Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Shane Gillis: Live In Austin’ On YouTube, The Stand-Up Debut Of The Canceled Comedian ‘SNL’ Fired Before He Even Started

Two years after he got hired and then abruptly fired from the cast of Saturday Night Live without ever appearing in an episode, Shane Gillis finally gets to show everyone what he’s made of, releasing his debut stand-up comedy special on YouTube.

SHANE GILLIS: LIVE IN AUSTIN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: If you’re an avid fan of Saturday Night Live, then you may think you know exactly who Shane Gillis is, even if you may not have ever watched him perform live stand-up comedy on any night of the week.
Originally from central Pennsylvania, Gillis plied his trade in stand-up first in Philadelphia before moving to New York City, but was still very much a new face in comedy when Lorne Michaels attempted to hire him to the SNL cast in September 2017, only to take it all back a few days later after a social-media free-for-all uncovered unsavory satire from Gillis in his past podcast episodes. Gillis, now 33, has spent the past two years working on the same thing he’d been working on before all of the hullabaloo from SNL, which was his stand-up career. If a free-for-all “canceled” his SNL career before it could get started, then could a stand-up special free for all on YouTube make for his effective comeback?

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: Gillis has toured with Dan Soder (Billions) on the road, so if you could imagine an easy-going comedian such as Soder, but wanting to push buttons like a Bill Burr, then you land on Gillis. At least that’s what he seems to be aiming for so far.
Memorable Jokes: His 48-minute set begins with Gillis already onstage and the crowd in Austin already laughing, as he launches into an opening doozy of a premise wondering about the day that Congress had to come up with the legal age of sexual consent (never you mind that that’s actually a state issue in these here parts and not federal jurisdiction, for that would be a different joke for a different comedian to tell). The premise, even if flawed, lets you know Gillis wants to keep his audience on its toes.

Will he explore racism as a topic, without trying to defend his SNL situation or even mentioning anything about that? You betcha.
Will he make jokes about Trump? Without a doubt.
Will he make jokes about the Special Olympics and in the process, compare his looks to someone who might qualify for said athletic competition? If you’ve paid any attention to Gillis since he entered the public eye in 2019, then you know the answer already.
Our Take: It’s a rare chance for someone in the social media era to get a second chance at making a first impression, but Gillis makes the most of his chance here.
For as much embarrassment and perhaps reputation tarnishing his SNL hiring/firing seemed at the time, the whole thing also seemed to have blown wind into his sails (it certainly blew up in a very beneficial financial way for the Patreon for his aforementioned podcast). Because now Gillis has a much more dedicated fan base, who not only will allow him to push their buttons but also at the same time expect and encourage it from him.
To me, Gillis sounds like a comedian who talks as if social media doesn’t even affect him any longer. So what if having a dad who only watches FOX News might be a bit embarrassing? It could be worse, Gillis says: “Can you imagine having a dad who watches MSNBC?… Like, Dad, are you gay?”
He similarly isn’t worried about line-crossing when he first mocks the American South for only getting over racism once they learned Black people excelled at football, and then tagging it with a bit wondering if that’s how trans folk will have to prove their worth to Southerners, too. Other bits about the trans community aren’t so well-crafted, however.
He does acknowledge that he still feels somewhat stuck between his “white trash” uncles from the country and his new “woke” neighbors in the city.
Gillis certainly knows what he’s doing onstage. He didn’t get Lorne’s attention by being mediocre. The big Pennsylvanian has potential. Whether he ultimately fulfills that potential or whether he allows his recent infamy to inform his material in a chase for bigger paydays, that’s still a question for him to answer.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Don’t you actually want to see Gillis tell more than a few jokes before you develop an actual opinion about him, regardless of whether you already had an opinion about him two Septembers ago?

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.

Watch Shane Gillis: Live In Austin on YouTube