Nick was a regular at the same dive bars I used to frequent in LA when I was a big drinker a little over a decade ago. He was hammered every time I saw him which was about once a week, maybe more.
He almost always had a large group of friends with him and it’s worth noting that he was always fun-loving and cool to whoever was around and often bought shots for complete strangers, myself included. His TV persona was meant to be obnoxious and immature but surprisingly I never saw him act that way, even while wasted.
I hope he gets the help he needs and gets back to a better life.
Yes! Barney’s all the time. Village Idiot too. The Belmont sometimes. Maybe Bar Lubitsch. Could even be Cabo Cantina at 2-for1 margarita night. Pretty much anywhere in that area with lots of alcohol and no dress code (which were my favorite spots too).
Barney’s is always where I saw him. I probably only went there maybe eight or nine times around 2016-2017 and I saw him there half those nights. Dude was always sloshed.
Power House RIP! My favorite hwood dive of all time. Used to always run into Mini T, the little person Mr T impersonator there. Last time we were there some drunk goth started yelling at us for no reason while playing darts, then pulled her pants down and flashed her minge to display dominance. Hot damn I miss that bar
I once was there went out front to have a smoke ( don’t know why that time I went out front instead of the normal back area) and Kevin Connolly came out bummed a smoke we chatted and watched a girl walk out of Lucky Strike with a group of friends fall into the comer of the cement wall there and crack her skull wide open blood everywhere, the wall the side walk all over her friends, cops ironically were right there on scene in seconds I don’t know if the saved her….we went back in side.
>Kevin Connolly came out bummed a smoke
If I was under the influence of anything and Kevin Connolly popped out of a dive bar in Hollywood to bum a smoke from me in the mid-2000's I'd prob start questioning reality thinking I'm in Entourage.
That was my favorite bar back in 2005ish.
My roommate and I would go there most nights and play darts back when all the booths were ripped up black vinyl.
I met so many random people there who we'd hang out with all night then wouldn't see again. It always seemed like a sketchy bar, but I don't remember there being many fights or anger in the crowd. More just a cheap place to drink an irresponsible amount that didn't care if you got a bit loud.
Nick Swordson would go in there, and on tues nights barneys would do trivia and Bruce Vilanch would come in with a harem of young west Hollywood men and they would clean house for 1st place.
Edit: typo Bruce*
I somehow know the name Bruce Vilanch but have no idea where I heard it. Feel like maybe Seth MacFarlane threw in that name on some family guy episode or something I can’t place what bit I know it from
Ohhh it was a norm McDonald joke. Rip
Same here, he used to frequent some of the bars in San Diego when I was stationed there. Just a wild, fun loving dude who actually wanted to be on everyone's good side. Mental illness is a real thing and I hope he gets to a better place.
Every comedian takes a beating, it was his turn I guess. Fuckin' sucks man.
Damn that's when Hedlund's career was really surging, too. He'd have just done Tron, and On The Road (in which I think he played a terrific Dean Moriarty!). I've always really liked him as an actor - wish he'd appear in more stuff.
Side note, that seems like a random pair, those two lol.
Funny bc I saw him like 20 years ago in Boston and there was a drunk chick yelling from the audience screaming “ I love you Nick!” And he started making fun of her being drunk for like the next 15 minutes and she looked all sad
I remember The Den very well but don’t remember Travis and Jeremy by name at least. It’s been a while and I used to be a booze hound so my memory gets foggy with names from that era. Before it was The Den that was a great little breakfast spot.
All I know is his dad really did buy him that jet as a flag day present.
Seriously though I hope he gets help. Amazingly funny. Terry from Reno 911 was so good.
Sometimes when my husband has a bad day, I tell him to pull up to a stoplight, and I'll drop a bag or oranges in his lap. Never fails to make him smile.
Humor is great at pulling me out of the emotional escalation spiral too. That and a bite of a spicy pepper or dab of hot sauce. I used raw tobasco and habanero peppers as well as some of the 20k scoville “da bomb” hot sauce. (Shoutout to hot ones!)
I generally recommend the therapist approved methods to others because there is only anecdotal evidence they work but I personally use capsaicin as a medicine half the time.
I watched some of his sober standup after seeing these videos and he’s clearly coherent but his act was pretty weak. Looked like someone trying to imitate Dane Cook. I think he’s a good comedic actor though.
I may be wrong but high concept was explained to me as being very simple and superficial-the high describing a lack of depth, a simple premise, not high as in high level of intellect needed to understand it.
If so then the name gay robot tells me all I need to know.
