Joe Rogan Experience #2116 - Kevin James

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   (drum roll) Joe Rogan podcast,…

   1. NANarrator0:00

      (drum roll) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

   2. JRJoe Rogan0:04

      The Joe Rogan Experience.

   3. NANarrator0:06

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day.

   4. NANarrator0:10

      (instrumental music)

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:13

      Let's go, Shimmy. Let's go, Shimmy. Shimmy, Shimmy, Shimmy. Most people don't know about Shimmy. Mm-mm. They don't know about your alter ego. No. Well, yeah, you were the one who brought it out of me. (laughs) You were, right? Well, we would do shows, we would do shows in New York and you would go full Shimmy. (laughs) I'd be on the side of the (laughs) side of the stage yelling out, "Shimmy!" Well, when we first started... By the way, we, we did the Joe Rogan Experience 30 years ago, right? Yeah. It just wasn't millions of people. Just hanging out. Not... Let's... Exactly. Just playing pool. (laughs) Um, you, you... I remember Sussman brought you into town. You started at Nick's? Was it Nick's or... I started at Stitches in Boston. Stitches. And then, uh, I was like two years in when I met you, and then, uh, I think we met at East Side. Mm-hmm. Which was awesome. Great club. What a great club. What a great club that was. I was just there. Shout out to Richie Mantervini. Yes. My man. He, he was... It was, uh, the greatest, the greatest place to go. I remember, uh, it would be a line around the block, two shows like on a Wednesday night. It was insane- Yeah. ... comedy then. That place was just jammed. The golden age of comedy at the time. 1990? Yes. Oh my God, it was incredible back then. '91-ish. I started at '89. I think I met you in... What is it? '90- '91 maybe? '90, '91. Somewhere around there. Yeah, somewhere in there. Uh, and I was, you know, I was following everybody. That was my thing. Like I, I was being the standup comedian with the, you know, the jacket sleeves pushed up and the- (laughs) ... the bolo tie. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. (laughs) Just... Yeah. I was just that straight... And you came into town and we were like, "Who is this dude?" Like, you just didn't care about anything. And it was like, you've always remained the same and it was just incredible to watch. We were like, "Whoa! He just doesn't care." And that's what you were... You, you would work with me on that. You would be like, "Brother, you can't be like you're handing out a platter of food for these pe..." Like, "Do what you wanna do." And I was like, "I just gotta get good. Yeah, I gotta wrap my head around that. You're right." You know? (laughs) I just tried to... (laughs) I would, I would, I would just try to make the audience so happy. Like, "Stop it, stop it." And, "You gotta let go," and you'd get me going crazy. (laughs) I'd get all fired up there. I'd be like yelling at people. They'd be like, "Whoa!" (laughs) It's like, "All right, maybe we bring it back a little bit," but it was different, man. It really was. It was... It, it really taught me to, mo- most of all to be comfortable in front of audience and not care about them. You know, it's... I still... I literally battle with it to this day- Yeah. ... that anxiety of, "Oh gosh, I get nervous and I, I start overthinking things." So, um, but it really helped me to say like, "Just do what you do." And, and it's almost like the... 'Cause the audience is like a dog, right? They'll, they, they sense fear. You know, they sense- 100%. Yeah. They're animals. Yes. Just like we are. Yes. We're all animals. That's right. And it's like they know when you know, and if you're comfortable, even if you're faking it, they'll go with you. You do a joke and you're confident, they'll laugh just because they think it's funny, you know. They look around and everybody's like, "Oh, it must be funny 'cause he's just got confidence about it." And you had that confidence always, man. You were always insanely intense and just never looked back, and way to go, man. Way to go for you too. You just always needed a hype man. Mm-hmm. You, you, you'd just need someone to like let you go. Like, "Give him the green light. Give him the green light!" Yes. It's so funny. You're right, you're right. Yeah, you just needed a hype man. You were the one who did it for me in Montreal too. Yeah. (laughs) Do you remember that? Yeah. Going to this place... (laughs) By the way, do you remember the beer we would drink? There were two kinds of this bee... I can't remember this Canadian beer. I, I've been racking my brain to think about it. It was like, there was like a gold version of it and like an, like an amber. Uh, and it was just the greatest stuff. And we get fired up up there and I loved it, man. I loved going to that Montreal Comedy Festival. Oh, it was the best. Yeah. Back when it was... I think it's gone under. I think they did... Just announced they're going bankrupt. Oh, really? Yeah, unfortunately. See, well, we should tell people what it was. Oh, yeah. So what it was during our time, then... When we were young, was the... Montreal Comedy Festival was where young comedians would go up and you could kinda, kinda get a deal. Yes. And that's where you got the deal to do the King of Queens. Well, I got the deal to do it at NBC. Right. Oh, yeah- And then, and then it turned in- ... and then it turned in- Yeah. Then once that failed- Yeah. ... that went in to, to CBS big time. But once you get in... The thing about... People should know, like in the '90s there was this thing that was happening where everybody looked at a comedian like this could be the next Roseanne, this could be the next Tim Allen- Right. ... this could be the next Seinfeld. So every time they looked at you, they're like, "What do you got?" Right. "What do you got for me?" And the agents would try to put it together as a sitcom. Yes. And they had this showcase called the Montreal Comedy Festival, the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival, and it was the most insane thing. You would go there and it would change your life. You could have one set, one 15-minute set, and all of a sudden you got a half a million dollars. 100%. You have one thing, one set that pops and people talking about, there's a buzz. Yeah. And it's like you're in, you're set. And they have bidding wars. Yes. So like CBS would be, Fox would be- (laughs) ... they would all be throwing in. And, you know, there's guys who walked... Do you remember Chicken? Chicken was the crazy guy? Yes. (laughs) Yes. Yes. Chicken got the deal that killed the deals. Yes, yes. He got like, uh, 800,000 or something. It was some crazy mon- or mil... I don't know what it was but- Some nutty amount of money. But he had no act, right? It was after that they thought he was- He just tricked everybody. He did. And I don't know how he did it, and I wonder if he had a hype man, if you could have kept tricking people. Yeah. 'Cause he- Like, maybe he just went off the rails with anxiety when success starts i-... 'Cause that's one of the things that does happen. And I've talked about it. I think everybody admits it. You... When it first starts happening, you think it's gonna go away, you get super anxiety ridden, you, you k-... You, you feel like an imposter and you, like... You can't beli-... Like you'd show up on the set and you're like, "Are they kicking me out? Like, I'm still here?" My bud, I'm telling you, I've...

