"Welcome to this curated educational transcript of the Joe Rogan Experience. In this session, we provide a deep-dive examination of the critical perspectives and historical dialogues presented in Episode #2455. Our mission is to offer a high-fidelity, searchable research resource for students of cultural history, emerging technology, and global discourse. This transcript has been specifically optimized for academic reference, linguistic study, and archival preservation regarding Contemporary Stand-up Comedy, Social Media Influence on Entertainment, and the Evolution of Sketch Comedy Legacies." Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out. The Joe Rogan
Experience. Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by
night, all day. Really? Red meat? It's unfortunate.
In any form? You know, like, I know it's weird.
If I eat a burger, it's different if I eat a
steak. Steak is a problem? Yeah, I don't know
if my digestive system, just like you two old
fucking... How old is this down? I'm 58. I'm
58, too. I eat mostly meat. I don't think it's
age. What is it then? Well, what are you eating
it with? Tito's. We rolling? Tito's. Tito's vodka?
It can't be that, right? No. I'm eating a steak
and I wash it down. You just eat a steak with
Tito's? And I wash it down with Tito's and tonic
because it resembles H2O so much. Sometimes I
get thrown off until I do it. What? Tito's and
tonic resembles water? The look of it. The look
of it. It's clear. That's all that matters to
you? Yeah. I know at some point I need to change
my life. I'm at the age now that it's like I
look at certain food and I'm like, oh, my God,
it looks good, but, you know, you can't handle
that. I think this is when I really. Really need
to be in love because I need to be with somebody
that understands when I go places and when I
want to pig out, they got to be like, he can't
eat that. Oh, right. He's going to sit up. He's
going to be thrown up. Female handler. A female
handler. They call it geriatric. Like, this is
what I hear. This is what the streets are saying.
Most men get to an age, it's a geriatric shit.
When you just smash all the women you want to
do and everything, now you're going to have to
worry about somebody helping you with your pill
diet, helping you with your dietary needs and
everything. And they say that's a lot of times
when men fall in love, when they need somebody
to take them to the golden years. Or when you're
about to be out of here, you need somebody to
say, don't do that. You got to match. It's just
food. You got to chop it up. But I'm having digestive
issues sometimes. With steak, huh? It's red meat,
I want to say. And I'm a fan of it. So if you
eat like a bowl of pasta with the Tito's, no
problem? That's not a problem. Interesting. But
it's definitely red meat. Red meat, I'm not sleeping.
You should go to one of those doctors that checks
people for allergies. Food doctor? Yeah. I don't
want one of them. I mean, I had to date a Haitian
chick. They interview to really, really bad.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. They stab you with pillows
and shit. You might have pain in your neck. Is
there any particular reason, Joe, and I haven't
been here in a while. Is there any particular
reason why I am doing your show during Black
History Month? No. You asked to come on. You
reached out to me. I reached out to you. You
could have reached out to me in July. I would
have said yes. You got an open invitation. You
know that. I have an open invitation, but this
is when. I don't know. I said, can I come through?
You said, this is what you told me. You said,
I have a guest. And then you called back. I don't
know if Jamie said, you know what month this
is, right? I don't know if he answered. And you
called me right back. I moved somebody. I moved
somebody for you because I knew you were coming
here on a Monday. I had someone booked. Was it
a Caucasian person? I don't know. I don't remember.
You know it was a white man or a black man. No,
you know what? Did I bump a white person for
black? Actually, it might have been Michael Jai
White because he's here tomorrow. Yeah. So it
was probably Michael. I just probably moved him
a day. But I appreciate you being accommodating,
because I felt like it was time for me to come
back. I haven't been here a while. You can come
on any time. I really appreciate that. Whenever
you're in town. I hold that to be true. Come
on. I know that's true, too. You know I love
you. Yeah. I want some of that gum, too, man.
I'm sorry. The NeuroGum? Do we have any, Jamie?
I have some. Yeah, that stuff's the shoot. I
know. Whenever you say something, it's the shit.
It's the shit. Yeah. Well, what can I do about
my diet? I can't do anything about my diet. All
right. Whoops. I hit the mic. Yeah, you can.
You just, you know, you should go to a doctor
and find out if there's like there might be something
particularly about you that red meat doesn't
agree with you. But it might just be what you're
eating with the red meat more than the red meat
itself. You know, that's what I would imagine.
I would imagine it's not actually red meat. I
would imagine it's what you're eating with it.
Might be. And I'm going to check into it. Because
as they say in the streets, I'm of that big age
when you have to be considerate of a whole bunch
of things. So that's what I have to do. I have
to do that. Do you exercise at all? A little
bit. Usually doing sexual intercourse is when
I get most of my cardio. Get your pushups in?
Yeah. And it's not as strong. Damn, man. I don't
know if this applies to everybody. You get to
an age where you start looking at your history.
And you're like, damn, 2000 was my best years.
Like, right now, I'll just give up. You give
up. I don't put no pressure. I give up. I start
asking, like, what's your shoe size is or whatever.
I'd rather go shopping than to really try to
pound somebody out for three hours. I'm at that
age now where I have, I call it certain times.
Like, you're going to get a good workup. I probably
shouldn't give you that gum. That gum's going
to be a real problem on the microphone. Is it?
Okay. People are going to get annoyed with you.
All right. I don't know what to do. Just chew
it a little and spit it out. Okay. You'll get
the effects of it pretty quickly anyway. I'm
at the age where my best work is like holidays.
Holidays. Like I'm an animal. Why don't you hire
a trainer? You got some money. And what are the
trainers going to do? Get you in shape. I think
I need a therapist before I get a trainer. I
mean, you got to take one step at a time. I got
to get my mind right before I get my body right.
Wouldn't you agree? No. Getting your body right
will help get your mind right. I think that's
some truth to that. I think that you may be right
about that. Oh, 100%. Getting your body right
fixes your mind, without a doubt. But I will
say I'm at my best. I'm at my peak when it's
a holiday to celebrate. Because you're rested.
I'm rested. It's more incentive. Like, if you
want... Me to really smash a good time, consider
it like Valentine's Day, Christmas, Kwanzaa.
You can get seven good days. But to expect me
to be at my best on just a regular Tuesday or
a Wednesday is not going to happen. I need more
incentive. Well, it's also drinking. You like
to drink. Why would you say that? I know why
you would say that. Come on. I've seen you. All
right. I've been with you. I've drank with you.
Okay, then that's a good point. All right. There's
cigarettes. You was there. You brought a pack
with you. Right? There's that. Those are not
good. But you used to smoke. I saw one of your
podcasts. I forget how you explained what made
you not want to smoke anymore. What was that?
Well, cigarettes are a cognitive enhancer. They
are. It's a fact. Nicotine is a cognitive enhancer.
There's no doubt about it. It's a fact. And it
does things to your mind. It stimulates your
mind in a way that very few other things do.
That's why a lot of intellectuals, a lot of professors
use nicotine. A lot of academics use nicotine.
A lot of people that rely on their brain use
it. A lot of writers use nicotine. And there's
different delivery methods that have different
effects. Unfortunately, smoking has a very potent
instantaneous effect. And that's why people like
it. But it comes with a cost, the physical health.
You know, repercussions of cigarettes are well
known. Yeah. Not good. And also, you're smoking
Marlboros. We had a doctor on the other day that
thinks that regular cigarettes are not nearly,
like American spirits, are not nearly as bad
for you. I understand that they have some type
of, the American spirits, I'm not even advocating
for what you shouldn't smoke, but they say that's
supposed to be the most natural if there's such
a thing. It's just tobacco. I believe. Is that
a fact? Nope. No? What's in there besides tobacco?
I don't know. I've been trying. I don't know
how this lawsuit ended up, but they got sued
for the advertising of saying it's additive -free
and all that. Oh, did they? Yeah. What are the
additives? I've not decided. Well, let's look
into it. I've tried to look. I mean, there's
a big website about the lawsuit. What's the accusation?
Here we go. Lawsuit questions natural claims.
Natural American Spirit cigarettes are made by
Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company and parent company
Reynolds America. RJ Reynolds, Dave, fuck with
you. American Spirits has been sold in the U
.S. since 1985 under the original name Original
American Spirit. Organic. Oh, you got us. You
fucked. Unadulterated tobacco. Sue claims such
marketing language has endeared American Spirit
cigarettes to a core group of smokers who believe
that the natural tobacco in the cigarette makes
them a healthier alternative. Despite cigarette
sales declining 17 % between 2009 and 2014, American
Spirit sales have increased 86 % over the same
period. Huzzah. A regulatory filing on the Reynolds
American website states American Spirit is the
leading super premium cigarette brand that is
a top 10 bestselling cigarette brand. It's priced
higher than most other competitive brands and
is differentiated from key competitors through
its use of all natural additive free tobacco,
including styles made with organic tobacco. But
words like all natural and additive free on American
Spirits labeling the suit says belies the fact
that Santa Fe Reynolds adds ammonia. to their
cigarettes to maximize the amount of nicotine
a smoker receives with the result that American
spirits contain significantly more free -based
nicotine than other major cigarette brands. So
you're actually getting high off of cigarettes?
100%. I get high off of them because I don't
smoke them all the time. So if I smoke a couple
cigarettes a week, it's a lot. And Newport's
probably like 10 times worse than menthol cigarettes,
probably 10 times worse. for you a body. I was
talking to Kat about that. Yeah, I was asking
him like, why do you like menthols? And he's
like, he was speaking on behalf of the black
community. He said, we like things that are more
potent. I believe that that's part of it, but
I also believe that back in the day, and this
applies, I don't know if I talked about this,
it was certain brands that targeted certain communities
just for the loyalty of it. And I think Newport
was targeting, I don't know if it was a situation
where Newport came out, they were spending more
ad money, were advertising everything, because
I don't know if I shared this story with you,
but Pepsi was a company that did that, where
they targeted the black community. So I think
even though, I understand when you said more
potent, but I think it was something that was...
in our community, whether that was like cheaper
prices or whatever. And I think it's generation
and generation. Like you need to do this because
black people did this because it was cheaper.
I think that that might be the case for Newport.
Probably both. What is the menthol effect? What
is the... What is the difference in the way menthol
cigarettes work? I know when I smoke menthol,
I sound like Cat Williams in that show. That's
one of the reasons I had to downgrade to, like,
some people think that I started smoking Marlboro
Lights because I started dating white women,
which is more appealing. Unless you dated white
women from the Midwest, then she probably smoking
Newport and drinking Pepsis and Coca -Cola just
like you. But I think that's why. But I got so
many bad habits that... I need to change. Here
we go. Our sponsor, our AI sponsor, Perplexity,
says the menthol -affected cigarettes come from
the chemical menthol itself, which is added as
a flavoring and a sensory agent to the tobacco.
Menthol is naturally found in peppermint and
other mint plants. It can also be made synthetically
in a lab. Menthol activates cold -sensitive nerve
receptors in the mouth, throat, and airways,
creating a cooling sensation when you inhale
smoke. It's a mild anesthetic numbing effect
that reduces pain and irritation. from hot, harsh
cigarette smoke, making it feel smoother. Menthol
can suppress the cough reflex and dull early
warning signs of airway irritation, which make
it easier to inhale more deeply and more often.
Menthol reduces the perceived harshness of nicotine
and smoke. The minty taste and smell plus the
cooling feel act as a pleasant sensory cues that
many smokers come to associate with satisfaction
and craving. Menthol can alter nicotine metabolism
and the way nicotine acts on brain receptors,
which may increase nicotine's reinforcing addictive
effects. In short, the menthol effect is not
from nicotine but from added menthol, which cools
and numbs the airways, masks irritation. and
can make cigarettes feel smoother and more addictive
without making them any safer. So menthol cigarettes
appeal to black people because it's a cool cigarette.
It's cool. It's cooling. It makes so much sense
why the brand Cool Cigarette because that makes
sense. Right. That's why they called it cool,
I bet. Damn, what white people do to destroy
my community, man. Destroy everybody. Yeah. They
don't give a fuck about anybody. Half ain't wide
body ain't soul. Mild ain't bold. Cool ain't
cool. Newport is. Oh, because that was like a
take on cools because people used to smoke cools.
Do cools exist anymore? In jail. Only in jail?
I don't know what the ratio is, what cigarette
gets you more money in a dice game. But whenever
I hear people telling war stories, they're like,
man, I got a carton of cools for a bag of Doritos
or something, but the value of a cool cigarette
is higher in prison. Isn't it crazy that they
give you cigarettes in prison? That's crazy.
It's like the only drug you can get in prison.
You can't get alcohol, right? Well, you can get
hooch. Well, you can't get alcohol, but they
make their own type of— But it's all under the
table. Yeah. Yeah. But I think in prison, the
things that hold the most value, I think it's
tang, right? It's that artificial -flavored drink
you do. I think that it's— Astronaut shit. Yep.
Cigarettes, Doritos. I heard honey buns. hold
their value and i heard candy bar but candy bars
you got to be particular with that you because
if you offer this is what i hear if you offer
a person a certain amount of candy bars then
What I understand is that you're inviting them
to have sexual intercourse with you. Interesting.
Yeah. Candy bars. Yeah. Do you want some candy
bars? And that's like code. Yeah, it's like candy
bars. Like Pizzagate with pizza. Mr. Goodbar
for this good bar. Oh, okay. Not that I've had
those experiences, Joe, but this is the times
that I frequent the streets, which aren't anymore.
Not too often, these are the stories that they
tell. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. And these facts,
you don't need them for anything but for... barbershop
talk but these are the conversations that I have
that I've heard people have it's interesting
how different brands market to different people
and I mean how do they figure it out like what
do they work like that's where it's evil right
like advertising itself I don't have a problem
with but I there is something weird about deceptive
advertising that's legal you know well they do
a history on what uh people like i was watching
or reading a story about the uh people that started
forever 21 i forget what the brand was it was
some koreans from south korea not to be confused
with kim jung in those people but they were tailors
or something they started a small boutique and
what they would do was they would have these
clothing uh pieces of clothes and they would
really pay particular attention to what colors
people like um what was uh selling the most,
whatever, and that's what they buy. And one of
the things that made Forever 21 so popular because
they had really inexpensive, the clothes weren't
expensive, but they was turning them over so
quick. So people do case studies and see what
people are attracted to. I know with black people,
you put lemon pepper on anything, it's going
to go out the roof. You can do lemon pepper,
chicken wings, lemon pepper, french fries, anything
lemon pepper, they're going to go. I don't know
who started the whole lemon pepper craze, but
you lemon pepper anything, black people going
to buy it. That's interesting how white people
are associated with very bland foods. You know,
macaroni, cheese, mashed potatoes, mayonnaise.
And you know why you're connected with that blandness?
Because of the way you pronounced it. Macaroni
and cheese? You'd never ever say, if you tell
somebody, if you say, and you would be able to
be invited to the cookout, Joe, you know, people
like you. If you say, hey, guys, I'm coming to
the cookout, right, and I'm bringing macaroni
and cheese, you're going to get uninvited to
the cookout. How should I say it? Mac and cheese.
Mac and cheese. Yeah, you can't say macaroni
and cheese. Nobody ever does that. Okay. They
would look at you as a spy. You would get invited
and be uninvited. Well, I'm a different type
of white person because I'm Italian, and we're
associated with spicy food, very strong flavors.
Yeah, but. It's a different. Like, Italian people
don't like bland food. They like very spicy,
very flavorful food. I'm bringing baked ziti
to the barbecue. You'd be like, I'm bringing
ziti, right? I would say baked ziti. Yeah, because
there's different kinds of ziti. You know, there's
ziti that you bake and then there's ziti that
you just boil and put, you know, marinara sauce
on. There's different kinds of ziti. But I will
say this. As much as, you know, community make
fun of white people and their lack of seasoning,
that... can save your life. Lack of seasoning
can save your life? Yeah. How so? When you think
about, you look at somebody, one of the most
country, home -cooked soul food spot, the one
ingredient that's in everything that you taste
right off the rip is salt. How good is salt for
you? Salt's not bad for you at all. It's all
bullshit. Then why do we think salt is high -priced?
It's all bullshit. If you feel a little off,
it's okay. It's February. Everybody feels a little
off in February. It's darker. It's colder. You
probably already gave up on some New Year's resolutions.
But you don't have to wait until spring to get
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That's drinkag1 .com slash rogan. Salt is an
essential mineral. You need salt to survive.
Salt is not the problem. They associate salt
with high blood pressure, salt with this, salt
with that. It's not true. It's bullshit. What
type of salt? Is it a different salt? No. Salt's
not bad for you. Well, first of all, there's
iodized salt, which is actually good for you
because it contains iodine. They add iodine to
it, which is good for you. But salt is not a
bad thing. I mean, you shouldn't have too much
salt. Look, if you eat enough salt, you could
die. Joe, you can't be the president to educate
me with this. So all of these years, these people
getting their toes chopped off. That's not why.