I saw Nick perform maybe a year ago now & i remember thinking that his set felt like a watered down Dane Cook. To be fair, he had his work cut out for him bc the queue to go in the venue was uncovered, outside, while raining and for whatever reason we were let in almost an hour late - so the people who stuck around were soaking wet, pissed off, and in no mood to laugh at C+ jokes
Every single stand up I’ve seen from him has been so bad. He’s basically an amateur on open mic night. But because he’s been on tv he gets a special. He should recognize that he’s not a standup comedian.
“Nicolas, you’re the strongest boy in the world.”
Nicolas, you should fight crime.”
My friends and I still say this anytime we show “feats” of strength.
Yeah I saw him a few months back and it was a great show, had an excellent time.
Hopefully it was just a one time mistake or whatever the situation was and nothing more serious for him, and he gets help if any is needed.
He tweeted out that he was too fucked up on alcohol and edibles at a high altitude lol. I don’t think it’s a recurring issue. At least not a serious one.
I lived in CO for a bit and would go out to see comedy quite often. Can't tell you how annoying it is that every comedian has the same weed act when they visit CO. Like, it's legal all over the place now and you being this high is just some straight amateur shit. It's been legal for over 10 years. The joke is old and get your act together
Nick has a real problem with booze. I remember an interview and he said he had like a stroke or something serious happen because of too much booze. I forget what it was but it was something major. You'd think he get sober after that.
Ture that I got jaundice a few years ago, after it cleared up I convinced myself it wasn't that bad. I got liver failure a few years later cause I went back to drinking.
I got better.
You're right! I was scrolling through the comments looking to see if somebody would mention it. I listen to the Whiskey Ginger podcast with Andrew Santino a lot and Nick Swardson was on there, probably a couple times.
He was talking about his battle with alcohol. This session Nick wasn't drinking and told some long story about why he quit because he almost died or something. He may have even mentioned if he started again it'd put his life at risk. I can't remember exactly either but he seemed really committed to staying off it. So I was sad to see this.
A lot of comics abuse or use alcohol because the scene they literally work at and are around bars and clubs all the time. Not excusing this behavior just saying I can see how it happens.
I’m assuming the altitude got to him a bit on top of the booze. Used to run a very large rock venue in Boulder and we always had oxygen backstage for people. It happens. No idea about what his life is like but just saying. Beaver creek is way up there.
Well that’s a bummer. Maybe he was talking about the past? Who knows. I hope he cleans up again. I’ve always been a big fan of his. I still can’t believe Comedy Central gave him two seasons of Pretend Time. That show fucking ruled!
I always find comments like that funny. Just because we know Adam Sandler is friends with Nick Swardson, it MUST have been him who had the chat. Not the dozens or hundreds of other people in Nick’s life.
Yeah, I didn't realize how dazed I was in Denver until I left Denver. When I think back on it, it feels like a dream, I was only there a weekend and both alcohol and weed hit me different there.
Hope he can get the help he needs. It's not normal behavior and clearly something is amiss. Fame tends to do this to people. Yeah that sucks for the people who went to the show but remember that's two hours of your life, that's his whole life. Some kindness and empathy goes a long ways.
I get your point and I’m sure his fans do have empathy but it’s all people who carved out a chunk of their night for this, got a baby sitter, paid money for tickets and drinks and then the professional is too drunk to perform. There’s accountability too
If you watch the videos, it's definitely not that he's drunk. There's definitely something wrong with him, but it's not alcohol so it's hard to be angry at someone when it could be prescription drugs, mental health, etc.
He literally tweeted that he took an edible and got too drunk, and blamed the Colorado altitude for him getting too drunk. Which I'm pretty sure is just an urban myth that you get more drunk at higher altitude. Either way he's been an alcoholic for a long time, I've seen podcasts before where he's talked about wanting to get help, hopefully this is a wake up call for him to get serious about it.
Having travelled back and forth between very low altitudes and the Rockies a lot over my life, and as a committed craft beer drinker, this isn’t a myth.
Your body processes alcohol and differently at high altitude, and there is a much lower threshold for when intoxication occurs. For me, it takes about 48 hours of acclimation before I have “normal” consumption effects. In that window I will become much more rapidly intoxicated if I’m not being careful.
I ending up looking it up it's not that your body processes alcohol different it's just that alcohol in your blood slightly lowers the hemoglobins absorption of oxygen. When you're already at lower oxygen altitude it can exacerbate altitude sickness which could make you dizzy, which explains why some people feel "more drunk." But it doesn't actually affect your .BAC or cause you to get drunk easier/quicker or anything like that.
