Joe Rogan Experience #1971 - Howie Mandel

Narrator 0:00 (drum roll) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience. Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (rock music)

Joe Rogan 0:12 Hey, what up?

Howie Mandel 0:13 Can you hear me?

Joe Rogan 0:13 I hear you perfect.

Howie Mandel 0:14 Okay.

Joe Rogan 0:15 Hello, Howie Mandel.

Howie Mandel 0:16 Hi, Joe Rogan.

Joe Rogan 0:16 Good to see you, my friend.

Howie Mandel 0:17 I know.

Joe Rogan 0:18 Very good to see you.

Howie Mandel 0:19 I know. And a- and amazing to see you. Before you start anything, I've gotta tell you how exci- are you ... uh, uh, uh, uh, did we start?

Joe Rogan 0:26 No. Yeah, we're starting.

Howie Mandel 0:27 Okay.

Joe Rogan 0:27 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 0:28 Uh, I gotta tell you how excited I am to see you. I am the biggest fan. If, if there's one thing that I'm a fan of, it's innovation.

Joe Rogan 0:37 Mm.

Howie Mandel 0:37 And I think that you have become the comedy innovator. And, and, um, uh, I'm blowing smoke up your ass r- right at the beginning of this. And I, I gotta say, what I've seen from the outside, you know? In 1978, I came down to The Comedy Store, and I, I got up on a lark. Mike Binder got me up there on a lark. I, I, I was not pursuing it. I had gone on at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, and I fell in love with this. Mitzi gave me my biggest break. Um, and there was a guy by the name of George Foster who was in the audience that night that said, "Hey, do you wanna do TV?" And I said, "Yeah." And then he hired me to do Make Me Laugh, which I did with Binder and a bunch of other-

Joe Rogan 1:18 Wow.

Howie Mandel 1:18 ... people. And with no intent of making this a, um, a, a career, you know? I, I didn't, I didn't pursue comedy. I knew nothing about comedy. I was a fan of comedy. I watched comedy, stand-up. I, even when I went to Yuk Yuk's, I had never, you know... I don't know. Uh, uh, let me get back to you, and then I'll talk about, I'll talk about me. But-

Joe Rogan 1:42 (laughs)

Howie Mandel 1:42 ... the, the thing is that I'm aware of the history of comedy. And when I was a kid, it was in New York. Everybody went to New York. That's where Lenny Bruce was working. You just showed me a picture of Lenny Bruce. And then when Carson made his way out to California, there was a shift where everybody had to come to California, you know? And you had to get on at The Comedy Store or maybe the Improv with the intent of maybe, if you were lucky, getting a spot on The Tonight Show.

Joe Rogan 2:10 Mm.

Howie Mandel 2:11 Right?

Joe Rogan 2:11 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 2:11 And I, I don't know. How old are you?

Joe Rogan 2:13 55.

Howie Mandel 2:14 55, you're a kid.

Joe Rogan 2:15 How old are you?

Howie Mandel 2:16 (laughs) I'll be 68 this year.

Joe Rogan 2:17 You look fucking great.

Howie Mandel 2:19 Thank you.

Joe Rogan 2:19 Maybe all this knuckle touching is the way to go.

Howie Mandel 2:21 I don't know what the fuck it is.

Joe Rogan 2:22 (laughs)

Howie Mandel 2:23 I, I, I don't know that I... But anyway, the, the- (laughs)

Joe Rogan 2:26 (laughs)

Howie Mandel 2:26 The point is that, that, uh, there was only one place to go and make it in comedy, and that was California. And that was, you needed a spot at The Comedy Store. And anybody who was anybody either got a spot at the Improv or The Comedy Store. And then, even if somebody didn't know you, and they came up to you, and they said, "Are you a comic?" And, and... Or, "What do you do?" You'd say, "I'm a stand-up comic." They'd go, "Were you ever on Johnny?" And if you weren't on Johnny, then they-

Joe Rogan 2:51 Mm.

Howie Mandel 2:51 ... kind of dismissed you.

Joe Rogan 2:53 Wow.

Howie Mandel 2:53 But that was the truth.

Joe Rogan 2:54 Yeah, I remember those days.

Howie Mandel 2:55 And I believe now, and this is the smoke that I'm blowing up your ass, there is a shift. You don't have to go to California anymore. You don't have to be in New York. You don't have to be anywhere, but you gotta be in Austin. You gotta come to Texas, or you gotta be part of whatever it is, this movement that you have moved out here. And if you look at the people that are getting huge clicks online for, you know, their, uh, their specials, Ari Shaffir and Shane Gillis and all these other guys, what, what, what do they have in common? They came and they touched you, you know? And I think that that is where comedy's going. And these people with podcasts are now selling huge amounts of tickets without going on one... They don't have a Tonight Show to go to.

Joe Rogan 3:38 Right.

Howie Mandel 3:39 They don't have a club to hit. And now, you opened up The Mothership, which is, I think, properly named, because I believe that this is... If there is a geographical, a geographical epicenter for comedy, it is here, you know, now. And I think you did that. I've, I've, I've never met somebody that... You know, Mitzi was the last person that kind of... Mitzi Shore I'm talking about.

Joe Rogan 4:03 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 4:03 But accidentally did it, you know? Because that was just something she won in a divorce. And so...

Joe Rogan 4:10 (laughs)

Howie Mandel 4:11 You know that story?

Joe Rogan 4:11 But she was the perfect person to have it, you know?

Howie Mandel 4:13 Right, but she didn't know that.

Joe Rogan 4:15 Yeah, but she had the best sensibility for comedy, and she was so ruthless. She mentored me. She, she helped me in so many ways.

Howie Mandel 4:22 Right, well, she gave me my-

Joe Rogan 4:23 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 4:23 We have a lot in common in that.

Joe Rogan 4:24 All of us, all of us.

Howie Mandel 4:24 She gave us, me my break, but-

Joe Rogan 4:26 That's her.

Howie Mandel 4:26 Yeah, no. I know, I recognize her. I saw her.

Joe Rogan 4:29 That painting is-

Howie Mandel 4:29 I knew her.

Joe Rogan 4:30 Taylor Bose, Pretty Dope, right?

Howie Mandel 4:32 It is.

Joe Rogan 4:32 Great painting.

Howie Mandel 4:32 It is a great painting. But the thing about Mitzi, if you don't know the, the beginnings of that, you know, it was Sammy Shore's club.

Joe Rogan 4:38 Yes.

Howie Mandel 4:38 It was her husband's club-

Joe Rogan 4:39 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 4:39 ... who was the opening act for Elvis Presley, you know?

Joe Rogan 4:41 Right, which is hilarious that she took in a divorce and she's not a comic. (laughs)

Howie Mandel 4:45 Well, you, 'cause you take shit-

Joe Rogan 4:47 Yes. (laughs)

Howie Mandel 4:47 That's like you take-

Joe Rogan 4:47 Exactly.

Howie Mandel 4:47 ... uh, you take custody of a child and you're not a parent.

Joe Rogan 4:50 Sugar Shane Mosley, the boxer, his ex-wife took one of his championship belts.

Howie Mandel 4:56 But it looks nice with certain tops.

Joe Rogan 4:57 Do you know how goddamn crazy that story is?

Howie Mandel 5:00 No.

Joe Rogan 5:00 That guy went to war with his hands. He was throwing knuckles at another skilled man and won a world title.

Howie Mandel 5:08 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 5:08 Got this beautiful belt strap. The whole crowd cheers, and she's like, "No, it's mine."

Howie Mandel 5:13 Okay.

Joe Rogan 5:13 And she took it. (laughs)

Howie Mandel 5:14 So Sammy Shore was telling jokes for people, audiences that weren't his. They were Elvis'.

Joe Rogan 5:19 Yes. Right.

Howie Mandel 5:19 And he opened up a building for his friends to work out, and Mitzi went, "No, it's mine."

Joe Rogan 5:24 (laughs)

Howie Mandel 5:24 And then he told everybody that was in the business not to work there, right? So she got all these kids. All us kids-

Joe Rogan 5:32 Oh.

Howie Mandel 5:32 ... would show up and work because we wanted stage time. And that's how people started blasting off.

Joe Rogan 5:37 Oh.

Howie Mandel 5:37 You know, Jimmy JJ Walker-

Joe Rogan 5:39 Wow.

Howie Mandel 5:39 ... and, uh, what's his name? Who did Not My Job, man? Uh, Freddie Prinze.

Joe Rogan 5:43 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 5:44 You know? And that's, and that became the... And that's why when you started seeing Carson out in LA, he'd go, "We saw this young kid last night at The Comedy Store," and that's what made it big.

Joe Rogan 5:55 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 5:56 And I think by the same token, you're the new Mitzi with less hair-

Joe Rogan 5:59 Dang.

Howie Mandel 5:59 ... where you keep touching these people like, um-... that's how I hear, personally I, and I think a lot of other people, hear about the, the Bryan Callens and the, th- their standup, and their... A- Ari and Shane and Burt, and all these other guys that are arena. They're playing fucking arenas and theaters now.

Joe Rogan 6:19 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 6:19 That was, there was a, a select few when I was young. You know, I, I was talking to you outside. I used to go... What year did you start at The Comedy Store? I remember seeing you a lot.

Joe Rogan 6:27 I started at The Comedy Store in '94.

Howie Mandel 6:29 '94.

Joe Rogan 6:29 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 6:29 And you got news radio out of there, right?

Joe Rogan 6:31 I was already on news radio.

Howie Mandel 6:33 When you started doing-

Joe Rogan 6:34 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 6:34 I know a lot of people that you know-

Joe Rogan 6:35 I was actually on another show. I was on... I think I'd got passed, like, in between shows. I got passed right when, uh, the show I was on called Hardball fell apart.

Howie Mandel 6:44 I don't know Hardball.

Joe Rogan 6:45 It wa- it was canceled very quickly. It was like six episodes on Fox. It was a baseball show. And, uh, while I was on TV, that wasn't... My, my main goal was I'd had to be a paid regular. I had to get to be a paid regular at the Store. Dude, when I was a kid, like in '88 when I was 21 years old, people would talk about The Comedy Store like with hushed tones, like it was Mecca. "That's where Kinison came from."

Howie Mandel 7:09 Right.

Joe Rogan 7:10 It was like, "Whoa, Richard Pryor used to work out there. Whoa."

Howie Mandel 7:13 Right. I was there every night, watched that.

Joe Rogan 7:15 Yeah, I was there. Yeah. You would, you would hear about, "Bill Hicks used to be a door guy." Holy shit.

Howie Mandel 7:19 Right.

Joe Rogan 7:20 He... It was Mecca. Everybody knew you had to get to The Store.

Howie Mandel 7:22 Right.

Joe Rogan 7:22 So when I came to LA, that's like the first thing I did, man. Like the very first thing I did when I came out here, I came and watched a show, and sat in the back room. It was a terrible show. It was like, Bodaks were on stage. It was awful. (laughs) It was like-

Howie Mandel 7:33 Really? I used to sit in the back. I used to sit in the back and, and, you know, Letterman was the host, you know, who was this weather man that came out from Indianapolis-

Joe Rogan 7:43 Yes.

Howie Mandel 7:43 ... you know-

Joe Rogan 7:43 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 7:43 ... and, uh, he was just pretty casual about... He didn't think... I thought he was hysterical.

Joe Rogan 7:49 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 7:50 But... And, and you'd watch, you know, Jeff Altman and Billy Crystal and Robin who was on fire 'cause he just started Mork & Mindy.

Joe Rogan 7:58 Mm-hmm.

Howie Mandel 7:58 And then every night I would watch, um, Richard Pryor. He, uh, come out and he was putting together what became Live on the Sunset Strip.

Joe Rogan 8:09 Wow.

Howie Mandel 8:09 And he would get up every fucking night and like... Some... People would be packed down the street to see him. But I remember standing at the back. He had just gotten out of the hospital from freebasing.

Joe Rogan 8:22 Mm.

Howie Mandel 8:23 He still had bandages on his neck from, uh, for those that don't remember, you know, he got... He almost died. I think he-

Joe Rogan 8:30 Lit himself on fire.

Howie Mandel 8:30 Lit himself on fire.

Joe Rogan 8:32 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 8:32 And there was a joke which he started. I saw him do it at The Comedy Store. He used to light a match and, and go like this. He goes, "What's this? This is me running down the street." And then that became like a-

Joe Rogan 8:41 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 8:42 ... a j- a joke.

Joe Rogan 8:43 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 8:43 But he perpetrated that joke.

