EVERY SPOKEN WORD
150 min read · 30,006 words- 0:02 – 5:47
Comics with unexpected tempers: Steve Byrne chair story & Al Madrigal’s “quiet revenge”
- BBBill Burr
(drumming) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.
- NANarrator
The Joe Rogan Experience. Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (rock music plays)
- JRJoe Rogan
We gotta know about your fights. We're already rolling, so just keep rolling.
- BBBill Burr
Oh, sorry.
- JRJoe Rogan
Sorry.
- BBBill Burr
Oh, we are?
- JRJoe Rogan
Go ahead. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. No, he just- We're talking about, uh, Steve Byrne's new movie.
- BBBill Burr
Yeah, Opening Act.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, Steve Byrne got in a lot of fights?
- BBBill Burr
Y- yeah. He had more than-
- JRJoe Rogan
He's so nice.
- BBBill Burr
He is. He is, but I don't know what it was, but I remember, (laughs) he was, like, at the Comic Strip and s- he did the late night show and somehow somebody threw a chair at him. I remember it hit him in the head and h- he got cut.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- BBBill Burr
And then, like, two days later I go to the Comic Strip and, uh, somebody had taken his headshot down and put, like, staples in his forehead where he got hit-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- BBBill Burr
... by the chair and put it back up. I guess back, back when you could do stuff like that and could just tease somebody, you know?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
So, uh, yeah, so he had that movie coming. I was just saying it got nominated f- for one of th- one- some film festival award, so I was very, very happy for him.
- JRJoe Rogan
That, he's a guy, like, if you, you had told me, like, "Do you think Steve Byrne has ever been in a fight?" I'd be like, "Pfft, no. He's so nice. Who's gonna fight Steve Byrne?"
- BBBill Burr
Uh, I'll let S-
- JRJoe Rogan
I've only seen him-
- BBBill Burr
... I'll let Steve come on here one day and tell the stories.
- JRJoe Rogan
I would love to hear it. W-
- BBBill Burr
I, I know a half a dozen.
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, Al Madrigal's another one.
- BBBill Burr
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
Like, when I heard about Al M- that Al Madrigal has a temper, I'm like, "What?"
- BBBill Burr
Al?
- JRJoe Rogan
Like, 'ca- I didn't... I've never seen it. That's weird. Like, m- the side to Al I know is always hugs. Like, I, I've, I've known Al since he was an opening act at the old Cob's-
- BBBill Burr
(laughs)
- 5:47 – 7:43
Pandemic standup adaptations: parking-lot shows and re-learning crowd rhythm
- JRJoe Rogan
Is he doing comedy during this pandemic shit? What has he been doing?
- BBBill Burr
Uh, dude, I haven't seen anybody unless you were on the same parking lot show that I was on or, or, or whatever. Like, I- I've started, um, uh, the Magic Castle parking lot where they, they park everybody's cars is... That's a good one that I've been going.
- JRJoe Rogan
They're doing shows there?
- BBBill Burr
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Standup?
- BBBill Burr
Dude, they're actually funny as shit.
- JRJoe Rogan
Really?
- BBBill Burr
The first night I went there, I bombed, like, I... It was my first five minutes-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- BBBill Burr
... because my idea... 'Cause the standup thing is you don't understand, like, how you're just listening to the crowd.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
And they're, they're...... and you're like, f- you, you lock in where they're at, and then you start taking 'em where they're going, where you want 'em to go, right? And you get on a roll, and then that's when you can start, you know, get, start killing. They're in their cars, so it was like, it was... It felt like I was, like, deaf trying to do standup and trying to gauge how they were laughing. But what... The weirdest thing though is, just after one night, you adjust to it, and then your whole new idea of what killing sounds like. You're able to block out the traffic and the police helicopters. I'm not even joking that they're going up, 'cause it's right in Downtown Hollywood. And then it just becomes this crazy fun gig, and there's comics waiting to go on behind you. It's really this amazing thing where I'm, I kind of like, uh, feel like you're kinda going back to just the pure love of just going up there-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
... trying shit out, making people laugh, supporting other comics.
