Joe Rogan Experience #1826 - Fahim Anwar

Narrator 0:00 (drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

Fahim Anwar 0:04 The Joe Rogan Experience.

Joe Rogan 0:06 Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (rock music) Cheers, sir.

Fahim Anwar 0:13 Cheers.

Joe Rogan 0:14 Good to see you, my friend.

Fahim Anwar 0:15 Likewise. Thanks for having me. I was commenting on the round ice. I'm a fan.

Joe Rogan 0:20 Yeah, I like the round ice. It makes you feel fancy.

Fahim Anwar 0:22 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 0:23 You're a fancy person, drinking bourbon on round ice.

Fahim Anwar 0:26 Yeah, when in Rome. Like, I was like-

Joe Rogan 0:28 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 0:28 ... "Can we do this again?"

Joe Rogan 0:29 Yeah. You don't ever, uh, smoke cigars and drink whiskey unless you're with me.

Fahim Anwar 0:34 No. I do other people, but, like... Yeah, this is, like, the thing to do.

Joe Rogan 0:38 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 0:38 You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 0:39 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 0:39 Last time was fun, we did it.

Joe Rogan 0:40 Yeah, we're conversating.

Fahim Anwar 0:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 0:42 I like that word too.

Fahim Anwar 0:43 I think you're... Yeah, conversating.

Joe Rogan 0:44 Conversating. Doesn't seem like it's a real word, but I think it is.

Fahim Anwar 0:47 I think so.

Joe Rogan 0:50 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 0:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 0:51 Yeah. Good to see you, buddy.

Fahim Anwar 0:52 Likewise. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 0:53 It was fun hanging out last night.

Fahim Anwar 0:54 Yeah. I mean, I was here when things were shut down in LA with the pandemic-

Joe Rogan 0:58 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 0:58 ... and I thought it was great then, like the way Vulcan was set up.

Joe Rogan 1:01 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 1:01 And then last night, it's like even more people and they keep on, like, elevating.

Joe Rogan 1:06 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 1:06 Yeah. It was a fun show.

Joe Rogan 1:08 Well, you know, the, the scene here right now is just on fire. It's hopping. There's so many comics here. It's really fun.

Fahim Anwar 1:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:16 It's a good time. Like, on any given night at Vulcan, we'll have Ron White, Tony Hinchcliffe. Tim Dillon stops in sometimes. Tom Segura when he's not on the road. Christina Pazsitzky stops in. There's so many comics here. Derek Poston's here.

Fahim Anwar 1:30 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:30 David Lucas is here all the time. Hans Kim, William Montgomery. I mean, it's fucking hopping.

Fahim Anwar 1:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:36 Hopping.

Fahim Anwar 1:36 I think that's part of the, the charm of that place too, is just people don't know who's gonna pop in.

Joe Rogan 1:41 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 1:42 And even when I was here, I was here for, like, three months during the pandemic, it was cool. It almost felt like a festival city because it's that midpoint between New York and LA.

Joe Rogan 1:50 Mm-hmm.

Fahim Anwar 1:50 So I would see, like, Yiannis. I would see guys I just wouldn't see unless I was doing Montreal or something.

Joe Rogan 1:55 Yeah, and then there's also-

Fahim Anwar 1:55 So it's this organic midpoint.

Joe Rogan 1:57 Yeah, and there's also, like, other clubs, right? Like, there's... The other day we went over to see Ari. He was at The Creek and The Cave running his, uh, his new hour special that he's gonna film July... I think it's 11th and... 10th and 11th or 11th and 12th. 11th and 12th? Um, I think one of them might have some tickets available. The 11th is sold out, but I think there might be a few tickets left for the 12th. Don't sleep 'cause it's fucking good. His, uh, new special is called Jew.

Fahim Anwar 2:24 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:25 He's putting together.

Fahim Anwar 2:25 I was gonna name mine that as well, but-

Joe Rogan 2:26 You should.

Fahim Anwar 2:27 Yeah, I'm like, "He's doing it." Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:28 Get it out first. Yours is about to release. You should just change the name of yours-

Fahim Anwar 2:32 (laughs) Mine, mine's out now.

Joe Rogan 2:32 ... to Ari Shaffir Jew. (laughs)

Fahim Anwar 2:33 Just rename everything?

Joe Rogan 2:35 Just call it Ari Shaffir Jew.

Fahim Anwar 2:38 (laughs) It has nothing to do with him whatsoever.

Joe Rogan 2:39 (laughs)

Fahim Anwar 2:39 I just beat him to the title.

Joe Rogan 2:41 That would be funny if we just start naming our specials after our friends. You know, you just name a special, call it Neal Brennan. (laughs)

Fahim Anwar 2:48 Yeah. (laughs) He's like, "Hey, man, why? Why are you doing that?"

Joe Rogan 2:50 I like you. Come on, man.

Fahim Anwar 2:52 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 2:53 It has nothing to do with me.

Fahim Anwar 2:55 Do you know where he's gonna put his, Ari's?

Joe Rogan 2:57 Uh, I think he's gonna do the YouTube route. Um, we were talking about that last night. I honestly think that most of us are gonna wind up doing that. I mean, I think, um, there's a lot of money in Netflix, right? Uh, and Netflix is great, but for the widest possible distribution, I think you should put it everywhere and put it out for free.

Fahim Anwar 3:17 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 3:17 Put it everywhere. 'Cause that's what you're doing. When you're doing a special, you're essentially saying, "Hey, this is like an advertisement to come see me live," which is w-... It's way better live anyway. Like-

Fahim Anwar 3:26 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 3:27 ... I always say that coming to see someone in a club or in a theater or what have you is probably... It's at least 30 or 40% better than watching it on TV.

Fahim Anwar 3:36 Oh, for sure.

Joe Rogan 3:37 At least, right?

Fahim Anwar 3:38 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 3:38 It might be twice as good.

Fahim Anwar 3:40 It's always better live.

Joe Rogan 3:41 Way better live.

Fahim Anwar 3:41 'Cause things get lost.

Joe Rogan 3:42 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 3:42 Like, um... But YouTube is the play now, um, honestly. And I think I'm getting better about this, just giving compliments and giving flowers to people. Uh, like, my hat goes out to Schultz. I think he really kind of broke it for-

Joe Rogan 3:54 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 3:55 ... all these comics and shifting our thinking.

Joe Rogan 3:57 Totally.

Fahim Anwar 3:57 'Cause for the longest time, all of us were just hoarding our material 'cause we were still in that old legacy Hollywood, traditional Hollywood mindset.

Joe Rogan 4:06 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 4:06 Where, like, "All right, I have this polished stuff. I'm waiting to be tapped. I'm waiting for Netflix to say, 'You can do the thing you can do.'"

Joe Rogan 4:13 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 4:13 "I'm waiting for Comedy Central." We're waiting... We're asking for permission to do something we already know we can do. And, and he just saw the power of YouTube and was like, "No, this is, like, powerful enough on its own." And when he did that, and all the comics kind of saw, "Oh, that's a route," every... Now, look, there's, like, all... There, there... It's a clip economy on Instagram.

Joe Rogan 4:34 Mm-hmm.

Fahim Anwar 4:34 And everyone isn't so precious with their material. It's, uh, they're taking their lead from music with SoundCloud and mixtapes. It's like, get it to the people.

Joe Rogan 4:42 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 4:43 Exposure is more important than short money.

Joe Rogan 4:46 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 4:46 Like, what's the point? Like, this special, mine's on YouTube 'cause I just want eyeballs. I made it myself. I'm not trying to make money off this.

Joe Rogan 4:53 Is this your first one?

Fahim Anwar 4:54 No, I did one the traditional route, like, on CSIL. With, like, who the fuck knows what CSIL is?

Joe Rogan 4:59 CSIL.

Fahim Anwar 4:59 Remember CSIL?

Joe Rogan 5:00 I do remember CSIL.

Fahim Anwar 5:01 That was, like, Quibi before Quibi just, like... Yeah.

Joe Rogan 5:03 What happened to all the... Didn't Doug Stanhope had a, has a special-

Fahim Anwar 5:06 A couple guys did.

Joe Rogan 5:07 ... on CSIL?

Fahim Anwar 5:08 Yeah. Brody had one on there, too. Um...

Joe Rogan 5:10 Did he? Brody had one on?

Fahim Anwar 5:10 I think Brody had one, yeah. So, I mean, I'm gl-... It, it allowed me to have a special that way. It's in a theater. It's glossy, it's polished and all that, but it's in comedy jail. Like, no one saw it because nobody knew what CSIL was, nobody knew how to get it, and nobody wanted to... There was a paywall.

Joe Rogan 5:28 And does CSIL own it now?

Fahim Anwar 5:30 Well, Comedy Dynamics produced it, so they licensed it to Comedy Central, so it's on Comedy Central's YouTube, my first special, which is great.

Joe Rogan 5:38 Oh, so you can, you can watch it right now?

Fahim Anwar 5:39 My old one, yeah.

Joe Rogan 5:40 What's it called?

Fahim Anwar 5:41 The old one's called, there's no business like show business.

Joe Rogan 5:43 Ari Shaffir Jew?

Fahim Anwar 5:44 It's called The Ari Shaffir Jew.

Joe Rogan 5:45 (laughs)

Fahim Anwar 5:45 Yeah. But the new one-

Joe Rogan 5:47 There's no business like show business? That's what you called it?

Fahim Anwar 5:49 Yeah, that's the old one. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 5:50 Boy.

Fahim Anwar 5:51 And then the new one's called Hat Trick.

Joe Rogan 5:53 Oh.

Fahim Anwar 5:53 And I did that one at the store. And I directed it. I did everything.

Joe Rogan 5:57 And this is the one you did each room.

Fahim Anwar 5:59 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:00 You did the belly room, the OR, and the main room.

Fahim Anwar 6:03 Yeah. But-

Joe Rogan 6:03 What was the order?

Fahim Anwar 6:04 ... I did the ... I started with the OR, and then the main room, and then the belly room. And people ask why I did that order, and it just felt right. Like, in my heart and in my soul, I just knew that was the order I wanted to do.

Joe Rogan 6:17 Hmm.

Fahim Anwar 6:17 'Cause the OR I think is The Comedy Store. Like at its core, the original room is The Comedy Store.

Joe Rogan 6:25 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 6:26 And then the main room is kind of like Vegas-style, big room, here it is, presentational.

Joe Rogan 6:31 Right.

Fahim Anwar 6:32 And then the belly room is kind of like a hang. It's a vibe. It's like an 80-seater, you know?

Joe Rogan 6:38 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 6:39 So I wanted to cap it off. I wanted to come out hot with the OR, show the extravagance of the main, and then close it out with, like, the night winding down in the belly.

Joe Rogan 6:48 Nice.

Fahim Anwar 6:48 Yeah. And then there's interstitials. I just wanted to show the store for what it is, 'cause every time I see it in specials, you know, like, Ari shot his there and everything, they, like, they fancy it up.

Joe Rogan 6:59 Louis C.K. shot a special there?

Fahim Anwar 7:00 Yeah, yeah. He did his in the main room.

Joe Rogan 7:02 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 7:02 Um, but they dress it up, and, and I'm like, "That ... It's not exactly the store." So I just wanted to really capture the vibe. So in, in the special, in between sets, I'm talking to, like, Theo, Tim Dillon, um, Santino. So you get to see, like, what it's like us hanging out before we go-

Joe Rogan 7:20 Oh, that's cool.

Fahim Anwar 7:21 ... on stage, yeah. So it's a special from, like, a comedian's POV, and ...

Joe Rogan 7:25 And how did you arrange the conversations with, like, Dillon and Santino and all that, Theo?

Fahim Anwar 7:30 It wasn't premeditated. Like, the whole point of this, like they didn't even know. I mean, I asked them obviously, but I just had very skeleton, maybe one guy with a camera shooting from afar, and it just picked up organic conversations. I'm not having the entire conversation on there, but you get little vignettes and slices of what it's like in the hallway, in the parking lot.

Joe Rogan 7:51 Mm-hmm.

Fahim Anwar 7:52 You know, Brennan driving up, fist-bumping, you know? Like, just what it's like to be a comic at the store.

Joe Rogan 7:56 That's nice.

Fahim Anwar 7:57 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 7:57 And when did you film it?

Fahim Anwar 7:59 Maybe ... I'm trying to think. Like January or ... Yeah, a couple mo- maybe, like, maybe two mo- no February, like February.

