Joe Rogan Experience #2126 - Donnell Rawlings

Narrator 0:00 (drumming music plays) Joe Rogan podcast. Check it out.

Donnell Rawlings 0:04 The Joe Rogan Experience. Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (rock music plays) (coughs)

Joe Rogan 0:12 Law & Order. Law & Order tried to do you dirty, Donnell.

Donnell Rawlings 0:15 Don't do that, man. Don't do that, man. Don't start with that.

Joe Rogan 0:18 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 0:18 << Birds flying high. >>

Joe Rogan 0:21 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 0:21 << You know how I feel. >>

Joe Rogan 0:22 They tried to do you dirty. (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 0:25 << Breeze driftin' on by. >>

Joe Rogan 0:26 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 0:26 << You know how I feel. >>

Joe Rogan 0:28 They tried to set you up.

Donnell Rawlings 0:29 << It's a new day. >>

Joe Rogan 0:31 They tried to-

Donnell Rawlings 0:31 << It's a new dawn. >>

Joe Rogan 0:33 They tried to label you.

Donnell Rawlings 0:34 It's a new life for me, and I'm feeling good, Joe.

Joe Rogan 0:36 Ah. You look good.

Donnell Rawlings 0:37 Thank you.

Joe Rogan 0:37 You look real good.

Donnell Rawlings 0:38 Can-

Joe Rogan 0:38 Where'd you get that suit? Who made that suit for you?

Donnell Rawlings 0:40 Um, La- La Cantino out of Brooklyn.

Joe Rogan 0:42 Nice.

Donnell Rawlings 0:42 There's some Korean, um, tailors that I've been working with for the last two years.

Joe Rogan 0:46 Nice.

Donnell Rawlings 0:46 And they tryin' to make me go from ashy to classy, and it's a new day.

Joe Rogan 0:49 I think it looks great.

Donnell Rawlings 0:50 And another thing, if you don't know this, about this, uh, suit, Joe, I smell as good as this suit looks.

Joe Rogan 0:56 Okay.

Donnell Rawlings 0:56 We use it-

Joe Rogan 0:57 What are you using for smell?

Donnell Rawlings 0:58 Uh, what is it called? Scent, uh, uh, uh, Portrait of a Lady.

Joe Rogan 1:02 Oh.

Donnell Rawlings 1:02 It's a Arabic company, um, that's all I know.

Joe Rogan 1:06 Hmm.

Donnell Rawlings 1:07 And I got a guy that outsources my colognes and shit, and they got this-

Joe Rogan 1:10 What do you do? Like, a little here, a little here, and a little on the wrists? How you do it?

Donnell Rawlings 1:13 Um, I smoke-

Joe Rogan 1:14 Or, do you spray it and walk through it?

Donnell Rawlings 1:15 I w- I just go, "Ha." I spray it-

Joe Rogan 1:17 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 1:17 ... walk through it, and then I shh, shh, shh.

Joe Rogan 1:19 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 1:19 I do that and anoint them now, like, "Okay, we get it."

Joe Rogan 1:21 (sniffs)

Donnell Rawlings 1:21 "You got some nice cologne on right now."

Joe Rogan 1:23 Mm.

Donnell Rawlings 1:24 But it's good to be here.

Joe Rogan 1:25 There's something nice about a nice suit, man. It does make you look-

Donnell Rawlings 1:29 It makes you work on your posture.

Joe Rogan 1:30 Professional.

Donnell Rawlings 1:30 And one thing I did, another thing that I came here today, and it was my intent, Joe, to break all the stereotypes. So I got here 20 minutes earlier than I was supposed to be here. You came 20 minutes late, you enforced the stereotype.

Joe Rogan 1:42 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 1:43 And, um, I wore a suit without a court date, without a funeral, and without a, a, a marriage proceeding, so this is a whol- this is the whole thing of Donnell in a new day and changing his life. I'm going through a transition.

Joe Rogan 1:56 What, uh, motivated this? (hisses) Law & Order?

Donnell Rawlings 2:00 No.

Joe Rogan 2:01 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 2:01 Law & Order didn't... Law & Order didn't motivate this. Law & Order-

Joe Rogan 2:06 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 2:06 First off, Law & Order is one of the most respected-

Joe Rogan 2:08 Oh.

Donnell Rawlings 2:09 ... franchises in the history of tele-

Joe Rogan 2:11 It's been around a long time.

Donnell Rawlings 2:12 Shout out to, uh, Arthur Forman.

Joe Rogan 2:15 Shout out to Ice-T.

Donnell Rawlings 2:15 Shout out to, uh, uh, Dick Wolf, and shout out to, um, everybody that's a part of that. And they say in New York, they say that, uh, you, uh, you w- you can't call yourself a actor in New York unless you been in Law & Order. That's how many-

Joe Rogan 2:27 That makes sense.

Donnell Rawlings 2:28 It makes so man- he has so many-

Joe Rogan 2:29 I mean, how many versions do they have? This...

Donnell Rawlings 2:32 I been in every... When I first, beginning of my career, people really thought I was a dr- dramatic actor more than a comic. I was booking a lot of stuff. I've been on every one of the episode, not episodes, the shows, and out of them, I think 80% of them, I was arrested.

Joe Rogan 2:48 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 2:50 And I was like, "Wait a minute, am I getting typecast every time I..."

Joe Rogan 2:54 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 2:54 They be like, "Action," I'm about just, "And what'd I do? What'd I do this time?" Every one, every one of them I got arrested for something.

Joe Rogan 3:02 How many of them are there? How many Law & Orders are there, Jimmy?

Donnell Rawlings 3:04 Intent, Special Victims...

Joe Rogan 3:05 Special Victims... I'ma say, I'm gonna guess, I'm gonna say five. Five different Law & Orders.

Narrator 3:14 Uh, Homicide was technically part of it, too.

Joe Rogan 3:16 Okay.

Narrator 3:16 So... Oh, wait, no this is related. Nevermind, hold on. You got, uh, Law & Order, Special Victims Unit.

Donnell Rawlings 3:23 Two.

Narrator 3:23 Organized Crime.

Donnell Rawlings 3:24 Three.

Narrator 3:25 Uh, Adaptive Series, Law & Order: Toronto.

Donnell Rawlings 3:27 Four.

Narrator 3:27 Criminal Intent.

Donnell Rawlings 3:29 SVU is in that one?

Narrator 3:29 Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Donnell Rawlings 3:30 Five.

Narrator 3:31 Trial by Jury.

Donnell Rawlings 3:32 Six.

Narrator 3:32 LA.

Donnell Rawlings 3:33 Seven.

Narrator 3:33 True Crime.

Donnell Rawlings 3:34 Eight.

Narrator 3:35 Hate Crimes. Oh, this is, uh, in development. Hate Crimes.

Donnell Rawlings 3:37 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 3:37 (laughs)

Narrator 3:37 Over the Fence.

Joe Rogan 3:40 They could have, they could have a whole show dedicated to hate crimes. (clears throat) Oh, my God.

Donnell Rawlings 3:44 But that brand is like... And I don't think those guys... I mean, uh, Dick Wolf and Arthur Forman, when I first... I did it years ago. When I first did it, Arthur Forman was the director when I did it. And that was, like, in, I think, like, in 2000. And then recently...

Joe Rogan 4:00 People love to watch those shows where they get the bad guy.

Donnell Rawlings 4:05 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 4:05 You have to catch the bad guy.

Donnell Rawlings 4:07 And you have to have a bad guy.

Joe Rogan 4:08 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 4:09 I think that's-

Joe Rogan 4:09 Gotta have a bad guy and you gotta catch him.

Donnell Rawlings 4:11 But everybody is, everybody is more interested in the bad guy more than anything. That's in life general.

Joe Rogan 4:18 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 4:18 That's why you find it's so many people that necessarily don't have a lot of talent but, but they subscribe to the bad guy side of it and wanna be negative, and then everybody draws to that. The bad guy is winning like a motherfucker. The bad guy is winning.

Joe Rogan 4:34 In what way?

Donnell Rawlings 4:35 Yes.

Joe Rogan 4:35 In what way? What do you mean?

Donnell Rawlings 4:37 I'll, I'll just say, I'll, I'll just say it like this, and I'm not being specific to anybody in general. Even in, in, um, the, the, the, the world of podcasts right now, right? The model for a lot of people now is like, say some outlandish shit, say some shit that's gonna piss somebody off, say some shit that's gonna make you hate, make people hate you, and now you have a platform. And you have a successful platform because, at the end of the day, with this, it's all about engagement. It's all about can you get people to engage? And, at the end of the day, if you can do that, whether people like you or not, you win.

Joe Rogan 5:17 Sorta, but I think people get tired of that. They get tired of conflict. If your whole business is conflict, people don't wanna be in conflict all the time, and they realize that a lot of conflict is unnecessary. And if you're the type of person that likes to talk about conflict constantly and talk about it online, you probably also are willingly participating in it, maybe a little too willingly. Like, maybe you're getting... You know, you're creating problems, creating problems in your own life, even as you get attention. Like, be careful what you wish for, 'cause if you're, if you're known for just talking shit about people and then you become successful, then people are gonna talk shit about you. They're all gonna come after you.

Donnell Rawlings 5:57 Yeah, but those people that... B- but, but the people that like that, they don't...... to have a conscious to even care about that.

Joe Rogan 6:03 Yeah, but everybody has a conscious. I just think that we peop- accept a certain amount of bullshit. We accept it. And I think you should just concentrate on doing whatever the fuck you do well. You don't have to just say outlandish shit and be so negative. I just don't think it's necessary.

Donnell Rawlings 6:23 You don't, but you are living in a different world than Black Twitter. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 6:28 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 6:29 I mean-

Joe Rogan 6:29 It does work, it gets people's attention, man.

Donnell Rawlings 6:32 For who you're speaking to, know who you're with, to who you- the people you're speaking to, yes. But Black Twitter-

Joe Rogan 6:36 I get it.

Donnell Rawlings 6:37 ... and on these urban sites-

Joe Rogan 6:40 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 6:40 ... you could be negative for years, and years, and years, and years, and years, and years, and a motherfucker will come up. And that's the truth.

Joe Rogan 6:50 Mm.

Donnell Rawlings 6:50 You have around a world of... << Oh, he is jolly good fellow >> But in that dark world, in that Black Twitter world, it's a lot, lot of negativity and it's very unfortunate.

Joe Rogan 7:03 That is unfortunate. That's a very unfortunate thing. I don't enjoy that. (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 7:10 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 7:10 I get it-

Donnell Rawlings 7:10 Black Twitter?

Joe Rogan 7:11 ... it, no, j- insulting people, getting mad at people. At a certain point in your life I've realized that there, there's no room for that in life. You don't have to, you could avoid it for the most part. If you could avoid it in your immediate life, you could probably avoid it in your internet life too.

Donnell Rawlings 7:26 I think you avoid that conflict and negative energy the more successful you become, because I think that creates a, I don't give a fuck about bullshit attitude. I think that a lot of the anger and a lot of frustration that comes with a lot of people is the beginning of the stage, it's the beginning stages.

Joe Rogan 7:43 Mm-hmm.

Donnell Rawlings 7:43 But when you get... Like we were talking about it, um, uh, uh, um, earlier... Damn it, fuck. You gave me that joint too quick.

Joe Rogan 7:52 Ah! (slaps table)

Donnell Rawlings 7:52 You gave me that motherfucking joint too quick. We were talk... Um, phew, this is a bad one. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 8:01 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 8:01 'Cause I tried to get that pause to get my thought back.

Joe Rogan 8:03 (sighs)

Donnell Rawlings 8:03 I don't know what the fuck you just-

Joe Rogan 8:04 And you just lost it.

Donnell Rawlings 8:05 ... what the fuck you just gave me, but it just erased everything I was just thinking about.

Joe Rogan 8:08 You were talking about as you get successful, it's easier to avoid conflict, which I, I, I probably agree with. Also, you're comfortable enough where you could recognize the patterns that are beneficial and not beneficial to you in your life. And c- conflict is never beneficial to me. Like, even conflict that I've engaged in that I think was necessary-

Donnell Rawlings 8:29 So that's been your entire, that's been your entire, not even... As a fucking yo- young Joe Rogan, you n- w- didn't have the energy like, "Fuck this, or fuck that, motherf- I don't give a fuck." You always been this calm. You've always been this collected and this calm-

Joe Rogan 8:44 No.

Donnell Rawlings 8:44 ... your entire career.

Joe Rogan 8:45 No, definitely not.

Donnell Rawlings 8:46 So that goes to my point.

Joe Rogan 8:47 Yeah, but I learned how to do it, because I, I've realized... You know what happened once, man?

