Joe Rogan Experience #1898 - Neal Brennan

1. 0:00 – 1:09

   Psychedelic ‘plant medicine’ jargon, surrendering, and cult vibes

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:00

      (drumming music) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

   2. NANarrator0:04

      The Joe Rogan Experience.

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:06

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (heavier rock music) Can you handle this? (laughs)

   4. NBNeal Brennan0:12

      Right. That's not, that's not physical. It's like, can you handle being in a incredibly abstract place and your brain doing shit it's never done before?

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:23

      Yeah, that seems to be what happens when people can't handle it, is the, uh, just the resistance of it. Just like, "No, no, no." And then that's the bad trip.

   6. NBNeal Brennan0:34

      Yeah, they say, like, surrender, and I've had ... I've had, you know, journeys, job. When you're in the medicine game as long as I've been in it-

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:45

      The, the medicine game.

   8. NBNeal Brennan0:45

      ... you can call it medicine, um-

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:47

      Plant medicine.

   10. NBNeal Brennan0:48

       (laughs)

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:48

       Don't you im- Doesn't immediately red flags go up and you go-

   12. NBNeal Brennan0:50

       I wanna punch myself in the face. Yeah.

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:51

       ... "Oh my God, don't say plant medicine"?

   14. NBNeal Brennan0:52

       Yeah, can't not say it. It's, uh, I- I'm wearing a fucking ayahuasca anklet as we speak, and I wanna-

   15. JRJoe Rogan0:59

       (laughs)

   16. NBNeal Brennan0:59

       I wanna punch myself in the f- in the other side of the face.

   17. JRJoe Rogan1:03

       There's so much jargon and lingo that goes with, like, psychedelic talk that leads to, like, cults. (laughs)

2. 1:09 – 3:23

   How cults recruit: charisma, confidence, and the ‘leader wants your spouse’ pattern

   1. NBNeal Brennan1:09

      Yeah, it's not different at all. Did you watch the, um, the Orgasm, Inc. documentary on Netflix yet?

   2. JRJoe Rogan1:18

      No.

   3. NBNeal Brennan1:18

      It's about that one touch ... It's, uh, it's really funny, 'cause it's-

   4. JRJoe Rogan1:23

      I heard it's great.

   5. NBNeal Brennan1:24

      It's great. It's just, it all ... The same shit happens, it doesn't matter where. It's that ... I did a joke one time that, uh, every cult, at some point, the rel- the leader of every religious cult says, "Hey, God, uh, spoke to me, and he says I gotta fuck all your wives." (laughs)

   6. JRJoe Rogan1:43

      Yeah.

   7. NBNeal Brennan1:44

      Without fail.

   8. JRJoe Rogan1:45

      Every one of them.

   9. NBNeal Brennan1:45

      Every thi- every single-

   10. JRJoe Rogan1:47

       Waco.

   11. NBNeal Brennan1:47

       ... across the board.

   12. JRJoe Rogan1:47

       All of them.

   13. NBNeal Brennan1:47

       Wait, all of them.

   14. JRJoe Rogan1:48

       All of them.

   15. NBNeal Brennan1:48

       "Yeah, sorry guys, I got that call. Yeah, send your wife in. I'm gonna fuck her now. God decided now is the time." This one was different 'cause it's a female leader, but ... And it was based on orgasms, but it, this one was like, "You gotta fuck him-

   16. JRJoe Rogan2:02

       (laughs)

   17. NBNeal Brennan2:02

       ... if you're having a hard time." (laughs) It was like the opposite of HR, where it was, you know you should ... "If you have a problem with him, you gotta fuck him."

   18. JRJoe Rogan2:13

       There's a place here that, uh, was a cult, and, uh, the building was for sale. I almost bought the building. I was, like, in negotiations

   19. NANarrator2:20

       Yeah, that's-

   20. NBNeal Brennan2:20

       Oh, that's where you were gonna have the-

   21. JRJoe Rogan2:22

       Yeah, that's-

   22. NBNeal Brennan2:22

       ... club, right?

   23. JRJoe Rogan2:22

       Yeah. It's, uh, the documentary's called Holy Hell.

   24. NBNeal Brennan2:26

       I still haven't watched it. It's on my list.

   25. JRJoe Rogan2:28

       It's fucking wild. It started out in, uh, Los Angeles, and, uh, this guy was, uh ... He would get his male, uh, disciples, and, uh, he would give them therapy, make them ch- pay for therapy. It was like 50 bucks.

   26. NBNeal Brennan2:44

       Mm-hmm.

   27. JRJoe Rogan2:44

       And then he would fuck them all.

   28. NBNeal Brennan2:45

       Another hallmark, yeah.

   29. JRJoe Rogan2:46

       And then he would fuck them all.

   30. NBNeal Brennan2:46

       So it's like pyramid scheme.
3. 3:23 – 5:33

   Presidents, swagger, and why looks matter more than we admit

   1. NBNeal Brennan3:23

      It feels like order.

