Joe Rogan Experience #1237 - Sebastian Maniscalco

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   Here we go. Four,…

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:01

      Here we go. Four, three, two, one. (slaps table) And we're live, you fucking handsome bastard. Look at ya.

   2. SMSebastian Maniscalco0:10

      Oh, yeah.

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:10

      Look at ya.

   4. SMSebastian Maniscalco0:11

      Stunning.

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:12

      (laughs)

   6. SMSebastian Maniscalco0:13

      (laughs)

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:14

      What's going on, man?

   8. SMSebastian Maniscalco0:15

      What's going on? Um, every... Well, I've done this once before, and I've watched you, you know, throughout the years. And when I come in here, I get a little, um, nervous.

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:32

      Why?

   10. SMSebastian Maniscalco0:35

       You're a guy who knows a lot about everything, and I don't know a lotta, like-

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:42

       I don't know a lot about everything. I know enough to make it seem like I know a lot about everything.

   12. SMSebastian Maniscalco0:47

       Whatever you're doing, it, it's, y- y- y- you know more than I do, right?

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:51

       Mm-hmm.

   14. SMSebastian Maniscalco0:51

       Like, like we were on your treadmill out there.

   15. JRJoe Rogan0:54

       Right.

   16. SMSebastian Maniscalco0:54

       And you go, "It's 13%..." What did you say? I, I-

   17. JRJoe Rogan0:59

       13% more difficult than regular running.

   18. SMSebastian Maniscalco1:01

       Okay. Like, I forgot the fact, what you just said from the time we walked in-

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:09

       (laughs)

   20. SMSebastian Maniscalco1:09

       ... I, I, I lost it. So I don't, I don't have the retention-

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:12

       Mm.

   22. SMSebastian Maniscalco1:13

       ... that, that I wish I had, so-

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:15

       I gotta get you some Alpha Brain.

   24. SMSebastian Maniscalco1:17

       I need something.

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:18

       Do we have any here?

   26. NANarrator1:19

       Yeah.

   27. SMSebastian Maniscalco1:19

       Is that what I'm missing in my, my, my diet?

   28. NANarrator1:22

       No.

   29. SMSebastian Maniscalco1:22

       Alpha Brain?

   30. JRJoe Rogan1:23

       I don't know. I mean, uh-
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   Yeah. …

   1. SMSebastian Maniscalco15:00

      to stop and just let that joke breathe a little bit and just, and then maybe have it percolate. There's times where I'm on stage and, and I'll go a little bit longer than I thought I was gonna go without talking, but maybe give it, like, a facial expression or whatnot, just to see if I could eke out another crescendo of laughter.

   2. JRJoe Rogan15:20

      Yeah.

   3. SMSebastian Maniscalco15:21

      And, um, those are the moments I really relish in because sometimes the silence is even better than saying anything.

   4. JRJoe Rogan15:27

      Yeah, and you also realize that you're not, like, rushing anything.

   5. SMSebastian Maniscalco15:31

      Yeah.

   6. JRJoe Rogan15:32

      You know, you, you got ahold of it.

   7. SMSebastian Maniscalco15:34

      Yeah, at least for myself, my act is more like a, um... It needs to, it needs to kinda sit.

   8. JRJoe Rogan15:41

      Yeah.

   9. SMSebastian Maniscalco15:41

      I don't really do well on, like, five-minute talk shows doing, like, you know, the, uh, doing a four and a half minute set on Fallon. I need to, like, go out there. I- it takes me two minutes to, to, to get warm-

   10. JRJoe Rogan15:56

       Yeah, yeah.

   11. SMSebastian Maniscalco15:56

       ... you know what I'm saying? Like, uh, uh, to get into a joke right away, eh, to me, I just, I need time. I need, I need to let it breathe.

   12. JRJoe Rogan16:04

       Yeah, no, I feel the same way. I've, I've always felt those late-night talk show sets are so strange. Not only that, but you're basically opening for yourself. I mean-

   13. SMSebastian Maniscalco16:13

       Yeah.

   14. JRJoe Rogan16:13

       ... 'cause there's, no one has done standup yet, except a monologue-

   15. SMSebastian Maniscalco16:17

       Mm-hmm.

   16. JRJoe Rogan16:17

       ... which is kinda standup, but kinda not because it's all, like, what's happening today, and everybody knows that it's been written. It's, it's weird.

   17. SMSebastian Maniscalco16:25

       Yeah.

   18. JRJoe Rogan16:25

       And then you go out and do a standup set, and oftentimes you see guys go out and they'll do a standup set and they don't even have a microphone. You know? They're doing a standup set and they, they don't know what the fuck to do with their hands.

