Joe Rogan Experience #1681 - Brian Simpson

1. 0:00 – 2:11

   Post-show hang & Brian Simpson’s start in standup (San Diego → Austin)

   1. NANarrator0:00

      (drumming music) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience. Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (rock music plays)

   2. JRJoe Rogan0:14

      Hello, Bryan Simpson.

   3. BSBrian Simpson0:15

      What's going on, man?

   4. JRJoe Rogan0:16

      Good to see you, my friend.

   5. BSBrian Simpson0:16

      Hell yeah.

   6. JRJoe Rogan0:17

      What's happening?

   7. BSBrian Simpson0:18

      I'm chilling, man. I'm just living my best life.

   8. JRJoe Rogan0:21

      That's a thing that a lot of people say and they don't really mean it, but I believe you.

   9. BSBrian Simpson0:24

      I mean that shit.

   10. JRJoe Rogan0:25

       I believe you. (laughs)

   11. BSBrian Simpson0:26

       (laughs) Yeah.

   12. JRJoe Rogan0:27

       Last night was fun, right?

   13. BSBrian Simpson0:29

       Hell yeah. Yeah.

   14. JRJoe Rogan0:30

       Those shows at Vulcan are lit.

   15. BSBrian Simpson0:31

       That was a great-ass crowd, man. They-

   16. JRJoe Rogan0:33

       They're real good.

   17. BSBrian Simpson0:34

       Always good crowds there.

   18. JRJoe Rogan0:35

       It's a good spot too, because everybody's on top of you, you know? You're just, like, in the mix of everything. Once they shortened that stage, remember how they had the double stage and they knocked it down?

   19. BSBrian Simpson0:43

       Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, I like, I like every... I find that, like, as I'm going around more and more, like, it's almost like, like Zanies-

   20. JRJoe Rogan0:49

       Mm-hmm.

   21. BSBrian Simpson0:50

       ... in Nashville was like, any club that has, like, a little, like, people up above you-

   22. JRJoe Rogan0:54

       Yeah.

   23. BSBrian Simpson0:54

       ... I, I love that shit.

   24. JRJoe Rogan0:55

       Yeah, yeah.

   25. BSBrian Simpson0:56

       Yeah.

   26. JRJoe Rogan0:57

       Well, any time they're just stuffed in on top of you, like one of the best clubs I ever worked at was The Comedy Connection in Boston, not the one in Faneuil Hall, but the old one, the original one. It was... I mean, it maybe sat 150 people, but they were stuffed into this room with, like, a low ceiling and it was magic, man. You would, you would kill and it was, it was so contagious. The laughter was so contagious-

   27. BSBrian Simpson1:19

       Yeah.

   28. JRJoe Rogan1:19

       ... 'cause everybody is just smooshed on top of each other. Where'd you start?

   29. BSBrian Simpson1:24

       Um, I started comedy in San Diego.

   30. JRJoe Rogan1:26

       Really?
2. 2:11 – 3:52

   Finding his comedic voice in the Marines (race, honesty, and permission to speak)

   1. BSBrian Simpson2:11

      ... I, I, uh, I tell this story all the time, but I was, I was the, uh, I was the only black person in my platoon for a couple of years. And before I got there, some racial shit went down and they, like, you know, uh, somebody, a officer got removed and they took the black people all out of the, out of the unit and I was the first black person back in the unit. And I didn't know none of this and then, and then I got to them, you know, it... I could feel everyone, like, walking on eggshells around me and one day, my, uh, my warrant officer asked me, like, "Hey, how you doing?" You know? He's like, "Is everybody treating you well?" And I was like, "Well, sir, everybody's fucking acting weird." Like, I, you know, I, I could hear-

   2. JRJoe Rogan2:53

      (laughs)

   3. BSBrian Simpson2:53

      I can hear conversations hush up when I come in the room. I can, you can feel people, like, editing themselves and shit.

   4. JRJoe Rogan2:58

      Mm-hmm.

   5. BSBrian Simpson2:59

      And then he told me what happened and, uh, and I realized, like, this can't work, so I told everybody, "Hey, just say whatever you want to say. Don't worry about if you offend me 'cause if you do, I'm just gonna try to hurt your feelings too. You know, like, I'm gonna say what I want and you say what you want and I'mma win most of those." You know?

   6. JRJoe Rogan3:16

      (laughs)

   7. BSBrian Simpson3:16

      And then I... So then I sort of had, like, a little more leeway than everybody else to speak my mind.

   8. JRJoe Rogan3:20

      Right.

