Arsenio Hall on Joe Rogan: Why no desk changed late-night TV

Speaker 0:02 Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out.

Speaker 0:04 The Joe Rogan Experience.

Speaker 0:06 Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night. All day. [upbeat rock music]

Joe Rogan 0:12 All right. Slap some headphones on. Let's rock and roll, sir.

Speaker 0:15 Hello. Yes. Our old friend would be so happy. And n- not just that picture, but so much that you've done. Do ... Like, do you believe that people who have gone on know what we're doing or see us?

Joe Rogan 0:32 I don't know. Y- you'd like to think that it ... you're that important. [laughs]

Speaker 0:37 Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 0:37 I have a feeling they have more important stuff to do on the other side.

Speaker 0:41 Yeah, I guess if you're in heaven, you're not thinking about the mothership.

Joe Rogan 0:45 Right.

Speaker 0:45 But, um-

Joe Rogan 0:46 Well, the mothership definitely is from her.

Speaker 0:49 Yes, yes.

Joe Rogan 0:51 Yeah.

Speaker 0:51 Well, I mean, that's an incredible tribute to her, um, that the-

Joe Rogan 0:56 Well, the bar's named after her.

Speaker 0:57 Yeah. I, I've heard all the comics. I've heard Shane and Ian and all the guys talk about it after they came back. Um, and that's just an honor, man, that, that ... Plus, you know, I used to say to people, "If you haven't taken something from watching Richard Pryor, you're probably doing it wrong."

Joe Rogan 1:16 Right.

Speaker 1:16 And Mitzi made the greatest comedy mecca ever, and you gotta copy what she did.

Joe Rogan 1:26 100%, yeah.

Speaker 1:28 Yeah. Wow. And this is cool.

Joe Rogan 1:30 Yeah. She taught me everything about how to run a club, how to do it right. Basically, kinda let the comedians run it. Let the inmates run the asylum.

Speaker 1:38 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:39 You know?

Speaker 1:39 Yeah, we're, uh, perfect inmates for that.

Joe Rogan 1:42 [laughs]

Speaker 1:42 And, and, and right now, the Comedy Store is greater than ever.

Joe Rogan 1:46 That's awesome.

Speaker 1:47 Yeah, it's, it, it, it's wonderful there because, you know, I even got Jay Leno to come back, you know, 'cause he remembered the old days and hadn't gone back, and I'm like, "Dude, it's different. They, they pay you [laughs] for coming. They split the door in a different way now, and there are phones in bags." I had to explain that concept.

Joe Rogan 2:07 Yeah. We had encouraged them to do all that.

Speaker 2:10 Yeah, that was your era.

Joe Rogan 2:12 Yeah.

Speaker 2:12 Um-

Joe Rogan 2:12 Well, once we left, we started doing that at the mothership for all the shows. Then other comedy clubs started following suit. It's the way to do it. People are too fucking distracted.

Speaker 2:24 Yeah, and I think it, it frees us up in a way. I'll say things and try things and not worry about seeing them on YouTube, uh, when they're not ready, or when I've made a mistake and gone too far and said something, you know?

Joe Rogan 2:38 Oh, 100%. It's also, you have to be free to fuck around and experiment, and if someone takes that fucking around and exper- ... And you don't know what's coming out of your mouth. Like right now, I don't know what's coming out of my mouth right before-

Speaker 2:50 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 2:50 ... I say it, right?

Speaker 2:50 Yeah, right.

Joe Rogan 2:51 And people have to understand that. This is not like ... When you're on stage and you're working out, like, a lot of it is free balling. You've got material that's, like, pre sort of established, and you, you're, you know, you've got the, the bones of it, but you're also fucking around in the moment, and sometimes you fuck around in the moment and it works, and sometimes you fuck around in the moment and it s- does nothing. It goes ... Or it's terrible. It, you said something awful, and you're like, "Whoops, sorry." [laughs]

Speaker 3:18 Yeah, we make mistakes.

Joe Rogan 3:19 I'm just ... You're just fucking creating something, and then stand-up is the only art form that you have to kinda create in front of a crowd. You can't really ... You can get ideas and the concepts and the flesh of it alone, but you have ... It comes alive in front of the crowd.

Speaker 3:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 3:36 You have to be able to fuck around.

Speaker 3:38 Yeah, I, um ... Me and Chappelle m- uh, and you've, you've done this kind of thing. Me and Chappelle met Chris Rock in Cleveland, 'cause Chappelle lives in Ohio, obviously. W- he's done something very similar to what you've done, but we'll get into that later.

Joe Rogan 3:53 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 3:53 He's done something really cool.

Speaker 3:55 Incredible.

Joe Rogan 3:55 Basically took over a whole town. [laughs]

Speaker 3:57 Yeah, yeah. And-

Joe Rogan 3:59 It's funny, and especially, he had a really funny joke about it, about how, uh, when white people move into a neighborhood, it's called gentrification, and he goes, "They don't have a word for I'm doing to ... [laughs] what, what I'm doing to these motherfuckers."

Speaker 4:10 Yeah. It's crazy to be Dave Chappelle, the most important man in town.

Joe Rogan 4:14 Yeah.

Speaker 4:15 But, uh, Chris Rock was doing Cleveland, and, uh, we met him there, and that was the first time I saw the bags.

Joe Rogan 4:24 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 4:25 People ... And, and I was apprehensive. Um, as a matter of fact, I saw a celebrity in LA who didn't wanna put his phone in a bag, and so they had that motherfucker stay outside. [laughs] You know?

Joe Rogan 4:37 Yeah. There's too many snitches in this world. Too many people just wanna film everything for the 'Gram.

Speaker 4:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 4:43 Like, stop.

Speaker 4:44 Yeah, sometimes-

Joe Rogan 4:45 Stop

Speaker 4:45 ... we're saying the wrong thing. Sometimes we're drunk.

Joe Rogan 4:47 Yeah.

Speaker 4:48 You know?

Joe Rogan 4:48 For sure, a lot.

Speaker 4:49 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 4:50 Yeah, a lot. Dave loves to get lit and go on stage. [laughs] But it's also, like, that's one of the ways he creates. Like, I've seen him do entire shows when he's just completely fucking around, and he films everything. So then afterwards, he goes over it, and he's like, "Oh, there's a seed right there. I'm gonna plant that seed."

Speaker 5:05 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 5:06 You know, there's an idea there, and then ... You know, that's how you come up with stuff.

Speaker 5:09 Yeah. I, I, I never drink or smoke before going on stage, but I love to create at home, and the next day ... 'Cause sometimes you can write something down and it'll be like, uh, blazer button envelope, and the next day you're like, "I don't know what the fuck I thought-

Joe Rogan 5:27 [laughs]

Speaker 5:27 ... was funny about that last night when I was smoking." But I, I like to smoke and create at home, and then take it to the stage.

Joe Rogan 5:32 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5:32 But when I'm on stage, I've had bad experiences trying to do it high and saying, "This'll make me creative. I'll be like Hendrix of comedy."

Joe Rogan 5:39 Yeah.

Speaker 5:40 And, uh, uh, it's, that's all wrong.

Joe Rogan 5:42 Your memory will go.

Speaker 5:43 Yeah, your memory will go.

Joe Rogan 5:44 Yeah.

Speaker 5:44 And one time I was at the Laugh Factory, and, uh, I came off and George Lopez said to me, "Why you come off?" And I said, "I told you I'd do 20." And he says, "You did five." [laughs]

Joe Rogan 5:59 [laughs]

Speaker 5:59 I was in Tonight Show mode or some shit, you know.

Joe Rogan 6:02 Hey, speaking ... I gotta clear something up.

Speaker 6:03 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 6:03 Speaking of ... Uh, this has nothing to do with you, but-

Speaker 6:05 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 6:06 ... I did a podcast last week with Theo Von, and, uh, in it-W- One, there's like a video on the internet that's accusing me of lying about something, and what I said was-

Speaker 6:17 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 6:17 ... that I was in the mountains of Utah when the Charlie Kirk thing was going down. What had actually happened was I was here doing a podcast with Charlie Sheen when the Charlie Kirk thing went down, when he di- It, we, l- we'd stopped and take, took a piss break, right? And that's when we found out about it, right?

Speaker 6:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:37 Um, and then when I was in the mountains of Utah, that's when the Jimmy Kimmel thing was happening, when Jimmy Kimmel was getting in trouble.

Speaker 6:43 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:43 And I was getting all these messages, but I didn't have any service out there, so I had to hook up the Starlink in order to find out what was happening.

Speaker 6:49 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:50 When I did the podcast the other day, it seemed like I was saying that I was in the mountains when Charlie Kirk got shot. I probably was saying that. I was exhausted when I did that show last week. I, so I did a show on Tuesday night at the club, and I have this thing that I do, unfortunately, where I come home, and it's the only time that I get alone time, is when everyone's asleep.

Speaker 7:15 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 7:15 And I stayed up way too late. I stayed up super late. Then I had to take my kid to school in the morning, and I was like, "I'll just power through." The problem when I do that, when I get no sleep, is my memory is dog shit.

Speaker 7:27 [chuckles]

Joe Rogan 7:27 Like, I have a really good memory and a terrible memory. It's really good a lot of the times, and then sometimes, especially when I'm tired, it's fucking terrible. It's like I... From doing thousands of podcasts-

Speaker 7:39 Yeah

Joe Rogan 7:39 ... my memory is like a room that's filled with boxes an- and files.

Speaker 7:45 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 7:45 And I don't know where the fuck everything is.

Speaker 7:47 See, a- as you were talking, the first thing that ca- Everything goes to sports for me. Some of our greatest home run hitters, uh, they strike out a lot, because they're swinging all the motherfucking time-

Joe Rogan 7:58 Right

Speaker 7:58 ... trying to get it to co- McCovey Cove or some place.

Joe Rogan 8:00 Of course.

Speaker 8:01 And I think that's how we are... Well, not we. You especially right now. You're doing this constantly. You're talking to lots of people, saying lots of things, and every now and then, there's gonna be a swing and a miss. Let me explain that.

Joe Rogan 8:14 Yeah, but the real problem was sleepy.

Speaker 8:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 8:16 The real problem was not getting any sleep, and I'm not gonna do that anymore, 'cause I keep doing... The thing, I get home at 9:00-

Speaker 8:22 Have you had that problem before, like sleep deprivation-

Joe Rogan 8:24 Yeah

Speaker 8:24 ... and you get yourself into some-

Joe Rogan 8:25 I've had that problem before. U- usually I can fix it with creatine. So creatine is a great supplement when you're tired. Um, it really, there's, there's been studies that show that creatine, um, supplementation, especially like 10 to 20 grams, um, it actually alleviates all of the problems that happen with sleep deprivation in terms of, uh, cognitive function.

Speaker 8:49 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 8:50 But I've been, I, I just was doing some blood work.

Speaker 8:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 8:53 So when I was, knew that I was gonna do my blood work, I didn't take any creatine for a month, because I want to s- 'cause I'd read something about creatine possibly being bad for your kidneys. So I wanted to get a baseline, do it, and then do it again when I, I saw-

Speaker 9:07 Oh, yeah. Yeah

Joe Rogan 9:08 ... so I had this, like, strategy. But the point is, like-

Speaker 9:10 Creatine, what-

Joe Rogan 9:11 I went... Yeah.

Speaker 9:12 Who-

Joe Rogan 9:12 My brain was foggy. And so for the people that, like, heard that and like, "What is wrong with you?" That's what I thought when I saw... Like, somebody put a video on l- "Why is he lying about this?" I'm like, "Oh, I forgot."

Speaker 9:24 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 9:24 It wasn't a lie.

Speaker 9:25 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 9:25 It's just my brain sucks when I don't get sleep, and I'm not gonna do that anymore. Because it's like, when I get home at night is the only time I'm alone.

Speaker 9:35 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 9:35 It's like my only alone time, and I'm, I, even though I knew I had to get up in the morning and take my kid to school, I was like, "I don't fucking care. I'm staying up." The problem with that is, like, when I have to do this the next day, I just don't function as good. I've done it. I've done it before, but I feel it the next day. Like, I can't recall things. My, my words don't come out as smooth. I don't have as much... My, my vocabulary is limited. [chuckles] It's like there's too many problems with it, so-

Speaker 10:03 I mean, two things are going through my mind

Joe Rogan 10:04 ... I'm not gonna do that anymore.

Speaker 10:04 First of all, do guys with these arms do creatine? I mean, would it help me?

Joe Rogan 10:08 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, it, it's great for everybody. Yeah, creatine is not just a supplement for muscles.

Speaker 10:13 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 10:13 Creatine is actually a really good co- cognitive function supplement. It's actually a cognitive enhancing supplement.

Speaker 10:20 Okay.

Joe Rogan 10:20 Yeah, there's a lot of research on that. Yeah.

Speaker 10:22 And, and the other thing that, that hit me is I was listening to you talk recently, and you talked about smoking herb and how it enhanced the weightlifting process you-

Joe Rogan 10:33 Yeah.

Speaker 10:34 What, what's that about? How-

Joe Rogan 10:35 You feel it in your tissues, man. It's like you feel... It's really good for coordination exercise. Like, there's a lot of jujitsu guys who smoke weed.

Speaker 10:43 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 10:44 They smoke weed right before class, like get ripped, and then, and go and train.

Speaker 10:48 So the Gracies were high when I first started seeing-

Joe Rogan 10:50 Mm, not those guys.

Speaker 10:51 Okay.

Joe Rogan 10:51 Those guys don't do it, but a lot of guys do.

Speaker 10:53 Okay.

Joe Rogan 10:53 I think one of the, one of the, I don't wanna throw him under the bus-

Speaker 10:56 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 10:56 ... but one of the brothers was really into smoking weed and doing jujitsu.

Speaker 11:00 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 11:00 And arguably the best one. Definitely the best one. But, um, a lot of jujitsu guys do it. And, uh, a lot of guys like to do it before kickboxing. It's a, you just feel your muscles more. You feel, like, your coordination more. You're more sensitive. It's weird. It's like instead of the, you being, like, abstract with your movements and, you know, just kinda, like, doing it, it's like you feel all the tissues, all the connection. When you lift weights, you're like, "Ugh."

Speaker 11:28 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 11:28 Like you feel all the fibers of all your shit moving. It's like, it just makes you more sensitive. It's such an un- misunderstood substance. Not for everybody. I really believe some people should not get high. I think for some people it throws them off and sends them down a dark road, and it's just not, not for them.

Speaker 11:47 Causes them to procrastinate about their life and personal responsibilities.

Joe Rogan 11:51 There's a lot of that. There's a lot of people that just wake and bake and just live in the cloud all day and never get anything, anything done.

Speaker 11:57 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 11:57 And then there's a lot of people that also get, like, super paranoid, and they get anxiety, and they freak out. And then there's people that, there's a lot of, uh, connections to marijuana and psychosis or, um, schizophrenic states that some p-

Speaker 12:13 Mm.

Joe Rogan 12:13 But the problem with that isWere they already-

Speaker 12:17 Yeah

Joe Rogan 12:17 ... like did they already have a propensity towards schizophrenia and marijuana pushed them over the edge? Were they gonna get it anyway? Like, it's hard to say.

Speaker 12:23 A lot of those guys on a diet Coke would have problems.

Joe Rogan 12:26 Yeah, right. [laughs]

Speaker 12:27 Right.

Joe Rogan 12:27 There's a lot of guys just fucking red lights freak 'em out. There's, there's people that just life is too hard for them, and they don't need something else that fucks with it. You know, if you already have mental health struggles, probably shouldn't do mushrooms, you know?

Speaker 12:39 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 12:40 If you're already fucked up, if there's already some things p- that you're like struggling to hang on to everyday life, yeah, you probably shouldn't do acid. You know what I mean?

Speaker 12:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 12:48 Like, you should probably just, just try to like keep your shit together.

Speaker 12:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 12:53 But that's not everybody. It's like alcohol. Like, alcohol's not for everybody, but some people can have a glass of wine at dinner and just start laughing. It's a nice social lubricant. Some people, they got one drink, and then they're doing coke, and they're getting hookers, and they're fucking driving on the freeway and ah.

Speaker 13:10 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 13:10 They're shooting at cops. They just like, they go crazy. Like, some people just can't handle alcohol. Doesn't mean it should be illegal.

Speaker 13:16 Right.

Joe Rogan 13:16 But that's crazy, and that's the same thing I feel with pot. Pot is super beneficial to a lot of people.

Speaker 13:22 And has been for millions of years.

Joe Rogan 13:25 Yeah.

Speaker 13:25 The food for me-

Joe Rogan 13:26 For thousands

Speaker 13:27 ... that- that's my, uh... Like in the old days, you'd watch a television show, and a guy would have a martini when he comes home, you know?

Joe Rogan 13:32 Yeah.

Speaker 13:33 I, I even talk about that in the book. When I come home, my girl has me a joint laid out on the counter, you know, and, uh-

Joe Rogan 13:40 Whoa

Speaker 13:40 ... you know, nice little raw papers.

Joe Rogan 13:42 Mm.

Speaker 13:43 And, uh, that's my... That- that's daddy's cocktail.

Joe Rogan 13:46 Yeah. It's a nice one too 'cause it doesn't fuck with your body. The problem with alcohol is, you know, it feels good while you're doing it, but then the next day you're like, "Oh."

Speaker 13:57 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 13:57 Your fucking head and your body's tired.

Speaker 14:00 Headache. I hear swelling and, you know-

Joe Rogan 14:03 Yeah

Speaker 14:03 ... and different kinds of things can... A- a- and also I'm from a home where my favorite person, my cousin, uh, 'cause I, I didn't have brothers and sisters, biological brothers and sisters. So when my cousin came to live with me, a male, he's a teenager, and he had a drinking problem. Like, I would go-

Joe Rogan 14:21 Mm

Speaker 14:22 ... inside, uh, my toy box and find scotch, you know?

Joe Rogan 14:27 Oh, he would hide it?

Speaker 14:27 Yeah, he would hide it. He's parked in the garage when there were already two cars in the garage, you know. And, and I loved him, and he was hilarious, and he in part helped to make me who I am, but, but a, a bad experience like that in your youth can make you a little bit leery-

Joe Rogan 14:46 Yeah

Speaker 14:46 ... about liquor.

Joe Rogan 14:46 Oh, yeah. I had a friend of mine when I was in high school, and his cousin sold coke, and I watched this guy fall apart.

Speaker 14:53 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 14:53 I watched him do cocaine constantly and fall apart. His life just went down the toilet, and I never touched cocaine because of that. I never did. I've still never done coke.

Speaker 15:02 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 15:02 And I think that's why, because I watched his... I was like-

Speaker 15:04 So you've, you've never tried a line?

Joe Rogan 15:07 Never. Never.

Speaker 15:08 That's heavy, man.

Joe Rogan 15:08 Not once, yeah.

Speaker 15:09 'Cause I had to try it to see what it smell like, you know?

Joe Rogan 15:13 [laughs]

Speaker 15:13 I mean...

Joe Rogan 15:14 I'm sure I'd like it. My friend Jimmy said, "Don't do this. You'd love it." But he's probably right.

Speaker 15:19 But you also have a certain kind of discipline where I think you could do a line and say, "Okay, I get it." But I love-

Joe Rogan 15:24 Hopefully

Speaker 15:25 ... that you have the discipline to never try it. I, I, I don't have that kind of strength. I gotta see what it's like once.

Joe Rogan 15:32 Just the thing is, like, I don't know anybody who's said like, "Cocaine was really good for me. Like, doing cocaine was really good."

Speaker 15:38 Yeah. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 15:38 "When I started doing cocaine, my life just really cha- I really got clarity."

Speaker 15:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 15:41 "I started focusing. I was nicer to people." I don't ever hear that story.

Speaker 15:44 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 15:45 Never, not once. [laughs]

Speaker 15:46 "I did a little coke, and then I was president of Yale, and I ran for..." You know.

Joe Rogan 15:50 I do hear people say that about speed, which is weird. You hear people say that about amphetamines, like especially Adderall, like how like-

Speaker 15:57 Ooh

Joe Rogan 15:57 ... "Oh my God, it makes me so productive. I get so much done." But it's generally, it's like journalists-

Speaker 16:03 Yeah

Joe Rogan 16:03 ... and people that have to write a lot.

Speaker 16:05 Students. I, I'm-

Joe Rogan 16:06 Yeah, students

Speaker 16:07 ... very curious about Adderall because I'm hearing so much, and I'm thinking, like when I was doing the book, right, I'm like, "Would Adderall be good to focus me, to do for me what it does for students that I hear talk about it?"

Joe Rogan 16:23 Probably. Probably, but I don't-

Speaker 16:25 It's a pill, right?

Joe Rogan 16:26 It scares me though, 'cause I know a lot of people with problems with it. It's, it's a, it's a real, it's a real catchy one. It gets you.

Speaker 16:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:36 And then you start leaning on it.

Speaker 16:38 So that, that's one of the, one of the downs is it's extremely addicting.

Joe Rogan 16:41 Very addictive, yeah.

Speaker 16:42 But what's the other downside? Any others?

Joe Rogan 16:44 Well, I would imagine when you get off of it, you're exhausted 'cause I would imagine whenever there's... There's always some sort of a biological... You know, there's a, there's a... Whenever... There's no free lunch, right?

Speaker 16:57 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 16:57 Anything that speeds you up is gonna bring you down. Like, there's get... If you're ramping your body up where you're focusing for fucking 16 hours just sitting in front of the typewriter. [imitates typing]

Speaker 17:06 Yeah. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 17:07 And that's what, like, why journalists like it.

Speaker 17:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:10 I would imagine the, the back end of it... You've done it, Jamie.

Speaker 17:13 Yeah, twice.

Joe Rogan 17:14 What's-

Speaker 17:14 Only twice, 'cause it kept me up for two days.

Joe Rogan 17:16 Ooh.

Speaker 17:16 See, that's what I'm talking about.

Speaker 17:17 That's what I'm talking about. That's the main thing.

Joe Rogan 17:17 Sounds like coke. That's it.

Speaker 17:18 It's an amphetamine, so yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:20 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 17:20 I went to try to go to bed, and I was like, "Well, this isn't happening."

Joe Rogan 17:22 [laughs]

Speaker 17:23 "So let's get up and see how... Oh, we're up all day. All right." Yep.

Joe Rogan 17:26 Two days?

Speaker 17:27 Yeah, I just, I had to call off work. It wasn't good.

Joe Rogan 17:29 And then you feel real dopey after it wears off, right?

Speaker 17:31 Yeah, it didn't, I didn't feel like I'd-

Joe Rogan 17:32 Yeah

Speaker 17:32 ... succeeded on anything that day.

Joe Rogan 17:35 Man, that is a, a, a fucking problem for me is, like, the lack of sleep thing. After this whole Charlie Kirk thing with this, what I was just talking about-

Speaker 17:42 Yeah

Joe Rogan 17:43 ... I'm really gonna concentrate a lot more on sleep. You can't fuck with that because it's like, especially me, it's like I need my brain to be functioning at its highest potential most of the time.

Speaker 17:55 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:55 Like, that's what you're do- especially when I'm in here fo- I was talking to Theo Von. I didn't think it would that, be that big of a deal. Theo's a comic. We're just gonna be silly probably.

Speaker 18:03 The most, the most recent one?

Joe Rogan 18:04 Yeah, the one I was just talking about.

Speaker 18:05 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 18:05 It would probably be good to be loopy, you know?

Speaker 18:07 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 18:08 Like, 'cause, you know, the writers on news radio, they would stay up all night on purpose just to get loopy-

Speaker 18:14 Yeah

Joe Rogan 18:14 ... 'cause that, that was how... Because they didn't really do any drugs. They just would use sleep deprivation to be silly.

Speaker 18:21 [laughs] Yeah.

Joe Rogan 18:21 It was hilarious. Like, these guys would start writing-It's like 2:00 in the morning. Like, they would stay up, they would play video games, and they would start writing a script at like 2:00 in the morning. And then they would stumble in to, like when we have a table read-

Speaker 18:35 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 18:35 ... they would stumble into the table read, like just finishing the script. They would lay it out to us. They just got done printing it, and these guys would be fucking just completely out of it, hair all fucked up-

Speaker 18:46 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 18:46 ... barefoot. It was really funny the way they operated, but it was, there was a method to their madness, and that method was the more tired you get, the more exhausted you get, you get into sleep deprivation, you get loopy and you get silly.

Speaker 19:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:00 And you start thinking silly things.

Speaker 19:02 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:02 And those guys, that's how they would use it. They would use that weird state of mind, that loopiness, to write.

