When Bert Kreischer first appeared on my screen, he looked like a fighter about to enter the ring. He had on a red hoodie, unzipped, with the hood up in an ominous way. When I was first told that I would be interviewing the comedian who is known for going shirtless on stage, I thought, how funny would it be if I interviewed him shirtless. I had the camera positioned so that he wouldn’t know I had my shirt off.

We exchanged greetings and were ready to get down to the interview. Bert slid off his hoodie, and I positioned the camera so that he could see I was shirtless too. He laughed and said it made him feel like we were brothers. Then I put my shirt back on, and we dove into the interview.

We started talking about Bert’s 2nd annual Fully Loaded Comedy Festival opening on June 14th at Forest Hills Stadium in New York. The festival includes Bert, Tiffany Haddish, Dave Attell, and a ton of other comedians. Bert likened the tour to summer camp, where they all giggle, text each other, and have a blast. Bert runs the festival, which made him mention the difficulties in such a task, saying, “Good luck wrangling cats. You wanna deal with Tiffany Haddish’s rider, good luck.” Aside from the jokes, you could tell the respect he has for the talent and hard work of some of these comics.

We discussed the work that goes into putting together a comedy act, particularly how a lot of Bert’s comedy comes from his own life. He tells stories that involve his wife and kids. When asked if his wife has objections to any of it, he said it was more his daughters. Bert said that at first, they didn’t realize what he did, but once they did, they would tell him when things happen, “This doesn’t go in the show.”

Bert’s movie “The Machine” opened on Memorial Day Weekend. The film is based on a very important part of Bert’s stand-up routine, which is a true story. Bert said he pitched the movie by accident while trying to sell something else. In the movie, Mark Hamill plays his father, and Bert expressed how amazing the experience was working with him. Bert described Hamill as “the most generous dude, the sweetest guy, and everything you want in your movie star.”

On top of all that, which already seems to be a pretty full plate, Bert also has a new Netflix special called “Razzle Dazzle.” When speaking about it, I mentioned that it made me laugh out loud, which led to Bert saying he chooses his material based on what makes him laugh the hardest. In this part of the conversation, you can see just how humble and genuine of a man he is. We spoke about the hard work of refining a comedy show and the perils of people recording a show on a phone before the comic has ironed it all out.

We also had to discuss how he began performing shirtless. You can watch Bert discuss the 2nd annual Fully Loaded Comedy Festival, his Tops Off stand-up tour, his movie “The Machine,” his Netflix special “Razzle Dazzle,” and more in our interview below. You can find all of Bert’s tour dates here.

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