Joe Rogan 8:07 So things had just started to come back.

Fahim Anwar 8:10 The store was finally fully operational, like full shows.

Joe Rogan 8:13 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 8:14 And then some people wearing masks, some weren't. It was kind of like a choose-your-own-adventure in LA with COVID.

Joe Rogan 8:19 Hmm.

Fahim Anwar 8:20 So you'll see, like, maybe one person with a mask in one shot or ... Yeah, but it was, like, up and running. It wasn't limited capacity. It was, it was running enough to do this type of special.

Joe Rogan 8:31 Nice.

Fahim Anwar 8:32 Yeah, I can't believe no one had done one this way, so it was just my ace in the sleeve. I'm like ... 'Cause I'm in this weird place where I've been doing standup 20 years, I'm a comic's comic, like comics like me and stuff, and, like, artistically, I'm further along than I am visibility-wise.

Joe Rogan 8:47 Why do you think that is?

Fahim Anwar 8:51 I think, I think I would enjoy ... Or I naively, when I was younger and a younger comic, I just thought, "If I'm funny and crushing the clubs and stuff, and I have representation, I trust my representation is getting it done. Like, they will make it happen." My job is just to, like, keep writing material, doing well in the clubs. I would get validation from other comics, like, "Oh my God, that's great," blah, blah, blah. Like, "I don't know why you're not popping," or like, "You're under the radar." And I'm like, "Aw, thanks, man." Like, that feels good when you get validation from other comedians, you know?

Joe Rogan 9:23 Right.

Fahim Anwar 9:23 Like, that means more than anything. Like, when Burr texts me about a bit or whatever, that means more than any, like, getting a, a guest star on something. 'Cause like I, I respect Burr, 'cause I, I love standup. I respect the craft. Like, when you do it, like, that means more to me than these little Hollywood things. So I just trusted that my people would get it done. But they have big rosters. Like, people, your people don't care as much as you do about you.

Joe Rogan 9:49 Do you think that's really what it is?

Fahim Anwar 9:51 What?

Joe Rogan 9:51 Bel- well, listen to what you just said earlier. You have a special. It's on CSIL.

Fahim Anwar 9:55 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 9:56 So who the fuck saw that? Nobody.

Fahim Anwar 9:57 Nobody.

Joe Rogan 9:58 So how would people know about you?

Fahim Anwar 10:00 Yeah. Okay, here's the thing though. Like-

Joe Rogan 10:02 But-

Fahim Anwar 10:03 ... wh- why do that?

Joe Rogan 10:04 What about other stuff? What, what about other ways to get your name out there? And have you been on the road a lot?

Fahim Anwar 10:10 Uh, yeah, I would go out a little bit.

Joe Rogan 10:12 Yeah, that's not a lot.

Fahim Anwar 10:13 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 10:13 That's the thing. It's like you gotta develop markets.

Fahim Anwar 10:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 10:16 Right? So you have to bel- develop a following.

Fahim Anwar 10:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 10:18 Like, a lot of guys ... Like, Gabriel Iglesias is a great example. That guy developed a following just fucking hustling.

Fahim Anwar 10:23 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 10:23 Just constantly hustling, constantly doing shows.

Fahim Anwar 10:26 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 10:26 You know? Like, you didn't do that a lot, and you were also in the writing ecosphere.

Fahim Anwar 10:32 Only during the pandemic.

Joe Rogan 10:33 Only during the pandemic?

Fahim Anwar 10:33 Like, that was my first ... Yeah.

Joe Rogan 10:34 Oh, really?

Fahim Anwar 10:34 Like, I ... Uh, yeah, because that just fell in my lap, because standup wasn't happening, and then they were a fan of my standup, and they're like-

Joe Rogan 10:41 Ah.

Fahim Anwar 10:41 ... "Do you want to write on the show?"

Joe Rogan 10:42 'Cause when you were out here, when you first came out here, and you're staying at that apartment building, I remember, like there were certain gigs you couldn't do because, or you, you had to show up late 'cause you gotta be in-

Fahim Anwar 10:50 (laughs) Yeah.

Joe Rogan 10:51 ... Zoom prison.

Fahim Anwar 10:51 But they were- Can I have the lighter? Sorry.

Joe Rogan 10:52 Yeah, sure.

Fahim Anwar 10:53 But they were cool. It was kinda nice being in the Zoom writer's room, and it's almost like you have this superpower. 'Cause we'd be writing all day, and I'm like, "Hey, guys, can I leave early? I have to do this show with Joe Rogan and Dave Chappelle." And they're just like, "Yeah. Yeah, go. What are you doing?" (laughs) It's like a rom-com. They're like, "What are you doing her- get out of here." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 11:09 (laughs) A rom-com.

Fahim Anwar 11:10 Kind of. 'Cause it is kinda rock and roll what we do.

Joe Rogan 11:13 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 11:14 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 11:15 Well, for people that don't do it, it's probably weir- the, the people that used to do it... You make the weirdest noises when you suck on cigars.

Fahim Anwar 11:24 I watch, like, 1950s guys-

Joe Rogan 11:26 It's very foul. (smacks lips) Mwah.

Fahim Anwar 11:27 ... smoking cigars.

Joe Rogan 11:28 (moans)

Fahim Anwar 11:29 Not nothing.

Joe Rogan 11:31 There's a lot of great comics that got trapped in that writer's world.

Fahim Anwar 11:34 Yeah. I can see-

Joe Rogan 11:35 And people never found out about them. It's a tr- it's, it's a tragedy. You know, like, to this day I say Owen Smith is one of the greatest fucking comics alive.

Fahim Anwar 11:44 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 11:44 And people don't know who he is, unfortunately-

Fahim Anwar 11:46 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 11:46 ... other than people talking about him.

Fahim Anwar 11:48 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 11:48 'Cause you, you know, you can make a really good living doing what he does. He makes a very good living as a, a writer and a producer. But when you watch that guy do standup, you're like, "How is this guy not huge?"

Fahim Anwar 11:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 11:59 How is he not selling out theaters and stadiums, and he's, he's fucking excellent.

Fahim Anwar 12:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 12:04 His timing, his writing, everything's excellent. He's far beyond ... You wanna talk about a guy whose ability is far beyond his, his name, it's Owen Smith.... in my book.

Fahim Anwar 12:15 Totally. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 12:15 That's my number one guy.

Fahim Anwar 12:16 I love Owen too. Yeah. I see him in the store all the time. He's very funny.

Joe Rogan 12:18 He's my number one guy in terms of, like, underrated guys.

Fahim Anwar 12:21 Yeah. Yeah. I think once you get that writing opportunity, you kinda decide what... Some guys just gravitate towards it. You know, some people get into com- uh, standup, they do it for four years, they get a writing gig, and they're happy. That's all they wanted to do. They weren't like real standups. It was kind of a springboard for them. But there are some people who do it and they're like, "I don't..." Like, it's a, it's like a deal with the devil a little bit.

Joe Rogan 12:45 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 12:45 Like, yeah. You'll get complacent.

Joe Rogan 12:48 Yup.

Fahim Anwar 12:48 You'll get tired at night, you don't wanna go out and do a set.

Joe Rogan 12:50 Yes.

Fahim Anwar 12:50 The money's good. Maybe you have some kids and a wife, and then you're in this like golden cage.

Joe Rogan 12:55 Mm-hmm.

Fahim Anwar 12:55 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 12:56 Yeah. Tony was telling me how when he was doing it, he, you know, he, he did a lot of writing, but he never stopped doing sets. And they would say, "Com- man, come on, come out with us for drinks. You don't have to do a set." And he'd go, "What? What the fuck did you say?"

Fahim Anwar 13:10 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 13:10 And his mind was very clear. He's like, "I am a comic. I am doing this writing thing for money while I develop an act to be one of the best comics in the world."

Fahim Anwar 13:20 That's how I approach it too. Um, yeah, when I was writing In the Room, 'cause people are like, "Oh, you should just like keep on doing it and just go down that writer path." But, but the thing is, then you, you like put out your flame. Like the whole reason I got the job is because they liked my standup. Every opportunity I've gotten in Hollywood is because of my standup.

Joe Rogan 13:40 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 13:41 So, why would I extinguish my superpower? You know? 'Cause then you just become a writer, and there's nothing wrong with that, but that's more common than, than a very good standup.

Joe Rogan 13:51 Uh, it's also, it's like how do writers know if they're funny? You know? I mean, you know if you're funny when you interact with people.

Fahim Anwar 13:59 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 13:59 But, you, I guess you know you're funny if you're funny in a room. Like, like perfect example, Matt Stone and Trey Parker.

Fahim Anwar 14:05 They're hilarious. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 14:06 The funniest fucking guys on earth. They don't do standup, but South Park is one of the greatest shows the world has ever known.

Fahim Anwar 14:13 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 14:13 If not the greatest comedy show of all time. It's a real good argument that it's the greatest comedy show of all time.

Fahim Anwar 14:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 14:18 The greatest cartoon of all time, for sure.

Fahim Anwar 14:20 And for how good it is for how long is amazing.

Joe Rogan 14:22 Insane.

Fahim Anwar 14:22 I don't know any show that's had that type of consistency.

Joe Rogan 14:24 Insane. And apparently it's just Trey Parker. He's a fucking complete maniac.

Fahim Anwar 14:30 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 14:30 Have you ever watched that show? What is it called?

Fahim Anwar 14:32 Seven Days to Air or Six Days to Air?

Joe Rogan 14:33 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 14:33 Yeah, Seven Days-

Joe Rogan 14:33 Something like that, whatever it's called.

Fahim Anwar 14:34 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 14:35 It's a great documentary.

Fahim Anwar 14:36 I love that inside baseball stuff.

Joe Rogan 14:37 Yes.

Fahim Anwar 14:37 No matter what the subject is, just I'm so fascinated.

Joe Rogan 14:40 It's interesting to see how the sausage is made.

Fahim Anwar 14:43 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 14:43 You know? And it's- a lot of it is Trey Parker.

Fahim Anwar 14:46 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 14:46 There's people like that that are just wizards.

Fahim Anwar 14:49 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 14:49 You know? They just, they just have a thing and they know... And obviously he's got it systemed completely down and they hire great writers and, you know, they've got... The people at Comedy Central are smart enough to leave them the fuck alone.

Fahim Anwar 15:00 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 15:00 Which is rare, you know, to have a network that just sort of goes, "Go ahead."

Fahim Anwar 15:04 But it's always... It's nice when you do have a conglomerate like that that just trusts the artist-

Joe Rogan 15:09 Mm-hmm.

Fahim Anwar 15:09 ... because look what gets produced. I think it's tough when you have a lot of cooks in the kitchen who don't... My favorite things artistically are pretty singular in, in vision.

Joe Rogan 15:18 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 15:18 Like Chappelle's Show.

Joe Rogan 15:20 Right.

Fahim Anwar 15:20 They didn't have a lot of meddling in that, you know?

Joe Rogan 15:22 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 15:22 Um.

Joe Rogan 15:23 Well, they started to meddle when it started to make a lot of money, and that was one of the reasons why Dave quit. When Dave, you know, got the offer, it wasn't the money that corrupted him where he's like, "I don't need this $50 million," it wa- it was what it came with. It came with them trying to censor the show to make it more friendly to advertisers.

Fahim Anwar 15:41 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 15:41 Like they were literally telling him, "Don't say this, don't say that. Do this, don't do that." And, and Dave was like-

Fahim Anwar 15:48 "Yeah, I don't need this."

Joe Rogan 15:48 ... "I see the fucking writing on the wall here." And it was quite a legendary move to fucking vanish for 10 years. And remember, do you remember when he was doing shows in like Seattle?

Fahim Anwar 15:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 15:58 Where he would pull up with like a little portable speaker in the park and do a standup set, and everybody's like, "What the fuck is going on? Is that Dave Chappelle?"

Fahim Anwar 16:06 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:06 And he would just set up shop in the park and do standup.

Fahim Anwar 16:10 It just added to the legend. I think at the time-

Joe Rogan 16:13 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 16:13 ... the world was like, "What a dumb move. He's gonna regret this." 'Cause I guess that's not betting on yourself to people, you know?

Joe Rogan 16:20 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 16:20 Or it is betting on yourself and they're like, "Why would you do that?" And then from the vantage point that we're at right now, like what a move.

Joe Rogan 16:27 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 16:27 Fucking legendary.

