week, basically. But I was playing along with them, being a nice guy. And so I go, hit me up if you have any questions or whatever, moving forward. And that was the day before I messaged them at about whatever it was, 11 or noon the next day, they put out a press release saying, we're no longer. the home of Kill Tony. We do not believe in racism of any kind.

And we find his words to be intolerable. Whatever. Again, this jargon, I don't even remember. There's a part of my brain, which remembers a lot of shit, that won't allow myself, even the opportunity, to remember what these virtue signaling morons, both them, Pang Dang. I'm realizing right now, you're watching me realize

that I can't remember the actual verbiage because I won't let myself. It's so ridiculous to even do that. I just find virtue signaling to be literally the most disgusting thing in the world. Be a good person or don't be a good person. Don't make it look like you're a fucking good person. Anyway. So they put that out.

So guess what? That's a news story. That's the new news story of the next day. This venue, which by the way, The service is terrible at the venue. I've seen so many bugs at this venue. Either you know the venue or you don't know the venue. Don't go there if you know it.

And if you don't know it, don't look it up and don't go there. There you go. So now that's a new news story. Even though I helped them throughout the pandemic from December of 2020 to May of 2021, they sat empty other nights of the week. and I gave them liquor sales and a full audience and the coolest show in town every Monday. Packed it as much as they would let me pack it.

Could have done hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of more people, but they wanted to appear like they cared about the safety of Texans that wanted to see a comedy show. So now there's a new news story. It sucks, and I'm watching. Even my favorite news outlets, it sucks when your favorite ones start covering it, right? Fox News, comedian. goes on racist rant.

I'm like, what? Come on, guys. You're my guys. You can't do this to me. Anyway, everything's covering it. And what I chose to do because I was so stressed out is I went golfing with Ron White

and another really good friend. And I'm explaining to them what's happening. And these guys live in fucking high rises and castles and ranches and shit. And they don't know shit about shit. especially being canceled. You know, Ron's a class act. And I remember I took my girlfriend with me there,

so she's driving the golf cart, and we were doing this thing where each hole, when I would get back in the car, I'd go, anything new? And she was refreshing Tony Hinchcliffe. It's a good way to relax. It was crazy, by the way. And as you could probably guess, the worst game of golf I've ever had in my life.

It's so interesting to see that, like, you know, It really is that game. It really is, it's a game of mental strength and not being distracted, not being stressed, because little tiny things, you know, going the other direction or farther from the hole than I was before, like comically bad. And, yeah, so every time I go to the golf cart, it was something else. It was weird that I was torturing myself that way, but I was just waiting for the thing. when you're in this like this, if you want to know what it's like

to people listening, since you guys probably do know, but what it's really like is you're waiting for the storm to pass. So you're kind of looking out the window to see if there's any light coming, right? And that's all I was doing. I wasn't like obsessed with myself. It's obsessed. I was obsessing with it's got to be any second now. Any second there's going to be not another news article.

And there she goes, you know. Yeah, three minutes ago, the. LA Times, seven minutes ago, Fox News. Yeah, they wrote another one. I go, another one? You know, it's like it's the same ones of writing other ones. And then at about 4 or 5 p.m. that day after I got home, and I'm really thinking, well, this is it.

It's been a day and a half of this. This is any second now. I get a call from my agents. Very, very big, fancy agents. in L.A. that, you know, I left a huge agency to go with them, took a chance. It worked for years. I doubled my money and tripled my money with touring with these big, fancier agents. And I get the call, and they go, Tony, really bad news. It's coming from above. But we have to let you go. We can't associate ourselves. This is not our choice. It's coming from above.

you know, these pussies always blaming someone else, which is just ridiculous, all the promises of a bright future and building a crowd and all of this stuff. So guess what? That sucks, but you know what sucks even more? That's another news cycle.

