Digital Social Hour - Becoming Friends with Dana White, Gambling with Michael Jordan & Fame I Jon Orlando DSH #412

Episode Date: April 14, 2024

Jon Orlando comes to the show to talk about becoming friends with Dana White, gambling with Michael Jordan & growing up in fame. APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://forms.gle/D2cLkWfJx46pDK1MA BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] SPONSORS: Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I feel like this, do you have this issue where like your guest kind of loses the, the excitement level about it? Like if you circle back and go, Hey, remember you came in three months ago here, I'm putting that episode up and getting them to, to engage with it themselves. Is that a challenge or no? It is. That's why I'm doing two a day. I'm getting texts daily at this point from guests that came on five months ago, like did my episode drop? Right. So yeah, it's a learning lesson. You know, I'm new to the space. Sure space sure yeah wherever you guys are watching this show i would truly appreciate it if you follow or subscribe it helps a lot with the algorithm it helps us get bigger and better guests and it helps us

grow the team truly means a lot thank you guys for supporting and here's the episode guys we got john orlando here he's finally back i'm back it's a rare sighting that i'm in this building. That's how you know you're killing it though, right? I guess. I don't know if I'm killing it yet, but I'm trying to kill it. I'm out there hunting. Well, you're expanding, man. It's cool to see you grow in multiple cities. Thank you, man. You're in Miami now, right? Well, we're in Boca, close enough, but we are going to go proper in Miami. Nice. Yeah. Dallas, Scottsdale. That's dope. You've been in the podcast space

for a minute and you're like part of the growth and evolution of the industry. What changes have you been seeing recently? Man. Um, well it's funny, you know, when I moved here to Vegas seven years ago, I guess it'll be eight years in July. Um, I went up and down the strip. I met with every single hotel, including when pitching podcast studios And everyone looked at me like I was crazy. This is in 2017. That was early. Right. Podcast.

I don't know. What is it? Internet radio? I don't know. That's what they would say about it. And now, obviously, you see there's Blue Wire at Wynn. There's VSYN over at Circa. Well, they were at South Point, or they're still at South Point.

I'm not even sure. I haven't heard of them. I think every single studio, every hotel will have a studio at some point. Some are going to do it better than others. So it's just the awareness of podcasting has grown. And people thought it was, it's funny, the podcasting people thought it had peaked in 2017, 2018. And the people that really don't know about podcasts, it wasn't even on their

radar screen yet. It's funny how when you're, when you're in the bubble, you think it's bigger than it is. And when you're go outside the bubble, you realize like, no, there's still so many people that don't even know what's going on. Dude. So many people started shows in the past year. It's crazy. A lot of athletes. I noticed like pro athletes are starting even baseball players. I've got a baseball background. Yeah. I kind of think it'll be like instagram i mean i think like if you have an instagram page and a tiktok page you will have a podcast obviously some are going to be horrible just like instagram right looks like there's some that do it like you and then there's me yeah you know um yeah i mean i just think it's it's a it's such a great platform.

If you are a content creator, this takes out a lot of the work, right? You sit down, you have a conversation with somebody for 20, 30, 40, 60 minutes. Yeah. And then you get all those clips out of it, and there's your content. It's not too hard. You spend a couple hours a week, and you got content for the week. Yeah. Yeah.

You bang them out like a machine, man. i've never seen anybody that just tackles it like we got six today dude it's amazing but i feel like you just did six a week ago i know i did six on tuesday yeah so how often do you release them i'm a daily show now you know you are okay but you know what's crazy since i'm six months backed up i have to start releasing two a day starting in january i believe it just to catch up right and do you worry about like um i don't like the thing i don't like about putting them in the can is i feel like this do you have this issue where like your guest kind of loses the the excitement level about it like if you circle back you go hey remember you came in three months ago here i'm putting that episode up and getting them to to engage with themselves. Is that a challenge or no?

It is. That's why I'm doing two a day. I'm getting texts daily at this point from guests that came on five months ago. Like, did my episode drop? Right. So yeah, it's a learning lesson. You know, I'm new to the space. Sure.

Yeah. And I don't know if there's a right or wrong answer. I think it's just, you just do what you can do. And you're, you know, you're probably trying to capitalize on you're really hot right now. Right. It's like, you've got a lot of momentum. So it's like, why not just keep getting, you know, you're probably trying to capitalize on you're really hot right now, right? It's like, you've got a lot of momentum. So it's like, why not just keep, you know, I want to be more current because I noticed when you talk about current events, it gets more views, right? So I don't want to be talking about six months ago. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's why like shows

like fresh and fit are so like hot because they're talking about stuff happening on the spot and they're live. See, I don't have the balls to go live because my ego i'm i only have ego when it comes to live views i can't handle someone like me it's going to be like 24 31 well that's probably how everyone starts yeah aiden ross had like five views the first year yeah it's just so tough i also feel like it's a young man's game and i'm not young so it's weird relative it's weird you look young thank you i'll take 10x shout out to 10x and gary brekka right dive into that yeah and gary's been getting a lot of heat i'm not sure if you see this on social media yeah you know i i have and i get i

don't know if you get uh but i get a lot of dms too of people complaining same about um it takes too long you get the results and all that and I just tell them the truth. I say, look, the guy, Dana came on my podcast. I just happened, I didn't know what he was getting. I didn't know he was working with 10X. I just said, Dana, I go to every fight. I've seen you shred down. What are you doing? That's when he said, oh, I had my blood work done.