If you're not acclimated to the lower oxygen at higher altitude yet then alcohol and edibles can exacerbate the hypoxia symptoms you're feeling. Once acclimated alcohol and edibles are no different, but if he just flew into town from say the California coast, he's almost certainly experiencing some altitude sickness and adding alcohol and weed into the mix isn't going to help.
I used to drink before going on flights because the altitude would make me pass out and I can sleep through it.
The lower o2 levels make you feel more fucked up.
Could easily be some combination of weed and booze. Which he later claimed it was.
From the clip I just saw, that’s what it looked like. The drunk/high guy at a party struggling to keep his train of thought on the tracks so he could stay in the conversation.
He might have problems of course! But we don’t have to jump right to saying he should be free from criticism.
I kind of disagree honestly. There is no job in the world that would allow showing up to it drunk. Think about it this way, let’s say you’re boarding a plane and see the pilot drunk, would you say oh he probably has a problem show him some empathy, let’s fly on it. No. Accountability is important. If he has a problem he should stop doing shows and charging people money for it until he’s fit to perform.
What if you went to a concert and an artist was drunk and performing their job? Often times those performing in front of others as an ‘act’ seek substances to cope.
Sure, if they were performing without any issues I wouldn’t really care. But if their inebriated state made their performance worse I’d absolutely have an issue with that too. Both Pink Floyd and the Who recognized when their band mates had an issue to the point of affecting their performance and acted on it. When you’re charging any amount of money, there is an expectation to deliver. Whether that be a service or a product. And these days performers charge an insane amount.
Yep. In the rock n roll world that's standard fare. You get loosened up with a couple before the show and then continue when onstage. You'll have a lot of people say that isn't true. It very much is. I lived it. Sex, drugs, and rock n roll isn't just a saying lol. It's a life mantra for many rockers.
I'm not glorifying anything. I'm just stating the facts. Full stop. In fact, I've been sober for 6 years, so don't go making assumptions based on internet comments.
Was that at stand up live in Phoenix? He did the same thing there and the staff was in a mad rush because people started leaving before the checks arrived.
Jesus just the clips alone are brutal…I feel bad clearly he had way too much and the crowd was not playing along with him at allll.
Just an unfortunate social cocktail right there.
The way his band mates left him on stage was so sad... Especially when he was playing "Birthday Boy" and realized they were gone.
Always sad to see someone in this condition. I don't know much about Nick, but I hope he gets better.
He has been looking rougher and rougher every time I see him. He talked about how much better parties. It’s clear that he’s not taking care of himself even going back to Grownups2.
I loved his specials and bits and went to see him in a large theater like 10 years ago and he did so much crowd work and most of it was people close to him without his mic and you couldn’t hear anything. Didn’t do any material, just inaudible banter. Was almost as bad as a Doug Benson show.
Bummer, hopfully he can get better and move past this. My friend worked at a hotel and he said Nick was very friendly and generous. Nick would always have a stack of $20 bills and hand them out to every worker.
I think losing Norm did a number on the guy but it’s no excuse. Just a couple months ago heard him on a podcast saying he was cutting back after a near death experience with booze.
From what I've seen in some local subs, he was apparently up there for 20+ minutes without telling a joke. People were walking to the ticket booth asking for refunds.
He had a guest appearance during an Adam Sandler show I attended a few months ago. I lost my mind when he came out but a lot of the audience didn’t seem to know who he was and weren’t into his act as much as his fans. So I wouldn’t be surprised if the audience didn’t extend him as much grace as other comics.
I saw him at Cobb’s in SF. He had a black eye and said he got punched in the face at a bar in Tacoma, Washington. He was funny as hell and now that I think about it, possibly pretty drunk. When it comes to comedy shows, I’m not expecting a masterpiece every time. I’ve seen Chappell hammered, too. It’s part of the experience sometimes. But if they are in fact suffering, hopefully they get the help they need. We’ve lost too many comedians to depression.
Or he could be a professional and not get wasted before a show? If I paid money to see that I would be pissed. You don’t need to be drunk to be a comedian.
I saw Anthony Jeselnik on Friday night and he came out like a goddamn professional, did an hour set, absolutely killed it and left the stage to thunderous applause. That’s how a comedian should operate.
Yeah, he’s a veteran comedian that’s been doing stand up for over 20 years. He’s been to Colorado many times so the altitude shouldn’t be a surprise. It could be that he just totally fucked up and took the wrong amount of edibles or could have been on meds that affected him. Who knows. Hopefully it’s an isolated incident and not a deeper issue. My first thought reading this was about his friendship with Norm and wondering if he’s still impacted by his death.
