Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Brendan Schaub On Almost Fighting Brock Lesnar, Comedy, Joe Rogan, UFC

Episode Date: July 20, 2023

Brendan Schaub is a retired mixed martial artist, comedian, podcaster and the host of “The Fighter And The Kid” with Bryan Callen. He joins Chris Van Vliet in Hollywood to talk about his path that led him to becoming a UFC Fighter, being on The Ultimate Fighter with Kimbo Slice, his fights against legendary opponents like Gabriel Gonzaga, Mirko CroCop, Antonio Nogueira and Andrei Arlovski, how he thinks the fight would have gone if he faced Brock Lesnar, becoming a podcaster through a chance meeting with Bryan Callen, starting his career as a standup comedian, the intervention that Joe Rogan had with him about his UFC career, his thoughts on a possible fight between Elon Musk vs Mark Zuckerberg and much more!  You can find Ketone-IQ at http://hvmn.com and use promo code CVV at checkout to save 20%  Use the code CVV to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at http://bluechew.com Quote I'm thinking about: What you do every day is far more important than what you do once in a while. For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are gathered. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Bleas! Well, how are we doing? Welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CBV, Chris Van Fleet. It's episode 494 today with Brendan Shaw, which, oh man, that means we're just six episodes away from episode number 500. And if I'm being completely honest with you, and I'm always 100% honest with you,

but if I'm being completely honest, I don't. have everything totally solidified yet for what we're doing for episode number 500. I've got some big ideas here. I've got some big thoughts, but it's not completely locked up here. So if you have any ideas, shoot me a DM, send me a tweet, and let me know. But such a great conversation today with, I mean, Brendan Chob's story is just, it's so interesting. I mean, when you look at this as a whole, he went from wanting to play football to MMA finding him or him finding MMA,

whichever way you want to look at that, making a big name for himself in the Ultimate Fighter, and then some big wins against guys like Gabriel Gonzaga, that massive knockout against Mirko KroKob. I mean, I want a legend. And go watch that knockout if you haven't seen it in a while. Crazy. Then into podcasting with Brian Callan,

Fighter and the Kid, and still kind of doing some UFC stuff, but then like full-blown going into podcasting. and I think he told me a six podcast now. So Fighter and the Kid, Golden Hour, below the belt, and everything else that he's working on. And of course, stand-up comedy. Just a really good, like insight, pun intended, into who he is and just what makes him tick. So if you enjoy this, please take a screenshot, share this out, tag us.

It's just our names at Brendan Schaub, at Chris Van Fleet. And if you're not already, please, it's so helpful. to the show if you were to follow or subscribe wherever you're listening right now. And I would hope that you also follow and subscribe to the fighter and the kid and all of the five other shows that Brendan's on. So please, here we go. Enjoy this conversation with Brendan Schaub. Is that a panoray?

Yes, sir. Are you a watch guy? I am, but I can't get myself to spend eight grand on one of these. Yeah, I love them. That's really good. I wear this more than, like I have Rolexes and everything. I was going to say that's very similar. Yeah.

An Alfred's son and it's $200. It's a nowhere closer. It sounds like you're smarter with money than me. It sounds like you have more money than me. You found parking though over here? Yeah, I found parking. Okay, I'm sorry. Hopefully my car is still there when I come out.

It's Hollywood, man. It is Hollywood. And you're like, this is the area where it goes down to. That's why you send the address, I looked this morning. I was like, oh, okay. My capital records, okay? It's head on a swivel. Don't wear the Rolex.

You know? It's funny that, like, Hollywood and Highland is kind of like everyone points to that. And they're like, yeah, like, that's Hollywood. That's the core of Hollywood. That's where, like, Spider-Man's walking around. Correct. Then you go just a blocker to east of that, and you're like, ooh, that's also Hollywood. Yeah, you're in the purge.

You go block, you're down the purge. And it's just, what I feel bad is for people, like, you know, with family stuff, like, let's go to Hollywood. Yes. And they get here and they're like, is that guy pissing on the street? Like, yeah, yeah, he is. Yeah, but there's Spider-Man. Like, oh, okay. Check out Hulk.

Yeah, I see Hulk. There's also a guy shitting on the streets. Like, yeah, welcome to Hollywood. There's Jack Sparrow. Yeah, there's Jack Sparrow. Is that joined up? No, no, far from it. But there's a guy in a tent, though, with his wiener out.

You know, like, that's Hollywood in a nutshell. I tell people, like, go to Hollywood and Highland, park at Hollywood and Highland and don't leave Hollywood in Highland. Yeah, yeah. But I want to see the Hollywood sign. You can see it from there. You can see it from there. You've seen it.

You've seen pictures? That's good enough. You're not getting a better view than the pictures. Although that one hike, you know, the one hike where you're like standing right next to it. It's a great hike. That's good. The people who live in that neighborhood must just hate tourists. Oh, my God.

There's that. And then, you know, it, yeah, Hollywood's, it's dicey, man. I live probably 40 minutes in the sticks from here. But then when I just in the stick, we call it the state. I mean, it's not like, you know, Milwaukee sticks. It's like 40 minutes where the rich people live. Yeah, yeah, I live next to the Kardashians. Yeah. Don't the Kardashians live up there?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's keeping up with the Joneses, then there's keeping up with the Kardashians. It's a nightmare. But out there, it's just, it's different, man. There's air, there's land, you know, there's not all the crazy people. But then I have to work down here all the time at night, you know, when I do stand-up. Some, you know, this is where all the stand-ups are. So I have to come in here, you know? So it's just a weird world, man. And it wasn't always like this. No, like, it's weird how any of the main streets, the people that have never even been to Hollywood know, like, sunset. Like a lot of the clubs are on Sunset, the comedy club. Sunset, Sunset, you got Laugh Factory, you got the comedy store there.

And then Melrose, you have Hollywood Improv. Yeah, and these are all like the famous streets that people know about. And like, yeah, it's great. And that tiny little stretch. But get outside there, yeah, have your head on a swivel. I feel for people that move to Hollywood chasing that Hollywood dream, because a lot of people that move from the Midwest or whatever or move from new name, whatever state, Nebraska or whatever,

they get out here and they're like, man, I live in Hollywood now. Like all my friends back home think I'm awesome because I live in Hollywood. And then they don't ever like put the work in. Yeah, but I think now it's like the show business has kind of taken a hit. The lore's not there anymore because of social media, because of YouTube, because of TikTok and all this stuff. Where you can be, you know, in the middle of, you know, Thornton, Colorado. And you can be a star making money off your talent. So you don't have to just turn whatever 18.

or 21 go, I'm going to Hollywood. It's like, or you just get really creative, get a good editor, maybe teach yourself out and do it and make more money owning all your stuff and do it out of your mom's bedroom. Like there's that opportunity now. Like look at Mr. Beast. I think he's in North Carolina. Yeah.

So it's like he could have, like a lot of people like got a little bit of fame and then moved out here and had more connections. Or you just stay there and people can come to you. Do your own thing. I mean, yeah, you can do your own thing. It's just, it's tricky too. It's also like in Hollywood, like, especially with the cancel culture, it's like, you can go that route, but you say one wrong thing or you get political. Like, your career's done, man.

And they decide. But if you're owning all your other stuff and doing your own thing, it's going to be tough for those people to come after you. When did you have the foresight to know, I can't fight forever? And there's some other stuff that's starting to happen over here. Maybe if I leaned into that a little bit more, I could have some longevity. Man, that's a good question. It's rare I do other people's pods. I have to go back into the Rolodex because I do so many goddamn shows.

How many pods do you have? I have 97 podcasts. No. So I have Thick Boy Network with the shop show, food truck diaries, one-on-one, Cowbass Fight Companion. And then I have firing the kid, which has been around 12 years with Brian Callan. Crazy. I have the Golden Hour, which was formerly King of Sting with Deauvon.

That's me, Chris DeLia and Air Griffin. So six shows. And then any given week, I have minimum. six shows. And then depending if there's a big guest in town or a big UFC fight, then I have eight shows for that week. And then stand up at night.

And then full-time dad. So it's a lot. I probably have two years before I die. But in regards to your question, I moved to L.A. about 15 years ago, 13 years ago. Still fighting at the time. I was still fighting. I actually came out here because I was in Denver

and I was in the UFC, probably ranked top 10 in the heavyweight division at the time in the UFC, and I was coming off two losses. And, I mean, how detailed do you want me to get? Like, is your fan base familiar with fighting? Of course. So, okay, so I was with this team called, it started off as T's K.O.

