Joe Rogan Experience #1672 - Iliza

1. 0:00 – 2:56

   Names, stage branding, and the “one-name” celebrity flex

   1. NANarrator0:00

      (drum roll) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience.

   2. JRJoe Rogan0:06

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (energetic music) Hello, Iliza.

   3. ISIliza Shlesinger0:15

      Hi, Joe Rogan.

   4. JRJoe Rogan0:16

      Good to see you, as always.

   5. ISIliza Shlesinger0:17

      Thanks so much for having me.

   6. JRJoe Rogan0:18

      I hear you're a big movie star now.

   7. ISIliza Shlesinger0:20

      I, (laughs) who told you that?

   8. JRJoe Rogan0:21

      Uh, Vanity Fair or someone.

   9. ISIliza Shlesinger0:24

      (laughs) They misspelled my name in the article?

   10. JRJoe Rogan0:26

       No.

   11. ISIliza Shlesinger0:26

       It c-

   12. JRJoe Rogan0:26

       How'd they fuck up Iliza? Did they-

   13. ISIliza Shlesinger0:28

       No, no.

   14. JRJoe Rogan0:28

       ... fuck up the last name?

   15. ISIliza Shlesinger0:29

       It's the last name.

   16. JRJoe Rogan0:30

       Yeah. Well, th- that's why you went with just Iliza too, right? You're in that rare group of humans that could go with one name.

   17. ISIliza Shlesinger0:35

       People are like, "Who do you think you are?" I'm like, "Someone with a complex German phonetic (laughs) last name."

   18. JRJoe Rogan0:40

       Yeah.

   19. ISIliza Shlesinger0:40

       That's all.

   20. JRJoe Rogan0:40

       Schlesinger. That's, it's a rough one.

   21. ISIliza Shlesinger0:42

       Schlesinger, yeah. It's rough.

   22. JRJoe Rogan0:43

       It's hard.

   23. ISIliza Shlesinger0:44

       It's hard-

   24. JRJoe Rogan0:45

       See, I fucked it up, and I've known you forever.

   25. ISIliza Shlesinger0:46

       I'm so used to it though. And what's weird is-

   26. JRJoe Rogan0:50

       Hm.

   27. ISIliza Shlesinger0:50

       ... people always say it wrong, and then when they spell it, yes, there should be a C in it, but there isn't. But they'll go to spell it, and they always add a C. I'm like, "Weird that, like, you don't understand anything else, but you have a firm grasp on German phonetics." Like, everybody knows there should be a C.

   28. JRJoe Rogan1:04

       Hm.

   29. ISIliza Shlesinger1:04

       No matter how smart or stupid they are.

   30. JRJoe Rogan1:05

       Really?
2. 2:56 – 4:01

   Comedy community shorthand: Joey Diaz stories and podcast chaos

   1. JRJoe Rogan2:56

      Yeah. Or Joey Diaz calls you f- your full name.

   2. ISIliza Shlesinger2:59

      He doesn't.

   3. JRJoe Rogan2:59

      Iliza Shlesing- he'll fuck up the last name though. Iliza Shlesinda.

   4. ISIliza Shlesinger3:02

      (laughs)

   5. JRJoe Rogan3:02

      Shlesinden.

   6. ISIliza Shlesinger3:03

      I, d- I call him Joey Diaz.

   7. JRJoe Rogan3:05

      Yeah.

   8. ISIliza Shlesinger3:05

      Some people go by both.

   9. JRJoe Rogan3:06

      He calls everybody by your full name. If he wants to say something important to me, he goes, "Joe Rogan, listen to me, Joe Rogan."

   10. ISIliza Shlesinger3:11

       Joe Rogan.

   11. JRJoe Rogan3:11

       "Listen to me."

   12. ISIliza Shlesinger3:11

       "I'm just calling to see how you're doing."

   13. JRJoe Rogan3:13

       Yeah. He does that too, right?

   14. ISIliza Shlesinger3:14

       He does that!

   15. JRJoe Rogan3:14

       Yeah. All the time.

   16. ISIliza Shlesinger3:15

       It's so, it's such a menschy thing to do. It's very east coast.

