It's been a long time coming for stand-up comedian, writer & actor Dan St. Germain to arrive to the day he releases a brand new stand-up comedy special. It had been in fact 10 years since he released a proper stand-up special outside of releasing a pair of comedy albums between now and then (his last one being his 2013 Comedy Central half hour).
But thankfully for St. Germain, he had all the best reasons for taking his time with his newest special, Dance Fatty, Dance, focusing a good chunk of his time developing his chops as a TV writer & actor. Comedy fans know his work from his stellar writing gigs on Michelle Wolf's White House Correspondent's Dinner, the Comedy Central Roast of Rob Lowe, Bill Burr's Immoral Compass & the CBS sit-com Superior Donuts. He's also been hard at work as a series creator developing his own TV shows at Comedy Central, Adult Swim, FOX and currently a new show for Peacock in collaboration with Dan Soder & Stone Cold Steve Austin.
And we couldn't be more thrilled to have a funny & fantastic new special from one of New York's finest after all this time. We got a chance to speak with this bonafide wrestling & comedy expert about Dance Fatty, Dance, New York, writing & touring with Michelle Wolf, and his hilarious & entertaining wrestling podcast.
I'd like to kick things off talking about the fact that it's been 10 years since you put out a proper visual hour of comedy, you've put out two comedy albums and you've also been busy with some other TV writing opportunities. Why was now the time to put together this new hour and when did you realize you had a new special ready to go?
You know, this hour is a hodgepodge of some of the best stuff I've done in the last couple years when I started stand-up again. So I kind of quit for two years and I started again two years ago. And then I had some of the bits that were on the last album for 800 Pound Gorilla. And I kinda got to the two-year mark where I was like, "you know, I have all these bits that I haven't put in a proper special," so I figure this is the time to do it.
Because I'm already working on my next hour, and I feel like in a year or two from now I'm already going to have another hour to film. So I kind of wanted to put the stuff together and get it out there. So I got 2 Buffoons to work on it who are awesome (Jason Katz, Ryan & their whole crew), Old Man Hustle, and then of course, Anthony Leo and all the guys over there with 800 Pound Gorilla. They put it all together and I think it came out really great.
You indeed had an all-star crew help put the special. It also looks amazing by the way, visually it was shot very well. I've gotten to know a little bit more about your background in film and TV including the shows that you've created and been a part of for Comedy Central with your voiceover work. In your special you have a joke where you say "Nobody's been divorced in a funny voice before." Who are some of the voiceover actors you looked up to growing up that paved the way for your voice acting work & the voice you used for that joke?
As far as voiceover, obviously everyone's gonna say John Benjamin, right? Because everything from Archer to Bob's Burgers, the guys done incredible work. I loved when Phil Hartman was on The Simpsons, I thought he was fantastic. I guess I never thought about that question before, but I guess I definitely have answers for that.
I would say anybody who doesn't say John Benjamin is full of s***, he's probably the best. Obviously everybody from The Simpsons like Nancy Cartwright & Hank Azaria. I love the guys on Big Mouth, including Nick Kroll, John Mulaney, & Jason Manzoukas, they do terrific work on that show. Mike Judge is also incredible, who did King Of The Hill.
For that particular joke, I was just kind of thinking what would an old Hannah Barbera voice be? What's a goofy Hannah Barbera voice so that could contrast to the sadness of what he's saying?
That's awesome, I definitely see that. Talking a little bit more about the special, you mentioned a shout out to the guys over at Old Man Hustle.
Yeah, big shout out to Sam Black who helped get people there. And I mean shout out to everybody who was involved. My buddies Nick & Nick who flew from LA, Phil Pickens does the music, I had Adrienne Iapalucci & Scott Chaplain opening for me and they set a really great atmosphere. Standing on the shoulders of giants my friend.
Oh that's amazing. Yeah, that's indeed great company to be a part of. What went into wanting to shoot over at Old Man Hustle?
I really like the space, they work be a lot (chuckles) and I knew I could fill it. The last thing I did something visual, besides late night sets I had done, like you had said my half hour was like this big theater in Boston. And I kind of wanted to do something a lot more intimate for this particular special, so that this felt like I wanted to do a black box and this fit the bill.
With this hour, which joke would you say took the longest to come together?
I'm not sure. I think there's some tags on this, especially the Hunter Biden and Jared from Subway stuff that Michelle Wolf helped me out with. I was opening for her on the road, and she kind of put some pieces together that really helped there.
Some of the personal stuff, that was less workshopped and more from me. I think that the Two Americas bit, finding the right examples for those I was kind of in and out. Same thing with the Political Press Conference bit. Just trying to figure out which are the best examples because those bits are joke baskets, so you're trying to find the best things to insert there. So that took a little bit of time.
I do kind of subscribe to the Joan Rivers thing, where if it doesn't work three times. throw it out (maybe come back to it in a year or two). But a lot of the times with a bit, 85% of it will work and I'm waiting for that last 15% to figure it out. And I think it only had that with the New York bit too.
It's almost like seeing a Jenga stack and you say "oh, this is kind of wobbling on this side." So let me try to see if I can pull something out or push something in that'll help support a little better and it all falls (chuckles).