Speaker 19:08 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:09 This episode is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. When you're picking out plants for your garden, there's a million options. Even after considering things like climate, season, and setup, you still have a lot to choose from. Even figuring out which tomato plant to buy can be a headache, because you need to look at the actual plant. Is it flowering? Does it have signs of new growth? Hiring managers, I know you run into the same problem. With too many resumes to go through, how do you make sure you're talking to the right people? Well, the answer for you is easy: ZipRecruiter. Try it for free at ziprecruiter.com/rogan. ZipRecruiter is making hiring simple and fast with its latest feature. It helps identify top talent who have the right skills and are interested in your role. They can even tell you why they're interested in their own words so you can get a sense of who they are. Cut through the standard and get to the standouts with ZipRecruiter. Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. And now, you can try it for free at ziprecruiter.com/rogan. That's ziprecruiter.com/rogan. Meet your match at ZipRecruiter.

Speaker 20:31 I need my sleep, man. If I have sleep, I can do anything.

Joe Rogan 20:34 Mm-hmm. I feel like they coulda got there with weed without all the, the loopiness. You know, the, you wanna get there, like you can get there with weed and, you know, you don't have to stay up all night. You get it, like, right away.

Speaker 20:46 Yeah, but weed ain't for everybody.

Joe Rogan 20:48 It's not for everybody.

Speaker 20:49 It ain't for everybody.

Joe Rogan 20:50 No.

Speaker 20:51 And, and, uh, but, but yeah, I, I love having my sleep. As a matter of fact, um, that's the drug that's most important to me. Having an Ambien nearby-

Joe Rogan 21:02 Do you like that?

Speaker 21:03 Yeah, a quarter, a q- just a little bite of Ambien.

Joe Rogan 21:06 Oh, a little bite.

Speaker 21:07 Yeah, will, will hook you up.

Joe Rogan 21:09 I knew a dude who would take that shit every day. He had to take it all the time, and then he was taking two.

Speaker 21:14 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 21:15 And, and he told me, like, "Dude, my house could be on fire and I would have no idea."

Speaker 21:20 Ooh.

Joe Rogan 21:20 And I'm like, "That can't be good."

Speaker 21:22 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:22 But he needed it. It was the only way he could go to sleep. But he was also taking Adderall. So he was taking Adderall in the day-

Speaker 21:28 Oh, shit

Joe Rogan 21:28 ... and then he was taking Ambien at night. Can't believe he's still alive. [laughs]

Speaker 21:31 Yeah, that's, that's too much.

Joe Rogan 21:34 Yeah, the Adderall fucked his life up, too. Woo. Yeah. It's not, you know, I don't think you should rely on anything for sleep. Um, for me, I just ... I've never had a sleep problem, fortunately. I could go to sleep on a bag of rocks. I could just crash. It drives my wife nuts.

Speaker 21:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:52 'Cause, like, if we're on a plane, the moment the plane takes off, [snores] I'm out cold.

Speaker 21:56 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:57 I could just go to sleep.

Speaker 21:58 The bad thing about me is I can sleep best in places I shouldn't sleep, like church.

Joe Rogan 22:03 [laughs]

Speaker 22:04 You know? Or, or sitting talking to my woman's grandma and-

Joe Rogan 22:07 Dude, church will make you sleepy.

Speaker 22:08 Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:08 I don't know why. Why is, why does church make yourself sleepy?

Speaker 22:11 Or, or reading.

Joe Rogan 22:12 Yeah.

Speaker 22:12 Like, there-

Joe Rogan 22:13 Reading will put you out

Speaker 22:14 ... there are some Audible books that are worse than Ambien.

Joe Rogan 22:17 Right.

Speaker 22:18 You know?

Joe Rogan 22:18 Yeah. Something about physically reading puts me out.

Speaker 22:21 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:21 Just sitting there, like looking at the pages, I just start nodding off.

Speaker 22:25 Yeah. I, I, um, "The Alchemist," I have been on page 12 for like a year and a half, you know?

Joe Rogan 22:34 [laughs]

Speaker 22:34 Sit down on a plane [laughs] and just re- just read "The Alchemist" at the top of the page, and I'm out.

Joe Rogan 22:40 Yeah. It's fiction for me that puts me out. Non-fiction doesn't really put me out. Non, non-fiction is more, like, I guess it's more stimulating because it's real, you know, 'cause I'm reading about real things.

Speaker 22:52 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 22:52 Something about reading fiction is what puts me to sleep.

Speaker 22:55 Yeah, for me it's just reading. Just r-

Joe Rogan 22:56 Just anything I'm reading

Speaker 22:56 ... I, I take out my license-

Joe Rogan 22:58 [laughs]

Speaker 22:58 ... you know, [laughs] and look and say, "Oh," [snores] halfway through my name, [snores] out. This is cool, man.

Joe Rogan 23:08 Not having sleep has got ... Like, a person that's got, like, legitimate insomnia, that's gotta be the nuttiest fucking problem. Like, that's that movie, "The Mechanic." No, "The Machinist." Did you ever see that movie, "The Machinist"?

Speaker 23:20 No. Is that an action movie?

Joe Rogan 23:22 Well, it's, that's the movie with, uh-

Speaker 23:25 Christian Bale

Joe Rogan 23:25 ... what's, Christian Bale. Christian Bale, where he lost an insane amount of weight. Like, Christian Bale's a big guy.

Speaker 23:32 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 23:32 And I think he got to, like, 130-something pounds.

Speaker 23:35 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:36 And the, the, the idea was that this guy was going completely insane 'cause he couldn't sleep, and so he wasn't eating, and so he was just, like, up all the time, like, out of it.

Speaker 23:46 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:46 And he, like ... If you see what he looked like when he made that movie, it's ... It, like, that's what he looked like in the movie.

Speaker 23:52 Oh, shit.

Joe Rogan 23:53 Yeah.

Speaker 23:54 That looks like he's about to make a whole different movie.

Joe Rogan 23:57 Yeah, like he was about to die. And then he went from that, and right afterwards he did "Batman," so he got super jacked. He went from that ... And then, by the way, the movie sucks. So this guy, like-

Speaker 24:09 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 24:09 ... wrecked his health for a movie that wasn't even good. And, I mean, I wonder how good it could even be when your main guy is dying. Look at that f- f- image on the far right, the one that you just ... Uh, look at that.

Speaker 24:24 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 24:25 Look at the difference between ... That was, like, six months later he did "Batman."

Speaker 24:29 That can't, that can't be healthy.

Joe Rogan 24:30 No. Fucking terrible for you. It has to be terrible.Terrible.

Speaker 24:35 Do you like to act?

Joe Rogan 24:37 No.

Speaker 24:38 Okay.

Joe Rogan 24:38 I don't hate it.

Speaker 24:39 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 24:40 I don't like the process. I don't like waiting around all day. I don't like being on set. I don't like dealing with... Some actors are great. Some actors are j- just like all kinds of people.

Speaker 24:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 24:50 Cops. There's a lot of cops that are awesome.

Speaker 24:52 'Cause I know you were at a point in your life when you could probably do anything you want, and I never see you pursuing any acting roles, anything like this.

Joe Rogan 25:00 No, I avoid them. Yeah, I've, I've o- been offered some fun stuff, and I was like, "Mm, I'm not going to p- Bulgaria for three months. Fuck that."

Speaker 25:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:09 I'm just... I... It's not my thing. And if it was my thing, I would b- I'd be like, feel very fortunate, and I'd, I'd dive on it.

Speaker 25:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:16 I'd be like, "Oh, my God, it's amazing."

Speaker 25:17 So when, when you look at something you've done and you're watching a role at, in dailies or, uh, at the premiere, you don't love what you see so much that you'd do more of it?

Joe Rogan 25:27 It doesn't bother me.

Speaker 25:28 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:28 It, but it's not, it's just not what I enjoy doing.

Speaker 25:31 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 25:31 And ag- again, it's the process that's the problem. It's the 16-hour days. It's like... And it's being around actors because you're around people that need to think and need to talk in a very specific way-

Speaker 25:47 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 25:47 ... 'cause they're always worried they're gonna be cast out of the kingdom.

Speaker 25:51 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 25:51 You know what I mean?

Speaker 25:52 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 25:52 So it's like this very disingenuous way of communicating that a lot of actors have, and it's just-

Speaker 25:58 And you always feel when you do something that this person's gonna be your friend for life. "I, I'll see you next month."

Joe Rogan 26:03 Right.

Speaker 26:03 And you never see that fucker ever again.

Joe Rogan 26:05 [laughs]

Speaker 26:05 It's, it's, it's such a disingenuous environment.

Joe Rogan 26:08 Do you enjoy it? Do you enjoy acting?

Speaker 26:09 Um, I kinda like it, but at 70, I prefer to just be at home.

Joe Rogan 26:16 You're 70.

Speaker 26:17 Yeah, man.

Joe Rogan 26:18 You look so good.

Speaker 26:19 Oh, thanks, dog.

Joe Rogan 26:19 That's kind of crazy-

Speaker 26:21 Yeah

Joe Rogan 26:21 ... that you're 70.

Speaker 26:22 And no creatine. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 26:24 Imagine how good you'd look if you took creatine.

Speaker 26:26 I'm gonna get it.

Joe Rogan 26:28 70, man. I... If you told me that you were 45, if I didn't know you and you told me you were 45, I'd believe you. That's nuts.

Speaker 26:34 Well, that's a blessing. I, I-

Joe Rogan 26:36 Isn't that crazy?

Speaker 26:37 Yeah. Yeah, and I'm happy, so that's unusual.

Joe Rogan 26:42 Yeah, right? A lot of people when they're 70, they're bitter and tired.

Speaker 26:45 Yeah. I, I, um, I talk a little bit in the book about Richard Pryor coming to my first condo. I bought a condo so I could... I didn't have a car yet, and eventually I got one, but when I first came to LA, I wanted to be between the Comedy Store and the Improv so I could get to both, you know?

Joe Rogan 27:03 Oh, right.

Speaker 27:03 So I bought me a, a condo, and I told Richard Pryor that I got a condo. I don't know. It's one of those... I, I think I heard you and Shane talking about how you see your heroes now and then, and sometimes you just say the wrong shit, and I was expecting this to be the wrong shit, but it's all I could think of, and I said, "Richard, I just bought a condo." And he said, "Oh, wow. I'd like to see it." And I was like, "Oh, okay." [laughs]

Joe Rogan 27:32 [laughs]

Speaker 27:33 And, uh, him and Rashaan, his body man, came to see my condo, and, uh, that was the coolest thing in the world. But the one thing I remember, I remember I had no furniture, and Rashaan had told me, h- his guy had told me to get some Courvoisier. So I had some Courvoisier-

Joe Rogan 27:49 [laughs]

Speaker 27:50 ... you know, and we sat on the floor and drank Courvoisier and listened to a boom box with jazz on it and talked. And he looked around at one point, and he said, "This reminds me of when I was happy."

Joe Rogan 28:04 Whoa.

Speaker 28:05 And I don't even have to tell you what went through my head and what I thought that meant, and I didn't listen to him then. That's the thing, is people disperse knowledge to us from their experiences, and sometimes we're too young and dumb to listen.

Joe Rogan 28:19 What did that mean to you at the time when he said, "This reminds me of when I was happy"?

Speaker 28:23 You know, I was, I was so excited that Richard Pryor came to see my condo, I didn't process it. But years later, I start realizing, um, that he bought things and philosophies that made his life more complex, and, uh, he was happy... This is what I think it means.

Joe Rogan 28:45 Simple.

Speaker 28:45 He was happy with the simple shit, you know?

Joe Rogan 28:47 Yeah.

Speaker 28:47 And sometimes, I mean, it's nice to have... Isn't it cool to have money but still eat burgers if you want to? I mean, 'cause I remember walking through supermarkets and pretending I was shopping and eating out of the child cart, that little, that little top part, and then leaving the supermarket, you know? So it's nice to be able to buy anything we want, but at the same time, I get that thing of the simplicity and, you know, no guard gate. Um-

Joe Rogan 29:19 Nobody's knocking down your door trying to get to you.

Speaker 29:21 Yeah, just a, just a condo-

Joe Rogan 29:23 Yeah

Speaker 29:23 ... with no furniture. And for a guy like that, for the greatest that I've ever known in our world to say, "I was happy when I had a little place with no furniture," um, I didn't think about it enough then, but later I realized what he meant when I was in a house that was too big with guest houses-

Joe Rogan 29:43 Yeah

Speaker 29:44 ... and that would, it, you know, you walk into a guest house and cobwebs, uh, get on your face, you know, because you ain't been in there in a while, and you realize, "Okay, this is what Richard was talking about. I'm doing a lot of shit for other people that I don't need."

Joe Rogan 29:58 Right, and too much complexity.

Speaker 30:00 Yeah, I-

Joe Rogan 30:01 Yeah. Too much-

Speaker 30:01 You know what? Somebody said, uh-

Joe Rogan 30:03 ... complications

Speaker 30:03 ... my business manager said something about my staff, and it dawned on me, what the fuck do I have a staff for?

Joe Rogan 30:09 [laughs]

Speaker 30:10 You know? I... And, and, and I've simplified things a little bit in my life, and I'm really happy. It's, uh, just, you know, me and my woman and a scaled down life.

Joe Rogan 30:24 That's better. Yeah. Th- there's a lot of people that just want a lot of people around them 'cause it makes them feel important. They have a big staff. They have a lot of people working for them, a lot of things going on, a lot of different projects.

Speaker 30:35 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 30:36 Keep moving, keep moving.

Speaker 30:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:38 But no peace

Speaker 30:39 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:39 Yeah. Not good. I always tell comedians, like, they're, they're like, "Oh, I gotta get an assistant." I go, "No you don't. Just do less shit. Don't get an assistant."

Speaker 30:46 Right.

Joe Rogan 30:46 You get an assistant, that person's gonna wanna kill you.

Speaker 30:49 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 30:49 That person's [laughs]

Speaker 30:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:50 They're gonna feel entitled. You're making all this money, they're not. You're famous, they're not.

Speaker 30:55 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:55 They, they see you for who you really are. They're follow- You know, and like, "He fucking regular guy. Why's he got all this?" Like, David Spade's assistant duct-taped him and tased him. Remember that?

Speaker 31:05 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 31:06 Tried to kill him.

Speaker 31:07 That's, that's, that's heavy, man.

Joe Rogan 31:08 [laughs]

Speaker 31:08 That's, I, and, and, and I've heard that the people who work for us always hate us. I've always avoided ... Somebody told me-

Joe Rogan 31:16 It's not always the case

Speaker 31:17 ... they said, "You, you know your housekeeper hates you." And I'm like, "No, she's been with me 22 years." He's like, "That bitch hates you, man." [laughs]

Joe Rogan 31:24 [laughs]

Speaker 31:26 And, and, and I don't wanna believe that.

Joe Rogan 31:28 It's not always the case, but the, it is often the case that people that are around people that have so much, they feel like, "Why don't I have this?" Like, "I'm working for this person. What am I not doing ... But why am I not rich? This person could just make me rich." It's weird, you know what I mean?

Speaker 31:44 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 31:45 Like, that's not what the job is. The job is you're a gardener. Gardener doesn't make $5 million a year. Like, this is, you're kinda being crazy. And then you, you get people that take advantage of you, where you get a bill and you're like, "Why does it cost this much?" Like, this is ki- Like, I have a friend who's very wealthy, he's a businessman, and he goes over every fucking little thing that people charge him.

Speaker 32:07 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 32:08 And he's always looking for, "They're fucking trying to overcharge me." He gets-

Speaker 32:11 Signs his own checks.

Joe Rogan 32:11 Yeah. He, but he gets crazy when he thinks people are overcharging him. But I'm like, "Dude, you're almost 80-"

Speaker 32:18 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 32:18 "... and you're worth a billion dollars. Like, why do you, why are you looking at, like, how much the car wash guy charges you? This is crazy."

Speaker 32:24 Maybe that's why he has a billion.

Joe Rogan 32:27 Perhaps. I mean, he's a businessman, that's his thing, but what drives him nuts is this idea that people are overcharging him-

Speaker 32:35 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 32:35 ... because he's wealthy.

Speaker 32:36 Ooh, I hate that.

Joe Rogan 32:37 They're taking advantage of him.

Speaker 32:38 Ooh, ooh. Joe, the, the craziest I ever went was I had a barber when I had hair, you know?

Joe Rogan 32:46 [laughs]

Speaker 32:46 And you know, a Black barber is a skilled scientist, you know?

Joe Rogan 32:50 [laughs]

Speaker 32:50 'Cause back then I had it fried, dyed, and laid to the side-

Joe Rogan 32:54 Uh

Speaker 32:54 ... with three Adidas stripes over on the left.

Joe Rogan 32:57 [laughs]

Speaker 32:58 And, you know, my shit was intricate that year.

Joe Rogan 33:00 [laughs]

Speaker 33:01 And, um, my business manager happened to be a business manager for two other entertainers, and he's also my friend. And one day he says, "You know that guy charges the three of you different prices?" And I'm like, "Get the fu- " Are ... So I found out that Johnny Gill was paying 100, I was paying 350.

Joe Rogan 33:25 Oh.

Speaker 33:27 And that drives me crazy 'cause basically, like you say, he was charging based on who I am.

Joe Rogan 33:34 Right. Yeah.

Speaker 33:35 And-

Joe Rogan 33:35 He, like, "You can afford it." Yeah.

Speaker 33:38 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 33:38 Right.

Speaker 33:38 And I had a friend who had more money than me, and he was charging him a crazy amount. It was [laughs]

Joe Rogan 33:44 [laughs]

Speaker 33:44 It was like the rental of a Rolls, you know?

Joe Rogan 33:46 [laughs]

Speaker 33:47 Crazy money.

Joe Rogan 33:49 Yeah. Well, that's what comes with the territory. People just think you're not gonna notice. They don't care, you know?

Speaker 33:57 Yeah, I guess. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 34:00 Do you think you're happier now than you were when The Arsenio Hall Show was at its peak?

Speaker 34:09 Yeah, I think I'm happier now because with that peak comes a lot of pressure and a lot of work, and I'd be a liar to say I don't enjoy having the money without the other shit.

Joe Rogan 34:24 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 34:24 You know? I, I did a good job of investing and making sure that when the lights went out, uh, I was good. So I love my life right now, man. Making-

Joe Rogan 34:36 More relaxed, less pressure

Speaker 34:38 ... Oh, and being the OG-

Joe Rogan 34:39 Yeah

Speaker 34:39 ... and pretty much-

Joe Rogan 34:40 Yeah

Speaker 34:40 ... your responsibility is just, uh-

Joe Rogan 34:42 Yeah

Speaker 34:42 ... giving advice to a comic in the hallway.

Joe Rogan 34:45 Yeah.

Speaker 34:45 You know.

Joe Rogan 34:46 Well, a lot of the young guys don't understand what you did because what your show was, like, back in, I guess ... When was it, when did it first come on the air? What year?

Speaker 34:57 Probably, uh, Coming to America was, like, '86, '87. I left New York and went and started this show, so '87, '88, sometime around in there. I'm bad with years.

Joe Rogan 35:05 Yeah. During that time, and in the, the '90s, it changed the whole landscape of late night television. Like, completely changed it. Because late night television was stiff, you know? It was like, you have a, a fucking, the desk. The desk made no sense to me. Like-

Speaker 35:22 I talk, I talk about the desk and how I got rid of it. But, but-

Joe Rogan 35:26 It made no sense.

Speaker 35:26 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 35:26 But you ... What, I was like, "Oh, finally, he got rid of the desk."

Speaker 35:29 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 35:29 The fucking de- Are, are, are we being lectured? Are you, am I in the-

Speaker 35:32 Yeah

Joe Rogan 35:32 ... principal's office? Like, what is, what is the fucking desk for?

Speaker 35:35 Exactly.

Joe Rogan 35:35 But when they first started doing that in the 1950s, if you went to work, you had a desk.

Speaker 35:39 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 35:40 You had to wear a tie.

Speaker 35:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 35:41 You had a desk, and they all smoked cigarettes while they were out on the job.

Speaker 35:45 Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 35:45 You know, you watch, like, the Johnny Carson show.

Speaker 35:47 During commercials, Johnny would go under his desk-

Joe Rogan 35:49 Mm-hmm

Speaker 35:49 ... get a cigarette.

Joe Rogan 35:51 Yeah.

Speaker 35:51 He would-

Joe Rogan 35:51 Well, they would often smoke on air. They would do it all the time back then.

Speaker 35:55 That's crazy.

Joe Rogan 35:55 They all smoked cigarettes back then.

Speaker 35:56 How about planes? How about the fact that we could get on a plane to go to a gig, and there was a row behind us where smoking began.

Joe Rogan 36:03 Right.

Speaker 36:04 And-

Joe Rogan 36:04 Which made no sense

Speaker 36:04 ... I'm in the no smoking row, and the bitch behind me got a cigar.

Joe Rogan 36:08 Yeah. [laughs]

Speaker 36:08 You know? [laughs]

Joe Rogan 36:10 And it was just flooding the entire cabin.

Speaker 36:12 Yes.

Joe Rogan 36:13 You know, Dice used to have a joke about it. "You're in a fucking tube."

Speaker 36:16 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 36:17 "Where's the air going?"

Speaker 36:19 Yeah, Dice.

Joe Rogan 36:19 But it's, it was a, a weird time. B- the, but the, the whole idea was, what I was getting to was, like, late night television was very stiff. It was l- you know, it was like, [sings] .

Speaker 36:33 Mm.

Joe Rogan 36:33 And then y- your show came around.

Speaker 36:35 Paul, Paul Anka wrote that.

Joe Rogan 36:36 Did he?

Speaker 36:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 36:37 Oh, wow.

Speaker 36:39 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 36:39 Your show came around, and then all of a sudden it was fun and loose. And I remember when Clinton came on your show and played the saxophone.

Speaker 36:47 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 36:48 And that, that, I mean, everybody was like, "What is happening?"

Speaker 36:51 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 36:51 The fucking president of the ... Was he the president back then, or was he running?

Speaker 36:54 Oh, he was a governor.And, uh-

Joe Rogan 36:57 Oh, that's right

Speaker 36:57 ... he was trying to get the young vote, so he did me, and then the next day they decided to do MTV because I think what my show did that night was changed how you run for the highest office in the land.

Joe Rogan 37:11 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 37:11 And, and-

Joe Rogan 37:12 Look at that.

Speaker 37:12 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 37:13 Look at that.

Speaker 37:14 The, the joke I had just done was, "Finally a Democrat blowing something other than the election."

Joe Rogan 37:21 [laughs]

Speaker 37:22 [laughs] And you... When you look, you remember jokes in, in the moment. And dude, so what's interesting is after this, presidential candidates realized they had to come to Rogan and Sunday Morning to meet the press.

Joe Rogan 37:39 Mm.

Speaker 37:39 You know? And I like that, you know. They, they have to go everywhere now.

Joe Rogan 37:45 Well, they go where the people are paying attention, right?

Speaker 37:48 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 37:48 But it's... It was different because if they did The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, it would be a, a, you know, a very competent interview, but it would be stiff.

Speaker 37:59 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 37:59 It was, it was, like, very... I mean, not even... Stiff's not the right word. It was traditional.

Speaker 38:04 Mm.

Joe Rogan 38:04 It was like... This was different, like him playing the saxophone.

Speaker 38:08 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 38:08 Running for president and playing the saxophone. Everybody's like, "What is happening here?"

Speaker 38:11 And I tried to get... I, I, I told Jenna Bush this last week. I'm on this book-slinging tour. And, uh, I told her, I said, "I invited your grandpa." Because back then there was a mentality that you do equal, uh, both sides, you know.

Joe Rogan 38:28 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 38:28 And I don't think it was a rule, but, but first of all, my dad was a Republican, my mother was a Democrat, so I was used to hearing both sides and learning both sides, and I thought the best thing I could do for young people was show them both sides, and that would be fair of me as a host. And we got a call from a man named Marlon Fitzwater who said, "No fucking way we're coming there," you know. And, and that-

Joe Rogan 38:53 I wonder why.

Speaker 38:54 Um, it's almost like what you talk about with the desk. Um, society at a certain point is stiff, and it takes certain people to loosen it up and make a change. And, uh, I, I think it was just they're not used to it. It's like, why are they barking?

Joe Rogan 39:11 [laughs]

Speaker 39:11 And [laughs] and what is-

Joe Rogan 39:13 Woof, woof, woof, woof.

Speaker 39:13 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:14 Yeah.

Speaker 39:14 You know? It's-

Joe Rogan 39:15 That's right. Things that make you go, "Hmm."

Speaker 39:16 Oh, yeah, yeah. You know.

Joe Rogan 39:17 Yeah. There was a lot going on.

Speaker 39:18 I had a couple of the hooks going.

Joe Rogan 39:20 Oh, you had a great hook. The things that make you go, "Hmm," everybody used that all day long.

Speaker 39:25 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:25 Like, when... If something weird was going on in the office, people are, "Things that make you go, 'Hmm.'"

Speaker 39:29 And it was so cool. Then they wrote a song about it.

Joe Rogan 39:32 Yeah.

Speaker 39:32 And I would turn on TV, and I would see-

Joe Rogan 39:34 Was that CNC Music Factory?

