Ari Shaffir's Skeptic Tank

Liza Treyger had me over to talk about alcohol. It wasn't one of those cry-about-it podcasts. This was a celebration of booze. Liza is good at drinking. Really good. Better than me for sure. So we talked about alcohol and how fun it is, and we talked about how awful Jews are, and probably a bunch more stuff that pot won't let me remember.

Jeff Danis and Ryan Oneill met me at Full Charge's place in LA to interview the host of Ari Shaffir's Skeptic Tank, Ari Shaffir. I turned the reins over to two of the least capable men on the west coast and they interviewed me about anything they wanted. Danish and Oneill episodes are always a blast and this one was no different. I had some HARD laughs while we were making this one. So if you've ever wanted to know about me, here's your chance to find out.

I've been editing This Is Not Happening stories for 50 hours a week for the last 2 weeks so I didn't have time to do a full interview. I was going to just skip the week, but then I thought, you know people would like better than no episode? That's right, they want the host to drive dangerously while barely covering a variety of unlinked topics. So enjoy, everybody. A new numbered Skeptic Tank should be back next week.

Danish and Oneill met me at my AirBnB in Echo Park while I was in town to shoot This Is Not Happening season 2 (new episodes February 24 at 12:30am) to do an interview about Ari Shaffir. Ari Shaffir is the host of a semi popular comedy podcast called Ari Shaffir's Skeptic Tank. This is the first interview we did and I'm airing it second because so many people wanted me to release it. It takes us from the birth of Ari until his birth as a comedian. It leaves off where episode 250 picks up. So enjoy this interview with the guy on this podcast who never gets asked any questions. It's the first time I don't have to butt in to get my point across.

My friend Kelsey sat down on a beach on the island of Maui to talk about her experience with cancer. Kelsey got it, beat it, and got it again all in her 20s. It was a very open and honest interview all about what it actually means to have cancer, deal with remission, the feel of chemo... all of it.

Jessica Michelle Singleton came over to talk about what it's like to drive for a ride-share company. She's ridden for Uber and Lyft so she's got first hand knowledge on the subject. And we even drove around a little and picked up a passenger during the podcast. Fun times. The conversation naturally went from driving to rape so expect some really stupid discussion on the subject from the both of us.

Kathleen McGee and I went to see Zoolander no. 2 in Vancouver and we did a spoiler alert podcast about it. Its the 2nd year in a road we did this. And both times with sequels. It's a fun discussion about the movie and also a drug and injury fueled trip to Whistler.

The Schmoes, Kristian Harloff and Mark Ellis, invited me to their posh burbank studio to do our yearly roundup of the Oscars. We did it after the Oscars this year because Kristian actually got to go to it! Well, sort of. He did red carpet stuff outside. But great discussion about movies and as always, we get into really ridiculous, stupid stuff that has nothing do with the Oscars.

Theo Von met me at a secret hike in LA to do a walking podcast about hiking. Theo's a hilarious comic but he's also hiked Mount Kilimanjaro. I climb hills, bro. Hills. He climbed a giant mountain. It was a fun talk and it really puts you in the place where we were. I love these "on-location" podcasts.

Two US Army defense contractors met me in a secret location in America to discuss what it's like to go work for the government on foreign soils. They both work as contractors in stations all over the world and they gave a first hand account of how much waste goes into our imperialism. It was an interesting look into the life of a hired grunt in the middle of a war zone.

Shane Mauss met me on the patio of the Comedy Store and told me tons of tales about all sorts of psychedelic drugs. I had no idea Shane was this deep into psychedelia. He's been to so many different dimensions he should forward his mail there. And what I really liked is that he wasn't all hippy dippy about it. He's very scientific about the whole thing. It was a great discussion about amazing drugs.

Duncan Trussell invited me up to his compound in the mountains to explain to me what existentialism means. It's a heady conversation that I barely remember thanks to marijuana, but it was really interesting at the time. And it starts with a rational breakdown of the story of the Jewish holiday, Purim, in the intro.

Steve Simeone and I had some dinner, watched a college basketball game, and talked about all the time he spends over at Children's Hospital. He's been going over there all the time for over a year now. He hangs out with the sick kids and just kind of plays with them. And he does it all the time. It's a really nice story.

My nephew had his bar mitzvah last weekend. I hadn't been to one in too long. They're so much fun! It made me remember my own bar mitzvah. How important it was to me, how fun it was. They're great, you guys. Just dumb and great.

