Joe Rogan Experience #1372 - Kevin Smith

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   ... headphones. …

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:00

      ... headphones.

   2. KSKevin Smith0:02

      Do I need 'em?

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:03

      I like 'em.

   4. KSKevin Smith0:04

      I'm in. Just to gauge my own voice?

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:06

      Uh, you don't need 'em. We can-

   6. KSKevin Smith0:08

      Only- only if we're-

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:08

      ... we can not have 'em.

   8. KSKevin Smith0:08

      ... doing call-ins, right?

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:09

      No, no, no, we don't need 'em. Uh, I like how you're mocking me with that marijuana.

   10. KSKevin Smith0:14

       Come on, man.

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:15

       Just openly.

   12. KSKevin Smith0:16

       I- it's your Sober October.

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:17

       Yes, I know, man.

   14. KSKevin Smith0:18

       It's my Un-sober Lifetime.

   15. JRJoe Rogan0:20

       How- how, when was the last time you were sober? How many days have you ever done it?

   16. KSKevin Smith0:23

       What a great question. Um, let me see, when was the last time? It was somewhere I was on the road and I couldn't get my hands on weed. Probably when I was in London or something like that. That's usually an overseas thing.

   17. JRJoe Rogan0:37

       Right.

   18. KSKevin Smith0:37

       Um, and I went in, like, two days and, you know, it was-

   19. JRJoe Rogan0:41

       (laughs)

   20. KSKevin Smith0:42

       (laughs) It was-

   21. JRJoe Rogan0:42

       That's like, like, "I did my time, man."

   22. KSKevin Smith0:44

       I did, it felt like, "Oh, I g- I get it and I remember what this was like-"

   23. JRJoe Rogan0:49

       Right.

   24. KSKevin Smith0:49

       ... but, like, why bother?

   25. JRJoe Rogan0:52

       (laughs)

   26. KSKevin Smith0:52

       Like, you know, post-heart attack, I feel like I'm living on borrowed time anyway, so I'm like, "Well, I'm gonna spend that time as well as I possibly can," and, and generally in a THC, uh, drenched condition. This is not a brag and I'm not like, "Kids, you should try this at home," but, like, I only am not ingesting when I sleep.

   27. JRJoe Rogan1:13

       Mm-hmm.

   28. KSKevin Smith1:13

       So, like, I wake-

   29. JRJoe Rogan1:14

       Really?

   30. KSKevin Smith1:14

       ... I bake. Yeah.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   Nice. …

   1. KSKevin Smith15:00

      He's going, "If I didn't know where to look, you would never tell." He's like, "Right now, there's no lasting damage. Keep going." So, I hike Runyon every day.

   2. JRJoe Rogan15:07

      Nice.

   3. KSKevin Smith15:08

      I vegan out like a year and a half ago 'cause of the kid, um, and- and haven't really strayed back, so I'm all plant-based. And I- I'm intermittent faster. I don't eat breakfast anymore. I th- I'm not gonna be like, "Breakfast is propaganda," but it kinda is. You don't really need to eat that early in the day, particularly... You know what? That's untrue. Thin people maybe do. (clears throat) A guy my size certainly didn't need to be eating breakfast. Could have skipped a few meals.

   4. JRJoe Rogan15:30

      I do the same.

   5. KSKevin Smith15:31

      Do... It's no-

   6. JRJoe Rogan15:32

      I take 16 hours off.

   7. KSKevin Smith15:33

      That's the... You- you wait-

   8. JRJoe Rogan15:34

      Yeah.

   9. KSKevin Smith15:34

      ... to break the fast.

   10. JRJoe Rogan15:35

       Yeah.

   11. KSKevin Smith15:35

       Do you pick a time or is it as deep in the day-

   12. JRJoe Rogan15:37

       No.

   13. KSKevin Smith15:37

       ... as you can go?

   14. JRJoe Rogan15:38

       Just 8:00 and 16:00. You know? I j- I just do it based on-

   15. KSKevin Smith15:42

       So then, what's the soonest you eat then, generally speaking?

   16. JRJoe Rogan15:45

       It depends, but I've gone... (sighs) I've gone as late as like 1:00, 2:00 in the afternoon.

   17. KSKevin Smith15:49

       Yeah, yeah.