   9. BSBrian Simpson3:21

      And so every now and then, I would say some shit that I knew everybody was thinking but nobody could say but me and it would... People would laugh. And that's when I started realizing, "Oh, I, like, I can make... I can do this..." Like, just me complaining is funny.

   10. JRJoe Rogan3:34

       So you had no thoughts, like, "One day I want to be a standup comedian."

   11. BSBrian Simpson3:38

       No.

   12. JRJoe Rogan3:38

       It was sort of introduced into your head by that?

   13. BSBrian Simpson3:40

       Yeah, yeah.

   14. JRJoe Rogan3:41

       Oh.

   15. BSBrian Simpson3:41

       Like, I, I started getting laughs all the time. Like, all the time.

   16. JRJoe Rogan3:45

       (laughs)

   17. BSBrian Simpson3:46

       And, and th- those, those friends were the ones that started being like, "You should do fucking comedy." You know? Th- and that's when it... That's when I started wanting to do it.

3. 3:52 – 4:27

   Six years of writing before the first open mic (fear vs. the ‘safe plan’)

   1. JRJoe Rogan3:52

      And what year did you get on stage first?

   2. BSBrian Simpson3:56

      2011.

   3. JRJoe Rogan3:56

      How much did you think about it before you did it? How long? Did you, like, write it out?

   4. BSBrian Simpson4:01

      Oh. Oh, yeah.

   5. JRJoe Rogan4:01

      Did you practice?

   6. BSBrian Simpson4:01

      I wrote... I prob... I think I wrote my first joke in, like, 2005.

   7. JRJoe Rogan4:05

      Oh, wow.

   8. BSBrian Simpson4:05

      And I waited six years to get on stage.

   9. JRJoe Rogan4:07

      Wow. So it was brewing in your head.

   10. BSBrian Simpson4:10

       Oh, yeah, it was brewing and brewing and brewing. But, you know, you... 'Cause you have that thing where you're afraid to go after something like that-

   11. JRJoe Rogan4:16

       Mm-hmm.

   12. BSBrian Simpson4:16

       ... where you're like... I... 'Cause at the time I was in school and it's like, "Am I really gonna give up my, my safe plan-"

   13. JRJoe Rogan4:23

       Yeah.

   14. BSBrian Simpson4:24

       ... for some, for a pipe dream?" And it's like, "Yeah, I think so."

4. 4:27 – 8:24

   Whiskey tasting detour & why spicy pain is ‘fun’

   1. JRJoe Rogan4:27

      Dude, this whiskey is good. What is this shit?

   2. BSBrian Simpson4:29

      Yeah, this shit's smooth.

   3. JRJoe Rogan4:30

      It's called, uh... Is this the stuff that-

   4. GUGuest4:33

      I think it's much more scotch.

   5. JRJoe Rogan4:34

      Yes.

   6. GUGuest4:35

      Laphroaig. Laphroaig.

   7. JRJoe Rogan4:35

      But is this... Who brought us this?

   8. GUGuest4:37

      I, I'm trying to remember. It wasn't only a couple weeks ago too.

   9. BSBrian Simpson4:40

      What is it called?

   10. JRJoe Rogan4:40

       Was it Eliza? It might have been Eliza.

   11. GUGuest4:42

       It may have been with that other... I don't remember, though.

   12. JRJoe Rogan4:44

       Maybe. It's called, uh, Laphro A-I-C? Laphroaig?

   13. GUGuest4:50

       I used to say that it was.

   14. JRJoe Rogan4:51

       Oh, it's a G. Laphroaig?

   15. GUGuest4:53

       Laphraeg?

   16. BSBrian Simpson4:53

       Laphroaig.

   17. GUGuest4:54

       But I'm not sure.

   18. JRJoe Rogan4:54

       Uh, Irish single malt scotch whiskey, aged 10 years. It's real shit though. It's got... It's peaty, right?

   19. BSBrian Simpson5:01

       It's probably, uh...

   20. JRJoe Rogan5:02

       It tastes like, uh, it's got that...

   21. NANarrator5:05

       Laphroaig.

   22. JRJoe Rogan5:06

       Oh, there you go.

   23. BSBrian Simpson5:07

       Yeah, Laphroaig.

   24. JRJoe Rogan5:08

       Laphroaig. It's got that, um, peaty taste.

   25. BSBrian Simpson5:11

       Yeah, it do.

   26. JRJoe Rogan5:11

       Is that the right word?

   27. BSBrian Simpson5:12

       It doesn't taste like any whiskey I've ever tasted.

   28. JRJoe Rogan5:13

       It's good.

   29. BSBrian Simpson5:14

       But it's good, yeah.

