Joe Rogan Experience #1785 - Earthquake

Earthquake 0:00 (drum roll) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

Joe Rogan 0:04 The Joe Rogan Experience.

Earthquake 0:06 Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music)

Joe Rogan 0:12 All right. Talk to me, Earthquake. What's happening?

Earthquake 0:14 (laughs) Hey. What's up, Joe? How you doing, fam?

Joe Rogan 0:15 Great to see you, man.

Earthquake 0:17 Thanks for having me, first of all.

Joe Rogan 0:19 My pleasure. Listen, your special is fucking outstanding. It is one of the best specials I've seen in a long time. It's hard to laugh by yourself out loud on a phone-

Earthquake 0:28 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 0:28 ... when you're watching someone on a phone. I laughed hard.

Earthquake 0:30 Thank you.

Joe Rogan 0:30 It was great. It's you! It's like, uh, y- you know, sometimes someone does a special, and it's like (inhales sharply) it's better seeing them live, but-

Earthquake 0:36 Right.

Joe Rogan 0:37 ... you captured it.

Earthquake 0:38 It was, um, it was a journey. It was the first time I was properly financed.

Joe Rogan 0:43 Mm.

Earthquake 0:43 You know what I mean? Um, we wasn't, um, borrowing money or had the right vehicle, properly supported by the distributors and everything. So, it was, it was the opportunity. Then I knew the significance of it by Dave being a part of it, that this was th- the one I needed to elevate me to get off of this level that I'm on right now.

Joe Rogan 1:04 Well, we were talking about this before but, in my mind, your level, in terms of your ability-

Earthquake 1:10 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:10 ... you're already there. You're one of the best comics alive. There's no-

Earthquake 1:13 Thank you.

Joe Rogan 1:13 ... there's no doubt about it. So this is a great representative of that. It's a great representation of that. 'Cause it's very rare that someone gets as good as you are that's not selling out arenas.

Earthquake 1:25 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:25 Like, you n- that's how good you are.

Earthquake 1:26 Well, thank you.

Joe Rogan 1:27 So, it's ex- it's exciting for me.

Earthquake 1:29 Yes. And, um, you know, I hope, but you know it. You're a comic, man. You never know what's gonna do it, what's gonna generate.

Joe Rogan 1:36 Yeah.

Earthquake 1:36 I never had a problem with, um... I never equated quantity with quality.

Joe Rogan 1:42 Right.

Earthquake 1:43 So when I seen people 15,000, 17,000, 18,000, I never felt inferior or bad that I had 2,000.

Joe Rogan 1:50 Right, right.

Earthquake 1:50 You know what I mean? The work of it... And then at the end of the day, to be quite honest with you, as a comic you know it, when you first get into it, you stay with... you just, just wanna make people laugh. And I have achieved that. So I had already felt that I was successful, but sometimes you do sit back like, "Goddamn. When are they ever gonna get to their ease?"

Joe Rogan 2:08 (laughs)

Earthquake 2:09 "They keep skipping me. (laughs) How long does it take?" I mean, 'cause you, you know, I said in, um, in my act or the thing, I'm saying, "I've been the bridesmaid for so long and never the bride" and watched all my friends just get TV shows and everything. And like you said, I look at my friends, they o- uh, and I see 'em. Talent-wise, I don't feel it. I just look at 'em and say they ha- they had an opportunity, and they achieved, and they, and they won on it, and they cashed in on it. I have yet to have that opportunity to cash in on it, so that's what I'm looking for.

Joe Rogan 2:42 Well, the fact that Dave Chappelle's behind it and that Dave produced it, he introduces you at the beginning of the special.

Earthquake 2:47 Thank you.

Joe Rogan 2:48 That's, that's gigantic. That's gonna-

Earthquake 2:49 Yes.

Joe Rogan 2:49 ... that's gonna help a lot.

Earthquake 2:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:51 But we, we've all been talking about you for years. Everyone's terrified to follow you.

Earthquake 2:54 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 2:55 Everyone. When we find out that you were at The Comedy Store, everybody's like, "Oh, shit."

Earthquake 2:59 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 2:59 "Where is he at in the lineup?"

Earthquake 3:01 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 3:01 "Fuck that spot. That spot after you is not fun."

Earthquake 3:05 (laughs) Yeah. I mean, when you have nothing but your jokes, you gotta at least perfect that aspect of the career.

Joe Rogan 3:11 Well, you're a hustler too. You're always out there. And the guys that are constantly working, there's a polish that you get when you're on the road and you're doing those Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sundays, when you just constantly doing sets.

Earthquake 3:21 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 3:21 There's a, there's an undeniable polish that a guy gets.

Earthquake 3:26 Yeah. I mean, you there. I call them the frontline workers.

Joe Rogan 3:29 Mm-hmm.

Earthquake 3:29 You know what I mean? Success takes you off the frontline. You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 3:34 It does.

Earthquake 3:34 It, it, it, it, it, it, um, keeps you from your fans to feel exact... 'Cause we, we feed off the information that we get from our fans.

Joe Rogan 3:43 Yeah.

Earthquake 3:43 And, um, if you're isolated with security or other things that you have to do or the mon- you know, the enormance of your career, you kinda, like, get away from the people who actually, um, support you. And that's the key to me. I always stay within my constituents some way, family member or somebody... I take a young comedian on the road with me who I, I, um, I look up to and say, "He can make it." And just allow him to be in the life, and I just watch what he do and what he going through, and that's how I keep my s- my stuff, uh, in check.

Joe Rogan 4:17 Yeah, I do the s- I do the same.

Earthquake 4:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 4:19 I do the same, and I also bring a lot of comedians to the shows that I do in town.

Earthquake 4:23 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 4:23 Bring open mic-ers. I bring, uh-

Earthquake 4:25 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 4:25 ... you know, have them go up. I, uh, give 'em tips.

Earthquake 4:28 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 4:28 Give 'em good spots, you know, let 'em, let 'em try it out.

Earthquake 4:31 Right.

Joe Rogan 4:31 Give 'em rough spots sometimes after someone really good.

Earthquake 4:34 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 4:34 Let 'em feel that. You know?

Earthquake 4:35 Let 'em feel that.

Joe Rogan 4:36 And I think for a lot of guys, a lot of guys get big, and then they start getting television shows and movies. And you don't realize how much time that takes away from your standup.

Earthquake 4:44 True.

Joe Rogan 4:44 When I was doing Fear Factor, I remember, like, seeing guys that would come into town, you know, that were doing the road constantly, and I'd be jealous.

Earthquake 4:52 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 4:52 I, I would. I was on a television show.

Earthquake 4:54 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 4:54 A hit show. Uh, but, and, you know, and everybody wanted to be on a hit show. But I would see these guys that were so smooth because they just been doing those Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, two shows Friday, two shows Saturday, Sunday on the road, and they were just woo, woo, woo.

Earthquake 5:06 Right.

Joe Rogan 5:07 Just greased up and just smooth-

Earthquake 5:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 5:09 ... and just everything was polished.

Earthquake 5:11 Yes. Yeah. And-

Joe Rogan 5:12 That's the, that's the top level.

Earthquake 5:14 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 5:14 You know, when you get to that, when you're headlining constantly and you just... your, your act is just so polished.

Earthquake 5:20 Yeah. And you can see it too.

Joe Rogan 5:22 Mm-hmm.

Earthquake 5:22 And relevant. And they talking about things, you're like, "Damn."

Joe Rogan 5:25 Yeah.

Earthquake 5:26 "I didn't see it that way."

Joe Rogan 5:27 Yeah.

Earthquake 5:28 "Damn."

Joe Rogan 5:28 Yeah.

Earthquake 5:28 You know what I mean? So it's the beautiful part. That's what I look for. "You never seen it this way."

Joe Rogan 5:33 Right.

Earthquake 5:33 "You never seen this angle of it." You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 5:35 Well, that's the best when you watch a comic, and they say something that you have never expected. And you're like, "Wow, that's, that's a nice angle. That's a nice angle."

Earthquake 5:43 Yeah. That's it. That's the-

Joe Rogan 5:44 That's the craft.

Earthquake 5:45 That's the hook.

Joe Rogan 5:46 Yeah.

Earthquake 5:46 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 5:47 Yeah.

Earthquake 5:47 That's the sweet spot. We call it in the pocket. That's when you in the pocket. You get it.

Joe Rogan 5:51 Where did you record this?

Earthquake 5:53 Um, Washington DC.

Joe Rogan 5:55 Nice.

Earthquake 5:55 Um, yeah, at home. I'm from Washington DC, Southeast DC, so when Dave came to me, "Where do you wanna go?" I said, "Well, let's go ahead and make it as rough as possible. Let's go on and do it at home." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 6:05 (laughs)

Earthquake 6:06 And let everybody be here. So if at least... if nothing else, I, um...... I, I stamped my hometown 'cause it's-

Joe Rogan 6:11 Oh, that's right. You talk about that in the beginning of it.

Earthquake 6:14 Yes.

Joe Rogan 6:14 There's a, uh, the other guy that, uh, you know, I've had on recently who's also, uh, it's undeniable and un- uh, unbelievable that he's not huger, is Tony Woods.

Earthquake 6:24 Yes.

Joe Rogan 6:24 Yeah. I had Tony Woods on recently and then we did a show together at the Vulcan. I'm like, "Goddamn he's good."

Earthquake 6:29 Yes.

Joe Rogan 6:30 He's so smooth.

Earthquake 6:31 Me and Tony have been friends for over 25 years.

Joe Rogan 6:34 Yeah, me too.

Earthquake 6:35 Yes.

Joe Rogan 6:35 I've known Tony from since the '90s.

Earthquake 6:37 Yes. Tony is, um, my man. He's from DC too and he has that slow delivery-

Joe Rogan 6:43 Mm-hmm.

Earthquake 6:44 ... and sarcastically, and it's, it's beautiful.

Joe Rogan 6:48 When you write, do you sit down and write? Do you just collect information throughout the day? Like, how do, how do you come up with material?

Earthquake 6:55 Um, I never... I'm, I write in my mind. I never physically write. What I do, I come up with a, um, concept and elaborate on it. And usually it comes with a true, well, of a truth and then it expand to a big ass lie. You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 7:10 (laughs)

Earthquake 7:11 (laughs) Like they say, the first casualty of war is the truth.

Joe Rogan 7:15 Yeah.

Earthquake 7:15 So, that's what it is. Um, I'll say there it is, and then I just expand on it, and expand on it, and expand on it. So when I get on stage I never know what I'm going to say, but once I see it then I just say what I see 'cause I see it in my mind and then I just... it comes out that way. That's how I do it.

Joe Rogan 7:33 So when you write new material, do you just go up with it or do you try to sandwich it in between material that you've already do?

Earthquake 7:38 Uh, no. Like, this right here I say like, "This is what I'm not gonna talk about." I take everything, like this special, I'm not gonna talk about any of that, and then I start from then on.

Joe Rogan 7:49 So like, so you take all the material that you're not gonna do anymore-

Earthquake 7:53 Right.

Joe Rogan 7:53 ... 'cause you did it in the special.

Earthquake 7:54 Right.

Joe Rogan 7:55 But when you, like, say if you have a new bit that you're trying to work in your act, do you try to do it first? Do you try to-

Earthquake 8:00 Yeah. I, I do it right there 'cause I know where it is to be funny with it. You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 8:05 Yeah.

Earthquake 8:05 So, um, I'll start. Just say what I find is funny. Like, we going through this thing with Kuwait, I mean, with, um-

Joe Rogan 8:14 Ukraine.

Earthquake 8:15 ... COVID... Ukraine. Excuse me. And I'm like, "Okay, the Russians are marching. (laughs) They're marching." So you start from that point on and just elaborate all the way through.

Joe Rogan 8:24 And do you just work it out on stage?

Earthquake 8:26 Work it right there on stage.

Joe Rogan 8:27 Interesting.

Earthquake 8:28 Yeah. I work it right on stage.

Joe Rogan 8:29 S- have you always done it that way?

Earthquake 8:31 Always.

Joe Rogan 8:31 Really?

Earthquake 8:32 Yeah. See, I had my own comedy club and, um, it was the Uptown Comedy Corner and, uh, the Comedy Act Theater wouldn't allow me to perform there. So when I, um-

Joe Rogan 8:42 Where was that?

Earthquake 8:43 In Atlanta, Georgia. So they wouldn't let me, um, perform there. So I told my mother, "They won't let me say it." My mama said, "Told you, if they not gonna let you ride their bike, you either get your own bike or walk."