   18. JRJoe Rogan15:49

       Yeah.

   19. KSKevin Smith15:49

       That's why I try to make it til noon the earliest and- and like, by 2:00, I'm ready. I'm ravenous.

   20. JRJoe Rogan15:54

       Yeah, yeah. I think, um, it's totally doable. It's- it's not... Your body gets really used to it too.

   21. KSKevin Smith16:01

       Right.

   22. JRJoe Rogan16:01

       What I generally do is, uh, I get up in the morning, I'll have a cup of coffee, and then I work out. And either I run or I do yoga or I do something. Whatever I do. It's pretty intense.

   23. KSKevin Smith16:14

       Mm-hmm.

   24. JRJoe Rogan16:14

       And then, uh, I do podcasts generally around noon. Th- that's when I start the day.

   25. KSKevin Smith16:20

       Right.

   26. JRJoe Rogan16:20

       And, uh, so I'm- I've already been up for hours and hours, and sometimes I don't even eat until after the podcast. Sometimes I'll eat at like 3:00, you know?

   27. KSKevin Smith16:28

       Have you gone days where you don't eat at all?

   28. JRJoe Rogan16:31

       No.

   29. KSKevin Smith16:32

       I've done that.

   30. JRJoe Rogan16:33

       I burn off too many calories, I think.
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   I wonder if it...…

   1. JRJoe Rogan30:00

      I watched this-

   2. KSKevin Smith30:02

      I wonder if it... It... There was a-

   3. JRJoe Rogan30:02

      Yeah, look at that. Like, it, it could... That's me in this room.

   4. KSKevin Smith30:05

      That's it? Flashback.

   5. JRJoe Rogan30:07

      You can hear if you listen too.

   6. KSKevin Smith30:08

      (alarm blaring) Oh, my God. Look at, look at the fog.

   7. JRJoe Rogan30:10

      Yeah.

   8. KSKevin Smith30:11

      Oh, there's the alarm.

   9. JRJoe Rogan30:14

      That set off the fucking fire alarm. (laughs) That puddle on the ground, that's all my sweat.

   10. KSKevin Smith30:16

       Are you kidding?

   11. JRJoe Rogan30:17

       Nope. So, we decided not... Uh, and all that-

   12. KSKevin Smith30:20

       Why, why do this?

   13. JRJoe Rogan30:21

       Well, 'cause we... I'm gonna win.

   14. KSKevin Smith30:23

       (laughs) And did you?

   15. JRJoe Rogan30:23

       I'm not gonna lose. Of course I won.

   16. KSKevin Smith30:25

       (laughs)

   17. JRJoe Rogan30:25

       I'm not gonna lose. (laughs) We were going crazy. We were going crazy. And then we, we all had to sit down this year and say, "We can't do this again," 'cause this year we only had to do 10 classes. So, with- whether it's yoga or Tom's doing boxing and, and took some, um, we took some tactical gun courses and...... uh, Tom's also done some weightlifting. Ari's done some meditation classes. We're- it's all just bettering yourself, and you have to read 500 pages of- of books, you know, whatever, whatever book, 500 pages. So that's the challenge this month.

   18. KSKevin Smith30:59

       Um, all-

   19. JRJoe Rogan31:00

       Easier.

   20. KSKevin Smith31:01

       ... all of that is- is, uh, it's just not on my menu.

   21. JRJoe Rogan31:05

       Exhausting. (laughs)

   22. KSKevin Smith31:05

       Yeah, my God. It- it's just, like October should be a fun month. We're heading into Halloween and stuff like that.

   23. JRJoe Rogan31:12

       Right.

   24. KSKevin Smith31:12

       Fall-

   25. JRJoe Rogan31:13

       Right.

   26. KSKevin Smith31:13

       ... Samhain, shit like that, and it just seems like a lot of-

   27. JRJoe Rogan31:16

       What is this? What'd you say?

   28. KSKevin Smith31:17

       ... Samhain.

   29. JRJoe Rogan31:18

       Samhain?

