PHILADELPHIA — Comedian and Philly adopted son Shane Gillis has a new Netflix comedy special and series.
The streaming giant has secured Gillis’ six-episode comedy series, “Tires,” premiering May 23, and has greenlit a new stand-up special following 2023’s “Beautiful Dogs,” which ranked in Netflix’s Top 10 in five countries and remained in the U.S. Top 10 for two weeks.
“Tires” is built around Shane (played by Gillis), who works at his cousin Will’s (Steven Gerben) auto repair chain. The series, which Gillis writes and executive produces, also stars Kilah Fox, Stavros Halkias, and Philly comedian Chris O’Connor.
The series is a collaboration between Gillis and Philly comic and writer John McKeever, who is directing the show. The duo previously worked on Comedy Central’s “Delco Proper” and the YouTube sketch series “Gilly & Keeves: The Special” on GillyandKeeves.tv, among other projects.
Before rising to fame, Gillis, originally from Mechanicsburg, lived in West Philly’s Mantua, winning Philly’s Phunniest at Helium Comedy Club in 2016 and later being recognized as a “New Face” at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal.
Recently, Gillis has been under fire for comments he made during his earlier podcasting days.
Nearly five years ago, he was dismissed from “Saturday Night Live” due to past remarks about Asian people and the LGBTQ+ community, a topic that resurfaced in the media prior to his recent “SNL” hosting gig.
Gillis was added to the cast of “SNL’s” 45th season back in September 2019, but was dropped from the show days later for making offensive remarks against Chinese people.
A video from a September 2018 episode of the podcast, “Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast,” shows Gillis and co-host Mat McCusker mocking accents and using racial slurs. Another episode had the pair dropping homophobic slurs toward filmmaker Judd Apatow and comic Chris Gethard, among others.
“The language he used is offensive, hurtful, and unacceptable,” an “SNL” spokesperson stated at the time. “We are sorry that we did not see these clips earlier, and that our vetting process was not up to our standard.”
“I was fired from this show a while ago,” Gillis, who wore an Eagles hoodie for “SNL” promo photos, joked during last week’s opening monologue. “But if, you know, don’t look that up, please, if you don’t know who I am. Please, don’t Google that. It’s fine. Don’t even worry about it.”
Gillis has continued to land opportunities on and off the silver screen. Along with his new special and comedy series, he’s set to perform at the 2024 Netflix is a Joke Fest in Los Angeles on May 4 at the Greek Theater and May 8 at the Kia Forum.
