#2480 - Arsenio Hall

Arsenio Hall is a comedian, producer, writer, and actor. He hosted “The Arsenio Hall Show” and has appeared in films including “Coming to America” and “Harlem Nights.” His new book, “Arsenio Hall: A Memoir,” is available now.www.simonandschuster.com/books/Arsenio/Arsenio-Hall/9781982191368www.arseniohall.com Perplexity: Download the app or ask Perplexity anything at https://pplx.ai/rogan. Try ZipRecruiter FOR FREE at https://ziprecruiter.com/rogan This video is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit https://BetterHelp.com/JRE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  The Joe Rogan Experience.

• 0:06Speaker 01

  Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day.

• 0:12Joe Rogan?

  All right, slap some headphones on. What's rockin' on, sir?

• 0:15Speaker 01

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

• 0:32Joe Rogan?

  I don't know. You'd like to think that you're that important.

• 0:36Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 0:37Joe Rogan?

  I have a feeling they have more important stuff to do on the other side.

• 0:41Speaker 01

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

• 0:44Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 0:45Speaker 01

  But, um...

• 0:46Joe Rogan?

  Well, the mothership definitely is from her.

• 0:49Speaker 01

  Yes, yes.

• 0:51Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 0:52Speaker 01

  I mean, that's an incredible tribute to her.

• 0:55Joe Rogan?

  Well, the bar is named after her.

• 0:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, I've heard all the comics, I've heard Shane and Ian and all the guys talk about it after they came back. 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."

• 1:15Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 1:16Speaker 01

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

• 1:25Joe Rogan?

  A hundred percent, yeah.

• 1:28Speaker 01

  Wow. And this is cool.

• 1:30Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, she taught me everything about how to run a club, how to do it right. Basically, kind of let the comedians run it, let the inmates run the asylum.

• 1:38Speaker 01

  Yeah?

• 1:39Joe Rogan?

  You know?

• 1:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, we're, uh, perfect inmates for that. And, and, and right now, the Comedy Store is greater than ever.

• 1:46Joe Rogan?

  That's awesome.

• 1:46Speaker 01

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

• 2:07Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, we had to encourage them to do all that.

• 2:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, that was your era.

• 2:12Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, well, once we left, we started doing that at the mothership for all the shows, then other comedy clubs started falling. So, it's the way to do it. People are too fucking distracted.

• 2:24Speaker 01

  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?

• 2:38Joe Rogan?

  Oh, a hundred percent. It's also you have to be free to fuck around and experiment. And if someone takes that fucking around experiment, 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 I say it, right? 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'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 does nothing. It goes, or it's terrible. You said something awful and you're like, whoops, sorry.

• 3:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, we make mistakes.

• 3:19Joe Rogan?

  You're just fucking creating something. And then stand up is the only art form that you have to kind of 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. You have to be able to fuck around.

• 3:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, I, um, me and Chappelle, and you've, you've done this kind of thing. Me and Chappelle met Chris Rock in Cleveland, because Chappelle lives in Ohio, obviously. He's done something very similar to what you've done, but we'll get into that later.

• 3:53Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, he's done something really cool. Basically took over a whole town.

• 3:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, and.

• 3:58Joe Rogan?

  It's funny, and especially 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, what I'm doing to these motherfuckers.

• 4:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's crazy to be Dave Chappelle, the most important man in town.

• 4:14Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 4:15Speaker 01

  But, uh, Chris Rock was doing Cleveland. And, uh, we met him there. And that was the first time I saw the bags. People, and and I was apprehensive.

• 4:28Speaker 01

  As a matter of fact, I saw a celebrity in LA who didn't want to put his phone in a bag. And so they had that motherfucker stay outside, you know?

• 4:37Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, there's too many snitches in this world. Too many people just want to film everything for the gram.

• 4:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:43Joe Rogan?

  Like, stop.

• 4:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, sometimes we're saying the wrong thing. Sometimes we're drunk.

• 4:47Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, for sure, a lot.

• 4:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:50Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, a lot. Dave loves to get lit and go on stage. 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 after, as he goes over, it's like, oh, there's a seed right there. Let me plant that seed.

• 5:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:06Joe Rogan?

  There's an idea there. And then, you know, that's how you come up with stuff.

• 5:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, I never drink or smoke before going on stage. But I love to create at home. And the next day, because 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 was funny about that last night when I was smoking. But I like to smoke and create at home and then take it to the stage. But when I'm onstage, I've had bad experiences trying to do it high and saying, this will make me creative. I'll be like Hendrix of comedy. And, uh, that's all wrong.

• 5:42Joe Rogan?

  Your memory will go.

• 5:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, your memory will go. 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.

• 5:59Speaker 01

  I was in Tonight Show mode or some shit, you know?

• 6:01Joe Rogan?

  Hey, I gotta clear something up. Speaking of, this has nothing to do with you, but I did a podcast last week with Theo Von. And, uh, in it, there was like a video on the internet that was accusing me of lying about something. And what I said was 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 died. We stopped and took a piss break, right? And that's when we found out about it, right? 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 and I was getting all these messages, but I didn't have any service out there.

• 6:46Joe Rogan?

  So I had to hook up the Starlink in order to find out what was happening.

• 6:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:50Joe Rogan?

  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. 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.

• 7:27Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 7:27Joe Rogan?

  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 from doing thousands of podcasts.

• 7:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:39Joe Rogan?

  My memory is like a room that's filled with boxes and files.

• 7:45Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 7:45Joe Rogan?

  And I don't know where the fuck everything is.

• 7:47Speaker 01

  See, as you were talking, the first thing, 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. Trying to get it to come a McCovey Cove or someplace.

• 8:00Joe Rogan?

  Of course.

• 8:01Speaker 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 it's gonna be a swing and a miss. Let me explain that.

• 8:14Joe Rogan?

  But the real problem was sleepy. 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 night.

• 8:22Speaker 01

  Have you had that problem before, like sleep deprivation and you get yourself into some?

• 8:25Joe Rogan?

  I've had that problem before. Usually I can fix it with creatine. So creatine is a great supplement when you're tired. Um, it really, 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.

• 8:46Joe Rogan?

  In terms of cognitive function. But I've been, I, I just was doing some blood work. 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, because 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 supplement. So I had this like strategy. But the point is like.

• 9:10Speaker 01

  Creatine?

• 9:11Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, 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, why is he lying about this? I'm like, oh, I forgot. It wasn't a lie. 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. It's like my only alone time. And I'm, 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.

• 9:53Joe Rogan?

  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. It's like, there's too many problems with it, so.

• 10:02Speaker 01

  I mean, two things.

• 10:03Joe Rogan?

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• 11:08Joe Rogan?

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• 11:51Joe Rogan?

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• 12:34Joe Rogan?

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• 12:47Speaker 01

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

• 12:51Joe Rogan?

  Oh, it's great for everybody. Yeah, creatine is not just a supplement for muscles. Creatine is actually a really good cognitive function supplement. It's actually a cognitive enhancing supplement. Yeah, there's a lot of research on that.

• 13:05Speaker 01

  And the other thing that hit me is I was listening to you talk recently. And you talked about smoking herb and how it enhanced the weightlifting process.

• 13:16Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 13:16Speaker 01

  What's that about?

• 13:17Joe Rogan?

  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.

• 13:26Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 13:27Joe Rogan?

  They smoke weed right before class, like get ripped and then.

• 13:30Speaker 01

  So the Gracys were high when I first started seeing?

• 13:33Joe Rogan?

  Not those guys. Those guys don't do it, but a lot of guys do. I think one of the, I don't want to throw them under the bus, but one of the brothers was really into smoking weed and doing jujitsu. 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 like, you just feel your muscles more. You feel like your coordination more, you're more sensitive. It's weird. It's like, instead of you being like abstract with your movements and, you know, just kind of like doing it. It's like you feel all the tissues, all the connection. When you lift weights, you're like, oh. Like you feel all the fibers of all your shit moving.

• 14:15Joe Rogan?

  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.

• 14:31Speaker 01

  Procrastinate about their life and personal responsibilities.

• 14:34Joe Rogan?

  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. 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, but the problem with that is, were they already? 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.

• 15:06Speaker 01

  Lot of those guys on a diet coke would have problems.

• 15:09Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, right, right. There's a lot of guys just fucking red lights freak them 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 what I mean? If you're already fucked up, if there's already some things that you're like struggling to hang on to everyday life. Yeah, you probably shouldn't do acid. You know what I mean?

• 15:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:31Joe Rogan?

  You should probably just. Just try to like, keep your shit together. 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. Ah, they're shooting at cops. They're just like, they go crazy. Like, some people just can't handle alcohol. Doesn't mean it should be illegal. Like, that's crazy. And it's the same thing I feel with pot. Pot is super beneficial to a lot of people.

• 16:05Speaker 01

  And has been for millions of years.

• 16:08Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 16:08Speaker 01

  For who knows. 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?

• 16:15Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 16:16Speaker 01

  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, you know, nice little raw papers.

• 16:25Joe Rogan?

  Mmm.

• 16:26Speaker 01

  And, uh, that's my, that's daddy's cocktail.

• 16:29Joe Rogan?

  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.

• 16:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:40Joe Rogan?

  Your fucking head and your body's tired.

• 16:43Speaker 01

  I hear swelling, you know, and different kinds of things. And also, I'm from a home where my favorite person, my cousin, 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 inside, uh, my toy box and find scotch.

• 17:09Joe Rogan?

  Oh, he would hide it?

• 17:10Speaker 01

  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 bad experience like that in your youth can make you a little bit leery about liquor.

• 17:29Joe Rogan?

  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. 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. And I think that's why, because I watched this.

• 17:47Speaker 01

  So you've, you've never tried a line?

• 17:49Joe Rogan?

  Never.

• 17:50Speaker 01

  That's heavy, man.

• 17:52Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 17:52Speaker 01

  Cause I had to try it to see what it smelled like, you know? I mean.

• 17:56Joe Rogan?

  I'm sure I'd like it. My friend Jimmy said, "Don't do this, you'd love it." But he's probably right.

• 18:02Speaker 01

  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 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.

• 18:14Joe Rogan?

  The thing is, like, I don't know anybody who's had, like, cocaine was really good for me. Like, doing cocaine was really good. When I started doing cocaine, my life just really changed. I really got clarity. I started focusing, I was nicer to people. I don't ever hear that story. Never, not once.

• 18:29Speaker 01

  I did a little coke and then I was president of Yale and I ran for...

• 18:32Joe Rogan?

  I do hear people say that about speed, which is weird. You hear people say that about amphetamines, like, especially Adderall. Like, how like, "Oh, my God, it makes me so productive, I get so much done." But it's generally, it's like journalists and people that have to write a lot.

• 18:47Speaker 01

  Students. I'm 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?"

• 19:05Joe Rogan?

  Probably, probably, but I don't...

• 19:08Speaker 01

  It's a pill, right?

• 19:08Joe Rogan?

  It scares me, though, because 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 ya. And then you start leaning on it.

• 19:20Speaker 01

  So that, that's one of, one of the downs is it's extremely addicting.

• 19:24Joe Rogan?

  Very addictive.

• 19:25Speaker 01

  But what's the other downside?

• 19:26Joe Rogan?

  Well, I would imagine when you get off of it, you're exhausted. Because I would imagine whenever there's, there's always some sort of a biological, you know, there's, there's, whenever, there's no free lunch, right? Anything that speeds you up is gonna bring you down. Like, this guy, if you're ramping your body up where you're focusing for fucking 16 hours, you're sitting in front of the typewriter.

• 19:50Joe Rogan?

  And that's what like, why journalists like it. I would imagine the back end of it, you've done it, Jamie.

• 19:56Speaker 04

  Only twice, because it kept me up for two days.

• 19:59Joe Rogan?

  See, that's what I'm talking about.

• 20:00Speaker 01

  Sounds like cold.

• 20:01Joe Rogan?

  That's it.

• 20:01Speaker 04

  It's in amphetamine, so yeah, I went to try to go to bed and was like, oh, this isn't happening. So, let's get up and see how, we're up all day, alright.

• 20:08Joe Rogan?

  Two days?

• 20:09Speaker 04

  Yeah, I just, I had to call off work, it wasn't good.

• 20:12Joe Rogan?

  And then you feel real dopey after it wears off, right?

• 20:14Speaker 04

  Yeah, it didn't, I didn't feel like I succeeded on anything that day.

• 20:17Joe Rogan?

  Man, that is 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.

• 20:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:26Joe Rogan?

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

• 20:45Speaker 01

  The most, the most recent one?

• 20:47Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, the one I was just talking about. It'd probably be good to be loopy, you know? Like, because, you know, the writers on news radio, they would stay up all night on purpose, just to get loopy. Because that was how, because they didn't really do any drugs, they just would use sleep deprivation to be silly.

• 21:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:04Joe Rogan?

  It was hilarious, like, these guys would start writing at like, 2 o'clock in the morning. Like, they would stay up, they would play video games, and they would start writing a script at like, 2 o'clock in the morning. And then they would stumble in to, like, when we have a table read, 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, 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. And you start thinking silly things.

• 21:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:45Joe Rogan?

  And those guys, that's how they would use it, they would use that weird state of mind, that loopiness, to write. 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.

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• 23:08Joe Rogan?

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• 23:13Speaker 01

  I need my sleep, man. If I have sleep, I can do anything.

• 23:18Joe Rogan?

  I feel like they could've got there with weed without all the loopiness. You know, you want to 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.

• 23:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, but weed ain't for everybody.

• 23:31Joe Rogan?

  It's not for everybody.

• 23:32Speaker 01

  It ain't for everybody. And, but, yeah, I love having my sleep. As a matter of fact, that's the drug that's most important to me. Having an Ambien nearby.

• 23:44Joe Rogan?

  You like that?

• 23:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, a quarter, just a little bite of Ambien.

• 23:49Joe Rogan?

  A little bite.

• 23:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, will hook you up.

• 23:51Joe Rogan?

  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. And he told me, like, dude, my house could be on fire, and I would have no idea. I'm like, that can't be good, 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 and then he was taking Ambien at night. Can't believe he's still alive.

• 24:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's, that's too much.

• 24:17Joe Rogan?

  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. Cause like if we're on a plane, the moment the plane takes off, I'm out cold. I could just go to sleep.

• 24:40Speaker 01

  The bad thing about me is I can sleep best in places I shouldn't sleep. Like church.

• 24:48Speaker 01

  Or sit and talk to my woman's grandma.

• 24:50Joe Rogan?

  Sleepy. I don't know why. Why is, why does church make you so sleepy?

• 24:54Speaker 01

  Or reading.

• 24:55Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, reading will put you out.

• 24:56Speaker 01

  There are some audible books that are worse than Ambien.

• 25:00Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 25:00Speaker 01

  You know.

• 25:01Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, something about physically reading puts me out. Just sitting there like looking at the pages, I just start nodding off.

• 25:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, I, I, um, The Alchemist. I have been on page twelve for like a year and a half, you know? Sit down on a plane and just, just read The Alchemist at the top of the page and I'm out.

• 25:23Joe Rogan?

  Yeah. It's fiction for me that puts me out. Nonfiction doesn't really put me out. Nonfiction is more, like I guess it's more stimulating because it's real, you know, cause I'm reading about real things. Something about reading fiction is what puts me to sleep.

• 25:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, for me, it's just reading. Just so I can take out my license.

• 25:42Speaker 01

  And look and say, oh.

• 25:46Speaker 01

  Halfway through my name. Out. This is cool, man.

• 25:50Joe Rogan?

  Not having sleep is 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?

• 26:03Speaker 01

  No, is that an action movie?

• 26:05Joe Rogan?

  Well, it's, that's the movie with, uh, What's Christian Bale? Christian Bale, where he lost an insane amount of weight. Like, Christian Bale's a big guy.

• 26:15Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 26:15Joe Rogan?

  And I think he got to like a hundred and thirty something pounds.

• 26:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:18Joe Rogan?

  And the, the, the idea was that this guy was going completely insane because he couldn't sleep. And so he wasn't eating. And so he was just like up all the time, like out of it. 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.

• 26:35Speaker 01

  Oh, shit.

• 26:35Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 26:37Speaker 01

  That looks like he's about to make a whole different movie.

• 26:39Joe Rogan?

  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 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 image on the far right. The, the one that you just, like, look at that. Look at the difference between, that was like six months later.

• 27:11Speaker 01

  That can't, that can't be healthy.

• 27:13Joe Rogan?

  No. Fucking terrible for you. It has to be terrible. Terrible.

• 27:17Speaker 01

  Do you like to act?

• 27:19Joe Rogan?

  No. I don't hate it.

• 27:22Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 27:22Joe Rogan?

  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 just like all kinds of people.

• 27:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:33Joe Rogan?

  Cops. There's a lot of cops that are awesome.

• 27:35Speaker 01

  Because I know you had a point in your life when you could probably do anything you want. And I never see you pursuing any acting roles.

• 27:43Joe Rogan?

  No, I avoid them. Yeah, I've, I've been offered some fun stuff. And I was like, mm, I'm not going to Bulgaria for three months. Fuck that. I'm just, I, it's not my thing. If it was my thing, I would, I'd be like, feel very fortunate and I'd, I'd dive on it. I'd be like, oh my god, it's amazing.

• 28:00Speaker 01

  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?

• 28:09Joe Rogan?

  It doesn't bother me.

• 28:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:11Joe Rogan?

  It, but it's not, it's just not what I enjoy doing. And again, it's the process, that's the problem. It's the sixteen 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. Because they're always worried they're gonna be cast out of the kingdom. You know what I mean? So it's like this very disingenuous way of communicating that a lot of actors have and it's just.

• 28:40Speaker 01

  And you always feel when you do something that this person's gonna be your friend for life. I'll see you next month and you never see that fucker ever again. It's such a disingenuous environment.

• 28:51Joe Rogan?

  Do you enjoy it? Do you enjoy acting?

• 28:53Speaker 01

  I kinda like it, but at seventy, I prefer to just be at home.

• 28:59Joe Rogan?

  You're seventy.

• 29:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:00Joe Rogan?

  You look so good.

• 29:02Speaker 01

  Oh, thanks, dawg.

• 29:02Joe Rogan?

  That's kind of crazy that you're seventy.

• 29:05Speaker 01

  And no creatine.

• 29:07Joe Rogan?

  Imagine how good you'd look if you had creatine.

• 29:09Speaker 01

  I'm gonna get it.

• 29:10Joe Rogan?

  Seventy, man, if you told me that you were forty-five, if I didn't know you told me you were forty-five, I'd believe you. That's nuts.

• 29:17Speaker 01

  That's a blessing.

• 29:18Joe Rogan?

  Isn't that crazy?

• 29:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, and I'm happy, so that's unusual.

• 29:24Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, right? A lot of people when they're seventy, they're bitter and tired.

• 29:28Speaker 01

  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.

• 29:45Joe Rogan?

  Oh, right.