   2. JRJoe Rogan3:24

      Mm.

   3. NBNeal Brennan3:25

      It just feels like order. If you go ... If somebody says, "I know," and they're tall. If ... First of all, if they're tall, that gets you, like, 60% of the way there. (laughs)

   4. JRJoe Rogan3:36

      That helps.

   5. NBNeal Brennan3:37

      If they're tall and says, "I know what we should do, huh?"

   6. JRJoe Rogan3:40

      Good looking.

   7. NBNeal Brennan3:40

      If they're charismatic, good looking, fit, uh, attractive to women, like, that'll ... It just makes you feel like a daddy's here.

   8. JRJoe Rogan3:50

      Mm.

   9. NBNeal Brennan3:51

      Some daddy's here, a different daddy. It's like, oh, all right, that's what people like about Trump. That's what people like about Obama, th- Any, most presidents are some form of that.

   10. JRJoe Rogan4:01

       Yeah.

   11. NBNeal Brennan4:02

       What ... Reagan.

   12. JRJoe Rogan4:03

       Yeah.

   13. NBNeal Brennan4:04

       Uh, certainly two termers. George W. Bush in a weird way. P- form of da- You know what I mean?

   14. JRJoe Rogan4:11

       Yeah.

   15. NBNeal Brennan4:11

       Like a sort of ... He, George Bush, George W. Bush guy walked like he had a fucking two-foot cock. (laughs)

   16. JRJoe Rogan4:21

       (laughs)

   17. NBNeal Brennan4:21

       Guy walked like he had t- he had the lever him for two dicks. That's how wide his gait was, and he said he used to practice it.

   18. JRJoe Rogan4:28

       He practiced his gait?

   19. NBNeal Brennan4:29

       George W. Bush used to practice his gait.

   20. JRJoe Rogan4:31

       Come on. Really?

   21. NBNeal Brennan4:31

       I swear. You can look it up. Yeah. He w- he would talk about it in interviews. (laughs) Like, what are the rules-

   22. JRJoe Rogan4:36

       (laughs) Imagine walking around your house practicing your impressive walk.

   23. NBNeal Brennan4:40

       Yeah. Well, that c- Can you imagine anyone more than him doing it?

   24. JRJoe Rogan4:44

       No. (laughs)

   25. NBNeal Brennan4:44

       He's like the exact guy that would do that. Like, "I'm gonna practice walk." Um, yeah. Uh-

   26. JRJoe Rogan4:51

       "Bush's renewed confidence." This is 2005. "Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger, which in Texas is called walking." That's how President Bush described himself during his acceptance speech at last year's Republican National Convention in New York City. But for much of this year, the president seemed to have lost the t- ... Okay.

   27. NANarrator5:11

       Yeah, it's not about that, I guess.

   28. JRJoe Rogan5:11

       It's just about-

   29. NBNeal Brennan5:12

       Yeah, but do you ... It, uh ... I've seen other interviews where he talked about, like-

   30. JRJoe Rogan5:15

       Talked about actually practicing his walk.
4. 5:33 – 8:22

   Perot, media bypassing, and being ‘spoken to’ outside mass media

   1. NBNeal Brennan5:33

      Which is weird now. I wonder if that would help him now, politically. "I was the head of the CIA."

   2. JRJoe Rogan5:41

      Uh, didn't hurt him then.

   3. NBNeal Brennan5:43

      Didn't hurt him, but only one term.

   4. JRJoe Rogan5:45

      Yeah, but that was because of, uh, what's his face? Uh, mah.

   5. NBNeal Brennan5:49

      Perot, yeah.

   6. JRJoe Rogan5:49

      Yeah, Ross Perot.

   7. NBNeal Brennan5:50

      Yeah, yeah.

   8. JRJoe Rogan5:51

      "I'll tell you what's going on."

   9. NBNeal Brennan5:53

      Look at him. Fucking guy's crazy.

   10. JRJoe Rogan5:53

       Yeah, that, that guy, he fucking threw the whole thing out the window, like, th- When, when he bought television n- time, like, prime time television time, he was like, "I'll just buy the whole hour," and gave the networks money so they could-

   11. NBNeal Brennan6:07

       Yep.

   12. JRJoe Rogan6:07

       ... run his speech and talk about how you're getting fucked by the IRS. People at home are like, "What the fuck?" It s- lit- literally was like one of the very first internet speeches-

   13. NBNeal Brennan6:16

       Yeah, abs-Absolutely.

   14. JRJoe Rogan6:17

       Yeah.

   15. NBNeal Brennan6:18

       He made himself go viral, and he appealed to people that were not ... There's like a whole part of the country that's not spoken to-

   16. JRJoe Rogan6:30

       Yeah.

