Shane Gillis Addresses SNL Firing Controversy

What was your experience like, the whole SNL debacle thing? What was that like? Uh, it's very, very crazy. I don't know. It's tough to... There's not many people that you can even talk to about it. You know? Because it fucks you up a little. It makes you like, uh... not trust people and shit for a while. Like in what way? I don't know. I don't know how to explain it. But back to the experience of it was like... You just... It was kind of surreal. Because I went from... I was one of the first people to get like, cancelled or however you want to say it. Consequences? However... Yeah. However you want to say it. Doesn't matter what we call it. It is what it is. But, uh... I was one of the first people to go from... I was doing... I was poor. I was not famous at all. I was poor. And then I got cancelled immediately. Like, that was my... Right. You didn't get famous and then you cancelled. Yeah, most people that get cancelled are... You got cancelled on the way. I got cancelled immediately. Yeah. They literally were like, how about this guy? And everyone was like, no. So, you got cast on SNL. Yes. And then what happened? Um... So, I found out I was getting on SNL the day before they announced it. So, I got a call. They were like, hey, we want to put you on the cast. The whole time I was... We'll start from the top. My agents... My agents and all those people, they were like... You're... Do you want to audit... Or do you want to write? Do you want to send a packet in for SNL? And I was like, no. I'm not going to be a writer. I'm never going to... I won't work on that show. And then I guess they saw me at JFL and Comedy Central thing. And they were like, we like him. We want him to audition. He can come straight in to audition. So, I went straight to the main stage for the audition. And the whole time leading up to it, I was like, I'm never... I'm never going to get this. I don't care. I want to do stand-up. I kind of hated SNL at that point. Because every time... Every sketch was like... You know what it is. Yeah. And then I was like, I'll never fit in there. And then when you go to audition, it's just... You just wait your turn in a green room. And they keep you there extra long for like two or three hours to like make you nervous. Really? But I knew... I was certain I was never going to get it. And I really wasn't nervous. I was in there fucking dipping, hanging out. And then they were like, alright, it's your turn to go. But that's when the nerves hit. Like you walk in and you see the main stage. Because that's what you audition on. Is like the stage. Wow. And it's a totally empty studio. The whole room's empty except for a table of writers and producers and Lorne Michaels. And then you go on and they're like, three, two... Go do five minutes. Wow. In front of just a camera, right? And are you doing stand-up? I did stand-up. Wow. I did five minutes of stand-up, that's all. And then I ran into Michael Che that night and I was like, I was so nervous. Like I was so nervous when I was auditioning that I had to like hold the mic against my chin because my hand was fucking shaking. It was crazy. There's no one in the room. You just have to do stand-up for five minutes to no one. That's so weird. It was so weird. And you're not supposed to look at or acknowledge the table of writers and producers or whatever. Why? They have rules? They have rules that your agents tell you. They never told you any rules. So your agent says, do not look at the writers. Yeah, they're like, don't even acknowledge them. Pretend the room's full. Just go. And everybody was like, they're never going to laugh. The table, Lauren, all them, they're not going to laugh. First thing I said, they all started laughing. And I was like, I was supposed to not acknowledge them, but you know, I was doing stand-up. Do you remember what you said? No, I don't. Genuinely. You just did a bit. Yeah, I was just, yeah, I was nervous. But as soon as they started laughing, I was like... And then went back to, you know what I mean? I was like looking at them. I could see they were laughing. And I was told the whole time, no one's going to laugh. They were laughing. I was like, oh, fuck. I did pretty good. Ran into Che that night. I was like, I sucked. I was nervous. He was like, no, you were... That was good. Then a couple days later, you get a call back and you go into the office and you meet everybody and you walk around and talk to everybody. And the people I was with that were also doing that, then you go into Lauren Michaels' office to meet him. So the three people I was with, they all went in slowly, met him, left. One guy didn't even get invited in. They just sent him home, which is fucked up. They invited him to the call back