• 29:46Speaker 01

  So I bought me a condo and I told Richard Pryor that I got a condo. I don't know, it's one of those, I think I heard you and Shane talking about it, 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.

• 30:11Speaker 01

  And I was like, oh, okay.

• 30:15Speaker 01

  And him and Rashawn, his body man, came to see my condo. And that was the coolest thing in the world, but the one thing I remember, I remember I had no furniture. And Rashawn had told me, his guy had told me to get some Cava Cie. So I had some Cava Cie. You know, and we sat on the floor and drank Cava Cie and listened to a boombox with jazz on it and talked. And he looked around at one point and he said, this reminds me of when I was happy.

• 30:47Joe Rogan?

  Whoa.

• 30:48Speaker 01

  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.

• 31:02Joe Rogan?

  What did that mean to you at the time when he said, this reminds me of when I was happy?

• 31:06Speaker 01

  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

• 31:16Speaker 01

  that he bought things and philosophies that made his life more complex. And he was happy, this is what I think it means, he was happy with the simple shit, you know? 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, because 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.

• 32:01Joe Rogan?

  Nobody's knocking down your door trying to get to you.

• 32:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, just a condo 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." 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.

• 32:26Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 32:27Speaker 01

  That would, you know, you walk into a guest house and cobwebs 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.

• 32:41Joe Rogan?

  Right, and too much complexity.

• 32:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:44Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, too much.

• 32:45Speaker 01

  Somebody said, uh, my business manager said something about my staff and it dawned on me, what the fuck do I have a staff for? You know, 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.

• 33:06Joe Rogan?

  That's better, yeah. There's a lot of people that just want a lot of people around them because 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.

• 33:18Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 33:19Joe Rogan?

  Keep moving, keep moving.

• 33:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:21Joe Rogan?

  But no peace.

• 33:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:22Joe Rogan?

  Not good. I always tell comedians, like, they're like, "Oh, I gotta get an assistant." I go, "No, you don't. Just do less shit. Don't get an assistant." You get an assistant, that person's gonna wanna kill you. That person's, they're gonna feel entitled, you're making all this money, they're not. You're famous, they're not. They see you for who you really are, they're following you like, "You fucking regular guy. Why's he got all this?" Like David Spade's assistant duct taped him and tased him, remember that?

• 33:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:48Joe Rogan?

  Tried to kill him.

• 33:50Speaker 01

  That's, that's, that's heavy, man. And I've heard that the people who work for us always hate us. I've always avoided. Somebody told me-

• 33:59Joe Rogan?

  It's not always the case.

• 34:00Speaker 01

  They say, "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."

• 34:08Speaker 01

  And I don't wanna believe that.

• 34:11Joe Rogan?

  It's not always the case, but 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. Why 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?

• 34:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:27Joe Rogan?

  Like, that's not what the job is. The job is, you're a gardener. Garden doesn't make five million dollars a year. Like, this is, you're kind of being crazy. And then 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 kind of 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, and he's always looking for, they're fucking trying to overcharge me.

• 34:53Speaker 01

  Signs his own checks?

• 34:54Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, but he gets crazy when he thinks people are overcharging him. But I'm like, dude, you're almost 80, 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.

• 35:07Speaker 01

  Maybe that's why he has a billion.

• 35:09Joe Rogan?

  Perhaps. I mean, he's a businessman. That's his thing. But what drives him nuts is this idea that people are overcharging him because he's wealthy, that taking advantage of him.

• 35:21Speaker 01

  Joe, the craziest I ever went was, I had a barber when I had hair, you know? And you know, a black barber is a skilled scientist, you know, because back then I had it fried, dyed, and laid to the side with three Adidas stripes over on the left. And, you know, my shit was intricate that year. And 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-- so I found out that Johnny Gill was paying 100, I was paying 350.

• 36:09Speaker 01

  And that drives me crazy because basically, like you say, he was charging based on who I am.

• 36:17Joe Rogan?

  Right. Yeah, he like you can afford it.

• 36:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. And I had a friend who had more money than me and he was charging him a crazy amount. It was like the rental of a rose.

• 36:30Speaker 01

  Crazy money.

• 36:32Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, well, that's what comes with the territory. People just think you're not going to notice. They don't care, you know?

• 36:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, I guess, yeah.

• 36:43Joe Rogan?

  Do you think you are happier now than you were when the Arsenio Hall show was at its peak?

• 36:52Speaker 01

  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. You know, I did a good job of investing and making sure that when the lights went out, I was good. So I love my life right now, man.

• 37:19Joe Rogan?

  More relaxed, less pressure.

• 37:21Speaker 01

  And being the OG and pretty much your responsibility is just giving advice to a comic in the hallway.

• 37:27Joe Rogan?

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• 38:09Joe Rogan?

  There's even an option for candidates to explain why they want the job. Let ZipRecruiter find the right people for your roles, seasonal. Or otherwise, try it for free today at ziprecruiter.com/rogan. That's ziprecruiter.com/rogan. Meet your match on ZipRecruiter. This episode is brought to you by The Farmer's Dog. Here's a fun fact. Research shows that dogs who maintain a healthy weight can live up to two and a half years longer on average than dogs who are overweight. Isn't that wild and also kind of obvious at the same time? So why is feeding vague scoops of ultra-processed kibble still the status quo for most dog owners?

• 38:54Joe Rogan?

  Healthy alternatives exist, and trust me, I know. I buy one, The Farmer's Dog. I use it for both my dogs. They love it. They eat it up quick. It smells good to them. It smells good to me. It's human-grade food. The Farmer's Dog makes fresh food for dogs, and my dogs love it. Their recipes are made with real meat and fresh vegetables that are gently cooked to retain vital nutrients. They also portion out the meals to your dog's nutritional needs, which helps avoid overfeeding and makes weight management easier. And isn't getting more time with our four-legged best friends something every dog owner wants? The answer to that is yes, obviously.

• 39:34Joe Rogan?

  So try The Farmer's Dog today and get 50% off your first box of fresh, healthy food. Plus, get free shipping. Just go to thefarmersdog.com/rogan. This offer is for new customers only. Yeah. You know, 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? Probably, Coming to America was like 86, 87. I left New York and went and started the show. So 87, 88, sometime around there. I'm bad with years. Yeah. During that time and in the 90s, it changed the whole landscape of late-night television, like completely changed it.

• 40:19Joe Rogan?

  Because late-night television was stiff. You know, it was like, yeah, fucking the desk. The desk made no sense to me. I talk about the desk and how

• 40:29Speaker 01

  I got rid of it, but but.

• 40:30Joe Rogan?

  It made no sense, but you would. I was like, oh, finally he got rid of the desk. Fucking, are we being lectured? Am I in the principal's office? Like, what is, what's the fucking desk for? But when they first started doing that in the nineteen fifty's, if you went to work, you had a desk. You had to wear a tie, you had a desk, and they all smoked cigarettes while they were on the job. Watch like the Johnny Carson show.

• 40:51Speaker 01

  During commercials, Johnny would go under his desk. Get a cigarette.

• 40:55Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, well, they would often smoke on air. They would do it all the time back then. They all smoked.

• 41:00Speaker 01

  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.

• 41:08Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 41:09Speaker 01

  And I'm in the no smoking row, and the bitch behind me got a cigar.

• 41:14Joe Rogan?

  And it was just flooding the entire cabin.

• 41:17Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 41:18Joe Rogan?

  You know, Dice used to have a joke about it. You're in a fucking tube. Where's the air going?

• 41:25Joe Rogan?

  It was a weird time, but the, the whole idea was what I was getting to was like. Late night television was very stiff. It was, you know, it was like.

• 41:38Joe Rogan?

  And then your show came around.

• 41:40Speaker 01

  Paul Anka wrote that.

• 41:41Joe Rogan?

  Did he?

• 41:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:42Joe Rogan?

  Oh, wow. 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. And I mean, everybody was like, what is happening? The fucking president of the, was he the president back then or was he running?

• 41:59Speaker 01

  He was a governor.

• 42:02Speaker 01

  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.

• 42:17Joe Rogan?

  Look at that. Look at that.

• 42:19Speaker 01

  The, the joke I had just done was finally a Democrat blowing something other than the election.

• 42:27Speaker 01

  When you look, you remember jokes 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, you know? And I like that, you know? They have to go everywhere now.

• 42:49Joe Rogan?

  Well, they go where the people are paying attention, right? But it was different because if they did the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, it would be, you know, a very competent interview, but it would be stiff. It was like very, I mean, not even stiff's not the right word. It was traditional. It was like, this was different, like him playing the saxophone, running for president, playing the saxophone. I was like, what is happening here?

• 43:15Speaker 01

  And I tried to get, I told Jenna Bush this last week, I'm on this book slinging tour, and I told her, I said, I invited your grandpa because back then, there was a mentality that you do equal both sides, you know? 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 is 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?

• 43:57Joe Rogan?

  I wonder why?

• 43:58Speaker 01

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

• 44:16Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, that's right. Things that make you go hmm.

• 44:21Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, yeah.

• 44:22Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, there was a lot going on.

• 44:23Speaker 01

  I had a couple of hooks going.

• 44:25Joe Rogan?

  Oh, you had a great hook. The things that make you go whom. Everybody used that all day long. Like when, if something weird was going on in the office, people are, things that make you go hmm.

• 44:34Speaker 01

  And it was so cool, then they wrote a song about it, and I would turn on TV and I would see.

• 44:39Joe Rogan?

  Was that CNC Music Factory?

• 44:40Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 44:41Joe Rogan?

  That's right.

• 44:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, and I would turn on TV and like Nordstrom's would have a sale that makes you go hmm. That's very cool, you know.

• 44:50Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 44:50Speaker 01

  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.

• 45:04Joe Rogan?

  Right, right.

• 45:06Speaker 01

  And so it really was a cheating technique for a comedy.

• 45:09Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, perfect non sequitur, just a transition.

• 45:12Speaker 01

  Every now and then, you, hey, why don't black women breastfeed chocolate milk? And you have no place else to put that, that thought.

• 45:20Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 45:20Speaker 01

  So, it's a, a stream of things that make you go, hmm.

• 45:24Joe Rogan?

  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.

• 45:34Speaker 01

  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'd 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? 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, so I want you to just try without the desk.

• 46:19Speaker 01

  And um, I tried it without the desk and never went back.

• 46:24Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, you changed it. I mean, like, and then George Lopez did no desk, when he did his show, a few people have tried the no desk thing, but...

• 46:34Speaker 01

  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.

• 46:41Joe Rogan?

  Mmm.

• 46:42Speaker 01

  And you can't reach across the desk and hold somebody's hand.

• 46:46Joe Rogan?

  Well, also, the desk was always elevated.

• 46:48Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, you want to be high.

• 46:49Joe Rogan?

  The desk was always above the guest.

• 46:50Speaker 01

  We must be higher.

• 46:51Joe Rogan?

  Which is weird.

• 46:52Speaker 01

  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.

• 47:09Joe Rogan?

  To make your seat higher?

• 47:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I'm sitting even with Kareem. You know, which is bullshit, you know.

• 47:18Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, it's a weird thing. It's like, why would the host be above movie stars? And rock stars? Why? That doesn't make any sense at all.

• 47:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, unless your host is David Bowie.

• 47:30Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, right?

• 47:33Joe Rogan?

  Unless he decides to do a talk show. 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.

• 47:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:42Joe Rogan?

  Sitting with each other, you know?

• 47:44Speaker 01

  And now-

• 47:45Joe Rogan?

  You can lean in.

• 47:46Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 47:47Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 47:47Speaker 01

  You could, you could touch the person, you could poke the person. 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. 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.

• 48:09Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 48:09Speaker 01

  We can, anyone can have a show now.

• 48:12Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 48:13Speaker 01

  And that's kind of cool.

• 48:14Joe Rogan?

  It is kind of cool. And it's just like, and you find your, 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. You'll find your own way of doing things.

• 48:27Speaker 01

  I have friends who have children who have shows.

• 48:30Joe Rogan?

  Hmm.

• 48:30Speaker 01

  Makeup tutorials and successful things going on in their bedroom.

• 48:35Joe Rogan?

  One of the biggest shows on YouTube for a long time was a kid that was like unboxing toys.

• 48:41Speaker 01

  Oh, that's cool.

• 48:41Joe Rogan?

  And it was sort of, but then 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.

• 49:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 49:04Joe Rogan?

  Like, there's a lot of shows that I watch on YouTube that it's just people cooking.

• 49:08Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 49:09Joe Rogan?

  I just, I love watching people-

• 49:10Speaker 01

  I watch a lady cook with big titties and, and just an apron. You know, side boobies be coming out.

• 49:19Joe Rogan?

  That's a trick. She's tricking it. I like watching people cook with no talking. It's just ASMR, 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.

• 49:33Speaker 01

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

• 49:39Joe Rogan?

  Right, I remember those days.

• 49:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, and, and, and the shit signed off at two.

• 49:44Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 49:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, you da, da, da, da, da.

• 49:48Joe Rogan?

  And you fall asleep wa- watching TV and that would wake you up. Yeah, cuz it would be just crackling like, oh geez, I stayed up too late. You'd have to shut it off after the American flag, cuz the American flag would wave on the TV, right?

• 50:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, there would be a, a match fade from a soldier to the American flag.

• 50:05Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, and then it would just go static at two in the morning. And then I remember when Fox came out and everybody's like, this channel is crazy.

• 50:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:16Joe Rogan?

  Fox is, they had The Simpsons and Married with Children.

• 50:19Speaker 01

  Changed my life, man. Tho- those, uh, Tracy Allman.

• 50:22Joe Rogan?

  Mm-hmm.

• 50:22Speaker 01

  And then, of course, they discovered that they could get numbers with me and Living Color.

• 50:28Joe Rogan?

  Mm-hmm.

• 50:29Speaker 01

  And, uh, Fox was really important to us.

• 50:33Joe Rogan?

  Fox is important to America. I mean, it was, it was a looser, wilder network. It was like a network that was a little crazier. They were doing things, they were, they were getting nuts.

• 50:43Speaker 01

  And they had to. They had to take some chances and roll the dice in a different way.

• 50:47Joe Rogan?

  Right, yeah. And then cable came along. It was like the slow descent into madness. And then all of a sudden you have a hundred and fifty channels and now you have like literally an infinite number of channels. Because of streaming and YouTube, it's, you could never run out of things to look at.

• 51:04Speaker 01

  Which is crazy because I turn a lot and I'm like, yo, motherfucker, they got two million stations and you channel chasing? You can't find something? But I'm a big YouTube guy because I, I don't like commercials.

• 51:19Joe Rogan?

  Mm-hmm.

• 51:20Speaker 01

  I want what I want and I want it in small increments. I actually, as a seventy 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.

• 51:35Joe Rogan?

  Mm-hmm.

• 51:36Speaker 01

  And, uh, I'm jumping around.

• 51:39Joe Rogan?

  Well, when I'm watching TV, I'm, I'm generally trying to check out, you know, or I'm trying to be educated.

• 51:46Speaker 01

  Right.

• 51:46Joe Rogan?

  So either I'm watching some. Um, like, particle physicists talk about the, the way they find new particles by using particle colliders and large hadron colliders and the amount of energy required to duplicate the, you know, the conditions that happen right after the big bang.

• 52:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:06Joe Rogan?

  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.

• 52:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:19Joe Rogan?

  I'm just trying to like relax.

• 52:20Speaker 01

  But that's so heavy. I heard you and Cat talking about the pyramids.

• 52:25Joe Rogan?

  Mm-hmm.

• 52:26Speaker 01

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

• 52:32Joe Rogan?

  Why?

• 52:33Speaker 01

  Because I've heard you talk about the re-explosion of, it, it's just when you hear that kind of shit and you're like, I don't want to be here like pussy crazy, huh? I don't want to be that guy, you know? So it, it's intimidating to watch intelligent people have an exchange and say, I got to go there.

• 52:53Joe Rogan?

  Is it?

• 52:54Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 52:55Joe Rogan?

  Well, I, I guess.

• 52:56Speaker 01

  You don't want, you don't want to be the first idiot in the room. Nobody.

• 52:59Joe Rogan?

  Oh, you definitely want to be the first idiot on this show. And you're not an idiot anyway, but there's been plenty of really fucking dumb people on this show that were great.

• 53:07Speaker 01

  But ha- ha- do you know somebody that is really intelligent and conversation with them is intimidating?

• 53:12Joe Rogan?

  Oh, sure.

• 53:13Speaker 01

  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, or the second time, I guess I should say, it was kind of daunting because he, no matter what your politics is, he's a really smart guy.

• 53:31Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 53:32Speaker 01

  Cat Williams is the same way. That motherfucker read a lot more books than I read.

• 53:36Joe Rogan?

  Well, Cat's brilliant. I mean, you can't be that funny and not be very intelligent.

• 53:42Speaker 01

  It's the reason Bill Cosby was so funny. He was a bright man.

• 53:45Joe Rogan?

  Mm.

• 53:46Speaker 01

  Uh oh.

• 53:50Joe Rogan?

  That's a problematic subject. Also, Bill Clinton, I wish Bill Clinton didn't have so many problems because I would like to talk to him. I would love to have to sit down with him on a podcast. You know, the problem is like, how do you sit down and not talk about all the chaos and all the nutty shit? And Epstein files and all the other shit like you kind of almost have to talk about it. 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. It's crazy.

• 54:35Joe Rogan?

  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 everything he said made sense.

• 54:44Speaker 01

  And didn't he move a little to the right?

• 54:47Joe Rogan?

  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? It doesn't mean anything anymore.

• 54:54Speaker 01

  It's accepting that a lot of things are valuable that are not a part of your party's philosophy. I think we have to be willing to compromise and move a little bit. And that goes for all politicians. We have to be able to move a little bit to be logical and serve all of America.

• 55:13Joe Rogan?

  For sure, but I think 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 is a bad idea because terrorists can come through.

• 55:30Joe Rogan?

  No, there's no one's illegal on stolen land. You know, you get, 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 ways, but they're not.

• 55:52Speaker 01

  A little to the right.

• 55:53Joe Rogan?

  But it's not really right wing, it's just.

• 55:55Speaker 01

  Sensible, like what is right and what is left?

• 55:58Joe Rogan?

  Left used to be, first of all, freedom of speech was of paramount importance. It used to be that they were very open minded. It used to be like 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 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 is supposed to be, you're supposed to look out for everyone. You know, that, that's sensible. That's what the left used to be. And then it became, trans women are women. Men can get pregnant.

• 56:43Speaker 01

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

• 56:54Speaker 01

  I'm always reminded that the Democratic Party was the party of the Klan, if you go far enough back. So, I'm, I'm a republicrat. I have to look at it all.

• 57:05Joe Rogan?

  But wasn't Lincoln a Republican?

• 57:09Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 57:09Joe Rogan?

  I believe Lincoln was a Republican. I think the Republicans were the ones who were trying to abolish slavery. There was 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? Eight. When she was, 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.

