Joe Rogan Experience #1331 - Alonzo Bodden

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   Hello, Alonzo. …

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:04

      Hello, Alonzo.

   2. ABAlonzo Bodden0:05

      What is up, Joe?

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:06

      Good to see you, my brother.

   4. ABAlonzo Bodden0:07

      Man, it is so good to be back. Um, uh, it's my first time seeing the new joint. It's absolutely amazing. So-

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:13

      Yeah, I thought you had been here at the new spot, but...

   6. ABAlonzo Bodden0:15

      No, like, like I say, you were building this-

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:18

      Yeah.

   8. ABAlonzo Bodden0:18

      ... when I did the last one, and this, this is... When you said you could do everything here, it's like, yeah, this is the bunker. I don't live that far from here.

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:25

      Come on down.

   10. ABAlonzo Bodden0:25

       So when the bomb hits, I'm like, "Yeah, I'm going to Joe's spot."

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:28

       Well, if you live in the ne-

   12. ABAlonzo Bodden0:29

       That's gonna...

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:29

       If you're in the neighborhood and you wanna use the gym, it's always open.

   14. ABAlonzo Bodden0:32

       Yeah. Thanks.

   15. JRJoe Rogan0:32

       Come on down.

   16. ABAlonzo Bodden0:33

       I'll bring canned goods. (laughs)

   17. JRJoe Rogan0:35

       (laughs) Bring water.

   18. ABAlonzo Bodden0:36

       (laughs)

   19. JRJoe Rogan0:36

       Bring w- water purifiers. Yeah, if the shit hits the fan.

   20. ABAlonzo Bodden0:40

       Yeah.

   21. JRJoe Rogan0:40

       Bernie had me nervous. Bernie Sanders was just here, he had me nervous.

   22. ABAlonzo Bodden0:44

       About?

   23. JRJoe Rogan0:44

       Climate change. Whenever someone brings up climate change, it's like, uh, a bill that you didn't pay, and you're like, "Ah, fuck, I forgot about that one."

   24. ABAlonzo Bodden0:50

       Yeah, it's, it's real. And okay, so now I'm gonna do my first shameless plug for my new special.

   25. JRJoe Rogan0:56

       Oh, it's out?

   26. ABAlonzo Bodden0:56

       (laughs)

   27. JRJoe Rogan0:56

       When is it out now?

   28. ABAlonzo Bodden0:56

       August 23rd on Amazon Prime. It's called-

   29. JRJoe Rogan0:59

       You're one of the new wave of Amazon Specials.

   30. ABAlonzo Bodden1:01

       Yeah, the-
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   No, I didn't have…

   1. ABAlonzo Bodden15:00

      to ask you about. So I know when you talked about it early on, you went overseas, right? You left the-

   2. JRJoe Rogan15:05

      No, I didn't have to.

   3. ABAlonzo Bodden15:05

      No, you did get it done here.

   4. JRJoe Rogan15:06

      No. No, you get it all-

   5. ABAlonzo Bodden15:06

      So that was my question, because I've heard people talking about going to-

   6. JRJoe Rogan15:10

      Panama.

   7. ABAlonzo Bodden15:11

      ... Panama-

   8. JRJoe Rogan15:11

      Yeah, that's-

   9. ABAlonzo Bodden15:12

      ... or Asia, et cetera, et Cetera.

   10. JRJoe Rogan15:13

       Dr. Riordan-

   11. ABAlonzo Bodden15:13

       Is that-

   12. JRJoe Rogan15:13

       Yeah, I don't, um, think you wanna go to Asia-

   13. ABAlonzo Bodden15:15

       Yeah.

   14. JRJoe Rogan15:15

       ... I don't know what they're doing over there.

   15. ABAlonzo Bodden15:17

       (laughs)

   16. JRJoe Rogan15:17

       But Dr. Riordan, who's the guy who treated Mel Gibson and Mel Gibson's dad, he actually treated my mom.

   17. ABAlonzo Bodden15:23

       Mm-hmm.

