Nick Swardson Jokes About His New Special, Rollerskating in ‘Reno 911’ and the Dangers of Edibles at Altitude

What the heck is Make Joke From Face — besides the name of Nick Swardson’s new stand-up special on YouTube? 

“It’s just an idiotic thing that me and my friend Chris would always say,” Swardson tells me. “My running thing with my specials is I don’t take them seriously in terms of naming them. My first hour special was called Seriously, Who Farted? The network was like, ‘Oh, that’s funny. But seriously, what are you going to call it?’” 

Swardson’s the kind of comic who wants to get nominated for an award — Oscar or Razzie, it doesn’t matter — just so someone could stand at a podium, read a list of nominees and then conclude with “Seriously, Who Farted?” 

“Comedy should just be absurd,” Swardson says. “It’s silly. I feel like people forget that.” 

We recently reminisced about classic comedy projects he discusses in the new special, that gnarly experience with edibles this year in Colorado and how he found a home in the Adam Sandler-verse. 

“Fans of my projects are so die-hard. The Reno 911 fans are crazy. Grandma's Boy fans are crazy.”

“The great thing about Terry (from Reno 911) is I’ve gotten out of every ticket. I don’t drive anymore, but when I was driving, I never got a ticket. Cops would pull me over, they’d walk up to the window, and they’d be like, ‘Oh my god, Terry. Slow down.’”

“Getting recognized — usually number one is Grandma's Boy. Close second is Terry from Reno 911. And then third is Just Go With It with me and Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler. Younger people in their twenties will bring up Benchwarmers. That’s what they grew up on.”

“I’ll be 48 in October. And it was a weird moment around when I was 35. I had people coming up to me going, ‘I grew up watching you.’ And I’m like, I’m that guy now. So weird. People grew up on me? What the fuck?”

“People always ask me, ‘Dude, why don’t you wear roller skates right now?’ These are acting performances. These aren’t documentaries. If I was on roller skates right now, that would be fucking weird.”

“(The controversy around Swardson’s Colorado stand-up appearance earlier this year) was so absurd. It was Vail, Colorado. Denver is 5,000 feet altitude, which is tricky enough to perform in. But Vail is 9,000 feet, so that’s hardcore. I always say this to people — if you’ve ever spent time in altitude, whether you’re on edibles or not, it’s gnarly.” 

“You’ve got to overhydrate, which I was doing. It was the beginning of my spring tour, Toilet Head. I was in a great mood, and I was like, I’m going to have a couple cocktails.”

“Someone said, ‘Do you want an edible?’ I take edibles, but I take them at night before I go to bed. But I was like, fuck it, man, I’m in Colorado. I took the edible and I was fine.”

“Then I’m working on the new set, and the fucking edible hit me on stage. I just started to get real spacey. I didn’t have my setlist with me, so I was trying to remember my new act, but I didn’t really have it down yet. It was just so scattered, and I was like, ‘Fuck!’”

“It was a mixed crowd of my fans — who were like, ‘Yeah, Nick!’ — and older people from Vail who didnt know who I was. So they were like, ‘Who is this guy?’”

“It's a non-story. I got too high in Colorado, and I apologize. I wasnt happy about it, but its like, shit happens. I was on the national news. USA TODAY called me for a comment. Im like, ‘What are you fucking talking about?’ This is absurd that this is a thing. With all that’s going out in the world, Nick Swardson of all people — my first album was called Party. It’s pretty on brand.” 

“But that's not gonna happen on this next tour. That was an anomaly. Don’t think that was par for the course.” 

“I remember reading comments, which I rarely do, but people were like, ‘Nick’s done! His career's over.’ What? What are you talking about?”

“Then a lot of people in the comments were like, ‘Oh dude, been there, done that. Swardson’s fine.’ If you know altitude, you know. A lot of people related.” 

“My shows sold out gangbusters afterward. After Vail, I did two sold-out shows in Aspen, and I did six sold-out in Denver. It was fucking amazing, but nobody followed up the story with that. They could be like, ‘Oh, Nick just ripped it afterwards.’” 

“I was on stage in Aspen, two sold-out shows, and people were throwing edibles at me on stage. True story. The stage was covered in edibles.”