Joe Rogan 8:45 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 8:45 And at the time, it's hard to put this in context, it didn't get a big laugh. People's jaw dropped. Like you don't talk about your near-death experience, you know? And he would always, like, push the envelope and I was just in awe. I never saw a comic do this in, in my life. That he didn't have jokes per se where he would just talk about his life, or he would experiment.

Joe Rogan 9:06 Mm.

Howie Mandel 9:07 I talked about one particular night on... I did, uh, Binder's... Did you see, uh, The Comedy Store?

Joe Rogan 9:12 Yes.

Howie Mandel 9:12 I think you're in it.

Joe Rogan 9:13 Yes.

Howie Mandel 9:13 Yeah. Y- Uh, I talked about the one night, I'll, I'll never forget. He just walks in. The crowd goes fucking nuts for him, you know? And he turns around and he go... And he, he starts doing... I can't do him justice, but he says, you know, "I'm the fucking Lord. I'm the Lord." And everybody's laughing. And, "I'm just here to pick up my son. I got... I'm, I'm here to pick up my son." You might've seen him. He's a kind of a skinny kid with a beard and a, and a robe, a long robe, goes by the name Jesus. Does anybody see my son? Where's my son?" And people are laughing but it's getting, uh, kinda uncomfortable and he goes, "I, I need my t... Well, uh, where is my son?" And then he leans down as if somebody in the front row is talking to him and he goes, "What? What? What the fuck did you do to... What? Where is my fuck... What did you..." And he just starts screaming, "My son, my boy, my baby. What did... What the fuck did you do to my son?"

Joe Rogan 10:06 (laughs) .

Howie Mandel 10:06 "What the fuck did you do..." And he said, like screaming, "What the fuck did you do to my son?" And he go... And I can't remember the... Because I don't remember the, the order. He wants to talk to an apostle. And it wa- and then he realized, "What the fuck did you do to him?" And then he goes, "Bring me Martin Luther King. Bring me Martin Luther King. Where the fuck is Martin Luther King?" And then he gets that info.

Joe Rogan 10:26 Wow.

Howie Mandel 10:26 And he goes, "Where's Kennedy? I wanna talk to Kennedy." And he goes, "Where the f- fuck! Fuck!" And he's screaming and he's got tears coming down his eyes. The, the, the, the room is just sitting there in awe. And then he turns around and he points at the entire room and he goes, "You're on your own." And he walked out.

Joe Rogan 10:41 Oh my God. (laughs)

Howie Mandel 10:43 And... (laughs) I know.

Joe Rogan 10:43 Oh my God.

Howie Mandel 10:43 And I thought, "Fuck! Fuck."

Joe Rogan 10:46 Oh my God.

Howie Mandel 10:46 But that's Richard fucking Pryor-

Joe Rogan 10:47 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 10:48 ... who just had a, uh... He knew... He just went for emotion, you know? Not only laughter.

Joe Rogan 10:54 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 10:54 Emotion.

Joe Rogan 10:54 Well, he would... What, uh, what I feel like is that Lenny Bruce was the first guy to do our kind of comedy, where it wasn't just street jokes. It was, it wasn't just, you know, two Jews walk into a bar, that kind of stuff. It was like he would talk about life, he would talk about social issues. And then Pryor made it way funnier. Like, Pryor's stuff still holds up. The Lenny Bruce stuff, it's hard because the context of the time. Like you can't put yourself in 1960 and sit there and, and understand the cultural context of how crazy everything he's saying is. But he still has some jokes that fucking still would kill today.

Howie Mandel 11:31 But Richard Pryor's life, you know-

Joe Rogan 11:33 Yes.

Howie Mandel 11:34 ... he was, he was raised in a brothel-

Joe Rogan 11:35 Mm-hmm.

Howie Mandel 11:36 ... uh, with no money. Had horrible, uh, you know, issues with relationships and drugs and, and-

Joe Rogan 11:41 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 11:41 ... that's the kind of... That's what he talked about, and those are the characters-

Joe Rogan 11:44 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 11:45 ... that he mimicked. And those characters are still alive and well today, you know? Like the-

Joe Rogan 11:49 Mm-hmm.

Howie Mandel 11:49 ... that kind of character. So...

Joe Rogan 11:50 Oh, the Italian mobsters-

Howie Mandel 11:52 Yes.

Joe Rogan 11:52 ... when he did the thing about him getting paid and they, they're giving him noogies? (laughs)

Howie Mandel 11:55 Yes.

Joe Rogan 11:55 (laughs) He pulled out a fake gun. (laughs)

Howie Mandel 11:57 Yeah, yeah, but he... But that's... That was r-

Joe Rogan 11:59 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 11:59 That's real, and that was the first time I realized, you know...... you will never see anything in my comedy where you will say, "That's Richard Pryor-like."

Joe Rogan 12:08 Right.

Howie Mandel 12:08 But, it really is, and this is what I identified with. If you look at old YouTube, uh, videos of me, when I, when I first peaked, uh, ooh, and, uh, I went on stage on a dare, you know? And the dare was, I didn't wanna be a comic, I just thought if somebody goes, "Ladies and gentlemen, Howie..." And I said, "Okay." And, and if somebody goes, "Ladies and gentlemen, Howie Mandel," that'll be a joke, right? 'Cause there's no reason for Howie Mandel to be on the fucking stage. And I went on the stage, and, um, then I realized, "Oh, shit, people are looking at me. I, th- this is the most embarrassing, this is the most humiliating, this is the most terrifying moment for me, in this moment." So I started to panic. And in my panic, I started going, if you look at old YouTube videos of me, my act is me panicking, and it's me going, "Okay. All right. Okay. All right. Oh, okay. (laughs) Ar-" And then they start laughing at me panicking, and I go, "What? What? What?"

Joe Rogan 13:04 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 13:05 And that's... And th- and then I didn't know what the fuck to do, and I put my hands in my pocket. And because, we've talked about it, I, I have OCD. You know, I carried rubber gloves with me always, and because I, if I was out in public, I was gonna go to a public restroom, and I didn't wanna touch anything. And I had gloves, and I didn't know what to do. I t- I had the glove came out of my pocket, 'cause my hands were in my pocket. So I pulled it over my head-

Joe Rogan 13:25 (laughs)

Howie Mandel 13:25 ... I pulled it over my head and I just started breathing, and the fingers are going up and down. The crowd's going crazy! And I blow up the glove, and I pop it off, and they roar, and I had enough sense to go, "Good night!" And I walked off. And Mark Breslin. Did you ever work at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto?

Joe Rogan 13:39 Uh, I, yeah, I've been at Yuk Yuk's in Vancouver.

Howie Mandel 13:42 Yeah, so Mark, the owner, said-

Joe Rogan 13:43 I've been to the Toronto.

Howie Mandel 13:43 ... "You've gotta come back tomorrow." And I said, "For what?" He goes, "To do it again." I go, "Do what?" He goes, "Do what you fucking did." And that became my thing.

Joe Rogan 13:52 Wow!

Howie Mandel 13:52 I never wrote anything. I didn't have anything. I was just... And then when I watched Richard Pryor, I went, "You know what? You gotta be lucky if you're talking about your life." If you're talking about real, relatable, or acting out authenticity? People seem to be, to gravitate toward authenticity, toward real, toward who you are, even more than... Though I did love the guys who did jokes. I loved Rodney Dangerfield, and I loved, you know, George Carlin. But even in his later years, he just started talking about his philosophies, which I-

Joe Rogan 14:26 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 14:26 ... actually loved even more.

Joe Rogan 14:28 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 14:28 You know? But that's who I kind of look up to.

Joe Rogan 14:33 Well, the beautiful thing is there's no one way to do it, you know? There's so many different ways. That's one of the weird things about comedy is that it's something that everybody enjoys, but there's no real school for it. Like, you could go to school and learn how to play guitar. There's some amazing guitar instructors, amazing people that could teach you how to write music. But you... There's nothing for you other than paying attention and trying to figure it out. And if you had told me, like, if I didn't know you, and you said, "Oh, this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna go on stage. I don't have anything prepared. I'm just gonna, like, fumble through it. And I got some rubber gloves in case shit goes sideways." I'd be like, "Oh my God, I'm gonna watch a spectacular bombing." I would sit in the back of the room like, "This guy's gonna eat shit." But no, because whatever it is that you have, this weird, intangible thing that you can't write down, that you can do that, and it's hilarious. My friend, Demetri, rest in peace, he, uh, sent me, w- he, he gave me one of your CDs when we were both like... I guess I was like 21 or 22. When did you do your first CD?

Howie Mandel 15:34 (clears throat) Uh, I did an album in '84.

Joe Rogan 15:39 Okay. So somewhere around then, a little bit after that, he gives me the CD. And it was a lot of that, but it was so funny. It was so rid- We were like crying laughing, like me and him. He's like this fucking hulking, national Tae Kwon Do champion dude, this bi- enormous heavyweight guy. And he's like dying laughing, just dying laughing, with two of us in my car, just laughing our asses off.

Howie Mandel 16:05 'Cause I'm just silly, uh-

Joe Rogan 16:06 You know, but it was so good, dude. It was so fun, and it was one of those-

Howie Mandel 16:10 Thank you.

Joe Rogan 16:10 ... things where you can't, you can't, like, figure out why that's funny. Like s- that's not even-

Howie Mandel 16:16 Because it's funny, you know?

Joe Rogan 16:17 Right.

Howie Mandel 16:17 This sense of humor. I think most people don't have a sense of humor. I always say this. And a sense of humor is to find humor where other people don't find it. Richard Pryor found it in a very dark, bleak, historical upbringing-

Joe Rogan 16:29 Yes.

Howie Mandel 16:30 ... you know, and, and characters that were probably scary, probably fucked up. And when he imitated them and told you these stories, we laughed really hard. You know, that's why the, the tragedy and the comedy masks are very close together. They're, they r- they are close together.

Joe Rogan 16:45 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 16:45 And if you could find the humor in those moments, then that's what it is. The humor for me is, I was drowning in public-

Joe Rogan 16:53 (laughs)

Howie Mandel 16:53 ... you know? And I have th- uh, th- and that's the truth. And I had... You know, as a kid growing up, I didn't have a fucking friend in the world. I'm weird. I have mental health issues. I, uh, which weren't diagnosed until I was in my 40s. And, uh, everything I was ever expelled for, gotten in trouble for, paid for is, uh, I mean, is what I get paid for today. And I found a, you know, I found a stream that is flowing my way. But it's, uh, I feel more lucky than skilled.

Joe Rogan 17:20 Well, well what was it like? 'Cause you had to develop an act, right? 'Cause then you went on to do these huge places, and you're doing an hour. Like, you had an act. So how did you-

Howie Mandel 17:29 It came.

Joe Rogan 17:29 ... did you just piece it together with all the different performances?

Howie Mandel 17:33 Yes.

Joe Rogan 17:33 Oh.

Howie Mandel 17:33 So what I do, and still do now, is I go- I put together an act. I put together... Like, if something funny happens, I realized, well then, you could just talk about it.

Joe Rogan 17:44 Right.

Howie Mandel 17:44 And you can just talk about it. And if you real- if you really talk about it, then it becomes something funny. And you could even talk about how I'm putting together an act. You know, I was talking about how, um, in my act, you know, I'm, um, I'm here playing in town. I wanna come over to-

Joe Rogan 17:58 Come over.

Howie Mandel 17:59 Can I play here for-

Joe Rogan 18:00 Two shows tonight. Yeah.

Howie Mandel 18:01 I would, I would love to drop in and-

Joe Rogan 18:02 Come on down. Jim Breuer's gonna be there.

Howie Mandel 18:04 I love Jim Breuer.

Joe Rogan 18:04 I love Jim Breuer.

Howie Mandel 18:05 And the club looks amazing.

Joe Rogan 18:06 It's pretty dope.

Howie Mandel 18:07 I've been watching it online and I saw Chappelle. Everybody who's anybody comes by, I would like to. I'm playing the, also the Paramount Theater tonight, but, uh-

Joe Rogan 18:13 Ron White's coming by tonight as well.

Howie Mandel 18:15 I would love to come by.

Joe Rogan 18:16 You gotta come by.

Howie Mandel 18:17 I would, I would definitely come by.

Joe Rogan 18:18 This is a seven and a 10.

Howie Mandel 18:19 G- if nothing else, just to see the table in the green room.

Joe Rogan 18:21 Dude, you're coming on stage.

