Why are comedians trending toward Catholicism? One quirky comic offers a surprising explanation

Although it may be covered with tattoos from head to toe – quite literally – the only thing that is more obvious than Comedian Shayne Smith’s The art of the body has recently been his newly discovered Catholicism.

And a former member of the motorcycle gang is certainly in good company.

Jim Gaffigan, Kevin James, Stephen Colbert, Tom Leopold, Russell Brand and Rob Schneider are just a few more comedians who share in the same religion – the last half of a tumultuous crowd having converted to Catholicism in their adulthood.

The former half is equally busy maintaining a living Catholicism: Gaffigan has recently appeared Sheen Center for Thought and Cultureon which Cardinal Timothy is a member of the Management Board; Kevin James was allegedly hosted by Catholic withdrawal before pandemic; And Stephen Colbert is known for lecturing Sunday school.

But what drives these comedians towards Catholicism?

Smith, who officially turned last year, gave Fox News Digital his own – first explaining what attracted him to centuries -old religion.

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“I chose Catholicism for all rational reasons. I am a big guy from history and I just thought … You know, if you ask Siri who founded your religion, and you’re Catholic, she’ll just say a name just a guy. [But] If you ask her who started your church and you are Catholic, she will say, Jesus Christ. So I thought it was a pretty good start. “

“There are [also] Very rational reasons outside history. For example, I read this book called “Dominion”, which was about a guy who intended to write a book about how religion somehow blurred Western civilization and made the world worse. And he accidentally discovered that Christianity and, very specifically Catholicism, were responsible for hospitals, the modern university system of scientific discoveries, medicine and Western civilization in general. And then he eventually became a Christian. “

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But in his pursuit of a natural explanation, Smith will discover supernaturally:

“I had an experience where I was forced to enter the Catholic Church for no reason and had no education about Catholicism [at the time]Well, I didn’t really understand the Catholic Church in general. I was of the discerning Christianity And somehow the Protestants are leaning. But one afternoon I entered the Catholic Church – I finally surrendered to this forced – and I had experience with our heavenly mother [Mary]. “

Smith continued to describe a “very short but incredibly powerful” experience that, at the time, believed that he was a psychedelic vision of a woman who was “based in a light white light.”

“She reached out and touched me,” he described. “And I cried the hardest thing I’ve ever cried.”

Smith, who is not foreign to open up the upbringing of his “trailer” in his partially autobiographical stand-up, described his mother, who mostly sang as firm enough that she once hit the “bad dog” unconscious. He continued to tell Fox News Digital that his “incredibly surreal” experience with his mother Maria immediately helped treat her relationship with her own mother.

“At that moment a lot of things changed for me. Suddenly I just felt like a lot of my problems with women had been cured. And I felt like my relationship with my mother had healed, and all these kinds of things happened.”

Smith left the church that day, making the decision to dedicate his life to Jesus.

And that began with his discovery Marian apparitions.

“Only then did I discover that the Marian apparitions are a thing that happens to people and, in fact, things that sometimes happen tens of thousands of people at once,” he added. “So there are rational reasons why I became Catholic, and then another reason would be a supernatural experience I had with Mary.”

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When asked why he believes other comedians could head for Catholicism, Smith offered Fox News Digital a surprising answer: suffering.

“I think he has a sense of humor … everything is correlated with suffering. And Catholics are very aware of suffering. They are not afraid to suffer,” he said.

“And in fact, they often invite him sometimes too much, and then we get the concept of Catholic guilt, which should not be a matter. We are the only religion with a built -in system for guilt. Like, go to that confession, Dork,” he drank. “But yes, I think it’s really related to suffering. I think Catholics are so adapted to suffering and are very aware that their suffering is important and mean something, not afraid of it. They somehow clash. And I think it is important part of a good sense of humor. “

Smith continued to describe his arrival as suffering, but he began as an atheist as a successful comedian and host of Podcasta. He said, despite his appearance and a former criminal career, the Catholic community welcomed him with an open weapon – even after his public conversion resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of followers.

Fox News Digital said that, after starting his stand-up career as a man who rejected religion after turning public into Catholicism, his former fans’ fans “basically canceled”.

“I got death threats. People sent things to my mother, as if it were crazy. And I said, ‘Okay, well, this is somehow the end of my career. “And that’s fine, because faith is more important than money,” he continued. “But over time, he turned the course. And now I’m more popular than ever.”

Smith continued to meet his early meetings with fans during meetings and mirrors when he first achieved popularity to give anxiety because of the inappropriate nature of their interactions, explaining that he was “touched by women” and “harassed by drunken people.”

But from the cleansing of his act, his fandom changed dramatically.

“Now I meet and say hello and people ask me to pray the rosary with them. Women are so kind and gentle with me. People give me handcuffed letters of encouragement and everything is so nicer and light and good, I am, like, blowing out. “

Smith not only cleared his act in proverbial terms but set a record with Fox News Digital: he is self -proclaimed clean comedian To start.

“Because I have Catholic sensitivities, everyone is my comedy digestible,” 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 the narrator. I would like to be as ridiculous as possible for most possible people.”

One of Smith’s recent appearances took place in Washington, DC during ’25 search, annual Catholic conferences Host by Focus organization. There, Smith took a stand-up routine at the opening of the evening with a fascinated crowd, which he described as nothing less than “kind”.

“I would recommend looking for any of any age. It is Comic-Con for Catholics,“He rose.” I went to look for and I saw that Catholicism was, although deeply personal, also deeply municipal … [God] He wants us to come to him together … He wants us to worry and love ourselves as he loves us, which, you know, endlessly. “

Brock Martin, the son of Focus founder, spoke with Fox News Digital at a conference on the search for the group mission.

“Whenever the focus works with people … The first experience would be the experience of God’s love and his plan for you,” Martin said. “It is a reality that breaks the earth, that God of the universe-a person who made a cosmos-like, knows, your name, has a plan for you, wants you to bloom, wants to spend eternity with you …”

The acknowledging plan for his own life, Smith said he realized that he could not keep his Catholicism for himself.

“I realized that I was just staying at home and doing my faith with something personal, or just reading the Bible, or to be only Catholic and kept it to myself … it wasn’t a point. And that was ultimately not fulfilled and a useful experience which I needed, “the comedian concluded.

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To hear more than Shayne Smith, fans can check his new “Story Stories” on Angel Studios’ The comedy of the dry bar.