Joe Mande Is A Bit of An Anthony Edwards Hipster

Back in 2017, Joe Mande made a big statement out of his first hour of stand-up on Netflix. Not only does Joe Mande’s Award-Winning Comedy Special promise a lot in its title alone; it’s contained within a frame device about Mande trying to win the American Humour Award, with material about (among other things) a traumatic diarrhea incident at summer camp, the sex aid he’d like to pitch on Shark Tank and his documentary film obsession Thought Crimes, about the NYPD’s so-called Cannibal Cop. Viewers might learn something about ethics and philosophy from watching, but it would be a longer walk for them to get there than when they watched The Good Place, on which Mande was a writer at the time. (Does it, in fact, win the award? You’ll have to watch to find out.)

Today, Mande’s second special, Chill, comes to Hulu. And while his opening chunk promises that, thanks to his new mood stabilizer regime, he is chill, that’s a matter of opinion. His newest bits range from his disgust for everyone at the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, which animals we’d each have sex with if we had to and his unorthodox pitch for finally selling gun control to the U.S. populace. 

I spoke to Mande a few days ago about his newest material, the hits and misses of his merch store and much more. 

How long were you on the road with this set taping the special?

With some of the material, I was ready to shoot something in 2020, but then, I don't know if you heard, but... 

Yeah, so then there was sort of a good period of time, once we were allowed back outside, where it took an adjustment period just to remember how to do stand-up. Then I realized that a lot of the hour I was doing just didn’t feel relevant anymore. There was at least 30, 40 minutes that I got together over the course of the year before I shot it.

We’ve seen headlines about people being unable to behave themselves normally in public after COVID. Did you have any weird things happen to you on stage — somebody throwing a wheel of cheese at you, anything like that?

Nothing thrown at me. I don’t even know if it’s about misbehaving. I’ve noticed some behavior in audiences who are, I think, comedy fans from TikTok and such. So much of that sort of material is crowd work, and interactive, that I think crowds are sometimes more vocal. And they think that they’re helping, or that that’s sort of what every performer wants from a show. So I definitely had more interactions of that kind than I was maybe used to in the past. 

I did Marc Maron’s show a while ago, and we discussed a particularly atrocious weekend I had in Phoenix — just a few weeks before I shot the special, actually. It was pretty intense, and bad for me personally. Just some real QAnon freaks in the crowd. I have this joke about gun control, but the joke is sort of an insane take on how I think gun control can be enacted. And I couldn't even get through the joke, because people started yelling at me about gun control. And I was like, “Well, can you heckle me once I get to my punchline? At least let me get there.”

I mean, I don’t want to be one of those performers that’s so niche that there isn’t any sort of pushback. I mean, I sort of revel in discomfort, so if everyone’s on board, then it sort of defeats the purpose. But at the same time, I don’t necessarily want to be the performer who needs security at every venue either. There’s probably a happy medium there that I’d like to find.

That reminds me of the Hacks Season Three premiere, where Deborah just can’t work out any material, but from the other end of the spectrum, because the audience is too supportive. Have you had that too, with people who know you now?

No. I mean, luckily, I’m at a place as a performer where I don’t have that problem. Certainly, people come to see me who enjoy my stuff, but I’m still a bit of a mystery. I don’t have a podcast, so I don’t have to deal with people who know a ton about my personal life and stuff. I do prefer that, to be honest. But yeah, no, I don’t feel like I perform in safe spaces, necessarily.

When your set includes both graphic descriptions of vomiting, and also a thought experiment about bestiality, what is your process in determining which the audience is going to hear first?

It’s all trial and error. I like touring, and spending the day prior to shows sort of rearranging jokes, and trying to figure out a new path. It’s such a buzzword-y thing, but I did realize that starting the show out by being honest and introspective about mental health sets the stage and humanizes me, before I get into some of the more disturbing stuff that’s clearly an expression of my imagination going haywire. That was an attempt to show a little bit of truth and vulnerability before I go completely insane.

Fans of the Cannibal Cop bit from your first special will want to know it’s the L.A. sheriffs’ turn to come under some scrutiny in Chill. I have to think one satisfying thing about writing cop jokes is that they never stop doing things you can make fun of.

Truly, yeah. And it was fun to find an angle where, as I started writing that joke and performing it, I realized like, “Oh, no one’s gone after sheriffs.” I mean, obviously there’s a lot of pro-cop and anti-cop sentiment, but that’s so broad. And yeah, I was happy to find a specific group of cops that I felt deserve some scrutiny.

You also talk about your love of Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves. What does it do to you to follow the NBA season so intensely? The league has one of the longest seasons in sports.

