Boston Comedy Legend Steve Sweeney on Doing Stand-up | Joe Rogan

I've done so many things in my life, you know, movies, TV, all this stuff, stand up, but Joe Rogan, oh my God, back in Boston, Jesus, you run Joe Rogan. Yeah, I get, you've got fans, you know, that are like all these different ages and all different kinds of people and I'm very proud of you. Thank you. One of the things that happened, you don't remember this, but you opened for me. Many times. Nick DePalo opened for me. So people that want a little show business advice open for me. It helps. And then you get to go buy me and, you know, I get to watch you guys become stars. I've said- So I'm playing fucking Chinese restaurants in Saugus. Some of the best stand-up comedy in the world is at Chinese restaurants in Saugus and that's a fact still to this day. All those people that live there, they don't know how good they have it. Well, you know what it is. You know, you work with these guys, you and I have worked with guys that are like genius, you know, a transcendent, whatever word you want to use. But doing stand-up is not about being funny. It's about going into these shitholes and like developing this extra skin. You know, you're a martial artist and sort of you have kind of that mentality. But you know, when I started, it was like I came from, you know, I was an actor, I was very serious person. I was like an actor, you know, and I do like these obscure impressions. Paul Scofield and Laurence Olivier, you know, Raisonnettes and all this bullshit. And I'd be playing at places like the Sugar Shack. Do you remember the Sugar Shack? Yes, I do. It was a black R&B joint and they opened for BB King. Wow. Yeah. And I'm doing like John Lennon. It was very important when we started them. And the black, do some dirty shit, man. What the fuck are you doing? Don't you know any jokes? So in the back, I get heckled. My first heckler, he said, you suck. And I said, yeah, fuck you. Who are you? He says, I'm BB King. I hired you, motherfucker. Oh, no. And then I was doing, I will never forget this. Do you remember the channel? The channel? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The channel. The club. Rock and roll place. So I'm opening for like these bands. It was like that Blues Brothers scenes where they're throwing shit at the cage. So the bouncer, he says, point to people and we'll throw them out. So I'd point to them, but then they'd bring them out in the alley and beat the shit out of them. But I'm thinking because you're a martial artist, so I've kind of got this thing about people fighting and growing up in Charleston. I think back on certain incidents when I was starting doing stand-up. And I was at this place on Comm Ave and this guy stole one of my lines. Now, I know that you're a big into that, right? So he goes off stage. I hit him with a right cross and fucking goes over the tables and I'm thinking to myself, my friends, I thought you wanted to be Jonathan Winters and reds. They don't do shit like that. And then another time we were at the ground round in Brighton. I'll never forget this. The ground round. Yeah, I'll never forget this, Joe. The guy on before me, the guy in the audience is throwing little ice things at him, right? So I said, my opening line, usually you try to get the audience to like you, or make them laugh or whatever. So my opening line was like, the first motherfucker that throws something at me, I'm going to knock them out. You're not exactly setting the stage for hilarious comedy. But you know, I really- How did that work? What's that? How did that work out? I was like, I'm going to bomb. You know, people think, you know, when you do this for a while, you've never bombed. I mean, there's no experience in life like bombing in Louisville, Kentucky. I'll never forget that. And a guy comes up to me afterwards and he says, and he was trying to make me feel good. He says, we're like a tale by your tone, you're funny. But I'm doing shit like about subways and stuff. They don't even know what they are. So those early years, there was like one, there wasn't even a comedy club. So you just kind of did it. I fell into it. What year did you start? Oh my God. People, you know, people, I am now at that point, Joe, where people come up to me and you know, they say, I'm so glad to see you. I keep telling my husband, I'm telling you, he's not dead. He has not died. So it's been like 30 or 40 years. I don't remember the year, but I remember those. You don't remember the year you started? No, I don't remember. I started in 88 and you were a legend. I was a legend back then. You were for sure, dude. I watched you one night at Nick's Comedy Stop, Kill