The Joe Rogan ExperienceJoe Rogan Experience #1989 - Andrew Dice Clay
At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Andrew Dice Clay revisits controversy, mentorship, arenas, and reinvention
- Joe Rogan and Andrew Dice Clay spend the episode walking through Dice’s career arc: from pioneering arena comedy and outrageous controversy in the late ’80s/’90s to his later reinvention as a serious actor and his current love of intimate club shows.
- Dice shares detailed stories about inspiring Rogan to hit the road, being effectively ‘cancelled’ decades before social media, and the creation of his infamous anti‑comedy album *The Day the Laughter Died*.
- They also discuss industry dynamics at The Comedy Store, how comics used to undercut each other compared with today’s camaraderie, and the power of self‑belief, work ethic, and resilience in the face of backlash.
- Along the way, they veer into gambling stories, health scares, pyramids and lost civilizations, and Dice’s bizarre street videos that channel his old confrontational energy in a new form.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasMentorship can radically change a career if you act on it.
Dice telling a young Rogan to “hit the road” moved Rogan from $25 Comedy Store sets into national touring, which Rogan credits as a life‑changing push toward the career he has now.
Being first often means taking the backlash alone.
Dice’s leap into arena comedy, ultra‑blue material, and a deliberately ‘bombing’ album put him in uncharted territory, making him a lightning rod for criticism years before social media but also a template for today’s big‑room comics.
Own your persona, but separate it from who you really are.
Dice emphasizes that his onstage misogynistic ‘Dice’ character was an act, not the real Andrew, noting his genuine romantic nature and frustration that critics flattened him into a one‑dimensional villain.
Resilience and self‑belief can outlast coordinated media pile‑ons.
From the MTV ban to SNL walkouts and top comics publicly attacking him, Dice survived by refusing to back down, continuing to tour, and later rebuilding through acting and niche fanbases.
Comedic innovation sometimes looks like career suicide in the moment.
Releasing *The Day the Laughter Died*—a double album of intentional anti‑comedy—confused executives and even Rodney Dangerfield’s contemporaries, but it became a cult classic among comics and fans as a kind of ‘performance art bible.’
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotes“Every comic gets recorded trying their very best to kill. I did my best to bomb.”
— Andrew Dice Clay (on *The Day the Laughter Died*)
“If Dice didn’t do arenas, we wouldn’t be doing arenas.”
— Joe Rogan
“Nobody fucks with Dice. Dice does the fucking—in the past, the present, the future, and today.”
— Andrew Dice Clay
“How come in movies they know it’s not real, but with comedy they act like it is?”
— Joe Rogan (on people treating Dice’s act as literal)
“Some people go through their whole life never knowing who they are. I always knew who I was.”
— Andrew Dice Clay
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