You have a talent for getting under people’s skin, even when you aren’t trying to. We have to talk about you skewering the Beast.
[Cackling] I’m missing public beef. It feels like in the social circles of the young entertainment industry right now, everything’s very like, “You’re amazing, girl!” “God, I love you!” “I would do fucking anything to hang out with you!” And in the group chat, it’s like, “Why the fuck were they on this list with me?” I’m like, “Put it on main.” [Laughs]
I loved it. Also, he wasn’t wrong. He has 990 million followers. I just was like, “Whatever, dude.” I thought it was funny. No ill will toward him. Shout out to MrBeast, for real. Go nuts, brother.
What was the hardest joke for you to figure out?
It was the Holocaust material. Oh my God. Honey, I worked so hard on that fucking joke. I workshopped that for a long time, because there’s so many pieces. When you first start doing it, you’re trying to figure out, How much can I get out of this? Should I keep it short? Do I go longer? Is sequential the best way to tell the story? You also have to build a lot of credibility with the audience to prove that it’s okay that I’m even doing this. It really, really, really was tricky to craft. I never bombed with it, but I definitely lost the audience many times working on it. I would just get maybe 6 out of 10 components into the joke and be like, they don’t like this, and we are not going to get them back.
Comedy seems to be at a bit of a fork in the road. On one side you have alternative, inclusive left-leaning comedians like yourself, and on the other side you have right-leaning anti-woke comedians, like the Kill Tony crew. How do you feel about the broader comedy scene?
Well, it’s totally fractured. But I think I’ve always felt very in the middle of everything. I’m gay, but then I’m fat. So that creates a distance between me and a lot of gay guys. I love trans people and I’m very leftist, but I’m from small-town Missouri. And plenty of people who love Kill Tony for some reason also love me. I don’t like Tony Hinchcliffe at all; I don’t think he’s funny. I have very little respect for many of the people on that side of things. But then there’s some people that I do love. I love [new SNL hire and Kill Tony regular] Kam Patterson.
Those guys, some of them don’t have it. Then in the same circle, you’ve got Shane Gillis, who’s one of the most technically talented stand-ups living. He’s really fucking good. I like Shane a lot. You’ve got Theo Von, who will randomly exhibit so much heart and character, and then in the next moment won’t. It’s very confusing.
