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May 13, 2021 - The Joe Rogan Experience
02:49:13
Joe Rogan Experience #1651 - Joe List
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joe list
01:09:49
j
joe rogan
01:34:54
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j
jamie vernon
01:40
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Speaker Time Text
unidentified
The Joe Rogan Experience.
joe rogan
Train by day.
unidentified
Joe Rogan Podcast by night.
All day.
joe rogan
Up and at him.
joe list
Hello, Joe List.
Is this it?
joe rogan
This is it.
This is it.
So what happens?
You got accosted last night?
joe list
Oh, we're in it.
This is just going.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe list
Yeah, so good to be here.
Thanks for having me.
joe rogan
Good to have you.
Good to have you.
joe list
Yeah, so we're here.
joe rogan
Do you need booze?
joe list
No, I don't drink, but I appreciate the offer.
joe rogan
Do you want heroin?
joe list
Heroin was good, yeah.
I'm still doing heroin.
joe rogan
That's always like the hackiest joke.
I don't drink, but I want to buy heroin.
It's like you always go, like if someone says they don't drink, you go with something way more preposterous than drinking.
Like, oh, I'm sober.
joe list
Right.
The other one is, ah, quitter.
Crack.
Well, people say quitter.
That's like a big one to do.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's a big one.
joe list
But no, I appreciate the offer, though.
I mean, this cigar I might enjoy.
joe rogan
Want a cigar?
joe list
Sure, maybe.
unidentified
I've got cigars.
joe list
Yeah.
I'm on an empty stomach, so it might make me more jittery than I already am.
We'll give it a few minutes.
joe rogan
Settle in.
No, you're not.
You're fine.
joe list
Well, wait till I tell this story.
joe rogan
Okay.
joe list
So yeah, we're here in Austin, and I got a ride, a Lyft, To the hotel.
I'm staying downtown.
And we were coming up 6th Street, which I don't know if you've been down there.
It's changed a bit.
It's kind of overrun with street folk, homeless people.
Yes.
joe rogan
There's quite a few of the...
They call them unhoused.
That's the new, more politically correct term.
joe list
Sure.
I thought street people was good, but maybe that's bad.
joe rogan
I think street people's...
I don't think they like that.
I don't know if there's like a homeless board to talk about the vernacular that they appreciate.
joe list
Yeah, all right.
Well, unhoused people that seem, you know, unwell, and they're kind of everywhere, which evidently they just passed a law, but it hasn't been enforced.
joe rogan
Well, the law is only about camping.
joe list
Okay.
Okay.
joe rogan
I mean, you can't stop people from walking around.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
So there's always going to be an issue.
And one of the clubs downtown is Vulcan Gas Company.
And that place is right catty corner to a homeless shelter.
So they're all over the place in that area.
joe list
That's where I think I was.
On 7th, right?
Is that 7th Street?
joe rogan
I think Vulcan is on 6th.
The shelter's on 7th?
Yeah, I think you're right.
It's in that area.
joe list
So we drove down the street and the guy was kind of saying, yeah, they've taken over, it's crazy, it's scary, be careful, whatever.
joe rogan
The Lyft driver?
joe list
Yeah.
So I'm like, well, he was like a driver driver.
So I'm already in my head.
And then...
I asked the lady, I was like, is it safe walking around here now?
It feels like it's changed a bit.
And she was like, just avoid 6th Street.
And I was like, alright, got it.
And then I was like, I'm gonna go to the creek, do a spot, texted Rebecca, and it's like an 8 minute walk.
So I was like, I'll walk there.
Now I'm a huge...
Pussy, anxiety, the whole thing.
Although I have been doing mixed martial arts, but we can get to that later.
So I was walking up the street, and I'm like, all right, so far, so good.
And then I started to get closer, and I saw these two guys walking towards me, and they seemed like ne'er-do-wells.
Just, you know, by the way they were presenting themselves.
And then there was a guy on a bicycle, like a BMX-style bike, who kind of was with them and then rode ahead and kind of did like a loop behind me.
So then I was like, all right, this feels unsafe.
So I kind of just moved to the street, like off the sidewalk, but still right next to the sidewalk.
And then the two guys, as they passed, were like, look at this motherfucker, this racist-ass motherfucker moving into the street, this white guy this.
And it seemed...
joe rogan
You were racist because you moved into the street?
joe list
I think because I moved into the street, but that's not what I was...
I wasn't like, oh, here come black guys, let me move on.
But they were walking up the sidewalk, so I just was moving, so I didn't have like a...
joe rogan
A moment where you had to zig or zag, move left or right.
joe list
Exactly.
So I stepped off the sidewalk, and he kind of called that out, and then as we passed each other, I could still hear him kind of like mumbling.
They seemed like they were fucked up, but...
So they were still kind of mumbling, and then I came to the intersection, which is where I guess that homeless shelter is, and there was like 40 homeless people, not like sleeping in tents on the sidewalk, but like fighting, yelling, bottle smashing.
And I was just like, I don't feel like walking through that.
That doesn't seem great.
So then I looked to the right with 6th Street where the lady was like, yeah, stay off of 6th Street.
And then this is all in front of an empty parking lot.
So there's just nobody around.
It's dark.
And I'm like, if I go left, I'm going up.
Dark street sidewalk.
So then I was like, I'll cross 7th back over there and just start walking back to my hotel so I don't have to walk through whatever this scene is.
And then as I was walking back that way, they were a little ways ahead of me, and for whatever reason, they decided to cross back across the street.
And so we just met right there.
And then the guy's like, you wouldn't be following us, would you?
And I was like, no, no, I'm just lost.
And I kind of did like a, I don't want anything to do with you guys.
And then the guy got like right up Into my face and was like, you better be fucking lost.
Why don't you get lost?
Whatever else.
I was in like panic mode so I couldn't.
And then there was one of those like scooters, you know those rental scooters that are everywhere?
And he just gave that like a hard kick and did like this thing and we were kind of like manager and an umpire just like right there.
And I went, no, no, I'm getting out of here and I just kind of walked around and then swallowed all pride and just went full run.
joe rogan
That's a good move.
joe list
Alright, thanks.
I thought you were going to call me a cunt.
joe rogan
I appreciate it.
I might have done the same thing.
joe list
Well, I mean, again, it's like...
joe rogan
It's a good move, man.
You don't want to get into an altercation if you can avoid it.
If you can avoid it by running, like the swallow the pride thing, what are you going to do?
Just get attacked?
Or what are you going to do?
Fight?
If you can not fight by running, you should definitely run.
You talk to any martial arts instructor, they will always tell you that.
If you can get away...
A smart one will tell you to get away.
A dumb one will say, first of all, you've got to kick him in the knee.
Then you've got to fucking poke him in the eye like the Three Stooges.
You know, get the fuck out of there, man.
Get out of there.
joe list
Yeah, so I've done a little bit of MMA training the last couple of years, and that's the basic idea.
Obviously, at whatever level, if you want to say level, the idea is to use whatever skills to get out of harm's way.
I'm not looking to inflict damage on people.
joe rogan
Sometimes it's just people just want to fuck with you.
So these guys probably just wanted to fuck with you and make you feel uncomfortable and make you scared.
Because if they wanted to do something, they probably would have done something, right?
joe list
Yeah, that's how I felt.
And I also, I literally consciously thought, me running gives them what they want.
They get a nice, like, that's right, bitch, and I'm fine with that.
jamie vernon
Right.
joe list
39 years old.
I'm not looking to prove anything to anybody.
And then Rebecca was like, texted, who runs the creek, and was like, I can send security.
And I was like, I'll take it as a sign.
I'll see you tomorrow night.
jamie vernon
I'll take a lift.
joe rogan
They have solid security at the creek, though.
They have some big-ass giant dudes.
joe list
Oh, really?
joe rogan
Yeah, some solid dudes.
joe list
Oh, good to know.
Well, tonight I'm going to take a lift.
I'm good with walking.
But it was scary, but I felt good because...
joe rogan
I'll come get you tonight.
I'll pick you up.
joe list
I'll take it.
joe rogan
We'll talk.
joe list
I appreciate it.
unidentified
Well...
joe list
I felt good, because when I got back, I didn't sit there going, you're a pussy, you piece of shit, nor was I panicking.
I was just like, alright, that was crazy.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's not good.
You're always better off just swallowing pride.
It's hard to do, but it's so important.
How many times have you seen YouTube videos where people get in fights and they don't even know how to fight?
All the time.
What is that?
Did you see that there's a new video of a lady cop beating the shit out of a bunch of people in a bar?
This lady cop, roundhouse kicks this guy and then this lady punches her from the side and she fucking lines up like a karate punch and straight blasts her in the face.
The lady's at the bar all fucked up, but it's crazy.
It's like she's got her hair in a ponytail and shit and she's out there doing karate on people.
joe list
Well, I mean, I've said this for years.
It's so scary with people...
You can't just get in fights with people because now so many people train in mixed martial arts and all this shit, including myself, but I suck and I'm a cunt.
joe rogan
Way more people than ever before.
joe list
Yeah, so it's like I've met people, there's comics that I know that just look like nerdy guys and they're like jujitsu blue belts or brown, whatever.
Whatever belt.
And you're like, that's a guy I would just be like, ah, shut up, you pussy, or whatever.
And then next thing you know, you're getting choked to death.
joe rogan
Well, that's what's interesting about jujitsu.
It's like some of the very best guys are what my friend Eddie Bravo calls nerd assassins.
They're just like people that are really into technique.
And like jujitsu is in a lot of ways like a crazy game that you learn.
And people that would be into other games get into jujitsu.
And then they wind up having to use their body as like a game piece.
Right.
But they have the same sort of mentality as someone who's like really in a Starcraft or something like that.
Or maybe in a chess or – Legitimately, some of Eddie's best students are these guys that are like very unassuming looking.
joe list
Yeah, that's what I'm trying to be.
I want to be that guy.
unidentified
You can be that guy.
joe list
I want a guy that looks, I look like this.
I mean, this is like a joke in my act, but I'm like, I want to look like this, but be one of those people that can kill you.
joe rogan
There's a lot of guys that look like you, they're built like you, that are fucking assassins.
unidentified
Right.
joe rogan
Like, no bullshit.
joe list
Yeah, Chris Gethard is a comedian.
Do you know Chris Gethard?
joe rogan
Yeah, I do.
Where do I know him from?
Is he a New York guy?
joe list
Yeah, he's a New York guy.
I think he was an improv guy and sketch guy.
He had a show.
I think it was called The Chris Gethard Show.
He's like a brilliant improv comic.
But he just looks like kind of an unassuming, sort of nerdy guy.
But he's a jujitsu guy.
I don't know what level of jujitsu, but a high up.
And I was talking to the guy that trains me, who's also a comic, this guy Diego Lopez.
And I talked to Chris, and I was like, so you could kick some ass?
And he's like, well, I feel comfortable that I could handle myself in a situation.
And then this guy, Diego, was like, he's being modest.
That guy will fucking kill you.
Which I was like, oh man, that's all I want in my life.
joe rogan
You could get there.
joe list
But it's hard because, you know, I feel old and...
joe rogan
Well, you know, you've just got to train smart and you'll have to do some lifting weights.
But yeah, it has to be something you're obsessed with.
If you're really going to get really good at it, it has to be something that you're like, I'm going to train three to four days a week.
I'm going to do this.
I'm going to lift weights.
I'm going to train.
I'm going to really get into this.
I'm going to get good at it.
See, I see you already.
You're like, ooh.
joe list
Well, that's the thing.
Well, it's funny because I'm a pretty good athlete.
I played baseball and track and basketball and stuff.
And I say this to this guy, Diego, who trains me.
I'm like, there's times where he's just beating the fuck out of me.
Because we do standing striking and all this stuff.
And after a while, you have that ego of like, God!
And I'm like, let's play baseball.
Let's fucking go play basketball.
I'll, you know, whatever.
And he's like, this isn't like a sport.
It's not like you throw a uniform on and then...
You learn the rules.
This is like a survival serious thing.
joe rogan
It is in a way, yeah, but it is also a sport.
It's like if you can move your body well, you can do martial arts.
If you're a good football player...
There's a lot of guys who come over from football.
Like Greg Hardy, he's one of the heavyweight contenders in the UFC. Started out as an NFL player.
Eric Anders, same thing.
There's a few guys like that that are really good athletes that start off in other sports and then they make their way into MMA. Well, I was a cross-country star in high school, so I think that might kind of translate into...
joe list
I'm kidding.
joe rogan
Well, cross-country develop a lot of endurance.
joe list
Yeah, I mean, I have that going, I guess.
I have endurance, but no, it's fine.
But the thing is, too, there's times where I'm doing it and I'm like, man, I love this.
This is great.
But then I'm like, what am I doing?
I'm not this guy.
As I'm getting choked out or punched in the face, I'm like, I fucking hate this.
joe rogan
Yeah, I'm just checking this dude's name because I think I fucked his name up.
I think that it's one of those things where if you learn how to do anything with your body, whether it's yoga...
We got a lot of guys that got into jiu-jitsu that are really good from breakdancing.
joe list
Oh, wow.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe list
Similar kind of thing, I guess.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah, they started out breakdancing, and when you're doing breakdancing, think about gymnastics.
Think about the guys who do the rings, right?
They're like the most jacked guys of all time, right?
They have fucking massive arms, and they're mostly just manipulating their body with their shoulders and their biceps and all that stuff.
I don't think those guys lift weights, right?
Do they?
joe list
I don't know.
I have no idea, but it seems like they're just doing natural pull-ups and shit.
joe rogan
If you could get a guy from, like, the rings, like a guy who does that kind of shit, and then teach him how to strangle people, like, look at these motherfuckers.
Look at the strength on that guy.
jamie vernon
That's the world record.
I don't know exactly what for, but...
unidentified
Oh, for the Iron Cross, what he's doing here.
jamie vernon
Holding himself up.
joe list
I like that he's got his own band.
That's pretty fun.
So this is like the world record for just doing that.
jamie vernon
With your arms out like that, I guess?
joe list
That's impressive.
joe rogan
Yeah.
joe list
Yeah, I wouldn't want to fight him.
joe rogan
You don't want none of that.
joe list
No, I don't.
I could have used him last night.
That is the outfit I was wearing, though, which might have been why they were picking on me.
joe rogan
It's a good look for you.
I like the feet.
It goes all the way to the feet, like there's no socks.
Do you slip right into those?
Is that how it works?
joe list
Absolutely.
joe rogan
Like feeties?
Like feetie pajamas?
jamie vernon
There's no zipper.
joe list
So what is the record?
How long was the...
jamie vernon
That was like 30 seconds.
I don't know.
It doesn't say.
It just says world record.
joe rogan
Yeah, what is the world record for standing like that?
joe list
It didn't seem that long, but that's like...
jamie vernon
22 point...
Previous record was 22.9.
joe rogan
Seconds?
unidentified
No, I guess it was close to 30. You ever just try to hang from a chin-up bar?
joe list
Yes.
joe rogan
It's fucking hard.
joe list
Yeah, it is.
joe rogan
After like 30 seconds, you're like, oh shit, this is a task.
joe list
Yeah, no, I can't do anything like that.
I suck.
joe rogan
But it's a good thing to do.
If you want to learn how to just tolerate.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
Just hanging from a chin-up bar, because you can always do a couple extra seconds until your hands fail.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
You're like, I want to quit now, but I don't.
Five more seconds.
All right, I did that.
Five more seconds.
All right, I did that.
Five more seconds.
joe list
Right.
That's why I like doing...
What is this guy?
jamie vernon
39 seconds.
joe rogan
Oh, my God.
jamie vernon
He beat the guy we just had up.
joe rogan
I think the key would be if you had small legs, right?
If you were a guy who's in the rings, if you're doing the rings, well, actually, you've got to land on those legs.
What am I talking about?
jamie vernon
No weight, I think, is the right.
It would be as light as possible.
joe rogan
Right.
But you have to have muscle, so you can't be too light.
jamie vernon
His arms are huge.
joe list
But you ever see those Cirque du Soleil guys?
They do that shit where they hold out from here.
They're horizontal, just holding with their arms.
It doesn't even make sense.
joe rogan
If you ever want to feel like a bitch, go watch Cirque du Soleil.
Those guys have preposterous strength.
joe list
Yeah, it doesn't make any sense.
joe rogan
Holding someone with one arm above your head, perfectly balanced.
joe list
Yeah, no, it's goofy.
But not all that entertaining to me.
jamie vernon
You don't like it?
joe rogan
Did you ever see Love?
The Love One?
It's all Beatles songs at MGM? No.
Mirage.
joe list
No.
I never saw it.
joe rogan
It's amazing.
joe list
Maybe I should go.
I'm being an asshole.
I've never actually seen it.
joe rogan
It's easy to be an asshole.
We're comics.
joe list
That's a good point.
He's trying to be funny.
Some of them hold a stand on their head, too.
Like, just their head, no arms, which is also insane.
joe rogan
That's not good for you.
joe list
No, I don't think...
joe rogan
I'll tell you right now, the discs do not enjoy that.
joe list
No, I don't think any of that's...
joe rogan
We're asking for late life trouble.
joe list
Yeah, I think all of that.
But I feel that way.
I worry about that with...
Oh, here they are.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Love is amazing because...
Are you a Beatles fan?
joe list
I am.
joe rogan
Yeah, I love the Beatles.
And this is all Beatles songs.
And you...
The last time I went, I was barbecued.
And when you are there in this sort of very surreal, fantastic theater environment with sounds and lights and everything, and you see the athleticism that these people have, and then you hear the amazing songs, you kind of forget how good Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is.
You forget how good some of their fucking songs are, and then you see it with this.
It's a perfect complement.
It's incredibly well orchestrated and designed.
It's great.
I love it.
I've been to it twice with my family.
joe list
Oh, wow.
Yeah, it looks cool.
I'll check it out.
joe rogan
It's really good.
joe list
I'm sorry I shit on Cirque du Soleil.
I'm a dick.
joe rogan
Well, this is the best one that I've seen.
I've seen a few of them.
I've seen three?
Yeah.
I've seen three Cirque du Soleil shows.
I've seen Mystere.
I think that's one that I saw.
There's another one I think they used to have at Mandalay Bay.
I don't know if they have it anymore, but I believe it was a Cirque du Soleil with Michael Jackson music.
joe list
Oh, fun.
Can they do that still?
joe rogan
It's an odd one, yeah, right?
Like, you kind of can.
Like, Michael Jackson is the only, because, I guess, because he died without being convicted?
joe list
Yeah, he still plays at Starbucks.
Like, I go into Starbucks, and I'm like, I think this guy, like, came on children's asses, and it's just playing.
joe rogan
Maybe not, though.
joe list
Sure, yeah.
Maybe, maybe not.
joe rogan
I think he was a castrato.
What's that mean?
It's a person who was castrated to preserve their voice.
That's what his doctor said, and it was actually a theory that I had before his doctor said it.
His doctor who went to jail for giving him propofol, did I say it?
joe list
I think so.
joe rogan
He gave him, you know, anesthesia, knocked him out every night because he was so neurotic and crazy that he couldn't sleep.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
And so he would anesthetize him every night.
That same doctor went to jail for that, and then when he came out, he gave this sort of like detailed story.
About how his father had chemically castrated him when he was young to preserve his voice.
It sounds crazy, but first of all, this guy's a doctor saying this.
He doesn't have anything to gain or lose.
And then you look at his body in comparison to his brothers.
Like if you look at like Tito and Jermaine, they're men.
They're like these thick, they look like thick Right.
Right?
And he's super slender, with no muscle mass at all.
Just very sleek, and his voice is really high-pitched, and his singing voice is incredible, right?
But it's very high-pitched.
And there's these people that existed in...
I mean, I don't know when it started, but there's one recording.
It's a historical fact that That there's these people called castratas or castratos.
Castratis?
Castratis, I guess?
And they would take young kids and castrate them when they were young so that they never developed any testosterone.
And because of that, they maintain the singing voice.
And it's a haunting singing voice.
There's only there's at least one that's available on YouTube that you could listen to and you hear the guy sing and you're like oh my god like this was someone who didn't make this choice for himself someone whoever it was gave him off to whoever who castrated him as a young boy before his testosterone hit and he's got this strange voice and this voice was something that they cultivated And that they would specifically choose boys who
sang to never become men.
joe list
And what period of time is this?
Is this like the 70s or like...
joe rogan
Well, they have a recording.
So this recording has to...
I don't think there was any recordings until...
jamie vernon
1700s or so.
joe rogan
Right.
Well, they did it in the 1700s, but the recording...
When was...
jamie vernon
The recording wouldn't be from the 1700s.
joe rogan
Right.
When was the recording invented?
Like, when did they invent records?
Let's take a guess.
When do you think they invented records?
joe list
Oh boy.
joe rogan
I want to say it was like 1800s, like late 1800s.
joe list
Yeah, that sounds right.
I mean, is the radio before recordings?
Or is that a recorder?
I don't know.
I'm an idiot.
I look like a guy that knows things and is smart, but I'm pretty dumb.
joe rogan
I think, if I had to guess, that the record player was first and the radio was second.
joe list
That makes sense.
All right, I'm going to say 18...
I'm trying to think of, like, Westerns.
