Skip to content
The Joe Rogan ExperienceThe Joe Rogan Experience

Joe Rogan Experience #2389 - Sal Vulcano

Sal Vulcano is a stand-up comic and the co-creator, star, and executive producer of the comedy show “Impractical Jokers." He’s also the co-host of the podcasts “Hey Babe!” with Chris Distefano and “Taste Buds” with Joe DeRosa. Catch his latest special, “Terrified,” on HBO Max. https://www.salvulcanocomedy.com https://www.youtube.com/@salvulcanoofficial https://www.hbomax.com/movies/sal-vulcano-terrified/587fe357-435e-449d-bf43-c5555fd1e009 Perplexity: Download the app or ask Perplexity anything at https://pplx.ai/rogan. Buy 1 Get 1 Free Trucker Hat with code ROGAN at https://happydad.com This video is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit https://BetterHelp.com/JRE

Joe RoganhostSal Vulcanoguest
Oct 7, 20252h 45mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:00 – 0:25

    Podcast kickoff and catching up after a year away

    1. JR

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

    2. NA

      The Joe Rogan Experience.

    3. JR

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music)

    4. SV

      Yep.

    5. JR

      What up? What up? What's up?

    6. SV

      What's up?

    7. JR

      When was the last time I saw you?

    8. SV

      It was, I was here promoting my special, uh, man, it was, uh, June of last year.

    9. JR

      Damn, time flies.

    10. SV

      Yeah, yeah.

    11. JR

      A fucking whole year, a year plus.

  2. 0:25 – 1:15

    New baby math, aging anxiety, and getting serious about health

    1. SV

      I had another child since then, even.

    2. JR

      Oh my goodness.

    3. SV

      Yeah.

    4. JR

      Congratulations.

    5. SV

      Thank you, dude.

    6. JR

      Look at you out there breeding.

    7. SV

      Right. At this age.

    8. JR

      Contributing to the population.

    9. SV

      (laughs)

    10. JR

      (laughs) How old are you?

    11. SV

      Um, 40, I'll be 49 in November, so-

    12. JR

      Did you do the math? Like, when your kid's 20?

    13. SV

      Oh, bro, I've done every math.

    14. JR

      (exhales) .

    15. SV

      Every piece of math you could do. It's d- it's depressing.

    16. JR

      Gotta get healthy.

    17. SV

      Yeah. No, I am.

    18. JR

      Gotta get healthy.

    19. SV

      That's exactly what happened.

    20. JR

      Yeah.

    21. SV

      I started with a trainer, four weeks ago, and, uh, and, and, just did all this blood work and taking all these scans and tests and stuff now just because I'm like, "I have to-"

    22. JR

      Yeah.

    23. SV

      "... I have to be here as long as possible."

    24. JR

      Uh, changes the game when you have children.

    25. SV

      Yeah.

    26. JR

      You can fuck off and do coke and heroin and fucking sleep- (laughs)

    27. SV

      Yeah, yeah.

    28. JR

      Sleep in late. (laughs)

    29. SV

      Luckily I wasn't doing that. (laughs)

    30. JR

      No, but you... Soon as you have a kid, you're like, "Oh my God, I don't want to leave my kid behind-"

  3. 1:15 – 3:06

    Food discipline vs indulgence: steaks, Italian binges, and intermittent fasting

    1. JR

      Most of my Instagram algorithm is things that I shouldn't eat.

    2. SV

      Yeah?

    3. JR

      It's like sandwiches.

    4. SV

      You-

    5. JR

      Sandwiches and pizza.

    6. SV

      You have trouble with that stuff?

    7. JR

      No.

    8. SV

      No, not at all?

    9. JR

      No, I don't have trouble.

    10. SV

      Yeah.

    11. JR

      I just know it's not good for you.

    12. SV

      Yeah, yeah.

    13. JR

      Most- mostly I eat good stuff.

    14. SV

      What's, what, what's, what's like a... You, yeah, you're like an, like a, like a egg white...

