Joe Rogan Experience #1418 - Don Gavin

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   ... three, two... Hello,…

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:00

      ... three, two... Hello, Don Gavin.

   2. DGDon Gavin0:05

      Hello, Joe Rogan.

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:06

      Good to see you, sir.

   4. DGDon Gavin0:07

      It's good to see you. It's been a long time.

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:08

      Pleas- Yeah, it's a pleasure to get you on here, man.

   6. DGDon Gavin0:10

      I'm thrilled to be here.

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:11

      We've talked about you, uh, I don't know how many times. Many times.

   8. DGDon Gavin0:14

      I've heard that from, from my son. He says you mention my name glowingly, is the word he uses.

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:19

      Yeah, well, hey, man, you were a giant inspiration to me when I was, uh, coming up-

   10. DGDon Gavin0:23

       That's good to hear.

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:24

       ... when I was a kid. Well, you know, I've talked about this so many, many times, but that era of, uh, Boston comedy, when I started in '88, and, uh, you guys had already been through the Ding Ho and all that's, uh, been gone. And it was the heyday of comedy. It was an amazing time, and, you know, I was very fortunate to be able to see guys like you and, and Sweeney and, you know, and all those guys. Mike Donovan and Kevin Knox, and I mean, you can go down the list over and over and over again. Lenny Clarke, and just an amazing time for, for standup back then.

   12. DGDon Gavin0:55

       Yeah, that was certainly the heyday. Uh, I came in, I started at around '79 and had been going on for one or two years, but going on meaning not much going on, you know. And then it built and built and built, and then to the point that, uh, that explosion, as you said, uh, wow. It... And, and I, I always like to think people talk about a Boston style, there wasn't a Boston style other than being very aggressive maybe.

   13. JRJoe Rogan1:20

       Yeah.

   14. DGDon Gavin1:20

       Uh, there were... But everybody had different ways of doing, because we didn't know.

   15. JRJoe Rogan1:24

       Yeah.

   16. DGDon Gavin1:24

       It wasn't like an LA style or a New York style. There was just d- all different approaches coming out to the same end, you know?

   17. JRJoe Rogan1:30

       Yeah, you started in '79, so that was really, like, the beginning of comedy clubs, right?

   18. DGDon Gavin1:36

       Yeah. Well, they weren't even comedy clubs. You mentioned the Ding Ho. Ding Ho used to be a, uh, like a saloon, and (laughs) the guys that were sitting at the bar when we first went in there, they refused to leave. So they stayed at the bar and all they would do is when we put somebody on the... uh, up on the stand, you know, they'd turn around and say, "Hey, shut the fuck up, we're trying to drink here."

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:55

       (laughs)

   20. DGDon Gavin1:56

       You know, and we couldn't get... we couldn't get rid of them, so finally we wheeled it out because they got so tired of hearing the microphone or the... But that was, that was a... just a little... a joint, that's all you can say.

   21. JRJoe Rogan2:06

       Just-

   22. DGDon Gavin2:06

       And it became a Chinese restaurant there. Yeah.

   23. JRJoe Rogan2:08

       So it wasn't a Chinese restaurant at first?

   24. DGDon Gavin2:09

       It was just a saloon, I think, you know, and that... And then suddenly this guy came in, there's a... there was approach to put comedy in there, and Barry Crimmins was one of the guys originally, and Lenny, myself, Sweeney, as you mentioned.

   25. JRJoe Rogan2:20

       Yeah.

   26. DGDon Gavin2:21

       DJ Haz and people like that. Uh, Jimmy De- Tingle.

   27. JRJoe Rogan2:24

       Yeah.

   28. DGDon Gavin2:25

       There was a bunch of us that came in at that time. And once again, no particular one style.

   29. JRJoe Rogan2:30

       Yeah.

   30. DGDon Gavin2:30

       Other than the fact that we kind of created that the headliner would be the host.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   Yeah, the in- from…

   1. JRJoe Rogan15:00

      like, imagine s- an art form that takes over the entire country, and it really only started in the year 2000.