• 57:50Joe Rogan?

  And everyone was cheering like, the lady's MAGA. That sounds completely MAGA.

• 57:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's why I say when you deal with Democrat, Republican, you have to attach a year because it's evolved and changed many times.

• 58:00Joe Rogan?

  That's all. You're just being manipulated. And you're being manipulated by these two teams. And you have to pick a team. You have to decide which team you want.

• 58:09Speaker 01

  I hate that.

• 58:09Joe Rogan?

  It's so stupid. I'm politically homeless. I've always been politi- I've been politically homeless for a long fucking time. It doesn't, neither one of them make any sense to me. We need like a logical centrist government that like just says, 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 to people on the right, they immediately dismiss it because it's coming from the left. And that happens the same 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. It's just you pick a fucking team and you let that team sucks.

• 58:48Speaker 01

  What a horrible game, by the way.

• 58:52Joe Rogan?

  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. So now I don't have to think for myself. I have a predetermined pattern of opinions that I could just adopt and I'll just accept those. And that's how I think and that's what I'm going to argue with.

• 59:16Speaker 01

  When I was young, I used to,

• 59:19Speaker 01

  in some jokes, say my, my heart is democratic, but my wallet is republican.

• 59:24Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 59:25Speaker 01

  You know, but it's not even that simple anymore. It's gotten much more complicated.

• 59:29Joe Rogan?

  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.

• 59:36Speaker 01

  Or unless you're committing fraud.

• 59:38Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 59:38Speaker 01

  Then I, you know, I'm pro me.

• 59:40Joe Rogan?

  Yeah. Well, I think a lot of people that, you know, are certainly benefiting from fraud would like to dismiss it, whether it's the left or the right.

• 59:47Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 59:48Joe Rogan?

  There's like, we, 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 going to represent you entirely. And it's much more likely if you have like five, 10, 15 different parties that are all legitimate. Because we don't have another legitimate party. If you vote for libertarian, and I've voted libertarian before, you're basically saying fuck these people. You know, fuck these people. I'm voting.

• 1:00:15Speaker 01

  You're jacking up the Dolphin Raider game.

• 1:00:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:00:21Joe Rogan?

  I'm voting for rugby. 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, and I've done that before. I did that with Joe Jorgensen, I did that with Gary Johnson, I voted for both of them.

• 1:00:37Speaker 01

  But why do you think we've not been able to come up with legitimate third, fourth, and fifth parties?

• 1:00:44Joe Rogan?

  Well, they got it locked down. They've got it locked down.

• 1:00:46Speaker 01

  With donations and money?

• 1:00:48Joe Rogan?

  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-

• 1:00:56Speaker 01

  And, and not, not just corporations, but other countries.

• 1:00:59Joe Rogan?

  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.

• 1:01:44Joe Rogan?

  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 better H E L P dot com slash J R E. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not good, it's not good. Money and politics is the real problem.

• 1:02:27Joe Rogan?

  You know, it should, you know, the whole thing, it's a mess. And then you find out how much money politicians make.

• 1:02:32Speaker 01

  While TSA guys have nothing.

• 1:02:35Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:35Speaker 01

  And politicians are still getting a motherfucking check?

• 1:02:37Joe Rogan?

  Yes, exactly. 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, because it didn't make any sense. They were doing things for optics only. And they were doing things because 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 lost-

• 1:03:17Speaker 01

  Somebody should be in trouble for the Epstein files. Somebody.

• 1:03:20Joe Rogan?

  At least one person, please?

• 1:03:22Speaker 01

  Yes. It's crazy that we're sitting around looking at that.

• 1:03:24Joe Rogan?

  It's crazy.

• 1:03:25Speaker 01

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

• 1:03:29Joe Rogan?

  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.

• 1:03:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:03:46Joe Rogan?

  That's nuts. That's a sick society.

• 1:03:50Speaker 01

  As a kid, I did magic, right? And there's a thing in magic, I take a coin and put it in this hand. There's a thing called misdirection. That's what I just did to you. You looked at that hand. I'm doing some shit right here. That's the story of American politics.

• 1:04:05Joe Rogan?

  Oh, yeah. Whenever something weird's going on. Look, when Monica Lewinsky, when Bill Clinton got caught with Monica Lewinsky, they mean, they started bombing some other countries. They're like, we gotta distract these people. This is just too complicated. Look, the Epstein files comes out, we go to war with Iran. It's a good way to get people to stop talking about certain things. You give them a new problem to think about.

• 1:04:26Speaker 01

  Hey, this morning, I wake up in a very nice hotel, thanks to you. Breakfast was paid for, the tip was done, all that shit. It was kind of cool.

• 1:04:36Speaker 01

  And I was nervous. And I'm thinking, I'm nervous.

• 1:04:41Speaker 01

  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.

• 1:04:57Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:58Speaker 01

  Cause I, I feel so sad on a lot of levels.

• 1:05:02Joe Rogan?

  And anxiety.

• 1:05:03Speaker 01

  Yes, yes.

• 1:05:04Joe Rogan?

  News just gives me anxiety.

• 1:05:06Speaker 01

  But I gotta, as a comic, I gotta watch. Cause I gotta know everything. I gotta have that, that, that mental rolodex loaded.

• 1:05:13Joe Rogan?

  Yes.

• 1:05:13Speaker 01

  For crowd work or whatever.

• 1:05:16Joe Rogan?

  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. I would just hide. 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 want to 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.

• 1:06:00Joe Rogan?

  And it just drives you nuts and.

• 1:06:03Speaker 01

  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.

• 1:06:16Joe Rogan?

  You can affect some things, I guess.

• 1:06:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, now that I think about.

• 1:06:19Joe Rogan?

  I don't want to. I don't want to affect. If I can affect things in a positive way, I can, yeah. I mean, there's some things that I'd like to do.

• 1:06:27Speaker 01

  By dispersing information of candidates.

• 1:06:30Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:30Speaker 01

  And for helping to inform people. But, but that kind of money that you have to have to have a dinner in Malibu. And, uh, and later get some shit done that you want to get done. Cause the president is your guy now.

• 1:06:45Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:46Speaker 01

  Or girl.

• 1:06:47Joe Rogan?

  Very complicated.

• 1:06:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:06:49Joe Rogan?

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

• 1:07:10Speaker 01

  Well, a lot of us do that. And that's really painful, to think that the lesser of two evils is a horrible thing as a philosophy for a place we raise our children.

• 1:07:21Joe Rogan?

  Right. Yeah. There's no one person that really comes along, we're like, "Oh, finally." Like, a peaceful, God-loving person who's just looking out for everybody's best interest, who really only wants to do this because they think they can affect change. And then, once they do try to affect change, they get fucking shot. Because nobody really wants that, because they're all making money.

• 1:07:40Speaker 01

  When we were coming up, remember the Sam Kinison bit?

• 1:07:43Joe Rogan?

  Which bit?

• 1:07:45Speaker 01

  I think it was very similar to that, people who have an idea, we kill them.

• 1:07:49Joe Rogan?

  Oh, that was Bill Hicks.

• 1:07:50Speaker 01

  Oh, it was Hicks?

• 1:07:51Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hicks had a great bit about that. Yeah, and it's totally true. I mean, anybody that really wants to rock the apple cart, like, that person's a problem. You know, and all these people that are making, well, these sociopaths that are making fucking billions of dollars just being cunts. 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..." Like, that's why people cheered when that guy got shot, the United Healthcare guy. He got shot. People were happy. They were happy, like, finally.

• 1:08:25Speaker 01

  At first, I thought it was, I thought, homie who shot him, I thought it was his eyebrows, you know, because women were going crazy, you know?

• 1:08:31Joe Rogan?

  He was a hot guy. He was a good-looking guy, too. He was a perfect guy to be like a martyr, like, an assassin.

• 1:08:37Speaker 01

  But, 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 trials, where the hot guy gets off for murder, easy. Because eleven women were cool with it.

• 1:08:56Joe Rogan?

  Well, women are weird with killers. You know, when guys, or even serial killers, when they go to jail, women...

• 1:09:02Speaker 01

  They get great letters, proposals.

• 1:09:05Joe Rogan?

  Weird.

• 1:09:06Speaker 01

  "Marry me."

• 1:09:06Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, even, like, Richard Ramirez was getting all these proposals while he was in jail.

• 1:09:11Speaker 01

  But the ultimate game for a woman is to be married, but not have to live with that motherfucker. So, that might be kind of cool.

• 1:09:20Joe Rogan?

  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.

• 1:09:27Speaker 01

  Ooh.

• 1:09:28Joe Rogan?

  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. So it's almost like an attractive trait. That someone's willing to cross that terrible line 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.

• 1:09:54Speaker 01

  I knew a girl who went out with a couple of 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.

• 1:10:06Joe Rogan?

  Oh.

• 1:10:07Speaker 01

  And she, because that, that made her feel better.

• 1:10:11Joe Rogan?

  That's a crazy bitch. I've been around people like that before. I always got rid of them real quick. I've had a few ladies like that.

• 1:10:18Speaker 01

  You gonna let him say that to me?

• 1:10:19Joe Rogan?

  You know, that. I'd be like, why'd you say that to him? The fu- don't get me involved in this stupid shit.

• 1:10:24Speaker 01

  But it's hard, man. I was in a club as a young man on Sunset. Left the Comedy Store, went down the street to a place called Carlos and Charlie's. And back then, they had, uh, this garment called a tube top.

• 1:10:36Joe Rogan?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:10:36Speaker 01

  It was just an elastic, about, elastic piece about eight inches, or depending on your breasts. And, um, I watched a dude take his finger and just pull the girl's tube top down, titties fell out. And I'm watching her man. He didn't know what to do, you know, because you don't wanna fight these guys.

• 1:10:56Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 1:10:57Speaker 01

  You almost wanna just say, baby, just pull up your top, let's go home, you know? But he had to fight.

• 1:11:02Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:03Speaker 01

  And, uh, in that situation, I, I think you have to fight.

• 1:11:07Joe Rogan?

  You, you just definitely shouldn't be there in the first place. That's the problem with going to clubs.

• 1:11:12Speaker 01

  You're at the wrong club.

• 1:11:13Joe Rogan?

  Running into the, the potential psychopath is just too, like, that's where they go. Where people act like cunts. That's where they go.

• 1:11:23Speaker 01

  When is the last time you went to a club?

• 1:11:24Joe Rogan?

  I never go to clubs.

• 1:11:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's been a long time for me. I mean, there is no club for seventy year olds.

• 1:11:29Joe Rogan?

  No, no, no, no.

• 1:11:30Speaker 01

  Let's call ARP.

• 1:11:31Joe Rogan?

  Well, if you do go, it's sad.

• 1:11:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, you don't wanna be the oldest.

• 1:11:35Joe Rogan?

  At the bar.

• 1:11:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:11:36Joe Rogan?

  Hey ladies, what's fucking grandpa doing here?

• 1:11:39Speaker 01

  But, but are ki- do kids dance now?

• 1:11:42Joe Rogan?

  That's a good question.

• 1:11:43Speaker 01

  My, my son has, has, like, I remember a time when you say, I'm doing the cabbage patch now, you know?

• 1:11:48Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 1:11:48Speaker 01

  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, you wanna dance? You know, you go out and slow dance? What happened to that?

• 1:12:00Joe Rogan?

  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?

• 1:12:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:12:12Joe Rogan?

  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. There's no things that, like, you have to learn.

• 1:12:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, but you know, you know what's replaced it? Maybe the entire family on TikTok.

• 1:12:27Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 1:12:28Speaker 04

  TikTok has definitely got dances that you gotta learn.

• 1:12:30Speaker 01

  Oh, really?

• 1:12:32Joe Rogan?

  That's all it is.

• 1:12:32Speaker 01

  Oh, really?

• 1:12:32Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, for people that are way younger than us.

• 1:12:35Speaker 01

  Right, that's where the dances are. That's where the dances are. They're not going to clubs, they're just doing them.

• 1:12:38Speaker 04

  A Korn song just got viral again because they're dancing to Freak on a Leash. It's a twenty-five-year-old song that has got a dance to it.

• 1:12:45Speaker 01

  What's the dance? Show me the dance.

• 1:12:47Speaker 04

  Couldn't even begin to start it, but I can show you the video.

• 1:12:50Speaker 01

  Get up here and do it.

• 1:12:51Speaker 04

  I can show you the video.

• 1:12:52Speaker 01

  You do it. You been practicing?

• 1:12:53Speaker 04

  No.

• 1:12:54Speaker 01

  I used to, uh...

• 1:12:55Joe Rogan?

  Show me the video. What's the, what's the Korn dance?

• 1:12:58Speaker 04

  In my head, you're like, get up and do it, but I'm not.

• 1:13:00Joe Rogan?

  Do we have to not play the music?

• 1:13:02Speaker 04

  Yeah, probably not play the music.

• 1:13:03Joe Rogan?

  So this is, this is the dance?

• 1:13:05Speaker 01

  See, it's a new day. You don't go to a club, you do it with your girl at the crib.

• 1:13:10Speaker 04

  I think they made it back on billboard because, you know, like, the song is so popular. It's got so many plays on it.

• 1:13:15Joe Rogan?

  That's hilar- nineteen ninety-eight.

• 1:13:18Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's old.

• 1:13:19Joe Rogan?

  Wow, that's crazy.

• 1:13:22Speaker 04

  It's 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.

• 1:13:28Speaker 01

  What club is this?

• 1:13:29Speaker 04

  This is called the Concourse.

• 1:13:30Speaker 01

  Oh, see, I, I can't go to a club with no shirt on.

• 1:13:33Joe Rogan?

  And what do they do here?

• 1:13:35Speaker 04

  Uh, DJs.

• 1:13:36Joe Rogan?

  Oh, DJs. So they just bounce around?

• 1:13:39Speaker 04

  Bunch of lasers.

• 1:13:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, this is like a Jazzy Jeff concert.

• 1:13:42Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:43Speaker 01

  Jazzy Jeff?

• 1:13:46Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, they just bounce around. They're all in ecstasy.

• 1:13:49Speaker 04

  Everybody stares at the DJ stage like they're performing music.

• 1:13:52Joe Rogan?

  How weird. Yeah, this is a sign of a sick culture. Not that there's anything wrong with DJs.

• 1:13:57Speaker 01

  A different culture.

• 1:13:58Joe Rogan?

  But it is like, but that there's no, the other thing. There's no like people dancing, you know?

• 1:14:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:14:04Joe Rogan?

  On the old days. Like if you go back and you watch like nightclubs from like the 1960s and 70s. What was everybody, like the disco days, right? That's a perfect example.

• 1:14:12Speaker 01

  When Tramp was singing, "Burn, burn this mother down."

• 1:14:16Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 1:14:16Speaker 01

  Damn.

• 1:14:17Joe Rogan?

  Yeah. People were dancing. Well, I remember when I was a kid, Saturday Night Live, or Saturday Night Fever, rather, came out.

• 1:14:25Speaker 01

  Ooh.

• 1:14:26Joe Rogan?

  And that's when everybody wanted to learn how to dance because John Travolta, he could fucking dance and they would have dance offs.

• 1:14:32Speaker 01

  And black people were saying, "We got to step up the game if this boy can do that."

• 1:14:37Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 1:14:38Speaker 01

  You know, so we had to get better.

• 1:14:39Joe Rogan?

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• 1:15:24Joe Rogan?

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• 1:16:08Joe Rogan?

  Right, and then you had Soul Train, right? Where everybody was dancing on TV.

• 1:16:12Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:16:13Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 1:16:14Speaker 01

  Saturday morning was, that was, that was life for me.

• 1:16:18Joe Rogan?

  There's no shows where there's like a bunch of people performing music on TV anymore.

• 1:16:24Speaker 01

  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 Boys to Men and The Temptations together once. I had to fly Boys to Men from Philly, I had, you know, and, and they wanted it less black and now I got 14 brothers doing choreography. You know, and it's like, no, that's not what we.

• 1:17:01Joe Rogan?

  They wanted it less black? Like they would say shit like that to you?

• 1:17:04Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, 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. So you can inherit his audience if you do the right show. But I, Joe, I, I used to do the talk show in my basement, man. We put on a Temptations record and my friend Junior would be my guest and he would sing Get Ready. On Soul Train, they lip sync, we knew the microphones wasn't plugged in. And so he would sing and then I'd interview him. I wanted to do that show, but.

• 1:17:37Joe Rogan?

  You were doing that when you were young?

• 1:17:39Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:17:39Joe Rogan?

  When did you, how old were you when you were doing that?

• 1:17:41Speaker 01

  Uh, 11.

• 1:17:42Joe Rogan?

  Really?

• 1:17:43Speaker 01

  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? You can rent stuff for your party. So the next day they come and pick up the stuff in the 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.

• 1:18:07Joe Rogan?

  Wow.

• 1:18:07Speaker 01

  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? And 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.

• 1:18:27Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:28Speaker 01

  And I was telling you how complicated it was. They wanted my Twitter site.

• 1:18:31Joe Rogan?

  They took your, I was telling people, they took over your fucking social media and they wouldn't give it back.

• 1:18:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was hard to get back.

• 1:18:38Joe Rogan?

  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?

• 1:18:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:18:49Joe Rogan?

  And they would use it to promote other shows?

• 1:18:51Speaker 01

  Absolutely. And the end of, of that reboot experience, uh, didn't go down exactly the way I wanted 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 it's interesting, well, 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, I'd watched Fallon with Will Smith one night and Will Smith rode in on a horse. And I'm like, that's expensive.

• 1:19:35Speaker 01

  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.

• 1:19:51Joe Rogan?

  Right. So that's all it was? It was just a money thing? They just?

• 1:19:55Speaker 01

  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 because.

• 1:20:16Speaker 01

  I had wanted to do this show since I was a kid. I couldn't imagine.

• 1:20:20Joe Rogan?

  But meanwhile, the thing is, your show was so popular.

• 1:20:23Speaker 01

  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, because they were like, look, Whitney sang nothing, and look at the numbers. You know, so they were shooting for the Joe Rogan experience before there was an experience.

• 1:20:42Joe Rogan?

  Those fucking people concentrate on the numbers. It's like you're missing the trees.

• 1:20:46Speaker 01

  But you got to, Joe. Sometimes, you know, 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

• 1:21:00Speaker 01

  a corporate organization saying, we can make more money, and we can get more people in.

• 1:21:06Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, if I was a corp-- I would be a terrible corporate executive, by the way.

• 1:21:11Speaker 01

  Because you would leave with your heart.

• 1:21:12Joe Rogan?

  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. You can't-- you gotta let-- 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 were like, no, no, no, no, no, you can't bash a woman's head on a mantelpiece. That's nuts. Like, don't do that.

• 1:21:54Joe Rogan?

  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.

• 1:22:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, I remember when Ice T came on to explain Cop Killer. And, um-- His way of explaining it.

