Joe Rogan Experience #1431 - Owen Smith

Joe Rogan 0:00 It is?

Owen Smith 0:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 0:01 Three, two-

Owen Smith 0:02 D-

Joe Rogan 0:02 ... one, boom. And we're live.

Owen Smith 0:04 Oh.

Joe Rogan 0:04 We're talking about yoga and-

Owen Smith 0:05 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 0:05 ... Russell Simmons?

Owen Smith 0:06 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 0:06 Russell Simmons, he moved to Bali because he's worried about them extraditing him?

Owen Smith 0:10 I don't know if he's worried, but I, I, and this is all-

Joe Rogan 0:12 Really?

Owen Smith 0:13 ... this is, I'm, this is all conjecture. This is what I've heard.

Joe Rogan 0:15 Right.

Owen Smith 0:15 But I, I, I just brought him up because, um, we, we had a yoga studio here.

Joe Rogan 0:20 Did he?

Owen Smith 0:21 Yeah, and he gave me a month free. A month free, high-end yoga thing, like you just show up in your clothes. They give you the mat, towels-

Joe Rogan 0:31 Really?

Owen Smith 0:32 ... blocks, everything, and everybody was awesome. And I went every day for a month and did yoga next to Russell Simmons.

Joe Rogan 0:39 Wow.

Owen Smith 0:40 And he was, like, amazing. And, uh, and I was, like, really feeling it. I felt great. And then, uh, all the stuff happened. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 0:51 (laughs) It's so easy to slide.

Owen Smith 0:53 Oh, man. Oh, man.

Joe Rogan 0:54 It's so easy to slide away.

Owen Smith 0:55 Yeah, man, I, I, I love that guy dearly. I have a funny story. What do you think is more important in standup, uh, to be polished or to be raw?

Joe Rogan 1:06 There's no more important thing. They're-

Owen Smith 1:09 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:09 They're both very important, but Joey Diaz is not polished at all-

Owen Smith 1:13 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:13 ... and he's the funniest guy that I've ever seen.

Owen Smith 1:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:15 No one's ever made me laugh harder.

Owen Smith 1:17 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:17 He's not polished. He's raw as fuck.

Owen Smith 1:19 He's just, but it's, but it's real.

Joe Rogan 1:20 But raw alone is not good because some guys, like Jeselnik is very polished-

Owen Smith 1:25 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:25 ... and he's very funny.

Owen Smith 1:26 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:26 You're very polished.

Owen Smith 1:27 Thank you.

Joe Rogan 1:27 You're very funny.

Owen Smith 1:28 Yes.

Joe Rogan 1:28 It's, there's no, there's no one thing, you know? It's like comedy is a, it's a art, you know?

Owen Smith 1:34 It's a art, right?

Joe Rogan 1:34 It's an expression of who you are. If you're a polished person and you try to come off raw, it's gonna look corny.

Owen Smith 1:40 So, so I, I brought that up because I am tw- I don't know, young 20s. Def Jam is having auditions. It just moved from New York to LA, and Beverly Hills was where they're taping, which was ironic in itself. And, uh, but I was raw. You, you remember those, when you go, "Hit it, DJ," and you have music cue, like, beats?

Joe Rogan 2:02 Yeah.

Owen Smith 2:03 (laughs) So I auditioned and, uh, Bushwick Bill, uh, was one of the judges. It was like a... I auditioned at All Jokes Aside in Chicago and I got picked, I was one of the people to get picked to tape Def Jam. First time I was ever flown out anywhere, first time I ever came to, was flown to Los Angeles. I had been here before, stayed at the Hotel Sofitel.

Joe Rogan 2:25 Whoa.

Owen Smith 2:26 But what happened is I got picked, I was raw, about three months went by. I went on a tour of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minneapolis, where none of those Def Jam jokes worked.

Joe Rogan 2:39 (laughs)

Owen Smith 2:41 So I started, like, getting polished a little bit, right?

Joe Rogan 2:45 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 2:46 So when I went to tape Def Jam, I did it and I got, I think, seven applause breaks, but I didn't get the standing ovation. And I remember when I got offstage, like one comedian said, "Way to keep him seated." (laughs) And Russell walked right past me, like I just wanted him to see me. So I knew I wasn't going to air, right? And I got... That was my first-

Joe Rogan 3:08 Wait a minute. You got seven applause breaks-

Owen Smith 3:09 Seven applause breaks.

Joe Rogan 3:10 ... and it wouldn't air?

Owen Smith 3:11 Well, I got a note, so I got a, I got my first rejection letter saying, "Thank you so much, but you, you're, you won't be airing." They aired R-

Joe Rogan 3:18 What?

Owen Smith 3:18 They aired Rodman and they aired two other people. And then, so I felt like shit, you know what I mean? Like for... I was just like, "Damn, am I Black enough?" Like the whole Black thing.

Joe Rogan 3:29 (laughs)

Owen Smith 3:29 Like, "Damn, I'm not a part of Def Jam. I wanna be touring. I, I can make those-

Joe Rogan 3:32 Right.

Owen Smith 3:32 ... audiences laugh." But I, what I auditioned with, it was straight from Maryland, like straight-

Joe Rogan 3:39 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 3:39 ... just raw, like all bravado. I wasn't talking about anything. And I went to these other cities and it was kind of like, I was kind of, like, finding my style, right?

Joe Rogan 3:49 How many years had you been doing it at that time?

Owen Smith 3:51 I was probably doing... I started at 19, but I, you, you know, that's, that's the college start.

Joe Rogan 3:57 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 3:57 And then you, uh, but I think I, I started doing it full-time at 22, and I was probably 26, so maybe four years. Uh, arrogant though, like-

Joe Rogan 4:05 (laughs)

Owen Smith 4:05 ... you know, if, if I was your feature act, I, I knew... I always kept a time clock. Sometimes I would go long, but I would, but I was, I was very proud of, like, if they said (claps hands) do 12, I would do 12. You know what I mean? That, that kind of thing.

Joe Rogan 4:20 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 4:20 And I was, I was getting standing ovations, but I wasn't talking about nothing. And then I started, like, doing these other states and I, I was like, "Okay, fine then." Don't get, don't get it. So my objection, my, I really needed Russell Simmons to like me, like, you know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 4:34 (laughs)

Owen Smith 4:34 He meant so much to the culture and to... And he just, when he just didn't see me, I just was like, "Damn." Years go by and it, it, the, the pain of it, like, diminishes, but it's still kind of in there, but it's, you know, it's like a Marvel villain. Like, you're like, "I gotta..." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 4:48 Yeah.

Owen Smith 4:49 "I must, uh..." But it kind of... So then Russell has another show and, um, I didn't even think I was going to get picked. My only goal was just to make him laugh 'cause he wa- he was at the audition and it was in New York. I was living in New York. He was there, and Stan Lathan was, was there. And, uh, this is years later, I found... I knew who I was, I knew what I was, you know, coming to say. I didn't know if it was gonna match their show. And, um, and, and, and what, and, um, and what I'm saying is, like, Def Jam prided itself on raw, like being raw, you know what I mean? And, and un- like, you know, a, a, a new voice, and then I w- I, so I didn't fit, like, what they were selling, you know? Uh, so then w- when I saw Russell on stage, I do my act, I see Russell grab his stomach and go over, so I'm, I'm good. If I get the show, I get it. If I don't get it, I'm good. I see Stan Lathan go. I see them do the whisper. I, I literally don't care if I, I get the show. I, I did what I set out to do, right?

Joe Rogan 5:47 Right.

Owen Smith 5:47 So all the other comics are staying back to schmooze and, "Hey, man..." Like, I left. I left. I didn't... I ended up getting the show, and this is the show now when Russell was sitting in the audience, and there are comics sitting up there and I'm doing my act and I was, I was talking about HBO Hung, that show about-... white dude with a big dick, for real? That's what we doing, like? (laughs)

Joe Rogan 6:07 (laughs)

Owen Smith 6:07 That's where we at now? And I did, like, the stereotype game and all this stuff and, and I did one joke, and I remember Russell got up and gave me a, gave me a pound in the middle of my set. It was like a-

Joe Rogan 6:18 Whoa.

Owen Smith 6:18 ... slow motion. And you could see all the comics, like ... And I was like ... So it was, like, the full circle of 24-year-old me, "Eh, beat it," and then-

Joe Rogan 6:27 (laughs)

Owen Smith 6:28 ... 32, 34-year-old me, maybe, Russ-

Joe Rogan 6:32 Hmm.

Owen Smith 6:32 ... was like, "Yo, my man." And then-

Joe Rogan 6:33 Right.

Owen Smith 6:33 ... I would go, uh, you know ... And then I was doing yoga with him for a little bit. But it- we, we never hung pos- it was just like, you know, it was just like ... I don't know, it was just like-

Joe Rogan 6:45 Did he-

Owen Smith 6:45 ... a full circle moment.

Joe Rogan 6:46 ... call you and say, "I'm giving you this month free yoga," or was it a part of doing the show?

Owen Smith 6:51 How did that happen? No, uh, he, he used to be at All Def, All, uh, he had a, he had All Def Digital. So he moved here, and, um, I think I went there to pitch him something. He was like, "Yo, nigga, you do yoga? You do yoga?" You know? (laughs) He was like-

Joe Rogan 7:05 (laughs)

Owen Smith 7:05 "... You th- (laughs) You used to come here?" And he just gave me a month free, and I was like, "Imma take it." And so every morning, I would wake up and drive, and I didn't know I was gonna be in his class. Like, Usher Raymond would be in there. He was flexible as hell, like-

Joe Rogan 7:14 Really?

Owen Smith 7:15 ... incredible. Yeah, like, all these people would be in there, and I was-

Joe Rogan 7:18 Usher can fight.

Owen Smith 7:20 I really started getting into it. Really?

Joe Rogan 7:21 Have you ever seen him train?

Owen Smith 7:22 No.

Joe Rogan 7:23 Usher has videos online of him training at Black House, and he's legit.

Owen Smith 7:28 Wow.

Joe Rogan 7:28 Like, he's a legit, skilled fighter.

Owen Smith 7:30 I believe it.

Joe Rogan 7:31 Like, he's got, like, real good hands. He can throw kicks, everything.

Owen Smith 7:35 Yeah. He is probably the Kobe of R&B.

Joe Rogan 7:39 Really?

Owen Smith 7:40 I feel like he outworks everybody. You know, when I saw him in yoga class, I was like, "Who else is doing this?" Like-

Joe Rogan 7:45 (laughs)

Owen Smith 7:45 In your field, you know what I mean? (laughs)

Joe Rogan 7:48 Right.

Owen Smith 7:48 Like, uh, I don't know.

Joe Rogan 7:50 Yoga is something you don't get any credit for doing.

Owen Smith 7:53 No.

Joe Rogan 7:53 'Cause it's, it's fucking hard as shit, but it seems like no big deal. Like if you say, "Oh, I ran seven miles today," people are like, "Whoa."

Owen Smith 8:00 Yeah, that's impressive.

Joe Rogan 8:00 If you say, "I did yoga today," they're like, "Pfft."

Owen Smith 8:02 Bitch ass was just-

Joe Rogan 8:03 "Bitch ass stretching-

Owen Smith 8:04 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 8:04 ... with some old ladies." (laughs)

Owen Smith 8:07 Dude, I ... That's ... But it's real, man. I, I, it ... I felt so good when I was doing it. And I, I, I don't think I, I didn't tell anybody I was doing it.

Joe Rogan 8:15 Ah!

Owen Smith 8:16 You know what I mean? Like, my wife knew I was going.

Joe Rogan 8:18 Yeah.

Owen Smith 8:18 But it is, it's a personal thing. It's like golf, right? It's a personal ... It's ju- it's just you against your body. And Russell, he would give me tips. You know, "It's, it's about breathing in difficult situations." He would always say that. And I've never forgot that, you know?

Joe Rogan 8:32 Hmm, it is about breathing.

Owen Smith 8:34 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 8:34 Yeah.

Owen Smith 8:35 Yeah. It's about breathing. That's what life is, like, life is gonna give you difficult situations, and if you don't remember to breathe, fur- you're fucked.

Joe Rogan 8:43 Yeah.

Owen Smith 8:43 That's kind of like the whole, the premise of it.

Joe Rogan 8:45 Well, I feel like we operate on a scale, and the least difficulty you have in your life, the more difficult it is to encounter real adversity. So when you give yourself voluntary difficulty, so, "I volunteer to work out hard, I volunteer to do jujitsu, I volunteer to do yoga, I've, I push myself to do these things," when actual, real-life difficulties come along, like, they're hard, but there's never a time in life where it's as hard as a 90-minute yoga class.

Owen Smith 9:17 Wow.

Joe Rogan 9:18 You're sweating like crazy. You barely can stand up. You're trying, your feet are cramping, your legs tramping, pouring sweat, pouring down on the mats. For, I mean, it's temporary. You know it's gonna end in 40, 50 seconds, whatever the pose is. But that mo- to, to just hang in there is so hard-

Owen Smith 9:38 Dude.

