Joe Rogan Experience #1493 - Steve Schirripa & Michael Imperioli

1. 0:00 – 3:40

   Reconnecting at the new studio + Steve’s pasta sauce business realities

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:00

      ... one. Steve!

   2. SSSteve Schirripa0:02

      Yes, sir.

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:03

      My man.

   4. SSSteve Schirripa0:03

      Good to see you, buddy.

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:04

      Good to see you, brother. Michael here.

   6. SSSteve Schirripa0:04

      Really good.

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:05

      Pleasure to meet you, man.

   8. MIMichael Imperioli0:06

      Thanks for having us today.

   9. SSSteve Schirripa0:07

      Uh, s- yeah, really, thanks. Uh, it's been a while. I saw you, uh-

   10. JRJoe Rogan0:11

       The last time I saw you was at the old studio.

   11. SSSteve Schirripa0:13

       Three years ago.

   12. JRJoe Rogan0:13

       Yeah, we're-

   13. SSSteve Schirripa0:13

       But it looks exact- it's eerie. This is exactly the same place.

   14. JRJoe Rogan0:16

       Yeah, I'm gonna re- I'm gonna do it again the next place I move. I'm gonna re- rebuild this whole thing again. That's my move, just make it s- look like this.

   15. SSSteve Schirripa0:22

       Just make it, uh, comfortable, you know?

   16. JRJoe Rogan0:24

       Yeah.

   17. SSSteve Schirripa0:24

       You like what you like.

   18. JRJoe Rogan0:25

       It looks like the same thing.

   19. SSSteve Schirripa0:26

       Yeah, that way you don't get confused.

   20. JRJoe Rogan0:28

       Same desk, everything's pretty much the same.

   21. SSSteve Schirripa0:29

       Yeah, this is great. Good to see you.

   22. JRJoe Rogan0:31

       Good to see you too, brother. I'm bummed out, though, about your sauce.

   23. SSSteve Schirripa0:35

       Yeah, yeah, well, it was- we grew too fast.

   24. JRJoe Rogan0:36

       I was just bragging to somebody about it the other day.

   25. SSSteve Schirripa0:38

       We grew too fast, but you have two of the last ones left.

   26. MIMichael Imperioli0:41

       I know, what to do? Is it like wine?

   27. SSSteve Schirripa0:41

       That are inexistent. (laughs)

   28. MIMichael Imperioli0:43

       (laughs)

   29. JRJoe Rogan0:43

       Do I have to, like, like, let it sit on the shelf forever?

   30. SSSteve Schirripa0:45

       No, no, no.
2. 3:40 – 4:29

   Launching the Sopranos rewatch podcast during COVID

   1. JRJoe Rogan3:40

      (laughs) So you guys are doing a podcast now?

   2. SSSteve Schirripa3:42

      We're doing a podcast, Rewatch.

   3. MIMichael Imperioli3:45

      Yeah, heard.

   4. JRJoe Rogan3:45

      Yeah, Sussman clued me into it.

   5. SSSteve Schirripa3:48

      Yeah, it's called-

   6. MIMichael Imperioli3:49

      We got approached by a bunch of different producers towards the end of last year about doing... It wasn't our idea. And, uh, we thought about it. We had done a show, like, on stage in conversation, like inside the Actor's Studio, and we did all over the country, did Australia last year. And then a couple of producers said, you know, "Do you wanna do a podcast?" And, uh, we worked... Jeff was the best of the producers, so we, uh, figured out a way to do it. We were gonna do it in the studio live like this at the end of March in New York and...

   7. JRJoe Rogan4:20

      The COVID hit.

   8. MIMichael Imperioli4:21

      Everything hit, so we weren't gonna do it at all. We were gonna put it off 'cause we were depressed and we were like, "Who needs a podcast in the midst of all this stuff?"

3. 4:29 – 10:35

   New York in 2020: empty streets, looting aftermath, policing and homelessness

   1. JRJoe Rogan4:29

      What is New York like right now?