   30. JRJoe Rogan5:14

       I like it a lot. It's legit. There's a lot of good whiskey out there. That's, uh, one of the things about this podcast, like, they found out that I like whiskey, so I got sent a whole shitload of whiskey.
5. 8:24 – 11:28

   Sha’Carri Richardson, weed bans, and why the Olympics feel corrupt

   1. BSBrian Simpson8:24

      How, how'd you feel about, um, about the Olympics banning, uh, Sha'Carri Richardson for, for-

   2. JRJoe Rogan8:31

      100% horseshit. First of all, I think the Olympics are disgusting because that lady should be getting paid millions of dollars. All of them should be getting paid millions of dollars. All the winners of the gold medals, all those, all those people that are generating insane amounts of wealth for the Olympics, they should get a giant piece of that. They're responsible for the reason why people watch the Olympics.

   3. BSBrian Simpson8:49

      Right.

   4. JRJoe Rogan8:49

      No one's watching the Olympics 'cause it's the Olympics. They're watching the Olympics 'cause you see the best athletes on the world, right?

   5. BSBrian Simpson8:55

      Yeah.

   6. JRJoe Rogan8:55

      You see the best athletes who have gone through all these competitions and reached this insane pinnacle of their skill development, right? And they're getting nothing. They're getting zero and the whole world's watching, and they're selling crazy advertisement. And that money is being generated, and the networks are making it, and the IOC is making it, and all these other people are making it. And the athletes, the whole reason people are tuning in, they get nothing. It's insane.

   7. BSBrian Simpson9:21

      Yeah.

   8. JRJoe Rogan9:21

      It's a disgusting, corrupt system.

   9. BSBrian Simpson9:23

      It's gross.

   10. JRJoe Rogan9:24

       It's gross.

   11. BSBrian Simpson9:24

       And then a lot of times the cities that they move into, like, once they're gone, they fall the fuck apart.

   12. JRJoe Rogan9:29

       Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, it's a lot of times, you know, these countries, they build up this whole thing for the Olympics, and they're incentivized, and there's a lot of money that flows into the city. And then once they pull out of that, I mean, the people that live in that country are like, "Hey, w- w- why didn't you spend that shit on infrastructure? Why didn't you spend that shit to fix the bridges and the streets and to, you know, to, uh, fucking fix these communities?" But there's no money in that.

   13. BSBrian Simpson9:53

       They don't give a fuck about you.

   14. JRJoe Rogan9:54

       Dirty, these dirty fucks. But I, I think it's infuriating that this lady who is, uh, apparently, like, she's a shoo-in for the gold medal in the 100 meters. She's supposed to be spectacular. And they're not gonna let her run that, but they're gonna let her run the relay. Like, fuck you.

   15. BSBrian Simpson10:10

       Wha- ... Oh, they gonna let her run?

   16. JRJoe Rogan10:11

       Yeah, they're gonna let he- ... Yeah. 'Cause if she doesn't run the relay, America probably doesn't win. I mean, I don't know. I don't know jack shit about-

   17. NANarrator10:17

       I think they let her off.

   18. JRJoe Rogan10:17

       ... track and field.

   19. NANarrator10:18

       I think she's kept off.

   20. JRJoe Rogan10:19

       What?

   21. NANarrator10:19

       Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

   22. JRJoe Rogan10:20

       What do you mean?

   23. NANarrator10:20

       Exclusion from the relay team. Yeah. I saw that last night.

   24. JRJoe Rogan10:22

       Oh. This is new?

   25. NANarrator10:24

       Mm-hmm. She's not on the team.

   26. BSBrian Simpson10:25

       But for weed, though.

   27. JRJoe Rogan10:26

       For weed.

   28. NANarrator10:27

       Mm-hmm.

   29. JRJoe Rogan10:28

       It's so dumb. It's so dumb.

   30. BSBrian Simpson10:29

       For weed.
6. 11:28 – 18:58

   Doping deep dive: Icarus, state programs, and the coming gene-editing era

   1. JRJoe Rogan11:28

      Did you ever see that movie, um, uh, Icarus?

   2. BSBrian Simpson11:32

      No.

   3. JRJoe Rogan11:32

      The documentary? It's a documentary about the Sochi Olympic Games. Well, it's a, it's a documentary about doping. And what it was about was this guy, Bryan Fogel, and he decided to make this documentary as a brilliant idea. He said, "I'm gonna do a race clean. I'm gonna do, like, a cycling race. I'm gonna do my ..." But he was a cyclist. He's like, "I'm gonna do a race clean, and then I'm gonna hire someone to dope me up and I'm gonna document it all. I'm gonna hire someone to give me EPO and steroids and everything I could take."