This guy, Gary Breckett, told me I got 10.4 years to live. Just from that episode, that one clip got like nine million views on my instagram yeah right and um and you know tedx got like 5 000 inquiries gary told me just from that so imagine where they're at now like it's a you know you've you've started businesses when you're a startup it's tough man it's it's tough to get your process down and get the team together and i don't think they were ready who could have predicted this kind of like rise for 10x you know so i just tell my friends you know and even a lot of strangers that just want listen to my show whatever and they're

like hey i signed up for 10x it's been six weeks whatever i'm like just i get it be patient don't give up i'll you know i i try to reach out to Sage and see if, you know, if I can help or whatever. But yeah, it's a great, it's a great company. It's a great program. They'll get it. It's growing pains. Yeah. It changed my life too, man.

For sure. I used to get sick. You look great. Dude. Yeah. I used to get sick every month at least. Yeah. And now I haven't been sick in a year.

Isn't it wild? Wild. Right. Are you on keto also? I'm on pretty much whatever they said, which I love their recommendations because it's all natural. It's all holistic. There's nothing synthetic. And I found out I was basically allergic to enriched food.

Did you have that one? Yep. Exactly. So I was eating bread every day of my life. Every day. And that's why I was sick. Don't you love it? Yeah, bread is fire.

You can't do it. Yeah. I just went to, you know, Italy? Italy? Yeah. Because their pasta you can get because because it's from italy it's not enriched or whatever so i just got a box of it like literally boxes of it that's fire uh so i haven't tried any yet but i'm excited like you know yeah have pasta again yeah dude i miss pasta

i used to eat it all the time right everything's enriched here it's terrible yeah yeah they don't have that problem like in italy or in europe anywhere right it's the time. Everything's enriched here. It's terrible. Yeah. Yeah. And they don't have that problem like in Italy or in Europe anywhere, right? It's just here. This country's crazy. It's great, but it's also crazy. And it makes you wonder

because I know you used to play baseball. You were probably eating terrible food. Oh God, awful. So you could have been maybe in the MLB if you had a proper diet.

Who knows? Because I have, I've suffered from chronic tendonitis on and off for years. A lot of joint pain which also comes from sugar and inflammation you know i was eating sugar i was just i was literally like dana mountain dew twinkies candy like just sugar addict yeah you know between that and pizza and pasta

it's just dominoes dominoes yeah all that fast food yeah same dude and i was a distance runner so that really wow takes a toll on you but i was still pretty elite right i could run a half mile in a minute 59 really yeah mile in 440 oh wow and i was on a you run a 440 mile in high school yeah savage and i was on a diet because the school lunch is terrible let's be honest did you eat that or did you bring your own no i brought my own but i brought crap even that yeah you're bringing a white bread sandwich uh-huh peanut butter and jelly doritos and soda instead of coke that's not much better and it's it's pretty wild like our kids are going to be animals yeah i was drinking before gary brekka got a hold of me i'm not kidding you sean eight to ten sodas a day between mountain dew i swear to you between coke mountain dew and dr pepper because i also ate out three meals a day between Mountain Dew. Are you serious? I swear to you. Between Coke, Mountain Dew, and Dr. Pepper.

Because I also ate out three meals a day. At least two meals a day. Yeah. And when you eat out, if you're not mindful of diet and being on a program, you eat like a lunatic, right? Wow. It's like bread and like Cheesecake Factory, like two baskets of bread. Oh, man.

Like just crazy. Those cheesecakes are deadly. So good. Dude, eight to ten. So how many pounds were you? When I started, I was 207. Okay. Today, I are deadly. So good. Dude, eight to 10. So how many pounds were you? When I started, I was 207. Okay. Today I'm 175. Wow. So you cut 30 pounds. Yeah. That's incredible. Yeah. In a year. And it was easy. Are you interested in coming on the digital social hour podcast as a guest? We'll click the application link below in the description

of this video. We are always looking for cool stories, cool entrepreneurs to talk to about business and life. Click the application link below, and here's the episode, guys. Just diet. Yeah, the first two weeks sucked. I was like, I'll never make this. I'll never make it.