Speaker 39:36 Yes.

Joe Rogan 39:36 That's right.

Speaker 39:37 Yeah. And it, um, um... I would turn on TV, and, like, Nordstrom's would have, "A sale that makes you go, 'Hmm.'"

Joe Rogan 39:42 [laughs]

Speaker 39:42 And I was like, "That's very cool," you know.

Joe Rogan 39:45 Yeah.

Speaker 39:46 And, and, and it came about sitting with the writers. And, um, I had done it at The Comedy Store, and he says, "You know, we could use that and just throw any joke in there, like randos that we don't know where to put."

Joe Rogan 40:00 Right. Right.

Speaker 40:01 And so it really was a, a cheating technique for a comic.

Joe Rogan 40:04 Yeah, perfect non sequitur.

Speaker 40:06 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:06 Just a transition.

Speaker 40:07 Every now and then you, "Hey, why don't Black women breastfeed chocolate milk?" And you have no place else to put that-

Joe Rogan 40:13 [laughs]

Speaker 40:14 ... that thought, you know.

Joe Rogan 40:15 Right.

Speaker 40:16 So it's a, a stream of things that make you go, "Hmm."

Joe Rogan 40:20 Yeah. Yeah. Well, it was just finally there was a different kind of talk show. It was like finally there was a talk show that was more fun.

Speaker 40:29 Hey, the, the desk thing, um, my partner and executive producer Marla Kell Brown, we were sitting around one day, and she said... After Coming to America, I had done the Joan Rivers thing. I had filled in for her for 11 weeks, and I think she, uh, her, her husband committed suicide, and she was going through all that period, right?

Joe Rogan 40:50 Mm.

Speaker 40:50 Conan's creating the Wilton North Report in the room that I leave, and I go to Paramount. And she says, "I'm asking you one thing." She said, "I watched you do stand-up the other night at The Comedy Store, and there is a freedom that you have that I would like you to have on the talk show, and I don't think we can have it with that desk between you and the guest."

Joe Rogan 41:12 Mm.

Speaker 41:12 "So I want you to just try without the desk." And, um, I tried it without the desk and never went back.

Joe Rogan 41:19 Yeah. You changed it. I mean, like, and then George Lopez did no desk-

Speaker 41:25 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 41:25 ... when he did his show.

Speaker 41:26 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 41:26 A, a few people have tried the no desk thing.

Speaker 41:29 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:29 But-

Speaker 41:30 For us, I think it's great. And, and you know what? I was able... Like, somebody like Rosie Perez, who would be nervous, I'd hold her hand.

Joe Rogan 41:37 Mm.

Speaker 41:38 And you can't reach across the desk-

Joe Rogan 41:40 Right

Speaker 41:40 ... and, and hold somebody's hand.

Joe Rogan 41:41 Well, also the desk was always elevated.

Speaker 41:43 Oh, yeah. You want to be high-

Joe Rogan 41:44 The desk was always above the guest.

Speaker 41:45 We must be higher.

Joe Rogan 41:46 Which is weird.

Speaker 41:47 Well, that's, that's a bizarre... I don't know if that's the ego of the entertainer or whether that's some ass-kissing prop, uh, set designer move because we always wanted to be higher. And I remember they put something under my seat so I-

Joe Rogan 42:04 To make your seat higher?

Speaker 42:05 Yeah. So I'm sitting even with Kareem.

Joe Rogan 42:09 [laughs]

Speaker 42:09 You know, which is bullshit, you know. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 42:13 Yeah, it's a weird thing. It's like why would the host be above movie stars? Like, the... And rock stars.

Speaker 42:20 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 42:21 Why? That doesn't make any sense at all.

Speaker 42:23 Yeah. Un- unless your host is David Bowie.

Joe Rogan 42:25 Yeah, right. [laughs]

Speaker 42:26 Or something. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 42:26 Right. Unless he decides to do a talk show. It... Even then, it doesn't make any sense. It's like if you want to have a conversation, the way you did it was the best way to do it, just be sitting there.

Speaker 42:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 42:37 Sitting with each other, you know?

Speaker 42:39 And now-

Joe Rogan 42:40 You can lean in.

Speaker 42:41 Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 42:42 Yeah.

Speaker 42:42 You could, you could touch the person.

Joe Rogan 42:44 Yeah.

Speaker 42:44 You could poke the person. Uh, now we have a different era where everyone can do talk. I saw Mike Epps talking on his back from his bed the other day-

Joe Rogan 42:56 [laughs]

Speaker 42:57 ... holding his phone above him.And that's when it hit me. It's like, now we have a hard time finding a guest that doesn't have a show.

Joe Rogan 43:04 Right.

Speaker 43:05 We can-- Anyone can have a show now.

Joe Rogan 43:07 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 43:08 And that's kinda cool.

Joe Rogan 43:09 It is kinda cool. And it's just like sh- and you find your own... As long as you do it long enough and you put the right attention to it and do it honestly, you'll find your own lane.

Speaker 43:21 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 43:21 You find your own way of doing things.

Speaker 43:22 I have friends who have children who have shows.

Joe Rogan 43:25 Mm.

Speaker 43:26 Makeup tutorials and-

Joe Rogan 43:27 Right

Speaker 43:28 ... successful things going on in their bedroom.

Joe Rogan 43:30 One of the biggest shows on YouTube for a long time was a kid that was, like, unboxing toys.

Speaker 43:36 Oh, that's cool.

Joe Rogan 43:37 And it was... Sort of. But then-

Speaker 43:38 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 43:38 ... they started monetizing it, and I think, you know, as soon as your parents start making all that money off of you opening toy boxes, shit gets weird. It's weird for kids to get famous, period. But, but it was just like no one had thought that out, like, that there would be a lot of people that were interested in you watching toys.

Speaker 43:58 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 43:59 Like, there's a lot of shows that I watch on YouTube that it's just people cooking.

Speaker 44:03 Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 44:04 I just, I love watching people on YouTube.

Speaker 44:05 I watched a lady cook with big titties and-

Joe Rogan 44:09 [laughs]

Speaker 44:09 ... and, uh, uh, just an apron, you know.

Joe Rogan 44:11 [laughs]

Speaker 44:12 And, you know, side boobage be coming out.

Joe Rogan 44:14 That's a, that's a trick. [laughs]

Speaker 44:15 She's tricking you. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 44:17 I like watching people cook with no talking. It's just ASMR.

Speaker 44:21 Just cook.

Joe Rogan 44:21 You know, just they're, like, chopping up the food, and you hear the sizzle in the pan, and, like, it's... I don't know why I like it. I love, I love watching people do things.

Speaker 44:28 Isn't it amazing that you're younger than I am, but when I was growing up in Cleveland, we had three channels.

Joe Rogan 44:35 Right. I remember those days.

Speaker 44:36 Yeah. And, and, and the shit signed off at 2:00.

Joe Rogan 44:39 Right.

Speaker 44:40 Yeah. You-

Joe Rogan 44:41 Oh

Speaker 44:41 ... da, da, da, da, da.

Joe Rogan 44:43 And you fall asleep wa-watching TV, and that would wake you up.

Speaker 44:46 [imitates static]

Joe Rogan 44:46 Yeah. 'Cause it would be just crackling. Like, "Oh, geez, I wa- I stayed up too late."

Speaker 44:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 44:50 You'd have to shut her off after the American flag 'cause the American flag would wave on the TV, right?

Speaker 44:55 Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, there would be a, a match fade-

Joe Rogan 44:58 Yeah

Speaker 44:58 ... from a soldier to the American flag.

Joe Rogan 45:00 Yeah.

Speaker 45:01 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 45:01 And then it would just go static at 2:00 in the morning. And then I remember when Fox came out, and everybody's like, "Well, this channel is crazy."

Speaker 45:10 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:11 Fox is... They had The Simpsons and Married... With Children.

Speaker 45:13 It changed my life, man. Those, those, uh, Tracy Ullman.

Joe Rogan 45:17 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 45:17 And then, of course, they discovered that they could get numbers with me and In Living Color.

Joe Rogan 45:24 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 45:24 And, uh, Fox was really important to us.

Joe Rogan 45:28 Fox was important to America. I mean, it was, it was a looser, wilder network. It was like a network that was a little crazier.

Speaker 45:37 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 45:37 Like, they were doing things... They were, they were getting nuts.

Speaker 45:39 And they had to. They had to take some chances and roll the dice-

Joe Rogan 45:42 Right

Speaker 45:42 ... in a different way.

Joe Rogan 45:43 Right. Yeah. And then cable came along. It was like the slow descent into madness. [laughs]

Speaker 45:49 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:50 And then all of a sudden you have 150 channels, and now you have, like, literally an infinite number of channels because of streaming and YouTube. It's like you can never run out of things to look at.

Speaker 46:00 Which is crazy because I turn a lot, and I'm like, "Yo, motherfucker, they got two million stations, and you're channel chasing?"

Joe Rogan 46:08 I know.

Speaker 46:08 "You can't find something?" But I'm a big YouTube guy because I, I don't like commercials.

Joe Rogan 46:15 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 46:15 I want what I want, and I want it in small increments. I actually, as a 70-year-old, fit more into this culture than I did the culture I was born into. I, I like things for three minutes. It's, it's fucked me up, too. You know, I, I, I don't want long shit. I want quick shit.

Joe Rogan 46:31 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 46:31 And, uh, I'm jumping around.

Joe Rogan 46:34 Well, when I'm watching TV, I'm, I'm generally trying to check out, you know?

Speaker 46:39 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 46:39 Or I'm trying to be educated.

Speaker 46:41 Right.

Joe Rogan 46:41 So either I'm watching some, um, like, particle physicist talk about the, the way they find n- new particles by using particle colliders and Large Hadron Colliders and the amount of energy required to duplicate the, you know, the conditions that happened right after the Big Bang, and I'm just like-

Speaker 47:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:02 I wa- I watch a lot of that shit, and then I just watch people play pool. I watch people play pool, and I watch, you know, people make furniture and people cook. I'm, I'm just trying to, like, unwind.

Speaker 47:14 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:14 I'm just trying to, like, relax.

Speaker 47:15 But that, that's so heavy. I heard you and Kat talking about the pyramids.

Joe Rogan 47:20 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 47:21 And, um, as a matter of fact, it was part of the reason I was afraid to come here.

Joe Rogan 47:27 Why? [laughs]

Speaker 47:27 Because I, I've heard you talk about the re-explosion of... It's just when you hear that kinda shit, and you're like, "I don't wanna be here," it's like, "Pussy crazy, huh?" [laughs]

Joe Rogan 47:39 [laughs]

Speaker 47:39 I don't wanna be that guy, you know? So it, it's intimidating to watch intelligent people have an exchange and say, "I got to go there."

Joe Rogan 47:48 Is it?

Speaker 47:49 Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:50 Well, I, I guess-

Speaker 47:51 You don't want, you don't wanna be the first idiot in the room. Nobody wants that.

Joe Rogan 47:54 Oh, you definitely wouldn't be the first idiot on this show. [laughs]

Speaker 47:56 And you're not an idiot anyway, but-

Joe Rogan 47:58 There's been plenty of really fucking dumb people on this show that were great.

Speaker 48:02 But h-h- do you know somebody that is really intelligent, and conversation with them is intimidating?

Joe Rogan 48:07 Oh, sure. Yeah.

Speaker 48:08 So I was afraid of this room. I, I mean, I know people like Bill Clinton. The first time I sat and talked to Bill Clinton not on the air-

Joe Rogan 48:16 Mm-hmm

Speaker 48:16 ... or the second time, I guess I should say, it was kinda daunting because he, no matter what your politics is, he's a really smart guy.

Joe Rogan 48:26 Yeah.

Speaker 48:26 Kat Williams is the same way. That motherfucker read a lot more books than I read.

Joe Rogan 48:31 Well, Kat's brilliant. I mean, you can't be that funny and not be very intelligent.

Speaker 48:37 It's the reason Bill Cosby was so funny. He was a bright man.

Joe Rogan 48:40 Mm.

Speaker 48:41 Uh-oh. I, I-

Joe Rogan 48:42 Uh-oh. [laughs]

Speaker 48:43 I saw something... Ding. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 48:44 He's just a, he's just... That's a problematic subject.

Speaker 48:48 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 48:48 So also Bill Clinton, I wish Bill Clinton didn't have so many problems 'cause I would like to talk to him. I would love to have to sit down with him on a podcast.

Speaker 48:57 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 48:57 You know, the problem is, like, how do you sit down and not talk about all the chaos and all the nutty shit and the Epstein files and all the other shit. Like, you kinda almost have to talk about it.

Speaker 49:07 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 49:07 So it's too bad.Because I think he's a fascinating person, and I think he's one of the greatest presidents of all time for sure. And if you go back and look at what he accomplished during his administration, they balanced the budget. That was, like, one of the first times in the history of this fucking country that we didn't have a gigantic debt. Now our debt's, like, 39 trillion.

Speaker 49:29 Mm.

Joe Rogan 49:29 It's crazy.

Speaker 49:30 And, and-

Joe Rogan 49:31 Like, everybody's so bad at balancing the budget, and you go back and listen to him talk when he was running for president, he's, like, super sensible. Like-

Speaker 49:38 Yeah

Joe Rogan 49:38 ... everything he said made sense. The-

Speaker 49:40 And didn't he move a little to the right?

Joe Rogan 49:43 Well, I mean, it wasn't to the right. It was just sensible. Like, what is to the right and what is to the left?

Speaker 49:48 Well, it's, it's-

Joe Rogan 49:48 It doesn't mean anything anymore

Speaker 49:49 ... it's accepting that a lot of things are valuable that are not a part of your party's philosophy.

Joe Rogan 49:57 Mm.

Speaker 49:57 I think we have to be willing to compromise and move a little bit. Uh, and, and that goes for all politicians. We have to be able to move a little bit-

Joe Rogan 50:05 Yeah

Speaker 50:05 ... to be logical and serve all of America.

Joe Rogan 50:09 For sure. But I think w- the problem is parties all have to agree, and they, then they form ideologies that you cannot stray from. So if you're one of those people that says, like, "Hey, maybe an open border's a bad idea because terrorists can come through." Like, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, there's, no one's illegal on stolen land." You know, you get-

Speaker 50:29 Mm

Joe Rogan 50:29 ... everybody gets crazy because there's a party line that you have to stick with. This is today. Today, things are incredibly polarizing. But if you go back and listen to some of the things that Clinton was saying when he was running for president and when he was president, boy, these are, like, almost right-wing talking points in a lot of way. But they're not-

Speaker 50:47 See?

Joe Rogan 50:47 But it's not really-

Speaker 50:47 A, a little to the right

Joe Rogan 50:48 ... but it's not really right wing. It's just sensible. Like, what is right and what is left? Left used to be, um, first of all, freedom of speech was, uh, of paramount importance. It u- used to be that they were very open-minded. It used to be, like, uh, the, that education was of crucial importance, and that discourse was crucially important, and that you have to look out for citizens in, in sense of, like, s- having social safety nets and having welfare programs and, and food stamps, and all those things are, which are really important for a society because not everybody is in the same position in life. And if we're a community of people, which is what a country's supposed to be, you're supposed to look out for everyone. You know? That, that's sensible.

Speaker 51:33 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 51:33 That's what the left used to be, and then it became trans women are women, men can get pregnant. Like, oh, geez.

Speaker 51:39 And, and by the way, when you deal with left and right, you have to almost attach a year because we've seen parties change.

Joe Rogan 51:48 Yeah.

Speaker 51:48 Um, I'm always reminded that the Democratic Party was the party of the Klan if you go far-

Joe Rogan 51:55 Right

Speaker 51:55 ... enough back. So I'm, I'm a Republicrat. I have to look at it all, and-

Joe Rogan 52:00 Well, wasn't Lincoln a Republican?

Speaker 52:04 Um, I think-

Joe Rogan 52:05 I believe Lincoln was a Republican.

Speaker 52:06 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 52:06 I think the Republicans were the ones who were trying to abolish slavery. There was a, a lot of, there's a lot of weird things that shift back and forth in that you, you think of right wing and left wing in today's standards. Like, we were playing a clip of Hillary Clinton the other day when she was running for president. I think it was... Was it 2008 or 2012?

Speaker 52:28 I think '08.

Joe Rogan 52:29 '08. When she was ru- [laughs] she was running for president, she's like, "If you're here illegal from another country, you should have to pay a stiff penalty. You should have to learn English. And if you have any criminal history whatsoever, no questions asked, you get out of the country." And everyone was cheering.

Speaker 52:46 Mm. Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 52:47 Like, the lady's MAGA. That sounds completely MAGA.

Speaker 52:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 52:50 And so-

Speaker 52:50 That's why I say when you deal with Democrat, Republican, you have to attach a year because-

Joe Rogan 52:53 Yeah

Speaker 52:54 ... it's evolved and changed many times.

Joe Rogan 52:56 Well, it's all, you're just being manipulated, and you're being manipulated by these two teams, and you have to pick a team.

Speaker 53:02 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 53:02 You have to decide which team are you on.

Speaker 53:04 I hate that.

Joe Rogan 53:05 It's so stupid. I'm politically homeless. I've always been polit- I've been politically homeless for a long fucking time. It do- neither one of them make any sense to me. We need, like, a logical centrist government that, like, just says s- like, there's a lot of things that we should do to make this country a better place. We can, we can do these things, and we don't have to attach them to left or right. And anything that the left says that's logical, the people on the right, they immediately dismiss it because it's coming from the left.

Speaker 53:33 Mm.

Joe Rogan 53:34 And that happens the same with, where the left does it to people on the right. It's dumb. It's a, it's a team thing. It's like the Dolphins versus the Raiders.

Speaker 53:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 53:41 It's just you pick a fucking team, and you're like, "That team sucks."

Speaker 53:43 What a horrible game, by the way. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 53:47 [laughs] You pick a team, and your team rules, and the other team sucks, and there's a lot of people out there that are not that... They're not open-minded, and they love a good rigid ideology that they can adhere to.

Speaker 54:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:00 So now I don't have to think for myself. I have a predetermined pattern of opinions that I can just adopt.

Speaker 54:06 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 54:06 And I'll just accept those, and that's how I think, and that's what I'm gonna argue with. And it's-

Speaker 54:11 When, when I was young, I, I used to in some jokes say my, my heart is Democratic but my wallet is Republican.

Joe Rogan 54:20 Yeah.

Speaker 54:20 You know? But it's not even that simple anymore.

Joe Rogan 54:22 No.

Speaker 54:22 It's gotten much more complicated.

Joe Rogan 54:24 Yeah, much, much more complicated. It's like, you know, everyone should be anti-fraud, whether you're on the left or on the right. You should be-

Speaker 54:31 Or unless you're committing fraud-

Joe Rogan 54:33 Right

Speaker 54:33 ... then I-

Joe Rogan 54:34 Right. [laughs]

Speaker 54:34 You know.

Joe Rogan 54:34 Then-

Speaker 54:35 I'm pro-me.

Joe Rogan 54:36 Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think a lot of people that, you know, are certainly benefiting from fraud would like to dismiss it-

Speaker 54:41 Hmm

Joe Rogan 54:41 ... whether it's the left or the right.

Speaker 54:43 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 54:43 Yeah. There's like... We're, we have a problem in this country where we have a two-party system. Two-party systems are inherently flawed because there's no fucking way that one side is gonna represent you en- entirely, and it's much more likely if you have, like, 5, 10, 15 different parties that are all legitimate because we don't have another legitimate party. If you vote for a Libertarian, and I've voted Libertarian before, you're basically saying, "Fuck these people." You know?

Speaker 55:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:09 "Fuck these people."

Speaker 55:09 Yeah, you're just-

Joe Rogan 55:10 "I'm voting..."

Speaker 55:11 You're jacking up-

Joe Rogan 55:11 Yeah

Speaker 55:12 ... the Dolphin-Raider game.

Joe Rogan 55:13 [laughs]

Speaker 55:15 [laughs] I, yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:16 I'm voting for rugby. [laughs]

Speaker 55:17 Yeah, exactly.

Joe Rogan 55:18 You know, because that's what you're basically saying. You're like, "I can't get behind either one of these motherfuckers, so I'm gonna vote for this guy who has no chance." You know?

Speaker 55:26 Mm.

Joe Rogan 55:26 And I've done that before. I did that with Joe Jorgensen. I did that with Gary Johnson. I voted for both of them.

Speaker 55:32 But why do you think we'veNot been able to come up with legitimate third, fourth, and fifth parties.

Joe Rogan 55:39 Well, they got it locked down. They've got it locked down, and it's money.

Speaker 55:42 With, with donations and money?

Joe Rogan 55:43 Yeah, it's money. Money and politics. When they got... When they allowed corporations to just essentially give as much as they feel like it, like, and when corporations-

Speaker 55:52 And, and not, not just corporations, but other countries

Joe Rogan 55:54 This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. A lot of people hit stretches where money gets tight, and it's not just the bills. It's the constant pressure, the mental load, the second-guessing of every decision. And honestly, one of the biggest difference makers isn't some perfect budget. It's having a solid support system when things feel heavy. And if that support system includes therapy, even better. Because while it can't solve your money problems, it can change your relationship with finances. It can help you manage the stress, anxiety, and maybe even any shame you feel around money. A good place to find a quality therapist is BetterHelp. Plus, they do a lot of the work for you. Literally, all you need to do is answer a few questions, and BetterHelp will match you with a fully qualified therapist online. They have an industry-leading match fulfillment rate, which is a fancy way of saying that they typically get it right the first time. But even if they don't, it's super simple to switch to another therapist. When life feels overwhelming, therapy can help. Sign up and get 10% off at betterhelp.com/jre. That's betterhelp.com/jre. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not good. [laughs] It's not good. Money in politics is the real problem. You know, it should... You know, the whole thing, it's a mess. And then you, you find out how much money politicians make when they get office.

Speaker 57:28 While TSA guys have nothing.

Joe Rogan 57:30 Yeah.

Speaker 57:30 And politicians are still getting a motherfucking check.

Joe Rogan 57:33 Yes, exactly.

Speaker 57:34 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 57:34 Well, I felt that way also about the lockdowns in California. I was like, all these people that are saying that you should have no outdoor dining, your paycheck should be entirely dependent on the GDP of your city. And if your city starts suffering, you should fucking suffer. And I guarantee you want those businesses to open right the fuck back up 'cause it didn't make any sense. They were doing things for optics only, and they were doing things 'cause they like control. People love control. They love it. And once you give them power over people, they're in the control business. They like to keep that control, and it just gets gross. And they don't have any... There's no repercussions. They don't get in trouble if all these... Like, California laws-

Speaker 58:12 Somebody should be in trouble for the Epstein files. Somebody.

Joe Rogan 58:15 At least one person, please.

Speaker 58:17 Yes.

Joe Rogan 58:17 Yeah.

Speaker 58:17 It's crazy-

Joe Rogan 58:18 It's crazy

Speaker 58:18 ... that we're sitting around looking at that.

Joe Rogan 58:20 It's crazy.

Speaker 58:20 And we know it, and we say it, but ain't a motherfucking thing we can do about it.

Joe Rogan 58:24 Right. It's like, right now, there's some talk about journalists getting in trouble for leaking information about the downed pilot, and that they want to prosecute these journalists. At the same time, no one's being prosecuted for the Epstein files.

Speaker 58:41 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 58:42 That's nuts.

Speaker 58:43 I, I want-

Joe Rogan 58:43 That's a sick society.

Speaker 58:45 A- as a kid, I did magic, right? And there's a thing in magic, if I take a coin and put it in this hand, there's a thing called misdirection.

Joe Rogan 58:54 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 58:54 That's what I just did to you. You looked at that hand-

Joe Rogan 58:56 Right

Speaker 58:56 ... I'm doing some shit right here.

Joe Rogan 58:58 Right.

Speaker 58:58 That's the story of American politics.

Joe Rogan 59:00 Oh, yeah. Whenever something weird's going... Look, when Monica Lewinsky, when, when Tr- when Bill Clinton got caught with Monica Lewinsky, they immediately started bombing some other countries. They're like, "We gotta distract these people. This is just too complicated."

Speaker 59:13 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 59:13 Look, the Epstein files comes out, we go to war with Iran. It's, it's a good way to get people to stop talking about certain things. You give them a new problem to think about.

Speaker 59:22 Hey, this morning, I wake up in a very nice hotel, thanks to you. Uh, breakfast was paid for, the tip was done, all that shit. It was kinda cool. Um, and I was nervous, and I'm thinking, "I'm nervous to go see my guy and talk," which is insane. But then, you know, sometimes you try to focus on why you're really nervous. Why am I so nervous? And I realized it wasn't just coming here. I had watched about a half hour of news, and it was making my stomach hurt.

Joe Rogan 59:53 Yeah.

Speaker 59:53 You know, 'cause I, I feel so sad on a lot of levels, you know?

Joe Rogan 59:57 And anxiety.