Donnell Rawlings 8:52 What?

Joe Rogan 8:52 This is a true story. I was watching this dude on stage and I was hoping that he was bombing. I was hoping he would bomb, 'cause he w- he went on after me. I didn't want him to do well. And I realized, I go, "What a bitch ass way to think that is."

Donnell Rawlings 9:05 So you-

Joe Rogan 9:05 "To want someone to not do well." I was 21, and I'll never forget it.

Donnell Rawlings 9:09 But that's the age though, Joe-

Joe Rogan 9:10 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 9:11 ... that's that age when you're like, "Fuck it, that's it, night, night. Bye-bye."

Joe Rogan 9:14 Well, at that age everyone is so, uh, ambitious and competitive that was getting into comedy at that time, that it was like... It wasn't very, there wasn't a lot of camaraderie between like the open micers, 'cause everybody was like super desperate. Like the, do you remember the desperate days where you weren't sure if you were ever going to be a professional?

Donnell Rawlings 9:36 Um-

Joe Rogan 9:36 Like, there's desperate days.

Donnell Rawlings 9:38 I never, I never felt that way.

Joe Rogan 9:39 Never?

Donnell Rawlings 9:40 I, I'm telling you, I... Ah. It's, it's not being cocky or whatever you want to say. I never felt that way. Like the first-

Joe Rogan 9:48 Back to open mics?

Donnell Rawlings 9:49 The first open mic I ever did, I got a standing ovation.

Joe Rogan 9:52 That's insane.

Donnell Rawlings 9:53 I got a standing ovation. I think it wasn't the standing ovation because I had the best material, um, I was the funniest, but earlier on I used to go to the comedy clubs and fuck with comedians. Right? And I probably shared this. I used to heckle comedians and people started coming to the show to see me heckle.

Joe Rogan 10:12 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 10:12 So it was a thing. I'm, this is not, this is why when people say I'm an interrupter, I've been the interrupter.

Joe Rogan 10:17 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 10:18 I've been inter- inter- interrupting before I even got on stage.

Joe Rogan 10:21 That's hilarious.

Donnell Rawlings 10:22 And-

Joe Rogan 10:22 How old?

Donnell Rawlings 10:23 Um, I was like, I had to be like 21 or 22.

Joe Rogan 10:26 Perfect.

Donnell Rawlings 10:27 And the thing was, it was starting to build... People started getting excited for me. They knew that I was the guy in the audience that was funny. But they, but it was like some people in clubs, they hang around, you'd be like, "Man, he should do it." You know what I mean? Or like, "One day he should try it." So I ruined all the other comedian's careers or whatever.

Joe Rogan 10:44 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 10:44 You know, I would, I just, just destroyed them. They used to come up to me and be like, um, "Could you not fuck with me? I'm working on some new material." I'm like, "It's my job to heckle you. And it's your job to try to be funny."

Joe Rogan 10:54 You were a professional heckler?

Donnell Rawlings 10:55 I was a professional heckler.

Joe Rogan 10:57 That is so insane.

Donnell Rawlings 10:58 So much that prof- And I drew, I was (laughs) I was drawing the audience.

Joe Rogan 11:04 That's so... How does this happen?

Donnell Rawlings 11:07 As it happened. It just happened. And then eventually the club wanted me to shut the fuck up. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 11:13 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 11:13 Right? They was like, "We'll shut his ass up if he go on stage." And then the audience, people really started coming to see me talk shit. And I think the night, the first night I went on, I think it was the build-up, like something, people felt like, "This dude is gone." It felt like I was working for Safeway as a security guard in a grocery store. And the first time I went on stage all the people there for my job used to come, they all looked at me like, "He's about to quit or get fired." You know? It was just something that by chance... I never thought about doing comedy. I used to go there 'cause I got free promotional tickets. I never was the guy when I was younger, at 13, when I first looked into the mirror, I knew that comedy is what I wanted to do. It was never that. It just so happened, being in that situation, I went up, I ripped it, and when I ripped it, th- the first time I went on stage I knew, I was like, "This is what I will be doing for the rest of my life."And, I didn't say it, and I, and with that thought, Joe, I didn't feel like, "I'm going to be rich. I'm going to be famous. I'm going to have a TV show." For the first time I went on stage, only thing I wanted to do is be good. That's the f- almost to this point in my career now. I'm like, if you good, and this applies to anything in life. If you good at something, and you really good at it, and you passionate about it, and you study it, and you just live by that, eventually you going to get the rewards of that. I never was like, "I'm going to get a TV show." I was just like, "Man, if I'm good, I'm going to be able to work this club. If I'm good, I want to, I'll be able to work this club." And then, things just started happening for me. So I think when I first started, my friends and family, they was really, really rooting for me to do it, and the moment I went on stage I was like, "This is what I will be doing for the rest of my life."

Joe Rogan 13:00 Wow.

Donnell Rawlings 13:00 And never thinking about, it's going to make me rich or anything like that.

Joe Rogan 13:03 Did you ever feel guilty that you started off as a heckler now that you're a comedian?

Donnell Rawlings 13:10 No (laughs) .

Joe Rogan 13:12 (laughs) .

Donnell Rawlings 13:14 Yo, yo, yo. I got to be honest, man, Joe. I got to be honest. I like heckling motherfuckers, Joe.

Joe Rogan 13:20 Ugh.

Donnell Rawlings 13:20 I'm a natural born heckler. I like ... In DC we call it jonin', right?

Joe Rogan 13:26 Jonin'?

Donnell Rawlings 13:27 Jonin', that's-

Joe Rogan 13:27 Why did, why did it be called jonin'?

Donnell Rawlings 13:29 I don't know why they called it jonin', but it was just roasting. It was the Black way of saying ... If it's, if you want to compare, it was like roasting.

Joe Rogan 13:36 What an interesting word, jonin'.

Donnell Rawlings 13:37 Jonin'.

Joe Rogan 13:37 Like, why, why did they come up with that? What ... Is there anything that was like a person who was really good at it?

Donnell Rawlings 13:42 I don't know if it was a dude named Joan. I don't know if-

Joe Rogan 13:45 That doesn't make sense.

Donnell Rawlings 13:47 I c- I don't know the history. A lot of Black words I'm not going to have, know the history of it. You might, uh, want to, uh, Google-

Joe Rogan 13:54 Have you ever heard that, Jamie?

Donnell Rawlings 13:56 Jonin'?

Joe Rogan 13:56 Urban Dictionary. Do you ever use it as a resource, Jamie?

Narrator 13:59 Yeah, I do. Yeah, yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 13:59 Yeah, go for it (laughs) .

Joe Rogan 14:01 (laughs) .

Donnell Rawlings 14:01 Urban dictiona- Urban Dictionary has saved a lot of people, a lot of white people at cookouts and barbecues.

Joe Rogan 14:08 (laughs) .

Narrator 14:09 (laughs) .

Donnell Rawlings 14:09 Yeah, but we ... And I'm like, I used to lo- I used to love heckling. I didn't know you couldn't heckle until ... In comedy, there's an unwritten rule that was like, you can't. The rule is, you can't, uh ...

Joe Rogan 14:21 Jonin'.

Donnell Rawlings 14:22 Heckle.

Joe Rogan 14:22 Put down or make fun of someone.

Donnell Rawlings 14:23 Yep.

Joe Rogan 14:24 Quit jonin' on me. You'll get smacked. I wonder who Joan was.

Donnell Rawlings 14:29 Joan?

Joe Rogan 14:29 Think it was a lady?

Donnell Rawlings 14:31 Joan? No, I don't think.

Narrator 14:34 You think that's it?

Joe Rogan 14:36 I know this fool ain't jonin'.

Donnell Rawlings 14:38 On, uh ... Whoa. Let me get that part, Joe.

Joe Rogan 14:40 Joe?

Narrator 14:40 Yeah, go ahead.

Donnell Rawlings 14:40 Let me get the rest (laughs) .

Joe Rogan 14:41 Get the rest.

Narrator 14:41 No, you take the, take the other half.

Donnell Rawlings 14:42 Let me say. I'll take the second half. You get the first half. I'll get the second.

Joe Rogan 14:47 Does that ... That seems-

Narrator 14:48 Does that make sense?

Joe Rogan 14:49 Does it?

Narrator 14:49 That's all right. It could just be, uh, someone just joke, like ... guessing.

Joe Rogan 14:52 There was probably just someone named Joan who was really good at insulting people.

Donnell Rawlings 14:56 To joke ... No, no, no. I, I understand that sentence.

Narrator 14:58 (laughs) .

Donnell Rawlings 15:00 Where I came from, that's what it was. You joke on a nigga.

Joe Rogan 15:03 (laughs) .

Narrator 15:04 (laughs) .

Donnell Rawlings 15:04 That's what, that's what it was. Urban Dictionary nailed it. That's what it was. But it wasn't like scripted. It wasn't like, like you had writers or anything like that.

Joe Rogan 15:13 Right.

Donnell Rawlings 15:13 It was just you-

Joe Rogan 15:14 In the moment.

Donnell Rawlings 15:15 ... in the moment.

Joe Rogan 15:16 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 15:16 You look at a person, up or down, and you just go for it. And I used to ... Oh man, I used to jon motherfuckers out.

Joe Rogan 15:22 (laughs) .

Donnell Rawlings 15:22 And then, the rule was in comedy, you can't, you're not supposed to yell out in comedy. You're not supposed to jon or say anything to another comic, which I fucking hate this rule.

Joe Rogan 15:32 Some people don't like to be interrupted, Donnell.

Donnell Rawlings 15:34 I know but don't-

Joe Rogan 15:35 Not everybody likes to do it your way.

Donnell Rawlings 15:37 All right, but Joe, have you ever felt ... And you have discipline.

Joe Rogan 15:41 (laughs) .

Donnell Rawlings 15:42 (laughs) .

Narrator 15:42 (laughs) .

Donnell Rawlings 15:42 You've been watching a motherfucker and you just like, "I just want to say something." You never felt like-

Joe Rogan 15:49 Yes.

Donnell Rawlings 15:49 ... I just want to s-

Joe Rogan 15:50 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 15:51 I want to wait 'til you get off stage. I want to just say something in that moment.

Joe Rogan 15:55 Especially if you've had a drink.

Donnell Rawlings 15:57 Yeah. Yeah. I've been in that situation.

Joe Rogan 15:59 If you've had a drink, and you're like, "This is nonsense."

Donnell Rawlings 16:01 You would just want to yell out.

Joe Rogan 16:02 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 16:03 And it's not to be like nasty or nothing, you're just like, you just can't help it anymore.

Joe Rogan 16:07 (laughs) .

Donnell Rawlings 16:07 You just feel like you got to say something. It's so funny, so years ago, me and Tracy Morgan was at a show, and me and Tracy Morgan started comedy about the same time. And he was like, "Man, I'm sick of these whack motherfuckers, man." He said, "I just want to say something." I said, "Well, you know you can't heckle the comedians." He said, "We should do a tour. Right? Go all across the country to comedy clubs. Not to perform, just to heckle motherfuckers from the seats."

Joe Rogan 16:29 Hmm.

Donnell Rawlings 16:30 Which I thought was a fucking brilliant idea.

Joe Rogan 16:32 (laughs) .

Donnell Rawlings 16:33 That would be so f- ... You talk about something that builds character?

Joe Rogan 16:38 Could you ... It's almost like a roast battle. Could you imagine putting mediocre comedians on stage and having like great comics in the audience heckle them?

Donnell Rawlings 16:46 Yep. You know what?

Joe Rogan 16:47 That would be terrifying.

Donnell Rawlings 16:48 It would be terrifying, but guess what? I don't ... I guarantee you, Joe, if you had 20 mediocre comedians, one or two would stand out-

Joe Rogan 16:59 Yes.

Donnell Rawlings 16:59 ... as the one that would break away.

Joe Rogan 17:00 Yes. Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 17:01 And if you did something like that, that's what you would be looking for.

Joe Rogan 17:03 Right.

Donnell Rawlings 17:03 Somebody's going to say, "Fuck it."

Joe Rogan 17:05 It's going to be a shark tank.

Donnell Rawlings 17:06 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:07 Right? So you, you'll f- you'll recognize like real early on what of your material is soft. What of it's bu- what, what, what of your material is bullshit.

Donnell Rawlings 17:17 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:17 If you have to do it in front of people that you respect.

Donnell Rawlings 17:19 It's going to make you-

Joe Rogan 17:20 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 17:20 ... step your shit up. Or it's going to make you-

Joe Rogan 17:23 Right.

Donnell Rawlings 17:23 ... have enough attitude and personality to pull any joke off, because you know what it is. Half the shit that you deliver, for the most part, is stage presence.

