Tony Hinchcliffe’s podcast “Kill Tony” prompted brand-new comedians to move Lock, stocks and barrels to Austin, Texas to make it famous.
Aspiring comedians from all over the country – and beyond – are uprooting their lives, exhausting their savings, spending hours on their journey each week: Getting their names pulled out a bucket from a popular live podcast.
Every Monday night, in Austin, promising comedians pour out the choices – Joe Rogan’s comedy mom’s Bar catty-Corner, enters a raffle called “Bottle.”
If their names are drawn, they only get 60 seconds to stand up in front of a noisy live audience and in front of the comedy heavyweight panel. For many, this is the ultimate gambling – a minute that can drive them to fame.
Some will do their best.
Dusty Carter, 44, is a general contractor in Fort Worth, driving 400 miles a week and spending about $700 a month on diesel just to put his name in a bucket.
Over the past two years, he has entered the bucket of 100 more than 100 times – only once.
“I watched to go to college and pay the membership fee,” Carter told dailymail.com.
Just starting with a new debut with Netflix, Tony Hinchcliffe’s Kill Tony has become the world’s top live comedy show – driving comedians to stand out on the Austin stage
Dusty Carter, 44, is a general contractor in Fort Worth, driving 400 miles a week and spending about $700 a month on diesel
Kent Hunter, 21, stocks shelves on Hebrews and opens the door in Vulcan. He rarely listens to podcasts-but he has been barreled six times
Now, he is the talent coordinator for Kill Tony, who relentlessly continues to connect during the show and helps him get the job.
Jason Farn, 31, moved to Texas with the goal of increasing odds.
The WACO-based iron work 58 hours a week and enters 137 times – also only one call to show.
He said he believes that Kill Tony was found to offer a more promising route than traditional network efforts in New York and Los Angeles, which have historically been the center of American entertainment.
“I left home at 5 a.m. and didn’t get off work until 7 p.m., and then I came straight to Austin,” he said. “This is the number one comedy podcast in the world – I mean, why not?”
But while some people don’t shoot week after week, others seem to be lucky without trying.
Kent Hunter, 22, puts shelves on Hebrews and works as a doorman for Vulcan Gas Company. He admits he is not a loyal fan and rarely listens to podcasts-but he’s been barreled six times.
He said it was indeed the luck of the lottery. ”
Even I know the shock of a surprise bucket – direct pull – I was killed by Tony’s sold-out Madison Square Garden show.
Tony Hinchcliffe builds Hall Tony from a Liche La show
Rogan in 2022
Launched 11 years ago in the Belly Room at the Los Angeles Comedy Store, with only four names in a bucket, when host Tony Hinchcliffe followed Joe Rogan to Austin, where Tony discovered a new life during the pandemic, where live performances were still allowed.
In 2022, Rogan opened Comedy Mom, and Kill Tony now shoots Kill Tony in a packed house every week.
Although the show has been a comedy worship favorite for years, it has sold the arena nationwide over the past year.
A pivotal moment happened in July 2024, when Shane Gillis and Adam Ray pretended to be Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the group, a viral attack that helped the show gain 330,000 YouTube subscribers that month alone.
The former ground performance exploded into a swordsman.
Now, its monthly views have increased by 15 million to 30 million, with 221 million YouTube users, and recently debuted the first of Netflix specialties on April 7—all of which isn’t spending a dime on advertising.
With millions of dollars in adjustments every month, Kill Tony Bump is a fan-like career shock term that comes from smashing your minutes – very real and often life-changing.
Kam Patterson, 26, turns from Mowting Greens in Orlando to a headline-sold-out comedy club for $30,000 a week weekend
Hans Kim used to live in his van and now earns $10,000 per weekend
Kam Patterson, 26, transformed from Mowing Greens in Orlando to a sold-out comedy club for $30,000 per weekend.
Hans Kim, who used to live in his van, said he is now making $10,000 per weekend, and the comedian is in Podcast Interview With Caleb Hammer.
Insiders added that Drew Nickens, 31, a former Air Force soldier who used to clean toilets in a poker room, now reportedly earned $600 every 15 minutes after breaking through the show.
Even the disabled comics have written their names for themselves on the show’s cruel honest stage, the show’s raffle system and its roster of “Golden Tickets” winners for those with disabilities – underscoring its reputation as a “safe space” of dark humor and the rare equivalent sports platform for anyone who truly owns the lens.
Ahren Belisle, 30, is a silent software engineer with cerebral palsy from Canada, who offers his suit through text-to-voice applications.
Martin Phillips suffers from muscular malnutrition and walks with sugar cane and refuses to rely on disability jokes.
Diamond Deb Miller, 66, has Parkinson’s disease and sluggish dyskinesia and has been queued 76 times but is still not called.
Ahren Belisle, 30, is a silent software engineer from Canada with brain palsy
Diamond Deb Miller, 66, has Parkinson’s disease and late-onset dyskinesia and has been queued 76 times – but is still not called
Sometimes, the position in the show is too early.
Quinn Collins, 27, a waitress at the Sunset Strip Comedy Club, said she became the victim of “Killing Tony Curse” – being pulled before she had enough stage experience.
“I did a pretty good job, but I’m too new to comedy,” she said. “I definitely want to try again to prove how much I’ve evolved since then.”
That minute of stage time is not just about telling jokes. This is a high-pressure test for time, delivery and vulnerability.
Ivory Jones, 44, spends over $15,000 a Monday from his farm in Elmo to his farm in Austin. He insisted that time constraints were the perfect challenge.
“The judge can say three things based on how you perform in a minute: Whether you are comfortable on stage or not, whether you can roll around the room with a smile, you can get a pop every 10 seconds,” Jones said.
“If you can do everything and relate to it and let us know any of your individuals in these 60 seconds, that’s gold.”