Joe Rogan 8:54 (laughs)

Earthquake 8:54 So I was like, "All right." Um, I got my own club and because I was affiliated with this dude, they said, "It's not all black comedy club. There's white dudes and brothers own it." So they kind of like boycotted my club. So they left me there to do all the jokes and I had to entertain them. So I was able to just go up there and just go, and it was the best thing that ever happened for me.

Joe Rogan 9:18 Who the fuck boycotted your club?

Earthquake 9:20 Other comedians. And you know back in the day-

Joe Rogan 9:21 What?

Earthquake 9:21 Because you know back in the day, you've been in the game long, if you worked this club, you can't work this club.

Joe Rogan 9:26 Yeah.

Earthquake 9:26 You know? Comedy Act Theater was the, uh, was the premier black comedy club. So you got a club in Los Angeles and Atlanta that's the premier black club, and there's this new club with the dudes that's not from here named Earthquake and the owner say, "You go up here, you'll never work in my club." What they, what you... You know what comedians gonna do.

Joe Rogan 9:44 Right.

Earthquake 9:44 They going like, "Nah, man, I would do your club, but Gary said if I go up there I ain't gonna be able to work." I'm like, "All right." And it was only until Steve Harvey, which is a good friend of mine, called him up and said, "Steve, none of these motherfuckers ain't doing 'em." He's like, "Fuck that. I'll do it." Steve came in, sold it out, and when they saw him, come seeing him, they saw me, and the rest was history.

Joe Rogan 10:07 Wow. So you were basically working at your club almost every night.

Earthquake 10:11 Every night.

Joe Rogan 10:12 Wow.

Earthquake 10:12 I was the feature, the open mic, and the headliner.

Joe Rogan 10:15 (laughs)

Earthquake 10:17 (laughs) You know what I mean? That's why people see and they thinking I'm drunk or something leaning up against the wall. That's just what I would do. I used to just lean up on the wall and do an hour straight off the top and just hit it that way.

Joe Rogan 10:29 Wow.

Earthquake 10:30 And that just became my style and I just continue on, see what I say-

Joe Rogan 10:35 Wow.

Earthquake 10:35 ... and just riff right off of it.

Joe Rogan 10:37 That's an amazing gym to train at, like to, to, to have that kind of a setup. It's ki- kind of by necessity-

Earthquake 10:44 Exactly.

Joe Rogan 10:45 ... but still.

Earthquake 10:46 Yes.

Joe Rogan 10:46 That's an amazing way to, to work on your act.

Earthquake 10:49 M-

Joe Rogan 10:49 Holy shit.

Earthquake 10:50 Yeah. That's how I do. I just, you know, come up with some different topics and elaborate on 'em.

Joe Rogan 10:56 So you didn't do any prep beforehand? Like you would never sit down with a notepad and write ideas out or anything?

Earthquake 11:02 No. I don't, um, I don't do that. What I do is-

Joe Rogan 11:05 Wow.

Earthquake 11:05 ... this what I'm gonna start at and I continue on. And then at the time going... I tape every show I've ever did and I'm supposed to have been disciplined enough to go back and say, "I know it's something that I wanna elaborate on lo- later and I, I got it down so I could talk about it later." But I never did. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 11:22 (laughs)

Earthquake 11:22 I never did. I just said, "Fuck it." I come up there (laughs) and something else to come.

Joe Rogan 11:27 You know any comics do that, record and never listen or n- never watch it?

Earthquake 11:31 How many?

Joe Rogan 11:32 A lot.

Earthquake 11:33 Okay.

Joe Rogan 11:33 Almost every one of 'em.

Earthquake 11:34 Oh, yeah. I got all my shows and I never watch none of 'em.

Joe Rogan 11:38 Yeah. I occasionally will go back and look at them if there's something that I don't remember I said. I know I said something and I gotta figure out what it is, I'll go watch.

Earthquake 11:46 See, that's where it's also a key to see if it... if I try to think about what I said-

Joe Rogan 11:52 Right.

Earthquake 11:52 ... it'll never come out.

Joe Rogan 11:53 Right, because you won't be smooth. You won't be in the moment.

Earthquake 11:55 No, I won't, 'cause I'm thinking.

Joe Rogan 11:56 Yeah.

Earthquake 11:56 You know what I mean? That one is just for y'all. It was there for that.

Joe Rogan 12:00 (laughs)

Earthquake 12:00 If I try to capture it and bring it up and take it to St. Louis-

Joe Rogan 12:04 Yeah.

Earthquake 12:04 ... what I did in Dallas, it ain't gonna work. It has to be right then and there. So you just pray. You get up there and say, "God has never let me down before," and keep on going with it.

Joe Rogan 12:16 Well, that is one of the beautiful things about your style is that it seems so loose and relaxed and natural 'cause if you can achieve that mindset and just do that every night and never think about the material, just let it flow out-

Earthquake 12:29 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 12:29 I mean, that's a amazing gift.

Earthquake 12:32 Yeah. I mean, it, it's, um... Steve told me that too. He was like... 'Cause I remember, I did get caught up in the comedy club, "This is how you're supposed to write a joke," and everything. And I was writing, and he said, "What you doing?" I said, "I'm writing, getting my stuff together." He just grabbed the paper, tore it up. He said, "You don't need to write. Your shit come out already." (laughs) "Don't let them fuck with you." Uh, and once he told me that, it was on.

Joe Rogan 12:56 Wow.

Earthquake 12:56 It was on.

Joe Rogan 12:57 So, he gave you the advice to not write?

Earthquake 12:59 Yeah. He gave me the advice.

Joe Rogan 13:00 Wow.

Earthquake 13:00 Said, "Don't write it down. Let it be, let it go."

Joe Rogan 13:02 I would... Ordinarily, I would argue with that. I would say, "No, you should definitely write." But then I see what you're doing, and I'm like, "Leave it alone." (laughs)

Earthquake 13:09 Yeah. I mean, I try. I try to conform it in and put it in, and ha-... I really, to be honest with you, I- I- I envy those polished-ass comedians. I mean every word, like Seinfeld, this go here. I mean polished.

Joe Rogan 13:25 Yeah.

Earthquake 13:25 I couldn't... Uh, that's not me, 'cause mine is like a testimony, like preaching. You get caught-

Joe Rogan 13:30 Yes.

Earthquake 13:30 ... up in the gospel of it, and you're hearing it. You're just... Some words don't come right. It's-

Joe Rogan 13:36 (laughs)

Earthquake 13:36 'Cause you in it. You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 13:37 Yes.

Earthquake 13:37 You in it.

Joe Rogan 13:38 Right.

Earthquake 13:38 So, you know, it's like Michael James, "Come On Now," and I'm pretty sure it wasn't written down.

Joe Rogan 13:43 Exactly.

Earthquake 13:43 He got into the song and "Come On Now" came, and it, it worked with the song.

Joe Rogan 13:48 Well, some of my favorite people perform like that, like Joey Diaz. Joey Diaz will go on stage with some shit that happened five minutes before-

Earthquake 13:54 Right.

Joe Rogan 13:54 ... and he'll open with it.

Earthquake 13:56 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 13:56 And, and you'll be dying laughing.

Earthquake 13:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 13:58 And there, there's no preparation. It's just smooth and natural, and just who he is. And, uh, you can't achieve that. Like, that's not something that a, a guy who doesn't do that can do. That's like a rare ability, to be able to just be smooth and loose, like, right away with a bit.

Earthquake 14:16 Yeah. I mean, it's, it's, it's, um, to be... 'Cause we already know that it's funny in our head.

Joe Rogan 14:22 Right.

Earthquake 14:22 Now we just wanna tell you, just like you said-

Joe Rogan 14:24 Right.

Earthquake 14:24 "Man, guess what I saw?" And you wanna tell them. "I saw this funny thing." And that's what it is.

Joe Rogan 14:28 Yeah.

Earthquake 14:29 You know what I mean? And if you try to tell the story again, it would... You'll tell the story again, but it'll never be like you told it the first time, the second time, the third time, the fourth time. It competes, you know... Completely just revolve and revolve to a bigger lie, to be more funnier.

Joe Rogan 14:43 Now, when you prepped for this special, how many shows did you do?

Earthquake 14:47 Mm. I did two shows.

Joe Rogan 14:49 Two shows?

Earthquake 14:49 Two shows.

Joe Rogan 14:50 Same night?

Earthquake 14:51 No, one per night.

Joe Rogan 14:52 Mm-hmm.

Earthquake 14:53 One, um, one per night.

Joe Rogan 14:55 Like a Friday and a Saturday?

Earthquake 14:56 Friday and a Saturday.

Joe Rogan 14:58 And which one was the better one?

Earthquake 15:00 Um... Second one, I think. Everybody else said the second one.

Joe Rogan 15:05 Yeah.

Earthquake 15:06 The first one, you say, "Let me get it in the can." If... The name... The number one objective for me was to make sure it captured who I was. You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 15:15 Yeah.

Earthquake 15:16 That, that and, um... I made sure that was on the first one. Then the second one, it was like it was another night at the club. I knew I had that one in the can. They was like, "You ain't even gotta do a second show if you don't want to. We got it in the first." I said, "Nah, let me do this one." And I did it a whole different way. He's like, "Goddam." So...

Joe Rogan 15:31 Well, that is what it's about, right? When you do a special, like, when someone has to do one special and you have one hour to do it. Like, uh, uh, I always talk about Bill Hicks' special, Relentless. It was this HBO special.

Earthquake 15:42 Yeah, I love Bill.

Joe Rogan 15:43 Where it's... Bill was amazing. But that special, you could tell he's kinda tense. Like-

Earthquake 15:49 Right.

Joe Rogan 15:49 ... it's just he's got one shot to do this in one hour. There's no, like, looseness that you would get from a regular show.

Earthquake 15:57 Right.

Joe Rogan 15:57 So if you can get a few shows in... I, I do four. I do two on Friday, two on Saturday.

Earthquake 16:03 When you tape-

Joe Rogan 16:03 Yep.

Earthquake 16:03 ... would you do?

Joe Rogan 16:04 Yeah.

Earthquake 16:04 Okay.

Joe Rogan 16:05 'Cause I did two, uh... Like, the last time I did two was in 2014, a lady heckled me during the first show.

Earthquake 16:11 Mm.

Joe Rogan 16:11 And I was like, "Oh, no."

Earthquake 16:13 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 16:13 I was like, "If someone heckles me during the second show, I'm fucked."

Earthquake 16:16 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 16:16 Because this one bit-

Earthquake 16:17 Yes.

Joe Rogan 16:18 ... was ruined-

Earthquake 16:19 Right.

Joe Rogan 16:19 ... when she yelled sh- something out. But... So when I do four though, it's just like right away, from the beginning, I'm like, "This is gonna be just a regular show."

Earthquake 16:29 Right.

Joe Rogan 16:29 So from the beginning, it doesn't feel like a recording.

Earthquake 16:31 Mm. Yeah. I mean, for us, I feel Bill on that, because you really saying, "I need this to do something."

Joe Rogan 16:40 Yeah.

Earthquake 16:41 You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 16:41 Yes.

Earthquake 16:42 I need this to do something.

Joe Rogan 16:44 It needs to work for you.

Earthquake 16:45 Yes. You wanna... You, you, you want your, uh, your rate to go up. And what I mean, your quote to go up. You want to be considered in the room. 'Cause, you know, I tell people all the time, the only difference between me and my peers is, again, the opportunity that they cash in on. But you at least gotta get that opportunity. You need somebody to say, "Well, what about Quake?"

Joe Rogan 17:06 Yeah.

Earthquake 17:07 You know, in the room. "What about... Let's try him," in those opportunities. And that special for Bill will put him in that room.

Joe Rogan 17:15 Yeah.

Earthquake 17:15 They say, "What about Bill?"

Joe Rogan 17:16 Yeah.

Earthquake 17:16 "I seen this comedian. He had a special. He was funny. He would be great for this."

Joe Rogan 17:21 Yeah.

Earthquake 17:22 You know what I mean? And that type of thing.

Joe Rogan 17:24 Well, your, uh, performances of all... They've all been amazing, but it's all word of mouth.

Earthquake 17:29 True.

Joe Rogan 17:29 It's like people had to find out about you because people went to see you, and they said, "You gotta see this dude." And then boom, boom, boom, and it, it builds up. But it... There has to be something that the mainstream can see, people that don't know the people that have seen you. And that's what this is, like something that can get out there so that anybody can watch it and go, "Holy shit."

Earthquake 17:48 Yeah. And for somebody to draw them in.

Joe Rogan 17:51 Yeah.

