Joe Rogan | The Desire to be Famous

I guess we just found that patently ridiculous. Well, we like, you know, we grew up, I grew up hearing the word a lot from my dad. What is your dad like? Well, he's not like much anymore. He's dead, thanks. Sorry, dude. He died in 79. Sorry, dude. He died in 79. It's okay. But when he was mad, he was... There are no better parents than dead parents. Yeah, they can't fuck you up anymore. That's right. But my dad was a real, really fond of that word. Was he English? No, but... Is he full Canadian? Full Canadian, but being Canadian is kind of like being English a little bit. Right. You guys have English people in your money still. Yeah, yes. And we get all the English movies, all the English TV shows. We pledge allegiance to the Queen in school, you know, when I'm a kid. Really, still? Is that still going on? Possibly, yeah. And in our sleep. There's so many good things about Canada, yet so many preposterous things. Yes, true. Well, the fact that a monarchy still exists at all is preposterous. Yeah. Canada is great on paper. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the monarchy even itself has become Kardashian-ified. Well, yeah. Right. Well, I... But weren't they always... I guess they were. I mean, how else did they... Like during the Prince's die days and... Yeah. Or even just back to Henry VIII. Sure. What maintained the monarchy other than the fact that people wanted celebrities? And that was the only celebrities they had. Right. And the priests. And I think Henry VIII also had ass implants, if I'm incorrect. Yes, he did. Is that true? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Good for him. Progressive. Yep. It's ahead of his time. Yeah, that is an interesting thing. It's like the Prince Charles' Lady Dies saga was essentially one of our first reality things to enjoy. Yeah. Yes. That was madness when it happened. It was so huge. And then someone said, well, what if we just make housewives in Orange County royalty? Mm. And you don't have to pay them as much as the king and queen. And you can cancel them. Yeah. Those shows are wonderful. I've never seen an episode of any of them. They're fascinating. The Beverly Hills one is... Well, there's different versions of them, right? And different versions. You get to see the geographical creepiness of... Like Atlanta is its own thing. Yeah. Atlanta is not a bad one. The worst one was Jersey. They're fucking savage people. Yeah. That's my ancestors, those fucking savage monkey folk that live in... Isn't the worst anything the Jersey version? The worst of anything. The worst penicillin is the Jersey penicillin, you know. CSI Jersey was terrible, by the way. Nah, that doesn't exist. It does. Yeah. The Beverly Hills one. All of them were fascinating. It was like, take people, force them in these situations where they're going to have these artificial disputes. Well, it was crazy to me is watching people succumb to the pressure of all that attention, when they've never experienced it before, and then you're going to just thrust them into this massively popular, you know... Yeah. For lack of a better word, cunt fest. Yeah. Right? Well, if you take... Yes. Fame. Yeah. And you divorce it of any supporting, sort of supporting under, you know... Talent. ...structure, yeah. Yes. Talent. Or that supports... No offering, even. Something to offer, yeah. Nothing to offer. No offering. There's no painting, no sculpting, no singing. They only take. Yes. They don't give. Because fame will destroy... If you're a brilliant artist, fame will destroy you. Yes. Yes. If there's nothing underneath the fame, there's nothing to hold it up. Well, I remember watching Kelsey Grammer's wife. I had met her before. She seemed like a very nice lady. Camille. Yeah, Camille. And then she... I forgot her name, thank you. I just... I didn't want to just... I wanted to have a contact. ...have an owner. He is a huge Camille fan. I'm giant. I have a tattoo. I was going to say, do you have a tattoo? But she decided to play the heel. And the... It was so obvious that the pressure was just overwhelming the hatred that was coming her way. You know, she had decided she was going to be the boss bitch on the show and just let everybody know, you know, this is how it is. And I'm here to run things and just the swamp of evil that came her way. And then she's like, ah, quit, done, fuck this show. She bailed out of it. Good for her. Yeah. Well, you know, you're really... Did she even choose that role? Or was it like a producer that said, here's your angle? Well, according to Kelsey, he told her like, hey, okay, this is what you've always wanted here. Like, because that's like what led to their divorce or what was happening during them getting divorced. You know, he essentially said, you know, this is what you've always wanted. Like, you know, I don't think you understand this. So good luck with it. And then, you know, she just kind of vanished afterwards. Like, fuck all this, which is wise on her part. She recognized what it is. But they're like, those people that are on it. Like, I know some people who know some folks that are on that show. Yeah. And it's... They just go crazy. They start to pop in pills and losing their mind. They're in therapy every day. And it's just madness. Yeah. The desire for fame with nothing more to it than other than a desire to be famous can only drive you insane. Yeah. I think fame as an emergent property of doing something is bearable. But it's a byproduct. But so strange. And so difficult to truly manage. Yeah. But you can at least say, I don't define myself by the fame. I define myself by the work that created the fame. Yes. Yes. Whereas if there's no work underneath it, it's, you know, you only exist. In so much as people are aware of you. You exist in those moments when you walk into a room and everyone's staring at you. Yeah. Right. That's what you look for. And that's it. Because I have that anyway because of my body. So I guess I know what real fame is like. Yeah. And the horrible allergy you have to pants. That's true. I can't wear pants every time I walk in a room. Well, I always say that fame is a property of the beholder, not the beheld. And that fame only exists so long as somebody in the room knows who you are. Right. And a minute you're in a room where no one knows you, your fame evaporates. That is one of the weirdest interrogations I've ever gotten is when people go, why do these people know you? Yeah. What do you do? Who are you? Who are you? Should I know you? Should I take a photo with you? There were some of you, but I don't know who. The weird thing is they're almost defended that other people know you and they don't. Yeah. Like, why are you playing a game with me? Why are you? Why don't I know you? They're getting angry. Yeah. Well, there's also the other thing about fame is that people feel like they could just start talking to you. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Just... They can sit next to you. Oh, yeah. You could be in the middle of an intense conversation with your favorite person on the planet. They don't give a fuck. No. Why had a guy come... They know you. They've been in their house. They had a living room. I had a guy come to me in the street and just go, Hey, Dave, how you doing? And I thought, oh, I must know him. So I said, oh, I'm good. How are you doing, man? And his next line was, you don't even know me, you fucking phony. Dave, that was me. That was you. I wish I was better at faces. Was this in Canada? This was in downtown LA. Really? That's amazing. You don't even know me, you fucking phony. I'm just trying to be nice, sir. Yes. Was he a drunk? No. Wow. He was just a guy who just... Oh, I'm going to pretend I know him. Just watch this. Wow. Was that the end of the conversation? Yeah, that was basically it. Wow. Yeah. What a rude person. That's a terrible conversation. But this is like, probably a guy who auditioned for news radio in 96 and just never gotten over it. Yeah. That fucking cunt. Yeah. He's the one. He's the one. I was on my way to stardom. Yeah. And to be fair, it was me. Yeah, he tripped him up.