Gary Vider met me in Central Park to walk around and gawk at women for Cleavage Day. Cleavage Day is the first weekend day over 70 degrees in New York. It takes place in every city that has a real winter. It's that magical day when all the skin comes out of hiding. Women are showing cleavage and legs and stomach left and right. It's just a magical time to be a heterosexual man or a homosexual woman. So come join us on our bosomy adventure in New York.

Kelsey Cook met me over at the Full Charge's place to talkaboutfoosball. I've always had a fond spot in my heart for thesport,and Kelsey is THE BEST comedian foosball player in theworld.She's amazing. We talked about the sport a little and how shewasborn into it. And then we went to a bar to play a little, sostaytuned till the end for the match of the century.

Luisa Diez came over to talk about her father's involvement in the Escobar drug cartel in Colombia. She grew up in the middle of it all with her father who was pretty much CFO of Escobar's cartel. It was a really interesting discussion about her family and about the state of the drug trade in the 1980s.

Dan Soder came over to my place to tell me all about the summer he spent working in a cannery in Alaska. The people he worked with were straight deigns without even realizing it. This might be the best summer job of all time.

Nick Youssef met me at my Echo Park AirBnB cabin to talk about going celibate. Nick swore off sex about 5 months ago and now he's talking about keeping it in his pants. We get into a little fight with a gopher during the talk, but don't worry about that. And pick up Nick's new standup album, 1982, on iTunes now.

Bobby Lee invited me over to his house to do this podcast about the second generation of Comedy Store door guys. We recorded this at Tiger Belly studios, which is just his living room, I guess. Bobby was a door guy at the Store before I got there. He worked way closer with Mitzi and I'm in the middle of a 4 part series on the door guys at the Comedy Store. I already had done #3. #1 will come at some point down the road and then #4. It's a crazy job and I want to hear about how it's changed through the years.

Big Jay Oakerson and I went up to a buddy's rooftop in New York and talked about garbage music while we looked into people's windows hoping to find some action. Jay has the worst taste in music. He likes all my least favorite bands. So we talked about that a little. But we also got majorly sidetracked as we started seeing a bunch of interesting stuff in the windows. I also talk a lot about Bonnaroo in the intro and outro.

Hormoz Rashidi met me at the LA bungalow I was staying in while I was recording the next season of This Is Not Happening and he tried explaining to me all the histories of the middle east and our current involvement there. I don't know what Hormoz's background is, but he's real knowledgable about the whole region and this conversation really opened my eyes up to a way of thinking really plainly about the individuals involved in getting the US to go over there. It's the way I like thinking about almost every subject and I'm glad I finally got to do it about the middle east.

Alexis Guerreros took me on a pizza tour of New York. He's a standup comic but he runs these tours for extra cash and he took me on one, showing me his favorite of 3 different styles of pizza. Pizza and New York have a storied connection and Alexis explained how that all came up, the deal with 1 dollar slices, and even where pizza originated. It's an on location style podcast through the streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Join us for a delicious slice.

Rob Bernstein came over to my apartment to discuss his exit strategy from religion. Robbie was raised as a devout Jew. Only now has he begun to see the true stupidity of religion. But he's still got one foot in and one foot out. It's infuriation. So we talked about that as I try not to lose my temper.

Jeff Ross met me in Washington Square Park to talk about delis. We're both Ashkenazi Jews so it's a no brainer that we each have our opinions on the matter. But we also got other people in on the fun and went around interviewing people in the street about their favorite delis. Jeff was really busy planning the Comedy Central shoot of the Roast Battle, so we didn't get that much time to talk. So I made up for it a little with a long intro about the beach and a long outro about Shroomfest 2016. Make sure to set your DVRs to record the Roast Battle July 28-31 at 10/9c on Comedy Central. A new round every night until the live final round on Sunday, July 31.

Dave Smith met me in my apartment to give me the rundown on what's happened in America over the last year. He pays way more attention to all sides of the news than anyone I know, and he's a libertarian, so he can see both parties with equal disgust. Plus we talk about police racial violence. And top it off with some healthy discussion of my butthole. We're going to do this every year, so hopefully you like it.

My Edinburgh roommates Joe Derosa, Alex Kealy, Ahir Shah, Alex Smith, and I all got together to talk to about the world's largest comedy festival, The Edinburgh Fringe. And since it's the Fringe, we decided to get drunk while we did it. So here goes. It's a crazy festival and these guys will help me explain it. The British ones have been here many times. I've been here once before. And Derosa was 4 days into his first time.

Phil Wang came to my room at my Edinburgh flat to talk about open relationships. Phil has been in a non monogamous situation for the last three years. So we met up to talk about cheating without cheating. I'm always interested in alternative lifestyles and Phil was great to talk to about it. Way open and very honest and funny while he did it.