It started off with really three guys, Nate Marc Hart, Shane Carwin, and myself. And it was a small team. and then Nate was already a legend, but he was like the team captain of me and some of the smaller guys. And then Shane Carwin had two fights at the time. And also everyone will remember him

fighting Brock Lesnar. Shane fought Brock Lesnar, Shane beat Frank Meir to become the UFC heavyweight interim champion. But that was my main train partner, my brother. And I didn't have money at the time, so Shane would pay for all my training. He was the best. And Shane got really famous.

I got an ultimate fighter, and it was the biggest season ever with Kimbo Slender. I like to think it was because I was on the show. Definitely wasn't, but it was Kimbo Slice and Roy Nelson. So I'm in the UFC. I'm top 10. Shane's the champion of the world.

Nate's doing his thing. GSP's coming down. We have Rashad Evans is there. Wonderboy Thompson. Steepa's there. Became heavyweight champion. This is when he was even in the UFC. So you have this whole team.

And I realized everyone was getting, the team was getting famous, which is a curse. The team's getting famous. And I realized the team stopped being a team. It would start to be individuals. And I would need attention because I had a big fight coming up, but this guy had a big fight coming up. And so it just stopped becoming like this team thing. And I was coming off a loss.

I'm like, this isn't good, dude. You got to make a change and go somewhere where, you know, you're getting the attention you need. And I grew up in Venice Beach in the summers. As a kid, my uncle had a house here. My dad would always either drive out here during the summers or we'd fly out here. So I grew up in Venice Beach. And California always, like, spoke to me.

me like I always knew this where I should be. So I was just like, I need to change. And I didn't want to hurt everybody's feelings. I hate confrontation when it comes to that stuff. So I was like, oh, I'm just going to go out there for training for a month and I'll be back. But my family didn't know that. And I sold all my stuff and literally was just moving out there full time. Man.

So I did that. And then I met Brian Callan, who's a comedian actor. And I was training at the time and Brian led's UFC. And he was doing a podcast shoot, this is like 14 years ago. He was doing a podcast called The Brian Callon Show, had seven listeners. And then me and him were just, we just hit it off. We're instant, like, friends. There was this weird chemistry.

And he called me when I left. He's like, oh, you're great, man. We should do a show every week. I'm like, dude, I don't have time for this bullshit. And he's like, no, no, you and I. And I was like, I don't want to just talk about fighting, man. Like, that's not what I like to do. He's like, no, we talk about whatever you want.

Fashion, I know you like fashion cars, whatever you want to talk about. And I was like, if I can be silly, I'm down. He's like, all right, once a week. So we started doing that. And that was before everyone their gay stepdad had a podcast in their basement. There was like back in the day, man. So we started to do that. And I remember us fighting Andre Lovsky at you see one, I forget what number it was in Vancouver.

I beat him in a split decision, but the judge just fucked me. So that's whatever. But I remember I was walking through the airport. And there's like billboards of me in Vancouver. And like I was on TV on commercials. I'm walking through the airport. and the TSA and fans would like throw out things like from the podcast, me doing something silly.

I'm like, that's weird. And then as I'm going through TSA, the guy's like, dude, such a big fan of my for you get a picture. I'm like, yeah, yeah, man. And he goes, what are you doing Vancouver? And I was like, what? See, what are you doing Vancouver? I'm like, do you not see the billboards or nothing?

He's like, no, what are you doing a stand-up? And I was like, no, dude, I'm fighting Andre Rolofsky. He's like, oh, damn, I had no idea. I'm like, oh, interesting. People are starting to recognize me for being silly, for being myself, which I always relate to more. Because when I was a kid, the goal was to be on Saturday Night Live.

That was always the number one goal. So to me, that was like, oh, this is the recognition I need, man. And then I continued to fight, and then podcasting started to gain some legs. And we had, I had signed to deal with Fox Sports, were their first podcast ever.

And then we started to get some checks for the advertising. No one was really doing podcasts on YouTube. So it was just checks from straight up audio advertising. I remember, I got the check for that. And then I got the check for getting punched in the face. I was like, oh, dude, what are we doing here?

Like, to focus on this, man. Sure. You know, folks, and then my girlfriend at the time, now wife, was pregnant with our first kid. So it was like this whole kind of like, whether you believe in God, it was like, go over here, you idiot, you know? So it was just like this weird transition,

which I always wanted in my heart. You know, I'm not a natural born fighter. I have a fighter's heart, but it was terrifying, terrifying, man. And I knew there was, it's a, it's a short, road. Like I knew, like, no matter how good you are, like, this movie ends with you face down, ass up, man, everybody. So it's like, can you do this, what you want to do since you're a child? Or you can keep doing this and punching the face, man. It's also interesting, like, we're sitting

here in this studio. There's three of us sitting here. It's hard because you're doing this in a vacuum. When you're doing UFC, you're seeing everybody. You're hearing the roar of the crowd. It's on TV. You're able to, like, feel the impact that that has immediately. Whereas, this, you're, you're this, you can see the numbers on YouTube, where you can see the downloads on podcast, but you're like, yeah, but I can't see their faces. I can't hear them. So I can totally relate with what you're saying in Vancouver. Yeah, it's also, like, when you watch the UFC, don't get around, there's some authentic guys like Nate, Nate Diaz, the Diaz brothers, like Kane Velazquez, there's a lot of guys. But then also, like, I'm too nice of a guy,

where it's like, the UFC would use me for marketing, stuff like that and being silly which I always gravitated towards the camera, and so they recognize that when pushed me in front of it. But it's like no one wants to hear me talk about how much I respect the guy I'm going to fight. So it became this almost character, so you're this cocky character. Well, some people have a hard time taking that version of me

to where I'm at now. Like, oh, he's cocky. It's like, nah, man, that's me dealing with the nerves of being terrified to fight, you know, Andrei Rolovsky or Noggera or Krokob or Gonzaga. I was terrified, man. but that's me almost convincing myself that I can do this. Like, no, he's cock.

It's like, no, no, no, that's a character, man. It's no different. Do you think The Undertaker really sleeps in a coughing, you dumb asses? What? Yeah, you're like, what the hell? No. What? So the goal was to be on SNL that wasn't the NFL?

No. It was a combination because it was a blessing and curse because my mom would make me watch, not make me, but always would sit down whenever Saturday night was on every Saturday night. So that was like the tradition. So it's like the Farley's, Adam Sandler's, you know, the Chris Rocks, the Kevin Nealins, like those were the guys. And I just, oh, I just loved it. I loved it.

Like, so I held such a special place in my heart. But then I was also really, and I was funny. I was always funny. My mom's like, I'm telling you're going to be a star, you're going to be an actor, this, you can do stand-up. And my mom would play Robin Williams on the TV. So I grew up with that. But then also, I grew up in predominantly black neighborhood in Rora, Colorado.

So the way to get attention was being good at sports. Well, I happened to be pretty good in sports. I was really athletic, especially for being one of the only white kids amongst all black kids. So the way I'd get attention is by being good at sports. So it was like a double-edged sword because I went trading my career for anything. All the experiences led me to where I'm at now and gives me perspective to, you know, write jokes and do stuff different than any other comedian. But also it is a weird road because, you know, it delayed the,

I don't know. It's hard to say. It's like this is what I'm supposed to be doing, but the way I took the get here, it took a little longer. But then, you know, football was a way for me to get attention and get out and be around certain people. And, you know, in the locker room, I was that silly dude. So I had an audience all the time in the locker room. So, you know, I never looked back in history or in my past and I wish I would have done this never. Like everything's led me to this. My road's completely different than any comic that's ever existed. I'll take it, man. I feel like because of that, people are like, well, you got your start because of all these other people. You know, you hear that all the time. All the time. Yeah. All the time. More. But it's always been, and that's their own issues. That's their own insecurity.

So it's like when I was a football player and then decided to do UFC, it was like, oh, he's just a football player. And then you get to the top 10. They're like, okay, well, he's not bad, but then you still have the haters. And then when you leave that and you're on the podcast, I'm like, yeah, but he's a meathead. That doesn't work, right? because you hear me talk for how many hours a week? So then it went from that, and then I go in a stand-up. It's like, ah, he's just a meathead fighter.

I've been headlined for almost nine years now. So it's like, how long can you run with that narrative? But to me, it's there's fans who you do it for and fuck everybody else. And that's all I care about. And the rest of the naysayers, like, you're never going to win them over, man. That's their own insecurities because who knows, man, I feel bad for him. It's like they probably had dreams and aspirations. dude, I don't stop.

