Right-wing comedian and podcasting giant Theo Von says that the reason why his stand-up show at the Beacon Theater last weekend went so haywire wasn’t because he was back on drugs — in fact, he was off of them.
This past Saturday, Von played a set at the historic New York venue that was supposed to become his newest Netflix special, but which quickly devolved into catastrophe as Von repeatedly left the stage to the confusion of the audience and abruptly abandoned half-finished stories and bits throughout the night. Von’s erratic, disjointed performance caused many attendees to walk out of the theater in the middle of the set, and, in a concerning moment captured on video by one fan near the front row, Von apologized to audience members for the night’s unravelling and told them that he was “trying not to take my own life.”
Earlier today, Von returned to his podcast, This Past Weekend, and he assured his fans that he is not a danger to himself, although he did have a trying month that took a toll on his mental health. During the new episode, Von admitted that he was in a bad headspace during the set because he had “weaned myself off” of his prescribed anti-depressants in preparation for the special taping, and because of the political violence that has plagued America over the last several weeks.
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Von again criticized the Department of Homeland Security for using his voice and his likeness in a social media post that celebrated their mass deportation campaign, which would be enough disrupt the mental health of anyone with a conscience.
“It wasn’t that crazy what went on. And I wish it I wish it was going to be a more exciting story, but I just want to share with you kind of what happened, I guess,” Von began of his Beacon Theater bomb. “You know, so, mental health is important to me, right? It’s important to me, we talk about that kind of stuff on here a lot… So I had a comedy special we were taping, we were taping it last week, and about a month before I quit taking some anti-depressants I was taking.”
Von explained of his decision to go off his medication during such a pivotal moment in his career, “The reason why was because I wanted, like, during the comedy show, I wanted to have a little more emotion during it. I wanted to have this kind of like — I just wanted to have some more feelings. If you’ve ever taken anti-depressants, or if you haven’t, it kind of takes away your feelings, you know? So you just kind of stay in this space where you’re okay.”
And, while Von says the beginning of his weaning-off period went well, he says that the murder of Charlie Kirk on September 10th derailed his mental transition. “Then, a few days after that, or maybe a week after that, the Department of Homeland Security put a video up online,” said Von, referencing the infamous post in which footage of Von is intercut with video of the DHS deporting people. “Long story short, that happens, this video goes mega-viral, 25 million views, 30 million views, it’s everywhere, and the first 10 seconds of it are me. I didn’t have anything to do with this shit, nobody asked me about it.”
“I have a lot of different thoughts about immigration,” Von insisted, saying of the video, “Why is the government even making these? I don’t know, but that’s where we’re at in the world.”
Von then explained that he believes the mass deportation effort by the DHS is intended to expand the federal government’s power over the populace, saying, “I think they’re doing a lot of bookkeeping in the country right now because we’re going to get into a surveillance state and everyone is going to have to be on the books, right? So that’s where I believe that we’re headed.”
Von also reported that the backlash he received for appearing in the DHS video against his will further worsened his mental state, especially as the son of an immigrant from Nicaragua himself. Von claimed that he even received a call from a government official offering to give him a security detail one week before the Beacon Theater Show in case Von’s critics turned violent, which made him even more paranoid. As such, Von went into Saturday’s taping in a tumultuous mental state, which led to the most high-profile bomb of his stand-up career.
However, Von assured fans, he isn’t a risk to himself as some feared. Said Von about his comments to the audience that seemed to suggest he was suicidal, “You know that if you’ve listened to this show before or seen anything, you know: I say stuff. I would never take my own life. I would never take my own life.”