• 1:22:15Joe Rogan?

  Tough sell, by the way.

• 1:22:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:22:18Joe Rogan?

  And it was a metal band.

• 1:22:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:22:20Joe Rogan?

  People don't realize that, like Ice T, people forgot Body Count was a metal band.

• 1:22:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, you gotta search that, yo.

• 1:22:27Joe Rogan?

  Right, a lot of people don't even know that he did that. You think of Ice T, you think of Six in the Morning, you think of Hustler, you think of all those classic songs, Colors, you think of that, you don't think of Body Count, which is like Ice T reinvented himself and he was like, "I always love this kind of music, you can't tell me what the fuck I do. I like this kind of music too."

• 1:22:50Speaker 01

  Amazing career.

• 1:22:51Joe Rogan?

  I know, and now he plays a cop for like 25 years.

• 1:22:55Speaker 01

  How about that for irony? I knew him when he was a pimp, and now he's a cop.

• 1:23:00Joe Rogan?

  We remember when he was in Pimp's Up, Hose Down?

• 1:23:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 1:23:04Joe Rogan?

  He was in that too.

• 1:23:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:23:05Joe Rogan?

  I mean, he was talking about the pimp game, it's hilarious.

• 1:23:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, he came on, by the way, they didn't want me to do that, you know, book him, but I thought it was, I thought it was cool to expose America to some conversations they might not hear normally.

• 1:23:23Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 1:23:24Speaker 01

  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?" And he says, "I'm not a cop killer, but there's a message through this character."

• 1:23:39Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 1:23:39Speaker 01

  And I'm paraphrasing, but it was nice to hear people who I know. 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, we didn't have Twitter, we didn't have the Bluebird, I was kind of the Blackbird. And I was able to have these, like Tupac called me once and he says, "Man, they want me to take an AIDS test before I do this movie, and unless I'm really gonna fuck Janet..." I don't think I should have to take an AIDS test. And I'm like, please don't say anymore. 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.

• 1:24:21Joe Rogan?

  Of course, of course, because people want to 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.

• 1:24:39Speaker 01

  People don't know, we have pre-interviews, which you don't have in a show like this, but I get a card.

• 1:24:45Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 1:24:46Speaker 01

  That morning, it's like, okay, here's what Jackie Collins would like to talk about.

• 1:24:50Joe Rogan?

  Right, right.

• 1:24:51Speaker 01

  Or, or Nicole Kidman has requested that you don't mention Tom Cruise.

• 1:24:58Speaker 01

  And I'm like, well, tell Nicole the only reason that bitch is here is because I think Tom Cruise is gonna walk out. You know, and, oh, it was, it was crazy.

• 1:25:06Joe Rogan?

  That's crazy.

• 1:25:06Speaker 01

  Back then.

• 1:25:07Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, well, 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. So they just want to 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.

• 1:25:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, don't mess this up.

• 1:25:29Joe Rogan?

  We'll sell more records, we'll sell more movies, TV show will get better ratings, don't mess it up.

• 1:25:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, 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? Can you give us that again? Or any big artist, it's like, we want more of, of Waterfall.

• 1:25:49Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, Prince, 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, they have a song called Head. Just singing about getting head.

• 1:26:06Speaker 01

  First time I saw him, he was opening for the Rolling Stones.

• 1:26:11Joe Rogan?

  Wow.

• 1:26:11Speaker 01

  And the audience didn't dig him because it was different back then and he was singing Soft and Wet.

• 1:26:17Joe Rogan?

  Right, right. Well, Prince was just, he was so unique, man.

• 1:26:22Speaker 01

  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 owning your own property and what was gonna happen. Slave on his jaw and we thought that was silly, but it meant something.

• 1:26:39Joe Rogan?

  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.

• 1:26:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm a symbol.

• 1:26:56Joe Rogan?

  I'm a symbol.

• 1:26:57Speaker 01

  With a slave insignia on my jaw.

• 1:26:59Joe Rogan?

  What are you gonna do now? I'm a symbol. I'm not even selling myself as Prince. 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.

• 1:27:12Speaker 01

  He was a bad dude, man.

• 1:27:13Joe Rogan?

  But he was such a bad motherfucker that people like, I know who that is. I don't care what that fucking symbol is. That's Prince. Let him sing. Let him do things.

• 1:27:22Speaker 01

  Did you ever meet him?

• 1:27:23Joe Rogan?

  No, man. I had one opportunity to fucking see him live.

• 1:27:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:27:27Joe Rogan?

  And I blew it.

• 1:27:28Speaker 01

  At the Great Western Forum?

• 1:27:29Joe Rogan?

  No, it was at, it was at one of the hotels in Vegas, but it was a really late show. And I had a show earlier that night and there's a, and Prince was doing small shows back then. It was like this small, like intimate audience, but it was like after midnight. It's like, I'm fucking tired. I'm gonna go to sleep. And this is like, oh, I fucked up, man. I fucked up. It's like, 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.

• 1:28:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:28:11Joe Rogan?

  And Prince, we lost Prince to Fentanyl.

• 1:28:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, alone in an elevator.

• 1:28:15Joe Rogan?

  God damn.

• 1:28:17Speaker 01

  I remember the Musicology album where he toured.

• 1:28:22Speaker 01

  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. He had genius that was way ahead of the pimps.

• 1:28:36Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 1:28:37Speaker 01

  I love it.

• 1:28:38Joe Rogan?

  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.

• 1:28:50Speaker 01

  And they were getting a penny a copy.

• 1:28:52Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, exactly. The record company was getting most of it. And now it makes even less sense because nobody even buys albums anymore. It's like, how the fuck are these record companies even surviving? It's so crazy that they're 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. Like, I got a deal. And I almost want to tell them like.

• 1:29:19Speaker 01

  That ain't a deal.

• 1:29:20Joe Rogan?

  You got to deal with the devil. Like, if you just put your shit on YouTube or on SoundCloud or anywhere where people hear it and they start sharing it, you'll be huge.

• 1:29:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, we're getting smarter and learning how to deal with the pimps. That is, you know, I talk in the book about Prince also had a great sense of humor. You would have loved him, you know, as a person, beyond the musician. And there was a time when I was hosting the MTV Awards and he had no ass in his pants. And, you know, so when he's coming past me down the hall, I realize, oh shit. Because this motherfucker 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 is about that night.

• 1:30:09Joe Rogan?

  Look at this.

• 1:30:09Speaker 01

  Yes, yes.

• 1:30:14Joe Rogan?

  1991, isn't that crazy?

• 1:30:16Speaker 01

  That was, that was nuts.

• 1:30:18Joe Rogan?

  1991.

• 1:30:19Speaker 01

  So I do jokes about that in the monologue. And 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.

• 1:30:37Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 1:30:37Speaker 01

  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."

• 1:30:56Speaker 01

  I turned it around. There was no ass.

• 1:30:59Joe Rogan?

  Did you wear it?

• 1:30:59Speaker 01

  No leg. Hell, no.

• 1:31:03Speaker 01

  Not even at the crib. I never put it on. It's like, I, I could never bring myself to putting on that suit. It had no back, Joe.

• 1:31:10Joe Rogan?

  Oh, that's hilarious.

• 1:31:12Speaker 01

  But that's his sense of humor.

• 1:31:13Joe Rogan?

  That's hilarious. That's so funny.

• 1:31:15Speaker 01

  I took him to an after-hours joint once. I talk about that in the book. Because 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 pit bulls and, and a fence. And they let you in, they lock the chain back, bring you to the back. And, 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 want to go." And I took him down the way to this spot. He had an acrylic cane and a suit where the shoes matched the suit, exact same material.

• 1:31:59Speaker 01

  And he sat with me in this after-hours joint and listened to the music. And, and it was where the strippers were.

• 1:32:07Joe Rogan?

  What year was this?

• 1:32:08Speaker 01

  Oh, God, this was maybe two years after I left the talk show. And uh.

• 1:32:14Joe Rogan?

  So did he need the cane back then? Was that when he was having hip problems?

• 1:32:17Speaker 01

  I think so. Now we understand that maybe he had a replacement, a hip replacement or something.

• 1:32:22Joe Rogan?

  Hmm.

• 1:32:23Speaker 01

  I thought it was fashion, but it probably was a little necessary that year. And he sat there.

• 1:32:28Joe Rogan?

  All his dancing and.

• 1:32:30Speaker 01

  Oh, he should jump off speakers, Joe.

• 1:32:32Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:32:33Speaker 01

  And land with heels.

• 1:32:34Joe Rogan?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:32:35Speaker 01

  So.

• 1:32:36Joe Rogan?

  That's what fucked him up.

• 1:32:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:32:38Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 1:32:40Speaker 04

  A lot of pictures with him with a cane over the time though.

• 1:32:42Joe Rogan?

  That's, well, he probably was struggling even back then. Cause there's a lot of guys that blew their, their hips out. Yeah. He probably needed it.

• 1:32:51Speaker 01

  Cause he was an athlete per se, you know?

• 1:32:53Joe Rogan?

  Oh, for sure. I mean, his dancing was insane.

• 1:32:56Speaker 01

  And he was a good basketball player. Hey, I, I have one of those. He, um, the hat with, the police hat with the chain. He sent me that one day. So I'm sure there are a few of them, but just to have one of those from him, and he sent me what looks like a Smith and Wesson thirty-eight long, but it was fixed up so the microphone was where the barrel is. So he could hold the gun and sing into it like that.

• 1:33:25Joe Rogan?

  Oh, wow.

• 1:33:25Speaker 01

  I have that. That's very cool. Very cool.

• 1:33:28Joe Rogan?

  I became good friends with Charlie Murphy and Charlie, Charlie had. Oh, look at that.

• 1:33:32Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:33:33Joe Rogan?

  Wow. Wow.

• 1:33:37Speaker 01

  I have one of those. I don't know how many there were, but I have one from that.

• 1:33:41Joe Rogan?

  That's crazy. Wow.

• 1:33:44Speaker 01

  But Charlie Murphy?

• 1:33:45Joe Rogan?

  Well, Charlie had all those great stories about Prince that he did on Chappelle's Show.

• 1:33:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:33:50Joe Rogan?

  I mean, that was like that whole segment of like, uh, how, how good Prince was as a basketball.

• 1:33:55Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:33:55Joe Rogan?

  And then people didn't believe it. Cause you know, he's so short, but meanwhile he could fucking play like a motherfucker.

• 1:34:00Speaker 01

  He had, he had a crossover move that was crazy and he could roller skate.

• 1:34:07Speaker 01

  And I mean amazing with a lollipop back with some shit on one foot, you know? So he was.

• 1:34:13Joe Rogan?

  Well, he was an athlete.

• 1:34:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:34:15Joe Rogan?

  Really, I mean, you can't dance like that and not have incredible body control.

• 1:34:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:34:20Joe Rogan?

  But the problem is when you're doing show after show after show after show after show.

• 1:34:23Speaker 01

  For years.

• 1:34:24Joe Rogan?

  You're tearing your fucking joints apart and that's probably what blew his hips out.

• 1:34:29Speaker 01

  It's one thing about us with the exception of the shit you used to do on a stool, that balancing act.

• 1:34:34Joe Rogan?

  Oh, the Kardashian joke?

• 1:34:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, our joke, our, our, our life of jokes isn't very fit.

• 1:34:39Joe Rogan?

  No.

• 1:34:39Speaker 01

  You know, all we gotta do is take care of from the neck up, take care of your mind. Our body, we, no comedian has a bad hip.

• 1:34:47Joe Rogan?

  Well, you generally don't get it from performing on stage, that's for sure. But when you're dancing and jumping around and doing all that shit, like Ted Nugent blew his, his knees out, jumping off of speakers. 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.

• 1:35:08Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:35:08Joe Rogan?

  Just stomping while he was singing. He had to get a hip replacement.

• 1:35:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, I like being a stand up.

• 1:35:15Joe Rogan?

  Well, it's definitely easier on the body. That's true, you know?

• 1:35:18Speaker 01

  You still get up on stage ever?

• 1:35:20Joe Rogan?

  Oh, yeah, all the time. I'm going up.

• 1:35:21Speaker 01

  In your own club?

• 1:35:23Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:23Speaker 01

  What nights do you go up?

• 1:35:24Joe Rogan?

  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. This episode is brought to you by Chime. And I know people don't usually get excited about banking, but Chime is doing something different and it's worth paying attention to. In a recent survey, they ranked the number one choice for new checking accounts in America. That means real people, millions of them, are choosing this over traditional banks. That's because banking at Chime is fee free. No monthly fees, no overdraft fees and thousands of fee free ATMs. But here's the real kicker. If you get their Chime card, it gives you 5% cash back on a category you actually pick yourself.

• 1:36:08Joe Rogan?

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• 1:36:32Joe Rogan?

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• 1:37:17Joe Rogan?

  in-store or online at tacovas.com. That's T-E-C-O-V-A-S dot com. And right now, get 10% off at tacovas.com/rogan when you sign up for email and text.

• 1:37:33Speaker 01

  I promised my woman I wouldn't go to the mothership.

• 1:37:36Joe Rogan?

  Why?

• 1:37:36Speaker 01

  When I told her, she's like, "When you go, I wanna go." It's a big deal if you're a comic, you know? I mean, it's a huge deal. But I wanna come one night, fly in, and just let me have 10.

• 1:37:51Joe Rogan?

  Dude, you can go up anytime. You can go up tonight if you want. I got a show tonight.

• 1:37:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, I gotta fly home and do... I'm still slinging this book, man.

• 1:37:59Joe Rogan?

  I hear you, brother. Well, anytime. Anytime you wanna come by and do a set, you're more than welcome.

• 1:38:04Speaker 01

  I love it down here.

• 1:38:04Joe Rogan?

  Come and hang out.

• 1:38:05Speaker 01

  Everybody's been so friendly.

• 1:38:07Joe Rogan?

  The green room's an amazing hang, too.

• 1:38:09Speaker 01

  That's what I hear, but I've heard both sides of that. I've heard, "Don't be in that motherfucker if you're not supposed to."

• 1:38:14Joe Rogan?

  Well, the problem is you don't want anybody coming in and fucking up the conversation. So, you know, you gotta be kind of vetted. But it's only like during shows when you're not on. You know, if like, if it's a show and you're on the show, everyone's allowed to be in the green room. It's just like, we don't allow people to just come in out of nowhere. There'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. And then people have to prepare. They're going over... Their notes, the green room is 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, Tony Hinchcliffe is. Everybody wants to come in and you know, it gets, it gets to be a little bit of a problem.

• 1:38:59Joe Rogan?

  So you can't go in the green room if you're not on the show unless we know who you are and you know, you're in down, you want to come hang. But it's like, you know, it's like you're having a party, you can't let everybody in. Problem is everybody wants to be there.

• 1:39:10Speaker 01

  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 want to get in there.

• 1:39:17Joe Rogan?

  You can get in anytime.

• 1:39:18Speaker 01

  Hey, when you were in, living in Hollywood still, um, did your kids ever want to act?

• 1:39:24Joe Rogan?

  No, no, they're not interested in that.

• 1:39:27Speaker 01

  And yeah, never wanted to stand up?

• 1:39:29Joe Rogan?

  Thank, no, they wouldn't, first of all, rich kids are not going to be good stand ups.

• 1:39:36Joe Rogan?

  You're not going to be able to deal with the torture of bombing, you know, you're not gonna-

• 1:39:40Speaker 01

  And they don't have to.

• 1:39:42Joe Rogan?

  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.

• 1:39:59Speaker 01

  As you're talking, I'm thinking, I'm like, do we know any comics who are good, who are from wealth?

• 1:40:06Joe Rogan?

  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.

• 1:40:19Speaker 01

  So much, so much comedy comes from our pain.

• 1:40:22Joe Rogan?

  I think the only exception to that would be the Wayans brothers. Because the sons of the Wayans brothers all went on to be great comics. 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.

• 1:40:42Speaker 01

  That's absolutely true.

• 1:40:44Joe Rogan?

  Well, they were just, I mean, they love stand up so much, they would fucking do stand up for each other, just fuck around. I, I used to see, first of all, I- I think to this day, Damon is one of the most underappreciated great comics of all time.

• 1:40:58Speaker 01

  And he's back out there. Now, I noticed in my room, Damon is at the improv.

• 1:41:03Joe Rogan?

  Well, he's always been out there. 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. You know, and even like, he wanted to do, we talked years ago about him coming on my podcast, and he was like, "I'd like to, but I'll say some crazy shit and then I'll get in trouble." Because he's in that, what I call the velvet prison, the TV velvet prison. 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...

• 1:41:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, Howie Mandel goes through that. I work with him a lot. And Howie is on America's Got Talent.

• 1:41:41Joe Rogan?

  Exactly.

• 1:41:41Speaker 01

  This real commercial television vehicle, but nobody is more real and edgy than Howie Mandel.

• 1:41:50Joe Rogan?

  When he's on stage and in the green room, hanging out. Like, he's done sets at the mothership. He's come and hung out with us.

• 1:41:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:41:56Joe Rogan?

  He did my podcast, then he came to the club. He's like, "Fuck, I want to be like, I want to do what you guys are doing."

• 1:42:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:42:02Joe Rogan?

  I'm like, "You can. You can do it," but he's worried that he would lose that velvet prison.

• 1:42:07Speaker 01

  Hey, when we're working and they have the phones and bags, that's when he's amazing to watch.

• 1:42:13Joe Rogan?

  Yes!

• 1:42:14Speaker 01

  Because he'll, he'll drop the C-bomb in a minute.

• 1:42:16Joe Rogan?

  He was saying it. He was saying it on stage. "I'm just so happy I can say cunt."

• 1:42:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:42:20Joe Rogan?

  I just want to say it.

• 1:42:22Joe Rogan?

  But he was funny. It was like, he was having a good time. He was loose, and you could tell. It was like, because Howie was a great comic. Like, Howie had some hilarious fucking specials.

• 1:42:31Speaker 01

  I hated following him at the Westwood Comedy Store. Mitzi used to send us there to get better. 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."

• 1:42:47Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, oh, she would make you work.

• 1:42:49Speaker 01

  Westwood.

• 1:42:49Joe Rogan?

  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...

• 1:43:04Joe Rogan?

  People in comedy that are like the, some of the most critical, important people. She is the most important person in the history of comedy that's not a comic.

• 1:43:12Speaker 01

  Absolutely. There, there is no argument.

• 1:43:15Joe Rogan?

  No argument. There's no one even close to her. And her son, you know, I mean, went on to have huge success and films and movies.

• 1:43:22Speaker 01

  I took Mitzi, remember when we had the Universal Amphitheater?

• 1:43:26Joe Rogan?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:43:26Speaker 01

  I got tickets and took Mitzi to see Paulie open for Sam Kinison.

• 1:43:33Joe Rogan?

  Wow.

• 1:43:34Speaker 01

  And it just blew her away because she had never seen him in that large environment. And it was really cool to watch her watch her son.

