Joe Rogan Experience #1286 - Anthony Jeselnik

Joe Rogan 0:01 ... two, one. Yee-haw! Hello, Anthony Jeselnik. How are you, sir?

Anthony Jeselnik 0:06 Great, Joe. Good to see you.

Joe Rogan 0:07 What's going on, buddy? Are you, uh, fully committed to the beard now?

Anthony Jeselnik 0:10 Yeah. I wanna keep it as long as I can. I really enjoy it.

Joe Rogan 0:13 Are you gonna go mountain man? Or are you gonna just trim?

Anthony Jeselnik 0:15 No, I d-

Joe Rogan 0:15 You trim a little?

Anthony Jeselnik 0:16 I trim a little bit. Uh, I just let, like, the lady who cuts my hair trims it every, like, four weeks when I go in for a haircut, but I don't touch it at all. I'm afraid if I tried to trim it, I would just ruin it.

Joe Rogan 0:27 Mm.

Anthony Jeselnik 0:27 Uh, but I love, love having a beard.

Joe Rogan 0:29 Why do you love having a beard?

Anthony Jeselnik 0:31 It is like, it's like sunglasses for the bottom half of your face.

Joe Rogan 0:34 Oh, you get to, like-

Anthony Jeselnik 0:34 You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 0:35 ... hide from the world.

Anthony Jeselnik 0:36 Kind of, yeah.

Joe Rogan 0:37 Ah.

Anthony Jeselnik 0:37 It, like, make it ... It, it chills me out a little more.

Joe Rogan 0:39 Mm, yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 0:41 You know? Especially on stage, like, when I'm, um, you're, you're under the lights, you know, uh, and I'm, I'm ... My lip would start to get a little bit sweaty.

Joe Rogan 0:49 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 0:49 And then I'm thinking about my lip, and I'm like, "Should I wipe this? Should I move it?" And then I start to sweat more, but now that I have the beard and mustache, if my lip gets a little sweaty, you can't tell. So I don't get more anxious over it.

Joe Rogan 1:00 Mm.

Anthony Jeselnik 1:00 Uh-

Joe Rogan 1:01 Interesting.

Anthony Jeselnik 1:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02 So you used to, like, think, "Hmm, boy, there's a little, couple of beads-"

Anthony Jeselnik 1:05 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:05 "... on that upper lip."

Anthony Jeselnik 1:06 Yeah, and I'm like, "Can they see it?"

Joe Rogan 1:07 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 1:07 "Should I wipe? Is it, like ... Is it too much if I'm wiping?" Like, I, uh, it drives me crazy.

Joe Rogan 1:11 You know what gets me? Boogers, if I think I have a booger, like a ... (sniffs) Like, "What is going on with my nose?" (sniffs) "What is that? Is that a booger? Shit, can they see that?"

Anthony Jeselnik 1:19 Oh, I check for sure before I go on stage.

Joe Rogan 1:21 (laughs) I do too, but-

Anthony Jeselnik 1:21 There's always a booger check, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:22 ... so, but I, I'm so, uh, animated and I'm always yelling and screaming, I'm always worried that something is, like, hanging off the tip of my nose.

Anthony Jeselnik 1:29 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:29 And the people in the front row can't even enjoy it. They're like-

Anthony Jeselnik 1:31 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:31 ... "What the fuck, man?"

Anthony Jeselnik 1:32 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:32 "Your nose, bro."

Anthony Jeselnik 1:34 Never had that. I've had, like, definitely a fly-down situation-

Joe Rogan 1:37 Oh, yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 1:38 ... but never a, never d- never, like, a booger that, uh, ruined the show.

Joe Rogan 1:41 Those are two things that people love to laugh at, your fly-down and if you put a beer down on stage and the foam comes over the top.

Anthony Jeselnik 1:49 Yes.

Joe Rogan 1:49 Like, "Oh my God, your beer's coming."

Anthony Jeselnik 1:51 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:53 Those are those things, right?

Anthony Jeselnik 1:55 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:56 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 1:56 High humor.

Joe Rogan 1:57 Yeah, high humor. Sweat, like s- like, weird sweat stains. Like, um, when I've done specials, wh- speaking of which, Anthony Jeselnik's new comedy special comes out tonight, I hear.

Anthony Jeselnik 2:08 Yup, uh-

Joe Rogan 2:08 This evening.

Anthony Jeselnik 2:09 ... midnight, I guess?

Joe Rogan 2:10 Midtown?

Anthony Jeselnik 2:10 Netflix does it. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:11 Ah.

Anthony Jeselnik 2:11 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:11 You excited?

Anthony Jeselnik 2:12 Very excited.

Joe Rogan 2:13 Well, I've been seeing your set. It's fucking fantastic.

Anthony Jeselnik 2:15 Thank you. Thank ... I think this is the best, uh, I've ever done. So I'm, uh, I'm pumped for it.

Joe Rogan 2:19 It's the beautiful thing about comedy, man. Keep working, keep paying attention to it, you get better at it.

Anthony Jeselnik 2:24 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:24 You know, really. I mean, Dom Irrera and I had this conversation just a couple of months ago. And he was like, "Joe," he goes, "I'm ... Never been better." He goes, "I'm fucking 1- 1,000 years old," he goes, "I've never been better at comedy."

Anthony Jeselnik 2:33 Yeah. As long as you don't quit-

Joe Rogan 2:35 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 2:35 ... you know, you don't, you don't, you don't ever get worse, I don't think.

Joe Rogan 2:38 Right. You don't g- ... As long as you don't give up.

Anthony Jeselnik 2:40 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:40 'Cause some guys don't quit, but they give up.

Anthony Jeselnik 2:43 Exactly. Yeah, they just go through the same material every single time, and you're like, "What, uh, what are you doing here?"

Joe Rogan 2:47 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 2:47 "You're just, like, you're just trying to get out of the house."

Joe Rogan 2:49 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 2:49 "You're not trying to get better, uh, every set."

Joe Rogan 2:51 There's a little of that. Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 2:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:53 Yeah, and so, like, if you're not right ... And that's, I guess that's the difference between also guys who put out specials, or I say women too. Or, and people who don't.

Anthony Jeselnik 3:02 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 3:02 Some people just don't put anything out.

Anthony Jeselnik 3:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 3:04 You know?

Anthony Jeselnik 3:04 Yeah. Once you put it out ... Like, I put it out because I'm like, "I'm, I'm done with this now. It's getting boring. It's not gonna get better. It's as good as I can make it." But because of that, then I have to come up with a new hour. And if I didn't-

Joe Rogan 3:15 You have a pretty specific schedule you like to follow too, right? If I'm correct.

Anthony Jeselnik 3:19 I try. I did a, I did a year in LA, like, at The Store every night, you know, and, like, once a month I'd do Largo and, and try it all out at once. And then, uh, at the end of that year, I had about 40 minutes. Went to clubs for a year, every weekend for a year, and then once that ... Uh, I had the hour after that. Then I did a year of theaters.

Joe Rogan 3:38 Mm.

Anthony Jeselnik 3:38 And at the end of that year, I taped the special and, and, uh, and was done with it.

Joe Rogan 3:42 So you're on, like, a three-year plan.

Anthony Jeselnik 3:44 Pretty much.

Joe Rogan 3:44 (coughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 3:44 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 3:45 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 3:45 And that might change, you know, as I've gotten older. Uh, the idea of a four-year plan sounds a little bit nicer.

Joe Rogan 3:50 Ah.

Anthony Jeselnik 3:51 Uh, and you, you have other things going on that, uh, that it's not as, I'm not as worried, you know?

Joe Rogan 3:56 Yeah, yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 3:57 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 3:57 Yeah, um, I was trying, uh, d- I think two years seems to be right for me. But it might be better to give it a little more time, right? Just a little bit more time to tighten things up and polish and, you know, add layers and-

Anthony Jeselnik 4:11 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 4:12 ... m- add extra punchlines. It's like, you, you know those guys, like, in ... When I started out in Boston, there was guys that had been doing it on the same set forever, and there's pros and cons to that. And the pro is goddamn, they had that shit down tight where it was just punchline, rapid punchline, pause, punchline. They knew the, the economy of words was perfect. There was no f- no fat in the bits. They had, they had tightened all that stuff up.

Anthony Jeselnik 4:37 Yeah. My, one of my biggest fears is, like, taping the special and then coming up with, like, a great tag.

Joe Rogan 4:45 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 4:45 You know what I mean? Like, that I want it to be done when I shoot it, because that feeling is awful.

Joe Rogan 4:50 Yeah, it's the worst.

Anthony Jeselnik 4:52 That feeling is awful. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 4:52 I've done that.

Anthony Jeselnik 4:52 Yeah. So have I.

Joe Rogan 4:54 Sucks.

Anthony Jeselnik 4:55 It sucks.

Joe Rogan 4:56 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 4:57 I've actually-

Joe Rogan 4:57 What did you do?

Anthony Jeselnik 4:57 I've gone back and I went, I once went back in, uh, my last special, Thoughts & Prayers, I ADR'd a line. I, like, walked offstage and was like, "Oh, fuck. I should've used this word." And I, it just occurred to me in the moment that I was using the wrong word, so I went back and ADR'd it, and you can obviously tell.

Joe Rogan 5:14 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 5:14 It's, like, it's, like, me talking and then it's, like, clearly a different v-, like, a different voice, uh, just one word, but I had to do it.

Joe Rogan 5:20 What does E- ADR stand for? I know what it means, but what does it stand for?

Anthony Jeselnik 5:24 I- I don't-

Joe Rogan 5:25 Jamie knows.

Jamie Vernon 5:25 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 5:25 He's a actual audio guy.

Jamie Vernon 5:27 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 5:27 (laughs)

Jamie Vernon 5:27 It's a automated dialogue replacement, and why it's automated is lost in my head forever, but that's what it means.

Joe Rogan 5:32 Ah, okay.

Anthony Jeselnik 5:33 I wouldn't have guessed that in a million years.

Jamie Vernon 5:34 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 5:34 I woulda never g- ... I knew what it meant. I've done ADR.

Anthony Jeselnik 5:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 5:37 But I did it, like, Fear Factor, like, every episode. W- I had to do ADR. It was the worst.

Anthony Jeselnik 5:43 Why did you, uh, because you were just mispronouncing names or you would-

Joe Rogan 5:47 No, it was usually because they wanted to tighten segments up. Like, you know, we would film for three days and we'd have to slam that down to 44 minutes.

Anthony Jeselnik 5:55 Mm.

Joe Rogan 5:55 So sometimes you needed brevity or sometimes-

Anthony Jeselnik 5:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 5:59 They needed clarification for certain things, like, like, we would explain the rules to them, like, very specifically and they would have to read these rules and it took a long time. But then, like, sometimes in the moment, like, on television, you wouldn't explain it as clearly, like-

Anthony Jeselnik 6:14 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 6:14 ... while we're filming. Like, we would, we would show them, like, "This is what you have to do. This is what... You have to start here. You go from here to there." But sometimes when you would wanna put it on TV, you'd wanna be more precise or more concise.

Anthony Jeselnik 6:26 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:27 So I would, every fucking week, I had to do ADR. I hated it.

Anthony Jeselnik 6:30 You did?

Joe Rogan 6:31 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 6:31 It seems like it would be fun. Like, not- not f-

Joe Rogan 6:35 Fear Factor?

Anthony Jeselnik 6:35 Uh, Fear Factor, but just ADR seems like easy, you, it's relaxed, you're just in the booth.

Joe Rogan 6:39 No, it was boring.

Anthony Jeselnik 6:40 No?

Joe Rogan 6:40 No, I didn't like it.

Anthony Jeselnik 6:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:42 No, the, the fun thing about Fear Factor was when the checks came.

