Based on his Netflix comedy special, “Blocks.” Neal Brennan interviews friends and colleagues about the things that make them feel lonely, isolated, and like something’s wrong – and how they are persevering despite these blocks.
This week, Neal Brennan interviews comedian/actor Pete Holmes (You Made It Weird, Crashing) about the things that make him feel lonely, isolated, and like something’s wrong – and how he is persevering despite these blocks.
Brennan continues to perform stand-up regularly in the Los Angeles area as well as nationally. His first one-hour stand-up special Women and Black Dudes premiered on Comedy Central in 2014. In 2017, Brennan released his second one-hour stand-up special 3 Mics on Netflix to widespread critical acclaim. 3 Mics features Brennan switching between three different microphones symbolizing three different styles of comedy. On January 1st, 2019 Brennan released an all new half hour of material on Netflix as part of the Comedians of the World series. Brennan has also performed stand-up on Last Call with Carson Daly, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Lopez Tonight, and Conan.
As a film director, Brennan has helmed feature films, television episodes, documentaries, stand-up specials and nationally syndicated commercials. His directing credits include the feature film The Goods starring Jeremy Piven, multiple episodes of Inside Amy Schumer, JAY-Z’s 4:44 documentary series that featured Will Smith, Chris Rock, Kendrick Lamar, Michael B. Jordan, Trevor Noah, and other celebrities, comedian Michelle Wolf’s critically acclaimed one-hour HBO special Nice Lady, a series of commercials for the ESPY’s, and several nationally syndicated commercials for major brands featuring celebrities and athletes including Lebron James.
In 2011, Brennan, comedian Moshe Kasher, and DJ Douggpound, started a podcast called The Champs which ran until 2016. Guests on the show included actor/comedians Wayne Brady, Chris Rock, Mario Joyner, Shawn and Marlon Wayans, and David Alan Grier, adult film star Lexington Steele, rapper Too $hort, and professional basketball player Blake Griffin.
Brennan co-wrote the cult classic film Half Baked with Chappelle as well as episodes of SNL that featured Chappelle and Aziz Ansari as hosts. He also wrote comedy material for the 83rd Academy Awards and for Seth Meyers’ speech at the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2011. In that speech, Meyers infamously poked fun at Donald Trump, who was in the audience.
Starting in 2016, Brennan became a contributor to The Daily Show with Trevor Noah as “Trevor’s friend Neal.”
This Week’s Special Guest:
Pete Holmes: Pete Holmes is known for his cheerful personality, self-aware humor, and musings on spirituality and religion, which are all frequent themes across his works. Early in his career, Holmes performed on the Christian comedy circuit. Holmes has appeared on Comedy Central’s Premium Blend, as a regular panelist on VH1’s Best Week Ever, and on VH1’s All Access. In 2010, he performed on John Oliver’s New York Stand Up Show as well as Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. On February 26, 2010, he performed his first television special on the series Comedy Central Presents. On March 21, 2011, and on November 17, 2011, he appeared on the TBS talk show Conan. Holmes has provided the voices for several of the characters on Comedy Central’s cartoon Ugly Americans. He was the voice of the E-Trade baby on several television commercials and was credited as a writer for those commercials. He wrote for the NBC primetime sitcom Outsourced and for the Fox sitcom I Hate My Teenage Daughter prior to its cancellation in May 2012. Holmes created and stars in the HBO series Crashing. The pilot was written by Holmes and directed by Judd Apatow. After the season three finale, it was announced that HBO had canceled the series.
