Joe Rogan Experience #1681 - Brian Simpson

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   (drumming music) Joe Rogan podcast,…

   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. 15:00 – 30:00

   How you, how you…

   1. JRJoe Rogan15:00

      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-

   2. BSBrian Simpson15:12

      How you, how you got the plug on everything?

   3. JRJoe Rogan15:14

      Everybody that en- watches the Olympics, please, please watch this documentary, Icarus, so you understand how corrupt all that shit is.

   4. BSBrian Simpson15:23

      Yeah.

   5. JRJoe Rogan15:23

      It's so insanely corrupt. It's just... It's a propaganda vehicle for each individual country. They're just trying to show that their country's number one and they'll do anything to do that.

   6. BSBrian Simpson15:32

      I'm surprised we haven't been caught doing something like that on that scale.

   7. JRJoe Rogan15:36

      I wonder... I, I don't know if the United States participates in state-funded anti-doping. But I do know that individuals have doped, for sure.

   8. BSBrian Simpson15:45

      Oh, yeah.

   9. JRJoe Rogan15:46

      There's, like, sneaky strategies-

   10. BSBrian Simpson15:47

       Yeah, 'cause you don't... 'Cause it doesn't have to be the state if we-

   11. JRJoe Rogan15:49

       No.

   12. BSBrian Simpson15:50

       ... i- if you have capitalism. Like, if it's profitable-

   13. JRJoe Rogan15:52

       Exactly.

   14. BSBrian Simpson15:52

       ... people will cheat, you know, on their own.

   15. JRJoe Rogan15:56

       Mm-hmm.

   16. BSBrian Simpson15:56

       Yeah.

   17. JRJoe Rogan15:56

       Well, there was, um... What is the guy's name from BALCO? The guy... He, he'd been on the podcast before. Yeah, Victor Conte. Victor Conte, uh, he's the one who said that basically all track and field is dirty. He's like, uh... Particularly, like, look at these countries that dominate in track and field. He goes, "Most likely, there's some sort of state-funded doping program and they're just either microdosing these people with testosterone or sneaking EPO in them." They're doing something where you... They're doing it at levels where it, um... Either they don't get tested regularly or, by the time they do get tested, they make sure it clears out of their system. But they have, like, super sophisticated methods to make sure that they don't get caught.

   18. BSBrian Simpson16:34

       It s- it sounds like eventually they're going to have to start letting people dope.

   19. JRJoe Rogan16:37

       Well, you know what the real problem is? The real problem is gene therapy because one of these days they're going to devise gene therapy for athletes that's effective 'cause they have this thing called CRISPR and CRISPR is-

   20. BSBrian Simpson16:50

       Oh, that's terrifying.

   21. JRJoe Rogan16:51

       You know what CRISPR is?

   22. BSBrian Simpson16:51

       Yeah, where they can, like-

   23. JRJoe Rogan16:52

       Yeah.

   24. BSBrian Simpson16:52

       ... they can, like, slice g-... like, edit genes with it and shit.

   25. JRJoe Rogan16:55

       Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

   26. BSBrian Simpson16:55

       Yeah, man. I... That's t-... I think that's the scariest thing that no one's talking about, how you could... You know, you can just buy one of those on the internet. Like, somebody in their... some kid in their basement with a, with a couple thousand dollars can just be in there fucking experimenting with shit.

   27. JRJoe Rogan17:08

       Can you?

   28. BSBrian Simpson17:09

       Yeah. I mean, I mean, you c-... It's not like I... you can go on Amazon and get one, but I'm sure you can buy one on the, on the dark web or some shit like that.

   29. JRJoe Rogan17:17

       Probably.

   30. BSBrian Simpson17:18

       Yeah.
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   Family. …

   1. BSBrian Simpson30:00

      it wasn't everyone that was on heroin was a dope fiend when they came back. It was the people that came back to loving environments where they had, like, support and-

   2. JRJoe Rogan30:10

      Family.

   3. BSBrian Simpson30:10

      ... family and love.

   4. JRJoe Rogan30:11

      Yep.

   5. BSBrian Simpson30:11

      They were fine. They stopped doing heroin.

   6. JRJoe Rogan30:13

      In fact, they said that 95% quit. 95%.

   7. BSBrian Simpson30:17

      Yeah.

   8. JRJoe Rogan30:17

      Only 5% kept doing heroin after they came back from Nam.