Speaker 59:58 Yes, yes.

Joe Rogan 59:59 News just gives me anxiety.

Speaker 1:00:01 But I gotta, as a comic, I gotta watch-

Joe Rogan 1:00:04 Right

Speaker 1:00:04 ... 'cause I gotta know everything. I gotta have that h- that, that mental Rolodex loaded-

Joe Rogan 1:00:08 Yes

Speaker 1:00:09 ... for crowd work or whatever.

Joe Rogan 1:00:11 Well, you have to know what's going on in the world, unfortunately. If I wasn't a comic, I would have no social media, I would never consume the news.

Speaker 1:00:19 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:00:19 I would just hide.

Speaker 1:00:20 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:00:20 I would just, like, go to a peaceful place. I'd probably have a place in the mountain somewhere and just fucking chill. I would not wanna have anything to do with any of this bullshit that's going on in the world. And I know people, a lot of people say, "Oh, you have to participate," and this and that. Like, man, yeah, I guess, but I don't think your participation is having the kind of effect that you'd like it to have. I think it's having an effect on the way you think and feel much more so, like a disproportionate effect on your mental health and your anxiety levels, and all these different things that you cannot control by paying attention to it. You can't control what these fucking people are doing, and it just drives you nuts. And I-

Speaker 1:00:58 It's frustrating because we realize... I mean, you and I are both millionaires. You a lot more than me. Uh, but at the same time, we realize we don't have enough money to really affect it. I mean, you-

Joe Rogan 1:01:11 You can affect some things, I guess.

Speaker 1:01:13 Yeah, you... Yeah, I, now that I think about-

Joe Rogan 1:01:14 But I don't want to.

Speaker 1:01:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:01:15 I don't want to affect... And, and if I can affect things in a positive way, I can, yeah. I mean, there's some things that I'd like to do.

Speaker 1:01:22 We affect things by, by dispersing information of candidates-

Joe Rogan 1:01:25 Yeah

Speaker 1:01:25 ... and in- for helping to inform people.

Joe Rogan 1:01:28 Well-

Speaker 1:01:28 But that kinda money that you have to have to have a dinner in Malibu, and, uh, and laterGet some shit done that you wanna get done 'cause the president is your guy now-

Joe Rogan 1:01:40 Yeah

Speaker 1:01:41 ... or girl.

Joe Rogan 1:01:42 It's very complicated.

Speaker 1:01:43 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:01:44 Very, and th- that kind of complication comes with a lot of scrutiny and a lot of weirdness. And, and also, like, you don't really know these people. You're, you, you, you support people, like, for running for president or governor or mayor or whatever. How do you, how much do you know them? Are you really sure that you... Like, is this, like, is there no good option, so you go with the least evil option?

Speaker 1:02:05 Well, a lot of us do that.

Joe Rogan 1:02:07 That's a lot of it. Yeah.

Speaker 1:02:07 And that's, that's really painful-

Joe Rogan 1:02:10 Yeah

Speaker 1:02:10 ... to think that the lesser of two evils is a horrible thing as a philosophy for a place we raise our children.

Joe Rogan 1:02:17 Right. Yeah. There's no one person that really comes along and we're like, [gasps] "Finally," like a peaceful, God-loving person who's just looking out for everybody's best interest, who really only wants to do this 'cause they think they can affect change. And then once they do try to affect change, they get fucking shot [laughs] 'cause-

Speaker 1:02:33 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:02:33 ... 'cause nobody really wants that because they're all making money.

Speaker 1:02:35 When we were coming up, remember the Sam Kinison bit?

Joe Rogan 1:02:39 Which bit?

Speaker 1:02:39 Um, I think it was very similar to that, people who have an idea, we kill them.

Joe Rogan 1:02:44 Oh, that was Bill Hicks.

Speaker 1:02:45 Oh, it was Hicks.

Joe Rogan 1:02:46 Yeah.

Speaker 1:02:47 Okay.

Joe Rogan 1:02:47 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Hicks-

Speaker 1:02:48 Man

Joe Rogan 1:02:48 ... Hicks had a great bit about that, yeah, and it's totally true.

Speaker 1:02:52 See-

Joe Rogan 1:02:52 I mean, anybody that really wants to rock the apple cart, like, that, that person's a problem, you know? And all these people that are making... All these sociopaths that are making fucking billions of dollars just being cunts.

Speaker 1:03:03 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:03:03 They do not want you coming along and waking people up to that and saying, "Hey, we should put a stop to all this. We should, you know, we should stop these people from ma-" Like, that's why people cheered when that guy got shot, the UnitedHealthcare guy. He got shot.

Speaker 1:03:17 Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:03:18 People were happy. They were happy, like, finally someone-

Speaker 1:03:21 At first I thought it was... I thought homie who shot him, I thought it was his eyebrows. You know, 'cause women were going crazy, you know? [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:03:26 He was a hot guy.

Speaker 1:03:27 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:03:27 He's a good-looking guy, too.

Speaker 1:03:28 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:03:28 He's like the perfect guy to, to be, like, a martyr, like an assassin.

Speaker 1:03:33 It... By, by the way, have you noticed throughout history, good-looking people get treated differently when it comes to the justice system. They've done experimental-

Joe Rogan 1:03:42 Oh, yeah

Speaker 1:03:42 ... trials where the hot guy gets off on, for murder easy 'cause the 11 women were cool with it.

Joe Rogan 1:03:50 [laughs]

Speaker 1:03:51 You know?

Joe Rogan 1:03:51 Well, women are weird with killers. You know, when guys are, even serial killers, when they go to jail, women, like s-

Speaker 1:03:58 They get great letters.

Joe Rogan 1:03:59 Yeah, it's weird.

Speaker 1:03:59 Proposals.

Joe Rogan 1:04:00 Weird.

Speaker 1:04:01 Marry me.

Joe Rogan 1:04:02 Yeah, even, like, Richard Ramirez was getting all these proposals while he was in jail.

Speaker 1:04:06 But the ultimate game for a woman is to be married, but not have to live with that motherfucker, you know? [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:04:11 [laughs]

Speaker 1:04:11 So that might be kinda cool, you know? [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:04:15 Kind of. I don't know what it is. Um, I, I heard someone talk about that, saying that there's women that like men that are capable of killing-

Speaker 1:04:23 Ooh

Joe Rogan 1:04:23 ... because back in the day, it was if someone was... If you needed someone to protect you, you didn't, you didn't want someone that would hesitate if they were gonna kill someone. You wanted someone who has experience killing people.

Speaker 1:04:37 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:04:37 So it's almost like an attractive trait-

Speaker 1:04:39 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:04:39 ... that someone's willing to cross that terrible line-

Speaker 1:04:42 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 1:04:42 ... and just has no problem murdering people. And if they like you, they won't murder you, but they'll murder other people, like anybody that's a problem.

Speaker 1:04:49 I knew a girl who went out with a couple friends of mine, and her MO was to do something publicly that would make the man whip somebody's ass to defend her honor or something.

Joe Rogan 1:05:01 Oh.

Speaker 1:05:02 And she li- she, because that, that made her feel better.

Joe Rogan 1:05:07 That's a crazy bitch.

Speaker 1:05:08 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:05:08 I've been around people like that before. I always got rid of them real quick. I've had a few ladies like that when I was young.

Speaker 1:05:13 "You're gonna let him say that to me?" You know, that-

Joe Rogan 1:05:15 I'd be like, "Why'd you say that to him? The fu- don't get me involved in this stupid shit."

Speaker 1:05:19 But it's hard, man.

Joe Rogan 1:05:20 Yeah.

Speaker 1:05:20 I was in a club as a young man on Sunset, left The Comedy Store, went down the street to a place called Carlos & Charlie's, and back then they had, uh, this garment called a tube top.

Joe Rogan 1:05:31 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1:05:31 It was just an elastic-

Joe Rogan 1:05:33 Mm-hmm

Speaker 1:05:33 ... about, an elastic piece about eight inches d- or depending on your breasts. And, um, I watched a dude take his finger and just pull a girl's tube top down, titties fell out.

Joe Rogan 1:05:44 [laughs]

Speaker 1:05:44 And I'm watching her man. He didn't know what to do, you know, because you don't wanna fight these guys.

Joe Rogan 1:05:52 Right.

Speaker 1:05:52 You almost wanna s- just say, "Baby, just pull up your top and let's go home," you know? [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:05:56 Yeah.

Speaker 1:05:56 But he had to fight.

Joe Rogan 1:05:57 Yeah.

Speaker 1:05:58 And, uh, in that situation, I, I think you have to fight.

Joe Rogan 1:06:02 Yeah, but you just definitely shouldn't be there in the first place. That's the problem with going to clubs.

Speaker 1:06:07 You're at the wrong club.

Joe Rogan 1:06:08 The, the running into the, the potential psychopath-

Speaker 1:06:11 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 1:06:12 ... is just too... Like, that's where they go. Where people act like cunts, that's where they go.

Speaker 1:06:18 When is the last time you went to a club?

Joe Rogan 1:06:19 Oh, I never go to clubs. Never.

Speaker 1:06:21 Yeah, it's been a long time for me. I mean, there is no club for 70-year-olds.

Joe Rogan 1:06:24 No, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 1:06:25 You know, that's called AARP. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:06:26 Well, if you do go, it's sad. If you're the-

Speaker 1:06:28 Yeah, you don't wanna be the oldest dude

Joe Rogan 1:06:30 ... guy at the bar.

Speaker 1:06:31 Yeah. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:06:31 "Hey, ladies."

Speaker 1:06:32 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:06:32 "What is fucking grandpa doing here?"

Speaker 1:06:34 But, but are ki- do kids dance now?

Joe Rogan 1:06:37 That's a good question.

Speaker 1:06:38 I, my, my son has, hasn't... Like, I remember a time when you say, "Oh, I'm doing the Cabbage Patch now," you know? It's like-

Joe Rogan 1:06:43 Right

Speaker 1:06:43 ... you knew what the latest dance was. My son never dances. I've taken him to New Year's Eve parties. He never, during the slow record, says to a girl, "Uh, you wanna dance?" You know, you go out and slow dance. What happened to that shit?

Joe Rogan 1:06:55 That's, that's true, right? Well, because clubs got associated with violence. Like, clubs get associated with people getting drunk. They're doing drugs, and chaos, and people getting shot, you know?

Speaker 1:07:07 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:07:08 There's just too much of that going on. And you hear about that at concerts, too. But yeah, you're right. You don't... There's no new dances.

Speaker 1:07:14 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:07:14 There's no things that, like, you have to learn, you know?

Speaker 1:07:18 Yeah. Uh, but you know, you know what's replaced it? Maybe the entire family on TikTok.

Joe Rogan 1:07:22 Right. [laughs]

Speaker 1:07:23 [laughs]

Speaker 1:07:23 TikTok has definitely got dances that you gotta learn.

Joe Rogan 1:07:26 Oh, really?

Speaker 1:07:26 That's all it is.

Joe Rogan 1:07:27 Oh, really?

Speaker 1:07:27 Yeah, yeah. I mean, for people that are way younger than us.

Joe Rogan 1:07:29 Right, that's where the dances are. That's where the dances are.

Speaker 1:07:31 Yeah, no-

Joe Rogan 1:07:31 They're not going to clubs. They're just doing them

Speaker 1:07:33 ... Korn song just got viral again 'cause they're dancing to Freak on a Leash.It's a 25-year-old song that has got a dance to it now

Joe Rogan 1:07:40 What's the dance? Show me the dance

Speaker 1:07:41 [laughs] Couldn't even begin to start it, but [laughs] I could show you the video of it

Joe Rogan 1:07:45 Get up here and do it

Speaker 1:07:46 I could show you the video of it [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:07:47 You do it. You've been practicing [laughs]

Speaker 1:07:49 No. I used to, uh-

Joe Rogan 1:07:50 [coughs] Show me the video. What's the, what's the Korn dance?

Speaker 1:07:53 In my head, you're like, "Get up and do it," but I'm not [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:07:56 Do we have to not play the music?

Speaker 1:07:57 Yeah, probably not play the music

Joe Rogan 1:07:59 Yeah. So this is-

Speaker 1:07:59 But that's, yeah

Joe Rogan 1:08:00 ... this is the dance?

Speaker 1:08:00 See, it's a new day

Speaker 1:08:01 Yeah

Speaker 1:08:02 You don't go to a club. You do it with your girl at your crib

Speaker 1:08:04 I think they made it back on Billboard because, you know, like the song was so popular-

Joe Rogan 1:08:08 Oh, that's hilarious

Speaker 1:08:09 ... it got so many plays on it

Joe Rogan 1:08:11 That's hilari- 1998.

Speaker 1:08:13 Yeah, it's old

Joe Rogan 1:08:14 Wow, that's crazy

Speaker 1:08:17 So like, I don't know. And then to contrast to, this is the club in Austin where everybody goes. They're not necessarily doing those dances.

Joe Rogan 1:08:23 What club is this?

Speaker 1:08:24 This is called The Concourse.

Joe Rogan 1:08:25 Oh, see, I, I can't go to a club with no shirt on.

Speaker 1:08:29 And what do they do here?

Speaker 1:08:30 Uh, like DJs.

Joe Rogan 1:08:31 Oh, DJs.

Speaker 1:08:32 So yeah, it's like watching DJs-

Joe Rogan 1:08:33 So they just bounce around

Speaker 1:08:34 ... and a bunch of lasers and-

Speaker 1:08:35 Yeah, this is like a jazz ex jazz concert

Speaker 1:08:37 ... they do ecstasy. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:08:38 [laughs] A jazzy Jeff [laughs]

Speaker 1:08:41 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:08:41 Yeah, they just bounce around. They're all on ecstasy

Speaker 1:08:44 People are on ecstasy. Everybody stares at the DJ stage like they're performing music and-

Joe Rogan 1:08:47 How weird

Speaker 1:08:48 Yeah, this is a sign of a sick culture

Speaker 1:08:51 Yeah.

Speaker 1:08:51 Not that there's anything wrong with DJs-

Joe Rogan 1:08:52 A different, a d- a different culture. I mean-

Speaker 1:08:53 But it is... Like, but the, but the, there's no the other thing. There's no, like, people dancing, you know?

Speaker 1:08:59 Yeah

Speaker 1:08:59 On the old days. Like, if you go back and you watch, like, nightclubs from, like, the 1960s and '70s, what it was everybody... Like, in the disco days, right?

Speaker 1:09:07 Yeah.

Speaker 1:09:07 That's a perfect example

Speaker 1:09:07 When Tramp was singing, "Burn, burn this mother down"

Speaker 1:09:11 Right. Yeah

Speaker 1:09:12 "Down"

Speaker 1:09:13 Yeah. People were dancing

Speaker 1:09:14 "It's going further," oh

Joe Rogan 1:09:15 Well, I remember when I was a kid, Saturday Night Live c- or Saturday Night Fever, rather, came out.

Speaker 1:09:20 Ooh

Joe Rogan 1:09:21 And that's when everybody wanted to learn how to dance because John Travolta-

Speaker 1:09:25 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:09:25 ... he could fucking dance, and they would have dance-offs

Speaker 1:09:28 And Black people were saying, "We got to step up the game if this boy can do that."

Joe Rogan 1:09:32 Right

Speaker 1:09:33 You know, so we had to get better

Joe Rogan 1:09:34 Right. And then you had Soul Train, right?

Speaker 1:09:36 Mm-hmm. Saturday morning, man

Joe Rogan 1:09:36 Where everybody was dancing on TV

Speaker 1:09:39 Yes

Joe Rogan 1:09:39 Yeah

Speaker 1:09:40 Saturday morning was, that w- that was life for me

Joe Rogan 1:09:44 There's no shows where there's, like, a bunch of people performing music on TV anymore

Speaker 1:09:51 Well, well that's the, that's that gap between me and you as talkers. Um, one of the problems I had, and I talk in the book about this, I love music, and I grew up wanting to do that show. So when they start telling me, "You know, you can get better numbers with Howie Mandel just talking than you can with this..." 'Cause I put Boyz II Men and The Temptations together once. I had to fly Boyz II Men from Philly. I had... You know, and, and they wanted it less Black, and now I got 14 brothers doing choreography [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:10:26 [laughs]

Speaker 1:10:26 You know, and it's like, "No, that's not what we need."

Joe Rogan 1:10:27 They wanted it less Black?

Speaker 1:10:29 Well-

Joe Rogan 1:10:29 Like, they would say shit like that to you?

Speaker 1:10:30 Oh, yeah. They, they, they wanted, um... This is the carrot. They said, "We know Johnny's gonna leave one day." You know, you always think it's gonna be two years.

Joe Rogan 1:10:42 Oh.

Speaker 1:10:42 "So you can inherit his audience if you do the right show."

Joe Rogan 1:10:45 Oh.

Speaker 1:10:45 But I, Joe-

Joe Rogan 1:10:47 You're not crazy

Speaker 1:10:47 ... I, I, I used to do the talk show in my basement, man, and we'd put on a Temptations record, and my friend Junior would be my guest, and he would sing Get Ready. And on Soul Train, they lip sync. We knew the microphones wasn't plugged in.

Joe Rogan 1:10:59 Right

Speaker 1:10:59 And so he would sing, and then I'd interview him. I wanted to do that show, but-

Joe Rogan 1:11:04 You were doing that when you were young?

Speaker 1:11:05 Oh, yeah. Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:11:05 When did you... How old were you when you were doing that?

Speaker 1:11:07 Uh, 11.

Joe Rogan 1:11:09 Really?

Speaker 1:11:09 Yeah. My mother would have rent parties, and so she'd rent these card tables and chairs. And the people, like in LA, we call it town and country, right? The, you can rent stuff for your party. So the next day, they come and pick up the stuff in a truck. But before they'd pick it up, I would do a talk show with that stuff. And, um, I dreamed of everything that I did eventually in my life.

Joe Rogan 1:11:33 Wow

Speaker 1:11:34 And it was, it was, um, the show I wanted to do. So at a certain point when they say, um, "Does Prince need a purple piano?" You know [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:11:44 [laughs]

Speaker 1:11:44 I said, "Yeah, he want a purple piano." And the show I was doing was just too expensive. And you and I talked once at the Ice House when I tried to do the Reboot show.

Joe Rogan 1:11:54 Yeah

Speaker 1:11:54 And I was telling you how complicated it was. They wanted my Twitter site. They don't want to-

Joe Rogan 1:11:58 They took your... I was telling people, they took over your fucking social media, and they wouldn't give it back.

Speaker 1:12:03 Yeah, it was hard to get back. It-

Joe Rogan 1:12:04 That's crazy. I remember you telling me that. We were standing outside the outside area of the Ice House, and you were like, "I can't get my fucking social media back." I'm like, "That's crazy. They took your social media."

Speaker 1:12:15 Yeah, and they-

Joe Rogan 1:12:16 And they would use it to promote other shows

Speaker 1:12:17 Absolutely. And the end of, of that Reboot experience, um, didn't go down exactly the way I wanted it to. Like, like, I got picked up first, and Jay Leno came out and read a letter from Les Moonves that I was picked up for a second season. And then we start talking about the second season, and here's the great thing. They wanted, "You, you really gotta stop doing the music. As a matter of fact, how about no house band?" And-

Joe Rogan 1:12:43 What?

Speaker 1:12:43 ... it's interesting. Well, what, but, but, but economically speaking, Joe, when I look at it, they wanted me to do Joe Rogan before there was a Joe Rogan. They just want you to talk to people and stuff. I'd watched Fallon with Will Smith one night, and Will Smith rode in on a horse. And I'm like, "That's expensive." You know, they wanted me to do what we're doing right now because this is cheaper to do. I would love for us to, uh, have a hip hop star here right now following me, but this is economically sound. It's a new day.

Joe Rogan 1:13:17 Right. So that's all it was? It was just a money thing? They just-

Speaker 1:13:21 Uh, well, that was the Reboot show. The, the first show, um, you know, if they want me to be in the position to inherit Johnny's audience, 'cause that's... They, they wanted me and themselves to make more money, a lot of money, keep making money, and I was kinda kicking the bag becauseI had wanted to do this show since I was a kid. I, I couldn't imagine a show-

Joe Rogan 1:13:46 But meanwhile, the thing is, your show was so popular

Speaker 1:13:50 And by the way, they got numbers one night when Whitney didn't sing. She just came on, and that was the kiss of death in my morning meetings, 'cause they were like, "Look, Whitney sang nothing, and look at the numbers." You know, so-

Joe Rogan 1:14:04 The numbers are so weird

Speaker 1:14:04 ... so they were shooting for The Joe Rogan Experience before there was an experience.

Joe Rogan 1:14:08 Those fucking people concentrate on the numbers. It's like you, you're missing the trees.

Speaker 1:14:12 But you got to, Joe. You... It's sometimes I... You know, it, it's really important for me to look back and say, "I love that show that I did, and I don't regret a moment of it," but I get a corporate organization saying, "We can make mo- more money, and we can get more people in."

Joe Rogan 1:14:33 Yeah. If I was a cor- I would be a terrible corporate executive, by the way.

Speaker 1:14:37 'Cause you would lead with your heart.

Joe Rogan 1:14:39 But if I was... Yeah, I would say, "Just be you. Just have fun, and whatever ads we get, we get. Whatever money we get, we get. And that's good. You get plenty. It'll be fine."

Speaker 1:14:49 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:14:49 You can't... Y- y- you gotta let a, a p- it has to... I feel like every show has to be a unique expression of the person that's hosting it and what they're trying to do. Like, let that person be free. Like, can you imagine if Quentin Tarantino had to sit down with a group of people that were executives before he wrote a script? You would never get any of these fucking chaotic, crazy movies. They'd be like, "No, no, no, no, no, you can't bash a woman's head on a mantelpiece. That's nuts."

Speaker 1:15:19 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:15:19 Like, "Don't do that. No, you can't..." You know, like in Jackie Brown, "No, you can't fucking shoot that girl in the parking lot. That's nuts. You can't do that. You can't do any of these things." You've got to let someone just be free, and then it finds its audience.

Speaker 1:15:34 Yeah. I remember when Ice-T came on to explain Cop Killer and, um, his way of explaining it-

Joe Rogan 1:15:42 Tough sell, by the way.

Speaker 1:15:43 Yeah. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:15:44 Yeah. And it was a metal band.

Speaker 1:15:46 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:15:46 People don't realize that. Like, Ice-T, people forgot Body Count was a metal band.

Speaker 1:15:51 Yeah, you gotta search that, yo.

Joe Rogan 1:15:53 Right? A lot of people don't even know that he did that.

Speaker 1:15:56 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:15:56 You think of Ice-T-

Speaker 1:15:57 You think of a rap

Joe Rogan 1:15:57 ... you think of "6 'N the Mornin'"

Speaker 1:15:59 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:15:59 You think of, you know, "Hustler," you think of all those classic songs. "Colors," you think of that.

Speaker 1:16:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:16:05 You, you don't think of Body Count, which is like Ice-T reinvented himself, and he was like, "I always loved this kind of music. You can't tell me what the fuck I do."

Speaker 1:16:14 What an amazing-

Joe Rogan 1:16:14 "I like this kind of movic too, music too."

Speaker 1:16:16 Amazing career that dude-

Joe Rogan 1:16:18 I know

Speaker 1:16:18 ... had.

Joe Rogan 1:16:18 And now he's a, he plays a cop for like 25 years [laughs] on TV.

Speaker 1:16:21 How about that for irony? [laughs] I knew him when he was a pimp.

Joe Rogan 1:16:25 [laughs]

Speaker 1:16:25 And now-

Joe Rogan 1:16:26 That's crazy

Speaker 1:16:26 ... he's a cop. Well, you remember when he was in Pimps Up, Hoes Down?

Joe Rogan 1:16:29 Yeah. Absolutely.

Speaker 1:16:30 I mean, he was in that too.

Joe Rogan 1:16:31 Yeah.

Speaker 1:16:32 I mean, he was talking about the pimp game. It's hilarious.

Joe Rogan 1:16:35 Yeah, he, he came on... By the way, they didn't want me to do that, you know, uh, book him, but, but I thought it was, I thought it was cool to expose America to some conversations they might not hear normally.

Speaker 1:16:50 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:16:50 And the more power I got, the more I tried to push that envelope and do those things. He compared it to Schwarzenegger. He says, "You don't think he's really the Terminator, right?" You know.

Speaker 1:17:00 Yeah. Right.

Joe Rogan 1:17:00 And, and he says, "I, I'm not a cop killer, but there's a message through this character."

Speaker 1:17:05 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:17:05 And I'm paraphrasing, but-

Speaker 1:17:07 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:17:07 ... but it w- it was nice to, to hear people who I know... I, I would talk to Tupac, and I would say, "Say that on the air. You gotta talk about that on the air." And that was... I, we didn't have Twitter. We didn't have the blue bird. I was kind of the black bird.

Speaker 1:17:23 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:17:23 And I was able to have these... Like, Tupac called me once, and he says, "Man, they want me to take a AIDS test before I do this movie, and unless I'm really gonna fuck Janet, I don't think I should have to take a AIDS test." And I'm like, "Please don't say any more. Just come on the show," and, and this fit into both categories. "Come on the show, don't do any music, just sit and talk." And those nights would do really good.

Speaker 1:17:47 Of course.

Joe Rogan 1:17:48 Yeah.

Speaker 1:17:49 Of course, because people wanna hear people really talk, especially in those weird settings where most of the time when people were coming on talk shows, they would just have this, like, very canned sort of like pre-programmed thing that they would talk about. They would talk about their character in the movie.

Joe Rogan 1:18:05 We even have... People don't know we have pre-interviews-

Speaker 1:18:08 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 1:18:08 ... which you don't have in a show like this, but I get a card-

Speaker 1:18:12 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:18:12 ... th- that morning. It's like, "Okay, here's what Jackie Collins would like to talk about."

Speaker 1:18:16 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:18:17 You know?

Speaker 1:18:17 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:18:17 Or, or, uh, "Nicole Kidman has requested that you don't mention Tom Cruise."

Speaker 1:18:24 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:18:24 And I'm like, "Well, tell Nicole the only reason that bitch is here-

Speaker 1:18:27 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:18:27 ... is 'cause I think Tom Cruise is gonna walk out." You know? And oh, it was, it was crazy-

Speaker 1:18:32 That's crazy

Joe Rogan 1:18:33 ... back then.

Speaker 1:18:33 Yeah. Well-

Joe Rogan 1:18:34 It was all PR people, and it's again, you're dealing with too many different people that are peripheral people, where all their money is dependent on this one person performing.

Speaker 1:18:45 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:18:45 So they just wanna make sure they make the maximum amount of money possible. Like, don't make any ripples, don't cause any waves, don't cause any problems, just go out there and smile, and s- and we'll, we'll, we'll sell more-

Speaker 1:18:54 Yeah, don't mess this up

Joe Rogan 1:18:56 ... we'll sell more records, we'll sell more movies, TV show will get better ratings, don't mess it up.

Speaker 1:19:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:19:01 Don't fuck it up.

Speaker 1:19:01 Guys like Prince used to be frustrated with the fact that if something's a hit, "Can you give us something like that again? How many beats per second is that?"

Joe Rogan 1:19:10 Right.

Speaker 1:19:10 "Can you give us that again?"

Joe Rogan 1:19:11 Ugh.

Speaker 1:19:11 Or any big artist, i- it's like, "We want more of, of 'Waterfall.'"

Joe Rogan 1:19:16 Yeah.

Speaker 1:19:17 You know?

Joe Rogan 1:19:17 Yeah. No, Prince w- Prince was one of the most revolutionary artists ever, and people that don't know the early stuff, they don't know how crazy it was that this guy was... To have a song called "Head" [laughs] .

Speaker 1:19:31 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:19:31 Just singing about getting head.

Speaker 1:19:33 First time I saw him, he was opening for The Rolling Stones.

Joe Rogan 1:19:37 Wow.

Speaker 1:19:38 And the audience didn't dig him, because it was different back then, and he was singing soft and wet.

Joe Rogan 1:19:43 Right.

Speaker 1:19:44 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:19:45 Right. Well, Prince was just, he was so unique, man.

Speaker 1:19:48 And he predicted a lot of the things that we're dealing with now and going through. I remember the first time he talked about what became Napster, and he talked about, uh, um, owning your own property and what was gonna ha- and slave on his jaw, and we thought that was silly.

Joe Rogan 1:20:03 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1:20:04 But it meant something.

Joe Rogan 1:20:05 Well, he was dealing with these crazy contracts where these record companies, these predatory record companies, would lock you into these contracts, and they fucking owned you. So his response to that was like, "Okay, I won't perform as Prince anymore. Now I'm fucking this shit."

Speaker 1:20:21 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:20:21 "I'm this squiggly-

Speaker 1:20:23 I'm a symbol-

Joe Rogan 1:20:23 I'm a symbol

Speaker 1:20:23 ... with a slave-

Joe Rogan 1:20:24 Yeah

Speaker 1:20:25 ... uh, insignia on my jaw."

Joe Rogan 1:20:26 What are you gonna do now? I'm a symbol. I'm not even selling myself as Prince.

Speaker 1:20:29 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:20:29 And he would just... I mean, how revolutionary is that? This guy had said, "Okay, I know the workaround. I won't use my name anymore. I'll just be a symbol."

Speaker 1:20:38 He was a bad dude, man.

Joe Rogan 1:20:39 And, but he was such a bad motherfucker that people are like, "I know who that is. I don't care what that fucking symbol is. That's Prince. Let him sing."

Speaker 1:20:47 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:20:47 "Let him do things."

Speaker 1:20:48 Did you ever meet him?

Joe Rogan 1:20:49 No, man.

Speaker 1:20:50 I, I, I-

Joe Rogan 1:20:50 I had one opportunity to fucking see him live-

Speaker 1:20:53 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:20:53 ... and I blew it.

Speaker 1:20:54 At the Great Western Forum?

Joe Rogan 1:20:55 No.

Speaker 1:20:56 Oh.

Joe Rogan 1:20:56 It was at, it was at one of the hotels in Vegas-

Speaker 1:21:00 Ooh

Joe Rogan 1:21:00 ... but it was a really late show. And, uh, I had a show earlier that night, and they said... And Prince was doing small shows back then. It was like this-

Speaker 1:21:09 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 1:21:10 ... small, like it was intimate audience, but it was like after midnight. I was like, "I'm fucking tired. I'm gonna go to sleep." And this is like in the-

Speaker 1:21:17 Yikes.

Joe Rogan 1:21:17 Oh, I fucked up, man. I fucked up.

Speaker 1:21:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:21:19 This is like the, when his career was in a weird place 'cause he wasn't doing like big shows anymore, and he was doing this late night show, and people were saying it was really good. But I was like, "I'm tired. I'm not gonna see this." And then years later when he was dead, I was like, "God, did I fuck up." I always thought Prince was gonna be around.

Speaker 1:21:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:21:37 And Prin- we lost Prince to fentanyl.

Speaker 1:21:40 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:21:40 A lot of people don't even know that.

Speaker 1:21:41 Alone in an elevator.

Joe Rogan 1:21:42 Goddamn it.

Speaker 1:21:44 Oh, I, I remember the Musicology album where he toured, and he attached the album to the ticket so that when you bought a ticket, you were buying an album, and it instantly became a million-dollar seller with that philosophy.

Joe Rogan 1:21:58 Mm.

Speaker 1:21:58 He had genius that was way ahead of the pimps.

Joe Rogan 1:22:02 Yeah.

Speaker 1:22:02 You know? I loved it.

Joe Rogan 1:22:04 Well, he, he just knew that he was being fucked, and he knew that all they're selling is his brilliance. They don't have anything... What is a record company selling? They're only selling the art. That's it. They don't make it.

Speaker 1:22:17 And they were getting a-

Joe Rogan 1:22:17 They're just selling it

Speaker 1:22:17 ... a penny a copy-

Joe Rogan 1:22:19 Yeah, exactly

Speaker 1:22:19 ... and bullshit like that.

Joe Rogan 1:22:20 The ar- the, the record company was getting most of it, and now it makes even less sense because nobody even buys albums anymore. It's like wh- how the fuck are these record companies even surviving? It's so crazy that they're s- they still figure out a way to latch their tentacles onto these young artists. And for young artists, they feel like they've made it when they're a part of a record deal.

Speaker 1:22:41 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:22:41 Like, "Oh, I got a deal." And I almost wanna tell them like, "This is..."

Speaker 1:22:45 That ain't a deal.

Joe Rogan 1:22:46 You got a deal with the devil. Like, if you just put your shit on YouTube or on SoundCloud or so- anywhere where people hear it, and they start sharing it, you'll be huge.

Speaker 1:22:54 Yeah. We're, we're getting smarter and learning how to deal with the pimps that pimp us.

Joe Rogan 1:22:59 Yeah.

Speaker 1:22:59 You know? Uh, I, I talk in the, in the book about Prince also had a, a great sense of humor. You would have loved him, you know, as a person, uh, beyond the musician. And there was a time when I was hosting the MTV Awards, and he had no ass in his pants. And, um [both laughing] you know, so when he's coming past me down the hall, I realize, oh shit, 'cause as he... [both laughing] This motherfucker ain't got no ass in his pants. We'll be talking about this tomorrow. So, so obviously when I get back to the show, my first monologue-

Joe Rogan 1:23:34 Right

Speaker 1:23:34 ... is about that night.

Joe Rogan 1:23:35 Look at this.

Speaker 1:23:35 Yes. Yes. [both laughing]

Joe Rogan 1:23:40 1991. Isn't that crazy?

Speaker 1:23:43 That was, that was nuts. And-

Joe Rogan 1:23:44 1991

Speaker 1:23:46 ... so I do jokes about that in the monologue.

Joe Rogan 1:23:48 Of course.

Speaker 1:23:49 And, um, like a week or two after the jokes, I get a box in the mail at Paramount, and it's from Prince. And I open it. I figure it's maybe a hoodie. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:24:03 Right.

Speaker 1:24:03 You know? I opened it, and it's a beautiful black and white suit with all the Prince symbols on it. Made me look like I was the drummer for New Power Generation or something. It was a cool, cool suit. And I'm looking at it, and my assistant said, "Turn it around." [both laughing] I turned it around. There was no ass-

Joe Rogan 1:24:25 Did you wear it?

Speaker 1:24:26 ... no leg. Hell no.

Joe Rogan 1:24:28 [laughs]

Speaker 1:24:29 N- not even at the crib. I never put it on. It's like I, I could never bring myself to putting on that suit.

Joe Rogan 1:24:35 That's hilarious.

Speaker 1:24:36 It had no back, Joe. It, it was-

Joe Rogan 1:24:37 Oh, that's hilarious.

Speaker 1:24:38 But that's his sense of humor.

Joe Rogan 1:24:40 That's hilarious. That's so funny.

Speaker 1:24:42 I took him to an after-hours joint once. I talk about that in the book. Uh, 'cause he was very interested in what people listen to and what moves people in clubs. And I told him about an after-hours joint down the way south of Wilshire that was in a lady's house, and you have put- pit bulls and, and a fence, and they let you in. They lock the chain back, bring you to the back, and, um, you know, you put money on the counter, and they put your liquor in a solo cup. You know, not a legal place. And I told him about the place, and he said, "I wanna go." And I took him down the way to this spot. He had an acrylic cane and a suit where the shoes match the suit, exact same material, and he sat with me in this after-hours joint and listened to the music, and, and it was where the strippers would go.

Joe Rogan 1:25:33 What, what year was this?

Speaker 1:25:34 Oh, God, this was maybe two years after I left the talk show. And, um-

Joe Rogan 1:25:40 So did he need the cane back then? Was that when he was having hip problems?

Speaker 1:25:43 I think so. Now we understand that maybe he had a replacementA hip replacement or something.

Joe Rogan 1:25:49 Mm.

Speaker 1:25:50 I thought it was fashion, but it probably was a little necessary that year. And he said he-

Joe Rogan 1:25:54 Well, he wa- all his dancing and, and going crazy.

Speaker 1:25:56 Ooh, he used to jump off speakers, Joe.

Joe Rogan 1:25:59 Oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:25:59 And land with heels.

Joe Rogan 1:26:01 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1:26:02 So-

Joe Rogan 1:26:02 That's what fucked him up.

Speaker 1:26:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:26:05 Yeah.

Speaker 1:26:05 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:26:05 Yeah.

Speaker 1:26:06 There's a lot of pictures with him with a cane over time, though.

Joe Rogan 1:26:08 That's... Well, he probably was struggling even back then 'cause there's a lot of guys that blew their, their hips out. Yeah.

Speaker 1:26:16 That's a cool cane.

Joe Rogan 1:26:17 He probably needed it.

Speaker 1:26:18 'Cause he was an athlete-

Joe Rogan 1:26:19 Fuck

Speaker 1:26:19 ... per se, you know?

Joe Rogan 1:26:20 Oh, for sure. I mean, his dancing was insane.

Speaker 1:26:23 And he was a good basketball player.

Joe Rogan 1:26:26 Well-

Speaker 1:26:26 Hey, I, I have one of those... He, um, the hat with the, the police hat with the chain.

Joe Rogan 1:26:31 [laughs]

Speaker 1:26:32 He sent me that one day.

Joe Rogan 1:26:33 Wow.

Speaker 1:26:34 So I'm sure there are a few of them, but just to have one of those from him. And he sent me, like, what looks like a Smith & Wesson .38 long, but it was fixed up so the microphone was where the barrel is.

Joe Rogan 1:26:49 [laughs]

Speaker 1:26:49 So he could hold the gun and sing into it like that.

Joe Rogan 1:26:51 Oh, wow.

Speaker 1:26:51 I have that.

Joe Rogan 1:26:52 Oh, wow.

Speaker 1:26:53 And it's very cool. Very cool.

Joe Rogan 1:26:54 I became good friends with Charlie Murphy.

Speaker 1:26:56 Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:26:56 And Char- and Charlie had... Oh, look at that.

Speaker 1:26:58 Yes.

Joe Rogan 1:26:59 Wow. Wow.

Speaker 1:27:04 I have one of those.

Joe Rogan 1:27:05 That's crazy.

Speaker 1:27:05 I don't know how many there were, but I have one from him.

Joe Rogan 1:27:07 [laughs] That's crazy. Wow.

Speaker 1:27:10 [laughs] But Charlie Murphy.

Joe Rogan 1:27:11 Well, y- uh, Charlie had all those great stories about Prince that he did on Chappelle's Show.

Speaker 1:27:16 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:27:16 You know? I mean, that was, like, that whole segment of, like, uh, how, how good Prince was as a basketball-

Speaker 1:27:21 Mm-hmm, mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 1:27:22 ... and that people didn't believe it 'cause, you know, he's so short. But meanwhile, he could fucking play like a motherfucker.

Speaker 1:27:26 Oh, yeah. He had, he had a crossover move that was crazy, and he could rollerskate. And I, I mean, amazing. With, with a lollipop backwards and shit-

Joe Rogan 1:27:37 [laughs]

Speaker 1:27:37 ... on one foot, you know? [laughs] So he w- he was-

Joe Rogan 1:27:40 Well, he was an athlete.

Speaker 1:27:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:27:42 Really. I mean, you can't dance like that and not have incredible body control. You know?

Speaker 1:27:46 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:27:47 But the problem is, when you're doing show after show after show after show after show-

Speaker 1:27:50 For years

Joe Rogan 1:27:51 ... you're j- you're, you're tearing your fucking joints apart, and that's probably what blew his hips out.

Speaker 1:27:55 That's one thing about us, with the exception of the shit you used to do on a stool, that balancing act, uh-

Joe Rogan 1:28:01 Oh, the Kardashian joke?

Speaker 1:28:02 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:28:02 Yeah. [laughs]

Speaker 1:28:02 Our joke, our, our, our life of jokes isn't very phy-

Joe Rogan 1:28:05 No.

Speaker 1:28:05 We c- you know. All we gotta do is take care of from the neck up, take care of your mind.

Joe Rogan 1:28:09 Yeah.

Speaker 1:28:10 Our body, we d- no comedian has a bad hip.

Joe Rogan 1:28:13 Well, y- you generally don't get it from performing on stage, that's for sure.

Speaker 1:28:17 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:28:17 But when you're dancing and jumping around and doing all that shit, like, Ted Nugent blew his kn- his knees out jumping off of, uh, speakers.

Speaker 1:28:24 Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:28:24 Like, a lot of people did that. You know, they just, they went crazy. They were just putting on a show, and you don't realize you're doing it. Maynard from Tool, he blew his hip out stomping on the ground all the time.

Speaker 1:28:34 Wow.

Joe Rogan 1:28:35 Just stomping while he was singing. He had to get a hip replacement.

Speaker 1:28:38 Yeah. I like being a stand-up.

Joe Rogan 1:28:41 Well, it's definitely easier on the body. That's true. You know? And-

Speaker 1:28:45 You still get up on stage ever?

Joe Rogan 1:28:46 Oh yeah, all the time. I'm going up tonight.

Speaker 1:28:48 In your own club.

Joe Rogan 1:28:49 Yeah.

Speaker 1:28:50 What nights do you go up?

Joe Rogan 1:28:51 Usually Tuesday and Wednesday I do it, but I do it, you know, off nights, too, different nights. But Tuesday and Wednesday, almost every week I do a show there.

Speaker 1:28:58 I promised my woman I wouldn't go to the mothership-

Joe Rogan 1:29:01 Why?

Speaker 1:29:02 ... when I, when I... I told her, she's like, "When you go, I wanna go." It's, it's a big deal-

Joe Rogan 1:29:06 Uh

Speaker 1:29:06 ... if you're a comic, you know? I mean, uh, it, it, it's, it's a huge deal. I, but I wanna come one night, fly in, and just, just let me have 10.

Joe Rogan 1:29:17 Dude, you can go up anytime. You can go up tonight if you want. I got a show tonight.

Speaker 1:29:20 Yeah, I g- I gotta fly home and do-

Joe Rogan 1:29:23 [laughs]

Speaker 1:29:23 I'm still slinging this book, man.

Joe Rogan 1:29:25 I hear you, brother.

Speaker 1:29:25 And, and-

Joe Rogan 1:29:25 Well, anytime. Anytime you wanna come by and do a set, you're more than welcome.

Speaker 1:29:29 I love it down here.

Joe Rogan 1:29:29 Come and hang, hang out.

Speaker 1:29:31 Everybody's been so friendly.

Joe Rogan 1:29:32 The green room's an amazing hang, too.

Speaker 1:29:34 That's what I hear.

Joe Rogan 1:29:35 Oh, it's so much fun.

Speaker 1:29:35 But I've heard both sides of that. I've heard, "Don't be in that motherfucker if you're not supposed to."

Joe Rogan 1:29:40 Well, the problem is you don't want anybody coming in and fucking up the conversation.

Speaker 1:29:44 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:29:44 You know? So we, you know, you gotta be kind of vetted. But it's only, like, during shows when you're not on.

Speaker 1:29:50 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:29:50 You know, if, like, if it's a show and you're on the show, everyone's l- allowed to be in the green room.

Speaker 1:29:56 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:29:57 It's just, like, we don't allow people to just come in out of nowhere. It's like, you're from out of town, you wanna come in and hang out in the green room, then there's too many people in the green room.

Speaker 1:30:05 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:30:05 And then people have to prepare. They're going over their notes. The green room's supposed to be a hang with the comics on the show that are getting ready to go on stage, and the problem is that's the cool spot. That's where Shane Gillis is, and Ron White is-

Speaker 1:30:18 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 1:30:18 ... Tony Hinchcliffe is. Everybody wants to come in, and it, you know, it gets, it gets to be a little bit of a problem. So you can't go in the green room if you're not on the show, unless we know who you are-

Speaker 1:30:28 Right

Joe Rogan 1:30:28 ... and you know you're in town, you wanna come hang. But it's like, you know, it's like you're having a party. You can't let everybody in.

Speaker 1:30:33 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:30:33 The problem is everybody wants to be there.

Speaker 1:30:35 I mean, look at the level I'm at and how long I've been doing it, and I know about the green room and wanna get in there. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:30:41 You can get in. You can get in anytime. But y-

Speaker 1:30:43 Hey, wh- when you were in, living in Hollywood still, um, did your kids ever wanna act?

Joe Rogan 1:30:50 No. No, they're not interested in that.

Speaker 1:30:52 In-

Joe Rogan 1:30:52 Yeah

Speaker 1:30:53 ... never wanted to do stand-up?

Joe Rogan 1:30:55 Thank God. Thank... No, they wouldn't ne- look, first of all, rich kids are not gonna be good stand-ups. [laughs]

Speaker 1:31:00 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:31:01 You're not gonna be able to deal with the torture of bombing, you know? You're not gonna-

Speaker 1:31:06 And, and they don't have to.

Joe Rogan 1:31:07 And they don't have pain, you know? Their, their pain is so minor in comparison to the pain of poverty, the pain of struggle, the pain of, you know, not getting enough attention when you're young and, you know, moving around a lot. All the different shit that most comics go through. I, I've never met a good comic who had a great childhood.

Speaker 1:31:25 I, yeah, as you're talking, I'm thinking, I'm like, do we know any comics who are good who are from wealth?

Joe Rogan 1:31:31 None. I don't know any. I'm sure they can exist. I'm sure it's possible, but it takes a very exceptional person to want to be a great comic that's grew up wealthy. It's just not a thing that they seek to do. I think the-

Speaker 1:31:45 So much, so much comedy comes from our pain.

Joe Rogan 1:31:48 I think the only exception to that would be the Wayans brothersBecause the sons of the Wayans brothers all went on to be great comics.

Speaker 1:31:56 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:31:56 They all went on to have big careers in movies and films and television. But I think that's, it's like a family thing over there. Like, I remember Damon telling me that he set up a stage in his house.

Speaker 1:32:07 Mm-hmm. Uh, that's absolutely true.

Joe Rogan 1:32:09 Well, they were just... I mean, they love stand-up so much, they would fucking do stand-up for each other, just fuck around. And I, I used to see D- first of all, I think to this day, Damon is one of the most underappreciated great comics of all time.

Speaker 1:32:23 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:32:23 And, and-

Speaker 1:32:23 And he's back out there now. I, I noticed, uh, in my room, uh, Damon is at The Improv. And that-

Joe Rogan 1:32:29 Well, he's always been out there

Speaker 1:32:30 ... I thought he quit.

Joe Rogan 1:32:30 No, no, no. He never quit. He was always doing stand-up, but he's low-key about it. He makes his money off of television.

Speaker 1:32:36 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:32:36 You know? And even, like, he wanted to do... W- we talked years ago about him coming on my podcast, and he was like, "Uh, I'd like to, but I'll say some crazy shit, and then I'll get in trouble."

Speaker 1:32:47 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:32:47 'Cause he was in that, what I call the velvet prison.

Speaker 1:32:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:32:50 The TV velvet prison.

Speaker 1:32:51 Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:32:51 You're doing TV shows. You're playing a dad on a TV show, you know. You can't come on a podcast, talk about getting your dick sucked. It's just-

Speaker 1:33:00 Yeah. H- Howie Mandel goes through that. I work with him a lot.

Joe Rogan 1:33:03 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1:33:03 And Howie is on America's Got Talent.

Joe Rogan 1:33:06 Exactly.

Speaker 1:33:06 This real commercial television vehicle.

Joe Rogan 1:33:08 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1:33:09 But nobody is more real and edgy than Howie Mandel.

Joe Rogan 1:33:15 When he's on stage and in the green room.

Speaker 1:33:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:33:18 Hanging out.

Speaker 1:33:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:33:18 Like, he's done sets at the Mothership. He's come and hung out with us.

Speaker 1:33:21 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:33:21 He ca- he d- did my podcast, and then he came to the club. He's like, "Fuck, I wanna be like d- I wanna do, do what you guys are doing."

Speaker 1:33:27 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:33:27 I'm like, "You can. You can do it." But he's worried that he would lose that velvet prison.

Speaker 1:33:32 Hey, when we're working and they have the phones in bags, that's when he's amazing to watch.

Joe Rogan 1:33:38 Yes.

Speaker 1:33:39 Because he'll, he'll drop the C-bomb in a minute.

Joe Rogan 1:33:41 He was saying it.

Speaker 1:33:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:33:42 He was saying it on stage.

Speaker 1:33:43 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:33:43 "I'm just so happy I can say cunt."

Speaker 1:33:45 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:33:45 "I just wanna say it." [laughs]

Speaker 1:33:47 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:33:47 But he was funny. It was like he was having a good time. He was loose, and you could tell. It was like... 'Cause Howie was a great comic. Like, Howie had some hilarious fucking specials.

Speaker 1:33:57 I hated following him-

Joe Rogan 1:33:58 Oh

Speaker 1:33:58 ... at the Westwood Comedy Store.

Joe Rogan 1:34:00 Oh.

Speaker 1:34:00 Mitzi used to send us there to get better.

Joe Rogan 1:34:02 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1:34:02 Me, him, and Paulie. That's the one thing I loved about her. You know how we have nepo babies? She didn't have no nepo babies. She was like, "Paulie, you're not ready."

Joe Rogan 1:34:12 Yeah. Oh, she would make it work.

Speaker 1:34:13 And sent his ass to Westwood.

Joe Rogan 1:34:14 Oh, she made Paulie work, yeah. I mean, Paulie's a rare dude in that regard. Like, he became a really funny comedian while he was, you know, living with a woman who's the great... As, as... In terms of, like, people in comedy that are, like, the, some of the most critical, important people, she's the most important person in the history of comedy that's not a comic.

Speaker 1:34:38 Absolutely. There, there is no argument.

Joe Rogan 1:34:40 No argument.