That's not why. If you're getting diabetes, it's
usually from sugar. Okay. You know, there's been
a lot of misinformation that's spread because
of actual scientists that were bribed by the
sugar industry. So the sugar industry, they paid
a bunch of Harvard scientists. It was Harvard,
right? I believe it was. They didn't even give
them a lot of money. Was it the 1950s or 1960s,
Jamie? Do you remember? So this has all been...
outed now, but what they did was they tried to
associate saturated fat and foods with saturated
fat with being responsible for heart disease.
And they did that to try to get the blame off
of sugar. Because sugar is fucking terrible for
you. It's terrible in basically every way. Especially
added sugar. So why are all of these diseases
that we speak of are more happening in the black
community than in the white community? It's diet.
It's 100 percent. It's processed food. It's diet.
It's sugar. It's sugary drinks. It's the amount
of sugar. Like if you say if you drink like a
one liter Pepsi, the amount of sugar that is.
OK, let's find out how much sugar is in a one
liter Pepsi. If you drink several of these a
day, one of them, I believe, is more sugar than
you're ever supposed to have in a day. Pepsi
is the one, and that's why— Well, it could be
Coca -Cola. It could be Pepsi, Mountain Dew.
I think it's 100%. Pick your poison. I think
it's 100 % Pepsi. Well, Pepsi is—I don't know.
Does Pepsi have more sugar than Coca -Cola? I
don't know. You know, Coca -Cola is one of the
only things that's still flavored with cocaine
leaf. Sugar content, 115 to 123 grams in a one
-liter bottle. That's a crazy amount of sugar.
25 teaspoons, 35 sugar cubes. God damn. That's
130%, 138 % of the recommended daily value of
sugar. That's where people are getting type 2
diabetes. They're getting it from excess sugar.
Specifically. Excess sugar, like in a liquid
form, your body does not know what the fuck to
do with that because nowhere in nature do you
get sugar in a liquid form like that. Like even
orange juice. People think orange juice is good
for you. It's not. Like drinking orange juice,
yeah, you're going to get some vitamin D, vitamin
C rather, but you're also going to get a gigantic
dose of sugar that has no fiber in it. But is
it a different type of sugar in fruits and vegetables
than what you get off the counter? You get fructose
rather than. High fructose corn syrup. Sugar
from fruit is the best sugar for you because
it's attached to fiber. And that's a slow -release
sugar. Like if you eat an apple. Apples aren't
bad for you. It's a natural way that your body
consumes sugar. Apples were bad for Adam. I don't
even know if it was an apple. It was an apple.
It was a fruit. It was a fruit from the tree
of knowledge. It was an apple. It was an apple.
But it wasn't an apple tree. What specifically
does the Bible refer to as the fruit? Adam and
Eve. You know the truth? What? Eve never talked
to God. Adam talked to God. Adam told God not
to eat the fruit. There's nowhere in the Bible
does it say that Adam went and told Eve. This
is why we should start not just shutting women
down to listening to them. Genesis does not specifically
specify, rather, what kind of fruit Adam ate,
only that it calls it fruit from the tree of
knowledge of good and evil. Yeah, so it's not
necessarily an apple. We call it an apple. The
text never names the species, apple, fig, etc.
The Hebrew word is peri, a general term meaning
fruit without a botanical detail. Where the apple
idea came from over time, Jewish and Christian
interpreters proposed many candidates including
fig, grape, pomegranate, citron, and others.
Now common ideas that an apple developed later
in European tradition helped by wordplay in Latin
and Old French where the words evil and apple
or fruit sounded or were spelled similarly. So
it's not necessarily an apple. I really don't
know what to believe. I feel like I get so much
more information when I come here. I don't know
if people understand that. Well, the crazy thing
is that, I mean, I've found this out recently
because I've actually been reading the Bible,
that there's no reference whatsoever to Adam
telling Eve, you're not supposed to eat the fruit
from the plant with the knowledge of good and
evil. I never knew that. Yeah. I just knew it
was a white woman with an apple and this shit
got fucked up after that. What happened was God
created Adam. This is what Genesis says. God
created Adam and then told Adam, go and name
all the animals. And then when he was done with
that, Adam made Eve. But he never said, it never
says in the Bible, Adam told Eve, do not eat
the apple. Who's given this? us this misinformation?
Well, the problem with the Bible is, first of
all, that it was an oral tradition forever. So
it was an oral tradition for a long time before
it was ever written down. Then it was written
down in a bunch of ancient languages. It was
written down in ancient Hebrew. It was written
down in Aramaic. And then when you translate
ancient Hebrew to first... They translated it
to Latin, and then they translated it to Greek,
and all these other, maybe Greek first. I forget
which one was first. But either way, the translations
miss a lot of the language. It's a very complicated,
ancient Hebrew is a very complicated language.
And numbers double as letters in ancient Hebrew.
So ancient Hebrew doesn't have numbers. All their
words have a numerical value to them. What do
you think makes people so connected? to the bible
is it because of wanting to believe in something
definitely definitely wanting to believe in something
and then specifically if you look at like the
teachings of jesus christ if you follow them
i think it'll lead to a better life i think it
makes you a better person makes you a better
member of the community it reinforces community
it's like a really good way to live your life
so i think the people that live that way that
actually live that way They're better examples
of human beings, so that makes it reinforced.
But it's also people – there's a lot of other
religions that people believe in that don't have
those aspects to them. People want to believe
things. People want to believe in things even
if you like – like Scientology. People deeply
believe in Scientology, and we know it was written
by a science fiction author who was a bad science
fiction author. L. Ron Hubbard wrote some terrible
books. Like that guy would just bang books out.
He never rewrote shit. Everything was a first
draft. He wrote more fiction than any human being
that's ever lived. And he also wrote Scientology.
And people believe in him. I do believe. I think
people, like you say, people want to, if your
life is fucked up, they want to be able to say,
okay, this is my savior. If I believe in this,
it's going to get me on the right track. 100%.
And then with that, with these, like, Drewski
just did a skit that went viral, right? And it
was like he was making fun of the megachurches
and everything. These churches, they give these
people something to believe in, make them feel
better, and they charge people. Do you think
that there should be a separation? If I inspire
you, if my writings or my speeches inspire you
to want to do something and change your life
and be more financially secure, do you think
these people entitled to like, okay, almost like
agencies, if I get you to work or get you there,
should you hit me off? Or the megachurches, is
it so wrong for me just to pour all their money
into them? Are they giving these people something
to believe in? If that's the case, do I supposed
to get a piece of that? I think they're preying
on people's need to believe in things. And I
think they're very predatory. And I think that's
why they're flying private jets and driving Rolls
Royces and living in mega mansions on giant ranches.
And they're doing it all off of donations of
people that are barely getting by. That's a lot
of it. You know, I think it's a scam that's legal.
I think if we were a just and righteous society,
it wouldn't be legal. I mean, you're taking advantage
of people when they need something to believe
in and you're asking for all their money. Like,
I remember I was watching this. guy on TV once,
like, televangelists are the worst. And this
guy was saying that if you are broke, you should
borrow money to donate it to the church and it
will be paid back to you tenfold. That God will
pay you back tenfold. And then he had all these
examples of people that did it and they would
call in and say, I was $1 ,000 in debt and this
and that, but I borrowed $100 and I donated it
to you and now all of a sudden I drive a Rolls
Royce and it's all horseshit. But those are all
desperate... Desperate people. Desperate people.
Those are the same people that I'm going to spend
$30 on the lottery every day for like fucking
50 years and don't know how much. That's another
scam. That's another scam. Not only is that a
scam, here's the scam about the lottery. Not
only does, like, say if everyone pumps money
into the lottery. Say you buy $100 worth of tickets
and Jamie buys $100 worth of tickets and I buy
$100. So there's $300 in the lottery. There's
not even $300 available. If you win. And then
if you win, you don't get all the money. You
get the money over a long period of time. But
they always give you options. Right, right, right.
But if you take the second option, it's a significantly
– like here's a good example of it. Speaking
of the Epstein Files. What do you mean speaking
of the Epstein Files? His company, Zorro Trust.
I didn't like that transition. You looked me
right in my eyes and said, speaking of the MC.
Well, MC, we were talking about it before the
podcast. MC came to see you. No, MC did not fucking
come to see me. They loved your show. Yo. He
was your, he was a number one fan. First of all,
I never. He came to West, you don't know. Look,
they came to West Palm Improv because you're
a famous comedian and you were playing in the
town where he lived. So what are you saying?
Nothing. But what I'm saying is that what I'm
saying is Epstein won the lottery. His company,
Zorro Trust, won an $80 million lottery. And
then they took the payoff, and the payoff was
only $30 million. What do you mean $80 million?
From a ticket or you mean in corporations? What
do you mean when you say - His company bought
a ticket for the lottery. Oh, really? Yes. Zorro
Trust, which is his company. They won the lottery,
which is very suspicious. Not only that, he won
the lottery right after he was arrested and went
to jail for fucking kids or having sex or whatever
he was arrested for. Sexual hand jobs, whatever
it was. There's nothing wrong with a sexual hand
job. No, but when they're underage, girls are
probably not good. Oh, I didn't know that. So
then when he went - and got the lottery money,
the company took the payoff. The payoff out of
an $80 million payment, the $80 million jackpot,
was only $30 million. So if you want the money,
you take $30. So not only did they take $50 out
of the $80, but then you think about how many
people spent money buying lottery tickets. It's
way more than $80 million. So they make money
off of that, and then they make money off of
the fact that you want the payoff instead of
the over... So it doesn't matter what the jackpot
becomes. They never can lose. They can't lose
because they're stealing money from people that
are desperate. It's legalized gambling where
the house always wins. Right. Like, let's find
that out. Like, let's say. Let's find an average
jackpot of megabucks and find out how much money
actually goes into it, how much money people
spend versus how much money the payout is. So
when this—all lottos are state -regulated, right?
Right? I don't know. I don't know who regulates
them. So they get, say, they get $100 million
from people trying to win $1 billion. It's because
the state regulated it. Do they have to pay taxes
to the government for the money they give them?
The lotto? No. It's the state. Or it's the government
owns it. So it's whatever the—not only that,
you pay taxes on it. So say if you get that—
The winner pays taxes. Yeah, yeah, of course.
So say if you take that $30 million payout, you
don't even get $30 million. Then you have to
pay taxes on that $30 million. So they get money
from that, too. So they can't— Fucking lose.
But for a person that's barely seen $1 ,000 anywhere,
anything with a million, they're going to be
excited about it and take it before they know
it. Exactly. Exactly. And over time, most people
are not going to win. So most people are dumping
money into it. There was a story of a young lady.
I don't know exactly what it was. I think she
won some type of lottery where they gave her
two options. She would get, I think it was like
a payout of like $2 or $3 million right up front.
Or they give her, I think it was like $20 ,000
every month for as long as she lived. Yeah, that's
how they do it. Well, people think that it's
kind of crazy, but if you consider the fact that
she was probably 20, 21, her life expectancy
probably, she was white, so she probably lived
to 132. You know what I'm saying? She looked
like, that was a smart, a lot of people would
not understand that. That was a smart thing.
I don't think it's for the rest of your life.
I think it's until it reaches that number. I
don't think they're going to give you money for
the rest of your life. Maybe it's a different
kind of lottery that I'm not aware of. I think
it was something as long as she lives. That sounds
crazy. Yeah. All right, here it is. Typical Mega
Millions jackpot run. Total ticket revenue is
usually several times the advertised jackpot.
But there's no single fixed average because sales
vary enormously with the jackpot size. Still,
you can get a good ballpark. So around 50 % of
ticket revenue goes into the overall prize pool.
So the government makes 50 % right off the bat.
Right. So if it's a $100 million payout, they
already made $100 million. So this $200 million
is what they made. They throw in $100 million
for everybody. Of that prize pool, roughly two
-thirds to three -quarters is allocated to the
jackpot, with the rest funding lower -tier prizes.
So that means even if there's $200 million, out
of the $100 million, only two -thirds of it goes
into the big jackpot. And that means the jackpot
is typically in the order of one third of total
ticket sales that run. And then out of that one
third, so say if it's 100 million or with the
Epstein case, it was 80 million. He took the
payout, which was 30 million. So they make 50
on top of that. And then on top of that, you
pay taxes on that 30. It's a crazy scam. What
do you do with the money? Whatever the fuck they
want. Who can tell you? I think in certain neighborhoods,
I think they probably pump a certain amount of
winning tickets into a neighborhood just to get
you addicted to keep going in there and spend
your money. Well, it's supposed to be random.
You know, I don't know how much oversight. Look,
if a guy like Jeffrey Epstein can win, I don't
know how much oversight is. I know back in Boston
when I lived there, Whitey Bulger won. See if
this is true. I think he won the lotto twice.
Which is crazy. Whitey Bulger, who was that?
Whitey Bulger was a South Boston mob boss in
the 1980s when I lived there. The 1980s and 90s.
A mob boss? Yeah, he was a dangerous, dangerous
guy. He was the guy that that movie that Leonardo
DiCaprio starred in with Jack Nicholson. What
was that movie, Jamie? Remember that movie that
was based on Whitey Bulger? The Departed? Yeah,
yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay. That was based on Whitey
Bulger. He was a gangster? Oh, yeah. Terrifying
gangster. Yeah. What was his demise? He was actually
a fucking FBI informant. Not only was he a gangster,
he was working with the FBI and they were letting
him get away with shit because he was throwing
other people under the bus. I think there's a
different, I mean... They wound up catching him
in Santa Monica. Well, I've found that— Hunting
Whitey. About that Whitey Bulger won the mass
millions lottery about that time. Yeah. Yeah,
he won the fucking lottery, man. So this is what
it says here. What does it say? I think it was
more of a scheme than he actually won, but he
was taking money. It's probably a way to, like,
launder money. Yeah. Oh, 100 percent. It's a
way to launder money. So the way it would work
was like, say, if you lived in the community
and you won the lottery ticket, maybe they would
give you money for your lottery ticket. Then
he would get it. And that way. it would show
that this is where he got his income from. These
guys would all own businesses, but the reason
why they would own businesses is so they could
show why they drive a Cadillac, why they have
a mansion, why they have this, because they have
legitimate businesses. But really, these businesses
were scams. My father convinced my family that
he was a real estate agent for years and come
to find out he was a heroin kingpin in D .C.
for years. All we needed was an excuse. He's
selling real estate, all right? That's hilarious.
He ordered the real winner to sign the ticket
over with Whitey and two associates paying $2
.3 million in cash for 50 % of the winnings.
Bulger himself paid Michael Linsky $700 ,000,
although Linsky lost money in the deal. He really
had no choice. It came down to selling the ticket
or risking his life. Yeah, so that's how it usually
works. So he was a snitch? Whitey was a snitch,
yeah. He was a snitch and he got caught in Santa
Monica. Snitch or whistleblower? There is a difference.
No, he was a snitch. Whistleblowers are people
that snitch on people in higher profile positions
like corporate America. No, he wasn't a whistleblower.
He was an actual snitch because he was turning
other people in. He was a kingpin. Is this true?
And I don't want to make everything about race.
Is that phrase snitches, get snitches more prevalent
in a white community or a black community or
is it across the board? I think it's across the
board, isn't it? Like the black community is
famous for keeping their mouth shut when someone
gets shot or when someone does something. Like
when cops come and question people. I don't know
if that's the truth anymore because what I'm
- Not anymore. But that was the thing with the
mafia too. Yeah. The mob would never rat out.
Guys would just go to jail. It's interesting
now because now I see - Like, especially in my
community, so many people, like, rat, I got the
paperwork and everything. And now it feels like
that model of being loyal is dead. Like, people
now, they get in court with shit in a minute.
They get in court, they snitch on everybody.
Right. And there's no repercussions when they
come home. There's no repercussions. I don't
see that as much. I see so many people that are
saying whatever the fuck they want to do, and
they're still out here just living their lives
normal like nothing fucking happened. Well, with
the mob, it was always like if you ratted on
the mob, you were a dead man. You were a dead
man. Your family was probably dead. They burned
your house down, and people kept their mouth
shut because of that. And so guys would go to
jail all the time and never open their mouth,
and they would be rewarded when they would get
out. They'd have a party for them, celebrate.
That's in Goodfellas. You kept your mouth shut.
Shut. You never said nothing. That was the whole
thing. But the whole thing, I used to live by
it. That changed, though, like with John Gotti.
Did he snitch? No, Sammy the Bull. Sammy the
Bull. And it wasn't just them. Everyone was snitching
on everybody. It's like they got these guys.
We had Donnie Brasco in the studio. From what?
That Johnny Depp movie. It was called Donnie
Brasco. Okay. Why am I confused? What's Donnie
Brasco's real name? I'm not confused. Bronx Tale.
That's not Bronx Tale. Joe Pistone. That's not
nothing to do with Bronx Tale, right? No, different
story. That's a different story. Yeah. So Donnie
Brasco was the guy who was an agent, and he pretended
to be a mob guy. And he got in with the mob and
was with them for like seven years. Did all kinds
of shit with the mob. Sold everybody out and
they all went under. Yeah, I don't know. I'm
just so, the culture, everything is, there used
to be a phrase, snitches get stitches. Now, I
don't know if this just everywhere, but everywhere
I go, it's like the most interesting thing now
that's selling on any platform, especially social
media, is beef. And I don't understand why people
gravitate toward negativity more than anything.