Anthony Jeselnik 6:45 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 6:45 That was a fun thing. And then when nice people won, that was fun too.

Anthony Jeselnik 6:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:49 Those, those things were fun. But really, that was, that was a great job, but it was a job. It was, like, a job, like, you know, if you had a, a great, like, "Yeah, I really like working here." Whereas, you don't really say that about standup.

Anthony Jeselnik 7:03 No.

Joe Rogan 7:03 I mean, I don't think about it as a job. It's just fucking fun.

Anthony Jeselnik 7:05 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 7:05 It's awesome.

Anthony Jeselnik 7:06 Oh, absolutely.

Joe Rogan 7:07 You know?

Anthony Jeselnik 7:07 Absolutely. It's a get to do.

Joe Rogan 7:09 Yeah, a get to do. Both: Yeah (laughs) .

Anthony Jeselnik 7:11 That's my new thing is, like, get to do versus-

Joe Rogan 7:13 (coughs) .

Anthony Jeselnik 7:13 ... have to do.

Joe Rogan 7:14 How long you been doing it now?

Anthony Jeselnik 7:15 (smacks lips) Uh, almost 17 years.

Joe Rogan 7:17 Wow.

Anthony Jeselnik 7:17 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 7:18 Isn't that crazy to, to say?

Anthony Jeselnik 7:20 It, it, it is. It blows me away. Like, 17 years just seems like, seems like forever. And I'd had it in my head that, like, 20 was a, an important number. Like, when you get to 20, that means something, and I, I think I must've made that up. Like, people say 10 years is a big deal-

Joe Rogan 7:35 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 7:36 ... but 20 doesn't seem to, uh, like, I thought that was like, that's when you're really relaxed.

Joe Rogan 7:41 10 years seems like you're a pro.

Anthony Jeselnik 7:43 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 7:43 Like t- when I see someone, I'm like, "How long you been doing it?" "11 years." "All right. I buy it." You know, but when someone says, "6 years," I'm like, "Good luck."

Anthony Jeselnik 7:51 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 7:51 "You might quit." (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 7:52 Yeah. I hate the people who are like, "I've been doing it for, like, 12 years." "When's the last time you got on stage?" "Uh, six months ago."

Joe Rogan 7:59 Oh.

Anthony Jeselnik 7:59 "Uh, no-"

Joe Rogan 7:59 No.

Anthony Jeselnik 7:59 "... you started doing standup 12 years ago."

Joe Rogan 8:01 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 8:02 "Uh, you have not been doing it."

Joe Rogan 8:03 Yeah, you gotta go fuck yourself.

Anthony Jeselnik 8:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 8:05 Yeah, if you're not, if you take, those people that take, like, giant chunks of time off and then come back-

Anthony Jeselnik 8:09 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 8:10 ... you know, and then wanna go on the road with you, like, hey man.

Anthony Jeselnik 8:13 Yeah, it's like, n- y- no, that's not-

Joe Rogan 8:14 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 8:14 ... how this works. You gotta be-

Joe Rogan 8:16 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 8:16 ... you gotta be putting in the work yourself, otherwise wh- why would m-, why am I doing you a favor?

Joe Rogan 8:20 Yeah, well, it's just, it's one of those things, like, if you wanted to run a marathon, you have to run all the time.

Anthony Jeselnik 8:25 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 8:26 Or you're gonna be really ho- so- really sore and tired when it's over, you know, and you're not gonna really be able to do it.

Anthony Jeselnik 8:33 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 8:33 You wanna be able to actually do it and really run.

Anthony Jeselnik 8:36 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 8:37 It's the same with standup. For whatever reason, it seems so fucking easy when you're watching.

Anthony Jeselnik 8:44 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 8:44 When, when you're watching someone do it, it s- see, that's one of the reasons why everyone thinks they can do it, 'cause it's just, we're just talking. It's not like we're doing Cirque du Soleil up there.

Anthony Jeselnik 8:51 Mm-hmm. And some people are like, "Oh, that's not that funny." I could be not that funny.

Joe Rogan 8:55 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 8:55 You know? Like, it's not that, it's not that big a deal.

Joe Rogan 8:57 Yeah, you could.

Anthony Jeselnik 8:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 8:59 Maybe.

Anthony Jeselnik 8:59 Uh-huh.

Joe Rogan 9:00 Yeah. When you started out, where'd you f- what's, what city did you start in?

Anthony Jeselnik 9:05 Here, Los Angeles.

Joe Rogan 9:06 Did you really?

Anthony Jeselnik 9:06 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 9:06 Where? What was your first club?

Anthony Jeselnik 9:07 I, uh, my first ever show was at The Belly Room in the Comedy Store.

Joe Rogan 9:11 No shit.

Anthony Jeselnik 9:11 I took a class. I took a class. Uh, Greg Dean, uh, like, I w- I wa- I was working at Borders Books & Music. It was my first job in LA. Remember that pla- like, that-

Joe Rogan 9:20 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 9:20 ... the big bookstore? And I, they, I just found the thinnest book on standup comedy that they had and bought that, and, uh, read it, and at the end it was like, "This guy teaches a class in Santa Monica." So you went and, um, and people were like, uh, surprised that I took a class. It's like, the class didn't teach me how to be like this. It just kinda gave me the courage to go to open mics, and, uh, and, and, and I don't think I could've just gone to an open mic. I was too scared for that. I was, like, 23. Uh, but after the class, you know, I had a seven-minute set that I would go and, uh, go and do.

Joe Rogan 9:51 What did the class teach you? Like, how do they, how do they start a class out?

Anthony Jeselnik 9:54 At f- like, the, there were two sessions. It was like, it was like beginning and advanced, and they would talk a little bit about joke structure, they would talk about, like, simple things like taking the mic out of the stand, you know? Like, b- be careful, 'cause some people walk up and they take their teeth out, you know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 10:08 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 10:08 And, like, things like don't run the light, show up early, like, things that were just, um, may not have been common sense, but it, like, it gave me comfort to know the rules, uh, so that I could try to break them-

Joe Rogan 10:19 Mm-hmm.

Anthony Jeselnik 10:19 ... you know, uh, later on. And then d- did a s- set at the, uh, Belly Room, like, with a bunch of other, like, people in the class who were all terrible. None of them are doing standup anymore.

Joe Rogan 10:28 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 10:28 And I, like, killed. Like, I thought I killed. I had the tape. I sent it out to everyone. And one of the jokes from that first set I ended up using in the Donald Trump roast.

Joe Rogan 10:36 Really?

Anthony Jeselnik 10:37 So I was like, "Oh, wow, maybe there's, like, some gold in there." And I went back, you know, 10 years after I did it and watched the set again and had a panic attack watching myself. Like-

Joe Rogan 10:46 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 10:46 ... what, the way it was in my head was not what was on, uh, was not what was on screen. It was, it was bad.

Joe Rogan 10:51 Do you think that's, like, just, like, psychological protectants that you throw up to, I mean, uh, w- what is it that makes you think that you were better back in the day?

Anthony Jeselnik 11:01 I think it's excite- it's excitement.

Joe Rogan 11:03 Right.

Anthony Jeselnik 11:03 You know? And just being stupid, you know? Like, when people get into standup later on in life, I'm like, "Uh, I, I don't know if you can do this, because you have to kind of be dumb enough to go through the things you have to do when you start out."

Joe Rogan 11:15 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 11:15 But I'm glad I was 23 when I was running around to open mics and-

Joe Rogan 11:18 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 11:19 ... uh, and not knowing any better.

Joe Rogan 11:20 That's a really good point.

Anthony Jeselnik 11:21 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 11:22 Yeah, I was 21. I was really dumb. Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 11:25 Did you, and you just went right to an open mic, or?

Joe Rogan 11:27 Yeah, well, um, I went to an open mic to watch first, and that's what gave me the courage to go on stage. Because I had always thought, like, standup comedy was gonna be Jerry Seinfeld or Richard Pryor, and if you go there, like... You know, and I had wrote a bunch of stuff and I had practiced a bunch of stuff into a tape recorder and it was terrible, but, I mean, I was trying to say it like a comedian. But then when I went to an open mic and I realized how bad some of those people are, I was like, "Well, I can be that bad. I can do that. I c- I know, I know I can pull off what they're doing."

Anthony Jeselnik 11:58 Yeah, there's something about, like, performing for comedians that really angered me.Like if com- if an audience wasn't laughing, it was like, "All right, whatever," but if comedians, it's like, "No, you guys should get me."

Joe Rogan 12:09 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 12:09 They're like w- really ticked me off, that I like didn't have any friends in the open mic, uh, community-

Joe Rogan 12:13 That would laugh?

Anthony Jeselnik 12:14 Th- uh, th- no, like I didn't have friends at all, like I would j- I was just the guy who showed up and, and did a set, and would just get angrier and angrier. So I would like pick a guy-

Joe Rogan 12:22 Why? Why were you angry?

Anthony Jeselnik 12:23 Because I was mad that they didn't, th- they didn't get that I was funny.

Joe Rogan 12:26 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 12:26 You know, and then it was like I, it's my job to prove it to them.

Joe Rogan 12:29 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 12:29 But I was like, "These people should understand that I'm, uh, that I'm funny." Like, uh, there's something about, if a comedian that doesn't like me or doesn't like respect what I do, I'm just like, "I, I can't believe you're a comedian." Like that, I really feel that way.

Joe Rogan 12:41 (laughs) That's a funny way of looking at it. Well, it's one of those things where you wanna be good so bad, you'll sort of convince yourself that you're good, or you convince yourself that you're better than you are. Like I remember the feeling of being at an open mic night and not being sure whether or not I was gonna go on stage or not having a spot, and watching these guys going, "God dammit, I wanna go up there. If I got up in front of that crowd right now, I could kill."

Anthony Jeselnik 13:08 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 13:08 You j- just convince yourself that you were good.

Anthony Jeselnik 13:10 Yeah, I mean, I knew that, uh, my performance was bad. I knew I was like funnier than what I was putting out there, and that was what frustrated me. It's like I've gotta keep writing new jokes to get to, to be able to prove myself. You know?

Joe Rogan 13:22 To get to your potential.

Anthony Jeselnik 13:23 Exactly.

Joe Rogan 13:24 Yeah. Yeah, that's so, it's a, it's an interesting thing because it i- it occurs in almost everything that's difficult to do, is like you see the path. You're like, "Okay, I could just keep go..." Like martial arts, for example, it's a perfect th- perfect example. It's like you'll practice with a white belt, and you kinda think like, "Oh, I kinda get this. I'm gonna get good at this. I'm gonna be re-" And then you'll practice with someone who's really good, who does it every day and is a black belt, and you just feel helpless, and you feel like, "God dammit, I'll never get to that spot."

Anthony Jeselnik 13:53 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 13:53 And that, that, I used to feel like that about standup. There was a guy when I first started out, you've probably never heard of him, but he's one of the best comics of all time. His name is Teddy Bergeron, and he was a, a Boston legend, and he had a problem with substances, to put it mildly.

Anthony Jeselnik 14:08 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 14:09 And, um, he wa- his timing was impeccable. He went on The Tonight Show, like back in the day, and he would play piano as well, and, uh, he had like (coughs) like the ultimate set on The Tonight Show. I mean, just fucking murdered, sat on the couch with Johnny, I mean, and just was killin' it and just super l- and then went off the rails, like the pressure of success and everything and s- pills and booze and woo-

Anthony Jeselnik 14:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 14:35 ... and the whole thing. But when I was an open mic-er, um, uh, one of the early, early sets that I did, I remember I did a set (clears throat) , and then he went on, you know, there was a bunch of open mic-ers, and then some professionals would hop on and do like five, 10 minutes, and he went up and did that, and he was so fucking good and so polished, I almost quit. (laughs) I was like-

Anthony Jeselnik 14:56 Really?

