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Joe Rogan Experience #1808 - Dan Soder

Dan Soder is a stand-up comedian, actor, and co-host of "The Bonfire" with Big Jay Oakerson on SiriusXM.

Joe RoganhostDan Soderguest
Jun 27, 20243h 22mWatch on YouTube ↗

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  1. 0:000:31

    Meeting Dan Soder + why funny people are always “weirdos”

    1. NA

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

    2. JR

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music) All good, Dan Soder, all good, we're up and running. What's happening, brother? How are you?

    3. DS

      So, Joe, what's up, Joe Rogan?

    4. JR

      Very nice to meet you officially.

    5. DS

      Very nice to officially meet you.

    6. JR

      I've, I've enjoyed your comedy online.

    7. DS

      Thanks, man.

    8. JR

      It's nice to, nice to see you in person.

    9. DS

      Friend of a friend of multiple friends.

    10. JR

      Yeah. You're in the tight group of, of excellent people, so-

    11. DS

      Yeah, thanks.

    12. JR

      ... you're respected.

  2. 0:312:13

    Joke theft fears, writing difficulty, and the pain of seeing a perfect bit

    1. DS

      Yeah. I got, I got a lot of funny friends that are also fucking weirdos.

    2. JR

      (laughs) Yeah. Well, I don't know a funny one that's not a weirdo.

    3. DS

      Yeah. Show me someone that's funny, and they're not gonna be, you know-

    4. JR

      Who-

    5. DS

      They can be, they can be quiet, but they're weird.

    6. JR

      Everyone who tells jokes for a living is fucking weird.

    7. DS

      Psychos and phonies.

    8. JR

      Yeah. (laughs)

    9. DS

      I said that to Santino. We're all either psychos or phonies.

    10. JR

      Is there any phonies that are good, though?

    11. DS

      They get found out.

    12. JR

      Yeah, but they're only psychos then.

    13. DS

      Here, here's the thing. No, the phonies, they can trick you for a little. It's got-

    14. JR

      Hm.

    15. DS

      ... 'cause you gotta have a little sweetness in it.

    16. JR

      Right.

    17. DS

      And then they, then they, like, whip it into... You know what it is? It's a Oz.

    18. JR

      Ah.

    19. DS

      The phonies are Oz.

    20. JR

      Oh, okay.

    21. DS

      They have, like, the big booming voice, and everyone's like, "Oh."

    22. JR

      Ah.

    23. DS

      And then there's just a guy behind a curtain and you're like-

    24. JR

      Mm.

    25. DS

      ... "the fuck?"

    26. JR

      Well, the phonie- the scary for the phonies must be when they get caught stealing jokes, 'cause then they have to write all their own jokes afterwards and they don't really know how to do that.

    27. DS

      That's hard.

    28. JR

      It's the hardest.

    29. DS

      To writing jokes?

    30. JR

      It's the hardest. Coming up with premises, fleshing them out, trying to figure out the right way to do them.

  3. 2:136:08

    Workplace microchips to Klaus Schwab: “real-life supervillain” energy

    1. JR

      There was a fucking company in Europe that was chipping their employees, and for normal shit, like getting into a door and, like, buying something in the commissary.

    2. DS

      But that European attitude, they're like, "Us? It's fine."

    3. JR

      Yes.

    4. DS

      "I just chip, I just chip in if the door opens."

    5. JR

      "If the door opens, it's no problem."

    6. DS

      "And ever since I go get my little espresso and I come outside, I'm chipped. Yeah, I don't..." It's always that European attitude that makes me feel like, are we as Americans overly paranoid-

    7. JR

      Well, that's-

    8. DS

      ... or are we right?

    9. JR

      That's why I like when that Klaus Schwab guy talks.

    10. DS

      Yeah.

    11. JR

      Who's the-

    12. DS

      I don't even know who that is. You could've made that name up.

    13. JR

      You don't know who that guy is?

    14. DS

      That sounds like a made-up name.

    15. JR

      He's... Oh, my God. He's the head of the World Economic Forum, and he dresses like a bad guy in a comic book.