Speaker 1:34:41 Mm-mm.

Joe Rogan 1:34:41 There's no one even close to her. And her son, you know, I mean, went on to have huge success in films-

Speaker 1:34:47 I took-

Joe Rogan 1:34:47 ... and movies and-

Speaker 1:34:48 I took Mitzi... Remember when we had the Universal Amphitheatre?

Joe Rogan 1:34:51 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1:34:51 I got tickets and took Mitzi to see Paulie open for Sam Kinison.

Joe Rogan 1:34:58 Wow.

Speaker 1:34:59 And, uh, it just blew her away, 'cause she had never seen him in that large environment, and it was really cool-

Joe Rogan 1:35:05 That's awesome

Speaker 1:35:05 ... to watch her watch her son.

Joe Rogan 1:35:06 Well, she let, she let him grow the right way, you know? She didn't, she didn't give him a silver spoon.

Speaker 1:35:13 By the way-

Joe Rogan 1:35:13 She made him figure it out

Speaker 1:35:13 ... Mitzi Shore started the Comedy Store, and she's the mother of Paulie Shore. 'Cause I say Mitzi to you-

Joe Rogan 1:35:19 Right

Speaker 1:35:20 ... like it's a cousin.

Joe Rogan 1:35:21 Right. Well, we talk about her so much. I think a lot of people listening know. But she's the most important person in comedy that wasn't a comic, and more important than most comedians. Like, she would tell you how to do it right. And if she liked you, man, it was like-

Speaker 1:35:36 She'd tell you how to do it in her opinion.

Joe Rogan 1:35:41 Yeah.

Speaker 1:35:41 I've seen her tell some people some crazy shit.

Joe Rogan 1:35:43 Oh, yeah. She was not right-

Speaker 1:35:44 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:35:44 ... a lot of times.

Speaker 1:35:45 Yeah, yeah. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:35:45 She had some wild ideas that weren't good.

Speaker 1:35:47 She had a girl put on a green wig one time.

Joe Rogan 1:35:49 [laughs]

Speaker 1:35:49 And I'm like... [laughs] I'm not sure... You know, but she was trying to find some kind of hook for this girl.

Joe Rogan 1:35:55 Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1:35:55 And I'm like, "If you don't wanna w- have to wear the green wig, go home and figure out a hook."

Joe Rogan 1:35:59 Yeah. She, she made Joey Diaz call himself Fat Baby. She-

Speaker 1:36:03 Ouch. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:36:05 [laughs] She would... When you would look at the lineup, like, I bet you could find it online if you looked. There's lineups from the Comedy Store. It'd be a bunch of comedians, Bill Burr, blah, blah, blah, and then you'd see Fat Baby.

Speaker 1:36:17 That's who-

Joe Rogan 1:36:17 And that was Joey Diaz. She would call him Fat Baby. She wouldn't, wouldn't even let him use his fucking name in the lineup. It would be Fat Baby.

Speaker 1:36:25 I remember-

Joe Rogan 1:36:26 [laughs]

Speaker 1:36:26 ... having a conversation with her and Paul, and Paul was exacerbating the problem, 'cause she was like-

Joe Rogan 1:36:32 Rodriguez?

Speaker 1:36:32 Uh, Paul Mooney.

Joe Rogan 1:36:34 Oh, Mooney. Oh.

Speaker 1:36:35 And we got so many Pauls in our life.

Joe Rogan 1:36:36 Oh, man.

Speaker 1:36:36 So we're sitting-

Joe Rogan 1:36:37 God, I love that dude

Speaker 1:36:37 ... talking, and, uh, Mitzi's about to start the Belly Room, 'cause she thinks women need a place to perform and, uh, to get better. She didn't like the-

Joe Rogan 1:36:47 That was what the Belly Room originally was

Speaker 1:36:49 ... this little college up there-

Joe Rogan 1:36:50 Yeah

Speaker 1:36:50 ... for ladies. And she was trying to think of a name for it. And she says, "I'm also thinking about having one night of just Black comics." You know, 'cause there was only George Wallace, Dave Tyree, and Mooney at one time when I arrived. And, uh-

Joe Rogan 1:37:05 What year was that?

Speaker 1:37:07 I came in 1980, New Year's Eve.

Joe Rogan 1:37:10 Wow.

Speaker 1:37:11 I drove out from Chicago, 'cause I'm from Cleveland, and there were no comedy clubs in Cleveland back then. So I had to go to New York, LA, or Chicago. And my mother was living in Chicago at that time, so I went there, 'cause rent was free for a while. And, uh, that w- that was a l- a lot of fun. But Mitzi, for the Black night, she said, "Paul, what do you think I should call it?" And, and she says, "I was thinking Cotton Comedy."

Joe Rogan 1:37:37 [laughs]

Speaker 1:37:37 [laughs] And, and I'm, "No, no, Mitzi, no, no. You can't, you can't..." And I was trying to explain why.

Joe Rogan 1:37:42 [laughs]

Speaker 1:37:42 And Paul was like, "Oh, that's wonderful. Let's..." [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:37:47 [laughs]

Speaker 1:37:47 "That's exactly what we should call it."

Joe Rogan 1:37:49 Oh, homie.

Speaker 1:37:49 Oh, homie. Cotton Comedy. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:37:53 [laughs]

Speaker 1:37:53 He was cool.

Joe Rogan 1:37:55 Oh man, P- Paul, that guy, that guy would write. Man, there'd be something that would happen in the news like the day before, and Mooney would go on stage and have like 15 minutes on it-

Speaker 1:38:04 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:38:04 ... and just crush.

Speaker 1:38:05 And he did something that I know I hated. He requested the last spot.

Joe Rogan 1:38:10 Oh, he loved that last spot.

Speaker 1:38:11 Wanted to go on late, wanted to stay on-

Joe Rogan 1:38:13 Yeah

Speaker 1:38:13 ... as long as he wanted.

Joe Rogan 1:38:14 Yeah.

Speaker 1:38:14 And would fuck with you if you tried to get up.

Joe Rogan 1:38:16 Mm.

Speaker 1:38:17 "Oh, you don't like a smart nigga?" [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:38:22 [laughs]

Speaker 1:38:22 "But don't leave too early, my friend's at your house robbing that fucking..."

Joe Rogan 1:38:26 He, he would have so many things like that.

Speaker 1:38:28 Oh.

Joe Rogan 1:38:28 So many hooks. And he was just so good at working those small crowds. He just liked the freedom of just being able to fuck around, you know?

Speaker 1:38:36 With a bottle of champagne-

Joe Rogan 1:38:37 Mm-hmm

Speaker 1:38:37 ... with a straw.

Joe Rogan 1:38:38 Little tiny bottle of champagne.

Speaker 1:38:39 Yeah, the little sip.

Joe Rogan 1:38:40 Yeah.

Speaker 1:38:40 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:38:40 And he would u- he would sip on it, uh, during punch lines.

Speaker 1:38:43 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:38:43 "Oh, nigga please." [laughs]

Speaker 1:38:44 And then take a sip. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:38:47 We all used to sit in the back and watch him. It's like if you thought you were good at comedy, you'd watch Mooney and go, "God, I got so much to learn."

Speaker 1:38:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:38:53 "I got so much to learn."

Speaker 1:38:54 All the great comics that we know now at one time would sit in the back of the OR and, and come late to watch Paul.

Joe Rogan 1:39:04 Absolutely.

Speaker 1:39:04 I used to, on the landline, I used to call Keenan and say, "Yo, I'll meet you there." We were going to see Mooney-

Joe Rogan 1:39:11 Mm-hmm

Speaker 1:39:11 ... at 1:15.

Joe Rogan 1:39:12 I would always love to see Mooney when something fucked up happened in the news.

Speaker 1:39:15 Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:39:16 Like, if something fucked up happened in the news, I'm like, "When's Paul going up?"

Speaker 1:39:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:39:20 You know? [laughs] Just like, you had to go see him because he always had a take and, you know, that take was always like, "Oh, shit," you know?

Speaker 1:39:26 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:39:26 It's like he would get you. He would like find an angle where you'd be like, "Oh my God. Oh my God."

Speaker 1:39:33 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:39:33 He was, he was so clever and so smart.

Speaker 1:39:35 The coolest conversations at the comedy sh- when Richard would come up every night, and Richard would go from five minutes to an hour, and then it would become a great special that you'd go to at the theater to see.

Joe Rogan 1:39:46 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1:39:46 But I would watch Paul Mooney before we had cell phones. After it was over, Richard would go and have a cigarette in the main room. Like on a Monday or a Sunday, I think it would be closed, and that's where he would... We'd call it holding court. He would go in there first and just wanna dry off for a minute, smoke a cigarette, and Paul would come in with a napkin with stuff written on it, and he would just, you know, "Oh, and how about this?" And he would give him tags. And-

Joe Rogan 1:40:11 Yeah

Speaker 1:40:12 ... as a matter of fact, Richard, on the back of an album, that, that joke where you go to, you go to prison, you get justice. "Just us, nigga."

Joe Rogan 1:40:19 [laughs]

Speaker 1:40:19 Uh, and he gave that to Richard, and it was on a prior album. But, uh, oh, those... Joe, that was a time Richard would work out every night. He'd work the original room, go in the main room, and entertain his guests, and it would be like Burt Reynolds, uh, Moses, uh, Charlton Heston, uh-

Joe Rogan 1:40:41 Wow

Speaker 1:40:41 ... Bernie Casey. B- you, you would see like, uh... Oh, Burt Reynolds would have Sally Field with him.

Joe Rogan 1:40:48 Wow.

Speaker 1:40:48 It, it, it was amazing. They would all come and bow to the king, dog.

Joe Rogan 1:40:52 Yeah. Well, he was so different. Yeah, I always say that the godfather of comedy, who started everything, was Lenny Bruce.

Speaker 1:40:59 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:41:00 But then Richard figured out a way to take that and make it way funnier. But he figured out how to take that kind of honesty and social commentary and figure out how to like, talk about life.

Speaker 1:41:12 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:41:12 'Cause people don't know that before, before Lenny Bruce came around, it was just jokes. It was just like, "Two Jews walk into a bar."

Speaker 1:41:22 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:41:22 "They buy it." [drum noise]

Speaker 1:41:23 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:41:24 It was jokes.

Speaker 1:41:25 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:41:25 It was like epic jokes.

Speaker 1:41:25 It was Dangerfield's rhythm.

Joe Rogan 1:41:28 Yeah. But d- you know, what... Dangerfield was a, he was a special guy, too.

Speaker 1:41:33 Yeah. He was a beast, man.

Joe Rogan 1:41:34 He was... And he didn't, he took like 10 years off and never stopped writing, and was selling aluminum siding.

Speaker 1:41:40 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:41:41 And then came back and made it in his 40s.

Speaker 1:41:44 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:41:45 Wow, look at this. Willie Nelson.

Speaker 1:41:48 That's the main room. That's the main room, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:41:49 Richard. That's crazy. Burt Reynolds, Sally Fields.

Speaker 1:41:52 Now, you see that picture. One night I'm in that room, and Stevie Wonder is over on the piano. Remember how the piano used to be in the main room-

Joe Rogan 1:41:59 Yes

Speaker 1:41:59 ... on the far left of the stage?

Joe Rogan 1:42:00 Yes.

Speaker 1:42:01 Stevie's playing, and there are a few people snorting coke. I think to this day, Stevie still thinks a few of those people have allergies, because, you know, Stevie-

Joe Rogan 1:42:11 'Cause they're all sniffing. [laughs]

Speaker 1:42:12 Yeah, yeah. He's just sitting, playing, and people... [sniffs]

Joe Rogan 1:42:13 Wow.

Speaker 1:42:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:42:15 Wow. Look at that, Burt Reynolds on stage, Robin Williams. Richard Pryor.

Speaker 1:42:18 I saw Burt Reynolds give the parking attendant $100, and I thought I was on another planet. I'm like, "Get the fuck out of here."

Joe Rogan 1:42:25 [laughs]

Speaker 1:42:25 "I should be parking cars. Fuck standup."

Joe Rogan 1:42:27 [laughs]

Speaker 1:42:28 Yeah, that was... That's... And for people who are looking at this picture, that's Richard holding court after his set.

Joe Rogan 1:42:36 Wow. What an amazing photo. But Jamie, we should get some of these photos and-

Speaker 1:42:43 Yeah, I'll look around.

Joe Rogan 1:42:44 Yeah, get some of these photos, and let's print them up and put them in the green room at the mothership.

Speaker 1:42:48 I saw a picture-

Joe Rogan 1:42:49 That's that back- he's got the Ciro's signs in the back.

Speaker 1:42:51 Oh, yeah. Still, still-

Joe Rogan 1:42:53 Wow.

Speaker 1:42:53 Yeah. That tells you a lot about the history. Uh, search, search Ciro's.

Joe Rogan 1:42:58 That sign, that sign used to be... Mitzi had this warehouse room, like, was just, not a warehouse, but, you know, it was a storage room where she had all the old Ciro's stuff.

Speaker 1:43:06 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:43:07 And I remember seeing that sign there, and they eventually hung it up in the back bar area. And you'd just look like, "Wow, this was, this was a mob club in, like, the fucking '50s."

Speaker 1:43:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:43:20 That's crazy.

Speaker 1:43:21 I saw a picture you have in the entry of Richard Pryor's mugshot.

Joe Rogan 1:43:27 Yeah.

Speaker 1:43:28 I had never seen that. What did he do?

Joe Rogan 1:43:32 [inhales] I don't remember.

Speaker 1:43:34 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:43:35 I don't remember, but he was very young.

Speaker 1:43:37 Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:43:37 That mugshot was, I think he was, like, 18.

Speaker 1:43:40 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:43:40 I don't remember what it was. I have mugshots from everybody who got arrested.

Speaker 1:43:45 Yeah, I saw Larry King. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:43:46 I got Larry King. Larry King was, like, bad checks. He was writing bad checks. He had a gambling problem.

Speaker 1:43:50 Oh, okay.

Joe Rogan 1:43:52 Yeah, yeah. Willie Nelson's up there.

Speaker 1:43:55 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:43:55 I got everybody up there.

Speaker 1:43:56 There is a book that I have in my garage, and it's the first edition, to tell youHow much of, of, of this kind of stuff existed. But it's all celebrities and their mugshots.

Joe Rogan 1:44:10 Mm.

Speaker 1:44:11 So it's a coffee table book-

Joe Rogan 1:44:12 Mm

Speaker 1:44:12 ... of just the mugshots.

Joe Rogan 1:44:14 Oh, I should probably get that book. I bet there's a few in there that I don't have.

Speaker 1:44:17 And I bet there is a, a second one that they could do.

Joe Rogan 1:44:20 Yeah.

Speaker 1:44:20 'Cause the book's only, like, a half inch thick.

Joe Rogan 1:44:23 We got a lot of good ones out there, but, you know, so many people got arrested. You know, we got David Bowie out there. Of course, Morrison. You know, it's like Hendrix, gotta have that mugshot. That's a classic.

Speaker 1:44:38 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:44:39 There's, there was a lot of mugshots.

Speaker 1:44:41 Have you ever taken a mugshot?

Joe Rogan 1:44:42 No, I've never been arrested.

Speaker 1:44:44 You have never been arrested.

Joe Rogan 1:44:44 I'm a good boy, believe it or not. [laughs]

Speaker 1:44:46 Yeah. You know, I mean, we, we've done things, but not enough to have to take those pictures.

Joe Rogan 1:44:55 Yeah, luckily. But also, we live in a different time. You know, in the 1960s and '70s when those guys are getting arrested, they're, they're getting arrested for, like, having a joint or something like that.

Speaker 1:45:05 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:45:05 You know?

Speaker 1:45:06 Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:45:07 Richard, or, or excuse me, Jimmy, I think he got arrested in Toronto for having heroin on him. I think that's what he got arrested for.

Speaker 1:45:15 I got pulled over and had a joint in my ashtray in 1989, and, uh, I was scared to death, and the cop was real nice to me. But he did the corniest thing. He says, "Get out of the car," and he made me rip up the joint and drop it in the sewer at the curb there.

Joe Rogan 1:45:35 Wow.

Speaker 1:45:35 And he says, "Now get your life together." [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:45:40 [laughs] Like, bitch, this is helping me get my life together.

Speaker 1:45:42 Absolutely. It makes me funnier.

Joe Rogan 1:45:43 That's funny. That's hilarious.

Speaker 1:45:45 The good old days, man. I remember you talking about Rodney earlier, Rodney Dangerfield. You know how we love comedy, comedy. We'll never stop doing it. We'll do it until, until the wheels fall off. And I remember him on stage at the Laugh Factory near the end of his life, and-

Joe Rogan 1:46:03 I saw him there.

Speaker 1:46:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:46:04 Yeah.

Speaker 1:46:04 And his wife was in the balcony giving him lines-

Joe Rogan 1:46:09 Oh, wow

Speaker 1:46:10 ... through a, a wireless earwig. And, uh, if you went up top, you would hear her say, "I don't get no respect."

Joe Rogan 1:46:18 Yeah.

Speaker 1:46:18 "I don't get no respect." You know? [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:46:20 [laughs]

Speaker 1:46:20 And first of all, two things. First of all, it warmed my heart that the woman who loves you is gonna help you do what you love.

Joe Rogan 1:46:28 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1:46:29 So that made me feel so good, and it was like, I want a woman with that kind of heart because I know I'm gonna wanna do it when I'm older.

Joe Rogan 1:46:37 She gave us his notes from one of his Tonight Show appearances, and they're framed, uh, in the, on the wall in the green room.

Speaker 1:46:44 Cool.

Joe Rogan 1:46:44 It's his handwritten notes in, in bold. He would, like, write it in bold where the punchlines were.

Speaker 1:46:49 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:46:50 And it's, like, sitting there right above the couch.

Speaker 1:46:53 That's cool, man.

Joe Rogan 1:46:54 Yeah. It was one of the first things, uh, Whitney Cummings hooked it up. She got it for us from her. She wanted us to have it.

Speaker 1:47:01 Whitney Cummings, eh?

Joe Rogan 1:47:03 I saw Rodney live when I was a security guard. I was a security guard at Great Woods, Great Woods Center for the Performing Arts, which was in Mansfield, Massachusetts.

Speaker 1:47:13 Oh.

Joe Rogan 1:47:14 When I lived in Boston.

Speaker 1:47:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:47:15 Um, me and a bunch of the black belts from this taekwondo team that I was on got jobs as security guards.

Speaker 1:47:22 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:47:22 And I was 19, and I was backstage, and Rodney was walking around with a bathrobe on with nothing underneath it.

Speaker 1:47:28 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:47:28 That was when he was going on stage with a bathrobe. He got to such a fuck it point in his life where he would literally go on stage with nothing but a bathrobe. He would walk out there with a bathrobe and slippers and just fucking murder.

Speaker 1:47:41 Yeah. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:47:41 I remember being in the bal- and I wasn't even thinking about doing stand-up back then.

Speaker 1:47:45 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:47:45 Back then I, I was just fighting, and I was a fan of comedy. I always loved comedy.

Speaker 1:47:50 Your fighting friends talked you into doing stand-up, right?

Joe Rogan 1:47:53 Yeah. Yeah, one of the guys that I trained with, my friend Steve. But when I, when I went there, I remember, like, like, you wanna talk about not giving a fuck.

Speaker 1:48:00 Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:48:00 Like, this guy really didn't give a fuck.

Speaker 1:48:02 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:48:03 Like, he had gotten to a point where he had so much success and so much money, and this is after Back to School-

Speaker 1:48:08 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 1:48:08 ... and all those big movies, and he was still just going out there doing stand-up. He was smoking weed back there, and he w- just would go on stage with a bathrobe on.

Speaker 1:48:17 That's funny.

Joe Rogan 1:48:17 And I remember thinking, "That is the wildest shit I've ever seen in my life." I remember as a young man, 'cause I was always, you know, you're fucking 19. You're scared of everything. You're worried about the future. You don't know what ... You know, you have no security in your life at all. And here's this guy with, you know, millions of dollars, massive amounts of fame, and he had got to that I don't give a fuck stage.

Speaker 1:48:41 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:48:41 And he, but he really did. He wasn't faking it.

Speaker 1:48:44 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:48:44 Nobody told him he has to go on stage in a bathrobe. He's like, "I'll tell you what I wanna do."

Speaker 1:48:47 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:48:48 "I wanna go on stage with a bathrobe." [laughs]

Speaker 1:48:50 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:48:50 He just went on stage in a fucking bathrobe.

Speaker 1:48:53 I-

Joe Rogan 1:48:53 See if you can find some photos of him on stage with a bathrobe on. I know he did it for years.

Speaker 1:48:58 I got in trouble because Eazy-E came on my show in his bathrobe.

Joe Rogan 1:49:03 [laughs]

Speaker 1:49:03 And he, and he was like, "You gave it to me." You know-

Joe Rogan 1:49:06 That's hilarious

Speaker 1:49:06 ... 'cause we would give out bathrobes, and so he said, "Well, fuck it. I'll wear it out there." And he wore it out and had a ... He was picking his teeth with a knife. And Paramount was like, "Oh, man, this is not what we asked him for."

Joe Rogan 1:49:19 [laughs]

Speaker 1:49:19 "This is really not what we asked him for. He'll never replace Johnny."

Joe Rogan 1:49:23 Oh, fuck off.

Speaker 1:49:24 But, but I knew, you know I knew-

Joe Rogan 1:49:25 Those people were ridiculous.

Speaker 1:49:26 Hey, I was where I was because I snuck in through syndication, did a first-run syndication. I know network wasn't for me.

Joe Rogan 1:49:34 Mm.

Speaker 1:49:34 And when Letterman got CBS, I knew I was really in trouble, so I had to figure out an exit plan. But the bottom line is for six years I did it the way I wanted to do it, and I wouldn't change a thing, man. To, to do it for 26 years, I wouldn't trade those six.

Joe Rogan 1:49:47 The thing about it is, man, everybody wanted to be Johnny back then. It was so crazy.

Speaker 1:49:51 Absolutely.

Joe Rogan 1:49:52 Even Letterman.

Speaker 1:49:53 I joked at the Emmys. I, I said I, I had a dream. I wanted to be an old white man with a desk.

Joe Rogan 1:49:58 [laughs]

Speaker 1:49:58 You know? And that was my f- I w-

Joe Rogan 1:50:01 [laughs]

Speaker 1:50:01 To, to the point, Joe, that when I made it, I hired Johnny's architectThat built his house to build me a house.

Joe Rogan 1:50:08 Wow.

Speaker 1:50:09 I was deep into the shit like that.

Joe Rogan 1:50:10 Well, he was the guy.

Speaker 1:50:12 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:50:12 People don't realize, like, that was the carrot. That was the thing that they go ... I mean, Jay Leno and, like, that famous scene in that movie that talked about it-

Speaker 1:50:21 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 1:50:21 ... where Jay Leno would hide in the closet-

Speaker 1:50:23 Yeah, to listen

Joe Rogan 1:50:23 ... and listen to them talk about it, because he wanted that spot when Johnny retired. But Le- they wanted Letterman.

Speaker 1:50:28 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:50:29 And it was, like, this battle between, like ... It made no sense to me. I'm like, "Letterman has The Letterman Show. It's-"

Speaker 1:50:34 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:50:34 ... "fucking huge. It's amazing."

Speaker 1:50:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:50:36 "Why would you wanna do anything else?" But everybody wanted The Tonight Show.

Speaker 1:50:39 Absolutely.

Joe Rogan 1:50:40 They all wanted The Tonight Show.

Speaker 1:50:41 And when I was a kid, I was a magician. That's how I started, and I read an article that said that Johnny did sleight of hand and was a magician. So to me, that was God speaking to me.

Joe Rogan 1:50:52 Mm.

Speaker 1:50:52 It was like, "You are a magician, and you do a talk show in a basement. Ooh."

Joe Rogan 1:50:58 One day.

Speaker 1:50:59 Yeah, one day.

Joe Rogan 1:51:00 Isn't it crazy, though, that it had to be The Tonight Show for everybody? It wasn't get your own talk show.

Speaker 1:51:06 Joe, doing stand-up, getting that five minutes, having Jim McCauley come see you. I got on Dinah Shore ... No, no, uh, Mike Douglas, and I got on Merv Griffin. Didn't, didn't do it for me.

Joe Rogan 1:51:20 It had to be-

Speaker 1:51:20 I needed Jim McCauley-

Joe Rogan 1:51:22 Yeah

Speaker 1:51:22 ... say, "The Tonight Show is yours."

Joe Rogan 1:51:24 Yeah. Isn't that crazy?

Speaker 1:51:25 Did you do ... Did you ... Were-

Joe Rogan 1:51:26 No.

Speaker 1:51:26 You were too young. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:51:27 I was too young. And it's also, like, for me, I didn't understand it.