   18. JRJoe Rogan15:23

       My mom was, uh, in risk of a knee replacement, you know, she was in pretty, you know, pretty bad pain.

   19. ABAlonzo Bodden15:29

       Mm-hmm.

   20. JRJoe Rogan15:29

       And the doctor was like, "You gotta get a knee replacement." I'm like, "Okay, maybe you have to get a knee replacement." I go, "But before you do that, let's send you to Panama, and they'll, they'll do this full three-day stem cell procedure." They use IV stem cells, they, they, they blast the area over three different days, they hit it with stem cells.

   21. ABAlonzo Bodden15:47

       Mm-hmm.

   22. JRJoe Rogan15:47

       And, you know, my mom was 73, so it was a while before it worked. She, you know, for the first four months, she was a little discouraged, she like, "I don't, I don't feel anything different, you know, I don't know if this is working." And then somewhere around five, six months, she started feeling a lack of pain.

   23. ABAlonzo Bodden16:06

       Mm-hmm.

   24. JRJoe Rogan16:07

       And the pain just start, stopped go- it just stopped being, like, a part of her daily life.

   25. ABAlonzo Bodden16:10

       Right.

   26. JRJoe Rogan16:10

       And then now she could walk and it's not bothering her. She goes, "I'm walking with no pain, I can walk up hills with no pain." And she goes, uh, "I wanna do it again." So I was like, "Fuck it, we'll send you down again."

   27. ABAlonzo Bodden16:20

       Yeah.

   28. JRJoe Rogan16:20

       So she's, she's headed down again to get more of it, but it's-

   29. ABAlonzo Bodden16:23

       But you did it here?

   30. JRJoe Rogan16:24

       Yeah, I did it here. My, well, I think-
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   Does, uh, Comedy Works…

   1. ABAlonzo Bodden30:00

      we can, uh, we joke about it.

   2. JRJoe Rogan30:02

      Does, uh, Comedy Works exist anymore up there? Went under, right?

   3. ABAlonzo Bodden30:07

      Unfortunately, The Works went under, um-

   4. JRJoe Rogan30:09

      Didn't Jimbo take off?

   5. ABAlonzo Bodden30:11

      Yeah.

   6. JRJoe Rogan30:11

      Vanish somewhere?

   7. ABAlonzo Bodden30:12

      I don't know what happened to Jimbo. I don't know if...I'm not sure what happened to him, but-

   8. JRJoe Rogan30:16

      Jimbo was great.

   9. ABAlonzo Bodden30:17

      ... that club was, that was the epitome of comedy, right?

   10. JRJoe Rogan30:21

       Yeah.

   11. ABAlonzo Bodden30:21

       You, you go upstairs, there's 150 people in a 120-

   12. JRJoe Rogan30:25

       If.

   13. ABAlonzo Bodden30:25

       ... seat room.

   14. JRJoe Rogan30:26

       Is it even that many?

   15. ABAlonzo Bodden30:27

       It was a 120 seats and, and the fire marshal would-

   16. JRJoe Rogan30:30

       (laughs)

   17. ABAlonzo Bodden30:30

       ... have shut it down every night, right? You, 'cause if there was a fire in Comedy Works, it would've been a horrible tragedy.

   18. JRJoe Rogan30:36

       Yeah.

   19. ABAlonzo Bodden30:36

       And, you know, but, but it, the energy was ... Like, you get on that stage and just kill.

   20. JRJoe Rogan30:42

       Yeah.

   21. ABAlonzo Bodden30:42

       And, you know, it's like, yeah, we got the gala over here, we got 3,000 seats in the most beautiful theater you can imagine. But you really wanna see the ... You really wanna have fun, go upstairs at Comedy Works and sweat. You're literally sweating-

   22. JRJoe Rogan30:56

       Oh, yeah.

   23. ABAlonzo Bodden30:56

       ... for 15 minutes 'cause there's no air conditioning.

   24. JRJoe Rogan30:59

       It was terrible if you worked.

