What Ari Shaffir Learned From Traveling Off the Grid for 4 Months - The Joe Rogan Experience

Hello freak bitches in all this traveling. Yeah, did you come out of this with anything? You know a few things For sure because you seemed like To tell you from the outside. Yeah, you seem like almost like you Had a different person you you also you seemed I Don't know man. It was nice to see you when I first saw you when you came back Yeah, but you seemed like a little different. He seemed like you I don't know you've seen another level of stuff you see you've got another level of Perspective from this travel thing that like added to your your vision of the world your your whole overall worldview Yeah, well a lot of time to think also. Yes, you're seeing stuff You know certainly as everyone would see out there like poverty levels where you're like, oh, I'm doing fine Yeah, you know, but not even that it's more specific. It's just like I know friendly people and like Yeah, I'm just different versions of our plus travelers and plus really get into a place where you're like Don't need to do anything You know after a month of that. It's like okay, you just settle into this like I don't know what's today gonna bring, right? You know you wake up, and you just like I heard there's this cool temple there. We'll go check that out Maybe let's get on motorbikes and go somewhere. I heard there's a cool You just talked to other travelers and like there's a canyon up there. It's really neat go check that out while you're here and so you just do and at some point like You know how when you haven't got enough sleep like a few days in a row you got four hours four hours fours and you Sleep like 11 hours, and you're like I am completely caught up right so like not having any responsibility The stress level goes down down, and then it's just like waiting in that zero responsibility light for like I'm three months in that level. I guess wow you know after the first couple weeks, and it's just like I don't have anything to do just like oh Just like fucking relax man. I would leave a city when I felt like the right time to leave a city You know it wasn't even like a regular vacation. We look come on. We got to do this then move right get reservation somewhere Yeah, I was just like Relax, and then I could just think about things my art form in general people in my life You know what I want And don't want I'd have like moments of just like Yeah, it's like a 10-hour bus There's no Wi-Fi You know you're just like thinking for a while Yeah tons of moments like that how did you know when to end it? So I I Was gonna come back for this show But then I remembered my manager my friend Eric they wanted to do a show at third man records in Nashville For there for the Wild West Comedy Festival And I forgot about that because the people asked me when do you have to go back like travelers? I meet I was like I'm open dude. There were so many people that were just traveling open Wow, yeah, that's really common. I mean three months is like a norm. Do you have some people six months or a year? I met I'm an Italian girl who was going on her five and a half fifth and a half years Just traveling five and a half years just travel mm-hmm. She'd find jobs every once in a while Yeah, and it's just um Goes where she wants It's very appealing yeah, yeah, yeah very fascinating right that's like nobody writes books about a guy who stays in his town that he grew up The book is about the crazy traveler person yeah all over the world in a backpack and yeah, but There's three month people all over America doing that. I know there's a lot of tent people There's a lot of people that like they'll get like a truck You know like some sort of a got the great UV thing and they drive it around to campgrounds And they camp and they use the showers at the campgrounds Yeah, they do stuff enough for money so that they have gas and they keep traveling around and Hope their car doesn't burn jobs. Yeah, yeah Yeah, this girl picked oranges and Sydney for like two months. I had this dude on Chris cage He walked the Appalachian Trail Wow Yeah, it's Georgia Don't know how do you survive you would never make it you would never make it what do you mean? Well, you'd never make it if you're just trying to kill animals all the way you'd never make it So how do you you'd have to be an elite hunter? And you still might not ever make it because you're not if you're carrying that food around it's gonna go bad You're walking through Georgia in the summer. I mean, you know critters Critter do you not gonna get enough just go starve really yeah, you'll starve It's way harder to kill an animal than people think in the movies. It's that's what I do It's like let's camp get some dinner, dude. It's way harder. It's way harder. Yeah Yeah, you know unless you're walking around with several high-powered rifles and scopes and you're setting up You know where the animals are they hear you come when you're walking You're not gonna be able to walk all the way to Maine man. Maybe that's your experience. I don't like me I don't understand you have to get in the heads man. They go to restaurants. Yeah, I food They stay in hostels. You know they have these little camping spots where they have covered shelters and people share them really Yeah, there's a lot of that too. Yeah, it's just like I'll