Joe Rogan 9:38 ... that I think it prepares you for other things, other than, like, the loss of a, a loved one or something like that. That's impossible to-

Owen Smith 9:44 Oh, man.

Joe Rogan 9:44 ... prepare yourself for. But just bullshit stress.

Owen Smith 9:46 Right.

Joe Rogan 9:47 Just regular life bullshit stress. Yoga class makes that stuff look like nonsense.

Owen Smith 9:51 Man.

Joe Rogan 9:51 If you're doing yoga on a regular basis.

Owen Smith 9:54 Yeah, well, I- I- I- it was something ... I'm consistently inconsistent.

Joe Rogan 9:58 (laughs)

Owen Smith 9:58 You know what I mean? But I'll go through a, a phase.

Joe Rogan 10:01 Yeah.

Owen Smith 10:01 So, before the Russell thing, I went to a hot Bikram class.

Joe Rogan 10:05 Yeah, that's what I do.

Owen Smith 10:05 And so I went to a hot Bikram, and this was when I was single, so I was basically just following the asses. Like-

Joe Rogan 10:11 (laughs)

Owen Smith 10:11 ... "Yo, where y'all going?" (laughs)

Joe Rogan 10:12 (laughs)

Owen Smith 10:12 "Y'all going? Hey," and I would go into there and, yeah, I remember it was a big room and everything was chill and, you know, I- I- I literally had never done this at all. I was literally pro- I just, you know, I don't know why, I don't know why. And I just remember they closed all the windows and they stopped the fans, and it started getting really hot. And I was doing the poses and I was shaking, and like you said, sweating profusely. And the only thing I knew was it was supposed to be a place of no judgment, they kept going, "It's, it's your journey, it's yoga practice, no judgment." The lady had the little mic thing, and she came over to me and she covered it and she whispered to me, "Are you all right?"

Joe Rogan 10:50 (laughs)

Owen Smith 10:53 I was like, "I'm feeling judged." I was like, "I'm really feeling judged right now." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 10:58 (laughs)

Owen Smith 10:58 That's how awful I must've looked. I was just, I, like, I couldn't ... And so I didn't really go back after that. My ego was bruised a little bit. And so I would do it at home sometimes.

Joe Rogan 11:10 Preparing to go back?

Owen Smith 11:11 (laughs) I was trying to practice yoga, son, so I could, so I could not get judged.

Joe Rogan 11:15 (laughs)

Owen Smith 11:15 And when I left, like, she was like, the teacher was, like, on the cover of the magazine in front. I was like-

Joe Rogan 11:19 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 11:19 ... "Damn." Like, "She-"

Joe Rogan 11:21 Legit.

Owen Smith 11:21 Like, yeah, and so, but why she did it, it was so funny. She was like, "Are you all right?" (laughs)

Joe Rogan 11:27 (laughs)

Owen Smith 11:27 I was, like, trying to, like, trying to show off for these girls, man, and it was terrible.

Joe Rogan 11:32 It's fucking hard, man.

Owen Smith 11:33 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 11:33 And, and the reason why they ask you if- if you alright is because sometimes people are not all right.

Owen Smith 11:38 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 11:38 Like, I've seen people almost black out where they have to lay down and-

Owen Smith 11:41 Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 11:41 ... 'cause it's n- 105 degrees in there. And if you're not used to that kind of exercise in that kind of temperature, if you have, you know, a per- if you're one of those people that just, that stuff gets to you and y- you can't hand-

Owen Smith 11:53 You could pass out.

Joe Rogan 11:53 ... can't handle it, yeah, you can-

Owen Smith 11:55 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 11:55 ... legitimately pass out.

Owen Smith 11:56 They don't need that. I remember, do you remember Bally's Gym?

Joe Rogan 11:59 Yeah.

Owen Smith 11:59 I remember-

Joe Rogan 12:00 Yeah.

Owen Smith 12:00 I used to live on, on, uh, so Bally's at the bottom of the hill, and I belonged to Bally's, you know. And, uh, I would go, you know, I went through a period-... so I'm going when it opens, and so I went, I think it opened at 6:00, maybe.

Joe Rogan 12:12 Damn, you were a 6:00 in the morning guy.

Owen Smith 12:14 I, I did that for a minute.

Joe Rogan 12:16 (laughs)

Owen Smith 12:16 Get there, there's a line outside, I'm like, "How come we can't go in?" And this lady, (laughs) this lady was like, "Somebody's dead in the pool."

Joe Rogan 12:22 Whoa.

Owen Smith 12:22 It was a dead body, like, floating in, in the Bally's.

Joe Rogan 12:25 Whoa.

Owen Smith 12:26 And then I never forget, this other lady goes, "At least he got out his contract." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 12:33 (laughs)

Owen Smith 12:33 Like, not even, not even gave a second to like-

Joe Rogan 12:36 (laughs)

Owen Smith 12:36 ... no moment of silence.

Joe Rogan 12:38 Uh-huh.

Owen Smith 12:38 'Cause Bally's was notorious for not letting you out.

Joe Rogan 12:41 Yeah.

Owen Smith 12:41 "At least he got out his contract." And then, uh, everybody still waited, and-

Joe Rogan 12:44 Well, 24 Hour Fitness is the weirdest one. They'll-

Owen Smith 12:47 Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 12:47 ... let you sign up for like 10 years for like a dollar a week.

Owen Smith 12:50 Hilarious.

Joe Rogan 12:50 They don't give a fuck.

Owen Smith 12:51 Nah.

Joe Rogan 12:51 They, they know you're not coming.

Owen Smith 12:53 Right.

Joe Rogan 12:53 They're like, "Oh yeah, yeah, yeah-

Owen Smith 12:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 12:54 ... we'll help you with your goals."

Owen Smith 12:56 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 12:56 "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're gonna get fit. You're gonna get jacked. We're gonna get ripped like Bobby over here. Look at Bobby."

Owen Smith 13:01 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 13:01 "Bobby shows up every day." And you're like, "Wow, I'm gonna be like Bobby." And then you just start eating chips.

Owen Smith 13:06 Yep.

Joe Rogan 13:07 Drinking soda.

Owen Smith 13:07 Immediately.

Joe Rogan 13:07 Never show up. It's a... I wonder, like, what are the percentage? I wonder if we can find this. What are the percentages of, of members in 24 hours, 24 Hour Fitness that actually go on a regular basis?

Owen Smith 13:19 I don't know.

Joe Rogan 13:19 I bet. They definitely don't share that. That's a great hustle. They wouldn't share it. No way.

Owen Smith 13:22 Wouldn't share that.

Joe Rogan 13:22 You're probably right, yeah. No way. 'Cause then people would go, "Why am I signing up for that?" Right. Yeah.

Owen Smith 13:26 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 13:27 Yeah.

Owen Smith 13:27 That's a great hustle, man. I did... I had, I had a 24 Hour Fitness for a moment, and then I would go and it would be so crowded, I would just go home.

Joe Rogan 13:33 Sometimes it's real crowded.

Owen Smith 13:34 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 13:34 Yeah.

Owen Smith 13:34 I'm like, "I can't even-

Joe Rogan 13:36 Yeah.

Owen Smith 13:36 ... I can't even do anything."

Joe Rogan 13:37 Then some of them, like, you couldn't use all of them too. You'd show up at one-

Owen Smith 13:41 Yes.

Joe Rogan 13:41 ... "Oh, you don't have that membership."

Owen Smith 13:42 Yes.

Joe Rogan 13:42 Like, "What are you talking about?"

Owen Smith 13:43 Equinox is like that too.

Joe Rogan 13:44 Ugh.

Owen Smith 13:45 I did Equinox for a second.

Joe Rogan 13:47 Now this is a 24 hour club sport.

Owen Smith 13:49 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 13:49 Like what?

Owen Smith 13:50 Yeah. I did Equinox for a second, I got to play basketball, uh, with Magic.

Joe Rogan 13:55 Really?

Owen Smith 13:55 Yeah, he was in there working out every morning.

Joe Rogan 13:58 Wow.

Owen Smith 13:58 This when I was on Arsenio too, so he had like-

Joe Rogan 14:00 So he'd just play a pickup game with people?

Owen Smith 14:02 No, I didn't get... He would, he would shoot around and I just kinda like made myself, like, available on the court. I'm just there when the ball went through the, through the rim, I went and got the rebound and I, I gave it to him and he shot another one, I got the rebound, I go...

Joe Rogan 14:16 (laughs)

Owen Smith 14:16 "I always wanted to rebound for you."

Joe Rogan 14:18 (laughs)

Owen Smith 14:18 And then I gave him a pass and he did the classic hook and he goes, "And now you got an assist." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 14:22 (laughs) That's hilarious.

Owen Smith 14:24 And so... And th- and then, uh... 'Cause a lot of basketball players would come up there and I would look at them like, "Man, I'm glad I couldn't..." Like, Magic is huge, man. Like-

Joe Rogan 14:32 Yeah.

Owen Smith 14:32 Have you seen him in person?

Joe Rogan 14:34 No.

Owen Smith 14:35 He's, he's huge.

Joe Rogan 14:36 Huge.

Owen Smith 14:37 And I'm 6'5". So-

Joe Rogan 14:38 Yeah.

Owen Smith 14:39 But his back is, is like... I, I... Like I had hoop dreams until I, I played against Grant Hill in high school. Grant Hill is 6'9" and it was a Christmas tournament and my mom was there and my girlfriend at the time. Uh, shout out to, uh... Well, I'm married now, only.

Joe Rogan 14:58 (laughs)

Owen Smith 14:58 But anyway, my girlfriend at the time (laughs) was there and, uh, I had a rah-rah section, you know? We were the home team and Grant Hill, uh, comes in and my coach had me check him. And I, I never, um... And I, I guarantee you he won't remember this, but, um, it's this thing called a crossover, right? And most people, if you cross over, I'm, I'm still in front of you. Grant was so long when he did... Put the ball from this hand to this hand, I (laughs) I had to literally slide two steps and then when he'd move back, I had to slide back two steps. And when he went up here, there was no way I could get up there.

Joe Rogan 15:36 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 15:36 And so I told my girlfriend, "Yo, go home."

Joe Rogan 15:38 (laughs)

Owen Smith 15:38 Like, "Y'all don't need to see this." He scored like 60 points. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 15:43 (laughs)

Owen Smith 15:43 He was shooting from half court, like he just looked at us like... I was like, "I, I'ma, uh, do well in school."

Joe Rogan 15:50 That's a fascinating thing when you see someone who's a world-class athlete-

Owen Smith 15:54 World class.

Joe Rogan 15:54 ... at the beginning of their journey, you know. This is in high school?

Owen Smith 15:57 High school.

Joe Rogan 15:58 Yeah.

Owen Smith 15:58 High school.

Joe Rogan 15:58 Beginning of their journey.

Owen Smith 16:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:00 Right? 'Cause he's really just getting-

Owen Smith 16:02 Really just getting started.

Joe Rogan 16:02 ... becoming a man.

Owen Smith 16:03 Yep, yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:03 He's not even really a man yet.

Owen Smith 16:05 Nope.

Joe Rogan 16:06 And but you see-

Owen Smith 16:07 See.

Joe Rogan 16:07 ... already-

Owen Smith 16:07 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:07 ... like they have that jump. I'm sure Jordan was like that. I'm sure... Well, isn't, wasn't Jordan, like, didn't make his high school team?

Owen Smith 16:13 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:14 Isn't that crazy?

Owen Smith 16:14 Yeah. Who cut him?

Joe Rogan 16:16 God.

Owen Smith 16:17 Yeah, you know, you know that coach had to... When he went home that night, had to talk to his wife like, "I think I made a terrible mistake."

Joe Rogan 16:23 But he probably didn't realize it because-

Owen Smith 16:24 Maybe.

Joe Rogan 16:24 ... at the time Jordan prob-... Well, Jordan is not the biggest guy in the world either, right? How tall is he? Is he 6'4"?

Owen Smith 16:29 He's 6'6".

Joe Rogan 16:30 6'6".

Owen Smith 16:30 6'6".

Joe Rogan 16:30 But compared to some of those giants, like when they're standing there. Like, Shaq is the most ridiculous human being I've ever met.

Owen Smith 16:35 He's incredibly tall, yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:36 His hands are as big as this table.

Owen Smith 16:37 Yes.

Joe Rogan 16:38 They just reach out-

Owen Smith 16:38 Yes.

Joe Rogan 16:39 ... and just swallow your arm.

Owen Smith 16:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:41 He's so big.

Owen Smith 16:42 Man.

Joe Rogan 16:42 He lives in my neighborhood.

Owen Smith 16:43 Oh, word?

Joe Rogan 16:43 Yeah.

Owen Smith 16:44 I, um, uh, I did a commercial with him. It never, it never aired. We did like a series of spots and, uh, he was like a big kid, man. He was so fun.

