\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s been a lot of nerves this year, week.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a couple of false starts at Manhattan\u2019s Beacon Theater during a taping for an upcoming Netflix special, his first of two recordings on Saturday night, the comedian Theo Von<\/strong> was starting to find his rhythm. As a podcaster, Von has become in the last year a sought-out interviewer for A-list actors and musicians, and so recognizable as a political entity that the Department of Homeland Security momentarily made him the face of its immigration crackdown this week.<\/p>\n \u201cHeard you got deported dude, bye,\u201d Von says in a clip included in a sizzle reel that the agency posted on X.<\/p>\n \u201cYooo DHS i didnt approve to be used in this. I know you know my address so send a check,\u201d Von wrote in response. \u201cAnd please take this down and please keep me out of your \u2018banger\u2019 deportation videos. When it comes to immigration my thoughts and heart are alot more nuanced than this video allows. Bye!\u201d (DHS soon removed the post.)<\/p>\n Such are the complications of Von\u2019s unusual and somewhat headspinning role in a new media<\/a> mainstream<\/a>. As the host of This Past Weekend w\/ Theo Von<\/em>, he had already established himself as a leading voice in the space<\/a> when Donald Trump<\/strong> appeared on his show during his campaign<\/a> last year. Soon, Von was attending the inauguration, having dinner with Jared Kushner<\/strong> and Ivanka<\/strong> in Miami and accompanying the president to Qatar to perform for U.S. servicemembers. (\u201cI\u2019m on TMZ<\/a> right now having a bar fight in Nashville,\u201d Von told the audience. \u201cSo I think you guys caught me on a tough week for peace, man.\u201d)<\/p>\n The searching, mystic quality of Von\u2019s interview style brought something new out of Trump\u2014a startled and seemingly genuine inquiry into the potency of cocaine. In his standup, though, Von is tasked with filling space rather than creating it. On stage, he was comparatively punchy, and aware that the crowd likely knew him first from his hours-long conversations on YouTube.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of y\u2019all never seen me walk before,\u201d Von said.<\/p>\n He seemed jittery in a mullet, baggy camouflage pants, and Yeezy sneakers. After briefly taking the stage once, he abandoned the set and started over\u2014only to pick a member of the audience to be kicked out and start over again. (It wasn\u2019t clear from my seat nor from the heated discussion that played out afterwards in the r\/TheoVon Reddit forum why this had happened. A representative for Von didn\u2019t return a request for comment.) The crowd, populated by recurring pockets of backwards hats and golf polos and a sprinkling of tattooed interlopers, was predominantly but not exclusively male and not particularly raucous.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of white people in here,\u201d Von observed.<\/p>\n As he settled in, he worked in his go-to veins: race, his childhood. Von grew up outside New Orleans and has said he was legally emancipated at 14 years old. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have any Jews growing up,\u201d he said on Saturday. \u201cCouldn\u2019t afford a Jew.\u201d His comedy typically punches sideways, less moralistic or aggressive than personal. A Cold Stone Creamery where he worked as a teenager amid a band of misfits, he said, was the \u201cUnderground Railroad for autism.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, for all the hours of podcasting and stand-up, Von has maintained an elusiveness. It was difficult to imagine him processing on stage the influence and soft power he has acquired. Instead, as he approached the end of his set, he returned to a now-familiar mode of troubled vulnerability. Lacking love in both his childhood and adult life, Von said, \u201csometimes the only way I can feel is in front of other people.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n