   19. SMSebastian Maniscalco16:34

       (laughs)

   20. JRJoe Rogan16:34

       You know? It's odd.

   21. SMSebastian Maniscalco16:35

       The first time I did a, uh, standup set on, uh, on TV, I said, "I need the microphone."

   22. JRJoe Rogan16:42

       Yeah.

   23. SMSebastian Maniscalco16:42

       I can't go out there... I've been doing comedy for what? F- 12 years it had b- been, and then I got, like, a Leno. I go, "I need-"

   24. JRJoe Rogan16:50

       A physical microphone.

   25. SMSebastian Maniscalco16:51

       ... microphone. Yeah, I'm used to this.

   26. JRJoe Rogan16:52

       Yeah, yeah.

   27. SMSebastian Maniscalco16:52

       I don't, I'm not gonna go out there all of a sudden now and, uh, like you said, "What am I gonna do with my hands?"

   28. JRJoe Rogan16:56

       Yeah (laughs) .

   29. SMSebastian Maniscalco16:57

       So, uh, every time (laughs) I do a late-night set, I need a microphone, um-

   30. JRJoe Rogan17:00

       D- How often... Do you still do those?
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   Oh, I love foie…

   1. JRJoe Rogan30:00

      very, very different.

   2. SMSebastian Maniscalco30:01

      Oh, I love foie gras. If it tastes like that, then I'm in.

   3. JRJoe Rogan30:03

      It sort of does, but not really. It smells like foie gras. It's, it tastes like itself. It doesn't taste like anything I've ever had. But it's, uh, you know, that's when you're, you're fucking geeking out hard. There's this show that I, I binge-watch on YouTube, it's called The Meat Show. Um, uh, I think the YouTube channel is called Eater, and then the show is called The Meat Show.

   4. SMSebastian Maniscalco30:24

      Yeah.

   5. JRJoe Rogan30:24

      And this guy just travels around going to all these different super high-end restaurants that serve steak and trying to see what their preparation is and what they do differently. And y- you could fucking lose your mind with that stuff.

   6. SMSebastian Maniscalco30:38

      Yeah, you could go down a deep dark hole with me.

   7. JRJoe Rogan30:40

      Yeah.Yeah.

   8. SMSebastian Maniscalco30:41

      But, hey, man, I'm, I'm, I'm willing to try anything. I'm, I'm more like, uh, experimental as far as when it comes to food. My wife not so much. She's (inhales deeply) very picky, but, uh...

   9. JRJoe Rogan30:49

      Do you use recipes? Do you use cookbooks?

   10. SMSebastian Maniscalco30:52

       Um, oh, I have used cookbooks in the past. Um, but I do a majority of the cooking in, in my house. Uh, I come from, you know, my mom used to cook a lot, and, uh, and my father used to do a lot of fish. So, I don't do a lot of recipes. It's more like, "Dad, how do you make the, um, the mussel, um, for the mussel sauce?" And then he'll, you know, take me through it.

   11. JRJoe Rogan31:14

       Mm.

   12. SMSebastian Maniscalco31:14

       So nothing's written down. It's just like-

   13. JRJoe Rogan31:16

       All right. It's just like your act. (laughs)

   14. SMSebastian Maniscalco31:18

       (laughs) A lot of improvising.

   15. JRJoe Rogan31:21

       I like it.

   16. SMSebastian Maniscalco31:21

       Yeah.

   17. JRJoe Rogan31:22

       Yeah.

   18. SMSebastian Maniscalco31:22

       So...

   19. JRJoe Rogan31:22

       Yeah, yeah. What do you do? Like, what, what are you into? Are you like, like linguine with clams? Like, what kind of stuff do you cook?

   20. SMSebastian Maniscalco31:27

       You know what? I, I, (sighs) I like a- I like a lot of pasta. Um, I like a nice Bolognese sauce. However, I'm trying to stay away from those types of meals-

   21. JRJoe Rogan31:37

       Mm-hmm.

   22. SMSebastian Maniscalco31:37

       ... because in the past I ballooned up to, you know, 205, 207-

   23. JRJoe Rogan31:42

       (laughs)

   24. SMSebastian Maniscalco31:42

       ... not giving a-

   25. JRJoe Rogan31:43

       Oof.

   26. SMSebastian Maniscalco31:44

       ... uh, crap about my, my health or, or, or anything. And recently, I've lost some weight due to the fact that, um, been watching, um, My Diet. 'Cause you know, I mean, I don't know. I mean, you're, you're in shape, so you, you, you seem a lot more disciplined than a lot of comedians when it comes to-

   27. JRJoe Rogan32:01

       (laughs)

   28. SMSebastian Maniscalco32:01

       ... (laughs) to health. But, uh, for myself, I have, you know, taken on a regimen of, um, not drinking, uh, wine. I used to have like a little wine after, uh, the meal or during the meal. So I've eliminated that, and, uh, I've been doing some, uh, Pilates.