   2. SSSteve Schirripa4:31

      You know, uh, I've been there... I left... I've been here a month now, you know? I have a place down in Orange County. And, uh, New York was all fucked up and it's all boarded up and, uh-

   3. JRJoe Rogan4:44

      Yeah.

   4. SSSteve Schirripa4:44

      My, my daughter's there. I live downtown, uh, way downtown, and, uh, I was going out, like, an hour a day, you know? That's it. I just went out an hour a day. I would g- take a walk and, uh, it was... The streets were empty.

   5. JRJoe Rogan4:59

      Yeah.

   6. SSSteve Schirripa4:59

      The streets were empty at night. Now after the looting, they destroyed SoHo.

   7. JRJoe Rogan5:04

      Yeah.

   8. SSSteve Schirripa5:05

      You know, it's just destroyed, you know? And the cops are very timid and, and it's all fucked up. I mean, it's all fucked up. I, I, I don't, I don't know what happens there. I mean, I don't know, you know, I-

   9. JRJoe Rogan5:15

      I don't know how it happened. Like-

   10. SSSteve Schirripa5:17

       Yeah.

   11. JRJoe Rogan5:17

       ... s- seeing the cops just standing around while they were looting the art galleries in SoHo, while they were smashing Fifth Avenue, it was like-

   12. SSSteve Schirripa5:25

       I, I don't know.

   13. JRJoe Rogan5:25

       ... "What the fuck is this?"

   14. SSSteve Schirripa5:27

       I, I don't know. I mean-

   15. JRJoe Rogan5:27

       It's like the end of the world.

   16. MIMichael Imperioli5:29

       Yeah, it was sorta scary and depressing.

   17. SSSteve Schirripa5:31

       You know, uh, de Blasio's the worst fucking... I'm not a political guy at all, Joe, like not at all, but he's the worst fucking human that maybe walks the face of the Earth, I kid you not. And, you know, I owned an apartment in Manhattan for like nine years, and when he became the mayor, within a, a year, you saw... Even six months, right? You saw, like, these fucking changes. I'm going, "I'm out. I'm selling my fucking place," and I sold my place.

   18. JRJoe Rogan5:56

       What changes?

   19. SSSteve Schirripa5:57

       ... uh, all kinds of shit. Uh, the cops, th- they basically have one hand tied behind their back. He changed all these laws, stop and frisk, da, da, da. Some needed to be changed, some not. Uh, just the homeless is everywhere all of a sudden.

   20. JRJoe Rogan6:12

       Yeah.

   21. SSSteve Schirripa6:12

       The trains are impossible. There's all kinds of shit going on, you know, and I have to blame the mayor. I mean, there's, you know, uh, where I live downtown, there's, th- listen, I'm, I'm compassionate to the homeless. I don't know the answer, which is why I'm not the fucking mayor, but they're everywhere.

   22. JRJoe Rogan6:29

       Same thing here.

   23. SSSteve Schirripa6:30

       You know?

   24. JRJoe Rogan6:30

       Yeah. Our, our governor was the mayor of San Francisco, which is the craziest fucking place you've ever seen in your life when it comes to homeless people. It's cr-

   25. MIMichael Imperioli6:38

       A problem now.

   26. JRJoe Rogan6:39

       And now after COVID, it's like, ramped up 40%. Yeah.

   27. SSSteve Schirripa6:42

       Yeah.

   28. JRJoe Rogan6:42

       The, the homeless situation there is... It doesn't even make sense. Like, you're seeing these beautiful homes and there's campsites in front of them. And these people have to come out of their houses and, you know, tiptoe around needles and broken bottles and, and people's shit.

   29. MIMichael Imperioli6:56

       This might get worse though, right?

   30. JRJoe Rogan6:57

       It could get-
4. 10:35 – 15:22

   Why The Sopranos still dominates: antihero TV and cinematic storytelling

   1. MIMichael Imperioli10:35

      Right, and it was kind of particularly good timing for us because the sh- Sopranos was being binge watched in-

   2. JRJoe Rogan10:40

      Mm.

