1 month ago
Recently, Ari Shaffir came to the end of 2 journeys — 1 spanning 7 months disconnected nan grid successful South America, nan different decades successful nan making.
A comedian known for disappearing overseas for extended stretches — who chronicles his escapades connected his podcast You Be Trippin’ — Shaffir resurfaced successful precocious March pursuing his latest trek. Weeks later, he launched The End, a direct-to-consumer drama bid successful which apical stand-ups present immoderate of their astir memorable longform stories.
For Shaffir and collaborator Eric Abrams, The End represents nan culmination of much than 15 years spent building platforms — whether live, digital, for tv — dedicated to storytelling-driven comedy. The astir salient of those was This Is Not Happening, which began arsenic a grassroots unrecorded show earlier evolving into a integer deed and, ultimately, a beloved Comedy Central bid moving 4 seasons. A show that awesome comics for illustration Ali Siddiq and Roy Wood Jr. person credited arsenic a boon to some individual stand-up careers and nan stand-up ecosystem, much broadly.
Shaffir hosted This Is Not Happening for 3 seasons earlier exiting nan bid nether contentious circumstances, aft deciding to waste a typical to Comedy Central’s competitor, Netflix. With nan show continuing nether Roy Wood Jr. for a 4th season, Shaffir has agelong maintained he was pushed retired of a format he created — an acquisition he says near a very bad sensation successful his rima and validated his preexisting cynicism astir moving pinch gatekeepers.
Nearly a decade later, however, The End offered an opportunity to revisit that format and wrap it up connected his ain terms. Partnering pinch Tom Segura and his YMH Studios, Shaffir hosted and produced a seven-episode sendoff to nan storytelling bid that has been his differentiator, featuring everyone from Shane Gillis and Nate Bargatze to Tony Hinchcliffe, Joe List, Mark Normand, Jordan Jensen, and galore more.
Shaffir released The End through Segura’s website connected April 16 and has already made backmost its full budget, astatine a clip erstwhile creator-owned distribution is not only a possibility, but nan way to spell for many. While his storytelling show whitethorn person changed title galore times complete nan years, it’s now outlasted Comedy Central, itself, arsenic a level helping to elevate his chap stand-ups.
In today’s section of Comedy Means Business, Shaffir offers a candid relationship of his standoff pinch Comedy Central, nan trade down shaping longform stories pinch chap comics, and why The End genuinely marks nan adjacent of this chapter.
Shaffir besides talks astir making his ain opportunities successful stand-up arsenic personification who was ne'er an manufacture darling, an early commercialized windfall that provided financial stability, auditioning for Sam Mendes during his acting days, navigating a turbulent play astatine nan Comedy Store involving play pinch Carlos Mencia, profit-sharing models successful stand-up, his affinity for Denver Comedy Works, nan recreation rituals that proceed to style his day-to-day life, and more.
Check retired nan afloat speech above.