• 1:43:41Joe Rogan?

  Well, she let, she let him grow the right way, you know, she didn't, she didn't give him the silver spoon.

• 1:43:47Speaker 01

  By the way, Mitzi Shore started The Comedy Store and she's the mother of Paulie Shore. Because I say Mitzi to you like it's a cousin.

• 1:43:56Joe Rogan?

  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.

• 1:44:11Speaker 01

  She'd tell you how to do it in her opinion. I've seen her tell some people some crazy shit.

• 1:44:17Joe Rogan?

  Oh, yeah. She was not right a lot of times. She had some wild ideas that weren't good.

• 1:44:22Speaker 01

  She had a girl put on a green wig one time and I'm like, I'm not sure. You know, but she was trying to find some kind of hook for this girl. And I'm like, if you don't want to have to wear the green wig, go home and figure out a hook.

• 1:44:34Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, she, she made Joey Diaz call himself Fat Baby. She.

• 1:44:38Speaker 01

  Ouch.

• 1:44:41Joe Rogan?

  She, 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. And that was Joey Diaz. She would call him Fat Baby. She wouldn't even let him use his fucking name in the lineup. It would be Fat Baby.

• 1:45:00Speaker 01

  I remember having a conversation with her and Paul and Paul was exacerbating the problem. Because she was like.

• 1:45:06Joe Rogan?

  Rodriguez?

• 1:45:07Speaker 01

  Uh, Paul Mooney.

• 1:45:08Joe Rogan?

  Oh, Mooney. Oh, man.

• 1:45:10Speaker 01

  We got so many Pauls in our life. So we're sitting.

• 1:45:12Joe Rogan?

  I love that dude.

• 1:45:12Speaker 01

  Talking and Mitzi's about to start the Belly Room because she thinks women need a place to perform. And to get better.

• 1:45:21Joe Rogan?

  That was what the Belly Room originally was.

• 1:45:23Speaker 01

  Little college up there 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, because there was only George Wallace, Dave Tyree, and Mooney at one time when I arrived. And uh.

• 1:45:40Joe Rogan?

  What year was that?

• 1:45:41Speaker 01

  I came in nineteen eighty, New Year's Eve.

• 1:45:44Joe Rogan?

  Wow.

• 1:45:45Speaker 01

  I drove out from Chicago because 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. Because rent was free for a while. And that was 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. And, and I'm, no, Mitzi, no, no, you can't, you can't. And I was trying to explain why. And Paul was like, oh, that's wonderful. Let's. That's exactly what we should call it.

• 1:46:23Joe Rogan?

  Oh, homie.

• 1:46:24Speaker 01

  Oh, homie. Cotton comedy.

• 1:46:28Speaker 01

  He was cool.

• 1:46:29Joe Rogan?

  Oh, man, Paul, that guy, that guy would write. And there'd be something that would happen in the news like the day before and Mooney would go on stage and have like fifteen minutes on it and just crush.

• 1:46:39Speaker 01

  And he did something that, I know I hated, he requested the last spot.

• 1:46:45Joe Rogan?

  Oh, he loved that.

• 1:46:46Speaker 01

  Wanted to go on late, wanted to stay on as long as he wanted, and would fuck with you if you tried to get up. Oh, you don't like a smart nigga.

• 1:46:57Speaker 01

  But don't leave too early. My friends at your house robbing that motherfucker.

• 1:47:01Joe Rogan?

  He would have so many things like that, 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?

• 1:47:11Speaker 01

  With a bottle of champagne with a straw.

• 1:47:12Joe Rogan?

  Little tiny bottle of champagne.

• 1:47:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, the little split.

• 1:47:14Joe Rogan?

  Yeah. And he would, he would sip on it during punchlines.

• 1:47:18Speaker 01

  Oh, nigga, please. And then take a sip.

• 1:47:21Joe Rogan?

  We always just 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.

• 1:47:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:47:28Joe Rogan?

  I got so much to learn.

• 1:47:29Speaker 01

  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.

• 1:47:38Joe Rogan?

  Absolutely.

• 1:47:39Speaker 01

  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 at 1:15.

• 1:47:47Joe Rogan?

  I would always love to see Mooney when something fucked up happened in the news.

• 1:47:50Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:47:51Joe Rogan?

  Like if there's something fucked up happened in the news, I'm like, when's Paul going up?

• 1:47:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:47:54Joe Rogan?

  You know, it's 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, it was like, he would get you. He would like find an angle where you'd be like, oh my God, oh my God. He was, he was so clever.

• 1:48:10Speaker 01

  The coolest conversations at the comedy show, 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.

• 1:48:20Joe Rogan?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:48:21Speaker 01

  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 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.

• 1:48:46Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 1:48:47Speaker 01

  Richard on the back of an album, that, that joke, you go to, you go to prison, you get justice, just us, nigga. 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, Moses, Charlton Heston.

• 1:49:15Joe Rogan?

  Wow.

• 1:49:16Speaker 01

  Bernie Casey. But you you would see like, oh, Burt Reynolds would have Sally Field with him.

• 1:49:22Joe Rogan?

  Wow.

• 1:49:23Speaker 01

  It was amazing. They would all come and bow to the king, dog.

• 1:49:27Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, well, he was so different. Yeah, I always say that the godfather of comedy who started everything was Lenny Bruce. But then Richard figured out a way to take that and make it way funnier. He figured out how to take that kind of honesty and social commentary and figure out how to like, talk about life. Because people don't know that before before Lenny Bruce came around, it was just jokes. It was just like, two Jews walking to a bar, they buy it.

• 1:49:59Joe Rogan?

  It was jokes.

• 1:50:00Speaker 01

  It was like. It was Dangerfield's rhythm.

• 1:50:02Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, but you know, Dangerfield was a, he was a special guy, too.

• 1:50:07Speaker 01

  He was a beast, man.

• 1:50:08Joe Rogan?

  And he didn't, he took like 10 years off and never stopped writing and was selling aluminum siding.

• 1:50:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:50:15Joe Rogan?

  And then came back and made it in his 40s.

• 1:50:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:50:20Joe Rogan?

  Wow, look at this.

• 1:50:22Speaker 01

  That's the main room, that's the main room, yeah.

• 1:50:23Joe Rogan?

  That's crazy. Burt Reynolds, Sally Fields.

• 1:50:26Speaker 01

  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 on the far left of the stage? 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.

• 1:50:45Joe Rogan?

  Because they're all sniffing.

• 1:50:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, he's just sitting playing and people.

• 1:50:48Joe Rogan?

  Wow, wow, look at that, Burt Reynolds onstage, Robin Williams.

• 1:50:53Speaker 01

  I saw Burt Reynolds give the parking attendant a hundred dollars and I thought I was on another planet. I'm like, get the fuck out of here. I should be parking cars, fuck stand up. Yeah, that was, that's, and for people who are looking at this picture, that's Richard holding court after his set.

• 1:51:10Joe Rogan?

  Wow. What an amazing photo. Well, Jamie, we should get some of these photos and yeah, get some of these photos and let's print them up and put them in the green room at the mothership.

• 1:51:23Speaker 01

  I saw a picture-

• 1:51:24Joe Rogan?

  That's at the back. He's got the Cero signs in the back.

• 1:51:26Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. Still, still, yeah.

• 1:51:28Joe Rogan?

  Wow.

• 1:51:29Speaker 01

  That tells you a lot about the history. Search, Search Ceros.

• 1:51:32Joe Rogan?

  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 Cero stuff. And I remember seeing that sign there, and they eventually hung it up in the back bar area. And you just look like, wow, this was, this was a mob club in like the fucking 50s.

• 1:51:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:51:55Joe Rogan?

  That's crazy.

• 1:51:56Speaker 01

  I saw a picture you have in the entry of Richard Pryor's mugshot.

• 1:52:02Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 1:52:03Speaker 01

  I had never seen that. What did he do?

• 1:52:07Joe Rogan?

  I don't remember.

• 1:52:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:52:09Joe Rogan?

  I don't remember, but he was very young. That mugshot was, I think he was like 18.

• 1:52:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:52:15Joe Rogan?

  I don't remember what it was. I have mugshots from everybody who got arrested.

• 1:52:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, I saw Larry King.

• 1:52:21Joe Rogan?

  Larry King was like bad checks. He was writing bad checks. He had a gambling problem.

• 1:52:25Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:52:26Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, yeah. Willie Nelson's up there.

• 1:52:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:52:30Joe Rogan?

  I got everybody up there.

• 1:52:31Speaker 01

  There is a book that I have in my garage, and it's the first edition to tell you how much of, of, of this kind of stuff existed, but it's all celebrities and their mugshots. So it's a coffee table book of just the mugshots.

• 1:52:48Joe Rogan?

  Oh, I should probably get that book. I bet there's a few in there that I don't have.

• 1:52:51Speaker 01

  And I bet there is a, a second one that they could do. Cause the book's only like a half inch thick.

• 1:52:58Joe Rogan?

  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.

• 1:53:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:53:14Joe Rogan?

  There was a lot of mugshots.

• 1:53:16Speaker 01

  Have you ever taken a mugshot?

• 1:53:17Joe Rogan?

  No, I've never been arrested.

• 1:53:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, I've never been arrested.

• 1:53:19Joe Rogan?

  I'm a good boy, believe it or not.

• 1:53:21Speaker 01

  Yeah. You know, I mean, we've done things, but not enough to have to take those pictures.

• 1:53:30Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, luckily. But also, we live in a different time, you know, in the nineteen sixties and seventies, when those guys are getting arrested, they're getting arrested for like having a joint or something like that.

• 1:53:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, oh yeah.

• 1:53:41Joe Rogan?

  Richard, 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.

• 1:53:49Speaker 01

  I got pulled over and had a joint in my ashtray in nineteen eighty-nine. And 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. And he says, now get your life together.

• 1:54:15Joe Rogan?

  Like, bitch, this is helping me get my life together.

• 1:54:17Speaker 01

  Absolutely, it makes me funnier.

• 1:54:18Joe Rogan?

  That's funny, that's hilarious.

• 1:54:20Speaker 01

  The good old days, man. I remember, you talked about Rodney earlier, Rodney Dangerfield.

• 1:54:28Speaker 01

  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.

• 1:54:38Joe Rogan?

  I saw him there.

• 1:54:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, and his wife was in the balcony, giving him lines.

• 1:54:44Joe Rogan?

  Oh wow.

• 1:54:44Speaker 01

  Through a wireless earwig, and if you went up top, you would hear her say, I don't get no respect. Yeah. I don't get no respect, you know? 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.

• 1:55:03Joe Rogan?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:55:04Speaker 01

  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.

• 1:55:12Joe Rogan?

  She gave us his notes from one of his Tonight Show appearances, and they're framed on the wall in the green room. It's his handwritten notes, and bold, he would like write it in bold where the punchlines were. It's like sitting there, right above the couch.

• 1:55:28Speaker 01

  That's cool, man.

• 1:55:29Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, it was one of the first things, Whitney Cummings hooked it up, she got it for us from her, she wanted us to have it.

• 1:55:36Speaker 01

  Whitney Cummings, eh?

• 1:55:37Joe Rogan?

  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.

• 1:55:48Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:55:48Joe Rogan?

  Where I lived in Boston.

• 1:55:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:55:51Joe Rogan?

  Me and a bunch of the black belts from this Taekwondo team that I was on got jobs as security guards. And I was nineteen and I was backstage and Rodney was walking around with a bathrobe on with nothing underneath it. That was when he was going onstage with a bathrobe. He got to such a fuck it point in his life where he would literally go onstage with nothing but a bathrobe. He would walk out there with a bathrobe and slippers and just fucking murder. I remember being in the, and I wasn't even thinking about doing standup back then. Back then, I was just fighting and I was a fan of comedy, I always loved comedy.

• 1:56:25Speaker 01

  Your fighting friends talked you into doing standup, right?

• 1:56:27Joe Rogan?

  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, like, this guy really didn't give a fuck. Like, he had gotten to a point where he had so much success and so much money, and this is after Back to School and all those big movies, and he was still just going out there doing standup, he was smoking weed back there, and he would just would go onstage with a bathrobe on. And I remember thinking, that is the wildest shit I've ever seen in my life. I remember as a young man, cuz I was always, you know, shit, fucking nineteen, 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

• 1:57:12Joe Rogan?

  he had got to that, I don't give a fuck stage, and he, but he really did. He wasn't faking it. Nobody told him he has to go onstage in a bathrobe, it's like, I'll tell you what I wanna do, I wanna go onstage with a bathrobe. He just went onstage in a fucking bathrobe. See, if you can find some photos of him onstage with a bathrobe on, I know he did it for years.

• 1:57:33Speaker 01

  I got in trouble because Eazy-E came on my show in his bathrobe. And he was like, you gave it to me.

• 1:57:40Joe Rogan?

  You know, cuz we would give out bathrobes, and so he said, well, fuck it, I'll wear

• 1:57:45Speaker 01

  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. This is really not what we asked him for. He'll never replace Johnny.

• 1:57:58Joe Rogan?

  Oh, fuck off.

• 1:57:59Speaker 01

  But, but I knew.

• 1:58:00Joe Rogan?

  Those people were ridiculous.

• 1:58:01Speaker 01

  Hey, I was where I was because I snuck in through syndication, did a first run syndication. I know network wasn't for me. 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.

• 1:58:22Joe Rogan?

  The thing about it is, man, everybody wanted to be Johnny back then. It was so crazy. Even Letterman.

• 1:58:28Speaker 01

  I joked at the Emmys, I, I said, I, I had a dream. I wanted to be an old white man with a desk. And that was my, I want, to the point, Joe, that when I made it, I hired Johnny's architect that built his house to build me a house. I was deep into the shit like that.

• 1:58:45Joe Rogan?

  Well, he was the guy. People don't realize, like, that was the carrot. That was the thing that they, I mean, Jay Leno and, like, that famous scene in that movie that talked about it, where Jay Leno would hide in the closet and listen to them talk about it because he wanted that spot when Johnny retired. But they wanted Letterman. And it was like this battle between, like, it made no sense to me. My, Letterman has the Letterman Show. It's fucking huge. It's amazing. Why would you want to do anything else? But everybody wanted that Tonight Show. They all wanted the Tonight Show.

• 1:59:16Speaker 01

  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. It was like, you are a magician and you do a talk show in a basement. Ooh.

• 1:59:33Joe Rogan?

  One day.

• 1:59:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, one day.

• 1:59:35Joe Rogan?

  Isn't it crazy, though, that it had to be the Tonight Show for everybody? It wasn't get your own talk show.

• 1:59:41Speaker 01

  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. I needed Jim McCauley say the Tonight Show is yours.

• 1:59:58Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, ain't that crazy?

• 2:00:00Speaker 01

  Did you do, did you, were, you were too young?

• 2:00:02Joe Rogan?

  I was too young. And it's also like, for me, I didn't understand it. Like, I used to like watching when comics were on the Tonight Show, but it didn't.

• 2:00:13Speaker 01

  Like, you remember the night Roseanne came on? I'm a domestic goddess.

• 2:00:16Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 2:00:17Speaker 01

  I was like, oh shit, she's funny.

• 2:00:19Joe Rogan?

  Oh, she was so funny.

• 2:00:20Speaker 01

  She can write.

• 2:00:20Joe Rogan?

  She was so funny. Roseanne was like way ahead of her time. She was so wild. There was no one like her when she came out.

• 2:00:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:00:27Joe Rogan?

  She's still wild. She comes to the mothership all the time.

• 2:00:30Speaker 01

  And as wild as she is, Joe, the night I called her and said, I need

• 2:00:39Speaker 01

  to rearrange the show tonight, her and Tom were coming. And it was the-

• 2:00:43Joe Rogan?

  Tom Arnold?

• 2:00:43Speaker 01

  Yes. And it was the morning that I'd gotten a call from Irvin Magic Johnson that he was HIV positive. So I needed the whole show. And this how cool she was. She says, give me another date, but I'm still coming, because we love Irvin.

• 2:00:59Joe Rogan?

  Oh, wow.

• 2:01:00Speaker 01

  And they came and stood on the side that night when Irvin came and talked about it.

• 2:01:05Joe Rogan?

  Wow.

• 2:01:06Speaker 01

  She's cool.

• 2:01:07Joe Rogan?

  She's cool. She's crazy as fuck.

• 2:01:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:01:10Joe Rogan?

  But she's cool.

• 2:01:11Speaker 01

  Aren't we all? And don't we have to be?

• 2:01:13Joe Rogan?

  You have to be, yeah.

• 2:01:14Speaker 01

  A little bit. We gotta be the different kid in the neighborhood.

• 2:01:17Joe Rogan?

  Yeah. If you want to be as good as she was, because 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. It was, it was, oh, she was so funny.

• 2:01:35Speaker 01

  With a tent dress on, she didn't sell us any sexuality at all. It was just great writing.

• 2:01:39Joe Rogan?

  Just great writing and great performing and a lot of I don't give a fuck. And it was just, ugh. Do you find any photos of Rodney with a bathrobe on?

• 2:01:48Speaker 04

  I mean, yes, but not on stage.

• 2:01:49Joe Rogan?

  No?

• 2:01:50Speaker 04

  There's only, yeah, I don't even know if they exist.

• 2:01:54Speaker 01

  Well, that, that was-

• 2:01:56Joe Rogan?

  They don't exist. That's crazy.

• 2:01:58Speaker 01

  That was a pre-show, right there, he's, you think he's not ready, but he's dressed to go on.

• 2:02:03Joe Rogan?

  Right. And he's sitting there writing.

• 2:02:05Speaker 01

  Look at the phone. Look at the landline.

• 2:02:07Joe Rogan?

  Ain't that crazy?

• 2:02:09Speaker 01

  I showed my son one of those. He couldn't believe that to drop dollar nine, it was.

• 2:02:14Joe Rogan?

  And if you missed one of them and fucked it up, you had to start from scratch. It was crazy.

• 2:02:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, back in the day. I remember when the iPhone first came out and it didn't have actual buttons like a StarTAC. And I was freaking. It's like, how will I know where the L is?

• 2:02:34Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 2:02:35Speaker 01

  I can't feel it.

• 2:02:36Joe Rogan?

  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. I'm not typing on that stupid thing. I don't even know where the buttons are. It's cra- you don't- it makes a click sound? That's stupid.

• 2:02:49Speaker 01

  Before you know it, we were doing it. We turned off the click and it says a lot about progress. Don't be afraid of change.

• 2:02:54Joe Rogan?

  Well, now I talk to it. Now I hardly ever text. I just say, uh, text Arsenio. Like, say, "Hey, man, looking forward to seeing you tonight," blah, blah, blah, and just send it.

• 2:03:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:03:05Joe Rogan?

  I make most of my text messages. I just talk to my phone.