   3. MIMichael Imperioli10:40

      ... by people in quarantine, like, rediscovering it, young people who had never seen it. It was e- I think it was HBO's number two series.

   4. JRJoe Rogan10:47

      Wow.

   5. MIMichael Imperioli10:47

      And that includes all their new stuff, like Game of Thrones and everything. And Sopranos. I think it was Westworld and the Sopranos were their biggest shows during quarantine. The show's been off the air for 13 years.

   6. JRJoe Rogan10:56

      Well, listen, it's one of the best fucking shows of all time. It really is.

   7. SSSteve Schirripa11:01

      You know-

   8. JRJoe Rogan11:01

      I mean, you guys were on, without a doubt, when, when the history is written, it is one of the best shows ever.

   9. SSSteve Schirripa11:06

      Yeah. No, no, and you know what's amazing? Neither one of us watched it in 20 years. I mean, I don't watch the show. I mean, I watched it one time-

   10. JRJoe Rogan11:14

       Right.

   11. SSSteve Schirripa11:14

       ... when it came out years ago. And, uh, and we weren't even g- we, we were kind of depressed and, and we're going, "Who the fuck cares about a TV show now?" Because the world was coming to an end, especially at the beginning, you know?

   12. JRJoe Rogan11:25

       Right.

   13. SSSteve Schirripa11:25

       Joe, I mean... And we had gotten offered shit and, and Jeff helped us. We were giving Jeff, like, contracts. Is this a good deal? Is this a good deal? Finally, he said, "Listen, I'll fucking help you with that." That's-

   14. JRJoe Rogan11:37

       We should tell everybody Jeff's my manager. Jeff Sussman-

   15. SSSteve Schirripa11:39

       Yeah, Jeff Sussman. So he helped us and, uh, we started doing the re-watch, which is obviously bittersweet because of Jim. You know, you're watching Jim-

   16. JRJoe Rogan11:50

       Right.

   17. SSSteve Schirripa11:50

       ... and he's young and, and, and I came on the second season, you know, the second episode. But the show holds up every fucking, uh-... like it was shot yesterday. Besides the phones and the computers, everything else is like it was done yesterday. It, it's not dated at all, the show.

   18. MIMichael Imperioli12:08

       And we weren't gonna ... W- you know, we were gonna wait till things got back to normal so we could be in a studio like this and be face-to-face, but we got so much, uh, communication from fans, like on social media, saying, "Hey, we heard you're doing a podcast. Where is it? We're binge watching the show in quarantine." Like, tons of, you know, tons of that. So, we figured out a way to do it.

   19. SSSteve Schirripa12:29

       So, you know, we, we watched the episode. We were up to episode, uh, 12 now. You know, it's on YouTube and wherever you get the podcasts. And then, uh, we run down the episode. H- he wrote five of them, so he knows every, every ... He knows a lot more than me. I watch it more like a regular viewer. We tell stories, behind the scenes shit, stuff that went on, stuff we remember. We've had guests. We've got Edie Falco next week. We've had the casting people. We've had, uh, the two kids-

   20. MIMichael Imperioli12:59

       Director.

   21. SSSteve Schirripa12:59

       Robert Iler, director.

   22. JRJoe Rogan13:01

       One of the directors.

   23. SSSteve Schirripa13:01

       You know, whoever made the show a success, so.

   24. MIMichael Imperioli13:03

       Costume designer, yeah.

   25. JRJoe Rogan13:04

       Well, it's a great thing to do, to go back and review it, just to kinda give the people that are fans, uh, this, this sense of, you know, what it was like for you guys and what it's like to see it again. And, and just to put it into context and history. When that's the show that started off these kind of shows. When you think about the shows that you have today, like the Ozarks and al- all these d- different, like, really kinda wild shows where you have to follow one episode to the next-

   26. SSSteve Schirripa13:30

       Yeah.