You never see it when I'm listening to records in Westerns.
joe rogan
Well, you remember those record players they used to have where they put the needle down and it was like a giant tuba?
There wasn't a speaker?
joe list
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
Like, the sound came out of the needle itself?
joe list
Yes.
joe rogan
It was like a tuba attached to the needle?
jamie vernon
I kind of know some of it, so I don't want to look it up and cheat.
But before records, they had that Edison tube, remember?
Which is a video they got dropping it, the first viral video.
So that would have been late 1800s.
I don't believe there was much recording of Civil War speeches, so I don't think they had the ability to do it back then.
joe rogan
Right.
Right, right.
Recording people talking.
That's a different animal, right?
Like recording, like maybe music was the first thing?
jamie vernon
I'm going to say 1893. 1877, the first practical sound recording and reproduction, because you also have to be able to play it back.
joe rogan
See if they can find a video of the first ever recording.
Wow, look at that.
jamie vernon
I don't know.
joe rogan
So that's the guy talking.
Go back to that.
It's a Native American guy telling his story into a fucking tuba thing.
joe list
The village people were the first ever record.
joe rogan
Maybe he was culturally appropriating.
Hmm...
What is that guy doing?
That's a breathalyzer.
That's a hammer.
jamie vernon
Alexander Graham Bell's phone, maybe?
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
joe list
Then the phonograph.
jamie vernon
Yeah.
So there's Edison, I think.
joe rogan
Oh, wow.
jamie vernon
A lot of weird devices to get it.
joe rogan
Let's go to video.
Let's go to video.
Let's see what is the sound, like the first ever recorded sound.
See if it's like first ever recording.
First ever audio recording.
Okay.
That's good enough.
Listen to that.
Let's listen.
First recorded sound.
Ooh, here we go.
American scientists have discovered an audio recording dating to April 1860, 17 years before Thomas Edison invented the phonogram.
jamie vernon
What the fuck was it?
joe list
Oh, interesting.
joe rogan
Let's hear it.
It's something.
Listen It's aliens That's the shit that Jodie Foster was listening to in Contact.
joe list
It sounds like it could be a castrated person.
joe rogan
No, now you can hear the castrato.
Because the castrato is a very haunting sound.
joe list
So is castrato, do they cut your dick and balls off?
joe rogan
I think they just cut your balls off.
joe list
Okay.
That's not so bad.
joe rogan
I guess.
Yeah, here we go.
Bro.
joe list
So that's a grown man?
joe rogan
That's a grown man.
Yeah, the guy's name was Alessandro Moreci.
joe list
I feel like you might be able to pull that off with a pair of balls, though.
joe rogan
Maybe you could.
joe list
I mean, like, I can get pretty high.
I got testicles.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, that guy didn't.
Reassessing.
Why are they reassessing him?
But he was one of the last castratos that we know of.
But, again, that was what the doctor said about Michael Jackson.
If you listen to some of Michael Jackson's music, I mean, the songs, the pitch that he hit, a man in his 30s, right?
Like, how is he singing like that?
I mean, maybe he could just sort of falsetto it, because a lot of people could do that, but it doesn't seem like that's the case.
And he does seem so different than his brothers.
joe list
Yeah, I mean, I'll buy it, sure.
I'll go for it.
So you're saying that because of this, there's no way he came on children?
joe rogan
I did not say that.
joe list
That's what I thought you were implying.
joe rogan
I did not say that.
I said, maybe he didn't.
joe list
I got you.
joe rogan
Because if that was the case, then he probably couldn't.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
Because his body didn't produce sperm.
joe list
But didn't he have a kid?
Or did he not have a kid?
unidentified
No.
No, no, no.
joe list
I don't know that much about Michael Jackson.
joe rogan
He had children, but I do believe they were either adopted or something.
They don't look anything like him.
They're white kids.
joe list
Gotcha.
I gotta do more MJ research, I think.
joe rogan
It's a weird one, man, because he was the first guy we saw go insane with fame.
joe list
Yes.
joe rogan
Right?
joe list
Yeah, I guess I'm trying to think.
I mean, Marilyn Monroe died and shit, but she didn't look like a completely different human being.
joe rogan
She got killed by the Kennedys, let's be honest.
joe list
Oh, is that right?
I'm learning so much here, and I appreciate it.
joe rogan
I think she was a blabbermouth, and I think they had decided enough was enough.
joe list
Alright.
joe rogan
I'm just...
Throwing that out there.
joe list
I can't tell when you're serious or not, but I'm very susceptible to theory.
I'm like, all right, sure.
joe rogan
I think that was the theory, though, about Marilyn Monroe is that someone whacked her.
joe list
I think she fucked both brothers, right?
joe rogan
That's the problem.
joe list
Yeah.
joe rogan
And then as she's getting older, she's like, hmm, I need to write a book.
And they're like, really?
joe list
I mean, that's fair.
I'll take it.
joe rogan
I don't know.
jamie vernon
Pills, right?
Was the story she died?
joe rogan
What is the story?
joe list
Drug overdose.
joe rogan
I'm totally not accusing anybody of doing something, because I don't fucking know, and she easily could have overdosed.
When people are taking pills, they overdose all the time.
It's a comment.
joe list
Yeah, absolutely.
joe rogan
What's his name?
Famous actor.
joe list
Heath Ledger.
joe rogan
Heath Ledger, yeah.
Perfect example.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
Yeah.
joe list
Yeah, the thing about pills is I think you can take the same amount you took the night before, but your body just reacts differently the next night.
That's what I've heard.
joe rogan
Maybe.
And also, it's like your liver could be failing you.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
You could be doing it a lot and your liver's like, check please.
joe list
Yeah.
joe rogan
I don't know.
What is it?
Philip Thomas, what is his name?
joe list
Philip Seymour Hoffman?
joe rogan
Philip Seymour Hoffman.
He was another one, right?
Didn't he die from, or he died from heroin, I think.
joe list
I think it was heroin.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe list
I got a funny Philip Seymour Hoffman story.
I saw him in the East Village.
This is like years, like 03. I was going to the New York Film Academy because I wanted to be an actor for a minute.
And I saw him at a bar or a restaurant and I was hammered and I walked up to him and he was like with this woman and I just walked up and I said, the only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone when you're uncool, which is a line from Almost Famous.
And then he looked at me and went, Yeah.
And you could tell he just wasn't half in it.
And so I felt awkward because somehow I thought he was going to be like, oh my god, that fucking movie, amazing, sit down.
joe rogan
Come sit down.
joe list
Yeah, so he just didn't react.
And then I went, I'm friends with Patrice O'Neill, which is a lie.
I never even met Patrice.
And then he said, I don't know who that is.
And I said, oh, he's in 25th Hour with you.
And I don't even think they have dialogue.
And he went, nah, cool, man.
And then I stood there for like a beat and went, all right.
And then I just walked away back to my table.
And it was humiliating.
joe rogan
Meeting famous people so awkward.
joe list
Oh, it was brutal.
I really thought, I mean, I was 21 and drunk and thought, man, when I say this line, he's going to like, shit, this is going to be something.
joe rogan
Because you wanted to be an actor, so you probably delivered it with like...
joe list
That might have been the end of my experience of like, that's no good, I can't do that.
It was bad.
joe rogan
What kind of acting did you want to do?
joe list
I guess, I mean, I still like the idea of doing like, I was always obsessed with movies and wanted to, I really wanted to be a filmmaker.
I wanted to be like Martin Scorsese or Woody Allen professionally.
joe rogan
We were talking today, or yesterday rather, with Russell Peters about when was the last time you saw a good comedy movie and can you make a good comedy movie anymore?
Or have they made it so dangerous in terms of being cancelled that comedy movies are no longer something you can do?
joe list
There's a movie called, I think it's called The Overnighters.
I might need to double check on that.
The guy, I think his name's Adam Scott.
Is that a guy?
A comic actor?
And then, who's the guy from Rushmore?
Who's great?
Jason Schwartzman.
It's Jason Schwartzman and Adam Scott.
I think it's called The Overnighters, and it's fucking hilarious.
joe rogan
And how long ago did it come out?
joe list
I might need a check on that, too.
Maybe five years ago?
joe rogan
Yeah, that's about the cutoff.
joe list
It's a really, like, low-budget, all-in-one-place movie, and it's, like, hysterical, I think.
joe rogan
I would wonder, like, what is the cutoff in terms of, like, when was the last time a really good...
The Overnight.
The Overnight.
unidentified
Is that it?
joe rogan
2015. Yeah.
Like, when was the last time there was, like, an edgy comedy?
joe list
This one's not edgy, but...
joe rogan
But it's good.
joe list
I mean, I guess there's some...
It depends on what...
Edgy means so many different things to different people, but it's really fucking funny.
joe rogan
You know what I watched the other day?
Superbad.
joe list
Yeah, that's cool.
joe rogan
Holy shit.
You could never make that movie today.
joe list
It's amazing how many things just a few years later.
I mean, the new Borat I thought was pretty funny.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, that...
But that's a weird one, right?
Like, he figured out a loophole.
You're kind of doing parody, and you're doing this thing where you're freaking people out, like when she has her period at the dance-off.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
You know, like, there's things that he could get away with in that.
It's a beautiful genre in that regard, right?
You could do stuff in a kind of parody movie that you can't do in a regular movie.
joe list
Yes.
But don't you find there's never been, maybe I'm wrong, I feel like, maybe I'm such a comedy cunt that I'm like, don't you feel like there's never been a ton of great comedy films?
I feel like there's like a few a decade.
joe rogan
It's hard to do a movie.
I watched Step Brothers the other night.
It's another movie you could never do today.
I think it's hard to do those.
Judd Apatow is really good at making those kind of movies, or was really good.
I don't know if he's made one of those kind of movies in a while.
Those, like, really ridiculous, over-the-top movies.
But the language and the subject matter.
It's like the stuff that they talk about and say to each other.
I just don't think you can do that today.
Or if you did do that, you would face a tremendous amount of criticism.
Even though most people agree.
Like, if you try to watch Step Brother today...
Fucking rock-solid funny movie man really funny right I was crying like crying laughing there's some really funny moments in that movie We like I forgot how good this is when he rubs his balls over the dudes drum set right like there's so many of these moments where you're like this is So crazy.
joe list
But it feels like now people are getting more comedy from podcasts and stand-up than movies because it's making, like I watched the Oscars and they didn't even make a joke.
There was like zero jokes because everybody's so afraid to be funny.
joe rogan
Who hosted the Oscars this year?
joe list
I think there was no host.
It was just like, we just bring people up.
I mean, they weren't even, like, attempting to do jokes.
The only jokes were the voiceover lady that says, like, stay tuned, coming up, Brad Pitt.
I swear to God, Brad Pitt's coming.
That was, like, the only attempt at humor.
It was, like, really...
joe rogan
Well, when Kevin Hart didn't do it because they wanted him to apologize for jokes that were homophobic for many years ago, and he said, look, I'm not going to do this.
I've already apologized for those jokes.
I evolved.
I grew.
I'm not the same person anymore, and that's fine.
I don't need to do it.
And then they didn't have a host that year, I believe, and I think that's it.
I don't think they've had a host since then.
Right?
joe list
I don't know.
You might be right about that.
I know the one year they had two, it was James Franco and Anne Hathaway hosted it.
unidentified
Oh, okay.
joe list
Because they went non-comics.
But it does feel like right now, it's like rude to even try to be funny on that high level.
joe rogan
Yeah.
joe list
It's very bizarre.
I was listening to a podcast the other day that I love that's sort of like a mental health podcast.
And this lady was telling the host, who's like a straight white guy, he was like, I'm learning about privilege.
And he was saying, even my self-deprecating humor is a little bit offensive because it's my privilege to do self-deprecating humor because as a straight white male, people assume I'm joking.
But other people couldn't make such jokes because of whatever history.
And they were literally discussing earnestly how straight white men shouldn't really try to be funny.
joe rogan
Was that guy at Castrato?
joe list
It felt a little Castrato-y.
I mean, it was just a really bizarre conversation.
joe rogan
You can never be woke enough.
That's the problem.
It keeps going.
It keeps going further and further and further down the line.
And if you get to the point where you capitulate, where you agree to all these demands, it will eventually get to straight white men are not allowed to talk.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
Because it's your privilege to express yourself when other people of color have been silenced throughout history.
It will be, you're not allowed to go outside because so many people were imprisoned for so many years.
I mean, I'm not joking.
joe list
No, I know, I know.
joe rogan
It really will get there.
It's that crazy.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
We just got to be nice to each other, man.
And there's a lot of people that are taking advantage of this weirdness in our culture, and then that becomes their thing.
Their thing is calling people out for their privilege, calling people out for their position.
You know, it's fucking crazy times.
joe list
Yeah, most definitely.
But I do feel like there's more...
It feels like I hear more people sort of speaking out against that kind of stuff than I hear from people saying that's a good idea.
Like, I think there's way more people that are like, what?
That's insane.
joe rogan
Well, especially in our circles.
joe list
True.
Yeah, maybe I'm in a bubble.
I don't know.
joe rogan
Yeah, I mean, we're definitely in a comedy bubble.
I mean, this is what we do.
We talk shit.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
You know, when you talk shit and you see something stupid like that, like, as a straight white man, I shouldn't be self-deprecating.
Like, bitch, what the fuck is wrong with you?
joe list
Yeah, I mean, I'm in a lot of trouble if we can't do that.
joe rogan
Yeah, we're humans.
If you're a human being, you should be able to express yourself.
You shouldn't have to take into account all the other people that are either not heard or not expressing themselves currently or not in the same whatever category.
You're like, come on, man.
We can't do that.
What you're doing is you're forcing yourself to think differently.
Double and triple about every single fucking thing you say and whether or not you have the right to say it.
Whether or not you have the right to express yourself.
joe list
Yeah, and then nobody's having fun.
That doesn't seem like a fun way to live at all.
joe rogan
It's a terrible way to live.
It's a terrible way to live.
joe list
That being said, I'm terrified and I want to scrub everything I've said already.
I mean, the village people sang.
I thought that was pretty good.
joe rogan
It's fun to stay at the YMCA. But you can't do that.
Like the village people, if the guy who played the American Indian was an American Indian, he'd be fucked now.
They'd cancel him.
joe list
Right.
I think it's Native American.
I mean, that's a little fucked up that you just said American Indian.
joe rogan
They call themselves American Indians sometimes.
It's really different.
Well, it's like the term Eskimo.
Some people tell you the term Eskimo is offensive, but then in some parts of the world, some parts of this, I think in Alaska, they actually call themselves Eskimos.
And they prefer to be called...
I might be fucking this up, but some places it's Inuit.
And then in Canada, they don't call themselves Indians.
They call themselves First Nation.
joe list
Ah.
joe rogan
It's different up there.
And they have all these...
It's very strange.
They have all these different rules for First Nation people when it comes to wildlife resources.
You can catch as many fish as you want.
You could shoot a moose with a flashlight.
You could just get a...
Really?
You could get a floodlight.
joe list
Oh, like a flashlight on a gun.
joe rogan
You put a floodlight so the moose is frozen and doesn't know what to do and then you blast them at night.
You can hunt at night time.
You have no rules and you can hunt them all year round.
They can always take from the land whatever they want.
joe list
That seems fair, I guess.
Or is that not fair?
I don't know.
joe rogan
Well, it depends upon the access to resources.
What is the moose population like?
Are they decimating the population with these practices?
What are they doing with the meat?
If they can shoot as many moose as they want, are they shooting three, four, five moose a night and giving them out to friends?
How are they managing the resources?
There's a reason why in most of these places I can speak about North America because I have more understanding of it.
Wildlife biologists will take a survey of the animals.
They do it a bunch of different ways.
They'll do it with helicopters, they'll fly over with planes, and they'll get a...
Assessment of like, say of like mountain goats.
Like, okay, we counted 200 mountain goats in this particular mountain range and we've decided that we can give out 10 tags with an estimate of a 50% success rate, which is usually pretty high.
So if we lose five animals, they're going to have a bunch of babies, and some of those babies will be gone.
We'll maintain a healthy population.
And this is how wildlife biologists estimate how many animals can be removed from a specific population while keeping it healthy.
So I don't know how they do it in Canada.
I assume they probably do it the same way.
If they do do that, so you have one rule for everybody else, and then you have another rule for the First Nation people.
The First Nation people, like, we went walleye fishing.
When you go walleye fishing, you can only keep one walleye per day, unless you're First Nation people.
So we were sitting on this pier.
We're standing on this pier and we're catching fish next to these other folks.
They just kept catching them.
They catch walleyes and just kept keeping them.
When we caught one walleye, we were done.
And then you could only keep northern pike after that, but they could keep whatever they want.
joe list
Interesting.
Now, can you pretend to be Native American?
I mean, you could pass, right?
I mean, do you have to have a card?
How does it work?
Do your face have to be painted?
joe rogan
I think you probably have some sort of First Nation ID or something like that, if I had to guess.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
I'm guessing.
joe list
I mean, that's kind of funny, too.
You just got to be like, I'm cool.
joe rogan
I mean, if you have an ID that says you live in South Dakota.
joe list
I guess so.
joe rogan
You know, it's...
I mean, that's like the Indian reservation thing here in North America, right?
Or in the United States.
They can open up casinos.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
And if you're in some of these places where they have casinos, you get a check if you are a certain percentage of the tribe.
Say if you're like one-eighth, or I don't know what the number is, but one percentage, Apache or what have you.
Tribal identification cards are issued by tribes as proof of your enrollment and membership in a tribe.
Federally recognized tribal-issued ID card is also a valid form of government-issued photo identification in many places.
This is Canada or is this America?
jamie vernon
This is America.
I first typed in First Nation, and I was only getting Canada, so I typed in Native American.
joe rogan
Okay, so this is for tribes.
And then a lot of the tribes, like, they don't even want to recognize that there is a Canada or a United States.
Like, some of the Lakota tribes, they went up to Canada to avoid being captured by the federal government when they were, like, when they were rounding up tribes and putting them in reservations.
They went up to Canada for a while, but they were freezing to death, and they came back.
There was, like, a...
I forget which book it is.
It might be Black Elk Speaks.
It's one of the books on Native Americans that I've read that describes this journey where they had gone up to Canada to try to avoid being...
In their lifetime, it went from this way of life where you're Roaming the plains, hunting and fishing and living off the land to all of a sudden the white man shows up and by the time you're an old man, your whole village is now locked up in a reservation and you're forced to go to schools and they cut your hair and it's like...
Dark shit, man.
Like, huge destruction of their identity and their, you know, the way they felt about each other's self-esteem.
And they talk about all these problems that these Native American tribes went through with their, like, massive substance abuse because of severe depression, because their way of life had been taken from them.
That's also the origin of the Ghost Dance.
The Ghost Dance was a dance that they did where they were trying to summon something to kill off the white people.
Because these people were destroying their way of life and they felt like if they just called upon whatever they were trying to summon, they could do something to bring back their way of life.
joe list
Is that recent?
joe rogan
Yeah, the ghost dance was at the end of the 17th century, so it was like the late 1800s they were doing that.
joe list
Oh, okay.
I was thinking this was like 90s.
joe rogan
No, no, no.
You're thinking of Madonna.
It's voguing.
You're thinking of voguing.
joe list
So is it fair then that they can get some extra fish because of all this, or at some point we should be like, all right, we had enough fish?
joe rogan
I don't know if fair is a good word, but it is fucked up beyond belief.
If you go and go to a Native American reservation, you see the bleak poverty and the amount of people that are addicted to drugs and alcohol and how sad and depressed it is.
There's some great books that people have written about life on the reservation.
It's horrific stuff, man.
joe list
Have you read that?
I know you're big into this stuff.
Have you read the, what's it called?
Flowers of the Moon?
What's that one?
joe rogan
Empire of the Summer Moon?
Is that the one?
joe list
Maybe.
Maybe I'm confusing too.
I thought Flowers is in there.
Martin Scorsese is making a movie with Leo DiCaprio.
joe rogan
Oh, okay.
joe list
Killers of the Flower Moon.
Did you read that one?
joe rogan
No.
What's that one about?
Oh, I got that.
That's FBI, right?
You think the FBI murdered these people?
Because, yes, somebody sent me this.
joe list
They just released the first image of the film, and DiCaprio looks old.
It was a big thing on Twitter or whatever.
joe rogan
Let's go to the summary of that down there.
Yeah, go to Wikipedia.
The Osage Murders, The Birth of the FBI is the third nonfiction book by the American journalist David Gran.
Click on that Wikipedia thing so you can get the story behind it.
There is a synopsis.
The book investigates a series of murders of wealthy Osage people that took place in Osage County, Oklahoma in the early 1920s after big oil deposits were discovered beneath their land.
That's right.
After the Osage were awarded rights and courts to the profits made from oil deposits found on their land, the Osage people prepare for receiving the wealth to which they are legally entitled from sales of their oil deposits.
However, a long and complex process of custodianship is imposed upon the distribution of the process from the sales being made for very high profits and very few, if any, Osage people see any of this money.
Still, the legal owners of the land for profit, which is in...
What is it saying?
The elements hostile to the Osage people then decide that they could greatly simplify their profit-mongering of the oil profits by eliminating those who they consider to be operating as the middleman before they can abscond with the oil profits.