   30. KSKevin Smith31:18

       Like, a little bit of metal. (singing) Meh, meh, meh, meh, meh, meh, meh, meh, meh.
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   Mm-hmm. …

   1. KSKevin Smith45:00

      lived in a, uh, a different section of Newark. And then he'd put on his custodian outfit and, like, clean the toilets, sweep the floors, and stuff like that. Noble, salt-of-the-earth shit. So my whole life, I never questioned this. You know, your wife says, "You, you quit," and you quit and stuff like that, until I became older, and I became something of the man in the ring myself. I know what it's like to stand, you know, at attention for everybody, where everybody... you are the focus of thousands, where you get a level of affection from a, from an... a v- one vociferous mass that you... is unparalleled from any amount of affection you could get from any other single human being in this world. It is... I've never done heroin, but I imagine it's better than heroin. It's one of the greatest drugs. It, it fuels us, and, you know, we obviously like it. We keep fucking doing it. We make money off it, yes, but there's many ways to make money. And we like it, and we do it because there's power to it, and it feels fantastic, and you feel like, "Man, they like me. They really like me." And then I started thinking, "Why would he have put that all to the side?" Like, how do you step outside all that just because your wife is like, "I don't want you to do that anymore"? And then it made me reconsider my grandparents. And I figured out... And I wanna see if you back me on this play. You don't know these cats, so you got no skin in the game-

   2. JRJoe Rogan46:25

      Mm-hmm.

   3. KSKevin Smith46:25

      ... so you can't offend anybody. Doesn't that sound like she did dirty shit that nobody else did?

   4. JRJoe Rogan46:32

      In the bed, you mean?

   5. KSKevin Smith46:33

      Yes, son. Where else but the bed?

   6. JRJoe Rogan46:35

      I didn't have that thought at all.

   7. KSKevin Smith46:37

      No?

   8. JRJoe Rogan46:38

      My, my thought is that he recognized that it's very dangerous, and he probably knew people who died. And, uh, he probably wanted to find a way out of it anyway, which most fighters do. Most fighters, uh, at some point in time, they realize, "I'm gonna have to jump off this ride one day. I can't stay on this ride until I'm a dead man, till I'm 90 years old or 100 years old. It's not feasible. It's does- it doesn't exist. There's no 98-year-old boxers out there."

   9. KSKevin Smith47:01

      You think he faced his own mortality?

   10. JRJoe Rogan47:03

       Every boxer does. Every fighter does. You, you, you hit someone-

   11. KSKevin Smith47:07

       He didn't have a great record. He was, like, 50-50.

   12. JRJoe Rogan47:07

       ... and you see them get hurt. Well, then he's probably been hurt. You see people get hurt. You see people get pummeled. You see people get knocked out. Maybe you've been knocked out yourself. And you realize that this is something that is unsustainable. And if he's not making any money at it, it's extremely dangerous. And you start, you know, you start thinking what could happen to you. When you know what can happen to you, it happens to people. You see it happen. If it hasn't happened to you, you watch it happen to other people. If you're around combat sports enough, you're gonna see people get fucked up. And when you see people get fucked up, you realize, like, "Hey, this is voluntary. There's other ways to make a living. I don't have to do this anymore. I can get off this ride." Or you're the type of person that doesn't give a fuck, and you wanna be a champion. And your, your thought is you are here for glory. You are here for a legacy. You're here to leave your mark. You wanna go down in history as a great. And if you don't feel that way, I tell people to get out. D- I think fighting is one of the most singular pursuits a person can get into-

   13. KSKevin Smith48:07

       Yeah, it's like you're giving-

   14. JRJoe Rogan48:09

       ... where I don't think-

   15. KSKevin Smith48:09

       ... you're not only giving, like, the, uh, the, "I'm dedicating myself to something."

   16. JRJoe Rogan48:12

       Yes.

   17. KSKevin Smith48:12

       You're de- giving your body-

   18. JRJoe Rogan48:14

       Yes.

   19. KSKevin Smith48:14

       ... something that, like, you're taught your entire life, "Protect this."

   20. JRJoe Rogan48:17

       It's also the, the consequences are so grave. The consequent zigging and zagging. You, you go r- the wrong way, you run into a knee. Wrong way, you run into a head kick. Wrong way, you run into a punch. You know, you, you duck into an uppercut. Your fucking lights go out. You're laying on your back with, uh, they've got a flashlight in your face and ice on the back of your neck. And you, you don't even know what day it is. You don't know what... And then that you never get back. And you can only get so many of those your life. You know, there's... It depends on the person, but you get knocked out three, four, five times, whatever the number is-

   21. KSKevin Smith48:51

       Mm-hmm.