   29. JRJoe Rogan32:19

       Pilates?

   30. SMSebastian Maniscalco32:20

       Yeah.
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   I don't know. Is…

   1. SMSebastian Maniscalco45:00

      Is, is that the deal?

   2. JRJoe Rogan45:01

      I don't know. Is that the case?

   3. SMSebastian Maniscalco45:03

      I don't know.

   4. JRJoe Rogan45:04

      Let's find out. What makes something sashimi grade? I saw there was a guy who caught a big ass fucking tuna and they sold it for $3 million. Yes.

   5. SMSebastian Maniscalco45:11

      Yeah.

   6. JRJoe Rogan45:11

      That's what I had cued up until you made me ask. Yeah, go back to that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What in the fuck is that? $5,000 a pound. Japan's king of tuna. Is that racist? Is that racist?

   7. SMSebastian Maniscalco45:23

      (laughs)

   8. JRJoe Rogan45:23

      Uh. (laughs) The way I said it, it seemed racist. Oh, man. Uh, the first tuna auction of the year at Tokyo's new fish market set a record price, more than three million for a giant bluefin tuna, a critically endangered species.

   9. SMSebastian Maniscalco45:35

      Wow.

   10. JRJoe Rogan45:36

       Yeah, see, that's where you gotta go, man, is it critically endangered? And if it's, if it is so, should you really be cutting that fucker up?

   11. SMSebastian Maniscalco45:44

       Yeah. I don't know about that.

   12. JRJoe Rogan45:46

       When I was in, uh, Hawaii, uh, we caught some, uh, yellowtail. My youngest daughter loves fishing, so I went out with her and we, uh, went on this boat and we were actually jigging. There's like this, uh, shelf and this big drop off and these yellowtails hang out there. We caught a gang of them. And one of the things they were saying was that the Big Island had a farm where they were farming yellowtail, like they had this gigantic, like sort of netted in area where the fish couldn't leave.

   13. SMSebastian Maniscalco46:16

       Mm-hmm.

   14. JRJoe Rogan46:16

       And they were, they were trapped in this area, but then this storm came and broke down all the nets and the fish escaped. And now they're everywhere and you're catching them. We caught like, I don't know, like six or seven of them, and they're fucking big, like ten pounds, and you're fighting them on like a light, uh, spinning rod, so it's like (rod reeling sound) . Like really awesome, awesome time.

   15. SMSebastian Maniscalco46:38

       Wow.

   16. JRJoe Rogan46:38

       But they were unbelievably delicious. But these are non-native. They brought them over there and released them. I'm like, "They better start doing that with other fish."

   17. SMSebastian Maniscalco46:45

       Right.

   18. JRJoe Rogan46:46

       Like, they really should set up these fish farms and just release these motherfuckers out into the ocean, 'cause they're just taking nets and pulling them across the bottom of the floor.

   19. SMSebastian Maniscalco46:54

       It's not even, it's like such a, uh, uh, there's something that can be said about going out and catching the fish-

   20. JRJoe Rogan47:00

       Yeah.

   21. SMSebastian Maniscalco47:00

       ... like you're saying.

   22. JRJoe Rogan47:00

       Yeah.

   23. SMSebastian Maniscalco47:01

       Rather than taking a, a net and just scooping everything up in its path.

   24. JRJoe Rogan47:05

       Everything. Turtles, dolphins, whatever the fuck is there, everything gets jacked. And the problem is, n- you know, there's, uh, well, who knows how many countries have boats that are doing that.

   25. SMSebastian Maniscalco47:15

       Mm-hmm.

   26. JRJoe Rogan47:15

       And they're all operating in international water, and I don't know what the fucking laws are, but they're just pulling what... And they... You know the other thing they do that's fucked up? When they're done, a lot of times they cut the, the net loose and they just leave it in the ocean. They just drop the net to the bottom of the ocean.

   27. SMSebastian Maniscalco47:31

       It's funny, they have the regulations for like hunting-

   28. JRJoe Rogan47:34

       Yeah.

   29. SMSebastian Maniscalco47:35

       ... but they don't have it like in the ocean, you know what I mean?