The Osage are viewed as the middleman and a complex plot is hatched to put into place to eliminate the Osage people Inheriting this wealth from oil profits on a one-by-one basis by any means possible.
Officially, the count of the murdered, full-blood, wealthy Osage reaches at least 20. But Grand suspects that hundreds more may have been killed because of their ties to oil.
Wow.
And this is the birth of the FBI, right?
Is that part of this whole fucking crazy story?
Goddamn, man.
Heavy.
joe list
I assume Bill Hale will be DiCaprio, maybe?
joe rogan
William King Hale, or Bill Hale, was an American cattleman and convicted murderer.
Hale was a prominent figure on the Osage Indian Reservation in what was then the Indian Territory where he built the noted Hale Ranch and made a fortune raising cattle.
Ugh.
Those are dark days, man.
joe list
I'm excited about the movie, though.
Those will be bright days ahead.
DiCaprio as Bill Hale.
I mean, that's exciting, right?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe list
See, there it is.
joe rogan
Martin Scorsese's a bad motherfucker.
Has he made a bad movie?
I didn't see The Irishman.
Did you?
joe list
I love The Irishman, yeah.
I wasn't thrilled about it at first, but I love it.
joe rogan
Some people were weirded out by the special effects.
joe list
Yeah, it didn't bother me at all.
No, he's like the king.
Boy, Scorsese's worst movie is a tough one.
joe rogan
What's the worst one?
joe list
I don't know.
I'm trying to think.
That's what I mean.
I guess...
I don't know.
Bringing Out the Dead?
That Nick Cage movie from the 90s, maybe?
Oh, New York, New York.
That's like a musical that he made with De Niro in the late 70s.
unidentified
Made a musical?
joe list
Yeah.
Really?
77, yeah.
It's like...
I don't know if it's...
Considered a musical, but there's like a music, De Niro's like a jazz musician, Liza Minnelli's in it.
joe rogan
Did people go nutty in the 70s?
What happened in the 70s?
joe list
What do you mean?
The 70s is like the best for arts and entertainment, don't you think?
joe rogan
It's weird.
It's great, for sure.
I mean, it's amazing for music, amazing for a lot, amazing for some cars early in the 70s.
joe list
And movies, best decade for movies.
I think the 80s is like the weirdest, cheesiest.
joe rogan
For sure.
joe list
Everyone great went a little bit shitty in the 80s, doesn't it feel like?
joe rogan
But there's a phase.
It's like 60s, 70s, and then 80s, right?
joe list
Yes.
joe rogan
It's like things got weird.
Like everything got confused.
Seems like 60s everything was like psychedelic and wild and Hendrix and Zeppelin and then the 70s it kind of got strange for a decade and still really great and great movies and great films and then towards the end of it kind of got super weird in the 80s and the 80s was like everyone was on coke.
joe list
Yes.
That's what it feels like.
I mean, but 70s, everything got sort of darker and grittier, the music and the movies, it feels like.
I mean, I wasn't around, but those are the best.
Because the movies in the 60s were still sort of in a studio, and they're bright, and they're like musical-y, and they stink.
joe rogan
Yeah, movies in the 70s were definitely better, right?
Like Dog Day Afternoon.
joe list
That's the best, yeah.
joe rogan
Oh, man, yeah.
I mean, think about all the great films.
Taxi Driver, that's 70s, right?
joe list
76, both Godfathers, Jaws, Deer Hunter.
joe rogan
Even Alien.
Alien was 79, believe it or not.
joe list
No, the 70s.
To me, 70s and 90s are sort of similar.
They feel like they're both responses to kind of like this brighter, bubblier time, and they were great for films and music, I thought.
I grew up in the 90s, so maybe I'm biased.
joe rogan
No, I think you're on.
You know what's weird is there's a lot of films from the 80s that don't hold up at all, but a lot of films from the 70s hold up.
joe list
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, Dog Day Afternoon is, I think, the most underrated movie ever.
I think it's one of the best movies ever.
It's also crazy that The Godfather won Best Picture and was the biggest movie at the box office, and it's like an arthouse movie.
It's like a...
It could be like an independent type of movie.
I know there's big stars in it, but it's like a slow movie about like a family.
It's not like, there's not an explosion.
I mean, there's an explosion, obviously.
joe rogan
Movies were slow then, right?
joe list
Yeah, it's just like, the number one box office movie now is like, you know, X-Men 9 or whatever.
joe rogan
What year was Serpico?
joe list
Serpico is, I'm gonna guess.
unidentified
I'm gonna say 78. Boy, this is tough.
joe list
Alright, I'm so good with movies and years, but that one I don't know.
I'm going to say 73. I just took a swing.
joe rogan
73?
joe list
Nailed it.
joe rogan
Bam!
Nailed it.
joe list
I'm very good with movies and years.
joe rogan
That's another great classic.
What about The Exorcist?
unidentified
I want to say The Exorcist was 78. I'm going to say 73 again on that one.
joe rogan
Go for it.
73 again!
joe list
I'm unstoppable.
joe rogan
Joe List on fire!
joe list
I got a lot of knowledge of...
joe rogan
Rocky?
I want to say Rocky 76?
joe list
I'm going to say 76 on that one as well.
joe rogan
Spirit of 76, remember?
Because Apollo Creed?
He was going to fight him.
joe list
Yeah.
joe rogan
Right?
joe list
It was New Year's Eve.
jamie vernon
I've got to say Rocky.
joe rogan
Remember?
Because Apollo Creed was like fighting the Italian stallion.
Yeah, see?
joe list
Yeah, Rocky's the best.
joe rogan
That was the 2200th anniversary of our great country.
joe list
Right.
I watched Rocky.
I had like neurovirus and I was puking and shitting like crazy in a hotel in Long Island.
joe rogan
Neurovirus?
joe list
That was like insane.
I mean, it's the sickest I've ever been.
It was like I was kicking heroin.
Like I was literally shitting and puking at the same time in the show.
joe rogan
What's a neurovirus?
joe list
I think that's what it's called, right?
Now I'm just...
jamie vernon
Norovirus?
joe list
Norovirus.
Ah, fuck.
Does that mean anything more to you?
joe rogan
Well, yeah.
Neuro is like nerves and like neurons.
unidentified
Oh, no.
joe list
Sorry.
No, I meant...
How do you say it?
jamie vernon
Noro.
Norovirus.
joe rogan
What is that shit?
Very contagious virus that causes vomiting and diarrhea.
People of all ages can get infected and sick with norovirus.
Norovirus spreads easily.
Look at the exclamation point.
What's up with that?
People with norovirus illness can shed billions of norovirus particles.
And only a few virus particles can make other people sick.
Holy shit.
joe list
I mean, I think that's what I had.
I mean, I had the puking and shitting.
I don't think I got everyone sick.
Maybe I did, and I just left a wake of death and shitting people.
But I was watching it.
I was having, like, throw up in 20-minute intervals, and I was watching Rocky, and I just started sobbing.
unidentified
I got, like, emotional, and I just lost it.
joe list
The scene where he's laying in bed with Adrian, the first movie.
I kind of hate the rest of them, but he's laying there and he's like, I just want to prove I'm not another bum from the neighborhood.
And I just started like sobbing and my wife was like, what's wrong with you?
You fucking loser.
unidentified
It's norovirus!
joe list
It's such a beautiful film.
It's amazing.
joe rogan
It's an amazing film.
I went running around the block.
unidentified
I was, how old was I? 76. I was nine years old.
joe rogan
I went running around the block when I saw that movie.
I thought I was going to be Rocky.
I'm like, I've got to go running.
I never ran.
All of a sudden, I'm running.
I was eating raw eggs and shit.
Remember everybody drank raw eggs after that film?
joe list
Yeah, that's not good for you, I don't think.
joe rogan
I don't think it's bad.
I think it depends on where you're getting the eggs.
We found out through, I think, Moby, of all people.
We were mocking him.
It turns out it was true.
How many people get salmonella every year from eggs?
We were like, shut the fuck up, Moby.
That's bullshit.
And then we Googled it, and it turns out it's quite a few.
joe list
Oh, I eat a lot of eggs.
I mean, that might have been what I had.
I did, too.
I was so sick.
It was horrendous.
joe rogan
But it was norovirus.
You can't just change your mind because of Moby.
joe list
It was bad.
I think I might have told this story last time I was here.
I was supposed to be opening for Louie.
It was the first time I ever was opening for Louie, and I got so sick, and I was texting him being like, I can still make it.
I'm puking every 20 minutes.
I can do 15. And he was like, don't come anywhere near me.
joe rogan
Yeah.
What the fuck is wrong with you?
joe list
Well, at the time, I was like, I mean, it ended up being an opportunity, but I thought, like, this is like a big moment, you know?
joe rogan
Segura got me sick like that once.
He just didn't want to not do the show.
And then I'm like, bro, I would have paid you to not get me sick.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
Like, just stay home.
Because me and Diaz, we're already there.
Like, we didn't need a third person.
You could have just stayed home.
But he just wasn't totally sure how sick he was.
joe list
Well, that's show business.
You think, like, everything.
Like, I have to do this.
This is, like, the only chance I'm ever going to have.
I had to do it.
joe rogan
Yeah, I guess.
Yeah, that was the early days when Tommy Buns was just coming up.
Now he's balling.
He moved here yesterday.
He's here now.
joe list
Oh, wow.
Does it feel good, like, your ego that all these people are following you here?
Does it kind of make you feel like something?
joe rogan
A lot of responsibility.
It feels like I'm an asshole for getting these people to follow me.
I think it's a great place to be, though.
There's a lot of clubs here now.
There's a lot of, like, places you can work here.
It's, like, legitimately a good spot to do stand-up.
And the local scene's very good.
There's a lot of good comics here.
joe list
Yeah.
Well, you've ruined it for me because my wife's family all lives here and we've always been like, maybe we should move to Austin.
It's warm.
It's a little better.
We got family.
This is how our family can be.
We can fly out.
joe rogan
Come move here.
joe list
But now if I move here, people are like, oh, he's one of these guys following Rogan.
unidentified
Come on, come on.
joe list
Stop it.
I almost got killed last night in the street.
joe rogan
You were the wrong people.
joe list
I was alone, so I guess.
joe rogan
You'll be fine.
joe list
Yeah.
No, but it's a great city and I got family here.
I love it.
joe rogan
Yeah, I love it here.
It's great.
It's quiet.
It's quiet.
It's calm.
People are cool.
They're friendly.
joe list
I had the exact opposite experience last night.
joe rogan
You were in a bad spot.
You could be in a bad spot in any city in the world.
You could be in the nicest, sweetest neighborhood.
You fucking run into the wrong folks.
You just ran into some angry homeless dudes.
But think about what they did to you as opposed to what they would do to you if you were in New York City.
Right?
If you run into angry people on the street in New York City, you probably would have got shot.
joe list
Possibly, yeah.
joe rogan
Or beat up.
joe list
It feels like they're a little more aggressive down here.
joe rogan
Just one experience?
joe list
Maybe just one experience.
I don't know.
Maybe you're right.
joe rogan
This is bias sampling.
Sampling bias.
joe list
That's what we all do, right?
joe rogan
Of course, sure.
For sure, yeah.
joe list
And maybe it was fine.
Maybe I could have just been like, ah, take it easy.
joe rogan
Yeah, maybe they just wanted to scare you.
Well, you know, it sounded like they didn't like you.
joe list
That's fair.
Maybe they saw my special and said, this guy's a fucking hack.
Fuck you, you loser.
joe rogan
Maybe they wanted to give you some material.
joe list
Yeah, no, it's fair.
Whatever.
joe rogan
It is a sketchy area, though.
That area downtown, it can get sketchy.
There's a lot of cops down there, though, and a lot of them are on horses.
joe list
Well, I imagine, the lady said the weekend when people come back, to go to the bars and stuff, it's a little...
joe rogan
When people come back, they're back.
You go to 6th Street on a Saturday night, it is mobbed.
unidentified
Oh, really?
joe rogan
It's like coronavirus doesn't exist.
joe list
Oh, nice.
joe rogan
No one's got a mask on, they're all wandering around.
There was a New York Times article that said that there's never been one single recorded case of anyone getting coronavirus from being outside.
Is that true?
joe list
Yeah, I read...
I don't know if that's true, but I think you have to be really close in making out, I think.
But there was a bit of a controversy because the CDC said under 10%, which is a little bit like saying under a million people, you know...
joe rogan
Under 10%.
joe list
Under 10% of transmissions happen outdoors, but the real number is like.01%, so it's a misleading stat to say under 10%, whereas it is under 10%, but it's under 1%.
joe rogan
Misleading CDC number.
We have a special edition of the newsletter on a misleading CDC statistic.
Yeah, that's it.
Less than 10% of COVID-19 transmissions are occurring outdoors.
Media organizations repeated this statistic and it quickly became a standard description of the frequency of outdoor transmission.
But the number is almost certainly misleading.
It appears to be based on partly on a misclassification of some COVID transmission that actually took place in enclosed spaces, as I explained below.
An even bigger issue is the extreme caution of CDC officials who picked a benchmark 10% so high that nobody could reasonably dispute it.
That benchmark seems to be a huge exaggeration.
Dr.
Look at this guy's name.
Muj Sevek.
Sevek?
A virologist at the University of St. Andrews.
In truth, the share of transmission that has occurred outdoors seems to be below 1% and maybe below 0.1%.
percent multiple epidemiologists told me the rare outdoor transmission that has happened almost all seems to have involved crowded places or close conversation saying that less than 10% of kovat transmissions occurs outdoors is akin to saying that sharks attack fewer than 20,000 swimmers a year the actual worldwide numbers around 150 it's both true and deceiving ah-ha jaws another great movie from the 70s Fuck yeah, it's a great movie.
joe list
Can I really smoke this?
unidentified
Yeah, man.
joe rogan
Come on, we got more.
Oh, all right.
joe list
Oh, you have a humidor.
Oh, nice.
Maybe I should get one from the humidor.
This feels a little...
joe rogan
It's from yesterday.
joe list
Oh, all right.
Well, now I feel like an asshole.
But yeah, it's interesting because I was just in Oregon last week hiking in Sun River and it was gorgeous and beautiful.
Mount Hood.
joe rogan
That's so white.
You're so privileged to be able to hike in Oregon.
joe list
That's right.
joe rogan
That's a white male privileged thing to do, hiking in Oregon.
joe list
No, I saw zero black people.
I was going to be like, no, no.
joe rogan
Do you know Oregon was actually developed specifically as like a white separatist state?
joe list
I did not know that.
joe rogan
If you don't know, now you know.
Yeah, that's the story of Oregon, I believe.
Is that correct, Jamie?
I might have made that up.
I might have made that up.
joe list
Well, I was out there, and then we were hiking in Mount Hood, and there was an older couple that had stopped on the mountain, and as I was passing them, the guy was like, oh, sorry.
And I was like, oh, no problem.
It's a beautiful day to be up here.
And then the lady just looked at me real angrily and put her mask on as I was passing.
And I felt bad.
I'm like, I feel like you're not...
Reading the articles like we're outside in the middle of the woods.
joe rogan
You're well Some people don't have a chance right like how many fucking articles can you read?
You know if you're out there living your life and you're working all day and you have a family and what have you like Do you really have the time to read these fucking articles and try to keep up with what's the latest?
joe list
Well, I guess, but not that specific article, but I feel like we've known for a while that outdoor transmission.
But also, you know, you're making me feel like a jerk now.
You're right.
Maybe she's a good person and she hates me.
joe rogan
So many people don't know so much about so many things that you assume they do because you do, right?
joe list
Yes, I suppose so.
I feel shamed.
You're shaming me, and I think that's part of your white privilege to shame a fellow comedian.
joe rogan
There's a lighter over there.
joe list
Yeah, I got one.
Sorry.
joe rogan
I don't mean to shame for real, I just mean shame for humor.
Humor only.
joe list
Yeah, I don't really feel ashamed either.
Do I stink?
Is this the worst episode you've ever done?
I feel like I'm eating shit.
unidentified
It's a great episode.
joe rogan
What are you talking about?
I'm enjoying the shit out of it, dude.
joe list
Listen, man.
joe rogan
I know the fact that you've got self-esteem issues, but I think you're a fucking hilarious stand-up comedian.
I think you're a great guy.
I always enjoy talking to you.
And I'm happy to pump you up and to get you over this hump.
joe list
Thank you.
What a funny time to be lighting a cigar as you're like, no, I think you're great, and I'm over here.
joe rogan
You're like, yeah, I'm the shit, bro.
My fat stogie.
joe list
I feel like I don't have a good cigar look.
I feel like a guy, when I'm smoking, people are like, look at this fucking asshole pretending to be cool.
joe rogan
Okay, well, I look like, look at that fucking asshole smoking a cigar.
joe list
You do, yeah.
joe rogan
I'm a bald, fat-headed fuck with a stupid cigar in my mouth.
Me and Bobby Kelly should be lying about things.
Sitting next to each other, smoking cigars, lying.
joe list
I love Bobby.
Bobby's a big cigar guy.
joe rogan
I know, that's why I brought him up.
joe list
The most cigars.
joe rogan
We're both fat-headed, bald guys.
joe list
Yeah.
No, Bobby's the best.
joe rogan
He's a great guy.
I love Bobby.
joe list
Bobby's a guy.
We smoke at a cigar place.
Now, Bobby's...
I don't know where you fall...
Well, you're a very big celebrity, I guess, but Bobby's a guy that doesn't mind mentioning that he's a comedian in mixed company.
I've never told anybody I'm a comedian in my life.
But we'll be at a cigar lounge and he's just talking comedy.
I'm like, people are going to overhear us.
And then guys are like, hey, I can't help but overhear.
And I'm like, oh, fuck.
Now we've got to talk comedy with these people.
joe rogan
Yeah, if people don't know what I do for a living, it's always one of them, I've got to pick a thing that I tell them.
joe list
I do that.
I always say, I was talking to Brian Regan, I'm really name dropping here, but I was hanging out with Brian Regan, and we were talking about our fake jobs on the road, and I said, I always say I'm visiting, my friend just had a baby, that's why I'm in town, if a cab driver asked me.
And it always worked, and nobody ever questioned it, but then Regan was like, what?
He's like, who gets on a plane to go visit their friend's baby?
And then Regan goes into his Regan voice, and he's like, my friend had a baby in St. Louis, and next week my friend had a baby in Kansas City.
He's done the whole thing shitting on me.
But he was telling a story where him and his brother golfed, and it was just the two of them, and they put him with another pair.
Two other guys.
joe rogan
Dennis?
The other comic?
joe list
Yeah, and their thing was they said we're painters.
That's like their thing that they always say.
joe rogan
Oh.
joe list
But golfing, it's like a four-hour day.
So people naturally start asking questions about...
joe rogan
What kind of paint you like.
joe list
Yeah, and he's like, we had not thought it through at all.
And then Regan's doing...
You can't even impersonate Regan because he's so funny that it's not worth it.
joe rogan
Yeah, paint.
joe list
He's like, you know, we use the outdoor paint.
And he's doing the whole...
And I'm like on the floor laughing.
I mean, that guy is like the funniest guy.
joe rogan
He's so funny and he's such a nice guy.
He's one of the best examples of that you do not have to swear or be dirty to be ridiculously funny.
joe list
Yeah, no.
joe rogan
Some people say, I only like guys who swear.
Go see Brian Regan.
No.
And his stuff on paper, try to take this concept and turn it into what he does.
You're not going to do it.
It's like he's got his style down, or he can kind of talk about anything.
Fuck, yeah, coffee.
I like a coffee.
And the next thing he's got to bid on coffee.
joe list
Yeah, I mean, he's like magically funny.
It's unbelievable how funny he is.
And I saw him at the best show I've seen of any kind, band or comedy, whatever.
I saw him at the Comedy Connection in Boston in Faneuil Hall on like a Sunday at like 7 o'clock.
unidentified
Wow.
joe list
This was like 15 years ago.
Wow.
I laughed so hard I had to look away.
I had to stop looking because I was feeling like sick to my stomach.
And it looked like somebody threw a hand grenade into the audience.
Like people were fucking losing their minds.
It was nuts.
It was like Def Comedy Jam.
People were like smashing the table and like getting up.
It was unbelievable.
It's like still the best show I've ever seen.
joe rogan
That's awesome.
joe list
DePaulo told a story about when he moved to New York from Boston.
He said the first comic he saw was Regan and he almost packed up and moved out.
Because he was like, I can't.
This is insane.
And somebody had to be like, no, no, that's Regan.
He's like the best guy.
And he's like, oh, okay.
joe rogan
Yeah, if you're young and you're starting out, you can see somebody and it'll really throw a fucking monkey wrench into your idea of what's funny.
joe list
Yeah, it's like, oh, this is a better class.
And someone has to be like, no, no, he's just like the best guy you're seeing.
joe rogan
What the fuck is...
I'm blanking on his last name, but he was genius.
The big pants...
We're big pants people!
Kevin...
joe list
Oh, Kevin Meaney.
joe rogan
Kevin Meaney.
I saw Kevin Meaney when I was fresh out of high school.
I saw him at Catch a Rising Star before I ever did stand-up and I remember just not understanding what was happening.
Just laughing so hard I didn't understand what he was doing.
Everything he did was funny.
Every movement was funny.
Every expression was funny.