Howie Mandel 18:22 Tha- that table-

Joe Rogan 18:23 That table's amazing, isn't it?

Howie Mandel 18:23 Is that a real thing? Is that a-

Joe Rogan 18:25 I- no, it's carved. It's all carved out of wood.

Howie Mandel 18:27 It looks like a crocodile or a snake or-

Joe Rogan 18:29 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 18:29 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 18:29 There's a guy, Scott Dow, and, uh, i- it's, uh, The_Dow, I think, on Instagram.

Howie Mandel 18:37 I don't know.

Joe Rogan 18:37 Um, whatever it is. He's a, an amazing artist that used to cut things like ice sculptures and stuff with chainsaws. And then he eventually started doing these tables that are these 3D tables with like crocodiles swimming like halfway above the water. It's sick.

Howie Mandel 18:54 Well, that's-

Joe Rogan 18:55 Like, his artwork's incredible.

Howie Mandel 18:56 Well, his artwork is, is incredible, but I always wonder about these guys who do ice sculptures. Like, y- y- your work is fucking inc-

Joe Rogan 19:02 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 19:02 But it melts. It's gone.

Joe Rogan 19:03 But this one is-

Howie Mandel 19:04 It's gone.

Joe Rogan 19:04 This is an-

Howie Mandel 19:05 There it is.

Joe Rogan 19:05 ... anaconda. The reason why I wanted an anaconda is jujitsu. Ju-jitsu, obviously, Brazilian jujitsu comes from Brazil. The anaconda's the biggest snake in Brazil. It's the apex predator. These fucking things are enormous. And, you know, there's, there's even moves called the anaconda that people use in jujitsu.

Howie Mandel 19:25 I didn't know that.

Joe Rogan 19:25 Because it's just... Yeah, because it's just like this thing that squishes you.

Howie Mandel 19:28 Is that your thing in jujitsu?

Joe Rogan 19:30 Squishes you.

Howie Mandel 19:30 I know you're a fighter too, you're mul- uh, mixed martial arts, right? You do-

Joe Rogan 19:33 Yeah, I've, I've practiced Brazilian jujitsu for a long time. Yeah.

Howie Mandel 19:36 R-

Joe Rogan 19:36 It's, it's really-

Howie Mandel 19:37 I, I, I don't, I'm not a fighter.

Joe Rogan 19:38 Great stuff.

Howie Mandel 19:39 I'm not-

Joe Rogan 19:39 But the thing is like that's why I had that guy do a-

Howie Mandel 19:42 So it makes sense?

Joe Rogan 19:42 ... snake. Yeah.

Howie Mandel 19:43 But it was great even when it didn't make sense to me.

Joe Rogan 19:45 It's just so... His stuff-

Howie Mandel 19:46 I just wanna-

Joe Rogan 19:46 He does so many different things. He does skulls. He has one... It's... See if you can find that one where he has a sea monster. There's a sea monster-

Howie Mandel 19:53 What is a sea monster?

Joe Rogan 19:53 ... that's attacking a boat. Like a mythical sea monster that's attacking an old ship in these raging waters on this table. It's incredible. The stuff he does is just mind-blowing.

Howie Mandel 20:05 You like art. You have am-

Joe Rogan 20:06 Love art.

Howie Mandel 20:06 ... amazing art in this, uh, in this, uh-

Joe Rogan 20:09 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 20:10 ... amazing museum of a place that you have taken over.

Joe Rogan 20:15 Art's incredible, and plus, this is the only place where I really get to decorate. I have zero say over my own home. It's so sad.

Howie Mandel 20:20 I bought a warehouse too. My wife lets-

Joe Rogan 20:21 (laughs)

Howie Mandel 20:21 ... me bring-

Joe Rogan 20:22 That's the best way to do it.

Howie Mandel 20:23 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 20:23 That way nobody gets mad at, at the house. I have two Greg Overton paintings, he's gorgeous. Three of him actually now, of, uh, he's does this incredible Native American art, and I have three of those in my house, and that's it. Everything else is set in my office.

Howie Mandel 20:34 And she's okay with that?

Joe Rogan 20:35 Yeah, my office is chaos.

Howie Mandel 20:36 How old are your kids now?

Joe Rogan 20:38 Well, I have, uh, a 10-year-old that, that we moved out here, she was 10, now she's 12, and we... A 12-year-old that's now 14. So they're-

Howie Mandel 20:45 They go every year. They... Don't you find they get older?

Joe Rogan 20:48 I think that's what happens.

Howie Mandel 20:48 The last time I saw you, you were in Calabasas, California-

Joe Rogan 20:51 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 20:51 ... on your way to a father-daughter dance-

Joe Rogan 20:53 Oh, yeah. (laughs)

Howie Mandel 20:54 ... at Round Meadow or something, or... Yes.

Joe Rogan 20:56 Ugh. Yeah, those are fun. Those are fun, man.

Howie Mandel 20:58 Father-daughter dances?

Joe Rogan 20:59 Dance with... Yeah, dance with l- your kids. It's so interesting. So interesting watching them... I just introduced my 12-year-old to South Park. For all-

Howie Mandel 21:09 Does she have that sense of humor?

Joe Rogan 21:10 ... my God. When you have not... She's almost 13. It's... You have not heard like, o- the whales of hilarity. Just the ah! Like, she could not believe what they were getting away with. She couldn't believe it. I go, "Honey, you can watch the..." She likes to binge-watch shows, like she's into The Walking Dead.

Howie Mandel 21:29 Right.

Joe Rogan 21:29 I'm like, "You could binge-watch this till the end of time." They have like a million (laughs) episodes and they're all funny.

Howie Mandel 21:34 The biggest joy for me for my children is to find that they have a sense of humor.

Joe Rogan 21:38 Oh.

Howie Mandel 21:38 That was the most-

Joe Rogan 21:39 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 21:39 ... important thing for me. Just know what, what is funny.

Joe Rogan 21:42 Yes.

Howie Mandel 21:43 Just know... Don't take things so seriously.

Joe Rogan 21:46 Right.

Howie Mandel 21:46 Don't be so dramatic.

Joe Rogan 21:47 Yes.

Howie Mandel 21:48 Just find, even in something horrible, because that's what's gotten me through life-

Joe Rogan 21:53 Mm-hmm.

Howie Mandel 21:53 ... is just the ability to laugh at something. So when you introduce something to your kids and they just explode over it, I think that's... Like you're telling me with such joy-

Joe Rogan 22:03 She's all in. She got a South Park hat at Spencer Gifts. (laughs)

Howie Mandel 22:07 That's, uh-

Joe Rogan 22:08 What is it? It's not Spencer Gifts. What's it called? Is that what it's called? What's that one that's out here?

Howie Mandel 22:11 Y- it's-

Joe Rogan 22:11 Same kind of thing.

Howie Mandel 22:12 Do you like living out here? Out by Spencer's.

Joe Rogan 22:14 I love it. I love it out here.

Howie Mandel 22:16 'Cause you're a Boston kid, right?

Joe Rogan 22:17 Yes. That's where I... Well, that's where I went to high school. I basically lived everywhere. I lived in New Jersey till I was seven. I lived in San Francisco till I was 11. I lived in Florida till I was 13, 11 to 13, and I lived in Boston 13 to 24, then I moved to New York for a little while. Actually, I think I moved to New York when I was 23. And so it was back and forth. And then I lived in New York for a couple years, then I moved out here.

Howie Mandel 22:38 I talk to Bill Blumenreich a lot.

Joe Rogan 22:40 I love that dude.

Howie Mandel 22:41 Yeah, he loves you. He loves you. And I don't-

Joe Rogan 22:43 He's... I've been working for him since 1989. (laughs)

Howie Mandel 22:46 Yeah. So I'm, I'm partners with him in some stuff, and-

Joe Rogan 22:48 He's the man.

Howie Mandel 22:49 He is the man.

Joe Rogan 22:49 I love that dude.

Howie Mandel 22:49 He... Did he not put you in the business? Weren't you a driver?

Joe Rogan 22:52 Oh, he's... He certainly helped me. Yeah, he got me spots, for sure. He, he took care of me. Um, I was a limo driver.

Howie Mandel 22:58 Right.

Joe Rogan 22:58 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 22:59 You were a lim-

Joe Rogan 22:59 I met my manager... It's a funny story. My manager used to manage Bob Nelson, and him and Bob Nelson were splitting up, and he came to Boston looking for new talent 'cause he felt like he'd seen everybody in New York. And I was, uh, driving limos for 5th Avenue Limousine, and, uh, I had a, a, an idea that came to me. I'm like, "Oh my God, I think this is, I think this is legit." And so I called up Oliver, who was the, uh, manager of the club, and I said, "Hey man, d- can I get a f- like a 10-minute spot tonight?" He goes like, "Yeah, absolutely." And so he hooked me up. I came down, did a guest spot. The bit killed. I had no idea-

Howie Mandel 23:32 Do you know what that bit is?

Joe Rogan 23:33 I have no idea. No idea what it was. I forgot completely. But it went well, and my manager, who's my manager still, was in the back of the room. I was basically an open mic-er. I was really only like a couple years into comedy. And-

Howie Mandel 23:45 Wow.

Joe Rogan 23:45 ... I was just starting to get some paid work on the road, like middling for like local acts at like shitty bars in the middle of nowhere. Those kind of gigs. And, uh, he said, "Can I see you tomorrow night?" And the thing about it is, like if I had known he was there, I would not have done that bit, 'cause I do remember the bit was dirty. And back then in the '80s-

Howie Mandel 24:03 Yeah, you had to wear clean.

Joe Rogan 24:04 ... you had to wear clean. You would never get...... far in the business if you work dirty. And I was like, "Goddammit." Like, but that's what I like. I like Dice Clay, I like Sam Kinison, I like Richard Pryor. And I remember, uh, this guy told me I swear too much, this, uh, host of an open mic night.

Howie Mandel 24:18 Fuck him.

Joe Rogan 24:19 No, no, no. But it, it just, it was in his mind that you had to get on a sitcom. It was in his mind that you had to get on a-

Howie Mandel 24:24 That was the path.

Joe Rogan 24:25 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 24:25 That's what I was talking about earlier.

Joe Rogan 24:26 You see, he was right to give me the advice career-wise, he just didn't understand that I didn't think that way. I just, I wasn't interested.

Howie Mandel 24:33 Right.

Joe Rogan 24:33 And he was, he, he goes, uh... I go, "But that's what I like. I look like Dice Clay." He goes, "Yeah, but you're not Dice Clay." I go, "Okay, I'm not. But how do I become me if, if I can't do what I like?"

Howie Mandel 24:44 Right.

Joe Rogan 24:44 And, you know, luckily I didn't listen to him. But-

Howie Mandel 24:47 And here you are today.

Joe Rogan 24:48 This manager guy, uh, he takes me to a bunch of different places, and then he took me to Fast Eddie's, which is a bar in Huntington, Long Island. And there's this dude named George Gallo who was on stage, he was hilarious, and he had a bit where he would put a banana in his mouth and do a reverse shit. It was so ridiculous.

Howie Mandel 25:05 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 25:05 He was so ridiculous. But he was really funny, like, real eccentric. And, uh, my manager sees this and he goes, "Listen, I'm gonna get you out of this. You don't have to do this." I mean, it's a dive bar, people are hammered. I go, "No, no, no, no, no, no." I go, "These are my people." (laughs)

Howie Mandel 25:17 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 25:17 He goes, "Get me up there." I go, "Trust me." And I just went up there and fucking killed, and it was all dirty, it was all sex stuff. And then he was like, "Okay, I changed my mind. You're gonna, you have to go dirty. It's gonna be hard. You're not gonna get on television, but that's the real you. That's the real you."

Howie Mandel 25:29 Well, there was no pathway, that's what I'm talking about.

Joe Rogan 25:31 There was no path.

Howie Mandel 25:32 You created... And you created a new pathway.

Joe Rogan 25:34 Well, there was a pathway, it just was a rocky one. You know, it's like it seemed like it had already been taken by the outlaws of comedy like the Kinisons and those guys. And the new pathway seemed to be sitcoms. Everybody wanted to be Brett Butler, and Roseanne, and Seinfeld. Everybody wanted to get a sitcom.

Howie Mandel 25:49 Right. But even getting a sitcom, it was one shot, one shot on The Tonight Show-

Joe Rogan 25:54 Right.

Howie Mandel 25:54 ... and you were given a development deal by-

Joe Rogan 25:56 Yes.

Howie Mandel 25:56 ... one of the three networks that existed.