   2. DGDon Gavin15:06

      Yeah, the in- from the inception-

   3. JRJoe Rogan15:07

      That's what it'd be like.

   4. DGDon Gavin15:08

      The e- from the inception to the explosion-

   5. JRJoe Rogan15:10

      Yeah.

   6. DGDon Gavin15:10

      ... it was not a mature, uh, t- uh, art form at the time.

   7. JRJoe Rogan15:14

      No.

   8. DGDon Gavin15:14

      Maybe 10 years, 12 years.

   9. JRJoe Rogan15:16

      Right. You got Lenny Bruce in the '50s.

   10. DGDon Gavin15:18

       Right.

   11. JRJoe Rogan15:18

       George Carlin in the '60s, Pryor, you know, and then all of a sudden, you're in the 1980s. This is ... it's a f- couple of decades.

   12. DGDon Gavin15:26

       Right.

   13. JRJoe Rogan15:26

       And these clubs were fucking packed. I mean, I really wish somebody had done a documentary on it back then because it was-

   14. DGDon Gavin15:33

       Right.

   15. JRJoe Rogan15:33

       ... such a strange time.

   16. DGDon Gavin15:35

       Yeah.

   17. JRJoe Rogan15:35

       If you could get real footage of wh- I know Fran Solomita had that one documentary-

   18. DGDon Gavin15:39

       Yes, when standup stood out.

   19. JRJoe Rogan15:40

       ... when standup stood out.

   20. DGDon Gavin15:40

       Yeah.

   21. JRJoe Rogan15:40

       But, uh, I would like to have just shown, like, how crazy it was.

   22. DGDon Gavin15:45

       But people were scalping tickets.

   23. JRJoe Rogan15:46

       Yeah.

   24. DGDon Gavin15:47

       Does ... I'm ... It's a ... I said, "Oh my god, this is ..."

   25. JRJoe Rogan15:49

       But it wasn't anywhere else like that. Chicago never had an explosion like that. Boston had the weirdest explosion.

   26. DGDon Gavin15:55

       Yeah. And there was a multitude of people that were talented.

   27. JRJoe Rogan15:59

       Yes.

   28. DGDon Gavin16:00

       It wasn't just f- uh, you know, a few. There was a, a lot. 'Cause I used to go down to New York, and, uh, New York City had a scene and they got ... and now they had a scene, but not- nothing as expansive as that. And, and while ... I started after those two had already been done, you know?

   29. JRJoe Rogan16:14

       Yeah, the Boston scene was a different animal-

   30. DGDon Gavin16:16

       Yeah.
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   (laughs) …

   1. DGDon Gavin30:00

      reasonably funny i- in life, and then as a bartender, I was a wise guy bartender, you know? And, uh, like for instance, people would sit... I only had 22 seats. Four guys would sit and say, "What's your cheapest beer?" I said, "Root beer." "Get the fuck up. Screw." You know?

   2. JRJoe Rogan30:14

      (laughs)

   3. DGDon Gavin30:14

      You know? I said, those seats, I said, "If you tip me $20 before you order, then you can sit there." And then people would do it. And so, so that kind of, that kind of mushroomed that, that way there, but yeah, it was, uh, uh, it was again the same aggressive bullshit thing, so then i- it was easy to carry that on into the, onto the stage.

   4. JRJoe Rogan30:30

      Well-

   5. DGDon Gavin30:30

      But I had never been on a stage. I thought it was kind of, uh, like you were, were, uh, feebish type people, you know, doing stage stuff, you know?

   6. JRJoe Rogan30:38

      Yeah, I got, I got... I like how you danced around the words there (laughs) .

   7. DGDon Gavin30:41

      Yeah (laughs) . Fee- feebish, I think I made a word up even.

   8. JRJoe Rogan30:44

      (laughs) Yes.

   9. DGDon Gavin30:46

      Yeah.