That's normal. Why? But you know what? It's interesting.
Your platform is not known for that. No. Your
platform. But I go to these other platforms and
I don't know. I think these guys, these people,
they just sit back and it's like, okay, what
can I say to make people upset, get them riled
up, and then I take advantage of the engagement
that they do. They're in a different game than
me. All right. Their game is trying to get engagement.
My game is talking to people that are interesting.
But doesn't that become. I don't want to be triggering
anything, but doesn't that become destructive
after a while? 100%. And do you, have you noticed,
especially, I'll put it like this, especially...
with comedians with podcasts. It used to be a
time where, like you say, a person would go on
a podcast because it was interesting, they told
funny stories, or they was good at their craft
or whatever. But now it feels like all these
platforms, and I don't know if that's just in
my community, when I say that, black people,
it's like the only way I can find myself interesting
if I talk shit about people. And motherfuckers
are going away from being funny. when you get
interviewed like every fucking podcast i turn
on now is somebody i'm exposed this person i'm
gonna tell this about what you didn't know and
the one thing they're not doing especially as
a stand -up comedian motherfuckers don't give
a fuck about being funny no more are those days
over no no no no those people that do that are
almost always not very talented Almost always.
The only exception to that is Cat. And I think
what Cat was doing was different. Because what
Cat was doing was exposing what he thought was
snakes and liars. Okay. It's a different thing.
Okay. Okay. Okay. This is my question. Okay.
Okay. This is my question. Okay. This is my question.
People can take it. Okay. Okay. I want to say
this. This is what I'm saying, Joe. What are
you saying? I'm coming from this place. I'm like
this. No disrespect to whatever the cat, but
like, who asked you? Shannon Sharp did when he
did that podcast. Shannon Sharp might have asked
one question. But Shannon Sharp likes that. In
his podcast, he likes a lot of that. His people,
they find questions. He's got a sheet of paper.
He's got questions of people that have beef.
Joe, what do you do with those truths? What do
you do with talking about, I watched, this is
a horrible impression. I sat there in the parking
lot and I watched people go up into Diddy's house
and they came down and they were standing up.
I'm trying to figure out. What the fuck do you
get out of that? What is the result of that?
You expose these people to say what? Hollywood
is never going to fucking change. You know what
changes? Like what you do. I left fucking Hollywood.
Hollywood is not going to change. And I'm not
saying I went to a Diddy party. First off, I
was never invited. There's a chance I would accept
the invitation with rules. You know? Right. What
is the purpose of exposing something that you—
Well, I don't think most people are exposing.
What most people are doing when they're being
negative is they are jealous, and they are below
the person they're talking shit about. Like,
whenever I see someone that's talking shit about
a high -level— So you don't think Kat was jealous
about—you say that, and you use— Cat Williams
as an example. First of all, when Cat did it,
it was very funny. It was very funny. Cat's a
very funny guy. And when he was doing it, I think
he was also being very funny while he was doing
it, which is different. Well, you have to put
an LOL on the end of it because people might
not understand his humor. Because this is a connection
people have. This is the connection they have
with Cat. This is what they say. They ride with
him. They say, where is the lie? Where is the
lion? All this stuff. But I'm just trying to
understand, what is the purpose of exposing all
this stuff? What do we do with this information?
What do we do with the information that Diddy
like to have fucking freak parties with baby
owners? What the fuck do we do with all this
information? Well, Diddy's in jail right now,
so they did that with the information. Well,
Diddy's in jail for doing something that a lot
of people... I... Let me tell you something,
Joe. Tell me something. I was riding with Diddy
for once. I liked the music he did and everything.
I don't know Diddy like that. But when I first
read the definition of sex trafficking, right?
I'm sure you're a versed person. You're smart.
The definition of sex trafficking, to transport
a woman across state lines with the intent to
have sexual intercourse with her. Right. When
you're paying them. It's trafficking is... No,
that's not actually... Really? This is my...
Jamie, you can pull this up. Wait a minute. So
if you are dating a girl and she lives in Minnesota
and you live in California and you fly her to
California, that's sex trafficking? And I'm thinking
about... I don't think that's true. I don't think
that's true at all. I think that's just flying
a girl in that you're having a relationship with.
In the streets they call it fluid out. Fluid
out. Yeah, but that's normal. Everybody does
that. But that's the definition. Commercial sex
act. Yeah, commercial. Commercial sex act. Induced
by force, fraud, or coercion. Well, coercion's
crazy. Because coercion is like, please, I'll
buy you a bag. That's sex trafficking. That's
a date. Right. If there's a girl, she's like,
what are you going to do for me? Like, you know
those shoes you want? I got those shoes for you.
Let's go shopping. Like that's kind of sex trafficking
if that's coercion for money. Like if a girl's
thinking about coming out to visit you and then
you go, listen, listen, listen. What are you
looking for? What do you want to buy? I got money.
Come on. Let's go shopping. That kind of would
fall into that category. But we're getting off
topic. Let's go back to the topic originally
in hand. The reason why these comedians are negative.
No, no, no, no. You're not going to get in trouble
for sex trafficking. Listen, that's all horseshit.
But the reason why these comedians are doing
it is because they're never bigger than the comedians
they're shitting on. Never. One thousand percent.
One thousand percent. And you know what it is,
Joe? And they're never good. You know what it
is, too, Joe? Is that. Deep down inside, they
want to be that person. 100%. Or they want to
be in the position that person's in is a better
way of putting it. I'll use this. I'll tell you
this story. I realize, not to say names, but
there's so many people that could be guilty of
it. And this is the thing that I hear that understands
me, that disturbs me, is that, you know, a lot
of these people that bitch the most. They, at
some point in their career, they were favored
by Hollywood. Yes. At some point in their career,
they had these opportunities. At some point in
their career, guess what? They had the agencies.
They had the agents. And something happened in
their career where they fell out of favor for
whatever you want to call that. Whatever you
want to call that. For whatever. Maybe something
they did. Agency didn't like them too much. And
now everything that they wrote on, everything
they wanted to do, now it's all... that's fucked
up and the only way you get this opportunity
because it has to be sexual favors and all that
type of shit. And where the fuck do you draw
the line? But it's not even sexual favors. It's
like they criticize the work of the other person.
That person ain't shit. That person sucks. Can
I, can I, yo, there's, here's the thing. There
was. Come on, you get this all the time because
you ride with Dave and Dave's number one, right?
So you always get this label, even though you're
a great comic, you get this label being a coattail
rider. Right. And guess what? This is what I
try to explain to people, Joe. Everybody does
not have to be Batman. I don't have a problem
with being Robin. You know why? Because Robin
got the same amount of screen time as Batman.
And the reason why I say this is what I get,
and I'm telling you this, Joe, I don't know if
this gum is kicking in. This is what fucks me
up, Joe. This is what fucks me up. And I'll tell
you an example. I'm going to give you an example.
Don't give me examples. No, I'm going to tell
you. Are you pulling out your phone? I'm going
to tell you why. Because your fucking shirt is
fucking triggering me right now. Kill Tony? You
mean the greatest comedy show of all time in
the history of the known universe? I know that,
but there's a lot of lies involved. Okay, listen.
This is what they say. This is what they say.
Don't pay attention to what they say. Why are
you doing that? What are you playing? Chappelle's
butt plug is acting up again. Oh, God! Yo, I
got to deal with this shit. What is so hard?
No. Well, you got to stop paying attention to
it. It's so hard. Do you know what would happen
to me if I paid attention to all the haters that
I have? Yeah. I would go crazy. You would. Do
you think that you paid attention to those haters?
Now, you're in a position right now, you have
so many reasons to say fuck them. Do you feel
like you had that same belief when you was first
starting this? Did you engage them then? Well,
I engaged online with a lot of people in the
early days because I didn't understand what you're
doing is you're engaging with people that don't
have happy lives. Right. And they're negative.
And there's some criticisms that are good for
you because some criticisms make you evaluate
what you're doing and say, OK, well, what I need
to do is be undeniable. So these critics mean
nothing to me because you can't. I'm killing.
The audience loves me. I'm selling out everywhere.
I'm doing great on stage. You can't pay attention.
You know what? I will say this. I hear you, Joe.
I tried that with them motherfuckers on your
shirt. You had a bad show. You had one bad show.
I never had. You had a bad show. You had a bad
show. Please don't do this to me. You did. You
had that one bad show where you went back and
forth. I did not fucking have a bad show. Did
you walk off the show? Listen, man. Sit the fuck
down. Sit the fuck down. I did not fucking walk
off the show. You want me to play it back? Please
don't do this. You were a little drunk. Who was
the comic? I don't know his name. He's funny.
Whoever that dude is, he's funny. You know what
you're doing. You're being a provocateur right
now. You're provoking me because we broke this
shit down. And I don't want to keep going through
this. I didn't think of this when I was wearing
this shirt. I'll change the shirt. No, it's okay.
Put something over it. I'll wear a Benny the
Jet shirt. Let's break it down, Joe. Oh, we don't
have to. We have to. You started this shit. All
right? Thank you. I'm going to change my shirt
right now. It's like I didn't have a bad show.
You definitely didn't have a great show, right?
When you walk off, it's not good. I feel like
Carrie. They're all going to laugh at me. They're
going to laugh at me. It wasn't this for the
last fucking time, Joe. For the last fucking
time. And this is what's so fucking evil about
this situation. There's some people call it a
bad show. I never wanted to do this show. But
you came back on. You had a good show, right?
I want to go back. Let's rewind. All right? And
this is, you were a part of it. Hey, look. I
changed my shirt. No more triggering. I appreciate
that. Shout out to Benny the Jet. Okay, I feel
a lot better now. So, boy, I need another piece
of gum. I'm going to say this. Say what it's
worth. First off, I did not want, the first time
I did it here in Austin. Right. I didn't want
to do the show. Okay. And the reason why I didn't
want to do the show, now you're not even paying
attention to me. You want a cigar? Yeah, I'll
take a cigar. I didn't want to do the show, and
I'll tell you why. Because the streets say I'm
sensitive. You are a little sensitive. Can I
not have your opinion and just listen to me,
please? They know I'm sensitive. It was during
the pandemic, Joe, you remember. People would
still come to do your podcast because they know
the benefits of it and you had your thing doing.
They would come to your podcast and then they
would fucking leave because they didn't want
to catch COVID and then they would leave Tony
stranded and he had no good guests. I was here.
Right? I'm talking about the time when Tony had
a black band. He still has a black band. All
black. There's a couple black people on there
now. Me too. I think it's mostly black. Right?
Okay. I want to tell a story. This is the last
time I'm going to tell it. Deep Madness? I mean,
name them all off. This is the last time, Joe.
I want to tell the truth. Drummer and the guitar
player are not. What's that? Mike. Drummer. Yeah,
I mean, there's like. The horns. A lot of them
are black. Definitely. Doesn't matter. This episode
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is America's coffee. Look at the old... when
it was all, not high production and all that
type shit, Tony was like, it's hard for me to
get a guess. Would you stay? And this is when
you fucked me up the last time you wasn't playing
fair. Yes, you did. I wasn't playing fair? No,
I'm telling you when you weren't playing fair.
When was I not playing fair? Can I talk? Please.
All I want to do, I don't know if I got it raised
in my head. I just want to be able to speak.
It is my month. It's my fucking month. Tony said,
would you stay? Come on. I was like, you know.
And I stayed, right? Okay. And I stayed. And
I stayed. I was on the show for two and a half
hours. I told him, this is where it gets all
crazy. I told him I had something I was supposed
to do later. There was another black comic that
was on the show. He started roasting me. I had
no problem with that. I had no problem with him
roasting me. But I felt fucked up because it
was only me and him. And I was trying to get
this guy some sound advice. But the only way
he thought he was going to get off. by fucking
me. So I was like, yo, why you fucking me? We
on the same, we on the fucking same team. What
they did was, look at the fucking video. Okay.
You see, I want you to slow it down. Slow it
down. Slow the video down. It's like a Zapruder
film. Back to the left. You're gonna let me get
my thought, Joe. Sorry. It's so easy for me to
get distracted. Just hang in there with me. Want
another piece of gum? So if you look at this
video, you see him saying something to me, and
then when I leave, it's two different fucking
comics on the fucking stage. It's the dude that
I was roasting, and then they showed me the exit.
And then these kill Tony bitch -ass motherfuckers,
and I'm telling you, I'll get past it. They may,
oh, Donnell walked off. I didn't walk off. I
had some other shit to do. And then our last
episode, you and your boy. Tony, he caught here,
and Tony doubled down on it, and he said, no,
that's not what happened. Of course, them comment
motherfuckers, the ones that be putting cringe
on it, they roll with it. Okay. Then I came back.
Came back, you had an amazing show. Tony said
it was one of the best shows he's ever done.
You know why it was amazing? Because you were
ready. I'm amazing. You are amazing, but also
you wanted to get it back, right? I didn't have,
you know what? A little bit. This is what Redman
said to me. Red band. Red band. Whatever the
fuck his name is. He changed too. I'm going to
tell you about it. Let me tell you. I'm going
to tell you the difference between him and I'm
going to tell you the similarities between him
and Jamie a little later on, right? Okay. How
they're divas now. Jamie? My Jamie's a diva?
Yes. He has a false memory of someone already.
Jamie is the last thing from a fucking diva.
I will defend Jamie to the bitter end. Well,
maybe you don't know him. I don't know Jamie.
Yo, let me tell you. This is Jamie. I know Jamie
better than. I know, but this is a Jamie I saw.
And killed Tony after party. Sit down. You're
not on camera. Okay. It was also Saturday night.
Okay. He had a leather jacket on. Don't have
a leather jacket. Jamie had a leather jacket.
He didn't call it a leather jacket. Whatever
it was. You own a leather jacket? No. Wait, wait,
wait. Wait. Your collar was flipped up. You have
any false memories? Joe, your collar was flipped
up. Like dice. And then he had this shirt. You
might have had Timmy No Breaks. Joe, Timmy No
Breaks and Jamie. Joe, he had this shirt open
to this button right here. Oh, right. Gold chains.
And he was sitting there. I don't know what time.
Jamie had gold chains, boots on his hair. Ponytail
was popping. He had some type of mousse or something,
right? And then he was just looking. And I was
like, what's up, Jamie? He was like, uh -huh.
He had his hands in his pocket. It was giving,
as they say, it was giving Fonzie attitude. Wow.
I knew that would change. But this is what Redman,
Redman, whatever man he is. Redman. Redman, he
said, after the show, he said, that might have
been the most epic. come back and kill Tony History.
I was like, don't. Well, the second episode was.
You came back full steam. You know what you're
doing? I don't know. It was great. I'm trying
to use a term. I don't think this is passive
wrestling, but you're fucking with my mental
right now. No, I'm telling you, you're a great
comic and you're funny as fuck. And when you
came back, it was amazing. That's what you said.
The second episode was great. This is the point
I'm making of what you're doing. Right. The first
episode was great. It was Dr. It was Dr. Videos.
Dr. Videos. You doctored it. But then here's
the thing. They said, Red Man, Red Band, he said,
he said, that was the greatest comeback. I was
like, it wasn't a comeback. You're editing what
it was. And this is what I did. You're editing.
This is what I did. And I'm not saying I think
about. to kill Tony audience like that, but I
thought about him. This is what I said. I was
like, this is what I want. Like you said, I'm
a great comment. I know what I do. I say, you
know what? I don't want to give these motherfuckers
an opportunity to be able to fuck with me. So
I did. Before I went to that last one, I said,
okay, what did you do last time that you're going
to do different for anyone to say that? I was
like, the last one, you had some drinks. Well,
I wasn't able to do anything about that because
I had some more drinks. But I was like, I tried
to address what their concerns were, right? Which...
And with them, it's not going to make a difference.
Because I know that last episode, this is what
I didn't understand about Kill Tony. I didn't
understand the formula. I don't watch it like
that. First time I ever did it, I was interrupting
the one -minute part. You know what I mean? Oh,
okay. And Tony told me, the first time I did
it, he said, D, only one rule. He said, let them
talk for a minute. I said, Tony, why you have
me on this show? You know I'm going to break
the rules. He knew that, right? But then after
I was like, I understood how important it was
to let those comics get that minute. Right. So
when I did it a second time with Rob Schneider,
I didn't interrupt. Sometimes my criticism could
have been too hard. I was trying to be more supportive
than anything. If you watched the last one I
did, I had nothing bad to say about people in
a harsh way. Certain people I knew was up there
just because it was gimmick. And there were certain
people I was like, oh, man, they really got talent.
Like this one lady, she was an older woman. I
think she's a regular there, right? I don't know
what she was. But I told her, I said, you know,
it's so awesome. I said, when I watch you perform,
I see passion. I see somebody that's going. into
a different career later in life, which is the
hardest thing to do. I made those points, and
I wasn't trying to be an asshole. And even, I
got caught up in one, and they ran with this
shit. And it's a song that, there was one of
the acts by the name of Juanita. Juanita is a
gender, what is it when you? Transgender? Yeah,
you have a dick, but you're a girl still? Yeah.
Yeah, transgender, right? So she came up with
this song. And she did a song, we will praise
you, praise you. And I had a couple drinks, right?
And I said, and I was thinking like. Shit, you
don't have headphones on. What, Jamie? I just
started playing it, sorry. Oh, you geared up
for that shit, huh? Put your headphones on. No,
listen. Put your headphones on. Oh, God. Go.
Go ahead. Wait a minute. That's Juanita's version?
No. That's the real. Okay. Do you got Juanita's
version? So this is what happened, Joe. So I
had to cut them two, two, three, four, five Tito's
in. And I'm only looking at the artist with my
peripheral. I'm not staring nobody down and looking
at them through the pupils or whatever. So the
performer, I'm going to say that because I don't
want to get anybody upset. The performer was
like. Here we go. Okay. Now look how I'm not
paying attention. Right? You're looking right
at her. Shut the fuck up! Okay, listen. All right,
we'll see. So it was very strange when in 2008...
Okay. Oh, they had to cut it out too, I think.
Probably the song. Yeah. That's the gayest thing
I've ever done. And I do anal. Juanita. Welcome
back to the show. Can I do a remix of that song
for any black guy watching her right now? We
will, we will fuck you. It's probably true until
you find out she has a dick, Donnell. That is
it. Keep it going. Don't. Keep it going. This
is amazing. This is hilarious. Whereas white
guys know. That's the first place the white guys
look. Charlamagne's going to find that clip.
We will. We will. Fuck you. You are fucked on
now. I'm getting word from the streets. I'm getting
word from the streets. I'm sure this happened
before in Korea. Stop touching me, son! I'm sure
in Korea, as an 18 -year -old boy, this is a
memory coming back to you. Oh, my God. This is
usually how black guys react. It's pretty. Juanita,
have you been with a black man before? Keep it
going, keep it going. I guess it gets even funnier.
Okay, are you just saying that so that he doesn't
find you and kill you? No, it's race riot. I'm
just kidding. Oh, shit. Now I'm offended. No,
I have been. I've been with one. He was half.
Okay. He was half. Half a black. Okay. My career's
over, nigga. Come on, that was funny. No, wait
a minute. It was funny. And I didn't take, the
funny thing about it was, I did have a couple
of drinks, right? People like, how did you not
know? Like, I live in the Midwest, and what I
really thought it was, I know women that look
just like Juanita. Sure. That in the face, it's
kind of like sketchy, like a Dollar General one
to two. And I wasn't offended, but it just caught
me off guard. But going back to what I was saying
about the Kill Tony thing, and this is another
thing people said, well, Donnell, you got upset
because Rob Schneider was roasting you or whatever.
First off, it was the first time Rob Schneider
was on the show, right? He didn't really know
too much about the Kill Tony platform. I knew
a little more than he did. And at the beginning,
he was kind of cold, if you want to say. Not
cold, like not funny, but he just wasn't warmed
up to the flow. And then I started saying things.
I was alley -ooping him, right? Right. Basically,
people can say what they want. I helped get him
comfortable in the show. And then he started
crushing, right? He started crushing. And then
we did. Anybody tell you that episode was amazing,
right? It was amazing. But this is the thing.
This is what. That platform is not a place for
you to tell how you really feel about somebody,
right? And I owe Tony an apology, and I'll tell
you why. When Tony did the Arianne Republic National
Convention, whatever, remember when he did the
roasting? Yes. For that, it was a very, very
testy time. Right. Politics, everybody said you
shouldn't do this and everything. I told him
not to do it. You told him not to do the show?
Not to do the Republican Party thing. Here's
the thing. This is what. Just for the people
that's listening, this is what happened at the
end of That Killed Tony with me and Rob Schneider.
All I wanted to do, I had the question on, where
do you draw the line? Do you draw the line of
what people think, how you're supposed to respond
to something, or are you loyal to somebody on
how they treat you and how they are as a friend
to you? And Tony wanted me to do that show, and
any time I've called Tony, he's picked up the
phone, vice versa. We've been in for each other.
My publicist. I don't know if this is a good
idea right now, too, because what you think is
a nice gesture you want to do to show, people
are going to act like it's a political stand.
I didn't want that, right? You can't listen to
publicists. This is what I learned now, Joe.
You know what I'm saying? That was my inexperience,
whatever, and something I kept calling, and I
was like, what if I do this? Because I wanted
to be reconnected with him, whatever, and I told
Tony he was hot in a good way and a positive
way. I felt so bad. I called him. I said, man,
I really want to do the show, but I think people
are going to take it the wrong way now, right?
And this was with me. I felt bad about it. I
stood up at your condo. I was on the balcony,
bro. And I watched motherfuckers going to the
show. I felt bad about it. I didn't do it. And
the only thing I wanted to do at the end of that
Kill Tony episode was to... apologize to him
and say, you know, as a friend, I probably wasn't
there. And he understood, even though I was like,
he's never going to let me do the show again.
He said, I'd love to have you there. The only
issue I had with Rob Schneider, in that moment,
he didn't have the sense of me trying to say
something serious, right? And he was getting
a laugh off this one joke, and it was at my expense.
You know, when I had this moment, I was talking
about friendship and everything. Rob kept on
with this fucking corny joke, and I didn't want
to flip out. And then people took that as like...
Oh, yeah, Rob roasted him. Get the fuck out of
here. I was trying to talk about, and I had this
issue. You might have the same issue. Some people
know people a certain way. You know them a different
way. And I use an example, and I'm going to get
shitted on for saying this or whatever. Like,
oh, how could you say that? You gotta stop worrying
about what other people think. I can't do it.
I can't do it. You gotta stop worrying about
what other people think. This is the conflict.
You know how you feel. Just be yourself. I'll
just say this. Kid Rock. Kid Rock, right? You
say that name, for some people in certain places,
they can go, oh, fuck him or whatever, right?
I met Kid Rock some years ago when we were doing
the Cornfield shows. and Yellow Springs. And
I tell people, and we talked about this earlier,
some people are provocateurs. I really believe
Kid Rock doesn't believe half the shit he say,
but I think that he knows what's going to move
the dial is what's going to make him be in the
headlines and what people are like, oh, shit.
And he's going to stick to that. Well, we did
that show in Nashville. Remember we hung out
with him? Went to his house? Yeah, exactly. And
with that, even when he came to the conference
that time, this was the point when he said some
crazy shit out of his mouth. Nobody wanted to
be around him or anything, right? They was like,
oh, bah, bah, bah, bah. Right. Right. You know,
when I do, I do this thing called, I do river
runs in Yellow Springs, Ohio. And for some reason,
I take people down the river and it's like a
peace thing. Like, you're in nature. Got a photo
of you right outside the door. I know. I asked
for that photo here, too. It's right outside
the door. I love that. So, now, if you look at
that photo, you'll see the energy. That's the
vibe I was on. And nobody wanted to get close
to Kid Rock or anything, right? And I remember
as a kid how the black community accepted him
in school. I'm thinking about that shit. We're
riding down the river. Kid is over on one kayak.
I'm on the other side. We smoking a joint. And
he looked at me, and I know he was sincere when
he said it. He said, man, it felt like I just
had 13 hours of anger management, right? And
I was like, okay, I'm not trying to be a therapist
or anything, but that felt good. Then at the
end, we stopped. He's flipping burgers and shit.
We got to know each other. We kept in touch with
each other. And he was doing a comedy festival.
in Nashville, right? He appreciated me as a comedian.
He said, yo, D, I'm doing this. I was like one
of the first people he called, right? He said,
you want to do it? I was like, why not? Then
I thought about it. I was like, again, what you're
saying, I was like, what people are going to
think? Seven comedians on the show. I'm the only
black guy. I knew what I was walking into. I
knew it was going to be all maggots. It wasn't
going to be a gay person. It wasn't going to
be a midget. It wasn't going to be a lesbian.
It wasn't going to be anything but bonafide,
the real, real red, white, and blue flag motherfuckers.
But I said, Donnell, can you separate, can you
go up here, can you perform and be entertaining?
Not shucking and jiving or none of that type
of shit. I went up there, last person got a standing
ovation, right, at the end of the show. This
is what people might not understand, and I'm
not trying to defend them or anything. At the
end of the show, me and Kid Rock, in this case,
I want to say, Kid Rock wasn't backstage, Bobby
was. Right. And he said, man, he looked at me.
He said, man, I think we just brought this country
back together. Right. And I said, well, don't
separate it, motherfucker. He said, OK, two weeks
later, he do some other stupid shit. When when
when when Trump got elected, I know people went
to his page to see what his response was going
to be. Was he going to gloat? We like, fuck y
'all. This is America. He did this video, which
I thought was so dope because it showed two sides
of him. It showed Kid Rock and it showed Bobby.
Right. And then how they both responded to Donald
Trump being elected. The Kid Rock was the crotch
grabbing motherfucker. Fuck you. Right. Then
he came out. You find this. He came out as Bobby
with shorts. Just. No American flags, baseball
cap, fucking ring glasses or whatever. And I
thought it was dope. The dialogue that he had
with it, he played the victory. He said, you
know, we did win. He said, but this is not a
time to gloat. There's so much stuff that we
need to do. He said, all sides want to get to
a certain place, but we have different ideas
on how we're going to get there. I thought that
for whatever people want to think, I thought
that was showing another side. And also I told
him. Because I would talk to him off and on.
I said, you know what song you should do? You
should do Nina Simone's song, Misunderstood.
Right? Just sing that shit. But I know he wouldn't
never do that because the bass that really supports
the mic, oh, he's soft now. The point I'm making,
even though with Tony, with the situation, I
consider Tony a good friend of mine for different
reasons, right? That's why I wanted to have that
moment to say that. But Rob Schneider. As much
as they say I took away from moments on that
show, he took away from that moment. I wasn't
trying to be a bitch. I wasn't trying to be soft.
I wanted to say I apologize because sometimes
friendships got to be stronger than that, and
that's where I was with that. And as much as
I don't need the Kill Tony show, and this is
what I always say about that show. I said that
reminds me, Kill Tony reminds me of the Def Jam
era, right? And when I say that, there was a
platform for undiscovered talent. people that
you've never seen for, it's such a spectacle.
Like Def Jam, it was people that didn't have
the skill set to fucking go headline, but they
was being seen. Same thing with Kill Tony. Is
your phone on? Is your phone on? Sorry, shut
up. This is what I appreciate about this show,
for whoever likes it or whatever, it's a platform
to get on. I travel around the country. It used
to be, you remember back in the day, it was like,
oh, I need to be on Letterman. I need to be on
Carson or whatever. That is the, I got to get
on Kill Tone. 100%. And in some cases, there's
some good and bad to that. There's some people
that was ready for it. There's some people like,
you know what? You had two or three minutes worth
of jokes. You know what I'm saying? You're not
ready. But it gave people some hope. When I was
staying at the hotel the other day, three people
traveled across the country with the hopes of
that. So I know how important that show is. Is
it the fan base? I want them to be like, oh,
I can't wait to see him. But for me, I always,
my whole career, Joe, I always wanted to be around
the people, the places that they say the best
comedians perform. When I started, when I was
in New York, I wanted to get passed at the Comedy
Cellar, not because I wanted to be a cellar dweller.
I didn't want to be the guy in the back fucking
just. every weekend just sit back there tell
them what story i was like if this is where the
best comics perform i want to be a part of that
i want to be past that because when i got past
in the comedy cellar it wasn't a lot of black
comedians working excelling it was greer barnes
it was keith robinson r .i .p it was william
stevenson patrice patrice Dave Chappelle. In
fact, Barry Katz had a room, Boston Comedy Club,
and it was Black Night on Sundays, right? The
black comedians would look at me like, they'd
say, where you going? I was like, I got a spot
at the cellar. They're like, how the fuck did
you get in the cellar? The way I got into it
was... Put the work in. I hung out. Got a couple
of recommendations. And when it's time for me
to showcase, I did my thing. But the minute I
got past in the cellar, I didn't really care
about working there all the time. I just wanted
to be validated as like, this is the spot. Same
thing. I get it. You know, same thing with the
comedy store. Same thing with what you're doing
here. It was that part of it. I get it. Grant
Barnes is probably one of the most underappreciated
talents in the country. But you know what? I've
known that dude for 30 years. He's a funny motherfucker,
and he's been funny forever. You know, it's so
funny that you said underappreciated because,
you know, you know comedians that put the work
in or whatever. It's a phrase that people use,
underrated, but then you've got to ask who rated.
You didn't use those words. You said underappreciated.
But he is. I don't know. Sometimes you got to
ask yourself. He's not underrated by comics.
He's underappreciated by audience members for
whatever reason. I think it's a social media
thing. I just think he doesn't have a big presence
on social media for whatever reason. He's a solid,
solid fucking comic, though. Always has been.
And a solid guy. And a good dude. But that's
another thing. This is the era that we in right
now, and it's like, and you notice, it's even
more so now, the most talented people aren't
getting the shots if you don't know how to evolve.
Well, it's not even just that, because, like,
look at Dave, not Dave Chappelle, excuse me,
Dave Attell. Dave Attell, I think, is one of
the funniest dudes who's ever lived. Ever. Ever.
One of the best comics ever in the history of
comedy. And mostly does clubs. He does theaters
and stuff like that. He should be sold out arenas
all across the country. But he does not promote
himself. He's not into social media. He doesn't
do much other than specials. I think Attell would
be... Petrified. Not that he couldn't do it.
And it was probably, remember with the show he
had, what was it, the late night show? That was
before anybody was doing it. Yeah. The late night
show, he'd go to bars and stuff like that. Insomniac.
Yeah, Insomniac. This was before everybody was
doing it. I don't think that some people, they
like, I think he's always going to make millions
of dollars touring or whatever. But I think his
comfort zone is like, he's a. Not a club act,
but he's a club comment. I think the best thing
for him he ever wants to be is in front of 250
to 500 people. Well, he's awesome in that, but
he does like when Burt does arenas, he does arenas
and he murders in arenas. I think the real thing
with him is that he's just focused on his craft
only. And the props that he gets from other comedians
on podcasts and things along those lines is what
really fuels his popularity. And then when people
go to see him, just word of mouth. Do you think
some people might be? afraid of a certain level
of fame that they don't want to have? There is
that. But I don't think he's that. I just don't
think he thinks about it. I mean, he doesn't
even have a phone. Like, he carries a flip phone
with him all the time. He has an iPhone that
he, like, stores away, and sometimes he uses
it. But when you text him, he texts you on, like,
do -do -do -do -do, where you got to press four
times to get an S. You know what it is, though,
Joe? You know what it is, right? Well, he doesn't
want to be distracted. He's in the Epstein files.
He doesn't want to be distracted. You need to
burn a phone. If you heavily in the Epstein files.
He's only in the Epstein files because he was
on a lineup that Epstein was going to go see
at the cellar. I think Dave Attell. Louis J.
Gomez is on that too. I like him. I think Dave
Attell is like, I think Dave Attell's ultimate
happiness is being on stage. Shut your fucking
phone off, man. Put that shit on silent. Just
put it on silent. Do you know how to do that?
You don't know how to do that. Don't disrespect
me like that. Put it on Do Not Disturb. You know
how to do that? It's okay. It's off. It's off.
Okay, it keeps dinging, you popular motherfucker.
I think some people, I think, my opinion, David
Till, his comfort zone is fucking just being
as incognito as he tries to be. It's just like,
oh, I came up with this. I don't know anybody
that turns over material. There's certain comments
you look at, Joe, and you're like, God damn,
this motherfucker's constantly trying. Yeah,
always. Like, When I work with Dave, he forces
me to do that. Dion Cole is another guy. When
I watch Dion Cole does like at the Hollywood
Improv, I think maybe three times a week, he'd
just have a Monday night and he'd just use it
as a workout, right? Me, when I go into a spot,
I'm trying to beat the fuck, I'm trying to beat
it up. So sometimes I get distracted on what
I'm really there for that's to work out new material.
There's a different level where you just like,
you know what, I could deal with the silence.
I could deal with something not working. And
when I watch people like him, there's another
comedian in L .A. by the name of Malik S. that
doesn't have all that notoriety like that, but
when I see him, I'm like, damn, every time I
see this motherfucker, he's working on some new
shit and has the same passion. Everybody doesn't
have that. That's why David Till will always
give other comics something to like. tried to
achieve because you're like, you ain't going
to see him doing the same shit. It's always a
flip. And that's what makes him who he is. And
that's why he gets so respected by so many comedians.
Well, he's only focused on his craft. Whereas
some people are really focused on social media
and promotions and they have a guy that films
them doing a bunch of wild things and edits with
music. I've never seen so many comedians have
full -out production crews with them. Right.