So it has to be triggering because I'll go from this lane to that lane to this lane. When you'd even jump in the pool, man. You know, so it has to be, and I get it, 100% I get it. And when you sign up for this, like, good or bad, you're going to get people that love you

and get people that hate you. Just the business we're in. It's the way it goes. The issue you have is if nobody has an opinion on you. That's when you're not doing anything right. Yeah. You're going to say some things that piss a lot of people off, some things people love.

When you're in the middle, like, I don't really care. They're sure as hell not by an ticket to what you do stand, though. Like, you want to be a little bit polarizing. And I don't mean to. It's just the way it is. You were also recognizable enough from UFC that when you started doing comedy, people were going to know it was you. People were going to take videos whether you were.

Right. Even if you were at a comedy club in an open mic night, you weren't announced and it's in a city that, you know, isn't known for comedy. Somebody in there is going to go, I watched that guy. Yeah, I hated that. Yeah, I hated that. And it's taken a, like, and I think when I first got to stand up, I was, like, kind of rejecting my fighting history where I'd, like,

people would bring it up, I'd, like, shy away. But over the years, I think having kids and realizing how cool that that experience was, it's got me out of that shell. And it's like, no, that's dope, man. Have your kids seen you fight? Yes. Not in person. They've seen the highlights.

What's the first fight you showed your kids? On the hope of victory. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. They've seen it all, though. Because I want to show them the good and bad. Like, this isn't all, you know, glitters and unicorns, man. Like, this is a dark world.

They probably watch the Crow Cop fight because it's like I don't want to show them a quick knockout. I want to show them like the ups and downs. Like that fight was up and down, you know? That guy's a legend. Yeah, he was a monster. Yeah. Like when you look at your resume, I mean, you fought some killers. Absolute killers.

And I look back on it. I'm like, what the hell was I doing? Also, where was my management? Like, why would you guys? I had like when I fought Gabriel Gonzaga, I had six fights, you son of a bitch. Thank God I beat that guy, you know, or, you know, fighting Crow Cop or, you know,

they offered me the Nogger fight in America. I was like, no, I want to do this in Brazil. Like, how is my team not like, hey, chill, dude, chill, let's slow down. It's a marathon, not a sprint. But everyone just believed in me so much. And I believe to myself. And that's what you need, but you need a team around you to go, slow down, in business, too.

You need that team. But when they give you good, Gonzaga, do you go, yeah, of course I can beat him. I believe in myself. Oh, I was like, I'm going to beat the shit out of this guy. Wow, okay. I was mad it went three rounds. That's how cocky eye. I was like, three rounds. JDS knocked him out. I think in the first or second round, and I wanted to beat his time to beat him. So when I went three rounds, even though I beat the piss on him for three rounds.

And in hindsight, it was good for a young five to go three rounds to get the experience. I was upset. I didn't starch him like JDS did. It's insane. Like as I'm saying out loud, it's a 40-year-old now, it's like, what the fuck? So we need to sit this dumbass down. Like, well, this is a good thing, dude. No, but you're in the moment. You're going 100 miles an hour. All you want to do is just like.

It was a different time, too. It was a different time than now. Now it's like it's a lot more popular. There's a lot more fighters on the roster. The UFC's learned from pushing guys too fast, you know, the way they did with Sage Northcutter or Daryn Till, even with me. So I think it's just a different time now. They've learned from their mistakes. You know, shout out to them.

And for me, it was like, world title shot. Like, let's get it as fast as we can. When in reality, it should be like, slow the fuck down, dude. Is the crow cobb fight the fight you're most proud of? I'm proud of all of it, man. I'm proud that, you know, after I beat Crowcop and I shattered my nose and kept taking them down over and over, after that, I had the, I guess the IQ to go, do we really want to do this for a living?

Even though I was coming off the biggest victory and just got ranked to the top 10 in the world, even at the highest point of my career, I went, this is really what we're going to do for the rest of our lives, dude? Like, you're better than this. We can figure some other stuff out. I like that when the UFC offered me Crow Cop. I won No Gera, and I knew if I beat No Gera, I'd get Brock Lesnar. Like, man, like, I shouldn't have been in there with any of these guys, to be honest.

Like, you know, I was a young kid. Look at your resume, though. My restaurant was good, and I'm proud of it, how much I got done in a short time. But it's cool to look back on it. Now I'm like, I, like, man, you had some balls, kid. Like, you went down to Brazil and followed me. I was absolutely sure I was going to starched go there. I flew my family down there.

We stayed in Brazil an extra two weeks. I just hit the pool with a black guy, just depressed the whole time. You know, it was like, but those were all, like, that was a great experience, man. It was the second Brazil card of all time. you're on the poster. Yeah. Like, this is nuts, dude. You're basically fighting Michael Jordan in Chicago.

Yeah. Like, that's dope. They didn't go my way. Yeah. Good, dude. Oh, no, you lost a Nogera. In Brazil. That's what's always weird.

Like, it's rare now because they're so long ago when people will be like, never forget. And it's like me getting knocked out by whoever. I'm like, oh, you don't get it, man. Like, that was dope. Like, yeah, I lost it. You don't realize, like, what I went through to get there, man. Like, that's not a knock on me.

If that's your way to hate, that ain't the way to go, man. If you had kept going down that path, how would the fight with Brock Lesnar have gone? I'd like to think I would beat him. You know, his striking was really bad, but he beat my training partner, Shane Carlin, but Shane was beating him. Like, I've had to... I think it would have went... It's tough to say, right, because Brock deserves all the credit. He's such a freak, man.

People don't realize, like, you want to talk about a guy getting pushed fast? Like, his first fight, you know, one of his first fights against Heath Hays. in the UFC, which is nuts. Dude, he got a title shot with a one-in-one record. And also, he fought Frank Mayer, dude, in the UFC early in his career, and then came back and beat him. He fought Randy Couture, like, and he didn't have much experience at all. He didn't have a lot of training.

Like, I know guys were in his training camp. Like, he wasn't, like, doing the work that I was doing. And he's just that big of a freak. So I don't know. Brock's an animal, man. But you're talking about a kid coming off, you know, the crow cop win, if I would beat in old game in Brazil. My confidence has been pretty high.

So it'd been a good fight, I think. Was he the champion at that time? I don't think so. I think he was, at that time, I think he mighta. No, he lost to Kane Velasquez. That's right. But it's still like back then, it was before the Connor era, Brock was the Connor.

So it was the money fight. UFC 100 was, you know, made so much money because Brock is attached to that. Correct. And it's funny. because Frank Mears like, yeah, Brock made a lot of money on that. And I didn't see any of the gate. Yeah, yeah.

Brock made stupid, my man. And he's a good dude, too. Yeah? Yeah, great guy. Like, because when he was fighting Shane, I was fighting the way they did it, the story behind it was Brock Lezner's training partner, Chris Tushasher, who was 20 and one at the time, they were best friends of training partners. Shane Carlin and I are best friends of training partners.

So Shane versus Brock, Brennan versus Chris. So it's like the little brothers are fighting. And so he was 20 and 1. I was the main event on the undercard before that big UFC. So I kicked the pay-per-view off. And so I talked all this shit. Not about my opponent, Chris Dush's shirt. He's whatever, about Brock Lesnar.

And so the UFC was giving me an award for, and it was like on the Thursday or Friday before the fight, they're giving an award. And we're all together. And Brock's there. I'm like, oh, no, I've talked to all this shit. And I remember my coach, I went, hey, just be ready to go, man.

Like, I've, I fucked up. There he is. I didn't think we'd run into each other. I was like, be ready to go, man. He's with some big boys. And my coach's name at the time was Leicester Bowling. He's a savage. He's like, I'll be ready to go, man.

He's like, this little ball of muscle. I'm like, just be ready to go, dude. And we get up there. I'm like, on edge. And Brock was just the, like, he, like, killed me with kindness. It was like, I'm so proudy, man. Like, from football, are you kidding me, man? He's like, good for you, brother.

Good for you. I get it, man. And I was like, oh, wow, you're like the nicest guy ever. Wow. Yeah, he was like, such a good person. Such a good person. Yeah. I was like, oh, I don't want to fight this guy.

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With you having 97 podcasts, I mean, six podcasts. Yeah. Do you have to save certain stories for certain shows? Yes. It might lap over. Because they're all so different. So it's like, anything on. thick boy network like the shop show or food truck or one-on-one is so fight-specific.

The goal now with Chris and Eric, they don't, if you gave him, if you said, if you had a gun to their head and like, name 10 UFC fighters, they couldn't do it. So they're not, even if there's a huge UFC, they're not even interested in it. So fight talk won't get brought up there. On the fire on the kid, Brian's a fight fan, but he's not like balls deep in it like I am. So we might touch on the fights and I'll give my same picks, but I won't get as deep as I do on the other shows. So if people want deeper,

like more perspective on things, they'll listen to the other show, but with Brian, it's just a good time. Like, you got two comedy shows than a sport show, really.