Joe Rogan 16:52 He's a fun guy.

Owen Smith 16:53 He was so fun.

Joe Rogan 16:53 I did Fear Factor with him.

Owen Smith 16:54 You did?

Joe Rogan 16:54 He did a whole episode with me.

Owen Smith 16:56 Oh, man.

Joe Rogan 16:56 Where he came in... 'Cause we did it in Orlando-

Owen Smith 16:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:58 ... and so he c- he, he was a fan, so he brought his whole family down. He had a bus. He brought a tour bus to hang out in.

Owen Smith 17:03 (laughs) He's so fun, man.

Joe Rogan 17:04 And then he, uh, you know, he did the thing like, "3, 2, 1, go." (laughs)

Owen Smith 17:09 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 17:09 And I'm standing next to him like a little six-year-old with my dad. It's hilarious.

Owen Smith 17:14 Yeah, he was-

Joe Rogan 17:14 But yeah, there's-

Owen Smith 17:15 ... so nice.

Joe Rogan 17:15 ... there's people that are just... They're different, man.

Owen Smith 17:17 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:17 They're just different level athletes. And I bet Jordan, as good as he was, you know, it probably... He needed that rejection to turn that burner on.

Owen Smith 17:27 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:27 To make him Jordan.

Owen Smith 17:28 Yeah, to make him focused.

Joe Rogan 17:29 The real Jordan. Yeah.

Owen Smith 17:30 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:30 And that's always gonna be a story, that he was cut from his high school basketball team.

Owen Smith 17:34 Yeah, he... I think he brought it up in his hall of fame speech also.

Joe Rogan 17:35 I think so too.

Owen Smith 17:36 Yeah, I love that.

Joe Rogan 17:36 The hall of fame speech when he kept shitting on all those-

Owen Smith 17:38 Classic. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 17:38 ... all the different writers. He remembered all of them.

Owen Smith 17:41 All of them.

Joe Rogan 17:42 Like, bro, you're Michael Jordan. Why are you even bringing these guys up? Nobody even cares.

Owen Smith 17:45 Wouldn't let it go. That's what made him great.

Joe Rogan 17:47 But that's why he's so great.

Owen Smith 17:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:49 That burning fire. They would say that if you beat him at pool, he would hate you for two weeks till he'd play you again.

Owen Smith 17:54 Amazing.

Joe Rogan 17:54 He used to have a pool tournament that he would do in Chicago every year and it was for charity. So he'd have all these celebrities come and play pool with him, but, you know, he wasn't a good pool player.

Owen Smith 18:03 Right.

Joe Rogan 18:03 He was like a... He was okay, but there's like real pool players out there that'll fuck you up, man.

Owen Smith 18:07 Tear your shit up, yeah.

Joe Rogan 18:08 And if he got beat, he would be furious apparently.

Owen Smith 18:11 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 18:11 Just couldn't handle it.But that's the case with everyone who's great at something. They don't wanna lose at shit. They don't wanna lose at backgammon, Parcheesi.

Owen Smith 18:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 18:20 Y- you know?

Owen Smith 18:20 Is that healthy at a certain point?

Joe Rogan 18:22 No. (laughs)

Owen Smith 18:25 (laughs) It's like, "Yo, Mike, turn that off, man."

Joe Rogan 18:27 It's so unhealthy.

Owen Smith 18:28 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 18:28 It's so unhealthy, but that's what makes them great. It's like, uh, there's, there's a pro and a con to everything, you know? I have this saying that I've always said that greatness and madness are next door neighbors and they borrow each other's sugar.

Owen Smith 18:41 Mm.

Joe Rogan 18:42 You can't be great-

Owen Smith 18:43 Mm.

Joe Rogan 18:43 ... unless you're a little crazy, and if, you can't be the best ever unless you're out of your fucking mind. And Jordan's clear. When you see him in that, that pr- that b- c- that, uh, speech when he's talking about the Hall of Fame, when he's talking about getting inducted and all the people that are wrong-

Owen Smith 18:59 Yes.

Joe Rogan 18:59 ... and all the people that... He's angry still.

Owen Smith 19:02 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:02 I mean, he's a crazy person. This is th- one of your great highlights as l- recognized the greatest basketball player of all time. Think about how many people have played basketball. Millions of people all over this country and millions of people around the world. There's one guy. If everybody says, "Who's the greatest basketball player," it's Michael motherfucking Jordan, right? I mean, you've got your other people-

Owen Smith 19:25 Yes, man.

Joe Rogan 19:25 You got your dissenters who say, "Well, I think LeBron's the best."

Owen Smith 19:28 They say LeBron.

Joe Rogan 19:29 "As this and that."

Owen Smith 19:29 I have a theory, I have a theory about that, I have a theory about that. So here's my thing. I feel like that's the wrong narrative. I feel like... M- so here's the... My, my, my friend and I, we w- we were talking about what is, um, greatness, right? Greatness is y- it's g- clearly the numbers and the accolades and the wins, but greatness is also being able to overcome great difficulty and still perform, right?

Joe Rogan 19:59 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 20:00 And so adding that into the formula, I feel like, out of everyone that's a part of the conversation, LeBron is the only one who never met his dad.

Joe Rogan 20:13 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 20:13 Like, Jordan knew his dad. Kobe, rest in peace, his dad played in the NBA. Magic knew his dad. Kareem knew his dad. It's a thing, you know? LeBron, tallest dude in Akron, walking around every day, y- y- he see another tall dude, he had to be like, "Dad, is that..." (laughs) You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 20:32 (laughs)

Owen Smith 20:33 Like, just mentally...

Joe Rogan 20:34 Right.

Owen Smith 20:35 And, like, who taught him the game? Like, Jordan had these great teachers and all that.

Joe Rogan 20:38 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 20:39 So I feel like the question should be... Michael Jordan is clearly the greatest of all time with two parents, but with one parent, LeBron is the greatest and Kevin Durant is, like, a s- uh, uh, coming up-

Joe Rogan 20:52 That's an interesting way of looking at it.

Owen Smith 20:53 Just because you, it'd be, it's different starting lines, you know?

Joe Rogan 20:56 But there's so many different variables that take place-

Owen Smith 20:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 20:58 ... in your life from birth to death. To just isolate one factor, like not having a father.

Owen Smith 21:04 Well, I'm, but I mean, it's like, all of m- Jordan talked about when he got cut from his team, his dad was the one who pushed him.

Joe Rogan 21:13 Mm.

Owen Smith 21:13 Like, he was his greatest-

Joe Rogan 21:15 Right.

Owen Smith 21:15 ... motivator. Like, he had that. Like, who was doing that for LeBron?

Joe Rogan 21:19 LeBron.

Owen Smith 21:20 Who taught him the game like-

Joe Rogan 21:22 Yeah.

Owen Smith 21:22 ... Jordan went to NC State where Dean Smith was one of the greatest, you know? Jor- everyone talks about Jordan's fundamentals. Where did LeBron learn this from?

Joe Rogan 21:31 Mm.

Owen Smith 21:32 Who was teaching him this stuff? And if, and so it's, it's just a different space. And, and, and, and-

Joe Rogan 21:38 So it's almost like saying-

Owen Smith 21:39 ... and I relate to LeBron because I, I was raised by a single mom, so I recognize myself more in him than in Jordan.

Joe Rogan 21:49 Mm.

Owen Smith 21:49 And it's, it's a, it's a very s- y- you know, uh, nuanced, uh, thing. But I feel like when people go, "Who's the greatest?" I'm like, "Man, the dude had two parents." Like-

Joe Rogan 21:59 Ugh.

Owen Smith 21:59 ... it's like, yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah, of course.

Joe Rogan 22:01 That's funny.

Owen Smith 22:01 It's like if you... I, I wish that all-

Joe Rogan 22:03 But, but what about motivation? The, the, the thing about having two parents versus one, is there's something about having one parent that gives you this insane motivation to drive, this drive to succeed. That's a, that's a c-

Owen Smith 22:14 (coughs)

Joe Rogan 22:14 ... a factor in a lot of people. That was a factor in me-

Owen Smith 22:16 Y- yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:17 ... growing up because I didn't grow up with my dad.

Owen Smith 22:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:19 And n-

Owen Smith 22:19 Oh, you didn't? Okay.

Joe Rogan 22:19 Not knowing my dad, I've talked to my dad since I was seven years old.

Owen Smith 22:22 Okay.

Joe Rogan 22:22 So that and the fact that I knew him-

Owen Smith 22:25 Right.

Joe Rogan 22:25 ... up until I was six and then didn't talk to him for the rest of my life-

Owen Smith 22:29 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:29 ... that fucked with me.

Owen Smith 22:30 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:30 And that-

Owen Smith 22:31 So we're similar in that space.

Joe Rogan 22:31 There's, there's a part of that-

Owen Smith 22:32 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:32 There's a part of that that would make you like, "I'll show you motherfuckers." Like, "You guys don't think I'm worth anything? I'll show you."

Owen Smith 22:38 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:38 Like, there's something that... Like, Mike Tyson had that, like, a lot of people had that.

Owen Smith 22:43 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:43 A lot of, a lot of great athletes had terrible upbringings and it's almost a positive factor.

Owen Smith 22:48 Right.

Joe Rogan 22:49 You know, you could say that Jordan's dad was a positive factor in... That, that would, that can work as well. But it also, sometimes it could be a positive factor to be ignored. Having a difficult childhood-

Owen Smith 22:59 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 22:59 ... can actually be a positive factor.

Owen Smith 23:00 Oh, definitely. I mean, look, LeBron's a billionaire. It, clearly-

Joe Rogan 23:04 Yeah.

Owen Smith 23:04 ... it was a positive factor.

Joe Rogan 23:05 It h- it worked out.

Owen Smith 23:05 But I'm j- I'm just saying. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 23:07 (laughs)

Owen Smith 23:07 I'm, definitely it worked out.

Joe Rogan 23:08 Yeah.

Owen Smith 23:09 I'm, I'm just saying in the debate of-

Joe Rogan 23:10 I know what you're saying. I-

Owen Smith 23:11 ... who's the greatest.

Joe Rogan 23:11 Yeah, I know what you're saying.

Owen Smith 23:12 It's like, I mean, this dude had a different-

Joe Rogan 23:12 But I'm saying that it could, there's two different ways that could go.

Owen Smith 23:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:16 But it's also like, they're d- they're playing in different eras. That's a f- that's a f- like-

Owen Smith 23:21 Yeah, for real.

Joe Rogan 23:21 Did you see the Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder fight?

Owen Smith 23:23 I saw clips.

Joe Rogan 23:24 Holy shit.

Owen Smith 23:24 Oh my gosh. Were you there?

Joe Rogan 23:26 No.

Owen Smith 23:26 Oh my gosh.

Joe Rogan 23:26 No, I watched it at home. Holy shit.

Owen Smith 23:29 How big is Fury though?

Joe Rogan 23:30 Holy shit.

Owen Smith 23:30 Fury's six...

Joe Rogan 23:31 6'7".

Owen Smith 23:31 Almost 300 pounds?

Joe Rogan 23:32 No 6'9".

Owen Smith 23:33 6'9".

Joe Rogan 23:33 Deontay's 6'7", Fury's 6'9".

Owen Smith 23:36 Whew.

Joe Rogan 23:36 6'9", 270 pounds.

Owen Smith 23:39 (exhales)

Joe Rogan 23:39 And he just fig- he said he figured out in the first fight that Deontay... In the 12th round, he started backing Deontay up. Deontay can't fight backing up 'cause Deontay is a guy who pushes forward-

Owen Smith 23:51 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 23:51 ... and he's got this ridiculous power.

Owen Smith 23:53 Right.

Joe Rogan 23:53 And everybody's scared of his power, so everybody's moving all the time. And Fury realized in the 12th round after Deontay knocked him down, almost knocked him out.

Owen Smith 23:59 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 24:00 He got up and started chasing Deontay, and Deontay fought sloppy. He d- he said he looked awkward. He said his footwork didn't look so good. His-

Owen Smith 24:08 Technique.

Joe Rogan 24:09 Yeah, well it's... Deontay is known as being this guy who's got an eraser. His right hand's like an eraser.

Owen Smith 24:15 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 24:15 All the mistakes... Teddy Atlas put it this way, "All the mistakes of the previous rounds all get erased with one punch." Blah.

Owen Smith 24:21 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 24:21 He just shuts people's lights out.

Owen Smith 24:23 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 24:23 And he has that confidence that he has that eraser power. But what Tyson Fury realized, like, "Look...Tyson doesn't fight that way. Tyson Fury fights on his toes, he sticks and moves, he's doing a lot of head movement and a lot of, a lot of, like, shucking and jiving, and he, he, it makes it very difficult for you to figure out what he's doing. Like, is he going here, is he going there? Is he moving, is he jabbing? He'll come at you like this with two, three fake jabs, then a jab and a right hand. He'll throw a right hand to the body, then he'll throw a left uppercut, he'll step to the side of you, he'll throw a right hand. He'll move out of the way, he'll pop you with a jab as he's moving away. He's, like, a very technical, like, really sophisticated boxer. If you look at the movement that he does, for someone as big as him, it's really kinda crazy. And it's not that he couldn't step forward and smash people and knock people out, it's just he knows the sweet science.