forget about your like what you need in terms of like hotels Yeah, that's all out. You need a bed. That's all you need Some people they carry it on their back. There's a thing called a bivvy sack You know the baby sack is a bivvy sack is like either a bivvy sack or a bivvy tent They're like essentially a like a combination sleeping bag tent. Oh cool, and it's super light pull pull up a picture of a bivvy tent Yeah, it's one of the reasons I didn't go to South America's cuz I was like there's gonna be more camping It seems like mmm up and down the coast and stuff Yeah, it's like cities, and I'm just like I don't know if I can camp alone for that long you might freak out. Yeah Be hard to get a good night's sleep Around a bunch of weirdos speak their language. This is what they look like Oh neat, so you keep that thing they wrap it up put it on their back. It's pretty light That was the fucking rain off you yeah, it's basically like just this tiny ass little tent And like if you were a minimalist hiker like if you're some guy who's trying to walk 50 miles or something crazy like these guys They try to carry as light a stuff as they can yeah To go as minimal as they can and that's one way that they do that Yeah, and a lot of times. I use like a little air mattress like that dude has a little uh oh wow blow it up Don't think of any space. Yeah, just gotta. Hope it doesn't pop otherwise you're sleeping on rocks It's hard, but that's what everybody did to traveling for this backpack. That's just gonna make it work space was like a That's another thing you learn to it's like I don't need much stuff Yeah, you go down to like you know just a backpack full if that's all your belongings right you buy anything you got to throw something out Yeah, man like there's a real Movement right now towards minimalism or where people are trying to pair their life down as much as possible Yeah, I think people don't want to get involved with like banks and fucking having to like mortgage themselves and their lifestyle Just for the sake of a calving things yeah, and they're like and so they get into like stuff like camping and hiking Well, it's also you got to think like what do you really appreciate? What's important to you and what's really important to you yeah, cuz you don't have forever right? So what is important to you because you only have 24 hours in a day, so what's important to you? Find out what the fuck that is and do more of that yeah, and try to figure out like how to how to make enough money So that you're not starving That you're doing well, but don't just chase that chase what you're trying to do I did the point system attached to it the monetary point system It can get you all fucked up because it'll get you to working like 12 hours a day 13 hours a day I know what to get more stuff To get better stuff to get more prestigious stuff to get stuff that you know all your other stuff having friends are really jealous of your stuff Yeah, you're just gonna die bro, and it's not that you can long-term. I mean like what are you getting out of it now? That's what I'm that's what's most important. Yeah a ton of people that are like. I don't want that shit So I'm just gonna do a job You know working on a tugboat in Seattle for a few months save up money, and then go fucking enjoy myself yeah Yeah, there's a lot of people that are just choosing to look at everything that they can see Experienced every new place that they can go to that Henry Rollins podcast man. It's a world changer. Yeah that crazy fucker He's fascinating. Yeah, he's a fast. I never met anybody like him He's really fast. He goes in like dust off at sea stuff It was just also his look outlook how he simplifies all the things that are wrong with him and all the things that are wrong with The way he interacts with people and so this is what I'm gonna do and it's gonna You know like he's like his his story about being given Was a Ritalin was Ritalin right from the time. He was like five hmm For he's a young boy. They gave him Ritalin till senior year of high school So he was like I would just be on these pills I'd be like all day the other day like boom he was like crash, and then they do it again I mean they were juicing him up with this crazy stuff From like he was an experimental case he grew up in from what I understand He's from Potomac, Maryland Which is the same County as where I grew up in but he that was the richer part of town Not that he was a rich kid, but like Montgomery County is one of the richest counties in America and Like that was just a standard thing like your kids not performing ideally. He's learning disabled give him some pills, right? crazy Yeah that people thought for a while that was the way to go I Just it just fascinating that he's so like Henry so intense And he's so like his he's got like these rock solid ethics and this view of the world It's very egalitarian and very open, but also very aggressive very interesting started out though Yeah, just like that whatever and this way believe no matter what yes, he's like oh, yeah for sure I thought about this and here's the answer no I super enjoyed talking to him. Thanks for hooking that up Yeah, I'm glad it worked out. I was gone, but I was like I I got back. I was like Trevor link up with him You're like yeah, we did yeah, it's like oh hell. Yeah. Yeah, it was really good