   4. BSBrian Simpson12:02

      Okay.

   5. JRJoe Rogan12:02

      "And let me try to do it again and see if, how much better my time is." So along the way, while he's doing this, he's, he's getting all this advice on how to do doping by this guy, Grigory Rodchenkov. Grigory Rodchenkov is the head of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency, which is not really anti-doping at all.

   6. BSBrian Simpson12:20

      Right.

   7. JRJoe Rogan12:20

      The Russian Anti-Doping Agency-

   8. BSBrian Simpson12:22

      That's the doping agency.

   9. JRJoe Rogan12:22

      ... is state s-

   10. BSBrian Simpson12:22

       (laughs)

   11. JRJoe Rogan12:22

       ... state-funded. So-

   12. BSBrian Simpson12:24

       Yeah.

   13. JRJoe Rogan12:25

       While he's doing this documentary, Russia gets busted ...... for the Sochi Olympics. And with the Sochi Olympics, it was, like, this super sophisticated doping strategy. What they would do is, they doped up the entire team. But it was in Russia, so they had control of where the bottles were kept of the piss.

   14. BSBrian Simpson12:44

       Mm-hmm.

   15. JRJoe Rogan12:44

       So, they had a hole in the wall and so they would take the dirty piss out, put it through a hole in the wall, and then someone would give them a clean piss and they would, p- replace the clean piss. And they'd, they'd, they figured out a way to open these jars that were supposed to be unopenable. They had... The Olympics had developed these, these jars that you could not open them.

   16. BSBrian Simpson13:04

       Okay.

   17. JRJoe Rogan13:05

       But the Russians figured out how to open them and they found these microscopic scratches inside the jars, inside the lid, that indicate that somebody had manipulated them. So then, they do this deep dive investigation, they find out that this is not their piss at all and that this was all clean piss that was substituted for their piss to make everybody test negative. Meanwhile, the Russians won more gold medals than anybody. They just dominated in everything because all their athletes were juiced up. Gregory said they juiced up everybody except the figure skaters because apparently female figure skaters, they, w- when they juiced them up, it, uh, it actually didn't help them at all. It fucked with their fine motor skills 'cause-

   18. BSBrian Simpson13:40

       Oh, yeah.

   19. JRJoe Rogan13:40

       ... you know, figure skating is such a delicate thing, you know, when you're doing those spins and shit like that. It didn't-

   20. BSBrian Simpson13:45

       Yeah.

   21. JRJoe Rogan13:45

       And it made the girls too, too manly. A little bit too manly.

   22. BSBrian Simpson13:48

       That's fucked up.

   23. JRJoe Rogan13:49

       Yeah. It's a great documentary, though.

   24. BSBrian Simpson13:51

       And then, and that's... And then the, the Russians got banned from everything?

   25. JRJoe Rogan13:53

       They got banned from everything for a whole Ru- from, from the, the Rio Olympics afterwards. Russians could only compete as individuals. They couldn't compete for Russia and then they banned a bunch of different Russian athletes. It was, uh, I- I'm not sure exactly what the specifics are but it was a big fucking deal. It was a big deal and it was basically all documented. He got lucky. Like, this guy who's a... Bryan Fogel, who's a, a tremendous documentary maker and he's amazing. I've had him on a couple of times. He's also a guy that wrote that... He, he made that film, The Dissident, which is all about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi who was the journalist from the Washington Post who was killed by the Saudis because he was criticizing them and... Bro, they, they chopped him up and carried him out in briefcases. He went to, uh, an embassy. Yeah.

   26. BSBrian Simpson14:42

       Oh. Is this... Was, was this... Was this what the whole, like, Saudi prince thing was about?

   27. JRJoe Rogan14:45

       Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

   28. BSBrian Simpson14:47

       Oh, shit. Okay. Yeah, I never looked into it. He, uh, he got... He had somebody killed for just saying fucked up shit about him?

   29. JRJoe Rogan14:52

       Mm-hmm. Well, criticizing the government, you know. He was, uh... I think he, he used to work with them and then he started criticizing them and then they just decided just whack him. Yeah, but, but this guy, Bryan Fogel, documented that, too. He's amazing. His, his, his documentaries are incredible. But this Icarus-

   30. BSBrian Simpson15:12

       How you, how you got the plug on everything?
7. 18:58 – 32:28

   Legalize all drugs? Addiction, functional users, and the Rat Park lens

   1. BSBrian Simpson18:58

      Uh, uh, but I, I don't know about the fucking... Uh, see, you know the problem is with the, with the, with the weed shit, is that it's really our, it's really our fault because we're such fucking prudes. We, we, we need to legalize all drugs.