So Hard, I thought about quitting because I had only been doing comedy like a year. And I was like, fuck this. I got to get the fuck out of this business. You know when I had that feeling? Richard Pryor's first performance film. Do you remember that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Richard Pryor Live, he filmed it in Long Beach. I went to see that with Stephen Wright and both of us walked out. We said, we don't even want to do this. You know, it was so intimidating. Yeah, I know that feeling, man. Well, you know, we got that feeling a lot in Boston and as a kid starting out there, I tell everybody that I stumbled into the greatest comedy scene in the history of the known universe. In 1988, when I started, it was insane. It was insane. Don Gavin was in his prime. You were in your prime. Roger Sin. I would watch these guys go up. There was so many guys that were so fucking good. Knox was killing back then. There were so many guys that you would go, any night you would go and watch some of the best stand-up comedy on the planet. It was amazing. Mike Donovan, Mike Donovan, to this day, people don't know who Mike Donovan is. He was a fucking genius. You said Johnny Most. Do you know who Johnny Most is? Most people don't. No. He's an ounce of a red sock for the result. They say, no, I can't believe it. He just went under. Yeah, he would do this long impression of Johnny Most. But it's funny you say in your prime because, and I've talked to people who've been in it longer than me, this is one job where you can get better. Yes. You can get better, more skillful, you know, but it's something that you, you know, you just have to give the finger to the business because they're looking for the fat guy, the small guy, the black guy that, you know, they're always looking for something other than what you are. Right. So you do what you do like you've done what you did, you know. Well, the business in terms of like movies and television shows, yeah, they will try to lure you away and they lure you away with money. But the business of stand-up comedy is really about what you do in front of that microphone and how the audience responds. I've been on stage, I followed a woman and she had a lot of TV credits, but she had no material and it was unbelievable. You know, you forget. When you do something, you forget. It's like you're a trained fighter, you're a trained radio person. You forget that in order to do it, you've developed a certain set of skills. Yeah. And like in Boston, they have a St. Patrick's Day breakfast where the politicians try to be funny and it's excruciating. You know what I mean? And you forget, oh yeah, I do this all the time. It'd be like me trying to give a speech. Before I came on this show, I talked to Nick DiPaolo, you know, your buddy. Sure. And he says, well, Joe and I always talk about politics. And I said, well, nobody... He can't help himself though. Nobody talks to me about politics. I'm just not that smart. Good. I'm done with politics. I'm going to quit. Yeah. I want to talk about it anymore. And where we are in this country now is like... Well, I kind of... I don't like to not like someone because of what they believe. So I just kind of do silly shit. I was thinking the other day with the Democrats, you know, I'm going to run. I'm going to run. But they've got the moderate lane, the progressive lane. So I'm going to run in the breakdown lane. You know, just a silly little shit, you know. I try to, you know, keep it upbeat, whatever. But I got into this. I fell into this because I kept thinking I'm going to get an acting job and I won't do stand up. This is going to fucking end at some point. You know what I mean? Right. And I have, you know, like people... Kids will actually ask me for advice. And I say, advice? Are you shitting me? I fell into this shit. I expected it to end. But I say, all right, you want some advice? Don't ever work at a place that's named after the guy. Like if it's Vinnie's fucking pizza parlor or Joey's shit hole or Bobby's money making piece of shit. When it's named after the guy, it's never enough. What about Nick's Comedy Stop? Nick's. Now, I'm going to do something for you. Okay. We're going to play a little scene. Okay. Now, you ask me, say, is Nick Somafia joint? Yeah. Is Nick still around 100%? Yeah. Nick's is around... Is it the same ownership? And do you know that there isn't one inch of that building that I didn't do coke in? I believe that. It was really something. I mean, it was like... I know that... You know, I lived in L.A. many years ago and it's like I'm riding around and I say, oh, I know that spot. So with Nick's, I know every spot in the building.