Yeah. You know, and I was texting Dana every day. I was like, dude, this is so hard. And he's like, stay on course. You'll be all right. I was like, all right. And then I lost like 20 pounds, and then it stopped. I stalled out for a few months i was still on the program yeah but just no more weight came off

and i didn't have a goal weight i i didn't even honestly when i was 207 i hated like when i watched the dana episode of action junkies i uh my face looks fat and and it bothered it was it had been bothering me leading up to that but i didn't have a target weight in mind yeah um but then when i started seeing abs i was like oh my god like there's that old saying all these fitness people have you know abs are made in the kitchen not in the gym yeah and i never really understood it until you go through eating properly in the kitchen and you realize the abs come, it's unbelievable. You don't have to do hundreds and hundreds of crunches to get abs. You just need to eat right.

Yeah. I hate crunches, dude. Terrible. Running, cardio and crunches. I'm out. I don't want to do it.

Running on a treadmill has got to be top five most boring things in life. I can't do it. I don't know how people have the mental strength to get through it. Yeah. It's so boring. It's so boring. You're not going anywhere. You're like a hamster. It's like torture, man. Yeah. It's so boring. It's so boring. You're not going anywhere. You're like a hamster.

It's like torture, man. Yeah. How did you meet Dana and build a friendship with him? It's kind of a funny story. So can I go long on a long story? Yeah, do it. All right. So I'll try to go quick.

So my dad is Tony Orlando. You're too young. He was a famous singer in the 70s, had a TV show in the 70s. He was in the movie That's My Boy with Adam Sandler, if you saw that movie. So when my dad turned, this is 10 years ago, when my dad turned 70, he was adamant, do not throw me a birthday party. So we knew he meant business. It wasn't like people might say that, but deep down, they still want you to do it. We knew like, don't throw him a party, right?

So my stepmom says, look, why don't we get a bunch of his peers and showbiz friends? Let's just get them to send them like a cool video. Happy birthday, Tony. Maybe they tell a little story. We'll cut it all together and we'll show it to them. I was like, I love this idea, bro. I got, I went crazy with this idea. I got Adam Sandler. I got a kiss and full makeup. I got Steven Tyler. I got Michael Buble Garth Brooks Celine Dion Kenny G playing Happy Birthday Lionel Richie

telling this crazy amazing story how when he first got into showbiz my dad kind of took him under his wing and how he was the nicest star

Lionel had ever met was my dad Demi Lovato as she's walking on stage Happy Birthday Uncle Tony it was insane

the Jonas Brothers make all these crazy, amazing art. Jimmy Kimmel, David Letterman. It's crazy. Over 100. A lot of them, my dad already knew. So I just was texting people or calling their manager. A lot of them I didn't know. One of them was Dana White.

I was like, this is my chance to get to Dana White. So I call the office and the girl this young girl answers and i say hi my name is john orlando you know that name's going to mean nothing to you i said my father is tony orlando but from the sound of your voice you sound kind of young that name probably means nothing to you i said but i promise if you send your mom a text or your grandma a text right now and you said i'm talking to tony orlando's son they will think that's really cool yeah she starts laughing she's like how can i help you i said well i'm talking to Tony Orlando's son. They will think that's really cool. She starts laughing. She's like, how can I help you? I said, well, I'm looking to get Dana

to send in a birthday video for my dad. He's turning 70. Here's the list of people I already got. We're not putting this on social media and we never did. This is just for my dad's eyes. Could Dana send in a video that says, happy birthday, Tony?

She says, I'll pass the message. Five minutes later, I get a call from Dana White from a blocked number. So it usually means my dad right so i answer the phone you know hey what's up i'm thinking it's my dad yeah your old man's tony orlando i said what who's this it's dana white from the ufc i go shut the fuck up he goes yeah he goes uh what do you need i so i tell him he goes yeah you'll have it by next Friday I said okay great he sends the video we cut them all together it's over an hour long right so my dad's birthday comes April 3rd that year and we show him this video my dad is bawling because it was kind of like what people would

probably say at your funeral right but only he got to see like what he means to people ranging from Demi Lovato how like he was kind of like her mentor, like when she first got into the business all the way up to a Lionel Richie. Right. So my dad says, what was that with Dana White? You know, cause he was like,

my dad's never met Dana, whatever. I said, well, that one was for me. You know, I just wanted to get to know Dana and Dana invited us to a fight Memorial day weekend.

Yeah. So my dad's like, all right, so we go to this fight. We're three rows behind Dana. After the first fight on the main card, Dana turns around and says, Tony, come here. So we go up. We start talking to Dana.

And he says, get your phone out. He points to me. I go, oh, man, a pic would be great. I've met everyone growing up, Sean. I mean, you name them, I've met them. De Niro, Pacino. I mean, I've met them all. Damn. I was mean, you name them, I've met them. De Niro, Pacino, I mean, I've met them all. I was starstruck meeting Dana White.