   2. JRJoe Rogan19:11

      Yes.

   3. BSBrian Simpson19:12

      And it's the fact that we leave it up to be picking and choosing of what's a good drug and what's a bad drug that we allow these bodies to exist to make up these dumbass rules.

   4. JRJoe Rogan19:21

      Mm-hmm.

   5. BSBrian Simpson19:21

      That's why you legalize everything. I want, I want crack in the store, I want heroin in the store. I want every recreational drug available and if it don't, if it's not poison, let it, let it go.

   6. JRJoe Rogan19:30

      The problem is there'll be a s- there's gonna be a time period where a lot of people die and then people figure it out, and if that's your kid that dies during that time period, and that's the, what people are worried about.

   7. BSBrian Simpson19:42

      Right.

   8. JRJoe Rogan19:42

      What people are worried about children overdosing, young kids overdosing, so they're, they're worried about people that have never had access to these drugs now all of a sudden have unfettered access and you can just buy whatever you want. But the, the le- the idea behind it, legalizing everything, it's a good idea because there's so much that's already legal.

   9. BSBrian Simpson20:02

      Right.

   10. JRJoe Rogan20:02

       I mean, look at the problem we have with opiates in this country. Those are all legal. You know, you're buying OxyContin-

   11. BSBrian Simpson20:07

       Yeah.

   12. JRJoe Rogan20:07

       ... and oxycodone and Vicodin and all that stuff. That stuff is legal. So people get it, whether it's through legal or illegal means, it's legally made and it's legally sold. It's legally prescribed for people with pain.

   13. BSBrian Simpson20:19

       Yeah.

   14. JRJoe Rogan20:19

       Uh, you could get it. All you have to do is say you have- your back hurts.

   15. BSBrian Simpson20:22

       There was a documentary about that shit, the opioid shit.

   16. JRJoe Rogan20:25

       Oh, yeah.

   17. BSBrian Simpson20:25

       Where like-

   18. JRJoe Rogan20:25

       One of them called, uh, OxyContin Express. Did you see that one?

   19. BSBrian Simpson20:28

       No, no, no.

   20. JRJoe Rogan20:28

       What, which one are you talking about?

   21. BSBrian Simpson20:29

       I, I forget the name of the, I think it's the one on Netflix, but they, they were ju- it, like one that recently came out on Netflix and they, and they were just talking about how it's just the, the biggest, the crime of the century.

   22. JRJoe Rogan20:38

       Yeah. Well, it is, and you know, there's a lot of countries where, uh, they don't all- well, most countries don all people to advertise for drugs. This is the only country where they'll allow you, they can have drug ads on TV. This country and New Zealand, the only two countries that allow that. This is it, The Pharmacist.

   23. BSBrian Simpson20:59

       No, that wasn't it.

   24. JRJoe Rogan21:00

       That's another one. After his tragic death, uh, a Louisiana pharmacist goes to extremes to expose the rampant corruption behind the opioid addiction crisis. Yeah. See, this is the argument against legalization though, right, because it was everywhere and kids could just try it. It was readily available and you didn't really even need a prescription to get it.

   25. BSBrian Simpson21:20

       Ah.

   26. JRJoe Rogan21:20

       You know, kids could get it, like, and some asshole who's 21 can buy it and he could sell it to your kids. It's, it's a tough sell because like, I've never tried heroin, but, um, who knows if I would if it was, if it was legal, if I could just get it anywhere.

   27. BSBrian Simpson21:36

       Well-

   28. JRJoe Rogan21:37

       When I was young and dumb I probably would've tried it.

   29. BSBrian Simpson21:40

       Yeah, and I mean, and it, well, the thing is, it's like, I think, 'cause I think some people look at it like we're choosing between just fucking chaos or, or this world where everyone's safe.

   30. JRJoe Rogan21:52

       Mm-hmm.
8. 32:28 – 36:50

   Comedy as community: why comics need each other (and Brian’s Netflix announcement)

   1. JRJoe Rogan32:28

      Nah, I don't think so. I don't think you're incentivized to be your worst self. I think the problem with being your worst self ... Remember, we were having this conversation last night, without men- mentioning any names, about, um, comedy, is that comedians need community. We need each other.

   2. BSBrian Simpson32:42

      Yeah.

   3. JRJoe Rogan32:43

      And the comics that we know that are the most miserable, they don't have any comic friends. They're all real selfish, and they don't support each other, and they're all out there on their own. And they think that somehow or another, "Hey, it's fucking me against the world." They have that, that sort of attitude.

   4. BSBrian Simpson32:57

      Right.

