Nazi Rally's at MSG are a Rough Venue for Comedy, Sorry Tony

A defense of funny....

I’ll start by saying I clicked off of this week’s episode of Kill Tony on YouTube to write this, that’s my bias. After 5 years of following someone closely and seeing their career progression, you start to kind of understand who they are. In the age of 3 hour+ podcast in which people bare their whole souls, it’s hard to have like, hidden belief systems that don’t start to come to light. You can find even more evidence of the person by the friends he keeps and, in this case, the people he/she uplifts and how fucking multi-cultural is the group of people who owe their entire careers to Tony Hinchcliffe? Very. He’s brought more people, of varieties of different ethnicities, genders, and statuses in the world, together and out of poverty, than say…the Federal Government definitely! His help, at least, isn’t enforced by detention at the barrel of a gun.

Of the many careers he’s jump started there’s an Asian named Hans Kim, a black man named David Lucas, a black blind man who plays bass guitar for the Kill Tony Band—“the Best Damn Band in the Land”— who goes by the name Dee-Madness, a Spanish man plays drums for the band, he put on Drew Nickers who has a traumatic brain injury from the military, and an honorable discharge. He gives him stage time every week. The first time he made it up on the show they were asking Drew how he got the brain injury, and when Drew changed the subject, seemed dodgy, and nervous, Tony asked, “does it bother you to talk about this?”

Drew nodded his head insistently and said, “Yes it does!”

And Tony quickly moved on and said, “Ok then, let’s talk about something else.” Drew Nickens very obviously had special needs, and Tony was very empathetic to him.

He’d been there every week for 9 months and hadn’t been called so when he finally got called, he came out with his energy on 10! Tony was so touched by his story, he brought him out 5 times in a row, every time someone bombed he brought him out to do another set. It was amazing! After this Tony made him a regular on the show. By the way, every single person that Tony has put up on his show has gone on to live out their dreams! This guy is single-handedly keeping the American dream alive! These are just to name a few. I’ll explain the stories in this piece of the more heartwarming stories to come out of the lore of KILL TONY, mainly the stories I seen unfold personally, but first…

Drew Nickens on stage at the Mothership

Let’s talk about what Kill Tony is… Tony Hinchcliffe and Brian Redban started developing this show in 2013 at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles. It is a live podcast in front of a crowd once a week in a comedy club setting. He puts out a sign-up sheet that aspiring, amateur, or sometimes first-timers that want to put in their bid as the next ticket-selling comedian, come from all over to sign up for. Tony has a panel of different guests every week, mostly already established, professional comedians, but sometimes other guests of varying fame, such as Jordan Peterson, Post Malone, or Ric Flair. Mostly comedians though, that can give helpful feedback to performing bucket pull. He’s had such a diverse group of guests on, even more diverse than the people whose lives he’s saved! He puts all the names in a bucket to get drawn out during the show. If your name gets pulled out you get a minute on stage to try out whatever you prepared, and a 10+ minute interview afterwards, depending on how it goes, to discuss your minute with the panel and find out who you are. Based on how the bit went or how the interview went—I’ve seen people blow up from both—you might get booked for a gig that night, or you might get good advice on what to do next, or how you could make it better, or you might realize you want nothing to do with this, I’ve seen all of these options come into play. One of the comedians I’ll talk about below made it to America’s Got Talent, and all of them, at the very least are now touring comedians, living out their dreams. It’s a real door opener. If you don’t do so good, he encourages them not to give up and keep coming back, but the main thing is giving the chance to try. While watching this show every week, I’ve seen so many repeat bucket-pulls that didn’t start out so good, but during each appearance you can really see their progression. It’s such an amazing thing to see. It really puts a spotlight on the progression of hard tasks when you don’t give up.

Also, Tony’s a roast comedian so he’s gonna bust your balls a little bit, but it’s understood that it’s all in fun, and a lot of times how well you do, and progress coincide almost 1 for 1, with how well you can take a joke coming back at you and roll with the punches. It’s a tough business, show business in general is brutal, you have got to thicken your skin. I’ve not seen anyone take a couple roast jokes personal and also, have a good set or interview.

Lately, this show has grown so much, I think due to the successes that have come from it, they are now selling out stadiums. His guest a couple months ago, before Biden dropped out, the guests on the panel were Shane Gillis, impersonating Donald Trump and Adam Ray as Joe Biden, and it has now garnered, as of this writing, 20 million views. A year ago, this show was only breaking a million when someone really big was a guest, like Joe Rogan or Post Malone, or Joe Rogan and Post Malone! Even those, would barely break a million. A couple months ago they sold out Madison Square Garden’s two nights in a row. At which time new comedians, drawn out of the bucket got to perform in front of a Sold-Out Stadium!