Kai Humphries, Milo McCabe, and Daniel Sloss met me at the Abattoir comedian's bar in Edinburgh, Scotland to tell me their harrowing tale of cheating death at the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain. This was a super fun story! You gotta go to arithegreat.com for this one to look at the pictures. They're CRAZY. Guest appearances by random comedy people trying to distract us with booze.

Henry Rollins met me in a hotel cafe in Edinburgh, Scotland to talk about travel. Henry goes all over the globe. He really likes to get off the beaten path and explore new places. I thought I liked seeing things, but Rollins takes it to a whole new level. He goes places I've never even heard of, met people I didn't know existed, done things I'd be too scared to do. It was such a fun conversation and it filled me with wanderlust.

Kurt Metzger caught the cold. He was the latest comic to get the e-rage. It happened while I was in Scotland and he wanted to talk about it on my podcast, so as soon as I got home, we made it happen. He was called a "rape apologist." They threatened to rape his girlfriend. He was misquoted and sold out as much as possible to prove a point they didn't know how to make. So he came to my apartment and we talked about it for a while. I interrupted way to much, but I just could not keep up with him. We're also joined by his still unraped girlfriend who tells me how frustrating it was to sit on the jury of an actual botched rape case. It's a weird episode. The left will probably learn nothing from it. But at least Kurt can tell his side of the story to an audience who actually listens.

Sal Vulcano came to my apartment to enlighten me on why Staten Island isn't the worst place in America. He's a native of the land of high bangs, Italian garbage, and trash dumps. And then, I don't know how, but we got into a solid mushroom discussion in the middle of this.

Joe List invited me over to his apartment to talk about self loathing. I've always noticed that Joe has a bit of a deal with hating himself. I guess I kind of have the same thing once in a while. But List takes it to another level sometimes. We talked about that, cigars making us sick, and confidence in general.

Ari Eldjarn and I drove around in Iceland and did a podcast about that beautiful country while we did. Ari is a comedian in Reykjavik. One of the first comedians, to be more precise. He and I hung out for 3 days while I was there and so we got on the mics in his car and I just asked him questions about his country for a while. It's one of those road trip episodes I do sometimes. So, come sit in the back, don't interrupt us, and eavesdrop on our conversation. Don't forget to watch a new This Is Not Happening this Thursday night at 12am eastern, 11pm Central on Comedy Central.

Amber Nelson, Sarah Tollemache, and Adrian Iapalucci came to my apartment to tell me about periods. And I mean all about it. About the blood flow, about PMS, about cramps, about period diarrhea, all of it. It's for sure gonna make some dudes feel uncomfortable, but it was really interesting to me. But I eat my own boogers, so maybe I'm not the best judge of what's too much. Either way, it was a really funny conversation with three comics on the subject of menses.

Tom Segura took me up to his hotel room in the East Village of New York and we sat and talked about all the jobs we've had over the years. Pretty much every comic you've ever heard of has had to do lots of different things to make some money over the years. And we've each had a bunch. So it was a fun conversation about our least favorite thing.

Bert Kreischer came to my apartment while he was in New York and we talked about who was fatter; him or Tom Segura. Bert made some solid cases for his side of things but most of those cases were made with a full chicken wing in between his two front teeth, so grain of salt I guess.

Shane Mauss came over to my apartment in New York to try to explain to me what he's learned about human anxiety and how it's no longer relevant in a safe, modern world. I say try because I'm an idiot and most of it went over my head. But it was still really interesting. So maybe you'll be able to wrap your brain around more of it than I could. Either way, it's still enlightening.

Craig Campbell returns to the Skeptic Tank to talk about snowboarding. He's a crazy back country snowboarder on top of being a comic. He's that guy who's skiing next to you on a path and then all of a sudden he just jumps off the side of the mountain into the woods. What is wrong with you? We did this in Scotland at the Edinburgh Fringe and I saved it till now because it's mother Fing ski season, you guys! Fresh pow in all your futures!

Joe Rogan met me at the Improv in LA to tell me all about his obsession with hunting. He's been a hardcore hunter for about 4 years now. And he broke down why he does it, what it's like out there, the backlash, the weaponry, all of it. It made me want to go out and kill something. Animals, probably, but people will do.

Tim Dillon came to my apartment to tell me about his former life in sales. He's sold everything. From mortgages to office equipment to a history of New York. Tim has hilarious stories about all of it. Fun, fun, fun podcast.