Really? Yeah, because I'm a huge UFC fan, as you know, and I'm an entrepreneur, so it's like he's a double threat, right? It's like he's not only a boss, kick-ass entrepreneur, he's the president, well, now the CEO of one of the coolest sports if not the coolest I'd say it's the coolest right

it's the coolest so it's like being a rock star right so meeting him was a big deal so he says get your phone out I'm like picture yeah great

he goes no no no we'll get to that take my number okay I take his number and he says you don't pay for tickets anymore you call me

I said don't Saturday night talk me Dana cause I'm gonna abuse the f*** out of that you know and uh Cause I'm going to abuse the out of that. You know, and, uh, yeah, I've been to pretty much every event since even the slap ones, even the slap ones. Yeah. That's awesome. Which are fun, right? Those are sick. Yeah. And that was seven years ago that that happened. It'll be 10 years in April or May Memorial day

weekend, 10 years ago. What a great gift to your dad. That's the best gifts I've ever heard. Yeah. Yeah. How were you able to stay grounded growing up around so many celebrities? Did you not get caught up in that lifestyle? I never did. You know, I have always seen kids of celebs, you know, get hooked on drugs and stuff and blame the dad's fame and everybody's path is different. So I'm not on them. Yeah. But my parents were pretty normal. You know, my mom was very normal and my dad was normal. He wasn't a party guy. You know, he was, you know, he had a hit TV show for three and a half years on CBS, but he was a normal, you know, my dad, if you run into my dad in an airport from head to toe, I promise you, he got everything he's wearing at Walmart. Like my dad is normal like that. You

know there's no like star stuff. I always say like, if you meet him and you want to take a quick pic with my dad and you're in an airport, make sure you're not going to miss your flight. Cause he's going to talk your ear off. You're not going to get out easy. Like he doesn't rush an interaction. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I grew up pretty normal. I mean, well, to me it was normal. I mean, I grew up taking limos to Dodger games. That's not normal, but, um, but my parents were really nice people. And, uh, and I just followed in their footsteps. My dad wasn't really a drinker or anything. I don't drink.

I never got into – Wow. I had one little crazy year where I was popping some molly here and there. I got a little crazy from the time I was 30 to 31. I kind of went off the deep end. Midlife crisis? Yeah, probably. But other than that, I've been pretty normal.

That's cool, man man because a lot of celebs kids man yeah these child actors or whatever dude they go down a dark path yeah i think i was lucky in a sense i was so young you know when my dad's had his first hit records i was one okay um or the year i was born really even 1970 71 and uh and then when he has tv show i was ages three through seven oh so you don't remember much. I remember, but I didn't, it's different than I think if I was a teenager. I think that probably could have been

a different deal for me. Yeah, for sure. When did you get into poker? I know you made a deep run this year in the World Series. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, playing in high school, just home games and stuff

and then in the casinos, you know, not uh probably uh rounders you know when rounders came out 1998 started playing and then i really got serious i know this is like this everybody's story and poker players hate hearing this but like when chris moneymaker won them won the world series and went oh four or whatever that was oh three or oh four something like that um you know and it was kind of like, if he can do it, I can do it kind of thing. I still have yet to do it. But yeah, I've won a couple of small tournaments. I had a great run in the 10K Turbo Bounty this summer.

I got a text from you. That made my day. You're like, is this you? You're looking at the leaderboard. It's kind of trippy to be like, Sean, I was chip leader in that tournament, $10,000 bounty tournament, turbo bounty, literally from like 1130 in the morning all the way till 1am. I was chip leader. So it's like John Orlando, Phil Hellmuth, John Orlando, Phil Ivy, Phil Hellmuth.

And I remember when we made it into the money, Phil had literally three or four chips in front of him. Wow. When we made the money and I, we were on break and I cruised up to him. I've known Phil like 10 years also. Yeah. And, uh, I was like, um, man, Phil, you'll get back in this. He was like, nah, this, this, this one's yours. He's like, this one's yours. Go get it. And I was like, alright. Phil, being the savage he is, he grinded back and the wheels fell off for me around 1am and I went out and I think I was in 35th maybe. Wow.

How many? 693 or 4. Damn, that's awesome. And Phil ended up winning it. He won it? Phil won it. $800,000, Phil won. Sean, I already spent the money i thought i was gonna win this thing i was like i spent 200 grand around dinner break um no i you know so i ended up cashing for like 38k with the bounties okay um it's the best i've ever done uh first world series

cat actually no i cashed um before that uh in the 1600 turbo bounty okay like a week before that yeah um and uh yeah it was it was really fun it's a trip though like you know 693 or four people played and i remember randall emmett text me the night before and he says are you gonna play the main uh which was like a week later and i said yeah i'm gonna play the main but i said i'm gonna play the 10k turbo tomorrow he writes back laughing my off no you're not and i'm like what and randall knows i play you know um i'm certainly not a pro or anything you know and i write back what do you mean he's like bro 10k turbo bounty you're not playing in that event don't be crazy i was like what do you mean he's like dude it's all pros and i was like what he's like just play the main it's a softer field you know because might have 8,000 people in the main or 10,000 people, whatever it was this year.

