Stand-up comedian and actor Ari Shaffir describes his comedy as a puppet show, but way filthier and without the puppets. He grew up orthodox Jewish, spent 2 years in a yeshiva in Israel, and came back to America to lose his religion and become a comic. Now with two hour standup specials (Passive Aggressive and Paid Regular) and his own late night TV series, This Is Not Happening, Ari and his “gifted comic unyielding” are becoming “a real force to be reckoned with” (LA Weekly).
Following on from incredible live conversations between artists such as Rose McGowan and Perfect Pussy’s Meredith Graves; Javier Muñoz of Hamilton and John Cameron Mitchell, creator of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Shortbus and Rabbit Hole; and Marky Ramone of the Ramones and musician and fashion designer Andy Hilfiger, the Talkhouse continues its series of live podcasts at Samsung 837 in New York (837 Washington Street) on Wednesday, April 6, with comedians Ari Shaffir (host of This Is Not Happening) and the legendary Artie Lange, best known for The Howard Stern Show and MADtv.
For anyone living in New York City, come to Samsung 837 and watch their conversation live between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. — it’s free, and there will also be free coffee and baked goods. If you can’t make it, or if you live too far afield, check out the Talkhouse in the very near future when Ari and Artie’s episode goes live on the site. To whet your appetite, below Shaffir and Lange give a little background on their conversation and their previous dealings with one another.
— N.D.
I’ve known who Artie Lange was for quite a while and he knows a lot of my friends, but I haven’t known Artie personally very long. For a period of time, I’d see him around in New York and L.A. on the comedy scene, but I didn’t really want to bother him. He’s a celebrity! We’ve hung out a lot more in the last year or so, though, especially at the Comedy Cellar, and we’re friendly. We talked a lot at the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal last year. It was fun. Comedians are all just friends, you know?
I really know Artie and his comedy most from the Howard Stern years. I would listen to him and think, “Who is this guy?!” When we hung out, we spoke about Stern a little bit, but none of that other deeper stuff, about what happened before he got clean and sober.
I don’t really know what we’re going to talk about on Wednesday, but our conversations are always fun. I was on his podcast and we shared war stories. He’s got a ticket from the Yankees game when Reggie Jackson hit three home runs in the World Series and some other cool Yankees memorabilia. Usually celebrities are not actual sports fans anymore, but he totally is. I’m a Yankees fan too so I guess we must have talked about the Yankees a bunch, but it was eight months ago and I smoked a lot of weed that day, so I don’t remember… But it was a nice conversation!
— Ari Shaffir
I’ve known Ari Shaffir for a while from just seeing him around the New York comedy scene. He’s a Jewish guy with a mohawk, so he kind of stands out. He has a swagger; he’s smart and he knows it. In life, if you’re a little smug, people won’t like you, but as a comedian you can get away with it!
We’ve been proper friends since last year, when I had a show up at the Montreal Comedy Festival and we hung out and talked a lot. Since then, he’s been on my podcast and I’ve been on This Is Not Happening, and I’m really looking forward to talking to him on Wednesday. I’m not sure what we’ll talk about exactly, but we’re comedians, so it doesn’t really matter. We’ll tell some stories, talk shit about people we both know, and have a good time. That’s the great thing about this job — you get to talk about whatever you want for a living!
— Artie Lange
