In Episode 37 of The Pat McGann Show, Pat and Dwayne Kennedy sat down with comedian, opera singer, and Chicago native Matteo Lane for a conversation about the long, unglamorous climb from Old Town Pub open mics to selling out the Chicago Theatre, theaters in Italy, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Mexico City, and just about everywhere else on the map.
Matteo's story is a masterclass in what actually builds a comedy career in 2026: relentless work, real discipline, and the willingness to bet on yourself when the old industry playbook is broken. He also drops in for a Chicago homecoming the night before performing at the Chicago Theatre — and signs the wall next to Michelle Obama on the way out.
Who Is Matteo Lane?
Matteo Lane is a Chicago-born stand-up comedian, classically trained opera singer, and visual artist with more than 1.9 million social media followers and one of the most consistent international touring schedules in comedy. He's known for sharp, fast, deeply musical stand-up, candid stories about growing up gay and Italian-American on Chicago's Northwest Side, and a relentless work ethic that has him performing as many as 22 shows in a single week to develop new material.
He's a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, worked professionally as a storyboard artist for television commercials and fashion before moving to New York in 2012, and has since released specials including the crowd-work hour Advice, filmed at the Comedy Cellar.
How Did Matteo Lane Get Started in Comedy?
Matteo started doing stand-up in Chicago around 2009 at the Old Town Pub open mic run by Chicago comedy fixture Marty DeRosa — three-minute sets where comedians could win sex toys between performances. His very first joke was a one-liner about Lindsay Lohan's purse. He grew up watching only three stand-up comedians on TV: Joan Rivers, Margaret Cho, and Kathy Griffin. He didn't see another openly gay male comedian perform until he was 23.
He spent years grinding through the Chicago scene — Lottie's, Cole's, Timothy O'Toole's, Schubas — before moving to New York in 2012 to write on Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell. He kept doing stand-up the entire time, eventually settling in as a regular at the Comedy Cellar.
For more than a decade, he was a working comic who almost no one had heard of.
How Did Matteo Lane Build His Audience to Over 1.9 Million Followers?
The answer is 2021 — and a phone call with Andrew Schultz. Matteo had been playing the old industry playbook: build an hour, hold it tight, sell it as a special, never give it away online. He was broke, living in a tiny tenement apartment in Greenwich Village with a bathtub in the kitchen, and a Miami show had just been canceled because he sold three tickets.
Schultz told him to cut the hour up and post it. So he did.
Within months, Matteo's career changed completely. He learned how to clip stand-up for social. He learned how to brand himself (and accidentally became "the yellow duck shirt guy" because he wore the same shirt in every clip). He learned how to post consistently and turn a long-grinding craft into a global tour.
The lesson Matteo keeps coming back to: nobody was coming to save him. He had to build it himself.
What Is Matteo Lane's Work Ethic Like?
Brutal — and very Chicago. Matteo says outright: "I don't drink, I don't go out, I don't party, I don't dance, I don't do any of it." His "off time" is texting his friend and mentor Keith Robinson about Dionne Warwick and Luther Vandross, playing Fortnite, and playing a Roblox runway game called Dress to Impress with his straight friends Donny and Summer.
When he's writing new material, he books 22 shows in a week, organizes his premises by theme on his laptop like he's planning an opera, chunks the material into 15-minute blocks, and runs each block until it hits. Then he layers it together until he has a finished hour.
He debuted his most recent hour in front of 4,000 people in Melbourne, Australia. He came on stage with the bit list on paper. He cut the show from 80 minutes to 55 minutes over six performances. And he was still editing by the time he got home.
This is what a working comic at the absolute top of the game actually does.
What Did Pat, Dwayne, and Matteo Discuss on the Podcast?
In this episode, the three cover:
- Why New York comedy is "boot camp" and Chicago is "the place to get good"
- Why the NYC sidewalk is a salmon-run upstream
- The shared cost-of-living horror story of paying $3,000 a month for a studio apartment
- Why Matteo can't remember which Chicago streets run north-south anymore
- Sneaking onto WGN Morning News and watching Tom Skilling wave on a Pride float
- His love of Joan Rivers and why no comic alive could go up against her
- Why he'd play the principal if he could be cast in Grease
- His upcoming European tour — Bologna, Milan, Palermo, Barcelona, Belgium, Germany — and Mexico City
- Why his crowd-work special Advice doesn't actually involve walking up to anyone
The Real Lesson: Show Up, Do the Work
There's no shortcut in Matteo's story. No overnight viral moment that wasn't built on twelve years of stage time first. No social-media trick that wasn't backed by an actual hour of stand-up. No "manifested" success — just a guy from the Northwest Side of Chicago who out-worked, out-disciplined, and out-prepared everyone else in the room.
It's the kind of routine you start to recognize the more time you spend around people who actually win at this stuff: writers, athletes, founders, comedians. The talent is the table stakes. The discipline is what separates them.
The Tiege Hanley Connection
The other thing Matteo talks about in the episode? Skin care.
When Pat asks him at the end of the show whether he moisturizes, Matteo doesn't hesitate: "Yeah. I moisturize, SPF, and I get Botox every once in a while, and lasers and stuff." He's turning 40 next month. He spends his life under stage lights, on camera, on planes, and on tour. He knows what most guys figure out way too late — your face is part of your job, whether you're a touring comic or not.
That's where Tiege Hanley comes in. The same logic Matteo applies to his stand-up — keep it simple, do it every day, don't overthink it — is exactly how the Tiege Hanley system is built. A two-minute, three-step routine: cleanse, exfoliate, moisturize. No twelve-step regimen. No cluttered shelf. No guesswork.
The Level 1 Essential Routine is the starting point — a clinically tested system that handles the basics so you can show up looking like the version of yourself you actually want to be. It's used by guys who can't afford a bad day on camera and by guys who just want to face the day with a little more confidence. Same product, same result.
Because the work behind the curtain — the discipline, the routine, the consistency — is what shows up in the spotlight.
Find your routine in under 60 seconds with our skin care quiz →
Watch or Listen to the Episode
🎥 Watch on YouTube 🎧 Listen on Spotify 🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts 📱 Watch Clips on Instagram
Follow the Guest
- Matteo Lane on Instagram: @matteolanecomedy
- Matteo Lane on Tour: matteolanecomedy.com
- I Never Liked You Podcast (with Nick Smith)
More Episodes of The Pat McGann Show
- The Apprentice, RPM Restaurants, and the Chicago Hustle with Bill Rancic
- Chicago History and Olympic Gold Medals with Shermann "Dilla" Thomas and Shani Davis
- From Parking Lots to Arenas with Maggie Hughes DePalo
The Pat McGann Show is recorded at Tiege Hanley Studios in Chicago, Illinois. New episodes drop every week.