On an intro. I know. On stage. They think that
that's what they need. You know, they think that's
what they need to separate them. And it does
get them attention. But what it takes away, it
does draw some focus away from what you're trying
to do, which is work on your shit and come up
with new stuff. Where a towel doesn't have any
of that. But with that said, it takes away. But
then it also lets you know who the special people
are. Right now, fucking my goddamn. The guy that
serves as my pool and should say he's got a special
coming out. I don't know who doesn't have a special
coming out. And the thing about it is like, now,
Joe, you know it. Specials aren't, if you really
look at it, specials aren't special anymore.
It's special. It's a weird word, right? Specials
are a weird word. It's special. I got a new special.
Like, no other art form calls it a special. Like,
if someone like Taylor Swift puts out a concert
video, it's a video of her performance. You know,
a musician puts out a video, it's that. It's
like for a comic, we got a weird word, special.
You know what special is now? When you get excited
about special, if people still do that, it's
who's putting it out. It's special people that
do it. It's special people that are like, Sebastian,
he's doing it special. You know what I'm saying?
Fucking Tom does a special. It's special people
where you know it's special. And a lot of them
now, it's just people that's doing 45 minutes
worth of comedy. No beginning, no middle, no
end, no point of view. You don't know anything
about them. It's just like the same way they
do photo dumps. It's just like joke dumps. But
I'll just say, and I'm not, people say Dave Chappelle's
a butt player. But one thing I could say, however
you... Dave Chappelle's a what? No, I'm Dave
Chappelle's butt plug. I'm going back to, that's
what people, you know. You gotta stop listening
to what other people say. Joe, I'm second weighing
into a story. Is it about Jamie wearing a Fonzie
jacket? Hey! He's got them in all colors. He's
got them in all colors. He's got a red, white,
and blue one. He took it off before the show.
People get so critical, but at a certain point,
people, evolve. People that, you know them a
certain way, but then you talk about a person
who has a 35, 40 year career, like people like,
well, this last special so -and -so did, it wasn't
that funny. But how often, how long are you going
to just be like rip -roaring funny? Some people
have a position where when they talk, people
listen. And I look at, I use Dave as an example.
If you look at all this special, 20 years from
now, right, you're having Netflix and chill day
or whatever. If you play all the special that
Dave ever did, you would know exactly what was
going on in the world at that time. You know
what I mean? Right. You know what's going on.
Some people put out singles. They got one or
two jokes. And some people put out albums. He's
one of those people. Sebastian is another one.
And you look at, like, you see how his comedy
is involved. People get older. They have different
perspective on life. And that's what you have
to fucking accept him for. But we don't. We don't
do that. Right. And another thing, I don't know
if this is prevalent in your community. And when
I say that, your community is a lot of people.
But my community, man, it's just so much dumb
beef. And I've, it's only one white beef I've
ever known about, and that's yours. Mine? Yes.
What do you mean? The beef that you had with,
I don't even know. With Benzina? Yeah, years
ago. Well, that was the same thing like with
Cat. Like some shit just has to be exposed. That
was a real problem, man. You weren't around the
store back then, but it was a real problem where
he had that special or that show rather on Comedy
Central after Dave left, which was basically
doing his version of Dave's sketches. And he
was. Do you think it was his version of Dave's
sketches? It was a lot of shit was like the one
when he dressed like the white guy and had white
paint on his face and wore the white wig. It
was basically the same character that Dave was
doing. Yeah. But if you look at the history of
sketch comedy, I don't think Dave was the first
person to ever paint to dress himself up to look
like. Yeah. But it was right afterwards. Right
after. Same slot. Anything that came after Chappelle's
show, they would have compared it to. Dave was
saying it. Yeah. Dave never talked shit about
nobody. He was like, this motherfucker's doing
my show. Dave was saying it. Dave doesn't talk
shit about nobody. Right. But that was only one
of the problems. The real problem was he would
sit in the back room and watch open mic nights
and take their shit. They would flash the light
when he was in the room so comics wouldn't do
material. They would start doing crowd work.
So why didn't he get exposed before that? Because
nobody had the balls to do it. Because he was
famous at the time. And look, it cost me. I got
banned from the store. I lost my agent. And I
was famous. I was on Fear Factor. I was rich.
I had a lot going for me where I could stick
my neck out. But you came back stronger. I'll
give another example, like the same situation
with Dave in Comedy Central and shit. As much
as he went through that, he took a 12 -year hiatus
or whatever you want to say. What Dave showed
in that is that he's a real artist. Dave just
said, fuck it, I'm going to disappear for a while
like a legend. He just disappeared. I remember
when I was hearing stories about Dave doing shows
where he would set up a speaker in Seattle in
the park and just start doing stand -up. And
people were like, what the fuck? And for no money.
People would just show up and he would just do
street performances. But you know what was kind
of where he got it from? You've heard of a comic,
I'm pretty sure of it, Charlie Barnett. 100%.
Yeah, we played Charlie Barnett on the show.
I knew Charlie. Charlie was like, if you ever
thought you were funny, whatever, go. This is
what the art of only people I've ever known that
got certain levels of success were Charlie Barnett
and Michael Collier when he used to live in his
beach. Right. But people don't understand how
Charlie Barnett would like. To go to a park,
go to the center of Washington Square Park. And
get to gather around a bunch of people in a circle.
It's a certain technique. Not only that, you
got to hold their attention for one joke. Right.
You got to get them involved, blah, blah, blah,
blah. Yeah. And you build this audience up, and
then it's really for one joke. A lot of people
don't know that Charlie got Saturday Night Live,
but he couldn't read. Yeah, he couldn't, and
that's what opened up the door. But he was so
gangster. Like, when they wouldn't give him spots
because, you know, he was probably a bit to deal
with. he would go to the Boston Comic Cup and
yell in there, don't go in there, I'm doing my
show in five minutes. The whole fucking club
would come out. That's how much power he had.
But then sometimes that we become victims of
our own vices and everything and destroy us more
than anything. That's why when people talk shit
about Kevin Hart didn't get out the mud, you
got funny, but you know. Funny isn't everything.
You're funny. Oh, so good that you got talent.
But more importantly, it's your work ethics and
how do you take your God -given talent and your
passion and turn it into money. You know, you're
into music and everything. You probably could
name a million saxophonists or whatever that
didn't get to do that you could be like, well,
listen to this shit. But for some reason, they
didn't have the business part and all that together.
And I'm going back. I'm probably talking in circles
now, but this is what upsets me the most about...
my folks or whatever, these people that go on
these platforms and talk shit about people. There
was a comedian that was talking shit about Martin
Lawrence, right? Well, I saw Martin Lawrence
and Martin Lawrence in the casino, he's really,
it's not that funny. I'm like this motherfucker,
he's Martin Lawrence. Well, they didn't know
him in the 90s. I used to have to follow Martin
Lawrence at the comedy store. No, this person
particularly, no. If you just know Martin Lawrence,
period, that's enough. Richard Pryor, before
he passed away, when he was in a wheelchair,
damn near rolled him out on the stage, sold out
audiences. I followed him for six weeks. I followed
him for six weeks at the comedy store when he
was like that. Certain people, Joe, I look at
this business, are made people. How dare you
talk shit about this motherfucker? That's a good
way to put it. He's a made man. Another thing,
Joe. A legend. You know, in this business, you
can have a career, right? But you have certain
times where you just ruled. You had three years.
Martin Lawrence, film star, movie star, comedy
star. He had one period of time for five or seven
years when it was just Martin everywhere. How
dare you? As a person gets older, and whether
he has a good, bad night or a bad night, how
are you to judge? And you ain't doing shit. How
are you to judge a motherfucker? When I was coming
up, Joe, every fucking black comic in the business
wanted an audition. Everybody wanted to be Hustle
Man. Everybody wanted to just get two or three
minutes on Martin's show because they knew that
would do their career. So you judge a motherfucker
years down the road, right, where they basically,
when Martin goes out. Guess what? Martin not
doing no tour saying I'm doing 45 minutes. He
was like, y 'all want to see me? Guess what?
Y 'all going to see this young talent. You're
going to see this person. I'm putting people
on. How dare you even have come out your fucking
mouth and talk shit about this motherfucker?
How dare you talk shit about motherfuckers and
talk shit about Kevin Hart? How dare you talk
shit about a motherfucker that was rocking with
a dude, Nate Smith, RIP, passed away? I remember
when Kevin Hart was the one of the motherfuckers
doing those comment cards. All right, all right,
I'm doing email. One person. I remember when
fucking Kevin Hart had fucking 20 ,000 people
on Instagram. No, on Twitter. And at the radio,
he was like, yo, yo, D, this is a problem. I
seen the hard work. I see him not just come to
fucking New York and do the black rooms. I'm
doing the black rooms. I'm doing the white rooms.
I'm doing all of this shit. How dare you? I'll
just say this, and I'll answer this. It ain't
no beef or nothing. Cat Williams said, this is
what Cat Williams said about Kevin Hart. I find
it very strange that you just come from New York
and then you have a TV show and a movie show.
And how does that happen? You were in New York.
I'll tell you how it happens. You're on the biggest
showcase in comedy. And you know what that is.
JFL. Just for laughs. Kevin Hart was a product
of that. Monique was a product of that. Dave
Chappelle was a product of that. No, Kevin Hart
wasn't pounding the streets in L .A., but he
happened to be on a showcase. Back in the day,
you do a JFL, it was motherfuckers leaving there
that probably had $500 in the bank leaving with
a quarter million dollar development deal just
to do nothing. That's the era it was. I remember.
So just because you weren't in L .A. doesn't
mean you wasn't. you wasn't beating the pavement.
And I don't care. In LA, you got LA and New York.
Nobody as a stand -up comic grinds as hard as
a comic coming from New York opposed to LA. And
the reason why, LA don't have that many stages.
L .A. don't have that many stages. They tell
you all the time, as a stand -up comic, if you're
trying to be an actor or whatever, go to L .A.
If you want to be a great stand -up comic, bang
it out in New York. And this was the rule back
in the day, Joe. Let Hollywood call you. You
just don't go to L .A. to sleep on somebody's
couch. Some people had that story, but it was
like you grind. And back then... Everybody's
got their own path, Don. You can do whatever
the fuck you want. It's just work on your act.
That's the point that I'm making. Yeah, it's
just everybody's got their own path. The real
problem in this conversation is what I said earlier.
It's worrying about what other people think.
The more you spend time worrying about what other
people think, the less you're worrying about
what you're doing. The less you're thinking about
what you're actually trying to achieve. And I
listen to what you're saying, and I don't listen
to what you're saying. And the reason why I say
that every time I go into this rabbit hole or
whatever, it's the echo. It's like a rogan angel
right here, and it's whispering. read the comments.
Yeah, but I'm right. I still read them. I know,
you should. But I'm stopping. But this is another
thing I didn't know. What I didn't know is that
white comedians actually have beef with each
other. I did not know, or at least it's not,
you don't hear about it. It's rare. It's more
rare, and the ones who have beef are usually
failures. They're usually people that aren't
doing well. I got an example. Okay. I'm exposing
the industry right now. I'm not exposing it.
I have an example that's so funny. And this was
interesting. I was at the comedy store. Oh, you
told me this. This is so fucking funny to me,
Seth. About two months ago, right? I'm good friends
with Bill Burr. You know, we did. We had the
I'm Rich Bitch Tour with Charlie Murphy, me,
Bill Burr years ago. And I know Marc Maron, right?
I don't know. What I found out is I didn't know
Marc Maron the way white people know Marc Maron,
right? So I know Marc Maron. Like, when I see
Marc Maron, I was like, oh, that's the guy that
had one of the greatest podcasts out. That guy
that was one of the alternative comedy favorites.
Marc Maron's special. So when I see Marc Maron,
I have a certain level of respect. Like, oh,
that's the guy who did it, whatever. So I was
doing an Annie Letterman show. Annie Wood or
whatever, right? And I love that girl. And I'm
in a green room, and I'm smoking a joint. I forget
who sponsored this weed, but it was incredible,
right? So I'm in here, and I'm cracking jokes.
Bill is right there. And then Mark is over by
the side of the door. And I'm cracking jokes
with Bill and everything. And I felt something.
Nobody was really laughing at my jokes, right?
Then all of a sudden, a whole fucking argument
popped off. And it was like, it was white argument
because it was so nice. They were so... gentlemen
to each other. It was a whole bunch of, oh yeah,
but you'll never do my podcast. It was like podcast
beats. I'm right in the middle. I don't even
know. I didn't even know that they had beef like
this, but they were so gentle about it. But I
tell you the difference between white beef and
black beef, I never felt that I was going to
get shot. Yo, I felt so safe. Yo, if anything,
I thought it'd be like lawsuits the next morning,
defamation of character, slander, but I never
knew that it was fucking Caucasian on Caucasian
beef like that. And it was entertaining. This
is an example. Marc Maron was doing really well
at one point in time in his career, and now he's
not. So Marc Maron had the number one podcast,
and after a while, his podcast wasn't even in
the top 200. It dropped off. Bill Burr, his career
is... took off right he's doing arenas he's killing
it mark's not and mark finds reasons to criticize
other people that are doing much better than
him and he focuses on that because he thinks
he should be getting more than he deserves but
do you think that's going back to being a provocateur
he knows if he talked to you no no no i think
it's going back to being bitter and jealous and
thinking about other people instead of thinking
about himself and why people don't want to go
see him anymore he was upset when we left the
comedy store because we took the crowds away
And it's like, hey, you were on the fucking marquee
too, man. Right. They're not coming to see you.
And the reason why they're not coming to see
you is because you're not doing well. And your
podcast was in the top. It was number one. And
when it was at number one, by the way, this is
what I always say about Marc Maron, he was great.
Marc Maron was fun to hang out with when he was
killing it. Right. Because he was happy. Because
he was getting validation because he had the
number one podcast. We were friends. I did his
podcast. He did mine. We had a good time. I'd
hug him when I see him. We had gone back and
forth many times having beef with each other.
Let me finish. His problem was when everybody
else started doing really good and he started
dropping off. That's what happened. This is what
I don't understand. Why can't people understand
that you have a moment? Because he's a fucking
narcissist and he wants the moment to always
be around him. He wants it to always be about
him. And when other people are doing better than
him, he wants to talk shit about them. And that's
where Bill had a problem with it. You think being
a narcissist in this field is a bad thing? For
some reason, I think that kind of fuels you to
be the person that you are, to be determined
to do it and not give a fuck about what anybody
thinks. Well, having self -respect and having
an ego where you care about what you put out,
yes, that's a good thing. But making it all about
you and not being able to appreciate other people's
work is crazy because other people doing well.
can be fuel for you to be inspired and do better
yourself. And that's a positive thing. And if
these people are your friends and you love them
and you care about them, you should be happy
that they're killing it. And if you're not killing
it anymore, you should try to figure out why.
Because it's not like the door's not open. It's
not like you're not getting on stage. It's not
like you're not putting out specials. You should
probably figure out why you're... podcast dropped
from number one to not even in the top 200 anymore
without anything happening. You didn't get arrested.
There was no scandal. There was nothing crazy.
You should try to figure that out. And he doesn't
do that because he's instead bitter, bitter and
jealous. He's always been like that. It's a story
about Jon Stewart. And Andrew Schultz came on
the podcast and told a story about Jon Stewart
and Marin where Marin confronted Jon Stewart,
but Jon Stewart got some television show. He
called him a fucking sellout. He yelled at him
all this different shit. Jon Stewart left the
show. And they hired Marin to do the same show.
Yeah. The same show that he was calling Jon Stewart
for being a sellout. So how did you go from that
to, okay, for you to have one of the biggest
podcasts, at some point in your career, you had
to be likable, or you think people just wanted
to do this show because it was a platform? There
wasn't very many podcasts back then. The thing
that killed Marin's podcast, my personal opinion,
no hate, is that he has this rant at the beginning
of his podcast that's not. I don't think it's
good. And the rant was long, and he would just
ramble about himself, was very self -obsessed,
and I just don't think it was good. And I think
that was part of the problem. It's also the problem
was how he interviewed people. He had a very
confrontational interview style, specifically
with some comedians that he felt like were below
him or that he could pick on. You would think
that that style would work in this day and age?
No, no, no, no, no. People don't want always
to be uncomfortable. They want to like you, man.
They want you to be a good person. People want
train wrecks. They want train wrecks for 15 second
or 30 minute, 30 second Instagram clips. They
don't want train wrecks to be their primary thing
they're listening to when they're in traffic
on the way to work. But the people that host
these podcasts now, like I think people go on
these podcasts now and like this, this is going
to be clickbait. We're going to go viral. Yeah,
but that's they're not that talented. That's
why they're doing it is because that's their
only method of getting attention. If they were
entertaining and interesting and fascinating,
then their podcast would be about that. You know
what? It's all in what you're trying to focus
on. What I try to focus on in my podcast is who
do I want to talk to? I never have someone on
and go, oh, this would be great. It'd be very
controversial. People fucking hate them. It'll
be crazy. They'll say wild shit. I never do that.