   9. BSBrian Simpson30:20

      That's crazy.

   10. JRJoe Rogan30:21

       Right.

   11. BSBrian Simpson30:21

       Yeah.

   12. JRJoe Rogan30:21

       And then you gotta think about 5%. Maybe that 5% are the th- the people that saw the most shit. Is that, um, uh, that lighter out of juice?

   13. BSBrian Simpson30:28

       Nah.

   14. JRJoe Rogan30:28

       Is it? No?

   15. BSBrian Simpson30:29

       Yeah, it's good.

   16. JRJoe Rogan30:30

       I thought it was about to die.

   17. BSBrian Simpson30:31

       No.

   18. JRJoe Rogan30:32

       Oh, it's good? Okay.

   19. BSBrian Simpson30:33

       Yeah.

   20. JRJoe Rogan30:33

       Yeah, I mean, that's, that's what, how it is with people, man. Like, we don't wanna live in a, a, a horrible way where we have no love and we have no community and no friendship. I mean, we see those people on 6th Street, right?

   21. BSBrian Simpson30:48

       Yeah.

   22. JRJoe Rogan30:48

       Down the street from Vulcan at that homeless center. I would do drugs too if I lived there.

   23. BSBrian Simpson30:51

       Yeah. Uh, every time I got the chance.

   24. JRJoe Rogan30:54

       Yeah.

   25. BSBrian Simpson30:55

       I mean, I got somewhere to, to live, and I still get so low sometimes, I've, where I'll be like, "I gotta get high or drunk or something."

   26. JRJoe Rogan31:02

       Yeah.

   27. BSBrian Simpson31:02

       You know? So it's like, I, I, "Let him get high. That's the least of our problems."

   28. JRJoe Rogan31:06

       Everybody needs community. Everybody.

   29. BSBrian Simpson31:08

       Yeah. So, so, for, for me being scared to, to legalize drugs because you don't want people to completely do what it ... It's, it's almost like, like you said, if, if we cre- if, if we created a world that people didn't want to escape from-

   30. JRJoe Rogan31:20

       Right.
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   Yeah. …

   1. JRJoe Rogan45:00

      one of the best places to go from spot to spot. It really is.

   2. BSBrian Simpson45:02

      Yeah.

   3. JRJoe Rogan45:03

      Because, um, oh man, these crowds are hyped too. They know something new is happening here, you know? They know that there's a big influx of comics.

   4. BSBrian Simpson45:11

      Yeah.

   5. JRJoe Rogan45:11

      They get it. Like when, um, I was doing the stub shows with Donnell Rawlings and Dave Chappelle and Mo Amer and Michelle Wolf and... Those fucking shows were wild, dude. It just, it felt crazy, like they were so-

   6. BSBrian Simpson45:25

      Yeah.

   7. JRJoe Rogan45:25

      ... happy that people were there. They were so happy that people were at a show. They were so happy, they were just... Like it made... I'll never forget those times, man. Because it was like, there was no shows for so long and when we started doing shows again, everybody was like, "I can't believe we're doing this." There was a feeling like, "I can't believe we're doing this."

   8. BSBrian Simpson45:44

      Yeah. Yeah.

   9. JRJoe Rogan45:45

      "I can't believe it's happening again."

   10. BSBrian Simpson45:46

       It feels, it's like, it feels like extra good. I was like, I, I s-

   11. JRJoe Rogan45:48

       Extra.

   12. BSBrian Simpson45:49

       I was telling my homie, I thought, it, it feels like the condom popped-

   13. JRJoe Rogan45:53

       (laughs)

   14. BSBrian Simpson45:53

       ... on reality. You know, where you're like, "Oh shit, this feels way better than I remember."

   15. JRJoe Rogan45:57

       It's like we had water in our ears-

   16. BSBrian Simpson45:59

       Yeah.

   17. JRJoe Rogan45:59

       ... and then we shook the water out and like, "Oh my god, this is how I hear."

   18. BSBrian Simpson46:03

       Yeah.

   19. JRJoe Rogan46:04

       Yeah.

   20. BSBrian Simpson46:04

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

   21. JRJoe Rogan46:07

       Right.

   22. BSBrian Simpson46:07

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

   23. JRJoe Rogan46:10

       (laughs)

   24. BSBrian Simpson46:10

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

   25. JRJoe Rogan46:13

       Right.