and then were like, no, never mind. Wow. And then they kept me there for an extra hour by myself. And I was just sitting there like, oh, fuck, I got this. I'm going to be on it. I can't believe I got this. I wasn't even excited. I was just like, this is wild. This is fucking nuts. And then I go in and meet with Lauren and he's the man. He's a nice guy. And he was like, oh, I'm going to use you, but I don't know how. And all that shit. And then time passes and I figured they were going to ask me to be a writer because that's usually how it goes. Usually you work on the show to experience what the show's like. But I don't know. I didn't want to be a writer. By all accounts, that place is a den of thieves. Everybody, yeah. A den of thieves. You hear Jim Brewer's account of the climate in that place and it's horrific. They're all stealing from writers. They're stealing from performers. If you're a writer and you submit your packages, the higher up writers will steal your shit, according to Brewer. Yeah. If you submit a package, they own that package even if they don't hire you. I know that. So if you have some great premises, they decide they're just going to take your premises and not hire you. They own all those bits. Yeah. It's crazy. I mean, yeah, I don't care about writing. I didn't want to be a writer. Right. Of course. So I was like, even if they offer me the writing thing, I was like, I don't want to take it. I think I would have at the time. But anyway, they asked me to go straight to cast. So I was like, yeah, I'll definitely do that. Lauren calls, says, hey, we want to use you on the show. We're going to announce it tomorrow. He was like, do you have anything you want us to check out? Like, they have people that vet you. Right. But they're not used to people having podcasts. Right. So they'd have to go through hundreds of hours of shit. They go through your Facebook, your Instagram, your Twitter. I was just like, I'll just delete all that shit. I don't care. Delete it all. Right. But I was like, I also have a podcast. And they're like, yeah, what's that? And I was like, I don't know. I say, like, gay and retard a lot. They were like, oh, that's fine. Don't worry about it. So I was like, all right, we'll see. And so the day they announced it, it was cool. It was very cool. You hear from everybody you've ever grown up with. They're all like, holy shit. What just like, I can't believe you're on this. And then so that lasted for about like three hours before an article came out. That was like, here's what this guy says. There's a clip of me saying something. Yeah, unsavory stuff. Yeah. But talking shit. It was the one podcast we ever filmed. That's the one they used. Wow. And it just happened. And it was funny, too, because people were like, man, they really had to dig to find this. I was like, that's probably like three minutes in. It was like, we had one podcast online and it was three minutes in. Well, it's what we were saying earlier. That's what podcasts are. And that's what comics do a lot. We talk shit. It doesn't mean you really mean those things. But the idea today is that talking shit is not real. They want to take out of context phrases and sentences that you've used and put them in quotes and make you look like a monster. Yeah, for sure. It was only one article that came out? No, there was quite a few. So many articles. I think I was number one on Twitter for like three straight days. Wow. Of just getting fucking eviscerated. Did you read it all? Oh, I read all of it. Oh, no. Yeah, everybody was like, stop reading. I still read comments. I read every comment. Why? I don't know. It's fucked up. And it's crazy, too, because I'll read like 90 good ones and then one bad one. The one bad one will fuck you up. Just depends which one it is. Right. I'll get called like fat retard constantly. I'll be like, yeah, whatever. I can walk through that, no problem. But then there will be one that's like he's nervous. Something where they get you, where they know you. Yeah. He laughs at his own jokes on every podcast. It's like, oh, fuck. Do I? Shit. Right. Anyway, so I get all that stuff comes out and it was funny. This is funny. I went into Lauren's, Lauren Michaels office and he was talking and I was convinced I was getting fired. Like I knew I was getting fired because if they didn't get me on that, there's so much more. So much worse. And so he was talking to me and he was like, no, we think we can. He's like, if we just get you to the first episode, like people will see you're not a piece of shit person. Just talk. And I was like, whatever. I'll do if I just, if I get fired here, whatever. I'll just go do Joe Rogan next week and I'll be fine. Anyway, I thought that was funny. No. What? I was like, I literally thought that. Oh, okay. Yeah. I thought it'd be funny. Well, it could have been funny. Yeah. I was booked up though. No, it was fine. It was just funny to truly. That was a conversation I actually had. In Lorne Michaels office in the middle of that. That's hilarious. I was in pure fucking panic. Terror. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm so excited. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know what it's like, it's like you need that venom to work its way through your system and then you develop a certain amount of immunity to the actual moment. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it ended up being a good thing. So when Lorne pulls you in the office and says, we just have to get you to the stage, we just have to get you to an episode, then what happens? It just kept steam rolling. It didn't dissipate at all. It kept being like, no, you guys need to fire them. And I get it. Well, that's where the fun is. The fun in going after someone is not going after someone and then no consequences. That makes them sad. What makes them happy is so they can get you fired. Yeah. And that's, yeah, they did a good job. Yeah, good job, everybody. Yeah, and it's fine. Look, the whole time. Dude, here's why it's fine. Your sketches that you're doing, what is it, Gilly and Keves? Those are the best fucking comedy sketches that are on the internet right now. Thank you. I'm not bullshitting. The only thing that's at the same level is Kyle Dunnegan's shit. Kyle Dunnegan, the shit that he's doing. He's got a massive advantage with that face swap though. Man, he's so good at fucking impressions. He's amazing. Have you seen the new thing that Dunnegan is doing? It does a Fresh Prince take off with Biden. What is it called? Yeah, Fresh Prince of DC. Yes. Something like that. Fresh Prince. Yeah. Dude, it's tear jerking. His Bill Maher? Oh my God, it's incredible. New rule. Yeah. It just, oh my God. And there's something about it that it's almost got like a South Park-esque quality to it because it looks so fake. But it's obvious, it's like these things. Look how bad these look. Look at the little tiny hand he holds up for Bill Maher. The face swap thing is amazing. It really is amazing because he's like, look at the AOC because it looks so fake. You would never believe that that's the real person. So it's comedic. But it's also, the material is brilliant. And you can get away with so much in someone else's voice when everybody knows it's not really that person. It's really one of the most genius platforms ever created. And he's the master. Him and Kurt Metzger. Kurt is... They're incredible. They're both, yeah. It's the best shit. Kurt's like one of my, he's one of my favorite comedians. But the shit you're doing is right up there with that. Thank you. It's really fucking funny, man. It's really funny and it's like something you would never be able to do on SNL. The stuff you guys are doing. How are you financing this stuff? I financed half and then we had a production company that financed half. The Trump one was made the Trump speed dating. Yeah, it's John McKeever. He's Keeves. He's incredible. Writer. He writes all these edits and makes them. They're really good, man. They're really good. Damn, I spazzed on that SNL story. No, you didn't at all. How do you spazz? I felt like it came out bad. No, no, no. Look, it's an awkward story. It is. Here's what's uncomfortable about it. I don't want to sound like ... It's weird for me to rail against cancel culture because I was a victim of it for lack of a better word. You know what I mean? Why is it weird for you to rail against it? I don't know. I don't know. It makes me ... It seems defensive. Yeah. I'd rather just be like, look, if people bring up cancel culture, I'm just like ... Honestly, I really believe it's better for you in the long run. I really do. You're a brilliant comedian and I think your sketches are incredible and I think it's better that you not get attached to something that's ultimately corrupting. I don't want to be on the other side of it where it's like, I'm a free speech guy. I'm a fucking ... It's like, dude, I don't want to be involved in any of this. I just want to do comedy. Catch new episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience for free only on Spotify. Watch back catalog JRE videos on Spotify, including clips. Easily, seamlessly switch between video and audio experience. On Spotify, you can listen to the JRE in the background while using other apps and can download episodes to save on data cost all for free. Spotify is absolutely free. You don't have to have a premium account to watch new JRE episodes. You just need to search for the JRE on your Spotify app. Go to Spotify now to get this full episode of The Joe Rogan Experience.