Joe Rogan Experience #1989 - Andrew Dice Clay
Narrator, Narrator, Andrew Dice Clay (guest), Joe Rogan (host), Narrator, Joe Rogan (host), Joe Rogan (host), Narrator, Narrator, Andrew Dice Clay (guest), Narrator, Narrator
In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Narrator and Narrator, Joe Rogan Experience #1989 - Andrew Dice Clay explores andrew Dice Clay revisits controversy, mentorship, arenas, and reinvention Joe Rogan and Andrew Dice Clay spend the episode walking through Dice’s career arc: from pioneering arena comedy and outrageous controversy in the late ’80s/’90s to his later reinvention as a serious actor and his current love of intimate club shows.
Andrew Dice Clay revisits controversy, mentorship, arenas, and reinvention
Joe Rogan and Andrew Dice Clay spend the episode walking through Dice’s career arc: from pioneering arena comedy and outrageous controversy in the late ’80s/’90s to his later reinvention as a serious actor and his current love of intimate club shows.
Dice shares detailed stories about inspiring Rogan to hit the road, being effectively ‘cancelled’ decades before social media, and the creation of his infamous anti‑comedy album *The Day the Laughter Died*.
They also discuss industry dynamics at The Comedy Store, how comics used to undercut each other compared with today’s camaraderie, and the power of self‑belief, work ethic, and resilience in the face of backlash.
Along the way, they veer into gambling stories, health scares, pyramids and lost civilizations, and Dice’s bizarre street videos that channel his old confrontational energy in a new form.
Key Takeaways
Mentorship can radically change a career if you act on it.
Dice telling a young Rogan to “hit the road” moved Rogan from $25 Comedy Store sets into national touring, which Rogan credits as a life‑changing push toward the career he has now.
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Being first often means taking the backlash alone.
Dice’s leap into arena comedy, ultra‑blue material, and a deliberately ‘bombing’ album put him in uncharted territory, making him a lightning rod for criticism years before social media but also a template for today’s big‑room comics.
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Own your persona, but separate it from who you really are.
Dice emphasizes that his onstage misogynistic ‘Dice’ character was an act, not the real Andrew, noting his genuine romantic nature and frustration that critics flattened him into a one‑dimensional villain.
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Resilience and self‑belief can outlast coordinated media pile‑ons.
From the MTV ban to SNL walkouts and top comics publicly attacking him, Dice survived by refusing to back down, continuing to tour, and later rebuilding through acting and niche fanbases.
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Comedic innovation sometimes looks like career suicide in the moment.
Releasing *The Day the Laughter Died*—a double album of intentional anti‑comedy—confused executives and even Rodney Dangerfield’s contemporaries, but it became a cult classic among comics and fans as a kind of ‘performance art bible.’
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The culture of standup has shifted from cutthroat to collaborative.
Dice contrasts the ’80s/’90s era—stabbing each other in the back for TV slots—with today’s podcast culture, where comics cross‑promote, tour together, and actively help each other build audiences.
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Long careers require adapting to new stages of life—physically and artistically.
Dice talks about quitting smoking after a heart attack, working out despite health issues, embracing more self‑deprecating material, and preferring small club shows where his current voice connects most naturally.
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Notable Quotes
““Every comic gets recorded trying their very best to kill. I did my best to bomb.””
— Andrew Dice Clay (on *The Day the Laughter Died*)
““If Dice didn’t do arenas, we wouldn’t be doing arenas.””
— Joe Rogan
““Nobody fucks with Dice. Dice does the fucking—in the past, the present, the future, and today.””
— Andrew Dice Clay
““How come in movies they know it’s not real, but with comedy they act like it is?””
— Joe Rogan (on people treating Dice’s act as literal)
““Some people go through their whole life never knowing who they are. I always knew who I was.””
— Andrew Dice Clay
Questions Answered in This Episode
How would Andrew Dice Clay’s original rise and backlash have played out differently if social media and podcasts had existed in 1990?
Joe Rogan and Andrew Dice Clay spend the episode walking through Dice’s career arc: from pioneering arena comedy and outrageous controversy in the late ’80s/’90s to his later reinvention as a serious actor and his current love of intimate club shows.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Where should comics draw the line—if anywhere—between personal responsibility and audience interpretation when performing an extreme onstage persona?
Dice shares detailed stories about inspiring Rogan to hit the road, being effectively ‘cancelled’ decades before social media, and the creation of his infamous anti‑comedy album *The Day the Laughter Died*.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Is there a modern equivalent to *The Day the Laughter Died*—a project by a successful comedian that deliberately risks alienating the mainstream for artistic reasons?
They also discuss industry dynamics at The Comedy Store, how comics used to undercut each other compared with today’s camaraderie, and the power of self‑belief, work ethic, and resilience in the face of backlash.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
What specific habits or mindset shifts allowed Dice to transition from being ‘cancelled’ to landing serious acting roles with top directors decades later?
Along the way, they veer into gambling stories, health scares, pyramids and lost civilizations, and Dice’s bizarre street videos that channel his old confrontational energy in a new form.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Given Dice’s and Rogan’s views on free speech in comedy, how should younger comics navigate today’s more sensitive cultural climate without losing their edge?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Transcript Preview
(drum roll) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.
The Joe Rogan Experience.
Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music) Yeah. Number one, it's great to see you.
Great to see you too.
Let me just do, uh, you know, what I gotta do. You know.
Are these your, uh, podcast glasses?
I got 'em.
You got special ones?
W- what's his name?
Jamie. That's your name, Jamie.
Jamie. Y- you do understand I'm doing the Joe Rogan Experience, right?
He's doing the Joe Rogan Experience.
So why wouldn't I-
Yeah, you gotta swap glasses.
... use the best?
Ooh, I like those.
We go with the chrome.
I like it.
You see what happens-
I like it. I like the chrome.
We go with the chrome.
I like it. I like how you have a case.
And-
Those are serious shades.
This is the experience. This is your sh-... You've-
Hmm.
... now taken over everything.
Hmm.
In my opinion. And I'm proud of you for that.
Thank you.
And see?
Well, I'm proud to be your friend.
Well, I'm proud to be yours. Now, if you notice...
You know, I was in your documentary and I said... Everything I said b-... I 100% believe in... is true.
And I appreciate that, yeah.
And we were actually just talking about you last night. And I was... I was s- telling these guys, I go, "Dice is doing the only real alternative (laughs) comedy that's out there." Those videos (laughs) that you're doing with fans-
Oh, man.
You were... First of all, you were one of the originar-... or-ri- originators of what I would call alternative comedy.
Okay.
This is wha-... This is what you did. You did The Day the Laughter Died in the height of your success.
(laughs)
You were selling out arenas all over the fucking place.
(laughs) Yeah.
And you decided to do Dangerfield's when no one was in there with no material and just fuck around, and it's amazing.
Listen, listen. Before we even go there, I-
All right.
I got a little beef with you.
(laughs)
Nothing that's not... Uh, it's not gonna get violent. Okay?
Okay.
None of that.
What's the beef?
Because even years ago when you first came to LA, and trust me, you were alternative, the minute I- I walked into the-
Alternative?
Yeah, th-
I don't mean alternative in a negative way.
No, no. You doing it your own way.
Oh, okay.
The way you saw fit, the way I did it, the way Kennison did it. That's how you did it. So I come walking into the original room. I come in through the back. I always do the same thing. I go in through the kitchen, club soda, red straw, $5 tip-
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