Joe Rogan 16:28 Yeah, just incre- and when he came back, you know? He came back and started doing shows and st- kinda got into the groove again, and then started killing it, and then started putting out specials and, and then getting attacked (laughs) on stage.

Fahim Anwar 16:43 What's your take on that? What do you think is going on?

Joe Rogan 16:46 Well, for sure the Will Smith thing opened up the door to the idea to that guy, the guy who attacked Chappelle. And it's also, you know, this... There's a narrative that his jokes are transphobic. They are not. That, that set is not transphobic. That set, if you really watch it and pay attention to it, it has a transgender person in it who he loved, who was a good friend of his, who he had open for him at shows, at least one show, and, and talked about with great love and respect, and f- with humor. But it wasn't transphobic.

Fahim Anwar 17:26 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:27 It wasn't. It was about, it wa- it had to do with a trans person. But we live in this weird era where you can't even make fun of a thing unless you're a, you're a bad person, you're, you're a, uh, hater. Like fun equals hate now. It's like Ricky Gervais is catching a lot of it-

Fahim Anwar 17:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:48 ... now for his latest special.

Fahim Anwar 17:49 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:50 That fucking first 15 minutes of that special is fire. It's fire.

Fahim Anwar 17:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:54 He's- it's the best Ricky that I've ever seen. It's his best shit.

Fahim Anwar 17:58 Yeah, and I was telling you too, it's like the Rotten Tomatoes just shows you the disparity between what's going on in the country and what the critics are saying. And same with Chappelle stuff too.

Joe Rogan 18:06 Well, the critics, criti- the, the critics, you know, what are they? What does that mean? You know, they're just humans, right? But they're humans that are captured by a system.

Fahim Anwar 18:13 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 18:13 And that system i- i- is like either it's a system that's propagated by social media or it's a system that, you know, they're on a website that is almost... They're almost all like left-leaning websites that have a problem with it, which is really interesting.

Fahim Anwar 18:29 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 18:29 You know, it's like the right wing website... It's like who would've thought that w-... if you look back on the early days, what we used to think of as conservative versus liberal. Liberal was pro-free speech, people were open-minded, non-violent, you know, and people were open to other people's ideas. And the right was, like, suppressive, you know, the nanny state, you know, u- uh, condemns certain language, condemns certain behaviors. That's not the case today.

Fahim Anwar 18:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 18:58 Today, the left has gone so fucking far left, so radical that the right are the ones that are celebrating comedians and celebrating Chappelle and-

Fahim Anwar 19:09 (laughs) Yeah. It's, it's interesting. Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 19:09 ... they had my back through all the crazy shit that happened with me. It was Fox News that fucking had my back.

Fahim Anwar 19:15 Would you ever think that they would be the ones to cape for you, like-

Joe Rogan 19:18 (laughs)

Fahim Anwar 19:18 ... you know, 10 years ago?

Joe Rogan 19:19 I'm so liberal.

Fahim Anwar 19:20 Yeah. I know.

Joe Rogan 19:20 Like, I talk about it all the time. Like, I, I say, "I am not a conservative. I'm not conservative." But I am pro-Second Amendment.

Fahim Anwar 19:27 Uh-huh.

Joe Rogan 19:27 And I am a hunter and I am a cage fighting commentator and I, you know, and I drink and I smoke cigars, and I like to bow hunt.

Fahim Anwar 19:35 Th- yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:35 So there's a lot in there that's like, "Hey-"

Fahim Anwar 19:37 There's some, some crossover.

Joe Rogan 19:38 Yeah, but it's just being a human. But I'm a compassionate person, and I believe that there's a... Uh, boy, I'll tell you what, though. One thing that happened during this pandemic was, I, I, open- it opened my eyes about human nature. Like, I used to be very pro-universal basic income. My thought was, "Wouldn't it be great if you just had enough money so you could eat, and you could pay your rent, and then you could pursue what you wanted to?" But the reality of human nature came fully into focus when I realized that one- when some people got all that money from the government, the COVID money, and then they got unemployment-

Fahim Anwar 20:16 Uh-huh.

Joe Rogan 20:17 ... they didn't wanna work. I have a friend who has a restaurant. He, he could not get people to come back to work.

Fahim Anwar 20:22 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 20:22 And s- and one, one buddy of mine, uh, he... A bartender told him, "I can come back to work, but I can only work for 20 hours a week because that way I get unemployment." So he wouldn't work more than 20 hours a week so he could get free money.

Fahim Anwar 20:35 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 20:35 So he would... could've made more money, but he didn't want to 'cause he didn't wanna work. So he was getting that free money and then my friend was like, "What the fuck, man?"

Fahim Anwar 20:43 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 20:44 Like, "Okay." (laughs) Like, and now he's, you know, he's always short-staffed and it's a m- it's a mess.

Fahim Anwar 20:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 20:50 Like, you see a lot of people that are, uh, that own businesses that have a hard time finding people to work for them. So there's, there's pros to that, right? The pros are people, uh, it's, it's a marketplace that favors the worker so workers can ask for more money. So you're seeing a lot of places like bars and restaurants and stuff that have to pay more money per hour, which I guess is good as long as the restaurant can stay open because it's at a chall- it's, well, not so much in Texas-

Fahim Anwar 21:18 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 21:18 ... but in California, it's at a very challenging time because the, the time where everybody was shut down in California was ra- radically extended as opposed to, like, other parts of the country.

Fahim Anwar 21:28 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:28 And in Texas, things were just wide open.

Fahim Anwar 21:31 That's why I came out here. It's like a-

Joe Rogan 21:32 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 21:32 ... totally different world.

Joe Rogan 21:33 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 21:34 Remember when I had that writing job? We were on-

Joe Rogan 21:35 Mm-hmm.

Fahim Anwar 21:36 ... Zoom. And my nights would suck. I'm just writing by day and then normally, I would do stand-up at night, and I'm not doing anything. And I'm on Instagram and then I see Tony post, "Sold out. Uh, kill Tony."

Joe Rogan 21:46 (laughs)

Fahim Anwar 21:46 And it's at Anton's, you know?

Joe Rogan 21:48 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 21:48 And I'm like, "What?" Like, it just kind of, like snap-

Joe Rogan 21:51 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 21:51 ... my brain. I go, "Wha- This... I could be doing this?" So then I call up Redman. I'm like, "How's it, how is it out there?" And like he said, "You gotta come out here, man. It's great." And I go-

Joe Rogan 21:59 Well, once the, once the club gets open. After we get out of here, I'll, I'll take you to-

Fahim Anwar 22:02 Oh, yeah. I'd love to see it.

Joe Rogan 22:03 ... I'll take you to the theater. We're gonna do some wild shit out here, man.

Fahim Anwar 22:08 Yeah, man. Yeah, but it's just sort of, like, um, even with, like, the, the agendas and stuff. And that's why I kind of did my thing on YouTube, too, because I never fit into that Netflix mold or... There's just certain people who pick certain things and they have a certain brand of comedy that they wanna cultivate. And I think the stock price and what's happening... 'Cause there's the mega-famous people who have their specials and sure it's great, home run Netflix, but then the up-and-comers, they're not, uh... Some of them, I'm not knocking all of them, you know. Some of our friends are on there and they do well, but, like, there's this... They are under-facilitating this whole market of comedy that is just underserved. And I think-

Joe Rogan 22:44 I don't think that's what it is. I really don't.

Fahim Anwar 22:46 Really?

Joe Rogan 22:46 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 22:47 Like, Yiannis's special is great. Like, why didn't he have one? And he did his on YouTube.

Joe Rogan 22:52 It's fine.

Fahim Anwar 22:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:53 Like, do it on... It doesn't matter. It's like Netflix only has so many resources and so many spots and so many opportunities for people. And do they make some terrible picks? Yeah. Yeah, they do.

Fahim Anwar 23:06 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:06 They've, they've had some that just are bad.

Fahim Anwar 23:08 Everyone does though.

Joe Rogan 23:09 And they, well, they leaned into it.

Fahim Anwar 23:11 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:11 They went woke. They gave it a shot.

Fahim Anwar 23:13 Uh-huh.

Joe Rogan 23:13 And they went broke. You know, like the, the fucking, the price of the stock-

Fahim Anwar 23:19 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 23:19 ... it dropped, it dropped radically. I mean, you saw what happened to Netflix's stock. A lot of that has to do with all this... Well, first of all, a lot of it had to do with some stuff that people really freaked out that they had. Like w- was that Cuties? That fucked up show-

Fahim Anwar 23:34 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:34 ... about young drag queens, and everyone was like, "What the fuck are you doing?" That was weird, right? And then it was... Was it young drag queens or was it girls too?

Fahim Anwar 23:43 It's, like, young dancers. Like, little girl dance teams or something like that.

Joe Rogan 23:46 Was girl... It wasn't boys, right? Was... There was a drag queen thing. I'm, I'm thinking I'm conflating the two.

Fahim Anwar 23:54 Oh.

Joe Rogan 23:54 There was a thing about young boys that were doing drag shows, but I don't think that was the Netflix thing. But the point is it's like, you know, there's like an ideological capture that happens when you're connected to these kind of corporate systems-

Fahim Anwar 24:10 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 24:11 ... that are embracing wokeness. And so you say, "Well, we're gonna find comedians that reflect our ideals."

Fahim Anwar 24:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 24:18 Yeah, and our values, but those aren't funny (laughs) .

Fahim Anwar 24:23 That's what's frustrating because I like funny, you like funny. I have always my whole life just gone by funny first and my identity is secondary. That's why I love Tim Dillon. Like-

Joe Rogan 24:34 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 24:34 ... you wouldn't even know that he's gay. Like, he doesn't... So many comics would lead with that.

Joe Rogan 24:38 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 24:38 And that would be their tent pole for-

Joe Rogan 24:40 Right.

Fahim Anwar 24:40 ... their entire being. That's just like a crumb of what he is. He's so funny regardless of that.

Joe Rogan 24:45 He barely talks about it.

Fahim Anwar 24:46 Barely talks about it.

Joe Rogan 24:47 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 24:47 Like-... I'm Afghan, but that is secondary. I wanna talk about everything.

Joe Rogan 24:51 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 24:51 And that didn't fit that agenda because they have boxes. And, like, they don't look at purely funny.

Joe Rogan 24:57 Right.

Fahim Anwar 24:57 So I'm like, "YouTube, I will trust America. You decide." I think that there is this marketplace now where it's like, "Fuck the system. It's punk rock. America, you de- the world, you decide."

Joe Rogan 25:09 Well, I think Netflix is embracing funny with Ricky Gervais and with Dave Chappelle and with Bill Burr, and there's a lot of other great comics that have Netflix specials that are just purely funny, you know, but they already have a big name.

Fahim Anwar 25:22 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:23 Yeah. And the people that are coming up, like, you know, Joey Diaz had a bit that they, they told him he couldn't do, and it was about Terry Crews. And it was fucking funny.

Fahim Anwar 25:33 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:34 It was a very funny bit, you know, about, you know, Terry Crews's, uh, MeToo allegations about, uh-

Fahim Anwar 25:41 Yeah. Everything that came out.

Joe Rogan 25:41 ... how, how hot he is (laughs) you know? Like, how could gay guys resist him?

Fahim Anwar 25:45 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:45 It was very funny. But it was just... They, they decided that he couldn't do that bit. But meanwhile, the audience said he could do that bit.

Fahim Anwar 25:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:53 The audience was like, "Yes." I mean, people were howling.

Fahim Anwar 25:56 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 25:56 I was at the store and there was a fucking gay couple, and they were high-fiving-

Fahim Anwar 25:59 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 25:59 ... when Joey was doing that bit. I'm like, "Who are we offending? We're, we're not offending these folks."

Fahim Anwar 26:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 26:04 These, this, this couple came to have, to see a show, saw Joey do that bit, weren't offen-

Fahim Anwar 26:09 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 26:09 It was 100%, like, just comedy. It was clear what he was doing.

Fahim Anwar 26:14 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 26:14 He was just trying to make the most happiness and fun out of a story, out of a, a, a subject matter.

Fahim Anwar 26:22 Yeah. I think sometimes these places don't give the people enough benefit of the doubt.

Joe Rogan 26:26 Right.

Fahim Anwar 26:26 And the only people who are allowed to talk about anything are already huge.

Joe Rogan 26:30 Mm-hmm.

Fahim Anwar 26:30 But they're not gonna allow Joey to do that. They're not gonna allow me to do it. They're not gonna allow... You know?