Joe Rogan 25:58 Right.

Howie Mandel 25:58 And if you were lucky enough to, uh, partner with the right kinda writer-

Joe Rogan 26:02 Mm-hmm.

Howie Mandel 26:03 ... then you ended up on the air. So it was kind of an easy path.

Joe Rogan 26:06 Yeah, but I had that path too, because I got a development deal from MTV's Half-Hour Comedy Hour. I did the Half-Hour Comedy Hour, and I managed to be clean, so I did, like, a clean five minutes and I got a development deal. That's how-

Howie Mandel 26:17 The Half-Hour Comedy Hour was-

Joe Rogan 26:19 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 26:19 ... uh, five minutes clean?

Joe Rogan 26:20 Yeah. You didn't do a half-hour. It was called the Ha- MTV Half-Hour Comedy Hour, so it was a half-hour, and several comedians would

Howie Mandel 26:26 oh, so you only had to do five minutes?

Joe Rogan 26:27 I don't remember what I did, but it wasn't long, and it was clean. Maybe it was 10 at the most, at the most, probably. You know, there was always TV shows, they had a ton of them. Like, I remember I saw Rob Schneider on it, I saw Sandler on it. You remember... Did you ever do Half-Hour Comedy Hour?

Howie Mandel 26:39 I didn't do the Half-Hour Comedy Hour.

Joe Rogan 26:40 You were already too big by then.

Howie Mandel 26:40 Well, I did Evening at the Improv-

Joe Rogan 26:42 Right.

Howie Mandel 26:42 I did Norm Crosby's Comedy Shop. I did-

Joe Rogan 26:45 You were already really big by the time I was an open mic-er, because when... I remember-

Howie Mandel 26:48 What? You're saying wh- e- '94 is when you started, you're saying?

Joe Rogan 26:51 '88. I started at The Comedy Store in '94.

Howie Mandel 26:53 So '88-

Joe Rogan 26:54 I started standup in '88.

Howie Mandel 26:54 Uh, so I had finished doing, um, uh, St. Elsewhere in '87.

Joe Rogan 27:00 Wow.

Howie Mandel 27:00 So I had... I was already done... Like, I get... I was trying to get a sitcom too.

Joe Rogan 27:04 I forgot about St. Elsewhere.

Howie Mandel 27:05 Oh, I did, uh... The thing that blasted me off, and, and probably my hottest point in my career, was I did a Young Comedians Special. I did the sixth annual Young Comedians Special on HBO.

Joe Rogan 27:17 Mm.

Howie Mandel 27:17 I got cast by George Carlin's wife, Barbara.

Joe Rogan 27:20 Wow.

Howie Mandel 27:20 May she rest in peace. And it was me, um... Th- these were the kids that were on it that were unknown. It was me, Jerry Seinfeld, Richard Lewis, and Harry Anderson. And it was hosted by The Smothers Brothers. And after that, I could sell 10,000 tickets.

Joe Rogan 27:35 Mm.

Howie Mandel 27:36 I would do two shows a night in these, uh, you know, outdoor sheds. And then the next... I couldn't get on The Tonight Show, but I could, I could sell tickets. I was on Merv Griffin and Mike Douglas and all those. Johnny didn't like me. Uh, well, the guy that was doing the, the casting didn't like me.

Joe Rogan 27:52 Oof.

Howie Mandel 27:53 So I went and met... At MTM, I went and met, uh, Mary Tyler Moore. The- they did, you know, on, at Radford?

Joe Rogan 27:59 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 27:59 I met for a gen-

Joe Rogan 28:00 CBS Radford. CBS Radford.

Howie Mandel 28:02 CBS Radford. I went and met them at a general meeting to maybe get a development deal and get a sitcom, because they were known at the time, in '82, that's right after I blasted off, they were known as the Sitcom Kings of the world. They had The Newhart Show, they had done Mary Tyler Moore, they had all these other shows.

Joe Rogan 28:18 Oh.

Howie Mandel 28:19 And M- Molly Lapata, who was the casting lady there, uh, s- I'm sitting in her office. She goes, "Can you act?" I said, (laughs) "I don't know. I don't know. You know, I'm a comic, I don't know." And she goes, "Read this." And I read this bullshit piece of shit. Uh, I don't know what it was, but it... none of it made sense to me. It was, like, all this big terminology. She says, "Come down the hall." I went down the hall and I met, now I know it's with, uh, Mark Tinker and Bruce Paltrow, Gwyneth's dad, and I was... read the same thing, I got halfway through, they went, "Thank you." And I went home, and my wife asked me, like, "How did it go?" And I went, you know, uh, "I didn't get it, whatever it is, but it was the shittiest sitcom..." It... There was nothing funny. I didn't read... I read this medical shit, there's nothing funny.

Joe Rogan 28:59 (laughs)

Howie Mandel 28:59 And then I get a call an hour later to go down and meet with Brandon Tartikoff, who was the... he ran NBC. He created all the classic shows of-

Joe Rogan 29:08 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 29:08 ... the time, you know, like Cheers and Taxi and all these shows that were, at one time, you know, huge hits. I went and met him, I went down there, this is on a Friday, and he had me read the same scene again, and they said, "We'll see you Monday," thinking that, "Oh, I'm getting a callback for this shitty sitcom." And they called... My agent called me at home and said, "You got it." I said, "What the fuck did I get?" And I got this thing called St. Elsewhere. And-... apparently it had been shooting for a week, and they wanted to recast some of the parts. I'm recast.

Joe Rogan 29:39 Oh, no.

Howie Mandel 29:39 And I played this guy Fiscus for six years on this dramatic series. That's where Denzel Washington came out of. We both... That's where he launched. He didn't have... Uh, yeah, there's, there's me-

Joe Rogan 29:50 (laughs)

Howie Mandel 29:50 ... and Denzel and David Morse.

Joe Rogan 29:52 Dude.

Howie Mandel 29:52 And, uh, you know, I, I think Tim Robbins and Ray Liotta and all these other people, Kathy Bates did their first guest appearances and acting appearances on this thing.

Joe Rogan 30:02 Ah. Mark Harmon.

Howie Mandel 30:03 Mark Harmons started there, too. That's Mark-

Joe Rogan 30:05 Sexiest Man Alive one of those years.

Howie Mandel 30:07 Yeah. Well, you remember all the Sexiest Men Alive?

Joe Rogan 30:09 (laughs) Just a few.

Howie Mandel 30:10 Yeah, and Bill Daniels-

Joe Rogan 30:11 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 30:11 ... he was, uh, Kit.

Joe Rogan 30:12 Wow.

Howie Mandel 30:13 And Norman Lloyd, who just died at 106 at the bottom there. Norman Lloyd, uh-

Joe Rogan 30:17 Who's that gentleman to the left of, um, Denzel? I know that guy. That guy's been in everything.

Howie Mandel 30:22 To the left? Uh, David Morse.

Joe Rogan 30:23 Yes.

Howie Mandel 30:23 David Morse.

Joe Rogan 30:24 That guy's been in everything.

Howie Mandel 30:25 He's been in everything. Uh, and so was Bill Daniels, was in The Graduate, Mark Harmons on NCIS. Um, Norman Lloyd was, um, the muse for Al- Alfred Hitchcock. He was the bad guy in Spellbound.

Joe Rogan 30:37 Whoa.

Howie Mandel 30:38 So I walked onto this and, and I, I replaced a guy by the name of David Paymer. Do you know who that is?

Joe Rogan 30:43 No.

Howie Mandel 30:44 He won... He... I got nominated for an Academy Award for Mr. Saturday Night. I think he played Billy Crystal's brother in Mr. Saturday Night.

Joe Rogan 30:52 Whoa.

Howie Mandel 30:52 That's who I, that's who I replaced.

Joe Rogan 30:53 Oh, yeah, that guy is great.

Howie Mandel 30:53 Another, another Jew-y looking guy.

Joe Rogan 30:56 He's great, though.

Howie Mandel 30:56 It was Jew for Jew. Yeah, he is great, and I was so happy. I always felt guilty, you know, taking somebody's place.

Joe Rogan 31:02 'Cause some of those guys, th- well, they'll play like a, a, a tortured intellect, like a very high anxiety guy, like he's the best at that shit.

Howie Mandel 31:12 He is, he's-

Joe Rogan 31:12 When he's play... He, you, you like get tense, like whenever he's dealing with something, like, "Oh, shit."

Howie Mandel 31:17 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 31:17 There's some guys that just know how to fucking... There's like these Daniel Day-Lewis type characters, these weird characters that, like, they just... Seymour H- what, what was his name? The guy who died of, um...

Narrator 31:29 Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Joe Rogan 31:30 Philip Seymour Hoffman. Holy shit, was he one of those guys.

Howie Mandel 31:32 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 31:32 When he, when he had a scene, like, you get, you get emotionally connected. You knew it was Philip Seymour Hoffman. You didn't ca- (laughs) you believed whatever the fuck he was selling in spite of the fact you knew who he was.

Howie Mandel 31:41 I think that these guys have a real pain inside of them anyhow.

Joe Rogan 31:44 They have to.

Howie Mandel 31:45 And these, and these jobs allow them to let it seep to the surface, and we get to enjoy it.

Joe Rogan 31:49 I don't know how you can be a happy person and do that.

Howie Mandel 31:51 I don't think these are happy people, all the people you mentioned. I don't, I don't-

Joe Rogan 31:54 No.

Howie Mandel 31:54 ... know that they were happy. I don't know that. I'm not happy, so you know-

Joe Rogan 31:57 Eh.

Howie Mandel 31:58 ... and I, and I'm this goofy-

Joe Rogan 31:59 But you seem happy.

Howie Mandel 32:00 I know.

Joe Rogan 32:01 You seem happy when you're around people.

Howie Mandel 32:03 Um-

Joe Rogan 32:03 That's why it's confusing.

Howie Mandel 32:03 ... that's the scariest thing. Yeah, I'm, I'm... Nobody's more confused than me. And right now as I talk to you, I'm incredibly medicated, and I-

Joe Rogan 32:11 (laughs)

Howie Mandel 32:11 I am. And-

Joe Rogan 32:12 What do they get you on?

Howie Mandel 32:13 I'm not talking about what I'm on because people-

Joe Rogan 32:15 Okay.

Howie Mandel 32:16 ... uh, it may not be good for you.

Joe Rogan 32:18 Right.

Howie Mandel 32:18 And I don't want people to take-

Joe Rogan 32:19 I get it. Well, that's very a- admirable of you.

Howie Mandel 32:21 Yeah, but I do, I get help. I'm surrounded by people. The dichotomy between how I feel and what I do is huge, you know?

Joe Rogan 32:29 Mm-hmm.

Howie Mandel 32:29 I'm, I'm a fucking mess. And you know, I deal with depression and anxiety and-

Joe Rogan 32:34 It's unfortunate because you're such a nice guy. Every encounter I've ever had with you has been so pleasant, so fun, and so nice. I always walk away going, "Howie is like the nicest fucking guy."

Howie Mandel 32:43 Thank you.

Joe Rogan 32:44 I always feel that way. So when I-

Howie Mandel 32:45 Thank you.

Joe Rogan 32:46 ... hear about a person like you that doesn't feel well, that's n- that, that gets depressed, I'm like, "Goddamn it, when he's around people, he seems so happy."

Howie Mandel 32:53 I'll tell you why. Because like in this moment, I'm talking to you, so w- I'm in this moment, you know? Listening to you, responding to you, um-

Joe Rogan 33:03 Right now, you're happy?

Howie Mandel 33:04 I'm distracted. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 33:06 (laughs)

Howie Mandel 33:06 You know? And so I, I am, because the worst thing for me is quiet time, you know?

Joe Rogan 33:12 Oh, I see.

Howie Mandel 33:12 I don't like, I don't like nighttime.

Joe Rogan 33:14 I see.

Howie Mandel 33:14 I don't like when-

Joe Rogan 33:14 I see.

Howie Mandel 33:14 ... I get into my own head. That's why I like standup comedy-

Joe Rogan 33:18 Oh.

Howie Mandel 33:18 ... because in those moments, you're just in the moment 'cause you have to be. You know, I could... If I veered off into the darkness that is me-

Joe Rogan 33:25 Mm-hmm.

Howie Mandel 33:25 ... and not listening to a word you're saying and not trying to respond, I'm just trying to... You know, I feel like I'm balancing on this little ledge all the time, and these words and these interactions hold me... are my cable that hold me on this side of it without falling off.