   6. ... I still deal with that. I'm not even kidding.

   7. KJKevin James6:05

      Yeah.

   8. JRJoe Rogan6:05

      You obviously don't, and you haven't-

   9. KJKevin James6:07

      I do, though.

   10. JRJoe Rogan6:08

       Do you really?

   11. KJKevin James6:09

       I do, though. Yeah, I do. I just ignore it. I tell it to shut the fuck up.

   12. JRJoe Rogan6:11

       Well, that's what you gotta do, I guess.

   13. KJKevin James6:12

       Yeah.

   14. JRJoe Rogan6:12

       And that's what I don't do enough, because I start thinking. And I get thi- and I start overthinking both sides. I'm like, "Oh, gosh, what if this happens or this, that?" This means something, to this day.

   15. KJKevin James6:21

       Yeah.

   16. JRJoe Rogan6:21

       Like, if I'm doing a, like a theater and it's my people, you know, and I know that they're coming to pay to see me, I, I, I, I'm pretty confident. I feel like I'm gonna do well. But if I do a club that they don't know me or something-

   17. KJKevin James6:34

       Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

   18. JRJoe Rogan6:35

       ... it's a... Like, I did a, a corporate gig, uh, like a month ago, like in Miami. And I was like, you know, I was like, "Oh, boy." 'Cause corporate gigs, you know, they can go either way, and it's-

   19. KJKevin James6:45

       They can be horrible.