• 2:03:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, pretty much. Me and Siri, and you can't say the N-word to Siri. The other night I was writing a joke. No, she won't fuck with the N-word. Because Siri's like-

• 2:03:19Joe Rogan?

  I wonder if Google will.

• 2:03:20Speaker 01

  She's like, "I'm not getting canceled," you know, "and Alexa have the whole business. I'm not to get..."

• 2:03:25Joe Rogan?

  That's hilarious.

• 2:03:26Speaker 01

  You know, but, 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." And Siri would not write it. And then when I kept saying it, she started writing other things, you know, that started with an N, you know, but they weren't even words. And I'm like, so they got Siri trained.

• 2:03:44Joe Rogan?

  That's so weird.

• 2:03:45Speaker 01

  She not getting canceled.

• 2:03:47Joe Rogan?

  It's weird that it took, it wasn't even 10 years, and then everybody just got accustomed to having a phone with them all the time. Like, there was, think about like, the difference between like, it was probably like, what is it, like 97, 98, when everybody had those Motorola's? Right? It was around then, right?

• 2:04:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:04:09Joe Rogan?

  It was around then, like 96, 97.

• 2:04:12Speaker 01

  My friends laughed at me. My first phone was in a Halliburton briefcase. And you open the silver Halliburton briefcase, take the phone out, and the phone was maybe 10 inches, you know? And, and I had an antenna that screwed on the outside of the briefcase because you had this big possum tail.

• 2:04:31Joe Rogan?

  Yeah. I had one on the roof of my car.

• 2:04:34Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 2:04:34Joe Rogan?

  In 1989.

• 2:04:36Speaker 01

  Yeah. You, wow. Back then-

• 2:04:41Speaker 01

  I couldn't imagine that kids would be watching movies on the phone.

• 2:04:45Joe Rogan?

  Right, playing games, watching movies, and that would be most of their social life is communicating through that thing.

• 2:04:51Speaker 01

  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 blah, blah, blah, he can talk. And now, young men don't know what the fuck to say to a woman leaning against the wall at a club.

• 2:05:06Joe Rogan?

  No, they have dating apps now.

• 2:05:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, swipe left.

• 2:05:09Joe Rogan?

  Crazy. But what I was gonna get at, like, how quickly the culture changed from, let's just say, ninety-eight, when most, a lot of people had a phone, at least half the people had a phone on them. Two thousand and eight, everybody had a phone. Two thousand and eighteen, you'd be crazy to not have a phone.

• 2:05:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:05:28Joe Rogan?

  Twenty years, like that.

• 2:05:29Speaker 01

  Okay, now, now, hold your thought.

• 2:05:31Joe Rogan?

  Okay.

• 2:05:32Speaker 01

  I remember a time when you and I were the only parents that didn't allow cell phones

• 2:05:43Speaker 01

  in the hands of our kids, cuz 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'd set it up and, and I said, does everyone in your class have a phone? And he said, no, two of us don't.

• 2:06:03Speaker 01

  And I realized you were the other parent.

• 2:06:05Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 2:06:05Speaker 01

  That was saying, we're not fucking with this.

• 2:06:07Joe Rogan?

  I gave her a phone that has two numbers on it. It was, they, there was a weird little cellphone that you get for kids, where she could dial, like, my phone number or my wife's phone number. It was like, that's it. Those, like, it was like, I forget what it was called, it was like the Frog or something like that? Some little cellphone that was just for kids.

• 2:06:25Speaker 01

  Phone for kids, yeah.

• 2:06:26Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, 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? That they're getting, like, predators are on Roblox, and they're trying to pick up kids, like, child predators. So you have to worry about the games they play, you have to worry about them getting DM'd by creeps. You have to worry about so much more access than just a phone to call people.

• 2:06:54Speaker 01

  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. They would gather.

• 2:07:03Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 2:07:04Speaker 01

  And, um,

• 2:07:06Speaker 01

  I remember feeling like, mm, this can't be good.

• 2:07:09Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 2:07:10Speaker 01

  You know, cuz these probably aren't all kids he's playing with.

• 2:07:14Joe Rogan?

  A hundred percent, yeah. Yeah, well, when I first started playing video games, you'd have to chat by pulling down a window and you'd have to type in the things that you wanted to say.

• 2:07:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:07:24Joe Rogan?

  You couldn't talk to people.

• 2:07:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:07:25Joe Rogan?

  And then when people started talking to people in video games, I'm like, oh, this is crazy. But then, the problem is, whenever there's anything the kids are doing, you're gonna have some creeps that are targeting kids. 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 a way that you can connect with people. And there's always creeps that are trying to connect with kids.

• 2:07:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was lucky as a kid, cuz I talk about being a magician and I worked at a magic shop when I was 12, took cash cuz 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, I could have been a target because.

• 2:08:26Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, you got lucky.

• 2:08:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, I really got lucky cuz 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.

• 2:08:40Speaker 01

  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 forty year old friend. You know?

• 2:08:49Joe Rogan?

  Weird, right?

• 2:08:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, but he was cool and I got lucky.

• 2:08:52Joe Rogan?

  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 generation, 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, you went out. On your own, you were outside with no cellphone communication, no way to call anybody.

• 2:09:21Speaker 01

  Right.

• 2:09:21Joe Rogan?

  When you were ten, eleven, wandering around with your friends. 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. They know where they're, you said you were at Debbie's house. You're not at Debbie's house. Where are you right now?

• 2:09:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:09:41Joe Rogan?

  Everyone is like looking out for their kids, maybe a little too much. 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.

• 2:09:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, I, gosh, 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.

• 2:10:04Speaker 01

  You know, my, my girl, when I was fourteen, had a mom who was a nurse that worked the eleven to seven shift. So, we kind of 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.

• 2:10:25Joe Rogan?

  That's wild, isn't it?

• 2:10:26Speaker 01

  Until one day, her parents had the grandparents come to town and 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 peep holes. It's my grandmother, my grandfather. And I had to jump with my clothes off their balcony.

• 2:10:49Speaker 01

  That was my action adventure teenage period.

• 2:10:52Joe Rogan?

  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. 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 bother them, things that cause them anxiety. They're always looking for things that, you know, they can't tolerate.

• 2:11:20Speaker 01

  Where's my bike helmet? You know, I, we used to have a car. It was a station wagon, and the backseat you sit facing the opposite way. No seatbelts, that had to be dangerous.

• 2:11:33Joe Rogan?

  It's all dangerous. Those cars were dangerous. They could barely stop.

• 2:11:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:11:37Joe Rogan?

  They had drum brakes.

• 2:11:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:11:38Joe Rogan?

  You ever drive like an old, I have old cars, but I have what they call Resto Mods. 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. And you know, and then the dashboard of an old car and all that stuff. That's what I like. If you drive a real, like if you try to drive a 1968 Camaro, you're like, what is this piece of shit? Like, they can't brake, you can't go around a corner, they, there's no traction.

• 2:12:08Speaker 01

  What was your first car?

• 2:12:09Joe Rogan?

  I had a 1973 Chevelle.

• 2:12:12Speaker 01

  I had a Cutlass.

• 2:12:14Joe Rogan?

  Ah, I had a Cutlass once. Yeah, I had a 70, a 70 Cutlass. Those are great cars. God, they knew how to make a beautiful car back then.

• 2:12:22Speaker 01

  You like muscle cars?

• 2:12:23Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, I love, well, when I was in high school, like those were the, so I was in high school in the 1980s. I went to, I was a freshman in 1981.

• 2:12:32Speaker 01

  I had four kids in the 1980s.

• 2:12:34Joe Rogan?

  Wow, that's crazy.

• 2:12:35Speaker 01

  I'm much older than you.

• 2:12:37Joe Rogan?

  In those days, those cars were the cars that we all like, looked at. Like, you couldn't believe when someone had it. I remember, I have a 1970 Chevelle to, that I got. To this day, I, I have it because when I was like 17, my friend picked me up in a 1970 Chevelle with his buddy. And it was perfect, it was a perfect car. I couldn't believe this guy had it. I was like, how do you have this?

• 2:13:04Speaker 01

  And, and when you say perfect to non-car people like me, what does that mean?

• 2:13:08Joe Rogan?

  Ah, 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, I think I was 16, because I don't think I had a license yet. And I remember getting in the backseat of the car going, how does this guy have this car? This is crazy. It's just, you know what a 1970 Chevelle looks like?

• 2:13:30Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 2:13:30Joe Rogan?

  With the white stripes, black 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.

• 2:13:40Speaker 01

  When Burt Reynolds drove up, those pictures we just looked at, when he drove up, he had what was called a Trans Am.

• 2:13:47Joe Rogan?

  Yes!

• 2:13:48Speaker 01

  And it had a big eagle on the top.

• 2:13:49Joe Rogan?

  Yes, Smokey and the Bandit car.

• 2:13:51Speaker 01

  I almost lost my mind.

• 2:13:52Joe Rogan?

  Oh my god, that was the Smokey and the Bandit car. That was the car that he had in those movies with Sally Fields.

• 2:13:57Speaker 01

  Hundred dollar tip. Um, have you ever been to, uh, you ever been to Jay Leno's spot?

• 2:14:03Joe Rogan?

  With, with, with the cars?

• 2:14:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:14:05Joe Rogan?

  I did his show once. I brought my Corvette on. I have a 1965 Corvette. And I brought it to his show. It's a resto mod too. And Jay drove it around. He's the only person that's ever driven it other than me. And, and, uh, you know.

• 2:14:17Speaker 01

  It's an honor.

• 2:14:18Joe Rogan?

  But you go to his place, it's like, he has warehouses. Not a warehouse. Where, there's, there's me and Jay.

• 2:14:25Speaker 01

  And he never sells one. He, he swears to me, he's never sold a car. So anything he's ever bought, he keeps. And he recently told me.

• 2:14:34Joe Rogan?

  Why did someone turn it gold?

• 2:14:36Speaker 04

  Fraser clipped his thumbnail, some on YouTube video.

• 2:14:39Joe Rogan?

  No, go to the other one. The other picture with the real picture.

• 2:14:42Speaker 04

  I was just clicking around.

• 2:14:43Joe Rogan?

  But go to the, go to the real picture so you can see what it looks like.

• 2:14:45Speaker 01

  You know, you know what he has now that's kinda cool? He has two tanks. Two army tanks.

• 2:14:51Joe Rogan?

  That's us, right there. That's my car. Look at that. See, but that, like, you see that? Modern suspension, modern wheels.

• 2:14:59Speaker 01

  Those are exhaust pipes on the side?

• 2:15:00Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, that, that car is so fun.

• 2:15:03Speaker 01

  Do those things get hot?

• 2:15:05Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, yeah, you'll fuck your leg up. If you got shorts on, your leg touches it, you're in trouble. The outside part won't, because like, the outside is like to protect you 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, he'd singe the back of his calves.

• 2:15:24Speaker 01

  Joe, he has tanks.

• 2:15:26Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, he has everything. He has steam engines.

• 2:15:28Speaker 01

  The king of Jordan gave him a tank. And this motherfucker was riding through Sherman Oaks with the tank.

• 2:15:34Joe Rogan?

  He drives everything he has too. That's the thing about Jay. Like, it's kinda nuts.

• 2:15:38Speaker 01

  It's a lot of rotation.

• 2:15:39Joe Rogan?

  Well, he wa, he crashed one of his motorcycles just a few years ago.

• 2:15:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:15:43Joe Rogan?

  Fucked himself up.

• 2:15:45Speaker 01

  He does a bit about that. He's fucked himself up without a motorcycle.

• 2:15:49Joe Rogan?

  Oh, that was the one time he was climbing up a hill?

• 2:15:51Speaker 01

  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...

• 2:16:10Joe Rogan?

  Oh, that had to be great.

• 2:16:11Speaker 01

  Fun.

• 2:16:12Joe Rogan?

  He was a great comic in the seventies.

• 2:16:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, people, people don't know, when I was in college, we would go in the TV lounge and watch Jay Leno. 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, to explain what bullshit majors

• 2:16:34Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 2:16:35Speaker 01

  were actually being peddled to us.

• 2:16:36Joe Rogan?

  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 sit on the couch and be crazy.

• 2:16:43Speaker 01

  Letterman would say, "What's your beef?"

• 2:16:44Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, and he would always be mad at something.

• 2:16:46Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:16:47Joe Rogan?

  He was like, people don't realize that, you'd see him as, but it's, again, that carrot, the carrot for him was The Tonight Show. That was more important to him than anything. And once he got that Tonight Show, everything else was like, took a backseat.

• 2:16:59Speaker 01

  Did you do Letterman as a stand-up?

• 2:17:02Joe Rogan?

  No, no.

• 2:17:03Speaker 01

  That was my first.

• 2:17:05Joe Rogan?

  That's a, that's, that's a classic. That was a great place for comedy. Because Letterman, like, he really loved comics. And he really loved like, solid stand-up. I never liked doing stand-up on those talk shows.

• 2:17:18Speaker 01

  Was it the Five Minutes?

• 2:17:19Joe Rogan?

  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. And I didn't like censorship.

• 2:17:30Speaker 01

  Well, oh, yeah.

• 2:17:31Joe Rogan?

  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 liked doing comedy for drunk people.

• 2:17:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, but when I first saw you, it all wasn't dirty. Some of it was TV stuff.

• 2:17:45Joe Rogan?

  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. I didn't like the idea of being constrained by any sorts of standards and practices, like... I'm not interested. I've been not interested in that.

• 2:18:02Speaker 01

  I worked on my Tonight Show set to try to get on The Tonight Show with Johnny. And the guy would come see me a lot. He would change my jokes. That I hate.

• 2:18:12Joe Rogan?

  Oh.

• 2:18:13Speaker 01

  I hate when they say, "Try saying vacation instead of gift shop." And I'm like, "Oh, let me just do my thing." But after a year of him trying to get my set right, he says, "You're not a Johnny comic."

• 2:18:28Joe Rogan?

  Oh, God.

• 2:18:29Speaker 01

  "You're not a Johnny guy."

• 2:18:30Joe Rogan?

  What does that even mean?

• 2:18:32Speaker 01

  But then I got on on a Monday night with Joan, because I guess I was a Joan guy. And then I got to sit with Johnny just as a guest to promote Coming to America. So finally, full circle from my basement.

• 2:18:43Joe Rogan?

  That's amazing. I watch a lot of his old clips, like with Don Rickles and all these...

• 2:18:50Speaker 01

  Oh, Don Rickles talking about Snooki, the brother in the band. You know, and he would do a noise of a blowgun. It's like, "Snooki, you liking this stuff?" You know, and you can't fuck with that now.

• 2:19:03Joe Rogan?

  No.

• 2:19:04Speaker 01

  There's so much... It's funny how we've come forward into a new era, but we've gone backwards in certain ways.

• 2:19:12Joe Rogan?

  Yeah. Yeah, you can't joke about certain things anymore.

• 2:19:15Speaker 01

  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.

• 2:19:22Joe Rogan?

  They can't do shit to you now.

• 2:19:23Speaker 01

  They can just be mad, I guess.

• 2:19:25Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, let them be mad. Just don't pay attention. That's what I do. I just don't pay attention.

• 2:19:28Speaker 01

  Really?

• 2:19:28Joe Rogan?

  Yeah. I just don't read anything about me. Stay away. That's the best way.

• 2:19:34Speaker 01

  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?

• 2:19:42Joe Rogan?

  No.

• 2:19:42Speaker 01

  You can't even enjoy the others. You don't even look at that person.

• 2:19:45Joe Rogan?

  No, those people have their own problems. This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. Scams have gotten smarter because criminals use AI to flood you with fake texts, emails, and phone calls that are designed to be more convincing than ever. One wrong click could put your personal information and your identity at risk. So protect yourself with LifeLock. LifeLock helps detect...

• 2:20:09Joe Rogan?

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• 2:20:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, and by the way, sometimes they're just not laughers. Cause that person will sometimes come up to you and say, love what you're doing, love the new stuff.

• 2:20:54Joe Rogan?

  Some people just like to smile. 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. You can't control that. Just control what you, what I, what, the only thing that bothers me is if I'm off, that's it. If I'm off, if something's, if I stumble on a word, if I fuck something up, that's the only thing that bothers me. And the audience is like, you can't control that. Why, why be upset at things you can't control? Cause who knows what their trip is, who knows what they're carrying around with them.

• 2:21:25Speaker 01

  As a famous star now, do you ever bomb?

• 2:21:30Joe Rogan?

  I have jokes that bomb, for sure. New ones, when you trot out a new one, especially like, we do this show called Bottom of the Barrel. And bottom of the barrel at the mothership is, there's like a whiskey barrel. And you reach into the whiskey barrel and you pull out premises, just ideas. And you just run with it, that's tonight, actually. And so you pull out a piece of paper and, you know, have a subject, you know? Ice cream, sundae, whatever, whatever the fuck it is.

• 2:21:56Speaker 01

  That takes intestinal fortitude.

• 2:21:57Joe Rogan?

  Oh, a lot of those fucking go nowhere. But some of them don't. Every now and then you get a great premise out of those. And it's like a little premise factory, 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.

• 2:22:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, see, I'm, I'm not.

• 2:22:32Speaker 01

  As chance driven as you are, I'd be afraid to do that. Cause my feelings get hurt too easy.

• 2:22:38Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, well, it's part of the process.

• 2:22:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, you're right. You're right. We should do the things we fear.

• 2:22:44Joe Rogan?

  You definitely have to if you wanna write new shit. You're gonna have to, there's that moment where you're like, do I trot this new one out?

• 2:22:52Joe Rogan?

  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, 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.

• 2:23:07Speaker 01

  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. And it got smoke and everything. And, and Richard would have two minutes. And then he'd have five.

• 2:23:27Joe Rogan?

  Mm-hmm. It would just build.

• 2:23:28Speaker 01

  Yeah. And I, it was like, like when grandma used to make a quilt.

• 2:23:31Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 2:23:32Speaker 01

  And it gets bigger and bigger.

• 2:23:33Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 2:23:33Speaker 01

  And you've got an hour. I used to love watching him develop it.

• 2:23:37Joe Rogan?

  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. And then that's what he would do. He would just go and figure it out on stage. Damon used to do that a lot. Damon used to go and sit on stage and just sit with a premise. Just sit with it. And, and he would trot it out for like 10 minutes, try to figure, and then finally he'd find something and everybody'd be dying.

• 2:24:04Speaker 01

  We, we got away from that earlier, but I 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.

• 2:24:18Joe Rogan?

  They don't realize how great he was when he did the Last Stand. That, that one HBO special that he did way back in the day is a phenomenal special. It's phenomenal. He was so good. But he wanted to be a movie star, you know?

• 2:24:31Speaker 01

  And, and like Richard, he had an ability to also. Be vulnerable and tell the truth about something that most of us wouldn't tell. Like he talked about having a club foot as a kid.

• 2:24:44Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 2:24:44Speaker 01

  And he, he was special and I'm glad he's back out there.