Joe Rogan 26:34 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 26:34 So YouTube, you can.

Joe Rogan 26:36 Yeah. But you can on You- Well, we talked about Schulz.

Fahim Anwar 26:38 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 26:38 Like, Schulz released his stuff on YouTube, and then he got a Netflix thing.

Fahim Anwar 26:42 Yes.

Joe Rogan 26:42 So, you know, like, his-

Fahim Anwar 26:43 It came back to him.

Joe Rogan 26:44 Exactly. Well, he, he became what I lo- I love this quote, and I use it all the time, "Be undeniable."

Fahim Anwar 26:49 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 26:50 He became undeniable. His shit on Netflix or his shit on You- YouTube and his shit on Instagram, the turn your phone sideways stuff-

Fahim Anwar 26:56 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 26:57 ... was so genius that they were like, "This fucking guy needs a show." And they were like, "Yeah." And then when he put the show together, it was excellent.

Fahim Anwar 27:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 27:04 And so it was like... It, it, it... And a lot of people complained about it. But that's about everything-

Fahim Anwar 27:09 Everything.

Joe Rogan 27:09 ... that's funny. You're not going to make everybody happy if you're doing it the right way. It's just, just how it goes.

Fahim Anwar 27:16 Yeah. It was such a different way of doing things that it, it's, it's become a blueprint for other comics, and it's, it's great. Like, I think it's allowed me to do this as well, and he's been really helpful. I hit him up when I was gonna do this YouTube release. I go, "Hey, do you have any advice?" And he, he gave me the full download. He was so happy to help out. It wasn't like, "I have the secret sauce, and it's only for me."

Joe Rogan 27:36 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 27:37 He, he wants this pushback to what it is. It's great. Like, we're all helping each other, and we are the gatekeepers now. It's not, like, one guy at a company anymore.

Joe Rogan 27:46 Yeah. That's how it should be. And we all support ourselves. And I talk about this probably too much for people that are listening to this again, but this is... We have an organic network, and the organic network is friends that have each other on each other's podcasts and talk about each other. "Oh, this guy is so funny. Oh my God, you know, go see Chris Distefano, go see, you know, Yannis Pappas or Joe List," or whoever these people are. It's like, we have a bunch of really funny friends, and we let everybody know, and then everybody sort of does each other's shows.

Fahim Anwar 28:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:16 We do shows together. We do standup together. We do podcasts together. We do specials. And, you know, that's the way to do it. And that way, it's natural. Like, if you're on Tom Segura's show and Tom Segura says, "Fahim is fucking hilarious." (snaps fingers) Like, bam. Okay. Tom, Tom gives you the, the stamp of approval. Everyone knows you're good to go.

Fahim Anwar 28:34 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:35 Yeah. And it works that way.

Fahim Anwar 28:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:36 'Cause there's no, there's no reason for him to lie.

Fahim Anwar 28:38 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 28:39 But, you know, if you go on a Tonight Show... No, I'm not saying tonight's show.

Fahim Anwar 28:43 Sure.

Joe Rogan 28:43 But any kind of late night talk show. They don't fucking pick those people. It's like, you know, Jimmy Fallon's not run- going to the clubs and making good friends with all the comics and trying to figure out who's the best guy to get on.

Fahim Anwar 28:53 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:53 They just, like... I mean, he's a good guy.

Fahim Anwar 28:55 Sure.

Joe Rogan 28:55 Jimmy Fallon's a very good guy.

Fahim Anwar 28:56 Yes.

Joe Rogan 28:56 But whoever gets on his show, gets on his show because some executive goes and scouts or they get a packet sent by an agent.

Fahim Anwar 29:04 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 29:04 And, you know, that stuff is not really as appealing to people anymore, because they've, they've heard this. They've heard the, the raw stuff where people get together and just really... Just fucking drink Scotch and smoke cigars.

Fahim Anwar 29:18 (laughs) Totally.

Joe Rogan 29:19 And talk shit.

Fahim Anwar 29:19 Man, to- like, there is this shift, um, I think, before podcasting and before YouTube and Instagram and... Where you can pull back the curtain to what comedy and standup in this world really is. All we had was, like, the gloss of The Tonight Show and all that. But now people really like the nitty-gritty stuff, and they're a little more savvy. They know about the different... The Comedy Store for, for instance, you know?

Joe Rogan 29:41 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 29:42 It's talked about so much on podcasts and everything. And, and like me doing my special there, it's like people get to see the hallways and stuff, and, like, people wanna see that element of it. They just don't wanna see the five-minute Tonight Show thing or a special glossy paid audience. Like, I just tagged along on a regular night of operation at the store. It... People didn't know I'm shooting a special. Like, very small footprint. Like, people had no idea I was taping. And it was conscious because when I did my CSOP thing, it's like you load in the audience, there's lights, and it's sort of a recreation of your act that you've been developing in, like, grimy clubs. But that's, that's standup-

Joe Rogan 30:19 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 30:20 ... when it's not being filmed.

Joe Rogan 30:21 Right. Right. Right.

Fahim Anwar 30:22 So I wanted to capture the material, not do a recreation presentation of the real material. You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 30:30 I know exactly what you mean. Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 30:31 Yes. Because it's a different type of laugh when people know they're being filmed as opposed to just them acting natural.

Joe Rogan 30:38 Right. Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 30:40 So there's a beauty to that too.

Joe Rogan 30:42 Right. It's like when you go to ... Have you ever been to a filming of, like, The Tonight Show and they have the applause signs?

Fahim Anwar 30:47 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:47 They tell you when to applaud. Like, (barking) .

Fahim Anwar 30:51 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:52 Trained seals.

Fahim Anwar 30:52 Or a sitcom, where they-

Joe Rogan 30:54 Oh, yeah.

Fahim Anwar 30:54 Yeah. Well, you were on one.

Joe Rogan 30:55 Oh, God, yeah.

Fahim Anwar 30:56 So they have-

Joe Rogan 30:56 Five years.

Fahim Anwar 30:56 ... in, in between, you know, the scene-

Joe Rogan 30:58 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 30:58 ... the warmup guy. Like, "Where are you from? Yeah? Well, let's have a dance contest. You from Detroit, and where are you from? Michigan?"

Joe Rogan 31:03 (laughs)

Fahim Anwar 31:03 "All right, guys. Break." And it's, like, two dads-

Joe Rogan 31:05 Did you ever do that?

Fahim Anwar 31:06 The warmup?

Joe Rogan 31:06 Did you ever do warmup?

Fahim Anwar 31:07 No.

Joe Rogan 31:07 No?

Fahim Anwar 31:07 I got asked to, but I just ... Like, that's kind of like a writing thing too, where you can go down that rabbit hole, and people will only view you as a warmup act.

Joe Rogan 31:15 That's a problem.

Fahim Anwar 31:15 And you can't-

Joe Rogan 31:16 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 31:16 ... get out of that box.

Joe Rogan 31:17 You're a- 100% right. Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 31:18 Like, Brodie was in that for a while.

Joe Rogan 31:20 Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Brodie was just ... I mean, you want to talk about a comic's comic. They didn't know what to do with Brodie.

Fahim Anwar 31:28 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 31:28 'Cause he was, he was our guy.

Fahim Anwar 31:30 But also, 'cause he was like a shooting star. Um, you try to capture that, 'cause they would try to film something, and then Brodie wouldn't be, like-

Joe Rogan 31:40 Brodie.

Fahim Anwar 31:41 Th- uh, yes.

Joe Rogan 31:41 Yeah, yeah.

Fahim Anwar 31:41 So it's hard to capture that in a bottle.

Joe Rogan 31:44 Yeah. It's not ... though, it's like, he became a guy that was, like, a legendary live performer. Like, you would go to see ... You just wanted ... You, you wanted to see him at the club.

Fahim Anwar 31:54 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 31:55 Th- like Don Barris.

Fahim Anwar 31:56 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 31:57 Great example, right? Don Barris does a lot of warmup too. He does warmup for the Kimmel Show. But you really don't know Don Barris until you see him-

Fahim Anwar 32:04 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 32:04 ... doing a 12:15 spot at the store.

Fahim Anwar 32:07 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:07 That's Don Barris. That's the real Don Barris.

Fahim Anwar 32:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:09 You know?

Fahim Anwar 32:10 There's some people who you can't capture their essence when you take the lens cap off. Like, they just know, like ... Like, Holtzman's one of those guys too, where it's hard to capture-

Joe Rogan 32:21 Yes. Yes.

Fahim Anwar 32:21 ... the magic of that.

Joe Rogan 32:22 Joey Diaz is that way.

Fahim Anwar 32:23 Joey Diaz is that way too.

Joe Rogan 32:25 Yeah, yeah.

Fahim Anwar 32:25 Where ... Uh, yeah, it's like putting a saddle on a horse or something. It just doesn't want it.

Joe Rogan 32:30 Well, horses wear saddles all the time. I don't know if that's the best analogy.

Fahim Anwar 32:33 Uh, let's see. A zebra?

Joe Rogan 32:34 (laughs)

Fahim Anwar 32:34 A zebra?

Joe Rogan 32:35 Yes. Yes.

Fahim Anwar 32:35 Can we edit the horse thing out? I don't want people to know that I don't know-

Joe Rogan 32:38 (laughs)

Fahim Anwar 32:38 ... my horses.

Joe Rogan 32:39 Yeah. Don't put a saddle on a zebra. We were just talking about that, like, uh, 'cause zebra ... I said that zebras can't be tamed, and one of my friends sent me a, a video of a fucking guy who got a saddle on a zebra and was riding a zebra. And I'm like, "That ... That's like having a wolf for a pet."

Fahim Anwar 32:54 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 32:54 It was like, do you really have a pet wolf, you know? Or does that wolf just hang out with you 'cause you feed him?

Fahim Anwar 33:00 That's a good point.

Joe Rogan 33:00 It's d- ... Like, my dog, Marshall-

Fahim Anwar 33:02 Uh, I love Marshall.

Joe Rogan 33:03 ... he's, he's the best.

Fahim Anwar 33:03 Uh, every photo I like Mar- ... Like, I love Marshall.

Joe Rogan 33:05 He's a real pet.

Fahim Anwar 33:07 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 33:07 You know? Marshall is like the sweetest, friendliest dog. Like, I've n- I never had a golden retriever before, and I always had heard that they're like the best family dogs. Like, he, he's not even like a dog. He's like a magical creature that's like a love sponge. He's like ... All he wants to do is like ... People come over the house, and he starts whining, "Oh, oh, you're here."

Fahim Anwar 33:26 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 33:26 Like, everybody gets greeted like they're his new best friend.

Fahim Anwar 33:29 Does he bring a shoe?

Joe Rogan 33:30 No, he usually brings stuffed animals.

Fahim Anwar 33:32 Oh.

Joe Rogan 33:32 He has, he has a box of stuffed animals, so when people start walking down the driveway towards the house-

Fahim Anwar 33:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 33:38 ... he sees them and he runs to his box, and he grabs a stuffed animal.

Fahim Anwar 33:41 So cute. (laughs) So many of them will bring a shoe, and I just love it. Like, it's just so weird to me. I know it's dog behavior, but it's just so funny when a golden comes with, with a shoe.

Joe Rogan 33:50 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 33:50 Like, "Here you go." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 33:52 They're retrievers.

Fahim Anwar 33:52 Yeah, I know.

Joe Rogan 33:53 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 33:53 You be like, "Thank you."

Joe Rogan 33:54 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 33:54 "Thanks for this one shoe that isn't mine."

Joe Rogan 33:56 Well, they get-

Fahim Anwar 33:57 Good.

Joe Rogan 33:57 ... praised for retrieving. Like, I've never had a dog that I could teach how to catch a ball and, and bring it back better than Marshall.

Fahim Anwar 34:05 Uh-huh.

Joe Rogan 34:05 Like, he immediately did it, from the time he was a baby. Like, he ... Like, I had dogs, and I would throw the ball to them, and they'd chase after the d- the ball. I'd go, "Hey, bring it back." They'd be like, "Fuck you." (laughs) And then they'd run away with the ball. And I'd be like, "Come on, man. I gotta teach you how to do this. You gotta bring it back to me, so ... You like chasing it, right? Well, I gotta throw it for you to chase it, so you gotta bring it back to me." And like, like I had pit bulls before, and they never wanted to give the ball back. They're like ... (growling) Like, I'd try, try to pull it out of their mouth. They were playing tug-of-war.