Joe Rogan 17:34 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 17:35 It's, it's stage presence. You can ... You know, it's how you respond, how you react to a audience coming at you.

Joe Rogan 17:41 Dude, Dave Attell was at the Mother Ship this weekend, and I saw him-

Donnell Rawlings 17:45 I loved it.

Joe Rogan 17:45 I saw him Sunday night. Man, I don't know, I don't know if there's a funnier person that's ever existed.

Donnell Rawlings 17:52 I ... You know what?

Joe Rogan 17:53 He's so funny.

Donnell Rawlings 17:54 Whenever I see his face ... First off, if you see Dave, Dave Attell's face now, you saw it 30 years ago.

Joe Rogan 18:00 (laughs) .

Narrator 18:01 (laughs) .

Donnell Rawlings 18:01 Yeah. Yo, he's like the white Morgan Freeman.

Joe Rogan 18:03 He's insane.

Donnell Rawlings 18:04 Of comedy. Like, he's been how he looks forever.

Joe Rogan 18:08 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 18:08 With a different color black hoodie on.

Joe Rogan 18:10 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 18:10 And it's so funny you mention his name, 'cause something came on my thread like a day ago.... and Dave Chappelle's, like, the type of guy, not even hearing what he said, you look at him and you say, "I said I need to write more jokes."

Joe Rogan 18:23 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 18:23 You're like, somebody... Their mere presence lets you know you gotta write more jokes. 'Cause out of all the years... And I've watched Dave Chappelle 30 years. I can't remember a time when he hasn't went on stage with the mindset of working on some new shit.

Joe Rogan 18:38 Always.

Donnell Rawlings 18:39 Always.

Joe Rogan 18:40 Always.

Donnell Rawlings 18:40 Always.

Joe Rogan 18:40 Always.

Donnell Rawlings 18:41 And you're like, "How the fuck can he keep-"

Joe Rogan 18:43 That's what he does.

Donnell Rawlings 18:43 "... doing this?"

Joe Rogan 18:44 (clears throat) He's just, like, really focused on that one thing, you know? He used to be an alcoholic. And when he quit drinking-

Donnell Rawlings 18:51 Happen to us all.

Joe Rogan 18:52 ... he got way better when he quit drinking, man. You know? Like, there's... Something happened to him. Some comics, there's something that happens to, like... They're drunks when they're young and then they quit drinking, and they're not as good anymore, 'cause they're not as fun. 'Cause when they were drunk, they were wild.

Donnell Rawlings 19:06 I've, I've figured out a way to balance both.

Joe Rogan 19:08 I think... You definitely can't-

Donnell Rawlings 19:09 Young drunk and older drunk.

Joe Rogan 19:10 What I was gonna say is that Chappelle's the best example, because what he did was he quit drinking and then immediately got way better, and just keeps getting better. Like, he... All that focus is now just on standup. And-

Donnell Rawlings 19:24 I get it.

Joe Rogan 19:24 Fuck.

Donnell Rawlings 19:24 I think about that sometimes.

Joe Rogan 19:26 (exhales loudly) Dude, he was so good. It was, it was mind-blowing. He was just on fire. He has a recorder, he plays like a little flute. (flute noise)

Donnell Rawlings 19:34 I saw the... That's the clip that came up.

Joe Rogan 19:36 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 19:36 And I just thought the one part I remember, he said, "You have this instrument."

Joe Rogan 19:39 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 19:39 And he said, "You have the head, the shaft, and the taint."

Joe Rogan 19:42 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 19:42 He'd say... He was reference, uh-

Joe Rogan 19:44 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 19:45 ... that, that, um... The flute or whatever it was to... I could tell... Of course it was a penis, but I was like, that was just... Fuck. He's just... He's, he's nice as shit at it.

Joe Rogan 19:52 He's got, like, a formula in his mind of how to make fun of everything. And he's so in tune right now that he can just kinda plug it into any subject.

Donnell Rawlings 20:05 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 20:05 And he, he just starts writing material, and he's-

Donnell Rawlings 20:07 But Dave is-

Joe Rogan 20:08 ... he's, he's so... He's always working on it.

Donnell Rawlings 20:10 But he's not a fun guy to hang out with.

Joe Rogan 20:12 He's fun to hang out with.

Donnell Rawlings 20:13 What?

Joe Rogan 20:14 I like hanging out with him.

Donnell Rawlings 20:15 Man, I get nervous. I feel like he's about to be on Law & Order or something. When I hang out with Dave-

Joe Rogan 20:18 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 20:19 Dave'll be talking to you, then all of a sudden, he psh, he just disappears. But maybe it's just me. But yeah, he's not... He's not the party guy.

Joe Rogan 20:26 He was fun hanging out at the Mothership.

Donnell Rawlings 20:28 He was?

Joe Rogan 20:29 It was like... 'Cause we have, like, the green room.

Donnell Rawlings 20:31 The green room's fire.

Joe Rogan 20:31 And it's like this nice, relaxing place where everybody can hang out together. But he's, you know... He's an odd guy. He carries around a flip phone. He texts you with "Toot-toot-toot-toot-toot-toot-toot-toot-toot." Like, where you press four Rs to get a...

Donnell Rawlings 20:45 Right. Oh, he's doing the old school text?

Joe Rogan 20:47 Yeah, yeah. You gotta press it five times to get an S or whatever it is. You remember those?

Donnell Rawlings 20:51 I remember those. And now I've got this-

Joe Rogan 20:52 He does that. That's how he sends you a text message.

Donnell Rawlings 20:55 That's inc-... That's crazy.

Joe Rogan 20:55 He's doing that with a flip phone.

Donnell Rawlings 20:57 If I... I bet that just kept him off of Diddy's yacht.

Joe Rogan 21:00 Yeah. (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 21:01 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 21:02 Oh, no. Shut up now.

Donnell Rawlings 21:03 Not being connected... Not with... Being connected with too much communication keeps you out of those back rooms and keep you off those yachts.

Joe Rogan 21:10 That's hilarious.

Donnell Rawlings 21:11 You don't ev-... You don't invite a person to the back room or to a, uh, to a yacht if he has that phone.

Joe Rogan 21:18 (smacks lips) Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 21:19 Something is very suspicious about that.

Joe Rogan 21:22 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 21:22 You don't get a... You don't get invited to those par- parties that get you mov- movie deals.

Joe Rogan 21:26 Oh. That's just how they used to do Hollywood, man.

Donnell Rawlings 21:33 Old Hollywood's the shit.

Joe Rogan 21:34 Old Hollywood, th- that is exactly how they did everything. You know? W-... Tarantino was telling us that one of the old producers had a bedroom in his office. So he had his office, and then you'd go into his office and he had a bedroom. And the bedroom is where he would fuck all the starlets. And so he was the producer, and if you're gonna be in his movie, he's gonna fuck you.

Donnell Rawlings 21:53 That's old school.

Joe Rogan 21:54 A bedroom.

Donnell Rawlings 21:55 Do you know how many-

Joe Rogan 21:56 In his office.

Donnell Rawlings 21:57 You know how many women sitting down listening to us saying, "Bring back the good old days."

Joe Rogan 22:06 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 22:06 (laughs) You know... As... I mean, I do... You... I do know you have some women like this. "Fuck that, I don't believe it." But you do still have a couple of women like, "I don't wanna go to acting school."

Joe Rogan 22:15 (Buzzing sound)

Donnell Rawlings 22:16 "I don't wanna study. I don't wanna do anything. I wanna get it popping."

Joe Rogan 22:22 Well, it seems like there was a real cle-... Look, no disrespect to actors, but there's a lot of them. And there's a lot of 'em that probably never make it, that if they got the right breaks, they could've been as huge as some movie stars that exist today, right?

Donnell Rawlings 22:39 Yeah, that's-

Joe Rogan 22:39 When, when we agree on that?

Donnell Rawlings 22:41 I agree with that with acting and with standup.

Joe Rogan 22:43 Yeah, but, uh, but it's specifically for acting, because there's a lot of people that can just go into acting. Like, a lot of athletes have gone into acting and done amazing jobs.

Donnell Rawlings 22:55 But not all of them are too... Not many... Too many of them are good, though.

Joe Rogan 22:57 But not... But they... They c-

Donnell Rawlings 22:58 You still see Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Joe Rogan 23:01 Okay. Um, who was in that Adam Sandler movie? What basketball player?

Donnell Rawlings 23:06 Rick Fox?

Joe Rogan 23:07 Kevin.

Donnell Rawlings 23:07 I know Rick Fox was taking it really, really serious.

Joe Rogan 23:09 Kevin Garnett? Kevin Garnett, that's right. He's in, um, that Uncut Gems movie, and he's fucking great. He's not an actor. What... It, it wouldn't work the other way. You couldn't get a guy to do just standup and just be fucking great.

Donnell Rawlings 23:25 Right.

Joe Rogan 23:25 Who's never done standup.

Donnell Rawlings 23:26 True.

Joe Rogan 23:26 But you can get an... You can get an actor out of a basketball player. You can get an... You could turn a f- a fucking rancher into an actor.

Donnell Rawlings 23:33 Right.

Joe Rogan 23:33 You just teach them how to do... Some guys can do it.

Donnell Rawlings 23:36 What role did he play?

Joe Rogan 23:38 He played a basketball player.

Donnell Rawlings 23:39 Come on, motherfucker.

Joe Rogan 23:40 But he played, he played a dude who was ripping off Adam Sandler.

Donnell Rawlings 23:43 What the fuck are y'all... Did you hear what the fuck you just said?

Joe Rogan 23:44 He was putting... But he played a dude who was ripping off Adam Sandler.

Donnell Rawlings 23:46 It doesn't matter, Joe.

Joe Rogan 23:48 I get that.

Donnell Rawlings 23:49 I thought you was gonna say he played a-

Joe Rogan 23:51 (laughs) No.

Donnell Rawlings 23:51 ... a rocket scientist.

Joe Rogan 23:53 I'm just saying-

Donnell Rawlings 23:53 So you're telling me, Joe, you're saying-

Joe Rogan 23:55 Listen, when he was going through-

Donnell Rawlings 23:57 The basketball player-

Joe Rogan 23:57 When he was doing his lines-

Donnell Rawlings 23:59 Okay.

Joe Rogan 23:59 ... to Adam Sandler, it's very realistic.

Donnell Rawlings 24:03 That he's a basketball player?

Joe Rogan 24:05 That he's not just a basketball player, he's a basketball player that's ripping off Adam Sandler. He steals a rock from... He doesn't want to give a rock back.

Donnell Rawlings 24:12 There's no way that Kevin Garnett could have fucking ruined this role.... even Joe, listen to me-

Joe Rogan 24:19 Are you hating?

Donnell Rawlings 24:20 E- I'm not hating. What I'm trying to explain-

Joe Rogan 24:22 I feel he's hating.

Donnell Rawlings 24:23 No, I'm not. (laughs) Don't start it, man. Black Twitter will come for me.

Joe Rogan 24:26 (laughs) .

Donnell Rawlings 24:26 I'm not saying that. There is no way he could have been bad playing a basketball player.

Joe Rogan 24:35 He was good, dude. It was g- I mean, it's a good-

Donnell Rawlings 24:38 Okay. All right. Let me see.

Joe Rogan 24:39 ... scene.

Donnell Rawlings 24:39 Okay, let me see.

Narrator 24:40 I'm watching this. I don't know why.

Joe Rogan 24:42 Yeah, we can't watch this.

Donnell Rawlings 24:43 I know. Just fuck watching it.

Joe Rogan 24:44 We'll get, we'll get in trouble.

Donnell Rawlings 24:45 All right. You can't watch it.

Narrator 24:46 (laughs) .

Donnell Rawlings 24:46 But I just wanna see him stand up.

Joe Rogan 24:48 Listen-

Donnell Rawlings 24:49 'Cause right there, I could see the dramatic side you're saying. But when he stands up, he's playing a basketball player. How can-

Joe Rogan 24:55 I, he is, but I'm telling you, it's not, uh, about that. It's about gambling addicts. The whole thing-

Donnell Rawlings 25:00 Okay.

Joe Rogan 25:00 ... is about gambling addicts. The whole movie is about gambling addicts. It's a fucking amazing movie.

Donnell Rawlings 25:04 Right. I mean, d- I'm not, not even-

Joe Rogan 25:06 And it's-

Donnell Rawlings 25:06 ... seeing the dialogue, I mean, hearing it or anything, I could see like his face looks convincing. But I still see a basketball, Kevin Garnett fr- basketball player. It's just tough.

