The Joe Rogan ExperienceJoe Rogan Experience #1922 - Sam & Colby
EVERY SPOKEN WORD
150 min read · 30,111 words- 0:00 – 1:07
Sam’s TikTok stunt: missing the beanbag and fracturing his back
- JRJoe Rogan
(drumming music) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.
- NANarrator
The Joe Rogan Experience.
- JRJoe Rogan
Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music) How'd you break your back?
- SGSam Golbach
So (laughs) we were just doing some stupid TikTok stuff during the pandemic, and we were all challenging each other to do, like, stupid stuff. And for some reason, I thought it was a great idea to try to jump off of a second story balcony onto a beanbag. But I missed-
- JRJoe Rogan
Whoa.
- SGSam Golbach
... I missed the beanbag.
- JRJoe Rogan
Missed the beanbag completely.
- SGSam Golbach
(inhales) Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, no.
- SGSam Golbach
Yeah. So-
- JRJoe Rogan
And you broke your back?
- SGSam Golbach
Yeah. Uh, I was, you know... I did it a couple times the previous week, and I was like, "Oh, I got this. This is gonna be fine." And then I missed the, the beanbag, and so, you know, I, I think I only fractured a couple bones there.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs) Only a couple.
- SGSam Golbach
But that, you definitely took me out for a while.
- JRJoe Rogan
That's a real problem though.
- SGSam Golbach
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Is this your, your-
Oh, jeez. That's definitely not it.
- SGSam Golbach
Oh, please God.
- JRJoe Rogan
We got it. Oh.
- SGSam Golbach
It's, it's, it's-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- SGSam Golbach
... gruesome if you actually see it.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, my God.
So what did you, did you have to get-
Oh.
- SGSam Golbach
Oh.
- JRJoe Rogan
Jesus.
All right, well-
- SGSam Golbach
God.
- 1:07 – 6:26
Do hauntings follow you? The curtain incident and skepticism about “mediums”
- JRJoe Rogan
Do you ever wonder that, like, you guys are in all these fucking haunted places.
- SGSam Golbach
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
Do you ever wonder if you're carrying any of that shit around with you?
- SGSam Golbach
(laughs) Well, uh, definitely. But what's crazy is a lot of people think-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- SGSam Golbach
... that, uh, the sign of something being with you is, like, back pain. But now that I've broken my back, I'm like, "I can't, I can't make that connection right there."
- JRJoe Rogan
That's real back pain.
- SGSam Golbach
That's real back pain, not haunted back pain.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, not like... Well, there's back pain where people just like, their psychosomatic back pain. Like, there's a guy named John S- wasn't it John Sarnos? Is that his name? No.
He, he had this weird theory about back pain that applied to some people, not people with actual real injuries, but some people, that it's all in your head.
Huh.
That it's people that are, like, like, deeply stressed out and fucked up and it manifests itself as back pain. And somehow or another, through his teaching, a lot of people, including Howard Stern. Didn't Howard Stern have a thing with his back- I don't know. ... where John Sarnos fixed it? I think so. I'm sure there's a picture of him. Yeah, America's most famous back pain doctor said pain is in your head. Thousands think he's right. Well, millions think he's wrong though. (laughs)
(laughs)
- SGSam Golbach
Well, if that's how-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs) He's not right. Like, sometimes you have fucking real back pain.
For sure.
- SGSam Golbach
You gotta get that fixed.
- JRJoe Rogan
But for crazy people, for some people, like, you know, you just have something in your head and it's like, "Ah, my back!"
- SGSam Golbach
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
But it's really your psychology. Exactly. It's really something you're carrying around with you.
- SGSam Golbach
Now, speaking of carrying things around, a lot of people warn us that, like, because we go into so many haunted places, they're like, "Guys, you should be careful. Like, aren't you worried about bringing this home or bringing this to other people?"
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- SGSam Golbach
Like, you, I mean, we walked in here obviously it's probably just a coincidence we walked here, and immediately, you know, your, uh, curtain fell over.
- JRJoe Rogan
And not, yeah, not saying that's a paranormal thing.
No, no, the curtain-
- SGSam Golbach
That's, that's not-
- JRJoe Rogan
... curtain has been up for two years.
(laughs)
Never had a problem. And then Jamie asks you a question, "Do you guys ever investigate anything that's bullshit?" And you're like, "Yeah, definitely." And then boom, the curtain falls.