Owen Smith 25:11 Yes.

Joe Rogan 25:12 You know? He knows the sweet science. But then he realized, for this fight, he had to fight a different way. To, to shock Deontay, he had to come at Deontay full blast, get in his face from the, from the jump, and that's exactly what he did. He also trained ch- changed trainers and he went with Sugar Hill, who's a, uh, Kronk trainer. Kronk is where Tommy Hearns came from.

Owen Smith 25:34 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 25:35 Um, you know, Gerald McClellan, some of the great, uh, like, knockout artists of the past. And Kronk Gym, from Emanuel Steward, was known as being a very offensive style of fighting. They have heavy jabs. They don't touch you with the jab, they're smashing with the jab. Big power in the right hand. Like, Kronk was a, a, an attacking, aggressive style. Like, they were all known, like, they would wear those Kronk shorts, those yellow, golden shorts. You saw a guy with his Kronk shorts on, that motherfucker came to kill you.

Owen Smith 26:02 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 26:02 And they, they fought-

Owen Smith 26:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 26:04 ... in, um, when they would... In the gym, Emanuel Steward would turn the, the heat up to 100 degrees. So when they were doing, they were doing, like, hot yoga in, in the fucking-

Owen Smith 26:12 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 26:12 ... Kronk Gym.

Owen Smith 26:13 Oh.

Joe Rogan 26:13 Because he wanted to build up endurance in these guys. So when you would go into the Kronk Gym in Detroit, it was hot as fuck. Like, really hot. And that's how he would force everybody to train under extreme duress. He was, uh, uh, amazing, amazing trainer. He's the guy who r- rejuvenated Vladimir Klitschko. When Vladimir Klitschko was falling apart (clears throat) 'cause he had gotten KO'd a few times, he, his style just... He didn't have, like, an American style. He had this, like, sort of straight up European style.

Owen Smith 26:44 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 26:45 And Emanuel Steward just shifted his style and, and just made him concentrate on utilizing that long reach and the big power, that long jab. So when Tyson Fury (clears throat) went with a Kronk trainer for this, like, he, he was v- dead serious. He was going for seek and destroy.

Owen Smith 27:01 I love that.

Joe Rogan 27:01 He told everybody that's what he was gonna do, too. But nobody believed him. Everybody thought it was just a hustle. Like him saying-

Owen Smith 27:06 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 27:07 ... "I'm gonna knock out Deontay Wilder. I'm gonna come after him."

Owen Smith 27:10 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 27:10 "I'm gonna knock him out in two rounds," everybody's like, "You're outta your fucking mind." Even Deontay was like, "You don't believe a word you're saying. You're just talking."

Owen Smith 27:16 Ah.

Joe Rogan 27:16 "You're not gonna try to knock me out." And that's exactly-

Owen Smith 27:19 That's the best though, he figured out the puzzle.

Joe Rogan 27:20 ... what he did. He figured out the puzzle.

Owen Smith 27:21 That's the most...

Joe Rogan 27:21 In the 12th round of the first fight, he just realized when he had him backing up-

Owen Smith 27:25 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 27:25 ... he's like, "Oh, this guy stumbles on his feet. He gets all awkward," and he got him backing up.

Owen Smith 27:29 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 27:30 So he just, just-

Owen Smith 27:31 He stuck that L.

Joe Rogan 27:32 ... stuck to him like glue.

Owen Smith 27:33 He took that L. That's what I wanted to talk to you about. Um, I wanna start fighting, man. No, no.

Joe Rogan 27:38 (laughs)

Owen Smith 27:40 (laughs) My son needs to know. No, no, no, no.

Joe Rogan 27:44 (laughs)

Owen Smith 27:44 No. (laughs) I wanted to talk to you about... First, I wanna thank you, 'cause you've been very kind, uh, about just promoting my standup on this platform.

Joe Rogan 27:50 Oh, you're welcome. Dude, I'm, I'm-

Owen Smith 27:52 And, uh...

Joe Rogan 27:52 ... a huge fan.

Owen Smith 27:52 Thank you, man. And, uh-

Joe Rogan 27:53 You don't make any sense to me.

Owen Smith 27:55 I know.

Joe Rogan 27:55 You are one of the best comics in the world.

Owen Smith 27:57 Thank you.

Joe Rogan 27:57 And the fact that people don't know who you are, you should be filling arenas.

Owen Smith 28:01 So I- so this is what I'm doing. Uh, I made something and I wanna give it to your viewers so they can watch it and judge for themselves if they just go to textowen.com.

Joe Rogan 28:12 Textowen.com (claps)

Owen Smith 28:13 Textowen.com. I'll send you some never before seen standup of mine. If you, if you, if you fuck with it, then we see what happens. And I'll check back with you a little bit later. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 28:23 Oh, there we go.

Owen Smith 28:24 Yeah, you go to that? You do that?

Joe Rogan 28:26 (clears throat) You're doing, uh, the improv with me Wednesday, right?

Owen Smith 28:28 I am.

Joe Rogan 28:28 The late show.

Owen Smith 28:28 I am.

Joe Rogan 28:28 This Wednesday.

Owen Smith 28:29 The late show.

Joe Rogan 28:29 Beautiful.

Owen Smith 28:29 But, uh, yeah, come hit me with that. I'll text you back.

Joe Rogan 28:32 Beautiful.

Owen Smith 28:32 And then after this podcast, see how many people, whatever, and I'm gonna send you some never before seen standup. If you haven't seen me, you're not familiar with me, if... And, um...

Joe Rogan 28:40 Dude, it's gonna break your phone.

Owen Smith 28:41 Hey, man.

Joe Rogan 28:42 (laughs)

Owen Smith 28:42 I- I- that's, that's my prayer.

Joe Rogan 28:43 (laughs)

Owen Smith 28:43 You know what I mean? 'Cause, uh, you, you don't understand the, the... Your, your, your kind words, how it's, uh, affect- affected my life in a great way. Uh, it's... I've felt like Vladimir Klitschko, basically, as, as far as, like, comedy is concerned. And then when you would be like, "Dude, your shit," I'm like, "For real?" (laughs) Like-

Joe Rogan 29:04 Well, it doesn't-

Owen Smith 29:04 ... really, Joe?

Joe Rogan 29:05 ... it doesn't make sense to me.

Owen Smith 29:06 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 29:06 I, I know great comics, you know?

Owen Smith 29:08 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:08 (clears throat) Most comics, when they get to your, your level, they're famous. They're famous for being really great comics. When I see you on stage, like... I was watching the last time we worked together. And I forget who I was (clears throat) standing in the back of the room talking to, but I was like, "This doesn't even make any sense."

Owen Smith 29:23 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 29:24 I mean, he's so good. He should be headlining arenas. Like, I'm-

Owen Smith 29:28 That's my goal, yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:28 It's true. It's just like, your comedy is so polished and so... And I was talking to Tony about it. I was, uh... Tony Hinchcliffe.

Owen Smith 29:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:36 We were in the back watching once, I was like, "Look how economy of words." Like, you use just the right amount of words. Like, you have to fill in the blank, you make people fill in the blanks sometimes-

Owen Smith 29:46 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 29:46 ... and it makes things even funnier. Like, that, that's, that's all black belt shit, man. It's like-

Owen Smith 29:51 I love it.

Joe Rogan 29:51 ... you just spent so much time writing.

Owen Smith 29:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:54 You know? And writing for sitcoms and writing for movies. And I know it's been very lucrative for you and it's, it's great. And, you know, you're a great writer, there's no question about it.

Owen Smith 30:02 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:02 But you're a world-class standup.

Owen Smith 30:05 Thank you, man. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, everybody.

Joe Rogan 30:07 It's true.

Owen Smith 30:07 Go to textowen.com.

Joe Rogan 30:08 (laughs)

Owen Smith 30:08 We gotta get this going. 'Cause I'm serious, man, because it's like, I... You know how the business changed-

Joe Rogan 30:13 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 30:13 ... and, you know, I thought that if you just had quality work that, you know-

Joe Rogan 30:16 Yeah.

Owen Smith 30:17 ... it would... And then, it, it's, it's, it's, it's just changed to something that I-

Joe Rogan 30:20 The TV shit all went away.

Owen Smith 30:21 It all went away.

Joe Rogan 30:22 Yeah.

Owen Smith 30:22 And so, um... So we'll see. We'll see.

Joe Rogan 30:25 Yeah.

Owen Smith 30:25 I'm, I'm putting myself out there. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 30:28 Well, you gotta get a special. That's all it's gonna take for you.

Owen Smith 30:30 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:31 You know? Amazon or something.

Owen Smith 30:32 On a platform that people watch. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:33 Yeah.

Owen Smith 30:33 Netflix, if they would...

Joe Rogan 30:33 Netflix, someone's gonna step up.

Owen Smith 30:35 Yeah, that would be great. You know? Um...And so, we'll, we'll see. But I just wanted... I wanted to thank you, and-

Joe Rogan 30:41 (clears throat) Oh, my pleasure.

Owen Smith 30:42 ...we'll see what happens. Hopefully... Yeah. Break my phone, y'all. I wanna, I wanna-

Joe Rogan 30:44 (laughs)

Owen Smith 30:44 ...I wanna experience that. Right, right. (laughs) Right. Right.

Joe Rogan 30:47 (wailing sound) Because Comedy Central is... I mean, Comedy Central's great. I owe them a debt of gratitude.

Owen Smith 30:51 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 30:51 They put my special out in 2014 and 2009.

Owen Smith 30:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:55 But the reality is, it's like it's just not the same anymore. People aren't watching it like they used to watch it.

Owen Smith 30:59 Yeah, they lost the public trust somewhere.

Joe Rogan 31:01 Yeah.

Owen Smith 31:02 Somewhere.

Joe Rogan 31:02 Well, they put out a lot of bullshit shows.

Owen Smith 31:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 31:04 You know?

Owen Smith 31:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 31:04 This... They're, they're micromanaging things. There's a lot of people that are scared of anything controversial.

Owen Smith 31:09 Yeah. Somebody told me they fired a lot of people over there, but, you know-

Joe Rogan 31:12 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 31:12 ...you hear that and, uh, we'll see. We'll see what happens next.

Joe Rogan 31:14 Listen, they passed on Kyle Dunnigan Show.

Owen Smith 31:17 (sighs) Man.

Joe Rogan 31:17 Kyle Dunnigan-

Owen Smith 31:17 So funny.

Joe Rogan 31:18 ...he... That fucking shit that he does with Face Swap is the funniest shit on Instagram.

Owen Smith 31:23 Amazing.

Joe Rogan 31:23 He's the funniest man on Instagram, and there's a lot of funny shit on Instagram.

Owen Smith 31:27 Yes.

Joe Rogan 31:27 But his shit clear... Like, m- makes me cry. I cry sometimes watching his stuff.

Owen Smith 31:32 He's so funny. Yeah, he's so talented.

Joe Rogan 31:33 And he's s- he's a talented, creative guy, and the fact that they didn't pick that show up is... But I knew they were fucking it up already, because he showed me this one clip. It was Caitlyn J... You know, he does everything with face swaps, right?

Owen Smith 31:44 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 31:44 He had Caitlyn Jenner on top of Donald Trump, fucking Donald Trump.

Owen Smith 31:48 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 31:48 And it was hilarious, man. He shows it to me in the back room of the main room.

Owen Smith 31:53 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 31:53 I'm crying. Tears are coming down my eyes. We're laughing so hard, and he goes, "And get this, Comedy Central passed on that." I go, "What?"

Owen Smith 31:59 I know.

Joe Rogan 32:00 He said they s- "We c- we can't do that one." They said, "We ha- We can't do that one. It's too controversial." I go, "Controversial? That's what you do."

Owen Smith 32:06 Right.

Joe Rogan 32:07 "Everything you do is controversial, but it's s- it's so obvious that it's fake. It's funny because it's fa-..." It's like South Park.

Owen Smith 32:14 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:14 Like, "You fucking dummies, what is your most successful show?" South Park. What does... What does that show do? They don't give a fuck. They go all out.

Owen Smith 32:23 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:23 South Park has no boundaries.

Owen Smith 32:25 Right.

Joe Rogan 32:25 And it's one of the reasons why it's the greatest com... It's the greatest comedy show ever.

Owen Smith 32:29 Yo, man. You, uh, uh, that's the thing. That, the, that's the thing about creating and, and depending on invisible people to, uh-

Joe Rogan 32:38 Yes.

Owen Smith 32:38 ...approve it or get it. Because-

Joe Rogan 32:39 Yes.

Owen Smith 32:40 ...you don't know where the no is coming from.

