'Weeding Out the Stoned': Coming to a Comedy Club Near You

March 31, 2022

"Weeding Out the Stoned" host Alex Grubard says he was inspired by comedian Doug Benson because he's "really silly, but he's also entrepreneurial." — "Weeding Out the Stoned" host Alex Grubard says he was inspired by comedian Doug Benson because he’s "really silly, but he’s also entrepreneurial."

Weeding Out the Stoned, the game show for potheads, is heading out on the road. It will make 12 stops in April, from New York to L.A., with a special 4/20 event in Philadelphia.

The idea is to pick out the person on stage who's not stoned. Host and creator Alex Grubard assembles a cast of comics for each night. The recent one at Sesh in New York had seven contestants, including Rob Cantrell.

A stand-up comedian himself, Grubard tells CelebStoner about the show's genesis:

"I was thinking of game show concepts that specifically had to be on the Internet instead of television because of their premise. Cannabis was one of those taboos that the FCC was not messing around with, but was ripe for humor in a genuine way. If every comedian on a game show is high except one, would audiences be able to figure out who the sober person is? There was an opportunity in Philly to pitch things like game shows to a festival and Weeding Out The Stoned was a very popular show one year. I started hosting it in Philly monthly, then twice-monthly and it just kept growing. I had held it in a few cities here and there, but I booked a 4/2020 Tour that was cancelled, because of the pandemic. This year Weeding Out The Stoned is hitting some of legalization's favorite locations."

Born New York and raised in Massachusetts, he explains: "My parents divorced when I was young and I traveled back and forth a lot so I always had New York City to explore. When I was 18 I started doing stand-up and by the time I turned 21 I was doing it often. Working in comedy clubs and hanging out with comics, there were usually joints passed and bowls packed. My Dad and some other family members are also cannabis users, so it wasn't exactly restricted like it was for most American children. I moved to Philly to go back to college at Temple University in 2011, doing stand-up, living in the city. I was a young comedian on a college campus, of course I was smoking a lot of weed."

Grubard lists his favorite stoner comics:

• Doug Benson's comedy is really silly, but he's also entrepreneurial and I'm inspired by that.

• Cheech & Chong are the originals.

• Rodney Dangerfield and Lenny Bruce too.

• Dave Chappelle did a lot of hilarious stuff with stoner humor.

• Sarah Silverman, The Lucas Brothers, so many funny stoner comics.

"None of those people have done Weeding Out The Stoned," he says, "but some of my favorite stoner comics that have are Toddy Glass, Rob Cantrell, Trey Galyon, Chanel Ali, Myq Kaplan, Kenice Mobley, Chris Thayer, Mekki Leeper and at least 420 more."