Joe Rogan 14:56 I was like, "What am I doing? I'm terrible." M- I don't have a point of view. I don't, I don't have perspective. I don't have that kinda timing. I definitely don't have that kinda swagger. Like he had a, like a casual swagger, you know, on stage.

Anthony Jeselnik 15:09 Did you have like an idol, like someone you were trying to be as a standup?

Joe Rogan 15:13 (clears throat) Um...

Anthony Jeselnik 15:14 Like in the beginning?

Joe Rogan 15:15 I think when I was there probably a bunch of guys. I sounded a lot like Richard Jeni in the beginning.

Anthony Jeselnik 15:18 Mm.

Joe Rogan 15:18 I was kinda stealing, like almost stealing his timing, and then I realized it one ti- one time I was on stage, and I heard myself sound like him, and I was like, "All right, I gotta fix this."

Anthony Jeselnik 15:28 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 15:28 You know? Like-

Anthony Jeselnik 15:29 I did that with a, with Dave Attell in New York, where I would like-

Joe Rogan 15:31 Everybody did Attell. (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 15:32 ... I would run downstairs and watch A- E- Attell's set, and then one day, I, I caught myself not doing one of his bits but like one of his mannerism kinda things.

Joe Rogan 15:40 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 15:41 And it's just fun to do, and I felt, I was like, "Th- I gotta stop this." And I went and told SD at, the woman who books the Comedy Cellar, I was like, "I gotta stop watching Dave Attell." And I said it like a confessional, and I thought she was gonna be like, "You're not a real comic then. Everyone watches Attell," and she goes, "Good. Like more people should stop watching Dave Attell."

Joe Rogan 15:58 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 15:59 Like people are just ripping him off, and I understand why, but, uh-

Joe Rogan 16:02 Well, he's got such a bizarre sense of timing-

Anthony Jeselnik 16:06 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 16:06 ... and it's so infectious.

Anthony Jeselnik 16:07 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:07 You know?

Anthony Jeselnik 16:08 Oh, yeah, just so, so fun-

Joe Rogan 16:10 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 16:10 ... so fun to watch.

Joe Rogan 16:11 I've known Dave for like 28 years, I think, and he's always been like that.

Anthony Jeselnik 16:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:16 He's always had that very strange way of talking.

Anthony Jeselnik 16:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:20 You know? "Oh, it's a box." (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 16:22 I've known him pff- maybe 10 years, and I don't know him at all. You know what I mean? Like we've like talked a couple of times, but I don't know anything about the guy. Uh-

Joe Rogan 16:29 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 16:30 ... and I think I, I met him after he had quit drinking, so then he was a different, uh-

Joe Rogan 16:34 Oh, yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 16:34 ... a different guy.

Joe Rogan 16:35 Oh, yeah, I knew him in the heart. When he was on that show Insomniacs-

Anthony Jeselnik 16:40 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 16:40 ... and he was getting blasted out of his gourd every night, every night he was going to these places, and it was killing him.

Anthony Jeselnik 16:47 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:48 And he stopped doing the show for that very reason 'cause everywhere he would go, there would just be shots, shots, shots, and, uh, and then he, uh, one time, uh, I m- I ran into him at The Improv, and it was like 1:00 in the morning, and I was headed home, and he's like, "Hey, is there a afterparty? Where do we go?" And I was like, "Where do we go?" Like, "C- go home."

Anthony Jeselnik 17:06 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 17:06 Like, "Go to sleep." (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 17:08 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:08 And then the next time I saw him, he was, uh, totally sober. He's one of those guys, though, that got sober and didn't stop being hilarious.

Anthony Jeselnik 17:16 No. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:17 A lotta guys do.

Anthony Jeselnik 17:18 Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:19 They sober up, and then they become annoying.

Anthony Jeselnik 17:21 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 17:21 And then they wanna talk about their sobriety. Bleh.

Anthony Jeselnik 17:25 I cannot stand-

Joe Rogan 17:26 Bleh. (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 17:27 I cannot stand recovering addicts. I'm not, the- they, they drive me crazy.

Joe Rogan 17:31 (laughs) Yeah, man, they're worse than people who just find yoga.

Anthony Jeselnik 17:33 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 17:34 They just won't shut the fuck up about recovery.

Anthony Jeselnik 17:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:38 I, I'm, uh, I'm guilty of that w- with many things. I, well, if I get into something, I go- I can't shut the fuck up about it, but I get it. You know, for them, it's like this pivotal moment in their life where all of a sudden they have their shit together-

Anthony Jeselnik 17:49 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 17:49 ... and they just wanna talk about it all the time. The thing that drives me nuts, though, is when they judge.

Anthony Jeselnik 17:54 Yes. And they always get a little judge-y. They're like, "Are you sure?" Like, "Do you need that last drink?" And I'm like, "Yeah, I do and I can handle my shit, so-"

Joe Rogan 18:01 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 18:01 "... leave me alone."

Joe Rogan 18:02 Hey, I'm super sorry you got that fucked up gene.

Anthony Jeselnik 18:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 18:05 Yeah. Whatever it is, bro.

Anthony Jeselnik 18:05 Yeah, I'm sorry you went too far with it, but I-

Joe Rogan 18:07 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 18:07 ... I've got it under control.

Joe Rogan 18:08 I like being a little buzzed.

Anthony Jeselnik 18:09 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 18:10 I like it.

Anthony Jeselnik 18:10 Mm-hmm. And I'm, luck- luckily, the drugs and the, and the drinking that I do, it's, uh, you know, I, if I'm gonna drink, I drink high-quality stuff. Uh, smoke a little weed, but, uh, the other drugs don't really do it for me.

Joe Rogan 18:21 Have you fucked with the other drugs? What have you tried?

Anthony Jeselnik 18:22 Oh, yeah. I've tried just about everything.

Joe Rogan 18:24 Really?

Anthony Jeselnik 18:24 Yeah. And it just, like, not for me. Like, I've done cocaine and the next day been like, "I just feel stupid." Like, I feel like everything that came out of my mouth last night was dumb. I feel like hell. Uh, I enjoy w- uh, weed chills me out. Uh, I like beer and wine, and, and, uh, and vodka and whiskey.

Joe Rogan 18:40 I have not done a lot of things. I've never done mescaline or peyote, which is basically, I think they're pretty much the same thing. I've never done, um, coke. I've never done meth. I've never done any real amphetamines. I've, I've, uh, always been scared of those though, because those are the ones that I've seen people, like, really lose their lives for.

Anthony Jeselnik 18:57 Yes. And I, I don't mess with amphetamines at all, and I don't enjoy it. Uh, as someone who grinds their teeth, you know, like, that, that's, uh, that's awful. And I found, like, f- with, with comedy, you can't be funny on cocaine. Like, I'm always shocked-

Joe Rogan 19:10 Kinnison apparently could.

Anthony Jeselnik 19:10 ... at comics who, who do, who do cocaine and are funny.

Joe Rogan 19:13 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 19:14 Because I just find it to be, like, you're not... I can't laugh at anything and I can't, like, I'm talking too fast, my timing's off.

Joe Rogan 19:21 Right, right, right.

Anthony Jeselnik 19:21 Uh, and, like, I'm not thinking in a funny way. But I've always been surprised at comics who have coke problems.

Joe Rogan 19:26 Yeah, Joey Diaz talked about that 'cause Joey Diaz did coke for years, but he doesn't, he's never done coke and gone on stage. He goes, uh, he goes, "Every time I tried it, I was fucking terrible." He goes, "It, it takes away your soul, your heart."

Anthony Jeselnik 19:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:37 "You got no heart when you're up there."

Anthony Jeselnik 19:39 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:39 You know, they... I guess, a- again, I've never done it, but, uh, what I g- get is just I get that whole sh- speedy thing where you just, like, your, your sense of how people are perceiving you is distorted.

Anthony Jeselnik 19:53 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 19:53 Your timing is distorted.

Anthony Jeselnik 19:54 Yeah. Like, I don't even go on stage high. I might've had a couple beers. I don't wanna be slurring.

Joe Rogan 19:59 Mm-hmm.

Anthony Jeselnik 19:59 But if I've even smoked pot at all that day, it's a worse show for it.

Joe Rogan 20:02 Really?

Anthony Jeselnik 20:02 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 20:03 I wonder why that is?

Anthony Jeselnik 20:04 I think I'm just, I'm just in my own head, you know? It make, it makes me wanna get through the set as opposed to being present and enjoying it. Like, I just want it to be over so I can go chill out.

Joe Rogan 20:13 Mm.

Anthony Jeselnik 20:13 You know? I just-

Joe Rogan 20:14 That's interesting.

Anthony Jeselnik 20:14 And that's only on, uh, only with weed.

Joe Rogan 20:16 One of my favorite things to do when I would take guys on the road with me is get them so high that they could barely talk and then put them on stage. (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 20:23 That's what, uh... Dude, the first, the first two guys I would open for on the road, it was, uh, Doug Benson and Brian Posehn.

Joe Rogan 20:30 Oh, Jesus Christ. (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 20:31 And they were like, they wanted to smoke all day.

Joe Rogan 20:33 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 20:34 That I was like, uh, every time I was a feature act, like, al- most every time I was a feature act, I was terrible.

Joe Rogan 20:39 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 20:39 Because I, and I thought, like, "I have to smoke, like, I have to smoke-"

Joe Rogan 20:42 Uh-huh.

Anthony Jeselnik 20:42 "... with these guys or they won't take me on the road." But I'm, like, barely getting through this half hour.

Joe Rogan 20:46 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 20:46 And I'm terrible.

Joe Rogan 20:47 It's not a smart move for someone who's g- just getting, going to be that high on stage, but one time I did, I was, uh, I, I really didn't smoke pot until I was 30, like, really smoke pot. But I did it a handful of times when I was younger, and one time when I was, like, uh, 21, I was living with my, my buddy Jimmy and, uh, him and h- one of his friends came over and he had pot and we smoked some pot during the day. I think we had a barbecue or something. And then I had a gig, like, six hours later. I was still high, and I remember being on stage and, and my timing was excellent, and I was so locked in and focused, and I, I remember being terrified that I was gonna be terrible. Terrified. But I, I really nailed it for whatever reason, but then I never did it again, and I was like, "Fuck, I got away with it." You know?

Anthony Jeselnik 21:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:36 And then I started smoking when I was 30 and it kinda changed my act. Like, it, it m- it made my act from, like, it made my act more introspective. I started talking about weirder subjects and more interesting things. I s- I started talking about things that I was actually more interested in.

Anthony Jeselnik 21:53 Did you start to write on stage more when you were high on stage?

Joe Rogan 21:57 Yeah. I kind of always have written on stage a little bit, but mostly, um, mostly, like, tangents. Like, I'd go off on a weird branch. If, if I knew how to get back to the river, right, I would take, like, a weird stream off to the right and then-

Anthony Jeselnik 22:11 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 22:11 ... just, as long as I knew how to get back to the river of whatever the fuck I was talking about, I'd be fine. But when I'm high, I'll just, like, go wandering through the woods. Like, I'm not, I'm not even concerned about the river. I'm like-

Anthony Jeselnik 22:23 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:24 ... you know, there, there's the river of thought, the pattern that you're following, but when I'm high, I'm like, "What, what, who the fuck wants that? And the, why, why would you be that person?" And then I'm, I start thinking, like, "I remember when I was a kid..." And then I'll just, like, outta nowhere have this idea and I'm hoping it's gonna go somewhere. And those moments, I feel like they're like, it's like foraging for food. Like, occasionally you find it.