   17. NBNeal Brennan6:30

       ... by, I mean, m- mass media. Uh, you can call it liberal media. I don't even think, I think there's like a level that they just, people just don't wanna talk to him. It's like people that, that aren't especially rich or sophisticated or good, like any of the stuff that people think is great and they wanna, that advertisers wanna appeal to, they just ... And then Ross Perot was like, "Look here." (laughs)

   18. JRJoe Rogan6:55

       Yeah. (laughs)

   19. NBNeal Brennan6:56

       And it's like a beacon for people. It's like a siren tone, and people are like, "What? What's that?" This guy ... And that, by the way, a billionaire. And it's not about, people think it's about, he didn't seem like a billionaire. That's the, that was his like, that's Trump's appeal too.

   20. JRJoe Rogan7:12

       Yeah.

   21. NBNeal Brennan7:12

       Like he doesn't seem like a rich guy, like-

   22. JRJoe Rogan7:15

       He seems like a regular guy.

   23. NBNeal Brennan7:17

       That's funny, like Dr. Oz lost.

   24. JRJoe Rogan7:20

       How?

   25. NBNeal Brennan7:21

       'Cause, 'cause he seemed, he seemed like a liberal. Fetterman seemed like a conservative. He, by ... Because I think so much of it is just looks. You can speak to this yourself. People are against you 'cause you're fit. There are people that are like, "Fucking meathead." I'm like, "He's not a meathead." "Fucking yeah he is." It's 'cause you look, you just are f- you're f- people wouldn't believe that you and I are friends. Do you know what I mean? Like we're like a-

   26. JRJoe Rogan7:51

       (laughs)

   27. NBNeal Brennan7:51

       It's like when a turtle hangs out with a fucking python. (laughs)

   28. JRJoe Rogan7:58

       (laughs)

   29. NBNeal Brennan7:58

       And the turtle's just riding the top of a python. People go like, "How are they..." It's like we're, we're, uh, uh, unexpected animal friends. Um, the, uh ... So I just think it's so much of it is looks, so much, it's that-

   30. JRJoe Rogan8:10

       A lot of it is, right? 'Cause it-
5. 8:22 – 9:54

   Coffee orders, Starbucks loopholes, and unintended policy consequences

   1. JRJoe Rogan8:22

      Yeah. It is cruel. It's cruel to put a guy in a position like that, who's recovering from a stroke. You're, you're not supposed to be under that kind of stress. Want coffee?

   2. NBNeal Brennan8:30

      Yeah.

   3. JRJoe Rogan8:30

      Drink coffee?

   4. NBNeal Brennan8:30

      I do.

   5. JRJoe Rogan8:32

      Want some?

   6. NBNeal Brennan8:32

      I eat too much shit.

   7. JRJoe Rogan8:33

      You put a lot of stuff in there?

   8. NBNeal Brennan8:34

      I put all kinds of garbage.

   9. JRJoe Rogan8:35

      What are ya, like a Starbucks guy?

   10. NBNeal Brennan8:36

       I have Splenda, I have, uh-

   11. JRJoe Rogan8:37

       Oh.

   12. NBNeal Brennan8:37

       ... Joe, I got the app.

   13. JRJoe Rogan8:39

       (laughs) The app.

   14. NBNeal Brennan8:40

       Venti soy misto. I love an app.

   15. JRJoe Rogan8:43

       Ah.

   16. NBNeal Brennan8:43

       Um, yeah, I get their, pick it up.

   17. JRJoe Rogan8:45

       Good milk?

   18. NBNeal Brennan8:45

       Uh, by the way, if you were homeless, would you ever, wouldn't you just go grab food off the shelf at any of these Chipotle?

   19. JRJoe Rogan8:52

       Yeah, I would s-

   20. NBNeal Brennan8:53

       Immediately?

   21. JRJoe Rogan8:53

       I would just go right to Starbucks.

   22. NBNeal Brennan8:54

       Yep.

   23. JRJoe Rogan8:55

       'Cause like s- you're allowed to go in there.

   24. NBNeal Brennan8:56

       Yep. For cr-

   25. JRJoe Rogan8:57

       Yeah.

   26. NBNeal Brennan8:57

       And they go, "Who's you?" For Josh.

   27. JRJoe Rogan9:00

       Yeah.

   28. NBNeal Brennan9:00

       There's probably a Josh on the shelf.

   29. JRJoe Rogan9:01

       Just walk in, grab it, walk out.

   30. NBNeal Brennan9:03

       Grab it, go over to Chipotle.
6. 9:54 – 14:13

   Hospital staffing collapse and the ‘king of America’ COVID thought experiment

   1. NBNeal Brennan9:54

      The, uh, I was, I read a thing last night that there's, it's like similar but different, where there's so many people quit working at hospitals that there's now incredibly long waits-

   2. JRJoe Rogan10:09

      Mm.

   3. NBNeal Brennan10:09

      ... at hospitals. Like now, and COVID's like low.

   4. JRJoe Rogan10:14

      Well, they fired so many of them 'cause they wouldn't get vaccinated, all those people that-

   5. NBNeal Brennan10:17

      No, uh, they, the, the thing I read said that 300,000 people quit.