My podcast is only about who do I want to talk
to? That's why I have a lot of people on that
aren't even remotely famous because they're interesting.
I find them interesting. I find with a book they
wrote interesting, the documentary they made
interesting. I want to know something about them.
It stimulates my curiosity. Do you think that
there's going to be a shift? Do you think that?
These salacious interviews, these interviews
with the provactor. I don't think about it. That's
my key. I don't think about it. You know what's
so funny? I will say this. You know what's funny
about what you said? That I was with Dave a while
ago, and he echoed the exact same thing, and
I was having this conversation with him. He said,
D, I don't even think about that shit. Yeah,
don't think about it. There's other things to
think about. I've said this too many times. If
people have heard this before, I'm sorry. Think
of your focus and your attention like a number.
Think of you have like 100 points in a day to
spend on things. If you spend 30 of those points
thinking about haters or 30 percent of those
thinking about bitter people, 30 percent thinking
about other people that are doing better than
you, that's 30 percent that you robbed from the
100 percent that you have to focus on your life.
I have things to do, man. I have a family. I
have friends. I have loved ones. I have interests.
I have hobbies. I have. comedy and podcasts and
the UFC and all these different things that I
like to do. And I think about those things. I
don't think about negative, stupid things with
people that have bitter, angry minds that are
concentrating on other people's success and trying
to tear them down all the time because they're
trying to tear them down all the time because
they compare themselves to them and they don't
like how they stack up. They don't like the fact
that person is doing better. They don't like
the fact that person's more successful. So they
try to take things either out of context or they
try to misrepresent who that person is. They
try to change public perception of that person
to try to drag that person down. And it's transparent.
The reason why it doesn't work is because people
inherently know what you're trying to do. It
might get people, oh, there's beef. Oh, there's
beef. Those are simple -minded people that you're
always going to attract. But you're not going
to change people's opinions of things. It's a
trick. It's a trap that you're playing on yourself.
It's a waste of your precious resources. You
only have so much time in the day. My time I
spend on things that I think are interesting
or beneficial or things that excite my curiosity.
And I think that is the way I like to live my
life. Now, if you like to live your life constantly
engaged in beefs and being filled with anxiety
and stress and you want to do that, okay. But
those are bitter fucking people. I don't want
to be a bitter person. In another life, could
you have been a therapist? Well. I majored in
psychology for the brief amount of time that
I was in college. That was what I was interested
in. But I was doing that because I was fighting
at the time, and I was trying to figure out how
to manage my mind. So I was trying to figure
out the inner workings of the human psyche. Do
you think your success made you a more calm person
to not give a fuck? Well, it certainly helps,
right? You don't have to give a fuck if you have
enough money that you could just like disappear
off into the sunset and never have to worry about
money. Because a lot of people are always worried
about money. And so you're always constantly
in this state of anxiety. You're trying to get
more. That helps. But it's also, it's like there's
other things in life. I concentrate on my loved
ones. I concentrate on my friends. I concentrate
on things I enjoy doing, on fun. This life is
short, man. You and I are 58 years old. We're
more than halfway dead. Why would you spend?
time concentrating on people you don't like.
Like, there's one thing if someone's wronging
you. There's one thing if you find out you have
a business partner who's been stealing money
or you have someone who's lying about you. Shout
out to Dane Cook. No, I'm just saying. His own
brother stole from him. I know Dane is like this.
Yes, the fuck. Yeah, it's very, very interesting.
And I'm at a place right now. I was with Jon
Hamm, right? San Francisco. And I had just did
a show with Dave. And it was interesting. He
said something to me. He's in the back and he's
with his wife and we're kicking it. He used to
come out to summer camp and everything and hang
out with us. I don't want to say we're like super
friends, but we have mutual respect for each
other. And it was interesting because we're in
the green room. And this is after I had just
slayed this audience or whatever, right? And
I'm feeling good. And he said, Don, what is it
that you really want to do? He said, what is
it that you want? I said, what kind of question?
He said, no, I mean, what is it? Is it TV? Is
it a TV show? Is it movies? I was like, John,
I'm doing exactly what I want to do. For me to
be able to wake up, not have to work for anybody,
call my own shots, make a fair wage, take care
of my family, enjoy my friends and everything,
and it's me connecting with a God -given talent.
Anything else is a bonus. I don't look at it
like I need the private jet and everything. Certain
things, you're like, you know, that would be
nice. But I just look at... what this life has
given me, and I'm appreciative of that. I know
so many people of my class, whatever, that aren't
doing nearly as well as I am, or even the ones
that are. That don't mean that they're happy.
You know what I'm saying? So when he asked my
question, I didn't think any bad of it. I was
like this. I don't get caught up on looking at
somebody. They got this. They got that. I like
this. Am I happy? Am I comfortable? Do I get
to do what I want? So whether I tell people all
this all the time. Whether I get another film
opportunity, whether I get another TV show or
whatever or any of that, I'm living what some
people's dreams are. Yes. And it's not my dream.
It's my reality. Yes. And I also had to realize
this is so easy for us to do. You can be so connected
with somebody. And even with my situation, with
my connection with Dave and everything, I'm a
huge fan of Dave. He's given me great opportunities
and everything. But at some point in my life,
I had to say, you can't be caught up in somebody
else's dreams so much that you forget your realities.
And my reality is whether I'm alongside of him
or what I'm doing, I got to continue to be Don
Air Rollins. I got to continue to support my
family. I got to continue to do things that I
do. And it's so easy. It's so easy for me to
get caught up. I'm like, I'm rolling with Dave.
We on the jets. We doing this type of shit. But
then I'll lose focus on who I am. And I realize
for me and my career continues to go when I know
how to make that separation. I do have. Yeah.
But the thing is, even when you're caught up
with Dave, you still love him and you don't hate
him at all. You're not jealous of him. Not at
all. You might get caught up in the way because
you're hanging out with one of the greatest comics
that's ever lived. But it doesn't mean that it's
a negative. And, you know, another thing. Let
me add to that. And I'm not blowing my own horn
or whatever. Like you said, one of the greatest
comedians to ever live, right? If a person had
a conversation with Dave Chappelle, people could
say whatever I'm wearing about people think.
If you ask Dave who is in his top five comedians,
my name's going to come up. So as much as people,
they always try to pin me like blah, blah, this
and everything. I respect the fact that. He respects
me. I respect him. When we work together, we
push each other. We make each other, whatever
people want to say, we make each other better.
And what other people understand is that he's
truly my friend. You know what I mean? It's not
like I just work on a show, he's my friend. And
even when, some of my fondest memories, especially
when I come here, is when we was doing those
fucking shows. When we was doing shit nobody
was doing. When we were doing those lockdown
shows, ooh, that was fun. That was wild times.
It was already, we already have a community.
We all have mutual respect for each other. But
the thing that made that so special wasn't nobody
doing this shit. That's what made it even, and
it really, one thing about the pandemic, it made
you appreciate life a lot more than before the
pandemic. Yeah, it made you appreciate freedom.
Freedom. The ability to do shows. Remember we
did those shows outside and everybody was wearing
a mask? It was so stupid. And they all got tested
too? I had so much fun during the pandemic, I
was almost embarrassed to show the pictures I
wanted to show, like faceless shit. Yo, we would
take pictures and people was like this, look
at him. He could kill my grandmother. I'm like,
all right, first of all, you did it, Dave did
it. I was like, people's like this, oh, it must
be nice to have rich friends that have testing
machines. I was like, you're absolutely right.
It is. It's beautiful. It is the most amazing
shit ever. Dave Chappelle raped my nose for two
summers in a row when we were doing the shows
in the cornfields and shit. But this is what
people don't understand. He took... The opportunity,
that village of Yellow Springs, he made it as
safe as it could be. Like any place we would
go, hotels, everybody had an opportunity to get
tested. And I remember, this was very interesting.
When the bubble, we did one, this was Bob Saget.
R .I .P. We were doing these shows. And I think
that before Bob passed away, when he came out
to Yellow Springs and was hanging out with Dave
and us and everything, it gave him some incentive
to want to go back on the road. He just got really
excited about doing it again. We did like 55
shows. The summer was over. The run was clear.
We had no positives or anything. Dave extended
the show another week. And that week was when
the bubble popped. Right. And now everybody is
like freaking out. Like, oh, my God, these same
women that was people's coming out there when
they was getting flown out in jets. They wouldn't
get traffic. But Dave created the environment.
He won his friends around. They was we was going
to restaurants. We will have the whole spot.
We was just doing all this stuff. Nobody was
thinking about the possible consequences of that.
And I mean, this one girl was like, oh, my God,
I don't even know why I'm here. Then I looked
at Dave. I was like, yo, man, we almost made
it, man, through. He was like, Daniel. It's going
to be OK. He said, you got to realize this is
the reason why we test. When we first got our
first positive, had we not been testing, it could
have been crazy. And we got a first positive
because dudes went to do somebody else's podcast
and they didn't test. Remember that? I remember
that. I remember that because I remember that
scene. It was so funny. Yeah, that was here.
Yeah. And it was like. Something was different
because we had one positive, and you remember
that backstage used to be packed out, right?
It started getting lower and lower, right? It
was basically like me, Syph sounds, somebody
else was in the green room, right? And then Big
J came. That's one of my friends, good friends.
Big J came back, and he had this look on his
face like it's over, right? He came in there,
and I looked. I said, boss man got it. He's like,
yep, right? And another thing Dave could have
did. This is why I respect his character. He
could have been, at that time, he could have
just been in a mask, went on stage, went back
out. He canceled the show. But the funniest shit,
it's a hole at Stubbs. Room is sold out, right?
And then Cena comes back, and Cena was like,
I need you to go out there and tell people that
the show was canceled, right? I said, you don't
need me to do that shit, nigga. Because the minute,
it's one thing, if I go out there, people are
going to be like, show's starting. Right. And
as a comedian, I'm not going to not tell jokes.
And I'm like, oh, yeah, Dave, not going to show
up. But that was the crazy thing about that.
Everybody at the Lion Hotel, they was making
jokes. Joe, they call it Corona COVID row because
we had the whole floor had the whole floor floor
locked down. Right. And everybody in our team
got it. but it felt like an old school chicken
pox party. You know what I'm saying? It's like,
we got it. We got it. What I tell you, man, what
we did, like everything was like, okay, make
sure you had your vitamins, all that type of
shit. But the beauty of it was we was like, you
know, people was testing out like eight or nine
days. Right. So we thought we was going to leave
after a while. We was like, I was like, wait
a minute. The next room was going to be in 10
days. And for some reason. Everybody went back
to being negative. We closed and did more shows
and we got the fuck up out of here. But it was
a beautiful time, man. It was a beautiful time.
It was a fun time. It was a fun time. But it
was crazy. And then we did that. What that fucking
joint we did? It was in Tacoma. The Superdome.
That was wild. 25 ,000? Whatever it was, we broke
the Tacoma Dome record. I never been in a place
where the laughter was so hard, it felt like
helicopters. It was crazy. It was crazy. It was
crazy. This is what I respect about what you
guys did. You got people saying they doing arenas
and shit, but normally, but that was pre -COVID,
brother. It was pre -COVID? Yeah, that was pre
-COVID. That was before everything popped off.
What I will say about a real arena show, you
got, The arena show where a quarter of the venue
is being used for stage. Right? So it ain't the
true capacity. Right. But the shows you motherfuckers
was doing, it was in the round. Right. Well,
the wildest thing was walking through the crowd
to get to the stage. Man, crazy times. You've
experienced this shit of that walk from the UFC
shit. Man, I'm so grateful for you guys' friendship
and everything. And for me, it was so special
for me because, I didn't sell a ticket. Nobody
else, no open sale. You and Dave sold those tickets,
right? But the best feeling for me, Joe, was
when I go out and DJ trauma and be like, you
seen them on HBO's The Wire. You seen them on
BMF, whatever. Simple line. But you fell in love
with Ashley Larry Chappelle show and them people
fucking go crazy. I don't give a fuck if you've
ever been in the fist fight in your life when
you come through them tunnels. You doing this
shit right here. You feel like Tyson. Like, just
give me a robe. Just give me a tie. I'm about
to go beat these motherfuckers up. And every
show we had, there was no room for being okay.
You had to be on your game every time. Yeah.
It was fun. It was a good time. Well, that was
when all that COVID shit went down with me when
CNN turned my face green. That was because of
a Nashville show that we were doing that we had
to cancel. Yeah, I didn't know that. That's what
that was. Yeah, we were supposed to do a show
that weekend, and I got COVID the previous weekend.
I was doing an arena with Tony in Florida, and
I got COVID in Florida, and then I made that
video on like a Tuesday or a Wednesday. It was
like the third day after I got COVID where I
got over it. And I was like, you know, I feel
fine, but we have to cancel the shows this weekend.
And that's when all the shit went down because
I took ivermectin. That was those reading shows.
Oh, yeah, I remember that. He has to answer everything.
Yo, if he don't have the answer, at least he's
fucking trying to find it. It's so interesting.
Well, whether or not I had the answer, the crazy
thing is I was better. I was already better.
And they turned my face green on CNN. Like, we
got to see how crazy the media really is. Like,
they didn't want to hear nothing, but you have
to take this vaccine. And you have to do that.
And if you didn't take this vaccine, you're a
part of the problem. It's hard. I just don't,
as devastating as that time was, I'm just, how
is it just like fucking. over now is it herd
immunity how is it just like yeah it's herd immunity
it's it's yeah it's also you know everybody who
got it got it you got immunity because of it
and then also whatever variants are still left
they're significantly diminished that's how viruses
it's like a cold strand now right yes well that's
how viruses generally go they become more transmissible
but less potent over time Yeah, and that's what
happened. I'm going to tell you, there was a
time, though, man. I even said, man, maybe it
was just something about how people got along
with each other. I was like, we should do like
once a year, just have a week of just lockdown.
Yo, just so you can get it. It makes you appreciate
freedom. That's for sure. It made me appreciate
nature, bro. I bought a fucking house in Yellow
Spring because I was like, you know what? Trees,
woods. I don't know if the streets can handle
this, but I became a bird watcher, bro. I watch
birds. I watch birds. You know what that does
to my street credit? What? To know the difference
between a cardinal and a blue jay. Is that bad?
It's not the most good. Listen. It's a blue jay
call. I can't be in the street talking about
those good shit. If you can't appreciate nature,
that's whatever. That's a bullshit narrative.
That's ridiculous. Here's the thing. I didn't
crash out today. Didn't crash out. I know people
think I'm a crash out king. It's not that. Sometimes
I just need to talk. You mean on this show today?
Yeah. What did I? No. No, you definitely accused
Jamie of wearing a leather jacket. Jamie did
have a leather jacket. He had a leather jacket
on, man. And I think he brushed his eyebrows,
too. It was everything. I was like, I've never
seen this sexy side of Jamie. He had like a British
accent. He was like, I think you want a book.
I was like, who is this person, man? It was something
different. We definitely went through something
that most people would never experience in their
life. Nope. And most previous generations never
experienced it. Having a nationwide, worldwide
pandemic that everybody freaked out and we didn't.
Not only did we didn't freak out, we did shows.
We had a good time. We hung out together. Those
after parties when we go to the line, you had
a DJ. We would laugh and laugh. We would laugh
till 2, 3 o 'clock in the morning. You know,
we had so much fun. Girl, I was dating the time.
She couldn't believe this. She was like. I'll
be like this. So what do you do? I was like,
well, I was at the line kicking it with Dave
and Joe. What was y 'all doing? Just talking
and laughing till 3 .30 in the morning. They
was like, get the fuck out of here. You was fucking.
No, I wasn't. We was just on some brohood shit.
It was just, it was really good. And we also
realized how special it was that we could do
this while the whole world was locked down. Yep.
I'm telling you, I was embarrassed to show pictures.
My mother would call me. You better be careful
out there. I'm like, man, I'm getting tested.
We got tested more than probably anybody in the
country. I got tested every day because I was
doing podcasts through the whole thing. I did
your show doing that one time. Yeah. And then
we didn't. I sat down before I got the results.
The last time I was here, you was like, did he
get the test? I'm like. I'm like, please don't
come in here like, get this motherfucker out
of here. Well, we definitely had a couple people
that tested positive. We had to get them out.
And I tested positive once. But the thing about
it, taking those precautions, you could isolate
it. You knew where it came and you shut it down.
That's one thing. If you're not doing that, it's
all over the place. Just think about it. Imagine
if Jamie. Would have got COVID then. We would
have never seen his sexy side now. Jamie got
COVID. He got COVID before anybody. He got COVID
really early on when there was no vaccine, no
treatment, no nothing. He had to take a whole
week off. Maybe that's why he has the attitude
that he has. Yo, y 'all get all this sexiness.
But we did the Kanye podcast. You had COVID that
week, right? Yeah. Yeah, he missed the Kanye
podcast. Yeah, but I'm sorry Jamie if you thought
I said anything that was kind of disrespectful
to you care. I was just totally false No, it
wasn't I'm telling you that fucking ponytail.
