Welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me, Trevor.
What a crazy journey this has been.
Not just for you but for me, as well.
Like, a lot of people wouldn't know this about this
unless I told them, but, um, like,
when I started doing comedy in America,
one of the first places I started
-was at the Comedy Cellar. -Yeah.
And that's where you were also, like...
We were there almost every single night
-working jokes. -Nightly. Yeah.
And now here you are on Showtime, like, a hit series,
and now you're, like, a full-time regular,
and you got an HBO special.
It's been an insane journey. Congrats.
Yes. Thank you very much.
(cheering and applause)
Learned... Learn to blackmail people.
-(laughs) -Learn to blackmail people,
and you'll get all the jobs you want.
Let me ask you this.
Do some people get confused because they go like,
"Wait, the guy from Showtime is doing comedy?"
Like, do people not know that you were in comedy first?
At all. At all.
I got the HBO special...
HBO came and saw me at the Comedy Cellar.
-Right. -It ran an hour, and then after the show,
they were like, "We're gonna...
I think we're gonna give you an hour."
And this guy's sitting there in a fleece vest,
and he goes, "You do comedy?"
And I go, "Yeah."
And he goes, "You're on Billions."
I was like, "Yeah." And he goes, "But you do comedy?"
And you want to be like,
"I just got the biggest thing in comedy."
I was just told I got an HBO special,
and this guy doesn't believe I do comedy.
It was insane.
-The, uh... -I was like, "What world am I in?"
A lot of people love your special because, like...
Here's one thing I've liked about you.
I've always loved that you are,
uh, I mean, what some people would call an edgy comic,
but you're not trying. You're not, like...
You know, no, you know there's, like, some comics who are like,
"I'm trying to make you hate me.
-I'm trying to say something edgy." -Yeah.
This is who you are.
Yeah, yeah. You're just gonna hate me. Or not. I don't know.
-It's-- Yeah. -No, but, I-I mean, you see it--
-you see it in the special. -That's a good intro. You go,
"You're not trying to be a jerk, are you?"
-Like, "Eh." -No, no, no. But-but-- Yeah, but you're--
but you're not though. You don't come off as a jerk.
You just come off as someone who sees the world in a certain way.
Like, for instance, talking about your life,
-growing up, like, smoking as a kid, -Yeah. Yeah.
saying that you are white trash. I mean, that's-that's--
-Not a lot of people would even say that. -Yeah.
I think people should cop to it more,
and then you would understand where they're coming from.
I love Fritos Original. That lets you know a lot about me.
I love a nice old bag of Fritos Scoops!
Uh... But it is. It's like-- You know, what's funny is, um,
you put out a special this year, I put out a special.
-Right. -The titles-- so similar
yet completely different in meanings.
That's-- I saw that. Because mine is Son of Patricia,
-named after my mom. -On Netflix,
-which you can stream now. -Right. But then--
but then yours is called Son of a Gary.
That "A" is the biggest difference in the world.
Because Son of Patricia, awesome.
-What a-- what a lovely homage to your mother. -Right.
Almost like a Game of Thrones title.
-Yes. That's what it is. -You're, like, Son of Patricia,
-Bringer of Laughs. -Yes. That's a-- that's a--
-I like that. That's it. Yeah. -Yeah.
Mine's, like, Son of a Gary,
and it's like, "I'm here
even though I had that awful of a father."
(laughs) Mine's like, "You real son of a Gary!"
-(laughs) -You know? It's like, uh--
Yeah, it's-it's a nice way. Let's flip--
There's-there's dudes out there that are dicks that need credit,
-so my dad-- Yeah. -This is interesting,
because, like, you-you talk about things in the special
that a lot of people would be like, "Man, that is so painful."
But it's one of the funniest specials around.
You talk about your dad, who passed away as well.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -And then some people will be like,
"You can't make jokes about that.
That's not funny. How can you talk about death?"
The people that always make that jokes then-- say that
and then they go and call their dad, you know?
