via Chubbies
Public speaking is widely considered the number one fear in America. Death is number two. As Seinfeld once said, that means if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.
Now, take that fear, multiply it by a thousand, add a moving vehicle, and subtract any preparation time. That is exactly what Chubbies just did to viral content creator and decorated Army veteran Evan Slaughter, aka Fit2Serve.
If you follow Evan on Instagram or TikTok, you know him as the guy who screams hilarious truths about fitness, wellness, and pickleball. The guy is a machine…. he served as an infantryman in Afghanistan, earned a Purple Heart and a Combat Infantry Badge, and then pivoted to becoming one of the funniest voices on the internet.
But posting a video from your car is a hell of a lot different than gripping a microphone in front of strangers.
In the premiere episode of their new series “Firsts,” Chubbies decided to test Evan’s limits. They lured him to Nashville under the pretense of shooting a “Pickleball with Chubbies” segment.
Spoiler alert: There were no paddles.
Instead, they threw him into the deep end of the absolute worst gig in show business: The dreaded Nashville Party Bus.
The Setup
The video starts with Evan thinking he’s about to dink some balls. Then the producers drop the bomb: “Evan has never done stand-up comedy. That all changes tonight.”
His first challenge wasn’t a cushy open mic. He was thrown onto a rowdy party bus on Broadway—the neon-soaked heart of Nashville’s honky-tonk scene—and forced to recruit his own audience from the street.
“Welcome to his personal nightmare,” Evan says in the clip. “Unexpected stand-up comedy.”
Watching a grown man try to convince drunk tourists to get on a bus to hear jokes he hasn’t written yet is pure anxiety fuel. But because Evan is an absolute savage, he does it. He riffs on his Birkenstocks, the awkwardness of the situation, and manages to get a laugh.
But Chubbies wasn’t done. The bus was just the warm-up.
Evan Takes The Stage At Zanies
The next day, thinking he’s off the hook, Evan gets an envelope. He’s not going home. He’s going to Zanies, one of the most legendary comedy clubs in the South.
This is where the video goes from “funny prank” to “actually impressive.” Evan has to sit in a writer’s room with real comics, have his material torn apart and critiqued, and then perform a tight five minutes in front of a paying audience.
He trades his shorts for a pair of Chubbies pants (which he notes are “stretchy in the right places for a thicker dude”, and you can buy right now via Chubbies.com starting at $84.95) and hits the stage.
via Chubbies
*Not actually Evan pictured above
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Most first-timers bomb. It’s a rite of passage. But Evan leans into the darkness. His set dives straight into his 95-pound weight loss, which he claims took ten years, or just “11 months on Ozempic and steroids”…before pivoting to darker territory: his time in combat and subsequent opiate addiction.
He doesn’t shy away from the “disabled veteran” label either, roasting his own mother’s use of the term to the delight of the crowd:
“My mom calls me a disabled veteran… It makes me sound like I’m sitting at home with a helmet on. I can walk and move around. I’m not that disabled.”
He then drops a killer bit about the absurdity of Cocaine Anonymous pamphlets:
“I pick up a pamphlet… it said ‘How to Have Fun in Sobriety.’ I was thinking, fck yeah… And the suggestions are: Go on a picnic with friends and family, or do service work. Those are the two suggestions for a cocaine addict. Does that sound like fun?”
The crowd eats it up. The club owner, Andrew, admits he thought it was going to be a disaster, but Evan’s natural stage presence and willingness to poke fun at himself and his years in the Army carried him through.
It’s a solid reminder that sometimes the best way to conquer a fear is to have a clothing brand lie to you about pickleball and force you onto a stage.
Check out the full episode of “Firsts” below, via our friends at Chubbies. It’s worth it just to see the sweat equity Evan puts into that party bus set.