Joe Rogan on Why He Became a Comedian

Hello freak bitches. What is being a comedian to you mean no? Oh, it's a bunch of different possibilities, but it was so chaotic. His comedy was so wild and crazy. He was a real ground breaker in that way. And why else did you get into being a comedian? I don't know. I got talked into doing it. You were a comedian at all? No. I wasn't really very funny. Did you have siblings? Yeah, I was one sister. So it was just you and your mom and your sister? Yeah, well my mom remarried. I stepped out. And do you like him? Yeah, he's a great guy. Okay. Yeah, super lucky. He's a real good guy. Okay, good. But it was, I got talked into doing stand up by my friends from martial arts. For real, because we would... Well, you must have been funny. Well, I was only funny because I was like gallows humor. We would go to compete, or we would be about to spar, and I would be the guy who would make everybody laugh. Because everybody was so nervous, because it was scary. You beat the shit out of each other, you know? And then we would go to these competitions so we'd get on a bus and travel across the country to go fight in these tournaments. And it was super nerve wracking. Everyone was super nervous. So you could like cut the tension with a knife. So I would always be doing impressions of people, having sex and making jokes. And this was like long before I ever thought about being a comedian. I was just trying to lighten up the mood. And that's how I got into stand up. So hold on a minute. So, see, this is a bit of a surprise to me, because when people fight, you know, semi-professionally or otherwise, or at school or what have you, it's nerve wracking. No, it's terrifying. Because you're scared of... Pain, violence, the anticipation of the possibility of losing you're worried about just all the possibilities. Just the full realm of things that can happen. So why do you do it? I know I'm sounding like a mortal and I just have never had the opportunity to ask anyone who's ever done this. I was very insecure. And I got bullied and I wasn't big. I was a small kid and I was really nervous. And I did not like that feeling at all. And we were always moving around a lot. We always moved to new places. I was always the new kid. Were you a military kid? No, my mom married my stepdad. We moved across the country from New Jersey to San Francisco. And then we lived there for a while. And then we moved to Florida. And then we moved to Boston. And he switched careers. And he was a computer programmer. And then we became an architect. Good Lord. Yeah. There was a lot of traveling. And I just was always the new kid. And the new kid gets fucked with. And most of the time was fine. But as we started getting older, that's when it got creepy. Most of the time it was no big deal. Like at 9 and 10 it's no big deal. But when it gets to be like 13 and 14, then it starts getting violent. And so kids would pick on me. And I didn't know how to fight. And it drove me crazy. I was like, God, I fucking hate the fact that when these kids want to fight me, I don't know what to do. And I'm terrified. So I'd be like, go home the long way around. So I'd avoid everybody and that kind of shit. So I decided to learn martial arts. I said, well, what am I afraid of? I'm afraid of people that know how to fight. Well, I really know how to fight. So I went into it. Then it became my whole life. Like from high school, freshman year on, really from 15 is when I went crazy. So from 15 on, that's all I did every day. Like six, seven days a week. I was teaching. I was teaching when I was 17. That's what I was doing like every day. I was teaching at Boston University when I was 18 or 19. And that became my whole life. Were you born in Boston? No, I was born in New Jersey. Right. How come you don't have the crazy accent? Got rid of it. Heard myself on TV. I won the Bay State Games. It was this big, like an Olympic festival where they had all the Olympic sports. The one is Taekwondo had not been in the Olympics yet, but it was about to be. So they had it in the Bay State Games and I won. So they interviewed me on TV and I remember I was like, very specifically say we were working really hard. And I was like, oh, I heard that accent. It was so bad. I heard the video and I was like, oh my God, what the fuck is wrong with me? Like I had taken on that accent out of insecurity because I've only lived there since I was 13. So from 13 to 19 in six years, I developed a stupid accent. You just wanted to fit in. I wanted to fit in. Yeah. And then I realized how dumb it was. So I abandoned it. But it'll come out a little bit if I get drunk. Yeah. Like every now and then some words. I like how that was a cool sign to me. Fuck. You didn't grow up in it. Yeah, of course. It's gross when you hear it out of girl. Fuck me harder. It's just like, it's like too many R the R thing. It stretches out. Yeah. I wonder where it comes from. I mean, the mix of the Irish, I suppose, although the Irish don't speak like that. No, Irish is beautiful. I like that. Accidents pretty something about the Boston accent is particularly gross. So hold on. So sorry to ask you these questions. Please go. Don't worry about it. So you are you are fighting and then your pal talked you into becoming my friend. Steve Graham, two of my friends, Ed Shorter and Steve Graham. Steve Graham is still one of my best friends today. He was an ophthalmologist at the time. Yeah. And so encourage you to walk, go to class or like literally grab me by my shoulders and said, you should be a comedian. So then what happened? I went to an open mic night. I watched amateurs try it. And one of the good things about amateurs is if you go to watch like most of them don't know what they're doing. They're terrible. So I was like, OK, well, I can't be as you know, at least I'm not going to be the only one who sucks. So like if if I go up and do that, I can do what they're doing. They suck. I suck too, but they suck. So it's not like you're going up and Richard Pryor's on here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Richard. Jenny and all that. You could take the competition. Well, no, I felt like I wouldn't be the only one who sucked like people who really suck. I would inspire you to do it because they lower the bar of expectation because like if I went up there and it was all these really amazing comedians and then me, I'd be like, oh, I can't do this. I'm fucking terrible at it because the learning curve of stand up comedy is so long. Sure. And especially when you're 21, you don't know shit. I didn't know anything about life or anything. Well, of course you didn't. Exactly. So I was terrible. But somehow or another, these guys talked me into doing it. And do you still do your stand up? Yeah, constantly. Yeah. Yeah. You turn it around on me, Shirley. Yes, you did. Yeah, you did. Clever girl. Yeah. Don't know about that. I wish. You don't think you're clever?