It was me and my friend and Diane DeRosa.
Shout out to Diane DeRosa.
We're just crying laughing at this guy.
And I just remember walking out of there like I had just seen someone do magic.
I might have been like maybe 20 or something at the time.
I'm not even sure how old I was, but I remember walking out of there like I had just seen a magician, like a sorcerer.
Like, what did he do?
How did that happen?
The whole place was...
Catch Rising Star was a great club.
It was in Cambridge.
It was a classic club.
Low ceiling, maybe like 160, 180 people, maybe.
I don't remember how many people, but small, tight, packed in.
Roars!
Just roars of laughter.
joe list
Right.
Yeah, he was so funny.
We did Aruba.
There's a gig in Aruba.
And we did it together.
And offstage, he had me fucking crying laughing.
joe rogan
You guys did a gig in Aruba?
joe list
Yeah, like a week.
There's a gig down there.
Aruba Ray.
Aruba Ray's comedy.
unidentified
Really?
joe list
Ray Allen.
Do you know Ray Allen?
He's a Boston guy.
I don't know if he started in Boston, though.
joe rogan
Ray Allen.
joe list
He's been around New York forever.
joe rogan
Okay.
joe list
And he's got a gig down there.
And we were down there.
Had a great time.
joe rogan
Is it a comedy club?
joe list
Yeah, it's like a club in a hotel.
It's one of those things like you don't make money, but you stay in a five-star hotel.
It's like a vacation, and then you do 20 minutes.
joe rogan
Yeah, but what if you bomb?
And then you've got to go to the beach.
That's a bummer.
Hey, there's that guy.
We didn't listen to you.
joe list
One of my favorite comedy stories ever.
You know Tony Woods?
unidentified
Sure.
joe list
So I guess, I hope Ray doesn't mind that I'm telling his story, but it's my favorite story.
So Tony is just an amazing comic, killer comic.
unidentified
Killer.
joe list
Yeah, and big influence on Chappelle, legend.
One of those guys.
But he's late every night.
He's at the gig.
And he just keeps being late for the show.
So Ray, the next time he comes, Ray loves him.
He's like, he's the best guy.
And Usually you do like 20 minutes, but Tony's like, let me do like 45. So everyone loves it, because everyone's there trying to vacation.
So no one wants to do time, but Tony does, so they're like, perfect.
So Ray moves Tony's hotel.
He's like, I think he was like on the 8th floor.
He's got a balcony.
That's probably why he's distracted.
I'm going to move him to the room across the hall.
So he's like, that way he's not late.
So Dan Natterman's on stage.
He's like featuring and Ray, or not featuring, but whatever, going before Tony.
So Ray knocks on Tony's door and goes, hey, I just gave Natterman the light.
And Tony goes, all right, I'll jump in the shower.
He's got the two-minute light, and Tony's like, let me take a shower real quick.
joe rogan
Jesus Christ.
joe list
I'm like, that is so perfect.
joe rogan
I've never been that relaxed in my life.
joe list
That's what I'm like.
I'm like a guy that circles the block.
I get places three hours early.
joe rogan
I've been in your front bushes since 10 a.m., I have mad panics if I have to take a shit and someone's got the light and you don't know what to do.
Like, if you've got to do an hour and you have to take a shit, and then I'm giving them the light, like, oh no.
Oh no, can I hold this?
joe list
I always time my feature act to make sure I have time to shit.
Explicitly so I know if I have time to shit.
joe rogan
Do you shit when you get nervous?
joe list
Yes, I shit when I get nervous, but also I just have a bad diet.
I eat a lot of Chipotle and a lot of smoothies, and so my shits are...
Louie had that great joke, every shit I've ever taken is an emergency.
That's how I feel.
It hits me, like, hard.
And then cigars, too.
I like cigars, and I like Chipotle, and I like smoothies, and I drink a lot of tea.
So there's a lot of factors.
joe rogan
Do cigars open up your shits as well?
joe list
Oh yeah, nicotine for sure.
joe rogan
Oh, but it's a stimulant, right?
joe list
Yeah, I know people that smoke cigarettes just occasionally to take a shit.
joe rogan
Well, they do the cigarette and coffee and then they unload, right?
Release the hounds.
joe list
Yes, absolutely.
Woo!
joe rogan
The craziest shits I ever had in my life, I was on a carnivore diet for a month.
And I documented them.
Because I took pictures and I only sent them to my friends.
joe list
I did the same.
joe rogan
Literally like there's an oil leak in my toilet.
Like it was like dark, dark brown liquid that would just come flying out of my ass.
But I lost a lot of weight.
And then I told Segura about it.
And then Tom Segura got on the carnivore diet as well.
And he sent me a text.
And I'll never forget.
He goes, the diarrhea is astonishing.
joe list
It's funny you say that because Ari's a friend of yours and a good friend of mine and I send him my shits all the time and Bob Kelly I'll send my shits to.
There's certain people that it's fun and you do it and then they send me theirs and I want to throw up.
joe rogan
Do you think regular folks do that or it's only comedians?
joe list
No, and I have an anecdote about that.
My best friend is a non-comic.
He's the only non-comic friend I have, but we're close.
And I was sending him pictures of shit and his co-worker was looking and he's like, he shouldn't do that.
That's not cool.
And my friend was like, oh, it's funny.
He was like, no, dude.
He's like, that's not, that's like, you can't do that.
That's bad.
And he couldn't quite put his finger on why it's bad.
joe rogan
Because he works.
Because you have a job and you have to deal with human resources.
joe list
Well, this is a human resource.
Shit is a human resource.
But I had a similar thing where I have this acid reflux problem, probably from cigars and Chipotle and pizza and shit.
But somebody told me that, what's the diet with no carbs?
unidentified
Keto.
joe list
Someone's like, you should go keto, that'll help it.
So I went keto, but I didn't know how to do it, so I was just eating organic peanut butter, like a jar of peanut butter.
And I missed a set at the stand, and I was there.
I was like, you've got to switch with me.
I think it was Norman.
I was like, we've got to switch, because I just shit straight peanut butter for like eight minutes.
I mean, not like you shit a little and then you can't.
Like eight straight minutes of shit coming out of my ass.
joe rogan
Like a self-soft serve ice cream?
joe list
Absolutely, yeah.
It was bad.
joe rogan
Yeah, it sounds bad.
joe list
But some people don't like it.
Like, Louie's a guy that, like, he's like, if you send me a picture of shit, you won't hear from me ever again.
I don't.
He's like, do not do that.
And I'm like, but we have, like, shit humor.
We talk about shits.
He's like, yeah, it's different.
He's like, he's not even...
Like, the fun in his face goes away, and he's like, don't fucking do that.
And I'm like, oh, all right.
So some people are very serious about shit.
joe rogan
Joey Diaz used to leave them in the toilet for you.
Joey, when he was at his biggest, was...
God, he was probably...
I don't even know how much he weighed because he never really got on a scale that was like a cattle scale.
You know what I mean?
Like a regular scale taps out at like...
What did they top off at like 300-ish?
He was way over 300. He was...
Joey's a big guy anyway.
Like right now, he's thin.
He's like 280. Right.
And back in the day, he was probably 380. Easily could have been 100 pounds bigger.
But he couldn't really sit on the toilet correctly because his ass was too big.
So what he would do is he would sit like this.
He would kind of like sit where his ass was touching the back thing where the lid sits.
And then he was really shitting on the beach, not in the ocean.
unidentified
So he would leave these logs.
joe rogan
I mean, logs like my arm just laying there.
And then you would go into the bathroom to take a leak and you would lift up the thing and you'd go, oh Jesus!
And you'd hear, ha ha ha ha ha ha!
And him laughing that he left his shit behind for you.
He couldn't flush it because it wasn't in the water.
joe list
Oh, God.
joe rogan
And these giant shit logs just washed up on the shore, and you had to try to figure out a way to get them down in there while you're dry heaving.
joe list
No, that's appalling.
The leaving the shit, Ari does that too, and he's got the bloody shits, because I don't know what's wrong with him.
But he leaves bloody, and I had to be like, I don't do...
There's a lot of Ari humor that I have to be like, I don't do that.
I'm not into that.
unidentified
I don't like that.
joe rogan
Yeah, Ari's had hemorrhoids as long as I've known him.
Even when he was in high school, he used to have...
He talks about putting toilet paper in his underwear to absorb the blood...
joe list
Yes.
joe rogan
And then sometimes it would fall out.
It would stumble out if he was playing basketball, this bloody toilet paper roll out of his asshole.
joe list
Yeah, I don't like that.
Supposedly he left one in my house somewhere, and we had to have a serious talk.
And I had to be like, dude, I don't...
I don't like that thing.
Ari tries really difficult to make it to be his friend.
Like, he really makes it hard for people that are like, hey, how are you friends with that guy?
And I just go, ah, that's whatever.
joe rogan
I've been friends with Ari since he was a doorman.
joe list
Yeah.
joe rogan
I met Ari when he was a doorman at the store.
joe list
He should go back to be a doorman.
joe rogan
Just starting.
He was a young pup.
Just starting.
joe list
I just went and saw him in Ecuador when he was down there.
joe rogan
He's so crazy.
joe list
My wife and I were the only ones that visited.
It made me feel good because a lot of people said they were going to visit and you were the only ones that came.
joe rogan
Well, why did he choose Ecuador?
What was the thought process behind writing COVID out in a place where they have...
What kind of hospitals do they have down there?
joe list
I don't know.
I try not to talk to him.
I just wanted to use him for the house in Ecuador.
No, I don't know.
I think he just wanted to...
Because Ari was a little COVID crazy, so I think he wanted to get into the woods.
He was mostly in the woods, but...
When I went down there, it felt pretty safe down there, because they got hit hard early.
But when we were down there, we were out in the middle of the woods.
joe rogan
Oh, so did he do an Airbnb?
How do you do that?
joe list
Yeah, he kept doing Airbnb.
I think he might have gone broke eventually, but he kept staying in really cool Airbnbs and stuff.
So we stayed in this beautiful place.
joe rogan
So he just saved up a bunch of money and decided to spend it while he was down there.
joe list
I think so, and then he continued to do his podcast, too.
From there.
Yeah.
joe rogan
I saw pictures of you guys.
joe list
Yeah, it was unbelievable.
It was awesome.
joe rogan
He's a wild dude, Ari.
He lives his life in a very unique way because He's really free.
A lot of people try to pretend to be free, especially when they start to make some money.
Ari's legitimately free.
He thinks about making money like he's going to need some money, but he doesn't think about making money like, I want to be rich.
He doesn't think like that at all.
He just thinks, what do I want to do?
joe list
Yeah, absolutely.
It's funny because he has, you know, he does his stuff with social media trolling.
And so people have the wrong idea of Ari a lot.
They're like, this guy is just an asshole.
And I'm like, he's actually like the most thoughtful person I know.
joe rogan
He's a very nice guy.
There's a lot of our friends that are like that.
They come off the wrong way.
Whether it's on stage or whether it's on social media.
You see them in little bits and pieces.
You see them in little blips and you get an idea of what you think they are.
You've got to get to know people.
You don't know people when they're performing that much.
You kind of know them a little bit on podcasts.
If you hear Ari on podcasts, you get a better sense of who he is.
joe list
Absolutely, yeah.
No, I got the shits bad there, too.
We're going to stick with the shit theme.
So down there, you can't drink the water.
It's like, you know, it's whatever it is, the different bacteria and shit.
And so they're like, whatever you do, just don't drink the water from the faucet.
But I live in New York.
It's clean water.
And I also just have a trustee.
Maybe this is white privilege, but I just drink water out of the faucet.
joe rogan
So you drank the water down there out of the faucet?
joe list
No, so I kept...
I'm a big tea drinker, so I make a lot of tea, and I kept going to make it out of the faucet.
He's like, no, no, no.
He'd stop me and be like, you gotta make it out of the thing.
And I'm like, shit, all right.
And I'm like, what about boiling?
And they're like, it doesn't even matter.
You just gotta...
joe rogan
Really?
joe list
So we were there for like seven days or six days, and like the sixth day, I was like, hey, who wants tea?
Anybody want tea?
And everyone was like, I'm good.
And nobody was paying attention, so I made it out of the faucet, drank my cup of tea.
And you know, tea is like this relaxing, sipping bullshit.
And it was right before we went to bed, and I just got hit with the worst shits out of nowhere.
And then I went up and went to bed, and I was like, ah, that was probably whatever.
And then my eyes sprung up like a movie, and I was like, oh, fuck, I made that tea from the faucet.
And then the next day...
We went birdwatching and I had to just keep ducking out and going to shit.
It was horrible.
unidentified
Birdwatching.
I know.
joe list
It was embarrassing.
And then we were driving back to the main city and we had to stop every ten minutes to just have the wildest diarrhea.
It was horrible.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Our gut biome can't handle that shit, that literal shit.
We can't handle the bacteria that a lot of people can handle.
Like in Mexico, they say Montezuma's revenge.
Don't drink the water.
They can drink it.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
Their body's used to it.
I had this guy on the other day.
His name's Michael Easter.
He's a professor at UNLV, and he wrote a book called The Comfort Crisis.
And one of the things they were talking about is people that live in other parts of the world where they're outdoors all the time.
So they're always touching dirt and they're eating animals that they killed and fish that they caught.
Their gut biome is so different.
So they tested their shit versus our shit.
And our shit is like processed foods, Purell, cigarettes.
There's nothing alive.
Our gut biome is all whack.
So that when we encounter the things that they just have no problem whatsoever processing, we're like on the bowl all day.
joe list
Yeah, a friend of mine was talking, this doctor, and he said, even if you didn't drink the water, just like the food, there's just different types of bacteria that we're just not used to, even if you're just eating the regular or whatever.
joe rogan
Oh yeah, for sure.
Just touching things.
You know, you get so much bacteria just from touching things and then touching your mouth or touching your food and then it gets in your mouth.
joe list
Yeah, so...
But it was amazing and fun and fucking beautiful.
joe rogan
Have you started doing stand-up again in New York?
joe list
Yeah, the cellar is open.
It's back.
I mean, it's a little bit weird because they're not full capacity and there's like plastic dividers and shit.
joe rogan
Oh, that's going to help.
joe list
It's a different kind of room.
I mean, it's all theater.
It's so like...
unidentified
It is.
joe list
And we're still doing the mic switch.
You have to...
Oh, shit.
I just asked on your table.
unidentified
Sorry.
joe rogan
Between each comic?
joe list
Yeah, which does fuck up your momentum a little bit.
That weird exchange and you can't get it in.
So it's a little bizarre, but it's so nice to be back.
joe rogan
Why don't they just switch to wireless?
And if they switch to wireless, they can spray them down in between each set.
joe list
Oh, I don't know.
Well, I think they're hoping that this is going to be...
I heard July 1st, it's like we're going to be all systems go in New York.
I don't know.
But we'll see.
But yeah, it's back and we're running spots and it's fucking beautiful.
It's magical.
joe rogan
I think they're saying June 15th for California, but I don't know if that applies to performance.
I think that is what they're talking about for other things.
joe list
Yeah, I don't know.
I got so burnt out on news and COVID, all the shit, that I just stopped.
And I got vaccinated, and I feel good about it, and I'm done.
joe rogan
Did you have any side effects?
joe list
So the first shot, not really.
My arm was sore.
And then the second shot, which everyone was like, that one's going to fuck you up a little bit, whatever.
I got the shot at like 10.30 in the morning.
My wife got it four hours later.
And like 11.30 that night, I started to be like, I feel a little fucked up.
Like a little bit like you feel at the end of the flu.
Like a little like, woo, like kooky.
And just a little funny, wacky.
And I took like two Tylenol PM because I heard that you're going to have muscle aches and all this shit.
And so I took two Tylenol PM and just passed out like crazy.
And I woke up and the next day I felt a little run down.
joe rogan
And the day after that I felt 100%.
Which one did you get?
The Pfizer?
Moderna.
joe list
Yeah, the real shit.
joe rogan
The real shit.
That's the one that has the worst side effects, supposedly.
joe list
Yeah, supposedly.
But I think...
I don't know.
For whatever reason, it didn't fuck me up.
I don't know if I'm healthy or what.
joe rogan
It's different.
People have different reactions.
My parents had almost no reaction.
They were, like, tired for a day, you know, and they're in their 70s.
joe list
Yeah, well, I heard the older you are, because the better your immune system, the more you deal with because your immune system's...
joe rogan
Fighting off.
joe list
...reacting or whatever.
joe rogan
Yeah, that makes sense.
joe list
But, no, I feel good, but in my mind, like, I've read articles that the vaccines are miraculous and amazing and all this shit, so I'm like, I'm not...
I'm like done.
I'm doing meet and greets and whatever.
I mean, I wear the mask where people want me to wear the mask because I'm trying to be a good citizen.
joe rogan
Are you taking vitamins and all that other good stuff?
joe list
No.
Should I be taking vitamins?
Oh God, don't freak me out.
I'm a hypochondriac.
joe rogan
No, you should definitely take vitamins because there have been a lot of what they call breakthrough cases of people that are vaccinated and still get sick, although the CDC doesn't count those.
They're only counting people that are hospitalized or dead after breakthrough cases.
Because the whole idea behind being vaccinated is it's supposed to prevent you not necessarily 100% from getting sick, But definitely help if, you know, keep you from getting really sick.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
Right?
So their idea is like there's going to be some breakthrough cases depending upon your immune system, how you take care of yourself, vitamins, whether you're run down, all the above.
All things that apply normally.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
But then they're paying attention to people that are hospitalized.
So they're only counting those.
joe list
I see.
joe rogan
It's what they call breakthrough cases.
joe list
I got you.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah.
joe list
Yeah, I don't know.
Hopefully I don't die.
But I'm worried about it.
joe rogan
You should take vitamins anyway.
You should always be healthy.
joe list
I never know.
I'm like, some people, vitamins, they're like, that's a waste.
And some people, it's great.
joe rogan
Who are those people?
joe list
I don't know.
joe rogan
Vitamins are definitely not a waste.
joe list
All right.
joe rogan
Take them with food.
It's a nice insurance policy.
There's stuff you can take, too, like Athletic Greens is a great supplement that's real easy.
You just mix it with water.
It tastes good.
It's got a lot of vitamins.
It's got probiotics.
It's got a lot of good stuff in it.
joe list
I try to do a big smoothie every day.
Spinach, banana, blueberry, all that shit.
joe rogan
That's good.
joe list
I try to be healthy-ish.
joe rogan
There's some things you're not going to necessarily get the right amount of from food.
Vitamin D is a big one of that.
And that's...
It's a huge one for your immune system.
joe list
Yeah, I was taking some vitamin D for a little bit.
joe rogan
You should take that.
joe list
Alright, I'll take some vitamin D, some vitamin Dizzle.
joe rogan
In one study, 84% of the people that were in the ICU with COVID were deficient in vitamin D and only 4% had sufficient levels.
joe list
That's what I, yeah, I heard that.
joe rogan
It's a big one for your immune system.
It's also a hormone.
Vitamin D is actually a hormone that your body produces in the sun.
joe list
Right.
I get a good amount of sun.
I exercise.
Do you think I'm dying?
I'm starting to freak out.
joe rogan
Don't freak out.
You're fine.
joe list
I don't want to do bits on the show, but I do a joke about it.
I don't have health insurance, so sometimes I'll just overhear people shitting in public, and then I'm like, oh, I'm fine.
joe rogan
What if you have norovirus spraying out from your asshole?
joe list
Yeah, norovirus.
I could be collecting that.
But you know what I mean?
Sometimes you hear people, and they're like...
And I'm like, all right, well, I'm definitely healthier than that guy.
You know what I mean?
So I feel like I'm all right.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's always relative, right?
If you live in a nursing home, you're probably like, I'm fine compared to these fucks.
joe list
Well, and I think...
Now I'm just getting my insecurities are coming out about my health.
But I have to remind myself, I'm like, I don't smoke other than a cigar that I'm currently smoking right now.
And I don't drink.
I don't do drugs.
I exercise.
I'll be all right, right?
joe rogan
I was reading this article about these folks that escaped from a nursing home.
A couple...
Escape from a nursing home.
A man and a woman, they got out and then they were wandering around and they got them like a half hour later.
But they had this elaborate way of getting out where they listened to the keypad, you know, and they figured out what the number sequence was to unlock the door.
And then they escaped.
But like, should someone who's that clever be locked in a fucking house?
And should you have the ability to tell them they can't go anywhere?
Because the idea is, like, if you really want them to be under 24-hour care and supervision and, you know, locked down like that where they can't go anywhere...
Shouldn't the idea be that they're compromised?
Like, how compromised are they?
Like, once they get in, is that it?
Like, you can't, like, pass a test?
You can't be like, hey, you know, I used to be a little loopy, but now I'm pretty good.
So good, in fact, that I listened to when the guard was punched in the numbers, and I figured out what those numbers are.
So I think I can live on my own.
And I don't like being here.
I don't like you telling me when I have to eat and when I have to do other things.
So let's get the fuck out of here.
joe list
Yeah, I completely agree.
I mean, that seems like a good test.
If you can figure out your way out, you win.
joe rogan
See if you can find that story, because it's kind of an interesting story.
But it was a couple, like this fucking Bonnie and Clyde of the old folks' home.