Joe Rogan 25:15 Yeah. I know what you're saying, but he's, uh, he-

Donnell Rawlings 25:17 And is that a Celtic r- and that's a basketball ring?

Joe Rogan 25:20 Yeah.

Narrator 25:21 It's true.

Donnell Rawlings 25:21 Joe, he played a basketball player, Joe.

Joe Rogan 25:23 He plays himself. He played himself in this movie. He's doing this thing where he's involved in gambling addiction. They're, they're b- they're all just making crazy bets. Dude, the movie will give you anxiety.

Donnell Rawlings 25:36 I'll check it out.

Joe Rogan 25:37 Like real anxiety. Like, "Oh, don't, don't fucking do it! Don't fucking do it!"

Donnell Rawlings 25:42 So he was con- given... And Kevin Garnett's a, is a, is a good guy. I wasn't trying to shit on him. I just-

Joe Rogan 25:46 I know you weren't.

Donnell Rawlings 25:47 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:47 I know you weren't. What I'm saying is that, like-

Donnell Rawlings 25:49 'Cause you, 'cause the minute you start, Joe, you say, "Why are you hating?" The next thing you know-

Joe Rogan 25:53 (sighs)

Donnell Rawlings 25:53 ... (laughs) the next thing you know, I'm being attacked by every urban blog (laughs) in the country.

Joe Rogan 25:59 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 26:00 "Joe Rogan was hating on Kevin Garnett."

Narrator 26:02 (laughs) .

Donnell Rawlings 26:02 Saying that the nigga shouldn't act and should just play basketball.

Joe Rogan 26:05 Uh, that was certainly not my words.

Donnell Rawlings 26:07 I know it's not your words but it's a passion of my words.

Joe Rogan 26:10 Yeah, even that's-

Donnell Rawlings 26:11 And that's how it starts.

Joe Rogan 26:11 Even that's not what you really meant. But he, it's-

Donnell Rawlings 26:14 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 26:14 What I'm saying is, like, I think outta all the things, acting is probably, even though some people are ingenious at it, don't get me wrong, the most doable to a person. Like, that's the most ... I mean, it's ... You're most likely to be able to figure out how to do it. Like, you might not ever-

Donnell Rawlings 26:37 I-

Joe Rogan 26:37 ... be able to figure out how to sing.

Donnell Rawlings 26:38 Right.

Joe Rogan 26:39 You know, you might not ever be able to figure out how to do stand up, but you're, you could probably figure out (laughs) how to act.

Donnell Rawlings 26:44 Yeah. I would technically-

Joe Rogan 26:46 Just pretend.

Donnell Rawlings 26:47 Pretend and then you could get trained-

Joe Rogan 26:49 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 26:49 But I still think it's something inside of you, uh, inside of you as an actor that takes you above the person just like equally trained.

Joe Rogan 26:58 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 26:59 That's something that drives you to wanna do something different and make different choices as an actor.

Joe Rogan 27:03 Yeah, it's called being mentally ill. (laughs) .

Donnell Rawlings 27:06 Yep. And you're absolu- I agree with you 100%. Most actors are, have some type of mental disorder. Be- to think ab- think about it, to pl- it's like you're playing make-believe.

Joe Rogan 27:15 All the time. Professionally.

Donnell Rawlings 27:17 All the time.

Joe Rogan 27:17 And then if you get really famous for playing make-believe, at a certain point in time, you're probably like, "Who the fuck am I? Who, who actually am I?" (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 27:24 Or who do I wanna be?

Joe Rogan 27:26 Yeah. I mean, but when you think, uh, you, you think you are this person because you are getting all this adoration from all these people that see you play different people in movies. Like, they don't even know you.

Donnell Rawlings 27:38 Right.

Joe Rogan 27:38 And then you're like, "What the fuck? I- i- like how weird is this world that I've created where everybody loves me and they like me to pretend to be different people? Like, who the fuck am I?" (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 27:48 But at the same time, you can get whoever you wanna be that day.

Joe Rogan 27:51 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 27:51 I think we, I think we fucking, when we wake up in the morning, we go, we get in actor mode. You go to bed, you're fucked up about something and then you wake up in the morning, you're like, "You know what? Fuck that bitch. I'm gonna have a great day."

Joe Rogan 28:03 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 28:03 You're acting like you're not dealing with what you did the day before. I think that's a part of our life. You, and I know this is a crazy question, you've heard it before, and it's like a generic question when you have a comedian that's done some acting stuff, for, do- is- is it more challenging for you, uh, acting or more challenging, uh, as a standup developing new material?

Joe Rogan 28:26 Well, it depends on what you'd be doing for acting. Like, I've never done a real dramatic movie or a dramatic role on a TV show. Everything I've ever done just been silly. So, um, that's a different kind of acting. Like comic acting is, you know, it's just, it's basically like scripted shit talking, you know?

Donnell Rawlings 28:46 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:46 It's all it is.

Donnell Rawlings 28:46 But at some point with, even with acting, there's a moment, this is the, the, the scariest part for me, I can go in front of 25,000, and thank you, you've created (laughs) platforms where I can do that, many people, I can go in front of 25,000 people and it feels... And I can hear, "Ha," and I'm f- it feels amazing.

Joe Rogan 29:04 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 29:04 But it's the silence of when you know there's like 150 people behind the camera that relying on what you do right now, and that, that silence, "Quiet," when everybody's completely focused on that one person, the one they got deliver that line and then, "Action," that shit is terrifying.

Joe Rogan 29:24 (laughs) .

Donnell Rawlings 29:26 That shit is fucking-

Narrator 29:28 (laughs) .

Donnell Rawlings 29:28 I'm telling you, I could, I've done shows with you and Dave where I've y- you guys created platforms to come out an arena like I'm about to beat the fuck... The world a... But the minute you say, "Quiet," and you like, "Uh-bu-bu-bu-bu-bu."

Joe Rogan 29:40 Mm-hmm.

Donnell Rawlings 29:40 And...

Joe Rogan 29:41 Action.

Donnell Rawlings 29:42 Action.

Joe Rogan 29:43 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 29:43 And then you gotta go.

Joe Rogan 29:45 That, and you gotta really rehearse that thing, really know what you're saying while you're saying it, because you have to repeat these words in that order. You're not freestyling.

Donnell Rawlings 29:55 You said, uh, earlier all the acting stuff, even silly stuff, I think maybe first four or five part, for- first f- four or five years of my career, everything I booked was dramatic.

Joe Rogan 30:08 Mm.

Donnell Rawlings 30:09 Nobody thought I was a comedian or if you wanna say a comedian, um, actor until the Chappelle Show.

Joe Rogan 30:16 Mm.

Donnell Rawlings 30:17 I had did like all of the Law and Orders. I had did HBO's The Corner where I played a heroin addict.... I think this was like the third audition I ever went on, third audition I ever went on. David Simon, um, Alex Foley, she's a big, big time... Fogley or Foley, it's been a long time since I've been to New York, so I might be saying her last name. But she casts all at The Wire, uh, Sopranos, um, all, all that stuff. I w- I went into an interview, I went in to audition for The Wire, just, I'm sorry, this was for Jackie Brown Carmen, Alex was when we did, um, when we went back and did The Corner, but I mean The Wire, but for The Corner, it was Jackie Brown Carmen. I went in for this audition, the audition was as a, as a heroin addict, right? Charles Dutton directed this series, it won three, um, three, uh, um, Emmy's. I played the character, Bre... That's my friend, Clark Peters, he's an incredible, incredible fucking theater actor, came from the, the theater background. So I'm doing, I'm doing audition Joe, this how... And I'm, I'm green as shit in an audition. And I'm like, "Man, I'm fucking this shit up, man."

Narrator 31:33 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 31:33 "I ain't gonna get this shit." Jackie Brown Carmen said, "Donnell, relax. Be calm. God is in the room. You'll be okay." And I fuck with God, but I didn't know if God goes to auditions with you or not.

Narrator 31:46 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 31:46 How much it would help, right? And I did my lines again, and I still thought I fumbled it. I was like, "Man..." I understand her support or whatever, I'm like, "Man, fuck this shit." And I just started saying anything, right? Four days later, I swear, some- sometimes you're doing an audition, you kind of feel when you're gonna at least get a call back.

Narrator 32:05 Right.

Donnell Rawlings 32:06 I get, I did get a call, they said, "You booked it." I was like, "What the fuck?" I was like, I could not believe it. I was like, "I don't know how the fuck that happened." I was like, "I know I wasn't prepared, I was just saying anything," and I wanted to get the fuck outta there and just go r- run right back to the stage. Fuck acting, I wanna work on my jokes. So we get on set, David Simon, he's the original writer of- of the book, The Corner, um, with another, uh, police officer, it was a... He did police journalism in Baltimore. So I saw him on set, and I was like, "I got a que-" he was like, "Man, thanks for being part of it." I was like, "I got a question." I- I just had to know, right? I was like, I said, "How the fuck did I get this role?" Right? "I'm already booked." I said, "I swear," I s- I thought I bombed that audition. And he said, "Donnell, we liked the way you threw the lines away." Right?

Narrator 32:54 Oh...

Donnell Rawlings 32:54 So if you mean not prepared, (laughs) he said, "We like the fact that you threw the lines away." And he said, "Another thing, you didn't feed into the stereotype of the guy's addiction." 'Cause everybody was going in there, was just going straight to the lean of the addiction.

Narrator 33:10 Mm-hmm.

Donnell Rawlings 33:11 The- the worst part of it, being high. In audition, they didn't wanna see that. They wanna see who is this person not being high? And because I was off, and because I said, "Fuck it, I'm gonna just say it my way," that's what fucking got me the role in that shit.

Narrator 33:28 Well, that's probably the hardest thing to do, is to just say, just to free ball, and be in- in, you know, just say... I don't even remember the lines, but this is what I would fucking say.

Donnell Rawlings 33:40 Yeah.

Narrator 33:40 Like, if you c- but if you do that...

Donnell Rawlings 33:42 But some place, some platforms, they- they will allow that, then you get sticklers, like when you start talking about HB on those guys, it's like they want you to say every word that was on that fucking paper.

Narrator 33:52 Yeah, but they also want someone who really sounds like they can say those words.

Donnell Rawlings 33:57 Agreed.

Narrator 33:58 You, like... There's- there's things that a per- a person has, like a type of charisma that a person has, like a person like yourself, that like you either have that or you don't. And if you have it, and you can deliver it in some form, some way, you could be coached.

Donnell Rawlings 34:17 Right.

Narrator 34:18 Someone could figure out how like- like, the, well, I'll help you memorize the lines, we'll work through them together, we'll go over things, but in the end, it's you.

Donnell Rawlings 34:26 It's you.

Narrator 34:26 It's you.

Donnell Rawlings 34:26 It's got- you right.

Narrator 34:27 You- you gotta go be you. But not everybody can even pretend to be you.

Donnell Rawlings 34:32 Everybody don't-

Narrator 34:33 But, yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 34:33 You know what I'm saying? Like...

Narrator 34:33 And everybody don't have the heart to take those chances, because-

Donnell Rawlings 34:36 Exactly.

Narrator 34:36 ... this is what... And I've never been trained, but where I've, one thing I've, it's always resonated when you talk about acting, is like make a decision, right? And let them bring you back.

Donnell Rawlings 34:47 Yeah.

Narrator 34:47 You know what I mean? It's better to go all out, than to not do it, and not, um... When we, when I was doing HBO's The Wire, there was one scene when I get pulled over in the cop, in the, in the ca- in the car, and I got like $30,000 of, people don't know if it's drug money, political money, or whatever, and I get arrested for it. And in the next scene, some kinda way, they have to let me go, with the money. Basically, I came in with $30,000, and I'm leaving with $30,000. And I just said, "I'm gonna do a little improv," right? So they was like, "Action." And when I left out the, uh, room, I was, I said, I threw the money over my, back of my shoulder and I said...

Donnell Rawlings 35:28 (singing) Some people got to have it. Some people really don't let money change. (normal voice) And I looked back at the cop, I said... (singing) Oh, mighty dollar. (normal voice) Everybody laughed, but they was like, "Nah. We ain't gonna be able to use that shit."

Narrator 35:43 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 35:45 "Bring it down." But it's like making, like at least they knew that I would take the chance.

Narrator 35:50 You'll free ball.

Donnell Rawlings 35:50 Some people... Yeah.

Narrator 35:51 Yeah. You'll, you'll be loose. And that's the thing, it's like some people just c- just can't be loose. They just can't figure that thing out.

Donnell Rawlings 35:59 Right.

Narrator 35:59 To be free. They're just always in their own way.

Donnell Rawlings 36:02 But I think...