   6. JRJoe Rogan10:21

      Mm.

   7. NBNeal Brennan10:22

      In the last, in 2020 and 2021.

   8. JRJoe Rogan10:25

      Well, I'm sure there's that too.

   9. NBNeal Brennan10:27

      Yeah.

   10. JRJoe Rogan10:27

       I'm sure there's quitting too, but a lot of them just, they, they had the option, get vaccinated or lose your job. And they were like, "What, do you ... We went through this when there was no vaccine. We all got COVID, you fucks."

   11. NBNeal Brennan10:39

       Yeah.

   12. JRJoe Rogan10:39

       "We risked our lives. We're in here every day. And, and now you're gonna make us get vaccinated when there's no science behind it? We, we literally have antibodies that are seven times better than what you get from the vaccine, and you're making people get vaccinated. Just f- for what? For a virtue signal? For so you can d- tell everybody that everyone's vaccinated?" Like it, there's zero science behind that. And they all, like these were our heroes that were on the front lines, and then they fired them.

   13. NBNeal Brennan11:05

       If you were the, if you were the king of the earth, or let's say king of America.

   14. JRJoe Rogan11:10

       Mm-hmm.

   15. NBNeal Brennan11:11

       Which some would say you are. Uh, if you were (laughs) the king of America, what, how would you have handled COVID? From February 2020, like what would you have done? 'Cause I, I feel like we all have like, "I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that." I don't know what the better solution would've been. Especially when you consider stuff like hospitals and quitting and deaths-

   16. JRJoe Rogan11:34

       Yeah.

   17. NBNeal Brennan11:34

       ... and triage, like where in, at one point Wuhan was gonna buil- they built that hospital in a week, which America just can't do shit like that.

   18. JRJoe Rogan11:42

       Right. Well-

   19. NBNeal Brennan11:42

       To me it was always a hospital bed issue.

   20. JRJoe Rogan11:47

       Well, it, uh, in some ways. The, the, the problem, it's, it's a health issue, right? And you're dealing with vast swaths of the population that have very fragile bodies, very fragile health.

   21. NBNeal Brennan12:00

       Bad, people that are in bad health.

   22. JRJoe Rogan12:02

       Yeah. They're in bad health.

   23. NBNeal Brennan12:02

       Naturally in bad health.

   24. JRJoe Rogan12:03

       That's a lot of people.

   25. NBNeal Brennan12:04

       Who have never cared ... It's, I would say it, what is it, 45% of Americans are obese?

   26. JRJoe Rogan12:09

       Yeah, something like that, somewhere in the neighborhood. And, you know, and that's just obesity.

   27. NBNeal Brennan12:15

       Mm-hmm.

   28. JRJoe Rogan12:15

       Then you have these people that maybe they're not obese, but they have terrible blood plush- blood pressure, and they eat terrible food.

   29. NBNeal Brennan12:22

       Yeah, hypertension, yeah.

   30. JRJoe Rogan12:23

       Their immune system's shot. You know?
7. 14:13 – 20:59

   Lockdowns vs open states: Florida/Texas, mental health, and economic fallout

   1. JRJoe Rogan14:13

      You definitely don't shut the country down. You definitely don't.

   2. NBNeal Brennan14:16

      The, I thought-

   3. JRJoe Rogan14:17

      You give people the option.

   4. NBNeal Brennan14:17

      Sometimes I think that, and then I look at 300,000 people quitting healthcare, and I'm like, "That's an unforeseen consequence." Do you know what I mean?

   5. JRJoe Rogan14:25

      Yes.

   6. NBNeal Brennan14:25

      Like, and that's-

   7. JRJoe Rogan14:25

      Well, how about the restaurants? How about the small businesses?

   8. NBNeal Brennan14:28

      Yeah.

   9. JRJoe Rogan14:28

      So much of this country-

   10. NBNeal Brennan14:30

       Suicide.

   11. JRJoe Rogan14:30

       Yeah.

   12. NBNeal Brennan14:30

       Yeah.

   13. JRJoe Rogan14:31

       Oh, yeah. Drug, uh, drug abuse and drug overdoses went through the roof.

   14. NBNeal Brennan14:34

       And that's from shutdown.

   15. JRJoe Rogan14:36

       From shutdown. Yeah.

   16. NBNeal Brennan14:36

       So, and then you go, "Well, what if we don't shut it down?"

   17. JRJoe Rogan14:39

       Well, then you get Florida. Florida had deaths, but i- if you look at it, Florida, first of all, is very old. There're a lot of old people.

   18. NBNeal Brennan14:48

       Mm-hmm.

   19. JRJoe Rogan14:48

       And if you adjust by age, Florida did better than a lot of other states. What, what they did was say, "We're gonna protect our elderly, protect our vulnerable, and everything stays open." And everyone's like, "You're crazy. Everyone's gonna die." And it turns out no. Turns out they were right. And the c- the economy there didn't suffer. In fact, real estate went through the roof.

