A group of standup comedians have become internet sensations thanks to 60-second performances on an online comedy show.
Kill Tony is a wildly popular live podcast show in which host Tony Hinchcliffe, joined by famous entertainers, give up-and-coming comedians a platform. Aspiring comics have their names pulled from a bucket, are given a minute to perform a standup set, and are then roasted or praised following their set. Across nearly 800 episodes, the show has grown from the small Comedy Store in Los Angeles, to the Comedy Mothership in Austin, Texas, and has even hosted special episodes at Madison Square Garden, the Kia Forum and across the pond.
Along the way, bucket-pull comics have become show favorites, while Hinchliffe and other panelists have invited comedians from the show to tour with them. Now a selection of comics whose careers exploded thanks to Kill Tony are on the Killers of Kill Tony tour, making a stop at Fantasy Springs on Saturday, Sept. 19. The show will feature William Montgomery, David Lucas, Hans Kim and Martin Phillips.
“It’s a great tour,” said Hans Kim, who has appeared on Kill Tony nearly 30 times. “It’s a great opportunity to see people who were on the show, and it’s like the show is coming to you. It’s like Disney on Ice.”
Kim is not only a veteran of Kill Tony, but he’s been part of the rotating Killers of Kill Tony tour since the early days.
“I started pretty early when they started it—not the first one, but one of the early ones, and it’s a lot more fun than how comedians usually do it, which is the headliner brings a feature (comedian),” Kim said. “… This one, we’re all just here together. There’s no headliner; there’s no feature, and we’re all just hanging out. It’s way more fun, and hopefully that fun translates to the stage.”
The members of the Killers of Kill Tony tour share a special bond: They’ve all had their lives changed thanks to a single minute-long standup set.
“It’s hard to tell people who haven’t been in that experience, because it just doesn’t make sense,” Kim said. “It’s a very unique situation, and other people aren’t going to be able to understand, because everyone comes up so differently. There are TikTok people who just made TikToks and got big that way, so everyone has their own way of getting up there. It helps to be around people who have gone through the exact thing that you’re going through.”
Kim reflected on his journey since debuting on Kill Tony in 2021, where he cracked jokes about living in his van for the past three years.
“It’s night and day,” he said. “(Kill Tony’s) completely 100% responsible for everything, and it would be completely different without it. I was doing comedy for 10 years before I got on Kill Tony. … The arts and standup comedy are very hard to bring attention to, but with the internet now, it’s getting a little more even.”
Kim said the best aspect of Kill Tony involves comedians helping comedians.
“The individual way of getting online is a great way to do it, but I also think having people who are successful blasting (out) other people is very helpful to an art scene,” he said. “It gets more eyeballs on people and shows the journey of what it’s like to do comedy. Comedy is a very authentic art form. It’s not a lot about hiding. … I think it’s a great artistic boost to the art scene. I think the more shows like Kill Tony exist, the healthier the art scene becomes.”
Audiences may see many Kill Tony alumni as “overnight successes,” but Kim said years of hard work often go into preparing for those fateful 60 seconds.
“(You need to be) doing open mics and doing a lot of shows so that you’re in that kind of environment a lot, so when you’re up there, it’s just another day at the batting cages,” he said. “Just having that practice of doing it, the muscle, the emotional state that you have to be in, what your voice has to sound like, the timing, then writing jokes, and writing so many jokes that you find one or two that are 100%. A lot of it is just writing jokes, because even if you’re not the best performer, if you have a great joke, that’s what we’re all shooting for. Just writing great jokes all the time and testing them out and finding out if they’re funny and doing that process over and over seems to be the only way to do it. Everyone has their own way of working it, but you just have to keep writing jokes and testing it.”
The Killers of Kill Tony tour has allowed Kim to showcase tighter and more polished material, as compared to his solo performances.
“It’s more to the point, and not as meandering,” he said. “I’m talking to a more general audience, so I’m more sarcastic, and I’m not as ‘inside baseball.’”
While in some ways, the comedy world is exploding, with top-name comics packing arenas and stadiums, Kim said he thinks entertainers should be focused on writing better jokes, versus performing at larger venues.
“You can do bigger rooms, but bigger isn’t always better,” Kim said. “I think writing the funniest jokes is really what most people are trying to do, and that’s the most satisfying thing. … You don’t need to sell out an arena to be the best; you’re just trying to be as good at the art form as possible. … I think it’s the sky’s the limit for standup comedy. I think it’s just going to continue to get better.”
The Killers of Kill Tony tour heads to the desert at 8 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 19, at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino, at 84245 Indio Springs Parkway, in Indio. Tickets start at $52.50. For tickets and more information, visit www.fantasyspringsresort.com.