    16. DS

      Hell yeah.

    17. JR

      And I'm not kidding. I mean-

    18. DS

      If you have that... I'm telling you, if you're that kind of power, do that.

    19. JR

      Why not?

    20. DS

      Do that.

    21. JR

      Yeah.

    22. DS

      Honestly, I think-

    23. JR

      Relax.

    24. DS

      ... I think you should lean into, like, you should start advertising yourself as, like, a Bond villain.

    25. JR

      (laughs)

    26. DS

      Think about it, dude. You got the, you got the compound in Texas. You know karate.

    27. JR

      (laughs)

    28. DS

      You're already a Bond villain, dude. And then you just, then you can just sit in a chair and be like, "Jamie, pull it up. The world must pay me." Do it, dude.

    29. JR

      Yeah.

    30. DS

      You could do it.

  4. 6:086:45

    Institutions vs. random websites: how misinformation spreads fast

    1. JR

      That's the problem. It's like, as much as we complain about, like, the New York Times and The Washington Post, imagine if all of your news just came from websites.

    2. DS

      (laughs)

    3. JR

      Look at it the other way. Look at it the other way.

    4. DS

      Yeah. If it was all-

    5. JR

      Like, if-

    6. DS

      It's all a thing that someone could build in a day.

    7. JR

      Right. Yeah. Like-

    8. DS

      Like, The New York Times, you can hate them what they are, but that is an institution.

    9. JR

      Yes.

    10. DS

      You know what... They have offices.

    11. JR

      Yes.

    12. DS

      They have a payroll. They have a history.

    13. JR

      Yes.

    14. DS

      You can just have a website drop a picture of Klaus Schwab-

    15. JR

      (laughs)

    16. DS

      ... in a, in a thong with a gray. And it's gonna be like, (laughs) "Where did this come from?" And, but then the internet, the internet does what the internet does best, and they take something and run with it.

    17. JR

      Oh, yeah.

    18. DS

      And so then it would just be on.

    19. JR

      Yeah. Yeah.

  5. 6:458:18

    Mike Tyson plane incident + the myth of “registered lethal hands”

    1. DS

      There's gonna be conspiracy theories about why Mike Tyson lit that dude up on that plane.

    2. JR

      That's-

    3. DS

      You know what I mean?

    4. JR

      ... real simple. That dude was a douchebag. And he was, uh-

    5. DS

      Did you see the other video?

    6. JR

      ... he was annoying one of the baddest motherfuckers that, that's ever walked the face of the Earth.

    7. DS

      Talk about kicking a beehive.

    8. JR

      (laughs)

    9. DS

      What the fuck are you doing, dude?

    10. JR

      That's so dumb. That's not even kicking a beehive. It's like smashing... It's headbutting a beehive.

    11. DS

      Yeah. It's like trying to put your dick in a sleeping bear's mouth.

    12. JR

      Bzz. (laughs)

    13. DS

      Like, he just walked up and was like, "I'm gonna lower my wiener right into the bear's mouth." Mike Tyson, also there's a video that came out of the angle of him talking to someone. And he's, like, talking shit in a way where you're like, "This guy's hammered and doesn't know what's coming."

    14. JR

      Yeah.

    15. DS

      'Cause I bet in his head he's like, "He won't punch me. He can't punch me."

    16. JR

      Oh, my God.

    17. DS

      He's, I bet he's a guy that thinks Mike Tyson's hands are registered lethal weapons.

    18. JR

      (laughs)

    19. DS

      It strikes me as that guy.

    20. JR

      (laughs)

    21. DS

      He's like... And he, by the way, I saw the guy's shape and I was like, "That guy would kick the shit out of me."

    22. JR

      That was a thing that people would always say, right?

    23. DS

      Yeah.

    24. JR

      That he had to register his hands as deadly weapons.

    25. DS

      I think I said it.

    26. JR

      (laughs)

    27. DS

      I've spread that around. I've been putting out that propaganda. Be like, "You know they have to register their hands as d-," look, "lethal weap-" I'm that, that's my level of dumb-

    28. JR

      Yeah.