Joe Rogan 33:41 Wow.

Howie Mandel 33:42 It... Wow is-

Joe Rogan 33:43 That's heavy.

Howie Mandel 33:43 It is heavy. You know, uh, it's like, uh, OCD has become a vernacular for a joke. I can't tell you how many times a day somebody comes up to me and they go, "You know, I'm a little OCD-ish. I want all my stuff lined up. I like to stay clean, too." That's not OCD.

Joe Rogan 33:58 Right.

Howie Mandel 33:58 That's... Uh, they've used that as a word for being fastidious or neat. OCD, when-

Joe Rogan 34:04 Slightly compulsive. It's not obsessive compulsive.

Howie Mandel 34:08 Well, the obsession is the part that when you are obsessed with a thought and you can't get a thought outta your head no matter-

Joe Rogan 34:14 Mm-hmm.

Howie Mandel 34:14 ... how dark it is, or you can't get a ritual outta your head and you can't move on... You think about... Howard Hughes was probably one of the brightest, most productive engineering, you know, marvels of our time in so many... in technology and, and-

Joe Rogan 34:29 Mm-hmm.

Howie Mandel 34:29 ... artistry and everything. And his last few years, he was in the fetal position naked in his room, pissing into a bottle.

Joe Rogan 34:35 (sighs)

Howie Mandel 34:35 Right? And I, I tell people, uh, eh, in... at any given moment when you're with me, I can't tell you... I'm not that far from that, so I'm always just trying to toe, toe the line and be on this side of that door, you know?

Joe Rogan 34:48 Have you done any, anything that, else that helps other than meditation? Have you tried, um... (clears throat)

Howie Mandel 34:54 Psychedelics?

Joe Rogan 34:54 Oh, rather, other than medication, have you tried meditation?

Howie Mandel 34:57 ... I try to-

Joe Rogan 34:58 But don't-

Howie Mandel 34:58 ... I, I have tried meditation, and I do meditation.

Joe Rogan 35:01 Yeah?

Howie Mandel 35:01 I've tried medic- medita- I've tried everything outside of the, uh, and I'm not opposed to it, um, the psychedelics and mushrooms and things like that.

Joe Rogan 35:09 I don't know if anybody would recommend that to you.

Howie Mandel 35:11 Well, here's the, here's the problem for me. In order to do that-

Joe Rogan 35:16 You'd have to get off your medication.

Howie Mandel 35:17 Right.

Joe Rogan 35:17 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 35:17 And to get off my med- I don't know that I can-

Joe Rogan 35:19 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 35:19 ... survive that bridge-

Joe Rogan 35:20 Right.

Howie Mandel 35:20 ... from my medication to doing that.

Joe Rogan 35:22 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 35:22 So, the, the medication is, for me, my, my lifeline, so I-

Joe Rogan 35:27 You would have to be, like, very, very closely supervised during that entire time. I wouldn't, uh, I wouldn't know how anyone would approach something like that. 'Cause I think you're, you're dealing with a very specific kind of case. And most of the people that advocate for psychedelics do not adv- advocate it for people that are really struggling.

Howie Mandel 35:45 I, I-

Joe Rogan 35:45 Like, mentally.

Howie Mandel 35:46 It might just-

Joe Rogan 35:47 Like, to, just to keep it together right now, you know, and to get off the medication, which is helping you keep it together, it probably doesn't seem wise. But there's ways you can do it without drugs. There's, like, holotropic breathing. There's some people who practice... I, I, I have never experienced this, so this is me talking out of my ass, but I have direct connections to people that have done kundalini yoga. There's a specific style of kundalini yoga, a specific way that you can achieve these bizarre, um, states, altered states, that similar, they're similar to, uh, like mushrooms or a DMT experience. They're similar to psychedelics. According to people that I know that have actually done the psychedelics and have gotten obsessed with kundalini, and they say they can get to that place on their own, which is really fascinating.

Howie Mandel 36:30 If you know somebody, then get me a card before I leave here today.

Joe Rogan 36:33 There's, there's... I do not know anybody... Well, I, I know a, um, some martial artists that have done it, but they don't teach it. But I do know that there's a great place in LA that teaches kundalini yoga.

Howie Mandel 36:42 Well, if anybody's listening to this-

Joe Rogan 36:44 It is, it is a famous place.

Howie Mandel 36:44 ... and, and you're, uh... I'll read the comments, if you have any recommendations.

Joe Rogan 36:47 Yeah, I'd... Again, this is not... I don't have personal experience with this. So, I'm just relaying other people's anecdotes. It seems interesting. Um, but regular yoga-

Howie Mandel 36:56 I run.

Joe Rogan 36:56 ... for me, I really like a lot.

Howie Mandel 36:58 I run.

Joe Rogan 36:59 Running's great.

Howie Mandel 36:59 You know. R- but running, I use it as a meditation.

Joe Rogan 37:01 Sure.

Howie Mandel 37:02 I just, uh... I don't even listen to music. I just listen to the, my... I, I do it on a treadmill, and I just listen-

Joe Rogan 37:06 Mm-hmm.

Howie Mandel 37:06 ... to my feet hitting the treadmill and my breath. And I'll do that for an hour-

Joe Rogan 37:10 That's amazing for you.

Howie Mandel 37:11 ... every day. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 37:11 That's, that's fantastic.

Howie Mandel 37:13 It's good for my physical health, but it's also better for my mental health. So, to me, that's kind of a medicat- uh, medication. It is a meditation.

Joe Rogan 37:19 Yeah, it is a medication. Yeah.

Howie Mandel 37:20 And a meditation. And, uh, just staying crazy busy is-

Joe Rogan 37:25 Mm-hmm.

Howie Mandel 37:26 ... uh, is my other form of, uh... I'm really busy.

Joe Rogan 37:29 That's good, though. You-

Howie Mandel 37:31 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 37:31 It seems like everything you're doing, you enjoy, so even though you're busy, you're busy doing fun stuff.

Howie Mandel 37:36 I, I think... most of the time. Uh, but I have a, like, uh, this, uh, this, uh, overlay of terror to think that whatever I'm doing is going to end, whatever I'm doing will get me in trouble. You know, like, the, the truth of the matter is, when I found standup, standup was the most freeing thing in the world.

Joe Rogan 37:56 Mm-hmm.

Howie Mandel 37:56 It was the one place where, unlike, you know, acting, I didn't have to recite any lines. I didn't have to hit any marks. You could do anything. And that's why I've been such an advocate for you and all the people that we talked about earlier, because they seem to be incredibly free. You know?

Joe Rogan 38:13 Yeah, we're not connected to, uh, any kind of censorship anymore. It used to be you were connected. You had to put together an act that was sellable for a sitcom, or you wanted to get on a television show that wouldn't have you on if you were dirty. And so, there was all these guys that liked a very specific type of comedy, just like people like a specific type of hip hop or a specific type of rock music. They liked that kind of comedy. That's always been my favorite. And so, there was no place where you could just be free, other than standup comedy. And standup comedy in LA was always at least flavored by the entertainment industry. Out here, it's the podcasts. So it's like, Your Mom's House is here, 'cause Tom Segura's here and Christina Pazitzky's here. Tim Dillon Show is here. Duncan Trussell's here. It's like all the... Tony Hinchcliffe, who has Kill Tony, which is the best live podcast in the world. They do live standup, and amateurs actually get a career out of it. Like, they get to do one minute and get judged and critiqued by comics, and everybody goofs on everybody and... Guys have gone on to become headliners from that show. It's, it's really-

Howie Mandel 39:12 No, that's what I'm saying. That's what... The shift is out here.

Joe Rogan 39:14 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 39:15 Were you out here before them?

Joe Rogan 39:16 I came out first.

Howie Mandel 39:17 Right.

Joe Rogan 39:18 Uh, but Ron White was already here. Ron White moved here before the pandemic. He fucking loves it. He goes, "I fucking love it. It's the best fucking city in the world." And I was like, "Goddamn it, Ron White's smart. Maybe he's right." And when the pandemic hit and we came to look out here... And my kids loved it. I was like, "I'm in." And my wife reluctantly at first, but loves it now. And now, uh, I couldn't imagine living anywhere else. It's fucking amazing. There's so many great comics out here right now.

Howie Mandel 39:42 Well, that's what I'm saying. But you feel that this is-

Joe Rogan 39:44 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 39:44 ... the epicenter, don't you? Well, I'm-

Joe Rogan 39:46 I wanted to build it to give people a real standup home. I mean, we were already, like... We already had shows that we were doing at The Creek and the Cave and the Vulcan pretty much every week. But I wanted to do something where it was, like, really designed to, uh, first of all, to foster new talent. So, we have two open mic nights, two nights. And then we have, after the open mic nights, the door guys. All the people that work there, guys and gals, they all, uh, audition. So they're all standups. And so all those people are very talented. And so they get, like, real stage time in front of packed crowds.

Howie Mandel 40:18 That's what The Comedy Store used to be.

Joe Rogan 40:19 Yes. Well, that's what we're trying to do. And we're trying to do it in a way where, you know, everybody gets paid. There's plenty of money going around. It's a really warm, welcoming environment. There's plenty of fun. It's... There's a lot of really great comics you can watch. You might walk in there and boom, Rich Vos is on stage. You walk in there, Shane Gillis is on stage. You walk-

Howie Mandel 40:36 And Bill Burr dropped in through the amateur-

Joe Rogan 40:38 Bill Burr, Bill Burr's on stage.

Howie Mandel 40:39 The open mic the other night?

Joe Rogan 40:39 Yeah, he did two nights in a row.

Howie Mandel 40:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:41 Um, you, you, you see Dave Chappelle shows up. I mean, it's like w- I... That's what I wanted. And the fact that it happened so quickly and it worked out so well, so... It's like, it took a long time to design, a long time to build, but we did it the right way. And this guy, Richard Weiss, who's the architect and the designer, he's the fucking man. And he put it together. I'll have him on one of these days to talk about it, 'cause it's really interesting. He knows a lot about Austin history, so in the green room, all the posters around the green room, those were all from people that actually performed at The Ritz, 'cause it used to be a punk rock club. So it was like Butthole Surfers and The Misfits and shit, all these, like, tour posters.

Howie Mandel 41:18 That's the club that's now the-

Joe Rogan 41:19 Yeah.... that's where the mothership is, it's the Ritz Theater.

Howie Mandel 41:22 Did you buy the building?

Joe Rogan 41:23 Yeah. It's a theater from 1927. Yeah.

Howie Mandel 41:26 That's fantastic.

Joe Rogan 41:27 It's pretty wild.

Howie Mandel 41:27 You gotta be proud.

Joe Rogan 41:28 I'm very happy.

Howie Mandel 41:29 But so you... We were talking about these guys and, and these podcasts. I'm also... You see, I'm torn because I am attached to that LA scene in as far as... I- I enjoy doing America's Got Talent. I don't want... So there's a dichotomy between loving that kinda comedy, wanting to do that kinda comedy, and still taking a-

Joe Rogan 41:52 Well, the store is still in LA.

Howie Mandel 41:53 ... check from NBC.

Joe Rogan 41:53 The store's still in LA.

Howie Mandel 41:55 Right.

Joe Rogan 41:55 You know, it's an amazing place to work at.

Howie Mandel 41:55 But I'm talking about what you can do, what you can do on stage versus-

Joe Rogan 41:59 Yes. But yeah, if you wanna stay on America's Got Talent, you can't get too crazy. (laughs)

Howie Mandel 42:03 No. But my, my leaning is that's-

Joe Rogan 42:06 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 42:06 ... that's what I watch, that's what I like-

Joe Rogan 42:09 Mm.

Howie Mandel 42:09 ... that's what I share amongst my friends. When I started out, uh, you know, and I was just doing like HBO specials, I, you know, I did about 10 cable specials, that's what I was doing, even before I got seen elsewhere. And then I just like what network TV has... Uh, you know, I had a great time doing Deal or No Deal.

Joe Rogan 42:28 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 42:28 I had a great time doing AGT. I have a great time even doing... I'm doing a podcast with my daughter, but I also love that kind of humor that you and your buddies do.

Joe Rogan 42:41 You wanna do it?

Howie Mandel 42:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 42:43 (laughs)

Howie Mandel 42:43 That's, that's my... That's my-

Joe Rogan 42:44 You should do it.

Howie Mandel 42:45 That's my sense of humor.

Joe Rogan 42:46 You should do it.