“I was the class clown, a raging smart ass. I grew up really small. I was the youngest in my family. You had your sense of humor to get by. I went to inner-city schools growing up and they're pretty tough, so I had to be funny and wacky just so I didn’t get the shit beat out of me.” 

“I just started roasting people in sixth grade, making fun of people and they would start crying. It felt like a superpower. I didn’t know how to control it. I was just ruthless.”

“I didn’t have good grades, and my family didn't have any money. College wasn’t really an option. I started improv in high school and acting. And so I was like, I’m gonna take a year off, find myself, and I’m going to try stand-up comedy.”

“I remember my first open mic pretty vividly. It was February 12, 1996. It just went amazing. And granted, I started in Minnesota so the crowds were really nice. It’s impossible to bomb there. The owner of the club was like, ‘Who the fuck are you?’ Granted, I’m like 18. He’s like, ‘You gotta come back.’ And then one of the local clubs made me the house MC right away.”

“My mom was like, ‘You’re still going to college!’ And I’m like, I don’t think so. And my dad’s like, ‘Fuck that, you’re not going to college.’”

“I just went full-on into stand-up. I committed my whole life to it. I did any gig anywhere. I was like, How do I make it? How do I get on TV? What’s the fastest way? I’m like, Okay, don’t swear. Write a joke that you can tell in any state. Don’t be too provincial. A lot of comics are just so much local stuff. You’re not gonna get on The Tonight Show doing jokes about the suburbs in Minnesota.”

“I just self-taught myself. I wasn’t drinking. I wasn’t smoking. I was just so focused. And six months later, HBO discovered me in Minnesota. They picked me as one of the top young comics in the country, and I went to the Aspen Comedy Festival in Colorado.”

“This is before the Internet. There were no clips out there, so I was just hustling. I was doing biker bars. I was sleeping in my car. I was driving across the country alone. I was just throwing everything against the wall.”

“When people tell me, ‘I wanna be a comic,’ and I tell them my story, they’re like, ‘I don’t want to do that.’ And I’m like, Okay, you don’t have to do that because you’ve got the internet, you got social media, you’ve got YouTube.”

“How much do you want it? If push came to shove, would you put yourself through that? Would you sleep in your car? I slept in parks. In San Francisco, I was homeless. My car got towed, and I was walking around the park trying to find a bush to sleep in.”

“Grandma’s Boy was my first project with Happy Madison. Adam (Sandler) saw my first Comedy Central special, which was in 2000. Sandler was in bed with his wife and I was on TV, and he was like, ‘Who the fuck is this kid?’ So he wrote my name down and went to the office. He's like, ‘Does anybody know who this is? Nick Swardson?’”

“Adam’s like, ‘I need to meet him.’ So I sat down with him and he was like, ‘Hey, man, I love your grandma joke. It’s really funny. Your set was great.’ We just shot the shit; we had mutual friends coming up in comedy. And he goes, ‘I have a script called Grandma's Boy, and we need a full rewrite. It’s a romantic comedy and we don’t want that. We want it crazy and just write whatever you want. Write yourself into the movie, write whatever part you want. But make it fucking insane. We want this movie to be nuts.’”

“Then it got made and Sandler gave me Benchwarmers. I wrote that with him."

“There was a moment where he was like, ‘Do you wanna do Saturday Night Live?’ I’m like, yeah, that’s one of the dreams of my lifetime. And he goes, ‘You would fucking kill. I’ll call Spade, I’ll get references from him, Rock, Schneider.’ Then the next day he called me, and he goes, ‘You know what? Fuck it. Do you wanna just work with me? People are just trying to get movies anyway on that show. It’s a headache so just work with me.’”

“I’ve worked with Adam ever since. Twenty-plus years.”

“Adam’s a really grounded, genuine dude. And that’s how I am too. I think that’s why we’ve been so close. He’s from New Hampshire. I’m from Minnesota. We don’t hold ourselves to any ego, like ‘You know who we are?’”

“He’s very loyal. He’s worked with guys for 40 years. He’s also like that with his crew. It’s not just cast member buddies. His crew are like family.”

“Make Joke From Face is free on YouTube right now. I just wanted to do it, just drop it on YouTube. I didn’t want to wait on a streaming service or have people sign up for shit. Just watch it.” 

“I’ve got a whole new hour this fall, Toilet Head. Nickswardson.net. I’m adding more cities. It’s gonna be insane.”