Erin Gibson and Bryan Safi Are Throwing Shade

Throwing Shade, the weekly podcast and web series produced by “Funny or Die” and featuring Erin Gibson and Bryan Safi (above) as they riff, unscripted, on pop culture, politics, and othe timely topics, has been turned into a half-hour weekly late-night series for TV LAND. We sat down with the pair ahead of their show’s upcoming premier to throw some shade at travel:

OutTraveler: You must be very excited for next week’s debut— 

Erin: So excited—

Bryan: Kinda depressed— (laughs)

OT: At least 2017 should be ripe with great stuff to discuss—as comedians, I imagine you’re excited about the Trump presidency.

Erin: I would not use the term ‘excited’, but I’m excited to try and tear him apart.

Bryan: I think it definitely adds an urgency to our show that we’ve always sort of felt, but now, I don’t know, it makes me feel that we have some power over that and that we can really speak to it.

Erin: Look, the sad part of it is that — bummer alert — you know, with Obama in the White House there has been a lot of progress. We talk a lot about state issues and that is really where a lot of the conservatives have been hiding for the past eight years. So we knew when he got the nomination that there would be people fighting tooth and nail to roll back LGBTQ rights, roll back women’s rights, so— it just means now we have more people to talk about and take down than we would have had Hillary taken her rightful place in the White House.

OT: I thought it might be fun to just throw out some travel-related topics and let you do what it is you do best by throwing shade at them. 

Erin: Let’s do it.

OT: OK, we’ll start with an easy one: airports.

Bryan: I mean, horrible. That’s the one thing I agree with Donald Trump on is that American airports are the worst. LAX is the worst example of, like, anything. 

Erin: I will say that I do appreciate that they now have an Earthbar and, like, good food if you’re flying out of certain terminals, but I can’t believe it’s taken until this year for that to happen.

Bryan: I think airports are the most glaring example of classism in this country. Gross.

Erin: They really are. And, I know it’s not funny to talk about good stuff, but can I just say that the Portland airport is, like, my dream. It is the best airport in the country. There is a Stumptown coffee with homemade whoopie pies that I will eat at five in the morning. Like, I will eat four of them.

OT: That nicely segues into the next topic: airplane food.

Bryan: I ain’t what it used to be.

Erin: I like the snack packs now better than the — remember those hamburger patties they used to give on airplanes in the Nineties? 

Bryan: I am always a sucker for the magic of being in an airplane. It always impresses me and it’s something I always look forward to even though I know it’s not going to be a great experience. So—I love it. It’s the one thing on airplanes that’s distracting.

OT: How about gay cruises?

Bryan: I’ve never been on one! They sound magical and terrifying. Only terrifying because of the self-hatred that would occur with my body looking at an all-time low. But, also, I’ve heard people like Patti LuPone will do a gay cruise.

OT: Wanda Sykes performed on the most recent cruise I went on. Although, her people were very insistent no one photograph her.

Bryan: Who could blame her?

OT: How bout Gay Pride parades?

Bryan: I’m all for them. Like my friend Louis says, ‘I don’t understand why people think Gay Pride Parades aren’t necessary now. Show me a necessary parade.'

Erin: New York’s Gay Pride Parade is the episode of The Wire where they make drugs legal for a block - that’s what that is. Similarly, whoever has a problem with the debauchery going on at a pride parade has never been to the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade— 

Bryan: —Humanity at its worst.

Shady. We love it.

Throwing Shade airs Tuesdays at 10:30/9:30 Central on TV LAND, beginning January 17. Check out one of their "Funny or Die" web series clips below: