Joe Rogan Experience #2126 - Donnell Rawlings

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   (drumming music plays) Joe Rogan podcast.…

   1. NANarrator0:00

      (drumming music plays) Joe Rogan podcast. Check it out.

   2. DRDonnell Rawlings0:04

      The Joe Rogan Experience. Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (rock music plays) (coughs)

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:12

      Law & Order. Law & Order tried to do you dirty, Donnell.

   4. DRDonnell Rawlings0:15

      Don't do that, man. Don't do that, man. Don't start with that.

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:18

      (laughs)

   6. DRDonnell Rawlings0:18

      << Birds flying high. >>

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:21

      (laughs)

   8. DRDonnell Rawlings0:21

      << You know how I feel. >>

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:22

      They tried to do you dirty. (laughs)

   10. DRDonnell Rawlings0:25

       << Breeze driftin' on by. >>

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:26

       (laughs)

   12. DRDonnell Rawlings0:26

       << You know how I feel. >>

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:28

       They tried to set you up.

   14. DRDonnell Rawlings0:29

       << It's a new day. >>

   15. JRJoe Rogan0:31

       They tried to-

   16. DRDonnell Rawlings0:31

       << It's a new dawn. >>

   17. JRJoe Rogan0:33

       They tried to label you.

   18. DRDonnell Rawlings0:34

       It's a new life for me, and I'm feeling good, Joe.

   19. JRJoe Rogan0:36

       Ah. You look good.

   20. DRDonnell Rawlings0:37

       Thank you.

   21. JRJoe Rogan0:37

       You look real good.

   22. DRDonnell Rawlings0:38

       Can-

   23. JRJoe Rogan0:38

       Where'd you get that suit? Who made that suit for you?

   24. DRDonnell Rawlings0:40

       Um, La- La Cantino out of Brooklyn.

   25. JRJoe Rogan0:42

       Nice.

   26. DRDonnell Rawlings0:42

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

   27. JRJoe Rogan0:46

       Nice.

   28. DRDonnell Rawlings0:46

       And they tryin' to make me go from ashy to classy, and it's a new day.

   29. JRJoe Rogan0:49

       I think it looks great.

   30. DRDonnell Rawlings0:50

       And another thing, if you don't know this, about this, uh, suit, Joe, I smell as good as this suit looks.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   Where I came from,…

   1. NANarrator15:00

      .

   2. DRDonnell Rawlings15:00

      Where I came from, that's what it was. You joke on a nigga.

   3. JRJoe Rogan15:03

      (laughs) .

   4. NANarrator15:04

      (laughs) .

   5. DRDonnell Rawlings15:04

      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.

   6. JRJoe Rogan15:13

      Right.

   7. DRDonnell Rawlings15:13

      It was just you-

   8. JRJoe Rogan15:14

      In the moment.

   9. DRDonnell Rawlings15:15

      ... in the moment.

   10. JRJoe Rogan15:16

       Yeah.

   11. DRDonnell Rawlings15:16

       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.

   12. JRJoe Rogan15:22

       (laughs) .

   13. DRDonnell Rawlings15:22

       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.

   14. JRJoe Rogan15:32

       Some people don't like to be interrupted, Donnell.

   15. DRDonnell Rawlings15:34

       I know but don't-

   16. JRJoe Rogan15:35

       Not everybody likes to do it your way.

   17. DRDonnell Rawlings15:37

       All right, but Joe, have you ever felt ... And you have discipline.

   18. JRJoe Rogan15:41

       (laughs) .

   19. DRDonnell Rawlings15:42

       (laughs) .

   20. NANarrator15:42

       (laughs) .

   21. DRDonnell Rawlings15:42

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

   22. JRJoe Rogan15:49

       Yes.

   23. DRDonnell Rawlings15:49

       ... I just want to s-

   24. JRJoe Rogan15:50

       Yeah.

   25. DRDonnell Rawlings15:51

       I want to wait 'til you get off stage. I want to just say something in that moment.

   26. JRJoe Rogan15:55

       Especially if you've had a drink.

   27. DRDonnell Rawlings15:57

       Yeah. Yeah. I've been in that situation.

   28. JRJoe Rogan15:59

       If you've had a drink, and you're like, "This is nonsense."

   29. DRDonnell Rawlings16:01

       You would just want to yell out.

   30. JRJoe Rogan16:02

       Yeah.
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   Mm. …

   1. DRDonnell Rawlings30:00

      four or five part, for- first f- four or five years of my career, everything I booked was dramatic.

   2. JRJoe Rogan30:08

      Mm.

   3. DRDonnell Rawlings30:09

      Nobody thought I was a comedian or if you wanna say a comedian, um, actor until the Chappelle Show.

   4. JRJoe Rogan30:16

      Mm.

   5. DRDonnell Rawlings30:17

      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."

   6. NANarrator31:33

      (laughs)

   7. DRDonnell Rawlings31:33

      "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.

   8. NANarrator31:46

      (laughs)

   9. DRDonnell Rawlings31:46

      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.

   10. NANarrator32:05

       Right.

   11. DRDonnell Rawlings32:06

       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?

   12. NANarrator32:54

       Oh...

   13. DRDonnell Rawlings32:54

       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.

   14. NANarrator33:10

       Mm-hmm.

   15. DRDonnell Rawlings33:11

       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.

   16. NANarrator33:28

       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.

   17. DRDonnell Rawlings33:40

       Yeah.

   18. NANarrator33:40

       Like, if you c- but if you do that...

   19. DRDonnell Rawlings33:42

       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.

   20. NANarrator33:52

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

   21. DRDonnell Rawlings33:57

       Agreed.

   22. NANarrator33:58

       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.

   23. DRDonnell Rawlings34:17

       Right.

   24. NANarrator34:18

       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.

   25. DRDonnell Rawlings34:26

       It's you.

   26. NANarrator34:26

       It's you.

   27. DRDonnell Rawlings34:26

       It's got- you right.

   28. NANarrator34:27

       You- you gotta go be you. But not everybody can even pretend to be you.

   29. DRDonnell Rawlings34:32

       Everybody don't-

   30. NANarrator34:33

       But, yeah.
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   ... artificial intelligence can…

   1. JRJoe Rogan45:00

      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-

   2. DRDonnell Rawlings45:19

      ... artificial intelligence can really-

   3. JRJoe Rogan45:19

      ... against motherfuckers, uh, artificial intelligence-

   4. DRDonnell Rawlings45:22

      Yes.

   5. JRJoe Rogan45:23

      ... 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.

   6. DRDonnell Rawlings45:40

      I'm... Hopefully-

   7. JRJoe Rogan45:41

      We-

   8. DRDonnell Rawlings45:41

      ... I'm dead before they show up.

   9. JRJoe Rogan45:42

      No, it's not. No. (laughs)

   10. DRDonnell Rawlings45:43

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

   11. JRJoe Rogan45:52

       Oh, they're in trouble. Oh, Hollywood's dead. No.

   12. DRDonnell Rawlings45:55

       Uh-

   13. JRJoe Rogan45:55

       No, no, no. For real though, Hollywood's dead. Just looking at that movie-

   14. DRDonnell Rawlings45:58

       You part of it. You buried it. You helped bury it.

   15. JRJoe Rogan46:00

       I didn't do shit.

   16. DRDonnell Rawlings46:00

       Yes, you did.

   17. JRJoe Rogan46:01

       What the fuck did I do? I just-

   18. DRDonnell Rawlings46:02

       You, you, you-

   19. JRJoe Rogan46:02

       ... abandoned ship.

   20. DRDonnell Rawlings46:03

       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.

   21. JRJoe Rogan46:19

       Yeah, I didn't think I could do it either.

   22. DRDonnell Rawlings46:21

       You knew you could do it.

   23. JRJoe Rogan46:22

       (laughs) I did not know-

   24. DRDonnell Rawlings46:23

       Yes, you do.

   25. JRJoe Rogan46:23

       ... I could do it.

   26. DRDonnell Rawlings46:23

       You knew you could do it.

   27. JRJoe Rogan46:24

       I did not know I could do it.

   28. DRDonnell Rawlings46:25

       And you did.

   29. JRJoe Rogan46:25

       I just did it.

   30. DRDonnell Rawlings46:26

       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.
5. 1:00:00 – 1:12:21

   (laughs) …

   1. JRJoe Rogan1:00:00

      walked across the border, of course.

   2. DRDonnell Rawlings1:00:01

      (laughs)

   3. JRJoe Rogan1:00:01

      Then you can come right in.

   4. DRDonnell Rawlings1:00:02

      Shout out to the Mexicans. (laughs)

   5. JRJoe Rogan1:00:02

      And then you can come right in. (laughs)

   6. DRDonnell Rawlings1:00:04

      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...

   7. JRJoe Rogan1:00:11

      Australia was crazy.

   8. DRDonnell Rawlings1:00:12

      ... tight as fuck.

   9. JRJoe Rogan1:00:12

      They were putting people in camps.

   10. DRDonnell Rawlings1:00:14

       Yeah.

   11. JRJoe Rogan1:00:14

       If you were sick, they'd take you, put you... You could have been fine, like-

   12. DRDonnell Rawlings1:00:16

       And you couldn't travel, period.

   13. JRJoe Rogan1:00:18

       No.

   14. DRDonnell Rawlings1:00:18

       You just were there, right?

   15. JRJoe Rogan1:00:19

       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.

   16. DRDonnell Rawlings1:00:26

       And they didn't have that much-

   17. JRJoe Rogan1:00:27

       Like, what?

   18. DRDonnell Rawlings1:00:27

       They didn't have that much death either, so it worked.

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:00:29

       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-

   20. DRDonnell Rawlings1:00:52

       So, you don't think lockdown sh-

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:00:53

       There's... No.

   22. DRDonnell Rawlings1:00:53

       You don't think lockdown, you don't think lockdown helped us at all?

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:00:55

       No, not at all.

   24. DRDonnell Rawlings1:00:56

       So, you think it would've just been passing if we wouldn't have the lockdown-

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:00:59

       I think-

   26. DRDonnell Rawlings1:00:59

       ... and all the protocol?

   27. JRJoe Rogan1:01:00

       ... 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.

   28. DRDonnell Rawlings1:01:17

       Right.

   29. JRJoe Rogan1:01:17

       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-

   30. DRDonnell Rawlings1:01:24

       Shut them down.

Episode duration: 2:32:07