Tyler Fischer’s starring role in “Terror On The Prairie” took him from Canceled comic to cinema cowboy, and he couldn’t be happier — even though his big-screen role was an irascible villain with a knack for catching bullets.
A standup comedian known for his dead-on impressions of former President Trump, Jordan Peterson, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, Fischer believes his career was stymied by handlers more concerned with diversity than punchlines. But in The Daily Wire’s latest feature film, a Western starring Gina Carano, Fischer gets the last laugh.
“It redeemed my career and dreams to be a film actor,” Fischer said. “Because that was my ultimate goal. I always will do standup. And I love standup. But my goal, my dream was to be in movies and to make movies.”
The movie is Carano’s first film of many with the Daily Wire since her signing following her being Canceled in February 2021 by Disney over social media posts the company deemed offensive. Fischer considers his own career roadblock a case of being “pre-canceled.” But suffice to say both “Terror On The Prairie” stars know what it’s like to find redemption after being rejected simply for being themselves.
Fischer plays “Long Hair,” a member of a murderous gang of ex-Confederate soldiers led by “The Captain,” played by “Justified” star Nick Searcy. They’re out to avenge the death of The Captain’s daughter during the Civil War. That plotline justification was enough for Fischer to reject the villain label.
“We decided that we don’t think of ourselves as the bad guys,” Fischer said. “We were seeking revenge. So, our goal was just to seek revenge and support our captain who was our captain during the war.”
Viewers can make up their own minds, but most will probably find Long Hair’s sole redeeming attributes to be his loyalty to The Captain and his ability to survive getting shot … repeatedly.
Fischer recalled seeing Carano for the first time on The Daily Wire’s “Ben Shapiro Show Sunday Special,” where she discussed what she went through in Hollywood.
“And at that time I was going through something similar, on a way smaller scale,” he said, referring to his ordeal as being “pre-canceled” by an inability to get an agent or land work despite promises and his prodigious talent.
Fischer, who is suing talent agency AGI Entertainment Media & Management in Brooklyn Supreme Court for allegedly rejecting him over his race, said he had noticed he was losing booking opportunities and had heard the rejection was racially motivated. He claims an email from an agent telling him it was “tough out there for white dudes” confirmed his suspicions. In his lawsuit, he alleges he recorded AGI officials telling him he was being ghosted because he is a white man.
“I said, ‘Let me get this straight, you want to work with me. You think I’m a star,'” Fischer said, recounting the conversation he says he caught on tape. “And he said, ‘Yeah.’ “And I said is that company policy? And he said, ‘Yeah, it is.’
“So, I lost hope again,” Fischer said.
Fischer’s experience spurred him to become more outspoken in his comedy, criticizing the government’s handling of the COVID pandemic and discussing his own choice not to get vaccinated. He was heartened to see Carano getting a new chance even before he landed a role in the same film.
“I saw [Carano] she was doing the movie and I was so excited,” the comedian said. “And I started following her, saw she was in Montana. And then I ended up booking the movie role. And I walked into the room and we just embraced.”
It turned out, that Carano had been watching his work on the “Tyler Fischer Show” podcast and on YouTube, where his videos routinely garner hundreds of thousands of views.
“She’d [Gina] been watching my comedy and I’d been watching her stuff,” Fischer said. “So, we all kind of were already supporting each other before the film started which made it really, just really easy to walk into that kind of intense month.”
Fischer declined to discuss specifics about where his lawsuit stands but said he is continuing to fight even though his career seems to be back on track, albeit a new one.
“I am just standing up for my right to not be discriminated against based on my race,” he said. “I think now the biggest tragedy of cancel culture is I think people are self-censoring, sort of ending their own careers before they begin.
“But it also shapes how some comedians write their material,” he said. “Because they think, ‘Well, if I go outside of these boundaries, maybe this comedy club won’t want to work with me. Or if I talk about this I might lose my job on this TV show I’m on. So, everybody’s just really afraid to take a risk.”
In addition to his new film, Tyler’s said he’s working on a new comedy special that he’s in the process of editing and teased that he would be dropping a video soon on YouTube following Fauci testing positive for COVID. He will also be in Nashville on June 28 at the City Winery. Check out his website for tickets and more details.