Shane Gillis

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Shane Gillis
File:Shane Gillis at MOA (cropped).jpg
Gillis performing stand-up in 2021
Birth name Shane Michael Gillis
Born (1987-12-11) December 11, 1987 (age 36)[1]
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Medium Stand-up comedy, sketch comedy, radio, podcasting
Education United States Military Academy
Elon University
West Chester University (BA)
Genres Observational comedy, black comedy, off-color humor, shock humor, insult comedy, sarcasm, politics
Subject(s) Everyday life, current events, pop culture, history, human behavior, race relations, self-deprecation, drinking culture, sports
Website shanemgillis.com
John McKeever and Shane Gillis
YouTube information
Channel
Years active 2020–present
GenreScript error: No such module "Detect singular". Comedy
Subscribers 700 thousand[2]
Total views 73.1 million[2]
Last updated: January 21, 2024

Shane Michael Gillis (born December 11, 1987) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, sketch comedy writer, and podcaster. He is co-host, along with fellow stand-up comedian Matt McCusker, of Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast, the most subscribed-to podcast on Patreon.[3][4] In 2019, the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal named Gillis one of its "New Faces".

Gillis was announced as a new cast member on NBC’s sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live in 2019, but he was fired five days later due to backlash over a 2018 podcast episode in which he used ethnic slurs.[5][6] In 2021, Gillis released his first comedy special, Shane Gillis: Live in Austin, on YouTube.[7] Gillis is also known for his collaborations with filmmaker John McKeever on their online sketch series Gilly & Keeves. In September 2023, his second comedy special, Shane Gillis: Beautiful Dogs, was released on Netflix.

Early life and education

Shane Michael Gillis was born on December 11, 1987, in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, a town located just outside Harrisburg.[8][9] His parents are both of Irish Catholic heritage.[10] While attending Trinity High School in nearby Camp Hill, he was on its football team as an offensive tackle. He graduated in 2006.[11] He went to West Point but quit shortly into his first year. He subsequently attended and played a year of football at Elon University and eventually graduated from West Chester University.[12] After graduating, he spent six months teaching English in Spain.[13]

Career

2012–2019: Early career

Gillis began performing comedy in 2012.[14] He regularly performed in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania[11] and Lancaster, Pennsylvania.[15] To further his career, he relocated to Philadelphia. In 2015, he placed third at Helium Comedy Club's annual "Philly's Phunniest" tournament,[16] and he won the tournament the next year.[17] In 2016, Gillis began Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast with Matt McCusker. In 2017, Gillis became a frequent guest on The Bonfire with Big Jay Oakerson and Dan Soder, increasing his popularity. He also began a weekly show on Compound Media called A Fair One with Tommy Pope.

In 2019, Comedy Central named Gillis an "Up Next" comedian as he performed at Comedy Central's Clusterfest.[18] That same year, Gillis was recognized as a "New Face" at the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal.[19][20] During an interview for All Things Considered at that festival, Gillis was interrupted by stand-up comedian Robert Kelly, who said, "You're very funny, dude ... I mean, I wanted to hate it."[21] The interviewer, Andrew Limbong, described Gillis' set at the festival, writing: "Shane Gillis gives off post-jock energy—like someone who used to play a sport in school, then had the self-awareness to realize he wasn't cut out for it and stopped—but he isn't bitter about it at all. His friendly demeanor distracts you, while he sneaks in just a whiff of social insight within a barrage of self-deprecating sex jokes."[22]

2019: Saturday Night Live hiring and firing

Gillis's addition to Saturday Night Live (SNL) as a featured cast member was announced on September 12, 2019, along with Bowen Yang and Chloe Fineman.[23][24]

Later that day, however, several clips of a 2018 episode of Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast, which have since been removed from YouTube, resurfaced, in which Gillis and co-host Matt McCusker made jokes in mock East Asian accents while discussing Chinatown and used the word "chink", an ethnic slur for Chinese people. In an attempt to defend the clip, Gillis insisted that while the jokes they made in the clip were regrettable, he feels the intent was misunderstood, as the scenario they were joking about was when quoting a hypothetical 1940s white landlord in Chinatown, and no malice or hate was intended.[25][9][26][27] In other clips, Gillis and co-host Matt McCusker ranked comedians by race, gender and sexual orientation, which included the use of gay slurs.[26] Later that night, Gillis posted a tweet saying that "I'm a comedian who pushes boundaries" and that "if you go through my 10 years of comedy, most of it bad, you're going to find a lot of bad misses. I'm happy to apologize to anyone who's actually offended by anything I've said."[28] Four days later, a spokesperson for Lorne Michaels, a co-creator of the show, announced that Gillis had been removed from the cast.[6]

Afterward, Gillis maintained that while the clips looked bad, they were taken out of context, and he was misquoted in the majority of articles reporting the story. Gillis also stated that he immediately regretted using the "I'm a comedian who pushes boundaries" statement, blaming it on having "literally 5 minutes of being pressured to write anything", acknowledging the statement was "corny" and that he officially retracted the statement.[29][30]

2020–present: Career expansion

In January 2020, Gillis was named "2019's Stand-Up Comedian of the Year" in Theinterrobang's Sixth Annual Comedy Awards.[31] In December 2020, Gillis and comedian John McKeever launched the web series Gilly and Keeves, featuring comedy sketches starring Gillis and McKeever such as "ISIS Toyota", "Uncle Daycare", and "Trump Speed Dating".[32] On September 7, 2021, Gillis released his first live comedy special, Shane Gillis: Live in Austin on YouTube. Comedy website The Laugh Button ranked Gillis's special in second place in their top 20 comedy specials of 2021.[33] Since 2021, Gillis has made a series of appearances on Joe Rogan's podcast The Joe Rogan Experience alongside comics Mark Normand and Ari Shaffir, known as the "Protect Our Parks" episodes.[34] Gillis released his second live comedy special, Shane Gillis: Beautiful Dogs on September 5, 2023, on Netflix.[35]

In 2023, Gillis had a recurring role on the Peacock series Bupkis, starring Pete Davidson. In 2024, Gillis hosted the February 24 episode of Saturday Night Live (season 49, episode 12) with musical guest 21 Savage, nearly four and a half years after his firing from the show in September 2019.[36]

Filmography

Television

Year Title Role Notes
2016 Delco Proper Voice Episode: "For the Troops"
2020-2021 Gilly and Keeves Various roles Also writer; 12 episodes
2023 Bupkis Gilly 2 episodes
2024 Saturday Night Live Himself/Host Episode: "Shane Gillis/21 Savage"

Standup specials

Year Title Notes
2021 Shane Gillis: Live in Austin YouTube comedy special
2023 Shane Gillis: Beautiful Dogs Netflix comedy special

Influences

Gillis has stated that his stand-up influences are Louis C.K., Norm Macdonald, Dave Chappelle, Patrice O'Neal, Bernie Mac, and Bill Burr.[37]

References

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  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Sanneh, Kelefa (September 26, 2022). "The Joker: The Fall and Rise of Shane Gillis." Annals of Comedy. The New Yorker, vol. 98, no. 30, pp. 30–36. Audio online.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found., 3:30 talking about ancestry
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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