   22. JRJoe Rogan48:51

       ... there's a certain number that your life is going to be fucking different now, because now your brain doesn't work good anymore. That's a fact. And maybe it'll get a little bit better over time. Maybe you can go through some cognitive therapy. There's some different things they're doing with magnets and different things they're doing with stem cells, where they're shooting 'em straight into your, uh, cerebral spinal fluid. And they think that that might have some sort of a positive impact on CTE. But man, the, the reality is combat sports are a fucking brutal, brutal business. And, um, people-

   23. KSKevin Smith49:23

       So you think it's possible he just got to a place where he was, like-

   24. JRJoe Rogan49:25

       Yeah, he's probably smart.

   25. KSKevin Smith49:26

       Like, I'm- this is my perfect excuse to not-

   26. JRJoe Rogan49:29

       Yeah.

   27. KSKevin Smith49:29

       ... fucking hurt-

   28. JRJoe Rogan49:29

       'Cause he wasn't making any money doing it either, it sounds like.

   29. KSKevin Smith49:31

       I gotta tell you, he gave him his- he gave him his dignity back. I honestly was like, "He gave it all up because she gave up the ass." (laughs)

   30. JRJoe Rogan49:37

       (laughs) I doubt it.
5. 1:00:00 – 1:05:40

   Hmm. …

   1. JRJoe Rogan1:00:00

      knew, uh, (sighs) I knew somewhere around the time I was 19-

   2. KSKevin Smith1:00:05

      Hmm.

   3. JRJoe Rogan1:00:05

      ... that this was not... there was no future in this. And, uh, I was trying to make the Olympic team, um, which was, uh, the nationals were in Miami in 1988. And, um-

   4. KSKevin Smith1:00:16

      Wait, where are you from?

   5. JRJoe Rogan1:00:18

      Boston. That's where I was out of. So I was a Massachusetts state champion, and then, then I would go to these national tournaments and compete against, like, the sh- you know, the Illinois champion or the New Hampshire champion, um...

   6. KSKevin Smith1:00:30

      I gotta ask a question on behalf of somebody else. Hold on.

   7. JRJoe Rogan1:00:34

      (laughs) You got, you got a question stored?

   8. KSKevin Smith1:00:36

      Yeah, yeah, because I, I was talking to, you know, let me... Not 100%... Okay. (sighs) Your grandmother?

   9. JRJoe Rogan1:00:43

      Yes.

   10. KSKevin Smith1:00:44

       Named Josie?

   11. JRJoe Rogan1:00:45

       Yes.

   12. KSKevin Smith1:00:46

       Gerard Way?

   13. JRJoe Rogan1:00:48

       Yes.

   14. KSKevin Smith1:00:48

       Lead singer of-

   15. JRJoe Rogan1:00:49

       Yes.

   16. KSKevin Smith1:00:49

       ... My Chemical Romance.

   17. JRJoe Rogan1:00:50

       Yes. Yeah, we're related.

   18. KSKevin Smith1:00:52

       That's what he said.

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:00:53

       Yeah.

   20. KSKevin Smith1:00:53

       I was like, "I'm going to Joe Rogan." He goes, "I don't have 100% confirmation on this, but I'm pretty sure Joe Rogan is my cousin."

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:00:59

       Yeah, we're cousins.

   22. KSKevin Smith1:00:59

       "I think my Aunt Josie was his grandmother."

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:01:01

       Yeah, I don't know him, but we're cousins, yeah.

   24. KSKevin Smith1:01:03

       How crazy that two people in the same family became super fucking famous and don't even-

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:01:09

       Yeah, we don't know each other. (laughs)

   26. KSKevin Smith1:01:11

       That's not... You gotta have him on. He's fascinating. He's good.

   27. JRJoe Rogan1:01:14

       Yeah, it'd be cool.

   28. KSKevin Smith1:01:14

       He'd be a good, great guest.

   29. JRJoe Rogan1:01:15

       Yeah.

   30. KSKevin Smith1:01:15

       Um, that, and plus, like-

Episode duration: 1:59:45