   17. JRJoe Rogan3:18

       Yeah. Yeah, he's a sweetheart. People-

   18. ISIliza Shlesinger3:19

       He really is.

   19. JRJoe Rogan3:20

       People don't understand Joey 'cause of some of the things that he said, like if you see it out of context, you think like, "Oh, what an awful person."

   20. ISIliza Shlesinger3:26

       I mean-

   21. JRJoe Rogan3:26

       He's one of the nicest guys of all time.

   22. ISIliza Shlesinger3:27

       ... you could think that about anyone-

   23. JRJoe Rogan3:29

       Yeah.

   24. ISIliza Shlesinger3:29

       ... out of context.

   25. JRJoe Rogan3:30

       For sure.

   26. ISIliza Shlesinger3:31

       No, he's sweet, man.

   27. JRJoe Rogan3:32

       Yeah, for sure.

   28. ISIliza Shlesinger3:32

       Who ate a lot of mushrooms at our last interview.

   29. JRJoe Rogan3:35

       (laughs)

   30. ISIliza Shlesinger3:35

       And I was, I was like, "Do I have to do, I don't wanna..."
3. 4:01 – 6:31

   Why “fake intimate” TV sets feel wrong (and why podcasts work)

   1. ISIliza Shlesinger4:01

      I drank one, I had like half a drink, I played Hollywood Game Night once, and I was like a little weird on camera, and I was like, "We're never doing it again."

   2. JRJoe Rogan4:07

      What's Hollywood Game Night?

   3. ISIliza Shlesinger4:08

      It's like that show, it's run, Jane Lynch, it's like on, I think it's ABC. It's like celebrities come and they play games for charity.

   4. JRJoe Rogan4:15

      Oh, okay.

   5. ISIliza Shlesinger4:15

      And they have liquor there 'cause they're hoping you'll get drunk and like do something. And I had-

   6. JRJoe Rogan4:19

      Right.

   7. ISIliza Shlesinger4:19

      ... one and I was like, my eyes start, like you don't want that captured on camera.

   8. JRJoe Rogan4:23

      Yeah.

   9. ISIliza Shlesinger4:23

      Actually being drunk unless it's for like World Star.

   10. JRJoe Rogan4:26

       Yeah, there's not a, like, uh, how many people have shows where you have to drink on their show? It's pretty rare.

   11. ISIliza Shlesinger4:32

       I don't think you ever have to, but I think it's always, executives always have this thing, they're like, "Let's set it up like it's just a hang." It's an interview, but there's a bar.

   12. JRJoe Rogan4:40

       Yeah.

   13. ISIliza Shlesinger4:41

       This is different. This is very relaxed, it's your own thing. But they always wanna make it like you happen upon this conversation.

   14. JRJoe Rogan4:48

       Mm.

   15. ISIliza Shlesinger4:48

       In someone's living room with cameras.

   16. JRJoe Rogan4:49

       Yeah, that doesn't work. And the other thing-

   17. ISIliza Shlesinger4:51

       No.

   18. JRJoe Rogan4:51

       ... about those things is like whenever they do try to set up those fake intimate things, there's always a bunch of people moving around in the background.

   19. ISIliza Shlesinger4:58

       Yeah.

   20. JRJoe Rogan4:58

       And you gotta go, "Hey, you gotta sit still."

   21. ISIliza Shlesinger5:00

       Okay.

   22. JRJoe Rogan5:00

       Like, "You can't just have a conversation." Like they do, they do these things that like, I did, uh, Bill Simmons podcast.

   23. ISIliza Shlesinger5:08

       Mm-hmm.

   24. JRJoe Rogan5:08

       And, uh, I did it when it was on HBO. And I was like, "Why do you have so many people working for you?"

   25. ISIliza Shlesinger5:13

       Right?

   26. JRJoe Rogan5:13

       Like, "It's supposed to be just you and me."

   27. ISIliza Shlesinger5:15

       He's like, "I don't know how to fire them."

   28. JRJoe Rogan5:16

       And cam- There was, I mean, there was dozens of people around.