   20. JRJoe Rogan6:47

       Well, I get there. It's in Miami. Really good-looking people. Everybody... It's in a lobby of a hotel, and I'm go-... I thought this was in a theater. I'm there, and it's a good b-... And I'm, now I'm getting worried. I'm like, "I gotta do... How much?" And they're like, "You gotta do an hour."

   21. KJKevin James6:59

       (laughs)

   22. JRJoe Rogan6:59

       And then I find out nobody there wants to see me. The woman who was r-... The, the, like CEO of this company was, it was her birthday, and she liked me, so she brought me in to, to, for all her friends to see. Dude, I'm sitting in the lobby. I'm... And I'm finding all this information out-

   23. KJKevin James7:16

       (laughs)

   24. JRJoe Rogan7:16

       ... as I'm sitting there. And I started... I'm not kidding. I started... I've never had a panic attack. I start going, "W- w- what, what do you mean? She doesn't... Nobody else knows I'm here or this or that or they don't know..." And they go, "No, no, no. They don't know. You know, this is a company." And, you know, the... And I'm looking in the room. I... It's in the lobby. I can see through, like a little glass, uh, window, and they're drinking, they're having... They're talking a table... We're set up for comedy too, just like round tables, uh, booths, like not even facing you.

   25. KJKevin James7:41

       (laughs)

   26. JRJoe Rogan7:41

       And I'm on... I see a postage stamp of a stage that I gotta stand on, and I'm like, "Oh, my gosh." So I start hyperventilating.

   27. KJKevin James7:47

       (laughs)

   28. JRJoe Rogan7:48

       I really do. I go... I wish I was going... So I start going, "I, I can't, I, I can't do this." I'm talking to Skyler, my b- my assistant buddy. You know, he's, he's, he's helping me out here. And I'm like, "Hey, just tell them we, we can't do it." He's like, "What are you talking about?" I go, "Just tell them. Uh, we gotta give them the money back. We're just not gonna do it. We don't need to do this. I don't wanna do it. This is not gonna go well." And I started really panicking. And then they started going up. She's up on stage now, introducing me. And I go, "Oh, my gosh, we're going. Oh, my gosh." So I start f- freaking out.

   29. KJKevin James8:13

       (gasps)

   30. JRJoe Rogan8:13

       Heart is going like... Exactly.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   That's- …

   1. KJKevin James15:00

      he takes this victory lap around the stage for like one f- I mean, a full minute, man. It was... I, I filmed it. I put it up on my Instagram.

   2. JRJoe Rogan15:10

      That's-

   3. KJKevin James15:10

      It's insane.

   4. JRJoe Rogan15:11

      ... that's inspiring. That's so crazy.

   5. KJKevin James15:12

      I mean, Tony was just looking at each other and looking around going, "Wow." It just felt special. It felt like special that you could be there, like, "Wow." And then he goes, "O-H," and he puts the, the, the mic out and just-

   6. JRJoe Rogan15:27

      Oh, no, and it's just even bigger.

   7. KJKevin James15:29

      "...ha!" It was insane. It was insane. It was so fucking cool 'cause he's from Ohio.

   8. JRJoe Rogan15:34

      Right.

   9. KJKevin James15:34

      You know, he lives in, in, uh, uh, Yellow Springs, which is like right outside of Dayton.

   10. JRJoe Rogan15:38

       Oh, my goodness.

   11. KJKevin James15:38

       So it's like for him to, to go there like that and, but to be in the round. See, the round is everybody sees everybody.

   12. JRJoe Rogan15:46

       Yes.

   13. KJKevin James15:46

       It's not just you facing this crowd and then you're in the crowd and they're there. In the round, it seems like everyone's all in this together. It's so much better.