   20. NBNeal Brennan15:12

       R- I mean, that was everywhere.

   21. JRJoe Rogan15:13

       A lot of people moved there. Yeah.

   22. NBNeal Brennan15:13

       Yeah.

   23. JRJoe Rogan15:13

       Well, there in particular, because a lot of people moved there. I mean, their economy did well, you know? Same thing with Texas. They, they didn't shut down. I mean, well, they shut down for a little bit, and then they were like, "You know, we're gonna open up and we're gonna be cautious, and you should be careful of your own health, and if you're a person who's vulnerable, take care of yourself. Do whatever you wanna do."

   24. NBNeal Brennan15:32

       Yeah. Yeah, I guess it's just the downstream effects of that. And that's, you know ...

   25. JRJoe Rogan15:36

       You just can't shut the whole country down and expect that everything's gonna be fine when you start it back up again. You, you've disastrous results. And whenever the economy crashes like, like it did with that, you have all these other unforeseen, uh, side effects of that. And, you know, a big one is people's mental health and anxiety, and, like, how's that gonna affect the rest of their life? When someone works for 20, 30 years on a business, and you have a business-

   26. NBNeal Brennan16:04

       Mm-hmm.

   27. JRJoe Rogan16:04

       ... and it's up and running and it's getting by and you're, you're making a profit, and, and then all of a sudden the government comes along and says, "You have to shut this business down," and maybe you've already had COVID, and maybe you've got, maybe you were one of the lucky ones where it wasn't that big of a deal and you got over it and you're like, "Okay, I got antibodies now. I'm not worried," and now the government tells you you can't work, you cannot, it's against the law, if you do, you'll be arrested, it's madness.

   28. NBNeal Brennan16:29

       Yeah.

   29. JRJoe Rogan16:29

       It's unprecedented. Never happened before.

   30. NBNeal Brennan16:31

       I agree. I don't think it's, well, it hasn't happened, it hasn't happened in, probably since the flu.
8. 20:59 – 30:39

   Stress tolerance, performance reps, and returning to standup after COVID

   1. NBNeal Brennan20:59

      I was talking to your guys about this before we started rolling. Like, the ... I'm of the mind, and it's wildly uninformed, but it's kind of int- whatever. Anyone who goes through heavy duty combat is never the same. I kind of am of the mind that, like, the military wrecks people.

   2. JRJoe Rogan21:19

      Well, it definitely does wreck people. But some people-

   3. NBNeal Brennan21:21

      I, I like the-

   4. JRJoe Rogan21:22

      Some people can recover.

   5. NBNeal Brennan21:23

      ... m- like, a lot of 'em.

   6. JRJoe Rogan21:23

      Some people are fine afterwards. It's, everyone is psychologically wired differently. And some people can handle extreme stress. And with some people, it's just a little bit of stress and you fall apart.

   7. NBNeal Brennan21:37

      Yeah.

   8. JRJoe Rogan21:37

      And, uh, I don't know if it's nature or nurture, I don't know if that's genetics. I mean, I think it varies widely because I think some people are just innately good at pressure. It's really weird.

   9. NBNeal Brennan21:48

      Yeah, and resilient.

   10. JRJoe Rogan21:49

       Yeah. Very resilient.

   11. NBNeal Brennan21:50

       What do you ... Where would you put yourself on that?

   12. JRJoe Rogan21:53

       Oh, I don't know.

   13. NBNeal Brennan21:53

       'Cause it, 'cause it's ... Well, not, not-

   14. JRJoe Rogan21:56

       You don't know until you're at war.

   15. NBNeal Brennan21:57

       Life- I would say life stresses. Do you handle stress well?

   16. JRJoe Rogan22:00

       I'm pretty, pretty good at stress, yeah.

   17. NBNeal Brennan22:02

       Uh, do you find when they're, when you're doing a broadcast and they go, "We're going live, three, two, one," are you like, do you tighten up even a little bit, or are you just aware?

   18. JRJoe Rogan22:13

       I don't feel anything. Like, when I do the UFC-

   19. NBNeal Brennan22:15

       Yeah.

   20. JRJoe Rogan22:15

       ... I feel zero. It's just fine. It's like I'm here right now.

   21. NBNeal Brennan22:19

       Yeah.

   22. JRJoe Rogan22:20

       The only thing that, I'm excited 'cause-

   23. NBNeal Brennan22:22

       Yes.

   24. JRJoe Rogan22:22

       ... it's, it's cool and I wanna do a good job.

   25. NBNeal Brennan22:24

       You're wearing an IFB and they go-

   26. JRJoe Rogan22:25

       Yeah.

   27. NBNeal Brennan22:25

       ... "Joe, we need to d- d- d- d- d- d- that," and you just-

   28. JRJoe Rogan22:27

       Yeah.

   29. NBNeal Brennan22:27

       ... go like, "Okay."