   29. ISIliza Shlesinger5:18

       I think you can request, like an Oprah interview, you can request no one else be there, I think.

   30. JRJoe Rogan5:23

       Really?
4. 6:31 – 10:39

   Internships, early career reality checks, and Iliza’s path into stand-up

   1. JRJoe Rogan6:31

      Yeah.

   2. ISIliza Shlesinger6:31

      Right?

   3. JRJoe Rogan6:31

      Well, I, I know comics or that have shows and they hire interns. So they have people that work for them for nothing.

   4. ISIliza Shlesinger6:37

      Yeah.

   5. JRJoe Rogan6:37

      And they get like school credit.

   6. ISIliza Shlesinger6:39

      I did that.

   7. JRJoe Rogan6:40

      Did you do that?

   8. ISIliza Shlesinger6:40

      It's kind of a scam. Experience, you know, and that's obviously like a privileged thing, like, "Oh, I'll just be able to feed myself otherwise and I'll just get this experience."

   9. JRJoe Rogan6:48

      How did you do it? What'd you do?

   10. ISIliza Shlesinger6:49

       It was a part of... I went to Emerson and their LA program was you move here, you stay at the Oakwoods, um, and you intern, you take classes at the LA s- campus for Emerson, but then you intern, you know, you have to apply to an internship like you would a job.

   11. JRJoe Rogan7:03

       Right.

   12. ISIliza Shlesinger7:03

       You know? And so you're there like four days a week, doing like grunt work, mostly just sitting at a desk, at least that's what I did. Um, but this idea that you're kinda dipping your toe, seeing what you might like, what you might be good at. So, it wasn't really...

   13. JRJoe Rogan7:17

       Yeah, did it like make you think like, "Okay, I d- definitely don't wanna work on a set?"

   14. ISIliza Shlesinger7:21

       Uh, I wasn't on a set. I was in... It was the United Artists office.

   15. JRJoe Rogan7:25

       Oh, wow.

   16. ISIliza Shlesinger7:25

       And it made me think, "I definitely do not wanna log all of these indie submission movies that were like shot on a Nokia phone."

   17. JRJoe Rogan7:33

       (sighs) (laughs)

   18. ISIliza Shlesinger7:33

       Just logging details of stuff. You're like, no one's ever gonna... I would do it for my boss, like I'd write all the info in case they ever revisited it. But it was just going in a trash hole.

   19. JRJoe Rogan7:42

       And when you, were you doing standup at the time?

   20. ISIliza Shlesinger7:45

       I- uh, that's a great question. Yes.

   21. JRJoe Rogan7:48

       When was your first day on stage?

   22. ISIliza Shlesinger7:50

       In LA?

   23. JRJoe Rogan7:50

       Ever.

   24. ISIliza Shlesinger7:52

       It's a real, uh, my first, first for standup?

   25. JRJoe Rogan7:54

       First, first.

   26. ISIliza Shlesinger7:55

       For standup?

   27. JRJoe Rogan7:55

       Yeah.

   28. ISIliza Shlesinger7:56

       For standup was-

   29. JRJoe Rogan7:57

       Why, why is it s- y-

   30. ISIliza Shlesinger7:58

       Because I did improv.
5. 10:39 – 16:13

   Comedy Store dynamics: avoiding ‘project guys,’ working on bits, and fan pressure

   1. ISIliza Shlesinger10:39

      A lot of mutual respect. I think of you, I think of seeing you in the hallway, like behind the OR, and I think of you as not wanting people to bug you so you're in that back bar.

   2. JRJoe Rogan10:50

      Yeah.

   3. ISIliza Shlesinger10:50

      You're the only comic that probably truly needs to utilize the back area, because people are coming up to you so much that you're like, "I just need a minute."

   4. JRJoe Rogan11:00

      Well, the pe- people come up to you with projects.

   5. ISIliza Shlesinger11:02

      Sure.

   6. JRJoe Rogan11:03

      It's the pro- it's not, they're not just coming up to say hi. There's like, this store was filled with so many people that had, "Hey, man."

   7. ISIliza Shlesinger11:09

      Hey, man.