   14. JRJoe Rogan15:55

       It's intimate in a special way.

   15. KJKevin James15:55

       Yeah. And the screens are giant, so you just walk around. But like when Dave was facing that way, I'd see his face on the screen. You just... it's not bad. It's like it's still awesome 'cause you're there and everybody just kind of walks around. You just get used to walking around. Nobody really stands still-

   16. JRJoe Rogan16:12

       Right.

   17. KJKevin James16:13

       ... and points in one direction-

   18. JRJoe Rogan16:14

       Right.

   19. KJKevin James16:14

       ... in an, an arena in the round. That would be rude.

   20. JRJoe Rogan16:16

       Well, the screens help. I mean, that is true.

   21. KJKevin James16:18

       Oh, it's massive.

   22. JRJoe Rogan16:19

       Yeah.

   23. KJKevin James16:19

       They're everywhere. They're giant.

   24. JRJoe Rogan16:20

       Yeah.

   25. KJKevin James16:21

       They're 50 feet wide and they're fucking everywhere, so that's... it makes it easy.

   26. JRJoe Rogan16:24

       Wow.

   27. KJKevin James16:24

       It's an experience.

   28. JRJoe Rogan16:25

       I would love to be in the round. I think... I'm in Denver and, and Salt Lake City where I'm worried about this my first time. Arenas, and it's like, "Eeh."

   29. KJKevin James16:32

       Ah, you're gonna have fun.

   30. JRJoe Rogan16:33

       Okay. I don't know, man.
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   And it's kinda like,…

   1. JRJoe Rogan30:00

      that has, uh, you know, uh, made it a little bit easier is when people are coming to see you and they know you as opposed to, "Who's this next guy?" Yeah.

   2. KJKevin James30:07

      And it's kinda like, "Just make me laugh."

   3. JRJoe Rogan30:09

      Right?

   4. KJKevin James30:09

      Way, way, way easier, but also comes with a trap because they'll laugh at stuff that's not that good.

   5. JRJoe Rogan30:16

      Right.

   6. KJKevin James30:16

      Like, the, we've all seen guys who only perform for their crowds only, like, uh, in big places. Like, they only do theaters, only do their crowds only, like... That act can get soft.

   7. JRJoe Rogan30:28

      Yeah.

   8. KJKevin James30:28

      They can get soft and still work-

   9. JRJoe Rogan30:30

      Right.

   10. KJKevin James30:30

       ... 'cause they're not being tested. They're not performing with other comics all the time.

   11. JRJoe Rogan30:35

       Well, you see a lot of these guys now that are developing an act because they did something on, like, Instagram or what, whatever. Like, they, they develop these audiences-

   12. KJKevin James30:43

       Mm-hmm.

   13. JRJoe Rogan30:43

       ... that, you know, they, they get popular.

   14. KJKevin James30:46

       Yeah.

   15. JRJoe Rogan30:46

       And then they put together an act, they go and they, and the clubs are like, "Well, let's put this guy up," you know?

   16. KJKevin James30:51

       Yeah.

   17. JRJoe Rogan30:51

       And, um, uh, they sell out like crazy because, you know, they, they, they, they, they got a big following-

   18. KJKevin James30:58

       Yeah.

   19. JRJoe Rogan30:58

       ... but it's not like working your standup, man. It's a different game.

   20. KJKevin James31:01

       Well, there's also a lot of guys who do crowd control, like they do crowd work stuff. Like, it's like, uh, just fucking around with the crowd, and that's most of these clips. You're seeing a lot of guys who put up clips of crowd work 'cause that way they don't have to, uh, crowd work 'cause you don't have to burn your material. You're just talking to the crowd.

   21. JRJoe Rogan31:19

       Right.

   22. KJKevin James31:20

       You just talk to them.... it's fine.

   23. JRJoe Rogan31:21

       That can go bad.