Earthquake 17:52 See, that's what's, uh, so important about Dave. You put-

Joe Rogan 17:55 Yeah.

Earthquake 17:55 ... Dave name on it. Then everybody that love Dave gonna come see it, 'cause they-

Joe Rogan 17:59 Exactly.

Earthquake 18:00 ... 'cause of Dave off of it.

Joe Rogan 18:01 Yeah.

Earthquake 18:01 And then they get to see the no- you.

Joe Rogan 18:03 And he's doing that with Donell as well.

Earthquake 18:04 Yes.

Joe Rogan 18:05 Yeah.

Earthquake 18:05 Donell's is, uh, next month. So it's gonna be like-

Joe Rogan 18:07 Is it just the two of you?

Earthquake 18:09 No, I heard it's four.

Joe Rogan 18:10 Who else?

Earthquake 18:11 I think Tony Woods-

Joe Rogan 18:12 Tony Woods, yeah.

Earthquake 18:12 ... Tip and Tay and Luenell.

Joe Rogan 18:13 Yeah.

Earthquake 18:13 That's what I heard.

Joe Rogan 18:14 Well, I asked Tony about it, and he's like, "I don't know when I'm doing it." I'm like, "What do you mean you don't know when?" He goes, "I don't know." I'm like, "Well, you should fucking know." (laughs)

Earthquake 18:22 No. When you da-... When you dealing with the master, you don't know. We filmed this in July.

Joe Rogan 18:28 Really?

Earthquake 18:29 Yeah. And it's just dropping here in February. So, you gotta work with, you know, with, with Dave on hype because he's, he's a perfectionist. He reminds me... I worked with Dr. Dre.... on the beats, uh, the shit, the speakers. And, um, we did the voice on it. And I swear to God, I was in that studio with Dr. Dre for about eight hours. I was like, "Listen, motherfucker, I am not a rapper."

Joe Rogan 18:55 (laughs)

Earthquake 18:57 (laughs) The fuck? (laughs) I mean, every word was precise. "Let's try to say what again like..." I said, "How many motherfucking times do you want me to say what?"

Joe Rogan 19:05 (laughs)

Earthquake 19:06 You know? But he is like that. And, and, um, uh, Dave is like that. He is particular with his work and how he want to be done. And, you know, that's the way it is. So, he'll get to it. And, and when he get to it, the way he want it done, he'll do it. And I can't argue with his process because the results was great.

Joe Rogan 19:26 Yeah, it's not an accident that he's considered the greatest living comedian.

Earthquake 19:29 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:29 It's-

Earthquake 19:30 He's-

Joe Rogan 19:30 It's work.

Earthquake 19:31 Yes, it's work. And he's particular with it, and he's ... It ... He has in it, his timing, only people know the timing when they drop it, when it's right, it's right, is him. And his timing is impeccable.

Joe Rogan 19:44 Yeah. No, he's, he's also, he's constantly working.

Earthquake 19:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:48 Like Dave's constantly doing sets. He'll, he'll constantly do drop in sets places. Like I'll, on my Instagram feed, I'll just find him. He's in New York, he's here, he's there, he's in LA. He just shows up places and does sets. Like he's constant. And not even necessarily working, like getting paid, just working on his craft.

Earthquake 20:04 True.

Joe Rogan 20:04 Just constantly going in and fucking around and having fun and, and creating new shit.

Earthquake 20:09 He's a comedian.

Joe Rogan 20:10 He turns over an hour so quick too.

Earthquake 20:12 Yes.

Joe Rogan 20:13 Like we were working together doing arenas, and he put out a special, and then he's headlining an arena with new material.

Earthquake 20:21 Right.

Joe Rogan 20:22 Like he ... The special was like a couple of weeks ago.

Earthquake 20:24 Right.

Joe Rogan 20:25 And he's already, like, working out new shit and he's doing it in front of 18,000 people.

Earthquake 20:30 Exactly.

Joe Rogan 20:31 It's wild.

Earthquake 20:32 Yeah. The confidence is unmatched.

Joe Rogan 20:35 Yes.

Earthquake 20:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 20:37 But the-

Earthquake 20:37 Everybody ride that quiet.

Joe Rogan 20:39 Yeah.

Earthquake 20:39 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 20:39 But the confidence was also like the connection with his audience. Like, they know exactly who he is.

Earthquake 20:44 True.

Joe Rogan 20:44 They want to see it. You know, and he, he knows what to give them. He knows how to be Dave.

Earthquake 20:49 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 20:50 Yeah. It's beautiful that he's producing specials too. I love it. I'm very excited about it.

Earthquake 20:54 Yeah, I mean, (smacks lips) I have never received so much press-

Joe Rogan 20:58 Ah.

Earthquake 20:58 ... in my career, over 30 years of career, I've never received so much press in this one time, on the totality of my whole career.

Joe Rogan 21:07 What year did you start?

Earthquake 21:09 '91. After getting out the military.

Joe Rogan 21:13 Oh, yeah?

Earthquake 21:13 Yeah. I was in the Air Force for nine years.

Joe Rogan 21:16 Oh, wow.

Earthquake 21:17 Yeah. Wanted to do 20 years, but the war broke out. So I had to let them know.

Joe Rogan 21:21 (laughs)

Earthquake 21:21 I had to tell them, "I don't mind practicing for war." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 21:25 (laughs)

Earthquake 21:25 Y'all fighting for real.

Joe Rogan 21:26 (laughs)

Earthquake 21:27 I gotta tell you the truth, I ain't no real soldier. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 21:30 Ah.

Earthquake 21:30 I just got here to get out of my mother's house.

Joe Rogan 21:33 Did you plan on doing standup eventually?

Earthquake 21:36 No. What happened was, um, I used to just sit there, anything to get out of work, you know, because I was that, I was that soldier. Anything to get out. So the USO had a tour. I said, "I'll go up there and talk a couple of times on that stuff." Anything to get out of the military. I mean, get out of work. And then, um, I saw what's about to happen. I knew they was getting tired of me because I was a terrible soldier.

Joe Rogan 22:02 (laughs)

Earthquake 22:02 (laughs) You know what I mean? Came in as an E1, left as an E1, so-

Joe Rogan 22:05 What's an E1?

Earthquake 22:06 That's the first stripe you get. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 22:08 Really?

Earthquake 22:08 Nine years later, still just one stripe. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:12 Wow.

Earthquake 22:12 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:13 What do you have to do to get stripes?

Earthquake 22:14 Um, some of them come with seniority, and then they get to a level that you have to pass tests and know all the different aircraft. I didn't give a damn about this.

Joe Rogan 22:23 (laughs)

Earthquake 22:23 I'm just over here trying to find out what my real purpose is. You the one got me when you said it's a great place to start. You ain't say nothing about finish, so let's-

Joe Rogan 22:31 Ah.

Earthquake 22:31 ... let's just kick it until we break up. You know, like dating a woman, like, you ain't gonna be my wife. Until this real woman I want to mess with come along, I'll just kick it with you.

Joe Rogan 22:42 Ah.

Earthquake 22:42 And that's what the military was. And it was the best experience of my life because it opened up my mind, because I lived in DC and it's segregated, and I found out there was people out there like you-

Joe Rogan 22:53 (coughs)

Earthquake 22:53 ... that had more in common with me than difference, and it was the best thing ever. You smell this?

Joe Rogan 23:00 Yeah, that's water. Okay.

Earthquake 23:01 Okay, thank you.

Joe Rogan 23:02 So when ... It's kind of amazing, right? Because if the war didn't break out, maybe you would have never done standup.

Earthquake 23:08 Probably not, but I would have been out the military. They would have put me out, because no advancement. You just can't stay in as an E1.

Joe Rogan 23:15 (laughs)

Earthquake 23:16 But, it was probably not ... I never thought that this was my destiny. I just ... It was the best decision that day.

Joe Rogan 23:22 Right.

Earthquake 23:22 And nothing better hasn't came along, so this what I'm supposed to be doing.

Joe Rogan 23:25 So, what inspired you to do an open mic?

Earthquake 23:28 Drinking water ] As usual, a woman. Watching Eddie Murphy do Delirious, she was falling all over. (imitates woman vomiting) I said, "If you want to fuck him, just say you want to fuck him."

Joe Rogan 23:41 (laughs)

Earthquake 23:41 "But he ain't ... That ain't that funny."

Joe Rogan 23:43 (laughs)

Earthquake 23:44 "That you throwing up and all that." You know what I mean? "Just stop it." "Oh, you're just jealous." I said, "You can't do that." I said, "I could do that." I heard more funny shit than that. That's funny, but that ain't the funniest thing I ever heard. Definitely didn't have to get this reaction you doing. So she's like, "Come on." I went to the comedy club and, um, I said, "Okay, I can do this." And then the dude gave me $500 and I'm like, "Okay." And then the money just kept coming and ain't nothing came to take its place.

Joe Rogan 24:15 You got 500 bucks for the first set?

Earthquake 24:17 First set, dude gave me $500.

Joe Rogan 24:20 What kind of dude is that?

Earthquake 24:21 Hey, a good dude.

Joe Rogan 24:22 Yeah.

Earthquake 24:23 He was like, "Look, I want you to come on back. I'm gonna give you $500." I said, "$500?" I said, "You serious?" So I thought, you know, must've been a drug dealer or something trying to set me up, right? And he said, "No, I'm gonna give you $500. Come on back the weekend." And I did the whole weekend, and that was the $500 for the whole weekend.

Joe Rogan 24:41 And so what was the club?

Earthquake 24:43 Uh, Coconuts.... down at the Holiday Inn in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.

Joe Rogan 24:49 Ah, I've heard of that place.

Earthquake 24:50 Yeah. It's, uh... What they used to do is they used to, uh, rent out the, uh, the, uh, the bar at a hotel. That's how they'd do it. They'd go to food and beverage person and say, "Listen, um, we'll put some comedians in here. It'll give your guests something to do. And, uh, we'll keep the door. Give us a little bit off the bar." And the food and beverage person said, "Of course." And they'll book us, give us, like, $50 a show, $100 a show, and do five shows.

Joe Rogan 25:18 Do you remember your material?

Earthquake 25:21 My first joke was something about Michael Jackson. Yeah, and that was it. That's all I remember.

Joe Rogan 25:28 Did you write anything out before you went up there? Did you...

Earthquake 25:32 No, well, I, I tried writing, but my hand... uh, my penmanship is so bad-

Joe Rogan 25:37 (laughs)

Earthquake 25:37 ... me coming out of public school. It's a damn shame when you can't even read your own shit. So...

Joe Rogan 25:42 (laughs)

Earthquake 25:42 And my spelling is terrible, so that... It was just... I'm like, "Okay, it's Michael Jackson. What did I think about Michael Jackson?" And I took it from there.

Joe Rogan 25:50 So, did, did you rehearse it in your head? Like, how did you do it?

Earthquake 25:53 I rehearsed it in the mirror, like most comedians.

Joe Rogan 25:56 (laughs)

Earthquake 25:56 In, you know, the toothbrushes are hollering, and the toothpaste-

Joe Rogan 26:00 (laughs)

Earthquake 26:00 ... is standing up, and everything. But it didn't translate on the stage that time, 'cause when I first started doing it, I just look up, up... Unfortunately, looking up at the sky, (laughs) up at the roof of the place, like a woman ain't making love for money. You know what I'm saying? (laughs) Ain't enjoying it at all. So, I am, um... That's how I got down for my first one.

Joe Rogan 26:22 So, you just didn't know where to look?

Earthquake 26:25 Um...

Joe Rogan 26:26 Did you feel uncomfortable? Like, trying to...

Earthquake 26:28 The insecurity.

Joe Rogan 26:29 Mm-hmm.

Earthquake 26:29 That's why my name is Earthquake. You know? And people keep asking me, "Why your name Earthquake?" I say, "The reason I name my name Earthquake, 'cause if this shit don't work out, I ain't gon' mess up my good name."

Joe Rogan 26:40 (laughs)

Earthquake 26:41 Some- somebody come in and say, "Hey, what's up, Earthquake?" "Hey, my name Nathaniel. I don't know an Earthquake. He was Earthquaking. He was terr-" Nah, that was my brother or somebody, but my name is Nathaniel. I don't even know no Earthquake.

Joe Rogan 26:52 That's hilarious.

Earthquake 26:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 26:53 I thought it was just from the reaction you got from the crowd.

Earthquake 26:56 No, it was a insecurity that, if this don't work out, I did not fuck up my good name.

Joe Rogan 27:02 (laughs)

Earthquake 27:03 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 27:03 That's hilarious, 'cause I thought it was the total opposite. I thought it was a, a cocky move.

