Shane Gillis

Shane Gillis (born December 11, 1987) is an American stand-up comedian, radio personality, and podcaster. Gillis is known for his frequent appearances on the Comedy Central Radio show The Bonfire with Big Jay Oakerson and Dan Soder on Sirius XM, as a regular on The Doug Stanhope Podcast and on the GaS Digital Network comedy podcasts Legion of Skanks and The Real Ass Podcast, as well as co-host of Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast with fellow stand-up comedian Matt McCusker.[3] In 2019, Gillis was named one of Just for Laughs "New Faces" at their yearly comedy festival in Montreal.

Shane Gillis
Born (1987-12-11) December 11, 1987[1][2]
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.
MediumStand-up, radio, podcasting
EducationWest Chester University
Years active2012–present
GenresObservational comedy, dark comedy, off-color humor, shock humor, insult comedy, sarcasm
Subject(s)Everyday life, current events, pop culture, human behavior, race relations, self-deprecation, drinking culture, sports
Websiteshanemgillis.com

Gillis made national headlines in 2019, when he was announced as a new cast member on the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, only to be fired from the show four days later, due to backlash from resurfaced clips from his podcast featuring jokes that contained racial slurs.[4][5]

Early life and education

Gillis is a native of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, a town just outside Harrisburg.[6][7] While attending Trinity High School in nearby Camp Hill, he was on its football team as an offensive tackle.[8] He graduated in 2006.[8]

Gillis graduated from West Chester University.[9]

Career

Gillis began performing comedy in 2012.[10] He regularly performed in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.[8] To further his career, he relocated to Philadelphia. In 2015, he placed third at Helium Comedy Club's annual "Philly's Phunniest" tournament,[11] and he won the tournament the next year.[12] Shane has named among his biggest stand-up influences as Louis CK, Dave Chappelle, Norm Macdonald, Patrice O'Neal, and Bill Burr.[13]

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.[14] That same year, Gillis was recognized as a "New Face" at the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal.[15][16] 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."[17] 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."[18]

Gillis's addition to the cast of Saturday Night Live, a long-running NBC sketch-comedy show, as a featured cast member was announced on September 12, 2019, along with Bowen Yang and Chloe Fineman.[19][20] Later that day, freelance "journalist"[21] Seth Simons posted clips, since removed from YouTube, of an episode of Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast from 2018 in which Gillis makes a joke that included racist remarks about Chinese people in which he used the epithet "chink".[22][7][23] In other clips, podcast hosts McCusker and Gillis rank comedians by race, gender, and sexual orientation and use homophobic slurs.[22] That night, Gillis posted a tweet saying that he was 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."[24] On September 16, 2019, a spokesperson for Lorne Michaels announced that Gillis would not join the show in light of the controversy.[5] Gillis has since appeared on SiriusXM's "Bennington" and “Jim Norton and Sam Roberts”, “The Bonfire with Dan Soder and Big Jay Oakerson,”as well as the podcasts "The Tim Dillon Show", "History Hyenas", "Artie Lange's Halfway House", and "Flagrant 2" to tell his side of the story. Gillis maintains that while the clips look bad, they were taken out of context and he was misquoted in the majority of articles reporting the story. He also says 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", regretfully adding the statement was "corny" and that he officially retracts the statement.[25][26]

In January 2020, Gillis was named "2019's Stand-Up Comedian of the Year" in Theinterrobang's Sixth Annual Comedy Awards.[27]

In December 2020, Shane and comedian John McKeever launched the web series Gilly and Keeves, featuring comedy sketches starring Gillis and McKeever such as "ISIS Toyota" and "Uncle Daycare".

