Tyler Fischer Has A New Comedy Special And He Ain’t Holding Back

Tyler Fischer tried to crack Comedy Central’s lineup for years without luck.

Then he decided to let the people decide if he was funny enough for a cable network. One of the first comedy clips he uploaded to Facebook, what he calls his “hating yoga” routine, snagged a million views in 24 hours.

“That’s when I thought, ‘I need to be doing this on my own,’” Fischer says. It’s how he’s crafted his career since then, and the results speak for themselves.

Fischer’s YouTube channel is thriving, and he leans on Patreon to supplement both his income and his funny and personal self-titled podcast. He just co-starred in The Daily Wire’s “Terror on the Prairie,” and his new stand-up special, “The New Normal,” drops this week.

The special, like everything else in Fischer’s career, is self-produced.

“The New Normal” finds Fischer riffing on COVID restrictions, having a gay father, and the contrasts between Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Fischer’s famous Dr. Fauci impression also makes a hilarious appearance.

Fischer, who contracted COVID twice early in the pandemic and refused to get vaccinated, says audiences are more willing to laugh about the virus now. That wasn’t the case a year or so ago.

He adds that audiences approach his material differently depending on the state. Florida residents have been laughing about the restrictions for some time. In Brooklyn, though, audiences often “pick sides” about vaccination status.

The comic released a comedy special on his own three years ago, but he says he didn’t have a sizable fan base at the time to woo platforms to air it. Now he’s more established, but he still didn’t bother approaching Netflix or Hulu about “The New Normal.”

“I‘m not going to even pitch this somewhere that puts virtue signaling and identity politics over comedy,” says Fischer, following in the footsteps of comics like Louis C.K., Andrew Schulz and Nick Di Paolo who self-produced their specials. Schulz famously bought back his new special, “Infamous,” from an unnamed streamer when it wanted him to censor certain jokes.

Schulz says he made his investment back three times over.

Fischer says going solo, given the current Cancel Culture climate, is a “no brainer.”

“The New Normal” debuted a week early on Fischer’s Patreon page but goes live on YouTube August 11.

Fischer isn’t political by nature, and the special’s Beltway bits don’t lean to the Left or Right. But the comic’s vaccination stance labeled him “far Right” in comedy circles all the same, something which had a profound impact on how the industry treats him today.

Fellow comedians rarely look him in the eye now, let alone chat with the affable Fischer before or after sets. He sees a bright side to the ostracization.

“It’s nice. Nobody talks to me … I don’t have to make small talk [in the clubs] … nobody asks me for anything,” he says, his mood remarkably bright.

He turns more serious, saying years of therapy and rigorous self-improvement work help him process how colleagues treat him. 

“I don’t think I would have survived it [without that],” he says.

Shooting straight, both on-stage and off, did have a positive impact on his career. His current fan base “is the most diverse I’ve ever had.”

One of “Normal’s” most challenging bits recalls how Fischer’s father “came out” while Fischer was still a boy. He jokes that homophobia kept his father from embracing his sexuality and, in a way, led to his creation.

Fischer feared exploring the issue on stage without his father’s consent. Even asking him about it made him nervous. When they finally had that conversation, his father offered him his full approval.

“Absolutely! You should exaggerate it,” his father said. It still took years to form jokes around the topic, and it often left him “literally sweating on stage.”

He first broached the subject at a rooftop comedy gig before a predominantly gay crowd. The bit killed, he says, but it still made him uncomfortable.

He temporarily removed the jokes from his routine. A gay man who had been at the rooftop show saw a subsequent Fischer appearance and approached the comic after the show. Put the material back in, he said. 

Comedy, as the old saw goes, isn’t easy. It’s even more difficult when the industry discriminates against a performer for the color of his skin. It’s what Fischer says has happened to him and other straight white male comics of late.

He’s even filed suit against his former agency for denying him work based on his immutable characteristics. The agency denies the accusation.

Fischer says he’s not the only comic facing similar discrimination.

“It’s been a murmuring for the last 10 years … one of many, many reasons why I spoke out … [fellow white male comics] would whisper it in the back of comedy clubs,” he says. Since filing the lawsuit, some have reached out to him privately to thank him for his efforts.

Fischer is