Why Jon Reep Left LA | Joe Rogan

Do you, are you still living in LA? Where are you at now? I moved back to Hickory, North Carolina. Damn, man. I was out here 18 years. You just couldn't do it anymore? No. Well, it was a couple things. My career has always been like a rollercoaster. It has good years, bad years. And I actually just, I miss my family. I miss down a lot growing up. So, and the market was really good. I had this condo in Studio City. I bought it for a certain amount and then it gained value. And I thought, well, if I'm going to do this, now's the time to pull the trigger. And I think I saw you at the Improv one night. So, I'm out of here. I'm bouncing. Yeah. And I, my goal- You used the road so much, right? Yeah. Well, that's the thing too. And the industry's changed. Like, you know, I already have a manager and an agent. It's not like I need to be here for every little audition. You know, I'll put myself on tape. I got Eastbound and down on a tape. I got Harold and Kumar on a tape. Wow. And then now, yeah, the second audition, yeah, you fly up for it, but like, you know, getting your foot in the door to that tape, anybody can do that now. They just changed so much. That's if you want to act and you do so much stand up on the road, there's really no reason to be here unless you just want to perform at the store all the time. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. So, and I moved back to Hickory and I was going to get myself a nice lake house in Lake Hickory. Yep. Still want to do that, but then as soon as I get home, you know, Thanksgiving, dad has a stroke. So, I see that happen. You ever seen someone have a stroke? No, you were there when it happened. I was looking right at him. And it was weird. Because my dad's a funny guy. Like I thought maybe because we were going to eat Thanksgiving dinner late. So, like it was like a 6 p.m. thing we were doing to get other people in the house. And so, he was complaining all day about not eating. Like I'm hungry. What are we going to eat? We're not going to eat. I'm looking around at him and he's sitting next to the fireplace. And he just like, he just like, nose dives. Like just head first right onto the hardwood floor. And it was like bumpy here like a thump. And I was like, oh, dad's making a joke. We haven't eaten yet. It's you know, he's making a thing about like a little blood sugar or something. And I was kind of laughing at him. My brother's like, no, he hit really hard. His head hit that floor way too hard for that to be a joke. And then you walk over to him and arms curling up. One eye's going like that. And it's like, this is a stroke. And we called 911. They came pretty quick, but he suffered some serious brain damage right here. And so, he's paralyzed on his left side now. But I was in a weird way happy that I was at home when this happened because you know, how we're still out here and that shit happened. Right. I'd be hating life. Yeah. But the fact that I'm there and able to help mom out, you know, going through all this this whole thing, because she's got glaucoma and she's got brittle bones, you know, she can't physically lift him up and do stuff. Right. And the fact that we were in the house and able to help, it's crazy. I didn't see the drooping of the face. I didn't see that happen, you know. That's what people say when you see a stroke, you see like the drooping happens. Yeah. Like that fat chick in Total Recall, you know. Two weeks. Right. Let's see where her head explodes. Get rid of her. Surprise. I thought that was what it was, but no, he just hit the floor. So have you toured at all since then or have you just been mostly staying home? Just places I can, I didn't take on extra gigs, but I didn't cancel the ones I had. So the ones that I could drive to definitely, I was, well, let me go, I have a brother who's there as well. So, but I definitely didn't take on anything for, you know, since Thanksgiving that it wasn't already there. No. Yeah. It's, but he's at a skilled nursing facility now and they showed us the X, right? You know, the MRI of the brain damage that happened. He had a collodid artery. He's got, now he keeps getting UTI infections because he has a catheter because it also, it doesn't just fuck with your muscles. It's the organs on that side too. So his bladder's got to relearn how to operate. So he's got a catheter, you know, and that, that, that's just opens you up for UTI infections a lot. And those, I don't know if you know, they're like UTI infections when you're older, like it really devastates you because you, you hallucinate. So you see shit. Oh no. Yeah. And it's weird being in there and you know, he would like, uh, hey, make sure that bear's not out there. Like a bear, like he keeps hearing her think there's a bear outside the window. So yeah, that, I was happy to be back home for that. But are there bears where you live? No, no, not, not the skilled nursing facility. I mean, there might be some twinks. Yeah. No bears. Are you allowed to say twink? I don't know. I can't get in trouble. I'm trying to make a joke. He used to be able to just make a joke about that. It's dangerous. Yes. Yeah. No, but, uh, yeah. Hoping for the best. Still going through rehab, occupational therapy, physical therapy. Do they think that he'll be able to recover some function on this left side? I think, you know, that they always want to get dangle a little bit of light of hope at the end of the talk. Oh Jesus. But, uh, you know, some people recover quickly. Some people not at all. Some people three years later can recover. You need a, here you go. Yeah. Three years later. Yeah. I mean, you know, so we're just still, we're still doing all of it. John Singleton just died from a stroke. That's right. Yeah. And he was, what's 51? 51. Yeah. It could happen to anybody in age. Luke Perry, same thing. 51 stroke. That's right. Yeah. Crazy. A lot of strokes are happening. Fuck man. They say that cigarettes. Well, my dad definitely did. Yeah. Yeah. They say that cigarettes contribute pretty heavily to strokes. He used to smoke a lot when he was younger and then quit, you know, when he was in his late forties. Yeah. But that was a lot, you know, back then when you'd smoke at 12 years old or something, a whole pack. I don't know if Singleton smoked, but I do know Luke Perry did. Yeah. Yeah. And this woman that I talked to who was a neurologist was telling me that that's a significant factor. It raises your chances of stroke pretty significantly. Yeah. So, I'm back in Hickory, but I came, I'm going to come, my idea is to come out here, you know, for the pilot season, keep doing it. Right. Yeah. And then hit the store. I was there last night. Yeah. It was fun. Yeah. It was good seeing you, man. Yeah. You too, man.