Sometimes he gets a bucket-pull that is exceptional, and he presents that person with a Golden Ticket, which means that he/she doesn’t have to sign up anymore, any time they come through they automatically have a spot on the show. The meme going around on Reddit is, a Golden Ticket means they are someone with special needs, and Tony feels sorry for them. They don’t say special needs though, they call them “retarded”. Problem with this meme is they are always sharper and funnier than the retards making the comment!

Their homebase is Joe Rogan’s Comedy Mothership, and it’s been kind of the other side of uplifting these aspiring comedians, Joe only hires people who want to be comedians, so they can use the club as a home base to hone their craft. Joe’s entire philosophy for this comedy club since the beginning was to give back to the comedy community by fostering talent within their doors, giving healthcare to comedians who normally would have trouble getting it because their work is like gig work, and he pays them what they deserve. He’s said many times during his podcast, that he’s in a unique role in which, he makes more money than he needs from his own, already successful, careers. Three successful careers to be exact. So, all he’d like to do with the club as far as profits go is break even, and as far as comedians go, as foster talent, and provide another spot for touring comics from other places to perform when they’re in town. By the way, this isn’t just talk, I’ve heard damn near every comic who has performed there who go on to talk about it later, that the pay is exponentially better than any club in the country. By the way, it seems to be a good business model, every listing of tickets are sold-out in minutes from the time they’re posted. You have to catch them like 6 months out to even get tickets. KILL TONY is the same, it sells out in minutes months before the show date. Now back to Tony and his compassion for the needy of many cultures.

The KILL TONY Talent Pool

Michael Lehrer was a Second City Improv Alumni in his earlier days. When he developed ALS, and no doubt would be soon facing expiration, all he wanted was to get back to the stage live out his dream as a Professional Comedian. He’s passed on now. He was in a wheelchair for many years and after years of suffering he went to a state that supported Physician-Assisted Suicide and ended his pain. It was a very sad day in Kill Tony history. Even though it was difficult sometimes to coordinate his wheelchair getting to the stage, even though he was hard to understand (I would turn on the subtitles during his set), and even though his appearance would drag out sometimes 20-30 minutes, Tony had a spot for him on every episode of KILL TONY that he could make. Until his bittersweet end. When he passed away last year, they put together the most amazing, in remembrance video, which was a compilation of his most memorable moments on the show, and it was a tear-jerker.

Hans Kim is an Asian Comedian who became a regular on his show after one appearance. Tony has done so much for his life and his career. Hans was pulled out of the bucket—which is how he found everyone else—and during his interview we all found out that Hans was living in a van. Tony put him in his show as a regular, started taking him on the road, putting him in front of people and now Hans Kim is a national headliner, touring all over the country.

Kam Patterson, a black man from Orlando, FL, and this guy is a fucking renegade. He’s gonna be considered one of the best that ever did it one day, like without a doubt the next Dave Chappelle, or Richard Pryor, all thanks to KILL TONY, he showed up from a bucket pull, became a regular and now he’s a national headliner.

Jared Nathan, a Canadian man with special needs and an extreme stutter was given a golden ticket, which is an open door to skip the bucket and given a spot on the show any time he’s in town. Recently when he was on, he gave Tony an award from the special needs community giving him a “Hard-R Award”, which gives him a pass to use the “Hard R” any time he wants, you know the Hard-R…. It’s retard you racist! :-) It was a very funny moment.

Sara Mostajabi, God rest her soul passed away in 2022, and is the only one not doing better now, she was his very first regular, all the way back from episode #1 and was an Iranian.

Enrique Chacon is Spanish, Tony brings him on all the time, even put him into a sold-out show at Madison Square Gardens, when Kill Tony sold it out two-nights-in-a-row!

Ahren Belisle, the comedian who can’t speak (literally, he’s a mute), made it from Kill Tony all the way to America’s Got Talent, with his Bluetooth speaker hooked to his

phone, telling his jokes with text-to-speak. He’s currently on tour with Martin Phillips, and Tony gets him on stage every single time he comes in town, and every stadium show he’s done he’s put him on stage.

He has Nicole Tran on, every single time she comes to town, and she does whatever she wants to do even though sometimes it’s strange and hard to understand because of her thick Asian accent. If you didn’t guess, the thick Asian accent isn’t an Impression, she’s an Asian Woman.

Martin Philips has Muscular Dystrophy, his voice is like RFK Jr’s because he shakes all over, I have to use subtitles in his set but it’s always worth it, he’s so funny, and Tony’s influence has turned him into a touring comedian.