But a lot of them are just recreational bucket list players. They won their way in off a $150 satellite. It's just a different class of players. But I took offense to it. I was like, what are you talking about? He's like, bro, you're literally going to be the only non-pro in this tournament. He's like, I remember the text. He's like like you have no business playing in this tournament and i'm like i i'm writing back i'm so mad you know i'm like i will cash like i'm gonna cash you know

and then i i started to having doubts before i went to bed and i was like maybe he's right like am i just throwing away 10k like i know he knows what he's talking about it's a lot you know and i was like i'm gonna play you know and so I played and I was kind of like nervous at first you know and Sean when I sat down at my table Randall sends me a text so he went from being like not a hater

but you know just talking s*** the night before to then supportive like poker mentor kind of role so he's like take a video of your table and I'll tell you who's who. So I take a quick video. I'm acting like, hey guys, I got a podcast, Action Junkies, whatever, right? But deep down,

I'm just trying to take inventory. Send Randall this video and he's like, bro, to your left is Ren Lim. Stay the f*** away from him. He's a savage. I look him up on like Hended Mob. He's like 7 million or something in career earnings or something. But he's a savage I look him up on like Hendon Mob he's like seven million or something in career earnings or something but he's also like a monster cash player you know

hardly speaks English um like going around the table um Randall's like stay away from this guy stay with that guy then Ben Lamb comes late he was like player of the year in like 2013 or 2014 or maybe 2016 whatever it was and uh he's bro, that's Ben Lamb right across from you. So then Ben sits down. He says hi by first name to every single person at the table except me. Proving Randall is right. I'm literally at a table full of pros. So now I'm in my head, and I'm just like, oh, my God, what have I done?

I can't believe I've done this. And I win a couple hands, but I'm still being like, anyone re-raises me, I'm automatic fold. Even if I have queens, and there's a king on the board, I'm like, fold! You're playing tight. I'm playing super tight, which is not normally my game. I'm very aggressive.

At the break, at the first break, I've got like 220,000 chips or something. And you start with 60K in that one. Wow. So Randall's like, you have 220,000? He's like, bro, you're chip leader. And I'm like, no way. He's like, go find anyone that has a poker news credential

and just go ask them, hey, how many, just say, hey, does anyone else have like over 200K? Yeah. And just see what they say. So I go up to a guy and I tell him and he's like, you have 220,000? I said, yeah, I have 200, I think I had 226 or something like that. Yeah. He goes, you're a chip leader.

Phil Hellmuth has like 180 or something. I'm like, no way. So then they started writing about me. Then they come over there and take pictures. Like, I've never had that. It was kind of fun. It was really cool, you know? And I just stayed up top, you know?

And then I got my mojo and i started to get some some swagger and i started talking which is kind of my game nice and uh yeah i had a good run yeah the tournaments are so fascinating um stephen jones just came on yes yeah he got second in the world series main event it's amazing it was crazy he won six and a half million yeah that's incredible and it's a 10-day tournament dude yeah like how do you stay so locked in for that long? I you have to stay so locked in you have to have to get lucky too. Yeah, right You can't have suck outs and if you do you got to keep your wits in it, you know and not let go on tilt That's where it happens to me

Like if I lose a chip lead or I lose half of my stack or something That's the part of my game I need to sharpen up you go until it's it's really tough yeah I do like I feel like I have to get it you know I have to get it back and like quick and yeah you don't you just got to be patient but it's really hard sometimes uh to remember that it's similar to chess man when I start losing a couple pieces yeah I'm getting mad yep you know me too yeah um damn back to the UFC though yeah are you a big fan? Do you have any fighters you support a lot?

Yeah. I mean, I love Connor. I still, still my favorite. Yeah. Still my favorite. That's a true fan.

Yeah, I know. I wish he kind of would go back to like funny Connor instead of like, sometimes I feel like he seems a little bitter. Yeah. Like in the, in the social media and stuff. Um,

but you know what? I don't know what it's like to go from welfare to a hundred million dollar net worth or even more uh inside of four yeah his company right right proper 12 right so it's like i don't know what that's like to worth be worth that kind of money going from how far down he was to how far up he is to then also the fame and stuff so it's like it's easy to hate like who knows what you would be like? I mean, I like to think I'd be the same, but I don't know. It's tough to put yourself in those shoes.

But still, he's exciting to watch, and I like the buildup. I like GSP, George St. Pierre. Those are probably my top two. Right now, if you were going to say Conor's not current, and you were going to pick some fighters, there's so many guys that are great. I like Sugar Sean. He just came in your studio.

