Although he is covered from head to toe from head to toe – quite literally – the only thing that is more obvious than Comedian Shayne Smith’s Body art has been his new Catholicism lately.
And the former Motorbende member is certain In good company.
Jim Gaffigan, Kevin James, Stephen Colbert, Tom Leopold, Russell Brand and Rob Schneider are just a few other comedians who share in the same faith – the second half of the noisy couple converted to Catholicism In their adulthood.
The former half has been just as busy to keep Catholicism alive: Gaffigan recently performed The Sheen Center for Thought and CultureOn which Cardinal Timothy Dolan is a board member; Kevin James reportedly organized a Catholic retreat for the pandemic; And Stephen Colbert is known for teaching at Sunday school.
But what drives these comedians to Catholicism?
Smith, who officially converted last year, gave Fox News Digital his take – by first explaining what to him to the Age -old religion.
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“I opted for Catholicism for all the rational reasons. I am a man with a great history, and I just thought … you know, if you ask Siri who has founded your religion, and you are not Catholic, them Will the name of Just say a man.
Comedians Kevin James, Shayne Smith and Jim Gaffigan, all of whom I identify as practiced Catholics. (Fox News)
“There are (also) very rational reasons outside of history. For example, I read this book called” Dominion “, that was about a man who wanted to write a book about how religion had a kind of confused Western civilization and the world made a worse place.
But it was in his search for a natural explanation that Smith would discover the supernatural:
“I had an experience where I was forced to go to a Catholic church for no reason, and I had no education about Catholicism (at the time), so I didn’t really understand the Catholic Church in general. I was really. Christianity demands And a kind of leaning Protestant. But I got into a Catholic church one afternoon – I finally admitted this coercion – and I had an experience with our heavenly mother (Maria). “
Smith continued to describe a “very short but incredibly powerful” experience that he at the time believed was a psychedelic vision of a woman who was “based in clear white light”.
“She put his hand out and touched me,” he described. “And I cried the hardest that I have ever cried.”
Smith, who is no stranger to open about his “trailer park” reding in his partially autobiographical stand-ups, has described his mostly single mother so strong enough to ever have hit a “bad dog” unconscious. He told Fox News Digital that his “incredibly surreal” experience with mother Mary immediately helped to cure his relationship with his own mother.
“At that moment many things changed for me. I suddenly felt that many of my problems were healed with women. And I felt that my relationship with my mother healed, and all these other things happened. “
Smith left the church that day the decision to devote his life to Jesus.
And that started with his discovery of Marian appearances.
“Only then I discovered that Marian appearances are something that happens to people and in fact things are that sometimes happen with tens of thousands of people at the same time,” he added. “So there are rational reasons why I became a Catholic, and then the other reason would be the supernatural experience I had with Mary.”
Comedian-infected Catholic Shayne Smith performed for a fascinated crowd of Catholics at the annual Seek Conference, at the beginning of January in Washington, DC (FOCUS)
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When asked why he believes that other comedians may be in the direction of Catholicism, Smith Fox News Digital offered a surprising answer: suffering.
“I think the sense of humor has … It all correlates with suffering. And Catholics are very aware of suffering. They are not afraid of suffering,” he claimed.
“And in fact they often invite it sometimes too much, and then we get the concept of Catholic feelings of confession, fool,” he jost. “But yes, I think it really correlates with suffering. I think Catholics are so tailored to suffering and are very aware that their suffering matters and means something, and they are not afraid of it. They confront it one Bit on.
Smith continued to describe his arrival as a suffering but successful comedian and podcast -guest, started as an atheist. He said that, despite his appearance and former criminal career, the Catholic community welcomed him with open arms – even after his public conversion resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of followers.
He told Fox News Digital that after his stand-up career as a man who has rejected religion, after he publicly converted to Catholicism, he “was in fact canceled” by his former fans.
“I got the death threats. People sent things to my mother, as if it were crazy. And I said,” Okay, well, this is a bit the end of my career. ” And that is okay, because faith is more important than money, “he continued. “But over time it has reversed the course. And now I am more popular than ever.”
Smith continued to say that his early encounters with fans during Meet-and-Greets when he first achieved popularity, would give him fear because of the inappropriate nature of their interactions, and explained that he was “touched by women” and “Hard by drunk people.”
But since he cleans up his act, his fandom has changed dramatically.
“Now I meet and greet people to pray the rosary with them. Women are so friendly and gentle against me. People give me handwritten encouragement and everything is so much nicer and lighter and good, I m, like, blown away.”
Smith has not only cleared his act in proverbial sense, but has corrected the record with Fox News Digital: he is a self -proclaimed beautiful comedian To start up.
“Because I have Catholic sensitivities, my comedy is digestible by everyone,” he said. “I am a Catholic person, and that is the central part of my identity and the most important part of me. But as far as my comedy is concerned, I am just a storyteller. I would just want to be as funny as possible for most people possible.”
One of Smith’s recent versions took place in Washington, DC during Seek ’25, an annual Catholic conference hosted by the Focus organization. There, Smith performed a stand-up routine on the opening evening for a fascinated crowd that he described as nothing less than ‘kind’.
“I would recommend looking for someone of every age. That’s it Comic-Con for Catholics,“He judged.” I went looking and I saw that Catholicism, although deep personal, is also deeply common … (God) wants us to come to Him, together … He wants us to take care of each other and keep each other and ourselves the way What he loves of us, what, you know, is infinite. “
Brock Martin, the son of the founder of the Focus organization, spoke with Fox News Digital during the Seek Conference about the mission of the group.
“If the focus works with people … the first experience would be an experience of God’s love and his plan for you,” said Martin. “That is a landless reality, that the god of the universe who made the cosmos-if you know your name, has a plan for you, wants you to flourish, want to spend eternity with you …”
By recognizing God’s plan for his own life, Smith said he realized that he could not keep his Catholicism to himself.
“I realized that, just to stay at home and make my belief something personal, or just read the Bible, or just to be a Catholic and to keep it for myself … not the point was. And it wasn’t in the end The satisfactory and rewarding experience I needed, “concluded the comedian.
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To hear more from Shayne Smith, fans can view his new ‘Ghost Stories’ special Angel Studios’ Dry bar comedy.