• 2:24:48Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, well, I think he never really, you know, one of the other thing that he did 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.

• 2:25:02Speaker 01

  Really?

• 2:25:03Joe Rogan?

  Yep, and he goes over it.

• 2:25:04Speaker 01

  That's work.

• 2:25:05Joe Rogan?

  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, 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.

• 2:25:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:25:38Joe Rogan?

  And he would just, he had no fear of silence.

• 2:25:41Speaker 01

  See, that's, that's the sentence right there. When it's quiet in the comedy club, I lose my mind.

• 2:25:49Joe Rogan?

  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 remember, I brought him up on stage and everyone's going crazy. Chris Rock's here, they're cheering, cheering, cheering. And he goes, relax, relax, it ain't gonna be that funny. Just let people know I'm working on some new shit, this ain't gonna be that funny. And, but with confidence, like everybody already knew he's funny. They already saw Bigger and Blacker, they already saw his specials. It was, it was Bring the Pain, everybody already knew.

• 2:26:23Speaker 01

  The one where he shot with three different outfits in three different places?

• 2:26:26Joe Rogan?

  I hated that one.

• 2:26:27Speaker 01

  You didn't like that one?

• 2:26:28Joe Rogan?

  No. And then, not that I didn't like the material, I didn't like the idea of swapping outfits. The problem with that is you realize he's saying the same thing in all these different places. 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, I don't wanna say, oh, he just performs this the same way everywhere? 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 you're in Cleveland, like, uh, uh, uh, uh, don't do that to me. Why you got a leather jacket on in the beginning and then the punchline, you got a fucking silk shirt? Uh, don't do that.

• 2:27:13Speaker 01

  See, I saw it as a guy creatively trying to find new horizons.

• 2:27:18Joe Rogan?

  Sure.

• 2:27:18Speaker 01

  Do different things.

• 2:27:19Joe Rogan?

  Some horizons suck.

• 2:27:23Joe Rogan?

  It's not like the jokes were great. It's like, he's a great comic. It's not that. It's like, I just didn't like the idea 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 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? 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. I know you wear different clothes. Don't show me right now.

• 2:28:03Speaker 01

  In retrospect, I wonder how he looks at that special if he...

• 2:28:06Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, I don't know. I mean, he never did it again.

• 2:28:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:28:10Joe Rogan?

  It's not like...

• 2:28:10Speaker 01

  Well, you don't want to do it again.

• 2:28:12Joe Rogan?

  Right. 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.

• 2:28:23Speaker 01

  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. And when you talk about archiving your practice sets...

• 2:28:36Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, all of them. Damon has all of them. And he told me this years ago, because 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?

• 2:28:49Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:28:49Joe Rogan?

  Nine years ago? Something like that? And I go, you record all of them? He's like, every set since like 1990 something. He goes, 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.

• 2:29:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's exactly what I'm thinking. And I'm also thinking, what an amazing documentary. If we could go through the history of Damon's personal archives, that would be a great.

• 2:29:19Joe Rogan?

  Oh, yeah.

• 2:29:20Speaker 01

  I think there's a special there.

• 2:29:22Joe Rogan?

  Probably, yeah, probably. But I mean, I think that's just part of his creative process. And again, I just think people don't realize, especially in the 90s, the early 90s, how what a monster he was on stage.

• 2:29:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:29:36Joe Rogan?

  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 who was like, oh shit, Damon Wayans is here. Like, it was weird. It was like weird when people would show up, like you'd seen him in movies and shit, and all of a sudden they're there in real life. 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.

• 2:30:00Speaker 01

  So you went from Boston to New York.

• 2:30:01Joe Rogan?

  Boston, New York.

• 2:30:02Speaker 01

  Catch a Rising Star. Where'd you work out in New York in those days?

• 2:30:05Joe Rogan?

  Well, I did the Boston Comedy Club, that, you know, the little place that Barry Katz had. I did The Cellar.

• 2:30:13Speaker 01

  That's Jay Moore's manager, right?

• 2:30:15Joe Rogan?

  Yes. I did Catch a Rising Star, back when that was there. I did, um, was there was a few of the-

• 2:30:22Speaker 01

  Comedy Strip?

• 2:30:23Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, I did The Strip, yeah. I did the Clubs in Town. I did Danger Fields a lot. 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. And the thing about that is like you could headline. And so you could do 45 minutes or an hour. And that, that allowed me to grow and like to really-

• 2:30:56Speaker 01

  Stretch out.

• 2:30:57Joe Rogan?

  Become a headliner. 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, they had a beginning, a middle and an end and it was like tight. It was tight. And I felt like I could do sets in New York, but I don't think it's really helping my career. Or there's no one there to see me. I felt like I'm gonna make money. Like, I could do a set in New York and I make 25 bucks.

• 2:31:41Joe Rogan?

  Or I could do a set in Connecticut and make 250 dollars. 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 love doing Long Island. I love doing New Jersey. I like doing the road more. That's what I liked.

• 2:31:59Speaker 01

  I think I'm a product of my childhood environment. I discovered stand-up because 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. Yeah, I lost everything. But I had gone to an Al Green concert. And Al Green had a comic come out. The house lights are on, people are still making their way to their seats. And this guy slowly gets him. 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 the 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.

• 2:32:44Speaker 01

  Johnny was a stand-up. So I'm still dreaming.

• 2:32:47Joe Rogan?

  Wow.

• 2:32:47Speaker 01

  And to this day, 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. Still to this day, I'm comfortable doing 30 minutes. Because that's what I did. But I had money. Like, I would come to the Comedy Store and I would have a really nice car. Because I'd spend most of my time on the road with Patrice Russian and Johnny Guitar Watson.

• 2:33:18Joe Rogan?

  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.

• 2:33:25Speaker 01

  And that's what I found to be the challenge. It's like, I'm gonna make you motherfuckers who don't know me and are mad. Because a lot of, you know, people would look at you like, that ain't one of the Temptations.

• 2:33:36Joe Rogan?

  Right, right, right, right.

• 2:33:37Speaker 01

  I gotta get them. And I liked that challenge.

• 2:33:40Joe Rogan?

  It is a real challenge. Because there's a lot of people like, boo!

• 2:33:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:33:44Joe Rogan?

  Bring on Metallica.

• 2:33:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:33:47Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, they don't want to see you. They want to see the music act.

• 2:33:51Speaker 01

  I opened for Blood, Sweat & Tears once.

• 2:33:53Joe Rogan?

  Wow.

• 2:33:54Speaker 01

  And they really did not want to see me. You think the Johnny Guitar Watson audience didn't want to see me? Them motherfuckers from Blood, Sweat & Tears not fucking with me.

• 2:34:03Joe Rogan?

  Well, it's definitely running with weights on, though. 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. And it's like, oh.

• 2:34:13Speaker 01

  Just there to see comedy made it easier.

• 2:34:16Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, I just don't want to perform for people that aren't there to see comedy. But there's a value in it, I think.

• 2:34:22Speaker 01

  But that's when you're you're young.

• 2:34:23Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 2:34:24Speaker 01

  And I had a nice car and a condo because I had just come off the road with Aretha.

• 2:34:30Joe Rogan?

  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 theater in the round show, 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.

• 2:34:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:34:49Joe Rogan?

  So I did some stand up and then I had to get people like, come up here, come closer.

• 2:34:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:34:55Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 2:34:55Speaker 01

  I I remember those times being on the road and if there were six girls in the green room and you're opening for The Temptations, number six is yours.

• 2:35:06Speaker 01

  The other five go first to the temps.

• 2:35:09Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, that's a different world, opening for musicians. That's a hard world. And I know a lot of people like made a living just traveling with bands. And that's all they did. They would just open up for bands.

• 2:35:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, I would open up for R and B acts. And as a matter of fact, I got discovered by a jazz singer, Nancy Wilson, and I used to love jazz audiences because that was the perfect type of music for a comic. Because they were mellow. Jazz audience don't scream, get the fuck off.

• 2:35:38Joe Rogan?

  Right, right, right.

• 2:35:39Speaker 01

  They just, you know, they.

• 2:35:41Joe Rogan?

  Alonzo Boden, he does jazz tours still. Like, he'll do like, he'll do like a jazz cruise ship.

• 2:35:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:35:49Joe Rogan?

  You know, like, and he'll do stand up with the jazz audiences.

• 2:35:53Speaker 01

  Hey, every year.

• 2:35:54Joe Rogan?

  But he loves jazz.

• 2:35:55Speaker 01

  I I love jazz, too, and I remember going to see

• 2:36:00Speaker 01

  the Playboy Jazz Festival and Bill Cosby was the host at the Hollywood Bowl. I host that every year now. I still love jazz and that's the coolest two days of my summer.

• 2:36:10Joe Rogan?

  What is it about jazz? Like, what do you love about it?

• 2:36:13Speaker 01

  Oh, about the actual. By the way, the coolest experience was sitting.

• 2:36:21Speaker 01

  On the beach in Malibu with Miles Davis. After he came on the show once, he says, "Why don't you come over to the house, hang out?" And he was a painter. And he was sitting with his trumpet. It was a red trumpet. I had never seen a red trumpet, like a crimson trumpet. And it was sitting beside him. And he wouldn't use an easel. He had the canvas on a table. And he'd roll a new piece out. And he would paint. "You ever thought about painting?" "No, I'm not a good artist." But being a jazz fan, that was the coolest moment ever. And what do I like about it? I almost equate my comedy to jazz. Because I love to say, "I'm going in D, guys."

• 2:37:05Speaker 01

  And just play. You know, as a stand-up. You know, I used to love to equate how I worked to jazz.

• 2:37:14Joe Rogan?

  But it takes a very specific type of person to be like a jazz fan that really enjoys listening to jazz.

• 2:37:20Speaker 01

  I'm also a musician. And I know that some of the most respected musicians in my mind are jazz musicians. You know, the intricacy. Spending time with, I talk about this in the book, spending time with Quincy Jones, who was from the world of jazz and a former trumpet player and all that stuff. Then he ends up, the year I meet him, he plays for me these tracks. And I don't know what I'm about to listen to. And he says, "You hear that?" He takes, he slides all the slides down. He says, "Listen to this." And he plays this thing.

• 2:37:56Speaker 01

  I'm like, "What is that?" He says, "You ever heard of Sheila E. Man?" And I said, "Yeah, the Esquivido family." And I know the family. And he says, "She put different amounts of water in little pop bottles. And that's her tinging on those bottles." Then he starts bringing up the pots. And you hear the bass and the drums. And you realize you're listening to stuff from off the wall. And... It's just this incredible moment when I realized, yo, he getting ready to bring Michael back in a crazy way. I'm listening to, you know, you got me working, working day and night, you know? And he would just take out everything and just have Michael's voice. And I'd never been in a recording studio.

• 2:38:39Speaker 01

  And he's at the board, 18-channel track studio. And then he says, you're from Ohio, right? And he had seen me do stand-up at the Roxy and invited me to his studio. And he says, you're from Ohio, right? And I said, yeah. And so he says, let me play you this, man. And you have to take big, giant reels and put them on this machine. And he put the reels on and the song starts. And he says, this is a scratch track. I'm like, what's that? He says, that's a demo. And he says, they want me to find a singer for this. And he plays me James Ingram, Find 100 Ways and James Ingram Just Once. Brilliant, beautiful songs. And I'm like, what's wrong with that guy? He says, yeah, I'm thinking about it, man. He's pretty good, he's pretty good. And it ends up being the James Ingram from Ohio.

• 2:39:23Speaker 01

  And that was an incredible day. But I tell that story to say, this great jazz musician had this talent that other producers didn't have because of his music genius. And he was able to bring us the Off the Wall album and put Michael back in the mix.

• 2:39:43Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, layers and layers to the sound.

• 2:39:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:39:46Joe Rogan?

  That's the thing, when you hear a song, you don't realize like how much shit is going on in the background.

• 2:39:51Speaker 01

  Sheila E with Pop Bottles.

• 2:39:52Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, crazy.

• 2:39:54Speaker 01

  I loved that day. That's a favorite time because Michael had been missing, you know? And I had bought the Movin' Violation album. So I knew he needed Quincy.

• 2:40:05Joe Rogan?

  Wow. Yeah, there's some geniuses of music, man. I had Rick Rubin on the podcast. And he's explaining like his creative process. And just like, that guy's out there.

• 2:40:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. I had to go his way when I started the talk show that I took over for Joan Rivers. When I first had the idea that I want to try to find my own friends of the show. I want to find my show. And I put on LL Cool J doing a song called I'm Bad.

• 2:40:39Speaker 01

  And that night, I found what I was gonna do, win or lose. Next, I booked The Freaks Come Out at Night, Houdini.

• 2:40:47Joe Rogan?

  Oh, I remember that.

• 2:40:48Speaker 01

  And that was, so I found my home.

• 2:40:50Joe Rogan?

  When you did the Joan Rivers thing, did you think that that was gonna lead to you doing your own show?

• 2:40:54Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 2:40:55Joe Rogan?

  You did.

• 2:40:56Speaker 01

  I was like, I am, because Joan leaves, goes through all the stuff she's going through, and they give me this show for 11 weeks, and it starts to get numbers. And I know that she left because of a lack of numbers. And I'm like, oh, this shit is mine. So when I come back from doing Coming to America, I'm gonna come back to Fox and do this show. And one day, I walk into the cafeteria, and I realize they had hired Conan O'Brien to create a show. And I think the show was called The Wilton North Report, or something like that, and, but I realized I wasn't in their future.

• 2:41:38Speaker 01

  So Paramount, they were popping over to say hi, sending me flowers. And when I finished Coming to America, actually halfway through, they were like, when you finish, you can do that talk show here in first-run syndication. And they had to explain that to me. And at the same time, I was being pitched by the King Brothers, who created Oprah, so I kinda understood that first-run syndication could work, except Oprah had ABC Networks behind her, which is good. I had some CBS affiliates, and

• 2:42:12Speaker 01

  it, it all worked out. Right now, with the exception of Byron Allen, I don't think anybody gets rich in first-run syndication.

• 2:42:21Joe Rogan?

  Well, he's a very unusual case, you know?

• 2:42:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 2:42:24Joe Rogan?

  I mean, he's figured out a cheat code, like Byron Allen, you know, I heard that-

• 2:42:30Speaker 01

  And when they cheat him, he sues them and wins.

• 2:42:33Joe Rogan?

  I think Byron Allen's show, Comics Unleashed, is gonna replace Colbert.

• 2:42:37Speaker 01

  Absolutely, that was just announced this week.

• 2:42:39Joe Rogan?

  Yeah. Late show will be replaced by Byron Allen's Comics Unleashed. That's crazy. That's how, isn't that weird? Like, late shows just don't work anymore.

• 2:42:50Joe Rogan?

  They just don't have the same thing anymore. Like that standard model show.

• 2:42:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:42:55Joe Rogan?

  Where people like, I don't think they do well.

• 2:42:58Speaker 01

  And they're expensive, Joe.

• 2:42:59Joe Rogan?

  Oh, I can imagine. They were saying the Colbert show was costing them like fifty million dollars a year to keep it on the air. That's, I don't understand it. Like, how? How's it costing you so much money?

• 2:43:10Speaker 01

  Oh, gosh, well.

• 2:43:11Joe Rogan?

  But you know what I'm saying? Like, you have ads.

• 2:43:13Speaker 01

  When there were three channels, though, and only one had a talk show, everybody was there.

• 2:43:17Joe Rogan?

  Of course.

• 2:43:18Speaker 01

  And it made sense. It made dollars and sense.

• 2:43:22Joe Rogan?

  There's also the problem that, when you compare it to things that are on the internet, is that you have to stop conversations every seven minutes for a commercial. That's an issue. It's an issue with depth. You don't get to go, like, you and I have been talking for two hours and forty minutes.

• 2:43:37Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 2:43:38Joe Rogan?

  Yeah. So, like, when you're doing this kind of thing, you just flow. Everything flows. You just have a conversation. You just have a good time. It's so different when you're stuck in this format where you only have an hour. Everything is like, you gotta cut to the commercial in five, four, three, we'll be right back. Like, we'll be right back. Where are you going? Stay here. Like, no, you have to sell Tide. You know, it's like, that format is so limited. It's so restrictive. That people knowing that that, that there's other things out there now, where you could just go and watch it anytime you want. You don't have to tune in at eleven P M.

• 2:44:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, we used to have must-see TV.

• 2:44:17Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 2:44:17Speaker 01

  And we would all gather as a nation to watch the finale of Cheers.

• 2:44:21Joe Rogan?

  Yep.

• 2:44:21Speaker 01

  And now we don't do anything together.

• 2:44:23Joe Rogan?

  Nope. No, except sports, except like, Super Bowl.

• 2:44:26Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:44:27Joe Rogan?

  There's only sports, live boxing events, UFC, that kind of shit where it's live. That is the only thing that people all watch together.

• 2:44:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:44:35Joe Rogan?

  That's it.

• 2:44:35Speaker 01

  Did you watch Chris Rock Live? Selective outrage?

• 2:44:39Joe Rogan?

  I didn't watch his live special. I watched it after, but I didn't watch it when it was live.

• 2:44:44Speaker 01

  So you knew it was available.

• 2:44:45Joe Rogan?

  I was busy.

• 2:44:46Speaker 01

  When we grew up, it wasn't, the shit wasn't available the second time.

• 2:44:50Joe Rogan?

  But I did a live special on Netflix for that very reason, just because I thought it was scary. Just because my last one I did live. And I only did it live because the first time they asked me, I said, no, fuck that. And then I was like, why am I being such a pussy? And I remember driving home. I had a conversation with my manager and I called her right back. I got. Let me decide tomorrow. Like, I'm thinking about this, hold on. Cause I was driving home feeling like I was a pussy for not wanting to do it live.

• 2:45:14Speaker 01

  And now in retrospect, what did you get out of agreeing to do it live?

• 2:45:18Joe Rogan?

  Fear.

• 2:45:21Speaker 01

  You wanted to feel that?

• 2:45:22Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, I wanted to be nervous. I was legitimately nervous. I never get nervous for shows anymore.

• 2:45:27Speaker 01

  It's the same kind of...

• 2:45:28Joe Rogan?

  I get excited.

• 2:45:29Speaker 01

  When you have, when you killing a wild, I heard you talking about killing a wild hog. When you go hunting like that, is the same kinda...

• 2:45:36Joe Rogan?

  It's a very different kind of fear. That's a primal thing. That's very different. That's a very different thing. That's like, that's a life or death. You're in, that's a weird, that's a weird primal connection with nature, where you're gonna eat this thing. You're sneaking up on this thing that has these survival instincts and sense of smell and ears pop up. And you have, you know, you don't wanna fuck it up either. You have one moment to take a shot. That's even more intense, honestly. Like elk hunting with a bow and arrow is even more intense than doing a live comedy special. If you can believe it.