But if you have a great story that happened to you that week. Sometimes, yeah, sometimes. Do you go, ooh, it's going to go on this show? Nope, it's just naturally.

Okay. That just, like, if it comes up in conversation, and then if I said it on a, I'll allude to it, like, I said this on Gold an hour, but I try not to. Okay.

So fans are like, come on, dude. I try not to. How much you? How much do you think that conversation that you had with Joe Rogan, the intervention people call it, how much do you think that played into you going, man, I maybe need to rethink my career and focus more on life after fighting? Well, I mean, obviously Joe gets all the credit and that's my brother.

You know, we talk all the time and he's major influence in my career. Like nobody bigger than him. But I think it should be noted. I've said this before. Like, I thought my months prior, before the fight, I said it was my last one. But he, you know, I think he was coming from a good place. You know, he's coming from a really good place trying to protect me. And I think in hindsight, it's like, that was the move.

Like, you look at my life now, it's like, yeah, that was the move. Now, if I'm working on UFC gym, hold Mitz, I'm like, man, Joe fucked them. But Joe knows his stuff. He's the most smartest people I've ever met. So he knows his stuff. So, you know, not to, and my family was really mad at Joe. Really, man, I told Joe this is like my dad was pissed. My brother was pissed at him for that.

Like, you see, you know, it's a little embarrassing. But my brother and my dad didn't know is like, you know before I even walked out for that last UFC, I told, I looked at my team before they were like, you're up, dude, like three, two, I looked at my team and went, last one. And they're like, oh, damn, I didn't want to do it. I'm like, I'm never doing this again.

So I knew it was the last one, but then it, the fighter in me when Joe brought that up was to, I was embarrassed and was to, you know, I was pretty emotional. But thank God he did that. But do you not go like, man, we could have talked about this off camera. Yeah, and to be honest, you know, when that happened, it was supposed to be a fire in the kid

in the last second Brian calling was like hey Joe wants to do it with us I was like I don't want to drive there man let's just do on firing the kid to be better on our show and he's like no we'll do it on Rogan's but Rogan that's not actually a JRE that's a fire in the kid on JRE does that make sense

so it's a fire that's a fire in the kid show I mean it's our biggest show of all fucking time but for I mean we could have talked about whales it'll be our biggest show on Rogan but it was on Rogan's it was in his studio but it was actually a fine kid. It was on your feet. Yeah. And also, it was live, but, you know, whatever, you get 50,000, 100,000 people watching it live. But the numbers come from when it gets uploaded. And after we got done, Rogen goes, dude, like, I didn't want to have that. I didn't think we were going to go that route. Who knows? But he goes, I didn't think we were going to go that deep. Let's not post that. We don't want to post it. And Brian's like, I agree. Let's not post that. I went, now you're out of your mind, man. Let's post it. He's like, why? I'm like, because there's a lot of guys who feel the way I do. This might help somebody else. And it's also real. Like, I never believe in, like, editing and all that stuff.

Like, if you're going to say something, ride with it, man. Unless there's, like, a huge air or something like that. There's, like a big, I feel like imposter syndrome with a lot of things that are done in entertainment, but especially comedy. Because you're standing up there with a microphone in hand, basically going like, I am going to make you guys laugh. When was the first moment when you went, I feel like I belong here now? Oh, I mean, I'll let you know when that happened. It's never happened for me. Never.

I always feel like an imposter always, especially in my background, especially the way, you know, the comedy scene in LA's broken up since the pandemic. All my friends left. It's like,

yeah, are you going to Texas too? Um, if I went to Texas, I'd go to like Texas, Texas. I'd go to like Fort Worth. Like,

if I'm going to make a change, I'm not going to go to Austin. That's more blue than LA. California, Texas. Yeah, yeah. It's just a, now all my friends are there and there's a reason why I should probably go there.

But Fort, Fort Worth is only, you know, two-hour drive away, a 20-minute plane ride. So that would make, if I go to Texas, I'm going Texas, Texas. I mean, I'm talking 50 acres. Correct. I'm having a cowboy hat, tight-ass jeans. Like, I'm going to Texas, man. Going super Texas.

No more baseball jerseys? Oh, no, but there's going to be a freaking Rangers jersey. You know what I'm saying? Why is it an Orioles jersey? Every city I go to, I always get the authentic jersey. I saw you wearing an Indian jersey. I came in, I loved Indian's jersey just because when I was a kid, I was always creative as a kid.

I would buy the Indians hat. I'd always take the, I'd make it different. I'd take the gold sharpie and do one of the teeth gold. People are like, I can't believe you wear that. Native Americans, like, oh, fuck off, dude. You think Native Americans care, man? No. No. It's the least other words.

Every city you go to, you buy a jersey. I buy a jersey. That's one of the first things I do. I buy a jersey. I love baseball. Now my son's really into baseball, so I'm even more into baseball. It's my thing that I do with my dad. We go to a different baseball stadium every year.

Oh, I love that. 24 of them. What's your favorite? It's got to be Fenway, maybe Wrigley. I'd say Wrigley. Yeah. Rigley or Fenway? There's a magic with Rigley.

And I think we got to put them in two different categories of like the classic stadiums and then the new stadiums. Yeah, because have you been in the Padre Stadium? Yeah, I was just going to bring that up. That's probably the best. As far as like new and like location and like easy access. Right in the middle of the city. It's easy. Yes.

By far the best. Dodgers is probably the worst, to be honest. Oh. Well, to get in and out. Tampa is the worst. Well, yeah, I don't count them. But they don't count as a baseball team, although they're pretty good. But just like I count the Jacksonville Jaguars in the NFL.

But with the, yeah, they're so bad. But with L.A., with the Dodgers, like, obviously it's one of the biggest teams in the freaking world, them in the Yankees. It's like to get in that team. It's like one way in, one way out. Very expensive to park. Oh, my guess it costs the armor leg to just to park. It's a bit of a nightmare. Then you get to Padres.

It's like, this is how it should be, dude. Driving up to Dodgers Stadium is funny because. you're driving through neighborhoods. And you're like, are you sure? The stadium is over here? You're like, this way? Like, yeah, keep going.

And then take a ride. And you're climbing this hill. And then all of a sudden there's a parking lot. You're like, I guess this is it. And then if you don't park close enough, you walk up a hill and you're like, oh. Oh, it's a two mile walk.

It's like the cathedral, right here. And I park two miles away. So my kids have realized like this is what I went through as a kid. My dad parked so far away. Like, don't you have a VIP best? I do. But you guys need to learn. You need to respect this shit, man.

I'm a blue jay. fan because I grew up in Toronto. Oh, you're Canadian. I'm Canadian, yeah. Oh, wow. But I don't think that that stadium's good at all. They have a Skydome. Now it's called Rogers Center.

Yeah. It feels like a place where you would have like a convention. Yeah. Well, that's like, have you been to SoFi where the Rams play? Yes. It's like, and even the players have alluded to this, it doesn't feel real. Like, players don't like it because it's such a L.A. Hollywood thing. And there's like the sweets there.

Yeah. You almost feel like Caesar. like you're going to do this, right? It's like this weird vibe, man. At least it's open air, though, because even if the roof's closed, it's translucent, so like the sun gets to shine in.

Yeah, and you get the smog. Yeah. And that's in the hood, too. Like, I go left at Randy's donuts. Like, yeah, go left down Randy's donuts. And then you're going to pass a bunch of crips on your left. Take a right there. There's going to be bloods on your right.

Just wave them. Don't wear red. Just wave. And then keep going straight. Like, okay, this is worth it. When you look at the address and you're like, Oh, it's in Englewood. Yeah, yeah.

Okay. In the heart of it, dude. I pre-bought parking there for WrestleMania for like $70. Yeah. And I went in and I'm like, if I hadn't prepaid, I'm just curious. How much would it be? And she's like, oh, today, $90. Yeah, yeah, dude.

$90. Yeah, they're balling out there. $90. I love Toronto, though. Back to Toronto. I fuck, I love Toronto, man. It's a great city. Love Toronto.

I never fought there. I was a guest for the UFC when GSP fought Jake Shields. and I helped corner Randy Cotaur against Leo da Machita in Toronto. So Toronto holds a special place. Also, one of the greatest cities. I went to that one. One of the greatest cities for stand-up comedy. Really?

Oh, Toronto's fantastic. Do you have certain cities you go to and you're like, this is my crowd? Toronto is one of them. Toronto, top five. I haven't been there in probably six years. And we have some book on the docket now, but I haven't been in Toronto for it. But Toronto, top five. Toronto, Vancouver's great.