   5. JRJoe Rogan32:57

      But it's not you against the world because even if you win, see, if, if you, if it's ... If you really think like that, it's you and fuck everybody else-

   6. BSBrian Simpson33:03

      Right.

   7. JRJoe Rogan33:04

      ... the problem is then you're out there on your own, and even if you make it, you're lonely.

   8. BSBrian Simpson33:09

      Right.

   9. JRJoe Rogan33:10

      You're lonely. You have no-

   10. BSBrian Simpson33:11

       Shit's like-

   11. JRJoe Rogan33:12

       ... you have no companionship.

   12. BSBrian Simpson33:13

       Shit's miserable.

   13. JRJoe Rogan33:13

       You also have no colleagues. Like, one of the best things about comedy is colleagues. Like, we were talking shop last night before the show. We were talking about bits, like changing bits and-

   14. BSBrian Simpson33:24

       Right.

   15. JRJoe Rogan33:24

       ... altering bits, and, you know, Tony had a bit, and I gave him a tagline to it. I'm like-

   16. BSBrian Simpson33:27

       Oh.

   17. JRJoe Rogan33:27

       ... "Oh, I can't wait to see you do that bit."

   18. BSBrian Simpson33:29

       Oh. Right, right, right.

   19. JRJoe Rogan33:29

       You know, it's exciting, man. Uh, watching each other succeed is exciting. It's fun.

   20. BSBrian Simpson33:35

       Yeah.

   21. JRJoe Rogan33:35

       It's part of the fun. When you have friends and you love them and you see them kill, that's part of the fun of this all.

   22. BSBrian Simpson33:41

       That's the best shit.

   23. JRJoe Rogan33:42

       It's the best shit.

   24. BSBrian Simpson33:43

       Yeah. It's a good feeling.

   25. JRJoe Rogan33:44

       When your friends get Netflix specials like Brian Simpson.

   26. BSBrian Simpson33:47

       Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you. They, uh, they're announcing it today. We're, I'm on the-

   27. JRJoe Rogan33:51

       We didn't know that we could talk about it. We were gonna try to dance around it.

   28. BSBrian Simpson33:53

       (laughs) Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Nah, they, they gave me the green light. No, they, um-

   29. JRJoe Rogan33:56

       Did you have to ask them for the green light, or ...

   30. BSBrian Simpson33:59

       No, it just so happened, like, I forgot to, I forgot to check, check on it, and then I just, they just, I just ... Somebody messaged me today.
9. 36:50 – 46:04

   Boston’s 1980s comedy boom and whether Austin can build a new scene

   1. JRJoe Rogan36:50

      It's great for everybody. Dude, I, when I lived in Boston, and this is in the 1980s, there was, on one block, on Warrington Street, there was Nick's Comedy Stop, which had three rooms running simultaneously. I'm talking on the same block, like, not even-... 200 yards away was the Comedy Connection. Like, you could literally run there in less than a minute.

   2. BSBrian Simpson37:14

      Oh, wow.

   3. JRJoe Rogan37:14

      The Comedy Connection's right there. And then the Comedy Connection was below the comedy club at the Charles Playhouse. So there was the Comedy Connection downstairs, and then sometimes we would work up- Mike Clark had a, a club upstairs for a bit. Then you would go across the street and it was Duck Soup, which was a li- real high-end comedy club that Paul Barclay and Bill Downs put together. They were the original owners of the Comedy Connection. They said, "Let's do, like, a super, really nice, high-end, super clean..." Turns out, not a good idea. Like, it's a little too nice.

   4. BSBrian Simpson37:47

      Right.

   5. JRJoe Rogan37:47

      Like, like, and they wanted everything to be clean. Like, comedy's gotta be, you gotta have dinginess, little-

   6. BSBrian Simpson37:52

      I refuse to do that.

   7. JRJoe Rogan37:52

      ... cement floors.

   8. BSBrian Simpson37:53

      I refuse... Any gigs where it's like, "You gotta be clean," I don't wanna... I, I'm, I'll be miserable. I don't want to do that.

   9. JRJoe Rogan37:58

      They just took a chance. But the point is, you got one room here with three rooms, and then you got another room here, so that's a fourth room. You got above it, you got a fifth room. And then over here, you got a sixth room in one block! Six rooms in one block! And then over there, you had Dick Doherty's Comedy Vault. It was only a block away from that.

   10. BSBrian Simpson38:16

       Yeah, you'll get good fast with that kind of fucking stage stuff.

   11. JRJoe Rogan38:18

       Bro, and it didn't suffer. No one suffered. No one was dying. They were all packed every night. And then you go on the other side of town, there was Stitches. Stitches was a great club too. It was crazy. And that... Boston's not that big. It's not an enormous place.

