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The Joe Rogan ExperienceThe Joe Rogan Experience

Joe Rogan Experience #1629 - Lara Beitz

Lara Beitz is a standup comic known for her appearances on Comedy Central's "Lights Out with David Spade", Showtimes' "The Comedy Store" mini-series, and stages around the United States.

Lara BeitzguestJoe Roganhost
Jun 26, 20242h 36mWatch on YouTube ↗

At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Lara Beitz On Comedy, COVID Fallout, Sobriety, And Radical Self‑Discipline

  1. Joe Rogan and comedian Lara Beitz talk about doing standup during COVID, how different cities handled lockdowns, and the broader social and economic fallout from prolonged restrictions.
  2. They dig into crime, homelessness, and mental-health crises, while criticizing fear-driven policies and the way nuance gets lost in online discourse.
  3. Lara discusses losing nearly 40 pounds, her obsessive work ethic around food, exercise, and writing, and how that same discipline fuels her standup career.
  4. She also opens up about serious alcoholism, a drugging incident at a club, multiple fainting episodes, and why she now feels ‘unstoppable’ in comedy despite industry and personal setbacks.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Relying solely on lockdowns without economic support or nuance fuels crime and despair.

They argue that shuttered economies, weak political incentives, and constrained policing have pushed marginal people toward crime, homelessness, and mental-health crises, especially in cities like LA, while states like Florida kept more open without clearly worse health outcomes.

Metabolic health and vitamin D matter enormously for COVID risk, yet are underemphasized.

Rogan cites data that ICU patients and hospitalized COVID cases are disproportionately obese and vitamin-D deficient, especially among people of color, and notes public health messaging has focused on restriction and vaccination more than exercise, weight loss, and supplementation.

The “hidden pandemic” is suicide, addiction, and relapse exacerbated by isolation.

Stories from a sheriff and hospital nurse friends highlight big spikes in suicides, severe alcohol withdrawal, and deaths from alcoholism and overdose, worsened by AA moving to Zoom and being less accessible, which policymakers rarely tally alongside COVID case/death counts.

Sustainable body transformation comes from structure, not crash efforts.

Lara lost ~38 pounds by joining an overeaters’ support group, weighing and logging everything, following a dietitian’s plan, maintaining a modest daily calorie deficit, cutting flour and sugar, and doing regular training she actually enjoys (tennis, swimming, Zoom workouts).

Treat creativity like a job: small daily quotas add up to an hour a year.

Her rule is 30 minutes of standup writing daily—often much of that is “bad” or tossed, but even if only 1/20 of pages become usable, that’s a new hour annually; she and Rogan stress that most comics don’t meet even this minimal, consistent standard.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

You gotta be undeniable. And if you’re not undeniable, become undeniable.

Joe Rogan

I feel unstoppable with comedy. Everything else in my life, the doors shut. With standup, they just keep opening.

Lara Beitz

They told us there was a virus killing obese people. I was obese, so I lost weight… then obese people got vaccine priority and I didn’t.

Lara Beitz

COVID fucked LA. People think I’m exaggerating, then they go there and call me like, ‘Holy shit, dude, it’s unrecognizable.’

Joe Rogan

The action has to be the reward. I don’t do workouts I hate or eat food I hate—that’s why it’s sustainable.

Lara Beitz

Impact of COVID-19 policies on LA, Austin, comedy, and small businessesCrime, homelessness, policing, and safety in urban nightlife districtsVaccine prioritization, obesity, vitamin D, and personal health responsibilityMental health, suicide, addiction, AA/rehab access, and hidden pandemic costsLara’s weight loss, food addiction, training regimen, and daily disciplineSobriety journey: alcoholism, blackouts, quitting, and performing soberStandup craft: bombing, writing process, stage fright, career breaks and gatekeeping

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