“You Clock Me Hard”: Jake Shane, by Role Model

A friend to all is a friend to none, unless you’re Jake Shane. Over the last two years, the comedian and influencer has charmed his way through Hollywood, turning parasocial fantasy into an actual career. His podcast Therapuss is streaming on Netflix. Earlier this year, he made his Broadway debut. A Hulu series about his life is in the works. He even survived his first controversy, when he took heat for his red carpet interview style at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party. To bring him back down to earth, we called the one person who actually could: Role Model.

———

WEDNESDAY 11 AM, APR 8, 2026, LA

———

JAKE SHANE: Sorry I’m late.

ROLE MODEL: You have an excuse?

SHANE: Yeah, I was in traffic and my first Uber canceled on me.

ROLE MODEL: What traffic? You live on the Westside.

SHANE: I was going from Beverly Hills to Brentwood.

ROLE MODEL: Okay, Jake, listen. I know this is a 30-minute interview. I don’t have 30 minutes, so we’re going to do rapid fire, okay?

SHANE: Okay. Go.

ROLE MODEL: Let’s start here. You did Broadway [in All Out: Comedy About Ambition]. I’m very proud of you.

SHANE: Thank you.

ROLE MODEL: You crushed that. I didn’t think you had it in you, but you did. What was your biggest takeaway and would you do it again?

SHANE: I would love to do it again. My biggest takeaway was that you didn’t show up.

ROLE MODEL: Theater is hard for me.

SHANE: I get it. My biggest takeaway was actually that I can stand with comedy legends and somewhat hold my own.

ROLE MODEL: I know, and they love you. Nicholas Braun—I met him once and he brought you up immediately.

SHANE: Did he really?

ROLE MODEL: Yeah. He was like, “You’re friends with that little red-haired boy.” And I was like, “Jake?” And we just kind of gushed about how adorable you are.

SHANE: [Laughs] Thank you.

ROLE MODEL: Wait, we have to start here. You’re the chief creative officer for a German candy company.

SHANE: Katjes, yes.

ROLE MODEL: When I heard that, can I just say what went through my head?

SHANE: Tell me.

ROLE MODEL: In my mind, you must have called someone on your team one day and were like, “I really want to be a creative director for something. Can you get me a list of open slots around the world?”

SHANE: Yeah. And that’s how I got to Germany.

ROLE MODEL: And then they probably gave you a list, and you saw this German candy company and you were like, “Fuck it, I’ll take it.”

SHANE: I can totally see how you would think that. That’s actually not what happened. I was at a meeting with my agent and he said they were looking to expand, and I actually do eat Katjes. I’ve been eating it for three years now. So I was like, “Oh my god, no way. I didn’t know other people knew about this brand.”

ROLE MODEL: Let’s say you’re in an airport and some 80-year-old Republican man comes up and he’s like, “Why are you a creative officer for a German-run company? Why aren’t you doing American candy?” What would you say to that?

SHANE: I’d be like, “I can’t believe my content made it to whatever feed you’re on. You know my stuff? I’m shocked.”

ROLE MODEL: Right. It’s obviously a closeted man.

SHANE: I think so, probably.

ROLE MODEL: So, Therapuss is now on Netflix.

SHANE: Yes.

ROLE MODEL: Who did you have to pay to make that happen?

SHANE: I actually got paid. You know you’re on it twice?

ROLE MODEL: I know, and hopefully again soon. The new season started.

SHANE: You know damn well the new season has started, and I’ve been blowing up your phone, going, “When are you coming back? When are you coming back?”

ROLE MODEL: Hailey Bieber’s on it.

SHANE: Yeah, she is.

ROLE MODEL: Did any Therapuss guest make you nervous?

SHANE: [Sighs] Yeah.

ROLE MODEL: You seem nervous in general when all of them start, but then you settle.

SHANE: I’ll settle eventually. I was pretty nervous for Lorde.

ROLE MODEL: Right, you love her.

SHANE: Love her. I actually met her at your birthday dinner.

ROLE MODEL: Yes.

SHANE: Well, she wasn’t at your birthday dinner.

ROLE MODEL: She was not, let’s clarify that. She also did not acknowledge or say hi to me.

SHANE: Is that a rarity for you these days?

ROLE MODEL: No. It’s just like, wow, podcasts are a powerful thing.

SHANE: You should know that better than anyone.

ROLE MODEL: Okay. [Laughs] Before this call, I was really trying to analyze why people liked our episodes.

SHANE: Why do you think that is?

ROLE MODEL: My guess is that out of all the ones you’ve done, it probably feels the most like a podcast and not an interview.