   12. BSBrian Simpson38:32

       No.

   13. JRJoe Rogan38:32

       Like, that's, that's something that could be done anywhere where it just starts happening. That could've hap-... It kinda happened a little bit in s- on Sunset, 'cause you had the Laugh Factory, which always does really well. And then down the street, you got the store.

   14. BSBrian Simpson38:44

       Yeah.

   15. JRJoe Rogan38:44

       And then across the other side, you have The Improv on Melrose.

   16. BSBrian Simpson38:48

       Right, right. But that's-

   17. JRJoe Rogan38:48

       Which is only, you know, a few miles away.

   18. BSBrian Simpson38:50

       Yeah, you can walk there in, like, 15 minutes.

   19. JRJoe Rogan38:52

       Yeah.

   20. BSBrian Simpson38:52

       Yeah.

   21. JRJoe Rogan38:52

       But that is what it takes. Like, it takes that for everybody. And it's good. And if you s- look at that period of comedy in Boston, it was incredible.

   22. BSBrian Simpson39:00

       Why do you think those eras end? What hap- what happens to cause them to collapse?

   23. JRJoe Rogan39:05

       I-

   24. BSBrian Simpson39:05

       'Cause it's, 'cause I hear that magic-

   25. JRJoe Rogan39:07

       Ahem.

   26. BSBrian Simpson39:07

       ... like, there's always a, a period like that where this is when it was magic in this city.

   27. JRJoe Rogan39:11

       Mm-hmm.

   28. BSBrian Simpson39:11

       And this is when this comic and that comic and this comic came out of there. And then those places always sort of fade.

   29. JRJoe Rogan39:18

       (smacks lips) Yeah. Uh, that's a good question.

   30. BSBrian Simpson39:19

       But those, like, most of those clubs aren't around anymore, right?
10. 46:04 – 1:05:55

    Post-pandemic psychology: fear, uncertainty, and how society reacts under stress

    1. BSBrian Simpson46:04

       Every, I feel like everyone is more of what they were before.

    2. JRJoe Rogan46:07

       Right.

    3. BSBrian Simpson46:07

       Like, if you were a piece of shit before the pandemic-

    4. JRJoe Rogan46:10

       (laughs)

    5. BSBrian Simpson46:10

       ... you're just, your ability to hide it is gone.

    6. JRJoe Rogan46:13

       Right.

    7. BSBrian Simpson46:13

       And if you were a great person that... 'Cause there's way more love and support and there's way more like, the, the bullshit is also back like an extra

    8. JRJoe Rogan46:20

       Well, there's a lot of fear. And fear, you could either get love out of fear or you can get unnecessary animosity and un- unnecessary arguments and fights out of fear. Like, because it all comes from the same place. Like, everybody's reality got shooken up. So your baseline of happiness was lowered for everybody. Everybody got real nervous and weirded out, especially if you have older ones or loved ones who are extremely vulnerable. Like, I know guys who can't leave the house 'cause they're taking care of their mom, you know? I know a guy and he's, he got his, uh, mom vaccinated and it didn't take and they, she didn't... Yeah, she's got an immune system problem and so they have to like be super vigilant about isolating her. It's a nightmare. It's a nightmare.

    9. BSBrian Simpson47:01

       That's, that's terrifying.

    10. JRJoe Rogan47:02

        You know, and you know, they're doing their best and they're getting through it with love and, you know, they're laughing about it. But everyone's baseline nervousness rose and your base not- baseline happiness dropped because we were uncertain.

    11. BSBrian Simpson47:16

        Yeah.

    12. JRJoe Rogan47:17

        So now, when people are uncertain, you know, you know how some people get stressed out? Everyone when they get stressed out, your temper, your temper, uh, is shortened. Your, your, like what takes... What, how long your wick is. How long it takes for you to get upset is shortened.

    13. BSBrian Simpson47:30

        Yeah. And A- and Americans are, we're, we're particularly not used to uncertainty-

    14. JRJoe Rogan47:34

        Right.

    15. BSBrian Simpson47:34

        ... when it comes to certain things, you know.

    16. JRJoe Rogan47:36

        Especially where we feel like things could be handled, could have been handled better. That's the thing where people start freaking out about. Like, why wasn't, why weren't we more prepared for this? Why didn't we handle this better? Why didn't we shut that down quicker? Why did we do... There's all these what ifs or why didn't we after things happen.

    17. BSBrian Simpson47:52

        Man, it's, it's insane. Like-

    18. JRJoe Rogan47:54

        Yeah, so everybody's freaked out is my point.