Narrator 36:03 It's tff-

Donnell Rawlings 36:03 I think for me, even when acting has made it, um, like fun the times I get it, is that I've got enough s- I've made enough s- success in comedy, and created a pretty good lifestyle off of that, that I don't have that pressure of having to book a role.

Narrator 36:22 Right.

Donnell Rawlings 36:23 You know what I mean? Like a lot of actors now, and it's like if they gotta get this series, you know what I mean?

Narrator 36:29 Right.

Donnell Rawlings 36:29 Just to continue the lifestyle they have. So it's always, uh, it's... For me, acting's always been like, oh, I'm just playing around, it's fun, I mean...

Narrator 36:36 Right.

Donnell Rawlings 36:36 You know, get it. It comes and goes.

Narrator 36:37 That's the best way to do it.

Donnell Rawlings 36:38 Yep.

Narrator 36:39 Especially if you, you know, if your standup is going well, like everything just sort of can-

Joe Rogan 36:45 ... be fine. You don't really care if you're doing a movie here or there. But if you were only doing movies, like those folks during the pandemic that kind of just went back to acting-

Donnell Rawlings 36:54 Right.

Joe Rogan 36:54 ... 'cause there's a few comics that just stopped-

Donnell Rawlings 36:56 I would say, during the pandemic, I was so happy that shit was over 'cause I got sick of these writers that we never heard about doing spots.

Joe Rogan 37:05 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 37:05 They was like, "This, this guy wrote for Family Guy." We were like, "Where the fuck you been? You ain't been in the trenches like that."

Joe Rogan 37:10 No, no, there's people that realize they have fucking mortgages.

Donnell Rawlings 37:12 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 37:13 That's what happens, and then they realize, "Oh my God, it, I'm so connected to the TV system, that if it goes down because of the pandemic or another pandemic-"

Donnell Rawlings 37:20 Right.

Joe Rogan 37:21 ... "I don't work for a year and a half." Like what the fuck are you talking about?

Donnell Rawlings 37:23 I think that made people have to figure out what their pivot was.

Joe Rogan 37:27 Yeah, well-

Donnell Rawlings 37:28 You know?

Joe Rogan 37:28 ... they, you can't rely too much on a system that doesn't give a fuck about you, and a, a system that, if you, if you're paying attention to where it's going, a large amount of it is about to get sucked up by AI. Like a giant chunk.

Donnell Rawlings 37:43 Of the entertainment?

Joe Rogan 37:44 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 37:45 Yeah, I mean, I, I think-

Joe Rogan 37:46 A giant chunk.

Donnell Rawlings 37:48 Tyler Perry, uh, it was a story maybe, like, three weeks ago-

Joe Rogan 37:50 Yeah, all right.

Donnell Rawlings 37:51 ... and I think he was in the middle of either producing a movie or doing something, and was-

Joe Rogan 37:55 He was building an $800 million studio, and he paused the construction as soon as he saw s- what is it called Sora?

38:04 Sora, yeah.

38:04 Sora.

Donnell Rawlings 38:05 Create, it can create entire scenes.

Joe Rogan 38:07 Entire scenes, entire scenes that look realistic.

38:11 This is-

38:11 Have you seen it?

Donnell Rawlings 38:12 I haven't seen it.

Joe Rogan 38:12 Watch this.

38:13 This video came out yesterday, I think. This is like a balloon head guy. It's like a short film. It, all these scenes supposedly I guess are made by Sora.

38:21 So this is all AI?

Donnell Rawlings 38:23 Jesus.

Joe Rogan 38:23 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 38:24 It's over.

Narrator 38:24 They say everyone has something unique about them.

Joe Rogan 38:26 I don't know about the audio, that could be done afterwards.

Narrator 38:29 It's just in my case, you know, it's quite obvious what that thing is. I am literally filled with hot air. Yeah, living like this has its challenges. Uh, windy days, for one, are particularly troublesome. Or there was the one time my girlfriend insisted I go to Cactus Store to get my uncle Jerry a wedding present.

Donnell Rawlings 38:49 (inhales) This is crazy.

Narrator 38:50 What do I love most about my predicament?

Joe Rogan 38:52 Yeah, it's pretty well made. I was... Oh, for the-

Donnell Rawlings 38:54 And that's somebody just putting in the information-

Joe Rogan 38:57 Yes.

Donnell Rawlings 38:57 ... and that being created.

Joe Rogan 38:58 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 38:59 The new world entertainment, Joe, this is what my prediction is.

Joe Rogan 39:02 This is such a leap.

Donnell Rawlings 39:04 This is-

Joe Rogan 39:04 That is such a leap above everything else.

Donnell Rawlings 39:06 Now, you add that too. Add this, this is what's gonna happen eventually, and this is not the right thing to say, especially about Hollywood, the idea of agencies, the idea of A & R, all of those jobs are about to be gone, and only thing you're gonna have is content creators. And the content creators are gonna cut the middleman of the agency out, and they gonna go straight to the advertisers and the people that pay them money. You having to be connected with a certain entity or a certain agency, and they probably kill me after this, Joe... I'm tr- uh, this makes me Illuminati right now.

Joe Rogan 39:49 Dude. They gonna kill me, Joe. Katt Williams and everybody- (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 39:53 ... coming for my neck. I'm telling, it's gonna come (clears throat) where all of those things that you needed to make it aren't gonna exist anymore. And we're, we're, we're, we're-

Joe Rogan 40:06 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 40:06 ... we're close to that right now. The biggest-

Joe Rogan 40:07 Well, we already lost sitcoms. So, sitcoms were number one.

Donnell Rawlings 40:11 Right.

Joe Rogan 40:11 That was, that was like a number one job for a comedian, you get your own show, right?

Donnell Rawlings 40:15 Yeah, and that was the only job you wanted, right?

Joe Rogan 40:16 That was the, uh, the job that everybody wanted. And then they had comedy movies. Well, comedy movies have been drastically reduced. So, the sitcom's gone, and then the comedy movies have drastically been reduced.

Donnell Rawlings 40:28 But what did most people want that for, Joe? What did the, what did, what did the comedians wanted that for two things, money and fame.

Joe Rogan 40:36 Yeah, because there was no social media.

Donnell Rawlings 40:38 Those are the two things.

Joe Rogan 40:39 And there was no YouTube, and so ticket sales were really dependent upon you being on a television show.

Donnell Rawlings 40:45 100%.

Joe Rogan 40:45 Yeah. It was a big factor.

Donnell Rawlings 40:47 And it was, and this is like, you probably heard this, and it, it's a conversation when it comes to s- whe- especially when it comes to comedy. You got the YouTube comedians. You got the social media comedians. Like comedy now has broken down into so many definitions of what comedy is now. When we first started, there was only one definition. The minute you heard someone say comedian, it was nothing but a guy who grabs a mic, stands flat-footed and entertains an audience. It wasn't a comedian on boats. It wasn't that. When you said comedian, you just associated with-

Joe Rogan 41:21 Comedian on boats? (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 41:22 You know, I mean, just like...

Joe Rogan 41:24 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 41:25 No disrespect to the cruise guys.

Joe Rogan 41:26 You mean the cruise guys? Is that what you're talking about?

Donnell Rawlings 41:27 Yeah, because, yeah, they find their lane-

Joe Rogan 41:28 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 41:28 ... and they love it.

Joe Rogan 41:29 Yeah, but, but that's a tough life, man.

Donnell Rawlings 41:31 You know, yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:31 That's a tough life.

Donnell Rawlings 41:32 That's a tough life. But-

Joe Rogan 41:33 Trap, trapped on that boat telling them some fucking jokes.

Donnell Rawlings 41:36 But then some people got mouths to feed, some people like this-

Joe Rogan 41:39 That is what it is. That is what it is.

Donnell Rawlings 41:39 ... they look at the, they look at the, um, level of competition. They look at this. They be like, "Just, you know what? And those guys are six figures."

Joe Rogan 41:46 Yeah. They make six figures.

Donnell Rawlings 41:47 You know what I'm saying? Oh, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:47 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 41:47 They do, most of the guys that do it, it's, I don't, it's, they get to a point-

Joe Rogan 41:51 I've talked to guys that didn't like doing it.

Donnell Rawlings 41:54 Yeah, but they, they-

Joe Rogan 41:54 They're like, "It's very, kind of depressing for some reason."

Donnell Rawlings 41:56 Your first year or so, it's probably not, especially if you doing like $30 spots in Brooklyn here. Like when I w- that was a come up when I started.

Joe Rogan 42:05 Hm.

Donnell Rawlings 42:06 When I started, it's like, "Oh, you're on cruise ships. That mean you're good."

Joe Rogan 42:08 Really?

Donnell Rawlings 42:08 Oh, yeah. It was... 'Cause we didn't really have a lot-

Joe Rogan 42:11 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 42:11 ... to look up to other than just making, making money off of it. You know? So that was, it was a regular job in standup comedy.

Joe Rogan 42:19 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 42:19 But the point I was making about even with that, the different definition of comedian now, people, and they always, they break like, "Oh, the old heads have a way of thinking." Yeah, this and that. The, the, the thing that you have to credit is the work ethics you have to have to get to a certain level as, if you want to say a social media comedian or you... It's a certain level, it's a certain work ethics you have to be to do, to get consistent with that. But the problem is, the, the, what-... some people are having issues with. It's like, yeah, but some of them not that good. You know how hard it is to get good at something when you're already a (laughs) millionaire doing it at whatever level?

Joe Rogan 43:01 Mm-hmm.

Donnell Rawlings 43:02 You know, what pushed us when we were coming up was that, if I get good, I can get the money.

Joe Rogan 43:08 Right.

Donnell Rawlings 43:08 But now, and it's like, they got the money, so what is the urgency? Unless you get that one or two that's really, really care about the craft, what is the, w- who cares about being good at it when end result is I'm getting paid off this shit?

Joe Rogan 43:22 Well, you always want to be good at what you do, don't you? (swallows)

Donnell Rawlings 43:25 Some people. But the level of g- getting good at... Now is different. Like, today, people are getting good at knowing algorithms.

Joe Rogan 43:34 There's a lot of that. Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 43:34 You know what I'm saying? They get going... good at knowing what the system is, which is, which is fucking incredible. If you put talent on top of that-

Joe Rogan 43:43 Right.

Donnell Rawlings 43:44 ... you know, it should be-

Joe Rogan 43:46 Yeah, if you're a smart person and you know how to really, uh, utilize the system. I want to say manipulate, but that's the wrong word. It really is utilize.

Donnell Rawlings 43:53 Utili- utilize.

Joe Rogan 43:53 'Cause it's just you're... Like Mr. Beast, that's a perfect example.

Donnell Rawlings 43:56 Right.

Joe Rogan 43:57 That guy figured out, like, how to make the right captions, and how to make the right image for the... that you click on for the YouTube videos, the righ- the right title. And then he figured out how to just keep dumping money into his product. And he figured out exactly where the algorithms are, and he has it translated into different languages, like-

Donnell Rawlings 44:18 And that's a, that's a definite... That's a, that's... What I'm saying is (clears throat) that's the skillset that's going to get rid of a lot of jobs.

Joe Rogan 44:27 But that guy's a, that guy's a unicorn though. But here's the thing. I, I feel like if you have AI, uh, like whatever the next generation of ChatGPT is, you w- could be able to devise a very effective business plan that, like, really made sense. The AI would sort of guide you step by step, like, "This is what you're gonna do to achieve success." It'll probably even break it down, "If you write for 20 minutes every day, that will increase your, your time of material by 50 minutes over the course of the next 10 months." And if you, like, do all the calculations, like, "Holy shit, is that real?" And if you really thought about it that way, like through artificial intelligence, you let it guide your career, it would probably do a fucking amazing job (laughs) of, like, putting you into the perfect position to... I mean, if a- So we're gonna be auditioning-

Donnell Rawlings 45:19 ... artificial intelligence can really-

Joe Rogan 45:19 ... against motherfuckers, uh, artificial intelligence-

Donnell Rawlings 45:22 Yes.

Joe Rogan 45:23 ... guy. You, like, you, you sending your tape in and then they got a motherfucker that's auditioning like this, "Hey, I need, I need Joe to be a police officer, arrest these guys for stealing." Jonno, we, we have to realize we're that close to them bei- they're being fake people. We're that close.

Donnell Rawlings 45:40 I'm... Hopefully-

Joe Rogan 45:41 We-

Donnell Rawlings 45:41 ... I'm dead before they show up.

Joe Rogan 45:42 No, it's not. No. (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 45:43 'Cause I already deal with regular fake people. Now, we got artificially created fake people? Oh, Hollywood is fucking dead.

Joe Rogan 45:52 Oh, they're in trouble. Oh, Hollywood's dead. No.

