Jake Shane Trained Five Days a Week For His First Shirtless Shoot

This is an edition of the newsletter Pulling Weeds With Chris Black, in which the columnist weighs in on hot topics in culture. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Thursday.If you are reading this you are probably familiar with Jake Shane. He seemingly came out of nowhere and then was unavoidable on your feed. Maybe you became aware of him during Covid when his improvised historical reenactments went viral on TikTok. Maybe you know him from his podcast Therapuss, where he talks to celebrities about, well not much. Maybe you know him from paparazzi photos—he’s been seen walking the streets of New York or Los Angeles with beautiful women like Kaia Gerber and Tate McRae. Shit, maybe you know him from being shirtless in his ALO shorts in Men’s Health. Shane does a lot, and people either love it or hate it. Earlier this year he sparked a debate after footage of his Vanity Fair Oscar after-party interviews caught steam, prompting debate about whether we need “real journalists” to ask questions of celebrities as they’re heading into an award show.I was a bit of a Shane hater myself. It was partly jealousy—he was something similar to what we do on our podcast How Long Gone, with much more financial success and eyeballs. Slowly but surely, though, I came around. Shane’s approach is casual and can come off a little lazy, but he is mirroring how a lot of us behave with our friends, except his friends are more famous. Everything doesn’t need to be hard-hitting journalism, and Shane isn’t pretending to be Jon Stewart or even Barbara Walters. He’s a guy who’s plugged in to Young Hollywood and his fans get to see the conversations he has with his friends and acquaintances. It’s a pretty simple formula that is working quite well.After a guest-star run on HBO’s beloved Hacks, Shane is continuing his push into acting with a role on season two of Hulu’s Adults. We spoke about being annoying, the show he is making based on his life, shopping habits, and if the guys got in his DMs after he popped his top for Men’s Health.GQ: So, you've been traveling this summer. You're in New York, you're in LA, but did you do a holiday?Jake Shane: I was just in the Hamptons for the weekend.I was, too.It was my first time out there this summer; it was to celebrate a friend's birthday, and it was a proper holiday. Beach, hang, drink.Now that you're popping, I thought you might've been in Croatia with the ladies.I have to be in the States because we've been doing the podcast all summer.What's the schedule? Did Netflix change it at all?The only thing Netflix changed was the upload process. Overall, I think it's elevated it.I imagine many more eyeballs are discovering you.Yeah, a lot of older people are discovering it as well. Older people don't really scroll on YouTube, but they'll be on Netflix.Did you ever consume podcasts audio-only, or were you always into video?I don't listen to that many. I listen to a true-crime one on the plane. But for mine, I knew I had to do video because a lot of my comedy is physical. The way I'll react to things will be funny on purpose, the way I move my face or my body.So, you've gotten a lot of shit—I have gotten a lot of shit, huh?Well, I came around, honestly. People don't understand that you're turning it up 30% or whatever because you're on camera. With podcasting, people don't see it as acting. It's you being yourself, but you're also dialing the knobs up a little for entertainment.Of course. And a lot of the criticism was, like, "This isn't journalism."No shit.I've said I'm not a journalist. But the second layer of it was just, "…You're annoying." Well, okay, I've been called annoying all my life.Same. You can't be everyone's flavor. But do you think it's a good representation of your personality?It’s pretty representative. If you don't like the podcast, I don't think you'd like hanging out with me.So, you've always acted. You’ve been in shows like Hacks and Adults, but now you're developing shows as well.Yeah, I’m developing stuff. I think I'm happiest acting. I love doing my show and posting online, but I aspire to be around people, improvise on a set, and make a long-lasting piece of work that people can reference for years to come. I grew up watching comedies. TV is my safe space. It’s the world I fall into when I don't want to be in my own. I want to create that for someone else. And I want to make it really, really, really funny.Growing up, what was the number one?Bridesmaids. Then, television: How I Met Your Mother, Dave, Girls. I love How I Met Your Mother; I've seen the whole thing. New Girl is great.An underappreciated classic.Very underappreciated. I would say Girls is probably what I'm trying to go for in my own show—that dry, quick, self-deprecating comedy.So what's the show about?Have you ever seen Dave?Of course.It’s like a gay Dave.Gay Dave?It's gay Dave.So, what are your plans for this? Are you pulling in people from your real life?It'd be fun to have them do cameos, but I'm really excited to discover new voices and new talent. I definitely want to go to a bunch of comedy shows and see who's there. That's the heart of the show; I have to make sure these people are funny. I want the show to feel new.What’s your relationship to standup?I took my podcast on tour, and it was a standup hybrid. I mean, I was standing on a stage talking and trying to make people laugh. But I'm very into the alt-comedy scene. Meg Stalter, Paul Downs, Cole Escola... Meg is someone I look up to, and I try to make it a show where the structure doesn’t really matter, as long as the audience is laughing.When you talk about your physicality, how physical are we getting? Is your ass falling on the ground?No, no, no, it's very minor. Little faces or movements. I think it's from growing up, trying to make my friends and family laugh. We'd be in situations where we wouldn’t be able to speak because we were talking shit about the situation we were in. I'd have to do faces. That's where it comes from. The best laugh in the world is one where you're not supposed to laugh. You'll get in trouble for it. That's the greatest feeling. I think that's where my physical comedy comes from—having to do it in silence, in a classroom.What's the routine looking like? Are you more of a bad boy in New York or LA?I go out a lot more in New York; I walk a lot more; I shop a lot more.Oh, are we copping now that bread is up?I do like to shop; I have a problem with it.Are you just like, “I'm going to walk through Soho and see what grabs me?”There’s a vintage store in LA and New York. It's called Mothfood. They always get new stuff in. It's such a big fun store, and you can play whatever music you want. And I'm close with the guy, Tommy. Sometimes I'll walk around Soho, but it's just so hot right now.It's not inspiring; it's tough to look at fall. At this point, what is your relationship to Instagram? Do you look at it as work or can you enjoy it as a voyeur?It’s very enjoyable. I haven’t had this much fun with Instagram in a really long time. I think I'm more confident in my body and how I look.Yeah, I know, bitch. I saw your shirt off. I saw you at the Alo gym.Thank you. Thank you.Did you see an uptick in fella-interest when you popped the top?Not really.Come on.There was an uptick in people being like, “This doesn't feel correct.” Which I understand. Those photos weren't realistic to how I look right now. I got a spray tan, I got a lymphatic, I fasted for a minute...How hard were you training?Five days a week. Every two weeks I would do a 5K, or try.Are you on your own now, or do you still have a trainer every time?Always with a trainer; I can't work out on my own. I give up. I always took classes growing up. I did SoulCycle, Barry's in middle school and high school.Were you doing Barry's in high school?I grew up in the city. I was like, “They look fun, and they tell you what to do. Might as well fucking do it.”What's our peptide stack? Are we Natty?I don't peptide stack at all. I have Reta in my fridge that I've never taken. I was this close to taking it, but I wanted to be able to say I did Men's Health without it.Men's Health is a big thing. It used to mean you had an action movie coming out.Yeah, I don't have an action movie. I just have my therapist.