- SGSam Golbach
Yeah, exactly.
- 6:26 – 11:09
The Comedy Store’s haunted reputation: mob history, tunnels, and a stage encounter story
- JRJoe Rogan
Have you guys ever been to The Comedy Store?
No, but we were trying to.
Yeah, listen, I'm gonna set that up.
Trying to.
The Comedy Store is without a doubt haunted.
- SGSam Golbach
We went there for a show.
- JRJoe Rogan
If there's a place that's haunted in the world it's The Comedy Store, because it used to be a mob nightclub and they murdered people there, 100%.
- SGSam Golbach
And-
- JRJoe Rogan
It was Bugsy Siegel's nightclub.
Huh.
It was called Ciro's, and in the 1950s... Was it the '50s and the '60s, is that what it was? Um, but-
- NANarrator
It started in the '40s actually.
- JRJoe Rogan
In the '40s?
- NANarrator
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
But it, there is, it's a famous old mob-run nightclub that Mitzi Shore took over in the 1970s. So the, the place has this feel to it, like it's been run, you know, as an entertainment venue for, you know, 70 years or something crazy like that.
- NANarrator
Isn't there a bunch of, like, underground passageways around there too?
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm, yeah. There supposedly... There was actually an article about this house on Crest Hill. Here, Whitney Cummings sent it to me, so I'll send, I'll send it to you, Jamie. But, uh, I almost bought this house.
- NANarrator
Mm.
- JRJoe Rogan
In the 1990s. In the 1990s, um, they were selling this house that The Comedy Store owned right above, uh, the club.
- NANarrator
Is it this one?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yep, that's it.
- NANarrator
Stories about it.
- SGSam Golbach
And that's the one that's connected to The Comedy Store?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yes.
- SGSam Golbach
Oh, what?
- JRJoe Rogan
There's supposedly a tunnel, 'cause that, that's right above and to the left of the comedy club, and that was also owned by Bugsy Siegel. Stories from the comedians who inhabited Crest Hill, the house above The Comedy Store. So that house was for sale, uh, the C- The Comedy Store was selling it, Mitzi was gonna sell it. And, um, I, but the problem was, if you go back to that photo, it's got like this tiny little bullshit yard, like that's the yard.
- SGSam Golbach
Hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
Nice.
And I have a dog. I had a dog back then too, and s- um, I was like, "Yeah, I don't wanna leave my dog in this bullshit yard."
- SGSam Golbach
Right, every place in LA-
- 11:09 – 20:49
From Kansas band camp to confidence “boot camp” at the mall
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah. When did you... So you guys started out, you weren't exploring haunted things. You just started out like doing, it was like abandoned things?
Yeah.
- SGSam Golbach
Yeah, we've had a long run at this. I think we've been doing YouTube for like 10 years.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's been a long time.
- SGSam Golbach
And it was abandoned, and then before that it was like the trendy stuff, and then even before that we started in public disturbance, like just pranks and stuff, so.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
So you started when you were in high school?
- SGSam Golbach
Yes, 17.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, yeah, I was 16, um, like one month turning 17. So basically 17 we started.
And just for fun?
Just for fun. I mean...
- SGSam Golbach
Kind of.
- JRJoe Rogan
Like, uh, so a lot of it was also, um, because we wanted, like we had a plan to become famous at the time, because as like 17-year-olds... It's a whole long story to it-
(laughs)
... um, but like as 17-year-olds like we, we just really wanted to do that. It was like a goal of ours 'cause we had just like become like really, really good friends at the time, and, um, after like learning how to be confident, we were very shy kids in high school, um, and learning how to be confident together, which again we can get into that story if you would like, but, um...
How did you learn how to be confident?
We were both originally from Kansas, um, Overland Park, Kansas. We met-... in band camp, uh, when we were 14 years old. (laughs)
- SGSam Golbach
That one time at band camp right there.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
Yeah.
- SGSam Golbach
That's where this star- story starts.
- JRJoe Rogan
And you know that's, like, a horrible story, when you start it off like that.
(laughs)
Um, but it was so bad to the point ... Like, we were just, like, super socially awkward and very anxious people, where-
- SGSam Golbach
Like a lot of people.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
100%. But, like, I had ... Like, it was so bad to the point where I had to, like, carry around these, like, Tums, the anti-
- SGSam Golbach
Oh, boy.