Well there you go. I refreshed myself with the Michelle Wolf White House Correspondent's Dinner that you got to be a part of writing earlier and I just remember that being everywhere when it came out.
It was tremendous. I still think it was the best. White House press conference speech ever. We became a Public Enemy, it was awesome. Michelle did 90% of the work there, but I was lucky enough to get two jokes squeezed in. But being in that room, that moment was still the biggest thing I've ever done in comedy. Being in a room filled with the White House cabinet and having them look completely excoriated in front of me, it was very surreal, kind of weirdly stressful too, but fun, and yeah it was cool.
I've been noticing a lot of the praise you've been giving recently to a lot of your fellow comic friends Dan Soder, Derek Humphrey & Dina Hashem to name a few, they're all pretty active in the New York comedy scene. Everybody kind of has their tribes that they rise with and with all the other folks that come to mind who are part of your tribe, how have they played a part in your stand-up rise so far?
Yeah they're all great. You always feel like a little douchey talking about your process, but the one thing is, iron does sharpen iron. So when you're around really great comics and you get to work with great comics, you're just naturally gonna become better. New York is the opposite of a big fish in a small pond. And when you see people working on something or when you see somebody craft something great, it inspires you to put more work into what you do.
Absolutely. Mentioning your friend Dan Soder, I remember you you talked about this animated series that you created with him and Stone Cold Steve Austin that previously sold to Peacock & WWE & has been stuck in a "holding pattern." Is there a new update on when fans can hopefully expect to see this show?
That's still alive. We're still developing it. We're on the third draft right now. We're both very proud of the draft and Peacock should have that draft within the next week or two. So fingers crossed, we want to keep the positivity going around that.
Yeah, I know fans have been anxious about that for a minute since it was announced and it's been circulating for a while. So hopefully we'll get to see that in real time soon.
This has been a pretty long process because we're dealing with intellectual property that we don't own, but I think I'm really excited about where the script is right now. And so far the feedback that we've gotten from Peacock has been really good.
You talk about great voiceover, Dan Soder's tremendous at it. He does these amazing impressions of wrestlers, but I mean, he's just cracking me up all the time he can mimic so many different guys and Stone Cold Steve Austin is one of the most iconic voices of all time. Maybe I'll be able to do a line or two on every episode, we'll see. But yeah, that would be a dream if we got to work on that show and get a season out.
Keeping it on the topic of wrestling, you host the WrestleRoasts Podcast and it's safe to say that you and your co-hosts on that podcast are the wrestling comedy experts as far as meeting in the middle of how to connect the two.
It's the status thing to be an expert in, but yes you're correct. We're the closest you're gonna get to Dave Meltzer on a late night television program. I'm really lucky. My hosts are hilarious.
Scott Chaplain is always killing it every week. Robert Karpeles runs the @WWECreative_ish Twitter feed (check that out, it's super funny). And Mike Lawrence, who's a writer comedy-extraordinaire and one of my best friends in the business, he's not there every week. But he's there every other week and we call him our part-time Brock Lesnar or Logan Paul of the podcast. We do that with Ad Free Shows and All Things Comedy and it's still going baby. That show is like the Little Engine That Could.
With WrestleMania coming up, is there anything specifically you're stoked about going into this year's event so far?
I was debating whether or not to go, but it's just that it seems like kind of such a pain in the ass, I really like watching it from home. As stand-up, you're on the road all the time. Last weekend, I was at Cincinnati at Go Bananas and Comedy On Broadway in Lexington the week before that. I was just at Dallas Comedy Club, I'm in Jersey the next couple weekends and I'm in Iowa at the end of the month. And then I'm in Austin after Mania doing Moon Tower. I love when I'm home and I don't have spots, so I could just kind of get fat on a couch and watch the oily men rub up against each other all night.
Love it! You mentioned in the beginning of this conversation that you're figuring out the new hour right now. How's it been going with these new shows that you're doing?
Yeah, I think I've got 25 new minutes that's solid. But I hope within the next month or two to have it be completely new. But definitely if you see me, there's gonna be a lot of new material. It's scary but it's kind of why we do it. For so long, I had one foot in stand-up and one foot out because I was writing on so many shows. And then you kind of get off for a couple weeks, then you go back out, then I was writing thrillers and I was kind of doing a couple different things.
So yeah, I've been really just focusing on this new hour and you always want your next bit of material to be your best, but I'm still figuring it out. I was on a interview earlier and it's so funny when people ask "hey, where do you get inspiration for bits? And what's your process?" And I'm like, some people have all these lofty answers and my answer. I still feel I'm on a beach with a metal detector and I'm hoping that what I just picked up as a Sacagawea and not scrap metal. I think that that's still my process of "does this work? This doesn't suck? Okay, cool. We'll try this out then."
Watch Dan "St. Germain: Dance Fatty, Dance" on YouTube.
Dan St. Germain’s new comedy special, Dance Fatty, Dance, is available now on YouTube. It's also available for purchase on 800 Pound Gorilla!
RELATED: Stream & download Dan St. Germain's comedy album, No Real Winners Here, on 800 Pound Gorilla!
RELATED: Stream & download Dan Soder's comedy album, Son of a Gary, on 800 Pound Gorilla!
RELATED: Stream & download Michelle Wolf's comedy album, Nice Lady, on 800 Pound Gorilla!
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