Aarcflick

 At this month's Cannes Film Festival, Francis Ford Coppola and Kevin Costner unveiled passion projects that they chose to finance themselves after initially abandoning institutional sponsors. This week, three authors are trend-setters, except instead of pouring their own funds into a radical, deeply personal epic, comedian Shane Gillis has made a raunchy, workplace bro-comedy set in a Pennsylvania tire store . Since being fired from “Saturday Night Live” before it even started for offensive jokes on his podcast, Gillis has become the poster child for a grassroots, decentralized attention economy that allows some performers to build thriving careers without the blessings of the guardians. Their 2021 special “Live in Austin” blew up on YouTube; the same podcast that cost him “SNL,” co-hosted with his comedic partner Matt McCusker, continues apace; Gillis even produced his own comedy series, “Gilly and Keeves,” culminating in a feature-length special last year. Gillis has strived to ...