NEWYou can now listen to articles!
After announcing his plans to leave California for Texas last month, comedian Jeff Dye made it clear that this was not a decision he came to overnight. For years, he clung to the belief that the state he loved could still be saved, but eventually that hope ran out.
Dye sat down with Digital, where he offered insight into his decision to leave Los Angeles for Austin and how politics have carved a growing divide within the stand-up comedy community.
A fixture of the stand-up scene since 2005, Dye is preparing to join the wave of entertainers and everyday Americans who have fled the Golden State in recent years. While he agreed that “there’s nothing heroic about leaving” California, the comedian expressed a sense of hopelessness about the state’s future under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s leadership — especially given his handling of the wildfires that tore through the Palisades earlier this year.
COMEDIAN JEFF DYE JOINS HOLLYWOOD EXODUS, SAYS LA FIRES WERE ‘QUITE A WAKE-UP CALL’
Comedian Jeff Dye sat down with 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 upset with the way it’s run. We should stay and fight for it,” he asserted. “But at a certain point, you just get a little defeated in like, 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 tackle these problems have gone, aiming his questions at Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
Newsom’s office had a dismissive reply when reached for comment by Digital, saying of Dye, “Who is that?” Digital also reached out to the office of Mayor Bass for comment.
In April of last year, a state audit found California had spent $24 billion on tackling homelessness over five years without consistently tracking how the funds actually aided in the homeless crisis.
“How many things does Mayor Bass and Gavin Newsom, you know, how many things can they just lie to our face or ignore or not do before you go, I’m out of here?” he asked.
PATRICIA HEATON EXPLAINS WHY SHE LEFT LOS ANGELES FOR NASHVILLE, CITES HOMELESSNESS, CRIME
With politics creeping its way into seemingly every facet of life, the stand-up comedy scene has been no exception.
Jeff Dye explained the impact that he felt politics are having on the stand-up comedy world. (Courtesy of SA Ent. Group)
Digital asked Dye whether he felt that the growing influence of politics in stand-up comedy has had 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 being a punk for even saying this — but the biggest thing I’ve noticed is that the politics is interfering with the comedy,” he said.
“It used to be my heroes, at least, were like, ‘Dude, don’t be politically correct and say what you think and don’t be afraid to break any faux pas.’ Where it’s now, even the most successful comedians are being like, ‘Hey, you can’t joke about that,’ or, ‘You can’t say that,’ which breaks my brain.”
JAMES WOODS WARNS NEWSOM’S PRESIDENTIAL APPEAL WON’T LAST LONG AMID ‘ATROCIOUS’ CALIFORNIA FAILURES
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 stayed with Dye over the years is George Carlin, whose anti-establishment, provocative style helped define conscious comedy.
“George Carlin once said our job as comedians is to find that line and then deliberately cross it… I’m not running for office. I’m not doing TED talks. I’m not lecturing people on ethics and morals. I’m just supposed to be funny and point out things in society,” he explained.
Comedian George Carlin performs at the Cheyenne Civic Center n Cheyenne, Wyoming on June 1, 1992. (Mark Junge/Getty Images)
Dye contended that a few “brave comics” have shifted the Overton Window in regard to what is or isn’t acceptable to speak about as a stand-up.
LENO SAYS TICKETS SALES ARE UP AFTER HE REMOVED POLITICS FROM HIS STAND UP, SAYS ‘NOBODY WANTS TO BE LECTURED’
He credited comedians/hosts like Joe Rogan, Theo Von and Shane Gillis for this shift, praising their willingness to speak their minds with little regard for what others may think.
“Now you see a lot of comics coming along going, ‘Oh, it’s a little safer now, because these big comics have said a thing.’ I was on the front lines of that in a way,” he said. “I’ve always been more conservative than my comedic counterparts. I’ve always been way more religious as far as like, I’m a Christian, so that’s not a huge, popular thing in stand-up comedy. I was on the front lines in that way.”
Comedian Jeff Dye performs on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” on Jan. 19, 2018. (Andrew Lipovsky/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal)
Explaining his gradual shift in political ideology, Dye told Digital, “I was late to the Trump party. I was late to a lot of those things. I thought, because I had gay friends, that I must be liberal, and then becoming liberal became crazier and crazier and more Antifa-ish, and I was like, ‘I’m out.'”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE APP
Dye acknowledged that some may scoff at the idea of comedians being brave for expressing their views, but he pushed back on that perspective — noting the risks that come with challenging the dominant political consensus.
“It is brave to say something that everyone else isn’t saying. There is some bravery in that. To say a thing that your peers and the people you work with are going to hate. And if you don’t think that’s brave, look at what happened to Charlie Kirk,” he argued. “It is brave because there are risks when you say things that people don’t like.”
