Comic Shane Mauss seeks to bring the fun back to psychedelics

Psychedelics used to be fun, sometimes even funny. 

Today, however, psychedelic substances such as psilocybin and MDMA are being taken seriously as legitimate and, in some cases, life-changing treatments for a number of afflictions, from addiction to fear of death. They are no longer merely trippy party drugs, and that’s likely all for the better. But, in that evolution, could it be that psychedelics are losing their playfulness?

Shane Mauss is banking his career on restoring the sense of humor around psychedelics. The stand-up comedian and podcaster comes to the Rio Theatre on Saturday with a show called “A Better Trip,” a presentation that mixes science, psychedelics and silliness.

On stage, Mauss certainly looks the part of someone who has left the material world behind. Looking like he hasn’t had a haircut (or a beard trim) since the first Obama administration, he tells fantastical tales with impressive specificity on what it was like to take various psychedelic substances. “One hit [of LSD],” he said in one of his comedy specials, “and you remember how amazing trees are. You forgot. You used to know. Two hits, and the trees remember how amazing you are.”

Mauss is probably best known as the host of the podcast “Here We Are,” which is focused on the lighter side of general science on everything from genetics to neuroscience to animal penises (truly). But for more than a decade, his interest in science has taken a decided turn into a fascination with psychedelics, what they do in the mind and what they reveal about the world. And he’s turned that fascination into a comedy show.

Around 2011, he said, he started to do comedy shows themed on scientific subjects. A couple of years later, he jumped into psychedelic drugs as the basis for his comedy. 

“What’s funny about the psychedelic space,” Mauss said in a phone interview while on the tour that brings him to Santa Cruz this weekend, “is that, even though I’ve only been doing this since about 2014, I’m the old, sage veteran in a lot of ways. There might [be] some comedians with some jokes about it, but there might be only two or three other comedians that are making it the theme of their show or tour. With the psychedelic renaissance going on, it’s still the Wild West out there. So 10 years of experience makes you the wizened old veteran.”

His interest in psychedelics even spawned a 2018 documentary titled “Psychonautics: A Comic’s Exploration of Psychedelics.” 

Mauss does not, however, come out of the party-drug psychedelic culture. “I would say I was unfamiliar with the psychedelic community at large,” he said. “I’m a bit of a loner and I just spend a lot of time by myself, reading and writing. I mean, I’ve never been to Burning Man or anything like that. So, I was tripping by myself, and for a very long time, I had no idea anyone else would be interested in the subject.”

Then, he went on the podcast of fellow comedian Pete Holmes, “You Made It Weird,” and, without really meaning to, began relating his experience with the powerful South American psychedelic ayahuasca. The show sparked interest with many listeners. Soon after, in an impromptu performance in front of several other comedians, Mauss began to riff on psychedelics, weaving in the stories he had told in the Holmes podcast. 

“And that’s when [it hit me], ‘Oh yeah, this is its own show,’” he said. “I very much stumbled into it. Psychedelics are actually pretty low in the field of my personal interests. I care a lot more about evolutionary biology and psychology and behavior economics and neuroscience. But I found psychedelics to be a lovely gateway drug into scientific thinking. A lot of people might not want to hear a comedy show called ‘How the Brain Works’ or something like that. But people love hearing about drugs and psychedelics.”

In the 10 years since he’s been riffing on psychedelics as the basis for his comedy, Mauss has watched and often felt audiences changing, in some ways growing more sophisticated in their understanding of the subject — ayahuasca was largely unheard of in the mainstream a decade ago — but in other ways, the audience is more naive. 

“It’s funny, but the crowds back in 2014 that came out to the show were way more in-the-know. And it was a very special vibe that we were all kinda like getting away with something. And those audiences really loved the accuracy at which I can describe an experience.”

Then came the publication of Michael Pollan’s 2018 book “How to Change Your Mind,” a turning point event in modern psychedelic culture in that it brought many new and curious people to the field of psychedelics. The Pollan book made the psychedelic experience more visible, and the taboos against discussing such experiences began to ebb away. Mauss was planning to do a psychedelics-based show to take advantage of the “Pollan Effect,” but the pandemic shutdown scuttled those plans. His current tour is, in fact, picking up where he was interrupted before the pandemic. And he’s noticed an entirely new vibe.

“This tour has waaaaaay more people that have never done psychedelics but who are also interested in the subject matter,” he said. “And it’s mostly been an over-correction. I think psychedelics have gotten too serious in some ways with these healing modalities and such. People now tell their friends who haven’t tripped to go to my show because of my ability to convey these subjects in a way that everyone could understand. So, before where I was talking to a crowd where just about everyone had experiences with it, today I would say a quarter of the audience or so has never done a psychedelic. And that’s a significant number, in my opinion.”

“A Better Trip with Shane Mauss” takes place Saturday, April 27, at the Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. 

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