   8. JRJoe Rogan11:09

      "Um, I want to start a weed strain with your name on it. Hey, man."

   9. ISIliza Shlesinger11:12

      "Hey, man, will you wrestle this bear?"

   10. JRJoe Rogan11:13

       "I gotta b- " Yeah. (laughs)

   11. ISIliza Shlesinger11:14

       (laughs)

   12. JRJoe Rogan11:14

       There's always just some, some person that thinks that they just gotta make a connection with me and that's gonna... And meanwhile, I'll have like notes out, I'll have like a new bit I'm trying to work on, so I got notes and I'm going over something. And they don't shut the fuck up. They just won't leave you alone. So you have to hide.

   13. ISIliza Shlesinger11:27

       You gotta go.

   14. JRJoe Rogan11:28

       And s-

   15. ISIliza Shlesinger11:28

       I think a lot of comics wish, like, "Yeah, I gotta go in that back room. I don't want my fans to bug me."

   16. JRJoe Rogan11:32

       (sighs)

   17. ISIliza Shlesinger11:32

       I'm like, "There's no one checking for you."

   18. JRJoe Rogan11:35

       (sighs) Oh.

   19. ISIliza Shlesinger11:35

       You know-

   20. JRJoe Rogan11:35

       Yeah.

   21. ISIliza Shlesinger11:35

       ... back there. But yeah.

   22. JRJoe Rogan11:35

       But I always admire your hustle. You, you get shit done. You get after it. You're always doing something. You're always pushing. You're always-

   23. ISIliza Shlesinger11:42

       Thank you.

   24. JRJoe Rogan11:42

       ... you're always getting going. You know?

   25. ISIliza Shlesinger11:45

       Definitely.

   26. JRJoe Rogan11:45

       I respect that.

   27. ISIliza Shlesinger11:45

       I, I thank you. I just think it's, uh... The odds of anything happening in this career are less than zero.

   28. JRJoe Rogan11:52

       Yeah.

   29. ISIliza Shlesinger11:53

       So the more things you try to do at once, the less painful it is when something doesn't go, because you have something else to focus on.

   30. JRJoe Rogan12:00

       Very true.
6. 16:13 – 19:44

   From hecklers to security: when comedy clubs get dangerous

   1. ISIliza Shlesinger16:13

      But comedy clubs are like... And like when you start out in those, like safety is not a concern. People forget how to act. I mean, I've dumped drinks on people. I have dumped bowls of popcorn on people.

   2. JRJoe Rogan16:26

      Why?

   3. ISIliza Shlesinger16:27

      For being disrespectful.

   4. JRJoe Rogan16:28

      Oh.

   5. ISIliza Shlesinger16:28

      You're a 26-year-old girl. Some fuckhead in the front is like texting or talking to you. I've dumped a drink li- with n- no thought of repercussion. I've been like, "Get the fuck ou-..." Like, "What are you gonna do?"

   6. JRJoe Rogan16:41

      (laughs)

   7. ISIliza Shlesinger16:41

      It's so dumb and it's not a good idea, but sometimes you just see red.

   8. JRJoe Rogan16:45

      Yeah.

   9. ISIliza Shlesinger16:46

      And you just... (laughs) And you're like, "I gotta do something." It's a bad idea. I don't endorse it.

   10. JRJoe Rogan16:50

       You do- don't dump drinks on people. I've had two people throw drinks at me at the Comedy Store.

   11. ISIliza Shlesinger16:55

       That's horrible.

   12. JRJoe Rogan16:56

       Yeah. Yeah.

   13. ISIliza Shlesinger16:57

       That's horrible.

   14. JRJoe Rogan16:59

       Yeah, two different times.

   15. ISIliza Shlesinger17:00

       From the back-

   16. JRJoe Rogan17:01

       Yeah.

   17. ISIliza Shlesinger17:01

       ... or like in the front?

   18. JRJoe Rogan17:02

       One guy from the side, like I'm standing there, he was, he was ruining the whole... Him and his, I think it was his sons.