    29. DS

      ... where you tell me that and I'm like, "I knew that was true." I wonder if it's a state thing or a federal thing.

    30. JR

      Oh. (laughs)

  6. 8:1816:28

    Affliction MMA nostalgia and the legend of Fedor (the “sloppy king”)

    1. DS

      Was UFC when dudes would just rock Affliction shirts.

    2. JR

      Oh, yeah, man.

    3. DS

      And I lived in-

    4. JR

      With the silver foil writing.

    5. DS

      Yeah. I lived in Tucson in the early 2000s and you'd just see big dudes in Affliction shirts. And here's the thing, I'm not gonna test that theory.

    6. JR

      It was the style.

    7. DS

      Yeah. And they had, like, super gelled up hair.

    8. JR

      Yeah. (laughs)

    9. DS

      And they're just mean mugging everyone.

    10. JR

      (laughs)

    11. DS

      I was rocking Liquor Tee Shirts and shitty dungarees. I was like, "Dude, I ain't gotta see if this guy knows how to fight or not. I don't give a fuck."

    12. JR

      Eh, those are the early days. That's when things were wild. It's, Affliction had their own promotion.

    13. DS

      Yeah, I remember that. They got F- Fedor, didn't they?

    14. JR

      Mm-hmm. Yeah.

    15. DS

      I remember that. I worked at, um, K-Rock in New York when Stern left. They, like, turned it to Free FM and then they brought it back, K-Rock with Opie and Anthony.

    16. JR

      Hmm.

    17. DS

      And I was doing, like, overnights. And I bought, I somehow got that Affliction fight on the TV in the old A-, O&A studio. And that felt like, I was like, "Dude, this is, uh, this is better than working. I'm not, I'm getting paid to watch this Fedor fight." I mean, it was a quick fight, but.

    18. JR

      Yeah. He fought over there a couple times, right? He fought Tim Sylvia.

    19. DS

      Yeah.

    20. JR

      I think he fought Andrei Arlovski over there too.

    21. DS

      Yeah. He was fun. He was a-

    22. JR

      Was it, was that Affliction? Were they both Affliction?

    23. DS

      I don't know. I think, I know the Sylvia fight was Affliction.

    24. JR

      They spent a lot of fucking money, man.

    25. DS

      Yeah.

    26. JR

      They went crazy. They, they tried to go crazy. I knew one of the owners. Shout out to Mr. Atencio. He's a cool motherfucker. They're, they're cool people.

    27. DS

      I, I also just had the realization that I'm talking to Joe Rogan about this.

    28. JR

      (laughs)

    29. DS

      Like, I was, we were just having a conversation and I'm like, "I'm talking to a guy that actually knows these people." (laughs)

    30. JR

      Yeah.

  7. 16:2821:07

    Karate demos, breaking boards, and McDojoLife fake martial arts

    1. JR

      You ever seen those videos of dudes, like, smashing bricks with their fucking forehead?

    2. DS

      Oh, yeah, or tree punching videos.

    3. JR

      Like, what kind of skill is it? Tree punching is one thing. It hurts your hand. It doesn't change the way you think.

    4. DS

      (laughs)

    5. JR

      Imagine being so dumb that you're gonna-

    6. DS

      I forgot it.

    7. JR

      ... change the way you think on purpose.

    8. DS

      You go, "I went out to the woods and forgot a couple cousins 'cause I was just smashing my fucking head into a tree."

    9. JR

      This is one video of a dude t- tries, and it doesn't work, and then he tries again. And he's basically KO'd, and he's wobbling around 'cause he just headbutted some fucking marble.

    10. DS

      Is he doing that, like... Wait, he was doing marble?

    11. JR

      It was on some thick ass stone, whatever the fuck it was.

    12. DS

      Any of those break videos, again, growing up on action movies in the '80s and the '90s-... any time they showed the brick breaking scenes, I'd always be like, "Eh, that's not for me." I did all the training, but that just seems... Did you ever do that in karate? Were you breaking boards?

