New York comedian Chris Gethard is out to bring a little bit of what’s still weird about the city to a natio🐬nal audience.
For years, the New Jersey native’s name has been associ﷽ated with oddball comedy through his ✅improv work at the , his stand-up act and his live public access call-in show “,” which jumps to cable’s Fusion on Thursday.
“People say New York’s not strange anymore … not risky anymore and I’d like to think that public access is a place where that’s not true,” says Gethard. “I definitely have a chip on my shoulder where I want to say New York is still artsy and cool, and it’s not all just Starbucks and Abercrombies now.”
After starting as a stage show at UCB in 2009, “TCGS” aired for the past four years on Manhattanꦍ Neighborhood Network, where it developed a cult-like following for its chaotic, bizarre style. The live episodes included Zach Galifianakis giving haircuts on-air and a woman constantly hula-hooping in the background.
The Fusion version (produced by Funny or Die with Galifianakis, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay) will maintain that free-wheeling weirdness, Gethard says. While the comedian guests are celebrities, the show has a decidedly un-Hollywood vibe: the premiere will have “Broad City” stars Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer skyping witﷺh viewers showing off the weirdest parts of their bodies.
“My goal with bringing celebrities on is to find pe🀅ople than they 🅺would any other place on TV,” Gethard says.
The move to cable is cutting the show to 30 minutes, with tapings streaming live on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. before airing Thursdays on Fusion. “TCGS” also now has a 𒉰budget after years of Gethard self♊-financing the public access show — whose set fit in the trunk of his car.
Despite the upgrade to a Midtown stu🌺dio, Gethard will keep the show’s authentic underground vibe by petitioning fans to mail in weird items from their own basements to decorate the rough-around-the-edges set.
“It’s in a basement and there’s not one window. Last week a pipe broke and there was actual sewage all over t𝕴he place,” Gethard says.
“We were like, ‘This feels like home to us.’ ”