They put out a fucking press release saying we disassociate ourselves with Tony Hinchcliffe and racism of any kind. So, boom, CNN, boom, boom, boom, boom. Now it's a digital. day and a half. And now that's the biggest story, dropped by agency. WME drops Tony Hinchcliffe. It's the biggest story since the whole thing even went. So there we are now. And my manager stuck with me the whole time. And again, to know what it's like as a comedian when it's a joke,

when it's not right, what's happening to you? You know, I see people. It's funny because getting canceled gets clumped in with people that should be canceled. You're Bill Cosby's, your Harvey Weinstein's, your this and that's rapists and sexual assaulters, disgusting humans. And it kind of gets clumped together, getting canceled. But there's a whole slew of your Joe Rogans, your Tony Hinchcliffs, your Shane Gillis's,

your Ari Shafirs of people that, what? You said something on a podcast, which is interesting because this is even different than that. And again, I'm scrambling. in my brain the whole time, like, wait, even these guys got in trouble for something they said on a podcast. How am I getting in trouble for something that I said on a stage at a comedy show to another comedian? It still, to this day, makes no sense to me, but I get it. The disgusting big media wants their clicks. And, you know, they were bloodthirsty at the time to see a,

especially I think a Texan, which made the story more interesting to them, whereas just a year or so earlier, yeah, a year earlier, I was a Californian. I don't think it would have rang the same, their headline, you know, comedian in L.A. gets in trouble for making fun of Asian comedian. I think Texan sounded better.

So there we are. Oh, yeah. So what I was going to say is when you get canceled for a joke and it's not right, what's happening is I'm getting phone calls continuously from the best comedians in the world, all my best pals. And some people who at the time weren't even my best pals, they were reaching out just to give advice or ask how I'm doing.

This is so wrong. Everybody was on one side and one side only. There was a couple that are like, geez, why'd you have to go like that? Why'd you have to go so hard? Shut the fuck. Get the fuck out of here. But everybody had different advice. That's what's interesting.

That's where things get really fucked up. And I mean, I'm talking about geniuses. I'm talking about the 10 best stand-ups in the world, except for Chappelle, Louis, Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, very shortlisted people that didn't call me. But everybody else had different advice. One guy says you should write a letter and put it on Twitter. One person says you should type it and put it on Twitter.

One person says you should make a video and put it on Twitter. on Instagram. One person says you should explain what happened and put it on Instagram. One person says you should apologize and put it on Instagram and Twitter. Another person says you should write an apology. Another genius says that you should make a video of an apology. Another one says you should make a sketch about it and put that out. Another one says go on stage, do a set about it and put that out. Literally, nobody. There was very, very few. Shane Gillis and Ari Schaefeer were the only two that matched up, which was whatever you do, do not apologize. The third guy that I golfed with, me, Ron White, and the third guy, who's not a comedian and

not in the industry whatsoever, also said, whatever you do, do not apologize. He said that that day. And he called me that night. And I don't even know how he got my number. And he called me that night. And he goes, Tony, I know you're really going through it. I saw your golf game earlier. Whatever you do, don't apologize.

Meanwhile, and I'm not going to name any name. but a lot of people say, look, you just have to, you have to say some kind of apology, just a quick little, hey, I misspoke, I did, but I'm thinking of myself, I didn't misspeak. It's jokes, and it's my style. It's what I do. If I want to call somebody a fucking cunt or a dick or a this or that, there's no magical words to me. If I think it's funny at that time for that moment in that place, then that's me. I'm the most professional person to know. I'm the doctor to diagnose that special case, right? So I just, and again, I got to tell you, so many geniuses of wild, wild success and wild wealth mentioned apologizing. And I just couldn't believe it, but there's still this tug of war,

even though I don't want to, and even though I'm talking with them about, I don't think that's the right move. I don't think it's the right move. It's so hard. to tell people that are, you know, wildly successful that I think they're wrong about this, especially when the entire world is going, this is the worst guy in the world right now. And I'm thinking of myself, am I fucking crazy? Am I losing my fucking mind? Am I really wrong about this? Should I apologize for making fun of somebody?

But I hold strong. Now it's day three. I ate, I remember eating a slice of pizza that night the second day. And that was all that I ate the entire day. And as you could tell, I'm very skinny. So if my metabolism is so fast that if I miss a meal or two, I look skinny and gaunt and gross. And now we're basically waking up on morning 72 hours, right? 24, 24, 44, 48. Well, I guess, it's 48 morning 3. I don't know.