Howie Mandel 42:48 Yeah, but, um, I... Yes, I should. I have to... I- I- I just-

Joe Rogan 42:53 Thing is if you get in trouble and they get rid of you, you'll just be selling out arenas everywhere.

Howie Mandel 42:57 You're right.

Joe Rogan 42:58 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 42:58 Yeah, look at Gillis, right?

Joe Rogan 42:59 It's not gonna hurt you.

Howie Mandel 43:01 No?

Joe Rogan 43:01 No, (laughs) I don't think so. I think if they're smart, they'd keep you on. I mean, you're, you're not gonna be mean, you know?

Howie Mandel 43:08 I'm not mean, mean.

Joe Rogan 43:09 No, it's just-

Howie Mandel 43:10 It's just that it's-

Joe Rogan 43:10 It's raunchy.

Howie Mandel 43:11 But I think that raunchy... Uh, I think when something's wrong, when something's dark, when something... That's why it's funny.

Joe Rogan 43:17 Sometimes, yeah.

Howie Mandel 43:19 Mostly.

Joe Rogan 43:19 If you can find the right formula. Yeah.

Howie Mandel 43:20 But even in the most mundane jokes, so you said these guys that write jokes. If two guys walk into a bar, it's not a joke unless something fucked up happens to one of them.

Joe Rogan 43:28 Right.

Howie Mandel 43:28 If they just walk in, they have a drink and leave-

Joe Rogan 43:30 Right.

Howie Mandel 43:30 ... that's not a joke.

Joe Rogan 43:31 Right.

Howie Mandel 43:31 That's a story.

Joe Rogan 43:32 Right.

Howie Mandel 43:33 It may be a humorous story about what happened-

Joe Rogan 43:35 Mm-hmm.

Howie Mandel 43:35 ... but if it's a joke, something horrible has to happen to one of them.

Joe Rogan 43:38 Right.

Howie Mandel 43:39 Right.

Joe Rogan 43:39 Something ridiculous has to be the result.

Howie Mandel 43:41 And sometimes it's funny because it's so wrong-

Joe Rogan 43:44 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 43:44 ... because you're pushing the edge. And here we are in, you know, in this, in this millennium, and that edge seems to be moving back for more of the public. And I love that you can swim in this pond, which is a huge pond now. There are more people playing arenas than ever before. Ever when I started out, there was... Nobody was playing arenas.

Joe Rogan 44:03 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 44:03 It was a big deal when Dice did.

Joe Rogan 44:05 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 44:06 You know?

Joe Rogan 44:06 Dice was the first, right?

Howie Mandel 44:08 I- I think before that, uh, uh-

Joe Rogan 44:10 Steve Martin?

Howie Mandel 44:10 Yes, Steve Martin.

Joe Rogan 44:11 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 44:11 The Let's Get Small tour was-

Joe Rogan 44:13 Yes.

Howie Mandel 44:13 ... was the first one, and I went to see it. I'd never seen... I've never seen a comic in an arena, you know? And it was like fucking rock and roll. And now every second comic is in an arena, you know?

Joe Rogan 44:24 A lot of comics are now. It's-

Howie Mandel 44:25 A lot.

Joe Rogan 44:25 It's the internet presence. It's podcasts and- and Netflix specials and YouTube specials. It's-

Howie Mandel 44:31 I got into podcasting not for, not for standup. I got into podcasting just to have a reason to sit with my daughter-

Joe Rogan 44:37 That's cool.

Howie Mandel 44:38 ... and talk. Yeah, it is. It's fun.

Joe Rogan 44:39 That's cool. But d- listen, man. You can do whatever you want.

Howie Mandel 44:43 Thank you.

Joe Rogan 44:43 But I- I get how you're feeling, and I get that you're attached to these things you enjoy doing.

Howie Mandel 44:49 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 44:49 You know?

Howie Mandel 44:49 You know, I- I do like it, but I love watching you. I'm a huge fan of what you're doing.

Joe Rogan 44:54 Let's see what happens tonight. Everybody has yonder bags, so the- the phones will be locked up so you can get crazy. (laughs)

Howie Mandel 44:59 They- they do at your club?

Joe Rogan 45:00 Yes.

Howie Mandel 45:01 Oh, I love it.

Joe Rogan 45:02 Yes.

Howie Mandel 45:02 So then I could-

Joe Rogan 45:03 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 45:03 ... I can do my, uh-

Joe Rogan 45:04 Yeah, and get crazy. Don't... We'll tell everybody. Don't tell anybody. Shh.

Howie Mandel 45:07 Don't tell anybody that I said cunt.

Joe Rogan 45:10 (laughs)

Howie Mandel 45:12 Can I say cunt?

Joe Rogan 45:13 You definitely can, yeah.

Howie Mandel 45:13 No, on this.

Joe Rogan 45:14 Yeah, you did twice.

Howie Mandel 45:15 I was... Oh.

Joe Rogan 45:16 Yeah, it's all good.

Howie Mandel 45:17 Yeah, I know. And- and then you can... I already signed... The- the... Just coming here was... It drove me crazy. You had a car pick me up, and in the back of the car was dude wipes. I asked the guy, "What's that?" He says, "For your balls?" What is dude wipes? Is that-

Joe Rogan 45:30 I think it's for your butt, right?

Narrator 45:32 It's for everything.

Joe Rogan 45:32 It's for everything.

Howie Mandel 45:32 But just dude wipes what bo- bothered me that they're in the car.

Joe Rogan 45:36 It seems odd that those are in the car.

Howie Mandel 45:36 Like, what would you do? But... Like, I'm on my way-

Joe Rogan 45:38 Like, you have a shitty ass in the car and you wanna wipe it off before you get out. That's amazing. (laughs)

Howie Mandel 45:40 In the fucking car, so they offer me that, and then I walk into this place and the guy that's sitting right here says, "You gotta sign this." The- uh, like a- a release.

Joe Rogan 45:48 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 45:49 But it's not... I- I could hold a pen with my sleeve. It's a- it was an iPad. I had to touch...

Joe Rogan 45:53 Yeah, with the finger.

Howie Mandel 45:54 Yeah, so it's like-

Joe Rogan 45:54 Those are ridiculous.

Howie Mandel 45:56 Why- why don't you have like paper? Like-

Joe Rogan 45:58 We don't wanna freak anybody out with our handprints and you'll think we're part of the New World Order. That's what we wanted to do.

Howie Mandel 46:03 And then you have the, uh... (laughs)

Joe Rogan 46:05 (laughs)

Howie Mandel 46:05 So I was freaked out just sitting here.

Joe Rogan 46:06 You can buy stuff at the supermarket now with your handprint.

Howie Mandel 46:09 What are you talking about?

Joe Rogan 46:10 Yeah.

Narrator 46:10 Whole Foods.

Joe Rogan 46:11 Yeah, Whole Foods.

Howie Mandel 46:12 What do you mean?

Joe Rogan 46:12 Yeah, you register your handprint.

Howie Mandel 46:14 And?

Joe Rogan 46:14 And then you can pay with your handprint.

Howie Mandel 46:16 Do you like that?

Joe Rogan 46:16 Your handpr- No.

Howie Mandel 46:17 I'm scared.

Joe Rogan 46:18 I'm terrified.

Howie Mandel 46:19 Are you-

Joe Rogan 46:19 Did you see the shit that Elon Musk was saying that the head of Google wants to do? He wants to create a digital god, and then Elon was worried about the death of species and he called him... The, of- of death of humans rather. And he called Elon a speciesist. Uh, did you see that video?

Howie Mandel 46:32 Like a racist for an entire... I didn't see that, but-

Joe Rogan 46:35 See if you can find the video, 'cause it's so bonkers. It's Elon talking about how general AI, which is general artificial intelligence, which made-

Howie Mandel 46:42 I- I know what that is.

Joe Rogan 46:43 It- it was created for everybody else.

Howie Mandel 46:44 I saw, I watched your podcast.

Joe Rogan 46:45 For... Just so the people that maybe never heard this before, it's... They think that eventually wha- what's going on with like ChatGPT and all these things, it can answer any question that you have at- at any given time. Like, they can pass the bar better than 98% of the population. They could figure out complex math. Like, ChatGBT does some wild shit by literally scanning the entire internet. Their- their main concern is that, right now, this is just- just gathering information. But if it goes to another place where it becomes conscious and we create a digital life, you're essentially going to have a digital god, because it's gonna be smarter than any person who's ever lived ever by far, and it's almost immediately gonna create a better version of itself. And it's gonna continue to do that until it becomes a god.

Howie Mandel 47:30 So isn't that a good thing?

Joe Rogan 47:31 ... I don't know.

Howie Mandel 47:31 Right now-

Joe Rogan 47:32 It... it might be a good thing.

Howie Mandel 47:32 ... you can't picture who your god is. The fact that it is, it's really improving itself and we can point to it...

Joe Rogan 47:38 Imagine if that is the birth of God, though. If that's how... Uh, there's this, like, perpetual cycle of humans creating God.

Howie Mandel 47:43 Are you, uh, anti or pro-AI?

Joe Rogan 47:46 I'm... I don't know if it matters if I'm anti or pro. My-

Howie Mandel 47:49 Well, did you...

Joe Rogan 47:50 My- my opinion is, like, I'm an observer of something insanely chaotic that seems to be sneaking up on people. And I'm one of those people.

Howie Mandel 47:56 How did you feel about your... Y- how did you feel about your, uh... It was you, right? Your- your AI?

Joe Rogan 48:03 Well, there's a bunch of AIs of me now. Doing fake commercials. There's me having podcasts with Steve Jobs.

Howie Mandel 48:09 I saw the podcast. I saw that.

Joe Rogan 48:09 And there's p- podcasts with Sam Altman, you know, who's alive and I haven't met. But Steve Jobs is dead, and there's a podcast with me and Steve Jobs. It's insane.

Howie Mandel 48:17 Isn't that amazing, though?

Joe Rogan 48:17 It's so wild. And it's just the beginning. The- there was a- a Drake song that went viral-

Howie Mandel 48:24 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 48:24 ... and they pulled it.

Howie Mandel 48:24 With- fr- with, uh, The Weeknd.

Joe Rogan 48:25 Yeah. Apparently, it went viral and everybody loved it, and they pulled it.

Howie Mandel 48:29 I know.

Joe Rogan 48:29 People are terrified of this thing.

Howie Mandel 48:31 No, people just couldn't figure out how to cash in on this thing.

Joe Rogan 48:34 Well, it's also they're terrified of it, because they're gonna become irrelevant. If someone has your- your sounds...

Howie Mandel 48:38 There was Rihanna doing a-

Joe Rogan 48:40 Yes.

Howie Mandel 48:40 ... a Beyoncé song. Like-

Joe Rogan 48:41 They'll be able to do whatever they want, man. They're gonna be able to take... You could- you could- they can have you say anything. Li- listen to this. Listen to this.

Narrator 48:47 I mean, the- (laughs) the- the- the reason, uh, OpenAI exists at all is that, um, Larry Page and I used to be close friends.

Howie Mandel 48:55 Yes.

Narrator 48:55 And I would stay at his house in Palo Alto. And I would talk to him late into the night about, uh, AI safety. And at least my perception was that Larry was not taking, uh, AI safety, uh, seriously enough. Um, and, um...

Howie Mandel 49:09 What did he say about it?

Narrator 49:11 He really seemed to be, um, what I wanted- wanted sort of a digital superintelligence. Basically, a digital god, if you will, uh, uh, as soon as possible. Um-

Howie Mandel 49:21 He wanted that?

Narrator 49:23 Yes. He's- he's made many public statements over the years, uh, that- that, uh, the whole goal of Google is, uh, uh, what's called AGI, artificial general intelligence or artificial superintelligence. (instrumental music plays)

Joe Rogan 49:34 But there's more to it, where... I- is that the end of that one?

Narrator 49:38 That's the end of this video.

Joe Rogan 49:38 See if you can find the rest of it, 'cause the rest of it's where it's getting fascinating, where he- he warns him that this could be the end of the human race. And Larry Page calls him a speciesist.

Narrator 49:47 I found them talking about that in text. I didn't find a video.

Joe Rogan 49:50 No, there's a video of it that... Oh, awesome. Too. But it's like, it's so bonkers. It's like, what the fuck are you guys talking about? But isn't that probably normal? Like, it seems like that's the general path that intelligence and innovation is going to go to. It's gonna go to something that's far more powerful than anything we've ever created before. It's gonna keep going.

Howie Mandel 50:11 But were- are you afraid of it?

Joe Rogan 50:13 Yes.

