Joe Rogan Experience #1672 - Iliza
Narrator, Joe Rogan (host), Iliza Shlesinger (guest), Narrator, Narrator, Narrator
In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Narrator and Joe Rogan, Joe Rogan Experience #1672 - Iliza explores iliza and Rogan on comedy, con artists, LA chaos, and authenticity Joe Rogan and comedian Iliza Shlesinger have a long-form, freewheeling conversation that jumps from stand-up comedy and Hollywood to power grids, homelessness, and the psychology of lying. Iliza recounts in detail the real relationship scam that inspired her Netflix movie *Good on Paper*, including how a man fabricated his Yale degree and his mother’s cancer to win her over. They dissect the realities of building a career in comedy, the tradeoffs of living in LA versus leaving, and how podcasts, stand-up, and independence let comics avoid executive gatekeeping. The episode also digs into social-media-driven outrage, body image pressures, plastic surgery, and the strange ways people curate identities online.
Iliza and Rogan on comedy, con artists, LA chaos, and authenticity
Joe Rogan and comedian Iliza Shlesinger have a long-form, freewheeling conversation that jumps from stand-up comedy and Hollywood to power grids, homelessness, and the psychology of lying. Iliza recounts in detail the real relationship scam that inspired her Netflix movie *Good on Paper*, including how a man fabricated his Yale degree and his mother’s cancer to win her over. They dissect the realities of building a career in comedy, the tradeoffs of living in LA versus leaving, and how podcasts, stand-up, and independence let comics avoid executive gatekeeping. The episode also digs into social-media-driven outrage, body image pressures, plastic surgery, and the strange ways people curate identities online.
Key Takeaways
Build multiple lanes for your career to reduce risk.
Iliza and Rogan both stress always having several projects (stand-up, podcasts, movies, UFC, etc. ...
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
If you want mainstream acting work, proximity to Hollywood still matters.
They argue that for those who want acting and traditional TV/film roles, LA’s in-person meetings, auditions, and serendipitous contacts are hard to replace by moving to cheaper, calmer cities.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
For stand-up comics, podcasts are now a primary growth engine.
Rogan lists multiple comics whose podcasts dramatically grew their ticket sales, framing podcasting as the most powerful modern promotional tool—provided you put in consistent, focused work and still have a strong live act.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Con artists succeed by lying just enough within the realm of the plausible.
In Iliza’s relationship story, the lies (Yale, Skull & Bones, mom’s cancer) were grounded in believable details and delivered over time, making them harder to detect and more emotionally devastating.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
LA’s homelessness problem is structurally incentivized, not just mismanaged.
They discuss how billions are spent and large salaries paid to administrators while conditions worsen, suggesting a system that “farms” homelessness rather than solves it, because too many jobs depend on the problem existing.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Online outrage often ignores context and intention.
They note that clips, tweets, or DMs pulled out of context can fuel mob punishment where the goal becomes watching someone “burn,” not understanding intent or accepting sincere apologies.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Authenticity beats image management, but comes with vulnerability.
From driving an old Civic despite success to rejecting filters and fake personas, Iliza emphasizes being herself; Rogan adds that executives and TV notes tend to water down what works, so controlling your own platform is critical.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Notable Quotes
“The odds of anything happening in this career are less than zero, so the more things you try to do at once, the less painful it is when something doesn’t go.”
— Iliza Shlesinger
“The reason why I can’t have anybody tell me what to do is they would’ve never let me do it this way.”
— Joe Rogan
“All the things that he didn’t lie about were the things that I actually valued the most. You cannot fake intelligence, you cannot fake sense of humor.”
— Iliza Shlesinger
“They’re farming homeless people. This is an industry that spends hundreds of millions of dollars, employs a lot of people, and never actually fixes homelessness.”
— Joe Rogan (paraphrasing a friend’s observation)
“It should always be easy. A man will move a mountain to see a girl that he likes.”
— Iliza Shlesinger
Questions Answered in This Episode
How should creators balance the desire for total creative freedom with the risks of saying controversial things in today’s media climate?
Joe Rogan and comedian Iliza Shlesinger have a long-form, freewheeling conversation that jumps from stand-up comedy and Hollywood to power grids, homelessness, and the psychology of lying. ...
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
What practical red flags can people watch for in relationships to detect liars before they become deeply emotionally involved, without becoming paranoid?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Is there any realistic structural reform that could realign incentives so homelessness programs aim at measurable reduction rather than sustaining an industry?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
For young comics today, how would you prioritize time between getting better on stage, building a podcast, and chasing traditional TV/film opportunities?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
How can social media platforms and users encourage more empathy and context before piling onto public shamings or cancel campaigns?
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. (energetic music) Hello, Iliza.
Hi, Joe Rogan.
Good to see you, as always.
Thanks so much for having me.
I hear you're a big movie star now.
I, (laughs) who told you that?
Uh, Vanity Fair or someone.
(laughs) They misspelled my name in the article?
No.
It c-
How'd they fuck up Iliza? Did they-
No, no.
... fuck up the last name?
It's the last name.
Yeah. Well, th- that's why you went with just Iliza too, right? You're in that rare group of humans that could go with one name.
People are like, "Who do you think you are?" I'm like, "Someone with a complex German phonetic (laughs) last name."
Yeah.
That's all.
Schlesinger. That's, it's a rough one.
Schlesinger, yeah. It's rough.
It's hard.
It's hard-
See, I fucked it up, and I've known you forever.
I'm so used to it though. And what's weird is-
Hm.
... people always say it wrong, and then when they spell it, yes, there should be a C in it, but there isn't. But they'll go to spell it, and they always add a C. I'm like, "Weird that, like, you don't understand anything else, but you have a firm grasp on German phonetics." Like, everybody knows there should be a C.
Hm.
No matter how smart or stupid they are.
Really?
Yeah. And there should be. We changed it at Ellis Island.
Oh, really?
Like-
Why, why'd they change it?
My great-great grandpa was like, "We'll make it less Jewish." I'm like, "I don't think that did it."
Oh, boy.
It just made it really hard. (laughs)
Oh, boy.
Yeah.
Make it less Jewish.
Yeah. So-
That's hilarious.
It's what it i- I, but we try to drop it just for...
But there's like you, Roseanne, Sebastian.
(laughs) Yeah.
Uh, Oprah.
But again, like-
There's only a few people that can go by one name.
Maya Scougal's hard.
Yeah, it's a, it's a rough one.
Winfrey isn't, that's a flex. Barr isn't, that's a flex. Schlesinger, this is for everyone's mental health.
Yeah.
I should've done it earlier.
But I don't know if Roseanne did it, or if people just call her Roseanne.
I think it's that.
Yeah, I think everybody just-
'Cause there's no other Roseanne.
Yeah.
So-
Rose Ann Arquette. Roseanna though.
Right.
Right?
And I don't, they don't do the same thing. I don't think people confuse them.
No. And who was that character Gilda Radner used to play? Roseanna, Rosanna, Donna.
Install uListen to search the full transcript and get AI-powered insights
Get Full TranscriptGet more from every podcast
AI summaries, searchable transcripts, and fact-checking. Free forever.
Add to Chrome