   19. ISIliza Shlesinger17:08

       (sighs)

   20. JRJoe Rogan17:08

       It was a guy and his two sons, like the older guys.

   21. ISIliza Shlesinger17:09

       And they were probably there to see you.

   22. JRJoe Rogan17:11

       I don't think so.

   23. ISIliza Shlesinger17:11

       Oh.

   24. JRJoe Rogan17:12

       No, this is the early days.

   25. ISIliza Shlesinger17:14

       Right.

   26. JRJoe Rogan17:14

       And, uh, he threw a drink. They, they were just, they were ruining the whole show, and I, I started mocking them. They couldn't handle it.

   27. ISIliza Shlesinger17:19

       They couldn't handle it.

   28. JRJoe Rogan17:20

       Yeah. And then they got mad. He got up and threw a drink. I'm like, "Oh, you pussy."

   29. ISIliza Shlesinger17:23

       That's so fuck... I mean, but that... I think that happened on... I think it was Tammy Pescatelli, like some... It's your biggest nightmare that somebody throws something because-

   30. JRJoe Rogan17:30

       You can't see.
7. 19:44 – 23:40

   Fragile infrastructure, outages, and LA as an “Ninja Warrior” of disasters

   1. ISIliza Shlesinger19:44

      Uh, it happened to us recently. The, uh, whole neighborhood, some idiot on Mulholland hit a- a pole.

   2. JRJoe Rogan19:51

      (snorts)

   3. ISIliza Shlesinger19:51

      Which I can't believe this doesn't happen more often, because the brilliant people of our neighborhood deci- voted to remove a stop sign-

   4. JRJoe Rogan19:57

      (laughs)

   5. ISIliza Shlesinger19:57

      ... so they could go real fast. And this woman hit a pole, and it knocked out power for thousands of people.

   6. JRJoe Rogan20:04

      (laughs)

   7. ISIliza Shlesinger20:04

      And all I wanted was her name. All I want, I'm just like, "Who is it?" And as a woman, I'm like, "Crap, it's a woman." But like, how is it that's a dangerous turn, nobody has ever hit that pole except for you? Which means it's on you. It's not the road. And it was like five days of nothing.

   8. JRJoe Rogan20:23

      Oh, boy.

   9. ISIliza Shlesinger20:23

      So we had to go and buy all the things, and now we have them.

   10. JRJoe Rogan20:26

       You got a generator?

   11. ISIliza Shlesinger20:27

       We're getting a generator.

   12. JRJoe Rogan20:28

       Yeah, generators are big.

   13. ISIliza Shlesinger20:29

       We've got bricks for the pho- our neighbor had one, but he's not cool.

   14. JRJoe Rogan20:32

       He's not?

   15. ISIliza Shlesinger20:33

       So he could hear it the whole time, and you're like, "Oh, I just-"

   16. JRJoe Rogan20:35

       He could hear his generator going?

   17. ISIliza Shlesinger20:36

       Mm-hmm.

   18. JRJoe Rogan20:37

       And he's an asshole?

   19. ISIliza Shlesinger20:38

       He's not a, I don't know if, he's just not cool is the word. I don't know if he's an asshole, but I, I didn't think he'd... I don't know him well enough to be like, "Can I have some of your power for my curling iron?"

   20. JRJoe Rogan20:46

       (laughs)

   21. ISIliza Shlesinger20:47

       I gotta curl these hairs. I gotta go somewhere.

   22. JRJoe Rogan20:50

       Oh. Uh, the- the power is so fucking feeble. I mean, it's so powerful in that it- it- it, you know, controls everything in the city, and we all rely on it. We use it every day, and it's amazing. We're using it right now. But it's so fragile.

   23. ISIliza Shlesinger21:04

       So fragile. A- especially LA, you know, we all blindly, like we all have our heads down. We live there. You're paying all this money. Of course you know that, and you're losing most of your money to taxes. And you're living in multimillion dollar houses, and the phone lines, the power lines are from the '50s. I saw a picture of Kim Kardashian the other day, and she's posing in her outfit in front of like a Maserati, but behind her is like archaic electrical work-

   24. JRJoe Rogan21:30

       (laughs)

   25. ISIliza Shlesinger21:30

       ... because that's what we put up with. You got a $4 million house, and there's just spider wires coming out the top like that's not a fire hazard. And we all, it's just normal to us that like none of the cables run underground.