Anthony Jeselnik 22:51 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 22:51 Like, if you go out looking for mushrooms, you don't know where they are. You might find edible mushrooms. Hopefully you're gonna find them.

Anthony Jeselnik 22:56 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:57 And sometimes you won't. Sometimes you come home with an empty basket. But sometimes you get them, and the only way you find out is if you forage. And that's kind of what it feels like when I'm high on stage. It's like, "Okay, okay. Let's go on a little..." But then I, I'm also really worried that I'm gonna be boring.

Anthony Jeselnik 23:13 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:13 Like, I wanna be, uh, uh, I know these people paid to see th- I, I know I'm trying to develop material, but I also know I'm entertaining these people in the present. So it's, like, a fine line.

Anthony Jeselnik 23:22 Yeah, I don't have that confidence to waste the audience's time.

Joe Rogan 23:25 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 23:26 Do you know what I mean? Like, like, I'll see Chris Rock.

Joe Rogan 23:28 Yes.

Anthony Jeselnik 23:28 And Chri- uh, Chris Rock's a friend of mine, and he'll go up and he'll just, like, with nothing.

Joe Rogan 23:32 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 23:32 And just sit there and, and, like, very comfortably for 45 minutes and just, and just, and just kinda talk and look for things, and has no problem with it whatsoever. And I'm like, "This would kill me."

Joe Rogan 23:42 What else? What else? He'll go, "What else?"

Anthony Jeselnik 23:44 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:44 "What else? What else?" And he'll, like, stare at the sky, look at the ground. I, I can't... You know who was the master at that was Damon Wayans, who-

Anthony Jeselnik 23:51 Oh, my God.

Joe Rogan 23:52 (coughs) Who a lot of people have forgot. A lot of people forgot was one of the fucking... Still is one of the best comics ever. Dam- Damon was a goddamn murderer in the '90s. I mean, a murderer.

Anthony Jeselnik 24:02 Oh, I loved him coming up.

Joe Rogan 24:03 I mean-

Anthony Jeselnik 24:03 But I r- I remember going to the Haha Cafe, uh, they would do, like, a show every Tuesday that my friends would run, and Damon Wayans would always drop in.... and do an hour and ruin the show.

Joe Rogan 24:14 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 24:15 Like, he would have no material and he would just attack people in the crowd. By the time he was off stage, like-

Joe Rogan 24:21 What? (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 24:21 ... the audience was furious. Like, they were, they went crazy when he came out, and then by the end they were just like, "Why is he doing this to us?"

Joe Rogan 24:27 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 24:27 They'd be like, we were like, "Oh, fuck, Damon Wayans is here."

Joe Rogan 24:30 Really?

Anthony Jeselnik 24:30 And what was so funny is that we like looked up to as a kid and like loved, you're just like, "Oh man, this asshole again."

Joe Rogan 24:35 Wow, that's crazy.

Anthony Jeselnik 24:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 24:37 I wonder why he was doing that. Oh, but I mean, I guess it was probably because he couldn't do it at The Store anymore.

Anthony Jeselnik 24:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 24:42 What, how, how many years ago was this?

Anthony Jeselnik 24:45 God, i- I mean at least, at least 10, 12, 13 years ago.

Joe Rogan 24:48 Yeah, see that puts it er- that's, that makes sense, right? Because that's around 2005. Yeah, that's like probably he stopped going to The Store, The Store probably tightened up the way they used to... 'Cause they used to just let anybody just dr- like, Eddie Griffin would drop in, wasn't on the, m- m- wasn't on the schedule, he would drop in at 9:00 PM and get off stage at 3:00 AM.

Anthony Jeselnik 25:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:09 And that was real.

Anthony Jeselnik 25:10 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:10 Yeah, that was real. Six hours. (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 25:13 That would kill me. That would kill me.

Joe Rogan 25:16 And, uh, and then when he was done he would be like, "Who's next?" (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 25:20 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 25:20 I'm like, "Who's next? Who's next?" Dude, you did six hours. Like-

Anthony Jeselnik 25:24 What, what's the longest set you've ever done?

Joe Rogan 25:26 I think an hour and 40 minutes. Maybe a little longer and I don't remember, but, uh, I think an hour and 40 minutes is probably the longest I've ever done.

Anthony Jeselnik 25:34 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:35 You know? But that's too long.

Anthony Jeselnik 25:36 Too long.

Joe Rogan 25:37 Yeah. An hour and 20 is more than anybody should ever have to hear you talk.

Anthony Jeselnik 25:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:42 And even that is like pushing it. What I li- uh, I like, I like to do, when I do like a theater, I do an hour or an hour and 10, and I just wa- I just wanna just start and then finish, just come on, go. Ready? And then for one hour I want everything to be tight and concise, and I would way rather have an hour and 10 minutes that people really enjoyed versus an hour and a half where they're like, "Oh, an hour of it was really funny."

Anthony Jeselnik 26:10 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 26:10 'Cause then it leaves you with this... Even if it's the same hour, that extra time.

Anthony Jeselnik 26:15 And I also just think the audience doesn't want to see g- more than an hour of comedy.

Joe Rogan 26:18 No.

Anthony Jeselnik 26:19 Like, and it's like, uh, it, like people are like, "Oh, I did three hours the other night." Like, why?

Joe Rogan 26:23 Ugh. Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 26:23 Like, the audience must have hated it. Like, Chappelle used to drop into The Cellar. He and like Dane Cook were going back and forth like who could do the longer set. Like-

Joe Rogan 26:30 Longest ever, world record, right?

Anthony Jeselnik 26:32 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 26:32 They had like world records.

Anthony Jeselnik 26:33 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 26:33 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 26:33 And then I think Bob Marley eventually broke it or something. Uh-

Joe Rogan 26:36 Bob Marley from Maine?

Anthony Jeselnik 26:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 26:37 Oh yeah, didn't he do like two days on stage or something?

Anthony Jeselnik 26:39 Yeah, he did something insane.

Joe Rogan 26:39 Like, "Fucky bitches." (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 26:40 And, uh, but uh, Chappelle was down there one time and I was like, "Oh, I'm gonna go check it out," and it was like almost unwatchable.

Joe Rogan 26:46 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 26:46 'Cause it was like the pacing that they ha- that you have to do in order to be on stage that long. And he was funny-

Joe Rogan 26:52 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 26:52 ... but he would be like not funny for long stretches then a big punchline-

Joe Rogan 26:55 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 26:55 ... and then back into it, that you're like, "All right, like, this should be great."

Joe Rogan 26:58 That was when Dave was on hiatus, right?

Anthony Jeselnik 27:01 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 27:01 That was when Dave kinda like took time off of comedy for a long time.

Anthony Jeselnik 27:05 He ki- I mean, uh, kind of like, he wasn't doing specials-

Joe Rogan 27:08 Right.

Anthony Jeselnik 27:08 ... but I think he was doing like surprise shows.

Joe Rogan 27:10 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 27:10 Like, he was always, always kind of on tour in weird venues. He's still doing that now.

Joe Rogan 27:15 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 27:15 You know, he's not always doing like big, big giant theaters, he'll like, he'll just wanna book like a 20-seat room-

Joe Rogan 27:20 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 27:21 ... and, uh, make his agents crazy.

Joe Rogan 27:22 Well, he's been doing (laughs) , he's been doing The Lab at the Improv, that little tiny room.

Anthony Jeselnik 27:26 Really?

Joe Rogan 27:27 Which is what, 50? 50 seats?

Anthony Jeselnik 27:28 Maybe. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 27:29 Yeah, he did it, Aziz did it. That's a, that's a place where comedy dies, that little fucked up room.

Anthony Jeselnik 27:34 I have always hated that room.

Joe Rogan 27:35 That room sucks f- every dick on the planet. (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 27:37 When people are like, "Oh, you can try out new stuff," it's like, "I can try out new stuff in the main room-

Joe Rogan 27:42 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 27:42 ... with, for a good crowd." Like, why do I want to, uh, do this little terrible room? I don't know why it's even there.

Joe Rogan 27:47 Well, it's a weird one, was 'cause the Belly Room is perfect.

Anthony Jeselnik 27:51 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 27:51 The Belly Room works.

Anthony Jeselnik 27:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 27:53 But somewha- for, for some reason that lab seems like, "Why is there comedy here? What is, why is the door right there? Why is the street right there?" What is this?

Anthony Jeselnik 28:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:01 What is this here?

Anthony Jeselnik 28:02 I-

Joe Rogan 28:02 What do you got going on here?

Anthony Jeselnik 28:03 Everything about it is bad.

Joe Rogan 28:04 Yeah. Like, I t- I was trying to tell them, I go, "Turn that into the comics' green room." Like, "No, there's good comedy there," I'm like, "Shut your mouth. You shut your mouth, you turn that into the comics' green room." (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 28:13 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:14 They used to be where the bar was, remember?

Anthony Jeselnik 28:15 I know. I know.

Joe Rogan 28:16 They used to be like where everybody'd hang out before the show. And then-

Anthony Jeselnik 28:18 It was great.

Joe Rogan 28:19 It was great. And you'd go in the other room, uh, to go on stage, and you would go from that part to go on stage. Now everybody goes from the front door to go on stage, so you're trapped in that little hallway.

Anthony Jeselnik 28:28 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 28:28 And you're like, "Where the fuck, how do I, where do I hide?"

Anthony Jeselnik 28:31 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:32 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 28:32 There's nowhere to hide. That's why I love The Store so much.

Joe Rogan 28:34 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 28:34 'Cause there's so many places to hide.

Joe Rogan 28:36 But The Store has that little problem with the OR, like when you, right before you're about to go on stage and you're in the hallway and...

Anthony Jeselnik 28:42 Yeah, I don't like the hallway. But I like those seats on, uh, against the back-

Joe Rogan 28:45 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 28:45 ... that they have just for comics-

Joe Rogan 28:46 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 28:46 ... so you can kinda sit there and go over your notes and-

Joe Rogan 28:49 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 28:49 ... they believe you loone- I lo- I love that back bar.

Joe Rogan 28:51 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 28:51 That back bar is my favorite.

Joe Rogan 28:53 The back bar is the shit. The, the secret comedians' bar?

Anthony Jeselnik 28:56 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 28:56 Yeah. I mean, that's just... What they've done in the new, this new generation of m- managers and the people that run the place now, they've sort of like really paid attention to like what, what's gonna make these guys happier? What's gonna make this better? Like, you gotta give them a place where they can hide, so you give them that back bar, and you go to the back bar any day, it's filled with people just hanging out, talking shit, and it, like, it's fun. It's like a, a fun pl- I go there, I gravitate-

Anthony Jeselnik 29:21 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 29:21 ... and I, I get into the back area, I'm like, "Oh, look at all these cool people."

Anthony Jeselnik 29:25 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:25 "This is a great s- spot to hang out in," you know?

Anthony Jeselnik 29:26 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:27 They did that, they added security, they did it so, it's, it's night and day to the way it used to be.

Anthony Jeselnik 29:34 Oh, I never used to go there. I didn't like hanging out there, I didn't like any part of it, and then once, uh, once the new management took over I was like, "Oh great." Like, I once did a show there, I did a benefit, there was like a kid who died, I forget his name, he was a comic, uh, who died in a car accident, and they had like a benefit for his family.

Joe Rogan 29:51 Oh yeah, that's Josh Ademroy's friend. Wh-

Anthony Jeselnik 29:54 Angelo? W- Angelo, yeah. Bowers? Yeah, Angelo Bowers.

Joe Rogan 29:56 Angelo, Angelo Bowers. I did not know him.

Anthony Jeselnik 29:57 I didn't know him either. But, uh, but yeah, he was like a fan of mine, and I was like, I was like th- his favorite comic that they could get.