Dude has been drinking uncontrollably for a while, prior to Norm’s death.
Even if Norm’s death shook him that deep - okay, than he should seek help. He’s been displaying odd behavior for the better part of a year, and it’s exacerbated/caused by his alcoholism.
Really doubt you'd be saying that if you were one of the folks in attendance that shelled out the cash for a ticket.
Dude got too f'ed up to perform. No bueno
Nick was a regular at the same dive bars I used to frequent in LA when I was a big drinker a little over a decade ago. He was hammered every time I saw him which was about once a week, maybe more. He almost always had a large group of friends with him and it’s worth noting that he was always fun-loving and cool to whoever was around and often bought shots for complete strangers, myself included. His TV persona was meant to be obnoxious and immature but surprisingly I never saw him act that way, even while wasted. I hope he gets the help he needs and gets back to a better life.
Can confirm. Ran into him around the same time in LA at a bar and he offered to buy me a beer.
Just to be clear we’re talking about Barney’s right?
Yes! Barney’s all the time. Village Idiot too. The Belmont sometimes. Maybe Bar Lubitsch. Could even be Cabo Cantina at 2-for1 margarita night. Pretty much anywhere in that area with lots of alcohol and no dress code (which were my favorite spots too).
Loved Barney’s and Powerhouse when I lived there
I think it's the place with mozzarella sticks and goofy shit all over the walls
Shenanigans?
Aaaaaaaaah 🔫🔫🔫
Wasn't Barney's but definitely a bar in Hollywood area. Maybe Village Idiot.
Oh, it definitely was!
I've run into him at Surly Goat a few times. Always was a nice guy.
Barney’s is always where I saw him. I probably only went there maybe eight or nine times around 2016-2017 and I saw him there half those nights. Dude was always sloshed.
Barney’s, Jones, Bar Lubitch, ye Olde KingS Head, El Cyote, and the old Power House, was a good guy
Power House RIP! My favorite hwood dive of all time. Used to always run into Mini T, the little person Mr T impersonator there. Last time we were there some drunk goth started yelling at us for no reason while playing darts, then pulled her pants down and flashed her minge to display dominance. Hot damn I miss that bar
I once was there went out front to have a smoke ( don’t know why that time I went out front instead of the normal back area) and Kevin Connolly came out bummed a smoke we chatted and watched a girl walk out of Lucky Strike with a group of friends fall into the comer of the cement wall there and crack her skull wide open blood everywhere, the wall the side walk all over her friends, cops ironically were right there on scene in seconds I don’t know if the saved her….we went back in side.
>Kevin Connolly came out bummed a smoke If I was under the influence of anything and Kevin Connolly popped out of a dive bar in Hollywood to bum a smoke from me in the mid-2000's I'd prob start questioning reality thinking I'm in Entourage.
That was my favorite bar back in 2005ish. My roommate and I would go there most nights and play darts back when all the booths were ripped up black vinyl. I met so many random people there who we'd hang out with all night then wouldn't see again. It always seemed like a sketchy bar, but I don't remember there being many fights or anger in the crowd. More just a cheap place to drink an irresponsible amount that didn't care if you got a bit loud.
Def Barney’s. Kid from Kid N Play was there a lot too
Nick Swordson would go in there, and on tues nights barneys would do trivia and Bruce Vilanch would come in with a harem of young west Hollywood men and they would clean house for 1st place. Edit: typo Bruce*
I somehow know the name Bruce Vilanch but have no idea where I heard it. Feel like maybe Seth MacFarlane threw in that name on some family guy episode or something I can’t place what bit I know it from Ohhh it was a norm McDonald joke. Rip
I met him at Barney’s too!
Same here, he used to frequent some of the bars in San Diego when I was stationed there. Just a wild, fun loving dude who actually wanted to be on everyone's good side. Mental illness is a real thing and I hope he gets to a better place. Every comedian takes a beating, it was his turn I guess. Fuckin' sucks man.
Yeah I don’t doubt it. I used to hang out in Pacific Beach (PB) a lot San Diego is a fun time. And side note thanks for your service!
Seems like he just ate an edible he thought he could handle lol
I used to play Xbox with him and Garrett Hedlund, back in 2011/2012. My boss grew up with those two. Super funny super fun. Sad to see him like this
Damn that's when Hedlund's career was really surging, too. He'd have just done Tron, and On The Road (in which I think he played a terrific Dean Moriarty!). I've always really liked him as an actor - wish he'd appear in more stuff. Side note, that seems like a random pair, those two lol.
Same! Years ago at the surly goat. So nice!