Yeah, I wasn't here, sadly. He came in for someone else's show. You know I'm busy if I can't be here to meet Sugar Sean. I like Brandon Moreno. He does his show here. I like Sean Strickland. There's a lot of guys. There's a lot of guys. There's a lot of exciting fighters now.

It's a good time in MMA. Absolutely. If you had to do power slap against someone, who would it be? Oh, man. I don't know if I could do it. I think those guys might be more crazy than the UFC fighters because you're just opting in to let somebody tee off on you with your hands behind your back.

Could you do it? I couldn't do it. No, I think there's with your hands behind your back yeah could you do it i couldn't do it i think there's like some brain damage yeah i couldn't do it i don't think it's worth is there an amount of money million bucks do you do it yeah million bucks i'll let anybody smack depends on who mike tyson no you're getting knocked out bro even at his age is there an influencer that you would like to have a power slap with if i felt like they couldn't knock me out i would consider it okay but a knockout's like some permanent damage you know right like i don't want to get knocked out have you ever been knocked out no have you i've been one time wow in the fight uh a fight that i didn't know i was in

oh yeah he blindsided you uh yeah it was kind. On my birthday, this is the night Tupac got shot. Okay. A long time ago. Before you were born, Sean. Yeah. Yeah. Like what, 95, right? I was born in 97.

Or 94. This was 94, 95. Or no, 96. Yeah, this was 96. September 8th, 1996. My birthday. I go to a strip club here in Vegas. Which one?

The one across from, it was Hard Rock at the time. So it was called Club Paradise at the time. Now it's called something else. It's right across from Virgin now, which is Hard Rock. I go in this strip club and I was coming back from the, I was with a bunch of buddies

and I'm coming back from the bathroom and there was this hot blonde dancer. And so, you know, like you kind of pass a girl and you like look back at her or whatever, you know? So I did that. And when I i looked back she was pointing at me and i could read her lips because the music's loud you know and she yells like that's him that's the one and i'm looking now i'm looking behind me like who is she pointing at you know but i didn't realize she's pointing at me

yeah but i didn't realize and then this huge bouncer that was standing next to her starts walking towards me and like big like six foot five just jacked bald guy like just looked like a f**king monster and uh i remember him he points at me he goes what did you do and i remember backing up and i remember putting my hands up and i'm backing up from him i just remember saying the last thing i remember is me saying, I didn't do anything. I swear. That's the last thing I remember. Now, the next thing I remember after that is, uh, there's a bunch of people standing around me and I'm on the ground and I'm getting up and I'm, uh, and I walk, they walk me outside the club and they were like, um, do you need a ride home? And I said, no, I'm staying right over there, and I point to the hard rock.

This was so new in the hard rock's existence. There was a chain link fence around the parking lot, and the parking lot was dirt, or half of it, that side of it on the Paradise side. And I remember saying, no, I'm staying right there. I don't remember crossing the street. I don't remember walking around the chain link fence to go to the next thing. I know I'm at the front desk and the front desk manager comes up to me or the,

I didn't realize she was a front desk manager at the time, but whatever she comes up and she says, you know, can I help you? And I said, I need a key to my room. And she says, okay,

just need your, your name and your ID. What's your name? And I said, I don't know. Yeah. And by and i said i don't know damn yeah and uh by the way i don't remember this conversation she the next day told me about this conversation wow okay and so then she said uh she's well do you have your license and i was like um yeah and i reached into my pocket and i and she said that i said uh am i bleeding and she says

no and like the inside my lip was like cut up. And she said, are you all right? And I said, I got hit. And she said, someone hit you here? And I said, I remember looking around. And I was, because back then you could see the casino from the front desk. And I said, no. And I remember I reached in.

Someone at the Hard Rock earlier that day gave us all passes for the strip club, like two-for-one entry. Oh, yeah. So I had a bunch in my pocket. So I pulled out of my pocket, and I handed her one of them, and I said, I think I got hit here. And she looks at, oh, and she's like, oh, you went to strip club. But she's thinking I'm drunk.

Yeah. But I don't drink, and I never drank, even back then. Oh, wow. Yeah. So this guy that we had met earlier in that day that happened to have the room next to mine, he sees me. And so he cruises up to me. And he's like, I got him.

I got him. He's standing right next to me. Don't worry. I got him. He's just drunk, whatever. He hardly knows me. I just literally met him. You know how you meet people in Vegas, whatever.

So he walks me to my room. And this is like 4 o'clock in the morning. So a lot of my friends had tapped out already. And just theates were at the strip club you know so like half of us you were alone i was alone i was at the strip club with five people but they didn't i left to go to the bathroom where we were sitting so they didn't even know any of this has happened they don't even know i got beat up they know nothing they're still getting lap dances or whatever you know so my buddy opens the door and this guy says,

oh, your buddy's drunk. And my friend says, no, it's impossible. Like, he doesn't, no way.

