The Strange New Web Series by Tyler Smith is a Delicious and Hilarious Creation
A young
cannabis enthusiast and comic has been getting a lot of attention in the
Seattle scene lately. With flowing Fabio-like hair, an infectious laugh and a
passion for cannabis-infused foods, Ty
[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap radius”]A [/dropcap]young cannabis enthusiast and comic has been getting a lot of attention in the Seattle scene lately. With flowing Fabio-like hair, an infectious laugh and a passion for cannabis-infused foods, Tyler Smith can entertain even the toughest of curmudgeons. Smith’s new online cooking show Something’s Burning, Cooking with Tyler Smith combines his two favorite things—infused foods and comedy. Smith is equally entertaining and informative. He was a feature at Bumbershoot in 2012 and 2013, and he recently won the 2014 Comedy on Trial competition which is an intensive multi-week comedy competition with some of the Pacific Northwest’s top stand-up comedians competing for gold. His show and comedy has gained viral status online, and we can definitely see why. Smith sat down with CULTURE to talk about activism, food and living the hilarious life that is . . . Tyler Smith.
You recently won the Comedy on Trial competition, congrats! Tell us about it!
It was awesome! I won it! Ha-ha! It’s a pretty big accomplishment if you have to consistently be good to win that competition. You have to compete and win the first week, then beat that month, then beat the quarter, and then you have to beat the semi-finals and then the finals. It’s like an event! Everybody in the comedy scene in Seattle is in that competition so it’s very rewarding to beat all of my peers. Just so you guys know this year, #1.
Is most of your material cannabis themed?
You know, almost half of my material is about weed because its a big part of my life. The other half is like any other comedian I talk about my family and my dating life, but most of my material is cannabis-related. It’s definitely the theme, ha-ha. I’ve been working in a dispensary for the past six years so me just talking about my job is me talking about pot. Here’s a new joke I just wrote:
My buddies are always curious about how I got my job at the dispensary. I am like, “look I know a lot about pot, I can smell the difference between the strains. If you blind-folded me and opened up all my jars of weed I could tell you which one was which.” My friend said that was bullshit and that he didn’t believe me, so I said “alright,” and so we busted out eight jars of my best weed, he blind-folded me and then . . . he stole all my weed.
You are stand-up comedian but you also produce a cannabis cooking show, tell us a little bit about it?
I was a cook for a couple of dispensaries and I was working with a group of comics who were trying to start a comedy network online called Potaholics. They wanted me to do a show and they didn’t want it to be a regular podcast so I suggested that I do a cooking show with weed, because thats what I do for a living. So then I teamed up with some awesome people with some awesome equipment, like my homie Justin bought all our equipment which was super badass, and Egan who is our amazing editor does all the shots for us; he really is phenomenal at his job.
What’s next for you?
We’re doing some more marijuana-themed shows. I was just grabbing a drink at a bar and a group of comics walked in and they were said they are doing a comedy show where everybody will be performing stoned for the first time. Basically getting people super stoned and then doing comedy, and they were like, “Would you headline it?” For me, that’s just a regular show! Ha. It’s so nice because I used to be really nervous and I wouldn’t get high before I went on, and then people would say “God you were so high” and I’m like “I’m actually sober, but if you guys don’t believe I might as well be high!”