Fahim Anwar 34:32 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 34:32 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 34:32 But Marshall came out the womb knowing how to do it?

Joe Rogan 34:34 Out of the womb. Like, right away. I mean, I don't remember teaching him how to fetch. I think he just fetched. Like, right away, he fetched.

Fahim Anwar 34:42 That's pretty crazy.

Joe Rogan 34:42 I used to have a cat that would fetch.

Fahim Anwar 34:44 Whoa.

Joe Rogan 34:45 Yeah. Her name was Cosmo, and I used to take, like, a little, uh, piece of paper, and I would crumple it up in a ball, and I would throw it. And she would chase it, and she would bite it, and she'd bring it back to me. I'd play fetch with a fucking cat.

Fahim Anwar 34:58 (laughs) Some people have outdoor cats or, like, go on a walk with a cat. That, that's like-

Joe Rogan 35:01 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 35:02 ... weird.

Joe Rogan 35:03 It is weird. But that dog is a, it's a d- ... That's a pet. A wolf ... I had a friend who had ... He had three wolf dogs. They were like 70s timberwolf. They were not his pets. I'd go over to his house, and I'd be like, "Oh, you got roommates that are murderers." (laughs)

Fahim Anwar 35:19 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 35:19 He lived with a bunch of fucking ... They were three wolf ... They were real wolves.

Fahim Anwar 35:23 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 35:23 They were big, man.

Fahim Anwar 35:25 I-

Joe Rogan 35:25 Big-ass fucking dogs.

Fahim Anwar 35:26 I went to go see the bats, you know, underneath the bridge.

Joe Rogan 35:29 Oh, yeah.

Fahim Anwar 35:29 That's a good thing to do.

Joe Rogan 35:29 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 35:30 Is that every night?

Joe Rogan 35:31 Yes.

Fahim Anwar 35:32 So-

Joe Rogan 35:32 Every night at dusk.

Fahim Anwar 35:33 Yeah, it's interesting. It's like bat Coachella.

Joe Rogan 35:35 (laughs)

Fahim Anwar 35:35 Everyone is just on that hill. They're like, (hissing) "The bats are gonna come out."

Joe Rogan 35:39 Even during the pandemic.

Fahim Anwar 35:40 Really? Still?

Joe Rogan 35:40 Like, they didn't develop a bat phobia.

Fahim Anwar 35:42 No. Yeah, and it started from-

Joe Rogan 35:44 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 35:44 ... supposedly from bats.

Joe Rogan 35:45 Allegedly.

Fahim Anwar 35:46 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 35:47 Probably not really.

Fahim Anwar 35:47 But they didn't give a shit. They're like, "They're not gonna bite me. They're just gonna fly by me."

Joe Rogan 35:49 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 35:50 But it's just so funny seeing all those people on the hill and on the bridge, like, "Bats, bats." (hissing)

Joe Rogan 35:54 It is weird when you see them come out, 'cause they come out as-

Fahim Anwar 35:56 So many.

Joe Rogan 35:57 Yeah, there's like this big flow of them. There's m- apparently there's millions of bats under there.

Fahim Anwar 36:02 So was that just inadvertent? They built this bridge, and they go, "Oh, fuck. We built the perfect bat habitat"?

Joe Rogan 36:08 I believe so.

Fahim Anwar 36:09 Huh.

Joe Rogan 36:09 Yeah, because when you go under that bridge ... Have you ever been under that bridge?

Fahim Anwar 36:13 No.

Joe Rogan 36:13 You-

Fahim Anwar 36:13 I've just seen it from, like, afar, not like under.

Joe Rogan 36:15 If you go under in a boat or something like that, you can hear them, like (bats squeaking and chirping) .

Fahim Anwar 36:18 Oh, yeah. I would, I would call that the sound check, just like when they're about to come out.

Joe Rogan 36:24 You hear this fucking weird noise. It's kinda creepy.

Fahim Anwar 36:26 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 36:26 You ever had ... How, how many ... How ... Let's find out, how many bats ... I said millions.

Fahim Anwar 36:31 It was a never-ending-

Joe Rogan 36:32 I might've exaggerated.

Fahim Anwar 36:33 ... stream of bats.

Joe Rogan 36:34 I think it's at least a million.

Fahim Anwar 36:35 We left.

Joe Rogan 36:36 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 36:36 We, we walked out on the bat show, 'cause it was-

Joe Rogan 36:38 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 36:38 ... just lasting so long. We're like, "We get it. They're flying away."

Joe Rogan 36:41 But the thing is, like, you need those bats, 'cause those bats keep the insect population down. Those bats are ... They're predators.

Fahim Anwar 36:47 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 36:47 So they're, they're out there eating bugs.

Guest's friend/companion 36:48 I don't know how ... How long do bats live?

Joe Rogan 36:50 That's a good question.

Guest's friend/companion 36:51 Do they live longer than a year?

Joe Rogan 36:53 Let's guess.

Guest's friend/companion 36:54 Probably, right?

Joe Rogan 36:54 Let's guess. I'll say a bat lives-... s- like a dog, a g- a d- a long life for a dog is like 15 years.

Fahim Anwar 37:04 I'll say five, five or seven.

Joe Rogan 37:06 Yeah, I will say five.

Narrator 37:06 So most bats live less than 20.

Joe Rogan 37:09 20 years.

Fahim Anwar 37:10 Oh. Ooh.

Narrator 37:10 Um, six species live more than 30.

Fahim Anwar 37:12 Damn.

Joe Rogan 37:13 Ah.

Narrator 37:13 And you are not wrong. There is an estimated 750,000 to 1.5 million bats.

Fahim Anwar 37:22 That's a lot of bats.

Joe Rogan 37:23 Wow.

Narrator 37:23 But they're migratory-

Fahim Anwar 37:24 That's a lot of bats.

Narrator 37:24 ... so th- that they come and go.

Joe Rogan 37:25 Oh, wow. I wonder where they go?

Narrator 37:27 Mexico.

Joe Rogan 37:27 Oh, they go to Mexico?

Narrator 37:29 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 37:29 They fly from Austin to Mexico and back?

Narrator 37:31 (laughs) Mm-hmm.

Fahim Anwar 37:32 They go to party, dude. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 37:33 Whoa. To party. Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 37:33 Or they go for the drugs and then come back.

Joe Rogan 37:35 Yeah, which is what everybody'd do if we all had jet packs.

Fahim Anwar 37:40 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 37:40 (laughs) Can you imagine if everybody could fly? All your borders would be bullshit.

Fahim Anwar 37:43 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 37:43 That's-

Fahim Anwar 37:43 That's a good point.

Joe Rogan 37:44 ... the only thing that keeps people in countries, like the- the only way you have border protection and all that shit, is the fact that-

Fahim Anwar 37:51 Oh my God.

Joe Rogan 37:51 ... you have people stuck on Earth with gravity.

Fahim Anwar 37:54 My God, can you imagine once jet packs become ubiquitous-

Joe Rogan 37:57 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 37:57 ... like Border Patrol's gonna be in th- it'll be like the Mandalorian just fighting (laughs) people trying to come over in the sky?

Joe Rogan 38:02 I think they'll just give up. We won't have the resources to stop it. I mean, ultimately, look, w- I think right now, especially given the laws that we have now, and the fact that, you know, fentanyl comes across the border, and terrorists come across the border, and there's a real situation, the world is not at peace.

Narrator 38:18 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 38:19 But wouldn't it be great if people could kinda go anywhere they wanted, and everywhere was a place where you could live and thrive? Like imagine a world where every place was like a th- a city that had opportunity and freedom and democracy, and was thriving, and had good food and nice people. Like Austin has good food, nice people, polite, not too overcrowded, plenty of resources. Wouldn't it be great if the whole world was like that?

Fahim Anwar 38:48 Pretty great.

Joe Rogan 38:49 And you could kinda go anywhere you wanted?

Fahim Anwar 38:51 I will say, it feels more crowded than when I was here. There's like, it seems like there's more people here.

Joe Rogan 38:57 Really?

Fahim Anwar 38:58 Yeah. Somebody told me the population doubled like in the last year.

Joe Rogan 39:01 Mm. It's-

Fahim Anwar 39:02 Rai- Rainey Street is crazy. Is it always like that? Or ...

Joe Rogan 39:04 Well, this is Memorial Day weekend, first of all.

Fahim Anwar 39:06 Okay.

Joe Rogan 39:07 Like last night was nuts-

Fahim Anwar 39:08 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:08 ... on 6th Street.

Fahim Anwar 39:09 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:09 Did you go out afterwards?

Fahim Anwar 39:10 No. I mean, again-

Joe Rogan 39:11 6th Street was mobbed.

Fahim Anwar 39:13 ... it's insane.

Joe Rogan 39:13 We were driving like, "This is fucking nuts for a Sunday night." And then, you know, um, my friend Sean was like, "Oh, it's uh, Memorial Day weekend." I was like, "That's right. I didn't even think of that."

Fahim Anwar 39:22 Mm.

Joe Rogan 39:23 It's not normal to have that many people on a Sunday night, but it's kinda normal.

Fahim Anwar 39:29 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:29 Like and on any given Tuesday or Wednesday when we do the Vulcan, it's mobbed.

Fahim Anwar 39:34 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 39:34 The- the club's mobbed and the streets are mobbed. And it's just, it's a unique place.

Fahim Anwar 39:39 It is.

Joe Rogan 39:40 It's really unique.

Fahim Anwar 39:40 Yours isn't on Saturday, right?

Joe Rogan 39:42 Shh. Don't tell anyone.

Fahim Anwar 39:42 Oh, fuck. Fuck. Shh.

Joe Rogan 39:43 Shh.

Fahim Anwar 39:44 I mean it's somewhere else.

Joe Rogan 39:45 It's gonna be awesome.

Fahim Anwar 39:46 It's somewhere.

Joe Rogan 39:47 Just wait, we got ... I can't wait to show you 'cause we have so many cool things that are, that are in the place that we're putting together.

Fahim Anwar 39:53 So-

Joe Rogan 39:53 It's, it's wild.

Fahim Anwar 39:54 How did you design it? What was going through your head? Wha- what do you want it to be? Is there a vibe you're trying to capture? Is there other clubs that you kind of are trying to pull some things from, or ...

Joe Rogan 40:04 Well, I wanted to make it very, um, hospitable to comics. And obviously to audience members too. But one of the cool things about the store was the hang, you know.

Fahim Anwar 40:14 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 40:15 Is that like, it's our home base.

Fahim Anwar 40:17 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:17 You know, so the name of the club is The Comedy Mothership.

Fahim Anwar 40:20 (laughs) Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:21 And that the reason ... I want it to be like a feel ... I want you to feel like this is your, this is mother, this is home. Like you can do the road from here, you can hang out and you'll always be welcome. You'd be taken care of. Like I wanna give the comics health insurance and-

Fahim Anwar 40:37 Whoa. For real?

Joe Rogan 40:38 ... take care ... Yeah, for real.

Fahim Anwar 40:38 That's-

Joe Rogan 40:39 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 40:39 ... so not typical. That's like insanity in America.

Joe Rogan 40:42 Yeah, but it should be like that because you know how many comics have paid for their fucking surgeries?

Fahim Anwar 40:46 (laughs) Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:46 When comics that have like things wrong with them and, uh, I find out that like, "What's wrong? You, are you okay?" And they're like, "Um, I got something wrong with my neck." I'm like, "What's wrong? Tell me what's wrong."

Fahim Anwar 40:55 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:55 And then I take care of it. Like it's, I've had, I've had that happen multiple times because a lot of us, you know, in the early days, you're broke and you're barely paying your rent. You can't afford surgery.

Fahim Anwar 41:07 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:07 You can't afford insurance. And so if something goes wrong, you're kind of fucked.

Fahim Anwar 41:11 For sure. Like, uh, I feel like standups we're the lowest rung on the entertainment ladder. At least actors have SAG health insurance-

Joe Rogan 41:18 Mm-hmm.

Fahim Anwar 41:18 ... and writers. There's nothing like that for standups really. It's just you're alone out there. And you just have to hope you have friends if some calamity befalls you. Like a GoFundMe or hopefully you, you know the person, you know?

Joe Rogan 41:31 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 41:31 And that's kinda fucked up, so ...

Joe Rogan 41:33 Well-

Fahim Anwar 41:33 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:33 ... the idea is to make, you know, make it more ... But, but again, you gotta be careful that you don't set it up where people become too lax and they get ... You know, the people have a tendency to sort of like relax too much.

