The Thing That Brought Joe Rogan Back to the Comedy Store

Yeah, there's nowhere to hide. That's why I love the store so much. Yeah. There's so many places to hide. But the store has that little problem with the OR. Like when you're right before you're about to go on stage, you're in the hallway and... Yeah, I don't like the hallway, but I like those seats against the back. Yeah. Just for comics. Do you kind of sit there and go over your notes and leave you alone? I love that back bar. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That back bar is my favorite. The back bar is the shit. The secret comedians bar. Yeah. I mean, that's just what they've done in this new generation of managers and the people that run the place now. They've sort of like really paid attention to like what's gonna make these guys happier? What's gonna make this better? Like you gotta give them a place where they can hide. So give them that back bar and you go to the back bar any day. It's filled with people just hanging out, talking shit. And like it's fun. It's like a fun place. I go there, I gravitate and I get into the back air. I'm like, oh, look at all these cool people. It was a great spot to hang out at. They did that. They added security. They did it so it's night and day to the way it used to be. Oh, I never used to go there. I didn't like hanging out there. I didn't like any part of it. And then once the new management took over, I was like, oh, great. Like I once did a show there. I did a benefit. There was like a kid who died. I forget his name. He was a comic, died in a car accident and they had like a benefit for his family. Oh yeah. That's Josh Adam Myers friend. Angelo. Yeah. Yeah. Angelo Bowers. I did not know him. I didn't know him either. But Bicey was like a fan of mine. And I was like, I was like his favorite comic that they could get. And I'm like, I'm on the marquee. It's a sold out show. I have a great set. I walk off and Tommy comes up and he's like, uh, the old manager was like, Anthony, that was great, but we got, we gotta get you around here. You gotta start hanging out, you know, you gotta start hanging out and doing, you know, do it, do into the open mic and stuff. And I'm like, Tommy, my name is on the marquee right now. You just watched me headline this show. Like, what are you talking about? And I then I don't think I ever saw him again. Next thing I knew he was fired and they were like, what can we do to get you back here? Well, I love it. Well, that's Adam, you know, right? Adam did the same thing to me. He told me that Tommy got fired and came to visit me in the improv. So you were gone seven years, seven years from the store. And then when Tommy left, they brought you back in. Yeah. Well, there's two reasons. Um, one, I had to go physically to the store because Ari was filming his Comedy Central special and is like that he's a, you know, Ari's just one of my best friends. And I knew him from the time he was a doorman and I knew that him filming his special there was so important and there was no way I was going to miss it. I was like, I have to be here. Like I have to see this at the store. So I was like, ah, fuck. All right. I gotta go back. And so I decided to go back. I think he was filming on a Wednesday. What night is a bros battles on Tuesday, right? So I went down there on a Tuesday. I said, let me go down on Tuesday just to see what's up. And I went to roast battle and I was like, holy shit, this place is electric. This is crazy. Like the environment is so much different. It's so creative. And the night that I was at roast battle was fucking fantastic. It was so good. There was so many funny roasters. And I remember thinking, wow, this place is just different, man. It just feels so much different. And it wasn't like it is now. Like now, like you'll go on a Saturday night, they'll have six sold out shows. They have two shows in the belly room, two in the OR two in the main room, everything sold out and packed with headliners and it's chaos. It wasn't like that. It was still sort of shitty, like in terms of like the numbers, but the vibe and the creativity was way different. And the new guys and girls that were coming up, they were fucking good, man. I was like, wow, this is a different vibe. I had been gone for almost a decade. Yeah. So that brought me in. And like I said, I had to be there for Ari. There was no way. There was no way I could miss it. I had to be there. So I'm like, all right, I just got to swallow it. And that was probably what Adam for sure helped, but I might've stayed away forever. If it wasn't for Ari, I just had to see it.