#415: Baby Skeletons w/ Adrienne Iapalucci
We’re trying something different this week. I, Ari Shaffir, am bringing you an entire album of one of my favorite comedians in the world. For free.
Adrienne Iapalucci has been opening for me for the last couple years. Anyone who saw my Jew hour and thought, “Fuck, that lady was dark” knows what I’m talking about. You know why I refer to her as “The Dark Queen.” And that’s what she is. Standup comedian Adrienne Iapalucci is a cold-blooded dark joke writer. Following her every night forced me to improve my punchlines. I’m not exaggerating. She’s that good. If you saw her open for me, you know I’m right.
This pandemic has hit her really hard, though. She was about to start headlining so much that she wasn’t going to be available to me and my crowds any more. And then this virus changed everything. It took away our ability to perform. There’s no more income. She’s seriously looking for day jobs and wondering how she’s going to pay her rent.
And now she’s got a new album out called “Baby Skeletons” that she recorded before the pandemic. So here’s what we’re going to try. I’m letting you hear it for free. And I want you to give Adrienne what you think that was worth to you. If I were you, I’d start with $1 before you even listen to it. Because any album is worth that much. But then once you’ve heard it, I think you’ll agree it’s worth a lot more. And I understand that not everybody is in the same financial position as everybody else. So maybe you can only spare $7.00. Or maybe you’re doing great and you can spare a 20 or a 50. You gotta decide for yourself how much you laughed at what took her years to make and how much you want to support comics like this putting out their own material. Show this podcast to your friends and tell them to support her, too.
I do this kind of thing for the Edinburgh Comedy Festival. The richer people end up paying more. The poorer people end up paying less. And overall I make enough money to justify me going out there to Scotland for a month. Enough that I can justify going out there. More than I made in a month of road gigs 10 years ago. And more than Adrienne makes now on the road. But the coolest part of it for me was how the poor college kids and the adults with real jobs could all come together to enjoy something they all liked; my degenerate comedy. After the shows, I would stand in the back with a bucket. And people would toss in whatever they had. When I was off, I definitely felt that in the bucket. But no matter what people gave me, it was cool to have them say thank you as they passed, and know that no matter what they put in there, they were putting it in because they wanted to AFTER knowing what they had gotten in terms of the show I put on.
So that’s what we’re doing with Adrienne. All the money you Venmo her or Paypal her will go directly to her. If she makes enough, she can use the money to film her next special.
Adrienne is an introverted joke writer. And the standup she does end up doing on big platforms gets censored to hell. That Parkland joke was the number one joke of 2018. Most NY comics agreed with that. And they wouldn’t even let her do it on a dirty comedy on Netflix. That’s the state we’re in for standup. If she was as big as Dave Chappelle or Bill Burr it wouldn’t have been a problem. So you guys get to hear it here instead.
You gotta make the world into what you want it to be by supporting that vision with your dollars.
The Music
The Misfits - Last Caress
