Your weekly guide to comedy mastery with over 400 interviews featuring your favorite comedians.
Hot Breath! is the award-winning weekly podcast designed to be “your weekly guide to comedy mastery.” What started as a platform to highlight Atlanta comedians has since evolved into a masterclass on the craft of comedy that performers and fans alike have voted to be the “Best Atlanta Podcast” in Creative Loafing and featured in Atlanta Magazine.
Your host, comedian Joel Byars, conducts well-researched interviews with comedy’s most influential players with one goal in mind, to educate and entertain.
This week, host Joel Byars sits down with Pete Lee a 26-year overnight success who credits his positive mindset with persevering through a career of ups and downs. Pete emphasizes the importance of perseverance in a comedy career, highlighting his own 26-year journey and moments where he almost quit before hitting it big on social media.
He shares insights into leveraging social media platforms, specifically TikTok, to gain visibility and connect with a broader audience. He discusses the industry shift and the joy of focusing on stand-up content. Pete also shares this Ethos (I’m pretty sure I used that word, right?) and goes into detail about how comics can support each other more.
Pete Lee: Pete Lee is a stand-up comedian known for his multiple appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and viral standup clips on Instagram and TikTok. Lee was the first standup comedian to get a standing ovation on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and has since made 8 appearances on the show including his most recent appearance in 2024. This happened after Jimmy personally attended one of Pete’s live shows in NYC and immediately invited him on the show. Pete’s joyful humor comes from his Midwestern roots. Raised in Janesville, WI by divorced parents and a 19-inch television, he was destined to pursue a career in entertainment. Soon after moving to NYC, he was selected to perform at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal, where he was voted a standout performer. In 2008, Pete made his network television debut performing on NBC’s Last Comic Standing finishing as a semi-finalist. That same year, he made his television acting debut on the CBS Soap Opera As The World Turns and shot his own Comedy Central Half Hour Special, which earned him a cult following at comedy clubs. In 2021, Pete released his first 1-hour stand-up special, Tall, Dark and Pleasant on Showtime. Most recently, Lee voiced the lead character Lamb in the Emmy Award winning series Jam Van on YouTube Kids. Other appearances include VH1’s Best Week Ever, TruTV’s Greatest Ever, Nickelodeon’s NFL Rush, TruTV’s Comedy Knockout, Comedy Central’s Roast Battle and CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman.