Earthquake 27:07 No.

Joe Rogan 27:08 Like you're about to cause an earthquake.

Earthquake 27:09 No. It was like-

Joe Rogan 27:11 (laughs)

Earthquake 27:11 ... "Nah, if this, (laughs) this don't work out, baby," (laughs) -

Joe Rogan 27:16 It's-

Earthquake 27:16 ... you know what I mean? I wouldn't be scar... I wouldn't scully my good name.

Joe Rogan 27:19 It's funny, because it's a perfect name for you.

Earthquake 27:22 Oh, thank you.

Joe Rogan 27:22 It really is.

Earthquake 27:23 Thank you.

Joe Rogan 27:23 It's a per- Like, it's... In the insecurity of want to protect your name, you literally came up with the best nickname ever for you.

Earthquake 27:30 Yes. Yeah. And that's how it came. I used to tell the joke. People are like, "How you came up with Earthquake?" "Uh, this has happened when your mother take every precautions and, not to have a child, and you still get pregnant, and having... And there's nothing else you can name that child but a natural disaster."

Joe Rogan 27:47 (laughs)

Earthquake 27:48 (laughs) That's what I wrote as a joke for it. But the truth, honestly, about it was the insecurity that, if this don't work, I don't want to mess up my name.

Joe Rogan 27:58 Were you living in Florida at the time?

Earthquake 28:00 I lived in Florida. When I got out, I went to Atlanta. And, um, from when going to Atlanta is when I started seeing what the comedy clubs was like, and that's when we started opening up our club two years later.

Joe Rogan 28:11 So that is... So you do an open mic. Two years later, you have your own club and you're going on every day?

Earthquake 28:17 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:19 Wow.

Earthquake 28:19 So every... You gotta understand. I'm, I'm... Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Three shows on Fridays and Saturdays. One on Tuesday, one on Wednesday, one on Thursday, two on Sunday. Every day for about four straight years.

Joe Rogan 28:38 Wow.

Earthquake 28:40 And it just-

Joe Rogan 28:41 And you're doing, like, an hour every night, every show.

Earthquake 28:43 An hour every show. Off the top.

Joe Rogan 28:46 Have you ever read the book Outliers?

Earthquake 28:48 No.

Joe Rogan 28:49 It's a great book.

Earthquake 28:50 Okay.

Joe Rogan 28:50 Is that, is that, uh, Malcolm... Who is that? Uh... No. It's, um, someone else. Yeah, it's Malcolm Gladwell. It is Malcolm Gladwell? It's a great book, and one of the things it's about is, uh, they, they detail people who are extremely successful. And he talks about the amount of time that's required to get really good at something.

Earthquake 29:09 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 29:09 And how many people that look like overnight successes, the amount of time they put in was extraordinary. One of the things he talks about is The Beatles. Now, The Beatles, they did all these shows in Germany, where they were doing, like, what you were doing, where they were doing... Every fucking night, they were doing shows. And they had put in hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours doing these shows. And so when they first, you know, air quote, made it on the scene, they had put in so much time performing, so much different than most bands, because they had done so many shows nightly, over and over and over again.

Earthquake 29:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:42 There's no substitute for that.

Earthquake 29:43 Not at all. And, and it's the foundation of who I am. So when I have to sit here, I goes in... I go in with the confident knowing all I got to do is make sure my environment is pure for me to be able to write the way I do, keep my mind straight, and I can come up with an hour.

Joe Rogan 30:02 Psh.

Earthquake 30:02 I can come up with an hour.

Joe Rogan 30:03 And when you were doing this... Like, two years in is a very unusual... That's, that's not a lot of time-

Earthquake 30:10 No.

Joe Rogan 30:10 ... for someone to be... F- forget about headlining at all, but headlining every fucking night?

Earthquake 30:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:16 And basically doing... Being the whole show-

Earthquake 30:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:19 ... every night?

Earthquake 30:20 Yeah. We was, um... We would get some comedians that come on it, but we didn't get any of the main, um, comedians, because, uh, Comedy Act wasn't having it.

Joe Rogan 30:31 That's such a cocky move to open up your own club two years in. That's amazing.

Earthquake 30:36 But they were so vulnerable. They was in the bad ti- bad part of town. They didn't serve, uh, food. And then they... The cotton was being more... And, I mean, the one that really would bring them down, they were so arrogant with it that they'll book a comic-... two comics for the whole month. Same comic, every week. Every week.

Joe Rogan 30:58 Oh, that's crazy.

Earthquake 30:59 Yes. I remember it was Joe Torre, um, Joe Torre and Ted Carpenter and they did the whole month. So when I'd brung my investors there to get the club, I said, "Look, these same two gonna be here. There's 400 people in here, they got two waitresses. Plus they ain't got no food, plus they in a bad part of town. So what we gonna do, we gone put it, we gone put the club in Buckhead. Black people don't go there that much right there 'cause they don't go there. We gone call it Uptown and we gone, we gone serve food, we gone have valet service, we're gonna be in a better part of the town." And that's how I got it. So once you, any of you gone go up against anybody, you first gotta, uh, recognize their weakness and where you can draw from what they got. And that's why I pivot all my commercials to 'em that way. "Are you tired of going down to a place you park your car and you might don't know who gone be there and they begging you for money? Nah. Come get your jokes up at Uptown Comedy Corner. You know what I'm saying? Where you don't see the same comedian over and over again. And we have food. And we have prompt service and everything else. Come to Uptown." So I just (makes punching sounds) . And as you sit there, you give them a comparison about Uptown and people are like, "Yeah, we like it." And that's how I got 'em.

Joe Rogan 32:15 That's amazing though that you did that two years in. Like, y- you go from your career in the military-

Earthquake 32:21 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 32:21 ... where you kinda half-ass it, you're not-

Earthquake 32:22 Right.

Joe Rogan 32:23 ... really into it and then all of a sudden you find this new thing-

Earthquake 32:26 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 32:26 ... and you're all in.

Earthquake 32:28 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:29 You're all in. You're, you're opening up your own club 24 months in. That's crazy.

Earthquake 32:34 But what, you know, it was outta necessity 'cause I got tired of driving night, all the way to Lakeland, Florida to get $50 a show. And then the biggest one, you'll tell a woman you a comedian and she's like, "Well, I ain't never seen you at The Comedy Hut." You know, we segregation... uh, we, we segregated in the black community. If you ain't here, then you ain't doing it. You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 32:56 Mm-hmm.

Earthquake 32:56 So it ain't done, just, it wasn't as expanded as it is now that they can even imagine this other club. This was the club of all club, the only club. If you didn't work there, you weren't no black comedian. And-

Joe Rogan 33:09 So, so you had this in your head that you wanted to do this, and how did you make that happen? Like, who did you get to invest in it? Like how did, how'd you start a club?

Earthquake 33:17 Well, it was this dude named Gary Abdu. He was book... he was a comedian too and, but he booked things in like, um, he used to do little, little small places like Denny's, for example, and put a plywood box up there, little small place. Sit there and he'll throw a show and, um, he'll book me and pay me $150. Me, Ricky Smiley, and the rest of 'em. And we sat down and said, "What you need to do is we need to open up a black club." So I showed it to him and I said, "This is how we can get 'em," what I previously said. He said, "Good idea." So we all went out and tried to get investors. I went to all... Deon, Sanders, Dominique, all the people in Atlanta. "Hey man, sure, just call this person, call this person." Motherfuckers ain't never do nothing.

Joe Rogan 34:08 (laughs)

Earthquake 34:08 One, one of the person was real. Uh, one of the person represented was very honest with me. He said, "Listen man, quick I get five of these calls a day. He ain't gonna do shit." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 34:17 (laughs)

Earthquake 34:17 I'm just... He ain't gone through that, man. I ain't even gonna waste your time. You know what I mean? So Lucky, um, Gary found, um, the number one plastic surgeon in Atlanta and he invests, but he told us, "I'm gonna give y'all $10,000. If y'all can flip this and show it can work on a smaller stage, then I'll get the club." So we went to Birmingham, a couple places, and turned the 10 into about 50 to 60,000. And then when we get that, from that point on, he said, "You could do it," and he gave us the half a million dollars to get the club.

Joe Rogan 34:50 Wow.

Earthquake 34:51 Yeah. Dr. Tom.

Joe Rogan 34:53 Wow.

Earthquake 34:54 Rest in peace, my brother.

Joe Rogan 34:56 Wow.

Earthquake 34:56 Yeah, white dude was great. He, um, he used to give... put all the titties in the women in Atlanta, Georgia.

Joe Rogan 35:02 (laughs)

Earthquake 35:04 (laughs) He was the tittie specialist, you know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 35:06 Yeah.

Earthquake 35:06 So if you seen any big titties in the '90s and the early 2000, it was Dr. Tom.

Joe Rogan 35:11 And how did you know him?

Earthquake 35:13 I didn't. Um, my partner Gary, at the time, knew him and he brung him in and we got together. He said, "I found somebody I could do a producer, the stipulation for us to do it." And, uh, when I met him, I, I was cool. It was beautiful.

Joe Rogan 35:26 Do you remember the opening night?

Earthquake 35:28 Yes. We had 15 people. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 35:34 Wow.

Earthquake 35:34 Yeah, it was 15 people. We were so surprised-

Joe Rogan 35:36 How many seats is the place?

Earthquake 35:37 It hold, um, 250. Yeah, yeah. 250 people. Some of the people, matter of fact, um, my video person who handled my media for me, um, Star, um, she was, um... That's how we met. I hired her as my waitress and we've been friends ever since.

Joe Rogan 35:56 Wow.

Earthquake 35:57 And I gave her a job to handle all my, um, my social media.

Joe Rogan 36:01 Wow.

Earthquake 36:02 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 36:03 So you go from there, 15 people.

Earthquake 36:05 Yes.

Joe Rogan 36:06 And was it you the first guy on stage?

Earthquake 36:08 Yeah, I had a couple of, uh, comedians to, um, help me out, but I was the, the main man until we was able, 'cause see, once that club closed, then all the comedic, "Ah man, I'm sorry, man. Man, I'ma get down 'cause now you the only comedy club in the city."

Joe Rogan 36:27 Right.

Earthquake 36:28 You know what I mean? But till then, it was a battle and it was, it was a blessing in disguise 'cause it made me the beast that I am today.

Joe Rogan 36:35 When did it start to catch on?

Earthquake 36:38 After Steve left. Once Steve, and Steve, he taught me so much, you know, 'cause when he came he said, "I'ma do your club." 'Cause I couldn't get no headliners, nobody that could draw. And I was like, "Steve, would you do it?" He was hosting Showtime in the place, he said, "I'll do it for you." And he came in on a Wednesday and it was only about 30 people in there.... and I was like, "Okay." And he came in and looked and he said, "Give them all they money back and, and, um, come pick me up tomorrow at 5 o'clock when we do media." I said, "What you mean? There's 30 people here." He said, "Steve Harvey don't do no show for 30 people."

Joe Rogan 37:17 (laughs)

Earthquake 37:18 I said, "Oh, okay, then." (laughs) . And then, uh, I picked him up and he took me to the radio. That's when I learned how powerful media is. And he stopped by. He said, "Let's stop by Dunkin' Donuts 'cause we gotta get some donuts and some, some orange juice 'cause you gotta smooth these jocks' egos 'cause they feel you gonna try to take they fucking job and-"

Joe Rogan 37:41 Mm-hmm.

Earthquake 37:42 "... everything. You gotta be good on 'em." And he, um... We got in there at 5:30, stayed on from 6:00 to 9:00. I tell you, Joe, when we got back... (clears throat) Excuse me. When we got back, he had sold out two on Thursday, four on Friday, four on Saturday, and two on Sunday. Back in '93, I wrote him a check for $45,000. I didn't even know that kind of money exists in comedy. I was like, "Oh, yeah, I ain't never going nowhere. I ain't never going nowhere." And when I saw him pick up that kind of money and seeing what kind of money can be generated as a comedian, I said, "Uh, this is where I need to be." And once all of those people came and seen all the things that club had to offer and where it was at and we had valet service and all the things that it could do, it was no turning back after that. And they saw me, so it was great.

Joe Rogan 38:45 Wow.

Earthquake 38:46 That will change the whole game.

Joe Rogan 38:48 That's a great story.

Earthquake 38:49 Yeah, that's changed the whole game.

Joe Rogan 38:51 (clears throat)

Earthquake 38:51 But he said, "Steve Harvey don't..." That's why I tell people about Steve Harvey. Steve Harvey's always been Steve Harvey, always with the ultimate confidence. He was like, "Do no show for no 50 people."