Speaker 1:51:32 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:51:33 Like, I used to like watching when comics were on The Tonight Show, but it didn't re-

Speaker 1:51:38 Like, you remember the night Roseanne came on?

Joe Rogan 1:51:40 Yeah.

Speaker 1:51:40 "I'm a domestic goddess."

Joe Rogan 1:51:42 Yeah.

Speaker 1:51:42 I was like, "Oh, shit, she's funny."

Joe Rogan 1:51:44 Oh, she was so funny.

Speaker 1:51:45 She can write.

Joe Rogan 1:51:45 She was so funny. Ro- Roseanne was, like, way ahead of her time. She was so wild. There was no one like her when she came out.

Speaker 1:51:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:51:52 She's still wild. She comes to this, to the mothership all the time.

Speaker 1:51:56 And as wild as she is, Joe, the night I called her and said, "I need to rearrange the show tonight," her and Tom were coming. And it was the-

Joe Rogan 1:52:08 Tom Arnold?

Speaker 1:52:08 Yes. And it was the morning that I'd gotten the call from Earvin "Magic" Johnson that he was HIV positive.

Joe Rogan 1:52:15 Oh.

Speaker 1:52:15 So I needed the whole show.

Joe Rogan 1:52:17 Oh.

Speaker 1:52:17 And this is how cool she was. She says, "Give me another date, but I'm still coming, 'cause we love Earvin."

Joe Rogan 1:52:24 Oh, wow.

Speaker 1:52:25 And they came and stood on the side that night when Earvin came and talked about it.

Joe Rogan 1:52:30 Wow.

Speaker 1:52:31 She's cool.

Joe Rogan 1:52:32 She's cool. She's crazy as fuck.

Speaker 1:52:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:52:35 But she's cool.

Speaker 1:52:36 Aren't we all, and don't we have to be?

Joe Rogan 1:52:38 You have to be, yeah.

Speaker 1:52:40 A little bit. We gotta be the different kid in the b- neighborhood.

Joe Rogan 1:52:43 Yeah. W- if you wanna be as good as she was. 'Cause people, they don't ... You gotta go back and watch some of her specials. She was killing in a way that no woman killed like that. It was different. It was, like, aggressive. It was aggressive and angry.

Speaker 1:52:57 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:52:57 It was, it was ... Oh, she was so funny.

Speaker 1:52:59 W- with a tent dress on.

Joe Rogan 1:53:00 Yeah.

Speaker 1:53:00 She, she didn't sell us any sexuality at all.

Joe Rogan 1:53:02 No.

Speaker 1:53:02 It was just great writing.

Joe Rogan 1:53:04 Just great writing and great performing, and a lot of, "I don't give a fuck."

Speaker 1:53:08 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:53:08 And it was just ... Ugh. Do you find any photos of Rodney with a bathrobe on?

Speaker 1:53:13 I mean, yes, but not on stage.

Joe Rogan 1:53:14 No? [laughs]

Speaker 1:53:15 [laughs]

Speaker 1:53:15 There's only ... Yeah, I don't even know if they exist.

Joe Rogan 1:53:18 [laughs] They ... Oh.

Speaker 1:53:19 Some with clothes, maybe.

Speaker 1:53:20 Well, that, that was-

Joe Rogan 1:53:21 They don't exist. That's crazy. There's-

Speaker 1:53:23 But that was a pre-show ... Right there-

Joe Rogan 1:53:25 Mm-hmm

Speaker 1:53:25 ... he's ... You think he's not ready-

Joe Rogan 1:53:27 Yeah

Speaker 1:53:27 ... but he's dressed-

Joe Rogan 1:53:28 Yeah

Speaker 1:53:28 ... to go on.

Joe Rogan 1:53:29 Right.

Speaker 1:53:29 For that night.

Joe Rogan 1:53:29 And he's sitting there writing.

Speaker 1:53:30 Look at the phone. Look at the landline.

Joe Rogan 1:53:32 Isn't that crazy?

Speaker 1:53:34 I showed my son one of those. He couldn't believe that to dial a nine, it was shhhhttt.

Joe Rogan 1:53:40 And if you missed one of them and fucked it up-

Speaker 1:53:42 Oh

Joe Rogan 1:53:42 ... you had to start from scratch. It was crazy.

Speaker 1:53:44 Yeah. Back in the day.

Joe Rogan 1:53:47 Yeah.

Speaker 1:53:47 I remember when, uh, [laughs] the iPhone first came out, and it didn't have actual buttons like a StarTAC.

Joe Rogan 1:53:55 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1:53:56 And I was freaking. It's like, "How will I know where the L is?"

Joe Rogan 1:54:00 Yeah.

Speaker 1:54:00 "I can't feel it."

Joe Rogan 1:54:01 I remember I had a BlackBerry back then. You couldn't convince me that I needed to get an iPhone. I was like, "This is ridiculous."

Speaker 1:54:07 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:54:07 "I'm not typing on that stupid thing. I don't even know where the buttons are. It's cra- ... You don't ... It, it makes a click sound? That's stupid."

Speaker 1:54:14 Before you know it, we were doing it, and we turned off the click.

Joe Rogan 1:54:16 Yeah.

Speaker 1:54:16 And it says a lot about progress. Don't, don't be afraid of change.

Joe Rogan 1:54:19 Well, now I talk to it. Uh, now I hardly ever text. I just say, uh, "Text Arsenio."

Speaker 1:54:25 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:54:25 Like, say, "Hey, man. Looking forward to seeing you tonight," blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 1:54:28 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:54:28 And just send it.

Speaker 1:54:30 Yeah. I do-

Joe Rogan 1:54:30 I, to make most of my text messages, I just talk to my phone.

Speaker 1:54:34 Yeah, pretty much, uh, me and Siri, uh, and you can't say the N-word to Siri. The other night I was writing a joke.

Joe Rogan 1:54:41 She won't take it?

Speaker 1:54:41 No, she won't fuck with the N-word.

Joe Rogan 1:54:43 [laughs]

Speaker 1:54:43 'Cause Siri's like-

Joe Rogan 1:54:44 I wonder if Google will

Speaker 1:54:45 ... she's like, "I'm not getting canceled," you know?

Joe Rogan 1:54:47 Ah.

Speaker 1:54:47 "And let Alexa have the whole business. I'm not the get..."

Joe Rogan 1:54:50 That's hilarious.

Speaker 1:54:50 You know, but I ... You know, I'm writing a joke, and I said the N-word. Uh, of course, I didn't say N-word. I said nigga.

Joe Rogan 1:54:56 [laughs]

Speaker 1:54:57 And Siri would not write it. And then when I kept saying it, she started writing other things, you know, s- w- that started with an N, you know-

Joe Rogan 1:55:05 Oh, word

Speaker 1:55:05 ... but they weren't even words.

Joe Rogan 1:55:07 Oh, word.

Speaker 1:55:07 And I'm like, "So they got Siri trained."

Joe Rogan 1:55:09 That's so weird.

Speaker 1:55:10 She not getting canceled.

Joe Rogan 1:55:12 It's weird that y- it took l- l- it wasn't even 10 years, and then everybody just got accustomed to having a phone with them all the time. Like, there, there was ... Think about, like, the difference between, like, it was probably, like, what is it, like, '97, '98 when everybody r- had those Motorolas.

Speaker 1:55:31 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:55:32 Right? It was around then.

Speaker 1:55:33 Oh.

Joe Rogan 1:55:33 Right?

Speaker 1:55:33 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:55:34 It was around then, like, '96, '97.

Speaker 1:55:37 My friends laughed at me. My first phone was in a Halliburton briefcase, and you opened the silver Halliburton briefcase, take the phone out, and the phone was maybe 10 inches, you know, with a-

Joe Rogan 1:55:49 Mm-hmm

Speaker 1:55:50 ... w- and, and I had an antenna that screwed on the outside of the briefcase, 'cause you had this big possum tail-

Joe Rogan 1:55:56 Yeah

Speaker 1:55:57 ... uh, antenna.

Joe Rogan 1:55:57 I had one on the roof of my car-

Speaker 1:55:59 Oh, yeah

Joe Rogan 1:56:00 ... in 1989.

Speaker 1:56:01 Yeah. You, you ... Wow. Ba- b- back then, I couldn't imagine that kids would be watching

Joe Rogan 1:56:09 ... movies on the phone

Speaker 1:56:11 Right. Playing games, watching movies.

Joe Rogan 1:56:13 Yeah.

Speaker 1:56:13 And that would be most of their social life was communicating through that thing.

Joe Rogan 1:56:16 Yeah. Yeah, remember there was a time when dudes said to each other, "Yo, he got a strong rap, man. His pimp hand is crazy. He can get a bitch in a second," you know, and then bah, bah, bah, he's, he can talk. And now young men don't know what the fuck to say to a woman leaning against a wall at a club, you know, because-

Speaker 1:56:32 No, they have dating apps now.

Joe Rogan 1:56:33 Yeah, swipe left.

Speaker 1:56:33 They're just swiping.

Joe Rogan 1:56:34 Yeah.

Speaker 1:56:35 Crazy. But it... What I was gonna get at, like how quickly the culture changed from s- let's just say '98 when most, a lot of people had a phone, at least half the people had a phone on them. 2008, everybody had a phone.

Joe Rogan 1:56:49 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1:56:50 2018, you'd be crazy to not have a phone.

Joe Rogan 1:56:53 Yeah.

Speaker 1:56:53 20 years, like that.

Joe Rogan 1:56:55 Okay. Now, now hold your thought.

Speaker 1:56:57 Okay.

Joe Rogan 1:56:57 I remember a time when you and I were the only parents that didn't allow cell phones in the hands of our kids. I, 'cause I remember my son said, uh, "Dad, you gotta let me have a phone," you know? And I'm like, "I'm not doing it. I'm... Until you're a certain age." I had set it up and, and I said, "Does everyone in your class have a phone?" And he said, "No, two of us don't."

Speaker 1:57:27 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:57:28 And I realized you were the other parent-

Speaker 1:57:30 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:57:30 ... that was saying, "We're not fucking with this."

Speaker 1:57:32 She- I gave her a phone that has two numbers on it. It wa- they, there was a weird little cell phone-

Joe Rogan 1:57:37 Mm-hmm

Speaker 1:57:37 ... that you could get for kids-

Joe Rogan 1:57:38 Mm-hmm

Speaker 1:57:38 ... where she could dial, like, my phone number or my wife's phone number.

Joe Rogan 1:57:42 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1:57:43 It was like, that's it. Those are-

Joe Rogan 1:57:44 Yeah

Speaker 1:57:44 ... like, it was like... I forget what it was called. It was like the Frog or something like that. Some little cell phone-

Joe Rogan 1:57:49 It was ph- a safe phone for kids

Speaker 1:57:50 ... that was just for kids. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:57:51 But you didn't have to worry about the things that kids have to worry about now. Like, I was watching this thing about Roblox, you know, that game that kids like to play.

Speaker 1:57:59 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:57:59 That r- they're getting, like, predators are on Roblox.

Speaker 1:58:03 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:58:03 And they're trying to pick up kids, like child predators-

Speaker 1:58:06 Yeah, yeah

Joe Rogan 1:58:07 ... on, on... So you have to worry about the games they play. You have to worry about them getting DM'd by creeps.

Speaker 1:58:13 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:58:13 You have to worry about so much more access-

Speaker 1:58:16 Yeah, I remember-

Joe Rogan 1:58:16 ... than just a phone to call people.

Speaker 1:58:18 Yeah. There was a time when my kid used to play games with a headset on, and he would play with people you don't know, just somebody in the world.

Joe Rogan 1:58:27 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1:58:28 They would gather.

Joe Rogan 1:58:29 Yeah.

Speaker 1:58:29 And, um, I, I remember feeling like, mm, this can't be good.

Joe Rogan 1:58:35 Right.

Speaker 1:58:35 You know, 'cause these probably aren't all kids he's playing with.

Joe Rogan 1:58:39 100%. Yeah.

Speaker 1:58:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:58:42 Yeah. Well, when I first started playing video games, you would have to chat by pulling down a window, and you'd have to type in the things that you wanted to say.

Speaker 1:58:49 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:58:49 You couldn't talk to people.

Speaker 1:58:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:58:51 And then when people started talking to people in video games, I'm like, oh, this is crazy.

Speaker 1:58:55 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:58:55 But then the problem is whenever there's anything that kids are doing, you're gonna have some creeps that are targeting kids.

Speaker 1:59:01 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:59:02 And they find where the kids are hanging out, what the kids are doing, and then they try to get those kids to meet them somewhere. That's what's scary about cell phones and the internet and all that shit, is that it's not just a phone. It's n- it's a d- a way that you can connect with people, and there's always creeps that are trying to connect with kids.

Speaker 1:59:21 Yeah. I, I was lucky as a kid, 'cause I talk about being a magician, and I worked at a magic shop when I was 12. Took cash 'cause I couldn't actually have a job. And I remember meeting older magicians. I remember going to people's house to see a new guillotine trick. And my mother, my mother worked two jobs. I was a latchkey kid. I never had any problems, and I never was warned about it, you know? But, um, I was a t- I could've been a target because-

Joe Rogan 1:59:52 Yeah.

Speaker 1:59:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:59:52 You got lucky.

Speaker 1:59:53 Yeah, I really got lucky.

Joe Rogan 1:59:55 Yeah.

Speaker 1:59:55 'Cause I, you know, when I was writing the book, I'm looking and I'm saying, there was a guy I met who, uh, worked until he died for Penn and Teller, and this dude, I met him at a magic show, and every year when he would come to Cleveland, I would go sit with him. My mother never knew I had this 40-year-old friend.

Joe Rogan 2:00:13 [laughs]

Speaker 2:00:14 You know?

Joe Rogan 2:00:15 Weird, right?

Speaker 2:00:15 But yeah. But he was cool, and I got lucky.

Joe Rogan 2:00:18 Yeah. That's the thing about latchkey kids. I mean, the thing is, though, I was watching this, um, this YouTube video where they were talking about kids of our age, you know, our, our generation-

Speaker 2:00:30 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 2:00:30 ... latchkey kids that grew up like that are so much more resilient because no problems were solved for you. You had to figure it out on your own.

Speaker 2:00:40 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:00:40 You went out on your own. You were outside with no cell phone communication, no way to call anybody-

Speaker 2:00:46 Right

Joe Rogan 2:00:47 ... when you were 10, 11, wandering around with your friends.

Speaker 2:00:50 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:00:50 It's like it was a different world. You had to figure life out in a way that, like, helicopter parenting and parents that are, like, tracking their kids, you know, like a lot of parents, like, they're tracking their kids on their phone.

Speaker 2:01:02 Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:01:02 They know where they're at. "You said you were at Debbie's house. You're not at Debbie's house. Where are you right now?"

Speaker 2:01:06 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:01:06 Like, everyone is, like, looking out for their kids maybe a little too much.

Speaker 2:01:10 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:01:10 It's like you want your children to be safe, but you also want them to have, like, a little bit of freedom to figure out who the fuck they are.

Speaker 2:01:17 Yeah. I, gosh, a- as a kid, when I would tell my mother, "I'm spending the night at Kenny's house," I was never at Kenny's house.

Joe Rogan 2:01:28 [laughs]

Speaker 2:01:29 You know? And my, my girl, when I was 14, had a mom who was a nurse that worked the 11 to 7 shift, so we kinda lived together like a couple, you know? I would tell my mother I'm going one place. I'd go to Robin's house. I would stay at her house till morning when I went home to get ready for school, you know? I was like a grown-ass man with a woman and shit.

Joe Rogan 2:01:50 Wow. That's wild, isn't it?

Speaker 2:01:51 Until one day her parents, uh, had gr- the grandparents come to town and to surprise her. And so it's, the mom's at work. There's a knock at the door, and she said, "It's my grandmother." We had little peepholes. "It's my grandmother and my grandfather."And I had to jump, uh, with my clothes off their balcony.

Joe Rogan 2:02:12 [laughs]

Speaker 2:02:14 That was my action-adventure teenage period.

Joe Rogan 2:02:17 Yeah, it's a different world. I don't know if it's better or worse, but I think it definitely made you more resilient, and that was this argument that they were making in this YouTube video, that that generation is the most emotionally resilient.

Speaker 2:02:29 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:02:30 And that this generation coming up is, like, the least emotionally resilient. That's why they're always looking for things that are, you know, problems. They're always looking for things that b- bother them, things that cause them anxiety. They're always looking for things that, you know, they can't tolerate.

Speaker 2:02:45 Where's my bike helmet?

Joe Rogan 2:02:47 Mm.

Speaker 2:02:47 You know. I- we used to have a car, it was a station wagon, and the back seat, you sit facing the opposite way. No seat belts. That had to be dangerous.

Joe Rogan 2:02:58 It... It's all dangerous. Those cars were dangerous. They could barely stop.

Speaker 2:03:01 Yeah. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 2:03:02 They had drum brakes.

Speaker 2:03:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:03:04 You ever drive, like, an old... I have old cars, but I have what they call restomods.

Speaker 2:03:08 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:03:08 Where they take, take an old car, but they put, like, modern suspension, modern brakes, modern steering. It handles like a new car, but they have all the outside of an old car.

Speaker 2:03:18 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:03:18 And you know, and then the dashboard of an old car and all that stuff. That's what I like.

Speaker 2:03:22 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:03:22 If you drive a real... Like, if you tr- try to drive a 1968 Camaro, you're like, "What is this piece of shit?"

Speaker 2:03:28 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:03:28 Like, they can't brake, you can't go around a corner. They, th- there's no traction.

Speaker 2:03:33 What was your first car?

Joe Rogan 2:03:34 I had a 1973 Chevelle.

Speaker 2:03:37 I had a Cutlass.

Joe Rogan 2:03:39 Oh.

Speaker 2:03:40 What was my other car?

Joe Rogan 2:03:40 I had a Cutlass once.

Speaker 2:03:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:03:41 Yeah, I had a '70, a '70 Cutlass. Those are great cars. God, they knew how to make a beautiful car back then.

Speaker 2:03:48 You like muscle cars.

Joe Rogan 2:03:49 Yeah. I love the... Well, when I was in high school, like, those were the... So I was in high school in the 1980s. I went, uh, I was a freshman in 1981.

Speaker 2:03:58 I had four kids in the 1980s.

Joe Rogan 2:03:59 Wow, that's crazy. [laughs]

Speaker 2:04:00 I'm much older than you. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 2:04:02 In those days, those cars were the cars that we all l- like, looked at. Like, you couldn't believe when someone had it. Like, I remember, I have a 1970 Chevelle to, that I got. T- to this day-

Speaker 2:04:15 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 2:04:15 ... I, I, I have it because when I was, like, 17, my friend picked me up in a 1970 Chevelle-

Speaker 2:04:23 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 2:04:23 ... with his buddy, and it was perfect. It was a perfect car. I couldn't believe this guy had it.

Speaker 2:04:28 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:04:28 I was like, "How do you have this?"

Speaker 2:04:29 And, and when you say perfect, to non-car people like me, what does that mean?

Joe Rogan 2:04:34 Oh, first of all, it was what you would call cherry, meaning there was no dents, no scratches, perfect paint. It was beautiful. The sound it made when he pulled up, I couldn't b- I think I was 16, 'cause I don't think I had a license yet, and I remember getting in the back seat of the car going, "How does this guy have this car?"

Speaker 2:04:51 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 2:04:51 "This is crazy." It's just so... You know what a 1970 Chevelle looks like?

Speaker 2:04:55 Absolutely.

Joe Rogan 2:04:55 With the white stripes. Black-

Speaker 2:04:57 Yeah

Joe Rogan 2:04:57 ... with the white stripes. That was it. I have that exact car right now. I love it. Whenever I get in, I think about when I was 16. I think about all those years ago.

Speaker 2:05:06 When Burt Reynolds drove up, those pictures we just looked at, when he drove up, he had what was called a Trans Am.

Joe Rogan 2:05:12 Yes.

Speaker 2:05:13 And it had a big eagle on the front.

Joe Rogan 2:05:14 Yes. Smokey and the Bandit car.

Speaker 2:05:16 Oh, I almost lost my mind.

Joe Rogan 2:05:17 Oh, my God. That was the Smokey and the Bandit car. That was the car that he had in those movies with Sally Fields.

Speaker 2:05:23 Hundred dollar tip. Um-

Joe Rogan 2:05:25 [laughs]

Speaker 2:05:25 Have you ever been to, uh, you ever been to Jay Leno's spot?

Joe Rogan 2:05:29 With, with, with the cars?

Speaker 2:05:30 With, with, yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:05:30 Yeah. I did his show once. I brought my, uh, Corvette on. I have a 1965 Corvette, and I brought it to his show. It's a restomod too, and Jay drove it around. He's the only person that's ever driven it other than me.

Speaker 2:05:41 Wow.

Joe Rogan 2:05:42 And when, uh, you know-

Speaker 2:05:42 It's an honor

Joe Rogan 2:05:43 ... but you go to his place, it's like he has warehouses.

Speaker 2:05:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:05:48 Not a warehouse, ware-

Speaker 2:05:49 And-

Joe Rogan 2:05:50 There's, there's me and Jay

Speaker 2:05:50 ... and he never sells one. He-

Joe Rogan 2:05:52 No

Speaker 2:05:52 ... he swears to me he's never sold a car, so anything he's ever bought-

Joe Rogan 2:05:56 No, he keeps them

Speaker 2:05:56 ... he keeps. And he recently told me-

Joe Rogan 2:05:59 Why did someone turn it gold?

Speaker 2:06:00 I don't know. Probably just clipping to his thumbnail, some, uh, YouTube video.

Joe Rogan 2:06:04 No, go to the other one.

Speaker 2:06:05 Sorry.

Joe Rogan 2:06:05 The other picture with the, real picture.

Speaker 2:06:07 I was just clicking around. But-

Joe Rogan 2:06:08 Joe, go to the, go to the real picture so you can see what it looks like. This is-

Speaker 2:06:10 You know what, you know what he has now that's kinda cool? He has two tanks, two army tanks.

Joe Rogan 2:06:16 That's us right there. That's my car.

Speaker 2:06:18 Wow.

Joe Rogan 2:06:19 Look at that. See, but that, like, you see that? Modern suspension, modern wheels.

Speaker 2:06:24 Those are exhaust pipes on the side?

Joe Rogan 2:06:26 Yeah. That, that car is so fun.

Speaker 2:06:28 Do those things get hot?

Joe Rogan 2:06:30 Yeah. Yeah, you'll fuck your leg up. If you, you got shorts on and your leg touches it, you're in trouble. The outside part won't because, like, the outside is, like, to protect you-

Speaker 2:06:39 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 2:06:39 ... from the actual exhaust pipes, but underneath it is exhaust pipes. But where Jay's leg is, if he backed up right there, if it was hot-

Speaker 2:06:47 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 2:06:47 ... he'd singe the back of his calves.

Speaker 2:06:50 Joe, he has tanks.

Joe Rogan 2:06:51 Yeah, he has everything.

Speaker 2:06:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:06:53 He has steam engines.

Speaker 2:06:53 The k- the King of Jordan gave him a tank.

Joe Rogan 2:06:56 [laughs]

Speaker 2:06:56 And this motherfucker was riding through Sherman Oaks with the tank.

Joe Rogan 2:06:59 He drives everything he has too. That's the thing about Jay.

Speaker 2:07:02 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:07:02 Like, it's kinda nuts.

Speaker 2:07:03 It's a lot of rotation.

Joe Rogan 2:07:05 Well, he wa- he crashed one of his motorcycles just a few years ago.

Speaker 2:07:08 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:07:09 Fucked himself up.

Speaker 2:07:10 He does a bit about that. He's fucked himself up without a motorcycle.

Joe Rogan 2:07:14 Oh, that was the one time he was climbing up a hill?

Speaker 2:07:16 Yeah, yeah. We, we've done a lot of dates together. We have the same agent, right? And he called us one day and he says, "How about you, Jay, and Craig Kilborn, and we call it Kings of Late Night?" And so we went out and did, like, five dates, and it was a lot of fun, and me and Jay enjoyed it, so we added 20 more dates to it. And, uh-

Joe Rogan 2:07:35 Oh, that had to be great.

Speaker 2:07:37 Fun, yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:07:37 He was a great comic in the '70s.

Speaker 2:07:39 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:07:39 Oh, my God.

Speaker 2:07:39 People, people don't know, when I was in college-

Joe Rogan 2:07:42 Mm-hmm

Speaker 2:07:42 ... we would go in the TV lounge and watch Jay Leno. Uh, to this day, I remember him saying, "I was a philosophy major, and so I just got out of college and I opened up a little philosophy shop." You know, just to- [laughs]

Joe Rogan 2:07:57 [laughs]

Speaker 2:07:57 ... to explain what bullshit majors-

Joe Rogan 2:08:00 Right

Speaker 2:08:00 ... were actually being peddled to us.