- JRJoe Rogan
People are adapting.
- BBBill Burr
Yeah. It's been, uh, it's been, uh, as, as crazy a year and so much bad stuff that's happened to so many people, that, that aspect of it has been fun. And, um, it kinda woke up all this, uh, muscle memory that I had as a comedian that I lost. 'Cause once you start selling tickets, you do get a little softer-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
... because you get the, the, well, "Oh, it's this guy. We like this guy." Where before, I had to go back to, like, like, okay, I gotta get these people.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
I don't have to go on stage, and now, I, I, I have to avoid losing them, you know?
- 7:43 – 14:11
Staying hungry: dingy rooms, niche fame, and Steve Martin quitting standup
- JRJoe Rogan
Joey Diaz started to get some popularity and when Joey Diaz started to get some popularity, one of the things he started doing is going to the dirtiest, dingiest open mics that he could find. Like, specifically.
- BBBill Burr
Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
I go, "Why do you like doing that?" He goes, "Joe Rogan." He goes, "You can't forget your roots. You can't forget your roots, Joe Rogan!"
- BBBill Burr
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
And he would, he was like, he was serious about it. I could hear him, like take... I was on the phone with him, taking hits off the joint. "Joe Rogan, listen to me, these motherfuckers don't know. They don't know. They don't know what we went through. They don't know the fucking trenches. These fucking kids out here are soft."
- BBBill Burr
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
He goes, "They're talking to me, oh, I can't get up at The Comedy Store. I can't get up at The Comi... Bitch, I did 20 minutes in Alhambra. I drove down to a fucking Chinese restaurant and I did an open mic night in front of 15 people, and only 10 of 'em spoke English."
- BBBill Burr
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
And he would just do these gigs. He would do four a night.
- BBBill Burr
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Like, I go, "What'd you do last night?" He goes, "I went down here, and then Felipe has a room. I went down, I did that, and then I did..." And he would do this on a regular basis. And he did it specifically because he felt like he had to be in motion.
- BBBill Burr
Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
He goes, "I gotta, I gotta, I gotta go back to my roots."
- BBBill Burr
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I didn't do that. (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs) Yeah, so I've done a few of those. That's why I used to like about Haha, the Haha Cafe.
- BBBill Burr
You know what? I kind of like... There was a, there was a point where I started to do those because The Comedy Store got so crazy. It was such, like, it was so, like, just on 10.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
And everybody was murdering everything. Like, even during the... Every night started feeling like Saturday night, like, uh, you know, I wanna go out, lean on the mic stand, try out some shit-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
... feel out a story or something like that. Then I'm going on after, you know, these b- these beasts on the show, and it was like, oh man, I... So I started doing the Belly Room, and then, um, there was a, there was a really cool one on Fairfax that I was doing in this back room of this, like, uh, I wanna say Russian bar or something like that, that was great. It was fucking great. And I went there, and I felt that, that thing again where it was like, you know, um... I feel like I go, if I go to The Comedy Store, somebody knows who I am. If I go to that one, people, like, most of the people don't even know who I am. 'Cause you re-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
You start to forget, like, just how much shit there is out there to watch. And, and all you need is just, like, 1,200 people in each city to know who you are, and you could do, like, a theater.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
But, you know, you, you can have a very niche level thing. Like, I tried to explain that to somebody where they go, "Oh, you're selling this thing out so everybody knows who you are." It's like, no. It's like, there's people selling out Madison Square Garden that you've never... Bands you've never even fucking heard of, but there's, there's 20,000 people that know who they are. You know what I mean?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
So it's sort of tapping into that, trying to go to these places where, um, you could have that fun again of like, "Oh, you don't think I'm funny? Oh, you guys don't know, like-"
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- BBBill Burr
"... that I know how to do this shit." And so then that also means you don't know how I joke around. So now I can have this fun of, of like, you don't know what my style is, so it can still be, like, surprising as opposed to, oh, now he's gonna do this, now he's gonna flip out, and then I'm gonna laugh and clap-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- BBBill Burr
... and then he's gonna say goodnight. You know, you can kinda break out of that, which is, uh, is fun.