Joe Rogan 32:41 Right.

Owen Smith 32:42 Like-

Joe Rogan 32:42 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 32:42 ...like, what you just said is an impassioned argument. If you could sit down with the, the decision maker and go, and, and just talk about it-

Joe Rogan 32:48 Yes.

Owen Smith 32:49 ...then maybe his show would've gone, but you, like, you don't know who anybody is. You write it. You know, you just go, "Uh, this is good." You know, and, uh... (laughs)

Joe Rogan 32:57 It's so hard because there's the people that are watching it and then, uh, judging whether or not they're gonna put it on television. First of all, they're not creative people. If they were, they would be doing what you're doing.

Owen Smith 33:05 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 33:06 They're executives.

Owen Smith 33:06 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 33:07 And they think they're smart. They think they understand comedy, and they also don't wanna get fired, and they don't... also don't wanna get in trouble, and they also wanna sell ads. There's so much fuckery going on.

Owen Smith 33:16 Yeah. You know what I wish I knew? I wish I knew what their man- they call it mandates, like, what their mandates are or what they're dealing with, eh, just so that... Because you get excited about something and you push and you go, "This is-"

Joe Rogan 33:29 Yeah.

Owen Smith 33:29 "...what I want to do." And it is. S- sometimes you go, "Oh, man, I don't think they're considering the actual audience-"

Joe Rogan 33:35 No.

Owen Smith 33:35 "...sometimes." So I don't... But I, uh, uh... You know, I don't know what they're considering, you know, and it can drive you crazy. It can drive-

Joe Rogan 33:44 It can drive you crazy.

Owen Smith 33:44 It can drive you crazy.

Joe Rogan 33:45 They're also seriously worried about woke culture. They-

Owen Smith 33:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 33:48 ...they wanna make sure, like... I've, I've had friends that wanted to pitch things, and they're like, "Where's the diversity?" You know?

Owen Smith 33:53 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 33:53 "We... You know-"

Owen Smith 33:54 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 33:54 "...we need a, a trans, biracial woman in this."

Owen Smith 33:57 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 33:57 "We needed this, we needed that." Like, hey, just concentrate on making it good.

Owen Smith 34:00 Make it great.

Joe Rogan 34:01 Just make it good. You know, the... I think your diversity-

Owen Smith 34:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 34:04 ...should be everybody who's good. Find people who are good. Don't exclude them because they're gay or trans or whatever, but don't include them because they are if they're not talented-

Owen Smith 34:12 Sure. Just to include insertion.

Joe Rogan 34:13 ...'cause that's not good. You g- you just need good. You know, w- it would be nice if it was easy for all those people of all different backgrounds to get up in stand-up comedy clubs and then get their career going. And I don't know w- uh, any situation. I mean, I'm so far removed from open mics, it's, uh, hard for me to even talk about it anymore.

Owen Smith 34:30 (laughs) We should do one. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 34:31 We should.

Owen Smith 34:32 We should do one.

Joe Rogan 34:33 We should. Just new shit.

Owen Smith 34:34 Let's film it. Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 34:35 Only do new shit. Hey, what ever happened to that thing we did where you, uh-

Owen Smith 34:38 Yes.

Joe Rogan 34:38 ...you... with the, the Notebooks-

Owen Smith 34:40 Notebooks.

Joe Rogan 34:40 Yeah.

Owen Smith 34:40 Um...

Joe Rogan 34:42 That was hilarious.

Owen Smith 34:42 So-

Joe Rogan 34:43 I couldn't believe I found those.

Owen Smith 34:44 So, dude, it was great. It was great, and I, I was, I was thinking of giving that to people when they text owen.com. So I shot six, edited four, and took it around town. A lot of people didn't get it. A lot of no's. The, the people who loved it the most was All Things Comedy.

Joe Rogan 35:00 Hmm.

Owen Smith 35:00 And they were like, "We wanna, you know, take this out." But I was partnered with somebody at the time. I had a manager at the time that they didn't connect with, so it kind of went away. And, uh, o- my wife... We were just talking about this. Like, this should be on TV. Like, it's such a clean, simple, fun idea.

Joe Rogan 35:18 Well, it should be on YouTube.

Owen Smith 35:19 It should be. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 35:20 Like that, that was my show.

Owen Smith 35:21 I, I, that was my initial plan. My initial plan was to put it on YouTube.

Joe Rogan 35:23 Why don't you put it on YouTube now?

Owen Smith 35:25 Um, I don't know. I just... I just-

Joe Rogan 35:27 Does somebody else own it?

Owen Smith 35:28 No.

Joe Rogan 35:29 A part of it?

Owen Smith 35:29 Me. It's all me.

Joe Rogan 35:30 Oh, you. Put it on YouTube.

Owen Smith 35:30 It's all me, all my IP.

Joe Rogan 35:31 Put it on YouTube. Put it on YouTube.

Owen Smith 35:31 And, uh... All right, I'll put it on YouTube.

Joe Rogan 35:32 Put it on YouTube.

Owen Smith 35:33 Will you, uh, will you, like, support it or tag it-

Joe Rogan 35:36 Fuck yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Owen Smith 35:36 ...or something? I don't know how that stuff works, man. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 35:37 I'll do all that shit. (laughs)

Owen Smith 35:38 You are gonna be like... You're like a genius back there.

Joe Rogan 35:40 (laughs)

Owen Smith 35:40 Like, "Why is he..." You don't understand, man. I'm so afraid of, uh... I'm not afraid of no, I just gotta get the first gut punch and then I'll keep going. You understand what I'm saying?

Joe Rogan 35:49 What do you mean?

Owen Smith 35:49 Like, something weird happened, man. W- I mean, my younger self, everything people are doing on Instagram, I did when I was 18, 19, 20, 21.

Joe Rogan 35:57 Right.

Owen Smith 35:57 Then you get a little bit older, you're like, "I don't w- wanna... What's this take? What's going on?" But when I, when I... When this idea-

Joe Rogan 36:03 That's how I feel about TikTok.

Owen Smith 36:04 Yes. See, there you go.

Joe Rogan 36:05 (laughs)

Owen Smith 36:05 So when this idea came to me, I thought... I can't think of the... I think his name is Chase Jarvis. I was looking at Chase Jarvis. I, I had never heard of this guy, but I used to watch his, his interviews, and he was always sponsored by, you know, something very cool. He's a photographer. And, uh, he had his own show. He shot it, like, in, in his home, and he would only average, like, 50,000 views. I'm like, "How is this guy doing this?" But I thought Notebooks could be something like that, that would speak to comedy fans. But my whole intention was to... 'Cause I felt like stand-up was being, like, homogenized.

Joe Rogan 36:40 Mmm.

Owen Smith 36:40 Like... Because when you would just do some of these shows, the set was built and you would just stand there and perform, but it was no way of an audience member to go, "I wanna follow this guy."

Joe Rogan 36:49 Right.

Owen Smith 36:49 "I wanna come see, see this woman or this guy live."

Joe Rogan 36:52 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 36:52 So I thought Notebooks... Uh, the show we're talking about is called Notebooks, and it's basically-... every comic, the one thing comics never throw away is their old notebooks. So I would sit, I sat down with Joe, I sat down with some other comics, they were writing-

Joe Rogan 37:03 I couldn't believe I found those.

Owen Smith 37:05 Wasn't it fun, man? And you start going through it.

Joe Rogan 37:07 Oh, my God.

Owen Smith 37:07 And you, I was wa- You gotta see it. You watch Joe go back to where he was when he was, like, performing it. I could see it on your face. I could see you've, like, remembered, like, where you wrote this stuff, where you came up with it. And it's just, I don't know, it just shows that this isn't... Like, we make it look easy, but it's, like, y- it shows the journey. It's also, like, a way of, like, appreciating. Like, 'cause sometimes we're hard on ourselves. It's like, "Damn, man, I..." You know what I mean? Like, and it's funny stories where you're like, "I thought this bit was gonna make me." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 37:38 (laughs)

Owen Smith 37:38 "This was gonna shut it down. This was my bring the pain," you know?

Joe Rogan 37:41 Right.

Owen Smith 37:41 And then we had to-

Joe Rogan 37:42 "This is my break in day." (laughs)

Owen Smith 37:42 Right, right, right. I mean, i- it's just... An- and because-

Joe Rogan 37:45 Right.

Owen Smith 37:46 'Cause I can listen to a comedian and tell how long they've been doing it.

Joe Rogan 37:49 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 37:49 You know? And I wanted to... I got to this place where I don't believe anybody sucks, I just believe they haven't found it yet.

Joe Rogan 37:57 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 37:58 And I'm i- I'm interested in, like-

Joe Rogan 37:59 Let me tell you something. There's some people that suck.

Owen Smith 38:01 (laughs) I knew you were gonna say that.

Joe Rogan 38:01 Don't get con- (laughs) Don't get confused.

Owen Smith 38:03 I didn't even say that. I didn't even say that.

Joe Rogan 38:04 Don't get con- 'Cause you, you can't grow plants-

Owen Smith 38:07 Oh, you know, I'm in a zed space.

Joe Rogan 38:07 ... in the sand.

Owen Smith 38:08 You just did yoga today, Joe.

Joe Rogan 38:09 Yeah, doesn't matter. There's, there's a reality of... There's a reality.

Owen Smith 38:13 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 38:13 There's a reality.

Owen Smith 38:14 Yeah. But I mean, but, but, but w- we became, w- we got into this space where now you'll wa- People post everything online, so you're watching them. Like, I have videos of me in San Antonio, Texas in 1996. Not great.

Joe Rogan 38:27 Right.

Owen Smith 38:27 But it's on a VHS tape in my basement. You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 38:30 People watching you grow.

Owen Smith 38:31 Right. People wa-

Joe Rogan 38:31 Yeah.

Owen Smith 38:32 But now that w- that would be on YouTube.

Joe Rogan 38:34 Yep.

Owen Smith 38:34 And people would be like... So when I did hit, some people would be like, "Man, I can't stand Owen," from something that they saw. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 38:39 (laughs)

Owen Smith 38:39 You know what I mean? It was like, I was figuring it out, man.

Joe Rogan 38:41 Yeah, of course. Yeah.

Owen Smith 38:41 I didn't know. I thought fart jokes were funny and, uh, I did 'em, you know? But-

Joe Rogan 38:45 You can't worry about that, though.

Owen Smith 38:46 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 38:47 That's, that's... You just gotta worry about what you're doing right now.

Owen Smith 38:50 Yeah, so I'm gonna put it out.

Joe Rogan 38:50 You can never worry about what you did.

Owen Smith 38:52 All right. I'm gonna put it on Notebook. I'm gonna put Notebooks out-

Joe Rogan 38:54 Yeah, definitely.

Owen Smith 38:54 ... on YouTube and, um-

Joe Rogan 38:56 Dude, we found, I found some shit from 1991.

Owen Smith 38:58 Right. It was fantastic.

Joe Rogan 39:01 That was crazy.

Owen Smith 39:01 So, all right, I'm gonna put that out.

Joe Rogan 39:01 So terrible. The writing was so bad.

Owen Smith 39:03 It was great, but that's what was great about it. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 39:05 I'm sorry. (laughs)

Owen Smith 39:05 And you were embarrassed when you were reading it. It was fantastic.

Joe Rogan 39:09 (laughs) But it just, I hadn't read it. I, it's not, I knew I had it.

Owen Smith 39:12 Right.

Joe Rogan 39:12 So I grabbed it and I brought it to you.

Owen Smith 39:14 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:14 But I hadn't looked at it before you and I were sitting there. I mean, I-

Owen Smith 39:17 That's the p- that's the point.

Joe Rogan 39:18 Yeah. So when I was going through it, I was like, "Oh my God, this is so bad."

Owen Smith 39:21 Yep.

Joe Rogan 39:22 The, thinking about, like, my 23-year-old self writing jokes.

Owen Smith 39:25 It's the best. And sometimes you find a gem.

Joe Rogan 39:27 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 39:27 Where you go, "Damn."

Joe Rogan 39:28 That might be good.

Owen Smith 39:29 Yep.

Joe Rogan 39:29 Yeah.

Owen Smith 39:30 And, you know, there's some bits you bailed on where, like-

Joe Rogan 39:32 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 39:32 ... you're so... You're, like, you're, you're it now. So you know, I know how to make this work.

Joe Rogan 39:36 Right.

Owen Smith 39:37 You can have a, you know... We had some people, you know, uh, connect with that. And what I love about it is comics aren't burning material.

Joe Rogan 39:43 Right.

Owen Smith 39:44 So, I feel like everyone, uh, can, can do the show. Uh, I pre- I mean, I prefer to have somebody that's, you know, got their 10,000 hours in.

Joe Rogan 39:52 Yes.

Owen Smith 39:52 Uh, and so we can have, like, you know, tho- those stories, and it's just an interesting way in.

