As someone who admittedly doesn’t consume a ton of stand-up comedy, Shane Gillis really stands out from the ever-growing crowd of high-profile comics who score stand-up specials on Netflix and other platforms left and right.
Having seen a few viral clips of Gillis’ act, along with some hilarious sketch segments, he has a unique blend of guts and outlandish humor that are welcome in the ever-increasingly sensitive cultural climate that we inhabit these days.
With comedy, there should be artistic license to be a little offensive and push the envelope, and that’s what Shane manages to do with his comedy. So we’re here for the trailer for Tires, a Gillis-starring vehicle that looks almost like a mash-up of The Office and Trailer Park Boys at an auto repair shop.
Gillis plays a sort of burnout character, and you can tell right away in his first scene from the trailer that he’s working for a pushover manager (Steve Gerben) who is totally in over his head. It looks like a colorful cast of characters round out the ensemble cast. Multiple other comedians are in the show, including Andrew Schulz — who spilled some interesting tea about the Tom Brady roast — and a coworker of Gillis’ unconventional leading man played by Stavros Halkias.
The token woman (Kilah Fox) in the trailer is a fan of Insane Clown Posse who apparently didn’t wash all the makeup off after a wild concert, and came into the auto shop for work as usual anyway. That alone tells me there should be a lot of comedic gold to mine from her part. Fox has worked with Gillis on his show Gilly and Keeves before, so it’s cool to see her join the party for this Netflix series. I’m sure multiple other regulars from that show are in Tires, too.
Closing out the trailer, we get a group of bikini-clad young ladies doing a car wash, and they call out how weird it is that they could be Gillis’ daughters. To which he replies, “It’s pretty hot when you put it like that, isn’t it?” Wouldn’t expect anything less.
Coming off a mostly solid effort on Saturday Night Live back in February, Gillis is certainly one of the bigger names in comedy right now. It’s awesome that he’s getting a crack at a proper streaming show. This kind of dropped out of nowhere — less than two weeks out from its May 23 premiere date. I won’t be surprised if it spikes up near the No. 1 spot in Netflix’s Top 10 once it comes out.
In the spirit of Whiskey Riff, here’s a Gillis bit about why white people like country music to play you out!