   27. JRJoe Rogan13:30

       ... and y- you have to know what just happened to pay attention to the new episode.

   28. MIMichael Imperioli13:34

       Mm-hmm.

   29. JRJoe Rogan13:34

       The Sopranos started that shit.

   30. MIMichael Imperioli13:36

       Yeah.
5. 15:22 – 30:46

   Early careers and acting craft: read-throughs, auditions, and “line readings” fights

   1. SSSteve Schirripa15:22

      He's amazing in it, you know. And I, I don't know if you remember this, but when I first got the job, uh, I had to go ... I, I got the job. I auditioned, I got the job, I had to go to a read-through. And I happened to see you. I think you were working in Vegas at the Riv. And I said, "Joe, what ..." I asked you and another comic, I think Bill Kurkenbauer. I said, "What, what, what goes on in a read-through?" 'Cause even though I had worked-

   2. JRJoe Rogan15:48

      (laughs)

   3. SSSteve Schirripa15:48

      ... I didn't know.

   4. JRJoe Rogan15:49

      Right, right.

   5. SSSteve Schirripa15:49

      And I said, "Do you do it, like, 100%?" And you told me, "You know, like, you know, 85, 90%. Like, don't go all in." You actually told me that. And-

   6. MIMichael Imperioli15:59

      For an audition or a re- read-through?

   7. SSSteve Schirripa16:01

      For the audition.

   8. MIMichael Imperioli16:01

      Oh, okay.

   9. SSSteve Schirripa16:01

      Uh, for the, for the read-through.

   10. MIMichael Imperioli16:03

       Read-through. Oh, read-through. Yeah.

   11. SSSteve Schirripa16:04

       I mean, do you fucking-

   12. JRJoe Rogan16:05

       When you got the part.

   13. SSSteve Schirripa16:05

       You know, you're around the table. I didn't quite know if you go all, you know, fucking start acting, you know. (laughs)

   14. MIMichael Imperioli16:11

       Oh, right.

   15. SSSteve Schirripa16:11

       Or you just read the lines, which some people do just flat, which is terrible.

   16. MIMichael Imperioli16:17

       Yeah.

   17. SSSteve Schirripa16:17

       I mean, that's not the answer. There's people that actually get fired during the read-through.

   18. JRJoe Rogan16:21

       Right, right. Yeah.

   19. SSSteve Schirripa16:22

       After a read-through.

   20. MIMichael Imperioli16:23

       Yeah.

   21. SSSteve Schirripa16:23

       There's actually ... You know that, right? (laughs)

   22. MIMichael Imperioli16:25

       'Cause they're so flat.

   23. SSSteve Schirripa16:27

       I didn't know. I didn't ... I honestly ... If I would've known that-

   24. MIMichael Imperioli16:29

       Well, they shouldn't really be there then. They should've known that already. On an audition.

   25. SSSteve Schirripa16:31

       Yeah, but if I would've known that you could get fired after the read-through, I would've been shitting my pants. I was so naive-

   26. JRJoe Rogan16:36

       (laughs)

   27. SSSteve Schirripa16:37

       ... that I didn't even realize that.

   28. JRJoe Rogan16:39

       Well, that's the interesting thing. When I tell people that I knew you from the Riv, um, they go, "What did he do there?" I go, "He was the talent coordinator." They go, "Shut the fuck up." I go, "Yeah, I worked for him. I got booked by Steve Schirripa at the Riviera."

   29. SSSteve Schirripa16:50

       Yeah.

   30. JRJoe Rogan16:50

       It was one of the first times I ever worked in Vegas.
6. 30:46 – 33:39

   Sopranos production stories: recasts, dubs, rewrites, and surprise changes

   1. SSSteve Schirripa30:46

      You know what I mean? There's a guy hemming and whoring, you know, it's like what the fuck? But talking about line reading, there was a, an actor, a Broadway guy, that did the Sopranos. A small role. Uh, and I was, it was a scene with me and, and Uncle Junior, and, uh, and this guy. And they were actually giving him line readings. He was a Broadway actor, and he wasn't getting it. And they wind up dubbing his voice.