Anyway, now I've had a little bit of that sushi before the phone call with Joe and a slice of pizza the next day, maybe a slice and a half. I remember thinking, I can't believe how not hungry I am. This is so weird that I'm not hungry at all. And I'm a fucking, I'm one of those like Joey Chestnuts

type of characters. You know the hot dog eating champion? No. I might not be famous where you leave your eggs on the fucking. But Joey Chestnuts is a famous skinny guy who beats everybody in the world of eating hot dogs. For some reason, he can eat fucking 300 hot dogs in 10 minutes.

And I eat like that. I'm gross. Like, I can eat fucking a bowl of spaghetti that big if I wanted to. I fucking hate you. Carry on. It's amazing. And so I remember thinking, how am I not eating? Anyway.

But I'm just trying to take you guys to what it's like. You know, when you're wronged by everybody. and everything. And, you know, your friends are there for you, which is great. But still, when you open your phone and you're on the front page of fucking everything for a joke, mind-boggling. And at this point, let me remind you that at this point, you know, morning three or the start of the third full day, let's put it that way, right?

Because it started at fucking 5.30 a.m. on technically Monday night, Tuesday morning. So now we're waking up Thursday. These WME drops Tony Hinchcliff articles are everywhere. And Pang Dang is going on a media blitz accepting everything. Every single thing that reached out to me, he did. Yes, I can't believe what he did to me. So terrible.

And he hasn't reached out in any way. He hasn't apologized. He doesn't care. It seems like he's adding more stuff. He's basically giving himself away in a lot of ways. In one interview, he talks about how he saw me the night before opening for Joe Rogan, and so he knew that I had Asian jokes. Like, he's like giving himself away.

Now it's starting to make sense to me. So I go, okay, he asked Red Band if he can record after he found out that he was bringing me up. Like, I start doing the math on it. And I don't know what happens. Look, I don't know how it works. And I'm sure deep down Pang Dang is probably, you know, somewhere in there a good guy that just made a massive mistake. And I don't know how it works with China. I think none of us do, right?

It's a big mysterious blur. The pandemic taught us that, Tony. And I'd imagine you get rewarded, though, for doing what they want. I'd imagine that maybe, I don't know, whatever it may be your family. As an aside, what I find kind of weird is him doing that, right? he's still on 3,000 Twitter followers. I'm like, what did you do this for? Oh, it's crazy.

Oh, it's crazy. And you should see, you know, and again, you know, I've never done anything. I could have had the entire, I could have made it a thing. I could have made it my identity. I could have told the Kill Tony fan base, let's get him.

I could have done all of these things. And I just think he fucked up. And I think he knows. He fucked up. And I think it's going to follow him forever. In a way, I kind of feel bad for him, but I don't because it was a true assassination attempt. Let there be no question.

This was not hurt feelings. This was not... This was not... It's not what he said it was. I don't believe it for a fucking second. He contravened the golden rule, which is you do not do that to a colleague. Oh, yeah.

You do not... see a joke, especially in a new material night, and then record it and put it on the internet, and then orchestrate a pile on. You don't do that. And again, the editing of the thing is magical. You know, about 15, 20 seconds after he cuts it at the end, you know, at the end of me, I think the last thing I say, all you guys out here are hooting and holler. in. Like, it seems like I'm mad at the audience for laughing at him the way that the clip goes. But what's funny is that if you watch the video, about 15 seconds after that, I literally say, come on, lady, relax. You're the only one not having fun. What do you think I'm being

serious up here? Like, I'm literally, I totally acknowledge that I'm fucking just being a crazy dark freak. We'll be back with the interview in one minute. First, we want to talk to you about the sponsors of today's episode, AG1. We take AG1 to stay healthy and stay off illness whenever our schedule gets really busy. We used it on our last America tour where we were constantly on the move, living out of a bag and working every day. One scoop a day meant we knew we had all the vitamins and minerals needed for the day. We invested in our health and had a hugely successful trip, as you saw. AG1 is a simple and easy way to get all the nutrients you need. Each serving contains 75

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slash trigonometry to claim this special offer. So, we're planning. I'm thinking in my head, I can't, I can't, 16 years of doing this fucking shit, I took the hardest paths. You know, I slept in my car, all the stupid old school comedian shit that you've heard about everybody,

you know, sleeping in my car behind the comedy store, working the door at the store, you know, picking up shifts at the coffee shop around the corner, working from 7 a.m. to 12, jumping on the phones at the comedy store from 12 to 7, working the door at the comedy store from 8 to 2 a.m. And then waking up after sleeping in my car at 5 a.m.