    13. JR

      When we would open up a new school, we would do demonstrations. And one of the things that people wanted to see was people breaking boards.

    14. DS

      See, I want-

    15. JR

      I broke boards.

    16. DS

      Did you?

    17. JR

      A lot of boards.

    18. DS

      Didn't-

    19. JR

      But I only broke boards during demonstrations. We never even practiced it.

    20. DS

      So you wouldn't just be at home with your friend and you're like, "Dude."

    21. JR

      No.

    22. DS

      "Pick that board up."

    23. JR

      No, no, no, no, no, no.

    24. DS

      And then just fucking jump off the couch and karate kick it.

    25. JR

      No. We never practiced breaking boards. We just practiced for tournaments. So, like, when we were breaking a board, it was just for fun.

    26. DS

      You're just like... Yeah.

    27. JR

      You just kick it. You just kick it. Like, they break easy. They, they, they break so easy.

    28. DS

      (laughs) Yeah. But I'm trying to think of me. I'm trying (laughs) , trying to kick a board and just missing-

    29. JR

      Oh.

    30. DS

      ... and being like, "Fuck."

  8. 21:0726:23

    China, traditional martial arts pride, and the Weili–Joanna war (hematoma talk)

    1. JR

      ... woman named Zhang Weili.

    2. DS

      Yeah, yeah.

    3. JR

      She's like one of... Yeah. She's former champion, one of the top, uh, women 150 pound fighters-

    4. DS

      One of the greatest fights I've ever seen in my life.

    5. JR

      Her and Ioanna?

    6. DS

      Oh, my God.

    7. JR

      Oh, my God. It was insane.

    8. DS

      Oh, my God. First off, when you see Ioanna's face after the fight-

    9. JR

      Ugh.

    10. DS

      ... you're like, "That's Photoshopped."

    11. JR

      There's a football in her head.

    12. DS

      (laughs)

    13. JR

      Her head was like a football was glued onto her head.

    14. DS

      Remember Oddities on MTV where the guy would crawl out of the brain?

    15. JR

      Oh, yeah. (laughs)

    16. DS

      That's what it looked like. A giant head and a-

    17. JR

      Imagine if it, that lanced in the fight.

    18. DS

      (laughs)

    19. JR

      Imagine if Weili landed, like, an, an elbow.

    20. DS

      Yeah. You would've been in the splash zone.

    21. JR

      Oh, my God.

    22. DS

      It would've been like a Gallagher show.

    23. JR

      He would've just dumped-

    24. DS

      Yeah.

    25. JR

      ... out of her head.

    26. DS

      'Cause the way it formed up.

    27. JR

      There was so much fluid in there.

    28. DS

      Oh.

    29. JR

      It was crazy. Bro, that's all blood.

    30. DS

      (sighs)

  9. 26:2356:02

    Bombing, check spots, brutal gigs, and learning to control a room

    1. DS

      It's al- that's how I always felt about, like, um, whenever I've been nervous about something in comedy, there's always, you always talk to someone older and they're over it.

    2. JR

      Like, what kind of stages?

    3. DS

      Like, when I started, I, uh, I went on the road with Bobby Kelly, who's one of the best. He's like my older brother.

    4. JR

      I love Bobby.

    5. DS

      Bobby is one of the funniest human beings and makes me... I can call him and just laugh, like, anytime I want. But I opened for him, and Bobby's Bobby, you know, Boston tough and shit. And he's like, "You fucking, you love featuring, dude?"

    6. JR

      Yeah.

    7. DS

      "You're featuring? You having fun, huh? Doing your, your ti- your best jokes in the middle of the show? Call me when you're a headliner. Have fun with that," you know? And then I was headlining and I was in Kansas City and I was just bombing, bombing.

    8. JR

      (laughs)

    9. DS

      And I was doing, like, Wednesday through Sunday. It's one of those long weeks. You know, uh, it might've been a Tuesday through Sunday. And it's just, like, a Thursday and I'm walking through a hot Target parking lot and I call Bobby and I'm like, "I'm fucking bombing, dude. This sucks and I'm intimidated." And he's like, "Eh, you know what? You wanted to be a headliner, huh?"