Like, he doesn't drink. Birthday or not, no way. Yeah. You know, so I come in and my head's pounding

and he says, you know, what happened? And the bodyguard, the bouncer looked like, do you know who Jay Buhner is? You might be too young. He was a baseball player

that played right field when Ken Griffey Jr. played center field for the Mariners. He was the right fielder. The bouncer looked just who Jay Buhner is? You might be too young. He was a baseball player that played right field when Ken Griffey Jr. played center field for the Mariners. He was the right fielder. The bouncer looked just like Jay Buhner. So I said, I think Jay Buhner beat me up. And the guy, my buddy was like, Jay Buhner was at the strip club? I'm like, no, it was like a bouncer or something.

I really didn't know what happened. My head was pounding. Now the paramedics come to the room because the front desk lady got nervous about me. So sends the paramedics. So they room because the front desk lady got nervous about me. So sends the paramedics. So they, I remember they said to me, I do remember all this now. I remember them saying, I'm going to tell you to go, I'm going to tell you, I want you to go to the store and pick up three things. And then I'm going to ask you some more questions. And then I want you to tell me what were the three things I told you to get from the store. I said, okay.

So he says, I want you to get a loaf of bread, a carton of milk, and a dozen eggs. And then he starts asking me my name, you know, and I'm like, I couldn't remember my last name. He's like, who's the president? I said, I don't know. He said, what city are you in? I said, Vegas. I knew that. He's like, where were you tonight? And I said, strip club. He said, what's it called? I don't know. He said, okay, what did I tell you to get from the store? And I said, a loaf of eggs, a carton of bread and 12 milks. And he was like, you have a concussion. So yeah, I, uh, it was crazy, but, uh, wait, so the bouncer knocked you out. So, uh, so the next day I fly back to LA, I missed my morning flight. I couldn't do it. My head was pounding. I just couldn't do it. So I had one buddy stay back with me, my buddy Gio, who you might know who hosts Fitness

Junkies, big black guy. What's the point of being in a strip club with a big black guy if he's not protecting you, Sean? So we ended up taking this late flight home, and it was bugging me now two days later. Like, what happened? Like, why did this happen to me? So I call the hard rock and that's when I speak to the lady at the front desk. And she tells me that whole story that I just told

you about the interaction. So I call the strip club. I said, hi, you know, my name's John Orlando. I think your bouncers like beat me up the other night. He said, oh, you're the guy. Hold on. Let me get the managers. Okay. So manager comes on the phone. He's like, yeah, how are you doing, man? I said, well, I'm just kind of wondering what happened he said well you know unfortunately um what happened is you grabbed one of the girls and i said uh-uh no chance like not my style like no way he's like well you know alcohol gets the best of us sometimes i said listen to me i don't drink i do stand-up comedy i've been coming to this vegas since my dad's morgan Vegas my whole life. I know how Vegas rolls. I don't step out of line.

Certainly not in a strip club. I promise you don't drink. And then it started to click. I remembered the guy in front of me. There was this guy in front of me that he was looking back at her too. I think what happened. So he said, the guy accused me of grabbing the dancer's crotch, kind of like I walked by and maybe I grabbed her or whatever. And I'm like, actually, I think the guy in front of grabbing the dancer's crotch like kind of like i walked by and maybe i grabbed her whatever and i'm like actually i think the guy in front of me did it because he looked

back too like we both but i thought we were both looking back at like the hot girl yeah i think he grabbed her but i'm taller than him so when i looked back she thought i grabbed her and like was looking back to see what her reaction was. And she thought that I did it. That's what I think happened. So I said, okay. So I said, the last thing I remember was,

was backing up. You know, I don't remember the guy swinging. He said, well, I don't know who swung at you first or whatever. He said, but by the time I got over there,

you were on the ground and like other people had jumped in. So he's like one, one of our customers was like kicking in the head, and someone else was kicking you in the ribs. I don't remember any of that. And then the bouncers were just breaking it up. So I don't know, maybe it was the dancer's friends. Maybe she said, that guy

grabbed me, and they came after me from behind. Yeah. While I was backing up from the... I don't know. Wow. And back then, there's no security for cameras. There was cameras, but so it's kind of funny you brought this up so i had a really bad gambling problem back then like just blackjack would get the best of me all the time so my mom had asked me please don't go to vegas on your birthday like don't don't have another like

gambling meltdown so i was like i promise i won't i promise i won't go to vegas yeah so i didn't want to tell her that i came to vegas and like start with like lawsuits and because then i'd have to come clean i didn't want to upset mom so i just oh so you let it go i let it go damn because you could have got some money for that i could have got a lot of my if this happened and also i was a little naive back then sean i didn't realize how much money i could have got a lot a lot probably a million at least yeah because that's head damage yeah for sure like if you went to a doctor got a brain scan yeah you could have claimed because anything with the brain you can get a hundred percent yeah but you know I didn't live and you learn live and you learn yeah so you you had some big gambling issues though back then yeah I mean I had some crazy yeah i uh you're an all-in type of guy like

yeah i used to be now you know i used to do stand-up comedy and so it's like the combination of growing up even though i came out semi-normal i didn't like we talked about famous dad didn't get into like drugs and alcohol and all that definitely gambling was my vice um didn't respect money you know when when you do stand-up comedy for 10 years, I was making anywhere from $1,500 all the way up to $7,500 in a night. The average was probably $2,500. So I didn't do a lot of comedy clubs. I had a reverse career because of my dad, luckily.