Fahim Anwar 41:50 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 41:50 And I don't mean relax too much, like not enjoy your life.

Fahim Anwar 41:52 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:52 I want people to enjoy their lives, but I also want them to work hard. And I don't mean work hard like struggle. I mean put in effort and actually try. Like it's, that i- that's uncomfortable. It's uncomfortable to put in effort, but it has to be rewarded and it ha- you ha- it has to be encouraged. And that's how people develop a whole community of other people doing the same thing. And then it feels good to do that because you're one of the people that's doing that. So as you're writing every night, and as you're trying new stuff, uh, people, uh, pat you on the back, "Hey, Fahim, your new fucking shit is awesome." That's great.

Fahim Anwar 42:24 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 42:24 Like that's a great feeling, right?

Fahim Anwar 42:25 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 42:25 And it's great when you see other people that are going up and doing new stuff and writing all the time and it encourages that. You know?

Fahim Anwar 42:31 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 42:31 You, so you gotta encourage hard work as well as like make things better for people.

Fahim Anwar 42:37 Yeah. It just, um, it makes you better as a comic too. Just know ... That's why I like being out in LA and, and like being at the store, just seeing some of the guys. You see what they're doing and then it makes you do inventory with yourself.

Joe Rogan 42:49 Mm-hmm.

Fahim Anwar 42:49 And you, you know where the bar is.

Joe Rogan 42:52 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 42:52 Whereas if you're in like Ohio or something, I know ... You know, sometimes you'll do the road and someone's featuring for you or something, and they're like, "Yeah, this is like my second time getting up this month. I get up twice a month."... and it's like-

Joe Rogan 43:04 You can't do that.

Fahim Anwar 43:04 ... your heart goes out to them 'cause you're not gonna be able to develop with just that, those few data points. You need to be-

Joe Rogan 43:10 That-

Fahim Anwar 43:10 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 43:11 There's no... Th- no one develops in a vacuum. Like, you never go to, like, a place that doesn't have a comedy scene and you see one guy who's just a fucking wizard-

Fahim Anwar 43:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 43:19 ... who's so good in this one scene. Maybe you might see more of that today because you see a lot of internet comedy where, like, people get a chance to see comedy.

Fahim Anwar 43:29 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 43:30 Like, even if you don't get a chance to visit The Cellar, you can watch sets from The Cellar on YouTube or Instagram or what have you. You know, so I think you probably have more of a chance of developing somewhere else, but really, you need an atmosphere. You need an atmosphere of other people that are also doing it.

Fahim Anwar 43:45 Yeah. That, to see what your peers are doing, and then-

Joe Rogan 43:48 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 43:48 ... also just that feedback from the audience. Uh, sometimes, you know, people will see you perform or... And they'll be like, "I don't know how you come... Like, it's so... You're so amazing. It's so great." And like, you are, but you've developed this skill where the audience is your editor.

Joe Rogan 44:01 Mm-hmm.

Fahim Anwar 44:01 The audience is doing all the work for you if you're listening. That's our whole job, is just listening, actively listening, and being an editor. 'Cause we have kernels of ideas, but the audience shapes them into what it is.

Joe Rogan 44:13 For sure.

Fahim Anwar 44:13 So, like, I'll go in with some rough stuff, like it's just clay.

Joe Rogan 44:18 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 44:18 And then the laughs dictate these polished bits. And like, I love that about standup the most.

Joe Rogan 44:23 Yeah. And stuff comes out, like while you're in the middle of talking, you have a new idea that'll come out of nowhere that'll branch off.

Fahim Anwar 44:31 (sighs)

Joe Rogan 44:31 You know?

Fahim Anwar 44:31 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 44:32 That's why, like, I always tell comics that you have to have... Well, actually, you don't have to. Like, let me stretch this. Like, you could do it any- any way you want. Some guys don't write at all, and they're great.

Fahim Anwar 44:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 44:42 They're great fucking comics. They just go up a lot, and they remember what they said. And some guys write exclusively, and they go up and they basically have, like, a fully formed bit when they get to the stage, and they kinda tweak it and edit it. And then some guys just improvise, like literally just go on stage with a premise and just, under the pressure of the audience, improvise. I think you should do all those things.

Fahim Anwar 45:04 Uh-huh.

Joe Rogan 45:04 I think you should write. I think you should improvise. And I think you should, you know, you should go up as much as possible. I think all those... Like, people say I write on stage. I'm like, "I can write on stage too." Like, anyone can write on stage. But I actually sit down. Like last night, I got home-

Fahim Anwar 45:19 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 45:19 ... I sat in front of the fucking computer for two hours. And I might have nothing outta that, or I might have my best bit ever.

Fahim Anwar 45:27 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:27 I never know. And you don't know until you try, you know? Just stay the fuck off of YouTube.

Fahim Anwar 45:32 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 45:33 Don't jerk off. (laughs)

Fahim Anwar 45:35 (laughs) No incognito mode.

Joe Rogan 45:37 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 45:37 I gotta, I gotta buckle down.

Joe Rogan 45:38 And just write, you know?

Fahim Anwar 45:41 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:42 So the way I do it is I have two laptops. I have a laptop that is like my, like, what's going on in the world laptop, and then I have a laptop like, "Okay, time to write." I pull that fucker out, and I'm writing.

Fahim Anwar 45:53 I found I will... I like maximizing my stage time. Any show I do, I know what I want to achieve with that show. I know what... This is a lesson that came later in life for me too, is when I was... I just... The part of standup I love the most is chasing the new bit. I'm always chasing. I did it to a detriment early on. And, uh, what clicked for me was knowing what to do, what bits to do on what show.

Joe Rogan 46:14 How'd you do it to a detriment? What do you mean?

Fahim Anwar 46:16 It might be a showcase or something, and I'm like, "Oh, let me try this new thing-"

Joe Rogan 46:20 Oh, God.

Fahim Anwar 46:20 "... I thought of tonight," or, uh, like earlier today.

Joe Rogan 46:22 (laughs)

Fahim Anwar 46:22 I think it's f-... You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 46:23 (sighs) Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 46:23 Where I didn't realize I need to shine in this show-

Joe Rogan 46:26 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 46:26 ... not try a new bit.

Joe Rogan 46:28 Right, right, right.

Fahim Anwar 46:28 So, once it clicked for me knowing what to do, what needs to be achieved on what show. Is this a impress show? I'm beyond that now. Like, I'm known in LA and shit. Like, it's kind of nice to be farther enough in your career where the store trusts you and you can take big swings and like, "I'm a made man, I'm fine." You know?

Joe Rogan 46:47 Mm-hmm.

Fahim Anwar 46:48 But when you're coming up and the, you're not a paid regular yet, you-

Joe Rogan 46:51 It's a problem for a lot of comics where they never write because they always wanna kill. So they'll do the same 15 minutes everywhere they go.

Fahim Anwar 46:57 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 46:58 Oh, for years-

Fahim Anwar 46:59 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 46:59 ... and years and years.

Fahim Anwar 47:00 So you gotta know where to do that. And if it's some bar show, why the fuck are you trying to smash at some bar show-

Joe Rogan 47:06 Right.

Fahim Anwar 47:06 ... that you're not getting paid for?

Joe Rogan 47:08 Right.

Fahim Anwar 47:08 Work on some new stuff.

Joe Rogan 47:09 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 47:10 You're getting a hamburger. You don't owe them... It depends, if you're a one-year comic or whatever, okay, you need to get your chops and all that. But if you're five years in and you're doing the same 15-

Joe Rogan 47:19 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 47:20 ... every show, you're, you're wasting these different types of shows.

Joe Rogan 47:23 Yeah. Well, people get scared, you know? And there's like two arguments. Like, yeah, you get scared, but also, if you just do that same act over and over again, then you're Bobby Lee, and you have 15 minutes of fucking thunder.

Fahim Anwar 47:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:37 You know, Bobby's set, when he does a set, it's so tight-

Fahim Anwar 47:40 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 47:40 ... 'cause he's been doing it for 150 years. (laughs)

Fahim Anwar 47:43 He wants to... We've talked about it. And it's kind of a... Like he, he has ideas, but he, he likes crushing and-

Joe Rogan 47:50 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 47:51 But Bobby is... He's like bigger than comedy too. He has the podcast and-

Joe Rogan 47:54 It's upside down.

Fahim Anwar 47:55 Oh, that makes sense.

Joe Rogan 47:57 You're like, "Fuck, when I'm moving your thumbs." I'm like, "Gotta tell 'em."

Fahim Anwar 48:00 Yeah. So he, he wants to write new stuff and-

Joe Rogan 48:02 Well, he's, he's the unique... He's the one that, like, you, you could point to, that there's a guy that shoulda done a special a long fucking time ago.

Fahim Anwar 48:11 But he's also... There's a lesson to be learned from that as well, just performance wise, 'cause I'll see him... You know, I see him at the store all the time and I get tired of stuff very quickly. And when I see Bobby, uh, breathe new life into bits that I've heard for a while-

Joe Rogan 48:28 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 48:28 ... it is kind of a reminder to me, like, how to sell the jokes. Like, you don't have to give up on stuff. Like if a... A good bit is a good bit. Like-

Joe Rogan 48:36 Right.

Fahim Anwar 48:36 ... there are great performance elements to learn from Bobby, you know?

Joe Rogan 48:40 He knows all the beats.

Fahim Anwar 48:41 He knows all the beats.

Joe Rogan 48:42 He knows where all the corners are. Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 48:44 He knows how to make it different each time.

Joe Rogan 48:46 Yup.

Fahim Anwar 48:46 So, there is nuance in that even.

Joe Rogan 48:49 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 48:50 Um, but he started doing his show in Brea where he does new material, and so he's starting to like chip away at that.

Joe Rogan 48:56 He needs a s- a whole second hour so he could put an hour out. And so like, he needs training wheels.

Fahim Anwar 49:02 I've been telling Bobby, just like, "Why don't-"

Joe Rogan 49:03 Everybody has been.

Fahim Anwar 49:03 "... you, why don't you have a special?"

Joe Rogan 49:04 Everybody has been.

Fahim Anwar 49:06 But he's been fine without it. You know?

Joe Rogan 49:08 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 49:08 I think we just selfishly wanna see it as friends and comedians.

Joe Rogan 49:10 We want him to do better.

Fahim Anwar 49:12 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 49:12 Yeah. That's all it is. You know, and you also, when someone's as good as Bobby is, you want the world to know, like, that this is... You know. Like, uh, people that have seen him know-

Fahim Anwar 49:20 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 49:20 ... but y- I want everybody to see it.

Fahim Anwar 49:22 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 49:22 You know?But it's a thing, you know, it's ... I think there's a lot of, uh, anxiety and fear in almost every profession that people do. I mean, how many people work for someone and become, like, a very valuable asset to the company, but really feel like they're not getting appreciated enough, and they have to decide to make a leap and go on their own?

Fahim Anwar 49:44 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 49:44 There's a lot of people like that. And then maybe, maybe you have a wife and children or a mortgage or a family you're taking care of, family members that depend on you, and you can't really take that chance. You don't know how you take that chance and also take care of all your obligations. It's fucking hard, man.

Fahim Anwar 50:03 It's tough.

Joe Rogan 50:03 That's why comedy's a young person's game-

Fahim Anwar 50:06 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 50:06 ... in the beginning, in the struggling days. Like, if you wanna start comedy at 50, fuck.

Fahim Anwar 50:12 I know.

Joe Rogan 50:12 Good luck, bro.

Fahim Anwar 50:13 You ever have those guys-

Joe Rogan 50:14 (laughs)

Fahim Anwar 50:16 ... after a show, they'll come up to you to pick your brain. They're like, "Hey, I'm, I'm a programmer from Oracle. I'm, like, 47 years old."

Joe Rogan 50:23 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 50:23 "I've been writing jokes." And, like, you don't wanna tell them that, uh, it's too late.

Joe Rogan 50:28 It's not too late. It can be done.

Fahim Anwar 50:30 It c- yeah.

Joe Rogan 50:30 Like Robert Schimmel, Robert Schimmel, who's one of the best ever, Robert didn't start doing standup till he was 36.

Fahim Anwar 50:38 Oh, wow.

Joe Rogan 50:38 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 50:39 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 50:39 And he was fucking great.

Fahim Anwar 50:41 Anything can be done.