Joe Rogan 39:57 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 39:58 I, I, I loved it, I loved it so much, but my, my initial, my point is, I was like, "I'm, I wanna do this for YouTube." But then I was like, "May- maybe it's a, maybe there's a, a televised play for this."

Joe Rogan 40:07 Mm.

Owen Smith 40:08 And three years later, nothing.

Joe Rogan 40:10 Yeah, I think nothing's worth bringing to TV anymore.

Owen Smith 40:14 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:14 It's just not worth it anymore.

Owen Smith 40:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:15 Just you, you're gonna deal with too many people. You don't need to deal with them.

Owen Smith 40:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:19 They're not gonna have good things to say. Half the people, and this is generous-

Owen Smith 40:23 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 40:23 ... half the people that you deal with here that are executives really don't give a fuck about anything other than their mortgage or their car-

Owen Smith 40:29 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 40:29 ... or their career or getting respect or-

Owen Smith 40:32 Right.

Joe Rogan 40:32 ... office politics or... They, they might be working at Comedy Central. They could easily be working at The History Channel-

Owen Smith 40:39 Ugh.

Joe Rogan 40:39 ... or easily working at some other fucking network.

Owen Smith 40:41 And here I am.

Joe Rogan 40:42 They're just TV network people.

Owen Smith 40:43 Right. Here I am trying to create a platform for some of my friends who I... Like, I, I feel like, "Why don't you have a following?" You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 40:49 Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Owen Smith 40:49 And I'm like, "If people just saw your work ethic, like how you write your jokes, everything, people would be like, I like..." You know?

Joe Rogan 40:56 Yeah.

Owen Smith 40:56 "I like you now. I understand what this is."

Joe Rogan 40:58 Yeah.

Owen Smith 40:59 And, um, I felt that that's what was missing from all these specials where people-

Joe Rogan 41:03 Yep.

Owen Smith 41:03 ... just stand in a spot and they... And it's the, everybody has the same background, they just change the name.

Joe Rogan 41:07 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 41:08 No, you know, no shade on that, but it's like n- very few people were popping off that. And so much so, people thought I had one of those. Like... Did I tell you, did I ever tell you my, uh, my, my Comedy Central story?

Joe Rogan 41:19 No.

Owen Smith 41:20 Um, so, okay. (laughs) So I'm gonna name-check some people on here, but I literally, I, I, a- but I'm not doing it for, uh... I- i- it's all good. Like, I learned a lot from this experience. So, George Carlin was performing at Hermosa Beach Comedy and Magic Club. I go down to watch George Carlin perform, and this was, this would be his last special. At the time, uh, Kimber Rickenbaugh, who did, was Rick Mill Productions, she comes over to me and she goes, "Why don't we have a half hour on you?" And I go, "I don't know." She gives me her card and she says, "Give me 21 minutes and, uh, we'll, we'll, we'll, you know, we'll make it happen." Or, or, or she alluded to that it would happen. And so I'm standing next to the guy who books, uh, Hermosa Beach and I go, "Yo, can I get 21 minutes?" He's like, "No way." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 42:06 (laughs)

Owen Smith 42:07 I can, I can just give you seven, eight minutes. So I, so I'd had to do, like, three seven minutes and piece it together. I went to the Improv. "Can I get 21 minutes?" I went to The Laugh Factory. "Can I get 21 minutes? I got g- I got this card..." No one would give me 21 minutes. And so I had to go out of town. I think I went to Chicago or somewhere, taped it, got it back. At the time, I'm writing on Everybody Hates Chris. Um, um, uh, um, Dave Becky and Michael Rotenberg ma- well, managed Chris Rock at the time. And they would c- and they were also producers on the show, so they would come down once a month and sit in the video village and just, you know, y- you know. And so I was politicking. I go, "Man, if I can get Dave Becky to contact Kimber Rickenbaugh, maybe I can get with 3 Arts," 'cause I had no manager and 3 Arts-

Joe Rogan 42:56 Right.

Owen Smith 42:56 ... sexy, you know, management, uh, name. And so, um...... Ali, Leroy, the showrunner, was also managed by 3 Arts, so he was kind enough to, he was just like, he just said, like, just to David, "Yo, man. Listen to this motherfucker." And then just kept, like-

Joe Rogan 43:09 (laughs)

Owen Smith 43:09 (laughs) ... shooting. So I was like, "Uh, Dave, Mr. Becky? Uh, what's up, man? Uh, uh, uh, Kimbera Rickonbaugh gave me the card, said if I can give her 21 minutes, you know, it's, it's probable I'll get a half-hour special. I was wondering if I could do that through you?" And, uh, he goes, "Say no more. I rep Kimber Rickonbaugh. Done."

Joe Rogan 43:25 Wow.

Owen Smith 43:26 So, uh, at that time, I was, I booked a lot of colleges. So I'm, I am on cloud nine, I go, "Yo, I'm about to get a half-hour special. Woo-hoo!" Uh, I had a, I did a c- I had a gig for a college that night. So I catch the red eye to Iowa, right? Ames, Iowa. I'm performing in Ames, Iowa.

Joe Rogan 43:41 Yikes.

Owen Smith 43:41 Get to the hotel room the next morning, phone call on my cell phone, it's Dave Becky. I'm corny, I go, "Yep, this, this is gonna be the start of us doing this a lot." You know, I'm all students-

Joe Rogan 43:51 (laughs)

Owen Smith 43:51 (laughs) He go ... He just cut that shit off. "Yeah, Owen, uh, talked to Kimber and, uh, she says she'd never heard of you." It was just it. And I was like, "What? I thought," I was like, "You hazing me, right?" Just, just d- you know. "Nope. Sorry, man. Good luck, man. All right. Talk to you." Boop, hung up. And I was like, "What?" And it never dawned on me to call Kimber (laughs) and be like, "Hey." Like, I was so floored by that.

Joe Rogan 44:18 Oh, no.

Owen Smith 44:19 Yeah, it was like a gut punch. And then check this out. I show up at the college, I wa- I, I didn't have a college gig. The, the contract wasn't finalized. So I flew to Iowa-

Joe Rogan 44:28 Oh.

Owen Smith 44:28 ... for nothing, lost money for rental car, hotel, da, da, da. Had to drag my dumb self back to LA.

Joe Rogan 44:36 (sighs)

Owen Smith 44:36 No special on the ri- ... And again, I didn't even-

Joe Rogan 44:39 You never contacted her?

Owen Smith 44:40 I didn't even know, like ... And that, and that, and that's why I said I couldn't say her name because I never did that part, right? So, like, maybe I could've called them and, "Hey, da, da, da." She'd been like, "Oh my God, so sorry." I didn't even think that. I went into ... I was having, like, a pity party on the set of Everybody Hates Chris. Ernest Thomas tells me, "Man, don't wait on Hollywood to give you permission to be great." And that's why I shot my first special. I took all my college money, shot, did all that instead (laughs) of just calling this woman like, "Hey, uh, something, eh, weird." And so that's how I ended up, like, shooting the, the first special anonymous.

Joe Rogan 45:13 That is so crazy-

Owen Smith 45:14 Ain't that crazy?

Joe Rogan 45:14 ... that she said she didn't even know you.

Owen Smith 45:16 She says she never, never heard of him.

Joe Rogan 45:17 But meanwhile, you had her card.

Owen Smith 45:18 Had it and didn't use it. That's why it's like-

Joe Rogan 45:21 Oh.

Owen Smith 45:21 ... it's not, it's not ... I don't feel like it's shade on her. It's like, I'm, I'm talking about ... And, and if it's any comments dis- like, "Yo, call 'em." Like, you know what I mean? Like, I'm just-

Joe Rogan 45:30 Sometimes it's part of that world of not-

Owen Smith 45:33 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:33 ... being all in standup and being-

Owen Smith 45:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:35 ... in that writing world.

Owen Smith 45:36 Yeah. That's true. Yeah, I didn't-

Joe Rogan 45:37 That's Ian too.

Owen Smith 45:39 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:39 Ian Edwards, I've been say- saying the same shit to him forever.

Owen Smith 45:42 Yeah, that's real.

Joe Rogan 45:42 I'm like, "You gotta stop taking those jobs, man. You're too good. You're too good."

Owen Smith 45:46 Yeah. Yeah, man. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:47 And Ian Edwards and I, we started out together, man.

Owen Smith 45:50 Oh, wow.

Joe Rogan 45:50 I've known Ian for 20, 27, 28 years. I've known him forever.

Owen Smith 45:56 Wow.

Joe Rogan 45:56 Dude, forever. Ian and I used to do Boston Comedy in New York City in the Village.

Owen Smith 46:01 Yeah. Yeah. I remember that dreadlock Ian.

Joe Rogan 46:02 Back in the day. Dreadlock Ian.

Owen Smith 46:04 Yeah, I remember when I-

Joe Rogan 46:04 Yeah.

Owen Smith 46:04 I remember I'd seen him on Def Jam.

Joe Rogan 46:06 Before he went vegan.

Owen Smith 46:06 When he used to yell. Yeah, before he went vegan, he used to yell.

Joe Rogan 46:09 He calmed down when he went vegan.

Owen Smith 46:10 Yeah. "AT&T." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 46:14 (laughs) Angry Ian.

Owen Smith 46:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 46:16 Angry Ian.

Owen Smith 46:16 Bum-ba-sud, bum-ba-clut, bum.

Joe Rogan 46:18 Yeah.

Owen Smith 46:18 Yeah. He get ... And, um, I remember I saw him and he was the coolest to me. Uh, I was like, "Yo, man, you, you a comedian? I'm a comedian." He was like, "Oh, c- uh, c- what you doing now?" "Nothing." "Come, come with me." And he took me to, like, a general meeting that he had (laughs) and then we-

Joe Rogan 46:32 Yeah.

Owen Smith 46:33 ... and then we went to two sets. And I never forget, I never forget, he per- we performed, he performed in, like, a white room and it was crushing. And I said to him, "Hey, man. That was amazing. Hey, yeah, that was great." He goes, "I didn't trust them." They were-

Joe Rogan 46:50 (laughs)

Owen Smith 46:50 ... laughing way too ... I don't trust that." You know? But-

Joe Rogan 46:53 (laughs) Laughing too hard.

Owen Smith 46:53 (laughs) Like, I never ... Yo, I never heard that before.

Joe Rogan 46:55 (laughs)

Owen Smith 46:55 I never heard that, but I was like, "What?"

Joe Rogan 46:58 (laughs)

Owen Smith 46:58 But that was the goal.

Joe Rogan 46:59 You didn't trust them? (laughs) That's hilarious.

Owen Smith 47:01 Yeah. Yeah, but he was so kind to me that it's like, uh, just showing that generosity in a space where he didn't have to, but-

Joe Rogan 47:10 Yeah.

Owen Smith 47:10 ... like, you have people like, "Man, get away from..." "All right, man. I get it."

Joe Rogan 47:11 He's a classic human.

Owen Smith 47:13 Classic. Yeah, a nice guy, yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:13 I love him. I love that dude to death. I always take pictures of him every time he falls asleep 'cause he's, you know, he's vegan, so oh, he's tired.

Owen Smith 47:20 No. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 47:20 So we get on a plane together ... And I don't mean this to vegans out there that are eating well.

Owen Smith 47:24 Right.

Joe Rogan 47:24 He does not. Uh, he, he just eats vegan, but that means, like, like, all it is is a piece of bread. He'll eat a piece of bread. He'll eat some rice. He, he's not, he doesn't get all his nutrients. He just doesn't.

Owen Smith 47:33 Right.

Joe Rogan 47:33 You know, he doesn't exercise either, but when ever we're on a plane, that motherfucker passes out. So I take all these pictures of him every time we go on the road together.

Owen Smith 47:40 (laughs) So I have a photo.

Joe Rogan 47:40 We're sitting next together (laughs) to me every time he passes out. We're like, uh, we're on the runway, this dude is nodding out.

Owen Smith 47:46 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 47:47 Always. But then he got me.

Owen Smith 47:48 Oh.

Joe Rogan 47:49 He got me recently. He got me. He got, and it's just giant smile. I've never seen him smile that well. Did you see the video of it? There's a video of it on Instagram.

Owen Smith 47:58 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 47:58 He g- he got me and he's just got this huge smile and I'm out cold and he's sitting next to me. And now every time I fly with him, I'm scared of blacking out.

Owen Smith 48:07 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 48:07 I'm scared of falling asleep (laughs) he's gonna get a video of me.

Owen Smith 48:10 He's gonna get you. That's hilarious.

Joe Rogan 48:12 I woke up, like, he was sleep, I woke up next to me and, and he was asleep and I was asleep, I don't wanna have, he film me while I was asleep-

Owen Smith 48:18 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 48:18 ... before he went to sleep. (laughs)

Owen Smith 48:21 That's the funniest shit, when it's like that.

Joe Rogan 48:22 It's like Spy Versus Spy shit.

Owen Smith 48:23 Yeah, yeah. "Hello, Joe."

Joe Rogan 48:25 Yeah.

