× Thanks for reading! Log in to continue. Enjoy more articles by logging in or creating a free account. No credit card required. Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}

Like many a comedian, Shane Mauss has worked his share of humor about alcohol and drug use into his act, mostly self-deprecating bits about dumb things he’s done while under the influence. A little over a year ago, though, when he was starting to perform a show centered largely on psychedelic drug use, he didn’t want to do that show in La Crosse, home turf for the Onalaska native.

For one thing, he didn’t want to do the show in front of his parents. But now, in the midst of a nationwide, 80-city tour of the show, he’s taking “A Good Trip” back home.

“I used to be nervous, but now I’m excited for them to see it,” Mauss said of “A Good Trip,” a show he considers to be the best work of his 12-year career. “I’m out of the closet now. It’s hard to come out of the psychedelic closet. There’s some stigma attached.”

The stigma is relatively new, considering that use of psychedelic substances goes back thousands of years. Psychedelic drug use had a surge in the 1960s, but there was a legal backlash against drugs in general and psychedelic drugs in particular. “There were a lot of problems with the ’60s movement, and there was a lot of arrogance with it: ‘Like, we’re seeing the truth, man,’” Mauss said.