    10. JR

      (laughs)

    11. DS

      "Well, now you're a headliner and you're fucking... This is what happens." And then he told me, he's like, "It's not a big deal. It's not gonna be shit in two years. So, just walk through it." And then that confidence of him being, like, over it and being like, "Yeah, dude, whatever. You're working a week. You're gonna do this a lot the rest of your life." You're like, "Oh, fuck. All right." It just, it was a small comfort.

    12. JR

      You need those sets.

    13. DS

      Yeah.

    14. JR

      They're, they're important.

    15. DS

      (sighs)

    16. JR

      Those, those sets that suck-

    17. DS

      The humbling ones?

    18. JR

      ... they teach you things. Yeah.

    19. DS

      The great humblers? When you just come through and just get ear holed?

    20. JR

      (coughs) Yeah.

    21. DS

      It's fucking-

    22. JR

      I've have, I have some from the '90s I still think about.

    23. DS

      Uh, I have an open mic.

    24. JR

      (laughs)

    25. DS

      I swear to God, Joe. I have an open mic in Tucson, Arizona at Laughs Comedy Club. I was telling my friend Jesse Campbell about this the other month when I was in Minnesota. I remember everything about the bomb. It was a three-minute open mic set and I lasted-

    26. JR

      (laughs)

    27. DS

      ... a minute 16. (laughs) I lasted, I couldn't even-

    28. JR

      Oh.

    29. DS

      ... fill my time. And it was all premises. I was just going up there being like, "You guys, uh, you ever go on, uh, a d- a date?" (sighs) "My, my TV's busted." And it's just like I was just-

    30. JR

      How many times had you done an open mic before that?

  10. 56:021:19:40

    Is comedy peaking or crashing? Podcasting, doom-and-gloom, therapy, and COVID lessons

    1. JR

      But that was the thing in the '90s, and the, the guys that are coming up today, they don't have that attitude anymore. Everybody does everybody's podcast, so it's-

    2. DS

      Everyone's like, "Hey-"

    3. JR

      ... it's way healthier.

    4. DS

      ... "Hey, check this guy out."

    5. JR

      Yeah.

    6. DS

      "I really care about him." Well, that's what's interesting. I, I love talking to, like, um, guys that have been around because history repeats itself. And you've been in comedy where you've watched the crash... The '90s, guys? People don't realize about, just about the mid-'90s, early two-, early-2000 com- comics. You guys were doing it for nobody. No one gave a fuck about comedy.

    7. JR

      They did in certain places.

    8. DS

      But you look at the store. You look at The Cellar. Louis put up this old video of him at The Cellar from, like, 2001. There's no one there. There's, like, 15 people, and they're just running a show all night being like-

    9. JR

      Right.

    10. DS

      "Whoever comes in, they stay until they wanna leave. We put up as many comics as we can."

    11. JR

      Right.

    12. DS

      And now they're like, "Good luck getting a reservation two weeks before." That's like a, it's like a-

    13. JR

      Yeah.

    14. DS

      ... hot ticket. So I try to tell my friends. I'm like, "Guys, just be aware that that might be coming back." There might be a, we might have reached a point in comedy, and I think-

    15. JR

      No.

    16. DS

      You don't think that's-

    17. JR

      No.

    18. DS

      You don't think that?

    19. JR

      Not even-

    20. DS

      You think it's-

    21. JR

      ... close.

    22. DS

      Really?

    23. JR

      The opposite. It's the opposite. It's the mo-

    24. DS

      You think it's still going up?

    25. JR

      It's the most fun thing to go see.

    26. DS

      It is very fun to go see.

    27. JR

      And it's live. It's one of the rare live things.

    28. DS

      But you don't think podcasting, specifically podcasting, started showing people, too many people how the sausage is made?

    29. JR

      No, fuck the sausage.

    30. DS

      (laughs)

Episode duration: 3:22:30

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