Calgary's great. Canada is a great market, man. It's just your politics. It's like North Korea up there. It's a nightmare there. Don't get me started. Don't get me started on, yeah. Yeah, I don't even kicked off YouTube, man.

You bring up GSP. I was surprised when, like, it actually happened that he's training Elon Musk. Like, is this fight actually going to happen? I don't, I mean, gun to the head. I don't think the fight happens, especially they're going to be in this legal battle with threads in Twitter now, right? So I think you're going to deal with. with that. Maybe that's the storyline for the fight.

What they should do is whoever loses has to take the other one down. Like, because they're doing for charity. It should be loser has to delete those. This is like a pro wrestling match. Like, loser leaves town match. Yeah, that's what they should do. Loser gets rid of Twitter or threads.

Yeah. Like that's because they're doing for charity. Like, it's not about money. Okay, cool. It definitely is. Dude, you've got a bit here. I'm telling you. Like, loser. And let's get weird, dude. They want to do in the Italian in Italy and the Coliseum. Let's get loser. Loser dies.

How about that? Let's get some swords, some tigers. Like, maybe it's old school. Give him a helmet. Zuckerberg's 50 pounds in the weight. Give him a fucking helmet. Like, let's get weird, dude. Let's go medieval on that ass.

So you don't think the fight's actually going to happen? I don't. I mean, what's the point of them training then? I think it's good for marketing, you know? But even Elon was like, I need a lot more training. Like, this thing's not happening. If they do decide to do it, you're looking at a year or two from now. Like, they're going to do some more training.

Like even Elon was like, they're like, what did you learn from GSP, he's like, I have the long ways to go. It's like, well, yeah, compared to GSP, I mean, you have the longest ways to go. Well, yeah. But, and with Zuckerberg, I just, I don't know. I don't see it happening. I think it'd be the most watch fight in the history of entertainment the whole time.

You've seen the clips of Zuckerberg. Do you think he can actually go? No, no, no, no. I think the product will be awful. I think, I know I would watch, but, you know, you're watching two nerds fight it out, and then they've never been high competition ever. And so just the, the, the, even to control their heart rate,

like the first two minutes are going to be interesting. And I don't think either has the enough power to like finish the other one off. So by that third round, within three minutes in, it's going to be a shit show. And their bodies are terrible. It's just,

it's just this, you know, it's this weird spectacle, man. You don't think I'll watch it. Zuckerberg couldn't catch him in a choke. I feel like that's like he can, looks like he can roll, kind of.

Compared to what? Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, that's where we're at. It's like, no, Zuckerberg could do it. It's like, can't. You talk about the,

I can fucking jump on that surfboard. That guy. Talking about the guy that had all the sun tent all over his face, the lotion on that nerd. Like, no, he's pretty tough. I'm like, is he, though? Oh, that's where we're at. That's where we're at.

We're going to pretend Elon to have tits. Okay. Okay. What are they going to wear? They're going to wear rash guards or hide their body? Like, what are we going to do, dude? Oh, that somehow Zuckerberg is going to have to hide the fact that he has a robot, right? Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, he gets punched and it's just his red eye comes out. It's like, oh, shit. I just, we're going down a weird road. And now I was completely against him. When it first got out, it's like, Jesus, this is where we're at. But it's coming at the perfect time because when Logan Paul first started fighting and Jake Paul started having the fights, people went, it's just a YouTuber. And then you went, oh, Jake can actually box. Well, but there's a difference there because Jake was trained for like three years prior to that 24-7 with professional boxers with all the resources.

It's talking about three years. And then Logan and Jake have a wrestling background. Like they compete, you know, in Ohio, which is damn good. State champions, right? Damn good amateur wrestling, man. So these are athletic kids. Elon and Mark Zuckerberg are not. I hate to tell you guys, are not.

Like, my 7-year-old beat the shit of both of them right now. But we're just going to pretend that, like, no, Zuckerberg's rolled for a year. Yeah, he's a white belt. He's an on-athletic white belt. That's all he is. He's just a white belt. So kudos to him. And that's not, Jess.

I'm no belts, so it's far better than me. Yeah, I probably pick you over Zuckerberg. You just knowing you? Oh, thank you. I don't know if that helps, but it's like, yeah, again, I don't want to shit on these guys. And kudos for them. They have all the money in the world, and they're going to risk, you know, their egos and their reputations on a cage fight. Like, kudos to you, man.

And I was really against it until I talked to Don McRughes. And he's all for it. And he's the smartest guy, I think in the game. When he broke it down, he was like, I think it's good. He's like, I think it's a good thing because, you know, For whatever reason, whatever politics side they decide they're on, we've put them in these categories. And for them to go through this and put it on the line,

like, it's actually a good thing. I was like, all right, fair point. I think that it'll make a lot of people watch UFC that have never watched UFC before. I think it will make a lot of people watch Elon and Zuckerberg fight. And it's going to be such a bad product. People are like, we're good. We never want to see this again.

If I was like, I'll go out on Hollywood right now and film a better fight for you right now. Like Spireman, how you were seeing Spireman like Hulk throw down? Like way more entertaining. They got down. But you know, talking about two billionaires. So it's like, I'll watch two billionaires. Slap each other. The thing I'd be most worried about if I was either one of them is something's going to happen in the fight that's going to be a gift forever.

And I wouldn't want that to happen to me. Yeah, I don't know if those guys are even thinking like that. You know, like, they're so rich and famous, like, whatever. But you see the gifts that get made every time anybody gets knocked out. Correct. What if you're one of the most famous people on the planet? And now you've got a gif of you like, doing something like this.

You're still the most famous guy on the plant. And then if I'm Elon, I'm making it, you know, I'm suppressing all that. Like, it's not going on Twitter. And if I'm Zuckerberg, I run Instagram and Facebook, do not post anything about making fun of me suppressing all that. I'm doing the Biden shit. I'm suppressing all the 100 Biden stories, man. They're going to get us kicked off you two.

Yeah, 100% welcome to. Yeah. Stop saying it. Yeah, yeah. Do you think Jake Paul is a real deal? Yeah. Now, real in regards to what, to like a Canello? No.

But as far as legit box, it's kicking fucking box? boxman at his level for having seven fights the kid can box and what i appreciate same thing with elon mark zuckerberg is they can do anything jake can do i know jake and uh and logan very well logan used to live pretty close to me they're great people they work fucking hard man and logan smart fucking dude very smart dude but they could make money playing checkers even though i don't play checkers so they could literally decide to do anything to make money to decide to do the toughest gig in the business and get punched in the face. Kudos.

And they're putting it out there, man. Like, he lost his last fight to Tommy Fury. Now he's fighting Nate T. As that's insane, dude. Like the balls on the kid's insane. How do you think that fight goes? I know it's 10 rounds now. I think it could be a tough night in the office for Jake if Nate's taking it serious.

If Nate is, you know, crossing all his T's dot in all his eyes and taking it serious like you did against, you know, whatever name a big fighter that he fought in the UFC. if he's bringing that same energy and attitude, it could get a little dicey for Jake. Now, if Nate doesn't respect him, he's like, oh, you're just a YouTuber, Nate's going to get knocked out. Jake has a lot to lose here

because he's coming off of, you know, the loss to Tommy Fury. If he loses to, quote, unquote, just an MMA guy, where does he go from there? Yeah, it's probably over. Oh, good, dude. The ride's been fucking great.

How much money you make? A lot of money. And there's nothing to hang your head on, oh, no, he lost to Tommy Fury, and Nate Diaz. It made $100 million. knowledge. Oh, what a loser. Like, okay. If he wins here,

is it a Conner-Regger fight maybe? If he wins here, maybe a Nick Diaz fight, I can see that. That makes a little, it makes a story there. I think the counterfeit happens eventually. Do you think you'd fight again? Never. No, never. Like, a lot of people go, never say never.

I'm 40, dude. I get kids. I need all the brain sounds like a muster. You recently fought? Frank, it's not doing what I do. You know what I'm saying? Like, I make, you know, just be very transparent. Like, if I do three comedy dates, I'll make more doing that than I would get punched in the face. Unless they came to me and was like, you're fighting the rock on the, you're the co-made event of Elon and Zuckerberg. And the rock wants to fight.

You know, I'm like, well, that makes sense. Like, if you're talking about fuck you money, like 50 mil, no one's paying 50 mil to watch my dumb ass fight. But if they, somehow the rock like felt frog, it was like, I want to test myself. And this guy hasn't been doing. I'm like, I'll fight the rock and make all the money in the world. Of all the people. I'll fight Mamma. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like he was, but if you asked me like Mario Lopez, like that's like Maui. He was Maui.