They're like, "You shouldn't talk about your father
being dead. Dad, where's my rent?"
And it's like, how are you-- how are you telling me
-what I can and cannot joke about? -Right.
That's the thing about comedy. What I love is
there's-there's so much variety out there,
but you can really, in comedy, find the thing
that you want to joke around about and make fun of
in a way that that's what keeps you honest.
-Right. -And it's always-- The survival technique has been,
"Well, let me make fun of the darkest thing in my life,"
'cause then it just alleviates that pressure a little bit.
As a comedian though, do you ever look back on your comedy--
I know this happens to me. But, like, a lot of the time
with comedians, we have this-this thing that started,
-especially with, like, online culture now-- -Sure.
not even, like, tweets and stuff-- like-like,
websites where they're trying to find something.
They'll go back on a joke from, like, 15, 20 years
and then they'll be like, "Dan, you said this 20 years ago."
Yeah, then I just cue up the part where I say
I'm white trash and I'm like, "What's up?"
(laughter)
Proof's in the pudding, buddy.
I've been, I've been who I've been.
My favorite one is the criticisms I've gotten on this.
It's been overwhelming how-how great, uh,
-all the compliments I've gotten -Yeah.
for the special coming out.
But the one criticism that I got that was so funny
was the guy was like, "You look like you have small hands."
And that was the only tweet.
And I was like, "Yeah, you know, I had a, uh,
procedure done in Brazil to shrink my hands."
What a weird thing just to watch a whole hour of comedy
and be like, "Why is that guy's hands tiny?"
And that's the one thing you focus on is the hands?
Yeah, and I got paws, dude.
You should see me on the basketball court.
I will swat you!
Uh, here's, here's the thing I want to know about you
and online-- you don't seem to take it seriously
And I've noticed that y-you're, you're, like,
not online anymore; you are, but you're not.
Oh, it's the best.
-I'm living in 2007, baby. -(laughter)
No, but I, but really, I want to know.
Like, did you, did you delete your things or did you...?
'Cause sometimes I'll see, like, a post about what you're doing.
-Yeah. -Right, where you're gonna be performing
at a club, at a show, but then,
I don't see you, like, commenting anymore
-I don't see, like... -Done. I'm off it, I'm off it.
I, um, I took Twitter off my phone in October of 2018,
and it was the greatest thing I ever did in my life.
And I recently took Instagram off and then I...
And by the way, these companies are like,
"Don't listen to this man! Do not listen to this man!"
Uh, it just started making me feel like, um...
like a, like motion sick, but while I was standing still.
-Right. -I would have these am--
incredible experiences that would be ruined, like,
my girlfriend and I would be at this awesome thing,
and then all of a sudden look down and be like,
"Dan Soder never made me laugh," and you're like,
"I want to fight you!"
And it's like, I'm not enjoying the thing,
'cause I'm looking at Trent in Iowa,
who's got, like, a bulldog for his profile picture.
And I'm like, "Why do you hate me?"
And it's, it was just ruining so much stuff
that I was like, once I took it off--
-Now I check when I'm at home on my computer. -Yeah.
Or I'll download Instagram, upload something,
and then delete it off my phone, and then be like--
Oh, you know what I'm doing now?
Checking my e-mails a lot.
So, that's where I need to send the hate?
I'm a nerd. (laughs) Yeah.
That's where I got to send those--
-Send it on through! -E-mail.
"Dear Dan, you've never made me laugh."
I'm like, "T-dot-Noah is persistent."
-At Hotmail? -No, man, that's one thing
I'll never say about you, truly. I've always said
this to you-- on camera, off camera or wherever--
you are one of the funniest human beings I know.
-Oh, thanks, man. -This is one of the funniest
specials I've seen. Thank you so much for being on the show.
Dude, Trevor, thanks so much for having me.
I hope everybody watches it.
Son of a Gary is currently available on HBO Go
and HBO Now-- you want to check it out.
Dan Soder, everybody.