Owen Smith 48:25 "Hello, Ian."

Joe Rogan 48:25 But, dude, the video of him l- uh, hovering over me while I'm out cold is one of the f-

Owen Smith 48:29 Oh, I gotta see it.

Joe Rogan 48:30 I never laughed so hard.

Owen Smith 48:31 That's so funny.

Joe Rogan 48:32 I, I landed and, uh, I, I checked my Instagram and I saw that and I just started fucking howling crying.

Owen Smith 48:37 Man, what-

Joe Rogan 48:38 It's so funny.

Owen Smith 48:39 That's so funny. I wish we could ... We ... One time I was giving him, like, smoothie recipes 'cause he was, like, asking about that stuff. And, um, Ian is, like, incredibly frugal. It's f- it's so funny, you know. And I was like, "All right, so what you wanna do is you wanna, so you know, you can take strawberry, banana, you could take a protein, you could take, you know, da, da, da, da, da, da. You want some green stuff to ..." He goes, "Or I could just eat a banana." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 49:02 (laughs)

Owen Smith 49:02 Yeah, I mean, but that's kinda like defeating the purpose, you wanna, you know, it's really...Eh. Yeah, and so he, uh, he- I think he's doing smooths and stuff now, but back then, I just remember I- I was like, "Wh- huh?" Like, "I just gave you this whole recipe." "I could just eat a banana and it's cheaper." You know, that was his whole thing.

Guest 49:22 Cheaper? That's what it is?

Owen Smith 49:23 I think that was... I don't know, but I was just like-

Guest 49:25 He needs protein powder in his life.

Owen Smith 49:26 He's so funny, man. And so, yeah. So I- I- well, I, I grew up in, in, in Prince George's County, Maryland, right? And a lot of comedians come from there. Um, Chappelle. I have a Chappelle- I have a great Chappelle story 'cause we're the same age. And so when I was 19 and I just started, Greenbelt Comedy Connection. What I loved about Chappelle, I'm, I'm bringing this up because it's Mark Twain, uh, Awards, he gave a shout-out to a guy named Tony Woods.

Guest 49:57 Tony Woods.

Owen Smith 49:58 So Tony Woods is also from the DC area. And so at 19, I'm in this comedy club, Greenbelt Comedy, it's a Black room. Chappelle is on stage and he's getting booed. And his dismount off getting booed is something I've never seen before in my life. It was fantastic. He's like, "Fuck y'all, I'ma be famous."

Guest 50:20 (laughs)

Owen Smith 50:21 "I'ma be famous." Like he just kept saying that and then just walked off. And when he walked off, I was like, I was like, "Oh my God, they booed him?" Like, in my head, I'm like, "If they booed him, I don't stand a chance in comedy because w- like what just happened?" But when he walked by, nobody wanted to touch them 'cause he had that s- that, that, that-

Guest 50:41 (laughs)

Owen Smith 50:41 ... bomb on him. So even I, I was like, "Goddamn."

Guest 50:44 (laughs)

Owen Smith 50:44 "Hey, hey, man." And he, and he's (laughs) , he, he, he had, he had-

Guest 50:50 That's so true.

Owen Smith 50:51 ... that sweet bomb on him.

Guest 50:52 That bomb.

Owen Smith 50:52 Yes.

Guest 50:53 Ugh.

Owen Smith 50:53 And he sits down in, in the, in the booth right here and I, I just can't stop looking at him 'cause I'm watching... You know how they say the stages of grief? Like, I'm watching the stages of... Um, and I keep thinking, "Why doesn't he leave?" And he's sitting there and Tony Woods goes on stage next. And Tony Woods is like, "Wow, man. Goddamn." Like, just kind of a similar cadence. And Tony just destroys, got a standing ovation, like night and day. And I'm just 19, just new, like absorbing this.

Guest 51:26 Mmm.

Owen Smith 51:26 And I go, "What the fuck just happened?" Tony walks off stage and as a comic, I'm just kind of like eavesdropping. Like, I think I'm 5'7", but I'm fucking 6'5", but I'm just trying to, like, look at what they gonna do next. And they get up together and they walk out. I kind of just follow them out thinking, "I don't know what's gonna happen or anything, but hey, kid, you wanna hang with us? I don't know."

Guest 51:47 (laughs)

Owen Smith 51:48 They get in the same car and, and it's like, I think it was a hatchback, I'm not sure. And Tony drives off. I'm like, "Whoa, they came together." And I... That's, that was all I knew of that-

Guest 51:58 Mmm.

Owen Smith 51:58 ... of that relationship. And so, and I, and I, I knew that Tony had been doing it a lot longer and I knew that Dave... It's kind of like how when Kobe came into the league and was talking like Mike, and then Kobe f- leaned into who Kobe was.

Guest 52:14 Became who he is, yeah.

Owen Smith 52:16 Yes. Speak- you know, I speak Italian.

Guest 52:17 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 52:17 I'm speaking Italian. I speak like this. These are the things that are important to me. And so you watched Dave do that separate from Tony. But what I love about what Dave did, and this is why he's great, is he had... He recognized Tony in his greatest, like, comedic moment. Like, it's the most honest thing you can do, you know what I mean?

Guest 52:36 Right.

Owen Smith 52:36 Like, most people would be like, "I did this all me." But he was like, "You..." A- a- and what he said about Tony could not have been truer. You know what I mean? And so it just, like, touched my heart 'cause I was, I was there at the epicenter-

Guest 52:46 Right.

Owen Smith 52:46 ... when I was watching Dave s- figure it out. And it, it was probably like... And it, and it, and it was like... And, and the material he was doing, it just didn't connect with... It was a blue collar, um, black crowd and he- I think he was doing, like, the superhero stuff, like, "Man, uh, you know, Wonder Woman's magic lasso? Nah, I don't wanna hear that magic lasso shit."

Guest 53:05 (laughs)

Owen Smith 53:05 Like, it was just, it was just that. It wasn't like it wasn't funny 'cause to me, I'm a 19-year-old, I thought that shit was hilarious. So that's the other thing, I felt like, "Am I wrong? Like, I'm laughing." And you hear, "Boo, boo."

Guest 53:16 (laughs)

Owen Smith 53:16 (laughs) Like, I was like, "Oh, shit." I was like, "I can't help you, Dave." Like (laughs) , I was just... And he, uh, and he, and he, and he came down. And I was, and then, like, a couple y- a couple... I feel like six months later, I saw him on HBO or something, like, it was like... So then I was like, "Damn."

Guest 53:30 Mmm.

Owen Smith 53:30 "He d- he didn't let it stop him." And so I learned, like, all these lessons just sitting in the back of a comedy club. Donnell Rawlings, who, uh, might come in and interrupt us. No, man. (laughs)

Guest 53:41 (laughs)

Owen Smith 53:42 He, uh, he, uh, he too was- is from that area. And, uh-

Guest 53:45 Oh, wow.

Owen Smith 53:46 Yeah, man. And I remember... And Donnell, like, you know, you know how people talk about comedy, when he was on stage, um, people were saying he spoke Korean and he did... I was like, "Goddamn, who is this dude?" And he was the first comic I ever saw command an audience. And I thought the audience... 'Cause I was, again, 19, like, I hadn't done comedy more than five times. And I hear the audience go, "Do the aspirin bit." And he would do his bit about aspirin that would be hilarious. "Do the, do the bike bit." And he would do this bit about not getting any bi-... And I thought, I thought this motherfucker had, like, like the audience had, like, requests, you know what I mean?

Guest 54:21 Right.

Owen Smith 54:21 I was like, I was like, "How great is this dude?" Like, they know his work and they're requesting it, but years later, I didn't know that those were, like, comics, like maybe-

Guest 54:29 Oh.

Owen Smith 54:29 It may- it might've been comics or it might've been his... But he, he always had, like... He was just so amazing. Uh, uh, uh, so I ha- I had all these references early on as to, like, where you can take the art form, you know, and how fearless it was.

Guest 54:44 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 54:44 And then I went out to South Bend, uh, where I- it, it was just completely different, like I was in college, you know? And, but I, but I had all this, like, these mental downloads of like, uh, of just how... These different styles that hadn't really touched, like, the Midwest comedy scene, you know what I mean?

Guest 55:04 It's so funny when you're starting out too 'cause you're trying to figure out, like, what style is gonna work.

Owen Smith 55:08 Yeah. Who are you?

Guest 55:08 Do I change? Do I shift?

Owen Smith 55:10 Yeah.

Guest 55:11 Like, who am I?

Owen Smith 55:11 I went through all of that. I went through all of that.

Guest 55:12 Oh, everybody does.

Owen Smith 55:13 Yeah.

Guest 55:13 You have to.

Owen Smith 55:14 And that's, that's, again, that's bringing it back to what Notebooks is. Like, I wanna know what your, what your particular thing was.

Guest 55:20 Yeah.

Owen Smith 55:20 Like, I know what mine was, but all of ours is different.

Guest 55:23 Yeah.

Owen Smith 55:24 But w- but we all play the same...It's like we play the same sport, but we all play it different ways, and I lo- I love that shit, like... (laughs) So yeah, it was, um, uh, it's ironic that you brought that, that show up, 'cause I was like, "Should I bring that up again?"

Joe Rogan 55:38 Yeah, you should bring it up.

Owen Smith 55:39 Yeah, I was so honored that you said you would do it, too.

Joe Rogan 55:42 Oh, I was happy to do it.

Owen Smith 55:42 When I saw those notebooks, I was, "Oh, shit, that's hilarious."

Joe Rogan 55:45 (laughs)

Owen Smith 55:45 You had the legal pad action.

Joe Rogan 55:46 So old, too.

Owen Smith 55:47 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:47 It's just amazing that I kept them.

Owen Smith 55:49 Uh, well, yeah, we do. You can't-

Joe Rogan 55:50 I have stacks of 'em.

Owen Smith 55:51 Yes. And I'm sure there were certain, several times when you were urged to throw them away, and you're like, "I can't do that."

Joe Rogan 55:56 Yeah. My wife was trying to throw them away, and I go-

Owen Smith 55:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:58 ... "No!"

Owen Smith 55:59 Yep, that's what gave me the idea. My wife-

Joe Rogan 56:00 And then-

Owen Smith 56:00 ... was trying to toss mine. I go, "No!"

Joe Rogan 56:02 (laughs)

Owen Smith 56:02 What are you talking about? (laughs)

Joe Rogan 56:03 No fucking way. Those are gonna be worth something someday.

Owen Smith 56:05 Right. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 56:06 And also, when I was going through them, I was always thinking like, "Maybe one day I'll find a gem."

Owen Smith 56:10 Yes.

Joe Rogan 56:10 "Maybe there's a gem in here." Just a premise.

Owen Smith 56:12 Yes.

Joe Rogan 56:12 Just a weird premise.

Owen Smith 56:13 It's in there.

Joe Rogan 56:14 Yeah.

Owen Smith 56:14 But it's so, it's so hard to get that discipline, like, to g- literally go through it.

Joe Rogan 56:20 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 56:20 You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 56:21 How do you write? Do you sit in front of a computer and write? Do you write in front of a notebook?

Owen Smith 56:25 That's a great question. Um-

Joe Rogan 56:26 Or do you just have good ideas, and you just...

Owen Smith 56:28 Good idea... So what I do... You know what I started doing? And I'm, I'ma do a podcast, too. It's gonna be called In Context With Owen Smith. 'Cause what I started doing is I started reading the newspaper more. And if I, whenever I read the newspaper, my brain fucking explodes with a whole bunch of just ideas.

Joe Rogan 56:44 Newspaper?

Owen Smith 56:45 Yeah. A fucking newspaper.

Joe Rogan 56:47 Why, why newspaper?

Owen Smith 56:47 I like, I like hold-

Joe Rogan 56:47 The physical? Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 56:49 I like holding it. But now, uh, but now I just, I'm getting myself to doing online stuff, just because it's, it's just more practical. 'Cause every time I go to get the paper, like, it's not... It, it won't-

Joe Rogan 57:00 I always feel so funny when I'm holding a newspaper now.

Owen Smith 57:02 I know. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 57:02 Like, "What is this?"

Owen Smith 57:03 I know. What are you, Captain America or som-

Joe Rogan 57:04 Do you still do this shit? (laughs)

Owen Smith 57:04 (laughs) Right? What, are you frozen in the '50s?

Joe Rogan 57:07 (laughs)

Owen Smith 57:07 What are you doing? Yeah, it's... But I, I, I like... Because y- you can see the words, and you can see, like, i- they use s- specific word choice, and my brain just starts going, "Damn, that's fun." But my act isn't that, right? My act is more personal. But just... Chris Rock told me something a long time ago. He said, "I don't suffer from..." Um, what is it when you, when you can't think of anything? Um...

Joe Rogan 57:35 Writer's block?

Owen Smith 57:35 Yeah. "I don't suffer from writer's block. I suffer from reader's block."

Joe Rogan 57:39 Oh.