Joe Rogan 2:08:01 Well, he was the edgy comic in the 1970s, and when he would go on Letterman's show, he was, like, the edgy guy that would-

Speaker 2:08:07 Yeah

Joe Rogan 2:08:07 ... sit on the couch and be crazy.

Speaker 2:08:08 Letterman would say, "What's your beef?"

Joe Rogan 2:08:10 Yeah, and he would always be mad at something.

Speaker 2:08:11 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:08:12 He was... Like, people don't realize that. You'd see him as... But his, again, that carrot, the carrot for him was The Tonight Show.

Speaker 2:08:18 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:08:18 That was more important to him than anything.

Speaker 2:08:20 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:08:20 And once he got that Tonight Show, everything else was, like, took a backseat.

Speaker 2:08:25 Did you do Letterman as a stand-up?

Joe Rogan 2:08:27 No. No.

Speaker 2:08:28 That was my first.

Joe Rogan 2:08:30 That's a, that's, that's a classic.

Speaker 2:08:32 Got five minutes.

Joe Rogan 2:08:32 That was a great place for comedy.

Speaker 2:08:34 Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:08:34 'Cause Letterman, like, he really loved comics, and he really loved, like, solid stand-up. I never liked doing stand-up on those talk shows. I needed-

Speaker 2:08:43 The, is it the five minutes or...?

Joe Rogan 2:08:44 Yeah. To, to me, I was a different kind of comedy. My comedy needs some time. I need to cook, you know? I need time to open up ideas.

Speaker 2:08:53 Well, it's like-

Joe Rogan 2:08:54 And I didn't like the censorship

Speaker 2:08:56 ... I got on Letterman... What? Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:08:56 I didn't like TV comedy. It's not my... I was a nightclub comic. That's all I ever wanted to be. I wanted to be a nightclub comic. I like doing comedy for drunk people.

Speaker 2:09:06 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:09:06 You know?

Speaker 2:09:06 But when I first saw you, it all wasn't dirty. It w-

Joe Rogan 2:09:09 No

Speaker 2:09:09 ... some of it was TV stuff.

Joe Rogan 2:09:11 Well, it wasn't necessarily dirty, but it was free. It was like I was being free. I was doing think- whatever I wanted to talk about.

Speaker 2:09:17 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:09:18 I didn't like the idea of being constrained by any sorts of standards and practices. It was like I'm not interested. I've been not interested in that.

Speaker 2:09:27 I worked on my Tonight Show set to try to get on the Tonight Show with Johnny, and, uh, the guy would come see me a lot. He would change my jokes. That I hate.

Joe Rogan 2:09:38 Ugh.

Speaker 2:09:38 I hate when they say, "Oh-

Joe Rogan 2:09:39 Yeah

Speaker 2:09:39 ... try, try p- y- saying vacation-

Joe Rogan 2:09:42 Yeah

Speaker 2:09:42 ... instead of gift shop." [laughs]

Joe Rogan 2:09:44 Ugh.

Speaker 2:09:44 And I'm like, "Oh, let me just do my thing."

Joe Rogan 2:09:46 Yeah.

Speaker 2:09:46 But after a year of him trying to get my set right, he says, "You're not a Johnny comic."

Joe Rogan 2:09:54 Oh, God.

Speaker 2:09:54 "You're not a Johnny guy."

Joe Rogan 2:09:55 What does that even mean?

Speaker 2:09:57 But then I got on on a Monday night with Joan, 'cause I guess I was a Joan guy.

Joe Rogan 2:10:01 Oh.

Speaker 2:10:01 And then I got to sit with Johnny just as a guest to promote Coming to America, so finally full circle from my basement.

Joe Rogan 2:10:09 That's amazing. I watch a lot of his old clips, like with Don Rickles-

Speaker 2:10:14 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 2:10:14 ... and all these o- you know-

Speaker 2:10:15 Oh, Don Rickles talking about Snooky, the brother in the band.

Joe Rogan 2:10:18 [laughs]

Speaker 2:10:19 You know, and he would do a, a, a noise of a blow gun, and it's like, "Snooky, you liking this stuff?" [blow gun noise] "Oh." [laughs] You know? And you can't fuck with that now.

Joe Rogan 2:10:29 No.

Speaker 2:10:29 They... There's so much... It's funny how we've come forward into a new era, but we've gone backwards in certain ways.

Joe Rogan 2:10:37 Yeah. Yeah, you can't joke about certain things anymore. You can't joke about-

Speaker 2:10:40 Like, I'm scared to death right now that I'm gonna say something that I shouldn't say, and I'm gonna be in TLC prison or some shit.

Joe Rogan 2:10:47 No one can do shit to you now.

Speaker 2:10:49 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:10:49 They can't do shit to you now.

Speaker 2:10:49 They can just be mad, I guess.

Joe Rogan 2:10:50 Yeah, let 'em be mad. Just don't pay attention. That's what I do. I just don't pay attention.

Speaker 2:10:53 Really?

Joe Rogan 2:10:54 Yeah. I just don't read anything about me.

Speaker 2:10:57 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:10:57 Stay away.

Speaker 2:10:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:10:58 That's the best way.

Speaker 2:10:59 Are you a comic who, when you're on stage, it can be 200 people laughing, but that one person who's not laughing annoys the fuck out of you?

Joe Rogan 2:11:07 No.

Speaker 2:11:08 You, you, you can't even enjoy the others. You don't even look at that person.

Joe Rogan 2:11:10 No, those p- th- those people have their own problems.

Speaker 2:11:13 Yeah. And s- by, by the way, sometimes they're just not laughers.

Joe Rogan 2:11:17 Yeah.

Speaker 2:11:17 'Cause that person will sometimes come up to you and say, "Love what you're doing. Love the new stuff."

Joe Rogan 2:11:21 Some people just like to smile.

Speaker 2:11:22 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:11:22 They don't wanna laugh. They just wanna sit there and watch, or they just wanna take it in, take in the performance. Doesn't mean they don't like it. And then some people just are upset by everything.

Speaker 2:11:31 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:11:32 You can't control that.

Speaker 2:11:33 Mm.

Joe Rogan 2:11:33 Just control what y- it, w- what I, what... The only thing that bothers me is if I'm off. That's it. If I'm off, if something's w- if I stumble on a word, if I fuck something up-

Speaker 2:11:42 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 2:11:42 ... that's the only thing that bothers me. And the, the audience is like, you can't control that. Why, why be upset at things you can't control?

Speaker 2:11:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:11:48 'Cause who knows what their trip is? Who, who knows what they're carrying around with them?

Speaker 2:11:52 As a famous star now, do you ever bomb?

Joe Rogan 2:11:57 I have jokes that bomb, for sure. New ones.

Speaker 2:12:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:12:00 When you trot out a new one.

Speaker 2:12:01 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:12:02 Especially, like, uh, we do this show called Bottom of the Barrel.

Speaker 2:12:05 Mm.

Joe Rogan 2:12:05 And Bottom of the Barrel at The Mothership is, there's, like, a whiskey barrel.

Speaker 2:12:09 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:12:09 And you reach into the whiskey barrel, and you pull out premises.

Speaker 2:12:12 Ooh.

Joe Rogan 2:12:12 Just ideas. And you just run with it. That's tonight, actually.

Speaker 2:12:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:12:15 And so you pull out a piece of paper, and it, you know, have a, a subject, you know?

Speaker 2:12:20 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:12:20 Ice cream sundae, whatever. Whatever the fuck it is.

Speaker 2:12:23 That takes intestinal fortitude.

Joe Rogan 2:12:24 Oh, a lot of those fucking go nowhere. [laughs]

Speaker 2:12:27 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:12:28 But some of them don't. Every now and then you get a great premise out of those, and, uh, it's like a little premise factory.

Speaker 2:12:34 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:12:34 But the audience knows it, though. So it's different than, like, when they go to see you, and they paid money, and they're expecting a polished show, and you have a new joke, and the new joke is just not right. It's not ready. Something's missing. You're not finding it, and you're trying to work through it. Yeah, it's always gonna happen. And if it doesn't happen, you're not taking enough chances.

Speaker 2:12:55 Yeah. See, I'm, I'm not as chance driven as you are. I'd be afraid to do that 'cause-

Joe Rogan 2:13:02 [laughs]

Speaker 2:13:03 ... I'm, my feelings get hurt too easy. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 2:13:05 Yeah. Well, it's part of the process, right?

Speaker 2:13:07 Yeah, you're right. You're right. It... We should do the things we fear.

Joe Rogan 2:13:10 You definitely have to if you wanna write new shit. You, you're gonna have to... There's that moment where you're like, "Do I trot this new one out? Fuck it. Let's go." And, you know, a lot of the new ones, the way they come out, for me at least, first is just a frame. It doesn't have sides. It doesn't have windows.

Speaker 2:13:29 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:13:29 It doesn't have doors. It's just a frame, and I have to figure out how to make a house out of that frame.

Speaker 2:13:34 That's what I loved about going to the original Room back in the day when we were young, watching Richard take out a pack of cigarettes, take a cigarette, and Mitzi had those, those smoke things that popped, p- p- pop, p- p- pop, and you get, got s- smoke and everything. And, and Richard would have two minutes, and then he'd have five.

Joe Rogan 2:13:54 Mm-hmm. It would just build.

Speaker 2:13:55 Richard... Yeah. And I, it was like a, like when grandma used to make a quilt.

Joe Rogan 2:13:58 Yeah.

Speaker 2:13:59 And it gets bigger and bigger.

Joe Rogan 2:14:00 Yeah.

Speaker 2:14:00 And you, and then you've got an hour. I used to love watching him develop it.

Joe Rogan 2:14:04 I would hear, I heard that Richard would go in on a Monday and have a joke that bombed, and then it would be murdering by Saturday.

Speaker 2:14:12 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:14:12 And that that's what he would do.

Speaker 2:14:14 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:14:14 He would just go and figure it out on stage. Damon used to do that a lot.

Speaker 2:14:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:14:18 Damon used to go and sit on stage and just w- sit with a premise.

Speaker 2:14:23 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:14:23 Just sit with it. And, and he would trot it out for, like, 10 minutes-

Speaker 2:14:27 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 2:14:27 ... and try to figure out, and then finally he'd find something, and everybody'd be dying. He'd just find it.

Speaker 2:14:31 We, we got away from that earlier, butI totally got your point. Damon is one of the great ones, and I hope he continues to do stand-up and pop out to the clubs, because he's one of the great ones that a lot of people don't realize.

Joe Rogan 2:14:45 They don't realize how great he was when he did The Last Stand.

Speaker 2:14:48 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:14:48 That, that one HBO special that he did way back in the day.

Speaker 2:14:51 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:14:51 It's a phenomenal special. It's phenomenal. He was so good. But he wanted to be a movie star, you know?

Speaker 2:14:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:14:58 And, and he-

Speaker 2:14:59 And, like Richard, he had an ability to also be vulnerable and tell the truth about something that-

Joe Rogan 2:15:06 Yeah

Speaker 2:15:06 ... most of us wouldn't tell. Like, he'd talk about having a club foot-

Joe Rogan 2:15:09 Mm-hmm

Speaker 2:15:10 ... as a kid, and-

Joe Rogan 2:15:10 Yeah

Speaker 2:15:11 ... and he, he, he was special, and I'm glad he's back out there.

Joe Rogan 2:15:15 Yeah. Well, I think he never really sto- You know one other thing that he did-

Speaker 2:15:18 Hmm

Joe Rogan 2:15:19 ... that is very unique? Damon brings a camera to all of his shows, and he films all of his shows, and he archives them. Every set he ever does.

Speaker 2:15:29 Really?

Joe Rogan 2:15:30 Yep, and he goes over it.

Speaker 2:15:31 That's work.

Joe Rogan 2:15:32 It's work. Because one of the things that he does, like I said, is like he'll take a premise and just try to find, fi- try to find it on stage, try to figure out what about it works, what about it pops. Like, what is it? And, you know, I guess, like, doing that with a camera, and then you can go home, sit, and watch it on the computer, and just go, "What is in this motherfucker? There's something here. I gotta find it," and just look at it from every angle. Look at it over here, look at it over there. Try to do it backwards. Try to figure out what the fuck makes it work.

Speaker 2:16:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:16:04 And he would just ... He had no fear of silence. He would-

Speaker 2:16:08 See, that's, that's the sentence right there.

Joe Rogan 2:16:10 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2:16:11 When it's quiet in the comedy club-

Joe Rogan 2:16:12 Mm-hmm

Speaker 2:16:12 ... I lose my mind.

Joe Rogan 2:16:14 [laughs]

Speaker 2:16:14 [laughs] Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:16:16 Chris Rock does that too. Chris Rock did a lot of that at The Comedy Store. He would come in and just ... He would have material that he was working on. Like, one time I, I remember I brought him up on stage, and, uh, everyone's going crazy. "Chris Rock's here." They're cheering, cheering, cheering.

Speaker 2:16:30 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:16:30 And he goes, "Relax, relax. It ain't gonna be that funny."

Speaker 2:16:34 That's funny, yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:16:34 Just let people know that I'm working on some new shit. This ain't gonna be that funny.

Speaker 2:16:38 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:16:38 And but with confidence. Like, everybody already knew he's funny.

Speaker 2:16:43 Mm.

Joe Rogan 2:16:44 They already saw Bigger and Blacker.

Speaker 2:16:45 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:16:45 They already saw his specials. It was, it was Bring the Pain. Everybody already knew. So it was like-

Speaker 2:16:50 The one, the one where he shot with three different outfits in three different places?

Joe Rogan 2:16:53 I hated that one.

Speaker 2:16:54 You didn't like that one?

Joe Rogan 2:16:55 No.

Speaker 2:16:55 I-

Joe Rogan 2:16:55 Not, not that I didn't like the material.

Speaker 2:16:57 Oh.

Joe Rogan 2:16:57 I didn't like the idea of swapping outfits. The problem with that is it, you realize he's saying the same thing in all these different places.

Speaker 2:17:06 Don't we all, though?

Joe Rogan 2:17:06 It takes away from the ... But it takes away from the magic of a performer. I wanna see you, and I don't want anything to distract me from these th- I don't wanna say, "Oh, he just performs this the same way everywhere."

Speaker 2:17:18 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:17:19 I want you to just be saying it. The magic, like, the trick is you are in the moment with whatever you're talking about. If you're changing outfits and you all of a sudden you're in Johannesburg, and now-

Speaker 2:17:30 Yeah

Joe Rogan 2:17:30 ... you're in Cleveland, like, uh, uh, uh.

Speaker 2:17:32 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 2:17:32 Don't do that to me. Why you got a leather jacket on in the beginning-

Speaker 2:17:35 Yeah

Joe Rogan 2:17:35 ... and then the punchline, you got a, a fucking, a silk shirt? Uh-uh, don't do that.

Speaker 2:17:40 See, I saw it as a guy creatively trying to find new horizons-

Joe Rogan 2:17:45 Sure

Speaker 2:17:45 ... and do different things, and-

Joe Rogan 2:17:46 Some horizons suck.

Speaker 2:17:47 Yeah. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 2:17:50 [laughs] It's not that the jokes w- were great.

Speaker 2:17:52 Right, right, right.

Joe Rogan 2:17:52 It's like he's a great comic. It's not that. It's like I just didn't like the idea-

Speaker 2:17:55 Yeah

Joe Rogan 2:17:55 ... of changing outfits. If I was friends with him back then, I would say, "Don't. I don't like it at all." And I would, that would ex- explain. The problem is you're taking people out of the premise, and then there's a new additional thing that they have to think of. Oh, this is a different set. Oh, he's wearing different clothes. It's a new thing to distract you from the most, the primary thing. The primary thing is what are you talking about?

Speaker 2:18:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:18:15 Like, what is this thing you're talking about? Let me get inside your head while you explain this thing that's so hilarious. But if you're doing that and changing outfits and changing stages, like, I know you perform in different places.

Speaker 2:18:26 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:18:26 I know you wear different clothes. Don't show me right now.

Speaker 2:18:30 In retrospect, I wonder how he looks at that special, if he-

Joe Rogan 2:18:33 Yeah, I don't know. I mean, he never did it again.

Speaker 2:18:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:18:36 It's not-

Speaker 2:18:37 Well, you don't wanna do it again. That's-

Joe Rogan 2:18:39 Right

Speaker 2:18:39 ... you know.

Joe Rogan 2:18:39 I mean, he did it once. He tried it. Different people like to do different things and try them. I just didn't like that for that reason. I felt like it was an added element that took me away from the premise itself.

Speaker 2:18:50 And by the way, something that's come out of this conversation in my head is the guys who are the best seem to go deeper and work the hardest.

Joe Rogan 2:18:59 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2:18:59 I mean, when you talk about archiving your practice sets.

Joe Rogan 2:19:03 Yeah. All of them. Damon has all of them. And he told me this years ago, 'cause I saw him at the improv. He was in the lab. We were in the big room, and he was in the lab. This was not that long ago. When I say years ago, like 10-

Speaker 2:19:16 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 2:19:16 ... nine years ago, something like that. And, uh, I go, "You record all of them?" He's like, "Every set since, like, 1990-something." He goes, "I, I record them all. I got this camera. I take them all, and I archive them. I put them on my computer." I'm like, "Whoa." It made me think, "Fuck, I'm lazy." [laughs]

Speaker 2:19:33 Yeah. Ab- that's exactly what I'm thinking. And I'm also thinking what an amazing documentary-

Joe Rogan 2:19:39 Mm-hmm

Speaker 2:19:40 ... if we could go through the history of Damon's personal archives. That would be a great-

Joe Rogan 2:19:46 Oh, yeah

Speaker 2:19:47 ... I think there's a special there.

Joe Rogan 2:19:48 Probably. Yeah, probably. But I mean, I think that's just part of his creative process.

Speaker 2:19:54 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:19:54 And again, like, I just think people don't realize, especially in the '90s, the early '90s, how, what a monster he was on stage.

Speaker 2:20:02 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:20:03 He was a monster. He was one of the first guys that was, like, a really famous guy that I saw at The Store. I came to The Store in '94, and he was one of the first guys where I was like, "Oh, shit, Damon Wayans is here."

Speaker 2:20:14 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:20:14 Like, it was weird. It was, like, weird when people would show up, like, you'd seen them in movies and shit, and all of a sudden they're there in real life. We're like ... You know, I was just coming from New York. I didn't know anybody, and I was like, "This is so strange. I can't believe I'm around these people."

Speaker 2:20:26 So you went from Boston to New York.

Joe Rogan 2:20:28 Boston to New York.

Speaker 2:20:29 And Catch a Rising Star. Where'd you work out in New York in those days?

Joe Rogan 2:20:32 Well, I did, uh, the Boston Comedy Club, the, you know, the little place-

Speaker 2:20:36 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 2:20:36 ... that Barry Katz had.

Speaker 2:20:37 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:20:37 I did, uh, The Cellar.

Speaker 2:20:40 That's-

Joe Rogan 2:20:40 I did-

Speaker 2:20:40 ... Jay Mohr's manager, right?

Joe Rogan 2:20:42 Yes.

Speaker 2:20:42 Barry Katz.

Joe Rogan 2:20:42 I did, um, Catch a Rising Star back when that was there. I did, um, oh-Was there a few other-

Speaker 2:20:49 Comic strip?

Joe Rogan 2:20:50 Yeah, I did the strip. Yeah. I did the clubs in town. I did Dangerfield's a lot.

Speaker 2:20:55 Mm.

Joe Rogan 2:20:56 But honestly, when I lived in New York, I really liked doing the road more because when I did the road, I could make money. So like I came up in Boston, and in Boston, you made a lot of your money not in the clubs in town, but you made a lot of your money in like the bar shows, you know, outside of town in the suburbs.

Speaker 2:21:14 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:21:14 And the thing about that is like you could headline, and so you could do 45 minutes-

Speaker 2:21:19 Mm

Joe Rogan 2:21:19 ... or an hour, and that, that allowed me to grow and like to really-

Speaker 2:21:23 Stretch out

Joe Rogan 2:21:24 ... become a headliner.

Speaker 2:21:25 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:21:25 Whereas like I found like a lot of the New York comics that I would go on the road with, when I would work with them, even when I was a middle act and they were a headliner, they had like these 10 and 15 minute sets that they'd stitch together to put, to make an hour. Whereas the guys that I worked with in Boston, like the big headliners in Boston, they had a real hour. Like that fucking, that was an hour of thunder. You know?

Speaker 2:21:48 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:21:48 They had a beginning, a middle, and an end, and it was like tight. It was tight.

Speaker 2:21:53 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:21:54 And I felt like I could do sets in New York, but I don't think it's really helping my career, right? There's no one there to see me. I r- I felt like I'm gonna make money. Like, I could do a set in New York and I make 25 bucks.

Speaker 2:22:07 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:22:07 Or I could do a set in Connecticut and make $250. I was like, "I'll go to Connecticut." Plus, like the people are more fun. They're more loose. They're a bunch of fucking crazy drunks. I loved doing Long Island. I loved doing New Jersey. I, I liked doing the road more. That's what I liked.

Speaker 2:22:25 I think I'm a product of my childhood environment. I, I discovered stand-up 'cause y- I was a drummer, had a band, I was a magician, had doves, boxes and shit, and then my house burned down. So I lost-

Joe Rogan 2:22:39 Oh, wow.

Speaker 2:22:39 Yeah, I lost everything. But I had gone to an Al Green concert, and Al Green had a comic come out. House lights are on. People are still making their way to their seats, and this guy slowly gets them, and then the lights go down, and by the time he gets to 30 minutes, he's killing. And all he had was a glass of juice, something on a stool, and this is a kid who just lost his house, and his cymbals, and his tom-toms, and his doves, and his boxes, and I'm like, "That's me." Johnny was a stand-up.

Joe Rogan 2:23:12 Mm.

Speaker 2:23:12 So I'm still dreaming.

Joe Rogan 2:23:14 Wow.

Speaker 2:23:14 And, and to this day, um, or even when I start making a lot of money, after seeing that guy, I loved opening for people. I went on the road with everybody from Lou Rawls to Patti LaBelle.

Joe Rogan 2:23:29 Oh, wow.

Speaker 2:23:29 Still to this day, I'm comfortable doing 30 minutes because that's what I did. But I, I had money. Like I would come to the Comedy Store, and I would have a really nice car 'cause I'd spend most of my time on the road with Patrice Russian and Johnny Guitar Watson. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 2:23:45 Oh, wow. That's a different world. Opening for musicians is a different kind of comedy because like they're not there to see you.

Speaker 2:23:52 And that's what I found to be the challenge. It's like-

Joe Rogan 2:23:54 Yeah

Speaker 2:23:54 ... I'm gonna make you motherfuckers who don't know me and are mad, 'cause a lot of, you know, people would look at you like, "That ain't one of the Temptations."

Joe Rogan 2:24:02 Right.

Speaker 2:24:03 You know?

Joe Rogan 2:24:03 Right, right, right.

Speaker 2:24:04 And I gotta get 'em.

Joe Rogan 2:24:05 Yeah.

Speaker 2:24:05 And I liked that challenge.

Joe Rogan 2:24:07 It is a real challenge because there's a lot of people like, "Boo."

Speaker 2:24:11 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:24:11 "Bring on Metallica."

Speaker 2:24:13 Yeah. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 2:24:13 [laughs] Yeah. They, they, they don't wanna see you. They wanna see the music act.

Speaker 2:24:18 I opened for Blood, Sweat, & Tears once.

Joe Rogan 2:24:20 Wow.

Speaker 2:24:21 And, uh, they really did not wanna see me. You think the Johnny Guitar Watson audience didn't wanna see me? Them motherfuckers from Blood, Sweat, & Tears not fucking with me.

Joe Rogan 2:24:30 Well, it's definitely running with weights on, though.

Speaker 2:24:33 Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:24:33 If you can make those people laugh, boy, you take those weights off and go to a comedy club where they're there to see you-

Speaker 2:24:38 Yeah

Joe Rogan 2:24:38 ... it's like, oh.

Speaker 2:24:40 Just there to see comedy-

Joe Rogan 2:24:41 Mm-hmm

Speaker 2:24:41 ... made it easier.

Joe Rogan 2:24:43 Yeah. I just don't wanna perform for people that aren't there to see comedy. But it, there's a value in it, I think.

Speaker 2:24:49 But that's when you're, you're young.

Joe Rogan 2:24:50 Yeah.

Speaker 2:24:51 And, you know, I had a nice con- condo-

Joe Rogan 2:24:53 Mm-hmm

Speaker 2:24:54 ... because I had just come off the road with Aretha.

Joe Rogan 2:24:57 Yeah. I did a few of those. I opened up for Bon Jovi once. I opened up for Bon Jovi for VH1. They had a f- a theater in the round show.

Speaker 2:25:06 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:25:06 Like a performance in the round. My job was to open up for Bon Jovi and then get the pretty girls and move them to the front so that they could be on camera. That's what they told me to do.

Speaker 2:25:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:25:15 So I did, did some stand-up, and then I