   26. 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

   27. 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.

   28. BSBrian Simpson47:01

       That's, that's terrifying.

   29. 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.

   30. BSBrian Simpson47:16

       Yeah.
5. 1:00:00 – 1:07:38

   Right. …

   1. BSBrian Simpson1:00:00

      Nobody can just tell you... It's, it's like when people... It's like, it's like when people want... It's like a... There's a difference between knowing the recipe and baking the cake, you know what I'm saying?

   2. JRJoe Rogan1:00:09

      Right.

   3. BSBrian Simpson1:00:10

      Some people ca-... They, they can memorize the recipe but they can't cook for some reason. You could put the instructions right in front of them.

   4. JRJoe Rogan1:00:15

      We were talking about this last night, that I said, life... I, I don't... I'm not a surfer. Let me just qualify this real quick if I fuck up the lingo for any surfers. Life in a lot of ways is like a surfer riding a wave. Because if you watch a surfer riding a wave, it's very rarely flat and perfect. It's always these like wobbles and corrections.

   5. BSBrian Simpson1:00:35

      Yeah.

   6. JRJoe Rogan1:00:35

      You know? It's like staying on balance but it's not this, it's not this smooth, straight escalator path. It's got all... There's a lot, a lot of shit going on. That's your life. Your life is like riding a thing that's constantly changing and moving, along with your, the way you feel, your mo- your moods, your, your, your life situation, you know, how work's going, how, uh, how your life is going, how your friendships are going. It change... They change and shift. Things move. They move with, uh, the directions that you go, uh, whether or not you exercise discipline with your, your body and your mind and, and whatever you're trying to do for a living, whether or not you really get after it. When you get satisfaction out of that, like, it all f- always moving, man. You know? People want... For some reason they want this feeling of steadiness. They want everything to be sort of locked in and steady and I'm just like, uh, "You know, this is where I'm at and this is where I'm going. I got it all work..." But that's not life. Life is a fucking wild ride.

   7. BSBrian Simpson1:01:36

      ... trying to feel, trying to feel s- people wanna feel safe.

   8. JRJoe Rogan1:01:38

      Yeah, they wanna feel safe.

   9. BSBrian Simpson1:01:38

      They wanna feel stable.

   10. JRJoe Rogan1:01:40

       You can't feel stable too much. It's not good for you. You g- (laughs) you gotta-

   11. BSBrian Simpson1:01:44

       Yeah.

   12. JRJoe Rogan1:01:44

       ... use those balancing muscles.

   13. BSBrian Simpson1:01:46

       Yeah. You need a little chaos.

   14. JRJoe Rogan1:01:47

       You need a little chaos.

   15. BSBrian Simpson1:01:48

       Yeah.

   16. JRJoe Rogan1:01:48

       You need some chaos. You need also, like, you know, you need moments to teach you how valuable some of the stuff that you have, that you really, truly love is. Like your friends, like your family, like the people that you see and you can't wait to hug, you know? That's this... This is what our life is about. Our life is about these fun moments that we can share together, and you can make more of those. E-

   17. BSBrian Simpson1:02:11

       The unknown.

   18. JRJoe Rogan1:02:12

       Yeah.

   19. BSBrian Simpson1:02:13

       But I don't li- I, I mean, that's g- I'm- that makes me kind of a hypocrite 'cause I, I don't like surprises.

   20. JRJoe Rogan1:02:17

       (laughs)

   21. BSBrian Simpson1:02:18

       I don't want a surprise party or surprise gifts or none of that shit.

   22. JRJoe Rogan1:02:21

       Really?

   23. BSBrian Simpson1:02:22

       Fuck no.

   24. JRJoe Rogan1:02:23

       Surprise parties.

   25. BSBrian Simpson1:02:24

       No. I mean-

   26. JRJoe Rogan1:02:24

       Imagine if you had plans, like you, you, you were gonna go home and you were gonna tell her, "I gotta leave 'cause I got a... in two hours." And, and you were thinking, "How do I phrase this?"

   27. BSBrian Simpson1:02:33

       Yeah.

   28. JRJoe Rogan1:02:33

       "'Cause I definitely-"

   29. BSBrian Simpson1:02:33

       Yeah.

   30. JRJoe Rogan1:02:33

       "... wanna go see my friends." Surprise!

Episode duration: 2:58:05