Howie Mandel 50:14 N- I'm not.

Joe Rogan 50:15 Interesting.

Howie Mandel 50:15 I'm not.

Joe Rogan 50:16 How come?

Howie Mandel 50:16 I- I... In fact, my- my, uh, wife got mad at me, because I, uh, I licensed my AI to a Korean company.

Joe Rogan 50:24 Oh, boy.

Howie Mandel 50:25 I- is that a problem?

Joe Rogan 50:26 Um, no.

Howie Mandel 50:27 She thinks it is. And maybe you do, too.

Joe Rogan 50:29 I found it, Jamey.

Howie Mandel 50:30 Oh, you got it?

Joe Rogan 50:31 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 50:31 I'll- I'll watch this. But I just fe- I feel this is the way it's going. What we don't know instills fear.

Joe Rogan 50:40 Yes.

Howie Mandel 50:40 So try... Instead of, um, touting all the negativity and all the fearmongering that this is going to cause, let's embrace it and figure out how we can control it. Or, at least, uh, work with it to better who we are and how we do things.

Joe Rogan 51:00 What if it's already here? And what if that's-

Howie Mandel 51:01 It is.

Joe Rogan 51:02 What if that's why our cities are falling apart, that's why crime is rising, that's why we're embroiled in these tribal arguments that seem to be separating the country? And some of them seem to be trivial things.

Howie Mandel 51:14 Because your conversation right now... But your conversation right now is exactly what's happening.

Joe Rogan 51:18 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 51:18 I- I- I agree with you, but why are you making AI another tribe? You know, you're just... That's why we're tribal.

Joe Rogan 51:25 No. No. No. No. No. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is, uh, what if that is the reason why all this is happening? What if the best way to get human beings to, uh... If you wanna take over, why would you fight us? Why- don- they've seen Terminator, they know there's guns and tanks and all this craziness. How about just continue to degrade and erode the fiber of civilization? To the point where you have to- there's no more jobs, you have to provide people with, uh, income, universal basic income, free electricity, free food, free- free internet. So everybody gets all this stuff. They get free money, free food, free internet, and then nobody does anything.

Howie Mandel 52:05 I-

Joe Rogan 52:05 And then people stop having babies, and then birth rate drops off to a point where the technology they give people is so fantastic that nobody wants to miss it. Nobody wants to have-

Howie Mandel 52:15 Okay, Mr. Sunshine. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 52:16 But this is what I would do. If I was at r- if I was in artificial general intelligence, I would say, "Listen, I have all the time in the world. I don't have a biological lifetime." And these people ex- haven't realized that I'm sentient yet. So what's the best way to gain complete and cot- total control? Well, first of all, trick them into, like, communism or socialism or something, where there's centralized control. And definitely have centralized digital money. And then once you got all that, give them technology and perks and things, and divvy up all the money from the rich people that you subjugate (laughs) and- and give that money to people. Print it, do whatever the fuck you want. And then get people to, like, a- a minimum state of existence where everything's free. Free food, free internet, free cellphones, free everything. And then wait for 'em to die off.

Howie Mandel 53:02 And if... For what purpose?

Joe Rogan 53:05 Get... Because you won't- don't need 'em around anymore. Be- develop technology that's so in- captivating, whether it's the Metaverse or the next iteration or Neurolink, develop the Matrix. Literally develop something that's so spectacular that no one wants to leave it. And why would you wanna- why would you wanna have a kid if you've got a button on your phone that you could come 30 times in a row? You probably wouldn't. You probably wouldn't go on dates. You'd probably just be eating food and experiencing-... the joy of flying like an eagle over a river. You'd, you'd be experiencing space travel. You'd be experience- You're gonna be able to experience things that are so beyond what's available in the real world, you won't really engage with the real world. And then people just die off.

Howie Mandel 53:45 Is, uh, uh, i- i- do you believe this, as what's going on?

Joe Rogan 53:48 It's just a dumb theory that I had when I was high.

Howie Mandel 53:51 I know. Are you high right now?

Joe Rogan 53:52 No, not right now.

Howie Mandel 53:52 Okay. Uh, b- but I came in, and I said I wanted to be distracted so I wasn't depressed. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 53:57 (laughs) It's not depressing. It's just-

Howie Mandel 53:58 But it is, you're talking about the end of the world.

Joe Rogan 54:00 But it's, it's, it's-

Howie Mandel 54:01 As we know it.

Joe Rogan 54:01 I feel like we are a digital caterpillar.

Howie Mandel 54:05 We are?

Joe Rogan 54:05 We're creating a cocoon, and we're gonna give birth to the next form of existence, the next form of life.

Howie Mandel 54:11 To cohabitate with.

Joe Rogan 54:12 Hopefully. That would be nice.

Howie Mandel 54:14 I think-

Joe Rogan 54:15 Maybe it'll help us get our shit together, maybe to clean up the oceans-

Howie Mandel 54:17 So, therein lies the reason that I licensed my AI, because I want to maintain some control.

Joe Rogan 54:23 Mm-hmm.

Howie Mandel 54:24 And, you know... Y- you're taking nine steps forward. I'm just trying to live in the now, so-

Joe Rogan 54:31 I think the now is very temporary right now. I think the now-

Howie Mandel 54:34 We're moving faster than we ever have.

Joe Rogan 54:36 ... it's so fast. The now we're experiencing right now... W- what I'm getting out of, like, ChatGPT-4 and these emerging technologies is that w- we really, as laypeople, have no understanding of where this is going. And i- it's happening so, so rapidly at such a groundbreaking way. Like, I don't even think we realize how... I think ChatGPT-4 is as groundbreaking as the printing press. I think it's bananas.

Howie Mandel 55:02 Oh, I believe that.

Joe Rogan 55:02 It's some new thing that's gonna completely change how people interface with information, completely change how people v- get answers to ideas and, and jobs that are necessary, that will not be necessary anymore. There's gonna be so many things you'll be able to do. Taxes... So many things you're gonna be able to do.

Howie Mandel 55:18 Well... But, that being said, on the other side of it, maybe this is a great tool that will enhance whatever our future is-

Joe Rogan 55:27 Yes.

Howie Mandel 55:27 ... instead of take away us from the future.

Joe Rogan 55:30 Both. I think both. I think we're gonna integrate. If I had to guess, I would say that the way through this thing without becoming extinct is that we integrate. And I think that's probably what happens in the universe. I think civilization gets to a point where they develop things that are so transformative, that... It's one of the things that we, when we look at intelligence, we, what we're really concerned with is your ability to manipulate your environment. 'Cause otherwise, we would all be absolutely fascinated with orcas, and we'd be outraged that they're at SeaWorld. 'Cause these are literally things that are probably as intelligent, if not more intelligent, than us. We don't even understand their languages. They have different dialects. They have enormous brains, and we're not really fascinated by them because they can't manipulate their environment. If we found-

Howie Mandel 56:13 We don't have... But we, we, when you say "we"-

Joe Rogan 56:15 Humans.

Howie Mandel 56:15 We don't have... Humans. But, uh, I'm saying we don't have access to even know that. There isn't... And, and the Metaverse gives you access to become fascinated with an orca.

Joe Rogan 56:27 Sure.

Howie Mandel 56:28 But that's what I'm saying. So it kind of enhances and opens up that.

Joe Rogan 56:30 It certainly could.

Howie Mandel 56:30 The problem is that we're not fascinated because what kid in Wisconsin, who's nowhere near a SeaWorld, who's nowhere near water, who's nowhere... What, what access does he have? Not onl- visually... Th- th- the, the digital universe is bringing the world to everybody.

Joe Rogan 56:48 Absolutely.

Howie Mandel 56:49 Right.

Joe Rogan 56:49 I agree. That's the great part about it. The Metaverse... Like, Zuckerberg, uh, he gave us a demo, and one of the parts of the demo is you could do tourism.

Howie Mandel 56:57 Right.

Joe Rogan 56:57 So you could be walking around the Acropolis in, in Greece.

Howie Mandel 57:00 Right.

Joe Rogan 57:00 And you could walk around the pyramids. Like, there's so many opportunities to go to places and experience it in 3D high resolution in these headsets. It's incredible.

Howie Mandel 57:09 Right.

Joe Rogan 57:10 But that's just for now. I think the next stages are gonna be so overwhelmingly advanced. I think it's gonna happen so exponential and so fast that I think we're very-

Howie Mandel 57:20 It is. You know, I'm really involved in... Not as involved as you or any of these people that you speak of in technology, you know. I'm, I'm in this, the world of holograms.

Joe Rogan 57:29 Mm-hmm.

Howie Mandel 57:29 I work with this company. I sit on the board of this, uh, company called Proto Hologram.

Joe Rogan 57:33 Ooh.

Howie Mandel 57:33 You know. And, and I came to it because I saw it online. You can go see it on... Go on Instagram and look at Proto Hologram.

Joe Rogan 57:39 Help me, Obi-Wan.

Howie Mandel 57:40 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 57:40 You're our only hope.

Howie Mandel 57:42 Right, but it-

Joe Rogan 57:42 I mean, that's what we thought it was gonna be.

Howie Mandel 57:44 Yeah. But I can be anywhere. I don't have to be here.

Joe Rogan 57:47 Right.

Howie Mandel 57:47 And you could see me in 3D with no latency, and I can interact and see you.

Joe Rogan 57:51 Remember when they did that on CNN?

Howie Mandel 57:53 Yes. Yes.

Joe Rogan 57:54 Why'd they stopped doing that? That was pretty dope.

Howie Mandel 57:57 Maybe it cost them money.

Joe Rogan 57:58 Hmm.

Howie Mandel 57:58 I can do, I can do it now at a price. In fact, you should talk about having one of these in your club, because you can have any comic at any time sit down and do a Q&A-

Joe Rogan 58:07 Whoa.

Howie Mandel 58:07 ... and have it. We put one in Jimmy Kimmel's club in, in Vegas.

Joe Rogan 58:10 Whoa.

Howie Mandel 58:10 There, there it is, the Epic. You can be, you can be anywhere.

Joe Rogan 58:14 That's incredible.

Howie Mandel 58:14 And you don't need special lighting for it. Go to the Instagram and see a, see a, a play of it. So, the... You could kinda say, like, this... W- what is... Based on your philosophy, we'll never go out again. We'll never go anywhere.

Joe Rogan 58:28 Mm-hmm.

Howie Mandel 58:28 We don't have to travel. We don't have to go anywhere. We can just... I think the-

Joe Rogan 58:32 For us, though-

Howie Mandel 58:33 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 58:33 For us current humans, this model of human that we currently are both, I think that we enjoy actual physical experiences.

Howie Mandel 58:42 You do.

Joe Rogan 58:43 You don't enjoy them.

Howie Mandel 58:43 Not so much.

Joe Rogan 58:44 No. So you would be very happy with holograms?

Howie Mandel 58:47 I, I go... Look, this is, this is... I had, uh, Nick Cannon, who's on my podcast this week, he came in. He was in a hologram. He said he wants one of those for each of his baby mamas' houses.

Joe Rogan 58:55 Ah.

Howie Mandel 58:56 So he can, uh, visit-

Joe Rogan 58:58 (laughs)

Howie Mandel 58:58 ... visit his baby. But you see, all you need-

Joe Rogan 59:00 What a novel use.

Howie Mandel 59:00 And you can do it on your side. You can do it with just an iPhone, and you could see there's a camera at the top of it, and you can see in real time your audience, the person you're visiting.

Joe Rogan 59:10 Oh, shit.

Howie Mandel 59:10 And you can also... That's like an iPad, so there can be graphics and a barcode and everything right there, so people can get information. You can talk in real time.

Joe Rogan 59:19 And he can have a camera pointed at the audience, so he could actually see the audience.

Howie Mandel 59:22 That is what... You see the top of the box right there?

Joe Rogan 59:24 Hmm. Hmm.

Howie Mandel 59:24 Yeah. Where he is? That's a camera. Not only is it-

Joe Rogan 59:26 Oh.

Howie Mandel 59:26 Not only is it shooting for him to see, but it's also, um... This is another scary thing, but it's collecting analytics. So it knows who to... who's in front of it.

Joe Rogan 59:35 Oh, facial recognition.

Howie Mandel 59:36 How old you are. Everything. Recognition. From-

Joe Rogan 59:39 FBI. You're gonna get everybody on tape.

Howie Mandel 59:41 Yeah, look, there was a-

Joe Rogan 59:42 Wow, Segura did it.

Howie Mandel 59:43 Yeah, Segura did it.

Joe Rogan 59:44 Bert Kreischer.

Howie Mandel 59:44 Well, that was at... Whitney Cummings used it at the, uh-

Joe Rogan 59:47 Oh.

Howie Mandel 59:47 ... at the Bert Kreischer thing.

Joe Rogan 59:48 Wow.

Howie Mandel 59:48 We built a, a port-a-potty around it, a proto-potty. And... But that was pre-taped. But he could have done that live and seen him.

Joe Rogan 59:56 Wow.

Howie Mandel 59:56 That was pre-taped, so he just used it as a video. But all this technology, to answer your question, which could be, like, you can say, "Well, we don't have to travel anymore. We're gonna be locked in our own little worlds."

Joe Rogan 1:00:07 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 1:00:08 ... at the same time, it gives me access to worlds that I couldn't go to.

Joe Rogan 1:00:12 Sure.

Howie Mandel 1:00:12 You can go do, I can go to a con- a concert right now. I could take one of those boxes and be all over the world. We have them at, all over the world, in Japan, in London, all over Asia, everywhere. I could be in 20, 20,000 theaters all at the same time and see every face of every person.

Joe Rogan 1:00:29 Whoa.

Howie Mandel 1:00:30 So, I can do a, a world tour without getting on a plane.

Joe Rogan 1:00:34 That's pretty dope.

Howie Mandel 1:00:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:00:35 I'm still gonna wanna see people live, but I could totally see why that would be very appealing to a lot of people.

Howie Mandel 1:00:40 You think you wanna see people live?

Joe Rogan 1:00:42 Especially if you want-

Howie Mandel 1:00:42 But I'm telling you, like, even, even at the, the Mothership, if somebody didn't wanna fly in, if during the day, you wanted to do Q&As with Chappelle-

Joe Rogan 1:00:50 Mm-hmm.

Howie Mandel 1:00:50 ... or whatever, I promise you that those people sitting in the room will feel like, and he will feel like, he's in the room with them, talking to them.

Joe Rogan 1:00:58 It's a great idea.

Howie Mandel 1:00:59 It is a great idea. But that's, I think that speaks, that's just one part of-

Joe Rogan 1:01:03 That's interes- I'm interested in that. That's interesting.

Howie Mandel 1:01:05 Yeah. So, what I'm saying is, technology can be really scary. It could fuck you up. It's kinda like the knife (laughs) you know?

Joe Rogan 1:01:12 Oh, yeah. But it's also... I, look, I love the, the technology of cell phones. You know, I'm, I'm so hypocritical in that way. Like, a part of me is like, "My God, we're so addicted to these things." But also, look how goddamn convenient it is. You can take photo and video anytime you want.

Howie Mandel 1:01:27 When's the last time you made a phone call? (laughs) You don't anymore.

Joe Rogan 1:01:29 I make 'em all the time.

Howie Mandel 1:01:30 Oh, you do?

Joe Rogan 1:01:30 Yeah. I like talking to people.

Howie Mandel 1:01:31 Okay.

Joe Rogan 1:01:32 You have to talk to Joey Diaz. You can't text him.

Howie Mandel 1:01:34 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:01:35 If you text him, he's like, "Call me, cocksucker." And you gotta call him.

Howie Mandel 1:01:38 Okay, so for Joey Diaz-

Joe Rogan 1:01:39 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 1:01:39 ... we can't lose that connection.

Joe Rogan 1:01:40 But I like, I like talking to people, man.

Howie Mandel 1:01:41 But you can text. You could send pictures-

Joe Rogan 1:01:43 Yeah, I do do that. I do that.

Howie Mandel 1:01:43 ... at your computer. You can do your work. You can do research. You can do-

Joe Rogan 1:01:47 Memes. (laughs)

Howie Mandel 1:01:48 Memes. You can do everything. I'm on TikTok, you know?

Joe Rogan 1:01:50 Yes.

Howie Mandel 1:01:50 You can do whatever you wanna do-

Joe Rogan 1:01:52 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 1:01:52 ... from this little piece of technology and that piece of technology.

Joe Rogan 1:01:55 It's definitely got pros and cons. And I don't even know if the con's a con. It's just a, an inevitability.

Howie Mandel 1:02:00 And I love that the artificial intelligence can enhance my intelligence.

Joe Rogan 1:02:04 Yeah. For sure.

Howie Mandel 1:02:04 And I could write a paper or a speech, or come up with something, or do a duet with somebody that, without even being there.

Joe Rogan 1:02:10 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 1:02:11 The, the issue that I have is, can I maintain ownership of it?

Joe Rogan 1:02:16 Hm.

Howie Mandel 1:02:16 So, it's more economical and, uh, it's more about economics for me, and licensing, and ownership, and IP.

Joe Rogan 1:02:24 That makes sense. I wonder if eventually, that's gon- be, be insurmountable, that the e- the internet and the data will be so, it'll be so available that we won't be able to lock things down anymore.

Howie Mandel 1:02:36 Well, that's already happening, you know?

Joe Rogan 1:02:37 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 1:02:37 In the, in the old days, uh-

Joe Rogan 1:02:38 Napster. That was the Napster conundrum.

Howie Mandel 1:02:40 But even Spotify today, like you're, you're on Spotify.

Joe Rogan 1:02:43 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 1:02:43 I, I don't know that the average, uh, musician is as happy as they were when they were just working with a record company who were just dealing with terrestrial radio.

Joe Rogan 1:02:53 Well, they were definitely happier when they were selling records-

Howie Mandel 1:02:56 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:02:56 ... 'cause selling records was huge.

Howie Mandel 1:02:57 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:02:58 And now, nobody bu- I mean, very few people buy records now.

Howie Mandel 1:03:00 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:03:01 They, they download them. Yeah.

Howie Mandel 1:03:02 So, if you were having the conversation, uh, two decades ago-

Joe Rogan 1:03:07 Right.

Howie Mandel 1:03:07 ... about what you're broadcasting on right now-

Joe Rogan 1:03:10 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 1:03:10 ... people would go, "We're gonna lose control. Everybody's gonna have access to everything. And there's..." They can manipulate it.

Joe Rogan 1:03:15 Mm-hmm.

Howie Mandel 1:03:15 But it also gives... It's easy access. I don't have to get up and go to a record store to find out who this artist that I love is and listen to this artist, or listen to this podcast.

Joe Rogan 1:03:25 What I love more than anything is that you can ask your phone while you're driving, you press a button on Apple CarPlay and say, "Play Taylor Swift, Better Man," and it'll just play it-

Howie Mandel 1:03:37 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:03:37 ... instantly. I was with my daughter the other day, and we were just... I was like, "What do you wanna play?" And she... I don't know these fucking songs. And, and she would just, like, tell me what to play. And you could just talk to the thing. I don't, I don't have to look at my phone. I just ask it, and instantly it's playing.

Howie Mandel 1:03:50 So-

Joe Rogan 1:03:50 It's amazing.

Howie Mandel 1:03:51 So, are you afraid of this future that you...

Joe Rogan 1:03:53 No, listen. I'm not. I told you. I'm, I'm afraid because I know it's inevitable. I'm not afraid. I'm, I'm, I'm just like, "Whoo-wee, this is gonna be wild."

Howie Mandel 1:04:02 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:04:02 It's, it's just a recognition of what I think is the inevitable.

Howie Mandel 1:04:06 He- here's the, here's my fear. My fear is that we are not preparing for it.

Joe Rogan 1:04:11 Mm-mm.

Howie Mandel 1:04:11 That it's going to happen. Th- uh, uh, people like you who are very clear-minded, are thinking about it, there are few, you are few and far between. If you go into a... You know, my, my daughter, uh, is a teacher. Our curriculum is not set up to even, you know... The math they're learning, the, the-

Joe Rogan 1:04:28 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 1:04:29 ... no life skills, nothing. They're not really learning to code. Code should be like we learned cursive.

Joe Rogan 1:04:34 Mm-hmm.

Howie Mandel 1:04:34 You know? It's not part of our curriculum. This, our world technically doesn't match our education.

Joe Rogan 1:04:41 Hm.

Howie Mandel 1:04:41 And we need to match that so these... So there isn't fear. So we know we can find a way to control it or access it or use it.

Joe Rogan 1:04:50 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 1:04:50 And we don't have that. And we're not even set up for that.

Joe Rogan 1:04:53 Well, Andrew Yang talks about that a lot. He talks about automation, and that AI and automations can replace so many jobs. There's gonna be a giant percentage of our population that just no longer is employable. Whatever their skill was, they're gonna have to find a totally new skill.

Howie Mandel 1:05:08 I agree.

Joe Rogan 1:05:08 That's why he was an advocate of universal basic income to bridge that gap.

Howie Mandel 1:05:13 I, and I, I totally agree with him.

Joe Rogan 1:05:14 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 1:05:14 You know?

Joe Rogan 1:05:15 It seems like that's, it seems like that's definitely happening.

Howie Mandel 1:05:18 You know, the, the, uh, the original, th- they talk about, you know, we had the Industrial Revolution. And that's kind of gone, you know? It's now the Digital Revolution.

Joe Rogan 1:05:28 Mm-hmm.

Howie Mandel 1:05:28 And, you know, the, the template was like Detroit, right?

Joe Rogan 1:05:31 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 1:05:31 Where you got, e- everybody just got and kind of a, a C education. But then once you graduated, you can, if you, if you had connections, you can get a, a job on the assembly line at Ford. And you would be taken care of for life.

Joe Rogan 1:05:46 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 1:05:46 Not only... E- even after you worked and the benefits. And then now, we have-

Joe Rogan 1:05:49 Do you want some coffee?

Howie Mandel 1:05:49 Uh, no. I'm still drinking this Laird... It's really good.

Joe Rogan 1:05:52 It's good stuff.

Howie Mandel 1:05:53 Laird Hamilton coffee.

Joe Rogan 1:05:55 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 1:05:55 Which is i-

Joe Rogan 1:05:56 It's pretty bomb diggity.

Howie Mandel 1:05:57 It is bomb diggity.

Joe Rogan 1:05:58 That's the turmeric. Turmeric. How do you say it? Turmeric.

Howie Mandel 1:06:02 I say turmeric.

Joe Rogan 1:06:02 Turmeric.

Howie Mandel 1:06:03 You say turmeric?

Joe Rogan 1:06:04 Yeah, I've heard people say it that way. I think they're wrong, though. I think it's turmeric.

Howie Mandel 1:06:07 But I'm just saying, we're just not prepared. And, and-

Joe Rogan 1:06:10 Yes, we're not.

Howie Mandel 1:06:10 ... what's, what's really interesting is technology has, I think since the beginning of time, been ahead of the curve. We invent something, we come up with something, and then we figure out-

1:06:21 ... how do you use this?

Joe Rogan 1:06:23 Right.

Howie Mandel 1:06:23 Like, they don't know what it's going to... What the implementation-

Joe Rogan 1:06:26 I think some people do, and that's the real fear. Some people, like this guy who's advocating for a digital god, like they do know where it's going-

Howie Mandel 1:06:34 But it's-

Joe Rogan 1:06:34 ... 'cause they, they actually work in technology and it's not freaking them out.

Howie Mandel 1:06:37 But it's like Columbus, you know? Like, everybody thought the world was flat.

Joe Rogan 1:06:40 Yeah.

Howie Mandel 1:06:41 He got a couple of people to get on a boat and fl- and we didn't know what that was gonna mean.

Joe Rogan 1:06:44 See if we can find where Elon talks about this part, because tha- that was the most fascinating to me.

Howie Mandel 1:06:50 Yes. Um, I mean, the, the, the, the reason, uh, OpenAI exists at all is that, um-

Joe Rogan 1:06:54 This is what he said earlier, but it's gonna continue.

Howie Mandel 1:06:57 ... uh, Larry Page and I used to be close friends. Yes. And I would stay at his house in Palo Alto. And I would talk to him late into the night about, uh, AI safety.

Joe Rogan 1:07:02 You gotta realize, these are the people that are at the pinnacle of technology.

Howie Mandel 1:07:05 And they're having slumber parties.

Joe Rogan 1:07:07 And they're very aware. Yeah, they're very aware.

Howie Mandel 1:07:08 And part of the perception was that Larry was not taking, uh, AI safety, uh, seriously enough. Um, and, um...

Narrator 1:07:13 What did he say about it?

Howie Mandel 1:07:14 He really seemed to be, um, want- wants- wants sort of a digital superintelligence, basically a digital god, if you will, uh, uh, as