- 14:11 – 16:25
SNL backlash & the “why the joke worked” industry: clickbait commentary and ignoring it
- JRJoe Rogan
With Mick Moranis. That was a great fucking s- that bit that you did on Saturday Night Live about Rick Moranis getting punched in the face. I was fucking howling.
- BBBill Burr
You know, I thought that if anything, I thought because Everybody Loves Rick, which I do c- too of course, I was just, you know, it was the perfect-
- JRJoe Rogan
Just a joke.
- BBBill Burr
Yeah, I thought that that was the one that was gonna get people upset.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- NANarrator
(laughs)
- BBBill Burr
This is like everybody loves Rick Moranis, who wants to see him get punched?
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, it's, uh, he's a white man. You can punch a white man today and they have very little sympathy for it.
- BBBill Burr
Yeah, I, it was, I think it was because of the other shit that I, that I did.
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, there was a lot. There's a lot going on.
- BBBill Burr
You know what was annoying is somebody was trying to say why that white woman joke worked really fucking annoyed me. It's like, "It works because he called himself out for being a toxic white male too." It's like, shut... it's not... that's not why it worked.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- BBBill Burr
It worked because it's true. And what I love about that bit, the second I'm going into it, people of color are already laughing.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
The part where I say toxic white male thing is to get the person who wrote that article to come along for the ride.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
And they, they th- uh, they, they yeah, yeah, you know why it worked.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
I don't know why it works. I'm the guy who fucking wrote it and I'm watching it-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- BBBill Burr
... watching it work. But why don't you explain to me... The, the fucking arrogance of that is what... I mean, I, I listen to all this music. I would never sit there, "You know why that song works?"
- JRJoe Rogan
But you, don't you think that it's also-
- BBBill Burr
"Because he, he uses this fucking chord to something." It's just...
- JRJoe Rogan
But it's a popular culture moment and it's a timed... it's a, it's an opportunity to do commentary to make a, an article that you know is going to get a lot of clicks. Uh-
- BBBill Burr
It's a scam. Yeah, maybe I'm taking the bait. I don't know what it is, but it's just like, I don't mind, I like this, I don't like this.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
But, but don't fucking sit there and start, you know, I wouldn't tell a mechanic why the car he just fixed is fucking working, not knowing how to fix a car.
- JRJoe Rogan
A lot of what's going on today with commentary is disingenuous in that it's not necessarily what they really think, but it's what they think will get a reaction from the people that align with their ideology.
- BBBill Burr
I found the solution to it.
- JRJoe Rogan
What is it?
- 16:25 – 24:47
Escaping the feed: 1970s car movies, delightfully bad dialogue, and nostalgia viewing
- BBBill Burr
I, uh, I just, I exist now, but I live in a different time.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
Including like movies, cars, everything that I look at, like I'm just right now I'm on a, I'm on a, uh, uh, I'm watching just car movies from the 1970s.
- JRJoe Rogan
Ah.
- BBBill Burr
And I'm having... Oh, dude, I gotta get this clip for you, one of the great-
- JRJoe Rogan
What's that fucking mo- Point Blank... What's that movie with the Challenger? Because of-
- BBBill Burr
Point, uh, oh...
- JRJoe Rogan
That famous movie with the 1970-
- BBBill Burr
Vanishing Point.
- JRJoe Rogan
Vanishing Point.
- BBBill Burr
I almost said Point of Entry, which is a-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
... Judas Priest album. I watched, uh, I got a clip for you guys. I don't know if I can sh- If you guys can find this.
- JRJoe Rogan
You can send it to Jamie.
- BBBill Burr
Oh, I can send it to you?