Joe Rogan 50:42 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 50:43 It's just, standup's a lot of hard work, no matter what age you are.

Joe Rogan 50:47 Dean Del Rey didn't start until he was deep in his 40s.

Fahim Anwar 50:49 He's inspiring too, just to see-

Joe Rogan 50:51 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 50:51 'Cause, like, I remember when he started-

Joe Rogan 50:52 Mm-hmm.

Fahim Anwar 50:52 ... like, I was, I was many years in when he started, and, like, you don't know ... You don't think someone ... 'Cause Dean's an outlier. Most guys that age starting will do it for three years and, like, "I'm out."

Joe Rogan 51:04 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 51:04 But he, I think he does, he, like, 300 sets a year. He tries to hit a certain amount every year.

Joe Rogan 51:10 He's, um, you know, he's an interesting case-

Fahim Anwar 51:13 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 51:13 ... 'cause, you know, he had a, a long history of performing, you know, as a musician. You ever hear him sing Whole Lotta Rosie?

Fahim Anwar 51:20 He's great. Yeah, great voice.

Joe Rogan 51:21 Dude, he's really good.

Fahim Anwar 51:23 (laughs) Yeah.

Joe Rogan 51:24 Like, he put, uh ... Him and Burr were doing, um ... What, what they would do is they would do, uh, music during the day before a show. So, they would show up at, like, a big, iconic venue, and they would set up drums and recording, and they would fucking just sing and, and for the fun of it, 'cause Burr is really good on the drums.

Fahim Anwar 51:41 Oh, yeah, he gets lessons and everything.

Joe Rogan 51:43 Mm-hmm.

Fahim Anwar 51:43 I heard, when he was doing his show at the Kia Forum, they rent it out, so he paid for the place. So, he just brought his ... He got a drum lesson in the Kia Forum and-

Joe Rogan 51:53 What's the Kia Forum? The, the Great Western Forum?

Fahim Anwar 51:55 Uh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 51:55 Same forum?

Fahim Anwar 51:56 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 51:56 Yeah, LA forum?

Fahim Anwar 51:57 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 51:58 Yeah. Yeah. Is this him? Let me hear this.

Narrator 52:00 << I could build a loaded gun and point it any way I want it to point any way I want it to. >>

Joe Rogan 52:09 This is Tribute to Bon Scott.

Narrator 52:11 << And I can tell, from the loud cry, loud cry, hear my loud cry, loud cry, loud cry, loud cry. Gonna shut you down now. >>

Joe Rogan 52:28 He's really talented, like, legitimately good as a singer. And so for him, you know, he was like, "Man, this fucking music business is a goddamn grind."

Fahim Anwar 52:38 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 52:39 You know, I'm, I'm friends with, uh, the band Honey Honey, the formerly, band formally known as Honey Honey. And Suzanne Santos is a really good friend of mine, and I went to see her, uh, live the other day in Austin. And, you know, I, I know how talented she is. I've known her for t- at least 10 years. But when you see someone live that's that talented and that good, and she sings, and she plays musical instruments, she's playing violin, she's playing guitar and singing, she's so fucking good, I'm like, "How is she not famous?"

Fahim Anwar 53:11 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 53:11 How is she not, like, uber famous, like Taylor Swift style famous? Like ... (sighs)

Fahim Anwar 53:18 There's plenty of people like that. Art is just strange in that it's subjective and s- Like, there's some music I listen to, some artists where I'm ... Like, they just resonate with a certain vibration with me where I'm like, "This should be the biggest thing in the world."

Joe Rogan 53:29 Right.

Fahim Anwar 53:29 And it's not.

Joe Rogan 53:30 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 53:31 And I will do whatever I can to blast it out if I like a song and all that.

Joe Rogan 53:35 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 53:35 And you, you want that for them. But I think all of art is just, you are compelled to do it, and it's just bursting out of you, and whatever happens, happens. But, like, like, the special, I'm proud of it. Hopefully it does what it does. I don't have any expectations. Like, I just made the thing that I wanted to make without any interference. Um, and, and I'm very zen and peaceful about that.

Joe Rogan 53:56 That's awesome.

Fahim Anwar 53:57 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 53:57 That's what it's all about.

Fahim Anwar 53:59 Yeah, I just-

Joe Rogan 53:59 Keep, keep doing that. Yeah, keep doing that, and you'll be great. I mean, you're already doing well. Keep doing that, and you'll do better. That's, that's just really what it's about. And the beautiful thing about having something out there like you did and putting it on YouTube is it's super accessible. People who are listening to this right now, they're gonna pause this on Spotify and go over to your YouTube page, and they're gonna watch your show. And they can get it (snaps fingers) like that.

Fahim Anwar 54:20 That's partly why I did it, 'cause if it was already-

Joe Rogan 54:22 There it is. Bam. We're getting it. See? Look how quick that was.

Fahim Anwar 54:26 Is there volume?

Joe Rogan 54:26 Yeah. Give me some volume. Freddie Prinze, Redd Foxx, Andy Kaufman. We're looking at Eddie Murphy-

Fahim Anwar 54:32 I was gonna shoot my special at a theater.

Joe Rogan 54:32 ... all the, the names on the wall.

Fahim Anwar 54:34 But I thought, "I came up with all my bits at this place. Why not just shoot it here?" And every time I see the store in Specials, it's shot in only one of the rooms, the main room, the original room, or the belly room. I wanted to do all three, the hat trick. And I didn't wanna dress it up or smoke it out. I just wanted to show the place for what it is, home. (instrumental music)

Joe Rogan 55:13 Oh, this is awesome. That's so cool. It does seem like ... There's Annie. That's awesome. Is that Fitzsimmons?

Fahim Anwar 55:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:20 Nice.

Narrator 55:22 Don't ask me for more. ƒuck yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:26 Look at that, Bobby brings you up.

Narrator 55:27 So, I go on the road sometimes. And, uh, sometimes I bring comics on the road. This guy I used to bring on the road, and he- and he got too strong, I can't follow along.

Fahim Anwar 55:35 He only says that.

Narrator 55:36 He's really fucking funny.

Fahim Anwar 55:37 He crushes everything.

Narrator 55:37 This guy is literally one of the best joke writers in this country. I love him. Fehey Manwar, everybody, clap your hands. (clapping)

Fahim Anwar 55:46 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:46 Ta-da.

Fahim Anwar 55:47 Yeah. Bobby has this weird thing-

Joe Rogan 55:48 And you went up dressed like you would dress on any given night.

Fahim Anwar 55:52 Yes, yes. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 55:52 That's cool, too.

Narrator 55:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:53 Like, you go up, baseball hat.

Fahim Anwar 55:55 I didn't wanna make it precious. And- and I hope that people respond to that, like, there's something nice about, um, the look behind the curtain, you know?

Joe Rogan 56:06 Yes.

Fahim Anwar 56:06 And there's no smoke and mirrors.

Joe Rogan 56:08 Right.

Fahim Anwar 56:08 And I like that they're not there for me, they're there for probably a bigger person on the lineup.

Joe Rogan 56:13 Right.

Fahim Anwar 56:13 In all the rooms. I'm probably, like, the most medium guy on these lineups or whatever. So, there's something romantic about making strangers laugh.

Joe Rogan 56:21 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 56:21 Like, they're- they're not my crowd.

Joe Rogan 56:23 And so, are you doing how many minutes in each room?

Fahim Anwar 56:26 Like, like, 14, 15, you know.

Joe Rogan 56:28 Oh, so you're doing, like, a regular set?

Fahim Anwar 56:30 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 56:30 Oh, nice.

Fahim Anwar 56:30 These are just my regular sets.

Joe Rogan 56:32 Nice, nice.

Fahim Anwar 56:32 So, it's all about capturing instead of-

Joe Rogan 56:33 So, you just put three regular sets together and strung them together into one show?

Fahim Anwar 56:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 56:38 Nice. ...

Fahim Anwar 56:38 And you see me walk around and shit, like ...

Joe Rogan 56:40 Dude, way to go. This is cool. You fucking managed to do something unique, I like it. I love it.

Fahim Anwar 56:48 'Cause I knew I was due for another special, and I was gonna do it like my other one, but I'm like, "Who cares?" (laughs)

Joe Rogan 56:54 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 56:54 You know? If I did this material at a theater, like, who gives a shit?

Joe Rogan 56:58 Right.

Fahim Anwar 56:58 There's so many specials. And I thought, "I am a store guy. That is unique, not everyone is passed at the store." Um, it's- I have access to this building, and this just elevates it, you see- you see, like, Jesselnik's bringing me up in the main room. Um, Bobby brings me up in the OR. You see-

Joe Rogan 57:17 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 57:17 ... these titans of comedy, uh, and it's just a regular night at the store.

Joe Rogan 57:22 That's awesome.

Fahim Anwar 57:23 'Cause people don't realize that this is a hub for us. We're all on the road, and then we all come to this place to- to work out.

Joe Rogan 57:30 And did you tell, like, Jesselnik that you were filming?

Fahim Anwar 57:32 I got clear. Yeah, I- I had everybody.

Joe Rogan 57:35 That's cool. Wow. That's really cool, dude.

Fahim Anwar 57:39 Thanks, man.

Joe Rogan 57:39 You nailed it. What a great idea. It's a really great idea. And it's interesting, like, all the years and years of people doing comedy, nobody figured out how to do that.

Fahim Anwar 57:46 Dude, it's almost like, "Has anyone done this? I can't believe I'm the only one to think of this."

Joe Rogan 57:50 (laughs) That's amazing.

Fahim Anwar 57:51 It's like I invented the wheel or something. Like, how has nobody done this?

Joe Rogan 57:54 It's a really good idea.

Fahim Anwar 57:55 But what's crazy is 'cause I did it on my own, um, I had to do, like, tech stuff, too. I had to figure it out. So, I had to learn how to plug into the soundboard. I was literally hooking up audio equipment backstage before I'm going on, hitting record, they introduce me, I go out there. I was, like, in the shit. I was, like, half tech guy, half artist to get this thing done.

Joe Rogan 58:18 Wow.

Fahim Anwar 58:18 But that's what you gotta do.

Joe Rogan 58:21 Yeah, why not?

Fahim Anwar 58:23 I think people make standup, um ... We're taking the ownership back. I think there's this shift happening. 'Cause before, we just trusted the system. We would show up, do the thing, make the product, and we would just perform, and that's it. And now, we're having to be entrepreneurs, as well. We're having to take ownership of our own business and careers.

Joe Rogan 58:40 Well, when you see guys like Schultz, that sort of pioneer that level of hustling, like, he hustles so hard and put his stuff on YouTube, and became, like, this giant theater-selling act-

Fahim Anwar 58:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 58:52 ... because of that.

Fahim Anwar 58:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 58:53 Did it all in front of our face. W- everybody watched him do it all on his own. That's, like ... Guys like that, they set the bar, and they change people's ideas of what's possible. If you're really smart and you have a really good focus-

Fahim Anwar 59:07 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 59:07 ... and you- you come up with a game plan.

Fahim Anwar 59:09 Yeah. There's too many tools at our disposal nowadays that if you are not doing stuff like what Schultz is doing, or this, or doing it on your own, then that is your fault.

Joe Rogan 59:20 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 59:20 Uh, if you were in the '70s or '80s, you were kind of beholden to the system. You couldn't reach the masses on your own.

Joe Rogan 59:27 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 59:27 So, you had to have the right person like you at The Tonight Show. I was even thinking about this. Remember back in the day, the- the- the path for a standup, you would try to get on The Tonight Show. That was, like, early standup, right? And then, you would try to get a sitcom. Say, like, in the '90s, you would try to get a sitcom, act in the sitcom, and then that would boost you as a comedian.

Joe Rogan 59:48 Yes.

Fahim Anwar 59:48 But nowadays, if you are a standup comedian and you get on a sitcom, nobody cares. Like, nobody watches anything any- it's so fractured-

Joe Rogan 59:57 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 59:57 ... the viewership, that if- even if you get on an ABC sitcom as a standup, no one really cares. I feel like podcasting and this world is the new acting. So now, when I get an audition and they go, "Hey, it's, like, three months in Atlanta," and it's- and it's, like, a very small show or some cable thing, that's great if you just wanna be an actor, but it's not gonna help your standup.

Joe Rogan 1:00:22 Right. Right, right.

Fahim Anwar 1:00:23 Whereas back in the day, it would.

