Shane Gillis didn’t waste time in addressing the elephant in the room.

Within minutes of his headlining set at Helium Comedy Club in Philadelphia on Oct. 24, the Mechanicsburg-area native was talking about his firing from “Saturday Night Live” earlier this year over homophobic and racist remarks he used in a podcast. He didn’t justify his words or explain away his comedy. Instead he used it as a launching point for more jokes.

“When they got me on [saying racist things about] Asians, I was like ‘alright,’” he told the crowd at the nearly full club. “That’s like getting Capone on tax evasion."

The audience laughed.

Gillis moved on shortly after, making jokes about President Donald Trump, his sister’s heroin addiction, faces made during sex and the Special Olympics. There was even a bit about Jesus (although that one didn’t quite land). The material ran the gamut and Gillis never shied away from being offensive. Occasionally, he’d reference the “SNL” situation, but wouldn’t dwell on it for too long.

But those initial few minutes were some of the strongest of his set. It’s a string of jokes that are uniquely Gillis’ -- no one else can tell them and he doesn’t waste the material.

Gillis had the predominately white audience laughing for most of his set. It wasn’t hard to see how he’s been able to rise up through the comedy ranks -- even being named Philly’s Funniest Comedian by Helium Comedy Club in 2016. Gillis has an easy stage presence and a knack for making material seem fresh, even if it’s the same joke he’s told in 20 shows before.

“I loved it,” said Kit Towers of Virginia after the show. “All of it. It was great. My cheeks will hurt for days.”

“Super inappropriate, but enjoyable over all,” chimed in her friend Julianna Matthews of New York.

Boomer Jenkins and Austin Birch of Washington, D.C. had driven up to Philadelphia to see Gillis. They’ve been following his career for the past year, seen him perform stand-up and subscribed to the “Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast.”

“He’s always been, what we as comedy fans say, ahead of his time,” Jenkins said.

“You don’t do feature sets for big headliners for six months and jump to headlining across the country if you don’t have chops,” Birch added. “Clearly he’s good at what he does.”

Neither think the scandal surrounding “SNL” will hurt Gillis’ standup in the long run.

“I think if you want to define it by mainstream success, then obviously not having ‘SNL’ damages your career,” Birch admitted. “If you look at it from a purely standup comedy standpoint, then in the long run it will probably help.

“Anybody who liked his standup going into it can tell the difference between jokes in context and statements taken out of context,” he continued. “I don’t think it really turned anybody away from him that was already listening. But it also opened him up to a new group of people who hadn’t heard of him and realized they do like his kind of comedy.”

Gillis will be headlining sets at Helium through Oct. 26. The comedy club is located at 2031 Sansom St. in Philadelphia. Tickets for the 21-and-older shows start at $20 for general admission and $28 for reserved seating. Tickets can be purchased at philadelphia.heliumcomedy.com.

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