    15. JR

      No, I eat yolks.

    16. SV

      Okay.

    17. JR

      Yolks are the healthy part.

    18. SV

      Yolks, yeah, yeah.

    19. JR

      Yeah.

    20. SV

      Right.

    21. JR

      I eat the whole egg, but I have chickens-

    22. SV

      Wha- what's your-

    23. JR

      ... so I eat fresh eggs.

    24. SV

      Are you like a, like, do you have, like, a diet? Like an Olympic... Like, are you, like, an Olympian?

    25. JR

      (laughs) No.

    26. SV

      Are you, like-

    27. JR

      No, I eat healthy.

    28. SV

      ... weighing your food and, like-

    29. JR

      No, no-

    30. SV

      Okay, all right.

  4. 3:06 – 5:38

    Touring life: building an hour, staying visible, and traveling with friends

    1. SV

      I have to go there. I'm gonna, I'm, I'm going through Vegas on... I'm still t- touring. The tour that I was here with Les that started in '24, I'm going through till, all the way through '26.

    2. JR

      Oh, nice.

    3. SV

      Yeah.

    4. JR

      Damn.

    5. SV

      Yeah, it took, like, a three-month... Well, it took a break when I had my, my ba- my, my new baby, and then I took, like, a little bit of a, like a six-month, but now I'm, like, back at it full. I got a bunch of big shows coming up, so I was like, "Let me get out there and, like, tell people I'm still alive."

    6. JR

      Yeah, you got, you gotta get out there if you wanna do something, 'cause it's like y- y- y- you know, if you just work in the city-

    7. SV

      Yeah.

    8. JR

      ... you can't really put together an hour.

    9. SV

      No, I mean, I piece it together. I mean, I'm on, I'm constantly on the road. I just, I just went down just to have a little bit of a breather 'cause we just finished f- r- uh, wrapping season 12 of, of the show. And so I was touring and doing the show and I had, and I had a kid, so it's like, I just couldn't even, and then we produced another show and all that shit in between. So it's like, I just haven't been... I went on hiatus on my podcast and stuff 'cause I had to, something had to give.

    10. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    11. SV

      So now it's like, "Let me, let me just get back out there and just..." And now I'm not filming, I'm just really focusing on the tour and, like, a new pod I got coming out.

    12. JR

      When you do standup, do you take guys with you that are your friends on the road?

    13. SV

      Yeah.

    14. JR

      Yeah, that's the move.

    15. SV

      Yeah, all the time.

    16. JR

      That's the only way to go.

    17. SV

      It's, it makes it, it makes it (laughs) -

    18. JR

      Fun.

    19. SV

      Yeah, fun, as opposed to-

    20. JR

      It's like, yeah, you're with buddies.

    21. SV

      Yeah.

    22. JR

      It's like a vacation that you get to work at.

    23. SV

      Yeah. If- if I, if I didn't, it's, it can get, it can get depressing fast.

    24. JR

      Real fast.

    25. SV

      Yeah.

    26. JR

      If you're solo-

    27. SV

      Super fast.

    28. JR

      If you're solo and you're working with local openers, especially if they, they, they're boring-

    29. SV

      Yeah.

    30. JR

      ... and they're, they're not fun to hang out with.

  5. 5:38 – 11:29

    Training from scratch: bloodwork flags, soft-tissue injury fears, and smart ramp-ups

    1. SV

      Yeah. I got some blood work back and I was like, "All right, I need to change some of these numbers." And like, also I got, like, a, it was like an in-depth blood work, and like, they, like, they told me all this extra stuff that I, I couldn't have known, and one is I'm very susceptible to soft tissue injury.

    2. JR

      Oh, you're a bitch.

    3. SV

      Yeah, I'm a bitch.

    4. JR

      (laughs)

    5. SV

      That's what it said. It said "bitch". I was translating it. (laughs)

    6. JR

      (laughs)

    7. SV

      It said "bitch" on the paper and then this is how I make myself feel better about it.