- JRJoe Rogan
... acid pills to just, like, honestly pop before each time I would go into, like, a new classroom and ... Just in case I got called on, I, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't freaking out internally. Um, and so we bonded in band camp, because we were both these, like, shy kids-
What-
- 20:49 – 30:34
Vine era, mall ban, and moving to LA: grinding without a plan
- JRJoe Rogan
And so we started with Vine.
(laughs)
We started with Vine, actually, the six-second videos for- for a while, until it died, and then ended up transitioning over to Be a Band.
- SGSam Golbach
Yeah, you remember Vine?
- JRJoe Rogan
I do remember Vine. Didn't Elon Musk say- talk about... Doesn't, like, Twitter own Vine?
- NANarrator
I think, yeah, it owns it.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- NANarrator
They talked about bringing it back, but I don't think they've worked on it in 10 years, so it's 10-year-old technology. Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow.
- SGSam Golbach
Yeah, it's bad.
- JRJoe Rogan
And TikTok took over. It's- it's all TikTok now.
Yeah.
- SGSam Golbach
TikTok's way better now.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's Chinese spyware.
Literally. (laughs)
They're literally, like, getting your fucking passwords and your location 24/7.
Yeah.
- SGSam Golbach
It's terrifying what they can do.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's weird. It's weird that everybody's just like, "Whatever." (laughs)
(laughs)
Who do they know?
- SGSam Golbach
Because it's so addicting. They're like, "I can't give this up on my day-to-day life."
- JRJoe Rogan
It's hugely addicting.
Mm-hmm.
So you guys start out with these Vines, and what were the Vines about?
- SGSam Golbach
So the Vines were basically what we were doing as, like, our experiments and challenges that we were doing, like, the last year. So it was all public pranks and disturbances. Like, we would get on top of, like, the food court lunch tables and do, like, a lightsaber battle.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- SGSam Golbach
Or, like, we'd get together and do, like, a flash mob in the whatever. But then, sadly, we got kicked out of the mall, because-
- JRJoe Rogan
Got banned from the mall?
Oh.
- 30:34 – 37:30
Trespassing turns into felonies: Tampa arrest, jail, and a career inflection point
- JRJoe Rogan
But we got arrested eventually.
Did you?
So ... Yeah.
- SGSam Golbach
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Where'd you guys get arrested?
Tampa, Florida.
- SGSam Golbach
Oh, boy. Which is-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yep. Yep.
(laughs)
- SGSam Golbach
... our first mistake, for sure.
- JRJoe Rogan
Did you get thrown into the hooch? Like, into the l- the lockdown with everybody?
Um-
- SGSam Golbach
He did.
- JRJoe Rogan
I did for 24 hours. Sam didn't because (laughs) this is so stupid.
You, you got locked in for 24 hours?
Uh, like a little less than that, probably like 20 hours or so. But I had to stay overnight in the jail while Sam was able to, like, bail himself out, but pretty much-
- SGSam Golbach
We did a lot of, like, you know, we did a lot of trespassing, whatever.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- SGSam Golbach
But trespassing is not-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- SGSam Golbach
... is usually like a fine, like f- you know, 75 bucks or something like that, depending on the state.
- JRJoe Rogan
And that's it.
- SGSam Golbach
Uh, but sadly, this particular location was under construction.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
- SGSam Golbach
And apparently, construction properties are government properties.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh.
In Florida.... in Florida.
- SGSam Golbach
In Florida. And so they charged us with a felony.
- JRJoe Rogan
A felony.
- 37:30 – 47:27
The Queen Mary B340: faucet, knocks, and a 35-minute yes/no ‘conversation’
- NANarrator
So tell me about the Queen Mary. That's the beginning for you guys.
- JRJoe Rogan
That's the number one origin.
- NANarrator
Definitely. And you went there to do what?
- SGSam Golbach
So what was really interesting is we did a lot of the abandoned stuff. But every once in a while, we would do, like, a haunted thing. Because those creepy stories and, you know, the lore of everything is really interesting, whether or not you believe in it or not.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- SGSam Golbach
At that time, we didn't really believe in any of the, the ghost stuff. We're like, "All right. Well, this is gonna be a great video," because everyone loves telling the stories. Um, but we just got ... I don't know what it was, but someone forwarded us something saying that for the first time in 30 years-
- JRJoe Rogan
Hmm.
