Jimmy Shubert
A sharply dressed club veteran building loud rants about minor annoyances.
2 specials · 2004–2019
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Jimmy Shubert builds momentum through volume and physical exertion. He paces the stage in a well-cut suit, his face getting visibly redder as he winds up a complaint about an emotional support cat or a confusing coffee order. He does not tell meandering stories. Instead, he locks onto a single annoyance and batters it with a steady, driving rhythm. He wants the room to feel his frustration, using sheer energy to drag them there. Every line in the rant is another punchline, stacked tight so the audience cannot catch their breath.
Specials
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A veteran comic rants against smartphones, Yelp, and therapy cats.
Stand Up! Records · 57 min
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A loud, cynical half-hour of blue-collar rants and office rage.
Comedy Central · 22 min
On stage
He is a pure road veteran, the kind of comic who has headlined major clubs for decades. He came up in the Los Angeles scene of the nineteen-eighties, eventually touring as an opening act for Sam Kinison. Today, he operates as a reliable constant in the club ecosystem. He represents an old-school flavor of comedy: the aggrieved guy who cannot believe what the world has come to.
His material lives entirely in the realm of daily aggravation. He stays away from heavy political ideology, aiming his anger at airport security lines, smartphones, and self-checkout kiosks. The limitation of this style is that it can feel like a continuous shout without much quiet contrast. When the target is right, however, Shubert takes a universal irritation and exhausts every possible angle of attack.
Outside of standup, he frequently appears in television and film, typically cast to bring his gruff energy to roles as cops, bouncers, and blue-collar buddies.
Turning points
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1984–1992
Touring with Kinison's Outlaws of Comedy
After driving a motorcycle onto the stage during a Sam Kinison set on a dare, Shubert befriended Kinison and spent five years opening on tour as one of his Outlaws of Comedy.
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Finalist Run on Last Comic Standing
Shubert reached the finals of NBC's Last Comic Standing, reviving widespread national awareness for his road-tested standup act.
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Zero Tolerance Reaches Number One
His fourth comedy release on Stand Up! Records hit No. 1 on the iTunes comedy charts, solidifying his reputation as a master of rant comedy.
At a glance
- Style
- observational, rant, storytelling, satire
- Breakout
- Zero Tolerance
- Topics
- Elsewhere
- Website, Wikipedia
Fans also like
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Sam KinisonBoth share an intense, unapologetic rant style, and Shubert toured as one of Kinison's original Outlaws of Comedy for five years.
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Andrew Dice ClayBoth emerged from the late-1980s Comedy Store fraternity, sharing an unapologetic, tough-talking, blue-collar comedic sensibility.
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Lewis Black
Both specialize in cathartic, exasperated rants against the absurdities and annoyances of modern culture.
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Doug StanhopeBoth are veteran road comics who helped launch the Stand Up! Records label with caustic, no-holds-barred material.
Podcasts
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The Jimmy Shubert Show · host
A half-hour comedy podcast hosted by Jimmy Shubert that ran for 51 episodes.
Also on screen
- 2007–2009
- Entourage
- Sonny with a Chance
- Back in the Game
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- The King of Queens
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- Go
A clip to start with
Jimmy Shubert - Don't Fly With Your Pets