- NANarrator
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- BBBill Burr
All right, this is like... Mi- as far as like bad '70s lines that an actor had to deliver, uh, my, one of my favorites of all time was that movie Over The Edge with the young Matt Dillon, Matt Dillon. It's a fucking amazing movie. It's about like, uh, these kids that, you know, um, back when, when, when families, when mo- white families were moving out of the, the, the, uh, the, the crime infested cities and they were starting these, these, um, whatever, these suburban things, and, uh, but all the kids were doing drugs and all that shit. It's basically about stuff like that. So the kids end up being these crazy white kids and they take over the school and, uh, at one point they lock all the parents because they had this big meeting about the kids and the kids snuck, snuck in and they locked them all in like the little, uh, auditorium. And, uh, as they're vandalizing the school, one of the cops is trying to get out and this chick runs by with a giant globe and she sees the cop and she stops and she just goes, "Eat it, you stinking pig." (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- NANarrator
(laughs)
- BBBill Burr
I fucking lost it. It's just like, it's like who the fuck writes shit like that? So I was watching a movie called The Car, which is sort of Carrie, and, uh-
- JRJoe Rogan
It's the same deal?
- BBBill Burr
Yeah. I'll, I'll send it to you.
- JRJoe Rogan
Here it is.
- BBBill Burr
Oh, there it is. Oh God. You gotta, you gotta have-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- BBBill Burr
You gotta... (wheezes)
- JRJoe Rogan
Give me some volume.
- BBBill Burr
You gotta get me some.
- JRJoe Rogan
Give me some volume in that.
- BBBill Burr
Oh, shit.
- 24:47 – 47:45
Phone addiction, algorithms, and foreign films: breaking out of the recommendation loop
- BBBill Burr
But that's a good way, I've found, just mentally to get out of like the-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
... the- the eddy.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
'Cause as a comedian, you have to be on social media, I gue-... I mean, I- I don't know a way not to be, and it's just, like, impossible, like, to not... Like I am so fucking ridiculously addicted to my phone. Like the amount of times that I set it down, going like, "Enough with that shit," and then I'll just sit there, and then five seconds later, I'm just picking it up. And, like, you know what it is? Is it's also like I watch... When... Even when I'm watching TV, I'll be like, "Oh, look at this old movie. I wonder if that guy's still alive."
- JRJoe Rogan
Right, and then you start Googling.
- BBBill Burr
And I start looking. Oh, he died. What did he die of? "Oh, you know, 82. You know, that's not bad," you know? Just-
- JRJoe Rogan
"Let's see if someone's talking shit about me." (laughs)
- BBBill Burr
Yeah. "Well, let's..." No. It's... I don't do that. I go, "Let's see what these..." Uh, I don't know.
- JRJoe Rogan
Hm. Social media's bad. I mean, it's good and it's bad, right? But the bad part is you can, uh, get lost in other people's opinions and want to defend yourself. And then, you know, people misrepresent what you said or distort what you said or take it out of context-
- BBBill Burr
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... and then you're like, "Hey." And then you think-
- BBBill Burr
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... "Well, how many people are reading that and thinking the wrong thing about me and ugh."
- BBBill Burr
No.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's just-
- BBBill Burr
I never respond to it.
- JRJoe Rogan
I don't either.
- BBBill Burr
I just, I just flip up.
- JRJoe Rogan
I would... I do what I call-
- BBBill Burr
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
... post and ghost. When I make a post, I make a post, and then I put my phone away, and I walk out of the room. I l- I leave my phone-
- BBBill Burr
Oh.
- JRJoe Rogan
... in other rooms.
- BBBill Burr
I thought you were gonna say you write what you want to say and then you delete it, and I'd be like-
- JRJoe Rogan
No.
- BBBill Burr
... I'd be too nervous you accidentally-
- JRJoe Rogan
No. No.
- BBBill Burr
... hit send.
- JRJoe Rogan
I make a post, and then I go away.
- 47:45 – 56:06
Life pause and perspective: wildfires, work momentum, and deathbed stories
- BBBill Burr
So I always thought that that was, uh... You know. I've actually, I don't know, the weird thing is I've, I really, really miss being back in, uh, Massachusetts. And I, I would say what it was a- 'cause I don't know now. Now I'm just fucking old, so just been, like, thinking a lot of, uh... I just think with, during this whole, like, pandemic, I've just had the time to finally, after, like... You know, the second you decide on g- you're gonna be a comic, it's just like you just jumped in this river.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
And it just takes you, and you... And all of a sudden, this happens.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
And it's like, you can't do standup for a long time. And after you're done, like, cleaning up your house (laughs) and doing shit like that, you kinda gotta sit down and be like, "All right. So what did I do over these last few years, and how the fuck did I end up out here in this place that's gonna, I guess, burn for months now?"