    19. BSBrian Simpson47:56

        You know what's real, what's really insane is when you find out, when you look back and do the research, this, we did the same thing during the, the, the, the-

    20. JRJoe Rogan48:03

        Spanish Flu.

    21. BSBrian Simpson48:04

        ... during the Spanish Flu.

    22. JRJoe Rogan48:04

        Yeah.

    23. BSBrian Simpson48:04

        All the same precautions, the masks, the s- keep the distance, all that shit.

    24. JRJoe Rogan48:09

        Mm-hmm.

    25. BSBrian Simpson48:09

        We don't have any better response to this kind of shit than we did 100 years ago.

    26. JRJoe Rogan48:13

        Yeah. Well, I just really hope that people come out of this with, at the very least, an appreciation for how well we had it and we didn't realize how well we had it. 'Cause you have to kind of experience something that sucks to realize how good things are. That's, that's why it's got to be terrible to, to not have any adversity in your life. It's not good for you. It's unhealthy.

    27. BSBrian Simpson48:38

        No.

    28. JRJoe Rogan48:39

        Because you can't, like, well, you gotta have these little valleys that make you appreciate the peaks and this made me... Look, I've always been, I, I try to be an appreciative person, but this last year made me really think differently about like the temporary nature of this life. 'Cause this is a mild one in terms of like worldwide pandemics. It was horrible for everybody who died.

    29. BSBrian Simpson49:00

        Yeah.

    30. JRJoe Rogan49:00

        Horrible for everybody who lost family members. But if it was something like the bubonic plague-
11. 1:05:55 – 1:09:59

    Fragile supply chains, self-sufficiency fantasies, and apocalypse scenarios

    1. JRJoe Rogan1:05:55

       Hey, man, during the pandemic, the... we, we realized also that, like, food runs out. Remember in the beginning where you can go to the grocery store, there was no meat? And you'd be like, "What the fuck? There's no meat?"

    2. BSBrian Simpson1:06:05

       Oh, yeah.

    3. JRJoe Rogan1:06:06

       Remember that?

    4. BSBrian Simpson1:06:06

       No, no meat, no-

    5. JRJoe Rogan1:06:07

       Yeah.

    6. BSBrian Simpson1:06:07

       ... milk, no eggs.

    7. JRJoe Rogan1:06:09

       No anything good. And, you know, for small supermarkets at least, or people that weren't prepared. So a lot of people started thinking about, like, growing gardens, foraging for food, hunting, fishing. Like, fishing licenses, hunting licenses, I guarantee you they went up-

    8. BSBrian Simpson1:06:24

       Oh, yeah.

    9. JRJoe Rogan1:06:24

       ... during that time. Let's find out, did, uh, hunting licenses, did more people purchase hunting licenses during the pandemic? I bet they did. I bet the number went up considerably 'cause people started really thinking like, "Oh, my God, if there is no food, I don't know how to hunt. I don't know how to get my own food." Like, "What do I, what do I do?"

    10. BSBrian Simpson1:06:42

        Yeah. (laughs)

    11. JRJoe Rogan1:06:42

        Like, "Tomorrow I need a meal."

    12. BSBrian Simpson1:06:44

        Dude, I'm so dependent on society.

    13. JRJoe Rogan1:06:47

        Oh, my God.

    14. BSBrian Simpson1:06:47

        On, like... Is society existing?

    15. JRJoe Rogan1:06:49

        Yeah.

    16. BSBrian Simpson1:06:49

        Yeah.

    17. JRJoe Rogan1:06:50

        Brian, I don't think that's good for any of us. That's what I think. I think one of the things we, we were talking about, like, where things got locked down and how weird it was. Well, remember when the supply chain was cut off and we realized all the medicine is made in China? You're like, "What?" And we couldn't get shipments.

    18. BSBrian Simpson1:07:05

        Oh, yeah.

    19. JRJoe Rogan1:07:05

        Remember for, like... There was a long time where it was hard to get, like, anything that was shipped from overseas. So you realize, like, we don't... Oh, we don't make anything anymore. Like, we, we, we're not self-sufficient. We're... We are very much like a dude in an apartment in this country. Like, there's-

    20. BSBrian Simpson1:07:20

        Yeah.

    21. JRJoe Rogan1:07:20

        ... someone out there that's growing all the shit, but we're not growing anything. Like, there's... If that no one out there is doing any th- thing for you. If they're not making the cars, or making the medicine, or making the this, or making the that. If too much stuff is made somewhere else and you're not self-sufficient... Like, the United States should be like a prepper, okay? We should-

Episode duration: 2:58:05