Learn All About Psychedelics During Shane Mauss's Comedy Special at Meow Wolf

Westword: You’ve been a part of the comedy world for nearly two decades. What inspired you to take this deep dive into the psychedelic space, and how did that shift your approach to standup?

Shane Mauss: I started over twenty years ago. Psychedelics have been a part of my life for even longer; I’ve had experiences for around 28 years. I’ve always had a few jokes about psychedelics in my act, but as I started touring and doing longer tours, I started doing themed shows because those types of experiences are more popular overseas. When I was starting, I did a lot of science-themed shows. They were something that became my passion in the second half of my career. In doing that, I was always trying to find new ways to get people interested in science, psychology, neuroscience and how the mind works.

These subjects are endlessly fascinating and near and dear to my heart. Through happenstance, as the world of podcasting became popular, I got asked on some larger podcasts and word spread that I was the guy to talk to about psychedelics. So I decided to put together a show themed around psychedelics. It happened to be one of the more fun and successful shows I toured with. That’s how this show came together. The first psychedelic show I did was in 2015. Since then, I have done some unrelated science projects in between, but this is the magnum opus of my psychedelic comedy experience.

How does A Better Trip differ from previous iterations of the experience?

For this tour, we added visual aspects. A year ago, it started as a Vegas residency at AREA15, which is where Meow Wolf is in that city, and that’s when I first started adding the visual component. I'd have my VJ and video jockey mix in real-time visuals so it could change in every performance. That’s what’s new and different about this tour. That’s why we are recording at Meow Wolf. They have 360 video mapping so it can be all around like it originally was. It will be the first special recorded in the space at Meow Wolf in Denver; they have been fun to work with and are really going all in to make it special.

You’ve had a long and successful career in comedy, performing on shows like Conan and Jimmy Kimmel Live! Who were some of your biggest influences early on, and how have they shaped your unique comedic voice?

I have wanted to be a comedian since I was ten years old. I had a friend who told me, "You should be a comedian." It resonated with me in the right way. I didn’t want to be a firefighter, doctor or carpenter; none of those jobs seemed like something that appealed to me. I got this silly idea to be a standup comedian. Since getting that idea in my head at a young age, I started recording everything that had to do with comedy on VHS. I would record everyone who was on late-night TV and watch it over again.

When Comedy Central came out, I recorded every standup special. I was a student of comedy. I love watching bad and good comedy; I just wanted to see every piece of standup comedy that has ever existed. I’ve done that and then some. Before I started standup, I was really into more absurdist stuff, like Zach Galifianakis, Emo Phillips, Steven Wright, Paul F. Tompkins and those types. As my act evolved and I started doing science-themed shows, I would get inspiration from seeing different online courses. I would see the good and bad ways they would communicate complicated ideas in accessible ways.

I’m a comedian whose biggest inspiration is a scientist named Robert Sapolsky. He's a thinker and communicator with a couple of fairly successful books that take big, existential ideas that try to make sense of the human condition who is also very funny in his own right. I’ve also gotten inspiration from A$AP Rocky. He’s outrageously verbose; he has an incredible way with words but, more importantly, does a nice job of tackling deep ideas about mental health issues and mindfulness in ways that are creative while also being incredibly introspective and thoughtful.

What sparked your interest in science?

I never had an interest in science class. I was a terrible student, generally, and science was another subject I didn’t pay attention to. Since I had big dreams of becoming a comedian, I didn’t see the purpose of classical education. I didn’t go to college. I took blue-collar jobs — I had a blue-collar upbringing in a small town in Wisconsin — but I was always into having bigger philosophical conversations. It was a craving I always had. I wasn’t able to express that growing up.

I had a wholesome upbringing in a small town. Everyone had very conventional ways, sensibilities and ideas about what we're supposed to believe and how we're supposed to behave. I never fit into that. I was one of those kids whose name was always on the board from first grade. I only got into more and more trouble as I got older.

I found myself rebelling against convention. I really had a fondness for challenging dogma and various belief systems. As a teenager, once I worked up the courage to start some of these debates and arguments with others, I found myself being asked a lot of questions about religious beliefs and what happens when we die. As the internet became more readily accessible, I would do as much research as I could to find answers to these questions. That led me to physics and evolution. Honestly, though, my early interest in science was to be a dick and argue with people. Then it became a more genuine interest in science more broadly. I didn’t like being told what to study, so I didn’t pay attention in school, but when I was out of high school, I found myself buying magazines and science books. It started light and got heavier over time.

With comedy, I caught a lot of early breaks. I had accomplished more than I dreamed of accomplishing in the first five years. I was wondering, what's next? At the same time, I was enjoying touring internationally. Over there, people do a lot of themed shows that are very different from American comedy sensibilities. It wasn’t just setup and punchlines; you’d have a whole story arc and themes.

You’d see people do a whole show about why they don’t eat crumpets anymore. It seemed very alien to me but, if I wanted to travel more, I needed to put together a themed show. What would I talk about? I realized that I was always consistently reading science books every day; it’s what I wake up to and go to bed doing, but it’s never occurred to me to put this into my comedy. That’s where the science/comedy combination came from.

How did your podcast, Here We Are, which features interviews with over 400 scientists, get started?

The podcast was easy. Once I started putting together themed shows, I had all these interesting ideas about the material. I’d be reading a book and have questions of my own. I started wondering if I was articulating this in the right way, so I started reaching out to scientists. They were shockingly generous with their time. Many were happy to connect, and then I found myself having the most incredible conversations of my life. I started making some friends in academia, and then I started thinking I should record these conversations since the era of podcasting was getting bigger and bigger.