Ali Macofsky, a young very talented woman, who started on KILL TONY from a bucket-pull, became a regular and is now a successful comedian. Joe has taken her on the road a few times, as has Tony, she’s now a guest from time to time on KILL TONY and the Joe Rogan Experience.

As is Sara Weinshenk, Kim Congdon, Vanessa Johnston, and “Jet-Ski” Jessie Johnson, all talented woman, all living their dreams, all given their start by Tony Hinchcliffe. Also, not like Harvey Weinstein putting them on, casting couch type shit. He cared about these people and wanted to see them flourish. That’s what his entire platform is, uplifting comedians, finding talent, not like, so he could manage them or profit off them but simply to see them flourish.

Last, but not least, the “Estonian Assassin” Ari Matti, who is quickly becoming comedy’s top Eastern European accent. Thanks to Kill Tony and friends, he received a 9-month work visa here, to work as a comedian. And Tony has been putting him in on every single episode of the show, no matter where it’s at, and introducing him to all different podcasters, to get his notoriety up, he’s made an excellent appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience, that really showcased what an interesting guy he is. He was on Whitney Cummings show, Good for You, Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast, and The Duncan Trussell Family Hour, to name a few of the big ones. Their plan is to get him famous before the Visa runs out so that they’ll let him stay. All people need to do is listen to him for 5-minutes and they’re sold! The guy is just so talented. Once they see him, they’ll be jumping to get him a green card.

These are all beautiful examples of how not a racist he is and how, actually, Tony Hinchcliffe is a caring and compassionate soul who wants people to succeed and has used his success to help people as best as he could. People that he has a deep understanding with, up & comers in the comedy world who otherwise might have given up before someone gave them a chance. Let’s be really honest here, how many potential school shootings do you think he might’ve saved us from, by giving hope to people who otherwise might’ve been so hopeless, that they were radicalized and believed their only hope was the next Sandy Hook Massacre. Instead, thanks to Tony Hinchcliffe, they are happy and hopeful and living out their dreams.That’s a bad joke, I should leave the comedy to the professionals.

So, now let’s talk about the reason this is relevant to talk about today. Sunday, October 27th, 2024, Tony opened a Trump Rally with 10min of comedy. The comedy was very Tony Hinchcliffe-esque, he made a few offensive jokes about things that the Trump campaign is running on, mainly immigration, after all the media had already coined this a Nazi Rally, why? Because as infuriating as it is to learn this, Adolf Hitler had a rally at Madison Square Gardens in 1939. Because there have been other presidents to have a rally there this was a wild claim to make. Bill Clinton had a rally there, FDR, Ronald Reagan, and many others besides the Nazi’s but, opening the rally with Tony Hinchcliffe, whose brand is taking it as far as you can, it was a weird choice. Tony even addresses this in the set, at one point he comes out with, “This is a strange place for comedy, not used to following the National Anthem!” At another point he says, after saying something offensive, he reacts to people groaning by saying, “This a real groaney morning crowd!”

And the reaction to him seemed to be people who do not understand comedy. Maybe it’s because everyone seen this, not just people looking for comedy, it hit the national stage. The video I posted at the top was from a local news channel. Personally, I loved the set, I love that offensive shit, could’ve done without the watermelon comment, but that was one he came up with in the moment, reacting to whatever he seen on some man’s head. This was all weird on a few levels, for a few different reasons. For one, why are we doing comedy at a Presidential Politics rally? This close to the election? Are you crazy? A morning crowd? Who the fuck books a comedian for a morning set??? These people are nocturnal, like vampires, they don’t come out at night! They’ll turn to dust, like the little girl in “Interview with a Vampire”. By the way, Tony did really good, he did what he was supposed to do, if you’re making a joke about any group, make jokes about ALL the groups, but this was on whoever organized that rally. They should’ve made themselves aware of what kind of comedy he does, he’s a roast comic, if he ain’t supposed to do his thing don’t hire him for your thing. You didn’t take a look at his last big appearance at the Tom Brady Roast on Netflix, he—in a very masterful roast joke said, “Sam Jay doesn’t eat pussy, she ah-hell-gnaws on it.”

Don’t now be upset that he Ah-Hell-Gnawed up your political rally! This is 100% the fault of whoever’s job it was to research guests and “Speakers”. Comedy at a presidential rally in the fucking morning of all times?! This is like mixing church and state. Anyone blaming Tony or hating on Tony, I hope you read this, and while you’re reading about the various levels of humankind that Tony has uplifted, ask yourself this, WHAT HAVE I DONE LATELY?! Thank you for reading…

Jordan Lee, Editor-at-Large, Declaration of Liberty