   26. JRJoe Rogan21:43

       Yeah. That's true.

   27. ISIliza Shlesinger21:44

       It's what you put up with. You're like, "Well, it's LA."

   28. JRJoe Rogan21:47

       Some places have cables that run underground.

   29. ISIliza Shlesinger21:49

       Some.

   30. JRJoe Rogan21:50

       Yeah.
8. 23:40 – 27:59

   Homelessness, incentives, and the politics of ‘unhoused’ language

   1. ISIliza Shlesinger23:40

      It's on fire. There's rain. We have a homeless problem no one's allowed to speak about because it makes you a bad person. We have so many fucking tents in our city, it looks like an REI showroom.

   2. JRJoe Rogan23:51

      It's really dumb.

   3. ISIliza Shlesinger23:51

      Like, they're just everywhere.

   4. JRJoe Rogan23:52

      Do you know how much money they spend on it?

   5. ISIliza Shlesinger23:54

      On what?

   6. JRJoe Rogan23:55

      Hundreds of millions of dollars trying to fix the homelessness, and it goes up every year. And the salaries of the people that are working on the homeless problem-

   7. ISIliza Shlesinger24:02

      Mm-hmm.

   8. JRJoe Rogan24:02

      ... we posted them the other day.

   9. ISIliza Shlesinger24:03

      Oh, yeah.

   10. JRJoe Rogan24:04

       Six figures, all of them.

   11. ISIliza Shlesinger24:05

       Yeah.

   12. JRJoe Rogan24:05

       Hundreds of thousands of dollars.

   13. ISIliza Shlesinger24:07

       Where's the solution?

   14. JRJoe Rogan24:07

       The- s- the top end people are making like 260, 270 a year, and it, nothing gets fixed.

   15. ISIliza Shlesinger24:13

       No, it- it's, and you can't speak about it because I talked about it the other day, and people were like, "How dare you ridicule them?"

   16. JRJoe Rogan24:21

       (laughs) Who said that?

   17. ISIliza Shlesinger24:21

       I'm like, "I'm not. It's the pro-" It was just like a fan.

   18. JRJoe Rogan24:23

       (laughs)

   19. ISIliza Shlesinger24:24

       I was like, "It's, I'm talking about the problem. That's my job." But it is this like, who can out-liberal, out-woke?

   20. JRJoe Rogan24:29

       Yeah.

   21. ISIliza Shlesinger24:29

       Like, how dare you mention the homeless?

   22. JRJoe Rogan24:31

       Excuse me, the unhoused?

   23. ISIliza Shlesinger24:32

       Yeah, the unh- you should lose everything. I'm like, "So I'm part of the problem?"

   24. JRJoe Rogan24:35

       They're called the unhoused.

   25. ISIliza Shlesinger24:36

       The unhoused. And I do feel bad, and it's awful, but there does come a point where you're just like, when can we address this-

   26. JRJoe Rogan24:42

       Yeah, well-

   27. ISIliza Shlesinger24:42

       ... and have a productive conversation?

   28. JRJoe Rogan24:43

       They don't have a solution, and they keep throwing money on it, and it keeps getting worse. And th- the way a friend of mine said it, he said it really...... it's really wise. He goes, "They're farming homeless people."

   29. ISIliza Shlesinger24:54

       Oh, yeah.

   30. JRJoe Rogan24:54

       He goes, "You have to understand that this is a, a, an industry-
9. 27:59 – 41:12

   Leaving LA vs staying in the grind: who can relocate and still ‘make it’

   1. JRJoe Rogan27:59

      Or you could do what I did and just flee.

   2. ISIliza Shlesinger28:01

      Okay, cool.

   3. JRJoe Rogan28:03

      It seems like-

   4. ISIliza Shlesinger28:03

      You, you have a lot of money (laughs) -

   5. JRJoe Rogan28:05

      (laughs)

   6. ISIliza Shlesinger28:05

      ... and you have a podcast.