That’s what I started doing back in 2012. I did it for about ten years. I put it on hiatus to put together this show. After this recording, I’ll start doing the podcast again. This has been the most involved and most shows I’ve done on tour. It required us to get brand-new venues in almost every market because of the tech needed to do the visuals. I’ll have time to focus on the podcast once this wraps up.

Psychedelics are still somewhat of a taboo subject for many. How do you make this subject accessible to both experienced psychonauts and people who have never touched psychedelics?

That’s one of the greatest and funniest challenges that I have with this show. I did a psychedelic show in 2016-2017 that traveled to 111 cities. The people who came out were all very interested in psychedelics. My crowds were largely experienced users and festival-goers. In the years since, there has been a shocking amount of normalization of psychedelics in research, therapy and the larger culture. It’s now making its way into all sorts of news streams.

On this current tour, on average, 10 percent of people in my audience have never done a psychedelic. They’ve heard the hubbub about them or maybe have their own mental health things that they’ve tried other treatments for with limited success, so they're curious how psychedelics can help. It’s a weird place, because the psychedelic crowd has the most knowledge. There will be some people who know more about psychedelics than I do, including therapists and scientists, who will show up to the show mixed in with people who have never done them and don’t know much about how they work. I try to find ways to get people up to speed while also throwing in tidbits and references that are more advanced.

What are your plans for A Better Trip?

The idea for this special is that it’s two one-hour specials. There will be an intermission at both shows to reset the room, but we are marketing it as a two-hour comedy special to try to eliminate confusion. My idea is to make it into a series of sorts. This will be episodes one and two. I haven’t decided what I’m going to call the special, but I’ve been thinking about calling them 101 and 102 to drive home the idea that this will be an onboarding into the psychedelic space of sorts. I held off on talking about certain drugs so that once a few years go by and I want to revisit the show, I will get to keep pushing more advanced ideas as the topic continues to evolve.

You’ve worked with incredible visual artists to create a unique immersive experience for A Better Trip. What can the audience expect visually when they see this show at Meow Wolf, and how does that complement your comedy?

My VJ, Michael Strauss, has about twenty different artists who have made various animation and digital paintings that we have collaborated with. Some were existing works of theirs that articulated an experience I talked about on stage, and some was custom work. For example, the creator of Comedy Central's Tales From the Crypt made a lot of curated content for the shows. We combine those images with artwork designed by Michael Strauss of Strauss Visuals.

There is always a visual atmosphere. If I'm talking about mushrooms, there might be a melty atmosphere going on visually. Then, because the walls in the Meow Wolf space all have projection mapping, we’ll be using their LED wall on the stage to feature the visual, and the other walls will be projection maps. Combining our visuals with the usual Meow Wolf visuals done by Moment Factory. Because the walls have textures, they can bring out projections in unique ways.

Where will people be able to watch the recorded special? Do you have a distributor yet?

We don’t have a distributor yet, but we do have interest already from several buyers. After we record and edit it, then we will shop it around and take the best offer. We have some ideas of the usual suspects. I’ve had a Netflix special before, and I have a special and documentary on Amazon. I’ve liked working with both of them. Also, the world is always changing dramatically. In the next six months before we sell, who knows what will be going on?

It’s insane how fast things change. Netflix dabbled in comedy for a bit way back, and then they went all in on comedy for a while. Suddenly, over COVID, people were turning down Netflix specials to put their stuff on YouTube to get more views. At the end of the day, it’s about exposing it to as many people as possible and getting people out to live shows. HBO has some of the highest-quality comedy, but they don’t do too many comedy specials. Who knows? We’ll see.

My producer, Matt Schuler, also made my documentary, and he produces more than anyone on the planet; he does around thirty specials a year, including many big ones, like Bill Burr. We have been friends for a while and worked on other projects, including documentaries. He’s on board because he’s confident it will sell easily.

What do you hope audiences take away from A Better Trip after they leave the show, whether they’re seasoned psychonauts or new to the world of psychedelics?

I know there are a lot of people who will be coming who are fans or are in the psychedelics community. Many people at the shows will have already seen the show, love it and are coming back because they want to see it in Meow Wolf's space. However, I’m hoping for a lot of fresh blood. I’ve done it in Denver more than anywhere else and performed for more people in Colorado than anywhere else because it’s such a good fit for the show. There is nothing like the energy of people having that involuntary reaction to comedy they are surprised by, so I’m trying to limit the number of people who’ve seen the show.

With this show in particular, some of my favorite comments are that I present a balanced view of the multiple takes that the psychedelic crowd has on those experiences. I have a very scientific vibe where we are experiencing the subconscious rather than the opposite view that this stuff is mystical. Still, I’ve gone out of my way to include the diverse number of perspectives people have on psychedelics.

One of the things I really strive for is the accuracy of the experience. I love Hunter S. Thompson’s gonzo journalism, but I’m not blending fact and fiction. When I am talking about an experience, I don’t embellish or turn it into more lore than it was. I think that the combination of my psychedelic experiences, twenty years of comedy and my interest in the scientific field, along with the visuals, makes it where I can articulate the psychedelic experience in a way that is more accurate than almost anyone out there.

A Better Trip with Shane Mauss, 3:20 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday, October 20, Meow Wolf, 1338 First Street. Tickets (21+) are $35.75.