   25. ABAlonzo Bodden31:00

       Heat rises, so we should put this place upstairs. (laughs)

   26. JRJoe Rogan31:05

       Well, when they wanted to stay warm in the winter.

   27. ABAlonzo Bodden31:07

       Yeah.

   28. JRJoe Rogan31:07

       And they have, like, a little comedy scene? Like, a local scene?

   29. ABAlonzo Bodden31:10

       Yeah. And they still have, they still have some places. Like, there was one I was working, I can't remember the name of it, but it was the same kind of vibe. It was, like, an upstairs bar that they converted for the f- for the festival. They put in a hundred chairs and you, you know, and it was great. And that's where they were doing Midnight Surprise. So that, that venue is still really cool. And then they have the Theatre Saint Catherine which is, like, this small stage in a long room.

   30. JRJoe Rogan31:36

       Yeah, I did that one one year.
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   Yeah. …

   1. JRJoe Rogan45:00

      be unique. Because it was a, it was a different world, and the, the, the kind of creativity that it took to become those bands, like, the kind of creativity that it takes to become The Who.

   2. ABAlonzo Bodden45:13

      Yeah.

   3. JRJoe Rogan45:14

      You know, like, try... Today, the world is like a different place. Like, they, they developed touring and... Like The Beatles, they developed touring and, and performing constantly and writing and, and, you know, I mean, sure, they were influenced by other bands, but not nearly to the extent that people are today.

   4. ABAlonzo Bodden45:32

      Yeah. And also, they, there's kind of a conformity today to the marketing. Like, "We want you to be this so we can sell it." You know?

   5. JRJoe Rogan45:41

      Yeah.

   6. ABAlonzo Bodden45:42

      Uh, I was playing Earth, Wind & Fire for somebody, and it was one of their instrumentals, and I told them, I said, "Well, you know, Earth, Wind & Fire would also play jazz with Ramsey Lewis." Like, they were the same musicians. And they were like, "Oh." They said, "Because I saw them once and they were doing this whole jazz thing and I wondered what it was," and it was like, yeah, they were actual musician- and, and a band like Earth... Can you imagine showing up now with a band like, "Yeah, there's 27 of us. We got a horn section, and a this-"

   7. JRJoe Rogan46:07

      Right.

   8. ABAlonzo Bodden46:08

      ... "and a that." They'd be like, "What? No."

   9. NANarrator46:10

      (laughs)

   10. ABAlonzo Bodden46:10

       Like, "We're not paying for actual musicians." Like, those bands had horn sections and, and rhythm sec-... It was a lot of people.

   11. JRJoe Rogan46:18

       How did they make money?

   12. ABAlonzo Bodden46:19

       And... Well, they charged a lot for tickets. (laughs)

   13. JRJoe Rogan46:22

       They would have to. I mean-

   14. ABAlonzo Bodden46:23

       But e- well, you, well, you know what else?

   15. JRJoe Rogan46:24

       ... you got 27 people on the stage.

   16. ABAlonzo Bodden46:26

       Records.

   17. JRJoe Rogan46:27

       Right. Records were real.

   18. ABAlonzo Bodden46:28

       Records. You... So records sales, like when you sold a million records, you made a lot of money from selling a million records.

   19. JRJoe Rogan46:36

       Yes.

   20. ABAlonzo Bodden46:36

       And then you had... You know, those bands, like, like I did one of these '80s things with War, and the number blew my mind, but then I realized wa- War sold over 50 million records.

   21. JRJoe Rogan46:49

       Whoa.

   22. ABAlonzo Bodden46:50

       Right? And it... But then when you think about it, yeah, they had a hit every summer for like six, seven years, right? Like, Why Can't We Be Friends?

   23. JRJoe Rogan46:59

       Yeah.

   24. ABAlonzo Bodden46:59

       The Low Rider, um, On It, they had a whole list of hits... Like, every one of the songs would start playing like, "Oh yeah, I know this song."

   25. JRJoe Rogan47:06

       Yeah.

   26. ABAlonzo Bodden47:06

       "I know this song." You know?

   27. JRJoe Rogan47:09

       50 million.