   30. JRJoe Rogan22:27

       Yeah.
9. 30:39 – 38:34

   Comedy specials logistics: warmups, taping chaos, and production failures

   1. NBNeal Brennan30:39

      I, I did it in New York for-... like four or five mon- four months every night-

   2. JRJoe Rogan30:45

      So, you did it as, like, a one-man show?

   3. NBNeal Brennan30:45

      ... as a off-- yeah.

   4. JRJoe Rogan30:47

      Now, when you do that, do you have a guy warming up the crowd?

   5. NBNeal Brennan30:49

      No.

   6. JRJoe Rogan30:49

      Or do you just go out there cold?

   7. NBNeal Brennan30:51

      In fact, no, I, you go out there cold, which is interesting 'cause you, your first joke's either gonna work or it isn't.

   8. JRJoe Rogan31:02

      Mm. (laughs)

   9. NBNeal Brennan31:04

      (laughs) So, like, you could... Sometimes, they're primed. Uh, I would say the first joke worked 80% of the time. But sometimes, you'd be like, "Okay." Like, you'd throw a punch and, like, they just stand there and you're like, "All right."

   10. JRJoe Rogan31:16

       Oh. (laughs)

   11. NBNeal Brennan31:17

       Uh, but, there's som- You know, Cosby doesn't have an opener.

   12. JRJoe Rogan31:20

       Right.

   13. NBNeal Brennan31:21

       Like, there's a way to do it where there's something about it. I don't... There's something appealing about it where, where if you don't have an opener, you just go like, "Yeah, the first two minutes will be a little bumpy, but, like, whatever."

   14. JRJoe Rogan31:34

       Yeah.

   15. NBNeal Brennan31:34

       It's fine.

   16. JRJoe Rogan31:34

       Did you ever see, uh, Richard Pryor live? Um, the one he filmed in Long Beach?

   17. NBNeal Brennan31:39

       Yeah.

   18. JRJoe Rogan31:40

       Where he goes on stage and people are still sitting down?

   19. NBNeal Brennan31:43

       Yes.

   20. JRJoe Rogan31:43

       They're walking through the crowd sitting down and he's talking shit to them while they're walking and talking. A guy comes up and takes a photo at, like, stands by the stage and takes a photo. He's like-

   21. NBNeal Brennan31:52

       It's so funny.

   22. JRJoe Rogan31:53

       ... "Look at this motherfucker. What are you doing?"

   23. NBNeal Brennan31:55

       It's fucking hilarious.

   24. JRJoe Rogan31:55

       It's, he, I don't think he had an opener. I think he just walked out.

   25. NBNeal Brennan31:57

       I didn't warm up for myself at the Netflix taping.

   26. JRJoe Rogan32:00

       Oh, really?

   27. NBNeal Brennan32:01

       Which was, like, uh, I would recommend.

   28. JRJoe Rogan32:04

       Really? So, you did different material?

   29. NBNeal Brennan32:06

       Uh-huh.

   30. JRJoe Rogan32:06

       To warm up?
10. 38:34 – 43:57

    Distribution wars: YouTube vs Netflix, ads, and ‘woke’ backlash narratives

    1. JRJoe Rogan38:34

       So, your thing that you did, the way you did it with this one-man show, what was the motivation behind this? Like, why did you decide to do a special that's not nece- It's stand-up, but it's not necessarily really stand-up. You have, like, you have a presentation.

    2. NBNeal Brennan38:49

       Yeah. The, the, this one has a, this one's called Blocks, the new one on Netflix. Well, I'll tell you, the, the 3 Mics one, I did the Comedy Central special 10 years ago. I thought it was good. You know, it was good jokes, whatever, da, da, da, da, dah. People didn't really ... Eh. Like, y- like, cult-

    3. JRJoe Rogan39:08

       10 years ago, though, Comedy Central was already in this weird spot where people weren't listening as much.

    4. NBNeal Brennan39:13

       Yeah. I agree with that.

    5. JRJoe Rogan39:14

       You know?

    6. NBNeal Brennan39:14

       The ratings were surprisingly good. It was just one of these things like, I didn't become a big club act. I didn't ... It was just I didn't have, like, I n- I'm now a devotee. It was kind of like, "Oh, that guy's kinda funny."

    7. JRJoe Rogan39:28

       Yeah, but I think everybody got that from Comedy Central specials. Like, you had to be like Kevin Hart. Like, there's only a few guys who did Netflix, or excuse me, Comedy Central specials and just took off after 2000, you know? It was like, later, like when you get to 2012, 2014, now you're dealing with streaming services. You're dealing with other things, and you just don't have as many people watching. And it, it's also you got commercials, which is the death of comedy.

    8. NBNeal Brennan39:57

       Mm-hmm.

    9. JRJoe Rogan39:57

       You're doing these seven-minute chunks, and they split-

    10. NBNeal Brennan39:59

        Netflix has commercials now, Joe.

    11. JRJoe Rogan40:00

        Isn't that wild?

    12. NBNeal Brennan40:01

        Yeah. I know. I want to, I'm like, I wanna watch it. I w- I wonder, 'cause it's not, they don't even say, "Where do you want us to put the commercial?"