SHANE: I think that too. You also clock me in ways others don’t.

ROLE MODEL: Yeah, but I’ve seen people try to clock you.

SHANE: It doesn’t work. Can’t be done. But you clock me hard.

ROLE MODEL: Right. It’s very podcast-y when we do it. It’s not an interview.

SHANE: Sometimes I try to interview you.

ROLE MODEL: I know.

SHANE: It don’t work.

ROLE MODEL: It don’t work. Alright. Fuck it. Let’s make this about me. What’s your favorite thing about me?

SHANE: My favorite thing about you is your quick-witted humor.

ROLE MODEL: I recently texted you and told you that you were genuinely really funny.

SHANE: You did?

ROLE MODEL: Yeah. [Laughs] You brought back your impressions or whatever you do. And I was like, “You are truly a funny person.”

SHANE: You mean that?

ROLE MODEL: Yes. Very effortlessly funny.

SHANE: I appreciate that. I try very hard to be effortlessly funny.

ROLE MODEL: Now, what’s your least favorite thing about me?

SHANE: You go ghost sometimes. I’m like, “Where the fuck is he?”

ROLE MODEL: We got in a fight…well, no, you yelled at me the other day.

SHANE: Because I’ve been texting you, “When are we getting dinner?” We used to get dinner all the time.

ROLE MODEL: That’s not true.

SHANE: I used to see you all the time. And we would go to All Time, all the time.

ROLE MODEL: Not all the time. Jake, I’ve gotten dinner with you twice, probably.

SHANE: Yeah, and one of them was your birthday dinner.

ROLE MODEL: I know. And you invited yourself to it.

SHANE: I did. And you know what? There was a seat for me because there were five people at that damn birthday dinner.

ROLE MODEL: Well, we welcomed you with open arms.

SHANE: And then we had to go around the table and say what we loved about Tucker the most.

ROLE MODEL: I did not fucking start that. I almost walked out.

SHANE: You loved it.

ROLE MODEL: Don’t ever do that to me.

SHANE: So what’s your favorite thing about me and your least favorite thing about me? You can’t say humor because you already said it.

ROLE MODEL: My favorite thing: You’ll always say what’s on your mind.

SHANE: I do.

ROLE MODEL: I think your nervousness is charming. I think you are charming, but I think if you don’t like someone it’s hard for you to hide it.

SHANE: Really?

ROLE MODEL: I don’t know. You have mean-girl energy sometimes.

SHANE: No, no, no, no. Strike that. I do not.

ROLE MODEL: If you had long hair and you shook the hand of someone you didn’t like, you’d probably do that thing after.

SHANE: I do that anyway and I don’t have hair.

ROLE MODEL: You did it the other day. You had a towel around your neck and you were playing with the towel like you had extensions in.

SHANE: Oh, when you were on the phone?

ROLE MODEL: I realized how gay you were that day. I told you and you were like, “I can’t help it.”

SHANE: I can’t.

ROLE MODEL: That’s awesome. You are who you are. My least favorite thing? I think sometimes people have so many friends that they feel like they don’t have any. It can be lonely when you put all your eggs indifferent baskets, and then you don’t have any eggs for yourself. You know what I mean?

SHANE: You think I don’t take care of myself?

ROLE MODEL: No, I didn’t say that. I think sometimes you spread yourself so thin, and I think you should focus on who your friends really are.

SHANE: So I should stop calling you?

ROLE MODEL: No. I think we are slowly, truly becoming friends by my standards.

SHANE: We have hung out more than twice.

ROLE MODEL: We’ve hung out more than twice. But I think you would, for example, have Justin Bieber on your podcast and then be like, “That’s my friend.”

SHANE: Right.

ROLE MODEL: Because you hung out with them for 45 minutes on a podcast.

SHANE: It’s not my fault I feel like they’re my friends.

ROLE MODEL: But that diminishes the word friend, and all of a sudden you start to be like, “Who are my friends?”

SHANE: I know who my friends are.

ROLE MODEL: I know. You have your girls. You got your New York girls and—

SHANE: You know so much more about my life than you like to lead on.

ROLE MODEL: I just think you should cherish those ones.

SHANE: I do cherish them. They’re at my house right now for Coachella.

ROLE MODEL: That’s adorable. I love that, and I love when people hold their true friends close. Don’t spread yourself too thin, my love.

SHANE: My love?

ROLE MODEL: You’re working very hard. You are surpassing everyone’s expectations of you.

SHANE: What were your expectations of me?

ROLE MODEL: Just a podcaster.