He was Maui. That's right. You've got kids. You should know this. Yeah, I should know this. I really fucked up. God.

Bad dad. By the way, you're welcome. You're welcome. Through that in there for you. That's right, Doug. It'd have to be something like that. Like here,

Harrison Ford wants to fight you man. Like, here's some Ford. That beat the shit. Yeah, yeah. Hereson Ford and Clint East would want to fight in a tag, damn. But them two versus you, I'm like, sign me up.

I got to make all the money in the world. I'd get so much hate for that. Everyone would hate me, but all good, Daddy. I'm making so much money. I would just retire from everything. Dude, you got to win that fight then. Oh, I'm winning that fight. You gotta win that fight.

Too easy, dude, too easy. That's like, I'd be a minus 70,000 favorite in that. I would hope. I would hope. Yeah. What if it's like even odds, just fucking disrespectful. But with all the podcasts and the comments, How do you balance this with having a family?

Because I'm right there. My daughter's five weeks old right now. Oh, the first one? Oh, you're in the thick of it, dude. Five weeks, though, listen, everyone's going to tell you like, dude, when that baby comes to this world, it's life-changing. No, it's not. For the mom, it is.

But until that kid's, like, three, four months old, because right now it's a football with eyes and it needs the mom so much. You're like this, like, caretaker to make sure everyone stays alive and then you're working to bring food to the family. But there's, like, the connections with the mom the first few months. And then it just grows this thing. Yeah. Oh, I thought I was like, oh, I'm Jeffrey Dahmer.

Like, I feel nothing right now. Like, it's cool. And it's like, oh, shit, this is nuts. I have a kid. But it's like, man, where's that connection? Everyone tells you about it. Oh, because they're full of shit. Literally.

That's been this folklore for how many years. And then you get there like, oh, man, this is weird. There was a moment, like last week where she smiled at me for the first time. And I went, that's the thing. It's the little moments. Yeah, but when it first starts. I had to check her diaper. I'm like, were you smiling?

because you just pooped yourself? No, you didn't. Yeah, you actually liked me. That was for real. Yeah. And then it just gets better and better and better. Like I got my thirds on the way in December, a baby girl. Yeah.

Nothing better. So as far as juggling like kids in the work, I'm lucky enough where it's my business, so I can control it. So they don't know, like, I can drop them off at school every day because I can say, all right, we're doing the show at 9 or 10, 10 a.m.

Yeah. So I drop them off at school. Then I'll wrap the show around two, my show's around two or three. I can pick them up. drop them out. Then we come home, make them dinner, we swim or whatever, do our thing, and take them to baseball.

And then they go to bed, and then I'm off to the comedy store, the improv or the laugh factory. And then when they wake up, I'm there. They don't know. So I'm able to set the schedule. When do you sleep? Yeah, I'm up at four or five every day, every day. I'm an early bird anyways. But the only time it gets dice is the road.

When I leave on like a Thursday and I'm back on a Sunday, that's when it gets tough. But you've got a lot of dates on the road. that's where you make your money. Yeah. You know, you're sharpening. It's a fine balance. You're honing your craft here, you know, the comedy store or wherever and trying stuff out. But when you go on the road, that's where you're making money.

Correct. And my seven-year-old, he's starting to realize it, but he hates when I leave. And that's why I always work in the summer, even though it's, unless you're like this massive name, most comics take the summer off because you compete with, like, fucking Katie Perry. Like, it's a tough gig, dude. Or you compete with, like, Post Malone or, you know, or Taylor Swift. The biggest names in the world wait for. wait for the summer tour.

Drake, he's on tour in the summer. So you don't want to compete with that stuff. So a lot of comics take the summer off. I always worked in the summer, always, except for this year. I had a big Europe tour. I was supposed to be gone for two weeks. But my wife, with our third kid coming,

is sick of shit. I got to be around the house. So, all right, reschedule it. First time in my life, I went, reschedule it. Reschedule it. Like, man, you're supposed to make this much money. It's not worth it.

It's not worth it. You know? So it's like this fine balance where it's okay. to not capitalize on that money and cheer in the experience with your kids. Like, it's all good, man. It's just balance. What's the process look like for finding new material

and then, like, working on and going, okay, this is kind of working, let's kind of work on it so it gets to hear. Yeah, I think a lot of it, because I do so many shows, I'll mark certain things down where, you know, I do two shows with other comedians. So if I, like, a hot take on, like, Hunter Biden

I had the other day, how much fun it would be to party with him. Terrible human being, but one night, get a party with one person. I'm picking Hunter Biden. He's doing math. He's jumping to 9-11 and driving

a hundred miles of hour down and there's hookers everywhere. Like, this guy's a good time, Charlie, right? Like, he's a fun time. For one night, I don't want to watch my kids. He's in a pedophile shit. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about that. One night to go out and party in rage.

Hunter Biden's my guy right now. So that was just a natural hot take. And Brian's laughing at, who's a great comic, Chris DeLia and Eric Griffin laughing at. I'm like, oh, there's something here. So I'll write that down, I'll work out that night, and I'll take it on the, I'll just bring it up on the road, see how that goes. And then it starts to get legs and just add punchlines, add into it, add into it.

And then in a year from now, that'll be a good bit. A lot of your friends are people, like, you know, they're legends, right? And they're people that up and coming comedians would wish to spend five minutes with the picture of brain. So what's some of the best advice you've got from someone like Brian, you know, knowing him for a decade plus? man that's good question because i think because i'm so close to the fire with those guys it's like they've given me such great advice and this is it's not an arrogant thing it's just it's just it's just what my life is if that makes sense it's like so they drop these pearls on you i think most people would write it down and post on instagram with me i'm like yeah that's that's a tuesday

you know so between calin and rogan who i talked to the most or bert crier um You know, there's not, with comedy, there's not much you can say besides just like doing the work. It just takes, it takes years to get good, man. And especially in the social media age that we're in, it's like, you're going to have some mean people, man. And like these comics I look up to, they didn't have social media. So it's like my kind of double-edged sword, like the curse I have is, yeah, I'm a name when I got to stand up. So when I'm friends with Rogan and Burr and Seeger and Joey Diaz and Theo, like, it's going to take me. time to, hopefully I get to their level. I'm nowhere near their level, but it's going to take

time. But because I'm associated with him, people want that now. And the haters are going to focus on that right now. Oh, look at your special compared to Bill Burr's like, yeah, dude. Yeah, his is better. He's the best in the world. I hate to tell you, Michael Phelps is a better swimmer, dude. It's like what you think was going to happen. So I have to deal with that. You know, I take it in stride though. How do you deal with that? I don't pay attention a lot to it. Like with great long. of great respect for you. You get way more of it than other comics to.

As far as hate? Yeah. Yes and no. I mean, Burke deals with a lot of hate. Rogan deals with a ton of hate, but they're at such a level. Like, that's how it goes, man.

Like, it's just how, like Drake opposed something, like his music, get this album, shitty. Go to Spotify. It's the number one out. Okay.

It comes with the territory. It comes with the territory, and then I think I have the perfect blend. Because when you look at the MMA fan base, it's very, very vile. It's very toxic. But there's also some great people.

So you have the great people who love me, but you have a very, very toxic group. And then comedy, same way. It's very toxic in some areas. Now when you blend those two, you get the perfect, perfect storm of hate. And it's all headed towards me. So it's like, what are you gonna do? You've got a lot of armchair experts also that are, you know,

giving you criticism. That's social media in general. Like a lot of people that are giving critiques on MMA that have never done anything in that world. But that's social media. So it's like, it's up to you to decide how much you want to put into that. I post and ghost. I used to have someone or a team just do my social media,

but fans can tell it's not authentic. It's very corporate when you do that. So I went, well, that can't be the route. I have to have the discipline to post and ghost. Like post and then go through what other your buddies are posting, see what's going on in the world and then get out. It's a discipline thing. Like you mentioned, anybody can have a podcast,

but there's a lot of people that want to do it. I always said the best thing about podcasting is anybody can do it. And the worst thing about podcasting is also anybody can do it. Well, it's like with the new threads popping up, it's like, oh my God, another one. I know. And it's the exact same as Twitter. I just cut and paste what I put on Twitter. I guess, you know, I guess, man.