And working at the coffee shop the next day. I mean, literally. And I'm thinking to myself, is this happening to me? Is this really it? What can I do? And again, you know, of all the people, again, Shane Gillis and Ari Sheffir, you know, who had both gone through it.

Shane made a joke on a podcast, got canceled off of SNL. Ari Sheffir made a joke on Twitter about Kobe. I think it was 2021 when Kobe died? Was it 2020? 2020, yeah, early 2020, I think. And they hold strong with the no apology. I'm talking with Ari a lot,

who really, really, really, really ended up when the smoke cleared being my top advisor, which is kind of crazy because he's a renegade, you know, a lawless, amazing big brother. And I talked with him about how, you know, I have the video of his set and my set. If he put out my material, why shouldn't I put out his material in full length?

Retaliation is a hell of a thing as we're probably going to find out with this new Israel-Palestine thing that's happening. You know, you don't want to mess with somebody that has the fucking Iron Dome, right? I don't know if that analogy makes any sense. But... Iron Tom is defensive, so not.

But still, they've got resources, I think, is what you're saying, Tony. Yeah. But what I didn't want to do is I didn't want to... You know, I wanted to get it out there, but I wanted to get it out through a good vessel. And it was actually Ari's suggestion that we put out both sets. His set, his whatever, 10-minute set, and my, whatever, 15-minute set.

and let's just put it out and let's not edit a thing let's not speed up the intro like he did let's leave his anti-white pro-Asian and by the way another thing that happened is that when the clip

that he put out happens and I call him a filthy little C word and I go oh we make it a gunpowder we do with this we do with that I hit like three Asian stereotypes oh the soy sauce I'm referencing what he was talking about during his set.

Literally. That's what he was talking about. It sounds like I'm rambling off these Chinese stereotypes, but it's him being a cornball. And me, letting the audience know, you just saw the Chinese guy

doing corny Chinese jokes. But, again, the clip makes me look fucking terrible. So we decide that we're going to put it out on Ari Shapir's YouTube channel and it was a wild success. I mean, it blew up both sets back to back, showing

that holy shit, not only was he doing unbelievable kind of, I mean, really, weirdly anti-white material and corny Asian jokes. But I, you know, just to graze over it.

When you watch both sets full length, it's the 20 seconds that made world news for three days is fucking nothing because it all makes sense. Context is goddamn everything. And the set that I had was fun and silly. Again, it was a workout set. So I'm doing crowd work. I'm in and out. I'm having fun. I'm very loose where he was doing a very tight, like he's like trying to make it in Austin, Texas, that set. That set was a big deal to him and a shoot-around for me. So the thing comes out and he clamps up. He absolutely stops every single scheduled media thing because he realized he fucked up.

He had no idea that I had the nuclear warhead, which is both of our sets unedited. And I mean, I got word from someone that he had to beg CBS to stop from running a 60 minutes or whatever it was. like it was about to be a big thing, and it's him going, please stop. I can't. We can't. I have to stop. Like, he hit full breaks. And thank God. You know what I mean? If I don't have that video, and it's funny, because I just mentioned this dinner with Joe, we were talking about how crazy cancellations are. And I go, if I didn't have that video of both sets, who the fuck knows where we're at? And instead, people got to see that I was just being me on a random.

of night, not attacking somebody, attacking somebody's race. And, you know, by the way, if he would have come up to me that night and said anything, we could have talked about it, A, but that wasn't the thing. That wasn't what he wanted. It's not what he needed, and it's not what would have benefited him again, whatever, however this Chinese media thing works, or whatever was supposed to happen there. I mean, technically, he's a spy. Let's face it, right? Technically, in some way, what he was doing was you know, he's infiltrated America in order to

you know cause a ruckus of some kind. How does the Chinese media release that he tweets at 1115 in America when he didn't when it's not 1115 in America and the fucking tweet happens at 1115. Crazy, right? Oh, there's a

