Recently, Ari Shaffir came to the end of two journeys — one spanning seven months off the grid in South America, the other decades in the making.
A comedian known for disappearing abroad for extended stretches — who chronicles his escapades on his podcast You Be Trippin’ — Shaffir resurfaced in late March following his latest trek. Weeks later, he launched The End, a direct-to-consumer comedy series in which top stand-ups deliver some of their most memorable longform stories.
For Shaffir and collaborator Eric Abrams, The End represents the culmination of more than 15 years spent building platforms — whether live, digital, for television — dedicated to storytelling-driven comedy. The most prominent of those was This Is Not Happening, which began as a grassroots live show before evolving into a digital hit and, ultimately, a beloved Comedy Central series running four seasons. A show that major comics like Ali Siddiq and Roy Wood Jr. have credited as a boon to both individual stand-up careers and the stand-up ecosystem, more broadly.
Shaffir hosted This Is Not Happening for three seasons before exiting the series under contentious circumstances, after deciding to sell a special to Comedy Central’s competitor, Netflix. With the show continuing under Roy Wood Jr. for a fourth season, Shaffir has long maintained he was pushed out of a format he created — an experience he says left a very bad taste in his mouth and validated his preexisting cynicism about working with gatekeepers.
Nearly a decade later, however, The End offered an opportunity to revisit that format and wrap it up on his own terms. Partnering with Tom Segura and his YMH Studios, Shaffir hosted and produced a seven-episode sendoff to the storytelling series that has been his differentiator, featuring everyone from Shane Gillis and Nate Bargatze to Tony Hinchcliffe, Joe List, Mark Normand, Jordan Jensen, and many more.
Shaffir released The End through Segura’s website on April 16 and has already made back its entire budget, at a time when creator-owned distribution is not only a possibility, but the way to go for many. While his storytelling show may have changed title many times over the years, it’s now outlasted Comedy Central, itself, as a platform helping to elevate his fellow stand-ups.
In today’s episode of Comedy Means Business, Shaffir offers a candid account of his standoff with Comedy Central, the craft behind shaping longform stories with fellow comics, and why The End truly marks the close of this chapter.
Shaffir also talks about making his own opportunities in stand-up as someone who was never an industry darling, an early commercial windfall that provided financial stability, auditioning for Sam Mendes during his acting days, navigating a turbulent period at the Comedy Store involving drama with Carlos Mencia, profit-sharing models in stand-up, his affinity for Denver Comedy Works, the travel rituals that continue to shape his day-to-day life, and more.
Check out the full conversation above.
