Bryan Callen on Philosophical Suicide | Joe Rogan

It's a little trick that we try to pretend that we're important. God damn it, just look up at the sky and although you can't see it, there are stars that are being swallowed up by black holes. Like if the universe doesn't give a fuck about something that's a million times bigger than the earth, why would you think it gives a fuck about you? It's eating stars. That's a terrible question. Most people, that's a terrible insulting question. That's kind of what, who was it? Albert Camus, the French existentialist and Sartre and all those guys, they were saying, like Camus said, the fundamental question is why not just commit suicide? Because everything is totally absurd and nothing means anything, right? It's like the rock of Sisyphus that you keep pushing up and it keeps rolling down. And then he said, but the truth is most people don't want to kill themselves but they'll commit philosophical suicide. Meaning instead of like really starting to ask these questions and really getting into it and realizing that it's all hopeless and despair, you know, you just glom onto a certain philosophy that gives you hope, religion or whatever it might be, which is what it is. And maybe the way out of that is just to enjoy every day, taste your food, enjoy your friends and realize that it could end in any second. You know one, another thing that's fucked with me, the concept of reincarnation. Not the concept of reincarnation, like coming back as a butterfly or something like that, but the concept of living your life over and over and over again until you get it right. Oh Jesus. Now, here's what fucks with me. I am having a great time. So why wouldn't I want to do this again? I'm having a great time. I have great friends like you and young Jamie over there and I love my family. I love what I do for a living. I love our circle of friends is amazing. We are for sure some of the luckiest men I have ever met in my life. There's no doubt. There's no doubt. We have fun, man. Dude, I was thinking about all the mistakes I've made, but then I went, wait a minute, but I'm here. Like I'm 52, I'm here. I've made a fuck loaded mistakes. We all are. But we're also risk takers. I mean, we're professional performers. We want into a job that has zero job security. Fucking head first, no safety net, dove right in. We make mistakes. Make mistakes with our job. We make mistakes with our personal life. Make mistakes with our... It's just no... You're just being our human. No way of avoiding it. No way of avoiding it. Because I don't have a dress rehearsal. I'm presented with these. I'm presented with the scenario. I have to make a choice in real time. I'm going to make a mistake. And once I realize that and stop beating myself up about it and realize that I've always done the best I can, but here's what you can do. Be brutally honest and assess yourself and see where you're falling short and then just change your approach. So that's kind of what I did. When I saw acting, when I saw what just being an actor was and I saw how precarious it was and I saw where the business was moving with the new media and stuff. And I was like, this doesn't make... Then I watched you doing your podcast and you would say start a podcast. So guess what? I started a podcast. It didn't go well. Started another podcast. Didn't make money. Then started a third podcast with Brendan Schaub and blah, blah, blah. Same thing with stand up. You just keep doing it. You keep following the models that work because I was doing the wrong thing over here and next thing you know... You got to grind. That's where a lot of comics fuck up. They do it once a week and then they take a few weeks off and then they come back and do it again. And they're like, how do you do it all the time? I'm like, because I know how to grind. I'm a grinder. It's not just grind. For me, the idea is original self-expression. I'm interested in trying to take the way I think. So a lot of things scare me and they make me angry and I don't know how to react. But instead of fretting about it, I create. Michelangelo, my favorite quote, criticized by creating. It's a great fucking quote. That's beautiful. Yeah. He said that. He said criticized by creating. I always think about that because that's kind of... When I look at my body of work and the progression of my specials, for example, like man class, it's a little too just about being funny in a silly goose then never grow up a little more personal about my dad. But then this last one, Complicated Apes. Where's my camera? Is that out right now? It's out right now. Oh my God. Is this the number one iTunes comedy album right now? Dude, do we have to rank things? Apparently it's crushing anywhere you can... I heard it's number one in the world. Dude, where you can rent and buy, I guess, Complicated Apes is doing very well. If you want to get it and laugh hard and learn... I feel like we should celebrate over the world in one. This is not about promoting my special. I feel like we should. I feel like we should promote it a little bit. Alright, fine. Get Complicated Apes. Let's just get that out of the way. It's out right now, right? I guess it's out right now. You can get it on iTunes. Or anywhere you rent or buy or make Apple TV. So if you have like, terrible TV, you can just watch it on your TV. You can get it on Xbox or Playstation. You can... Listen, you can get it on Amazon. I don't stop.