• 2:46:11Speaker 01

  Wow, yeah, yeah, I believe it.

• 2:46:13Joe Rogan?

  I like things that scare me. I like things that are scary to do because I think it's good for you.

• 2:46:19Speaker 01

  Except cocaine.

• 2:46:20Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, I don't wanna ruin my life, that's the problem. I just, like I said, I don't hear any success stories from cocaine. Nobody's like, nobody's got like a meth story. It's like, man, I started doing meth and I started seeing the world for what it really is. Started being more peace, I was living in the moment.

• 2:46:40Speaker 01

  Nobody says, right before I invented the hard drive, I did coke for three days.

• 2:46:44Joe Rogan?

  Right, no, no. I'm not interested in anything that's gonna ruin my life. But I'm interested in things that are gonna help me grow. And help me expand my capacity to do things that are scary.

• 2:46:59Speaker 01

  Would you do stand up live again?

• 2:47:00Joe Rogan?

  A hundred percent. Yeah, I'm thinking about doing my next one live again, too. I liked it.

• 2:47:05Speaker 01

  Did you, did you make any mistakes that?

• 2:47:07Joe Rogan?

  No, I didn't make any mistakes, but I prepared more than I ever prepared before. One of, one of the things I did, I listened to my recordings every night and I wrote out my act over and over and over and over again. I wrote it out, I wrote it out both on paper, like hand to paper, and I wrote it out with keys, like typing it on a laptop. I did it over and over again. I listened to recordings, I watched recordings. I, I had way more preparation than I had ever done before for any other show.

• 2:47:34Speaker 01

  The night that you did it, did you change anything or do anything new?

• 2:47:38Joe Rogan?

  No, no, but I was free. I felt very loose. Once, once the show started, I felt like a regular show. I didn't, because I was prepared. But it's like, just like a fight. Like if you go into a fight and you're like, "Oh, I should have done more roadwork. Oh, I should have sparred more. Oh, I should have hit the pads more." You're, you know, that's not a good place to be, to hope that you could pull it off. You have to be 100% prepared. And that's the thing about doing a live show as opposed to, usually when I would film a special, I would have four shows. So I'd film all four of them and I'd be like, "Ah, fine, one of them's gonna be great. I'll just use that one."

• 2:48:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:48:13Joe Rogan?

  But when it's just one and the whole world, like millions of people are watching simultaneously, it's very scary.

• 2:48:20Speaker 01

  Makes you prepare.

• 2:48:21Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, it makes you prepare. It makes you prepare and it also, it's like, it's fucking fun to do something that scares the shit out of you. Like, "Let's go."

• 2:48:31Speaker 01

  Where did you shoot it?

• 2:48:31Joe Rogan?

  Go. Um, San Antonio.

• 2:48:34Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 2:48:34Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 2:48:35Speaker 01

  That's cool.

• 2:48:36Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 2:48:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, I've only done one Netflix special.

• 2:48:38Joe Rogan?

  I barely leave Texas these days.

• 2:48:40Speaker 01

  Really?

• 2:48:41Joe Rogan?

  I fucking love it here. I love it. I love it.

• 2:48:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was amazing when you made the move, man, because, that's why I asked you when we first started talking, it's like, were you thinking about this in LA but way back, like 20 years ago?

• 2:48:54Joe Rogan?

  I was thinking 20 years ago about getting out. I moved to Colorado for a little while in 2009.

• 2:49:02Joe Rogan?

  Um, but.

• 2:49:03Speaker 01

  For legal weed?

• 2:49:04Joe Rogan?

  No, no, no, no. I just wanted to get out. I just wanted to try. I, I, but I went too crazy. I got a house in the mountains that was eighty five hundred feet above sea level. It was like, it was too much. But when I came back to LA, I always had this thing like, eventually I gotta get out of here. First of all, I always thought LA is one hundred percent gonna have a massive earthquake. One day.

• 2:49:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:49:30Joe Rogan?

  Like a massive earthquake where everything fucks up and falls apart.

• 2:49:33Speaker 01

  You lived through the Northridge earthquake, right?

• 2:49:35Joe Rogan?

  I didn't.

• 2:49:35Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 2:49:36Joe Rogan?

  I came to California right after it happened.

• 2:49:38Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 2:49:39Joe Rogan?

  And when I got there, like parts of like one of the freeways was collapsed on the other one. I was like, this is nuts. The freeways fall. Down here, this is crazy. So I feel like I've always been thinking that there's gonna come a time where that place just breaks off and sinks into the ocean. And it's just not well run. Like, the whole thing is like just waiting for one little catastrophe. There's very little coordination, very little. People don't, they don't, there's not like a sense of community in the greater Los Angeles area like you get in a smaller place. Like Austin.

• 2:50:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:50:15Joe Rogan?

  Austin like feels like a small town that has everything you want. Whereas LA just feels like a poorly run bureaucracy driven chaotic shill game. It's like just a, a shell game of bullshit and money and people just grifting and fucking the homeless situation is nuts. Like, everything's nuts in LA. It's just beyond fixing, I think.

• 2:50:43Speaker 01

  Here in Austin, a lot of homeless?

• 2:50:45Joe Rogan?

  Not nearly as many. I mean, it's a very small problem. You're always gonna have homeless people because you're always gonna have mental illness. You're always gonna have drug addiction. You're always gonna have some people that have problems, but in comparison, like, Skid Row is fifty blocks.

• 2:50:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:51:00Joe Rogan?

  Fifty blocks, five zero blocks of homeless people just outside, just camped out.

• 2:51:07Speaker 01

  I left a Laker game recently. And went through that area.

• 2:51:11Joe Rogan?

  It's nuts.

• 2:51:12Speaker 01

  Broke my heart, man.

• 2:51:13Joe Rogan?

  It broke my heart in two thousand and five. I was filming Fear Factor downtown in like two thousand and five.

• 2:51:20Speaker 01

  Shout out to David Hurwitz.

• 2:51:22Joe Rogan?

  Ah, you know Dave.

• 2:51:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:51:24Joe Rogan?

  Shout out to Dave.

• 2:51:24Speaker 01

  He was my intern. I set him up for you. I taught him so he could come and get worms for you.

• 2:51:30Joe Rogan?

  That's crazy. Yeah, um, we were filming downtown and I went for a, I was driving home and I took a wrong turn. And all of a sudden I was in Skid Row. I was like, this is crazy. And this was back then and no one was talking about it back then. I was like, there's so many homeless people. It's like a zombie movie. Remember I came to the set the next day. I was like, you guys ever go, go this way and take a left. It's fucking nuts. There's so many homeless people. Like and they, they figured out a way to keep them there. They just pushed people there. Like they started doing it decades ago. Where they would take all the problem people out of Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. And they would just bring them to downtown and go, you gotta stay here. And that's what created Skid Row.

• 2:52:09Speaker 01

  When we were kids, I used to hear about mental institutions. We don't have that anymore.

• 2:52:15Joe Rogan?

  Oh, they shut them down during the Reagan administration. That was one of the giant errors of society. When they shut down all the mental health institutions and they just let all these people just exist on the street with schizophrenia. And just let them do drugs. And then, and some places give them drugs and give them needles and encourage them to come there and give them money so they could stay on the street.

• 2:52:37Speaker 01

  Austin loves you, but you ever think about back in the day, not leaving California and running for governor?

• 2:52:43Joe Rogan?

  Fuck that. I don't wanna be a politician. Why would I want that job?

• 2:52:46Speaker 01

  You wanna help. You want, the problem you see, you wanna help.

• 2:52:49Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, you ain't helping nothing, man. You're gonna get killed. If I, my help would be expose all the fraud and lock everybody up and then they wound up killing me.

• 2:52:58Speaker 01

  Then you'd lose the big money from the rich.

• 2:53:00Joe Rogan?

  Eh, they're not gonna give it to me anyway. It's like, I'm not the guy. I'm not, I wouldn't be good at it. I wouldn't be good at the job. I'd be a good advisor. I'd tell people what the people want, but no one's gonna listen. I think politics, we're talking about with money being involved in it. It's almost inexorably unfixable. It's almost impossible to untangle that fucking.

• 2:53:22Joe Rogan?

  Beehive of chaos. This is so much dirty money involved.

• 2:53:26Speaker 01

  And if I'm a politician, I'm not gonna stop taking this money. I'm not gonna be first. If we all gonna do it, I'm not gonna be first.

• 2:53:32Joe Rogan?

  Exactly. Look at all these congressmen that make, you know, a hundred and seventy thousand dollars a year and they're worth eighty million. How the fuck did that happen? What did you do? And how, how did you, how do you have time to invest? Aren't you busy being a congressperson? How the fuck do you have all that money? You got all that money because you're a grifter. They're all grifting and they're all just like doing it sneaky. It's red and blue. If you look at, we pulled up the numbers of people, whether it's a Democrat or Republican, how many of them are insider trading? It's across the board. They all have just unexplainable amounts of money. It's a dirty fucking business.

• 2:54:10Speaker 01

  It's not like one of the parties loves money more than the other.

• 2:54:13Joe Rogan?

  No.

• 2:54:14Speaker 01

  They're all, I mean, I, see, I get in trouble for that because usually my humor is written around not liking any of them. And people want me to take a side.

• 2:54:24Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, that's a problem.

• 2:54:25Speaker 01

  I, I had a joke in my Netflix special about, you know, the Democrat versus the Republican that was running at that time. And it was like, that's like asking me who my favorite Menendez brother is. Motherfuckers did not.

• 2:54:40Joe Rogan?

  That's a great joke.

• 2:54:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, like, oh, I'm kinda like Lyle. He made it in prison with a toupee. He's special.

• 2:54:48Joe Rogan?

  Weren't they trying to get them out recently?

• 2:54:50Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 2:54:51Joe Rogan?

  Bro, that documentary on them was nuts. The docu-drama series where they recreated it, like, oh, my god.

• 2:54:58Speaker 01

  I love documentaries.

• 2:55:00Joe Rogan?

  Well, that was a docu-drama, like, like they recreated, yeah, actor. So you don't know how much of it is true, but boy, did they come off like fucking complete psychos.

• 2:55:08Speaker 01

  I remember for the OJ Simpson scripted doc, they wanted me to come read for OJ.

• 2:55:16Joe Rogan?

  What?

• 2:55:16Speaker 01

  And I'm like, yo.

• 2:55:18Joe Rogan?

  How the fuck are you gonna be OJ?

• 2:55:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, you're gonna have Judge Edo barking because I'm just too recognizable as me.

• 2:55:23Joe Rogan?

  Exactly. That wouldn't work at all. That's crazy.

• 2:55:26Speaker 01

  I think they chose Cuba Gooding Jr.

• 2:55:28Joe Rogan?

  That's right. That's right. He actually did a great job in that. But what a, that, that story was nuts. He was the first famous, there it is.

• 2:55:37Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 2:55:39Joe Rogan?

  Wow.

• 2:55:39Speaker 01

  And that's Kim's dad.

• 2:55:42Joe Rogan?

  Wow.

• 2:55:43Speaker 01

  That's Mr. Kardashian's second.

• 2:55:44Joe Rogan?

  John Travolta's in there too. I forgot Travolta's in there. It's, those are fucking so weird.

• 2:55:51Speaker 01

  That's the dream team, dawg.

• 2:55:52Joe Rogan?

  Famous people pretending to be.

• 2:55:55Speaker 01

  Other famous people.

• 2:55:56Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, so odd.

• 2:55:57Speaker 01

  I do a story in my book about OJ coming to Stage 29 at Paramount to whip my ass one time.

• 2:56:04Joe Rogan?

  Did he really?

• 2:56:05Speaker 01

  Well, he was angry, uh, and.

• 2:56:07Joe Rogan?

  Did you say a joke on, on the show or something?

• 2:56:10Speaker 01

  I booked, um, is when Naked Gun was out and I booked Leslie Nielsen. And we got a call from OJ's people because he wanted to come on, obviously. He was in that movie. But the second one, it had legs, so I booked Priscilla Presley, who is a great guest and a lot of history. And after that, I get a call from the gate. It's, is there OJ Simpson here at the gate? Who wants to talk to you? And he didn't park. He didn't want a space. He parked outside the elephant door of Stage 29 and wanted me to come out.

• 2:56:46Joe Rogan?

  Uh-oh.

• 2:56:46Speaker 01

  Yeah. And by the way, this is, this is at a time when we didn't know he cut a motherfucker's head off, you know?

• 2:56:51Joe Rogan?

  Also, at the time, we didn't know about CTE.

• 2:56:54Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, yeah?

• 2:56:55Joe Rogan?

  Which is probably a lot of what OJ was going through, a lot of that violent behavior.

• 2:57:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:57:02Joe Rogan?

  There's probably a lot of CTE.

• 2:57:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, man. I mean, when you think about it, those days in San Francisco when he couldn't quite cut the way he used to, he was getting hit, he was taking head-on shots.

• 2:57:13Joe Rogan?

  Oh, yeah. And NFL back then was nuts.

• 2:57:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, I feel bad for him and Junior Seaw and some of those guys. Junior Seaw was trying to scream to us what was going on.

• 2:57:22Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 2:57:22Speaker 01

  You know, he committed suicide, left, no, left his, made sure he didn't damage his brain with the bullet.

• 2:57:28Joe Rogan?

  Right, so they could check it out.

• 2:57:30Speaker 01

  But, but OJ stopped by and we had a talk and, and.

• 2:57:33Joe Rogan?

  So he was mad that you didn't have him on the show?

• 2:57:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, he, he, he was a little mad and, um.

• 2:57:38Joe Rogan?

  But was it your call?

• 2:57:40Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 2:57:43Speaker 01

  I mean, but by the way, it was my call to just do things that would get numbers.

• 2:57:48Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 2:57:48Speaker 01

  You know, well, the, um, the Leslie Nielsen one, I liked him because I saw him someplace with a little thing in his hand to make fart noises.

• 2:57:58Joe Rogan?

  I saw that, yeah.

• 2:57:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I, so I knew that, I would say to him, so you got a big hit here in him. Yeah, and he would do it, squeeze the thing. And, um, yeah, I was just trying to find the funniest guest. And OJ, you know, he told me, uh, he said some shit about, uh, you know, I thought having a black host, things would be different. You know, and I'm like, don't you play the race car.

• 2:58:20Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, settle down.

• 2:58:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, not you, Juice. But, uh, I, I ran into him in a club one night. I was hanging out with a couple of members of New Edition. And, uh, we're in this club and he comes over and he gets drunk with us. And after we're pretty tanked, Nicole and this gorgeous girl named Faye Resnick, I'll never forget her name. She was beautiful. And these two women come over and I realize, oh, so, because OJ is alone. I realized he was going to places finding her. And so, so she comes over and she says, Juice, you know, and she's, what are you doing, you know, and he's just, hanging out with these guys. And he's, you know, when you're drunk, spit be flying. I wasn't drunk enough that I didn't see the spit.

• 2:59:08Speaker 01

  And, uh, so she said, well, I'm going to be over here with Faye and blah, blah, blah, say something before you leave. And, uh, so we sit there and talk, but he said something at night that blew me away. We talked about her and he said, I still love her. I've tried to give her up and I can't.

• 2:59:24Joe Rogan?

  Wow.

• 2:59:26Speaker 01

  And.

• 2:59:26Joe Rogan?

  That's crazy.

• 2:59:27Speaker 01

  Too much later, she was dead. That's what, that's around the time too, I remember.

• 2:59:34Speaker 01

  Missing the show. Cause one thing that's addictive about the talk show is anything in the news, you get to handle it.

• 2:59:40Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 2:59:41Speaker 01

  And I remember watching a basketball game and seeing the freeway chase with the Bronco. And I was like, I want a monologue tomorrow. You know, I couldn't believe I didn't have a show that night. That's the only time I've ever really missed it. Cause most of the time you just go to the store.

• 2:59:57Joe Rogan?

  Right, right, right. That's hilarious.

• 2:59:59Speaker 01

  I wanted to talk to the nation that night.

• 3:00:01Joe Rogan?

  Well, listen, brother, you had a gigantic impact on culture. You really did. Your show was amazing. You know, you have an incredible life and I'm, I'm really happy to hear that you're happy now. And just enjoying life, you know, and you look fucking fantastic for 70. That's amazing.

• 3:00:18Speaker 01

  Thank you, man. I, I appreciate you inviting me. Uh, this is one of those shows.

• 3:00:23Joe Rogan?

  Next time you kind of come to the club. Next time you're in town.

• 3:00:26Speaker 01

  I got to.

• 3:00:26Joe Rogan?

  Just let me know.

• 3:00:27Speaker 01

  The show is important, but, but I can't wait. I look at the mothership behind you, the neon mothership.

• 3:00:34Joe Rogan?

  That was actually before the mothership was made.

• 3:00:36Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 3:00:37Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, this, this was six years old, this sign. This is, we got this sign. My friend Brigham got me this when I first moved to Austin.

• 3:00:45Speaker 01

  So what did the spaceship mean before there was a club to you?

• 3:00:48Joe Rogan?

  I'm just a UFO fanatic.

• 3:00:50Speaker 01

  Oh, okay.

• 3:00:51Joe Rogan?

  I'm, I've always been obsessed.

• 3:00:53Speaker 01

  Cause that looked like some shit. I went to a Parliament Funkadelic concert where they landed in some shit like that. And George Clinton came out and sang One Nation Under a Groove.

• 3:01:01Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 3:01:03Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 3:01:03Joe Rogan?

  I've just always been obsessed. That's all it is. But next time you're in town, you're coming. Promise?

• 3:01:08Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 3:01:09Joe Rogan?

  All right.

• 3:01:09Speaker 01

  I'll come, I won't be in town. I'll figure out a way to hit you and say, Siri, Joe, I'm coming.

• 3:01:17Joe Rogan?

  Let's go.

• 3:01:18Speaker 01

  And I'll be here. Thanks for doing this, man, cause uh, your demographic reads and uh, I know I sold some books today.

• 3:01:24Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, tell everybody the name of your book and is it out right now?

• 3:01:27Speaker 01

  We had a long ass meeting about that. Do we call it Things That Make You Go Hmm? A Life That Makes You Go Hmm? Do we call it Hmm, Hmm, Hmm? Uh, we didn't know what. And uh, then finally one day we named it Arsenio.

• 3:01:38Joe Rogan?

  Perfect.

• 3:01:38Speaker 01

  That's it.

• 3:01:39Joe Rogan?

  That's perfect.

• 3:01:40Speaker 01

  Yeah. And there's a book on tape for those who don't like to read. Oh, that's the book. And you know what? If you open it and you don't want to read it, there are really cool pictures inside.

• 3:01:49Joe Rogan?

  There you go. All right.

• 3:01:51Speaker 01

  The art department threw some AI on me. I'm 35 and that picture.

• 3:01:56Joe Rogan?

  You're 35 right now. All right, appreciate you, brother. Thank you, dawg. Bye, everybody.