    8. JR

      How do they determine whether you're soft tissue-

    9. SV

      Whether you're a bitch or not?

    10. JR

      Yeah. That doesn't even make any sense.

    11. SV

      I don't know. It just said I'm very susceptible to, like, like, I guess-... whatever it is, ligament bruising, ligament, like that kind of stuff.

    12. JR

      Huh.

    13. SV

      But it-

    14. JR

      Well, that's just from years of not lifting weights. That's all that is.

    15. SV

      You think that's just changed my blood so that it, that's-

    16. JR

      Yeah.

    17. SV

      ... yeah?

    18. JR

      100%. Yeah.

    19. SV

      Well, I told the guy and he's like, "All right. That's good to know." And then like, like my sixth session I like, like we were doing that thing where like I throw a medicine ball down really hard and then like catch it and then swing it to him. And like on the swing to him I was like, "Ah!" (laughs)

    20. JR

      Yeah, you gotta... I would never have you do stuff like that to start out with.

    21. SV

      Yeah.

    22. JR

      To start out, you should do body weight stuff, and you should do it like moderately. Like when I had a bunch of guys in here, we were doing Comedians' Workouts on, on Tuesdays, and one of the things that we always did, we'd sometimes do it Tuesdays and Thursdays, but one of the things we always did in... if, if anybody's just starting out, I'm like, "Do not go to failure. Do not push yourself. I don't, I want you to get out of here and feel fine."

    23. SV

      Yeah.

    24. JR

      I don't want-

    25. SV

      No. Well, that, he did say that, for, to be fair. He's not like killing me or anything. But we worked up to that, but that, that one, and then we just backed off of it. But he-

    26. JR

      Well, rotational stuff is difficult because, you know, you're putting all, ev- especially if you're not particularly coordinated and you're throwing a lot of torque, you know, one way or the other way-

    27. SV

      Yeah.

    28. JR

      ... when you're throwing a medicine ball, especially if it's switch-

    29. SV

      I've got tons of torque here.

    30. JR

      Torque. (laughs)

  6. 11:29 – 15:58

    From team sports to martial arts—and why judging can ruin combat sports

    1. JR

      I onl- the only sport I played, I played baseball when I was a kid. And then, once I started doing martial arts when I was in my early teens, I quit everything.

    2. SV

      Wow.

    3. JR

      Yeah.

    4. SV

      And just focused on that?

    5. JR

      Yeah.

    6. SV

      Oh, shit.

    7. JR

      Well, for me it's like, I hated team sports 'cause I'm kind of, you know, stubborn-

    8. SV

      Sure.

    9. JR

      ... and like I either struck out or hit a home run, no matter what happened.

    10. SV

      (laughs)

    11. JR

      They were, they were always like-

    12. SV

      (laughs)

    13. JR

      They were always like, "Get on base." I'd be like, "Right."

    14. SV

      (laughs)

    15. JR

      (laughs) Like fucking I'm going for the bleachers, bitch.

    16. SV

      (laughs)

    17. JR

      And either I was a hero or everybody was mad at me.

    18. SV

      (laughs)

    19. JR

      And that's how I always played. I didn't care. Like I've, I'm not gonna be a loser 'cause Billy drops the ball in the, in fucking left field.

    20. SV

      Right.

    21. JR

      I don't care.

    22. SV

      Yeah.

    23. JR

      Like, and so then when I found wrestling, I was like, "Okay, this is better. This is just me." And then, I got into martial arts and I was like, "Okay, this I like." This is just like I can... I either put in the work and get better or I don't. I either win or I lose. There's no-

    24. SV

      Right.

    25. JR

      ... weird gray area.... the only gray area is decisions. Decisions sucked because there was a lot of biased judges and, you know-

    26. SV

      Yeah.

    27. JR

      ... if you're in, like, someone's hometown and you-

    28. SV

      Oh, yeah. For real?

    29. JR

      ... beat their ass. Ugh.

    30. SV

      Really?