   2. JRJoe Rogan31:10

      Ugh.

   3. SSSteve Schirripa31:11

      They dubbed his voice.

   4. MIMichael Imperioli31:12

      Did they really?

   5. JRJoe Rogan31:12

      Yeah.

   6. SSSteve Schirripa31:13

      Yes. I forget the guy's name. When we get to the episode, I'll tell you. But-

   7. JRJoe Rogan31:16

      That's insane.

   8. SSSteve Schirripa31:17

      Yeah. But you know what else happened on the show numerous times? Like I did, uh, I did a scene with the rapper Fabolous, and he was great. It was a scene where I shot the guy in the ass. I don't know if you remember that.

   9. JRJoe Rogan31:30

      Oh, I remember that. (laughs)

   10. SSSteve Schirripa31:31

       Yeah. All right, uh, I'm supposed to shoot him in the thigh 'cause I'm a marksman and I get money from him, and I shoot him in the ass by mistake. But I shot it with Fabolous, and then a few weeks later they said, "Listen, you gotta re-shoot that scene." So right away I go, "What? What, I fucked up?" No. They changed Fabolous to Treach. Treach?

   11. JRJoe Rogan31:54

       Mm-hmm.

   12. SSSteve Schirripa31:54

       Naughty by Nature.

   13. JRJoe Rogan31:55

       Yeah.

   14. SSSteve Schirripa31:56

       Good guy. They, they said he looked too young. They just replaced him.

   15. MIMichael Imperioli32:00

       Hmm.

   16. SSSteve Schirripa32:01

       They just, they had the, the budget and the time, and they just got, brought in another actor. And they would rewrite scenes. If they didn't like the scene after they saw it, they would rewrite it, and, and, uh, numerous times they brought in other actors. There's two different FBI agents. Uh, Fairuza Balk, you know that actress?

   17. JRJoe Rogan32:21

       Mm-hmm, yeah.

   18. MIMichael Imperioli32:21

       Oh, yeah.

   19. SSSteve Schirripa32:22

       She was at the end of episode ... Season three or something. She never came back. Not only did they... They took her off the DVD. So unless you taped it, you know, like if you taped it back then-

   20. MIMichael Imperioli32:36

       What, they re-shot her scenes or what?

   21. SSSteve Schirripa32:37

       They re-shot her scenes even for the DVD.

   22. JRJoe Rogan32:40

       Wow.

   23. SSSteve Schirripa32:40

       So she, unless she has a VHS (laughs) of it somewhere-

   24. JRJoe Rogan32:44

       (laughs)

   25. SSSteve Schirripa32:44

       ... she's non-existent.

   26. JRJoe Rogan32:45

       That's crazy 'cause she's a really good actress too.

   27. SSSteve Schirripa32:47

       No, it wasn't, it probably wasn't anything to do with that. It was they didn't make a deal with her. Maybe she was busy making a movie. I'm not saying it was like-

   28. JRJoe Rogan32:55

       She's got a huge mouth.

   29. SSSteve Schirripa32:57

       Yeah. She was- (laughs)

   30. JRJoe Rogan32:58

       Like when she smiles, she has this huge, huge teeth.
7. 33:39 – 1:02:08

   Stand-up comedy deep dive: Pryor, Lenny Bruce, hecklers, and prop comedy

   1. MIMichael Imperioli33:39

      Who was the comics that w- that inspired you to be a comedian?

   2. JRJoe Rogan33:42

      (inhales deeply) Uh, Prior first.

   3. MIMichael Imperioli33:45

      Or it was?

   4. JRJoe Rogan33:45

      Uh, my parents took me to see Live in the Sunset Strip in the movie theater when I was like 15.

   5. MIMichael Imperioli33:50

      He was brilliant.

   6. JRJoe Rogan33:50

      Oh.

   7. MIMichael Imperioli33:51

      Yeah.