It's like, do we need another one? I wanted someone to explain to me how threads was different without saying who owned it and without saying like something to do with politics. How is the app itself different? nothing and that's why they're getting sued it's like when you cheat off your buddy's homework you know it's like yeah make it a little different but they just turn in the exact same thing you're like all right i guess dude and they'll be dealt with for that but it's it's exhausting it's like when you're a kid at dinner and you finish your plate your mom put on more like more that's how i feel like with threads i'm like more i have to oh my god really and you're forced feeding it down

your fucking throat but it's like it's the day and age we live in man you like you have to keep up with the Unfortunately. What do you think someone needs to do if they want to be successful in podcasting? Not do it. No. That's pretty good advice. Just be different. You know, I'd say like there's so much out there now.

There's so much content. A, find a way to be different. B, find a way to specialize in what you're doing. Like, I think the day and age of just two guys getting together and shooting the shit, unless people know you, if you're trying to start from there, they can get it to, too many other places from legit experts. Yeah. So it's like,

you and anybody shooting the shit ain't the way. My friends think we're funny, so we should record this. I get that all the time. But then also consistency. Like, I remember me and Brian had to come to Jesus moment because anything I do,

I'm all in. I get obsessed with it. So I remember he was like Lucy Goosey. Like you'd show up late and we'd shoot on Tuesday and sometimes shoot on Thursday. I'm like, no, no,

here's the schedule, dude. We're shooting every fucking Monday, Wednesday. If you're late, you can't make it, I'm out, man. He's like, oh, damn.

All right. So I treat it like when, you know, I used to work for ESPN for a lot of years. I worked for Showtime. And it was, there was a schedule, man. So in order to separate yourself from the pack, you got to treat it like you're on a set of ESPN instead of showtime. Like that's your job, man, where people are taking too loosey-goosey. Yeah, if you treat it like a hobby, you're going to get paid like a hobby. Correct.

Treat it like a job. You're going to get paid like a job. You agree. And you're so right. You can't go to ESPN and be like, ah, man, we'll just record it tomorrow. Yeah, I'll be in a tune. Like, you just get like it's not that you're not going to make it. It's too competitive now.

That's actually a great piece of advice. Yeah, it's way too competitive. And I think the other challenge people have, and I do with it myself, trust me, it's like we live in this day and age with... How don't I want to say this? Because podcasting used to be a niche thing. It used to be, you know, when me and Brian were doing it were the first kind of athlete comic to do it with this niche audience. Well, now you'll find an athlete in a comic all over the fucking place. Yeah, and Spotify, I'll pay them half a million dollars to do it.

Yeah, I'm like, fuck those guys. So it's a weird thing now where the country's so polarized. So if you say certain things, you're going to get demonetized or you're going to get suppressed or you're going to get shadow banned. But I think now more than ever, you're going to take some hits. Trust me, I've taken somebody hits. But you have to keep, you got to make sure you don't censor yourself. Otherwise, you're never going to make it. I don't know if you're going to make it.

I wouldn't say I've made it. But I know where I want to go. And where I want to go doesn't include censoring and making sure that I don't hurt anybody's feelings. Now, I would say hurting anybody's feelings. I'm not talking about being mean or, you know, being anti-whatever it is. Nah, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about you're scared to say something about Trump or you're scared to say something about the vaccines or Biden. Like, you should, especially as a comic, you should have that freedom to play in that space.

The one YouTube is, we know this is censoring things and Facebook is censoring things and Instagram censoring things. and Instagram censoring things, people are so scared of it. So then you're not getting the best product. We have to fight that. And the only way you fight that is continue to do it, man. Or another platform opens up, or you open up your own platform.

I don't know the formula for it. I'm going through it right now. We're trying to figure it out. But once we start censor ourselves, we're fucked, dude. And then you're just like every other show. Now it's going to come. You're going to take some hits, man.

I've taken some hits. But it's what I know in my heart that you have to keep going. keep fighting the fight. I feel like you've lived so many lives. Like when you look back on it, like, I'm like Gandalf, dude. Seriously. And you're only 40.

Like, we're the same age. I think maybe you're one year old. You look so much younger, dude. Yeah. I only have one kid. That's why. Yeah, maybe. Yeah.

The kids actually make me younger. Oh, good. And we're going to age in reverse here. Yeah. But like, football was the focus of your life for so long. Then fighting was a focus for so long. Then it was podcasting, then comedy. When you think about all of that, how do you,

you identify yourself? I don't identify with anything. You know what I'm saying? Like, I think it's society wants to put you in these lanes and in these buckets. Like, no, he's this. No, I'm not. No, but he's this. Now I'm not.

That's why I'm allowed. That's why I've had these different careers. I've never subscribed to that. Well, why can I do this? Yeah. Well, because they've been doing all their lives. I don't care. If I learn it, I apply myself.

I might not be world champion. I might not be Bill Burr. I can get pretty fucking good if I commit to something. So people are like, yeah, but you used to do this, so you can't do this. Who told you that? You got a shitty parents, man. Yeah. So my dad always told me and do where the fuck you want.

So that's what I do. Whatever I want to do, I do it. Ah, you're going to get some haters. Okay. Bring them on. Before we wrap this up, I need you to know that my very first job was I worked in the fish department of a pet store in a mall. Oh, sick.

So when I saw that you had an marijuana, I was like, oh, my gosh. If you know your fish, I know my fish. Oh, dude, yeah. I just posted a video today on my Instagram story. My irwana, because this is the problem with fish stores. And when you have kids and stuff like that, like, so irwana, when you buy them at the store, they're like this. And they'll go, hey, man, that thing grows two inches a month. So be prepared to upgrade your steak.

You're like, ah, whatever. They ain't lying. Those things are vicious. Oh, there's, I love them. So, you know, now he's, I bought him as a baby. Now he's like this. Yeah, in the wild. I think they grew up for like three feet.

Four feet. Yeah, four feet. The biggest one's four in, in, in, in, in, in, in, captivity, they'll get up at least two feet. Like, you're talking about a big boy. They'll eat mice, eat squirrels and shit, lizards. We would always have people come in and go,

where's the piranha? Be like, I'll show you the piranha. Prana suck. Parana suck unless they're in a massive school. They're timid, they're shy. Like, Rogan used to have piranhas. They like to be in dark, muddy water. So at a fish store with like clear water and lots of lights,

they're freaking out. I said, if you really want to see something, let me show you the arijuana. And we had a guy who owned an arijuana. And you know when you own fish like that, People have to come in and always buy feeder fish. I'm there twice a week buying feeding feet of fish. Or you're buying crickets or whatever.

I do. I have two bearded dragons too. It's exhausted. So you've got crickets hopping around your house, don't you? Everywhere. Everywhere. And shit. Of course.

Yeah, yeah. My son doesn't do anything with them. Like my house is like, it's like Ace Ventura, pet detective. You know when you wake something, all the animals come out? That's my basement. My man cave. I have a giant bearded lizard tank over here. I have another, I have a hundred gallon tank over here.

I have a hundred gallon tank here. And then because they were wanting to get so goddamn. I'm big. I have a 300-gallon tank just for the aruanas. It's two aeronas and a flower horns in there. And they're just, they're just gangster, dude. Flowerhorns are a big fish. Yeah, dude, they're the most aggressive fish. We had a, we had a customer that would buy live mice to feed it to their arijuana.

I'm not there yet. I like mice. They're cute as fuck. But, I mean, I'll toss some, like, monster worms in that tank. I just toss shrimp in there. Have you ever held the worm over top of the tank? Yeah, yeah. My kids love it.

My kids, they think I'm so cool, dude. If I need a confidence boost, I'm like, who wants to feed the air water? Watch dad, you know? And I put like a worm over the top and they jump out. Like, dang, like, thanks, kids. And I'd go about my day. I had African cichlids for a long time. Africans, yeah, I have African secrets.

Oh, you do? Yep. I would like, I got deep in other weeds on that, like knowing African, like the names, like the scientific names. African, there's American cichlids. Like, there's a lot going on. I didn't like the South American cichlids so much, but the African cichlids, like the yellow labs are so bright where they're yellow.

I'm not going to say the scientific names, but I had all of them in there. Yeah, they were crazy. It gets dicey. And then what's interesting at what I love fish, too, it's like when you have a community tank, especially with air, like I like aggressive, like monster fish, but you have to be careful because only certain ones can be with them.

Yes. Like in the community tank, there's tank mates. And then if you want to spread their aggression, you have to buy a bunch of fish. Because it's just three fish, monster fish will kill each other. And you need places for them to hide. But if you put enough fish in there,

they're kind of like, there's too much shit here. I'm just going to keep going, you know? So it's been dicey in that. Like I had this Oscar. When I bought the 300-gallon tank, I needed to cycle it. So to make it safe for the fish, get all the bacteria. So I bought the two biggest Oscars I could find. I mean, these fucking things are like, they're the trash men of the fish.