Yeah, it’s a nearly nightly escape for me. I’m an obsessive fan. I’ve probably seen every Timberwolves game since NBA League Pass was invented. So that’s years and years, and so much losing, and I do sort of, in the moment, live and die by every possession. Win or lose, I’m able to come out of that fog and disassociate, and go back to my normal life. I’ve never really explored that, but it’s funny to live in the moment so intensely, and then just be like, “Oh, forget it.”

It’s a lot of fun to finally have a team and a player that’s transcendent. My only frustration is I shot this special months and months ago, and so now Anthony Edwards, in the proceeding 11 months, has become quite well known and famous, where he was not at the time of the filming. I don’t want to seem like I’m latching onto something. I’m a bit of an Anthony Edwards hipster, is what I’m saying. I was there first, and I need people to put some respect on my name.

You also launched a campaign on your website to have Joe Manchin removed from the top Google results for “Joe Man.” Should we also expect a campaign for basketball’s Anthony Edwards to supersede the Anthony Edwards from ER?

I think that’s already happened. His rookie season, there were a lot of Goose jokes and stuff. But he doesn't need my help anymore. And Joe Manchin’s gone, so now honestly, it’s just between me and Joe Manganiello. That’s a huge hurdle for me, but maybe the special will help with that.

Speaking of your website, your chunk about supporting the troops does mention your online store. Talk about your store and about the other extremely good merch that you’ve produced.

I’m very proud of my merch, and what’s fun is that I don’t think I’ve ever made any money. It’s just out of love for the game. I’ve sold a lot of these Michael Clayton yard signs. That’s been huge. I have IBS awareness ribbons. I did have condoms, but the condoms are now expired, they’re so old. So I should put a warning on there.

I get very excited when I have an idea, and it doesn’t always pan out. Like, I have a very complicated screen-printed T-shirt of three versions of George W. Bush. I thought those would really sell like hotcakes, and I don’t think I’ve sold more than 10. I mean, that’s on me. I sometimes assume people are on the same wavelength as me in terms of merchandise. But I appreciate the compliment. I do think there’s a lot of fun stuff on there, and maybe I’ll make more.

When I was researching you, I read an interview where you said you’d seen Michael Clayton probably 200 times. That was over two years ago. What is the count now?

I mean, in the last two years, I’ve probably watched it 10 more times. And that’s low for me. Actually, I was just talking to someone about it a couple of nights ago and realized, “Oh, it’s been a while. I need to watch it again.”

Oh, you know what it was? It was the UnitedHealthcare shooting. Did you know the assassination happened outside of the hotel from the last scene of Michael Clayton?

No!

Yeah, and it’s a very Michael Clayton-esque assassination. That’s why it came up, and why I need to watch it again.

Your most limited-edition merch is the baseball hats that you hand-embroider, although the only way to buy them is the Hat Week Charity Drive that you did a couple of years ago. Is this still a hobby you do?

It’s not. I did make a few for my nephews recently, but I was worried I was going to give myself arthritis or something. It’s very taxing, and it came out of pandemic mania. And so, sometimes when I occasionally make one as a favor for someone, I find myself back in that pandemic mental space and it’s not a great place to be. So no, I think my embroidery days might be numbered, but it’s crazy to see how many legitimate clothing stores and brands just do the same exact thing I was doing. It’s much like Anthony Edwards: As long as embroidery is getting out there, and people are talking about it, then I’m happy.

It was announced a few years ago you were going to be remaking Stath Lets Flats for American TV. Is that still a going concern?

It’s still happening, yeah. We hit a bit of a speed bump, but yeah, we’re working with some new people. And hopefully, in the new year, we’ll make some progress on that. It was on life support, but we’ve been resuscitated.

You currently write on Hacks, which we already mentioned. Where are you in the process of making Season Four?

Season Four has been written, and we’re in the middle of shooting. It’ll come out next year, pretty soon. Very aggressive schedule.

Everyone is quitting Twitter now. You did it years ago. Talk about what former Twitter users can look forward to, now that they’re not spending time on the platform.

In my case, it’s not like I’m doing anything better with my time. I love, love, love, love TikTok, and I truly don’t care if the Chinese government has my data, because of the joy it brings me. I do this live show at Largo here in L.A., and I will usually end the show with a recap of some of the best videos I find online. And I feel like, despite my career as a writer and a comedian, that I’m just here on earth to curate TikTok videos. My algorithm is so poisoned that I’m really finding incredible stuff.

So I’d recommend going on TikTok if you’re getting off Twitter. I don’t know what Bluesky is, but feel free to do that, too. You have a whole world out there. You could read books. There’s just so much time you find when you’re not arguing with Nazis. It’s sad to say that it seems like the Nazis are winning, so don’t meet them on their playground. Find your own playground.