   8. JRJoe Rogan33:51

      Beyond.

   9. SSSteve Schirripa33:52

      You never met him?

   10. JRJoe Rogan33:53

       Yeah, I did. I worked with him. I worked with him five weeks in a row actually.

   11. MIMichael Imperioli33:56

       Wow.

   12. JRJoe Rogan33:56

       Towards the end of his life. It was, uh, it was very odd for me because that was the r- that was what really got me interested in standup. 'Cause in that movie theater thinking I'd never really seen standup before, I don't think. You know, maybe I'd seen it on t- The Tonight Show or something like that, but I'd never really seen that. And in this movie theater, here I am crying laughing at this guy that was just talking. And I was like, "I can't believe that he's just talking." Because every mo- you know, if, if I had seen a, a funny movie, it was funny, but it was never that funny. I remember you said something about Something About Mary. We, uh, you had just seen Something About Mary, and we were talking, and you go, "It's like a comic killing." I'll never forget you said that. You're like, "It's so funny. It was like a comic killing."

   13. MIMichael Imperioli34:34

       Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

   14. JRJoe Rogan34:35

       That, that was the feeling that I got watching Prior. I was like, "I can't believe how funny this guy is just talking." Like I'd never ... I didn't know you could do that. I mean-

   15. SSSteve Schirripa34:44

       And you worked with him at the Comedy Store?

   16. JRJoe Rogan34:45

       I worked with him at the Comedy Store towards the end of his life where he was really sick. And they used to have to crank the volume up on the microphone going (imitates mic feedback) like really loud. And he would get on stage, and he was on all kinds of medication 'cause, you know, he was sick. And, uh, he had to sit down 'cause he couldn't, literally couldn't stand up. They used to carry him to the stage.

   17. SSSteve Schirripa35:04

       Oh.

   18. JRJoe Rogan35:04

       So they'd introduce him, and they'd walk him through the crowd. And I'd, I worked with him for five weeks. I, I was on after him every night.

   19. SSSteve Schirripa35:11

       Wow.

   20. JRJoe Rogan35:11

       Like every night, it was Prior, then me. 'Cause, uh, Mitzi Shore who, uh, owned the Comedy Store, when she had a young comic that she liked, she would shove you after anybody who was any good. So if Martin Lawrence was on, I was on after him. If Richard Prior was on, I was on after him. Everybody who was any-

   21. SSSteve Schirripa35:27

       So you auditioned. Did you audition for the Improv and, and Comedy Store or just the Improv?

   22. JRJoe Rogan35:31

       No, I didn't have to, didn't have to audition for the Improv. The auditi- the Improv, you know, you just, if you had TV credits and stuff like that, they'd give you spots.

   23. SSSteve Schirripa35:38

       But that was later on.

   24. JRJoe Rogan35:39

       Y- though th- when I got out here-

   25. SSSteve Schirripa35:40

       But at the beginning when you first got to LA.

   26. JRJoe Rogan35:42

       No, when I first got out here, I had a TV show. I was on, I was on a show called Hardball in '94.

   27. SSSteve Schirripa35:46

       Oh, that's right. That's right. With Mike Starr. Mike Starr.

   28. JRJoe Rogan35:48

       Exactly, Mike Starr.

   29. SSSteve Schirripa35:49

       (laughs)

   30. JRJoe Rogan35:49

       Shout out to Mike. And that got canceled, and then I got on News Radio right afterwards. So the whole time that I was out here-
8. 1:02:08 – 1:07:57

   Vegas, clubs, and the post-COVID fight-sport era: UFC without crowds

   1. JRJoe Rogan1:02:08

      I was just dr... I was just there in Vegas for the UFC, uh, two weeks ago and, uh, you know, they're doing UFC without a crowd. It's very strange. You know? We were at the APEX Center, which is a... It's, it's an arena that the UFC built. It's like-

   2. SSSteve Schirripa1:02:20

      Where is that?