Donnell Rawlings 45:55 Uh-

Joe Rogan 45:55 No, no, no. For real though, Hollywood's dead. Just looking at that movie-

Donnell Rawlings 45:58 You part of it. You buried it. You helped bury it.

Joe Rogan 46:00 I didn't do shit.

Donnell Rawlings 46:00 Yes, you did.

Joe Rogan 46:01 What the fuck did I do? I just-

Donnell Rawlings 46:02 You, you, you-

Joe Rogan 46:02 ... abandoned ship.

Donnell Rawlings 46:03 You helped bury it. You helped... You've showed motherfuckers something you can do that they probably didn't think you could do. Go somewhere, post up, do your shit, and create a whole fucking comedy community in Austin.

Joe Rogan 46:19 Yeah, I didn't think I could do it either.

Donnell Rawlings 46:21 You knew you could do it.

Joe Rogan 46:22 (laughs) I did not know-

Donnell Rawlings 46:23 Yes, you do.

Joe Rogan 46:23 ... I could do it.

Donnell Rawlings 46:23 You knew you could do it.

Joe Rogan 46:24 I did not know I could do it.

Donnell Rawlings 46:25 And you did.

Joe Rogan 46:25 I just did it.

Donnell Rawlings 46:26 That's why I'm... I'll tell you. And you have, like, you doing it, a lot of people doing it. But I did your club, the Mothership. And it's like, anybody can... Not anybody. If you have enough money, you could build a, a nice club, right? It's a nice club, state of the art, whatever. But it doesn't make it a comedy community.

Joe Rogan 46:49 Right.

Donnell Rawlings 46:50 You know what I'm saying? It's like, that's gonna be the challenges of, like, all these people that opened up comedy clubs and stuff.

Joe Rogan 46:56 Mm-hmm.

Donnell Rawlings 46:57 Dave has opened up one. I think Mike Epps. Just a lot of them, like, popping up. And I think that's a dope thing. But the thing is, like, it's a, it's a difference between having a comedy community, you know?

Joe Rogan 47:09 Mm-hmm. Yeah, you have to do that on purpose, you know?

Donnell Rawlings 47:12 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:13 And that's one of the things we did when we opened up the club, was set up, like, a whole, like... The- these are the nights you're gonna have open mic, you know? We're gonna have, uh, comedians audition to be door people. So that, like, they'll be able to see guys like Dave Attell, who was just there this weekend.

Donnell Rawlings 47:31 Right.

Joe Rogan 47:31 And that you'll have, like, this very clear pathway. There's, like, open mic night. The, uh, talent coordinator will be there, he'll be able to watch you. Maybe he can even give you some tips. Other comics can watch you. They see you working the door. You get to see all this great comedy. You get to be around all this great comedy. And then there's a lot of places to go in town. And we'll let you punch out.

Donnell Rawlings 47:53 Seven days a week, right?

Joe Rogan 47:53 We let people punch out. Like, if a comic has a set down the street-

Donnell Rawlings 47:56 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:56 ... they can punch out, go run down the street, do a set, come back to work.

Donnell Rawlings 47:58 That's how it's supposed to be. 'Cause you do seven days a week, right?

Joe Rogan 48:01 Yeah, we're seven days a week.

Donnell Rawlings 48:01 That's how I gauge whenever I go... And you don't never see anyone.

Joe Rogan 48:04 Two nights open mic nights too.

Donnell Rawlings 48:05 I always gauge a club, not gauge it, but you could tell how successful a club is if they can run fucking seven nights a week.

Joe Rogan 48:12 Well, i- it's, um... Y- you know, it was the perfect timing. It's, it's just a weird coincidence of all these things happening that opened all these doors at exactly the same time. Like, it's like we're going down the street and you hit every green light, like, magically. And it just goes. You just... Bing, bing, bing, bing.

Donnell Rawlings 48:29 You know, it's a system in, in New York. If you, on those streets, 2nd Avenue and any of those streets, if you drive, uh, uh, 30... 28 miles an hour, you will catch every light from, like, 23rd Street to up 115. That's a fact. I know you didn't know-

Joe Rogan 48:43 Mm.

Donnell Rawlings 48:43 ... but I've tried it.

Joe Rogan 48:44 I've heard that.

Donnell Rawlings 48:45 Yeah, if you do it-

Joe Rogan 48:46 I've heard that.

Donnell Rawlings 48:46 ... I think it's, I think it's 28 miles an hour, you... It's just a straight shot.

Joe Rogan 48:49 Wow.

Donnell Rawlings 48:51 A couple cats and dogs will get ran over in that process (laughs) but as long as you mi- maintain that consistency of 28 miles an hour, you won't, you won't stop.

Joe Rogan 48:59 Hmm.

Donnell Rawlings 49:01 ... that was a fact that I know you didn't know.

Joe Rogan 49:04 I had heard that before. I had heard that from cab drivers.

Donnell Rawlings 49:07 Is there anything you haven't heard, yo?

Joe Rogan 49:09 At this point in time, I thi- I always think that, but then Jonan comes along-

Donnell Rawlings 49:14 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 49:14 ... and throws me for a loop. (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 49:15 At 16. In 16, the last time I was here you didn't know what a hot 16 was.

Joe Rogan 49:20 (laughs) That's right, I didn't.

Donnell Rawlings 49:22 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 49:23 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 49:23 But, you asked me, you asked me about this suit.

Joe Rogan 49:26 It looks sweet.

Donnell Rawlings 49:27 And as I'm watching myself in the camera, I'm like, "Did I go overboard with the suit?"

Joe Rogan 49:31 No, no, no, no, you look great.

Donnell Rawlings 49:32 This-

Joe Rogan 49:32 I wish I'd known, I would, I would've worn a suit, a suit too. I like wearing a suit.

Donnell Rawlings 49:35 I, I know, I remember when we was doing-

Joe Rogan 49:36 Makes me feel like a per- yeah, we did those arenas.

Donnell Rawlings 49:38 When we did are- arena shows.

Joe Rogan 49:39 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 49:40 And your, and your, your whole energy changed when you had a suit on.

Joe Rogan 49:44 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 49:45 Like I did on my special, I said, "Stamp my feet." You started stomping your feet, and you said, you know, you could do your set, but it's just something about, something that's classic about-

Joe Rogan 49:53 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 49:53 ... being able to do standup in a suit.

Joe Rogan 49:56 There is something about it.

Donnell Rawlings 49:57 And that's how I felt even when, when I did New Day. First off, this was my third time shooting this special. I told you the story.

Joe Rogan 50:07 Yes.

Donnell Rawlings 50:08 And I remember every, and I, and I was really getting stressed, 'cause every time I saw you, you would be like, "When is the special coming out? When does the sp-" I'm like, "I don't know. I fucking shot the shit, I don't know." First time I did the special during the pandemic, at the end of the pandemic, when, uh, the clubs still had all this, uh, COVID protocol, and they got-

Joe Rogan 50:31 They had masks on.

Donnell Rawlings 50:32 Yeah, a mask on-

Joe Rogan 50:33 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 50:34 ... then vaccination cards. "Have you been tested?"

Joe Rogan 50:36 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 50:36 "And what shot you had? Johnson & Johnson," and all that shit. We did it in North Carolina, and we had... Outback was already against it, because the venue I chose, it held 600 people. I think it was The Fillmore Theater, 6-700 people, and we had a sell of 700 people. But then, when Netflix was like, "Ah, where's your card? Ah, where's this?" It went down. The first show went down to, like, 250 people.

Joe Rogan 50:59 Oh, they had to have vaccine cards to get in?

Donnell Rawlings 51:01 All of that shit.

Joe Rogan 51:02 Oh.

Donnell Rawlings 51:03 It's, which means now in the back of the show-

Joe Rogan 51:05 No.

Donnell Rawlings 51:05 ... you gotta put a black curtain.

Joe Rogan 51:07 Oh, no.

Donnell Rawlings 51:08 Now, you like, l- like, looking at, like, a half-filled audience.

Joe Rogan 51:12 Oh, no.

Donnell Rawlings 51:12 They got masks on and shit.

Joe Rogan 51:14 Oh, no.

Donnell Rawlings 51:15 Did the show. First show went well, right? First show went well. And then Dave was like, uh, 'cause he produced it. Dave said, um, "You know, if we don't get it, we can shoot it again." I'm like, "Motherfucker, ain't no time to shoot this if we don't get it this time." Second time at it, I caught it standing O. Stan Lathan going crazy, Ricky Hughes going crazy. We're like, "Oh, we got it, we got it." And we announced that my special was gonna come out the same time we announced the earthquake special was gonna come out. A week after that announcement, Dave calls me, he says, "Darnell, I wanna shoot your special over." I'm like, "The f-..." You know that's the most insulting thing? You tell a comedian you wanna shoot it over, the first thing you think, "What? It wasn't funny?"

Joe Rogan 51:55 Right.

Donnell Rawlings 51:55 That's the first thing. He was like, "I can put you in front of any audience, you will rip the room," he said, "But that doesn't make it a great special." He said, "Off everybody and the umbrella of the home team that people are really anticipating because your connection with that show is you. If we're gonna do it, we gotta get it right." It was tough, because I'm like, "Ah, this is gonna be the joint that give me a platform for people to see me do standup." But, we f- basically scrapped the shit. He said, "Darnell, you had too much COVID jokes in there." And think about it, if I would've shot a special with, with mask in it-

Joe Rogan 52:30 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 52:31 ... it automatically dates you to 2020.

Joe Rogan 52:34 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 52:35 Soon as you turn, it's like, "Oh, this shit was during the pandemic."

Joe Rogan 52:37 How wild was the pandemic?

Donnell Rawlings 52:39 I miss it. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 52:41 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 52:41 I was thinking about it the other day. I miss it, man. I miss not having to be around a lot of motherfuckers.

Joe Rogan 52:48 Mm.

Donnell Rawlings 52:49 I miss how people appreciated simple things. I miss how, when you had a bubble, you could block all this negative-

Joe Rogan 53:00 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 53:01 ... all the haters out. Uh-

Joe Rogan 53:02 You weren't allowed to come inside the bubble, 'cause yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 53:04 Give me six feet, bitch.

Joe Rogan 53:06 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 53:06 Bitch, give me six feet, the bubble, and inviting who you wanted. I, I miss that, I miss how people appreciate, like... I think we should do, like, a lockdown week, a worldwide lockdown week-

Joe Rogan 53:18 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 53:18 ... once a year where the whole fucking world just shuts the fuck down.

Joe Rogan 53:24 Yeah, that would be great, except you can't tell people to shut things down, 'cause then you're gonna give the power to the government to shut things down whenever they want for a week, and then they might decide that two weeks is better, maybe a month. Like (laughs) , you can't-

Donnell Rawlings 53:37 I know. I know.

Joe Rogan 53:37 ... you can't give them the power to shut things down. If people decide to not do anything-

Donnell Rawlings 53:41 Well, we should vote so we could vote on, like, a lockdown, like, national lockdown day.

Joe Rogan 53:46 You don't want to take away freedom from people.

Donnell Rawlings 53:49 I don't wanna take away freedom.

Joe Rogan 53:50 If people wanna do it, they should be able to do it. If y'all agree to do it-

Donnell Rawlings 53:54 Man, fuck that.

Joe Rogan 53:54 ... do it on your own.

Donnell Rawlings 53:54 Nah, fuck that. Fuck that, Joe.

Joe Rogan 53:56 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 53:57 Joe, what happened when we started making people (laughs) do something? Guess what happened?

Joe Rogan 54:00 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 54:00 When you make somebody do something, when you make somebody wash their hands, when you make somebody give you six feet, when you make them do something, it forces some type of change. I'm not saying forever, but I think that we should have a joint where we just lock down everything-

Joe Rogan 54:15 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 54:15 ... for like a fucking week. Everything is dead.

Joe Rogan 54:19 It was-

Donnell Rawlings 54:19 That shit was fun.

Joe Rogan 54:21 You don't-

Donnell Rawlings 54:22 Some people died.

Joe Rogan 54:24 Not that many.

Donnell Rawlings 54:25 In comparison-

Joe Rogan 54:26 That were...

Donnell Rawlings 54:26 ... to the people that lived.

Joe Rogan 54:27 ... not already sick.

Donnell Rawlings 54:30 Point?

Joe Rogan 54:30 It is, it is a disease that killed people, for sure, but it's a disease that killed people with... What was the percentage? It's like, a large percentage of 'em had four comorbidities.

Donnell Rawlings 54:44 Oh, yeah?

Joe Rogan 54:44 A large percentage of the people that died from COVID. Four.