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- BBBill Burr
Um...
- JRJoe Rogan
It's burning again. It's on fire again.
- BBBill Burr
Yeah, it's the Sa- yeah. Well, you know.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
That happens out here, too, buddy.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, yeah. Not that much-
- BBBill Burr
They had, like, a-
- JRJoe Rogan
... right here in Austin.
- BBBill Burr
They had, they had, like a Biblical-level drought out here for, like, two, three years, so...
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, I remember that. Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
I mean-
- JRJoe Rogan
Lake Travis shriveled up so bad you could see, like, people's dock. Like, "Oh, I'm getting a l- getting a lakefront house."
- BBBill Burr
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
They get a lakefront house-
- BBBill Burr
Dead boaters and shit.
- JRJoe Rogan
... and then it was hundreds of yards of just w- ground before the water started.
- BBBill Burr
I know. It's kind of funny-
- JRJoe Rogan
Your boat's sitting on the ground.
- BBBill Burr
... how people think that they're, uh, like, 'cause of those imaginary lines of states that that's not, like, this disease that's gonna fucking work its way acro- I don't know. I don't wanna talk about that shit. It's too dark. That's why I'm watching old Burt Reynolds movies.
- JRJoe Rogan
But you're right about-
- BBBill Burr
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
... this giving you a chance to think about things, 'cause you, you can get caught up in the momentum of your life. A lot of people do when they get corporate jobs too, you know, they get these jobs and that's... I've, I've talked to people actually that are like sort of rethinking their own career outs- you know, not show business people, because of this. 'Cause they've been working from home, and then they've been thinking about what they're doing, like this office life is super unhealthy. And they're like, "You know, I could've been working from home all along, I'm actually more productive this way."
- BBBill Burr
Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
And then they start thinking, "Well, you know, I could be working for myself. Like, why don't I start a consulting business or start a this, or start my own business?"
- 56:06 – 1:03:41
Chappelle’s phone-free shows and reclaiming standup from “joke police”
- BBBill Burr
And in fact, if this is, like, really hitting, you don't have to go do that. It's like, "Well, I, I kinda wanna go over here and just do, uh, this thing." And, um, I was talking to you about, like, standup earlier. And, and over the summer, I was lucky enough that Dave Chappelle invited me to come out and do a couple shows out in, uh, his place out there in Ohio. And going out there and getting in front of a crowd where there was no cellphones, and I knew that this was just gonna be for them-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
... and I didn't have to worry about all this shit, it suddenly reminded me of how fun standup used to be before all the, the joke police came out to complain about shit that happened at a show that they weren't at. And I was... It was sort of this thunderclap moment where it was just like, "I haven't done standup wrong for, like, five years. I've been..." As far as... Not a... I, I... It's not that I didn't say what I wanted to say. I was looking over my shoulder as I was doing it. Literally telling jokes, going like, "Is this gonna be the one?"
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- BBBill Burr
Right?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
And then-
- JRJoe Rogan
I know that...
- BBBill Burr
... just doing his gig for three days, I was like... It took me back to, uh, being at the Boston Comedy Club in New York, back when, you know, I would watch a young Dave Chappelle and, and, uh, all of the guys down there. And I was just... And ever since then, in August, it was like, "Oh, yeah. Like, this isn't theirs. This is mine." And theirs meaning these fucking assholes who are sitting there like, like I'm on, uh, Shark Tank, and I'm trying to sell 'em something or whatever, and it's just like, "No, this, this is just... I'm just up here. I'm not doing anything. I'm just up here fucking around, saying crazy shit that I think's funny, trying to make you laugh, but, like, this... Like, my act is mine. You know what I mean? This is, this is my shit to say. If you like it, you like it. If you don't, there's 100,000 comedians. Go find the fucking one that you like, and..."
