Matt Bellassai dishes on the glorious return of ‘Whine About It’

At last, Whine About It is coming back for one night! Why now?

I was just rewatching some of my old videos, and honestly, it was different than I remembered it in my recollection. I feel like I have become more high energy, shockingly in my old age. I was 25 when I started Whine About It, and I’m 34 now so it’s been, you know, eight, nine years and I was a lot more, dare I say, demure.

I have this show that’s coming up in Atlanta, and I wanted to use this as a chance to bring back Whine About It for a night. Have a lot of fun with it. Have this hit of nostalgia. But also the spirit is right for the moment. Everything sucks right now. It’s election season. Everybody needs an outlet to bang their head against the wall for a little bit. Wine consumption is up. Complaining is up. So it feels right.

You have been doing stand-up and there is wine present, so I’m curious, how is this format going to be different from what you’re doing on the road currently?

My stand-up hour tends to be a little more autobiographical. There’s a little more of my life stories, stuff like that. This is going to be getting back to just ranting about those evergreen topics that everybody can agree that we hate.

I know you don’t want to give away all your topics, but I do hope that there is an extended section on JD Vance and Trump, because I would love to hear you go in on so many things that they have been up to.

I could probably do an entire hour just whining about him and Trump — and it is Georgia, so you know, it’s not, It’s not an insignificant place.

Laughter and coming together feel really important to do right now.

I completely agree. I always say, my ethos has always been optimistic pessimism. I like complaining about stuff — that’s been my brand now for quite a while — but it’s never defeatist, it’s never nihilistic. It’s always like, we’re laughing and we’re still hopeful. There can still be joy and we can still have fun. It doesn’t have to be completely gallows humor and completely dark.

So on the subject of wine, I’m curious, are you bringing your own, or will you be enjoying a local delicacy when you are in Atlanta?

So the secret that I haven’t kept secret is that I know almost nothing about wine. I am, like, far from a wine connoisseur. People often ask me what my opinions on wine are, and what my favorites are. And I’m like, ‘I’m chugging it. I’m not the person to ask. I’m far from a sommelier.’ So, a lot of times when I go to these comedy clubs. I’m just like, Give me whatever you got. I’ll take you to get red wine on tap. It’s a gamble. It’s always a risk. But I’m not going to be casually enjoying this. I’m going to be pounding it back while I scream about something.

The way that you suffer for your art is so admirable.

I’m just that selfless.

Speaking of selflessness, can we talk about your TikTok series Baked Baking where you get baked and, well, bake something? I am genuinely impressed that everything you make actually turns out kinda great!

Thank you! I actually think of myself as a fairly decent baker. I’ve been baking for a while. It was really a pandemic-inspired hobby that started and I have just gotten pretty okay at following directions.

Well as a luminary in food Tiktok, I’d love to get your take on Logan and the cucumber recipe craze.

Oh, my God. I want to know how many fingers that man is responsible for chopping off. I feel like I’ve seen just as many videos of people going to the emergency room as I have of people successfully making a cucumber salad.

See this is the problem that I run into. I don’t like being a hater. I don’t want to yuck anybody’s yum. That is the philosophy: If you like it, that’s fine. That being said, I’ve never once in my life thought ‘I desperately need to eat an entire cucumber.’ Never. That has never occurred to me. I don’t want that, and yet, I see 20 videos daily of that twink making cucumber salad.

I love it! OK, let’s end with a very important question: What’s annoying you right now?

The obsession that people have with slime is so baffling to me. Specifically, slime that is made to look like edible food. I don’t know if you’ve seen this, it is deeply upsetting to me, both on a sensual level and also on an intellectual level. I hate it so much. These people will make very elaborate tableaux of a full meal, but everything is slime. And then they’ll make these, like ASMR videos of them picking up what looks like a delicious piece of cinnamon toast, and then they crumble it up, and it is so infuriating to me.

Honestly? Same. Make food, food again.

Tickets for Whine About It are on sale now. Let’s all buy them so he will take it on tour and I will selfishly get to see the show live, too.