Donnell Rawlings 54:47 So it just kind of just-

Joe Rogan 54:47 Four different things that are killing you.

Donnell Rawlings 54:49 It's just said wrap it up. (laughs) It said-

Joe Rogan 54:51 It like, that came along-

Donnell Rawlings 54:52 Right.

Joe Rogan 54:52 ... to an already compromised human, which is not to say that you shouldn't-

Donnell Rawlings 54:57 Could-

Joe Rogan 54:57 ... you know, try to help compromised humans. But, I'm saying that-... it's, it's not what they were selling it as, or what people were terrified that it was gonna be.

Donnell Rawlings 55:07 Yeah, but I know it was f- I mean, for me-

Joe Rogan 55:08 But it was so weird what it did for us, man. When... Do you remember those days at Stubb's? I went to Stubb's the other day f- to see the Black Keys.

Donnell Rawlings 55:16 Uh.

Joe Rogan 55:16 And it just brought me back to those days at Stubb's. We did those shows there. It was like, there was a wild, crazy feeling about doing something when no one else was doing anything.

Donnell Rawlings 55:27 It was fucking... I got, I got high off of that shit.

Joe Rogan 55:29 It was exciting. We were still doing comedy.

Donnell Rawlings 55:32 Man, we were-

Joe Rogan 55:32 And comedy was shut down everywhere.

Donnell Rawlings 55:34 We were still doing comedy, we were still eating with groups (laughs) of people.

Joe Rogan 55:37 (laughs) We were hanging out.

Donnell Rawlings 55:38 That's what I'm s- that's what I'm saying about-

Joe Rogan 55:39 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 55:39 ... appreciate it then, even like, but a lot of people thought we were reckless. But, you know, every part of this, it was protocol.

Joe Rogan 55:45 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 55:46 It was like, "Hey, c-" Every part of it was protocol. You weren't gonna be around anybody that hadn't been tested, period.

Joe Rogan 55:52 Right.

Donnell Rawlings 55:53 It def- it was just something about it, even when we s- when we saw each other, it was like, "Oh, shit, we doing, we're..." We got excited about doing regular shit.

Joe Rogan 56:04 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 56:05 Even when... All of our crew caught COVID at the same time. It was like a chicken pox party.

Joe Rogan 56:11 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 56:11 We went down from a team of 24, and every day, this is when I knew it was getting bad, because I used to plan like the lunches for everybody, and, uh, and we had lunch like at 12 o'clock every day. And they were like, "I wonder what we're gonna have for lunch?" It'd be 24 people. Then once the, once the bubble popped, uh, one day it was 22, it was 20, it was 19, it went down to 12, to, to four people you had to fend for yourself.

Joe Rogan 56:36 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 56:36 The whole fucking crew caught it.

Joe Rogan 56:40 And this is pre-vaccines, this is pre-

Donnell Rawlings 56:43 That was right, it was right when vaccines was about to pop, 'cause I had somebody... I know this is gonna sound so ghetto. I had somebody that could get me to Johnson & Johnson (laughs) on the low.

Joe Rogan 56:53 (scoffs) On the low?

Donnell Rawlings 56:54 Yeah. I-

Joe Rogan 56:54 People were excited to get it at the beginning.

Donnell Rawlings 56:56 All of it.

Joe Rogan 56:57 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 56:58 I got it. I got it quick too.

Joe Rogan 56:59 I almost got it.

Donnell Rawlings 57:00 Yeah?

Joe Rogan 57:01 And I got lucky.

Donnell Rawlings 57:02 See, now you like-

Joe Rogan 57:03 I got lucky I dodged that.

Donnell Rawlings 57:04 Now, now, I'm wondering, ever since I got it, I'm waiting for some shit to happen in my body (laughs) that I can contribute to that shit. But-

Joe Rogan 57:11 Well, a lot of people can.

Donnell Rawlings 57:14 ... yeah, I got the J.

Joe Rogan 57:14 It did something to a lot of people, you know? It's got a very high rate of side effect.

Donnell Rawlings 57:20 Why you fucking with me now, man?

Joe Rogan 57:22 It does.

Donnell Rawlings 57:23 Which one? (laughs)

Joe Rogan 57:24 I think all of them.

Donnell Rawlings 57:26 It was-

Joe Rogan 57:27 And th- uh, I think, and I don't think any of them are good for you.

Donnell Rawlings 57:29 I didn't... So, what's been happening? (laughs)

Joe Rogan 57:31 (laughs) I think if you were a, an old person and it was the first go around of COVID, it probably would help you. But I think there's, there's a lot of problems with that thing. It-

Donnell Rawlings 57:41 What's been the-

Joe Rogan 57:42 Well, there's a lot of side effects. I mean, there's... The, the craziest thing that's going on right now is the increase in all cause mortality. That's the crazy thing.

Donnell Rawlings 57:54 Due to the vaccine?

Joe Rogan 57:55 Yeah. There's an excess death. There's like a excess death, um, like number increase that's pretty... Uh, it's... If you, if you were a statistic, uh, statistic- statistician, if you're a statistics person and you were, uh, looking at indications that something went wrong, you would say, "Well, w- w- was there anything that caused these people's bodies to change, where we're getting this large number of excess deaths?" And some people it's-

Donnell Rawlings 58:25 Why you fucking with me, man?

Joe Rogan 58:26 ... as many as 40% in some age groups.

Donnell Rawlings 58:27 Why you fucking with me, man?

Joe Rogan 58:29 40% excess deaths.

Donnell Rawlings 58:30 And what type of shit?

Joe Rogan 58:33 I think it just means like 40% more people died than normally do.

Donnell Rawlings 58:37 (sighs)

Joe Rogan 58:37 Basically, that's what it means, right?

Donnell Rawlings 58:38 Black.

Joe Rogan 58:39 Jamie? Uh. Black? Sure, I- Excess deaths? Yeah, I don't know.

Donnell Rawlings 58:42 Black?

Joe Rogan 58:44 Everybody.

Donnell Rawlings 58:45 (sighs)

Joe Rogan 58:45 Everybody. And a lot of it is cardiac stuff, cardiac stuff went way up. You know, but a lot of people got it and nothing happened to them, and they're fine, you know?

Donnell Rawlings 58:56 (sighs) Feel like that was a personal attack on me.

Joe Rogan 58:57 Just-

Donnell Rawlings 58:57 Like, you were like-

Joe Rogan 58:58 No, it was a, it was a-

Donnell Rawlings 58:59 ... you were like, "Donnell, you got the jab twice."

Joe Rogan 59:02 Listen, I would've got it. I was ready to get it. I just di- I didn't get it just because they, they couldn't do it. I had to go to a clinic or the hospital-

Donnell Rawlings 59:09 Yeah, you had to st-

Joe Rogan 59:09 ... or wherever. And then I said, "I'll get it when I come back next time." And between that time and me coming back next time, they had already pulled it. They pulled it because of blood clots, and I was like, "Yeah."

Donnell Rawlings 59:19 Yeah, I got it 'cause I was still working. It was like... I know this sounds crazy, but you couldn't like... if you were, um, working, as a working actor or an-

Joe Rogan 59:29 You couldn't work.

Donnell Rawlings 59:29 ... you couldn't work.

Joe Rogan 59:30 You couldn't work.

Donnell Rawlings 59:31 So, I know some people made it, I mean, I know people like, yeah, you compromise your body. And, and then some c- some areas people think it's like, "Oh, it's the white man trying to control you."

Joe Rogan 59:40 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 59:41 But it was at one point it was like, if you were trying to work, you wasn't working unless you had a vaccination.

Joe Rogan 59:46 Yeah, you, you weren't going anywhere. You weren't flying anywhere. Yeah, it was a real issue. And there's still, there was a lot of countries that, until recently, you had to have a vaccine card, including America. You had to have a vaccine card to get in, unless you walked across the border, of course.

Donnell Rawlings 1:00:01 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:00:01 Then you can come right in.

Donnell Rawlings 1:00:02 Shout out to the Mexicans. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:00:02 And then you can come right in. (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 1:00:04 They had, um... Where was it? Uh, where was it? In t- in Canada they c- Australia, they had the biggest... Uh, they were the m- I think they were the most...

Joe Rogan 1:00:11 Australia was crazy.

Donnell Rawlings 1:00:12 ... tight as fuck.

Joe Rogan 1:00:12 They were putting people in camps.

Donnell Rawlings 1:00:14 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:00:14 If you were sick, they'd take you, put you... You could have been fine, like-

Donnell Rawlings 1:00:16 And you couldn't travel, period.

Joe Rogan 1:00:18 No.

Donnell Rawlings 1:00:18 You just were there, right?

Joe Rogan 1:00:19 And if you got sick and then they put you in that camp, you can't go anywhere. And there's fucking armed people out there waiting for you.

Donnell Rawlings 1:00:26 And they didn't have that much-

Joe Rogan 1:00:27 Like, what?

Donnell Rawlings 1:00:27 They didn't have that much death either, so it worked.

Joe Rogan 1:00:29 Well, no, no, that didn't work. First of all, it's a terrible idea to just round people up and make them go to camps because they're sick. You don't let l- allow them to stay at home. You determine where they can move and not move. You're arresting people for wearing masks outside. None of that is scientific. None of it works. There's never been a respiratory disease-

Donnell Rawlings 1:00:52 So, you don't think lockdown sh-

Joe Rogan 1:00:53 There's... No.

Donnell Rawlings 1:00:53 You don't think lockdown, you don't think lockdown helped us at all?

Joe Rogan 1:00:55 No, not at all.

Donnell Rawlings 1:00:56 So, you think it would've just been passing if we wouldn't have the lockdown-

Joe Rogan 1:00:59 I think-

Donnell Rawlings 1:00:59 ... and all the protocol?

Joe Rogan 1:01:00 ... maybe it slowed the rate of people getting it. Maybe you could say that.... and maybe for older people, it protected them from being in contact with people that would give it to them. Okay? Maybe.

Donnell Rawlings 1:01:17 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:01:17 But in terms of what it did to the economy and what it did to the small businesses and all the small restaurants, and how many people-

Donnell Rawlings 1:01:24 Shut them down.

Joe Rogan 1:01:25 How many people went into drug addiction because their fucking whole life, everything they worked for fell apart? How many people lost everything through no fault of their own? People that have been working for decades in restaurants and small mom and pop shops. They would just... All went under. None of them could handle that year and a half where you couldn't work at all. It doesn't make any sense, any sense that anyone could have ever watched that happen and see that 70% of the restaurants were crumbling in front of them, and not to make some sort of a correction.

Donnell Rawlings 1:02:00 I mean, I, I-

Joe Rogan 1:02:01 It doesn't make any sense that they didn't.

Donnell Rawlings 1:02:03 ... I agree. I, I see the aftermath when I go... I was insane.

Joe Rogan 1:02:05 It's crazy.

Donnell Rawlings 1:02:05 Whenever I go to these cities and you, you look at the downtown area.

Joe Rogan 1:02:08 So that's all from the lockdowns, man. That's a big part of it. Where, where people can't work for a year and a half-

Donnell Rawlings 1:02:14 Yeah, but then the people-

Joe Rogan 1:02:14 ... you're just, you're just, you're gonna have so many more homeless people. You're gonna have so many more people that are in despair. So many more people that become alcoholics. Remember all the people that were drinking like crazy during the pandemic?

Donnell Rawlings 1:02:25 Yeah. It was, that was the best time to drink.

Joe Rogan 1:02:26 This lady made a video.

Donnell Rawlings 1:02:27 I had fun drinking (laughs) during the pandemic.

Joe Rogan 1:02:27 She was, she was jogging down her street taking f- uh, video of all the different recyclables that people had out. It's all just bottles of tequila and bottles of wine.

Donnell Rawlings 1:02:36 During the pandemic?

Joe Rogan 1:02:36 It's like, yeah. Like the people are going hard.

Donnell Rawlings 1:02:38 Yeah. I was part of that bubble, that bubble.

Joe Rogan 1:02:40 Yeah. (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 1:02:41 That was... It was a good bubble, and it felt f- uh, the freedom when we all came together.

Joe Rogan 1:02:45 Here's the thing though, the lockdown was a terrible idea. It was terrible for everybody. It was terrible for kids. It was terrible for, uh, everybody. You know, it might have... You can make an argument that it might slow the spread of the disease, but, you know, there's just so much they did to suppress alternative methods.

Donnell Rawlings 1:03:03 But they had to do... You had, I think, do... We, we had to do something.