I don't know what the fuck he did about it like
a Steven Seagal ponytail back and not only that
but he put his hair back like this Hmm almost
like the like a Diddy Party. That's how he started
Diddy Parties oiled up Yeah, oh, I'm gonna say
that cuz I was never mind I never went to a Diddy
Park. I have a photo, but I never went to a Diddy
Park. Jesus Christ. Yeah, it's like, I think
people are going to be wiser if something like
that happens again. Could it ever happen again?
Yeah, 100%. Yeah, 100%. There's a lot of people
that think they engineered that whole thing.
They wanted it to happen. It's the largest upward
transfer of wealth in human history. Small businesses
went down. Big businesses got made more money.
Look what it did to Zoom. Yep. Zoom took off.
I remember Zoom because I had a show in Naples
or whatever. I met this doctor that he wanted
me to be on his podcast. And I was like, how
are we going to do it? He said, we can do it
by Zoom. This was when it was only for business
people. It was really like the nerdy thing. Yeah,
that's what it used to be. It used to be, but
the pandemic. It blew it up. It was like now,
Zoom is like, that's the best way. You don't
want to talk to somebody on the phone. They call
you, oh, I'm on a Zoom right now. It is so like
in everybody's household and that shit blew up.
So many businesses did the same thing. Is anybody
using that anymore? Zoom? Yeah. They use it for
an excuse not to talk to somebody. Do they do
Zoom podcasts anymore? Do people do Zoom podcasts?
I never hear that term. It used to be things
like, oh, we're going to do it on Zoom. I don't
hear that anymore. A few other platforms exist
now. I don't even think people discuss it. Yeah,
they have one. What was that, Clubhouse, whatever,
all of these things. Oh, yeah, Clubhouse. Clubhouse
is a big one. That was a big one where people
were essentially doing podcasts. Like anybody
could just like chime in. Talk shit. People was
getting like a million followers in three days
and shit. Like, yeah. Oh, yeah. There was a lot
of that. And a lot of people thought that that
was going to keep going. Like, Clubhouse is going
to be the new thing. I'm like, this is just bad
podcasting. And it's what, there was only, so
many things. That battle, the versus battles
that they do now when they have like, it's mostly,
it's been hip hop and R &B. I think it was, who
was it? It was, damn. Swiss Beats and Timbaland,
I think. They started this thing during the pandemic.
It was versus, right? Where you have an artist
versus another artist in like a competitive type
of situation. They didn't win anything, but it
was just entertaining for everybody. And that
went from like, it was so low level. Like people
was in front of their computers. It was freezing
up and everything, but it was what everybody
was doing. Now that's like one of the biggest
things now. They did one at Madison Square Gardens.
Like it's a big thing now when you want to, it's
just like a competition. I think they had cash
money and no limit records, but it's very, I
don't see no white versus, but it's a popular
thing, and it started because of the pandemic.
Well, so many businesses started during the pandemic
because a lot of people got laid off, so they
started their own business. A lot of online businesses
started. A lot of people quit their jobs because
they realized, look, they could just take this
shit away from me at any minute. Why am I doing
something that I hate when I thought there was
security in it? There's no security in it. I'm
going to start my own business. Also, even like
you, you're an example of, of what happens when
you finally realize that you don't need Hollywood
the way it used to be. No. Well, we figured that
out a long time ago. We figured that out when
the podcast started kicking off in like the early
2010s. I realized that. I was like, this is,
I don't need TV shows anymore. We figured that
out in like 2013, 2014. And Hollywood is not
like it used to be. I'm a very old school guy,
but I remember when I first started, you couldn't
make it in this business. You had to be in New
York or L .A. Yep. There was no producers going
to, they wasn't going to Toledo, Ohio. There
was no way. This was big. Well, there was no
comedy communities outside of New York and L
.A. No, not at all. Not a real community. There
might have been like. a good club that had some
like Denver always had like good opening acts,
good, good, good community. But it wasn't like
a real hub like Austin is now. And that wouldn't
have happened if it hadn't been for the pandemic.
People wouldn't have moved. They wouldn't have
moved. No. And you brought a whole community
here as much as this place was always big for
music or whatever. But I mean, there's no way
anybody can not. agree with like what you did
and what you made it appealing to a lot of people
is that you could go somewhere else get a better
quality of life yeah And everything lower cost
of living, better quality of life, no traffic,
nicer people. Yeah. And no Hollywood bullshit.
The problem with the L .A. is always going to
be poisoned by the the idea of going there to
become famous. Right. That whole idea was it
was permeated in the culture of L .A. and that
fame was like the number one commodity. But back
then it was that was the case. It was the case.
Go ahead. I'm sorry. But the problem is that's
bad for art. That's bad for your ability to produce
shit. I mean, you got great comics that came
out of L .A., but that was in spite of what L
.A. had to offer. It wasn't because of. Whereas
Austin, like the main reason people come here,
first of all, is Kill Tony. Because like you
said, Kill Tony is one of the rare. places where
you can be a comic that's been doing comedy three,
four years, even just start now, but you've got
some talent, you can have a fucking career, like
a real career, and it'll launch. Look, you've
got Cam Patterson who's on SNL right now. You've
got all these people like William Montgomery,
David Lucas. They're killing it on the road,
selling out everywhere they go. Ari Matty. These
guys, I mean, they have a real career now because
of Tony. But you know another thing that they
don't understand is like this is what I say,
and I use you as an example. Whenever you hear
about somebody saying that they want to do a
podcast, the first thing, a certain name is like,
I want to be Joe Rogan. And I said this before,
nobody wanted to be Joe Rogan fucking 25 years
ago. They didn't want to put the work in. They
want to see the accolades, the fortune you've
built. They see that part, but nobody sees the
hard work. Even with Kill Tony, the fact that
during the pandemic, when he could have let the
whole platform just fall apart, like we don't
know when we're going to do it. He dug deeper.
and figure out a way I'm just going to continue
to do it. Nobody ever respects the journey. And
if you think about it, Joe, and you probably
the same way, most successful people, and I know
some very, very wealthy people, right? And when
they talk about their career or whatever, they
hardly ever talk about the yacht. They never
talk about the fucking mansion they got in Paris.
You know what they talk about? It was just me
and my wife, and we drove a Toyota. you know,
Toyota Corolla, and we was like, we was down
to our last 10 bucks, and she did this. That's
the most interesting part of the story for most
successful people, and people don't understand
that. Right, they only think about where you
got to, and I want to get to there, too. They
want to skip everything. I hear people right
now, I want to be like, stand up. I'm like, all
right, well, no, when I was doing HBO's The Wire,
right, this guy I knew, I grew up with, he was
like, this motherfucker said, yo, D, What's the
number to the wire? I want to call him. I want
to be on the wire. Like there's a wire. Hey,
is this David Simon? Yeah. I could be Omar. And
guess what? If I knew the number to the wire,
I'm not giving it to you. I'm not giving it to
you. I want you to get that busy signal. That's
what it is. Nobody ever wants. They respect the
grind, and everybody wants the rewards of the
grind. But it's not everybody. It's just people
that are missing it. They're not getting what
it's all about. Kill Tony is a great example
of that. I was there in the early days of Kill
Tony. When Tony started out in 2013, there was
no one in the crowd. There was no one there.
It was a small show. You'd have a few comedians.
I was doing it back before I was back at the
comedy store, but I was still banned. So I was
doing it from the ice house. And he didn't do
it thinking it was going to be the number one
show in the world and he was going to be on Netflix.
And he did it because it was fun to do. And he
loved it. And he wanted to do a great job. And
he wanted to make it better every week. And he
kept doing it and kept getting better at it.
It's the same thing with this podcast. This podcast
didn't make money for years. It didn't make any
money for years. It cost money. But the most
successful people are the ones, like even when
I first started doing comedy, right? I never,
do you have some comedians that go out there
like, I want to do comedy, I want to get the
money, I want to get pussy off of it, right?
When I first started, I never, the only thing
I wanted to do, Joe, I wanted to be good. I was
like this, if I'm good, all those other things
that are rewards of that, they will happen. But
I had to be good first. And here's the thing
that I think, especially when you have these
like social media communities or whatever, the
thing that the interesting thing about it, it's
kind of hard to tell somebody to work on their
craft when they're getting all the perks of what
the craft can present them at an early. Early
stage. It's hard to tell somebody that's only
been doing it for two years just making $50 ,000
or $100 ,000 a month off of monetizing something.
They're like, you need to get better. Hello?
Well, they don't have to. Do whatever the fuck
you want to do. If you just want to do that,
do that. And also, some of them are going to
figure it out anyway. Some of them are going
to figure out, I'm not getting better. I'll get
better. Work harder at it. Right. There's going
to be people that don't figure things out no
matter what you do in this life. There's going
to be a bunch of people that have a distorted
perception of what success is all about and what
you really want. It's always going to be that.
This is an interesting question. What is your
definition of success? Happiness. Happiness in
doing something that you enjoy doing. It's something
that's challenging. So what is your definition
of happiness? Friendship, love, doing something
I enjoy doing, doing it well. doing it better
all the time, getting better at it, you know,
and struggle. You're always going to have some
kind of a struggle. And that struggle, hopefully,
is you trying to be better at the thing that
you're doing. You? What gives you? This is an
interesting question. What gives you the incentive
to always continue to want to perform? What gives
you incentive to always want to do Joe Rogan
and Friends when you could just sit back and
fucking just do everything? Because it's fun.
It's fun. It's, first of all, the Green Room
on Tuesday and Wednesday nights at the Mothership.
Some of the funniest times I've ever had in my
fucking life. It's so fun. We have so much fun
there. There's Ron White there and Shane Gillis
and Tony. It's fun. I mean, it's community. It
sounds like you're trying to get me to change
my flight. We enjoy our times. Would you want
to come on? I got to come to Tuesday. What are
you doing tomorrow? Come on. What do you got
going on tomorrow? Are you headed back to Ohio?
No, I'm going to L .A. Do you have a show? I
got a son. Oh, okay. Well, that's different.
That's more important. But I can just give him
some Roblox money. He'll be all right. He'll
be like, yo, I'll give you some Roblox money.
He'll be cool. Let me tell you, I might, because,
Cam, I wish I would have even thought about it
before. But I might, because. I haven't had that
experience. Oh, calm down then, if you can. If
your son's cool with it, do it. If not, there's
always another time. I can brag to him. And this
is another thing about me being an older dad.
Like, my son is really at age, he could be my
grandson. I don't have time to do all those instilled
vials and morals and shit. I'm like this, will
Candy shut this motherfucker up? Yo, I'm like,
yo, let's go to McDonald's or whatever. But,
yeah, I'm going to say I would definitely consider
that. Consider it. Yeah. But that's what I like.
I mean, I'm just enjoying my life and I like
to do things that I find that are interesting
and challenging. And I like to have conversations
with interesting people. And I like the fact
that people enjoy it still. You know, when I
first met you, you know, and I already knew that
you had the ultimate platform, right? And I never,
this is me, and I don't know if this is what
happened, but I was like, I never want to be
like, hey, Joe Rogan, I'm Donnie Ronson, so -and
-so. And the only respect I ever wanted to get
from my peers and people that were doing it was
like, from the stage you know I always like I
was like if we ever make the connection I wanted
to be off of yo this motherfucker is funny first
not just like hey you know I rock with Dave and
I think that was what happened I used to spend
time and I never even to this day I don't you
know I just look at like I just want people you
can respect me as a man and respect my character
whatever but At the end of the day, what I love
to do the most is stand up. I want you to be
like, yo, this motherfucker puts the work in
and then we can build. Everything off of that.
That's the respect I want. I want the respect
from what I put in, the work I put in. If people
can acknowledge that, then that's what builds
my relationship with you. It's built my relationships
with all of these guys. Bird, all of these people
that I fuck with now, it ain't because anything
other than, like, yo, he's a dope comic, and
then you can find out that I'm a good dude after
that. Yeah, it's that, and then after that, it's
got to be like, are you cool? Right. Is he fun
to hang out with? Right. Yeah. Barry Kess said
that one time. He said that in one of his podcasts.
It's one of the things that separate like who
goes on the road or so -and -so is if you're
a good hang. Yeah. Oh, my God. That's everything.
I don't know how many people quote Barry Kess,
but I want to share this story. You might be
the only one. You're probably the only one. But
you said something earlier about. Undeniable,
right? Yeah. I remember when I first moved from
D .C. and I moved up to New York, I was doing
the Chitlin circuit, the black circuit. I was
popular in the black community, whatever. I was
like, I don't think this is going to be enough.
I want to do the mainstream stuff. I want to
do these other things, right? And Barry Katz,
Dave used to host this comedy night at this place
called El Flamingos in D .C., in New York. And
Barry Katz saw me there one day. He was like,
I don't think I've ever seen. a comedian that
go in front of an audience that were ready to
rip someone's head off and you could hear silence.
You know, that's the control I had with the audience.
So we built sort of a respect for each other.
And I remember one time I was at the Comedy Cellar
and he was there. And I knew that he was, back
then, whatever you want to say about him, nobody
had a roster bigger than Barry Katz. Back then
in like 97 or whatever, he had everybody. The
list goes on and on. And I knew he was a fan
of mine. And I said, Barry, man, I'm trying to
work these clubs, these mainstream clubs, but
I'm having a hard time getting past these clubs.
I was like, could you make a phone call or whatever
for me? And he looked at me. He said, Donnell.
He said. This is what you do. I'll probably do
the worst. Everybody does a better Barry Ketchum.
You're going to do Barry like this. Yes. Okay,
I'll try to get it. He was like, this is what
you do. And slow it down. He said, Donnell, just
rip. Right, he said. Yeah, be undeniable. That's
what he said. He said, just be. He said, I'm
not talking. And I tell, this is advice I give
people. They say, well, I need so -and -so. I
was like, I'm not talking about have one good
set and you have four bad sets. I'm talking about
the consistency where every time somebody sees
you go on that stage, you blowing the roof off.
And once you do that, if the managers are going
to come to you, they're going to hear about it.
That's one of the things that a lot of people
try to skip. They're like, oh, how was your set?
It was okay, but I can't talk to you. Unless
you just straight just destroying shit everywhere,
then you got other shit to work on. Yeah, and
there's also a lot of people that are very delusional
about how well they're doing because they want
so much. They want it all to be about them. So
they think they should have already had this.
They should have already had that. Why don't
I have a sitcom? Why don't I have a this? Why
don't I have a that? And I always said this is
another thing. Even with these lineups, you do
these shows, whatever. Always say that you have
time to have a defining moment. If you're in
a room, right, and for some reason the room is
on fire, the club is on fire, everybody is ripping,
you probably won't stand out as much as that
night when everybody was bombing. You've seen
rooms where everybody come back and say that
crowd was weird, but then you got one motherfucker
back there like this, I don't give a fuck what
y 'all doing. I'm going to elevate this. Those
are the times when you got to fucking stand up.
Yeah, but we used to see that all the time at
the store, like late night at the store in particular,
where like, you know, because the way the store
works, the show starts at 8 p .m. and it goes
on until 2 a .m. And there's a lot of people
that get there at 8 a .m. that are like, you
know, tourists that are in town. And they sit
there for the whole fucking show. They came to
see the comedy store. Yeah. So by the time. 12,
30 rolls around. Fuck, they've seen everything.
And so you get this low period, and then someone
will go up and just tear that fucking place apart
for 50 people. I was so naive when I first started
that we used to have open mics, right? And the
open mic list would be like 25 people, right?
They fucking, the guy that was running it, they
hated me so much because I used to talk shit
in the audience and everything. And they would
keep bumping me down, right? And my dumb ass
never got mad, right? I was like this, yeah,
they want me to headline, right? 25 comedians.
I took that, I was like, yeah, except I didn't
think about audience fatigue or anything. Oh,
boy. I just was like, yeah. And it would be,
but I'm telling you, I think that was one of
the things that made me strong. 100%. I was like,
I'm going to do what the next person. There's
one story. If you ask Dave Chappelle one of the
dopest sets he's ever seen, I just happened to
be a part of that. It was at the Hollywood Bowl
years ago, about three years ago, right? Is that
when he got attacked? No, that wasn't that. It
was like the year before. You know Jeff Will's
Live Nation, right? Sure. Shout out to Jeff.
Shout out to Jeff. We're doing. a show you know
hollywood bowls 18 000 people right so show starts
at seven o 'clock right jeff comes up to me he
was like donnie i got some good news and bad
news he said what he said we're gonna start on
time it's only but 700 people out there right
now you imagine what several hundred people look
like in front of a 18 000 place right he said
there's only 700 people out there he said well
i can let you start now or we can wait 10 minutes
i was like jeff it's not like 17 ,000 people
going to show up in 10 minutes. I said, give
me the mic now. Big ass stage. I jump off the
stage, right? Dave and all these people in the
green room. I jump off the stage. I go into the
audience. I'm literally going to each person
in the theater. And I'll get you a picture. You
can answer this. I'm going to each person. Why
didn't they wait for the people to show up and
sit down? That's what I wanted to say, but they
were just like, the show has to continue. I don't
allow that. I never allow that. I'll tell you
another story. They've tried to do that before
with me, and they say, we're going to have to
pay more money if the show goes over. I go, then
the show goes over and we pay more money. Get
the fuck out of here. But for me, it was a moment
because any other comedian, not any other, most
people are like this, oh, there's nobody out
there. So many excuses. I jumped off stage. I
was like, no, I can't be up here. Look like I'm
about to be auctioned off. I go in the audience.