Joe Rogan 39:02 (laughs)

Earthquake 39:03 I said, "Motherf-... This packed." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 39:06 (laughs)

Earthquake 39:06 "Fuck you mean? You're packed. There's 50 people in here."

Joe Rogan 39:09 I read an interview with him recently where he said he doesn't want to do standup right now because his television career is too good and he's worried about cancel culture.

Earthquake 39:17 Yeah. Steve is a... Ooh. If they really pull Steve to the side and allow him to speak his mind, you'd think they was after you. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 39:28 (laughs)

Earthquake 39:30 If they ever allow Steve Harvey to talk his mi-... Or, well, put it this way. If Steve Harvey ever talked his mind, the way he really feels about everything... Ah, beautiful man to watch, man. I learned so much just watching his craft, just watching how he put it together, that rah, rah, rah. He... Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:52 Well, I was reading this interview and it seems like he wants to. It seems like he's gonna wait until he has a certain amount of money and then go back into comedy. That's what it l- seemed like to me 'cause he was saying, like, there'll, there'll come a time. But, like, right now... I mean, he's got Family Feud. He's always-

Earthquake 40:08 Yes.

Joe Rogan 40:08 ... got five different shows on simultaneously.

Earthquake 40:10 S- sh-

Joe Rogan 40:10 Every time I turn on the show, TV's got some new show.

Earthquake 40:13 I tell them, "Give up one of these motherfuckers, man."

Joe Rogan 40:15 (laughs)

Earthquake 40:15 "Goddamn, man."

Joe Rogan 40:16 I don't know how he does it.

Earthquake 40:17 Oh, he's a workaholic.

Joe Rogan 40:18 Uh, I just don't understand where he has the time. I mean, he... Doesn't he do, like, Miss Universe and he does-

Earthquake 40:23 Yes.

Joe Rogan 40:24 How the fuck does he have the time for all those things?

Earthquake 40:26 He doesn't sleep and he's a money-making machine.

Joe Rogan 40:30 Yeah.

Earthquake 40:31 Yeah. He got enough money. He just don't got enough he wants.

Joe Rogan 40:35 (laughs)

Earthquake 40:35 But he's straight. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 40:36 (laughs) Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure, but-

Earthquake 40:38 Yeah. H- he trying to get more.

Joe Rogan 40:39 Well, the thing is, like, when you hit that level where you can make that kind of money, you don't really wanna let it stop. You want to let it accumulate as much as you can. But I think, like, once you're a comic, you're always gonna want to do comedy.

Earthquake 40:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:54 You're always gonna want to get b-... That... The rush of standup, it might not pay as much as the other things, but there's nothing greater. In terms of, like, w- the way it feels... When you're on stage and you're just murdering and everyone's dying, that, that's a... That is a groove-

Earthquake 41:11 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 41:11 ... that very few human beings ever get to slide into.

Earthquake 41:14 Who don't want to be the funniest man in the room?

Joe Rogan 41:16 Right.

Earthquake 41:17 I tell people all the time, "We got the greatest job in the world 'cause no matter what you do sayin' about a good time with your friends, it includes us." Laughter. You say... When you sit there and say, "Hey, hey man, I was with my boy and we was having a good time. We was laughing all night." Bingo. We are the laughing-all-night dudes.

Joe Rogan 41:34 Yeah.

Earthquake 41:34 You understand? We are that. We walk with that. We are the good time dudes.

Joe Rogan 41:39 Yeah.

Earthquake 41:40 You understand? We give good times everywhere it is. You want your woman... A l- a lotta woman describe how much she love her man. "I was with him and I swear it like we knew each other for the longest and we laughed and kicked and everything." Always got to put laugh in it.

Joe Rogan 41:56 Yeah.

Earthquake 41:56 Laugh is included. It's a necessary habit. So I love it, man. I mean, when you on, when it is, and you know it's hitting and you see it, it's beautiful.

Joe Rogan 42:07 It is beautiful and it's, it's a beautiful thing to watch still. Uh, you know, I've been doing comedy 33 years. I still love watching it.

Earthquake 42:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 42:16 I still love it. And I was worried in the beginning that I wouldn't. I was worried in the beginning that I would get jaded or I would be jealous. I'd watch someone kill and I'd be like, "Oh, why didn't I think of that?"

Earthquake 42:26 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 42:26 'Cause that's how it was when I was 21.

Earthquake 42:28 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 42:28 When I was 21 and dumb, I'd see someone kill and I'd be like, "Oh, why is he doing so good?"

Earthquake 42:33 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 42:33 And then, I realized that and I was like, "Oh, that's so weak." I'm like, "That's a weakness. Like, you can't think like that." And then-

Earthquake 42:39 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 42:40 ... I snapped out of it and then, I just started being a fan again.

Earthquake 42:43 See, that's the good thing about me. I can't watch other comedians 'cause I don't w- physically write, so I have to keep my thought patterns pure.

Joe Rogan 42:52 Ah.

Earthquake 42:54 So I don't wanna watch them and then I see it, and then subconsciously, I think I came up with it.

Joe Rogan 42:59 Right.

Earthquake 43:00 So the best way to keep myself p-... sure, I don't watch other comics.

Joe Rogan 43:05 At all?

Earthquake 43:05 No. I- I- I-

Joe Rogan 43:06 Even Dave?

Earthquake 43:07 I don't watch any-

Joe Rogan 43:09 Wow.

Earthquake 43:09 ... comedians at all. I don't, um, um, I see a part of what they do, what their style is, but when they get into their bits and stuff like that, uh, uh, I tap out. I don't even watch mines after I've done.

Joe Rogan 43:23 Did you watch this special at all?

Earthquake 43:25 Just this Wednesday when we had the premiere.

Joe Rogan 43:27 Really?

Earthquake 43:28 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 43:28 So you didn't, you weren't involved in any of the editing or the-

Earthquake 43:31 No. Dave and my manager, Jermaine, did it.

Joe Rogan 43:34 Wow. That's interesting.

Earthquake 43:35 'Cause I know if I watch it, "Damn, I shoulda said that. I shoulda said that." See, that's the gift and the curse with it. You're like, "Damn, I forgot to say that part of it. Damn, I'm supposed to put that on there." So, I have yet to perfect that set that I like, "All right. Everything that's supposed to came out in that, came out."

Joe Rogan 43:57 Isn't that because, like, comedy is, it's so organic.

Earthquake 44:00 Yes.

Joe Rogan 44:01 It's- It's just, it's like a living thing up there.

Earthquake 44:03 Yes.

Joe Rogan 44:03 And you never get it perfect.

Earthquake 44:05 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 44:05 It's never, it's never gonna be, especially you know. You know what you can do-

Earthquake 44:09 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 44:09 ... and you know that that, like, Wednesday was different than Tuesday. And it's like sometimes one bit's better one day and another bit's better another day. It's never gonna be exact.

Earthquake 44:19 Yeah. But see, that's the blessing of it.

Joe Rogan 44:21 Yeah.

Earthquake 44:21 You can keep striving for it.

Joe Rogan 44:23 (laughs) Yeah.

Earthquake 44:23 You see what I'm saying? So you could never get jaded.

Joe Rogan 44:26 Right.

Earthquake 44:26 And you can never get burnt out.

Joe Rogan 44:28 Yeah.

Earthquake 44:29 'Cause if you already set that standard for yourself trying to strive for perfection, which you probably never do make it, but God damn it, the journey is where it's at. And that's what it is, so I was- So I don't even watch it. Own it, it's gone. Let me see what it do.

Joe Rogan 44:44 Yeah, the striving for perfection is where it's at. It is the journey 'cause there's don't, the destination's not real.

Earthquake 44:50 Not real.

Joe Rogan 44:51 Yeah.

Earthquake 44:51 And if, and a lot of us comedians, swear to God, get jaded by that.

Joe Rogan 44:58 How so? Why you think?

Earthquake 45:00 Because they already know that it is no perfection, so fuck it, why even try? (laughs)

Joe Rogan 45:04 Oh, but-

Earthquake 45:05 (laughs) You understand? You see them all the time. Ah.

Joe Rogan 45:10 Yeah.

Earthquake 45:10 You have comedians that's been doing this as long as my- I have and just gave in, just given up.

Joe Rogan 45:15 Yeah.

Earthquake 45:15 "Hell with Hollywood. Hell with not having a show. Ah, they never gonna give it to me." I say, I tell them all the time, it's, I want to know it 'cause I'll be dead before I stop trying for it. Just, it would never, I would never know that I will not have all the professional accolades my peers have.

Joe Rogan 45:37 Yeah.

Earthquake 45:38 'Cause I'll be dead, 'cause I will always strive to get it.

Joe Rogan 45:42 The thing about the Hollywood part is that you- you're getting a bunch of people that aren't even comedians to try to give you something.

Earthquake 45:49 True.

Joe Rogan 45:50 That's-

Earthquake 45:52 True.

Joe Rogan 45:52 I'm glad I escaped that.

Earthquake 45:53 True. Well, Joe, I can't. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 45:58 (laughs)

Earthquake 45:58 I wish I could.

Joe Rogan 45:59 I think you can.

Earthquake 46:00 You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 46:01 I think you can. I think you can with this special. I really do. It's that good. But you're that good, too. It's the, it's not like it's just the special. It's, there's a few guys like you, Dave Chappelle, or, uh, Dave Attell, rather, Tony Woods. There's a few guys that, like, they don't get the credit that they deserve, but the performance is there, which is the hardest part. Like, if you're a famous person but you're not good at standup and then people come to see you, that's not so good.

Earthquake 46:29 No.

Joe Rogan 46:30 That's the opposite-

Earthquake 46:31 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 46:31 ... of what you want. You're better off being in your position because you've got the product, you've got the, you've got everything. It's just, it just needs a- a vehicle-

Earthquake 46:39 True.

Joe Rogan 46:40 ... to present it to people. And now you have that.

Earthquake 46:42 Let me ask you this. Uh, when you see this self-proclaimed great comic that the industry done put up on there, and then you actually go see his act and it's no, I mean, it's elementary at best, but just being that-

Joe Rogan 46:56 Yeah.

Earthquake 46:57 How do you react to it? Do you tell him-

Joe Rogan 46:59 No.

Earthquake 46:59 ... or you just say, "Good set"? Do you, you know, 'cause a lot of them, "Oh, you was outstanding." I'm like, "Man, stop lying to that man. You know he, that wasn't outstanding." Say you happy for his success-

Joe Rogan 47:09 Yeah.

Earthquake 47:10 ... but he's not a great comic.

Joe Rogan 47:11 There's a few guys that get stuck on shows. You know, when you get sh- stuck on a show or get-

Earthquake 47:16 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 47:17 ... stuck on, and you get famous for a show, and then, you know, your- your comedy suffers 'cause you don't have the time.

Earthquake 47:23 True.

Joe Rogan 47:23 But your profile gets elevated.

Earthquake 47:25 Right.

Joe Rogan 47:26 And then you start believing the hype, and everybody loves you anyway. It's one of the things that, like, Steve Martin said when he got really famous, he stopped doing standup because he wasn't getting an honest reaction.

Earthquake 47:37 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 47:37 They were just so- so happy to see him, Steve Martin-

Earthquake 47:41 Right.

Joe Rogan 47:42 ... this huge star, that they were laughing at everything. And you see that sometimes with people. They're just happy to see you. And so, you don't get this honest reaction. So you- you, the difference between, and that's what I was jealous about when I was doing Fear Factor.

Earthquake 47:56 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 47:56 Like, there was these guys that were just, they- they didn't have a TV show like I did, but they were so good. They were so polished. And it made me realize, like, after I was done with Fear Factor, "No more of that. I'm done. No more." Now I'm just gonna be like fully dedicated to standup and podcasts.

Earthquake 48:12 So, when you decided to do that, how much more did you hit the stage after that?

Joe Rogan 48:17 Constantly. Constantly. Much more. Much more. And much more touring. That's the big one. The big one is the road, you know. Charlie Murphy, me, and John Heffron did, uh, a tour for, uh, Bud Light, this Real Men of Comedy Tour.

Earthquake 48:32 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 48:32 And we were, it was the first time I ever did a tour where we did 22 shows in a month.

Earthquake 48:38 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 48:38 And that was, like, 2007. And we did 22 shows. We were c- we- we- we'd wake up in a hotel room, "I don't know where the fuck I am."

Earthquake 48:46 Right.