- JRJoe Rogan
But you also have to accept the fact that if you're gonna do something that people don't like, there's gonna be a certain amount of people that because of social media... First of all, people are addicted to posting. They love it. They love posting things. They do it all day long to get a j- a juice out of it. And then on top of that, if they could post about something that's, that, that rings true with outrage, especially if they can take you out of context-
- BBBill Burr
Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
... and it rings with outrage, then people will click on that. It'll get a lot of likes. So, it's, it's inevitable that if you talk about controversial subjects like you do-
- BBBill Burr
No, I understand that, but my thing is, is to not-
- JRJoe Rogan
Focus on it.
- BBBill Burr
... just completely let go of that.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yes.
- BBBill Burr
Like, "Oh, is that what you're doing? Is that how you took it? Great." I'm going onto my next show, and I'm not... I'm, I'm gonna continue doing that bit, and I'm gonna expand on it because that's what I wanna do, 'cause it makes me happy, and this is what I think is funny. And if you don't think it's f- I respect it.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
But, like, I, I... Ever since that Chappelle's Show gig, I've just been like, "Oh, yeah, this used to be fucking, like-"
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, that's great.
- BBBill Burr
"... like this awesome thing."
- JRJoe Rogan
Wild thing that nobody r- other than the people in the room. You had to worry about people leaving the room and getting mad at you. Like, "That's not funny." Like, people would get upset.
- BBBill Burr
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
But there's always gonna be one or two-
- BBBill Burr
Yeah, yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... if you got 450 people in a room, there's gonna be one or two that get pissed off and-
- BBBill Burr
Now they drive away. It's fucking hilarious.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- BBBill Burr
They just back their car up, and they just... (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
Backed-up drive-in shows. (laughs)
- 1:03:41 – 1:09:21
Hell gigs and confidence: Bill Hicks walking a room and bombing trauma
- BBBill Burr
Yeah, I remember there was, like, a big th- like, when we were coming up there was this, this badge of honor that you walked a room.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yes.
- BBBill Burr
Uh-
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, one of my favorite shows I ever saw, uh, Bill Hicks walked a room, one of my favorite shows I ever saw.
- BBBill Burr
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
It was, uh... Bill Hicks went on after this guy who was a nice guy, but he was a hack, and the hack was doing... I mean, he was doing the whole thing, just, uh, b- Dunkin' Donuts, cops jokes, uh, uh, cartoon characters smoking pot, you know? Like, it was the D-
- BBBill Burr
Classic rock.
- JRJoe Rogan
It was-
- BBBill Burr
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
It was (laughs) ... Classic rock is good music, but this was-
- BBBill Burr
You know I mean though? They became-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
... a formula after a while.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
- BBBill Burr
Sing about a car, sing about a woman.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah. Play Free Bird. Yeah.
- BBBill Burr
Yeah. Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
It... But this guy was doing this wack comedy set and it got a good amount of laughs, like, "Ah," people liked it, and then Hicks went up. And he went up, and immediately philosophical, and brooding, and pacing the stage, and they fucking hated him. And as they-
- BBBill Burr
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
... as they hated him... Fitzsimmons and I were in the back of the room. I'll never forget this. Fitzsimmons and I to this day talk about this. We were laughing, like when people were getting up and leaving, 'cause we were 21, right? We were straight open micers.
- BBBill Burr
Oh, wow.
- JRJoe Rogan
And we were sitting there watching 'cause this was when Hicks was... you know, just started to come off of, uh, HBO, so this was around '88, '89-ish. And, uh, he is doing these bits, and as he's doing these bits, we're laughing harder and more people are leaving. So there's, like, maybe 10 of us in the back, comics and people that work at a club, at Nick's Comedy Stop, and then people were just getting up in droves and walking out. At the end of the night, there's fucking 30 people had to... What's Nick's when it was packed? 300?
- BBBill Burr
It's like 400-
- JRJoe Rogan
400?
- BBBill Burr
... with- with the... If they got 'em all the way behind that bar-
Episode duration: 1:41:52
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Transcript of episode Pypp9AYDbMI