  7. 15:58 – 23:58

    Sal’s most humiliating sports chapter: the JV MVP on an 0–14 team

    1. SV

      Yeah. I did, I never did anything, I took karate for, like, six months. But I never did, it was team sports for me. But it was, um, I wasn't particularly... I, I (laughs) , I actually, when the first year at grammar school, got a basketball team. I was in, uh, seventh grade. And so, uh, if you were in eighth grade, you automatically made varsity, and then whatever remaining spots, you had to try out. I wasn't really good, right? But I tried out, and I was the last one cut. So I was the very first person to be placed on the JV team.

    2. JR

      Oh, no.

    3. SV

      So the best of the JV, right? I, we, we didn't have a coach. The, 'cause school did not have a basketball program. So my friend (laughs) , my friend's mom, who prior to this just owned a bakery-

    4. JR

      (laughs)

    5. SV

      (laughs)

    6. JR

      She was like, "I'll coach." (laughs)

    7. SV

      (laughs) I mean, she had no, she had no experience outside of pastries. And she got, like, a clipboard, like, a whiteboard clipboard, and we met at the school gym, and she started running drills with us. (laughs) And it was like whoever else wanted to be, play can play.

    8. JR

      Right.

    9. SV

      So I, yes, I got cut last, so I was, you know-

    10. JR

      How'd you do?

    11. SV

      I won, I was the MV- so I, I was MVP of the team for the season.

    12. JR

      Nice.

    13. SV

      Went to the awards ceremony. No, let me finish talking.

    14. JR

      Oh, sorry (laughs) .

    15. SV

      Yeah, no, you'll see. The team (laughs) , first of all, so we weren't good. We knew we weren't good. And we were like, "Okay, watch. This first team we're gonna play is gonna be, like, amazing." So we show up for this first game, okay? We get to the Catholic CYO Center. It's like the Catholic Youth Organization gym. We get there, every single kid on that team is just, like, Dominican or, like, they, we were all the, like, scrawny little white kids. These kids were, like, six feet tall already.

    16. JR

      (laughs)

    17. SV

      I'll, I'll never forget it. I walked in, and what, you do drills in the beginning before you start the game. You all take, like, go on the line and take layups on your side, them taking layups on their side. And I remember I locked eyes (laughs) with some kid, and he looked at me, and he was dribbling the ball backwards through his legs as he walked backwards j- and he didn't break eye contact with me, and then he, like, ran up and, like, he did a layup and, like, tapped the backboard or whatever. We lost 44-nothing the first (laughs) game. (laughs)

    18. JR

      (laughs)

    19. SV

      Okay? 44-nothing, okay? (laughs) So at the end of the game, just supposed to, like, line up, and you all, like, you know, touch hands or whatever, and you go upstairs, and there's a little rec room, and you get, like, some Fritos and a juice box or whatever, right? So-... this... The parents were there, and the parents of this team were engaged. I mean, they- they were, they... I mean, a shutout in basketball is pretty tough, and the parents were going nuts. And so, at the end, when the buzzer sounded, like, the parents were chanting, "44 zip, zip, 44 zip, 4-"

    20. JR

      Wow.

    21. SV

      And they were chanting it, like loud, right? And then when we got on line, the kids started chanting, the parents started chanting. The parents ran onto the court, and, uh, just literally, like... And we're shaking hands. They were all chanting, "44 zip." We go all together up the stairs to get the juice box, and the parents are screaming it up the hallway, "44..." right in our face, like, "44 zip, zip." F-... I mean, f-... Literally, it was like the most-

    22. JR

      Wow.

    23. SV

      ... humiliating (laughs) experience. Next game, uh, we played Blessed Sacrament. We lost 56-3.

    24. JR

      (inhales deeply)

    25. SV

      I had the three points.

    26. JR

      Congratulations.

    27. SV

      Two points and a foul.