They just said, we're going to fucking...
We're getting out of here, Mabel.
Anybody name their kid Mabel anymore?
joe list
I don't think so.
It's over, right?
unidentified
Maybe.
joe list
I don't know.
joe rogan
Karen's done, right?
joe list
Yeah, Karen's...
That sucks.
joe rogan
What a drop-off.
joe list
Yeah.
No, Karen is out.
joe rogan
I dated a girl named Karen.
She was nice.
joe list
Karen!
I think of Goodfellas.
unidentified
Karen!
Why?
joe list
Not with the Chikakis, you're not.
unidentified
What did you do with my fucking Coke?
joe rogan
What's that?
jamie vernon
Do you know where that was by any chance?
joe rogan
No, I don't.
If I hear something like that, I always assume it's New York.
Like locking their family up.
joe list
They remind me of the bathroom at the cellar.
You need the code to get downstairs.
Keith Robinson, you know Keith, right?
joe rogan
Yeah.
joe list
He's like one of the funniest guys ever.
He likes to fuck with everyone.
He gives people the wrong code.
And he did it to me one time.
I was a new comic.
I wasn't even working there.
And he was the only one at the table.
And I was like, do you know the code?
And he gave me the wrong code.
And I just thought it was so funny because I'm trying to get down there.
I'm like, fuck.
And I look like an idiot.
But there wasn't even anyone else at the table.
It was just for his own pleasure.
And I'm like, that's a real comic who's fucking with young comic even when there's no audience.
joe rogan
I worked at a theater once in Florida.
And Wanda Sykes and Keith were there the night, the show before me.
What does it say?
Tennessee.
An elderly couple used Morse code to escape assisted living facility.
Yeah, that's it.
An elderly couple in Tennessee briefly escaped from a secure memory care unit at an assisted living facility earlier this year after cracking the code for the electronic door according to a report on the incident.
The unnamed couple have dementia and Alzheimer's disease respectively.
They successfully figured out the door code and walked out of the facility in Lebanon, Tennessee.
They were found by a stranger about 30 minutes later and returned to the home.
They were not harmed during the short excursion which occurred on March 2nd.
The man later explained that he had previously worked with Morse code in the military Use that experience to decipher the code to open the door and leave, according to the report from the Tennessee Board for Licensing Healthcare Facilities.
The facility in question has been fined $2,000 following the incident and has changed all the codes for its exits.
How the fuck are they supposed to know that this guy's going to figure out the code by listening?
joe list
Yeah, no, that's...
joe rogan
How are you fining them, you assholes?
joe list
That's impressive.
I mean, that's great.
Have you seen the movie The Father, the Anthony Hopkins movie?
unidentified
No.
joe list
Is it a new movie?
unidentified
No.
joe rogan
It's a new one?
joe list
It's new, yeah.
He won Best Actor, and it's pretty great, but it's about to mention.
It's kind of told through his perspective.
It's pretty fucking great.
joe rogan
There's a movie that...
I said I loved, and a lot of people are shitting on me for it, called I Care A Lot, with that lady, my new favorite actress.
What's her name again?
jamie vernon
Rosamund Pike.
joe rogan
She's awesome.
She plays the best psycho.
She must be so wild in real life.
She plays such a good psycho, but it's about a lady who scams people into these old folks' care facilities and has them locked and then profits off of them, and she has this huge roster of people that she's collecting money off of that she locks in these old folks' homes and then Once she gets them in there, she takes all their possessions and auctions them off.
What's his face from Game of Thrones?
joe list
Peter Dinklage.
joe rogan
Peter Dinklage was in it.
He's amazing, too.
I fucking loved it, but goddamn, I heard a lot of people hated it.
They're like, how high were you, Rogan?
joe list
I didn't watch it.
jamie vernon
People are just mad.
joe list
My wife watched it like that.
joe rogan
Some people are mad.
Do you think that is going to go away, this people are mad thing?
Because it seems like people got more mad over the last year, and I attributed a lot of it to being locked down, not being able to go outside, not having their job anymore, not having the regular life that we're accustomed to.
joe list
Yeah, I think that's part of it.
But I think also...
I think a lot of this stuff has always been going on.
It's just social media, you hear about it more.
Because you always hear these stories in the 70s or whatever, where the switchboard was lighting up and they got 300,000 calls, but you only hear, we got 300,000 calls.
We're now...
You see the emails and the tweets and stuff.
I think people have always been pretty angry, right?
Maybe.
I don't know.
joe rogan
There's a little bit of that.
There's also the squeaky wheels, right?
It's like people have always been angry, but you don't hear from them because they didn't have social media.
It's like a certain percentage of the population was unheard.
They didn't get their voice out there.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
And now they're on Twitter just bitching about things all the time.
And you can get confused if you read that stuff and think that's most people, but it's not.
I think the number of people complaining is the same, but the number of people that you're hearing complain is much larger.
joe list
Yeah, that's what I mean.
I've heard a stat that...
I forget the stat, and maybe it's look-up-able, but, like, Twitter, like, 88% of the country is not on Twitter, and then 90% of people on Twitter don't even tweet.
They just follow Twitter.
Because I remember, I forget what story, some story about a comic or whatever was trending.
On my thing.
And then it said like 8,988 tweets.
And you're like, there's more people at the fucking Mets game than that.
joe rogan
And how many people are in those tweets?
Like how many people are tweeting multiple times?
joe list
Exactly.
Or multiple accounts and stuff.
joe rogan
Facebook is the weirdest one for me because Facebook is a thing where you have these long diatribes.
People write these long...
I never got into it.
You know?
I've never been, like, an avid Facebook user.
They would write these long-ass fucking things, and then everybody underneath would be complaining and bitching about it.
And you could write these long-ass responses to these long-ass things.
joe list
Yeah, it's not healthy, and I just...
I kind of hate it.
I like Instagram the best, because I like photos, and you can...
joe rogan
It's shallow.
It's easy.
joe list
It feels a little less controversial.
Nobody gets mad.
joe rogan
Yeah.
joe list
Facebook, I hate.
And Twitter...
To me, for a while, it felt like it was mostly jokes, and now it feels like a very toxic...
joe rogan
Yeah, it was mostly jokes with us, with our immediate group, but then something happened during the lockdown with a lot of comics that aren't working.
They weren't working before very much, and then it all got shut off, and then when certain people started working again, they were bitching about those people working.
And you couldn't tell if they were really legitimately concerned those people were out there super spreading or whether they were just upset that these people were working and they weren't.
You know, it's like probably a little bit of both in some cases, but it just got to be like not fun.
joe list
Yeah, it's not fun, exactly.
It's taken a lot of the fun out.
And it's weird.
There's a lot of...
This is talked about so much, but there's a lot of stuff in comedy where people are angry, tweeting about things, and it's gotten really serious.
And I always think about the casino.
Again, it all comes back to movies and Scorsese, but there's the great scene in Casino where Pesci's talking about how De Niro takes gambling so serious, and he's like...
He's like, a million times I had to say, we're supposed to be robbing this place, you dumb motherfucker, whatever.
That's how I feel with comedy.
I'm like, we're supposed to be beating the system.
joe rogan
Right.
joe list
Like, we're living a silly alternative lifestyle.
We're not working and we're not dealing with HR and all this stuff.
And some of it's good to make it a safer place and all that shit.
But sometimes I'm like, what are you doing?
I thought we were supposed to be, like, goofing around here.
joe rogan
I think also one of the things that happened is we lost our social circle because no one's socializing.
Right.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
You know, when you're isolated.
Like, I have some friends that didn't see anybody for four or five months.
They just go to the grocery store and then come home.
I'm like, Jesus, man, that's so bad for your head.
joe list
Yes, absolutely.
And it's weird, and that's another reason to stay off social media as much as possible, because I see people that I love in person, and they're so fun or funny or just good people.
And then I'll read what they're writing and I'm like, oh my god, this is appalling.
What an asshole.
So it's better to just not see that and just have the experiences in person.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, that's how we're supposed to communicate.
I think that's also one of the reasons why people like podcasts so much.
Because you're sitting down and you're actually just talking to someone.
joe list
Yeah.
No, it's healthy.
It's like, I listen to all these mental health podcasts and books and all this stuff.
What do you like?
joe rogan
What do you like for a podcast, mental health podcast?
joe list
10% Happier with Dan Harris.
joe rogan
Oh, Dan Harris.
He's a great guy.
joe list
Yeah.
joe rogan
I've had him on before.
joe list
Yeah, and I think he was on with Sam Harris, no relation.
Sam Harris is like my, I fucking love that guy.
joe rogan
I love him too.
joe list
The Waking Up app is just like...
Unbelievable and like changed my whole life.
That guy's like unbelievable.
joe rogan
Yeah, he's one of the smartest people I've ever met.
Most logical thinking too.
joe list
Yeah.
joe rogan
And very rarely says um.
joe list
Yeah, no, he's incredible.
It's funny because he's also, I guess, controversial for his stances on religion and race or whatever.
So I'll be like, I listen to the Waking Up podcast and meditation app, and I'm like, this guy's like my guru.
People are like, that guy's this and this.
And I'm like, oh, I don't give a fuck about that.
I'm talking about the meditation neuroscientist.
joe rogan
Those people that say that guy is this, it's like people just love to put people in a category and be dismissive.
It's just this reductionist perspective.
You want to take whatever he said in the most uncharitable way possible and then decide that's who he is.
He's a piece of shit because of X. And he's not.
If you meet him, he's a lovely guy.
I love that guy.
He's a really nice guy.
Like a super sweet, very kind guy.
Super open-minded.
But he's also brave.
Like he'll take a controversial stance on something if he feels like he's correct.
Whether it's on religion, or whether it's on free will, or a number of very controversial subjects.
But it's because he's thought it through, and he thinks it's worth arguing.
joe list
Yeah.
No, he's like...
I mean, the guy changed my life.
That Waking Up app is like...
And I've been really into Buddhism and meditation for years and years, but he does such an amazing job teaching it and articulating it.
I recommend it to anybody.
I think that guy is saving lives.
joe rogan
I think he is too.
I think a lot of people are out there saving lives.
People that are expressing themselves honestly in a way that resonates with other people that are listening.
It gets them to change their perspective.
It gets them to shift and adjust.
There's a lot of nonsense out there that doesn't really help, but then there's some things that fucking really help.
I've been real vocal about my love for this book, The Four Agreements.
joe list
Oh yeah, I know that book.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's fucking great, man.
It's an easy read and it's so legit.
I read The Fifth Agreement, which is a little bit redundant, but there's a lot of good information in that too.
And it's this extra agreement, which is be skeptical, but verify.
I think that's what it is.
You know, which is be skeptical, maybe that's it?
Open-minded, but verify.
Yeah.
But those agreements, like, be impeccable with your word.
If you just decide now, from now on, from now on.
I mean, it's hard because you think about when you've been an idiot before, you said stupid shit before.
Abandon that.
Let it go.
You did it.
No matter what you do, you can't fix the past.
You can't.
It's nothing you can do.
You can't change it.
You can't go back and rewind and I'm gonna do it better this time.
Like, there's a lesson, there's a valuable lesson in fucking up.
And this be impeccable with your word from here on out as much as you can.
It's such a good fucking thing to think of.
And then the other one, don't take things personally.
That's so good.
It's so good.
Just those two alone will get you so far in this life, you know?
joe list
Yeah, no, I love all that shit.
The Happiness Lab is another of this woman, Laurie Santos, this is a great podcast.
joe rogan
The Happiness Lab?
joe list
Yeah, and she has scientists and all this stuff talking about things that make us happy.
Conversations, eye contact, nature, all these things are really helpful.
But yeah, I'm really into Jack Kornfield and Thich Nhat Hanh, these Buddhist meditation type people.
unidentified
Sure.
joe rogan
Duncan Trussell's really into Jack Kornfield.
joe list
Yeah, Duncan Trussell's somebody that people tweet all the time, like, you guys should know each other, because we're always talking about the same kind of shit.
joe rogan
Yeah, you should.
How come we don't know each other?
joe list
I don't know.
I think he's just in L.A. We just never bumped into each other.
joe rogan
He's in North Carolina now.
unidentified
Oh, all right.
joe rogan
He moved to Asheville.
joe list
But I still have a podcast called Mindful Metal Jacket, and I have people on to talk about this kind of stuff.
It started with comics, and then I started to have these meditation teachers, Sharon Salzberg and Judd Brewer.
Have you ever had him on, Judd Brewer?
joe rogan
No, no.
joe list
Oh, you should have him on.
He's a doctor.
He wrote this book called Unwinding Anxiety, and he's an amazing guy.
joe rogan
I love the name.
No, I love the name of yours.
joe list
Oh, Mindful Metal Jacket?
Oh, thanks.
joe rogan
I appreciate it.
Mindful Metal Jacket is a great name.
joe list
Yeah, I got a logo.
It's from Full Metal Jacket, and it looks like the helmet and stuff.
joe rogan
That's awesome.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
What does it say on the helmet?
joe list
It says, Born to Worry, instead of Born to Kill.
No, thanks.
I should mention podcast.
By the way, everyone gave me shit because I was on the show before and I never mentioned Tuesdays with Stories, my podcast with Mark.
Oh, there it is.
joe rogan
Joe List, Mindful Metal Jacket.
Yeah.
But people still must have gone to it anyway.
joe list
I think so, yeah.
But it never came up.
And I'm like, people are like, you're a fucking idiot.
You just went on the biggest show and you didn't plug any of your shit.
joe rogan
So, what are you going to do?
unidentified
I have a podcast called Tuesdays with Stories with Mark.
joe list
But everyone knows Mark now.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Norman is the shit.
I love that guy.
joe list
No, he's like the funniest guy.
joe rogan
He's so dedicated to comedy.
joe list
He's just pure funny.
He can't not be funny.
joe rogan
Dedicated to the craft.
He loves it.
joe list
He's one of those guys that just is funny.
He can't help it.
It's hard to have any kind of conversation.
Even if he's trying to talk serious, it's hilarious.
joe rogan
Well, he'll talk serious, but he'll sprinkle in some nonsense.
He'll sprinkle in some yuck yucks.
He's a pure comic, you know?
But it's also like, that's one of the things that I love about real comedy.
Like guys like him that are so dedicated to it, that are always fun to be around.
First time I met him, we were hanging out and then we went, I forget where it was, I want to say Atlanta?
I forgot where it was.
We wound up, all of us hanging out in the lobby of the hotel, you know, those couches that nobody sits in?
We were there at like fucking four o'clock in the morning, just shooting the shit.
And then, you know, I could tell right away, I'm like, alright, that's a real comic.
joe list
Yeah, no, he's like the funniest person.
Funniest person not from Boston.
joe rogan
Where's he from?
joe list
He's from New Orleans.
joe rogan
Oh, that's right.
That's a wacky place to grow up, huh?
joe list
Oh, yeah.
I think he grew up in the city.
joe rogan
Yeah.
They're wild there, man.
I remember the first time I went to New Orleans, when you're just walking on the street and you see everybody just drinking, open, carrying their booze, just walking on the street.
You just walk down the street with beverages.
joe list
Yeah, that's a town I never went to when I was drinking, and I'm kind of grateful.
I feel like it might have gone bad.
joe rogan
I forgot that you were sober.
I would have never offered you a drink.
Imagine if you fell off the wagon.
joe list
Oh, that's okay.
Right here on Rogan.
unidentified
Shit.
Shit.
joe list
No, I'm pretty, I'm good.
joe rogan
How many years you been sober?
joe list
Eight and a half, December of 2012. Shazam, son.
Yeah.
joe rogan
That's nice.
joe list
Yeah, it's nice.
joe rogan
Ready to get to ten before you start shooting up again?
joe list
Yeah, probably then.
That's when I'll go down.
joe rogan
Yeah.
That's a lot.
No moments where you got shaky?
joe list
No, not really.
Well, when I first got sober, the only time was I was at the Boston Marathon when there was the bomb.
I mean, I was at the mile mark, so I was a mile from it.
unidentified
Holy shit.
joe list
But I remember it was scary and stressful, and I was only four months sober at that point.
And I remember there was talks like, there's a bomb at the JFK library and the whole thing.
And I had this thing, I'm like, if the bomb goes off at JFK, I'm falling off the wagon, fuck it.
But then I was like, nah, that's stupid.
unidentified
Pfft.
joe list
I mean, like, I just like, you know, it's just, for me, it's better this way.
I'm much better off.
joe rogan
Most people are.
joe list
Yes.
joe rogan
When you become, like, a hardcore boozer.
The problem is, it's like you, like, I enjoy alcohol.
I really do.
It's a nice social lubricant.
It helps you relax.
It makes things silly sometimes.
Sometimes you have, like, wild, fun thoughts when you're drunk, but it's also terrible for your health.
joe list
Yeah.
Oh, absolutely.
Mental health, physical health.
And I just, I was not a guy.
I never was able to be like, oh, have a beer.
joe rogan
Right.
joe list
I fucking, it's mind blowing to me.
I still have, the only times I feel like drinking and not legitimately, but when I see someone like leave like half a beer, I'm like, what are you, what?
What the fuck are you doing, dude?
I want to finish it.
joe rogan
Pot or anything like that?
Did you ever get into that?
joe list
I smoked weed, but I was never a weed guy, because I got anxious and I hated myself.
I feel like I missed this new thing of like, this weed is for when you're visiting your grandmother, and this weed is for fucking, you're under the stock.
There's like specific weed.
They didn't have that.
I just had like a guy that was smoking weed, and I'd smoke it and hate myself more.
And I did pills a little bit, which I'm not going to do sober, but like Vicodin I love, but I never had a source.
joe rogan
I read a sad story about a lady who got the COVID vaccine, and she apparently had really bad side effects.
So she kept taking Tylenol.
And acetaminophen, is that what it is?
joe list
Yeah.
joe rogan
In Tylenol, it's toxic at high doses.
I think that's what it is.
She fucking died.
She had liver failure from Tylenol.
joe list
She must have been taking a lot.
unidentified
I don't know.
joe rogan
They don't know how much she took, obviously, because she died.
unidentified
Right.
joe rogan
But she was falling apart, and she went to the hospital, and I'm like, Jesus Christ, her liver's failing.
joe list
Oh, God.
joe rogan
Yeah.
And other than a transplant, she was in rough shape.
joe list
Yeah.
joe rogan
I didn't know that you could...
I wonder how many Tylenols you have to take before you die.
joe list
It's got to be a lot, because I know you can take two every four hours when you have a dental thing or whatever.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah, man.
joe list
I always thought, like, a Tylenol is probably the equivalent of the liver damage of a couple beers, I would think.
joe rogan
I have no idea.
joe list
I don't either.
joe rogan
I would just be guessing.
joe list
Yeah, I'm guessing.
I think.
joe rogan
But I read about this lady, and I'm like, oh, no.
Because, you know, some people, they're just like, you know, if it says take two, take four.
You know, there's some people that are like, they just want relief.
Like, oh, my God, what do I have to do to stop this horrible feeling?
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
That's the thing about, you know...
I think pain is different for everybody.
Some people just can handle pain and some people just cannot.
And I don't know what they're experiencing.
Pain is like your taste buds.
Why do some people like really spicy food and some people fucking hate it?
What are you experiencing?
I don't know.
I'm guessing.
If you eat a jalapeno, I'm guessing.
I like spicy food.
So when I eat spicy food and people are like, oh, I fucking hate spicy.
I'm like, hmm, what is that to you?
joe list
Yeah, that's fascinating to me.
I mean, I feel that way going back to MMA, like, my trainer will show me how to do a leg kick, and he's just showing me, and I'm like, ah, that sucked.
And he's just going like, this is what you should do, and he lands it.
Yeah, and I'm like, that's like the worst thing I've ever experienced.
That's why when I watch MMA now, which I'm new to watching the sport, I'm like, I don't understand.
I ask him, like, how does that not end the fucking fight when one of those leg kicks?
But I guess it's just pain and you deal with it or fight through it, whatever, I guess, whatever the fuck, adrenaline, dopamines of running, whatever.
joe rogan
It's conditioning, too.
In adults, a minimum toxic dose of acetaminophen is a single ingestion of 7.5 to 10 grams.
Acute ingestion of 150 milligrams per kilogram or 12 grams of acetaminophen in adults is considered a toxic dose and carries a high risk of liver damage.
What is that, though?
jamie vernon
So 4,000 milligrams is the recommended daily dose.
joe list
So what is one Tylenol?
jamie vernon
And one is usually around 200 to 400. There may be some that you can get that are 600 or 800, I think, but usually it's 200 to 400, I think, from my memory.
joe rogan
So 7.5 is 7,000, right?
jamie vernon
That's grams, though?
joe rogan
Right, but that's what I'm saying.
Milligrams to grams is 1,000, right?
jamie vernon
I believe so.
joe rogan
Grams?
joe list
So she took a lot of fucking time out.
joe rogan
She hammered it.
But also, like, maybe she was tiny, too.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
Like, I have a buddy who could fucking drink, but he's seven feet tall and he weighs, you know, 350, 360 pounds.
joe list
Yeah, she might have been drinking, too.
I don't know, or whatever.
joe rogan
Yeah, I drink with him, and it's a joke.
It's like, I gotta stop.
You keep going.