   30. JRJoe Rogan47:37

       It's 'cause nobody owns it. You, you only own like a certain amount of your shore, like out, off, like say from Malibu out. I don't know how much the, the United States owns, but we only own a certain amount and then it becomes international waters. International waters is like kind of anybody could be out there.
5. 1:00:00 – 1:11:04

   Yes. …

   1. JRJoe Rogan1:00:00

      lot of your time.

   2. SMSebastian Maniscalco1:00:00

      Yes.

   3. JRJoe Rogan1:00:01

      Yeah.

   4. SMSebastian Maniscalco1:00:01

      Exactly.

   5. JRJoe Rogan1:00:02

      Yeah, no, I'm in the same boat. And, uh, I mean, I think sometimes even I do too many podcasts. I think, um... But there's a lot of fucking people I wanna talk to, so it's hard. But I think, um, I've d- I've definitely stopped doing interviews and all those different things for that reason. It's just, there's only a certain amount of time you have. And, you know, uh, like you, I have a family. Like you, I exercise. And I have a lot of hobbies, man. Between archery and martial arts and, and reading and just watching documentaries. And, you know, it's, is it gonna help... Like, I don't wanna be any more famous.

   6. SMSebastian Maniscalco1:00:38

      Yeah.

   7. JRJoe Rogan1:00:38

      You know? We, we were talking about this earlier. I don't... It's good. I'm working. It's all I wanna do. What I wanna do now is do my best work.

   8. SMSebastian Maniscalco1:00:44

      Yeah.

   9. JRJoe Rogan1:00:45

      That's my number one objective. Whether it's standup, whether it's UFC commentary, whether it's doing a podcast, I wanna do my best work. And I don't think that I can do my best work if I'm scattered. And I often am.

   10. SMSebastian Maniscalco1:00:59

       I think you put the, hit the nail on the head, doing your best work, whatever you're doing.

   11. JRJoe Rogan1:01:04

       Yeah.

   12. SMSebastian Maniscalco1:01:04

       So, if, if you're gonna come in here today and do a podcast, whatever you did prior to this cannot really take away from the energy that you need to do this.

   13. JRJoe Rogan1:01:13

       Yeah.

   14. SMSebastian Maniscalco1:01:13

       Same thing with the MMA and then the announcing, and the same thing with the standup comedy. I feel...... that sometimes I jeopardize myself and I take on too much, and I've realized that and I'm going to kinda... 'Cause now, I got a fa- I got another baby coming, so-

   15. JRJoe Rogan1:01:30

       Congratulations.

   16. SMSebastian Maniscalco1:01:30

       Fa- thank you. Family's growing. And, you know, I come home and I'm looking at my daughter, she's 20 months. And, I mean, those moments for me are like, "Do I, do I wanna, like, take my daughter out for lunch, or do I wanna do an interview in, uh-

   17. JRJoe Rogan1:01:45

       Yeah.

   18. SMSebastian Maniscalco1:01:45

       ... Idaho?"

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:01:46

       Right, right.

   20. SMSebastian Maniscalco1:01:46

       You know? I know you gotta sell tickets, that's part of the game. But I think I need to kind of, uh, just ch- choose my, my, my roads a little careful.

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:01:57

       Well, that's one of the good things about social media is that it allows you these paths, uh, to distribute, y- you know, l- like, flyers and you can put little posters of where you're gonna be and stuff like that.

   22. SMSebastian Maniscalco1:02:08

       Mm-hmm.

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:02:08

       And, and it can reach your f- actual fans as opposed to just, you know, a random person who's listening to the radio or a random person who picks up the newspaper. I think there's-

   24. SMSebastian Maniscalco1:02:17

       Well, that's, that's what I think, that... But, but I like to reach the person that doesn't know who I am. It's fun to go to your fan base, but, you know, I'm sure a lot of the people that listen to your podcast maybe not know who I am. And it's a joy for me to g- to get someone, "Who is this guy? Lemme check him out," and to get a new fan, opposed to maybe feeding the fan base I, I currently have. I'm always looking for new people, uh, to, to come on board with what I'm doing. So, uh, you know, when I do a radio show in Peoria at 7:00 in the morning, I'm hoping someone's in their car going, "Huh, yeah, check him out."

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:03:00

       Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

   26. SMSebastian Maniscalco1:03:01

       And even if it was two people that bought the ticket, for me, I would think that it was worth it getting up to get two more fans.

   27. JRJoe Rogan1:03:08

       Right.

   28. SMSebastian Maniscalco1:03:09

       But some-

   29. JRJoe Rogan1:03:09

       That makes sense.

   30. SMSebastian Maniscalco1:03:09

       Sometimes, though, it's, it, it's, it hurts the end product, and the reason why I'm, I'm here is the standup comedy.

Episode duration: 1:57:07