    28. JR

      (laughs)

    29. SV

      Uh, a bucket and a foul, right? And then we proceeded to go 0 and 14 on the year. The last, the last game of the season at halftime, I don't know what happened. We looked up, and we were winning. It was the first time we ever had a lead. It was the last game of the year, it was halftime, and someone was like, "Holy shit, we're fucking winning." And we looked up, and it was like 18-16 or something, and we lost. So, they proceed to have the awards dinner, where, you know, everyone like goes... All the teams, it's like th-... It's a sports dinner, so, like, they're doing all the awards for varsity, JV, across all the platforms, and they insisted on doing it. So, I was the MV-... (laughs) I was the MVP of the team-

    30. JR

      'Cause you scored the only three points.

  8. 23:58 – 32:03

    Coincidences and “manifesting”: wanting to sail, meeting a sailing teacher, and Joe’s sailboat parents

    1. SV

      Yeah. I've been, I've been trying to, like, figure out what else to do. Like, I just... I need some type of outlet because it's like I- I haven't been doing anything.

    2. JR

      Why don't you take up a sport?

    3. SV

      Well, so I ha-... So, another thing that happened to me, and this was the weirdest thing ever, I was like... It just popped into my head. I don't know why. I was like, "I think I wanna learn how to sail." What I think I might have meant pro-... Maybe, is like, I- I wanna learn how to drive a boat. But like, I was like, "I think I wanna learn how to sail." And so I was telling this to- to my wife, and then, like, just same thing as the trainer, like, uh... Like, a few days later, it was like four days later, I was at music class with my daughter, and one of the dads was there with his daughter. And I was inviting him to go somewhere, like a group activity, and he was like, "I'd love to, but I can't. I teach sailing that day."

    4. JR

      Whoa.

    5. SV

      And I was like, "Are you serious?" He's like, "Yeah." I was like-

    6. JR

      And you were already thinking about it.

    7. SV

      Four days ago, I said to my wife, "I wanna learn how to sail." He goes, "Let's go."

    8. JR

      Do you think that you have a, the ability to manifest things like that in your life? Do you ever wonder?

    9. SV

      I don't think ... I, I don't, I don't-

    10. JR

      There are people that believe that. There are people that believe that the way your consciousness interacts with the universe-

    11. SV

      Yeah.

    12. JR

      ... is what makes things happen.

    13. SV

      Fucking-

    14. JR

      That peop-

    15. SV

      ... let's go.

    16. JR

      ... things don't happen-

    17. SV

      (laughs)

    18. JR

      ... exactly as randomly as we wanna believe that they do.

    19. SV

      Mm-hmm.

    20. JR

      But there are things that you do where you put energy out there-

    21. SV

      I'd like to believe that.

    22. JR

      ... and you make s- ... There's a lot of examples of it. It's a weird one to believe in, because I feel like it's an element to life, and the problem is, people are always looking for it to be the element, like the thing.

    23. SV

      Mm-hmm.

    24. JR

      Like, do you remember that movie The Secret?

    25. SV

      Yeah.

    26. JR

      So, during that time, a lot of people, unfortunately, got convinced that they could wish their life into existence.

    27. SV

      Yeah, they get, like, a board, and they just-

    28. JR

      Yeah, yeah, yeah.

    29. SV

      ... yeah.

    30. JR

      Vision board and all that stuff. I think that is a part of things, that, that putting something into your head is a part of things. But I don't, I don't think it's the whole thing.

  9. 32:03 – 36:16

    The ocean’s two faces: Malibu serenity by day, abyss-fear by night, and tsunami videos

    1. JR

      But here's, here's the fucker. The difference between the water in the day and the water in the night is huge. The water in the day is beautiful. It's blue and you see dolphins and you see seagulls every- it's incredible. It's bl- it's food for the soul. At night, it's a black monster.

    2. SV

      (laughs) Yeah, man.

    3. JR

      At night, when you realize, especially m- me, 'cause, you know, I'm probably a little high at the time-

    4. SV

      Yeah.

    5. JR

      ... and I'm looking out at that water-

    6. SV

      Abyss.