I can't.
joe list
Well, there's all those, like, Andre the Giant stories.
unidentified
Oh, yeah!
joe list
I mean, some of those stories are insane, like gallons of vodka.
joe rogan
Well, for him, like, well, my hands are way smaller in the sense of, like, this cup.
Like, he would have, like, a tall boy, and it would disappear in his hand.
It would be much smaller in his hand than this little tiny, what is this, like a six-ounce cup is.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
He was so big.
joe list
I heard the story, my favorite fucking story ever is, I think Rob Reiner told it in that HBO doc where Andre would have these crazy farts and he had a fart that was 17 seconds long, which is the funniest thing I've ever heard.
Like if you, I've tried to like time like a like that was like one and a half seconds and he farted for 17 straight seconds and Rob Reiner goes- Look at that, look at that.
joe rogan
Look at that fucking beer can in his hand.
That's insanity.
joe list
Rob Reiner goes, you okay, Andre?
And he goes, I am now, boss.
Which I'm like, it's amazing.
unidentified
Look at the size of his hand with that can.
joe list
I heard a story that, and this might be a wives' tale, those dumb wives are always full shit.
joe rogan
Take that picture with him and that lady by the bar.
Look at how big he is.
joe list
Yeah, she could fit inside of him.
joe rogan
He could eat her.
joe list
I heard a story that he could put a hard-boiled egg through his ring, like a ring that he wore on his hand.
He could push like an egg through it.
joe rogan
That doesn't seem to be real.
joe list
It doesn't seem to be real, but it's a fun story.
joe rogan
But that sounds like a great story.
When we had Dallas Diamond Page on the podcast, he was talking about the time that he drove.
Was it Dallas Diamond Page or Jake the Snake that talked about driving him around?
unidentified
I don't remember.
joe rogan
I don't know.
unidentified
I'm...
joe rogan
Shit.
We've had three WWE legends on this podcast, sir.
joe list
Who's the third?
joe rogan
The Undertaker.
joe list
Oh, fun.
joe rogan
Yeah, Texas resident.
Lives near here.
jamie vernon
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah, I think it was Jake's Tank, too.
He drove him around.
He was just talking about the insane quantity of beer that the guy drank.
joe list
It's wild.
I love those stories.
I've been getting, like, I'm not a wrestling fan, but I was huge into it from, like, 88 to 92 when I was a kid, when you're supposed to be into it.
And that was like the heyday.
And now as an adult, I'm going back and watching all those old videos because it's fun to watch things that you watched as a kid.
And now I'm so fascinated with all the behind the scenes of how it works and the improvisation.
I said that weird.
Improvisation.
joe rogan
Good job.
joe list
Yeah, I want to amend that.
But it's so fascinating to me, all those guys.
It's such a fascinating industry.
I want to know everything about all that shit.
joe rogan
Well, what I'm always fascinated by is their tolerance for pain.
Knowing the kind of pain that I'm in just from regular working out and what those guys are.
Jiu-jitsu is easy compared to pro wrestling because pro wrestling they're fucking lifting each other and slamming each other and they're doing it on the road multiple nights a week.
So they're on the road like hundreds of days a year they're performing and they're throwing each other and slamming each other and they're always in agony.
And when The Undertaker was on, he was talking about the fucking fractures of the eye socket that he suffered.
Both of his eye sockets, his orbitals were fractured where they had to go in and go behind the eyeball and patch the bone.
And put, like, fucking braces so his eyeball doesn't fall into his brain.
It's crazy!
And he showed us a video of one of them that happened when this dude literally sat on his face.
Like, and a smaller guy, right?
Rey Mysterio, right?
joe list
Oh yeah, he's a little guy.
joe rogan
Yeah, but landed on his fucking eyeballs, and it fractured his eyeballs.
joe list
Yeah, I don't like that at all.
joe rogan
Twice it's happened to him.
So he's had two eyeballs caved in.
And to this day, he has blind spots where you can only look so far, left and right, and you won't be able to see.
But those guys have insane tolerance for pain.
Just insane.
always in agony.
They're always hurt.
And there are all of them when they get older, they're getting hip replacements and knee replacements and disc replacements and fusions.
And that's why Diamond Dallas Page invented his DDP yoga.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Dallas decided, look, I've got to figure out a way to be healthy so I can keep doing this.
And he got super into yoga and flexibility and core strength.
And now he works with a lot.
He actually worked with Jake the Snake.
He works with a lot of former pro wrestlers and helps them get sober and then helps them rehabilitate their body through his program.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe list
Yeah, no, that shit is just wild.
I mean, just watching, and then there's like wrestling botches.
You follow that on Instagram?
I think it's WrestleBotch?
joe rogan
No.
joe list
Or WrestlingBotch?
It's unbelievable.
I don't know how I found it.
joe rogan
When they make mistakes?
joe list
Yeah, it's pretty amazing.
There's some like hilarious stuff, but some of it's like ugly.
I think it's like at WrestleBotch or WrestlingBotch, and it's all just these videos.
That's it.
Yeah.
I mean, some of them are pretty amazing, but some of them are just fucking horrifying.
Oh.
joe rogan
What happened there?
unidentified
I don't know.
jamie vernon
I thought his arm was broken.
joe rogan
Oh.
joe list
There's a few in there.
I don't know which ones are, like, great, but...
joe rogan
Oh, is he actually out cold?
jamie vernon
Yeah, it looks like he's knocked out, yeah.
joe list
Oh, shit.
joe rogan
Show that again.
joe list
What the fuck happened?
joe rogan
He can't breathe.
It looks like he stood up and he hit him.
joe list
Oh, he caught him.
He hit him right to the fucking button.
joe rogan
On the chin.
joe list
Holy shit.
joe rogan
Wow.
Wow.
Well, you know, a lot of these dudes also, you've got to realize, like, they're getting concussions all the time.
And when you get hit and you get a concussion, it's easier for you to get knocked out afterwards, like for, you know, a period of time, whether it's months or weeks.
After you get knocked out, it's really easy to get knocked out again.
We've had that happen with guys in the UFC that fought.
And got knocked out, and it looks crazy.
Like, it looks like it doesn't make any sense.
Like, how'd they get knocked out so easy?
And it was because they had get knocked out in training.
Like, here's a good example.
Travis Luder versus Marvin Eastman.
Travis Luder guy was on the podcast recently with Kevin Holland, who's a...
He won the Ultimate Fighter, like super legit jiu-jitsu badass.
And he hit this guy with a punch, and it was a decent punch, but he caught him at the very end of the punch, and Marvin Eastman just went out cold.
And it was weird.
So there's Travis.
joe list
Which one's Travis?
joe rogan
Travis is the white guy.
And Marvin Eastman was a beast, too, man.
So he catches him with this punch, and the end of the punch...
But it turned out that Marvin had gotten KO'd in training, not once, but twice.
And, uh, let's see.
It's right here.
Is that it?
It's close.
It's close.
Yeah, it caught him, like, right at the end of the punch.
Here it is, right here.
See that?
Boom.
Out cold.
Like, it was a good punch, but it kind of didn't make sense.
Let's show it again.
Because he kind of caught him at the very end of the punch, too.
joe list
Weird.
joe rogan
Yeah, weird, right?
But it was because Marvin had gotten KO'd in training, and so he was more susceptible.
And that happens also to fighters as they get older in their career.
You see them get hit, they get knocked out way easier.
joe list
That's a weird thing with fighting to me, because you can't really control that, right?
I mean, you can obviously avoid the punch, but if somebody hits you clean, you're knocked out or not knocked out.
That's not even up to you, is it?
joe rogan
Well, it's definitely not.
If you get hit on the chin, there's guys who just get caught.
They just get caught and they get KO'd.
It happens.
joe list
Fascinating to me.
That's the part of that sport.
I was late coming to the sport.
It wasn't until I started training that I became interested in it.
But that's the part I still struggle with.
I watched the fight.
I don't know any of the guys.
But there was like a spinning elbow to the temple.
And the guy just fucking went down.
joe rogan
Yuri Prohaska.
He's a fucking monster.
He's a nightmare, that guy.
joe list
But it's unsettling to watch somebody get, like, clean-knocked.
I prefer the jujitsu of, like, ah, I'm tapping now, thank you.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah, for sure.
Yeah, for sure, that's easier to tolerate.
That was a rough one, because Prochaska is a fucking monster.
Like, he never stops.
And the guy who fought, Dominic Reyes, is world-class.
He's a guy who went five hard rounds with Jon Jones, and he's one of the best guys in the division, for sure.
And he caught Prochaska a couple times with good shots.
But Prochaska just never stopped coming at him.
Never stopped kicking him and punching him.
And just like with his weird style where his hands are down and he moves around a lot.
Admits he was knocked out during the Dominic Reyes fight.
Yeah, he got clipped with a really, really good straight left hand.
He got his legs wobbled and he was in real trouble.
But he survived and then knocked him out later in the round.
But that spinning elbow that he knocked him out with is fucking nasty.
It was perfect too.
He threw a right elbow and then to set up spinning with the left one and he caught him perfect and put him out cold.
Have you ever been knocked out before?
joe list
No.
I mean, I've been choked out a whole bunch of times training.
I tapped out.
joe rogan
But you went out cold?
joe list
No, no.
Oh, just tapped.
joe rogan
I've never been choked out unconscious, and I've never been knocked unconscious.
I got hit in the head when I was a kid with this thing that they used to use to lift up sewer pipes.
It fell and hit my head.
I still have this nasty...
I have my hair transplant scar, but I also have this nasty scar above it where I got cracked.
And the whole world went like this.
And I grayed out.
I didn't go completely unconscious, but that was probably the worst I'd ever been hit in my life.
Because it was a big chunk of steel that hit me in the head.
And I'm just lucky that I survived.
The way it hit me, it kind of grazed my head.
If I was in this position instead of this position, it might have just crushed my skull.
Like, I don't know.
I don't remember.
Because it was...
They rushed me to the hospital.
I was like...
I guess I was 13 or 14. I'm trying to remember how old I was.
But that was probably the scariest I'd ever been hit with anything.
But I was not...
It was never like out cold waking up like, what happened?
What happened?
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
But I did get TKO'd in the last fight I had, the last kickboxing fight I had.
I got hit with a left hook and my legs just went like this.
Boink!
They just stopped working.
This guy hit me perfect.
unidentified
Boink!
joe rogan
Right in the chin and my legs just stopped working.
They went boink!
It just shut off.
joe list
Terrifying to me.
joe rogan
It was weird.
But it didn't hurt.
I've been hurt before.
You get hit in the body and it's really painful.
It was like he just hit me perfect and everything stopped.
And then I got up and then he swarmed me and he hit with another couple good shots and an uppercut and dropped me again.
And then the referee mercifully stopped the fight.
But I was never unconscious.
But it was just weird that my legs stopped working.
I was standing in front of him and he hit me and everything just went boop!
It just gives out.
joe list
It's terrifying.
Training with my buddy Diego, we were doing some leg exercises where I was jumping for 60 seconds straight.
These kind of climb where you go to one knee, a second knee, and back up, but stay low, and then sort of these jumps.
And I started laughing because my legs just gave out.
I was like, I can't do this any longer.
And he's like, no, that's good.
You gassed out or whatever.
But it's just wild.
I can't imagine what it's like to have your brain just shut down.
I guess I had it drinking, where your brain was like...
joe rogan
Yeah, my brain was still there.
That's what was weird.
My legs just stopped working.
joe list
This cigar became like a magic...
I can't pull it anymore.
joe rogan
Light it again?
joe list
I'm going to relight it, but I'm sticking a pen in there.
All of a sudden, I couldn't pull off it anymore.
I think it's tight in here.
unidentified
Is it?
joe list
I feel like if Bobby sees this, he's going to be like, you fucking loser.
joe rogan
Oh, he's one of those guys that knows a lot.
Hey, you got to do it like this, kid.
unidentified
Dude!
joe rogan
Dude!
He knows a lot about cigars, right?
unidentified
Oh, yeah.
joe list
He's a cigar guy.
We smoke a lot.
It's fun.
Have you had Bobby on?
unidentified
You should have Bobby on.
joe rogan
I would love to have Bobby on.
joe list
He's like the funniest guy.
He kills like Regan killed.
Bobby kills like the hardest of the newer comics.
It's insane.
joe rogan
I've known Bobby for...
30 years?
joe list
Yeah.
He's like an urban act.
I mean, he fucking, like, blows the rumor apart.
It's insane.
joe rogan
He's a funny dude, man.
He's always been a funny guy.
joe list
So funny.
joe rogan
I knew him when he was young and thin and handsome.
joe list
Bobby married me.
He was the, what do you call it?
The preacher?
The guy.
Well, not, I don't know, preacher.
He just did the ceremony.
joe rogan
Yeah, minister.
joe list
We were already married in a courthouse, but he did the ceremony.
joe rogan
Yeah.
joe list
He didn't have to get...
It was just show, but he did a fucking...
joe rogan
How's he doing health-wise?
Is he alright?
joe list
Yeah, I think he's healthy.
I think he's very healthy.
I mean, he's overweight, but he's lost a bunch of weight and he's working on it, but I think he's actually a healthy guy.
joe rogan
He got the COVID and he was fine, right?
joe list
Yeah.
Bobby's good.
joe rogan
So did Big J. A lot of people are like, huh, he's okay?
Hmm.
joe list
Yeah, I think Bobby had it, totally fine, has the antibodies, and he's been working hard and dying and all that shit.
joe rogan
Jamie's got the antibodies strong since October.
We checked Jamie's antibodies today, and it's a fat line.
The nurse was perplexed.
joe list
I should have taken an antibody test, because I want to see what happens.
I got the vaccine.
joe rogan
You should have got the antibody test.
unidentified
I fucked up.
joe rogan
Yeah, Jamie's a fucking specimen.
His antibodies are strong as fuck.
joe list
By the way, that was the best COVID test I've done.
She didn't even go inside my nose.
She touched my fucking mustache.
joe rogan
Yeah, they just have to go in the nose now.
They just go like this.
They don't have to tickle your brain anymore.
They just get up in there with a little Q-tip.
They used to have the little thin one that probes deep back.
I don't know when they realized that you don't have to do that anymore.
joe list
Ecuador was the worst one I had.
It was way the fuck up there.
joe rogan
They test you when you land?
joe list
No, I thought they were gonna.
They just, what did they do?
They check your temperature, but you have to get a test to leave to get on the plane back to the States or whatever.
joe rogan
How the fuck does Ari choose Ecuador?
joe list
I don't know what made him choose Ecuador, but it's awesome, and it was beautiful down there.
joe rogan
Yeah, enjoy it.
joe list
He's back now.
joe rogan
Yeah, we've been talking.
Yeah, he's trying to figure out where to go.
He doesn't know where he's going to go.
He might come here.
I might talk him into it.
joe list
Oh, God.
joe rogan
Come on!
joe list
No, take it away.
The more comics that leave New York, the better.
I want the spots.
joe rogan
Is that what you want?
joe list
Yeah.
But I do, I get plenty of spots.
joe rogan
You love Ari.
joe list
I love Ari the most.
I love him.
joe rogan
He was one of those guys I was really bummed out when he moved to New York, but...
He always wanted to be a New York comic.
To him, that's like a romantic thing.
joe list
Yeah.
joe rogan
You know?
A comic living in New York City, you know, with no fucking car at all, just Ubering, cabin everywhere, and the whole deal.
He wanted to do the thing, you know?
joe list
Yeah.
joe rogan
The Atel thing.
joe list
Well, it feels more and more silly.
Norman and I were just talking about that because he went and did a big L.A. podcast tour, and we're all like, I got six spots at the cellar.
I did eight spots tonight.
And meanwhile, in LA, everyone's living on the fucking beach in their giant houses and they have their podcast.
Everyone in LA is making like $6 million a year and we're all like, yeah, but dude, I did like 800 spots.
And we're starting to realize, oh, this is a little silly.
joe rogan
Well, the LA podcast thing kind of took off before the New York podcast thing, which is weird to me.
Because New York always had a real strong radio thing with Howard Stern, Opie and Anthony.
It was like New York was like a very strong radio market.
So it was always weird to me that there weren't more podcasts that came out of New York that started out of New York.
joe list
Well, I think so many of...
The New York guys, myself included, just put stand-ups for it.
We're like, we're stand-ups in the podcast.
And this is just changing now.
Podcast was this side thing that you did whatever, but now people realize you can make good money and all that shit.
joe rogan
Yeah.
You can make good money and be independent.
That's what's important.
That you don't need to do anything else.
That's the real important thing, the independence.
You want to be independent.
You want to be free.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
You don't want to be...
And also, if you're on a show, you can't talk crazy.
Right.
If you get on a sitcom or you're on a drama or something like that, you cannot talk crazy.
They will fire you.
joe list
Yes.
joe rogan
There's no way.
And podcasts, if you have a good podcast, you're your own boss.
joe list
Yeah, no.
It's weird because we talk about it's a hard time for comedy because of the PC and all that stuff, but it's also an amazing time to do comedy where all these people are making tons of money on YouTube and Patreon and all that shit.
joe rogan
That's true.
And comics have to recognize that we have to stick together in this.
That is very important because comics as a whole, they tend to be individualists and they tend to look out for themselves first.
And that was always the case when there was television jobs.
And I always said that, especially in L.A., it fostered that kind of thinking because there was only a few slots.
If you were going to get on a sitcom, there was only a few sitcoms.
If it was you and me, and we were both auditioning for the same part, I'd hope you get sick.
I hope he gets that no-no virus or whatever the fuck.
Now, it's not like that at all.
And if everybody has podcasts, they're like, oh, I want to do Joe List's podcast because I could tell people I'm at the improv next week.
Oh, I want him to do my podcast because he's a funny guest.
And then it became this thing where we realized like, oh, we're actually valuable to each other.
unidentified
Yes.
joe rogan
And then it was no longer a famine mentality.
And then everybody started looking out for each other more.
And then they started like thinking in terms of like, hey, we're all in this tribe.
And it didn't matter if you're a...
Girl or a guy or gay or straight it didn't matter it's like you're in the tribe of comedy and That tribe is a fun tribe if we look out for each other and we have this feeling that we look out for each other I Agree completely and that's what throws me off when comics are trashing other comics publicly.
I just don't I'm not Into that it's it's not wise But I get it.
I get where it's coming from.
And especially if the comic's doing better than you.
That's the standard.
It's normal.
joe list
Yeah, I guess so.
But a rising tide lifts all boats.
joe rogan
Yeah, I believe that.
Also, I believe that energy wasted shitting on people.
That's shitting on people.
That's not making fun of people.
I think if you've got some good jokes about me or anybody else, go for it.
Bust them out.
joe list
Yeah.
joe rogan
You're supposed to be making fun of each other.
But a lot of it is like there's a mean-spirited, trying-to-cut-people-down aspect to it that I think is very negative.
Because it's not just negative for them because you're shitting on them.
It's negative for you.
Because you've got to know that you have low self-esteem or something.
Something's wrong where you're going out of your way to talk so much shit about another comedian.
You know what you're doing.
You're not being kind.
You're not being compassionate.
Yeah.
joe list
No, I agree.
And I've thought this since I was like a teenager doing comedy is that we all deal with so much fucking bullshit and clubs trying to fuck us and the industry starts off.
Why fuck with each other?
joe rogan
Yeah.
joe list
Why not help each other?
joe rogan
There's a weird instinct.
People like to gang up on people and attack people when they're down or attack people when they misstep.
It's a weak human nature characteristic.
It's a bad trait, but it's very common, especially amongst insecure people.
Most of us are insecure.
Most comics are, in one way or another, insecure.
joe list
Yeah, well, that's the fascinating thing about comics is because all comics have a big ego and also hate themselves.
It's such a weird thing.
I always think about it in terms of a relationship.
When you're in a relationship, or me anyway, speaking for myself, I'm like, why is this woman with me?
I'm a fucking idiot.
I suck.
My teeth, I got herpes and the thing.
And then if...
They break up with you, you're like, yeah, good luck finding someone better than me, you fucking idiot.
And that's how I feel with comedy.
I'm like, I suck, I'm a fucking hack, I'm a piece of shit.
And then if someone's like, yeah, you suck, I'm like, what are you, insane?
I'll fucking eat your lunch, you fucking loser.
joe rogan
Follow me, bitch.
joe list
Yeah, exactly.
So we all kind of have that going on, which I think is probably humans in general in any job, I imagine.
joe rogan
In a lot of jobs, but especially one that's as challenging as stand-up.
Because it requires you to be the writer, the director, the producer.
It's all coming from your mind, your perspective.
And then you have to perform it.
You're not just putting it together.
You have to go up there and do it.
You have to execute.
And then you can't stumble.
You can't fuck up any of the words.
Just think about all the shows you do, and you can't fuck up any of the words.
Even if they know what you said, The rhythm is off because you fucked up a word, and then they won't laugh.
Like, something that would kill, now is not funny at all.
joe list
Yeah, Seinfeld had a great...
Seinfeld's so good with the metaphors and analogies and shit, but he's like, a punchline is like an open door on a moving train.
Once it passes, you can't.
It's gone now.
I'll have that sometimes where you fuck up a joke, and the audience is like, just do it!
Just finish it!
And you're like, no, it's three cars gone.
I can't.