References
  1. Itzkoff, Dave (September 16, 2019). "Shane Gillis Dropped From 'S.N.L.' Cast Amid Criticism of Racist Slurs". The New York Times. Retrieved September 17, 2019.
  2. Bonfire, The (December 11, 2018). "Wishing @Shanemgillis a very Happy Birthday from #TheBonfire!! #CrackleCrackle".
  3. ""SNL" Has Fired Shane Gillis For His Racist Remarks Just Days After NBC Announced He Was Joining The Show". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 2019-09-17.
  4. Romo, Vanessa (September 16, 2019). "Comedian Shane Gillis Fired From 'Saturday Night Live' For Racist Remarks". NPR. Retrieved September 17, 2019.
  5. Drury, Shrahreh; Porter, Rick (September 16, 2019). "Shane Gillis Out at 'Saturday Night Live' Following Racial, Homophobic Slurs in Podcast". The Hollywood Reporter. Los Angeles, California: Eldridge Industries. Retrieved September 18, 2019.
  6. Vadala, Nick (September 13, 2019). "New SNL cast member Shane Gillis, a Pennsylvania native, responds to outrage over past racist, homophobic comments". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved September 16, 2019 – via Inquirer.com.
  7. Coleman, Nancy (September 12, 2019). "Shane Gillis, New 'S.N.L.' Cast Member, Used Racial Slur in Podcast". The New York Times. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  8. Hatmaker, Julia (September 12, 2019). "'SNL' casts Mechanicsburg comedian, first Asian American performer". PennLive.com. PA Media Group. Retrieved September 16, 2019.
  9. "Saturday Night Live fires Shane Gillis: Father of central Pa. comedian reacts". pennlive. 2019-09-16. Retrieved 2020-02-02.
  10. George, Means; Christopher, Linvill (June 11, 2018). "Comedy: Laughing Matters". Philadelphia Neighborhoods. Lew Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University. Retrieved September 17, 2019.
  11. "Philadelphia Comics Are Killing It! Helium Picks Philly's Phunniest This Week". The Interrobang. Orange Pop Media. July 13, 2015. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  12. Vadala, Nick (2019-09-13). "New SNL cast member Shane Gillis, a Pennsylvania native, responds to outrage over past racist, homophobic comments". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 2019-09-17.
  13. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsLigJiZxFA
  14. "Comedy Central Selects 18 Comics as the Most Promising Emerging Talent". The Interrobang. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: Orange Pop Media. May 31, 2019. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  15. Porter, Rick (September 12, 2019). "'Saturday Night Live' Adds Trio to Season 45 Cast". The Hollywood Reporter. Los Angeles, California: Eldridge Industries. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  16. Wright, Megh (July 22, 2019). "Just for Laughs Announces Its 2019 New Faces". Vulture. New York City: Vox Media. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  17. Limbong, Andrew (July 27, 2019). "New Faces At This Year's 'Just For Laughs' Comedy Festival". All Things Considered. Washington, D.C.: NPR. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  18. Limbong, Andrew (July 30, 2019). "New Faces Emerge At The World's Biggest Comedy Festival". NPR. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  19. Stevens, Matt (September 17, 2019). "Andrew Yang Knows You May Disagree With Him About Shane Gillis". The New York Times. p. C1. Retrieved September 18, 2019. Then, about an hour after the announcement, Mr. Yang tweeted again, suggesting that Mr. Gillis had taken him up on his offer to talk things out. 'Shane Gillis reached out,' Mr. Yang said. 'Looks like we will be sitting down together soon.'
  20. Otterson, Joe (September 12, 2019). "'Saturday Night Live' Adds Three New Cast Members for Season 45". Variety. Los Angeles, California: Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  21. https://twitter.com/sasimons
  22. Wright, Megh (September 12, 2019). "New SNL Hire Shane Gillis Has a History of Racist and Homophobic Remarks". Vulture. New York City: Vox Media. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  23. Husband, Andrew (September 13, 2019). "'SNL' Wanted Shane Gillis And They Probably Don't Mind All The (Bad) Press". Forbes. New York City: Forbes Media. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  24. Bradley, Laura (September 13, 2019). "SNL Hire Shane Gillis Doesn't Quite Apologize for Racist, Homophobic Remarks". Vanity Fair. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  25. "#173 - Shane Gillis | The Tim Dillon Show" – via www.youtube.com.
  26. "Cancelled feat. Shane Gillis - Full Episode" – via www.youtube.com.
  27. https://theinterrobang.com/2019-comedy-awards-here-are-your-winners-as-voted-for-by-you-for-the-sixth-annual-comedy-awards/
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