Joe Rogan 48:46 Stare at the ceiling, "Ohio? I don't know where I am. I forgot. I'd have to look at my phone." And we did these shows where we're headlining just, we would go back and forth, like he would headline one, I would headline the other.... and by the end of the month, my shit was so tight.

Earthquake 49:05 Right.

Joe Rogan 49:05 It was just cracking. And I remember, I was talking to my friend, Brian, and he was like, "Have you ever done this before, where you've done, like, 22 hour-long shows in a, in a w- in a month?" And I said, "No." And he goes, "Man." He goes, "Your show is so tight. Everything is so smooth." And I go, "This is what I gotta do."

Earthquake 49:21 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 49:21 "I gotta do this all the time. I gotta do this all the time." And then, uh, it reinforced, 'cause it was right after Fear Factor had ended, and that's when I started doing that. And it made me realize, that is, it's, there's no substitute for the attention that you give something, the, the, the focus that you give something when you're just fully, completely dedicated to it.

Earthquake 49:40 Yeah. And this, if any profession shows who's dedicated and who's not.

Joe Rogan 49:46 100%.

Earthquake 49:46 You cannot cheat this right here.

Joe Rogan 49:50 No.

Earthquake 49:50 The mic wi- You can have all the accolades, "And he's on this, and he's on that."

Joe Rogan 49:54 Mm-hmm.

Earthquake 49:54 You'll get that first five, seven minutes.

Joe Rogan 49:57 Not even.

Earthquake 49:58 Yeah, well.

Joe Rogan 49:59 You got a minute. (laughs)

Earthquake 50:00 Yeah. (laughs) And then, then they, they're like, "Come on now."

Joe Rogan 50:04 We used to see that at The Comedy Store. A guy would go up, and he was on a sitcom or something like that. Everybody would be like, (clapping hands) "Oh, I can't believe he's here."

Earthquake 50:11 Right.

Joe Rogan 50:11 "Oh, my goodness."

Earthquake 50:12 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 50:12 And then, you see 30 seconds in, they'd be like, "Hmm, when is this gonna get funny?" And then a minute in, they're like, "What the fuck?"

Earthquake 50:18 Right.

Joe Rogan 50:18 And there's too many funny people on the lineup.

Earthquake 50:20 Yes.

Joe Rogan 50:20 'Cause you got 12 people on that night.

Earthquake 50:23 Right.

Joe Rogan 50:24 And, you know, you better be funny, man. There's too much.

Earthquake 50:26 And that's the great part about comedy, 'cause if, you better be prepared. I tell comedians all the time, it's not how many followers you got, it's how many comedians you can follow.

Joe Rogan 50:38 Mm.

Earthquake 50:38 So you must be able to be able, 'cause at some point, you're gonna be on the same stage where they're able to compare.

Joe Rogan 50:46 Yes.

Earthquake 50:46 Now, you can go and put that little, weak comic in front of you when you have your own show, and then everybody loves you. But eventually, you're gonna come in the pit. And when you come in the pit, you ain't gonna be able to pick your opposition.

Joe Rogan 51:00 Yes.

Earthquake 51:00 And you're gonna put in the lineup. And based upon your accolades and your profile and your show, he's gonna bump you up to last or what have you, and you're gonna have to be able to go behind all of them.

Joe Rogan 51:13 Yes.

Earthquake 51:14 So that's when you know you are the truth, specially when you don't have no accolades, other than your name. I remember when Katt was the hottest out. We're in American Airlines Theatre, and he had just flew in to do the Alonzo Mourning thing. Steve Harvey was hosting. And I don't know what Katt said, but you can hear the shit, the laughter coming underneath the door and everything. I'm like, "Goddamn." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 51:47 (laughs)

Earthquake 51:48 You know, and all the groupie girls was over there, and they were like, "Come on, man. We can go in and go now 'cause Katt can rage or go off, and we need to go here." And Steve was like, "Show over? You out your motherfucking... See this motherfucker right here? This motherfucker's gonna show y'all what it is. Come on, champ." I'm like, "All right, man. But did you hear what this motherfucker just said?" (laughs)

Joe Rogan 52:10 (laughs)

Earthquake 52:10 I mean, this is when Katt first blew. And, uh, and everybody know, "Good evening, sirs, ladies, and gentlemen." I mean, this motherfucker.

Joe Rogan 52:19 (laughs)

Earthquake 52:19 I mean-

Joe Rogan 52:19 Oh, he was so good.

Earthquake 52:20 And, oh, ladies and gentlemen, and then p- pets and everything. And they, 18,000, "Aww." And we in the back, I was like, "What the fuck?" But as usual, you know, just ride that wave.

Joe Rogan 52:34 Yes.

Earthquake 52:34 Wherever he took it from that point on, I don't write long jokes and long setups, and got right into it. And once you get there and you hit 'em there, you like, ride that fucking wave.

Joe Rogan 52:48 The key that I noticed when I, when I first started, I would get nervous going on after someone who was really good. And then eventually I realized, no, you should be laughing at them.

Earthquake 52:57 True.

Joe Rogan 52:57 You should be having fun.

Earthquake 52:59 True.

Joe Rogan 52:59 You go up there enjoying it, and ride the wave.

Earthquake 53:01 Ride the wave.

Joe Rogan 53:02 But you're worried, like, "What if they don't like me as much as they liked him?" And sh- And if you're going out... I went on after Martin Lawrence in the '90s.

Earthquake 53:10 Mm.

Joe Rogan 53:10 Like almost every time I was at the s- 'Cause Mitzi Shore, one of the, the great things about Mitzi Shore was she knew how to test you.

Earthquake 53:19 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 53:19 She knew how to put you in a bad spot. And every time I was on the lineup, if Martin Lawrence was on the lineup, I was going on right after Martin.

Earthquake 53:27 Mm.

Joe Rogan 53:28 So Martin would go. The whole main room would be sold out. He would murder. This was the leather jumpsuit days.

Earthquake 53:35 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 53:35 You know what I mean?

Earthquake 53:36 Right.

Joe Rogan 53:36 Like Martin would murder.

Earthquake 53:38 Right.

Joe Rogan 53:38 Like, in a way, a way, I, I, I wanted to quit comedy.

Earthquake 53:41 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 53:41 I would, I would go on after him, and most of the crowd would leave. Like, three-quarters of the crowd would just leave the moment Martin was off stage. And then they would bring me up. He would bring me up because you know, the, The Comedy Store tag teams.

Earthquake 53:52 Right.

Joe Rogan 53:53 He would just say my name, "This guy's a real funny guy. Give it up for Joe Rogan." And I'd be like, "Thanks, uh." And I'd just go up and do shit.

Earthquake 53:58 Right.

Joe Rogan 53:58 But I learned how to survive, and you learn how to grab people. You learn how to ride the wave, and you learn how to grab 'em.

Earthquake 54:07 Right.

Joe Rogan 54:07 Because you're going on after a guy who's selling out arenas, and he's a movie star, and he's got his own television show. And he's just way better than you. There's no if, ands, or buts about it. You know it. The audience knows it. You gotta figure out a way to elevate. You gotta rise up. And there's-

Earthquake 54:24 Right.

Joe Rogan 54:24 ... there's no other way. You either rise up, or you quit.

Earthquake 54:28 Mm.

Joe Rogan 54:28 Or you, or you go home.

Earthquake 54:29 Or you take that ass whooping.

Joe Rogan 54:30 You take that ass whooping.

Earthquake 54:31 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 54:31 You gotta take it.

Earthquake 54:33 (laughs) I be s-

Joe Rogan 54:34 Everybody has to take it.

Earthquake 54:34 I see him up there taking an ass whooping, I be wanting to stop the fight.

Joe Rogan 54:38 (laughs)

Earthquake 54:39 Just, just, just let him off. Let... (laughs)

Joe Rogan 54:42 Yeah.

Earthquake 54:42 Just let him off. Hit the light. Put the light up and let him get off on it.

Joe Rogan 54:45 That's why everybody wants to bring those weak comics on the road with them. That's the, that's the worst move ever.

Earthquake 54:50 Ever. 'Cause they-

Joe Rogan 54:51 'Cause you're torturing the audience, too.

Earthquake 54:53 No, but you, what you're doing is you're giving yourself a self, to be quite honest, but self-comfor- I mean, comfort that, it's gonna come back to bite you in the ass.

Joe Rogan 55:04 Yes.

Earthquake 55:04 You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 55:05 Yeah.

Earthquake 55:05 I like to take the funniest young dude that's out there...... and take him on the road with me. So now that I know what a standard is in steal-

Joe Rogan 55:14 Yeah.

Earthquake 55:14 ... shop in steals.

Joe Rogan 55:15 Yeah.

Earthquake 55:16 So, do you.

Joe Rogan 55:17 Yeah.

Earthquake 55:17 Do you. I mean, I give them 30 minutes. Do you. And then I come behind and do me and as long as doing you and you the top one and I still kill all over and they still love me more, that keeps me hot, man.

Joe Rogan 55:33 Yeah.

Earthquake 55:33 That keeps you sharp. You don't want to sit here and... These punching bags they put in front of them.

Joe Rogan 55:40 Yeah.

Earthquake 55:40 And you can see it. You'll see it. But a lot of comics like, I mean, I got friends they're like, "Man, I'm not coming into work and fighting every weekend."

Joe Rogan 55:48 Yeah.

Earthquake 55:48 "This is time I'm away from my wife. I can go up here and have a good time. I'm not sitting back in the green room over here sweating because this young motherfucker gonna turn the roof off. Now, I'm auditioning for my own show."

Joe Rogan 56:00 Yeah.

Earthquake 56:00 (laughs) And that's what they feel.

Joe Rogan 56:01 You gotta sweat it. I sweated-

Earthquake 56:03 Yes.

Joe Rogan 56:03 ... I sweated still today in local shows.

Earthquake 56:06 Of course, of course.

Joe Rogan 56:06 I put local shows. I had Ron White, Tim Dillon, Tony Hinchcliffe, Derrick Poston, I mean, David Lucas. I, we have these giant monster lineups.

Earthquake 56:16 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 56:17 Like, I'm still backstage (exhales)

Earthquake 56:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 56:19 ... getting ready. Like, feeling it. Hear it, open the door (growls)

Earthquake 56:23 Yes.

Joe Rogan 56:23 ... close the door. Woo, this is a show.

Earthquake 56:25 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 56:26 You have to be on that edge. If you're not on that edge, you're just not gonna be what you, you're capable of. You're never gonna achieve what you're capable of.

Earthquake 56:33 Nah, you'll never reach your potential. And you'll never stay sharp.

Joe Rogan 56:37 And if you were doing shows with Katt Williams during the Pimp Chronicles days.

Earthquake 56:41 Oh.

Joe Rogan 56:41 My God, he was good. My God.

Earthquake 56:43 Ah, he... I mean, Joe, I'm telling you. The green room was way down. This motherfucker brung it and it came underneath... It remind me of (laughs) The Ten Commandments. Remember when the fog went underneath the shit?

Joe Rogan 56:57 Yeah.

Earthquake 56:57 Then everybody put the blood up the la- for the first born don't get killed and everything? His laughter came under like that, to the point... You in a mid sing- sentence talking to her going, "Yeah, baby, I lo- what the fu-" (laughs)

Joe Rogan 57:12 (laughs)

Earthquake 57:12 Excuse me, baby.

Joe Rogan 57:13 (laughs)

Earthquake 57:13 (laughs) And you go out here and see people staring. "What did he say?"

Joe Rogan 57:17 Yeah. Well, he had a look too.

Earthquake 57:19 Yes.

Joe Rogan 57:20 You know? It was... He was funny just looking at him.

Earthquake 57:22 Yes. And he's, he's a very intelligent brother.

Joe Rogan 57:25 Very intelligent brother.

Earthquake 57:26 Very.

Joe Rogan 57:26 I learned something from him-

Earthquake 57:28 Intelligent.

Joe Rogan 57:28 ... talking about, uh, his preparation from shows, for shows. How he has a playlist that he listens to just before he goes on stage.

Earthquake 57:36 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 57:36 And he doesn't eat before he goes on stage. He goes, "I always want to be hungry." He goes, "I never want to be full." You never want to be full when you're performing.

Earthquake 57:43 No. I can't eat before I go on stage.

Joe Rogan 57:45 I don't either. I don't eat before I go on stage because of him.

Earthquake 57:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 57:48 Because I saw that interview and I was like, "Of course, why didn't I think of that?"

Earthquake 57:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 57:52 Because there's times where I've eaten, 'cause I'm always hungry, man.