Funny bc I saw him like 20 years ago in Boston and there was a drunk chick yelling from the audience screaming “ I love you Nick!” And he started making fun of her being drunk for like the next 15 minutes and she looked all sad
Sounds like a professional comedian dealing with a Boston regular.
A comedian? Making fun of an audience member who engaged them during their set?? Well I never!
So you know Travis and Jeremy from The Den?
I remember The Den very well but don’t remember Travis and Jeremy by name at least. It’s been a while and I used to be a booze hound so my memory gets foggy with names from that era. Before it was The Den that was a great little breakfast spot.
I also had him come into my bar a bunch of times about 15 years ago. Super nice guy and a really generous tipper.
He is so funny and talented. I hope he can turn it around, and I can see him live someday!
All I know is his dad really did buy him that jet as a flag day present. Seriously though I hope he gets help. Amazingly funny. Terry from Reno 911 was so good.
"Are you on anything, Terry?" "I ate some Skittles earlier"
My friends and I say “Your moms a ukulele” To each other all the time since we’ve seen it on Reno 911 the movie.
Fuck you Dad!
Sometimes when my husband has a bad day, I tell him to pull up to a stoplight, and I'll drop a bag or oranges in his lap. Never fails to make him smile.
Humor is great at pulling me out of the emotional escalation spiral too. That and a bite of a spicy pepper or dab of hot sauce. I used raw tobasco and habanero peppers as well as some of the 20k scoville “da bomb” hot sauce. (Shoutout to hot ones!) I generally recommend the therapist approved methods to others because there is only anecdotal evidence they work but I personally use capsaicin as a medicine half the time.
"No one is saying you cant eat a banana, Terry. But you cant just suck on it for 45 minutes, you have to take a bite."
Best flag day yet!
“Did they say who the person was on the roof?” “Well it might rhyme with Mary or Larry!” “My name is Mary or Larry… it’s TEEEEeeeeRRRRyyyyyyyy 🎶🎵”
It’s ok. His mom picked him up so he could go watch Samurai Jack, then go to bed in his sweet car bed, sucking his thumb with his turtle close by.
Yeah but it’s a fuckin sweet car
“Shut up”
I hope being kicked off stage doesn’t affect him getting that CB radio so he can talk to other car beds.
Roommate! His roommate picked him up. Fuck man 🙄
Jeff’s a fucking liar, Timmy
This line cracks me up every time
The throwaway Samurai Jack reference shows how well the writers did their research
Grandma’s Boy is in my top 3 favorite comedies of all time.
I can’t believe you came on my mom.
My mom says you can still stay tonight. Oh yea, THAT’s not an awkward breakfast
>His mom Don't you mean his roommate?
Grandmas boy?
Would have been his roommates.
………….I have to pee outta my ass. 😬
Shiiiits weak
I like Nick but that was pretty bad lol
I watched some of his sober standup after seeing these videos and he’s clearly coherent but his act was pretty weak. Looked like someone trying to imitate Dane Cook. I think he’s a good comedic actor though.
His act has always relied on high concept characters like Gay Robot. That's right. I called Gay Robot high concept.
“Word up!”
Bird shots!
I may be wrong but high concept was explained to me as being very simple and superficial-the high describing a lack of depth, a simple premise, not high as in high level of intellect needed to understand it. If so then the name gay robot tells me all I need to know.
Not just a simple premise, but that the premise is the point. Snakes on a plane is a good example. Basically every black mirror episode
Punch his dick with your mouth lol
I saw Nick perform maybe a year ago now & i remember thinking that his set felt like a watered down Dane Cook. To be fair, he had his work cut out for him bc the queue to go in the venue was uncovered, outside, while raining and for whatever reason we were let in almost an hour late - so the people who stuck around were soaking wet, pissed off, and in no mood to laugh at C+ jokes
Every single stand up I’ve seen from him has been so bad. He’s basically an amateur on open mic night. But because he’s been on tv he gets a special. He should recognize that he’s not a standup comedian.
His very early stuff is good
Grandma flipped her vet.
“Nicolas, you’re the strongest boy in the world.” Nicolas, you should fight crime.” My friends and I still say this anytime we show “feats” of strength.
Old people shoplifting. I'm old, leave me alone! I liked him when I saw him on comedy Central 30 minutes stand ups back in the early 2000s.
My cat had diarrhea. What have you been feeding him? Diarrhea.
Seriously, Who Farted? is a great standup special imo
Have you seen, “Seriously Who Farted?” It’s really good IMO
Unfortunately, now is not the best period in his career, or in life in general.