Joe Rogan 1:00:25 Well, it'll help you a little. Like, there's some guys that get on TV shows and they- they start doing really well on the road-

Fahim Anwar 1:00:31 Standups?

Joe Rogan 1:00:32 Yeah.

Fahim Anwar 1:00:33 Like who?

Joe Rogan 1:00:34 Um, that's a good question. It used to be r- the only way, right? So, it became, like, a well-worn path and everybody would wanna get on a sitcom. You got on a sitcom or on some other show, like Soup to Soup or, you know-

Fahim Anwar 1:00:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:00:50 ... like, uh, some kind of a show where you could be on television and showcase that you have, like, a funny personality.

Fahim Anwar 1:00:58 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:00:58 And then, that would be an ad to get you to come to the clubs. Like, Stanhope said that best. We were talking about doing TV projects and he goes, "Let's be honest, like, every time you do a TV project, it's really just an ad to get people to come see you at the clubs." I was like, "You're 100% right. You're 100% right." But the- the problem with that way is that everybody wanted to do a specific kind of comedy because you wanted to get a television show. So, like, you wouldn't try to be ... Like, I remember there was a guy who was the host of an open mic night when I was up and coming, and he was, like, a local headliner in Boston, local professional. And he was telling me to stop swearing.... and telling me that I should stop talking about sex and t- talk about things that make people uncomfortable. And I said, "But the, but my favorite comedians all do that."

Fahim Anwar 1:01:44 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:01:44 I go, like, "My favorite comedians, so, like, Sam Kinison and, and Dice Clay." He goes, "I got news for you. You're not Dice Clay."

Fahim Anwar 1:01:51 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:01:51 And I was like, "Well, how do you become Dice Clay?"

Fahim Anwar 1:01:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:01:54 Like, "What are you saying? Like, y- you're saying that there's only one style of comedy, even though the best ones are like Richard Pryor or Eddie Murphy, who didn't follow that at all?"

Fahim Anwar 1:02:03 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02:04 Like, "What are you saying?" And this was, this is me back then, trying to figure out what was going on here. And so, the, the path was... And Jay Leno still believes this to this, to this day. We actually talked about it when we were doing that Comedy Store documentary.

Fahim Anwar 1:02:17 Uh-huh.

Joe Rogan 1:02:17 He still thinks to this day, you gotta be clean, and that's, that's the way you get the, the big, long market. You know, you're just gonna get short-term success if you're dirty. I'm like, "This is-"

Fahim Anwar 1:02:26 I know, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02:26 "... such a crazy conversation." Like, d- clean or dirty, like, I do not give a fuck. Some of my favorite comedians are clean. Gaffigan-

Fahim Anwar 1:02:32 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:02:33 Clean, genius, brilliant.

Fahim Anwar 1:02:34 Yeah, yeah. Bargatze, clean. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02:35 Brian Regan, Brian Regan, clean, genius, brilliant. Nate Bargatze, clean, genius, brilliant. It doesn't matter.

Fahim Anwar 1:02:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02:42 It's just good.

Fahim Anwar 1:02:43 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02:43 It's just, we don't care. Like, with, like, those guys, to us, are, it's, there's no dif-

Fahim Anwar 1:02:48 It's the same.

Joe Rogan 1:02:48 It's the same.

Fahim Anwar 1:02:49 It's the same.

Joe Rogan 1:02:49 It's just funny-

Fahim Anwar 1:02:50 Yes.

Joe Rogan 1:02:50 However you're funny. It's just, are you, what are you doing? Like, are you just doing comedy? Like, I, I don't wanna tell you how to do comedy. However you do com- if you wanna do clean comedy, fuck yeah. I'd like watching. It's hilarious. I love the fact that, like, if, um, watching a Gaffigan special, my 12-year-old walks into the room, I don't have to go, "Hold on."

Fahim Anwar 1:03:08 (laughs) Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:03:08 I have to pause.

Fahim Anwar 1:03:09 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:03:09 You know, if Katt Williams is on-

Fahim Anwar 1:03:11 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:03:11 ... (laughs) I'm like, "Hey."

Fahim Anwar 1:03:12 "Get out of the house."

Joe Rogan 1:03:12 "You're not ready for this."

Fahim Anwar 1:03:13 "Get out of here."

Joe Rogan 1:03:14 "Get out of here." You know?

Fahim Anwar 1:03:15 Was Newsradio big for you, like, at the time?

Joe Rogan 1:03:18 Newsradio was, like, medium big. Yeah. It's like, I was just one of many people on a, a, uh, a very talented ensemble. I was only one of eight people.

Fahim Anwar 1:03:27 Did that help with stand-up, though? Were people coming out?

Joe Rogan 1:03:30 Yes.

Fahim Anwar 1:03:30 'Cause ...

Joe Rogan 1:03:30 Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, it helped. Yeah. But-

Fahim Anwar 1:03:33 What, what was the first big thing, do you think?

Joe Rogan 1:03:34 Oh. It was probably Fear Factor.

Fahim Anwar 1:03:38 Well, that was after, though, right?

Joe Rogan 1:03:39 But that was 2001. Fear Factor was 2001, right after Newsradio. That's when things really started, that's when I really started selling out really well. But it was like a, like some people knew me as a standup, and some people just knew me as the Fear Factor guy, and they, a lot of people would get upset. (laughs)

Fahim Anwar 1:03:55 Yeah, you were telling me b- backstage about-

Joe Rogan 1:03:58 In the early days, you know, people would get-

Fahim Anwar 1:03:58 Like, the early days when you were doing Fear Factor.

Joe Rogan 1:03:59 ... so upset.

Fahim Anwar 1:04:01 'Cause they had this idea of who you were from the show.

Joe Rogan 1:04:03 Yeah. Yeah. And I had these very controversial bits, like, about, like, Anna Nicole Smith and her husband, and people were like, "What are you doing?" And then ... (laughs)

Fahim Anwar 1:04:14 But what I think is so funny is that the audience is like, "We expect better from the Fear Factor host."

Joe Rogan 1:04:19 Oh, that's hilarious.

Fahim Anwar 1:04:19 We thought he'd be clean.

Joe Rogan 1:04:20 They thought I was be- well, I was clean on TV. That makes sense to me. It's like, but people get programmed to, like, think a certain way. Like, that this is okay, and this is polite, and this is not polite. And that you, you know, you shouldn't joke around about certain things, because at work, I'm not allowed to joke about cer- certain things, and on television, they don't joke about certain things. So, if you're at a club-

Fahim Anwar 1:04:39 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:04:39 ... how are you allowed to joke about those things?

Fahim Anwar 1:04:42 'Cause it's a club.

Joe Rogan 1:04:43 Yeah, but I know they don't wanna hear that, though. They come to see the guy from TV. And it's not a lot of people.

Fahim Anwar 1:04:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:04:48 But it was a percentage of people.

Fahim Anwar 1:04:50 It's-

Joe Rogan 1:04:50 But I was like, "Look, I could either d- become a different person and only cater to those people," which a lot of guys did. This is the point. A lot of guys, they developed an act specifically to attract the television world.

Fahim Anwar 1:05:03 But that's fleeting. If you are conforming-

Joe Rogan 1:05:05 But it's not fleeting. But it's not fleeting.

Fahim Anwar 1:05:06 It's not.

Joe Rogan 1:05:06 This is where you're wrong. No. No, no, no. In the day, when you were Tim Allen-

Fahim Anwar 1:05:10 Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:05:11 If you could be Tim Allen and get on Home Improvement, you were one of the fucking richest guys on Earth.

Fahim Anwar 1:05:16 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:05:16 Like, those guys, like the Jerry Seinfelds-

Fahim Anwar 1:05:18 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:05:18 ... when they developed a show, they were the owner of the show, they were the star of the show, and they got ownership in the show, they made preposterous amounts of money, and that's what everybody was chasing.

Fahim Anwar 1:05:27 Hm.

Joe Rogan 1:05:27 And a lot of guys weren't happy. Like, Richard Jeni was, like, notoriously not happy, uh, because he never became that sort of Jim Carrey movie star guy. Even though he was ... For comics, he was one of the best comics alive.

Fahim Anwar 1:05:40 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:05:40 He was so fucking good, man.

Fahim Anwar 1:05:42 Why do you think that is? I know you're a big Jeni guy. Like, what do you think that disconnect? Why did it not happen that way?

Joe Rogan 1:05:48 Well, I think, you know, I think for a lot of comics, there's a lot of self-hate, right? And so, you're chasing love when you're doing standup. You're chasing the love of the audience, and the way you get that love is to come up with the funniest shit. And some guys develop funny shit just 'cause they're funny, and some guys develop funny shit because they just really want that love, and that's the best way to get to it. And some, uh, and, you know, guys are like a combination of those things. People, uh, different people that do the art are doing it for different reasons. Like, I know women that do it that came from a great family.

Fahim Anwar 1:06:19 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:06:19 And then I have some of my funniest friends who also came from fucked up families. When I talk to them about it ... And I think for a girl, it's probably even harder, because it's not a situation where, if you're in front of a bunch of guys, like, it's not a situation where you get treated equally the moment you get on stage. They don't just go, "Boy, can't wait to see this really funny chick." They go, "Oh, I hope she's funny."

Fahim Anwar 1:06:41 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:06:41 Right?

Fahim Anwar 1:06:42 Yeah, but I think that-

Joe Rogan 1:06:42 There's like a sp- there's a prejudice that men have towards women-

Fahim Anwar 1:06:45 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:06:46 ... controlling the microphone, and then also talking about certain things, like women who have opinions on politics. Like, a lot of guys-

Fahim Anwar 1:06:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:06:53 They don't wanna hear that.

Fahim Anwar 1:06:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:06:55 You know? It's, it's a weird thing. It's like, I think it's l- there's another several steps if a girl does standup.

Fahim Anwar 1:07:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:07:01 Don't you think?

Fahim Anwar 1:07:01 Yeah. Also, though, I think that happens just with any comedian who takes the stage and is not known. You're starting from zero or a deficit. They're-

Joe Rogan 1:07:11 For sure.

Fahim Anwar 1:07:11 There is this, like, "Is this, this guy thinks he's funny?" You gotta, you gotta prove yourself funny. You're unfunny till proven funny.

Joe Rogan 1:07:17 For sure, but don't you think there is a prejudice that women aren't as funny?

Fahim Anwar 1:07:22 That exists.

Joe Rogan 1:07:22 That exists.

Fahim Anwar 1:07:23 In the, in the world. Yes.

Joe Rogan 1:07:23 So, they go up, for the most part, with at least skepticism from some audience members.

Fahim Anwar 1:07:30 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:07:31 Yeah. Which is too bad, you know, because it's just, it's, it's not, it doesn't go across sex lines. It just doesn't. Some of the best comics that we know-... or women. It doesn't... I saw a Whitney set. Wh- Whitney has a new set that she's about to film. Dude, it's fucking brilliant. It's fucking great.

Fahim Anwar 1:07:49 You saw her when she came through town?

Joe Rogan 1:07:50 Saw her at the Paramount.

Fahim Anwar 1:07:51 Oh.

Joe Rogan 1:07:51 It was really funny.

Fahim Anwar 1:07:52 When was that?

Joe Rogan 1:07:54 A month ago?

Fahim Anwar 1:07:54 Oh, okay.

Joe Rogan 1:07:55 Somewhere around then.

Fahim Anwar 1:07:55 Yeah. She's about to shoot. I wonder if she's, where she's gonna be around then.

Joe Rogan 1:07:57 Oh, she's hot right now, dude. She's, uh, her material is smooth. She's, she's in a groove right now. It's like she's so comfortable on stage. It's really fun. But she's a perfect example. Like, she doesn't play up her looks at all.

Fahim Anwar 1:08:09 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:08:09 You know? Like, Whitney would... downplays it if anything. She's always got like pink hair.

Fahim Anwar 1:08:13 (laughs) Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:08:13 Her hair's all fucked up. She's wearing a jean jacket like Elvis.

Fahim Anwar 1:08:16 She's also kind of an inspiring person, where you look at someone who just doesn't do standup, like is a grinder-

Joe Rogan 1:08:21 Oh, my God.

Fahim Anwar 1:08:21 ... has always been, like, sells the show, is always moving, always doing things.

Joe Rogan 1:08:25 She grinds so hard, dude.

Fahim Anwar 1:08:26 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:08:26 She's al-... Like, she's one of the people, I, I'll have a conversation with her. She goes, "I'm