Jeff Dye says politics ‘interfering’ with stand-up comedy industry
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After announcing his plans to leave California for Texas last month, comedian Jeff Dye made it clear that it wasn’t a decision he made overnight. For years he clung to the belief that the state he loved could still be saved, but this hope eventually ran out.
Dye spoke with Fox News Digital, where he offered insight into his decision to leave Los Angeles for Austin and how politics has led to a growing divide within the stand-up comedy community.
A fixture on the stand-up scene since 2005, Dye is poised to join the wave of entertainers and ordinary Americans who have fled the Golden State in recent years. While the comedian acknowledged there was “nothing heroic about leaving” California, he expressed a sense of despair about the state’s future under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s leadership, especially given its battle with the wildfires that ripped through the Palisades earlier this year.
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Comedian Jeff Dye sat down with Fox News Digital and discussed his recent decision to leave California for Texas. (Photo courtesy of SA Ent. Group)
“I don’t think it’s good to leave California because you’re unhappy with the way California is going. We should stay and fight for it,” he argued. “But at a certain point, you get a little defeated, I don’t know how to fight for it anymore. I don’t know what to do.”
On the issues of homelessness and transportation, Dye questioned where taxpayer funds allocated to address these issues were going and directed his questions to Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
When reached for comment by Fox News Digital, Newsom’s office said of Dye: “Who is he?” came the dismissive reply. Fox News Digital has also reached out to Mayor Bass’ office for comment.
A state audit in April of last year found that California spent $24 billion over five years to combat homelessness without consistently tracking how the funds were actually helping the homeless crisis.
“Mayor Bass and Gavin Newsom, you know, how many things can they say to our face, ignore or not do before you go, I’m out of here?” he asked.
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At a time when politics infiltrated every aspect of life, the stand-up comedy scene was no exception.
Jeff Dye talked about the impact politics has on the world of stand-up comedy. (Courtesy of SA Ent. Group)
Fox News Digital asked Dye if the increasing influence of politics in stand-up comedy is having a negative impact on the industry.
“The biggest thing I’ve noticed in stand-up comedy — and people will accuse me of being a drama queen or a punk for saying this — but the biggest thing I’ve noticed is that politics interferes with comedy,” he said.
“My heroes used to at least say: ‘Dude, don’t be politically correct, say what you think and don’t be afraid to bust any fraud.’ “Even the most successful comedians right now are like, ‘Hey, you can’t joke about that,’ or ‘You can’t say that,’ and it breaks my brain.”
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According to Dye, today’s stand-up stars tend to follow an unspoken rule: “Say whatever you want, but you better be liberal.”
One comedy legend whose words have stuck with Dye over the years is George Carlin, whose anti-establishment, provocative style helped define conscious comedy.
“George Carlin once said that our job as comedians is to find that line and then deliberately cross it… I’m not running for office. I don’t do TED talks. I don’t lecture people on ethics and morality. I just need to be funny and point out things in society,” he explained.
Comedian George Carlin performs at the Cheyenne Civic Center n Cheyenne in Wyoming on June 1, 1992. (Mark Junge/Getty Images)
Dye suggested that a few “bold comics” changed the Overton Window in terms of what was and was not acceptable to talk about as a stand-up.
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He thanked comedians/hosts like Joe Rogan, Theo Von, and Shane Gillis for this shift, praising their willingness to speak their mind without much regard for what others might think.
“You see a lot of comics now coming in like, ‘Oh, it’s a little safer now because these big comics said something.’ I was kind of at the forefront of that,” he said. “I’ve always been more conservative than my comedy colleagues. I’ve always been a lot more religious, I’m a Christian, so it’s not a huge, popular thing in stand-up comedy. That’s how I’ve been at the forefront.”
Comedian Jeff Dye performs on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” on January 19, 2018. (Andrew Lipovsky/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal)
Explaining his gradual shift in political ideology, Dye told Fox News Digital: “I’m late to the Trump party. I’m late to a lot of this. I thought I had to be a liberal because I had gay friends, and then being a liberal got crazier and crazier and more Antifa-esque and I was like, ‘I’m out.'”
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Dye acknowledged that some might scoff at the idea of comedians being bold in expressing their views, but he pushed back from that perspective, noting the risks involved in challenging the prevailing political consensus.
“It’s brave to say something that everyone else isn’t saying. There’s some courage in that. To say something that your colleagues and the people you work with will hate. And if you don’t think that’s brave, look at what happened to Charlie Kirk,” he argued. “It’s brave because there are risks when you say things that people don’t like.”