    7. JR

      ... and I'm like, "There is billions and trillions of gallons of water out there and no one can control it."

    8. SV

      Right.

    9. JR

      "And all it takes is the earth just having this one little dump, one little shift of the tectonic plates-

    10. SV

      Yeah.

    11. JR

      "... and a fucking wave is coming." And you're right on the edge. How... And I sleep like a log.

    12. SV

      Yeah.

    13. JR

      You know? Like, i- i-

    14. SV

      Yeah, if a tsunami's coming, you're done.

    15. JR

      Yeah, look at this one getting swept away.

    16. SV

      I-

    17. JR

      This is the Outer Banks.

    18. NA

      Yeah.

    19. JR

      Yeah, and this ain't even a tsunami, this is just a house getting away.

    20. SV

      Yeah, that's, that's tough, man. That's-

    21. JR

      There's a video of this guy walking his dog in Russia, and it's real recent, and there was, uh, a tsunami that... There was a giant warning, they knew it was gonna happen because there was a huge earthquake off the coast.

    22. SV

      Yeah.

    23. JR

      And so they knew it was coming. So this guy is way up on this cliff side. Watch this. Look how high he is. See how high he is?

    24. SV

      Yeah.

    25. JR

      That water-

    26. SV

      W- where is he? Oh, he's in-

    27. JR

      He's in Russia.

    28. SV

      He's in R- he's in, that's him in- taking the video.

    29. JR

      Yeah, so he's, he's taking this video and he's with his dog. It's kinda cool when you hear his voice too, he's like, "Woof, woos, woofs." So look, look how high he was, right? And look at this water coming in. (gasps) Oh, dude, it gets all the way over the top.

    30. SV

      No!

  10. 36:16 – 45:13

    Scuba panic, claustrophobia, and a teenage car crash memory

    1. SV

      I did it. I, I, I did it on a, on a, on a trip in, uh, the Cayman Islands and, uh...... I always wanted to do it, so I was psyched to do it. And I did one time prior to that in a pool, so I was like, "All right, I'm kind of gonna, uh, whatever." And I almost couldn't f- go through with it because, like, the, the, um, the initial descent, they have to put weights on you.

    2. JR

      Oh, boy.

    3. SV

      And it just goes against everything-

    4. JR

      Of course.

    5. SV

      ... your body feels.

    6. JR

      Yes. Your body's like, "No, no, no, no, no."

    7. SV

      Yeah. And they say, like, you know, try to breathe measured. If you breathe a lot, you'll run out of air faster.

    8. JR

      Oh, fun.

    9. SV

      Right? So it's like, yeah, and just, just hearing the fact, oh, you run out of air, you know.

    10. JR

      Is the tank, the, the meter based on how much air is in, or how much time? Like, how much you been breathing? Like, could you fuck up and, and breathe too much-

    11. SV

      Yes.

    12. JR

      ... and it wouldn't say E yet?

    13. SV

      No, no. And I mean, I had the little dial-

    14. JR

      You wouldn't know.

    15. SV

      And-

    16. JR

      So it'll show you.

    17. SV

      Yeah. And I was with someone. I was, uh-

    18. JR

      Oh, yeah.

    19. SV

      But still, uh, by the way, it doesn't matter, by the way. So it's like, I couldn't get down. I'm claustrophobic, and so I think that played into it. But, like, uh, you have to start, it just, th- you have to overcome the sensation that you're maybe drowning or being suffocated. Like, you know, you, the-

    20. JR

      Right.

    21. SV

      ... i- you go down and the weights start to pull you down, and you adjust to breathing through here. But then that's it, like, and if you wanna, like, talk or it's like you don't, you don't feel c- comfortable and you just want out, there's, you know, you can't just get out. And once you go down 30 feet or so, you have to, like, you know, you can't just f- shoot up either. You have to go up, like, slowly obviously.

    22. JR

      Right.