   3. JRJoe Rogan1:02:21

      It's, uh, next to the UFC Performance Institute. It's off the strip and, uh, they just... They built this very small arena. So they, they do a s- a series of other shows besides just the big UFC pay-per-views. They do this thing called the Dana White Tuesday Night Contender Series where they have like up-and-coming comics, or fighters rather, up-and-coming fighters compete. And then they do it in this small place with a very small crowd and, uh, you know, like 1,000, 1,200 people. But now there's no one, no crowd, because it's the only way you can do the thing. So as I'm driving to the, the APEX Center, I'm passing the Tropicana and they've got Dice up on the billboard for February. So it's like long past shows, March, shit like that. They don't even take it down. They haven't even... Because everything's been shut down. Shut down. All the casinos have been shut down.

   4. SSSteve Schirripa1:03:07

      Well, now they're, now they're opening and-

   5. JRJoe Rogan1:03:09

      Yeah.

   6. SSSteve Schirripa1:03:09

      ... so did you have a hotel to stay in?

   7. JRJoe Rogan1:03:12

      No, I didn't even. I, I flew in the day of the fights, I flew out that night. Yesterday I watched a soccer game. A Ger- the German league and they had no s- fans, but they had a recording of the fans. Oh, that's so weird.

   8. SSSteve Schirripa1:03:23

      Which is... And you know they sing, the fans in Europe sing chants with the, the theme. They had that going on but there's nobody in the audience.

   9. JRJoe Rogan1:03:28

      That's so-

   10. SSSteve Schirripa1:03:28

       Are they gonna do that for UFC?

   11. JRJoe Rogan1:03:29

       ... strange. No, no, it's just silent.

   12. SSSteve Schirripa1:03:32

       No fa- no recording of cheers-

   13. JRJoe Rogan1:03:34

       Yeah, the, the-

   14. SSSteve Schirripa1:03:34

       ... and all that shit.

   15. JRJoe Rogan1:03:34

       ... brilliant part about it being silent is that you can hear the people breathing. You can hear them talking shit to each other. Like, "Hey, pussy. Hey, pussy. How you feeling?" Like they, they talk shit to each other-

   16. SSSteve Schirripa1:03:44

       Oh, sure.

   17. JRJoe Rogan1:03:44

       ... when they're beating- Right. ... each other up.

   18. SSSteve Schirripa1:03:45

       Yeah.

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:03:45

       You can hear the body blows, you can hear the wheezing-

   20. SSSteve Schirripa1:03:48

       Jesus Christ.

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:03:48

       ... when they're getting hurt. You can hear them heavy breathing when they're tired.

   22. SSSteve Schirripa1:03:52

       Yeah.

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:03:52

       Like, uh, the, there's so much more depth to it when you don't have an audience. There's, there's undeniable that the audience plays a big factor in the energy, but there's something to just being there. Like I was there for, uh, Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje in Florida. We did that in Jacksonville and it was the same thing. No audience. But that was even weirder because it was a 15,000 seat arena-

   24. SSSteve Schirripa1:04:14

       Wow.

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:04:14

       ... but there was no crowd. It was just these guys duking it out in this cavernous arena and the octagon set up in the center of the arena. And all you hear is the corner men giving advice and then you, you hear them beating the shit out of each other.

   26. SSSteve Schirripa1:04:28

       And do you have to adjust anything? You do different or you just stay to your thing?

   27. JRJoe Rogan1:04:31

       I didn't f... No. No, I didn't adjust. You know? The only difference is the one in Vegas, they wouldn't let me interview the fighters in the ring after the fight. So I couldn't go into the octagon after the fight. I had to do it remotely. So I had a headset on and I'm looking at them through a screen. It was real weird.

   28. SSSteve Schirripa1:04:46

       Yeah.

   29. JRJoe Rogan1:04:47

       That was weird.

   30. SSSteve Schirripa1:04:47

       And do you think the UFC, (clears throat) that's why boxing's not popular anymore?

Episode duration: 2:33:09