fucking drone. Chinese fly drunk. Yeah. So the video gets released. I go on stage on Sunday night, again, Vulcan Gas Company, a random throwaway show that I'm not scheduled to be on. I pop in to the most amazing pop of applause that I've ever gotten in my entire life. And I talked about it and it was, again, this is corny, but I was fucking like almost emotional afterwards. It had been five days, and there I was doing what I loved to do, and I had jokes about it, and it's always been my therapy. You know, again, for a decade and a half, that's how I've handled everything, whether it be a friend that kills themselves or a tragic accident or a grandma dying or this or that or whatever. I do it on stage. And there I was talking about being on stage while on stage five days after I'm thinking maybe,

maybe I remember one comedy club owner said, you know, and this is like on the Wednesday, this is like 24 hours in, she goes, you know, Tony in about a year, everything should be back to about normal. And there I was on Sunday. And everything was better than normal. And it changed me.

When you get wronged, I think you're going, it made me go after the laugh instead of waiting for it to come to me, I was more bloodthirsty for having a fucking great set. I'm going to show you motherfuckers that this isn't like, you know, this is what I do. This is my everything.

So anyway. Yeah. That's such a powerful lesson in that, Tony, because there's a lot of people who would have let that experience destroy them, who would have gone under. And you can understand it. as well, because it was unfair. It was a media pile on. But I don't think people watching this realize what it means to an actor or an agent, to an actor or a comedian, to sign with a big agent.

I was going to say big Asian there. That's a very different thing. But it's a moment of validation. It's that moment you've been working towards the promised land. You're going to be able to get this or access it. And for all of that to disappear like that, because of a joke you made at a new material night, when the entire rule of the new material night is we're going to say stuff, it might not be funny, and we might cross the line, but that's the point because we're working it out together. On a Thursday night, in my hometown, not listed on the show, all of it. It was a perfect storm of this isn't right.

I'm an insult comedian. And even then, here's another fun fact is my Wikipedia changed that week, that day or whatever. It went from American insult comedian to, you know, disgraced comedian or something like that. Immediately the first line, whatever it was. Disgraced, is that the right thing? Whatever it was. But it changed. Someone changed it from insult comedian because it didn't match their fucking storyline. But it had been insult comedian forever. I didn't care. I don't even love the term insult comedian. I don't know who puts it there. I don't know who writes these things. But they're not that wrong. I mean, on stage, my stand-up isn't really just, it's not one, you know, it's not a one-sided

like that. It's a little bit of a diverse portfolio of making fun of a ton of stuff. But I always found it interesting that that was the first line and then it wasn't the first line when I insulted somebody. When it was actually relevant. Yeah. Right. So let me ask you something about the media because I'm curious to know what you think about whether they, they, you know, were click hunting, whether they maybe just don't know comedy, maybe they didn't know enough about you, or do you think it was malicious? They went after you because they knew this was their moment to make some money. I think it was multi-pronged in that way.

I think a lot of these articles had me as frequent Joe Rogan guest, friend of Joe Rogan, Joe Rogan friend. And at the time, he's burying them with a shovel. And I mean, he still is. And he was years before that. And he's going to be years from now. But he's talking to people about vaccines at this time. They're all piling on now. 100%.

Even the US government are piling on Biden spoke about it. Well, his press secretary. Oh, he's press secretary, yeah. Spoke about what? It spoke about Joe. When was that? Around that time. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, chaotic times. So you think they were kind of going, this is a guy we can use to shit on Joe? That, I think it was perfectly, bait. I think they had a weird thing with Asian hate at the time.

I think they're coming off of the George Floyd thing and they're like, ooh, this could be a new market for us. I'm serious. I'm not even kidding. I really...

They're fucking disgusting. They're nothing burgers. And, you know, a couple of them actually stuck me on the phone. They're so sly and slimy. They go, no, I'm not, I don't know how they got my number, by the way, which is also creepy. They're fucking good again your number. Yeah.

Weird. Yeah. And I go, no, thank you. I can't do it, but I don't hang up the phone. I'm not interested in having any statement on this whatsoever. Well, are you thinking about putting out a statement? Well, I'm not really. You know, they keep you on the phone.

The fucking dirty dogs. And that's their entire everything. You know, so, yeah, I think. it was a multi-pronged effect. It was racism less than a year after George Floyd, but in a whole new market, kind of like a new twist.