Earthquake 57:56 Right. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 57:58 I'm always hungry. I'm al- I'm a glutton. So, it's like... (laughs)

Earthquake 58:01 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 58:01 I have to force myself to be disciplined.

Earthquake 58:03 Well, yeah. But you look good though, man.

Joe Rogan 58:06 Thank you.

Earthquake 58:06 I'ma lose about 20 pounds, man.

Joe Rogan 58:07 How you gonna do it?

Earthquake 58:09 Um, just be disciplined.

Joe Rogan 58:10 Yeah.

Earthquake 58:10 I mean, I did it before, but after a while I said, "Fucking, damn. Too much."

Joe Rogan 58:14 You know how I lose weight?

Earthquake 58:15 How?

Joe Rogan 58:16 I eat only meat.

Earthquake 58:17 Really?

Joe Rogan 58:18 Yeah. Only meat. Yeah. I'm on the, it's called a carnivore diet. Yeah. I eat meat and fruit. That's it. No-

Earthquake 58:24 Yeah?

Joe Rogan 58:25 No bread, no pasta, no sugar, no bullshit. I just eat steak and fruit.

Earthquake 58:31 That's it?

Joe Rogan 58:32 That's it. And I take a lot of vitamins.

Earthquake 58:35 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 58:35 And I work out a lot. The-

Earthquake 58:37 Okay, there you go.

Joe Rogan 58:38 ... helps too. That helps too.

Earthquake 58:39 I knew that workout had to come somewhere in that motherfucker. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 58:42 Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's, that's how I keep saying.

Earthquake 58:43 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 58:43 I, I need to work out. That's me. I d- I d- I don't have like a, I don't have like a "I can just hang out" brain.

Earthquake 58:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 58:51 My brain needs activities. My brain needs, uh, it needs tasks. And if I don't give it tasks, it turns on me.

Earthquake 58:58 Really?

Joe Rogan 58:58 Yeah.

Earthquake 58:59 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 59:00 Yeah. My brain's like, "What are you doing, pussy? What are you doing, bitch?" I'm like, "Listen-"

Earthquake 59:02 Really?

Joe Rogan 59:02 "... I got shit to do." Yeah. My brain will turn on me.

Earthquake 59:05 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 59:05 Yeah. I have to, like, get out ahead of it.

Earthquake 59:09 Damn.

Joe Rogan 59:09 Yeah. My brain's like a, like a wolf chasing me. Like, I gotta get out ahead of the wolf.

Earthquake 59:14 Damn.

Joe Rogan 59:14 Yeah.

Earthquake 59:15 My brain lazy as shit.

Joe Rogan 59:17 (laughs)

Earthquake 59:17 Stay right here. Get this pussy and go in.

Joe Rogan 59:20 (laughs)

Earthquake 59:20 We, you know, you done already exceeded your expectations. You won. Listen. You know, I mean, really.

Joe Rogan 59:26 Well, we all have different heads, you know. You have to think what, what, what's the best way to balance out your head and that's w- I figured out a long time ago. When I exercise a lot, I can relax.

Earthquake 59:38 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 59:38 And if I, if I don't, if I don't squeeze all the extra energy out of my body, I can't relax.

Earthquake 59:44 Really?

Joe Rogan 59:45 Yeah.

Earthquake 59:46 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 59:46 Not only can I not relax, but I turn on myself.

Earthquake 59:49 Damn.

Joe Rogan 59:49 Yeah.

Earthquake 59:50 I am relaxed when I don't do a damn thing.

Joe Rogan 59:53 (laughs)

Earthquake 59:53 Let me explain something to you. I mean, I (laughs) , I could sit on the couch for... Hey, listen, I could sit on the couch for four days if I could get away with it.

Joe Rogan 1:00:03 Really?

Earthquake 1:00:03 Oh, yeah. Uh, I don't need a damn thing. I'm that dude. Get me a remote, I'll sit on that motherfucker all motherfucking day. Listen, I only go to work 'cause I have to.

Joe Rogan 1:00:13 (laughs)

Earthquake 1:00:14 Listen to me. (laughs) When I get some money... Once, you'll know when I got some money 'cause you won't see me.

Joe Rogan 1:00:21 (laughs)

Earthquake 1:00:22 (laughs) I'm being honest with you. That's why I never understand seeing all these people would say they got all this money. I'm like, the fuck, why are you working? I am, once I get enough money to the point that My Black Ass will never have an unseen episode, (laughs) you know? (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:00:38 Yeah.

Earthquake 1:00:38 Hey, man, I'm good. You know what I mean? I, I swear. I, I can't... I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't get it. I just don't get it. I, working, the only reason I see people who supposed to work because you're supposed to go get the money.

Joe Rogan 1:00:52 Right.

Earthquake 1:00:53 (laughs) And even if it's a pleasurable job, which we have, but let me get the money.

Joe Rogan 1:01:00 (laughs)

Earthquake 1:01:01 (laughs) My Black Ass ain't going nowhere. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:01:03 I'm the opposite. The more money I get, the more I think, "I don't want to get lazy just because I have all this money," so I work harder.

Earthquake 1:01:11 See, I don't want that.

Joe Rogan 1:01:13 (laughs)

Earthquake 1:01:13 You can keep that philosophy. I want to get the money so I don't have to be able not to do a damn thing.

Joe Rogan 1:01:18 I get it. I get that-

Earthquake 1:01:19 Not a damn thing.

Joe Rogan 1:01:20 ... I get depressed. I can't just watch TV.

Earthquake 1:01:22 Oh.

Joe Rogan 1:01:23 If I watch TV, I have to have accomplished a lot of shit before I can just sit down and just relax.

Earthquake 1:01:28 Mm. That's what... I mean, that's my everything, watching TV.

Joe Rogan 1:01:32 (laughs)

Earthquake 1:01:33 (laughs) That's my everything. Right below a woman. You understand what I'm saying?

Joe Rogan 1:01:37 Right.

Earthquake 1:01:38 Hey. I can't. I mean, I could just sit there and watch TV and don't worry about nothing. That's why I have a perfect mentality for stardom because I don't have to go nowhere.

Joe Rogan 1:01:51 Mm-hmm.

Earthquake 1:01:51 I don't have to be at the after-party.

Joe Rogan 1:01:53 Right.

Earthquake 1:01:54 When I say good night, it's good night.

Joe Rogan 1:01:56 (laughs)

Earthquake 1:01:57 (laughs) When I walk off the stage, I'm gone.

Joe Rogan 1:01:59 Yeah.

Earthquake 1:02:00 I am. I go straight to the hotel, chill, and be prepared for the next place I go. I don't do none of the rest of the stuff. None of it.

Joe Rogan 1:02:08 Wow. Dave likes to go out.

Earthquake 1:02:11 Oh, Dave hard. He's an animal.

Joe Rogan 1:02:13 He goes out.

Earthquake 1:02:13 He's an animal.

Joe Rogan 1:02:14 I learned about vitamin IVs from Dave.

Earthquake 1:02:17 Yes.

Joe Rogan 1:02:17 'Cause when we first started doing shows together, like, he would be drinking all night and then next thing in the morning, he's like, "Hey, Joe, we're gonna do these IVs." And I go, "What are you doing?" He's like, "Vitamins."

Earthquake 1:02:29 Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:02:29 Like, that's how he does it. Glutathione, which helps your body process alcohol.

Earthquake 1:02:33 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:02:33 High dose IV vitamin C, D, E, zinc, and I was like, "Really?" So I first started doing vitamin IVs when I worked with Dave, and I was like, "Oh."

Earthquake 1:02:43 Okay.

Joe Rogan 1:02:44 So it just rejuvenates the body afterwards.

Earthquake 1:02:47 Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:02:47 So we would be in a room and there's, like, eight of us in there, all hooked up to a tree. Like this IV tree, and these tubes coming off these bags hanging from this metal stack where they've got all our IV bags. We're all just sitting around talking shit, getting a IV drip.

Earthquake 1:03:03 Damn.

Joe Rogan 1:03:04 Yeah.

Earthquake 1:03:04 I heard about them.

Joe Rogan 1:03:05 Yeah.

Earthquake 1:03:05 I couldn't afford them.

Joe Rogan 1:03:07 It's not that much money.

Earthquake 1:03:08 No?

Joe Rogan 1:03:09 No. No.

Earthquake 1:03:09 Oh, okay.

Joe Rogan 1:03:11 No.

Earthquake 1:03:11 I heard about them.

Joe Rogan 1:03:12 You should do it.

Earthquake 1:03:13 I'm gonna try it out one time.

Joe Rogan 1:03:15 You do shows with Dave ever?

Earthquake 1:03:17 Um, only with him a couple of times. I, I stepped in, uh, Houston. I'd say about four or five I did it. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:03:23 Did you do Yellow Springs at all when he had that?

Earthquake 1:03:25 No.

Joe Rogan 1:03:26 No?

Earthquake 1:03:27 No. Did you go?

Joe Rogan 1:03:27 No, I didn't go. No.

Earthquake 1:03:29 I went up there, um, when we had to do the, uh, taping, um, for the, uh... to get together when we gonna release it, and he did all the, uh, editing on it. Little town. I could never live there.

Joe Rogan 1:03:43 No?

Earthquake 1:03:43 Fuck no.

Joe Rogan 1:03:44 (laughs)

Earthquake 1:03:45 Don't come.

Joe Rogan 1:03:46 (laughs)

Earthquake 1:03:46 Uh, no, I'm not a Mayberry type guy.

Joe Rogan 1:03:49 Is it really Mayberry?

Earthquake 1:03:50 Nah. I mean-

Joe Rogan 1:03:52 It's all farms and shit?

Earthquake 1:03:53 Yeah, it's a small town. You know, everybody know each other. But it's great for Dave. You know what I mean? Dave can go do what he want to do in the world and come back there and you could tell who don't belong there.

Joe Rogan 1:04:05 Mm-hmm.

Earthquake 1:04:05 They'll stick out like a thumb.

Joe Rogan 1:04:07 Mm-hmm.

Earthquake 1:04:07 You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 1:04:07 Yeah.

Earthquake 1:04:08 You can tell. You can't just say you were just in the area.

Joe Rogan 1:04:11 Right.

Earthquake 1:04:12 You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 1:04:12 Right.

Earthquake 1:04:13 You came here looking for him.

Joe Rogan 1:04:15 Yeah.

Earthquake 1:04:15 You came. You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 1:04:16 Does he get a lot of that, though?

Earthquake 1:04:18 No, I don't think so. The town loves him and they're a small town, you know? It's really Mayberry type shit.

Joe Rogan 1:04:25 Well, he's got a comedy club he's opening up there.

Earthquake 1:04:27 Yeah, that's-

Joe Rogan 1:04:27 He bought a firehouse.

Earthquake 1:04:28 Yeah, and he's gonna turn it into a comedy club.

Joe Rogan 1:04:31 And he's gonna call it the Firehouse though.

Earthquake 1:04:33 Is he?

Joe Rogan 1:04:33 Yeah.

Earthquake 1:04:34 Man.

Joe Rogan 1:04:34 Well, that's what he said last time I talked to him about it.

Earthquake 1:04:36 Mm. I told him I'd do it.

Joe Rogan 1:04:38 Oh, fuck yeah.

Earthquake 1:04:39 Yeah, I'd come and be there doing it.

Joe Rogan 1:04:39 It's gonna be a 120-seater.

Earthquake 1:04:42 He also said 64 million. Something like that.

Joe Rogan 1:04:46 That's how much it cost?

Earthquake 1:04:47 He said all it governed is, um, the development when he was cussing out them other peoples when he was in the, uh... when he went to the, uh, county meeting, uh, city council meeting when the other, uh, buildings was coming. He was telling, "You want to lose this 64 million to bring that 24 million?" (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:05:05 Is that what he said in the county meeting?

Earthquake 1:05:06 Yeah, something like that.

Joe Rogan 1:05:07 Is this it? Yeah. Yeah.

Earthquake 1:05:09 That's the fi-... Oh, shit. Is that the design of it or the actual image?

Joe Rogan 1:05:13 I mean, it is not built yet, but that's, yes, the design. So that's a CAD? Yeah. That's a- Yep. Oh, wow. What a great i-... Look at the image of him in neon aside.

Earthquake 1:05:21 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:05:21 That's amazing. And that used to be a fire department. Wow.

Earthquake 1:05:26 He has that whole thing in w-... the shack. You been in a... Okay, you ain't been in a shack. He has that whole replica right up there.

Joe Rogan 1:05:34 Wow.

Earthquake 1:05:34 Right there. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:05:36 Yeah. When is he supposed to have this open?