    23. SV

      I mean, it's not-

    24. JR

      Long as you get through-

    25. SV

      ... all of the 30 feet is the bends, but, like, you know, that whole thing. And so, I thought I was-

    26. JR

      Is it 30 feet where you get the bends? Is that where you get them?

    27. SV

      No, I, I only went 30 feet. I think that's, like, s- very simple stuff. But I still don't think you could just shoot up.

    28. JR

      It's, like, real deep, right? It's, yeah, you have to do it slowly.

    29. SV

      It's deeper than that, yeah.

    30. JR

      Yeah.

  11. 45:13 – 49:36

    Why clowns freak people out: masks, clown ‘terror’ trends, and the Banksy mystery rabbit hole

    1. SV

      Yeah. Yeah. Do you remember when clowns, like, for a minute were, like, in the news everywhere because there was, like, a trend that clowns were terrorizing towns? It was, like five year... Like, maybe, me- less than 10 years ago.

    2. JR

      No. No.

    3. SV

      Oh my God, so where I'm from in Staten Island, we had the Staten Island Clown.

    4. JR

      Oh no.

    5. SV

      And this... There was a clown just showing up in public spaces and events, just watching people, and then, like, recessing, like, back into the night. And it would make appearances, it started making the papers.

    6. JR

      I do remember that.

    7. SV

      Oh, it was wild. And then other-

    8. JR

      Wasn't it around the time that IT came out though?

    9. SV

      I don't think it was IT.

    10. JR

      Do you... But, but the book.

    11. SV

      Maybe it was Terrifier.

    12. JR

      Oh, that late.

    13. SV

      Yeah, it was like-

    14. JR

      So what year was this?

    15. SV

      I was, I think it was, like, I would say, I would put it at 10 years maybe.

    16. JR

      Okay.

    17. NA

      Yeah, it was 2016.

    18. SV

      Okay.

    19. JR

      Yeah.

    20. SV

      Yeah. But then other places, like other people started-

    21. NA

      Copycats. (laughs)

    22. SV

      ... doing it.

    23. JR

      Yeah.

    24. SV

      And then like, and then there was, like, clowns with... And that was kind of fun actually, though.

    25. JR

      I do remember that. I don't know.

    26. SV

      I li- I like that. I like that. I like the idea that there might be a, a clown who would go out one night and be like... 'Cause it was, it was... It almost felt like our version of Summer of Sam or something like that. People were like, "If you're going out tonight, look out for the clowns." (laughs)

    27. JR

      Look out for the clowns. It is weird that, like, there's always been throughout history, there's Jack the Ripper. There's always been these people. In Austin they said there's a guy who strangles-

    28. SV

      Who, they know who... Oh, they know, they know who Jack the Ripper is, right?

    29. JR

      I feel like there's some new ev-... But there's always, like, a story. "New evidence reveals the true identity of Jack the Ripper."

    30. SV

      Mm.

  12. 49:36 – 54:31

    Celebrity brunch in England and the strange intimacy of being near famous people

    1. SV

      I wa- I went to, um... I went to... I was invited to this brunch in England, and it was a... It was a guy, um... Man, I don't... He was a descendant of, uh, uh, uh... Who's the, who's the, uh, the, the, uh, the guy who was like, oh, um... Like, he wa- when you wanna fuck... When you, when you're, when you're a f- like, when you're thinking about your mom? What was that guy? The, the, the, the, the, the...

    2. JR

      What-

    3. SV

      Jesus Christ.

    4. JR

      ... are you talking about? (laughs)

    5. SV

      Yeah, I know. I know.

    6. JR

      What are you saying?

    7. SV

      I'm literally having a stroke.

    8. JR

      I have no idea what you're saying.

    9. SV

      I know. All right, so-

    10. JR

      Jamie, do you know what he's saying?

    11. NA

      He was, he, I was... He needed a couple more words. He wasn't getting into it.

    12. SV

      Yeah. (laughs)

    13. NA

      When you think of your mom, that guy, uh-

    14. SV

      Who, who's... Yeah. That guy-

    15. NA

      ... Haring, or something.