We missed it.
joe rogan
That is a funny line.
That's a great way of putting it.
An open door on a moving train.
That's perfect.
joe list
Oh, he's the best at talking comedy, the analogies and all that.
joe rogan
Hicks would talk about that too, that you just gotta let it go.
You can't go back and try to recreate a moment and redo it.
You know, you can't do that.
joe list
No, it's hard.
And sometimes you see comics...
I've done it.
We've all done it.
Like, try to make a bit out of something that happened in real time, like off the cuff, and then you're like, oh, that was such a big laugh.
Maybe I can harvest that.
And then you try, and you're like, no.
joe rogan
Or even worse, there's a moment that happens, and you think you got a line, but there's like a couple extra words in the book.
joe list
Yeah.
joe rogan
And you're like, shit, there was something there, but I just fucking completely whiffed it.
joe list
Yeah, I blew it.
I mean, that happens on podcasts all the time, where you're trying to like, oh, I got one locked and loaded, and it just stinks.
joe rogan
Yeah, live podcasts, especially.
If you do a live podcast in front of an audience, and you take a swing, you go, eee!
joe list
I mean, no.
It's the worst.
I mean, there's nothing worse than a fucking bomb like that.
joe rogan
Yeah, but those bombs are the things that motivate you to get back on the horse and get better.
Like, some of my best moments in my career, like, where I made progress and got better, came after eating shit.
Like, really humiliating, like, I can't do this anymore, eat shit moments.
And then you realize, like, I need a newfound intensity.
I need a newfound appreciation focus for this.
I can't fuck this up.
I gotta get back on.
joe list
Yeah, it's a hard thing with comedy because you have moments where you're like, I gotta get stronger, this guy's doing that.
But if the material doesn't, if it doesn't come, it doesn't come.
Like, you try to sit and you're like...
You're like, fuck, I got nothing.
I mean, if you don't have any...
That's why I always, like...
Admire or envy guys that can write monologue writers or roast joke writers that you're like, I have to come up with material on this.
joe rogan
Yeah.
joe list
It's so impressive to me because just writing regular stand-up, you can sit and be like, I want to do a joke about this.
Ah, there's nothing there.
I don't have anything.
Fuck it.
joe rogan
Well, everybody's way of doing comedy is different.
How about a guy like Stephen Wright, where everything is an absurd non-sequitur?
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
Try writing that act.
joe list
No, and doing an hour of one-liners is just insane.
joe rogan
Oh, and remembering what you fucking talked about.
Because it doesn't flow into other stuff.
It's like one thing is another thing.
I used to work near a fire hydrant plant.
Couldn't park anywhere near the place.
Like, that kind of stuff.
Like, good luck.
Good luck writing those and then putting them all together in a way that makes sense.
joe list
No, it's almost impossible.
He had a great thing.
He was talking about his writing.
I heard him say one time, or read, that he's like, most of his jokes come from a very childlike approach.
Like, I think the example he used of, like, the 7-Eleven, or whatever, open 24 hours a day, and he went there and they were closed, and they said, not in a row.
unidentified
Right.
joe list
Which is childlike, because an adult thinks 24 hours is a day, but a kid doesn't know what 24 hours is a day, so the idea of them being closed is, well, it's not 24 hours in a row.
Or the idea of, like, he had the bit about, I got out of the airplane, I forgot to take the seatbelt off, so I'm dragging the plane behind me.
Which is very childlike thought.
What if I didn't take my seatbelt off, would I be able to move the plane?
So if you look at it, a lot of his jokes feel like the way a kid would think of something.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Or someone who smokes a lot of weed.
joe list
Yeah, which is like a child.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, Hedberg was like that, too.
Hedberg had a lot of bizarre non-sequiturs that would just go one into the other.
You know, he's another guy who's very clean, but brilliant.
joe list
Yeah.
joe rogan
Brilliantly hilarious.
There's a lot of guys like that.
Like, who else?
Gaffigan is another guy.
Squeaky clean.
Fucking hilarious.
It's just, you can't...
Comedy is...
Who the fuck knows how to do it right?
That's why...
Imagine teaching a comedy course and somebody comes into your class.
You're like, I don't know how to do it.
Good luck.
joe list
Yeah, and it takes years to kind of figure out how you do it.
You try to emulate styles or whatever.
joe rogan
Yeah.
joe list
But different people, yeah.
Some people just write out all their shit and have pages and stuff, and other people never write anything down.
joe rogan
Well, that's the thing, too, about comedy.
The beginning, like, Patrice used to call his babies.
Like, he always had a bunch of babies, like, dudes who would, like, copy his style.
Attell had the most babies, right?
joe list
Oh, of course, yeah.
joe rogan
That style of talking, telling jokes, and a punchline.
joe list
Yeah.
joe rogan
He had the most...
Brody had a very addictive style, too.
Like, you would be around Brody Stevens and you'd want to talk like him.
joe list
Yeah.
joe rogan
You know, it was just this sort of addicting, you know, just fucking the cadence.
joe list
That was another great Seinfeld thing.
He said, there's four levels of success in comedy.
Making friends laugh, making strangers laugh, getting paid to make strangers laugh, and having people talk like you because it's fun.
joe rogan
Ooh, yeah.
joe list
I really like that one.
And Dane was one of those guys for a minute there in like 04, 07, there was a lot of people you'd see doing that Dane thing.
joe rogan
And you know, Dane, a lot of where he got his from, he got a style.
He emulated Anthony Clark a lot.
joe list
Oh, interesting.
joe rogan
Who's a guy who...
Fuck, man.
When I was coming up in Boston, when I was an open-miker, Anthony Clark was hosting open-mic nights, and he was a big headliner in town.
Dude, he was a monster.
I mean, a monster.
And he was really cute.
He was handsome, but real thin and cute, and he'd wear a baseball hat, and he was real silly.
And so his crowd was like...
You know, he was young at the time, too.
So his crowd was like a lot of girls, man.
Like you go to see the Anthony Clark show and it would be like 300 people in the crowd and 250 of them were girls.
joe list
Wow.
joe rogan
Crazy.
Like girls would have like girls nights where they'd go out and they'd see Anthony Clark.
He was a monster.
I'm telling you, man.
He would fucking murder.
And he was influenced by Kevin Meany in a lot of ways.
It's interesting how you see these guys.
They have a guy that they admire, and they get influenced by them, but then they develop their own style.
joe list
Yeah, no, I love that stuff.
You can see those through lines.
It's fun.
But I missed Anthony Klein.
I wasn't around for that, but I was there when Dane was exploding.
It was insanity.
joe rogan
Yeah.
joe list
I hoped for him a bit there, and it was like a fucking rock show.
It was insane.
joe rogan
Yep, those Madison Square Garden days.
Wow.
He's got, you know, he had that same thing where it's like a lot of young girls would come see him and kids would come see him.
joe list
Oh, yeah.
No, and he like worked his ass.
I remember opening the Connection and it was sold out and he would go into Boston Rocks.
It was like the nightclub next door.
And then he would meet and greet with every single audience member.
And it would take so long that by the time he finished, he would go to the second.
It was the time for him to go up in the second show.
And I was like, this is like...
Work.
And I remember then, too, being like, I'm not doing that shit.
Like, that's insane.
joe rogan
I used to do meet and greets after theater shows.
I did the Chicago Theater, and I did meet and greets for hours.
I'd just take pictures of anybody who wanted to take a picture.
But after a while, it got too crazy.
Like, too many, like, really nutty people would wait around to talk to you, and you'd be like, this could be a problem.
joe list
Yeah, well, that part is more anxiety-inducing than the show.
People are always like, do you get nervous before a show?
I'm like, no, I get nervous talking to people after because you feel like you're going to disappoint them, and you're like, I never know what to say, and I just keep going, thank you, oh, fuck, and I always feel like they're just going, ah, this guy sucks.
You know what I mean?
I don't have that personality to do that.
joe rogan
Well, it's a weird relationship, too.
It's like people who pay to see you, you know, and then you can't just be you and them.
It's not even, right?
It's like it feels odd.
Like they've seen you, they like you, you don't know them, and you're meeting and you're on like uneven ground in a lot of ways.
It's hard to just relax.
joe list
Yeah, absolutely.
It's uncomfortable, and I feel like, like I said, I just feel like I'm disappointing them.
They're like, ah, this guy stinks.
joe rogan
But don't you think that that thing that you have, that you're worried about failure, and, you know, that's also motivating, right?
Because you're not going to take yourself for granted.
You're not going to think you're the shit.
You're not going to, like, underwork, right?
joe list
Yeah, no, I think so.
Absolutely.
I'm like, well, I always feel like, personally, I'm like, I gotta have good jokes because I'm not an exciting guy to fucking...
I'm not gonna be...
Like we talked about Mark, who's just so funny all the time, and he's just...
People love that...
joe rogan
Comedy!
joe list
Yeah, exactly.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe list
I have it a lot where, you know, Mark and I do a podcast together, so I'll go to a town after he was there, and they're like, do you want to run to the open mic?
Mark came, and I was like, no, I'm going home.
I want to go watch the fucking Sox game and go to bed.
joe rogan
So he would do a set and then run to an open mic as well?
joe list
Yeah, he's like an ad.
He loves it.
He runs around, and he'll go to the bar with everybody and tell a story, and I'm like, no, I'm not.
I exerted all my energy already.
I'm ready for bed.
joe rogan
That's Kreischer.
Kreischer.
joe list
A perfect example.
joe rogan
He'll go afterwards and party with everybody.
He'll tell people where he's going, and they'll all meet him there, and they'll all have their shirts off, and they'll sweat on each other.
joe list
No, that's my worst nightmare.
I'm like, I put together this 45 minutes of entertainment that I think is really strong, and then that's it.
I ran out of things to say.
If I had something to say, I would have said it up there.
joe rogan
And you want to take a nap.
joe list
Yes.
joe rogan
Just relax.
joe list
Or just be home and read.
Eat.
I stink.
I've been around too long.
I'm like an old soul.
I started when I was 18. Maybe that's part of it.
joe rogan
Did you really start when you were 18?
joe list
Yeah, so I'm 20 years in, which is weird.
joe rogan
Wow.
Where were you when you started?
joe list
I started in Boston in 2000. Which club did you start at?
I started, there was an open mic called, this place called Chop's Lounge, which was like a true open mic.
It's next to Fenway, but now that area is like so built.
You wouldn't even recognize it.
I don't know when the last time you've been in that area.
joe rogan
What's it like?
joe list
It's like, there's like high-rise buildings there.
It's very hip and cool, like...
You can't even see the ballpark now because there's all these, it's really fancy and, you know, fancy beer places and shit.
It's like a different place.
joe rogan
Oh.
joe list
But so the Comedy Connection was kind of the first club.
That became my home.
joe rogan
Faneuil Hall?
joe list
Yeah, yeah.
And I opened for, you know, DiPaolo and Attell and all those guys.
And that was like my home.
joe rogan
So in 2000, there was still a good scene coming out of there?
joe list
I think so.
I mean, it was definitely post-boom or whatever, and it was sort of dipping.
But it's so interesting because, you know, I came up with all the same guys.
You started in Boston, right?
Like, all the same guys with you.
Like, I'm close with Louis, and we talk.
We have the same beginnings because all those same guys are there.
Like, we have the same experiences with Mike Donovan and Don Gavin and Tony V, all those guys that are amazing comics.
So it's funny because we started...
15 years apart, but started with all the same guys.
So it was a good local scene, and there was a lot of shows there.
joe rogan
Well, the local headliners were at such a high level.
joe list
No, they're unbelievable.
I mean, they're still on.
I listened to Gav when he was on.
It was fun.
I mean, those guys, like Mike Donovan, you know Mike Donovan.
joe rogan
Sure.
joe list
To me, he's like the funniest guy ever.
joe rogan
He's amazing.
joe list
He's like unbelievably funny.
joe rogan
He's the first guy who told me to tape all my sets.
joe list
Yeah, he still tapes all his sets.
He'll still listen to them.
joe rogan
But he probably uses a fucking tape recorder.
joe list
It's literally, I mean, I haven't seen him in probably 10 or 15 years, but he would have like a Walkman with like the metal fucking thing listening to it.
And, um, no, he's like, I have a great Mike Donovan story, you know, he's a nutty guy, and, um, just brilliantly funny, but I was doing a gig at BC High, and it was like, I think it was like the sons and fathers, it was a fathers and sons thing, it was like 500 people, and all the priests and everything, and it was in this huge gymnasium, and I got there early with a comic named Jim Colliden, who's a funny guy, too, probably started after you were there, but...
We were, like, killing time, because, like, we're starting late, and we walked to the other side of the basketball court.
It was, like, divided, and there was these kids playing full-court basketball, and we're like, oh, we'll sit here and watch these kids play basketball, whatever, we're just killing time.
And we're watching for a little bit, and we realize Donovan is on the court with the kids.
He's got, like, slacks and a fucking collared shirt, and he's running the floor playing full-court basketball, like...
Posting these kids up, and we're like, what the fuck?
And he comes up after, and he's all sweaty and disheveled, and he's like, these fucking kids are calling me old school.
I'll show you old school.
I'll fucking elbow you under the boards.
How about that?
unidentified
And he's like, really playing basketball.
joe list
And I was like, God, I fucking love this guy.
But some of the best bits ever.
joe rogan
Was he still doing the Johnny Most bit?
joe list
I don't think he had done that.
I've heard him do that, but he had stopped doing that.
joe rogan
People didn't know who Johnny Most was anymore, unfortunately.
joe list
Yeah, yeah, but...
joe rogan
Johnny Mose, we should tell people, was a legendary Boston sports broadcaster.
joe list
Yeah.
joe rogan
And Donovan had a fucking amazing bit that he would do about him that would just slaughter in Boston.
But you couldn't do it anywhere else.
joe list
Yeah, and then enough time passed that most people don't know who he is now.
But no, Donovan had so many great jokes and just could do voices and everything.
Just pure funny.
joe rogan
He was just crisp.
He was crisp.
joe list
Yeah.
joe rogan
You know, his punchlines.
Like, there were so many of those guys who just had great punchlines.
You know, he's the first guy that told me about the fuck meter, too.
He explained to me the fuck meter.
He goes, you gotta be careful with how many fucks you say.
You don't want to over fuck.
He goes, you break the fuck meter.
And he goes, and then it doesn't mean anything anymore.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
He goes, you say it, but you say it when you need it.
Like, don't overuse it.
So when you do use it, it's got some impact.
And you'll see that with, like, guys who are starting out or guys who are not that good yet.
They just say, you're fucking this fucking thing with this fucking guy.
I fucking told him this fucking...
And I was like, hey, fuck you!
Well, that fuck you doesn't mean anything anymore.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
But if you, like, go through your set and you eliminate all the unnecessary...
Because it's really like a way of saying, uh...
Like, this guy, he's got a, but he doesn't sound as good as this fucking guy, he's got a fucking thing, and as long as you do it, like, Bird does it occasionally, but he sprinkles it in there, like, he's a master of knowing when to say fuck, and when not to, and when it, like, you could see his anger and his angst ramping up with the use of the word.
joe list
Yeah, I... There's a...
What was his name?
Fucking...
I'm blanking on his name.
joe rogan
Fucking, you did it right there.
joe list
Yeah, I say fuck constantly.
joe rogan
Oh, I do too.
joe list
Oh, Kevin Knox.
I don't know why I couldn't think of his name.
joe rogan
Oh, I love Kevin Knox.
joe list
Knox, he was the guy that...
He said fuck like the most because he just said it like you're doing...
He's like, fucking yeah.
joe rogan
Fucking normal.
Fucking yeah, this guy is fucking...
But it was a part of his rhythm.
It was a different thing.
joe list
Yeah, but he was another guy that just would...
unidentified
Murder!
joe list
Like, it was insanity.
unidentified
Oh, yeah.
joe list
That's what's interesting to me about a lot of comics now, that From starting in Boston, I did all these VFWs and the Knights of Columbus and fundraised firehouses, and you couldn't fuck around.
You had to have jokes fast, or they were going to be like, hey, what is this?
So those guys would just murder, and sometimes I'm worried that there's not as much value on killing, because coming up in Boston, you had to kill.
That was it.
That was the number one thing, was you've got to kill.
joe rogan
Well, it's a hard work in town.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
Like, first of all, it snows five months out of the fucking year and you gotta shovel your way out of your driveway, right?
unidentified
Yes.
joe rogan
Otherwise you don't go to work.
Like, there's certain things you have to do.
You gotta fucking endure.
And it's just a town that's always valued hard work.
When you live in a town where you could die outside, there's things that you have to do.
You just have to suck it up and do it.
You can't just lay down in the middle of the street.
It's too cold.
I can't walk.
Well, you're going to die because it's zero degrees outside.
You can only stay out here for so long when it's zero.
You've got to keep fucking moving.
And so you develop this ability to do work.
And there's an ethic in the town.
They appreciate hard work.
All my friends growing up, a lot of them that I'm still friends with today, they're tradesmen.
One of my buddies is an electrician, the other one's a carpenter, and I still talk to them to this day.
They always were hard workers.
When I was in high school, they were busting their ass.
They worked for their dad, or they worked for an uncle.
They would take side jobs after school.
Everybody was always...
Going for it.
joe list
Yeah.
joe rogan
Like this kid, Steve, that I went to high school with, he had a fucking landscape company.
We were in high school.
He had money in high school.
We were like, what the fuck?
He had a business.
Like, he had a bunch of different lawns.
He had people working for him in high school.
He had a 1967 Firebird already, like this beautiful car.
And we were always like, goddammit.
He was just ahead of the curve.
He was a businessman in high school, but it was not outside the norm.
There was a lot of people that hustled.
You had to work.
So that was the same thing with comedy.
They didn't want any meandering, what else, what else.
You couldn't go through your notes.
Get the fuck off the stage and bring on that next guy who's going to hammer it.
joe list
Yeah, exactly.
I feel like, too, and I don't know if this is elsewhere.
I only grew up in one place, but when I was growing up in Massachusetts, the only thing people valued was either being funny or being tough.
Like, everybody...
Nobody was ever like, that guy's really smart.
Everyone's like, this is my buddy, he's hilarious.
That's how everybody was like, this guy's really funny.
Or they're like, this guy could kill you.
And you had, like, eight friends, and seven of them were fucking hilarious, and one of them was a psycho that would beat someone up.
joe rogan
That's Mike, he's a psycho.
Don't fuck with him.
joe list
Yeah, that was the only thing valued, and I still, like...
I still feel that, like all the people I know, like the funniest people I know are still like my best buddy Derek and my uncle Brian are just like pure fun.
I'm like these guys are funnier than any comics I know and they're just whatever, you know, a merchant marine and a carpenter.
joe rogan
The funniest guy I knew was a guy named Dave Dolan, who was my boss.
He was a private investigator, and I worked for him when I was an open-miker when I was just starting out.
He needed a driver because he lost his license from DUI, and he put an ad out in the newspaper for a private investigator's assistant.
So I was like, oh, I'm going to be a fucking private eye assistant.
That's a good gig to do when you're doing stand-up.
Because it was mostly during the day, but it was really, he just needed a driver.
He just needed someone with a valid driver's license.
But he was hilarious and happened to be, just coincidentally, cousins to Bill Downs, who's one of the owners of the Comedy Connection.
joe list
No Money Downs.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Billy Downs.
joe list
I know.
I worked for Bill years after he had the connection, and it was these weird gigs.
unidentified
Yes!
joe list
You'd have to sign a napkin and it'd give you 20 bucks or whatever.
unidentified
Yes!
joe rogan
He always had a lot of those, a lot of those road gigs.
And back in the day, there was no MapQuest or navigation system, so I had a legal notepad.
And I always used to feel like I was a hitman or something like that.
I'd write the note, you know, like, go down this two miles, take a ride on that street, and get on the highway for six miles.
And you'd have these...
Directions you wrote down.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
And so while you're driving, you had to look down this piece of paper.
I don't even know if I had a fucking map.
I might have had a map, but I was going by these directions, and I'd have to do them in reverse to get home.
And, you know, I'm kind of dumb, so I'd fuck that up.
Get lost in the woods somewhere in New Hampshire.
joe list
Yeah, I remember a lot of those gigs.
And when I started, there was a few gigs like that.
It would be like four sets of lights, make left at 7-Eleven or whatever.
But then we had MapQuest where you could print it at home.
You had your desktop.
And I had stacks of papers everywhere with footprints on them in my car because you'd be driving with a piece of paper going, all right, this is it.
And you'd have to pull over and use a phone somewhere.
joe rogan
Yeah, I had a box filled with those legal notebook papers, which like, oh, this fucking, the 99 in Saugus.
That's this.
There's Giggles.
This one, you know, this is the Kowloon.
joe list
Yeah.
joe rogan
And, you know, directions all written out.
joe list
Yeah, it was fun.
I mean, I still, those are still some of the best.
I thought about doing a special, like, at a firehouse fundraiser.
Because those shows, you can fucking...
Murder!
joe rogan
Oh, yeah!
joe list
I mean, you could really kill those shows.
There was a guy, Bob Mello, who passed away, but he had a bunch of those gigs like that.