   24. KJKevin James31:22

       It can go bad, but if you do it enough and you get some funny moments-

   25. JRJoe Rogan31:25

       And you get good at it, right. You get your shapeness.

   26. KJKevin James31:27

       Like Andrew Schulz has a lot of great moments-

   27. JRJoe Rogan31:28

       Right.

   28. KJKevin James31:28

       ... so he's really good at it, and you take those clips, and that way, you're putting shit up, but you're not burning any of your jokes. The problem is, some of those guys can only do that. Schulz is a great comic, like he could do-

   29. JRJoe Rogan31:39

       Right.

   30. KJKevin James31:40

       ... great bits. He could do great... I mean, he can do anything.
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   Where do you even…

   1. KJKevin James45:00

      Uh, probably... easy. Easy. Way more than that. Easy. I could show you probably 200. 200? 200 index cards? (laughs)

   2. JRJoe Rogan45:04

      Where do you even start?

   3. KJKevin James45:05

      In his pocket. (laughs)

   4. JRJoe Rogan45:06

      You go... What... How do you go, "Here's what I'm gonna do tonight. Card 167 to 1..."

   5. KJKevin James45:11

      No, it's a m-

   6. JRJoe Rogan45:11

      How do you do it?

   7. KJKevin James45:12

      It's a window into the madness-

   8. JRJoe Rogan45:14

      Yeah.

   9. KJKevin James45:14

      ... that is the brilliance of his comedy. It's just all... (screams)

   10. JRJoe Rogan45:16

       I remember Richard Lewis would, would, uh, throw out... I mean, like, there'd be a piano up there and he threw out, like, a scroll of, like... It was, like, just, you know, legal pads of paper and thi-... Like, crazy stuff all over, set it all up, and it's like-

   11. KJKevin James45:29

       He was a little nuts.

   12. JRJoe Rogan45:30

       He was nuts with that.

   13. KJKevin James45:31

       Yeah. That was also part of his thing, right? There's Normand's. Look at Normand's stack. I'll read those. Look at this joke. Look at that. Look at that.

   14. JRJoe Rogan45:42

       That's amazing.

   15. KJKevin James45:43

       What? Yeah. I can't believe you carry this around with you. 90% of it. Bro, you're gonna get a bad back. I'm worried about his back. (laughs) But you, you can get a bad back from that. A lot of, like-

   16. JRJoe Rogan45:54

       That's like sitting on a fat wallet.

   17. KJKevin James45:55

       Exactly. Taxi cab drivers-

   18. JRJoe Rogan45:57

       It's bad.

   19. KJKevin James45:57

       ... if they have too much shit in their wallet, you'll, you'll, you'll have a little bit of a lean.

   20. JRJoe Rogan46:00

       I could-

   21. KJKevin James46:01

       You'll get a bulge in your back.

   22. JRJoe Rogan46:02

       I could never do it. I could never... I don't even know what... I need to have it organized. Yeah, it's just-

   23. KJKevin James46:08

       Yeah, you were always a, an organized guy, like even back in the day.

   24. JRJoe Rogan46:12

       I have to be.

   25. KJKevin James46:13

       Which I admire that. I think that's a very important thing that some comics feel like they don't have to do. And you don't have to do it. Some of the greats don't write anything down.

   26. JRJoe Rogan46:21

       Right.

   27. KJKevin James46:21

       Don't get me wrong. But I feel like when I write, if I just physically write, there's jokes that I will get that I won't get if I don't physically write. And not a few of 'em, like a lot of 'em. Like some of my best bits ever came from sitting down and writing.

   28. JRJoe Rogan46:35

       Do you find if you write the bit out, physically write it out, that you remember it better too? Or it not-

   29. KJKevin James46:42

       By hand.

   30. JRJoe Rogan46:43

       Yeah.
5. 1:00:00 – 1:03:23

   I'm a blue belt.…

   1. KJKevin James1:00:01

   2. JRJoe Rogan1:00:01

      I'm a blue belt.