They'll eat hot dogs. You toss your ring in there. They eat that. They're basically like bull sharks. So they're doing things swimming there. And then when I put my fancy fish, the Irwana's the flower horns and the free, what are like a jacked? MC, I put all them in there at once.

The Oscars, like, no, this is our house. So they started fighting the Irwana. It was like Fight Club. I'm like, oh shit. So I had to take them out. And then for whatever, this is fish, dude. And for whatever reason, I put the two Oscars in the Hunter Gaunt tank just together. The big one was like, you know what, man? This isn't big enough for the both of us. I was like, oh, they'll be fine. Even though they're like, fighting like this when I first put them in there, I go to work, come back.

The big one killed the other one. You're like, God, dog. It's a, it's a night. I lived in Florida for five years and people get sick of their Oscars. so they just throw them in the canal. I can relate to that. So I'd be bass fishing and you would catch Oscars. You're like, what that? This is an aquarium fish.

Do I eat this? No. But it's also like, oh, this is the perfect, like, climate for them to live in. And they're gangsters too. They can go through some shit. Yeah. The problem is the bearded dragons. Like, I was going to have my wife this morning because my kids stay at their

grandmas and grandpas, but then I have to wake up. I got a base to do the Ascenture thing, get up the crickets, you cut up the lettuce. And the kids don't even play with these. fucking bearded dragons. I'm like, I need to do some research. Can I just let these beared dragons like into the Santa Monica Mountains, man?

I mean, they're desert. They're desert lizards. I don't, can you? I don't know. And then, and then I also get it because when I was at the pet store,

this guy was like, oh, you have beard dragons? I'm like, yeah, he's like, you want another? And I was like, that's really nice of you, dude. Like how big he's?

He's fucking big, man. I was like, I'm mine. He's like, let me get your number. I'm like, those guy's aggressive, but he's really nice. And I was like,

yeah, it's a big lizard, man. I need a bigger tank. He's like, I'll give you the tank. Like, whatever you want, man. I'm like, this guy's so nice. Having these Beared Dragons for four months, I'm like, oh, I get it, dude. You're going to do whatever it takes to get that fucking lizard off your hands. Watching Howie Mandel's fascination with your love of fish was really interesting to see. Really? Yeah, Howie Mandel's interesting because when I first got into fish, Shark Tank reached out to me.

The show Shark Tank, which went under for whatever reason. I don't know the background. Shark Tank? Shark Tank. I'm sorry, not shark tanked. Tanked. Taked. Straight up tanked.

So tank, they went under for whatever reason, some shady shit. But the people from a tank would reach out to me. I'm like, I'd love a tank like that. Like, I've always wanted to salt water as a kid. Now I can afford it. Let's do this. And then so many fans like, no, don't because I talk about it on the show. I'm like, think tanks have hooked me up.

Like, do not do it. If you know anything about fish. So what they do, and I learned saying from Holly Mendel, he was on the show. And if you know about fish, it's so fucked up. So what they do, they might kill me for this, whatever. So when they do a celebrity's house, they go in, they built the tank, they put the water in. Just so people that don't know fish, you're looking at four to six weeks for even to add one fish because the tank needs a cycle. Make sure it's safe for the fish.

But what they do, because for the show, and the fish will live about two to three days, like how he said, they built the tank, dumped all these crazy fish in them. Howie's like, this is amazing, man. But then when they leave, all those fish die. So tons of fish are dying. You can't do that. Yeah, because the bacteria levels need to be. You can't. It foscate levels are too high.

It nukes the tank. It nites, the, you know, all the ammonia, like goes through the roof, all the fish die. So you can't do that. Like a proper fish tank takes four to six weeks to really get rolling. I feel like we should have our own fish tank. Oh, I love fish. Me too. And people like, oh, what happened to the fish are into me more?

I'm like, no, I just think people are sick of hearing me talking about fish. Like, if you're not into fish, this is some balls deep thing. Like my flower horn is like this, I don't look fucking dope. has the biggest brain you've ever seen. Dude, that thing is show quality. Like, I've looked into going to show qualities for flower horns. I was talking my fish. You are a nerd.

I'm a nerd when it comes, like, aquarium city where I get all my fish from. He's like, how's that flower horn do? I'm like, let me show you, man. Dude,

I was ordering fish off of eBay. Oh, I've been there. I had a fish sent to me from Salt Lake City, dude. This cyclic, this African cyclone. That thing is nice looking. He's like,

hey, and shipping tomorrow morning shows up, just dumping my tank. With a flower, I'm talking to my, The owner of Graham City, chat to them of Ventura, a Sherman Way in the valley there. And I'm like, yeah, man, have you heard about these like flower horn competition? He's like, yeah, why?

I'm like, do you know when the next one is? He's like, you are not? I'm like, I'd be down, dude. Have you seen my flower horn? I showed me. He's like, that thing show quality. I think I could win, dude. I'm like, but you're like bringing it and all?

He's like, yeah, you can bring all your own shit. I'm like, I'd be interested in that. I'm like, get me more info. He's like, absolutely not. Yeah. I will wrap this up with a question. I asked everybody at the end of the, eight inches. Wow, that's it. There we go.

Gratitude, such an important part of my life. I wake up every day. I say I allowed three things I'm grateful for. Oh, interesting. I never do that. Well, here's your chance. I'm frustrated at. What are three things you're grateful for right now? It's a good exercise. Yeah, but yeah, yeah, I wish I thought more back because the cookie cutter answer like my wife, my kids, you know, my brother, today's my brother's birthday. Hey, happy birthday. Yeah, they're great, but that's like the cookie cutter answer. man, you go. What are you grateful for?

Let me see what level so I don't sound like a dumbass. Always grateful for my family and that extends to my wife and my daughter. That's easy though, right? Of course. But like, that one's easy. Health. Another easy one, though. I'm happy we're not sick too, you know?

Super. So these can be your answers. You think? Sure. Okay. You can go for weird things. Every day, though? I mean, health for sure every day.

Yeah. Health is number one. When you're sick, you're like, oh, take any money I have to make me. That's right. I mean, the sick man has one problem. The worse. Right. The worst.

I think I'm just grateful for opportunity. Like, I'm grateful that we live in a time right now where we can talk into these things and anybody around the world can be hearing us or watching us. Well, we'll see how this goes if you're going to get demonic. Well, we'll find out. Yeah. But I'm grateful that, like, that this exists. I'm grateful that you're here and, like, that we can have a conversation that people

care enough to listen and watch all the way to the end here. I'm grateful for that because this didn't exist. These opportunities didn't exist like this. 10, 15 years ago. I'll take the family. There's nothing better than my family. Yeah, the easy ones family. I'm happy for strawberry ice cream with some bullshit.

Happy for my freedom. You know, it's like, yeah, I guess, dude. Well, dude, thank you so much for coming by. Of course, man. Glad this worked out. I appreciate you, brother. I see you in Orange County, man. Come on down.

Give everybody your address. Come where you live. I live at 2. I ran into Michael Bisbing in an LA Fitness. Love Michael. Actually, I ran into him in a movie premiere and he's like, I like, do you live around here? He's like, no, I was like,

I said, I live in Orange County. I live in Orange County. Yeah, he's out there. Where do you live? I live in Anaheim Hills. I live in Anaheim Hills. I'm like, have you had him on?

Not yet. He's a great guy. We're working at that. He's a great guy. Then I ran into him like a week later and at the gym and I'm like, hey, that's, you're like, I live here. He's like, I know, dude. We're going to see each other a lot.

Be cool, man. But he'd be great for you. But, dude, thank you so much. Of course, man. I appreciate that your shoes also match your jersey. Look at that. Yeah. Wow.

What's up? That's good. All colors matter. Appreciate you. Yeah, brother. Appreciate you. Well, there it is. Brendan Schaub, who has, I feel like he has so much going on with, I mean, that's a lot of pod.

I do two or three podcasts a week. That's a lot of podcasts six or eight every single week on top of comedy and on top of being on other people's podcasts like this one. Really interesting conversation with him. I hope you enjoyed this one as much as I did. If you did, please snap a screenshot. and tag us. It's just at Brendan Schaub. It's just at Chris Van Fleet. And if you're not already, please follow the show. And since this episode's done, go check out the latest episode of the fighter

and the kid. Maybe it's been a while since you've listened to it. Perhaps you've never listened to the show. So go check it out wherever you're listening to this right now. And I just retweeted this quote the other day. I love this so much. And I think it's so powerful. It's what we do every day matters more than what we do once in a while. I like that. What we do every day matters more than what we do once in a while. Be great. Be grateful.

We will see you on the next one for some more insight. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air.

It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Ticket banjov, but get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.