Earthquake 1:05:38 I don't know, but it's nice.

Joe Rogan 1:05:40 Wow. That looks great. Well, it's perfect. That's a perfect thing. It's a perfect size too to fuck around too, and if you're in a small town, you could get 120 people. Oh, people are gonna go there for Dave.

Earthquake 1:05:52 I think it's a little bigger than that, but you only, like, 40 minutes, 30 minutes from Dayton, Ohio.

Joe Rogan 1:05:58 Oh, okay.

Earthquake 1:05:58 So you're not far-

Joe Rogan 1:06:00 Right.

Earthquake 1:06:00 ... from civilization.

Joe Rogan 1:06:02 And plus, it's Dave. They're gonna go.

Earthquake 1:06:03 And then it's Dave, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:06:05 If they build it, they will come.

Earthquake 1:06:06 Yeah, it's Moses talking.

Joe Rogan 1:06:08 Yeah.

Earthquake 1:06:08 Come on.

Joe Rogan 1:06:08 Yeah.

Earthquake 1:06:09 You know? Yeah, they gonna come see him.

Joe Rogan 1:06:10 When it... This is... When this episode's over, I'll tell you about my club 'cause I, I bought a place in town.

Earthquake 1:06:15 Did you?

Joe Rogan 1:06:16 Yeah.

Earthquake 1:06:17 Go ahead.

Joe Rogan 1:06:17 Yeah. I'll tell you the whole deal. I can't talk too much about it on the air.

Earthquake 1:06:21 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:06:22 But it's got two rooms. One is b-... 250 seats, and one's gonna be about 120 seats.

Earthquake 1:06:27 Perfect.

Joe Rogan 1:06:27 Yeah, yeah. I'll give you the whole details.

Earthquake 1:06:29 Oh, man.

Joe Rogan 1:06:30 I'm excited.

Earthquake 1:06:30 I'ma come down, man.

Joe Rogan 1:06:31 Oh, 100%.

Earthquake 1:06:31 Please.

Joe Rogan 1:06:32 Please.

Earthquake 1:06:32 Make sure he makes you book me down here.

Joe Rogan 1:06:34 100%. 100%.

Earthquake 1:06:35 All right, come on down here.

Joe Rogan 1:06:36 I'm just not going on after you. (laughs)

Earthquake 1:06:37 Ah, stop it.

Joe Rogan 1:06:39 (laughs) I'm gonna put on someone after you that talks too much shit. (laughs)

Earthquake 1:06:44 (laughs) That's a lot of people.

Joe Rogan 1:06:46 There's a lot of people, man.

Earthquake 1:06:47 They talk a lot of shit.

Joe Rogan 1:06:48 There's a lot of people.

Earthquake 1:06:49 A lot of them.

Joe Rogan 1:06:50 But those kind of clubs like The Comedy Store or like what I'm gonna plan on doing here where you have a lot of people going in at night, I think there's, there's a camaraderie to that. There's a thing to that that you don't get when you just doing the road by yourself.

Earthquake 1:07:03 Right. And then it's a mixture. You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 1:07:06 Mm-hmm.

Earthquake 1:07:06 One thing I do love about The Comedy Store, they have a li- list of comedians and the people come in and they come out.

Joe Rogan 1:07:13 Yeah.

Earthquake 1:07:13 Instead of having a set show.

Joe Rogan 1:07:14 Mm-hmm.

Earthquake 1:07:15 MC feature, headline.

Joe Rogan 1:07:16 Yeah.

Earthquake 1:07:16 You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 1:07:17 Yeah.

Earthquake 1:07:17 Just let it rotate. You know what I mean? You can pop in.

Joe Rogan 1:07:19 I like the, I like the tag-teaming too.

Earthquake 1:07:22 Yes.

Joe Rogan 1:07:22 Each comic brings up the next comic.

Earthquake 1:07:24 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:07:24 I like that too.

Earthquake 1:07:24 Yeah. I do too.

Joe Rogan 1:07:26 Yeah. It's, it's beautiful. It's a beautiful way to do it. Mitzi Shore was a fucking genius. She really was. She was a genius.

Earthquake 1:07:32 (laughs) I liked her. She, um, she gave me confidence 'cause I went to auditions. "Yeah, you can go. You can be there."

Joe Rogan 1:07:40 (laughs)

Earthquake 1:07:40 "Yeah. You can go, Earthquake. What's your name? Earthquake? Yeah." I said... Mitzi sure gave it to me, 'cause I sure wasn't gonna be no non-paying regular.

Joe Rogan 1:07:48 Yeah.

Earthquake 1:07:48 You know what I mean? Walking, you know, watching the door to get on stage.

Joe Rogan 1:07:52 Yeah.

Earthquake 1:07:53 I just couldn't take that process.

Joe Rogan 1:07:55 I was a non-paid regular.

Earthquake 1:07:56 Yeah?

Joe Rogan 1:07:56 I was a non-paid regular for, like, six months.

Earthquake 1:07:59 Yeah?

Joe Rogan 1:07:59 Yeah.

Earthquake 1:08:00 Yeah, I had kids.

Joe Rogan 1:08:01 I hear you.

Earthquake 1:08:02 I can't... Yeah. When you got a woman on your back-

Joe Rogan 1:08:04 (laughs)

Earthquake 1:08:04 ... everything gotta be paid. (laughs) Ain't no such thing non-paid. Everything you doing, you better bring some money home, you know?

Joe Rogan 1:08:11 I, I came to LA in '94. Uh, I'd only been doing standup for, like, six years.

Earthquake 1:08:16 Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:08:16 And, uh, I auditioned for Mitzi. She goes, "Well, you can go on after the show. You can be a non-paid regular."

Earthquake 1:08:23 Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:08:24 And I was there every night.

Earthquake 1:08:25 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:08:26 Every... I didn't have any friends. I didn't know anybody. I was on this terrible TV show. So I was out there. Uh, all I cared about was The Comedy Store.

Earthquake 1:08:33 Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:08:33 That's all I cared about. I was out there 'cause that was Mecca. When I was-

Earthquake 1:08:36 Yes, it is.

Joe Rogan 1:08:36 When I started out in Boston in 1988, everybody would talk about The Comedy Store. "That's The Comedy Store, Comedy Store in Hollywood. That's where Richard Pryor would perform. Sam Kinison would perform there."

Earthquake 1:08:48 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:08:48 "Dice Clay would perform there." You're like, "Whoa."

Earthquake 1:08:50 Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:08:51 It was like the... this place that, like, a mythical place. I remember the first time I went there, there was, like, a boat act on stage.

Earthquake 1:08:57 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:08:58 Like, I was, like, a cruise. It was terrible. (laughs) Like, I, like, I was awful. The crowd was half full. It's like, "This is The Comedy Store?"

Earthquake 1:09:04 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:09:04 What the fuck happened?

Earthquake 1:09:06 It's killed your dreams. I... (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:09:08 Well, it just was a dose of reality.

Earthquake 1:09:10 Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:09:10 'Cause The Comedy Store goes in these waves. And, like, uh, like, in the, you know, the, the '80s, it was Pryor. And he was this massive star and people would-

Earthquake 1:09:19 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:09:20 All the celebrities would come to The Comedy Store to see him. And of course, there was always... Robin Williams was there and David Letterman was there. There was all these other comedians who were there, too. But it was propelled by the, the, the, the gravity of Richard Pryor.

Earthquake 1:09:34 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:09:34 And then in the '80s, later in the '80s, it was Kinison. I came in when all that was gone, and there was no big comic there. There was no, there was no, like, one guy.

Earthquake 1:09:45 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:09:45 So there's always, for whatever reason, been a few big name guys. And I got in in '94 where there was this lull.

Earthquake 1:09:52 Ooh.

Joe Rogan 1:09:53 So I got to see, like, these guys that hung around too long-

Earthquake 1:09:55 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:09:55 ... and they had the same act for 30 years, and they were half-assed-

Earthquake 1:09:59 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:09:59 ... and they were bitter.

Earthquake 1:10:00 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:10:00 And they hated, hated young guys like me.

Earthquake 1:10:02 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:10:02 Angry, coming up.

Earthquake 1:10:03 Angry. That's what I said, angry.

Joe Rogan 1:10:05 Yeah.

Earthquake 1:10:06 You from Boston?

Joe Rogan 1:10:07 Yeah. Well-

Earthquake 1:10:08 Okay.

Joe Rogan 1:10:08 ... I was born in New Jersey-

Earthquake 1:10:09 Okay.

Joe Rogan 1:10:09 ... but I grew up in Boston.

Earthquake 1:10:10 Okay.

Joe Rogan 1:10:11 Yeah, that's where I started doing standup.

Earthquake 1:10:12 Okay.

Joe Rogan 1:10:13 Yeah.

Earthquake 1:10:13 And you came out there in '94?

Joe Rogan 1:10:15 I came out to LA in '94 because I, I got a... I came out with a sitcom. I was already on a sitcom-

Earthquake 1:10:21 Okay.

Joe Rogan 1:10:21 ... called Hardballs, a baseball sitcom on Fox.

Earthquake 1:10:24 Ooh.

Joe Rogan 1:10:24 Nobody watched it.

Earthquake 1:10:25 But, see, you... See, this is what I'm saying. Came out with a show.

Joe Rogan 1:10:29 Yeah.

Earthquake 1:10:29 Boy, I swear, man.

Joe Rogan 1:10:31 I know.

Earthquake 1:10:31 Some of y'all.

Joe Rogan 1:10:32 (laughs)

Earthquake 1:10:33 You just, you just... Goddamn.

Joe Rogan 1:10:34 I got a Golden Horseshoe. (laughs)

Earthquake 1:10:36 I mean, come on, brother. Them Fear Factor.

Joe Rogan 1:10:40 No, I was on another show after that-

Earthquake 1:10:41 What?

Joe Rogan 1:10:41 ... called News Radio.

Earthquake 1:10:42 Say goddamn. Another one?

Joe Rogan 1:10:43 So I was on a sitcom for five years. Yeah. So then I did that sitcom for five years, and then I did Fear Factor for six years.

Earthquake 1:10:50 Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:10:50 So it was like bang, bang, bang.

Earthquake 1:10:52 How did you get Fear Factor?

Joe Rogan 1:10:54 Man, I showed up for the audition stoned, and, uh, because they told me about it and I thought it was ridiculous. And one of the guys who was the casting agent had cast me on News Radio, so it was still an NBC show. And they were trying to do this show, and they knew that I had a martial arts background. And they thought, "Well, that would probably be good because this is kind of scary. We're trying to make it scary." I showed up stoned, and I was laughing-

Earthquake 1:11:17 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:11:17 ... at everything 'cause that, that was like my getting high every day stage of life.

Earthquake 1:11:21 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:11:21 So I, I was there, and I was like, "You're gonna sick dogs on people? Like, what the fuck is wrong with you?"

Earthquake 1:11:26 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:11:26 And I was laughing, like, slapping the table in the meeting.

Earthquake 1:11:29 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:11:29 I was just making fun of everything. And one of the producers were like, "He's not right for the show." And the other guy was like, "Listen, if you..." This is my friend to this day, David Hurwitz. He said, "If you don't make fun of this, if he doesn't make fun of this, other people are going to. Like, let him make fun of it."

Earthquake 1:11:44 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:11:44 "Like, this is what you want. This is a ridiculous show. We're making people eat animal dicks and we're sicking dogs on them."

Earthquake 1:11:49 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:11:50 "You need a comedian to go, 'What the fuck are we doing?'" And so that's how I got it.

Earthquake 1:11:54 Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:11:55 They had a totally different idea before I came in. They wanted someone to, "Fear is definitely a factor for you." They wanted, like, a sports broadcaster.

Earthquake 1:12:05 Man. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:12:05 They wanted-

Earthquake 1:12:05 One of the monotone-ass radio dudes.

Joe Rogan 1:12:08 Exactly.

Earthquake 1:12:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:12:09 They wanted someone who was, like, cookie cutter.

Earthquake 1:12:10 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:12:11 And they figured, like, I had a name. I was on a sitcom. Uh, you know, it was like, this would work. I was... I've already been on NBC for five years. This would be a good transition.

Earthquake 1:12:20 See?

Joe Rogan 1:12:20 Yeah.

Earthquake 1:12:21 See how being you... Now, everybody else that walked in that moment took advice.

Joe Rogan 1:12:27 Right.

Earthquake 1:12:27 "This is how you should get it."

Joe Rogan 1:12:29 Yeah.

Earthquake 1:12:29 Notes, you understand? Directions and just what they looking