Joe Rogan 30:04 Ah.

Anthony Jeselnik 30:04 And I'm like on the, I'm on the marquee. It's a sold out show, I have a great set, I walk off and Tommy comes up and he's like, uh, the old manager's like, "Anthony, that was great, man. We gotta, we gotta get you around here, you g- you gotta start hanging out, you know? You gotta start hanging out and doing, you know, d- doing the open mic and stuff." And I'm like, "Tommy-"

Joe Rogan 30:18 Doing the open mic?

Anthony Jeselnik 30:19 "... my name is on the marquee right now. You just watched me headline this show, like what are you talking about?"And I, then the, I, I don't think I ever saw him again. Next thing-

Joe Rogan 30:28 Good.

Anthony Jeselnik 30:28 ... I knew, he was fired, and they were like, "What can we do to, to get you back here?"

Joe Rogan 30:31 Wow.

Anthony Jeselnik 30:31 But I love it.

Joe Rogan 30:32 Well, that's Adam, you know, right? Adam-

Anthony Jeselnik 30:33 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:33 ... did that, the same thing to me. He t- he told me that Tommy got fired, and came to visit me at the Improv.

Anthony Jeselnik 30:38 So you were gone-

Joe Rogan 30:39 Seven years.

Anthony Jeselnik 30:40 ... seven years from the store.

Joe Rogan 30:41 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 30:41 And then when Tommy left, they brought you back in?

Joe Rogan 30:43 Yeah. Well, there was two reasons. Um, one, I had to go physically to the store because Ari was filming his Comedy Central special, and is like, that, he's a, you know, Ari's just one of my best friends. And I knew him from the time he was a doorman, and I knew that him filming his special there was so important, and there was no way I was gonna miss it. I was like, "I have to be here." Like, "I have to see this at the store." So I was like, "Ah, fuck it. All right, I gotta go back." And so I decided to go back. I think he was filming on a Wednesday. What, what night is, uh, Roast Battles on Tuesday, right?

Anthony Jeselnik 31:23 Yeah, Tuesday, yeah.

Joe Rogan 31:23 So I went down there on a Tuesday. I said, "Let me go down on a Tuesday just to see what's up." And I went to Roast Battle and I was like, "Holy shit, this place is electric. This is crazy." Like, the environment is so much different. It's so creative. And the, the, the night that I was at Roast Battle was fucking fantastic. It was so good. There was so many funny roasters. And I remember thinking, "Wow, this place is just different, man. It just feels so much different." And it wasn't like it is now. Like, w- now, like, you'll go on a Saturday night, they'll have six sold out shows.

Anthony Jeselnik 31:55 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 31:55 They have two shows in the belly room, two in the OR, two in the main room, everything's sold out and packed with headliners, and it's chaos. It wasn't like that.

Anthony Jeselnik 32:02 No.

Joe Rogan 32:02 It was still sorta shitty, like, in terms of, like, the numbers, but the vibe and the creativity was way different. And the new guys and girls that were coming up, they were fucking good, man. I was like, "Wow, this is a different vibe." I had been gone for almost a decade.

Anthony Jeselnik 32:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:19 So that brought me in. And like I said, I had to be there for Ari. There was no way, like, I, I, there was no way I could miss it. I had to be there. So I'm like, "All right, I just gotta swallow it." And that was probably what ... Adam, for sure, helped, but I might've stayed away forever if it wasn't for Ari. I just, I had to see it.

Anthony Jeselnik 32:36 Wow.

Joe Rogan 32:37 You know?

Anthony Jeselnik 32:37 Do you like Roast Battle? Do you like, uh, judging that?

Joe Rogan 32:41 I get ... I cringe sometimes 'cause they're so fucking mean. (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 32:47 Yes. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:48 Sometimes people are so mean, you know? Um, uh, but I do like it. I do love the writing aspect of it. I love the fact that it's a joke writer's form. But I don't wanna name any names, but there's one comic that I'm friends with that does really well on Roast Battle, and I said, "Hey man, how come you, when you roast, you have all this good new material, but you're doing the same stupid shit when you go on stage all the time? Like, you've been doing the same set for years. You're not, you're not advancing 'cause you're not writing a lot, but you're writing a lot when you write for roasts."

Anthony Jeselnik 33:20 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 33:21 And I'm like, "You should treat, like, your material, like, the same way you treat your material when you have to roast." Like, the thing about the roast is, like, say if, uh, you are gonna roast with Tony Hinchcliffe. You guys know each other. You, you know who you're writing for. "All right, Tony, what does he look like? He looks like..." You know, and you start fucking around with, "Oh, I know this about Tony and that about Tony. This is gonna be funny." And it forces you to be creative-

Anthony Jeselnik 33:45 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 33:45 ... whereas I think there's so many guys that they, they develop, um, a framework of a set, and then they just kind of, like, that, that is their comfort. The comfort is in the fact that they know, even if it's not good, they know that they can go from this to that and that to this, and they know where they're going, and they don't, they're not lost, you know?

Anthony Jeselnik 34:02 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 34:03 And I think that the beautiful thing about the roast is none of that material you can do in any other place.

Anthony Jeselnik 34:10 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 34:10 You can only do it right there, so you have to work on the ... And so oftentimes you see, like, what a comic's capable of when they're roasting versus what they're doing when they're actually doing their real set, which seems stale.

Anthony Jeselnik 34:21 Yeah. Yeah, I feel like it's almost, um ... I agree with everything that you're saying, that it's almost like, uh, it's not beneficial-

Joe Rogan 34:28 Right.

Anthony Jeselnik 34:29 ... to be, like, a really good b- at Roast Battle and not as a stand-... Like, it takes, it can take away from standup, and people think it's, like, this, this path to glory, and I'm not sure that it is-

Joe Rogan 34:38 No, I don't think it is.

Anthony Jeselnik 34:40 ... for everyone.

Joe Rogan 34:40 I think it's a good exercise if you're, if you're treating all of your comedy the way you treat the Roast Battle. Like, you're always working on it.

Anthony Jeselnik 34:47 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 34:47 But I think there's a lot of guys who just aren't working on it. I think part of our problem is there's no o- other art form like standup where there's li-... Like you were telling me, you were saying how you took a class to learn to get on stage, but you were quick to add, and almost every great comic does this, that you really didn't learn anything in that class.

Anthony Jeselnik 35:06 No.

Joe Rogan 35:06 But it, but it got you to the stage.

Anthony Jeselnik 35:07 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 35:07 That's weird that there's nothing. Like, the best education that we have is talking to each other. Like, like, "How do you write? How do you do it?" And I'm always c-... I've been doing comedy 30 years, and I'm st- always like, "How do you do it? What are you doing? What are you doing this way? Are you doing it that way? What do you wri-... Do you write it out?" Like, e- everybody's got a different thing. Like, Bill Burr doesn't write anything out. He just, he has notes and works it out on stage. You know, he writes it i- wri- he has these ideas in his head, and then he rants, and you know, he uses his podcast to develop a lot of his material because his podcast is unique in that it's just him talking.

Anthony Jeselnik 35:41 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 35:42 But everybody's got a different thing, and there's no one who's right. Like-

Anthony Jeselnik 35:45 No, no one is right.

Joe Rogan 35:46 No one's right.

Anthony Jeselnik 35:47 I l- this, was it Stan Hope who said that if you tell, if you give a comic advice, you're just telling them how to be more like you?

Joe Rogan 35:53 Mm-hmm.

Anthony Jeselnik 35:53 You know, that I kind of agree with it. You can say, like, "Write more. Get on stage as much as you can." You know, that's important, but there are things even in comedy that, like, you hear early on that y- it takes 10 years to understand.

Joe Rogan 36:05 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 36:05 You know? Like, I, I remember the movie, uh, um, the movie Comedian with Jerry Seinfeld-

Joe Rogan 36:10 Oh.

Anthony Jeselnik 36:10 ... was, like, a huge influence on me. And there's one point where J- Seinfeld's kinda depressed and he's like ... Colin Quinn's like, "What's the matter?" He's like, "I just don't know when I'll be back, you know, when I'll feel like I'm back again with this new material." And Colin Quinn says, uh, "When you're on stage and you're killing and you're miserable."That's when you'll, you'll know you're back, like, when you're just like, "Great, I'm making these idiots laugh."

Joe Rogan 36:29 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 36:29 And Seinfeld is dying laughing, and I was like, I wa- like, saw that, and I didn't understand what he meant. And now I know exactly what he meant.

Joe Rogan 36:36 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 36:36 You know?

Joe Rogan 36:37 Well, if I could go back to when that was filmed, man, I would grab Orny Adams and go, "Don't do it. Don't let them do this to you, man. How long you been doing comedy? Don't let them do this. They're gonna put you... Th- they're doing this to make Jerry look better. Don't let 'em do it."

Anthony Jeselnik 36:52 Mm-hmm. I mean, uh, he must've thought it was, like, the, the biggest thing in the world for him.

Joe Rogan 36:56 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 36:57 Uh, and I'm so mad. Like, I love that movie. I watch the DVD once a year, and there's no Orny Adams commentary track. And-

Joe Rogan 37:04 They should give him one, right?

Anthony Jeselnik 37:05 I think what... They, they'll-

Joe Rogan 37:07 Out of respect.

Anthony Jeselnik 37:07 They'll reference it, like, in the other comment... They'll be like, "Orny will talk about this in his." And I think he was so angry with the way he was portrayed that, uh, he refused to do one. But I would give anything.

Joe Rogan 37:15 Oh, it's weird. They portray... I mean, they, they just edited him t- uh, the worst aspects of it. They didn't wanna give a nuanced perspective on who he is and what he's doing. They just wanted him to be, like, the young guy who's trying to figure it out versus the old, you know, legend.

Anthony Jeselnik 37:31 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But they would, like... My friends would use me as an example. Like, if I was, like, acting like a jerk, they'd be like, "You're behaving like Orny Adams."

Joe Rogan 37:38 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 37:39 Like, "You need to..." Like, I came in second-

Joe Rogan 37:41 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 37:41 ... in, like, a comedy competition, and I was mad about it. And they were like, "Don't be like Orny." And I was like, "Thank you. Got it."

Joe Rogan 37:49 (laughs) Well, he's doing great now. I mean, he, Orny's doing fine, but the-

Anthony Jeselnik 37:53 I met him a couple times. He's un, he's ni... He's always been nice to me.

Joe Rogan 37:55 He's a nice guy.

Anthony Jeselnik 37:56 I once did a show at The Improv where, this was years ago, and it's an 8 o'clock show. I'm the, I'm the, I'm, I'm not the headliner. The, Orny's going on after me, but it's like, I'm the biggest name on the, on the marquee. And I get there, and there's six people in the audience, and two of them were, like, friends of mine who had never seen me perform before.

Joe Rogan 38:13 Oh, no.

Anthony Jeselnik 38:14 And I was like, "This is humiliating." I was like, "What..." I'm, like, yelling at the staff. I'm like, "How do you have six people here at 8:00 PM on a Friday? I could go to the store right now, and it's, five rooms are sold out. Like, what's going on?" And I get on stage, and I'm so embarrassed that my friends are seeing me that I'm yelling at the staff. Staff members are walking by, and I'm screaming at them, like, yelling at the sound guy.

Joe Rogan 38:33 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 38:33 Don't even... I don't even do a joke. I, like, put the mic down. I'm like, "Fuck this place. I'm never coming back," and I leave. And I see my friends a couple days later, and I'm like, "So sorry about that." They're like, "No, you were funny." They go, "The guy who went after you, whew, that guy was angry."