SHANE: Okay.

ROLE MODEL: But you’re not. In the past year alone, you’ve done more than I could ever imagine, and I’m very proud of you.

SHANE: Mm-hmm.

ROLE MODEL: Shut up. I’m very proud of you, and this is also sort of my exit here.

SHANE: You only interviewed me for 15 minutes, for a 30-minute interview.

ROLE MODEL: I have to go, and you were late.

SHANE: You barely asked me any questions.

ROLE MODEL: I know, but there’s so many good bits.

SHANE: You called me gay. Then you called me a friend to all.

ROLE MODEL: Wait, let me ask one more question.

SHANE: Okay.

ROLE MODEL: Wishful Thinking, your acting debut. I don’t think we’ve talked about it, but I heard from other people that you absolutely crushed it. Kaia [Gerber] said you were amazing. And now you are on your acting journey officially, it seems.

SHANE: I am.

ROLE MODEL: And what a cool entrance, alongside Lewis Pullman and Maya Hawke.

SHANE: Yeah, it was one of the most incredible experiences of my entire life.

ROLE MODEL: Can you tell me what the movie’s about?

SHANE: Yes, it is about a couple and they are in a toxic relationship and they’re—

ROLE MODEL: [Whispers] Us?

SHANE: Us? Is that what you’re saying? Okay. And their relationship has worldly impacts. If they’re good, things in the world are good, and if they’re bad, things in the world are bad.

ROLE MODEL: That’s very cool. It’s sort of like Inception or Interstellar in that way.

SHANE: Some say they’re relating it to Eternal Sunshine [of the Spotless Mind].

ROLE MODEL: Very cool. Is it going to get an IMAX release?

SHANE: I hope so. I don’t know about the business logistics, but all I do know is I’m just so lucky to be a part of it. And it all came from me crushing out over a guy.

ROLE MODEL: Lewis Pullman?

SHANE: No.

ROLE MODEL: Because you stole him from Kaia Gerber at one point.

SHANE: [Laughs] What are you talking about?

ROLE MODEL: That’s what the tabloids are saying.

SHANE: Tabloids are saying I stole Lewis from Kaia?

ROLE MODEL: And that’s how you got the part.

SHANE: That’s what the tabloids are saying? What tabloids? When’s the last time you read a book?

ROLE MODEL: I’ve never read a book, Jake.

SHANE: Well, I just got a Kindle and I’m reading a book called Strangers[: A Memoir of Marriage], and it’s amazing.

ROLE MODEL: I know that movie.

SHANE: It’s not a movie yet. You mean Stranger.

ROLE MODEL: The Stranger? Is it about an undercover—

SHANE: It’s about a woman who gets left by her husband in Martha’s Vineyard during COVID.

ROLE MODEL: Different. Okay. There’s a movie called The Stranger and it’s unbelievable.

SHANE: Okay. And what’s it about?

ROLE MODEL: It’s about an undercover cop who has to become friends with a guy that’s a murderer. Anyways.

SHANE: So, the moral of the story is you are proud of me.

ROLE MODEL: I’m very proud of you and I’m excited to be friends.

SHANE: Just for the record, we used to FaceTime at least three times a week. We went to dinner. Yeah, twice, but that’s a lot. You live on the Eastside. I live on the Westside. We go out together. We text every single day. We talk all the time.

ROLE MODEL: All the time?

SHANE: It’s not my fault you were on tour for half the year. How am I supposed to get dinner with you if you’re not here?

ROLE MODEL: You were on tour too.

SHANE: I was on tour. We overlapped one day.

ROLE MODEL: Yeah. Okay. The last thing I’ll say, just to clarify, so we have it in text in the tabloids: Jake was the original Sally. He was the first ever.

SHANE: I changed your life.

ROLE MODEL: He changed my life. You started the Sally trend. Pop culture.

SHANE: Sally, Sally, Sally, Sally, Sally.

ROLE MODEL: King. Alright, I’m out. I love you, Jake. Thanks for making time for this, man.

SHANE: I love you too. Yeah.

ROLE MODEL: I love this toxic relationship. I’m excited to be friends someday. Bye.

SHANE: Bye, love you.

———

Groomer: Nathaniel Dezan using Bumble and bumble at Opus Beauty.

Photography Assistant: Anna Sophia Moltke.

Fashion Assistant: Lida Fox.

Grooming Assistant: Joey Grajeda.

Production Direction: Alexandra Weiss.

Photography Production: Georgia Ford.

On-set Production: Richard Knickerbocker.

Social Media Assistant: Ashley Hood.

Location: Party Mex.