    16. SV

      That, it's like... What's it called? F- f- Freud.

    17. JR

      Oh.

    18. SV

      Freud, Freud.

    19. JR

      Jesus Christ.

    20. SV

      Okay, there you go.

    21. JR

      (laughs)

    22. NA

      Jesus Christ. Freud.

    23. SV

      Yeah. So he's-

    24. JR

      Uh, (gasps)

    25. SV

      I think he's a descendant-

    26. JR

      I, I didn't know you were talking about like a baseball player. Nowhere close to that. Yeah, I was like, "What actor?" (laughs)

    27. SV

      F- Freud is like his... I think it's Freud is, like, his, like, great-great-grandfather or something, and then he also married into, like... It's the biggest, um, marke- like publication, uh, in, in... The biggest, like, media company conglomerate in, in... Overseas. Whatever. I forget the n- his name. He has f- super rich famous family that married-

    28. JR

      Okay.

    29. SV

      ... into another super rich famous family.

    30. JR

      Right.

  13. 54:31 – 1:06:51

    Modern art as power play: CIA psyop theory, art-as-commodity, and what ‘talent’ looks like

    1. JR

      They think it was a CIA PSYOP.

    2. SV

      For what?

    3. JR

      Modern art like that.

    4. SV

      ... come on.

    5. JR

      Yes. Yeah. There's some evidence that points to the CIA trying-

    6. SV

      Like when they just nail a banana to the wall or something?

    7. JR

      Yeah, a little bit of that, but a little bit of, like, Jackson Pollock.

    8. SV

      So, yeah-

    9. JR

      Like the splatter shit.

    10. SV

      ... I was gonna bring up Pollock because Stern did that. Do you remember seeing when Howard did that? He, he, he was like, "I can, I can make a Jackson Pollock and you won't know the difference."

    11. JR

      Uh-huh.

    12. SV

      And he did it on a... He, like, did a... He did it and he put it next to each other, and nobody knew the difference.

    13. JR

      Yeah.

    14. SV

      Yeah.

    15. JR

      So what they think is, we couldn't compete during the Cold War with the classical artists of Russia. Like, there's some incredible painters in Russia, uh, at the time, and I'm sure there are now. But we didn't have a, a, a similar level. We didn't have a da Vinci over here.

    16. SV

      Right.

    17. JR

      We didn't, we didn't have someone who could do what they were doing. And so the CIA came up with a plot to popularize nonsense art and make it, like, really huge and make all these investors wanna spend money buying, like, nonsense art. And apparently, there's... Uh, uh, I never would've considered that until I paid attention to all the other shit they've done over the last-

    18. SV

      Yeah.

    19. JR

      ... you know, X amount of decades. And I was like, "I think that's true." 'Cause it doesn't make sense to me that that stuff would just emerge and all of a sudden be worth millions of dollars. And someone wouldn't figure out exactly what Howard Stern figured out-

    20. SV

      Yeah.

    21. JR

      ... that I can make this on my own.

    22. SV

      Right.

    23. JR

      And you could just say it's a Pollock.

    24. SV

      (laughs)

    25. JR

      Or this is a Jackson Pollock. And no one would know.

    26. SV

      Yeah.

    27. JR

      Like, what are we talking about then? We're talking about something that anybody can do. If you look at the Mona Lisa, you're like, "Well, I can't do that."

    28. SV

      Right.

    29. JR

      You know, you, you look at, you know, there's some, a million paintings. You look at it, like, especially today. There's something about the level that people are at today where they're making, like, photograph-realistic paintings.

    30. SV

      Yeah.

Episode duration: 2:45:21

Install uListen for AI-powered chat & search across the full episode — Get Full Transcript

Transcript of episode J4gQ7k6meHs

Get more out of YouTube videos.

High quality summaries for YouTube videos. Accurate transcripts to search & find moments. Powered by ChatGPT & Claude AI.

iOSAndroidClaudeChrome