Joe Rogan 38:46 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 38:46 And I'm like, "That guy was angry? I yelled at the sound guy for 15 minutes. Like, what the hell did he do?"

Joe Rogan 38:53 The Improv had those dark moments. They still kinda do sometimes. Like, Schaub did a show there recently on a Friday night, and there was 25 people in the crowd.

Anthony Jeselnik 39:01 Oh, I lo- I v- I blew up at, uh, at, like, the n- the new booker. They, like, called me up, and they're like, "We would love to have you back. Uh, we see you were at the store. What can we do to get you back at The Improv?" And I'm like, "Email me once a, once a week and tell me what spots you have, and I'll tell you when I can go." He's like, "All right." I'm like, "I'm booked for a Wednesday." I see the lineup. It's, like, me, five people, Tiffany Haddish. I'm like, "Great. Should be a good show." Day of, The Improv emails me, and they're like, "Listen, Tiffany Haddish wants to do an hour, and she wants you to introduce her. So it's just gonna be the two of you guys, no emcee." And I'm like-

Joe Rogan 39:33 (groans)

Anthony Jeselnik 39:34 ... "Did you just bump me down to-"

Joe Rogan 39:35 Opening act?

Anthony Jeselnik 39:36 ... opening act?" Like, without a- and not asking if this is okay, just like, "You're now the emcee going up cold, uh, that I was..."

Joe Rogan 39:44 (groans)

Anthony Jeselnik 39:44 And I'm like, "All right, I'll be there, but know that I'm furious." And they're like-

Joe Rogan 39:48 What?

Anthony Jeselnik 39:48 ... "Why don't you just cancel?" And I'm like, "Because I want you to know how mad I am."

Joe Rogan 39:51 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 39:51 "And then I'm never coming back here." And Tiffany was great. I was nice to her. Uh, but I was just... I couldn't believe that they would treat me w- like that.

Joe Rogan 39:58 I'm there tomorrow night.

Anthony Jeselnik 39:59 At The Improv?

Joe Rogan 40:00 I'm there all the time, yeah. You wanna do a set?

Anthony Jeselnik 40:02 May- maybe I'll drop-

Joe Rogan 40:02 And it's sold out.

Anthony Jeselnik 40:03 I'll drop by.

Joe Rogan 40:03 It's sold out.

Anthony Jeselnik 40:04 Actually, I got... Uh, I'm going to dinner to celebrate the special.

Joe Rogan 40:08 (snaps fingers) Damn.

Anthony Jeselnik 40:08 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:09 It's good if you catch it with a packed crowd. It's just, they-

Anthony Jeselnik 40:14 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 40:14 ... didn't have the right approach to, to marketing.

Anthony Jeselnik 40:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:19 That's all it is.

Anthony Jeselnik 40:20 But it used to... When I first started, that was the club.

Joe Rogan 40:22 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 40:23 You know? That-

Joe Rogan 40:23 Well, that was where I went when I left The Store. When I left The Store for seven years, I did my sets at The Improv, at the Icehouse, ha-ha. I did, um, just anywhere else but The Store.

Anthony Jeselnik 40:34 Laugh Factory?

Joe Rogan 40:35 No.

Anthony Jeselnik 40:35 No?

Joe Rogan 40:36 No.

Anthony Jeselnik 40:36 Never?

Joe Rogan 40:38 They film you.

Anthony Jeselnik 40:39 Yes.

Joe Rogan 40:40 Yeah. And they put people up, and they put... They've done it with me. They put your shit up online, and they say they don't do it anymore, but that's too late.

Anthony Jeselnik 40:47 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:47 Like, y- you can't just do that.

Anthony Jeselnik 40:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:49 And their attitude about it was very disappointing. Like, when I told them that I wanted them to take my shit down, they, they were not... They, they weren't, they weren't understanding or apologetic until it became a big deal.

Anthony Jeselnik 41:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:04 Like, big deal, like, you know? Like, had to get other people involved.

Anthony Jeselnik 41:08 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 41:08 It was not good. It's not wise to think that you can just film people and put them online when they're working out for free.

Anthony Jeselnik 41:15 Yeah, and not tell them.

Joe Rogan 41:16 And that... Yeah, especially, like, a guy like you who's going to do a fucking Netflix special, so you're gonna release this stuff and put it online long before Netflix gets ahold of it. And the attitude about it just wasn't good. I mean, uh, it's a great club. I've worked there many, many times. I just don't do it anymore.

Anthony Jeselnik 41:33 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:33 You know? It's just, get it together, you know? This, well, this is the fucking big leagues. We're in Hollywood. This is not, like, some fucking shithole comedy club in the middle of nowhere that nobody goes to. This is on the Sunset Strip.

Anthony Jeselnik 41:46 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 41:47 This is in Hollywood, and you're doing that? Like, w- what are you guys... What are you doing? You know?

Anthony Jeselnik 41:52 Yeah, you couldn't trust them.

Joe Rogan 41:53 It just was ridiculous. But it's a great club. I mean, you go there, you'll see great comedy. You'll... It's, it's a fucking killer setup, you know? It's... There's... A lot of the pieces are in place for it to be amazing.

Anthony Jeselnik 42:05 Yeah. I was going back for a little bit, but they would, like... They would use me to promote the whole show. It's like, it's like as if it's just my show-

Joe Rogan 42:12 Right.

Anthony Jeselnik 42:12 ... and I'm just doing 15 minutes and making the same money as everybody else in the lineup. Like, if I'm at The Comedy Store, it's, like, me, you, D'Elia, Sebastian, like, you don't feel that pressure.

Joe Rogan 42:21 Right.

Anthony Jeselnik 42:21 And we're all in it together kinda thing, that it's... Uh, I, I enjoy The Store a lot more than, uh... Uh, just th- with the way they promote.

Joe Rogan 42:28 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 42:28 Uh, I feel less pressure.

Joe Rogan 42:30 ... yeah, the quality of the comedy is better in, at the store. And this, like, there's something about that that I think is, like... One of the things that's happened from the seven years ago, or the seven years when I was gone versus now, which I've been back for, like, almost four years, it'll be four years in November, or five years in November, is that, um, it's b- better for me to see guys like you and to see guys like Neal Brennan and, and all these, th- this working with killers, just this, this lineup of, like, where I know that if there's 400 people in that audience, they're coming to see everybody, they're not just coming to see me.

Anthony Jeselnik 43:07 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 43:07 And I think that's, that's critical for developing material. I think it's critical for putting, piecing stuff together and, and putting an act together. It's like, I need a, a balanced audience. I don't wanna perform for y- the, the converted. You know what I mean?

Anthony Jeselnik 43:23 Exactly. Like, if I, like, I l- I feel like the Store is like a gym-

Joe Rogan 43:27 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 43:27 ... where you're working out, where, like, you're not getting the same... I don't get the same laughs at the store that I do if I go to Largo and every single person there has paid 30 bucks just to see me.

Joe Rogan 43:37 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 43:37 So they're like, it makes it easier, but because I've worked at the store, like, you, uh, it's like I've earned that at Largo.

Joe Rogan 43:43 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 43:43 You know? But you, but if I just did Largo all the time and that was it, I wouldn't be as good, you know? You need to kinda... You need to suffer a little bit.

Joe Rogan 43:50 They're so nice at Largo.

Anthony Jeselnik 43:51 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 43:52 (laughs) I did l- I did Whitney's show at Largo, and, uh, it was, it was so, so nice. And then, uh, I did this bit about mocking feminists, and I could say, like, I don't like feminists for the same reason why I don't like white people or are only into white people. Like, I like people who like everybody. Like, I'm, I'm not interested in anybody who's really only into one thing, you know? Like, come on. Stop.

Anthony Jeselnik 44:17 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 44:18 Like, it's nonsense. You're, like... I... Do, do women need equal rights? Of, of fucking course, of course, yeah. But I don't wanna hear you talk about it all the time. It's annoying.

Anthony Jeselnik 44:26 Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 44:26 And you can see, like, the, the tightening up, like, someone saying that they don't like feminists, like... It's like, "Oh, you guys are indoctrinated. I see what this is." And so then I felt like... And it helped me a- actually develop this one piece that I was doing, and that be... Like, sort of arou-... It rounded out this one piece I was doing, because I was trying to figure out a way that I could ex- explain it to someone who might have, uh, a preconceived notion about who I am. Like, the, like... To, to say it in a way that makes people that were hesitant laugh. You know what I mean?

Anthony Jeselnik 45:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:00 Versus savages at 11:30 on a Saturday night that are hammered.

Anthony Jeselnik 45:05 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so Whitney Cummings crowd wasn't, uh, into your anti-feminist bit?

Joe Rogan 45:10 They laughed. They laughed, because the punchline was good and I, I kn- I had a place to go with it, and the place to go was ultimately mocking men's rights activists. That was the... The, the real thing was the, the, the s-... The setup for that joke is I don't like anybody who's into one thing. And I go, "But the, the... What drives me the most fucking crazy is men's rights activists." I'm like, "Every men's rights activist I ever met, I just wanna grab 'em and go, 'Dude, we got 'em all.'"

Anthony Jeselnik 45:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:35 "We got all the rights."

Anthony Jeselnik 45:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:36 "We got 'em all." You know?

Anthony Jeselnik 45:38 I can't believe that's a real thing-

Joe Rogan 45:39 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 45:39 ... men's rights activists.

Joe Rogan 45:40 Well, it's a real thing if you get divorced and you have child... Uh, it, it, it's, uh, for child custody. Those things are d-... Those things are real. Like, guys really... I know men who have gotten really fucked over in divorce-

Anthony Jeselnik 45:52 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 45:52 ... where their wife hired a, a fucking killer lawyer and they drag them through... See, the thing about... And I learned this from Phil Hartman, unfortunately, before he died. Uh, I was trying to tell him to get divorced, and he... I said, "Just give her half, man. You'll make more money." He goes, "It's not half." He goes, "It's two-thirds." He goes, "The fucking lawyers take a third. It's a goddamn scam." You know? He was like... He was f- furious about it, 'cause apparently he had been trying to figure it out, like, how to do it. But I had a friend whose wife, ex-wife dragged it out on purpose 'cause she wanted him to pay the legal bills.

Anthony Jeselnik 46:26 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 46:26 So he had to pay for her lawyer, he had to pay for his lawyer, and then he had to pay for all of the times that she decided to change the goal posts and mo-... and renegotiate. Like, there's no... No one can say that you can't renegotiate, so she would just renegotiate and just drag things out, and her, her goal was to try to drain him financially.

Anthony Jeselnik 46:51 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 46:51 So she was doing this on purpose, like, targeting him. So he was essentially paying for the general of the army that was plotting to murder him, and he was slowly going crazy, and I was watching my friend go crazy, and it took several years for it to be completely resolved, and he's still paying her. He's still pai-... He's been divorced for, I think, 12 years now, and he still pays her.

Anthony Jeselnik 47:14 Jesus.

Joe Rogan 47:14 Like, they didn't have a child, um, and he has a family now. He's married with children now, he... And he still pays this person, still pai-... Like, he fucked her so hard she can't work 12 years later. Yeah, it's... So that's where men's rights activists have a point, because if you're in a state that's particularly, uh, progressive or liberal in, in regards to alimony and child support, the only... Well, the only thing that we win on that is, like, Tom Arnold. Like, we, we got, uh, one on the board for Tom Arnold-

Anthony Jeselnik 47:45 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 47:45 ... when he divorced... But, uh, the problem with that is I love Roseanne more than I love Tom Arnold. No offense, Tom. But I do, you know? So, like, it bothered me that Roseanne had to pay him. Like, bro, get, get the fuck outta here. You, you can work. Like, why... How come when you're with a successful person, if that successful person says, "G- Fucking kick bricks. Get outta here," you have to pay them? That p- that person has to pay the person they're getting rid of?