   10. JRJoe Rogan30:46

       It was effeminate.

   11. DGDon Gavin30:47

       Yeah, well...

   12. JRJoe Rogan30:48

       Yes. It was not for manly men.

   13. DGDon Gavin30:50

       Yes.

   14. JRJoe Rogan30:50

       Yeah.

   15. DGDon Gavin30:50

       Not at all.

   16. JRJoe Rogan30:51

       Not in the theater.

   17. DGDon Gavin30:52

       But I was, and I was, I was playing basketball in college a- and I was waiting either to get picked up to go to the drama or whatever, and there was a play going on in, uh, you know, rehearsals at this college. And I'm watching them going, and it really pissed me off that two of the actors didn't really, didn't seem to be putting their e- e- effort into it. And I don't, I don't know why, but I'm going, "I can do better than that." So that was one of the things in the back of my head about being on the stage. But I had never been, I had never had a mic in my hand and I used to wear loose pants 'cause like th- they could see my legs shaking.

   18. JRJoe Rogan31:21

       (laughs)

   19. DGDon Gavin31:21

       Yeah, yeah. And that's why, you know, with my act, I sit on the stool most of the time so I, so that way they wouldn't see me, you know, in effect being, you know, for the first year or so being s- yeah.

   20. JRJoe Rogan31:30

       You shook that much?

   21. DGDon Gavin31:31

       I think so, yeah. Oh, that and the drugs. You know?

   22. JRJoe Rogan31:36

       (laughs)

   23. DGDon Gavin31:36

       ... and... but the, uh... and same thing with taking the mic out of the mic stand. I thought they... (imitates mic rattling) the rattling, and it... There's nothing worse than seeing a com... you know, up there doing, you know, this thing, bang, bang, bang, with the-

   24. JRJoe Rogan31:46

       Were the drugs there from the beginning?

   25. DGDon Gavin31:49

       Um, let me think. Pe- uh, pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much. I mean, it's like in the old, it's like in the old days, you know, the s- you know the story about your mother says, "Don't..." you know, gives somebody who offers you drugs, says, "Don't take them." I said, "Well, they don't offer you, you have to buy them." You know?

   26. JRJoe Rogan32:03

       (laughs)

   27. DGDon Gavin32:03

       So it's like- (laughs) but initially, you didn't have to buy them. That was the thing. Everybody, everybody was doing it, you know. It's like smoking. When I was growing up as a kid, 95% of people smoked and why? Because other everybody else smoked. You know, I stopped smoking in the year 2000. Mike Clarke and I had a bet and none of us... we haven't had a cigarette since. So, apparently it wasn't addictive, but everybody smoked. So the same thing in those days, everybody was either a drinker or doing the, doing the blow or, uh, smoking the bones and some... (laughs) You, you had at least two or three vices. A lot of, a lot of deck, deck chairs to throw off, you know?

   28. JRJoe Rogan32:36

       Did you have any of those vices before you got into standup?

   29. DGDon Gavin32:39

       Uh, no, I think it grew (laughs) it pretty much, uh, blossomed once I got in there, now that I think of it. Uh, yeah, I used to smoke. That was about it. But nothing, no, nothing else, nobody-

   30. JRJoe Rogan32:50

       Drinking?
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   No, no. …

   1. JRJoe Rogan45:00

   2. DGDon Gavin45:00

      No, no.

   3. JRJoe Rogan45:00

      That's for regular voices.

   4. DGDon Gavin45:01

      Oh, shit. Okay. Well, I'm, I'm still-

   5. JRJoe Rogan45:03

      (laughs) The accent's just too crazy.

   6. DGDon Gavin45:04

      I still have an accent, huh? Okay.

   7. JRJoe Rogan45:06

      Oh, yeah.

   8. DGDon Gavin45:06

      I didn't know.

   9. JRJoe Rogan45:06

      A little bit.

   10. DGDon Gavin45:07

       Yeah.