   7. JRJoe Rogan28:06

      It seems like the time-

   8. ISIliza Shlesinger28:07

      It's different.

   9. JRJoe Rogan28:08

      ... to flee. Like, p- Some- someone said something, they wrote an article about me, uh, Elon and me, saying we're cowards for not staying and fighting to make LA a better place.

   10. ISIliza Shlesinger28:16

       You're still Americans. You didn't, like, turncoat on the country. You just left a state.

   11. JRJoe Rogan28:21

       Well, they, they were saying that, you know, you should try to fix LA instead of abandoning it. And I'm like, "You can't fix-"

   12. ISIliza Shlesinger28:28

       You fix it.

   13. JRJoe Rogan28:28

       "... that place."

   14. ISIliza Shlesinger28:29

       It's broken inherently. It's broken in structure, in the s- in the people. (scoffs)

   15. JRJoe Rogan28:33

       Yeah.

   16. ISIliza Shlesinger28:34

       Look, uh, you know what? I, I, I'm glad you brought up that you left because I got, I got a take on this. I have a hot take on this.

   17. JRJoe Rogan28:41

       Ooh, a hot take.

   18. ISIliza Shlesinger28:42

       I believe there are echelons of success. And when people... So, like, you picked up and you moved, right? You made so much money, uh, from, you know, your deal, and you rightfully wanna keep a lot of that because of taxes, and I totally get that. But especially when you have a podcast and when you are in control, like, you can do UFC, you do the podcast, and then you said a third thing. Um, these are things that can be done remotely. You don't need to be in LA. You're not a movie producer. You don't wanna be an actor. I found out when I tried to get you to be in my movie.

   19. JRJoe Rogan29:13

       (laughs)

   20. ISIliza Shlesinger29:13

       And you don't... Like, that's not, you know, you don't wanna write movies. So that part of the hustle is not your, in your purview, right? So you can do whatever you wanna do remotely. If I, if al- if you wanna have a podcast, you can do it from anywhere. If you wanna be a comic who travels, you can do it from anywhere. And I think people... You, you have to pay those dues in Hollywood if you are trying to do something. And part of living there is the difficulty of raising your family, of making a living. Like, this is why it's so hard to make it. And I think a lot of people before they've made it think, "Well, I'll just move, but, like, I'll still be, like, I'll still be in the industry." And that's a gamble. What I give up by living there, I get back in, you know, meeting a producer at a, at a restaurant-

   21. JRJoe Rogan29:57

       Mm-hmm.

   22. ISIliza Shlesinger29:57

       ... taking that meeting in person, having that audition in person. So you can get to a place where you go, but for, there's a medium, like there's a group that's, like, still in that fight and haven't gotten to that next level. And then there's the people below that, that are like, "You weren't having much success, so you decided to leave." And all these decisions are okay. But I, I can think of a comic off the top of my head who was like, "I'm gonna leave LA. I'll come back whenever, but I'm gonna do my podcast from, like, a remote location." And you lose the connection to Hollywood.

   23. JRJoe Rogan30:24

       Mm-hmm.

   24. ISIliza Shlesinger30:24

       You cannot have both-

   25. JRJoe Rogan30:25

       No.

   26. ISIliza Shlesinger30:26

       ... 'cause that's not how it's designed. But-

   27. JRJoe Rogan30:28

       If, if you wanna do that, if you wanna act and you wanna do that, tho- though, especially acting-

   28. ISIliza Shlesinger30:33

       Yeah.

   29. JRJoe Rogan30:33

       ... that's the spot to be, for sure.

   30. ISIliza Shlesinger30:34

       If t- if, only just to be in it, not to get complacent, you know. Yes, you could, if you're someone like a Tom Segura or Sebastian, I guess I could do it too. You could live somewhere else-
10. 41:12 – 1:15:36

    The movie-inspired con artist story: Yale lies, fake cancer, and betrayal

    1. JRJoe Rogan41:12

       So you made a movie about the story that you told on the podcast-

    2. ISIliza Shlesinger41:16

       Mm-hmm.