   28. ABAlonzo Bodden47:10

       Million records sold.

   29. JRJoe Rogan47:12

       And how much do you think each record caused, 10 bucks?

   30. ABAlonzo Bodden47:15

       Yeah, yeah. And what were records, $9.99 or whatever?
5. 1:00:00 – 1:10:18

   So he came over…

   1. ABAlonzo Bodden1:00:00

      no idea. But... No, they didn't sneak him out. He... It was a state-sponsored thing. Like, they got him-

   2. JRJoe Rogan1:00:04

      So he came over here to perform and then went back?

   3. ABAlonzo Bodden1:00:06

      No. (laughs) He came-

   4. JRJoe Rogan1:00:08

      Stayed.

   5. ABAlonzo Bodden1:00:08

      ... over and stayed. But this was the crazy part, this is the part I can't imagine. So he flies from Cuba into LaGuardia Airport, and they take him straight to Carnegie Hall for soundcheck.

   6. JRJoe Rogan1:00:19

      Whoa.

   7. ABAlonzo Bodden1:00:20

      And he plays Carnegie Hall that night. I mean, can you imagine? Like, imagine your first gig, right?

   8. JRJoe Rogan1:00:26

      (laughs)

   9. ABAlonzo Bodden1:00:26

      Like, somebody, somebody saw you, you know, I don't know, Rodney Dangerfield saw you at a club in Boston and he was like-

   10. JRJoe Rogan1:00:32

       Bring Me The Masses, Square Garden.

   11. ABAlonzo Bodden1:00:34

       "... Okay, Joe." (laughs)

   12. JRJoe Rogan1:00:38

       (laughs) Oh, my god.

   13. ABAlonzo Bodden1:00:40

       It, it was... It's a crazy story. And, but to this day, but Arturo is like, when he plays the trumpet, you know it's him. Like, he hits notes on a trumpet like only dogs can hear.

   14. JRJoe Rogan1:00:51

       Oh.

   15. ABAlonzo Bodden1:00:51

       Like, he's famous for this super high notes and stuff like that. But yeah, that, that's, that's what I love about it. So I love the creativity, and then, you know, Marcus was telling me, 'cause he's from New York, from Queens, 70s, 80s guy. He said, "Well, you know what happened with hip hop?" He said one of the things was they took music out of the schools, right? They did, you know, they don't teach. You can't take an instrument anymore. They were like, "It's out of the budget, brother." He said, "Well, you can't stop people from creating." So these guys, they didn't have musical instruments, but they had records. So they just started making music with their records. They just started mixing the records-

   16. JRJoe Rogan1:01:25

       Ah.

   17. ABAlonzo Bodden1:01:25

       ... and coming up with new sound. And it was like, yeah, that, that kinda makes sense. If you're musical and nobody teaches you to play an instrument, but you have these records, you're like, "All right, well, what if I played this and this at the same time?"

   18. JRJoe Rogan1:01:38

       Right.

   19. ABAlonzo Bodden1:01:38

       Right? And then the next thing you know, they, they made that hip hop. Which that, that hip hop caught on. (laughs)

   20. JRJoe Rogan1:01:44

       Yeah, that never existed before, right? The idea of mixing two different records together. Until hip hop came around, no one ever did that with rock and roll, did they?

   21. ABAlonzo Bodden1:01:51

       No, no. And then hip hop mixed in rock and roll, right?

   22. JRJoe Rogan1:01:55

       Yeah.

   23. ABAlonzo Bodden1:01:55

       When, when, you know, when-

   24. JRJoe Rogan1:01:56

       Run DMC.

   25. ABAlonzo Bodden1:01:57

       ... Run DMC-

   26. JRJoe Rogan1:01:57

       With Aerosmith.

   27. ABAlonzo Bodden1:01:58

       That-

   28. JRJoe Rogan1:01:58

       Walk This Way.

   29. ABAlonzo Bodden1:01:59

       That blew people's minds.

   30. JRJoe Rogan1:02:00

       Yes.

Episode duration: 2:16:09