- SGSam Golbach
... the Queen Mary in Long Beach, which is, like, one of the most haunted ships, like, New York Times', uh, like, top 10 most haunted places in, in the world.
- NANarrator
We filmed Fear Factor there once.
- SGSam Golbach
Really?
- JRJoe Rogan
Really?
- NANarrator
Yeah. Back in the-
- SGSam Golbach
That's crazy. It's, it's a beautiful ship.
- NANarrator
They do a comedy show there sometimes.
- SGSam Golbach
No way.
- JRJoe Rogan
Didn't know that, yeah.
- NANarrator
Yeah, for a while they had a regular, uh, comedy night there on the Queen Mary.
- SGSam Golbach
Yeah, I didn't realize how, like, famous it was. But they have that. They have, like, haunted houses. They have a ton of different attractions there. But there's this one room, B340, uh, that, well, it hadn't been open for 30 years. And allegedly, they closed it down because, uh, there's multiple unexplained murders and/or suicides in that room. Uh, and we're like, "Whoa," like, you know, "This, this is the first week this has been open after 30 years. This is gonna be an amazing, like, story to tell, or, you know, video to film." And so we went in there trying to make something, or, like, trying to get something. And we obviously didn't really believe that much, so we were like, "All right, let's just see if it happens. If there's gonna be a haunted location, it'll be this." Uh, we, we toured around, did the whole thing, uh, weren't getting much. And we were kind of frustrated at that point, because we were like, "All right, this is supposed to be the cream of the crop. This is supposed to be the big, bigwig. Like, why can't we get something to happen?" Uh, and so it was 4:00 in the morning at this time. We've been trying for hours, so just sitting in circles, like asking out, saying, "Okay."
- JRJoe Rogan
And we didn't have any equipment at this time. This is like the first place we ever went to. So we were just, like, meandering, like, the hall- hallways, being like, "Is there anything here?"
- SGSam Golbach
Yeah, like, just trying to get something to happen-
- JRJoe Rogan
Just, just seeing if anything happened. Right.
- SGSam Golbach
... uh, on camera. And nothing w- was happening. And so we're like, "Fine, I guess. Let's do this. Let's just, like, leave." Like, "It's, it's fun to tell the story. Let's just leave." Uh, and so we turn off the cameras, start packing up. We walk, like, start walking towards the door. And as soon as we turn, like, actually we're about to, like, get out of the room, the faucet turns on, like full blast for four seconds, and then turns back off. And we all, like, actually, like, you know, freeze and freak out. Two of our roommates that were there at the time, like, just immediately started, like, crying. We were like, we ran in. We were like, "Okay, h- how was that actually possible at all? Maybe that's a sign of like, it doesn't want to be filmed and it doesn't want us to leave. So maybe let's just not, not film this and try one more time, just for the, just for the heck of it." And so that's what we did. But this time it worked. And to, like, the weirdest extent, we just, like, put a- put away all of our cameras. We sat in the most serious tones saying like, "Okay, guys. Like, before this, didn't really believe, so like, if this is happening, let's, let's have something happen." And so we all sit in the dark together and we start calling out questions. And we're like, "Okay, like, is there anybody here?" And we hear a knock. And so we're like, "Okay, maybe that's something."
- JRJoe Rogan
Very faint though. It was like a tap.
- SGSam Golbach
Like a tap. And so we're, "Okay, let's just run with that. Can you tap more than once?" And there was, like, three taps. We're like, "Okay, this is really weird." Like, "Can we a- start asking questions?" And this-
- NANarrator
And h- how loud are you saying this? Like, is it possible that someone could have heard you from another room?
- SGSam Golbach
That's what we thought. So go- going, like, we were talking probably like this. But then there was times when we'd talk, like, really quiet. And, like, we ch- we tested everything. But, so what we did is we decided, "Let's ask questions using these taps." So we a- we said, "Tap once for yes. Tap anything more than once for no." We had a yes or no conversation for 35 minutes with something that we cannot explain.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- SGSam Golbach
And we did everything, 'cause we were skeptical at this point.
- NANarrator
Did you film any of this?
- SGSam Golbach
We didn't think so. But apparently one of our friends who's, like, super religious was like, "Hey, no matter what," the entire night he was keeping an audio recording in his pocket.
