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The Open
Hey Zingers, welcome to the second issue of this newsletter, delivered: Monday, August 17, 2026. Here’s what to check out this week!
Shane Gillis built a Netflix show about a tire shop in Pennsylvania that has no business being this good — and the new season just proved it wasn't a fluke. Tonight we break down why Tires keeps working when it has no right to, a rising comic you need to know before everyone else does, and three jokes calibrated to get you in increasing amounts of trouble with HR.
🎙️ Weekly Feature
Tires Is Back. Shane Gillis Is Building Something Real.
The premise of Tires sounds like a bit: Shane Gillis runs a tire shop in Pennsylvania, surrounded by people who are also disasters, and nothing about it suggests it should be good television. And yet here we are, back for another season, and it keeps getting better.
What Gillis and co-creators John McKeever and Steve Gerben figured out is that workplace comedy works when the characters are actually ridiculous — not quirky-but-lovable, not secretly warm-hearted, just people making bad decisions around each other in a confined space. Shane the character is incompetent and weirdly confident about it. That's the whole engine. No redemption arc, no growth montage, no lesson at the end. Just a tire shop and people who probably shouldn't be there.
The new season deepens the ensemble without losing the jokes that made season one worth watching. The show has never been trying to teach you anything, and the new season respects that commitment to pointlessness.
Hot take: Tires is proof that comedians should be allowed to make their own shows without studio interference. Whatever Gillis is doing, it's working — and the people who are mad about it were never going to like it anyway.
📋 Open Mic Bites
Kill Tony+ is officially live on Supercast — $5/month, ad-free, bonus camera angles from every taping, monthly AMAs with Hinchcliffe. Three million YouTube subscribers and now you can pay to feel like one of the ones who really gets it.
Nikki Glaser fired her entire agency without warning — UTA, five years, gone. She did it an hour before a show in Winnipeg. No heads-up, no explanation. Signed with WME across the board — comedy, film, TV, books, podcasting, the whole stack — and Deadline says "nobody can figure it out." Kim Kardashian is reportedly the nudge. When the queen of roast comedy starts firing people without explanation, that's not a career move — that's a set.
Dave Chappelle announced a fall tour — multi-city North American run through September and October, with Radio City in New York and Capital One Arena in DC already on the map. No Netflix announcement attached, which means the set is still cooking.
Reddit's r/standup is mid-argument about whether Tony Hinchcliffe is the most important figure in stand-up right now — 800+ comments and nobody's winning. The correct answer is that it's the wrong question, but it's a fun one.
Anthony Jeselnik just announced "Wrath of Man" — his 2026 tour, kicking off September 12 in Portland. Fully new hour, strict phone policy, maximum joke density. If you've seen "Fire in the Maternity Ward," you know what the stakes are.
Quote of the week: "I don't think any of my jokes go too far. I just think your sense of humor doesn't go far enough." — Anthony Jeselnik
😂 The Joke Drawer
🍞 Dad Joke of the Week I told my wife she was drawing her eyebrows too high. She looked surprised.
🔥 Dirty Joke of the Week What's the difference between a tire and 365 used condoms?… One's a Goodyear. The other's a great year.
🚨 The One That'll Get You Fired I listed "works well in any position" on my LinkedIn. My manager endorsed it. HR opened an investigation.
If HR asks, you read this on a competitor's newsletter.
🎙️ One to Watch
Sam Morril — if you only know him from his Netflix specials, you're missing the live version.
Morril has been quietly building one of the tightest dark-comedy sets on the circuit — the kind of precision that makes other comedians uncomfortable because it makes what they do look loose. His material lives in the same neighborhood as roast comedy without being a roast comic: mean enough to be interesting, structured enough to be impressive. "Same Time Tomorrow" on Netflix is the starting point, but his recent club recordings floating on YouTube are where you see what the set looks like when it's still being sharpened. He's not a household name yet. Give it two years.
🗺️ Comedy Mic Check
Each city: the big show to know about this week, plus the two clubs worth your time.
City | Big stage this week | Club pick 1 | Club pick 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
NYC | Check MSG calendar — quiet this weekend | Comedy Cellar — late-night lineup, Macdougal St. | Gotham Comedy Club — rotating headliners all week |
LA | The Comedy Store — Original Room nightly | Laugh Factory Hollywood — open to walk-ins most nights | |
Nashville | Check Ryman listings — no comedy this weekend | Zanies Nashville — touring headliners nightly | Third Coast Comedy Club — local scene, good for discovery |
Austin | Check Moody Center listings — nothing confirmed | Cap City Comedy Club — headliner weekend run | The Velveeta Room — dive bar, $5, always weird in the best way |
Boston | Nick's Comedy Stop — oldest room in Boston | ||
DC | Check Warner Theatre listings — club level only this weekend | Drafthouse Comedy — good crowds, reserved seating | |
Chicago | Check United Center listings — nothing confirmed | Zanies Chicago — long-running, consistently booked | Laugh Factory Chicago — open mic nights mid-week |
💬 Crowd Work
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📼 ICYMI
Just for Laughs Montreal closed one of its biggest editions ever — and two names left with Tonight Show bookings.
The festival ran July 15–26 and the New Faces showcase did what it always does: put 47 unknowns in front of the people who matter. Two of them — Ainsley Bailey and Gary Simons — walked out with bookings from The Tonight Show's stand-up booker, who was in the room. That's the whole point of JFL: one good set in the right room changes everything. David Letterman made his first-ever Montreal appearance, Jerry Seinfeld headlined, and Gabriel Iglesias hosted the Gala. But the New Faces showcase is the one that actually moves careers. Bailey and Simons are names to watch.
RATE TONIGHT'S SET
What'd you think?
🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤 Absolute headliner 🎤🎤🎤🎤 Solid set 🎤🎤🎤 Decent open mic energy 🎤🎤 Needs work 🎤 Booed off stage
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