The, you know, I think there was, you know, I think they loved downplaying stand-up comedy. I think that it hurts them to have people really out there, you know, single-handedly having a voice and an opinion on things, which is what they really.

want, right? These media outlets want to sneak their opinion or their take in on things and they supposedly aren't allowed to, but that obviously changed half a decade ago or however long ago when it started really being silly. But, you know, the crazy thing is that when they try to cancel you and they're wrong, it makes you stronger. I've seen it with Ari Sheffir. I've seen it with Shane Gillis. I've seen it with myself, and we've all seen it with Joe Rogan. When it's not real, it

makes you stronger. When it is real, I'm sure it gets you. I'm sure it takes you down. I don't see Cosby having a resurgence or any of those people. So many times I see Weinstein on the front or back of my favorite

movies that I watch, and he's not coming back. When you did wrong, you're done. If you didn't, you're bigger, you can get bigger than ever. And it did. Again, and it's not just, it made me famous. It changed me. Again, I was going after the laughs.

I was swinging the bat with fucking anger instead of, eh, I hope you think this is funny. It's fucking funny. There was an animal that kind of is created. It's an I'm going to show you mentality. And, you know, we started, it was. Two weeks later, we started Keltoni at Vulcan Gas Company in front of 350 people instead of 100 people. The viewership was bigger, stronger than ever, and we've doubled that continuously every few months since then.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, just keeps getting bigger. Stand up the same thing, absolutely nonstop and at a different temperature. And, you know, everything's just better than ever. Now my agent is the agent that my old agents hated more than anyone, the absolute head of comedy at the biggest comedy agency, not the second biggest, which is where I was before. They dropped me during the cancellation, the number one biggest. And he's their worst nightmare. He's the guy that they see in their nightmares. It's that guy.

And I've gotten two calls from them, my old friends at WMA. in the last only two months saying, you know, if you ever, if anything ever goes wrong over there, we would love to get back in the Tony Hinchcliff business. And I cannot tell you. I cannot explain to how much fucking joy it brings me. I mean, I just sit on the other end of that phone

and I just play it cool. I don't go, I bet you fucking do. But my God, am I thinking it? Because when they get you like that, when you're down, you know. You don't forget that. Not at all. You don't forget that. No.

Because that is the sign of someone's character. Oh, yeah. When things go bad and people start running or they walk away or they take part on the pile on or you go, thank you. Thank you for showing me. And you always remember the people who are there for you and you never forget the people who run. It's just a very simple thing. And just as cowardly and weak as I thought they were for dropping me when the times were dark, I think that maybe even more.

cowardly, I find them crawling back with sold-out arenas and sold-out theaters on my schedule. It's almost as disgusting to beg for forgiveness when someone is obviously thriving than it is to stab them in the back when, you know, they are down and out. I mean, how weak, how gross to show your character like. that. It's unbelievable. But I like to fuck with them. So I go, yeah, yeah, I'll keep thinking about that. Yeah, if anything ever goes wrong, if anything goes wrong with this, and again, I mean, it's literally like, it's the dream situation. Because it's a hope that kills you. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they're talking. They're like, no, no, no, I swear, like, he sounds fine. Yeah, he'll, six months to a year, he'll be back. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we built a strong rapport man.

fucking idiots absolutely morons it's good to have you on the show it's good to see you thriving and this is what this is you know what I started the interview by saying when we had Uncle Roger on he said you know this is the show you're going when you get

cancelled this is why we have people on who've been cancelled because people need to hear this story they need to hear that if you have been treated unfairly don't apologise get the support of your friends and you and then lean into it and we saw you do a set

at the mothership, and I can totally feel what you're talking about. You're like an animal on stage now. You really are. You go on there, there's no apology, there's no hesitation. You go on there with supreme confidence. I love to see it. So congratulations on your success, man.

It's awesome to see. And people who get cancelled need to see this too, right? Yeah. This is how you beat cancel culture. People who get cancelled come back stronger. Right. That's how you win. Don't apologize if you didn't do something wrong.

If you did do something wrong, apologize. Right. Yeah. Absolutely. Here's something that I didn't mention that I thought about a lot during that. Actually, Tony, save it for locals because we've got to ask some questions from our audience. Head on over to locals, guys. We'll talk about what Tony wants to talk about and ask your questions as well.

We'll see you on there. We promised our audience you would roast us. You look like if... ...ha ha ha ha ha.