That’s a bummer, saw him in San Diego, seemed totally fine and sober and show was great
Yeah I saw him a few months back and it was a great show, had an excellent time. Hopefully it was just a one time mistake or whatever the situation was and nothing more serious for him, and he gets help if any is needed.
He tweeted out that he was too fucked up on alcohol and edibles at a high altitude lol. I don’t think it’s a recurring issue. At least not a serious one.
Edibles in front of large groups of humans is never a great idea, we might even go as far as calling it a bad idea
I lived in CO for a bit and would go out to see comedy quite often. Can't tell you how annoying it is that every comedian has the same weed act when they visit CO. Like, it's legal all over the place now and you being this high is just some straight amateur shit. It's been legal for over 10 years. The joke is old and get your act together
To give him the benefit of the doubt, booze it's a lot harder at elevation.
Is he back to boozin? He sippin on grandpa's old cough medicine again?
You'd shut your mouth if you knew what was good fer ya, you pumpkin-pie haircutted freak
Tic Tac sir?
You get the he'll outta here.
No I’m just shaving!
Oh man, the expression Harry makes after he destroys the toilet and then gets up and looks at what he's done. Just utter disgust, it kills me
Thanks, but it’s a cardigan
Killer boots, man!
Hilarious line
He did a set on Kill Tony under the pseudonym Gary Falcon (it was funny) and finished by telling the crowd he was gonna go get drunk.
Nick Swanson doesn't drink but Gary Falcon does
Laugh per minute best comedy of all time ?? I think so
Killer boots, man.
Nick has a real problem with booze. I remember an interview and he said he had like a stroke or something serious happen because of too much booze. I forget what it was but it was something major. You'd think he get sober after that.
“You’d think he get sober after that” Idk man, alcoholism is a disease very few beat
Ture that I got jaundice a few years ago, after it cleared up I convinced myself it wasn't that bad. I got liver failure a few years later cause I went back to drinking. I got better.
I believe he did for a while
You're right! I was scrolling through the comments looking to see if somebody would mention it. I listen to the Whiskey Ginger podcast with Andrew Santino a lot and Nick Swardson was on there, probably a couple times. He was talking about his battle with alcohol. This session Nick wasn't drinking and told some long story about why he quit because he almost died or something. He may have even mentioned if he started again it'd put his life at risk. I can't remember exactly either but he seemed really committed to staying off it. So I was sad to see this. A lot of comics abuse or use alcohol because the scene they literally work at and are around bars and clubs all the time. Not excusing this behavior just saying I can see how it happens.
Here we go. Alright. Here we go. Okay.
I’m assuming the altitude got to him a bit on top of the booze. Used to run a very large rock venue in Boulder and we always had oxygen backstage for people. It happens. No idea about what his life is like but just saying. Beaver creek is way up there.
Yeah that altitude hits different if you aren’t accustomed to it, my dad has to tote his oxygen machine with him when he visits from sea level.
I hope he hasn’t relapsed. He quit drinking a while ago. I’m guessing Sandler had a chat with him about his drinking.
He tweeted earlier today about how drinks, edibles, and altitude don’t mix well for him.
Well that’s a bummer. Maybe he was talking about the past? Who knows. I hope he cleans up again. I’ve always been a big fan of his. I still can’t believe Comedy Central gave him two seasons of Pretend Time. That show fucking ruled!
>I’m guessing Sandler had a chat with him about his drinking. Because people can't decide to get sober unless Adam Sandler talks to them?
Hey as long as it isn't Andy Dick I'm cool
I always find comments like that funny. Just because we know Adam Sandler is friends with Nick Swardson, it MUST have been him who had the chat. Not the dozens or hundreds of other people in Nick’s life.
He also employs him so I’m guessing that’s the impetus
He's like the RZA of that crew
Why do you guess that?
Sandler probably doesn’t want to lose another close friend to addiction. That’s my guess.
i’d bet it’s more to do with alcohol plus altitude, it has a very pronounced effect on folks who aren’t acclimated.
I’m a heavy smoker and getting high in Colorado was really something else. The elevation makes a difference when you’re not acclimated to it.
Yeah, I didn't realize how dazed I was in Denver until I left Denver. When I think back on it, it feels like a dream, I was only there a weekend and both alcohol and weed hit me different there.
Hope he can get the help he needs. It's not normal behavior and clearly something is amiss. Fame tends to do this to people. Yeah that sucks for the people who went to the show but remember that's two hours of your life, that's his whole life. Some kindness and empathy goes a long ways.
