Ari Shaffir's Skeptic Tank

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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.