Uncle Hack from the Danger Cats joins me on The Gunn Show to talk about how he made a career out of poking fun at Alberta's blue-collar workforce, how political correctness makes comedy boring, and how he thinks getting back to regular, in-person fun is the way around cancel culture.
00:11:49.460Like, you look at it, you're happy about the progress and everything, but I watch it now and be like, you're just, like, you're almost trying too hard to be funny.
00:13:18.500So, I'm deliberately doing some things at times that will trigger people to have them pissed off and come for me.
00:13:25.000Because at the end of the day, I'm not worried about it.
00:13:28.220I don't give a shit, like, what these people, they're not going to be people that come to a comedy event or any of this.
00:13:34.060They're never going to show up and have a good time with anything we do with the brand or even have a laugh at it.
00:13:40.100So, I always jokingly tell people that I got drunk one night and I was in the parking lot of a Home Depot saying the N-word 52 times on a Facebook account that I don't know the password to.
00:13:54.500And it's scheduled to be released on my birthday when I turned 35.
00:13:58.340So, I got five years of this career path before I'm torched.
00:14:05.340It is funny, but I'm so glad to hear it because, not that you have a ticking time bomb on your career, but for so many conservatives, and I'm trying to remain, like, not turn this into a political talk, but for so many conservatives, and we see this all the time, I think this is the great failing of conservatives, is wanting to be liked by people who hate them and who will never vote for them.
00:14:58.880I don't, you know, at the end of the day, my big thing is, like, I think we should be able to say what we want, what's inside your head, and not have to worry about going to a supervisor or have some HR guy down your throat because you made a joke with a guy that was intended for that guy.
00:15:16.460And someone 15 feet over, overheard it, and they're offended.
00:15:20.160And so you risk the possible chance of getting fired or canceled, whatever it is.
00:15:25.480I think it's ridiculous that we can't, you can't express yourself.
00:15:31.600And I hear all the time that, just dudes that listen to my podcast and shit, it's just like, oh, yeah, it's refreshing to hear somebody do this, you know, like, some sort of shock jock radio, whatever you want to call it, Opie and Anthony, they're, like, the Black Phillip show, whatever it is.
00:15:49.780And somebody is pushing the narrative and going for it and generally not doing it.
00:16:17.880So it's, like, I really respect those guys and what they do and what they do for the art form.
00:16:23.740And to have the balls to say what they say, you know.
00:16:27.380They deliberately say shit that, you know, is going to, that are, get them a community strike or, you know.
00:16:35.020Like, they're, they're proving a point that what they say is okay.
00:16:39.820As long as the intent is, is, you know, none of them are doing this for malicious intent and looking to hurt your feel, oh, sorry, feelings.
00:16:47.360It's a joke that they've written and they thought was funny and their friends laughed at it.
00:17:06.200If you're edgy or even the slightest bit conservative, you're not going to get a Netflix deal.
00:17:12.820You know, with the exception of Rogan, you probably won't get picked up by Spotify or even allowed on the platform if you post from somewhere else or create from somewhere else.
00:17:22.920So, I guess my question is, is it possible to be commercially successful now?
00:17:34.300I mean, I think with Rogan, he created a juggernaut years ago that's carrying through today that sort of makes him counsel proof.
00:17:46.640I mean, you know, I had a veteran comic, Jason Rouse, invite me down.
00:17:51.760I haven't been doing comedy for that long.
00:17:53.820I've only, I started November of 2019.
00:17:56.840I did my first open mic and then I just kept going.
00:18:00.540And even throughout the pandemic, just did it as much as I possibly could.
00:18:06.720And when he sat down with me and I got a chance to interview him, afterwards we're chatting and he goes, you did this the most smartest fucking way possible.
00:18:27.240A lot of comics have to play in between these rules or club owners or all this shit where I can just basically say, fuck you.
00:18:33.760I'll rent the hall next door if you don't want to have me.
00:18:35.980And I'll throw my own event and I'll market it and I'll do all the necessary steps to try and promote the event as best as I possibly can.
00:18:44.740Where I think a lot of guys don't want to tiptoe on that line or they're scared because, you know, one guy here, I won't say his name, but he went up and they told him, you can't do this type of joke on stage.
00:18:58.740He went and did five minutes of that type of joke and they kicked him out of the club for, you know, I think it was like two months.
00:19:07.440And that's like two months that this guy doesn't get stage time, which is crucial.
00:19:13.120But it sucks that, you know, these comics don't get an opportunity to perform or work out bits because there's some asshole that, you know, is a club owner or manager, just doesn't like his style and all that.
00:19:42.100I think you have to build your own infrastructure from the ground up because you can't rely on somebody else's because somebody else's is subject to, I guess, the council mob.
00:19:53.340And if you put the time and effort in, like it's I'm coming on five years of like doing this now.
00:20:00.200And that's like I thought it was going to last one.
00:20:03.860I thought for sure I was like, oh, this isn't going to be anything.
00:20:07.000And so we were treating it like it was a Motley Crue music video.
00:20:12.100And partying hard and doing all the extracurricular activities that that come with all that, that lifestyle.
00:20:20.020And finally, like one day I woke up and like you're pissing this opportunity away and you're going to let this something so great.
00:20:28.880And you'll look at this five, 10 years down the road and be like, you fucking idiot as you're, you know, not shitting on anybody's job or anything.
00:20:37.380But it's just like there's jobs out there I don't want to do.
00:21:12.600I've only talked and seen four people consistently throughout it to going off a plane to 6th Street, Texas, no masks, people everywhere, live bands, live music, comedies happening.
00:25:04.360But one thing you'll never be able to take away is live events.
00:25:07.900And that's why getting more into the, like, the live events and throwing, doing shows and having people come together rather than having this complete divide online.
00:25:16.020It's like, why don't you just come out to a show, see it, watch people laugh, have fun.
00:25:20.240If you want to come out, come out and, uh, we'll dance and play by the rules as best as we possibly can to make sure later we don't get accounts lost and everything.
00:25:30.340But as far as that, I think like the live face-to-face interactions, that's what's missing.
00:25:37.500And that's like, just getting together, have a, have a beer, have a laugh at somebody's expense and whether it be mine or yours or who's ever, you know, like that's, I think we're missing that entirely.
00:25:51.300You know, and like this internet censorship is only going to create a bigger divide between everybody because one voice is going to feel like it's clamped down on.
00:25:59.300And that, that's, I think that's scarier than allowing somebody to, uh, you know, tweet a trans joke, you know?
00:26:06.340And I think it also serves to, um, amplify, uh, things that actually aren't normal, that people aren't feeling like, you know, when you, when you censor everybody else who's dissenting, um, all that leaves is the, you know, the liberals and the crazy people shouting at the clouds.
00:26:22.880And, and, and, you know, I think it also, to be compassionate, I think it also seems unkind to those people, um, because it protects them from dangerous ideas and, and, um, other opinions.
00:26:38.420It, it doesn't build for very resilient people when they can't just like shrug off a joke and walk away.
00:26:44.100I have this theory that over in Syria, you're not really worried about words, you're worried about bullets over there, you know?
00:26:51.220Yeah, I've, I've, I've been to Northern Iraq and, uh, you come home and you're like, what is wrong with everybody here?