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 Chris Distefano (‘Speshy Weshy’ on Netflix, Chrissy Chaos) 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:
Chris Distefano: Riding a wave of success from the release of his debut Netflix comedy special Speshy Weshy, New York comedian Chris DiStefano adds to the already legendary series of celebrity guests to discuss his comedy career, having a New York state of mind, current events, and so much more.
Distefano has been a pretty busy comedian the last couple of years, he wound down a wildly popular podcast (History Hyenas) and spun up 2 (Hey Babe, Chrissy Chaos) on his own network. Additionally, he hosted a truTV show, and started to sell out some major venues. Things are going pretty damn well for Chrissy D.
Now DiStefano is eyeing a new stand-up comedy special and album and he’s chosen to do what a lot of comedians are planning to do these days and self fund and finance the special and corresponding album by himself and drop it right to his fans via his Youtube page. “I am super excited about this special. My career only really started when I put it in the hands of my fans. That’s why I wanted this all to be self produced and put on YouTube. I will let the people decide if it’s funny or not. My mom has said it’s not for her.” stated Distefano.