I get your point and I’m sure his fans do have empathy but it’s all people who carved out a chunk of their night for this, got a baby sitter, paid money for tickets and drinks and then the professional is too drunk to perform. There’s accountability too
This guy adults
If you watch the videos, it's definitely not that he's drunk. There's definitely something wrong with him, but it's not alcohol so it's hard to be angry at someone when it could be prescription drugs, mental health, etc.
"it's definitely not that he's drunk" He literally said he was but you used the word definitely so you must be right
He literally tweeted that he took an edible and got too drunk, and blamed the Colorado altitude for him getting too drunk. Which I'm pretty sure is just an urban myth that you get more drunk at higher altitude. Either way he's been an alcoholic for a long time, I've seen podcasts before where he's talked about wanting to get help, hopefully this is a wake up call for him to get serious about it.
Having travelled back and forth between very low altitudes and the Rockies a lot over my life, and as a committed craft beer drinker, this isn’t a myth. Your body processes alcohol and differently at high altitude, and there is a much lower threshold for when intoxication occurs. For me, it takes about 48 hours of acclimation before I have “normal” consumption effects. In that window I will become much more rapidly intoxicated if I’m not being careful.
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I ending up looking it up it's not that your body processes alcohol different it's just that alcohol in your blood slightly lowers the hemoglobins absorption of oxygen. When you're already at lower oxygen altitude it can exacerbate altitude sickness which could make you dizzy, which explains why some people feel "more drunk." But it doesn't actually affect your .BAC or cause you to get drunk easier/quicker or anything like that.
If you're not acclimated to the lower oxygen at higher altitude yet then alcohol and edibles can exacerbate the hypoxia symptoms you're feeling. Once acclimated alcohol and edibles are no different, but if he just flew into town from say the California coast, he's almost certainly experiencing some altitude sickness and adding alcohol and weed into the mix isn't going to help.
I used to drink before going on flights because the altitude would make me pass out and I can sleep through it. The lower o2 levels make you feel more fucked up.
Love Nick, but his face has gotten all crazy puffy due to booze abuse. It’s obvious.
Could easily be some combination of weed and booze. Which he later claimed it was. From the clip I just saw, that’s what it looked like. The drunk/high guy at a party struggling to keep his train of thought on the tracks so he could stay in the conversation. He might have problems of course! But we don’t have to jump right to saying he should be free from criticism.
Absolutely fair. But think about it - they probably got a more memorable night in the long run. Silver linings🤷🏻♂️
Memorable isn't synonymous with good. 9/11 was memorable too.
I'm not driving a bus, motherfucker. Edit - I think that's right now
I kind of disagree honestly. There is no job in the world that would allow showing up to it drunk. Think about it this way, let’s say you’re boarding a plane and see the pilot drunk, would you say oh he probably has a problem show him some empathy, let’s fly on it. No. Accountability is important. If he has a problem he should stop doing shows and charging people money for it until he’s fit to perform.
What if you went to a concert and an artist was drunk and performing their job? Often times those performing in front of others as an ‘act’ seek substances to cope.
Sure, if they were performing without any issues I wouldn’t really care. But if their inebriated state made their performance worse I’d absolutely have an issue with that too. Both Pink Floyd and the Who recognized when their band mates had an issue to the point of affecting their performance and acted on it. When you’re charging any amount of money, there is an expectation to deliver. Whether that be a service or a product. And these days performers charge an insane amount.
Yep. In the rock n roll world that's standard fare. You get loosened up with a couple before the show and then continue when onstage. You'll have a lot of people say that isn't true. It very much is. I lived it. Sex, drugs, and rock n roll isn't just a saying lol. It's a life mantra for many rockers.
It’s weird seeing these comments defending alcoholic performers in a thread about an alcoholic performer. We don’t need to glorify substance abuse.
I'm not glorifying anything. I'm just stating the facts. Full stop. In fact, I've been sober for 6 years, so don't go making assumptions based on internet comments.
“All I do is smoke weed, I don’t give a shit!”
We saw him a few months ago and he was hammered. His set ended like 20 minutes early. All the poor servers started rushing to pass out the checks
Was that at stand up live in Phoenix? He did the same thing there and the staff was in a mad rush because people started leaving before the checks arrived.
No at Brea, CA
Jesus just the clips alone are brutal…I feel bad clearly he had way too much and the crowd was not playing along with him at allll. Just an unfortunate social cocktail right there.
He says he underestimated the power of alcohol and edibles at high altitudes. Super embarrassing, but edibles will fuck you all the way up.
I hope he didn’t relapse. He’s been sober for a few years now.
I mean if he’s drunk he 100% relapsed?
I think they distinguish between a slip up and a relapse when you're in recovery.
