Why do comedians move towards Catholicism? One strange comic offers a surprising explanation

While he may be covered in tattoos from head to toe – quite literally – the only thing more obvious than Comedian Shayne Smith’s Body art lately may be his newfound Catholicism.

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

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

The former half is equally busy keeping Catholicism alive: Gaffigan recently performed Sheen Center for Thought and Culturewhere Cardinal Timothy Dolan is a board member; Kevin James reportedly hosted a Catholic retreat before the pandemic; And Stephen Colbert is famous for teaching Sunday school.

But what drives these comedians towards Catholicism?

Smith, who officially converted last year, gave Fox News Digital his — first explaining what drew him to the age-old religion.

‘The Crown’ Beats Rogan: Is Faith-Based Media Going Mainstream?

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

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

Martin Scorsese says his new Fox Nation series ‘The Saints’ was the story he always wanted to tell

But in his search for a natural explanation, Smith will discover the supernatural:

“I had an experience where I was forced to enter a Catholic church for no reason and I had no education about Catholicism [at the time]well I didn’t really understand the Catholic Church in general. I was discerning Christianity and it kind of leans Protestant. But one afternoon I entered a Catholic church – I finally gave in to this compulsion – and I had an experience with our heavenly mother [Mary]. “

Smith went on to describe a “very brief but incredibly powerful” experience which, at the time, he believed to be a psychedelic vision of a woman who was “seated in a bright white light”.

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

Smith, no stranger to opening up about his “trailer” upbringing in his partially autobiographical stand-up, described his mostly singing mother as tough enough to once punch a “bad dog” unconscious. He went on to tell Fox News Digital that his “incredibly surreal” experience with his mother Maria immediately helped heal his relationship with his own mother.

“At that moment, a lot of things changed for me. All of a sudden, I just felt like a lot of my problems with women were healed. And I felt like my relationship with my mother was healed, and all these kinds of things happened.”

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

And it started with his discovery Marian apparitions.

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

A California family is holding on to faith after a statue of the Virgin Mary survives the relentless fires that destroyed their home

Comedian Russell Brand announces that he has been baptized: “I’m moving”

When asked why he believes other comedians might move toward 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 of suffering,” he asserted.

“And actually, they often invite it sometimes too much, and then we get the concept of Catholic guilt, which shouldn’t be a thing. We’re the only religion with a built-in guilt-release system. Like, go to that Confession, Dork,” he lulled. “But yeah, I think it’s really related to suffering. I think Catholics are so attuned to suffering and they’re very aware that their suffering matters and means something, and they’re not afraid of it. They kind of clash. And I think that’s important part of a good sense of humor.”

Smith went on to describe his arrival as suffering, but as a successful comedian and podcast host, he started out as an atheist. He said 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 he began his stand-up career as a man who rejected religion, after publicly converting to Catholicism, his former fan base “basically gave up.”

“I got death threats. People sent things to their mother, like it’s crazy. And I was like, ‘Okay, well, this is kind of the end of my career.’ “And that’s okay, because faith is more important than money,” he continued. “But over time it reversed course. And now I’m more popular than ever.”

Smith went on to say that early encounters with fans during meetings and mirrors when he first achieved popularity would give him anxiety over the inappropriate nature of their interactions, explaining that he was “touched by women” and “harassed by drunk people.”

But since cleaning up his act, his fandom has changed dramatically.

“Now I do meet and greets and people ask me to pray the rosary with them. Women are so kind and gentle with me. People give me handwritten letters of encouragement and everything is so much nicer and light and good, I’m like, deflated. “

Smith didn’t just clean up his act in the proverbial sense, he set the record straight with Fox News Digital: He’s a self-proclaimed clean comedian To start.

“Because I have Catholic sensibilities, anyone can digest my comedy,” he said. “I’m a Catholic person and that’s a central part of my identity and the most important part of me. But as far as my comedy is concerned, I’m just a storyteller. I’d like to be as funny as possible for the most people possible.”

One of Smith’s recent appearances took place in Washington, DC during Seeking ’25, the annual Catholic conference Hosted by Focus. There, Smith performed a stand-up routine to open the night to a spellbound crowd he described as nothing short of “friendly.”

“I’d recommend looking for anyone of any age. It’s Comic-Con for Catholics,“He is risen.” I went looking and saw that Catholicism, while deeply personal, is also deeply communal… [God] He wants us to come to him together … he wants us to care and love ourselves as he loves us, which, you know, is endless. “

Brock Martin, son of the founder of Focus, spoke to Fox News Digital at a search conference about the group’s mission.

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

Acknowledging God’s plan for his own life, Smith said he realized he couldn’t keep his Catholicism to himself.

“I realized that just staying at home and making my faith personal, or just reading the Bible, or just being Catholic and keeping it to myself…wasn’t the point. And ultimately it wasn’t a fulfilling and rewarding experience which I should have,” concluded the comedian.

Click here to get the Fox News app

To hear more from Shayne Smith, fans can check out his new “Story Stories” at Angel Studios’ A dry bar comedy.