    13. JRJoe Rogan40:09

        But are the commercials before shows or during shows?

    14. NBNeal Brennan40:12

        I don't, I have no i- It's new, so I have no ...

    15. JRJoe Rogan40:14

        Before?

    16. NBNeal Brennan40:14

        I think it's during.

    17. JRJoe Rogan40:16

        Oh.

    18. NBNeal Brennan40:16

        'Cause if they're after, ain't nobody watching it.

    19. JRJoe Rogan40:18

        If they do it during shows, I will be very upset.

    20. NBNeal Brennan40:22

        I've heard that Shonda Rhimes and some of the people that have shows on there are, like, a little bit pissed about that they ... It's like part of the reason they went to Netflix is 'cause they wanted the just shit to play the way they want it to play.

    21. JRJoe Rogan40:36

        Yeah.

    22. NBNeal Brennan40:36

        Which I get.

    23. JRJoe Rogan40:36

        But what is their ... They, uh, they, they lost a shitload of stock with the, the Chappelle thing. Like, their s- their stock crashed-

    24. NBNeal Brennan40:44

        It didn't have to do with Dave though.

    25. JRJoe Rogan40:45

        ... with their response to that. Well, it did have. It had to do with that, because it had to do with-

    26. NBNeal Brennan40:48

        It was a, it was an earnings c- It was a, to me, my understanding of it was the earnings. They just had, they, it was the first time they ... subscribers were flat. Or they, I think they lost a million at one point.

    27. JRJoe Rogan40:58

        Right. But it was also, there was a very big public response to the woke bullshit that they were pushing and the fact that they would entertain, that that special was in any way transphobic to the point where they had to, uh, well, uh, they had to apologize to people for this, what was essentially like a love letter to a dead friend of his. And to pretend that it was transphobic was fucking nonsense, and a lot of people were upset about it. I think it had ... And then Elon Musk talked about how-

    28. NBNeal Brennan41:29

        It was also the-

    29. JRJoe Rogan41:29

        ... so much of it was unwatchable-

    30. NBNeal Brennan41:31

        It was the number on-
11. 43:57 – 52:43

    Fame side effects: child stars, money predators, and relationship ‘grifts’

    1. JRJoe Rogan43:57

       He was trying to come on.

    2. NBNeal Brennan43:58

       Was he?

    3. JRJoe Rogan43:59

       Yeah. I did- I w- didn't think I would have a good conversation with him. He was just so... Uh, uh, I've had conversations with multiple child stars. It's a sad reality that they don't develop. There, there is no redoing that. If you become famous when you are a young kid, you're fucked.

    4. NBNeal Brennan44:18

       You're absolutely fucked.

    5. JRJoe Rogan44:19

       Almost always. Like, maybe Jodie Foster. I've never talked to her, but she seems pretty balanced. She's fine.

    6. NBNeal Brennan44:25

       You have to, you, I think you have to decide, "I'm gonna stop. I'm have to take a break, and I have to go..." Jodie Foster went to Yale, I think. The girl from, uh, Harry Potter went to school. If you make it concerted effort-

    7. JRJoe Rogan44:44

       To do something else.

    8. NBNeal Brennan44:44

       ... to do something else, and you ha- and this is a big one, you have to hope your parents didn't fuck you. Monetarily.

    9. JRJoe Rogan44:51

       Yeah. Hoo, I have a friend-

    10. NBNeal Brennan44:53

        Which-

    11. JRJoe Rogan44:53

        ... who was a child star who s- he found out late in life that his parents stole like $6 million from him.

    12. NBNeal Brennan44:58

        Yeah. And you just-

    13. JRJoe Rogan44:59

        It's real common. They feel like they deserve it.

    14. NBNeal Brennan45:01

        Yeah. I think there's a new law that protects kids.

    15. JRJoe Rogan45:04

        Mm.

    16. NBNeal Brennan45:05

        But that's one of those things, you just gotta fucking hope, dude. You gotta hope, uh, eh, which you're...

    17. JRJoe Rogan45:13

        (snoring)

    18. NBNeal Brennan45:13

        You don't... You handle your... You seem to have a l- not a lot of, uh, outside people, or you hide it well. Meaning you don't seem like you don't have a crazy family, you don't have a crazy, like, there's not a lot of people asking you for handouts that I'm aware of, obviously. I'm sure you get plenty of like, "Hey, do you think I could..." But, but it seems like-

    19. JRJoe Rogan45:37

        It's mostly people I don't know well-

    20. NBNeal Brennan45:39

        Right.

    21. JRJoe Rogan45:39

        ... honestly-

    22. NBNeal Brennan45:40

        Yeah.

    23. JRJoe Rogan45:40

        ... that are asking me for stuff.