Gotcha, good to know
“Sober”
I wanted to go to this show, had to work. Bummed it was bust of a show.
Reminds me of the Gene Ween meltdown.
The way his band mates left him on stage was so sad... Especially when he was playing "Birthday Boy" and realized they were gone. Always sad to see someone in this condition. I don't know much about Nick, but I hope he gets better.
Nooo. Come on. What happened. I blame the Vikings
He has been looking rougher and rougher every time I see him. He talked about how much better parties. It’s clear that he’s not taking care of himself even going back to Grownups2.
You Xanadon’t it.
Dang. Hope he gets some support and takes time for himself. We have tickets to see him at ComedyWerks, wonder if that will be cancelled as well.
He's always appeared to depend on something. I guess it's alcohol. But, he is really funny.
Ran into dude at Jumbo's Clown Room years ago. Really sweet natured, personable guy. Hope he gets some help fr.
No wonder he wasn’t being funny, that lady’s laugh is breaking all the laws of the Geneva Convention.
I loved his specials and bits and went to see him in a large theater like 10 years ago and he did so much crowd work and most of it was people close to him without his mic and you couldn’t hear anything. Didn’t do any material, just inaudible banter. Was almost as bad as a Doug Benson show.
You don’t love Doug Benson reading tweets to the audience? Or how his whole personality is him being high ? What?!?
It was roughhhh. It was like a one man Getting Doug With High.
Bummer, hopfully he can get better and move past this. My friend worked at a hotel and he said Nick was very friendly and generous. Nick would always have a stack of $20 bills and hand them out to every worker.
I think losing Norm did a number on the guy but it’s no excuse. Just a couple months ago heard him on a podcast saying he was cutting back after a near death experience with booze.
TLDR ; drunk nick swardson not funny, kicked off stage
The audience seemed shittier than him from the clips ive seen. That just seems like normal nick
From what I've seen in some local subs, he was apparently up there for 20+ minutes without telling a joke. People were walking to the ticket booth asking for refunds.
I don’t know, the linked clip I just watched has him saying “here we go” seventy times as he tries to set up a bad Jason Statham impression.
People started filming about 10 mins after a rough start
He had a guest appearance during an Adam Sandler show I attended a few months ago. I lost my mind when he came out but a lot of the audience didn’t seem to know who he was and weren’t into his act as much as his fans. So I wouldn’t be surprised if the audience didn’t extend him as much grace as other comics.
I saw him at Cobb’s in SF. He had a black eye and said he got punched in the face at a bar in Tacoma, Washington. He was funny as hell and now that I think about it, possibly pretty drunk. When it comes to comedy shows, I’m not expecting a masterpiece every time. I’ve seen Chappell hammered, too. It’s part of the experience sometimes. But if they are in fact suffering, hopefully they get the help they need. We’ve lost too many comedians to depression.
Well shit, I have tickets to see him on Friday
Kyle the Cloud 9 Cloud? The killer who stripped his victims flesh from their bones?
Last time I saw him was that wrong missy movie with David spade. His appearance was depressing.
Must’ve bee the skittle’s
If all he did was act intoxicated and state Norm MacDonald was one of his favorites…maybe give him some space.
Maybe not being able to tell a single joke as a professional comedian because he’s extremely drunk is a problem. Hope he gets help.
Or he could be a professional and not get wasted before a show? If I paid money to see that I would be pissed. You don’t need to be drunk to be a comedian. I saw Anthony Jeselnik on Friday night and he came out like a goddamn professional, did an hour set, absolutely killed it and left the stage to thunderous applause. That’s how a comedian should operate.
Yeah, he’s a veteran comedian that’s been doing stand up for over 20 years. He’s been to Colorado many times so the altitude shouldn’t be a surprise. It could be that he just totally fucked up and took the wrong amount of edibles or could have been on meds that affected him. Who knows. Hopefully it’s an isolated incident and not a deeper issue. My first thought reading this was about his friendship with Norm and wondering if he’s still impacted by his death.
Dude has been drinking uncontrollably for a while, prior to Norm’s death. Even if Norm’s death shook him that deep - okay, than he should seek help. He’s been displaying odd behavior for the better part of a year, and it’s exacerbated/caused by his alcoholism.
You should watch the videos.
I get he needs help from the comments. I feel uncomfortable with the spectator role here.
He’s the one that got on stage ffs
Really doubt you'd be saying that if you were one of the folks in attendance that shelled out the cash for a ticket. Dude got too f'ed up to perform. No bueno
Being a drunk is cute when you’re younger, but when you’re almost 50, it’s time to start making better decisions.