Thick Boy Studios

Brendan Schaub's path to podcasting wasn't direct. After a brief NFL stint with the Buffalo Bills, he trained in jiu-jitsu and boxing, making it to the UFC where he fought ranked heavyweights. The fast-track into competition taught him a crucial lesson: "There's nothing that replaces experience." Around 2012-2013, while still fighting, he started appearing on Joe Rogan's podcast alongside comedy mentors like Brian Callen, Theo Von, and Bert Kreischer. They all encouraged him to try stand-up.

Schaub's comedy origin story is unconventional. Rather than grinding open mics, he jumped straight into sold-out theaters. His first live "Fighter and the Kid" show with Brian Callen in 2014 accidentally became his comedy training ground—Callen suggested Brendan open solo while he pretended to be late, forcing him to tell stories for 10 minutes. It worked. Six days after a sold-out Comedy Store show, Emily from the store called offering him six minutes in the belly room. "Say less," Brendan agreed. Within two years, he had a Showtime special—a speed he still claims is fastest for a network special.

The podcast took off organically through Joe Rogan's audience and the tight-knit comedy community in LA. "Fighter and the Kid" grew steadily over 11 years, eventually reaching 600k downloads per episode at Showtime. Brendan built this from zero: "We started with zero subscribers, then six years later at like six hundred thousand."

At Showtime, Brendan was pure talent—he created shows, they executed. He had producers, editors, creative teams handling operations. It was efficient. When he left in December 2022 to start Thick Boy Studios, he self-funded entirely from his stand-up and other shows' revenue. The reality hit hard: "Hiring [is] hardest [thing to find]—good employees and people that actually care and can get the job done."

He also lost the platform equity built over six years. "That six years that you built for them, that doesn't come with you. I don't own that showtime page." A year in, his network sits at 160-170k subscribers across 7 shows—down from his peak. But he's learned a critical insight: YouTube vanity metrics mislead. Fire and the Kid does 100-200k audio downloads per episode consistently, even when YouTube only shows 30-200k views. "Audio is king," he emphasizes. "People listen on their way to work, in the office. You sit down and watch a podcast for two or three hours—audio is king."

Thick Boy Studios now operates approximately 7 shows including Fire and the Kid, The Shop Show, Food Truck Diaries, Fight Companion, and The Golden Hour (formerly King of the Sting). Brendan is learning the hard way what it means to own the business side. He's made more money but has less free time and more headaches. He's a self-described control freak learning to delegate. His ambition is measured: "I think we can get to 50 million in revenue," though he admits he doesn't have a detailed five-year plan yet. "Let me get to cruising altitude and get to Wi-Fi before I start figuring out goals." Most importantly, he's never built anything for money alone—he does it because he loves it. If it makes money, fantastic. If it doesn't, "it's something I want to do."