And if you caught fire in those rooms, it would be insane.
joe rogan
Did you ever work with Larry Rapucci?
joe list
No, but I know a lot of Larry Rapucci stories.
joe rogan
Larry Rapucci was a maniac.
joe list
Yeah, he was around, but I never missed him.
joe rogan
He was a maniac.
He was a funny dude.
There was a lot of funny guys.
joe list
So funny.
joe rogan
Was Jim Lolletta still around?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe list
I mean, I haven't seen Lolletta in years, but I guess he's around.
There was a great story about...
I love this story.
You know Ross Bennett?
joe rogan
No.
joe list
He's a New York guy.
He was Eddie Strange a long, long time ago.
He's a New York guy.
joe rogan
Oh, okay.
joe list
But he's one of those guys who's just been around 30-something years.
I think he was in L.A. a long, long time ago.
Great comic.
But there was a guy named Ed Regal.
He had a room in Dorchester called the Emerald Isle.
And he hired Ross Bennett to come up from New York to headline.
And Jim Lolletta was around and wanted to do a set.
And Ed Regal said to Ross...
I got this guy.
He had nothing to do, so he's going to do a set.
But I want to have him close, because he does this Batman thing.
You saw when he wore the Batman mask.
unidentified
Yeah, he still does that?
joe list
I mean, I haven't seen him in years, probably 10 years, but this is almost 20 years ago now.
And so Ed said, I'm going to have him close, because he does this thing with this Batman mask.
He does Don Knotts as Batman, and it fucking blows the room apart.
So he'll close, and Ross Bennett, I forever respect him.
He was like, no, no, I came up from New York.
I'm headlining.
And he goes, I'll go after this.
He can do his thing.
And if I don't do well, if he buries me, you can keep the money.
But I came to headline.
unidentified
Right.
joe list
Which I love.
joe rogan
Yeah.
joe list
And then Loletta did the thing and fucking destroyed.
And Ross went up and kind of started slow.
And it was a little weird at first.
And they slowly built up and just started killing and killing and just murdered.
joe rogan
Beautiful.
joe list
And it was a great lesson of like, no, you can follow anything.
You just got to bring them back down to whatever level you want them And you got to be comfortable.
joe rogan
That's the thing.
I realized early on that one of the reasons why I was bombing going on after people that were really good is I was scared.
One of the worst bombs I ever had, ever, was going on after Jim Brewer.
Brewer and I did a gig in somewhere in New York.
I'm trying to remember what's...
West Nyack, maybe?
Some weird place in New York.
But I was headlining and he was middling, and I really shouldn't have been headlining.
I'd only been doing comedy like four years, maybe somewhere in that range.
Three, four years.
I had a bullshit 45 minutes.
I really had like a half hour and I could stretch it.
And I was okay every night.
Every night I did okay until Saturday night.
Saturday night late show.
Brewer was on fire.
Because he'd gotten loose as the week had gone on, right?
Because, you know, we were probably...
I don't remember what night we started, whether it was Thursday or Wednesday, what night we started.
But, you know, as the day, the weeks go on, you know, later in the week you get tighter.
Your act gets tighter and smoother.
And the last show on Saturday night, it was a drunk crowd.
They were wild.
And he had this bit.
Jim had this bit about coming home.
I don't remember if it was drunk or high, coming home and dealing with his mother.
Just talking to his mom.
I forget exactly how the bit worked, but it was super physical.
He just looks funny.
He's just one of those guys.
Dude, I'm telling you, I shit my pants backstage.
I was so nervous.
It was one of the worst moments for me as a person.
My girlfriend had just broken up with me.
I just moved out to New York.
I was dressed nice, which was also a thing my manager talked to me about in the beginning.
He was like, maybe you should dress nice on stage.
And I was like, yeah, I should dress nice.
So I looked like I was trying to get laid at a club.
I looked like a douche.
So I'm like this Italian douchebag.
I had hair back then, so I looked nice.
You know, with a nice shirt on and nice pants, and I'm Nervous like real nervous and Jim was destroying and I was supposed to 45 minutes and I wound up doing like 35 and I just ate dick I bombed so hard and I remember afterwards thinking like and I was living my grandfather at the time it was it was an interesting time in my life because I had just moved to New York, but I couldn't afford an apartment, so I was staying with my grandfather, who lived in Newark, and my grandmother, it was a rough situation.
My grandmother had an aneurysm, and they gave her 78 hours to live.
She wound up living 12 years.
But it was rough.
She would moan and make these horrible noises and she couldn't talk to you.
And my grandfather had to take care of her with a nurse.
It was sad, man.
It was really sad.
It was depressing.
My grandfather was depressed and my grandmother...
She couldn't move at all.
She was bedridden.
But part of me was...
It was like...
It was like a cold, hard lesson about health and life.
This could happen to anybody.
This could happen to you.
It could happen to her.
It could happen to anybody.
At a certain point in your life, your health could fail you, and you could find yourself in this situation, and you've got to make the right decisions.
You've got to do what you want to do.
You don't want to live a life of regret and be old and dying and sad that you didn't go for it.
You didn't do something.
So my future was very, very uncertain then.
You know, I just got signed by my manager, who I'm still with to this day, and I was like really excited about that.
Like there was promise.
But then again, here I am, you know, girlfriend broke up with me, dressed like a douchebag, bombing.
And then going back to New Jersey, to Newark, which was...
Wild at the time.
Like, the next-door neighbor was a drug dealer, and he had an Audi, like a nice Audi in the driveway, and the cops at the DEA or whoever had fucking broken down his door and arrested him.
It was, like, sketchy.
Because the neighborhood at one point in time was this all-Italian neighborhood, and in the 1960s, they did this thing called blockbusting.
Where they would move into these neighborhoods like real estate agents would get people scared and tell them the property values are going down because black people are moving in a neighborhood.
You got to sell your house.
My grandfather was like, I like black people.
Get the fuck out of here.
I'm not going anywhere.
And so he was like one of the last Italian families in this neighborhood.
And the neighborhood had gotten like more and more crime ridden as they had kind of deteriorated the community by like forcing people to sell low and cheap and people got scared and and then crime kept going and Newark just sort of deteriorated like because it was like Italian immigrants than other immigrants and then by the time I got there which was like 92 93 just was not a good place to be and then you know Being with my grandparents
and seeing my grandmother dying like that and then bombing and eating shit But it really made me work harder because I really realized that night I'm like you can never bomb like that again Like you have to you if you want a career in comedy like it's almost going away It's like slipping away like that can't happen Because I had a lot of stuff in my act was just nonsense.
It just wasn't good.
It was okay if the crowd was accepting and I didn't go on after anyone too strong.
I could do alright.
But if I went on after anybody strong and then I was nervous, I knew myself it was bullshit.
So I didn't think it was funny.
So as I was saying it to the crowd, I didn't have any confidence in it.
So, that bombing though, like months later, I worked for the same club, like maybe four or five months later, and I murdered.
And I remember this kid who was there, he goes, you were here a little while ago, you weren't this funny.
And I go, yeah man, I've been fucking working.
I remember how bad I ate shit last time I was here, we both laughed.
joe list
Yeah, it's traumatic to fucking eat it like that.
joe rogan
And it was also, like, it was triggering to go back to the spot.
joe list
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
Back to the spot where you ate it.
Like, do they remember?
Does the staff remember?
Like, you know, when you eat shit, like, you feel useless.
joe list
Yeah, it's an awful feeling.
I mean, it's the worst.
But especially when you're following someone that just killed because they can smell it on you immediately.
They're like, oh, he fucking knows.
It's amazing how perceptive the audience is of like, oh, it's not.
joe rogan
They feel it on you.
When you're having fun, they're having fun.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
Like, if you're not having fun, they don't...
Like, you can say the exact same things, but not enjoy it and not be into it, and they don't get it.
They're like, this isn't funny.
Like, something's wrong.
joe list
Yeah, well, Tony V gave me the best lesson with that with following, like, Killers is...
Because I think when you're young, your natural interest is trying to keep it at that level.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe list
Especially like a guy like Brewer or somebody like...
Hey everybody, what's up?
I'm fucking Joe Rogan!
joe rogan
Yeah.
joe list
But he's like, you gotta bring them down.
Bring them down to the level, and that comes with confidence, too, of that ability to just sit there and be like, it's gonna be fine.
joe rogan
Yeah.
joe list
Hey everybody, and bring them back down to whatever level, and then you start building them back up to your energy and stuff.
joe rogan
Yeah, you get them into your frequency.
joe list
Yeah, but trying to follow somebody's energy, especially when it's not yours, is just brutal.
joe rogan
But it's also the structure of shows.
If you're booking a show on the road, you don't want to structure it so that this guy who goes on before you does musical numbers and impressions and backflips and like, hey, this is not a good fit.
But when you're starting out, you don't get to choose.
So you might have to follow Wolves.
joe list
Yeah, yeah.
No, it's crazy.
In Boston, a lot of times, people are doubling up.
They're doing this show, and then they've got to run to that.
So you'd have it where you're like, okay, Kevin Knox has to go first, because he's got to...
And he's going...
And they're fucking...
joe rogan
Yeah.
joe list
And then you go up there and you're like, oh shit, I gotta go.
Hey, you guys, are you guys nervous?
I'm a nervous.
The crowd's like, fuck you, you stink.
joe rogan
I'm a longshoreman.
joe list
Yeah, exactly.
joe rogan
Yeah, I'm not fucking nervous.
Yeah, but it was a great place to start because of that desire for rapid fire comedy and the short attention span.
They wanted it fast, they wanted them punchlines to hit hard, and they wanted you to be good, tight.
joe list
Yeah, no, I still feel that way.
That's still the kind of comedy I like, is lots of punchlines.
joe rogan
The bad part about that style is that those guys didn't innovate a lot.
They would develop an act, and they would hold onto that motherfucker like it was pearls.
They would clutch those pearls.
joe list
Yeah, it's interesting to me.
A lot of older guys just never thought to keep writing, which is interesting to me, because the reason I... Write and I feel like I'm pretty prolific.
It's just because I'm tired of saying the shit.
It's not like I'm just like, I can't.
I gotta write because I'm like, I don't want to do that same bit again.
I already did it.
joe rogan
Well, it's also our generation puts out a lot of specials.
Their generation didn't do that very often.
If you had one or two specials, it was a lot.
joe list
Yeah, there was like three guys.
It was like Carlin and Cosby were doing an hour every year and whatever, the same six guys.
But now it feels like everybody's got to do that.
joe rogan
Well, also, go back and watch some of the all-time greats.
You watch their early stuff and it's great.
And then as it gets on in their career, they kind of run out of stuff to talk about.
Like, Kinnison is a great example of that.
Like, Kinnison, I think, in 86, like 86 to 88, is like...
One of the strongest acts that's ever lived.
He was so good.
But then you go Kinnison to like 91 and he was like a parody of himself.
He was like a guy pretending to be Kinnison.
He lost all of his steam.
And his brother wrote about that actually in his book.
His brother wrote a book called Brother Sam, his brother Bill.
And he wrote about how Sam was just partying all the time and he wasn't writing.
joe list
Yeah.
I mean, that's scary to me, the idea of like, I have nothing else.
I mean, right now my act is all dick and shit jokes because pandemic, it's like, that's all I was doing was shitting and trying to have sex with my wife.
But I think a lot of times you end up talking about the same shit.
It's like, all right, here's my sex jokes and here's my anxiety jokes and here's a couple of stories of things that happen.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, comedy is, I mean, it's not always.
Sometimes it's just jokes.
But a lot of comedy is, here's the world through my eyes.
And when your world has been kind of like being locked up and nervous for a year, it's a weird way to develop comedy.
joe list
Yeah.
joe rogan
And a party perspective.
Like you're going out to a show and people are having a good time, you know.
And you're like, I was worried I was going to die.
unidentified
Right, right, right.
joe list
No, it's hard to, yeah, no, it's hard and I understand why a lot of comics end up getting writing jobs or just doing podcasts because it's, the hardest thing to do is come up with good material.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, there's also, there's nerves, right, and the nerves of continuing to perform at a high level.
I've heard that about athletes too, that some athletes, it's not that their body stops working, it's that they don't have the desire anymore.
They're not as enthusiastic about it, so they don't have the same intensity that they had when they were younger, and so it just sort of fades off.
joe list
Yeah, I mean, so many artists are like that.
I mean, we're talking about Scorsese, like, he's one of the few that still is great, but, like, artists of all kinds, musicians, too.
It's like the Stones albums in the last 20 years are not, it's not Let It Bleed, you know?
joe rogan
Do they even put out new music?
joe list
I think they did...
God, I don't know.
They did a blues album of blues covers a while ago.
That might be the most recent, but...
joe rogan
That's got to be a weird thing, too, where people only want to hear your old shit.
joe list
It's the complete reverse of comedy.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
They only want to hear, you know, hot rocks.
joe list
Yeah, there was a...
I think Simpsons had a joke.
It was Jackson Brown.
He's like, I'm going to play a new song.
And everyone goes, boo!
And he goes, just kidding!
It is.
It's like...
People are like, what the fuck's this shit?
It's the complete reverse of stand-up.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, that's that old expression.
Every rock star wants to be a comic and every comic wants to be a rock star.
joe list
Yeah.
Well, the other way it's flipped, too, is musicians, they write a song and then record it and then go play it for years.
Where we do the bit for years and then record it at the end.
Right.
joe rogan
Right.
joe list
Which is flipped.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, they can develop music in a vacuum.
They can develop music alone.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
And then come out and start, this is a new song I wrote I want to write for you guys.
Like, oh, here we go, here we go.
You know, this is a new one.
Well, it's like, is this a new joke?
I'm gonna try it out.
Like, no!
joe list
That's another great Seinfeld thing.
He said, comedy's the only art where if it's not done well, people are like, that's not the art.
Like, no one's ever like, that's not a painting.
joe rogan
Right.
joe list
But if you do a joke that doesn't work, people are like, that's not a joke.
That's nothing.
joe rogan
Well, it's one of the weird art forms where you need a response and you have to practice it in front of people.
joe list
Right.
joe rogan
So it has to be live in front of people in order to get that response.
And the only way to...
I mean, you write, but you think it's going to be good.
You've got a kind of an idea of where you're going to go with it, but you don't really know until you're in front of those people.
joe list
That's what's amazing about comedy, too.
The longer you do it, you get a better batting average.
You get a better understanding of, like, this is going to work.
But there's still times where you're like, this is funny, and then you do it, and people are like, what?
And you're like, how the fuck did that happen?
How did I think that was going to be funny and it's not?
joe rogan
There's also weird crowds.
Anybody who says that crowds doesn't matter, crowds are the same, it doesn't matter, it's you.
That's not true.
There are moments where there's energy In rooms and in places, it varies.
And you feel it up there.
Some nights you get up there and you're like, oh my god, this crowd is wild.
Like, everything is popping.
And then you get out there and they're like, they're like, ha ha ha.
And then there's like this death in between jokes.
Like, it doesn't carry on.
The energy doesn't maintain.
And then you're in your own head, which is weird.
joe list
Yeah, no, I'm like a guy that's like, I'm sorry, I'm like, it's almost always the audience because I'm saying the exact fucking shit I said on the early show.
It's like, you want to just play a recording of like, look how much they're enjoying it.
But I forget, I think Jake Johansson said that, he's like, we always as comics compare the joke to the best audience ever.
And you forget it's a different group of individuals in a different situation because you're like, no, this joke kills.
And you're like, well, these are different people in a different scenario.
joe rogan
Well, that's a living art form.
It's a weird living thing.
And that's why it's hard to lock something down for a special, right?
Like, is it done?
Is it done?
I don't know.
Like, you gotta kind of decide it's done enough.
joe list
Well, that's one of the things I hate about specials is that I know it's like you're never getting the best version.
Even the best, like Bring the Pain or Prior in Long Beach.
It was better live if you were there.
And there was probably better.
There's no way you just captured the best night ever.
joe rogan
Yeah.
joe list
And so it's a frustrating thing about specials.
joe rogan
Even if you did.
It's not as good as being there.
joe list
Yeah, you're watching it.
joe rogan
70% of it at the best.
joe list
Yes, that's why I like albums better than specials, because when you watch a special, it is like you're watching a show.
You're watching people watch a show, whereas at least audio, you can kind of close your eyes and it feels like you're there.
joe rogan
Well, the feeling of being in a room and someone doing anything, whether it's Cirque du Soleil or Cirque du Soleil, when you're there live and they're doing backflips and everything, it feels amazing.
It's wild.
It's a human being doing all that shit.
But when you're watching it, it's 70% of it.
You get 70% of the energy.
Whether it's musicians or comics especially.
You're by yourself.
There's no contagious laughter.
There's no one around you.
joe list
Yeah, that's part of it too.
You're laughing at the people around you laughing and it's...
I see people at concerts filming The Stones and you're like, what are you going to do?
Watch that on your phone?
It's going to suck.
joe rogan
The dumbest shit is when they film fireworks.
Who the fuck is watching your fireworks?
Look who I saw last night.
Look at the bang in the sky.
Listen to it.
You've got to get your ear close so you get the full effect.
joe list
That's the great thing about comedy is you really do have to be there for it to properly be enjoyed.
joe rogan
Yeah, and it's always going to be, and I think for good reason, it's always going to be like One of the least respected art forms, but one of the most appreciated when you're there.
joe list
Yeah.
joe rogan
Like our art form is not really thought of like the way someone composes a symphony or someone makes a great film.
It's never going to be thought of that way, but yet people are always going to love to go see it.
But the cultural perception, the audience's perception, the people's perception of like what comedy is, ah, a bunch of fucking jackasses say stupid shit and talk about their dick.
joe list
Right.
I thought Louis did a great thing.
I think it was the last episode of the show, the show Louis, where Jim Florentine played the hack feature.
Did you ever watch that?
joe rogan
I didn't see that episode.
joe list
It's amazing.
So they're sharing a condo, and Louis is the headliner.
And they have this discussion.
You can tell it's like both sides of Louis' brain.
But it's a great thing.
I mean, you should watch it.
But it's like, Louis is like, I'm fucking doing art, man.
And you're just up there making fart jokes.
And Florentine, who's playing a character, it's not actually him, but he's like...
No, dude.
It's a party trick.
People come, they get drunk, they watch us, they go home and fuck.
They're just trying to...
You gotta have fun.
It's goofy.
And he sort of argues both sides of comedy of like, no, it's dick jokes, it's silly, it's a party.
And Louie's like, no, man, I'm like agonizing trying to express myself.
And he kind of nails, because it's both things happening at the same time.
It is a place to go and get drunk and fucking laugh and go, ha ha, let's go somewhere else now.
joe rogan
It is both things.
I mean, and I love great writing, but I also love some of the dumbest shit that just happens to be really funny.
joe list
Yeah, of course.
I mean, that's how I'm trying to, like, I'm mad at myself right now because I'm like, my whole act is dick and shit right now.
But then I'm like...
joe rogan
I can't wait to watch it.
joe list
I'm like, it's funny.
I don't know.
To me, it's funny.
I'm doing well.
joe rogan
We're working tonight.
So let's wrap this up.
It's already four o'clock.
joe list
Alright, great.
Well, thanks for having me, man.
unidentified
I appreciate it.
joe list
Can I plug my special?
It's on YouTube.
joe rogan
Wait a minute.
joe list
We're done.
joe rogan
We're done.
joe list
It's over.
unidentified
Oh, fuck.
joe list
Goddammit.
joe rogan
Listen, there's no more time.
joe list
I blew it.
I'm so bad at business.
joe rogan
And fuck your podcast and fuck...
So, Tuesdays with Stories.
What is the metal...
joe list
Mindful Metal Jacket.
joe rogan
Mindful Metal Jacket, which is hilarious.
joe list
I'm doing another one on YouTube called Joe and Ron on Talk Movies, but this is my special.
joe rogan
I hate myself.
Look at you, you motherfucker.
3,627,376 views.
unidentified
Woo!
Woo!
joe list
Yeah, I self-produced it.
joe rogan
You're ballin'.
That's the way to do it, man.
You did it at the cellar, too.
joe list
Did it at the Village Underground.
Same jacket I'm wearing now.
joe rogan
I like it.
It's a good fit.
joe list
Yeah, it did well.
joe rogan
You sleek, slender bastard.
Look at you up there.
joe list
Oh, thank you.
Yeah, it was fucking...
joe rogan
So the Village Underground is a cellar sign?
joe list
It's like their sister club.
It's bigger.
joe rogan
Didn't Bobby Kelly do his shit there too?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe list
He did his there.
Sam Murillo did his there.
It's such a great spot.
Because Noam, the owner, who's just the best, it's like, yeah, you can have the door, you can have the room.
It's great.
joe rogan
How many seats?
joe list
I don't know.
250 maybe?
Something like that?
Perfect.
No, I'm proud of it.
It was great.
joe rogan
Beautiful.
joe list
Yeah.
joe rogan
Dude, you're a funny guy.
I appreciate you.
unidentified
Thanks, man.
joe list
I appreciate you.
joe rogan
Stop all this low self-esteem shit.
Let it go.
No, don't worry about it.
Keep it up.
Keep it up.
Whatever you're doing, it's great.
I love it.
joe list
Thank you.
joe rogan
I appreciate it.
unidentified
All right.
joe rogan
Appreciate you.
Hey.
unidentified
All right.
joe rogan
Comedy.
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