So I started by opening for him. So the first time I was ever on stage was to 2,000 people. Holy s***. For my dad. Were you s***ing yourself? Oh, my God, yeah. I was supposed to just do five minutes. Five minutes is all I was supposed to do.

And Sean, I went through my material in probably two minutes, sweating like a pig, talking so fast. Entertainment Tonight was there videoing it, and like, they couldn't even find, it was so bad, they couldn't even find the five to ten seconds

to put on the air wow they did but what they put on there was like terrible like i was awful i mean off embarrassingly awful i mean it's your first time first time you know i never didn't that was literally my open mic i'm surprised i didn't scare you off from doing it i just kept at it my dad was super supportive like don't worry my dad you know said like don't worry about laughs just just be likable up there like don't worry about laughs laughs will come just be think of yourself as the host of the evening and tell a couple jokes welcome them for coming dad's getting ready blah blah blah say a couple jokes and then fire them up you're more like a warm-up guy don't think of it as like stand-up right so once he said that i kind of eased into it and then you know i i eased my way through it you know and by the time the end of the year

came i was doing like 15 to 20 minutes still not i wouldn't say it was great i don't know if it was ever great to be honest um but 10 years i was able to fake it through so i would open for guys like tom jones paul anka dion warwick the four The Temptations, just anyone that's in my dad's kind of category as a performer. And I did that for 10 years. And so I was in a lot of casino towns, you know? So when you're working 15 minutes a night, when you're opening for Tom Jones and Council Bluffs, Iowa for three nights, what else is there to do when you're at Harvey's Casino and Council Bluffs, Iowa?

And you don't drink. And I don't drink. So, and I don't drink. So blackjack, you know? So it got to the point where, uh, it was really bad. Like I was leaving,

I wasn't coming home with the paychecks, you know, I was just working for free, you know, I was having a blast, but I was also tormented by, by this. And then it got so bad.

At one point I got into the mob for about 50 K in Atlantic city. Had a guy put a gun to my head in my dressing room and had a lot of crazy happened to me man and then and then uh when september 11th happened i mean i was almost at one point it was it was bad um and then when september 11th happened uh i had two friends that that died in tower one um and uh that was kind of my wake-up call. I know that kind of sounds like cliche or whatever, but I realized how precious life was and that my problems, there's bigger problems that you could have. And what the fuck am I doing?

Like, you know, get it together, you know? And I just got it together. So you completely stopped. I completely stopped for two years. Wow. Nothing. And then I had a real job. I quit doing stand-up

and I started a PR firm and it wasn't until then that I realized what it really is to grind for the money. Yeah. You know, because everything came easy to me

in life up until that point and then I respected the money and then once I respected the money, it changed how I gamble, you know, and then I would test myself and like just play with friends you know can i am i capable of just betting 15 bucks a hand 25 bucks a hand it doesn't have to be 500 thousand dollars whatever damn you're doing a thousand a hand yeah this is 20 years ago that's

a lot yeah i went through a lot of money a lot of cash yeah um yeah it was it was bad like i'd saved a lot of money from stand-up yeah but relative to what i was making i should have had millions wow you were making millions from stand-up well i over 10 years so so i was making anywhere from 20 to 50 000 a month at one point damn i didn't know the money was that good in stand-up well it's not unless you're an opening act for guys like tom jones or whatever you know so you got to be in there. Yeah. Now I honestly don't know what it's like.

I don't even know what the pay is like. But back then, yeah, you get minimum $1,500 for a night. So you can do three nights a week. Solid. Dude, you've got a crazy story, man. I had no idea. But we've got to wrap up. Anything you want to close off with?

Man, it's a privilege to be on with you. I thank you for being so supportive of the studio. And it's been great getting to wrap up. Anything you want to close off with? Man, it's a privilege to be on with you. Thank you for being so supportive of the studio. It's been great getting to know you. I love everything you've been doing. Thanks, man. Appreciate it. You get some insane guests. I was hoping...

This was almost like getting the call from Rogan to me. You're like, hey, you want to do the show? I was like, I'll do it. I love it. Thank you. So thank you. You killed it, man. Thanks so much for coming on. Thank you so much.

Yeah. Thanks for watching, guys. And I'll see you tomorrow.