   11. JRJoe Rogan45:08

       Yeah. But y- y- the- the thing about, like, all those guys from that day is very few guys put things out. You know, Barry put out a couple specials and, uh, Louis C.K. produced one of Barry's specials. Lenny, of course, had a few things. He was on the Dangerfield special and-

   12. DGDon Gavin45:24

       Right.

   13. JRJoe Rogan45:25

       ... he did some stuff. But a lot of... Like, Donovan. Like, how do you go find Donovan's best stuff? You, like, you, you gotta go see him.

   14. DGDon Gavin45:31

       Yes. Yes. Yeah.

   15. JRJoe Rogan45:33

       That's, that's the craziest thing about Boston. It's like these guys are world-class stand-ups, some of the best that have ever done it, and there's no recordings.

   16. DGDon Gavin45:41

       Oh, I think the-

   17. JRJoe Rogan45:42

       There's no specials.

   18. DGDon Gavin45:42

       I think they w- I was not unique in, in the fact that I was not a businessman. We just-

   19. JRJoe Rogan45:46

       Yeah.

   20. DGDon Gavin45:46

       We just t- We did it for the... Not just for the love. We enjoyed the money and that- the spending money and whatever.

   21. JRJoe Rogan45:51

       Yeah.

   22. DGDon Gavin45:52

       But the... It really never entered my mind. Like Jimmy was asking about, you know, did I... How did I release these things or... I never... I don't know what you mean release it. I just made the- the thousand copies and I'd sell a few after a show and that... Never did anything with it, you know?

   23. JRJoe Rogan46:05

       You never thought once-

   24. DGDon Gavin46:07

       No, I'm an idiot. Right?

   25. JRJoe Rogan46:08

       (laughs) But you s- you must have seen all these HBO specials and all these different things.

   26. DGDon Gavin46:12

       Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, eventually. But-

   27. JRJoe Rogan46:14

       But you're never like, "Hey, I should do one of those."

   28. DGDon Gavin46:15

       Yeah, yeah. Maybe I'll... Yeah. Maybe there's... Maybe I'll get discovered, so...

   29. JRJoe Rogan46:19

       (laughs)

   30. DGDon Gavin46:19

       At, at the age of 106.
5. 1:00:00 – 1:00:33

   Yeah. (laughs) …

   1. JRJoe Rogan1:00:00

      the end of it, he was, uh, y- like, he said, uh, he goes, "Ladies and gentlemen, uh, thank you for coming tonight. I was amazing. You guys were pretty good."

   2. DGDon Gavin1:00:07

      Yeah. (laughs)

   3. JRJoe Rogan1:00:07

      And look, he just... The sarcastic, silly way of doing comedy. He was the best.

   4. DGDon Gavin1:00:13

      He fits in m- anywhere.

   5. JRJoe Rogan1:00:14

      Oh, yeah.

   6. DGDon Gavin1:00:14

      Yeah.

   7. JRJoe Rogan1:00:15

      But he fit in Boston like a glove.

   8. DGDon Gavin1:00:17

      Yeah.

   9. JRJoe Rogan1:00:17

      I mean, that's where I first saw him perform.

   10. DGDon Gavin1:00:17

       Well, he's a Philly guy.

   11. JRJoe Rogan1:00:19

       Yep.

   12. DGDon Gavin1:00:19

       And that same kind of thing. He was a pretty good jock at one time. He was a pretty good basketball player.

   13. JRJoe Rogan1:00:22

       Yeah, basketball player. Yeah, yeah.

   14. DGDon Gavin1:00:23

       Yeah, yeah. So, I... So he had some- kind of the same type of mentality as some of the, some of the people in Boston.

   15. JRJoe Rogan1:00:27

       He's still fucking great.

   16. DGDon Gavin1:00:28

       Yeah.

   17. JRJoe Rogan1:00:28

       He's still fucking great. He still kills The Comedy Store all the time.

   18. DGDon Gavin1:00:31

       Yeah.

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:00:31

       He's- and he's always on the road too.

Episode duration: 1:14:21