   3. KJKevin James1:00:02

      (laughs)

   4. JRJoe Rogan1:00:03

      And, and barely 30 y- It's like 30... (laughs)

   5. KJKevin James1:00:06

      Yeah, yeah.

   6. JRJoe Rogan1:00:06

      You know what I'm saying? It's like, 'cause I start, stop, I don't fin-

   7. KJKevin James1:00:08

      Right.

   8. JRJoe Rogan1:00:08

      You know what I'm saying? And that's in my head. I'm like, "Ah, if I would've done what Joe did, man, look where I could've been." And I, you know, I'm, I'm trying to, you know... Why do...? And then I start comparing, like, "All right, you can do it now. You do that." And I, if, if I play that game, I'm done, 'cause I can never catch up to-

   9. KJKevin James1:00:23

      Yeah.

   10. JRJoe Rogan1:00:24

       ... other people.

   11. KJKevin James1:00:24

       Well, a lot of it's, like, learned behavior patterns that you just have s- you get stuck in. And if you're unlucky, you can get a bad behavior pattern of constantly quitting things.

   12. JRJoe Rogan1:00:34

       Right.

   13. KJKevin James1:00:34

       But if you're lucky, you can... Look, I got very lucky that when I was 15, I got obsessed with martial arts.

   14. JRJoe Rogan1:00:40

       Right.

   15. KJKevin James1:00:40

       Because that was the first thing I ever did in my life where I didn't think I was a loser anymore. I was like... I realized that if you work really hard at something and you're completely obsessed with something, it can transform your life. So v- my, my life from the time I was 15 to the time I was 18, I was a different human.

   16. JRJoe Rogan1:01:02

       Mm-hmm.

   17. KJKevin James1:01:03

       From 14, 15, I was insecure. I'd get s- bad social anxiety. We moved around a lot.

   18. JRJoe Rogan1:01:10

       Right.

   19. KJKevin James1:01:11

       I would get picked on a lot. And I went from that to being completely confident.

   20. JRJoe Rogan1:01:16

       Mm-hmm.

   21. KJKevin James1:01:17

       You know, go- Being just a-

   22. JRJoe Rogan1:01:18

       Yeah.

   23. KJKevin James1:01:18

       ... different human being. I was fighting all the time. It wasn't like... To me, the, uh, the fear of, like, conflict was pretty g- much gone, 'cause I was just engaging in conflict all over the country. I was flying around, my whole high school, all my time. So, I got in my head that the way to feel better and to get life to improve is to just fucking dig in-

   24. JRJoe Rogan1:01:41

       Mm-hmm.

   25. KJKevin James1:01:41

       ... and keep going, and don't ever quit. Don't fucking quit.

   26. JRJoe Rogan1:01:45

       That's so great.

   27. KJKevin James1:01:46

       But I got lucky that that's something that I fell into when I was 15. I o- often think about, you know, there was one day, dude, one day when I was coming home from a baseball game, where I walked up the stairs. We were g- getting ready to ride the T, which is like the Boston subway system.

   28. JRJoe Rogan1:02:02

       Mm-hmm, subway.

   29. KJKevin James1:02:04

       And we were getting ready to ride the T, but the line after the f- the baseball game was, like, really long. There were so many people that were on the T. So we, just for a goof, walked up the stairs to see this Taekwondo school. And as we were walking up the stairs, this guy, John Lee, who was a national champion at the time, is preparing for the World Cup. And he was, like, 28 years old. He was in his prime. And he was kicking this bag. And as I was going up the stairs, I was hearing whump and then the sound of a chain, like sh-ching, whump, ch-ching. And I went up and watched this guy kick the bag, and I was like, "What the fuck is that?"

   30. JRJoe Rogan1:02:39

       He's like Tong, Tong Po in-

Episode duration: 2:27:53