- 47:27 – 1:01:17
Belief after the first shock: demons, faith crisis, and why they kept going back
- JRJoe Rogan
They were... They took, like, the Christian route, and that's-
- SGSam Golbach
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... again, that's up to whoever is viewing this or experiencing it themselves. But yeah, they, they took it very religiously. What... How did you feel? Did you feel like it was a demon, or did you feel like it was a ghost or dead people? What'd you think it was?
- SGSam Golbach
I don't know. At the time, I definitely thought it was, like, a demon because these two guys are, like, yelling at me saying like-
- JRJoe Rogan
Freaking out?
- SGSam Golbach
... "Dude, this is 100% without a shout of a doubt, like, a demon." And I'm like, "Well, I don't know exactly what I believe in." Like, "This is already, like, rattling my brain right now." Um, but it was scary.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- SGSam Golbach
And what was, what was scarier, um, is trying to go back into it and repeating the process, 'cause like, we didn't know what we were messing with. If it was a demon, like, hell. Maybe if it is all real, are we just screwing ourselves over by, like, going in all these places?
- JRJoe Rogan
Right, are you inviting that thing into your life? Right.
- SGSam Golbach
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Did... How many times did you guys go to the Queen Mary? Three, four times?
- SGSam Golbach
Yeah, three or four times.
- JRJoe Rogan
So you went back after that? We did.
- SGSam Golbach
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Did you leave the, uh, roommates home? (laughs)
- SGSam Golbach
At that point, yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
We did, we did.
- NANarrator
(laughs)
- SGSam Golbach
Like, our, our final stint, which was actually last year. We hadn't gone back in three years, but we wanted to, like... The, the Queen Mary actually shut down, which was sad.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, really?
- SGSam Golbach
I, I think-
- JRJoe Rogan
When was that?
- SGSam Golbach
I, last year, uh, they lost-
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh.
- SGSam Golbach
... like, funding and whatever. They're-
- JRJoe Rogan
They might be opening up now.
- SGSam Golbach
They're trying-
- JRJoe Rogan
But, like, it was shut for a second.
- SGSam Golbach
... to, like, raise money and, like, get it back up, but...
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- 1:01:17 – 1:09:00
True-crime horror meets ‘energy’ theory: JonBenét and why places feel heavy
- SGSam Golbach
There was this one time... Well, at one of the creepiest places we've ever been is kind of a story like that. Um, have you ever heard of the Villisca Ax Murders?
- JRJoe Rogan
No. Never heard that.
- SGSam Golbach
So, in Villisca, Iowa there was this serial killer that came in, apparently, um, and small little town, couple thousand people or whatever. Uh, little house, and somehow this guy was able to come into the house, kill two parents and six kids-
- JRJoe Rogan
(gasps)
- SGSam Golbach
... all in one house, with an ax.
- JRJoe Rogan
A tiny house.
Oh.
- SGSam Golbach
Without getting caught at all.
- JRJoe Rogan
God.
- SGSam Golbach
And to this day it's an unsolved murder.
- JRJoe Rogan
Hmm.
Oh, Jesus Christ.
- SGSam Golbach
And it's just so, so bizarre. And that was one of the places that, like...Yeah. Oh, my god. It's super-
- JRJoe Rogan
So, that's it. Yeah, we went there.
Oh, my god. Look at the fucking sign in front of it.
(laughs)
- SGSam Golbach
(laughs) Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Jesus Christ. They got Villisca Ax Murder House, and it's dripping blood. If you were a neighbor-
(laughs)
... you'd be like, "Hey, bro. Maybe take that fucking sign down."
"Could you change that?"
- SGSam Golbach
(laughs) Yeah, exactly. A little insensitive, for sure.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
Imagine. Jesus Christ. So, that was in 1912?
- SGSam Golbach
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
That's when that all happened. Yeah.
- SGSam Golbach
So, over a hundred years. But that was, like, one of those things that we'd, we'd researched and that was, like, interesting. But as soon as we stepped foot in that house, it was a whole different vibe.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- SGSam Golbach
Uh, it was one of those things that, like, uh, it was one of the few times we actually had to leave. So, halfway, like, after doing a little tour with the whole, like, uh, with the tour guide. He was telling us all these stories, and just, like, being in there was weird.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
Episode duration: 2:42:57
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