    3. JRJoe Rogan41:16

       ... about a guy who pretended that he was from Yale, and you-

    4. ISIliza Shlesinger41:19

       Yeah.

    5. JRJoe Rogan41:19

       And then you found out later in your relationship that he was not, and that he was completely full of shit.

    6. ISIliza Shlesinger41:24

       Yeah, I told that story on your podcast a couple years ago. And I was trying to think if that was the first time I'd ever been on your podcast in this iteration, like as the huge Joe Rogan Experience podcast. And I couldn't remember if I'd been on it before, prior to that.

    7. JRJoe Rogan41:37

       I think you had.

    8. ISIliza Shlesinger41:38

       I think so too. But I think... I was like, "That would be the perfect bookend to this story," 'cause the first time I told it, in its totality, was here. And then here I am, and I've made this movie. Uh-

    9. JRJoe Rogan41:51

       It's such a crazy story.

    10. ISIliza Shlesinger41:53

        Yeah.

    11. JRJoe Rogan41:53

        The fact that the guy, that that really was what he was doing. He was just completely lying-

    12. ISIliza Shlesinger41:57

        Yeah.

    13. JRJoe Rogan41:57

        ... about his background and who he was, and... But it worked for a little while.

    14. ISIliza Shlesinger42:03

        Well, you know, so I, I remember when I told the story, and of course, the feedback's all like, "You're a dumb bitch."

    15. JRJoe Rogan42:08

        (laughs)

    16. ISIliza Shlesinger42:09

        "What's wrong? Why is there a woman talking about anything?"

    17. JRJoe Rogan42:12

        (laughs)

    18. ISIliza Shlesinger42:13

        And so I was just like, "Okay, I gotta be careful in the way that I parse out this narrative." And my answer is, you know, there's red flags that we're taught to think about. You know, you're walking down the street in New York City and someone gives you a look, you got red flags, right? You're at a, um, you're, uh, doing a business deal, there's red flags. In a relationship, you know, because of m- music and TV, we're all thought to think about cheating, right? And lying in that way. I meet you randomly, and in the first five minutes, I'm like, "Where'd you go to school? What do you do?" I wouldn't, I don't wanna be the kinda person that has a radar up, because these weren't lies like, "I'm the King of Spain. I have a fleet of yachts at my disposal." It was like, "I went to Yale," just like my cousin did, "and I do hedge funds." Like, "Okay."

    19. JRJoe Rogan42:55

        Seem normal.

    20. ISIliza Shlesinger42:56

        Normal. And that's how these kind of people get by, and so these weren't things-

    21. JRJoe Rogan43:01

        You met this guy on a plane, right?

    22. ISIliza Shlesinger43:02

        An airplane. An airplane. (laughs) As if there's a difference.

    23. JRJoe Rogan43:04

        (laughs)

    24. ISIliza Shlesinger43:04

        Like, not just a grassy plain. Specifically, an airplane.

    25. JRJoe Rogan43:11

        So you were-

    26. ISIliza Shlesinger43:11

        Not a hydroplanes.

    27. JRJoe Rogan43:11

        ... heading to a gig. He was sitting next to you?

    28. ISIliza Shlesinger43:13

        I was coming home for Thanksgiving.

    29. JRJoe Rogan43:15

        Oh.

    30. ISIliza Shlesinger43:15

        I was just ... My family, some of them are on the East Coast. And I- my big thing as a com- like I always, my whole career, I spend the money on the travel. Like that's a great investment. Like buy that first-class ticket. When you travel so much, I'm like, "That's where the money goes." And you're usually sitting next to someone (slaps hands) who looks like your dad in first class. It's, uh, seldom that I ... And this was, I was probably 29 at the time, 28, 29. Seldom you are sitting next to someone around your age, you know, and here's a guy, and so we just start talking 'cause we're the s- around the same age. Um, and that's ... And we just got along super. He was funny. He was dorky, but smart. Like just a cool guy. And I ... He had a girlfriend and I had a boy picking me up at the airport, and I think we exchanged like Twitter handles.

Episode duration: 2:49:13