Anthony Jeselnik 48:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 48:09 Why? "Well, oh, he's used to her lifestyle." What?

Anthony Jeselnik 48:13 That, uh, that, that, "I'm used to it," is, uh, is the craziest thing.

Joe Rogan 48:16 Crazy.

Anthony Jeselnik 48:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 48:17 It's... The only thing that makes sense is childcare. That makes sense.

Anthony Jeselnik 48:20 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 48:20 Like, hey, um, this person is taking care of the children. They're your children. You guys had these children together. You have to contribute to the r-... The, the money that it costs to raise a child, 100%. I get it.What, what I don't get is alimony.

Anthony Jeselnik 48:36 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 48:36 I just don't get it. We're not together anymore. You know how we were before we were together, and you didn't have any money, and then you met me? And now I have money and then you, you got used to having money. Well, you're gonna have to get used to not having money-

Anthony Jeselnik 48:46 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 48:46 ... because now you don't have any money, because now we're not together anymore.

Anthony Jeselnik 48:49 Or like a m- a year maybe, you know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 48:51 Maybe, yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 48:51 Like, you know, let her take some time to get back on her feet.

Joe Rogan 48:53 Right.

Anthony Jeselnik 48:54 But, uh-

Joe Rogan 48:54 Don't be a prostitute or anything.

Anthony Jeselnik 48:56 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 48:56 You don't have to be a...

Anthony Jeselnik 48:57 I think it's just bitterness. It's like, "I wanna take you for everything that I can."

Joe Rogan 49:01 What?

Anthony Jeselnik 49:01 Like, one of my friends w- who was going through a divorce, he was like, "O- o- of all my friends who have gotten a divorce, m- 80% of them, if they have kids, the wife accuses the husband of molesting the kids."

Joe Rogan 49:12 Oh, Jesus Christ.

Anthony Jeselnik 49:12 Just for visitation, you know, just to like-

Joe Rogan 49:16 For negotiation.

Anthony Jeselnik 49:16 ... make a visitation with this... Yeah.

Joe Rogan 49:17 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 49:17 Exactly.

Joe Rogan 49:18 Well, the lawyers are onto that now, you know? I mean, this is actually something that my friend was warned of when the, him and, him and his wife were splitting up. Like, "Is your wife malicious? Will she, you know, make some sort of a baseless accusation?" And he's like, "How so?" And then they went into that. Yeah, man, there's evil people out there that... And there's also this thing that happens when people break up with someone, if there's, someone who won- doesn't wanna be with you anymore, someone that you deeply loved and cared about, like, you want them to suffer. It's weird. It's weird. I mean, it's normal, so I guess it's not that weird. But the, the evil, vicious jealousy, you know, like, you see that vicious jealousy in chimpanzees. Like, one of the things that chimpanzees do when they attack people, one of the things they attack people over is unfairness. Like, uh, there was a terrible story about a guy who had kept a pet chimp and then brought the, uh, chimp a birthday cake on his birthday.

Anthony Jeselnik 50:12 Brian Posehn has a whole bit about it.

Joe Rogan 50:13 Do you? Does, does he really?

Anthony Jeselnik 50:14 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 50:15 Um, and the other chimps found out that this chimp was getting a birthday cake, and they saw it, and they weren't getting any cake, and they were fucking furious. So, someone had inadvertently left one of the gates open, so the chimps got out and tore this guy apart, because of a birthday cake. But it's that thing, it's not like it was affecting them. It's not like he was doing something bad to them so they got out and killed him.

Anthony Jeselnik 50:36 Ugh.

Joe Rogan 50:36 No, they ripped his dick off because they didn't like the fact he gave the other chimp a birthday cake.

Anthony Jeselnik 50:40 Took his dick, took his fingers.

Joe Rogan 50:41 Took his feet.

Anthony Jeselnik 50:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 50:43 Yeah, yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 50:44 Posehn's bit's so funny. He's like, "The, the worst thing about that story for that guy is that everyone's gonna wanna hear it forever."

Joe Rogan 50:50 Mm-hmm.

Anthony Jeselnik 50:50 'Cause it starts with, "So I was bringing a birthday cake to a chimpanzee." And then-

Joe Rogan 50:55 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 50:55 ... and like, you, uh, you gotta hear the rest.

Joe Rogan 50:58 Ah. That, but that, that anger and jealousy, like, there's evolution, there's an evolutionary basis for it. Oh, is that what he looks like now?

Anthony Jeselnik 51:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 51:04 Oh my God, look.

Jamie Vernon 51:05 I'm not gonna show it. It's tough, it's tough.

Joe Rogan 51:07 His fingers are missing, his face is missing. He's got one eye, his nose is gone.

Anthony Jeselnik 51:12 Oh, look at that frown.

Joe Rogan 51:13 Oh my God.

Anthony Jeselnik 51:14 It's that perma-frown.

Joe Rogan 51:14 Well, his face was ripped apart. They probably stitched it together that way. Awful. Yeah, it's fucking awful, man. Yeah, you can't own a chimp, you crazy assholes. They're the m- most vicious of all the primates next to people.

Anthony Jeselnik 51:30 Aren't they good for like, you can put, like, train them for like the first like five years of their life, and then they forget-

Joe Rogan 51:36 Mm-hmm.

Anthony Jeselnik 51:36 ... everything?

Joe Rogan 51:36 They just decide they're gonna fuck you up.

Anthony Jeselnik 51:38 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 51:38 And they're so strong. What is that one doing? Is that the chimp?

Jamie Vernon 51:41 No, no, but it just popped up in the same group of pictures as-

Joe Rogan 51:44 Jesus.

Jamie Vernon 51:45 ... hairless chimp looks mad.

Joe Rogan 51:45 So, they're so mean. Such a, it's such a mean species. You know, there's a, a problem with colobus monkeys in, uh, parts of, uh, Africa where chimps live, 'cause they've eaten so many colobus monkeys that they're, their population's down 97%. Yeah, they rip them apart and eat them while, while they're alive.

Anthony Jeselnik 52:05 Are they tiny, colobus monkeys?

Joe Rogan 52:06 They're not big.

Anthony Jeselnik 52:07 No.

Joe Rogan 52:07 Big enough to eat. (laughs) But, uh, there's a David Attenborough documentary from the '90s where they first discovered that chimps eat monkeys. They really didn't know. They thought that chimps were basically herbivores, and then they got this video footage of them hunting these monkeys, and the way they would corral them, uh, and beat them through the trees and then catch them. And this monkey's screaming while this chimp is ripping it apart from the hips, like just chewing it and pulling it apart from the... And he's like, (screams) and he's like basically ripping his legs and his ass end off and just eating it alive.

Anthony Jeselnik 52:42 God damn.

Joe Rogan 52:43 They're fucking mean, man. They're fucking mean. It's a mean animal. But the w- the, what, the... I get the fact that, look, everything's mean in the jungle. There's big cats and poisonous snakes and spiders, and it's just a hard, hard, hard world. But the thing that drives, that gets me is the jealousy, 'cause I don't think other animals experience jealousy the way chimps do. Like this... Is that it right there?

Jamie Vernon 53:07 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 53:07 Oh, from the Attenborough documentary.

Jamie Vernon 53:08 The end of the clip where they actually caught it. I'm gonna skip ahead.

Joe Rogan 53:11 Yeah, so that's a monkey in his hand. Boof.

Anthony Jeselnik 53:14 Jesus.

Joe Rogan 53:14 Yeah, dude, the videos of it b- killing it while they're pulling it apart, like whoa. But the, that jealousy, that, "I want you to suffer. I didn't get that fucking cake. Oh, you don't let me have that cake? I can't get any cake? I'm gonna pull your fucking dick off. I'm gonna bite your nose off." Like, that, that is a, that is a strange trait for an animal to have.

Anthony Jeselnik 53:35 Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 53:35 You know?

Anthony Jeselnik 53:36 I mean, I think it's a, a terrible trait for a human being to have.

Joe Rogan 53:39 Oh, yeah, well, you know-

Anthony Jeselnik 53:39 You know, it's, um-

Joe Rogan 53:39 ... we are animals. Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 53:41 ... yeah, it's something, uh, you gotta work on.

Joe Rogan 53:43 But when it comes to divorce, like, that's that same thing. It's like that same, "I want you to fucking suffer. I wanna pull your dick off." And that's why, you know, people hire hit men and shit to kill their ex-wives and kill their ex-husbands. Oof.

Anthony Jeselnik 53:55 But yeah, people don't get less crazy as they age.

Joe Rogan 53:57 No.

Anthony Jeselnik 53:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 53:59 No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, a lot of times they get more, 'cause th- then they realize it's almost over.

Anthony Jeselnik 54:04 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 54:05 The ride's over, and, uh, now, you know, you're a f- 65-year-old lady, and no one wants to fuck you. And you're a 65-year-old man, no one wants to fuck you either. And now all of a sudden you guys are battling-

Anthony Jeselnik 54:16 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 54:16 ... you know?

Anthony Jeselnik 54:17 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:17 Battling over finances and this and that.

Anthony Jeselnik 54:20 "I gave you the best years of my life."

Joe Rogan 54:22 Ugh, that's my favorite. I did, I dated a girl once, and when we broke up, she said, "I wasted all this time with you."

Anthony Jeselnik 54:28 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 54:28 I said, "Oh." I go, "I thought we were dating." (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 54:31 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:32 "I didn't know you were investing."

Anthony Jeselnik 54:33 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:34 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 54:34 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:34 "I wasted it." Oh, you wasted it. Well-... a- I guess every relationship, when it's over, is a waste. Like, what? That's so bizarre.

Anthony Jeselnik 54:44 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:45 Bizarre way of looking at it.

Anthony Jeselnik 54:46 Yeah. Enjoy the present, enjoy the time you had together.

Joe Rogan 54:49 Yeah, but if you're thinking about it in terms of, like, hitching a ride on a successful train.

Anthony Jeselnik 54:54 Yeah, if your goal is to get married, and you're with someone for five years and then they, you break up, like, "Oh, you know, I should have been with someone else."

Joe Rogan 55:01 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 55:01 "He would've, he would've married me."

Joe Rogan 55:02 Now I gotta find someone else. Yeah. The jealousy thing about the, the breakup is so, it's so normal. It's so hard for people to not be jealous.

Anthony Jeselnik 55:13 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 55:13 Like, no, very few people ever break up and go, "Hey man, she's cool. It just didn't work out. I was a dick. She was, she needed some growing. We needed, we both needed time away. Hey, I wish her well."

Anthony Jeselnik 55:24 I've never really gotten jealous. Like, I always like when they move on. You know what I mean? When like, when they get a new boyfriend, you're just like, "Oh, thank God." Uh-

Joe Rogan 55:30 But that's 'cause you're a comic. Y- you have opportunities. (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 55:33 Yeah, yeah, true. But it's like, but it's like you're not their responsibility anymore.

Joe Rogan 55:36 Yes.

Anthony Jeselnik 55:37 You know what I mean? They can still, like, if they're single, they can still call you up-

Joe Rogan 55:40 Mm-hmm.

Anthony Jeselnik 55:40 ... you know, in the middle of the night-

Joe Rogan 55:41 Get mad at you. (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 55:42 ... or they can s- yeah, still get mad about things, like, still want, "W- well, let's talk about this again." Once you're dating someone else, you're like, "All right."

Joe Rogan 55:48 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 55:48 You're s- you're someone else's problem now.

Joe Rogan 55:49 The best is when they have a kid with someone else. You're like, "Yes!"

Anthony Jeselnik 55:52 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 55:52 "It's over, baby!" Woo!