Joe Rogan 1:03:08 Yeah. Well, they... What they should have done is listen to all the doctors instead of just the doctors that wanted to vaccinate people 'cause there was a lot of doctors that were prescribing alternative treatments. There's different remedies. There's a bunch of different things they did that helped people that got sick, especially monoclonal antibodies. There's a lot. And then they stopped giving those to people. They stopped making them accessible. Once you were in the hospital, they wouldn't let you have it. Like it don't... There's so much shit that went on that was just... If you, it just... If you wanted to be really, really clear with what you're looking at, you'd say, have to say, "God, I think this is motivated more by money than taking care of people."

Donnell Rawlings 1:03:47 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:03:47 So much of it.

Donnell Rawlings 1:03:48 I-

Joe Rogan 1:03:48 So much of it.

Donnell Rawlings 1:03:49 100%. Pfizer, Moderna, uh, Johnson & Johnson. They, they all came up.

Joe Rogan 1:03:56 And you can't even hate that 'cause that's what they do.

Donnell Rawlings 1:03:57 And you can't even... Even in the testing. Right.

Joe Rogan 1:03:59 That's what they do. That's their business.

Donnell Rawlings 1:04:02 So we need, so we need a, we need a pandemic or something c- catastrophic like that to happen before big business can make more money?

Joe Rogan 1:04:09 No. We need AI. AI is gonna-

Donnell Rawlings 1:04:10 So somebody sat there. So did they really say-

Joe Rogan 1:04:12 AI is gonna put the kibosh on all of it.

Donnell Rawlings 1:04:15 AI is going to... What is-

Joe Rogan 1:04:16 I think we're gonna have President AI. That's what I think. I think we're gonna realize people are too emotional and easily distracted and too corrupt, and just like this... The percentage of corruption is costing this amount of money. The, uh-

Donnell Rawlings 1:04:30 So we're gonna have-

Joe Rogan 1:04:31 ... incorrect allocation of money to this and that.

Donnell Rawlings 1:04:33 So-

Joe Rogan 1:04:33 And yeah, AI. AI is gonna take over.

Donnell Rawlings 1:04:35 AI president?

Joe Rogan 1:04:36 AI president. Yeah. I'm not kidding.

Donnell Rawlings 1:04:38 A lot of people would ask you what you're smoking right now, Joe.

Joe Rogan 1:04:42 No.

Donnell Rawlings 1:04:42 So what you do? You vote for this? Uh, well, how do you... How does it-

Joe Rogan 1:04:44 Well, here is the thing. If, if they really want complete total control, they'll trick you into telling you that you don't need to vote anymore because AI is going to equitably distribute all wealth, all social services, all housing. Everything is gonna be even for everybody. AI knows how to do it. It's gonna stop all international conflict. It's gonna have a, a perfect, uh, carbon-neutral existence while powering everything up. But it has to take control.

Donnell Rawlings 1:05:18 But somebody has to be in control of what you ask AI.

Joe Rogan 1:05:22 Not necessarily. No.

Donnell Rawlings 1:05:22 Somebod-... So it's just gonna be anybody.

Joe Rogan 1:05:24 It's not necessarily. No, not necessarily.

Donnell Rawlings 1:05:25 Somebod-... Nobody's gonna be able to control the information you give AI to, to do everything you just said.

Joe Rogan 1:05:30 No. No, no, no, no, no. N- what, what happens is AI achieves what they call, uh, sentient AI. Like, uh... So what it is, is, it... At a certain point in time, if artificial intelligence gets good enough, it's going to be autonomous. It's gonna be able to control itself, and it's gonna be able to make better versions of itself. It's not gonna be as simple as you made a thing, and now I programmed into the thing what the parameters of this thing are, and now this thing can act like a person. No. You turn it into a life form, and then you say, "You have the ability to create better versions of yourself." Well, that thing-

Donnell Rawlings 1:06:07 You're scaring the shit out of me right now.

Joe Rogan 1:06:09 Is you're gonna... That thing, that thing is gonna be a god. Okay? That thing that's gonna be a god, that thing might be four years away from us right now.

Donnell Rawlings 1:06:16 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:06:17 Like no bullshit. Like 2029, it, it might be a real thing by then with the way technology is moving so fast. Like we didn't even think about AI being a threat.

Donnell Rawlings 1:06:28 You know how many, um, deadbeat dads are gonna lea- leave if you could do (laughs) an AI version of being a dad? They're gonna be like, "Fuck it. I'm outta here. You go fuck with junior. I'm gone."

Joe Rogan 1:06:38 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 1:06:40 I can't believe... But you can believe they're-

Joe Rogan 1:06:43 Human beings are gonna live in alternative realities. It's not gonna be as simple as, you know, now all of a sudden there's artificial intelligence. It's artificial intelligence that can give you whatever elixir you need to keep you happy, and that's what it's probably going to do to people. It's probably gonna figure out a way to sedate people.

Donnell Rawlings 1:07:04 So how are people gonna maintain-

Joe Rogan 1:07:04 Keep 'em calm.

Donnell Rawlings 1:07:06 How are people... How, how-

Joe Rogan 1:07:07 And let them bre- stop breathing.

Donnell Rawlings 1:07:08 So how are people...... going to be able to work and provide for themselves? It's just gonna be a different, it's gonna be a different skill set. It's gonna be different type of jobs.

Joe Rogan 1:07:20 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 1:07:20 How, how, how are humans gonna be able to compete with AI?

Joe Rogan 1:07:25 Well, we're not. That's the thing. It's not possible. If, if, if they reach a certain point, w- so if you just think about, d- you know what a, uh, exponential increase in technology is?

Donnell Rawlings 1:07:37 I don't.

Joe Rogan 1:07:37 Exponential means it's not as simple as, like, one plus one equals two. It's, uh, you gotta think that, uh, with each d- like, you, you know how they, they do, uh, like, a, um, a- a- a- like, a funnel and they have a quarter and they spin the quarter around the funnel-

Donnell Rawlings 1:07:54 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:07:54 ... and at the bottom it gets faster and faster and faster and faster.

Donnell Rawlings 1:07:56 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:07:56 That's how e- exponential increase in technology works. With each invention it begets, it makes all these other inventions, and they all accelerate. And as they do it, it happens so fast and so quick that this exponential thing is hard to understand because it's just, it's not like each step is one more. It's like earthquakes. You know, like, a 7.1 earthquake is, like, way stronger than a 7.0.

Donnell Rawlings 1:08:25 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:08:25 And they just get bigger and b- it's 'cause it's exponential. That's the same thing with technology. It's gonna happen so fast that the increase in power and its ability to do whatever it wants to do is gonna happen so quick.

Donnell Rawlings 1:08:36 Well, what do we do when i-

Joe Rogan 1:08:37 That once it becomes alive it's just gonna make better versions of itself.

Donnell Rawlings 1:08:40 So what do we do when it c-

Joe Rogan 1:08:40 Like, immediately.

Donnell Rawlings 1:08:41 But what, what do we do, what we, there's nothing we'll be able to do to control it.

Joe Rogan 1:08:44 We are fucked.

Donnell Rawlings 1:08:46 That's what I was trying to say.

Joe Rogan 1:08:46 'Cause there will be no more jobs.

Donnell Rawlings 1:08:47 When you first started this shit-

Joe Rogan 1:08:49 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 1:08:49 ... I was like every time you built up and said what the fuck you said, I said, "We are fucked."

Joe Rogan 1:08:54 We're fucked.

Donnell Rawlings 1:08:54 We're fucked. We-

Joe Rogan 1:08:55 We're fucked. It's al-

Donnell Rawlings 1:08:56 We might-

Joe Rogan 1:08:56 They're already having them work as kitchen assistants where they talk to you in your kitchen.

Donnell Rawlings 1:09:00 They got robots.

Joe Rogan 1:09:01 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 1:09:01 I went to a robot, uh, uh, restaurant the other day and a robot motherfucker pulled up with the noodles and all that type of shit.

Joe Rogan 1:09:07 Jesus.

Donnell Rawlings 1:09:07 I go to studios. I go to, I go to, like, Good Day Pittsburgh and all this type of shit, and where you used to go in those places and see, like, 12 cameramen, it's one producer and all the cameras are fucking robotic.

Joe Rogan 1:09:20 Didn't we learn from I, Robot?

Donnell Rawlings 1:09:22 No, we didn't.

Joe Rogan 1:09:23 Why didn't we learn from those movies?

Donnell Rawlings 1:09:25 'Cause-

Joe Rogan 1:09:25 Why didn't we learn from Terminator? 'Cause we-

Donnell Rawlings 1:09:27 What the fuck is wrong with us? The reason why, because we thought it was just a movie. Why didn't we learn-

Joe Rogan 1:09:31 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 1:09:31 ... from George Jetson?

Joe Rogan 1:09:32 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 1:09:33 Yo, that was my state-of-the-art shit.

Joe Rogan 1:09:36 Uh.

Donnell Rawlings 1:09:36 You know, I'm so old, yo, that when I see Ge- when I remember when thinking about George Jetson, my mindset was like, "That will never fucking happen." And my son has a phone with a goddamn v- video, video camera.

Joe Rogan 1:09:53 Right.

Donnell Rawlings 1:09:54 'Cause we don't believe the shit is gonna happen.

Joe Rogan 1:09:56 Well, it happened so fast. That's another example of exponential increase in technology.

Donnell Rawlings 1:10:00 That's why, Joe, that's why I fuck with the woods.

Joe Rogan 1:10:04 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 1:10:05 That's why, Joe, I said, "Fuck Hollywood, I'm going from the streets to the creeks."

Joe Rogan 1:10:10 Get yourself a satellite phone.

Donnell Rawlings 1:10:11 I said, "I'm going from the hoods..." Get a satellite phone. No, I don't... (laughs) You got all this survival shit.

Joe Rogan 1:10:17 Get a satellite phone, go to the woods.

Donnell Rawlings 1:10:18 And then what? Who the fuck you gonna call?

Joe Rogan 1:10:19 Just call whoever the fuck-

Donnell Rawlings 1:10:21 Just you.

Joe Rogan 1:10:21 ... you want.

Donnell Rawlings 1:10:21 You're the only person-

Joe Rogan 1:10:22 Hey, that's out there.

Donnell Rawlings 1:10:23 This is what I decided.

Joe Rogan 1:10:23 We got that photo out there.

Donnell Rawlings 1:10:24 This decided, I'm going from the streets to the creeks, from the hoods to the woods, from whores to oars, from Adidas to Tevas, Joe. My whole mindset, my whole thing is a fucking new day.

Joe Rogan 1:10:36 Mm-hmm.

Donnell Rawlings 1:10:37 Fuck Hollywood, God.

Joe Rogan 1:10:40 I, I don't think it ex- it really exists for us anymore.

Donnell Rawlings 1:10:43 No, and that re- espe-

Joe Rogan 1:10:44 Like, in comedy Hollywood, like comedy Hollywood? Comedy Hollywood is a ghost town.

Donnell Rawlings 1:10:48 It's not there anymore. You ex- you are an example, and there's a lot of other examples of you can literally make Hollywood wherever the fuck you want to make Hollywood.

Joe Rogan 1:10:59 But it's not even-

Donnell Rawlings 1:11:00 You don't have to be on... It's not-

Joe Rogan 1:11:01 Hollywood at all, though.

Donnell Rawlings 1:11:01 The only reason you wanna be in Hollywood now is for the parties, Joe. And nobody's going to those parties anymore.

Joe Rogan 1:11:07 No.

Donnell Rawlings 1:11:07 You gotta tell 'em no.

Joe Rogan 1:11:08 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 1:11:11 (laughs) There's a lot... It's hard not to think about it, but there's a lotta people that that's not just, that's not just in the case with Diddy. It's not, like, this shit that's happening with him right now, this shit been going on in Hollywood forever. I'm not saying it's right, but at some point you gotta say no. (smacks lips) You, that, that's the simplest thing to tell somebody, the best advice. All right, this guy's getting ready bring a baseball bat stuck in his ass with a s- a line of cocaine. What are you gonna tell him?

Joe Rogan 1:11:44 (laughs)

Donnell Rawlings 1:11:45 (imitates airhorn) Uh, you gotta tell him no.

Joe Rogan 1:11:52 Bro, that's some next level shit.

Donnell Rawlings 1:11:54 What, what, the parties and-

Joe Rogan 1:11:55 Yeah.

Donnell Rawlings 1:11:56 ... it's not... Joe, you don't know about the parties, Joe?

Joe Rogan 1:12:00 I don't go to those parties.

Donnell Rawlings 1:12:01 I didn't say if you fucking went to the parties. I said, "Do you-"

Joe Rogan 1:12:05 I hear rumors. I hear whispers.

Donnell Rawlings 1:12:07 Joe, Joe, you don't know about these parties? You don't know about these parties? You don't know about the parties where