I'm going to each joint, right? And I'm fucking
killing. It's 700 people in front of 18 ,000.
That's a great way to start a show. But listen,
and I'm like this. And here's the fucked up thing
about this. Nobody's going to know about it because
your fucking phones are locked up, right? Yo,
it was a moment. Dave, Dave, everybody from the
Green Room came out. Right. And Dave told me
to this day, he said, if I was doing a class
on stand up comedy, he said, I would use this
as an example of like owning up to it. And it
was so crazy, man. It was like and it was just
it was great. I remember another time I was working
with I think I was working with you. It was me,
you, and Dave. And I think it was a time we was
doing an outdoor theater. And it was supposed
to be a break. It was supposed to be me. It was
supposed to be, I think, you, Tony, or whatever,
something. Then it was a break. And then it was
going to be me and Dave. But it was still daytime,
right? Where was this? I can't remember the place.
It was still there. Jeff, he came up to me. I
was like, I already know. I'm going to have to
go in there. And I literally had to perform until
it started getting dark. Oh, I remember this
show. And I was saying to myself, I was like,
ain't no way. I was like this, ain't no way they
giving Rogan. And it wasn't a shitty audience.
People just hadn't come yet. Right. I was like,
I knew. I was going to even suggest. I was like,
nah, we had these two halves, right? And there
was another example of, okay, you got to do what
you got to do. And I had to go up there. It wasn't
the spot that I expected or whatever, but I was
like this, you know, for the sake of the show.
And I'm always like, what do we need to do to
support this? And we had to bring it down. We
had to buy some more time. And then by the time
you got on stage. Everybody was seated. It was
dark. It was dark. That was outside of San Francisco.
I can't remember. That was California. That shit
was fun. But I tell people all the time that
I do slight mental. I was like, man, it's certain
times where you got to do what the next person.
It's not going to do. You can't bitch about shit.
And at the end of the day, you got to be a fuck.
I know when I used to do these shows with Dave,
I used to fucking get the shittiest time. Like,
we're at 30 % capacity. I'm like, man, half of
these motherfuckers not even going to see me.
But I looked at it like this. Well, the people
that's going to see me, they're going to remember
it, you know? And you just got to keep on going.
That's a good attitude. Yep. Yeah, that's healthy.
See, I feel like this. Very productive. This
conversation is going to bode well with my mental
health. Yeah, I think so, too. Everything except
the lies you told about Jamie. You know what
I'm going to do? I'm going to start taking fucking
videos. I wish I would have had it. Yeah, I wish
you did, too. And the thing about it was. You
would see, like, oh, man, you didn't even have
a leather jacket on. And he wasn't even talking
to me. He was talking to me like, what is it?
I walked up to you and you didn't even know who
I was at first. Guess why? Why didn't I know?
I never knew. I was like, who is this fake -ass,
Jamie -ass motherfucker? It was almost like,
remember when Family Battles, Urkel, and then
Stefan? It was two characters. They had the geeky
Urkel, and then his alter ego, whatever, he was
just this cool ass. He was the same person. Whatever
happened to that dude? Urkel? Yeah. Oh, he's
been around. What's that? Is he? He was, and
his weed is really good. He's got a weed? Urkel
Purple? It's the best. He got this joint he wrote,
and it's like some type of Italian noodle, the
spiral noodle. He used that as a filter. But
also, I spent a lot of time with him because
he would come out to the cornfields or whatever,
so I've been seeing him. He's got a talk show.
Didn't he get jacked? Isn't he like, is that
him? Julio White? Yeah. I heard Urkel got in
great shape. Yeah, but he's a good guy, man.
But he's another one of those celebrities that
I know that want to do comedy but don't have
the heart to do it. Always. He said, no, no,
no, don't do that. But he's a great guy. It's
hard to start out already famous. That's one
of the things that I really respected about Charlie.
Charlie was already famous when he was starting
comedy. Do you know who started Charlie? Who?
Me. Did you? And this is how it happened. When
we were doing the Chappelle show. And it's safe
to say, like, nobody was really making money.
You know in a contract, in your contract, if
your show just blows up, you got to stick to
whatever you was getting for the contract. Right.
So we weren't making a lot of money doing the
show. But I was like, we're too popular right
now. And at that time, it was me and Charlie.
It was Dave, me, and Charlie, like the biggest
names on the show. So this was Mike Berkowitz,
who's head of William & Morris right now, right?
He was a young agent at the time, right? He was
coming up. And I was like, I told Jason, my manager
at the time, Jason Steinberg. I said, man, we
got to do a tour or something. I was like, yo,
everybody's talking about I'm Rich Bitch. I was
like, let's do I'm Rich Bitch tour, right? He
was like, it's a good idea. I said, me and Charlie
can do it. At the time, that was only a two -man
show. Charlie didn't have no time or anything.
And I was like, you know what? I want to do it.
Because it was my idea. I said, I want to do
me, Charlie. I said, we need another comedian.
At the time, Bill Burr was not making a lot of
money doing stand -up. And I'm not disrespecting
him, but everybody knew he was going to blow.
But that was early on in the career. Bill had
to do was have a situation like he had in Philly.
Everybody knew he was going to blow. So I said,
why don't we do a tour? Me, Charlie, and Bill
Bird. That shit would be hot. Charlie had never
did stand -up. And I used to, he used to always
crack jokes and shit. I was like, yeah, you talk
a lot of shit. But once that microphone, your
ass, you a bitch -ass motherfucker. So Charlie
was a guy like, don't threaten him with anything,
right? So this is when they had the Laugh Factory
in New York, in Times Square, right? One of my
friends was doing a show there. I was like, Charlie,
yo, we're going to do this. tour, you got to
at least have 10 minutes. He could have, at that
time, Charlie was so hot, people would have just
yelled out, Charlie Murphy! For five minutes.
He was the emcee. We just needed his face to
be there. And this was, it would be Charlie,
Charlie, Bill Burr, and myself. And Charlie had
no jokes, right? And like you said, I was like,
maybe, I don't know if you guys understand how
it is to be selling out as an open miker. Crazy.
And he had to get his voice. And I was like,
why did he never do this? Part of it was because
he probably never wanted to be compared to his
brother. He never wanted to be able to like,
that's his brother. And he had his own style
or whatever. So we did this fucking tour for
like a year. And then I saw him start to grow.
Sometimes he took some hits, but he became Charlie
Murphy. He became like, I'm not my brother. I'm
a storyteller. He stuck to that shit. And one
of the things that I would say that I really
appreciate about what the Chappelle show gave
to Charlie Murphy, when Charlie Murphy passed
away, Joe, nobody said Eddie Murphy's brother
died. They said Charlie Murphy passed away. So
that show didn't do it. And when I tell you one
of the most stand -up, original guys, all of
those stories, like, was it true? It was, he
told, that was just part of the story. Me, Dave,
me, Charlie, and Bill built a relationship. We
did something that was spectacular. But Bill
Burr used to fuck with us. And I'm going to tell
you one of the things he would do. We would be
on the road, and all we used to do was argue
and fight and just fuck with each other one time.
And Bill Burr, he did some fucking, I don't want
to call this racist or whatever, but whatever.
It was very Bostonian. Okay. But when he did,
I didn't know two years later, Bill Burr, when
we meet up, he would buy a fucking like 12 piece
of Popeye's chicken, right? And he knew me and
Charlie would devour that chicken and we would
be in a sleep coma right the next 15 minutes.
And it was almost like he gave us sleeping pills
and shit. He would get us a chicken, we'd be
knocked out, and then he'd just go and just laugh
at us and shit. But that time, that was such
a great time because you saw people's careers
being born. Like Bill was already on a trajectory.
to be great. You know what I'm saying? But at
that time, and this is when I say, the stories
that you remember, I'm pretty sure Bill still
remembers. This was the first time that he was
making regular good money every week. You know
how it is for being a fucking headliner that's
doing $800. Or they give you a deal, $2 ,000.
And then you get a $500 bonus when you sell or
give away 300 tickets. And you're not working
every weekend. And you're not working every weekend.
And then you got club bonus. Like, your bonus
is supposed to be at 300. And they'd be like,
couldn't give you that bonus. You was at 298.
You know, I'd be like, motherfucker, I could
have bought those. And they lied, too. They lied
to it. They lie about how many tickets you sold.
They lied to it. And then they wonder why when
guys become big and everything, they don't want
to come back. Because I remember that. Oh, I
remember that. There's a couple club owners that
they can go eat shit. And I tell people all the
time, when everybody talk about this, I was like,
yo, try this. Try doing a fucking tour for a
year and a half, and every night you had to come
behind Bill Burr. I had no days off. And I knew
when I had a day off, I wasn't hitting on all
cylinders, because that's when they used to have
comment cards, right? The comic was like, I don't
know why the white boy didn't go last. But that
always kept me in shape. You know what I'm saying?
It's like this. You don't got no time to play
around. Because Bill was one of those comics.
Bill would come. Bill did the mainstream shit.
And he was one of the only white dudes who would
do the fucking most grimiest spots ever. And
I'm pretty sure he's always going to be a great
comic. But I think that that helped build his
character. I think that was probably what made
him be in a position where he'd go to Philly
like, yo, fuck y 'all. I just did Donnell's fucking
hood club in Brooklyn. If I can handle that,
I can handle that. Well, that rant in Philly
was because he was doing the Opie and Anthony
tour. So when Opie and Anthony, their crowd were
brutal. Their crowds were fucking brutal. They
was Kill Tonys before Kill Tonys. Way worse.
Way worse. had sort of fed into that crowd. They
fostered that crowd. They called them the pests.
But then, even going back to what I was saying,
in this career, sometimes you have situations
that have a defining moment. And that was one
of those things. I'm pretty sure everybody went
on before Bill was throwing a towel and he was
like, fuck that. What happened was, Dom Herrera
went on. And you know, Dom Herrera's a legend.
How's he doing, man? He's hurting. Yeah, he's
got, he's hurting. He's got whatever that neurological
condition is. It's not good. I mean, I don't
want to speak out of turn about his health, but
it's not good. But Dom, they booed Dom. They
were just rough. They wanted you to fail. And
Bill went up and go, fuck you. And he just went
into this crazy rant. You know who else had a
moment like that? Who? Bernie Mac. Did he? Oh,
on Def Jam. I ain't afraid of you motherfuckers.
You know how that was born? Why? first off Martin
Lawrence was the host and that night everybody
was taking licks right and there was another
it was a comment from DC named Butch Burns right
he was very popular in DC Butch Burns went on
stage and bombed so bad motherfuckers throwing
shit there was nothing that Martin could do.
You know how sometimes you try and you're like,
just whoop, you're on your own. It's like whoop
-de -doo. So Butch Burns had bombed. The room
was going crazy. Martin could do anything. Next
on deck was fucking Bernie Mac. Bernie Mac saw
Butch Burns on the way out, and he told him,
he was like, listen, man, hold your head up,
man. He said, the sun might not shine on your
day, but you'll have another opportunity to shine.
And the reason, he didn't plan on, I ain't scared
of you motherfuckers. And then... Bernie had
a situation to go through because Bernie was
on Def Jam before. He dressed in a suit and everything.
He was looking like a Chicago player, but he
didn't think that he connected with a young audience
like that. So you even watch the way he was dressed
from the previous show to the next one. The next
one, he had more of a hip outfit, had graffiti
on the jeans. He was dressed up for that part
of it. No idea. I ain't scared of you motherfuckers.
He did have the energy that he was going to do,
the connection he was going to have with the
DJ, right? But what made it so explosive, is
that he said, fuck y 'all. He said he did his
joke and didn't, that's why you hear like, why
was he saying I ain't scared of you motherfuckers?
It was because of the other shit. He said, I
ain't scared of you motherfuckers. Kick it! Boom,
boom, boom. But he say, what he say, and it was
such the most simple stock jokes. Bernie was
so powerful. So powerful. So powerful. The rhythm
that he had and the fact that you knew that something
was special would happen, that's why that fucking
audience looked, was so fucking charged up because
he said, fuck y 'all. I saw Bernie live once
at the Comedy Connection at Faneuil Hall in Boston.
I remember that club. He was on fire. He was
so powerful. First time I saw him at Comedy Connection
at Greenbelt, I used to do this club, and it
was a couple of people that would come through,
and I was like, these motherfuckers are the next
level. It was him. Another person that was like
that was George Wallace. Oh, yeah. You know another
person that was like that? Rich Voss. Oh, yeah.
Yo, George Wallace. First off, I knew George
Wallace was the next level. I've never seen anybody
go to the comedy club, and the deal he had was
100 % of the door. Everything. You just get your
drinks, your chicken wings, 100 % door. They
had to give it to him. Wow. And George Wallace,
he was old. George Wallace always been an older
dude, right? Somebody said, you know his thing
is your mama jokes, right? Somebody had did a
mama joke and motherfucking George Wallace ripped
off about 30 mama jokes. I felt so bad for him.
And then Rich Voss fucking, Rich Voss fucked
me up because I'd never seen a white comedian
perform at his club. It was a black club. Rich
Voss came in here. He had a ponytail similar
to Jamie's, right? He had jerry curls. No, Rich
Voss had a ponytail. The same one that Jamie
was wearing, right? It was Rich Voss's, right?
And I saw Rich Voss go up there and destroy this
crowd. I was like, this white dude don't know
what's going on. And he fucking killed that shit.
You know, we talk about joke stealing, right?
I've never, I stole one joke. in my life, and
I apologize to Ridge Falls. I was doing a show,
and none of my jokes worked. I tried, yo, I tried
everything. I tried everything, and I said to
myself, what joke have you heard? I didn't mean
to steal, right? I borrowed it, okay? I said,
what one joke you know that fucking will... Kill
this audience. And Rich Voss used to have this
joke. He said, you know what they say, once you
go black, you never go back. He said, yeah, because
your father won't let you back in the house,
right? I stole that joke. I got him laughing.
I got him back on track. And then I had to call
Voss. I said, man, I'm so sorry, bro. I said,
it's going to get back to you, but I stole the
joke. And he was like, no problem with it. Well,
at least you admitted it. Yeah, I did. All right.
I think we accomplished a lot. This was therapy
for me. I think it was good for you. Stay out
of the comments. I'm going to stay out of the
comments. Remember that podcast we did with Reza?
No, don't do that. They still talk shit to me.
I grabbed you at the end of the podcast and said,
that was great. Don't read the comments. Exactly.
That was a long time ago. I've been giving you
that advice for a long time. You did tell me
don't. But the part of that story people don't
know is that. I did my podcast early. I hadn't
seen my son in like two and a half weeks. I was
on the road. And I came straight there, straight
to the podcast to do it, right? And then I was
like, you was like, yo, you want to hang out?
This is what people don't know. This is the side
you don't tell them. You invited me. You invited
me. I did invite you. You did invite me. I thought
it would be fun. You said the RZA is going to
come, right? Well, we were having a good time.
We did a podcast together. We were hanging out.
And I said, are you going anywhere? I'm doing
a podcast with RZA next. You want to hop on?
I thought it would be fun. I thought it would
be fun. It was. It was fun. I would like to tell
my side of the story. We already did. We've talked
this. We've done this many times. I think like
every other podcast we do, you tell your side
of the story. I'm never going to say this again,
Joe. I was going to leave. And I was like, man,
fuck Wu -Tang, man. I'm going to see my son.
Right? And I'm leaving out. And as soon as I
get ready to get in my car, the RZA comes out.
And this motherfucker said, what's up, Ashy Larry?
And I said, fuck my son. I'm fucking with the
Wu -Tang, right? And I didn't. But it was a good
time. It was fun. But what people don't understand
is before we did that. RZA said, yo, yo, bong,
bong, bong. I got this idea, right? I said, what?
He said, I'm going to do these jokes. They're
going to be. He was trying to pitch jokes. He
was on jokes. And I was like, please don't do
that. I was like, please don't do that. And we
sat down. And of course, it went. I had a good
time. But people's like, you just ruined it.
You ruined it. For RZA, you just ruined it. But
shout out to RZA. It was fun. It was a good time.
It was fun. And thanks for whenever I call you,
let me. I can't even tell people anything other
than, yes, I'm on tour. Go to donairrollins .com,
get tour dates. All right. And here's my shit.
A joke could be too soon, but it never could
be too soon for a funny observation. And that's
what you're going to get when you come to my
show. All right. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you,
brother. I'm taking this gum with me. Jamie,
stay sexy, son. Stay sexy. Bye, everybody.