    24. NBNeal Brennan45:41

        Well, that's when it becomes family or you gotta hope that you, you, uh, you know, that you just are in a good situation. Like I w- I did a thing with that guy Giannis Antetokounmpo, the basketball player. And he's Greek and, like, him and his brothers are all in the NBA. Or like, i- they all are pro basketball players and it's like... And I was talking about it, I was like, "You're very lucky that you're all paid."

    25. JRJoe Rogan46:12

        Mm.

    26. NBNeal Brennan46:12

        You're all... Like, he doesn't have to worry about, um, you know, his bro... And it's like i- he doesn't have to worry about people... That's a real drag, that family stuff, 'cause it's a-

    27. JRJoe Rogan46:25

        It's a real drag, yeah.

    28. NBNeal Brennan46:26

        ... 'cause it's, it can... You feel bad. You feel bad if you don't give it to them and you feel bad if you do give it to them.

    29. JRJoe Rogan46:33

        Well, here's what happens. You never are even anymore. You're never just two people talking.

    30. NBNeal Brennan46:39

        Mm-hmm.
12. 52:43 – 1:29:36

    Managing controversy and ‘the juice’: staying offline, workouts, and the Spotify storm

    1. NBNeal Brennan52:43

       Yup. Can you bel- Uh, well, the, the question I wanted to ask you about all this stuff is, is how do you deal with the pre- when people ask me about you, people ask me about Dave, they ask me, uh, the, like, you guys are like fire brands. Uh, I always say that it just looks too stressful for me. Like y- the amount of times ... You maybe are even unaware of it, but like the vaccine stuff and you make a video and you, is that, are those days hellish, stressful? Are you just like, "All right, I'll make a video. Oh, they didn't, I fucked up the thing with their, I didn't fuck up, or do you want me to say I fucked up?" Or like, what's it like in your body?

    2. JRJoe Rogan53:34

       Uh, it depends on the day. It depends on what the controversy is. But generally I don't read anything about me. I don't, e- even now, like if, like if I see some article with some bullshit headline, you know, I don't read it. I'm not reading things about ... I'm not interested in people's opinions of me.

    3. NBNeal Brennan53:53

       Mm-hmm.

    4. JRJoe Rogan53:53

       It's like you can't take in all that. That is not good for you. And that's a, like a learning process. Took a while to figure that out. And if you stay offline and just communicate with people that you know and you meet in normal real life, the world's fine.

    5. NBNeal Brennan54:10

       Oh, yeah.

    6. JRJoe Rogan54:10

       The world's normal.

    7. NBNeal Brennan54:11

       Yeah.

    8. JRJoe Rogan54:11

       The problem that happens with people when they get locked up in a controversy is that they start dwelling on all these different opinions on them. And they start taking it in and considering it and wanting to argue it. "But I never said it that way."

    9. NBNeal Brennan54:27

       Mm-hmm.

    10. JRJoe Rogan54:27

        "That's not what I meant."

    11. NBNeal Brennan54:27

        Yeah, yeah, yeah.

    12. JRJoe Rogan54:28

        "You talked about it in context."

    13. NBNeal Brennan54:28

        These motherfuckers and then it becomes this emotional thing.

    14. JRJoe Rogan54:31

        You fucking prick. Did you see what they wrote?

    15. NBNeal Brennan54:32

        Yeah.

    16. JRJoe Rogan54:32

        Like there, that doesn't do you any good. That is not a positive. There's no, there's no benefit to that. Zero. There's zero benefit. So don't do it. And I always tell comedians, I'm like, "Those good comments that you read? Those aren't good for you either."

    17. NBNeal Brennan54:45

        I don't, dude, I, the reason I wanted to talk to you about it is 'cause, uh, yesterday the special comes out and it's a fucking big day. And it's a lot of attention.And it's a lot of... And I had taken Instagram off my phone because I was in-

    18. JRJoe Rogan55:02

        You wanna stay healthy?

    19. NBNeal Brennan55:04

        Yeah. I mean, I'd, I'd been... I was in Mia- or no, I was in, uh, Hawaii, and I'd posted a video, and then I was just, like, on, in paradise, worrying about the comments.

    20. JRJoe Rogan55:17

        Ugh.

    21. NBNeal Brennan55:17

        And I was like, "This is a fucking waste of y- of y- of your life, dude."

    22. JRJoe Rogan55:22

        Yeah. It literally is.

    23. NBNeal Brennan55:23

        Like, you have to not do this.

    24. JRJoe Rogan55:24

        Yeah, yeah.

    25. NBNeal Brennan55:25

        And I took it off my phone, and it was... And it's been great, and then I put it back on yesterday because I had to post something. That's what I tell myself. But also, I wanted some of the juice, Joe.

    26. JRJoe Rogan55:38

        (laughs)

    27. NBNeal Brennan55:39

        I wanted some of the fucking juice.

    28. JRJoe Rogan55:41

        Give me some love, people.

    29. NBNeal Brennan55:42

        Give me a little bit of the juice.

    30. JRJoe Rogan55:44

        Tell me you're loving it.

Episode duration: 3:17:48