Owen Smith 57:39 I was like, "Oh, shit." And he re- he... And, and D.L. Hughley told me a long time ago, "If you read the newspaper every day, that's equivalent to having a master's." You know? And I was like-

Joe Rogan 57:51 Uh, no, it's not.

Owen Smith 57:52 Well, that's GED logic, man. He-

Joe Rogan 57:53 (laughs) No, you c-

Owen Smith 57:54 But I, but I was like, but I was like, "Yo."

Joe Rogan 57:56 You have to write papers. (laughs)

Owen Smith 57:58 You have to... (laughs)

Joe Rogan 57:58 You have to, like, do serious research and take exams.

Owen Smith 58:00 Listen, when he said it to me, that, I was like-

Joe Rogan 58:02 That's hilarious.

Owen Smith 58:03 ... "Okay." You know.

Joe Rogan 58:04 That's-

Owen Smith 58:04 But I didn't know he had his GED. I, I d-

Joe Rogan 58:07 (laughs)

Owen Smith 58:07 Yeah, no shade on D, but I was like... Like, that stayed with me, so I was like... So I would always try to, like, read a whole newspaper. I remember-

Joe Rogan 58:13 Depends on what paper, too. The New York-

Owen Smith 58:15 I know.

Joe Rogan 58:15 ... Post, you gotta go back. (laughs)

Owen Smith 58:16 You gotta go back. You gotta, I mean, that's hilarious. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 58:18 (laughs) You gotta slide back to fifth grade. (laughs)

Owen Smith 58:22 Yeah. (laughs) That's hilarious.

Joe Rogan 58:23 That newspaper is hilar-

Owen Smith 58:24 It's the hilarious.

Joe Rogan 58:24 I love the New York Post.

Owen Smith 58:26 My goodness.

Joe Rogan 58:26 Every time I read it, they're just shitting on people. (laughs)

Owen Smith 58:28 It's fantastic. It's like, it's not a tabloid, but it is. I love it.

Joe Rogan 58:31 It is, but it's really the news.

Owen Smith 58:32 It's the news.

Joe Rogan 58:33 But it's, but they talk shit, and it's funny.

Owen Smith 58:35 It's funny as Nice.

Joe Rogan 58:36 New York Post, uh, I grab that every time I'm back in New York.

Owen Smith 58:38 It's the funniest shit, man. Yeah, it was, uh... So, so I, I've always tried to... But, you know, it's just, like, shit'll come to me in my sleep, conversations.

Joe Rogan 58:48 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 58:49 And for me, it's about finding what is the right... I don't feel like there's... (sniffs) I feel like, where's the best place for this joke to live? You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 58:58 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 58:58 Is this a standup joke? Could I get more traction outta this if it's a sketch? You know what I mean? Um, and then, if it is a sketch, how can I still make it sing as a standup joke, you know?

Joe Rogan 59:08 Mm.

Owen Smith 59:09 Um, and what's fun for me is w- if I do something and I revisit it and I can do it, like, a lot cleaner and clearer and it starts... Then I get excited, 'cause then I can play. 'Cause that's the other thing. Sometimes when you write, you forget to play.

Joe Rogan 59:22 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 59:22 And I remember, like, I think I saw Bill Maher or somebody like that performing, he, he, he, he, um... You know, he just, kinda just stands there. And so I saw him come offstage one time, and he was like, "Man, that fucking audience, you know, sucked." And, uh-

Joe Rogan 59:38 (laughs)

Owen Smith 59:38 And, and I, and I was thinking in my head, like, I- I wouldn't say it to him, but I was like, "Man, you just forgot to play." Like, "You for-"

Joe Rogan 59:43 Right.

Owen Smith 59:43 "Your, your, all your shit was fire, but it was, it's-"

Joe Rogan 59:46 You're not having fun.

Owen Smith 59:47 Yeah, sometimes, you know... And so, when I s- watch his show and I can see he's playing, it's like, "Ah."

Joe Rogan 59:52 Yeah.

Owen Smith 59:52 It's, it's, and so-

Joe Rogan 59:53 You forget that sometimes. (laughs)

Owen Smith 59:54 You forget, (laughs) you forget that. I mean, shit, he's up to deadlines, he's gotta do all that stuff.

Joe Rogan 59:58 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 59:58 But when I saw him live that day, I go, "Ah," like, he was, he was trying to figure it out still, so he didn't have the little, the, the, the... And so it's all those little things. And so sometimes I could be too hard on myself trying to get it, like, technically, technically right. And when I just fig- remember to play, this shit is so fun, you know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 1:00:15 Yeah.

Owen Smith 1:00:15 It's about creating moments, and you forget all of that. But for me, I'm always trying to... I'm always... I don't know, man, like, I'll hear shit, I'll see shit, and I'm like, "What is that?" Like, like, so, m- like, so for right now, it's Black History Month, all this stuff about Martin Luther King. But my head went to, "Yo, this dude, the FBI, uh, bugged, like, they listened to all of his stuff." And so I'm just, now I'm thinking about the guys listening to MLK, like, "You couldn't all be civil rights. Like, they... I wonder if he turned to any of them, you know?"

Joe Rogan 1:00:50 (laughs)

Owen Smith 1:00:51 Like, "They listening," like...

Joe Rogan 1:00:53 "That's kinda good point." (laughs)

Owen Smith 1:00:54 Right. (laughs) Right, right. "You know, I kinda agree with this mother-" You know?

Joe Rogan 1:00:57 Yeah.

Owen Smith 1:00:57 Or, or they be like, "Huh, so that's how you make potato salad." You know what I mean? Like-

Joe Rogan 1:01:01 (laughs)

Owen Smith 1:01:01 Like, just listening to whatever...

Joe Rogan 1:01:03 How many people you think were assigned to listen to him?

Owen Smith 1:01:05 That, I'm fascinated with that.

Joe Rogan 1:01:07 That's what's crazy.

Owen Smith 1:01:07 And, like, I wonder, like-

Joe Rogan 1:01:07 That's a weird relationship.

Owen Smith 1:01:08 It's a weird relationship, and you're getting, like... You're getting a peek into the world of somebody you're told is this one thing, and what if you, you know, you hear something and you just don't agree? Like, I'm fascinated with stuff like that, so I try to, like, figure out if it's-

Joe Rogan 1:01:24 Yeah.

Owen Smith 1:01:24 If you can make that funny.

Joe Rogan 1:01:26 Sure.

Owen Smith 1:01:26 Uh...

Joe Rogan 1:01:26 And then that's where great bits come from.

Owen Smith 1:01:28 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:01:28 And they come from that uncertainty, like, "Okay, where is it?"

Owen Smith 1:01:30 Where is it?

Joe Rogan 1:01:31 "I know there's something in that."

Owen Smith 1:01:32 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:01:32 There is something in some FBI, some square FBI dude-

Owen Smith 1:01:36 Yep, yep, that-

Joe Rogan 1:01:37 ... listening to Martin Luther King.

Owen Smith 1:01:38 Yep. He's like, "Oh..."Injustice, anyway, ..........................

Joe Rogan 1:01:42 Yeah, there's a, there's like-

Owen Smith 1:01:43 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:01:43 ... there's a thing that he could say-

Owen Smith 1:01:45 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:01:46 ... that would turn them.

Owen Smith 1:01:47 Yeah. So I'm, I play with stuff like that. So sometimes, and, and, you, one of the, one of my favorite comedians, um... I have a whole bunch, but comedians that always get to me are people that, where I go, "I didn't know comedy could do that." So I remember when I heard Dick Gregory On, it's an album called Dick Gregory On.

Joe Rogan 1:02:05 Mm-hmm.

Owen Smith 1:02:06 And he was the first Black millionaire to do standup. And he has a great book, he has a book called Nigger, but his best book, I wanna say best, but my favorite book of his is called The Shadow That Scares Me. And it's really him, like, giving solutions to all of these, like, problems that, that are, you know, that were in the narrative at that time about Black folks. And I just was, I was amazed at his writing, and I was blown away by his standup, some of the social commentary he would make, right?

Joe Rogan 1:02:39 (laughs)

Owen Smith 1:02:39 And I was like, "Oh, man, I wanna do some of that." So I, I, I used to... That was back in my 30s when I was trying to solve the race problem. You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 1:02:48 (laughs)

Owen Smith 1:02:48 I was like, "I ain't fucking with that no more." Like, "That's out my system." Like, uh, but I used to... 'Cause, 'cause I was still in the orbit of the bring-the-pain, like, "Oh, I gotta have my..." And I... (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:02:59 Right.

Owen Smith 1:03:00 And it just, I was like, "It's not really changing the world, man." It's, yeah, making some points, but I kinda, like, backed away 'cause I used to do this bit about, um, being at a rap concert, Busta Rhymes and it was all white folks, and I'm there and he goes, "All my real niggers make some noise," and everybody made noise-

Joe Rogan 1:03:20 (laughs)

Owen Smith 1:03:21 ... and I'm just, like... Me and, like, the two other Black people knock eyes, like, "Yo."

Joe Rogan 1:03:27 (laughs)

Owen Smith 1:03:27 (laughs) Like, I'm like-

Joe Rogan 1:03:28 There's something, there's something hilarious in that too, like, are you allowed to do that?

Owen Smith 1:03:31 Right, right, right, right.

Joe Rogan 1:03:32 You can't say it, but, but can you cheer?

Owen Smith 1:03:35 Right. He's like, "Ha," and I was like, "What?"

Joe Rogan 1:03:38 (laughs)

Owen Smith 1:03:38 And so then I go, "Well, maybe, maybe they didn't hear him." But in hip hop you say everything twice, so he-

Joe Rogan 1:03:43 But-

Owen Smith 1:03:43 ... said it again, "Like I said, all my real niggers make some noise. Ha." And so I was like, "Man, not only..." I was like, "White people are niggers now."

Joe Rogan 1:03:53 (laughs)

Owen Smith 1:03:53 This is what I'm saying, I was doing this shit, like, in Milwaukee-

Joe Rogan 1:03:56 Oh!

Owen Smith 1:03:56 ... Appleton, Wisconsin. And I go, "And not only can we call them niggers, they paying $80 for the privilege to be called niggers. $80 a ticket." And I would go, "White folks, tonight I'll call you niggers for 10."

Joe Rogan 1:04:09 (laughs)

Owen Smith 1:04:10 $10 nigger sale, nigger clearance. Cash only, 'cause I know how you niggers are, right? So proud of this bit. At the end of the show, I'm selling my dumb DVDs, you know, selling my merch, and, uh, inevitably a white person would always come up to me, give me $20, and call me nigger.

Joe Rogan 1:04:27 Oh!

Owen Smith 1:04:28 But, like, that's not the bit. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:04:29 Jesus Christ.

Owen Smith 1:04:30 That's not the bit. So late 20s, early 30s, you, y- y- you know, you know, you know, you're the angry comic. Like, "What the fuck? What the fuck?" You know. And then now that I'm a little older, I go, "Man, that'd been funny if I..." 'Cause I kept the money, you know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 1:04:44 (laughs)

Owen Smith 1:04:45 Like, like, if that was my shtick, like, I didn't sell merch, "Look, y'all can call me whatever y'all want for $20." (laughs) Just me-

Joe Rogan 1:04:51 Just have a line of people.

Owen Smith 1:04:53 Just me. Right, you'd be like this billionaire-

Joe Rogan 1:04:55 Ugh. Ugh, that's the worst.

Owen Smith 1:04:55 ... and you're doing interviews like, "Well, I made my money by..." You know?

Joe Rogan 1:04:59 (laughs)

Owen Smith 1:04:59 And people walking by, "Nigger!" And they throw you money. "Anywho."

Joe Rogan 1:05:03 (laughs) Anywho.

Owen Smith 1:05:04 Anywho. It was like you... But-

Joe Rogan 1:05:07 Ugh. Oh.

Owen Smith 1:05:08 ... I, you know, for me, just living in that space, man, I was just like, "Nah." After I tried it and I was getting that kinda response, I just like-

Joe Rogan 1:05:15 Was the thing too where you-

Owen Smith 1:05:16 ... let me get more.

Joe Rogan 1:05:17 ... y- y- when you're a comic, like, you wanna be respected, so you wanna come up with a bit that, like, it transcends comedy.

Owen Smith 1:05:23 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:05:23 You want, you want everybody to go, "Wow."

Owen Smith 1:05:25 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:05:25 "Owen's on some real shit."

Owen Smith 1:05:27 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:05:27 You know, it's... I think there's a danger in that, in that you can kinda trick yourself.

Owen Smith 1:05:33 You can.

Joe Rogan 1:05:33 Like, I had some dumb bits that I did that were like, I was just trying to get people to think that I was really good.

Owen Smith 1:05:38 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:05:38 Rather than it just being good.

Owen Smith 1:05:40 Yeah, being good, being from a real personal place.

Joe Rogan 1:05:42 Just... It's, it, so much of it... I had