Anthony Jeselnik 55:54 Yeah, never have to talk to you again.

Joe Rogan 55:55 I'm free. Yeah. It's interesting, man. It's, it's a, it's an interesting thing when you decide to touch naked bodies with a person, right? You, you, like, create this bond by doing things with your bodies and spending time together, and then you separate. But you're always gonna have this, "Yeah, but I used to touch naked bodies with her."

Anthony Jeselnik 56:17 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 56:17 You know? "Yeah, we used to get together and we used to do things together. We don't do it anymore, but I did it. I did it back in the day, I got her naked and we got naked together."

Anthony Jeselnik 56:25 Yeah, you have history.

Joe Rogan 56:26 Yeah, it's history. It's weird, you know? "Yeah, yeah, she'll never forget, I won't either. We touched each other."

Anthony Jeselnik 56:32 Yeah. I like the idea of, like, relationships, uh, l- looking back fondly on relationships.

Joe Rogan 56:36 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 56:36 I never felt like, "Oh, I wasted my time." There are people that I've dated that I'm like, "Probably shouldn't have done that," but, uh, but for the most part, I, I try to, uh, have good feelings about it.

Joe Rogan 56:45 It's-

Anthony Jeselnik 56:45 You don't wanna, you don't wanna hate, like, a period of your life.

Joe Rogan 56:48 No, it's pointless. But, and, but there's lessons learned. Those ones that I've had that were like, "Ugh," that's how you know, like, what, when you date someone and it's cool, when they're, they're good, you get it. Like, I, I dated this girl long, long time ago who was super negative, just super negative all the time. And then I dated this other girl right afterwards who was not negative at all. She was always laughing about stuff and joking around no matter what. Like even if, like, her car got in an accident, she'd take a deep breath and go, "Well, that car's fucked up." (laughs) And she would start laughing. And I was like, "Oh, there's, there's different ways to handle things." Like, if you get stuck with your high school sweetheart and, and, and she's a pain in the ass forever-

Anthony Jeselnik 57:28 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 57:28 ... like, you never understand, like, there are the exact same circumstances, one person is going to handle it completely differently. And if you're with that person, it's gonna be a totally different experience, where it'll be a bonding experience versus them woe-is-me-ing for the next six months and bringing it back to, "I can't even look at a Taurus 'cause it reminds me of when I got in that accident."

Anthony Jeselnik 57:49 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 57:49 "And a Taurus hit my car. Ah!"

Anthony Jeselnik 57:52 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 57:53 Like, "Fuck, that was a year ago!"

Anthony Jeselnik 57:54 I like when people are together for a long time, they break up, and then the guy gets married to the next woman he runs into.

Joe Rogan 58:00 Instantly.

Anthony Jeselnik 58:01 Instantly.

Joe Rogan 58:01 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 58:01 It's like he just, like, found the opposite of what he'd been dealing with and was just, like, so over the moon about it-

Joe Rogan 58:06 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 58:06 ... that he had to marry her right away.

Joe Rogan 58:08 That happened to a buddy of mine. He dated an actress and then it was just, uh, you know, it was br- just brutal. Everything was career this, career that, oh, it was about her career, he was trying to help her career, and, and then they broke up and he's like, "I'm never getting married again." A month later, he's with this new chick and he's living with her two months later, and then he's married six months later. I'm like, "What happened?" He goes, "I r- I realized it wasn't that I didn't wanna be married." He goes, "I just didn't wanna be married to her." He goes, "I've realized, like, there's some people out there that I get along great with."

Anthony Jeselnik 58:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 58:37 "And if you don't, if you don't bail on a bad relationship, you don't know that there's, you can be..." And you are gonna be different. That's the other thing. Like, you're d- I'm different with different people. You're different with s- like, you react better to certain people and certain people's personalities. You jive better with them. You have more fun with them. It's more entertaining. It's-

Anthony Jeselnik 59:00 And you get to, like, reintroduce yourself. You know, the other person knows you for this, like, five-year period of time when you, maybe you weren't at your best.

Joe Rogan 59:06 Yes.

Anthony Jeselnik 59:07 You know?

Joe Rogan 59:07 Yes, yes.

Anthony Jeselnik 59:07 And, like, but you've already used all your tricks.

Joe Rogan 59:09 Yes. (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 59:09 You know what I mean? Like, if you give a girl diamond earrings, you can never give her diamond earrings again for as long as you live.

Joe Rogan 59:15 Right.

Anthony Jeselnik 59:15 You know what I mean? It's like that present is over-

Joe Rogan 59:17 Right.

Anthony Jeselnik 59:18 ... for now. And then when you get to spend it with someone new, you can, uh, you know, it's a clean slate.

Joe Rogan 59:22 Right, you can impress them.

Anthony Jeselnik 59:23 They, they, yeah, they haven't heard your fucking dumb stories already.

Joe Rogan 59:26 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 59:26 You know, they can, like, you can be like, "Oh, listen to this."

Joe Rogan 59:28 Well, I always tell guys, "Strive to be the person you pretend to be when you're trying to get laid."

Anthony Jeselnik 59:34 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 59:34 If you can be that person, that real person all the time, which is very difficult to do, but if you can be that person most of the time if not all the time, you'll have a better life.

Anthony Jeselnik 59:44 Yes. I would agree with that.

Joe Rogan 59:46 Yeah. But it's fun to try to impress people. It's fun when you meet someone.

Anthony Jeselnik 59:49 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 59:49 You're like, "Boy, wait till they see how witty I am." (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 59:52 Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's weird, like-

Joe Rogan 59:54 Uh!

Anthony Jeselnik 59:54 ... w- with me, I'm like, uh, I don't like when p- someone's just into me just because they know who I am and, uh, were like, "Th- uh, you're a famous comedian," I'm, like, a little annoyed. But if they have no idea who I am, I'm also a little annoyed.

Joe Rogan 1:00:05 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 1:00:05 You know? It's like-

Joe Rogan 1:00:05 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 1:00:06 It's like th- there sh- there should be perks to this-

Joe Rogan 1:00:08 Yes.

Anthony Jeselnik 1:00:08 ... that I'm, uh, that I'm missing out on here.

Joe Rogan 1:00:09 Yeah. Um, "Did you not google me?"

Anthony Jeselnik 1:00:11 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:00:12 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 1:00:13 "Yeah, you just not a comedy fan? What?"

Joe Rogan 1:00:14 Yeah.

Anthony Jeselnik 1:00:14 "Whata- what, are you from another country? What's going on?"

Joe Rogan 1:00:16 Oh, could you imagine dating someone who didn't like comedy? "Anthony, I love you. You're amazing, but (inhales) I don't like standup."

Anthony Jeselnik 1:00:24 I mean, if it was someone who just, like, didn't like standup, but thought I was great, I could handle it.

Joe Rogan 1:00:29 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 1:00:30 You know?

Joe Rogan 1:00:30 They didn't like standup in general, but they liked your material in particular.

Anthony Jeselnik 1:00:33 Like, do you watch a lot of standup?

Joe Rogan 1:00:35 Me?

Anthony Jeselnik 1:00:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:00:36 I watch it at the clubs. I very rarely sit down and watch a special.

Anthony Jeselnik 1:00:40 Yeah.... it's very-

Joe Rogan 1:00:41 Do you, do you watch the special ever?

Anthony Jeselnik 1:00:42 Occa- like, if, like right now I'm working on it and, and uh, trying to put together a new hour, so I'm trying to go back and watch stuff. But for years I didn't watch anything. Um, uh, but like, it's funny, like the three comics that I watch are you, D'Elia, and, um, Sebastian, because I follow you guys at the store.

Joe Rogan 1:01:00 Hmm.

Anthony Jeselnik 1:01:00 So it's like I, I'm in the room sitting there and like, you're the only three that I watch. Like, I could like, reh- I could like recite your act word for word-

Joe Rogan 1:01:06 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 1:01:07 ... uh, and, and I don't watch anyone else. It's so funny to me.

Joe Rogan 1:01:10 Well, I think it's great to be, again, at a place like The Store where you can see all these different styles and all these different people doing it. And you also see how we kinda influence each other in the slightest bit. And, you know, that we're all working in these really hot rooms where it's all packed and... But I think it's good to sit down and watch, you know, John Mulaney when he did his... What was that? Where was this, Radio City?

Anthony Jeselnik 1:01:33 Radio City, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:01:33 Radio City? Or, you know, uh, Dave Chappelle, wherever he did his, he did his in DC I think, right? The big one? Wasn't it in DC? The last one?

Anthony Jeselnik 1:01:41 I think it was, I think it was in LA.

Joe Rogan 1:01:43 The last one? Well, he did The Store with The Belly Room with the little one-

Anthony Jeselnik 1:01:46 He, yeah, The Belly Room-

Joe Rogan 1:01:46 ... but the other one-

Anthony Jeselnik 1:01:47 He did that one where he's wearing like the military shirt-

Joe Rogan 1:01:49 Yeah, with the C on it.

Anthony Jeselnik 1:01:50 Like the f- the O.J. thing, where he talks about O.J.

Joe Rogan 1:01:52 Oh, that was-

Anthony Jeselnik 1:01:52 That was in LA. And then there was one in Austin. There may have been one more in DC.

Joe Rogan 1:01:57 (sighs) I thought the most recent bigger one was in DC. But e- either way. The, um... Maybe you're right. Where was... Well, Jamie'll find it. But it's g- I think it's a, i- i- it's good to see. You know, it's good to see how different people do it. (laughs) I, I, I always enjoy watching Katt Williams, particularly in the beginning, because, you know, like a lotta times he'll just run out on stage. And like he's running around on stage for like five or 10 minutes before the fucking first joke comes out. And he's pointing at people in the audience and sweating and going crazy. It's, and it's so different than the way anybody that I know does it. It's good to see that too.

Anthony Jeselnik 1:02:33 Yeah. He, I think that the most discussed, uh, standup special of the past year was not Nanette, it was Katt Williams and his spec... Did you see it?

Joe Rogan 1:02:44 Yes, the one he did from Florida-

Anthony Jeselnik 1:02:45 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02:45 ... where he opens up with 10 minutes of Florida material.

Anthony Jeselnik 1:02:47 Like 15 minutes of Jacksonville material-

Joe Rogan 1:02:50 (laughs)

Anthony Jeselnik 1:02:50 ... that is like apparently destroying the... We j- I just, I couldn't get enough of it. We watched, watched it 100 times.

Joe Rogan 1:02:56 Yeah. But it, it tapered off pretty hard.

Anthony Jeselnik 1:02:58 Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02:59 Yeah, it tapered off real hard when he was doing the, the Trump stuff. It's like, wow, this stuff is like half-baked. You know?

Anthony Jeselnik 1:03:04 Yeah, it looked like, it, it looked like he had a bit that they like made him cut, and so he had to just like do the hour anyway. That's what I assumed from having watched it.

Joe Rogan 1:03:13 Hmm.

Anthony Jeselnik 1:03:13 Because-

Joe Rogan 1:03:13 I doubt they do that though. They don't tell you to do shit. They don't tell me to do shit. I don't think they're gonna tell him to do shit.

Anthony Jeselnik 1:03:19 It may have been like, this is someone, this is already a bit. Do you know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 1:03:22 Hmm.

Anthony Jeselnik 1:03:22 As simple as that. I don't know.

Joe Rogan 1:03:24 Seemed to me it was almost like he had some shit to say, but maybe hadn't been doing a lot of standup. You know? Like I don't know how much that guy works out. I don't see him anywhere.

Anthony Jeselnik 1:03:35 No.

Joe Rogan 1:03:35 I always wonder about those guys. Like the guys who you don't see in the clubs, you know? Like B- Bill,